THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS. CHAPTER VI.-(CONTINUED.) I COULD not help shuddering at the mention of the quicksand, but reminded Northmour that our enemies had spared me in the wood. "Do not flatter yourself," said he. "Then you were not in the same boat with the old gentleman; now you are. It's the floe for all of us, mark my words." I trembled for your mother; and just then her dear voice was heard calling us to come up-stairs. Northmour showed me the way, and, when he had reached the landing, knocked at the door of what used to be called My Uncle's Bedroom, as the founder of the pavilion had designed it especially for himself. "Come in, come in, Mr. Cassilis," said he. "Another protector-ahem!-another protector. Always welcome as a friend of my daughter's, Mr. Cassilis. How they have rallied about me, my daughter's friends! May God in heaven bless and reward them for it." I gave him my hand, of course, because I could not help it; but the sympathy I had been prepared to feel for your mother's father was immediately soured by his appearance, and the wheedling, unreal tones in which he spoke. "Cassilis is a good man," said Northmour; "worth ten." "So I hear," cried Mr. Huddlestone, eagerly; "so my girl tells me. Ah, Mr. Cassilis, my sin "Come in, Northmour; come in, dear Mr. has found me out, you see! I am very low, very Cassilis," said a voice from within. Pushing open the door, Northmour admitted me before him into the apartment. As I came in I could see your mother slipping out by the side door into the study, which had been prepared as her bedroom. In the bed, which was drawn back against the wall, instead of standing, as I had last seen it, boldly across the window, sat, my dear children, your grandfather, Bernard Huddlestone, the defaulting banker. Little as I had seen of him by the shifting light of the lantern on the links, I had no difficulty in recognizing him for the same. He had a long-long and sallow— countenance, surrounded by a long red beard and side-whiskers. His broken nose and high cheekbones gave him somewhat the air of a Kalmuck, and his light eyes shone with the excitement of a high fever. He wore a skull-cap of black silk; a huge Bible lay open before him on the bed, with a pair of gold spectacles in the place, and a pile of other books lay on the stand by his side. The green curtains lent a cadaverous shade to his cheek; and, as he sat propped on pillows, his great stature was painfully hunched, and his head protruded till it overhung his knees. I believe if your grandfather had not died otherwise, he must have fallen a victim to consumption in the course of but a very few weeks. low; but I hope equally penitent. These are all devotional works," he added, indicating the books by which he was surrounded. "We must all come to the throne of grace at last, Mr. Cassilis. For my part, I come late indeed; but with unfeigned humility, I trust." "Fiddle-de-dee !" said Northmour, roughly. "No, no, dear Northmour!" cried the banker. "You must not say that; you must not try to shake me. You forget, my dear, good boy, you forget I may be called this very night before my Maker." His excitement was pitiful to behold; and I felt myself grow indignant with Northmour, whose infidel opinions I well knew, and heartily dreaded, as he continued to taunt the poor sinner out of his humor of repentance. "Pooh, my dear Huddlestone," said he; "you do yourself injustice. You are a man of the world inside and out, and were up to all kinds of mischief before I was born. Your conscience is tanned like South American leather-only you forgot to tan your liver, and that, if you will believe me, is the seat of the annoyance." "Rogue, rogue! bad boy!" said Mr. Huddlestone, shaking his finger. "I am no precisian, if you come to that; I always hated a precisian; but I never lost hold of something better through it He held out to me a hand, long, thin, and disa- all. I have been a bad boy, Mr. Cassilis; I do greeably hairy. not seek to deny that; but it was after my wife's death, and you know with a widower it's a different thing; sinful-I won't say no; but there is a gradation, we shall hope. And talking of that Hark!" he broke out suddenly, his hand raised, his fingers spread, his face racked with interest and terror. "Only the rain, bless God!" he added, after a pause, and with indescribable relief. "Well, as I was saying-ah! yes, Northmour, is that girl away?" looking round the curtain for your mother-" yes; I just remembered a capital one." And leaning forward in bed, he told a story of a description with which, I am happy to say, I have never sullied my lips, and which, in his present danger and surrounded as he was with religious reading, filled me with indignation and disgust. Perhaps, my dear children, you have sometimes, when your mother was not by to mitigate my severity, found me narrow and hard in discipline; I must own I have always been a martinent in matters of decorum, and I have sometimes repented the harshness with which I reproved your unhappy grandfather upon this occasion. I will