THE HAMMERS OF HATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17336, 6 December 1919, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE HAMMERS OF HATE.

BY GUY THORNE, Author of "When It. Was Dark," "A Lost Cause." Etc. (COPYRIGHT.) CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued.) Margaret understood the situation) and was quick to make the most of it. " If I have taken the risk so far," she went on, " I am going through with it to the end. That must be clearly understood," and her voice had a ring of command as she spoke. " Moreover, I shall be another member of the attacking force. A woman with a revolver is just as good as a man—if she can shoot. And you know, Wiltfan Laing, who have been stalking deer with me on Ben Scourie, you know that I am no stranger to firearms. And there's another thing you've forgotten. Someone will have to be left on board the submarine. There are only five of us all told." " And that's true," Gordon answered in a puzzled voice, *' someone must be ...ft aboard who understands the engines, and you know nothing about them, miss." " Nothing at all. ■ But time presses. Who is to remain?'' "We had better cast lots again," said Laiug, but God grant it's not me to stay. It's clan business to-night. We going to light the Kyle people as we have done before, and our fathers before us!" He looked meaningly at Blacow. Blacow grew very red. " And how can I stay behind!" he spluttered, "when mine's clan business, too! Am 1 not mt. McGregor man ?" It looked as if there waa going to be a quarrel, but Margaret interposed. "I'll decide," 6he said calmly, "and you must ad abide by what I say. Do you all agree?" They saw that there was nothing for it, and they murmured in assent. "Mr. Gordon must go," said Margaret. "He must lead us. He has served the King, and is. a fighting man by profession. Mr. Laing, you are unmarried. You've already fought in the good cause; I wouldn't baulk you in continuing to the end. Mr. Blacow, we shall need your strength and devotion too." Rob Gner, the quiet electrician, stood flushing and trembling. "Am I not worthy, Miss Margaret?" he cried, his dreamy eyes blazing out into life, and the colour ebbing and lowing in his face.

Margaret put her hand upon the young man's shoulder. " You are married. You understand the engines. I command you to stay." Then she smiled at him so sweetly, and with such a glance of kindness in her eyes, that he bowed his head and stood still. " Perhaps," she said, in her sweet, harplike voice, " perhaps, I am asking you to make the greatest sacrifice of all! ' Gordon gave a sigh of relief. " That's settled, then," he said. " Now, we had better be starting.' My opinion is that it's not necessary to dive. They can't possibly see us from the shore in this dark. ! There's no light on this side of the castle, and even if there were we should still be invisible. We will just run her awash, put on the dynamos and not the oil engines, so that we sha.l make no noise. .We must go at a snail's pace and feel our way round the. rock on which the castle stands, till we get to the causeway leading to the land. Then we must be guided by what we find. " Grier, get to the dynamos. Blacow, get the Berthon boat on deck. Doubtless we'll need it. Laing, my man, just see to the arms, and a plentiful supply of ammunition."

Within three minutes they were shipping noiselessly through the water, the great turtle back of the submar'-ne making hardly a ripple upon the still, black surface. The frowning mass of the castle grew larger and larger. The lights among the wooded heights on either -side bobbed up and down-like the riding-lights of ships at anchor in an estuary^ " There are two parties," Gordon, at the steering-wheel in the conning-tower, said to Margaret. " They are searching all round the island, and they will meet at the pavilion. It will take them a good two hours or more yet, and then there will be the getting back. If we have a chance at all, we have it now!" In a short time they were under the castle rock, and a cautious beam of light I showed them that it went straight down | into deep wateras the island walls out- | side didand that there were no shoals ! to be feared.

Inch by inch they nosed their waylike some cautious fish. As thev went round the curve of the rock* island, they became aware of a blaze of light, thrown ! upon the woods which curved up to the j skyline at the back of the castle. I " Follow me," said Margaret. . She had wrapped a black cloak round : her. She sprang np the steps, followed by her henchmen. They stood upon the white concrete road. In front of them was the gothic archway. Margaret pressed herself against the wall, and sidled through the tremendous porch. They found themselves in a quadrangle, and the whole square place was destitute of people. Immediately to their right there was lan orange glare of open windows, the j sound of roaring fires, the clattering of , pots and pans, punctuated with the high j voices of Scots women. Margaret, in her black cloak, stopped suddenly. The others came up to her. I She was leader of their enterprise I dare-devil seamen knew it now. Hush ! Look!" " Yes, ma leddy," Laing whispered. " Over there. On the other side of the quadrangle. There's a door open at the bottom of the tower. Creep round the sides and make for that." The front lights of the facade had been obscured, but at the back no such precaution had been taken. There was a clang in the engineroom. The submarine drifted against the p lea of the causeway. Gordon had brought his ship up against a water stair with the precision of a rowing boat. The causeway, which went from the castle to the shore, was some five hundred yards in length. It was lighted here and there by electric standards, which stretched away into the dark woods. They found themselves quite close to the entrance of the castle— great arch way from which a dull light streamed out. " What good luck,' Gordon said ; •• Miss Margaret, we're practically in the hoose ' There's no climbing to be done. We can walk up the steps into the Keep o' Kyle as if we were invited!" Indeed, it was so. A short hawser was cast over a bollock. The steel bubble of the submarine came to rest, and the Clan of Ben Scourie came out upon the steps. They were all wearing sea-boots with indiarubber soles. The four of them clustered together, and there was no sound eirept the " lip lap" of the lake water, rising and falling upon the steps. They did so. They glided along the shadowy walls until they stood, hidden by a buttress, clo*-e to a tall and narrow door, of thick oak, studded with many iron nails. " It's here," Margaret whispered, " follow me, friends of Ben Scourie." The door was ajar. A staircase wound round in the thickness of the granite wall ; grim, determined, and black, they went up like silent ravens. At the top of the staircase there war another door, this time of panelled cedar wood. Margaret pressed it gently open, and the avenging party came out into a great space of pearl-white light. They were in a gallery. A gallery of white marb.e balustrades, as high as the breast of a. man.

