The ARROW by NIGHT

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 282, 28 November 1932, Page 15

The ARROW by NIGHT

by LESLIE CARC.ILL

CHAPTER VII. "Let 'Em Have It." Getting out of the frying pan into the fire is a nice old-fashioned simile everybody uses dozen of times every year "without getting any particular thrill out of the phrase. They ought to chip away from a prison and then find themselves ringed around by determined pursuers to have something more than a nodding acquaintance with the metaphor. It is really and truly a suitable simile.

Helmuth and myself didn't wait, for further developments when we heard the rumpus going on. inside the building. If ever there was a time to be up° and doing that was the precise moment, and we were legging it across the crisp grass without'worrying much about the possible fate of the unfortunate girl who remained in captivity.

Heroic adventurers would have braved the horde, but ordinary men act on impulse, and ours was to put a protective space between us and those who had an unexplained desire for keeping us from the comforts of freedom and civilisation. The fact that we did not really know from what we were fleeing helped us to go the faster, and the oppressively sinister atmosphere of the abode of the scarlet-clad followers of the sombre abbot —as I had come to describe him to myself—made me, at any rate, frantically eager to avoid being taken back to the place.

The Scarlet Brotherhood, and their Abbot of Evil. Who were they, and what fate did they plan as they closed relentlessly about us in those walled grounds about their ill abode ? Like a man in a nightmare, who tries to make sense out of the foolish things his brain conjures up, I tried to reason why two innocent holiday-makers* should be plunging wildly about the park-like surroundings of a mysterious monastery with a pack of yelping human beings on their heels.

For they actually were yelping, giving tongue with a bloodthirsty eagerness that was unpleasantly like hounds that have scented a fox—or perhaps more of hungry wolves when the prey is almost within reach of the champing jaws.

That little clump of trees which I had admired for its pictorial effect when first I got into the open was now a desirable haven. Half unconsciously I remembered that it was a little to the right of where we had been standing, and that there was shadow there, and perhaps a hiding place that would ensure some measure of safety.

"Follow me," I yelled to Helmuth, and together we went panting ahead, just as men poured from, the building, and sounds all round gave warning that others were coming from other points of. the compass as well.

Taking advantage of any shadow that happened to be handy we got nearer and nearer to the trees, dodging behind bushes and shunning the patchy moonlight as well as we were able. Fortu? nately, the general confusion made it' unnecessary to be silent. So many men were tramping about that our own footsteps were merely incidental, and, unless wo were seen, there was a good chance of our reaching the greater safety of the clump of trees.

What was to follow that could only be decided according to how fate played into our hands—or into the hands of the enemy! as the case might be.

One difficulty >vas to know what to do in defence. T > what lengths would the members of the Scarlet Brotherhood go to prevent our getting clean away? We could not be -sure if they were actually desperately anxious to detain us, or what lay behind their extraordinary behaviour in keeping us in confinement. .

Probably, I was deciding, as I ran, we were suspected of being in league with the Verenov person, and the girl we had been forced to leave to her fate (whatever that might be) was certainly connected in some way with . that gentleman. And Verenov was actually more mysterious than the Scarlet Abbot, for at least we had come face to face with the latter, whereas the other was merely a name.

For no satisfactory reason I preferred the unknown to the known—and the girl had a delightful voice, at any rate. Any young woman who could retain her composure, and actually laugh when,'she had just expelled a gag from her mouth, had undoubtedly likeable qualities. Even the modern miss, priding herself on her toughness and superiority, would tend 'to become unfashionably feminine if bound, gagged, and imprisoned in the way we had found the girl in the cell.

How did I know she was a girl ? That I cannot actually explain. Something in the timbre of her voice and the tinkle of her laugh convinced me that she was not only quite young, but exceedingly attractive. I was to find out more about that before very long.

These were queer thoughts to flit through the mind of a hunted quarry, but it is exactly how they chased through my brain as I dashed along, with Helmuth panting along beside me. Mixed up with trying to make sense out of the adventure into which we had been plunged were thoughts born of that age-implanted necessity of self-preserva-tion. Fear ran with me, urging a speed over the rough ground that would have seemed impossible in normal circumstances.

