THE SEAL OF DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20496, 22 February 1930, Page 16 (Supplement)

THE SEAL OF DEATH.

BY ROSITA FORBES.

CHAPTER XXIX. Lois, bound for Marseilles and already established in tho corner of her sleeper, with her one suitcase, reinforced by a lizard skin bag in tho rack above her, studied tho crowd on tho platform. Slio wondered whether Wingato would rnako ono of his fantastic jack-in-the-box nppearancea and reassured herself by glancing round the neatly upholstered box in which she was to spend tho night, having paid a formidable sum to ensuro that

she shared it with no one. Tliero wcro still ten minutes beforo tho train was duo (o start, and Lois bought an English paper, hoping for more news of tho Littlo Scope mystery. She was rewarded by a stop press paragraph announcing tho discovery of a body in tho Bois do Boulogno, which was believed to be that of ono of the two men for whom tho police were searching in connection /with the murder of Madamo Lepuy. Lois' fingers stiffened on tho paper and Khe re-rcad tho lines several times beforo sho could grasp their significance. " One of tho two men," but which two? Scotland Yard, according to the press, was equally interested in tho discovery of Wingato and his valet, or tho strangers ;who visited tho Manor after the crimo. Lois, frozen in her corner, was unconscious of scrutiny from tho platform, or of ■tho growing bustlo in tho corridor. Iler ]ips wcro dry and, though slio wanted frantically to seo if there were any date on Jim's letter, sho knew herself incapablo of tho necessary movement to open her bag. Only her brain darted over facts and possibilities as if it were a lizard flicking in and out of holes. It couldn't be Wingato. Ho was alive last night and —Lois managed to turn over the paper—it was the morning edition. There wouldn't have been time to wire the news to England before publication. With a great effort the girl opened her bag and, with fingers that felt like lumps of wood, pulled out Rattiker's note. ,Tliero was no date on it, and she had tliown away the envelope. It was only as the train was starting that Lois thought of buying a French paper, a'nd tho first thing she saw was a headline " Strange Find in the Bois." It appeared that two workmen, taking a short cut to tho factory in which they were employed on an early morning shift, passed through a coppice and noticed a man's boots sticking out of the undergrowth. It was a lonely spot and they investigated with caution. Tho man, who was described as a tall foreigner, probably English, had been stabbed in tho back with so fine a stiletto that there was only a small rent in the cloth of his coat to mark tho wound. Tho paper then proceeded to conjecture tho probable social status of the Englishman, and, at the end of the column, Lois w<is left in little doubt that the description referred to Rattiker.

