TREASURE HOUSE OF MARTIN HEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20333, 14 August 1929, Page 20

TREASURE HOUSE OF MARTIN HEWS.

r.y e. ruiLLirs oitexiieim.

I SYNOPSIS Almost penniless utter tho war. Major Owstoii, former crick athlete, accepts tho offer of employment by Martin Llews, a strange, legless cripple, who lives in Breezejey M ana ion, a gloat barrack of a building in flat dyko country—a. house of alleluia <loois unci mysterious peepholes. Hews, after interviewing Owston, and amazing him with his marvellous motor-chair, bids him hide in a, secret wall recess; and be ready to/come to his employer's aid if necessary during tho visit of two peoplo who are approaching the house. In his recess, Owston is approached by a beautiful girl, who Males 9hc is Hews' niece, and offers Owston money to desert his post and go back to London. This ho refuaes. and from his recess watches and listens to tho conversation between his employer, a girl named Rachel and .Toe Donkin, who is seeking shelter from arrest for a murder committed tho previous night. Donkin tells Hews that ho had carvind out his instructions to start a hooligan tight, and that several men had been killed Later, Hews introduces Owston to his niece, explaining to tho latter that Owston i-; to protect him against the assassins of Khore'litch.

Strange things occur, and tho atmosphere grows more mysterious.

CHAPTER IV.— (Continued)

" God bless my soul, sir, what was that ?" ho gasped. "A searchlight!" I explained. " Min chin told me that (hoy had ono in tho tower."

"Curse their spying ways!" he exclaimed, with ail abrupt vehemence which astonished me. "As though a man couldn't take a little jaunt to see a friend without their wanting to know all about it! It's a strange household, sir. J shall not he able to stand their ways. ]'ni used to something very different. I shall give notice to-morrow." " It's an unusual household, at any rate," I admitted. " I daro say they heard our voices, and wanted to see who was about." JIo lifted his hat once more, mumbled something which 1 did not catch, and hurried back toward the house. Presently I followed his example, and returned to my room. Here I found a surprise in store for me. Seated in tho easy-chair, which I had drawn up to the (ire, was the young lady who had travelled down with Donkin from London that afternoon. She was still wearing the dark red gown and tani-o'-shantor in which she had arrived. Iler feet were up upon tho high fonder, and she was smoking a cigarette from the opened box which I had left. She started at my unexpected appearance. " Gawd, how you scared me!" she exclaimed. "Is this house all secret doors and passages? Don't anyone walk about like a Christian being?" " I believe they generally do," I assured her. " 1 haven't seen much of the place myself yet. Making yourself comfortable, I hope ?" Sho turned her head and looked at mo for a moment through her dark, velvety eves.

" Oh, I'm 0.K., thanks," sho remarked, sinking a little lower in the chair. " Gives mo the creeps, this place docs, though. Toll me about Jim? You got him off all right ?"