We were not seen. That was the greatest piece of good fortune, and the fact that we had some sort of a start-was an important point in our favour. At least it was going to be worth while in so much as it permitted us to get to those trees, which I had been regarding as friendly things in a world of enemies.

Once among the gnarled trunks we threw ourselves on the ground and gasped for breath. My heart was battering away at my ribs, trying to force a way out, and thel'e was a fiuttering'sensation at the crown of my skull tapping out a warning that, it was as well- to take things easy, for a'spell. If the hunters had arrived on the scene at that particular moment they would have had an easy chance to overpower us, forVI don't think we had a ha'porth of fight left. . 'vi

The spur of emergency was responsible for my staggering to my feet as soon as my lungs were functioning a litrtle more comfortably, but I know I was swaying like a drunken man, and Helmuth had to clutch a tree trunk for support when he managed to get up from the ground. He wus breathing stertorously, and a trickle of moonlight drifting in from a wind-rifted foliage showed his face as a dead-white blur.

"W-what are wc-wc to do now?" ha casped. Talking.was painful, and every word had to fift jerked out as I replied. "H-old on Moment Avkile fl'e get a.

bit more wind I'm puffed. At present I don't know what to suggest for the best." "Was fur der Teufel! Is there a best? At the worst we can't be much more badly off." Helmuth was evidently regaining his sense of humour as well as his wind, and I managed to crack my face in something like a smile. We could hear shouting and glimpse flares away back from where we had come—and some of the lights were coming in our direction. "Can you manage a further effort?" I asked, and he assured me that it was just what lie wanted to do. "Looks as if we've no time to waste, now," I said. "Keep with me at all costs and we'll have a look round and get our bearings. Somehow or other we must get the other side of that beastly wall—and once over, it's a race for law and order." "If they have any in this country! Himmel! If only I were back in Deuftschland, where there is only an occasional revolution to worry folk." "Save your breath and get busy, or else the Fatherland will be permanently short of one of its most promising citizens. Come, on, and keep your eyes skinned for anything in our favour. ... "Here's something that might come in useful." He ha,d stopped and was indicating a stack of wood, nicely cut and arranged for firewood or fencing, oi some such purpose. "Quite handy weapons if we're forced to make a fight for it." 'W c pulled out a couple of stakes several feet long, a good fist-full to the grip, and with a rough axe-hewn point at one end. The wood was newish and tough, so that with the help of these we might well do quite a lot of damage, unless the attacking forces weie armed with guns or pistols; which aid not occur to me as very likely m view of the possible risk of being heard by people outside who would naturally want to know what was going on.

Intelligent anticipation worked out correctly in this case, the appearance ol a handful of men on the scene giving ample opportunity for the fullest evidence being given that our recapture was wanted with a minimum of noise. One of the men carried a blazing flare that lit up the place with a lurid, light and another had a powerful cl e ctri ® which he shone ahead and flashed here and there as he searchlighted any probable lurking place. With bated breath we cowered behind the inadequate cover of a fair-sized tree, but it was insufficient to observation —a triumphant Here they are," assured us that the time for drastic measures liad arrived. "Let 'em have it, Helmuth/' I muttered hoarsely. "On to em.

Lights Ahead. It was no time to work out a plan of campaign, or to observe any rules of fio-htino We just dashed in, using the stakes alternately-as stabbing spears and as clubs. Personally I found it best to thrash round in windmill faslnon, a squeak and a groan following one lucky swing which squelched sickingly on side of somebody's head. That was one less, and Helmuth had neatly laid out a second, leaving the immediate odds even—and this wasi reduced when I brought the stake down like a quarter-stave on the top or a noli that was absolutely asking to be hit. Old Friar Tuck couldn t managed it better, and he was an expert at that sort of thing by all accounts. By the time I turned to the assistance of my friend the remaining member of the quartet was making tracks for the open, yelling for assistance as loudly as he could, and Helmuth hard on his heels, but sufficiently in the rear to make me call out to him to come back.

