JUST A GIRL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10082, 18 March 1896, Page 3

JUST A GIRL.

BY CHARLES GARVICE, Author of "The Outcast of tho Family," "Queen Kate," " In Cupid's Chains," " Better Than Life," "On Lore's Altar; or, A Fatal Fancy," " She Trusted Him."

CHAPTER XXXIV. Neither Varley nor any of the boys asked Esmeralda any further questions. The boys seemed to take ib as quite a natural thing that she should come back to them and the camp, and when she appeared among them the next day in her old dress, which Melinda had religiously kept, they ab once began to forget that) she was a great lady, and treated her with the old affection, which had always been of a respectful and even worshipping kind. She took up her life where she had left ib tho day Mr. Pinc'nook had taken her away, Her beautiful horse had been kept for hor, as if everybody had expected her to come back, and welcomed her as if he had been parted from her for only a few days. Shfe strolled about the camp, sab on the edge of the claims, rode up the valley and over the hills with Varley or some of the boys, and took her share in the household duties in the hut, just as of old.

In the wonderful air, so thin and light and poruieated with the brilliant sunshine, tho strength which she had lost came back to her; her hands beg n to brown, the freckles to return to the clear ivory of her face. She had been very thin and wornlooking when she arrived ; but she gained flesh with her strength, and the old suppleness, which, for want of a better name, we call graco. Now and again something of the old brightness shone in her eyes, as she laughed at some jest of Taffy's or some wild, eccentric prank of the boys; but tho brightness was only transient, and the laugh came but seldom, for on her face and in her eyes there dwelt an expression hard to define— Eve's may have worn it when she was turned out of paradise. She liked to take long rides across the hills in the soft light of the evoning with Varley by her side. Often they rode in silence, and Varley, glancing now and again at her face, would see, by the pensive and far-away look in her eyes, that she was dwelling upon that past of which he know so little. She would pull up on the brow of a hill, and letting her reins hang loosely on tho horse's neck, lean forward and gaze at the magnificent view.

But it was not the wide-stretching Australian valley? that she saw, but the trimkept lawns of Belfayre, the English soa that rolled at tho bottom of the cliff, the plantation through which she and Trafford had so often wandered hand in hand ; and as

tho mental vision passed before her, a groat pain would lill her heart, a terrible wistfulness take possession of her, and she would fain stretch out her arms to where England and Trafford were and cry aloud.

And Varley, as ho watched her, would set his teeth hard and want to cry aloud, too, but with a very different fooling. His heart surged with hate for the man who had taken this beautiful child-woman and broken her heart. Once, as they thus rode, he said to her:

"You don't) wanb to go back, Esmeralda ?"

She started as it she had forgotten his presence, and the colour rose to her face, then it went Again, and left her pale, and with something like tears in her eyes. " No," alio said ; " I could never go back, Varley. All that is past and done with. There would bo no one to go buck to but Lady Wyndover and Lilias, and they—they will soon forget me. In the world over there peoplo do nob remember many days; they are all so busy with their pleasures that they haven't time to remember. It is each for himself, and in tho rush and tear the boat) of friends are soon forgotten."

" Would to Uocl yon had never gone there," he said. "Ah!" She drew a long breath. "At any rafeo, I have learnod to valuo true love and friendship, Varley. I think they are only to be found in Three Star." "Hseoms hard to realise that) you are a duchess," lie said ; " that you ought to be queening it over there amongst the best of them.'' She smiled faintly. " J find it hard to roalise, too," she said. "A duchess is a very great personage, evon in England," ho said. "Yes," she assented. "She is next) to royalty itself; all the other women make way for her, and everybody treats her as if she were made of something better than ordinary flesh and blood. If you had seen, as I have, a whole room full of people be?in to flutter and turn with toadying, simpering smiles when a duke or a duchess enters a room." "Just so," he said; "and I'm thinking that your disappearance, Esmoralda, must havo caused some stir and excitement even amongst that flutter-headed crowd. They must bo looking for you." " Perhaps," aha said, listlessly, as she thought that Trafford would bo glad that sho had gotio so noiselessly and quietly ; lie would havo Lady Ada to con solo him. Varley saw that she did not want to say any more, and lie changed the subject. " Dog's Ear has boon very quiet sinco tho affair of the coach," ho said.

