Mr. Potter, of Texas; OR, THE OLD LAG.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1888, Page 6

Mr. Potter, of Texas; OR, THE OLD LAG.

BOOK IV.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE APOTHEOSIS OK SAMMY POTTS. While Mr Potter is arranging to 'break the slate,' his friends are having an exit-.„o-time in Boulogne where Lady AnnerJe^though suffering l:hetortureofHades,is also distributing misery and despair to such of the Texan's adherents as come m her

V' She had had an awful night of it however and though in no tear olbocUl) P^^S^Tt hands 1 Her'conscience has been crying out ab her with every beat of the pendulun, : ' You have kept one innocent man m exile, and perhaps condemned another to prison to the dishonour of then' families and th, ruin of .".11 who belong to them -ana tor wAa. ? To retain the respect and perhaps (for she still has wild dreams) gam tho love of a man whom you are now torturing and degrading by means ot your fathers shame, ignominy and despair ! She has but to open her mouth and they will all.be happy-save herself. Vf™ this the vision of Errol and Ethel at the altar comes to her and she cries out wildly: ' No, no ! Fate joined,us in Egypt • J'ilnot lose his respect-the chance, ol his love i Though it is torture to remain si ent, it would be more to confess. 1 have burned my bridges; I am silent now for ever!' , ■_ . So the morning opens for her, and at about ten o'clock, she having just made an affectation of eating breakfast Lie obsequious Lubbins brings to her Air Charles Errol's card, and she says : 'At home to him ! Here, in my private parlour. The young man has heard the rumours of theni'dit before from Arthur of the flight of Potter the Texan, upon the discovery that he was the missing Sammy Potts, and ot his pursuit by the London detective, _ergeanb Brackett. He has nob soon Lord Lincoln, who has arrived upon the morning boat, and is now holding consultation with his son and daughter at bhe HOtel dv Pavilion. This information has been conveyed to him in a little note from Ethel, in which she wiites: 'You have promised not to speak to me ; but I have promised to love you to the end of my life, and 111 keep lb. Ida is bhe only cool one in our party. She seems to fear nothing for her father, bub a great deal for the detective who is trying to arrest him. Her confidence in her father s honour has produced thegreatest admiration in my father. Give your poor father my lore, and say I wish to call him father also— soon. !' . A note filled with such passages as this would give hope to any lover ; and Charley Errol would be more calm this morning were it not for his father. The elder Errol has endured banishment for thirty years with equanimity and dignity at a distance from the land of his birth. Havimr placed once more his foot upon his mother country, he longs for it as tor his life, and spends hours on the beach gazing at the dim white cliffs, and muttering in a broken voice to his son : ' Charley, take my bones to my old home ; they'll lot them rest there—soon ! The disgrace and shame of thirty years ago have come all back to me. I can't look men in the face. I feel like I did when they first put the convict'^, garb upon my body and the felon's chains upon my limbs !' This kind of thing has made young Errol desperate, and he has come to Lady Annerley to try and force the truth from her; for he has been thinking through the night; and suffering stimulating his faculties, begins to remember something of what she had~said to him when she first met him in Egypt. As he conies in, unheeding the pleading glance of the woman whose beauty is now made pathetic by despairing love, the look upon his face is stern. Ho coldly says : 'You hardly expected me again, I presume, Lady Annerley ?' To this she begs : ' Please don't use that tone to me. 1 don't deserve it—from you ! Charley, you came ' 'To wring the acknowledgment of my father's innocence from you !'

