UNDER FALSE PEE TENCES.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XX, Issue 6156, 25 July 1888, Page 4

UNDER FALSE PEE TENCES.

NOVEL BY ADELINE SEBGEANT Author of " Jacob i's " " Marto Dsveril's Diamond," &c. CHAPTER L. MRS, LUTrRELL's liOl>M, CContinued*)

He set down the little bottle on the table, and held up the tumbler to the light. Then he took ii carafe and poured a tcaswnful of water on the liquid. Kitty could see the p'lial on the table very distinctly. L bore in red letters the inscription: " Poison." And again she asked herself : what was Hugo going to do? Breathlessly she watched. , lie smiled a little to himself, smelt the liquid, and held it once more to the light, as if to judge with his narrowed eyes of the quantity required. Then, with a noiseless foot and watchful eye, he mo.ed towards the bed, still holding the vrmbler in his hand. He looked down for a moment at the pale and wrinkled face upon "the pillow ; then he spoke in a peculiarly smooth and ingratiating tone of voice.

" Aunt Margaret." he said. " I have, brought you something to make you sleep." He had placed the glass to her lips, when a sound in the next room made him start and lift his eyes. In puother moment h's wife's hands were on his arm, and her eyes were blaz'ng into his own. The liquor m the glass was spilt upon the bed. Hugo turned deadly pale. "What do you mean? What do you want V he said, with a look of mingled terror and rage. " What are you doing here ?" "I have come to save her—from you." She was not afraid, now that the words were spoken, how that she had seen the guilty look upon his face. She . confronted him stead' y; she placed herself between him and the bed. Hugo uttered a low but emphatic malediction on her "meddlesome folly." " Why are you not in yov room ?' he said. " I locked you in." " I was not there. Thank God Iwa

" And v. hy should you thauk God ?" said Hugo, who stood look'ig at her with an ugly expression of b; Hid cunning upon his face. " I was doing no harm. I was giving her a sleeping-

draught."

She looked into her husband's eyes-as ihe spoke, and she knew ":om that moment that the accusation was based on no idle fancy of her own. Inheaii at least, he w?s a murderer.

"Would she ever have waked?" asked Kitty, in a whisper. But the question called forth his fiercest passio >. Pie cursed her again —bitterly, bk *phemovsly—then raised his hand and her with Fs closed fist between the eyes. He Hew what he was doing; she fell to the ground, stunned and bleei? : ng. He thrust her out of his way; she lay on the floor be tween the window and the bed, moaning a little, but for a time utterly unconscious of; all that went on .around her.

Hugo's preparations had been spoilt. He was obliged to begin them all over again. But this time Hs nerve was shaken: he blundered a v ttle once or twice. Kitty's low moan was h his ears: the paralysed woman upon the bed was regarding him with a look 0.. frozen horror in her wide openey-. She could not move: she could not speak, but she could understand.

He turned his back upon the two, ? id measured out the drops once more into the glass. His hnd shook as he did so. He was longer about his work than he had been befor° So long that Kitty came to herse 1 * again and watcLad him with a horrible faschation, F'at the drops: then the sleepiug-c I, aught: from which the sleeper was not to awake would be ready.

Kitty did not know how she found strength or courage to do at that moment what she did. It seemed to her that fear, sickness, pain, a ll passed away, and left her oDly the determination to make one desperate effort to defeat her husband's ends.

" She knew tliat the window by which she lay was ur'buttered. She rose fjom the ground, reached the windowsill and threw up the sash, a) nost before Hugo knew what she was doing. Then she sent forth that terrible, agonised cry for help, which reached the ears of the four men who wereeven at that moment waiting and listening at f he garden gate.

Hugo dropped the glass. It was shivered to pieces on the floor, and its contents stained the rug on which it fell He'st 'ode to the window and stopped his v .fe's mouth with his hands, then < -agjjed her away from it, and spoke some bitter, furious wort's.

" 80-you want to hang me ?" he said. " Keep ' quiet, or I'll make you repent your night's work " ,And then he paused. He heard the sound of opening doors, of heavy steps and strange voices upsn the stairs. lie turned hsMtily to the dressing-room ; and he was cnnivonted on the threshold by the determined facep ?d Jlc :l? -g eyes of his cousin, Brian Luttrell. He cast a hurried glance beyond ?ul around him but he saw no help at hand, Kitty had sunk fainting to the ground : there were other faces—severe and menacing enough —behind Brian's: he folt that he was caught like a wild beast in a trap. His only course was to brazen out the mat. ter as best he could ; fid this in the face of Brian Luttrell, of old Mr, Colqulioun, of Percival Heron it was hard to do. In spite r£ himself his face turned pale, and his!: .ees shook; ;he spoke in a lioarae find graliu» tone.

'' What does this disturbance mean ?" he said. u Why do you come rushing into i\lrs Luttrell's room at this hour of the night ?"

" Because," said Brian, taking him by tho shoulder,''your wife has called for help, and we believe that she needs it. We know that you are one of the greatest scoundrels that, ever trod the face of the earth. Because we are going to bring you to justice. That is why." "These are very fine accusations," said Hugo, with a pale sneer, " but I think you will have a difficulty in proving them, Mr—Vasari." " I shall at least have no difficulty in proving that you stole money and forged my brother's name, three years ago,' said Brian, in a voice that was terrible in its icy scorn. '• I shall have no difficulty in proving to the world's satisfaction that you shamefullly treated Dino Vasari, and that you twice—yes, twice —tried to murder him, in order to gain your owu ends. Hugo Luttrell, you are a coward, a thief,' a would-be murderer ; and unless you can prove that you were in my mother's room with no evil intent (which I believe to be impossible) you shall be branded with all these names in the world's face.

'■ There is no proof—there is no legal proof," cried Hugo, boldly. But his lips were white. ' But there is plenty of moral proof, young man," said Mr Colquhoun's dry voice. " Quite enough to blast your reputation. And what does this empty bottle mean and this empty glass. Perhaps your wife can tell us that," There was a momentary silence. Mr Colqulioun held up the little bottle, and pointed with raised eyebrows to the label upon it. Heron was supporting his sister in his arms and tryiug to revive her : Fane and the impassive constable barred the way between Hugo and the door. (To be Continued).