For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8322, 31 December 1906, Page 2

For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

CHAPTER 111. "Pull yourself together," he bade her huskily; "I've no time to lose. I knew'you'd give me a lift, for his sake,-poor little chap. Can't you gut me some rough clothes to take the place of these prison rags? Then I can nip out of this nurse's rig, get rid of it somehow, and be a free man once more. They'll never track me if lonce get a start." Julia wrung her hands. "How can I get you the clothes you want," she said, "without trusting the servants? And that would be ruin." The convict bit his nails. ''Time,'' he retorted. "Well, give me some some money, and I'll risk getting another disguise somehow. Hurry, there's a sensible girl." Julia Lavenden went to a writingdesk," unlocked it, and brought him a handful of gold and silver. He snatched at it eagerly. "Good!" he said, and, picking up the shawl and bonnet of the nurse's costume, began •to adjust them. Julia came closer to him. "The child!" she exclaimed hoarsely; "where is it? You didn't say." David Garth frowned. "I can't tell you that myself," he repeated, buttoning the nurse's cloak over his hideous prison garments. "The people had moved. I went there too. But I will find out and let you know, and perhaps you cau have it quietly adopted by some one, so that you can see it sometimes without risk. Poor little fellow, I used to think about him often in that hole yonder. I got so that I used to fancy I could see him running about and playing] with his tiny toys." The convict brushed a hand , across his eyes. "Ring and have me piloted out," he said harshly. "I feel like a rat in' a trap. But if I'm nabbed I won't breathe a word of you or, - Winnie. And you'll stand by the boy, won't you, when you know where he is?" Julia, mastered by his stronger will, had touched the bell. But her dazed brain was wrestling with a halfrealized idea. "A moment," she exclaimed; "I have it!/ Your brother! Go to Grammont Chambers, Jermyn Street, St. James'. He is living there as James Garside, one of his aliases. 1 He has hunted us down, too, like you." David Garth ground his teeth. "Jim!" he said. "Well, I'm—yes, by Jingo, he,shall help me! I've a crow to pluck with him, the cur, who got me to do shady work for his own ends, and then left me to stand in the dock, Grammont Chambers, Jermyn Street; I won't forget." He drew the shawl about his throat and chin as the door opened to admit the French maid, and glancing at Julia, as if in farewell, passed out. s. Julia Lavenden dropped on her knees by the couch and began to weep. , "My baby!" she was saying., i "My little baby! Oh! where are you, where are you?" CHAPTER IV. ■ WHAT HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT. *'Put the light down, you fool, and take these. No; not that way; hold your apron." • The speaker was extending a pair of large, coarse "hands, tanned and . wrinkled by exposure to the weather. In their joined palms, illuminated by the flickering flame of a candle, held by a stoutly built girl, was a medley of jewels—pins, rings, brooches, and other valuable trifles. Their gems set forth glimmer's of colour from diamond, ruby, emerald, and sap- * phir©!' The girl set down the candle upon an adjacent window-sill and caught up her soiled apron. The other deposited in it his handful of gold and gems. "A pretty way to pack the sparklers," he grumbled, "letting them lie loose to scratch one another. And clumsily done up at that; one of the parcels broke, and this lot came tumbling out. Stick to them while I see if there are any more." ! He turned on his heel, to take the candle and dive with it into the recesses of a hansom cab. The cab itself stood in a small paved yard, grass-grown and damp; the tired horse between the shafts stretched its neck to nibble at a green stalk or two. Behind was a crumbling stuccofaced house, with a gabled roof. Close to it was a tumble-down stable shaded by a tall plane tree, through whose leaves there twinkled an occasional star in the night sky. The man who was ransacking the cab'emerged with a few stray pieces of jewellery and a couple of 'brownpaper packages. "That's all," he said; "hold them a minute." And he put the parcels and the loose jewels into the folds of her apron and dived into the cab again. , The cushions of the vehicle were displaced, and a portion of the seat had been lifted, to show a shallow locker. 'The locker had a false bottom; that, too, was raised. He lowered it and tried the springs. It dipped under a slight pressure. Anything dropped on it would have slid into the lower and concealed cavity. He touched a hidden bolt, and the false bottom became as firmly fixed as if it had been a real one, concealing perfectly the nature of the receptacle. Then he emerged from the cab once more. "Run in with them," he commanded, and, taking the candle, led the way into the houss. By a flagged

By R. Herman Silver, ]<, of "A Double Mask," "A Daughter of Mystery," "Held Apart," >( The Golden Dmarf," etc.

["For Her Sister's Sake " was commenced on December 20th.]

passage they entered a low-ceiled kitchen, with a tiled floor and brown walls. It was old-fashioned, but clean and comfortable, a big fire burned in a huge grate, and the table was laid for a meal. The girl, still holding her burden in her apron, confronted the man who followed her. She was a sturdy, sharp-featured little creature, with keen black eyes and a pale face. ?'Oh, dad!" she said, and her accent was that of a Londoner born and bred, "why do you go on a-doing, a-doing of it,! You'll get pinched, you will, dad, and then what'll me and Royse do?" "Chuck that, Tilda!" ordered her father, not unkindly. "I've told you before about it. Get me a drop of something hot while I put the stuff away; the wind has been a twister to-day, and no mistake." He relieved her of the parcels, set them on the kitchen table, and began to gather up the loose jewels. Suddenly a wailing, childish cry broke the silence. Tilda took off her apron and laid it, with the jewels in it, on the table. [To be Continued.]