CHAPTER III.—Continued.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1836, 12 April 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

CHAPTER lll.— Continued.

Hi'ibert was greatly affected, and his vo ice thick and broken. Recovering himself , he spoke again. " But why should I waste time P Hortoi l's is but one case ; the names of those yo i have trodden under foot, is legion. Betber end this. My resolve is token — del end yourself aq best you can." ' ' Consider my family, if you do not have mercy upon me," said the manager, almost hal f mockingly. T You should have thought of that," repliod Herbert, " when you were asked to con rtidcr Tom Horton's family. You have none but your profligate son, who will smi re your fate, and thus poor Lucy will be iv euged. I have nothing more to say. Good .itternoon." " Sta>'/' said Whinstun. "How do you propose to accomplish your romantic task ? I c&nnot see how you are to do it ?" " You will see in time enough," answered Herbert. " You all thought I was a soft young man, addicted to romance and poetry, without an idea of business, who ■would be an easy tool in your hands. So I might have been but for the call made •upon me by the dead, for I love ease and happiness. But I braced myself for the fight by mastering every detail of my private business, and that of the bank. I know your financial position to a farthing, your plans to a dot. lam aroused on every point ; I am advised by competent men. Prepare for the fight ; it will be to the death." And he moved to the door. "A moment," said Whinstun, oatching his arm. " I did not send for you to hear all this — it is a mere interlude. I sent for you to tell you to be careful how you go further. Purseproud, hot-headed boy, .pf late r ly developed busi**"~nes!i talents— ha, ha." TheSJaugh would have frozen a Greenlander's bloo'cf. "I tell you for your own safety you must stop hero. The directors think you have no power to do what you threatened, but I can see deeper than they, and credit you with a Quixotism they can not. Much is possible for you ; though I do not think you can accomplish your design. But you can fight the bank, and that would be disastrous to the bank, and so disastrous to me. I j*uesß your plan, but it will be defeated. There is a league between the banks, and they are bound to uphold one another, and the associated banks can defeat even Mr. Herbert Gifford, singularly gifted in business matters as he may be.' 5 "You forget," said Herbert, "the arrangements made with my father in London, with a view to the eventuality of his having to fight the combined banks, who destroyed Tom Horton. They could not ruin my father; Tom Horton's fate warned him. That arrangement has been renewed." Whinstun' s face fell, and he was silent for a minute or two. " No matter, no matter," he said at last, "that does not affect my point. Herbert Gifford, you know well I knew all your father's secrets from the time he landed in Victoria until he died." " t do," replied the young man, "I was my father's misfortune." "Then know, Mr. Herbert Gifford," said the manager, his face lighted with a triumphant smile, "that if everyone had their rights you could not possess the property you do." "That does not surprise me," was the calm reply; "I have heard of Her.ry Morden." "jj\.nd if you proceed with ,ia insane idea, you will hear more," h t o3ed the manager. "In my safe at home there is a document with which I never parted, and woe be to you if that document gets into the right hands." " I don't care," replied Herbert, without sfche slightest emotion. "If the property is not mine, let the right owner have it. I use iKnow as much in the interests of Henry Morden, if he was wronged, as of the others I have mentioned. Is that all ?" Whinstun let go his hold of Herbert's coat and staggered, having to catch a chair. "Is that all?" He expected a very different reply. He |had played his great card ; it failed to win. He could not com- . prehend that a man would risk his whole \ property in this way. He knew Herbert i had resolved upon a certain sacrifice when ,Tie took up the battle with the bank, but ithere would be plenty left for him after the fight was over. But when he was threatened with the loss of all, and that by «b uian to be feared, to defy him was iji.tterly beyond his grasp. Whinstun judged ttnen by himself and thoße with whom he came in contact, men to whom gold was all, who would sell their souls for it if a puyer could be found ; — which was not at all probable — and he was thunderstruck at . fihiß new development of human nature, to fiiini incomprehensible. THven, as this last prop fell from beneath}, him and the man saw the pit of d«Btm.ctiou yawning at his feet, he became again %c raving madman he had been at

the beginning, His face lighted up with the flrea of hell, and his appearance became terrifying. The savage beast was at bay. " Man, wretch, devil— in the form of a boy," he hissed ; his voico was rendered inarticulate by rage, fury, and evil passions, " you can not — 'you tnust not do this. What ; you will destroy the edifice of my life, you will leave me penniless in my old age, you will drive me to become what Tom Horton was ; you will rob me of the name and standing that have been mine. By God ! I will murder you first and myself after — better than ruin, beggary, degradation. You will destroy me, will you, will you-" And in a mad frenzy, for he had now lost his reason, he swung the chain ho held at Herbert's head. Herbert avoided the blow with ease and the chain fell to the ground and wa6 smashed to pieces, terrifying the clerks, who still lingered in the offices although the bank was closed, almost out of their senses. Whinstun' s nerves now gave way, his brain reeled, his heart, torn by the long struggle, stopped, and he would have fallen to the floor had not Herbert caught him and placed him on the sofa. He then hurriedly passed out, and meeting the accountant, pale with terror, surrounded by the clerks, ho motioned to the manager's room. " Go for a doctor as quick as you can," eaid Herbert; and a clerk who was a famous runner started off at the top of his speed. " The manager has had a fit/ he explained to the accountant ; and then as they all rushed in he walked out into the street, deeply agitated, his face very pale. Herbert stopped short when he emerged from the bank, enibai'rassed beyond description. He found a large crowd gathered at the front and at the side, all evidently aware that something of great moment was occuring. The exit of the clerk, who charged the mob with the fury of a madman, set them all agog. Some said there had been murder, and until Herbert had appeared, the majority of the crowd were of opinion that he had been set xipon by the directors, his throat cut and his body deposited in the strong room. Herbert was at once awar« he had done wrong, he should have waited to hear whether Mr. Whinstun had recovered. He was abotit to return to the manager's room when he was thrust aside by the young clerk who came up at full speed, dragging along with him a winded fat doctor, who, between his puffs, ejaculated prayers to the youth to go slower. The clerk had struck this doctor in two senses, just as he turned the corner. They had hardly passed in when a number of bank managers came up and entered, bowmg coldly to Herbert. They had been apprised of hie actions, and had come to hold a meeting to consider how to help the Bovine Bank and their fellow managers against him. Bank directors, too, began to arrive, and Herbert saw the battle had begun in earnest. Thore was no looking back now. A messenger despatched for other directors and managers, told Herbert that Mr. Whinstun had come to, and he therefore walked through the crowd, and getting to his carriage ordered the driver to make for home as fast as the horses could go. The crowd was so surprised that they forgot to cheer until the carriage had been whirled by its swift horses out of sight.