No amount of exaggeration could deecribo Langley as tall, and the girl pictured the valet as typical of his class, quigtly dressed and inconspicuous. Tho man discovered in the Bois was wearing valuable links and studs, his watch was a platinum and gold masterpiece from Boucheron, and his note case was well supplied with money. It bore a monogram in one corner. Here tho report became suddenly discreet and wandered off into garbled accounts of other outrages in the Bois. Lois, feeling that if she moved something would certainly break, sat in her corner / whilo tho south-bound express swung out of the station, negotiated suburban points, roared in and out of tunnels before it swept grandly into the country night. A, waiter calling " Messieurs efc Mesdames! Take your places, if you pfeasc! The last dinner is served!" glanced into her compartment and thought she slept. Much • later on a large, dark man shuffled down tho corridor, hesitated at her open door and went a few paces further to settle with the patience of his Slav blood on a strapontin under a jwindow. At last, conscious of intense cold and of a weariness that clogged her brain, Lois agreed to the repeated requests of the attendant that he should be allowed to make up her bed. While ho manipulated sheets and blankets with the air of a conjurer producing rabbits out of a hat she stumbled out into the passage. The large dark man offered his precarious seat, but it was not till she had been balancing on it for some time, numbed by the roar and rush of the train and the clanking which seemed to connect the wheels with others in her brain, that she looked up blindly and her bewildered eyes focussed on the face of the stranger. He was looking at her with a gentle wistfulness'that belied his size, and his face had the mobility of indiarubber. Lois' wondered if she were dreaming, but the stranger smiled at her as if she •were a < child for whom he was making satisfactory arrangements. " Cela va Lien ?" he said. "It goes well, hein ?" Lois, recognising at last the man who had spoken to her in the Bois, shrank hack against the window, her fingers tightening oh tho bag, which still held the stiletto. She thought that thd» other noticed her instinctivo movement and sho wapted to ask him if it %vere by »;hance that ho travelled on tho same train, or if it were part of tho purpose in which, for so long, she had been involved, but sho couldn't find tho words sho wanted. Meanwhile the man glanced swiftly up and down the corridor. No cno was in sight. A row of closed mahogany door 3 rattled in time to the pace of the express. With tho lithe swiftness of an animal the massive figure bent over Lois, pulled up a loose sleeve slightly frayed at the cuff and showed 011 the forearm tho branded death's head. ' See you, I am one of them. Now tell me, whose is that knife?" <Lois felt his "breath 011 her cheek, but she was not afraid. "It cannot be that you were in iho Bois. Mo, I heard a noise and I ran, dropping my dagger, and the grass is long. I thought it was lost, till 1 saw you staring at it with your so big eyes." Ho held a peremptory hand. " You picked it up, is it not so? Givo it back io me."

CHAPTER XXX. The attendant twisted out of Lois' compartment with an air of satisfaction. The habitual miracle was complete. Ho waved tho gyi into her temporary bedroom, bowed with a gyratory smile that included her companion and disappeared down the passage. Lois, in tho act of shutting thei. door of her sleeper, found the largo riftin at her elbow and now bis voice was as persuasive as a mother talking to a child: "Sec you, 1 am Russian, and your language, it- is difficult for me, hut you liavo 1110 knife in your hag is, it not so'/ Let mo just look at it—l shall know then if it is mine, for tbey arc all numbered." Lois immensely cool, for the pathos of the huge Slav, who was bent, apparently, <'ii betraying the monstrous thing he'd done, robbed bet of all fear, pushed him 1 .1-k into the corridor, and locked the door. Then, with both hands pressed to her head, she sank 011 to the newly-made lied and endeavoured to think, but her brain swung in circles. If this Russian worn the murderer of the man found in Hid Puis, she ought to tell the guard, •stop the train, d>j something, but it was impossible. One didn't meet murderers find talk to them; and they wouldn't havo those brown, lost eyes, like a spaniel .who's'been hurt. The Russian was mad; *>f course, that was it. Ho was a lunatic brand above his wrist T fiYith a glanco at the door and its latch-

A STORY OF LOVE, MYSTERY AND ROMANTIC ELEMENT.

shaped lock, Lois opened her bag, and, taking out the stiletto, examined it for the hundredth time. She could see no number on it, nor any mark to suggest a numeral, so she turned out the light and watched tho 3kull grow faintly phosphorescent just underneath the hilt. Still there was nothing to justify the Russian's claim, and, faintly relieved, Lois was just going to put tlio weapon back in her bag when a sudden thought struck her. Crossing to tlio dorr, slio tested tho heavy brass latch. Surely it couldn't bo very difficult to turn it from outside. With lips compressed into a bar, tlio girl drove tho tiny weapon between the mattress and the seat, and placed tho bag, which tho Russian would imagino contained it, under her pillow. Very slowly slid undressed, stifling tho growing impulse which urged her to go in search of the mad Cavalier and ask him what he'd done or seen in tho Bois beforo he lost his knifo that was twin to Rattiker's.

