CHAPTER XLVI.

Otago Witness, Issue 1950, 4 April 1889, Page 30

CHAPTER XLVI.

Constable Jones Bestirs Himself.— The Arrest of Nelly Farrell. Miss Farrell, however, was just enough to conceal her prejudices, and to give the lancecorporal a warm welcome, or at all events a warm sounding one. " Ah," he said, in response thereto, " but for your forethought in giving me that Argus special I should not have been here. I showed it to my commanding officer as my defence for absence from barracks, and being a good-natured fellow, and not much of a martinet, he accepted it as a valid one, and instead of the black-hole and degradation to the ranks has given me fresh leave of absence. That's how I'm and why I'm here, anxious to know how my cousin— that's to say hpw you both are, and to learn what light, if any, that paper boy has thrown upon the matter that we are also interested in." "The paper boy, as you call him, has never shown up at all," replied Nelly, dolefully. •• That's not his fault, yq.u bet." "Don't you think so ?" "Certainly not. A boy of that kind wouldn't lose a chance of adding to his own importance, far less . miss a good breakfast. He haa been got at, you may depend," said iTiin..

"What do you mean by 'got at 1 1" asked Winny in turn. " Why, laid hold of by someone else, who hopes to turn the information that he is evidently possessed of to his own profit and advantage — Constable Jones, for instance. Yes, I wouldn't mind wagering that it is Constable Jones." "And I've made an enemy of the fellow by giving him sixpence instead of the halfsovereign that I permitted him to get a glimpse of," exclaimed Nelly, ruefully. • "And both Jim and I have made, I much fear, a fair more dangerous foe in his termagant harpy of a wife, who I've no ' doubt rules him with a rod of iron;" "echoed Winny. " With her finger-nails more probably," rejoined the lance-corporal; "but we mustn't forget that whatever information the newsboy is possessed of is evidently in your husband's favour, and to profit by it Constable Jones must first use it, and if there's a chance of its securing him promotion in the service he will use it, and do all that he can to strengthen it, that you may rely on." - Jim Ballinger's assurance, and very evident belief, comforted the two young women greatly; nevertheless Nelly responded with evident anxiety : "Whatever's to be done will have to be done quickly, for if the magistrates take it into their heads to commit Mr FitzGerald for trial, the criminal sittings of the Supreme Court commence next week, and as there's a light calendar his case will very soon be reached." "No time should be lost in retaining Aspinall for the defence then, for he's out and out the best criminal lawyer in the colony)" said Jim. " I shall see my solicitors the moment that they arrive at their offices to-morrow, and shall beg them to spare neither expense nor pains in my husband's service," rejoined Winny ; but in a tone that caused her cousin to start and glance at her keenly, for she spoke as though the action that she contemplated was one of mere duty, and far from as if her whole heart and soul were devoted to the proving of her husband's innocence. " The scales are beginning to fall from her eyes," Jim Ballinger thought to himself, and ' he was by no means displeased at the idea, though he said nothing that was at all calculated to assist the process which he believed j had commenced in Winny's heart and mind ; ! perhaps from a love of fair play, or per- I chance through the knowledge that such an action on his part would be more likely to create a revulsion of feeling in her breast than almost anything else. On the contrary, he tried to exercise as cheering an influence as he could, and with that view accepted an invitation to stay to dinner, and made himself generally useful by insisting on going to the bakehouse for the stuffed leg o£ pork and potatoes, and to the Golden Gate for the quart of "stringy bark," or in plain English, colonial-brewed ale, that was intended to wash it down. A delicious peach pudding ended the meal, and hardly was it over when Jim offered to take a car and drive to Winny's late Ger-trude-street lodgings in order to bring her and her husband's luggage and other belongings over to Emerald Hill. ' The proffer was gratefully accepted, Winny, at his request, giving him a written authority to remove the things, and a sovereign and shilling to hand to the rapacious landlady, in order to avoid anything like a scene, though it was very evident that, legally, she was not entilled to a single penny. He had been gone on his mission about half an hour when two policemen were observed to pass close by, and look in at the window while so doing, and a minute later they entered the house without knocking, and also the sitting room in which the two young women were conversing. In the stoutest and reddest-faced of the two Nelly and Winny immediately recognised " plain-constable Jones," as he had a trick of calling himself, who, pointing towards the barmaid, exclaimed, " That's the one;" immediately continuing in a half pompous and half bantering tone, "Now, young lady, you'll have to come along with us, if you please— or even if you don't please for that matter— for I've a warrant for your arrest on the charge of aiding and abetting the murderer, or at all events the presumed murderer, of Silas Sturt, Esq., after the apt, by sheltering him from the authorities, and conniving at and assisting him in his escape from the colony of Victoria." " Who has dared to make so false and absurd a charge?" exclaimed Nelly indignantly. " One Norah Mulligan, and one Niel Casey, at the time chambermaid and waiter at the Australia Felix Hotel in Great Bourke street, where you yourself were employed, and who overheard a portion of a conversation between you and the now prisoner FifzGerald, held in an upstairs passage of the said hotel some two hours after the committal of the murder." " The persons you mention were both discharged for dishonesty, bear the very worst of characters, and I am very sure heard nothing of the kind, for Mr FitzGerald and I conversed where no one could possibly have caught one word in 10 of what passed between us, nor even so much unless they had wonderfully long ears," was the barmaid's prompt answer. " You admit the conversation at any rate, and so to that extent yourself support the testimony. Did you observe that, Sutton 1 Well, young woman, it's my duty to warn you to be careful what you say, because whatever statements you may make it will be our bounden duty to offer in evidence against you. Now you may go upstairs with one of us and put your hat and jacket on. Never mind which, for I don't mind, telling you in confidence that all that you've got will be preciously out o' fashion before you'll ever be able to show off in 'em again on St. Kilda or Brighton beaches on a Sunday," and here constable Jones thought fit to indulge in a hearty laugh at his wit as he considered it. " Monster 1" exclaimed Winny on hearing him. "So this is your mean revenge for finding sixpence where you expected to discover half a sovereign? But beware lest your false and trumped-up charges recoil upon yourself. I now thank heaven that I am rich, if only because wealth will help me to punish and expose such as you." "That's the murderer's wife; none but a;

