THE HAMMERS OF HATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17327, 26 November 1919, Page 13

THE HAMMERS OF HATE.

BY GUY THORNE, Aaiaor of " ■When It Was D«rk." " A Lost Cause." Etc.

(COPYRIGHT.)

CHAPTER XD-(Continued.)

Ivor leapt to his feet -with a shout of furious anger. The wicked, beautiful and mocking face lit up with pleasure as he did so. - Ho was a strong man. He strained at the gilded chains of steel with all lii-* power, but they held arm and ho sank ha<ic into the chair with a snarl of baffled anger.

" "\ mi don't want the world to know what I have discovered about the spotless Margaret Saintsbury? I don't biamo you. \ou are a lover of whom any girl might bo proud."

Then, the Countess of Kyle raised herself upon her elbow, as a coiled snake iaiE<-s its head.

" I don t know how you came here. I can't understand it. It seems incredible, hut I shall make you speak before long. For the moment wo will waive the question. Why you-came I can guess." " I have come, countess," Ivor answered in his natural voice, " I have come with a. good many friends also, to inquire about the health of Sir Angus Saintsbury. You have eutssed right!" The beautiful head upon its long, supple neck glanced quickly round the room. The ires narrowed. Ivor saw that he had scored.

"You see,'' he said, "after your confession of instigated murder, which was overheard by more than one witness in the pavilion this morning, and your Chinese friend's calm acceptance of the fact, 1 and my friends naturally hold trumps." "That remains to bo seen," she answered quickly, rising from her heap of cushions. " Mr. McGregor, I like you. 1 never thought to meet a man like you who would interfereeven for a single moment — with my designs." She went to the wall, and as she passed him, she looked at him without enmity, but with a regard that for an instant rec-alk'd her old hypnotic power, and made him pray against his own weakness. Was this the infamous woman of five aid fortv, whose name had been heaped with obloquy in two continents? Sha seemed like a lovely girl as she smote the wall with her clenched fist, and there came the hollow answering of a gong. The panel slid aside. '' Send Mr. Chang to me at once," she called. Ivor's mind worked clearly. " Laing has not been successful then!" he thought, "ho must have attacked the Chinaman and failed, perhaps the great big, jellow brute has killed him. This serpent woman knows of it !" The Countess of Kyle began to pace up and down the room, backwards and forwards in front of Ivor's chair. He watched her. He couldn't help it. She was marvellous in every movement, gracefully wonderful. Again the glamour began to steal over his brain and as if she knew it, she stopped and came up to him, looking into his face, and laughing. "Am I net fairer than she? Boy, you have dropped out of the sky into my castle, am I not fairer than she, is there not more promise on my lips than on hers V He breathed heavily, as he tugged at the ankle chains until they cut into his flesh, and the pain was pleasant. It brought him back to himself. "\cs, madam, you are very lovely-" She curtsied in front of her captive. " Yes, you are very lovely, but I would rather die in torment than so much as touch your hand in any sort of friendship." ' He S3id it. A great glow of comfort came to him. He felt strong to endure everything. It was as though he bad finally cjst outonce and for —the devil that sought to possess him. She must have seen the glow upon his face, for her own darkened with passion until the black eyes were beginning to shoot lightnings. What would have happened then Ivor never cared to think, but the panel door slipped aside and a man entered. "' My lady, Mr. Chang has not returned since he went out with you this morning. He is not in the castle, and he has not been seen in, the grounds." "What did I tell you, countess?" Ivor said : " I think the hour of reckoning is growing close —don't you?'' Sho gave him one swift, viperous look, and pawed out of the room, followed by tile footman. Ivor was left alone. His first thought was that he would give anything for a smoke ! Then he smiled at the fatuity of it, and forced himself to think. " % The Chinaman—obviously the most important person in the castlehad not returned. What did this mean* His hand felt in Ins waistcoat pocket, and with a sob of relief he found that hie watch was there. He jerked it out and stared at it with bloodshot eyes. It was just two o'clock in the afternoon. Two o'clock.

The Berthon boat—hidden in the brushwood by the pavilion—was obviously undiscovered, or why should the countess he ignorant of the way he had arrived there? Fo far, so good. The Chinaman vas dead or disabled; J.aing was probably lurking in the woods at the side of the basin and waiting for the submarine to rise—at four o'clock, when dusk had fallen.

If Idling did his business all right," Ivor said to himself, "and especially if he did it quickly, he must have seen me taken into the motor-boat and going back to the castle. How she managed it, I don't kno"-. But I can make a pretty good guess. I was in a nervous state. She hvpnotised me. .She made me obey her while without being in the least conscious of what I was doing. I must have walked with her tm«J embarked upon the boat like a sleep-walker. I hen his head drooped upon Lu3 breast. " Margaret, my dear, dear love, what will she do, what will the think?"

Jhe nervous strain had been too great. He. was falling into a sleep, when there was a clash of eound and a blaze of light. The Countess of Kyle stood before him, swaying like a, python ; her face was white, (he black eves extraordinarily alive. "

"i mu Ppy.'' ehe hissed, "you spy I v\ here is Clung Li, what have you been doing, how did you g-t here, who are your friends?"

At this he laughed aloud. "Madam, you have not much time," he- said. There was a white flash in the air, and '"'■ woiiinn'i clenched fist struck upon his cheek, throwing him to one side of the chair, and breaking the skin with a trickle of blood, tic was a.-, quick ae lightning. H" taught the hand by the wrist--just before the gilded chain'jerked to its full length. He drew her towards him in a contemptuous triumph, and kissed her whit* arm.

" Thank you, countess !" he said. She swirled away from him in a furv, 'lapping her hands as sin.- did so. In an in.-ta.nt the golden room was half full of men with savage far-e3. 'I he Countess of K le pointed to Ivor on lint chair.

" Ihe spy from Ben HcOurie 1" she rh'ifkid. " 1 ,iko him away up to Sir A I".. II:- !"

I here v..is a deep, menacing growl, and Ivor was Furiounded by tall, kilted figure* who murmured Gaelic oaths into his ears and caught him roughly by the arms and legs._ as they unlocked the chains which confined him.

He was being hurried out of the room with kicks and blows, when the countess said something which be could not dis- ■ •nguialj. though tho effect was immediate. His gaolers used him more gently. They hurried him down a long, carpeted corii'lor, through an upper ball, until they . aino to a big door studded with nails". 1 of them unlocked it., and Ivor was halt hauled, half propelled, up winding stairs of stone, until a second door was opened with a clang, and he was pitched forward upon the floor. He. fell prone. There was a malignant murmur behind him, and then the heavy door sank into its place.

(To bo continued en Saturday next.)