VAN DE VEER,

North Otago Times, 27 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

VAN DE VEER,

(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

THE DIAMOND MERCHANT, INTRODUCTORY. A daughter has been born to Eustace, Prince of Zurichbold, and his wife, the Princess Agnes, nine years after the mysterious disappearance of their first-born, Egbert. The princo and princess have looted eagerly forward to the event; and, to savo the poor mother from madness, the surgeon in attendance drugs her into delirium so that she shall not know that her babe is' doomed to almost immediate death. "The curse of my cousin, Black Senlis is still on me," cried tho prince, when the doctor maies all this known to him; but, to snare his beloved consort, he accedes to the suggestion that a living child shall be substituted for the heiress to the grand dukedom that survives its nativity only a few momonts. A lady, lost on the forest road, and needing a woman's help, rode up to the lonely inn, the "Blacto Hand," where the landlady and her rascally husband knew of a big reward offered for a newborn babe to be ready at an early date. They correctly divine the stranger's condition and design at any cost keeping her to claim the money. With the lady is a spirited boy of ten, the son of her husband, Van de Veer, diamond merchant, of Prague, a strong and expert swordsman.

PART 2. CHAPTER lll.—(Continued.) The apartment, though small and scantily furnished, was fit for occu-I-ancy, and as Ernest entered, still bearing the saddle upon his head, he saw that his mother was reclining: upon a low, coarsely but comfortably furnished bed, and Ulgltha was near her,

He cast his burden into one corner of the room, and then ran to bis mother, who said, in a gentle, resigned tone, as he clasped one ol her hands in his: " My dear boy, I fear we must remain here much longer than to-night. I feel that I am going to be very ill, Ern:st. Perhaps, however, a night's rest will restore my strength, so that we may continue our journey to-morrow."

" Oh, I hope so, dear mother, for I do not like began the boy, but a quick and warning pressure of bis mct'.icr's hand checked him.

" All, he does not lil'ie us," said Ulgttha, with a shrug of her sharp shoulders. "True, we arc very poor, but we are, I hope, kind. I think a good night's rest will enable your mother to continue the journey tomorrow, fhorgh I should not advise it. But I must leave you for a moment to prepare what poor entertainment I can for you, madam. You need food and wine, and of the latter we have a little of the best. Pray don't judge us and our poor inn simply by our outside."

She then hurried away, and soon after met Storms, who had returned from the stables, or rather what had once been worthy of that name, " Rudolph," she whispcredi "it is as I guessed ; but she will be able to ride away to-morrow." " She may be, but I'll take care the mule shan't be able to carry her" he replied with a grin.

" Sho has the eye and air of n very resolute woman," said Ulgitba, sha' ling her tnn?led yellow hair, "and if she is strong enough to-morrow, and I am sure she will be, if she has not a mule to ride, cha will wait It's only thirty miles to Karldamm village, and she knows she is not far from it." " But she must not be able to 6t:n:l on her feet to-morrow," said Storms. "There's a chance for easy winning of a hundred gold pieces in ti oping her here, and then there's the mulc-a fine animal. Besides, Ido not thini it wo'ild hurt us if she were to die in the Iron Hand."

"If it could be managed without her dying, I'd like it mucn better, Rudolph." " Bead women tell tales no more than dead men," whispered Storms. " I want (hit mule-it is a splendid Spanish brute. I have examined him, and I have not seen his equal for j ears. Then 1 think there'll be rare pickings, the woman being d ad."

" Rare pickings! Why, I noticed that she has not an atom of jewellery about her," said Ulgitha- " only a plain gold ring, such as every married woman wears. I felt about her, too, as I carried her to the bed, and felt nothing like hidden money."

