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By W. T. BROCKLEHURST, Author of The Tattooed Cross," &c. CHAPTER XIX —A LOVELY PHOENIX. "My name, or, rather, that by which I have chosen to be known to you, I assumed when I was the companion of Ovinius. It is plainly Latin," the white bearded Conau eaid, thus continuing his narrative. "I had opportunities cf seeing you, my brother, and also your daughter, prior to your embarkation. My affections were much stirred by the sight of the Princess Gladys, for she was the very re-incarnation of her mother. I felt that nothing I did must cause the young lady pain, if it could be helped, for her mother's sake. You will understand that not even the change in the affections of her whom I loved so fondly could make me think ill of her. My enmity was always rather against you, Hobart, and against the other, but of this anon. fur- thermore, I soon perceived that there was a very strong affinity between the girl and !■ your rather handsome—eh ?—young bantam —ah, ah !—well, of this I will for the moment say no more." "That would be wise on your part," ejacu- lated our hero. "You say you desired not to harm the lost one, but your actions belie I the tale." "Well, anyhow, the best I could do was done. How would you have liked her corpse left in the hands of that Saxonf" "I confess the casting of the body into the fire pleased me, but that is no atone- ment for other wrongs." "You shall hear. Let me proceed. Let me say, I knew the wandering horde who fell upon us in Strath Clyde, and who marched away with the two maidens; when I left home I • followed them, being, pre- sumably, more successful than you, and learnt the name of the vicious leader. I also discovered that the elder maiden was r confined in the Castle of Shrewsbury, and that she had become insane. It was impos- sible for meP rescue her, and I passed on- wards. I assume that the loss of intel- ligence she sustained and the imprisonment helped to throw you of Strath Clyde off the scent. "But now let me say that her abductor, and the thief who also stole the mother of Gladys, was Eadred the Long Ha.Ir This declaration had been dimly antici- pated by both Hobart and Alan. They had gradually seen in this relationship an answer to the enigma of Photius's or Conan's con- duct. They looked at the speaker with sympathetic faces, even Alan acknowledging the anger-healing virtues of human sorrow. "It was this man whom I mostly hoped to punish. Yet he was powerful, and what could I, an old man, do? Moreover, it seemed too paltry a punishment to de- stroy him without some moral caistigation, without an attempt to sear the soul of the brutish man, even though the attempt might not succeed, because his wicked animal nature could not be made to transmit the chastisement to his corrupted heart. I knew him to be the man I have described to you so often. He was no mere warrior, able to be merciful in victory and brave and patient in defeat. When the latter came he showed a craven fear for his own life, and in success no excess was too oruel and no riot too extreme. I think he had passed through the woodland near our Strath Clyde home, after reconnoitring in the neigh- bourhood of our father's fort, finding it too strong to tackle with the force he had with him. It was then that he observed our sweethearts, who hadi ventured into the leafy retreat, perhaps too far, and captured them. After tnis followed your noble rescue of my Gladys—your wife was of the same name as her daughter and my lifelong trouble." "Brother, I sorrow for thee said Ho- bart, with fraternal affection. "Let me tell you, your departure gave much distress to us both, for we had never suspected our marriage would have caused you so much pain. We were years before we had a child, and then only my darling "You, too, have had vour share of trouble," continued Conan. "To resume, I had only stratagem to aid me in effecting my purpose, and I resolved that the executioner of my enemy should be this brave young man. In fact, I took a liking for him from the first, and it was merely my playfulness no doubt which induced him to take so deep an aver- sion to me "I must say nothing further concerning you," quoth Alan, in perplexity, "I know not what to think I" "This resolution was made after our land- ing. Up to then I still hoarded my in- tention to bring evil upon my brother, and it was with the object of giving you pain that I sent a. black sailor to board your vessel and bring "awa.y the princess "Gracious me," cried Vivien, quite shocked, "It was not a fiend, but a man; how hor- .rible!" "Dear, dear," Conan laughed, "was it even more terrible that she should be seized by a natural man than by a monster