THE HONEY BUZZARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19608, 9 April 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

THE HONEY BUZZARD.

BYj JOHN HASLETTE .VAHEY.

CHAPTER XL—(Continued.) He knew that as well as she. He was inclined to think that, if Swingo had been going to speak, he would have shown his hand Before. He hadn't the ghost of a chance." You men always think you have, even if you haven't. Swinge did think so. I met him the other day." An ugly look settled on Wykeham's face. He was intelligent enough to seo that Billy loved him; to understand that of all his friends she was the only one who cared what happened to him. And just because she loved him, and would have stood by him, he did not want her. It's the most elementary psychology. The lower a man's ideals the less does he value love, loyalty, Marry Billy, who wanted him, and needed no encouragement! He shrugged mentally. "What's the girl after all?" she went on hurriedly. "A * stick,' but a decent f stick.' I know the type. It likes domesticity and country quietness; it i doesn't want a second-hand husband. I can imagine her face if she knew. Then her father —provincial, old-fashioned type. He'd come down here to kick you out if he knew. Oh, don't you see ? You would be bored stiff, you would kick over the traces in two twos. She couldn't amuse you." " Just a tick," he broke in. " Who's talking about marrying, eh ? I told you it was only fun. Why, Miss Lancaster was in Howard's box at the opera the other night, and Howard's taking her down to Brooklands. Why don't you blame him ?" The scowl with which ha referred to Howard kept from her the comfort he had intended to convey. He did not succeed in convincing her that he was willing to share his " fun" with the other man. "Suppose Swinge tells," she said evenly. \ ."There are things some fathers won't excuse or forgive. You know that. This Horsey Lancaster will want a husband for his daughter who can show a clean record." " I'm not worse than other chaps, Billy," he complained. "He'll not bo looking for worse, but for better, Bobby. She's_ a plum from the money point of view, even if she's stiff. It isn't the King Cophetua touch this time. Queen Cophetua and the beggar man fits it better." a Pretty, pretty," said Wykeham. " Don't go on that way, there's a decent chap! I agree to what you say. With my rotten circumstances, I haven't the ghost No, I'm out of it. ThaVs why I wonder you're worrying. I haven't married every girl I talked to." " No," said Billy, and looked at him. He skated on hurriedly. " Let Swinge tell if ho likes. There was some rot I learned at school about the empty traveller laughing at a highwayman. You do see that?" Could it be true ? It might be. It might be. He saw Sylvia Lancaster often enough, and jealously had imagined tender passages between them. But the girl might be a flirt, she. might have an immense opinion of herself, a great idea of the value of a fortune. And then there was Howard. As good a pedigree as Bobby's, and four times the income. Billy revolved these thoughts, and 1 drew comfort. Bobby saw it, and warmed j to his work. Sylvia Lancaster's fortune had once seemed a possibility - merely. ! Now, wishes fathering thoughts,, and coni fidence begetting confidence, he regarded it as practically his own. A lifebuoy thrown to a drowning man could not be I more prized than his chance. He must live, he must have luxuries; existence ' wasn't worth tuppence without the things he had be§|n used to. He would fight tooth and hail for that money. It was as good as-money in his pocket, and lately he had been able to consider how much that money would buy. Mortgaged, and in debt, he®had contrived to have a good time; with Sylvia's thousands a year the of enjoyment were colossal. " Look hjere, old* girl," he said, with an appearance of ingenuousness. " Don't grudge me a little enjoyment before I go down. I'm in the soup at last. It's only a question oil time." " Conlda't I help you ?" she ventured eagerly. " Jolly decent of you, but you can't. Sixty thousand is the least I could clear myself with. I don't suppose your whole show is worth that." "It isn't worse luck. My bunch of yearlings has turned out a fizzle. I don't think even the Staveley colt will train on into anything worth while. I was glad enough to sell three for a 4 monkey' the other day. I couldn't scrape up more than nine thousand the whole shoot." Bobby was gratified to discover that his attraction had secured him such a worshipper, but gratification was unmixed with any more tender or unselfish feeling. To tell the truth, he had no mind to spare for the consideration of any problem than that presented by the profitable wooing of Sylvia Lancaster. What man would trouble about the mere freeing of himself from debt when the wider vista opened before him ? Surely not Wykeham. Awfully decent of you to suggest it, though," he said, planning how to keep Billy and the others to-a mere passive resistance policy until ho felt himself secure. M Syl via consented, and the wedding came off, ho could afford to laugh, at detractors. It would hardly b<? worth their while then to interfere. Even if they did, he would be safe. Hersey Lancaster would have to make the best of a son-in-law. " All the same," went on Billy, manfully sticking to her point, " it's not a bad biz on the average, and if the moneylender should sell you up, it might pay you to go into it with me." This was generous, but he did not see that side of it* Go in with Billy over a pokey stud; waste himself on yearlings (a "monkey" for three!), rot about in breeches and leggings with a lot of tupenny-ha'penny racing men! The woman must be mad. We'd make it pay," she went on. " We've always been fond of each other, Bobby, and I'm not a difficult sort to get on with. You've said that yourself. It wasn't so long ago that you ialked that way. Do try it old man ! I have an option on ' Old Sol ,' and you know what" kind of blood he has." Bobby, still tolerant of face, could have shrieked with laughter at these propositions. The irony of the thing struck him' keenly. lie was funny, farcical, absolutely the limit. Here he was, with a prospect of thousands a year, the reversion of Morby Chase, a castle in Scotland, and •heaven only knew what else. And here was stout, amiable little Billy hopefully planning to drag him into matrimony, and the partnership in a stud that made, at the highest, seventeen hundred a year! You can't play the hedonist for fifteen years, and expect to retain your natal stock of virtues. Wykeham had never been an unselfish or very high-minded boy, but such ideals as he had, through disuse or warping, had been atrophied and destroyed. He concentrated on self and only played the game when self profited by it. He was calloused by his later precepts and practice. "I'll think it over," he said, smiling at her. " Only, look here, Billy, I hate, to have you worrying over Miss Lancaster. You're a good judge of character, and you think she's a muff. Well now, don't you give me any credit for commonsense ? Don't you ? She's someone new to talk to, and it's fun to hear her views on things, but- You don't see me marrying her, do you ? " , Billy Was beginning to be convinced, out there was still a doubtful voice ® r °WP^ n g to suspicion. Then, perhaps, you can tell me, th» y Selmorgan's chucked •< * ai) g out and left you in ?" were yon* o£ l he ? ld & an S' nor and the ot.li Knew her before Swinge not tXaek r^" yway » wby I Hay, aid. " Oh y Why, I

