LADY LIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 187, 7 August 1913, Page 10

LADY LIL.

SENSATIONAL STORY OF A SOCIETY BEAUTY. ! A ROMANCE OF LOVE AKD THE SALVATION ARMY. (By ARTHUR APPLIN.). Author of "The Chorus Oirl," "The Girl Wto Saver 11 is Honour," "The Stage Door," etc.- etc. CHAPTER XLI. "nad.v Lil ami ■Toe Savage returned to Bronnington Gardens by omnibus; all the way, sealed opposite one another, Flopping, swaying, jolting-. Lil did her best not to look at Joe Savage, but every now svud t\\on her eyes were drawn | lo Via \aco \»y nti VtreaistWAe iasinnaVicm. There ivjm something nlmort comical in iiiri expression. .She wondered why others did not see it. w'av people did not I laugh. He looked like a dog that has been taken out to be drowned.

Lil felt that if the opportunity presented itself, lie would dash out of the omnibu- and try 10 escape.

But phe did not intend to let him escape Once, upon a thnp. not so very, very long ago, she might have been glad onom:h to let him go, to get rid of him ior ever. .Moreover, she knew now iha-t. when he did go. it would be for ever. They reached home—for *j Lil could cj.ll il for the next few houra. Notices of the sale met their <raze everywhere — a board lashed to the rails; bills hangimr from the windows. She opened the front door and waited for Suvage to iollow her. But lip drew back.

"You're all right now. I'll go." , "Please come in. 1 lt&Tfei'a -message for you." Savage shook hi* ungainly head. He did not dare look at Lil. He kept his eyes on the ground. '"[ have your message here!" His 'p.ft hand fumbled in the breast pocket of his coat, where he lixul hidden tho packet i-ontaining Lil's .photograph. ■*'You must give it back to me.' , Lil said. "It was not meant for you." Siiva.ge stepped forward then, and he raised his eyes. Strangely humble eyes; <iog-like indeed. And he was dumb. Only his eyes pleaded—pleaded that he nihrht bo allowed to retain the gift she had given Annande Silvestre.

- Lil closed the front "door and com mencod 16 go upstairs. "'Follow me."'

Savage had no option but to obey.

led thr way to her boudoir. Savage stopped on the threshold. It was in-this room that the dead body of Silas IWcinliardt had been found.

"Shut the door,' , Lil said. Savage did so. It seemed perfectly natural that .jLil should be giving orders which ho obeyed. They had changed positions. Lil had -grown strong, and Savage had become -weak.

She went into , her bedroom, took off her coat- and-, hat, changed; her shoes, then ea.mc back to the boudoir. Savage ■was standing where she had left him. Sho told him to sit down. She pushed two chairs forward close to the fire.

11 wae nearly dark now, hut she did not switch on the light

'Xiic.v sat almost facing one another in the small, dismantled room, watching the flames flicker and leap up the chimne-v

You' wrote those letters to mc, the letters sisrned 'Armande Silvestre's"

Lil looked at the queer, huddled-up figure in the armchair. Before he replied ehe rose, fetched tlie letters, and .spread them out in her lap. Presently she repeated the question.

TJien the huddled-up figure slowly rose, stretched itself, seeming to increase in stature. He held his head up proudly, and, folding liis arms across his breaet, tin- withered stump hidden under the plbow of the left arm, Joe Savage looked at Lady Lil proudly. Yet with the pride that now shone in his eyes ihere was still the humility and the dumb devotion of the dog.

"ITes, I told you. 1 am Don Armande Silvostre."'

Tie waited, keeping his .eyes on her fate. For the moment Lil found herself irreapaile of saying anything more. He J] ad confessed, and the confession meant that lie loved her—he. Joe Savage! It was difficult, almost impossible, to connect the man standing before her-~ the distorted, tortured creature—with the writer of the lettere in her lap; the mighty hunter, the great man who lived a. lonely life in his castle in Spain with liis horses, his doge, hie books, and hi 3 dreams.

