Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 467 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ig Se ll Mainwaring, the Salamander. 4 7 It represented its subject as a much younger | have deterred you in this sort of role—at least | detective. ‘‘ When were you first assailed? and more handsome man than at present, and in a rougher, manlier dress, but with a coarser and more unpleasant expression. The picture, one might have said, of a matured Bowery tough, in his holiday clothes, and with a distinctly criminal suggestion. ‘You believe me, I suppose?” she simply asked, as the album was restored to the table. ‘**T do believe you.” She was resuming her passionate appeals when he checked her. ‘*Issie, it is not seemly,” said he, sternly, but not unkindly. ‘‘ It is areversal of the more con- ventional order of things.” She bowed her head, her exquisitely rounded aris falling listlessly. Sue was in full dress, and they were bare from the shoulder. ‘* Tt is true,” she murmured, dejectedly. ‘It is the man, not the woman, who has the right to urge a suit.” There was a dreary bitterness in her tone. ‘* We may hunger, thirst and die for it, but we may not urge our love.” She was ravishing in her humility and sor- row. He underwent another spasm of forgetfulness and temptation. He was tempted to accept the credible as the inevitable, and to snatch her to his heart. But it was a fascination of the senses, not of the soul, and it was mastered. He gravely conducted her to a chair, and seat- ed himself before her. ‘* Issie, let us be reasonable, let us be dispas- sionate.’ She flashed up a look, then bowed submis- sively. He went on: ‘“‘T cannot admit your claim, and yet I freely acknowledge that I cannot wholiy deny it. Don’t speak, please; let me talk for the present, My marriage was so strange, so unusual, that I must await some word from the clergyman who performed the ceremony and his wife who wit- nessed it. It may be long coming, for I learn that they quitted Florida almost immediately for a roving tour among the West India islands, ‘* But even their testimony may not illuminate my uncertainty—I acknowledge that. ‘*The bride’s face was not seen, even her re- sponses were so low as not to be individualized. ‘* There is that, and more than that, in favor of your strange claim; for even the remaining witness, my friend, Luke Jardine, declares him- self unable to disprove it. ‘*There are many things to support the claim you make, that you pepe een practiced the deception in marrying me without my knowledge. There is one thing indubitably against it.” ‘\What is that? She kept her head bowed, her voice being scarcely audible. ; ‘* It is this, Issie,” he answered. ‘‘ It is my in- stinctive feeling, my absolute moral conviction, of its untruth,’ She caught her breath, clasping her hands to- gether, as if in sheer desperation. ‘* But what of Lois?” she moaned. ‘* T acknowledge to you that she remains obdu- rate in her denial that she figured with me in the ceremony. In fact, I seem to have so outraged her feelings that she has not spoken to me since my first attempt at claiming her as my bride. She seems to regard me asinsane. So, there is also that much in favor of what you claim.” A low sob came from the lovely bowed figure. ‘““Oh! why is it not everything in my favor, Guy? I only claim what is the truth, Why cannot you acknowledge the inevitable?” His voice and manner hardened. ‘* Because I am not convinced. But there is something else,” ‘** What is it?” ‘* Admitting, for the moment, the truth of your claim, do you think it honorable, do you imagine it decent, to hold me to it?” ** Oh, Guy, I loved and love you so!” ‘* That has nothing to do with it. | Admitting that you surreptitiously took the place of an- other woman—the only woman I can ever love "— (she shuddered, her hands clinching)— ‘‘at the altar—that you foisted yourself upon me by the foulest and wildest piece of deception ever heard of in the history of feminine intrigue —is it right or decent that you should persist in holaing me to the treachery-welded tie? That is my question,” A sort of wail escaped her. ‘*Oh, Guy! don’t be so hard, so relentless,” ** My question, if you please.” **T loved you so!” ** Woman, my question!” _ For sole auswer, she raised her face, ineffable in its tear-stained loveliness, : Then, with a half-inarticulate cry, she fast- ened herself upon his breast, - There was no danger of Mainwaring being further fascinated —at