MR. PERKINS Of New Jersey, OR, THE STOLEN BONDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 138, 12 June 1888, Page 6

MR. PERKINS Of New Jersey, OR, THE STOLEN BONDS.

CHAPTER V.

AIARLOW'S strong will stood him in good stead now, but one day he received a note that was themeans of casting all his hardlywon composure to the winds. ._._.. Th-notewaswrifctenin thenameof Patrick ONeal, his mothers late coachman, and entreated an interview. He was sick, and had something of importance to tell him The note was written in a female hand. Something of importance ! What could pSk know? He left Ins desk, and fhtt the note into his pocket, and started off in the dusk of the evening. So preoccupied was te his thoughts that he bu hed against a man before he saw him. "Why, Marlow ! Is that you?' said Mr Pardon,' said Marlow. 'Bub I didn't see you.' •'-,,, .■, < You did seem in a brown study, said the other, smiling. ' Have you any news of your mother V , mnl _. 'Not a word, but I am going to see Patrick O'Neal, our late coachman, who is sick and begging to see me; says he has something of importance to tell.- ---' Yes ■ Well, I hope it will turn out true. I always thought the servants knew more than they cared to tell, though you seemed to trust them entirely. Let me knocv the rC" Thanks I will. Yon have also been in trouble about your brother?' said Marlow. °Yes,- indeed. My belief is that poor Thomas committed suicide by drowning His affairs were left in a terribly tangled condition. Nothing left for his daughter She has only what I can give her, and that is not much, for my means are limited. « That is terrible,' said Marlow, 'Isn't it? You see we all have our troubles ; our skeletons in the closet Marlow did not feel like moralising, so he" hurried on and boarded a horse car. Though it was now May, the weather was cool and, cloudy. A chilly, misty rain fell over the city, enveloping it like a pall. ■It was quite dark when Marlow reached the obscure, badly-lighted quarter where the sick coachman lived. He entered tho swarming tenement, climbed two flights of stairs, stumbled aiono- a dark entry, and finally entered a dirty, ill-kept room, dimly lighted by one candle stuck in the mouth of an empty bottle. The candlestick was suggestive ot the occupant, for the room was redolent^ of whisky, and Patrick lay on his bed sick from a debauch. . The room was dirty and untidy; a young, woman in a tumbled wrapper sat"on the only safe chair watching with an air of great disgust tho sick man as he tossed on hjs bed. ' Wator ! water !' cried he. ,' lam dying of thirst. Give me water.' The young-woman arose with an. effort and handed the water in a handleless cup. He raised himselfon his elbow to take it, then with a shriek struck the cup from herj hand and would have struck her had she nob stepped back. ' Water !' cried he. ' I aßked for water and you gave me a snake.!'. . •■ ; • Snake !: It is your drunken, muddled brain !' • criod the- girl,' provoked beyond measure. 'Don't yon see the. water splashed all over, the floor, you drunken creature?': ■', ■' ■• "

1 No. I sec nothing bub snakes swarming over the floor-swarming over the bed-r----swarming everywhere!' i That's .all foolishness,1 said the girl, ' for if there was a snake in the room I wouldn't stay here a minute.' 'isthat so?' said the man, partly pacified. ~ . Here Marlow, who had been standing in the half - open door, entered. ' Why, Patrick,' he said, ' how came you in such afix?' ~._,_u ■•Drink I Master Alex, drink,' cried the BQSfh. ,f But I never knew you to drink before; hpw came you to do it now ?' 'To drown trouble,' cried Patrick, 'to drown trouble. Oh! Master Alex, I can't look you in the face-Oh ! Lord !— there's a snqke ! an' another! and another! Oh, the place swarms Avith them ! swarms with them! Oh! Lord! Oh! Lord!' i He.tried to leap from the bed but Marlow seized him and held him down. , ' Get out of the way !' he said hastily to the girl, ' or he will hurt you in his drunken frenzy. Are you his wife '!' 1 No, indeed !' said she contemptuously. * What are you doing here, then ?' ' I was hired to wait on him, I am very poor,'she said, bitterly.. ' This is no place for you. Whore is your husband that: he lets yon do such work ?' , The girl hung her head in silence while her face flamed. ■ Patrick's strugglesnpw absorbed Marlow s attention. - 'Let me go! Let me go. he yelled. 'The snakes! the snakes! oh! the • The poor wretch's yells brought into the room a couple of boys eager to see all that was terrible, horrible. . 'Can't you boys run for a doctor instead oi standing there staring ?' cried Marlow, provoked. But thoy stood stolid and motionless. 'Run, i'etch me a doctor, and I'll pay yon,' cried he. The thought of money acted like an electric shock, and the;' Heel away and soon returned with a young physician who strove to get into practice by starting in the slums. He now advanced to the bed. 'Hurry, doctor, and quiet himbeforehc tears himself to pieces,' said Marlow, a little out of breath with his exertions. _ The doctor hastily poured out an opiate, and, after a desperate struggle, part of it was poured down his throat, and, overpowered, Patrick fell heavily to the bed. ' See i here,' cried the boys, making a fresh diversion, ' pay us ! pay us !' Marlow threw them twenty-five cents.

