WITH LOVE'S AID OR WON AT LAST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 167, 14 July 1908, Page 6

WITH LOVE'S AID OR WON AT LAST.

By WENONA GILMAN

Autnor of "Evelyn, the Actress," "For Love Alone," "The Trials of an Actress," I " "Stella, the Star."

CHAPTER XXlX.—Continued. Meanwhile Dorothy sat with straining eyes staring after her lover. She was stunned and cold, but she was recalled to herself by the sound of a voice by her side. "That was very w-ell done; I may say admirably done!" the person said. She looked up and saw Hastings, minus the blue jeans and wig, standing before her. He was smiling, but still there was an anxious and harassed look upon his countenance, which she was too blinded by suffering to see. "You have robbed him!" she gasped. , "Robbed! You people use such ugly terms," he exclaimed irritably. "I relieved him of the care of so many jewels; but these rich people are so infernally greedy. The more they have, the more they want. And so he is going to surround the woods, is he? Well, I'm glad you secured that much information for mc. Frankly, the jewels are there, and I must get them away before he has the opportunity. I am going to take the liberty of borrowing Rudolph's horse, Dorothy. If anything should happen that I don't nave the opportunity of bringing him back, I will turn him loose and lie will return to his own stable. I hope, however, that I shall have the opportunity of bringing him back, in order to set your mind at rest about the jewels. Make yourself easy concerning my safety. I shall not be taken!" Almost before he had ceased speaking he had bounded away toward the stable, ) leaving her sitting there, too aghast to he able to think out what she should do. Before she could recover herself Madam Delpre had come upon the piazza. "I thought I heard you talking to some one, dear," she said gently. "Oh, Dorothy, how pale and ill you look! iur. Griswold will never forgive mc. Come up-stairs and let mc put you to bed, dear." "No, no! I should go mad! Do you know that—that Mr. Cameron was— robbed last night? All the jewels were stolen that I wore in the play." "Dorothy!" "It is true! He was here just now. He said he saw the—the thief come here, and that ho was going to search the house. Didn't you see him?" : "No!" ' .-, "Then he—didn't search the house ?'' "He couldn't have searched it very effectively without my knowledge. He saw a thief come in here? Let U3 call Adam and have him Dorothy, what in Heaven's name is the matter, dear?" "Nothing!" Dorothy gasped. "But don't call old Adam. He couldn't find the thief. He has — gone!" "Gone! He -has been here, then?" "Yes." "And you saw -him?" "Yes!"—the word scarcely more than a gurgle in the throat. "My God, child! why did you not give the alarm? He may escape! Do you know what that would mean to Mr. Cameron ? The loss of thousands and thousands of dollars in jewels, not to speak of the value as heirlooms. Oh, child " "Yes, that is what it means to him," Dorothy interrupted hoarsely; "but what does it mean to mc? Madam Delpre, listen: You taught mc ambition! You taught mc what it was to feel the shame of my position. Now, perhaps, you can show mc a way out of the hideous criminality I have brought upon myself. Do you know who the thief is? It is Philip Hastings! And do you know who Philip Hastings is? He was a bare-back rider in Buxton's circus!" Madam Delpre sat down suddenly, her face as colourless as Dorothy's own." Her hands were clasped closely in her lap. She neither moved nor stirred, but with her horrified eyes fixed upon Dorothy's, she listened as the girl continued:— "The first night I saw him here was the night of Kenneth Cameron's first ball at the castle, when our engagement was announced. I came upon "him face to face, he a masked burglar. He demanded concealment of mc; he had taken only a few paltry baubles, I really did not know how much at the time. He demanded concealment in exchange for silence. You had taught mc to loathe the life I had led, though it was good and honest so far as I was concerned, no matter what the world may have -thought. I had maintained silence, and my betrothal to the master of Peak Castle had just been announced. I couldn't bear the degradation of having that engagement broken because I was not worthy of becoming Kenneth Cameron's wife, and so I kept silent! I paid the price that was demanded of mc! That made Philip Hastings my master! He came -here among us, commanding mc to receive him, a,nd I dared not refuse. He has forced the jewels from my hands, he has robbed my friends beneath my roof, he has made mc an accomplice in his crimes, until now I dare not proclaim his guilt and hand him over to the police, lest I be forced to share his cell with him! Self-preservation is stron" within us all! Tell mc what I shall doT I am going mad under the strain of all this, and I cam bear it no longer. He was here but now. Kenneth Cameron has discovered where the jewels are con- | cealed, and has gone to have the woods surrounded in order to prevent the thief from securing his booty; but Philip Hastings heard his determination, and he ot! JT _*? _ my stable > has to the d ?' P ? S h ° r3eS > ancl ha * ridden Kenneth fl« ° SeCU " the J ewels before Kenneth Cameron can return there The gamed his. Now, what shall I do?" Ihe voice, _towti miiji. had ceased.' did not speak. What was eta P I say? Oh, if Rudolph were W V, ? She looked at the P girl he.ples j/S wrung her hands. J " "What shall I say?" she groaned "Oh what shall I say? If this only could have been delayed a few days longer!" "Until I had become the wife of o KennetlT Cameron, Madam Delpre? I have

