The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-09-18 00:00:00

ATHERSTONE GRANGE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF
" Allan Thornton," "Effie Baird," "Almost a
Criminal," " Leonora's Legacy," 4-c,

CHAPTER XXXI.
HOMEWARD BOUND.
See, on the deck, gay numbers pour,
Seeking a glimpse of their native shore;
Smiles of enjoyment are beaming around,
Oh, light are the hearts of the homeward bound.
—ANON.

THE telegram was indeed sent by Craham Carson.
From the time which he spoke the few rational
words to Allan Temple and his father about Norton
Atherstone's means, he rapidly improved, till by the
time the message arrived from his father he was
able to recollect what had happened to him, and to
tell his adventures to his friends.

Very weak and fitful was his story at first; and the
effort to call up any particular event caused him in-
tense headache and much weakness; but his mind
grew and strengthened with every succeeding day,
till in a very short time he was quite fit for his journey
home. _ _

It was 5 curious tale he told Allan Temple when his
mind came back; so curious that the young actor
could only believe that it was part of the glamour of
his illness, and reasoned with him long and earnestly
on the subject. His story was that Mrs. Dalton, or
someone in her house, had tried to murder him! It
was a strange notion to enter his head. What motive
could a woman, of whom he knew nothing, whom he
had only seen some three or four times at most, have
for wishing to get rid of him? He declared that
the boy who summoned him from the deck of the
Psyche took him straight back to the house Miss
Atherstone had just quitted, and that Mrs. Dalton had
received him at the door, saying his father was there;
that there was lemonade on the table, and that she
offered him some, with a casual remark about the
heat, and that, having come along hastily, and being
very warm, he had drunk a glassful.
After that he could remember nothing distinctly;
he had a vague idea that his father was there and
spoke to a him, but he could not understand his words;
then came a sense of being dragged somewhere, and
falling in rushing water, and then a blank from which
he seemed to have just awakened. Allan Temple
shook his head over the whole story; that Mr. Carson
senior had never been in Australia he knew very well,
and he thought it most likely that all the rest of the
affair was some delirious fancy too.
"We will go and see Mrs. Dalton," he said. "We shah
soon find out whether she is guilty of any attempt on
your lite or not. If she is, and thinks you dead, the
sight of you will be quite enough —it will frighten
her nearly %,ut of her wits."

"You don't half believe me, Temple," said Graham
Carson, with a sigh. "You think it is all fancy. I
know it is true."

"I know you believe so." said Allan Temple, gently;
"but think how ill you have been. Think of the
absence of motive, too; the thing seems quite in-
credible."
The two went to Mrs. Dalton's house, only to find,
to their amazement, that it was shut up. The lady
and her servants and lodgers had all vanished, and no
one could tell ft • a certainty where they had gone to.
"To some of the towns to the northwards," somebody
suggested; but it was all very vague. She was gone,
and with such an amount of secrecy that it was plain
she did not wish to attract any attention to her pro-
ceedings.
"I should like to see the house," Graham Carson
said. "I could show you the room I went into. If
there is any trap-door or water near, it will go to prove
the truth of what you think my fancy."
The landlord of the house was away at Ballarat,
but the key was obtained, and the young men ex-
plored the silent and deserted mansion together.
"Some of these houses are over the Garupa Brook,"
Allan said. "I think this is on of them."
"What is the Garupa Brook ?"
"The pleasant piece of water where I found you—
it serves as a main sewer for this part of Melbourne ;
they say that is the reason they don't command a high
rent; the water can be heard very plainly in some
of them." - -

"Then this is one. I heard the water, and there
is a trap-door down which I was thrown. You will
see my story is true, Allan.'
But no trace of any trap-door could be found, nor
-of another door through which the young manaverred
he was dragged. The small room he recognised as
the one into which he was shown had no second door,
nor any appearance of one having been blocked up.
The paper looked new and fresh, but it was of a very
dark colour, so it was impossible to tell how long it
had been up.
Allan Temple said nothing, but he read the disap-
pointment on Graham's face, as they turned away
from the door.
"Have courage," he said.
to you by-and-by
"It is clear now, Temple. That old woman meant

"It will all come clear

to get me out of the way."
It would hardly do for you to accuse her Wil
some more proof than your own recollections
or-"
"Or fancies. Say the word, Temple; it is on your
lips. iam weak and confused in my mind, I know;
but the more I think of this business the clearer my
memory becomes upon the point. There is some
strange mystery afoot, and maybe when I get to
England I shall find it out."
"I shall come to England, too, if you will have my

ithout 1

company, Carson. I have been going to try my
fortune there for a long time. Only one thing kept
me here."

