Evening star., 1904-04-18

H.
Violet and Hubert made the acquaint-
ance of Nine. Sara few months before
Vio1et's marriage. You know madame 3
power of fascination. She won Violets af-
fections, and as to Hubert, she had such
complete influence over him that he would
do anything in the world she wished. We
were surprised at his determination to go
to Australia before his sisters wedding, but
1t now turns out that he was forced to go
by madame herself who assured him that
he could be Of the utmost assistance to her
in special matter of business This was
explained to Violet and to me fully; but
what we were not told was that he took
with him madame's own special servant,
an Arabian of the name of Achmed, the
cleverest man, Hubert said, he had ever
met. In his absence madame rented his
house for at least year All this sounds
innocent enough; but listen.
Very shortly after her marriage Violet
began to receive letters from Hubert dated
from various stations in Australia, demand
ing money. These demands were couched
In such terms as to terrify the poor child.
She sent him what she could from her own
supplies. but ne was Unsuitable. At last she
spoke to Nine Sara. Madame Immediately
told her she had learned that Hubert had
made some bad companions, had got into
serious scrapes, and that his debts of honor
were so enormous that unless she, Violet,
helped him he could never set foot in Eng
land again. The poor girl was too much
ashamed to saw word to me. These let
ters fmploring money came by almost every
mail. Madame herself offered to transmit
the money, and Violet, with the utmost
confidence, placed large sums in her hands.
AT last the crisis arrived. A communica-
ton reached my poor girl to the effect that
unless she paid between two and three
thousand pounds in notes in couple of
days Hubert in his despair would certainly
take his life. She was well aware of his
somewhat reckless character. Hence her
request to you to sell the bonds. Shortly
afterward the Persian arrived here, and
madame. at her own request, came to spend
the night She managed to terrify Violet
with fresh story with regard to Hubert,
and the child's nerves were so undermined
that she believed everything
Well you know the rest You know
what happened last night. But for VAN
deleurs genius, where might poor Violet
pc now? l must tell you frankly that even
L believed her guilty; l could not doubt the
evidence of my own senses
You can Judge of our amazement when
Hubert walked in this morning. He looked
we'll. He said that madame's business was
or simple character, that he had soon put
matters right for her, and after seeing what
was to be seen in Australia and New Zea-
land came home. He was amazed when we
spoke of his being in money difficulties; he
had never been in any scrape at all. Only
one thing he could not UNDERSTANDABLE
violet never answered his letters. He
wrote to her about every second mail. and,
as rule, gave his letters to the Arabian
to post. There is doubt that Achmed
destroyed them and wrote others on his
own account
We'll, Druce " hat do you say? The
motive? Oh, of course, the motive was the
blCodstone. The woman knew probably
for months that 1t was coming to England
and that 1, in my official position, would
invite the Persian here. She wanted 1t,
goodness knows for what and was deter
mined to have a long chain of evidence
against poor Violet in order to cover her
own theft. Druce, we must find that wo-
man. She cannot possibly be at large any
longer
The desire to find madame was in all our
minds, but how to accomplish 1t was a
question which l for one did not dare to
answer.
The next story in the series of tales of
1.-THE Sorceress of the Strand" will be
THE TEETH OF THE WOLF.