(Coutiuued.) CHAPÏER IX. THE PRESCRIPTI...

(Coutiuued.) CHAPÏER IX. THE PRESCRIPTIOX. I bracee! myself for the shock of this 'avowal. I expected Miss Lawrence to scream and fall in a dead faint. I preparcd to reccive lier in my anus and to face the mother with. my astounding explanation. Por two ot thrce seconds the stillness of the room was as tliat of death. Then there was ;t faint rustling of skirts, and I gazcd upon the yonng woman beside me. Her face was slightly paler, and there was an expression in the eyes that was trafatbomable. Without a word by either of us, she gently rose to her feet, and, leaning over, placed both arms round my neck, with a tenderness of compassion like that of a mother for a dyirjg son. "Dear Harold, " she murnmred, "you Deed rest. Go home and think no more of this." Her words and manner were a revelation. They told the whole story. She had heard my declaration, but not for au instant did it cause a doubt in her mind. Had I not falsified with my statement of the effect produced on my brain by the shock of the fall she might have been disturbed, but she laid it all to that. I was not clear in my head. That had been proved by several trifliug incidente in our conversation, the cap sheaf coming when I turned upon her and sqnarely denied my own identity. "I will do so. You areright, "I said, grasping like a drownihg man at the straw which enabled me to termínate the distressing interview. "You will understand, Jeanette, if you do not hear f rom or see me for some time. " "Yes," she replied in the same gentle voice, holding up her cheek for the goodby kiss. ' ' Will you not consult some specialist?" ' ' lf necessary . ' ' And a minute later - I hardly know how it was - I was outside the house and walking homeward. "If this gees on, I shall begin to doubt my own personality. She -will not.be convinced until Harold and I walk into her presence, side by side. " It was all liko a horrible opium drearn - a mixture of delirious happiness and hideous uureality, more vivid than reality itself. But as I walked briskly in the cool night air ruy thoughtsclarified. I regretted the revelation I had attenipted to niake, and yet had I failed to niake it my self scorn would have been intolerable. It was the reinernbrance of my rally frora the seductive revel and my resolute meeting of duty whioh aved my honor, in my own estimation. "There is but one course before me, and that is a plain one. I cannot traighten out this frightful tangle of myself. She will not believe me, though I make oath 1,000 times. Only the presence of Harold can convince her of her error. I will cable to him to return by next steamer, giving him knowledge of the truth. Meanwhile at allcosts I will -keep away front his betrothed. I will send Jier word that I am about to leave tow-D for a few weeks and will not come badk until Harold arrivés on the ground and makes it all clpar. ' ' This course was so obviously a common sense one that I wondered it had not presented itself before. It was coraparatively early in the reniiig whe-a I entered the elevator at :iy .apartments. "Have I had any calis?" I asked. "Olie - a gentleman. " "How long since?" ' 'Siioi-tly af ter you went out. ' ' "Did you teil him I was not in?" "No, sir, for I didn't know it. Jim had jnst gone off, and I took his place. The man got out of the elevator, walked to your door and touched tbc bell. I went on up to the top story, and when I came down he was waiting for _ne. " "Did hehave anything to say?" "He said as how you wasn't in. Then I háppened to remember that I had a letter for you and was going to step out to diop it in your box, when he eaid he would do it for me. I handed ifc to him, and he walked across the hall and dronped it though the door. " "Describe the man." "Kather small, stepped quick, had gray suit of clothes and a derby hut. " It was enough. Covey Cone had been watehing on the opposite side of the street uutil he saw me leave the building. Then, when the coast was clear, he went up to my room. What was bis object? Although he had my fee in his pocket at the time and was in my employ, the scamp was shadowing me. He was working for somo one else and against myself. Who was his employer? Itwasimpossible to conjectnreat this stage, but it looked as if some one held a suspicion of the truth, and he was plotting in such person's behalf. His visit to my rooms when sure I was absent was with the purpose of getting possession of a letter, and his little schenie had been snccessful. What letter was it? Whilo these thoughts were flitting through my brain I had entered the outer room of my apartmeuts. There lay a letter, whera it had fallen to the floor after being dropped throngh the slit in my door, for Harold had arranged that his mail should be delivered in that fashipn. I Kipping open the enveiope, saw I that the íew liiies wcre a petition for nioney. Some youth h;id just conceived au iuvention se wonderful that all he necded was the fnnds with which to se1 cure a patent, when hu ■would make i every oue concerned so wealthy that, as ! he expressed it, none of the Vanderbilts, Astnrs or Qonlds wmild bc "in it. " Hardly pausing to read the signatnre I tore the missive into fragnients and flnng it into the gaping wastebasket. Perhapa ïuy recent fxperience had shavpened my -wits, bnt as I sat quietly smoking my cigar the whole plot, as I believed it to be, unrolled bef ore me. The letter received a couplo of days before froni Chicago and signed "Budd, " was writteu by a scoundrcl, with whom Harold was guiltily connected. A suspicion of that fact was in the mind of Detective Cone when he called at my rooms. He suspected the enveiope in the wastebasket and the glimpse vvhich he caught of it fixed the hand■writing in