THE BRANDED FOOT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1902, Page 6

THE BRANDED FOOT.

AROM__NCB~OP A MONSTROUS PERSONATION FRAUD,

(BYIA FAMOCS AtJTHOB.)

CHAPTER XXXVI.

JANE TIGHTENS HER GRIP.

Jane had been sitting- in Fannies boudoir, for there the girl would hasten if an emergency should arise that she could not meet unaided. As the minutes pa-ssed, the. crafty ■woman was alternately buoyed up ■with confidence and sunk in depressing fear. It required all exercise of caution to keep from stealing1 along the corridors to Mrs Schuyler's door, there to play the eavesdropper. "If I could only know what is going- on!" she groaned more than once. She discovered, as many another ■had before her, that suspense is harder to endure than actual trial: but, like everything else, there is an end to suspense, and it^ came at last. Hurried steps in the hallway, the door thrown hastily open, and Fannie, her eyes blazing with triumph, rushed in. Jane was already on her feet, nerving herself for the worst. "It is over," she gasped, in a hoarse voice, and then, reading the girl's face aright, "and safely!" "Oh, mamma! such an ordeal," cried Fannie, almost collapsing from the reaction of those last anxious moments; "but hasten! she is unconscious, and when she fell she struck her head against the desk, and the blood flows freely." "Peril still exists," cried Jane, "if she is not killed. Is " "I don't know. You can tell- Mrs Schuyler, of course, is dreadfully shocked and alarmed. She wanted to telephone at once for a doctor, but I assured her that you were a skilful nurse, just as good as a surgeon, and mentioned the way you treated Sarah's injured hand." "Right child! Well?" "She wants you. Probably you can persuade her not to send for a physician." "That, indeed, shall be my business. Here" —and she gave the key to her medicine chest to Fannie. —"get bandages, the bottle of lotion —you know the one —and a pair of scissors; and when you come tell a servant to bring water and cracked ice." Jane ran to Mrs Schuyler's boudoir, but when she entered, it was with a moderate step and a perfectly compiosed air. She went straight to the unconscious woman and kneit over her, every movement being indicative of confident mastery. Mrs Schuyler did not fail to note this manner, and she was greatly relieved. "It is as if she had been brought _p^ in an emergency hospital," she thought. Aloud she asked, "Is she dead, Hester?" "Oh, no," replied Jane, "merely stunned- The wound is nothing. Much more significant are the signs that she suffers from exhaustion. 1 should say that she had not had sufficient nourishment recentty." "She told me so herself," responded Mrs Schuyler. ''Thank Heaven that ehe is not.dead!" "She will not die, that, is, not from the fall; but, speaking solely in her interest, sh_ should not be removed from the house for iome " "llemove her!" cried Mrs Schuyler. "I would not dream of such a thing. She must be kept here unftil she is entirely well. Don't you think we ought to send to the village for a doctor?" "There not the slightest need. There is no possibility of complications here that I cannot handle perfectly." At this moment . Fannie returned "with the articles from the medicine chest, and immediately after her came a man with water and a bowl of cracked ice. Without another word, Jane proceeded to treat the wound on Hester's forehead; and Mrs Schuyler, ■watching with growing admiration, was quickly convinced that the presence of a physician would be superfluous. "She will recover consciousness soon," remarked Jane, as she was finishing her work, "and probably ■will fall at once into a natural sleep by reason of her exhausted condition. Rest and nourishment are what she needs most." Mrs Schuyler immediately gave instructions for removing Hester to an unoccupied chamber in the servants' quarters, and within a few minutes these orders were executed. Then, when Jane had been constituted sole nurse fo: the invalid, Mrs Schuyler believed that the best possible mea-! sures had been adopted. A housemaid assisted Jane in disrobing the invalid, and in putting the room in order, and when there was nothing more for her to do, Jane dismissed her. Alone with her victim, at last, she looked down upon the unconscious face with a smile of fiendish satisfaction. "You will sleep well," she muttered. "Oh, yes, as long- as I find it advisable!" Jane then turned to the wardrobe in which Hester's clothing had been placed. Hastily she sought for the skirt pocket, and drew forth a sealed paper. "1 thought so," she whispered, with a chuckle —"the confession. Very well, Hester, to-morrow you may present it, if I can make the proper arrangements for that ceremony tonight, and then you will accomplish

Jane waited impatiently until after the stroke of twelve, by which time she believed that all in the hous<. were sound asleep.

