“RED FOR DANGER”

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 262, 9 November 1934, Page 9

“RED FOR DANGER”

Clinker wilt be delighted to have her.” “Then don’t tell her,” said Timothy. That point being: settled satisfactorily, there was a halt In the conversation, which Tony broke presently with a casual question: “ Ever thought of writing a blood--and-thunder?” “Writing! Me!’’ Timothy exclaimed as though accused of a crime. “ You’ve 'got" the-imagination,” said Tony. • “‘A regular gold-mine under that red roof of yours, my lad, if you only knew it. .. “Straordinary.” “ What the deuce are you driving at?” ■ “ Hidden talent,” said Tony. “While you were in the land of sweet demy hat! the stuff you ,came out with! Talk’about detective fiction and black ffielodrama. If you could only remember it, what a> blood- ' curding yarn it would make?” ” Did' I-r-say'much?” “ Rattled it out .like a machinegun. Horribly- mixed up, I’ve no doubt, but youive got the ideas all right.” Timothy was tempted to give Tony one hint, but bis scrupulous sense of honour forbade it. He said nothing at all. Tony, for all his sleepy goodnatured air had been , watching him’ keenly under drooping eyelids. . “I’ll toddle -up and “phone, Sylvia Medway,” he said. . “She’ll toe glad to know you’re better.” But Tony did more. When be bad finished speaking to Sylvia lie put a trunk call through to London and carried on a rather pointless and.gossipy conversation with Major Grier. “Hello, Major, old lad. Haven't seen you for ages. Thought I’d ring you up. How’s the jolly old work going on? Wearing . yourself to .. a frazzle? -What.about a rest?” —and so on and so forth. It Would have needed ’ a close and shrewd observer to have detected t.lic special significance wrapped up in his last few words. They were: “The fishing is pretty good. See you to-morrow if I’m in Town.” CHAPTER XX. The Compact. Jill had always believed that premonitions have their root in indigestion or entangled with the frayed ends of nerves. And now, for the first time in her vigorous young life, she seemed to have caught the stupid complaint. She had spent a most uncomfortable night in that unhappy condition which is neither -sleep nor yet wakefulness, and at five in the morning she gave up the unequal struggle and sat up in bed. Her mind was uneasy and oppressed, without informing her of any sane reason .why it should he so. Gould it toe that she was suffering from shock following the smash? But that explanation displeased her more than any. She lay down again and rolled over, determined to overcome the stupid obsession. : But it was useless. She could neither sleep nor rest. At seven she got up, dressed, and decided to try the tonic effect of a brisk walk in the grounds. The fresh morning air, instead of driving her uneasiness away, seemed to give it a more acute edge. She had, turned her steps down the drive, and now the nearer she got to the Lodge, the hardest it w r as to resist a ridiculous urge to break into a run. Rounding a curve she came in sight of the Lodge, some forty paces ahead. It “looked peaceful and quiet—too quiet, came the whisper from that importunate scaremonger inside her, far too quiet. Andrews should be up and about. Yet there was no sign of life, no smoke rising from the chimney. Jill halted irresolutely, and at that instant from somewhere inside the Lodge -came -a queer inexplicable cry. It might have been the high note of a song; it might have been a laugh, hut it oarried with it an eerie, disquieting effect. All Jill's restraint vanished. She flew to the door, and, finding it open, went in warily. The sitting-room had been converted into a bedroom to accommodate Timothy. The door of that, too, was partly open; and there was something beyond it, in the room, something prone and very still, hut the door concealed it except for a foot clad in a carpet slipper. Jill stood rooted, a sickening dread draining the blood from her face and numbing her will. Then she gave one gasping cry and ran in. The foot was not Timothy’s nor did its owner present the ghastly spectacle her dread had conjured up. It was the lodgekeeper,' and he was securely hound and gagged, and barcJy conscious. Timothy Was not there—the bed iiad been slept in, hut was empty. Again that hysterical cry rang out. It came from above. Jill rushed upstairs, and there, in the larger of the two bedrooms, she found Airs. Andrews hound to a chair. A towel had been tied over her mouth tout she had managed to work it loose. As soon as she saw Jill she broke into a paroxysm of frantic, screaming laughter. Jill realised that'the situation was not one she could deal with single-handed. In her present condition of blind terror Mrs. Andrews might, do herself an injury if she were released. Jill hurried clown again, found a knife and cut the man’s bonds, and then ran hack- to the Hall for assistance. The news of the outrage spread as such news will. Jill told the housekeeper. The housekeeper, with hairpins in her mouth, told the butler. The butler ran to the bathroom and told a very red and soapy Golonel Clinker; and he, being a man' of action, rapped out a few .orders, slipped into’ pyjamas, slippers-and a dresing-gown. -without, waiting to dry himself 1 Thoroughly, and, with the water still draining from his hair and traces of soap in his ears, came stalking down to the Lodge not two minutes behind the others with a shot-gun under his irm. It transpired that neither Andrews aor his wife were much the worse for their -unpleasant experience. Andrews had been knocked out; and his wife

(By Lindsay Hamilton)

