COMMODORE NORAH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 293, 18 September 1940, Page 7

COMMODORE NORAH

k By ANGUS MacVICAR.

:: (Copyright). |

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CHAPTER XVI. TENSION FOR TWO. Jock grinned as liis visitor rose. “Best of luck, David,” lie said. “You deserved a break like this.” “A break!” retorted David. “Jock — I’d rather do anything than interview Norali Grant. I’m scared stiff.” “She’s only a lassie.” “I know, but—” David looked at the other’s long face. “What the dickens are you laughing at?” he demanded. “I’m 'll o’ laughing. Far be it Irae me to laugh.” He wandered out into the sunshine. He had less than a mile to go to reach Norah’s house, but he took such devious ways to reach his objective that the journey occupied him for almost an hour.

you’re a business woman, a University graduate —not some daft girl of seventeen.”

She* certainly looked like a girl of seventeen. Her eyes were strangely bright. Her irration, her anger, were forgotten. And then, as the maid opened the drawing-room _ door, disappointment overwhelmed her like a black flood, and there returned to heir heart, with added intensity, the stubborn bitterness that had crept into it during the day. It wasn’t David who had called, but her chief skipper, Donald Brown, along with four other members of her crews. They smiled to her in a fashion friendly enough, hut- she sensed antagonism and unusual determination in. their demeanour.

She grew pale. She had an idea what they had come to discuss —this confounded business of long hours aml constant work. She knew sho was driving heir men to the limit. She knew that this state of affairs couldn’t last for ever. But —didn’t they realise that she whs doing it for a purpose Didn’t they realise that she was pushing them on to defeat. David McGregor? Once that problem was settled she’d give them the easy time they deserved. Besides, she resented their questioning of her authority. She would lighten their work, not at their request, hut when she chose to give the command. She was a real Grant.

He was in a bad state of nerves. He didn’t know what he was going to say to Norah. He had the advantage over her because of Hector Menteith s action on the previous night, and lie could afford to state the terms on which he would undertake not to expose her and her fiance to the police. He had the advantage, and yet—*—-. Ho loved her. That was the difficulty. How could he conduct himself in a business-like, matter-of-fact way, when all the time he would be wanting to take her in his arms and let the world go by? How could lie——• His thoughts were rudely interrupted. He had reached the end of the street in which the (Grant house was situated, saw Donald Brown and four other fishermen going up to the door. He saw Donald knock.

She made her visitors sit down. They balanced awkwardly on the edge is of comfortable chintz-covered chairs. ‘Well?” she inquired, standing with her hack to the line, her feet apart, her hands clasped behind her. Old Donald remarked the similarity -if the pose to that frequently adopted by her father, Pteter Grant, when he interviewed his men. There was a moment of sprained silence. Then Donald cleared his throat. “We’ve come to ask you to change your methods, Miss Norah,” he said nervously. “The men want more time ashore. They’re no’ grumbling abootmoney. Its —it’s something different. They’ve no time for recreation. They’re no lime with their families. They’re aye oot at the fishing-t-in all weathers —drive, drive, drive ail the time. They want ye to start a new system, a system something like the shifts in'coalmining. Some o’ the skiffs can go out one week, and the others wait in port. Then the following week the other -lot can go to sea. Dae ye follow, Miss Norah?” ' “Weel, dae ye no’ agree wi’ us?’, inquired Donald, pleadingly.

The truth came to him. Donald had persuaded his men to send a deputation to Norah before they went farther with their idea of a strike. And he himself was too late. If,he called at this time Norah would not see him. She would be busy with the deputation. He would have to wait until later before discussing the situation with. her. Im his mind both disappointment and relief were strangely mingled.

All day Nofah had remained at home, waiting for David to come. She hadn’t slept much, even though the events of the night had made her very tired. Two ideas were struggling for mastery within her. One was pride —the pride of her position as temporary head of the Grant fishing fleet. The other was love—love of the man whom she had striven to defeat. Was it pride or love that would govern her conduct of the coming interview' until her rival?

She shook heir head. “I’m running this business, she said. 'The skiffs are mine. At least they’re- my father’s. You take orders from me. Not me from you.” Donald twisted his cap beitwevn gnarled fingers. “We —we understand, I think, why you are keeping us at it so hard. You’re wanting to beat David McGregor and put him out of the running. That’s what Mr Mlenteith is aye) saying, •ainyway.” “What if I am?” she said quietly. “It’s—it’s no right,, Miss Norah. Fishermen should work together ■' “Oh,” she interrupted, ‘‘so you’re faking David McGregor’s side, oh? Maybe he put you up to this?” “No,” returned Donald earnestly. “No, you’re wrong. It’s just that if the two fleets worked alongside each other —’ ’

If she allowed pride to take command she would tell David calmly that she had broken off her engagement with Menteith, and that if he cared to prosecute he could go ahead. She would tell him that she w'ould continue to do her best to make the Grant fleet dominant in Inver con, in spite of what people might say. 'She would inform him that she wasn’t responsible for Hector’s actions, and that lie mustn’t expect her to go whining to a rival to keep such an affair a secret. She knew that the law would not hold her responsible for the crimes of the lover she had discarded, and though the feeling in Invercon might tend toward David, mere feeling could not harm her business.

