MOTU WAIRUA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19119, 10 September 1925, Page 5

MOTU WAIRUA

BY H. BRERETON.

(THE ISLAND OF SPIRITS).

Author of " The Luck of Old Harry." (Copyright.) CHAPTER XXVI. Feeling that surprise was the first essential to success, George strode rapidly forward and confronted Chester. "So, my fine gentleman! smuggling is your little game, is it?" If George expected to surprise some fear in Chester by his abrupt appearance in this secret cavern, he was doomed to disappointment, for without the quiver of a muscle the Englishman replied: " Ah! So the innocent little Gcorgie again appears on the scene, and this time firmly in the spider's parlour." "You fail to be funny, Chester; I realise now that my suspicions that you are a rogue were well founded. I may as well tell you, the game is up—you go from hero to gaol." " Dear, dear! what a dreadful picture you paint, Turner. Do you know, I havo an idea that it is hardly true to life. Let me explain for a moment. I presume you now intend to dash off to Auckland and inform the police that your partner—partner, mind you—is engaged in the nefarious business of smuggling whisky into New Zealand, making thereby 36s per gallon duty, plus what profit ho can <>arn in buying in a good market. Of course you had not the slightest knowledge that such a terrible thing was being done, and would not for a moment think of sharing his profits!— as his partner. Look here, my dear chappie, if you ever reached Auckland, if mind you, and spun such a tale to tho authorities, you would spend a number of years unpleasantly cooped up in gaol as an accomplice—my books would prove it—while your humble servant, unfortunately under another name, would be enjoying tho very considerable profits in some distant part of the world with his beautiful and charming wife, Geraldine." Maddened by the sneering scoundrel, George lost all restraint, and with a savage oath closed with his rival. Smash! Smash! His left and right got homo on Chester's face, but like a tiger his enemy closed with him.

Round and round they struggled, each man striving for somo grip which would throw his opponent. Only now did George realise how capable a fighter this man was. Every tackle of nis was countered by Chester, in the sure manner of a trained wrestler. Once they broke apart for a moment, and ere he could ward them off, swift, hard blows found Turner's face and body, making his senses swim. Truly this was a foe worthy of his mettle, and each man realised that ho was engaged in a fight to a finish. Again they clinched, each raining stunning blows to ribs and kidneys. Back and forth they staggered, neither asking for nor expecting a moment's respite. Blood flowed from each man's face and mingled as they now wrestled rather than fought. George was the heavier man, certainly, and had also an advantage in condition over his ease-loving rival, but what he lacked in weight and form, Chestor more than made up in scionco, so George now felt that unless he successfully mastered his man within the next few minutes, ho would reach exhaustion point. With a superhuman effort he put forth all his great strength. Back and back bent Chestor while his breath came in great fipbs from his open mouth. Another inch and his back would have broken, when the two men fell crashing to the floor—Turner on top. Slowly the hand of Turner moved toward his onemy's throat. No thought of mercy for his foe entered his maddened bra,in. . . • • " Your beautiful, and charming .wife, Geraldine," he snarled. "For that you die. Chester." Now his fingers found the throat they groped for, and closed slowly, steadily, while Chester's . right arm, useless now to ward his enemy off, fell to the ground. There beneath his fingers lay the heavy electric torch which ho had brought with him to the cave. Quickly his numbing fingers closed round it, and as the red and yellow lights danced before his bulging eyes, slowly he raised his arm to its full height and with all his remaining strength brought his formidable club down on the back of Turner's head. With a grunt his opponent slumped to one side, then slowly slid to the floor. / For a moment or two Chester lay. like one dead—only the big sobbing gasps told how his lungs fought for the breath of liffi. Then slowly and shakily he climbed to his knees. " That—was —a—close—call —Chester — my boy," he gasped. " Another half minute—Ough! " as he felt his bruised face and throat. "I'm afraid poor Georgie has 'gone West.' Well, one moro meddler out of the way." Hardly had he risen to his feet than down the cavern came the sound of cautious footsteps—footsteps shuffling in the dark. Without a moment's hesitation, Chester grasped again the weapon which had recently done him such good service,and, slipping behind a nearby barrel, awaited the approach of the newcomer. Mike for it was he, stopped stoclc-slill for a moment, then out of the darkness came his whispered voice.

