DICK BERESFORD'S WIFE; OR A WOMAN'S MISTAKE.

Evening Star, Issue 14019, 27 March 1909, Page 3

DICK BERESFORD'S WIFE; OR A WOMAN'S MISTAKE.

fin Righti Raaerved.]

»- By Edoab Pickkrino, Author of 'The Monksbury Mystery,' 'Trevena's Engagement,' 'An Undiscovered Crime.' CHAPTER XVTfI. Face to face Dick Beresford and his manager stood for a moment, and then the former turned the key in the lock, at which action Mr Waters gave a little laugh. "I don't think you need fear anyone coming," ho said; " and I have no secrets to hide." "That remains to be proved," replied Dick, putting the key in his pocket. "I wont pretend to misunderstand you, Mr Beresford. You are in a bad humor to-night, but you'll find hard work to pick a quarrel with me. I've knocked abont the world too long—seen too many people —to be easily put out." "I daresay," replied Dick, curtly. "And, therefore, possibly it might be better if we got to business at once. It's about these London people coming here I've had another letter by this evening's post, which informs mo tViat "' " I think we'll talk about my business," answered Dick, quietly; " the other can wait, and I've warned you to stand off me, Mr Waters. You're wrong, however, about my being out of terapdr, only I'm very much of Seth Doughty's mind, and don't particularly relish the sight of a scoundrel." "What do you mean?" and the angry rejoinder flashed out, provoking only a grim, smile from Dick. "Have you come here to-night to insult me. Mr Beresford?" " I've come here to-night to have a clear understanding with you," said the other. " What is the damnable secret you are holding in terror over my poor wife's head!' P He was never one who wasted words nor hesitated at making his intention clear, but there was a depth of moaning in the brusque demand that made Mr Waters start backward as though Dick had struck kirn. " You have gone mad, I think," he answered, after a moment in which to recover himself. "I am hardly inclined to take you seriously. Perhaps you'll explain. What rea-son have you for such a lunatic's question?" "You're a cunning villain," replied Dick. " and perhaps if I hadn't the means to prove that I know you have such a secret, and are using it for your wicked purposes, mine would be the question of a madman. I'll give you the reason before I've done with you." " I'm a bad one to bully," retorted Wafers, " and so you'll tind. What are nny private affairs to you? I sold you the «rnrk of my brains, and you've paid me any price. Beyond that I am my own master, I presume, and will no more stand threats or vile inuendoes from you than I would from one of your workmen." " I tell you I want that secret of yours," I replied Dick, speaking calmly, although j the raging in his honest breast made it difficult to do so. " It it's money you want, nam* your price, if money is the right thing to buy it with, which I rather doubt." " I want nothing from you," exclaimed Waters, passionately, " except your . No, I won't complete what was on my ! tongue to say," and there was a sneering laugh as his glance fell on the shadow of the ledger on the desk. " Look here, you scoundrel!" cried Dick, losing control over himself at last; " you'll either make a clean breast of this thing, or be handed over to the police. You can choose which it is to be." " Were you afraid to come here alone, then ?" asked Waters, jeeringly. " You had better call your policeman upstairs; he'll find it cold in the workshop." " We are quite alone," replied Dick; "but you shall not escape me for all that. Now, then, I'll wait two minutes for you to decide whether I'm to take you like a whipped cur down into Winbury, or for you to tell me this that I have asked." "I think you said that you had proofs of my having a secret,' said Waters. "I am not in the habit of calling people liars, but I shall think you one, Mr Beresford, unless you make good your words. Dick pursed his lips, meditating. " Well, you shall have the proof," he ?aid at last. "1 haven't come here to handy words with you, and so you shall hear what my proofs are. We'll go back to the night when Margaret Wootton disappeared from my house." Iron nerved as he was, Waters uttered a half-involuntary ejaculation. " The night you met her at the boathouse," went on Dick. '* Perhaps you need no reminding' of that occasion." ! Waters had regained his ordinary bearing now, and cut short Mr Beresford's words. " You've got hold of some infernal tale about me, I see'." he exclaimed, "and mean to use it against me. That!" and le snapped his finger and thumb insolently, ' for your lying story, Mr Richard Bere's;'crd. [f you daro speak of it again, I'll make your life not worth living." " It shall be spoken of again, never fear," retorted Dick, flushing with anger. "Don't think you have a woman to deal with now, you miserable wretch, but who will wring your vile secret from yon, and hang you afterwards," and his strong hands began working nervously. " I've warned you," cried Waters, impelled by his own passion and the taunts of his companion to speak out at last, " and though I hadn't meant to tell you what this secret is—there is no need that I mould waste time when I have other work Ut do—you shall hear it. You've forced me to speak." "If it's in you to speak the truth," Dick answered, knitting hi.; brows, " out with your story, you scoundrel." " It is something that happened in .'Vance," replied Waters, "where I was *ngaged in business, and I met a voung girl there, who chose to fall in love' with me. I was better looking, I suppose, before the Germans nearly killed me. but we'll let that question pass, because whether ill or well looking, this young girl and I became lovers," and he ceased speaking, as though the sight of Dick's face interested him, for he glanced intently at it, marking the effect of his story. "Go on," growled Dick. "We'll have ihe full story, please, and then I'll tell mine." , "By all means," replied the manager lightly. "You shall know all I have to say, but it is very little. This young girl »nd I arranged to get married, and after some little difficulties in evading discoverv —there, you have no patience to listen, I perceive—we Jeft Paris man and wife Shall I go on V BoresW.gave a. no J, and ike re was a. aftngMoiis loot m his evps. We were married, arid then, after wandering about for some time we found ourselves in the condition of genteel panpery at a place called Dijon. And now you shall hear my purpose, Mr Beresford. I am here in England to claim my wife—one whose maiden name was Marjor'ie Pussell." The abrupt disclosure had a very different effect from that which Waters had anticipated, for Beresford's face showed neither surprise nor consternation "Perhaps you doubt the truth of what I have told you," went on the manager, but I have a proof here—proof written by the woman whom you have gone through a useless ceremony with, Mr Beresford." And he took out from his pocket book the thin piece of foreign notepaper whereon in the Hotel de la Cloche, in Dijon, Marjone had penned her pathetic letter to her father. Ho held out tho paper, which Dick took, reading it carefully, the other watching him with a sneer on bis lips until the letter had been gone through, and then Dick folded it up and put it in his pocket. " rll keep this Jying document," he said calmly, * and now you shall hear what I hare to jay. Your wife never WTOte that letter. "V Wattts'si response was a scornful laugh. "You.left your wife ia poverty in Lon-t don/' confirmed Dick, "and n&fc her here'

