THE ATONEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 5

THE ATONEMENT.

A STORY OP MODERN , ADVENTURE. BY JAMES BL.YTH. Author of " A Ho'.ardous Wooing," etc COPYRIGHT. CHAPTER XXIII.-(Cohtinued.^ I found granny and Frank in the kitchen. Tom had been up all night watching for tho dirigible, and hie sleep was sacred. •The old farmer was so maddened by what he considered to be a flaw in his hospitality that lie was trapesing over his level, muzzle-loader in hand, and had sworn to find his guest or die. Frank and old granny sat against the kitchen fire, though tho morning sun was now. growing hot, and I could see that they were downcast. : • " You can't say a word to me as 1 shall take amiss," began old granny. " She comchere and trusted us, and we ha' let her go like this." Frank fidgeted in his wooden chair. "Wo don't know as she ha' come to any harm, granny," he said, with an appealing look to me which told me even more than granny's wailing, that the Prettymans were convinced' that harm had come to Ruth. "We wasn't to know as she'd set out alone so 'arly. I mane so 'arly for her'. Tha'ss the fust time as she ha' guitjU out on the wall so arly." "Where's Rose?" cried granny. "Where's that gal?" " I hain't seed her since dew snack," said Frank. "1 reckon she's a huntin' tor Mifs Ruth."

Granny sniffed. I went forward and took the old lady's hand. "My dear granny," 1 said, " whatever has happened no one will blame you! You are the truest and most generous of women! It is not your fault if ill has come to Miss Pettingill. I know that as surely as that I will I';r<l her. Perhaps she's slipped and sprained or broken her ankle, and is lying somewhere on the wall or on the marsh." Grannv groaned. "Don't ye, don't ye, Master Jack," sho said. " I can stand it. You know as well as me that every inch o wall and mash ha' been s'arched since we did'nt see her on the wall. Sho oughtn't to ha' been allowed to go by herself. Dick see her set "out. He ought to ha' folletcd tier." , ~ "And tha'ss a fact," said the humble and repentant Dick. But I couldn't see it in that light. "My dear friends," I said, "there was no obligation on you to watch her. Indeed, she might have resented it. You have no cause whatever to blame yourselves. Butall this is no use. Dick, will you come with me and see what feelings we can find? It may be of some good and it may not. Ul'. -tinny threw me a glance, "lu have a hearin' with Rose whilo you re gone," she said, 'and I knew that there was meaning in her words. But what could Rose have to do with this disappearance? Surely granny did not suggest that the girl had murdered Ruth for rivalry. And then it suddenly occurred to me that I had found her, Roso, on the river ■ ->il tl" • other day soon after I had imagined that I saw a red-headed man who disappeared at my approach! Could it be?—oh, pooh! Of course not! Ruth must have slipped down owing to 'some accident, and I hoped that we should find her none the worse very soon. But although I say I hoped, I did not reallv entertain such a hope. I had walked a"long the wall on which Ruth should have made her way. She could have no reason to take her off the wall to the marsh or rond! And it she had slipped from the wall down to the reed bed at its bottom she would have called out to me as

I passed. At heart I, knew that she had been kidnapped by some stealthy emissary of Stafford's. But how? How could he have arranged that sho should go along the river wall, to meet me, possibly, although she had said nothing of her intention, at a time when his myrmidons could seize upon herf All this speculation and theorising was futile. Action, action, was what was wanted. Dick looked at me furtively, and then brought out both a Mauser pistol and a rifle. "I wentured to go to yar room," he said. " and brought 'em down. They can't do no harm." Ihad only taken out the Webley and Scott that morning. I nodded to him, and took one of the Mauser pistols and a rifle. The other pistol I told him to keep, and asked him to give the other rifle to Tom. For Tom was older than Dick and Frank, and a more experienced shot. I felt that he would not complain of being roused when he knew the facts. Dick nodded, and ran up to the main sleeping quarters. Before he had returned I made up my mind what course to pursue. Ruth had been seen going in the direction I had gone, and had last been observed when near a bend in the wall which shut in a very thick bank of reeds, growing round the inlet which is all that remains of the old tidal or " fleet" dyke. 1 would take one of the farmhouse boats and coast close in by the river side, while the others who searched with me would keep pace along the river wall and the rond. In less than ten minutes after my return to the farmhouse Tom, Dick, and Frank were ready. , I asked Tom to take a rifle, Dick to take one of the Mauser pistols, Frank to take the other Mauser pistol. I had my .620 Webley and Scott and a Mauser rifle. All the firearms, except my Webley and Scott, were furnished with Maxim silencers.

