PURSUIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 17 (Supplement)

PURSUIT.

BY, ROLAND PERTWEE.

CHAPTER XXIV. Miss Beechcroft swept tho crumbs of ,n unfortunate incident from her hands, picked up an umbrella, which was singularly ill-assorted to her martial appearance, and gathoring in Harloy and Joan led an impressive retreat. Fifty yards from tho door of the canteen gho said unexpectedly: " Those girls aro running it very well. It's puro waste of timo sending an inspector to a place like that and they knew it. That's why I kicked up all that row." Sho looked at tho station clock. " Now, if we hurry we could get lunch in the hotel dining room bofore the licentious, soldiery arrivo. Not that I care, but l'vo an idea that this man of yours'd start punching heads. Tell mo, how far has tins thing gone with you two 1" " A life sentence, no loss," said Joan. Barley nodded. " In that case," said Miss Beechcroft, t> you'll be wanting to spond the afternoon in some placo where you can hold hands and mako imbecile faces at each other." It speaks for their honesty that neither Joan nor Harloy made any pretonco of denying this charge^ " " But. tho trouble is that no such place, with any respectability attached to it, exists in* this infamous town." Harley agreed gloomily. Miss Beechcroft took shrewd stock of him and decided that he was all right. " As it happens I've a heap of letters to writo and reports to make and appeals to frame," said she. " Joan's room communicates with mine, and while I'm busy I don't see why you couldn't sit in there arid have your silly talk. I shan't be listening oven though tho door will bo aiar."

Harloy nodded and looked at tho black linos under tho boy's oyos. " Did you have a good timo to-day? " A good tinle—what description could bo moro inadequate? 4 " Yes." David peeped into Harley's eyes with an interest that was almost womanish. What ho saw seomed to perplex him. " You look awfully. queer," ho said, " as if—l don't know—as if you'd seen a miracle." " P'haps I have, old man," Harley admitted. " 'T any rato l'vo lived one." Ho sat down on a box and began to sjacken tho laces of his long boots. " " You wouldn't like to toll me about it? " After all, why not ? " It's this, David. I'm going to get married my next leave." "I see," said David dully. Then: " Who ? " Harley told him. " I sec," David repoatcd. " I've guessed for a long timo you would. I wonder if you'd writo to Paula and tell her." " You'll bo seeing her before a letter would arrive." " Yes—yes—but I'd rather you wroto —I think sho'd rather, too." " All right, I will." For a longish while nothing was said. At Inst: " I expect you're happy." Harloy gave a half laugh. " Happy," ho repeated. " Look here," opened tiio cigarette caso and hold it out. " No, I won't let it out of my hand —ever." " She's lovely," David nodded. " Lovely." Harley had turned away and tho boy shot a look, half guilty, at him. " T feel an awful scab, Harley." " How do you mean ? " " About my leave—especially now." "Your leave?" " Yes." " Well, you're duo for some." " I know, but there was only ono allotment and by rights you shoidd have had it." " Rot! " " "fisn't. We both came out tho same day, but you'd dono years of service. And now " " If yon aro going to start "worrying ever rights and wrongs where leavo's concerned," Harley began But David cut him short. " The O.C. as good as told me that you could havo had it, but gavo it up to me." Harley swallowed a very subversivo-of-discipline remark relative to the 0.0. " He was pulling your leg," ho said. " You can't get past with that—not a hone," said David. Harley waved him down. " That's enough," he said. !But David wasn't satisfied. I s'pose if I wasn't an utter scab I'd refuse to take it." "And if you did, my lad, the voucher would be cancelled and nobody'd be better off So dry up and go to sleep and think no more about it." David grinned sheepishly. " It's no use coming the senior officer with me," he said. " I know what I know and I want it put on record that you are the grandest chap in France." " Then let's close down on that," said Harley. But before blowing out tho candlo and tumbling into his own bunk he punched David affectionately on tho shoulder, and said he was a good lad oven though he did talk like an ass in and out of season.

