WITH LOVE'S AID OR WON AT LAST.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 168, 15 July 1908, Page 11

WITH LOVE'S AID OR WON AT LAST.

By WENONA GILMAJN 'inthor of "Evelyn, the Actress," "For Love Alone," "The Trials of-an. Actress," * "Stella, the Star."

CHAPTER XXX .— (Continued.) i A DISCOVERY. } He reverently broke the seal of the c official envelope. Wrapped about ■ tw papers was one in Para's writing, ' ° d putting the others temporarily ; aside, Eudolph began to read: — '•Tilv dear Rudolph,—These words will over" reach you until the man who has j ku-cd you *o wel! is deaa > a - Ilci buen ' f I you see wrong and sin, maybe even jLjne, in whit he has done, perhaps you | find some forgiveness for him in j tout heart. It was love of you that caused the sin. my boy, though perhaps ; jA, at i≤ little enough excuse, for iove should save, not sacrifice. ■ "it is the fHory of your young life, ibefore memory began, that I am going to j jell you. my boy—tell you from this j tomb— wd you must listen, though for our little Dorothy's sake it might 'b<? well it you never knew. I can't kit jj 0W that will be. It must be left in thi? jjjuids of God after my death, though I took it in my hands before. "Hany years ago, before you were barn, Rudolph. I lived in India," Rudolph paused in his reading. A glow shiver passed down his back. He had grown cold, and for a moment ihe lines blurred under his eyes. H« •hesitated and even placed the letter in tie bottom of the box as if he were ; about to abandon its perusal, then he took it up again and bent over it , eagerly. "I was seeking animals to train"—the ]etter continued —"and was meeting with {air success. It was not so well known ] then, the ability of animals to learn, aa j it i≤ now, and "by the natives I was re- ' garded as something , a trifle more than Iranian. They never suffered anything at my tends, and so they loved mc, and asisted mc when assistance was possible. "Among the residents were many ■white settleTs with families, some of English, some Dutch, amd some of otiher nationalities: and among them was a aniesionary, a wonderfully pious man, iwho was devoting himself to the work of .saving heathen souk. He had a daughter, a most beau-tiful girl, whom the old man worshipped, and whom I grew to /worship even, more madly. She was so beautiful. Rudolph, so sweet, so gentle; -font she did mot love mc. and she was too noble ever to have deceived mc. She was kind to mc, however, and let mc linger beside her. until my passion grew '50 great thai, I think I had no religion ibevond it. "We were ihappy, all of us, in our own primitive way. I had even thought of giving up the training of animals and devoting myself only to the capture of ibhem for other markets in order that I could at least remain in the presence of -the woman I loved, even if she should suD. refuse to listen to my suit, when fl, company of Englishmen came out, memibers of the Light Horse Guards. They were handsome, daring men, all of them, and I was not long in seeing one of-them had made an impression upon the girl I loved. " I was consumed with rage and jealousy, Rudolph, and yet there was nothing 1 could do, I shall Dot attempt to deScxiDe to you my grief and wretchedness as I was forced in silence to watch him. win her from mc. " Remember, she was the daughter of a poor missionary who had spent his life among savages. She was good) and beautiful, and pure as an angel, but she lived in a little cottage that was scarcely more than a hut. The best gown she had ever worn was not such as dairymaids, in. her lover's country had worn, and none o£ the members of the cavalry company to which he belonged were permitted to know that he had fallen a victim to her charms, a rival to the poor animal-tamer with whom they sometimes amused themselves. " And yet he loved her honorably, as J could not doubt when one night, at thcii earnest solicitation, I heard her father read the marriage service over them, and' I knew that the girl I had worshipped so madly was the wife of the ether man. " I think I almost went mad for a time. I went away into the forests, and for months did not see the face of either, bet cause I could not bear my grief, and then when I thought I had conquered mysell . I returned w> them again. I found that rihe had not acknowledged their marriage. I heard his friends chaff him about the pretty missionary, and though he nevei permitted any familiarity with her name he did not tell them the truth. Why, 1 <So not know to this day. But my f onnei sweetheart! I found her happy and sweeter, more womanly, more tender than she had) ever been before. I was not long in discovering the reason. She was about . to ibeeome a mother! " And then, Rudolph, I discovered that .my heart had been truer even than 1 thought. I still worshipped her! 1 could not put it behind mc, even though sht ■were a thousand times a wife. Her child ■was barely six weeks old. a healthy handsome boy. whom the father, as well as the mother." worshipped, when there was ar uprising of the. natives, and my sweetheart's husband was called to war! "I shall never forget the parting between them! I saw her standling in the doorway of the little hut, with her babj in her arms, and I heard him, as he kissed both good-bye, whisper to her: " ' Be brave, my darling! When i return, I shall proclaim our marriage and give our beautiful boy his rightful place in the world.' "But he never came back, Rudolph. H« *was killed while performing his dutj bravely. His wife died when the new: was brought her. dropped de,ad of sheck , and it was a happy thing that it should have been so, I think, for hei father was brought in that same after noon brutally murdered by the natives. " That lert the baby, the unacknow ledged child, alom; in the world. Then were neighbours who would have takei care of it, but 1 would not permit it: iAnd therein, Rudolph, lies the sin that . committed. Tliat child was the eon o the woman 1 had loved, the only thinj left on all the earth to mc. Why shoulc I not havo him? Why should he not tx mine? I had as much right to him ai anyone else under heaven! I comforte< myself all the time, blinding myself wil fully to the fact that there might be re latives on one side or the other. 1 lovet .Mm for her sake —worsbipped him for he cake —they did not! And so, Rudolph, 'Watched for the steamer that would -beai toe away without the knowledge of am one. The officers of that company knev a child of the love betweei

