THE IRON HAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12272, 16 May 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE IRON HAND.

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.]

BY J. MacLAEEN COBBAN, Author of " Pursued by the Law," " The Last Alive," " The Angel of the Covenant," "The Mystery of the Golden Tooth." etc., etc. COPYRIGHT. CHAPTER X.—(Continued.) Although Sal was only a passive and unknown observer of the progress of the courtship, she could lay the unction to her soul that she had done something to ensure the consummation of marriage. She read in her Sunday paper of the escape of the two prisoners, and of the death of Lefroy. She lay on her bed and wept bitterly all the Sunday afternoon ; and then she determined that, whether Lefroy were dead or alive, she would finally dispose of the hated Julia. She ensured that Julia, and Struthers also —in case he should know of Lefroy's relation with Julia—should know of Lefroy's reported death. She cut out the paragraph from her copy of Lloyd's, and went out and bought another copy and- cut the paragraph from that also. Then she posted the one to Miss Galotti and the other to Mr. Struthers, She had her reward in a day or two. She sought out the local registry office, and on the notice board at the door she read the " Notice of Marriage" between Andrew Struthers, bachelor, and Julia Galotti, spinster.

"That shows what she is!" said Sal to herself. " Him not dead more than a day or two ; and here she is at once giving of herself away to another man! No mourning, I'll be bound— nothink'."

It was with astonishment, but with joy, that she recognised Lefroy when he was carried out of the church on the wedding morning and laid on a police stretcher, and it was with glee that she thought Julia at all events had now neither part nor lot in him. The rest we know.

When Sal left Lefroy and departed from the hospital she insisted to herself that she had nob given any promise to go to Townshend. At any rate, she had no intention of goingfor two reasons ; first, because she was not ready to repay Mr. Townshend the three pounds he had lent her, and secondly— and chiefly— because she was resolved to keep Lefroy to herself now that she had found him. What could Mr. Townshend do for him that she could not do, and do better? She could take him out of the hospital and hide him ; could Mr. Townshend do more? Besides, she would cherish him; feed him with the labour of her own hands ; and make him strong and well ; she would love him ; and make up to him for the weak, worthless woman he had lost. Could Townshend do any of these things for him?

So Sal Haynes kept quite aloof from : Tc/WTishend, and resolved to take entire charge of Lefroy. She hired a room in the same house with herself, saying it was for her brother, and with ready hands and highbeating heart she made preparations for taking him from the hospital on visiting "day. Yet she thus did her utmost to baulk her dearest desire, as you shall now hear. It may seem odd that, amid all her careful scheming for the freedom and possession of Lefroy, Sal should have never given a thought to the possibility of Mr. Evans crossing her purpose ; but she had not. You would think that, having recognised Mr. Evans in that member of the wedding party who, with the verger, can Lefroy out of the church, she would have considered that both he, who must know who Lefroy was, and Struthers, whose married life might be threatened with instant closure if Lefroy were allowed to be at large, would be likely to take some trouble to suppress him ; yet she was so occupied with her own concern for Lefroy that she took no acount of theirs. On visiting day she was ready long before it was time to set out to the hospital. Yet when the hour came she was not gone. On the threshold of action she became alarmed at what she meant to do. She was, to tell the truth, a good deal afraid of Lefroy; and she wondered what he would say to her. Would ho be angry? Would he refuse her help? Would he repudiate her altogether? That she could not endure. She lost heart ; and then upon consideration she plucked up heart again, till upon reconsideration she again lost it. Her mind was working like troubled hands at knitting—stitches would be dropped and picked up ; and so the process would go on. At length, with a face whiter even than usual, and with eyes more sombre and troubled, she arrived at the hospital, and passed straightway to the ward where Lefroy was. Lefroy was up, and adrift, so to say. He was " Number ten" no longer, for another was already in his bed. In the ward, as in the world, he was homeless and nameless; and it moved the sensitive Sal almost to tears to see him sitting aloof and alone limp and stoopingfor, though he was being discharged, he was still an invalid. ' " Oh, poor thing !" said Sal, going quickly to him. " You do look ill!"

He flushed and frowned a little ; he did not like commiseration.

"Where is Mr. Townshend?" he asked, looking past her towards the door. She was resentful that he had no attention for herself, and her resentment restored her courage. Mr. Townshend ain't come," she answered ; "he couldn't." "Did you take him my message?" he asked. " *

" Take him your message !" she exclaimed, in an outburst of testiness.

