SOUTH ATLANTIC LEGACY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 252, 1 August 1940, Page 7

SOUTH ATLANTIC LEGACY

2 By SYDNEY PARKMAN.

:: (Copyright). \

5 . 2 | Adventures in Tropical Seas. J

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS.

’smoothly, though his black eyes were hard ancl menacing. "We could bate it—and we did. And since we came out of the pen things haven’t been so gocd either. Frenchy, here, is holding down a job as greaser on a sugar boa^; Lefty is trying to make a living as a one-man transport corporation ; and 1 m slinging hash in a low-down eating joint. That’s the kind of luck we’ re had—till now.”

Returning to the Havana port in which he has his home, Captain Tom Salter interviews his bank manager concerning a sugar estate which he (Salter) has decided to buy in preparation for- h,is retirement from the sea. Thereafter he sails a few miles up the coast to the. coastal village in which he lives. He learns from his friend, Father Maloney ,that a stranger has been in the village inquiring about Salter. Arriving at his homestead,' the skipper is surprised to find that his housekeeper is absent and the place in darkness. Entering, he is confronted by.. a man. . .

The captain eyed him in silence, sensing the. meaning behind the last two words. He had intended to play for time in the hope that the two negroes from the sloop would turn up with his baggage and cause a diversion, hut unfortunately he had allowed his temper to get the better of him, and thus lost the opportunity for temporising. Outnumbered as he was, howover, he tvas still not without hope of being able to turn the tables on them if he was given half a chance. “Yes —till now,” Steiner repeated slowly. “But now, I guess, things are looking up a bit. <1 ust what can you afford to give a few old side-kickers who’ve met with misfortunes?”

CHAPTER. 11l

VISITOR WITH A PISTOL.

The man came slowly into the room as he spoke, and the captain saw that he was holding a heavy automatic pistol in his right hand, with its muzzle trained upon his chest. There was a suggestion of feline stealth in his movements as he advanced slowly toward the other side of the table. He was shabbily dressed in a dust-coloured linen suit, and wore a cheap “panama” hat. His age might have been anything between 35 and 40.

The captain nodded grimly. “A hold-up, eh?” he said. “Well, your bad luck is still holding. You’ll get nothing from me. You’re too late, Steiner. I’ve just sunk what I had in a sugar estate here—and if you can take that away with you, you’re welcome to it!” Steiner regarded him with raised eyebrows. “We’re not out for a million dollars, Cap. When folks are down to our level we’re glad of antyhing, and what looks like chicken-feed to you is real money to us. So let’s have a look at your wallet to start with.” “Come and get it!” the captain told him. “I’m not laying myself out to help you this trip—and if I can sav afterwards that you took it from me, it’ll add a few more years to the stretch you’re going to get for this.” “That’s O.K. with us,” Steiner agreed pleasantly. And then, to the scowling Frenchy: “Frisk him, big hoy —and do it properly!” The man rose, and coming round the table, approached the Captain from behind. With a, quick jerk he pulled his jacket down over his biceps, partly imprisoning his arms, and then proceeded to' go through his pockets methodically. His victim stood perfectly still under the menace of the gun muzzle pointed straight at his che3t, and in the course of something under a minute the search had been completed, and his possessions lay in a heap on the table before him. They did not amount to very much, consisting of his watch and wallet, a bunch, of keys,, a little loose change, a pocket-knife, and a flat leather cigar“Dat’s de lot,” Frenchy growled, giving the captain a series of pats over the body. “He don’t tote a rod.” “Why should he?” Steiner asked lazily, and he reached out with his left hand and flippepd open the wallet.

“You don’t seem to remember me, Cap?” he remarked pleasantly, as he came to a halt within a couple of feet of the other side of the table. “I must have changed a lot in the last few years.” At that, the captain found his voice. “I remember you all right, Steiner,” he said slowly. “So you’re the fellow who was llosing round the village after me, are you? Well, what do you want? And what have you done with my housekeeper?” (the man’s smile broadened, and he sank into a chair. “Wh, she’s been entertaining a couple of old friends of yours in the kitchen while we were waiting for you,” he explained easily. “Come right in, boys,” he called. The Cap’s wild to know you!” There followed a shuffling of feet from the adjoining room, and a moment later two more men came in through the doorway. One was the yellowfaced man who had recognised the captain in Antilla, and the second was a short, powerfully-built fellow, with a scowling, heavy face. The yellow r -faced man raised his hand in jaunty salute as he entered. “How’s it coming, Cap?” he asked cheerfully. The other man merely nodded and grinned. The captain looked at them both with the same impassive face, and then turned to their leader. “Well?” he said. “What’s it all about? What have you come here for and what’s the idea of making free with my house?” “Why, it’s a little surprise party,’ the other told him /calmly. “Lefty, here, saw you in Antilla a week ago, and he passed the news on. So we thought we’d come- out and say howdy. I must say though, you don’t look like you’re glad to see us. Yoai aren’t as hospitable as we’d hoped!” “Glad to see you I” the captain echoed with a short, barking laugh. “I never was partial to rattlesnakes. The short, swarthy man moved a pace forward with a growl, but Steiner checked him with a gesture. “Don’t get sore, Frenchy! he admonished him softly. “The Cap don’t mean anything by that, do you, Cap? • He’s not got his bearings properly yet, Let’s fix things comfortably and see if we can’t get together. Lefty, just step out on to the verandah and see that we don’t get interrupted. Take a seat, Cap. You, too, Frenchy.”