of the deep "Then my fancy was correct," declared Alan. "And my apology to you was un- necessary "You are right, though I did not deny your conclusion when you came to me with your honourable burnt offering. I knew it was not a pleasant task, and I respected you all the more for being willing to acknow- ledge your self-conceived error. Now let me explain why Gladys was restored as I arranged: "She was brought on board my vessel and taken ashore quietly with the tent. As soon as we could we carried her out of the camp, being almost surprised by that hunts- man, Caradoc, who was foraging for a meal before he had shaken the ship's roll out of his limbs, and brought her up the valley. Meanwhile, remorse so seized me that I re- solved she should be restored to you at once. I saw that the boy was fretting so much, and you, my brother, were so distressed as to weaken your power of command. But it would have ruined my prospects of ven- geance if I had let it appear that I had had a hand in the abduction. Then it occurred to me to make Eadred into a sort of super- natural personage, and leave him respon- sible for the matter by implication. For- tune favoured us. Eadred's despicable sel- fishness disclosed to my men the secret pas- .L sage to the castle. When the fellow had run away with my horse my Nubians carried the Princess by the underground route to the castle and placed her in the ctiil where he was found. The fire was rather a source of anxiety to me, but I saw that Alan was on the proper track, and left him alone. Had he not acted as he did it would have been my endeavour to induce him. to visit the cell by some other device r, "There are many," said Prinze Hobart, with a sigh, "who will regard the disappear- ance and appearance of my daughter as supernatural! But your story, my brother, raises unhappy remembrances. Oil, that the poor girl could be with us now "I grieve with you, Hobart," rejoined Conan. "I cannot yet. understand." Alan said, moodily, and with an inquiring glance at the traveller, "how you reconcile your appear- ance at the board of the slain Eadred." "That is the matter I must now make clear," resumed Conan. "Nothing could be more absurdly simple, when the thing is explained. I must premise by saying that I was not aware of the approachmg army until it was too late for me to give warning of their intended surprise. The facts were that I stayed as your guest for the night, and, as the rain was so very heavy and the night was so very stormy, my household, being com- posed exclusively of people who have been used to better weather, neglected to keep watch. I returned to the house in the morning by a route which the invaders hap- pened to have avoided, and so observed no signs of their presence in the forest. They were in the forest, as' a matter of fact, be- fore daybreak. But soon after my arrival home some of my men came to me with the news that they had seen signs indicating the passage of a very numerous army. I at once turned out to look for them, and saw they were just closing round Prince Hobart's palace. Looking in the other direction I also observed that another regi- ment were in possssion of Brynrhydd. My spies soon told me that it was none other than Eadred and a. vast horde. I could do nothing. My little handful of men would have been cut to pieces had I attempted to assist the people at the castle. So I kept quietly out of the way. "I ought to say my house was so situated on the mountain side that it escaped notice. You know I was aware of your hunting ex- pedition. I thought the proper thing to HIo was to warn you of your danger. I took with me a man who was very expert in fol- lowing a track made by either man or beast through the forest, and we soon found you out. It was an obvious part of my poncy to gallop up as I did, and I also knew that I ran considerable risk of an arrow shot by galloping away. My trusty shirt of mail, purchased at Alexandria, and made by the most skilful artificers in Milan, prevented the too early abandonment of my plots, and so I got away from you, leaving you in more mystery than ever "Venturing as near to the castle as I could, I soon found how matters had gone on. The Saxons were successful. I also saw that poor Gladys had been captured. "This was a blow to my proposals. In my present frame of mind it was a distress rather than a pleasure to know that the swaet young lady should be in such terrible hands. I felt that I must risk something to save her, and I boldly walked up to the Mercian duke and introduced myself as a foreigner visiting the country for the pur- pose of seeing a soothsayer and obtaining from him some spells and oracular utterances which I required for a magic