' A quarter apiece ! A quarter apiece ! clamoured they. '■ Begone !' cried Marlow, seizing a broken chair and menacing them. With a volley of abusive language they fled the room. •'

After a while the opiate had its effects and Patrick calmed down and had a lucid spoil. • ' How are you feeling now, Patrick ?' asked Marlow, kindly. 'Master Alex,' said be, 'I can hardly look you in the face. And when you know all, you will want to kill mo. But pity me, for I sold myself to the devil, bodily ! bodily !'

' How ! What did you do ?' cried the other, much startled. ' And sinije then I've had no peace night or day!' cried the ex-coachman. 'So I took to drink to drown my sorrows. But begorra! it seemed as if I but tightened the duld boy's claws on me, and day after day I see nothing but devils and imps and snakes

■ 'Never mind that! don't mention them !' cried the doctor, as Patrick shivered aud trembled, and a cold sweat broke out over his face. ' Think of something else.' ' Now, Patrick,'' said Marlow, soothingly, * what did you have to tell me?' ' It was about your mother, blessed lady —that I was bribed to help steal away that tumble night — and I've niver had a minute's, peace ever since.'

'Helped to steal away !' cried Marlow, horror-stricken. ' Stolen by whom ?' Again Patrick strove to quiet himself, but he shook as with an ague, while the cold sweat started over his, face,

'Yes-bad luck to him! bad luck to him ! I sold myself to r! 'Your oath! Your oath! Remember your oath !' cried a voice from the door that made them all start. 'See! Ihe snakes are after you !' With a yell the drunken wretch tell back in a fresh lit. '' Confound that fellow '.' cried the dootoi. ' All this work to go over again !' _ Leavinf the room to struggle with the f r en_ier.l creature, Marlow lushed-for the door-bub no one was there. Up t(ie hall he ran, but could find no one m the darkness. It was impossible to take the only candle from the sick-room, After some delay ho succeeded in procuring another light, but no trace of tho intruder could be found. , Ano-ry, disapoointod, Marlow returned to help the doctor with the sick man, who by this time was raving. With great difficulty they got him quieted. _ ' I think now he will sleep till morning, said the doctor. ' And when he wakes, you can question him,' and he went away, Marlow sat by the bed and watched the sleeper. How bloated his face ! how much he had altered ! he had been so steady: And what did he know about his mother? Great Heaven ! who had hired him to take her off? .•<■■.,.-< •___.: ,v] He became half frenzied as he thought, and felt that he could not wait; that ne musb wake the sleeper to find out, whether it bo worse or not. What mattered it for such a treacherous wretch ? One whom he had so trusted ! When he could bear his thoughts no longer he turned to the girl who was leaning wearily back in her chair, and asked: ' How long have you nursod him .' 'Two days, but"he has been drinking hard ever since I've been here.' ' And how long is that ?' 'Twoweek.' " . .

' Did you write that note to me for him ?' ' Yes ; he kept crying out he must tell you everything; he must, for tho devils were after him. So I offered to send for you.' » Who hired you to wait on him ?' ' Some brotherhood to which he belonged; I've forgotten the name.' ' But thisisnot the proper work for you,' said Marlow. ' You had better let me get a man in your place.' 'And leave me to starve?' said she bitterly. iHave you no friends ?' 'None,' cried the girl, passionately. 'Not one!' , -Marlow viewed her with pity. At last he said, ' How came you here?' ' It is the same old story,' said she. ' The man I trusted, deserted me, and I crept here to hide myself—till the end comes—where no one can find me.' ' At any rate,' said Marlow, full of pity, 'go and rest while I am here. I will stay till Patrick awakes, so take this opportunity to sleep.' At first tho girl refused, bufc finally consented. ' My room is just across the way,' she said. ' If-you need anything, call me,' and she left the rpom. 'The scoundrel!' muttered Marlow. ' Whoever he be, he ought to be shot.' Then he seated himself in the one good chair and waited and waited. When would he,wake and would he be at all rational? What would he tell him? Perhaps, it was all-a figment of his drunken brain—Oh ! Heaven ! and must he sit there all night in. torture, waiting for that drunken brute-to. wake?

. The hours, passed; ho spent the time in putting i his ...watch in and out of his pocket. . The house sank into slumber; the street quieted down. . .Tho hands of his watch pointed to three o'clock. A man came up the creaking stairs, stumbling down the passage, and stopped at the door, cautiously turned tlib knob and entered. He was a perfect stranger to Marlow. He tiptoed up to him and handed him a note. He was a plain, rough man, and he stond gazing curiously at the sleeper as Marlow read the note ; it was from Appier:

' Came at once to polico headquarters. I have arrested Patrick's accomplice; ha m^kes startling divulgements—Hurry. John'Apfler.' (To be Continued.)