CHAPTER VIII.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1976, 7 March 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER VIII.

ITRB. BHiDY'B SONS. St. Hcrriek's, where the Brady family their home, the cloud that had the bud bo suddenly while the new over the lately-ihristened claim, shadows ander the oypressthat surrounded the cottage, was a dead silence under its roof quick Bteps of Conn Brady went back, where he opened the door and went into the kitchen, coarse face was white as clay, his with a dangerous light, at which his mother's heart sank, that something serious must to affect her aelfnh younger Brady had been mending some of James' attire, and a black garment of across her lap as Conn stood before and looked steadily into her face. W" What has happened, Conn," she whisBered. " Jamei has not — has not — oh Lord ! Bonn, what is it ?" J "This is what it is," he replied between phis set teeth, that gleamed whitely between his pale lipa, " I am going to leave this place before the curse of your blood has dragged me down to hell with you and your darling jjon 1" She shrank back from him in her chair na though fearful ho would strike her with the clenched hand he flung out before him a3 he opoke. " What are you at all ? " he went on with • terrible force in his tone. " A woman 1 I don't believe it ! A mother ? oh, there may be such mothers, but they are the mothers of devils, not of men 1 lam no saint— God knows I am no naint, bat you shall not drag me to the gallows with you while my hands are free." She staggered to her feot in horror, and the black garment she had been mending fell from her lap to the floor as she did so. " Ha, ha 1 " he laughed awfully as he pointed to the black coat on the ground ; " we have a priest in the family ! Good Mother •bov<>, to think that auoh women as you live ! " " What have I done Conn ? " the woman asked with trembling white lips. "In the name of mercy don't look at me that way, you frighten me." " Frighten you ! is it possible ? la there a horror in the whole wide earth or in the whole deep hell that would frighten you ? What have you done? you have bred a dovil id human form, and you have encouraged him by word and deed to live on human blo.i.'l ! My God, when I think of it I feel as df I was going mad." He had fallen into a chair and covered his (ace with both hands, as though to shut out some awful sight, and Mrs. Brady, seeing him quiet for the moment, ventured to approach him and to speak again. " Wont you tell me what has happened Conn? it must be something terrible, for you aan't mean about that deed of the past — that was but just revenge after all." " No, Ido not mean about that ; I mean that other deed that you have planned and urged him to, and that you hare deceived me about from first to last. Fiend in woman's shape, don't lay a hand on me or I will strike you 1 Strike you 1 why should I not ? You are no woman at all, but a devil. JDon't ask me what baa happened »g»in, and

if your prayers would not bo a raookery and a hopeless one, I would tell you to pray that no one elae may ask me, for I should tell them ! Let me pass. Let mo go I say, before lam poisoned by the air of this house 1" The man banged the door of hia room in the woman's face, and when an hour after hp was met by Leonard Prosaer he was carrying a portmanteau to meet the coach, and was dressed for travelling. " Hallo I arc you going to town, Conn ?" the young gentleman aaked cheerily. " For good I'm afraid, sir," was tho reply. " Tho underground work doea'nt suit me it seems. I was taken pretty bad just after you left the gully to-day. I'm going down to see a doctor." " Ah ! I'm sorry for that, and now that I observe it, you certainly do look ill. I hope jou will get better with change of air." " Thank you, Mr. Proper." And while the man was flying horn Mairanga as from a horror beyond nil power of dfrcnption, his wretched mother was sitting in the chair where he had left her, with a face nearly as white as the borders of her cap, and her hard fingers gripping tho black cloth coat she had almost unconsciously liftol. Her glaring eyes were fixed on the window through whioh ahe had seen t^e last of her younger son as he strode away toward the township, and in her ears weio yet ringing his terrible words of repudiation and horror. Did she know tho deed that had struck such awful fear into the heart of Conn ? Had she guessed what climax hid been reached and witnessed to drive him from her with euch dread curses ? Yes, she guessed all, but knew nothing for certain, and as a haod was again upon the latch, after ifc might be hours that she had sat there in stony fear, »he did not know but what it might be tho huud of the law to drag her to her doom. She turned her -white face toward tho man who entered and tried to speak, but her lips seemed too stiff to do her will ; for a minute aho could only staro at him in unspoken horror. It was Father Jame3 who had come in and stood before her now, twining something round hia thin fingers and looking into her faco with a mooking sneer on his lips and in his eyes. It would seem as if he knew the terror that had rendered his mother incapable of utterance and gloried in it with the joy of a fiend over the downfall of a human soul. From his restless turning fingers the woman's horrified eyes wandered to the marks of soil on hia coat to the stains on his knee; —to the eoft-looking, dark dabblo on the linen cuffs of h« white shirt. Something seemed to rise in her throat as though to strangle her, and the wordH came out at last, gaspingly, as though ejected by a will stronger than her own — " Ob, my son, what have you done? " "Your work, my kind hearted mother 1 " he sneered ; "have I not always been i dutiful son, and a credit to the blood of the Brady's you are ho proua of ? " " Don't 1 for God's Hake don't talk that way 1 " she cried, " but go and change your clothes. Oh, my darling, my eldest, do not think I have turned cowardly, for it is only for you lam afraid 1 Conn, has seen something, and has left us for ever ; they may be on your track even this very minute, (xoand take off them clothes for tho sake of the mother that bore you." " Tho mother that bore me," he repeated thoughtfully, as it pcemed, with his eyes drooped to th« lloor at his feet. "I wonder if a woman ever did boar me ? I have often doubted it in the ru^ht3 when my fight with him u hardest. If a mother bore me how could I do such deeds, and see such terrible beings from among the accursed? But looking at you, how can I doubt that I am a woman's son— a woman who has mado a murderer of me, and driven me mad ? Ha haha 1 there is a necklace for the pneHt's good mother — a present from her devoted son." He had at first been muttering as if to himBelf, but now he advanced and threw the object he had been twisting and untwisting in his fingers around Mrs. Brady's neck ere he dashed open the door of his own room, and shut himself in, a madman with his demons. With a Btifled cry tho wretchoi woman dragged the object from her neck, and let it drop upoa the dark coat in her lap. What horror waa it that lay there under her ataring eyes until it seemed instinct with life, and crawling up again as if to re-encircle her throat? Why did she start to her feet, and shake it into the fire, and pound it down among the embers as if it were a living thing and venomous ? Whence that feebleness that took her staggering to her own chamber to hide from tho light and from memory that destroyed token when it was only a long tress of satiny hair, that might indeed have been a necklace — but there wad wet blood upon it for a clasp 1