Sheer physical pain had numbed her. Sho couldn't cry, and it was impossible to feel any more. She'd reached tho summit of emotion, and was slipping wearily over tho other side. Before midnight sho was asleep, but it was not till some hours later, when even tho conductor, his brown coat discarded, his j elastic-sided boots propped well abovo his head, slept unhygienically in a sealed compartment, that tho dooor opened gently and shut boliind tho soft-footed Russian. For a moment tho man stood, perfectly balanced in spito of his size, but almost blocking tho dim bluo light that Lois had forgotten to extinguish, whilo ho looked round with tho lidless stare of a hunting animal. Then, so softly that tho girl, deep in exhausted sleep, only stirred and sighed, ho thrust his hand under the pillow and pulled out the claborato grey trifle, in which Lois had onco kept the stiletto. His fingers, large and flat-tipped, wera amazingly deft, and, in a few seconds, bo had mado certain that the bag did not contain what ho wanted, and pushed it back under tho pillow. lie was breathing deeply, but otherwise appeared unmoved, and his search of tho compartment was thorough. When ho found tho girl's keys, dropped carelessly in tho ashtray, ho opened her now lizardskin case, and looked among its bottles and brushes, even prodding the lining. Having replaced it, ho stared up at the heavy suitcase, as if ho meditated an assault on that, but Lois turned in the narrow bunk, flinging out an arm which looked very white against the rug. Tho man shifted his gaze, and contemplated tho girl whose hair mado a bright pool on the dinginess of the pillow. For a long time ho studied the small white face, whoso dusky gold lashes were like curtains closely drawn. Then, very gently, ho pulled the rug over tho baro arm, and left the compartment. In the corridor ho stopped at the first window, let it down, and leaned out into the night, oblivious of the smoke, stifling in great breaths of cold air. After some minutes of this ho went back to his own compartment, littered with worn and overfull bags, all stamped with the same coronet, curled his apparently boneless bulk into a corner, and, pulling over him a hideous check overcoat, slept till the train jolted into Marseilles. Lois' night ended sooner, for, racked by the repetition of a dream, in which a vast, bat-like creature hung over her, its claws a few inches from her throat, and in them, alternatively, a stiletto and a newspaper, whose print swam in and out of view, she woke with the dawn, dressed in slow miserable stages, and huddled by tho window till hunger and a brisk conductor on the alert for tips drove her into the waggon-restaurant. Previously, of course, she had returned tho stiletto to its first hiding place in her bag, and, sipping her coffee and tinned milk in tho most stable intervals, she liked to feel that, clase to her, in her knees, within reach of her hand, she held the one link with Rattiker and his mysterious past. The coffee slopped over. A waiter thrust a stained bill before her. The train drew up with the effect of conscious achievement.

Half-an-hour later, Lois, established in a Victoria, which seemed largely held together by tho energy of its driver, was rattling down to the quay. In front of her a similar cab, weighted with rather more imposing luggage, was lurching over the tram lines. For some timo Lois was conscious of the back of a neat, fair head between immaculate brown felt and brown tweed. Then the man took off his hat, and the first hint of spring sunshine revealed a familiar profile. Lois prodded her driver violently in tho back, leaped to her feet, and called over his shoulder.

CHAPTER XXXI. "Lord, Langley! It is you, isn't it?" Pongo, looking round with the placid interest that was habitual to him*, saw a pale young woman, with gleams of gold between fur collar and carelessly adjusted though unnaturally chic hat, signalling to him with a very English umbrella, but he did not at first recognise Lois. As his hat was already in his hand, ho could not do more than wave it, but the second driver took this for encouragement and pulled alongside. Then Pongo realised who it was leaning over tho side of the shabby vehicle, r.nd talking with much moro emotion and incoherence than the occasion justified. "It wasn't you in tho Bois, I know it wasn't; but—where's Mr. Rattiker?" Lois' face was so stained that Langley, who could be very obtuse, but was always kind, ordered both Johus to stop, and transferred himself to the girl's side. " Where aro you bound for?" lie asked pleasantly, with a backward glance to see if his luggage were duly following, but Lois caught his arm, and, with eyes so dilated that her face seemed to lie only .1 frame for their anxiety, stammered ;

" That man who was killed in the Bois •--who was it ?"

