Burnt Wings

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 190, 13 August 1928, Page 18

Burnt Wings

By G. HERBERT TEAGUE. J[

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS.

KATHLEEN OOONE lives wltli her sinter Mary. anil her brothei* Harry, a young man in tlx 1 bunk Ht Downnicre. Whilst out gathering honeysuckle Kathleen falls and sprains lier ankle. EPPY SMITH, n tramp, helps her by stopping n passing ear, In which in PETER BRENT. nephew of Kilt HORACE HOI'I'ER. of Hopper's mill. Peter takes Kathleen home, aim! Is intfodin'ed to Mary, who keeps house tor her brother nn<l sister. JEREMIAH WESTON is manager of Hopper's mill. He Is very unpopular. REOINALI) DEAL'VILER, n clerk at Hopper's mill, is dismissed by Weston, thus arousing Denuville's bitter enmity. Deauville oio'itins possession of a letter intended for Sir Horace Hopper. The news contained in It promises to he a considerable source of revenue to him. He meets Kppy Smith, and pays liini to take the letter to Sir Horace, saying he had found it on (lie road. The letter is from NIXON ESTEREL, ft young woman from London, to whose wiles Sir Horace had foolishly succumbed In the past. She Is now blackmailing him, and threatens to go to Ludy Hopper. She is really the Wife

BEN DALE, a el pay, living on the Common with his old grandmother. Jeremiah Weston appears to know more about Sir Horace and Ninon Esterel thHn is good for Sir Horace's peace of mind. LILY, Weston's daughter, in installed in the ottiee In Dcauvllie's place. Eppy Smith | and Iteginald Denuville Join force* against Weston, both desiring revenge. Eppy has known Weston in Ills youth, and has some knowledge which he Is determined to bring to light in his own good time. Ninon Esterel tells Dcauvllle she has been looking for a man named Weston for ten yeu rs. CHAPTER XV. When Sir Horace and Lady Hopper stepped out of the train at Euston and into a waiting car, he felt like one who has c«cajie<l from prison, and even her ladyship appeared to feel the freedoln of emancipation. She smiled as they left the dingy Euston Road and dashed along through Rloomsbnry to a well-known hotel off the Strand. The next morning Sir Horace rang up an old friend on the board of directors of one of the daily papers and invited him to luneh. "Will you come as well, dear?" he asked, turning from the telephone to hi* wife. "Where?" she asked. "To lunch with me and Sir James Tallis at Frascati's to-day." "No, thank you. I want to call on Mrs. Edgware-Jones at Inverness Terrace. She is greatly interested in the * movement for the higher education " of the Central African races, and—" "No, just the two of us, Tallis," called Sir Horace into the instrument without waiting for the finish of the sentence. He laughed at some remark'from the other end of the wire as he replaced -the receiver, but did not respond to hil wife's interrogatory lift of her eyebrows. Sir James Tallis was glad to see his old friend, and expressed his sorrow that they did not meet oftener. "You and "I have; lost some money together on theatrical experiments," he laughed, "but I'm glad we learnt sense in time." "Yes," agreed Sir Horace. "Its convinced me of the folly of fooling with businesses we don't understand. I thought at one time of buying a newspaper, but—" • "Keep off it, my boy," warned Tallis. "Its a most difficult business—in fact, as many fortunes have been lost m Fleet Street by rich men who thought money was all papers needed, as have been lost in theatrical ventures." "I quite agree; but some have made fortunes, haven't they?" he remarked, with a twinkle in his eye. "Meaning me?" laughed Sir James. "Oh, yes; but I suppose I'm one of the lucky ones." "Or perhaps it is that you-know the business. But look here, Tallis, my young nephew, Peter Brent—my sister's boy, you know—has just left Oxford, and I want him to do something. He fancies journalism at pretent. Do you think you could fix him up, or give him a trial?"

Sir James hesitated. "I'm not keen on taking inexperienced men," he said slowly, "but as the holidays are on I might fit him in till they are over., and then see if lie makes good. I'll speak to the news editor. He might be glad of an extra reporter. Send him along .. to me and I'll introduce him. I find it Rood business to leave all appointments to the man in charge. He has a keen eye for a good man." The two old friends sat over their cigars exchanging reminiscences for Home time, then Sir James Tallis glanced at his watch. "I must he getting back," he said. '"YYe have to work in the* Street, you know. Mend the boy along to me when you return home. Drop me a line, and I'll see that he gets a start, anyhow. \V hctlier he keeps it or not depends upon himself." Ily arrangement, Sir Horace went to meet his wife at Putney Bridge station, so that they might spend the afternoon at Kanelagh. He had been waiting half an hour,.and was becoming increasingly impatient, when an Austin saloon car stopped with a silky pmr just in front of him. "flood afternoon, Horace! Am I late :" called the voice of her ladyship as she stepped out, followed by hei hotftcftfl. 1 don t think you have met Mrs. hdgware-.Jones," she went on, as she introduced her husband. Sir Horace had not, he said, previously had that pleasure, and Mrs Kdgwarc-Jones allowed a pinched smile to pass over her face, offered the tips of her gloved fingers, and clasped to lier narrow bosom a snuffling Pekinese. He accompanied them during the rest of the short journey, but once inside thp ground they left him to his own devices, subject to meeting theiu at the appointed time to return to town. Not sorry to be alone. Sir Horace Hopper wandered about the great expanse. Among such an assembly he found himself in congenial company. Not that he was fond of fashionable society as such; but there is something about the love of sport shared in. common with other people that' forms an invisible bond between th^m —a, bond that disregards everything else. And he enjoyed an unusual sense of freedom and comradeship. He lingered with others admiring the I beautiful horses and chatting with the riders in the paddock; for some time. Then he remembered with a start that he had promised to join hia wife and'her friend in the car to go back to town. He consulted his watch. He was already twenty minutes overdue! He was somewhat relieved to find that they had not yet reached the rendezvous. But he liad not long to wait. ... w «.' ....

