The Lamar register., 1908-09-02
CHAPTER X.
The sewilderment of strathgate.

ne 6cwiicerment OF Strdth9dte.
AS my Lord Darlington rode with
increasing satisfaction and Sir
Charles Seton sailed in growing
sense of selfcongratulation in that he
alone was on the right track, my lord
of Strathgate was full of bewilder-
ment. Like Darlington, he, too, made
inquiries at every posting station. at
every wayside inn, from every passer
by, as to the whereabouts of the two
who had escaped him, and everywhere
he had been met by an absolute lack
OF Information.
Strathgate. by hard riding. reached
Portsmouth about nightfall. CARING
ton was not to arrive, although he
pressed on all night. until the follow
ing morning. Strathgate was morally
certain that the people he was chas-
ing could not have reached Ports
mouth before him.
Darlington. plunging along on ex-
hausted. half-foundered horses. the
leavings Of Strathgate, lost the COM
parative cheerfulness of the morning
and worked himself up into such a
fury that II he had come across the
earl he would probably have killed him
out OF hand without giving him u
chance for defense.
To hearten up her young friend.
Ellen put brave face upon the whole
matter. She pointed out to her how
comfortable and free from pursuit. or
Interference, they would be when they
boarded the New Eagle at Portsmouth;
what a pleasant voyage they would
have back; and made various other
suggestions to cheer her young COM
rade and to fight down the growing dis
may in her own heart 1t was only by
constantly holding up before herself
the picture of my lord and Lady Cecily
in each others arms in the arbor that
she kept herself to the pitch of her
adventure.
She found herself thinking wistfully
OF the happy days of the past: of the
many pleasant cruises which they had
made in these very waters. What a
gallant, devoted. royal lover he had
been! How she hated Cecily Caring
ton! She looked at herself and took
a mental inventory Of that she could
not see and wondered how he could
for a moment prefer that weak and
vapid creature to his wife.
And yet 1t is probable that Ellen
had never loved Darlington as she did
while tossing about in that little open
boat, lonely speck upon the sea.
munching dry hard bread and drink
ing tepid water and trying to console
the whimpering little maiden by her
side.
And It is possible, too. that Lord
Darlington never realized how much
ha In han nf
and how much the loss meant to him
as he plunged along through the dark
ness on the way to Portsmouth.
Ellen had advanced much farther on
her journey when she ran into the
calm which later overlook Seton.
All Ellen's ready money. except what
she carried on her person, bad been
left to Darlington in the cheque on
her desk. but she still retained con-
troll of several stout merchantmen
which had come to her from her father
and the New Eagle was the best of
them. Once she set foot on the docks
of that ship, she would be perfectly
safe. Meanwhile. as she had been
up practically all the night before, she
felt that she must have some slumber.
She furled the sail of the little boat.
turned the tiller over to Debbie with
instructions for her to let the shallop
drift and to waken Ellen in two hours
by the watch.
1t was very lonely and miserable for
poor Debbie. She was flying like
Ellen from that she loved best, but
unlike Ellen there was no reason on
earth for her to break away. 1t was
only the constraint put upon her by
the stronger will that had brought her
to this wretched pass. She sat idly
in the stern sheets. holding the tiller.
while the tears trickled down her
pretty red cheeks. She wished that
she were anywhere else under heaven
than in this boat She looked at
Ellen almost inadvertently, surveying
her slight and boyish figure with
venomous glance and the thought that
since clothes of the other sex SO well
became her, Ellen should have been
born a man.
! Poor Debbie felt very wretched and
very lonely tossing idly about in the
quiet seas under the calm stars. She
wondered If Sir Charles did really love
her as she had more than once indi-
Gated, or whether he were like the
faithless Darlington and the insidious
strathgate.
There was nothing to do except to