LOVE'S VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19170, 9 November 1925, Page 5

LOVE'S VICTORY.

BY EFFIE ADELAIDE EOWLANDS.

CHAPTER XXlV.—(Continued), | The meeting between Pauline Greswold and Mrs. Northwood was touching in the ; extreme. As she held the younger woman in her arms, Bertha kissod her tenderly. " I cannot tell you how glad I am to have you hero Pauline," she said. " I have thought about you so much. Indeed | I have fretted about you these last two !or three days. Though I really had ! nothing to go upon except intuition, I felt convinced that in some way you were connected with what was happening to your stepfather, your mother and Lorna." "It has been, like a bad dream," Pauline answered in a, low voice, " and now what I am most anxious about is to know what i is passing with mother and Lorna, and also how things are with my poor Pat, i J must go to him. Mr. Shannon tells me | that he knows where Pat is. You won't I be hurt with mo if I leave you toI morrow ? " " Of course not," said Mrs. Northwood, "I should do the same myself, and I am quite sure that, if there is anyone who can really bring Pat back to his rightful condition, that person is yourself. I will go further than that, Pauline," said Mrs. Northwood softly, " I. am convinced that if his mother, dear Evelyn, could know that he had married you, it would be a great consolation and a great happiness to her." Dr. Barlow remained some time with Mr. Emerson, and when he took his departure he promised to return early in the morning, but he gave Mrs. Northwood the assurance that he was not at all anxious abotit the sick marv's condition. " If we can put his mind at ease about his wife and stepdaughter, and have him thoroughly well nursed and nourished, he'll be up and about again in a week's time." Dr. Barlow was pressed to remain for dinner, or rather supper, for the hour now was very late, but he refused, and so it was only Mrs. Northwood, Shannon and Pauline who sat down to the dainty meal. Francois had been taken into the kitchen where he had found a compatriot in Mrs. Northwood's French woman-cook, so all was well with him. And Ellen Storey was perfectly happy now since her mind was relieved both about Mr. Emerson and the mistress of The Moat. While they were at dinner, Shannon declared that he must send a telegram to ! Gerald Craven. " But, of course, it's too late to do that to-night," he said. Mrs. Northwood refuted this. You see," she said, " I have made a special arrangement with the Junction that I can either telephone a telegram through them, or receive any that come too late to be delivered. And after you had left her this afternoon, Mr. Shannon I got through to the Junction and the operator promised that he would he on hand to do anything we wanted. So you can ring him up and he can take the- message for Jerry who will get- it first thing in the morning." After this had been done they sat discussing the situation till nearly midnight. Although she was safe in the care of friends, it was pitiable to se<3 how terribly 1 nervous and frightened Pauline was. "If he arrives there to night and finds us gone, God knows what he will do," she said. Shannon tried to reassure her. Somehow, I don't believe he will getthere to-night. As I told you, he was knocked out completely when I left- him, apd as it was only a little wayside station it will take him a considerable time to S get to The Moat. Possibly there may | have been messages rung through. But, look here, if it will set your mind at rest, I I'll motor there. It won't take me long." I Despite, both the protests of Mrs. North- ! wood and Pauline, he insisted upon doing ; this. : He was only gone about three-quarters , of an hour, and during that time Pauline_ i walked the room strung up to the highest | pitch of nervousness v Her look, her man- ! ner, the evidence o'f all she had suffered softened Mrs. Northwood's heart toward her, and the knowledge that she was in a great state of anxiety about the man she had married, and also about her mother and Lorna, showed that all she had gone through had awakened in Pauline that sympathy and tenderness which had been lacking in her formerly. When Shannon rejoined them about three-quarters of an hour later he gave Pauline a nod of confidence. "There wasn't a soul there," he said, "and the place was just as we left it. The village was evidently asleep, so that I could not make any inquiries, but I am pretty sure Emerson never managed to get so far. He may appear the first thing in the morning, and in that case we must look out for squalls. Now, we must all get some sleep. I confess," the voung man added with a laugh, "I am tirea out. But I can always do with very little sleep. I shall be as brisk as possible when tomorrow comes." Noel Shannon was up and dressed very early the next morning when he was called to the telephone by Parsons. "It is the operator from the junction. He's got a telegram for you—l thought perhaps you had better take it yourself." "Quite right," said Mr. Shannon. The telegraph message was, of course, the one which he had asked the young airman to send him, and was to the effect that Julian Emerson was lying at the cottage hospital suffering from a slight stroke. "If you can put the doctor here in communication with his jieople," the young man's message ran, "he will bo very much obliged, but there is no need for anxiety, everything is being done folium that is necessary." Noel Shannon went out into the grounds and walked about in the early sunshine. There was no pity in his heart for the man lying stricken in that small hospital. It was only the working of fate. After all, the hand of justice, though it may be delayed, falls, as a general rule, at the right moment. "The mills of God grind slow, but they grind gxeeeding small," Shannon quoted j to himself as he lit a cigarette and strolled in tiie lovely gardens. He rather" hoped that both Mrs. Northwood and Pauline would sleep late, but he did not think this was possible, and, as a matter of fact, as he was walking further into the depths of the garden, he heard his; name called, and, turning round, he found himself face to face with Mrs. Greswold. Pauline wore the white dress she had worn the night before; but, though her cheeks were pale and her eyes shadowed, she looked better and very attractive. As she looked at him her quick intelligence read that he had something to tell her. "You-have some news?" she said. He nodded his head and he gave her the fist of the message which had been telephoned through. "Stricken with paralysis!" said Pauline Greswold. She shuddered. "What a dreadful fate! Why, if I had been asked to describe Julian Emerson, I would have said he was a giant of physical strength and health." "I didn't like the look of him when we got him out of the 'plane yesterday, Shannon said. "I suppose he has been living under a fearful mental strain these last weeks, or perhaps months. And you know there's nothing like mental strain and nerves for knocking a man up. Well, that clears the way for us miraculously. It's very beautiful out here," the voung man added, "and I suppose we are a little early for breakfast. Won't you sit down ? *1 want to ask you some questions—l want to know what you can tell me about this man Emerson ? I know you gave me a full account of your own experience with him, and what you imagino he had in his mind when he brought away Henry Emerson and was having this man coerced so dreadfully: " I wish I could really tell you. Paulino answered earnestly. ' ' But can only conjecture. Of course the tact that my steptnther is very rich lies at the bottom ot She whole thing, and put-

