DAUGHTER OF EXILE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 148, 3 April 1944, Page 6

DAUGHTER OF EXILE

Strange Gaelic Prophecy.

(Copyright). (By Alexander Campbell) SERIAL STORY.

CHAPTER VII. A DAY IN STORNOWAY. “Tleinric.li,” said Martha, coldly, ‘you will please bring the car up to the road. Mr Shane and I will wait here." The giant hesitated. Then lie bowed stiffly. “As you wish, Fraulein.” He turned and strode down the hillside. “I should really have taken the bus,” thought Shane.

The big car roared up the rough track from the house with Heinrich at the wheel. It stopped on the main road, and the girl climbed into the back seat. Shane followed her. Heinrich did not turn his head. The car started up again and moved slowly forward.

Martha turned to Shane. “Now tell me what you think of the captain,” she commanded.

“I like him,” Shane responded at once. ‘He’s honest as daylight, and he’s got plenty of courage. He must miss the sea, and his eyes being so bad must be a terrible affliction for such an active old fellow as he is. But he never says a word about it.”

“I like him too,” answered the girl gravely. “He is a true British gentleman.”

For a moment there was silence between them. Shane looked at her out of the corner of his eyes. She was sitting up, looking straight ahead. Her pretty forehead was wrinkled In thought.

Shane skated cautiously over thin ice.

“What d’you think of my fellow lodger, Halford? You’ve met him, of course?” He had not forgotten the shadow 'which had passed across her face when he mentioned Halford the day before, at their first chance meeting.

The frown deepened. “Yes, I have met him,” replied Martha. She seeded to hesitate. “I do not like him very much.” She paused again, and blushed.

Still looking straight ahead of her, she added: “But I think he —likes me.” So that was it! Shane all but whistled. Halford had been pestering the girl with his attentions. Hence, he reflected, the cold tone the man had employed when Shane had ingenuously told him of his meeting with the girl. Halford feared a possible rival.

Shane almost chuckled to have found such an easy and at the same time unexpected solution to Halford’s manner towards himself. Then he paused. It might be the key to part of the riddle, but it did not explain what was the most inexplicable of all —Halford’s violent reaction to a harmless bag of sweets found in a stranger’s suitcase.

“There is your bus,” Martha said. She grinned at him. “Aren’t you glad you came with us?” Shane looked. He was glad. They were passing through Carnach, a tiiiy village of one street, vith thatched cottages on either side and straggling fences over which sheep dogs bounded joyously to meet them. The dogs awaited the car’s coming, crouching low, then shot alongside barking and snapping at the wheels. Sliane was sure one of them would be killed, but Heinrich never even slackened speed, and. the dogs seemed to know to within an inch how near they could come in safety.

At the side of the road, with two wheels in the ditch, rested the Carnach bus. It had been moved so far over to let other traffic pass, but even so its bulky body filled most of the narrow road.

The bus was an amateur lookingaffair of yellow painted wood, long, with a rusty bonnet. A huge hale of hay had been tied on to the roof, giving it an alarmingly topheavy appearance, and bicycles were tied to the sides and to the offside door with pieces of cord. Out of the open back protruded a long plank of wood.

The driver stood at the bonnet, smoking placidly, and his intending passengers surrounded him. They all seemed to be talking at once, lowly and pleasantly, in Ggelic. There were grey-bearded fishermen in rough blue jerseys, who by the look of their heavy muddied boots were crofters too, aijil women in black with Jfiack shawls over their heads.

Through the back door of the bus Shane had glimpsed,, in addition to (he plank of wood, a large number of parcels and bags. He wondered bow the passengers were going to get in. The little group turned their collective heads as the car approacned. Heinrich slowed to pass the vehicle. Shane found himself the cynosure of a large number of inquiring eyes, set in faces alight with curiosity.

They left the village behind, and the last of the dogs which had pursued them valiantly dropped baffled to their rear. The road wound along the coast, and the cliffs gave place to flat sandy dunes and clumps of tall wiry grass. On their right hand, the moor stretched flat and lonely, its emptiness broken here and there by an airidan, or a tinker’s encampment. Tiny lochs glittered like mirrors under the sun. The day had promised to he hot, and it was keeping its promise. The road became whiter and dustier, and the sea was like a flat shield that had been hammered out of blue steel. On the commons of the villages through which they passed sheep and cows lay motionless, too lethargic even to browse. The sky was a vast blue canopy without a single white speck of cloud.

They swung through Cress past gleaming golden sands, past a churchyard, and over a bridge that spanned a slowly moving brown stream. The

Stornoway war memorial, a pointingfinger of stone set on a high hill, loomed up, and soon they were gliding downhill, through the village of Laxdale. They passed the wooded estate of Stornoway Castle on their right, and entered the outskirts of the to i\ n. Shane asked to he let out at the hotel, where he had stayed the night. He turned to Ma/tha. “Will your errand take long?” lie tapped the case. “When I’ve handed this over to its righttul owner, we might meet and have lunch together. “That will l)e delightful." she nodded. Shane passed into the hotel, and the big car swung out round a stationary lorry loaded with fish barrels, and carried on down the main street in the direction of the post office. Shane got hold of the proprietors, and explained his mission. The hotel proprietor nodded quickly. That 11 he General Mitchell’s case,’ he said. “He opened yours, and realised what had happened. I hope you've been put to no inconvenience.” “Not at all,” said Shane. “Is General Mitchell still in the hotel?” General Mitchell was, and the proprietor departed to bring him. Shane was ushered into the lounge. The place was empty, and lie sat down to wait. Once again he recalled Halford’s perturbation at seeing the bag of sweets. Here was a mystery which the owner of the case might he able to solve. Shane decided to step warily and see if he could pick up any clue. (To he'Continued.)