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â€"-.»g«..\I-l--vvvum-r::'iru~ on. UNDER A CLOUD. A THRILLING TALE OF HUMAN LIFE. CHAPTER XLI. AT FAULT. It was from no dread of the consequence likely to ensue that Malcolm Stratton paused with the burning paper in his hand. He knew that he had but to drop it into the clear fluid beneath, for this to burst out into a dancing crater of blue and orange flames. He knew too, that the old woodwork with which the antique place was lined would rapidly catch fire, and that in a short time the chambers would be one roaring, fiery furnace, and the place be doomed before the means of extinction could arrive. He had no fear for self, for he felt that there would be time enough to escape if he wished to save his life. But he did not drop the blazing paper; letting it burn right to his fingers, and then crush- ing it in his hand. “ There is no reason,” he muttered, as he turned slowly back to his room. “ It would be madness now, there is nothing to conceal.” He sank into his chair, and sat back thinking and trying to piece together all that had passed since the day when, full of life, joy, and eagerness, he was ready to hurry off to the church. But his long con- finement, with neglect of self, and the weary hours he had passed full of agony and despair, had impaired his power of arranging nlatters in a calm, logical se- quence, and he had to go twice to his bed- room to bathe his burning head. At last he ggew calmer, and felt able to look matters in the face. The great horror had passed away, and in so passing it had roused him to action. There was work to do, a strange complication to solve; and he settled in his own mind how that was to be done. He must find Brettison at once; and the great question was: Where could he be? Here was a grand difficulty at once. Where would a man like Brettison be likely to sojourn ?â€"a man who ranged through the length and breadth of the country in pursuit of his specimen. In an ordinary way. But what would he be doing now, and what had he done? Stratton shuddered, and pictured a strange scene, one upon which he dare not dwell; and leaping up, he took matches and a candle with the intention of going to his friend’s room to try and pick up the clew there; but by the time he reached his door he was face to face with the first obstacle. Brettison's door was locked again, and, without re-summoning the help they had had that evening, entrance was impossible. Taking the lamp he entered the bath closet to try the old door at the end; but this was firmly screwed up again, and unless he broke through one of the panels, entrance was impossible that way. Stratton returned to his chair, hesitating to take so extreme a course; and sittin down he tried to think out a likely place for Brettison to have gone. Ashe thought, he called to mind various places where he knew him to have stayed in the past; and selecting one at hapha~ zardâ€"an old world place in Kentâ€"he determined to start for there at once, perfectly aware of the wildness of the scheme and how easily he might spend his life in such a chase, but there was nothing else to be done. He could trust no oneâ€" get no help. It must be his own work entirely. Brettison was master of his secret. and there could be no rest for him until the old man was found. Stratton’s mind was made up and he hastened off to the station, caught a train, and in two hours was down in the old village, with its quaintivy-covered hoster and horse-trough ornamented with the mossy growth that dotted the holes of the grand old forest trees around. The landlady met him with a smile of welcome which faded after his questions. Oh, yes, she remembered Mr. Brettison, and his green tin candle-box and bright trowel very well. He was the gentleman who used to bring home weeds in his umbrella ; but. it was a long time since he had been down there. It was only a week ago that she was saying to her master how she wondered that that gentleman had not been down for so long. But wouldn’t he come in and have some refreshment? No, Stratton would not come in and have some refreshment, for he went back to town instantly. This was an example of many such blind ventures ; all carried out in the face of the feeling of despair which racked him: and the time glided on, with hope goading him to fresh exertions in the morning, despair bidding him, in the darkness of the night, give up, and accept his fate. In course of time, Stratton visited every place in England that he could recall as one of Brettison s haunts, but always with the same result: and then in a blind, haphazard way, he began to wander about. town, Chance aided him at last: for one day he had turned out of Fleet Street to go northward,aud as he passed along the broad highwayâ€"wishing that he could explain everything to Guest and bring other Wits to his