The Storyteller.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 360, 29 October 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Storyteller.

£7,000.

CHAPTER I.—-DKLCIK AT HOMI

From motives of economy the lamp was never lifc by little Mrs Lee till the sound of her husband's footstep was heard approaching the door. She had nimble fingers, this loving wife and mother, and it pleased her to sit by the fire in the dusk, knitting socks and vests for her husband, a clerk in the wealthy firm of Hollingsby and Co., and her two tall sons, who were pushing their fortunes in one of the new states of British North America. Sometimes, as now, she was aroused from the dreamy state in which she was wont to fail by a merry voice ringing through the house, and a light step bounding into the room.

'Asleep again, mother? Oh, it's no use sitting so upright, and pretending to be hard at work ! I know you haven't knitted half-a-dozen rows into that sock since I went up to dress ! You must open your eyes now, and survey me critically. Where are the matches 1 This miserable little lamp does not give me half enough lignt to do me justice. There, madam, behold Miss Delcie Lee in her eveningdress, and tell me if I shall pass muster.'

1 There'll not be a prettier girl at Mrs Hennessy's grand party than Delcie!' exclaimed the mother, fondly. ' Oh, you vain old lady, to be so proud of your one piece of girl property !' ' laughed Delcie. «My looks are not the important question. Who cares whether the pianiste be young or old, pretty or ugly, so that her music is good ? What I want to know is whether the pieces show that I had to put under the arm of this poor old black silk gown V ' You ought to have a new one,' sighed Mrs Lee, after having satisfied her daughter on this point. 1 It is a sin and a shame that you should never get any advantage from your earnings ! When your sisters died, it was you who had to put up with shabby mourning. AVhen the boys went abroad, we had to use your money for their outfit ; and, since then, the making up of that mysterious loss—' ' Hush, dear, here comes father!' cried Delcie, in a half-whisper, 'Don't allude to it in his hearing. He has fretted about it too much as it is. Let us be thankful it was no worse; and, mother darling, can't you see that I am as glad that it is in ray power to help you? Only wait till I develop into a second Arabella Goddard, and you shall never be worried for money.' Air Lee was putting his key in the door ; his wife jumped up to make the tea, and Delcie posed herself in a graceful attitude, and prepared to meet his approving gaze with an elaborate curtsey. But both mother and daughter were seized with terror when the ordinarily quiet, cheerful Thomas Lee staggered into the parlour, haggard and unhinged, overwhelmed by some new misfortune, so great, so terrible, that, waving back the anxious woman, he dropped into a chair, and hid his face from them. ' Something has befallen my boys ! They are dead ! —they arc dead !' moaned Mrs Lee. Her husband held out his hand to her.

' No, no, Bessie ; the comfort is left to me of knowing they are well and thriving, and will take care of you and Delcie, whatever may happen to your unhappy husband !' ' You are ill !' said his wife, laying her fingers on his forehead. ' Let us send for a doctor.' 1 You have had another loss, father!' cried Delcie, more truly conjecturing that there was some greater cause for his distress than any bodily ailment. ' Yes ; and this time there is no staving off the consequences,' Air Lee groaned. 'No one had access to that safe but me. and yet it has been robbed. Who will believe my assurances that I am not the thief ?' ' Tell us how it happened, dearest father, and don't despond so quickly. There must be a way* out of this trouble.'

But, half-maddened by the position in which he found himself, Thomas Lee refused to hear his daughter's attempt at consolation. ' Say no more. It is no use, Delcie. I have racked my brain till it is in a whirl, and can find no clue to the affair ; and the worst of it is, that I am not altogether blameless. I ought to have handed over those bonds to Air Hollingsby this morning—they were only given into my care yesterday by his nephew, Air Creighton, who impressed their value upon me as if he had a presentiment that he was doing a foolish thing. Aud ho he was,'for they are gone, and yet I went back, after leaving the ollice, to satisfy myself that I had properly locked "the door. 1 lore is the key; it has not been out of my possession since.' : When did you discover your loss?' asked Delcie.