"I beg your pardon," said he, sinking back in his chair. "I had no right to expect you to do anything for me; but I thought you promised." "1 did," said she. "Mr. Townslieud," she hurriedly produced the lie, for she was at once sorry for her spurt of temper, "Mr. Townsnend knows all about you ; but I've got to take you out of this. There's nothing to stay for— there?" she said, looking about "uneasily. " Let us go away ; this place makes me ill." "No," said lie, rising; "there's nothing. I've said good-bye to the Sister." She moved to the door with alacrity. She was eager to be gone. If he were once out, she thought, lie would be bound to accept her help. But she made haste too quickly ; she had to turn again a step or two and to linger to keep step with him, for he was pathetically weak. Slowly he descended the stairs, accepting, as if he were unaware of such aid, a supporting hand under his arm. "I am very shaky on my pins," said he, with a thin smile of apology. " You'll soon be all right," said she, cheerfully, " once you are out of this. I hate 'orspitals !" At length they reached the entrance hall, which was dimly lighted. 'there were few people about, for it was the middle of the visiting hour and so the more notable was a handsome and benevolent-seeming old gentleman in gold spectacles and tall hat, who approached and spoke in a pleasant, courteous voice.

"Are yon talcing this patient out, madam?" ho asked.

" Yes, of course I am," answered Sal defiantly ; but for all the defiance of her manner she was uneasy and tremulous. "Well, madam," said he, in a fine, suave, official tone, "you must first go to the office and say that he is withdrawn. This man will show you where the oiiice is ; the patient can wait here till you return." Sal was uncertain what to do, and in her uncertainty she allowed herself to bo hurried away down a passage out of sight. While the patient stood waiting another man came up and whispered a. question: "Mr. Lefroy?" "Are you from Mi'. Townshend?" asked Lefroy, eagerly. " Yes ; I'm from Mr. Townshend. We have a cab outside. You may as well get into it while waiting ; the lady will be out in a moment."

Lefroy considered the man. Tie was rather seedy-looking and close-shaven — the kind of man, thought Lefroy, that should be the clerk of a, barrister who was not too prosperous. "All right," he said, and walked out to the waiting cab. As soon as he had stepped into the cab he was surprised by the man following him, and by another man also entering on the other side of the cab. In the midst of his surprise he received still another shock from the snapping of handcuffs upon his wrists. "You are Lefroy," said the first man, *' escaped from Din'gley Prison; and you've got to go back." With a low groan Lefroy accepted the situation ; he was too weak to do otherwise. And the cab drove off rapidly out'of if he courtyard.

In a few seconds Sal came back into the entrance-hall, with rage "on her face. There had been no need for her to go upon the errand she had been prevailed upon to undertake. She stood stock-still. '

"Where is he?" she asked. But there was v.o one to answer. , She found the hall porter pacing to and fro at the entrance. Had he seen such and such a man? Yes, he answeredjust gone off in a cab with some friends. She tore out into the street. Had she glanced aside she might have noted Mr. Evans softly walking out of the courtyard, with an elegant cane in his hand and a sweet smile on his face. She would then have understood.

CHAPTER XL AFTER LOXU YJEABS.

It was sixteen years later, and our friend.. Mr. Townshend, had removed from Plowden Buildings, Temple, and was lodged move notably and luxuriously in those chambers we wot of m Jermyii-street. He had abandoned his attempt to earn a living by the practice of the. law, and now did infinitely better by fooling and evading it. We have it on excellent authority that the law is a bass. Well, Townsnend had managed to saddle and bridle that ha-ss, and he rede it to his profit. The bass might some day throw him, but meantime — " Come in," said Townshend, who lounged smoking in his luxurious sitting-room. There entered the irreproachable Mortimer. His master turned his head and looked with a point of interrogation in his eye. "" A person, Markis," said Mortimer, "as wishes to see you, private and particular." "Which sex, Mortimer?" " Male sex, Markis, and old—but not distinguishable otherwise." " Oh, ho doesn't look like a good commission, then?" "On the contrary, sir, I should say a very poor devil." ""Show him in. then, Mortimer—show him in. We must be kind to poor devils." Townshend rose and stood on the hearthrug, facing the door, to receive his visitor. In a few seconds Mortimer ushered in an old man, with white hair and full, tangled, white beard. Mr. Townsiiend considered him curiously, with his glass stuck in his eye, and he looked steadily back at- Mr. Townsiiend, but he said no word until the ■reluctant' Mortimer had withdrawn and closed the door.