Chatting with animation, Lady Hopper and Mrs. EdgWare-Jones came down in full-sail, it transpired that the delay was caused by the Pekinese forgetting bis upbringing and roaming at large around the field. He bad given his mistress the slip, and was nowhere to be seen.

They found it at last, but only when Fitine had .tired of his unaccustomed liberty..

Outside the gates, vf,here they had to wait a moment for their car, an old #omau was selling matches. She stood close to the party with extended hand and a pleading look in her faded eyes. Sir Horace gave her a shilling and shook his head when she made a halfhearted , attempt to give him a box of matches.

''Really, Horace!" began her ladyship "I think "

"Here we are, Lady Hopper!" cried Mr®.. Edgware-Jones as the car came up. "Lady Hopper!" said the old woman in a tearful voice. "Lady Hopper? I thought 1 knew her face."

"What is jtt" asked Sir Horace, turning round as his wife and her friend entered the car. "Do you know Lady Hopper?"

"I do, sir, I do," sobbed the matchseller. "Tell her—tell her she's too proud to know Betsy Tolworth now!"

As the car drove rapidly away to the station, the mitlowner saw that the old woman was weeping, and he sat in silence—and wondered. CHAPTER XVI. Sir Horace Hopper said nothing at the time to his wife about the old woman's declaration. In the Arst place, Mrs. Edgware-Jones was monopolising her ladyship's whole attention, and secondly he did not attach, any importance to it after the first surprise. On the return journey to Kirkchester, however, he asked casually if she knew a woman named Betsy Tolworth. "Betsy Who?" was her ladyship's reply. ''Tolworth, I think the woman said," he hesitated; "or it might have been Torworth. I'm not quite sure. She seemed to know you. That old woman sr ; ng matches outside the " %dy Hopper regarded her husband With scorn. "Really, I think you are more in your element speaking to people of that class than you are with anyone else/ . With all your —er —democratic notions^'even you must admit that there •re limits. • I often Wonder what my dear father, the rector, Would have said had he known what: you expect of me."

v The millowner had met her ladyship at the, house of a theatrical friend more than fifteen years previously, soon after the death of hhi first wife. She lost no opportunity of reminding him of her own (social, and he had heard so much about her late, father, "the dear rector" (whom he never met) that the mention of Jiis name always reduced him to silent wonder at his. own foolishness in paying auch a price for his "advancement," and incidentally widened the gulf that yawned betweeit them. He was glad last they arrived home. Miserable as he was at the thought of the possible trouble impending from the vindictivcness .of Ninon Eiterel, he felt better able to battle with things on his own familiar -ground.

Peter was waiting for them when they reached home, and the old man was as glad to see bin as though he bad been afray -for yean.

. "Well, my boy, what news?" he said when his and his nephew were once more atone in the study.

Peter, told, him of the telephone message that had come from some woman who declined to give her name.

"That'* unfortunate. It was the same woman undoubtedly, and I'm afraid she has to he reckoned with." Sir Horace ■lowly lit a cigar and gased thoughtfully into the smoke. "Yes, it might be worth while to settle it once for all," he murmured to himself.

"She is staying at the Five Bells in the High Street," went on Peter. "I found that out .by watching her after she had spoken to. you at the tournament."

"That's worth knowing, of course. But I don't know that calling on her is going to do any good. You see, everyone knows me here, and if I make an appointment with, her away from there, well—someone is sure to see me keeping, the—er—tryst." He laughed mirthlessly. "Anyhow, let her ring, and be d —-d to her!"'he exclaimed with sud-den-passion. "Why should I be at the iriercyof her or any other woman? Let's forget her. Out of sight, out of mind, eh? I've got some news for you that will be more interesting than niv foolishness." ■ Peter nodded eagerly. "I had lunch with my old friend, Tallis—Sir James Tallis—of the "Morning Courier," and mentioned you to him. He said be is prepared to give you a. chance on his paper if you arc content to accept a holiday post and don anything you are told to do. You see, you have had no experience of the work, rand until they know what you afe best . fitted for they can't " "Oh, quite," replied Peter enthusiastically. "I'm willing to do anything that Will lead in the right direction, and. will leave myself in Sir James' hands absolutely" it is not Sir James who will decide your adaptability. That rests with his drief of staff, but you will lie well introduced, and then it remains with you." "I'm quite prepared, to stand or fall by that," returned 'Peter happily. "And I'm more grateful to you than I can say. When do I start!" '(To be continued daily.)