ABDUCTION OF BETTY MERE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 305, 26 December 1928, Page 14

ABDUCTION OF BETTY MERE.

COMPLETING THE STORY. ' HOW SHE DEFEATED THE PLOTTERS. (Winning entry by KATHLEEN is EEL Y, 34, West End Road, Heme Bay, age 16.) When Betty escaped from her captors fhe realised that if she endeavoured to warn her uncle by knocking on the door she would, within all probability, have been caught again before anyone could have come to her aid, so quickly she dropped down "behind a large hydrangea bush and crouched under its thick foliage, as the four came tearing up. They ran past the bush towards the front of the house. Why .they were after her, and what mystery surrounded her uncle Betty did not know, but she was possessed with one idea—to get into the house. Cautiously she crept from behind the bush along the side of the house towards a large tree that grew close beside the wall. Its lower branches were within reach of Betty's hand and she drew herself up into the tree and was clambering higher into its branches when she heard her pursuers returning. She caught her breath, held fast to the branch and prayed that they might not find her. She heard one curse her as he slipped on the muddy path, and trembled in terror when the others began searching amongst the Pushes that grew thickly around the house. For a moment it seemed as though she must be found. Then the men stopped searching there, and hurried off to some other part of the grounds. Betty breathed a sigh of relief, and then gave a gasp of astonishment, for just above her head was a half-opened casement window. As noiselessly as possible Betty climbed along the branch and fully opened the window. She crept inside. Betty now found herself on a narrow landing from which descended a flight of stairs. Down these she tip-toed softly. Nearest the foot of the stairs was a room under the closed door of which a light was streaming, and from which the murmur of voices reached her. This must be her uncle's room. Then she heard something that made her blood run cold. Creak! Creak! She could hear stealthy footsteps proceeding from the rear of the house. What was she to do? She dare not cry out, or knock on the door lor fear of giving herself away. So she knelt beside the keyhole and whispered: "Uncle! Aunt! Let me in. It's Betty. Let me in quickly!" She heard a movement towards the door, heard the key turn in tlie lock, and she burst into the room. Its occupants were in practically the same position as when she had seen them through the window, except for her aunt, who stood beside the door, all staring at her with various expressions of amazement. Before they could say anything, Betty had "flung herself upon the door and locked it again. Then greetings, exclamations and questions were rained upon her. Then she told them of all that had happened, from her abduction from the train to the footsteps she had just heard in the house. Her aunt was very white, and the lawyer looked grave. "But—but why should they kidnap you?" queried her cousins, two girls some years younger than herself. Betty looked at her uncle, and her uncle looked at his lawyer. "Sit down, Betty," quavered her uncle in a weak voice. "I have not long to live, and something I must give you before I go. Look here."

He picked up the chest again and pressed part of its iron bindings. About

an inch of the iron strip flew back, revealing a tiny button. This he pressed also, and the lid slowly opened. There was a deathly silence in the room. Everyone stared a,t the box, fascinated. Out of the box the sick man lifted a tiny, atrociously-ugly idol, roughly carved out of ebony. "This," said her uncle, "was brought from Africa at the close of the Boer Wars by your father. He was in Africa when the war broke out, and an incident to which he attached little importance at the time was later to prove of great benefit to him. He had twice prevented a native overseer from cruelly thrashing a young kaffir named Mnambie. The boy was exceedingly grateful, but my brother, who thought it merely a humane act, soon forgot the incident. Then the war broke out, and he joined up. He was wounded and had crept into the bush, hoping that he would find water there. He was discovered, however, by a tribe of natives, and when he regained consciousness found himself in the kraal with a native, "whose face seemed familiar, beside him. It was Mnambie. The slaves had been freed, you know, and although many stayed to work under wages, others went back to their tribes. Mnambie was the son of a chief. Well, to cut the story short, your father stayed there until he was better, and when he left the chief gave him this miniature idol, saying that it would protect him from harm, and possessed a strange power of curse. Those cursed in the name of the idol died." Here the doctor gave a cynical laugh, and said, "They all possess these powers." "Yes," continued Mr. Mere. "They are supposed to. But, for a wonder, this is, apparently, a genuine one. Once, in a fit of rage, my brother cursed a man whom he had caught cheating at cards; that night the man was taken ill and died before morning. However, Betty's father gave it to me to mind for her, but I had put it away and forgotten it, until a month ago, I received an unusual letter demanding 'that which lies in the body of the idol.' So I took out the idol and, after examining it closely, found I could open it." As he spoke he ran his thumb nail along the base of the idol which came off like a lid. "And discovered inside it a large, uncut diamond." His audience gazed at him breathlessly, and in the silence Betty imagined she heard someone outside the door. Of course they were expecting him to produce the diamond, but he merely opened the idol, looked into it, and went on with his story. "As soon as I understood what the letter meant, I took it to my lawyer and put the diamond, which is worth ten thousand pounds, in the Bank. What the kidnappers thought " A clap of thunder drowned his words; then there was a crash. The window had been broken. The masked face of one of Betty's abductors appeared, and a hand holding a revolver. "Give me the " Again there was a terrific peal of thunder and a flash of lightning. The sick man's fingers loosened their hold on the idol; he lay on his pillows gasping. It was certain that his end was near. Betty sprang towards the bed and clasped the idol. A second man appeared at the window. She was covered by two menacing black guns. Bang! There was a splintering of woodwork and the smell of gun powder. The man outside the door had blown off the lock! Quickly Betty lifted up the idol. "The curse of the idol of Mnambie be upon you!" she cried. There was a flash of lightning, a faint hissing sound, two terrible cries, and a shot. Then silence. To Betty it seemed more like a fearful nightmare than an actual happening.

A man lay sprawled half inside and half outside the bedroom door, his head in a pool of blood. Through the shattered window was thrust the large branch of a tree that had been struck by lightning, and amongst its sodden foliage could be seen the crushed bodies of two men. As the tree had crashed on one he had fired and killed the man who was entering the door.

On the bed lay the body of Betty's uncle, his spirit, too, had passed into the great Beyond.

The idol's curse had done its work well, for the body of the fourth bandit was found in the river below the house.

•Betty had now nothing to fear, but she left New Zealand for England, where she sold the diamond for a very large sum. The chest and the idol she kept as curio and mementoes of her terrible experience.

The bandits had evidently heard of the diamond in the idol, though how they had Betty couldn't guess, for even her father had been unaware of its presence.

However, when people scoff at superstitions connected with native idols, Betty wonders if there isn't something in it, after all.