' Has anything beon done she asked. "Oh, yes," lis replied. "The police novo taken the affair up, and there has been nn inquest On the two men and an inquiry ; bub, as usual, ib has come to nothing. Simon and the others who wore engaged havo cleared out, and tho rest of Dog's Ear swears that it) knows nothing about it. The police have had a hunt after Simon, but they aro not likely to catch him ; they never do. Dog's Ear gave the two men a public funeral, and I am given to understand that they did me the honour to burn mo in effigy after the ceremony." "They aro very quiob about) it," eho said. , _ , "Yes; rather too quiet, said Yarley, languidly. " When Dog's Ear is quiet its generally planning gome meanness or other. Taffy suggests that it would be rather a good thing to turn tho whole crew out and burn the placo; but that) eeems to me rather an extreme measure, and ,1 don't know how the Government would like it. You know, I supposo, that I received a letter from the secretary ?" he added, more languidly than before. " No," said Esmeralda. " You didn't tell me, Varley. What was it?" " Oh, didn't I?" ho said, modestly. "It was a very nice letter, in the most beautiful language, intimating thab I and Taffy, and the rest of us, were the saviours of our country, or something to thab offocb. McGrath wanted to have ib framed and stuck up in tho Eldorado, and so I took ib away from him and put it where it couldn'b do any damage—in the fire. The boys are quite vain enough already; if that letter wore left lying around they'd want to build a church, or a gaol, or some high-falutin institution of that kind." Esmeralda laughed, and they rode home. The days passed calmly and peacefully j Esmeralda's strength increased, and her hands grow still browner, but the far-away look did nob leave her eyes, and often still in the middle of a ride she would pull up suddenly and seem lost in thought ; and sometimes, when she was clearing away the things after a meal, she would stop and Bob down tho plates and cups and look before her vacantly as if she had quite forgotton where she was and whab she was doing. At such times she was thinking of Varloy's words, and wondering why no soarch had been made for her. One evening she was standing thus, a cup in her hand, her eyes fixed, when a voice outside the door called her name. She was alone in the hut, for Mother Melinda had gone down to the store, bub quite unsuspectingly she seb down the cup and wenb to the door. There was no one in sighb, and thinking she must have been mistaken, she turned to ro enter the hub again, when suddenly a cloth of some kind was thrown over her head, and she was seized in a rough grasp. She struggled and triod to tear the cloth from her head, but the man hold hor tight. " Keep quiet," he said, with an oath, " or it will bo worse for you." She felt thab she was powerless, and keeping up her hearb as best she could, ceased to struggle. "Have you gob hor?" asked another voice, which she recognised as that of the man Simon. The man who had made her prisoner replied in the affirmative. " Ask her if she'll come quietly," said Simon, " or we'll settle her off-hand."

"You hear," said the other man to Esmeralda. "I hear," said Esmeralda through the cloth. " What do you want with me?" " Don't you worry yourself," said Simon, with malignant) irony. "You've got) to come along with us dead or alive; you can take your choice." "You coward!" said Esmeralda. "If there' were only one of the men here I" "Bub there ain'b," chuckled he: captor. "Bring her along," said Simon, with an impatient oath. The man who held her raised her in his arms, and Esmeralda felt herself lifted on to a horse. The hoofs must have been muffled, for her quick ears had heard no sound.

" Now catch hold of the reins and sib on quietly," said Simon, " and remember I'm ridin' beside you, miss, and I've got you covered." He clicked the lock of his revolver significantly. Esmeralda gripped the reins tightly, the thought flashing through her mind that she might even yet make a dash for it, but she felt a hand on cach side of the rein and her

heart sunk. Slio could scarcely realise the horror of hor position. She could hear tho murmur rising from the camp below, could have seen the lights if the horrible cloth had not shrouded them from her sight. She could see Varley seated at the card-table, hear the men laughing and singing, while she was in the hands of these Dog's Ear ecoundrek What would Varley say when ho came up to tho hut bo bid her goodnight and found her gone The men rodo besido her silently, and proceeded quickly bub cautiously. She knew by the direction of the wind that they were going from Three Star toward the hills, and her hoarb sunk under the heavy weight of a terrible fear. Just as she had pictured him, Varley was as usual presiding ab the card-table. Luck was going against him that night, and he was not playing with his usual skill and concentration. He was thinking of Esmeralda; indeed, he thought of little else. The thirst for vengeance upon the man who called himself hor husband and had broken her heart was gradually absorbing Varley's whole being ; and even as ha shuffled and dealt the cards with his usual languid, nonchalant graoe, ho was asking himself how and when he could avenge her wrongs. " 'Pears to me, Varley," said Taffy, as Varley missed a point which would have won the game for him, " that you'd better chuck up cards and take to dominoes. They're a nice, child-like game, and don'b make no call upon yor brain pan. Or how would skittles suit you ? "'Mr. Varloy Howard presents his compliments to tho nobility an' gentry of Three Star an' other camps, an'begs to inform 'era that, findin' cards too much for his constitootion, he has opened a saloon for skittles an' other infint gamos, where he 'opes to meet his former patrons at hop scotch an' peg-top. Mo playin' for money allowed.'" Varley smiled listlessly. "Yes, I'm a little off colour to-night, Taffy," he said. " We'll double the stakes if no gentleman objects." This characteristic proposal meeting with no objection, the game proceeded; but Varley s ill-luck stuck to him, and not oven the high stakes improved his play. A kind of presentimenb of coming evil hung over him ; and, like all gamblers, Varley was superstitious. He looked just as careless and was as impassivo as ever, bub the weight was upon him; and as he lost steadily, he callod for some whisky, an unusual thing for him to do. " Yes, bring a couple of gallons," said Taffy, with solemn gravity. " 'Ave a bath in it, Varley. It might pull yor round." Varley smiled in harmony with tho laugh evoked by Taffy's witticism, and dealt the cards as slowly and carofully as usual; then, presently, having silently noted his losings, he said, with his little drawl: "Tho game's up, gentloraen ; the bank's broke."

A roar of unsympathetic laughter arose from the players. " 'Tain's often we get the besb of you, Varley," said Taffy, smiting him on tho shoulder. "I'll celebrate the event by calling for whisky all round." Bub Varley declined his glass, and with a pleasant, musical "Good-night, boys," sauntered out) of the saloon.

Jo be continued on Saturday next.)