MARCIA DRAYTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12213, 7 March 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

MARCIA DRAYTON.

BY CHARLES GAR VICE,

Vuthor of " Kyra's Fate," " Maida," " Tfltf Shadow of Her Life,'' ' Better Than Life,"

" Love, the Tyrant," etc.

CHAPTER XXXVn.—(Continued.) Unsophisticated as Emmie was she understood that her love was hopeless.'' She had set it. on a star, and the star was moving from the familiar heaven in which she had worshipped it. It had always been far abovo her, but now. a dark cloud had come between her and it, and its eclipse Was near. " I kind of understand," she said, " I'm— I m sorry you re going. Thethe camp won't seem the same. It's like as if; I— was making you quit." „ t1. N °'u' he Sl, id, with a forced cheerfulness: It s this cross-grained nature of mine that sends me off. It won let me rest in one place for long. So it's good-bye, Emmie! No, 110, tell your father he mustn't think of throwing up good work; and that you'll bo better when the warmer weather comes. Shall I carry your pitcher down?" She shook her head and turned to go, but paused and, with the tears running down her face at last, held out her hand timidly. ■ Harry took it for a moment and held it in both his. In his pity and reverence lit/ wanted to raise it to his lips but even he had too much sense for that', and he only pressed it. He watched her as she went slowly down the hill with bent head, then he climbed up to the hut. Half an hour later he went down to the camp and sought Simmons. "You wanted someone to prospect the east line?" he said.

Simmons looked up frowningly from a pile of letters and time-books. "Well?" lie responded. "I'll go, if you haven't fixed on a better man, said Harry. Simmons stared at him meditatively and rather curiously. n " But you're wanted here,"' he said. What the blazes should I do without you?" Harry smiled wearily. , "N° man is indispensable," he said.You know that. Anyway,. I'm 'going to leave the camp ; and I'll do this prospecting for you if you like. I'm up to it, I think. I ve done it before." ; "Oh, I know you're, up to it; hard to mid any move in the game you're not up to," commented the overseer. "But you're a ™ n /. in( l of (i sh - I thought you'd sort. of fitted m here." I want a change,'' said Harry, quietly. Simmons surveyed him still more curiously, but ultimately shrugged his shoulders acquiescingly. . " Oh, weil; but you'll have to start at. once. before" ready," said Harry, as quietly as ... before. 1 J r. i? 0 »' d better make for Red Man's Uilch, said Simmons. " You'll take a horse. Prospect from there. It . will b» rough work. There's a kind of hut there" : . - -Harry broke in with a gesture. "I know the trail," he said. He and Simmons talked in short, shart sentences for half an hour, and then Harry left with all his work set out plainly. • As he .was. shaking hands with Simmons the overseer said: • v , >• "Seen Archie Boyd to-day?" ■ ' ■ Harry answered in the negative. * ; . Humph! On the bend again, I suppose, if you see him tell him there's a man, a kind of swell from England, just come into the camp ana asking for him." + ' 111 tell him," said Harry, rather absently. „ He . a horse and started at dawn. -To : say that he was not sorry to leave the camp would be inaccurate; but the prospect of long weeks of solitude was not unwelcome. ' Me could _ fight down his' love for Marcia, reconcile himself to her marriage, by that ■' time. He was still so ignorant as not to 'be aware , that m solitude the heart has greater freedom to assert its sway, • , He reached Red Man's Gulch the following rough kind of hut, a mere shelter, had been erected by earlier prospectors, and . Harry found fuel wherewith to make, a fire. •He was sitting over this and eating the supper, the materials for which he • had brought with him, when he heard a halloa in the valley. Some, minutes later the i,"" 00 t?> of:, the hut was burst open, and Archie Boyd entered. He had been drinking, was scarcely sober yet, and his ; quite insufficient clothes werr $}? m sst-rain which had swept over the hills across which he must have passed. . • * " What, ho !" he exclaimed, after a paroxysm of coughing. " Where and awayf Harry loS^eC^ ° 0,1 tlie easfc ridge," gaitl to linf' 1 that game! ; , It's a hard row) ? d ' tlle fire's comfortable!" Where have you come from? " asked Harry. You re wet to the skin A man Archie!" 011 10n ° ug ' to have more sense,, «v 1 ?° w '" asseLte(i the wastrel, carelessly. ■ . Ive been on the bend at Horsley, over the ridge. . Been hunting; but all I've caught is a worse cold '" His cough seemed: Si r nckety place. "So you've-left. lamina Camp Emmie!" * " ..- r. . • Harry frowned. ' V*-;. • ' hidr£ r ° tt rgofc that "object. was forbidden! nave you got a drink about Harry tossed his flask to him-, and Archie drank half its .contents. ? ( making for ■ the camp, when Jsaw the light up here." . • . „"Ah, that reminds me!" said. Harry, biinmons told me that a man, a stranger, a traveller a swell, he called him—was at the camp inquiring for- you." . , '. sa id Archie. - " That's curious, also interesting. _ Fancy anyone, to say nothing of a swell, inquiring for me! I think I'll g® down and see who it is." - _ Stop and have some tea first/' said, Harry. - ' £ fc No, ; no! No tea for me. f That drop of brandy has warmed me all right enough. A swell! Who can it be, I wonder? And how the devil does be find himself at Tasma Camp? Yes, I'll go! Who knows? Per-' haps it's one ,< of . my : old London chums and I can nab him for a quid or two ! Harry, the thought inspires me! I'm off!" , . • : The cough which accompanied the words shook him from head to foot, and Harry, moved 'to compassion, said: "Hold on! Change your clothes, at any rate.". ' v? ' ; " " •;

