“The Courage of Love,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 January 1932, Page 7

“The Courage of Love,”

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER XXll.—Continued,

Though Gresham Townley was kept in bed, Hugh Waverley used to go and sit with him every evening, and they would talk about what had happened out in the West; the days when James Ladbroko and Cyril Gresham Townley were sharing the hardships of a struggling existence and working without ceasing. "When I look back.” the sick man

said to Waverley more than once,

always wonder at tlio stupidity of both James and myself. There we were, both trying to get something out of that

dead mine, and all the time we were letting the ranch and the oil field slip out of grasp. How that fellow Telly, and his companion Burke, managed to get wind of the fact that the ranch was a valuable property, is something I don't know. They never did any work, you know, on the land. As Iho already told you. They had never been cow hands, or done an honest day's labour in their lives. 1 hey simply lived on their wits, drifting about from town to town, gamblers, and very often having to make a moonlight Hitting to escape being put in gaol! ” •After a little pause Gresham Townley went on speaking. "As X have often said, Hugh, Jim was such a confiding mam He was a creature of imagination, the hard facts of life passed him by; he lived really in dreams, especially dreams about ms wife.”

"Hut lie never did anything to stand between Diana, and a very cruel life,” said Hugh Waverley. "Why did ho leave her all those years without any news of him? Ao letters, nothing but grief in her heart for the man whom she adored, and whom she imagined was dead.”

"It- is news to me,” said Gresham Townley, "that Jim did not write to his sister, or to his laughter. 1 am hero to assure you that Diana was never out of his thoughts.” "Do you suppose, then,” queried the younger man eagerly, ‘ ‘ that Mrs. Thorp kept back the letters from Diana ” "Well, she’s gone out of the world. It’s hard to judge a person when she cannot defend herself, but it looks like it to me!” "She certainly was a strange creature! ’ 7 Hugh said. The other man assented.

"I often heard from Jim that she was tcribly jealous of his wife: jealous because she was the woman who loved him, and jealous because she was gifted. As you have already been told, of course, they quarrelled constantly when Jim was over in England, and his sister always dismised contemptuously the suggestion that there could be anything belonging to the property which his wife had inherited from an old uncle, this mine and the ranch. It is always very difficult,” the sick man added thoughtfully, "to follow the working of such a mind as Agatna Thorp’s. She was a very embittered woman apparently, a very jealous one, and perhaps when she got tnese letters from Jim telling her that he was doing well (which I expect he would have done), maybe sending a little money to his child, and giving her many messages for Diana, the bitter jealousy in her must have made her Keep Diana in complete ignorance of all that was passing with her father.”

“I wish I could bo charitable and sorry for her," remarked Hugh Waverley. “I was sorry for her that day I went to tell her of my love for Diana, she let that child go by herself to meet she let that child go b yhersclf to meet a strange man, and one whom she must have distrusted. That is something i shall never be able to forgive!" And then Waverley buried his face in his hands, and broke down again. ‘ ‘ Oh, if only we could have some light on the darkness! If only we could know that she was well! that she has not suffered bodily hurt!"

"Now, Hugh Waverley,” the other man said, "rouse yourself! I will tell you this much; I don’t know, of course, what is at the back of Polly’s mind, but I can conjecture that, having taken my name, he' is posing as me. He is 'acting as I was to have acted as the guardian of Diana, and that means lie will have control of her property. Now I will tell you what 1 have done, Hugh," Gresham Townley went on in a quiet voice. "I have friends out in that far distant part, and I have instructed a man who is one of the best friends one could Have, to make in- : quiries with regard to the property of James Ladbroke, and to find out, if he can, what is happening in connection with it? It’s just possible, you know,” he added, "that this man, Pelly, has endeavoured to sell Diana’s share in the oil fields. She does not own the property altogether. As soon as ever it was known there was oil found on the old ranch, two kinsmen of the old uncle (from whom Jim’s wife had inherited the property) had come on the scene, and of course put forward their claims, which Jim promptly recognised. That was James Ladbroke all over! At the same time, they were straight-for-ward men, and they realized that his daughter must have the major part of the profits. And they also were of great value to Jim because they were practical men, and they could tell him ■just how to proceed about matters. He was always ready,” Gresham Townley added with a faint smile, "to be advised, and to find good in everybody.”

"You have written out to Arizona?” queried Hugh Waverley, with an excited note in liis voice. "And how will that help us?" "It will lead us, I hope, to information as to where we sliffll find these two men. I knew before I came back to England that they had disappeared. 1 also heard that they were in very affluent circumstances, that they had paid

BY MADAME ALBANESI. (Author of "Love’s Harvest,” "The Road to Love,” "The Way to Win,” etc).