not repeat even the drift of what I said; but I reminded him, perhaps cruelly, of the horrors of his situation. Northmour burst out laughing, and cut a joke at the expense, as I considered, of politeness, decency, and reverence alike. We might readily have quarreled then and there; but Mr. Huddlestone interposed with a severe reproof to Northmour for his levity. He seemed annoyed by the question, but admitted with reluctance that he had a little. "Well," I continued, "it is their money they are after, is it not? Why not give it up to them?" "Ah!" replied he, shaking his head, "I have tried that already, Mr. Cassilis; and alas! that it should be so, but it is blood they want." "Huddlestone, that's a little less than fair," said Northmour. "You should mention that what you offered them was upward of two hundred thousand short. The deficit is worth a reference; it is for what they call a cool sum, Frank. Then, you see, the fellows reason in their clear Italian way; and it seems to them, as indeed it seems to me, that they may just as well have both while they're about it-money and blood together, by George, and no more trouble for the extra pleas ure. "Is it in the pavilion ?" I asked. "It is; and I wish it were in the bottom of the sea instead," said Northmour; and then suddenly, "What are you making faces at me for?" he cried to Mr. Huddlestone, on whom I had unconsciously turned my back. "Do you think Cassilis would "The boy is right," he said. "I am an unhappy sinner, and you but a half friend to encour- sell you?" age me in evil." And with great fluency and unction he put up a short extempore prayer, at which, coming so suddenly after his anecdote, I confess I knew not where to look. Then said he: "Let us sing a hymn together, Mr. Cassilis. I have one here which my mother taught me a great, great many years ago, you may imagine. You will find it very touching, and quite spiritual." "Look here," broke in Northmour; "if this is going to become a prayer-meeting, I am off. Sing a hymn, indeed! What next? Go out and take a little airing on the beach, I suppose? or in the wood, where it's thick, and a man can get near enough for the stiletto? I wonder at you, Huddlestone! and I wonder at you, too, Cassilis! Ass as you are, you might have better sense than that." Roughly as he expressed himself, I could not Mr. Huddlestone protested that nothing had been further from his mind. "It is a good thing," retorted Northmour, in his ugliest manner. "You might end by wearying us. What were you going to say?" he added, turning to me. "I was going to propose an occupation for the afternoon," said I. "Let us carry that money out, piece by piece, and lay it down before the pavilion door. If the Carbonari come, why, it's theirs, at any rate." "No, no," cried Mr. Huddlestone; "it does not, it cannot, belong to them! It should be distributed pro rata among all my creditors." "Come, now, Huddlestone," said Northmour, "none of that." "Well, but my daughter," moaned the wretched man. THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS. "Your daughter will do well enough. Here are two suitors, Cassilis and I, neither of us begAnd as gars, between whom she has to choose. for myself, to make an end of arguments, you have no right to a farthing, and, unless I'm much mistaken, you are going to die." It was certainly very cruelly said; but Mr. Huddlestone was a man who attracted little sympathy; and, although I saw him wince and shudder, I mentally endorsed the rebuke; nay, I added a contribution of my own. "Northmour and I," I said, "are willing enough to help you to save your life, but not to escape with stolen property." He struggled for awhile with himself, as though he were on the point of giving way to anger, but prudence had the best of the controversy. "My dear boys," he said, "do with me or my I leave all in your hands. money what you will. Let me compose myself." And so we left him, gladly enough, I am sure. The last that I saw, he had once more taken up his great Bible, and was adjusting his spectacles to read. Of all the men it was ever my fortune to know, your grandfather has left the most bewildering impression on my mind; but I have no fancy to judge where I am conscious that I do not understand. CHAPTER VII.-TELLS HOW A WORD WAS CRIED THE recollection of, that afternoon will always We debated over and over again my proposal with regard to the money; and had we been in complete possession of our faculties, I think we should have condemned it as unwise; but we were flustered with alarm, grasped at a straw, and determined, although it was as much as advertising Mr. Huddlestone's presence in the pavilion, to carry my proposal into effect. The sum was part in specie, part in bank paper, and part in circular notes, payable to the name of James Gregory. We took it out, counted it, enclosed it once more in a dispatch-box belonging to Northmour, and prepared a letter in Italian which we tied to the handle. It was signed by both of us under oath, and declared that this was all the money which escaped the failure of the house of