THE STOLEN SUBMARINE

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 201, 23 August 1904, Page 6

THE STOLEN SUBMARINE

By GEORGE GRIFFITH.

By GEORGE 3RXITITH.

BOOK 111. CHAPTER 111. "DR. CHEN-ID." When Hillyer came back to the bungalow duly dressed in Eastern dinner clothes, and met Leone again in the drawing-room, he was amazed to find how great a change had been accomplished during the few hours which had elapsed since their interview. The inspiration of renewed hope and courage had already done its -work, and her soul had revived within her. It was not, perhaps, one of the best of souls, but it possessed in a high degree that feminine quality of reaction which enables it, like a highly-tempered steel rod, • f.o spring back from the downward curve of dejection to the straight line of quietude and fonlidence in the briefest pos- . aibie space of time. She had had a bath and three hours' healthy sleep. Then, remember- ; ing liis injunctions as tv '"pluyiug the ! eh arming hostess,"' she had hud her hair i done very nicely, and had put on her prettiest dinner frock, and the result j was that when they met again in the drawing-rooru Hillyer scarcely recog- | nised her. . . i He could not help admiring her, but he could see that she had thus suddenly recovered her spirits and self-confidence, not because any change had taken place ] in the moral atmosphere in which she ' had been living, but just because the crushing weight of shame and misery which had bent her down into the dust' a few hours ago had been removed, and so, like the mechanical spring, her nature had returned to its ordinary condition. On the whole, his feelings were those of quietly-amused contempt, mm- . gled with a very decided regret that his beloved Marian should have such a sister as this. Still, there was not very much time for him to think about matters of that sort just now. There were weightier concerns on hand, and, for the present, she was rather an instrument which he wished to use for the high purposes of International diplomacy than just a woman who, if no accident happened to him during the war was going to be his sister-in-law. Instead of shaking hands with her, as he would have done under ordinary circumstances, he just nodded to her and said: "Good afternoon, Leone! I suppose our guest has not arrived yet?" She looked at him with a little lift of her eyelids and smiled: "Ah. I see! you are beginning to practise already! Well, now, I have so far obeyed you in everything, and you see the result." "I am glad to be able to congratulate you upo.. it," he replied with a smile w1,:l!i she did not quite understand, i :i!n!iilly, you appear to be very much bcitvr than when 1 left you. When do >■-■;; iwpoet our guest , /" "■■ :i.u'r is at eight, , ' she replied, with « U'- ■'"■'■ ut the clock, --and 1 shall exPtct i..-;;i Lit about a quarter to. It's llow ■ ■ < :t ten minuu-s past seven, so that ■ ,o- un plenty of time for our little iviicarsaJ. And as you began by c-alJjiiu i,, e Leori( , j ~U l, l X)se j must follow fcuit and get a<rustonied to calling you Arthur. 1 aru quite in the dark as to who or what this Dr. Chen-Yu is, but I suppose it wont do to make any mistaken before him?"

anything than that, Leone," replied Hillyer, keeping up tLe necessary comedy. '"This man, 1 niay tell yo j quite an extraordinary person. He is a blend of t as t and West, which, by the way, is about as wicked a mixture as you can get. He has all the intelligence of both, and none of the virtues of either Has intellectual attainments are in inverse ratio to his moral capabilities and he is the most gifted, and therefore the most dangerous, international spy who *?• at present allowed to live. Within the last ten years, according to the information that 1 got at Tokio, he has been in the service of all the areat 1 owers, and he has betrayed one and the other just as it Lab paid him. He seems to speak every language under the sun. brok *?T m ° ntllS Wore tlle ™r in Ppf i Wa u S aUtin S for Ja P an - first n Petersburg, then in Moscow, and after that along the Siberian Railway to HarUd Mukden > Vladivostock and Port Arthur-shadowed all the time by other Japanese agents disguised as Manehu brigands and Chine.se coolies, and then from Port Arthur he vanished, curiously enough, as far as we can discover, a few days before L'Auonxme sank the Chin*. an fl an * l he f ° Ur lie « r oy«s and scored the first Russian eueeew. His next uppwance I hope will be at dinner towght." "I bope so—AriiiUr," said Leone And now, as we an. to Live dinner, we must have conversation, nnd I suppose that I as l,<wte-e shall have to lead it ILn I™, ■'■-■■ V' Lat direction it shall talce. What is it to be?" "Begin, as usual, with (.•ornmonplr.ces. Make uo allusions to any complications, personal or international. Treat mc as an innocent who knows nothing, and just trust mc to make a suitable fool of myself. After that, I think, you can leave the rest of it to mc. By the way, how many Chinese servants have you "here?" "We—l mean I—have a cook and three boys to look after the house, then I have my maid, a French girl of a very decided age, Ma'mselle Lafontaine, whom we engaged in London just after we were married " "Yes," interrupted Hillyer, '-you can leave her behind." "But why?" "Because I should say that somebody else engaged her," replied Hillyer. "In other words, from what I know of the circumstances so far, I should say that this most respectable young lady is a spy specially provided by Sir 'victor I

Author of "The Angel of the Revolution," "Brothers of the Chain," "Tlm WhlU Wtteh of Mayfatr," "The World Masters," etc.

