THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20425, 29 November 1929, Page 20

THE COURTS OF THE MORNING.

BY JOHN BUCHAN.

"» CHAPTER ill. : AN UPj-COUNTRY; VJSIT, • ■ , 'Archie set out % on his exploration of Olifa with his , noso in tho air, liko a dog looking for -game. Tho 'spell" of a new country had fallen on him, as had happened fourteen years beforo when ho left school. -Tho burden of tho war and all it had brought, tho cares- of politics, tho preoccupations of homo had slipped from his shoulders, and ho felt himself again an adventurer, as when he had first studied maps and listened hungrily to travellers' tales. But now he had ono supreme advantage—he had a companion, and Janet, who had never before been out of Europe, was as eager as ho was to squeeze the last drop out of new experience.

He left over his more important letters for the moment and used those introductions .which had been given him by the friends ho had made during his time at the Madrid . Embassy. Tho result was that they' were taken to the heart of a pleasant, rigid little society—as remote from interest in tho government of Olifa as an unreconstructed Southern planter is from <1 Republican White House, or a Royalist Breton from the Elysee. Archie was made a member of the polo club, and played with agreeable young men, who had 'their' clothes and saddlery from London and their manners from tho eighteenth century. A'ball was given in their honour, where tho most popular dance, to Janet's amazement.' was a form of Lancers. They met composed'maidens who were still in bondage to their duennas, and young married women, languishing and voluble, or discreet aud domesticated, amoit'g whose emphatic complexions Janet's delicate colouring was like a wood anemone among gardenias, and witty grandmothers running terribly too fat, and ancient hidalgos -with beaks liki birds of prey. It was a comfortable. society, with the secure good manners of. a tiny aristocracy, but it know of no "world, beyond its pale, and was profoundly uninterested in its neighbours. They went a little, too. into business circles, both Olifero and alien, tho representatives of shipping and trading companies and the big foreign banks. This, too. was a pleasant world, good tempered and prosperous. Here thev heard much of politics, but it was business politics. The existing Government was spoken of with respect, but not with intimate knowledge j it functioned well, kept the country solvent, and left trade in peace. Politicians were a class by themselves, a dubious class, though it was believed that the | present lot were honest. But they met none of, the Copper people. j " This is a queer place," Archie told i Janet. "It seems to have two Governors ] »-~iho Castor fellow and the President—and the ordinary man don't seem to know or care much# about either. It's about time we started cut for the Gran Seco." But'""when Don Alejandro was approachedion the matter lie had to explain with "many apologies that their permits had not ..arrived. There was some inconceivably'foolish hitch, which he had riot yet tracked dowh. " But the American troupe got through' "straight away," Archie complained.They. left a week ago." "I know. That is a way Americans liave. Perhaps in your case the difficulty is Mr. Wilbur. Officiously and quite unnecessarily. ho interested himself in getting your passes, so he said—and he may have exhausted his purchase in franking his countrymen through and raised a prejudice. As I have told you, his nation is not loved by our Government." Don Alejandro went on to explain that the delay could only be a matter of days. " Meantime why not visit my cousin at Veiro. There you must go some,time, and this hiatus gives you the chance,"