Instalment 19*

was more frightened than hurt —it was impossible-.to. get’ any clear account from her of what-had happened. Andrews himself Jiad little enough to tell. , . He had got up at six' o'clock as usual, 'and, Wearing low ; voices in Mr. Gale's room, had gone in to see if he was. all right. Instead, of nc f" ing Mr. Gale, and perhaps Mr. Wilmot as he had expected, there were three strangers . standing there and ' not a sign of the two gentlemen. 1 - “ r was • that flabbergasted,”- said Andrews,, “they were on; me before 1 could think." The last thing he' remembered was hearing his wife call down To'him, and trying to shout a warning to her, "Where’s Tony Wilmot?’" barked Colonel Clinker. “ Dammit, where is he?" . .' “ In hed, I suppose,” Jill suggested. “Didn’t you say he/Ayas rather fond of bed? It’s only eight o’clock yet.” “Humph! Did I say that? Well, if you want to know, Tony'hasn't slept in a .bed since young Gale was brought in—stayed with him every night on the settee. . ! dammit, where is he?" “ I’m' afraid,’’, said Jill, and despair was knocking at her heart, “I’m afraid they’ve got him too.” “What!' Tony?—got Tony?” Colonel Clinker’s tone ridiculed the idea. He exploded then in a fit of ferocious laughter. “ God help ’em if they have. No I I .won’t.believe it—l can’t, You don’t know Tony—lie’s a holy terror.” Indignation took from Jill all power of. original expression. .“ Ob, is he? If he’s holy, Timothy's holier,” she retorted hotly. “And if lie hadn’t been ill and helpless they would never have.got him —never.” Colonel Clinker grinned knowingly “Fine chap Timothy,” he approved and unblushingly used the very words he had yesterday applied to Tony; "only lazy—damned lazy.” . “ Hot,” sard Jill shortly to the Colonel’s amusement. “ I know better.” “Ha! I’ve an idea,” lie burst out suddenly. “We may be alarming ourselves unduly over those two jackanapes. Young Gale was eaten up with the idea of getting over to • White Gables at once. What if he persuaded Tony lo take him over during the night?” Jill swept her arm round the disordered room. "What about, all this?’ “They may have arrived too late. Those rufflians were in here ■ alone when Andrews came in.” “ Timothy would never leave me out of it like that.” “Why not? He would think you were safer here.” “At least lie would have left a note,” Jill .protested stoutly. “ And there’s no sign of one.” "Now I come to think of it, Tony did say something about running up to Town to-day. It would be like him to go off without another word, but not so early in the morning. ’ It was a faint hope and .Till clung lo it, though at the bottom of her heart she feared the worst. When she ’phoned to White Gables and learnt that neither- Timothy nor Tiny Wilmot had arrived, she accepted the bitter truthI—they 1 —they had got. him; Timolhy was in the hands of this gang of ruthless murderers. Already those lovable quizzing eyes might be glazed and expressionless. Jill gulped back the lump in her throat and a passion of flaming courage brought the fighting light back tc her eyes. Timothy might be alive. . . she had got to believe he was alive. . . then there was still hope, something she could do, some way of saving him. Jt came in a., flash of inspiration. There was one chance—a desperate chance. “Would you do something for me? she asked her host, attd her manner was unnaturally calm and self-pos-sessed• “Do something for you? Don’t be ridiculous',” said he crustily. “ Ton know damned well, young woman, you could twist me round your little finger if you wanted to.” “ it. seems trivial enough, ’ said Jill with a warm smile for his ill-conceal-ed gallantry. “ But, it may mean a lot. But first I must, ’phone. Have you a London telephone directory?" “ Stay where you are. I’ll get it. it. Who do you want?” lie asked. “ The British Steel Amalgamated Ltd., 1 ’ she answered. He found the number and put through the call for her. She had long to wait. “Do you mind, Colonel?” she begged, .before taking up the receiver. “If it were my secret I should ask you to .stay.” “ Of course, of course —not at all. ’ Colonel Clinker retired from the room. .Till took up the receiver and asked for Mr. Hennessey. “He’s not here,".was the answer. “ Very well —Mr. Liptrot then, or Dr. Gray, -or Mr. Danvers.” “ I’m sorry, Madam, Is there any message?” “My name is Tempest—Miss Jill Tempest of the Planet,” said Jill, thinking that might have the desired effect. “ And I have something of vital importance t.o say. You would he wise to put me in touch with one of them, somehow. Is Mr. Quinn there?” There was a significant pause, then the cautious reply: “ You might -catch Dr. Gray perhaps at his Nursing Home in South Kensington.” The clerk, operator, or whoever he was, gave her the address and the telephone number. And this time Jill had better luck. Dr. Gray answered the ’phone. Jill did not beat about the bush. “ You and your rufflians have got Mr. Gale and possibly his friend. _ I want you to know this, Dr. Aloysius Gray,” said Jill in a tone of deadly sweetness, “a full disclosure of all we have learnt about the BiS.T.A. Ltd. and the murder of —” A terrified hiss of warning came from the other end. . “■Please, please! Choose your words, I beg of you. What can I do? Tell rhe—-but discreetly, or I shall ring off at once.” Jill laughed scornfully. " I can understand your scruples,” she scoffed. “ Very well, .I’ll -put it as pleasantly ns I can. Lying in a safe at the Planet is a sealed packet. I intend to give permission for this to be opened and its very interesting contents to be published in to-morrow’s issue unless Mr. Gale- and his friend are released