' From me? I—l have never said I thought your father guilty !' 'No? Then prove him innocent! I've been looking at his face, that can't bear my glance because the world calls him a felon. You can remove that shame —and, Lady Annerley, you .shall do it!' But she confounds him by saying : ' And what do I know ''. Only that youi father is a convict; and if I used that knowledge to separate you from Ethel Lincoln—you know the reason'—then cries to him: ' Charley, why are you so cruel to mo ? You —you would be different to me—if you knew how you fought for me—if you remembered Egypt !' Then he cries back at her: ' 1 do remember Egypt. Her voice and bearing have set his memory going and the past lias come to him again, for he says hoarsely: ' What did that packet contain you told me to treasure as my life—the one you gave me to send my father ? The truth was in that packet! Tell it to me ! That truth I will have!' , > ■

This astounds and tcrifies her—he is beginning to relnember—biit it also makes her cooler. She draws herself up and says to him cuttingly : ' Ah, yes, Lord Lincoln has been telegraphed for ; he is here to part his daughter from the convict's son. That is why I must make your father innocent !' At this he looks at her astonished, for it is the only cruel speech she has ever made him in all the suffering her passion for him has brought to her. He mutters : ' Lady Sarah, you're a'different woman to the one who nursed me to life in Italy three months ago!' ' That was before her baby face came between us !' cries her ladyship hoarsely.

The agony in her tone makes hirii contrite, for he remembers Lady Annerley's kind nursing, and fears he may have given her cause to think she at one time had his heart. He says half apologetically : ' You —you never thought I loved you ?' This remark adds to the agony of love the agony of shame. She sneers : 'Ah, what a generous question !' Then droops her head and answers it sadly : 'No ! She could awaken a passion I could hot'touch,' next says hoarsely : ' That's why I hate her 1' •' .

' I had supposed your .pride -' murmurs Errol; but gets no farther, for she cuts him short by wringing her hands and crying out: 'Pride is for those who think, nob those who feel! Pride was for yesterday : to-day I've only passion and despair! Charley, forgive me for the sorrow I've brought again upon your father !' and Lady Annerley is at his feet sobbing. ' Oh, if he knew how I suffer, too —seeing you turn from me who had given you back your life !' For the anguish in her face has made him look away from her. ' You said that before she came—in Venice!' She rises and goes near him again with these words, and seeing no response in his eyes goes into a spasm of horrible despair, crying out: 'My God ! How cruel you are to me ! Some day you'll know the difference between a young girl's rose-leaf passion and the love of a woman who has all her life hungered for affection and never found it—in father —in husband— in anyone ! Some day you'll Jknow I—some day t sowe—■ day !?

