THE STOLEN MASTERPIECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 40 (Supplement)

THE STOLEN MASTERPIECE.

CHAFI'iSR ;XI. JIM GOES HOSIE. The shock knocked Jim off his balance and he simply lay and stared up at Butch. He could not have' spoken to save his life. " You've sure had a tough time," went on Butch, and there was no malice in his . voice. If anything, a rough sympathy. , ' ; Jim did not speak, and Butch continued. " Vou might have known as I knowed which way you'd gone. I'd have stopped you if I could!, but you was plumb out of isight and hearing afore I found you'd gone. So there weren't nothing for it but to come round here and wait till you got out. Not as I ever thought as you wonld get out." lie paused, but Jim was still silent, and after, a little Butch spoke again. There's a friend o' yours a-waiting for you down by the mine, but it don't look to me like you're in any shape to walk." Jim sat up. "A friend!" lie repeated. " What do you mean ? Who is it. ?" " Feller named Ching. Butler, ain't he, over at Tremaynes?" Jim stared at Butch. "What brings Ching here?" he demanded hoarsely. _. " He's came for you, I reckon," said Butch, with his bleak smile. " Then—then he's brought tho picture. " Sure, he's brought the picture. You knows you coul'dn't go unless he had." The news was too much for Jim. He almost collapsed. " No need to take it that hard," remarked Butcli. " You gotter remember as business is business. " I'm paid to get that there picture, and I got it, and 1 hope there ain't no hard feelings. I ain't got none anyways." He pulled a flask out of his pocket. " Here, take a drink o' this," ho said. "It ain't rye, but I've tasted worse-." He poured some of the spirit into the metal cup and handed it to Jim. It was undiluted Scotch, and did Jim a wonderful lot of good. His head cleared and he was able to think again. The damage was done, the picture was in Butch's. hands, and now the one hope before him, and the Tremaynes, was to get it back again. But it was only too plain that in his • present state he could do nothing in that direction, while Ching, of course, would be equally helpless. The best course was to get back to the Roost as quickly as possible and organise pursuit. He struggled to his feet, but would have fallen if Butcli had not caught him by tho arm. " You better sit down again a piece," the latter advised. " No, I can walk," returned Jim. " I'm all right." •' " You're about as right as a drowned kitten," retorted Butch. " Go?h, you looks as if you'd been through a sconebreaker." He was right, for Jim's clothes hung in rags, his hands were raw, his face plastered with red mud from tho mine, and smeared with blood, while the toes of his shoes were worn completely through. "1 can walK, ' repeated Jim and started. Butch held him by the arm and guided him down the hill side, and Jim did not refuse his help for he could never have walked alone. Midian was waiting at the door of the mine house, and grinned scornfully as Jim came. staggering up. " Thought yourself mighty clever, didn't ye?" he jeered. Butch fixed his cold eyes on the man, " Shut your trap," ho said curtly. " llo've done what'you wouldn't daro do for all your .bluff." Midian scowled, but did not venture to make any retort. Quite clearly he knew, which, of the two was boss.

Jim dropped on a boulder, and Butch opened the doOr of the mine house. " You kin come out now, Mr» Chiug," he said. " Here's the gent, and I reckon the sooner you gets him home and to bed, the better."