Understanding- came to Lil slowly. "Now, will you let mc go?" Savage asked.

"'Give mc back the photograph I sent you. It ivas not for you. It wae for Don Axmande."

Savage smiled. And the twisted lips looked straight and clean. The lines of cruelty and revense had faded from his face. "I am he. If you take back the gift you sent mc then I must take •'back"my letters."

Lil rose to her feet. And the letters, the love-letters from the Unknown which she had cherished, fell to the floor.

""Why did you write them?" ehe asked. "You yourself have only shown mc hatred, have only breathed revenge.' . He did not reply. '-Are these k-iters part of your revenge? Having robbed mc ot everything that makes life worth living—having stripped life naked and sliown mc. underneath the wonderful cloak, a hideous skeleton, why do tou -wish, to ■warm the shrivelled* seeds" of lovt in my heart, to make tub feel again, to make mc desire—to lovo and to be loved?"

Still she received no reply. But the •> ia<;c of Joe Ravage seemed transfigured. 1 In ihe semi-darkness of the room, with . the fireJigM dancing about hie feet, he i 110 longer looked the crippled creature 1 i.i the Congo. Lady Lil saw him w'ith\ tho eye'; of Xaomi, his mother. She, saw facing her the flesh-and-blood portrait oi tho young man whooc miniature Pacini wore in the locket on her breast. "Have you nothing to say?' . And then Savage spoke. Quietly. without fear, "without shame. "I love you." A lonir time they stood facing- one another. Presently Lady Lil stooped Ri:il picked up the letters from the floor. She hell them pressed tightly against her broiust. She knew now almost hy heart the contents of each letter. She might have known when clie first read them tint only a man who had suffered itiuld have written them. "Cood-byc!" ! Savage was almost touching her,! holding out his hand. She took it in both of hers. "Xot vet. \YV\I a little:" * ' "What for-?" ( f-'hi- shook her head. "I don't know. ;;i;kcd you to wait a little. Until toUiorrow. At your bidding I went down Jiiio the pit, and saw its "horrors."

sM.

"Yea, I dragged you down there," he said, between his teeth. "Let mc go." In the great, empty houee there was silence. In the ruined home, with the portraits of her ancestors, their faces turned tr. the walls —each thing that she I had livod with, and loved, wae numbered and labelled to be sold to the highest bidder. Silence in the house full of dead, silent things. The fire burned low, until the man and the woman, standing close together, looked like two shadows. The woman's voice broke the silence: "Yefi, you dragged mc down. If you would," you might lift mc up again out of the depths towards the stars/ '■You're laughing at me,' . Savage croaked. "Waiit until to-morrow." Then ehe let him go. She listened to hie footsteps as they echoed through the house on ' the carpotless stairs. She heard the front door close. She ehud- • dered. and. poking the tire into a blaze, r eat down <Jose to it. There was the long vight to face alone. Vor a. moment she had for- ( • gotten "Rupert. ' if he were going to keep his ' threat- —.' ' ( At eight o'clock the housekeeper I 1 brought her up her dinner on a tray. Shortly after nine Lil finished her packing and went to bed. She was afraid — 1 for the first time since her return from Africa. Fear kept her awake. Except 1 for the housekeeper sleeping in the base- » ment, ehe was quite alone.

Just before midnight eleep came, but she had not slept an hour when she awoke with ;i start. She oat up in bed, wondering- if she had really heard strange nofoos in the house, or whether it was imagination. Slipping on a kimono, she went out into the corridor, and, leaning , over the bannisters, listened. It was not imagination. She dietinc'tly heard the rattle of a. chain—the chain of the front <toor; and then she remembered that her husband still had a latch-key. She commenced to descend the etairs, switching on the lights as she went. CHAPTER XLII. The front door had been opened a couple of inches, but the chain prevented it from opening wide. Lil hesitated at the foot of the staircase. She knew it woe her husband who was trying to get in. lie had come, as he h>ad sworn to do, and he would keep hi 3 threat. It was not an ordinary man she would face when once he gained admittance, but, as Savage had warned her. a man whose reason had been unseated —a madman.

