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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blind Policy, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blind Policy
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Release Date: June 18, 2010 [EBook #32881]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLIND POLICY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+Blind Policy, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+BLIND POLICY, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+IN RAYBECK SQUARE.
+
+"Oh, you wicked old woman!  Ah, you dare to cry, and I'll send you to
+bed."
+
+"No, no, auntie, don't, please.  What will dear Isabel think?  You're
+not going to spoil a delightful evening?"
+
+"Of course she is not.  Here, old lady; have another glass of claret--
+medicinally."
+
+Dr Chester jumped up, gave his sister and the visitor a merry look,
+took the claret to the head of the table and refilled his own glass.
+
+But the lady shook her grey sausage curls slowly, and elaborately began
+to unfold a large bordered pocket-handkerchief, puckered up her plump
+countenance, gazed piteously at the sweet face on her right, bent her
+head over to her charming niece on the left, and then proceeded to up a
+few tears.
+
+"No, no, no, Fred; not a drop more.  It only makes me worse; I can't
+help it, my love."
+
+"Yes, you can, old lady.  Come, try and stop it.  You'll make Bel cry
+too."
+
+"I wish she would, Fred, and repent before it's too late."
+
+"What!" cried the doctor.
+
+"Don't shout at me, my dear.  I want to see her repent.  It's very nice
+to see the carriages come trooping, and to know what a famous doctor you
+are; but you don't understand my complaint, Fred."
+
+"Oh yes, I do, old lady.  Grumps, eh, Laury?"
+
+"No, no, my dear.  It's heart.  I've suffered too much, and the sight of
+Isabel Lee, here, coming and playing recklessly on the very brink of
+such a precipice, is too much for me."
+
+The tears now began to fall fast, and the two girls rose from their
+seats simultaneously to try and comfort the sufferer.
+
+"Playing?  Precipice?" cried the young doctor.  "Step back, Bel dear;
+you shouldn't.  Auntie, what do you mean?"
+
+"Marriage, my dear, marriage," wailed the old lady.
+
+"Fudge?" cried the doctor.  "Here, take your medicine.  No; I'll pour
+you out a fresh glass.  You've poisoned that one with salt water."
+
+"I haven't, Fred."
+
+"You have, madam.  I saw two great drops fall in--plop.  Come, swallow
+your physic.  Bel, give her one of those grapes to take after it."
+
+"No, no, no!" cried the old lady, protesting.  "Don't, Laury;" but her
+niece held the glass to her lips till she gulped the claret down, and it
+made her cough, while the visitor exchange glances with the doctor.
+
+"I--I didn't want it, Fred; and it's not fudge.  Oh, my dear Isabel, be
+warned before it is too late.  Marriage is a delusion and a snare."
+
+"Yes, and Bel's caught fast, auntie.  Just going to pop her finger into
+the golden wire."
+
+"Don't, my dear; be warned in time," cried the old lady, piteously.  "I
+was once as young and beautiful as you are, and I said yes, and was
+married, only to be forsaken at the end of ten years, to become a weary,
+unhappy woman, with only three thousand four hundred and twenty-two
+pounds left; and it's all melting slowly away, while when it's all gone
+Heaven only knows what's to become of me."
+
+"Poor old auntie!" said Laura Chester soothingly, taking the old lady's
+head on her shoulder; but it would shake all the same.
+
+"I had a house of my own, and now I have come down to keeping my
+nephew's.  Don't you marry, my poor child: take warning by me.  Men are
+so deceitful."
+
+"Wrong, auntie.  Men were deceivers ever."
+
+"I'm not wrong, Fred.  You've been a very good boy to me, but you're a
+grown man now, and though I love you I couldn't trust you a bit."
+
+"Thank you, aunt dear."
+
+"I can't, my love, knowing what I do.  Human nature is human nature."
+
+"Aunt dear, for shame!" cried Laura.
+
+"No, my dear, it's no shame, but the simple truth, and I always told
+your poor father it was a sin and a crime to expose a young man to such
+temptation."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the doctor, boisterously.  "Here, Bel dear, don't
+you trust me."
+
+The young people's eyes met, full of confidence, and the old lady shook
+her head again.
+
+"I know what the world is and what men are," she continued, "and nothing
+shall make me believe that some of these fashionable patients have
+anything the matter with them."
+
+"Oh, you wicked old woman!" cried the doctor.
+
+"I'm not, Fred," she cried angrily.
+
+"Oh yes, you are, old lady.  You say I don't understand your complaint;
+it's conscience."
+
+"It is not, sir.  I've nothing on my conscience at all."
+
+"I don't believe you, auntie," he cried banteringly.  "You must have
+been a wicked old flirt."
+
+"It is false, sir; and I don't hold with doctors being young and
+handsome."
+
+"No; I twig.  Repentance.  You used to go and see one when you were
+young, and give him guineas to feel your pulse."
+
+"How can you say such wicked things, Fred?" cried the old lady, turning
+scarlet.  "But I will say it now.  I'm sure it's not right for you to be
+seeing all these fine fashionable ladies, scores of them, every day."
+
+"Do take her upstairs, Laury," said the doctor, merrily.  "Help her, Bel
+dear.  You hear; I'm a horribly wicked man, and so fascinating that the
+ladies of Society flock to see me.  Now, I appeal to you, dear.  Did you
+ever hear such a wicked, suspicious old woman?"
+
+"Don't, don't, don't, Fred," sobbed the lady in question.  "I only spoke
+for your good.  But it can't last long now; and when I'm dead and gone
+you'll be sorry for all you've said."
+
+"Poor old darling!" said the doctor, affectionately; "she sha'n't have
+her feelings hurt.  Now then, toddle up to the drawing-room.  Lie down a
+bit; and have an early cup of tea, Laury."
+
+"No, no, no," sobbed the old lady.  "I'm only a poor, worn-out, useless
+creature, and the sooner the grave closes over me the better."
+
+She was out at the foot of the stairs, leaning upon her niece's arm,
+before she had finished her sentence, and Isabel Lee, half troubled,
+half amused, was following through the door, which the doctor kept open,
+but he let it go and held out his hands, as the girl looked tenderly up
+a him.  Then the door swung to, and the next moment she was clasped in
+his arms.
+
+"My darling!" he whispered; and then in the silence which followed they
+could hear faintly the voice of the old lady on the stairs.
+
+"I'm so sorry, Bel dear," said the doctor tenderly.  "She has one of her
+fits on to-day.  Poor old soul, she has had a great deal of trouble."
+
+"I know, Fred dear.  I don't mind."
+
+"But it's rather hard on our visitor, whom we want to entertain--queer
+entertainment."
+
+"Don't talk about it, Fred.  Let me go now."
+
+"Without any balm for the suffering, deceitful wretch?  Just one."
+
+"Well, only one.  Come up soon."
+
+It was, as the doctor said, a very tiny one, and then the girl had
+struggled free and hurried up to the drawing-room, while the giver went
+back to his seat.
+
+"Bless her!  I honestly believe she's the most amiable girl in the
+world," said the doctor; as he sat sipping his claret.  "Only a
+fortnight now, and then no more going away.  I do love her with all my
+heart, and I say devoutly, thank God for giving me the chance of
+possessing so good a partner for life."
+
+He sat sipping thoughtfully.
+
+"Bother the old woman!" he cried suddenly.  "To break out like that.
+Suspicious as ever; but Bel took it the right way.  I didn't know I was
+such a Lothario.  How absurd!  Now about to-morrow's engagements.  Let's
+see."
+
+He took out a memorandum book, wrinkled up his forehead, and the next
+minute was deep in thought over first one and then another of the
+serious cases in which he had to do battle with the grim Shade, ending
+by getting up and pacing the room, forgetful of all social ties and the
+presence of his betrothed overhead.
+
+"Oh, Fred!" brought him back to the present.
+
+"Eh?  What's the matter, dear?"
+
+"Matter?  Well, if ever I have a lover I hope he'll be different to you.
+There's auntie fast asleep, and poor Isabel sitting watching the door
+with the tears in her eyes."
+
+"Tut-tut-tut!" ejaculated the brother.  "Yes; too bad, but I have a very
+serious case on hand, dear, and I am obliged to give it a great deal of
+careful consideration."
+
+"You're always like that now, Fred," said his sister, pettishly.  "I
+hope you don't mean to see patients on your wedding-day."
+
+"Oh, hang it! no, Laury.  Here, I'll come up and have some music; but
+you needn't be so sharp, little one.  Gentlemen are allowed to sit over
+their wine, and you haven't been gone five minutes."
+
+"Monster!" cried Laura.  "It's over half an hour!"
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated the doctor, "get out of the way."
+
+He dashed by his sister, and went up the stair three at a time to enter
+the back drawing-room where he was saluted by a snore from the sofa, and
+then passed through the folding-doors, his steps inaudible upon the soft
+carpet.  He stood gazing tenderly at the picture he saw in a great
+mirror of a sweet, sad face resting upon its owner's hand; and his
+conscience smote him as he saw that the eyes were indeed full of tears.
+
+The next moment there was a faint cry of joy, and the face lit up, for
+he had stolen behind, sunk upon one knee, passed his arm round the
+slight waist, and was in the act of pressing his lips to those of his
+betrothed, when there was a gentle cough, and they started apart, to
+turn and see Laura's head between the nearly closed folding-doors, with
+a mischievous look in her eyes.
+
+"Oh, Bel!  For shame!" she whispered merrily.  "You don't seem to take
+poor Aunt Grace's words a bit to heart."
+
+"You come in and behave yourself," said the doctor.  "Don't you begin
+making mischief."
+
+"I'm not coming in, Fred," said the girl, saucily.  "I don't like to see
+such goings-on.  Is that the way people make love?"
+
+The doctor sprang up threateningly and made for the doors, but the head
+disappeared.
+
+"She'll never grow into a woman, Bel dear," said the doctor, turning to
+her.
+
+"Oh yes, I shall," came from the door, as the head was thrust in again.
+"Now I'm going to sit with auntie till she wakes.  Go on with your
+love-making, Daphnis and Chloe.  Oh, I shall be so glad when you've both
+come to your senses again."
+
+This time the door closed with a click, and the doctor sank on his knee
+again by Isabel, and drew her to him fondly.
+
+"Been thinking of what poor old aunt said, Bel?" he whispered, as her
+head sank upon his shoulder.
+
+"No, not at all I only wanted you to come."
+
+"And you trust me fully?"
+
+"Of course, Fred.  You know I do."
+
+"And always will?"
+
+"How can you ask me?"
+
+"It is so pleasant to be told that you have the fullest confidence in
+your husband to be.  Tell me you trust me."
+
+"It is insulting you, Fred," said the girl gently as she gazed in his
+eyes.  "How could I accept you if I did not know you to be the truest,
+bravest--Oh, Fred!"
+
+"I was obliged to stop those flattering lips," he said.  "I'm vain
+enough of having won my darling, and--Oh, hang it!"
+
+"I beg pardon, sir; I did knock," said the servant.  "Urgent, sir.  A
+lady in your consulting-room."
+
+"All right; down directly," said the doctor, who had started up.  "I
+say, Bel darling, I must be more professional.  You mustn't lock me in
+your dear arms like this without you turn the key.  I sha'n't be long."
+
+Isabel Lee uttered a low sigh as her betrothed made for the door, and as
+he passed out there was the sound of voices in the back drawing-room,
+Aunt Grace having finished her nap.
+
+"Who is it, Laury?"
+
+"I don't know, aunt dear; something urgent.  Smith said a lady."
+
+"Another lady? and at this time of night?"
+
+"People fall ill at all times, aunt dear," said the girl, coldly.
+"Hush! don't say any more please; Isabel will hear you."
+
+"But I can't help it, my dear," said the lady in a peevish whisper,
+every word of which reached the visitor's ears.  "Oh dear me, I wish
+Fred was not so good-looking.  Well, it's only another fortnight.  I
+begin to think he ought to be married at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+A STRANGE CASE.
+
+Two gloveless hands caught Dr Chester's as he entered his
+consulting-room, and a strange thrill ran through him as a beautiful
+face, wild-eyed and agitated, was thrust close to his.
+
+"Dr Chester?  Oh, at last!  Come--quickly! before it is too late."
+
+"Pray be calm," he said, motioning his visitor to a seat, but she threw
+back her head.
+
+"Come!" she cried imperiously.  "The brougham is at the door.  Quick!
+He is dying."
+
+"Pray explain yourself, madam," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, how can you be so cold-blooded?  Man, I tell you that Robert is
+dying.  He must not--he shall not die.  Come--come!"
+
+"But, my dear madam!"
+
+"I'll explain everything as we go," cried the visitor, passionately, as
+she drew him towards the door.  "A terrible accident.  Come and save his
+life."
+
+At another time Fred Chester might have hesitated, but there was a
+strange magnetism in the eyes of his beautiful visitor--an appeal in the
+quivering lip.  Every feature was drawn by the agitation from which she
+suffered.  It was his profession to help in emergencies--evidently some
+terrible crisis had arisen, and he felt it impossible to resist.
+
+He threw open the door, there was a faint gasp of satisfaction as he
+caught up his hat, and the next moment, with his visitor holding still
+tightly by his hand, he was descending the broad steps, perfectly
+ignorant of the fact that Aunt Grace was standing at the top of the
+first flight of stairs, watching intently.
+
+By the light of the gas lamps Chester saw a handsomely-appointed
+brougham drawn up at the kerb.  His companion said the one word "Home,"
+then stepped quickly into the carriage, the doctor followed, and they
+were driven off at a rapid pace.
+
+The night was dark, and it was by flashes of the lamps they passed that
+he had glimpses of the beautiful, quivering face leaning earnestly
+toward his.  He was conscious of the delicate scent emanating from the
+dress; the warm perfumed breath reached his face, and there was, as it
+were, a magic in the contact with her rustling robe, as they sped along
+the streets.  A wild intoxication seemed to have seized upon him in
+those moments, before he could master himself sufficiently to say--
+
+"Will you explain the accident?"
+
+"Yes, yes, as soon as I can speak," was panted out.  "I--I--ah--h--ah!"
+
+The speaker lurched toward him, and he caught her, fainting, in his
+arms.  But her strong will mastered the weakness, and she struggled
+free.
+
+"Better now," she panted.  "Doctor, we had heard of you, I came myself.
+He is dying.  Oh, faster--faster!" she cried, and leaning forward she
+beat upon the front window, there was a quick movement on the part of
+the driver, and the horses seemed to fly.
+
+"It was like this.  We were at dessert.  Robert was examining a pistol.
+It went off, and he is horribly wounded.  Dr Chester, oh, for Heaven's
+sake, save my poor boy's life!"
+
+"With Heaven's help, madam, I will," said the doctor, earnestly, "if we
+are not too late."
+
+"Too late--too late?  Oh no, no, no, we cannot be too late!  Quicker!
+Quicker!  These horses seem to crawl.  Oh, it is too horrible--too
+horrible!  I cannot bear it!"
+
+By a quick, impulsive movement the speaker threw herself forward, to
+sink upon her knees in the bottom of the brougham, pressing her hands to
+her mouth, and resting her face upon them against the padded cushion by
+the front window; while, feeling strangely moved, Chester leaned
+slightly over her with his hands half raised, in the desire he dared not
+gratify, to raise her to her seat and whisper gentle words of comfort.
+At that time it did not occur to him that it seemed strange for a
+gentleman--he must be a gentleman; everything suggested it--to be
+handling a pistol at dessert.  All he could think of was the terrible
+suffering of his companion, and his attention was centred upon her as he
+saw the agony she suffered, while as yet he could do nothing.
+
+She sprang up as suddenly as she had thrown herself down, and her voice
+and look thrilled him again as she said sharply--
+
+"I can't pray: it is too horrible.  Don't notice me; don't speak to me,
+please, doctor.  I am half mad."
+
+She flung herself back in the corner and covered her face with her
+hands, while, totally oblivious of the direction taken by the driver,
+Chester sat back in his own place, gazing at his companion, and weaving
+a romance.
+
+It was some story of love, he told himself--love and jealousy--for the
+woman at his side was beautiful enough to tempt a saint.  That was it,
+he was sure, and the distracted husband had attempted to or had
+committed suicide.
+
+"What is it to me?" he said to himself, fiercely, and he wondered now
+that he should have been so strangely moved.  His professional instincts
+had the mastery again, and for the first time he looked out through the
+drawn-up glass to try and see what street they were in.  But at that
+moment his companion started again.
+
+"Shall we never be there?" she cried in her agony.  "Ah! at last!"
+
+For the horses were pulled up suddenly, there was a flash of light from
+an open hall, and a gentleman ran down and tore open the brougham door.
+
+"Brought him?"
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried the lady, springing out and turning to snatch at the
+doctor's wrist and hurry him up the steps.
+
+Once more the strange thrill ran through Fred Chester's nerves and his
+heart throbbed heavily.  Then they were inside a handsome entry, and he
+saw statuary, pictures, a cluster of electric lights, in rapid sequence,
+as he hurried over soft carpets to the back of the house, and into a
+handsome dining-room in which some eight or nine ladies and gentlemen in
+evening dress were clustered about a couch drawn up near a table covered
+with glass and plate, flowers, fruit, and the signs of the interrupted
+dessert, seen by a bouquet of soft incandescent lights.
+
+The sight of the figure on the couch was enough, and Chester was fully
+himself as his companion ran to the sufferer, threw herself on her
+knees, and kissed the white face there.
+
+"Be my own brave boy," she whispered hoarsely.  "The doctor is here."
+
+"Be kind enough to leave the room, all but two of you gentlemen," said
+Chester, sternly.
+
+"No; I shall stay," cried the lady, firmly, as she threw off the thick
+mantilla and fur-lined cloak, to stand there bare-armed and palpitating.
+"I will not leave you, Rob," she cooed over the wounded man.  "Doctor,
+I will be nurse."
+
+The doctor bowed his head, and as all left the room but two of the
+gentlemen, he hurriedly made his examination, and probed in vain for the
+bullet, which had passed in under the left shoulder-blade, inflicting a
+dangerous wound, against which, at intervals, the lady pressed her
+handkerchief.
+
+The patient bore all with remarkable fortitude, and in the moments of
+his greatest agony set his teeth and held on by his nurse's hand, while
+she bent down from time to time from watching every movement of the
+doctor, and pressed her trembling lips to the sufferer's hand.
+
+At last the examination was over, and the wounded man lay very white and
+still; while Chester made use of a finger-glass and napkin to remove the
+ugly marks from the white hands.
+
+"Drink this, doctor," whispered one of the gentlemen who had waited upon
+him, no servant having been seen.
+
+Chester, who had had eyes only for his patient, turned sharply, and took
+a tumbler of Burgundy from the well-bred man who offered it, drank a few
+mouthfuls, and set the glass down close by the weapon which had caused
+the wound, and which lay near a dish containing a large pine.
+
+Chester raised his brows a little as he now saw the richness of the
+table appointments, and at the same time grasped the fact that he was in
+some wealthy home.  Then this was endorsed as he turned and his eyes lit
+upon the lady kneeling on the other side of the couch, pale and
+beautiful, for he noted that she had magnificent diamonds in her hair,
+about her neck, and clasped upon her soft white wrists.
+
+"Say something, doctor," she whispered pleadingly.
+
+"I cannot, madam, yet."
+
+"But he will live?" she wailed.
+
+"Please God, madam.  Gentlemen, the case is serious," he said, turning
+to those who were watching him.  "I should like someone else called in
+for consultation."
+
+"No," said one of the gentlemen, decisively.  "If you cannot save him,
+no one can."
+
+"Jem," said the other, hoarsely, "it's murder not to--"
+
+"Silence!" said the first speaker, sternly.  "Dr Chester will save him
+if he is to be saved."
+
+"Oh, Jem, Jem!" moaned the lady.
+
+"Be quiet, Marion.  He is in the right hands.  No, doctor, we will have
+no one else called in."
+
+A low moan from the wounded man took Chester's attention, and he knelt
+down again to bathe his face and lips with brandy, while the two
+gentlemen went to a door at the other end, passed out, and a low,
+hurried dispute arose, all in whispers.
+
+Chester heard a word or two--angry words--and grasped the fact that
+there must have been some desperate quarrel, ending in the unfortunate
+man before him being shot down.  A chair was overturned, and glasses and
+decanters upset, as if from a struggle.  But the patient was apparently
+slipping away, and for hour after hour through that night Chester fought
+the grim Spectre, striving to tear the victim from his hands, seeing
+nothing, nothing, nothing, forgetting everything--home, Isabel, the
+anxious woman at his side.  His every nerve was strung to the fight, and
+at last he felt that he had won.
+
+His face showed it as he rose, uttering a sigh of relief, and his
+fellow-watcher at the other side of the couch sprang from her knees,
+caught his hands in hers, and kissed them passionately, while the rest
+of the company came slowly back into the room.
+
+"Then he'll live, doctor?" whispered the gentleman the others had
+addressed as Jem.
+
+"I hope so.  He is sleeping easily now.  I will come back about nine.
+There is not likely to be any change.  If there is, of course I must be
+fetched."
+
+"Have some refreshment, doctor," said the gentleman he addressed.  "You
+must not leave him."
+
+Wearied out as he was, this was enough to irritate Chester.
+
+"I am the best judge of that, sir," he said coldly.  "Of course the
+patient must not be left."
+
+"That is what we all feel, doctor.  Ask what fee you please, but you
+must stay."
+
+"Yes, yes; pray, pray stay, doctor," cried the lady in a pleading voice
+which went to his heart.
+
+"It is impossible, madam.  I have others to think of as well as your--
+friend."
+
+He could not for the life of him say husband.
+
+"I will be back about nine."
+
+"Sir, we beg of you to stay," said the gentleman who took the lead,
+earnestly.
+
+"I have told you, sir, that I cannot.  I must leave you now."
+
+"No, no, doctor!" whispered the lady.
+
+"Madam, it is not necessary for me to stay now.  Silence, I beg.  The
+patient must be kept quiet."
+
+"Yes--quiet," said the chief speaker.  "Doctor, we have asked you not to
+leave us; now we must insist."
+
+"What!  Why?"
+
+"Because we decline to let you go till your patient is quite out of
+danger."
+
+"What!" cried Chester, sharply, over-excited by what he had gone
+through.  "Am I to be kept a prisoner?"
+
+"If you like to call it so.  Everything you desire you can have, but you
+cannot leave here yet."
+
+"Absurd!" said Chester, angrily, and as he spoke he saw that two of the
+gentlemen present moved to the door by which he had entered.  "I insist
+upon going at once."
+
+"You cannot, sir."
+
+"Stand aside, sir, and let me pass!" cried Chester, sternly, as his
+opponent moved between him and the door.
+
+"Jem, for pity's sake"--whispered the lady.  "Doctor, I beg, I pray you
+to stay."
+
+"It is impossible, madam, now.  Let me pass, sir."  There was a fierce
+motion made towards the patient, but Chester did not heed it.  He saw
+that the other occupants of the room were closing him in, in answer to a
+gesture made by the gentleman in front.
+
+The spirit within him was roused now, and in his resentment he stepped
+fiercely forward with extended hand, when his opponent thrust his hand
+into his breast with a menacing gesture.
+
+Quick as thought, Chester stepped back and caught up the revolver he had
+seen lying upon the table.
+
+There was a faint cry, and two white hands were laid upon his breast.
+
+"Stand aside, Marion!" and there was a click from the lock of another
+pistol.
+
+"Doctor! for his sake!--pray!"
+
+Chester turned from her sharply, as if to avoid her eyes.  Then flashed
+his own upon the man who barred his way.
+
+"Is this the rehearsal of some drama, sir?" he said scoffingly.  "I
+refuse all part in it.  Now have the goodness to let me pass, for pass I
+will."
+
+He threw the pistol he held upon the carpet, and once more advanced
+toward the door, braving the weapon pointed at his head.
+
+"Bah!" he cried; "do you think to frighten me with that theatrical
+nonsense?"
+
+"Keep back, sir, or I fire."
+
+At that moment a white hand pressed the electric button by the side of
+the heavy mantelpiece, the room was suddenly darkened, and a sharp crack
+and rattling sound announced the locking of the door and withdrawing of
+the key.
+
+"Then there has been foul play," muttered Chester.  "Into what trap have
+I fallen here?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+TWO HUNDRED GUINEAS.
+
+Chester took a couple of steps to his right, for there was a faint sound
+in the pitchy darkness which he interpreted to mean the advance of an
+enemy.  Then in the perturbation of spirit and nervousness of the
+moment, he moved a step or two cautiously in what he believed to be the
+direction of the other door, and stopped short, half-dazed by the
+feeling of confusion which comes upon one in a dense fog.
+
+"Who did that?" said the voice he recognised.  "You, Marion, of course.
+Here, you go to your room."
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"Do you hear me?  It is no time for fooling now."
+
+"Yes, I hear you, but I will not leave his side.  You cowards! do you
+want to kill me too?"
+
+"Hold your tongue.  Di--Paddy--all of you, get hold of the mad fool
+before worse comes of it."
+
+There was a faint cry, a panting and scuffling, the word "Help!" blurred
+and stifled as if a hand had been suddenly clapped over the speaker's
+lips, and Chester mentally saw his beautiful companion of the brougham
+struggling violently as she was being half carried from the room.
+
+Stirred by excitement to the deepest depths, Chester rushed to her help,
+and was brought up sharp by the dining table, while the scuffling
+continued upon the other side.
+
+He felt his way along the edge, to pass round it in the darkness, but
+the noise he made betrayed his whereabouts, and his next step took him
+into the grasp of a pair of strong hands, which held him firmly, and
+before he could free himself, there was the sound of a door opening, a
+faint light showed for a moment, and before it was shut off he dimly saw
+the actors in the struggle; then the door was closed, and the voice of
+him addressed as Jem said sharply--
+
+"Light up, Paddy."
+
+A glass was knocked from the table; someone stumbled against a chair; an
+angry oath followed; and then came the rattle of massive fire-irons.
+
+"Are you drunk, man?" came in the same voice.
+
+"Drunk? no! but I'm not an owl," was growled.  "Ah! that's it."
+
+The cluster of incandescent lights glowed golden, and then brightened,
+showing the doctor that the dining table was between him and the couch
+where his patient lay, white and motionless; the tall, decisive man
+standing where he had last seen him, close to the door; a heavy-featured
+young fellow with a family likeness close by the mantelpiece; another,
+the one who had held him, close by.
+
+"Well, doctor," said the chief spokesman, cynically, "the storm has
+passed over.  All unexpected only a few hours ago, and we were seated
+happily after our coffee and cigarettes, when that idiot began to play
+the fool with his revolver, and shot himself.  Troubles never come
+alone.  Now, my dear sir, let me apologise for what has happened since
+we all lost our tempers and behaved so foolishly."
+
+Chester looked at him sternly and remained silent.
+
+"You will excuse my hastiness.  I was excited in my anxiety about the
+poor fool there, and you see now how imperative it is that you should
+not leave him till he is safe."
+
+"Will you be good enough to unlock that door, sir, and let me pass
+through?" said Chester, coldly.
+
+"To be perfectly plain, doctor--no, I will not.  Let us understand one
+another at once.  You will have to stay and make the best of it."
+
+"I shall not stay, sir, and as soon as I leave here I shall take what
+steps seem, after due thought, to be correct over what has been an
+outrage toward me; and without doubt a murderous attack upon that
+unfortunate man."
+
+"Murderous attack?  Absurd, doctor!  An accident."
+
+"Do you take me for a child, sir?  He could not have shot himself.  Now,
+if you please, unlock that door."
+
+"When I unlock it, doctor, it will be to go out and lock you in," said
+the other, grimly.  "There, sir, it is of no use to struggle, so make
+the best of it.  You are in for a week, but we'll make it as comfortable
+for you as we can.  Like to send home a telegram?"
+
+"Will you have the goodness to understand me, sir!" said Chester,
+firmly.
+
+"I do, my dear doctor, but you will not understand me.  A week with your
+patient will not hurt you, and a fee of a couple of hundred guineas
+shall be paid--now, if you like.  There, I will be plain with you, as a
+man of the world.  It was a family quarrel, and two hot-headed fools
+drew their revolvers--Yankee fashion.  Here, Paddy, see that we have
+some coffee and liqueurs.  Cigar or cigarette, doctor?  Sit down, and
+let's chat it over like sensible men."
+
+"I do not wish to come to a struggle and blows again, sir," said
+Chester, firmly.  "Please understand that you are wasting words.  I mean
+to leave this house at once."
+
+"We often mean to do things that are impossible, doctor.  You cannot.
+So act sensibly.  Take some refreshment, and attend to your patient.
+Will you have the goodness to look round this room?"
+
+Chester made no reply.
+
+"You will not smoke?  I will.  My nerves want soothing."
+
+The speaker lit a large cigar, and left the gold-mounted case open upon
+the table.
+
+"Better take one," he said as he exhaled the fragrant fumes; "they are
+rather fine.  Now, doctor; that door communicates with the back the
+hall, and it is locked; that other one with a lobby from which the upper
+and lower parts of the house are reached; and it, too, is locked.  You
+naturally intend to communicate with the outside.  Well, you cannot.
+This dining-room has no windows, and is lit up night and day.  You are a
+prisoner, my dear sir, and you will not communicate with the servants,
+for you will see none.  These gentlemen will help me as your gaolers; an
+eminently respectable old housekeeper--lady-like I may say, eh, Paddy?"
+
+The young man addressed nodded and grinned.
+
+"A lady-like body will see that all your animal wants are provided for;
+a chair-bed will be brought in; and to make your stay more pleasant two
+or three of us will take you to the billiard-room overhead and have a
+game with you--by the way, that place has only skylights.  Where we
+stand used to be a sooty cat-walk of a garden till we built these rooms
+over.  A great improvement to the house."
+
+"Who are you?  What house is this?" said Chester, sharply.
+
+"Your host, sir; and the house is ours--at your service.  Better have a
+cigar.  `Needs must when the devil drives.'  That is your position now--
+I playing the devil."
+
+A low moan from the wounded man changed the current of the doctor's
+thoughts; and with the others watching him curiously, he went straight
+to his patient's side to place a cushion behind him and relieve the
+pressure upon his wound, after which the patient seemed to sink once
+more into a state of repose.
+
+As Chester left him he received an approving nod.
+
+"We fellows would not have thought of that.  Ah, here's the coffee.
+Come, doctor, accept your position.  It is folly to beat against the
+bars of a prison when they are too strong."
+
+For at that moment the heavy-faced young man, who seemed to be a
+thorough athlete, came back into the room from the other end, bearing a
+silver tray with handsome fittings; and Chester started slightly, for he
+had not seen him go, and he realised now that he must have been occupied
+for some little time with his patient.
+
+Just then he saw that the leader of the little party whispered something
+which he interpreted to mean, "Let him alone; he'll come to his senses;"
+and he began to think out his position.
+
+Everything seemed in accordance with what had been told him: he was
+alone, one man against four--gentlemen, evidently, but plainly enough
+strongly-built, athletic fellows, who looked to be lovers of out-door
+sports, and each of them in a struggle more than his match.
+
+His rage had cooled down somewhat, and his common-sense began to
+prevail.  It was hard to master his resentment, and he could not make
+out what was at the back of it all, more than what was evidently plain--
+a terrible family quarrel, the participators in which were anxious to
+keep out of the papers, and possibly from the police courts.  He did not
+know who they were, nor, as he realised now, in what street he was; but
+that, he felt, he could soon make out.  It was awkward.  They would be
+anxious in Raybeck Square, but he would send a message and set them at
+rest.
+
+"I wonder whether they kept Bel all night," he said to himself; and at
+this thought others came, and among them a strange feeling of annoyance
+with himself as he recalled his feelings, during the little journey,
+towards his summoner.
+
+Then he hurriedly cast these thoughts aside, and began once more to
+ponder on his position, walking slowly to and fro, close to the couch,
+while the little party, who had lit up cigars, now began to sip their
+coffee.
+
+The next minute the heavy-faced young fellow known as "Paddy" approached
+him with a cup and the cigar-case.
+
+"I put a liqueur of brandy in it, doctor," he said in a low voice.  "I
+say, do you think the poor chap will get over it?"
+
+"I hope so," replied Chester, shortly.
+
+"Thank God!" said the young man, warmly.  "I say, doctor, don't cut up
+rough.  You're in a hole, but I'll see you're all right.  You'll take a
+cigar?"
+
+He said the last words so reproachfully that Chester could hardly
+forbear to smile; and he took a cigar, lit it, and then, feeling utterly
+exhausted, tossed off the coffee and brandy, after which he resumed his
+walk up and down by the couch.
+
+"`Needs must when the devil drives,'" he said to himself.  "It's of no
+use to fight.  I must pull this poor fellow through, but I'll make them
+pay for it.  Seems like a dream.  I suppose I am awake."
+
+The coffee and cigar were having their effect, and at the end of an
+hour, during which the party at the end of the table had been conversing
+in a low voice, a moan or two from the sufferer finished the tendency
+towards submission, and Chester busied himself for some time about the
+couch.  Then, rising once more, "Pen and ink," he said shortly, and the
+heavy-featured young fellow fetched him a blotting-case and inkstand.
+
+"A telegraph form, too."
+
+"Plenty there, doctor."
+
+Chester wrote quickly for a few minutes, and then handed a couple of
+papers to the young fellow, who had stopped close at hand.
+
+"I want this prescription made up at the chemist's, and the telegram
+sent respecting a substitute to see my patients."
+
+"All right, doctor," and the recipient took both to the end of the
+table, and gave them to the man who seemed to be his brother.
+
+The latter took the papers and rose to cross to Chester.
+
+"Thank you, doctor," he said quietly.  "You will do your best, I see.
+Please bear in mind that money is no object to us here.  Our cousin's
+life is."
+
+He went out of the room directly, returned soon after, and brought with
+him a quiet, sedate-looking old lady in black silk and white apron.
+
+She was very pale, and her eyes looked wild and strange, as she went
+straight to the couch, leaned over and kissed the patient's forehead,
+and then set to work and cleared the disordered table, almost without a
+sound, two of the young men joining her and helping to carry the dessert
+things out by the farther door.
+
+Chester's face must have told tales, for he started round in surprise to
+find that he had been carefully watched by the leader of the little plot
+to detain him.
+
+"You could not get out that way, doctor," he said quietly.  "We are a
+very united family here, and the housekeeper is devoted to us."
+
+Chester frowned with annoyance.
+
+"I understand you," he said; "but mind this: every dog has his day, sir,
+and mine will come, unless revolvers are brought into play and an
+awkward witness silenced."
+
+"My dear doctor, you are romantic," was the sarcastic reply.  "Don't be
+alarmed; we shall not shoot and bury you on the premises, for sanitary
+reasons.  It might affect the nerves of our ladies, too.  There, all we
+want of you is your skill to set that poor fellow right, and then you
+can return home, better paid than seeing ordinary patients.  How does he
+seem?"
+
+An angry retort was at Chester's lips, but he did not utter it.  He
+accepted his position, for the time being, and replied quietly--
+
+"Going on well, but he will be the better for a sedative.  Feverish, of
+course.  Have you sent that prescription?"
+
+"Yes, it has been taken, and the chemist will be rung up to dispense it.
+I say, doctor; no fear of a bad ending?"
+
+"And no thanks to the man who fired at him from behind," said Chester,
+looking straight at his questioner as he spoke.  "Fortunately the bullet
+passed diagonally by his ribs, an inch to the right--"
+
+"Yes, yes, the old story, doctor; but I did not fire the shot."
+
+"Pray don't excuse yourself, sir," said Chester, coldly.  "I am not a
+magistrate; only a medical man with the customary knowledge of surgery."
+
+"And a little more, too," was the reply, with a smile.  "There, doctor,
+we will not quarrel this morning, and you will not introduce the matter
+to the police.  It will pay you better to be silent; but if you
+preferred to talk about it I'm afraid you would not be believed."
+
+The speaker smiled cynically as he saw the effect of his words, and
+walked away, leaving Chester thinking deeply, and, in spite of his anger
+and annoyance, beginning more and more to feel that he had better accept
+his position.
+
+"It is a strange experience," he said to himself, as he sank back in an
+easy-chair by the couch; "but a fee of two hundred guineas!  Bel shall
+have it in the shape of a present.  She will not fidget when she has had
+my wire."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+THE STRANGE ATTRACTION PROVES TOO STRONG.
+
+"There, I promise I will be quiet and say nothing, if you let me stay.
+If you do not, I'll give the alarm in spite of you all."
+
+"Pat!  He's waking up."
+
+With the tones of the sweet, rich voice thrilling his nerves, Fred
+Chester opened his eyes as he sat back in his chair, and gazed up at the
+cluster of soft lights glowing by the ceiling; but they did not take his
+attention.  He was dwelling wonderingly upon the words he had heard as
+if in a dream.
+
+His head was heavy and confused, and it was some moments before he could
+grasp his position.  "Who's waking up?" he thought.  Then his eyes fell,
+and he looked sharply down, and the blood rushed surging to his temples
+as he saw his beautiful visitor of the night before, then all came back
+in a moment.
+
+She was kneeling beside the wounded man's couch, holding his hand, and
+she gazed at Chester with an appealing, wistful look in her eyes which
+again sent a thrill through him, and a feeling of misery and despair
+such as he had never before felt made his heart sink.  He shivered
+slightly as he turned away, to glance round the room and note that four
+of those whom he had previously seen were still present.
+
+"You've had a good nap, doctor," said a familiar voice.
+
+"Have--have I been asleep?" said Chester, involuntarily.
+
+"Beautifully.  What a delightfully clear conscience you must have,
+doctor!" said the speaker, banteringly, "that is, if you did not take a
+chloral pill on the sly.  Six hours right off."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Chester, angrily.
+
+"Then my watch is a most awful liar, and the clock on the chimney-piece
+there has joined in the conspiracy."
+
+Chester hurriedly took out his watch, to find that the hands stood at
+two, as he bent down over his patient, who was sleeping calmly.
+
+"We gave him a dose of the drops as soon as the bottle came, doctor, for
+we did not like to wake you after your hard night.  He has slept like a
+lamb ever since."
+
+Chester took no notice of the words, as he busied himself about his
+patient, the lady drawing back and going to a chair, waiting impatiently
+till he ceased.
+
+"How is he?" she said then excitedly.
+
+"He could not be doing better, madam," said Chester, trying to speak
+coldly, and avoiding for a moment the eyes which seemed to plunge
+searchingly into his; and at his words he saw that they suddenly grew
+dim, and that she clapped her hands to her lips to keep back a piteous
+sob or two.
+
+"Hush, hush, my dearest," whispered the old housekeeper in a motherly
+way, and Chester saw that a strong effort was made, and the face from
+which he could not tear his eyes grew calm.
+
+"Well, doctor, if ever I am in a bad fix, I shall know where to apply."
+
+Chester turned sharply to the speaker, and read from the cynical smile
+that he had seen the impression made upon him by the agitated face which
+possessed so strange a fascination.
+
+"You prove yourself quite worthy of your reputation, which has often
+reached us."
+
+"Any surgeon could have done what I have, sir," replied Chester,
+shortly, and then mastering himself, he continued, as he thought of home
+and all he had at stake, "I presume that now you are at rest about your
+cousin's state, this sorry farce is at an end."
+
+"Very nearly a tragedy, my dear sir," said the other, lightly.
+
+"You mistake me, sir.  I mean this enforced detention."
+
+"Oh, tut, tut, doctor!  I thought we had settled this.  Surely after
+your telegram, taken to the chief office, madam, your wife, will not be
+uneasy."
+
+As he spoke he gave the lady by the couch a mocking look, and Chester
+saw her turn angrily away.
+
+It was on the doctor's lips to say sharply, "I am not married, sir," and
+he felt startled as he checked himself.
+
+Why should he have been so eager to say that? he thought, and a peculiar
+feeling of resentment grew within, as a strange conscience-pricking
+began to startle him.  Of what folly had he been guilty in thought?
+
+"Come, doctor, we have been waiting till you woke before having some
+breakfast."
+
+The speaker rose and touched the electric bell-push, then led the way
+toward a small table at the far end of the room, the others waiting for
+the doctor to follow; but he stood irresolute.
+
+"You will join us at breakfast, doctor?" said a low, sweet voice at his
+side, making him start slightly, and then follow to the table, to take
+the place pointed out by his companion on her right, as she took the
+head of the table.
+
+"As his wife," thought Chester; then trying hard to be perfectly cool,
+and assuming to be treating his position lightly, he partook of the meal
+placed before him, and joined in the general conversation, a great deal
+of which dealt with the popular out-door life of the day--Lord's, Ascot,
+the promises of sport in August and September, and the ordinary topics
+of the hour, all lightly traversed by a party of gentlemen who had ample
+incomes for their needs, and enjoyed life.
+
+The ladies were increased to three when they took their seats at the
+table, and Chester soon found that two were the young wives of "Jem" and
+"Paddy," the bluff, manly fellow; and all seemed so intent now upon
+ignoring the trouble and setting their prisoner guest at his ease, that
+Chester's manner softened, and before they rose from the table he found
+himself listening with increasing interest to his neighbour's remarks.
+
+The excellent meal came at last to an end, and after a few words with
+Chester's companion, two of the ladies retired while the housekeeper
+quietly cleared the table; and as Marion, as they all called her, went
+to the side of the couch, Jem approached Chester.
+
+"The papers," he said in the most matter-of-fact way.  "Cigars and
+cigarettes on that table.  Spirits and soda or seltzer in the
+cellarette.  Pray make yourself at home, my dear doctor, and name
+anything you want.  It shall be obtained directly--everything, that is,
+but liberty.  Won't you light up now?  My cousin there will not mind; we
+all smoke.  Eh, Marion?"
+
+"I beg that Dr Chester will not hesitate," said the lady addressed, and
+Chester drew a deep breath as he saw her cross to the table and fetch a
+cigarette-box and matches.
+
+"It would be ungracious to refuse," he said coldly, as he took one, and
+then the lighted match from the white fingers which offered it, their
+eyes meeting as he lit his cigarette, and as a slight flush mantled the
+lady's cheeks, Chester's heart gave one heavy throb.
+
+The rest of that night-like day passed in a dream, or a time in which
+Chester felt as if he were suffering from some form of enchantment.  He
+fought hard against the strange, new, mystic influence, and strove to
+raise like a shield to protect him, his honour, his word; and again and
+again as he busied himself with his patient he told himself that he
+dearly loved Isabel, his betrothed, but this feeling was all as new as
+it was masterful, and often when he met the eyes of her who never left
+the couch in her assiduous attentions as nurse, he felt that he was
+drifting fast into a state of slavery, and that this woman was his fate.
+
+"She is another's wife," he kept telling himself; "and I am an utter
+scoundrel to give way to such thoughts.  Heaven help me!  I must go
+before it is too late.  Have I been drugged, and has the potent
+medicament sapped me to the very core?"
+
+But he felt that he could not go as yet, for though it was unnoticed by
+the others, he saw that a change for the worse had taken place toward
+evening, at a time when all had left the room but the big, athletic
+fellow and Marion, they being evidently left on guard while a short rest
+was taken.
+
+Paddy was sitting back smoking, with his eyes half-closed; but he
+suddenly roused himself up and came across to the couch.
+
+"How is he getting on?" he whispered.
+
+Chester was silent, and after glancing at him, Marion spoke--
+
+"He is better; sleeping well, and in less pain."
+
+"Don't look better," grunted the young man, and he glanced at his watch.
+"Dinner at eight.  Like to go and lie down, Marion?"
+
+"No," was the quiet reply.
+
+"All right," said the young man, and he walked back to his seat, while
+Marion waited for a few moments, and then, gazing wistfully at Chester,
+said in a low whisper--
+
+"You did not speak.  He is better, is he not?"
+
+The young doctor made no reply, but sat there breathing hard, as if
+fascinated.
+
+"I cannot tell you how grateful I feel to you," she continued.  "Your
+coming here has saved poor dear Robert's life.  I know how strange it
+all must seem to you, but I--we dare not let you go.  It is such a
+terrible emergency."
+
+"Yes," he said softly, "and I have done my best."
+
+"But I cannot help reading it in your eyes, doctor--you are thinking of
+leaving."
+
+He started slightly, and then turned his eyes to his patient so as to
+avoid the gaze which held him in spite of the mental struggle against
+what seemed to be fate.
+
+"Well," he said, as he laid his hand upon the sufferer's brow, "I am.
+Is it not natural?  Yes," he whispered hoarsely, "by some means I must
+and will leave this house to-night."
+
+Her face grew convulsed, and for a few moments she was silent.  Then in
+a low, impassioned whisper, she reached across the couch to lay her hand
+upon his arm, the contact seeming to send a hot flush through every
+nerve, and he turned to gaze at her with a look half horror, half
+delight.