help, instead of fighting the weary battle in Silence aloneâ€"he suddenly step- ped out into the road to cross to the other side, to an old bookseller's shop, where the man made a specialty of naturslhistory volumes. It was a shop where he and Brettison had often spent an hour picking out quaint works on their particular sub- . jecta, and he was thinkincthat possibly the man might have seen Brettison and be able to give him some information, when there was the rattle of wheels, a loud shout, and he sprang out of the way of a fast driven ban-«om. ‘ The driver yelled something at him in passing, by no means complimentary ; but i to the spot, gazing after the cab ; for, in the brief moment, as he started away, he had caught sight of the pale. worn face of Brettison, whose frightened, scared gaze had met his. Then he passed without making a sign, and Stratton was gazing after the cab in speechless horror, for upon the roof, extending right across, and so awkwardly placed that the driver half stood in his seat and rested his hands upon it with the reins. was a large, awkward- looking deal box ; endently heavy, for the cab was tilted back and the shafts rose high, as if the balance was enough to hoist the horse from the pavement. At last! And that scared look of the pale-faced man, and the strange, heavy case on the cab-roof, with every suggestion of haste, while he stood there in the middle of the road as if a victim to nightmare, till the quickly driven vehicle was too far off for him to read the number. Suddenly the power to movu came back, and, dashing forward in the middle of the road, Stratton shouted to the man to stop. “He won’t stopâ€"not likely,” growled another cabman, who had seen Stratton’s escape. “Shouldn’t loaf across theâ€"â€" Here, sir," he cried suddenly, as a thought flashed across his brain. “Hi ! guv'nor ; jump inâ€"I’ll ketch him for you.” He whipped his horse up alongside of Stratton, who caught at the idea, and, seizing the side of the cab, sprang in, “Quick ! Five shillings if you keep that cab insight.” The wide road was open, and pretty free from vehicles, and the horse went fast, but the cab in which Brettison was seated had a goodstart, reached the cross street, and entered the continuation of that which he was pursuing. Stratton’s man drove up as a number of vehicles were crowding to go east and west, and the flow of those from north and south was stopped by a stalwart policeman : while Raging at the sudden check, Stratton ground his teeth with rage. “All right, sir,” came down through the little trap in the roof ; “he’ll let us go acrost directly, and I’ll ketch up the cab in no time.” They were not arrested much above a minute, but the interval was sufficient to give Brettison’s cab a good start, and when leave was given to go, the case on the roof was invisible, and the question arose in Stratton’s mindâ€"which way had it gone ? Into one of the station yards, or straight on over the bridge into South London ? He raised himself a little to peer over the horse’s head, but he could see nothing, and turning round, he thrust up the trap. “Fasterâ€"faster l” he cried. overtake it. Faster l’ “All right, sir,” shouted the man hoarse- ly ; and crack ! crack ! went the long, heavy whip on one and then on the other side of the Well-bred but worn-out Stratton hardly heard it. He stood, d “You must between the shafts. The result was a frantic plunge forward, and though the driver dragged at and worked the bit savagely, the horse tore on at a gallop for about fifty yards, with the cab swaying from side to side ; then the tiny flash of equine fire died out, and the horse’s knees gave way. Down it went with a crash. Stratton Was dashed for- ward heavily against the curved splash- board, to which he clung and the next thing he saw was the drivar rising from some- where beside the horse, that lay quiet still now on it side, while shouts, the faces of people who crowded up, and the vehicles that passed on either side, all seemed dim, confused, and distant. Then bells of a curiously sharp, quick tone were ringing loudly in his ears. - “Hurt, sir ‘2” "Yesâ€"no ; I think not. Quick, stop that cab,” said Stratton huskily ; but; as he spoke,he knew it was in a confused way, and that for his life he could not have ex- plained what cab. “It’s far enough off by this time, sir,” said a voice beside him, “and if you ain’t hurt, I am. Never went in training for a hacrobat. Here, Bobby, help us up with the fiery untamed steed. That’s the seccun time he’s chucked me over the roof. “’ait a moment, sir, and I’ll drive you on ; we may ketch ’em yet. Don’t do a man out of his fare." “Too late,” was all Stratton could think of then. “I could not overtake it now.” And in a dim, misty way he seemed to be watching Brettison hurrying away with that heavy, awkward case which contaiu~ ed.