1 Not till to-night, after all the other clerks had left the ollice. AVe had been more than usually busy all day ; and as Air Creighton, Air Hollingsby's nephew, left London last evening, his share of the work has fallen on my shoulders. Besides

I thought the packet was safe, if I thought of it at all.' 'And the value of these bonds is

'Seven thousand pounds!' was the startling reply. ' Ah, my poor child, my poor wife, it will kill you to see me dragged off to prison as a villain who has robbed the employer who trusted him.' 1 Tnere muse be a thief in the house.' said Delcie, decidely, while her mother and father wept in each other's arms. 'ls there no one whom you suspect V ' I am sure of the honesty of my fellow clerks as of my own !' was the energetic reply. ' Young Loundes is inclined to be gay and dissipated ; but he is a mere boy and means no harm. I have never got on with Macfarlane, but he is as straightforward as he is illtempered.' ' Father, the papers will be found,' said Delcie, striving to speak cheerfully.

' Never ! You said the same when those notes for fifty pounds vanished from my desk. Have I not searched "every likely and unlikely place 1 The packet is gone—gone —gone, and who will believe me when I say or swear that I don't, know when or how V

Mrs. Lee sank down crushed by this last worst blow; but her daughter refused to give up all hope. 'You are, innocent, dearest father and your innocence will be proved, depend upon it. Cheer up for mother's sake. No one who knows you will ever credit that you are guilty. Just at the present you are excited, and inclined to make the worst of your trouble.' Mr Lee shook his gray head.

' That would be impossible. Tapers worth seven thousand pounds, Delcie, were placed in my charge yesterday, and when I am asked for them and declare that I don't know what has become of them, will Mr Hollingsby believe me!'

This seemed unanswerable. All Delcie could do was to insist that both her parents should drink the tea she made for them, and try to swallow a few mouthfuls of food llev own heart was heavy enough, but she knew she must exert herself and fulfil her engagement. She could not afford to forfeit the sovereign she was to receive from Mrs Hennessy for officiating as pianiste at a soriee dansante. As soon, therefore, as Mr Lee was calmer, she wrapped herself in her waterproof cloak, seized her music, and departed, shivering as she. went with misery more than cold, yet still cherishing a hope that matters were not quite as serious as her father represented. Surely his excellent character—he had been in the firm nearly thirty years —would stand him in good stead, and make Air Hollingsby refuse to proceed to extremities, even if the real culprit were not discovered. Well might the poor girl's teeth chatter as she hurrried along ! Delcie Lee had chosen an unlucky moment for starting on her dreary walk. Rain had been threatening all day, and now came down so fast and furiously that her waterproof, never of the best quality, and almost worn out, did not protect her from it.

This was awkward : she could not make her entree at Airs Hennessy's with drenched music and dripping skirts; so she looked about for shelter.

The streets were nearly deserted, the few pedestrians who remained scurrying by under their umbrellas as rapidly as they could ; and there was no one to dispute with Delcie the dark gateway into which she darted, thankful to escape, if only for a fjew minutes, from the stinging hailstones that beat in her face.

Here she shook the rain off her cloak, and ruefully examined the bird in her hat. When satisfied that it had not received much damage, she pinned the hat to her side, drew the hood of the waterproof over her head, and prepared to bravo the weather again as soon as the storm lessoned in its fury. But, ere this occurred her retreat was invaded by a couple of welldressed men, driven, like herself, into seeking the nearest shelter.

Delcie was not of those timid damsels who are always apprehending danger. She had several pupils, besides attending the classes of an eminent professor, and had learned that it is quiet possible for a respectable girl to traverse the streets of suburban London alone, without being subject to insult, or even annoyance. Neither was she of the elas3 of self-conscious gir'.s who see an admirer in every person of the other sex with whom they come in contact.

The gateway was as free to these new-comers as herself, and she would have taken no notice of their approach if the light of one of the street-lamps had not Hashed across the face of the tallest of them. She would have known this face amongst a thousand. It was that of Air Hollingsby's nephew and adopted son, Alareus Creighton, a very handsome, agreeable young fellow, who had suffered his eyes to betray so much admiration of Delei? Lee, that she felt uncomfortable when he was near her. Twice she had met him at the house of one of her pupils : twice she and her father had encountered him at a* theatre, to which they went with some orders hjj had, very

good-naturedly, as Mr Lee thought, presented to his uncle's clerk , and not long since he had made a morning call upon her mother, which, however, he was not encouraged to repeat.