Huddlestone. This was, perhaps, the maddest action ever perpetrated by two persons Had the dispatch-box professing to be sane. fallen into other hands than those for which it was intended, we stood criminally convicted on our own written testimony; but, as I have said, we were neither of us in a condition to judge soberly, and had a thirst for action that drove us to do something, right or wrong, rather than endure the agony of waiting. Moreover, as we were both convinced that the hollows of the links were alive with hidden spies upon our movements, we hoped that our appearance with the box might lead to a parley, and, perhaps, a compromise. It was nearly three when we issued from the pavilion. The rain had taken off; the sun shone quite cheerfully. I have never seen the gulls fly so close about the house or approach so fearlessly to human beings. On the very doorstep one flapped heavily past our heads, and uttered its wild cry in my very ear. "There is an omen for you," said Northmour, who, like all freethinkers, was much under the influence of superstition. "They think we are already dead." I made some slight rejoinder, but it was with half my heart; for the circumstance had impressed me. A yard or two before the gate, on a path of smooth turf, we set down the dispatch-box, and Northmour waved a white handkerchief over his head. Nothing replied. We raised our voices, and cried aloud in Italian that we were there as ambassadors to arrange the quarrel; but the stillness remained unbroken, save by the seagulls and the surf. I had a weight at my heart when we He looked over his shoulder desisted; and I saw that even Northmour was unusually pale. nervously, as though he feared that some one had crept between him and the pavilion door. "By God," he said, in a whisper, "this is too much for me!" "Could you see what he was like?" he asked. "He kept his back turned," I replied. "Let us get into the house, Frank. I don't think I'm a coward, but I can stand no more of I replied, in the same key: "Suppose there this," he whispered. should be none, after all?" All was still and sunshiny about the pavilion as "Look there," he returned, nodding with his we turned to re-enter it; even the gulls had flown head, as though he had been afraid to point. I glanced in the direction indicated; and there, from the northern quarter of the sea wood, beheld a thin column of smoke rising steadily against the now cloudless sky. "Northmour," I said (we still continued to talk in whispers), "it is not possible to endure this suspense. I prefer death fifty times over. Stay you here to watch the pavilion; I will go forward and make sure, if I have to walk right into their camp." He looked once again all round him with puckered eyes, and then nodded assentingly to my proposal. My heart beat like a sledge hammer as I set out walking rapidly in the direction of the smoke; and, though up to that moment I had felt chill and shivering, I was suddenly conscious of a glow of heat all over my body. The ground in this direction was very uneven; a hundred men might have lain hidden in as many square yards about my path. But I had not practiced the business in vain, chose such routes as cut at the very root of concealment, and by keeping along the most convenient ridges, commanded several hollows at a time. It was not long before I was rewarded for my caution. Coming suddenly on to a mound somewhat more elevated than the surrounding hummocks, I saw, not thirty yards away, a man bent almost double, and running as fast as his attitude permitted, along the bottom of a gully. I had dislodged one of the spies from his ambush. As soon as I sighted him, I called loudly both in English and Italian; and he, seeing concealment was no longer possible, straightened himself out, leaped from the gully, and made off as straight as an arrow for the borders of the wood. It was none of my business to pursue; I had learned what I wanted-that we were beleagured and watched in the pavilion; and I returned at ence, walking as nearly as possible in my old footsteps, to where Northmour awaited me beside the dispatch-box. He was even paler than when I had left him, and his voice shook a little. in a wider circuit, and were seen flickering along the beach and the sand-hills; and I can assure you, my dear children, that this loneliness terrified me more than a regiment under arms. It was not until the door was barricaded that I could draw a full inspiration and relieve the weight that lay upon my bosom. Northmour and I exchanged a steady glance; and I suppose each made his own reflections on the white and startled aspect of the other. "You were right," I said. "All is over. Shake hands, old man, for the last time." "Yes," replied he, "I will shake hands; for, as sure as I am here, I bear no malice. But remember, if, by some impossible accident, we should give the slip to these blackguards, I'll take the upper hand of you by fair or foul." "Oh," said I, "you weary me." He seemed hurt, and walked away in silence to the foot of the stairs, where he paused. "You do not understand," said he. "I am