Pongo's obtuseness cleared as if it wcro £ mist. "By jovc! You poor child! It was Wingate's valet; not sure that I know his name."

Studying her with amiable curiosity as she crumpled beside him, speechless in her relief, with colour ebbing back into her lips, he went in: "Tho man had done a bolt as soon as ho realised tho gamo was up. You bet, he'd got a lot 011 his conscience, and it seems he'd cleaned up his master's belongings, all right. Wingate- had a passion for gew-gaws, and most of his pet particular ones wero found on tho valet. I don't know whether thoso two scoundrels knew each other's whereabouts, but I supposo each was feeling safer alone."

Lois looked at tho (all, yellow houses, stained with smoko and brine, with multicoloured washing dripping from (ho win-dow-sills. They wero utterly commonplace, and so was tho pink young man Itesido her. Deliberately sho pulled herself together, knew first that sho was vory hungry, and secondly that this man was her one chance fit finding out even a titho of what sho wanted to know, and smiled.

"That's belter," said Pongo, and asked again where she was going.

" 011 board tho Naldavia," retorted Lois, and was glad that her chosen steamer touched at sufficient ports for her ultimate destination to remain a secret.

" Pin for Egypt myself," said Langley. " Had a bit of leave due—and—cr—Rattiker thought I'd better get out of tho cotinlrv."

lio didn't add.that he'd chosen Egypt because it was so conveniently near to (110 scene of his friend's adventures, but Lois, her wits sharpened by all that sho had gone through, guessed it. Sho did not tell Langley of tho finding of the dagger, or of the Russian who was so interested in it—sho would wait

(COPYRIGHT.)

until ho was willing to put his own cards on tho table! / But she gavo him a full account of everything elso that had happened sinco Jim had landed her at Pourvillo, ending with an appeal: " You must tell mo what it all means. It isn't fair to leavo mo out of it."

Pongo, very unperturbed, asked her if she'd breakfasted, and, when _ sho was forced to acknowledge the solitary and sloppy cup of coffee, ho directed their cab to a small restaurant on tho quay, wliero he established tlio girl behind n red and white tablecloth, with threo daffodils in a vase, and ordered eggs, brioches and red wine.

" You sec, I really don't know very much," ho began, as if their conversation had never been interrupted. " Jim and I were at Eton together, and ho sloped off to Russia to learn the lingo, and from thero ho went to Syria.

Tho man paused, and Lois promptly filled in tho gap.

" And ho joined, tor some reasoji which I don't know, tho Cavaliers of Death, but why and how did ho get mixed up in all theso ghastly affairs, and how does my father come into it

Pongo looked at her gravely. " Well, it comes to this, as I seo it. Old Jim wanted a bit of adventure, and ho got in rather deeper than ho expected. Theso Cavaliers are deuced good sorts, eighteen carat, all of 'em, and thoy administer somo sort of justice in no man's land. For a long timo they've been up against theso devil-worshipping Yczidis, who sacrifico a white woman to their beastly peacock deity every full moon. When the supply runs short in Syria, it is supposed that, through their agents, they do a bit of kidnapping ovor here." Lois was gripping tho edge of tlio table, oblivious of tho omelette subsiding in front of her.

" Wingate joined tho Cavaliers to get away from tho man who's got him and your father in a vice—no, I don't know his namo, but Jim says it's a big one. Ho was sont down to the Lepuy's farm to reconnoitre, because tho Cavaliers got wind 'of the fact that Francoiso was to bo tho next Yezidi victim. Wingiito fell in lovo with tho woman and bolted with her. Whether he or tho devil-creatures murdered Lepuy I don't know. Jim camo back to England (o find out, and, incidentally, to traco the source of Yezidi supplies. They get rilles, ammunition and —er —worso from London."

