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i LL11 CHAPTER XXIV. Reginald Henson struggled out of bed and into his clothing as best he could. He was terribly weak and shaky, far more weak that he had imagined himself to be, but he was: in danger now, and his indomitable. will-power pulled him through. What; a fool Littimer had been to tell him so much, merely so that he might triumph over his powerful fee for a! few minutes. But Henson was plan-l ning a little scheme by which he inâ€", tended to repay ' the young man tenâ€"i fold. He had no doubt as to the } willingness of his tool. i He took a bottle of brandy fromI a. drawer and helped himself to al liberal dose. Walker had expressly forbidden anything of the kind, but it was no time for nice medical, obedience. The grateful stimulant“ had its immediate effect. Then Hen-i son rang the bell, and after a time Williams appeared tardily. . “You are to go down to Barnes and ask him to send a cab here as' soon as possible,” Henson said. “ , have to go to London by the first train in the morning." Williams nodded, with his mouth wide open. He was astonished and. not a little alarmed at the strength' and vitality of this man. And only; a few hours before Williams had. learnt with deep satisfaction that Henson would be confined to his bed: for some days. Henson dressed at length and pack- ed a small portmanteau. But he' had to sit on his bed for some little time and sip a further dose of bran- dy before he could move farther. Afâ€"l fter all there was no hurry. A full; hour was sure to elapse before the} leisurely Barnes brought the cab to’ the lodgeâ€"gates. l Henson crept downstairs at lengthl and trod his catlike way to thel library. Once there he proceeded: to make a minute inspection of the telephone. He turned the handle; just the fragment of an inch and a; queer smile came over his face. Then he crept as silently upstairs, opened the window of the bathroom quiet- ly, and_ slipped on to the leads. There were a couple of insulatorsl here. against the wire of one of} which Henson tapped his knuckles; gently. The wire gave back an an»! sweing twang. The other jangled‘ limp and loose. “One of the wires cut,” ' Henson muttered. “I expected as much.‘ Madame Enid is getting a deal too: clever I gestion of her Very astute friend' David Steel. Well, I have given Mix! Steel one lesson in minding his own! business, and if he interferes further I shall have to give him another. He will be in gaol before long charged with attempted murder and robberyi with violence, and so exit Steel. Af-l ter that the girl will be perhaps‘ I suppose this is some sugâ€", chary of seeking outside assistance, And this will be the third I have;1 had to get rid of. Heavens! I-Iow! feeble I feel, how weak I am. And: yet I must go through this thing; now." _ He staggered info the house again, and dropped into a chair. There was I a loud buzzing in his cars, so that; he could hardly hear the murmur of' voices in the drawing-room below. This was annoying, because Hensonl liked to hear everything that other folks said. Then he dropped off into a kind of dreamy state, coming back- presently to the consciousness that he had fainted. " 1 Meanwhile Frank Littimer had! joined Enid in the drawingâ€"room.l The house was perfectly quiet andi still by this time; the dust-cloud} hung on the air and caused the' lamps to burn with a spitting -blue. flame. lnid's faca looked deadly pale against her black dress. ’ “So you have been seeing Reginâ€" ald," she said. “Whyâ€"why did you do it?" _ “I didn't mean to,” Frank mutter- ed. “1 never intended him to know that I had been in the house at all. But I was passing his room and he heard 1 c. He seemed to know my footsteps. I believe if two mice ran by him tWiCe in the darkness he, could tell the difference between them." “You had an interesting conversaâ€" tion. What did he want to use thel telephone for?" I “I don't know. I tried to manipuâ€"i late it for him, but the instrument; was out of order." “I know. I had a pretty shrewd. idea what our cousin was going t i do. You see, I was listening at the l l l door. Not a very ladylike thing to do, but one must fight Henson- with his own tools. When I heard him ask for the telephone directory" I ran out and nipped one of thel uires‘ by'the bathroom, Frank, it would have been far wiser if you hadn’t come." Littimer nodded gloomily. There L ' OR, A MIDNIGHT CALL. . lsce it in his face. and was sorry. And she never, never forgot the last time that you Were in the house.” . Frank Littimer glanced across the His eyes room with a shudder. dWelt with fascination on the overâ€" turned table with its broken china and glass and wilted flowers in the corner. “It is not the kind of thing to forâ€" get,” he said, hoarsely. “I can see my father now-â€"â€"” “Don't,” Enid shuddered. “don't recall it. 