Erskine. Leave her behind with a message fur your husband to follow you as i soon as he can to Nagasaki." '•To Nagasaki V she echoed. "Am I going there?" "Certainly," he replied, "you are going to start to-night, soon after dinner; and if everything goes on all right our learned friend the doctor will be your fellow-passenger." * At this moment there was a ring at the front door bell, and a knock at the drawing-room door. It opened and the Chinese servant announced: "Dr. Chen-Yu, Missa Erskine." : CHAPTER IV. j A I'OST-PRANDIAL SURPRISE. "-Mi. good evening, doctor," said Lconr. rising and going towards him. 1 am .so glad you have been able to t-oine at such very short notice. Really, if is very kind of you, because, as you told mc. you were' only in this part of the country for a very short time. Allow mc to introduce ray husband." A3 she waved her hand towards him Hillyer noticed a look in his eyes and an expression on his face which a man of Dr. Chen-Yu's ability and ought to have repressed. For his own part Hillyer wanted to throttle him there and then, but the conditions of their meeting were such that he was compelled to take his hand and say, as lie did with a very good pretence of cordiality: "Welcome, doctor; really it is an honour for an insignificant person like myself to receive a man whose name and attainments are as well known in both hemispheres as yours are. I got here quite unexpectedly this morning, and I was most pleasantly surprised to iind that my wife had still time to ask 3'ou to dine with us." There was, of course, a double meaning in the words which, happily, the learned doctor could not read. He knew that his role was that of the self-in-vited and therefore compulsorily welcome guest, and deep and subtle as his intellect was it was just of that sort which is most easily deceived by the most simple device. He quite believed that he had been received by Leone's real husband, simply because he had no reason to believe anything else. The cordiality with which the beautiful Mr 3 Erskine had welcomed him was. to his senses, as dazzling as it was misleading, and as foi her husband, well, it was quite plain that either he knew nothing and would, therefore, be very easily managed, according to his instructions; or that he knew everything and had accepted the situation—in which case it would be easier still to deal with him.

" My dear Mr Erskine," he replied, in his most courtly manner, " I can assure you that the pleasure and honour are entirely on my side, as the Germans say. I am delighted lo have the privilege of making the acquaintance 01 3 - our most charming wife and yourself.' The desire to strangle him became yel stronger in Hillyer's soul, but again tht fulfihnent of punishment had to be deferred, and so, by way of avoiding anj further politeness, he said: "It's very kind of you to put it thai way, doctor, but your politeness leavesme quite at a disadvantage, and thetime of eating approaches. I suppose dinner will be ready very soon, Leone. won't it, but you'll give us time for a rinse and a peg, of course?" " Yes," she replied, " 1 can give you a quarter of an hour, and you'll find the materials for a peg in the smokingroom. Oh, yes, but I forgot something. It's a domestic matter and quite my fault. You will excuse us for a moment, doctor, won't you? " The words were spoken so graciously and accompanied by so sweet a smile and a glance—which fortunately Hillyer did not see —that the doctor could do nothing but bow and say: 'Of course, madame; I will await your pleasure and convenience." As soon as they got into the sinok- : ing-room and the door was closed Leone caught hold of Hilly ci's coat sleeve and said: " The little brute came just too soon. I was going to ask you what I am to do. You remember you were just asking mc how many Chinese servants I had, and I told you four. What did you mean by that ? " He took a folded sheet of notepaper out of the breast-pocket of his dinnerjacket and gave it to her, saying: "There. Do that at the right time, and don't worry about anything else. Tell your servants that I am a great English lord who has come and brought his own servants with him. They wilJ understand that, because it's what all the Chinese bigwigs -do. Give them a holiday for to-night and a couple ot tuels apiece to go and spend. My fellows will wait on us at table, and Chen-V'u won't know the difference until he feels it. (Jet what you and your ayah will want lor the trip ready, and tell Ma'mselle to go to church, or anywhere else, but get rid of her somehow. That's all. Now you had better get upstairs." She nodded and left the room, and he went to the door and said: "Now then, doctor, if you are ready, we'll have that peg , , or would you like I to coiup and have a. rinse first? Come along; this way. We can do both while my wife is doing the usual feminine titivation." Hillyer made the washing process and the mixing and taking of the pegs extend over nearly half an hour, and kept on talking the most foolish of gossip about the war and outside opinions of it until the gong went, and Leone, who had by this time learnt her part to perj fection, opened the door and looked in, j and said, with a double meaning which ■ all the learned doctor's experience did jnot enable him to read: '•Everything is quite ready, dear, if you are." She threw the door wide open, and the doctor at once advanced and offered his arm. She took it with an almost imperceptible shrug of her shoulders which he did not see and Hillyer did. Hillyer gritted his teeth and said something between them which it would not have done the ex-coolie labourer at Port Arthur much good to hear, and so they went in to dinner. Dr. Chen-Yu was too well accustomed to the methods of the East to see anything singular in the attendance of four stalwart Canton boys on three people sitting down to dinner at the beautifully appointed oval table, at one end of J which his hostess sat, after havinor m - I tioned him to the Dlace of honoSr on I her right-hand. i