Ching stepped out, then, at sight of Jim, stopped short. Ho swung on Butch like a terrier on a bull. " What have you been doing to him?" he demanded angrily. " You'd never have had that there picture if I'd known the way you'd been treating Mr. Coryton." " Jt's not his doing, Ching," said Jim hastily. " It's my own fault entirely." " I got a car about a mile away," said Ching. ''Think you can make it, sir?" " I can make it with a little help," said Jim firmly. "Let us be going." " You better stop and rest a piece and have a cup of coffee," advised Butch, but Jim shook his head. Butcli read his thought. " I reckon you're in a hurry to start chasing of us," ho said with his* chill smile. I am," said Jim grimly. " You're welcome," said Butch. " Only I'll tell you right now, it won't be a mite of good. That there picture will be a long ways off afore to-morrow morning. Well, good-bye, Mr. Coryton, and hope there's no hard feelings. '".Not against you personally," Jim assured him, " but all the same, look out for yourself when we meet again." "I been looking out fer myself fer nigh on forty years," said Butch quietly. " .1 guess I'll go right on doing it." " A tough nut if ever I saw one, sir." said Ching, as he started off with Jim leaning heavily on his shoulder. " i'vo met worse, said Jim, CHAPTER XII. A HAFI'T ISSUE. Jim hardly sain a word on the way to tlio car. In point of fact, it was about all lie could do to walk, without trying to talk. He would never have done the journey at all but. for Cliing's help, but Ching, though a small man, was tough and wiry, and at last, they sighted a small two-seater standing on a cart-track, close by a little brook. "Sorry I couldn't get her no nearer, sir," said Ching. " I'd never have pot her this far if it hadn't been for the fellow who guided me." " Who was he?" asked Jim. " A littlo wizened chap, a cockney, I'd say, sir. It was him as brought us news of you, and made the bargain." " And you let those brutes have the picture!" said Jim bitterly. "About time, 100, sir, judging by the look of you," replied Ching, a little drily | He glanced at Jim; whoso appearance was | simply deplorable, and made a suggestion, j "If you was to sit down here by the ! brook, sir, maybe wo could wash off some |of that mud, and I'vo got a flask of I coffco and some sandwiches in the car, in j case you was hungry." jChing was a real handy-man, and, although ho could not, of courso, mend j Jim's tattered garments, ho effected a | considerable improvement in his genoral appearance. Some excellent egg and ham sandwiches and a tumbler of whisky mixed with ice-cold water from the brook helped to restore Jim to his normal solf.

dt was a long, slow and bumpy journoy before they reached the main road, and . tlio slm was near sotting before they came within sight of tlio ivy-clad walls of the ancient house by the sea.

"There's Miss Nance, waiting for you, sir," but Jim did not answer. He was in the very depths. Knowledge of the sacrifice. which the Tremaynos had made for his sake left him dreadfully unhappy Yet, here was Nance waiting for him, Nanco with such a delightful smilo of welcome on her charming face that sent a glow of pleasure to Jim's sore heart. " You are safe. Oh, lam glad," were her first words, and she gavo him both her hands. The*, as she saw the state ho was in, the smilo loft her face. " Oh!" she cried sharply. " Oh, what have they been doing to you ?" " Nothing," Jim assured her earnestly. "I tried to get away and made a moss of it. It was quite my own fault."

Nanco was looking at him in a way which set Jim's heart boating furiously. He had to fight down a mad impulse to seize her in his arms, then, as he turned to go up the steps, a wave of giddiness

By T. C. BRIDGES.

(COPYRIGHT.)

A THRILLING STORY OF ENTRANCING INTEREST.

swept over him and he swayed sjightly. Nance caught him quickly. " You are ill! You are hurt! Lean on me. Please do ' I am quite strong." For a. heavenly, moment Jim did so, then ' Pip came leaping down the steps. " You silly old ass, Jim," he exclaimed. " What have you been doing to your? self?" . • > . . . ' • ,

" He's been right through one ,of them, old mines, Mr. reter," explained Ching from the car. " Trying to get away, so as to eav© the picture. Proper plucky job, 6ir, and no fault of his it didn't come off."

" Sort of thing he would dp," said Pip, reproachfully. " You always were a crazy old idiot, Jim!" " Help him into the house and don't talk," said Nance severely, and, though Jim vowed he was all right, tha|two took each an arm and led him up into the hall, where they put him in a big armchair. "He must go to bed at once," continued Nance. 1 " He has a most dreadful bruise on his head," she said to Pip. " Please—no!" begged Jim. " A bath and some clean ciotjies and a cup of tea, then I shall be my own man again. Honestly, I mean it," he continued, in response to Nance's doubtful gaze. " We'll try you out, old son," said Pip. . " Come on up. But you are sure you wouldn't like something stronger than tea?"

Jim laughed quite naturally. " Even Butch gave me whisky, to say: nothing of Ching. Bed will certainly be my portion if I have any more." Pip took him up to his room and turned on the bath for him. " You'll find your own kit here now, Jim," h e sa *d. "I sent to Corse for our suitcases."

