Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-05-04
C!IAPTEH NNL.-1Contiuucl.)

CHAPTER NNI.--tContinucd.)
Ih:: night the heavens were overcast
win heavy clouds. and torrents of rain
p"A:id down upon the face Of the earth.
NJ peal after peal of thunder doomed
through, the heavy heated air. Helen
could not sleep: she rose. ~fcvcriSi and
unscs.cd from her husbands side. and
paced wildly and mi>ciably about the
roo:a. Then she went 10 the window and
drew lack The curtain and looked out up
Or the siorm-drivcn world. The clouds
racl:rtl wildly across the sky: the trees
ben. and swayrd before the bowling
wi.'l. the rain beat in floods upon the
Gr"i.'d: vet greater and iicrccr still was
thu tempest that ragged in Helen kyihS-
tom licart. Hatred. jealousy and NAL
ice stowe and struggled within her. and
500 ching dircr %still--a terror that she
could NOT nucnrh nor siiflc: for late that
nisi.s her husband had said to her sud
denly. without II word of warning or
preparation:
"Iieicn. do You know Il Frcnch1nan
cali,fl p'.Arblrt.'
N.,'cn had been ut her dressing table
hcg .ack was turned to him-hc did not
see ile livid rallor which blanchcd her
~ So" ~ Al" 'I'tS'l'h.
NO, ! never heard the na,ue in my
life She said. at length.
That is odl-bcrausc neither have l.
ard yet the man has SEM mo IL parcel"
II was of so little Importance to him
that II did not occur 10 him that there
could possibly he amy occasion for srcrc-
cy concerning Ncra's commission. II did
moi strike him how strained and forced
was .he voice in which his wife presently
asked him Il question.
And the parcel. You have opened ii z"
Ne. not yet began Maurice. sitting
n avn; and he would have gone on to
eN1l.in to hey that ii WIS not Yet actually
in his POSSESSION only at that minute the
maid came into the room, and he changed
the subject.
But Helen had guessed that it was
Vera who was the bearer of thai parcel.
How ii had come 10 pass she could not
tell, but too surely she OWNED that Vera
had in her possession those fatal letters
that she had once written to the French
Vicente; the letters that would blast her
forever in the husbands estimation.
And was it likely that Vera, with such
a weapon in her hands, would spare her?
What woman, with so signal a revenge
Ill hey power, wVfld fercso the delight of
wrealSiag it updh one woman who had
l1alen from l2Hthe man she loved! Helen
.>GHAt i'll Nera's place she would
0SW no mercy to her rival.
1t was all clear as daylight TO her now:
the appointment nj the vicarage gate. the
something of which she had said in her
note she had for him: the whole mystery
of the secret meeting between them-it
was Ncra's revenge. Vera. whom Maui
Tirp fNypI mud y-l,,r, chn IJ,1n-, lr+a1
with such Il deadly hatred!
And then, in the silence of the night.
while her husband slept, and while the
thunder and the wind howlcd about her
home. Helen crept forth from her room,
and sought for that fatal packet of let
tiers which her husband had told her he
had not vet opened.
OH, il she could only find them and
destroy them before he ever saw them
again. Long and patiently she looked for
them, but her search WAS in vain. She
ransacked his study and his dressing
room: she opened every drawer, and fun
blcl in every pocket, but She found moth
ing.
Denis Wilde, who was restless, too, had
heard her soft footsteps along the pas
sage outside his door; and. with Il vague
uncasiness as to who could be about at
such an hour. he came creeping out of
his ROOM, and pecped in AT the library
door.
He SAP her sitting upon the floor, a
lighted Candle by her side. an open draw
er. QUIT of her husbands writing table.
upon fer lap, turning over papers and
bills tnd notebooks with eager, trem-
bling Hands. And he saw in her white,
set face, and Wild. scared eyes, that
which made him draw swiftly and shud-
deringly from the sight of her.
..hleavens!' he IN to himself.
a IS he sought his room again. 1.-THE woman
has murder in her face"
She cannot have given it to him." was
the conclusion she came to at last.
s.Well, she will do so tomorrow. and L
/ will not let her out of my sight. not for
one instant, all the day"
CHAPTER NNII.