A FORGOTTEN PAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 1 July 1903, Page 72

A FORGOTTEN PAST.

By 6. W. APPLET ON,

Author of "Kaah Conclusions," "Franco's tbe

Valet," 4c, Ac.

[Copyright.]

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

Chapters I and II. — The story is told by an M D., who resides at Richmond. His sister Helen is his housekeeper, and an assistant, a general servant, and a page boy compose the menage. On a snowy December day a beautiful woman is taken ill outside his residence, and the doctor has her carried into his house. After visiting a patient the doctor returns to find that the lovely stranger has come to her senses, but her memory is a complete blank. She has upon her person a return ticket to Waterloo and a slip of paper on which is inscribed the name of Dr Edward Williams. Brother and sister invite her to remain with them for the present in the hope that the lapse of memory may prove to be only temporary. Should it not return the doctor mentally decides to ask Aunt Maria's advice, that good lady having been the pTesiding genius of his life. His mother died at his birth. His father had been lost sight of altogether for somo time; but a foreigner — Emmanuel Garcia by name— had introduced himse'f to Williams some time before, bearing an introductory letter from the doctor's father. He entertained Edward Williams and Charles MortimeT at a dinner, and immediately afterwards the trio had a very extraordinary experience at the hands of foreigners, which is narrated to explain what follows. Garcia escaped to Southampton and thence to New York, and from that city he indited a grateful note to the young doctor.

Chapters II (continued), 111, and IV.— Dt Williams and his sister are astonished at the talents and accomplishments of the fair visitor. After she has retired for the night Helen comes to her brother with a note addressed to Dr Williams. She tells him that the girl baa had another queer spell, and that her hair was in one part clotted with blood. The doctor opens the envelope to discover that it contains £10,000 in American bank notes. They catch sight of a man's face at the window, and the doctor recognises it as belonging to one of the men who had pursued Emmanuel Garcia. Brother and sister decide to notify the police that suspicions characters are prowling rouiKi the house, and send a note by their page. Early the following morning Helen makes the discovery that the money has been stolen, and when the doctor finds later that the page is also missing, he puts two and two together. However, a short time after, Helen finds the money intact on her visitor's dress-ing-table. Dr Williams visits the police station, and learns that the boy never went near the place the previous evening, but his body is there now. He ha 3 been fished out of the r^ver, having been first knocked on the head and then drowned. The doctor quickly understands that the page has been suborned to do a piece of lobbery, and afterwards murdered. He admits that a young lady, suffering from lapse of memory, is paying him a medical visit, and that he has valuables belonging to her in his possession. He telegraphs to Charles Mortimer— whom he more than suspects has an a-dmiratioa for Helen — and, after paying another visit to his lady patient, he travels to London. Chapters IV (continued) and V.— Williams lays the whole case before Mortimer, who suggests placing the matter in solicitors' hands. Tfo.s is dore, and the solicitors draw up the necessary documents. They leave the money in a faafe in the lawyers' office. After they have quitted the office there is a street accident, and in the hustle the doctor's^ coat is i.pped up, and all his papers are stolen. He catches a ghmp9e of the man's face— it is the same face he saw at the window ! During luncheon they discuss the situation, which they recogms^as dangerous. They decide to go the round of the large hotels, and try to identify the strange lady. They return to the solicitors' office, sign the papers, and begin their round of visits with Bart's. Here they meet with success at once. The porter remembers a beautiful young lady calling and asking the address of Dr Williams, which he wrote and gave to her. Both Williams and Mortimer are now certain that Emmanuel Garcia is somehow mixed up in this affair. They drive to the Hotel Cecil, where they find that a young lady, accompanied by her maid, and answering to the description of the stranger, had engaged a suite of rooms the previous morning. The manager leaves them for a moment, but returns to inform them that the lady's husband has called and taken the maid away. They ask to see the lady's name. It is entered as "M. Marcella, U S A." At Waterloo Station they see placarded up the murder of a page boy and the mystery of a married lady of amnle me?ns.

Chapters VI and Vll.— Mortimer decides to travel to Richmond with Williams. Nothing further has transpired at Eichmond, except that the police have carefully examined and measured the footprints in the snow. Eliza, the servant, wishes to leave on the plea of her father's ill-health, and hei sister will take her place. This excites no particular attention, though afterwards it turns out to be of great importance. The four have a merry evening together. Mortimer is puzzled by the lady visitor's vivacity, and cannot reconcile it with the alleged loss of memory. At the close of his visit he turns to her and asks if she is not acquainted with Marcella Garcia. She at once acknowledges that it is her own name. At breakfast the next morning the doctor comes across an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph for a missing lady of weak intellect and Spanish type of beauty, having a large sum of money in" her possession, the property of her husband. The doctor now feels that the game is worth Ihe fight. Mortimer arrives with a small revolver for the doctor, and they attend the inquest, but nothing new transpires.