" With about five minutes to spare," I answered, drawing up another and smaller chair to the other side Of the hearth rug. " Mr. Joseph himself, I believe it was, arrived with a small band of desperadoes before the motor-boat was out of sight." She nodded thoughtfully " I expect it was Jo. I can't think why ho's so bitter. One of those two was bound to get his before they'd done, and I always reckoned it, would be Jim. He's pretty well all in, poor chap. I don't know as Le'll be able to stand a sea yoyago."i '/.ln any case, I'm afraid you'll havo to make np your mind to wait some time before you see him again," I warned her. " It may have been a fair fight, but he killed his man—there's no doubt about that—and a knife's an ugly thing to explain away." She stretched out her hand for another cigarette. " The Wolves all carry knives," she confided. " Phil. Abrahams had his—they found it on him—but he couldn't get at it. Jim had his gun as wellj but he didn't use it. I don't see much to choose between 'em, myself." j i" If Joseph wanted you so much, why didn't ho come after you himself, instead of sending another man ?" I asked. " Oh, he wants ine all right," she replied, lighting the cigarotte which she had selected; " He's been after me, too, more than once, only the luck was our way, and we managed to dodge him. He and Jim would have been at one another's throats pretty soon, anyhow, but it happened to bo Phil, we met first, coming out'of a pub in Aldgato. Jim never used his knife till he was down, and Phil had his half-way out, so (hey couldn't make it anything but manslaughter. I say, what do you and the old gentleman upstairs expect mo to do if Joseph comes down hero after me?" " Lie low, I should think," I answered. ' Martin Hews promised to keep you safe, /and 1 fancy when lie says a thing he means hj." She looked thoughtfully into the fire, end I found myself studying her. Her frock was of the sort which had probably come from Shaftesbury Avenue—daring, but in its way well fashioned. It disclosed the lines of her exquisito little figuro with purposeful artistry. Her silkclad legs, beautifully shaped, were both extended upon the fender ller dark, glossy eyebrows were gathered together in a little frown, and her brilliantlv;coloured lips wore distinctly pouting.: She turned at last toward ine, and thero was a gleam of laughter in her eyes. Nice thing for mo to be cooped up here like this, ain't it?" she complained. ' I don't know that I wouldn't just as lief havo been left to go my own way. Jo, he wants me back again bad, but he wouldn't dare touch rile unless I were willing. There's no man breathing would. 'Do you know what I'd do to him ?" " I imagine you would make yourself remarkably unpleasant," I ventured. She thrust her hand unashamedly up the side of her leg. and produced a little ppignard in a small sheath. She removed the tatter, and sprung the steel with >er fingers—a little streak of wonderful blue metal. r

" I'd stub him," sho confided, "if it was the wrong man. The right man—well, that's a different thing. I've chosen all my life, and I shall choose to the end. ■No one will have mc against my will." -Ml your lifo?" I repeated, smiling at " Why, liow old fire you, then ?" " I'm all but twenty," sho answered. " I began young. What do they reckon they're going to do, these fellows of •Joseph's, if they come along? Bash you all on the head, 1 suppose, and carry me away. Seems to mo I'm giving a bit of trouble." " That, was what your famous prototype discovered many years ago," I told her. •She s'.ared at mo suspiciously. /" Who are you getting at V she demanded. " What I mean is, that if Jim weio ( 0 hear I'd (rone back to Joseph ho (I como after me from South America, or whatever lie was. Why can't they leave me alone, that's what 1 want to 7"™ • * can niako up my own mind, v ".9 so,no sort of a man. If I fancy V,' 11 '" will him. I don't know sti< L- i,' thoug !\ Jlm ' s 11 S°°d sort, he'd What rln mC ' .. l . m jßh l' o ' B a bit rougher, hat do you think about it all, mis'er? iittouS 6 d«s? c hi 1 . of the East End street', KWfi charm, just as surely !VS the peasants of sfii? ' pleasure children of Marbeillts. I had wandered about Southern -* opo a good oeal in rny younger days 'Ut r could remember at the moment I fl " e i (,r i n ty f e ' who had seemed to v Pie su devilishly beautiful.

AN INSPIRING SERIAL BY A FAMOUS AUTHOR.

(COPY 111 CUT.)

" Woil, .1 really don't know what to think," X told her. "As a matter of fact I don't fancy that girls are much in my lino."

" I'm a good looker, ain't I ?" she persisted. " They all say so. I ran niako "em all crazy when I try—the whole gang. They would have fought about me every night—hut Donkin's lads all know that I belonged to hint." 1 laughed, and something in tho quality of my mirth apparently annoyed her. She frowned angrily. "I'm not your sort, 1 suppose, eh 7" sho demanded. " You're good looking enough to turn anyone's head,' 1 assured her hastily, " but you must remember that I'm a great deal older; besides I'm rather a dull person with your sex, anyhow." Sho surveyed me appraisinglv.

