THE EDGE OF THE SWORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13392, 22 January 1907, Page 3

THE EDGE OF THE SWORD.

[PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.]

BY FRED M. WHITE. Author of " The Nether Millstone," " The Corner House," " The .Scales of Justice," " Craven Fortune." etc., etc. [COPYRIGHT.] SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS. Lionel Harvey is writing .i story, under the uom de plume of Rodney Payne, for the. Daily Record. Ill'- beautiful Klsie Armstrong, whose lover lie was, is suddenly shown in to -ft- the novelist, for the novel in mysteriously developing upon the lines of a tragedy in which her brother Dick is concerned. She is surprised to meet Lin--1" I - A year or two before he had silently borne lie blame of a bank forgery of which young Armstrong was guilty, and this had sp)>iii a ted the lovers. Th» novel tells how Kick's prototype Income;. secretary to a nobleman, and talis in love with his daughter, forges a, signature, and—in the last installment—how the nobleman is found stunned, and the key of the safe containing the kite l.ady Manning! l ee's emeralds is lost. This exactly describes what has just, occurred. Dick, his sister says, ha.* forged a signature. Lionel cannot explain the coincidence , it must, lie telepathy. Is the secretary or another character ill the story, a woman, to Is* mad* the thief? Dick was m London at the time of the outrage. Lionel alters the end of the next instalment, and, to hi« amazement, when he arrives home the Mannuigtree emeralds are lying in his desk. A lady going out. had passed him in the hall as he came in.

Joining Klsie at the theatre, in answer io a telephone message, a lady is pointed out to him in a box. in whose company Dick Armstrong had been a few moments before. The lady shows signs of mental distress.