The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-06-13

stopped, ner race naming ana paIlHg
by turns. "Oh, | heard someone com
ing! Jim, Jim, what shall l do9'
They both stood listening; she with
tense face and parted lips, he in a
bored, uninterested way that bespoke
nerves of steel. She ran to his side
and chung to him, tremulous and hys-
terical. The touch of her clinging
hands, the contact of her soft draper
les and softer, family perfumed hair,
coniured up a host of bitter-sweet
memories that the thief had long ago
considered dead and buried; and for
an instant the candlelight shone upon
sudden moisture in his eyes. But
it was clearly no moment for senti-
ment, and already his resourceful
brain had mapped out the course of
action he meant to follow. He knew
that escape was impossible, but he
knew that there was only one thing
for him TO do. He took the bag gen
tly from her unresisting fingers, thrust
it into an inner pocket, and sprang
away from her toward the open door.
That which he had known to be in
evitable took place. The room clicked
suddenly into a dazzling brilliance and
he found himself blinking into the bar
rel of a revolver. He had little diff
Guilty in recognizing the tall, blonde,
paiama- clad leveler of the revolver as
Lord Mordon, whose portrait he had
frequently seen in the illustrated pa
pers.
GLANDS up said that young gentle
man. quietly, for the thief IS hands had
shot instantly and instinctively to the
bullying side pocket of his overcoat.
"That s it'll as he was smilingly obey
ed. "Now-but-great Scottl"
His eyes had fallen upon the woman,
who had staggered down upon chair
and was regarding the thief with wide,
bewildered eyes.
"Mrs. Wytham,' he gasped; "what
ever
The thief's eyes telegraphed their
urgent message to her, and the thief
himself addressed his captor.
"The lady interrupted me- he said
blandly; 81 was threatening her with
my shooter as you arrived, intending
to tie her up and make tracks. -
The woman had reused herself with
an effort, and the color was coming
slowly back to her face.
81 came down for my book, she
said to Lord Mordon. 81 couldn t
sleep, and thought / would read. Oh,
Archie, it was awful! He threatened
to shoot me if I made any noise, and
/ was so terrified! What could l do9"
'sMrs. Wytham," said Lord Mordon,
twill you kindly go into the hall and
telephone down to the police stationf
They II send up a couple of men in ten
minutes or so.'
Mrs. Wytham got up.
"Oh, don It know how to telephone,
Archie,'' she said "I've never done
it before. But can't / stay here while
you goa You can give me his pistol
if you like, but I'M sure he s not going
to be any trouble. If he is-well, you
know what a good shot / am.
But as soon as Lord Mordon s broad
shoulders had disappeared through the
doorway into the dark hall beyond his
mobile face resumed it's normal express
sion of blase audacity. Mrs. Wythani,
who had OWNED his swiftly conceived
plan with true feminine intuition,
thrust the revolver into his hands.
Through the window, quiek!'' she
him when he comes back. Oh, quick,
quick for heaven IS sake!''
He laughed softly, with shining eyes,
kissed his hand to her, and ran swiftly
across the lawn that lay smooth and
blanched in the light of the full moon.
She waited a moment or two, then,
having cleverly initiated the sounds of
scuffe-stamping and pushing the
chairs about in a manner sufficiently
grotesque to warrant a verdict of
lunacy from any chance beholder-she
rushed to the door, almost falling into
the arms of Lord Mordon.
"Oh, he Is gone!' she cried. 81 was
not looking at him, and he sprang at
me and wrenched the revolver out of
my hands. Oh, how awful it is? He
looked so broken and miserable, L
thought he was safe!"
"Dash it, yes! said Lord Mordon
viciously, depressing a stronger ex-
plosive. 81 thoughth so, too! L m 60
ing after him; he's probably got his
pockets stuffed with notes. Rouse the
house, Mrs. Wytham, and send the 9th
er fellow after me. Which way did he
go?''
buG IHe mousse was SOOH TOuseu mOfe
efrectually than by any screams of hers.
The sharp crack of a revolver shot
broke upon a momentary lull in the
gale, followed by another, then the din
of the driving wind swallowed up all
sounds for while. Mrs. Wytham
crouched on her chair, shivering and
sobbing. She had instructed Lord
Mordon; but it appeared that she had
done so to no purpose.
Two days before Lord Mordon had
asked her to marry him, and she had
told him very gently and sweetly that
she could never be more than a friend
to him, she had always supposed, as
the world supposed, that her husband
was dead, and this was the death blow
to a hundred pathetic hopes. Then,
kneeling there with that white, upturn-
ed face upon her knee, and the dark
trees murmuring about them-an ad-
| mirable mis-en scene of which she was
completely unconscious-she told him
her story-from that miserable day SIX
years before, when in frenzy of un
reasoning rage she had sent her hus
! band Gnnocent as she soon knew, OF
that which she had laid to his charge,
| away from her forever to the shame