Show ir M aw 1 y dornford yates copyright by winton batch co service CHAPTER XI continued 21 so you see gee that cup will III make a most appropriate gift nut but im so eo afraid that your cousin way may refuse to accept it that before I 1 ask him to do so BO I 1 want to haie it engraved with ith his crest and here dullere you can help me I 1 must have hare something of his that bears ills his crest to give t to the engraver graver eo to copy A cigarette rase case or a flask perhaps its on oil the backs of his brushes you see without that im stuck at the present moment I 1 dont even know what hat ills hia crest Is I 1 wrinkled my brow strangely enough said 1 I its the same asame as your own a leopard lint but that mean incan what the word flamed As the saying goes I 1 alliot almi st leapt out bout of my skin and turned to find her staring tense wide ilde eyed and staring white to the lips and then I 1 knew I 1 war lost I 1 hail had learned her crest from Phara pharaoh ob and pharaoh was wrong and I 1 had repeated the error which pharaoh had made 1 I I 1 thought I 1 stammered 1 I had an idea P the badge of yorick Is an oaktree she whispered rather than spoke weve were never displayed the leopard for more than years the sibilant Bib llant accusation struck struck me dumb she was round now and was kneeling in 1 with her arms held close to her breast and her hands to her throat adeath was whistling la in her nos tails irlas and her eyes seemed to pierce my brain helplessly I 1 dhru shrugged ed my shoulders shoulder 1 I suppose I 1 must have my god she breathed you were there As my eyes went flown down she clapped her hands to her head 1 ily god she cried it us as youl you you john YOU and not bu bugle ae that I 1 pulled out my notecase note case and took out tier her master key As ai I 1 laid it down by her side sabre killed cugle bugle I 1 said ills blodys down in the moat none of them saw it happen so I 1 walked into the castle and took his place helena sat back on her heels finger to up lip ifer her eyes were still wide still staring she seemed to be murmuring something I 1 could not hear im sorry I 1 said aid 1 I mean you jou to know at that a tremor ran through her then with a sudden movement she flung herself down on her face and burst into tears for a moment I 1 sat hesitant then something snapped within me I 1 lifted her up tip and gathered her into my arms with my face pressed tight against hers dont cry nell I 1 said 1 I cant bear it IL and and please dont send me away im not sending you away she sobbed she caught at tny my coat and ill tell you another thin thing id never have let you go it if all else had failed I 1 was going down to the station I 1 held her olt oft and look looked ed into her tear stained face i but nell just now you 1 I wanted to know if you loved me I 1 had to be sure of that thal but now she hid tier her face in my coat oh it john my darIl darling Dg youve youre made me feet feel so humble so go cheap and I 1 stopped her beautiful mouth how ayou think I 1 feel nell how flow ayou think I 1 felt when I 1 stood in that secret chamber and heard you buying toy my safety the life and health of the man juat jua turned you down A child looked into my eyes shall we ae take each other back john yes please nell I 1 said quietly with a little sigh of contentment she slid an arm round my neck CHAPTER XII i storm music V our respective tales lie had been told my disaffection forgiven our grace brace had been said and we were now stand ing together at the edge of the lawn we had started to return to the car but now with one consent we had stopped to look again upon the beauty which we re were to leave it seemed so strange that life and death and fortune had lain la in that peaceful setting awaiting a sweet june dayspring to leap to their battle stations thence to dispute the fate fata of six air human buman beings not one of whom till that morning had so much as suspected the existence of such a spot A century of da daw ni ng rind and sun downs hail found and left it sleeping as it was bleeding bleeping Ble now and then in a twinkling the earth had opened the brook had played storm music and to think said helena that I 1 treated you as a child the truth Is said 1 I were both children and children hate to be b itse td ed M A children you know nelena lifted tier her head to survey the blue of the sky the eager look in her face would have made a sick man well 1 I she said 1 I was a woman all right cut but I 1 think its all yur your own doing you know but I 1 think my dear have a child tor for a wife 0 0 a to there 1 Is not much more to b be told my ily cousins reception of the truth was more than handsome and I 1 really belleve believe that darley barley would not have exchanged the know knowledge knowledg led e that I 1 had caused pharaohs Phara Phar aolis death for all tho the gold that lay in the cellars of yorick or anywhere else but old florins florans Flor ins simple tribute would have warmed any mans heart beart sir you have done my duty and that by the grace of god for I 1 myself could never have done it so ao well it was lie he who vilio said at once that cu bu agles body would be found held down by the grill which mitch kept foreign matter from passing into the nasle alpes that led from the moat sure enough there it was its removal and the subsequent quent rites wore were grisly enough but the four of its in did the business without any belp bec became aue liming got so far it seemed a pity that we should explode a theory which gorlek tind and Yo ricks neighbors had apen at such pains to digest hen my cousin broached the question of getting rid of the gold helena made no object objection lon