The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-01-04
THE
Bl'angWyn Mystery
cHAPIER xxyl-contlnued.

CHAPTER x><vi.-contlnued.
Aloysius the younger, reading this
second letter also for the fiftieth
lime, recalled the answer he addressed
o the writer Of it in expression of at.
fectionate sympathy and deep regret.
He recalled the waiting for the bank.
er's draft which never came. He went
On to the next document in hts sheaf:
Dear Mr.. Aloysius: regret to be
the bearer of i'll news. My poor, dear
old master has disappeared. had
teen away on three days. leave to bury
my brother, and when / got back your
poor uncle had not been seen for more
than forty-eight hours. Mr.. Alexis is
quite i'll and seems distracted. Master
had lost his temper with Mr.. Alexis
and went out about o'clock at night
taking his latch-key with him. Mr.
Alexis, being not wishful to see him
again that night, went to his own
room early. The woman who had been
called in for service took masters cup
of tea to his room at o'clock. She
says she supposed that master was
s6e ping out on journey or at a
friends house. She said nothing, and
master was not missed till afternoon.
Since then we have moved heaven and
earth to find him, but there is no news
and no sign. You must excuse me tax.
ing the liberty of enclosing five
pound note, Mr.. Aloysius, for know It
has not been your uncle's habit to keep
keep you very flush, and you are want
ed here so badly that you must not
lost one hour in coming. With affec
tionate respects and deep sorrow,
Robert Sewar."
Aloysius, reading this, recalled all
the old anxieties and fears of the
dreary journey Londonwards, and one
horrible suspicion which would in.
trude upon him in spite of all the rea.
son he brought to bear against it.. He
fought it down Loyalty and he strangled
It. But it sprang to life again, in
spite of the fact that everything known
to him made it improbable. He feared
lest Alexis shoula nave been in some
way responsible for the old mans dis
appearance. Alexis might be weak.
He had often reproached him for want
of stability, but it was madness to
suppose that he had done anything de-
liberately. A chance blow, perhaps,
given in moment of intense irritation
and despair!
It might we'll be that so full a life
may have ended thus. And then the
horror lest in fear the hapless victim
of his own nervous rage should have
.striyen to conceal the body, and so
have given himself over beyond RENE
dy into the hands of the law. But
there was not one corner of the old
Georgian house in which his uncle had
lived which would not be ransacked by
the police. If the dread were we'll
founded, detection was certain.
And then, on the other side-on the
right side, so Aloysius protected him.
self-Alexis was not man of strife
spect for his relative and protector.
And If the old man had threatened
him with disinheritance Alexis would
know quite clearly that 1t would make
no difference to him, and that Aloysius
was not the man to profit at his cous-
ms cost, even though the cousin had
been guilty of an act for which he
would bitterly reproach himself
throughout his lifetime. That was a
thing between his Maker and the sim
ner's conscience-not thing for Alloy
sius Brangwyn to reap profit out OF.
Alexis would know all that with
instructive certainty. But the chance
blow suggested itself over and over
again. Aloysius seemed to see 1t in
flicted in a dozen ways. The horror
was not there, but in the thought OF
concealment. In that matter of the
girl whom he had betrayed the unpar;
donable part of the whole business
was that he had run away from the
consequences of his wrongdoing. And
here he might-he might-he might
have acted on the same impulse, and
so have converted accident into con-
structive murder. If he had played the
coward AID the mailman there they
would find the body soon or late, and
would hang Alexis or send him into
penal servitude for life.
All the old fears thronged into his
mind. He lived that journey from
Paris over again, as he sat musine
with the letter in his hand He re
lived the arrival at his uncle's house
the hurry and confusion which pre-
sailed there, the search carried on b,
! che police-so minute that not cat
could have been concealed about it
the hubbub in the press, the excite
ment of the public curiosity and won
der, the false scents on which thu
search was started, the drowned
bodies, the starving vagrants-neithel
che nor the other bearing the remotes
resemblance to the missing man
Alexis's outbursts of wild gvief an;
self-accusati0n.
The old man and quarreled," hi
admitted, land that quarrel sent hin
to his death. He flung out of thu
house In a rage, and from that hou
was gone. He carried money. HI