



Produced by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)











                      THE SOUL STEALER

                      BY C. RANGER-GULL

    Author of "The Serf," "The Harvest of Love," "The Price of Pity,"
    "A Story of the Stage," etc., etc.

    LONDON
    F. V. WHITE & Co., Limited
    14, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.
    1906

    RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED

    BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND
    BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.




CONTENTS


     CHAP.                                                        PAGE

        I. MR. EUSTACE CHARLIEWOOD, MAN ABOUT TOWN                   1

       II. UNEXPECTED ENTRANCE OF TWO LADIES                        19

      III. NEWS OF A REVOLUTION                                     31

       IV. THE SECOND LOVER ARRIVES                                 50

        V. A CONSPIRACY OF SCIENTISTS                               60

       VI. "WILL YOU WALK INTO MY PARLOUR?"                         70

      VII. ENGLAND'S GREAT SENSATION                                89

     VIII. THE CHIVALROUS BARONET                                  100

       IX. GRATITUDE OF MISS MARJORIE POOLE                        109

        X. A MAN ABOUT TOWN PAYS A DEBT                            120

       XI. BEEF TEA AND A PHOSPHATE SOLUTION                       130

      XII. THE TOMB-BOUND MAN                                      150

     XIII. LORD MALVIN                                             160

      XIV. DONALD MEGBIE SEES POSSIBILITIES                        171

       XV. HAIL TO THE LOVERS!                                     190

      XVI. STRANGE OCCURRENCE IN THE TEMPLE                        201

     XVII. MARJORIE AND DONALD MEGBIE                              211

    XVIII. PLANS                                                   222

      XIX. A DEATH-WARRANT IS PRESENTED TO A PRISONER              230

       XX. THOUGHTS OF ONE IN DURANCE                              248

      XXI. HOW THEY ALL WENT TO THE HOUSE IN REGENT'S PARK         258

     XXII. THE DOOM BEGINS                                         264

    XXIII. THE DOOM CONTINUES                                      280

     XXIV. MR. WILSON GUEST MAKES A MISTAKE                        286

      XXV. AT LAST!                                                292

     XXVI. TWO FINAL PICTURES                                      305




THE SOUL STEALER




CHAPTER I

MR. EUSTACE CHARLIEWOOD, MAN ABOUT TOWN


Upon a brilliant morning in the height of the winter, Mr. Eustace
Charliewood walked slowly up Bond Street.

The sun was shining brightly, and there was a keen, invigorating snap in
the air which sent the well-dressed people who were beginning to throng
the pavements, walking briskly and cheerily.

The great shops of one of the richest thoroughfares in the world were
brilliant with luxuries, the tall commissionaires who stood by the heavy
glass doors were continually opening them for the entrance of
fashionable women.

It was, in short, a typical winter's morning in Bond Street when
everything seemed gay, sumptuous and debonair.

Mr. Eustace Charliewood was greeted several times by various friends as
he walked slowly up the street. But his manner in reply was rather
languid, and his clean-shaven cheeks lacked the colour that the eager
air had given to most of the pedestrians.

He was a tall, well-built man, with light close-cropped hair and a large
intelligent face. His eyes were light blue in colour, not very direct in
expression, and were beginning to be surrounded by the fine wrinkles
that middle age and a life of pleasure imprint. The nose was aquiline,
the mouth clean cut and rather full.

In age one would have put Mr. Charliewood down as four and forty, in
status a man accustomed to move in good society, though probably more
frequently the society of the club than that of the drawing-room.

When he was nearly at the mouth of New Bond Street, Mr. Charliewood
stopped at a small and expensive-looking hairdresser's and perfumer's,
passed through its revolving glass doors and bowed to a stately young
lady with wonderfully-arranged coils of shining hair, who sat behind a
little glass counter covered with cut-glass bottles of scent and ivory
manicure sets.

"Good-morning, Miss Carling," he said easily and in a pleasant voice.
"Is Proctor disengaged?"

"Yes, Mr. Charliewood," the girl answered, "he's quite ready for you if
you'll go up-stairs."

"Quite well, my dear?" Mr. Charliewood said, with his hand upon the door
which led inwards to the toilette saloons.

"Perfectly, thank you, Mr. Charliewood. But you're looking a little
seedy this morning."

He made a gesture with his glove which he had just taken off.

"Ah well," he said, "very late last night, Miss Carling. It's the price
one has to pay, you know! But Proctor will soon put me right."

"Hope so, I'm sure," she answered, wagging a slim finger at him. "Oh,
you men about town!"

He smiled back at her, entered the saloon and mounted some thickly
carpeted stairs upon the left.

At the top of the stairs a glass door opened into a little ante-room,
furnished with a few arm-chairs and small tables on which _Punch_ and
other journals were lying. Beyond, another door stood half open, and at
the noise of Mr. Charliewood's entrance a short, clean-shaved,
Jewish-looking man came through it and began to help the visitor out of
his dark-blue overcoat lined and trimmed with astrachan fur.

Together the two men went into the inner room, where Mr. Charliewood
took off his coat and collar and sat down upon a padded chair in front
of a marble basin and a long mirror.

He saw himself in the glass, a handsome, tired face, the hair too light
to show the greyness at the temples, but hinting at that and growing a
little thin