The Cotton Factory Times. — 1904-01-29 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

CHAPTER XLER FACE TO FACE.  It was gloaming. The sun was falling beneatil the horizon's verge in the west, and shadows were deepening in the leafy, whispering glades of bal. carres Wood.  Through the wood Walter Mayhew was then mak. ing his way to meet the writer of the note he had received some hours before. Alongside the little gleaming stream he paced; now he was crossing the well-remembered old bridge; and then he turned into the narrow, seldom frequented bye path which led to the old pit.  Mayhew was in no gloomy mood. With the cane he carried he cut at the ferns he passed; cigar glowed between his lips; and his crafty bran was even then evolving a scheme to get Mark Eliat away from that neighbourhood. Eliot was a poor man. To him a few hundred I pounds would mean much—a fortune. Those few hundreds would be forthcoming if he would quit Warraingham as suddenly as he had returned. Dart , would fall in with that idea he was sure, and wo.l!d undertake the necessary negotiations. That Mark would accept the bribe he did not for a inom3na doubt.  He vras then beside the old shaft now, and appeared somewhat surprised to find Ashton was nO4 there awaiting him. He turned, walked this —ay ad that, and ,uddenly his heart flew to his throat as a dark figure leaped from behind a great tree and confronted him.  "Mark Eliot!" burst from his lips and he bounded a pace backward. _  Yes, Mark Eliot! At last, Walter Mayhew, I have you here before me. How often since flys morning I have prayed for this? God has delivered you into my hands. Do not run! Move a step only and I'll shoot you!" . _  A sob of terror broke from Mayhew's white lips as he saw the other's extended arm and the piihi pointed at him.  "For God's sake turn it away! Do!" "What a cur you are. So much afraid of death, and yet you have dealt out that which is worse thaw swath to me!" • You sent that note?"  That question broke from Walter's lips without any effort or will. He knew quite well that he 'tad been led into a trap, and his thought had formed it. self unoonseiomly into words. "Yes. I wanted to have a word with you before I killed you. You thought Dan Ashton was to inc.t you here? Well, you will meet him soon enough. In hell you will be able to continue your vile SChern• ing; on earth neither of you will do much more/ harm!"  "If you have brought me here to murder me, get it done!"  The sight of Mark and that shining pistol barrA had shaken his nerves at first, now they were stiffening again with a desparate, despairing courage brA from his great fears. How he longed for some a•:, to come.  "Murder you!" Eliot said in a voice of strange unnatural calmness. "Will God think it a crime to kill you? When the world learns the whole truth, will it blame use for shooting you? If you had a hundred lives, the taking of them all would moo be a sufficient punishment for what you have done!" " What have I done?"  "Good God! he asks what he has done? What have you not done? You have broken my life— filled it with such pain as no man can endure anti live. That lying letter "  "I did not write it." "You urged Dan to send it." . "I loved Nellie, and had a right to win her if I could."  "You won her by a trick--deeeived me and he• 'n the most damnable way that even a human +lova like you could think of!"  "'ou are not my judge," WaS the loud pas. ionate response.  "I am—soon I shall be your executioner also." "Throw down that cursed pistol and meet me like a man in fair fight. Give me a fair chsuwe for my life!"  "Such chance a,s you gave me will I give yon. When I was over the sea, slaving to make a horn for myself and—Nellie, what chance did you giv me? Pray, man, pray! for in another minute yt,ite wife will be a widow!"  But it was a curse, not a prayer, that fell from Mayhew's mouth. Then he suddenly darted icri ward, struck Eliot's arm, the pistol exploded in the, air, the report rang out clear and loud among the quiet, dark trees, and Walter was tearing for dear life's sake through the gloomy wood.  (To be continued.)