"The popular conception of an angel does rot/ include persons of sixty years who tip the beam at nineteen stone. Which proves that popular conceptions may not always bo trusted. That Aunt Maud Beechcroft was an angel, although disguised under a mantle of adiposo tissue, can no longer be in doubt. ... Faithful to her promise, and with the communicating door no more ajar that would suffice to prevent the latch from clicking, sho carried out her correspondence with a detachment which might have justifiably given rise to the impression that she was doing it in some remote continent.

By virtue of this preoccupation Harley •ntl Joan had what can host bp described as a wonderful time. Indeed, the wonder of that time was only marred by its brevity as witnessed by the indescribable callousness of the city clocks. " What is it about lovo that alters one go?" said Joan " Until now I have been rather an up and doing hard little nut." " And now ?" Harley asked. " Now," she replied, " all I can think of is buying hanks of wool and knitting things for you to wear." Twilight, a mere fraction of dimness preluding the invasion of night, was upon them before they had time to realise that day was ending. At seveD o'clock Miss Beecheroft rose with a becoming clatter which afforded Joan an opportunity to put in order with a comb the spilled gold of her hair. Tho lovers were discreetly apart when Ihis Brobdingnagian angel stood framed in the doorway. And Joan had a very crimson patch on her left cheek and Harley was likewise over coloured on the right, but since that was no less than might have been expected, they were allowed to assume their normal pallor without comment. *'l am going to tho station for the French hospital train which is coming through," said Miss Beecheroft, "so if your young man wants to give you dinner, liow's his chance." It seemed that this was what Harley Wanted to do. Nor was Joan reluctant. " And when do you have to leave, young man ?" It was the first timo the question of Feparation had been touched upon and Harley said half-past nine gloomily enough. " Then I wish you good-bye and good luck."

CHAPTER. XXVI. A little after dawn, two days later, Harley and David walked knee-deep through an opal ground mist towards the 0. Pip. Harley would gladly have done the duty alone, but since David's grant of leavo Fawlk had taken a special delight in giving the boy every job thoro was to do. In this case there had been some excuse for sending two officers, for tho infantry wore to carry, out a daylight raid on a narrow section of the front, and as Fawlk said: "One never knows, does one ? " The mist muffled the sound of theirfootfalls and provoked silence. The first part of their journey was over fields smudged with battery positions, turfcovered funk holes and field kitchens, from which the pleasant odours of frying bacon chimed the hour as surely as a clock.

So Harley kissed Miss Beecheroft and Mi 93 Beecheroft boxed his ear in a raannor that was almost caressing. Thereafter Harley took Joan to the Cafe de Cathedral, where was a very festive company of officers and girls who conversed at the tops of ,their voices, pinched each other's cheeks and carried on much pioneer work with feet under the table. ■

Along a sunken road they went past chubby 4.5 howitzers and slim 60-potindcrs, a road which funnelled abruptly into a communication trench all very trim and smart with now duck boards and fascines for wallpaper, and battalion hoadquartcrs with gaudy painted signs, and pleasantly disposed cooking galleys and field dressing stations and many other comforts and conveniences of modern warfare. As they approached nearer to the front line these orderly communications degenerated into a muddy rivulet whose banks were so eroded by water and shell fire as barely to afford cover. Along this ruvulet men came or went, or stood at their stations in those curiously insensitive postures of mind and body which in three years of trench warfare had become a second nature.

In a sense Harley and Jonn were glad of the racket. It rendered the less obvious that silence which, with the imminence of parting, had fallen upon them. They had lost appetite for food. Dishes camo and went untouchod, what time they looked at each other learning and remembering the minutest details of each other's features.

And Joan smoked many, too many cigarettes—looking at Harley all the while through blue spirals of ascending sinokc. And Harley felt that the whole strength and volume and flame of his love for her had gathered deep down in his throat and was burning his vocal chords into an everlasting dumbness. And all the while the clocks were up to their devilish pranks—to the plundering find squandering of time more precious than he or she had ever known.