'And your mother has nev- er been the same since. I doubt if she will ever be the same again. From that day to this nothing has ever been touched in the house. And Henson comes here when he can and makes our lives hideous to us." “I fancy I shook him up to-night,” Littimer said, with subdued triumph. “He seemed to shudder when I told him that I had found Van Sneck.” Enid started from her chair. Her eyes were shining with the sudden brilliancy of unveiled stars. “You have found Van Snecki" she whispered. “Where?” “Why, in the Brighton Hospital. Do you mean to say that you don't know about it, that you don’t know that the man found so mysteriously in Mr. David Steel’s house and Van Sneck are one and the same perâ€" son?" Enid resumed her seat again. She was calm enough now. “It had not occurred to me," she said. “Indeed, I don't know why why it should have done. Sooner or later, of course, I should have suggested to Mr. Steel to try and identify the man, butâ€"" “My dear Enid, what on earth are you talking about?" "Nonsense," Enid said, in some confusion. “Things you don’t unâ€" derstand at present, and things you are not going to understand just yet. I read in the papers that the man was quite a stranger to Mr. Steel. But are you certain that it is Van Sneck?” “Absolutely certain. I went to the hospital and identified him." “Then there is no more to be said on that point. But you'were foolish to tell Reginald." “Not a bit of it. Why, Henson has known it all along. You needn't get excited. He is a deep fellow, and nobody knows better than he how to disguise his feelings. 'All the same, he was just mad to know what I had discovered, you could Reginald Hen- sonâ€"â€"--" Littimer paused, openâ€"mouthed, for Henson, dressed and wrapped ready for the journey, had come quietly into the drawingâ€"room. The deadly pallor of his face, the white bandâ€" ages about his throat, only served to render his appearance more em- phatic and imposing. He stood there lwith the halo of dust about him, looking like the devil genius of the place. “I fear I startled you," he said, with a sardonic smile. “And I fear that in the stillness of the place I [have overheard a great part of your conversation. Frank, I must conâ€" gratulate you on your discretion, so far. But seeing that you are young and impressionable, I am going to move temptation out of your way. Enid, I am going on a journey." “I trust that it is a long one, and that it will detain you for a considerable perior,” Enid said, coldly. “It is neither far, nor is it likely to keep me," Henson smiled. “Wilâ€" liams has just come in with the inâ€" formation that the cab awaits me at the gate. Now, then!" The last words were flung at Litâ€" timer with contemptuous command. The hot blood flared into the young man's face. Enid’s eyes flashed. “If my cousin likes to stay here," she said, “whyâ€"” "He is coming with me," Henson. said, hoai‘sely. “Do you understand? With me! And if I like to draghim â€"-or you, my pretty ladyâ€" to the end of the world "or the gates of perâ€" dition, you will have to come. Now, 'gct along before I compel you.” Enid stood with fury in her eyes and clenched hands as Littimer slunk away out of the house, Henson fol- lowing between his victim and Wil- liams. He said no words till the lodge-gates were past and the growl of the dogs had died into the dis- tance. “We are going to Littimer Castle" said Henson. “Not there," Littimer groanodâ€"~ “not there, Henson! I couldn’tâ€"I Icouldn't go to that place!” Henson pointed towards the cab. “Littimer or perdition!" he said. “You don't want to go to the lat- ter just yet? Jump in, theni'i CHAPTER XXV. If you had asked the first five was something like tears in his eyes. ,people on the Littimer Estate what "I know it," he said. "I hate the place and its dreadful associations! But I wanted to see Chris first. Did she say anything about me beforeâ€"g beforeâ€"" a “My dear boy, she loved you alâ€"' Ways. Ehe knew and understood,i they thought of the lord of the soil you would 11m 1 a different anâ€" swer from everyone. One woman would have said that a kinder and better man never lived; her neighâ€" hor would have declared Lord Litâ€" Hun v to be as hard as the nether millstone. Farmer George would rate him a jolly good fellow, and tell how he would sit in the kitchen over a mug of ale; whilst Farmer John swore at his landlord as a hard-fisted, grasping miser devoid of the bowels of compassion. ’ At tho‘end of an hour you Would be utterly bewildered, not knowing what to believe, and prepared to set the whole village down as a lot of gossips who seemed to mind every- thing .but its own business. 'And, perhaps, Lord Littimer might come riding - through on his big black lhorse, small, lithe, brown as maho- gany, and with an eye piercing as a diamond drill. One day he looked almost boyishly young, there would be! a smile on his tanned face. And then another day he would be bent in the saddle, huddled up, wizened, an old, old man, crushed with the weight of years and sorrow. In sooth he was a man of moods and contradictions, changeable as an April sky, and none the less quickâ€" tempered and hard because he knew that everybody was terribly afraid of him. 