" The boy says his name is Ernest Van de Veer, and I have a guess of my own th;it he is the son, and she the wife of the diamond merchant who escaped our hands five years aro," said Storms. " The lad says ih y were robbed early this morning; but It they were, I am sure they fon'rived to carry -something valuable, The mother is worth our care, Ulgitha. Contrive to learn what you can, and as soon as you can. At any rate, she must not be allow d to continue her journey, even if we have to keep her locked up. A little shrewd spice in some soothing rink she needs must have—''

" Oh, we (or that," interrupted Ulgithaim her eyes aflame with devilish thoughts, " were she a strong and healthy lion, and not a feeble woman needing a woman's care, I could give her a possst that would make her a s weak as a babe. I'll see to that. But the boy ?—what of him ?—we have forgot the boy. He it as sharp as a thorn. One need not look twice into those keen black eyes of his to learn that he has almost the sense of a man. What of him, Rudolph ?" " The boy ?" said Storms, musingly. " The hoy ? He must be got rid of, that is true. I'll take care of him. He won't leave his mother while she is alive, and you know we must not throw awaj the chance of winning the hundred gold pieces. If we have an infant at our command for the stranger who charged us to have one of each sex ready for his choice three weeks hence, we are to have the reward whether the infant be chosen by the stranger or not. So we must not lose that chance by alarming the woman, and the boy must remain with her until that matter is all secure. After that I'll sec to him."

" If ft could be managed without h|, rt'n«: him, he might be sent away — r -r ! <v' away—or something." " Both I You are growing tender-

ne.we.i, woman," rnnnei N'oms with an oath, " I toll you he la too sharp tobe let live, if we are to do anything. There's but one way, Mako quick end ot him,.and drop him where others.have been dropped before." '• You mean into the Pit?" said Ulgitha with a shudder. , "Where else, you .fool? Did «ny that we have dropped Into it ever get out to blab black stories on tho landlord of the Iron Hand ?" "The Pit ?" muttered Ulgitha. "I dreamed the other night that I was dropped into it-by you, Rudolph Storms."

She stepped to the road door as she muttered these words, and Storms followed her, for both heard the sound' of rapidly approaching hoofs. They gazed out together. The sun was just setting, and his beams burnished as with gold the broad breastplate of an armed horseman, fast galloping up towards the Iron Hand Inn. "Ulgitha!" exclaimed Storms, in a hoarse whisper, as the features of the horseman grew clear to his stare, "it is Van de Veer, the diamond merchant I" CHAPTER IV. THE DIAMOND MERCHANT.

He of whom the landlord of tho Iron Hand spoke, was a man of powerful frame, sitting in his saddle with the ease and grace of a practised rider, and far from looking like a man of peaceful calling, appeared to be a resolute and experienced soldier, both in garb and manner. He rode straight up to the steps of the Inn, at the same swift easy gallop he was using when Storms first saw him, and drew rein abruptly the hoofs of bis large grey steed striking up clods of earth at the very base of the stone stairway. One of these clods shot up by the suddenly halted steed, struck Storms in the beard, stinging his cheek sharply and causing him to snap out a fierce malediction against the rider.

The latter, a man perhaps thirtylive years of age, with a dark, sunbrowned face, resolute and heavily bearded, with a pair of bold, eaglelike eyes lighting up his remarkably handsome aquiline features, fixed his gaze upon Dlgitha, who shrank somewhat from view in the doorway. From Ulgitha the stranger glanced at Storms, with that startled air which one shows on being surprised.

My faith," exclaimed the stranger, in a deep, rich voice, and flashing his keen eyes over the whole front of the building. "I- have leen here before I—but in the night." " Pardon, your worship," whined Ulgitha; for the surly Storms was dumb with a kind of terror that had fallen upon him. "We have lived here many years, and never before have we had the honour of seeing your worship. Will it please you to come in ?"

"It was night," said the horseman, not aloud, and not heeding Ulgitha's words, but gazing sharply around, " and it was five years ago; blacti and stormy night, I hid lost my way in escaping from a band of robbers. I came this way,, floundering in darkness and storm. Yes, there is the giant hand thrust from over the door. These two came out with torches and craved me to dismount. I remember, I liked not their looks, and when they saw I wished to ride away they tried to drag me from my horse, and that hag struck at my groin with a knife, and wounded me in the thigh; and tint red-bearded knave dealt me a blow in my ribs with a dirk, and but for my coat of mail that stab would have ra?de an end of me, 'Twas a wonderful escape. Saint Paul! how madly did I ride all that night! Ah! this is the inn I was warned to shun -the Iron Hand Inn, Again have I wandered from the main road,"

These thoughts wandered through his brain in an instant, and then he said, in a hearty tone as one readj to correct a mistake :

"You are right r my good woman. I have never been here before. But it is much like a place where I was assailed some time ago. 1 had lost my way in my haste to reach Sparburg, where I was to meet my son and wile. I should have been there three weeks and more ago. God grant my wife may not have grown impatient and set out to find me in Zweibrudden, where I lay desperately ill so long. The times are troublous, and the roads perilous."

