THE ADVENTURES OF ALICIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12930, 28 July 1905, Page 3

THE ADVENTURES OF ALICIA.

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL AEBANGBKBOT.J

BY KATHARINE TYNAN, ' Author of "A Red, Bed Rose." " The Dear Irish Girl," " That Sweet Enemy," ■" The Handsome Brandons," " A Daughter of the Fields," Etc., Etc. CHAPTER XXV.—(Continued.) Molly was up and over the wall in a second. As soon as she was down on the other side she caught up her skirt of green linen daintily and set out running in the direction of the shouts, which were growing momentarily wilder and hoarser. She got over the ground like Atalanta, although in places it was rough and broken. In her green gown she might have been a wood nymph, the spirit of the place. The shouts led her to a, green glade. There was someone standing in an attitude of pain and constraint—Lord Slaneymore. Molly had no time to think upon the way the gods had dealt out justice. : To her surprise she was as anxious to release Lord Slaneymore as she would have been to release anyone else. She went down on her knees beside him. "You won't be able to do it," he said. Looking up at him Molly saw the sweat on his forehead, the suffering in his face; and something kind and pitying sprang to life in her heart. " Better fetch a man. I think I can hold out a bit longer while you run to the house."

" You see I have done it so often," said Molly. " I believe I've developed the special muscles required." Her saw her golden head through a film of suffering, her two little strong brown hands on the trap. She put all her strength into it. The toothed sides of the trap parted, released him he was free of it. Molly was standing up by him, tall and slender, offering him a shoulder to help him to a grassy bank a lew steps off. "Do you think your ankle is broken?" she .asked him anxiously. " I can't tell anything about it at present except that it is horribly evident. I must have been there two hours. I've never fainted in my life, but I believe I was uncommonly near it when you arrived." He leant his head back against a tree trunk with closed eyes. Molly thought lie was about to faint then and there.

" There are pleasanter positions than standing for two hours with your foot caught in a man-trap," he said in an apologetic murmur.

"I'll get you some water," she said. "There's some close by. Can you drink from my hands?" " I shall try to." She brought him water in her small brown hands. He drank it, and when he had finished he lifted the wet hands and laid them on his forehead. Then he took them and kissed them.

"Forgive me," he said. "I'm so grateful. What strong little hands they are." j " I am going to get help for you," Molly said. "But meanwhile, that boot ought to come off. The ankle will swell like mad. Could you stand my getting it off?" " I shall try to. It won't be as bad as the trap." She took a sharp pen-knife from her pocket and cut through the laces with great deftness. She got the boot off and cut through the stocking, removing that also. He bore it in stoical silence. Then she took her handkerchief and dipped it in the water, and making a compress of it she laid it about the bruised and discoloured ankle. She assisted him to put the foot up on the grassy bank: while he leant against a tree trunk.

" How quick you were over it, and how ! clever!" he said with white lips when she had finished. " \ "Children from the village have been caught in the traps before," she said, " and I saw what the doctor did. To be* sure there wasn't the complication of boots and stockings." "Children? In the traps!" he broke in. "Good God! , What is the meaning of it? Who laid the traps? Who empowered them to be laid?" ■ "Your head gamekeeper. We thought you authorised him." .!' ' "I! Good heavens, no! He shall pay for this." . •' "That trap was meant for me," said Molly, standing up after, leaving her patient pretty comfortable. "For years I and my. brothers have broken up the traps. lam going to break this as soon as I've brought the ; doctor and a carnage. There isn't a dog or cat in the village that isn't maimed, and the traps have killed and maimed thousands of wild things. To be sure Henderson found us a poaching population, and has made us law-abiding. I speak in a general way." ; "He meant the trap for you the young man' said with incredulous horror. ."Why,if you had been caught in it, I should have killed him with my own hands. ; I ought to have come before." "Happily, you haven't come too late," said Molly, with a blush which she hoped he did not notice. "Aid you believed I authorised- it? Good heavens " You see, I didn't know you," said Molly, She , reserved that reminiscence of the Eton boy for another occasion. CHAPTER XXVI. THE 810 WIND. It 1 was the day before Oarew's return was looked for. To-night he would be crossing from Kingstown to Dublin. He would be here to-morrow. After five years of separation Carew was coming at last. The days and weeks and months and years of absence were over.. Oarew was coining. Alicia coidd scarcely believe in her own happiness. There were times when she felt frightened and strange and cold. ' Supposing he were different from the Carew she remembered! Supposing he should find her different!

