THE GRIP OF GOLD.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3563, 1 July 1912, Page 3

THE GRIP OF GOLD.

By ROBERT HALIFAX. (Author of “The Drums of Fate,” “The House of Horror,” “A Woman in Their Web,” "Law Society,” ect., etc.)

(Copyright—All Rights Reserved.)

Gt!AFTER V

“AM I MISTAKEN?”

Perhaps Sheba, could have counted fifty, before there came- again that significant littlo cough, as if lie wished 1 to prepare her for his step further. .Nov slid could sec. him fully. Hands rigid at his side, he was staring keenly into all the dark patches, his blue _eyes flickering with the suppressed suspense—the daring of his own passion where such a woman was concerned. ‘Slowly lie drew off one grey kid glove; two jew&led rings sparkled in the moonlight as lie pur the shapely hand to his ear—listening. Then it came, with almost an imploring note.... / “Am I mistaken? Mi-ss St. John, you are here!” "■ Her pulse leaped; her teeth clenched upon a new thought. If she allowed him to ask that more than once, she should never dare to reveal herself voluntarily—could never look him in the face again. Did lie discover her, her own apparent fear had given the incident a grotesquely false importance. He was looking intently at her veil of shadow. Ho was bonding forward, with parted lips. Just in time, with a great effort/ she moved cut, took a few steps, and faced him. The very intensity of the effort saved hei. Run past him?—never! One look, on deep breath—and she was gloriously cool and collected. It sounded with a tremble.

‘‘Miss St. John is hero—yes! And, indeed, sorry to put Doctor Lancing to the humiliation of following her so far to no purpose!” “You scared me, I admit,” ho whispered with a little laugh, wiping

something from his forehead. “I was not quit-o certain, and to see you step cut like the spirit of the rocks —(But you mistake. 1 suppose a man may have better motives than these usually supposed to sway such a man as you think me, for instance?’> “I don’t think of you in any light. I never intend to! ” she answered, queerly in her still dignity. “False! A woman’s white lie! Sorry!” ho breathed, putting out his hand swiftly, as she moved. “Listen at once ! I left Mr. Loder’s house tonight simply determined to nail clown a —what shall I call it?— a littlo unpleasant misapprehension- that appears to lie between ns. I intend to, at once. Oil, you know what I mean, Miss St- John ! Your eyes are a mirror—to one man, at any rate !” II “Indeed!’’ At first her sole idea had been to escape from the trap without losing a shred of her womanliness; now it had struck her that, if she could bring herself to hear and answer him, it might suffice for all time. Why not ? Why let the shadows of this fear Uo upon her another night? “Speak then !” she said. “I am not afraid of anything that concerns myself.” “I will. Your opinion of me lias fallen in this hour to zero, I know; but 1 do not intend to go on my knees and apologise. It is too late ior that. Now my chance lias come, I want an answer to one question. Just forget all else, if you can. Why, because you would not accept me as a lover, did you cease to trust mo as a man ?” ■. It came with a challenging, masterful emphasis that seemed to echo along the cliff and come back to her. 'Mho. scarcely felt his grip upon her wrist. Her mind had been such a whirling chaos lately, that she could nbt use the defensive weapons lent to woman at a crisis. -She stood mute, stunned.

“I mean it, even if I express it- with a brutal frankness, considering that you and I are-alone here!” ha went on, stooping closer yet. "I have my own sensitiveness, although it has stood shooks that should have killed

it long ager. I chose this moment, i own, because Fate seemed to put it into my hands at the supreme hour—because, this is between our two selves, and concerns no one else in the .world. Either I am a villain in veneer, or I am what I have honestly struggled to he —a gentleman, quite worthy of a woman’s trust. From to-night, it is for you to decide which I shall be. And there is only one woman breathing upon whom Such a decision could rest. .Do you realise?” “You you are speaking very strangely, Doctor Lancing,” she was able to say. So long as she could keep her figure coldly still, he need not know how the waves of faintness surged beneath Tier wrapper. She had vaguely recollected that there might he eyes to see, if not ears to hear. .And poisonous whispers ran so far and so fast in FeleoteJ ' t . “ ‘Doctor!’ ” He snapped his teeth upon some deeper word, “ Why will you cling to that hollow conventionality ! You shall not. 1 have thrown off that mantle, here; I am face to fAco with the. woman whom I asked to ha my wife, Sheba!” He tried to catch both her hands in a convulsive grip. “I honored you when i asked that, if you knew it! There was never another woman whom I wanted for love’s pure sake alone—for love and for life! You saw mo

1 smile, but I ccukl have killed you that • night when you finally turned from j ine—go that no other man should take | to his arms what I could not have! I Look into my face. —tell me! When and why have I bartered -my man's right to your respect?” The words boat hotly against her | cheek. -- She looked around with a' sense of suffocation, as a fresh flood of moonlight wavered past and ran over the water in golden ladders; butthere was no sign of any living creat- I ture in the bay. -‘You won’t answer?” he whispertu , fiercely. “I can make you; I can ; pant' any price, so /long' as I know I * have made you think of me in the right light. You. rouse the devil that lies in every man; you will not hoar; you are invariably antagonistic to mo ! without knowing why. I wanted to speak with you to-night quite oour- ' teously—l had waited for days past to do so ; and I might as well have | tried to grasp a shadow! I called to § you; I rang for Mrs Saxon; and no | one knew. But it so happened that | someone in the road had seen you | talcing this path. What, in my place, | would you have done ? Would yoai i I have hesitated to appear in the black- | est light, so long as you broke tho maddening silence of the woman you hungered: for ? Hunger ? That is not the word. I ask in you only a. little of woman’s warmth —woman’s softness —woman’s pity ! Yon have » them all, and. yon seal them in ice j that I cannot thaw. There is bound I to be an end to .tin’s that one of us will regret! . . . There, no, no! j I bavo frightened her- Sheba, dear one, let the past be quite forgotten! | Lot the living present be our thresh- | del into new life. To-night I I como to you as a man and say—will j you trust me? And I have a, right f to a reply or a reason !” if He had drawn stiffly back, his clear- j [ cut face sombre and deadly. It was s the knowledge of that very past which fed the flame within him ! Now, if ever, she realised that she must repulse him with a woman’s best weapon | —chilling indifference —even though | she were false to her nature. g

“Dees Air Spartan Loder trust you?” sh© asked, firmly. “What do you mean?” he tremb-

“You have proved to-night that you cannot trust yourself—that is wliat I mean.” “No! You are doubting whether all that could be clone for him lias been dope ! Is that it?—is that the 4 misgiving between us? Then, end it. Wire to London to-night, and call in the highest medical authority at my expense. Suspend your judgment on me—abide by the developments. 1 bad grave reason to fear this suspicion ; and others have fathomed it, too. If, your doubt of me in that ,way is sincere, you will not hesitate to act. All I ask is, that the result shall be made public!” “I knew it!” she whispered. “You have just seen his nurse. If is surprising how much information Sister Cottrell can convey in a given time!” That next pause. He had lifted his hat, with a mocking smile. AYas the tension broken? —would he walk away without another word ? Her heart took one more uncertain bound —to sink heavily again. With a sinister affectation of familiarity, he had*, struck a match and lit a cigarette. The vesta’s brief glow showed the expression of a man who meant to risk something to gain his ends. That cliff wall behind mm seemed to be swaying for a fall- Heavens, if the threatening faintness should master 1 1 or—here ?