LOVE CONQUERS TREACHERY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 150, 28 June 1927, Page 18

LOVE CONQUERS TREACHERY.

By HAROLD BINDLOSS

Author of "The Impostor," "The AUinson Honour," "Andrew's Folly," Etc.

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS

JIM HBSTAX. whose uer.-es have boon badly affoctod by tho war, takes his father's place on the board of Hestans. Ltd., a big steel firm. He opposes a plan advanced by STROME. the manager, and supported bv his own stepmother, and comes to blow's with Stronie. Afterwards his nerves are *" shaken that he takes to bed. While ihere Jim's stepmother persuades the local doctor to keep him to his room until Stroma's plan has been approved by the board. Jim's greatest allies are MARGARET REED, the firm's bookkeeper, with whom he is in love, KATE, his sister, and LAWRENCE BLAKE, an 6kl army friend, i whom Kate has persuaded to join the*! staff of Hestans, Ltd.

CHAPTER XI

Blake's sleep was disturbed, and when at length he pulled out his watch and rubbed a match, to see it was time to get up was some relief. Jim's shooting clothes were nearly the proper size, and although he durst not get a light, in a few minutes he was dressed. Going to the window, he looked about.

ilist drifted across the fields by the river.' the black trees got distinct, and the stars were pale. Day was breaking, and he must cross the town before the trams began to run. He was not going to the station; he expected to get a,. train at a village four or five miles off. The people Mrs. Hestan put on his track ■would follow Jim's shooting clothes, and in the open country nobody would know their proper owner was not inside the »uit. In the town he might be spotted, but for some time the .light would not be good. With calculated carelessness he tossed the office clothes Jim had given him about the bedroom.

For a moment or two he waited by , the door. All was quiet, and the passage was dark. The carpet was thick, and ! he carried his boots, but he advanced cautiously. If he reached the stairs before he knew, a noisy plunge would ' stop his understudying Jim before the 1 play had well begun. Lawrence found J the top step, and when a board creaked his mouth went tight. It looked as if ' nobody was disturbed by the noise, and ' he reached the large, dark hall. He * imagined he knew where the door was, I hut a rug slipped on the polished wood, i and as Blake rather noisily stifled an } exclamation a bright beam flickered across the floor. ( Lawrence clenched his list. The door ; was not far off and he was going to get j out. If Mrs. Hestan had thought to stop 1 him and posted a man-servant in the , hall, the fellow would soon wish'she had , given him a softer job. Advancing noise- ! lessly, he braced himself to jump for his hidden antagonist, jrnd somebody laughed. "Lawrence!" said a voice he knew, and he heard the door swung back. Day was breaking, and Kate's figure was vaguely distinguishable against the misty light. Putting down her electric torch, she beckoned Blake to the steps. "It may be long before you get breakfast, and one cannot travel without some luggage. I have packed an old ruck-sack of Jim's," she said. "You are kind; but I had meant to buy the stuff I need, and you ought not to have risked coming down." "If you are annoyed, lam sorry! Do. you risk nothing?" Kate rejoined. "At \ the worst, I might lose a post I could get along without, and I expect to erijoy the excursion. It's the sort that appeals to my sense of humour. But you mustn't stop." Blake turned his head. All was quiet. The trees got sharper in outline, and a light wind ble,w through the porch. Then he heard Kate laugh. "You stated something like that before! I, however, am not remarkably shabby, and I felt I ought at all events to see my confederate start. Then I have brought you Jim's fishing rod. He and a friend • rent some fishing in Brantdale, near, Scarside station, and you might perhaps stop for the night at the Bishop's Arms. "The notion's good," Blake agreed. "So long as Jim has your support, he's an easy winner. Well, I think I can start the paper chase and keep Mrs. Hestan's agents usefully occupied. All the same, I must shove off and you frankly mustn't wait, my dear " He stopped in awkward embarrassment, he had not expected to be carried away. Somehow he had let himself go, and for a moment the suspense was keen. Then he knew Kate smiled. "Your object's good, Lawrence. Would it disturb you very much to be thought my lover?" ' , "In the cireiunstances ——" Blake be gan; and then his control went. "After all. since I am your lover " He advanced impulsively, but Kate was not where she was a moment since. She had cheated him and he durst not follow her into the gloomy hall. "We will talk about it another time, when we have won and Jim is back," she said. "Good luck, Larry!" Blake seized the knapsack and fishing rod and stole down the steps. The next thing he really knew was a clock chimed, and looking about, he saw he was in the town. He imagined he had got there mechanically, and" he laughed, a joyous triumphant laugh. .. People began "to go to work and .striding along at five miles, an hour, with Jim's knapsack and fishing rod, he was perhaps conspicuous; but it was not important. -His business was to lay the false trail and the man he impersonated was supposititiously queer. Anyhow, the morning was fresh and the sky was blue. He was on Kate's errand, and -when she. and. Jim had conquered- hemight claim his reward. - In the meantime, the adventure had some charm. * Scarside is not on the main line and •when Blake got down at a junction a porter took his sack and fishing rod. "Good morning, Mr. Hestan. The local's waiting; I'll find you a comfortable seat."; The porter jumped from the platform and Blalto crossed the bridge. The fellow I;new where Jim went; it looked as if. he were satisfied to glance at Larry's kit and clothes. Well, Kate imagined that was all others might do. Lawrence pictured her standing in the porch and' the emotional note in her voiee when she let him go, could he but hav© stopped for a few moments—well, for Kate and Jim's sake, it was plain he could not. Then he saw the porter waited and the train was ready to start. Blake jumped on board and feeling for some money, looked the other way. His sack was on the seat and the porter shut the door. Like the hare in a paper chase, Lawrence must mark his crosscountry track; but he reckoned some hours must go before Mrs. Hestan sent off the hounds. In fact, it might be nootv when -Robert Hestan got a justice's order and they knew Jim was not in |iiß room.