+
+"And you hold his life in your hands," she murmured piteously.  "What
+can I say?--what can I do to move you?  Doctor, he is everything to me
+in this world.  If he--died, I could not live."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, don't look at me--don't speak to me like that!" he
+whispered back, and he took her hand to remove it from his arm,
+shivering as if it were some venomous thing; but it turned and clung to
+his fast, and was joined by the other.  "Madam, I have done, and am
+doing, everything I can to save your husband's life, and--"
+
+He ceased speaking, for he saw her lips part in a smile, and her wild
+eyes grew soft and humid, as, with a little laugh, she said--
+
+"Dearest Rob!  My husband!"  Then she loosed the hand she held, laid
+hers upon the head of the couch, and bending down she softly pressed her
+lips against the patient's brow, while a feeling of bitter jealousy sent
+the blood surging through Chester's brain, till the eyes were turned
+again to his, and, with a look that sent every forming manly intention
+flying to the winds, she said softly--
+
+"Why did you think that?  Doctor, for a poor, pleading woman's sake,
+give up all thought of going.  I could not bear it.  There--look--his
+face is growing convulsed," she whispered in a quick, agitated tone,
+"And you talk of going!  He is dying.  Robert!  Robert!  Oh, doctor, do
+you not see?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+AUNT GRACE SOWS THE SEED OF DISCONTENT.
+
+Laura Chester possessed what her aunt termed a bad habit.
+
+"You are so restless, my dear," said that lady.  "Why can't you stay in
+your bed of a morning, and then come down at a Christian-like hour?"
+
+"Nine o'clock, aunt dear," said the girl, smiling.
+
+"Well, say a quarter to, my dear, because that gives ample time to ring
+for the urn and make the tea, though nine is really a very nice hour.
+It is not right for a young lady to be racing downstairs before seven
+o'clock and dusting; and I do not really like for you to be going out
+for walks at such early hours."
+
+"London is at its best before breakfast, aunt; everything looks so fresh
+and bright."
+
+"What nonsense, my dear!  Nothing of the kind.  The steps are not
+cleaned, and there is nobody about but sweeps and dustmen, and milk
+carts."
+
+"Oh yes, aunt dear," cried Laura, merrily.  "London is very busy then,
+and I wish I could get you to come.  Covent Garden is lovely quite early
+with the flowers and fruit."
+
+"My dear Laura, to hear you talk anyone would think your poor dear papa
+had been a greengrocer.  Pray, do, my dear, try and give up the bad
+habit.  I really don't know what Isabel must think."
+
+But the habit only grew stronger, and on the morning after her brother's
+sudden call, Laura slipped out while cook was cleaning the steps and
+went off to Covent Garden to return with a bunch of roses and a basket
+of strawberries which had been picked that morning nine miles down the
+western road.
+
+The breakfast was ready, and she was giving the last touches to her
+arrangement of flowers and fruit upon the table when Isabel joined her,
+looking as fresh as the flowers in the little shallow bowl.
+
+"Oh, Laury, I am so ashamed at being so late," she cried, after an
+affectionate kiss had been exchanged.  "I was afraid I was last."
+
+"Oh no, dear; auntie is not down," said Laura, glancing at the clock.
+"She'll be ten minutes yet."
+
+"Is she always so punctual?"
+
+"Yes.  She does not leave her room till the church clock begins to
+strike.  She is very proud of being so exact."
+
+"Is--is--"
+
+"Fred down?  No, dear.  There! don't blush, goosey.  I expect he was
+kept late last night, and he loses so much rest, that we never disturb
+him.  He has his breakfast at all sorts of times, but it will be at nine
+this morning."
+
+This was accompanied by an arch look.
+
+"Oh, how sweet the flowers are!" cried Isabel, turning away to hide the
+heightened colour in her cheeks.
+
+"Yes, dear," said Laura, banteringly, "and life now is all roses and
+sweets, and the sky was never so blue, and the London sparrows'
+`chiswick, chiswick' sounds like the song of nightingales, doesn't it?
+Heigho!  I wish I were in love, and someone loved me, and put his arm
+round my waist and took me for walks along the primrose path of
+dalliance."
+
+There was a light step behind her, two arms were passed about her waist,
+a soft, white chin rested upon her shoulder, and a rounded cheek was
+pressed to hers.
+
+"Don't tease me, Laury darling," was whispered.  "I can't help feeling
+all you say, and looking very weak and stupid now."
+
+"Tease you, my own sweet!" cried Laura, swinging round to embrace in
+turn.  "No, of course I won't.  It's only my nasty envy, hatred and
+malice, because I can't be as happy as you.  There--and there--and
+there!"
+
+Three kisses, and Isabel started away.
+
+"Fred's coming!" she whispered.
+
+"No.  That's auntie's soft, pudgy step.  Fred comes down thump, thump,
+like a wooden-legged man."
+
+"Laury!"
+
+"Oh, well, he doesn't notice where he's going.  He's always thinking of
+operations and that sort of thing.  Good-morning, aunt dear."
+
+"Good-morning, Isabel, my child--morning, Laura."
+
+"Aren't you well, dear?  You look so serious."
+
+"Yes, Laura, I look serious.  It's a sad world."
+
+The girls exchanged glances, and with melancholy mien the old lady rang
+the bell for breakfast, and then dropped into her seat with a weary
+sigh.
+
+"No letters, Laura?"
+
+"No, aunt dear.  There's a lovely rose instead."
+
+"Thank you, Laura.  Dear, dear! no one writes to me now.  I don't know
+why one should go on living when one grows old."
+
+"Because Fred and I want you, dear," cried Laura, merrily, "and Bel too.
+Put two more spoonfuls in the pot, aunt dear.  A hot cup of tea will do
+you good."
+
+"Nothing will ever do me good again," sighed the old lady, shaking her
+head mournfully.
+
+"Oh yes, it will, dear; and Fred likes his tea strong."
+
+"Yes, yes, very strong, my dear; and always preaches at me if I take it
+only just coloured.  I sometimes think it's because he thinks I cost too
+much."
+
+"Now, auntie, how can you?" cried Laura.  "Don't you believe her, Bel."
+
+"I do not," said the girl, smiling.  "Poor aunt is not well this
+morning."
+
+"How can I be, my child, knowing as I do that my little bit of property
+is slowly wasting away, and--"
+
+"Here's the urn, aunt," cried Laura.  "Shall I make the tea?"
+
+"Certainly not, my dear.  Let me, pray, enjoy the last few privileges of
+my age while I am here.  I do not mean in this house, Isabel, my child,
+but living out my last weary span."
+
+"Auntie darling," said Laura, tenderly, getting up as soon as the maid
+had placed tea-urn and covered dishes upon the table, "don't be so
+miserable this morning now that dear Bel is here," and she kissed the
+old lady lovingly.
+
+"How can I help it, my child?  It is her being here makes me feel so
+bad."
+
+"Oh, my dear Mrs Crane!" cried Isabel.
+
+"Worse and worse!" sobbed the old lady, melting into tears.  "I did
+think you were softening to me, and would end by loving me and always
+calling me aunt--Mrs Crane!"
+
+"Aunt--auntie!  There!" cried Isabel, running to her and kissing her.
+"But I think it is I who ought to complain."
+
+"Yes, my dear, you ought."
+
+"You shouldn't say I make you bad."
+
+"But you do, my dear.  It's all on your account.  It's dreadful, and I
+lay awake nearly all the night pitying you."
+
+"Pitying me when I am so happy, auntie?" cried Isabel.
+
+"Ah, my child! you don't know.  All men are full of evil, but doctors
+are the worst of all."
+
+"There, Bel; you are going to marry a horrid wretch," cried Laura.
+
+"Don't scoff, my dear," continued the old lady.  "It is too serious.
+They are always away from home--called at the most unearthly hours."
+
+"Yes, to do good, auntie," said Isabel, smiling.
+
+"And auntie won't do good when she might Aunt, Isabel and I are dying
+for some tea."
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear; I'll pour it out directly."
+
+"Wait a moment, aunt," cried Laura.  "I'll go and ask Fred if he is
+coming down."
+
+"Go and ask Fred, my dear?  He is not at home."
+
+"What!" cried the two girls in a breath.
+
+"He has not come back yet.  I lay awake hour after hour listening, with
+my door a little way open--I can hear the latch-key then--but--he did
+not come."
+
+Laura glanced at her visitor, and saw trouble coming in her face like a
+cloud.  "Oh, well, aunt, dear, it is not the first time."
+
+"No, my dear," said the old lady, tightening her lips as she dropped a
+lump of sugar outside a cup; "it is not the first time by a long way,
+and I don't like it."
+
+"Neither does Fred, I'm sure, poor fellow!" cried Laura, helping the ham
+and eggs.  "It is some serious case, Bel dear, and he'll come back tired
+out for you to comfort him up.  You'll often have it to do, for, poor
+boy, he is called out a great deal."
+
+At that moment Aunt Grace let the sugar-tongs fell with a clatter among
+the cups, and burst into a fit of sobbing.
+
+"Aunt dear!" cried Laura, jumping up to go to her side again; "what is
+the matter?"
+
+"I don't like it, my dear.  His being out like that."
+
+"Well, Fred doesn't either."
+
+"Ah, but that's it.  He does, and it's horrible; and I will not sit
+still and see him deceive this poor, dear lamb."
+
+"Mrs Crane!" cried Isabel, sitting up flushed with indignation.
+
+"I can't help it, my dear.  I should be a wicked woman if I did not
+speak.  I watched last night, and I saw her.  One of those horridly
+handsome, fashionable-looking ladies, and she carried him off just as if
+she were leading him by a chain.  I can't help it!  I had a presentiment
+then, and I'm obliged to speak.  He hasn't come back, and I felt he
+would not, and as sure as I'm alive he'll never come back again."
+
+"Aunt!" cried Laura, passionately.  "Shame--Bel dear, don't take any
+notice of her."
+
+But her words had no effect.  Isabel had risen with her face scarlet,
+then turning white as her lips parted to utter an indignant rebuke.
+
+No words came, and covering her face with her hand she hurried out of
+the room.
+
+"Auntie!" cried Laura, passionately.  "See what you've done.  You're
+right.  It's quite time you made up your mind to die."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+IN DANGER.
+
+As Chester turned and gazed in his patient's face, he felt that all was
+over: and at that moment Paddy, startled by Marion's excited words,
+rushed across and caught his arm.
+
+"Is he going?"
+
+"Yes," cried Marion, passionately, "and he has been murdered.  Rob, Rob,
+my own darling, don't, don't leave me here to this!  Rob!  I cannot bear
+it!  Dr Chester! for pity's sake!  Oh, do something!  Help!"
+
+"Hush!  You are hindering me," said Chester, sternly--himself once more.
+"The brandy!  You--you--madam, use your fan rapidly.  Is there no air
+to be got into this wretched prison?  That's right.  Raise his head a
+little more.  That's better.  Be calm, both of you.  Everything depends
+upon that."
+
+"But he is dying--he is dying!" wailed Marion.
+
+"Be silent, madam, and obey my orders," whispered Chester, angrily, and
+the desperate fight went on.  Desperate indeed it seemed to the doctor,
+and he fought as he had never fought before.  But for some time every
+breath the poor fellow drew, feebly and painfully, seemed to her who
+watched him, with staring eyes, his very last.
+
+They were alone with him for quite an hour, before the old housekeeper
+came in, to grasp at once what was wrong, and hurry to the couch.
+
+"Oh, my child, why did you not ring for me?" she cried.
+
+"Hush!  Silence!" said the doctor, sternly.  "The paroxysm has exhausted
+itself.  With perfect quiet he may yet live."
+
+His hand was caught by Marion and passionately kissed, before she sank,
+half-fainting, in the old housekeeper's arms.
+
+Paddy went in and out on tip-toe, his action suggesting always that he
+was doing something in silence for a wager; and twice over his brother
+came in as the hours slipped past, but only to be sternly ordered to go
+by the doctor, who was then alone with Marion and the wounded man.
+
+"But hang it all, sir!" he protested, "am I not to do what I like in my
+own house?"
+
+"No, not while I am in charge of my patient."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Look here, sir, I will not be answerable for his life if you stay,"
+whispered Chester, sharply.
+
+The intruder bit his lips and glanced at Marion, then at the doctor and
+back.  There was a world of meaning in his eyes, but Chester was too
+dreamy then to interpret it, and the man went away, but only for the far
+door to be re-opened and Paddy to make his appearance.
+
+Marion uttered a sign of annoyance, and hurried to meet him.
+
+"You must not stay, Paddy," she whispered.  "It is so important that
+Robert should be kept quiet."
+
+"All right," he said.  "I didn't want to come, but Jem sent me.  He
+doesn't like your being alone with the doctor."
+
+An angry frown darkened Marion's face.
+
+"Go," she said firmly.  "Paddy, I think he will live now."
+
+"Thank God!" cried the young fellow, fervently.  "But, I say, if I go
+I'm pretty sure that Jem will come himself.  He as good as said so."
+
+"Stop him, then, and tell him to go to his wife."
+
+Paddy shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You know what he is."
+
+"Yes," said Marion, bitterly, "I know what he is," and she pointed
+towards the couch.  "We know what he is.  Now go."
+
+"All right; but you want something.  They've got some dinner or supper
+yonder; come and have a bit."
+
+"No."
+
+"Then I'll have some sent in."
+
+"I don't want anything.  Tell them to send something for the doctor."
+
+But almost as she spoke the door was softly opened, and the old
+housekeeper appeared with a tray.
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+One long dream, in a strangely protracted night, as it appeared to
+Chester--a night in which the world seemed to be halting during a
+singular delirium.  Time stood still apparently for both nurse and
+doctor, who hardly left the room, but were waited on by the housekeeper
+and the two ladies, who came in and out softly, each offering to take
+Marion's place; but she invariably refused.
+
+Nature grew stern at times towards the watchers at the wounded man's
+side, and sometimes one, sometimes the other, sank suddenly into a deep
+sleep, during which, whether it were one hour or many, the other
+remained perfectly awake and watchful.
+
+And day after day, night after night, the dual fight went on--the fight
+with death and that with honour.  There were times when Fred Chester
+seemed to be winning in both encounters, but as often he felt that his
+patient was slowly slipping away from him, as he himself was lapsing
+from all that he ought to have held dear.
+
+Everything was, in the latter case, against him.  Forced into close
+contact with the woman who had so strangely influenced him from the
+first moment of their meeting, with her eyes constantly seeking his
+appealingly as the sufferer's life rose and fell--flickering like the
+flame of an expiring candle, he felt that his position was too hard for
+man to bear.  He owned himself weak, pitiful and contemptible, but as he
+struggled on he felt himself drifting hopelessly away, and that, come
+what might, he was to become this woman's slave.
+
+One day was like that which followed, in its wild delirium and
+strangeness.  Chester had almost lost count of the time which had
+elapsed, and grew startled at last as the feeling was impressed upon him
+that the precautions taken by those around had grown unnecessary and
+that if the door had stood open he would not now have attempted to
+escape.  A strange thrall held him more than locks and bars, and he was
+ready to sacrifice everything to stay there by Marion's side and fight
+the grim Shade till it was defeated and he had won her gratitude and
+love.
+
+The great trouble Chester had to fight was the succession of strange
+convulsive fits which attacked his patient, each of which seemed to have
+snapped the frail thread which held the wounded man to life; but as they
+passed off the flame flickered up again, and the struggle recommenced.
+
+At last came the day when, hopeless and despondent, Chester bent over to
+dress the wound, feeling that the struggle had been all in vain, and
+that his skill was far less than he had believed.
+
+The old housekeeper was waiting upon him, and Marion had, at his
+request, gone to the other end of the room.
+
+"You unnerve me," he whispered.
+
+She looked at him reproachfully, and went away without a word, to seat
+herself with her arm on the side of a chair, her hand supporting her
+brow.
+
+As a rule, the sufferer had made no sign during the opening and
+rebandaging, but this time he winced sharply at every touch, and the old
+housekeeper looked up questioningly.
+
+"Is that a bad sign?" she whispered, with her face all drawn and ghastly
+with fear.
+
+"No; a sign of greater vitality," said Chester, quickly, and the next
+minute he uttered a curious sibilation, for in removing the inner
+bandage, his fingers came in contact with something angular and hard,
+which he held up to the light and examined carefully.
+
+A quick, sharp breathing at his ear made him start round, to find that
+his every movement had been watched between the fingers of the hand
+which covered the watcher's face, and she had hurried to his side.
+
+"Worse?" she whispered faintly, too much exhausted now to display the
+intense agony and excitement of the earlier days of their intercourse.
+
+"No," he cried triumphantly.  "Here is the cause--the enemy which has
+been fighting against us so long, and produced, I believe, those
+terrible convulsive attacks."
+
+Marion looked at him wonderingly, and her lips parted, but no words
+came.  He read the question, though, in her eyes.
+
+"I ought to have known, and found it out sooner," Chester said bitterly,
+"and I feel that I am only a miserable pretender, after all.  This piece
+of jagged lead, broken from the conical bullet by the explosion; it has
+remained behind causing all the trouble."
+
+"Ah!  Then he will recover now?"
+
+"Yes," he said, as his eyes met hers; and if was some moments before
+they were withdrawn, both, in the pre-eminence of self at that moment,
+having taken no thought of the old housekeeper, who involuntarily made
+her presence known by uttering a deep sigh; and as Marion started and
+met her gaze, the old woman shook her head at her reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, my dear! my dear!" she said softly; "pray, pray think."
+
+Marion's brow contracted, and she walked slowly away, to take up her
+former position; while Chester winced and gave the old woman an angry
+look, as she now shook her head sadly at him.
+
+"No, doctor, no," she said softly; "that could never be.  Please think
+only of your patient and your position of trust."
+
+"How dare you, woman!" he whispered angrily; for her words had gone
+home, and stung him more deeply than she could have realised.
+
+"Because I am not like an ordinary servant, doctor," she said, meeting
+his eyes unflinchingly.  "I nursed her when she was a little child, and
+I have watched over her ever since.  Yes, she is very beautiful, but
+that could never be."
+
+Chester bent over his patient with knitted brow and tightly-compressed
+lips, feeling the truth of the old woman's words, and ready to repeat
+them again mentally--that could never be.
+
+His hands were busy with his task, and his brain was more active than
+ever, as he felt now that he had won this victory, and that the effort
+to bring the poor fellow back to life and strength would now be an easy
+one; little more than good nursing would suffice.  Why, then, could he
+not win in that other fight?  She was right; that could never be; and he
+seemed now to be suffering a rude awakening from the strange, dreamy
+time through which he had passed--awakening to the fact that he had
+lapsed into a faithless scoundrel, he who had believed himself all that
+was manly and true.
+
+An hour before, he had felt that nothing could drag him from Marion's
+side.  He loved her more than he could have believed possible, but it
+could never be.  He was awake once more, and now that the peril was past
+he must go.
+
+"Hah!" he said softly, as he finished his task and the old housekeeper
+rose to bear away sponge, basin and towel, "head cooler, more
+susceptible of touch.  A hard fight, but I win.  An error of judgment?
+No; I did all possible.  The probe revealed nothing.  I saw no bullet,
+or I might have known."
+
+Everything else had passed away for the moment in the pride of his
+satisfaction--the triumph of life over death--and he stood with one hand
+resting on the back of the couch, the other upon his left hip, as he
+bent over his patient, whose breath came softly, and there was a restful
+look in the thin white face.
+
+Then he started round, for there was a light touch upon his arm, and he
+was face to face with Marion once more, her head bent forward, her wild
+eyes searching his.
+
+"Is--is it true?" she whispered excitedly.  "She told me as she went
+out--you did not speak."
+
+"Yes; quite true," cried Chester.  "No wonder, poor fellow, that he made
+no advance.  But there, we have won, and a day or two's nursing will be
+all he wants.  Now you can feel at rest."
+
+"Feel--at rest?"
+
+"Of course; there is no disease.  Weakness is the only trouble now."
+
+"Weakness the only trouble now!  Rob--Rob--my own dear boy!"
+
+She sank upon her knees, and as he saw her action, Chester tried to
+check her.  But she gave him a reproachful glance, and passed her soft
+white arms about the patient's head, but without touching him; and the
+loving kiss she breathed, as it were, upon his lips.  Then she rose,
+sobbing gently, with all the strength of her mind and force of action
+seeming to have passed away, as with outstretched hands she caught at
+the nearest object to save herself from falling.
+
+That nearest object was Chester; and the next moment she was weeping in
+his arms.
+
+"You have given him back to me," she sobbed, her voice little above a
+whisper.  "You have saved him.  How can I ever repay you for what you
+have done?"
+
+The minute before he had been strong; now as he felt the sobs rising
+from the labouring breast, and clasped her throbbing, palpitating form
+closer and--closer,--"Marion!"
+
+Her name--nothing more; but he felt her tremble in his arms and hang
+more heavily as her head sank slowly back, bringing her lips nearer his;
+and the next moment she uttered a low sigh, breathed in their lengthened
+kiss.
+
+"Out of what comedy is this, doctor?" said a harsh, familiar voice; and
+as they started angrily apart, Jem, as they called him, advanced quickly
+from the silently opened door, straight towards Marion, upon whom he
+fixed his fierce eyes, as he spoke to her companion.  "French, I
+suppose--a translation.  I congratulate you, doctor--both of you.  It
+was so real--so passionately grand.  And you," he literally hissed now,
+"most loving sister!  _Pour passer le temps_, of course.  The _ennui_ of
+long nursing.  Curse you!" he whispered savagely, as he stopped before
+her, and with a quick movement caught her by the wrist.
+
+The next moment he uttered a hoarse cry of rage, for, stung to madness
+by the brutal act, Chester sprang at him, forcing him back over the
+table before which he stood, while Marion was flung aside.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+A BLACK CLOUD BEHIND.
+
+"Where am I?"
+
+Head throbbing horribly, a nauseous taste in the mouth, throat
+constricted and painful upon an attempt to swallow, and a strange mental
+confusion which provoked the above question.
+
+The answer came at once.
+
+In a miserable, musty-smelling, four-wheeled cab, whose windows were
+drawn up, and so spattered with mud and the heavy rain which fell upon
+the roof that the gleam from the street lamps only produced a dim, hazy
+light within, as the vehicle jangled slowly along, with wheels and some
+loose piece of iron rattling loudly in concert with the beat of the
+horse's feet.
+
+"Whatever am I doing here?" was Fred Chester's next question.
+
+Lying back in the corner, in an awkward position, as if in a state of
+collapse, and only saved from subsiding into the bottom of the cab by
+his feet being propped up on the front cushion, the doctor kept
+perfectly still trying to think, but every retrogressive attempt gave
+the idea that he was gazing at a vast black cloud which completely shut
+out the past.
+
+He uttered a faint groan, for he felt startled; but after lying back
+listening to the beating rain and the jarring of the ill-fitting
+glasses, he recovered somewhat.
+
+"How absurd!" he muttered.  "Where am I going?  Ask the driver."
+
+He drew up his legs and let his feet drop into the cab, as he tried to
+sit up, but the effort gave him the sensation of molten lead running
+from one of his temples to the other, and he lay perfectly still while
+the agonising pain passed slowly away, trying hard to think what had
+happened, but in vain.  There was the black cloud before him mentally,
+though he could see the gleaming of a lamp he passed through the blurred
+panes of glass.
+
+At last, feeling more and more startled by his condition, he made a
+brave effort, raised himself upright, and reached out for the strap, so
+as to lower the front window; but at the first movement he was seized
+with a sickening giddiness, lurched forward, and thrust himself back to
+recline in the corner again till the molten lead had ceased to flow from
+side to side of his head.
+
+At last, very slowly and cautiously, bit by bit, he edged himself
+forward till his knees rested against the front cushion, and then,
+thrusting one hand into the left corner, he reached out for the strap,
+raised the window, and let it glide sharply and loudly down.
+
+"Hi!  Cabby!" he cried hoarsely.
+
+"Right, sir!" came back, and the cab was drawn up by the kerb beneath
+the next street lamp.
+
+Then the driver got down and opened the door, to stand with the rain
+streaming off his waterproof hat and cape.
+
+"Mornin', sir," he said in a husky voice, closely following a chuckle.
+"Feel better now?"
+
+"No, I am horribly ill.  Where am I?"
+
+"Why, here, sir," said the man, chuckling.  "My word, it's a wet 'un
+outside."
+
+"But what street's this?"
+
+"Halkin Street, Belgrave Square, sir."
+
+"What?  But how came I in your cab?--I can't remember."
+
+"S'pose not, sir," said the man, good-humouredly.  "Does make yer feel a
+bit muzzy till yer've had another snooze.  Shall I try and find one o'
+the early purlers where the market-garden chaps goes?"
+
+"What?  What do you mean?"
+
+"Drop o' somethin' to clear your head, sir--and keep some o' the wet out
+o' me."
+
+"But--but I don't understand you," cried Chester, whose head still
+throbbed so that he dreaded losing his senses again.
+
+"Oh, it's all right, sir.  Have a drop o' something; you'll be better
+then."
+
+"But how came I in your cab?"
+
+"Your friend and me put you there, sir."
+
+"My friend?"
+
+"Yes, him as you'd been dining with, sir; on'y you don't seem to ha'
+heat much."
+
+"My friend?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that's right."
+
+"Where was it?"
+
+"Pickydilly Circus; 'bout three hours ago."
+
+"Yes--yes.  Well?"
+
+"And he says, `Take care of him, kebby,' he says, `and drive him home.
+Bad cham,' he says, `and he ain't used to it.'"
+
+"Then why didn't you drive me home?" cried Chester, angrily.
+
+"S'elp me!  I like that!--I did; and no one was sittin' up for yer; I
+knocked and rung for 'bout arf an hour before the old chap shoved up the
+winder and began a-cussin' and a-swearin' at me awful."
+
+"What old chap?" faltered Chester in his amaze.
+
+"Your old guv'nor, I s'pose; and he wouldn't come down, and told me to
+drive you to the `oh no, we never mentions him!' for you warn't coming
+in there.  Then he bangs down the winder, and I waited ten minutes for
+him to get cool, and then knocks and rings again.  This time he shoves
+up the winder and swears he'd shoot at me if I warn't off; and as I got
+set agen 'orspittles ever since I was there for two months, I got up on
+the box again and drove off, for there was a bobby coming up; and I've
+been driving you about ever since."
+
+"Driving me about ever since?"
+
+"That's so, sir.  We've been round Belgrave Square about a dozen times,
+and I was just going to drive you back to our stables, where it ain't
+quite so wet, when you downed the window."
+
+"I can't grasp it," said Chester, hoarsely.
+
+"Oh, never you mind about that, sir; you'll be all right soon.  You see,
+beggin' your pardon, you was precious tight, and your friend had all he
+could do to hold you up.  `Just like a jelly, kebby,' he says; and you
+was, sir.  Your legs doubled up like a two-foot rule with a weak jynte."
+
+"My friend!" cried Chester, snatching at that as something to cling to.
+"Who was that?"
+
+"That's what I'm a-telling you, sir.  Your friend--"
+
+"But what sort of a person was it?"
+
+"Big, stout young fellow, like a Lifeguardsman, but a real gent.  Very
+jovial sort.  `Take great keer of him, kebby,' he says, and he tipped me
+a quid.  `Help him up the steps when you get him home.'  `Right you are,
+sir,' I says, as soon as I'd shut you up.  `But wheer to?'
+`Thirty-three Chrissal Square, Chelsea,' he says, and there I drove you,
+and there you'd be, only your guv'nor cut up so rough."
+
+"Chrissal Square, Chelsea?" cried Chester, eagerly.
+
+"That's it, sir."
+
+"Why didn't he tell you Raybeck Square?"
+
+"Dunno, I'm sure, sir.  That's where all the doctors is."
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+"Didn't think you was bad enough, I s'pose, sir.  And you ain't.  You
+on'y want a drop to clear your head a bit."
+
+"Drive me to Raybeck Square, thirty-four, at once."
+
+"Won't you have a drop of something first, sir?  Do you more good than
+going to a doctor's, and me, too."
+
+"No, no, absurd.  But one moment.  You said Piccadilly Circus?"
+
+"That's right, sir."
+
+"And my friend helped me into the cab, and paid you to drive me home?"
+
+"That's it, sir.  You're getting it now--all by heart."
+
+"A tall, stout gentleman?"
+
+"Well, not exactly that, sir.  I don't mean a fat 'un with a big weskit.
+A reg'lar strong-built un."
+
+"I can't grasp it," muttered Chester.  Then aloud,--"But why did he tell
+you to drive me to the wrong house?"
+
+"Bit on too, sir.  Arter dinner.  Did it for a lark, p'ra'ps."
+
+"Drive me home," said Chester, sinking back.  "I can't recollect a bit."
+
+"Course you can't, sir.  Better have a hair o' the dog as bit you."
+
+"No, no.  There, I'll give you a glass of brandy when we get back."
+
+"Suppose your guv'nor won't let you in, sir?"
+
+"Nonsense, man.  I have a latch-key."
+
+"Wish I'd ha' knowed it," muttered the man, as he tried to close the
+door; "blessed if I wouldn't ha' picked your pocket of it and risked it
+I'd ha' carried you into the passage, and chanced it.  Blister the door,
+how it sticks!" he growled, as he banged it to, the jerk raising the
+glass, and it dropped down.  "Chrissal Square, sir?"
+
+"No, no, Raybeck Square; and make haste out of the rain."
+
+"Oh, I'm as wet as I can be, sir, and it don't matter now," grumbled the
+man, as he ascended to the box, and once more the maddening rattle and
+jangle began.
+
+Chester's head was as blank as ever with regard to the past when the cab
+drew up at his home, but it was perfectly clear as to the present, and
+he was still hard at work trying to make out where he had been dining,
+with whom, and how it was possible for him to have so far forgotten
+himself as to have drunk till he was absolutely imbecile, when the man
+opened the door.
+
+"One moment; my latch-key.  Yes; all right, I said I'd give you a glass
+of brandy."
+
+"You did, sir, and welkum it'll be as the flowers o' May.  Jump out
+quick, sir, and run up the steps, for it's all one big shower bath."
+
+"Can you leave your horse?"
+
+"Leave him, sir?" said the man, with a chuckle; "for a month.  He's got
+hoofs like hanchors.  But I will hitch his nose-bag on, and let him see
+if he can find that there oat he was a-'untin' for in the chaff last
+time he had it on."
+
+The next minute Chester was inside, with his head throbbing; but he was
+not so giddy, and his first glance was at the hall clock, illumined by
+the half turned down gas.
+
+"Four o'clock," he muttered.  "How strange!"
+
+"May I come inside, sir?  Horse'll be all right if there don't come a
+bobby prowling round.  If he ain't a fool he'll be under someone's
+doorway, for there ain't likely to be no burgling a time like this."
+
+"Shut the door, and come in here," said Chester, shortly; and he led the
+way into his consulting-room, turned up the gas, and from a closet took
+a decanter and glass, filled the latter for the cabman, who was making a
+pool on the thick carpet, and then poured himself out a few drops from a
+small-stoppered bottle, added some water from a table filter, and tossed
+off the mixture.
+
+"Thank you, sir, and hope that there'll do you as much good as this
+here's done me a'ready.  Didn't know you was a doctor."
+
+"Here's a crown for you," said Chester, taking the money from a little
+drawer.
+
+"Five bob!  Oh, thank ye, sir," said the man, with a grin.  "Makes a
+fellow feel quite dry.  Sorry for your carpet, sir.  Good-mornin'.  I
+don't think I want another fare."
+
+As the door was closed after the man, the potent drops Chester had taken
+began to have some effect, and it seemed as if the dawn was coming
+through the black cloud which separated him mentally from what had taken
+place overnight.
+
+"The man's right," he muttered.  "I must sleep.  Good heavens!  What a
+state my brain is in!"
+
+"Is that you, Fred?"
+
+He started as if he had been stung, and the dawn brightened as he
+replied sharply--
+
+"Yes, aunt; all right.  Go to bed.  Why are you up?"
+
+There was no reply, and he turned the hall light nearly out again, and
+went into his consulting-room to serve the gas jet there the same, and
+sank into an easy-chair instead; but he had hardly allowed himself to
+sink back when he sprang up again, for there, in the open doorway, stood
+the grotesque figure of Aunt Grace, in broad-frilled, old-fashioned
+night-cap and dressing-gown, a flat candlestick in her hand, and a
+portentous frown upon her brow, as she walked straight to him, wincing
+sharply as one slippered foot was planted in the pool left by the
+cabman, but continuing her slow, important march till she was about a
+yard away from her nephew, when she stopped.
+
+"Why, aunt," he cried, "what's the matter?  Surely you are not walking
+in your sleep!"
+
+"Matter?" she cried in a low, deep voice, full of the emotion which
+nearly choked her.  "Oh, you vile, wicked, degraded boy!  How dare you
+treat your poor sister and me like this?"
+
+"Pooh!  Hush!  Nonsense, old lady.  It's all right.  I've been dining
+with a friend."
+
+"With a friend!" she said, with cutting sarcasm.
+
+"Yes, at his club.  There, I must have been unwell.  I was a little
+overdone.  What a terrible night."
+
+"Terrible indeed, sir, when my nephew stoops to lie to me like that.  A
+friend--at his club!  Do you think me such a baby that I do not know you
+have been with that abandoned woman?"
+
+"Hush!  Silence!" he whispered angrily.  "For your dear, dead father's
+and mother's sake, sir, I will not be silenced."
+
+"But you will arouse Laura."
+
+"She wants no arousing.  She is lying ill in bed, sleepless in her
+misery, sir, with her wretched brother staying out like this."
+
+"Confound you for a silly old woman!" he cried angrily.  "Is a man to
+live the life of a hermit?  If I had been away to a patient till
+breakfast-time nobody would have said a word.  Poor little Laury!  But
+how absurd!"
+
+"Absurd, sir!" cried the old lady, who was scarlet with indignation.
+"Then I suppose it was absurd for poor Isabel Lee to have gone home
+broken-hearted because of your conduct."
+
+"What!" he cried, springing up, with a glimmer of memory coming back.
+"Why, surely you two did not canvass my being out one night till the
+poor girl was so upset that she--that she--went back--yes, she was
+stopping here.  Oh, aunt, your foolish, suspicious ways are disgraceful.
+What have you done?"
+
+"I done, you wretched boy?  It's what have you done?  She was with us
+for a whole week after you had gone, fighting against me, and insisting
+that there was a reason for your being away, or that you had had an
+accident."
+
+"Here, aunt, are you going to be ill?" he cried, catching at her wrist;
+but she snatched it away.
+
+"Don't touch me, sir!" she cried.  "Oh, Fred, Fred!  I'd have given the
+world not to know that you were so wicked.  And just when you were about
+to marry her, poor girl, to go away as you did."
+
+"_Go_ away--as I did?" he faltered, gazing at her blankly.
+
+"Yes, I knew something was wrong when I saw that wretched woman's face.
+I felt it; but I could not have believed you would be so base.  A whole
+fortnight too; and to think that this was to have been your
+wedding-day!"
+
+He caught her by the shoulders, and she uttered a faint cry and dropped
+the candlestick, as he stood swaying to and fro, staring at the doorway,
+through which his sister hesitatingly passed, and came slowly toward
+him.
+
+"A fortnight!" he stammered--"Isabel gone!"
+
+"Yes, gone--gone for ever," said Laura, sadly.  "Oh, Fred, how could
+you?"
+
+"Stop!  Don't touch me," he cried angrily.  "Don't speak to me.  Let me
+try to think."
+
+He threw his head back and shook it violently in his effort to clear it,
+but the confusion and mental darkness began to close in once more, while
+the throbbing in his brain grew agonising.  It was as if his head were
+opening and shutting--letting the light in a little and then blotting it
+out; till he felt his senses reeling--the present mingling with the
+darkness of the past he strove so vainly to grasp.
+
+"I can't think.  Am I going mad?" he groaned, as he staggered to a
+chair.
+
+"Mad, indeed," said his aunt, bitterly.  "Come away, Laura, and leave
+him to his conscience.  Better if it had been as you and poor Isabel
+thought--that he had met with some accident, and was dead."
+
+She caught her niece by the arm, but Laura shook herself free and took a
+step or two towards where, in his utter despair, Chester sat bent down
+with his head resting in his hands.  But he made no movement, and with a
+bitter sob she turned and followed her aunt from the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+"WHITHER?"
+
+It was a good forty-eight hours before Chester could think clearly.  His
+aunt had sternly avoided his room, and he had been dependent upon Laura,
+who attended him as he lay quite prostrated by the agonising pains in
+his head.  She hardly spoke, but saw to his wants as a sisterly duty,
+and felt that silent reproach was better than words to one who had
+proved himself such a profligate.
+
+"I can't understand it," she said to herself again and again.  "It is so
+unlike him.  If he would only repent, poor Bel might forgive him--in
+time.  No; I cannot speak to him yet."
+
+She little thought how her brother blessed her for her silence, as he
+lay struggling to get behind that black curtain; but all in vain.
+
+He was sleeping heavily on the third night, when he suddenly woke up
+with the mental congestion gone.  The pain had passed away, and his
+brain felt clear and bright once more.
+
+He remembered perfectly now.  The scene with Marion after his triumphant
+declaration of all danger being past.  Their embrace.  The interruption
+by the coming of the saturnine head of the house, and the struggle, all
+came back vividly clear, and with photographic minuteness.  He recalled,
+too, how in the encounter when he had forced his adversary back over the
+edge of the table, he felt that an effort was being made to get at some
+weapon.
+
+Then the great athletic brother came and separated them, remonstrating
+on the folly of the encounter at such a time.
+
+"How strange that I can remember it all so clearly now," muttered
+Chester.  "Yes, he said that it was over a dispute.  He would not
+acknowledge the real cause, and she did not speak.  The scoundrel; he
+had been persecuting her with his addresses.  I see now; that must have
+been the cause of the first trouble.  Her brother was defending her from
+him."
+
+Then he recalled how the pair went away, and that the old housekeeper
+stayed, while Marion sat by the patient's side, avoiding his gaze, and
+as if repenting that she had given way to her feelings.
+
+A tray was brought in by Paddy, so that the housekeeper should not leave
+the room; and he stopped, talking good-temperedly enough, for some
+little time, and almost playing the part of servant to them, till they
+had all partaken scantily of the excellent meal; but he did not have
+another opportunity of speaking to Marion alone.
+
+Chester lay for some minutes trembling then, for he had been growing
+excited by the recollections, and a strange dread had come over him that
+he was about to lose his memory again; but the adventures of that night
+came back, and he recalled the coming of Paddy once more.  This time he
+brought in a tray with coffee and four cups, which he filled and handed
+to each of those present.  Yes, Chester remembered how the housekeeper
+refused, and Paddy spoke--
+
+"Nonsense, old lady! take it; we can't stand on ceremony now, you may
+have to be up for hours."
+
+Then the old housekeeper took the cup, and the young man sugared his own
+coffee very liberally, and added plenty of cream.
+
+"Bad taste, doctor," he said good-humouredly, "but I like it sweet.  So
+you feel now that poor Bob will be all right?"
+
+"Yes, I have no doubt of it."
+
+"Thanks to you," said the young man, and he advanced and took Chester's
+emptied cup, and then Marion's, soon after leaving the room with the
+tray.
+
+Chester recalled feeling a little drowsy after this, and then in a
+dreamy way seeing Marion with her brow resting upon the patient's
+pillow.
+
+No more--try how he would, Chester could recollect nothing else, but
+consideration filled up the gap.  The elder brother, satisfied that the
+patient's life was saved, was desirous of ridding the house of the
+doctor's presence, the more so now that he had discovered the relations
+which had sprung up between him and Marion.
+
+"The scoundrel!" thought Chester.  "That must have been it: he was
+pursuing her, and the brother was shot down in defending his sister."
+
+Chester shivered now, and his brain grew hot, as he saw clearly enough
+all that remained.  The cups had been prepared, two of them containing a
+drug, and Paddy had taken care that they should go to those for whom
+they were intended.  It was all plain enough.  Paddy was working in his
+brother's interest, and he was the big friend who had taken him first to
+the Circus, and then placed him in another cab, with instructions to the
+man.
+
+"Well," muttered Chester, "I see my way now, and I am not going to sit
+down calmly over the matter.  I must--I will see her again."
+
+Then he trembled, and the hot burning sensation came once more.  But it
+passed off, and he felt that he must be calm and wait till he had
+another long sleep, when he hoped to be quite restored.
+
+He lay trying now to forget all that had passed, so as to rest for a
+while; but sleep would not come, and he could do nothing but dwell upon
+his adventures at that mysterious house.  It was so strange.  The
+servants had evidently been sent away, so that they might know nothing
+of what threatened for long enough to prove a murder.  He wanted to know
+of none other cause for the quarrel.  His patient must have been shot
+down while defending his sister from some insult offered by the clever,
+overbearing, unprincipled scoundrel who seemed to lord it over all.
+
+And as Chester lay thinking, an intense desire came over him to learn
+more of the family who had literally imprisoned him, and kept him there
+all those days.  When there, it had seemed for the most part like some
+romantic dream; and as he lay now at home thinking, the vague
+intangibility of those nights and days appeared to him more fanciful and
+strange than ever; so much so, that there were moments when he was ready
+to ask himself whether, after all, it was not the result of imagination.
+
+He recalled all the actors in the little social drama--the men whom he
+had seen on the first night, and who dropped out of sight afterwards;
+the two ladies--the wives of the brothers--both quiet, startled-looking
+women, of the type that would be seen exhibiting the latest fashions at
+some race, at Lord's, or at a meeting of the Four-in-Hand Club, and
+evidently slaves of their husbands--and he recalled now how the wife of
+the elder brother seemed to hold her lord in dread.
+
+"There's something more about that place than one knows," Chester
+thought to himself as he turned from side to side, "and I cannot--I will
+not, sit down and patiently bear such treatment.  To-morrow I'll go and
+demand an explanation.  I have a good excuse," he said half aloud and
+with a bitter laugh; "there is my promised fee, and--Pish!" he exclaimed
+savagely.  "If I am to prove a scoundrel, I will be an honest one.  I
+will ferret out who and what they are.  I behaved like a child in not
+having some explanation earlier--in yielding passively as I did without
+reason--no, not without reason.  I could not help it.  Heaven help me!
+I will--I must see her again.  It is fate!"
+
+He jumped up in bed, for a sudden thought now sent a chill of horror
+through him, as for the first time the drugging which had taken place
+showed itself in another light.
+
+"To get rid of me," he muttered, as the great drops of sweat gathered on
+his face, "and--the last thing I remember--Marion--her head fallen upon
+the couch beside her brother, helpless now to protect her--drugged,
+insensible, at the mercy of that villain; and I here without stirring or
+raising a hand."
+
+Some little time later, feeling weak and faint, he was standing in the
+hall reaching down his hat, and for a moment he had a feeling of
+compunction.  Isabel--his sister--what would they think of his strange,
+base infatuation?
+
+"What they will," he said between his teeth.  "Placed in such
+circumstances, no man could be master of himself.  I must save her, even
+if we never meet again;" and the door closed after him loudly, as, half
+mad now with excitement, Marion's eyes seeming to lure him on, he
+stepped out into the darkness of the night.
+
+"Whither?" he muttered, as he hurried across the Square.  "Heaven help
+me! it is my fate."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+A BLACKER CLOUD IN FRONT.
+
+The nearest church clock was striking three as Chester passed into the
+great west-end artery, which was almost deserted, and he had been
+walking rapidly, under the influence of his strange excitement, for some
+minutes before, clear as his head was now, he found himself brought up
+short by a mental cloud as black and dense as that from which he had
+suffered when he began to recover from the influence of the drug he had
+taken.
+
+But there was this difference: the dense obscurity then was relating to
+the past--this was connected with the future.
+
+"Good heavens!" he muttered.  "Whatever he gave me must be acting still;
+I am half delirious.  I am no longer master of my actions.  Why am I
+here?  What am I going to do?--To try to save her, for she is at his
+mercy.  But how?"
+
+He stopped short, literally aghast at the horror which encompassed him
+as he felt that he was utterly helpless.
+
+How was he to save Marion?  How take the place of the brother who had
+defended her and fallen?  Where was she?
+
+In the great wilderness of houses which made up the overgrown city in
+which he dwelt, where was the one he sought?
+
+Utterly dazed, he stood trying to think out in which direction it lay,
+and moment by moment his feeling of utter helplessness increased.
+
+He had not taken the slightest note of the direction in which the
+carriage was driven that night, for he had sat listening to his excited
+companion, half wondering at the way in which he was influenced by her
+presence.