"Now is the lime!" she whispered (To be continued.)

your own defeat." She replaced the document in the pocket and turned quickly from the wardrobe at the sound of a door opening. It proved to be Fannie, come to make inquiries. "Will she die?" was the girl's eager question. "She will steep till about four," replied Jane, "when she will eat and go to sleep again." "-And then " • 'And then I have work to do. You needn't bother your head about it. Trust me that I shall make no blunder at this stage of the game." And that was substantially all that tl-'e girl could get from her mother as to future proceedings. The day passed slowly to both Fanrie end Jane, the one constantly in Mrs Schuyler's company, the other in attendance upon the unconscious i Hester. Along toward evening Donald Gordon returned, after having been away all day. Mrs Schuyler saw him approaching the house and went down to meet'him. His gloomy countenance touched her heart, and she could not put off telling him what she. meant to do in his behalf. _ She began wtih a brief allusion to th.o startling episode of the morning, but she limited her account to the | statement that an insane woman had ! called on her. and she did not mention just what form her insanity took. "We shall take care of her until she is well enough to be sent away," she concluded. ( "That is like you. always kind, responded Gordon, sincerely. "I hope so, Don," she said. "I want to be kind to you, but, such, is the troublesome pride of human nature, that I have hesitated a little. Tell me, Don. do you remember how, when you were a boy. you used to come to me with your troubles? Do 1 you remember some of the scrapes I used to help you out of?" "I haven't forgotten one," he answered, laughing. "I've never ceased to be grateful." "Never mind that part of it. What I wish is, that, you would briug your troubles to me now. lam immensely ■rich, Don, and it would be a pleasure to me to relieve you if you are in difficulty. Now, don't say a word. Listen to me."

She spoke rapidly and with gentle agitation, as if she feared that he would interrupt, and ko prevent her from accomplishing her generous purpose. "I know you are in debt," she continned, "and T have no criticism to make. That your, expectations have been completely blasted is no secret. Nowtlif I were to die to-day, and should bequeath yon a hundred thousand dollars, you would accept f the money without the least compunction, wouldn't you?" "A hundred thousand!" • gasped Gordon, adding- silently. "Has that minx persuaded her to double the gift?" "Of course you would! It sounds large, as. a gift, but it is not more than you deserve. It would help you, I am'sure. I want to give you a hundred thousand, Don, and I can't see why you shouldn't accept it as readily from a living as from a dead friend. Don't say a word. I cannot argue the matter. I have been too disturbed to-day to attend to it, but the first thing to-morrow I shall arrange with my bankers to have that amount placed at your disposal. If you decline to touch it I shall feel deeply hurt. Run along now and dress for dinner." • And 'with that she walked briskly away, leaving- him no opportunity even to thank her. In the course of the evening he learned from Fannie that she had indeed been influential in deciding Mrs. Schuyler to double the proposed gift. "Perhaps yoii will not need the diamonds now," she whispered. "I'll drop you sooner than the diamonds," he' responded in a savage undertone, and Fannie gave up trying to save them. Mrs. Schuyler was the last of the household to retire for the night. Before doing so she visited the invalid's room. Jane was sitting quietly by the bed. "She has been conscious, I hear.'whispered Mrs. Schuyler. . "Yes, madam, twice," responded Jane. "At those times I discreetlykept out of sight, and let a servant attend to he-r, just as you suggested/. '•That was right; but you don't need to keep awake all night, do you?" "No. About midnight I will retire, but stay within easy call, and Betsy will take my place here." Mrs. Schuyler'nodded approval and withdrew.