â€" Yes, “he muttered with a shudder, “it must be that." CHAPTER XLII. BY A RUSH. Such a chance did not come in Stratton’s way again. " If I had drunk that when Guest came and interrupted meâ€"when was it 3 I! Two years and more ago, sighed Stratton one night, “ what an infinity-' of suffering I should have been spared. All the hopes and disappointments of that weary time. all the madness and despair of the morning when that wretched convict came, all my remorse, my battles with self, the struggles to conceal my crimeâ€"allâ€"all spared to me: for I should have been asleep.” A curious doubting sm I: crossed his facs slowly at these thoughts ; and, resting his ; check upon his hand, with the light full ; upon his face, he gale-d straight before him into vacancy. “ How do I know that 2'” he thought. i "Could I, a self-murderer, assure in self that I should have sunk into oblivion ike thatâ€"intoa restful sleep, free from the cares I had been too cowardly to meet and bear? No, no, no; it was not to be. Thank God ! I was spared from that.” He looked sharply up and listened, for he fancied that he heard a sound; but a step faintly beating on the paving outside seemed to accord with it, and he went on . musing again about Brettison, wonderingl l l l . you come to take it now pause, “ how can I say that 2 L'homme propose et Dieu dispose. We are all bub- bles on the great stream of life." He half started from his chair, listenin again, for he felt convinced that he hear a sound outside his doors, and going across, he opened them softly and looked out, but the grim. ill-lit staircase and the hall below were blank and silent, and satisfied that he had been mistaken, he went back to his seat to begin musing again, till once more there was a faint sound, and as he listened he became conscious of a strange penetrating odor of burning. Stratton's face grew ghastly with the sudden emotion that had attacked him, and for a few moments he sat trembling, and unable to stir from his seat. “ At last i” he said in a whisper : “ at last l" and, conscious that the time had come for which he had longed and toiled so hard, he felt that the opportunity was about to slip away, for he would be unable to bear the encounter. if not too much proatrated by his emotion to rise from his seat. It was only a trick of the nerves, which passed 03 directly ; and he rose then, firm and determined, to cross gently to first one and then the other door by his mantel- piece, where he stood, silent and intent, breathing deeply. Yes ; there was no doubt now: He was inhaling the penetrating, peculiar odor of strong tobacco ; and at last Brettison must have returned, and be sitting there smokinghis eastern water pipe. Stratton drew softly back, as if afraid of being heard, though his steps were inaud- ible on the thick carpet, and he stood there thinking. “If Igo," he said to himself, “he will not answer my knock.” And feeling now that Brettison might have been back before now unknown to him, he tried to think out some plan by which he could get face to face with his friend. A thought came directly, and it seemed so childish in its simplicity that he smiled and was ready to give it up ; but it grew in strength and possiblity as he looked round and took from a table, where lay quite a little heap that had been thrust into his letter box from time to time, four or five unopened circulars and foolscap mis- sives, whose appearance told what they were, and armed with these he opened his door softly and passed out, drawing the outer door to, and then stole on tiptoe downstairs and out into the dimly lit square. “ He will not notice that it is so late," he said to himself, as he looked up and saw just a faint gleam of light at Brettison’s window, where the drawn curtain was not quite close. Stratton paused for a moment, and drew a. long breath before attempting to act the part upon which he had decided. Then, going on some twenty or thirty yards, he turned and walked back with a heavy, decided, business-like step, whistling softly as he went, right to the entry, where, still whistling, he ascended the stairs to his door, thrust in and drew out a letterâ€" packet thrice, making the metal flap of the box rattle, gave a sharp double knock, and then crossed the landing and went the few steps, whistling still, along the passage to Brettisou’s door. Here he thrust in, one by one,three circulars,with agood dealof noise, through the letter-flap, gave the customary double knock, went on whistling softly, and waited a moment or two ; and then, as he heard a faint sound within, gave another sharp double rap, as a post- man would who had a registered letter, or a packet too big to pass through the slit. The ruse was successful,and with beating heart Stratton stood waiting a little on one side, as there was the click and grate of the latch, and the door was opened