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Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 57

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CHAPTER, XXV.— THE GODDESS.

had been wondering, while Lawrence had been speaking, where exactly, in what he said, .was the dividing line between truth and falsehood ; between sanity and madness. I could not satisfy myself upon the point ; either then or afterwards. That the wildness of his speech and

manner was an indication of the disorder of his mind was obvious. That in his brain there were the fires of delirium ■was sure. That the tale which he told was no.t all raving was as certain. It is probable that the life of dissipation which he had led hod told upon his physical health ; and that, as usual, the body had reacted on the mind.

Yet there was such an air of conviction in his bearing, and so much method in his madness, that even in his most amazing statements one could not but suspect, at least, a basis of fact. And it was* because this was so that -we listened, fascinated, to assertions which savoured of a world of dreams; and hung, with breathless interest, on words which told, as if they .were everyday occurrences, of things of which it is not good to even think as coming ■within the sweep of .possibility. He held up his finger, repeating his last words in the form of an inquiry. " Hark ! don't you hear her laughing now?"

I know not what we heard; I know not. We had been following one by one "the steps which marked the progress of disorder in this man's brain, until our own minds had become unbalanced too. But I thought that I heard the sound of a woman's laughter, and ifc -was because it appeared to come from behind the screen thai I stepped- forward to move the barrier, so that we might learn' what it concealed. Lawrence sprang in front of me.

" Don't ! " he cried. " She's there ! You shall see her ; I'll show you her, at the proper time."

I could have thrust him aside, but there was that about him which dissuaded me. And when the lady, laying her hand upon my arm, drew me away from him, I let him tell his tale in his own fashion. He pas&ed his fingers across his brow, as if in an effort to collect his thoughts.

" Well, the time Avent, forgetting to bring me ease of mind, until Bernstein wrote to ask my brother where it Avould best meet his convenience to have the bills presented, which were on the point of falling clue."

"It was the usual custom," struck in the Jew.

" It's the usual custom, Bernstein says, and I'm not denying it. When Philip got the letter, he came red-hot to me, asking what it meant. I had had a bad day or two, and some unpleasant nights, and was feeling hipped just when he came. Besides, his coming took me unawares ; I was not expecting him — for the present. When I perceived what was in his voice, and in his e3'es, and in the twitchings of his hands, I wa 1 s afraid. I lied to him ; pretending that I had no notion of what it was that Bernstein wrote ; protesting that any bills which he might hold had nothing at all to do with me. I could see he doubtsd, but having no proof positive that what I said was false,, he went, warning me what I might expect if it turned out that I had lied. It was good hearing,

to knoAv what I might expect — from him — if it turned out that I had lied.

" I Avent to Bernstein to implore him to have mercy ; though I knew that in him mercy Avas less frequent than water in a rock."

"I am a man of business! You had had my money ! lam a business man ! "

"He Avonld have none. I found young Moore. I told him that certain bills had been discounted which bore my brother's name, and since he had put it there I should be compelled, in self-defence, to tell the simple truth."

" When I put it there there was nothing on the bills — not a Avord ; I declare it. They were nothing but five blank slins of paper, and on my sacred word of honour I will swear to it. He filled them up himself ; then he wanted to put it on to me."

" Yes, it Avas odd lioav I Avanted to put it upon everyone except myself ; Aery odd indeed. That night I Avas not happy. 1 had some conversation with The Goddess ; | from which I derived comfort, of a kind, | though it was not much, either for quantity or quality. The next day I had - 'brought myself closer to the sticking point ; as, I fancy, men are apt to do Avhen they j knoAv that the music really is about to i play. In the evening I had a game of | cards Avith Ferguson. You remember? " "I do. You cheated me." "I did. Which, again, was odd. For it Avas the first time I ever had cheated at -cards, and it Avas the last. You Avent out of the room believing that you Avould have to pay me £1880, and with at the bottom of your heart' the knowledge that the man whom yoii had supposed to be your friend Avas after all a rogue. The consciousness that you had this knoAvledge was, for me, the top brick. I had chosen to carry myself Avell in your eyes, and believed I had succeeded; 3 r et, after all, I'd failed. When you had gone I turned for consolation to i The Goddess.

" Bringing -her from my bedroom, I placed her on her oAvn particular stand. I Avas just about to request her to go through one of her unrivalled performances when, turning, I sww in the open doorAvay of my room a lady. Here is that lady

He Avaved his hand toA^ards Miss Moore. She gave Avhat seemed to be a start of recollection.