, So to Veiro they went —fifty miles by [ train and twenty by motor-car along a superb concrete highway, which suddenly gave out two miles from the house, so that the journey was completed by a sandy track over primeval prairie. Don ; Mario Canfuentes, the cousin of Don' Alejandro, was small, spare and bluejowled, with the figure of a groom and the profound solemnity of the. man who lives with horses. His wife was dead, and his ranch and stables were to him both family and profession. Jle greeted his "visitors with the grave courtesy of manner ■which net-'ls no words to emphasise it. Theic .rooms were wide chambers, with scrubbed .wooden floors and windows looking across a broad verandah to 100 miles, of space, as bare and fresh as a convent dormitory. They had their meals in a dining room which contained the remnants of the Sanfuentes heirlooms — , cabinets of lacquer and tortoise-shell, a Murillo which had been an altarpiece in one of the forgotten churches of the Conquistadores, fantastic tapestries now faded , into a mellow confusion, an Italian triptych of carved ivory, and a great galleon - of tarnished silver. By day' Archie and Janet rode wit!} their host about his estate, examined his young stock, and tried out promising colts qu the gallops, where by assiduous care a better turf had been got than in the '• ordinary savannah.. At every meal the talk was of horses, but at night, when the . fire %vas lit, Don Mario, from the depths of his well-rubbed armchair, would speak at large of the land. In modern Olifa he had little interest, but he told of tho diversions of his youth—bis pack of foxhounds- which had to be so constantly renewed from England that he gave up the game ia despair, tiger hunting in the for- , est country, punitive expeditions against Indian horse-thieves' from the hills. The time passed in a delicious calm; a combination, said Janet, of Newmarket and Scotland. And then on the last day of their stay came another visitor. ' " I cannot tell you about this country," Don Mario said, " for I am an old horsebreeder who lives apart. But I have bidden, young Luis de Marzaniea to sleep , tiie night, His mother was cousin to the husband 'of my great-aunt's niece. Luis has travelled abroad and seen tho world, but especially he has travelled in Olifu. , No. " lie is no politician nor is he engaged ill business. He is like n.e, what \fru call a country gentleman. But he has youth and inquisitiveness, both of . .which I have long since lost." So, when the Koylances, having bathed ' ®, n d changed after a long ride in the sun, came down to dinner, they found a strange young man awaiting them. Don Mario's evening garb had been a little like that of a deaf-mute at a funeral, but this young t man wore the trimmest of dinner-jackets snd tho neatest of patent leather shoes. His hair was as fair as Archie's, but some colouring in his skin had made him sunburn, not to Archie's brick-red biit to a rich golden-brown. His eyes were brown, *aod the large expanse of white iy them was the only foreign thing in his appearOtherwise he looked like ,a young English cavalry subaltern, whose duties pennitted him to hunt three days a week. Dinnerthat evening was a cheerful meal. ,Don Luis chaffed his distant kinsman, with whom he was obviously in high favour, and Don Mario expanded in silent laughter. All spoke English—Don Mario iVefy correct and stilted, Don Luis nobly ■'nngrammntical but notably idiomatic. To Janet's questions ho replied that his education had been chiefly in Olifa, but that /he. had visited Europe seven times, and during the last six months of the war had nad a commission in the French Air Force Ho had only just returned from Paris. . Jhe mention of flying woke up Archie, and .for a little the room hummed with technicalities. Archio inquired conemmgJbe Olifa Air Force, and was told : 6ut J bufc the sma »-n°t • than five squadrons.; The Olifero

A BRILLIANT SERIAL OF LOVE, MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE.

?COPYRIGHT;)

I did not take readily-to the air, and the pijots wore mostly, foreigners—Germans ; who had found their career cut short at home, and, Don Luis thought, one or two Russians. " It is like/ all our. army,"bp said," a little force :of export mercenaries. Olifa neodsptio army; In future, she will fight her battles with gold." i D&n Luis was very ready to talk. He answered Archie's ijiany questions on sport with enthusiasm, and drew sketch maps to illustrate,the Jiq.-of tho land. As to politics ho had not Don Mario's apathy, lie was ready with amusing portraits of Olifa's statesmen and with cogent sum- . movies of policy. Ho was also a humorist, and had a repertoire of tales. But he was discreet young yiaii, and ventured no opinion of his own. He was neither reactionary nor progressive, only an interested spectator. • On the Gran Seco lie was highly informative. lie described tho nature of the copper deposits, and tho new processes which had reduced costs and made it. the Golconda of Olifa. „ Castor lie knew only by sight. "Wo of Olifa do not meet him, but wo worship him from afar. He is tho god who dwells in the sanctuary." -