a little way. , That was enough. Quick as lightening, Stratton seized and dragged it wide, to step in face to face with Brettison, who started back in alarm and was followed up by his friend, who closed both doors carefully,and then stood gazing at the bent, gray-headed, weak old man, who had shrunk back behind the table, whereon the pipe stood burning slowly, while the unshaded lamp showed 8. dozen or so of freshly opened letters on the table, explaining their owner’s. visit there. Stratton did not speak, but gazed fiercely at the trembling old man,who look- ed wildly round as if for some weapon to defend himself, but shook his head sadly, and, with a weary smile, came away from his place of defense. “Your trick has succeeded, sir,” he said quietly. “Seventy-two 1 Has the time come? I ought not to fear it now." Stratton uttered a harsh soundâ€"half- gasp, half-cry. “Well, " continued Brettison, who looked singularly aged and bent since they had last stood face to face, “you have found me at last.” Stratton’s lips parted, but no sound came; his emotion was too great. “It will be an easy task,” said Brettison, with a piteous look at Stratton. “No sounds are heard outside these chambersâ€" not even pistol shots." There was an intense bitterness in those last words which made the young man shrink, and as Brettison went on. “I shall not struggle against my fate," he uttered a cry of bitterness and rage. “Sit down ! he said fiercely. “Why do yOu taunt me like this? You, have been here before from time to time. \Vhy have you hidden from me like this 3” “I have my reasons," said Brettison, slowly, “Why have you come?" _/ “You ask me that 1" “Yes: You have hunted me for months _ now, till my life has been worthless. Have r," “Why should I take your life?” “To save your own. You believe I heard or witnessedâ€"that.” He paused before uttering the last word, and pointed to the door on his left. Stratton could not suppressa shudder : but, as he saw the peculiar way in which the old man’s eyes were fixed upon his, a feeling of resentment arose within him, and his voice sounded strident and harsh when he spoke again. “1 had no such thoughts,” he said. “You know better, sir. Come, let us under- stand one another. I am reckless now.” “Yes,” said Brettison coldly. “Then, if you have any fear for your life, where he could he, and how he could con. you can call for help ; that is, for someone trive to keep hidden away from him as he did. “ If we could only meet," he said, half aloudâ€"“ only stand face to face for one short hour, how different my future might be.” “ No, he said, aloud, after a thoughtful to be within call to protect you, for what we have to say must be for our ears alone.” Brettison did not answer for a few mo- menta, during which time he watched the other narrowly. “I am. not afraid, Malcolm," he said ; and he seated himself calmly in his chair. Then, motioning to another, he waited until Stratton was seated. "Yes," he said quietly, “I have been here from time to time to get my letters." “Why have you hidden yourself away 3” cried Stratton fiercely. “Ah l \Vhy!" said Brettison, gazing at him thoughtfully from beneath his thick, gray eyebrows. “You want a reason 3 Well, I am old and independent, with a liking to do what I please. Malcolm Stratton, I am not answerable to any man for my actions.” Stratton started up, and took a turn to and fro in the dusty room before throwing himself again in his chair, while the old man quietly took the long, snake like tube of his pipe in hand. examined the bowl to find it still alight. began to smoke with all the gravity ofa Mnasulman, and the tobac- co once more began to scent the air of the silent place. “Forgive me," he said feebly : half mad.” “Yes.” “How could I, crushed by the horror of having taken a fellowcreature’s life,cursed by the knowledge that this man wasâ€"â€" But you cannot know that.” “Take it, boy, that I know everything," said the old man, resuming his seat. “Then have some pity on me." “Pity for your folly? Yes.” “Folly ! You are right. I will take it that you know everything, and speak out now. Brettison ’ He pausedâ€"he could not speak. But by a mighty effort he mastered his emotion. “Now think, and find some excuse for me. I was in my room there, elate almost beyond a man’s power to imagine; in an- other hour the woman whom I had idolized tor years was to be my wife. Recollect that, two years before, my hopes had been dashed to the ground, and I had passed through a time of anguish that almost unhinged my brain, so great was my deso pair.” “Yes,” said Brettison, that." “Then that man came, and I was face to face with the knowledge that once more my hopes were crushed, andâ€"ho fell.” Stratton ceased speaking, and sat gazing wildly before him into the past. dIt was in a husky whisper that he resum- e : I stood there, Brettison, mad