Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-02-24
his GRACE"
Author Of "The Barn Stormers," "The Woman in Grey"
Fortunes Sport" "The House by the Lock"
"A Man From the Dark" Lady Mary
of the Dark House" "Her
Royal Highness" etc.

I BILE sound which had so disturbed her
late on the night of the Dukes disap-
pearance. If there was a prison and a
prisoner in the Grange, therefore, they
must lie somewhere in the region of
the moat.
Tonight, in the commonplace little
smoking room, with the clock ticking
comfortably on the mantel, the rose
red Goals falling on the hearth, the idea
that Anne had conjured up and i'm
parted to him appeared preposterous.
The temptation to put it away as m
| thing too wild for credence, now that
reason had asserted its sway, gripped
him nightly. Why make the search
at all? Why not let well alone, satisfy
Anne with his word that she had been
mistaken las he believed he could and
take the happiness that might yet be
his, if no living claimant stood in his
way.
She loved him, not the other. She
had told him, Savernake and Lady
Blandon had told him, that in every
way-physically, mentally, morally
he was the superior of the mar whose
place he was usurping. His rival had
been a poor sickly sort of fellow. 1t
by any possibility it were true that he
still lived-if Maynard were able to
ave him to-night,--what good would
be accomplished?
The happiness of two lives would be
wrecked-his own and Anne's. Lady
Mary and Savernake would probably
think him a fool for his pains in I'M
earthing a miserable prisoner who in a
few more weeks might have been re-
leased by death-a weak, hayward fell
low unworthy of his position in life,
above sill else unworthy of Anne!
With a groan, Maynard leaped to his
feet, graphing with the thought which
twined its tentacles around him, and
flinging it from him as he might some
live, clinging thing, in fear and loath-
ing. For Gods sake, let me be hon.
est now!" he said. Aloud. Heaven
knows it's time | was sol"
He folded up the sketch, and putting
it away went to the window. AS he
had fanoied, it did look down upon the
moat, and he could hear the plash of
the rain as it met the stagnant water
under the reeds and broad nat pads of
long persisted pond lilies.
Not a very healthful place at best
for a prolonged residence, this old
moated house. What would it tie,
then, for a wretched prisoner shut
away underground, deprived of light
and air?
If there were indeed a secret-room
concealed in the Grange, it must be
ventilated from the moat, and reached
by some hidden entrance to the base
ment of the building. Maynard had de-
cided. When the servants had beer
safely got rid of for the night he meant
to begin his explorations, but, mean
time, something might be done from
outside.
His first plan of procedure had been
to steal into the Grange, unseen by
any of its inmates; but he had soon
found reason to abandon that. The
risk Of being heard, taken for a bur-
glar, and thus losing the opportunity
he had so carefully created, was too
great. He would have much more free
dom of action if he arrived early and
allowed his presence to become known
to every member of the household.
He had changed his tactics according
~, and now-having already given
warning that he might incline to wan
der about at his Willie put on his
hat and walked out Of the house with
out any attempt at concealment.
The cold wind and the rain which
spattered into his face cooled his brain
and did him good. He felt himself
again, ready and able, too, to carry out
the task he had undertaken.
All along the moat side he walked in
the wet and sodden grass. In the peck
ct if his great coat, he had brought a
small, dark lantern, and lighting n