(COPT RIGHT.) j

She stared. " Thought I did ? Well, why, was it ?" He lay back comfortably in his chair, and crossed his legs. A "great sense of comfort pervaded his being. Billy was so easily fooled. If the others were only as easy he had a clear ran home. " Betty, good sort as she is, isn't the kind of woman a wealthy old provincial would have chaperoning his daughter, and the Swinge crowd were, as you'll admit, ghastly blighters.. But some country attorney's wife (her husband does Lancaster's law business) happened to meet 8., and whooped her up to the old folks at home. Result, Lancaster sent the girl here."

" What's that got to do with it?" " Everything, oid chap, everything. B. got a tip soma time ago that Miss Lancaster's 1 ' aunt was coming to town, and she made enquiries about that good lady. B. has considerable horse-sense. She saw that she would be bound to invite the aunt. Now, try again; just you imagine Mrs. Tathely, good old soul, meeting Swinge and Von Zeeler, and the other lot; seeing them round, her niece. She's no fool, I can tell you." "I begin to see." " Only now ? Anyone with half an eye could see that Swinge was only a genteel kind of thimble-rigger, and the Dutchman a detrimental on the make. That was good enough, We needn't pretend Betty isn't making a goad thing out of having to take the girl about. She is! Lancaster can pay for any services rendered him, and he does. Then B. fits the girl out, and draws a comm. on that. The Swinge crowd didn't cut any cash ice but Miss Lancaster does. So that's why we've got such a respectable dull crew now; and will have, so long as the girl stays and pays." For the time Billy was convinced. She rose slowly and held out her hand. Bobby jumped up, took it, and squeezed it confidentially. " You're an awfully good sort, old girl. I shan't soon forget that offer of yours. I expected it of you—'pon my word, I did —knowing the brick you are, but thaf doesn't make it any less kind. Gives a fellow a little more faith in humanity, by Jove! "

