MY LADY'S KISS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13725, 15 April 1908, Page 10

MY LADY'S KISS.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY NORMAN INNES, Author of " The Surge of War," "Parson Croft," " The Lonely Guard," etc.

HIBTORICA L ROMANCE.

[COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER Vll(Continued.) Ha vim; made this discovery, Ertha von Rent li stood for some moments in thought. The wax guttered down upon the high boots she' wore, her lips as her hands were trembling and then she smiled. It was hardly a smile of mirth, nor yet. of content, yet smile she did an 1 softly closed the cupboard at the sound of approaching footsteps. Crete Zips sprang from the bed with a cry of alarm, as to the grating of bolts in their sockets a man entered with their supper, a disn of moat, cheese, fruit, and a jug of wine. He set the victuals, all but noiselessly, upon the table, and without a second glance at the prisoners closed the door, turned the key in the lock and went his way down the passage, while Mistress Ertha laughed outright and the startled maid came near to wo.pmg afresh, thinking that her mistress had lost her reason. The man had been in the room but a minute, and careless loon, mid forgotten to shoot the door-bolts as Ha tha von lie nth hut not failed to notice.

Ti*ie latter, though :lie waiting woman would hardly touch a morsel of supper, ate with awakened appetite, and having thrown more fuel upon the fire said with a yawn that they had best go straightway to bed. The maid, scarcely able to keep her eyes 01 en, gave way to some fear on this head, and suggested that they should watch and sleep by turns, but her mistress over-ruled her, pointing out that there were bolts upon the inside as well as upon the face of the door, and urging the necessity of sleep. In the end, Crete Zips' fears were .'et aside, and ridding themselves of their luckless disguise, the two were soon each in her bed with the fire burning brightly and a candle alight upon the table before the hearth. It was very silent in that quarter of the keep, and though it could have been but little after nine, they might have been lying in a castle of the dead, deep in an enchanted forest for all sound of others in the building that reached them. The sigh of the wind, the fall of the embers, the creak of some great beam beneath the hand of Age, was all that broke the stillness, for Crete iiad sobbed herself to sleep within a few minutes of laying her head upon the pillow, her own evil case and the worse strait of her father alike forgotten. Utter weariness had brought peace to her heart. But if the maid slept, rest was not for the mistress. Though she, too, had undressed with relief, and had Hung herself upon her bed. unlike the other she lay wide awake staring up at the nicker of the firelight upon the dark timbers above her. She was deep in her thoughts once again, not indeed in the hope of finding an issue from their strait, in the weighing of chances or the counting of odds, but racking her wits to hit on an answer to the riddle of the cupboard and its contents. Did they belong to some women of the place who had been, hastily deprived of their lodging to make room for the prisoners? It was the readiest solution, yet after a moment's reflection, reason compelled her to put it aside. To judge from appearances, the rust upon the door-latch, the dampness of the air in spite of the fire, it was many months, perhaps years, since that bare, comfortless chamber had known regular occupants. Dust spread the floor, dust clung to the walls, cobwebs festooned the beams overhead. Signs of long disuse were evident on either hand. The beds, the table, the bench, and the garments upon it, alone lacked the telltale covering of dust-. Reason as she might fhe could not rid herself of the assurance that those clothes had been laid but recently within the cupboard, as recently as the beds had been set up and made ' read v.

