LITERATURE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 3933, 25 November 1880, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE RIVALS. A BoiIAKOE OF lIFBAOOMBH. (Tinstey's Magazine.) (Concluded.) It was nearly three months after this that Gerald May field waa breakfasting at hia club, chatting with tho head of the Police Presently a boy came in with a note for ti.o latter. "Ah," he said, glancing over it, "th. Taunton Castle ia off the Head; I have been expacfcing her for somo daya. By what wo hear, it ia possible that Gossett, that fellow who swindled the bank in London, ia on board, and we shall put our hand on him as he landa. I can't go myself, for I have a very important cage in Court ; but we shall have him." " Why do you think he is on bmrd ? "Of course, we can't be sure, nnd in fact they are doubtful at home. AH they say ia, thafc there ia a paasenger on board who seema to have given no address, and to have had no belongings in England, and tho description of hia height and appearance tallies _ pretty accurately with that of Gossett. Still that ia not much to go upon, and we shall have to be very careful." "What time do you think the Taunton Castle will be in ? lam going down to meet her, aa I have an old friend on board, and I shall look out to see if your officer effects a capture." " She ought to be in by eleven." Gerald sat some little time over his breakfast after the chief of the conatabulary had departed. «• I must save him if possible for her sake, he Baid to himself at last. "He is a swindler, and, I fear, a bad lot altogether ; but she lovea him, and that ia enough for me. Even if she did not love him I would spare her the disgrace of his trial and punishment." At eleven o'clock Gerald stood on the wharf watching the Taunton Castle coming alongside. Mt^r him Btood a couple of constables. He knew them, ns bAh bad been en<?a»ed in hunting up moro than one fraudulent debtor to the firm. • " I hear from Captain Peters : !:at you aro on the look-out for a passenger '' " Yee, air. We hope ao, but there doesn't seem much certainty about it," As the ahip came alongside, Gerald was one of the first to leap on board. He looked hastily round, and among fche passengers he at once aaw the man he waa eearching for. Paul Gossett waa looking ill, and had grown a beard, but there waa no other change about him. "What i3 thafc gentleman's name?" he asked a lad who was standing near. " Hopkina," the boy said. Then Gerald went up fco him wifch outstretched hand. Gosaetfc gave a Istarfc ; but a gesture commanding caution on the part of Gerald cauaed him to repress it. " How are you, Hopkina ? What a time ifc is since we met — ageß almost? How are you?" He spoko in loud tones, in ordor that the constables, who were close by, might hear. "Well, what sort of a voyage have you had? and how did you louvt* everyone at home?" Paul Goaaetthad prepared himself for arrest afc the moment of landing. He knew that if any suacicion had been excited that Paul Gossett and James Hopkina were one and the same person, that the constablea would be on the same quay t<> arrest bim aB he landed. He was therefore prepared to meet whatever came ; and after tho first slight start he recognised by the action and tone of voice that Gerald waß trying t o save him, and fell into the lead. A man who b;ia for months and years been running a greit riak must neceasarily have his nerves well under control, and the constables, who stood a short distarco off listening to the conversation, did not for a moment suspect that it was forced. For a few minutes they talked so, and then Gerald Baid : "You know lam only in bachelor's lodgings, but I havo taken a room for you at tbe Boyal. I ahall see you later in the day. I must go off to my office now. Well, officera," he said to the constables, aa he turned from Goßßett, " have you got your man ? Which ia he ?" " We haven't gofc him, and we ain't a-going to. The chap that we were put on waa the Tery gent aa you've been talking wifch." " What, my friend Hopkins ? Thafc is a joke." " Can'fc be no mistake, I suppose, sir ?" "Mistake, man ! Why, I have known him for years. We have been, down at the seaside together. In fact, I saved his life once." " That's good enough, Sir. It's quite clear the people afc home have gone after a wrong scent; altogether j very likeiy put on it so aa to render it more easy for him to slip off in some other direction." "Likely enough," Gerald said carelessly. " Afc any rate, it ia aa well for Mr Hopkina that I happened to meet him here. Imagine hia astonishment at being seized and locked up. If he had not had any one to identify him, and you had detained him for a couple of months, till some one camo out from England to swear to him, he would have had grounds for an action, and would have got swinging dame #■:* againßt all your people." Twice in the course of the evening Gerald called at th? Roval, bufc each time he waa told that Hopkina was oufc. He was relieved to find that this man had guessed that, although he was bound to call in order to keep up the story of their acquaintanceship, yet that he would far rather that they did not meet. Next morning when he called at the hotel he was told Mr Hopkins had gone up country, bat that ho had left a note for him. Its contents were brief. " You are a grand fellow, Gerald Mayfield. You have saved me twice, and have returned good for evil. If I could undo the past, heaven knows that I would. I am going up the country to get work of some sort 5 T only got off wifch enough to pay my passage out." Ten months later Gerald received from the dootor of a hospital afc Ballarat the certificate of the death of Paul Goaaett, mortally injured by a fall off the roof in one of the mineß there. He had lived a few days, had said who he waß, and had written to his wife. He had ordered that the cortifioate of his death and his letter to hia wife might be forwarded to Mr Mayfield, who would, he was Bure, see that they were Bent to his widow. For another ten months Gerald Mayfield worked on at Melbourne, and then, having been relieved by his junior partner, he sailed for England. Maud was he knew living afc Brighton, where she waa supporting herself by giving music lessons, having firmly declined to touch tho monoy anonymously paid to her account. Then he went down and peremptorily took possession of her. Maud had determined upon resistance, for ehe had schooled herself to behave tbat it would be wrong for her to marry again. She acknowledged freely to herself that sho loved Gerald Mayfield. She had beard from her husband how Gerald had saved him from arrest ; she feltsure that it was Gerald who would have provided for her; she never doubted thafc he would come back and olaim he/ ; bufc she had uaaured herself, oror and over again, that sho would never allow fche stigma of her name to attach -to him, hard though it might be to refuse bim. But when he came in, and atraightway took her in bis armß and held her there ; when he stopped her lips as she tried to speak about disgrace, and wiped away her tearß as they fell, there waa nothing for her to do but to yield, aDd even to allow him, in his masterly way, to settle that, aa the marriage would be perfeotly quiet, there waa no reaaon in the world why it Bhould bo delayed beyond a month afc the outßide. "You fooliah Gerald," she said to him, later on in tho evening, " you are always in extremes : you lost me fivo years ago because tou were so timid you would not atand up for yourself; and now you have become a perfect tyrant, and won't allow me to have ever so littlo a bit of my own way." . "You shall have all your own way, darling, when you are once my wife," he said ; •* but till then I mean to be master ; bo your beßt pian ia to hurry on your preparations aa fast as you can in order to freo yourself from my tyranny. And thero is one thing, Maud, if you don't object: I should liko to spend a part, at least, of our honeymoon at Ilfracombe. Another year you shall travel _ all over the Continent, if you like ; but if it is nofc painful to you I should like Ilfracombe now. Of courae we will not go to the hotel, but get into some quiet lodging, and ramble on fche rocks as wo used to do." «« Yeß, I should like it," Maud Baid ; " and we will agree to believe tbat we were only there a few weeks ago, and that this five years haß been a bad dream, novor to be talked gboot or thought of willingly again." »_ ...