PRISONER IN MAJORCA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 79, 13 January 1940, Page 7

PRISONER IN MAJORCA

W " ' CHAPTEIRi XVIII. “I RESIGN.” “I couldn’t have carried out the j< h you gave me much worse than I lid, Roger went on. “1 admit that, and I have no excuse.” “None?” Smallbridge’s tone was a sarcastic jibe. “None.” _ * “I gather,” the jibing voice went on, “that you were trying to play the hero in front of my daughter?” Roger winced. “Not in so many words.” “Your daughter, sir, has as much reason to dislike me as .you have to despise me!” “Is that so?” Roger rose abruptly, his face rathe? white. “Ive brought the yacht back, sir. I have already made arrangements to have her cleqfhed up and repainted. There are some repairs to the starboard engine which Cullen is doing at my expense. The ten thousand francs you gave me is here.” He laid the roll of notes on the table. “I resign my job from to-day. I think that’s all there is to be said.” “You take the .matter out of my hands, don’t you?” said Smallbridge, gruffly. ' “I don’t see any other way. You see,. I can’t even apologise sincerely. If the same circumstances were to arise again, I would behaye in the same •way.” Surprise upset Smallbridge’s terse composure for an instant. “You would?”

“After we discovered that the business was a hoax I felt very much in the wrong in having yielded to persuasion to go to Majorca. I’m afraid I let your daughter know it, too! After being a prisoner in Manreal I was converted to her view of the matter—one would have to help any other Englishman in the same jam. I’d be jolly certain that it wasn’t a hoax, hut 1 would do the same again in any genuine pnc'p | ,J “You would?” “I would have to, sir.” “Good gad, you talk like Kitty herself!” “It wouldn’t convince her, I’m afraid, sir. She thinks me every kind of a worm!”

Smallbridge pocketed the notes and made no comment whatever. He thought for a moment. His next remark was irrelevant.

“Were you able to recover the jade paperweight that was stolen from the yacht?” . “There wasn’t a chance of it, sir. “Well, you’d better go over, the yacht and find out if anything else is missing. Better go along l how and go into it. As you .don’t know what was on the yacht before you to Majorca, and what wasn’t, Kitty had better go with you.” “Kitty is here, sir?” Roger tried to keep the eagerness out of his voice. “She came last night.” Smallbridge jangled his bell. Gullick appeared immediately. “Ask Miss Kitty to come here.”

“Yes, sir.” A dead silence fell. Roger walked up and down. He ran his tongue along his lower lip, dry with fatigue and worry. The interview was no worse than he feared. And Kitty was here still. This opportunity was more than he had hoped for. “I WANT TO MARRY YOU.” Kitty came, a little pale perhaps, but as fresh as a daisy in white linen slacks and coat, with an azure blouse. She nodded Roger a greeting. A flush of embarrassment came into her cheeks, and he felt painfully constrained himself. “Kent is going down to the yacht to see if there Js anything missing besides that .jade of mine,” Smallbridge said, brskly. “Will you go with him, please, and give him your assistance?” She looked a trifle surprised. She gazed at her father searchingly, then said faintly: “Very well!” Smallbridge took up the paper at his side.

Roger followed Kitty out. They didn’t speak until they came to the garage. “I’ll take you down in the car,” she said. When she had hacked the car out on to the road she said in an unhappy voice:

“If there'is anything else missing I’ll replace it.” Roger made a negative gesture. “Did he—did ho tire you?” She glanced at him with her fine dark eyes full of apprehension. .“Not exactly,” said Roger, smiling. “I resigned.” “And he accepted that?” Looking hack, Roger couldn’t recall that Smallbridge had actualy made any comment. “I take it that he did.” During the rest of the five minute drive to the harbour they said nothing. In funereal silence they went aboard the yacht. Cullen and Charlie were busy in the engine room. “Five days ago I came aboard/’ thought Roger. “Heavens, what a lot had happened since then!” He thought of the greeting the girl had given him, and the blood quickened in his veins. And now, dash it, he was aboard for the last time. He would go away, probably never see her again. But for Kitty that whole five days might have been a dream. It was all real enough as he followed her, her face averted going about her humiliating task. She opened lockers and drawers silently. “There’s nothing gone in here!” she burst out at last in the saloon. “Why did he want us to loolc? Does he want you to pay for anything they may have taken?” “That would bo reasonable enough,” said Roger, unsteadily. ' “It’s not reasonable! It’s my fault—my fault! I’ve told him again and again!” She swung round. Tears were near the surface. Roger caught at her blindly . . . found his arms about her, her convulsed face pressed against his coat. “You ought to loathe me!” he stammered. “I was so darned ungenerous. ,r “I’ve lost you your job,” sobbed Kitty.