At this point, Pongo helped the girl to omelette, poured out tho wine, and pushed tho crisp rolls toward her, with a good-natured " You've got to eat, you know, or I can't go on." While Lois satisfied her hunger, he told her of the political ambition which would use the fierco Yezidi tribo as a starting point for a new sphere of influence in Arabia, and of the hoarded wealth of the chiefs, but ho did not say that their gold found its way through tho Gilmour office in exchange for human toll! Instead, he asked suddenly: " Aro you in lovo with Jim ?" and Lois, dropping her knife, made a serious mistake. " No," she said quietly, for tho fire within was a private, precious thing, which she would not share.

Pongo drew a long breath. " I'm jolly glad," he said. " Because old Jim went pretty near the lino in marrying you, and I was dashed worried, though, of course, the lawycrs'll get you out of it in no time."

Lois contrived an encouraging smile, and tho pink young man blurted out: " There's only one thing Jim can't be, and that's any woman's husband." His voice rang with a conviction so strong that for a wild second tho girl thought of a priest at the altar.

CHAPTER XXXII. Lois put down the glass which was half-way to her lips. "What d'you mean?" sho asked, but Langley was apparently reluctant to continue his revelations. Ho merely repeated his statement: "You can take it from mc, Jim's out bf the running, as far as any woman's concerned." And a queer loyalty surged up in Lois, so that sho wouldn't press for the information that Rattiker had withheld. Turning the conversation to the murder in the Bois de Boulogne, sho asked: "D'you know who did it, and why?" Pongo replied that ho was as much in the dark as sho was. "Looks as if somebody olse were out to avenge the unfortunato Francoiso."

" Oli, could it bo that? But what had liio valet got to do with it ? lie had no reason lo murder her."

Langley leaned forward, his elbows dropped on the table. " Unless she knew too much about him, and that applies epually to Wingate. 1 tako it that the valet was left at Littlo Scopo to turn on tho gas, possibly as a blind to cover up the murder already committed, or it may have been tlio actual tiling, and Madame Leptty forestalled it by committing suicide."

Lang-ley blundered over his explanation, his eyes on tlio girl's face, which mirrored her charming emotions. She was too young, ho thought, too altogother decent to bo mixed up in the affairs of Francoiso Lepuy. Being an unromantic soul, capable of few ideas at a time, ho couldn't understand why ho thought of sunlight flickering through golden leaves onto the pools in the woods at home. " When I read tlio French papers," ho went on, " I thought at orce that someone had mistaken that valet chap for tho master. Ho was fairly plastered with Wingato's monogram."

Lois was silent and immediately tho man plied her with more food. Ho was so solicitous that a flower-seller, watching through tho window, decided they were lovers, and came in to offer tho scented contents of her basket, l'ongo brought stiff goldon tulips, because they wero tho colour of the girl's eyes, and waved away her remonstrance.

The patronno watched them leave with benign amusement and the cab-driver whipped up bis horse to a pace fit for romance, but Lois was thinking of Rat* tiker. Sho wanted to know the naturo of tho promise to which ho had referred, in that hurried last ininuto while the Pourvillo car swept towards tliem. It couldn't surely keep them apart indefinitely. Nothing could matter so much as that. Lois, scarcely listening to Pongo's description of Egypt, realised that she had discounted all lior suspicions. Tho Moodstained stillc.o meant no more to her than a chanco to bo of uso to Jim—at least it would never bo found among tho possession? of tho red-haired man wanted by tho police. It wasn't ' red,' of course! Lois thought indignantly of ripo chestnuts, but her eyes were so gravely mysterious when she turned them unseeing on Langley that the young man took a deep breath and felt some of tho sensations generally attributed to tho drowning! Lois, entirely unconscious of his feelings, agreed to everything he said, bocauso it saved argument, while, point by point, sho followed tho revelation of her thoughts. So they camo to tho dock, and, roused by tho turmoil of shouting, snatching porters, tho girl heard Pongo's excited: " I wonder if I can chango my ticket. I might just as well conio on tho Naldavia." Protests wc.ro on her lips when sho realised that they would havo no logical ground, except her determination to interfere in those intimato affairs of which Langly was reluctant to speak. Lois, determined to keep her destination and her project as socrefc as her absorbing interest in Ratliker, failed to impress -ho eager a.ti.l competent young man with her reluzluioo for his companionship. Jieforo sho could think of a really sound argument, ho had piloted her through tho customs and established her in tho right cabin with tho right luggago neatly disposed in the right place and had departed for tho shipping ollico! Lois, staring oat of tho porthole, saw him cloavo a determined passage through

