"THE TABLES TURNED."

Evening Star, Issue 18093, 7 October 1922, Page 14

"THE TABLES TURNED."

A SHORT STORY. [By A. A. Harrison,] This story, written by Mr A. A. Harrison, of Dunedin, took the first prize in the original story section 0 ( f the Dunedin Competitions Society s twenty-first annual festival. According to the judge, it was easily the best of the three stories sent in for adjudication. CHAPTER ITUB QUARRY. “There is no road for free men while the prisoners are at work.” So runs the inscription on a square notice hom’d placed at the corner of the road skirting Bayminstcuq Common. Bavminster, in addition to being a cathedral city, has the distinction of possessing in it's western outskirt a convict establishment. A mile or so out of the town, and fronting on the wide expanse of gorse and scrub, stretches a long, low line of buildings environed by a wall some twenty feet high, above which at far intervals small," black, square windows scowl at the free world outside them. The road above referred to leads 1o : wards a large stone quarry, and in the early morning, at noonday, and at sunset squads of men march ’twixt quarry and prison—from durance to labor, from toil to captivity—bondsmen, because they are the foes of liberty. Look at this gang approaching; listen to the dragging' rhythm of the slouching tramp. As they pass you four abreast, and you gaze upon their sullen, hopeless faces, you instinctively congratulate yourself that the rifles of the warders who march at their head, their flank, and their rear are loaded. Looking at the fierce eyes that scan you from beneath beetling brows, noting tho sinister lines about some of the shaven lips, you feel that you would not card to como across some of these men alone. Perhaps it is the wisdom which, in the after light of events, all men possess which makes you say_ “ These men look criminals ”; perhaps in other days many of these have moved among honest men—honest, perhaps, themselves, without even a shadow presaging their coming fats or the evil that their hands and hearts would work. Looking at them now, il'seems to one that no broad arrow is needed to stamp them as what they are. Ah, there is this difference between them and us —they are found out.

They pass on until they reach the quarry, and recommence their tasks. Most of them are there because they sought fruits without labor ; now their portion is labor without fruits. Stationed here and there down in the quarry, the warders pace to and fro; others, too, are stationed on the brink. One almost wonders which is the more monotonous lot—the worker’s or the watcher’s.

But life has its surprises even here. There is a shout followed by others, a heavy thud, a shrill cry, then a moaning. One of the convicts has slipped from a ledge in the rock he has been working, and has come crashing down, pick and all, and lies senseless and bleeding.

For a few moments warders and convicts forget the artificial relation they bear eacii other; the bond of humanity and brotherhood draws a group of them round him who lies sorely wounded—a convict, a mere number (48), still a man! And’So. 21, whoso eyes have often, in passing, rested on a belt of gorse that runs along the common, and who has often reflected what a splendid cover that would make if pauses in his work. When the excitement is over, and the gang is mustered, Xo. 48 is missing. His bondage is broken for ever; they will never try to recapture him. But thev are two short. Where is Xo. 21! CHAPTER 11. THE HALL. In Bayminster Town Hall there is a sound of revelry by night. There is a fancy ball in aid of local charity, for charity covers a multitude of vanities as well as sins. Civic state lends its lustre fo the scene in the persons of the mayor and the town councillors, with the respective wives of their respective bosoms. Aristocracy has toned the assembly by leavening it with a few “ families,” and valor, represented by the colonel and officers of the Spatterdash Foot Regiment, basks in the sunshine of Baymmster’s beauty. En masse the crowd is kaledoscopic. Analysed it is woefully unoriginal The inevitable white evening dress with black shirt front and cuffs is here. Although there is no Richmond, there are several Richard the Thirds in the field. The Ophelias would fill a nunnery; there are Hamlets enough to distract them all. Henri Quatre and Louis Quinze, of course, never miss a fancy ball. There is a flock of Shepherdesses. The Pompadours would have crowded tho Trianon, while the number of Marie Antoinettes would have taxed the accommodation of the Temple. There are Marie Stewarts of every time of life, from -fifteen to fifty; as for the Bluebeards and Henry tho Eighths, it Would be difficult to find them a wife apiece. “ Why- doesn’t somebody como as somebody or something novel?” petulantly asks Gloria Gardiner, the banker's daughter, who is draped in grey muslin of wondrous folds to represent a cloud, only that her face beams with sunshine and reveals tho fraud.

