CHAPTER XXXII. A LAST MOVE—LILLIS'S PERIL.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 130, 28 November 1885, Page 6

CHAPTER XXXII. A LAST MOVE— LILLIS'S PERIL.

While Biby directed his course with fiendlike energy to the spot where Linter was to be murdered, and while Lady Melrosa gave her tender, frightened attention to Lillis in the .small drawing-room, to which the girl had been conducted, Hood eat in the library. His elbows- rested upon his knees, and his forehead was bowed against his clenched hands. . "Why," he muttered, staring at the floor—" why did I waste time in hopes of finding the cursed paper ? W% did I n °* have May here, and the ceremony over, last night? The mother's devilish ambition would have carried me through, while . the world would have thought nothing of my desire to take my bride and escape the melancholy scene of the earl's death. But I've left it all a day too late ! In some infernal way I've betrayed the buried secret. But how? Has she overheard me talking to myself? It mu3t be so. In no other way could she have come to suspect my true origin. And the murder S —She doubts me !" In his consuming anxiety he started up, paced the floor a minute, and then, with a groan, clapped his hands on top of his head, and leaned his drawn brows against the mantel-edge. For a little he stood thu?, with closed eyes and set teeth, the wretched image of a desperate man. Wearying of the position, he directly raised his head. In doing so he noticed that the letter 1 snatched from Linter's hand had fallen from the coals to the ashes, and lay there only partially consumed. He gave it a fierce thrust with, his foot, and then, impelled by a sudden curiosity, snatched it from the blaze, extinguished the flame, and tore away the remaining shred of envelope. Unfolding the scorched fragment of paper he glanced at the few words it contained, and the nest instant staggered back as if struck by the hand of death. The chair from which he had risen received his limp form, and for a minute he lay there, white and still, only the faint breath fluttering across his lips and heaving his breast, showing that he was a living man. But the very terror that had prostrated, restored. He dragged himself from the chair, and clutching the tongs in a feeble grasp, thrust both paper and envelope into the fire. " That danger passed !" he gasped, half inaudibly. "Now?" He paueed. He went on: "Yes! Linter dead, and Lillis my wife, all will be plain sailing." As he spoke colour returned to his face, and strength to his limbs. He rose, went to the old earl's writingtable, and penned a brief telegram. " Oh !" be muttered, as he rang the bell, " if I could only live the last ten days over again ! If I could only live the last; fortyeight hours over again i" The servant entering, he turned from his vain reerrets, and placed the slip of paper in the man's hand. "You are to wait for a reply," he said, " and — " There he paueed a moment, and then, slowly and thoughtfully, proceeded — " and if I should be in my room when you return, I am not, on any consideration,to be disturbed. Put the answer in this drawer." He indicated the drawer, and the man retired. As the closing door left Hood alone again a dark smile crept about his mouth. "I shall not be here,"hemuttered ; " and, the Fates propitious, all will be well. It was a lucky thought." He hastened to the hall, and encountered Lady Melross in the act of entering the library. "■I was just starting in search of you," he exclaimed, with anxious eye and voice. " How is Lillis, and where?" "And I' was just coming to you," returned Lady Melross, pale and deeply troubled. They went into the room, and she continued, answering his double inquiry in trembling tones. "Lillis is in the small drawing-room, perfectly compoEed, but insisting with cold decision that you are a man of low birth — the son of your father's valet. Oh, Robert, there can be no doubt about it— Lilli8 J s mind is shattered, and the engagement—" She broke down in a flood of tears. JO ood caught up the unfinished sentence. " And the engagement," he cried, " must be consummated as quickly as possible ! Impressed with the necessity, I have already telegraphed to May to be here tomorrow morning. You must be relieved of this frightful weight of care, and I must become my darling's immediate protector." Lady Melross stared at him through her tears a moment in mute astonishment The next she exclaimed, falteringly, gratefully: " You cannot mean it, Robert !" " If nhe were the wildest maniac, I should mean it !" declared Hood, with passion. "Don't I love her? Don't I know that the sooner she is removed from this place and the harrowing reminders of late scenes we must all wish to forget, the sooner she will be better ? Such a change as I propose for her will prove her mental salvation." "You do love her?" murmured Lady Melross. "I do, indeed; and my sharpest pain lies in the knowledge that I am the one object of her insane accusations — I who would shed my blood for her." He turned away his head. Lady Melrosa ' laid her hand gently upon his arm. She said, in moved accents : "You surely know, Robert, that these ravings are as the blowing of the winds in my ears !" " How could I doubt it?" returned Hood, gratefully. "And now tell me of Lillis. How soon did the paroxysm pass over ?" "Immediately. She allowed us to take her to the drawing-room without a word. Arrived there, she eat down in a dull, despairing way, and fixed her eyes on the floor. Presently lifting them, she noticed Rebecca Hough, and haughtily ordered her from the room. "Left alone with me, she exclaimed, wearily : ' Oh, mamma, if I could only trust you — if you were ,only not that wretch's blind dupe !'" "Poor child! Poor child!" murmured Hood! '.' I nled hot repeat more," pursued Lady Melross sadly. " Her words were only fc

