SPEED BOAT

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 201, 26 August 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

SPEED BOAT

CHAPTER XXIII. The Passengers. The surprise was general when the flame of the lamp burnt up in Garrison's sitting room. Even Mr. Alfred Elver, who, in oilskins and waders, revealed himself as the mysterious boatman, had evidently not been prepared to recognise the "cargo." •To Tanner's eyes Sir Gerald looked woefully different, with bagged eyelids and insomnia wrinkles, though as self-imposing as ever. On discovering the personality of the furred feminine bundle his mind recoiled incredulously from the recollection of Garrison's scornful comment, but in spite of his incredulity his heart felt sick within him. She, of them all, seemed the least embarrassed. The very sight of Tanner had raised a load from her mind, a load that, when less than an hour ago Uncle Gerald liad proposed in an extraordinary repulsive voice that she might care to come across with him, had impelled her to welcome all risks, to dare anything if only she might not be left alone at the Deckhouse, to think. "Hello, John," sli.3 cried happily. "Fancy seeing you! You look half perished." He seemed doomed to fail her in conversational generosity. He had not got over that first sick-hearted despair; moreover he was conscious that Sir Gerald was glaring at him in a way that enforced a sense of his own present disgrace. His reply was, "Good evening, Miss Wade," as stiffly as if he had just been introduced at an exceedingly formal occasion, and his mouth fell acrid as he said it. Sir Gerald shited his adenoidal stare and turned importantly to Garrison, who was bringing out glasses from his cupboard. "I say, sir! you sir! Do you know this fellow is wanted by the police for murder?" Garrison said: "We know all about that, don't we, John? And let me tell you, Stremme, Tanner here's a good deal more innocent, of murder than j'ou'll be when those you've ruined start taking the quick way out. Drink up, John, and I'll lend you some dry things. I want that stay fixing in less than no time." As he followed Tanner to the stairs he turned. "If you're lucky enough to get across to-night, Sir Gerald," he told the fuming financier, "without being intercepted by the police, you'll owe it all to the ingenuity of Tanner and to his loyalty to friends in the face of an accusation of murder." He east a last glance at the group, took in the elevation of Sir Gerald's nostrils, Anne's puzzled brow, and Mr. Elver standing against the table twiddling his cap while his little questing eyes betrayed an intense interest in every phase of the situation. Then he locked the door on them. Upstairs lie told Tanner. "I'm worried .about tliat fellow Elver, and I'll feel safer if he doesn't lose us before we get out of this. I'm going to send him to help you in the boathouse. Keep him in sight. If he tries to bolt drop him with a spanner or anything else that's handy. If he does get loose in spite of you, push her out and join ß me at once, whether you're finished or not." But in the boathouse Elver showed 110 inclination to bolt; indeed, he proved an intelligent and valuable helper. As they worked, he kept asking^questions about the purpose of this and that and exhibited a generous admiration of Tanner's genius. The job was a quick one, but Mr. Elver seemed to absorb information from the sparest, most hurried descriptions. His last question was one the function of two light chains that were brought up over the stern and attached to a cleat in the rear cockpit. "Cut-outs in ease the silencers go wrong, sort of things we used to have on motor bikes before they made them illegal," Tanner explained tersely. "Blime, there don't seem to be much as you 'aven't fort of!" admired Mr. Elver. They ran the "Whooshter" out into the entrance dyke and hurried back to the cottage, Tanner walking close to Elver and with a hand that itched to grab his sleeve. But the man was apparently indisposed to bolt. The party were sitting comfortably before the fire, overcoats discarded, furs removed. Sir Gerald was apparently explaining to Garrison something of the thrill of major financial operations. It would have been difficult to believe that such people were mutually involved in a desperate flight from the law, but when Tanner announced everything ready, Garrison rose sharply. "That's a good thing," he remarked in his grimmest, tight-cornered voice. "I was getting fidegetty. The police will be here in about five minutes. Get your coats on sharp." Elver alone showed no surprise. His eyes seemed to be fixed on his own waistcoat buttons, but there seemed to Tanner the shadow of an imperfectly concealed disappointment on his face. Sir Gerald had gone a nasty grey. His hands fumbled with coat buttons. He might be as conscious of financial rectitude as he wished them to believe, but he clearly had no desire to meet the police just then. In half a minute they were out of the place. As tliey crowded through the door, Garrison sharply bade Elver carry Sir Gerald's bags. "This is a gun I'm poking in your ribs," Tanner heard him say. There was 110 protest from the threatened one. He just picked up the bags and moved obediently forward keeping within half a yard of the thing that threatened him. "Stow the passengers well up under the bows and the bags amidships, Tanner," came Garrison's steady voice as they reached the water. "I'm looking after our friend here." Tanner stowed them. There was no time for courtesies, but he could not help reflecting that the steel bow decking made harsh lying, and he felt remorse for one at least as he recalled how Garrison had once described the sufferings of his passengers. Elver was stowed alone in the little cockpit abaft the engines, and, last of all, Garrison, having given the big hull a shove off, swung himself over the thwart and standing 011 the engine hatch poled her smoothly into the Loding. As he laid down the quant and moved forward to the wheel, Tanner stooped to start the port engine. "Listen a moment," said Garrison.

CHAPTER XXIV. The Navy in Pursuit,

In a lull of the wind he could hear voices and a sound of heavy feet on the banks behind. "Thought so," remarked Garrison in his ear. "Just in time. We'll have to sneak down and get her tanks filled lively. Start 'em up."