Was their secret discovered? Had St. Eux been playing her false the long day through, feigning to be deceived though well aware of their disguise? Had the riddle bean read, when those grey eyes first met hers in the Count's audience-chamber? Had the dragoon played a part on their journey from Neufels undeceived yet deceiving? Was she then the. fool, the dupe of one whose discernment she had despised? Her cheeks burned, her hands clenched in shame and resentment. So for hours she had been the man's sport, and now he was chuckling, doubtless, over her chagrin at learning, by means of his own choosing, that he held her secret. Rather would she have had him denounce her before von Neufels, in the face of his squadron, than wound her pride with mockery so subtle. Disappointment and despair were swallowed in humiliation; beneath her breath she swore vengeance on the man. One thing she was bent on, she would have clone with the false position that had weighed on her throughout the day. As a man she liad failed, as a woman she might tempt Fortune anew. Disguised she had been, hampered by unknown conditions, in the garb of her own sex she felt more equal in the task of playing her part for herself and her sen-ants." '. he fire was low but the candle burned on unflickering when raising herself softly upon her elbow she glanced at the woman in the further bed. Greta Zips was sound asleep and breathing heavily as her mistress got up, crossed the room and, taking the candle from lh-3 table, opened the cupboard door. A mouse scurried forth, but stifling a scream she chose a gown from those ordered piles. By the firelight she dressed herself without tire-maid or minor, never heeding the coarseness of the homespun or the tact that her new possessions fitted her but indifferently. Once again she felt at case, ready for all that Fate held, equal to facing an unequal contest as she had never been when masquerading as Ernst von Kemmcl. She was almost exultant in this unlooked-for return to womanhood ; it was only when she glanced at the heavy nail studded door that her heart misgave her. Were the bolts r.nshot after all? Was the key she had found beside the garments but a. piece of malignant mockery ''. Softly on tip-toe she stole to the door with an anxious glance at the sleeping girl, softly she slipped the key into the lock and paused as if irresolute. Then her grip tigl tened, metal grated on metal, and with a creak and a jar the bolt fell back. Crete stirred in her sleep, her mistress listened tumbling. lhe hinges groaned as little by little the door swung inwards. Hesitating she held it in its place for a while, dreading its further opening, loth to face that which might meet her beyond. Her heart was beating, her nerves a-rack, she stood in need of all her courage to draw the door towards her. Gradually, inch by inch, it swung inwards, and white-lipped, wide-eyed, she peeped out into the corridor. 'Not three paces from her a 'lamp was burning feebly. She gave a gasp of relief; far as she could see there was nothing to right or left but a medley of shadows. The night wind blew cold, the candle she carried was ilii'kering in the draught, but Ertha von Reuth had done with fear - . With one last glance at her maid she stepped through the doorway, made fast the lock behind her, and thrusting the key in her bosom, candle in hand, stepped boldly down the passage. Her footfall was light'; whoever had placed those clothes within the cupboard had forgotten that a lady should not walk abroad without shoes. She smiled at the omission, yet thanked Heaven for the oversight, caring little that the flags struck cold to her stockinged feet. Without a pause, with but little hesitation she held on her way, through the length of the passage and down a flight of steps into a wider corridor where the lamps were swaying in the wind and the faded arras billowed upon the wall. Past doors, past loopholes and windows, till a cross-passage bade her halt to consider her further course. Then, as she peered to right and left, a. gust of wind swept by her and her candle was extinguished in a moment.

CHAPTER VIII. AT ISSUJi. The night wind eddied about her. the lumps swayed in the draught, on the walls the shadows were dancing as Mistress Ertlia paused to consider the direction she. should follow. Not a sound had she. to guide her, the distant baying of a hound and a gust- of far-off laughter gave her no clue to her whereabouts-, nor choice as to which turning

she should take. The lights burned with a smoky flicker, throwing distorted shadows on floor" and roof, making the darkness seem yet darker. The woman was doubtful, nay, fearful; her loneliness, the strange surroundings added to the weight of her difficulties. ~ And then as she hesitated, half minded to steal back to the tire-lit room where her maid lay sleeping, she started <m something brushed her skirts to smile as a plaintive familiar sound rose from her feet. A cat was purring beside her, a small black cat whose yellow eyes stared worcderiiigly up into hers. The creature had startled her, but its presence was none the loss welcome; Here then was some living thing in that lonely place of shadows. She stooped to stroke its arching back, and the cat ran on before her to halt with tail erect some three paces down the right hand corridor. Mistress Ertlia smiled again ; she had found a guide, at least as such she would look upon the animal. Once again she would have stroked it, but- the cat, coy and elusive as any of her kind, slipped away to turn once more a few yards in front of the woman. In this fashion Ertha von Reuth reached a wide hall with doors on either hand. Before the first of these that lay upon her right the cat stood still and, looking back at the woman ho was hesitating upon the lowest step, mewed expectantly as the heavy tread of booted feet and gruff voices rang from a curtained opening upon the opposite side of the hall. Men were coming her way, she had but a. moment in which to make choice of advance or retreat. Again the black cat mewed, and in a moment Mi-tress Ertha had slipped across the hall and stood breathless in a deep-set doorway her hand clutching a latch. Whither had the beast led her? Perhaps to a room occupied by the old dame whom they had met when St. Eux had gone with them to their lodgings? Or to the buttery, where milk and food were to be had? Little time had she, however, to waste in thought if she would remain undiscovered. Site caught the sound of a curtain being drawn back, and a man's voice bidding his follows be silent. The cat raised her forepaws to the panel, mewing once more, and with her heart in her mouth, Mistress Ertha pressed down the latch, softly followed the cat through the opening, and found herself in pitchy darkness as she closed the door noiselessly behind her. I Where she was she could not guess; trembling she listened to the tramp "of the men-at-arms without. The air struck warmer, there was a carpet beneath her feet, and straining her eyes she gradually became aware of a- narrow streak of light trembling in the gloom before her. With utmost caution, with hands outstretched, she made her way towards it, brushing more than once against some heavy piece of furniture to pause as her fingers touched a curtain. Its folds yielded all but imperceptibly before her, 'and the vertical bar of light grew wider.