process I had in view. The presence of my dusky sailors and attendants and my quiet self- possession, helped to impress the fellow, and he was glad to be friendly and hospi- table. "I performed one or two mystifying ope- rations, and took my dagger in my hand. Of course, I had told him I had no concern with the Britons he had defeated other than that I was staying with them as a guest. I said I could easily discover what disposi- tion a person had. I hung up my knife and told him he must approach it, and if he harboured inhospitable thoughts it would show the fact to me by flying at his heart. I really believe he thought of murdering me for the valuables I possessed, hence my little experiment, As he came within the zone of the dagger's mystic influence the point flew at his breast with a sudden click. This terrified the miserable wretch and made him too fearful of my supernatural power to think of any more traitorous schemes I" Alan rose to his feet with a glowing face, and cried, "I saw the thing done! I was hiding in a dingle quite close at hand, for I, too, knew of Gladys's imprisonment, and was trying to find some means of rescuing her." "I am not at all surprised, Alan," re- turned Conan, with a smile of gratification, in which there was very little of the old satirical look. "I knew that you would do something brave and sensible when you dis- covered what had occurred. To continue, I was invited to the banquet and sat by the elderman's side. In the meanwhile I had entertained him with stories and conversa- tion about foreign countries, and he had come to look upon me as quite an acquisi- tion to his household. He had told me of his high sense of the beauty of his unfor- tunate captive, and of his intention to make her his personal slave. This was all the more unpleasant to me. I felt that I must prevent any such disaster. Rather should the girl's life be taken than that she should thus be bound over to lifelong misery. "The banquet hour came, and with it a procession of dishes. Y. a may suppose that I was very agreeably surprised and pleased to detect, beneath the grimy ex- terior of one of the lowliest servitors, the features of our young friend, Alan. I watched him, and saw how bravely he re- strained himself, and yet how awful were his sufferings. My heart inwardly bled for the poor fellow. "The amorous intentions of Eadred grew fiercer as the night grew in length and his consumption of ale was increased. I saw that some desperate step. must be taken, and at once. In spite of the upbraidings of Gladys, which, fortunately, none but Alan could understand, I at last prevailed upon her to drink at the goblet, in which I had quietly placed a life destroying drug, obtained from Arabia, where the art of preparing poisons and narcotics is so well understood. This saving draught removed her from trouble very quickly, and my heart became more glad." "My friend, my benefactor," cried Alan, with passionate penitence in his tones, T have been deceived by circumstances, and I can now understand everything. I realise the truth of what you say, and I acknow- ledge my sinfulness in thus accusing you of vile crimes, when all along you were work mg for our benefit." He ran to the side of the traveller with a bowed head and humble respect for one who had so wonderfully vindicated himself, and displayed the possession of wisdom far beyond anything the young man had ever before experienced. "You are not in any way to apologise to me again, Alan," the old man said, "for have I not deliberately misled you? I might have prevented all these misunderstandings in a moment, but I chose to continue them, and so I must not blame you. I rather am to blame for giving you so much trouble." "At any rate, I can say how thankful I am to you for thus nobly protecting the Princess from a horrible slavery. Death and fire were far preferable to a life in the household of that miserable Saxon." "Your words are wise, even as your love for the .maiden was true and great." "My heart is full," Vivien cried, burst- ing into hysterical weeping. "Oh, Gladys, my playmate, my sister, oh that yon should be absent from us now! It is hopeless, or we might ask Heaven to grant her back to us." Hobart could say nothing. He was too full of grief to speak. Alan hung down his head to hide evidences of d' stress, which would have been regarded as unmanly, and none had a calm look except the patriarchal I Conan. "Great is the day, and great is the hour," he cried, a bright light illuminating his wise face. "The prayer of the pure in heart is often answered. The prayer of all of us should be answered now. Alan, Hobart, I bid you prepare for a surprising disclosure. Be calm, and listen to