ny sweetheart and their comrade, )ut they did not 'know of his legitimacy. - -watched my opportunity and stole the japers which her father had so carefully preserved, the record of the marriage md all that was necessary to prove the birth if it should be desirable, and then [ made my escape to America with my precious charge. "You were .lhat baiby, Rudolph! The yhild whom I robbed of his birthright, in order to gratify my own seHish k)ve. I have tried to make you happy, but 1 robbed you of your name, giving you mine instead; I robbed you of yo-ur family, and, I am beginning to fear, I rCbbed you of a fortune. '"All the papers are here necessary to prove your birbh, and that you were the son of Rudolph Austin " Rudolph read no further. The paper dropped from his hand. For a timp lie sa± there staring at it as if it had been a living thing, and then his lips moved. He spoke audibly, and what be said was: — "And my father's portrait hangs iv the gallery of Dunl-eifili!" CHAPTER. XXXI. BRAVERY. Gold and still, Madam Del-pre sat staring at the girl who had so suddenly changed from a shrinking, terrified woman to the dauntless girl that had been ■trained in Buxton's circus. All her weak, womanish fear seemed to vanish in the twinkling of an eye. She was the same courageous, intrepid creature that had slapped Philip Hastings' face in the tent behind t,he anirnaleage on the day of Para's death. With one long, athletic spring she reached th-e side of the balcony, aud called aloud in her strong, young voice: "Adam. Adam, quick! my horse! Never mind the «iddle; the bridle alone ■will answer!" .Madam Delpre stared aghast, but before she could speak Dorothy had sprung beyond her, and was up the stairs, it seemed to Madam Delpre, in a single bound. j What she -went for madam could scarcely comprehend, for she was down again almost instantly, without hat or scarf; nor did s-he pause until the stable I door w.is reached. j The man of all work was buckling the bridle about the horse's head, and stared 1 iii 'bewildered astonishment as the young i lady, without speaking to him a-t all. swung heTself .fco the bare back of the horse, and, touching him upon the neck and speaking a 'hurried word in his ear, was off like the wind. "She'll kill herself as sure as can be,' : ■he muttered.. "Good God! look at that and Deei-foot without a saddle!" Over a hedge toe horse had leaped ■taking it as clean as if there had been Mercury -wings attached to his heels. Pale and agitated Madam Delpre gazed, and then the figure was lost tc I view. "Follow ber, Adam,ty she exclaimed "She may need you before she can re turn. I would go myself, but that it it impossible." I Meanwhile, recognising no obstacle Dorothy flew along, detrmined th-at shf would right the wrong she had done sc far as lay in her power. The rain had already begun to fall it torrents, the lightning playing in zigzaj across the pathway of the horse. Excepi I for .the fall of the rain and the occa skmal roll of the thunder, the wood: had never seemed so deathlike in it: stillness. Not a sound could she hear of t'hi hoof-strokes of the horse Hastings hac rode. Was she right in the course sh< was pursuing. She drew her horse up slightly am listened. The fall of rain dulled whatever sourni there might have 'been, and washed out i track almost a-s quickly as it was im printed. There was absolutely nothing of whic] she could judge whether she was in th' wake of the burglar or not, and at las desperately she kicked off the little high I heeled slippers from her feet, and leapei I upon the horse's back, standing a I straight as an ndian, while the hors I continued to fly over the ground, urgei iby her constant pushing. "Go, Deerfoot, go!" she kept crvin I to him in an umlertone, which the hors heard quite distinctly. "For God's sake go! It is my honour you are saving now Remember that, old friend!" And then in the distance she saw Has tings, while she stood still erect upo ! her horse's back, saw him flying over th . I wet and slippery ground upon Rudolph' horse. She felt pretty confident that Hasting had not seen her, and in order not t ; lose sight of him she kept her standin position upon the horse, sitting dow ■only when she reached the top of i knoll, seeing hrm ahead of her in th valley, and immediately springing v when she had lost sight of him again. And so standing, she β-aw him fli.n himself from his horse at last, concealin the animal among the trees and unde: brush which were thick there, while li . himself disappeared among the thic masses of forest growth. The rain was falling harder than eve completely deadening the sound of til hoof-strokes, and. concealed by it, s'l urged her horse to even greater spect while she sat clown upon his back. She came upon him at last as I , kneeled over the wet earth, which he wi hastily tearing up. There was evideni . of its having been disturbed -shortly b ' I fore, though it had been covered wit ' \ dead leaves and brush until it woul . have been difficult to detect. His liorneighed as he recognised his stable oon panion. and Hastings looked up, tl expression of a hunted animal in h , eyes that is going to make a desperal ' fight for life. "Oh, you!" he gasped. "What mac [ you fool enough to follow mc? Don £ you know your presence may betra r mc?" [ She looked firmly, unflinchingly int , his eyes. She was as white of lip an \ cheek as she had been when he sa ! her twenty minutes before, but it was different pallor. It was the pallor ( determination now. He was looking int I the eyes of the ward of Para, the lioi • tamer, not the fiancee of Cameron < [ Peak Castie. iie remembered that st • had looked like that the day she struc • him across the mouth so fearlessly, an rihe lifted himself from the ground an ' the jewels for which, he- was digging.