"Tlio American Consul thought there might bo trouble sonic day. Tho mine labourers are rather a savage lot, aren't they?" ' * Don Luis laughed. " I think the wish may be—how you say?—mother to tlio thought. Senor Wilbur does not love the Gran Seco. No doubt it is? a difficult place, but Senor Castor is beyond doubt a Napoleon and flourishes on difficulties. It will be alright." • " Why does he keep the place so tightly shut? We have been waiting a fortnight. for a permit to enter." "So! Then there must be some foolish mistake of clerks. Senor Castor is not likely to be uncivil—least of all to a charming ladv and to a member* of the English Parliament. He is a lover of Europe. . * Don Luis had many questions to ask in turn, and it slowly dawned upon one of his hearers that this candid and friendly young man was taking in more" than lie l gave. out. Archio was drawn to speak of his own past—his Eastern travels, his experience in the war, oven of his friends, who could mean nothing to a South American .who had only once been In England. He found .himself quoting Sandy Arbuthnot by name, as if ho had been in his club at home. "I beg your * pardon," lie said, confusedly, " You can't bo interested in my yarning about people you never heard of." " But lam deeply interested. Your friend is a wise man. How do you call him—Arbuthnot?" "He was Sandy Arbuthnot. but his father is dead, and ho is Lord C'lanroyden now." j " A Lord! Clan-roy-den. Por Divs, that is a strange name." " Scotch," said Archie. " Ah yes—Scotch. That is your Highlands ? Your Gran Seco? This Lord Clayroy-den, lie is in Scotland ?" " I'm blessed if I know where he is at the moment. He's never long off the road." Janet, too, to her surprise, found herself talking to this stranger as if she had known him from childhood. She described vivaciously her encounter with the Moplahs. . "They arc common as lentils in Olifa at certain seasons," said Don "Luis," those noisy emancipated American children. They have gone, you say, to the Gran Seco where Americans are not loved. There may be work then for Senor Wilbur." " They are really rather nice," said Janet.

" I think I have met ono of them before . . . Archie, I didn't tell you, but I believe the tall girl who was with the Moplahs the first day and whom we never saw again, was the Miss Dasent who came to Strathlarrig. She was some sort of relation of Mr. Blenkiron." " Not really ?" exclaimed the interested Archie. " That's curious. Did you ever hear of Blenkiron, Don Luis? He died the other day—American, rather a great man—he was the chap I was telling you about in the Shark-Gladas affair." The other shook his head. "I do not think so. But American names are so difficult that it is hard to remember. They are worse than Clan-roy-den." Don Mario made it his habit to retire to rest at ten o'clock, and Janet, being

very sleepy, followed soon after. Archie and* Don Luis lit a final cigar, and in the smoking of it strolled into the moonlit verandah. On this side of the house the View was not broken by outbuildings, and beyond a . string of paddocks the eye passed to an endless sweep of yellow savannah which faded in the distance into a golden haze.' The air was fresh, and though the night was still, cool wafts seemed to drift soundlessly down from the hidden mountains. "My countrymen and yours fought each other for 300 years," said Don Luis, " but a Spaniard and an Englishman, when they' meet, usually understand each other. I presume, with your permission, on that old sympathy, and T ask you boldly what arc you doing here ?" The young man's manner had changed from tho deboniar ease which had marked it at dinner. It had become at once confidential and authoritative. " Fact is I don't know," was Archie's reply. " Principally, Janet and I arc on a postponed honeymoon. I had a notion to pick up something about South American politics, which might bo useful to me in Parliament." " And you find Olifa rather barren ground ?" " I did at first. . . . Now, I am not so sure." " Will you Jet me advise yon ? We are both young men and have served in war. Stay a little longer in Olifa if you have not yet exhausted the charm of the capital, and then take j-otir delightful lady on board tlio first ship and go straight home." 1 i

" Home ? Why in the world?" Archie stared at the speaker. " You can go to Valparaiso and Buenos Aires if they amuse you. But get out of Olifa."

"But why?" " I cannot tell you why. I am your friend, and a friend may venture to advise without reasons." "But what's'tho trouble? Olifa is a great deal more peaceful than Europe. You don't mean to say that there's danger. . . " Olifa is a mask —you have not seen her face. Look in front of you. You sec nothing but flat pastures. But beyond you know that there are wild mountains. I tell you that behind the flatness of Olifa there are wild things." " Well, I'm blessed! D'you know, Don Luis, you are making Olifa rather attractive. \ou are giving mo a very good reason why I should stay..'-' " But Madame. .

I don t know. I*or heaven's sako don t tell hor what you're telling me, for if she gets a notion that there's mystery abroad she won't stop till sho is up to tho neck in it.. But, of course, I can't lot hor run any risks " "T <3'o not think that you will bo able to help yourself—if you stay. .'You may bo caught in a tide which will carry you to things very different from your rospectable English politics. And these tilings will not be a honeymoon." {To be continued daily.)