The last of this is uttered as if it were bhe sigh of a breaking heart. Her suffering Lakes him forget his own He does not look at her, for fear she will .see sympathy and mistake it for love. Giving one quick Si eat him, and noting this, Lady Annerly sinks into a chair and hides her head in her hands, which tremble and shake as if she had the ague. , Upon their silence breaks Miss Pottet s voice, coming in through the par our door. It stive in cutting tones : ' Lubbins, it is unnecessary to say Lady Annerley >s nob at home. I heard her voice distinctly _ This diversion is just what her ladyship wants. She is afraid of herself-alraid that the suffering of the man she loves will overcome her resolution. She springs to the door, opens it, and says : 'Please come in, Miss Potter !' ~.,,■ _ Whereupon Ida enters, light,. brilliant, carefully and beautifully dressed as over, though perhaps she would bo shgntly paler did not excitement give her a little additional colour. She is followed by Mr Arthur Lincoln, who looks much the worse for the trouble of tho last few hours, and who begs her to be calm. Miss Potter, however, is calm ; she bows coldly to her ladyship, gives Errol her hand, and then says : ' Lady Annerley, it is reported in Boulogne that you are the authority for a statement that my lather is a fugitive from justice.' Tins is in a freezing tone, though Miss Potter's eyes have a dazzling sparkle, ' Well '>' remarks her ladyship, with equal coolness, for she is afraid of nothing this day except the suffering face of the man she love,-!. _. . But before she can say more Charley Errol turns to her with a lastpleadingglance and mutters: " You—you won t tell me, Lai!y Sarah ?' She does not look ab him, but gasps: '.Why do you torture mo with questions? Then venting her misery upon Miss Potter, she cries; 'Ask her. She said she could give you hope. Ask tho daughter of the convict who has lied.' •You mean my father. says Ida, her eyes beginning to blaze. 'Yes !' desperately. ' I am not the daughter of a convict!' * Not the daughter of a convict— yet !' sneers her ladyship. ' You have no retraction to make '! 'No retraction—but plenty of proof! Your father proved it himself by (lying !' ' Plying ? My father never in his life lied from anything !' and Miss Potter affects a laugh. Here Lady Annerley astonishes her, for she lies to her, being in that kind of mood .he will stop at nothing. She .ays: 'I saw your father fly for Paris.' ' You saw him?' 'Yes! The moment ho heard his alias had been disclosed by you—that you had betrayed and ruined him !' 'But it was you who feared that revelation !' cries Ida, her eyes beginning to look like old Potter's when he arrested the detective. ' Lady Sarah, my father shall return to make you fear again. I swear to you!' And wishing to avoid profitless discussion the young lady turns towards the door, bub Sarah Annerley whispers to her : 'If he does, I swear to you I'll have your father in an English gaol' Both Errol and Arthur start at this, and Mr Lincoln says: 'Lady Annerley, such words are not warranted unless you have certain proof !' ' Proof? I have conviction 1' returns her ladyship, whose eyes are now riveted upon Miss Potter's wrist. ' His daughter's wearing some of tho plunder on her arm !' At this Ida astonishes tho two men even more than Lady Annerley, for she comes back, light, airy, almost laughing, and says nonchalantly : ' Oh, you're referring to my lucky coin, the marked sovereign V and holds her dazzling wrist high in air, jingling the bauble in Lady Annerloy's face. This astounds Lady Annerley, but it horrifies the two men, for they recognise tho bangle she displays as one of the marked coins. Arthur gasps: ' Ida, what docs this mean ?' lady Sarah cries, ' Dare she say who gave her the stolen goods ?' ' Yes,' answers Ida proudly. 'My father ! my father !do you hear me ? My father! My father does not decorate his daughter with baubles that will make her blush.' My father ' But Arthur fitop3 her by saying with legal caution : ' Then for your father's sako don't tell her any more !' And Charley Errol mutters with a sigh : ' Miss Potter, I'm sorry for you !' These remarks and the way they look at her astound and horrify the girl ; she stands gazing at them astonished ; then indignation comes into her eyes ; she pants out: ' Why, you all seem to think my father guilty !' And the subject warming her blood and enthusiasm making her eyes blazo with trusting faith, she pours out to them : 'I've known his love for twenty years, and though every jury in the world and every judge on the bench cried: 'Guilty! Guilty! ! Guilty !! !' I would cry : 'INNOCENT!' As the other three stare at the girl a soft feminine-ma-culino voice comes to them and makes them nil turn suddenly about and see Mr Van Cott. That young gentleman is faultlessly arrayed and looks very pale after his 'night of it.' He has come quietly in past Lubbins, who has been too intent upon tho scene in my lady's parlour to do his duty outside of it. Mr Van Cott says: ' Pardon my entering unannounced, Lady Annerley, but I feared Miss Potter might be anxious, and came to tell her that story of her father's flying to escape arrest is all beastly rot.' ' Not fled !' cries her ladyship. ' Oh,'yes ; he's gone safe enough, but he didn't fly from the law. He lied from ' ' What : says Ida. ' Prom me !' ' From you ?' gasps the girl, amazed, as indeed so are all the rest. 8 Yas ; I and your father had an interview about you, Miss Ida ; you know the reason !' Here he gives her a significant ogle that makes tho young lady struggle between rage and a smile. ' Your father was insolent to me, and I was compelled to threaten to chastise him ; and fearing me — for my manner was very determined -- he has doubtless fled. Bub you can tell him he '. may return ; I won't hurt him, for your sake !' He puts another ogle to the end of this, bub Miss Potter does not see him; she is looking behind him with a flood of joy in her eyes, and crying :' My father !' For a voice outside, is saying : ' This way, Peer ! Then she runs to the door sobbing 'At last!' For the strain being over, something has given way in this tortured heart that has liaunted her father's banner of innocence so jauntily in all the uncertainty and anguish of the last twelve hours, arid' Miss Potter, who carried herself so airily with her father fled, is now panting and crying on her father's breast, who is here to tight his own battles. Old Potter, however, does not kiss her ; he simply pats her shoulder in a soothing kind of way, and looking at Lady Annerley says sternly : ' Ida, who's been making you cry?' ' Father, that woman says that you are a thief !' whispers his daughter. ' Hida Potter!' returns her father, solemnly, putting her from him, and looking her in the face, 'did you believe her ?' 'No!' ' Then kiss your daddy !' Which this goddess of fashion does to the old frontiersman as if it were a boon most precious. Then he hands his daughter to Lord Lincoln, who has come in with him. This gentleman, assisted by his son, comforts and soothes her, for the girl is almost hysterical now- While Mr Potter wo.lks up I to Lady Ahherley—who ginoe his entrance I