>d born fool would give heed to what such as she „ I says. My missus cleared her out of our house to I neck and' crop, directly she found out what i- she was. Why, before' her husband had been d in quod a single hour a common soldier, had 3. stepped into his shoes, and was courting her is at 11 o'clock at night like a good 'un. Mrs Jones surprised 'em"at ; it, and gave 'em their v marching orders at once," was Constable :- Jones' retort ; the explanation being given to a the other policeman, but the sting being 'intended for the girl whd had Charged him h with fishing for a bribe. '' '", ,- ' The second constable, however, proved himt self to be a man of a very different kidney, for 1 he at once remarked— ' ' ' ' " Never mind, what he says, my lasses. No - winder he ain't tender towards women, cont sidering the remarkable tough 7 un as has - fallen to his )own share. By jabers, he has - to be civil to her, whether he likes it or not, 3 and that's what makes him .show off his i tantrums where he reckons it's safe to do so, 3 I suppose. Now Miss Farrell, I'm sorry to ) say that you must come with us, but I'm inclined to think that the case'will break down t; against you, and anyhow there's no earthly i doubt in my mind but that they'll let you out l on bail to-morrow ; and as for the rest, they'll let you have a bed in your cell by paying for i it, and all your meals from the "nearest ; hotel." "Oh, you shan't take her from me. If i anyone must let me go in her place," said , Winny, springing to her feet and throwing i her arms around Nelly Farrell's neck, for whom K she had conceived, ere this, an intense affection. ' " I must go, my dear, and what's more, I'm pleased' and proud to 'go, because— for reasons that you would not understand, in short. You will stay here, and use these rooms exactly as though they were your own -J-them and all that's in them as well. If Mrs Deeble, my landlady, was home from Sunday school, she would second every word I say, for she has been like a second mother to me, and I've told her all about you, dear. If you want to serve me in turn, as I know very well that you do, speak about me as well as your husband to your solicitors to-morrow morning, but only as a secondary matter, please and fear not but that they'll enable me' to return home with you, for this is a trumped-up charge, and I shouldn't in bhe least wonder if our pretty little newsboy had fallen a victim to" just as infamous an one." " Perhaps you and he will be very near neighbours, where you're going, for if you mean an impudent young street arab called Jock Murray, he's under lock and key safe enough, on two separate charges, and what they are you'll learn all in good time," said constable Jones maliciously. " Another good deed for you to do dear," observed Nelly to Winny, "and if: your money will also help you to get that man dismissed from the force that he disgraces, it will, I am sure, be a boon to suffering humanity. Now, Mr Sutton, I will not keep you waiting any longer. I surrender rayself your prisoner remamber. I ignore the very existence of your ruffianly companion. I shan't be more than a minute putting on my hat and jacket." "lam sorry to say that I shall have to accompany you upstairs, miss." " The adjoining apartment is my bedroom. I will leave my door open and you can surely keep a watch on me from here ?" " Oh, yes, quite sufficiently. That plan will suit extremely well." So Nelly went into the bedroom, and, in a very brief while, came forth again, and calmly surrendered herself a prisoner. A car was called up to the door, and after she had bidden a cheerful good-bye to Winny and received a tearful one in return, she was assisted into the vehicle by constable Sutton, who, however, then gave place to Jones, who mounted beside her, the other policeman, out of modesty, taking the back seat. Half an hour later Nelly tenanted a wretched cell, in dimensions some six feet by four, and the strong iron gate of which looked Jout into a gas-lighted corridor, and when, about the same time, Jim Ballinger returned 'to the house in Wooloomoloo terrace, with a Jcar full of Winny's and her husband's belongings, he found her 'alone and weeping bitterly ; not on account of that husband, :but for one who had proved herself a much itruer friend. (To be continued.)