A SHADOWED LOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12991, 7 October 1905, Page 3 (Supplement)

A SHADOWED LOVE.

By FEED M. WHITE. Author of "The Slave of Silence," "Lady Bountiful," " The Weight of The Crown," " Craven Fortune," " The Corner House." etc., etc.

[COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER XL. "not YF.T." A dkcokous silence reigned in the Record office, for the hour of clanking presses was not yet. There were the green shades throwing little pools of light upon the tables where a dozen or so of pale-faced meu worked feverishly. Here was one scoring rapidly with a pencil, another writing furicfusly, whilst, a. third was doing desperate things with a whole basketful of telegrams. The orderly hurry of it all seemed to please Spencer as lie moved through the ; building 011 his way to his own room. He looked straight, well set up, and pleased with himself this evening. The haggard look had gone from his eye.-*, his head was erect, with the carriage of a man who not only dares great things, but generally accomplishes them. The shades were on the tables in his own. room:; a pile of accounts with a parchmentcovered bank-book or two gave a suggestion of wealth and importance. For a long time Spencer sat there pondering over his columns of figures. His mind was perfectly clear now, his brain was working rapidly. "I fancy that will do," he muttered. " Another three months, and the thing will bo successfully accomplished. But £40,000 is a lot of money, and matters of this kind so easily go astray. If I only dared to show myself "a little more freely, if I could be seen in the city the thing would bo a certainty. And why not'' One man is out of the way, and the other dare not show his face for fear of the police. I must risk it." All the same Spencer started slightly as a clerk came in with a message to the effect that there was a gentleman waiting down below to see the head of the firm. Hi» nerves were not yet quite in such good order as he supposed. "It's Mr. MariMt. sir," the clerk said. " I thought— "Why did you not say so before?'' Spencer demanded, annoyed to find himself so easily disturbed. The room was so quiet and soothing. "Show him up at once." Martlett came in in his awn quiet manner. For once in a way he was in evening dress. He had been evidently dining somewhere and bad left early, for it was barely nine o'clock. He drew up a chair to the table and took a pinch of snuff. " You wanted to see me?" lie said tentatively. "It was the matter of that last mortgage." "And the one that has caused me more trouble th m i.ll the others put together. If 'wo can manage to pay that off, Martlett, j my task will be accomplished.*, I have | raised every penny I can on the paper I and my property elsewhere; I have pinched and scraped. Of course the Record is a fine income in itself, and worth a lot of money to sell, but 1 don't want to do that. What have tou done in the matter?" Martlett proceeded to explain. He had found a certain flaw in the signature to one of the old mortgages which had given the other side food lor serious reflection. " Of course they would like to foreclose now," he said. "They would make thousands by so doing. But if we fight them we gain time, and by the end of six months you will be in a position • to find the money. It would be a pity to spoil it all now." "A pity Spencer cried. "I have sunk half a million. I have built tip my scheme step by step; I have watched it expand before my eyes. It has been my penance, my life's atonement. And if I were to lose it now—" He paused and wiped his face, for lie was agitated and the room was warm. There was a wistful expression in his eyes, bis lips were twitching. It was' some little time before he spoke again. Martlett took snuff with great relish. " We are not going to fail," he said. "If necessary we will fight. ' Then there will be an order for the verification of signatures, and we shall gain the time we require. Put yourself '* in the witness-box for ten minutes, and the thing is settled." A peculiar spasm passed over Spencer's face. "I must," he said, desperately "I must if necessary. To-night 'I could face it; with >those figures before me I could dare..anything,- If 'I, were sure as to those two men—" "You are sure!" Martlett rasped out. ; " Thanks to Von Wrangel: you are certain. If you had gone a little more slowly into this business we need not have sailed quite .so close to the wind. Give me your instructions to act as I please over that: unattested signature and the thing is safe. I may have to call you as a witness." " Anything you like," Spencer cried. "I—l. must." 'He flung out his liandtf like a man who is prepared for anything. • Lung after Martlett had taken himself off with his snuff-box he sat staring with the rnaw of papers before him. He felt strung up and reckless enough: for anything' now, / but would his nerves be as steady. and true in the morning? Could he go out j into the street and meet one of two faces, and then carry out his 'resolution? A few years before such a- thing might have been possible, but not now. > All being Well, a few, months hence nothing mattered. • He would be able to speak then and clear himself in • the ; eyes of those, whose good opinion he valued. He had committed one crime, and, like many people in the same position, he bad been forced to commit another to hide the first. / And Martlett, the immaculate I Martlett, had suggested it. j Spencer was relieved and glad to find j himself no longer alone. Dick Stevenson had come in with head erect and eye shining. : There was envy as well as admira- j tion in Spencer's glance. He would have given up everything and ventured any- j thing to be young and strong ike th at ! again. His smile for the young man was quite fatherly. " Nothing wrong this time?" he asked. "No, indeed, sir," Dirk said joyously; "quite the contrary. 1 had to run" up for something, and I thought I would come and let you know " Spencer smiled again. Dick found himself wondering whether Mr. Spencer would be quite so amiable if he knew all that' had happened. As a matter of fact Dick had come up on purpose to tell him. 1 It was quite impossible for his engage-, ment to Mary to be kept ft secret. He grew a little more grave as the full weight j of his responsibility came upon him. ' . "I should like to have a little talk with' J you. sir, he said, "I daresay I have done wrong, but really I could ;not; i'lelp' it. But I think you ( ought to know." • Spencer motioned him to a chair.' There was something frank ? and;/ manly about Dick that made moet people / Mm, His face was red, but ha looked steadily' at his companion. "You see, I met your daughter under ' peculiar circumstances," he went on? "and from the Very. first we were drawn, together. They say pity is akin to love. It seemed so strings that one so beautiful and with such beautiful ' eyes. should /be : ; blind., lectured what she might be if you—you were dead. And I felt that I ; : should like nothing ! better than * to be her protector, and sho.liktv. me." 1 " I am not in the : least siu-prised at that," Mr. Spencer said,. cordially • /'^,.-.1