Most of this he said to himself, as it 111 at ease in mind; while Storms and Ulgitha, feigning indifference, secretly trembled lest the son of the horseman might suddenly appear and so overturn all their plans. " I wish to reach the main road to Sparhurg," said the stranger, after a pause. "We give nothing for nothing," growlfd Storms. " Pay me well, and I'll be your guide." " I'd rather take the devil for- a guide to heaven than you for a companion," said the horseman, in a tone of scorn, as he wheeled his steed and spurred away.

"Ho! bo!" chuc'iled the innkeeper, glaring after him, and grinning. " I knew that would send him oil in haste, Ulgitha. He has recognised ns as those who failed to make an end of him five years ago." " But now our designs on the woman are : made dangerous," said Ulgitha. "He will, in the end, trace her to this inn. Ah! whither are you going ?" Storms had descended the steps as she spoke, and in replj said, pointing alter the fast galloping horseman :

"Do you Bee ? He knows not whither he goes. He has taten a course that will carry him straight into the forest. The sun has set; It will soon be dark. I know the man well—or did, by repute, years ago, in Prague. He fears nothing. Why should he ? since he has in his single arm the strength of three strong men; and there's no sword-player in all Germany that can keep a blade in hand against him, nor tumbler on the green so active. Here, come dose, lest what wc say goes to other cars,"

Ulgitha, with a stealthy glance haci into the great hall of "the inn, hurried down the stepe, and stood near her husband, 'whose evil face wa 3 all aglow with eager wickedness, " See! He is sharp upon the forest road, the very worst he could have chosen," he said whispering even at that distance from the house, and even glancing back at Its dismantled front, as if he feared to see the Intelligent face of the horseman's

son peering out' from some ruined window; " Sec ! that road will lead him miles: and miles astray. Darkness will speedily overtake him, and ho will halt for the night, bewildered. In the morning he will try to retrace his steps. Do you see to tlio womanl will eee to the husband,"

So saying, the innkeeper, to whom all the secrets and avenues of the great forest were as familiar as the empty halls of his inn, darted away, and in a moment was lost to view—his tall, ungainly figure vanishing in a deep and densely-wooded ravine, into which he suddenly plunged. Ulgitha gazed after . the rider, who was soon hidden from her sight, and then hastened into the house to prepare food for those whose ill fortune had guided them to the shelter' of the Iron Hand Inn, The next morning found Louise Van de Veer too feeble to rise from htr bed; and though in no pain, she was oppressed by a weight of weakness in her limbs which she could not overcome.

Ulgitha, skilled in brewing decoctions from poisonous herbs, had given the poor lady that in her drink which had acted upon her joints, and to her alarm, and amazement, Louise Van de Veer found herself scarcely ablo to raise her hand to her head, It would not have been an unpleasant sensation -bad her mind been'at ease, for a feeling of luxurious languor pervaded her body, from which all sense of pain seemed to have fled. "Arc you strong enough now to go on, dear mother ?" asked Ernest, when he awoke on that morning,, after sleeping all night on the little cot Ulgitha had ' prepared for him near the bed of his mother.

It was then that she made the discovery that she was unable to rise, and after a vain attempt to do so, she replied:

" Alas I no, my son, I seem to have lost all my strength, And I was so strong yesterday morning and nil day, until wearied by our lonely, wandering ride! Ah, what a pity wo strayed from the main road ! My fault, too, Ernest, for you favoured the way we did not take!" UMtha, who had arisen at an early hour, and who had for a long time been crouching and listening at the door, in hope of hearing something that might be turned to her advantage, finding that her guests spoke in French, of which she knew nothing, now tapped at the door and came in.

" Good Ulgitha," said the lady, ''l must continuo to be your sick guest I see." '

She assumed a confidence she was far from feeling, for her heart shuddered at the very presence of the evileyed woman. A'dread of Ulgitha and the inn itself, for which she could not account, pressed painfully upon her mind, and though a gentle 1 smile played round her lips as she thus greeted the yellow-haired, rateyed woman, she grew really sick ■ with fear at sight of her. j Ernest, less experienced in hiding i his true emotions, glided from his cot, and placing himself near his mother, fixed his dark, intelligent eyes steadily and suspiciously upon Ulgitha.