lii the back compartment were a number of bills in Cuban currency, and he jerked them out, and then explored the other pockets. These yielded nothing more than a few papers and a letter in a sealed envelope, and he examined them carelessly, commenting on them as he did so. “Nothing very thrilling here,” he remarked. “Here’s a lawyer’s receipt for five thousand pesos in payment for the estate known as Las Palmas. Well, you weren’t lying about that, anyway. Another lawyer’s receipt, for services performed? What’s this? A letter to Miss Diana Salter, of Westfield, Sussex, England. She’ll be a relative, eh? Well, we don’t aim to look into your private correspondence. And a bank receipt. Now this is more interesting.” He glanced at the slip of paper and then looked up at the captain. “So you paid in something over nine thousand pesos that day Lefty saw you in Antilla ? We ought to have met up with you a little sooner—before you paid so much of it out again! Still, there ought to be a useful balance.” “Dat ain’t no use if it’s still in de bank!” Frenchy putin impatiently. “How imich dough’s in dat wad, boss? Bat’s what I wanna know.” “All right! All right!” Steiner told him with lazy good humour. He picked up the notes and flicked them over casually. “Here’s a thousand, and here’s one, two, three, four hundreds. And a fifty. Not a lot, but enough to make the trip worth while for us.” “Say, dat’s only about five hundred each when it’s split free ways!” Frenchy grumbled. “That’s all,” Steiner agreed. “But this paying-in check interests me. It seems you paid this lot in cash, Cap? Where’d you been keeping it before?” The captain looked at him grimly, but made no reply. “In an old sock maybe?” Steiner went on slowly. “It looks like we haven’t combed out this joint as well as we should, boys, and I’m wondering whether we couldn’t persuade the Cap. to come through with a bit mom” “How come?” Frenchy demanded in a puzzled voice. “I don’t get you.” “Well, if he can dig up nine thousand in. cash for a bank- deposit, maybe there’s some more around the premises,” Steiner explained painstakingly. “And if we worked on him. a bit . . .” “Say, dat Van ideal” Frenchy interrupted excitedly. “I guess I c’n make him talk even if he’s a dumb-bell! Jest leave it to me . .

The amiable Lefty took up a position on the verandah where he could all .that went on inside the room, and the other fellow drew a chair up to the end of the table. The captain remained standing, eyeing 'Steiner with the same impassive though watchful expression on his face.

“I’m still waiting to hear what you’ve come here for,” the captain told him coldly. “Let’s have it. And the sooner you beat it the better I’ll be pleased.” Steiner shook his head reproachfully. “Just because we had a little run-in with you in the old days, Cap,” he complained, “you’ve got it into your head that we want to get tough with you. "Well, that’s all wrong. We’re out for peace and friendly feelings all round, aren’t we, boys?” “Sure we are I” Lefty agreed jocularly from the verandah; and the scowling Frenchy laughed shortly. “That being so,” Steiner went on, “let /bygones be bygones. I know we didn’t always see eye to eye when we were'working the coast together, but that’s all over now. In a racket like that, you’re bound to bump up against trouble now and again. It’s business competition, but ” “Business competition, my boot! the captain interrupted, with sudden harsh impatience. “It was plain dirty piracy! You rats weren’t content with legitimate profits! You had to start hi-jacking—and even there you couldn’t put up a straight fight for it.” Steiner’s thin lips tightened, but when he spoke his voice was as soft as ever.

He- broke off short, for at that moment the watchful Lefty slipped into the room from the verandah. “There’s folk coming up the track 1” He reported briefly, in a low voice. “Two .guys anyway, for I heard ’em talking. They must be cornin’ here, for there ain’t no other house up here, is there?”

“Hard words, Cap,” he said. “But you made out, didn’t you? We got '.lie sticky end of that deal—not you!” “Maybe; but I lost two of the best hands I ever had through it! the captain retorted. “Murdered by treachery! I tell you, the best thing I ever did was when I fixed it for the Coastguards to pull you scum in! 1 ought to have cleaned you up for keeps while I was about it, but it did me good to know that you were all booked Jor a stretch in the pen!” Frenchy half rose with a deep-throat-ed snarl, but Steiner waved him back to his seat again. “That’s all right, Cap!” he sold

“Heck!” Steiner ejaculated, rising swiftly to his feet and gathering up the notes and the other papers. “All right, boys! Beat it out through the back! Well, so-long, Cap! It’s been a pleasure seeing you! Maybe we’ll look you up again some time!” He still had his gun trained on the captain, and as the other two disappeared through the doorway, lie began to back towards it. “Don’t head the posse after us!” he went on, speaking hurriedly but coolly. “You might find us—and then you’d be mighty sorry! Just laugh it off and say you’re lucky this time!” He had reached the doorway and was

about to pass through it, when the captain moved. With a sudden leap sideways, he, snatched up a heavy copper vase which stood on the window sill behind him, and almost in one' movement hurled it straight at the man in. the doorway. Steiner saw it coming and instinctively ducked, but it struck him full on the shoulder and spun him • half round.

With a yell of triumph, the captain sprang forward towards him, but the man had recovered before he could cover the intervening space, and a snarl of rage he thrust forward the gun and nulled the trigger—twice. ° The shots crashed out deafeningly in the confined space, and as the. bullets struck home, the captain pitched forward on to his face and lay sprawling with his head almost at the other’s feet.

“Swine!” Steiner grated viciously, and fired a third shot into the prostrate body.

Then lie: whirled on his heel and plunged out after the others. (To be continued).