THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7385, 7 June 1895, Page 4

THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER.

[BY BARBARA KfiNT. J

CHAPTER XXX,

A B IT T E It DII.B M3l A . Tears glistened in Felix's eyes as lie spoke those last terrible words, and Remus, with a cry of hopeless defeat and anguish, fell to his knees and buried his head upon the silent breast of his master. A leper ! A victim of the white curse which sent men and women into an isolation so terrible that death had seenlcd ecstasy beside it! This fate was his father's, and Felix felt his heart shaken Si its core.

He roused Remus, and together they bore the silent form down the snowy, moonlit road to the quiet house which had been a secret shelter for so many months. Question after question beat in Felix's brain ; picture after picture rose before him. His father had disappeared, had never dared return to settle up his affairs in Honolulu, as life in the leper colony would have been his. He understood that, and he thought he understood Sidney Raritan's terrible position. Suspicion had pointed to him, and chance circumstantial evidence had done the rest. Oh, thank Heaven, the charge against him was not true ! He would be saved from death now ! It was dawn before Felix heard a voice answer old Remus in the adioining room, and, standing at the door, lie listened.

' Why do you look at me that way, Remus i I know I have heen ill again—fell down, didn't I ? Ah, this treacherous heart of mine ! How oEten will it play me false before the end really comes ?' ■ Mas'r—oh, mas'r—l don't know how to tell you—' and Remus's voice broke in a sob. ' What is it ? Speak—speak !' And Felix, through tho half-opened door, saw his father start up and seize Remus's arm. ' No one—saw me— not that—' ■ Yas, sah ; jest so. I went after you when I missed you, and—and—l don' know how he got out of the room, but—'

' Felix !' rang out in a wild cry of dismay and terror. ' He has looked on this face of mine, has he ? He know's all—knows lam alive ? Oh, Heaven ! Oh, Heaven !' Every pulse was quivering ; his heart was on fire as Felix listened, and, obeying an impulse, he stepped suddenly into the room. The drooping cowl was lifted a little, and there was baleful radiance in the hidden eyes, that from the shadow, gazed out at him.

' Father, haven't you one word of love for me ? Oh, think—think what finding you means to me, who but a few hours ago thought of you as dead— as murdered ! You have a word of love for me, dad, haven't you ?' and he approached impulsively, with outstretched bauds. Allan Love retreated. ' Stay there ! Don't touch me ! I cannot bear it !' and he sank down beside the table, murmuring despairingly : 'Is all lost—lost ?' Felix, in his impetuous way, leaned across the table toward him, his frank eyes aglow. 1 You hid from me, father. Why did you do it ? Surely when this curse fell upon you, you should have come to mo. No one would have been more faithful, no one would have guarded your secret so tenderely. Why dad, I'd have died for you ! Don't you know that ?' ' Would you ?' asked Allan Love, suddenly. ' Well, I shall not require such a sacrifice as that. Will you be silent ? Will you keep my secret, now that you know it ? Will you let another man —die for me ?' . ■ A ghastly grayness overspread Felix's face, and in the raw half-light he looked spectral. • You don't mean " —but tho words faltered—* you cau't mean that you will permit the law to take Sidney Raritan's life for a crime he is innocent of ? You don't mean that V ' Yes, I do. 5 For a moment Felix seemed stricken dumb, a horror deepening in his eyes. ' I wish I had not lived to hear you say those words,' he said in a slow, earnest tone. ' What you ask is impossible. Sidney Raritan must be freed from the charge of murder, and without delay.'

' And what oE mo ?' asked Allan Love. ' That happens—and what becomes of me ? Think of this, Felix Love, and remember you are my son.' ' Can you not write and say you are living, so that the law will give Raritan his liberty, then you go away secretly ? No one need ever know our secrect. I will go with you, dad. I will dedicate my life to you while you live. Only save Sidney Raritan ! Save him ?'

