The Portland daily press., 1879-10-03

| death, and as-dunb
Well, they could de nothing to me. But
there was Observation-Disclosures tile matter
was, there must never be q shadow of q
| guess, Il il could be helped by 2 legion of
! lies. that a girl, whose characters her bread
| and hei life, had been caught at midnight
| running away with o man. The stars pc
| praised that she'd toll me her name. The
| way I'd get her out OF the scrape I'd got her
| into came On me like an inspiration.
! hat is it?'' said I, as coolly as il I'd
! been cool, instead of being bewidercd out OF
| my sever senses. Can't a gentleman drive
| with his own sister 10 WalthamstoW IN the
! carly morning without being stopped By a
| parcel Of constables as il they were highway
menu
"Cwne, 1lf Grand, You SpoH WHIST we're
| after. and OF course We're as sorry as YOU
| can be. There's no need 10 talk before the
| Young lady: and there's no need 10 detain
| her. # YOU hadn't tried TO give us The slip
by getting out Of the carriage you might have
gone on quietly TO Walthamstow, aud there'd
| have been this bother saved We've get 4
trap just behind, and the young lady'-he
touched lis hat to Grace can 90 on.
"If did know what you're after" said /,
perhaps q agree with you.''
Which case? Why, It's diamonds this
tiine-Lady Horchester's-an I'm afraid,
sir, we must ask you to let the young lady
20 ON at once, and let us search goa here.
Diamonds are things that can be made away
with any minute, you know"
You may search and welcome, said 1,
and if I've got the ghost Of a diamond
| about me. my names not Thomas Brand.
| There--I'll search myself, il you please"
I'd got two regulations to take care Of
! the brothers for the sisters sake, and the
sisters for her own. In a.minute | turned
Gu. all my pockets before they could inter-
fere, just as I'd done at the jewellers. Some
thing or other fell out Of one; and the police
man with the bulPs-eye made dart at it as
soon as it touched the road.
''That won't do, STRIP said he, giving ii TO
the Sergeant. 'And by the Lord uarryh'
he cries out, ''if here isn't the very identical
stone that Graves of Cheapside was in Scot
land Yard about on Saturday afternoon
gold setting, green leather case, and all!
Fifty pounds reward! It's not my fault, sir,
he said to me. ''Duty's duty, and" he
said, measuring my six feet Of height and
forty inches OF chest with his eye-s'you'n
excuse lne;' and was pretty soon in an
other sort of a carriage, with handouts on
my wrists, and in my mind for a last memo
~ of Grace, an odd look that hadn't the
heart to think could be meant for smile
But it looked bitterly like one all the same
after my trying to help her.
OF course ID shifted the case into my new
dress-eoat when | went to the Opera, and of
course, when put on my shooting-coat next
morning, 1 never thought Of its being any
where but where it had been ever since I
left Cape Town. Il had just gone where all
the lost letters go.
But that didn't keep my situation from be-
ing an unpleasant one. The handouts were
not comfortable, and it was difficult to form
any sort of plan in the position where /
found myself without knowing the bearings
of anything. Only one thing was quite
clear, as [ hope every gentleman viii admit,
that 1 WAS bound TO brazen things out, and
having done another man the honor Of taxi
ing the responsibility OF his behaviour on my
own shoulders, to do as I'd be done by; for
if anybody, under press of circumstances,
felt obliged to call himself Thomas Conner,
I'd like him to do credit to the name. And
as for Grace, the fact that a woman doesn't
treat q man well doesn't make him the less
bound to take care Of her good name at any
cost to his own; 1t makes him all the more
bound, it seems TO me. And as that was
the one clear thing l had before me, l held
my tongue for fear Of letting the constables
get an mixing hat they'd got hold Of a
wrong man again.
/ slept the rest Of that night III cell at a
police-station--for the first time since I'd
been run in at Dublin for having been acct
dentally present at a row; and ! slept very
well, for l was dead tired. Early the neXG
morning l was told that there was 4 solicitor
who wanted to see me.
SIS his name Cregan?" asked /, for If it
had been ] wouldn't have seen him. for then
the murder would have been out that it
WASH her brother whom Grace had been
caught running away with. But it wasn't
Miles; il was quite q young man, dressed to
the mines, of the name Of FRY. AS I'd never
heard Of the man, had no objection to see
him.
He shook hands with me in The most cor
dial manner; but was on my guard against
pumping, and put on stand-otf sort OF way
waiting to get the pumping on my own side.
"My names Albert Fry" said he. 81 sup
pose you expected to see my father; bat he's
too old now to attend to business much, and
I'm just as much in his lordship's conf
deuce as he used TO be- | saw his lordship
this morning. In fact I've just come from
him"
I'm much obliged 70 you Tor coming.
And what does his lordship say?, ! asked.
Excuse me for saying SO, Mr.. Brand, but
you are cool handY
pretty web for that said L; and so
was if a feyer's cool "The hotter things
are, Mr.. Fry, the more ones bound to keep
cool'
cts q bad business this tinle--a very bad
business indeed. don't know whaG's to be
done. You were asking me what his lord
ship said It's 10 good inincing matters.
mot a bit Of i" said 1.
'1And SO Pm bound to tell you that his
lordship has determined, as he puts it, to
wash his hands Of you once for all. And so
he has instructed me to say
'sThen tell his lordship that if he wants to
wash his hands he had better go to Bath"
said I; for such a message as that made me
feel warm.
''Pardon me, Mr. Brand, but this is no
joking matter. Such a family scandal as
this would be fatal. He refuses to see you
or to communicate with you: and. under
the circumstances that is natural; indeed it
is unavoidable. But, for the sake of the
family, on my earnest representations, he
has consented to make you proposition.
Or 9ather two propositions; Tor they are
alternative"
There's no harm in hearing what they
are, anyhow said |.
THE first is that you should obtain bail,
to be repaid by his lordship for your flight"
said he. ''He is willing to pay as much as
two thousand pounds for the family honor
''And it's kind of him; and I'm glad to
know the exact price of the family honor,
said 1, Sin case I'm inclined to bid for it
some day. And what's number twoF'
ITo BE CONTINUED.