The Cotton Factory Times. — 1909-04-09 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

THE MURDER IN THE NIGHT EXPRESS.  LTT,LI A S C XMPBELL DAVrD SON Au,:ior of " With Steel and Scarlet," &c.),  CHAPTER x ii.—(Continued.)  It was a silent drive on both their parts. The night was dark, and a thin, fine, chill rain began to fall before they reached Hartops. Up the familiar drive they bowled swiftly. The lights of a motor flared at the front door as they neared the house, and for a second Claudia shrank. The next she reminded herself that it must be the doctor's car from Leeds.  She waited in the little room beside the front door where messengers sat, while Roger went upstairs to speak with the doctor. The maid who let them in was a woman she had never before seen. The doctor was leaving Lord Bucklebury's bedroom, and draining on his gloves an Carstairs came along the passage. Carstairs iniroduced himself. The doctor shot a keen glance at him; he recognised the name with a keen interest. It was the man of the mistaken arson-case celebrity.  "I came over to inquire for Lord Bucklebury. lam a neighbour and an old friend. I was concerned to hear of the accident. How is he?" The doctor gravely shook his head. "Not the least hope of recovery, I fear. A very grave case. But he may linger on some little time without regaining conseiousno..s. There is nothing to apprehend immediately for a day or two. lam sending a nurse out from Leeds, not that there is anything actually to be done, but there seems no capable person here to take care—no housekeeper, apparently. And there is no family, I believe." "I have brought sotheone with me in case she might be of use. I have a very experienced housekeeper, who has been with me since I was a boy. It's a pathetic case, rather. She has some face disfigurement, and always hides it with a veil. But I think she was the beat nurse lever knew, and I've known her since a boy. Shall I leave this person with you?"  The doctor looked relieved. There was an epidemic of scarlet fever in Leeds, and every nurse had her hands full.  I should certainly think it would be desirable," he said. " A nurse could not get out for an hour or two and probably all need would then be over for the night. In point of fact, there will be no real nursing. Nothing that a servant cannot do for him. The case is hopeless, and there are no complications. Your housekeeper will do excellently. I should like to see her." Carstairs went downstairs with him to the little ill-lit room where Claudia sat. The doctor asked her a few questions, gave her some directions, drawing on his gloves as he talked; he was in haste to get hack to life and death cases, and there was nothing to do for the old man in the room. upstairs..  "She' must be a young woman for her age," he thought to himself, as he turned the motor's head, and sped away down the avenue. "If she's been in the Ca/stairs household since that fellow was a boy. Her voice was the voice of a young woman, and she walked like one; however, women at forty-five in these days are as young as they used to be at twenty, apparently." "I will be over to-morrow, some time," he had said to Claudia, "If I should be wanted earlier telegraph for me. But I don't anticipate any change; he will probably drop off quietly— practically sleep himself away. There's nourishment to be given if he-can take it; and just see that he's easy. There is no suffering, of course. He doesn't know anything: he will not know anything, the chances are, again in this world." "An ill-epent life, if all one hours is true," he said reflecting, as the motor devoured the ground with its burr and rush. "A gambling, betting wastrel, with no bowels of ournpassion for his fellow creatures. They say that marriage of his unfortunate niece Who died on her wedding day was an open sale. I wonder if the place will be in the market. It would make a good asylum or sanatorium. It's a poor thing to drop out of life, atd leave it none the better for having been in!"