Allan Love frowned and an exclamation of impatience broke from him. ' Listen to me, if you please, and let there be an end to this mawkish nonsense. I have always been a tender father with you. You remember my love, my care ! That was before I became the thing I am—before a poison entered my soul and turned every bit of sweetness in my nature to something more bitter than wormwood. Now I am stern, invincible to pity. Why should I show mercy —I to whom no mercy has been shown by God or man ? Sidney Raritan is the one man in all the world I hate. When I heard you were, going to marry his sister, I felt that, compared with such an event, I would rather you died suddenly in the heyday of your life—your young, splendid strength. I meant to keep you from it somehow, and that night, 'when you were thrown from your horse at my very door, it seemed the work of a kind fate. I kept you here. I would have kept you forever rather than have had you return to that girl. But the news of her brother's arrest I saw made a complete barrier between you, and I had intended to let you go your way on the morrow.' He paused in the excited stream of his talk, while Felix, fascinated, rigid, dumb, waited for the next words. ' Circumstantial evidence has marked Sydney Raritan as my murderer. This is false, you say ? .Not as false as you may think. I am worse than dead, and ho was the evil genius of my life. If ho is liberated, it must be because Allan Love is living ; and Allan Love, to be proven living, must be seen, identified beyond all doubt. Now do you understand ? You must choose on which side you will stand, whether you will free Sidney Raritan and send me to a life on some isolated island—Molokai or elsewhere —or let him die in my stead. Think over it, my son.' With these words he pushed aside the portiere and left Felix alone in the room, a look like death in his young face. A stealthy footstep awoke him from the reverie into which lie had fallen, and, looking up, he saw Theodore Griggs standing regarding him with a half (jiiizzical expression. He placed his lingers to his lips to ensure silence. ' Poor boy, I heard nil. It's rather a difficult situation for you, isn't it ? For all he said is true,' he whispered. .^M________________

and taking Felix by the arm, led him to a secluded room, closing the door carefully. £-■.%* Felix looked up at him in mute appeal. ' Heaven, how awful ? What am I to do ? Is there no way out of this ? Must one or the other suffer ?' he asked, a hoarse, strenuous note iv his voice. ' Without a doubt. If you release Sidney Raritan you send your father to a death in life. Think of the horror of any leper settlement! Here they would send him to share the exile of a few Chinamen whose condition beggars description, or they might send him back to Molokai, since it appears he contracted the disease in Honolulu. It's a very hard position for you, and the worst of it is, there's no way out of it.'

' What must I do V nsked Felix. ' What would you do ? Show me where I stand—do, in pity's name—for the events of this night have crushed all but the suffering our of me; It is not right, it cannot be right, to let an innocent man die, even to save his father. I don't believe it!' he burst out in anguish. ' I can't do it.' And he thought of Sidney's frank eyes, his young life so full of happiness and success ; of Vida, who loved Sidney ; and of Bebe, whom he loved. Theodore Griggs pursed up his mouth. ' Well, can you save him, and sacrifice your father? There's the question.' ' I shall go and swear that I have seen my father alive, but that he has been terribly disfigured and cannot be seen, that he has gone away to the other end of the world.' ' Useless, my dear boy, quite useless.' ' I'll bring a letter from him ; he'll surely give it to me ; one that will prove him alive beyond all doubt —his own handwriting.' ' A mere leaf on the wings of the storm. The prosecuting officers will pooh-pooh it, and say it is a dodge put up by Raritan's family in tho hope of saving him. You would have your trouble for nothing, I assure you.'

Felix buried his face in hia hands, and for a few minutes he sat motionless. The detective laid his hand kindly on his bowed head. ' You will never taste a moment as bitter as this in all your life again.' 'Is there no hope—no chance that something may happen to save me from this ?' asked Felix, seizing Griggs's hands. * Think of what it means. If I remain silent, my life will bo over, all ambition and hope will be killed in me. Just to think of that innocent man's final moments will scorch my soul. Day and night the horror of it all will haunt me, and I will never know one moment of peace while I live. But lam not thinking of myself alone. It is of him—of Raritan —the victim of this terrible fatality, of those who love him—his wife, his sister. We pity the guilty wretch who dies such a death as this —the day and hour of the ignominy set for him ; but the thought of an innocent man giving up his life that wav —oh, there is nothing to approach it ! It chills the soul —it appalls one !' The words were only a hoarse whisper, but their reality made Griggs's heart leap. 'To help you, your father must not dream that I know his real name. Remember, to me he is still Mr Fairleigh, as he would have been, of course, had I not overheard what he said to you just now. You will be careful not to betray me ?' ' Oh, yes, yes, yes.' ' Well, then, listen,' said Griggs, placing his lips to Felix's ear. ' There is just one chance. Raritan may not be convicted. Be silent until the sentence comes.'

* Ah", I had forgotten that,' breathed Felix. * I was so horrified at his being out there, I fancied all hope was gone. Oh, Heaven, that knowest all, let him be declared innocent —let him be set free !' and in a burst of wild sobs Felix flung himself upon his knees. Such a prayer, so full of wild entreaty, had never before crossed his young lips.

Very quietly Theodore Griggs stole away. Outside the door' he paused and wiped his brow. llf he knew that Raritan was convicted I believe he'd kill himself. Poor boy !' Then he went out in the early day, and a few moments later the first train bore him cityward. He alighted at a spot where the country merged into the city, and going down a shady, twisting side street, entered a telegraph office. [to be continued.!