+
+The carriage, he did remember, was driven very fast, but it must have
+been at least a quarter of an hour before it was drawn up at the kerb
+before the old-fashioned mansion.
+
+Yes, he did note that old-fashioned mansion, in a wide street, too--it
+must have been a wide street to have allowed for so great a distance
+between the kerb and the two steps up from the pavement; and the house
+stood back, too, some distance.
+
+That was something, but a chill of despair came over him as he felt that
+these features applied to thousands of houses.
+
+Still, it was old-fashioned, and the hall was wide, just such a house as
+he would find in Bloomsbury.
+
+"Or Westminster," he muttered.  "But the cabman was told to drive to
+Chelsea.  A blind to confuse me, on the chance that I did not notice
+when I was brought there that night.
+
+"Bloomsbury or Westminster," he said to himself; "and chance or instinct
+may help me," he mused, as, feeble as was the clue, he felt that it was
+something to act upon, something to give him work that might deaden the
+wild excitement.  He set off at once in the direction of the
+old-fashioned, grim-looking streets half a mile east of where he had
+stood thinking, ending by taking a passing cab, for he felt faint and
+bathed in a cold perspiration, and being driven slowly through street
+and square till long after daylight, and then home, sick at heart in the
+despondent feeling which came over him.
+
+"It's hopeless--impossible," he said to himself, as he wearily let
+himself in with his latch-key, while the cabman drove slowly off,
+saying--
+
+"Not bad, as things go.  Talk about seeing life, I think we kebbies do.
+Why, that chap must be about cracked."
+
+As Chester threw his overcoat on a chair in the hall, a slight rustling
+on the stairs took his attention.
+
+"Watched!" he said to himself, while turning into his consulting-room,
+feeling convinced that either Laura or his aunt had been listening for
+his return.
+
+"They must think me mad," he said, and after a pause, "are they right?"
+
+He was calmer now, and his mind running in this direction, he could not
+help feeling there was a strange dash of insanity mingled with his
+actions since the night when he was called out, and that this last act
+of hunting through the streets for a house of whose location he was
+utterly ignorant seemed nearly the culminating point.
+
+"Yes, the height of folly," he said softly.  "I must try and devise some
+means of finding her.  Chance may help me.  I can do no more now."
+
+He rose with the intention of going up to his bedroom, but the sun was
+now shining brightly, and he opened the shutters before returning to his
+seat to try and think out some clue which he could follow up.
+
+The light which flooded the room seemed to brighten his intellect, and
+in spite of the use to which he had put the latter part of the past
+night, his head felt cool and clear.
+
+"Let's look the position fairly in the face," he said to himself.
+"After all, I have done Isabel no substantial wrong; I was not a free
+agent.  I could not return; and that course is open, to go to her and to
+her people, frankly explain, and make up to her by my future for the
+weak lapse of which I have been guilty.  For what are these people to
+me?"
+
+He sat back with his brow knit, feeling, though, that such a course was
+impossible--that he could not go and humble himself before his
+betrothed, and that it would be an act of base and cruel hypocrisy to
+resume their old relations when his heart seemed to have but one
+desire--to see Marion again.
+
+"No, it is impossible!" he cried angrily.  "It was not love.  I never
+could have loved her.  Heaven help me!  What shall I do?  Some clue--
+some clue!"
+
+He started mentally again from the moment when he was called down to see
+his visitor, and he seemed to see her once more, standing close by the
+table--just there!  Then he once more entered the brougham with her and
+tried to get some gleam of the direction they took, but he could only
+recall that the horses were standing with their heads toward the east.
+No more.  The result was precisely the same as it had been at other
+times, utterly negative.  He had thought of nothing but his companion
+till they reached the house, and he had not even the clue of the family
+name.
+
+Then a thought struck him, and he brightened up.  Those moments when,
+after his vain search for the bullet, he had dressed the wound.  She had
+prepared bandages for him, and with eager fingers now he thrust his hand
+into his breast-pocket for his pocket-book, opened it, and took out a
+closely-folded, very fine cambric handkerchief, deeply stained with
+blood.  She had given it to him, and he held it to the wound for a few
+minutes, while a bandage was torn, and had afterwards thrust it into his
+breast, only in his ecstasy to later on, unseen, take it out, carefully
+fold it, and place it in one of the pockets of his little Russia case.
+
+His hands trembled as he opened it out and examined the corners, the
+fourth showing, carefully embroidered, the letters M.E.C.
+
+He had hoped for the full name in marking ink, and with a faint sigh he
+refolded the delicate piece of fabric, and replaced it in his
+pocket-book, to sit thinking once more, with the new cloud growing
+blacker.
+
+There was one way, he thought--the police.  Some shrewd officer might
+make something out of this narrative and trace the house; but he felt
+that it was doubtful, and shrank from laying bare a mystery which he
+felt sure Marion was eager to keep hidden.  Finally he came to the
+conclusion that he would know no rest until he had discovered the place
+of his strange imprisonment himself, and in despair, to relieve the
+pressure of his brain, he turned to the writing-table, which was pretty
+well covered with letters from patients, complaining that they had come
+up to find him away; from others asking him to make appointments; and
+again others of a tendency which showed him that he was injuring his
+practice.
+
+Lastly, he picked up a letter which he had put aside, unwilling to open
+it; and he held it for some minutes, gazing straight before him,
+thinking deeply, and seeming to lack the resolution to read.
+
+At last with a sigh he tore it open.
+
+It was from Isabel's mother, telling him that her child was
+heart-broken, and asking him to give some explanation of the cruel
+treatment to which they had been subjected.
+
+"Let them think the truth," he cried passionately as he tore the letter
+into tiny fragments.  "Let them think me half mad, I cannot--I dare not
+write."
+
+There were two or three packets on the table, even then, and he winced
+as he turned them over.  One was a bundle of proofs of an article he had
+written for a medical paper; the next was a carefully-sealed box,
+registered, and he threw it into a drawer with an angry ejaculation.  It
+was from a jeweller, and contained a pearl bracelet he had bought as a
+present for his betrothed.
+
+The other was also a box that had come by post, registered, and it was
+heavy.  He did not know what that was; he had ordered no other present,
+and his curiosity being excited, he cut the green tape, tore off the
+great seals, and was in the act of opening the cartridge paper in which
+it was folded, when he stopped and snatched up the tape to which the
+sealing-wax adhered.
+
+There were three seals, two the coarse splotches of common wax used by
+postal authorities; the other was fine and had been sealed with arms and
+crest, but a drop from the coarse postal wax had half covered it and
+Chester could make nothing of the sender.
+
+The box within was fastened down with brads, and he forced it open with
+some curiosity, to find a heavy packet of what seemed to be short, thick
+pieces of pipe, and with a vague idea that they were connected with some
+surgical instrument sent to him from the maker on trial, he pushed it
+aside impatiently, and threw himself back in his chair.
+
+The next minute the thought occurred to him that a surgical instrument
+maker would not seal the packet with armorial bearings, and he would
+have sent some communication, so, catching up the box, he drew out the
+carefully-done-up packet within, tore it open, and then let his hands
+fall on the table, for the contents were rouleaux of sovereigns, all
+bright and fresh from the mint, the number written upon the packet--"210
+pounds."  Two hundred guineas--the fee promised to him for his services.
+
+"Gentlemanly and honourable in this, after all," he said to himself; and
+he eagerly searched the papers to see if there was a note.
+
+None, and with an ejaculation of disappointment he unlocked the table
+drawer, thrust in the rouleaux, locked them up, and then caught up the
+pieces of green tape again, to examine the blurred red seal.
+
+"Eureka!" he muttered; "then here is the clue."  He carefully cut off
+the seal and placed it in his pocket-book, after satisfying himself that
+the crest over the shield of armorial bearings was a mailed arm bent,
+the elbow only being clear.  With this to guide him, he went to a
+book-case, and took down a Peerage, in the faint hope of finding the
+arms of some great family there; and he was still vainly searching when
+the servant knocked at the door to tell him that breakfast was ready.
+
+Laura and his aunt were waiting in the dining-room, and their salute was
+a formal "Good-morning," after which the breakfast was partaken of in
+silence, and he rose to go back to his room.
+
+"Will you see your patients this morning, Frederick?" said his aunt, as
+he reached the door.
+
+He looked back at her sharply, and then glanced at his sister, who was
+watching him too.
+
+"No," he said sharply.  "I have important business--I am going out."
+
+"But--"
+
+Chester closed the door and hurried to his room.  He knew what was about
+to be said, and he was in such an intense state of irritation, that he
+could not trust himself to reply, but took hat and coat directly, went
+out, and jumping into the first cab was driven to his club, where he
+spent the morning in the library, examining books on landed gentry,
+peerages, baronetages, everything he could find relating to armorial
+bearings, and finding crest after crest of mailed arms holding swords,
+daggers, spears, flowers, plumes, hearts, and arrows, but nothing which
+quite answered to the seal.
+
+After a hasty lunch he went out to resume his search for the house, and
+for the next fortnight this was his life, seeking, and seeking in vain,
+for he found hundreds, each of which might very well have been that
+which he sought, till one afternoon he was walking down formal old
+streets of gloomy mansions, when his eyes lit upon a house, one of fifty
+almost alike, double-fronted with a broad entrance, and exactly what he
+felt the place must be that he sought.  He had passed it a dozen times
+before, but it had never impressed him, and with a strange feeling of
+elation, as he noted its gloomy aspect, uncleaned windows, and air of
+neglect, he grew certain that he had made the discovery at last.
+
+The next thing was to note the number and examine a Directory, and
+walking rapidly on without daring to look for fear of being observed, he
+went to the end of the street, crossed over, and returned, read the
+half-obliterated number on the time-worn door as he rapidly passed, and
+once more had himself driven to his club.
+
+"Found at last," he muttered, as he opened the great Directory and found
+the number, and name, "Westcott."
+
+Not much, but something within him made him feel that he was right, and
+he closed the book, drawing a deep breath, and went straight to the
+great grim street.
+
+He had made no plans, but had determined upon a bold attack as the
+likeliest way of obtaining entrance.  The old housekeeper would answer
+the door, and threats, cajoling, or bribery he was determined should be
+his pass-key, for see Marion and be assured of her safety he would,
+even, he told himself, if he had to use force.
+
+For one moment only he hesitated before he plunged into the lion's jaws,
+as it were--should he speak to a policeman and tell him how to act if he
+did not soon return?
+
+"No," he said; "it would be too cowardly, and I might injure her."
+
+The next minute he had given a heavy peal on knocker and bell, listened
+to the hollow echoes raised within the forbidding place, and stood
+waiting for the opening of the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+THE BOOKWORM AT HOME.
+
+As Chester waited for an answer to his summons the thought of the
+awkwardness of his position struck him, but he was strung up and
+determined to go on with his quest at all hazards.  At the end of a
+minute there was no reply, and he knocked and rang again, with the hope
+rising that he was on the right tack at last, for the silence accorded
+with the mystery of the place he sought.
+
+It was not until he had roused the echoes within the house for the third
+time that he heard the rattle of a chain being taken down; then the door
+was opened slowly, and Chester's heart sank as he found himself face to
+face with a dim-eyed, sleepy-looking old man, thin, stooping, and untidy
+of aspect, in his long, dusty dressing-gown and slippers.  He was
+wearing an old-fashioned pair of round glass, silver-rimmed spectacles,
+whose ends were secured by a piece of black ribbon; and these he pushed
+up on his forehead as he turned his head side-wise and peered at the
+visitor.
+
+"I'm afraid you knocked before, sir," he said in a quiet, dreamy tone.
+
+"Yes--yes.  I ought not to have come in this unceremonious way."
+
+"Pray do not apologise," said the old gentleman, mildly.  "I was busy
+reading, and did not hear."
+
+He pushed his glasses a little higher and smiled in a pleasant,
+benevolent fashion, while at the first glance Chester saw that he was
+quite off the scent.  For he gazed past the old man into the great hall
+whose walls were covered with book-shelves, while parcels and piles of
+volumes were heaped up in every available corner.
+
+"I see that I have made a mistake," said Chester, hastily.
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"I have come to the wrong house.  I am very sorry.  I am trying to find
+some people here."
+
+"Yes?  Well, houses are very much alike.  Will you step in?  I can
+perhaps help you.  I think I have a Directory somewhere--somewhere, if I
+can lay my hand upon it, for I seldom use such a work, and I have so
+many books."
+
+The old gentleman, whose appearance branded him as a dreamy, absorbed
+bookworm, drew back, and Chester involuntarily entered the hall, to note
+that with the book-cases away it would be such a place as he had
+visited; but while that was magnificently furnished, and pervaded by the
+soft glow of electric light, here all was dust and mouldering knowledge,
+the entrance suggesting that the rest of the house must be the same.
+
+"Pray come in," said the old man, after closing the door; and he led the
+way into what had been intended for a large dining-room, but had been
+turned by its occupant into a library, packed with books from floor to
+ceiling; piles were upon the tables and chairs, and heaps here and there
+upon the dusty old Turkey carpet.
+
+"Directory--Directory," said the old man, looking slowly round.  "Books,
+books, books, but not the one we want."
+
+"You seem to have a large and valuable library," Chester ventured to
+observe.
+
+"Eh?  Yes, I suppose so.  The work of a long life, sir.  But very dusty
+all over the house.  What did you say was the name of the people you
+wanted?"
+
+"I--that is," stammered Chester, confusedly, "I do not know their name.
+Some patients whom I want to find out."
+
+"Are you a doctor, sir?" said the old man, looking at his visitor with a
+benevolent smile.  "Grand profession.  I should have liked to have been
+a doctor.  But is not that a very vague description?  Names are so
+useful for distinguishing one person, place, or thing, from another.
+But it was in this street, you say?"
+
+"Well--er--no, I am not sure," said Chester, hurriedly.
+
+"Dear me! that is rather perplexing," said the old man, taking off his
+spectacles and beginning to wipe them upon the tail of his
+dressing-gown.  "But," he added, as if relieved, "the Directory would be
+of no use if you do not know the name."
+
+"None whatever," said Chester, who was smarting with the thought that
+this pleasant old gentleman must take him for a lunatic.  "Pray forgive
+me for troubling you in this unceremonious way."
+
+"Oh, not at all, my dear sir, not at all.  I have so few visitors,
+though," he added, "as you see I am surrounded by old friends."
+
+"The same style of house--the same sort of hall," thought Chester, as he
+went out after a few more words had been exchanged.  "Could it have been
+in this street?"
+
+He looked up sharply at a heavy-faced butler and a tall, smart,
+powdered-headed footman, who were standing at the door of the next
+house, doing nothing, with the air of two men whose employers were out.
+
+Chester looked eagerly at them and passed by, but the door was nearly
+closed, and he could not see inside.
+
+His sharp look was returned with interest, the two men evidently
+expecting him to come up the steps and address them, but he went on for
+a short distance in an undecided way, thinking deeply, and trying hard
+to see through the mental mist which shut him in.  But a short time
+before he had felt convinced that he had found the house and been
+disappointed; now he felt quite as sure that the mansion where the two
+servants were standing must be the place.  He had no special reason for
+coming to the conclusion, but all the same a curious feeling of
+attraction made him slacken his pace, angry and annoyed the while that
+he had not stopped and spoken to the men.
+
+"Great heavens!  What a vacillating moral coward I have grown," he said
+to himself.  "What would have been easier?"
+
+He said this but felt that the task was terribly hard, for it seemed
+such a childish thing to do--to go about asking folk if that was the
+house where some people lived who had fetched him to attend a man who
+had been shot, and kept him a prisoner for days and days before drugging
+him and having him shut up in a cab to be driven about in the middle of
+the night.
+
+"Why, if I could explain all this to them," he said to himself at last,
+"they'd think I was a harmless kind of madman, troubled with memories of
+the Arabian Nights Entertainments, which I was trying to drag into
+everyday life like a Barber's hundredth brother, or a one-eyed Calendar.
+Come, come, old fellow," he continued, as he mentally apostrophised
+himself; "go back home and prescribe for yourself, and then begin to
+show someone that you have been suffering from a strange mental vagary,
+brought about by over-excitement.  She will believe it in time, and all
+may come right again.  Ah! how like."
+
+He started and hurried after an open carriage in which two ladies were
+seated.  He only saw the profile of one of them very slightly, and her
+back as she passed, but there was a turn of the figure--a particularly
+graceful air, as she leaned forward to give some instruction to the
+coachman--which struck him as being exactly similar to attitudes he had
+seen Marion assume again and again when attending upon her brother.
+
+He jumped into a cab and told the man to follow the victoria, with the
+result that the latter came to a standstill in front of one of the
+fashionable West-End drapery establishments.
+
+Chester was close up as the lady alighted, and he sprang out excitedly
+to go and speak to her.
+
+There was every opportunity, for the carriage drove on with her
+companion, and she crossed the pavement alone, to walk a few steps alone
+in front of the great plate-glass window, gazing carelessly in at the
+various costumes displayed.
+
+"A woman after all," he said to himself, bitterly annoyed at what he
+considered her frivolity in thinking of dress at a time when her brother
+was in all probability suffering still.
+
+"But it is their nature, or the result of their education," he said the
+next minute, as he went close up behind her, and saw her face reflected
+clearly in the long series of mirrors at the back.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+MR ROACH LOWERS HIMSELF.
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Chester in his rage and despair, as he swung round and
+hurried away.  "Fool, idiot!  No more like her than that miserable
+flower-seller is.  Am I suffering from the shock of the drug they gave
+me?  Well, if I am, she must be found all the same, for I cannot go on
+like this and live!"
+
+He hurried along, without heeding which way he went, and as if by
+instinct made for his own house, reached it, started as if in surprise,
+and then turned to enter, but altered his mind after a pause, and drew
+the door to, after which he walked swiftly away in the direction of
+Westminster.
+
+For the meeting had raised thoughts which he felt that he would only
+obliterate by plunging once more into the mazes of his wild search.
+
+He was not long in reaching the old street which had so taken up his
+attention before, and he looked long and attentively at the mansion
+adjoining that occupied by the collector.  The contrast was curious, the
+one with bright, well-curtained windows, the door glistening in its
+fresh graining and varnish, the other dim, unpainted, looking as if it
+were quite unoccupied, the very steps as if they had not been cleaned
+for years.
+
+Chester went and studied a Directory, and with the name Clareborough
+upon his lips, he determined, after passing through the street two or
+three times, to risk making a call.
+
+"Why should I mind?" he muttered.  "If I am wrong, I have only made a
+mistake."
+
+He walked on till he reached the house, perfectly unconscious that the
+footman was standing a little back from one of the narrow windows, and
+after having his attention drawn to the vacillating, rather haggard
+personage who had been taking so much interest in the house, was ready
+to look upon him with suspicion.
+
+"Begging letter dodges, or something to sell," said the footman to
+himself, as the visitors' bell was rung, and after waiting a sufficient
+time to suggest that he had come from downstairs, the fellow opened the
+door, to receive Chester with a calm stare.
+
+"Mr Clareborough in?"
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Mr Robert is, of course?"
+
+"Out of town, sir."
+
+"Well, I must see somebody," said Chester, who had been checked for the
+moment by the announcement that Mr Robert was out of town, but
+encouraged by the fact that two shots went home.  "Ask Mr Paddy if he
+will see me."
+
+The nickname made the footman raise his eyebrows, but he replied
+coolly--
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Well, then, one of the ladies."
+
+"On the Continent, sir."
+
+"Tut, tut, how tiresome!" cried Chester, impatiently.  "Look here, my
+man; how is Mr Robert?"
+
+"Quite well, thank you, sir," said the man, superciliously.
+
+Chester stared at the man.  He had evidently been schooled what to say,
+and for the moment the visitor hesitated, but recovering his
+_sang-froid_ the next moment, he said--
+
+"Rather strange that, after so serious an accident."
+
+At that moment the butler came forward from the back of the hall,
+pulling the door a little more open, and Chester drew a deep breath full
+of satisfaction, as he caught sight of one of the statues and a chair,
+on the back of which was emblazoned the same crest as he had seen upon
+the seal.
+
+"What is it, Orthur," said the butler in a deep, mellow voice suggestive
+of port wine.
+
+"Gentleman asking to see Mr Robert, sir."
+
+"Yes, I particularly wish to see him," said Chester.  "I am the medical
+man who attended him after his accident."
+
+"I beg pardon, sir."
+
+"I say I am the medical man who attended him after his late accident,
+and I wish to see my patient again."
+
+The butler glared at the speaker in a heavy, solemn way, and then turned
+slowly to his subordinate, who raised his eyebrows and drew down the
+corners of his lips.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir," said the butler, turning his eyes again on the
+visitor, who was beginning to lose temper.  "There is a Mr Robert
+here--Mr Robert Clareborough.  You must mean some other gentleman.  Our
+Mr Robert is quite well, and on the Continent just now."
+
+"Impossible!" cried Chester, angrily.  "Look here, my man, take this for
+yourself and my card in to Mr Robert.  Say I beg that he will give me a
+few minutes' conversation."
+
+The butler glanced at the card and the coin held out, but took neither.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir.  I told you that Mr Robert is on the Continent."
+
+"Yes; and I tell you that you are not speaking the truth.  Do as I tell
+you.  I will wait till he sees me."
+
+Chester took a couple of steps forward as he spoke, with the intention
+of entering the hall, but the butler stood firm, and the footman closed
+up to his side, the pair effectually barring the way.  Chester stopped,
+feeling that he could do no more, for the servants must have been
+instructed to deny everybody to him.  He thought, too, of his position;
+he had attended his patient and retained the heavy fee paid him, having,
+had he so wished, been debarred from returning it by his ignorance of
+the sender's address.
+
+While he was musing the butler said haughtily--
+
+"If you like to leave your card, sir, I'll lay it on the 'all table, and
+if one of the gentlemen wishes to see you, I daresay he'll write or
+call."
+
+"No," said Chester, irritably.  "Tell Mr Robert that I came, and--no,
+say nothing; I daresay I can find Mr Robert Clareborough at his club,
+or I shall meet him somewhere else."
+
+He turned upon his heel, and walked sharply away, satisfied now that he
+had found the house, and feeling more eager than ever to obtain an
+interview with his patient, who would, he felt sure, have his sister by
+his side.
+
+The thought of her position sent the hot blood coursing to the doctor's
+head, and a chill of horror and anxiety ran through him once more.  But
+he felt that he must wait a little longer and devise some way of
+obtaining speech with Marion, life being unendurable till he had seen
+her once again.
+
+"New dodge, Mr Roach, sir?" said the footman, when Chester had
+disappeared.
+
+"I don't quite know what to make of it, Orthur," replied the butler,
+solemnly.  "It does seem like a new way of raising the wind.  It ain't
+books nor engravings."
+
+"What about being Mr Robert's medical man, though.  What do you make of
+that?"
+
+"Well, Orthur, putting that and that together--his quick, jerky, excited
+way, and his fierce-looking eyes, and his ignorance of Society etiquette
+as to strangers calling, and wanting to see everybody, just as if he was
+one of the oldest friends of the family--I should say that he's one of
+those chaps who get a few names o' people out o' Directories, and then
+goes and calls."
+
+"For swindling and picking up anything as is not out of his reach, sir,
+or about money?"
+
+"Well, say a bit touched in the head, Orthur."  The butler put his hand
+to his throat to try whether the tie of his white cravat was in its
+place, and looked up the street and down, acts imitated exactly by his
+lieutenant, and for some minutes nothing more was said.  Then the
+footman in very respectful tones--
+
+"Ever try your 'and, Mr Roach, sir, at any of those gambling shops
+abroad?"
+
+"Well, once or twice, Orthur," said the butler, relaxing a little to his
+junior.  "I was with a young nobleman out at Homburg and Baden and one
+or two other places."
+
+"And how did you get on, sir?"
+
+"Oh, I made a few louis, Orthur, and I should have made more if we had
+stopped, I daresay."
+
+"Lor'!  How I should like to have a bit of a try there, sir," said the
+footman, eagerly.
+
+"You would, Orthur, eh?  You mean it?"
+
+"Mean it, sir?  I should just think I should.  That's what Mr Robert's
+after now, I'll bet; and look at the money, Mr Dennis--Mr Paddy--
+pockets over his flutters there, let alone over every race and event
+coming off.  Ah, it's fine to be them."
+
+"Well, yes, Orthur, my good lad, I suppose they do pretty well.  You
+see, if I or you were disposed to put a sov'rin or two on the next
+event--"
+
+"Half-a-crown's 'bout my figure, sir."
+
+"Ah, well, say half-a-crown, Orthur; it may turn up a pound, or two
+pound, or three pound.  It might even be a fiver.  But with them when
+they win, it's hundreds or thousands."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated the footman, smacking his lips.
+
+"By the way, there's Newmarket coming again next week."
+
+"Yes, sir; got anything on?"
+
+"Well, no, not yet, Orthur; perhaps I may."
+
+"Do, sir, and I will, too.  Mr Roach, sir," whispered the young man
+behind his hand, as the butler turned upon him with a look of reproof
+for his assumption, "Black Pepper, sir."
+
+"What, my good boy!  Why, that horse is at fifty to one."
+
+"That's it, sir; and I'm going half-a-crown on him."
+
+"Better keep it in your pocket, my lad," said the butler, blandly.
+
+"No, sir; I think not.  I've got the tip."
+
+"Eh?" said the butler, eagerly.  "Where from?"
+
+"I heered Mr Paddy tell Mr James, sir, that it was a sure thing, and
+Mr James gave him gold out of his cash-box in the lib'ry--little rolls
+out of that big tin box of his.  I didn't hear no more, but that was
+quite enough for me."
+
+"Eh?  Yes," said the butler, dropping his superior way of speaking to
+whisper confidentially, "it will do for me too, Orthur.  I'll give you
+half-a-sovereign to put on at the same time.  Let me see, Orthur, we're
+not very busy this afternoon, and I shall be about to answer the door.
+Come down to the pantry, and I'll give you the money, and you can go and
+make the bets before they get to a different price."
+
+"All right, sir, I will," said the footman excitedly.  "Beg pardon,
+sir," he continued, as the door closed and they stood together in the
+elaborately-furnished hall.  "Yes, Orthur, what is it?"
+
+"Could you oblige me with half-a-crown, sir, till I get my wages?"
+
+"Humph!  Well, my lad, I do make it a rule never to lend money, but
+seeing that it is you, Orthur, a lad that I can trust--"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, you may trust me."
+
+"I will let you have the money."
+
+"Thank ye, sir, and I'll go at once."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A FATAL ATTRACTION.
+
+"You, Isabel dear!" cried Laura one day, as the visitor whom she had
+looked upon as a sister was shown into the room.
+
+"Yes, dear, I felt obliged to come.  Don't, pray don't be ashamed of me
+and think me weak," pleaded the poor girl, as they embraced and then sat
+down together upon the couch.
+
+"How can you say such things!" cried Laura, warmly, as she passed her
+arm about her friend's waist.
+
+"Because I feel that I deserve it, dear.  I know how weak and foolish I
+am.  I have been watching for an hour till I saw him go out."
+
+"You have been watching, Bel?"
+
+"Yes, dear; from a brougham with the blinds partly drawn down.  We are
+in town now.  Papa says I must have a change, and we are staying here
+for a few days before they take me over to Paris.  Laura dear, I was
+obliged to come.  Don't betray me, please, to anyone.  They would be so
+angry if they knew, and say that I was shameless.  I suppose I am, dear,
+but I hope you can sympathise with me a little."
+
+"Not a little, Bel dear," cried Laura, warmly, and Isabel flung her arms
+about her friend's neck, buried her face in her breast and sobbed
+violently for a few minutes before she raised her thin white face and
+said quite calmly, with a piteous smile on her lip--
+
+"There, I told you how weak I was.  I feel so much better now.  I would
+have given anything for days and days to cry like that, but I could not.
+My head has been hot, and my brain seemed dry and burnt up.  Now I can
+talk.  But tell me, is--is he likely to come back?"
+
+"No," said Laura, shaking her head.  "He will not be back till night,
+and even if he did return he would not come here, but go straight to his
+room and shut himself in."
+
+"Has--has he told you anything?"
+
+"No, dear; he hardly ever speaks either to me or aunt.  He did say that
+he was kept away to attend an important patient."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  That must be it."
+
+Laura was silent.  Aunt Grace had sown a seed in her heart which had
+begun to grow rapidly, in spite of her sisterly efforts to check it as a
+noxious weed.
+
+"Well, why don't you speak?" cried the visitor, sharply.
+
+"Because I have nothing to say."
+
+Isabel flushed up, and Laura stared at her, wondering whether this was
+the placid, gentle girl whom she had known so long.
+
+"Then why have you nothing to say?" cried Isabel, angrily.  "He is your
+brother, and if all the world is turning against him, is it not your
+duty to defend--to try and find excuses for his conduct?"
+
+"Isabel!"
+
+"Well, I mean what I say.  It is quite enough that I turn against him
+and that everything between us is at an end.  I hate him now, for he has
+used me cruelly, and it seems to have changed my nature; but I cannot
+forget the past, and would not be malignant and cruel too."
+
+Laura took the hand that was resigned to her, and the pair sat in
+silence for some minutes.
+
+Isabel's lips moved several times, as if she were about to speak, but no
+words came, till, with a desperate effort, she said in a husky whisper--
+
+"Have you seen her, Laura?"
+
+"I?  No!" cried the girl, who was startled by the question.
+
+"But you know she is beautiful, and rich, and aristocratic?"
+
+"I only know what aunt has said, dear; but if she were the most
+beautiful woman that ever breathed, it is no excuse for Fred treating
+you as he did."
+
+"I don't know," said Isabel, sadly.  "He is wise and clever, while I
+have often felt that it was more than I could expect for a man like him
+to care for me, so simple and homely as I am."
+
+"Fred ought to have been only too proud to have won such a girl," cried
+Laura, sharply, but her visitor shook her head.
+
+"It was only a brief fancy of his, dear, and as soon as the right woman
+came across his path he forgot me.  Well, I am patient if I am not
+proud, for I cannot resent it, dear, only try to bear it, for I loved
+him very dearly; but it is very hard for the little romance of one's
+poor homely life to be so soon brought to an end."
+
+"It was cruel--cruel in the extreme," cried Laura, angrily.  "I would
+not have believed that my brother, whom I almost worshipped, could have
+behaved so ill."
+
+"These things are a mystery," said Isabel, gently; "and perhaps it is
+better that it should have happened now than later on when we were
+married.  But tell me about him, dear.  Has he settled down to seeing
+his patients again?  You wrote to me saying that he was neglecting
+everything."
+
+"So he is, nearly everything, now.  Bel dear, I will not be so hard upon
+him any more.  You must be right, that he cannot help himself, or he
+would never have behaved so ill.  He must be mad."
+
+Isabel clung to her with a startled look in her eyes.
+
+"It is the only way in which I can account for the change," continued
+Laura, "for I will not believe what Aunt Grace says, that all men are
+bad at heart.  If they are, women must be as wicked too."
+
+Isabel shivered slightly.
+
+"Tell me about what he does now."
+
+"I can't, dear," cried Laura, piteously.  "I seem to know so little.
+Only that he goes out soon after breakfast, and does not come back till
+dinner-time, and so wet sometimes that he must have been walking about
+the streets for hours."
+
+Isabel sighed.
+
+"I've tried--oh, how I've tried!--to win his confidence; but he says
+nothing, only turns away, and goes out.  It is just as if he had lost
+something of which he is always in search, and every day he grows more
+moody and strange."
+
+"Then he is ill--mentally ill," cried Isabel, excitedly.  "I knew that
+there must be some excuse for his strange behaviour.  Laura dear, my
+heart has misgiven me from the first.  It is all so directly opposed to
+his nature and character.  I will not believe that he could be so false
+to everything that he has said to me."
+
+Laura was silent again, and Isabel's careworn face flushed once more.
+
+"You are not sisterly and true," she cried.  "The world is censorious
+enough without those who are nearest and dearest to us turning away and
+becoming our enemies."
+
+"I am not Fred's enemy, Bel," said Laura, gently.
+
+"Then why are you so hard against him?"
+
+"Because I feel that by his conduct he has put us all to shame."
+
+"Yes, all to shame--all to shame, my dear," cried Aunt Grace, who had
+entered the room unnoticed.  "It's a wicked, wicked world; but it's very
+good of you to come and see us, my dear, heart-broken as we are.  You
+have come to stop a few days, of course?"
+
+"I?  Oh, no no, no.  We are staying in town," said Isabel, hurriedly,
+"and I must go directly."
+
+"I am sorry to hear that," said Aunt Grace in rather an offended tone.
+"I did not think you would turn away from us in our trouble, Isabel; I
+thought better of you."
+
+"I turn away from you and Laura, Aunt Grace?  Oh no, no, no."
+
+"I'm glad to hear it, my dear, because if you would stay we should be
+very glad."
+
+"Oh, auntie!" whispered Laura, "impossible."
+
+"It is not impossible, Laura," cried the old lady; "and I beg that you
+will not interfere.  Isabel, my child, I shall be very glad indeed if
+you will stay, and you need not be at all afraid of meeting that
+dissolute, dissipated young man."
+
+"Mrs Crane"--began Isabel, agitatedly, but she was interrupted at once.
+
+"No, no, no, my dear; pray don't apologise and make excuses.  Laura and
+I would be very pleased, and we see nothing whatever of Frederick now
+from breakfast-time to dinner.  I don't know where he spends his days,
+but he is after no good."
+
+"Aunt dear, I really must interfere once more," cried Laura, warmly.
+"It is, as I said, impossible for Isabel to stoop to meet Fred again;
+and as to staying in the house--my dear aunt, of what can you be
+thinking?"
+
+"That we are beginning to live in evil times, Laura," cried the old
+lady, indignantly, "when little girls so far forget the respect due to
+their elders as to speak as you did just now.  I ought to be the best
+judge, miss, of what is correct, if you please."
+
+"Pray say no more, Mrs Crane," cried Isabel, earnestly.  "I must go
+back to the hotel where we are staying.  It would indeed be impossible
+for me to visit here now."
+
+"Oh, very well, my dear, very well," cried the old lady, drawing herself
+up.  "I can see very plainly that you have allowed yourself to be
+impressed by what Laura has said.  Young people will hold together, and
+think that they are wiser than their elders.  There is one comfort,
+though, for us old folk: you all find out your mistake."
+
+"Good-bye, dear Mrs Crane," said Isabel, advancing with open hands.
+
+"Good-day, Miss Lee," said the old lady, frigidly, as she held out her
+fingers limply.
+
+But Isabel did not take them.  She laid her hands upon her shoulders,
+and, with tears in her eyes, kissed her affectionately twice.
+
+There was magic in the touch, for in an instant she was snatched to the
+old lady's breast and kissed passionately again and again.
+
+"Oh, my dear, my dear!" was sobbed; "I didn't think I was such an
+ill-tempered, wicked old woman.  Pray, pray forgive me.  I don't know
+what comes to me sometimes.  And you in such sorrow and pain!  Oh, that
+wicked, miserable, faithless boy!  Something will come upon him some day
+like a judgment."
+
+"Oh no, no, no!" cried Isabel, wildly.  "Don't--pray don't say that."
+
+"But I have said it, my dear.  Ah, well, I won't think it, then, any
+more, for I don't see what greater judgment could fall upon him than
+losing you."
+
+Isabel could not trust herself to speak, but hurried out of the room and
+downstairs with Laura.
+
+"Don't speak to me, dear; let me go now," whispered the poor girl,
+faintly.  "I am weak and ill, and can bear no more now.  I ought not to
+have come, but the impulse was too strong.  Good-bye, dear sister,
+good-bye!"
+
+The two girls were locked in a loving embrace, and then, with Isabel
+turning sick with dread, they sprang apart, for there was the rattle of
+a latch-key at the door, it was thrown open, and Chester strode in.
+
+He stood for a few moments aghast, as he saw Isabel recoil from him.
+Then, drawing down her veil, she tottered out, and was half-way to the
+brougham, drawn up by the kerb, before he recollected himself and sprang
+after her to open the door and try to hand her in.  But she shrank from
+him as if in dread, and gathering her veil closely over her white, drawn
+face, she sank back in the carriage, and her betrothed stood gazing
+after her as she was rapidly driven away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+WORKERS AT A TRAIN.
+
+"Of course, Orthur, the different grades in this service have to be kept
+distinct, and the inferiors have to look up to their superiors just as
+it is in the army."
+
+"Oh yes, sir, of course," said the gentleman addressed, squeezing his
+left eyelids together slightly, unseen by the pompous individual
+addressing him; "but you can't say as I haven't always been respectful
+and kept my place."
+
+"Always, Orthur, always, and that's why I come down a little to you and
+meet you on equal terms when we are alone, for I have always found you a
+very respectable, intelligent young man.  What's that chap staring at?"
+
+"Us, seemingly, Mr Roach, sir," said the younger man, with a grin.
+"Book canvasser, that's what he is; been taking orders of the old chap
+next door, but didn't like the look of us, and didn't try it on.  I had
+a peep through the open door there one day, and it was packed full o'
+books like a warehouse, sir."
+
+"Yes, yes, but never mind that," said the butler, impatiently.  "But as
+I was saying, I've always found you a very respectable young man,
+Orthur, and I'm disposed to trust you.  Service is all very well,
+Orthur, but there's no saving money; and when one sees these
+bookmakers--coarse, beefy-faced butcher or publican sort of fellows--
+keeping their broughams and driving their phe-aytons, it is tempting."
+
+"Tempting, Mr Roach," said the young footman in a quick whisper; "it
+gives me the agonies.  Look at the guv'nors.  Why, I met a young chap as
+I used to know when he was a page in buttons--he's a six-footer now.
+Well, he says he knowed our people ten years ago when they were regular
+hard up.  His people used to visit 'em.  And now look at 'em.  They're
+on with some of the knowing ones, and putting money on all the good
+things.  Always winning, they must be.  Why, if you and me, Mr Roach,
+was to put the pot on as they do we should be rich men in five years."
+
+"Don't talk so loud, Orthur; some of the women may be up at the
+windows."
+
+"All right, sir.  But don't you see?"
+
+"Yes, I see; it's right enough, Orthur, when you win; but I look at the
+risks."
+
+"Warn't much risk over that last flutter, sir.  Put down five shillings
+a-piece and took up each of us a tenner."
+
+"Yes, Orthur, that was very nice; but it mightn't always happen so."
+
+"Why not, sir?  They always win, and all we have to do is to back the
+same as they do--take their tips, and it's as safe as safe."
+
+"H'm!  Well, they do always seem to win, Orthur," said the butler,
+slowly, and he indulged in a pinch of snuff as he stood on the step.
+
+"Seem, sir?  They do.  I believe if it warn't for the odds they'd be as
+poor as church mice."
+
+"But how are we to get the tips, my son?"
+
+"Keep our ears open when we're waiting table, sir, or another way."
+
+"The same as you got that last one?"
+
+"That's it, sir.  Don't do them any harm, and if a gent leaves his
+betting-book in the breast-pocket of the coat as has to go down to be
+brushed, I don't see anything in it.  'Tain't robbery."
+
+"H'm!" coughed the butler, glancing behind him; "no, it isn't robbery,
+Orthur."
+
+"Lor'!  Mr Roach, sir; it's as easy as easy," whispered the footman,
+eagerly.  "I can't think what we've been about--I beg pardon, sir--what
+I've been about all these months not to have put a little money on here
+and there.  Want o' capital mostly, sir, but with all doo respect to my
+superiors, sir, if you and me was to make a sort o' Co. of it, and I was
+to tell you all I heard and found out by accident like, and you was to
+do the same with me, then we could talk it over together in the pantry,
+and settle how much we'd put on the race."
+
+The butler frowned, shook his head, and looked dissatisfied.
+
+"I know it's asking a deal of you, Mr Roach, sir, but it would only be
+like business and I should never presume, you know."
+
+"I must think about it, Orthur; I must think about it," said the butler,
+importantly.
+
+"Do, sir; and I wouldn't lose no time about it.  You see, we can't do
+much when we're down at The Towers, and the Randan Stakes is on next
+week."
+
+"H'm, yes," said the butler, relaxing a little, and condescending to a
+smile.  "Orthur, I've got a sovereign on the favourite."
+
+"You have, sir?  What! on Ajax?"
+
+"That's right, my lad; and I advise you to put half-a-crown or five
+shillings on 'im too.  There's a tip for you."
+
+"Yah!" ejaculated the footman in disgust.  "I wouldn't put the price of
+a glass of ale on that 'orse."
+
+"Eh, why?" cried the butler, looking startled.
+
+"'Cause Ajax won't run."
+
+"What?  How do you know?"
+
+"I heard the guv'nor tell the little 'un so last night, and that he was
+to back Ducrow."
+
+"Phew!" whistled the butler.
+
+"Put two quids on Ducrow, sir, and it'll be all right.  I've got ten
+shillings on, and I'd have made it two tens if I'd had a friend who'd
+ha' lent me the coin."
+
+"Orthur," whispered the butler, effusively; "you're a good lad, and I'll
+lend you the money."
+
+"You will, sir?  And go on as I said?"
+
+The butler nodded.
+
+"Carriage, sir," said the footman, sharply, and they both drew back into
+the hall ready for the brougham which was driven up, and from which two
+ladies descended.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+FACE TO FACE AGAIN.
+
+"That's the house," said Chester to himself; "I can swear to it.
+Highcombe Street, Number 44."
+
+He laughed in his excitement--an unpleasant, harsh laugh which startled
+him; for as a doctor he had had to deal with strange patients beside the
+one at the mysterious house, and he knew pretty well how a man acted who
+had been overwrought and whose nerves were in that state which borders
+upon insanity.
+
+"This will not do," he muttered.  "I must be careful," and, trying to
+pull himself together and make his plans in a matter-of-fact way, his
+startled feeling grew into a sensation of alarm, and he awakened fully
+now to the fact that the strain from which he had suffered had been too
+great.
+
+"I must pull up short," he said to himself.  "This last month I have
+been acting like a madman.  Well, love--the real passion--is a kind of
+madness, and I could not have acted otherwise with the horror of the
+position in which I left her upon my mind."
+
+As he walked home, though, he grew cooler, and made up his mind to watch
+the house until he obtained an interview with Marion.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders as he entered his own door, and shut himself
+in his consulting-room, to sit for an hour trying to grow calmer; but
+there was a wild throbbing in his excited brain which he could not
+master, and try how he would, even to the extent of taking a sedative,
+he could not keep down the feeling of mad exultation at having at last
+discovered the place.
+
+"I shall see her again," he muttered; "I shall see her again!"
+
+A pair of soft dark eyes in a sweet, pale face seemed to rise
+reproachfully before him, but he mentally turned from the piteous look.
+
+"I cannot help it.  Fate--fate," he muttered; and at last, after
+mastering the intense desire to rush off and try and bribe the servants
+into speaking, he grew calmer, and obeyed the summons sent by the maid,
+joining his aunt and sister in the drawing-room, and afterwards formally
+taking the old lady down to the silent meal.
+
+Poor Aunt Grace's plan was not succeeding.
+
+"Don't speak to him, Laura," she had said.  "It will show how we despise
+him for his disgraceful conduct, and make him the sooner come creeping
+to our knees in sackcloth and ashes."
+
+But the days had glided on, and Chester had bought no sackcloth and had
+not told the cook to sift him any ashes.  For the perfect silence with
+which he was treated was the one great satisfaction now of his life.
+
+That night he found his sister watching him once, and as he met her eyes
+there was for the moment a feeling of uneasiness akin to remorse; but it
+passed off directly, swept away by the exciting thought that he had at
+last attained the goal of his desires, and must now sooner or later
+encounter Marion.
+
+A week then passed, and he was still no farther, when one evening as he
+turned into Highcombe Street, he saw a carriage at the door; and a
+minute later three ladies in evening dress came and stepped in, the
+footman mounted to his place, and the horses sprang off.
+
+"The brougham I was fetched in," muttered Chester, and hailing a cab he
+said sharply, "Follow that carriage at a short distance till I tell you
+to stop."
+
+He was not surprised at the direction taken by the carriage in front,
+which was kept just in sight till it turned into Bow Street, when
+Chester signed to his driver to stop, and sprang out, turning the corner
+just in time to see the carriage slowly passing in its turn through the
+gateway leading under the portico of the opera.
+
+He followed to find that the occupants had alighted, and upon entering
+the lobby he caught sight of the back of Marion's dress as she swept
+through one of the great baize-covered doors.
+
+Here there was a check.  The door-keeper held out his hand for the
+customary ticket, and Chester turned impatiently away, to go to the
+box-office, when for the first time it struck him that he was not in
+evening dress, and could not pass into the stalls.
