LOVE, THE TYRANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11581, 20 February 1901, Page 3

LOVE, THE TYRANT.

BY CHARLES GAB VICE, Anthor of "The Shadow of Her Life." " A Heritage of Hate." " Nell of Shorno Mills," Etc., Etc., Etc.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Selby Layto.v leant against the wall, his hands pressing against it for support, his breath coming in laboured gasps, and his eyes distended with the terror caused by Dick Reeve's whispered words. For a moment or two the deathly faintness overwhelmed him and rendered him incapable of speech, almost of thought; and Dick Reeve watched him with a half-contemptuous, halfmalicious smile. " It's rather took you by surprise, ain't it?" he said, with something between a hiccough and a laugh. " You've changed your mind about telling me about Kate, eh? Out with —where is she?" Selby Layton straightened himself and passed his handkerchief over his lips, which were livid and quivering. He looked round him, from side to side, very much as a rat looks when it is driven into a corner. The door through which they bad come was

open, one of the servants might pass at any

moment and see and hear them. He made a sign to Dick Reeve to follow him, and went into the shrubbery close at hand. Dick Reeve lurched after him, and Selby Layton, sinking into an old seat which had l>cen removed from the garden, looked up at him with a forced smile.

"I can understand your anxiety to obtain news of your sweetheart, Reeve; .and I should have relented and given you the information ; there was no occasion for the invention of the absurd fairy tale which you have concocted—

Rick Reeve dropped on to the seat beside him with an insolent laugh. "That's how you take it, mister, is it?" he said. " Well, you can take it as you like, it's all one to me. I was there, and I saw you; and what's more I heardevery word that passed betwixt you." He nodded significantly and confidentially. " Where's my Kate, and is he with her?" But Selby Layton could give no thought to Kate Transom in this moment of peril and dread.

" You say you saw— he stammered out with an affectation of banter and amusement.

Dick Reeve spat ostentatiously and nodded again.

" Yes, I was there, I tell you. I was in the woods when the strange chap camo into them, and it struck me that he was after something, that he wasn't only walking through 'em; so I followed him to the pool, keepin' out of sight, and I knew that he was watch in' for someone. Then presently I heard you. And I saw you coming along, sly-like as you thought, and I knew it was you he was waiting for and that you was going to meet him. It was only natural that I should feel curious like as to what was up between you, and why you, a gentleman from the Towers, should meet a stranger in Vancourt Woods, wasn't it? and so I crept quite close—you very . nearly heard me one time, and I was so near that I could have almost touched you when you stooped for the gun— Selby Layton covertly wiped the sweat from his white face.

It was a neat knock," said Dick Reeve.

" I didn't know as a weak kind of cove like you could have managed it; but I suppose it caught him in the right place, and the second blow settled him; hadn't a chance, had be. you taking him from behind?" Selby Layton forced a laugh. " And do you imagine that anyone would believe that, cock-and-bull story, Reeve? Don't you th'nk they would be more ready' to suspect a rother person?" Dick Reeve glanced at him contemptuously. "What other person?" he asked. " Yourself, for instance," said Selby Layton, with an assumption of coolness. Dick Reeve laughed hoarsely. Selby shrugged his shoulders. "Why shouldn't I?" he retorted.

Dick Reeve spat again. " 'Cos he knew too much about you, mister," he replied. " and could spoil your game by splitting about your missus— I tell you I beard every word, and what's more— here!'

He fumbled in his pocket, and dragging out the photograph, the pen, and the piece of paper, held them up and shook them inSelby Layton's face.

Selby Layton could not go whiter than he already was. and he suppressed the shudder which ran through him* at sight of the articles he had been mad enough to leave behind him.

" My good fellow, you are actually in possession of the dead man's property,' and you do not see why you should not be suspected ! Grant that I met this man, this unknown stranger, that a conversation took place, which you say you overheard, that I bribed the man—why should you not have murdered him after I left him, killed him for the money which I had given him?" Dick Reeve started and looked at his companion's face, seen only dimly in the darkness. Then he sprang to his feet, his face flushed with passion. "You're a cool hand, mister!" he said, with an oath. "But you don't scare me with that. Why, I've got the gun at home you did it with!" " There you are again !" said Selby Layton, almost good-humouredly. " Your gun !" " No! Not my gun ; it's that hound Gordon's," snarled Dick Reeve.

Selby Layton started and peered at him. " Gordon's?"

" Yes ! I found itfound it down the well. When Kate went off and we didn't know what had happened to her, I thought of the well, thought she might have slipped in ; and I got a rope and went down by myself, without anyone knowing but she wasn't there—but the gun was—cute of you to drop it in that old well!—and if I hadn't been hunting for Kate and thought of it it might have stayed there till the end o' time."

Selby Layton still picked at his lip as if lost in speculation. "I didn't put it there,' he said, almost to himself.