" I remember. I had knocked at the door again and then again ; no one answered. I tried the handle; the door' opened ; you were there."

" Which Avas most fortunate for me. It Avas an entrancing figure which I sa\v, in a cloak all glory ; with a face — a face Avhich Avould haunt the dreams of a happier man than I. It Aras a late hour for so enchanting a vision to pay a first call upon a single gentleman, but when I j learned that this Avas tlia sister of the in- j genuous Tom, I understood. I understood • still more Avhen the lady's tongue was once J set wagging, for sometimes even charming ; A-i&ions do haA'e tongues. Dear Tom had , told his tale on his own lines."

"It Avas gospel truth, every word I said to her. I'll take my oath it Avas."

" There's not a doubt you will. But as the tale came from the lady's lips to me, it seemed surprising. I'd no idea, until she told me, that 1 was ko old in s>in and dear Tom so young. It seemed that I had corrupted the boy's fresh innocence ; that I had eA-en taught him lioav to Avrite — especially other people's names. To me it sounded odd. I had met young Tom; I Avas 'beginning to wonder if his sister eA'er had. I knew something of his history ; one could scarcely credit that she keiiAV anything at all. However, one Avas glad to learn that .so fair a lady had so excellent a brother, though it seemed unfortunate that he should have such curious associates. Of one of them she Avas giving her opinion, to the extent of several volumes, A\ r hen once more the door Avas opened, this time, I really think, without any preliminary knocking ; for I am incapable of suggesting that the lady's voice could by any possibility have droAvned even a rapping of the knuckles. My brother Avas the interrupter — the uninvited, unwelcome interrupter, of our tete-a-tete.

" Then I knew that the end had come ; that the game Avas bloAvn upon ; that the music Avould have to be faced. I kneAV this in an instant. It was written large all over him. He had a trick, when he was in a rage, of seeming to swell ; as if the wind of his passion had distended him. I had never seen him look so large before. He Avas trembling — not with fear. His fingers were opening and closing — as they were apt to do AA-hen the muscles Avhich controlled them reached the point of working by themselves. His lips ivere parted ; he dreAV great breaths ; his eyes had moved forAvard in his head. It did not need more than a single glance at him to enable me to understand that he had learned that I had .lied, and that now had come the tug of Avar.

" I cannot say if he noticed that I was with a lady. He did not acknowledge her presence if he did, not even by so much as the removal of his hat. So soon as he saAV me, he began to edge his way into the room, with little, aAvkAvard, jerky movements, Avhich experience had taught me Avere the invariable preliminaries to an outburst of insensate fury. ' I'll kill you ! I'll kill you! I'll kill you! 7 He repeated the three Avords, as if he were speaking half ,to himself and half to me ; in a husky A'oice, which Avas not nice to hear.

" My first thought Avas of The Goddess !"

As if he had had, from the beginning, ,an eye to what would be the proper dramatic effect, when he got so far LaAvrence, with a hasty movement towards the dais, struck the crimson screen, so that it came clattering^foi'Avard on to the floor. Extending his arms on either side of him, he cried: "Behold! The Goddess!"

I do not know what the others were prepared to find revealed, nor even what it was Avhich I had myself expected. There had been in my mind a vague anticipation of some incredible horror ; something neither Jiurnan nor inhuman, neither ali\-e nor dead. What- I actually did see occasioned me, at first sights a shock of surprise.

A moment's reflection, however, tfih^oseS my own stupidity. Much that had gone before should have prepared me for exactly,* this. Only my mental opaqueness couldf, have prevented my seeing to what Law«l rence's words directly pointed. And yetl after all, this that I saw did not provide/ an adequate explanation ; did not, for in-f stance, shed light on what I had seen in my dream

The downfall of the screen had revealed! an idol ; apparently a Hindoo goddessl She was squatted on what looked like an ebony pedestal, perhaps a footr or 18inl from the floor. The figure was nearly 4ft: high. It represented a woman, squatting on her haunches. Her arms were crossed upon her breast, her fingers interlaced. Two things struck me as peculiar : one, that the whole figure was of a brilliant scarlet ; the other, that its maker had managed to inn part to it a curious 'suggestion of life. To this fact Lawrence himself drew our attention.

" You see how alive she is? She only, needs a touch to fill her with impassioned frenzy. It is for that touch that she Avaits and Avatches."

It was exactly AA r hat I had myself observed. The figure needed only some little thing to give it at least the semblance of actual life. I could not make out of Avhat substance it Avas compounded ; certainly neither of Avood nor stone.