" You don't remember me, Mr. Townshend?" said he then, in a voice that was full and strong to be an old man's. " No," drawled Townshend, in his deepest baritone ; " I can't say that I do." The man whipped off his white whiskers and beard, and thus' revealed close-shaven ho appeared much younger than his white head would suggest his age to be. "Ah !" murmured Townshend. " No, I can't remember you yet." " Sixteennearly seventeen years ago," said the man, "you knew me, Mr. Townshend. My hair was black then; I was then, turned four-and-twenty." " And now, of course," murmured Townshend, "you must be only forty.'' The man waited; was he recognised? Townshend still considered him. .

" You were then a lawyer; and you appeared for me." "Ah," said Townshend, "I know you now. You are Lefroy." "Yes," said the man, "I am Lefroy." "Ah, dear me!" exclaimed Townshend. " Sit down, and tell me all about yourself. Where have you been all these years?" Lefroy sat down, saying in a dull voice, "I have been passing the time in one of Her Majesty's prisons. It was a fine, bracing situation, I am toldon Dartmoor—but it didn't suit me. That, and other things, has turned my hair whiteas you see." Townshend was not easily amazed, but he was then.

"I; don't understand," said he. "I thought you escaped!" " 1 escaped from the prison in the north, but I was taken again." "Taken! I have been thinking of you all these years—when I have had time to think as living with your wife a free man !" At the mention of his wife Lefroy--per-ceptibly winced. " Then you did not get the message," said he, " that I sent you from the hospital by Sal Haynes?" "Hospital? Message? I've heard nothing from you at all since I parted from you on the day of your trial!" " Then that woman deceived me," said Lefroy. "And I must • ask your pardon for thinking harshly of you sometimes, and even wondering if you could have had anything to do with sending me back to prison." "I am mystified," said Townshend. "Ycu had better tell me all your story. Will you have a cigar?" "Thank you," said Lefroy, "I don't smoke." " Have a glass of wine then?" Thank you, I don't drink. Oh/' he added, in answer to an odd look from Townshend, "not because I am virtuous, but because I have one purpose in life, and smoking and —anything like selfindulgencewould interfere with it." " You don't object to my smoking, I suppose?" said Townshend. "Why should I?" said Lefroy. Then Lefroy told his story— I need not repeat, because my readers already know most of it. He told how he had escaped, and how his companion had been killed ; how he tramped to Loudon to find his wife, and saw her married in church ; how he fell down unconscious, and came to himself in hospital ; how he had seen Sal Haynes, and had given her a message for him ; how he was taken out of hospital by her in Townshend's name, and rearrested. ."I assure you," said Townshend, "I neither saw the girl nor received any message ; and I had some reason to hope I'd have heard of her, or from her by then. I happened to meet her on the very day of your trial— I was leaving the town. I had an adventure in the train with her, and

" Oh, yes," said Lefroy, interrupting, "she has told me about that, and how good you were to her.' "Told you lately, do you mean?" asked Townshend, in surprise. " Whilst I have been in prison," answered Lefroy. "I have seen her often during these years; she has been the only person that has visited me, or has seemed to keep me in mind. She has been very kind to me,"

"I wonder," murmured Townsliend, in reflection, " why she did not bring me your message from the hospital? I heard from her soon afterwards—she repaid me a, small sum of money I had lent her— slis said not- a word about you. I wonder why?" "Well," said Lefroy, "I think I can guess She is intensely jealous, I have discovered, of my knowing anybody but herself. She is a strange girl," he added with a faint flush on his cheek. " I see," said Townsliend. "By the way," he continued, "do you know that all the newspapers at the time of your escape reported you to be killed, and not the other man?"

" Yes, I know/' answered Lefroy. " Sal told me—but not till long afterwards." " And don't you think," suggested Townshend, with sonorous softness, "that your wife must have seen that report, and believed it?"

"I have thought of that," said Lefny, grimly. " Good heavens !is there anything I haven't thought of all these years? . 1 have had time enough for thinking! But don't let us talk of it." Evidently, everything between him and Julia was still accounted sacred.

"Well, now, tell me," said Townshend. with a soothing cheerfulness : " What are you going to do? I suppose you are really a free man?—on ticket of leave, oh?"

" No," tmswercd Lefroy, "I am not. I've escaped." "Oh, that's bad—bad for you, 1 mean," murmured Townshend, with concern. "But you would have been let out soon on ticket-of-leave?"

" I daresay I should—perhaps I should," said Lefroy, with deep sadness. But I could stand it no longer. I've been working for escape for years. If I hadn't done that I should have gone mad; and when escape was ready I had to go —or be found out. '

"How did you manage it?" asked Townshend. Lefroy produced a long rusty nail from the bosom of his coat. "That," said he, "and these." And he showed his fingers, with the tips all blunted and hard and his nails worn almost completely away. The sight was terrible in its suggestiveness. a ( „ Townshend said nothing but An . "Besides," continued Lefroy, in an argumentative tone of justification, ' if. 1 bad got out on ticket-of-leave it would have been known to those I want to find—the .men that I havo suffered all tins for, and who managed to put mo away again when 1 left the hospital." " You mean the man Evans.'