me. Look upon the curtains which conceal that doorway; they shall be drawn aside in a moment, and reveal that which will make every heart glad 1" All gazed upon the learned and oracular man with amazement and conflicting expec- tations. None knew what revelation was about to be made. "The time has now come; my brother, for my punishment of you. I have not for- gotten my great sorrow, and I go back to my resolution to take vengeance Now is the moment when I cry quits with thee for the loss of my lover by presenting to thee a daughter." He clapped his hands with almost childish glee, and the curtains before them all were pulled apart. A flood of light was shed upon the portal, and, standing there in white raiment, as when she was placed upon the funeral pyre, and with a happy smile upon her face, was the Princess Gladys CHAPTER XX.—THE MYSTIC DAGGER. Pens cannot describe, nor pencils limn, the effect of this vision. "It is an angel we see," gasped Hobart. "It is Gladys; God bless her," exclaimed Vivien. "My Gladys," cried Alan, with a. yearning voice, "come to give me consolation. Oh, Gladys, what would you have me do?" The beautiful vision was perfectly motion- less, like another Galatea, but there was a delightful smile, a glad look in her eyes, which seemed the portent of happiness. "Lovely Princess," Conan said, in tones that were jubilant and triumphant, "behold your father, and your lover Come forth and greet them And then they all saw that it was no vision upon which they gazed, but that Gladys was present among them in reality. She bounded with a glad cry towards her father, and fell upon his neck, shedding tears of joy. "My darling, you are once more restored to me. Oh, felicity "And to you, Alan, my husband and my hero," trilled the Princess, in an ecstasy of delight. "Sir Conan," Alan exclaimed, with a per- fect furiousness of fervour, "our good genius and saviour, the wise man from the East, I salute thee, and offer to thee my unending allegiance. I have been blind indeed Then the lovers fell into each other's arms, and the whole world seemed to be conceded to them. The greeting between Gladys and Vivien, too, was a sight to see. We pass over the congratulations and the endearing words and the proud and loving looks. When these had been uttered and given, Conan said: "Now, my friends, you will be anxious, PHOTIUS TELLS HIS TALE OF ADVENTURES, I am sure, to know what agency I brought to play in order to save the Princess." "Was alitei really jlaid upon the fire?" asked Vivien. "She was indeed. And she was there when the fire was lighted, but I am thankful to say she did not remain till the cruel flames injured even a single hair of her pretty head!" "It is a miracle," exclaimed Hobart. "That is indeed so," was the general chorus. "Among my followers," explained Conan, "a.re some of the most surprising people of a strange country. They can perform won- derful feats. Their ancestors had been engaged for centuries in perfecting their peculiar art, and in handing its practices down to succeeding generations. "They can lay a bare cloth upon the ground and produce from seeds thereunder full grown shrubs in the course of a few minutes. It is possible for them to remove from a grave a corpse buried there, although a guard should be constantly kept imme- diately over the tomb. These men are In- dian conjurers, whose office is partly one for producing amusement aD-d pirt-ly religious. "Now, when I conceived the idea of rescu- ing Gladys by poison I thought over the meains whereby we might get her out of the clutches of Eadred without the least sus- picion, and it occurred to me that the method I adopted was the most likely to succeed. So I placed in the cup of wine from which the Princess drank a certain drug that was undoubtedly poison, though the dose of it which I gave would not destroy life. "Instead of staying the beat of the heart for ever it only quietened it for a time and suspended the action of the senses. A stupor that was apparently death followed, from which the maiden did not recover for about fifteen hours. "The moment I had obtained the elder- man's permission I sent messengers to my men, who, in the cover of night, went to work, and laid the train for the happy event we have completed to-day. On the top of a low eminence, mainly composed of a clay alluvium, they designed the funeral pyre. A hundred yards away there was a little thicket of trees. "In here my men began their operations. With small spades and a number of little baskets used by workmen in the Indies, and so insignificant in appearance that one would have thought they could be of no more use than a, dagger blade for the purpose, they took up the soil and carried it