She made a backward movement with her hand, and they crouched round the door through which they had come. Margaret crept round the carpeted corridor and looked down into a great domed hall. It was lit by hidden electric lights, far above her head. Down below, on every side, slender columns rose to support the gallery, and underneath she saw tall archways leading to the rooms of the —hung with dull, formless curtains, which struck no note of colour.

In the centre of the vast space, exactly under the glass —which was now dark, as —was a large pool of still, green water, a square basin with abrupt edges, having no fountain nor gaudy fish to break its smoothness. "\ And that was all, literally all. No rugs covered the tesselated floor, not" a single seat stood anywhere. There was not the. slightest suggestion of furniture or habitation. The men crept up to the marble hat cony, and looked down. This is a. fearsome place!" Laing whispered- in Margaret's ear. A curtain moveu aside. A tall, lithe figure, in a robe of flaming scarlet, becan to circle the deep pool of water. The Countess of Kyle 'a red, lonely figure in that vast expanse of white, moved round and round the central basin as if she was wreathing a spell. Rising from her mass of black hair was a great coronet of sapphires. Round her long, slender neck was a rope of pearls. Once she stooped to the water, and rinsed her hands, holding her arms far out, and watching the pellucid drops fall back into the marble bath. Then, she called aloud. She had hardly done so when the watchers in the balcony heard a shuffling noise immediately beneath them. Margaret— pressed the others backsaw a huge, yellow something pass from under her and come out into the central light. ' A couple of fore-shortened figures followed, carrying cushions and a great cl air. They disappeared. The vast yellow something sank back into the chair- " Are you better, can you talk now?" A low purring voice replied, " I am enjoying pain, my lady. One can enjoy pain quite as well as pleasure, if one has the philosophic mind.

The scarlet figure -glided over the marble, and made a spot" of barbaric', colour against the yellow robes of Chang Li." " "' You were nearly killed, were you not: ' " I was twice stunned, my lady. I don't think the man meant to kill me. He was an intelligent fellow in his way. But his ideas of binding a captive were crude. I should have been back at the castle long ago if he had not closed a pleasant conversation with the butt of his pistol—which robbed me of consciousness for a further hour. When I came to myself it was not a difficult matter to i'e* free; to stagger home and give the alarm-" " They are out, all my men are- out. No one can escape them." " For my part, I particularly hope they will discover the Scots gentleman who got the better of me." "' vVe have the other, the voung McGregor !" „ The yellow bundle gave a groan of pain, instantly suppressed. "Yes, my lady, you have him." " He's mine—an enemy for me '. You will have one too—if my men find your antagonist-" '" A fair division ! But have you thought what all this means?" "It means that, somehow or other, a couple of men have scaled the outside wans of the island. We have got one— the other will be brought back within an hour or two." I think not," the Chinaman purred. " I think, madam, that your star is sunk into an ocean of blackness. For myself, I cc-e nothing. In you and your clan, I have a loyal curiosity. My lady, have your two captives brought down here at once."

" You mean ?" j "The Thijig, Sir Angus Saintsbury, ' and the voung and splendid man who lia= I already listened to your music, and followed you in a dream'." " Bring them here?" " xes, because the sands are running low in the glass, and the moment of vicI lory or defeat is at hand." The deep voice rolled round the white bail- Every syllable of it came to the ears of the watchers in the balcony. " All the men are searching round the island. There's no one left but you, and tin two young footmen. The boy is strong and determined." The Chinaman gave a quick and curious look at his mistress. His bruised lace wrinkled into a horrible smile. '■ There are ways and means," he said, getting to his feet with a groan. " You shall have them both in ten minutes. You must have your will, but I warn you thatin my belief—the end of it all is very near!" There was a slithering noise upon the pavement. Chang Li disappeared. The woman clothed in scarlet, with the blue, fire of sapphires in her hair, began to slide round the water like a 6i>ectre. Once or twice a shiver of icy laughter rang up into the dome, seemed to be broken there, and fell clattering upon the marble floor. " Do just as I tell you— !" Margaret whispered to her company. " Ben Scourie '." " Death o' Kyle," she heard behind ber in a furious hoarse whisper. j (To be continued on Wednesday next.)