CHAPTER XVII.

Otago Witness, Issue 1630, 26 August 1871, Page 19

CHAPTER XVII.

.MR. LOXGCLUhK AX MOIU'LAKJJ IIALI/. "If you let me go this time, Mr. Wheeler, you'll not catch me a-waikingout here again," said Mr. Da vies sourly. "If there' 3 business to be done, now'a the time." "Well, I can't make it no plainer— 'tia as clear as mud in a wine-glass," said the mounted man gaily, and again he shook the bridle and hitched himself in the saddle, and the horse stirred uneasily as he added, " Have you any more to say .'" " Well, supposin' i say ay, how soon will it be teuled ?" said Paul Davies, beginning to think better of it. " These things doesn't take long with a rich cove like Mr. Longcluse. It's where they has to scrape it up, by beggin' here and borrowin' there, and sellin' this and spoutin' that — there's a wait always. But a chap wiih no end o' tin — that has only to wish and haye — that's your sort. He swears a bit, and threatens, and stamps, aud loses his temper sum mat, ye see ; and if I was the principal, like you are in this 'ere case, and the police convenient, or a poker in hia ti^t, ho inijht make a row. I Bur, seem' I'm only a m-'asenger like, it don't come to r.othin'. II v claps his hand iv his pocket, and outa with tho rino, and there's all ; and jest a bit of paper to sign. But I won't stay hero no longer. I'm gutting a bit cold lnjsalf; bo it's en or off now. Go yourself to Longcluae., if you like, and see if you dou'c catch it, The leaat you get will be seven-penn'orth, fov extortin' money by threatenin' a prosecution, if he don't hang you for ths murder of the Saloon cove. How would you like that :" 15 It ain't the physic that ar.ita my complanr t guvnor. But I have him there. I have the statement wrote, in sure hands, and other hevidence, as ho may suppose, and dated, and signed by respectable people ; and I know his dodge. He thinxg he came out 6r?t with his charge agnin<?t me, but he's o'jt there ; and if he w>ll. have it, and I split, he'd best look slippy.'- 1 " And how much do you want. I Mind, I'll funk him all I can, though he's a wide-awako chap ; for it's my game to get every pig I can out of him." " I'll take two thousand pounds, and go to Canada or to K"ew York, my passage and expeneeo being paid, and sign anything in reason he wants ; and that's the shortest chalk I'll offer." ''Don't you wish you may get it ? / do, I know, but I'm thinking you might j.st as well look for the n.iydonal debt." " What's your name '." again asked Davies, a little abruptly. " My name fell out o' wiudow and was broke, lavt Tuesday mornin . But call mo Tom Wheeler, if you can't talk without calling me something." " Well, Tom, that' 3 tho figure," said Da vies. '' If you want to deal, speak now," said Wheeler. "if I'm to stand between you, I must have a power to close on the best offer I'm like to get. I won't do nothing in the mater else ways." With thi3 fresh exhortation, the conference on details proceeded ; and when at last it closed, with something like a definite understanding, Tom Wheeler said, — " Mind Paul Davies, I comes from no one, and I goes to no one ; and I never seed you in all my days." 1 " And where ate you going V " A bit nearer the moon," said the 1 mysterious Mr. Wheeler, lifting his hand and pointing towards the red disk, with one of his bearded grins. And wheeling his horse suddenly, away he rode at a canter, right toward the red moon, against which for a few moments the figure ot the retreating horse and man showed black . and sharp, as if cut out of cardboard. Paul Daviea looked after him with his left eye screwed close, as was his custom, r in Bhrewd rumination. Before the horseman had got very far, the moon passed under th« edge 0! a thioU cloud, and

"waste was once more enveloped in total darkness. In this absoluta obscurity the retreating figure was instantaneously swallowed, so that the shrewd ex-detective, who had learned by rote every article of his dress, and every button on it, and could have sworn lo every mark on his horse at York Fair, had no chance of discovering, in the ultimate line of his retreat, any clue to his destination. He had simply emerged from darkness, and darkness had swallowed him again. We must now see how Sir Beginald's little dinner party, not a score of miles away, went off only two days later. He was fortunate, seeing he had bidden his guests upon very short notice. Not one disappointed. When Lady May entered the room with Alice, she saw standing on the hearthrug-, at the far end of the handsome room, a tall and very good-looking man of sixty or upwards, chatting with Sir Reginald, one of whose feet was in a slipper, and who was sitting in an easy chair. A little bit of fire burned in the grate, for the day had been chill and showery. This tail man, with silken hair, and a countenance kind, frank, and thoughtful, with a little sadness in it, was, she had no doubt, David Ardon, whom she had lash seen with silken brown locks, and the cheerful aspect of early manhood. " Here is my brother D*vid," said the Baronet to Lady May. "He says you will hardly know him." "She'll hardly believe it. She was very young when she last saw me, and the last ten years have made some changes," said Uncle David, laughing gently. At this moment, dinner being announced, Iho little party transferred itself to the din'ng r Kun, and Miss Arden found herself between Mr. Longcluse and Uncle David. ( To he continued )