She was restless. Everything that could be done against the traveller's coming had been done. He was to come home to Mount MacNamara', instead of .to his own lonely house. Why, he had always been one of themselves, dear $as a. son to the colonel. The colonel was' nearly as excited about his coming as Alicia herself. "Go out and walk it off," said Molly coming in and finding Alicia sitting with a book in her lap, which she could not read. ""0 out and walk it off. Tire yourself out, so that you may get some sleep tonight, and look your best for Carew tomorrow."

"Thank you, Molly, I think I will," Alicia answered getting up and putting away the inadequate book. ° le wa, y»" Molly called after her, there s something I want to say, Alicia. I m downright sorry for having said to you when you went, away three years ago, that you must give up Carew and marry a rich Knglishmai. ■ I was only an impudent child then; you see I didn't know." " Ah, and you know now, Molly," Alicia! said, looking at her with a quietly contemplative gaze under which Molly fidgeted and blushed. Lord Slaneymore had been a good deal about the house of late, although still limped a little from the injury to his ankle bone. Things were different now at Slaneymore, under the new merciful rule. The Slaney villagers and tenants were loud in their praises of; the young lord, a^d, Molly looked as pleased over 11all as though she had not but recently considered Slaneymore the enemy. 0 I Ins evening there was a dead calm, alience lay all over the land. The mountains were grey and quiet. Not a. seagull screamed. Even the Atlantic rollers broke o ,0 "2 beach with a low moan. • i ? leW have a smooth passage," said the colonel, rubbing his hands together as Alicia came in out of the dusk to the lamp-lit drawmgroom, blinking in tie light. Aunt Sibbie looked up with a sympathetic smile. She had always bee® fond of Carew. •Miss Luttrell sitting in the chimney-corner working away at baby clothes for some of the poor babies in the village, took Alicia's Liana in hers as the girl came and leant against the chimney-piece, and pressed it with a loving understanding. They had all grown used by this time to Miss Luttrell sitting there and sewing, and would have missed her almost as they would have missed Aunt Sibbie. Such a clamour broke out whenever she talked of going, that she could only laugh and protest'and remain. "You had better stay altogether," the colonel had said to her once, and then had turned very red, honest gentleman, but nevertheless had not looked as though, lie had made a mistake. '/ "

" Everything is coming right," said Alicia when she went in that night to Miss Luttrell's room for the little chat which usually took place at. that hour. " I should not have felt quite so happy if Tom Heseltine had not written to announce his engagement to his cousin. I should hate to think the kind fellow had suffered through me. He says I showed him the way. lam so glad he understood. She is such a sweet little thing. And the count too. It is pleasant to think of his happiness." "I am very glad too. I liked your Mr. Heseltine, Alicia. It all -ends like a fairy story " " if only Carew and I had a little money!" The words trembled on Alicia's lips, and were not spoken. . She had a delicacy in talking about want of money to Miss Luttrell, who was a! rich woman. Suddenly the wild cried and clapped about the'house like the wings of a monstrous bird ; died away, cried and clapped again. Molly came into the room. " There is going to be a storm, Alicia," she said. " I knew that unnatural calm portended something but I would not say so to frighten you. The storm is from the west, and Carew will be in before it breaks on the Irish Sea. ' Don't be frightened, ■Alicia.."

" There is such a change in Molly," said Alicia, when she had gone. It is wonderful. She has grown so sympathetic. I should quite miss the old Molly if Eily were not growing to be exactly like what Molly was."

She fell asleep, to the rough chant of the wind and the waves. She had commended her lover to heaven.in her prayers, as she had done every night since lie had left her. Kind Molly! Carew would be in before the storm could have raced across Ireland tc hurl itself upon the seas where in her thoughts was only one ship, and that the one that carried Carew.