" Easier said than done," retorted Archie, carelessly. ■ ■ •••••• ; Harry took up the coat »he had spread , before the fire. - - y;< ■: .•.' ,:j; ; ' "Here, take this," he said. " It's dry:and the mist has, gone. You ought to- change * \ to the skin; but this is better than no-; thing."- ■ - ' >-r .. "And what will you do?" -asked Archie. "Oh, I've got another! Beside?, I can wear 'yours.. Put it on, man!" Archie, with a mixture of; drunken levity and reluctance, put on Harry's coat, ana*. with a hollow, cough, held out his hand. , . " You're white all through, Harry," "he said. " You're the only , man I've ever met who lived-up to the New Testament ideal— Someone: inquiring for me, eh? Strange! \ ■ Well, good-bye! I'll let you have your coat backsome day !" > - - . " Take the horse!" Harry, called after him. . "I can get another at the ridge." .V-, , Archie nodded, and reeled out of the hut, and Harry , watched him mount the horse • and ride away ; -then threw • himself . down > before the fire and slept the sleep of exhaus- v - tion. ; , . Archie Boyd rode , down the gulch- with ~ ; - reckless speed. As the day; dawned :he : came upon a gang engaged .upon the blast- ■ > ing of a way tkcough one of the rocky hills which frowned- upon 'the. line*of ' the- new : j road. He was scarcely yet sober, r.ud the tfrjx, men who were engaged on : the ; dangerous.work, and who, in :the dim light,.' «id not $ recognise him, warned him. by," flag i and • voice - to keep at a safe r distance. .? But. the unfortunate man rode unconsciously ' straight - for the point •- where the blasting <* ' was in -operation. '-•• vy; cr£ -J .: f There was 'a - volley of ! warning - shouts, «i • volley of- oaths? from the watchers' who j'. stood at a safe distance, then: there came the sound of r. terrific explosion; .. mass

'of stone and earth was shot up into the air as if from a volcano; horse and rider were obliterated from sight by the stony . storm; ; then, a minute later, some of ' the men, recovering from the coma of terror, ran forward and bent over man and animal half buried under the debris. They cleared away the mass of fallen stone, and gas pied aghast at what had lain beneath it. . The man was unrecognisable. He was but the semblance of humanity; effaced by that terrible upheaval and downfall from , the lists of men. Steve knelt beside the face battered beyond recognition. ■ "Who is'it?" he asked huskily. Some shook , their heads, as they turned their faces away from the gruesome sight; but one man exclaimed with an oath : "It's Hairy Seymour!" he said, hoarsely. "Harry! No! It's a lie yapped Steve. (To be continued daily.)