The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-29 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, OCT. 29, 1887.1

NOBLER THAN REVENGE.

BY TICE

Author of" The Heiress of AtherEtone Grange."
[ALL EIGHTS RESESEVED.j

CHAPTER XXXIX.
HOW IT APPEARED.

Be• thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee.' —SnAKEsrgArin.
WHATEVER vagaries that ghost that came to be talked
about in Milford presently indulged in, it hid itself
. _ .

completely from Barney Griubb. He haunted the wcod
as persistently as any spirit, black, white, or grey,
ever did my place of old memories; but he never saw
anything. And yet, on certain nights, when he was
not over the river, reliable people, whose word could
not be doubted, would assert that they had seen some-

thing.
Now ard then, no doubt, it was imagination, and
fear (Inc, shadows had played their msual parts in the
ghostly scare. But there were times when it was im-
possible to deny that something had been seen—a
something that certainly took the outward form of
. .

Frank Hatherleigh.
'l've seen something a deal worse than poor Mr.
Frank,' the boatman said to his mother, one day early
In the year. It was just after the visit of Mrs.
Churchill and her daughteri to the Ferry-house, and

the odd illness cf Phyllis Jarvis.
What's that?' asked the old lady.
'The devil.'
'Meaning the parson?'
She was getting accustomed to the exceedingly
unpolite fashion in which her son was apt to speak of
Horace Gaylord, and she guessed at once who Le
meant. _

that. He's come back.'
Where did you see him?'
On the towing-path, on the other side. I was
over there about the bait I promised to get for the
_

gentleman that is staying at the Magpie there; and I
—I met him, that's all.'
Mrs. Mordaunt looked keenly at her son, and
wondered a little why he stopped in his sentence. Ho
looked troubled, and as if there was something behind
the few words he had spoken. She could not read
between the lines as yet, and Barney did not mean
that she should. The fact was that his meeting with

Gayford had not been pleasant, though that
gentleman had been perfectly civil ; indeed, rather too
much so. He had been amiability itself, and had
asked after BArney's mother and his well-doing
generally, in such a fashion that the boatman would
have enjoyed knocking him down wry much indeed,
and would very likely have committed a breach of
the peace but for the strange thraldom that was upon