Wherefore, one of the most delightful dinners—as he told himself afterwards ia darker times—that he had ever eaten waa not marred toy the slightest shadow cl soepieion. His host and hostess conversed with a simplicity which was entirely admirable in his eyes. Their view* on the war were exactly bis own, and whan the servants had left the room, after the coffee and liqueurs had been served and Mrs Erskine had given them permission to smoke, he mentioned, as a sort of accepted fact, the voyage back to Europe. "Oh, yes, of course! We were almost forgetting about that," said Hillyer, lighting his cigarette. "Really, it's very kind indeed of you, doctor, to take all this trouble, especially as it's quite impossible for mc to get away just now. Still, I aan quite of any brother's opinion v wue could not 'be in better hands than yours, and I am equally certain that no one could look after her comfort better than you can, and so we may as well consider that settled. I ..all have to go up country again tomorrow, bat my wife will be quite ready to start by the next boat—won't you, Leone t" "Oh, yes," she replied, with an equal ly divided smile between them. "I shall be quite ready to start—well —in two or three days' time, if that will do." "Oh, yes, that will be ample," replied i. "The next P. and 0. boat leaves io/ Colombo on Saturday, which gives yo/a four clear days. Your cabin can be engaged to-morrow, and as I have to go to Singapore myself on business, I shall esteem it a very great pleasure if I may be allowed to accompany you and arrange for your comfort as far as tha.t." "Well, that's very good of you, doctor," said Hillyer, "and we'll consider it settled at that."

"Yes, thank you very much," added Leone, rising from her chair. "And now, doctor, if you will allow mc, I will say good evening. I have not quite got accustomed to the East yet, and I have a little headache." "My dear madame, pray do not consider mc for a moment," replied ChenYu, rising and going towards the door. He opened it, and as she passed out she turned and said: "Good-night, doctor, and thank you very much for your kindness!" As she disappeared Hillyer struck three sharp strokes on a little copper gong. Dr. Chen-Yu felt something soft and heavy thrown over his head by invisible hands. Then came immediately a douche of something cold and pungent through the cloth over his nose and inoutii. He tried to shout, but he had to breathe first, and with that breath his senses evaporated into unconscious nothingness. When he came to again he was rather astonished to find himself sitting in a long wicker chair on the deck of what ought to have been a yacht if she had not been a miniature armed cruiser. The sun was already high in a clear sky, and the vessel was evidently travelling at a great pace through the water. He tried to raise himself to look about him, but he couldn't. There was a strap round iiis chest and the back of the chair, and nis arms were firmly but comfortably tied to the chair-arms with silk handkerchiefs. He heard the soft tread of deck shoes on his right hand, and looked round. ilis host of the evening before threw a cigarette overboard, and came up to him and said: "Ah, good-morning, doctor! How do you find yourself now? I am afraid you were taken a little bit queer last night, weren't you?" "'Queer,' you say!" exclaimed Cheni*u, whose rapidly clearing faculties had already grasped something like the situacion. "I've been drugged and kidnapped. That's what's the matter with mc. Would you mind telling mc who you really are, and where I am? Of course, you are not Arthur Erskine?" "No,"' replied Hillyer, "I am not. My name is Mark Hillyer, and this vessel used to be my yacht Zanita. She is now an armed scout of the Japanese navy, and is taking you as fast as she can to Nagasaki, where I expect you will meet some old acquaintances."