the crowd and had no doubt that he would turn triumphant with the necessary ticket. It was an added complication, for she suspected that he knew very little of what lajr boliind Ratticker's activities —a schoolboy loyalty and a of adventuro had induced him to masquorade as chauffeur and a certain imphsli quality would make him delight in a false number for his car, or any otner plot that promised originality and excitement. Lois, still staring at tho quay, where the crowds appeared to bo as agitated and purposeless as cockroaches scurrying around a hold, saw a bulky figure shoulder its way up the gang-plank. A slouch hat obscured most of tho face and a huge capecl ulster of a particularly hideous check, flapped in the wind, but there was no mistaking the Russian who had spoken to her on the train. Lois had a feeling that she was part of a pattern on a loom and the threads were boing tightened. Somothing would happen betweon tho three of theni on this journey. Tho blood surged into the girl's cheeks and she went up on to the dock, excited and a little afraid. Two or three times, she walked round tho constricted space, without acknowledging oven to herself that she had atij particular purpose. l'hen she saw the Russian leaning over tho rail oil the deserted side of the deck. A few sea gulls wheeled up to the railing in the hope of bread, and tho oily water lapped away to a row of warehouses. The wind whirled scraps of paper over tho stacked cnaiis. As Lo.s approached, the man turned round and walked down tho deck towards her. They met Where it narrowed beside a companion, so that one or tho other had to step aside and tho Russian did so without tho slightest sign of recognition. Lois was so utterly surprised that she exclaimed and made a movement as if to intercept him. The man took offhishat but his faco was blank. Tho girl, foiccd into some excuse, began: Im so sony. I thought we met —" _„i-_ Tho largo impassive faco did not relax. With a bow and a polite " excuse ine-a mistake," its, owner went gravely down tho companion-way.