" Ah, the fair lady who has gone hoTne to such good
fortune. The bust thing for you to do is to go after
her."

"After her—yes; for her—no."
"Why not ?"
" Ah, there'sthepuzzle. I could no more tell you why
than I could fly to the moon. I loved Beryl Atherstone
with such love as was faith itself. I believed that,
like me, she would have been faithful unto death;'
and yet, now I feel sure that from the minute there
was a stretch of blue water between us I faded out of
her life as completely as though I were dead. She
will fly at higher game than an unknown actor
now.,,
"And if she does she's not worth a moistened eye-
lid, or the quiver of a lip. I'd whistle her down the
wind, as Othello says, and think no more of her. If
you are not mistaken, lam. I did not see much of
Miss Atherstone, to be sure; but from what I did see
I imagined her to be a gentle, loving girl; with neither
fickleness or levity in her."
"So did I, God help me! I had given her my whole
heart."
"And who has put it in your head that things an
not going right ?'
Herself. There has not been a word for me; not a
mention of my name in any messqge or in the letter
that came to tell of that poor girl's death; and more
than that Mrs. Dalton let fall something once which
opened my eyes t her real thoughts of her new posi-
tion. She is mercenary and heartless, Carson. She
had no chance of showing it before you came. I was
a good match then. but toe change came over her with
the knowledge of her wealth."
"I cant believe it."
"I thought I couldn't till her silence confirmed it.
Almost her last words to me were that she would send
me a telegram as soon as she set foot in England; she
could do it to others, but not one line for me, I
learned quite by accident that within a week of her
arrival home she sent that old woman a large sum of
money; and when I called upon her for tidings of my
darling she told me that— —"
"What
"Well, I hardly know what she told me in so many
words, but enough to make me understand that the
heiress of the Atherstones was not for me; enough to
tell me when she looked up in my face with lovi 1g
-eyes and swore to be true to the motto of the ring I
gave her, she was lying—and she knew it."
"Temple, there's more in this matter than we can
see," said Graham Carson. " I believe that old
woman, Dalton, to be a female fiend, and, wnatever is
wrong, she is at the bottom of it. Come to England
with me, and let you and I go straight to Atherstone
Grange, and present ourselves to tho lady. The
Psyche will leave in ten days from now—can you be
-ready ?"
"Yes."
But Allan Temple's journey was not to be just yet'.
Graham Carson. was sufficiently recovered to start.
Indeed, the medical men declared that the voyage was
all that was wanted to set him up; but the elder Mr.
Temple had met with an accident, and Allan could
not leave.
"I must stay and see the old man about again," he
said. "But I won't delay vort. The deztors say he'll
be all right in a week or so. I shall hollow in the
Venus—that's giving him a month. I shall never rest
till I have found out for myself what is going on.'
"-You will come straight to us, Temple. My father
%ail' be very angry if you make your head-quarters
anywhere else. He owes my preservation to you."
Another telegram to the lawyer at Leamington, a
shake of the hand, and a good-bye on the deck of the
Psyche, and the tvva young men parted. Allan went
back to wait, with what impatience he might, for his
father's recovery; and in the slowly-passing time he
learned two things—one, that Mrs. Dalton had most
certainly sailed for England from Sydney, and the
other that during the last month of her tenancy of the
house over the Garupa Brook she had a considenble
amount of alteration and repairing done. It was from
Hannah, who was out of place and very low spirited,
that the young man learned all this.
"And why she had all that fuss made, unless she
was mad," the domestic said, "I can't think. It cost
a mint of money, and she knew that she was going
before she began it."
"What did she have done?" asked Allan, more in-
terested than he cared to show.
"It was what didn't she have done," returned the
domestic. She had a floor laid down, and a door
bricked up, and a place papered; and all for nothing.
as a body might say. rm sure the house wasn't half
so convenient afterwards. I know she was out of her
mind, poor lady! for she took to seeing ghopts at
last."
" Ghosts !'