"The Arrow That Flieth."

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14242, 25 March 1915, Page 7

"The Arrow That Flieth."

DRAMATIC SERIAL BY A POWER FUL WRITER.

(By GUY THORNE.)

Author of "When It Was Dark," "Mantrap Manor," "A Lost Cause," "Made in His Image," "First It Was Ordained," etc.

CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. "What was it?" they both exclaimed eagerly. "A more whisper about Mr Dalton's unaccountable absence. A " socialistic member was explaining something to a fierce, impatient working man, "evidently a leader of some deputation, that Mr Dalton, whether here or on the continent, was quite ready to strike his blowin defence of his party, ami one that would make England tremble. That he—evidently the deputy-leader —was to rest quietly and abide his signal, which would come silently, with a speed that would outstrip anything on wheels.' ; '' These are strange words, Lady Leaf," said Lord Ballina. "There is something very significant in them. However, you know it is my one great wish to find out where Muriel is. .!. am suffering tortures because 1. am afraid she is in peril." "I do not think so," Lady Leaf replied. "Her father is far too fond of her to allow any harm to come to her Vet I do not mean that I don't think there is something serious on foot. Poor girl, I do wish she had confided in me. The last time I saw her she seemed greatly depressed. ■'' " "When was that?" Lord Ballina eagerly enquired. "Let me think," she answered. "It was last Tuesday morning. We met in Bond street, and I had only a,few moments to spare. Yet I was considerably struck with her appearance." "So long ago as that," he exclaimed ruefully. "Did she not give you any hint of her future movements?" "I remember her saying that her father might be called away on urgent business to Italy, and that they might be leaving any moment. However, I made her promise to come and see me if possible, should anything happen It was my intention to have a long talk about you." "Thank you," the young man said gratefully. "We have indeed a true friend .in you, Lady Leaf. This suspense is awfully trying on both of us. Dundas and I arc meeting difficulties we never dreamt of." "1 feel it," she said kindly. "You had better conic and spend a few days with us, Michael. Mitcham must be very dull for you at present with all this worry." "Far more than you imagine, aunt," her nephew answered gloomily. "But it is impossible to leave the place for the moment. Ballina had better leave here singly, while I remain at Mitcham. We can watch over a larger area like that." "You must do as you think best, of course," Lady Leaf answered. "I suppose you have notified the police?" "We have just come from Scotland Yard," Lord Ballina sail., "though we have drawn a blank there, I am afraid. I feel as if ..\hiiiel were lon to me forever. '' "Come, come, young man," she said kindly, "you must not despair You ought not to understand the word, with your Irish blood. .Remember it i« always darkest before the dawn. There is the front bell. .1 wonder who it is? Xo visitors, I hope." A moment afterwards a powdered footman came in with a message that there was someone to see Lord Ballina. "To see me?" ejaculated Lord Ballina, rising. "There certainly must be some mistake. Did he give his name?" "No, my lord," the man replied. "He evidently is a Scotchman by his speech. He said that he wished to see you on a matter of importance." "MacVittie, I expect, Ballina," said. Dundas. "What on earth has brought him here?" "1 don't konw," Lord Ballina replied. "There was no urgent business at the works, as far as 1 can remember However did ho ferret us out." "You had better ask him to- come in here," Lady Leaf- said, "unless, of course, you wish to have a private interview. In that case, your man could be shown into Sir Alfred's sittingroom." "With your permission, Lady Leaf," the other said with a bow. "I should prefer to interview him here. I have a feeling that his visit is connected in some way with this terrible mystery." "Very well," she answered, "perhaps you may be right. Sohw him in, Brown. It must be something very urgent to have taken your excellent foreman away so early from the works." "It must indeed," the young men agreed. "Well, MacVittie, this is a great surprise," exclaimed Michael Dundas, as the figure of their most trusted foreman apepared at the door, his rugged northern face wearing an uncomfortable, self-conscious look, as he furiously brushed his hat the wrong way. "Whatever brought you here?" "A letter for your lordship—l mean, sir!" he stammered. "It is marked 'Urgent, strictly private,' sac I thocht I'd give it intae your hands ma'sel'." "But however did you guess that we were here?" asked Lord Ballina, as he took the letter. "I first went to your lord —your dwelling, sir, and that unco daft chief, Maister O'Malley, told mc that, barriug road accidents, it was the will o' God that you would break your fast here." "But who gave it you?" Dundas broke in. "A douce lassie! wi' the e'es o' heeven's blue, an' a throstle like a lavelock. Eh, but she waur a winsome lassie. I cudna bide the tear in her ecu when I said that baith gentlemen were gaun. I'm an auld fule ower a lassie's tears." "What was her name, MacVittie," said Dundas with sudden interest. "She wadna gie it. She on'y said that she kenn'd ye baith weel eneuch, an' wad dee to serve ye. She made me promise tae pitt in intae your hands, Maister Ballina, and I've kept ma woord. - Eh, but I'm thinkin' his lordship is no that weel." "Why, Ballina, what is the matter?" said his friend, as Lord Ballina staggered backwards, the letter dropping from his nerveless fingers. "Read—read it, Dundas," he gasped hoarsely, sinking into a chair. Michael Dundas. picked up the letter, and with increasing wonder slowly read the following somewhat incoherent letter, written in a woman's trembling hand: "Dear Lord Ballina, —From tho depths of a despair which words cannot express, I write to say farewell, farewell! Ah, what anguish I feel at this. Ask no questions. Seek not for me. Better a thousand times that wo should never meet again. What have I done to deserve such affection? When you see Lady- Leaf, please thank her for her many kindnesses to me. Warn Sir Alfred of a certain social leader. Lot