Dick Reeve sneered.

" Tell that to the judge and jury, when you go before 'em," he remarked. " No, I didn't put it there," he repeated in a low voice. " I placed it against the tree,, as you saw me," he went on, with a coolness which startled Dick Reeve, " and I have not seen it since. The man to whom it belonged must have carried it away. Why did he throw it down the well?"

Dick Reeve was silent a moment or two, then he jerked up his head. " I don't know, and I don't care ; that's your business, Mr. Layton. What I care about is Kate. Are you going to answer my question, and tell me whether you've found her, or am I to walk into the house behind us here and tell 'em what I saw and heard in the Vancourt Woods? Out wi' it. I'm in no mood for more palaver. Have you found her, or haven't you? If not, I'm going to London to search for her myself— " I have found her," said Selb}- Layton. Dick Reeve leant forward, his breath coming fast and thickly. And—— she wi' him Selby Layton nodded. " She is with the man Gordon

Dick Reeve uttered a fearful oath and stretched out his closed hand with a ferocious gesture.

"I thought it! I knew it!" he muttered, hoarsely. " I'll follow them ! I'll have his heart's blood"

His passion was so great that it choked hi utterance for a moment; then, with a string of oaths, he turned on Selby Layton fiercely. " Curse you! why didn't you come and tell me? What did you keep me waiting for? I've lost time—they'll be off—he'll escape me! Where is he? Where shall I find them? London's a big place— me quick! I'll kill him, if I have to swing for it!"

Selby Layton leant his chin in his hand, and was silent for a moment; then he said, very quietly:

" They are living in a street called Chasestreet. It is a shoemaker's shop—" " Tell me —here, write it down— curse the darkness! Come to the light!" Solby Layton laid a hand on Reeve's arm.

" No, no; stay where you are. Chasestreet." He repeated it several times. "I will tell you how to get there; I will give

you the money for your journey, and I will give you some good advice also, Reeve "Curse your advice! But I'll take the money. You and me, mister, will have to talk over money matters when I've finished with the man who's taken my Kate from me." Selby Layton took some gold from his waistcoat pocket. "Here is some money for your journey and expenses," he said. "As to any further sums, we can arrange, as you say. "Im willing to buy those things' from you— because I'm afraid of being charged with the murder, but because they are of value to me. I shall give you a couple of hundred pounds for themnot one penny more ■ Dick Reeve had risen and was buttoning up his rough coat. " Afterwards—afterwards !" he said, hoarsely, impatiently. " I can't think of anything now but Kate and the man that's ruined her. The black-hearted scoundrel!" Selby Layton regarded him musingly. "You want your revenge, Reeve?' he said.

Dick Reeve uttered a ferocious oath. " Aye; and I mean to have it, if Igo to the gallows for it!" "Ah," said Selby Layton. smoothly; " that's weak and foolish. Instead of going to the gallows, Reeve, why not send this fellow Gordon there?" "Eh?" said Reeve, pausing as he was going and looking over his shoulder at Selby Layton. Seliy nodded impressively. "Don't you see?" he said, in a low voice. " You made a mistake that night, my good fellow. Strange! because we are not very much alike ; he is taller and broader than I am; but still, at night it is easy to mistake--" Dick Reeve came back to him.

" What are you talking about?" he asked, impatiently. " Who did I mistake you for?" "This fellow Gordon!" said Selby Layton. Then he stretched out. his hand and laid it on Dick Reeve's arm and gripped it tightly with each word. " Don't you see? Gordon was in the wood that night; he disappeared, left Vancourt suddenly and with scarcely a word to anyone; you found his gun in the wellyou overheard him talking to the stranger, but have held your tongue because you yourself were poaching at the time. You see? You want your revenge, you are ready to risk getting hanged for it; take your revenge by hanging him !"

Dick Reeve stod and glared, as if the idea were slowly filtering to his brain ; then he threw up his head and his black eyes gleamed savagely. " That's good!" he said, in a thick whisper. " That's good! You're cuter than I thought even, mister! Yes; Gordon's the man! I swear I saw him do it! It was him, not you ! Now then, where's my Kate? Tell me once more!"

Selby Layton told him how to get to Chasestreet.