I ' ~ If • * „) 111 1 n /«■>{" t' i repetition of the. wild statement uttered here-r-a statement too inor edible, for any same person's belief. " . '< Hood feelingly acquiescing with, her, they turned to 1 a hasty disoussion of Linter, his discharge, and 1 the morning's grave pro•jecfi,: after which- Lady Melross returned fbd Lillie. i[. , i ( , j L - .., > i ! When the bell summoned them to the eveningmeal Lady Melross entered alone. -Meeting Hood's inquiring eye as she did so, she made a quick negative movement that he fully understood. • t • . ■ *' You could not, persuade her to-come?" he asked, advancing, and speaking in a tone too low for the servant's ear, "She declares she will never sit in the same roam with you again, much lees eat at your board." Hood sighed, turned away, and they took their seats. < After a few hasty mouthfuls,.he rose, and dismissing the butler on , some .plausible pretext, said, with emotion : "I will go at once to my room, Lady Melross. Lillis may be sure of not seeing me downstairs again to-night.- Fray, persuade her to take her supper as usual. A long night's rest will do me no harm after the day's wear and tear, so do not distress yourself about my comfort." Here he went close to her. " Another thing 1" he said, rapidly. " I shall take the opportunity to wire the look of the outer door of Lillis's boudoir. While it is manifestly unadvisable to irritate her by attendance, it is no less so to allow her to secure herself by means of .that heavy corridor lock. You are sure she is in the drawing-room ?" Lady Melross expressed and looked the relief she really felt. " With the lock useless," she conoluded, " it will be possible to exercise a little care over her during the night " She set down her half-emptied cup, and rising, left the room with him. " If," she whispered as he stopped at the stairway, "if I do not come from the drawing-room at once, you may know she is with me there." She did not come, and Hood, after returning to the dining-room to insure his not being disturbed, and the closing of the Abbey at an early hour, went upstairs for the night. Both commands were strictly obeyed. Long before eleven the most profound silence reigned throughout the building. Lady MelroES, as on the preceding evening, accompanied Lillis to the latter's boudoir, and left her there with a strangely tender and reluc^nt good-night. Directly after Rebecca Hough came in to attend to the fires. But the girl saw her come and go without the slightest interest or attention. A despairing apathy had overtaken her. Motionless as a statue, she reclined in the easy- chair at the end of the hearth She looked lovely as a dream. Her head rested wearily against the chair's crimson, stuffed back, her dainty hands lay locked among the folds of her black dress, and her eyes gazed unchangingly >at the leaping flame of the fire. In a listless review of the defeats of the day, and as listless queries as to the unknown woman's continued silence and apparent desertion, the hours wore on. The fire burned low. I A chill air began to creep upon the warmth of the room. All at once something aroused her. What it was she did not know ; but she glanced round, and off to the corridor door. "I must lock it and go to bed," she thought. "It grows late." But she did not move. Her sorrowful eyes returned to the fire in the same listless gaze. She was fast sinking into her former pre-occupied state when, she was again aroused. It seemed to her that some malign presence wa«» near. The feeling had scarcely denned itself to her mind when a distinct sound excited a sharp and intelligent alarm. The sound made itself heard from that portion of the boudoir out of sight behind her chair. She sprang to her feet and looked. The look froze her blood. The room-door, carefully closed by Rebecca Hough, had been opened from within. Upon its threshold stood— Robert Hood. As their eyes met he smiled — such a smile ! It broke the bonds of terror that had momentarily chained the girl. • A wild ringing shriek left her lips, and a wild impulse to flee started her to the corridor. Hood intercepted her at the first movement. "Scream if you like!" he said. "It will do me no harm. Except our two selves, every creature under this roof lies in a drugged sleep. Now— wheeb is it ?" He asked the question with a steadying grasp upon her shoulder as she reeled back under his terrible words. "Where- is —what?" faltered Lillis, in shuddering tones, and with terrified eyes. " The secret crypt of Langdon Abbey I - THE PAPER HIDDEN BY THE CURSED OLD earl's hand, and copied by yours ! Where is nr