Oil the other hand, if she allowed love to intrude upon the interview she would Jet David know how eager she was to make up for the difficulties she had placed in his path. She would plead with him not to rake up Hector’s misdemeanours and to come to an arrangement whereby they might work the two fleets in harmony and to their mutual benefit.

“That’s utterly impossible.” _ Donald stirred in his chair. IDs fishermen companions were beginning to regard him with impatience. There was some anger in their eyes. ‘We>el, Miss Norah,” he said, swallowing -hajrd, “we came here to. warn you If you dinna slacken off—if you idinna promise here and now to slacken off—well, we’re going to strike tomorrow. The boys wanted to call a strike this afternaUe, but I persuaded them to wait till I saw you first. Miss .Norah,” he went on, “we’re no’ blaming you as much as Menteith. But ” “I see now,” she cried. “You’re trying to bully me. You’rei trying to use force. Dictatorship doesn’t work with me.” . . _ . , , Donald shook his grizzled bead. One of Donald’s companions got up from his chair and stood in front of Norah. “It’s no’ us that are acting like a Dictator. It’s you, Miss Norah. Ever since you had that row wi David McGregor, when your motor-boat collided wi’ bis skiff, you’ve made us into slaves. We’ve lost our liberty.” Norah’s eyes were blazing. Strained nerves, lack of sleep, distress at David s apparent reluctance to keep his ap>pointment, all combined to make her lose lier temper. In her mind was a whirligig of thoughts and impressions which crowded there without reason. Through them all she saw a picture of David, smiling at her grimly and sardonically. She remembered her first interview with him, when he had come to demand compensation for the broken propeller of his skiff. She remembered how he had saved Archie from drowning; how she had gone to him, humbly, ready to bo friends; how Jock Galbraith had rushed in with the news that the Silver Spray was on fire; how, from that moment, the fight had been on. David McGregor had shown that he regarded her as mean, dishonest, even criminal; she h.Vi tried to bate him, with only superficial success. iSho remembered the first night she had gone out to the fishing and their encounter with the basking shark, and David laughing across the turbulent water and demanding a hundred pounds to save them from destruction on the Black Rock, She remembered the sports, when, to everyone’s surprise, Hector bad beaten David, and vivid was her memory of David’s sportsmanship. She remembered her visit to Granny Thomson’s and the old lady’s words: “And the man that will take you, Miss Norah, and make you his bride, lie has the mark of the circle on bis left wrist”; then her homeward walk with David, and the moonlight, and tho fisherman singing a. love song on the pier, and her companion’s set, white face, and the dark circle which she saw tattooed on his wrist as he held open the gate . • • She remembered him standing above the cringing Menteith —“a fair mail with blood upon h'is mouth”—on the dock of the Silver Spray, and lier admission to herself that she loved him; then the terror that had gripped her as she struggled with Hector—terror and

She felt that the outcome depended a great deal on David’s attitude. If he were hard and overbearing, as he always seemed to be in her presence—* though no one else in, the village thought him in the least like that—then it would be difficult for her to forget the spikey Grant pride and let him trample it. She was very much afraid that, when lie came, he would indeed be hard and overbearing, for ho had plenty of excuse. Hector had done an unforgivable thing, and David could not know that for a long time she had not loved Menteith and had last night actually broken off their engagement. David would imagine, with some justification, that she would not be without sympathy for her fiance’s action. Nevertheless despite her fears, she wished he would come soon. She felt that to-day might bring a crisis in her life, and longed to meet it and get it over, no matter what the consequences were.

The day. passed sowly. In the afternoon Norah began to wonder if David intended to come at all. Her nerves, tautened by lack of sleep, jumped like the tappets of an engine. Sho grew irritable and depressed. Nagging questions recurred to her. Had he chang' d his mind about discussing the situation? Did he mean now to go to the police and put the facts before them without consulting her first?

( She tried to avoid these questions, but they returned again and again, until she was inclined to believe that the answers to them must be in the affirmative. Her anger rose against David, because a girl in love finds it easier to be angry with her lover than with an ordinary individual in whose actions one has little interest. (She began to believe he as making a fool of her.

THE VOICE OF THE WORKERS. Alone, she walked up and down the drawing-room restlessly. Her clucks were slightly flushed amd heir back was very straight. So he wasn’t going to be friendly aftejV all. He was going to defy her. Hie thought he had the whip hand now, did lie? AY el l then,’ she would show him . . . . * There whs a ring, at t-hei front door. She hoard Miss Mathieson, the hioustekoeppr, call to tip? maid to answ'or the bell. Norah caught her breath. Sho felt suddenly breathless and unaccountably expectant. Was this David at last? She ran over to a mirror, fluffed out heir hair becomingly, put a. little flab of powder on her nose and tried to compose herself. ‘'Don’t be a. silly little ass,” she muttered “This is going to bei a purely business conversation. Remember

a despairing desire to put herself completely into David’s care. Those pictures, flashing and dancing like a kaleidoscope, went quickly through her brain. All along, it seemed to her, she had tried: to come to terms with David, and every time lie had thrust her away. Even to-day he had promised to see lier, hut he had not yet arrived. His enmity, his suspicion of her motives had, she believed, been the solo cause of this hitter struggle between them—-this struggle that she hated and which, indirectly, had caused the revolt among her men. (To he continued).