CHAPTER XXXIII. Tho Mediterranean was unexpectedly kind and the Naldavia cleft an even way through a mirror of blue. Lois gooc looks were sufficiently unusual o nUi t tho attention of most of her fellow-pas sengers, but Langley had managed to isolate her chair jn a corner wheie h own barred passage to it. tho .\ were' much in each other's company, for the voyage to Port Said is too short to encourage any but tho most determined in Lois Cl was a good sailor and, because she was haunted by S6 stormy memories, she would have liked a gale to blow in harmony with her thoughts. The weather was too imperturbable for her mood and, through tho warm, golden afternoon, it left her at tho mercy of Pongo's solicitude. This _ was rapidly developing into a courtship an ois, leaning back in her chair, feet carefully wrapped in her companion's rug, was puzzled. Whenever she spoke of Jim Langlev's comments were impregnated with admiration and au eager loyalty. "He's a splendid fellow. You bet he make his mark! Shouldn't wonderho did something pretty spectacular, lie would repeat with a dozen different variations, but ho seemed to regard her marriage as a negligible ceremony. 1 don't say it wasn't one way out, but, at best, only a temporary one," ho muttered obstinately and the girl noticed that, whenever he spoko of her future, he implied that Jim would have no part 111 Irritated by what she felt to bo a definite strategy, Lois twirled her new gold wedding-ring and spoko ostentatiously of her husband, but Langley was impervious to such tactics. With tho utmost good humour, tinctured, to tho girl's annoyance, bv pity, Pongo discoursed on the use of lawyers to facilitato the undoing of marriages that were really 110 maniage at all. / Once, when thev were leaning over the rail after dinner, "watching tho-moonlight turn the wake of the ship into a silver scimitar, tho man remarked conversationally: " I was a fool! It would have been much better if you'd married me." Lois, hypnotised by tho molten crystal below her, wondered if she put sufficient sarcasm into her retort: "\oud better explain that to Jim? * hut she vtas startled out of her dreaming by Pongo's cool: "Well, I did put it up to him. At feast, I told him I was goin' to cut him out." Lois spun round, back to tho rail, a wraith-liko creature in pale, fluttering chiffon whose purchaso had filled some of tho lonely hours in Paris. Her face was carved in whito samito between the metal-smoothness of -her hair. Pongo was a little awed. Ho felt uncomfortably as if ho were trying to catch a slip of moonlight, but tho scorn in tho great amber eyes was comfortingly human. " And what did lie say ?" asked Lois, ready to annihilate tho invader. " Ho told mo to go to it," blundered Pongo, and saw tho glamour fade out of the figuro in front of him. In a few seconds thoro was only a girl crumpled against tho rail and shivering a little under tho hard, white moon. Langley, understanding not at all, •tried to tako her hand and found damp chiffon between his fingers. " Jim told me to look after you, you know. I think he sort of left it to me to get you out of all this.''

" Nobody can do that," said Lois in an entirely new voice Pongo, moved beyond common sense by what lio imagined its helplessness, plunged into speech. Succinctly, ho explained tho simple proceduro by which Lo'is could be freed from tho results of the ceremony at the fog-drenched registry. " It isn't as if it were a real marriage." ho insTsted and, because (lie girl trembled ho drew nearer to her, so that sho felt tho warmth and strength of him pressing against her. 111 another moment sho might have beon in his arms, and Pongo would have learned something of tho queer loyalty of women, but footsteps and laughter sounded behind them ami tho man, scarcely waiting for tho promenading couples to bo cut of earshot, pressed his point: " Look hero, Lois, it's no use try in' to hido it, is it/? I want you desperately myself. Think Ivo been in love since I saw you so sort of lost in tho corner of tho car after that d—d wedding and, when I took you to tho hotel, I was wishin' all tho time it was just us —and real. D'you understand ?" Lois made a gesture as if to push him away with both hands, though ho was soparalod from her by a decorous yard. "Don't!" said sharply. "You're breaking things," and sho felt as if sho woro clutching round her tho rags of a romance which Langley was bent 011 destroying. " I want to mend 'em," said the young man. " I can't stick you'ro bein' battored about like this. It's rotten."

Ho sworo ab a group of Levantines wlio showed a disposition to linger find, drawing so persistently closo that tho girl backed littlo by little into tho corner, ho pleaded: " Look bore, I've got n sister in Egypt, married to one of the big pots out there. I'll tako you to her and, perhaps, if you seo enough of me, you'd think you could put up with nic—for tho rest of your life. I do lovo you, Lois." Tho girl was silent from sheer inability to find' words oxpressivo enough for "all she felt, and Langley, misinterpreting her stillness, insisted in a voice which lie tried to keep normal: "I'd mako you forget all this—jolly quick." Something blazed in Lois. Sho felt as if a 11;imo had burst through layers of clogged inhibitions, and sho took a deep breath to fan it. Iler cheeks were hot and her voieo, uncontrolled as she flung out what sho felt .was a challengo to the world: " I don't want to forget, not anything at all! I want lo remember every single incident. It's all I've got! And, with that, sho left tho astounded young man and (led along tho dock. Down the companion-way sho rushed, along tho passage and, when she was within a few yards of her cabin door, eho saw tho Russian coming out of it. (To be continued daily.).