least, not just then. He arose, coolly disengaging bimself from the straining arms, and returning her to the seat she had quitted. '“*T do you the credit of believing that you are either out of your senses, or enacting a part,” said he, coldly. ‘‘One reflection alone should 4 <— ies 4 t¢ ‘ * . is i me “Tee -~ i $e one would think so.” She had regained her sense of resentment at his unimpressibleness, if not her composure. ‘*T plead guilty to your first charge—that my passion may have blinded me,” she murmured, constrainedly. ‘‘ But to what else do you refer?” His answer was almost brutalin its abrupt- ness, ‘*To your adoptive father’s death, and its at- tendant suspicions.” Something in his tone, manner and look struck her like an electric shock, Deadly pale, she slowly arose, as did he also. ‘*Good God!” she gasped: *t you don’t mean, you can’t mean, to say that suspicion connects me with those murders?’ Her agitation was no less — than piti- able; bat toa certain point he resolved to be merciless. ** So, you speak of both deaths as murders at last?’ he sneered. ‘* Our opium-craving theory is forgotten?” ‘* Perhaps so—that is-——” here she broke down. ‘*Great God! I have loved, I still worship, this man, and he rewards me by an accusation of—” She buried her face in her hands. He was about to say. ‘“‘I have not accused you directly,” but steeled his heart, and main- tained silence, She suddenly grew frightfully calm. ‘* Let me know the worst. Am I suspected of complicity?” ‘You have gained immensely by Mr. Cal- thorpe’s death; that is, you will have gained if— She interrupted him with a passionate ges- ture. ‘“* My question, if you please!” ‘*]T sha’n’t answer you directly. But it stands to reason that suspicion should touch both the housekeeper and yourself—ber even more than you—and—” ‘*My question, sir! OrlIshall alter it some- what now. Do you suspect me ?” His answer came so tardily as to rob it of any consolatory element. ‘*No, 1 don’t,” said he, doggedly. ‘‘ But I wouldn’t admit as much for that other one,” r Pallid to ghostliness, she pointed to the oor. ‘*Go, sir! I have wasted my love like water upon desert sands. I fear that you are not worthy of it.” But her heart went out to him wildly, even as he turned, with a cold bow, and quitted the room, His air, his mien, so much above his station, his assured carriage, his gliding step—there was not a tittle of his personality that did not re- tain its clinging hold upon her soul and her imagination. He had hardly disappeared through the half- open door before she leaped after him like a pantheress, A tall figure—the figure of Mrs. Bentincke— glittering knife in hand, was in the act of springing after the retreating detective, with remorseless fury in her aspect. ‘*Woman—minion! what would you? Quick give up the weapon! How dare you?’ The words were hissed out, it was Issie who interposed, and she clutched the hostile arm and knife with fierce energy. ‘* Stop me not!” hoarsely whispered the other, still intent upon her purpose. ‘' 1 overheard— he suspects too much—there is but one recourse, Ha!” doggedly, as the weapon was finally wrested from ker hand: ‘t have your way, then, marplot. 1 up ,”> with a sneer, ‘‘ you, would stand between him and death’s silence, even at the cost of your own safety?” ‘* Yes, [ would.” The housekeeper gave her a withering look of mingled scorn and reproach, and then swept away up the dim passage. CHAPTER VIL THE SOUTH-SIDE GARDEN. As for Mainwaring, absorbed in the strange interview that had just passed, and unconscious of the danger he had escaped, he was proceedin rapidly to the gate when a faint, half-stifled cry from the south-side garden reached him. It flashed upon him that Lois might still be ‘* mooning ” there, as Jardine had expressed it. There was no need of a repetition of the cry to cause bim to speed in its direction with his noiseless step. The moonlight was still brilliant. Lois was struggling in the grasp of two ruf- fianly-looking men under the trees, in the vicin- ity of the little summer-house, To flit like an avenging shadow to her rescue, fell her assailants by a couple of sledge-hammer. blows, the more effective from their unexpect- edness, and catch the girl’s half-fainting form in his strong arms, was the work of an instant. She clung to him affrightedly, but when they were both more composed, they observed, much to their astonishment, that the fallen men had mysteriously disappeared. ‘This is very extraordinary!” exclaimed the gS cr | Where did they make their appearance from?” She had disengaged herself from his embrace, and was standing perfectiy composed now, save that there was a bright, perhaps somewhat re- sentful color in heir fair cheeks. ‘‘T scarcely know,” was her indifferent answer. ‘* Perhaps from the summer-house—it all hap- ned so unexpectedly! Thank you, none the ess, for your timely aid.”’ ‘* Oh, don’t mention it.” Then, not a little embarrassed himself, he stepped to the door of the summer-house, and looked into the comparatively dark interior, but made out that it was empty. “There may be a secret passage,” said h with an effort. “I was told, come to think o it, of an excavation from the adjoining lot hav- ing been ignorantly extended under the garden wall. Sha’n’t I see you safe back to the house? It is, perhaps, later than you imagine,” “Tam aware of the hour, thank you, but I can go back alone.” Still there was a furtive desolateness in her look, and the next moment he was at her feet. ‘‘Do you forget how you once loved mef” he blurted. ‘‘ Your continued coldness breaks my heart, Lois! Let us exchange explanations—a mere breath of mutual confidence may be suf- ficient.” He tried to take her hand, but she would not permit. ‘“T must not listen to you,” she faltered. ‘‘Such words to me from another woman’s hus- band are shameful!” He sprung once more erect. ‘What! that ridiculous fiction? made even you believe it, then?” ‘* She is your wife.” “Tt is not true. But has she also informed you of the deception by which she claims to have become my wife?” ‘*T have learned of it.” ** And you believe it?” “T am foreed to. Since it is evident that some one was married to you while personating me, her claim is scarcely to be denied.” ‘* And you would still respect the unwomanly rpetrator of such a deception as she claims to have carried out?” “T would not. Still she urges her ovyermas- tering love for you as her motive.” Mainwaring laughed wildly. ‘‘ That for her love!” He snapped his fingers contemptuously. ‘‘ Were my love and your love nothing, that she should treacherously sup- plant them with her undesired passion? Listen to me calmly, Lois.” He poured forth the entire story of the strange marriage in the minutest detail. She listened with a startled look. ‘“ Now tell me, Lois,” said be, with impressive solemnity, in conclusion, ‘“‘or can you tell me that you were not the bride of that ceremony?” “Tecan and do tell you so most earnestly,” she replied, ‘*‘ And yet—” | ‘Go on, Lois. And yet—” ‘‘And yet in spirit at your side, I dreamed it so vividly, in every rticular just as you describe it, after reach- ing home.” “You dreamed it?” “Yes, Overwrought and exhausted, I threw myself on my bed without undressing, and was at once sound asleep. But I dreamed out every- thing, just as you have related. Indeed, s0 vivid, so realistic was my dream that when I awoke I could at first scarcely realize that the ring was not on my finger, the certificate in my bosom.” A light seemed to break in upon him, ‘‘You must have been there in reality—per- haps in a species of trance—but none the less in reality,” he cried. ‘‘ Lois, it is you 1 married— you are my wife.” ‘‘ This is madness!” Issie has She recoiled in alarm, but his ardor and en- — * , thusiasm were beyond control. | ‘‘ You are my wife, before God and man!” he exclaimed. such!” ‘* Stop, sir! me it will be at your peril \” | She disappeared in the direction of the house, and he s like a statue looking into the shad- — ows that had swallowed up her perfect form. At that moment several men stole out of the = summer-house, and suddenly hurled themselves upon him from behind. He was overpowered before being thoroughly aware of what had bappened. | ‘*Be quick!” growled a voice that seemed slightly familiar to the detective’s ears. ‘ Into the hole with him, and then one of you signal for the old woman.” He was drag thence down a jagged hole, which bis basty ex- amination had not taken cognizance of inthe dark, into the subterranean excavation under ae seaenieil d bound, h kept under ere, an und, he was kep : : had been sent guard until one of the men who t away came back with a lantern, and accom- panied by a cloaked female figure. : The prisoner had made sure that his comicboo oi. € = seem to have beep there _ “T must and will have you as ’ Xt Do not dare totouchme! You are Issie Calthorpe’s husband; and if youfollow = into the summer-house,and + es ti * * oe a. >-<5 :