Madam, however, was determined and competent. She would not lose time, and Lawrence speculated about the pack she would presently loose. Although ho was not a lawyer, he supposed she i was entitled to employ trained keepers! from an asylum, private detectives and perhaps the county police. Well, the business was to give the gang a sport - ng run. Then Mrs. Hestan might advertise for news of Jim, since, if he after ill eluded her pursuit, his opposition to he directors' proposals might he ac■ounted for. The searchers, however, vould in good faith, believe they folowed a man whose mental balance was listurbed and Lawrence meant to inlulge them. To do so would not hurt lim, because, at the proper time, Sir rlamish and others would prove that lim was somewhere else.

That was done with. Blake believed he had thoroughly weighed his plan, and now he was entitled to take a smoke and think about Kate Hestaiv. To do so occupied him happily while birch woods and red moors rolled past the window. The line curved about a valley and a peat-stained river brawled in the stones.

Getting down at a quiet station, he walked three or four miles to the {-Bishop's Arms. The old inn was fami ous when post-chaises bound for Seoti land sped down the valley and modern j tourists' cars had not altogether banished its old-world charm. Two noble sycamores, with benches round their massive boles, shaded the grass in front, and a purple clematis climbed the yellow wall. Inside were crooked roof-beams, stairs with quaintly-carved newels, dim, low-ceiled rooms and dark oak furniture. Blake thought the house stood for the England folks -called merry, before the forges' smoke rolled up behind the Pennine Hills. >

He resolved to stop for the night, and since he carried a lishing rod and could throw a fly, he.might catch a trout. When he inquired at the rather dark ofiicc, the landlord's daughter told him he could take the room he had used another time. Lawrence sent up his ruck-sack and started for the river.

A fresh wind had recently carried down the stain of the peat and the claret-coloured pools sparkled in the sun. Lawrence's luck was good, but when he had caught two silver -sea-trout he reeled up his line and lying in the stones by the water side, mused about Kate Hestan. Her pluck and her staunchness moved him;'a"girl who was willing to fight for the bes.t traditions of her house, would not let down her lover. Yet she was joyously modern. Kate refused to be cheated; she fronted the world, as she knew it, with a feat less smile. - Lawrence pictured her graceful, boyish slenderness, the touch of pride in her carriage, and her frank, level glance.

