The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-15

to shoot him, and she caught his assail- ant and held him for the police. But anonymous letters continued to come to kim. He had to go armed constantly. Every day new mischief was done to the works.
 lis mother learned of the trouble and became so apprehensive that her health gave way, and under the advice of Dr. Amboyne she was sent to a place in Wales. After her departure Henry took tip his permanent quarters in the factory, arranging sleeping rooms for himself there.
 Day after day the threats increased. Bit by bit Henry's nerve gave way under the strain. He felt as if death was how ering over him. hiding in the forges. the boiler in every machine, ehind every wall At last he was driven to such a pitch that he could bear 1t no longer. He decided to take his patents to America and make a bold bid for fortune: for he saw he could not hope to make way against the obstacles that were piled ! against him in Hillsborough, and that unless he could exploit his invention in the United States he was as far as ever from fortune and the hand of Grace Car den.
 One night all his arrangements were concluded. He wrote letters to his mother in Wales, to Grace and to Dr. Amboyne, telling them his plans. He was ashamed to see them, for fear of admitting that he ned at last become frightened at his peril.
 He laid the letters on his desk where his clerk would get them in the morning. Then he let himself quietly out of the factory and took the midnight train to London.
 A few minutes after he had disappeared two men approached the factory furtively by the river side. One was Coventry. The other was Sam Cole. Cole had been assigned by labor agitator to blow down l the factory chimney. to teach Little a les son; and Coventry had agreed to pay him a hundred pounds if he would make the explosion powerful enough to kill Lit tie, who slept in a room near the chim- ney
 Little had hardly entered the train and pulled out of Hillsborough before a roar shook the town, and the whole side of the factory tumbled in one hideous ruin into the river. Cole ran off at once; but Coventry, drawn by an awful curiosity and an irresistible temptation, joined the people who came thronging to the scene.
 He trembled when he saw the ruin that had been wrought. Knowing the location of Littie's quarters. he made his way there with faltering feet Nothing was left except a single beam standing up- right and holding up bit of flooring. All the rest of the place had been blown into the river.
 He was about to flee in horror, when he saw something on the floor. He stopped and felt letters. Hastily striking a match he gathered them up and left the place just as the police arrived
 The letters were those that Little had written to Grace, his mother and Dr. Am boyne. With a curse Coventry saw from them that his rival had escaped him again. But he saw chance to win Grace Garden for all that. If she believed Hen ry dead, he argued, and If he could keep Ter fin ignorance of his existence for a few months why should she not be willing to marry him after all. since she had been more than friendly toward him before Lit tic entered the scene?
 Fortune played into his hands. Grace Garden succumbed to shock and had brain fever, followed by such dangerous nervous depression that her father had to take Ter to the sea shore and keep her in se- clusion. This enabled Coventry to rent the Garden house in Hillsborough, and thus all mail that arrived from Henry came straight into his hands.
 MT. Raby, also overcome by the catas- trophe, determined never again to let family hatred arise between himself and lis. Accordingly he succeeded, with Dr. Amboyne's aid in inducing his sister to return to Raby Hall and dwell there with him. But this satisfactory arrangement had one unfortunate result. Mrs. Little, i'll and suffering. left the place in Wales without giving the people there her new address, and when Henry wrote from America his letters could not be delivered
 On his arrival in America Henry be- came i'll from the excitement and strug- gle of his last months in Hillsborough.
 
 enough to write, and then he wrote only to Grace and his mother. Both letters, of course. failed to reach their destina- tions.
 As soon as he recovered he found that he would have to travel into the west He was so pressed for time that he could not write to Dr. Amboyne. As the weeks passed and he became more and more busy with great and unhoped-for sue cess in sight. he confined his letter writ ing to Grace entirely, charging her with messages for the rest
 Garden saw from these messages that he was playing a safe game. So long as he intercepted the letters to Grace. no one else would hear from Little. Henry's let ters showed, too, that it would be some time before he could think of returning to England. He had sold his saw-making machinery for a great sum and royalties in addition. and he would have to stay to superintend the erection of the works.
 Then came letters saying that his rail- way clip was being considered by another manufacturer in Chicago. All these let ters told Coventry two things; that he had few months before him to win Grace before Henry could return, and that If he did not gain her now, he never would, for Henry Little was sure of not only A fortune, but a great fortune