"Whj," said Ulgitha, staring at the boy, " you slept without undressing I" "Yes, because 1 hoped we would make an early start this morning." i "And with the saddle for a pillow," said Ulgitha, glancing at the cot. Yes, so that I might dream of riding on our way to meet father." " And did not even touch the nice posset I made for you!" continued Ulgitha, with a sharp glance at a full pewter tankard on the table. " Yes, I touched it. I tasted it. I did not like it. It tasted of herbs." " Little gentlemen are often hard to please," said Ulgitha, with a sigh.

" But mine was excellent, and I drank it all," Louise Van de Veer hastened to.say, smiling. " Very good-very good, my lady. I am sure you are some great lady, though you have not told me so"— " No, no, my good woman, I am no great lady. I am only the wife of a merchant of the city, on my way to meet my husband, or rather to find him, for I heard he was very ill at Zweibrudden. We bad appointed to meet him at Spar u urg, and waited there nearly a month, By chance I learned he had been overta' en by fever and sickness at Zweibrudden, and forthwith set out to go to him. There were five o! us in all

"Five!" interruptedJJlgitha. " Yes—myself, Ernest, Janet and Bertha, my women and Anselm, our guide. Early yesterday morning, even in the main road, we were attacked by a nand of free riders. They led rs far into the forest, and there plundered us of all we had, and were very angry at finding so little, for they expected a great booty in diamonds and gems, having made the attack because they thought me the wife of a diamond merchant | ."Which you aro not?" interrupted ; Ulgitha.

Louise Van de Veer gazed steadily at the woman for an instant, and then said, frankly: " I am the wife of a diamond merchant, my good woman; and though I have not now that with me to pay you as you may desire to he paid for your care of me, my husband will fill your hands with broad pieces of gold if you will see me well through my troubles."

" There," thought Ulgitha, as she flew about the room, arranging and pretending to arrange this and that. " After all, it may be true that honesty is the best policy. Had we said plumply to the horseman last night, ' Come in, come in ; here are your wife and son, 1 he would have made Us rich. No; he would have remembered how we tried to murder and rob him five years ago; and, taUng away his wife and son, bid us go hang for our pains. Pah ! the fact is, it is too late in the day for Ulgitha and Rudolph Storms to try to mako a farthing honestly. It's fools' weeping to cry "over spilled milk. By this time, perhaps, the diamond merchant is well buried somewhere in the Giant Forest,' and Rudolph is on hie way home with pockets lined with gold and gems. "Come, after all, I think, if Rudolph does not miss the game, this will pay me better than being honest. Oh ! the vile robbers, my lady!" she added aloud; "it is a wonder' you were left alive, and a still greater wonder that they let you keep the tnule, But, did the robbers take all

you had? What became.of yqjir attendants?"

" The robbers led us far into the forest," replied the lady, "and after' finding not a gem and very little money, bound our guide, Anselm, to a tree, and belaboured him nearly to death. ' : And then we learned that Anselm had been a traitor to us he having given such informaticn to the robbers as led them to imperil their lives by attacking us on the main road, Finding not the booty he had led them to expect, they vented their brutal rage upon him. It was fortunate for us they did so, or their disappointment might have caused them to wreak' their vengeance upon mo and my son."

"But the. two women you spoke of?" asked Ulgitha, eager to learn if there. was a chance that those women might trace their mistress to the Iron Hand Inn.

." God help them !" exclaimed tho lady, in bitter sorrow, " The rovers carried them away, with our horses, and all our luggage. They snared mj life and left me the mule on which I came hither.. Had I not hern as I am, they would have carried me also to their dreadful forest haunts." "Do you think they killed the guide, lady ?"