“ Captain Mason, whatever induced you to paint your cheeks that ghastly white, with those horrid carmine streaks?”

Mason protests; as for himself, his character is quite original. “I'm the only clown hero, anyway,” he chuckles. “Here we are again!” “A clown?” Gloria raises her eyebrows, and adds j -/‘You needn’t have put on those hideous Talico garments to make it clear,” for it :s characteristic of lovely women to bc.yudo to tho men who adore her. Mason is not half so stung by the remark as by tho chorus of giggling at his expense which follows it, and edges off with a downcast expression, which makes him look, for the first time tonight, really' funny. Tho band of the Spatterdashes wails the first plaintive bars of a dreamy,waltz, and in a few seconds tho polychromatic} throng is whirling round; in pairs. 1 On one of the stone'i balconies of the Town Hall a man is crouching in the dark peering at this window and that, through - the chinks which let out gleams of light. At ■ last he reaches one which is quite/dark, and from the other side whereof comes no sound of music or laughter. He lifts the massive sash; in an instant he has entered a dark passage. Groping along this, he comes to a door ajar. Cautiously peering through tho aperture, he sees a cloak room, well lit and furnished; better than all, emptv. “iSow, a good wash is the very thing I want,” soliloquises. No. 21, as in the mirror facing him lie .beholds himself begrimed with day and limestone and haggard with the excitement of his flight. “Here V/e arid hot and cold water taps, beautiful white towels, brushes and combs—splendid!_ Now, if I could only see soma coats and hats lying about!” He draws the little brass bolt "securing the door, then revob in the luxury of laving hands arid face, in tho soothing hot water \ then-in the vigorous exultation. of plunging head and face in the cold.. In a few minutes he-stands theroy ;red,: rosy, and shiny, the dirt brushed from his convict dress, for, though criminal, No. 21 is very particular in some respects. He starts as ho hears a step along the passage. In/an instant he has opened the opposite- door,/pushed aside a heavy baize ' curtain, and stands — In the glare of a dazzling light, in the presence of a crowd of people, many of whom start' instinctively as he bounces in upon them. What shall ho do s run amok amongst' them, and, ere he is captured, lamo one or two, just for the satisfaction of getting something for his money, or rather his “time”? Or shall

he retreat? He stands still, feeling that one thing is certain —lie is lost: his short, spell of liberty is at an end. But a shout, of iauglue'’ breaks on his ears. A dozen voices echo “Capital!” “ Bravo 1” “The best idea in the room!” And what a strange lot of people before whom he stands! Are they ghosts como back from many bygone ages? No; they are too uproarious, too rubicund, too merry. Captain Mason approaches. “By Jove, you know, that’s a nailing good costume to como in ! Only, don’t you know, a real convict wouldn’t have such clean hands and face, and wouldn’t have been so particular about his hair. H’m I you’ve got the dress all right, and you’ve shaved clean, but anybody who looked closely at yon would sec that you are not a real convict.” No. 21 lakes in the situation in a moment. There is a fancy ball going on here, and they think he has come in character. Good; he will not, if he can help it, undeceive them. “Ah! but everybody isn’t quite so keen as you are, dear hoy,” he answers. “ But I was in despair what to conic as til! I mentioned the subject to old Martinet, the governor of the convict place, and he said. ‘Go as one of my chaps; I’ll lend yon a uniform,’ and here I am.”