Alder branches swayed in the wind: thin pale willows bent. Quivering shadows checkered the gravel, and the I river splashed soothingly by the tail of j the pool. The picture Lawrence dwelt upon got indistinct; Kate melted in the green shade, he thought she called him across the water and he was asleep. The dining room at the Bishop's Anns was rather dark: but Lawrence at a table by a low casement window fronted the red sunset. When a waitress served his dinner, she gave him a surprised glance. "We thought you was Mr. Hestan. sir." "And now you doubt?" said Lawrence. The girl noted his twinkle. Lawrence was rather a handsome young fellow, and as a rule a waitress" knows with whom it is safe to joke. "It's queer! You have got his knapsack," she said and studied his clothes. "Well," he said, "perhaps I ought to apologise for my shooting coat, but I'm on a walking tour, and I believe you're not yet controlled bv the Automobile Union."

"Last time Mr. Hestan stopped with us, he tore his coat on a fence, and Miss Pattinson mended the hole. I recognise the coloured wool."

"Oh, well, I've heard it said that clothes ma.kethe man, and sometimes we-hardly know which is Jim and which is me. But that isn't grammatical. Lets try-it-the other way:'sometimes we wonder which is I and which is him Looks as if 1 hadn't got it vet; but vou were at school since I was. Anyhow if you're sure I'm not Hestan, which do vou think the handsomer?"

The girl laughed, .but. Lawrence sawshe was puzzled. For one thing, she knew he was sober; a waitress ought to know. She removed a pewter cover. and he glanced at the fried trout. A group of mtoring tourists occupied a table across the floor. Lawrence thought them Americans, and it looked as if they were interested.

"You have a good cook," he remarked. "But where's the apple sauce?" "Apple sauce with fish, sir?" - 'Of course," said Lawrence. "At a pinch, currant jelly—see if vou can <>et some." "' °

The girl went off, but the serving pantry was near the door, and Lawrence heard.her laugh.' *. *~ ._ ; "If number six is Mr. Hestan, he's gone very queer. He wants apple sauce for his trout; red jelly at a pinch!" "Been at 'bar," remarked another voice. "If he's that sort, tak' him gooseberry jam."

The waitress, perhaps by way of compromise, brought Lawrence salad dressing, but when she arrived he looked at her as : if he had forgotten. "By the by I'd like my bill.:"' • "But you engaged a room.-' "That is s&," Lawrence agreed. "My habit is to pay for my, room and breakfast before I go to' bed. Sometimes I get tip and start in the middle iof the njght." . , ;

He thought one/of the"?tourist group politely stifled a laugh. The waitress' soberness seemed ;to cost her something, for her;lace got red".

"But if you went off. you would not get your breakfast, sir."

Lawrence knitted his brows, as if he weighed her remark. The tourists were frankly interested, and he imagined a pantry maid lurked behind the door. Well, he had an audience and must play his part.

"To pay for a breakfast you have not got is extravagant: but if you order breakfast you ought to pay, although you may not want to stop until tincook gets up? Sit down, my dear, ami help me think it out."'

The, waitress did not sit down, and Lawrence looked straight in front. Then lie turned and gave her a beaming smile.

"After all. it's not much of a puzzle. If I hadn't got very far. I could come back for breakfast and start off again.''

He resumed his dinner, as it' lie wore satisfied, and the waitress went off. The tourists pot up. and when they were in the passage one with an American accent remarked: 'Pretty pood foolinjr. At length. I truoss we have niei up with a British humourist."

'•He wasn't fooling." a girl rejoined. "That young follow would not unload freak humour on a road-house waitress. He's ' another stamp.' 1 tliink lie's dippy."

The voices got faint. The sunset was 'melting and only the throb of-the river distrubed the evening calm. Lawrence, alone in the shadowy room, lighted a cigarette and smiled. If lie had cheated two women, he ought to be satisfied. Anyhow, ho had marked his trail.

(To be continued daily.)