bis mind. Without, knowing that I had telegraphed to "Budd," he believed that annther letter would soon be due from the samo quarter, and he adopted a bold plan for securinj; it. It ia the very audacity of such schemes that brings success. I had withdrawn at j the critica! moment, and he secured the letter jast as the elevatorboy described. When he stepped to my door, with his back toward the waiting lad, he slipped my letter into his pocket, while the oue brought with him for just such an emergenoy was dropped through the door into the room. The begging missive from the inventivo young man was a blind. It had been prepared by Detective Cone and took the place of the important letter. I had telegraphed to "Budd" to write rne the particulars, and the time had elapsed fcr him to do so. Doubtless the whole plot was revealed in that letter which infernal fate had sent aatray. Had it reached me as intended I would havo been forearmed against a most serious danger. "Well, if the storm "breaks on my head, I must take ït. The ouly way of escape that I can tbink of is to tako GoLvey Oone into my confidcnce and teil him everything. "Snppose I did so? He wouldn't believc me, aud, since no one can be conviuced that I am not Harokl Westcott, ; the wiiole thing will be looked npon as a miserable dodge by a crimiuai to save i himself. "I aru dead set against revealing this nnprecedented state of affairs to any one, and I ain mighty sure not to do so nntil certain it will effect some good. " Besolutely forcing the matter from my thoughts for the time, I addressed myself to the other equally important phase of this extraordinary business. The course of cabling to Harold, as it presented itself to me on my way home from the Lawrences, with a statement that Miss Lawrence had arrived, that I had seen her and that it was imperatively necessary he should return at once, seemcd to be so simple and straigbtforward that, as I have said, the wonder was it did not present itself to me at first. Bnt now, in the light of later events, more than one obstacle obtruded. As matfers looked Harold was bopelessly j'nvolved in the criminal seheme of "Budd" of Chicago, and, inuch as he miglit wish to return, hewould not dare do so. Nevertheless I would not have hesitated to cable him had it been in ray power. Again, what seemed a very ordinary matter proved to be hopelessly difncult. Secmiugly all that was necessary was to telegraph to Liverpool, so that the message would meet him before he touohed land. Had tbis decisión been made a few days before that would have been the true course. Over a week, howevor, had passed since Harold sailed in the Lncania, and by looking at the papers Ifoiindsho had reaohed Liverpool more that two days before. A telegram, therefore, to tñat city conld no+ b ' -"rd. for !,t rns not to be supposed that Harold had left any dSsctions except for bis mail, aud even that was doubtful. "No, "I said grimly, "I rnnst wait till I receive a letter from. him, and toere's uo suying when that will be. He tnay have dropped me a line from Liverpool, or it is more likely he has thonght that nnnecessary and will put it off for seyeral weeks. "But he must learn before long, if he has not already done so, that Jeanette and her mother are on this side of the -oa What then. wil! h.e do? IJg cn't ! content InroscTr íor a year m iruropc m he undcrtakcs toVlo so, he will sond for her to join him. "Heavens, what will she think when his lptter arrivés? Of course he will soon write to her. She will believe that it is her brain that is topsy turvy. When sbe does awake to the fact that I am not what I seemed to her, sho will bc ready to die oí mortificatiou, bnt," I exclaimed, rousing np, "amay with all this speeulation! Tbc honso is afire, and I must get out. ' ' Tbo electric bcl tinkled, and a oard was handetl to me. .1:. is "J. Q. Shippen, M. D. " "Show him np. 'What the dickens does he want?" I askod myself. He was a pleasing, middle aged gentlpinan, smooth shaven, with a genial face, and from behmd his gold spectacles a pair of pleasant bine eyos beamed upon me. "How do yon do, Harold?" I look the warm hand in myown and returned the honest pressnre. I had never seca the physician before, though it was apparent that hc was au old acquaintance of Harold. "Miss Lawrence and her mother asked me to drop in on yon. I callcd there this evening just after you left. They said your head troubled you siuce tfaat fearful fall in the park the otbei day. If I uuderstand it, your memory is at fault?" Bless the heart of the good Jeaiicttc! This was her doing. "I have read of queer freaks of the memory due to sorne violent jar." "Several remarkable instances are recorded. I kuew of a case in Cincinnati where a man stepped tbrougb a hatchway. He seemed to have f nlly recovered, i when it was found that he had lost his I memory for names. He could not remember those of his wife or children, nor, indeed, his own. " "Did he regain his memory?" "That is one of the most extraordinary features of the case. There was no change in his affliction for nearly a year. Then one day the precise accident was repeated. He feil through the same hatchway, he was struck senselcss, and, when he recovered, his memory was normal and never ufterward caused him trouble. ' ' "Similia sirnilibus curautur. I will take ancthcr ride on a vicions horse. Better to use that Jack, who, I am sorry to gay, did not break his neck; be thrown, and, presto, I shall be all right l again. " "Hardly that," muilen the doctor. "Aly prsoription is rest and ohange of thought. Take a run fer a week or two out of towu, and, my word for it, you wil] find your bruin in as good working order as ever. : ' "Yonr adv ice is good, and shall be followp " lOontinued next week).