j ceased to desire that. All ambition has received its death-blow through this horrible suffering. You cannot see a way out of the terrible difficulty to which you have introduced mc, Madam Delpre, but I can. It is truth!. I must tell tho truth at last." CHAPTER XXX. A DISCOVERT. Dejected and miserable, Rudolph made his-.way to New York, feeling intuitively that some crisis in his life was rapidly approaching. He felt perfectly certain that the thief would be discovered who had robbed Cameron's house, and he felt equally certain that Dorothy knew who it would be. But what conection was there between them, beyond the mere fact of his knowing the history of her early life? He never for a moment imagined that she would conceal his crime if she knew that it had been committed! Aud he wanted to spare her if he could. If a detective should run Hastings to earth, surely the man would not be scoundrel enough, coward enough, to drag Dorothy with him? He must save her, and save her without making himself an accomplice in Philip Hastings' crime, though how that was to be done he could not see just at first. Upon his arrival in New York he went at once to a detective agency and toid as much of the story as was necessary to the chief, then he said quietly: "I want a man. if you have any such, who can go to Peak Castle as a guest. I want him to pass as a friend of Cameron's, or a relative of the late Mrs. Ormond. It will require a man ot gentlemanly appearance, irreproachable clothing, good manners, and great finesse. Have you such a one?" "I think so!" the chief replied. "If you will call here at four o'clock this afternoon I will have two men here, one such as you describe, the other a man of wonderful ability, whom it will be necessary to place in the village. Give mc until, four o'clock this-afternoon, and then;:'rcturh." Rudolph bowed himself out; then, as he had had nothing to eat since early morning, and then only a cup of eofTeo and a roll, he went to a restaurant and i procured some luncheon, after which he went at once to the safe-deposit vault, which he naa not entered in years. Fortunately he remembered the password necessary for admittance, and his personal appearance was sufficiently like what it had been in his boyhood for him to be permitted, after much questioning from tho heads of the bank, to enter.- - - They remembered the circumstance of Para's death, and that the law had made Rudolph his executor; he having the proof in his possession, he was permitted Ito have the box. It was carried for him into a small room at the side of the building, several of which were arranged for that purpose, I and there, alone, closed in by the door, ', he unlocked the box containing the babyI clothes Dorothy had worn when the cyci lone gave her to him. | They were yellow with age, but the ! little white, embroidered cloak lay upon I the top as dainty and handsome as it | was when he first saw her lying upon her little pillow under the wagon. There were tears in Rudolph's eyes as he lifted it tenderly. Beneath it came the dainty little dress, all Mechlin lace and tiny tucks of sheerest cambric that was little more than a filmy mesh. He looked at the pretty embroidered name in the corner oi the yoke, "Dorothy." He remembered quite clearly how she had pronouncefl it in those days, I "Dahfy." He lifted that reverently, also, exj posing the pretty petticoat as exquisite , and sheer as tho dress, and another i petticoat of flannel with its masses of raised embroidery, and then other articles of whose use lie was scarcely aware. They were all there, everything that she had worn at the time, down to the tiny shoes that seemed as if they could j have fitted only a fairy. i When they were all out,' Rudolph leaned head upon his hand and looked down upon them tenderly. ,iis 1 thoughts back with Para the day of tho j ■ cyclone, and of the words Para had ] ■ spoken. All the years that Para had i ! lived he had made Dorothy so happy, i I but what had he—Rudolph—done when | the guardianship of her came to him? jHe groaned in spirit. . The memories were too bitter, and he was about to close the box to make room upon the table to fold up the J little articles preparatory to taking them back to Ingle Nook with! him, when a large envelope at the .bottom of the box caught his eye. There were others, but in large black letters upon the back of this one was printed: — "For Rudolph, to be opened only in the event of my death! PARA." And yet all those months it had lain there, when undoubtedly Para had given some instructions which he wished carried out. H-ow negligent he had been! What was it that Para wished to say to him with the voice of the dead? (To be continued daily.)