The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-01-05

her curiouSly ana asked ner curious queS-
lions. Then she tainted again and when
she recovered she was in the asylum.
The plot was clear as day. But there
arose a simple and yet insuperable OBJ
stacle against proving it.
Frederick Fairlie angrily declared that
Marian had allowed herself to be duped
by Anne Catherick. He insisted that he
could not recognize his neice in the worn
woman before him. When Marian ques-
toned him and the servants privately
they too were uncertain. they had not
seen Laura since her marriage. She had
left Limmeridge House a blooming young
girl-she returned pale, haggard, wild
eyed woman.
Marian realized at once that there was
no hope In aught except instant flight.
The conspirators would spare neither
money nor effort to recapture Laura. Mr..
Fairlie would help them, convinced as
he was that she was truly Anne Cath
erick. The sisters went to the grave
yard for farewell visit, and there they
found Walter Hartright
week later three plainly dressed peo-
pie took cheap lodging in poor and
crowded neighborhood in Bondon's east
side The man described himself as an
artist and the two women as his sisters.
There, cut off voluntarily from all his old
connections shut out from all his old
sources of income, Walter Hartright OBJ
Thenceforth he and Marian toiled for the
bare means of existence, sustained by the
dual mission of nursing Laura back to
health and strength and the determine
tion to expose, unaided the plot that
had robbed her of her fortune and even
her identity.
They combined and set aside their
small private fortunes for the work. and
lived vigorously on Walters small earn
ings for they found at once that they
were facing a long fight Their old law
YER secretly approached could give them
no hope He had not seen Laura in
years He pointed out that with Mr..
Fairlie's evidence against them the task
was hopeless. Indeed, he himself incln-
ed to believe Marian and Hartright the
dupes of a mad woman's delusion-dupes
whom the courts of law would be more
inclined to look upon as calculating
agents.
When Walter Hatright reported this
to Marian he said: "There Is only one
hope It is in the secret that Anne
Catherick and her mother knew. If its
betrayal means the ruin to Sir Perci-
val its knowledge will give us a club to
force confession of the plot from him.
Acting on this conviction. he sought
out Mrs. Clements. She told him all She
knew Mrs. Catherck and she had been
neighbors twenty-five years ago In Old
Welmingham, where Mrs. Catherick'S
husband was parish clerk. He had left
her suddenly after discovering that she
had held several secret meetings with Sir
Percival Clyde in the vestry of the
church. About the same time Anne was
born, and Mrs. Clements had nursed her
and gradually come to LOCK on her al
most as her own daughter. as her moth
err seemed to hate her
With this meagre information he hur-
ried to Old Welmingham. From Mrs.
Catherick he elected nothing His other
inquiries in the town were equally fruit
less. He learned nothing to hint what
the secret could be-nothing except this:
that 1t had something to do with hap
pening In those far-off days in the YES
try.
Feeling himself against a dead wall,
Hartright sought out the old parish clerk
who had taken Catherick's place when
that man left the country after the scan
dial. The talkative old fellow cheerfully
showed Hartright everything, including
the great church register, and the artist
at once looked through the entries under
the years that would about correspond
with Sir Percival's birth. After a long
search his eye was caught by an entry
crowded In the most peculiar and sus-
picious way into tiny space at the bot
tom of the page. 1t recorded the mar
riage of Cecilia Jane Elster to Sir Felix
Clyde.
When the old clerk put the register
away again Hartright remarked on the
insecure place in which 1t was stored.
guarded as 1t was by rusty old lock and
surrounded by the accumulated litter of
a century.
"Ay, ay," said the old man, ''our old
vestry counsel used to worry about that,
too. And he kept an exact copy of it In
his safe in Knowlesbury, near here.
Very few know of It,"
Hartright saw a CLEAN of hope. If, as
he had Immediately begun to suspect, the
entry of the marriage was a forgery, 1t
could be proved from the duplicate reg
lister. All the old stories that he had
heard about the curious, hidden life of
Sir Percivals parents came back to him.
He FASTENED to Knowlesbury. 1t turned
out as he had expected. There was no
entry of any marriage of Sir Felix
CLYDE
This was the secret! 1t was in Hart
rights hand at last. The disclosure of
that secret would prove Sir Percival an
Legitimate child and thus strip him
of the estate. The disclosure of the for
gerry would send him to prison.
He determined to make sure that the
register in the vestry of the church was
put in safe place at once. Hastily he
went back to Old Welmingham. 1t was
dark when he reached the old clerk j
house. Together they hurried to the
church. There was a light within. The
door was barred. Almost at the same in
slant the light changed to leaping
blaze. A hand within began to turn the
key. The rusty lock refused to obey
The hidden man threw himself against
the mighty door. In vain The blaze
grew In another moment the whole
vestry, combustible as finder. was mass
of fire. Scream after scream came from
within. Then all was still save for the
roar of the flames,
When the firemen at last ventured to
enter they found the terribly burned body
of a man lying face down In a corner.
1t was Sir Percival Clyde.
The next day Mrs. Catherick confessed
that this was indeed the secret Sir Per-
cival's parents never had been married
and she had been bribed by him to steal
her husbands keys and to help him
make the forged entry.
And now that the Secret was learned
at last 1t was useless!
But here Chance - blind. inscrutable
Chance-was to step in and complete
what human wit could not. 1t led
straight to Count Fosco-Fosco whose
| plot had worked itself out with such ter
| rible smoothness; Fosco in whose armor
| there seemed no vulnerable link, against
| whose fearful intellect there seemed no
weapon.
Many months had passed-months of
unavailing effort. Unavailing as they
| were, however, in the direction of rein
| stating Laura. they had brought great