Tom and Frank were to take tho wall and rond, while Dick and I paddled along on the river, watching the marks on the mud and peaty rond. All of us made straight, without pausing, for the point where Ruth had last been seen, a point which proved to be about fifty yards on the' farmhouse side of the great bed of reeds before mentioned. " I can see her little titty feetins," yelled Tom from the wall. " Here they be as plain as plain, and here come yar'n comin' home way atop on 'em. . Ah, Lor! Tha'ss wholly rum. And" here be yar'n a goin', unnerneath hers ! Here they go 1 Here they goo! Hallo!" he shouted out when he came near the great reed bed. "Wha'ss this? Wha'ss this? This is new feetins! Big feetins, as make a greasy mark !" I knew what he meant; it is the mark of a rubber sole! I began to curse myself for being in the boat except that I hoped we might " bolt" the villain and his victim out into the river. I began to believe that some scoundrel helot of Stafford's had been bribed to abduct her forcibly, that he had come upon her on the river wall and carried her to a boat he had hidden in the old Fleet Dyke, which was still plenty deep enough at half tide to float a dinghy. If so. and the villain were now hiding in the thick bed of reeds, Tom and Frank might; drive him out from the land side and I should have the best of the action on the river. I looked at my Webley and Scott, pumped up a cartridge, glanced at the magazine and lock of the Mauser rifle I had retained, and pushed in closer to the shore. It was of no use to hush our voices now. If there were anyone lurking in a boat, or half sunk in the ooze on his feet, within the cover of the great reed bed, he or they had already heard us. Our game was one which depended on fighting force, and I flattered myself that we were bound to win.

"Here they come and here they go!" cried Tom, while his younger brother, Frank, corroborated him with admiring chuckles. " Here they come and here they go! Hallo! . Now the little titty ones ha' gorn! Where the blamed pigstye ha' they gorn tew? They was here" — stamped on the river wall, and shouted at me, though I was not more than ten or fifteen yards distant— "and now they bain't ta be seed ! Ho! ho ! 1 twig, master! Can you come.ashore?" I motioned to him in the negative. I believed (hat, hidden in the bed of reeds, probably in a dinghy in the old Fleet Dyke, I should find the kidnapper and my darling. But why did she not cry out

now that she heard our voices? That puzzled me until I remembered, boiling blood, that the villains would either gag her or threaten her with such condign and immediate punishment should she call out that she dared not disobey them if— if—she had hopes of rescue. If she heard us round her she would have very high hopes of rescue, and would not endanger her life or her beauty by calling out.

" She ha' been carried down off the wall," said Tom. "Why th bloomin' slush 1 didn't ye call me afore, ye young fools?" He turned on Dick and Frank, though they were not together, one being with me and one with him. "If you d ha' brought me here as soon as you began to think as some'at waß wrong, I'd fla' striked 'em and had 'em by now. But now, I doubt it! I doubt it! . These here fettins is none too fresh. Thay're a good hour afore Matter Jack trod over 'em. But'tha'ss no good grumblin' now. Master Jack, dee you drive 'em in by the deeak and me and Frank will try to flush 'em t'rough the reeds."

The plan was as good as any that 1 could devise. If Tom were to be believed, and none of the Prettyman family were liars, he had found a trail which went to show that Ruth had been carried down from the river wall to the rond and there hidden in the reed bed. But was she there still ? On that depended the success of our hunt! I could not expect my friends to show as much anxiety for the loss of Ruth as 1 felt. But it vexed me to hear and see Tom treating this search, the most, Vital to mo of anything in my life, as though we were merely driving a bit of cover for game. "Kape yar gun handy." stud Tom, with a chuckle, while I headed the farm row boat for the entrance to the eld Fleet Dyke, "Kape yar handy. There's no knowing what yo may flush. Hor ! Hot- ! Hor!"

Surely, I thought, if there were any emissary of Stafford's hiding with Ruth under the screen of the dense reeds he .must . have shown himself before now. Could he hope to escape by dodging out onto the rond oi: either side of the bed '( Hardly, for one thing I, who had shot those ronds .time and time again, knew that the surface of the peaty soil about that Fleet Dyke was so treacherous thai one was apt to find oneself up to the thigh and gasping with the effort to catch some reed stems for safety, within a few minutes of trusting one's weight to the peat. Nop if Ruth and her abductor were still there they must be in the boat. I shipped my sculls and pushed our row boat, with Dick astern, up the dyke. Dick was very much alive. He held the Mauser I had given him at his shoulder, for I had shown him how to fix the pistol to its holster as a butt, and his eyes were aflame, as I had seen them when he was watching for a rabbit to bolt. "Look you out yar side, Frank," cried Tom,, as he, in his great marsh boots, crashed down into the reeds. "Here, bor," he shouted to Frank "Gi'e me them bit's o' match boardin' I told ye to bring." These thin planks were* to act as supports on the treacherous slime of the surface. I heard the swish of the thrust of them through the reeds and the noise of Tom's feet as ho tried his weight upon their support. "Look you out, Master Jack!" he said, "Look you out!" You see we dared not shoot at random into the i;eeds, lest we should hit Ruth. But by this time I no longer believed that either Ruth or anyone was within the reed bed. I might have known better from the first. Stafford was not a man to entrust a plan of-his to anyone who would have been 60 slack as to be caught in such a place as that!* "Here we come a brooshin'," said Tom, chuckling, as he pushed forward through the reed bed. "Look you out when I haller 'mark!' "

