A MADMAN'S DEED.
When he came back to life presently, with a strangling gasp of pain, he
met the anxious gaze of Doctor Platt, who was kneeling beside him.
"Good! You are better! Let me help you to rise," said the old man,
aiding him to a sofa. Taking a chair by him, he continued: "You have
been unconscious for ten minutes, and we have read your letter from Miss
Chase, which I believe to be a cussed forgery!"
"You are right," declared Love, sitting upright, deathly pale and
trembling; while he added, sternly: "Dainty never went away of her own
free will. It is a case of kidnaping!"
"Yes; for there lies her poor mother in a drugged sleep that will most
likely last several hours longer. I have examined the dregs left in
their pitcher of ice-water last night, and found a potent drug in it. I
may also tell you that the overhead wire connecting this room with the
bell in yours has been cut, thus making the bell powerless to ring if
Miss Chase had wished to summon you to her assistance. There is evidence
that the malice of Miss Chase's enemies has triumphed at last,"
sorrowfully replied the old doctor, who had in his heart been a true and
stanch friend to the lovers.
A groan of anguish passed Love's pallid lips.
"Oh, my dearest, what have they done to you, my treasure, the ruthless
enemies who hated you!"
At that moment a stately figure in rustling silk crossed the threshold,
and a haughty voice exclaimed:
"Doctor Platt and Mr. Chilton, will you kindly withdraw for a few
moments? I wish to speak privately with my step-son."
She closed the door on their retreating forms, glanced scornfully at the
silent, sleeping face of Mrs. Chase, and exclaimed, eagerly:
"What strange story is this that is being whispered around, Love, that
Dainty has deserted you and eloped with a more favored lover?"
"There is the note I found on her pillow. You are welcome to read it,"
he replied, coldly.
She took it up from the table, glanced quickly over the contents, and
groaned:
"What a wicked girl to throw you over at the eleventh hour like this!
How will you bear the shame of it, my poor boy, jilted like this, at the
very altar, by the poor nobody whom you had stooped to raise to your
side?"
Love answered not one word. He simply rested his head on his elbow, and
stared curiously into Mrs. Ellsworth's eager, excited face with his
dark, penetrating eyes as she continued:
"I am pained for you, my dear Love, but not at all surprised. I feared
something like this, for I knew that Vernon Ashley was Dainty's lover,
not Ela's, and I believed that love would triumph in the end over the
greed for gold. Poor Dainty! she must have loved him well to sacrifice
all her ambitions for a poor man's love. But she will be happier with
him than she could have been with you. The hand without the heart does
not promise well for wedded bliss."
Still without a word, he listened to the fluent tide of her speech, a
strange, mocking light in his eyes, whose portent she could not fathom.
She continued, insinuatingly:
"But Dainty Chase has done you a cruel injustice, Love, for, besides
depriving you of a bride to-day, she has cheated you out of your
inheritance. Remember, unless you are married to-day, your fortune
reverts to me!"
He bowed in silence, and Mrs. Ellsworth added, nervously:
"No wonder you are stricken dumb by the magnitude of your misfortune,
losing everything that made life worth living, as it were. But cheer up,
my dear boy, for I am not so selfish as to wish to deprive you of your
fortune; and as soon as I heard that Dainty had eloped with another, I
began to plan to help you, and I soon saw that there was a way out of
your difficulty."
"Yes?" Love said, inquiringly, and his pale lips curled with a sneer
whose subtle meaning she could not understand; but taking it for
encouragement, she blurted out, boldly:
"The preacher is here, the people are here, and the wedding-breakfast
waits. You can vanquish fate if you will. Though Dainty is gone, I have
two other nieces."
Again that cold, scornful smile as she added, desperately:
"I see that Dainty advises you here to marry either Olive or Ela. Well,
you can have either one for the asking."
His pale, writhing lips unclosed to ask, curtly:
"Are you speaking with their permission?"
"Yes," she replied, eagerly and hopefully, feeling sure that he must
capitulate now and yield to her wishes. It was better to marry the
wrong girl than lose such a princely fortune. It was impossible that he
should hesitate over such a question.
She waited, almost confident of his answer, only wondering which he
would choose--Olive, who was her secret preference, or the equally
pretty Ela.
But he was slow in making his choice. Suddenly sitting upright, he gazed
curiously at her excited face several minutes without replying, until
the silence grew irksome, and she cried, with veiled impatience:
"I do not wish to hurry you, Love, but you must see for yourself how
important it is that you should make a speedy decision. The bishop and
the guests are waiting for the wedding, and unless it comes off soon the
breakfast will be spoiled."
Slowly Love got upon his feet, and steadying his trembling frame by a
hand on the back of a chair, startled her with the mocking words:
"You have plotted cleverly, madame, but you have lost the game. Neither
Olive nor Ela will ever be bride of mine!"
Her eyes flashed in her pale face, and she said, insolently:
"Very well, then; I am the mistress of Ellsworth, and you a pauper!"
"Not so fast; you have not heard all," he answered coolly. "I understand
the little game you have been playing, madame, you and your two clever
nieces. You have plotted to frighten Dainty to death, but foiled in
that, you kidnaped her at the eleventh hour, hoping to frighten me into
marrying one of your nieces by the threat of disinheritance; but your
malicious scheme has failed. There exists an insuperable objection to
my marriage with Olive or Ela."
"Insuperable?" she muttered, incredulously.
"Yes; I am a married man already."
A bolt of lightning would not have startled her as much as those calmly
spoken words.
It was her turn now to stare speechlessly, while Love continued,
earnestly:
"You are detected in your hellish plotting, madame. The proof of it is
in that letter there. A base forgery, since Dainty Chase could not
possibly have written it--Dainty Ellsworth, I should say rather, for she
has been my wife two weeks."
"Your wife?" she faltered, wildly.
"Yes; there was a secret marriage two weeks ago, designed to prevent
just what has happened now--some treachery on the part of the three
women who hated Dainty and were trying to work her ill. Yes, I
understand your game; as I said just now, Dainty was kidnaped, and you
know where she is, but your malice can not undo the fact that she is my
wife, and my inheritance safe. I go now to break the truth to the
wedding guests, and their indignation will compel you to restore me my
bride!"
He rushed from the room, heedless of her shrieks for him to stay, and
sought the thronged parlor, where the disappointed guests waited for an
explanation.
Within the door he paused, raised his hand, and began:
"My dear friends, I--"
The sentence stopped abruptly, for through the window near by hurtled a
bullet, sent by a madman's brutal hand. It crashed through his head, and
he fell senseless and bleeding to the floor.