By FAREMAN WELLS.

The port engine whirred a moment while lie fumbled with the ignition control. Then off she went with a series of ear-shattering volleys that slew the pride he had in his work remorselessly. It was a moment before his brain worked sufficiently to direct him to make a wild spring over the slippery engine hatch to the stern cockpit, where 110 loosened the cut-out chains. The noise ceased abruptly and reassuringly. Wild with shame he bent to tlie starting of the starboard engine, and they began to slip noiselessly down the creek. He rejoined Garrison, upright at the wheel, as he eased her round bends iu the faint light of a young moon. "How did you manage to let that happen, Johnlie heard the cool inquiry above the sough of the wind. "Can't imagine! I felt sure I'd left the cut-outs right. Suppose I made another bloomer, getting excited." "Never mind. It won't make much difference unless they've the means of wirelessing their friends off Dovereourt. The real nuisance is we daren't stop now for petrol. I'd have preferred to have full tanks." "How much do you reckon we're short ?" "Not more than forty or fifty gallons. Don't worry. It's enough if things go well. If they don't we probably shan't need the bulk of it. Make the other side easy enough, anyway." "Do you reckon to have to do that? There'll be a nasty sea outside." "Not much to come back for, is there?" To Tanner he sounded desperately grim. "How could you tell the police were 011 us?" he asked after digesting the last remark. "I had lots of time to spare this afternoon, so among other things I i;an a half mile of cable down the bank and fixed a contact 011 one end and an armature on the other. The armature clicked just as I heard you returning, so I gave them five minutes. We'll be making open water directly. I'll do the <next few miles at speed in case they've got in touch with Dovereourt." He crouched 011 the wheel, steadily increased speed until the spray-roof arched overhead and the scream of tlie hull rose with it to blot out lesser sounds. Presently, as if satisfied with her behaviour at speed, he slowed, and the 6pray sank from aloft as the scream died away. At once the silence seemed uncanny as they slowly nosed forward through a stiflish sea and in a light that was as yet no more than a greying blackness. Suddenly Garrison swung her to starboard. "Hear anything?" he asked. Tanner strained to listen, and as the craft was made to zigzag he caught at intervals, as if at a certain part of the are of her swing, a heavy intermittent thrumming. "That's iier Diesels. She's well on our port beam, cruising evidently," commented Garrison. "I think we're just about clear," he remarked a minute later as he accelerated. Obediently they shot forward into that funnel of dark water, against that taut ear-splitting scream of the hull. And then, as she reached speed, a sudden great zooming roar broke from her stern. The cut-outs were operating. This time Tanner was over the slippery engine hatch in one instantaneous rash lea]) that recked nothing of the chances of being swept overboard. But the noise had ceased by the time he brought up against Elver in the little cockpit where there was scant room for the two of them. "Beg pardon, Mr. Tanner," he squealed his inadequate excuse. "I was only clearin' the weed off 'em." He actually pushed a wet handful against Tanner's face. "You —" screamed the mechanic as he grabbed at the man's shoulders. And at that moment ho was capable of murder, meant indeed to bundle the man overboard. But a light struck them, a blinding glaring light that sprang out of the night astern and seemed to focus on the two of them as if to expose their pitiful quarrel to some vast invisible audience. They were in the full beam of the navy boat's searchlight. The effect was to strip Tanner's wrath from him. "Well, fancy that!" said Mr. Elver innocently. There was nothing for it but to scramble back to Garrison. Even if, his rage holding, he had still possessed the purpose, he could not have punished Mr. Elver in so emphasised a publicity. "My fault," shouted Garrison, bending towards him. "Shouldn't have put him there.' Thought he'd at least be out of mischief." He glapced up at the arching spray now like a corona of iridescent flying smoke above them. "Nothing for it now but to see who's fastest." His voice came back faintly to Tanner a moment later. "Fastest or cleverest," it seemed to be saying. "Try to get a look at her." Sharply Garrison swerved out of the beam, and it was a moment before it picked them up again. In that moment Tanner could see for the first time its point of issue from a sheer high bow that was throwing spume as wide and high as the Whooshter, only cleaving deep rather than riding the water as she seemed to. Not more than a couple of hundred yards separated them. Five minutes later Garrison repeated the manoeuvre. "Who's winning?" he slioutee\. "Nothing in it. P'raps a bit in our favour." "What I thought. Even if we can beat her, we can't lose her." He held his course firmly for a few minutes while he seemed to think. Then, as if lie had made up his mind, he shouted "Pumps!" at Tanner, who, wondering, raised a small diaphragm pump upon a collapsible bracket and fitted it with a lever. Then he crouched waiting. Suddenly they swung hardly to starboard, so that a wall of water arched over their counter and they had the sensation of bursting sideways through its smooth overeurl and skidding until brought up against the next roller. About four such skids and she was round, though for a times lanner, working desperately at the powerful little pump, had expected her to flounder under the burden of shipped water. The pump gave a last gurgling suck and he laid aside the lever to rise and watch the distant beam ranging, searching, as the navy boat also put about. They had gained nearly half a mile by the manoeuvre, but unless they could evado her beam there was little benefit. They could not go on gaining half miles, since success depended on letting the pursuer get almost on top of them before they turned. From a distance she would merely intercept their path. Surely. Garrison could see this, yet he seemed positively elated over his foolhardy manoeuvre. I (To be continued daily.)