not a swindler, and I guard myself; that is all. It may weary you or not, Mr. Cassilis, I do not care a rush; I speak for my own satisfaction, and not for your amusement. You had better go upstairs and court the girl; for my part, I stay here." "And I stay with you," I returned. "Do you think I would steal a march, even with your permission?" "Frank," he said, smiling, "it's a pity you are an ass, for you. have the makings of a man. think I must be fey to-day; you cannot irritate me even when you try. Do you know," he continued, softly, "I think we are the two most miserable men in England, you and I? we have got on to thirty without wife or child, or so much as a shop to look after-poor, pitiful, lost devils, both! And now we clash about a girl! As if there were not several millions in the United Kingdom! Ah, Frank, Frank, the one who loses this throw, be it you or me, he has my pity! It were better for him-how does the Bible say?— that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the depth of the sea. Let us THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS. take a drink," he concluded, suddenly, but without any levity of tone. I was touched by his words, and consented. He sat down on the table in the dining-room, and held up the glass of sherry to his eye. "If you beat me, Frank," he said, "I shall take to drink. What will you do, if it goes the other way?" "God knows," I returned. "Well," said he, "here is a toast in the meantime: Italia irridenta ?" The remainder of the day was passed in the I laid the same dreadful tedium and suspense. table for dinner, while Northmour and your mother prepared the meal together in the kitchen. I could hear their talk as I went to and fro, and was surprised to find it ran all the time upon myself. Northmour again bracketed us together, and rallied your mother on a choice of husbands; but he continued to speak of me with some feeling, and uttered nothing to my prejudice unless This he included himself in the condemnation. awakened a sense of gratitude in my heart, which combined with the immediateness of our peril to After all, I thoughtfill my eyes with tears. and perhaps the thought was laughably vain-we were here three very noble human beings to perish in defense of a thieving banker. Before we sat down to table, I looked forth from an up-stairs window. The day was beginning to decline; the links were utterly deserted; the dispatch-box still lay untouched where we had left it hours before. Mr. Huddlestone, in a long, yellow dressinggown, took one end of the table, Clara the other; while Northmour and I faced each other from the sides. The lamp was brightly trimmed; the wine was good; the viands, although mostly cold, excellent of their sort. We seemed to have agreed tacitly; all thought of the impending catastrophe was banished, and we made as merry a party of From time to time, four as you would wish to see. it is true, Northmour or I would rise from table and make a round of defenses; and, on each of these occasions, Mr. Huddlestone was recalled to a sense of his tragic predicament, glanced up with ghastly eyes, and bore for an instant on his counBut he hastened to tenance the stamp of terror. empty his glass, wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, and joined again in the conversation. I was astonished at the wit and information he displayed. Your grandfather's, my dear children, He was relating with great gusto, and seemingly no feeling of shame, the manœuvres of a scoundrelly commission merchant whom he had known and studied in bis youth, and we were all listening with an odd mixture of mirth and embarrassment, when our little party was brought abruptly to an end in the most startling manner. A noise like that of a wet finger on the windowpane interrupted your grandfather's tale; and in an instant we were all four as white as paper, and sat tongue-tied and motionless around the table. "A snail," I said at last; for I had heard that these animals make a noise somewhat similar in character. "Snail be d―d!" said Northmour. "Hush!" The same sound was repeated twice at regular intervals; and then a formidable voice shouted through the shutters the Italian word "Traditore!" Mr. Huddlestone threw his head in the air, his eyelids quivered; next moment he fell insensible below the table. Northmour and I had each run to the armory and seized a gun. Your mother was on her feet with her hand at her throat. So we stood waiting, for we thought the hour of attack was certainly come; but second passed after second, and all but the surf remained silent. in the neighborhood of the pavilion. "Quick," said Northmour; "up-stairs with him before they come." CHAPTER VIII.-TELLS THE LAST OF THE TALL MAN. SOMEHOW or other, by hook and crook, and between the three of us, we got Bernard Huddlestone bundled up-stairs and laid upon the bed in My Uncle's Room. During the whole process, which was rough enough, he gave no sign of consciousness, and he remained as we had thrown him, without changing the position of a finger. Your mother opened his shirt and began to wet his |