THE ANNEXATION SOCIETY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 53, 2 March 1916, Page 10

THE ANNEXATION SOCIETY.

ALL BIGHTS RESERVED.)

By J. S. FU3TCHER. CHAPTER SXHL THE HOUSE rx ST. JOHN'S WOOD. Jimmie wee half-way down the stairs or. his new and unexpected errand when he- suddenly remembered his aunt and Eva Walsden. He turned sharply back, and calling Kentover into his sittingroom, sat down at his desk and' wrote °a rapid note to Miss Trickett. '•"Look here. Kentover," he said. 'I I don't know how long I may he kept. My I aunt and Mies Walsden are at the Parnassus Theatre—there's the voucher , for the box they're in. 1 want you to take this note at once to Miss Trickett —deliver it to her yourself. After that. | stay in the theatre and bring the two ladie= home. See that supper is ready for them. And 'Kentover, from tha time you get there to the time you come back, don't lest sight of them. I may j be in here when you return, and 1 mayn't. Don't go to bed yourself until I come in—l may want you.'' Then Jimmie hurried off to meet Mrs. Lywater. secretly wondering- why that lacy wanted to see him. "Something to do with my affair. ■ 1 reckon.'" he surmised. "If it is, it can only be one thing—she's seen that man Curtis and wants to point him out. ,- In this supposition Jimmie speedily found Jiimself correct. Mrs. Bywater, meeting him almost as soon as he entered the theatre, drew him aside ■with an air of mystery. "The man is here!" she whispered. c Curtis:" "In the theatre—now?" asked Jimmie. "Where, then*' - ' "He is in a box with two ladies. It is on the dress circle tier—the second from the stage front. If you go into the balcony behind the dress circle on the left-hand side and look across the house, you will easily see him without heing seen. You remember how I ' described him—a tall, well-built man. clean shaven, American-looking." "What occurs to mc first." observed Jimmie, "is this—has he seen you?" '-"So—l'm sure of that. I had a seat given—it is at the back of the dress circle—top: row. Ihe light isn't very good; there, even when it's turned on, and the dress circle's very full. I'm sure he hasn't seen me—l saw him as soon as he came in with these two ladies, and I came out at once and telephoned to you. Go in and have a careful look at him. There are a lot of people standing at the back of the dress circle—you can easily see him from behind them." Jimmie. who had already provided hhr felf. with- a ticket in spite of the fa_t that there was nothing but standing room, opened the door and went into the crowded house.- People were standing two deep behind the barrier, "and the. audience appeared at thatimoment-tcCSfi spellbound in the affairs of the play;'all eyes were fixed on the stage. Jimmie 'made his way quietly and etealthily along behind the people; from "between the shoulders.of. two _t__.._ie_ he.looked., across""'the "house" to.' the box "which llrs. Bywater had described. But the lights in the auditorium were very low at that moment, and all he could definitely see -was that the box was tenanted by two ladies who sat at the front, and a man ■who sat a little behind them. There was nothing for it but.to wait. The- play which was being prlsented was at_that_time, the talk, of the town, and Jimmie had entered the theatre just as one of its most telling scenes w.:s being enacted. In spite of himself he forgot" his. own particular basinets, and became cacried away with the mimic affairs'of the stagy. He.suddenlj found himself applauding- vigorously, the drop scene down.- and tire lights in -the auditorium up. And at that he recovered his; senses ag.iin. looked across the now ■well-illuminated house. an_ fixed the box immediately opposite. ..And there, in on. of the two; women who sat at the .front, he recognised- Mrs. -Wythenshawe-.

Jimmie drew hack to the wall behind him and took a lonjrer and more critical inspection of the box and its occupant.. Yes—that was Mrs. Wvthenshawe. without doubt. He remembered serin;, her hefore he knew who .she was: he had a keen recollection oi being struck by her. Lounging in the how- window of J&e hotel coffee-room at.," Er-chester until..his lunch was sorvpj to him, he bad seen Mrs. Wvth. nshawe came out ..: the Cathedral Close into the Hijrh Street, and had wondered what pretty woman that was. Next day he had helped to track her from Victoria to her own door 'by way of Regent Street and South llolton-Street —oh, he knew her well enough! And an immense feeling of vague satisfaction, not to be easily accounted for, came over him as he reflected that she was there in that box with the man whom he shrewdly suspected of having imcussed him in the matter of the postel packets.Jimmie turned his attention to this man. He had risen to his feet." and was standing between Mrs. 'Wythenshawe and the other woman, looking first at one then aft the other, as he talked to them.

He was just what Mrs. Bywater had , <iescribe3 him to be—a big, clean-shaven, good-looking Americanish man, with a square, determined chin, keen eyes, and a firmly-set mouth, a man. decided Jimmie, of character ana of force. Jimmie felt attracted by him; enemy he might he, criminal he might be—but be was certainly a fellow worth fighting.

The ot&er occupant of the box Jimmie, did not know. She was a middle-aged ■woman who had been pretty, and who tad made determined efforts to keep so. she communicated an impression of rouge and powder, of false teeth and hair of artificiality, which was much in contrast with Mrs. Wythenshawe's vigorous 6tyle of beauty. But artificial and shallow as she looked, Jimmie wa6 quick enough of eye and perception to see that hei two companions paid her great attention, nnd that all their conversation was dj.-.eted to her. Jir..j.v waited until the curtain rose Egain: in the ensuing gloom he gent'y crept i. -vy- and joined Mrs. Bywater, : v.-ho Ua.u yone back to her seat. To- i gethe '.-•-. went out into the saloon. ,r \\■■:'■■'' asked Mrs. Bywater. "I saw him." answered Jimmie. "You've no doubt that he's the man?"