Poor honest Billy reddened witK pleasure and returned ithe squeeze of the hand.

But the dirty little soul of the man did not wince. He was one of those who rub their feet hard on any mat that presents itself. Trafficking in filched pearls is an occupation with a taint. " Oh, forget that! It isn't anything to speak of. I think I'd be better with a man to back me. Only I hope you'll think it over."

" I "will," he said. " Must you go ?" " Sorry—yes. I have to attend a sale. I might pick up something, having had a tip about two yearlings sent down from Lloyd's stable. Lloyd is giving up, and going aLroad." " Hope you'll get 'era," he said, with alacrity, stifling a yawn. He was beginning to wonder if he had a more tiresome acquaintance than Billy Selby-Du-close. He cared nothing for real emotions. They wearied him, as he would have been wearied by a dinner of plain boiled beef, and primitive vegetables. His taste was for something exotic, artificial, novel. She smiled back at him as he followed her to the door. Certainly, the interviewer had comforted her. She looked brighter and happier. " I wish Howard luck of her," she said.

He managed to keep his face straight. " These beastly rich 'fellows have it all their own way," he said.

He breathed relief when she had gone. That was one out of the way. There were still Howard and Mrs. Tathely. He could not acquit the latter of a desire to put a spoke in his wheel. He did not believe that she had heard anything; probably she did not like him. But there she was—whatever her motives—and she had manoeuvred Sylvia into going to the opera with Howard, and engineered the trip to Brooklands. He must get her on his side somehow.

The fact that one has to get people " on one's side " does not . infer that they are one's enemies. They may be nothing more than indifferent, and indifference is more hard to overcome than active resistance. Mrs. Tathely, he argued, could know little of him, and ha had given her no cause for annoyance. It must be that her seeming alliance with Howard was only a chance connection, unsought by either. Granted even that, was Howard a serious competitor ? He hardly knew, though Billy and one or two others hinted at it. But jealousy can distort facts, and gossip is notoriously unreliable. Howard was not what some graphic vulgarian called a " lady's man." The fact that ho had talked with Sylvia Lancaster, dined with her and the aunt, taken her to Brooklands—those were only common civilities.

Bobby did not endeavour to disguise from himself tho fact that, if Howard entered the lists, he would prove a very serious rival. talks cogently, even if an honest man, and sympathetic father is the listener. There was never yet a millionaire that eschewed wealth, and it would be giving Hersey Lancaster the mantle of a Quixote to credit him with, paying no attention to the worldly position of a suitor for his daughter's hand. Still, to his mind, Howard showed none of the usual Symplons of the man in love. His racing was a time-mortgaging business. Even the man at the wheel of an eight-cylinder racing car must keep up his practice, and it was known that Howard gave a good deal of his time to consultations with Major Marley, who was developing the new typo. If he wished to make good, it was time that ho jettisoned these minor interests, and got to work. Pertinacity and opportunism have their parts in wooing. The man who is always on the spot has an advantage. It was typical of Bobby that, so far, he had hardly given a thought to Sylvia's inclinations. He had known so little of love in its less alloyed forms, that he found it difficult to appraise its strength and driving Then he had been spoiled by many women, until he began to believe that the conquest wa3 in sight. Added to that was his title, which, although his family had untitled equals, might prove a lure to a plain provincial, or so he thought. He had no cause to despair, and was far from it, to tell the truth, but his cunning warned him that his task was not free from dangers and hindrances. Fortunes, like that which would come to Sylvia Lancaster, are large enough to bB work--mg for, to be known to more than one, as possible prizes. Then there were tho envious, the spiteful, the malicious; those who, even if they did not run for the prizes, would do their best to throw the runners out of their stride. Things had gone so smoothly, so far, that a cautious man naturally began to wonder when the first fence would present itself. It had been a piece of uncommon luck that Hersey Lancaster should send his daughte; to Lady Selmorgan. It was luck again that had kept him in touch with that lady, and given him a friend at court.