(COPYRIGHT.)

ting two and two together, I see now that Pat was useful because Julian Emerson had need of money and determined also to use the Mulberry House. To prevent my poor Pat from asking awkward questions, he must have been plying him with the same drug that was injurious to him in Paris." " Who was the man Carter to whom you telegraphed the other day?" She looked at him quickly. How did you know I telegraphed to Carter ?" He explained briefly what Craven had told him, and she shrugged her shoulders. " After all," she said almost drily, " wonderful as Julian Emerson's brain was, and cleverly as he had schemed out everything, he left loopholes, I suppose that was because he had to use other people and could not do everything himself ?" She paused an instant, then she said: " You want to know who Carter is? Well, Carter is an enigma. He is a man who has been working for or with Emerson for a long time. . . I should say in the beginning he was a brilliant one; an educated one, and evidently a gentleman. But he has been dragging himself so terribly that all that he might have - been, should have been, has been destroyed. And i when I tell you that Emerson "put my husband in Mark Carter's care, perhaps you will understand how cruelly, how wickedly, how subtly the other man worked. For with Carter as his guardian there never could be a chance tor Pat. I am going to join Pat to-day," Mrs. Greswold added. " I want to go to London as early as I can. I discussed this with Bertha last night and she agrees. I know now that Henry Emerson will be well taken care of—and I must go to Pat. God knows if I shall "Save him," she added bitterly and sadly, " but I must go to him, Mr. Shannon." Noel Shannon took her hand and patted it. "Of course you must! Why that's the one and only thing you mast do. As soon as I can hear from Jerry whether our conjecture about your sister and mother being at Mulberry House is right, why Mrs. Northwood will go there as quickly as a train or a car can take her, but it's better for her to remain here taking care of Henry Emerson until I get definite news from Jerry." " Perhaps I shall be able to give you some information when I get to London," Pauline said eagerly, " for I shall be in touch with the Mulberry House." " l r es, you will of course," r>aid Shannon, " but don't forget., there's that dreadful brute with whom you may have to deal. And he won't be too kind to you, you know. My task will be to go back "where I left" Julian Emerson. I shall go by air—it won't take me very long, but I'll wait around a bit and see if there is a telegram from Jerry. And I wonder if the doctor will allow me to have 'a quiet little conversation with your stepfather ? I came into this suddenly and I am a stranger, hut I want' you all to know that there is nothing I won't do to help to bring thin.js into their proper sphere again." " You are being very, very good, Mr. Shannon. Though you call yourself a stranger, no one could have done more for us than you have done. I think it %vas the great good fortune for all of us that Mr. Craven met you." The doctor arrived while they were at breakfast. His report of Mr. Emerson s condition was most satisfactory, and he gave permission to Mr. Shannon to tain, a little while with the sick man. He also let Mrs. Greswold go up to see her stepfather before she drove to the station to travel to London. Bertha Northwood cheered and encouraged Patrick Greswold-Withington's wife by every means in her power. " Y r ou must be dying to see that unfortunate boy," she said, " and I hope, if his condition will permit, that you will get him away from the dreadful place where Mr. Shannon saw him. I expect vou will be able to do all you want, Pauline, for the serious illness of the man who calls himself DK' Emerson _gives you vour freedom, and since he evidently was the head of this conspiracy there will be no one to force things without his command or to interfere." (To be continued daily.)