" You're not so very old," sho said, " but 1 dare say you're kind of set iu your ways. Jim now, he was always up "to some dovilmont or other to keep things merry, and Joseph—he was tho cleverest man at tricks, 1 ever knew. We used to have wonderful nights, before ho and Jim quairelled, and tho gang split up—mostly about me that was too. You ain't so,bad, though You're a good looker, and my, you're strong, 1 should think! Why, I could sit on your knee and you wouldn't feel my weight." " 1 might," I warned her quickly. " I was wounded in my leg during the war." " Well, that'i better than having none at all, like tho poor gent upstairs," sho observed. " I say, do you think they'll let mo out of hero now and then? It seems kind of dead and lonesome without the electric cars and lights and horns loot-

" I am rather afraid," I told her '! from what I know of Mr. Martin Hews' methods, that you won't be allowed a great deal of liberty." Sho yawned. "I ain't sure that tho air of this neighbourhood's going to suit me," she decided. " 1 like a cinema and a bit of a dance at nights." A footman, in a very correct striped waistcoat, auo dark livery, entered tho room, attended to the lire, and brushed up tho grate Rachel watched him quizzically.

" Will it be convenient for me to lay the cloth for dinner now, sir?" ho inquired. I nodded assent, and ho disappeared. The girl looked after him. " Gee!" she exclaimed. " Are they going to do that sort of thing to me?" " I don'tr know," I answered. " Perhaps you'd better run along to your quarters now, and see. It must bo getting on towards dinner time." She swung herself on to her teet and indulged in a little grimace. ' Nice sociable sort of a follow you are!" she grumbled. "You ain't going to put on airs with me all the time, I hope?" " It appears to me, my. child," I said evasively, " that my job is going to be fight for you if that" gang conies along." " Well, there's many as have done that," she confided, pausing and boldly linking her arm through initio as we mo\;cd towards the door. " I don t mind it. There's always a kiss for the winner —sometimes for the other chap, if I fancy him. . . Mv, havo you come all this wav just to open tho door tor rnc

" Why not ?" "Want anything for it?" she asked mischievously. " 1 am too frightened of your knife, I replied. She stood upon tiptoe, smacked my cheek lightly with her hand, and darted away with a little mocking laugh. l'"or a moment I lingered there, I must confess half angry. 'I hen I forgot all about it. From somewhere in the upper regions of the house came the most, appalling shriek of terror 1 had ever heard in my life.

CHAPTER V. I never doubted but that this was a job for me in my new capacity as protector of the household, and 1 sprinted off down tho corridor toward the hall, meaning to ascend at once to my employer's room. I had scarcely gone half a dozen paces, however, before Miss Essiter appeared round the corner, coming toward mo. There was no sign of alarm in her face. " Did you hear that cry ? " I exclaimed. " There 'is something wrong in your uncle's room." *

" There's nothing wrong which need concern you, Major Owston," sho assured me coldly. " When you are wanted you will bo summoned." ' Her demeanour seemed to me, with the echoes of that cry in my ears, stupefying. There was a supercilious turn to her lips as she stood there, barring my progress. It flashed into my mind that she had probably seen Rachel run laughing to her room.

" But surely," I protested, " something must be wrong up there ? Someone must be in distress of somo sort?"

" Nothing that is happening is any concern of yours," sho insisted. " When your services are needed you will be sent for. I was on my way to speak to you.'' "Will you come into my room?" I invited, turning back reluctantly. She followed rne. I lingered upon tho threshold listening, and, reassured to some extent, by the silence which now reigned in the house, I closed tho door. Sho stood for a moment looking around the room. Then she walked to the window and drew the curtain a little closer. Afterwards she tried the catch of the outer door, and finally made her way to my easy chair, into which she sank with a slight gesture of relief, and sat gazing at mo with almost disconcerting intentness.

She had changed her dress, but she was still wearing black—a gown of cunningly devised simplicity which seemed to fall in one line from her neck to tho hem of her skirt. Sho wore no ornaments and her strangely coloured hair was arranged in unfashionable and severely simplo coils. Nevertheless, T was beginning to realise that although sho seemed indifferent to, almost contemptuous of, the fact, she was really an unusually beautiful young woman. Although her voice, her eyes, her changeless poise seemed to bespeak a curious lack of human sensibility, she had the air of living in a world of her own, from which she emerged upon necessity with a certain amount of resentment. I seated myself in another chair, and waited a little obstinate in my silence. She had sought me out. It would bo for her. I decided, to explain her errand. This she did, after a somewhat prolonged interval.

" You are wondering, of course, Maior Owston," sho remarked, " why I tried to persuade you to go away." (To be continued daily.)