Miriam Stanton shook her head

(To be Continued),

up their debts in the town, and evidently they had come into some good luck. If only I had been less ill, I could have done so much!” " You have done already so much, my dear Townley,” Hugh Waverley said. "Where should we have been if it had not been for you?”

He got up and stretched out his hand, and the sick man put his into it. Then Hugh Waverley gave him a faint smile, and went away. And the man who had been James Ladbrokc’s partner lay with closed eyes thinking about him. He was consumed with an anxiety which he did not allow Waverley to know, as to what really was happening with Diana. It was terribly difficult for him to follow Dr. Bravington’s orders, and to lie perfectly still, when every fibre in bis being urged him to get up and light in some way to find his pal Jim Ladbroke’s child and bring her back to love and happiness. CHAPTER XXIII.

Whilst Pelly was walking to and fro, swearing at everything that was happening, and Miriam Stanton was sitting trembling in the kitchen, trying in vain to wonder what was going to happen where her boy was concerned, Garrett came back, and lie brought Francis Stanton with him. As she saw her son the woman gave a cry, and then went, forward and JjU t her arms round him, burying her Wire on. his breast.

"Oh, Frankie,” she said brokenly, "thank God you have come!”

Across her bowed head Francis Stanton looked at Garrett, and the other man gave him a nod as much as to say "Now go ahead and don’t spoil everything you’ve got ill your mind.”

It was not often that Francis Stanton showed any particular regard for his mother, but to-night he was almost tender.

"That’s all right, old lady, wliat’s in the wind, eh? Buck up! Why, you are shaking all over! Here sit down and have a nip of this.’ He took a small flask out of his pocket as he spoke. But Miriam Stanton refused.

"Oh, lam all right. Just to see you has given me back my sense of courage. Now listen. Frankie! ” She spoke urgently and she took her son’s hand and clung to it. "Whatever you may have in your mind, I don’t want to rouse him to-night! He’s in a dangerous mood. I know him so well. I know every tone in his voice. He’s in a very bad mood, I tell you, Frankie! ”

"That’s all right,” Francis said lightly. "I know his moods just as you do, and I know what a brute he can be if he likes. I’m not going to rouse him, I’m going to fall in with everything he wants done. Will that satisfy you?” Ilis mother sat and looked up at him. The tears that were gathering in her eyes rolled down her chocks, hut she brushed them away. "Yes that satisfies me in a sense, Frankie, but, lam all to pieces. You know that Burke has disappeared ” "Well, he hasn’t gone very far,” young Stanton said. "I knocked up against him to-night. He was very drunk, and where he gets the money from beats me, because I know they have been jolly hard up these last few weeks. Supplies haven’t come through, you know, from Western America, not as they were coming. Have you had any money?”

"No. I should have been in a very bad wdy, and so would that child upstairs, if it hadn’t been for Edward Garrett here. He’s been helping me out. ’ ’

"Good for him," said Francis Stanton. "Well now, as I said just now, buck up, Mother," he said. "I am going to talk to this gentleman. I hear he has gone back to his old name, ‘One Man Pelly.’ I guess he is not quite the one man he was. Yes, lam going in to get my orders, the young man added. But his mother clung to him. "Frankie." she said. "Give me youf word of honour you won’t excite him, or rouse him, or go against him! I I am not often frightened, but there’s something about him to-night that does frighten me." "I promise you, dear old thing, he kissed her. And then he lit a cigarette, and sauntered out of the kitchen.

"Why don’t you go to bed, Miriam?" Edward Garrett queried, when they were alone.

"I am waiting to sec if Pelly wants any supper. ” the woman answered wearily.

" Why should you sit up and get food for him? You did it for the other brute. Let him go out and get hi-: supper. I tell you I’m not going to stand any more of this nonsense. I got him well cornered to-night. He has always snarled at Burke for having a yellow streak, but by gad, lie’s got a much deeper one himself. It’s all very well to come the big boss Over us and bully, and order, and try to crush people but when lie comes to a show down he can’t stand for it. No, not for one minute. ’ ’ Francis Stanton walked into the front room, still smoking his cigarette, and lie gave a casual nod to the man who was sitting in an armchair sunk in a sort of glowering anger. Pelly snarled at him.

"So you have come, have you?" he queried. ‘Thought better of it, I suppose?"