+
+He stood biting his lips, and hesitating as to whether he should take a
+cab back home, to dress, and return, but he felt that he could not do
+that.  A dozen things might happen to prevent his catching sight of
+Marion again; and snatching at the first idea that came, he took a
+ticket for the upper part of the house, hired an opera-glass and then
+climbed nearly to the top.
+
+Here upon taking a seat he came out again in despair.  Even with the aid
+of the glass he found he could not get a glimpse of a third of the
+house, and feeling that at all costs he must get into the stalls in as
+central a position as possible, he descended again to the box-office,
+and secured a stall nearly in the centre of the third row.
+
+Having made sure of his seat, he hurried back to Raybeck Square
+calculating that he could be back within an hour.
+
+Bidding the cabman wait, he sprang up to his room, conscious of the fact
+that Aunt Grace was watching; and after his hurried change he knew by
+the ajar door of the drawing-room that she was there watching still.
+
+But this passed almost unnoticed in the excitement, and once more he was
+in the cab, eager and with his imagination running riot.
+
+"What an idiot I was not to ask the number of their box," he said to
+himself.
+
+He did ask as soon as he reached the opera house, and found it was
+almost central on the grand tier; but after taking his place he had no
+opportunity for turning round till the end of the act in progress, and
+he sat trembling with excitement and wondering whether Marion had
+recognised him as he entered.
+
+The stage, the music, the house crowded with a fashionable assembly,
+were non-existent to Chester, as he sat there gazing in imagination at a
+face--the face of the woman who from their first encounter seemed to
+have taken entire possession of his faculties, enchaining his spirit so
+that he seemed to live and breathe for her alone.
+
+"Will this wretched singing never end?" he said to himself, as one of
+the great Italian singers filled the vast place with the clear,
+vibrating tones of her voice.  "The fools!  The idiots!" he muttered
+angrily as the plaudits rang out at the end of the scene; and then he
+sat waiting till at last the drop scene descended and, lorgnette in
+hand, he rose and, to avoid the air of being too sudden, he slowly swept
+the grand tier of boxes, beginning on his right near the stage, feeling
+that Marion must be watching him, and profoundly unconscious of the fact
+that scores to right and left were doing the same.
+
+When the field of his glass drew nearer to the box upon which he sought
+to focus it, he grew slower in his movements, as if desirous of delaying
+the supreme delight for a few moments longer, but at last he stopped
+short, gazing with every fibre thrilling at the beautiful, imperious
+face which held him as if fascinated.
+
+The faces of her companions were to right and left, each occupying a
+corner of the box, while Marion was seated a little back, looking dull
+and preoccupied, while she slowly waved a large black fan, which threw
+her face into partial shadow from time to time.
+
+For the first minute, as he drank in the various beauties of the
+countenance which seemed to be so near, Chester felt that she must be
+seeing him, but directly after he knew that she was looking dull and
+listless, and as if she felt the scene before her wearisome in the
+extreme.
+
+There could be no mistake.  It was she.  There was not such another face
+in the wide world; and yet he hesitated to go round to the box, asking
+himself whether he could--whether he had any right to force himself upon
+the notice of those who had plainly enough their reasons for wishing to
+cut all connection with him as soon as his patient was out of danger.
+
+"They may wish to, but she cannot.  It is impossible.  She must be ready
+to place her hand in mine.  Perhaps even now that dull, weary look may
+be connected with our sudden parting.  Who knows?  Yes, come what may, I
+will go."
+
+Chester passed slowly along the row and out into the entry, went up the
+broad stairs, and with his heart increasing its pulsations rapidly, he
+stopped at last at the door of a box, drew a deep breath, and then
+tapped lightly.
+
+There was no reply and he tapped again.
+
+This time there was a movement within, the catch was drawn back, the
+door thrown open, and a deep voice exclaimed--
+
+"How late you are!  Hallo!"
+
+Chester had been in the act of stepping in, but paused on the threshold,
+completely taken aback at finding a gentleman in the box, while the
+speaker, who had not risen, but leaned back, balancing himself on two
+legs of his chair, fell over side-wise in his astonishment, but saved
+himself by catching at the partition.
+
+He sprang up the next moment, as Chester recovered himself and advanced,
+but neither of the three ladies, who had turned, made the slightest
+movement towards acknowledging him, and left it to their companion to
+speak.
+
+"May I ask whom you wish to see, sir?"
+
+"Certainly," replied Chester, quietly, "Mrs James, Mrs Dennis, Miss
+Clareborough--"
+
+No one moved.  He might have been addressing so many statues, as he went
+on--
+
+"And Mr Dennis Clareborough."
+
+"You seem to have our names right, sir," said the stalwart young fellow,
+shortly, "but I have not the pleasure of knowing you."
+
+"Indeed!" said Chester.  "Is your memory so short, sir?  May I ask after
+your cousin's wound?"
+
+"Certainly, if you like, sir," replied the young man, with a little
+laugh, "but I'm afraid I can't tell you."
+
+Chester felt nettled and turned to the lady in the centre, who sat
+looking over the back of her chair.
+
+"Perhaps Miss Marion Clareborough will tell me how her brother is
+progressing?"
+
+"Dennis," said one of the ladies, before any reply could be made, "is
+this a friend of yours?  If so, introduce us."
+
+"Friend of mine?  Hang it, no!  Gentleman has got into the wrong box.
+Never saw him before in my life.  What number did you want, sir?"
+
+"This," said Chester, sternly, as he looked the young man fiercely in
+the eyes.  "Perhaps Miss Clareborough will speak.  Believe me, I took
+great interest in your brother's case.  Can I see him again?"
+
+The lady he addressed turned to one of her companions and whispered a
+few words, whereupon Mrs James said coldly--
+
+"Will you help this gentleman to find the box he is in search of,
+Dennis?  The place is so dark now the curtain is down, and he does not
+see the mistake he has made."
+
+"No, that's it," said the young man.  "Ah, here you are, then, at last,"
+he cried, as the entrance was darkened by another figure.  "Come in.
+This gentleman wants to find some friends of his, and he has come to
+this box by mistake."
+
+"Indeed!" and Chester at that one word felt the blood surge up to his
+temples, and a fierce sensation of passion began to make his nerves
+tingle.
+
+"Well," continued the speaker, "it's very easy, dear boy.  Places are so
+confoundedly dark.  Couldn't get here sooner, girls; man detained me at
+the club--I beg pardon, sir; the box-keeper could no doubt help you."
+
+The cool, contemptuous manner of the man took away Chester's breath, and
+he felt himself almost compelled to give place.
+
+"Thanks, much," said the newcomer, drawing slightly aside for Chester to
+back out.  "Don't apologise.  They ought to light up the house more when
+the curtain is down."
+
+The next moment the door was thrust to, the catch snapped, and as
+Chester stood there, undecided what to do, he could hear the voices
+within carrying on a conversation which sounded so calm and
+matter-of-fact that in his excited state the listener asked himself
+whether he was in his right senses, and at last hurried away, to pause
+in the refreshment-room and drink off a glass of brandy to steady his
+nerves.
+
+He did not return to his seat in the stalls, but stopped in the entry,
+where, invisible in the gloom, partially hidden by one of the curtains,
+he stood using his glass upon the occupants of the box he had so lately
+quitted.
+
+As he stood there, feeling half stunned, he went over the words that had
+passed and the action of the inmates, forgetting that all was quite
+consistent with the conduct he might have expected from people whose
+whole behaviour had been mysterious and strange.
+
+At last he saw a movement among those he was watching, and, desperate
+almost with rage and despair, he hurried round to station himself in the
+lobby, where he felt certain that the party must pass.  But they were so
+long in coming that he was about to seek another doorway.
+
+Then he saw that he was right, for the big, bluff-looking brother and
+cousin came by without seeing him, spoke to the footman Chester had seen
+at the house, and then returned, as if to join their party.
+
+A few minutes later they came out slowly amongst the crowd, the tide
+turning them quite to the outside, so that they were close to him who
+watched them intently, as if in doubt of his own sanity, wondering
+whether he could have made any mistake.
+
+"No," he whispered to himself, as he fixed his eyes on the beautiful
+woman, upon whose arm he could have laid his hand, so close was she to
+him as she passed.
+
+It was as if his steady gaze influenced her, for when she was just
+abreast she turned her head quickly, and her eyes met his full as she
+rested her hand upon the stalwart young fellow's arm.
+
+Chester's look seemed to fascinate her, for her eyes were fixed and
+strange in those brief moments.  Then she passed on, gazing straight
+before her.  There was no start, no sign of the slightest emotion.  It
+was simply the inquiring look of one who seemed to fancy he was the
+personage who had made his appearance in their box, otherwise one whom
+she had never before seen.
+
+The impulse was strong upon Chester to follow, but for quite a minute he
+stood feeling as if he had been stunned.
+
+Then, with a strange, harsh utterance, he forced himself roughly through
+the well-dressed crowd in his endeavours to follow the party, but weeks
+of anxiety and abnormal excitement were taking their toll at last; a
+sudden giddiness attacked him, and with a heavy groan he reeled and fell
+in the midst of the pleasure-seeking throng.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+AUNT GRACE'S CURE.
+
+Chester was borne into the box-office, and a medical man sent for, under
+whose ministrations he recovered consciousness, and soon after was able
+to declare who he was and his ability to return home unaided.
+
+In the short conversation, the doctor, upon learning that his patient
+was a fellow-practitioner, took upon himself to utter a few words of
+warning.
+
+"Mustn't trifle with this sort of thing, my friend," he said.  "You know
+that as well as I can tell you, eh?"
+
+"Yes, yes," said Chester, irritably; "I'll take more care.  I have been
+over-doing it lately, but," he added, with a curious laugh, "you see I
+was taking a little relaxation to-night."
+
+"Humph!  Yes, I see," said the doctor, watching him curiously.  "Well,
+you feel that you can go home alone?"
+
+"Oh yes; see me into a cab, please.  Thanks for all you have done.  Only
+a touch of vertigo."
+
+"`Only a touch of vertigo,'" said the strange doctor, as he saw the
+hansom driven off.  "`Only a touch of vertigo' means sometimes the first
+step towards a lunatic asylum."
+
+"Ah!" muttered Chester, while being driven homewards, "people look at me
+as if I were going wrong in my head.  I wonder whether I am."
+
+He laughed as he let himself in and heard a rustle on the stairs.
+"Watching again," he said to himself.  "And they think I'm going wrong,
+I suppose.  But how strange!  That utter denial of all knowledge of me.
+Even she!"
+
+He went into his room, and sat thinking of the incidents of the day and
+evening for some hours before throwing himself upon his bed, but was
+down at the usual time in the morning, partook of the unsocial breakfast
+and rose almost without saying a word.
+
+"Yes, what is it?" said Chester, sharply, for Laura hurried to his side
+and laid her hand upon his arm.  "Money for housekeeping?"
+
+"No--no!" cried his sister, angrily, and there she paused.
+
+"Well, speak, then; don't stop me.  I am busy this morning."
+
+"I must stop you, Fred," cried Laura, passionately.  "We cannot go on
+like this."
+
+"Why?" he said calmly.  "Because we are brother and sister.  We have
+always been as one together.  You have had no secrets from me.  I have
+had none from you.  I have always been so proud of my brother's love for
+me, but now all at once everything comes to an end.  You withhold your
+confidence."
+
+"No; my confidence, perhaps, for the time being," he said gravely; "not
+my love from you.  God forbid."
+
+"But you do, Fred."
+
+"No; it is more the other way on," he replied.  "You have withheld your
+love from me, and checked any disposition I might have felt to confide
+in you."
+
+"Fred!"
+
+"Don't deny it," he said quietly.  "Since I was called away so
+strangely, and kept away against my will--"
+
+"Against your will!" cried Laura, scornfully.
+
+"Hah!" he cried, "it is of no use to argue with you, my child.  Poor old
+aunt has so thoroughly imbued you with her doctrines of suspicion that
+everything I say will be in vain."
+
+"Imbued me with her suspicions!" cried Laura, angrily.  "That is it;
+because I am quite a girl still you treat me as if I were a child.  Do
+you--oh, I cannot say it!--yes, I will; I am your sister, and it is my
+duty to try and save you from something which will cause you regret to
+the end of your days.  Do you dare to deny that you have got into some
+wretched entanglement--something which has suddenly turned you half
+mad?"
+
+"No," he said quietly.  "That is so."
+
+"Then how can you go on like this?  You have broken poor Isabel's heart,
+estranged everybody's love from you, and are running headlong to ruin.
+Fred--brother, for all our sakes, stop before it is too late."
+
+He looked at her mournfully, took her hand and kissed it, and with a
+passionate burst of sobbing she flung her arms about his neck and clung
+there.
+
+"Then you do repent, Fred?  You will go there no more.  Listen, dear; I
+forgive you everything now, because you are going to be my true, brave,
+noble brother again, and after a time--some day--Isabel will forgive you
+too; for she does love you still, Fred, in spite of all.  There--there,"
+she cried, kissing him again and again, "it is all over now."
+
+Chester loosened her hands from his neck and shook his head sadly.
+
+"No, Laury," he said, "it is not all over now."
+
+"What!" she cried quickly.  "You will not--you cannot go back now."
+
+"Yes," he said, "even if you do not forgive me, I must."
+
+"Fred!"
+
+"Look here, little one," he said wearily; "you have grown to think and
+act like a woman, and you complain that I do not confide in you.  Well,
+I will be frank with you to some extent.  Laura dear, I am not my own
+master.  I cannot do as you wish."
+
+"Fred, you must."
+
+"Say that to some poor creature who is smitten with a terrible mental
+complaint; tell him he must be ill no longer, but cast off the ailment.
+What will he reply?"
+
+He paused for an answer, but his sister stood gazing at him without a
+word.
+
+"He will tell you that he would do so gladly, but that it is
+impossible."
+
+"But this is not impossible, Fred," cried Laura; "and you are again
+treating me like a child.  Yes, I have begun to think like a woman, and
+though it may sound shameless I will speak out.  Do you think that we do
+not know that all this is wicked dissipation?"
+
+He laughed bitterly, as he pressed his hand to his weary head.
+
+"You do not know--you do not know."
+
+"Yes," cried Laura, embracing him again; "I know that my poor brother
+has yielded to some temptation, but I know, too, that it only needs a
+strong, brave, manly effort to throw it all off; and then we might be
+happy once more."
+
+He took her face between his hands and looked down at her lovingly for a
+few minutes, then kissed her brow tenderly.
+
+"No," he said; "you do not understand, my child.  I am not master of my
+actions now."
+
+He hurried from the room.  Then she heard the door close, and his
+footsteps hurrying up the stairs followed by the banging of his door.
+
+"Lost, lost!" she wailed; and she threw herself sobbing upon the couch.
+
+"Well!" said a sharp voice, and the girl started up and tried hard to
+remove all traces of her tears.
+
+"I did not hear you come in, aunt dear."
+
+"Perhaps not, my love, but I have been waiting and listening.  Well,
+what does he say about coming home in that state last night?  I'm sure,
+my dear, that was wine!  Is he going to be a good boy now?"
+
+Laura uttered a passionate sob.
+
+"Oh no, aunt, oh no!" she cried.
+
+"Because if he is and will repent very seriously, I may some day,
+perhaps, forgive him.  But I must have full assurance that he is really
+sorry for all his wickedness.  What did he say, child?"
+
+"Nothing, aunt.  It is hopeless--hopeless."
+
+"Then I was right at first.  He has gone quite out of his mind, and I
+fully believe that it is our duty to have him put under restraint."
+
+"Aunt!" cried Laura, wildly.
+
+"Yes, my dear.  That is the only cure for such a complaint as his.  A
+private asylum, Laury dear."
+
+"Oh, aunt, impossible!  How can you say anything so horrible?"
+
+"My dearest child, nothing can be horrible that is to do a person good.
+It is quite evident to me that he can no longer control his actions."
+
+"No, he said so," sobbed Laura.
+
+"Hah!  I knew I was right.  Well, then, my dear, we must think it over
+seriously.  You see, the weakness must have come on suddenly.  How, he
+and somebody else best know," said the lady, with asperity.  "You see,
+attacks like that are only temporary, and his would, I am sure, yield to
+proper treatment.  Now let me see what ought to be the first steps?
+This is a valuable practice, if he has not completely wrecked it by his
+wicked dissipation, and I think it ought to be our first duty, my dear,
+to get a permanent _locum tenens_--a man of some eminence, who might be
+induced to come if some hope were held out to him of a future
+partnership.  Then we could consult him about what to do, for I believe
+certificates have to be obtained before a patient is sent to an asylum."
+
+"Aunt!  Are you going mad too?" cried Laura, angrily.
+
+"Laura! my child!"
+
+"Well, then, you should not say such horrid things about Fred.  Consult
+a perfect stranger about putting him into a lunatic asylum!  Oh, shame!"
+
+"Shame to you, Laura, for daring to speak to me as you do.  Do you want
+him to have one of those what-do-you-call-thems?--Para-para-para-dox--
+no, no, paroxysms; and then do as mad people always do, turn against
+those they love best?  Do you want him to come some night and murder us
+both in our beds?"
+
+"No, aunt, of course not," said Laura, growing more cool and
+matter-of-fact now.
+
+"Then do not from any false sentiment begin to oppose me.  A few months
+under proper treatment in a good private asylum, and he would come back
+completely strengthened and cured.  Now, let me see; I think under the
+circumstances that we ought first of all, my dear, to take poor dear
+Isabel into our confidences."
+
+"Aunt!" cried Laura; "if you dare to tell Isabel that you think such a
+dreadful thing of poor Fred I don't know what I will not do."
+
+"Dare, Laura, dare?" said Aunt Grace, sternly.
+
+"Yes, aunt, dare!" cried the girl.  "If you do I'll tell poor Bel that
+it is one of your hallucinations, and that you have got softening of the
+brain."
+
+"Laura!" shrieked the old lady, as she sank back in the nearest chair.
+"Oh, that I should live to hear such words!  You horrible, abandoned
+child!"
+
+"I'm very sorry, auntie," said Laura, coolly, "but you always impressed
+upon me that I should tell the truth.  You must be getting imbecile, or
+you would never have proposed such a dreadful thing."
+
+"Laura!"
+
+"Yes, aunt; it is a sign, too, that you know it is coming on.  You must
+have been thinking of madhouses, and that made you speak."
+
+"Worse and worse!" wailed the old lady.  "You must be getting as bad as
+your brother.  Actually siding with him now!"
+
+"No, aunt, only pitying him, for I am beginning to believe that he is
+suffering worse than we are."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+A DANGEROUS CASE.
+
+"It's all over," said Chester to himself.  "That doctor's correct, and I
+must not trifle or I shall be laid by with something wrong in the head.
+That drugging began it, and I'm not right.  I won't give up the quest,
+but I must get square first, and I can't do so here.  I'll pack up and
+go on the Continent for a bit.  Change may make me able to think
+consistently.  Now my brain is in a whirl."
+
+He tried to reason calmly, and at last, not feeling in the humour to see
+and explain to his sister, he wrote to her briefly, telling her that the
+anxiety and worry of the case to which he had been called that night had
+completely unhinged him, and he found that the only thing he could do to
+recover his tone was to get right away for a time.  He was going, he
+said, to see a colleague that morning, who would come and take charge of
+the practice, and he would write again from abroad.
+
+This done, he fastened down the envelope and left the letter upon the
+table, after which he went to his room, threw a few necessaries into a
+portmanteau, brought it down, with Aunt Grace carefully watching from
+the top of the staircase, and sent the servant for a cab.
+
+Five minutes later he was on his way to his club to consult the
+time-tables and guide-book as to the route to take.
+
+He was not long in deciding upon Tyrol as the starting-place for a long
+mountain tramp.  There was a train at night, and without returning home
+he would dine at the club and start from there.
+
+He followed out the earlier portion of his programme, even to dining at
+the club, but afterwards, upon entering the smoking-room and taking a
+cigar, he found the place half full, and, longing for solitude, he went
+out to stroll down the steps and into the Park for an hour, ending by
+taking one of the seats under an old elm in the Mall and sitting back
+thinking of all that had happened during the past few weeks.
+
+He was once more going over the scenes by the wounded man's couch, and
+seeing again the every movement and look of his anxious sister, when he
+shrank back against the trunk of the great tree and let his chin sink
+upon his breast, for there were steps just to the right, and two
+gentlemen strolled by, one of them talking aloud angrily, and the
+following words smote like blows upon the listener's ears--
+
+"Look here, if you want to quarrel, say so, Paddy.  But you're no saint,
+so don't you begin preaching morality.  I repeat I have taken a
+tremendous fancy to her; what then?  As for Rob, curse him for a
+miserable prig!  If it were not for the consequences I'm ready to wish
+that the shot had ended it, and I swear I'll--"
+
+The last words died out into the night air, and, save for the
+preternaturally excited state of his brain, Chester would not have heard
+so much.
+
+He sat up, and saw the figures of the brothers, who had passed him,
+growing indistinct as they went beyond the next lamp; and then he rose
+and followed.
+
+"`And I swear I'll--' what?" said Chester to himself.  "Shoot me?  Well,
+let him.  There, it's all over.  I can't go away; I must see this out to
+the very end."
+
+Chester followed the pair with the full intention of demanding an
+explanation and having a scene with the elder brother, for his
+resentment seemed to be making the blood bubble up through his veins.
+They were walking through the Palace Yard, and directly after they
+crossed the road and went up St James's Street, talking angrily; and he
+was just about to join them when he saw the younger turn angrily off
+into the road, as if about to separate, but in an instant the elder had
+him by the arm and after a faint resistance led him back on to the
+pavement, where Chester was awaiting them.
+
+"Mr Clareborough," he said sharply, and both brothers turned upon him
+in surprise.
+
+"Yes; what is it?" cried the elder.  "Oh, the man in the wrong box!
+Come along, boy."
+
+He turned short off, and before Chester could recover from his surprise,
+the brothers had passed through the swinging doors of one of the
+clubhouses and disappeared in the great hall.
+
+Chester was about to follow, but checked himself upon the threshold as
+the question arose in his mind, What for?
+
+To demand an explanation of their conduct toward him.
+
+Well, he felt that he might demand it, but he knew that they would
+preserve the same attitude as before, and treat him with contempt--treat
+him as if he were some half-witted being who claimed acquaintance; and
+how could he get people to believe in his strange story--how could he
+advance his position with respect to Marion?
+
+He calmed down as quickly as he had grown excited and began to feel that
+to force a quarrel in the club to which these men belonged could have
+but one ending, that of the police being called in and his being
+ejected.
+
+"And what then?" he asked himself.  "Possibly the whole business would
+be dragged into the police court, then into the daily papers, and if
+Marion were ready to continue her intimacy with the man who had saved
+her brother's life, would she not be hurt and annoyed with him for
+forcing into publicity an affair which the conduct of all concerned
+showed them to be eager to keep hushed up?"
+
+Chester walked down St James's Street again, with the intention of
+cooling his burning head in the quiet gloom of the Park; but he altered
+his mind and turned off to his left, along Pall Mall, re-entered his
+club and went up to the smoking-room, which proved to be a little more
+full than before, but this did not trouble him now.  He sat down and
+took a cigar and began smoking, thinking, trying to argue out the reason
+for the strange behaviour of these Clareboroughs.  He could understand
+that there had been a desperate quarrel, resulting in the use of the
+revolver, and he was ready to grant that the elder brother's conduct
+toward Marion had been the moving cause for that.  But he felt convinced
+that there was something more behind; else why all the secrecy?
+
+Here they were, a wealthy family, evidently moving in good society, and
+living in a magnificently-appointed mansion; but during all the days of
+his enforced stay, with the exception of the old housekeeper, he had not
+seen a single servant, and nothing to suggest that any were in the
+place.  That they kept domestics was plain enough, for he had since seen
+the butler and footman.  Then, too, there had been the coachman who
+drove the carriage that night, though he, as an out-door servant, might
+easily have been kept in ignorance of all that took place in the house.
+But where were the others, the staff which would be necessary for
+carrying on such an establishment?
+
+There was no answer to the question, even at the finishing of a second
+cigar, and he gave it up, and then smiled to himself as he rose.
+
+"How absurd!" he muttered.  "Everything else passed out of my head.  I
+meant to cross to-night.  Well, it is not too late, is it?  Pish!  Two
+hours.  Oh, impossible!  I cannot leave town.  How could I go knowing
+that even now she may be praying for my help?"
+
+Chester passed out again into the cool night, and involuntarily turned
+in the direction of the Park, crossed it, and walked slowly toward
+Highcombe Street, where, he hardly knew why, he began to promenade the
+pavement on the opposite side of the road, stopping at last just inside
+a doorway when a cab came sharply along; and his nerves began to thrill
+as he saw it pulled up at the door of the mansion.
+
+Two gentlemen sprang out, and while one paid the driver, the other
+strolled up the steps, there was the rattle of the latch-key, the door
+was flung wide, and from where he stood Chester had a glimpse of the
+handsome hall, now looking sombre and strange with the lights half
+turned down.
+
+Directly after the door was closed, and the chimes of the Palace clock
+rang out four times, followed by two deep, booming strokes on the great
+cracked bell.
+
+"Two o'clock!" thought Chester, as he walked along past the house,
+fancying that there was a face at the open window of a room on the
+second floor, but he could not be sure, and as he turned back it was
+gone.
+
+"Go abroad!" he said to himself.  "At such a time.  It would be
+madness."
+
+Then giving way to a sudden impulse, he hurried back to the front of the
+house, went up to the door and rang the bell sharply.
+
+"Fool!" he muttered.  "Why did I not speak to them then?  I will have an
+explanation.  I have a right, and it is evident that I have the
+whip-hand of them, or they would not act their parts like this."
+
+He knew that he was wildly excited and doing a foolish thing, but his
+actions were beyond his control now, and he was ready for Marion's sake
+to take the maddest steps on her behalf, or he would not have stood at
+that moment where he did.
+
+"Too late," he muttered, as there was no reply.  "I've let my
+opportunity slip."
+
+But all the same he dragged sharply at the bell again, and as his hand
+fell to his side the door was opened and he found himself face to face
+with the man he sought.
+
+"Yes, what is it?" cried James Clareborough, sharply.  "What! you again?
+Here, what the devil--Who are you?  What do you want?"
+
+"You," said Chester, firmly, "you and your brother.  I will have an
+explanation with you both.  I will see--I will not be put off like
+this."
+
+"Confound him!" muttered James Clareborough between his teeth.
+
+"Here, I say, old chap," growled his brother, who now appeared, "have
+you been dining somewhere and over-doing it a bit?  Hadn't you better go
+home quietly?  We don't want to whistle for a policeman and have you
+locked up."
+
+"You hold your tongue!" cried James Clareborough.  "I'll soon settle
+with this gentleman.  Now then, my tipsy individual, you want a few
+words with me--an explanation?"
+
+"Yes and at once," cried Chester, beside himself with rage at the very
+sight of the man whose conduct toward Marion absolutely maddened him.
+
+As he spoke he pressed forward to enter, but the brothers barred the
+way.
+
+"No, no," said the elder, "none of that.  We're not going to have the
+house disturbed by your ravings.  It's only a few minutes to the Park--
+come on there and we'll have it out, and done with it."
+
+"No; we won't," growled the younger brother, fiercely, and, placing his
+hands suddenly upon Chester's breast, he gave him a heavy thrust, drove
+him staggering back, and almost in the one effort snatched his brother
+aside and banged to the door.
+
+"What the devil do you mean by that?" cried James Clareborough,
+savagely, as he tried to reopen the door, but his brother placed his
+back to it and held him off.
+
+"To keep you cool, old man," growled the younger.  "Get him in the Park
+at this time, with no one near!  What did you mean to do?"
+
+"Do what I'll do now."
+
+"Got something in your pocket, old chap?"
+
+"Yes, I have.  Let me go out."
+
+"And have a paragraph in the papers to-morrow morning about a discovery
+in the Park?"
+
+"Yes.  Curse him! he's getting dangerous.  If he is not silenced, what's
+to happen next?  Let me go, boy.  There, he's ringing again.  Let me
+go."
+
+"Not if I can stop it, old man.  We've got risks enough as it is."
+
+"Curse you, Paddy, for a fool!" cried the other; and he seized his
+brother and tried to drag him away, while the great fellow reached down
+and drew a pistol from his brother's pocket.
+
+"Got your sting, Jem," he cried.  "You don't use that to-night."
+
+"Wrong!" cried the other, snatching it away; and as the bell was rung
+violently again he made for the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+ASSAULTING THE CASTLE.
+
+Chester stood on the doorstep for some minutes, thinking, in perfect
+ignorance of what was taking place inside, and twice over he rang the
+bell, in the determination to enter and confront these men.
+
+But reason stepped in.
+
+"No," he thought, "I could do nothing.  For Marion's sake I must bring
+subtlety to bear, not brute force.  And this is leaving England, to try
+and forget everything," he added, with a mocking laugh.  "No; I must
+stay and unravel it all."
+
+He went home, had recourse to a drug again, and slept heavily till
+morning, and then, with his brain throbbing painfully from his anxious
+thoughts, he had left the house, determined to make another effort to
+obtain speech of Marion.  That she was completely under the influence of
+her friends he felt sure, but if, he told himself, he could only obtain
+an interview, all might be well.
+
+To this end and full of a fresh project, he took a four-wheeled cab and
+had himself driven to the end of Highcombe Street, where he bade the
+driver draw up and wait.
+
+Here he threw himself back in one corner of the vehicle, opened a
+newspaper so as to screen his face and at the same time enable him to
+keep a strict watch upon the house.
+
+Fortune favoured him.  At the end of an hour he saw the carriage drawn
+up, and soon after the brothers and their wives came out and were driven
+off; then the butler stood airing himself upon the step for a time, and
+finally went in and closed the door.
+
+Chester's heart beat high with hope, and he waited for a few minutes,
+which seemed to be an hour.  Then, telling the man to wait, he was going
+down the street, when a shout brought him back.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir; you didn't take my number," said the driver, with a
+grin.
+
+"No, why should I?" said Chester, wonderingly.
+
+"So as to be able to find me agin if you forgets to come back, sir."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Chester, smiling, and then placing a couple of coins
+in the man's hand.  "Don't be afraid; I shall return."
+
+The opportunity had come, and without hesitation Chester went straight
+to the door and rang.
+
+The butler answered the bell, after keeping him waiting some minutes,
+for it was not visiting time; and as soon as the man saw who it was he
+reddened a little and looked indignant.
+
+"Take my card up to Miss Clareborough," said Chester, quietly.
+
+"Not at home, sir."
+
+"Look here, my man, I particularly wish to see your young lady, so have
+the goodness to take up my card."
+
+"Not at home, sir," repeated the butler, pompously.
+
+"To ordinary visitors, perhaps," said Chester, whose temper was rising
+at the man's manner; "but she will see me."
+
+"I told you twice over that our young lady wasn't at home, sir," said
+the butler, more offensive in speech and manner than ever.
+
+"Yes," said Chester, still quietly, "and I know perfectly well that this
+is only the customary formal reply to ordinary callers.  My business is
+important, and I tell you that Miss Clareborough will see me, so take my
+card up at once."
+
+"Look here, sir," said the man, insolently; "I have had my orders, and I
+know what to do.  Once more: not at home."
+
+"Am I to understand that you refuse to take up my card?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that's it.  They've seen your card, and master said he didn't
+know you, and if you came again the family was not at home."
+
+"I have nothing to do with your master or his brother, my good fellow.
+My business is with Miss Clareborough, and I insist on seeing her."
+
+"Not at home," said the man, shortly; and he drew back to close the
+door.
+
+But firmly convinced that the lady he desired to see was a prisoner,
+Chester in his excitement stepped forward, and, to the man's
+astonishment, entered the hall.
+
+"Now," he said angrily, "no more of this insolence, sir; take or send my
+card in to Miss Clareborough."
+
+"I say, look here," cried the the butler, whose face grew ruddy and then
+white, "haven't I told you she isn't at home?"
+
+"Yes, more than once, my good fellow, and I tell you now that she is,
+and that I will not stir from here until I have seen her."
+
+"Then look here, sir," cried the butler; "I shall send for the police."
+
+"Do--at once," retorted Chester.
+
+The butler's jaw dropped in his astonishment, but he recovered himself,
+closed the door, and took a few steps further into the hall, Chester
+following.
+
+"Come, none of that," cried the man.  "You'll stop there, and--"
+
+"What's the meaning of this, Mr Roach?" said a familiar voice, and
+Chester eagerly pressed forward.
+
+"Ah, the housekeeper," he cried quickly.  "This man has refused again
+and again to bear my card to Miss Marion.  Will you have the goodness to
+take it to her, and say that I beg she will see me for a few minutes at
+once?"
+
+The old lady's white forehead puckered up beneath her grey hair, as she
+looked in a startled way at the speaker, and then turned to the butler,
+who was holding Chester's card between his first and second fingers.
+
+"Who is this gentleman?" she said rather sternly, and for me moment
+Chester was so completely taken aback that the butler had time to speak.
+
+"Here's his card, ma'am.  He's been before wanting to see Miss
+Clareborough.  Master's seen it, ma'am, and says he don't know anything
+about the gentleman, and that if he had business he was to write."
+
+The housekeeper turned to Chester, raising her eyebrows a little, and he
+had by this time recovered his balance.
+
+"Of course," he said, "I can quite understand Mr James's action after
+his treatment of me, madam."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir?"
+
+"Let me speak to you alone," he continued.  "I can say nothing before
+this man."
+
+"Had you not better write to Mr Clareborough, sir, if you have business
+with the family?"
+
+"No, certainly not," said Chester.  "My business is with Miss
+Clareborough, and I insist upon seeing her."
+
+"Excuse me, sir," said the housekeeper, calmly; "as a gentleman, you
+must know that one of the ladies would decline to see a stranger on
+business unless she knew what that business was."
+
+"A stranger--on business!" cried Chester, angrily.  "My good woman, why
+do you talk like this to me?"
+
+"Really, sir, I do not understand you," said the housekeeper, with
+dignity.
+
+"Let me see you alone," said Chester, earnestly.
+
+"Certainly not, sir.  Have the goodness to say what is your business
+here."
+
+"You know it is impossible," cried Chester.  "See me alone--send this
+man away."
+
+"Stay where you are, Mr Roach," said the housekeeper, who might, from
+her calm, dignified manner, have been the mistress of the house.  "Are
+you not making some mistake, sir?  Mr Clareborough evidently does not
+know you."
+
+"Nor you either?" said Chester, sarcastically.
+
+"I, sir?  Certainly not," replied the housekeeper.
+
+Chester stared at her angrily.
+
+"Do you dare to tell me this?" he cried.
+
+"Come, sir, none of that, please," said the butler, interfering.  "We
+can't have you always coming here and asking to see people who don't
+want to see you."
+
+"Stand back, you insolent scoundrel!" cried Chester, turning upon the
+butler fiercely; and the man obeyed on the instant.
+
+"There is no occasion to make a scene, sir," said the housekeeper,
+gently.  "Pray be calm.  You have, I see, made a mistake.  Had you not
+better go home and write to Mr Clareborough?  If your business is
+important, he will, no doubt, make an appointment to meet you."
+
+"But you!" cried Chester, returning to the attack, "you deny that you
+know me?"
+
+"Certainly, sir, I do not know you," replied the housekeeper.
+
+"Had you not better dismiss this man?"
+
+"No, no," said the housekeeper, smiling; and there was a very sweet look
+on her handsome old face.  "There is no occasion for that.  Pray take my
+advice; go back home and write what you wish to say."
+
+"After what has passed, madam, I can hold no communication with Mr
+Clareborough."
+
+"Indeed!  Well, sir, of course all you say is foreign to me, but I must
+tell you that it seems the only course open; so much can be done by
+letter."
+
+"Then, as I understand," said Chester, more quietly, "you refuse to give
+me a few words alone?"
+
+"Yes, sir; you can have nothing to say to me that Mr Roach, the butler,
+may not hear."
+
+Chester looked at the woman fixedly, but she met his gaze in the calmest
+way--not a muscle moved, not a nerve quivered.
+
+"Very well," he said at last, "I see you are determined to ignore the
+past entirely."
+
+The housekeeper made a slight deprecatory movement toward him, and then
+signed the butler to open the door, which he did with alacrity, but
+Chester stood fast, looking past the housekeeper toward the end of the
+hall, where there was the opening into the great dining-room, the scene
+of the strange adventure when he first came to the house.
+
+"Very well," he said at last, as he mastered a wild desire to rush
+upstairs and call Marion by name until she replied; and he spoke now in
+a subdued tone of voice which the butler could not hear, "of course you
+are in the plot, but I shall not let matters rest here.  It would have
+been better if you had met me as a friend--as I believed you to be--of
+Miss Marion and Mr Robert, but I see that you are bound up with the
+others.  And mind this: I was disposed to assist in hushing up that
+trouble, but as I am convinced that Miss Marion is receiving foul play,
+I shall leave no stone unturned to obtain speech with her, even going so
+far, if necessary, as to call in the aid of the police."
+
+There was a calm, grave, pitying look upon the housekeeper's countenance
+which literally staggered Chester, and he went out quickly and turned to
+the right, the butler closing the door with a bang.
+
+"He's a regular lunatic, ma'am," said the butler.  "Got hold of the
+names from the Directory or the tradesfolk; but I'm very glad you were
+there."
+
+"Poor gentleman," said the housekeeper, gravely, "there seems to be some
+strange hallucination in his brain."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+THE BOOKWORM TRIES TO BORE.
+
+As it happened, Chester was musing as he went down the steps.
+
+"They treat me as if I were mad.  Have I got some strange notion in my
+head?  No woman could possibly meet one with such a--Ah! good-day!" he
+cried quickly, for, as he was passing the next door, the grey,
+dreamy-looking old occupant was in the act of inserting the latch-key.
+
+He turned slowly, pushed back his rather broad-brimmed hat, and blinked
+at the speaker through his spectacles.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said, rather wonderingly; "I--can't see; yes, to
+be sure, I remember now;" and the old man's face lit up.  "I remember
+now.  My young friend who was making inquiries.  Will you step in, sir?
+I do not have many visitors."
+
+He threw open the door and stood smiling holding it back, giving Chester
+a smile of invitation which made him enter--that, in combination with
+the sudden thought that he might perhaps learn something about the
+next-door neighbours.
+
+"Really," he said frankly, "as a perfect stranger, this is somewhat of
+an intrusion."
+
+"Not at all, my dear young friend, not at all.  Glad to see you.  I lead
+such an old-world, lost kind of life.  I am very glad to have a caller.
+Come in, my dear young friend, come in.  No, no; don't set your hat down
+there; it will be covered with dust.  Let me put it here.  Now, then,
+come in."
+
+He led the way into the room on their left, and took a couple of very
+old folios off a chair.
+
+"A dusty place--a very dusty place; but I dare not trust servants.  They
+have no idea of the value of books, my dear sir.  I found one had torn
+out some pages from a very rare specimen of Wynkyn de Worde to burn
+under some damp fire-wood.  Can't trust them--can't trust them.  I've
+just had a very serious disappointment.  Been down to an auction."
+
+"Indeed?" said Chester, looking at the old man curiously and wondering
+where he had seen a face something like his before.
+
+"Yes.  One of the big sales.  There was a priceless copy of one of Marie
+de Medici's books in the list, and I fancy it was with a Grolier
+binding--just his style; but two other people wanted it.  I bid up to
+four hundred and then stopped.  A bit of a bibliomaniac, my dear sir,
+but not book-mad enough to go higher; couldn't afford it, even for a
+unique, tall copy.  Knocked down for se-ven hun-dred and forty-nine
+pounds, sir.  A fact.  Well, did you find your friends whom you were
+looking for?"
+
+"Yes--no," said Chester.
+
+"Dear me; but is not that rather contradictory, my dear sir?" said the
+old man, smiling.
+
+"Perhaps so, but there is a little mystery about the matter, sir,"
+replied Chester.  "By the way, though, can you tell me anything about
+your next-door neighbours?"
+
+"My next-door neighbours, my dear sir," said the old man, smiling and
+rubbing his thin hands together softly; "well, not much, I am so
+unsociable a body; and here in London one can be so isolated.  Let me
+see, he is something in the House of Commons--a clerk, or
+master-at-arms, or usher, or something."
+
+"Mr Clareborough is?" cried Chester, sharply.
+
+"No--no!  That is on the other side.  Quite a large family party.  Very
+gay people who have plenty of fashionable callers, and carriages, and
+parties.  I fancy they go a great deal to operas and theatres.  The
+confectioner's people come sometimes, and musicians, and rout seats.
+Not in my way, my young friend--not in my way," continued the old
+gentleman in his quiet, amiable manner, as he took down the great bulky
+London Directory.  "Yes, yes, yes; here we are--Highcombe Street,
+Clareborough.  There's the name.  Very wealthy, gay family, I believe.
+Clareborough.  That's it, and I think I've heard somehow--I don't quite
+know how it was, unless one of the tradespeople told me--that they have
+a fine place somewhere in Kent--The Towers, I think they call it, and
+they are often down there, and this place is shut up.  I like it to be,
+because it is so much more quiet for a man busy with his books."
+
+"Have you--have you noticed anything peculiar about the family?" said
+Chester in a hesitating way.
+
+The old man beamed upon him through his glasses, then took them off
+deliberately, and wiped each carefully with an old silk handkerchief,
+gazing at his questioner with his face wrinkled up as if he were
+puzzled.
+
+"Anything peculiar?" he said at last.  "Well, no, I think not, unless it
+is that they seem to spend a great deal of money in ephemeral pleasures.
+Yes, I remember now thinking that they must waste a great deal, and
+that with so much at their command they might accumulate a grand
+collection of books."
+
+"Anything more?" said Chester.
+
+"N-no, my dear sir.  I think, now you mention it, that I have taken more
+notice of my neighbour on the other side.  Yes, I am sure I have.  I
+remember thinking how bad it must be for his health."
+
+"Indeed?" said Chester, inquiringly, but with the intention of leading
+the old man back into talking about his other neighbours.
+
+"Oh yes.  You see, I often hear him coming home extremely late in the
+night.  Twelve, one, and two o'clock, sometimes even by broad daylight.
+Not that I was watching him, but I often lie awake for hours, musing
+about some particular book that I have not obtained.  I'm afraid I shall
+not sleep to-night for thinking of that book I missed at the sale
+to-day.  But I put it to you, my dear sir; it was too much to give, was
+it not?"
+
+"Certainly," said Chester, smiling, as he seized the opportunity to turn
+back the conversation to the other side; "but I suppose, according to
+your showing, the sum named would have been a trifle to your other
+neighbours."
+
+"Hah!  Yes, I suppose it would--yes, I suppose it would.  But are you a
+collector?"
+
+"I?  Oh no," said Chester, smiling, "only a very ignorant body."
+
+"No, no, no, no," said the old man, smiling pleasantly.  "I know better
+than that.  One gets to know what a person is more or less by his
+conversation, my dear sir, and I could vouch for it that you are a
+student."
+
+"Well, I must own to that, more or less, as to medicine and surgery."
+
+"I thought so, I thought so," said the old man, bending down to clasp
+his hands about one knee and sit as if thinking deeply over something,
+while Chester gladly availed himself of the silence to give free rein to
+his own thoughts.
+
+For an idea had suddenly occurred to him which lit up his troubled brain
+like a flash of light.
+
+He was in the next house--the old man leading his solitary life seemed
+pleased to have found someone ready to converse with him.  Why should he
+not try and cultivate the old fellow's acquaintance, and take advantage
+of the opportunities it would afford him of watching his neighbours?
+
+He had hardly thought this when the old man looked up, smiling at him in
+a child-like, pleasant way.
+
+"How strange--how very strange it all is, my dear sir.  Now, you will
+hardly credit me when I tell you that for some time past I have been
+suffering from little symptoms which at their frequent and more frequent
+recurrence suggest to me that I ought to consult a medical man."
+
+"Indeed?" said Chester.
+
+"Yes, my dear sir, indeed; but you see, I am a very old man now, and I
+fear that I have grown weak and vacillating; I may add cowardly too.  I
+have shrunk from going to a doctor for fear that he should tell me that
+I must give up my studies--that I am failing and coming very near to the
+end of my span."
+
+"Oh, surely not," said Chester.  "You look a very healthy subject, sir."
+
+"I--I don't know, my dear sir, but I have been afraid to go; and here,
+all at once, in the most casual way, I suddenly make the acquaintance of
+a medical man, and find him seated opposite to me, talking in a friendly
+way which quite invites my confidence.  It is strange, is it not?"
