CHAPTER IX.

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

CHAPTER IX.

LObT ! I At sunaet on the evening of tho sarao day, tlie woman we have already become acquainted with, aa Ellen, the daughter of Nan Griffiths, and mother of KcfritfnfUion's friend Dannil, was standing at the back door of Mrs. St. Herriok's cottago looking anxiously across the creek. A pale, patient nnd melancholy looking woman always waH Ellen Gnfliths, but on thia occasion bho wan startled and anxious to a degree, and when she saw her boy Djm almost running across tho creek bridge she darted to the fenco ao that he should see and go straight to hor. The boy was panting and terrified looking, and as he reached the fence he caught at it for Bupport, as he gasped out, " Oh, no mother 1 she is not there 1 Oh where can she be? Wh^t can we do? " " Oh, Daniel, I don't know ! Are you sure you have aearched everywhere? " " Everywhere I could think of. I was sure she would be up at the cemetery. Mother, what are we to do ? " " Get your breath Daniel, and run down to Mr. Pollard ; tell him all about it, and he will know best what to do. I daren't tell Mrs. St. Herriok ; if anything has happened that poor child she will go mad. Daniol, where is Guardian ? " " He would not come home with me mother, he followed me up to the grave and Bniffed around, but when I came back he would not leave the hill. Hark, that ia him now I " A distant anil most melancholy howl came floating to them on the evening air, and in the break of tlio Bound Ellen heard hor mistress calling her by name. " Go at onoe to Mr. Pollard," fhe repeated to the lad. " and it mu*t be, let him tell Mrs. St. Hernck. I will try to keep it from her until Mr. Pollard comes." Tbe speaker turned into the cottage and Dan ran off to obey her. Everyone in Marranga knew the J P s habits, and the boy was quite certain of finding him at home enjoying his wine and pipe on the garden verandah after dinner ; and there truly the «ood gentleman wan Heated, only he w»s not alone ; Ltonaid Proper was with him. They had been tp lking over the events of tho day, and the prospects of the Nugget Claim ; in fact they had been down the shaft examining tho place where Tady had discovered his gold, and the promising " stuff " that only waited raising to the surface " The gully will be rushed undoubtedly," the elder gentleman said, "and good by to the loneliness of Murder Gully. Have the new men got down to the claim yet ? " Yes," repied Leonard, " young Clark was helping them to get settled in the tent when I left, and they had a grand fire built outside that will have & weird effect in that wild ipot after dark."