unexpectedly.., ; Yon. enticed her into 'going one dark mght down to the riverside at the village, and, villain that youare, you threw her into th& water. I'm not a man of many words, hat as true as yon stand there I'll have you in the felon's dock for that deed."

"And I will proclaim this secret I hold over you from it," snarled Waters. " Who says that I have murdered Margaret Wootton? Who dares to bring such a charge against mer" " The man whom you discharged from the works, Seth Doughty. He saw the whole affair." "His word against mine will not go for much," laughed Waters; "you must get some better evidence than that, my good sir. Why, it is notorious that the fellow has a spite against me, that he has threatened me with violence, and now ho has invented a charge which has no more truth in it than What shall wo say? No more truth than is contained in your own cock-and-bull story." "We'll see all about that," replied Dick, complacently; " and now, beforo I leave you, if there is anything more to say. out with it." Waters shrugged his shoulders. " Tho interview has not been so pleasa-nt as to make me wish to prolong it," he answered. " I have satisfied my indignation at the hard names and insults you have favored me with to-night—it was not needful for me to havo explained so much. A passing weakness of purpose, shall we call it?" Beresford made no reply, but seated himself as though pondering over something, and Waters moved from tho position he had first taken up, to stand loaning against the desk. One arm was extended into the shadow cast by the ledger, and with a gentle touch his fingers sought the handle of the life-preserver, he keeping his keen eyes the while upon the bent figure which sat regarding the fire intently. Then the manager's hand closed in a tight grip upon the weapon, and so for the space of a moment the two men remained without speaking. Round the office outside screamed the shrill blast, but within the room a sudden deadly quietude- seemed to be keeping the tiunultuous emotions of the murderer and his victim at bay as Dick sat bending in conflicting thoughts, watching the dancing flames. There was a confusion in his mind, for all his outward calm, that kept h;m silent. But there was only pity for his wife in these thoughts, deep sorrow for her, and he sat planning how best this evil thing might be destroyed that threatened her happiness and his. I So intent was he that the light tread—it was but one step which the manager took —did not attract his attention, and in that awful silence, far removed from the outer world, he sat, whilst above him Waters held the life-preserver a second as though taking a deadly aim and to strike with precision. Crash ! and with all tho strength of his arm the manager's blow had descended, striking Beresford, who had suddenly turned in his chair, a fell stroke which cut through the ear deep down into the bone, and reeling, half-stunned and bleeding, DHc had closed with his assailant, his clen.-hed hand striking Waters between those closely-set, keen eyes, that had "murder" written in them. But quicker than a lightning flash the manager recovered his position from which he had staggered back, and the life-prejerver was swinging in the air again. "Would you murder me?" cried Dick. "You cowardly, lying scoundrel!" But he could utter no more, for a deadly faintness seized him, and sinking to his knees, all power of resistance left him. Blow after blow was repeated on the mute form that lay bleeding and senseless at the manager's feet, and, a.s though possessed by demoniacal fury, the murderer completed his foul work. Flinging the lifepreserver from him, he stooped down over the still body. " Done !" he muttered. " You knew too much. Mr Beresford, and it was either your life or mine to go out. How did you discover that Margaret was silenced, I wonder? Nobody saw us that night—no—no—that will never be known," and as though satisfied with his examination the manager rose to his feet. "He's breathing still." he murmured. "There's life left, bnt it's not worth beating out." He h-ad pprained his lamed leg in the encounter, and limped heavily as'ho went I to the table where stood the brandy bottle from which he had recently drunk". Putting it to his lips, Mr Waters took a lon a pull, which cent a shiver through his frame, although it braced him for. the