+
+"Very strange, indeed," said Chester, gazing hard in the pleasant, bland
+old countenance before him.  "But really, my dear sir, I do not think
+you require medical advice."
+
+The old man returned the fixed gaze and then said appealingly--
+
+"I hope, my dear sir, you are speaking sincerely."
+
+"Of course," replied Chester.
+
+"Not as doctors sometimes do, to encourage their patients?"
+
+"Certainly not," cried Chester.  "There is every sign of a vigorous,
+green old age about you."
+
+"That is very pleasant to hear, my dear sir," said the old man, "very
+pleasant.  I don't think I am one ready to repine, or one who would seek
+to live for selfish considerations--love of pleasure or the like--but I
+have so much to do.  I want years yet to complete my collection, and I
+may have to go over to Leyden, Leipsic, Nuremberg, Florence, and several
+of the other Continental towns which were the birthplaces of many of
+these old tomes which you see upon my shelves."
+
+"I see no reason why you should not live for years yet, sir," said
+Chester, encouragingly.
+
+"But my head--my brain.  I find I grow forgetful, my dear sir.  I put
+away books and forget their places.  All little symptoms, are they not,
+of failing powers?"
+
+"To be perfectly candid, certainly they are," said Chester; "but in a
+healthy old age these failings come very, very gradually, and nature
+suggests so many ways of palliating them.  For instance, a clever young
+secretary with a methodical turn of mind would relieve you of a trouble
+like this.  Really I do not think that you have any occasion to trouble
+yourself about such a symptom as that, any more than you have about the
+failing powers of sight which compelled you to take to glasses."
+
+"My dear young friend!" cried the old man, leaning forward to catch at
+his visitor's hand, "I cannot find words to express my gratitude.  You
+do not know what a relief your words have been to me.  It is wonderful,
+and upon such a casual acquaintanceship.  But I sincerely hope that you
+will let me see more of you--er--that is, if I am not troublesome to
+you; such a wearisome old bookworm as I fear I must be.  But the mouse
+helped the lion, you know, and who knows but what I may be able to help
+you with some information about your friends next door--let me see, I
+think you said it was the people next door whom you had been trying to
+find."
+
+"I did not say so," said Chester, quietly.
+
+"I beg your pardon; but you do wish to know something about them."
+
+"Well, frankly, yes, I do," said Chester.
+
+"Hah!  And who knows but what I may be able to help you?  I may remember
+something that does not occur to me now--a trifle or two perhaps, but
+which may be of importance from your point of view.  Come and see me
+sometimes.  Let me show you my library.  I think you might be interested
+in some of my books."
+
+"I have no doubt but that I should be."
+
+"To be sure, yes.  I have an old copy of Hippocrates on surgery and
+medicine, and I daresay many others which do not occur to me now.  Yes,
+of course, I have Boerhaave.  You will come?"
+
+"I shall be very glad to," said Chester, warmly, though his conscience
+smote him for what he felt to be a false pretence.
+
+"I am very, very glad," said the old man, rising, going to an old
+cabinet and pulling out a drawer, from which he took a key and at the
+same time something short and black which he cleverly thrust into the
+breast of his loosely-made, old-fashioned tail-coat.  "Now I am about to
+ask a favour of you, doctor," he said, turning with a pleasant, genial
+smile upon his countenance.  "I have other treasures here down below,
+besides books.  Stored up and rarely brought out, bin after bin of very
+fine old wine.  I am going to ask you to drink a glass of exceedingly
+old port with me."
+
+"No, no," said Chester, "you must excuse me.  I never drink wine at this
+time of day.  Let me dine with you some time or other, and then--"
+
+"Yes, of course, my dear young friend; I hope many times; but just one
+glass now.  Don't say no.  I feel to need it a little myself, for--don't
+think me a feeble old dotard--the fact of telling you of my weakness, of
+confessing to a doctor my fears of coming to an end, have upset my
+nerves a little, and I can't help fancying that a glass of good old wine
+would do me good."
+
+"I am sure it would, sir," said Chester, warmly.  "Well, there!  I will
+break a rule, and join you in one glass."
+
+"Hah!" cried the old man, brightening up; "that is very good of you,
+doctor--very good.  I feel better already in anticipation.  Now, let me
+see--let me see."
+
+He opened the library table drawer and took out a box of matches and an
+old-fashioned, curled-up twist of wax taper, such as was the
+accompaniment of a writing-table in sealing-wax days, fifty years or so
+ago.  This latter he lit, and then hung a large old key upon his little
+finger.
+
+"The library next time you come, doctor; the cellar this time.  A very
+fine cellar of wines, my dear sir, but wasted upon me.  Just a glass now
+and then as a medicine.  This way.  I hope you will not mind the dust
+and cobwebs.  An old-fashioned notion, but books seem to need the dust
+of ages, and it is precious upon them, just as old port ought to have
+its cobwebs and its crust.  You will come with me to get a bottle?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Chester, and he followed the old man out of the room into
+the book-encumbered hall, and along to the back, past chest and shelf,
+to where there was the glass door opening on the stone flight leading
+down into the basement.
+
+"This way, my dear sir.  One moment; there should be a basket here.
+Yes, here we are; would you mind lighting me?  Thank you."
+
+Chester took the wax taper and lighted the old man, while he took down
+from behind the glass door, where it hung upon a hook, one of those
+cradle-like baskets in which a bottle of rich old wine can recline
+without destroying its fineness.
+
+"You see," said the old man, "I am a bit of a connoisseur.  I like to
+keep my wine as it has lain in the bin.  No decanting for me.  Straight
+on down, my dear sir."
+
+Chester did not hesitate, but led on down the stone stairs, holding the
+light on high, the tiny taper shining back upon a pair of flashing eyes
+and the wrinkles of a now wonderfully wrinkled face, while in the
+shadows behind a thin, claw-like hand glided to the breast-pocket of the
+old-fashioned coat, to draw out one of those misnamed weapons formed of
+twisted whalebone, ending in a weighty leaden knob.
+
+Chester bore the light; behind him seemed to hover upon the dingy walls
+the Shadow of Death.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+BY THE SKIN OF HIS TEETH.
+
+The Shadow passed away.
+
+In another moment a crushing blow from a life-preserver, delivered by a
+vigorous arm, would have fallen upon the back of Chester's skull, and
+sent him headlong down the flight of stairs; but the deadly weapon was
+thrust back into its owner's breast, and the fierce, vindictive
+expression passed from his face as there was a violent ringing of the
+largest of the row of bells hanging to their right, and Chester turned
+sharply round, taper in hand, to look questioningly at the old man.
+
+"Dear me!" he said, smiling, "how tiresome!  This is one of the troubles
+of living quite alone, my dear young friend.  I always have to answer my
+own door.  I'm afraid that I must ask you to come back to the front
+room.  Would you mind bringing the light?  Thank you; I will take it."
+
+He blew out the clear little flame as they reached the glass door, and
+then set down the basket, before leading the way back into the library,
+where he glanced from the window.
+
+"Dear me!" he said.  "More books.  So very late in the day too.  They
+always come at awkward times.  Pray sit down or look at some of my
+works.  You'll find something to interest you, I feel sure.  Yes--yes;
+I'm coming," he said, as the bell rang loudly again.  "Don't be so
+impatient, my good men, don't be so impatient."
+
+"One moment; if you have business, I will go now," said Chester.
+
+"Oh, by no means," said the old man.  "I shall not be many moments.
+Pray take a book and my chair, there.  It is only the railway men.  I
+shall soon be done."
+
+Chester did not take the chair, but began to inspect the dusty shelves,
+while he heard the front door open and after a time the sound of heavy
+feet upon the steps, and then the bump down of what sounded like a heavy
+chest.  Then more steps outside, the rattle of a chain belonging to the
+tail-board of a van, and the steps again.
+
+Then he ceased to hear anything that was going on, for his thoughts had
+run to the adjoining house and his experiences there, but only to be
+succeeded by an indescribable sensation of dread--a singular feeling of
+malaise which troubled his faculties.  It was like a portent of
+something hanging over him, or over her who occupied so much of his
+thoughts.
+
+"I can't stay here," he said to himself.  "I must get out into the open
+air.  This place makes me feel sick and faint."
+
+He picked up one of the many books lying about, and threw it down again
+impatiently, to walk to the door, where he could hear the old student
+directing the men who had brought the consignment; while from the sounds
+it was evident that they were carrying the chests or whatever they were,
+down into the basement.
+
+Feeling that it would be rude to interrupt his host then, he went back
+to the table.
+
+"What is the matter with me?" he muttered, as he shivered involuntarily.
+"Is it from cold, or from over-thought and worry?  Not going to be ill,
+am I, and at such a time?"
+
+"I know," he thought, at the end of a few minutes; "it is this place.
+The air is close and mephitic.  I don't believe the windows are ever
+open.  I cannot stay here.  I feel as if I should faint.  Rude or not, I
+must go."
+
+He had sunk into a chair, and now started up, just as the old man
+re-entered.
+
+"Just done," he said cheerfully.  "One moment.  Heavy boxes, and these
+men like to have a glass.  Not my old port, though.  They would not
+appreciate it.  A little of this--a little of this brandy."
+
+He kept on talking softly as he took out a bottle and glasses from a
+cellarette, filled a couple, set the bottle down again, and carried the
+glasses out; and as the door swung to, Chester caught up the bottle
+quickly, held it to his lips, and gulped down a mouthful.
+
+"Hah!" he muttered, as he set the brandy down and sank back in the
+chair; "that is stimulating.  But how strange that I should feel like
+this.  Ugh!"
+
+He shuddered, for a cold chill ran through him, and the sensation of
+fear increased.
+
+"Can it be something threatening her?" he muttered.  "How strange!  I
+have not felt like this since I lost my first patient," and the chill of
+coming dissolution seemed to hang in the air.
+
+"Pooh!  Fancy.  It is a slight chill.  That brandy will soon take it
+off."
+
+The voices reached him again, and the steps were heard outside; then the
+front door was closed, and the old man came in smiling.
+
+"Always at such inconvenient times," he said.  "Generally when I am
+studying some intricate passage by an old author; but to-day when I have
+had my first visitor for months.  I'm afraid you have found me very
+long."
+
+"Oh no, don't name it," said Chester, hurriedly, "but--"
+
+"Ah! your kindness of heart makes you speak thus," said the old man,
+hastily.  "Two heavy chests of books, and I was obliged to make the men
+take them downstairs, or they would block the passage.  But now for the
+glass of wine and our chat."
+
+"I'm afraid that I shall be obliged to ask you to excuse me to-day,"
+said Chester, who had risen.
+
+"Oh, surely not," cried the old man in a disappointed tone.  "I was
+reckoning so upon asking your opinion, my dear sir.  Like liquid rubies.
+It will not take long."
+
+"No, it would not take long," replied Chester, who now spoke rather
+excitedly, while the old man's eyes glittered strangely behind his
+glasses; "but I have been here some time now, and I must get back."
+
+"But, my dear sir--"
+
+"Don't press me, please.  I, am rather unwell."
+
+"You are not offended at my leaving you?"
+
+"No, absurd!" cried Chester, hastily.  "I have had a good deal of
+trouble lately, and my nerves have been shaken."
+
+"Your nerves have been shaken?" said the old man, gazing at him in a
+peculiar way.
+
+"Yes," said Chester; "but another day you must let me come; and perhaps
+you can tell me a little more about your neighbours."
+
+The old man smiled sadly.
+
+"Ah!" he said, "I am growing old and garrulous, and I have bored you, as
+you young people call it.  You will not come again."
+
+"Indeed, I will," cried Chester, holding out his hand to take his
+host's, which was extended unwillingly, and felt like ice.  "Oh yes, I
+will come to-morrow or the next day.  This is no paltry excuse.  You may
+trust me."
+
+"Ah, well, I will," said the old man, who seemed to be satisfied with
+his scrutiny.  "Pray come, then, and put up with my strange, unworldly
+ways; and you must give me some more hints about my health.  In the
+meantime I will look out some of the old medical and surgical works.
+You will find them interesting."
+
+"Yes, I hope we shall spend many hours together," said Chester, frankly,
+as he moved toward the door, the old man walking by his side with his
+hands under the tails of his coat, where a looker-on would have seen
+that they were crooked and opening and shutting spasmodically.
+
+It was very dim now in the book-burdened room, the evening light having
+hard work to pierce the uncleaned panes of the windows; but there was
+light enough to show that, and also that the old bookworm's claw-like
+right hand went into the coat-pocket and half drew from it something
+small and hard.
+
+But nothing followed as they walked into the gloomy hall and away to the
+front door, where, after a friendly shake of the hand, Chester uttered a
+sigh of relief as he turned away from the house, seeming to breathe more
+freely as he walked briskly along.
+
+"Pah! the old place felt like a sepulchre," he muttered.  "It was just
+as if the hand of death were clutching at me.  I believe that if I had
+not taken that brandy I should have fainted.  What a state my nerves
+must be in.  Why, it is the most fortunate thing that could have
+happened.  Once gain the old man's confidence, I can stay there and
+watch the next house as long as I like."
+
+There was something ominous about the old bookworm's act as he went
+softly back into his half-dark, dusty room, evidently thinking deeply,
+till he stopped short in the middle to stand gazing down at the floor.
+
+"Yes, he said he was ill; he looked ill when he came up to the door--
+half mad.  He will come back again, perhaps to-morrow--perhaps
+to-morrow.  Hah! it was very near."
+
+He raised his head now, went to the drawer from which he had taken the
+key, and placed back in it the heavy life-preserver, and then taking
+from the tail of the coat one of the short, old-fashioned pocket pistols
+which were loaded by unscrewing the little barrel by means of a key.
+This he examined, taking off the cap, after raising the hammer and
+putting a fresh one in its place.  After this he closed the drawer and
+sat down to think.
+
+"Yes," he said, half aloud, "it was very near.  The next time he comes
+perhaps he'll stay.  He is getting to be a nuisance, and a dangerous
+one, as well."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+STRANGELY MYSTERIOUS PROCEEDINGS.
+
+The Clareboroughs' carriage was at the door, and the well-matched,
+handsome pair of horses were impatiently pawing the ground, in spite of
+sundry admonitions from the plump coachman of the faultless turn-out to
+be "steady there!" "hold still!" and the like.
+
+Mr Roach, the butler, had appeared for a minute on the step, looking
+very pompous and important, exchanged nods with the coachman, and gone
+in again to wait for the descent of their people, bound for one of Lord
+Gale's dinner-parties in Grosvenor Place.
+
+All was still in the hall as the door was closed, and the marble statues
+and bodiless busts did not move upon their pedestals, nor their blank
+faces display the slightest wonder at the proceedings which followed,
+even though they were enough to startle them out of their equanimity.
+
+For all at once the pompous, stolid butler and the stiff,
+military-looking footman, in his good, refined livery, suddenly seemed
+to have been stricken with a kind of delirious attack.  The expression
+upon their faces changed from its customary social diplomatic calm to
+one of wild delight, and they both broke into a spasmodic dance, a
+combination of the wildest step of the _can-can_ and the mad angulations
+of a nigger breakdown, with the accompaniment of snapping of fingers at
+each other and the final kick-up and flop of the right foot upon the
+floor.
+
+Then they rushed at each other and embraced--the solemn, middle-aged
+butler and the tall young footman--theatrically, after which they seemed
+to come to their normal senses, and quietly shook hands.
+
+"'Bliged to let some of the steam off, old man?" whispered the footman.
+
+"Yes, Orthur, my boy, had to open the safety valve," replied the butler.
+"We're made men, eh?"
+
+"Not quite," said the footman, grinning, "but getting into shape.  Three
+hundred a-piece.  I say, ain't it grand?"
+
+"Splendid," said the butler, with a broad smile.  "But steady now."
+
+"I say; wasn't the idea right?"
+
+"Right as right, my boy."
+
+"Ah," said the footman, with a knowing wink, "who'd be without a good
+only uncle to tip you when you want a few pounds to invest?  I say,
+though, you'll go and pay the old boy as soon as we're gone?"
+
+"Won't be time."
+
+"Oh yes; you'll be all right.  Get it done.  Make it easy if we want to
+do it again, eh?"
+
+"All right; I'll go.  I say, Orthur, ain't I like a father to you?"
+
+"Dear old man!" whispered the gentleman addressed, with a grin.  "Me
+long-lost forther!"
+
+"Steady!" said the butler, sternly, and their masks of servitude were on
+their faces again, with the elder stern and pompous, the younger
+respectful and steady as a rock.  "Yes; I'll go and put that right.
+Must take a cab.  You'll pay half?"
+
+"Of course; that's all right, sir.  Fair shares in everything.  I say,
+Bob's got something else on.  Hadn't a chance to tell you before."
+
+"Eh?  What is that?"
+
+"Goodwood.  He's had a letter.  I say, shall we be on there?  Oh no, not
+at all."
+
+"Pst! coming down," whispered the butler; and the footman opened the
+door and went out to the carriage, which soon after dashed off, while
+the butler, after the regular glance up street and down, closed the
+door.  He descended to his pantry, where he drew a glossy hat from a
+box, took an empty Gladstone bag from a cupboard and went out to hail
+the first hansom round the corner.  This rattled him away in the
+direction of Bloomsbury, where he descended close to the great grim
+portico of the church, and told the man to wait.
+
+The driver gave a glance at him, but the butler looked too respectable
+for a bilker, and he settled down for a quiet smoke, muttering, "Grapes
+or pears."
+
+But cabby was wrong.  Mr Roach was not the class of domestic to lower
+his dignity by engaging in a kind of commerce which could be properly
+carried on by the fruiterer.  He made for a quiet street, turned up a
+narrow court, and passed in through a glazed swing door upon whose
+embossed pane appeared the blazon of the Medici family--the three golden
+pills--the crest of the generous relative--"mine uncle" of the borrower
+high and low, and the minute after he stood in darkness in a narrow box.
+
+A sharp-faced young man with a pen behind his ear came from the right
+and stretched out his hand across the broad counter.
+
+"Send the guv'nor," said Roach, importantly.
+
+A sharp look was the answer, the shopman went away, and his place was
+taken directly by a keen, dark man, with a gaslight complexion, and to
+him Roach handed a little white ticket.
+
+"Hullo!  So soon!" said the man, showing his teeth, which matched his
+skin.
+
+"Well, didn't I tell you so?" said Roach, importantly.
+
+"Yes, but I don't quite believe everything my clients say."
+
+"No, and you were precious uppish and hold-offish the other day," said
+Roach, shortly.
+
+"Obliged to be careful, Mr Smith, in my profession," said the
+pawnbroker, with a peculiar smile.  "There's a law against receiving
+stolen goods, and one don't want to get into trouble."
+
+"Well, you needn't begin to suspect everybody who wants money, if there
+is.  Do you suppose gentry don't run short of money sometimes?"
+
+"Oh no.  I know they do, Mr Smith.  I could show you some jewellery
+that would open your eyes."
+
+"And I dessay I could show you something that would open yours.  May
+have to bring it to you some day.  Who knows?"
+
+"Glad to do business on the square any time, Mr Smith," said the
+pawnbroker.
+
+"Of course you are; so's lots more.  People thinks there's no
+card-playing going on now, and gents and ladies running short."
+
+"We don't think so, Mr Smith."
+
+"No, I suppose not," said Roach.  "I did make up my mind I wouldn't come
+here again after what passed."
+
+"Only business caution, Mr Smith."
+
+"Oh, well, if that's all, perhaps I may.  This was a commission; hundred
+pound wanted on the nail, and security worth five offered.  Money's come
+in again, and my people want the security.  Here's the cash and
+interest, and the sooner I'm off the better."
+
+"Soon done, Mr Smith," said the pawnbroker, "and I shall be happy to do
+business with you again any time."  The man made some memoranda on the
+card, and went into a back room to a safe, from which he brought a
+carefully-done-up packet.
+
+"Rather I hadn't fetched it, eh?" said Roach, after having the packet
+opened and satisfied himself that the gold contents were intact.
+
+"Don't you make that mistake, Mr Smith," said the pawnbroker.  "We
+don't want unredeemed pledges to sell, but to have them taken out and
+receive our interest.  That's the way money is made, sir."
+
+"I dessay," said the butler, paying over the sum needed in notes and
+gold, and then packing the security in the Gladstone bag; "but it's a
+free country, and people have a right to believe what they like."
+
+"Of course, my dear sir, of course."
+
+"Now look here," whispered Roach; "if there happens to be an emergency,
+mister, and I'm disposed to come here again with something for an
+advance, is it to be prompt business, or a lot of humbugging questions?"
+
+"Prompt business, Mr Smith, with approved customers, and to any
+amount."
+
+"That will do then.  I'll come.  Private and confidential, eh?"
+
+"Private and confidential, sir.  Good-evening.--Jobson, shut up."
+
+"Yes, and I shut him up," muttered Roach, as he went out with his
+Gladstone bag feeling weighty, and sought his cab, but not without
+looking back once or twice and choosing another way for his return.
+
+But he saw nothing to excite his suspicions of being followed, for it
+was not likely that the homely-looking woman with a thickish umbrella
+had come from the pawnbroker's.  But somehow she had.
+
+An hour later, Roach's carefully-done-up parcel was denuded of its
+wrappings, and its golden glories were hidden in the iron plate-closet
+at the back of his pantry.  And then he came upon Arthur, not long
+returned from setting down their people at Grosvenor Place.
+
+"Hullo!  Didn't know you'd come back.  Got it?" said the footman.
+
+The butler nodded.
+
+"Shut the door," he said; and as soon as they were alone in the pantry,
+Roach unlocked the iron closet which contained the plate under his
+charge, and pointed to a handsome centre-piece standing on the shelf.
+
+Then it was that the younger man so far forgot the respect due to his
+elder as to slap him on the back, an act not in the least resented, but
+responded to by a playful dig in the ribs.
+
+"But I say, my boy," whispered the butler, "it won't do, you know.  I've
+funked horribly for fear that they should ask for it."
+
+"Likely!" said the footman, scornfully.  "It's never been used but
+once."
+
+"More likely to be asked for to be put away with the rest in the vault.
+Jemmy's safe to remember it some day."
+
+The footman was thoughtful as the butler locked up the iron closet.
+
+"We ought to put away something not likely to be asked for, eh?"
+
+"Yes," said the butler, shaking his head sagely; "but what is there?  We
+may have a dinner-party any day, and everything have to be shown."
+
+"Must be lots of things in the vault."
+
+"Course there is."
+
+"I say, ain't it rum that they don't send the things to their bankers?"
+
+"Not a bit, when they've got a strong closet of their own, Orthur, my
+boy.  I heard 'em talking about it one day at dinner, and Jemmy said
+something about their old bank breaking, and a lot of the family plate
+and jewels being lost.  The rogues had been hard up for long enough and
+sold it."
+
+"Ah! there's a sight o' rogues in the world," said Arthur, quietly.
+
+"We've got some capital now."
+
+"Yes, but let's think of a rainy day.  Now, look here, there must be no
+end of things in the vault as they're never like to ask for."
+
+"No end," said the butler.
+
+"Never been in it?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Well, couldn't we have a look in, and pick out something small and
+handy?--say jools.  They do lock them there when they go down to The
+Towers.  I do know that."
+
+"Yes, my lad, they do; and I believe there's a lot of old gold, family
+plate and diamonds as they never do want."
+
+"That's the stuff for us--in case we want it, of course.  Don't hurt
+them to borrow it, and it finds us the capital to do us good."
+
+"Yes, but how are we to get at it?"
+
+"Keys."
+
+"Where are they kept?"
+
+"Oh, we could soon find out that."
+
+"Well, I can't.  I've been on the look-out this two years, and I believe
+Jemmy keeps 'em somewhere, but I never could find out where."
+
+"Then you had thought of that plan, old man?"
+
+"Of course I had.  Where you ain't trusted it sets you thinking.
+They're well-bred, but somehow the Clareboroughs ain't real gentlemen.
+They trust me with some of the plate, and I'm supposed to be butler, but
+what about the wine?  Do they ever let me have the key of the cellar?"
+
+"No, that's Bob's job," said the footman, thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, and a couple of paltry dozen at a time.  How am I to know if the
+wine's keeping sound or not?  But there are ways, Orthur," continued
+Roach, with a wink, and he rose slowly, went to a chest of drawers,
+unlocked it, took out a box, unlocked that, and drew forth a couple of
+new-looking keys.
+
+"Hullo!" said the footman in a whisper; "cellar?"
+
+"That one is," replied the butler, as his companion turned over the big
+bright key he had taken up.
+
+"Good.  And what's this?"
+
+"One I got made to try the vault."
+
+"Phe-ew!" whistled Arthur, excitedly.  "Then you have been in?"
+
+"No, my lad; that only opens the wooden door at the end of the passage.
+Then you're in a bit of a lobby, with a big iron door on one side."
+
+"Well, didn't you get a key made for that?"
+
+"No, my lad.  I couldn't.  It's a rum one.  I don't believe you could
+get one made by anybody but them as sold the safe."
+
+"Don't believe it," cried the footman, contemptuously, "Let me have a
+look."
+
+"Nay, nay, you'd better not."
+
+"Gammon.  Where's the old woman?"
+
+"In her room, up atop."
+
+"Who's in the kitchen?"
+
+"Only the scullery-maid.  T'others are all gone out."
+
+"Then let's go and have a look," cried Arthur.  "I want to be a man.
+I'm sick of being a mouse."
+
+The butler seemed disposed to sit still, but the energy of his young
+companion stirred him to action, and he placed the keys in his pocket
+and stood hesitating.
+
+"Go and see first what that gal's doing," he whispered, "while I make
+sure the old woman's up in her room."
+
+The footman nodded, and both went their ways, to meet again with a nod
+indicating that all was right, and then the butler led on along one of
+the passages of the extensive basement to where another struck off at
+right angles, ending in an ordinary stout oak-grained door.  This
+readily yielded to the key the butler brought, and after lighting a bit
+of candle the pair stepped into a little stone-walled room of about ten
+feet square, with a closely-fitting drab-painted door on their right,
+standing flush with the iron frame which filled up the centre.
+
+"That's a tight one, Orthur, lad," said the butler.
+
+"Yes, to them as has no key," said the footman, quietly, after going
+down on one knee and examining the key-hole by holding the loose cover
+on one side.  "I'm a-going to have a key to fit that lock, old man,
+afore long."
+
+"You are, my boy?"
+
+"I am, guv'nor.  You and I's got together and we've got to stick
+together and make our fortunes.  There's horses and carriages and plate
+chests and cellars o' wine for them as likes to be enterprising, and
+we're enterprising now."
+
+"But we mustn't do anything shady, Orthur."
+
+"Shady, guv'nor!" cried the footman, contemptuously; "not us.  It's to
+be sunshiny.  Don't you be afraid o' that.  We sha'n't do nothing to
+make us afraid to look a bobby in the face.  Only a bit of
+speckylation--a bit o' borrowing now and then to raise the wind, and
+paying of it back.  Give us your hand on it, old man.  We sticks
+together through thick and thin."
+
+There were vinous tears in the butler's eyes as he extended his plump
+white hand to be grasped hard, and the two speculators looked each in
+the other's face, seeing a gilded future before them, the glare of which
+hid everything else.
+
+"That'll do for the present, guv'nor," said Arthur.
+
+He drew open the door, and was about to pass out, when a short cough
+came echoing along the passage, and he pushed the door close again.
+
+"Hist!" he whispered, as he blew out the light; "the old woman's coming
+down."
+
+"Quick! take out the key, and lock it from inside," whispered the
+butler.  "She's always coming along here to see if this place is all
+right and try the door."
+
+The footman obeyed, making a faint rattle with the key, after which he
+closed the door, leaving them in darkness.
+
+"Have you locked it?"
+
+"No, there ain't no key-hole on this side.  Hist! she's coming straight
+here."
+
+The next moment the footman's shoulder was placed against the door to
+keep it fast.
+
+The men stood holding their breath and feeling the perspiration gather
+upon their faces like a heavy dew, as they waited, hearing nothing now
+but the throbbing of their own hearts for what seemed to be an
+interminable time, before there came the sound as of something soft
+being dabbed against the door, followed by a sudden heavy push which, in
+spite of his strength, sent a jarring thrill through every nerve of the
+footman's body.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+GOING SHARES.
+
+Mr Roach confessed to being an admirer of the fair sex; and consequent
+upon his position, not from any special attraction of mind or person,
+the butler's advances were in more than one instance favourably
+received; but he also confessed, in the strictest personal confidence,
+to a feeling of jealousy against Arthur.
+
+"He's big, and he's not bad-looking, but he's very weak and young, and
+there's a want of manly tone about him.  I can't see why they should
+make so much fuss over the fellow."
+
+"They" embraced the lady members of the Clareborough household staff;
+and in spite of what the butler might say, Arthur was distinctly high in
+favour and enjoyed his popularity.
+
+There were reasons, of course, more than the great display of
+affability, and one day Mr Roach took his fellow-servant seriously to
+task.
+
+"Look here, Orthur, my lad," he said confidentially; "you're having a
+fine old time of it just now, but recollect this: the sex is soft, and
+smooth, and pleasant, and as you may say sweet, but don't you make a
+mistake and think that girls are fools."
+
+"I don't," said Arthur, complacently--"Old boy's a bit jealous," he
+added to himself.
+
+"Then don't act as if you did.  They're sharp enough, and before long
+they'll begin talking.  One of 'em 'll be jealous of you taking out
+another, and then out'll come the claw from the soft paws, and there'll
+be a row."
+
+"Well, they must settle it among themselves if there is."
+
+"But don't you see that the disappointed one that you've made an enemy
+'ll begin to talk nasty-like and she'll know what your wages are."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"That's it, my boy; she'll be wanting to know how you can be treating
+some of 'em to music-halls, and paying for cabs and railway fares, and
+supper afterwards, on five pound a quarter."
+
+"Dash it!" cried Arthur.
+
+"Yes, that's it, my lad.  You and me's doing very nicely just now; don't
+spoil a good thing.  See what I mean?"
+
+"Yes, I see what you mean, old chap," said Arthur, who had suddenly
+become sobered.
+
+"That's right.  You see, you gave Maria Blay a gold watch."
+
+"Only a second-'and 'un, and I bought the pawn-ticket cheap."
+
+"Maybe, but there's a big sound about a gold watch.  Then you gave cook
+a brooch, and Betsy Dellow a gold ring, and it ain't wise, my lad, it
+ain't wise.  We're on the road to fortune, so don't you get looking back
+for the sake of a bit of nonsense, or you and me may have to part.
+Don't do foolish things."
+
+"No, Mr Roach, I won't, sir.  I'm very sorry, and I'll be a bit more
+careful."
+
+"That's right, Orthur," said the butler, importantly.  "I shouldn't like
+for anything to come between us two."
+
+"Of course not, sir.  It wouldn't do," cried the footman, eagerly.
+
+"Got anything new?"
+
+"Well, no, Mr Roach, sir.  I haven't seen the chance of a tip lately."
+
+The butler smiled triumphantly.
+
+"You don't mean to say you have, sir?"
+
+"But I do, Orthur," he replied in a hoarse whisper.  "It isn't Mr Rob's
+or Mr Paddy's this time, but a put-up thing of the guv'nor's."
+
+Arthur whistled in his excitement.
+
+"It means a big stroke, Orthur.  I've got the tip, and if you and me's
+got the pluck to do it we're made men."
+
+"Oh, we've got the pluck," said the footman, huskily.  "What's the
+'orse?"
+
+"Not a horse at all, my lad.  It's a company.  They're working it to
+rights, and I've found out all about it, Orthur.  I've seen the letters.
+They're going to blow the thing up full of wind, and buy up all the
+shares they can.  Then when the thing's at the height, they sell, and
+make thousands."
+
+"Phew!" whistled the footman.
+
+"S'pose we make a couple o' thou, a-piece; that's better than backing
+horses."
+
+"Yes; but could we?"
+
+"Don't they, my lad?  Isn't all this place run that way?  Why shouldn't
+we do it as well as them?  They ain't so precious clever after all."
+
+"Not as I see," said the younger man, contemptuously.
+
+"Then what do you say?  Shall we venture?"
+
+"I'm on," said Arthur, eagerly.  "How much does it want?"
+
+"Two hundred a-piece.  How much have you got?"
+
+The footman gave him a curious look, and then said drily--
+
+"Nothing at all."
+
+"Why, you don't mean to say you've spent all we've made, Arthur?"
+
+"Every penny.  Haven't you?"
+
+The butler was silent, and frowned; but his companion followed up his
+question.
+
+"Well, why don't you answer a fellow?"
+
+"I haven't exactly spent it, Orthur," said the butler at last, coughing
+to clear his voice.
+
+"Well, what have you done with it?"
+
+"'Orses."
+
+"Without saying a word to me?"
+
+"Well, I didn't know I was bound to tell you everything, Orthur."
+
+"Well, I did; and it serves you right.  If you'd gone by my advice and
+taken my tips you'd ha' won."
+
+"Yes, it was a mistake," said the butler, humbly.  "I was tempted to
+have just one little flutter on my own account, Orthur."
+
+"Well, don't you do it again.  That's worse than giving the gals
+presents, old man.  Then I suppose it will have to be your uncle again?"
+
+"Yes, Orthur; but it's a pity we couldn't manage about a key for that
+door."
+
+"Ah! it is; but it ain't to be done, only with a big hammer and wedges,
+I'm afraid.  I'm trying still, though, to get a key made, and it may
+turn up trumps.  Never mind; raise something on what you can take."
+
+"But it won't be enough, my boy."
+
+"Never mind; let's do what we can.  A little's more than none.  Half a
+loaf's better than no bread, old man."
+
+"Very well, my boy; I'll take what I can to-night."
+
+"I say, you're sure this'll turn out all right?"
+
+"Certain.  It's as safe as safe.  I'll make him let me have a little
+more--put something else up--and then we'll take all the shares we can
+get."
+
+"And about selling out at the right time?"
+
+"You leave that to me," said the butler, smiling confidently.  "Look
+here."
+
+He took out a letter and held it to his companion, who read it with his
+face lighting up, and clapped it back in the butler's hands.
+
+"That's right, isn't it?" said Roach.
+
+"Splendid, old man.  But stop; why, that's your writing."
+
+"Of course it is; I copied it."
+
+"Oh, I see.  Well, then, that's all right.  Go on ahead."
+
+"But I wish it wasn't that centre-piece again.  I'm always afraid of its
+being wanted."
+
+"Oh, it won't be wanted," said the footman, impatiently.
+
+"If you could only have managed about that key."
+
+"Well, give me time.  I say, that was a narrow squeak, when the old
+woman nearly caught us."
+
+"Yes, it was horrible," said the butler, wiping his forehead.  "Fancy
+her telling Jemmy, and him sending for us to come up in the lib'ry afore
+the lot of them!"
+
+"Easy enough for him to send," said the footman, with a grin, "but it
+would have taken a lot of pulling to get us there."
+
+"Yes, Orthur, my boy, the game would have been up."
+
+"And before we'd made our pile, old man.  There, you want a glass of
+wine to pull you together.  You mustn't go and see our dear old relative
+looking like that."
+
+"No," said Roach, brightening up; "that would not do, Orthur.  The old
+woman did not find us out."
+
+"I held the door too fast for her, and a miss is as good as a mile, eh,
+guv'nor?  I say, old man, don't you think we might wet it?"
+
+The butler smiled blandly.
+
+"Well, just one glass wouldn't be amiss, my boy.  What shall it be?"
+
+"Can't beat a glass o' port, old man.  What do you say?"
+
+"I say ditto, my dear boy," and the butler, smiling, drew out his keys,
+unlocked a cupboard, lifted out a cobwebby bottle with a dab of
+whitewash on its end, and with a great deal of ceremony drew the cork,
+while Arthur fetched and gave a finishing touch to a couple of glasses
+as the cork was presented to him.
+
+But it was only to smell, and Arthur inhaled the fragrance and sighed.
+Then the rich wine came gurgling out into the glasses, and these latter
+were raised.
+
+"Well, old man, here's success to speculation," said Arthur.
+
+"Suck-cess to speculation," said the butler, and the glasses were slowly
+drained.  Lips were smacked and the glasses refilled.  "A very fine
+wine, Orthur."
+
+"Tip-top.  How much is there of it?"
+
+"Over six hundred dozen, my lad."
+
+"Well, we'll help 'em drink it, old man.  It's fine.  Sets a fellow
+thinking.  Now, look here.  We're not going to stand still, eh?"
+
+"Not a bit of it, dear boy.  We'll make our hay while the sun shines."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the butler, filling another glass of the port; "and some
+people shoot a long time before folks get hit, eh, Orthur?"
+
+"That's so, guv'nor; you've only to keep going, and the chances are that
+they can't hit you at all."
+
+The result of the emptying of that bottle of wine was that the gold
+epergne and several other pieces of plate went into the charge of the
+none too particular descendant of the Medici, a gentleman who, having
+been exceedingly unfortunate in carrying on what he called a square
+trade, had of late gone in for the risky and round, with the result that
+he was making money fast, and calming his conscience by chuckling to
+himself and saying--
+
+"What harm is there, so long as you're not found out?"
+
+That evening Mr Roach returned with a sufficient amount to dip slightly
+into the new speculation in which the Clareboroughs were engaged, but he
+did not sleep any better for that.  He dreamed about brokers who dealt
+in stock, and by a steady descent of thought he went on to brokers who
+put executions into houses.  They suggested debtors' prisons--debtors'
+prisons brought up Holloway, and Holloway the criminal side--the
+criminal side, penal Portland, with irons, and costumes ornamented with
+broad arrows, shortcut hair, chain-gangs, and an awakening in a violent
+perspiration.
+
+Mr Roach had no appetite next morning, but on behalf of footman Arthur
+and himself, a couple of hundred pounds were invested in the shares of
+the gaseous company which had nothing whatever to do with gas.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+MAN MASTERS.
+
+"At last!" muttered Chester, as he stood, pale and careworn, leaning
+upon the iron rail in the Row, watching the carriages slowly filing by,
+or stopping from time to time.
+
+For after days and days of watching, he was once more about to give up
+in despair and venture, in spite of all rebuffs, upon another call at
+the house, when in the distance he caught sight of the Clareborough's
+light victoria approaching, and to his great delight he found that it
+only contained one occupant.
+
+He hesitated for a few moments as to what he should do--wait, or advance
+to meet it, and decided now upon a bold attack, for every nerve was on
+the strain.
+
+"I will not be put off this time," he said to himself.  "She shall
+acknowledge me."
+
+As he approached his heart began to beat fast and he gazed upon the
+elegantly-dressed figure leaning carelessly back with her face shaded by
+the tinted parasol she held, and, as yet unobserved, Chester saw that
+she looked pale, troubled and weary, her half-closed eyes dreamy and
+thoughtful.
+
+Fate favoured him, for there was a block somewhere ahead, and the horses
+were stopped only a few yards away.
+
+He passed under the rail, walked up quickly, still unobserved, till his
+hand was upon the carriage door.
+
+"Marion!" he whispered.
+
+She gave a violent start, the blood suffused her cheeks, and then fled,
+leaving her deadly pale, as she gazed at him with dilating eyes.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she said coldly, "you addressed me?"
+
+"Yes," he said in a low voice which trembled a little from the excess of
+his emotion, "but we are alone now, Marion.  For pity's sake let there
+be an end to this."
+
+"Ah, I remember," she said in her low, musical tones, "you are the
+strange gentleman who addressed me before.  You are repeating your
+mistake, sir."
+
+"Indeed!" he said reproachfully, as he fixed her eyes with his.  "Do you
+think I could ever be mistaken?"
+
+She bowed slightly and drew a little back, glancing hurriedly at the
+driver, and then looking ahead as if eager for the carriage to proceed.
+
+"How can you be so cruel?" he whispered.  "Marion, you are maddening
+me!"
+
+He saw her wince, but with wonderful self-command she sat rigid as she
+said slowly--
+
+"I beg, sir, that there may be an end of this.  Can you not see that you
+are making a mistake, and are insulting an unprotected woman?"
+
+She looked him fully in the eyes now with a calm air of wonderment, and
+for the moment he was in doubt.
+
+But the next moment his heart said no, and his pulses increased their
+beat.  No accidental resemblance could have produced that effect upon
+him.  He knew that there was something which he could not explain--a
+strange vitality or occult force which bound him to her, and, though his
+eyes might have erred, his nature could have made no such blunder, and
+he was eager to continue the attack now the opportunity was there.
+
+"Mistaken?" he said in a low, impassioned tone; "how could I be
+mistaken?  From the first moment you came to me, your looks, the tones
+of your voice in your appeal to me for help, awoke something which till
+then had slumbered within me.  I had lived in ignorance of the reality
+of such a passion, one which has gone on growing like a torrent ever
+since.  It has swept all before it since the hour I knew that I had
+found my fate."
+
+"My good sir," she said firmly and gently; "indeed you are taking me for
+someone else."
+
+He smiled as he gazed at her intently.
+
+"For whom?" he said.
+
+"I cannot say; some friend.  It is an accidental resemblance, and once
+more--I appeal to you as a gentleman to cease this persecution."
+
+He shook his head sadly.
+
+"Accidental resemblance?  No.  There is but one Marion on earth.  No
+woman ever resembled you in any way.  This is impossible.  Marion, be
+merciful.  After the night on which I saw you last, what must you think
+of me?  Of what manner of man could I be if, after striving so hard to
+gain an interview like this, I could let you throw me over in so cruel a
+way?  Marion, for pity's sake.  There must be stronger reasons than I
+already know of to make you act like this."
+
+She glanced round wildly for a moment or two, as if in dread that they
+were being observed and his words were taking the attention of the
+people around, then up at the coachman, but he sat erect and stolid, too
+well schooled in his duties to have a thought or eyes for anything but
+the beautiful pair of horses under his charge.  Then, as she realised
+the fact that they were perfectly unobserved by the busy throng around,
+she recovered her passing composure, and said quite calmly, and with a
+suggestion of pity in her tone for one who seemed to her to be suffering
+from some slight mental aberration--
+
+"Can you not see that you are mistaken?"
+
+"No," he said, smiling sadly; "only that it is impossible."
+
+There was a faint quiver of the lips, but it passed off, and her
+beautiful eyes flashed, and the colour rose in her cheeks, as she made a
+strong effort to be firm.  Then there was a touch of anger in her voice
+as she said coldly--
+
+"Must I appeal to someone passing, sir, or to one of the police?"
+
+Her words stung him to the quick, "No," he whispered huskily; "there is
+no need.  If you are made of steel and can act to me like this, I must
+suffer; but do not insult me by treating me as if I were insane.  I
+could bear it from your brother; not from you, Miss Clareborough."
+
+She winced slightly at the utterance of her name, and he fancied that
+there was the light of compassion for one brief moment in her eyes.
+
+His own face hardened now in the bitterness and despair of the moment as
+he took out his pocket-book, and in spite of her self-command she
+watched his action narrowly as he drew out the carefully-folded
+handkerchief stained with blood.
+
+"I saved this inadvertently," he continued.  "Yours; marked with your
+initials."
+
+He looked her full in the eyes as he spoke, bitterly now.
+
+"When I found it where I had hurriedly thrust it into my pocket that
+night, it seemed to offer itself as an excellent clue for the police to
+track out the mystery of the house to which I was taken."
+
+She leaned forward quickly and caught at the handkerchief to cover it
+with her hand, while he still retained his hold.
+
+"For God's sake, no!" she whispered, and her face convulsed with fear.
+"Don't do that--the police!"
+
+The stained scrap of cambric formed a bond between them as he gazed
+deeply in her eyes now, while a faint smile dawned upon his lip.
+
+"I checked the thought at once," he said softly.  "I told myself that
+such an act might hurt you--might give you pain; and I set to and tried
+to track you without, all through the months of agony and dread for what
+you might have to fear from him.  Take it, to destroy or save, as you
+will.  It is yours; but do not do me the injustice to think I would
+retain it to hold over you in terrorem.  Marion, I love you too well."
+
+He breathed these words in the faintest tones, but he could read that
+they fell heavily upon her ears, for in spite of her rigid position he
+saw that her eyes looked wildly and imploringly into his.
+
+"For Heaven's sake be silent!" she whispered faintly.
+
+"I am your slave," he said softly.  "Take the handkerchief."
+
+"No, no; I trust you," she whispered back.  "I will not try to
+dissimulate any longer.  It is impossible; but you must never speak to
+me again--never recognise me.  I cannot explain--I am not my own
+mistress.  It would injure others.  Be merciful to me, for I have
+suffered deeply.  Think of all that has passed as some dream.  I
+cannot--must never see you more."
