CHAPTER XVIII.—(Continued).

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1733, 25 October 1890, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XVlll.— (Continued).

I am compelled now to pass over a con* siderable lapse of time, during which I remained in total ignorance of all that was taking place, either in my interests or opposed to them. The grand jury met, and I was duly indicted for the crime with whioh I had been charged, while it became patent to all who were familiar with the incidents connected with it, myself except«d, that I would surely be convicted. Jules had been indefatigable in my behalf. I had refused to employ counsel, and he had eeoured one for me, entirely in opposition to my wishes, for I was convinced in my own mind that the true criminal would be discovered before it waß too late to save me from the execution of the law, should I be found guilty at the trial. But at last tho day oame when I was taken before the bar, the indiotment was formally read, a jury drawn, and the last act of the drama was begun. I listened to the proceedings with a stoic heart and an unmoved face — a veritable apostle-of Zsno. Some thought me hardened — others attributed my indifference to a nerve-numbness brought about by the hor?or of it all. The fact was that I had not for a moment lost faith in my fate, and I did not believe that I was to moet it there, in that orowded court-room, dealt out ac a quality of mercy from tbe judge's bench. _ Something more than a month had elapsed since my interview with the doctor, and during that time I had neither seen nor heard of him, except from Jules, who branded him as a ooward for his desertion in the moment of my extremity. The evidence o! the prosecution was a! 2 in. The armor of condemnation bad been put npon me, place by plate, and rivetted, ii eeemed, by a host of circumstances over which it would be impossible for me to soar in my defence. My counsel opened his case but lamely ; for he, as well as others, felt that he had an impossible task. He had nearly finished his remarks, and was about to oall me to the witness-box, when there was a slight commotion at tbe door of the oourt-room, and the next instant a dark figure bounded down the aisle before my opposition could be offered, and oniy paused when it stood facing both judge and jury. It was Dhara. II Stop I" he oried, raising both bands as if to compel obedience to his wishes. Several of the court offlcera rushed forward, but my oounsel, feeling intuitively that tho sudden advent oi the strange character with hi 3 swarthy laoe and flashing eyes was a diversion in my favor, stepped quickly forward and waved them baok. Then, turning, he besought the court to hear what the new-oomer had to say. .'But Dhara scarcely waited for the permission to be given. Raising his hand, he pointed his finger at me. il Yonder man is no more guilty of the crime with which he is charged than is the judge of this court," he said, loftily ; and there was a latent nobility abtfut his bearing whioh lent weight to his utterance, so that the stillness of death reigned in that great room as all leaned forward breathlessly to hear his words. 11 1 am Dhara," he went on, " and for many years I have been the servant of the woman who was slain — since the time when I was a mere boy. "The cholera oame to India then, And devastated it ; many families disappeared f torn the faoe of the earth, even as the ripened grain sinks before -the swinging scythe of the mower, and among them wa3 the family I served and loved. 11 One only, out of its entire number, was saved, and she— Nadja— escaped only by reason of the nursing and care which she reoeived at the hands of Madame Myrrha Dunapore, whose death is the cause of my presence here. " The love whioh I had felt for the family became concentrated npon that little child, then but a babe, and my devotion to the hand that had saved her was absolute. I gave myself body and soul to Madame Myrrha as a partial* recompense for the deed, and- from that hour until the hour of her death I served her. "But though I gave her all humility, all servility, my love for my true mistress never faltered. I was happy, until the moment came when I realised that the elder woman was in reality a fiend ; that Bhe had nurtured Nadja upon her bosom only 'as the butcher oarea for the ox whioh one day he will destroy bat to devour. Then I grew to hate- her, bnt with the hate also oame fear, for I found that the was possessed of a power against whioh it was impossible for me to Struggle. " Day by day I saw the beauty which was a part of Nadja sink deeper and deeper into the shadow of a sorro which I oould not fathon. She became changed. Her light laughter no longer rang through the house, and the joyous sparkle of her eyes had given plao? to • quiet ladneßS, from behind whioh there ever and anon peeped a flash of genuine horror. I tried to see her alone, in order to bear from her own lips the cause of this Change, but she oould tell ma nothing.' There

I Nadja again, but they were transitory and fleeting, and then the heaviness would cloud her brain once more and she would i'orget the world in what eeemed to her almost a blank, through which the sunlight of comprehension glimmered but feebly. "*" " I knew that it was the evil work of Madame Myrrha ; but how it was aooompiished, and for what reason, were alike myeteries to me. Nevertheless, I grew to hate the woman more and more, even aB my fear of her was steadily aug- j mented. ! " At the time when my despair was the greatest, Mr. Gongdon oame, but aha— that woman fiend— condemned him to death, and he was buried in a graye — lost to us for ever, I thought. •'One day, however, he suddenly reappeared — from whence, or by what means, I do not know — when I saw him, and hoard him speak, I believed that all would yet be well. j " But there came a time when the world | seemed darker than ever — when Madame Myriha made known her plan?, and defied him and his friend. I heard, though they knew it not, and it waa then that I resolved upon the came for which you were about to I ! condemn an innocent man. ! " It was I. Dhara, who drove that deadly j knife into the heart of the woman who was siain— the fiend in woman's form ; it wag I, j Dhara, who again <3rew it forth and fled with | j it. And here in my right hand, where all | can sec it, is the knife that did the j deed." A shudder of horror want through the assembled throng, for there, on high, he held the gleaming weapon, still bearing the stains of the victim's blood upon it. H8 stepped forward till he stood but a few paces from the judge's bench. " Sir," he said, " I do not regret the deed —I glory in it ! I have confessed only to save an innooent man ; but before I came here I condemned myself. I call upon you to witness my exeoution 1" Tae upraised knife descended, and on the instant he sank lifeless to the floor. With his own hand he had out the Gordian knot of life.