By BENTLEY RIDGE. ::

Taie of Adventure and Romance.

(Copyright)

It was half a. minute before they came to a clear realisation of what had happened. Consciousness that he held her loveliness in his arms went through Roger like, flame; and then she drew hastily away from him. He held her hand. They faced one another, confused by .their mutual outburst of emotion. “I want to marry you!” Roger said. ■ “Yes?” Kitty smiled -breathlessly. “But J.’m nothing,” he told her steadily. “I’ve nothing to offer you now.” “That’s my fault.” “Your fault be darned! But I can’t ask you. I’ll have to -get on my feet first.” She drooped; hope sang in him wildly as he crushed her hand. “You have so much!” he said. She lifted her eyes with a bravo smile. “I’m not going to try to lead you into anything against your judgment this time!” He searched, her face with anxious eyes. “But you do—you would i ’ “I would—when you felt that you could!” Her docility, the completeness of her surrender to his will went to his heart. Half-an-hour later they were back at the villa. They went slowly up through the garden to the terrace together. Kitty stopped by her father’s chair to say: “We looked through the cabins. The silver tankard's had been taken from the galley. We’ll replace them, daddy ! She cast a smile of sympathy and encouragement at Roger, and went on into the house. Smallbridge lollowed her with his eyes, then looked penetratingly at Roger over the top of his Anglo-French newspaper. His first inquiry was unexpected. “Did you two make things tip?” “Why, yes—as a matter of fact we did,” replied Roger. “Humph!” Smallbridge glared at him expectantly. Roger grasped the fact that Smallbridge was not nearly so much in the dark about the situation as lie had fancied. He coloured and faced his chosen father-in-law determinedly. “I would like to.marry Kitty-, sir!” “You’ve asked her?” “I don’t expect it to meet with your approval, but I told her that I wanted t oaslc her some time when I’m in a better position. She said she would wait.” Smallbridge folded his paper decisively, frowning. “You’ve resigned your job as my secretary ” he began. “And I’m out of a job, and I need expect no reference * from you, sir!” Roger cut in. “I know it. My prospects aren’t of the best ” Smallbridge shook his head. “Not at all,” lie said. “You’re wrong there. I was thinking that I would offer you the London managership!” “You—what, sir?” “You’re the only man, Kent, who lias ever reduced Kitty tq a reasonable frame of mind,” Smallbridge explained. “If you can manage Kitty, you can manage the London branch. When Kitty came hack last night I knew you had her beaten.” “But, sir—!” Roger found himself smiling broadly in his relief. “I don’t know what to say! You’re too generous. I feel that I let you down badly over this last affair. . . .” “You may not have done what I told you to do,” said Smallbridge. “But you seem to have put every ounce of guts in you into retrieving the situation. Besides, you can-manage Kitty, and that’s enough for me!” He jangled his bell. ' * * * • “Ask Miss Kitty to come here,” he said, when Gullick came. Roger walked up and down in a state of elated thankfulness. Kitty came in a matter of seconds. She walked straight up to her lather’s chair. A change had taken place in her manner. Her face was a beautiful mask of merciless determination. “Did he tell you?” she demanded. Smallbridge lost his geniality and instinctively took up the defensive. “Tell me what?” he countered. “That he wants to marry me, and I want to marry him!” She lifted her head proudly, and threw a flashing glance from one to the other. “He wants us to wait, but I won’t wait! I’ve been thinking about it. ' It’s all nonsense about waiting. Roger wont through torments to get the yacht back for you! You’re going to give him a better one!” “But, Kitty!” began Roger. ■ “No, don’t try to stop me!” she said. “I’m quite right in this! I insist on it.” Smallbridge lay back in his chair. One hand he placed over his eyes, the other he waved feebly at Roger. “You win ” he ’said. “You manage the London branch. But I lose! There’s not a soul on earth can manage Kitty!” (The End.)