"I hstve followed you because I am determined you shall give mc those jewels!" she exclaimed, her voice ringing out clear and crisp through':the pouring rain i "I" do not ask that you remain and face the punishment that would await you, though it i*a what you most ■richly deserve. I told you that I would not permit you'to again rob a man who has trusted mc, and I told you the truth. Deliver the jewels to mc and you may .go!" "You must have gone entirely, niad!" he exclaimed roughly. "Do you think [ have taken all this risk fpr nothing , ? Go away and don't make such, a fool of yourself! You are making mc lose valuable time, and I want to tell you right now that if I am taken you shall not escape." He turned again, regardless of her presence, and dug up the damp earth desperately. lie had buried the treasure deeply, hut the earth was still loose about them, and it did not require a great length of time for him to bring up. case after case of them. She watched him in silence while he took them from the ground hastily and stored them, soiled and mud-stained as they were, into the pockets of his clothing. Then he turned to his horse, but before he could mount he found that she had placed herself between him and the animal. He glanced up at her angrily. "What infernal foolery ie this?" he demanded. '"I have already told you," she replied. "You do not leave this place until you have placed those jewels in my keeping!" A nasty, sneering laugh fell from his lips. '"Do you think I am to be balked by a slip of a girl?" he cried mockingly. "Take your horse out of my way before I show you what I know concerning making one move. I don't want to hurt you. Don't force mc to it!" I There was desperation in his eye and she saw it. But there was desperation also in hers. The click of something caused his to fall, and they looked straight into the gleaming barrel of a revolver. '"Do you remember another accomplishment that Para taught mc?" she asked, her voice cold and steely as the barrel of the gun she held. "It was the perfection of shooting. It is not Miss Griswold of Ingle Xook that you are facing, Philip Hastings. It is Dorothy, the ward of Para, the" lion-tamer, the cxmeniber of Buxton's circus. J am ready that .all the world should know. It doesn't matter as much as the loss c* one of these little bullets to irie now. You can understand, then, that it is a desperate woman, with the training of a man,'you have to encounter. I don't wish to hurt you, but if you force mc to it, I will become a murderess before I will further become the accomplice of a thief!" He tried to laugh, but it was not so successful as his mirth had been on former occasions, for there was the little matter of the revolver, and he had never been an adept in the use of one, while her ability had been the envj of almost every girl in the circus. "Of course this is all nonsense, Dorothy!" he exclaimed doggedly. "You don't mean what you say. You would never be such a blockhead as to give uj the Cameron fortune; and you know as well as I do that Cameron woulc never marry you if he knew the truth in spite of your daring rescue of his property. You heard what he said ai hour _ago. You know that he refusec to search your house because his sus piciona were aroused concerning some thing which he had not had time tc exactly locate. He doesn't want to knov . the history of your past life. Why therefore, should you thrust it upoi him ?" "Because it is my will that he shoulc know!" she answered resolutely. "Be ' cause I have determined that secrets n< ■ longer disturb my life and harass m; conscience. Because I will not permi 1 myself to be m.ide a thief." 1 The rain had ceased to fall quite si heavily. The noise of it upon thi 1 autumn leaves was not so deafening, am I in the distance could be heard the souni ;of almost a cavalcade of horses. Sh and Hastings heard it at the same mo L ment. The blood rushed madly to hi face. ' Quicker than thought a resolution hai 1 formed. He sprang suddenly behind i ' tree, then, before she could realise hi intentions, he had sprung over logs am 1 intervening obstacles, disappearing com '■ pletely from view. ' The jewels were upon him. Withou ' pausing to consider effect, she dashe ' from under the shelter of the trees t ; the open road. Still not a sight . o s Hastings. She knew that he could no ' have gone far, and so urging her hors down the road in the direction he ha ' taken, she once more sprang up on hi 3 back, and leaning as far forward as sh ' dared to preserve her equilibrium, sh ' peered upon every side. And then she saw him, not far aheat ' fleeing like a deer. She raised her re 1 volver and fired, her aim asdeliberat 2 as if she had been standing upon th 3 ground. A3 she did it Cameron rounded s turn in the road and saw her, standin 5 upon the bare " back of th = horse, her hair flying out wile 1 ly, one hand holding the horse 1 bridle, while the other was extende( c clutching the handle of the pistol. P There was not another shot fired, bu apparently contented with the work sh " had done." she slipped to a sitting postui " again, and rode on, disappearing amon the trees. fe (To be continued daily.)