with horror, distraught with the knowledge thatI was the murderer of her husband-â€" that my hand, wet with his blood, could never again clasp hers, even though I had made her free.” The old man bent his head ; and, gather- ing strength of mind and speech, now that he was at last speaking out openly in his defence, Stratton went on :â€" “ It was horribleâ€"horrible ! There it is, all back again before my eyes, and I feel again the stabbing, sickening pain of the bullet wound which scored my shoulder, mingled with the far worse agony of my brain. I had killed her husbandâ€"the escaped convict; and, above the feeling that all was over now, that my future was blasted, earns the knowledge that, as soon as I called for help, as soon as the police investigated the matter, my life was not worth a month’s purchase. For what was my defense? Brettison sat in silence, smoking calmly. “ That this man had made his existence known to me, shown by his presence that “I was “I recall all .his suppossd death was a shadowâ€"that, after his desperate plunge into the sea, he had managed to swim ashore and remain in hiding; the dark night’s work and the belief that he had fallen shot, being his cloak; and the search for the body of a convict soon being at an end. You see all this '2” Brettison bowed his head. ” Think, then, of my position : put yourself in my place. What juryâ€"what judge would believe my story that it was an accident? It seemed to me too plain. The world would say that I slew him in my disappointment and despair. Yes, I know they might have called it manslaugh- ter, butI must have taken his placeâ€"a convict in my turn." Stratton ceased speaking, and let his head fall upon his hand. “ Put yourself in my place, I say. Think of yourself as being once more young and strongâ€"the lover of one whom, in a few short hours, you would have clasped as your wife, and then try and find excuse for my mad actionâ€"for I know now that it was mad, indeed." “ Yes, mad indeed,” muttered Brettison. “ Well, I need say no more. You know so much, you must know the rest. They came to me, fearing I had been killedâ€"rob- bed and murdeied. They found me at last, when I was forced to admit them, looking, I suppose, a maniac ; for I felt one then, compelled to face them, and hear the old man’s reproaches, in horror lest they should discover the wretched convict lying dead, and no word to say in my defense. Nature could bear no more. My wound robbed me of all power to act. and I faintedâ€"to come to, fearing that all was discovered ; but their imaginations had led them astray. They had found my wound and the pistol. It was an attempt at suicide. Poor Guest recalled the first â€"-I do not wonder. And they went away at last, looking upon me as a. vile betrayer of the woman I loved, and sought in their minds for the reason of my despair, and the cowardly act I had attempted to escape her father's wrath. Brettison, old friend, I make no excuses to you now ; but was I not sorely tried “I Surely, few men in our generation have stood in such a dilemma. Can you feel sur- prised that, stricken from my balance as a manâ€"a sane and thoughtful man-I should have acted as I did, and dog for myself a pit of such purgatory as makes me feel now, as I sit here making my confession, how could I have gone thrcugh so terrible a crisis and yet be here alive, and able to think and speak like a suffer- ing man.” The silence in the room was terrible for what seemed an ago before Brettison stretched out his trembling hand and took that of the man before him. "fish 1” Malcolm Stratton's low cry. It was that of a man who had long battled with the waves of a'great storm, and who had at last found something to which he could cling. There was another long and painful pause before Stratton s oke again, and then he slowly withdrew his hand. “No,” he said ; “we must never clasp hands again. I must go on to the end a pariah among my kind." ~ Brettison shook his head. “I have put myself in your place often," he said slowly, “and I have felt th might have acted much the same.’ ' Stratton looked at him eagerly. “Yes ; my great fault in you is that you should not have trusted me." There was again a long silence befom Stratton s ks. "I felt t at I was alone in the world to fight my own battle with all my strength," he said wearily. "And that strength was so much weak- ness, boy. Mine, weak as it is, has proved stronger far." Stratton looked at him wonderingly. “Ies ; how much agony you might have been spared, perhaps, if you had come to me. at I don’t knowâ€"I don’t know. You acted as you thought best ; I only did the same. and, not knowing all your thoughts, I fear that lhave erred.” Stratton sat thinking fora few moments, and then, raising his eyes : “I have told you all. now.” Brettison bowed his head. “Yes,” he said, “it is better that I