The Mystery of No. 13.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 290, 6 December 1900, Page 6

The Mystery of No. 13.

is i

CHAPTER VIT.

"She wiled him into ac chamber, She wiled him into twa; She wiled him into the third chamber, And that was the warst ava."

It was curious how often Daffy's sle want.d mending, and how many sixpences were spent in repairs at the cobbler's round the corner. But the old man who sat nose and knees over his bench, going doggedly on at work that seemed always interminable, and which seldom brought in much money, always turned the child over to his assistant, and spoke gruffly to him and Hose, having no desire, now lie knew their identity, to see them there at all. He had been angry and offended at what he considered intrusion of the detectives on the privacy of his skylight, or rather on the attic beneath it, and blamed the whole tragic affair as a direct injury to himself, and done on purpose to annoj' him. What right had people from the "Yard," dressed up (o look like gentlemen, poking about his bits of things, limiting for footprints in the dtist( as ii he were more dusty than other people, indeed), and measuring- the wall outside to see its depth, and if it had any scratches on it, as if, at his time of life, he wanted to go climbing up and down it like a chimpanzee? And it was an insult, too, to ask him if he ever went out in the evening' to fetch a drop of beer—couldn't a man who had lived forty years in one house do as he liked? "Why, it was interfering with the liberty of the British subject, and a thing by no means to be abided. And as to dragging up an old man like him to give evidence at the trial, he didn't mean to go, unless he were carried, and not to speak then, if he didn't choose. So when Daffy came in like a sunbeam, bringing his prattle and smiles into the dusty place, the cobbler seemed to have put some of his own wax in his ears, and neither saw nor heard anything.

To be 'sure, Janin's bench Avas behind him, and that chattel-ills' Frenchwoman sometimes dropped into her OAvn lingo, which, of course, no one there could understand save herself, but the sixpences were certain, and he could not afford to turn money from the door. And she was a good customer. She ordered as many as four pairs of new boots and shoes for herself and Daffy during the month that elapsed between the committal i of Jack St. George and the day of the trial, boots and shoes.that were fitted and tried on, or returned and called for, till Daffy began io grow pale from the amount of time he spent in i the stuffy little place. Janin's sombre: eyes, resting on him, began to alter | their expression strangely, so that one ; day, when he was kneeling down Daffy ventured to put his hand on the man's swart head and leave it there. "It's very 'ot," said Daffy, shaking his own, and the man, looking up from beneath j the little hand, held his breath as if the angelic innocence of the blue eyes pierced his heart and let a shaft of daylight into a pool of blackness and despair. "It aches, little master," he said. "Like mother's?" said the child with quivering lips. ''She's always got a drefful pain here"—he pressed his hand down in the centre of Janin's ebony locks —"and it won't let her sleep —not never." Janin did nob stir as he kneeled there, one palm pressed on the floor, the other still holding the half fitted shoe on the child's foot". "And I gets a pain too sometimes," said Daffy, sorrowfully; "can't.bear to gee mother miserbul, a.nd daddy never comes 'ome." The tears rolled down Daffs cheeks and his heart heaved beneath the white worked pelisse as if it would burst. Janin put up his grimy hand as if he would brush the,tear away, then with something like a groan he bowed his head lower rover the shoe and drew it on, beginning to fasten its tiny laces with trembling hands. Rose had looked on pallid and fierce, during the little interlude, and now she said something to him swiftly , in French, which he seemed neither ta | hear nor heed. Meanwhile Daffy, wbo was a brave little person, swallowed this tears and had quite composed himself when Rose took his hand and led him away. 'Good-by, Janin," he said, turning to nod his golden head as he went out, but Janin had turned his back and made no sign. ; Dairy's heart ached as'he went along and his shoes ached a little too, he thought, and he wished it was his mother's hand he held, and not Rose's, for Eose did not love him; he knew that in the core of his -heart, though she was kind to him enough, and he and "mother" used to have such gay little walks and talks together. He -wondered so much why she never came out now. She was not ill in bed, for she could run about and play indoors with him, but she always put him off with "To-morrow, perhaps." Only to-morrow never became to-day. "You must not talk jto that eomiaon man, Master Daffy," said Eose, as they went away along the mews that began at a few doors' distance from the cobbler's. Had they turned to the right it would have brought

By HELEN B, MATHERS.

them in less than a minute to (.lie door of X;o. 13, and Daffy objected to this roundabout way of getting1 home, mid once, tried to explain to his mother tha.t Itose brought: him "miled an' miles" ;out of the way. But Elizabetli did not understand, and. indeed, for the first time in his life Daffy found a difficulty in eng-aging her attention. For the day of the trial was then near at hand.' and so far Mr Latrielle had discovered nothing- to loosen the halter-that Jack had placed round his neck, but the promise had been wrung from him that he would not plead

°*uilty ° "If you do," Mr Latrielle had said plainly., "you take three lives—not

one." "What do you mean*' said Jack, the blood ebbing' from his heart and leaving him pale as a corpse. Mr Latrielle repeated word for word Elizabeth's message, and filled up her pause according to his own iiupres-

.sions. "She would not do it," exclaimed Jack in horror. "She is the gentlest creature—" and then he remembered wha-1 she had done, and measured possibilities by facts. "The gentlewomen arc invariably the fiercest on occasion," said Mr Latrielle, "and she will keep her word. Ho now you know what such mad pleadingmeans." And Jack did know. He was beginning to know of what stun; Elizabeth was made. Mr Latreille'a mind was eased on that score, but he felt that though he did his best, that best would be bad. True, he had accumulated certain; evidence and had one trump card in his hand, but he knew well enough how serious was the weight of evidence on the other side, and Mr Lemaire, too r reflected, not without some ascerbity of spirit, that if he failed all the world would be there to see. For there was not a chance that Mrs St. George would appear in court and try to reassert those extravagant selfaccusations that were the punishment she chose to inflict on herself for her; unlawful loves? She had been clever enough in the device of getting her lover actually domiciled under the same roof with her (fancy a woman with those jewels finding it necessary to take a lodger!) but with all her cleverness she had been found out. And if she appeared then there would be a scene, and the public loves a scene, and while individually humane collectively gloats over the terror, anguish and guilt of a fellow human soul! The attitude of a mob or crowd j towards any hunted thing must conjvirice the' most hopeful' among "us how I much nearer we are in oiu- attributes |to the beast than the god, and for one who will stand forth to champion the defenceless there will be a thousand ready and willing to stone him down. But neither friend nor foe knew what Elizabeth intended to do on that ! day. Nor did Mr Lemaire know what he was going to do either.

(To be continued.)