THE TURMOIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE TURMOIL

BY PAUL TJEQUHART.

COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER Vni.—(Continued.) Ovhbcomk with grief at the cruel death of her grandfather, and impressed by the J loneliness of her situation, Joan hardly j listened to him. After they had been at sea for about eight hours, she was handed a cup of hot coffee by one of the men, ■which, as she was very cold, she drunk with avidity. Evidently it had been, drugged, for immediately afterwards she fell into a deep sleep, from which sho did not wake till she- found herself in the old wing of the chateau. The only persons who attended upon, her were M. Hanoteaux and his secretary, Louis Legros. Her prison, for it was nothing else, consisted of five rooms, but each day one of her two custodians conducted her down a steep stone staircase, which led into an old-fashioned high brick-walled garden. Here she was allowed to stay for two hours, her every ; movement, however, being watched-. M. Hanoteaux ( it appeared, never spoke to her at all, but with Louis Legros it was different. I pressed her to tell me what Legros talked about, the sudden crimsoning' of her cheeks enabled me to guess that the ! secretary, like myself, had fallen under ! the spell of her beauty. I admired the i i man's taste, but I there and then swore i a grim oath to myself that if ever an op- | port-unity occurred I would put a spoke I in the wheel of M. Legros. I " Then you have seen no opportunity ' of escape?" I said, when she brought | her narration to an end. ° j " Not oneat least, not one that I could take advantage of." \ "How do you mean?" I asked. She cast her eyes down in pretty confusion. M. Legros has offered to heln me to get away, but only on certain conditions, conditions that I could not accept." "You don't mean to say that he has dared. ..." I began. '' He is a man, Mr. Purcell, without any feeling of sensibility. It was he who j killed grandpapa.. He told me so, calmly, j while he smoked a cigarette. He seemed jto consider it rather a fine deed. When I told him what he was in plain words, |ho simply shrugged his shoulders and j smiled, and told me that I very naturally j was unable to judge his action impartially. It was terrible, to have to listen to the I conversation of the brute who had killed | the person I held dearest in all the world, j but when he began to proffer me his love it became appalling." She. shivered as if terrified by the very recollection of his words. " Every day his attentions have become moie pronounced, and he frightens and j terrifies me. When he begins talking I put my fingers in my ears" so as not- to I hear his hateful words. In the garden I j walk away from him. But now he ha* i taken to writing to me. See here." ; She took from the window-sill some ; crumpled bits of pa.per, which she j | handed to me. I smoothed one of them | j out, and read there the following words, written in a fine, flowing hand :— " Mademoiselle, remember, I offer you freedom and love. My heart and your I liberty are yours whenever you will to j take them. Be assured, mademoiselle, of the undying adoration of Louis Legros." I The contents of the other notes were of j a similar nature, composed of the same j sententious expressions, and full of those I overdone gallantries which are so popular i with low-class Frenchmen. Another thing struck me with regard to these billetdoux. The handwriting of the chivalrous lover seemed familiar to me, and though I puzzled my brains, I could not, for tie time being, remember when or where I had seen it before. " I will keep these, if you don't mind," I said to Joan. " They may enable me to deal with Monsignor Legros should he become troublesome. And now I want to hear you say that you believe in me and trust me, and will treat me as a friend whose ono object is to be of service to you." She held out her hand to me with a smile. " You look a good man, Mr. Purcell; I trust you implicitly." Thanks I said, unable to find any more words to express my feelings. And then, briefly, I explained to her how I had entered her quarters by the secret passage, told her of the little drama I had played with Madame Hanoteaux, and sketched the means by which I hoped to effect her escape. She was puzzled to know whv I did not immediately inform the police, and allow the law to deal with M. Hanoteaux, and it was only with difficulty that I could explain to her my own situation I was there as a secret representative of our Government, and how my duty prevented me, before all things, from having any relations with the authorities. I, in my turn, was somewhat puzzled by what Joan had told me. Mv chief in London bad clearly been under the impression that this new airship, which was to dominate the world, was being constructed by the French Government, but M. Hanoteaux's remark to Joan regarding a society, on the completion of whose arrangements her liberty depended, gave quite a hew aspect to the affair. It was most unlikely that M. Hanoteaux, if he was the trusted servant of the Republic, Would bo occupying a portion of his time in marauding expeditions to England, in the murder of an old defenceless man, and in the kidnapping of a young girl. While I was thinking about these matters I was suddenly startled by the sound of a key being slipped into the lock of one of the