" A good job, too," said Jim. _" I don't want to ruin any morej of Maurice's things." Half-an-hour later Jim turned up in the hall'looking so spruce that Nance gazed at him in surprise. " I told you," said Jim, and she laughed. " You are really rather wonderful," she said. : < ' " I shall be much wonderful when I've had some tea," Jim answered. Tea was" ready, tough cakes, with Cornish cream, rich and yellow, and strawberry jam; the tea itself in a beautiful old silver pot, all the appointments so dainty and perfect. ■" You can't think how good it looks to me, Miss Tremayne," said Jim earnestly. " The last meal I ate was cooked by Midian." " I want to hear all about it," said Nance; " but after tea," she added firmly. " not before." So Jim drank his tea and ate his tough cakes, which were not in the least tough, but fresh out of Mrs. CKing's oven, mid alterwards Nance questioned him and drew from him the whole' story of the past two days. Butch interested her intensely. " But he does not seem to have been bad at all," she declared. " Could a man like that have really intended to starve you ?" " Make no mistake about that," Jim laughed. " Butcn would starve his own grandmother if he thought it necessary for the success of any of his plans. With him it is simply a matter of business. All the same," he added, " I am dreadfully sorry you let him havo the picture." i .Nance's eyes widened; "But he did not have the picture," she said. CHAPTER Xm. THE CEIXAB. Jim fell back in his chair, " Did not have the picture!" he repeated, almost too surprised to speak at all. , _ ® "Do you mean that Mr. Paget I dJd.not t tell-you?", asked -Nance quickly. • ... : "He never said a word. But I don't understand.' lam quite sure that Butch Harvey would never have let me go without it." . '-w " Oh, this Is too bad," said Nance vexedly, "Of course, I thought that you had heard., What wo sent to Har-1 vey was a duplicate .which Mr. Pagel painted." / For a moment Jim gazed at Nance, as if lie could hardly believe what she was saying; then the tense expression left his face, and suddenly he began to laugh. "Oh!" .he gasped. "What a joke! What a topping idea! Splendid! Splendid!" " I'm glad you take it so well," said Nance quite seriously. "I - think that In your place I should be dreadfully annoyed to think that I had been through so much for nothing." .. "Not a bit. Not the least bit in the world," Jim assured her. * " I feel nothing but relief that the picture is still safe.. I was worried sick to think of the sacrifice you and Maurice had made for my sake." • . " Nonsense!" exclaimed Nance indig. nantly. " Surely you know, that we would not have let those horrible men starvo you!" " I know already that you are the kindest people I have ever met," said Jim in a tone that brought a slight flush, to Nance's cheeks. Ho thought a moment. "Then Ching didn't know?" he asked. " No. Wo thought it would be better that he should not know." Jim nodded approval. " Quite rigfyt. If ho didn't know he would, of course, be much more convincing." He laughed ■again. "It was a great scheme* Whose idea was it,. Miss Tremayne?" "Mr. Paget's. lie was splondid. He worked fourteen hours with" hardly, n break, doing the copy; Ho used an old canvas which we luckily had in tho house, and do you know, when ho had finished, none of us could tell the difference between tho two. It was the cleverest imitation you could possibly imagine." " Pip's a bit of a genius at that sort of thing," Jim told her. "Ho has done a lot of copying at tho National Gallery. It's tho work ho is keenest on." " It was great luck for Maurice and for all of us,' your coining here," said Nanco seriously. " You have been our good angels .ever sinco your arrival." " You will make mo blush next," laughed Jim, then he turned serious. " That copy—it has fooled Butch, Miss Tremayne, but it certainly won't fool his employers." "I supposo not," said Nance doubtfully. " No doubt whatever about that," said Jim, with decision. "Pip has'often told me that oven tho clovorest copies can bo detected, and, of courso, a hastily prepared, thing liko this would not deceive an export for a minute. You can take it that, as soon as tho copy is in Sbarland's hands, that gentleman is going to be on tho trail again. How long wjll it be bofore Vanneck can arrive to claim his property." "We had a cable to day," Nance answered. "Ho says he hopes to arrive in about three weeks." ; Jim pursed his lps. " Threo weeks, and meantimo you have to keep the picture in the house." " Oh, it is safe enough," Nanco assured him. "Come and I'will show you wliero it is kept." Jim demurred. " Isn't it better to keep the secret to tho original four ? " ho suggested. " Of course I should not let any stranger know," said Nanco, with an emphasis 011 tho word " stranger" that pleased Jim greatly, But Mr. Paget knows, and certanly you ought to know, too." She got up and Jim opeued the door for her. Nance led him through a swing door, along a stone-floored passage which led past the pantry where "Ching was busy. " I want the key of the Ching," she said, "and a lantern." Armed with these, she went to tho end of the passage and unlocked a door beyond which a flight of stone steps led down into darkness "1 will go first," she said. "Be careful, Mr. Cory ton, for tho steps are steep." (To be continued daily.)