" When last I saw him, he was still bound to the tree, and some of the rovers aaid he was dead," repli?4 the lady covering her face with her hands, as if to shut out a terrible sight, " Rudolph must see to that," Ulgitha thought. "We must take earo we leave no chance of detection. As for the two women, they are lost, The rovers never let their female booty escape to tell tales," Leaving this cunning and evil woman to play the part of hypocritical hostess to her unfortunate guests, we will now follow for a time the adventures of the diamond merchant, whom we left riding swiftly into the dangers of the Giant Forest,

CHAPTER V. THE TORN VEIL IN THE FOREST. Edred Van de Veer, whose earlier history and origin will be told (luring the progress of our story, though in truth a diamond merchant, had seen much of a soldier's life, and, had been knighted upon a field oi battle, years before by Charles IV,, Emperor of Germany, for his prowess and courage. Therefore we shall designate him as Sir Edred Van dc Veer hereafter,

He spurred from the Iron Hand Inn, as we have told, his heart full of anger against Storms and Ulgitha whom bo had recognised as those who bad tried to ta'se his life. He little imagined that in doing so he was lea ng his two most precious living gems, and a gem yet to be born, as well as immense wealth in diamonds and other jewels,, in the merciless, rapacious grasp of the very wretches who had, five years before, struck him witli their daggers.

The coarse proposal of the robberinnkeeper to act as his guide, had caused . a suddrn flush of wrath, to which he was subject; and not wishing to tarry longer where he believed so little was to he gained, he had spurred away impatiently. " I would sooner trust to fortune," he BMd, as he galloped on, " than to the company of a rascal who has nlre-dy at'empted my life. The Iron Hand Inn ? I have heard of it. 1 was warned to shun it. I little suspected when I was so ' warned in Zweibrudden, that it was the very spot where, five years a,go, I np/To.vly escaped with life-escaped wounded and bleeding."

As he swept swiftly over the brow of a hill he turned his head for an i instant and glanced back at the inn, | It was at that moment that Storms left Ulgitha and ran at full speed into-the ravine. The eagle-like e es of Sir Edred saw this act, and rs he spurred on he thought:

i "So the rascal still intends evil against me. He doubtless, is an aliy, if not a member of that accursed association they spoke of in Zweibrudden-the' Black Riders of the Giant Forest. I should have journeyed with an escort as I was advised to do. But this last letter from Louise alarmed me. She wrote that if she received no letter from me within four wecl'G she would set forth for Zweibrudden. Her letter is dated more than a month ago and reached me but four days ago. So I fear she lias already set forth. Fearing that I set out, hoping to have the good fortune to meet her; but here am I, lost in the mazes of the dangerous Giant Forest, and how i many miles I have strayed from the safe road I know not. I should have taken an escort, or at least a guide. But I dared not trust an escort as I saw in Zweibrudden. It was known too, that I was Edred . Van de Veer, the rich diamond merchant, and I was warned that there were many eager to be hired by me as protectors only that on the journey they might slay and plunder me." A bitter smile curved his lip as he added, in thought still, for he was' not a man to betray a secret by speech, even in fancied total solitude :

" Little would they have! found on their wished-for prey,' (or my wife his all the fruits ol my years ol diamond trade. True, I am well provided with gold for ray journey, but a few golden and Bilvcr coins make not the booty robhers hope to find upon Sir Edred Van de Veer, the diamond merchant. So I left by stealth, and in the dead of night. I dared not trust even a guide ; though as for that, having twice before made the journey between Sparburg and Zweibrudden, I believed I could again make It without a guide. 'Tis well known that the Black Riders of tbe . Giant Forest have their secret agents in Zweibrudden, who give speecly information to the Riders when anj thing that may be made rich booty is about to paBB near the forest."

Here a painful apprehension of evil pressed so heavily and suddenly upon his brain, that he drew rein abruptly, as abruptly as ho had before the stone steps of the Iron Hand Inn. 1 "Great heaven 1" he thought, as he swept his hand over his eyes, " 'Tis said, too, that the Riders have their agents also in Sparburg 1 What if my wife has set forth, guided by one of those agents, l knowing her to be the wife of Edred Van de Veer, the diamond merchant!" His resolute, sun-burned face grew pale as death, and he trembled as he sat there bewildered and terrified by his thoughts, "Qh,l thoucht ot tbli in Zw<i.

brudden, and .it was that fear that made me spring from a sick bed and hurry towards Sparburg. But the fear came not upon me . then aa it does now. It seemed, then a mere possibility. Now it clinches on my heart■ like a horror. My' wife, my' beloved Louise, Ah,: and my bravo boy-my noblq Ernest. Yet I havo hope she may not have been so rash. I did urge in my letters—nay, I did solemnly command her not to leave Sparburg. But she may have heard that I was ill—that I lay yonder in, Zweibrudden at the. point of. death. Sho dearly loves me, and would risk her. life a thousand times to reach my bedside, that her tender hands might serve and sooth me! Ah, me! something warns me that evil has befallen lirr, or is close upon her!" 'As the reader is aware, this fear of the diamond merchant was too true. All had happened as ho feared, Ano'her event had come about of which he knew nothing, though his knowledge of men and affairs had caused him to suspect it.

