KILDEE; OR, The Sphinx of the Red House.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 271, 17 November 1887, Page 6

KILDEE; OR, The Sphinx of the Red House.

BY MAY E. BRYAN,

Author of "The Bayou Bride," "The

Fugitive Bade," &c.

CHAPTER LIU

Notwithstanding the grand Inauguration Ball, the theatre was moderately full. Lottie was late in making her appearance. The manager frowned as she tripped up the greenroom stairs, but she smiled back a him in her half-saucy, half-deprecating way, as she opened the enveloping waterproof and showed herself ready dressed for the second act, on which the curtain was about to rise. She went through her part with her usual grace and cleverness, but in the last scene she had a strange experience. She had one of those unaccoun. table impressions, visions—warnings—call it what you may—that, though out nature, are yet not of uncommon occurrence, and form the best proof of the existence of a soul, independent of the material organisation. In the play Lottie had to recline on a sofa, in pretended death, while the villain of the piece enters and goes through a scene of remorse. The lights were low, the orchestra was playing soft, sad music; Lottie lay listening to the actor's impassioned soliloquy. feud : denly his voice seemed to die away—her sense of her present surroundings vanished ; Hazard's face rose before her, ghastly, witli a desperate expression upon it. He seemed seated at a table in a dim, low room, his hand clinched something, she could not tell what, but it impressed heras something with which to take his life. That look of desperate resolve, the haggard despair in his eyes, the clinched hand ! — the conviction was light-ning-like—he is about to commit .suicide. So vivid was the vision, so strong the conviction, that she came near screaming aloud. It was gone In a breath, but the impression remained. She could not shake ifc off - v , , The scene was over; it was the last one to play ; she went at once to her brother. " Fred," she said, " did you hear what it was Hazard asked for at the drugstore ?" " Yes, I did ; it was chloroform." She drew her breath sharply. " That settles it," she said. " He's up to some mischief, and I am going to him— right now, and you are going with me." '♦' Lottie, are you crazy ?" " Not a bit. I am as sound as a Mexican dollar. All the same, J >m going to hunt up Hazard—l had a vivid warning about him just now—and ypu are going with me, or I'll never tie your neck-ribbon, or call you a darling Puck while I live. Come right on." " You'll wait for the governor and the old lady?" " No; I haven't time even to tell them. She hurried him downstairs and into a waiting hack. "This will all turn out a humbug, and won't I laugh at you !" grumbled the boy. " I'll give you leave to laugh. May be it will all turn out a humbug. I hope it will, but I never saw anything plainer in my life than that warning vision, and I sha'n't be able to sleep to-night till I know it's all right with Hazard. My ! it's raining again-such a chilly mist 1" She shivered and drew her dark wrap about her bare arms. She had not taken time to change her stage dress. "Gather up my things, please, ma am, Bhe had said to the good Mother Duck as she flitted past her. " I've got to cro in an awful hurry. I'll tell you aboufc it later. ' " Drive fast," she said to the hackman, slipping an extra half dollar in his hand. In two minutes she was set down at the foot of the stairs that went up over the shop. The street was still filled with music from the Sharon House where the ball was at tye height. Lottie ran up the narrow back stairs ahead of her brother. Somebody on the street had told Fred that the rooms on the second floor were all lawyers' offices, and the young man must be lodging on the floor above. The landing of the lust stairs was lighted only by the street gas-lamp, but she made her way to the next flight of steps. When she reached the head of these, she found the narrow passage in darkness. A dim light, however, came from beneath one of the doors that opened on the passage. Lottie knocked sharply on the door. She put her head to the aperture, and a etrong odour of chloroform came to lier. " Force it open," she said to her brother. "Don't you emell the chloroform 1 Something is wrong. There ie only a latch fastening the door, I fancy. Shove against it with all your might, rll help." The door yielded to their strength. The elender iron latch snapped, the door flew suddenly opep, and they found themselves confronted by a ghastly scene , a man seated at a table, his face buried in a bloodstained cloth—blood gushing from his arm, a> pool pi blood on the floor. Fred uttered an exclamation of horror, and etood transfixed. Lottie made no outcry. She went swiftly to the man's side and raised his unconscious head from the drug-saturated towel. " It's Hazard ; he still lives, I hope," she said, as she snatched a silk handkerchief from her neck and bound it tightly around ■ his arm just above the wound. Then she knelt by him and pressed her finger upon the lacerated vein. " Throw open a window, and run for a doctor," she said to Fred. He obeyed her at oace. He was gone fully fifteen minutes; it seemed as many hours to the girl. She knelt there in a pool of blood, pressing her finger upon the cut vein, her eyes fixed on toe death-like face that had dropped back on the table. Its pallor contrasted sharply with the blood splotches upon it. Blood! blood everywhere ! Lottie's heart sank as she saw it. Could he live after losing so much of the life fluid ? Oh ! why did not the surgeon come ? Aα she watched the white face she tt&w a quiver come over it. Suddenly the eyes opened, and looked at her—wildly—then with dljn recognition. He lifted his head, but it dropped again—dropped against her shoulder. She put one arm around him softly. She was afraid to move lest &t ehould jar the lacerated vein and set iit bleeding anew. As she knelt supporting his sinking weight with her strong arm, she held her breath to feel if the heart so close to hers still beat. When she distinguished its feeble pulsing, .tears of joy sprang to her eyea. And still the music played for ths governor's ball, and the sound of the dancers' feet came, across to the dreary room. Twelve strokes clanged from the city clock. Aβ the last one died away, Lottie heard the hollow sound of footsteps in the passage below. They began to ascend the " It is Fred with ttie Heaven I" whispered Lottie. The next instant she heard Fred's voice, full of cheerful relief. . \ ■■ " Sis, you are here all ngnt, are ypti ? I felt bad to be away so long, but I had a timeofittqgeba4oefcor." ' , '