quietly away forming an excavation only just large enough for a man to creep through it. This was driven in the course of the night and the early morning directly beneath the pile of logs. These logs were built up by another gang of my people in such a manner that there was, in the centre of the cube, an oblong chamber, with a light covering of tim- ber on the top. That could be easily removed from the inside. As the covering was kept to its place, no one suspected the device, xvound the outsides of the pyre were placed inflam- mable substances which would, for the first few moments, give off a large amount of smoke. Here we had the entire machinery for the miracle, as our brother ha,s so empha- tically described what took place. "The exit of the underground ra.t hole- for it was little better-was also closed over, and I kept a guard near it in order to see that no one accidentally discovered it. Yon will understand that the earth excavated was all carried in the tiny baskets quite out of the way. t "The unconscious form of Gladys was placed on the altar, and the fire was started. At that very time two of my assistants were in the centre of the pile, although they could not be seen, owing to the thickness of the walls of timber. The smoke ascended, and they let down the door of logs above them, and gently took the Princess in their arms. They laid her upon the cold ground, while they placed upon the top of the bier a com- mon lay figure, dressed in white raiment. Then they took the maylen into the tunnel, laid her upon a long piece of cloth, by means of which she was dragged away from the fire towards the thicket. In a short time an enormous column of flame rolled Heaven- wards from the altar, quickly consuming the figure and the upper logs, and complet- ing the illusion. The hot air from the fur- nace began to stream along the underground ceurse, but this was soon prevented, for the man who remained behind brought down the earth from above and closed up the passage, doing this as he went along for some dis- tane" merely as a precaution. When the fire went out the ashes lying there filled the little cavity we had made, and thus we e', completely deceived the entire Saxon horde. It was easy, indeed, to take out the Prin- cess when the audience had departed and to carry her to my house. She has remained there ever since, chafing at her captivity, but, I am sure, looking forward with plea- sure to the hour when she would be per- mitted, by her new gaoler, to appear before her father and sweetheart." "It is wonderful," exclaimed Alan. "I watched the scene from afar, and my eyes were completely deceived!" "You have shown yourself to be a true brother," affirmed Hobart "you have been of great service to me and my people, and you have saved the life and honour of our beloved Gladys. I hope you will live long to appre- ciate the reverence we shall always have for you." "That is a wish I heartily endorse, my liege," asserted Alan. "And I, sir, who have only learned to know now whom you really are, must say," Gladys cried with a grateful glance at her saviour, "That I have been treated by yourself and your attendants as a queen during the days which have passed since that ^terrible night when, seeing nothing but goodness and kindness in your eyes, I consented to drink that delicious draught of wine!" "Now, Sir Alan," suggested Conan with a smile of good humour, "shall we go into the forest and fight!" "Do not make my heart turn with remorse by any such proposal," pleaded our hero. "There is only one other thing I wish to say," Conan announced, "and then my chapter of revelations is complete. It is only an accident, but a blessed one, which has revealed this matter to me. I bid you greet kindly the unfortunate Rachel, and swear to keep her from further trouble and harm. She is a woman of Strath Clyde, and was at one time its fairest, flower. She is, brother, the lady whom you should have espoused, but who was carried away by Eadred, and, after a long existence in captivity, is now restored to her nation and friends. I have been speaking with her, and she mentioned to me certain vague recollections of her early life, lost to her memory formerly, but re-called owing to the shock caused by the return of Eadred and the seizure of the. Princess by our mutual enemy. She remembered that she, too, had been stolen from her home, though the place and the manner of her disaster had completely escaped her recollection." Hobart looked at Rachel with the utmost amazement, and then he greeted her with a chivalrous gladness. Both Zachary and Grif- fith, who were present in the hall, observed this change in the fortunes of their feminine friend and guide, and rejoiced