" As Philip came at me across the room I moved toAvards The Goddess. ' Take care,' I said. 'Don't be a fool! Don't you see that there's a lady here?' He did not ; or if he did he showed no signs of doing so. I doubt cA r en if he saw The Goddess. It Avas his Avay. In his fits of passion he Avas like some maddened bull ; he had eyes only for the object of his rage. ' I'll kill you ! ' he kept, on muttering, in a voice which fury had made husky. ' Don't be an ass!' I cried. But he Avas an ass.. Presently there came the rush which I Avas looking for. He Avent for me, as the bull goes for the toreador. And, in&tead of me, he met The Goddess. It had to be, or, l ■should not have lived to tell the tale.

"As it chanced The Goddess Avas betAveen us. I had in my fingers this little cord — you see I have it here. My scarlet beauty Avas an obstacle of Avhich he tools no account at all. He made as if he Avould dash her into splinters, and scatter them about the room. But The Goddess is riot so easily to be brushed aside. As he rushed at her she leaped at him — like this." »

Suddenly throAving out his arms he cried,, in a loud A-oice, " Take me, for I am yours, 0 thou Goddess of the Scarlet "Hands." r

Hoav exactly it all happened eA"en now I find it hard to say. As Lawrence sprang forward the figure rose to its fest, and In an instant Avas alive. It opened its arms ; from its finger tips came kniA-es. Stepping forAvard, it gripped LaAvrence Avith its steeU "fjad hands, Avith a grip from Avhich there Avas no escaping. From every part of its frame gleaming blades had sprung ; against; this cheval-de-fr:se it pressed him again and again, twirling him round and round, moving him up and down, so that the Aveapons pierced and hacked back and front. Even from its eyes, mouth, and nostrils had sprung knives. It kept jerking its head backwards and fonvards, so that it could stab AA'ith them at his face and head. - And, all the while, from somewhere came the sound of a Avoman's laughter — that dreadful sound which I had heard in my dream. "

certain days such a puppet would be produced By the priests, with a flourish of Jferumpets. One could, easily believe that miraculous power would be claimed for it ; M was even likely that, as a proof of the Substantiality of these claims, it would jjgo- through, its gruesome performance in the Ipresence of the assembled congregations. !Pf what might have been the objects on fwhich. it exhibited its powers one did not 'care to think. Some queer things still take gplace in India. Edwin Lawrence could hardly have been perfectly sane when he purchased such a /plaything. It was not a possession which a perfectly healthy-minded man would have cared to have had at any price ; and Lawrence must have paid an enormous sum. for it, or that wily native would never have allowed such a curio to leave his hands. It ( was shown that the brothers, had been in •the habit" of quarrelling their whole lives long. Edwin would do something to arouse 3?hilip's passion, whereon Philip would attack him' with unreasoning violence. The fit iof fury past, and the mischief done, repentance came. In these moods Philip must have expended thousands of pounds in his attempts to -soothe the feelings of the brother whom he had. just been battering. One of these scenes had taken place just before Edwin's departure for India ; it was tfche usual plaster which had enabled him to start upon his travels. That his brother's treatment of him rankled there was scarcely room for doubt; 'the purchase of the scarlet puppet was, probably, a first-fruit of his morbid brooding. • At the very last, possibly, the crime had been the result of a moment's impulse — as he himself had said. But that it had fceen prepared for, as likely to happen some time, was clear. He had obtained a suit of clothes which was exactly like those which his brother was in the habit of wearing; These he secreted in his bedroom. So soon as his " Goddess " had done her work, he stripped what was left of his brother bare — an awful task it must have been. He arrayed the body in a suit of •his own "clothes, oblivious of the fact that they showed no signs of the cutting and the" hacking, and the suit which he had prepared he himself put on. Whether or not he> saw me — or even if I ■were actually there to see — is not clear to *his day. But either he did not notice Ifche departure of his lady visitor, or he .was indifferent to what it might portend ; under the circumstances, after the tragedy 'had actually taken place, his movements were marked by curious deliberation. The probability is that the catastrophe finally, overturned the brain whose equilibrium was already tottering. No other hypothesis can adequately explain the manner -in which he retained his self-possession, expecting, every moment, that the alarm would be raised, and that he would be caught red-handed.

