THE SIGN OF SECRECY

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143671, 15 December 1911, Page 5

THE SIGN OF SECRECY

Or "THE DARK HOUSE OF DACRK,” By EDGAR PICKERIXTi, Author of “A Remorseless Accuser,” "A Witness from the Grave,” “Was She Guilty,’ 1 "Alurder will out/ 5 "Dick IKrollford's AVifc, etc. CHAPTER I. A FATETTL MESSAGE. The shadows were lengthening a--> two men u auiou iiuiju.'»;a'u .com <..k- jpnvau*. goli UiUx* touarU arayaon u>ux> iliul- iav giiiuuii;- line a pamec vi murljlo iimixlst ‘tin; trees. Tiuw uere 0 ol lue nou.?e pan.%, aii'i nciiiicr had olioun much ma-reai in tne ai'.crnoon s play, jjiivii.c muit impoitiuii axiair* uj occupy nn-ir uiougms. 1 lie owner ox uie stately mansion a Mr. Tiuton, ami he lu.u lavnMiua u lonuue oil it, wuiioat gaining ii.ucji recognition from Hie woiiuiy aiagnaies. Mr, liilion aught have an immense fortune, iJiey said, bill ii had been obtained by mcihcas union Jio jiuiiourable man eonul have commended. Jus record had been merciie.-vny made public —there had been a certain uiu); an action brought- ny xhe iimineier against a lieu spacer lor libel, and Air. ijilion had lest Die any. tie had lived the scandal down, and flourished m spile oi il. ‘.l ho judge 1 who iiad delivereu judgment agaiimi him, with seaDnng cpum-ts, hao long gone to his account, and on the night in question a ball was to he given at llaydon Bois, to wnieli the county lajjimw even would send represeuUicn os. iho older of the two men by a year was Philip De v aynes, an ansiocraiic man in Jus .speech mid manner, whilst at the same unie exhibiting a languid weaK disposition, which, although it did not detract from Jim undoubted attractiveness, lor his leatures and tigure were equally handsome, had been the cause oi most <H Jus troubles in the past, and found Jdiu quite unprepared to meet iho-'O which com runted him at the present moment. lie had a fatal delect in his nature of relying upon others, stronger willed and readier of resource than hiiimed. and with the single exception of Hark Danvers his mends had faded him when their help was most needed, and his position at its most- critical stage. He w as poor j&r a man ol his timces and habits; uu income of Unco hundred a your Hieing a pillaiu'C that barely sufficed to procure him the necessaries or existence. '.J herwore bo jived in an atmosphere of debt and difficulty, with a shadowy prospect of wealth and fine position before him. For ho was cousin to Lord Algernon l)e Vayners and next in succession to the title and estates. Lord Ue Vayncs was a bachelor nearer forty than thirty, and il lie died unmarried his cousin would lie a rich man. How often Phillip Do Vaym-s had longed lor Hint w happen it would be hard to say, and latterly the thought had haunted him of what his consul s death would mean to himself, of the magnificent rent-roll of Hacro Abbey, the ancestral homo in Shropshire would be his, and the change from constant embarrassment to riches. lie was thinking of it all as lie strolled across the grassland, and of something else too, for unless Sundown won the Derby that day it would‘mean more than simple ruin to him. lie would bo disgraced to say the least ol it, for to state his case plainly, lie had forged a friend’s signature on a hill that would fall due, in ten days from that sunny afternoon. If Sandown won he could be able to meet the acceptance, and no one would ever know any more about it. £2OO would make him sale. Re cursed himself, of course, for having run the risk of penal servitude, but that did not help him, and ho had gradually become possessed of such a dread and horror of his position as to lose the small amount of self-re-liance ho commanded normally. And as it is so often the case with such natures ho was liable to paroxysms, of blind rage that made him almost a madman. Me and Mark Danvers bad been at Eton together, and the friendship formed in their boyhood liad survived ami strenghtened in spile ol the vicissitudes of fortune v, liich liad befallen Mark. Twelve years ago his father iiad died a ruined man, and the career which Mark was to have adopted closed to him abruptly. Me was to hare gone into the army, and nature evidently intended him for that profession.' Tull and broad in figure lie strode along witli the action that great strength imnarts, and combined with tins was a nature courageous to recklessness. There was a fearless straightforward look in his hazel eyes wliieh was irresistibly winning, and at the corners of them and about the lips curled a smile. Otherwise Mark had no particular pretensions to beauty, but there was that about him which made him a welcome guest everywhere, and had won him the love ol a woman for whose sake hr would have laid down his life willingly. He was every inch a man, rough in manner, maybe, hut as honest and faithful, true and loyal, as ever a man could he. Vet when his auger was aroused Mark was to he [eared. Even the Paris Apaches spoke guardedly of the Englishman! Danvers, and would only have attacked him in companies, for he had sent one of the ruffians to his account. That was during Mark’s student days in a Palace Atelier, for having to' cam his living he had chosen the most precarious of pursuits, and shown sufficient ability in it to warrant the prophecy that ho would bo a great artist one day. Ho wns not this yet, but an honest worker who gained a passable income by his brush, and hc.K..,j painted a very creditable portrait of Mr, Hilton ho

had accoidixl an invitation to Haydon Bnis. vhii-h will account ior his homovurd walk that allormHUi with hi-s fnon<l Philip Do AFiynos. As a go mm a I rnlo Mark vas nlvays infnnmxl of his vompanioii’s various trouhlos, and In* hoi.xyl him out oi them when it was within his powor to do so. Bnl that a! lair ol tin.* umgitv Do AFivuns l-.fui to JumseiF dreading AiarlF.; outspoken don un<’nit ion oi the onnio. and in* blared not ri;d; thr-t. j’-or Mark vas one '0 ilu- low jk'ojilo win.'jii in- honohiiy lo\t i d and aciniirod Hi* i I’liHunhoi'i'd thiii night in Baris when Ji is- liJo ha<l boon ni peril, and how Mark had saved him at «-he_ risx of Jiis own. smoke ladmi rale in the Latin (Quarter would iievor he torgotten w.her* .Mark uns Dinging' away the -six hundred francs he had received for a picture, the odds against them m the fight that had suddenly arisen, and the way .Mark had defended his friend, getting an ugly knife thnmt between liD rih* a.-> he cleared his iocs ironi the doorwav. .Mark had shown him -eif like some Ik rr> of romance that night, and what he was capable l or when Ids passion w<m aroused. They had been dialling on variousufijeel.'* as they walked along, hut Jor some moments a- silence had been maintained alter coming in view of Haydon ihds. lc wae De \ ayn.es who ..jioktj again. "Fan von imaMm* ■tlw* feelings- of n man iu the d<‘ca whilst the jury are emidderiug -whether he sliall ho hanged oi let goF' he ahrnjuiy, and Aie.rk's brown eve>. began to twinkle with a mirlhml smde. ".Vatnre ddoro!onn-> people, so to speak, at the minrenie nun, null, I have heard, ' In* reiilierl. "the M*:,srw heceme numhi’d in env. 'Pnoy wake up when the d in;:’- settl'd. I -imnld say I hat- the men's h-'llngw v.-.,n!d }y prineiindiy i<: *l F.e .-Lair over. lO' would realise what the re<mU were in he- -wd’Hm:- !n> w;e; to he hanged or no—afterwards,” Ho he continued.)