A SHORT STORY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 195, 17 August 1912, Page 2

A SHORT STORY.

WHO WAS THE COWARD ?

"Don't you think he is handsome, Margnerita?" "Handsome? yes," Marguerita Lee answered, with a curve of her scarlet lip, "after an effeminate fashion. I like a man who has some manliness about him !" „- .

"And do you mean to say that Sydney Delatour has not?" '•',.

Marguerita laughed, andl only held her handsome head a. little higher than usual. ' "At all events," persisted her cousin Nina, "be loves you, Marguerita, and you ought not to treat him with such icy coldness. I am very much mistaken if he does not regard you with truer devotion than that felt by Gerald Markham." "What an enthusiastic little advo--eate you are, Nina," said Marguerita. "But your arguments will scarcely -convince me. Were my two swains knights of old, you . would soon see which Would enter the field of combat "most valiantly iand do battle most bravely for the fair name of his ladylove !"

"Gerald^ Markham?" Marguerita nodded,, with akindling cheek. '

"And all this," said1 Nina, reproachfully, "because Mr Delatour is slender and quiet, and rather pale, not gifted, with a braggart tongue like -Gerald Markham, nor given to laudation of his own exploits. Rita, I have no patience with you." . "Then let us change the subject," -said Marguerita, with provoking' calmness. "See how gloriously the sun is sinking m a perfect saa of golden yapor. And—can it be? Yes, that is Uncle Rudolph climbing the path from the depot. I did not expect he vrojiM bo home until a later train than this!" |

• Sh« sP_ rang «P from the rustic seat in which she had been reclining on tho piazza, and went in to give the requisite orders to the maids concerning prompt refreshments, for Rudolph lice was a strange, eccentric old man who would permit not a single male domestic m the house, wealthy as he Wits known to be, and scarcely tolerated the presence of his * niece's v.sitors, Mr Delatour and Gerald Markham.

You are earlier than we expected Timde." said Nina, running down the walk to meet him. -"Lat me relieve you of your parcels." "No, child, no," said the old man, wearily, as he resisted her efforts to from him-the little leather bag lie earned m his hand; "this mustn't °57, 0f mv possession. It's money

"Money, uncle!" I'^Va? V\ thousa^ dollars I drew **i mi ™ bank *°- inrGSt to-morrow, fn\d. Ponce and Redtana wanted to take charge of it, but I thought it «"°"Wt be safer in my own hands.' 'uncle, were you wise?" "Of course, 1 was." said the old man, pettishly. "What do women srnow about business? Let me have my supper directly, and then I'll find -a snug place for the money until totnofrow morning." ' And Uncle Ralph did not make his £P.peaminoe that night again, preS™?l *J« Qoiefc of his own apLtaaent to the moonlit Terandah where i

Mr Markham and Sydney Delatour were sitting talking vfith his two nieces. , "I'm glad they're in the house, though," thought Uncle Ralph. "IF anybody should have tracked me from the bank—although it is the most- improbable thing in the world—it might be just, as well to have somebody hero besides helpless women and a feeble

old man, who isn't much better. Of course, there is no sort of likelihood of danger, but it makes one feel safer." , '

j Meanwhile cruel Marguerita was alternately torturing and encouraging the hearts of her two devoted ! cavaliers," and Nina, ' sitting quietly by, with her pure, transparent complexion, looking paler than ever inthe moonlight, marvelled to herself over the wonderful spell which beauty has power, to exercise. "I don't half like that Markhain," thought Nina, with the observant shrewdness which is often discovered in people who are unusually quiet. "I wish Marguerita would make up her mind to prefer Sydney Delatour;*' "Yes," Marguerita's voice was saying at the same instant, "of all faults ' I detest cowardice the most heartily, j especially in a man." ' j

"So do I." chimed in Ma-rkham. "A oowardt—faugh ! The creature has no right to exist." ■

. "Is not timidity sometimes constitutional?" asked Delatour, "and in that case, .should we judge it too severely?"

"Nonsense! nonsense!" cried Markham, arrogantly. *'A coward scarcely deserves the name of a man," added Marguerita, with sparkling eyes. "The question is, what is cowardico?" went on Delatour, musingly.

"A question, I think," which no brave man needs to ask,',' said Marguerita.

# "That is scarcely a fair argument/ interposed Nina, smiling. "You are illogical, Marguerite.V 'There can be no logic about such things," said the young beauty, impatiently. "Suppose we talk about something else?" .And' she changed the subject with the pretty, imperious manner which no one oared to resist. j An£ all the time, lurking, behind the shadows of the evergreen hedge, there were unseen auditors of the careless conversation—auditors who would have made Marguerite's blood run chill and checked the gay current of her girlish chatter, could she but haye caught the gleam of their watchtureyes, or seen the expression of their brutish faces. "He's only, an old man, and there's no one but women about the house " cm® had assured the other suU-rty answered. "There's Wo city chaps a-staymg there." "The deuce there is!" growled his companion. "Then we must take Jim Allen along with us, that's all. We .fltoan t have no such chance agin in a hurry. The old rat's goin' tS put it Mma+^°lt gage t°-«nom>w—l heard aim toll the cashier so." ftilf \ nOW-- °r I nerer'" absented Black BUI, who w«a less verbosely inclined SilVr fn<l nd ' Charley, m The .yonng people sat late on th* verandah-*, ]»*, that Black Bill swore tremendous oaths under his