He hoped for much from the coming visit to Morby Chase. In the same house, with unlimited leisure, and no excuse needed, he might push his suit merrily on. Howard would be elsewhere, Mrs. Tathely he hoped by that time to have secured. Proximity works marvels, when there's a, basis of friendship between two people of opposite sexes. That was still some months away, but, in the interim, lie could prepare the ground. Hersey Lancaster was the only unknown quantity. He knew something from Lady Selmorgan of the character of Hersey Lancaster. He knew something, but was that something accurate? You have only to put on somebody else's spectacles to discover that things are not always what they seemed.

Granted, however, that Lancaster had heard nothing in the meantime with regard "to Bobby's amorous peccadilloes, the

latter saw no reason why the father should take fright at him, oven as a suitor. It was admittedly a strain to rein himself in, to adapt the style of conversation he thought would commend itself to country people—as he called them —but he would make the concession willingly if that would secure his present ends. Afterwards —well, all the world knows that this type of man is never so humble as when he goes wooing. On the whole, Bobby felt that he could congratulate himself. Browne had agreed to finance him; he had a balance at the bank, and was going swimmingly. Billy Selby-Duclose had already faded from his mind. CHAPTER XII. Spring came in very early that year. February was mild, and in its earlier mornings the birds sang deliciously; thrushes, blackbirds, and robins, at least, made melody when wet dawns broke, sitting on budless branches, wondering perhaps why the trees delayed when they themselves had anticipated events. There was that feeling in the air which fills the veins with longing, and the mind with promises. Waking on one of the warmer days, with the bright sun streaming in at the windows, people looked almost instinctively for thei blue-bottle buzzing on the pane, the only summer creature that provokes dreaminess in lazy weather before breakfast, and, alas! comminations during the rest of the day. Sylvia took a daily ride before breakfast, and hero onco or twice Howard joined her. Bobby, confident fool, or inveterate sluggard, did not come. He had a passable seat, but could not persuade himself that the world wakened until after ten o'clock. He was assiduous enough later in the day. Sylvia was still interested in the mild reform; somewhat interested, too, in Bobby. He made it obvious that he progressed gradually under her gentle tuition. Howard, on the other, hand, had been very busy with the new racing car. He and Marley were much together. The obsessed major drove him hard, and his forceful enthusiasm spurred Howard's, which had begun to lag. Perfection, perfection, was Marley's cry. The now carburettor was fitted, and proved good, but not yet good enough for the thoroughgoing engineer. He was for ever experimenting with jets, puzzling over the advantages of infinitesimal alterations, and he dragged Howard with him as he listed.

"Hang it all, man!' he would say. "Time enough to talk about women when you get the ' Continental' over. She won't fly away, will she?" " You're an intolerable nigger-driver," Howard would reply, half in fun, wholly in earnest. " I'vo half a mind to chuck it up." Then Marley would look at him reproachfully, as a commander might look at a subordinate who counselled retreat. " Oh, look here —I say—Charles, you puzzle me sometimes. Are you in love with the girl, or are you not?" "Looks like it, doesn't it!" Howard could never help laughing. " I am so keen about it, wasting my time here!" Marley's heart was bound up in the idea of Howard's winning the ' Continental,' and proving finally that the alcohol motor was superior to the petrol driven one. Alcohol was the new mechanical deity, and Marley its prophet. Every now and again he would begin to fear that Howard would back out. It was quite true that there were other drivers, both competent and daring, but somehow he had got it into his mind that Charles was the one man to do it. " It isn't as if you couldn't go on with that affair after the race," ho would add seriously.