work yet to be done, and unbuttoning tho tightlyfitting coat of his blood-stained victim he found the key of the office door. The manager's hands were smeared red as he did this, and this 6iiht brought the old sneer to his lips. " I bargained that there should be no blood," he laughed softly. " One part of to-night's programme has miscarried ; but I don't think we'll have any mistake about the final scene. Gad I how theso screeching fiends in the air are tearing at the jjace." And he stood listening for a moment, and then opened the office door. The stream of light from the lamp on the desk but feebly illumined the misty landing which was between the door and the trap, whilst the fitful glare of the fire confuted the scene, and taking the lamp the manager passed out of. the room without east-insf a glance behind him. Stooping down awkwardly, for his sprained limb was aching horribly, he held the light for a second against the twisttd piece of cotton waste, and as though it had been a train of gunpowder a stream of fire ran swiftly into the mass of combustible material, so that in a few seconds a great wreath ot cmoke and flame arose, spreading with vicious forked tongues that licked the floor and woodwork of the walls, hissing and crackling as the fire swelled and gathered power. For a few seconds, too, the manager watched the leaping flames, and then a miff of 6moke drove him backward. Throwing the lamp into the blazing mass, ho limped to the trap-door. " There has been no mistake," he laughed, " in this scene. Yon have played your part admirably, my good Mr Beresford, and I wish you farewell, for ive have seen the last of each other." and giving a parting look to where, prone and bleeding, the 1 body of Dick Beresford lay upon the ! beartlmig in the light of the fire, Mr Waters placed his hands upon the uplifted trap-door. I Done! Yes. the murderous task was i ended—all but his own escaping from the burning building; and as though gloating over hit; foul success. Waters stood" watching the creepin» smoke and quick, darting tontrues of lurid fire. The wooden walls were well alight now, and so soon as that fierce tempest, seized th-em no power on earth could stay their devouring flames. They cast a bright light into his frenzied eyes now, making them glitter again as they peered forward through tho curling, misty smoke to where hia victim lay within tho inner offioe. How still the place was, save for the sharp cr.ockle and hias of the rire! How strange the contrast with the rapilj Ijiflfitfi TTlWfi. moo]i the building ,-uid threatened its downfall: Ajid then the moment came when he must quit hie dangerous position, leaving within the quiet form to its fiery grave. "I have no wish to share your fate. Mr Beresford." Ho laughed sardonically, and moving to the entrance Waters prepared to descend the stairs. It may have been his eagerness to escape from the building, or his lamed limb which caused him to stumble, but never to be known will be the reason for that massive weight to descend with a thunderons crash ere he had had his fingers on the door lon-r enough for one to have counted a dociem Another moment and he would have been in security; but it was a moment not to be his, for tie falling trap-door has caught his wrists, crushing and splintering the bones, and with a yell of agony he lies fixed in a grip from which no struggle nor effort can release him—a prisoner, with the eager tongues of fire within a few feet of his writhing body. High above the screaming blast, and carried by it out on the night, rang the fearful cry for help, and with straining ' eyes the pinioned murderer saw the curling 6moke and fierce flames increase in volume, and felt their scorching breath. " Help!" for the love of heaven. " Help!" from that awful death which, every instant camo nearer and nearer stall to bis hafcless

body. Bat only the mad wind 'Answered' the bitter cry or disturbed the solemn quietude that" waj. so strangely and emphasised, by the sharp 'crackling* and soft Idas of the flames. And howmom deadly .etiU it seemed within the office where lay 1 lhat blood-stained form which bad been. a-Kving man, quick with energy and psesion «o ahort a whilo since, " Help! help!"; and with a despairing, strength the doomed wretch, crushed and j impotent, ient ont the cry again and* again. (To be continued.) ]