has become like a marble statue-with lazing eyes, thatnowandthen involuntarily turn toward Charley Errol, as he looks on silent and astonished. ' Lady Hannerloy,' says Potter, did you dare to tell that girlher daddy was a habsconder and a thief? . ' Certainly !' replied her ladyship coolly, though there is a little tremor m her voice. ' Then either you or Hi kicks the beam this trip, and I reckon it s you ! answers Mr Potter, and turns toward Lord Lincoln, muttering apologetically: 'leer, its the. second time in my life I ever threatened a woman !' .. T' i ' And it shall be tho last!' replies Lady Annerley, who will now destroy this man who can tell her secret, whether they believe him or not. ' For when you leave this room you shall be a prisoner ! .then she adds snecringly : ' "> ou boy felon ! and walking across the room, touches a be"- ° __ T ~ „ On which Ida screams out: You shan b call my father that !' and comes toward her, but the Texan says sharply: 'Your dad can do his own lighting ! Lady Sahara, you're making me feel just like a Comanche Injun !' 1-lore Lubbins comes in, and Lady Annerley sneers : ' When Sergeant Brackett reburns bell him that the 'felon for whom he has a warrant is here' At the mention of the detective's name, Potter goes into such an awful scream of a iglitcr that he gives them all a start, and ;. second after a sensation. Ho cries: ' Is that your proclamation? I would let you come down easy off your roost, but you won't have it. Charles Errol, Ire something for you!' and placing his hand in his breast pocket, draws out a document. The minute tho Australian's eyes fall upon it lie cries hoarsely: 'My dod,! The packet she gare me in Egypt, and stole from me. when 1 was wounded ! ' and would seize it. Bub Lady Annerley is between them, becging, beseeching, imploring : ' Remember your promise! Charley, in mercy-in pity to the woman who loves you remember your promise : ' If we both lived you would give ib back to me !'' 'A promise? Then I'll keep the thing myself !' mutters Potter, putting tho paper back in his bosom. But Errol cries to him :'lt is mine. It holds my father's honour !' ' And it holds mine also 1' returns Potter. I've 'ad an awful timo to gib it, and I'll protect it with my life, nnd open it, and read it aloud to you and the judge—bog pardon, Peer—and tho man who stays mo is a very dead man !' And taking tho packet from his pocket again, quite slowly,hcisabouttotearitopc-n when Lady Annerloy's arms are clutched round his, and she sobs, though her eyes have no tears : 'In mercy ! Tho man I love would think me worse than I am. (livo me that packet back, and I'll tell him —all! —and the truth—but in my own way —as —as —my heart is breaking now !' 'That's fair !' says Potter, with almost a sigh of relief. Then she droops her head, and murmurs : ' Send them all away.' The Texan return..: 'The judgo'il stay for his family interests. I'll stay to protect my own, and you can have it out with tho young man.' And in a second he has Arthur and Ida from tho room, little Van Cobb having grown very pale, and quietly and silently stolen away as soon as Mr Potter came in. Then he whispers to Lord Lincoln : ' You told me as we cumo here you could take a deposition good in England. Write what she says down, for the Lord's sake.' ( To be continued.)