lint hut only begged his assIs assistance to t carry through a transaction she dared not attempt alone this to our great surprise till we learned hat her solemn trust wits was now nt at an end because her father hid had said that on her marriage the gold must i N ell together saving each other we W rode out that frightful storm be reinvested or lodged at a bank and this la in due course was done my cousin arranged the affair with a famous house and within six weeks a fortnight before we were wed the bullion was out of the cellar and helena mistress of 0 a fortune which was considerably greater than that which her father laid up A letter from the count ot of yorick afforded us infinite pleasure and deserves to be set out in full dear helena I 1 hope you are very well I 1 am not at yorick because I 1 was bitten by EL a mad dog doe and a good brought me straight here I 1 would ilk like to thank him tor for that he saved my life you know fancy a mad dog worrying me I 1 think I 1 must just have gone out tor for a walk or something and then it just looped upon me and worried me and I 1 knew no moar and this Is the only one place that I 1 could have been saved from going mad it makes you set get hot nil all over by the way im olt oft liquor alcohol I 1 mean they make me heeling drinks here with virtue in them and I 1 fairly lapp them up and the wounds heeling like a little child they say liquors very dangerous for I 1 nearly died you know all the wile the good were taking me to the monn astery it wa i touch and KO go moat moar than liea iho madness was in my vanes it makes you go 90 ho hot t cut but im all I 1 aeilt now flow the they Y on say Y I 1 c can a n go get t up tor for a ittle wilf wile on S sunday and look at the flours 1 I shall like that I 1 see c the vant ity of life now all right there Is a good food monk here called father bernard of course they are all good but he la in the best beat he says nays all Is in hannity and that the pumps of the world are vold void yo yoa know theres a lot in that well I 1 must end now but I 1 thought you might wunder wonder where I 1 was what a escape fancy a mad dog doe like that ranging ranel ng about soaking whom he might deboer I 1 tell you I 1 a chance ile he jut just beeped upon me nashone their fangs fanes 1 I can see ec it now your loving brother VALENTINE P S what about aaning faning I 1 rather hope hes gone eone it if not perhaps you could fire hirn him out ile he swore spencer w was a a your evil goals genie but I 1 thought spencer had a good eye sour grapes rr apes I 1 g guess bess uess I 1 suppose you knew what hat you were doing the reformation tills alil i letter foreshaw owed was more than we could believe but I 1 am bound to record that it vas as fairly fulfilled the shock or the fear of death or perhaps his curious communion with that honest and kindly fellow ship of simple souls wr wrought in the count an astonishing change or of henrt heart the weeds eeds that had choked his qualities withered and died and though I 1 aa if most apprehensive of 0 our relation 24 hours acquaintance had made us the best of friends ills hia pt brings me to pharaoh of that unconscionable scoundrel I 1 have but little to say that the man was most swift and flaring daring I 1 cannot deny but I 1 think that his deadly reputation was to him the highway mans mare when at last he was standing upon his own feet even I 1 was able to show that it his eye was quicker at least his spine was as brittle as that of another man the portrait my cousin had painted will always rank for me as one ot of the greatest triumphs a pal painter later ever achieved this Is not because he had rendered a beautiful likeness nor for 1 yet because he had captured the leaping spirit that lived in the lovely flesh but because he had marked as I 1 had that the precious eager look was out of 0 his subjects face and had painted it in from memory out of a grateful heart though my life Is secure and happy beyond belief the events of those terrible days are cut as in stone upon my mind but I 1 would not forget them it if I 1 could for out of their wrack and turmoil I 1 won my beautiful wife often and often I 1 read their grim inscription and gaze at the riotous pageant which tills this calls up I 1 see that dreadful labor down in the sparkling dell and dewdrop fidger filiger the paper that I 1 let fall I 1 tread the reaping nooks hooks stairs and I 1 hear as I 1 shall hear to my dying day the deadly voice of pharaoh behind the door I 1 see him enter the room with valentines hand upon his shoulder and I 1 hear bear him whistling for sabre with my heart in my mouth I 1 hear bear the carlotta coming with the rush of a mighty wind and I 1 hear the cough of the rolls as her engine tailed failed I 1 hear rush ruah plying bugle to make my blood run cold I 1 hear pharaoh bullying freda and I 1 see the hame flame of the pistol that saved his life I 1 see the awful change in my darlings darling face and I 1 turn to see pharaoh smiling behind my back I 1 smell the fragrance r of the valley that knew no sun and then I 1 see her stricken and trembling in pharaohs Phara power and I 1 hear the roar of our pistols and I 1 see the man spent with hatred staring into my eyes it Is written out of the eater came forth meat I 1 can only say I 1 have found this saying most true the goddess aphrodite rose from the foam of the sea but helena spencer came out of the wrath of a tempest that had risen to smite us both together saving each other we rode out that frightful storm the remembrance of which la 19 not grievous tor for our desperately perilous passage side by side has bound us more closely together than the sharing of any joys THE END |