Dick, beside me, was, I saw, hungry to use the wonderful Mauser, and to hear its report when muted by a Maxim silencer. I believe he was, at that time, almost us interested in that as in finding Ruth. "Hain't you seed nothin' ? ' asked Tom.as I thrust the row boat up the inlet, well into the centre of the reed hied. "Hain't you seed nothin' ? Hi! Rover, Rover, . Rover!" he shouted. Frank can ye see Rover?" Frank had kept to the top of the wall to look out for bolters. He looked round, and, I supposed, saw the noble and intelligent dog, a cross between a spaniel and a Newfoundland, named Rover by Tom, his master. The boy put three fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly. "Here he come, Tom," said Frank, "He's a comin' like Billyoh !" "I ought to ha' brought hiE„" said Tom, "but I doubt that oan't make much differ now. We're too late. What d'ye think, Master Jack?" I had pushed up the dyke in the boat and he had thrust his way through the reed bed on his plank matchboarding till we had met. And neither of us had seen a sign of-either enemy or friend. "Too late!" I groaned. "What's this?" This was Rover, bounding furiously through the reeds to, reach his master. "Ha'e ye got anything as smell o' Miss Ruth?" asked Tom, in all innocence. "If ye hev — Alas! I had not.

But the farmhouse was not far distant, and soon, with the help of the agile Frank, we had a boot of my darling for Rover to examine

The fine old fellow smelt and smelt, then looked up at us as though to say, "All right, my friends! Now what do you want me to do !"

Tom showed him the footprints on the river wall, and at once he Droke into a whimper. ' He came eagerly down into the thick of the reeds, and at a spot a little nearer the wall than where I had brought up, he sat on his tail and whined. "Blarm!" shouted Tom. "And I ought to ha' seed it and all !"

I left the boat and leapt ashore, sinking to my ankles as 1 did so. I tor my feet out of the mire, and snatched down a double handful of reeds which I laid before me to walk upon. Then I advanced to Tom.

He was pointing to an indentation in the side of the dyke, and to sundry marks in the reeds and undergrowmg vegetation amidst the reeds.

A child could have interpreted the signs. There had been a boat there, since the last high tide; a woman, for there was the sweep of skirts visible in the bend of the reeds, had been forced forward through the reeds to the boat. One could see that she trod on her heels, throwing herself back in resistance for the round edge of the heels was stamped deep into the peat, as though she were leaning or pushing back at an angle of forty-five degrees Behind her one could see the strained tips of the man's toes ! The curve of the soles of his boots as he thrust forward to counteract the furious resistance of the woman. It was plain enough *-° a man who had tracked hares and rabbits through snow, who had traced weasels to their lairs, and found nest after nest of rats, ay! and waterhens, by their "runs." And to us, for I believe that even Frank, the youngest of the party, was sportsman enough to understand every detail as well as Tom and I could, there was only one message. "Too late! Too late !" Though how the villain who had ensnared Ruth had succeeded first in capturing her and then in getting away with her so swiftly was more than we could comprehend. I think that Tom voiced the opinion of all of us when he drew himself up till his fine head was almost on a level with the summit of the soft purple reed blossoms, and said, "There's more 'an one in this, Master Jack ! I on'y see one man's feetin's ashore. But who got the gal to come here along the wall when they was on the lookout for her ? I reckon there was more than one in the boat; there was two as' tried to put you miner the sod. It may be tha'ss the same two. But there's more than that. Who was it as sent out the lady this mornin' ? Master Jack say as he knowed nothin' on it 'and never tode her where he was a goin'. "She may have guessed that," I said, for I wished to be fair, and I began to be terrified at what Tom might find before he got to the end of his deductions. But you-didn't ax her to come arter ye, and you didn't know she was a comin'," said Tom, with great seriousness. "For Gord's sake, Master Jack, don't le'ss hev no mistake here. You —yes, you know as well as 1 do what this may mean. I don't say as it do mean it yet—Oh, crumbs ! I reckon I'd better shut my trap ! Don't put us on a wrong track, Master Jack! Don't ye don't ye! Not for no one's sake!" (To be continued on Saturday next.) * Brushing, beating: c.f. Beatin' or brusbin' at a ghost.