"Evans, and more than "Evans, i don't know what they are, but I'm going to find them. And I will find them, if I nave to wait and wait, and follow them to the other world!"

"I see," said Townshend, with sonorous softness.

Then the repressed passion of the man broke forth.

" You see what I am, and what you don't see you can guess! I am alone —alone and bare and desperate. As Cain's when he went out into the wilderness, my punishment is greater than I can bear! I have lost, "Jove, hope, ambition—all! I have lost my wife! 1 have lost my child!" " What has become of her':"

"She has been taken away by my wife! And all these yearsthe best years of my life—have been used, only to wear themselves out, and to wear me away !" Yes," said Townshend, with sympathy, " it is terrible, my son! —it is terrible!— when once a man gets into the clutch of the law!"

"I don't blame the law! The law is like Nature! It knows not what it docs! It is blind force ! It does not discriminate! No. I blame the intelligent human creatines that let me —that made me suffer—knowing what they didknowing I was innocent—knowing they themselves were guilty! That pushed me hack into the grinding mill of suffering when once I had escaped ! —1 have now but one purpose in life—to find them! It is foolish old wives' babble to say, 'Forgive your enemies and 'Vengeance is mine! I will repay, saith the Lord I cannot forgive! and I will take my own vengeance! And I have come to you, Mr. Towushend, to ask you to help me! You said sixteen years ago you would be my friend ! I want a friend!"

I "And you shall have one!" said TownsL hend, in a full, deep voice, that was in iti self a blast of encouragement and strength. ! He was profoundly moved, and on the im- ■ pulse he reached forth his hand, and clasped ; that of the escaped convict. "It will give ! mo the greatest pleasure to help you to square accounts with the villains! And I may tell you, without boasting, that- you have come" for help to the best man. Since I saw you last I have dropped the law, and taken up with crime—the detection of crime, and so forth." " I guessed you had dropped the law when I didn't find you in the Temple," said Lefroy." "Well," said Towushend, "we had best make a start at once." He set his glass firmly in his eye, sat erect, and began to roll* himself a cigarettethe constant habit when he meant buiness. " First, we must remember that to act freely and move about freely you must make yourself as unrecognisable as possible: you don't want to run any risks of being taken again." Rather than be taken I will shoot myself!" said Lefroy, quietly. "That means the constant carrying of a revolver," said Townshend. He shook his head. "That won't do at all. To carry a revolver is suspicious ; you must never, wherever you happen to be found—even if you should be searchedyou must never excite suspicion. No," he continued thoughtfully, "you must excite pity ; with pity there is no room for suspicion. Would vou. mind exciting pity'/" * "Why should I?' v Townshend struck a match and lit his cigarette. "Would you mind making a monster of yourself?" he asked. " What sort of monster?" asked Lefroy, as if hesitating. "Well," said Townshend, "what the dear, delightful, humorous poor people of our country call An Object." " I don't care what I become if I can accomplish my purpose without being recognised either by those I want to find or those I want to avoid." "Quite so. You are pretty thin, I see. Keep thin. Are your —particularly your knee-joints—-supple?" "Pretty supple." "You must make them mighty supple. My suggestion is that from a lean young man, with all your limbs, you make yourself a stout old man with no limbs but arms. Oh, it can be done, with persistent practice for a few days." " But," objected Lefroy, " how can I work in that shape? I must work to live." " Why "must?' You must live, of course —— Do you object to charity?" " I domost bitterly," he answered in an absolute, downright tone. A knock sounded on the door. Townshend made rapid play about his face with his hand, to signify that Lefroy should restore his false beard, before he said, " Come

in." Mortimer opened the door discreetly to say, "A lady to see you, sir." "Confound your impudence, Mortimer cried Townshend. "You knew I was engaged. What do you mean, by it?" " I beg your pardon, Markis," said Mortimer, with more contrition of look than of tone, "but the lady would not take 'No' for an answer. She says she knows you, and she knows who's with you ; and she's sure you will see her." Before Townshend could frame an answer a voice came from behind Mortimer : " Don't be cross with the poor man, Mr. Townshend ; it's all my fault." And in pushed—who? Sally Haynes—• by all that was wonderful! —but Sally was much transformed!

(To bo continued on Saturday nest.)