SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 119, 22 May 1928, Page 18

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

MAISIE GARNELL is the eldest child of the Vicar of Darton-Winleigh. She is affianccd to MURRAY MALLERTON, a young doctor. One day Maisie is /Able to assist a lady who has fallen down the sld'i of a disused pit. The -rescued lady id so grateful that she gives Maisie, as hostage of her gratitude, a ring of great brilliance, but peculiar appearance, the setting of the stones forming a strange hieroglyphic. The woman. MRS. BANBERRY, tells Maisie to keep the ring for two months, then bring it to Reydell Court, when she will have the pleasure of giving her the reward it is her firm purpose to bestow. She obtains Maisie's promise t/iat she will not wear the ring or show it to anyone until the day she returns it to Reydell Court. . A MR. RODNEY GLASHIER comes to stay at the village inn with his servant— FO CHUNG—a Chinaman. Maisie and Murray take an inßtant dislike to these two. Glashier calls on the vicar, and Fo Chung arouses Maisie's younger brothers and sisters by showing them conjuring tricks. He says he could show them the best trick of all if only be had a ring. Coming home one evening Maisie is startled by the sudden appearance of Fo Chung, with nndisguished menace in his eyes. CHAPTER IV. Maisie flushed crimson. "I never said—" she began. Glashier did not seem to hear her. He looked disappointed. "Do you know," he confessed, "that's & bit of a blow. I didn't think you would tell a lie of that kind." "A lie ?" asked Maisie, angrily. "Say! Didn't you tell me you hadn't a ring of any kind 7" Maisie held her head high. She prided herself on her honesty. "It's quite true," she answered, "the ring isn't mine." She was fairly trapped, but Glashier this time concealed nia triumph, whilst deliberately rolling a cigarette. Maisie could have cried. She had not meant to break a promise. And even if Mrs. Banberry were mad she would have kept her word had idle not been tricked. With tears in her eyes ehe held out her hand. "Good-bye," she said, "thank you for all you've done. I—l don't suppose we shall meet again/' He retained her hand against her will. "I'm not so sure," he retorted, "I've a feeling, Miss Maisie, that our paths cross farther down lie Toad. Say, I'm sorry to have offended you, but—may I see the ring?" She shook her head. "You didn't play the game," she whispered. He laughed. "No matter! But 111 give you a warning, my dear. If you want a long life, and a merry one, youll fetch out that ring and hand it to me. It will save you some very uncomfortable experiences." Her lips quivered. "I have told you it is not mine," was all she said. i He frowned. "And I have told you-lt is thte property of a mad relative Whom I suppose I can't out L bribe." Maisie turned away. "I am not going to stay to be insulted," she declared. He climbed down from the gate and followed into the churchyard. « •• "Say," he urged, "I'm real sorry for you, Maisie. You'll be sorry for yourself if you have any more truck with Mrs. Silas Banberry. She has no right to that ring. Give it to me, and I swear to explain matters to her. I swear that you will never hear anything more about it. And with regard to finance—"

But Maisie cut argument, covert threat, and 1 bribe short by - opening the church door and going in. She expected the American to follow and continue talking even in the sacred bujlding itself, but he did not do so. She crept into a pew and sank to her knees, but she could not pray. Something haunting and unhallowed seemed to have crept with her into the peaceful asylum, and now towered above her mocking and sinister.

.What did all this mean? Why had a mere stranger. given her that ring in what had seemed a sudden impulse of generosity? And why had Rodney Glashier spent the best part of a month residing in the neighbourhood, apparently for the sake of inducing her to give it up?

"There is some mystery," thought as she returned home; "and I hate mystery. If the ring is a talisman it is not a good one,; even—even though I have had luck since it came to me. 1 do wish, though, that I had not let Mr. Glashier know I had it. Though he seems so jolly, and though he has saved Dad no end of worry—-his mouth is cruel. How glad Murray will be that he has gone!" She felt quite delighted on that score herself. Murray had not been his usual cheery self the last .few days, and she guessed that he resented the fact that Rodney Glashier was so constantly at the vicarage. "Good riddance to bad rubbish," Maisie was saying to herself as she entered the house and went a-tip-toe upstairs. She had heard boisterous peals of laughter coming from the kitchen, and remembered that Fo Chung, the Chinaman, was having ' tea with the children. Her mother was out. As a matter of fact, she ought to have been presiding at the meal, but she had felt it impossible. That strange interview with Rodney Glashier had unaccountably unnerved her. She locked the door of the tirty attic which was her only sanctum. It was too plainly furnished to be called dainty, and the one ornament' was a large photo of Betty Barracroft, the little pupil at the Hall. Maisie went across to the drawei which held her scanty "treasures." It was, as usual, locked—a most necessary precaution in a family where the ing of anything from a handkerchief to a bootlace was a matter of course.