" Oh, I daresay they will mako a nitfht of it. Goorgo ia a jolly chap, and the young Dorans are great friends of hia. Why, who'n this ? Oh, it's you, Daniel. What's the matter ? " The boy had entered the garden and come round by the side of the verandah on which they were seated ; he was standing now before them on the steps, so p<ile and frightened looking in the reaction after hiH recent fatigue, that it was no wonder Mr. Pollard, with whom the boy wan a favorite, nhould <vt once notice the unusual expression of his face. " My mother sent mo to you Mr. Pollard. Oh, sir, we don't know what to do, for li^'w,nation is lost, and Mrs. St. Horriclc doej not know." " Lost 1 how could that he, Daniel? lam sure that every inch around Marranga it as wpII known to that child as to yourself ; atae couldn't get lost." She ji, sir ; I have ran all over the place without finding her, and something is wrong, for Guardian won't come home, and is sitting up on the cometery road howling awfully." " Thid is serious, Prosser," the old q- ntleman said ; •• that dog has been inseparable from the child for years. Why wo saw Reaignation up on the hill above the gully when the christening was going on." "Yes sir, and I waa with her until we wanted to find out what was in the bucket, and I went down to see. I waited to see the nugget and got a glimpse of it, when Father James lifted it up, and then I climbed up to Resignation again, but she was not there." "Go on, tell all ycu know, my boy," said Mr. Pollard encouragingly. " Was the dog there ? " "No air, and he must have lost her too, somehow, for I met him when I went up to the cemetery. I thought Resignation would be sure to be up at the grave, but she wasn't, and I've been up there twice sinoe. Oh, Mr. Pollard, what am I to do ? " The boy had broken down completely at last and sat down on the step sobbing with all the bitterness ot a boy's grief. Leonard and the J.P. had both risen by this time, and wero with one oonaent apparently going in search of their hats. "Did your mother send any particular message to me, Daniel?" Mr. Pollard questioned, turning back as he was about entering the door. " It was about Mrs. St. Herrick, sir, she could not break it to her, and mother thought you would do it if it was necessary— you see it will soon bo dark, sir." " Yob, that is the worst of it, Daniel. Have you been on tho claim since you misaed Resignation ? " " Oh yes, Mr. Pollard, I was twice there sinoe dinner-time." " Well go back now to the cottage and tell your mother to try and keep Mrs. St. Herrick ignorant until I go down myself. I shall make enquiries, and Mr. Pro3ser here will do all ho can, but I am Badly afraid that if the poor child has not returned home by this time something is seriously aßtray." " I have seen her up at Clarks — Miss Fanny and the child seemed to bo great friends. Might they not have detained her at the farm ? " " If she had gone there the dog would have been with her. I ctnnot recall having once seen Resignation outside of her own home when Guardian was not close to her. I think our be.-tt proceeding will be to report the affair to Charlie Ellis and see what he thinks will be the best stepi to tako. Y»u go and tell your mother what I have said, Daniel. I will see you again soon." " Poor boy 1 " whispered Leonard as the lad moved to ro, " it is very hard for you — you have been great companion^." "Yes," Dan sobbed, "my mother has been with Mrs. St. Herrick ever since Resignation waa born, and though I live mostly with granny, there has not been a day that we have not played together." " Well don't grieve so, Daniel — cheer up, my boy 1 If Resignation 13 to be found we will aoon get tidings of her, and it is impossible to think of any casualty that could have altogether deprived us of her." Daniel went on his errand but half comforted, and Leonard with Mr. Pollard rapidly shortened the distance between the residence of the latter and the police station. " Who i 5 this lad's mother ? " anked the young gentleman ; " has he no father living ? " "That question I cannot reply to," returned Mr. Pollard gravely ; " his mother has been servant to Mrs. St. Herrick for a long time, as you hear from himself, but she does not sleep in the house. Her mother is an old and not over reputable woman that you have doubtless hoard of as the Witoh of Mount Roban ; but whether Daniel's father is living or dead even she herself does not know. There was much unpleasant talk about Ellen Griffiths' misfortune, aB it was called, but you know what the gossip of a country village is likely to be." " Yes ; not worth eithor believing or repeating. Here is Charlie." The young trooper was leaning over the white gate ot the Btation enjoying the quiet of the evening and a pipe, when his friends approached, and he listened to the painful news they brought him with something like incredulity. "It appears ridiculous, you know," he said. " One accident alone is possible, and if the child had fallen in the creek, there was tho best water dog in the district with her." " But the very dog has lost her Homehow, it seems. Dan says that ho met Guardian only when he was going up to the cemetery, and the do^j was then searching for the child." " Well, I will get my horbe, and send out the other man to make inquiries ; but as to a search to-night, you know it would be useless in the darkness. We will be able, however, to go all over the child's usual haunts before it is quite dark. As to keeping it from the mother, you can't. If Resignation id not home when you reach the cottage, Mr. Pollard, you must break it to her." " I will go out to tho Gully and set George and the Dorans on a search," Baid Leonard ; " with me there will be five men, and hvo men can go over a good bit of ground in an hour." " I will see the lad and examine him myself," said Charlie, " and as it might increase Mrs. St. Herricks alarm to see tho uniform, will you just give the boy a hint to come and meet me, should he be at tho cottage when you reach it ?" Promising to do so, Mr. Pollard went on his way, with a weight on his kind heart that was a moat unwonted experience with him. He was a bachelor, and without ties of any kind, while his nature was one of those rare and happy ones that I'xtracta comfort from many circumstances that would worry and make miserable a more uneven and ndgetty temperament. He thanked the good Lord of all for the quiet of hia even life, and be liked to pee his friends as happy as himself. It was hard for such a man as this to face the task before him— a taßk that would to many a man not worse than many of his fellow beings have carried with it a spice of unacknowledged enjoyment — there is something so satisfactory in being the first to communicate tidings of any importance to ordinary beings, even when the tidings are certain to wound the ears upon which they fall. The good man would have been spared some painful thoughts if he had known that the widow of his late friend was already aware of the trouble that had overwhelmed her. Daniel had run all the way to the cottage ftnd given Mr. Pollard'i mewage to bit