“ Who is your friend dressed as a convict,” asks Gloria Gardiner, as Mason passes her. “Do introduce me; . you know I am cra/.y on originality.” It is the common complaint of painters, sculptors, and writers that when they produce anything especially true to nature it will be scouted as unreal. Gloria has danced only twice with No. 21, wiio had permitted Captain Mason to introduce him as Ralph Denham, when she expresses herself to her new acquaintance.

“ Ton know your impersonation begins and ends with the dress. To keep up the character you ought to be quite ditferent from what von are.”

“A compliment to myself, but not to my talent for posing,” he replies.

“Just so. You arc like the common people who a.po gcmlilih ; you spoil the illusion when you open your month.” She is thinking what thoughtful eyes ho has; how full of character tho face which is ho close to hers. “There goes Lady Lashmore. What a Juliet!”

11 Rather more like the nurse,” laughs Xo. 21. He has forgoten all the past right back to the days when he moved among tho same kind- of people he is meeting now, when he called two girls—like, oh, so like, this one —sisters, and they owned him as a brother! ‘‘By the bye, did you notice her portrait in the Academy this year? ” Gloria goes on. “I didn’t go to the Academy this summer,” ho replies. ‘‘l was abroad.” “What conn try?” “ America.”

“Why didn’t you stay?” “ Had to come homo on urgent business.” ’’

Xo. 21 might have added with truth that lie was extradited; but whoever tolls woman the whole truth?

“ Well, here comes my partner for the mazurka. Good-bye; so sorry I haven’t another waltz to spaye you.” (dbo is gone, and then bo remembers his danger. At last ho finds his way through a corridor to a vestibule, where certain of tho company who have changed at tho Town Hall have deposited their garments of everyday life. Availing himself of a, moment when on one is about, he boldly .appropriates one of the bundles, and in a few minutes has arrayed himself in the clothes it contains.

The change is complete, and he is- mentally debating whether or not to hide the" convict dress ho has just doffed, when Captain Mason reappears. “ Hallo, you off ?” inquires the captain.

“Yes, I must bo going.” “But. il’s only 12 o’clock.” “That’s just it. The fact is, I keep a public, house at Marston, and I’ve got an idea that my people are going to play pranks to-night', sq, as I can’t afford to lose my license, I mean to drop in on them and surprise them.” Mason is so mortified at the idea of having introduced a local publican to Gloria Gardiner that -he’has no answer ready. Ho cannot upbraid the man, liecause Gloria herself through him sought the introduction. Before ho can recover from his surprise his new -acquaintance has, with a laconic “ ta-ta,” departed. “ What thundering impudence,” mutters tho captain. Then his eyes fall on the clothes which the" departed publican has rolled in a- bundle and placed on a shelf. “By jove, I’ve an idea! How funny I should look in that convict dress with mv face painted as a clown. He’s left them all—cap, jersey, knickers, stockings. and boots. I’ll put them on- Hang it ! I’ll amuse Gloria somehow.” He puts them on; he -re-enters tho ballroom, and screams of laughter greet his strange appearance. He does indeed amuse Gloria. He congratulates himself he has created a sensation.

Ho creates a greater scene than he has bargained for. Ten minutes later a group of policemen thread their way through the company, and heavy hands are laid on Mason’s shoulders. Aro these other characters? No, they are disagreeably realistic. They insist, in spite of all explanations and expostulations, upon the captain’s accompanying them to tho prison, and a wet blanket is thrown over the assembly «s Captain Mason, escorted by the stalwart constables, is marched out of the _ Town Hall into tho street, where a _ vehicle is procured and ho is driven off. Of course, his identity is proved next morning; but ho narrowly escapes further unpleasant consequences, and a charge of having aided the escape of a convict; hut the memory of tho event dings to him so long as ho remains at Bayminster, so that, when the news comes that the .Spatterdashes aro ordered elsewhere. no one is more delighted than Captain Mason. As for Gloria Gardiner, she often thinks with mingled feelings of ...horror and pity of her partner in those two memorable waltzes, and determines in future not to insist too etrongly upon originality, at all events in fancy dress balls. As for No. 21.—nobody knows. —Amicus.