doors. Joan held up a warning fincer, as if bidding me hide myself. I quickly stepped back into the secret passage, and had just time to close the panel behind me and take up a position at the spy-hole when I saw the door of the room open and the figure of Louis Legros enter. Legros stopped on the threshold for a moment to bow to Joan, then turned round, and locking the door, slipped the key in his pocket. " 1 have come again, mademoiselle, to lay my heart at your feet," he exclaimed, striding across the floor, his pasty, sallow face creased to what he evidently considered was a killing smile. Joan sat down in the window-sill, and deliberately turning her back upon him, looked out at the starlit night. Legros gavo his shoulders a swaggering shrug, as if indicating that he was used to these attempts to fend off his attentions, but was quite confident that in the end he would gain his point. The man had seemed repulsive to me from the first, I but now as he stood there all smirks and I jerks, looking for ail the world like a tenth-rate assistant in a foreign barber's shop in Whitechapel, I felt that instinctive desire to stamp him out with which one is inspired by the sight of some objectionable insect or reptile. " Mademoiselle cannot be so hardhearted." he said, edging closer to her side. "'To-night,' I have said to myself, ' I will win her heart. I will make her 'understand the worth of my affection.' Do not make my task the harder. If you could only understand the strength and splendour" of my love you would not try to freeze my passion to nothingness by the coldness of "your looks." Confound the man ! I thought to my- ' self He was as full of words and mis--1 managed siniilies as any euphenust who I ever entangled himself in a maze of language in the days of Good Queen Bess. " \s mademoiselle will not let me communicate her by speech I must teach her the. warmth of my affection by the silent language of love. ' ....... I I saw her shrink still further away from him as he. suddenly bent forward, and before she could stop him put his lips to her cheek. The next moment Legros was staggering back with the impress of Joan's fingers on his face, while Joan herself stood before him, her eyes afire with anger and indignation and her whole attitude, denoting" how much she felt this crowning insult. « i Legros had staggered back, rubbing his ' cheek confusedly, evidently unabTe for the moment to find a weapon in the armoury of his experience with which to meet such 1 an assault. But he was not long in rei covering his self-assurance. - j " For such a blow I must have recom- ' I pense," he said, moving towards Joan, his arms outstretched.

She tried to slip away from him, but before she could do so he had caught hold of her and endeavoured to draw her face to his. The sight of this outrage was too much for me. I fumbled for the spring, and swinging back the secret panel, jumped into the room. I didn't trouble much about how I handled the man, but seizing him by the slack in his trousers and the ; scruff of his neck, I flung him across the i room. ' Never have I seen a man so surprised and bewildered in my life. He looked at me in a dazed sort of fashion, and then at the open panel, and then back at me, as if half wanting an explanation. But this quiescent mood only lasted a moment. It suddenly dawned upon him that he had been insulted, and picking himself up j from the floor, he rushed at me with his j head down, like a man essaying a collar at Rugby football. I caught him as he came by the front of my hand under his chin, and bringing him by this means to :an upright position, flung him round against the wall, pinning him there with my hand at his throat. In that position J read him a long lecture on a variety of subjects, but bearing especially on his own abominable conduct and his utter unI worthiness even to breathe the same air as Joan. "I have no wish to kill "you, M. Legros," I said, in conclusion; "but if you attempt any more of your abominable familiarities with this lady, whom ! you are keeping a prisoner here, contrary i to all the laws of the land, I will so far ! demean myself as to wring your dirty j little neck. Now go." With that I loosed my grip of him, I and he began fingering his windpipe as j if to assure himself that it was still inI tact. After a few convulsive trials of his l throat by swallowing, he found himself I ready to talk. " You shall pay for this insult, monsieur," he gasped. "By what right are you here. You are a spy. I suspected it "from the first. You will find that we have a short way with such gentlemen as you in the Chateau de Lisle." I looked at him coldly. "What, may I ask, are the nature of the steps that you propose taking to prevent yourself making the acquaintance of a prison cell ?" "Monsieur will learn that soon I enough," he retorted with a sneer. Perhaps," I replied; but, meanwhile, may I remind you that a few seconds ago I told you to go. I can't help noting, with regret for yourself, that the room is still encumbered by vour ob jectionable presence. You can keep your threats for another occasion. Meanwhile, I distinctly advise you to go." I pointed towards tho door. But Legros, who was not without some spirit, I will say that for him, stayed where he was. "When I go," he replied, "I go straight to Monsieur Hanoteaux, and then— then—" He paused sententiously. " And