The Pomfret Mystery

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1468, 28 October 1905, Page 4

The Pomfret Mystery

■ . BV , . Arthur Dudley Vinton CHAPTER V $ (Continued) He stood erect and glanced agnin cautiously iwound. Then with quick steps, almost running, ho sped up tho avenue, He turned the corner ami hurried up the steps of the bouso which he had left but a few minutes before. It was dark and a stranger might have thought it was deserted, but he knew that all was light and glitter within. He paused for a moment to recall the signel which would pain ham admittance, and thon rang the bell—onco tbrieo—twice—and waited, listening, expecting that every moment the olook would chime out the tone of midnight. The door swung ajar and a fuco peered cautiously out, then, as he was recognised, the door opened widor, and as it did so the olook on the neighbouring chnrh tower tolltd one. Ho pushed hurriedly through the group of men smoking in the front room ! and entered the rear apartment, still in time, for he yet beard the found of the chimes, though muffled and indistinctly. : Ho threw the golden coin on thu table and von,. He staked bis inning* and won again and again-—until the monoy wiib piled in heaps before. Mm. He did not 'stay for congratulations, bat thrust tho bank-billsand;rouleanx of gold into his pockets and hurried back to tho cbuccb. . Was he in time? Yes!. The child still slept, He shook her gently by tho shoul- ; der and she opened her oyes and stared sleepily at him. 1 , ■•'' She is half.. If I had stayed longer she would faaro died!'' he thought with a shudder. Aloud he said, " Come wi'h me ohild, you must have something to warm jou.", She arose and stood tottering, as t if her benumbed legs refused to support her: then ho 1 lifted her in bis' arms and carried her down to Sixth Avenuo, where he knew there was an oyster saloon that would be open, There the warm air and food revived her.. He learned her history and where she lived, and when she left the pocket of her tattered dress was oratnmod with banknotes—how many he never knew, he put them in by handfuls until tho pocket would hold no moro. . Not until she hud gone did he realise that he had eaten notning since noon of tbe previous day. '■'"• He, ate heartily and drank deeply—- ; than was his wont—for when his hunger 'was appeased thoughts ar'oso which he tried to drown in alcohol, In spite of all that he could do his mind would rovert to : tho events ofv the evening—to hts ill fortnne-to the golden coin of the match girl—to his childhood's days—to' bis wonderful luck at the gaming tabic, Ho had .won and returned a hundred (old—but if 'he had lost—-—I" ,v He drank more deeply to hide tho thoughts, but tho excitement which had rnledjjfld sustained him before had died 'out,'and the full meaning of his tct was clear to him. He could no longer dooeive Vhimpelf with the delusion that he had '.merely borrowed the coin from the little .girl, His act was worse than thitt 1 Ho .saw it now with all its hideoueness, Tho alcohol whioh he had imbibed was already . making-itself folfc in stimulating the mind and rendering his powers of perception v .stronger and oleator, Later on it would dim and obscuro his faculties. ;\ : ,He tossed a cpihtc' tho. waitor and passiijfdouljntd the frosty oir but his thoughts :■ Btiirfollowcd him. The very echo of his :. footsteps as ; he seemed to cry ; ';ontipiliD.; ,, Thiefl Thief!"' Well what ; of that? whoso business was it, since be : : had returned more than he took ? Ah yes, ..fcut such a mean and petty theft I" Theft '/. from a little malch-'giri I He felt a sicken- : ing disgust with himself for having stooped bo low. His past crimes had been so vast, ;■•; so ambitious, that their very magnitude had seemed to hide their foil iniquity, : But i single coin—from a match girl—l The thought haunted him; and his - eool, as he strode onward, seemed a hell to -h'im. , : :-. ,' , Hone but he who is without friends .canever know how terrible a thing it is to be friendless—and that was this man's condition. He had hosts of so.caUed' friends—acquaintance who liked V hii bright* and merry huDwf-acquaint-•ances whom his money brought him to en- , a joy its benefits or to bask in its golden '. 'glitter—but his last real, true friend lay ; far away in Southern Spain, thero Vwasno one, now that romo ..laimed him, to whom be could go, no one to .'whom he could unburden his whole heart > and in whose Bilent and unspoken friend- :; -Bhiphe cotild find.strength and a refuge, .Not that be would, had there boen such, 'have told the whole tale of his misdeeds

iut ho would have found releif in vague, indefinite self-reproaches ami self-mctim-na'ians—in a sort of confession that would relieve his oonsoioaca without (lisilusing auijht of thd (ruth Ho reached his lodgings, sniggered to bis rooms, ,»nd throwing himself upon his bod fell into a t ilrunken sSotp. But oh, what dieams he bad, To be continued