+
+The carriage began to move on, but he walked by the side as she
+continued--
+
+"Spare me--spare those I love.  I ask it of you.  Now, farewell for
+ever, for your own sake--for mine."
+
+"No," he said softly, as he walked on, unnoticed by the many they
+passed, for it was a commonplace thing enough to see a gentleman by a
+carriage door talking to its occupant.  "No.  You have made me more
+happy then I can express.  The dense black cloud that has been over my
+life has passed away, for I know now that you have been wearing this
+mask for the sake of others whom you wish to spare.  But you have let me
+see behind it; just one glimpse, but enough to show me the true nature
+of the woman I love."
+
+"Oh, hush!" she whispered.  "Believe me, that is impossible.  Now leave
+me, pray."
+
+"Nothing is impossible to a man who loves as I love you," he whispered.
+
+"No, no; once more, I tell you that we must never meet again."
+
+"And I tell you," he whispered back, "that you are part of my life, and
+that while my heart beats I will never give you up.  Marion, we must
+meet again sooner or later; I live for nothing else.  Your hand one
+moment."
+
+"No, no!" she moaned.
+
+"Your hand--life of my life," he whispered softly; and as she gazed at
+him wildly, her hand, as if drawn by the magnetism of his nature, glided
+slowly into his, and was clasped in his nervous grasp.
+
+"I am going to wait."
+
+"No," she said more firmly.  "This for the last time.  They would kill
+me--they would kill you."
+
+"No," he said.  "An hour ago I would have welcomed death; now life opens
+before me in its fullest sunshine of joy.  They shall not kill you; they
+shall not kill me, for I know you love me and have suffered, and it has
+made me strong."
+
+"Impossible, impossible," she whispered, with her eyes fixed upon his.
+
+Then he loosed his hold of her gloved hand, dropping back and raising
+his hat as the carriage rolled on.
+
+He stood and watched it for a few minutes till it had passed out of
+sight, and then drawing himself up, feeling that a breach of
+invigorating life had run through his being, he turned to walk back
+across the path, and found himself nearly confronting the man who had
+occupied so much of his waking thoughts, and whose eyes now seemed to
+flash as they gazed fiercely in his.
+
+"Well," said Chester to himself, as he set his teeth hard, "I am ready
+for the worst.  Am I to learn the mystery of the big house now?"  And he
+took a step forward to meet the man he felt to be the great enemy of
+both their lives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+THE GAME IS UP.
+
+To Chester's surprise James Clareborough's face hardened and grew stony
+as they approached, and the next moment he had passed him without a word
+or the slightest sign of recognition, and when, stung by jealous
+solicitude for the woman he loved, Chester turned and followed, he saw
+his enemy take another direction to that in which Marion was being
+driven.
+
+Then days passed--then weeks; and in spite of constant watchfulness
+Chester could not get a glimpse of her who filled his thoughts.  The
+reason was patent--the family had left town, and he had once more to
+track them out.  But this was easy, and in a day or two he was down at
+the nearest spot where he could unobserved obtain lodgings, ostensibly
+trout fishing the stream that meandered by The Towers, the
+Clareboroughs' Kentish estate.
+
+Still he could not obtain a second interview.  He knew, though, that
+which filled him with exultation and patience to wait--he was loved.
+
+There were troubles at The Towers in the lower stratum, all connected
+with speculation; and, though money was worthless in these days in
+Chester's eyes, the speculation affected his fate.
+
+It was in this wise:--
+
+Roach looked puffy, and especially so beneath the eyes, where a couple
+of pendulous bags disfigured his important-looking countenance.
+
+Unkind people would have said that the flushed aspect was due to
+drinking, but he was perfectly steady as he got out of a hansom cab, in
+company with Arthur, after a short run up to town, where they had
+arrived by a fast train that afternoon, and taking the two small, light
+portmanteaus which the driver handed down, each threw his overcoat
+across his arm, and they walked together round the corner into Highcombe
+Street, made for the Clareboroughs' town house, tried the area gate,
+which, as they expected, was locked, and went up the steps to the front
+door.
+
+"How do you feel, Arthur?" whispered Roach.
+
+"Right as the mail, old man.  Now then, no gammon.  You keep your pecker
+up, and do the talking, and I'll do the business.  There's nothing to
+mind."
+
+"Nothing to mind?" said Roach, as he raised his hand towards the
+servants' bell, but did not ring.
+
+"Only the handcuffs if we don't do what we want and clear off."
+
+Roach groaned.
+
+"Don't be a fool, old man," whispered the footman.  "As I told you, we
+must do it now.  The game's up, and you know what Jemmy is.  There'll be
+no mercy, so let's make our hay while the sun shines.  Pull the bell."
+
+With trembling hand Roach rang the servants' bell, and then drew a deep
+breath.
+
+"That's right, old man, pull yourself together.  Think it's going to be
+a lark, and after it a fortune for us both."
+
+"Yes, I'm going to be firm now," growled Roach, hoarsely.  "It's our
+only chance, Orthur, so stand by me."
+
+"Like an iron post, old man.  That's the way, jolly's the style.  Here
+she comes."
+
+They caught a glimpse of the housekeeper at the side window, and
+directly after the door was open.
+
+"Good-morning, ma'am," began the butler.
+
+"Good-morning, Mrs Barron, ma'am," said Arthur.
+
+She looked sternly from one to the other, without making way for them to
+enter.
+
+"Why are you two men up in town?" she said harshly.
+
+"Well, the fact is, ma'am, I had a little bit o' business to do about my
+savings in the sweet threes, and as the gentlemen were all in Paris, and
+the ladies were not expecting any company, I made so bold as to ask Mrs
+James Clareborough to spare me till to-morrow night and let Orthur come
+with me, for I don't like going through money matters without a
+witness."
+
+"Oh," said the housekeeper, speaking with her lips very close together,
+but without drawing back.  "Then why have you both come here?  This is
+not a broker's."
+
+"No, ma'am, of course not," said Arthur, with a little laugh.
+
+"I was not speaking to you, sir," said the housekeeper, turning upon him
+suddenly.  "Have the goodness to keep your place."
+
+"Certainly, ma'am.  Beg pardon, ma'am."
+
+"Now, Mr Roach; what do you want here?"
+
+"Want here, ma'am?" stammered the butler; "want here?  Why, I can't go
+to my broker without my warrants."
+
+The housekeeper's pale face looked more pinched than ever as she gazed
+searchingly at the other, who looked completely taken aback; and then
+she darted a sharp glance at Arthur, who evidently expected it and did
+not look, but busied himself in bringing a little bit of vanity well
+into sight, the said piece of vanity taking the shape of a couple of
+bronze fox-head cuff studs, which he drew beyond the sleeves of his
+coat.
+
+"You can go down into your pantry and get what you require," said the
+housekeeper, coldly, and she made way for the butler to enter.  Arthur
+was about to follow.  "No," she said sharply, "you can wait."
+
+"Wait--here, ma'am?"
+
+"Yes," said the housekeeper, decisively, and she made as if to shut the
+door.  "Or, no; you can sit down inside."
+
+Arthur brightened up, and stepped in jauntily, the housekeeper closing
+the door.
+
+"You need not take your portmanteau down with you, Roach."
+
+"No, ma'am, of course not," said the butler, respectfully.
+
+"Here, I'll mind that, Mr Roach, sir," said the footman, stepping
+forward to take the valise, after standing his own on end.
+
+The butler was a few steps in the hall, the housekeeper between them,
+and a little on Arthur's right, as he took a step forward, taking his
+overcoat from his arm and shaking it out the while, as if about to
+double it afresh.  Then, quick as thought, he stepped aside, threw it
+over the woman's head, and twisted it together.  "Now, old man; her
+legs, sharp!"
+
+Roach stood for a moment as if bewildered.  Then at an oath from his
+companion, he stepped forward, threw his arms round the struggling
+woman's legs, lifted her up, and in spite of her smothered cries bore
+her right to the end of the passage.
+
+"Down with her; pantry," said the footman, sharply, and they carried her
+quickly down the basement to the butler's pantry, where they laid her on
+the table.
+
+"Fetch the trunks, old man," said Arthur, loudly.  "I can manage.
+Quiet, you old cat, or I'll choke you!"
+
+He tightened the coat with a couple, of twists as he spoke, but the
+faint cry continued.
+
+"Bah! let her squeak; she might howl for a month, and no one could
+hear."
+
+This, for the butler looked unnerved.  He went up directly, though, and
+as soon as he was gone Arthur put his face to the coat, close to the old
+lady's ear.
+
+"You just listen," he said.  "You've had your innings, and led me a
+pretty devil of a life with your nasty ways.  It's my turn now.  Quiet,
+curse you!  Stop that row, or as sure as you're a living woman now,
+you'll want a coffin to-morrow."
+
+"What--what is it you want.  Money?" came faintly.
+
+"Never you mind what we want, old girl.  There, you needn't kick and
+struggle; we don't want to carry you off and marry you by force, so lie
+still.  Ah, that's right; look sharp.  My Gladstone, not yours.  Get out
+the rope."
+
+The butler, whose face was now mottled with white patches, opened one of
+the portmanteaus and took out a cord.
+
+"Now come here and lay hold.  If she begins to squeal again, tighten
+your grip a bit."
+
+But the woman lay perfectly still now, and she did not even wince when
+the footman twisted the rope tightly round her ankles and knotted it
+fast.
+
+"Now then, over on her face, guv'nor.  I must have these wrists tied
+behind, or she may begin to scratch."
+
+The helpless woman was turned over, her wrists firmly secured, and she
+was then laid on her side and the coat taken off, to reveal her wide,
+staring eyes, and teeth set, with the lips drawn right away.
+
+"You've killed her, my boy," whispered the butler in a hoarse voice.
+
+"Bah!  Old cats like that have got nine lives," said the man,
+contemptuously.  "Here, give me a clean glass cloth, and I'll shove a
+gag in her mouth."
+
+"No, no.  She's bad enough as it is," whispered the butler.  "Let her
+be."
+
+The footman looked at the old housekeeper dubiously, and then
+unwillingly gave up his project.
+
+"Shall we put her in the plate-closet?  I have the key."
+
+Arthur laughed.
+
+"Why, that would smother her in half an hour.  No; help me to lay her
+down on the hearth-rug.  We can come and look at her now and then.  But
+she won't move.  We've pretty well frightened her to death."
+
+Judging from appearances, this was the case, and after laying the
+unfortunate woman on the hearth-rug, they took portmanteaus and coats
+and hurried out into the main passage, then into that which went off at
+right angles, to stop in front of the lobby door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+AND GROWS DANGEROUS.
+
+The key the men possessed admitted them at once and the other
+portmanteau was opened, ready for use--a use which soon became plain.
+
+"Think it'll be all right this time?" said Roach, who was in an intense
+state of excitement.
+
+"Dunno till I try," was the reply.  "Light up and look sharp."
+
+Roach turned to the second portmanteau, which stood inside the door, and
+took out a dark lantern.  Then striking a match, he lit it, and in
+obedience to a word from his young companion, he held up the cover of
+the iron door key-hole with one hand, and directed the full glare of the
+bull's-eye on the opening with the other.
+
+Arthur had not been idle.  Hastily doubling his overcoat, he made of it
+a pad to kneel upon, and then taking a bright new key from out of a
+piece of tissue paper, he began to try if it would fit.
+
+"All right," he whispered, "it goes splendidly."
+
+"Well done," panted Roach.  "But be quick."
+
+"Quick be blowed!  Don't you be so jolly nervous; there's no one to
+interrupt us now."
+
+"Well, turn the key."
+
+"Won't turn--sticks.  Oil."
+
+Roach handed a little oil tin from the portmanteau, the key was
+withdrawn and lubricated and once more thrust in, to evidently act upon
+a part of the mechanism of the great lock, but that was all.
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated Arthur.  "I know the beggar.  It's one of that sort
+you see at the safe shops.  When you turn the key you shoot bolts, top,
+bottom and both sides.  It nearly does.  He made it quite to the wax
+pattern, and it only wants a touch or two.  Here, give us the file."
+
+"Stop a minute."
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I want to see if old Mrs Barron's safe."
+
+"Look alive then.  No, no; give me the file first."
+
+The tool was handed and the active young fellow held the key close to
+the light and began filing away where it seemed to him the wards of the
+key wanted opening; and he was still busy when Roach returned.  "She's
+all right," he panted, his breath coming short as if he had been
+running.
+
+"Oh yes, she won't get clear of those knots--an old cat!--I know.  You
+take it easy, old man; we're as safe as safe."
+
+"But suppose the guv'nors come back from Paris, my dear boy?"
+
+"Won't be back for a fortnight.  You know as well as I do.  Lor' 'a'
+mussy! on'y think of our taking up a game like this, old man!"
+
+"It's awful--it's awful, Orthur."
+
+"Yah! we can't help it.  How were we to know that everything we backed
+would go wrong and leave us in such a hole?" said Arthur, as he filed
+away.
+
+"But it seems like burglary," whispered the butler.
+
+"Burglary be blowed!  Look here, if you're going to whine I shall cut
+it, and my stick too, and you may face it out with the guv'nors.  What
+are you going to say when they ask after that gold centre-piece, and the
+rest of the plate you've lent my uncle?"
+
+"We've lent my uncle!" said the butler, reproachfully.
+
+"Oh, well, we then.  I'm ready to take my share.  It was their fault,
+and we're driven to this to get money to take out all you've pledged."
+
+"We've pledged."
+
+"We be hanged!  You did the pledging, but I don't want to back out of
+it.  I'm going to stand by you.  Only, you see, circumstances are
+against us, old man.  We meant to come quietly and get enough out of
+here to square us and make us able to make a fresh start on our own
+hook--I'm sick of their tips--but as soon as we come to do it quietly,
+meaning to sleep here for the night, that old cat cuts up rough, and we
+have to quiet her.  Consequence is, old man, we've got to go the whole
+thing and make ourselves rich men all at once.  Don't matter.  Just as
+well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, so I mean to make it two sheep if I
+can--two sheep a-piece, old chap.  There, that ought to do it now."
+
+He ceased filing and applied the key again, to find that he could turn
+it a little more.
+
+"Almost," he said.  "Oil again."
+
+But the fresh oil sent it no farther, and the butler wiped his dripping
+brow and ejaculated--
+
+"Tut-tut-tut-tut!"
+
+"Look here, old chap, if you can do it better come and try yourself,"
+cried Arthur in an ill-used tone.
+
+"No, no, my dear boy, I can't.  You are cleverer at such things than I
+am, but it's such fidgeting work to stand here holding the light and
+doing nothing."
+
+"Never mind, it's worth it," said Arthur, laughing.  "Think of the
+pearls and diamonds in here, old fellow.  Now for another try.  We shall
+be as rich as Rothschilds when we've done, and across the water before
+they can put a hand upon us.  Bah!  Blister the key!  It's as near as
+near.  But I'll do it, if I try till to-morrow morning.  Here, go and
+see how the old girl's getting on.  Got your keys?"
+
+"Yes, my boy, but they are no good for this."
+
+"Pah! who said they were?  They're good for a bottle of wine, though,
+ain't they?"
+
+"Oh yes--yes!"
+
+"Then bring one with the cork out, and never mind a glass; and don't
+stop to decant it, old chap, for I want a drink horrid bad.  This is
+warm work."
+
+The butler went away on tip-toe.  As he walked along the passage he
+heard the sharp grating of the file, and shivered with dread.  But upon
+reaching the pantry he felt relieved, for the housekeeper seemed to be
+asleep.
+
+Not content with this, Roach went up to the hall and listened.  But all
+was perfectly still in the great solemn mansion, and he went down again,
+to be conscious of the scrap, scrap of the file, before he reached the
+pantry, where the old lady still lay unmoved.
+
+Hastily getting a bottle of wine from the cupboard, and uncorking it, he
+went back, to find Arthur still filing away.
+
+"Oh, there you are then," he grumbled.  "I was just a-coming to see if
+you were finishing the bottle all to your own cheek.  Here, give us
+hold."
+
+He took a deep draught, and recommenced filing with renewed vigour for
+some minutes.
+
+"Now," he said, "this is the last time of trying.  If it won't do it we
+must do the other thing."
+
+He tried the key, and it turned half-way, but it was forced upon them
+that there was something wanting.  The key did not touch some portion of
+the ingeniously-made lock, and the young man thrust it in his pocket.
+
+"Better have tried the hammering at first," he said.
+
+"No, no!  The noise," cried Roach.
+
+"Bah!  Who's going to take any notice of a bit of knocking?" said the
+young man, contemptuously.  "The sound can't reach them there."
+
+"But suppose a policeman heard it as he passed?"
+
+"Well, he'd hear it and say to himself, `They've got the workpeople
+in.'"
+
+"But--"
+
+"Oh, blow your buts, old man!  Did the police come to see what was the
+matter when the men took out the kitchener and put in a new one?"
+
+"No, but--"
+
+"But you're in a stew.  That's what's the matter.  Give us hold.
+Thinnest wedge, and the hammer, and you hold the light.  That piece of
+leather will stop the sound."
+
+The butler sighed, but obeyed his companion, handing him a steel wedge
+with an edge as fine as the blade of a knife.  Then he held the light
+close while his companion gently tapped it in between the door and
+frame.
+
+Another followed, and another--quite a dozen, of increasing sizes,
+having been brought; and the leather-covered hammer deadened the sound
+greatly, while the crack grew larger, and it seemed pretty certain that
+the steel wedges would sooner or later force open the door.
+
+"See this?" said the operator, triumphantly.
+
+"Oh yes, I see, but I'm in a bath o' perspiration."
+
+"With doing nothing but hold a candle!" said Arthur, with a chuckle, as
+he drove in another wedge as far as it would go and released two more
+thinner ones.  "Now I'm going to have a moment's rest and a drink while
+you go and see how dear old Mrs Barron is.  Whistle if you want help."
+
+The butler went off, and the young man drank and examined the progress
+he had made, and he was still examining so as to find where he could
+drive in the next wedge with the most effect when the butler came back.
+
+"She hasn't stirred," he said.
+
+"She can't," said his companion, with a laugh, and he began tapping
+again vigorously, but at the end of half a dozen strokes, as his hammer
+was poised to deliver another, there was a dull clang, and the young
+fellow leaped back.
+
+"Hear that?" he said in a whisper full of triumph.
+
+"Yes, it was like the banging to of another iron door."
+
+"Banging to of an iron grandmother!" cried Arthur, contemptuously; "it's
+the whole front splitting away, and another wedge in will fetch it right
+off."
+
+"I hope so," said Roach, piteously.  "Do you think it will take much
+longer?"
+
+"I don't care if it takes two days," said the other, coolly.  "Don't
+matter so long as we get the door open."
+
+Roach sighed.
+
+"There, hold the light, and don't do that.  You are a cheerful mate,
+'pon my sivvy.  Here goes."
+
+The speaker began again, keeping a sharp lookout, so as to spring back
+and not be crushed by the falling door; and to this end he made Roach
+stand in the entrance and direct the light from there, giving him plenty
+of room.  But the door did not fall, and at the end of an hour the
+hammer was thrown down.
+
+"It's no go."
+
+"Do you give it up?" cried Roach, eagerly.
+
+"No, I don't give it up, but I'm not going to work all the flesh off my
+bones when one stroke will do the work."
+
+"What!  The powder?"
+
+"That's it, old chap.  Go and see how the old woman is."
+
+Roach sighed, and went away, to return shivering.
+
+"She looks horrible," he whispered; "but you mustn't think of powder, my
+lad.  You'll bring the people in from both sides to see what's the
+matter."
+
+"Won't make noise enough for that, and I sha'n't use enough," said
+Arthur, coolly.  "Don't talk.  That door's got to come open, and I wish
+I'd tried this plan at first."
+
+"But it's too dangerous."
+
+"No, it isn't.  You keep quiet, and make that light shine well on the
+key-hole."
+
+As he spoke the young man took a pound canister of fine gun-powder from
+the portmanteau pushing the latter afterwards outside into the passage.
+Then with a small funnel, also provided in the portmanteau, and fitted
+with a curved piece of pipe, to fill the interior of the lock with the
+fine black dust, which ran away down the funnel and pipe as easily as
+sand from one side to another of an hour-glass.
+
+"This is the way," said Arthur, eagerly.  "I shall get pretty well half
+a pound in."
+
+It seemed quite probable, for the powder ran trickling on, every
+stoppage being overcome by a shake or a tap or two, till at last, no
+matter how the door was rapped, no more would go down.
+
+"Doesn't matter; there's plenty," said the young man, quietly, thrusting
+in a piece of ready prepared slow match, which hung down the front of
+the door and half a yard over the floor, where the powder sprinkled
+about was carefully dusted away.
+
+Then by means of a wedge some scraps of rag were driven in tightly to
+fill up the key-hole, and the young man rose up.
+
+"There we are, old chap," he said.  "All we've got to do is to open the
+lantern, touch the end of that slow match in the light, let it go down--
+stop a minute, let's blow away a little more of the powder--then
+there'll be plenty of time to shut and lock the door, wait for the
+blow-out of the lock, and go in after and pick up the best pieces, fill
+our Gladstones as we like and be off."
+
+He went down on his knees, and, trembling violently, Roach held up the
+lantern, as he stood quiet outside now.
+
+"Here!  How am I to see?" cried his companion, angrily.
+
+"But it isn't safe to bring a light near the powder."
+
+"Bosh!  How can a light behind glass do any harm?  Come closer, I
+mustn't leave any powder near the slow match.  That's better; I can see
+now, and--Ah! take care."
+
+For all at once the butler fell over him with a crash, the lantern
+struck against the opposite wall and came open, the lamp portion falling
+out and firing some of the scattered powder, while at the same moment
+the lobby door was banged to, shut, and they heard the shooting of the
+lock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+THE COLLECTOR WAKES UP.
+
+Professor Westcott, next door, had another consignment that morning.
+The London and North Western Railway Company's men called with their van
+and a way-bill to deliver two chests from Birmingham, weighing over two
+hundredweight each, both strongly screwed up and roped, and a smaller
+line round them, carefully-sealed:--"Books; with great care.  To be kept
+dry."
+
+There were two men with the van, and a boy, the former making very light
+of the heavy chests as they lifted them off the tail-board of the
+vehicle, while the professor stood blinking on the steps in his big
+spectacles, his grey hair hanging down long from beneath a black velvet
+skull-cap, and his rusty dressing-gown, tied on anyhow, reaching nearly
+to his heels.
+
+"Rum old owl, Joe," said one of the men.  "This makes six chesties I've
+delivered since Christmas."
+
+"Books?" said the other.  "Yes, books.  The old buffer's got his house
+chock-full of 'em from top to bottom, I should say.  You'll see when we
+get in; he'll ask us to carry 'em downstairs."
+
+"All right, mate; I don't mind if its anywheres near the beer cellar."
+
+"Well, it ain't, Tom, and so I tell you.  I've delivered boxes o' books
+to him for years now, and I never see a glass o' ale yet."
+
+"Stingy old hunks!  I say, we ain't 'bliged to carry 'em farther then
+the front door.  That's delivering."
+
+"Yes, that's delivering, mate, but you're allus in such a hurry.  I was
+going to say you get no beer, but he'll be as civil as treacle, and
+stand rubbing his hands and telling yer to mind and not break the glass
+in the book-cases as you passes; and when you've done he twinkles at you
+through them Chinee-looking specs of his, and crooks his finger, and
+beckons you to follow him into the front room, as is full of books.
+Then he brings out a little glass and a bottle of the most heavenly old
+sperrets you ever tasted.  Tlat!  I can taste it yet.  Talk about
+cordial--why, it's enough to make you say you'll never have a glass in a
+pub. again."
+
+"Well, lay hold," said Tom, sharply; "look alive!  Can't you see the
+gentleman's a-waiting?"
+
+The head van-man chuckled, and together they lifted in chest Number 1,
+the professor smiling and looking deeply interested.
+
+"On the mat, if you please," he said, "and when you have carried in the
+other, I should be very much obliged if you would take them both
+downstairs, where I can open them without making a mess."
+
+"Suttunly, sir," said Tom, and they set down Number 1 and went after
+Number 2, upon which the boy sat, drumming the side with his heels.
+
+"Right, Tommy?"
+
+"Right you are, mate."  And the men went on with their task muttering--
+
+"Don't see how it would make a mess if they were opened in the front
+passage.  Long time since there's been a broom there."
+
+"See the spiders too?"
+
+"No, but I saw the webs."
+
+"But what does he do with all these books?  He can't read 'em all."
+
+"Collects 'em, I should say.  Steady!  Got it?"
+
+"Right!" and the second chest was carried in.  "One moment while I shut
+the door," said the professor, rubbing his hands; "then I'll show you
+the way.  Now then, please; mind the book-cases as you pass.  It is
+rather dark.  Very heavy, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, tidy, sir.  Nothing to signify.  Books is heavy things."
+
+"Yes, very heavy, my good man.  That's right, through this door, and
+down these stone stairs.  I'm afraid you find it very heavy."
+
+"Oh, we're all right, sir.  Used to it," grunted Tom.  "We're always
+lifting things in or out; but we has a good rest between, sir, and rides
+about in the company's carriage."
+
+"Down there, please, under that window, where I can see to unpack them.
+Thank you."
+
+The two men went up the stone staircase again, noting the empty chests
+and book-cases with which the walls were lined, and above all the dust
+of years collected thickly.  Then the second chest was carried down, and
+the quaint-looking old gentleman smiled and made his round-glassed
+spectacles twinkle as they reached the hall.
+
+"I must sign the paper and pay you, my men," he said; and then in a
+drily comical way he crooked his right index finger, and beckoned to
+them to follow him into the gloomy book-lined dining-room, where he
+signed the delivery book, paid the carriage, and then took a bottle from
+a cellarette and a glass from a closet under a book-case, and poured out
+for the men, while they tossed off the rich spirit in turn.
+
+"That's prime, sir," said the first man.
+
+"'Eavenly," sighed Tom.
+
+"Old and good, my men.  I'm glad you like it.  It's soft and mellow, and
+will not hurt you.  Have another glass?"
+
+"Hurt yer, sir!" said the second man, with a sigh; "that stuff wouldn't
+hurt a babby."
+
+It did not hurt him when it came to his turn.  To use his own figurative
+way of speaking, he only made one bite at it, and then glanced at the
+black bottle as if it were a little idol which ought to be worshipped,
+before following his leader out into the hall, the old professor closing
+the door after them and immediately after, drawing himself up straight,
+taking off his goggle glasses and thrusting them into his pocket,
+looking now a keen-eyed, elderly man, with the sharp, yellow-tinged face
+of a New Englander.
+
+Going back with a firm step into the dining-room, and with the weak old
+stooping manner entirely wanting, he took a fresh glass from the closet,
+filled it and tossed off the contents.
+
+"Hah! yes, that is a good glass of brandy," he muttered; and taking a
+cigar from the same receptacle he lit up and began to smoke, as he
+seated himself at a table, drew forward a blotter, and spent some time
+reading and writing letters, before throwing himself upon an old
+well-worn couch and going off into sleep which lasted a couple of hours.
+
+He woke and in the most business-like way went downstairs into the
+basement, where from a cupboard he took a large screw-driver, walked to
+the chests, cut the ropes, and carefully examined the seals attached to
+the lesser cords before disturbing them.  Then, apparently satisfied, he
+cut these in turn, and began to take out the screws from the lid of the
+first chest.
+
+He had reached the last screw when he suddenly stopped short and stood
+listening.  The next minute he had walked to the end of the passage, to
+stand listening again, till apparently satisfied, he went into a dark
+corner and pulled at a knob as if ringing a bell.  Then he went sharply
+back to the chests, laid down the screw-driver, and hurried up the
+stairs to the dining-room with all the activity of a man of forty.
+
+Here he went to a book-case and took down an ancient-looking massive
+tome, laid it upon the table, lifted the cover, and showed that it was
+only an imitation book, the cover proving to be the lid of a box in
+which lay a mahogany case, from which he drew out a small revolver, and
+after examining its six chambers to see if they were loaded, he
+carefully concealed it in the breast of the vest he wore beneath the old
+dressing-gown.
+
+Then the spectacles were resumed, and the slow, stooping, aged aspect
+came over him, as he went into the hall, threw off his dressing-gown and
+took an old-fashioned coat from a peg, donned it, and then completed his
+old-world aspect with a quaint broad-brimmed hat.
+
+He looked the most peaceable of elderly gentlemen as he took a baggy
+umbrella from the stand, went out, closed the door after him, walked
+slowly along by the area railings for a few steps, and then turned up
+the steps to the Clareboroughs' door, passing into the hall so quickly
+that it seemed as if the door was opened from the inside, though anyone
+who had watched would have seen that there was a very quick, clever
+application of a latch-key.
+
+His movements now were slow, deliberate and silent.  He laid down
+umbrella and hat upon a table, and, apparently quite at home, went from
+room to room on the ground floor before ascending to the drawing-rooms;
+but finding no one, he went a floor higher and then descended to the
+hall, where from the top of the stairs he stood listening to the
+hammering going on below.
+
+For some time he seemed undecided how to act, but at last he was in the
+act of descending, when steps below made him retreat, and he stepped
+back, listening, and hearing Roach go into the pantry.  The next minute
+the man began to ascend, and as actively as a cat, and with as silent a
+step, the professor ran to the foot of the grand staircase and bounded
+up to the drawing-room floor, ensconced himself behind a heavy curtain
+which draped one of the doors, and made out that whoever it was reached
+the hall and went into dining-room, library, study, lobby and
+morning-room, before he went back to the stairs and descended once more
+to the basement.
+
+The professor was after him directly, and at the head of the stairs in
+time to hear Roach come out of the pantry again, and the chink of a
+glass against a bottle.
+
+He descended the gloomy stairs by slow degrees, listening the while to
+the work going on, and hearing the sound of tools, the whisperings, and
+after a long period of waiting and another forced retreat when Roach
+went again to the pantry to make sure the housekeeper was safe, he
+finally stood thinking.
+
+"Someone who knows the place well," he said to himself.  "Quite at home.
+Where can the old woman be?  They can't have killed her."
+
+He raised one hand quickly to his breast, as the thought sent a thrill
+through him, and taking advantage of a busy time when tools clinked and
+voices whispering were heard, he stole right down, stepped cautiously
+along the passage, and then darted into the first open doorway, for
+there was an impatient utterance from somewhere ahead, and he felt that
+he was on the point of being discovered.  But the work went on again,
+and he glanced round, found that he was in the butler's pantry, and saw
+at the same instant more--the tightly-bound woman upon the table.
+
+He was at her side in an instant, and as he bent over her the wild eyes
+were opened and gazed intently in his.
+
+There was no occasion for him to raise his finger to his lips, for the
+old housekeeper, as the tapping went on, gave him a meaning look and
+jerked her head side-wise, before lying perfectly still again.
+
+The professor nodded sharply, tapped his breast, and then drew a
+pen-knife from his pocket, with whose keen blade he quickly divided the
+rope which bound hands and feet.  Then, pressing his finger to his lips
+once more, he went silently out of the pantry, followed by the
+housekeeper's eyes, as breathing hard she watched him and then lay
+perfectly still with her face contracted by pain and dread, waiting for
+the denouement.
+
+It was long in coming, for the professor's movements were slow and
+cautious in the extreme.  But there was to be no more retreat.  He did
+not know who were there for some time, but he was ready to meet the
+enemy, whoever it might be.
+
+At last he was in a position from which he could peer round the angle
+where the passage turned sharply, and as he gazed into the lobby a few
+yards off, where Roach directed the light of the bull's-eye lantern with
+quivering hand, his own trembled and the revolver he held shook when it
+was raised again and again to take aim.
+
+At last a grim smile of satisfaction tightened his lips into a line, for
+he saw his opportunity.
+
+In the very nick of time, after stealing close up, he threw himself
+forward, and with one heavy thrust drove the butler forward over his
+companion, banged to the door and locked it, bringing out the key,
+before he retreated and turned the corner to listen for the explosion
+which did not come.
+
+"Light went out, I suppose," he muttered.  "Pity too.  Pleasanter for
+others, and it would have been accidental."
+
+He thrust back the revolver, placed the key in his pocket, and without
+stopping hurried into the pantry.
+
+"Got them--safe," he said, and ran upstairs to the handsome library,
+where he unlocked a cabinet, touched a button and waited for a minute,
+before a little weird voice answered--
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+He gave his number to the questioner, and asked to be switched on to
+X987654321.
+
+In a few minutes, in obedience to the modern magic of the telephone,
+there came another signal and question and satisfactory proof of
+identity, before the professor said sharply--
+
+"Krakatoa.  Come quick."
+
+"Hah!" sighed the operator, as he closed the little cabinet; "now for
+the old lady.  Is the danger scotched or killed?"
+
+He hurried down to the pantry, to find that the housekeeper had not
+moved; and as soon as he reached her side, he took her in his arms,
+while hers feebly clasped his neck.
+
+"My poor old darling!" he whispered tenderly.  "In much pain?"
+
+"A good deal.  My ankles are numbed.  Is there any danger now?"
+
+"Not for us, I think," he said grimly.  "There, hold still, and I'll
+carry you up to the library;" and lifting her from the table as easily
+as if she had been a mere girl, he bore her up the stairs and laid her
+upon a couch, kneeling afterwards by her side to chafe her ankles and
+wrists in turn, while she told him all that he did not know.
+
+"What will you do now?" she said anxiously at last.
+
+"Go on chafing my poor old darling's ankles," he said quietly.
+
+"No, no; you know what I mean--those two men."
+
+"Did anyone see them come, dear?"
+
+"Not that I am aware of," she replied.
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"Well, you do not speak."
+
+"Why should I?  It is not your business--not entirely mine.  We must see
+what they say."
+
+"You have sent for them?"
+
+"Of course; directly.  It is a vital question."
+
+"For us?"
+
+"For them, I fear."
+
+The old woman shuddered.
+
+"Why that?" he said quietly.  "Ought we to sympathise so much with
+burglars who stand at nothing?"
+
+"But it is so horrible," she whispered.
+
+"It would be as horrible for us," he said sharply; "and we are of more
+consequence than they."
+
+"But surely they will not--"
+
+"Kill them?  Possibly.  Something must be done to silence them.  It is
+their own doing, the scoundrels!  We cannot go to the wall."
+
+The old woman closed her eyes and sighed.
+
+"God help us!" she said softly.  "Harry, I am getting very weary of my
+life now; it is so near the end."
+
+"Hush!" said the professor, gently.  "There are things which you ought
+not to see or know.  You are weak from the shock and injuries you have
+received."
+
+"But listen, dear."
+
+"My dear old wifie," he said tenderly, "it is of no use to look in that
+imploring way at me.  You know what Jem is, and I am too old now to set
+myself in antagonism with him.  There, be at rest; I will do all I can.
+Don't think me so bloodthirsty as to desire their end.  Still, so many
+interests are at stake.  It is a case of burglar against housekeeper.
+The scoundrels came armed."
+
+"Armed?"
+
+"Yes, I saw a revolver in the trunk with their burgling tools.  If I had
+come upon them suddenly, and they had had time, they would have fired at
+me."
+
+"Oh, surely not!"
+
+"Humph!  You are a woman, my dear, with a woman's gentle heart, ready to
+defend and palliate.  After the way in which I found you, I do not feel
+so merciful.  Let me ask you one question; If there was nothing to fear
+from them, why did they come armed?"
+
+The old housekeeper made no reply, but lay back upon the couch weak and
+trembling, while the professor slowly paced the room, till she opened
+her eyes wildly, and signed to him to come to her side.
+
+"I am more upset than I thought for," she said feebly.  "Help me up to
+my room; I think I can walk now."
+
+The professor's brow lightened, for it was a relief to him to hear the
+old woman's words; but she noted the change and sighed as she rose
+painfully.
+
+"You will wait until they come?" she said, trembling at the thought of
+that which she dreaded.
+
+"Need you ask?" said the professor, gravely.  "Come, you will be better
+after lying down for a few hours.  Try to forget everything in the
+remembrance that I am doing all for you that I can."
+
+"Yes, Harry," she said softly; "I have never had cause to complain of
+your want of love for me in these forty years; but for my sake, dear,
+let there be no more crime."
+
+"For your sake I will do everything I can," said the professor, gravely,
+as he bent down and kissed her while leading her to the door and then
+slowly up to a bedroom on the third floor, where he left her at the end
+of a few minutes, apparently sinking into a doze.
+
+As he stole out softly he silently removed the key, replaced it on the
+other side, and locked her in, before descending quickly to the hall,
+where he stood listening for a few minutes, and then went down into the
+basement and stepped softly forward to listen at the outer door of the
+plate vault.
+
+A faint muttering of voices could be heard as he placed his ear to the
+key-hole, but all else was still; there was no sound of an effort being
+made to escape, and he went back to the hall, where he took out and
+re-examined his revolver.
+
+"I wonder," he said to himself, "whether a shot or two could be heard in
+the street.  Pish!  Absurd!  No one heard the reports when poor Bob went
+down.  Ah, here they are.  They haven't been long."
+
+For there was a faint rattle of a latch-key in the door, and Robert
+Clareborough entered, in company with the brothers, the former looking
+excited and anxious, the two latter stern and as if prepared for the
+worst.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+GRIM DEATH.
+
+As the door banged to and was locked, Roach uttered a wild cry and threw
+himself upon the floor, covering the back of his head with his hands, as
+he thrust it into the corner farthest from where the powder was
+sputtering and sending up tiny clouds of smoke.
+
+Arthur shrank away against the wall for a moment, glancing wildly at the
+broken lantern and the lamp-wick, burning still in a little pool of oil,
+while the powder kept flashing out, darting from grain to grain, where
+they had been scattered about the floor.  Then the tiny flames divided,
+one set running towards the portmanteau, in which the partially-emptied
+tin had been thrown, the other going by fits and starts in the direction
+of the iron entry.
+
+This nerved the younger man to desperation, and he made a dash at the
+grains upon the floor, to sweep them away before they reached the loaded
+door, feeling convinced, in his agony of fear, that the little burning
+train would somehow communicate with the powder with which he had
+charged the lock.  But in spite of his efforts the fire was too quick,
+the flame running swiftly along by the bottom of the frame, and with a
+yell of despair he dashed to the other corner of the far side of the
+lobby, to imitate the butler, expecting to hear the charge explode, and
+then the iron door driven back to crush them to death.
+
+It seemed long minutes to the two wretched men as they crouched there
+with their eyes shut, but it was only the matter of a few seconds'
+suspense before the little chamber was in total darkness, and filled
+with the dull, dank reek of the burnt powder.
+
+At last the footman raised his head cautiously, with hope reviving.  The
+charge had not gone off and the tin had not been reached.
+
+He looked in the direction of the great safe, but all was black, and,
+rising slowly, he felt his way to the door to try if it were really
+fast; while as his hands glided over it he found that it fitted so
+closely that he could hardly make out the crack between door and frame.
+The main object of his search, though, was for the lock, in the hope
+that he should be able to force it off with one of the wedges, and then,
+armed as they were, he and his companion might escape.
+
+But there was no lock to attack, no key-hole.  That which he sought was
+of the mortice pattern, buried in the heavy lining, and wherever he
+passed his hands, the surface was perfectly smooth.
+
+"Curse the old Jezebel!" he muttered.  "Here, Roach, old man, rouse up.
+We're done, but we can't stay here--we must get out somehow.  Did you
+see her?  I wish I'd tied her up a little tighter."
+
+"No, no, no," groaned Roach.  "I did not see her.  She must have got
+free somehow.  I only felt her hands as she jumped upon me from behind
+and drove me forward on to you.  Is--is the powder going off?"
+
+"No!  Get up.  There isn't a spark now.  Phew! it's enough to stifle a
+fellow.  Where's that wine?"
+
+"I put it somewhere in this corner.  Yes, here."
+
+"Give us hold.  Be sharp."
+
+There was a clicking noise in the utter darkness and after feeling about
+for a few moments, the younger man grasped the bottle, drank heavily,
+and passed it to his trembling companion, who snatched at it and drank
+deeply in turn.
+
+"That's better," cried Arthur, sharply.  "Now then, the matches."
+
+"No, no, don't strike a light.  Are you mad?"
+
+"Pretty nigh, but we must risk it or we can never get out."
+
+"We never shall get out alive," groaned Roach.
+
+"Well, I mean to," said his companion; "so here goes.  I can't use the
+hammer and chisels and wedges in this blessed darkness."
+
+There was the crackle of a match, and the elder man uttered a cry of
+horror as he shrank into his corner again, but as the wax taper burned
+up steadily in Arthur's fingers, and no explosion followed, he obeyed
+his companion's order and picked up the lamp, which proved not to be
+utterly drained of oil, and after a little patient effort began to burn
+again as it was replaced in the broken lantern.
+
+"Now, then, sharp's the word," said Arthur.  "Hold the light while I
+chisel out the wood till I can get at the lock.  Mustn't use the hammer,
+or it will put her on her guard.  Wonder whether she's outside
+listening."
+
+There was not a sound to be heard, and with Roach tremblingly holding
+the light, Arthur worked away with the sharpest-edged wedge, but made
+little progress, for a few cuts were sufficient to prove that the door
+was of the hardest oak, and when the man had been carving away for
+nearly an hour, with the perspiration streaming down his face, it was to
+throw down the chisel in despair, for the wood proved to be only the
+casing of an iron door of great strength.
+
+"Give me the bottle," said Arthur, panting.  "Can't you do something
+beside shivering there?"
+
+Roach groaned as he handed the bottle.
+
+"Man wants a bit o' Dutch courage over a job like this."
+
+"We shall never get out," groaned Roach.
+
+"Not if it's left to you, old man.  You'd turn it into a tomb at once.
+Here, I've left you a drop.  Tip it off, and see if it'll put some pluck
+into you.  There, I've tried fair play and quiet; now it's got to be
+foul play and noise.  Give me hold of the hammer and let's see what a
+wedge'll do."
+
+"Hist!  What's that?"
+
+Arthur needed no telling to be silent.  Snatching the light from his
+companion, he reached over to the portmanteau and took out the two small
+revolvers, handed one to his companion, and whispered to him--
+
+"It was the lock.  Someone coming.  Don't fire without you're obliged.
+I'll try the hammer first."
+
+As he spoke he blew out the little lamp, and set it down, before
+standing facing the door with his hand raised, ready to strike down the
+first who entered.
+
+Some minutes must have elapsed without further alarm, and the two men
+were ready to believe that the sharp snap they had heard must have come
+from the iron door of the closet, the frame springing back after being
+strained by the application of the wedges that had been driven in.
+
+All at once, just as an attack was about to be made once more upon the
+way by which they had entered, and Arthur had taken a fresh match from
+his box, a soft light began to dawn, grew rapidly, and dazzled their
+eyes, as they strove to make out whence it came, and stood ready once
+more to strike.
+
+It was not from the passage door, but from the ceiling just over the
+great safe, and as the men stood trembling with fear and excitement,
+there was a spurt of smoke from the great iron safe, a dull concussion,
+and the footman fell back.  While as the butler stood staring upward,
+his face ashy grey in the soft light, as the smoke curled about a
+glowing bulk, there was a second spurt of smoke, and concussion, the
+wretched man fell forward across his companion, and the light grew
+dimmer in the heavy clinging vapour, slowly dying out into utter
+darkness, while the silence was as that of the tomb.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+UNDER THE BEECHES.
+
+It was a lovely morning in the sylvan solitude by The Towers, and
+leaving Mrs James and Mrs Dennis Clareborough in the drawing-room,
+Marion took her sunshade and a book, to wander away across the lawn to
+the gate in the ring fence, and then along the path at the edge of the
+beech wood, ostensibly to find a seat in the shade of one of the great
+spreading trees, and have a calm, quiet read.
+
+But ere she had gone a couple of hundred yards the fever in her blood
+and the throbbing of her temples told her that the idea of calm and rest
+was the merest farce.
+
+She had hailed the departure of the gentlemen for Paris, as they had
+said, as a relief from the quiet, insidious siege laid to her by James
+Clareborough, who rarely spoke but on the most commonplace topics, and
+was always coldly polite; but there were moments when she met his eyes
+and read plainly enough that his intentions were unaltered, and that
+sooner of later he would again begin to make protestations of his love.
+
+Her position seemed harder than she could bear.  His wife hated her with
+a bitter, jealous hatred, but she was too much crushed down and afraid
+of her fierce lord to show her dislike more openly, though there were
+times when she seemed ready to break out into open reproach.
+
+"Oh, if I could only end it all!" thought Marion again and again.  "Will
+Rob never break with them?
+
+"Never," she said to herself, despairingly; "they would never let him
+go.  And yet surely the world is wide enough, and somewhere surely he
+might find peace.