him.
He had been walking along, thinking of his own
business, and from that led by a train of thought to
all that had happened since that memorable day when
he had put the party across the river and seen Helen
Ramsay for the first time. There was a pain at his
heart and a choking at his throat, as he thought of her
and her bright young beauty, and the terrible rumour
that had come to Hillford of her death.
I don't believe it,' he said to himself. 'I can't
think of her as dead, somehow; and yet I suppose
they have done all that can be done. Heaven for-
give me if I judge him too harshly; but I seem to
be quite certain that that devil had some hand in it.
I watched him devour:ng her with his eyes that day,
and I saw how he tried to put mischief between her
and the poor young fellow that's gone. He fascinated
her, as he did me, and she didn't know why she was
obliged to listen to him, and turn away from the other
one. l'm thankful that he's far away. I think if he
was hero in Hillfer 1 I should ki I him'
Somehow or other, Horace Gayford had been very
present to his mind for the last few days He seemed
to have a feeling that he was not far off, and now, as
the words left his lips, or rather were formed in his
mind —for he did not speak them aloud—there came
upon him the same en; ious impulse to go somewhere
that had been upon him in the boat. He must turn
back. There was something for him to do before he
went any further on his read, and he shivered, as if
with cold, as he strove against it in vain. 'lf I didn't
know he was abroad,' he said to himself, I should lay
it to him. go back a bit, and maybe it will go
off.'
He turned as he spoke, and met Horace Gayford face
Sto face.
'Good morning, Barney,' ho said, with a peculiar
smile. 'You look surprised to see me.'
'I am surprised,' Barney replied. 'I thought you
were in foreign parts.'
'So I was. I have been all over northern Europe
Since I saw you. I have come back again.'
And then he proceeded to ask questions about Mrs.
Mordaunt and Barney's affairs, and to get answers to
them' too. The ferryman could no more have re-
fused to speak than he could have flown; and Horace
Gayford laughed to himself when, at last, Barney
turned away and went about his business.
'I have not much to fear from Barney Grubb,' he
said to himself. I have only to say "Come !" and
he turns to me like a bidden dog. Barney does not
love me; but whatever he takes into his head about
me he will keep to himself for the future.'
What has brought him back ?' Barney asked him-
self, when he could think quietly over what had
passed. 'No good, I am sure. Is it to avk rt sus-
picion, and make people believe in his innocence about
Miss Ramsay? Northern Europe? Yes. But that's
not all. If he had been in the moon it would have
been all the same. He could have got at her. If tt ere
were witches now. a-days, I should think I had been
bewitched. I mustn't tell the old woman. She does
believe in it still, and it would frighten her out of her
wits. I'll wait and watch. My turn will come some
day. He can't be always doing it. What is it? How
does he make me feel that whatever he says I must
bey? Could he stop me if I was to take him by the
throat and say— Take care, Barney; take etre.
Don't put thoughts into words, even when there are
Only the birds to listen to you. I'll try him some day,
when the time comes, and it will come, I am sure of
it.'
Barney did wait and watch. He could find that
Horace Gayford led a particularly quiet life in Hill.
ford, rarely going out, and when he did, making no
visits, or next to none, but going into the country,
hither and thither, as if he liked Life solitude of the
woods and fields. It was a little remarkable, for it
was winter weather, and very cold some part of the
time; and the ferryman felt sure there was a hidden
motive in these expeditions.
Mr. Jarvis was more surprised than pleased to learn
that the young nem was again in Milford. Phyllis had
been so well since that uncomfortable disclosure of hers
before they went abroad, and now, for aught he knew,
the old infatuation might begin again, all the good the
journey had done her be undone by Horace Gayford'a
presence. He had heard nothing of the attack at Mil-
ford. Phyllis had begged ner sister to say nothing
about it at home, send all that her parents learned was
that she had been over fatigued, and had been faint
and ill for a little while in consequence.
The lawyer went over to see Mrs. Churchill, and
learned from her that Mr. Gayford had come back.
'What for?' he asked, quietly. To preach?'
Oh, no,' Mrs. Churchill said. He has not said
much to us about it, but we hear that he has quite
given up the church. He is very much altered, and
Was quite upset when we told him about Helen.'
Did he learn of her loss first from you?'
'No; but he knew nothing about it till he got
here. I think he saw something about it in a paper.
Be has been in the Nor:h of Europe—Norway and
Eweden and thereabouts.'
'Oh, indeed.'
Mr. Jarvis had seen him in Biarritz, or he had been
the subject of a most extraordinary delusion. He had
to try and believe the latter when he met Mr.
Gayford, and expressed his surprise at seeing that
gentleman in Hillford again. Mr. Gayford's greeting
was laboriously cordial, and his sympathetic sorrow
about Helen's loss was studied in the extreme; but
there was something about it all that made Mr. Jarvis
feel that he was acting a part. He made some passing
remark about Mr. Gay ford's travels, and that gentle-
man replied that he had enjoyed his tour in
Scandinavia very much.
'And France, Mr. Jarvis added.
'I have not been to France this time,' was the cool
reply, and the young man looked the elder in the face
ae he spoke the lie with eyes that seemed to be truth
themselves.
I saw you, Mr. Gayford.'
Where i'
There was the least possible tremour in the voice,
the slightest suspicion of a quiver on the lying lip,
and the lawyer noticed it.
'Saw me?' he repeated, ' where ?'
At Biarritz.'
A mistake, Mr. Jarvis, I was not there; ask my
friends at Fernbank.'
• Mrs. Churchill did not know everybody at
Biarritz; I repeat I saw you.'
The quiver and trepidation was gone now, Horace
Gayford was himself again.
'Unless I have a double in the world, which I don't
think likely, or you have seen my fetch, as the Scotch
people call it, I believe you are mistaken, Mr. Jarvis;
may I have the particulars of our meeting.'
Tell it as straightrorwardly as he would, the lawyer
could not make the account of his seeing Horace Gay-
ford at Ardennes Villa otherwise than improbable.
Just waking out of a sleep and between the lights, the
mistake that it was supposed to be might be very
easily made, and there was not the slightest hesitation in •
the young man's amused denial.
'I was the best part of a thousand miles away,' he
said; do you think if I had been so near I should not