Little use would come from knocking out the fellow, whose bawling had certainly been heard, judging by the excitement that was going on about the grounds, where searchers were gathering and beginning to circle towards the clump of trees. "Let him go —let him go. No use chasing," I sang out. He heard me almost at°'once, and turned back so that we could go rushing off together in search of that freedom we urgently desired. There were only about a dozen or so trees, in the clump, so it wasn t the slightest use skulking about there now that we had been spotted. Beyond the trees was more open space, and, to my relief, the great wall was visible a hundred yards or more straight ahead. Slightly leading the way I showed my heels in a manner that would have been an object lesson to any world's marathon champions had they been present to witness the demonstration. Evidently I was speedier. than Helmuth, or he couldn't keep the pace, so I came first to the wall, to realise despondently that the situation was rather like that of the animals on the Mappin terraces at the Zoo, who see freedom but are so far from it.

When we had been wandering about the copse where the dead man had lain the great wall had been a barrier that offered no hope of scaling, and inside we were in a similarly parlous state, for it rose above our heads, grim and unfriendly, so smooth that was impossible, so high that even an ordinary ladder would have been of little use.

Keeping now side by side and as close to the stonework as possible to avail ourselves of its shadow, we ran on and on, praying for an opening that we knew would only reveal itself as a direct intervention of Providence.

And Providence came to our aid, disguised this time as a tall elm which reared a noble spread of branch high oyer our heads. So close did it grow to the wall that the first impression one got was that the structure came to it" took it into its wooden embrace and then went on, winding its grim way on and on finally to catch up with itself after straddling a whole countryside.

Actually, however, the tree stood alone, the wall built close irp to it so as to leave 119 space. A few more years of growth and the living body would burst its way into the outer world. "And we can't wait for that," I muttered, unconscious that I had spoken aloud. "Eh!" Helmuth was waiting for me to be more distinct, thinking that I was advising on immediate needs. So I pointed out that the scarred bark was something to be thankful for. "Can you climb it?" "Ja. j hope so. Trust me to dig my fingers in like talons if it's going to get us out of here." "You'll have to fjjg"#eep. CliSg on lifce grim death, and if one of us can do the trick while the other fails . . . well, the devil take the hindmost. We can't go 111 for sentiment now. If we both succeed so much the better, but one is better than nothing, for we can get .some sort of assistance." . —■■ J

Then we clawed. Climbing trees is easier in boyhood days than in the maturity of manhood. Possibly that trunk would have been an easy matter to any schoolboy. For me it was a herculean task—painful and tiring, until I found a twig or two which held—then a larger outgrowth—finally strong boughs which began to support my weight. "Are you there, Helmuth ?" His answer came from below, but he was still progressing, and I was able to reach down a helping hand until we both straddled a branch which jutted out and over and beyond, leaving us dangling in space. The drop was considerable, suggesting endless possibilities in the way of broken bones, and I wished sincerely that the trunk actually had been embedded in the wall so that we might have had a clawhold to ease our descent somewhat. Momentarily I had an idea that we could use the wall to help us—an idea that faded away, for to try and slither down would be asking for trouble. "Now for a bump," I warned, and Helmuth swiftly uttered some practical advice about keeping tip-toe fashion and flexing the legs so that there would be a springy reaction when we struck the ground. I got ready, remembering hia gymnastically inspired suggestion and taking a deep breath like a diver going off! the top board. There was a swift rushl of air, a sudden shock that came before) I expected it, and maybe that springy positioning was valuable, for except that I felt as if somebody had pounded me into a mighty jelly, I was quite unharmed. So was Helmuth, although he rolled over and over, with acrobatic ludicrousness, to pick himself up and give a rueful shake before assuring me that he was all right. Where we were I had no idea, though I guessed—correctly as it happened— that our exit had been made beyond the door where wo had been given admittance to the forbidding retreat. Somewhere across country was the village we had been advised by tlio imprisoned girl to avoid, and somewhere else was the place where we could find Veronov, if we wished to take the whole of that advice. (To be continued daily.)