THE GREAT RUBY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 59

THE GREAT RUBY.

A TALE OF ADVENTURE,

By T. W. IIANSHEW,

Author of "The World's Finger," "The

Mallison Mystery/ etc

CHAPTER Xlll.— (Continued.)

EL— Miss Forrester ! Well, this is a surprise." "So it really is you, Mr Tredennis? I thought it looked like your back " She caught herself up quickly, and a faint, embarrassed colour flushed her face. "How odd to meet you here of all persons in the world," she added quickly. "We were just coming in for a cup of tea — my father and I. But let me introduce you. Dad, dear, this is Mr Iredennis, the gentleman for whom we waited dinner so long last night, and who never came at all." "Pray do not blame me tpv tliaj;; my

note must have told you why I could not come," said Jack, after he had shaken hands with Sir Nigel, and decided that he vi as going to like him "Or did you throw it aside and forget to read it, you look so surprised, Miss Forrester?"

"And well I may do, for I don't in the least understand what you are talking about nor to what note you allude. No note of any sort came to the Chase last night — did it, dad, dear? Did you \mte me one ?"'

"Yes," said Jack in reply. "It is very strange that you never got it. What must you and Sir Nigel have thought of me, then, to go away after what I had promised to do ? But may we not all three sit down to that little table in the far corner and have 'tea together? I must tell you about what was in the note, since jou have never received it. It will explain why I never kepi my promise, and why lam here to-night. I only dropped in for a moment to g-et a cup of tea, and) if Sir Nigel and you will let me drink it in company "

"Certainly, by all means, Mr Tredennis," interposed Sir Nigel, no longer wondering why Helen placed such reliance in this fine sturdy upstanding young fellow with the frank, honest eyes and the bearing of a man of gentle birth. "We shall be delighted to ihave you join us, and I shall be most happy to hear more of this romantic story of yoiirs than Helen has been able to tell me."

So, the matter being thus arranged, to the little table in the far corner they adjourned, and over the tea-cups mutual confidences were exchanged, and the story of yestei'day told to each other. "The rascal ! No wonder you were in such hot haste to be off without delay and to look for your poor mother before that brute could forestall you," said Sir Nigel, when the story of yesterday's affair in Folwick's cottage had been told in its entirety. "But I shouldn't worry over the fear oi anything having happened to the poor gamekeeper, if I were yo^ Mr Tredennis. I don't think St. Omer would be quite equal to killing two people in one day ; and, besides that, I have a theory as to what has become of the note. No doubt Luttrell intercepted it as being likely to interfere with his plans to get us out of the Chase to-day, and to deprive us of a friend who would be likely to assist us in getting the better of him — the scoundrel !"

"Yes, that must be it, ' agreed Jack. "What a wily rascal the fellow is, Sir Nigel ; and it seems like Providence, our coming together in spite of him. I'll have a look into his little game in a day or two, and he won't find me so easy or confiding as he has found you." "How good of you to take all this trouble, all this interest, in the affairs of a foolish old man, Mr Tredennis, when your hands are already so full with fighting your own and your mother's battles." "Oh, as for that, Sir Nigel, a friend isn't half a friend if he can't be of service when there's need for him. I only wish that I could afford to take up the cudgels in your behalf without even an hour's delay, but that, unhappily, is impossible, for I must be over Penarth way before dark."

"Penarth !" repeated Helen. "That is the place where, according to what old Patty Dux said, Tier grandniece saw your mother in the spring-cart, isn't it?"

"Yes," answered Jack; "I have spent the whole day tracing, or trying to trace, that grandniece of old Patty's — Nellie Pickert was her name ; but beyond establishing the fact that she and her husband, Jem Pickert, left these parts several years ago, and went nobody knows where, my time has simply been wasted. So far as she is concerned, I mean," he hastily added ; "for a great deal of good has come out of it."

"Meaning your meeting with us? How nice of you to say that." "Meaning that and— something else, too ; so you see I am not quite such a disinterested friend as you would make me out to be, Miss Forrester. My hunt today has resulted in the discovery that somewhere in the region of all that waste land which lies between Penarth and Polhemus iNTeck there lives a man who used to bring produce to market for mysterious female, who, so lately as five years ago, had a farm whose whole product seems to have been flowers and ferns, and to which nobody but that particular man was ever allowed to go. The owner of that peculiar farm was, it is said, a woman whose history nobody knows, whose face nobody ever saw, as she habitually went veiled, and whose very name is unknown. Where she came from or Avhere she has gone sinee — if gone she has, for even that is uncertain— nobody seems able to tell; all that is known on the subject being the fact that the flowers and ferns no longer come to market as they used to do, and that tha man Avho used to carry them now lives in a litle cottage of his own and does not work at all."

"He must have been pensioned off, then."