It might have flattered Delcie's vanity—she had her share—if she had not felt an unconquerable aversion to handsome Marcus Creighton.

It was this repugnance that now caused her to retreat into the darkest corner of the archway, moving one of the gates so that she could squeeze her slight form into the narrow space behind it. To be recognized by Mr Creighton, just as her heart was full of dread of what, might befall her father on the morrow, would be 'oo painful ; yet to hide from him might he construed as an admission of her father's guilt ; and, but for the fact that the young man was not alone, she might have sprung forward and implored him to use his influence in that dear father's behalf. All at once Delcie remembered that Mr Creighton was supposed to have left London on the evening of the preceding day. How came it, then, that he was here 1

CHAPTER 11.—STHANGELY FOUND. Unconscious that anyone was near, the young girl's companions in the gateway talked without any greater caution than was comprised in the use of a number of slang terms, and the lowering of their voices to a half-whisper. Presently, however, one of them grew angry, and moving farther, from the other, exclaimed, irritably : 1 No, I will not agree to that ! The trust is not to be all on one side ; and I tell you frankly you have played fast and loose with me so often, that unless I have the stuff in my hands I'll not stir another step.' ' You agreed to pay the passage money and secure our berths,' was the moody retort, ' Surely you can do that,' ' And so I will. Meet me at Miller's Wharf at six to-morrow morning, and we will go on board the Antwerp boat together; but first give me what you promised. Recollect I have as much at stake as you have.' ' You are not justified in behaving and talking as if I should draw back now,' said Mr Creighton, in injured tones. ' You think not f sneered his friend. ' You see this is how 1 argue. If you're not above robbing your uncle, and throwing the blame on one of his clerks, you might not be a whit more scrupulous about chousing a chum, Hand over the booty, or run the risk of my turning Queen's evidence.' 'Do you threaten me 1 You have been drinking, sir !' ' I am sober enough to know what I am saying, and t« stick to it. But make up your mind, for here's someone coming, and before I stir another step I intend to know definitely what you mean to do.' There were lights at the bottom of the carpenter's yard to which the gateway led. Half-a-dozen men had come out of one of the workshops, bearing on their shoulders the coffin they had been stopping to finish.

While they halted, that two of their number might guard their bur-

den from injury from the weather, Alareus Creighton and his companion separated, aud went their several ways. But ere they did so, Delcie saw the former reluctantly produce a small packet, which the other snatched from him, and hastened to transfer to an inner pocket of his overcoat. Neither of them knew till afterwards that it slipped through a rent in the lining and fell on the ground, whence, as soon as they had quitted the spot, it was snatched with eager haste by the unseen auditor of their conversation.

Holding it tightly" to her bosom, Delcie lied towards home, with many a scared backward glance lest the fellow should have found out his loss and be following her.

As she drew near her parents modest abode, a new fear beset he r - After all it might be valueless th ls packet; it might have no connectio n with the one her father had missed ; and to take it home until she had ascertained this, might only involve him in fresh difficulties. But what else could she do with it? She could not examine its contents in the streets, even .if she had any right to do so. In the midst of Delcie's perplexity, a happy thought occurred to her. She had heard her father say that Air Hollingsby's lawyer, a gentleman named C:irlingford, lived in the neighbourhood. Passing through a square of fine houses during an evening walk, Thomas Lee

had pointed to one of them as the lawyer's residence.

Delcie knew .she could find the square again, and a little inquiry would enable her to find the house. To Air Carlingford she would give the. packet, descirbing the manner in which it came into her possession, and await the result. If it had pleased Heaven to put it in Innpower to exonerate her dear father —what happiness for them all ! The highly-respectable man-ser vant who answered Delcie's ring at Air Carlingford'bell, regarded doubtfully.thefiguru in a streaming waterproof, from whosewet and disordered

hair the hood had fallen. What could a bare headed young woman want with his master at this time of night ? Mr Carlingford was engaged, he told her. If she really had any business with that gentleman, she must call on the morrow, at proper hours.