So there was another room beyond; how she longed to peep within and learn what it held, though on that head she was not left long in doubt. The click of a latch followed by a few hushed words of command, the tramp of iron-shod feet, and she woke to the- tact that the very men she had sought to avoid in the outer hail were entering the further chamber, sight of which those closely drawn curtains denied. Mistress Ertha had forgotten her fears, the whispers of those she saw not, the subtle invitation of that seam of light and a curiosity she could not master called her. She stole nearer to where the cm-tains mot, clutched their edges with trembling lingers, and as the black cat, mewing eagerly, thrust herself forward against the hanging folds and crept between them, the oman had a glimpse of a long cliamber, of a knot of soldiers gathered at its distant end, and immediately before her the broad back of a man seated at a table not a yard from the curtains through which sho peered. Mistress Ertha stood as if turned to stone; deep sunk in the chair—she could have touched with her outstretched hand— lounged he of whom all others in Staren she hated, Giors do St. Eux.

But it was not the proximity of her enemy that froze her heart's blood, "tltat held her as though doomed to gaze through that chink for ever and a. day, nor the "glimpse of the rough men-at-arms who fronted their captain with expectant eyes. No, it was the sight of him who steed pinioned between two of the dragoons, who, with sparse frame erect and weather-worn features undismayed, faced von Neufels' captain, Karl Zips, her father's servant. Horror-struck, she could not turn her eyes from the picture forgetful of herself and all else she held the curtains an inch apart with eyes fixed upon her huntsman. Then St. Eux spoke; his voice was harsh, if low-pitched. Your name, follow?" he demanded curtly without looking at the prisoner or at the troopers who held him. "Karl Zips," was the quick response. Mistress Ertha trembled for what this questioning might bring forth. " Your calling?" " Servant to the voting Freiherr Ernst of Kemmel." answered the other readily. St. Eux looked up at the speaker. "And your business of late, fellow?" " To follow my master to Neufels, nay it please your worship." "Then thou hast failed in thy duty, old man," rejoined the castellan. Karl Zips was dumb, perhaps he did not read the other's meaning. It was St. Eux who broke the silence; his eyes were fixed upon the prisoner. " Knave, do you know that you left your master at dawn this very morning by the roadside 'twist Kemmel and Neufels?" The watchc. started; she saw the old servant wince. But the man's face grew hard again, dull rather and dogged. " Nay," he answered. " I followed my master to Neufels and thence rode hither, as ynir worship knows." " You lie, knave," said St. Eux, leaning hack in his chair. " Now, tell me, who are these youths, your fellow prisoners? Is either of them Ernst von Kemmel?" "Of a surety, my lord,' answered Zips unabashed. His questioner laughed ominously. "Nay,' rack your wits, old man. or by Heaven I'll rack your body. The name of the gallant I 1 old prisoner?" " I have told you," the huntsman answered. The dragoon sank lower in the chair to fondle the cat who crouched purring on his knees.. (To he continue! daily.)