at it exceed- ingly. We leave the happy scene with much re- gret and take the reader with us down the valley to the port at its seaward extremity. Upon this very spot, one of the most pros- perous of the Welsh watering-places, namely, Rhyl, now stands. Upon the sandy shore of the Irish Sea, six days after the home-coming of the Princess, stood, with bared heads, all our friends of 0 Yistrad Clwyd, including Caradoo, who had now returned from the triumphant campaign. A ship was impatiently tugging at an anchor upon the tossing waves, not far from land. The wise man of our story, whose adventures in strange climes had been so remarkable, was conversing with his brother Hobart. "The hour has come for my embarkation," he said, "and so I must bid you all an affec- tionate farewell." "Why not stay here with us? Why leave us thus, so soon after your disclosure? Stay with us and we will try to make you happy." "My work is done, and I must return to the place I came from," Conan averred. "I could not stay here. I am acclimatised to a warmer country, and I am, further, a wan.derer who cannot be contented in your Clwyd Valley. Moreover, I am under an obligation to those who form my company. But wherever I go, I will continue to think of you,, and wish that prosperity shall wait upon you in all your undertakings." "Oh, sir," cried Gladys, appealingly, "do remain with us. We all like you so much." "My child," the man rejoined, "a. fortnight ago I should have made a satirical reply to you, because then I was acting a part, but now I say I believe you really do desire my presence among you. Yet it cannot be." "Take me with you," exclaimed Caradoc, stepping forward impulsively, "I will serve you 'Well." "Nay, what about the pretty Vivien? Surely you can stay at home now, my friend, and try to make her happy. I suppose you have made sufficient havoc of the enemy to be at peace now for a generation." "The Mercians will not desire to tease us again for a while," replied the huntsman warrior. "Well, I must now depart, the anchor has been raised, and the vessel is drawing towards the shore to take me on board. Alan, my son, I have a. word to say to you. I give you my blessing and I assure you of my regard. Be to the Princess, whom you will soon marry, a good husband, and then I will know that the after-type of my own sweet- heart is in good hands. Behold this dagger. It is one of the two treasures I esteem more highly than anything else that I possess. I give it to thee, for thy use. Do not attempt to try its mystic powers except in times of real need. And here also is a parchment sealed.. This I bid thee to keep, and not to open till such times as peril oppresses, and you are in need of wealth. And now good- bye, may Heaven bless you an 1" The paxting caused a choking sense of sorrow to all who remained upon the shore. Conan, or Photius, as we have mainly known him to be called, and as he would in all pro- bability afterwards be again named, stepped on board his vessel, which quickly faded from view. CHAPTER XXI.—THE MANUSCRIPT. The expert philologist and antiquarian, Mr. R-, found attached to the parchment obtained from the stone with the dagger a short document written in Latin. It was still sealed, but he opened it and read the following brief announcement:- "Hang the mystio dagger at the north corner of my house. Step in the direction to which the dagger will point, for three hun- dred cubits, and there dig!" Can this be the parchment presented to the chieftain Alan by the departing Conan ? And if so, what can be the meaning attached to it ? Does it indicate a hidden treasure, and, if so, has that treasure ever been dis- covered P I Mr. R- concludes that the manuscript containing the foregoing narrative was written by Alan in his latter days, and placed for safety in the hollow stone, in winen • entombed, his precious dagger. t This stone, presumably, formed a]l wall of Conan's house, which woiua^ probability revert to Alan on the sage/ ture, and after the building fell into the stone may have lain for centuries spot, afterwards to be appropriated W' constructors of the cottage! The gei1 of shepherds who lived there L-tle 0 the strange secrets the wall of the co guarding! I That the dagger really possessed tne j netio influence, a simple experiment s* ji When the professor placed a needle n 0| it actually attracted the little filtl""Tt steel! It is one of the wonders oi n sb that the magnetic force should thus entia for a decade of centuries after such a. row excitation. It is asserted that Anient- discovered before Columbus found tha" ledge tinent, and we now see how a knoWeíet6 (3 of the compass was brought to Europe b the days of Marco Polo! THE END.