The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-07-14
CHAPTER TX.
WHITTIER?

door of the Bank with that word gasp
ingly uttered, with heart and soul be-
wildered and benumbed by the startling
discovery of the moment.
Observation-Disclosures! What
did 1t mean? What could it mean, but
treacherv, or providence. Securely shut
in he had left Flora Merwyn. The mas
sive door had been doubly locked. How
had she penetrated that barrier, or,
rather whose hand had liberated her?
Certainly not that of the Sheriff or his
guards. They had not visited the room
since he had left the bank for the Court
Wharton? A fierce, passionate rage
burned in the plotter's bosom at the sug-
gestion Of that thought. Had his hire
ling relented? Would he turn craven at
a critical moment? What more natural
than that, under the stress of conscience
stricken misery, he had stolen back 10
the bank, rescued the imprisoned Flora,
restored the stolen fortune, and washed
his hands of the entire affair by speedy,
precipitate flight?
With a cry Of ungovernable anger, Ar
mold Dacre made a bound for the door,
as if to overtake and punish his treach-
erous subordinate at once Then he
halted abruptly.
"Do!t, idiot that 1 ami" he calculated.
"Why it could not have been Wharton.
He does no even know the combination
of the lock-"
The decision was a momentary relief,
but this emotion speedily gave way to a
new and far more intense dread. II not
Wharton, who? Only the dead banker
and himself knew the combination, only
49,, l- -~,,-N~ 81 nr-nr he W omit
Vainly the scheme worried his brain
for some solution to the overwhelming
mystery Of the moment. Speculation,
theory, dread, doubt, anxiety ran riot IN
his haunted mind. Then, with a sick.
ening conviction that somewhere along
the line Of his well-laid plans a broken
link had been u%ugarded, he left the room
and the bank, and proceeding around
the square. rung at the front door OF the
bankers dwelling.
Flora had escaped. Flora had been
rescued. Flora was free! WHAT would
that mean to him? Strongly entrenched
behind a carefully-erected fertilization,
propped up with fraud, forgery, and
cunning, he did not so much dread a
battle with a pennlless orphan. He
could set down any public accusation
she might make as the rawlings OF a
distracted mind, as the natural en-
' deavor of a daughter seeking to cast
the blame dne her father upon some
one else. But a vague intimation told
him that the hand which had liberated
her was a friendly hand, that a hidden,
secret foe, whose identity he could not
even surmise, had appeared to disturb
his well-laid projects. An enemy in the
dark-what latent power to unmask, be-
tray, and punish, might not this first act
of a%ntagonism predicate!
The old housekeeper answered his
summons Her nervous, hysterical man.
ner made her greeting almost incoherenL
The master was dead and Flora had dis
appeared.
With stern>harshness the cashier SUBJ
dued her agitation.
"Speak!." he ordered. "Wbere is Miss
Merwyn?"
"She left the house for the bank, hours
since. / have not seen her. She as
not returned. l went through the COW
cred passage way and called her, but the
door leading into the bank is locked"
The open window-the ladder! Dacre
decided that Flora had not returned or
been brought to the house. Where, then?
He went around into the little court. 1t
had but one entrance - from the stable.
Rarely used, the tiles were moldy and
covered with dust, and a disturbed path
showed leading from the bottom Of the
ladder to the carriage house.
"Ah! what is this?"
Dacre uttered the startled ejaculation
with a movement toward an object iy-
tho IN tho urnpn1 II wos q 10 100 nol1or
and the pin that had held it in place bore
the intelligent initial IF"
Flora came this way" he decided,
heart sinking, there are the marks Of
tour feet. Why! the carriage and the
two gray horses are gone"
The discovery threw new light upon
the subject The Investigation of the
ensuing half-hour verified the growing
dread in his mind, that the mysterious
disappearance Of tho bankers daughter
was due to a rescue, and that, whoever
her protector, her subsequent safety and
: retirement from the proximity OF enemies
had been well looked after.
For. coming out upon the street, Dacre
had not questioned ~half-a-dozen people,
before he fopr.d one fully able to answer
his anxious leading questions-had they
seen anything of Mr.. Merwyn's close
carriage?
81 did," confidently announced one of
q group.
"When-where?" demanded the eager
questioner.
Making for the river road, just at the
edge Of the village, just before noon"
You are sure?"
Don't l know the horses? Didn't I
see Merwyn's initial on the door? The
inside curtains were all drawn, but l
got a sight as the wind waited one aside.
Plain as l see YOU now I saw Flora Mer'
wyn lying back among the cushions. ]
suppose she's making off with what her
thieving old father didn't steal from the
bank"
Dacre passed the unjust insinuation
by UNDECIDED. That phase of the case
would help his W side of affairs.
Prejudice for Flora would initiate
against any effort she made to accuse
her fathers cashier of crime.
'.And the driver?" he queried sharply.
'Oh, him! He had on a great coat,
and q SLOUGH hat drawn down well over
his eyes. and drove so fast l could not
make him out"
Arnold Dacre turned from the spot
with %darkening brows. Who was the