But 'Delcie had too much at stake to be put off in this manner, and insisted on being allowed to wait till the lawyer was at leisure. Very unwillingly she was ushered into the library, and left there, as she imagined, alone. Her first act was to fling herself on her knee?, and put up a fervent prayer for divine support and assistance ; but when she would have risen to her feet she could not. Affected by the sudden transition from the raw cold of the outer air to the warmth and light of a luxuriouslyfurnished room, her senses must have forsaken her. The weary head dropped on the table by which she was kneeling, the soft, hazel eyes closed, and, when they opened again, she way lying back in a cushioned chair, and someone wa« watching her sympathetiaily.'

This gentleman was too young to be Mr Carlingford ; but Delcie took no heed of him till she had satisfied herself that her grasp of the packet had not loosened during her swoon. It was still tightly clasped to her bosom.

'Do not move yet, nor be uneasy,' said the young man, kindly, as she attempted to struggle into a more erect position. ' Y'ou are wet and exhausted. Have you walked far ? Dawes is going to bring you some coffee, my great specific,' he added, with a smile that lit up a plain, but remarkably intelligent, refined countenance —" my infallible specific in all such cases. By the, time you have tried it my father will be at liberty. Will you not go nearer the tire, and dry your hair 1 I have sent your cloak downstairs to be brushed and dried. It is a miserable night, I fear.' How softly, how kindly he spoke evincing no troublesome curiosity, nor expecting any reply ! Delcie saw, as she became less confused, that Laurence Carlingford had been reading at a table between which and the door a tall foldingscreen was drawn, and, in this case, must have heard the prayer she remembered uttering aloud before -she fainted.

Too much agitated to respond to his remarks, except by monosyllables, she vainly endeavoured to swallow the cofiee now brought to her ; and seeing how anxiously she was watching for his father to appear, her new friend went in search of him.

Air Darlingford was a stern, but not unpleasant-looking, elderly man; one whom long intercourse with the world might have hardened, yet never rendered unmindful of the courtesy due to a woman. At first his keen gaze and somewhat sharply-put questions made it difficult for Delcie to retain any self-possession. Seeingthis, he softened his voice, and her nervousness gradually became forgotten in the importance of telling both her own story and her father's briefly and clearly. ' I think you will have to go to Mr Hollingsby's with me,' said the lawyer, presently. He had rung the bell, and given an order some minutes earlier. 'J. do not feel justified in opening this packet, except in the presence of my client , and, if you will direct the coachman where to go, we will pick up Air Lee on the way.' 'You do not doubt my father's innocence ?' she asked, wistfully. ' I am not called upon to give an opinion concerning it ; and I ought to warn you that, unless it can be proved that Air Creighton is in London, his unci.: may be—nay, is certain to be —disposed to think that he is falsely accused.' ' But the packet ; is not that suilicient?' ' No. How can I or he be sure that it was not abstracted by your father, and then, in a lit of penitence, entrusted to you to return with as plausible a story as you can invent 1 ?'

' Oh, sir, these suspicions are too cruel !' exclaimed Delcie, with quivering lip. ' What have I done to deserve them !'

' My dear. I did not say that I entertain them ; only that you must not be surprised if Air Hollingsby should do so. He is very much attached to his nephew. I wish Alareus Creighton were more deserving ' But here Air Carlingford checked himself, aud led Delcie to the carriage. His son was in the hall, wailing to envelop her in a warmer, softer wrap than the old waterproof, and to whisper a few words so cheering that her hopes revived. It is impossible to depict Thomas Lee's astonishment when he found his daughter, whom he believed to be playing quadrilles and waltzes at Airs .Hennessy's, at the door, in Air Carlingfoi'd's neat carriage. And his surprise when he was directed to occupy the seat beside her. To poor Delcie's dismay he shook his head when the packet was shown to him. The cover, at at all events, was not familiar, beingpart of asporting paper,on which were jotted in pencil the names of several horses, aud sundry betting calculations connected with them.