While he lay ill in Zweibrudden, a note couched in these words had left that city as swiftly ps a fleet horse and wily carrier could carry it. •

"The rich diamond merchant, Sir Edred Van de Veer, the same who five years ago, repulsed and escaped the attac'i made upon him by the Riders, and eluded the attack afterwards made by the two at the inn, is now here. He lies very ill at the Silver Shade Inn. We have our eyes upon him. He is convalescent, it is reported by the leech who attends upon him, who is also one of ours., It is not known yet whether Sir Edred intends to journey; but as his wife has been tarrying for several weeks at Sparburg, doubtless on~ his recovery he will hasten thither. It is believed that he carries with him many jewels. "This is to prepare you for more, which you shall be told hereafter. It may chance that Lady Van de Veer shall set forth from Sparburg for Zweibrudden. See to it that, in such case, a proper guide be provided for her. " To-morrow will see a fat trader of Antwerp journeying towards the forest. He carries a heavy purse, and goes afoot with but one servant. Both aro to be disguised as beggars, but the servant is.one of us, and will wear a green cap. " Let this . content you until you hear more. We will inform you, should Sir Edred move in your direction. If he procures an escort, be assured more than half will be of our furnishing. " Vigilance." But, as the reader may have inferred from the quoted thoughts ot Sir Edred his sudden and secret departure from Zweibrudden had given him who signed himself "Vigilance" no chance to warn the Black Riders of his coming. Prom the moment of his midn'ght departure from Zweibrudden he had ridden as fast as horse could gallop, changing a wearied steed for a fresh one whenever occasion demanded.

Fearing, or rather suspecting that the discovery o! his departure would prompt those who might desire his capture to send forth fleet couriers, who should by some other route reach the plundering domains of the Riders before him, he had ridden hard and fast, not even pausing to eat at any of the roadside inns until he bad been in the saddle two days and nights, but subsisting on the food he had taken care to carry with him,

Though the m. 'n road was in general .secure (or travellers, he .new that the boldness of the Riders sometimes led them so iar t-om their usual haunts, especially ■■■hen booty of great value was expected, Though, as a custom, the Riders trusted to the trca'lnry of guides whom they kept in pay to lead their charges astray, and to treacherous escorts of the many evil characters at that time swarming in Germany, lie knew that the cunning and audacity of the Riders, stimulated by the desire of making so rich a prize as they supposed he would be, would lead them to dare a chance 'encounter of such powers of the land as poorly guarded the highway.

On the third night of his flying journey, fatigue had forced him to rest many .hours at an inn, Had stout and hardy Sir Edred Van de Veer not been so recently sick his powerful and steel-like frame would not have succumbed to fati'gue even after two nights and three days of steady riding, except at long intervals to snatch an hour's sleep. On the morning of the day we saw him ride up to the Iron Hand Inn, he had mounted a fresh and strong horse, which he had taken care to purchase before he slept, and feeling fully restored to his former strength resumed his journey. But near the hour of noon, misled by. indistinct remembrance of the right road, for by that time he had reached a very lonely part of the country, and where three roads crossed, he had journeyed on many miles ere he became aware that he was astray.

After he became aware of this unpleasant fact, he found himself more and more bewildered, until he halted as has been told, in an ■ agony of fear for the safety of his wife, his son, and the great riches they had in charge.