mother standing at the fence agiiin wheroshe had met him before. " You think he will be here soon then ? " she naked. " Yea, mother, for they both Baid that it would be a hopeless task searching after dark " " I am po glad, for the mistress ia getting suspicious that there ia something being hidden from her, though Bho does not think it is about Resignation, thank God. I believe slip half fnncied I was sending you on some unlawful message, Daniel." " What unlawful message, mother ? " tho boy awkecl Bharply. Ellen GrifTithn smiled a little as she replied : '• To bring something from the hotel, Daniel." II If Rhe could suspect you of that ! " he cried, hotly, " You do not do so ? If I believed that she could think and watch for that, I'd "— | Ellen laid her hand gently on Dan's lips. " llu*h, dear, you are bo impetuous and fiory, if you grow up to bo a man without netting more control over your feelings, it will bo a bad job." 11 1 can't help it, mother. When I see anything wrong, I always want to get in a rago," " Yes, I know, dear, but you must try and not get in a rage. But we are forgetting poor Resignation. Oh, Daniel, what ever can have become of her ? " " I don't know how it ia, mother," the boy again burst out, " but I feel I shall never see her again ! It seems to mo that she is dead 1 Oh, if it is true, I will never care for anyone in the whole world again — there was no one like Resignation, no one so gentle, so good, and so kind I " " That ia true," responded the woman, as she wiped her own eyes furtively, with one hand caressingly on her hoy'a head. "But do not cry ao, my dear, that will only make your head ache, and prevent you from being bo useful as you might perhaps be when Mr. Pollard cornea." " What is that boy blubbering for ? A great boy like that 1 You are making a perfect baby of him, Ellen, and you will be sorry for it some day 1 " Daniel drew back from the fence he was outside of, and his mother turned quickly to face tho opeakor. Mrs. St. Herrick wao standing at the back of tho cottage, a few yards from them, her thin, aristocratic looking face and slender figure in the black widow'i robes, she had never left off looking white and shadowy in the dying light. There was an uupleasaut expression, too, in the worn face of tho woman —an expression that had been growing deeper with every day and night since Father James had visited her, and which was the result of a battle between the still small voice of her conscience and her own bitter feelings of vindictive unforgiveness against her husband's murderer. Now in the night watohes as she lay awake, she pictured to herself the repentant man craving for her forgiveness, and sending for it over half tho globe. There were moments when she recalled her husband'B life and example, and knew that he himself would have urged her to relent and forgive ao she would be forgiven ; but Bhe was hardened by the calamity God had permitted her to suffer, hardened instead of softened ; and the nearly twelve years she had nuraed and fostered her sorrow had so changed her own nature that her dead would soarcely bavo reoognised it could he have returned to life. This was the mistress toward whom poor Ellen turned trembling in every limb, and dreading the awful tidings she might be driven to tell ore Mr. Mr. Pollard arrived to relieve her of the task. What could she say or do to put off the evil moment? " What is that boy crying for, I say ? Are you deaf, Ellen Griffiths, that I have to repeat my words to you like a child 1" " I am afraid ho has a headache, ma'am," she stammered. "Headache? Stuff I why, Resignation would be ashamed to cry for such a trifle, and he's a boy I" There was a tone of such infinite Bcorn in the word's that poor Daniel could not bear it in silence, and bt dunned the tears from his eyes with onehai.d k- ho said sturdily — " I am no' ' • virv for a headache, Mrs. St. Herrick 1" " Oh, you are rot, eh ? and you are not afraid to accuse yo> r ipother of fadehood either ? You are a bri.vo boy truly." " Oh, Daniel, do not speak again my boy 1" pxclaimed Ellen, as Hhe turned an agonised face toward the lad. "Go away, go away for the present. Go and bid Mr. Pollard come quickly. Oh, do remember how much we must pity her." " Pity me I What for, Ellen ? " the widow asked Bharply, as she scanned with cold, hard eyes her servant's face" " I know mine has been a pitiful case for yearn, nut how has it so much humiliated rae that, you have to beg your sou to pity me now '"' " Oh, for the love of Ood don't torture me, Mrs. St. Herricka— don't j ou see I can't bear it ? I would rather that any trouble, short of death, Bhould have befallen me than that I should have been compelled to break your heart." " I inrfist upon knowing what you mean. What was that boy crying for ? " " For your child," leplied the woman, who ■was a mother after all, and naturally resented the slight cast upon Daniel in her intonation of the words " that boy," " for hia playmate for whom ho would give his little life, humble as it is. Resignation is lost, mistress, lost, lost ! " " Lo<?t 1 " Tho word was a scream from the widow's lips, and then they trembled and grew white and rigid, so that she could not speak. Ellen went to ho hi pport, for she seemed about to fall, but at the touch of the faithful creature's hand she rcr -\cred herself and pushed it away from h r. " Stand baJc and repeat your words I Am I mad, or did you a ty that my child was lost? It is not true ; now could it be. There ia no place in win ill aha could be lout within miles of Marrangu. And, besides, there is Guardian. Why Guardian would not loße sight of the child for his life I " She had caught Ellen's shoulder now in a grip of iron, and aho was straining her eyes ho "wistfully into her woman's painfully averted face, roasoning, poor mother, againat her own awful terror, the terror that was growing stronger with every instant as she scanned the speaking features of Ellen. " Why don't you speak to mo, Ellen ? Why don't you tell me that you wore talking idly ? How could my child, my darling, my murdered darling's child be lost ? Speak 1 " " Sparu me, dear mistress, for the love of God ! Oh, it killa me to tell you the truth. Our darling is lost, bui every one in the place will look for her and find her, don't fear. See, there is Mr. Pollard coming to you— oh, sir I am thankful to see you 1 " ' T jut ii ' 'ui l you inside, my dear Mrs. St. H<ii>i.] io old friend Baid gently, as ho tru 1 ' ■ • • ,whn' rigid arm through his. " I wui ti i» y >u all about it if you will be calm and hcpcidl." " Hopeful 1 What do you mean ? You are all in league against me to drive me distracted. If my child ia dead tell me so. Oh, my God, she is, she ia. I see it in your faoes." "There is nothing worse in anyonVaknowledge than that one little girl has strayed, I give you my word of that. We know nothing, absolutely nothing, but that she is lost, and by this time there are scores of men in search of her." "Lost! tifl fci.ped again, " since when has she b> " if *♦ ' " I ? vi, Continued.)