Only Air Hollingsby could ascertain the nature of its contents, and Delcie pressed closer to her father

in mute dismay, as she remembered that by going to Mr Carlingford she might have hastened the catastrophe she would have given her life to avert. If Mr Hollingsby refused to believe her narration, he would either order his clerk's arrest or dismiss him. In either case, alas ! he would be ruined, disgraced for over.

'Be comforted. Truth always prevails sooner or later.' This is what Laurence Carligford had whispered in her ear, and she repeated it to herself, as with her limbs bending under her weight, and every pulse racing at headlong speed, she followed her father and the lawyer into the presence of Mi Hollingsby. Always reserved and silent, that gentleman sat afrowning and attentive listener, while Thomas Lee described the two thefts of which he had been the victim ; but when Delcie began to tell her tale also, he suddenly put up a warning finger. 'Take care what you say ! You will not serve your purpose by slandering the absent. My nephew Marcus Creighton is now in Scotland. It is impossible that you can have seen him to-night. ' Well !' he added furiously, for Mr Carlingford had made a dissenting gesture, ' are you leagued with this man and his daughter ? I say Marcus left town by the last train yesterday evening, and is at this present moment in the heart of the Highlands.'

'And yet this is his writing,' replied the lawyer, pointing to the pencilling, ' and by the date, it is evident that this newspaper was not published till this morning.' Mr Hollingsby became very pale, and Delcie involuntarily pushed his chair nearer to him.

' Turn up the gas. I cannot see ! How dim the lights are !' he said faintly. ' Ring x for some brandy. I am not well.'

As he spoke, Mr ITolhngsby turned towards his old friend and lawyer, as if appealing to him to confirm this. But Air Carlingford did not respond to that entreating glance. On the contrary, he kept his eye studiously averted. Then Mr Hollingsby struck the table with his fist.

' Marcus has no friends here. 1 shall telegraph to him immediately, and take no further steps until he can come home and defend himself. As for you, sir.' and now Thomas Lee was the object of his attack, " what have you to sav against it ?'

' Only that I am an innocent man, Mr Hollingsby, and have served you faithfully all the years I have been in your employ. As for my child, she is incapable—'

But Delcie would not let him enter on her defence, and was urging her father to come away, when ho was hoarsely commanded to stop and a trembling hand offered to him.

' Yes, you have been ever faithful. I cannot suspect you. Heaven forgive me if I have done your daughter any injustice.'

For the first time that evening Delcie's tears fell fast, while she and her father waited for Air Carlingford to join them. When he did emerge from Air Hollingsby's study, he looked as if the last halfhour spent there had been a trying one, but that he did not entertain a doubt of the probity of either father or daughter his manner testified. He drove them to their own door and they we able to comfort the anxious wife and mother there awaiting them with presages that all would be well. Airs Lee trembled when her husband insisted on going to business in the morning as usual, and harassed her daughter with forebodings of evil, which were heightened when, in the course of the morning, a gentleman called and requested an interview with Aliss Lee.

But at the sight of his smiling face Delcie knew all was well, for it was Laurence Carlingford, sent by his father to relieve her apprehensions.

' I bring you news,' he said, ' both good and bad. Good as concerns Mr Lee, who is quite re-established in the esteem of Air Hollingsby ; and bad in so far that my father's long-felt doubts arc realized, and his poor friend's eyes opened at last.'

'At last ?' she repeated inquiringly. ' Yes ; wo have long had reason for fear that he was deceived in his nephew. Alareus Creighton was arrested early this morning at Miller's Wharf, for stabbing the man you saw with him. It seems that he had refused to believe that this fellow hail lost the packet vou picked up ; and then a quarrel rose to such a height, that knives were produced, and the police had to interfere, too late, however, to prevent another crime.'

Alareus Creighton, with, it is supposed, the "connivance, of his uncle, contrived to escape to America, and has never been heard of again. Thomas Lee, who would have had to bear the penalty of his misdeeds, stands higher than ever in Air Hollingsby's confidence, and is receiving such an excellent salary that he has insisted on Delcie relinquishing her pupils. This she has done with less reluctance, because one of the results of that night's troubles has been a lover. Laurence Carlingford

Ins lost his heart to Delcie Lee ; and his father offering no objection —for he too is growiug very fond of her—he proposes shortly to make her his wife.