The fear had not at any time, for ! days, been absent from his mind, but bt this moment it came upon him with the force of a violent blow, struck by an invisible but powerful .hand. " She and Ernest are in the hands of God', wherever they may be," he thought, after a long pause; " and so am I, though I am lost within the Giant Forest. It avails nothing to Imagine good or evil that may be their fate. To serve them, if yet that is in my power, I must first rescue mjself from danger. This road seems broader and more used than any I have seen from this point and trusting in heaven, ever so kind to me I will ride on. If night overtakes me ere I see my way more clearly, I must sleep in the forest, for my horse begins to show great weariness." Another ' <darb and mistrusting glance towards the Iron Hand Inn, and Sir Edred rode on, going deeper and deeper into the perils of the. Giant Forest at every step, and further from those he loved so dearly. The deep darkness of night, made intense by the density of the foliage of great trees, Boon encompassed him and recognising the folly of attempting to make his way out of the forest under the he dismounted, led his wearied horse far asttt from th« narrow road h« btf

been trying to-follow, and wrapping himself up in a cloak which he. took from behind his saddle, and with the saddle for a pillow lay down and slept. ' . .

Sleep came upon him swiftly, despite the tumultuous anxiety of his mind.

Thus at the same time, and but fewfjniles apart slept Sir Edred and his son Ernest, each with a ■ saddle for a pillow. ' . It was scarcely" dawn when stout Sir Edred was again mounted upon his good steed, which he found grazing quietly upon tender leaves and boughs when he awoke. "Thanh heaven I still live,". Sir Edred thought, after regaining the dubious path he had left the night before, " Come," be added, aloud, and patting the - neck of his horse, " I shall leave the choice of roada hereafter to you, my friend, for dumb instinct may serve me "better than my own reason. So go, and heaven be our guide, for I know not where we are." Coming soon to a place where a small path crossed that in which he was, the horse, unstrained by his rider, halted, neighed, and then turning into ft, bolted awaj as if the place wero by no means unfamiliar to him.

"Ho !" thought Bir Edred, as he obierved (his. "It is very clear that my horse has been hereabout before to-day. Yesterday, I likewise trusted to him, after hours of vaineffort to regain the highway, and It ended in his bearing me to the front of the Iron Hand Inn. Hast thou been in the service of the Black Riders, my. friend ? Perhaps stolen by them from some honest owner; made to serve the rascals for a time, and then sold again to an honest man—for such a trust I am-whom thou art bearing, at this round, sharp pace, straight towards some rendezvous or haunt of thy former masters, the robbers."

■ Such was indeed the truth,, and shrewdly fearing as much, Sir Edred looked keenly to the right and left left and drew the hilt of his sword nearer to his grasp in case of need.

" I've cut my way through worse affairs than this may prove to. be," he thought, as he kept his eyes and ears on the alert, and drew down the visor of his steel cap, The horse, evidently familiar with the narrow and continually winding path he had selected, kept on at a rapid, eager trot, and though not unfrequently other paths crossed his course, never for an instant hesitated in his pace.

After plodding on for two hours, the ste'd neighed loudly, and breaking suddenly into a gallop carried him swiftly into an open area of considerable size. This area, entirely surrounded by lofty trees, and dense foliage, had plainly been recently occupied by men and horses. The tracks, footprints, and hoofprints cf each, and the remainder of provender, scattered here and there upon the soft, green sward, told S 1 ' 1 Edred that not manj hours had passed since this place had been the scene of temporary camp.

Permitting his steed to feed upon a half-emptied sack of oats which the hungry animal selected as worthy of his attention, Sir Edred, still grasping his drawn sword, flashed his eyes about him. "It .is aB I suspected," he thought, "My horse has been in the service of the Black Riders, and he has brought me to one of their places of rendezvous, They have been here recently,

" They were here but yesterday," he concluded, after a brief yet careful scrutiny,' "This spider's web over this fresh hoof-print tells me that. Ah, and here is a woman's veil," he added, as he stooped and pic!i:d up a fragment of green silken gauze,

Only a fragment of a woman's veil, heavy and damp with the morning's dew-a mere trifle of stained and hoof-trampled gauze, at which Sir Edred Van de Veer gazed for a moment reflectively, but which he was about to cast aside when his eye caught sight of something embroidered upon its torn and tattered edge.

It was part of a name skilfully worked in silver thread, only part of a name, but enough to make the powerful frame of the diamond merchant tremble from head to foot, as if the chill of death had swept to the verj marrow of his bones on!y part of a name, thus: " Louise Van de and the rest torn off.

" oh,_ heavrn," groaned he, staring at this tell-tale relic, with glaring eyes and reeling brain. "My wife has fallen into the hands of the Blac'i Riders!" (To he Continued.)