" My idea exactly, Miss Forrester, and it is in Quest of that man lam going. I only dropped in here for a cup of tea before going to a livery and bait stable to hire a horse that I may ride over and see the man —Job Gannet is his name — and find out if he can or will tell me more about his mysterious former mistress." "You have an idea that she may prove to be your mothei V " Yes, Sir Nigel. The raising of flowers is just such a business as a woman of refined tastes would be likely to take up if she were suddenly compelled to earn her bread and had a wish to go off into soms secluded corner of the land and lhe a life of solitude. Then, too, the constant wearing of a veil and the care to keep her name and identity hidden — all point to a desire for secrecy and a reason for avoiding the world. Such a desire and such a luisun my poor mother had, and I L^uvoi help thinking that this indeed may be khe^ and if it should be "

T He --iid ro moic. foi at tint moment thb door of the leirf&lnnent room was again op-lied, find Abbas Luttiell walked in. "Aib.! here you are at l?st, Sir Nigel, and I have managed to anive befoie you," he began, and then stopped and scowled darklj a- he saw and recognised Tredennis. An old acquaintance, you see, Mr Li:fc- , trell,"' said Helen, mischievously. "Really, j this has been a day of surprises. And so I you managed to get here in advance of us? How very odd, when you took a later train. I hope you have brought a conveyance of some kind to take us to the Cottage, for Sir Nigel and I are really quite worn out after cur long and tedious journey." " Yes, Miss Forrester ; I have brought a comfortable trap, but I am quite sure it will not possibly hold more than three." "A polite hint that I am not wanted," said Jack with a laugh. "Don't worry ! yourself, my friend ; I have no intention of i inflicting my society upon you at present. j Later I may do so, but not to-night. And now it is au rcvoir. T^ir Nigel," he added as he rose and held out his hand. "A safe and a pleasant journey to you and to Miss Forrester. I'll call at the Cotthge as soon ! as I can possibly do so — to-morrow, perj haps, if I succeed in seeing Job Gannet toI mght." I "Do so, Mr Tiedennis, do &o ; you will always find a hearty welcome." " Thank you." said Ja;k, as he shook hands with him. "Au revoir to you, too, Miss Forrester." Then, in a lower tone, he added, '"Keep up a brave heart, and be sure that all will yet come right."' "" If it is in your hands, I am sure that ib will," answered Helen in the same tone. "Au revoir. Mr Tredennis ; I pray for your success, and I shall look, oh! so eagerly for your coming to tell us all about it." And after a few more words the parted, Helen and her father going out to the waiting vehicle, and Jack striding up the village street in quest of a place where he might hire a horse. He found such a place at Tart — at the end of a mews that had a street striking out of it at one end and another striking into it at the other — and, as he entered by the last-named, he was ju&t in 'time to catch a glimpse of a lunsreman riding out of it by the former. The man's buck was toward" him ; his body was arrayed in a-coars-e, ill-fitting suit of grey tweed and a s,oft dark hat was pulled well down over his head. Despite the fact his clothing w evidently of country ir..mufactuie, and he had every appearance of being a yokel and riding like one, something about the man struck Tredennis wiUi an odd sense of familiarity ; but before he could even attempt to question himself in regaid to it, the appearance of the proprietor of tha stable" drove it completely out of his mind, which now was filled entirely with the business of obtaining a mount, and the sum tliat would "be charged him for it. The summer twilight was already on the wane when he finally rode out of the mews and turned lr-s horse's head in the direction of Penarth, and it had faded utterly by the time he reached it, and, riding through, the little settlement, headed straight for the long stretch of gorse-grown brackencovered waste land that lay between tha boundaries of Penarth and those of Polhemus Neck. It was a dismal place, this waste ; a, lonely, neglected, "creepy" sort of place after' dark, and more than one deed of violence blotted its history. Night shut in before Tredennis had got a quarter of the way across it, and it required all his watchfulness to keep the horse from stumbling into one of the many hundreds of rabbit-holes dotting its uneven surface. About him everywhere the furze bushes crowded, black as night ar.d l sharp w ith countless thorns ; through the bracken rabbits scurried with a strange, uncanny sound, and, dim with distance, droned the dismal deep-throated boom of the far-off sea. Overhead the nickering bats flapped silently their clammy wings, and cheeped! their little mournful thread of sound ; in the darkness beyond an dwl hooted 1 eerily Iron? the shelter of unseen trees, and with steady monotony there rose up from the wet and fragrant earth the ceaseless "pooloop ' poo-loop ! poo-loop !" of the horse's hoofs, as man and animal forged ahead with scaice a star to light them on their way. But suddenly a blaze of quick-coming, quick-going light leapt out of the bushes before them, and flashed, orange-red, in their eyes. A sharp report followed swift upon its hels, and as the frightened horse reared and Hung oft its limp and bleeding rider, the echo of a gnnshot rumbled away over the waste and frightened into nigh* the hooting owl.