She scarcely heard him. She was watching the doctor's face, as he raised the unconspious head from her shoulder, looked at the would-be suicide and felt the pulse in his wrist, then put his hand over Hazard 3 heart. "Now I will relieve you," he said to Lottie. " Turn that vein over to me and pet Up, my child. You are a brave little girl. You did just what was needed." "But—was it done in time?" Lottie faltered. « Yes—oh, yes ! He has lost a good deal of blood, he will be quite weak for a few days, but he will soon come around." Lottie wanted badly to cry, but she choked back the hysterical inclination and gave her attention to helping Dr. Blye. The half-severed vein was soonskilfully united and bandaged. While this was being done Hazard recovered consciousness. He recognised the gurgeon ; he saw the blood, the bandaged arm, and comprehended that he had been saved from the consequences of his own desperate net, " Why did you take this trouble, doc'or ? lie asked. "It would have been much better to let me die."

"Humph!" growled the surgeon. "That's v grateful return for a man's getting , ouc of hie bed to look after you such a nighfc as this ; a still poorer return for a nice young lady saving your life at the cost of adeuce of a cold and a pretty frock spoiled for good." "A young lady! Rid Honor —Oh, no; it could be none but Lottie. Did I dream it ?—or d\d I see her kneeling by me ?" "You didn't dream it—luckily for you. She was kneeling by you, sure enough, in a puddle of blood, holding back the life you had doyie your foolish best to let out. As I said, her pretty gown is spoiled, and she is booked for a sore throat." " Never mind the dress or the throat, Hazard," said Lottie, coming to the side of the bed to which they had helped the boy. "I'm top glad to see you alive to think of anything else." She wa3 blu.hing and laughing through her tears. She put her hand into the one that was feebly stretched out to her and he carried it to his lips. " Doctor, ho is quite cold ; ought he not to have a stimulant V she asked. " I was about to give him a little brandy. He's got too much of this sort of stimulant in his system already, however. A bottle of hot water tolas feet, a few mouthfuls of some light nourishment and a good sleep—that's what he needs." Lottie whirled about and took a hurried inventory of the room's possibilities in the way of fire and food. Dame Hubbard's traditionary cupboard was hardly more bare of eatables. A can of condensed milk more than half empty, on a shelf, was all that she discovered. And it was past midnight and raining hard. She looked at the cold, rusty little warming stove in the corner, and said to Fred :

" Make a fire, quick !" Hβ looked all about him carefully, saw neither coal nor wood, and said : " Show me how to make soiruthing out of nothing, and I will." " Don't make difficulties, dear," returned his sister. " Here's an old cigar-box and a blacking-brush and a political pamphlet— what better do you want to start with ?— and I stumbled over a broken chair in the passage." "Oil, fertile brain of woman," sighod Fred, preparing to break up the cigarbox. "I supposo she is going to make soup out of a hair-pin." Lottie had found a large-sized empty tin can which she filled with water and sot on the stove to boil as soon as the tiro was kindled. Out of her pretty little satchel she took the half dozen Boston biocuits, wrapped in a white napkin, which she had meant to eat after the play with a glasa of sherry contained in n little out-glass bottle that had once held a heliotropo perfume. She would fill the can that held the remnant of condensed milk with hot water, give it a dash of sherry, pour it over the Boston biscuit and serve hot. It was the boat she could do.

Soon the vessel on the stove was bubbling. Sho filled an empty bottle sho had foun<* with the hot water and gave it to Fred to put to her patient's feet whilo she prepared the toast. When sho brought it to his bed, steaming, she saw his eyes kindle, and she felt, with a pang, that he must have been suffering for lack of food. Ho ate with a relish it did her good to sco ; then ho lay back on the pillow; sho covered him as well as she could ; the hot bottle at his feet was comforting ; and in a few minutes ho was asleep. Lottie sat and watched him. The doctor said good-night; Fred fell asleop in his chair ; the mueio of the ball ceased ; the rattle of vehicles in the muddy street and the dull monotone of the rain wero the only sounds from without. Lottie sat and looked yearningly at the face on the pillow. "Poor white, haggard face," thought the girl. "How ho must have suffered ! Did that Montcalm woman break his heart, I wonder. Proud minx !He is good enough for her or any other lady in the land—handsome, bright fellow that he is. I hate her for Seating him so. It's just as though she had treated Fred or Charlie badly. 1 care for Hazard almost as I do for one of our boys." She knew in her heart that she cared more for him than for her brothers, fond as she was of them. She knew she loved the boy she watched so tenderly through this long night with that half-paseionate, halfmaternal tenderness and pity which a woman can feel for a man she does not wholly respect—a strong yearning impulse which sometimes saves its object and sometimes wrecks the woman.