"Cap'n, where aro yer ?" " Here, Mike," replied Chester in a fair imitation of Tamer's whisper. "Come here ? " Slowly the Irishman crept forward, then his feet striking his fallen mate, ho bent to examine the obstacle in his path. Quick as a flash, Chester raised himself from his hiding place, and with a dull thud the torch struck the stooping man's head. Down like a felled ox, prone across the legs of his beloved cap'n, fell the little man. Callously Chester stirred his latent victim with his foot. " That . makes two," ho murmured. " This is surely my busy day. Well, my spying friends, you certainly had it coming to you. I suppose the wisest course would bo to dump you both into the sea, but as I hardly feel up to it ih present, and don't believe in hurrying a job until I've thought the details out, I think I'll leave you just where you are." Making his waY up the cavern, Chester crawled to the snelf of rock, and,peering over, far below spied the little boat tied to the foot of the ladder. " Aha! I thought as much. Well, my hearties, should you prove not to be dead as I think you are, I'll > see that you aro at least safe from harm." Wrenching a large Loose stone from the rough ledge, be approached the edgsi on his knees, and carefully judging his aim, dropped the huge block fairly into the little dinghy. With a crash it tore its way through the frail timbers, the boat quicklv filling with water. Then, with the ease of long use, Chester quickly descended the ladder and untied the painter. Adrift, with a hole torn in her bottom, who could say what had happened to the crew ? CHAPTER XXVII. Faintly, as though from a great distance, an insistent voice beat on Turner s brain. Nearer and clearer it would come, then fade to a meaningless babble. " Shpake ter me, cap'n darlint—tell Mike yez ain't dead ontoirely. Oh, wirra, wirra, come back ter me," Dimly George's wandering mind grasped the words. Dancing lights were before his eyes—lights that burned when he tried to think. Then with a great effort be strove to answer the insistent wail. , "Water!" he mumbled. "Give me water."

" Oh! cap'n darlint, Oi'd gladly give yez mo loifo's blood—anythin* yer ask for, hut water —there ain't none, cap'n. try a drap o' whisky, dear maybe it will help yer. There's fc'ousands o' gall'ns o' the cursed stuff all roun' us but nary a drap o* water." Slowly consciousness surged back to the aching, throbbing mind. So many pains there were, yet through and about the injured man crept a feeling of benificient peaco. What was it?

Ah! now he knew. The calloused hands of dear old Mike rested tenderly on his forehead, and through his whole frame the warm, tender love of this simple Irishman coursed like life-giving blood. What had he ever done to merit such devotion ? George could not think, but this he knew in that moment—that no sacrifice—no death—would be too dreadful for this man to face for his cap'n—his idol; and weak as a woman, a great lump came in the sufferer's throat—thankfulness to his God that in one heart at least he had awakened " the love which passeth all understanding." Hours had passed in which his tender nurso coaxed him back to life. Terrible hours in the blackness of the bowels of the earth, and now ' ngc, sick and dizzy still, was able t and and move about..

" Mike, old boy, you'll havo to take tho leadership of this expedition for a while. I fear I'll be -no good for a hit. It's the red lights that hurt when I try to think. Can you find a way out, Mike ? The boat-—I don't think I could climb down to the boat. " Yez don't have tor, cap'n darlint, for divil a boat there is." "Is that so, Mike; well, ono might have expected it of Chester. That means wo aro locked in this tomb to die, Mike. The door—you've tried tho door, I expect ? " " That's the funny thing. cap'n. Shure, Oi've found tho door; "six inches of solid concrete and iron it is, and lipid wid a solid hook like- a railway 'train couplin' hookin' over a catch in the middle o' the wall; but how anythin' short of a traction injin' could move itbates mo. Does yez know, cap'n. if friend Chester had help wid him to open it whin he comes in ? " " 1 •. " No, Mike, the door seemed to roll open quite easily, and Chester alonb manipulated it." " Shuro thin* there's a mo-chanical device o' seme sort does the trick, and begob, if Chester can opln it, so can Miko Murphy." , ~ - In spite of his apparent assurance 011 this point, Mike felt very uneasy as tho hours drew on and despite his every effort the search for tho means of opening tho massive door was unsuccessful. An immense amount of -material and money had apparently been spent on constructing this opening from the store to the cavo, and on the store side it no doubt presented the appearance of being merely a part of the solid back wall, but on tfiis—the cave —side loss pains had been taken to disguise its purpose.