Ned Davis laughed at both of them. " I'll back you both," he said, "for the maddest pair in town. Charles, if you had a gleam of sense, you would tell old Bill to go to the devil, and take his carburettor with him, but you won't. He'll hang on to you by his teeth, and in the end you'll make a mess of things. Wykeham won't let the grass grow under his feet."

" I promised him, you know." " Break it. The man who hasn't moral courage enough to break his word to a friend isn't worth a straw. What does she think of you, I wonder ?" It was partly to discover what Sylvia did think of him that Howard rode out before breakfast. The s situation was sufficiently absurd. Here he was, tied to Marley's apron-strings by a foolish Eromise, when he should be free to pnrsiue is suit. Bobby saw her oftener; follow ed her more persistently, had fewer scruples. Why this additional handicap ? Getting the car perfected, then " tuned up;" practising driving her till he get to know every humour and whimsy of her engine—for engines have their humours—these things would take up an increasing portion of his time. He asked himself again in humorous irony if he expected to have the girl fall in love with his memory! He believed she liked him, but it is sometimes a far cry from liking to loving. " Why haven't we seen you lately ?" she asked one morning, when he met her after ten days absence. _ " Glad you missed me," he said, reining up beside her, " but it was not my fault really. Blame it on Marley. I can't call my soul, my own." " Why, are you still working on tho new car?" "You may ask, Miss Lancaster. I feel inclined .sometimes to take her to the. cliffs above Dover, and open the throttle. Marley would weep salt tears, but I should be rid of an incubus." " Aren't you so keen as you were?" He smiled, wondering. "I might bo if Marley wouldn't make it a gospel." "Where's your moral courage?" she smiled, putting her horse in motion. " Sapped—gone. I resist, but Marley has such a mournful, lost-dog look that I can't bear to desert hiin. I wish I could for a little, but he's my own Munchausen monster, and a dear good soul to back it. Do you want me to win the race, as much as he does?" Sylvia was, perhaps, less embarrassed than Howard. The moment he had asked that question he realised that it might seem unduly pointed. It was something which he had been about to say to himself, but had unwittingly passed the barrier of his lips. " I ?" she said, giving her horse a flick which quickened his pace. "Of course, I would like always to see my friends successful," she added, with a little smile, as lie drew up to her again. " The worst of it is," he said, thinking his indiscretion might be as well let die in this way as any other, " motor racing takes up such a lot of your time, and tho ' Continental' will take mo out of England foi a good three weeks. These courses have to be well studied before you can count on jjoing yourself justice." " You don't mind going abroad, do you ?" He smiled. " I like to see my friends sometimes, Miss Lancaster. I'm not married to mechanics, like Marley. Why, you asked me this morning why I had failed to turn up for some time. You remember that Tom Hood, the poet, wanted to write serious verse, only people would not let him. He had the reputation of a humorist. I don't want to be put down as a racing motorist, and nothing more. Though you mightn't believe it, I. have some natural affection," he added, grinning. " Aunt Anne has been asking about you," sho said. " I think you're a favourite with her."

" I'd like to be. She's a good sort, your Aunt Anne. I wonder you didn't stay with her." " But we didn't know she was coming to town. She only lvrote about it after Lady Selmorgan had so kindly invited me. Do you know, Sir Charles, this is the first time I've known her to settle so long in one spot without wishing and planning to be somewhere else." "Jove! Restless, is shoC"' " Sho used to be. Papa often laughed at her wandering? ' Your flying aunt,' he used to call her to me." " I hope she won't spread her wings for a long time," he said. "We are good friends. If she went' away—" " But I'm staying with Lady Selmorgan till the end of May at least." " True," he murmured. . (To bo continued on Saturday next.)