She slept, and awoke to the wildest hurlyburly, beyond anything she could have imagined. At first she did not know what was happening. Wind! Why, she had known the wind all her life, a fresh and furious wind often enough, buffeting in from the Atlantic. But this—this was some elemental force of Nature let loose to rend and destroy. She sat up in bed, lit her candle, and looked at her watch. Two o'clock-rrCarew was well out at sea now. There was a tapping at the door, and her father came in. "Are you frightened, child?" he asked. " Better get up and dress yourself and come downstairs. In the dining-room we shall hear less of the storm." •

They gathered, servants and all, in tlie dining-room. The servants cowered and prayed in the dim comers of the room, while their betters tried to keep up each other's courage by various methods. Miss Sibbie played the piano, with crashing chords that cried against the storm. She looked excited, exhilarated. The Big Wind bad got into her heat* as it got into the heads of many that night. Many were deaf for months after the storm.; others suffered from headaches. Some who had been merely nervous and excited were driven crazy. It was quite light— seven o'clock of the February morningwhen at last the storm showed signs of moderating. The colonel went round the house opening winy dows, looking on the desolation the storm had wrought. His new hayshed had disappeared, torn up in the giant child's-play of the storm-. The sheds were stripped of slates and were only bare rafters. They were built as strongly as the house or they would have been in ruins.

It died af last into a day as grey and still as it had been last night before the storm. Oarew would be with them for lunch, unless the storm bad interfered by blocking the way. While they breakfasted the poor people were coming to the door with tales of disaster. Everyone had suffered. Some the storm had ruined.

"We can only . say," said the colonel, "that it is the visitation of God." .

He was in trouble for the trouble of his neighbours, and forgot about his own losses, which he could bear but badly. '.'I am going to see how the castle has stood it," said Alicia, rising from the breakfast-table. "Poor old Maureen! It was enough to kill her with fright, so old and alone." .. " It will be too bad," the colonel : said to his sister .'and-Miss Luttrell, "if the lad comes home to find , is house .rains. I am coming with you, Alicia," lie added. ' ' The words were hardly . spoken when Maureen Sweeney rushed in wildly, with a crowd of curious faces in the doorway. Her grey hair was about her shoulders. Shfl was dancing like a mad creature, and shouting in a high, cracked voice. " She's gone mad entirely," said the people in the doorway.' " Come with me, colonel, jewel," she said, pulling Colonel MacNamara by the arm. "I've something to say- that oughtn't to be heard by rogues and vagabonds. Not that there's one tee 'ud wrong him. Bring a few men with you. Och, sure, this is the glorious day!" • The colonel shut out the gaping crowd. " We're coming, Maureen, Miss Alicia and myself," he said soothingly. "W ere you very much frightened? I hope the castle is all right." " "It's the blessedest storm ever was. Sure don't be delayin'. Come along, and bring a few strong } men with. you. . The treasure is found. " To think he comes home to hear such news!"

They took it at firsts for a madwoman's tale; r but it was true enough. The great walnut tree was down. It had' torn tip in its fall some of the foundations of the floor of the castle. Its roots had laid bare the secret they had clasped so long, the great chests in which were stored the gold and silver and jewelled vessels and images and plates and dishes of the Santiago di Cornpostella, with thousands of doubloons and pieces of eight. It was apparently of incalculable value. Henceforth there would be no more lack of money than there was of love at Castle Truagli. What news there was awaiting. Sir Carew when he sprang out of the train and kissed his sweetheart before them all.. As for the storm, why, he had slept through it and dreamt of Alicia, little knowing how, what had wrought havoc and ruin to others had made him fabulously rich. When the don's treasure was realised it placed Sir Carew MticNamava . among the very, rich men of the kingdom. And that was odd enough for a MacNamara, and a grand, tiling for many in that countryside, for the poor people shared in the great prosperity which had come to its own particular quality. "And after all," said Molly, on the eve of becoming Lady Slaneymore, " Alicia did very well for herself. She amid hardly have done better if she had allowed Denis and Dan and me to shape lier destiny. What selfish pigs we were!" This to Denis home on leave from Sandhurst. Prosperity smiled on all the family, and Aunt Grace had sent Alicia a diamond tiara which would never have come her way if she'd married a poor man. Alicia had. received all manner of presents, and was delighted at the universal good will, especially from those who had been good to her when she was "on the world." Mabel O'Kelly had come home to be a bridesmaid, and there seemed to be an understanding between her and Harvey Knox which pleased Molly, grown sympathetic to lovers as much as anyone. " Dan and I didn't really agree with you," Denis said. "We always thought Carew the. finest fellow in the world. We think so still." " Oh, Denis," said Molly, reproachfully, : "even when, you know Slaney!" [the end.]