OUR NEW SERIAL THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 23 May 1922, Page 3

OUR NEW SERIAL THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

(By

WILLIAM LE QUEUX

CHAPTER XVIH. (Continued)

“ I understand,” said Long. He took her cold hand and pressed it kindly. “I am afraid your surmise is correct. I take it you will pardon me for saying so, he is a man with only the average amount of brain power. To me he presents all the symptoms of an overclouded mind, overclouded by the events of that terrible night. Only one thing seems to stand out clear to him, the dead body of his son.”

“ He could give no explanation why there were three shots fired, when the revolver only revealed two?” “ I put that question to him very •strongly. At first I thought I saw a gleam of intelligence come into his eyes, he seemed on the point of speaking. Then, as suddenly, he relapsed into what I may call that comatose state, and answered in an incoherent sort of way that he remembered no details.” “Do you think he had gone out of his mind when he —when he did this dreadful thing? ” whispered Mrs Ashdown anxiously. Basil looked doubtful. “ Who can say? He was not in a state of mind to think, or he would not have run away, thereby admitting his guilt in the eyes of most people.”

“ And, if that is the case, if this | quarrel between him and Hugh had unhinged his brain, there is a hope that he will escape the extreme penalty,” she whispered in a heartbroken voice. Basil rose. It was a very difficult question to reply to. Had he the right to gIYS hffPS?“I must consult my leader. We might rely upon that as a last resource, pf poqrsq.” As he left, Mrs Ashdown cried out vehemently. “That wretched foreign girl, Geradine Torella, brought a curse into the house the day she entered it. There is a mystery about her, Mr Long She is not what she seems. From the first I never believed in my husband’s lame and halting explanations. Was she his illegitimate ' daughter? Do you know anything 1 about her? ”

Basil temporised. “ I know perhaps, a little more than most people know or guess. She was certainly not that, I give you my word of honour. Mrs Ashdown looked at him sharply- • She has confided in you, then, or you have procured your information from the odious Frenchman who used to come and see us at intervals. Do you not think I have a right to know who and what she was, this girl who was introduced into my home without my

leave? ” Basil hesitated a moment before speaking. “I do not wish to say a harsh word about your unhappy husband. But it would have been much wiser if he had taken you into his confidence from the first. lam sure you are a woman who could keep a secret. lam afraid my poor old friend was, like many amiable men, a trifle lacking in moral courage.” “ You are sure she was not his illegitimate daughter?” questioned Mrs Ashdown eagerly for the second time. “ Just now I gave you my word of honour she is not. If it carries more conviction to your mind. I will swear it.”

A look of intense relief came over the face of the poor, tortured woman. She broke down and fell to quiet weeping.

“ You have made me feel happier—no, I would rather say less wretched. You are a young man, Mr Long, hut I think your nature is very kind and sympathetic. I never took my son s part against his father, I knew him to be vicious and worthless, he had given a thousand proofs of it. But you can hardly guess how painful it was to me to see this girl, the daughter of an old love as I supposed, as no doubt everybody about here supposed, stealing more and more into my husband’s heart, while mine was empty. You have given me great relief and I shall be able to think more kindly of Geradine Torella.” Basil Long wrung her hand warmly and spoke with deep feeling. “ I quite understand, Mrs Ashdown. As regards Miss Torella, my lips are sealed as to what I know of her history. But I can tell ybu this, that she is deserving of every sympathy, and that, up to the present, hers has been a most unhappy lot. She is a very brave and noble-hearted girl.”

The evening after that interview at the “Granby,” Basil dined with his father, Mr Justice Long, in Harrington Gardens. The keen-witted old. lawyer, one of the most sagacious judges on the bench, alluded casually to the subject. “ A hopeless ease, my dear boy. I don’t know what sort of a fight Hawksley will make, and Rigby, the prosecuting counsel is a second-rater. But Matthieson is the judge, and he is as keen as a hawk. Of course, they won’t hang him. The son, according to all accounts, was an utter blackguard and there’s plenty of scope for

extenuating circumstances. But I m rather sorry you are in it, from the professional point of view, there is no kudos out of it. Poor old Ashdown, from what little I remember of him, was a very amiable, decent sort of fellow. Gad! how little one can judge one’s fellow creatures. Fancy a chap

like that pulling out a revolver and shooting at his son in a kind of frenzy.” ' Basil felt very dispirited. His leader thought the poor old colonel guilty, his father thought the same thing. And Mr Justice Matthieson was going to assume his guilt as soon as he took his seat. . It was certainly a terrible uphill job, rendered doubly so by the extraordinary taciturnity of the accused himself. Continued in to-morrow’s Advertiser.