1 Unlocking her drawer, Maisie took out the box in which Mrs. Banberry's "talisman" had been placed. This was not the first time she had looked at it, but once again she experienced the strange repulsion which had thrilled her at first sight of the quaint antique.

It must be an antique, she felt, the whole setting was so unique, it looked so ancient, so queer. The yellow eye of the topaz solemnly winked at her. It spoke to her inner self in mockery. "If you knew my secret," it seemed to say, "ypu would be. afraid." '-A| chill stole over Maisie, and she answered in a whisper, as though really someone had spoken. "I am afraid now!" she confessed, "even though I do not know it."

Again, 'rom the yellow depths, some sinister hint permeated to her brain. What did the mysterious ring say? What did it suggest? Rodney Glashier's warning rang in her ears.

"If you want a long life and a merry one, give me the ring now;" •

If only she could have done so. With-" out any apparent reason her heart began to beat suffocatingly. She trembled, and as her hand shook she instinctively closed her fingers round the trinkets '£»: she did so a loud scream echoed through the house. '

What was the matter 7 Someone must be hurt? Fire? One of ike boys had been humbugging about and there had been an accident ? Perhaps little Doris had cut herself. . And it : W|U9 all her fault. She ought to -hare been there. How many thoughts can flash across the mirror of the brain in a second -of time? ' Maisie did not pause to ask that! Again, acting on instinct and impulse, she subconsciously thrust; down- the Ting into her pocket, snatched. up her key, and ran headlong down the stairs. In the passage she met Bernard, looking very white and scared. He cried out in relief at sight of his sister. "Oh, Maisie, do come quickly. -Fo Chung is awfully iIL I didn't know you were in." The kitchen presented a hopeless state of confusion, though Roger' and Dick were making desperate attempts to restore some order, whilst Nellie and Hamish knelt beside the writhing figure on the hearth. Nellie, aged thirteen, looked up as Maisie came in. "Here she is, Chung," she cried.' "Oh, Maisie, isn't it awful ? The pain is in his inside, but—-but he doesn't seem quite to know which part. Bernard thinks he must have swallowed' one of the kn-knivea in—in the trick—but Roger " "Oh " moaned the poor sufferer, in a fresh paroxysm, "Missie Maisie fetch doctor. He know all symptoms—most extraordinary important come this once. Missie Maisie go " "Bernard, you go," urged Maisie. "I'll stay and see what I can do. Tell me, Fo Chung " But Fo Chung refused to tell. He screamed in agony. Maisie clapped her hands. "Missie Maisie, fetch doctor quickliest," sobbed Fo Chung. "Altogether happiest if she go. Others leave Fo Chung still quiet so that he fight bad devil pain." He spoke in gasps whilst the sweat broke over his livid features. Maisie looked around. ' j "I'll run across and fetch Murray," she told Bernard, "whilst you and Nellie take the others off into the ait* ting room and keep them quiet. . I believe he would be better alone." Bernard nodded, whilst between moans of agony Fo Chung poured out a broken tale of gratitude. Maisie still wore her hat, and she did not take five minutes in reaching Marray Mallerton's lodging. She was lucky, too, for as she rang the bell the doctor came up in his car. Maderton frowned. . r "I thought the fellow, had gone with his master," he said. 1 saw Glashier going to the station. He told me he was returning to America at once." Maisie nodded. "Yes," she said breathlessly. "He said good-bye. Fo Chung came to the vicarage with him, and the children aßked him to stay to tea. He was taken ill about ten minutes ago. He is in agonies. O, look, there are BAnard and Roger coming to meet us. He must be worse." Mallerton stopped the car at the vicarage gate. The boys, looking more scared than ever, ran up to them. "Maisie," cried Bernard, "Fo Chung has gone raving mad. Just think! As —as soon as ever we'd got the kids into the sitting room Nellie said she heard a door bang, and I peeped out. Fo Chung was running upstairs as hard as he could, but without making a sound. He saw me and shook his fist with an awful grimace—then he went on up to your room—aud locked the door." Maisie gave a cry of consternation— and involuntarily her hand went to her pocket. The ring! (To be continued daily.)