have tried to do temaething to help to find Miss
Ramsay? I venture to suggest that it was a dream,
or perhaps a nightmare, based on something that had
happened. or being present in your thoughts.'
His coolness was exasperating to Mr. Jarvis, who
wished him back in Norway, or wherever he had been,
with all his heart, and they parted after a minute or
two's chat about Cali:vie House and its inmates.
There was no invitation extended to Horace Gayford
now to visit there, and he laughed as he turned
towards home after the lawyer had left him.
I was in luck's way,' he muttered, 'when they
called me Mr. Greenwood at that hotel yonder. No
one over suspected me of being anyone else, except
my darling Helen, fah! where is she now, I wonder.
I never met a creature I knew; 1, was nearly caught
that night. I shall never forget that old man's stare
of astonishment when he opened his eyes and saw me
Standing there, he never thought of looking behind
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those shrubs by the front door; he would have solved
ithe mystery easily enough if he had.'
His position in Hillford was hardly so pleasant as it
had been when he was the idolised preacher at the
most popular church in the town, but money makes
friends, and he found himself sought after by enter-
prising mammas and strong-minded daughters, who
would have no objection to his money, and who petted
him to his heart's content.
He did not visit quite so much at Fernbann as he
had been accustomed to do in the old times. There
Was an uncomfortable feeling that connected him with
all the sorrow they had gone through, and recalled
things they would all have liked to forget. Mrs,
Churchill was kind and pleasant, and Barney Grrubb's
odd idea that Mr. Gayford had something to do with
the Biarritz catastrophe never crossed her mind, but
she c -aild not enjoy his society as she formerly did;
and indeed he himself appeared to be somewhat oddly
preoccupied, and not so inclined to female society as
he used to be.
They had come to look upon Helen as dead now.
There was little doubt of it. The disfigured corpse
of one of the men with whom she had put to sea on
that eventful night had been washed ashore a few
miles from Orguelet, and so settled all doubts on the
matter. There was no occasion to make any change
in their mourning. They wore their black dresses for
poor Cuthbert Ingram; so their sorrow passed un-
noticed, and Helen's name seemed to be forgotten.
The Churchil's heard of Mr. Stone, 'papa's queer
client,' as the Jarvis girls called him; but, like Barney
Grubb, they had never met him. He bad been pointed
out to them, and they bad thought him odddooking ;
and once they had almost run up against him in the
street, and very much disconcerted him. He was
a man who evidently disliked coming in contact with
women, and he made such an evident bolt to avo'd
them that they both laughed, and more than half made
up their minds to waylay him on purpose to see
what he was like the very next time they saw him
coming.
Other matters put Mr. Stone out of their heads for
awhile or they might have driven that shy gentleman
out of Hillford by their vagaries. One bright sunny
morning, when everything was sparkling with gem-
like frost, and Madge had been tempted out for a
walk, what Barney had feared came to pass. She
had been doing some shopping for her mother, and
Mrs. Churchill and Norah were sitting together talk-
ing and working, when Madge rushed in, her pretty
face white and her eyes distended with fear.
'Oh mamma' mamma!' she gasped, hardly able to
say the word for the tears which were beginning
to fall. Madge was easily moved to tears, and
general'y her frights or griefs melted themselves away
in a burst of weeping.
, What is it, dear?' Mrs. Churchill asked, going up
to her and making her sit down. 'What has
happened?'
But Madge could only gasp out, 'Frank, Frank,
for some minutes; and her mother began to guess
what had happened. Some one had been officious enough
to tell her what was talked about in the town and so
frightened her. It was very cruel of whoever had
done it; and she must enquire into it, and endeavour
to stop the rumour that was going about. Madge's
story was that she had gone into one of the drap, r's
shops for something she wanted, and had there heard
some one ask after the proprietor, who was ill of the
fright of seeing the ghost of Frank Hatherleigh in the
wood just where he had been killed. Madge had been
too horrified to move or speak, till the conversation,
which was public enough, was over, and then she had
rushed from the shop, leaving her purchase and her
puree behind her, and ran home as if she had seen the
apparition' herself.
'Oh 1 it isn't true ? she sobbed, when she was safe
in her mother's arms,' say it isn't true, mamma, or I
think I shall go mad !'
• Of course it isn't true, dear child,' her mother said,
trying to soothe her, ' it is either a mistske or a silly
hoax, and most likely the last. When it can be dis-
covered, the wretches will be punished, and there wil
be no more of it.'
It was a startling shock, and poor Madge was quite
upset by it, and her mother was glad of the oppor-
tunity given by her impetuous flight from the shop,
to go there and make enquiries as to how much
truth there was in the rumour. She was accustomed
to the shop, and knew the proprietor very well, and
found his wife ready to answer her to the fullest ex-
tent.
Her husband was very unwell; be bad been in a
weak state for some time, and the shock of what he
had seen had completely upset him. He had been
coming home from a business expedition on the other
side of the river, and an accident had deprived him of
the use of a horse and trap to which he was ac-
customed. The break down had occurred about three
miles away, on the other side of the wood, and he
could get home quite as quickly by walking through
it, and crossing the ferry, as by waiting for a fresh
conveyance where he woo.
He had no fear of passing by the place where
the murder had been committed, and he regarded all
that had been said about the wood being haunted as
idle rumour, having no fear of the supernatural. It
was almost dark when be entered the wood, but
there would be a moon directly, and by the time he
came to Girton's Hole it was shining full and clear.
The open space round the old pit was as light as day;
he could almost have read if he had had a book with
him. Every stick and stone round about the hole
stood out with almost unnatural distinctness in the
clear radiance, the soft moonlight was shining peace-
fully down on the sleeping world as if there were no
Such thing as sin or sorrow under Heaven, and he
saw Frank Hatherleigh standing on the spot where he
had been murdered, looking down into the hole where
they had vainly sought for his mangled corpse.