Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-05-25 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

CHAPTER X LVIII.  A Desperate Alt n live.  When Cecil Wa,rpley heard the fatal words spoken so coolly and deliberately by Jack Hawthorne he felt as if the floor of the office were sinking under him, and every hope of his life had been blasted by one fell swoop of destiny; If Hawthorne's words were true, and Cecil felt tfaere could be little doubt on the point, he had himself, unwittingly, fixed the penalty of his contemplated sin at the very moment when he thought he was luring Madge Woreley to her ruin. Verily, it was an exquisite irony of fate that such result should have been brought about so strangely, and that Cecil Warpley should have unwittingly been the instrument of his own. penance, and have played so blindly into the hands of the girl he sought to deceive. If Jack Hawthorne did not lie, Cecil Warpley saw his chances slipping away before his eyes, and he knew he was destiiiod to lose everything for which he had plotted and planned. He knew full well that honest John Warpley would use no half measures with his eon when he found he had not only disgraced .his family name, but had lied when he said he was not married to the pretty workgirl he had admitted deceiving. The great desire of Mr Warpley's declining years, Cecil's marriage to Clara Morris, was now past out of the pale of possibility, and Cecil Warpley felt that with the house of cards his father had raised so carefully a fallen failure, he could never hope for pardon for his sin and folly. go long as there was even the faintest hope of his scheme being realised, Mr Warpley was prepared to forgive the back-sliding of his son. But now that such an outcome to his wishes was absolutely out of the question be would be bitter and 'relentless in his anger. MI these things passed in ghost-like procession through Cecil Warpley's brain as he sat and looked at the man who, with one short speech, had shattered his prospects and his hopes for ever. "Do you know what this means to me," Cecil gasped out at last. "I can pretty well guess," gasped Hawthorne. "It means absolute ruin,' said Cecil, "unless acme means can be devised for preventing the in knowing the truth about the thing." "I don't quite see how you're going to do that," said Hawthorne. "You say she's going to fight, and unless you are prepared either to murder her or get her confined in a lunatic asylum, I hardly see haw you're to bring about the result you desire. I don't imagine you'll care to risk murder, while the other alternative is, of courte, out of the question."  "Does anyone know what you've told Tne, but rurself?" asked Cecil, who was gradually becoming irritated by, Hawthorne's cool way of looking a the matter.  "No," said Hawthorne. "But it may be worth my while to tell someone unless you're prepared to pay me well to keep my mouth shut." Cecil Warpley knew that, with the remainder of the claim made by Nelly .Talaes still to be met, he could not find the amount he was sure would be demanded. by Hawthorne as hush money. He dare not use the money given him by his father to bribe Madge for the purpose of silencing Hawthorne, for Madge's relations woukl at once proclaim she had not reeeilaed the money;. and to have to explain to lather, what had beconao-of tbe - would be  moluey  4  ri.„.......slf 1 ....... . .. Ep • • --i . ...0.4,..., ,•.,::c.1,,,me... L 4 ri 1.5 Y -.. At- ••,6k \--