She ran down the hall towards the door which shut off the basement from the rest of the house, intending to rouse the housekeeper. She turned the handle and found the door locked. The key; was missing. She was" cut off from the basement. Down below, out of earshot, the housekeeper and her husband were locked in. There was someone else in the house. They could not have locked themselves in. Perhaps Rupert A sudden crash startled her. Turning, she saw the front door swing wide open. She heard the chain rattle to the ground. She looked round for somewhere to hide. It was too late. He had seen her. She heard him laugh, and the next moment ehe found hereelf in his arme. She gave one cry,- -and his hand went over her mouth. '•Don't be frightened," he said, mockingly. "Jfe only mc, your husband; and I have a. perfect right here." The front door closed noisily. She heard the lock snap.

She saw someone coming towards them—the figure of a man. Rupert released her with an oath.

She reeled forward towards Joe Savage. A knife gleamed for an instant in his left hand, but, quick as lightning, Rupert dodged and tripped him up. He stepped back, allowing Savage to rise to his knees. Before, he could gain his feet Rupert sent a swinging blow to hia body, and Savage rolled over helplessly, half unconeciou3.

Seizing a rope from a. packing-case that lay in the hall, Sir Rupert bound him hand and foot. Then, bending down, he picked him up and threw him across his shoulders. With his right hand he. seized Lil by the throat, choking her cries.

He forced her before him upstairs. She struggled, but Kupert wae possessed of aJmost superhuman strength. Step by step he forced her forward until he reached her boudoir. Once he stumbled and fell. The sfcaircaee was in darkness now, and again the thought flashed through Lil that someone else must be in the house; she had switched on the lights when she came down!

Sir Rupert threw Savage on the floor, and, lifting Lil in his arms, carried her into the bedroom. He laid her on the bed. He held her down with one hand while he searched for the revolver which she had bidden beneath her pillow.

Dropping it into his pocket, he went back to the boudoir, reappearing almo.it immediately, dragging with him the helpless figure of Joe Savage. Then he drew the curtains, shut the foldingdoors, and, sitting on the edge of the bed, he looked at his wife and laughed. "Everything comes to those who wait, eh?"

His eyes were like flames. Hi.? liair was matted about his forehead, wet with perspiration. He kicked the helpless figure on the floor. Savage had recovered consciousness now —hie eyes were onen.

"Well'. 1 " Rupert cried, mockingly. "You have escaped mc twice. You wonted revenge, didn't you? Oh, yes, I remember all about it now. It was my money first: you wanted that. Then you thought you'd like my wife. Well, you'll get neither. I have half a mind to kill you. but perhaps that's what you'd like. You think I'd swing for it. I've got a belter idea for revenge. You can lie there, my friend, until the morning; then I'll hand you over to the police, mid let the law take its course. \ Guess they'll know \vho kitted "Wein-h-ardt now. Yp.?, you shall lie there." He turned and bent over his wife.

"And ac for you Oh, you needn't be frightened, for I love you, Lil. You've led mc a pretty dance* but I'll forgive you, for thaf.3 a woman's way." He laughed horribly. "It makes thewinning of you all the sweeter. A good thing's always worth fljrliting for. 1 had to fight for the fortune I made. That's why I went back to Africa—l wanted to have another fight—the big game there. Ami then 1 came back, and I've been fighting for you, and now I've got 7,-ou." He picked her up in hia arms and crushed her brutally. I '-Do you hoar what 1 say! I've got you. There is no escape."' With an almost superhuman effort Savage rose to hi« feet, then tnrtered (round like a teetotum and foil to tho ground ag:'.'m. Sir Rupert laughed. l,i> ] la(1 Def . n dumb with fear, but now she screamed. Kupert closed her lips with a kise. 1 (To be Concluded.)