"Indeed, that is very good of you, sir, and it gives me courage to proceed. We saw a great' deal of one another, and I had some insight .into -. your secretnot of my own seeking. And gradually it came about— sir, I let Mary know that I loved her, and I was surprised that she loved me in return. I daresay it was wrong, for Mary will be rich and I shall be very poor and if'you are very angry—" Dick stopped breathless and confused. He had poured out his confession without stopping to think. He looked up almost fearfully at the man to whom he owed so much. But there was not the least suggestion of anger on Spencer's face. "So it has come, to this,".lie said. "It is very honourable of you to tSJI me; as a matter of fact, Mary will not lie rich at all." "So much the better, sir," Dick said, boldly. " Rash boy! Married happiness is not rendered any the less blissful because of money. Dick, you are a very ambitious young man." "Or a very conceited .one, sir," Dick said. "I don't, quite know which." "No, no; you have got the right stuff in you; and I like that square jaw of yours. But you have not sufficiently reflected over this business. There are reasons, which you may know some day, that prevent my interfering with Mary in her choice of a husband. I feel quite sure site has chosen well but have you . thought what an incubus a blind wife may bo'.''.' "I am ready to face that," Dick sam, boldly. Bis head was erect and his eyes shining now. "I asked Mary to be my wife with the fact before me. But she is not going to be blind." "She is not going to lie—what do you mean?" "I mean that Mary is going to see," Dick cried. "We have found the very man we most desired to see. He used to call himself Greigstein in the old Pantstreet days, but I know him now as Yon Wrangel. He has made a complete examination of Mary's eyes, and he says she will see. Lady Stanmere knows tills too. It is the best news one man ever brought, another." If it were so, then Spencer was most carefully disguising his feelings. There was no smile on his face, only a look of amazement, and it might bo a suggestion of fear. He ought to have bean wildly, extravagantly, enthusiastically glad. As it was lis sat in his chair, listening to Dick, with a strange, cold, hard look on his face. "You mean in the course of a long time," he said. • "Indeed I don't, sir," Dick went on, without noticing his companion's expression. "Von Wrangel has no doubts on the matter at all. He says that within a week Mary will see as well as you or I. He is going to operate at once." "He is going to operate at once! When?" _ " To-morrow night. He prefers the night time because he uses strong electric light. And all the plant is ready at hand at. Stanmere. Lady Stanmere telegraphed him to come down to-morrow. It is a terribly anxious time." " I forbid the whole thing altogether." A bucket of ice-cold water might have been suddenly poured over Dick by the way lie started and shivered. The. "words were harsh and hard and grating. "Forbid it, sir!" he gasped. "I—l don't understand. Do you-actually meanto say—" " My words were plain enouglt. Until I am thoroughly satisfied that .... Good heavens! it will upset all my plans. ... I shall be a ruined man. . . . And this is how one crime leads to another. Put it off, my boy get it postponed for a month, two months, and i will give you £10.000. I'll give you a partnership in the paper. Manage 'it for me, only manage it. . . ." Spencer's voice had sunk to a whisper, his eyes were gleaming. A strange, cunning expression had come over his face. The man was completely transformed. "This is an outrage," Dick exclaimed. " There is something wrong— brain has suddenly given way. Two or three months! To deprive any creature of God's greatest blessing for one moment when the skill of a man can restore it! Why, if you suggested the temporary blinding of the vilest criminal on earth for three months, the whole nation would rise up against you. And Mary! You are mad." There was a thrill of horror in Dick's voice, he recoiled white and trembling before the man opposite. The stinging. speech, the utter loathing and contempt, seemed to bring Spencer back to himself again. " You don't know," ho said, hoarsely: "you can't tell how I am placed. And it has been so long that a little longer . . . . and if the poor girl does not know." - "She does know," Dick said, sternly; " I Jo Id her. When she turned her face to mine and longed for sight, I told her. The coldest and most callous man would have done so. And now you deliberately try and ; bribe me to— ? you must be mad, mad!" " The last words rang through the room The chief of the Record actually cowered before the youngest and most recent member of his staff. He essayed to say something, but words failed j 'him. He would have explained it'nil away, but he. could not-.' Yes, I am mad," lie said. "It comes on me suddenly. Perhaps your news has been too much for me. I am not the man I was. But it is dreadful, horrible. Go and leave me." Without another word Dick turned and left, the room. , CHAPTER* XLT. CHAPTER XLIi ' VON- WR.n.VttEL CAPTURES another SPECIMEN". About -. the same time of night Von ■ Wrangel, in his ' shirt,-sleeves, was busy a/ranging his specimens in the little bed-' sitting-room- in Pant-street. He was on the best of terms with himself, for lie had lately taken two fresh specimens, and in addition he had jus* - had a telegram from Lady vStanmere asking him to go down tomono v/ to perform Mary's operation. The telegram , lay on the table, and ■ Von Wrangel had used ; t to mix some precipitate powder on. "This time 5 to-morrow, and that will be over," he said, sotto voce. " Under ordinary - circumstances it would lead to fresh complications. -.But the tiger moth is hiding, and he can do no harm for the present. . If -the tiger moth had not been a fool he would have been flitting to a foreign shore by this time. I must find out- and give him another warning. All the trouble I took at Stanmere the other night is not to be wasted I spoil sport no longer. Come in." The door opened and a little twisted man came in. He looked like "one who has been badly broken up at some time in a railway, accident— had a. big hump, and one" shoulder was higher than the other. Hi ere was a long, bold red scar across bis white face, but his eyes were wonderfully steady, and there was a certain suggestion of, power about his shoulders. ."So you are here, Louis/' Von Wrangel said, " You got • my < message?" "I: got, the letter, baron/'/ Louis said, in a husky whisper. His" voice seemed as queer a* 'his, body, And all day I have been' looking for-your man., I found him this morning, but. he did not see me. The bird is too shy to come here/ so I limed a, twig for him. Behold, in the evening paper,that they affect I put .an advertisement purporting i/to'- comß 1 ,, 1 from Mila.no. At-nine o'clock > to-night Hengel will .be" under the fourth elm tree on the walk by Regent's Park, nearest'the Zoo. And if you - happened 1 tolbe" there shunting butterflies you might- see him." The little; man -chuckled and i winked' one flaming, red eye, .y<ra~'.Wmigel smiled/* 4 j-" That::.■wfas* well'done," ! he - said, 4 ' especially as Hengfel fancies that nobody but myself and Milano knows him to be in England, ■ I jml go for » new specimen presently!, Regent's Park is not closed to I me; indeed,; it is not closed to anybody who pcsst&sos the necessary agility to " climb, a railing.. All, they are wise peoples, | these * London police." V " The tiger, moth lias net ffiwa away, " The . moth.id * fool. fed his Tlk tiger moth is :i iuu!. had his night -fin - London. f- Iheo. ho'drinks too

