THE BARTONS SECRET.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7295, 26 August 1893, Page 4

THE BARTONS SECRET.

literature

.‘CONTINUED) Once more the Count von Herder was leftto bis own reflections. He asked for, and was provided with, a biscuit and a glass of rum, and though tbe pangs of hunger gnawed him, and filled him with an absolute nausea, be felt that any other fare would have been intolerable to him. He soaked the buscuit in the raw spirit, and, little by little, contrived to swallow it. Tbe boat moved slowly, winding a cautious way round the curves of t he riyer. There were cries from tbe bows every now and then to direct the steersman, saner out in a wild, melancholy voice which sounded foreboding to tbe listener's ears. The paddles tamed noiselessly in the water, and the throbbing of the engine shook tbe small craft with a sudden tremor as the beating of the listener’s heart shook his frame. Tbe confinement to tbe cabin by-and-bv became intolerable to him, and, squeezing past the table once more, he groped bis way by tbe com-panion-ladder, and came upon the deck. There was a lift here aod there in the sky that broke into tbe close, oppressive g,oom, and the stars twin, kled intermittently, and were veiled again; the fiat landscape gloomed at either side indistinguishably. Suddenly a glow in the distance

naught his eye, and be oould bear the quick snorting of a smaller steamer in tbe rear. He watched the glow, and

for a moment fancied that it was shooting away from him on a parallel line j but even as he thought this he remembered a marked bend in the river, rounded only a minute or two before, and something in the recesses of bis mind hinted pursuit. The thought steeled his quaking nerves, and quieted tbe rioting of his heart. It was a mere fancy. Pursuit, to his thinking, was almost out of tbe question as yet, unless he had been sold by his pretended protectors; but tbe fancy had tbe power to steady him, and he turned a constant eye upon the glow, which travelled through tbe gloomy night away from him. By-and-by the glow rounded tbe corner, and tbe red light came bearing down. He felt with every revolution of tbe paddles which shook tbe boat that the red light was gaining, and watched in a tense excitement until the light had come within a hundred yards. Then a voice rang out load and clear: * Brisbane Queen —ahoy!’

The Count’s throat went hard and dry, and his right hand clutched the revolver which lay in his coat pocket. If that voice meant pursuit, and to bis mind and nerves it could hardly mean else, he would not yield or he taken. ‘ Brisbane Queen —ahoy V the voice called again, and the red light grew nearer. •Halloa !’ cried the skipper ot the Brisbane Queen, sullenly. * Heave to, there.’ * What for?’ cried the skipper. ‘ Who are you ?’ * Heave to, in the Queen’s name,’ the voice responded The Count von Herder walked

quietly down the companion-way, and took his old placa in the cabin. The lantern the skipper had placed upon the table was still burning dimly ; he opened it, and blew out the candle. * Now,* he said, in a tense whisper, * we shall see who this is.'

The beat of the engine and the churning of the paddles relented slowly. The .boat came to a sudden standstill.

The Count could bear the engine of the boat that followed, and, by-and-by, felt the slight shock with which the two vessels touched each other. ‘ Now wbat’s the matter ?’ said the skipper’s voice, hoarse and sulky. * I must trouble you to allow me to search this boat/ said a voice which was strange to the listener’s ears.’ It’s all quite right and regular, and there’s enough of us to put things straight if you’re inclined to make trouble.’ ‘ What do you want P* the skipper growled again. * I’ve got a warrant,’ said the other voice, which sounded very cool and authoiitative, and altogether full of doom to Von Herder: I’ve got a warrant for tbs arrest of Count Wolfgang von Herder on a charge of forgery and murder. I’ve intimation that leads me to believe you’ve got him aboard here. If yon like to hand him over, it’ll be so much the better for you. If you don’t and I find him here, you take the consequences.’ I’ve only got one passenger aboard/ (be skipper answered, with a reluctant growl. ‘I don’t know nothiuk about no Count von Herders/ * Let’s hare a look at your passenger,* said the authoritative voice. Where is he V 1 He’s aboard the boat somewhere/ the skipper answered. ‘ 1 think we have cur man,’ said another voice. *The Root Denton,’ the Count whispered, between his set teeth. ‘ Oh, oh ! I owe you this.’ ‘ Yes/ said yet another voice, ‘ the informajtionseemed tolerably exact/ The Count knaw this voica also—it was that of General Mallard. The white hand which clutched the revolver brought it out, and laid it with a firm and steady grasp upon the Ail the Count's nervousness had vanished, and he was steel from head to foot. His heart beat with a calm and steady pulsation, and the hand which placed the revolver on the table was as firm as a rock.

* Lend me that lantern/ said the General’s voice. ‘ I’ll have a look down here/

Steps began to descend tbe compan-ion-ladder, and a gleam of light fell

through the doorway. The Count, etealthy as a cat, placed himself at the side of the open door, and waited. The halting step came down, th« light grew broader. A firmer and younger step followed, and Hawthorne called out from above ;

‘ Don’t go alone, General, You may find the fellow desperate—be may be armed for aught that you can tell.’ Tne General returned no answer, but walked straight into the little cabin, and with an outstretched hand almost touched the Count’s bulky waistcoat. He walked right in, and, bolding up the lantern, peered around him. All this took but an instant, and at tbe very moment at which the lantern raj s fell on Yen Herder’s desperate face, Hawthorne entered. The. change in the criminal’s appearance was so striking tba% but lor the fact of his unaccountable presence there, be might hardly haye been recognised, but at tbe moment at which Mallard saw him be darted forward, aod in tbe selfsame instant of time tbe Couut raised bis band and fired. There, but for Hawthorne, the siory of tbe gallant soldier would have ended and the General, who had come through a score of pitched battles and a hundred skirmishes with scarcely a wound, would have met his death at the hands of an assassin. But Michael had 'teen the Count's quick gesture, and had hurled himself upon him with a loud cry of ‘ Here !’ The shot exploded harmlessly, but the burning powder singed Mallard's grey hair. Hawthorne and the Count struggled together in a mad embrace. The General was overturned ; the lantern was hurled from bis band and trodden to fragments under tbe feet of the combatants.

‘ This way, this way ! ’ cried the General, and thronging feat came hurrying along tbe deck and down tbe companion-way. There was another shot, and then, for one brief second quiet. The man in the uniform of tbe police shouldered through the doorway, lantern in hand. A third shot sounded. The air of the little room was choked with smoke, and its occupants were hardly visible. By-aod-by it was seen that Hawthorne lay all abroad, face upward, on the table, and that the Count was huddled in a corner. The officer put an arm beneath one of bis. and strove to lilt him, and, finding a dead weight in resistance, turned his lantern full on Von Herder’s face. * We've got him,’ he said coolly; * but he's slipped us after all.’ (To be continued.)