"Not the least! I wish I was certain of finding a fortune awaiting mc tonight as I am of that!" asserted Mrs. Baywater. "That's the man who called ii impel. Mr. Curtis, of New York—oh, yes!"

All right," said Jimmie. "Leave it ito mc. Go hack to your seat and enjoy yourself. If you should happen to sco mc hanging around when you leave the theatre, don't recognise mc; don't even

give mc the quiver of an eyelash. I somewhere--down—there;' and-J (shall be very—busy."

Mrs. Bywater nodded knowingly and went away, and Jimmie proceeded to find the nearest telephone. He rang up his own chauffeur, and bade him bring bis car round to a certain side-street close to the theatre, and to be in readiness there at 11 o'clock. And that done, he went back and stood at the back of the dress-circle, and alternately watched the play and the people in the second box exactly opposite.

It was just after eleven when the final curtain fell. There were loud and repeated calls for the principal actor: the audience seemed in no mind to leave until the great man had gratified them with another sight of him. But the great man. having had the curtain raised, three times, refused to" exhibit himself (further, and there was a sudden exit to the doors. Jimmie had been prepared ; for thL. and had stolen out as soon as 'he saw Mrs. Wythenshawe and her companions move, and when they came dewn ; the stairs into the entresol he was close ' behind them, and was able to examine them more narrowly and to overhear I what they said. In the eruGh and . on-ri'-ion outside he also contrived to keep near them without attracting any attention, and presently when he went off to get his own car he was in possession of two bits of valuable information—one, that Mrs. Wythenshawe had gone straight home to Wilton Crescent in one | taxi-cab. and that the somewhat faded lady and the man whom Jimmie knew as Curtis, had driven away in another to Holgate Lodge. St. John's Wood.

"That's a bit of downright luck!" murmured Jimmie as he got into his car and took the wheel from the chauffeur. "I guess I can hit that spot without mivh difficulty. Xo need to keep 'em in sight. so long as I know where they're going."

Nevertheless, when his car had- got clear of the thicker mass of traffic in immediate neighbourhood of the theatre. ; Jimmie saw the taxi-cab ahead of him: '. he saw it again when he was well outside the crowded tracks, and had crossed the Marylebone Road; he followed it up the west side of Regent'Park, and along the big. blank walls of Lord's Cricket Ground. And, fearful lest its occupants should think that they were being followed, he slowed up, dropped well behind, and let it get ahead. But he kept an eye on its dwindling lights, and he noted that they turned up Grove End Road. Seeing that, Jimmie purposely drove past the end of the road, went along towards the dip into Maida Vale, and suddenly wheeled round into Hamilton Terrace. He accelerated his speed then, turned to his right again at St. Mark's Church, and cajine back towards the top of Grove End Road from the north. And in a quiet side -street he pulled up his ear, dismounted, bade the chauffeur wait about for him, and strolled off.

Jimmie had a moderately intimate acquaintance with St. John's Wood. He was an habitue of Lord's during the cricket season; he knew two or three actors who had small boxes in the neighbourhood; one or two artists who lived in miniature palaces; half a dozen theatrical ladies who dwelt in little villas or cosy flats.- __nd he had a dim notion that he had seen- the name Holgate Lodge painted on some entrance gate not very far away from the pointwhere Abbey Road begins. Anyway, he was in-no doubt about quicHy finding it-

The place was suddenly presented to him out of the gloom—a square, oldfashioned stuccoed house, set in a goodsized garden behind high walls. At one end of the wall which enclosed house and garden on the street side was a door, in the top jianel of which a grille was set: at the other end a double door gave admittance to a carriagedrive. And Jimmie who had already looked stealthily about him and seen no sign of human life immediately near, tried them both, and found both fast locked or barred. Also, he found that the top of the v. all was liberally provided with sharp and ugly hits of glass.

But having come thus far Jimmie w__s ' not going to be denied. He walked along by the next vjlla—also detached and furnished with a garden—and was overjoyed to find that the wall was noonly lower, but innocent of the barbarous glass. And with another look round to see that he was not observed, lie ewung himself up over that wall, and in another minute had climbed some substantial trellis-work and dropped down into the garden of Hclgate Lodge. Yet another minute an.i he had. skirted the lawn and hid himself behind some bushes in close proximity to the house, in the lower windows of. which lights were .burning. His notion was to look in at oneof those windows; he wanted to know who was within. But he had scarcely taken up his position when the front door opened, a decidedly American voice said "Good-night!" and Curtis came out. walked down tbe path, let himself out at the door in the wall, and went away. In the prevalent quietness, Jimmie heard the sound of hia footsteps die off

jin the far distance. And as it died. sound came—the ] a motor-car.

The car^ stopped at the garden door: he heard a man jump out on the pavement. A bell rang just within the house. The garden door clicked; a man came swiftly in as it opened, and advanced just as swiftly up the path. And as. the house door opened to admit him, the light from the hall lamp fell full on the face—the perplexed and annoyed face—of the Marquis of Scraye. | (To be continued: daily.)