The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1904-11-16 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

SUNBEAM.  BY MRS. TOM GODFREY.  CVIAPTExt Vlll.—Contintted.  But even as he spoke her heart sank. For she remembered that beyond tne wood stood a cottage which had belonged to an old hedge cutter. The man, who had lived alone and was supposed to have great savings hidden about the premises, had been found murdered in the early spring, about two or three days after the deed had been committed. And the mystery had never yet been solved. The cottage hod remained unoccupied ever since, people &tanning it with horror. "Oh, yes there is" replied Bill. "There's • cottage beyond the wood where a murder was done. Dan has rented that cottage for a bit. He got it cheap. Be route it from the peop,le at Half Way House." "But,' stammered the girl, "If he's known he might be suspected of the—" "Not he. You may be sure he runs no risk. Though it's rum yon should think of it. 'Ow did he know about the place? Any. 'ow that's nothing to do with us. Our busineee ain't about murder, and wot's more. I've never yet etained me 'ands with blood. Strike me dead if I lie." She remainsd silent, veiling about Din's' motive in taking the place. Could he have murdered poor old Dick for the sake of a few pounds? And was he there for the putpC6B of finding the hidden money ? The idea however, seemed too improbable. He was tbere by coincidence merely, so se to make his plans with Bill, free from interference. But her nervousness did not leave her. Awakened fear is net easily lulled into silence. She crept closer to her father se they entered the wood, and peered with frightened eyes at the ghost-like trees and hashes as they seemed to spring up suddenly before them. The light streaming from the open door of the cottage was greeted by her with a sigh of relief. For a second her dread of Gentleman Dan wee forgotten. But when, hearing their footateps, be ap=Bes the threshold before them, her ays a great bound, and for a moment her breath stopped. filfhoufh she had not seen him for some years, she recognised, him at once, and although he back being' to the light be beanies were barely diacernible, She could have dessaribed them accarately, so vivid bad been the impression made by him throughout her childhood. She shrank back behind Bill. Now the.t she was face to face with Dan, the terror of the wood was a mere bagatelle. "So there you are!" he exclaimed in a low, refitted wire; vie wondering if you were coming to-night. Or rather if you were fit.ing to bring Mies Sunbeam. Come in, you must be tired after your•walk," he added, turning to he, his eyes filed inealently on her pae face. "How you've ! But you're just the same. I should triut;reupick9d you out of a ereved." She smiled weakly. His big black eyes shot terror into ler. With the full ktght on his dark, clean-shaven two, her old dread of hie revived, intensified. She. reMearbared, trillispeeed tales, told by her aunt, of his reined cruelty. his utter wireadosin.  Everybody was afraid of him, even let father. _  She sat down trembling, and looked round the room. It was very bare. A small deel 'table stood in the middle. On it—a. candle burning low in the socket, a u'hieky bottle and a couple of glamors. Three ru€h.esated chairs, a rusty fender, a couple of shelves with coarse crockery upon it, completed its contents. Another door led into a ecullen', stairs to the top floor. She wondered how Gentleman Dan, .who AAA known to be fond of comfort, could have taken such a dreary plane. And then the remembrance of the murdered man flashei upon her mind and she turned to her cempanione. They were talking hurriedly in low tones. Bill now and then raising hie glue to his lips and drinking greedily, Den, his eyes gleaming with excitement, glancing occasionally across at her with a little smile upon his thin straight lips. She shuddered. Those terrible eyes! Scraps of sentences fell upon her