'And he had a tongue, too, a lashing, cutting tongue that burnt and blistered. Sometimes he would be quite meek and angry under the reproaches of the vicar, and yet the same day history records it that he got off his horse and administer- ed a sound trashingto the village poacher. Sometimes he got the best of the I vicar, and sometimes that worthy man scored. They were good friends, these two, though the vicar never swerved in his fealty to Lady Littimer, whose cause he always championed. But nobody‘ seemed to know anything about that dark scandal. They knew that there had been a dreadful scene at the castle seven years before, and that' Lady Littimer and her son had left never to return. Lady Littimer was in a. madhouse somewhere, they said, and the son was a wanderer on the face of the earth. 'And when Lord Litti- mct died every penny of the properâ€" ty, the castle included, would go to her ladyship's nephew, Mr. Reginald Henson. In spite of the great cloud that hung over the family Lord Littimer did not seem to have changed. He was just a little more caustic than ever, his tongue a little sharper. The servants could have told a dif- ferent story, a story of dark moods and days when the bitterness of the shadow of death lay on their masâ€" ter. Few men could carry their grief better, and because Littimer carried his grief so Well he suffered the more. We shall see what the sorrow was in time. There are few more beautiful places in England than Littimer Castle. The house stood on a kind of natur‘ a1 plateau with many woods behind, a trout stream ran clean past the big flight of steps leading to me half, below were terrace after ter- race of hanging gardens, and to the left a sloping, ‘agged drop of 200 feet into the sea. To the right lay a magnilicentlyâ€"timbered park, with a herd of real wild deerâ€"perhaps the only herd of this kind in the coun- try. When the sun shone on the grey walls they looked as if they had been painted by some cunning hand, so softly were the greys and reds and blues blended. Inside the place was a veritable art gallery. There were hundreds of pictures and engravings there. All round the grand staircase ran a long, deep corridor, filled With pic- tures. There Were alcoves here fitted up as sitting-rooms, and in most of them some gem or another was hung. When the full flood of electric light was turned on at night the effect was almost dazzling. There were few pictures in the gallery without a history. ' Lord Littimer had many hobbies, but not one that interested him like this. There Were hundreds of rare birds shot by him in different parts of the world; the corridors and floors were covered by skins the spoil of his rifle; here and there a stuffed bear pranced startling; but the pictures and prints were the great amusement of his lordship’s lonely life. He passed along the corridor now towards the great .oriel window at the end. A brilliant sunlight filled the place with shafts of golden and blue and purple as it came filtered through the stained glass. 'At a table in the window a girl sat work- ing a typewriter. She might \ have passed for beautiful, only her hair was handed down in hideously Puri- tan fashion on each side of her deli~ cute, oval face, her eyes were shield- ed by spectacles. But they were lovely, steady. courageous blue eyes, as Littimer did not fail to ob- serve. Also he had not failed to note that his new secretary could do very well without. the glasses. The typewriter and secretary busi~ ness was a now whim of Littimer’s. He wanted an assistant to catalogue and classify his pictures and prints, and he had told the vicar so. He wanted a girl who wasn’t a fool, a girl who could amuse him wouldn’t be afraid of him, and he thought he Would have an American. To which the vicar responded that the whole thing was nonsense, but he had heard of a Boston girl in England who had a passion for that kind of thing and who was looking for a. situation of the kind in a genuine old house for a year or so. The vicar added that he had not seen the young lady, but he could obtain her address. ‘A reply came in‘ due course, a reply that so pleased the impetuous Earl that he engaged the applicant on the spot. 'And now she had. been just two hours in the house. ’ “Well,” Littimer cried, “and how have you been getting on?" Miss Cln-istabel Lee looked up, smiling-1y, . flammation "I am getting on very well in- deed," she said. “You see, I have made a study of this kind of thing all my lifetime. and most of your pictures are like old friends to me. Do you know, I fancy that you and I are going to manage very well toâ€" gether?" 