then," I continued coldly, taking up his words " you will doubtless tell him how yon proposed to give this lady her liberty—how yon, one of her gaolers, have been conniving at her escape. From what I have seen of M. Hanoteaux I should judge that he will be pleased, and will, doubtless, see his way to increasing the remuneration he at present gives you for your secretarial duties." I always notice that when I am angry I drop unconsciously into an elaborate form of ironical expression, which is sometimes so elaborate that nobody understands me. In the case of Legros, however, I may be said "to have got home," to use the language of the ring. His eyes lost their look of* angry vindictiveness. "What does monsieur mean?" he stammered. "Oh, my meaning will be clear enough to Monsieur Hanoteaux!" I retorted angrily, taking the notes Legros had written Joan out of my pocket and ostentatiously opening them. " When I show him these precious documents he will appreciate at once the value of youi trusty services." The little man actually shivered with rage; but, controlling himself, walked towards the door. As he put the key ii: the lock lie turned to me. " You have saved yourself from my vengeance in one direction, monsieur. ] admit it. I cannot speak to Monsieui Hanoteaux and let him deal with you at I know ho would deal with a spy. But you have insulted me, and I can seek reparation in the manner customary among gentlemen. And as for you, mademoiselle," he went on, bowing to Joan, "you will learn to regret that you have scorned my love for that of this clumsy Englishman." With that he quickly opened the door and stepped outside. We heard the key turn, in the lock, and Joan and I were once more alone. I felt it was high time that I was going. I did not quite tin derstand what Legros meant by saying that lie would demand reparation, and it occurred to me that perhaps he might take it into his head to so arrange it that M. Hanoteaux would find me by chance in his prisoner's quarters. I explained the situation to Joan, begged her to keep a good heart, and promised to get her away from the chateau as soon as I had made all the necessary arrangements. Then I regretfully tore myself away, and stepping' once more through the open panel, felt my way in the dark down the secret passage. When I once again entered the little room adjoining the saloon. I found Mme. Hanoteaux almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown, so terrified was she at my long absence and the thought of her husband's possible return. She hurled questions at me in breathless haste, and I gave her a story to quieter her which omitted all account of the incident with Legros. "Alas, Pauline!" I said, taking hei hand as we sat side by side on ar Empire couch. " You are a most shame fully treated woman. It is too true thai your husband has pursued this girl witl his attentions. Because she would nol ! listen to him he has brought her here— here, to this very house where you, his wife, live. It is abominable, disgraceful I cannot understand your husband's exe crable taste. To me it is incomprehen 1 - sible that he should seek the society o this stupid, dull, insipid chit, when h« ' possesses in you the most beautiful anc ' brilliant wife in the world." As I uttered these treasonable remark about Joan, Mme. Hanoteaux squeezec . my hand fondly. "What are we to do?" she whispered ' " This girl, how shall we rid the house ' of her '!" 1 "There will be no difficulty about ' that," I answered emphatically. "She i: ' anxious enough to escape. Her litth ? dose of imprisonment will do her n< harm. It will be a good lesson for sue! ! I a frivolous, empty-headed miss who goe: ] flirting with another woman's husband \, ' We only need the opportunity, and then ' j by the aid of the secret passage, we shal I get away easily enough. You can trus 1 ]me impficity, Pauline. I will devote mi " j life to righting your wrongs." ! It was with difficulty that I draggex ' I mvself away and at last got to bed : i Once there, I slept a dreamless sleep h " ! spite of the adventures _ I had goni J ' through. 1 was wakened in the morninj ! by Lake taking a scat on my bed. 1 ; *•' Here, wak oop, lad," he remarked '• as I opened my eyes wearily and lookec ! at him ' j " Hallo, Lake." I answered, stretchim j myself, "how's the airship going''" " i " Well, I've got the hang of he ] engines, and I think I'll have got all th ' plans before another twenty-four hour : is out. Yon' MacClintock's a clever man hut he's clean mad. I think I've put ; spoke in Monsieur Hanoteaux's wheel fo r him. anyway." j "How have you done that, Lake?' I I asked. ' ! " Asked the old chap what he was get > ting paid, and who was going to get th 5 benefit of his invention when it wa * through. The question never seemed I ' have struck him before. He was quit ' took back and puzzled like. Then 1 hinted that it seemed to me that thi " 'era Hanoteaux was bound to get every 3 thing there was out of it, and that by th » arrangement he was working on MacClir stock would do all the work and Hanc 3 teaux would reap all the reward. I mad / him think that Hanoteaux was going t i rob him of his discovery, and it's fa: - settled on his mind. He's as mad agains Hanoteaux as anything, and somebod . will be blown up one of these days. An what have you been doing, PuTcell?" * (.To bo continued on Wednesday next.)