with his wings singed. I ! shall force Hen- ' gel to tell mo where he is, so that I. can repair those wings, for, between ourselves, Louis, the tiger moth must be got away for a time." j "Let him perish;" Louis grunted, with a sombre flash of > the red-eye. " For the sake of the family which has suffered so much at ,my hands I cannot. Go away, my dear Louis, and do not tempt me. There is a busy time ahead." Louis took his queer twisted body away •as silently as he had come. The easysmile faded from Von Wrangel's face; he had the air of one who has serious work before him.- A little time after, and ho was walking away in a north-west direction with a little box strapped to his back and a lantern in Ins hand. Regent's Park had been a happy huntingground for a long while, and, though the gates were closed and the police vigilant, Von Wrangel had lio difficulty in getting access to the park. As a character he was well known to the police, who looked upon, him as a harmless lunatic, who had somehow or other contrived to find a friend at court. " You'll have it all to yourself to-night, sir," the policeman in the park suggested, "All, so you think," Von Wrangel replied. " I tell you I see some queer specimens in these parks. If they were wise they would bo thrown open all day and night and patrolled by the police. Yon think yonder place is empty! Bah!' so j empty that I always carry this." He touched his hip pocket significantly. A moment later his lamp wae flashing inside and he had given himwlf entirely up to the pursuit of his favourite hobby. He had plenty of time before it became necessary to work hi» way round to the rendezvous. (To be continued on Wednesday next.)

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.]