1 “Oh, do you? They say I am pret- ty formidable at times.” "I shan’n’t mind that a bit. You see, my father was a man with a villainous temper. But a woman can always get the better of a bad- tempered man unless he happens to be one of the lower classes who uses his boots. If he is a gentleman you have him utterly at your mercy. Have you a sharp tongue?" “I flatter myself I can be pretty blistering on occasions,” Littimer said, grimly. “How delightful! So can I. You and I will have some famous battles later on. Only I warn you that I never lose my temper, which gives me a tremendous advantage. I haven’t been very well lately, so you must be nice to me for a week or two." Littimer smiled and nodded. The grim lord of the castle was not ac- customed to this kind of thing, and he was telling himself that he rather liked it. _“And now show me 'the Remâ€" brandt," Miss Lee said, impatiently. Littimer led the way to a distant alcove lighted from the side\by a latticed window. There was only one picture in the excellent light there, and that was the famous Remâ€" brandt engraving. Littimer’s eyes lighted up quite lovingly as they rested upon it. The Florentine frame was hung so low that Miss Lee ccould bring her face on a level with it. "This is the picture that was stol- en from you?” she aSked. "Yes, that’s the thing that there was all the fuss about. It made a great stir at the time. But I don’t expect that it will happen again.” “Why not?” Miss Lee asked. “When an attempt of that sort is made it is usually followed by another, some- times after the lapse_of years. _Anyâ€" body getting through that window could easily get the frame from its two nails and take out the paper.” “Do you think so?” Littimer ask~ ed, uneasily. “I am certain of it. Take my adâ€" vice and make it secure. The panels behind are hard woodâ€"thick, black oak. Lord Littimer, I am going to got four brassâ€"headed stays and drive them through some of the open ornamental work into the panel so as to make the picture quite se- cure. It is an iron frame, I sup- pose?" , ‘ “Wroughtâ€"iron, gilt,” said Litti- mer. “Yes one could easily drive four brassâ€"headed stays through the open work and make the thing safe. [’11 have it seen to.” But Miss Lee insisted that there was no time like the present. She had discovered that Littimer had an excellent carpenter’s shop on the pre- mises; indeed, she admitted to being herself. She flitted with the lathe Sne flitth downthe stairs herself. light as thistledown. “A charming girl!” Littimer said, cynically. "I wonder why she came to this dull hole? A quarrel with her young man, perhaps. If I were a young man myself I mightâ€" But should never women are all the same. I be a happier man if I had trusted one. Ifâ€"â€"-â€"” The face darkened; a heavy scowl lined his brows as he paced up and down. Christabel came back pre- sently with hammer and some brass- headed stays in her hand. (To be Continued. ) ._._._....+__.___ t 0:0 0:0 0:. 0:0 0:»:9 0:0 0:. 0'0 9‘0 9:. 0:. 0'0 0'9 o’e-w-‘o 34 0:0 0:0 9:0 0 .0 0.0.. C 0.. . 0.0 HEALTH 0 0.9 oz. ’ o o o o o 0 Mean; 9.. 0.00.. 0.0 9:. >.o 0‘0 30 ’90:. 9.0 O 0‘. o'oé '1 6 & - 0:0 0:. oz. 0:. e 0‘ o 0209.00.94». o 0.. CO. 0 AI’PENDICITIS IN CHILDREN. Most persons are pretty familiar by this time with appendicitis, which has come to be regarded as likely to afflict almost any one between twenty and fifty years of age, and to have escaped which is to be pecuâ€" liarly fortunate. It is known that it begins with severe colic and tender- ness in the right side of the abdoâ€" men, and a sensible person does not suffer long from an attack of that sort without calling in the doctor. This is well, and no doubt the inâ€" creased general knowledge regarding appendicitis and the widespread fear of the disease have saved many lives {by leading those attacked to seek 'medical advice promptly while the ,inflnnunation is yet in its incipient 'stage. But this is true of adults only, and it seems to be believed by those who give a thought to the subject that children do not have appendicitis. This is an error, and one that may possibly have most lserious consequences. Children, even babies, may have in- flammation of the veriniform appen- dix, and may (lie of it as promptly as older persons. Fortunately, how- ever, the disease is often less severe in the very young thansin adults, land a fatal. case of the disease in a child is comparatively rare. But although the child may recover from his attack, the appendix is left more vulnerable, and many an apparently primary attack in adult life is really a recrudescence of a slumbering ‘in- dating back to child- I 0 l hood. Not everystomach-ache in a child is appendicitis, but any one may be. and parents should not be made in- [difilerent to diarrhoea, _ When the appendix is the seat of the _â€"â€"â€"-â€"â€"-â€"-â€"_ __.._..._â€"â€"-â€" ' theSe attacks by their frequency. Neither should the at‘ tacks excite too great apprehension.’ If the dangerâ€"signals are known, and an eye kept open for them, parents can simulate all the indifference they, please, especially as regards freâ€" quent attacks coming on about the school hour. 'An ordinary stomach-ache lasts but' a short time; the pain is general all over the abdomen, or perhaps most marked on the left side, and the at- tack often passes off with a slight usually without fever. trouble, the pain may subside for a time; but it recurs again and again as a sharp colic, usually most marks ed on the right side, and is not re- lieved by pressure, as the stomachachc often is. There is fever, the face is flushed or dusky, and the child shows that it is really ill; the tongue is coated, and there circles under thg eyes. When a child has a stomach-ache that persists or that comes back again after having disappeared, es«~ is fever, it should Com- are black pecially if there be carefully studied.â€"Youth’s panion. 4â€"4.... COLD FEET 'AND INDIGESTION. Coldness of feet and limbs is al- most invariable an evidence of indiâ€" gestion. The coldness is due not to weakness of the heart or fecblness of circulation, as is generally sup- posed, but to the contraction of the small arteries, preventing blood from entering the parts. There is generally an irritation of the abdo- minal sympathetic nerve centers which control the circulation of the lower extremities. This difficulty is not to be removed by exercise or. by any special application to the limbs, but by removal of the causes of irritation. This may be a pro- lapsed stomach or chronic indiges‘ tion. Hot and cold foot baths are valuable. These act, not simply on the feet and limbs, but by reflex on the feet and limbs, but by. abdominal sympathetic centers, which are in a diseased condition. Rubbing of the feet and legs is alâ€" so an excellent method of over- coming spasm of the blood vessels. thUS preserving the normal circula- tion. The rubbing should be from thefeet towards the body. The surâ€" face Should be well lubricated with .vaseline. To avoid irritation of the skin care should also be taken to clothe the limbs very warmly. In many cases this is necessary, even in the summer season. 4’ I NERVOUS TENSION. Many people wear themselves out needlessly; of this there is no possiâ€" ble doubt, and their conscience is a species of tyrant to them. 'An ex- aggerated sense of duty leads many a person to very anxious ceaseless activity,‘ to be constantly doing something, never to be idle a second of time, to scorn to rest. Such people are in unconscious nerve ten- sion. They say they have no time torest, they have so much to do, not thinking that they are rapidly unfitting theinSelves for probably1 what would have been their best and greatest work in after years. As there are conscious and unconscious thoUghts, So there are conscious and unconscious nerve tensions. Selfâ€" control of nerve force is the great lesson of health, and therefore of life itself. To understand how to relax is to understand how to strengthen nerves. Hearty laughter is a source of relaxation, and relaxation is also found in diversion and amusements. Change of air and scene is occasionâ€" ally necessary. It is sufficient rest Of body and mind which enables a man to accomplish his best work by relieving his nerve tension. yâ€"Fâ€"wâ€"fi _ ‘ GERMAN SCHOOL BATES. 'According to the London Mail, l “every board school in Germany is provided with a well-equipped gymâ€" nasium and a 'brausebad’ or douche. The latter is situated in the lower. portion of the building and during the winter the heating apparatus for the school supplies also the neces- sary water for the douche baths. “In summer the water is heated by a gas stove ,'_'ou-laining several Bunsen burners. By the latter me~ thod the baths are ready for use in Just as the times of exercises and douche baths. The older children receive three or four hours of physical training per week. and every child at least one douche.” This indicates a desire on the part of the government to provide the best hygienic cenditions for school children. But the same number of baths at home, in which the entire family participated. vould be an improvement. Perhaps the acquired by the children at leads to this result, half an hour. instruction habit school ____I+ WORK] TO U SE MU SEU MS . Several of the great London worl- houses have remarkable museums atâ€" tached to them. In a South Lonâ€" don union museum can be found a clergynian’s letters of ordination (the owner (lied in the house), and a peculiar belt made of human teeth and bretight from the West Coast of Africa. But perhaps the most sig nificant of all the things showu is a small pocket (liceâ€"box. Upon the box is neatly cut: “This box and other fingering cost me £30,000. and brought me to, the workhouse." "“"""+'â€"_‘-. Burglar (just acquitted, to his co‘unsel)â€"â€"“I will shortly call and sec you at your oilice, sir." “Very good I‘but in the daytime, please " simplest” '