" But hold your tongue about the murder, for the present," he said. " Wait till 1 give you the word—follow my directions and I will give you the sweetest revenge. Hush! There is someone coming !" He rose as he whispered the caution, and, in a louder voice, said

" I am sorry to hear of your distress, my man, and I will see what can be done for you. Good night!" After Dick Reeve had gone, Selby T.nyton remained for a minute or two with his hands pressed to his head. He was in deadly peril, but there was just the chance that with Dick Reeve's aid he might shift the charge of murder on to Gordon. There would be no l.ecessity to charge him with it unless the pool were drained and the body found; but if they were, if the crime were brought to light, then Gordon must be sacrificed. He went back to the drawing-room. • "It was a man from Vancourt—a man named Dick Reeve," he said to Lord Fanworth. " The poor fellow is in great trouble at the loss of his sweetheartyou remember

the case—the fellow, Gordon, you know? I gave him some money to take him to London. He seemede to have something else on his mind —1 could scarcely make out v.hat- it was, and he checked himself in the midst of an incoherent account of something mysterious he had seen ; it is evident that the poor fellow is thrown off his balance by his sweetheart's desertion of .him." , <

He said this with a grave air of sympathy which made a very favourable iirpression upon the Fan worths ; and Harry Covrdalc wondered if he had menially aonc Mr. Selby Layton an injustice. 'J'l'e next day but one they vent over to the Towers to dine, as had been arranged, and Lord Fanworth presented his nephew, with an explanation of his sudden and unexpected arrival and an apology for bringing him to the Towers. Esther was " taken"' by the handsome and boyish young fellow—in some strange way he reminded her of Jack Gordon—and Harry Coverdale immediately conceived a liking for the young girl who had so romantically come into the Vancourt property. Before dinner was announced they had become something like friends; and lie was wondering -why she looked so pale and what the touch of subdued silence meant in her beautiful eyes; he also noticed that no light of love and pride dispelled the melancholy when she looked at or spoke to Mr. Selby Layton, the man to whom she was engaged, who hovered about them as if he were inclined to be jealous of her sudden friendship with the young man. Harry Coverdale was very amusing during dinner, partly because he could not help it, and partly because he wanted to make his beautiful young hostess smile ; and ho succeeded. Esther felt brighter than she had done since— Jack Gordon had gone. After dinner, when the gentlemen entered the drawing-room, Harry Coverdale went straight to Esther and began to tell her some of his adventures and experiences; and. presently he brought in Australia. She turned to him directly with increased interest.

"Anything about Australia interests me," she said ; " for though I've not been there I am somewhat closely connected with it. You know the story of Sir Richard's nephew and heir, the young man who would have inherited all this if he had lived? He was murdered," she added, in a low voice, " soon after his uncle's death, and so I came into the property." " I know; I have heard," he said.

" Then again," she went on in a still lower voice, "I had a brother out there; he died some time ago; so that Australia is a fateful country for me."

" Yes, indeed." said Harry Coverdale, with his frank young sympathy for this beautiful young girl, sole mistress of the vast Vancourt property. "I was talking to Mr. Selby Layton and my uncle of the' strange coincidence by which I became acquainted with Sir Richard's nephew. He was called Arthur Burton then." [

He told her the story of the claim he had bought of the two men, and spoke of "Arthur Ifprton" with the same enthusiasm he had displayed when discussing the matter at the Fanwoi'ths' table.

"It is a thousand pities he didn't live," said Esther, with a sigh. " From whal you say of him he would have made a magnificent master of Vancourt, and would no doubt have been so superbly happy; while

" Don't say that you are not happy !" lie said, leaning nearer to her.

She tried to smile, but her under lip quivered and the long lashes swept her cheek. " I have some photographs of Australian scenery which my brother sent over to me," she said. "Would you like to see them?"

He said at once and eagerly that he should, and she went to her room and brought down a, small cardboard box containing the usual photographs.

" Oh, I know most of these places," he said, as they turned them over together. "That is Wally Ford; and that is Three Streams; and that is Digger's Dump; and that—" lie broke off and picked up the photograph of a man, a young and delicatelooking man in the ordinary digger's suit. " Why, I know that man !" he exclaimed. " That's the man who was with Sir Richaid's nephew, Arthur Burton. I forget this man's name ; lie was Arthur Burton's—that iff of course Vancourt's—great chum ; Vancourt nursed him through ever so many illnesses. 1 can't recall his name!"

Esther regarded him in silence; her face had grown a little paler. " I wish I could remember," said Ha"ry Coverdale. " Let me think ! It was— No, I can't remember. Yes, I can! It was Jack Gordon !"

Esther did not start, but the colour rushed to her face and her hands went in search of the chair, for she was startled, greatly startled.

"Are you sure';" she asked. " Quite sure," responded Coverdale. " I knew them both well; lam as sure as lam of my name, now that I have remembered it,"

"And yet you ave mistaken," she said, very quietly; " thit is a portrait of my brother, and" he died nearly two years ago." Harry Coverdale looked at her with surprise and a gravity vhat grew intense. Then he carried the photograph to a light and examined it closely, and came back and stood beside her with her bent head and pursed lips. After a moment he looked at her, and said: " Miss Vancourt, I am one of those men who never make a mistake in a face. If this is the portrait of your brother, I saw him alive just after Christmas and he was in the company, he was the chum, of Arthur Burton, that is, young Vancourt. He was the man who was with him when he was murdered."

(To be continued on Saturday next).