should speak and tell you.” . But he was silent for some time first. sitting back with the tips of his fingers Joined, as if collecting his thoughts. “You remember that morningâ€"how I came to say good~by?” “Yes, of course.” “I started, and then found that I had forgotten my lens. I hurried back, and had just entered my room when I heard veices plainly in yours. My book-closet door was open, that .of your bath room musthave been ajar. I did not want to bear, but the angry tones startled me, and the words grew so fierceâ€"you neither of you thought _of how you raised your voices in your exaltementâ€"that I became alarmed, and was about to hurry round to your room, when a few words came to my ears quite plainly, and, in spite of its being dishonorâ€" able, I, in my dread that you were in dan- ger, hurried into the book-closet and was drawn to the thin loose panel at the end. “There 1 was euchained ; I could not re- treat, for I had heard so much of the piteous position in which you were placed. hilly mind filled in the blanks,and I grasped a . .Brettison paused to wipe his brow, wet With a dew begotten by the agony of his recollections, before he continued : ‘ “I stayed there then; and watched and listened, almost as near as if I had been a. a participator in the little life drama which ensued. There, I was with you in it all, boy â€"swayed by your emotions, but ready to cry out upon you angrily when I saw you ready to listen to the wretch’s miserable proposals, and as proud when I saw yrur determination to sacrific your desires and. make bold stand against what, for your gratification, must have meant finally a perfect hell for the woman you loved. Then, in the midst of my excitement, there came the final struggle, as you nobly determined to give the scoundrel up to the fate he deserved so Well. It was as sudden to me as it was horrible. I saw the flash of the shot, and felt apang of physical pain, as, through the smoke, I dimly saw you stagger. Then, while I stood there paralyz- ed, I saw you fly at him as he raised his pistol to fire again, the struggle for the weapon, which you struck up as he drew the trigger." . “ Yes,” said Stratton, “I struck up the pistol as he drew the trigger; but who would believeâ€"who would believe '3" “And then I saw him reel and fall, and there before me he lay, with the blood slowly staining the carpet, on the spot where 1 had so often eat.” He wiped his brow again, while Stratton rested his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands, as if to hide from his gaze the scene his friend conjured up from the past. “ Malcolm Stratton," continued the old man, rising to lay his hand upon the other’s head, “you were to me as a son. As a father loves the boy born unto him, I swear I felt toward you. I looked upon you as the son of my childless old age, and I was standing there gazmg at you, face to face With the horror of that scene, while, with crushing weight, there came upon me the knowledge that, come what might, I must summon help. 'l‘liat help meant police ; and, in imagination, I saw myself sending you to the dock, where you would perhaps, from the force of the circumstancesâ€"as you have told me you mightâ€"stand in peril of your life. But still I felt that there was nothing otherwise that could be done; and, slowly shrinking back, I was on my way to perform this act of duty, when I heard a low, deep groan. That drew inc back, and, looking into your room once more, a mist rose between me and the scene. mv senses reeled, and I slowly sank down, tainting, on the floor. " ('ro BE (tox'rixi'i-zn.) N It is your turn She Had Him Guessing. The intellectual young lady looked over her glasses at the avera e oun' m. . .1 asked, suddenly: g y E, an an How old. would you take me to be“! I wonder, said he to himself, whether she wants to be rated five years youngeron the score of her looks, or five years older on account of her brains? Darn these ad- vanced women, anyhow! One Habit Corrected. “I don’t know whether I will be able to break him of all the habits I do not like,” said the engaged girl, “but the first one I stopped for him was just as easy. " _‘;\Vnat habit was that ‘5" asked the other gir . “The habit he had of proposing to me two or three times a Week. ._._. A Wall Street Character. Jackâ€"Going to the fancy ball? Gtorgeâ€"Can’t afford a costume. Got a threadbare coat? Of course. And an old pair of baggy trousers? Certainly. ‘ Well, put them on, and go as a million. aire. ' Where Time Is Valuable. ' Friendâ€"Your watch is a trifle slow, isn't it? Commuterâ€"Yes, it loses a minute or two a week. That's easily fixed. But I am afraid that if I touch the regulator, Imay make it gain a minute or two a week, and then some day I’ll arrive at the stration too eariy for the train. . aw»--.~ c» -oâ€"v‘" or-‘tm-av". 1..-“--«H mm m”-.- -._..._-......, .