+
+"No, he would never settle down to another life.  It is fate.  There is
+neither peace nor happiness now for me."
+
+She had wandered on for quite a mile before, feeling hot and wearied,
+she seated herself on one of the great gnarled mossy buttresses of a
+beech and leaned her head upon her hand, thinking of him whom she could
+not keep out of her thoughts, but still only in despair.  Then her
+thoughts turned once more to James Clareborough, and, brave and firm as
+she was, a thrill of horror ran through her at the dread which oppressed
+her and set her heart throbbing wildly.
+
+What if this Parisian journey was only a ruse and James Clareborough
+were back on purpose to try and gain a meeting with her while her
+brother was not by her side?
+
+The thought was horrible, and it grew more intense, her cheeks flushing
+and then growing ghastly white from her emotion.
+
+"What madness to come out here alone!" she thought.  "He would have been
+watching for me, and be ready to read it as an invitation."
+
+She looked round wildly, and started as a sharp tap was heard close at
+hand.
+
+"Am I growing such a nervous, feeble coward," she said, "that I am
+afraid of a rabbit?  What have I to fear from him?"
+
+She laughed at her weak folly, and to prove to herself that she was no
+longer under the influence of dread she took her book and opened it at
+random, but did not read a word, for her musings began again.
+
+"It is excusable," she thought.  "All these years of dread of discovery,
+of some end coming to their plans, and for the sake of what?  A
+miserable gilded life of luxury that is hateful to me and makes me
+shiver when I look into his pleading eyes.  He loves me and would marry
+me to-morrow in his ignorance; and then what would he say when he knew
+the truth?  I cannot bear it; there must--there shall be an end.  It is
+not life; it is one miserable nightmare of fear."
+
+She sprang to her feet, uttering a faint cry of horror, and turned to
+run.  For there was some truth in her suspicions; she had been followed.
+There was a quick step behind, and she had run some little distance
+before, glancing back, she saw that it was not James Clareborough, but
+Chester, standing beneath the trees which had sheltered her, and now
+gazing after her with a look of anger and despair.
+
+She stopped, and he came up to her side.
+
+"Have I grown so hateful to your sight?" he said bitterly.
+
+"No, no!" she cried, holding out her trembling hand, which he seized and
+pressed passionately to his lips.  "I thought it was James
+Clareborough."
+
+"Then he has dared to insult you again?" said Chester, angrily.
+
+"No, no; indeed, no," she cried.
+
+"But you live in fear of him.  Oh, Marion, Marion, how long is this
+weary life to last?  Once more let me plead.  Would not a quiet life
+with my devotion be a happier one than this miserable luxury, where you
+are constantly persecuted by a scoundrel?"
+
+"Oh, hush, hush!" she murmured.  "I have told you it can never be."
+
+"Yes, but these are words.  Your woman's honour forbids you to stay."
+
+"Hush, for pity's sake!  You torture me," she cried.  "Must I explain,
+but you must see and know that I am tied down to it, that I cannot leave
+my brother--that he would never let me go."
+
+"I cannot--I will not believe but that all this is imaginary," said
+Chester, firmly.  "Will you not trust me?  Will you not tell me what it
+all means, and let me, a man, be the judge?"
+
+"No," she said, mastering her emotion and speaking calmly now.  "Once
+more, I cannot, I will not explain.  Why have you come down here?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"You know," he said.  "Where should I be but near the woman who is my
+very life?"
+
+"But it is madness--it is misery and torture to me."
+
+"Poor wretch that I am," he said bitterly.  "Still, I cannot help it."
+
+"But," she cried imploringly, "your life would not be safe if they knew
+of your being here."
+
+"Indeed?  Well, what of it?  My presence is a torture to you.  I am a
+torture and misery to myself.  They would not dare to kill me.  I don't
+know, though," he said, with a mocking laugh, "by accident, perhaps."
+
+"Dr Chester," cried Marion, appealingly, "does it please you to inflict
+this agony upon me?"
+
+"No, no," he said, snatching at her hand.  "I would give my life to save
+you pain."
+
+"Then go.  Leave me and forget me.  I am not the true, innocent woman
+you think.  I am not fit to be your wife."
+
+"What!" he cried, turning ghastly pale, while as she saw his agony her
+face grew convulsed and she half raised her hands to him pleadingly, but
+let them fall.
+
+He saw the movement and snatched them to his breast.
+
+"It is not true," he cried proudly.  "Some false sentiment makes you say
+this.  I will not believe it of the woman I love."
+
+She did not resist until he tried to take her to his heart.  Then she
+shrank away.
+
+"No," she said.  "You must not touch me like that.  Once more, believe
+me, all this must end.  You must think of me no more--you must go at
+once, and we must never meet again."
+
+"You have told me that before," he said, "but I am not a free agent.  I
+was obliged to come.  I have been here these three days past, watching
+for an opportunity to speak to you; and when I do you once more cast me
+off--you drive me away.  Well, I have borne it so long; I can go on
+bearing it till you relent, or--I die," he added softly.
+
+She looked at him wildly for a moment, and his hopes rose, for the
+relenting seemed close at hand, but she was stern and cold again
+directly.
+
+"And your betrothed wife," she said.  "What of her?"
+
+He was silent for a few moments, and then he made a deprecating sign
+with his hands.
+
+"What do you know of her?" he said.
+
+"Everything," she replied.  "How basely and cruelly you have behaved to
+her.  Is this your honour as a man?"
+
+He heard a deep sigh.
+
+"I have only one thing to say in my defence," he said slowly.  "I
+believed that I loved her; but then I had not seen you.  I was not under
+this spell."
+
+"It is no spell," she said firmly.  "Go to her, and forget me.  I tell
+you that I am not worthy to be your wife, and that such a union is
+impossible for reasons which I dare not explain.  You hear me?"
+
+"Yes," he said sadly, "I hear you."
+
+"Then good-bye for ever."
+
+She turned from him, but a piteous moan escaped her lips, and the next
+moment he had clasped her to his heart.
+
+"Marion, my own!" he whispered, as he pressed his lips to hers; "then
+you do love me!"
+
+"Yes," she said, as she clung to him, and for a moment or two returned
+his embrace.  "You know I love you and shall never love another, but go
+now, for Heaven's sake!  I tell you it is impossible.  Good-bye--
+good-bye."
+
+She tore herself from his grasp and fled through the wood, not daring to
+turn her head to see if he followed, lest in her woman's weakness she
+should give way and dare everything for his sake.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+CAUGHT ONCE MORE.
+
+Marion did not check her pace till, hot and breathless, she was forced
+to rest for a few minutes.  Her brain was in a state of bewildering
+confusion, and had Chester been there then to plead his cause, her heart
+would have made but a poor defence.  She would have been his, and his
+alone.
+
+But in a few minutes she began to grow calmer; the dangers of such a
+course were more and more apparent, and at last, as she walked on
+towards The Towers, her thoughts of the future assumed their wonted
+current, and she began to plan.
+
+She was not long in deciding what to do.  Chester was evidently staying
+somewhere near at hand; he would grow more and more persistent, and she
+could see nothing in the future but his presence being discovered by
+James Clareborough or his brother, and then some terrible mischief would
+arise, and fresh misery ensue.
+
+There seemed to be but one course open, and that was to escape from
+Chester's pursuit and to this end she went quietly into her own room to
+try and grow more composed, joined the others at lunch, and then in the
+most quiet, matter-of-fact way ordered the pony carriage to be round
+directly after for a drive.
+
+"You will not go with me, I suppose, Di?" she said to James's wife.
+
+"I?  No, thank you, Marion.  I am not well to-day," said the lady,
+flushing.
+
+"Will you come, Hester?" she continued.
+
+"I can't; I am going over to the Ellistons' to tennis," was the reply.
+
+"Then I'll have my little drive alone," said Marion, smiling; and
+shortly afterwards she stepped into the phaeton, the boy groom sprang up
+behind, and the spirited little ponies started off along the park drive
+at a rapid pace.
+
+"How nice Marion always looks," said Mrs Dennis, "and how well she
+drives."
+
+"Yes," said her sister-in-law, bitterly; "everyone admires her.  It is
+always Marion, Marion!  Why did he not marry her?  He would if I died.
+How long does it take, Hester, to break a woman's heart?"
+
+"Oh, hush, hush, dear!" whispered her sister-in-law, soothingly.  "I
+know how sad it is, but you ought not to be so cold to poor Marion.  I
+honestly believe that she absolutely hates James."
+
+"Hates? when she does all that she can to lure him on?"
+
+"That is not true, dear," said Mrs Dennis, gravely.  "I know Marion
+better than you do, because you have always shut your heart against
+her."
+
+"Well, can you wonder?"
+
+"Yes and no.  It is a terrible position, and I pity you, dear; but
+believe me, James's advances fill Marion with disgust and shame, and
+some day you will find this out."
+
+"I'd give the world to believe it," sobbed the wretched woman, "but I
+cannot, and I am certain that she has gone to keep some appointment with
+him now."
+
+"You are unjust, Di dear," said Mrs Dennis, kissing her lovingly.
+
+"I am a miserable, unhappy woman, ill-treated and scorned by the man who
+swore to love me.  What else can you expect?  Why did I ever enter this
+wretched family?"
+
+"Dazzled as I was by the wealth and show, I suppose," said Mrs Dennis,
+coldly.  "But we are their wives, and must bear our lot."
+
+"It is easy for you, Hester," said Mrs James, clinging to her
+sister-in-law now.  "Paddy is always manly and kind.  He is never like
+James."
+
+"No," said the lady addressed.  "I could not--No, no, don't let's talk
+about that.  There, there, dear; believe me, it would be best to try and
+wean him from her.  Some day there may be a great change.  I believe
+that sooner or later Rob and Marion will break away."
+
+"Or James and Marion," said her sister-in-law, bitterly.
+
+"No, no.  Try and be just, dear, and do all you can to win Jem from his
+wretched madness.  We want no more terrible quarrels.  Next time someone
+else might suffer from a pistol shot, and then--"
+
+"You mean James," cried his wife, with a spasmodic movement of her hand
+to her breast.
+
+"Yes," said Mrs Dennis, "I mean James.  Rob would certainly resent it
+fiercely."
+
+The unhappy wife turned pale, and shivered as she walked away.
+Meanwhile, in accordance with her plans, Marion drove by a cross road to
+the pleasant little Kentish town half a dozen miles away, pulled up at
+the station, and on alighting handed the reins to the young groom, told
+him to wait for an hour, and if she were not back by the next train to
+drive home.
+
+Then entering the station she took a ticket for London, too deeply
+intent upon her own thoughts to notice who followed her into the office;
+and as soon as the train drew up, she stepped into an empty compartment
+and drew up the glasses, to go on thinking out her further proceedings,
+for her mind was now made up.
+
+She had ample means, her brother having well provided her with a banking
+account of her own, and her intention was to go straight to the town
+house, pack up a couple of trunks, and take the night boat for Dieppe,
+and thence go on to Switzerland, where she could extend her projects,
+though where she went mattered little so long as she could avoid another
+meeting with her pursuer.
+
+The train was gathering speed for its straight run on to the terminus,
+and she was congratulating herself upon her decision, and then thinking
+that there was only one difficulty in her way--the opposition which
+might arise on the part of the old housekeeper.  But she concluded that
+a little firmness would suffice; if not, a frank avowal of the dangers
+she foresaw would win the old woman to her side, and then, once free
+from the trammels which surrounded her, she would perhaps regain her
+peace of mind, so broken since that terrible night when she fetched
+Chester to her brother.
+
+"And he will soon forget me and return to her who is his by right, and
+then--"
+
+She uttered a wild cry of alarm and shrank back for a moment or two in
+the corner of the compartment, for, in spite of the great speed at which
+they were going, the carriage window on her left was suddenly darkened,
+the door thrown open, and a man climbed in, fastening the door again,
+and then sinking panting upon the opposite seat.
+
+"You here?" she cried wildly.  "Oh! what madness!"
+
+"Yes, hardly the work of a sane man, with a train going at express
+speed."
+
+"You might have been killed!" cried Marion, trying hard to be firm, and
+descending to commonplaces.
+
+"Yes, it seemed very likely once, for the carriages were a good way
+apart; but if I had been, what then?  Not the first man who has died for
+a woman's sake."
+
+"Why have you come?" she said hurriedly.
+
+"Why have I come?" he replied contemptuously.  "You ask that!  Well, let
+me tell you; because I knew that sooner or later you would try to elude
+me; and I have watched night and day to prevent that.  Correct me if I
+am wrong; my heart tells me that you are going up to town to avoid me,
+and are then going further to be where I cannot find you.  Am I
+correct?"
+
+"Yes, quite," she replied gravely.  "I did not know that I was so weak.
+I know it now, and, as I have told you, we must never meet again."
+
+"I will not argue with you," he said, "only tell you once more that you
+take a woman's view of imaginary danger.  I take that of a man
+determined to sacrifice life sooner than lose sight of you again--a poor
+stake, perhaps, for without you it is a worthless thing, but it is all I
+have."
+
+She sighed and he saw that her face grew harder, as she avoided his gaze
+and sat looking out of the window in silence.
+
+"Do I understand you," she said at last, "that you mean to follow me?"
+
+"To the world's end," he cried.
+
+"Is his manly, to force yourself upon a helpless woman?"
+
+"No; it is despicable perhaps, but I am lost now to reason.  You are
+everything to me; to be near you is to live--to lose sight of you is to
+die.  You are my fate, and you draw me to your side."
+
+"To your ruin, perhaps to your death," she said wildly.  "You must have
+grasped what kind of men my relatives are.  You must have seen what risk
+you run."
+
+"Yes, I have seen and thought out all this, but it is as nothing to your
+love."
+
+"And would you see me suffer through your folly and imprudence?"
+
+"I would give anything to spare you suffering."
+
+"Then leave me before my agony becomes too great to bear."
+
+"I--can--not!" he cried.  "Drive me from you, and when I find that all
+hope is gone, then I will seek for rest."
+
+"What!" she cried.
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I am no boasting boy," he said sadly.  "Everything to make life worth
+living will be gone, and an easy painless death beckoning me on.  I am a
+doctor, I have but to go home, and there it is, to my hand."
+
+She said nothing, but sank back in the corner of the carriage, covering
+her face with her hands; and he saw that her breast was heaving with the
+painful sobs struggling for exit.
+
+He bent over towards her, and touched her arm.
+
+"Marion," he whispered.
+
+She started from him as if she had been stung, and her eyes flashed as
+her hands fell into her lap.
+
+"Don't touch me!" she said wildly.  "You are mad."
+
+The train sped on rapidly, taking them nearer and nearer to their fate,
+as both sat back in silence now--she trembling, battling with her heart
+in her struggle to devise some means of escaping him, he sinking into a
+dull, stolid state of determination, for, come what might, he was
+resolved never to leave her now.
+
+At last the train slowed up to the station where the tickets were taken,
+and Marion handed hers.
+
+"I have no ticket," said Chester, quietly, handing the man a sovereign.
+"I had not time to go to the booking-office.  I got in at Bineleigh.
+This lady will bear me out."
+
+The man quickly wrote a receipt and handed it with the change.  Then the
+train glided on once more, and in a few minutes they were in the great
+terminus.
+
+"You have no carriage waiting?"  Chester asked.
+
+"No," she said quietly; "I'll take a cab."
+
+Chester summoned one, and handed her in.
+
+"Where do you wish to be driven?" he said.
+
+"Home."
+
+"May I come with you, or must I follow in another cab?" he asked.
+
+"I am at your mercy, Dr Chester," she replied sadly.
+
+He hesitated for a moment, then told the driver the name and number of
+the street, and sprang in.
+
+Marion drew a deep catching breath as he took his seat by her side, and
+then remained silent till they reached the familiar doorway.  Here, in
+the most matter-of-fact way, Chester alighted and handed out his
+companion and they walked up to the door together, Chester reaching out
+to pull the bell.
+
+"No," she said, speaking in a quick, startled tone of voice, and he
+looked at her wonderingly, for she opened the door with a latch-key,
+stepped in, holding the door with one hand and extending the other.
+
+"Now," she said firmly, "good-bye."
+
+For answer he stepped forward with a smile, but not to take her hand.
+He pressed the door gently, but with sufficient force to make her give
+way, and his foot was on the step.
+
+"No, no, for pity's sake!" she almost moaned; "it may mean your death."
+
+"Well, better that than an empty life," he cried, as she slowly gave
+way, mastered by the force that held her in its strange power.  The next
+minute the door was closed, and they stood together in the great, dim
+hall.
+
+He saw that she was struggling to be firm, but a wave of triumphant joy
+carried him on, for he knew that he had won.
+
+"My own!" he whispered passionately; "at last! at last!" and he clasped
+her in his arms.
+
+"No, no!" she cried, making one last effort for the supremacy; and,
+thrusting him violently away, she turned and fled towards the end of the
+hall, darted through the open doorway into the great darkened
+dining-room and tried to shut the door.
+
+But he was too close, and this time he caught her in his arms, raised
+her from the carpet, to bear her to the couch that had borne her wounded
+brother for so long, and there, letting her sink down, dropped upon his
+knees at her feet.
+
+The room was very dim, the electric light being only slightly raised,
+but he could see her half-closed eyes and trembling lips, as she bent
+over towards him now till her brow rested upon his shoulder.
+
+"This is not death, but life," he whispered passionately.  "Tell me, you
+were going to escape from me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where were you going?"
+
+"Abroad--Switzerland."
+
+"When?"
+
+"To-night."
+
+"Yes, to-night," he said softly, "and I with you, dearest.  Your slave--
+yourself--one with you always.  Marion, we must never part again."
+
+"Never part again," she whispered back, as his lips sought hers.  "You
+have mastered.  I can resist no more; take me, dearest--I am yours.  But
+we must go at once.  At any moment they may return."
+
+"Who may?  Your brother and James Clareborough?"
+
+"Yes.  Come away."
+
+"To the world's end with you," he whispered, but she uttered a cry and
+sprang to her feet.
+
+"What is it?" he whispered.
+
+"Didn't you hear?  Come."
+
+She led the way quickly into the hall, and the voices her
+preternaturally sharpened hearing had detected came from below.
+
+Marion caught Chester's hand and ran with him towards the great front
+door, which they had almost reached, when there was a sharp, quick
+rattling sound before them and the dull movement of feet upon the stone
+step.
+
+The next moment the door was opening towards them.
+
+Hemmed in, with peril on either hand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
+
+As Chester turned to face what he knew must prove to be a desperate
+encounter, Marion snatched at his wrist.
+
+"Quick!" she whispered, and hurried with him through a door on their
+right, which led into a library with two windows facing the street; but
+the shutters were closed and the place was dimly lit by four
+diamond-shaped holes cut in their top panels, each of which sent a broad
+white ray across the room, to strike upon the end nearest the door, and
+to avoid their light Marion led him quickly close up into one corner by
+the window curtain.
+
+They had hardly taken refuge there, to stand close together, when a hand
+struck the panel a sharp pat, and gave the door, which had gently swung
+to, a thrust which sent it back against the stop.
+
+"Come in here," said James Clareborough in a low, surly voice; and
+Chester felt his companion shiver, and the blood surged to his brain as
+he dimly saw the shadowy figures of four men enter the room, three of
+whom took chairs and threw themselves into them, the other standing
+against a book-case with a dull patch of light from the window shutters
+striking full upon his breast, about which his hand kept on playing
+nervously.
+
+It seemed to Chester that it was only a matter of moments before they
+would be seen; but so far the party were unconscious of their presence,
+and a couple of dull red spots of light waxed and waned as the aromatic
+fumes of cigar smoke began to pervade the room.
+
+"Throw open one of the shutters, uncle," cried James Clareborough,
+hoarsely.
+
+"No, no," half shouted a voice which Chester recognised at once as that
+of his old patient.
+
+"What!  Why?" cried James Clareborough, and the violent throbbing of
+Chester's heart grew less painful as he heard Robert Clareborough's
+reply--
+
+"Because if ever men wanted the darkness it is now."
+
+It was a respite, for no one uttered a word for a few moments.  Then in
+a low, angry voice, James Clareborough spoke again, and, with his every
+nerve on the strain, Chester noted that he took his glowing cigar from
+his lips and held it down between his knees.
+
+"Curse them!  Who would ever have thought of the fools attempting that?"
+
+"Where's your wife, uncle?" said a voice which made the hand with which
+Marion clung to Chester's wrist give a slight twitch.
+
+"Upstairs, lying down, my boy," said another voice, and it was Chester's
+turn to start as he recognised it as one he had heard before, though he
+could not make out where.
+
+"Is she much hurt?" said Robert Clareborough.
+
+"More frightened than hurt," said the same voice.  "Of course it is a
+terrible shock."
+
+"Horrible!  Here, this must be the end of it.  What do you say, Paddy?"
+
+"Confound it! yes.  I'm sick."
+
+"Will you stop this cursed preaching, Rob?" snarled James Clareborough.
+"You fools!  You know there can be no end to it.  What are you talking
+about?  It was their own fault."
+
+"Ah!" ejaculated Rob in a tone which made his sister shiver.
+
+"Look here," continued James Clareborough; "are you two going to show
+the white feather?  Take the case fairly, Paddy.  Suppose this had been
+at The Towers in the night, and we came upon a couple of scoundrels--
+with revolvers, mind!--carrying off the girls' jewellery, would either
+of you have hesitated about firing?"
+
+"I suppose not," said Dennis, heavily, "but it seemed such cold-blooded
+work."
+
+"Been more cold-blooded if they had dropped us two.  Now, then, no
+nonsense; let's look the matter straight in the face.  One thing is
+enough at a time.  We can discuss Rob's ideas of a dissolution of
+partnership later on," was added, with a sneer.  "Now, uncle; what about
+their coming?  We had better have the old lady down."
+
+"No, let her be; she can tell you no more than I can.  They must have
+asked for leave to come up as you were all away, and come straight here
+ready to pitch some tale, and your aunt unsuspectingly let them in.
+They must have set upon her, tied her fast, and carried her down."
+
+"Must, must, must!" cried James Clareborough, impatiently.  "You were
+not here."
+
+"No, boy, but it tells its own tale.  Arthur was dressed as if for a
+holiday, and the other fool too."
+
+"But what did it mean?" said Rob, hoarsely; "suspicion--an effort to
+find out--or robbery?"
+
+"Robbery, my boy, for certain.  They thought that they would get at the
+girls' jewellery."
+
+"Yes, that's it," said James Clareborough, sharply; "an interrupted
+burglary.  Curse them!  They had all the professional tools.  Well, they
+won't want them any more."
+
+Marion started, and Chester passed his arm round her as he felt her
+trembling violently.  For something like light was beginning to dawn
+upon her--a light which grew clearer as the thought of the butler asking
+leave for him and the footman to have a day in town, to see to some
+business, as the gentlemen were away.  That morning at breakfast, and
+now--
+
+The light was growing hard, clear and ghastly.
+
+"Now, then," said James Clareborough, sharply, "let's look the position
+in the face.  Everything turns upon whether anyone knows beside
+ourselves that the hounds came here."
+
+"Yes, everything," assented the voice which puzzled Chester still.
+"Would anyone know?"
+
+"Is it likely?" said James, cynically.  "They were coming on a
+burglarious expedition; they began by half killing the poor old aunt,
+and they were trapped trying to blow open the iron door.  Is it probable
+that they would tell anyone they were coming here?"
+
+"No; absurd," said Dennis, shortly.
+
+"But still--"
+
+"Will you hold your tongue, Rob?" cried his cousin.  "Do you think they
+would have spoken?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then we're safe in that direction," continued James Clareborough.  "The
+next question is, then, did anyone who knew them see them come to the
+house?  The odds are a million to one that no one did, for they would
+take pretty good care that their faces were not seen as they stood
+waiting.  Besides, where does the inquiry begin?  Down yonder.  We were
+away; they ask for a holiday of my wife; she gives them leave; and they
+come away and do not return.  Their relatives, if the poor devils have
+any, may make inquiry, but it is doubtful.  I daresay we shall find that
+the scoundrels have been plundering us, and at the worst we could prove
+this.  There it is in a nut-shell.  They have disappeared like hundreds
+more, and the world will never be any wiser."
+
+A chill of horror ran through Chester as he listened to all this, and he
+was conscious that his companion hung more heavily upon his arm, as if
+about to faint.
+
+The pale, ghastly light was growing broader and clearer now, and as he
+grasped the fact that he was being made the recipient of the
+acknowledgment of a terrible deed, he felt strongly, knowing as he did
+the character of one of the men present, how perilous his position was
+growing.  A few minutes more, he had strung himself up for a sharp
+encounter with the relatives who had, as it were, surprised them in a
+secret meeting.  There would, he felt, be angry words, there might be
+blows, but the Clareboroughs would not dare to proceed farther.  Now
+matters had assumed a dangerous shape, and his thoughts went towards the
+fireplace as he felt that the necessity might arise for him to defend
+himself and his companion--one against four.
+
+His heart beat fast, but mingled with the feelings of alarm which would
+assail the stoutest in such a position, he felt thrill after thrill of
+delight.  For Marion clung more tightly to him, as if trusting to his
+protection, and he mentally swore that he would protect her, come what
+might.
+
+His thoughts came fast, but he had little time for musing; and as his
+arm tightened round his companion he listened eagerly for the next
+utterances of those who were grouped together some twenty feet away.
+
+"Well," said James Clareborough, after a pause, "what have you all to
+say to that?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+LOVE IS MASTER.
+
+There was another pause, as if each of the other three waited for his
+companions to begin.
+
+"James has spoken very well," said the owner of the hands which Chester
+could see playing about his breast; and as he uttered these words he too
+sank into a chair, and the ray of light struck across his face for a
+brief space, one, though, sufficiently long for Chester to recognise the
+features of the quaint old bookworm upon whom he had called during his
+search for the house which had been the scene of such strange
+adventures.
+
+"Uncle!" he thought to himself, as the old man went on--
+
+"It seems to me that we have nothing to fear.  It is our own secret.
+What do you say, Dennis, my dear boy?"
+
+"It looks all right, curse it!" said the young man, slowly.  "I can't
+see how anyone can find it out.  All we have to do is to go on as we
+have before--take care that everything is kept dark.  What do you think,
+Rob, old man?"
+
+"Think?" cried the latter, sharply; and as he spoke Chester felt a
+quiver of excitement run through her whom he clasped.  "I think it is
+impossible to keep such a thing as this is quiet.  Say what you like--
+that it was in your own defence you fired, there are the men's pistols
+to prove it lying with their burgling tools; say that they were
+surprised in the act--the marks on the iron door and their false keys
+will speak for that--but we can't go on with it in the way you propose;
+the police must be called in."
+
+"You cursed fool!" snarled James Clareborough.  "Bah! you always were an
+idiot and a hindrance to our enterprise.  You could spend your share
+readily enough, but you were always like a log to drag at our heels."
+
+"My dear boy!" cried the old professor, quickly, "hush, please; there
+must be no quarrelling now; we have too much at stake."
+
+"Yes, hang it all, Jem! do keep that vitriol tongue of yours quiet,"
+cried Dennis.
+
+"Who is to keep quiet when he listens to such idiotic drivel?  Bring the
+police in--set their detectives to examine the iron safe that they were
+trying to force--to look at the jewels and plate stored up inside.
+Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" he laughed discordantly.  "Has Rob any brains at all?"
+
+"Yes, yes; he spoke without thinking," said the old man, eagerly.  "Rob,
+my dear lad, you see it is impossible."
+
+"Yes, Rob, old man, don't you see?" growled Dennis.  "You can't say to
+the hounds of the law, `You must stop your scent here.'  Why, it would,
+as they say, be blowing the whole gaff."
+
+"Well, let it," cried Robert, bitterly; "let them find it out.  I'm sick
+of it all, and have been for years."
+
+"Then you must get well again," said James Clareborough, fiercely.
+
+"Yes, yes, he is upset," said the old man, quickly.  "Robert's never
+been himself since you fired at him, Jem.  It was a mad act on your
+part; but there, there! don't let's open old sores.  Let me speak.  Rob,
+my dear boy, this is not a position in which a man can study self.  We
+are all linked together in this business, and the one who talks of
+throwing it up talks of throwing his partners over.  Think, my lad, of
+what it means.  You cannot draw back.  It is impossible.  This is a most
+unhappy business, but the poor wretches brought their fate upon
+themselves.  They have fallen in our battle of life, and there is that
+something to be done for all our sakes--our wives' and your sister's
+sake.  They must not know of this."
+
+"That's right, uncle; that's right," growled Dennis.  "Come, Rob, old
+man, you must feel that this is good sound sense."
+
+"Yes," said Rob, with a groan; "I suppose it is.  There, uncle, go on."
+
+"Yes, yes, my dear boy," cried the old man.  "Well, here is our
+position, to finish up what Jem has said.  It would be easier and better
+for us if we could call in the police and go through the inquest, but
+you know it is impossible.  Now then, has either of you anything to
+propose over what must be done at once?"
+
+There was utter silence, and Chester, as he stood there with a cold
+perspiration making his hair cling to his temples, wondered that those
+present did not detect the beating of his and his companion's hearts.
+
+"No one speaks," said the old man, quietly; "well then, the old inventor
+has to come to the front again, as he always has since we held the first
+meeting, and had to look starvation in the face.  Hark ye here, boys,"
+he continued in a low, deep whisper; "I have turned it all over in my
+mind, and there is only one thing to be done.  I am not going to be
+troubled about the disposal of what is, after all--speaking as a
+chemist--so much matter which has to be resolved rapidly into its
+primary constituents.  There is the far cellar beneath the other house;
+we must dig there.  Then a few bags of cement, and a carboy of acid,
+etcetera, and the matter is at an end."
+
+Dennis drew a deep breath, and a low, hissing sound arose, which Chester
+felt must have come from between Robert Clareborough's teeth.
+
+"Well, have I spoken rightly?" said the old man.
+
+"Yes, that's right," said James Clareborough.
+
+"You others are silent, but of course you acquiesce.  You must keep the
+women down at The Towers, or take them to the Riviera for a month, and
+your aunt will know nothing more.  There, the administrative has spoken;
+it is for the executive to go to work."
+
+"The executive has done its work," said James Clareborough, sharply,
+"while you two stood behind a door and listened."
+
+Chester felt a spasm run through Marion as these words were spoken.
+
+"Well, well," said the old man; "you two are young and strong, and have
+steady hands.  I do not wish to hang back from anything for ensuring the
+safety and prosperity of all.  Robert, my boy, my muscles are not what
+they were; I shall be obliged to ask you to help me."
+
+Another spasm ran through Marion, and Chester, as they stood there in
+the darkness, felt her crane forward as if to hear her brother's answer.
+
+It came on the instant, in sharp, fierce tones,--"No, uncle.  I wash my
+hands of it all.  I cannot help what has passed, and I will be silent
+for the benefit of all, but help further in this--no, I would sooner
+die!"
+
+"What!" cried James Clareborough, savagely.  "Curse you, then, die, and
+rid us of our miserable clog.  Look here, all of you--I will not stand
+by and let him sneak out of the business in this cursed cowardly way.
+You, Rob--you have got to help the old man over this, or--"
+
+"Or what?" cried Rob, as fiercely.  Marion made a movement as if to rush
+to her brother's help, but Chester tightened his grasp.
+
+"My dear Jem!  My dear Rob! for Heaven's sake!" cried the professor,
+interposing.
+
+"You hold your tongue, old man," cried James Clareborough, springing up;
+"I've had enough of this.  For a year past now I've had to put up with
+his cursed objections, and hanging back from nearly everything, like the
+coward he is, and I'll have no more of it.  Paddy and I have done our
+bit of work to save the family from utter ruin and destruction, and now
+he is asked to help you in necessary work he begins to ride the high
+horse and dictate.  I say he shall help you, and at once, or, if I hang
+for it, I'll make him."
+
+"You make me, you cowardly, treacherous beast!" cried Robert, fiercely.
+"I defy you to.  You two know that our quarrel has not been on account
+of my shrinking from the work.  I always hated it, but I have still done
+my part.  Why did he fire at me that night but because I struck him down
+for his cowardly, brutal insults to my poor sister, whose honour ought
+to have been sacred and the object of his defence?"
+
+"You miserable hound!" growled James Clareborough.  "Go with the old man
+at once, or you sha'n't live another day!"
+
+"Go yourself, beast, and keep your hand from that pistol, or I'll fire,
+I swear!"
+
+The utter silence in the room after these words were spoken was broken
+by the sharp clicking of two pistols, and half stunned for the moment,
+as he listened for the reports, Chester, recalling what must have
+happened on the night when he was first called in, threw himself before
+Marion to screen her from any bullet which might come there.
+
+The act necessitated the loosening of his grasp, and with a wild cry
+Marion sprang from him, to rush in the direction of her brother's voice.
+
+"The door!" shouted the professor, and it was banged to and bolted by
+Dennis, as the old man sprang to his side, touched the stud, and the
+room was suffused with the soft electric light, showing the two
+adversaries, not a couple of yards apart, and Marion clinging to her
+brother's arm, Chester just behind.
+
+James Clareborough burst into a yell of mocking laughter.
+
+"Picture--tableau--curtain!" he roared.  "End of Act the Second,
+gentlemen.  Loud cries for author and heroine.  A success--a success!
+Marion, my charming, sweet, chaste, innocent cousin, I congratulate you.
+Beautifully done.  Doctor, I salute you.  Brave, honourable, noble,
+frank, winner of the heroine's love--what a happy combination of
+gallantry and business!  I presume that, vulture-like, you scented
+carrion, and came for another job; but sweet, innocent Marion here was
+premature.  Marion, beloved one; caught here in the dark!  Oh, fie!"
+
+"Curse you! hold your mocking tongue!" cried Robert, fiercely.  "You,
+Chester, how came you here?"
+
+"Ha-ha-ha!" cried James Clareborough, "what a question!  Our sweet
+Marion."
+
+"Hound!  Speak of my sister in that way again, and I'll fire."
+
+"Bah!" retorted his cousin, contemptuously, and, without heeding him, he
+turned to Chester, covered him with his pistol, and in a low, fierce
+growl bade him sit down in the nearest chair.
+
+Chester did not stir.
+
+"Once more, you meddling idiot, sit down!" cried James Clareborough,
+menacingly, and Marion sprang from her brother's side to stand between
+them.
+
+"Very well, I can wait.  Now, all of you, our plans are known.  Like a
+set of idiots, we have sat smoking and babbling before this fool, who
+could not be content with his last visit, but must intrude again, play
+the spy, and suffer for his knowledge.  Uncle--Dennis, my lad, you agree
+with me?"
+
+No one spoke, but the three others stood gazing fiercely at the
+interloper.
+
+"Now, Rob," continued James Clareborough, "our quarrels can keep.  Act
+the man.  You see how we stand--you know what is at stake for all.  Dr
+Chester, you are our prisoner again.  Now--quick!"
+
+Pistol in hand, he took a step forward, the others following his
+example, and Chester sprang towards the fireplace to seize the poker,
+while Marion tried to throw herself between him and his enemies.
+
+The efforts of both were in vain.  The professor baulked the brave
+woman's effort.  He swung her lightly towards the window and joined the
+others, who, in spite of a brave struggle, easily mastered Chester and
+got him down, after they had swayed here and there close by the locked
+door.
+
+"Now," said James Clareborough, pistol in hand, as Dennis knelt upon the
+prostrate man's chest, Robert and the professor each holding an arm.
+"You will lie still, doctor, or you will force me to prescribe.  You see
+that the situation is critical--Ha!  Marion!  Come away!"
+
+He pointed his weapon at the window, but Marion did not stir.  She had
+sprung to it while they were occupied with their prisoner, swung open
+the heavy shutters, and the window had yielded silently, leaving the
+room open to the street.  Then she had reached out, holding on by the
+lower bar of the sash, but turned her head to look back.
+
+"Now," she cried wildly, "fire if you dare!  Fred Chester!  Here.  Rob,
+help him, for my sake.  Ah! keep back, or I shriek for the police."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+"SAUVE QUI PEUT."
+
+Marion, in her desperation, thoroughly now at bay and fierce in her
+reckless determination to save her lover's life, uttered her warning
+words to James Clareborough, who had been stealing round the table to
+spring at her.
+
+"What's the matter, ma'am?" cried a gruff voice at the area railings,
+and Marion turned to see, to her horror, the sturdy figure of a helmeted
+constable.  "Fight?  Pistols?  All right."  A piercing whistle rang out,
+and the man signalled with his arm, while the passers-by began to stop
+and collect.
+
+"Curse her! she has done it," cried James Clareborough, savagely, and he
+was in the act of taking aim at the trembling woman, when the pistol was
+struck up by Robert.
+
+"All right," said the scoundrel, without resenting the act, and
+thrusting the pistol into his pocket.  "The game's up, gentlemen--sauve
+qui peut."
+
+Robert had passed him by this time, caught his sister's hand, and
+meeting with no resistance, he drew her from the window, shut and
+fastened it, and closed the shutters again, just as a loud peal was
+heard at the door bell.
+
+The next minute Chester was at her side, the library door unlocked, and
+his other assailants gone.
+
+"He's right," said Robert, hoarsely; "the game is up, Marion, and it is
+sauve qui peut."
+
+"You villain!" cried Chester, excitedly.
+
+"That will do, doctor," said Robert, coolly.  "She's fainting; help me
+to get her away.  Poor old girl! she loved me," he continued, kissing
+his sister's ghastly face, "and she did it to save you, not to hand me
+over to the police.  One moment.  Hold her; I'll be back directly."
+
+Chester caught the half-fainting burden willingly, and glanced after the
+young man as he darted from the room.
+
+"Gone," muttered Chester.  "Marion, look up, love; we are safe.  They
+have escaped."
+
+"Now then," cried Robert Clareborough, returning; "I have slipped the
+bolts, and it will take them an hour to break in.  Come!"
+
+"Come!  Where?" cried Chester angrily.
+
+"Where you will, doctor, only we must escape from here.  The others are
+off, and I must go and help save the rest.  You don't wish to see her in
+the hands of the police, appearing against her brother and his
+confederates?"
+
+"God help me, no!" cried Chester.
+
+"Come along, then, man.  It's all over now.  I knew it must come.
+Doctor, you saved my life.  I must trust you.  I know you love her, and
+that she loves you.  I trust her to your honour as a gentleman."
+
+"You may," said Chester, "and--"
+
+"Don't talk, man.  Come while the way is open.  They'll break in, as
+sure as we are here.  Come."
+
+Chester lifted Marion in his arms and bore her toward the door, Robert
+Clareborough having caught up the doctor's hat, and led the way into the
+hall, where the police were thundering at the door; and then downstairs,
+where sounds were heard from the area, as if someone was trying the door
+there.
+
+"Shall I take her?" said Robert, as they reached the lower passage.
+
+"No; I can carry her easily."
+
+"This way, then," and to Chester's astonishment he turned into the short
+passage at the end of which was the ordinary-looking door.
+
+"Humph! shut," he said, with a bitter laugh.  "Jem's parting act of
+kindness; he must have been the last."
+
+"Where does that door lead?" cried Chester, as Marion uttered a sigh
+indicative of recovery.
+
+"To safety, doctor," said the young man, sadly.  "Foxes always have a
+second hole, and a way of using it."
+
+He drew a key from his pocket, flung open the door, and made room for
+his companion to bear his sister into the square lobby, which was
+littered with wedges, the powder tin, pistols, keys, hammer, and the
+other contents of the portmanteau standing in one corner, while in one
+spot a quantity of sawdust seemed to have been spilled.
+
+All was plainly seen by a bright reflected light which shone out from
+the small glass bulb in the ceiling, shedding a strange glow, while the
+odour of exploded powder struck on Chester's nostrils at once.
+
+As soon as they were inside, Robert calmly drew the door close, and just
+then Marion opened her eyes and looked wildly from one to the other.
+
+"Where am I?" she said faintly.
+
+"Where you have never been before, sis, but quite safe," replied her
+brother.  "There, don't look like that; the doctor and I are friends."
+
+"Ah, I remember now," she cried wildly, and she struggled to her feet,
+and seized her brother's arms.  "Oh, Rob, what have I done?"
+
+"The best thing you ever did in your life.  I am glad it has come to an
+end; but I must be off.  I can't face the dock.  Too great a coward, I
+suppose, dear.  There, God bless you!  I hope you'll be very happy now."
+
+"No, no, Rob!  I cannot leave you."
+
+"Eh?" he said, smiling bitterly, as he took out another key.  "Yes; he
+has promised me, dear, and he is as true as steel.  There, I trust him,
+and you feel as if you can.  Take her somewhere, doctor, where the
+police cannot find her out.  She's innocent enough, but no one would
+believe.  Come, we may as well get right away, though I suppose it would
+be hours before they could get through here.  I never thought I should
+some day be showing you our secrets, sis," he continued lightly;
+"certainly not to Dr Chester.  There we are."
+
+He had thrust the small bright key he had held into the lock of the iron
+door, and turned it, the bolts yielding easily in spite of the grit of
+powder still left in; and clinging now to Chester's arm as the door was
+swung open, Marion, at a word from her brother, stepped forward into the
+iron-floored receptacle, then he followed and closed the door behind him
+with a sharp metallic clang.
+
+In the demoralisation which had ensued it had been undoubtedly sauve qui
+peut, only one of the party seeming to think of anyone else.  This was
+the old professor, who hurried upstairs, unlocked the chamber door, and
+brought down his wife, who proved well enough to follow him.
+
+The result was that when Robert Clareborough, to Chester's wonderment,
+hurried his companions through passage and crypt, and up again into the
+book-cumbered house, all was perfectly still, the dusty place looking as
+if it had not had a soul therein for years.
+
+"This way, Marion," said Robert, coolly.  "Poor old uncle! he will break
+his heart about leaving his books; pretty choice, too, some of them."
+
+There was no reply, and he led sister and doctor out through the back
+door, down a weed-grown, desolate-looking garden, and into the stables
+at the bottom, the entrance being open.
+
+"Now then," he said, "you must lose no time.  Once out in the mews, make
+for the street, and you are safe.  Good-bye, Marion dear."
+
+"No, no, Robert!" cried Marion, flinging her arms about his neck; "you
+are still weak and ill.  I cannot leave you."
+
+"You prefer to go with me?" said the young man, smiling.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Ah, well, it's very good of you, old darling, but you can't; perhaps in
+an hour I shall be in a police cell."
+
+"Rob!"
+
+"True enough, old girl; and if I am, with the knowledge that you are
+arrested too, I shall make an end of myself."
+
+"Oh no, no, no!"
+
+"But I shall.  You know me.  I don't make empty threats.  Listen: you
+must escape.  Jem and Paddy are on the way to the station by now, to
+fetch those two away from The Towers.  Be sensible, and we shall all get
+away.  You will obey me, dear?"
+
+"I always have, Rob."
+
+"Then go with the doctor.  We'll trust him.  Now, not a word.  If you
+keep me still talking, we shall have the police round here at the back,
+and be all taken before we can get away.  Chester, I trust you, even if
+I am a scoundrel.  Now then, out in the mews, and walk together.  Take
+no notice of me, and don't think I am forsaking you, Marion.  I must go,
+or you will be taken too."
+
+Chester took Marion's hand and drew it through his arm, as he stepped
+out into the mews, and making a desperate effort to preserve her
+calmness, the trembling girl walked steadily by his side as they made
+for the end of the place, Robert Clareborough passing them coolly enough
+on the other side, lighting a cigar as he walked on fairly fast.
+
+Just as Robert reached the end of the mews, a dozen yards in front of
+them, Marion started as if a sudden spasm had shot through her, for a
+couple of policemen suddenly turned the corner, hesitated as they saw
+him and seemed about to stop, but the young man's coolness saved him.
+For just as they were hesitating he turned off the narrow pavement into
+the road and crossed diagonally toward them.
+
+"Can you direct me to Vincent Square?" he said.
+
+One of the constables gave the route, with the firsts and seconds to
+right and left, and as Chester and Marion were passing, the young man
+said shortly--"Thanks, I see," and they heard his step behind, while the
+police continued their way down the mews.
+
+"I'll take a cab as soon as we get a little farther away.  Try and be
+calm," whispered Chester.  "Your brother has escaped."
+
+"Is--is he followed?" said Marion, faintly.
+
+"No; his coolness saved him.  The police have gone on down the mews, but
+I dare not look round to see if they are on our track."
+
+She made no reply, but hung more heavily upon his arm, while he tried
+hard to recover his own composure and think out what was best to be done
+under the circumstances.