Hiiiwwwiiiiiii mi I j in 'in Etasaawjc«i«K3agaK«.g^^*i^e^yg^^>«<''^gß!sg%i | breath, and the patience of even I I Stripes! Charley began to wax slender. \ I And finally, when they went in, and j 1 the .lights one by one died out of the i j windows, it was necessary to wait I • until the senses of every member of I | the household should be lulled in j | slumber. J ! "It's cloudin' over," said Jim ! i Allen, "and we're goin' to have rain, i ! All the better for us. Ido despise ■ these 'ere palaverin' f moonlight \ j nights. I j It seemed to Marguerita Lee and j | her cousin that they had been asleep j i for hours, when a maid come to their j ) bedside, pale and trembling so vio- i i lently that she could hardly speak. I | "Miss Marg'uerita! Miss Nina!! j There's someone workin 'at the back i j dinin'-room windy ! I heard it with ; | my own ears, me and Jemima, and j someone a whisperin' like!" Marguerita sat up in bed, pushing j her'hair back from her forehead. { "Nina, they are after Uncle Ralph's j money. We might have known it : would be so." j But Nina did not- stop for argument. | "Alcy," she said to the girl, "go j and knock very softly at the young j gentlemen's doors, and tell them what I you have told us: I will rouse Uncle Ralph." "Let me go, too," faltered Marguerita. "I dare not stay her© j alone." [ And then the two cousins, hurrying on their wrappers, crept side by side to their uncle's room. "Burglars? Oh, nonsense, Delatour ! It's—it's only rats. Go back to bed, my good girl. It's only rats, 1 dare say, or the wind in the chimney." Whether it was rats or "the wind that made Mr Markham's teeth chatter so violently might have been a mooted question. "At all events," said Delatour's low, firm tone, "we are the only men in the house, save Mr Lee, who is old and infirm. ' It is at least our duty to 1 ascertain whether or not the maid has J i any grounds for her terror. Come on, ! j| Markham—be a man! Would you |j leave the women to themselves iat such 7 a time as this? Be a man, I say!" | "If it's burglars, they're always a ! I determined lot!" stuttered1 Mr Mark-! I ham, suddenly changing his base. I "Give 'em what they want and let I 'em go. There's no use resisting 'em, I and making 'em savage." 1 "Markham, are you a.man?" DelaI tour scornfully asked. I "You are a Quixotic idiot!" re- | torted the other. "We haven't any | firearms ; we— —" I But Delatour, firmly clasping his > arm, dragged him silently but |v forcibly along, and noiselessly un- % fastened th© dining-room door, just I b t eyond the low French window which 3 formed the scene of the . villains' '% operations. They stood almost face |. to face with the three burglars. p: . A tremendous execration broke | from Black Bill's lips at this unexf- pected rencontre: - I Jim Allen rushed forward, pushing 3 "the slide overi his dark lantern as he I did so. I "Back, or you are both of you dead men!" he exclaimed; and the click of a trigger sounded sharply and distinctly. "Back yourselves, scoundrels!" echoed the voice of Delatour, clear and undaunted, as he wrestled with the foremost of the three. "I say, Delatour, this is very foolish," faltered Markham. "We can't attempt to resist these men. Give. I 'em the money—what is the money to our lives? They will come in." "They must have the satisfaction of walking over my dead body first!" muttered I>elatour between his clenched teeth, a,s he still struggled fiercely with his opponent; and a strange, thrill ran through Marguerita Lee's~veins, as she heard the brave words, so bravely spoken. i A sudden flash through the pitchy ! darkness —the report of a revolver— and Jim Allen fell back, with the cry of a baffled wild beast. "You said there wastn't any firearms, BiJl," he muttered, with an oath., "I'm winged." The second shot, following almost instantaneously, filled the assailants with vague terror and panic. Were there others in the house whose presence they had not calculated upon? "It's no -go, Bill," whispered Charley. "Let's out. Jim's hurt, and there ain't no use tryin' longer." But Mr Sydney Delatour had no idea of thus easily allowing a retreat in good order, and although Bill and Striped Charley escaped, Jim Allen was left a most unwilling hostage. And! when Uncle Ralph, whos£ pistol from the second-storey window had caused such a timely diversion, descended, he found the huge burglar .lying on the dining-room floor, safely secured by bonds improvised out of the curtain tassels and corda. "You're as strong as Samson, for all you look .so slim," growled the burglar, with a sort of unwilling homage to his cap tor. "My eye, but you gripped hold of a fellow like you was made of iron." "My boy," &aid Uncle Ralph, earnestly, squeezing Sydney Delatour s. hand, "it is to you that we owe our protection, perhaps our safety, to-night. As for Markham " « ll J~\ did the best T could!" faltered that doughty knight. . "You're a, cowardly sneak T' enunciated the old man, and Marguerita s glance of silent scorn confirmed the unpleasant import of her uncle's words. "What did I toll you, Rita?" i triumphantly whispered Nina in her cousin's ear. "Who is the craven knight now, and who the recreant slave?' "I shall thank Sydney for myself," was the low-uttered reply, xi SH^ ic|— -and she did it so earnestly that Mr Delatour took courage on the spot to ask her to be his wife. And Marguerita said "Yes." Jim Allen, being duly tried and convicted was sent to prison, but for that other burglary—Mr Delatour's cool theft of Miss Marguerita's heart —there was no penalty, the law not regarding it, possibly, as a punishable offence.