A HOLIDAY ADVENTURE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 57, 4 September 1937, Page 20

A HOLIDAY ADVENTURE

(An Original Tale by a Pixie-of-the-Rin*-)

]W"ANCY BRENAN was fourteen years, of age, and, having no pirenis* she was "forced to spend her vacations at the boarding-school which she attended.' One very wintry day—the day after the other -boarders had left for their various homes—she was sitting in her. cubicle, feeling very depressed at the prospect of the long* dull holidays she was to pas* away on her own, excepting, of course, cook and the nw-I?, Ellen: and Mary Jane. ** At length, she made up her mind to fio for a long trar p acroi* tne wild, lonely moors which surrounded the school. . Narfcy was some ten miles from the school when she decided t4- stop arid consume the very tempting packet of sandwiches wh'..ch she h*S induced cook to prepare for her. .' . At last, she found the sandwiches finished and herself thinking about returning to school. She was half-way back to the school when a strange gentleman walked up to her and, without a word, pressed a letter into her hand, and quickly walked away, before she had time to fully express her astonishment. On looking at the envelope, she found that it. was addressed to her school maid, Mary Jane. Nanoy, in her excitement, hurried back to deliver the letter to the owner. • Jane opened the letter hurriedly, and to her surprise and astonishment she found that it ran:—

Dear Mary Jane, — I am being pursued by the police, who have mistaken .me for a dan-; gerous criminal. Could you find me a hiding-place and send me food until I can find the real criminal? The police will never think of searching for me in a girls' boarding school. , I shall be at the side entrance ■of the school at 8 o'clock. Nancy, flushed with excitement, persuaded Mary Jane to help her mysterious friend. "He looks a good man. lam sure he cannot be a criminal," »he Mia earnestly. At last Mary Jane was persuaded that the message wa« not from a burglar, and she and Nancy made plans to Help him. The tnaij proved very jolly and the three became great friends. Then the,day before school began he disappeared. Not long afterwards Mary Jane and Nancy received a small note and a beautiful gold wristlet watch, each. On. a small card they read; "For your kind assistance to a dangerous criminal.* The note explained that the man was really the brother of their loved headmistress. He had proved his innocence to the "men in blue,*

and thanked Nancy and Mary Jane : "So the holidays were not dull, could have such an adventure everj

lor their help, after all," said Nancy. "I wish. I term."