The huge slab of concrete, some ten feet square and eight to nine inches thick, was poised on a number of solid steel rollers, evidently designed to carry it backwards and forwards in a channel, while the bolt which held it shut was solidly embedded in the edge of'the door and gripped a similiar solid bar of iron in a slight recess in the wall against which the door abutted. It would • appear that • the whole door must first be lifted to release this bolt before the door could be rpllod back to give access to the store. Long atid earnestly tho little Irishman studied the problem,, but even his most concentrated mental effort still left him wondering; but at last, • feeling the solution was beyond him, lie again approached George. "Besgorra, Oi hates disturbin' yez, cap'n, but if yer head's feolin' aisier would yer plaise study problem before me. last match is .got^e." Together r they inspected the difficulty confronting them, and, though sick and ill, George forced his o\yn feeling into the background, and strove for ark answer to ihe riddle. At last his reason led him to a possible solution. " Mike, you've sometime or other seen a see-saw, I suppose ?" . "Aye, cap'n, that I have, but beoad, what's that to do with the .door ?" "Just this, Mike; I think that that door is a huge see-saw, tho channel m which th 9 rollers run being independent of the floor and balanced ii« the middle. Nov,', if that cliannel .were: extended—suppose thero were no long <irm to it—and one put weight on the far end, that would give it more pudding, '&o to speak, and the door would be .tilted ujt>. free from tho latch and roll doWn fh4*,channel." "Be all the Saints, cap'n, yer a livih* marvel. Oi feels ye're roigbt as roigbt. Now, where do you reckon that lever $ ?" " Poke 'about that corner, Mike. Stand on everything you can feel in the dark. It most, likely ia hidden as far back as possible there." Away went the willing Mike, and for minutes his grunting ai}d puffing oonld be heard as he pulied and pushed at everything with which his groping hands came in contact. Turner jn4an|timo was again nodding, VroiW out wjth pain and exhaustion,- when a yell from Miko brought him wide awake. • ; . Opening his burning ©yes,' George was in time to see the huge, solid struqture apparently opening of its own accord— Mike had found the lever. Little further effort, had been necessary to burst open the door leading from the store to Chester's bedroom, and now the two men sat in the sitting room, so recently vacated by Geraldine, .while George sought to concentrate his wavering sight" on a letter scrawled in Chester's familiar hand. " Dear Turner, ,r he read (and George noted that it was dated only that dayperhaps only an hour ago). " I leave this noto on the off chance that you may return from your holiday in Auckland during my absence. Should you do so, I wish you to know that I have gone on an extended trip—my honeymoon in fact —and that, on my return with my wife, I intend carrying on my business as usual. Meantime, you are in charge, and should, by any ill chance, anything in the nature of an accident befall me {which is always possible these times), I want you to know that Motu Wairua, to which you are so passionately devoted, is yours. As this partakes of the nature of a will, I will get my prospective mother-in-law and her daughter Doris to add their signatures to mine." After the nsual preamble tho signature of " Chester," witnessed l>y Mrs. Connor and Doris was appended. _ " Well, of all the ingenious devices, Mike, this is the cleverest I have yet met. Should wo not turn up—which Chester anticipated—as even were we still alive, he expected us to die from starvation or drowning during his absence, this letter would Ml into the hands of anyone making a search for us, and should prove to them that Chester believed us still to be on holiday xn Auckland. Then the touch about leaving the property to me would serve to prove to Gerald—l moan. Miss Connor—what a truly generous rrval he. was. and should surely decide her tc give her heart, and hand to such a splendid man. . . , . " Dear God! Why did I not break his back before rny darling fell into his clutches?" .. .. " Share, cap'n, it ain't too late n °Y: What about punsuin' 'em in the auld Shamrock ?" " Mike, dear old chap, we'd never do it. I can hardly walk a dozen yards without feeling sick and giddy, and vou can be little belter with a lump as big as a goose's egg on the top of your head. "Bedad, cap'n! that's not-W phwat: irer. Share me skull's that thick nothm vrould affect the vacuum inside. ■ " I've a better notion, Mike. Quick! Help me to Chester's room. Now open that enpboard door, and feel for a trap door in the end of the wardrobe. Mike thinking his boss haa at last nally lost hi, reason, y.t « t-g bim. did as be was bid, and fc» h«.astonishment found the trap-door to h «■* T* b caA,,£a ■CA'SSS »: yet " (To bo concluded to-morroir.) , / m