+
+His first thought had been to take a cab, but feeling that they might
+still be watched, or, if not, that the various cabmen about would be
+questioned as to whom they took up close to the mews, or else, upon the
+matter getting into the papers, that they might volunteer the
+information, he decided to make first for the railway, and with Marion
+hanging more and more heavily upon his arm he led her out into the main
+street, nodded to the first passing cab-driver, and said, "Victoria."
+
+"Where are you taking me?" said Marion, faintly, as he sank back beside
+her.
+
+"Where you will be safe," he replied, pressing her hand.  "You have
+promised to trust me, so sit still and take no heed of the way I take
+you.  I don't think we are watched, but it is impossible to say."
+
+He heard her draw her breath painfully, and as he glanced sideways he
+could read in her face the effort she was making.
+
+She saw that he was watching her, and met his eyes firmly.
+
+"Do you think Rob will escape?" she asked.
+
+"I feel sure that he will.  The police did not know him by sight.  But
+he was only just in time.  A few seconds more, and he--we--must have
+been taken."
+
+She was silent for a time, and then she said bitterly, "I ought not to
+have left him, poor fellow!  It was cowardly at such a time."
+
+"You did quite right," said Chester, firmly.  "Your presence would have
+been a hindrance to him in his endeavours to escape, and for your sake,
+horrible as all this is, I hope he will get right away."
+
+"But I ought not to have left him," sighed Marion, and further
+conversation ceased, for the cab stopped and they entered the station.
+
+Here Chester took tickets for Kensington.  Then he crossed to the other
+side of the line, and took tickets back right to the City, and leaving
+the station there, plunged with his companion amongst the busy throng
+which filled the streets, and finally, feeling pretty confident that
+they were not followed, he ended by taking a cab to Raybeck Square.
+
+Marion started as she heard the address given, and there was a look of
+reproach in her eyes as she said once more--
+
+"Where are you taking me?"
+
+"Where I believe you will be safe," he said gravely; "to my aunt and
+sister, who will welcome you as the lady who will be my wife."
+
+"Your wife!  Oh no, no, no!" she said sadly.  "That is impossible now."
+
+"Why?" he whispered tenderly.
+
+"Why?" she cried.  "Did you hear?  Can you not see how I am linked with
+those who are flying from justice?  Heaven help me!  I ought to be with
+them still."
+
+"Hush!" he said gently; "you are wildly excited now.  Your brain is not
+in a condition to think calmly and dispassionately of your position.  It
+may be days before it recovers its balance.  Till then, Marion, try and
+think this one thing--that you are watched over by one to whom your
+honour and safety are more than his own life.  Marion, my own--my very
+own--let the past be dead; the future shall be my care."
+
+She sighed piteously and shivered, as she lay back in the corner of the
+cab, and, startled by her manner, he hurriedly took her hand.
+
+She shrank back, looking wildly at him, till she fully realised his
+object, and then with a weary smile upon her lip she resigned her hand.
+
+"You are utterly prostrated by the shock of what you have gone through,"
+he said gravely.  "We shall not be long now.  Try--try hard to be calm.
+The distance is very short, and then you will feel safe and soon grow
+composed."
+
+She gave him a grateful look, and then closed her eyes, lying back with
+her face ghastly pale, and the nerves at the sides of her temples and
+the corners of her lips twitching sharply at times, as if she were in
+pain.
+
+But she sat up when the cab stopped, and gave Chester her hand as she
+alighted, and walked with him up the steps and into the house.
+
+As the door closed she turned to him wildly and tottered slightly, but
+when he made a movement to catch her in his arms, she shrank away, and
+he drew back and offered his hand.
+
+She laid hers within it, and his first thought was to take her into his
+consulting-room, but he led her upstairs towards the drawing-room, and
+she walked firmly enough till they were nearly at the landing, when he
+felt her swerve, and but for his quick action she would have fallen
+back.
+
+"My poor darling!" he whispered, as he lifted her in his arms.  "You
+have done most bravely.  It has been too much for any woman to go
+through."
+
+It was but a few steps, and then he paused upon the landing while he
+threw open the drawing-room door and bore her in, quite insensible now
+to all that passed.
+
+For as he entered the room Chester found himself face to face with his
+sister; but she was not, as he had anticipated, alone.  Isabel was with
+her, and they stood gazing at him as if stunned by the sudden intrusion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+SOMETHING IN THE SAWDUST.
+
+Highcombe Street gradually became blocked by the eager crowd always
+ready to gather, discuss and microscopically magnify the event that has
+been the attraction, and in a very short time it was current that a
+dreadful deed had been perpetrated in open daylight at the window of the
+ground floor room on the left of the front door.  The victim was said to
+have been seen shrieking wildly for help, till a man had dragged her
+away, closing the window afterward and shutting the shutters, so that,
+with the blinds of the upstairs windows drawn down, the whole of the
+mansion had a strangely-mysterious aspect which, to the over-heated
+brains of many of the lookers-on, exactly suggested the place where, a
+murder might have been committed.
+
+It did not occur to the wonder-gulpers that there were several houses in
+the same street presenting precisely the same aspect consequent upon
+their owners being out of town, and that the mansion next door, with its
+gloomy, unkempt aspect and soot-coated windows, was much more
+forbidding; but then it had no policeman stationed at the area gate and
+two more at the front door, who objected vigorously to boys climbing
+over the railings and others trying to peer through the long, slit-like
+windows on either side of the entrance.
+
+An Englishman's house is said to be his castle, and serious steps
+generally have to be taken by the police before they break in, the great
+exception to the rule being in the case of firemen, who as soon as they
+are convinced that their enemy is in the place, make no scruple about
+using their axes against door or window, setting up a ladder, and
+climbing in.
+
+In this case, in despite of the excitement, matters moved slowly, the
+principal steps taken being upon the arrival of more police, the
+stationing of these at the back where there was the mews, and an attempt
+to get in through the garden; but here a difficulty presented itself at
+once; there was no garden, the space existing between the houses and
+stables at the bottom being built entirely over, and the stables swept
+away.  There was no back exit, but constables were stationed in the mews
+all the same so as to keep an eye upon the stabling to right and left.
+
+Soon after, while the superintendent and sergeant were discussing
+proceedings, an occupant of the opposite house pointed out the fact that
+one of the drawing-room window blinds was flapping to and fro,
+suggesting that a French window in the balcony was a little way open.
+
+The suggestion was acted upon at once.  A ladder from the nearest fire
+station was brought, and the police were watched with breathless
+interest and cheered as they mounted and reached the balcony, another
+cheer following as half a dozen entered the great mansion and
+disappeared to commence searching the house, the excitement increasing
+as they were seen to throw open the shutters of the library windows, in
+which room not so much as an overturned chair caught their attention.
+
+It due course the magnificently-furnished place was searched, the only
+thing peculiar there being that the bed in a quiet-looking chamber on
+the third floor had been evidently made that morning, but lain upon
+since, while the key of the door was outside.
+
+No way out at the back was discovered from the ground floor, and after a
+careful search for the missing occupants in every room, the police
+descended to the basement, everything above being in so quiet and
+orderly a state that the whole affair began to assume the aspect of
+imagination on the part of the constable who had given the alarm.
+
+"Didn't dream you'd got a case on, Dick, did you?" said the
+superintendent, banteringly, as the pantry was entered.
+
+"Don't look like it, do it, sir?" replied the man, triumphantly pointing
+to the table, on which lay the freshly-cut rope which had bound the
+housekeeper.
+
+"Humph!  Don't see much in that," said the superintendent.  "There's the
+plate-closet.  Well, that's all right.  Someone's been having wine.
+Nothing to wonder at in that when there's plenty.  Splendid place; but
+the case begins to look to me like a flam."
+
+"Why, there's plenty outside saw the lady, too, sir," grumbled the
+constable.
+
+"Then where is she?"
+
+There was no answer, and the various domestic offices were examined,
+everything being in perfect order, and the only exit apparent being
+through the area door, which was locked, bolted and barred, as were all
+the windows.
+
+"Where does this lead?" said the superintendent, as he entered the
+passage farther back.  "Another cellar, perhaps."  They followed to the
+end, one of the men striking a match or two, for the extreme part was
+dark.  "Humph! locked.  Well, that can't be a way out, for there is no
+mat."  Sniff, sniff!  "What's that--powder? and what's that empty
+Gladstone doing there?"
+
+Just then the constable who had given the alarm suddenly stepped forward
+and stooped down.
+
+"What is it, Dick?  One of the straws out of the mare's nest?" said the
+superintendent.
+
+For answer, the man drew at something quite low down by the floor, and
+it came away in his hand, to prove, on being held to the light of a wax
+match, a mere scrap of a handsomely-braided silk dress.
+
+"Ah!" cried the superintendent, showing the first signs of excitement,
+"smell of powder--that bit of silk!"
+
+He thumped with his knuckles on the panel of the door, and exclaimed--
+
+"There's an iron inside; dress caught as they passed through, and as the
+door was shut the edge cut that off like a pair of shears.  There's a
+way out here, my lads, and we've got hold of the clue."
+
+It seemed easier to point out the clue than to follow it, for the door
+was strong, and it was not until suitable implements had been fetched,
+to further excite the crowd, and a sturdy attack made at the end of the
+passage, that the outer door gave way, the bolts of the strongly-made
+lock being broken right off.
+
+"By George! you've got hold of a case this time, my lad," cried the
+superintendent; "but it's an attempt at a big burglary.  This isn't a
+way out; it's the principal plate-closet, and they've been trying to get
+it open, and failed.  Hammer leather-covered, wedges, pistols, dark
+lantern smashed, tin of powder, and marks on the front of the safe door
+where the wedges have been.  Powder smells quite strong here.  They must
+have tried to blast the door open.  Out, all of you; they're hiding
+somewhere.  They can't have got away."
+
+The men turned back, all but the one who had given the alarm, and he had
+struck a fresh match, for the bulb in the ceiling gave forth no light,
+and was stooping down to sweep away some of the sawdust on the floor.
+
+"Come along, Dick," cried the superintendent.  "What have you got
+there?"
+
+"Look, sir," said the man, holding out a handful of the sawdust he had
+scraped up.  "There's a bottle yonder that's had port wine in it, but
+this looks to me like blood."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+TOM TIDDLER'S GROUND.
+
+"Blood of the grape!" cried the superintendent, contemptuously.  "Where
+were you brought up?  Never in a gentleman's wine cellar before?  You
+should go down to the docks and see the floors there.  By Jingo! but it
+is blood!"
+
+More of the sawdust was scraped aside, and the truth was plain enough; a
+broad patch had lain there, and the granulated wood had been thrown over
+to soak it up.
+
+But the constable was not satisfied yet; he kept peering about, made his
+way to the iron door, and then dropped upon his knees.
+
+"Here you are, sir," he cried.  "They've put the body in here, it seems
+to me, for there's a tiny smutch just against the edge.  There's been
+murder done."
+
+"You're right, Joe," cried the superintendent, sharply; "but where are
+the men?  You stay here, I'll have the place searched again."
+
+Every nook and corner of the basement was examined without result, and
+then the rest of the house was carefully gone over once more, but the
+place proved to be empty, and the superintendent returned to where his
+sentry was on duty.
+
+"Made anything out, sir?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What about the roof?  Must be a trap, and they've got through there."
+
+"There is a trap, my lad, but the cobwebs over it show that it can't
+have been opened to-day."
+
+"What about the cellar, sir?"
+
+"I have searched all but the wine cellars, and we can't break in there.
+I've sent orders to find out who lives here and telegraph to the family
+to come up."
+
+"But you won't wait, sir, before getting this iron door open?"
+
+"No, I sha'n't wait for that."
+
+"That's right, sir.  They've killed the poor lady I saw, I'm afraid, and
+she's lying in there.  That must be a bit of her dress."
+
+There was no further hesitation.  Suitable workmen were obtained, and
+after many hours' toil the great iron door was drilled and prised off,
+the police stepping forward at once to raise the body they expected to
+find, and then standing dumbfounded at seeing that there were a couple
+of shelves upon one side.  The rest of the iron closet was perfectly
+empty.
+
+A little further investigation by the aid of lights soon showed, though,
+that the supposed strong-room full of costly jewels and plate was only
+the entrance to another place, one side forming a door.
+
+This was attacked in turn, and after a long resistance was forced off by
+the workmen, and once more the police advanced on the tip-toe of
+expectation, to find themselves in a passage leading into a crypt-like
+chamber which had evidently been carefully elaborated out of the old
+cellarage, traces of which still remained.  But there was no sign of
+occupation, and for a few moments the police hesitated as to which of
+the two closed doors they should attack.  These were both of iron,
+which, like those of the safe they had passed through, were evidently of
+Belgian manufacture, from the name embossed thereon.
+
+But the hesitation soon passed away, for while one proved to be locked
+the other was unfastened, and after leaving a couple of men on guard,
+the superintendent passed on, leading the way through the farther door.
+Beyond was a dark passage cumbered with packing-cases, stacked on one
+side from floor to ceiling, while on turning into another passage which
+ran at right angles, they came upon a couple of heavy chests in the
+course of being unpacked, a heap of old books standing upon the corner
+of one.
+
+They examined the place, the basement of a mansion with double kitchens,
+servants' hall, pantry, and the like, and the cursory glance obtained
+showed them that the crypt-like vaults through which they had passed
+must be beneath the garden at the back of the house.
+
+But after satisfying themselves that no one was there they ascended a
+flight of stone steps, to find themselves in the book-encumbered hall of
+the professor's home.  Then followed a quick search through the chambers
+of what proved to be an enormous library, room after room being covered
+with dusty book-shelves, the home of spiders innumerable, while only one
+chamber on the second floor proved to be a bedroom.
+
+Still, there was no trace of those they sought, and a little further
+examination showed that they must have passed out into the garden,
+entered the stabling at the bottom, and gone out into the mews at the
+back, and without doubt before the men were sent round to watch.
+
+"No capture yet," said the superintendent, grimly; "but it seems to me,
+Dick, that you'll get your promotion over this bit of mystery, for a
+nice game of some kind has been carried on, and we haven't got to the
+bottom of it yet I want that other door open now."
+
+They descended to the crypt again, and paused before the locked iron
+door, which, thanks to the experience gained in opening the others of
+the same make, the workmen forced in the course of an hour, and at the
+first flash in of a bull's-eye lantern a suppressed hiss of excitement
+escaped from the officer's lips.
+
+"At last!" he muttered.  "It's murder, then, after all, but where's the
+girl?"
+
+For there, just as they had been carried in, ready for future disposal,
+lay side by side, in the bottom of the roomy iron closet, the bodies of
+the two servants, each with a bullet wound in the head, such an one as
+would produce almost instant death.
+
+They were carried out and laid upon a broad table of massive make, and
+as soon as this was done the superintendent examined the iron closet,
+whose back was covered with a perfect nest of drawers, one of which on
+being opened proved to be full of carefully-done-up rouleaux, the
+greater part of the rest being similarly filled.
+
+One of the rouleaux was torn open, and a portion of its contents poured
+into the officer's hand.
+
+"Sovereigns," he said.  "Why, they must have had to do with some bank.
+Eh, what?"
+
+"Duffers," said the constable addressed as Dick.  "A gang of smashers."
+
+"It isn't a time for making jokes," said another of the men, who was
+handling a couple of sovereigns, "or I'd say you was a duffer.  Look at
+that; hark at this."
+
+He handed one coin to the man, and rang another on the heavy table, for
+it to give out the true sound of sterling gold.
+
+"No smashing here," said the superintendent.
+
+"Then what does all this mean?" said Dick, directing the light of the
+lantern he carried across to the far end of the vault.  "There's all the
+tackle--rolling mill, die stamps, and the rest of it."
+
+"Bah! coiners melt their stuff and electro-gild it.  These are right
+enough, and there's a big sum of money in there.  Here, to work at once;
+I must have that door back in its place and the front sealed up."
+
+His man shook his head, and while the superintendent was busy directing
+the workmen, the constable carefully examined the elaborate machinery,
+and came upon a couple of chests full of little ingots which seemed to
+be of the right size for rolling out and stamping into coin.
+
+"I know!" he muttered at last.
+
+"What do you know?" said the superintendent.
+
+"They must be South Africa people with a gold mine of their own, and to
+save trouble make up their own stuff into sovereigns.  Here, I want to
+look at those poor chaps again."
+
+The superintendent seemed disposed to bid him let them be, but he was
+beginning to feel more and more confidence in his subordinate's brains,
+and together they flashed the light over the ghastly faces.
+
+"That's right," said the constable.  "I know 'em well.  It's the butler
+and footman from next door.  I've often seen 'em."
+
+"Then I've got a theory now," said the superintendent, clapping his
+subordinate on the shoulder.  "You're right, I think, about their
+coining their own gold, and they came back to town--you see, Dick, the
+people of the house were out of town."
+
+"Yes, been out some time.  I know that."
+
+"Well, they came back, and caught these two chaps breaking into the way
+to their underground bank, and they treated them like burglars, and shot
+them.  Then there was a row; that lady you talk about wouldn't stand it;
+you raised the alarm."
+
+"And they've sloped.  Ah, we ought to have had them, sir."
+
+"Oh, we'll do it yet.  They can't get away very far, my lad.  Now then,
+what are you thinking about now?"
+
+"All those quids, sir.  I'm sure I'm right now.  Big swells like they
+were, as I've often seen, with tip-top carriages and horses, wouldn't
+coin their own gold even if they'd got a mine.  They're a gang of
+coiners, sir, and so you'll see.  Got one of the sovs., sir?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then take one of those little bars, and have that examined."
+
+The superintendent picked up one of the ingots, looked at it intently
+and shook his head.
+
+"Ah, you can't tell by that, sir," said his subordinate.  "I say, look,
+sir; they've had the electric light.  I wonder where they turn it on."
+
+The place was soon found, the stud pressed, and about a dozen glass
+bulbs shed a beautifully soft light through the arched place.
+
+"Good gold; a big sum of money in ingots, my lad," said the inspector,
+jingling two bars together and producing a musical sound.  "Here, stop!
+I must have all these in that strong closet before we go--and double my
+sentries," he muttered.  "Why, there must be thousands of pounds' worth
+lying here."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+A SHARP SHOCK.
+
+As Chester entered the room, and found himself face to face with the
+woman he had so cruelly used, he involuntarily caught Marion's arm,
+placed it beneath his own, and drew a deep breath as if prepared to
+defend her against any attack.
+
+Marion shivered slightly and pressed to his side, while Isabel gazed at
+her wildly and fixedly, before letting her lids drop over her eyes, and
+standing there breathing painfully, with one hand resting over her
+heart.
+
+Chester glanced at her with a feeling of despair and misery rising in
+his breast, but he turned his pitying gaze away and spoke to his sister,
+who stood drawn up to her full height, frowning, and as defiant as the
+brother upon whom she fixed her eyes as he spoke.
+
+"Laura," he said gently, "I have brought this lady here as a man brings
+one who seeks sanctuary--safety from a terrible peril."
+
+"Well?" she said coldly.
+
+"I bring her to you, my sister, asking you--to let her find the refuge
+and safety of which I have spoken.  You will do this for my sake?"
+
+"No!" cried a sharp voice from the door--a voice which sank from time to
+time in its owner's excited state, so that her words were only half
+audible--"No, she will do nothing of the kind.  How dare you bring her
+here to insult the lady to whom you were betrothed?"
+
+Chester turned upon the speaker angrily, but after the first word or two
+his voice softened down, and he spoke as one suffering deeply from his
+emotion.
+
+"Aunt, you have no right to speak to me like this.  Remember, please,
+that something is due to me; far more to the lady for whom I ask
+protection and a welcome."
+
+"No, no," whispered Marion.  "For pity's sake take me away from here."
+
+"No," said Chester, firmly.  "This is my house, and you will stay here.
+Laura, you heard what I said?"
+
+"Yes, Fred; I heard what you said," she replied in a cold, unemotional
+way.
+
+"Then give Miss Clareborough the welcome I ask of my own sister."
+
+"No!" cried Aunt Grace, angrily.
+
+"Aunt," said Laura, coldly, "have the goodness to be silent.  No, Fred,
+I cannot do what you say.  It is an insult to Isabel and to me to make
+such a request."
+
+"Have you no pity for me?" whispered Marion, reproachfully.  "How can
+you expose me to this?"
+
+He passed an arm round her waist and led her to a chair.
+
+"Isabel," he said gently, and she started and raised her eyes, to gaze
+at him fully, "you must know I could; not dream that you would be here.
+You will forgive me, too, for what I am compelled to say."
+
+She bowed her head gently and once more veiled her eyes, while Chester
+stood by the chair holding Marion's hand.
+
+"Aunt Grace, I insist upon your being silent.  You have no voice in this
+matter.  Laura, I tell you again that this lady is in grievous peril and
+needs all a sister's help.  I ask that help of you; will you give it?"
+
+Laura was silent for a few moments; then she turned and gazed at Isabel,
+ending by throwing her arms about her, and then facing her brother once
+more.
+
+"Well?" he said bitterly.
+
+"It is impossible, Fred.  If you have forgotten all that was due to
+Isabel, I cannot.  No; and if aunt leaves this house I go with her."
+
+"I insist then," cried Chester, angrily.
+
+"No," said Marion, rising.  "I must go.  It is not right."
+
+"I am the best judge of that," said Chester, firmly, and he retained her
+hand.  "Isabel, I never thought that we could ever stand in such a
+position as this; but now, face to face, I feel bound to say once more,
+forgive me, and to ask you to believe the simple truth--that I should
+have been doing you a greater wrong in holding to our engagement and
+making you my wife."
+
+She looked up at him firmly, and his heart throbbed with pity for her
+innocence and suffering, but there was no reproach in her clear,
+steadfast gaze.  He read in it that she unquestioningly yielded to her
+fate; and at the end of a few moments her eyes fell towards the floor.
+
+"You see," whispered Marion, faintly, "it is impossible.  Let me go and
+join them."
+
+"And leave me?" he whispered.  "Here, water--quick!  Oh, if there is an
+unfeeling creature upon the face of the earth, it is a woman at a time
+like this.  Can you not see that she is fainting after the most cruel
+sufferings, and you all stand aside as if she were some leprous thing!
+Hah!  Isabel!"
+
+"Yes, Fred," she said softly.
+
+She went down on one knee and tenderly raised the fainting woman's head
+till it rested upon her shoulder.
+
+The touch seemed to revive Marion, and in a few moments she opened her
+eyes and gazed wonderingly at the face so close to hers.
+
+"You?" she said softly.
+
+"Yes; I.  He says you are suffering and in great peril.  I am alone now
+here in London, and if you will come with me, for his sake I will be to
+you as a sister till the danger, whatever it may be, has passed."
+
+"Ah!" sighed Marion, the spasm seeming to tear itself from her breast,
+and she lay still for some moments with her eyes closed.
+
+"Come--sister," whispered Isabel, and she bent down and pressed her lips
+to the forehead so near her.
+
+Marion's colour flushed to her temples, and she looked up wildly and
+flung her arms about Isabel's neck, kissing her passionately.
+
+"Yes," she said.  "I will come."
+
+There was a tap at the door, and Chester hurried across the room to
+prevent the maid from entering.
+
+"Yes," he said excitedly; "what is it?"
+
+"If you please, sir, it is the police; two of them, and they say they
+must see you directly."
+
+"Great heavens!" cried Chester, wildly, as he turned and gazed at where
+Marion had started to her feet and stood pale and ghastly, for she had
+heard the words.  "Too late--too late!  Yes; I know.  Marion, that
+hound! that fiend!  He is taken, and in his cowardly revenge he has sent
+them here."
+
+In the full belief that the police would be coming up to the room,
+Chester ran to the door.
+
+"Where are they?" he whispered sharply to the maid, who was wondering at
+the undue excitement displayed.
+
+"In the hall, sir."
+
+Chester's mind was made up on the instant, and he turned to Isabel.
+
+"Heaven bless you for this!" he cried passionately.  "I cannot explain
+now, only that it is a case of great emergency.  Take Miss Clareborough
+with you, and keep her until I write or come.  I do not deserve this at
+your hands, but your presence here is like that of some good angel.  You
+will take her home?"
+
+"Yes," she said softly, as she avoided his eyes.
+
+"Listen, then," he whispered anxiously.
+
+"These people below have come in search of her, and she must not fall
+into their hands.  I will go and keep, them in conversation, while you
+get her away at once."
+
+"I will," replied Isabel, calmly.
+
+"Heaven bless you!" he cried passionately, and then he turned to Marion,
+who looked quite exhausted.
+
+"Go with her," he said--"at once.  You will be safe there until I come."
+
+"No," she replied despairingly.  "It would be better for you--for her--
+that we never meet again."
+
+He caught her hand in his.
+
+"Refuse this, and I will not answer for the consequence," he whispered
+angrily.  "Remember you are mine."
+
+He hurried out, trying to be perfectly calm, met the representatives of
+the law in the hall, and signed to them to come into the
+consulting-room, and closed the door.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+THE CLIMAX OF A MADNESS.
+
+"One minute.  Sit down while I attend to this."
+
+The inspector took a chair, but his follower, evidently a plain clothes'
+officer, remained standing by the door; while, as if bound to make a
+memorandum of some important case, Chester took ink and paper and began
+writing rapidly for a few minutes, listening intently the while for the
+sound of steps upon the stairs, every nerve on the strain, as he
+wondered at the patience with which the two men waited.
+
+At last, with his heart throbbing painfully, Chester heard a faint
+rustling sound outside, and the front door close, just as the inspector
+broke the silence.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir," he said, "but this is a case of emergency.  I should
+be glad if you can come at once."
+
+"Come at once?"
+
+"Yes," said the inspector, coolly.  "Only in the next street.  Case of
+attempted suicide.  Doctor with the party wants a second opinion."
+
+Chester drew a deep breath, wrote another line of incoherent words, and
+then, having hard work to speak composedly, he rose and said--
+
+"I am at your service now."
+
+He followed the inspector to the door, and feeling half stunned at what
+seemed like so strange an escape, he went to the house where, in a mad
+fit, the occupant had taken desperate measures to rid himself of a life
+which had grown hateful; and while Chester aided his colleagues for the
+next hour in the difficult task of trying to combat the poison taken, he
+could not help feeling that this might have been his own case if matters
+had gone otherwise, for despair would have prompted him also to take a
+life that had become horrible--an existence that he could not have
+borne.
+
+He went back home at last, but he made no attempt to see sister or aunt,
+his anger for the time being was too hot against them, and he was in no
+disposition to make any excuse.  His next step was, he felt, to set
+Marion's mind at rest regarding the police, and he was about to start
+for Isabel's temporary London home, when he hesitated, shrinking from
+meeting her again.  He felt that his position was despicable, and now
+the danger was past he mentally writhed at the obligation which he had
+so eagerly embraced.
+
+"What a poor, pitiful, contemptible object I must seem in her eyes," he
+muttered as he paced the room.
+
+But he grew cooler after a time.  Marion's happiness must stand first.
+She was prostrate with horror and despair, and at any cost he felt that
+he must preserve her from danger, and set her mind at rest.
+
+"But I cannot go," he muttered--"I cannot face her again."  Then, half
+mad with himself for his miserable cowardice, he cast aside the pen with
+which he was about to write, and determined to go.
+
+"She will forgive me," he said; and he hurried into the hall, took up
+his hat, and then stopped short, aghast at his helplessness.
+
+Where was he going?  He had not the most remote idea as to where Isabel
+was staying, and maddened by his position, he forced himself to go up to
+the drawing-room and ask his sister for the address.
+
+"I must be half mad," he muttered.
+
+He threw open the drawing-room door and, strode in, determined to insist
+upon the address being given him if Laura should refuse.
+
+But the room was empty, and, staggered by this fresh surprise and with
+ominous thoughts beginning to arise, he went out on to the landing to
+call his sister by name.  Then he called aloud to his aunt, with the
+result that an answer to his shouts came from below in the servant's
+voice--
+
+"Beg pardon, sir; Miss Laura and Mrs Crane went out more than an hour
+ago."
+
+"What!  Where did they go?"
+
+"I don't know, sir.  I had to whistle for a cab, and they each took a
+travelling bag."
+
+Chester went down to his consulting-room, checkmated, and feeling
+completely stunned at his position.
+
+What was he to do?  He might set a detective to try and find the cabman
+who took them away, but it would be days before he could have the man
+traced.
+
+Then came a bright idea.
+
+The hotel where Isabel had been staying--the manager there would know
+where she and her father and mother went on leaving.
+
+He took a cab there, but the manager did not know.  He thought the old
+people went abroad, and the young lady went into private apartments.
+
+"But their letters--where were their letters to be addressed?"
+
+"To their country house, sir."
+
+Chester hurried away again.  Perhaps something might be made of that,
+and he went to the first post-office and telegraphed down to the person
+in charge of the house, paying for a reply to be sent to Raybeck Square,
+to which place he returned, and paced his room for two hours before he
+obtained the brief reply:--
+
+"Address not known.  They have not written yet.--Susan."
+
+"Was any poor wretch ever so tortured by fate?" he muttered; and he
+threw himself into a chair to try and think out some way of finding out
+the address to which he had sent Marion.
+
+At last, faint, and with his brain in a whirl, he sought for temporary
+release from his sufferings in one of the bottles of drugs in his
+consulting-room.
+
+But the ordinary dose seemed to have no effect, and he repeated it at
+intervals twice before he sank into a state of lethargy from which he
+did not awaken till morning, to find himself lying back in a corner of
+the couch, with the three servants gathered in consultation.
+
+"Yes," he cried wildly, "what is it?--what is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing, sir, only that you frightened us.  It's past eleven o'clock,
+and we were going to send for a doctor," said the parlour-maid.
+
+"No, nothing the matter.  I was tired out, and overslept myself.  Here,
+stop!  Has--has Miss Laura come back?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"That will do.  Go away."
+
+"Hadn't you better have a cup o' tea, sir?" said the cook, suggesting
+the universal panacea.
+
+"No, no!" he cried, so fiercely that the servants backed out, and the
+wretched man let his burning, confused head sink into his hands while he
+tried to collect his thoughts.
+
+But it was in vain.  He bathed his temples, went into the breakfast-room
+and tried to partake of food, but gave it up in disgust, and finally
+turned to the drug again.
+
+"This can't go on," he muttered; "the human brain cannot stand it.
+Months of strain now, and my position worse than ever.  And even now the
+police may have traced her, and she be looking vainly to me for help."
+
+He did not hear a ring at the front door, for he went back to his
+consulting-room, to sit with his head in his hands; neither did he hear
+the conversation going on after the closely-veiled lady who rang had
+been admitted.
+
+"Gone!  You think Miss Laura will not return?"
+
+"I don't think so miss."  There was a few moments' thoughtful silence.
+"Where is your master?"
+
+"In his consulting-room, miss, in a dreadful state.  Oughtn't a doctor
+to be fetched to him?  He looks so awful; his eyes roll at you as if he
+was going mad."
+
+There was another thoughtful pause, and then the visitor said firmly,
+"Go and ask Mr Chester if he will see me for a few moments."
+
+"Please, miss--ma'am--I really daren't," said the maid, pitifully.  "He
+frightened me so last time I went into the room that I'd sooner leave at
+once than go in."
+
+There was a third period of hesitation, and then without a word the
+visitor went straight to the consulting-room, entered, and closed the
+door.
+
+Chester did not stir, but sat there in the gloomy place with his head
+bent, the image of utterly abased despair; and the visitor stood looking
+down pityingly at him for some moments before she spoke.
+
+Her voice seemed to galvanise him into life, and he started up and gazed
+at her wonderingly.  "Isabel?" he cried.  "Yes, Fred; I have come."
+
+"Hah! and Marion?  How is she?"  There was no reply for a few moments;
+then in a low, compassionate voice, "She was very, very ill last night,
+but later on she dropped asleep, and I left her about three, perfectly
+calm and peaceful."
+
+Chester gazed at her wildly.
+
+"Yes," he cried, "go on."
+
+"I went in to see her at intervals of an hour, and she was still
+sleeping calmly."
+
+"And you have left her!" he cried angrily.  "You should not have done
+this."
+
+"No; I ought not to have done this," said Isabel, sadly.  "You placed
+her in my charge, and I have betrayed your trust."
+
+"What!  What do you mean?"
+
+"I went to her room about nine, and--"
+
+"Yes," he cried, springing up and catching her arm so fiercely that her
+pale, sad face grew full of suffering.
+
+"Tell me; you are keeping something back."
+
+"Must I tell you?" she said faintly.
+
+"Yes, yes!" he cried.  "Why do you torture me?"
+
+"Fred, I was to blame," she said piteously.  "I would have done anything
+for your sake.  I could not foresee it all.  She has gone!"
+
+"Gone?" he gasped.
+
+She held out a letter addressed to him, and he snatched at it and tore
+it open, to read with burning eyes:--
+
+"Good-bye for ever.  I love you too well to come between you and the
+happiness that may some day be yours.  Do not seek for me: my love would
+prove a curse.  I know it--I feel it.  Forgive me the suffering I have
+caused to you and the gentle woman who has tended me.  She will forgive
+you the past as I have prayed her to; and she will forgive me, knowing
+as she does that it was in all innocency I did her that wrong.  Think of
+me as one who was not to blame for her position.  I did not know
+everything; they kept it from us weak women.  I did know, though, that
+they were engaged in some unlawful scheme, and prayed my brother to take
+me away; but he could not shake off his bonds--I could not leave him.
+Good-bye: think of me kindly.  We shall never meet again."
+
+Chester read to the last word, then turned half round and fell heavily
+to the floor.
+
+It was as if the tie which bound him to life had snapped in twain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+WHY AND WHEREFORE.
+
+The customary inquest followed, and after careful examination of the
+various witnesses, and a visit to the place, the jury, by the coroner's
+direction, returned a verdict of "wilful murder."  Then the strange
+affair passed into the hands of the police.  The hounds of the law were
+laid upon the scent, and they were active enough in their efforts to run
+the Clareborough family down, but without success: for they had suddenly
+disappeared from The Towers, as completely as they had from their town
+mansion, but what direction they had taken was not discovered.
+
+They were "wanted" for the clearing up of the death of their two
+servants, whose bodies were identified by the domestics brought up from
+the country house; but the witness particularly sought for was the old
+housekeeper, who, it was presumed, would be able to give a pretty good
+account of the doings at the great mansion.  But she could not be found,
+and the suspicion at once arose that she had been murdered by the men
+who made the attack upon the safe after obtaining leave to go up to town
+on business.
+
+Search was therefore made in the town mansion, and also in the adjoining
+house with the curious underground works, but without result, and the
+disappearance of the old lady's body added to the mystery.
+
+The family were wanted, too, soon after, upon another charge--that of
+coining, for upon further investigation of the supposed wealth banked in
+the strong-room, it was found that the coins were base.
+
+But it required a far more than superficial examination to prove this,
+official after official from the Mint declaring them to be genuine
+according to the ordinary tests.  Their weight was absolutely correct,
+the workmanship was perfect, and they gave forth a true ring, but upon
+every sovereign being broken in half, though there was nothing to see,
+the coin appearing to be of gold with the proper amount of hardening
+metal added, the application of the acid test showed that something was
+wrong.
+
+The examination of the bars of metal supposed to be gold, and discovered
+in the underground place beneath the old professor's house, gave the
+explanation, the two chests delivered by the railway company helping the
+matter, for after the police had removed a layer or two of old books,
+they came upon small oaken boxes containing ingots of the base metal
+used in the manufacture of the coin, these being of an ingeniously
+compounded alloy, whose constituents, after metallurgical analysis, the
+Mint authorities kept secret.
+
+Examination of the cellarage proved quite startling, from the perfection
+of the dies, presses, and rolling mills, all of great power, beautifully
+made, but of foreign production.
+
+There was a small furnace, too, with crucibles, and other paraphernalia,
+the most interesting find being the small ribbons of metal from which
+the round counter-like flats had been punched, and some pieces in a box
+ready for being pressed.
+
+These last ribbons of metal proved to have been made from the base metal
+ingots, after the old fashion of producing silver plate--before the
+introduction of the cheap electro-plating system--by which the pure
+metal is deposited upon the base.
+
+Old silver-plated goods were made by taking a bar of copper and placing
+at top and bottom a thin slip of pure silver, which was made to adhere
+to the copper by heat.  Then the silvered copper bar was passed through
+rolling mills till it was flattened to the necessary thickness, and came
+out with its due proportion of silver on both sides, ready for working
+up into shape, with the addition of pure silver finishings to the parts
+likely to be most worn.
+
+The Clareboroughs' sovereigns were, then, thus made, careful analysis
+proving that each ingot of alloy was prepared with the addition of
+one-half of pure gold, that is to say, one fourth part at top and
+bottom.  This was fixed in the furnace; then the ingots were rolled to
+the right thickness, the flats punched out, and afterwards passed
+through the die press, to come out so perfect that for years these coins
+ran current by thousands, even the banking companies receiving them
+without demur, and it was not till long after that Chester discovered
+that his two-hundred-guinea fee was all perfectly base.
+
+The learned said the production of such coin was an impossibility, but
+the Clareboroughs proved to them that it was not, and the Mint
+authorities were puzzled by the perfection attained.  But at last it was
+remembered that about twenty years before, a very clever metallurgist
+and chemist, who had held a high position at the Mint, was discovered in
+an offence against the rules of the establishment, which resulted in his
+immediate discharge and degradation, he having escaped a criminal
+prosecution by the skin or his teeth.
+
+This official had married a lady of the name of Clareborough, and it was
+suggested by an ingenious personage as being possible that to this man
+was due the manufacture of the base coinage.
+
+The right nail was hit upon the head, for at the time when, some seven
+or eight years earlier, the Clareborough family were, through their wild
+expenditure, utterly penniless and hopelessly in debt, this man, after
+many experiments, so advanced his project that he laid it before James
+Clareborough, who jumped at the idea; his brother Dennis and cousin
+Robert, both helplessly aground and forced to enlist in cavalry
+regiments, eagerly joined, and in a very small way the coining was
+begun, but they were terribly crippled by the cost of each piece.  James
+Clareborough was for producing something cheap, saying that it was
+absurd to be making imitation sovereigns the material for each of which
+cost ten shillings; but his uncle's theory was that only by the great
+perfection of the coins could success and immunity from discovery be
+assured.
+
+The uncle had the support of the two younger men, and after a while the
+skill begotten from practice enabled them to produce the coins more
+rapidly; improved machinery was obtained from Belgium; four more
+impecunious members of the family were sworn in to join in the secret of
+what they called their private bank; and at the end of three years the
+mansion in Highcombe Street was taken, fitted up by foreign workmen, and
+by degrees the machinery brought in through the book-collector's house,
+and all done without a suspicion being raised.
+
+The generally-accepted idea in fashionable sporting circles was that the
+wealth of the Clareboroughs came from their clever gambling
+transactions, and many a speculator was ruined by trying to imitate
+them, notably their two servants.
+
+The various difficulties in the Clareboroughs' way dissolved upon being
+attacked; wealth rolled in as fast as they liked to make it, working
+hard under the guidance of their uncle, the professor, who kept the
+position of captain over them, for in spite of James Clareborough's
+overbearing ways, he gave up, as did the others, feeling that everything
+depended upon their being united.  The old man's occupancy of the
+adjoining house, where he made his genuine love for collecting old works
+act as a blind for the receiving of heavy cases of metal, served them
+well, and the servants never once had a suspicion that there was a
+communication between the two buildings, or that the stern old
+housekeeper was the professor's wife.
+
+Her part was well played, too.  She never left the town mansion when all
+the servants went down to The Towers.  And it was at these times that
+the young men came up frequently, ostensibly to visit Paris or attend
+meetings, but really to work hard in the well-fitted vaults to replenish
+the strong-room, whose contents they wasted fast.
+
+Self-interest, as well as clannishness, held the family together.  Use
+had made the labour of production familiar, and they might have gone on
+for years in their life of luxury unchecked, but for the one weak link
+in their chain--the strongest and most overbearing man among them.  His
+plainly-displayed passion for his cousin had been the cause or quarrel
+after quarrel with Robert Clareborough, one of which culminated in
+blows, the use of the revolver, and Marion rushing off, believing her
+brother dying, for the aid of the surgeon with whose name a recent case
+had made her familiar.
+
+Of the further career of the family nothing more was known in England.
+The police were indefatigable, but they had keen, shrewd men to deal
+with, and the culprits completely disappeared.  Suspicions were
+entertained that they might have had something to do with the
+distribution of a great deal of base coin in Germany, but it was never
+traced home to them, and to all intents and purposes the name of
+Clareborough soon died out and the mysterious business in Highcombe
+Street was forgotten.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+CHESTER AWAKENS FROM HIS DREAM.
+
+It was not until after many days of wild delirium that Fred Chester
+unclosed his eyes with the light of reason to make things clear once
+more.  He was in his own room, and he lay wondering why he was unable to
+raise a hand or turn his head without difficulty.
+
+He lay for some time trying to think out what had happened in an
+untroubled way, for a restful sensation pervaded his being, and it did
+not seem to matter much till he became conscious of a peculiar, soft,
+clicking sound, which he knew at last to be caused by a needle coming in
+contact with a thimble.
+
+It came from somewhere to his left behind the curtain, which was drawn
+to keep the sunshine which came through the open window from his face.
+
+This afforded him fresh food for thought, and by degrees he turned his
+head a little, till he could lie and watch the curtain, and wonder who
+was beyond.
+
+That was all.  He felt no temptation to try and speak, for it seemed, in
+a pleasant, dreamy way, that sooner or later he would know.
+
+It was sooner.  For all at once, as he lay watching, the sewer bent
+forward a little, so that she could gaze at the face upon the pillow,
+and their eyes met, those of the nurse turning wild and dilated as she
+started up and hurried from the room.
+
+"Isabel--you!" he said, in a mere whisper of a voice, but she did not
+stay, and the next minute, as the sick man still lay wondering, the door
+was opened again and Laura entered.
+
+"Oh, Fred, Fred, my own brother!" she cried, as she sank upon her knees
+by the bedside and pressed her lips to the thin white hand lying outside
+the sheet.
+
+"Laury," he said, feebly; "you, dear?  Wasn't that Bel?"
+
+"Yes, yes; but you must not talk.  Oh, thank God! thank God, you know us
+once again!"
+
+"Know you?" he said, smiling, "of course.  Where's aunt?"
+
+"Downstairs, dear, asleep.  She is so worn-out with watching you."
+
+"Watching me?" he said, with a little child-like laugh.  "Yes, of
+course, she is always watching."
+
+He gently raised his hand, to place it upon his sister's head, and it
+lay there passive for some time, till Laura realised that her brother
+was fast asleep; and then she stole away to join Isabel in the next
+room.
+
+The next day Chester was a little stronger, but it was as if his mind
+was passing through the early stages once more, he was so child-like and
+weak; and it was not until the third day of his recovering his senses
+after the terrible brain fever through which he had passed that he
+remembered Isabel again, and asked if he had not seen her there.
+
+Laura told him yes, that she had been there, and he asked no more; but
+as the days went on he learned all.  That his sister had returned to
+town with his aunt and written to the servant from their hotel to pack
+up the clothes and books they had left behind, and received an answer
+back that Chester was dying of brain fever.
+
+This brought sister and aunt to his side, to find that Isabel had been
+with him from the first, watching him night and day.  Then they shared
+the task with her, till the first rays of reason began to shine out of
+his eyes.
+
+"But where is she now?  Why does she not come?" he said rather
+fretfully.
+
+"She left directly you seemed to be out of danger, Fred."
+
+"But how unkind.  Why should she do that?"
+
+"Why, Fred--why?" said his sister gazing at him wonderingly.  "Oh,
+brother, brother, you do not grasp all yet."
+
+Laura Chester was wrong; he did grasp it at that moment, for the past
+came back like a flash, and he uttered a low groan as he recalled the
+contents of that letter, the words seeming to stand out vividly before
+his eyes.
+
+From that hour his progress towards recovery was slower than before, and
+he lay thinking that the words contained in that letter were true--that
+it was good-bye for ever and that his life was hopelessly wrecked.
+
+The return of health and strength contradicted that, though, as a year
+passed away, and then another year, in the course of which time he
+learned that the discoveries in Highcombe Street had been forgotten by
+the crowd, other social sensations having blurred them out.
+
+His own troubles had grown fainter, too, as the time wore on; but for
+two years he did not see Isabel again.  Then they met one day by
+accident and another day not by accident, and by slow degrees, while
+tortured by shame and remorse at having, as he told himself, thrown
+everything worth living for away, he learned what a weak, foolish
+creature a woman who has once truly loved a man can be, and said, as
+many of us say--
+
+"What a miserable desert this world would be if there was no forgiveness
+for such a sin as mine!"
+
+The End.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blind Policy, by George Manville Fenn
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