' Not only did he make himself up to refeenible as much as possible his brother, but, rolling the " Goddess " up in a cloth, he •bore the blood-stained puppet out with him into the street. It was that which Turner iiad'seen him carrying, under the impression that he was himself the man who was, at that moment, lying on the floor, of the room, a mutilated corpse. As, by sight, ffurner knew both men well, the fact that* •he mistook one man ■ for the other shows that the imitation must have been well and carefully done. -

No action was taken against Mr Isaac •Bernstein. Except-the dead man's words, there was no evidence against him in that particular. But that the tale told of him by Edwin Lawrence was true, and that he liad some sort of conscience after all, was suggested by the fact that a feAv days afterwards he disappeared from his London premises and from his usual haunts. So far as I know, nothing has been seen or heard of him since. Whether he was afraid that other shady transactions in which he had 'had a hand would be brought home to him, or whether he was haunted by memories of jfche dual, tragedy for which he had been, Stt any rate in part, responsible, I cannot say. The fact remains that, so far as the .police can learn, large sums of money (which at the time of his disappearance were 'due to. him he has never made the slightest attempt to claim.

: As the two brothers were the last of their race, and no one laid claim to ■Pinup's estate, in due course it reverted to the Crown. It is among the large numiber of those for which heirs-at-law are still Old Morley and his wife had ■not been in a good service for so many -years for nothing ; they would have reAired from it long before had it not been for antiquated notions of fidelity. Their master's death found them comfortably oft", and in the possession, as it turned out, of a little property among the Surrey hills. On that property they are residing to this iday. When it first came into their hands ifche neighbourhood was wild and rural. Others, since, have discovered that it was beautiful. Building is taking place on every side ; quite a town is springing up. Though this materially adds to the monetary value of their property, the old couple iare a little restless amidst their new surroundings.

Hume is still unmarried. He becomes less and less engaged in the active practice of his profession. But he remains an authority on the obscure diseases of the •brain. He has written moie than one hook upon this special subject. I have not read these — I am no reader, and such works would, in any case, be hardly in my way — but I understand that he seeks to show that we are, all of us, more or less mad, and that he goes far towaids the proof of this thesis. He has not materially altered his estimate oi my mental equipment. Indeed, he once assured me that he was becoming m-ore and more convinced that men whose physical and muscular development Went beyond a certain limit were, ipso facto," mad; and, ergo, I must be insane. {However, we are tolerable friends, and he seems not unwilling to allow that I am as well out of an asylum as in. It has been rumoured that Miss Adair „utends, shortly, to retire from the stage ; nd 9 the whisper is that Hume, who for

some time has been her constant attendant, has something to do with her intention. In that case they will make a wellmatched pair, for in my opinion they both have tongues.

Bessie — I think that at this point in these pages I am entitled to call her Bessie — Bessie never acled again. After that hideous night brain fever supervened. For weeks she lay between life and death. More than once the doctors gave her up. Fortunately, doctors are not omniscient. After all God was merciful — to me. -

- Almost her first words, when the darkest hour had given place to the first glimmerings of dawn, took the shape of a question: "Where is Tom?" Her scamp of a brother! After all she had suffered for him, he was foremost in her thoughts.

"I hope that he is on the road to fortune."

Looking up at me with her big eyes, which had grown bigger, and sunk farther in her head, die asked me what I meant. I explained. I had supplied Young Hopeful with the wherewithal which would enable him to seek for gold in what was then the new El Dorado — the Klondyke region. He had started on his quest. But he never found what, at least nominally, he had gone to look for. Some months afterwards I learnt that he had died ; fallen at night into the waters of the Yukon River and been drowned. My correspondent went on to explain that he was dead drunk at the time ; which explanation I kept from his sister. I did not wish her to think that his end had 'been unbecoming to a man.

Bessie and I have been masried just long enough to enable me to begin to realise my happiness. I am ever slow, so I will not say 'what is the tale of the years which that statement implies ; though the sight of our youngsters is apt to give away the secret of their father's dulness. There was no question between us of courtship. 1 knew as I watched by her bedside that if she came back to life she was mine ; and that in any case I was hers. And. so it was. So soon as she was strong enough we were married. And we have been lovers ever since. As I sit with her hand clasped tightly, watching her children and mine. I am sometimes disposed to suspect that our courtship is beginnings I know it will never cease.

The goodness of God has been very great in giving me my wife". By what seemed accident, but was indeed the' act of Providence, I have come to have "for my very own the woman of my dreanis. Sleeping and waking she is mine. So true is it that some men's good fortune is out of all proportion to their deserts. -"'

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