wits work here and find a name. Farewell once more, and seek not to find the diii-o happy, but now thrice wretched, Muriel." " Warn Sir Alfred! " Lady Leaf said, as she fell back. "Has the unseen danger also come this way?" "I fear so," said her nephew, with white lips. "But wo must not despair. '' But Lady Leaf could not answer. "CHAPTER VII. Lord Ballina sat alone in his chambers. It was lunch time, and three days had passed since he had received Muriel's letter at Lady Leaf's mansion in Grosvenor Square. Those three days had been days of increasing nervous misery and gloom to Ike young peer. He had been unable to attend to cither his business duties in Westminster, or to his social engagements. Everything seemed to him blank, dull and empty. The light had faded out of his life. Everything had lost its savour, and he remained shut up in his chambers, seeing no one save his valet, and tasting to the full the bitterness and despair of dying hone. And more than all this, there was the continual and ever-growing sense of horror and disaster. That some terrible thing was going to happen there was now no doubt in his mind. It was certain that chance, fate, or whatever he chose to call the unknown force that rules the destinies of men, had involved him in some black evil, some dark and sinister conspiracy which he could not name and could not fathom. Despite all his efforts, neither he nor Dundas had been able to suggest the slightest solution or throw the least light upon the affair in which they had become so strangely involved. The succession of extraordinary incidents which began on the morning when the suave and dapper Mr Archer called upon the viscount in Jermyn street, and which had ceased now with the final disappearance of Archer, his daughter, Francis Dalton, the labour leader, the girl at Mitcham, and the one or two other minor characters in this mysterious drama, were an impenetrable mystery . • And the motor itself had disappeared also, vanished as if it had never »been carefully and laboriously built, with its strangely high sides, its great turn of S])eed, and the curious sunken well in the body of the chassis, in the works of Dundas, Konmaro and Co., of Westminster. It was on the motor that everything turned; Lord Ballina felt sure of that. And whatever might be the object of the people who had designed it, the fact of their paying so huge a price for its construction, and the general sense that money was little or no object to Archer, certainly seemed to show that, whatever the organisation, it Avas extremely wealthy and extremely"*powerful. Lord* Ballina rose from his chair in front of the fire and walked to the window. Although it was in the middle of July it. was a dark and somewhat chilly day, and O'Malley had insisted that his master should have a fire. How leaden" Jermyn street looked on this dull day, through the fog of which cold spears of rain were now beginning to fall. The hansom cabs with their iudiarubber tyred wheels rolled backwards and forwards along the narrow little aristocratic thoroughfare of London chamberland, the horses' feet making a.melancholy click-clack upon the shining macadam. The young man sighed, turned from the window, and lit a cigarette. He had smoked but a few whiffs of it when ho throw it into the fire with an irritable gesture and sank down once more into his chair. The mental worry and agony of the last three clays had greatly enfeebled him, and ho felt thoroughly physically, as well as mentally, ill. His limbs seemed to bo made of lead. His hands twitched, as if he had been drinking too much. His mouth tasted as if he had been sucking a brass tap, his skin was hot, and pricked. And there was nothing to be done; That was the pity of it, that was the misery of it, that was the whole of it! Action would have alleviated the strain, but there was absolutely nothing to be done. (To bo Continued.)