The sun was shining into the uncurtained room when Hazard opened his eyes upon the face of his little nurse. They were alone. Lottie had waked Fred and sent him on a variety of errands. First, to let Papa and Mamma Duck know what h*d become of their missing duckling. They were, no doubt, uneasy; but then they had confidence in Lottie and in hei capability to take care of herself. Then JFred was to order a, delicious breakfast — coffee, oysters, eggs and broiled chicken—to be sent to Hazard's room ; also, a good nurse and a servant to clean up ; lastly, a carriage to take Lottie back to the Marshall House, where she would undress, drink a hot sanger, cuddle up in bed and be as fresh for the loatine'e as though she had not watched all night over a would- bo suicide and had her lilifcle heart torn with pity for biro.

When he opened his eyes and saw her pale, thoughttul little face (ready, though, to smile 00 him the instant their looks met), he said remorsefully: "Oh, Lottie, you here still! You have not slept at all. What a wretch lam to subject you to all this ! I am not worth it, Lottie. I don't deserve anything."

" Very likely. How many of us do deserve anything? But now let me batlio your face; your breakfast will be here soon."

" What an angel of goodness and charity you are! It's just charitable pity makes you come to look after me," Hazard said wisi a twinge of his old proud repugnance to pity. "Of course it is. lam such a famous Lady Samaritan. Now, sir, you know it's not pity or charity that makes me come to look after you. It's just a motherly solicitude. It!s a maternal weakness to care for wayward children." " But you don't know how bad it is with me, Lottie. lam at the foot of the ladder. I can never rise any more. I have lost everything—friends, and place and reputation, hope and talent, if I ever had talent, which is doubtful," ;

" You are an ungrateful boy to say so. You , know you have got talent—yes, genius. Doa't sbak&yOur head, papa says so, and you'll not deny that he ie a good judge, You've got genius, j?eniue can

always rise : if not in one way, then in another. As for your fall to the bottom ot the ladder ; why, it will do you good. You had mounted too fast; your head was giddy. The fall will bring you back to your good senses. It will shake the seltconceit out of you, and bring the manliness to the surface. Oh, it's all right. • Never can rise again—hope all gone ! Don t let me hear such whining from you any more. Go back to your early teachings, sir. Don t shame the curly-headed boy that used to spout from Festus, '" Rouse thee, Heart! Bo* of my life, thou art yet full of spring, Thy quiver hath yet many purposes. Lottie jumped up, threw out her pretty, bare, jewelled arm from the Mother Hub-bard-looking wrap, and gave the lines in capital imitation of Hazard's boyish oraHe was obliged to smile, bub the next moment he said, drearily : "It'sall well enough in theory, bub Id just like to know how it is possible for me to rise without any lever of lucre or energy. I've gone now and drained myself of what little strength I had. What am I to do , .' No, Lottie, you ought to have let me complete last night's business." " I'll give you a trial. If you disappoint me. why then you can make another attempt at your "last night's performance. What arc you to do? Why, in the first place, you arc to lie right here and get back your strength through good food and good nursing. You shall have both, and you are not to worry yourself about the 'fiow of the matter." "Which means I am to content myself with letting a woman pay for ib out of her earnings. I'll not do it; I'll be hunged if-" "Hush, if you please. Just wait, lam nob going to (live you anything out of my pocket. It's just an advance on your pay as second leading man in our troupe. That place is vacant, and papa wants you to fill it. He always said you were a born actor— and could beat Booth if you would. So you are to join us in a week. You'll bo all right by that time. And now not another word. Be quiet and rest until your breakfast comes." He obeyed, thanking her with a look and a kiss upon her little hand. He held the hand to liiri lips and lay siient. He was undergoing a transition. He saw, as in a dream, all hi.s adventurous hopes go down in eternal shipwreck—his aspirations for literary fame, for political distinction, for wea'th, Honor's proud face — all disappearing — go:io —" all but one little faithful hand to which lie clung, ono love that had been hi.s through all slights and coldness and change. Could he choose but love her? He had sworn once he would love her always. Had he ever really changed? He opened hi.s beautiful, sorrowful eyes, and fastened them on the little actress.

"Lottie, there's one chance for me. 1 can rise if I have one thing to hold toyou, Lottie, will you lovo me and take me, unworthy as I am, and help mo to make a man of myself '!" Sho leaned over and kissed his lips.

" I accept the trust," she said. Sho remained an instant leaning over him, looking at him with her tender, yearning, tear-filled eyes. Then her quick ear caught the sound of footsteps. Shestood up and dashed tho drops from her brown lashes.

" Hero comas your breakfast," she cried, cheerily. (To he Continual.)