Harley, with David at his heels, pushed his way past the silently waiting men to a spot on higher ground where a sap, about four feet in length, terminating in a firing platform, ran out toward the red hedges of barbed wire spanning No Man's Land. By the entrance to the sap an infantry colonol and three officers of the same regiment were waiting in anticipation of the raid. To right and left the men were packed tight as sardines in a tin.

It was Joan who broke the silence with tlio singlo word "Angel," and a finger pointing at the round-fuced cynic which ticked above his head. " I know," he nodded. . Haiid in hand thoy walked down the ill-lit echoing strcot. By the main door to the cathedral the tail light of a car glimmered mischievously. "Yours?" Harley nodded. " I'll tell him to follow us to the hotel find collect those things." Joan fumbled in her pocket, withdrew a small gold cigarette case and pressed it his palm. " I saved it until the end—it's got my faco in it—don't look now."

Young Frost, who with a signaller was on duty in the sap, greeted Harley with a cracked grin that was half a yawn. He asked what time tlio show was scheduled to begin. " Half an hour," said Harley. "If you hurry you may bo in time for the counter battery stuff."'

" Thanks, then ['ll take it easy," Frost replied, and added, " Fritz seems a bit anxious about something. Quite a lot of nasty stuff flying about. Toodlo-oo." Gathering up his signaller with a nod, he wallowed down the trench and out of sight. The relief signaller tested his line and accommodated himself on a wet duckboard with the field telephone on his knees. Up and down the lino hostile shrapnel was beginning to splutter viciously. " Nerves," said the Infantry colonel, bit off a piece of chocolate and offered some to Harley. " They always scent these minor operations. Lost four men coming up." For somo while they conversed in frag mentary sentences. David Drayton had moved into the sap and was rubbing his finger nails together, creating a small noise which sounded like a mouse gnawing at the wainscot. He seemed extraordinarily preoccupied with this fidgety task. " Feeling queer or something?" Harley asked.

< ' i All right," he said. "All right," she repeated. "Yes, tlioso are the best words—'All right.' It's what you'll be'! " " You b'ot."

He gave an order to the driver arid the car preceded them to the hotel. At the bureau he collected what he had brought for the battery American cloth, some tinned stuff and a few books.

" Well! " he said, and carried tlie palm 01 her hand to his mouth.

" Angel." She followed him into the car for a fecond. That was all. It was Joan who with a nod to the driver, gavo the order to go. Harley, looking through the small J»ano of glass at the back, saw her standlng on the pavement, a motionless figure, with hands crammed into the pockets of her roefer jacket.

CHAPTER XXV. A solitary aeroplane was dropping bombs on Peronne as the hastening car bumped over the cobbled streets. Harley, in the back seat, was leaning forward using the light of the last of his niatches to illumine Joan's face which iooked laughingly into his from the interoi- of a small gold cigarette case. £°, not- a cigarette case—a talisman, /omp—Carrahh ! went the bombs. Smash away," said Harley. " Who cares? "

David shook his head. " No, fine. It's the waiting. Always gets me, waiting does." A pause then, " How long before we start to shoot ? " Not long, old son." " Time goes so slowly since I got that leave warrant." Another fivo minutes dribbled away. Somewhere a man was clicking his tongue against the foof of his mouth. A voice said: " You won't gflt no boer round "ere." A subdued titter ran along the ranks within earshot. " Quit that talking," an N.C.O. barked huskily. "Coming over with us? the colonel queried. Harloy shook his head. " Not this journey. What's it look like ?*' " If you fellars give us a show —all right." , Silence again, even the hostile shrapnel had stopped crackling. Harley felt a hand

VVliat with reliefs going up to the lino, a ditched lorry beyond Roinel and ammunition columns piling up behind, it was nearly two o'clock before the car dro.iped ■Harley near the battery. Late as was the hour David Drayton was awake when ho entered the cellar "ley shared together. * Only three more days now," said iJavul. " ].) O you know 1 can't sleep for thinking about it."

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Author of " Seem* >Reaaon," •• Swank," " Return of Imry," eto. A GRAPHIC AND THRILLING STORY OF DEEP INTEREST.

pulling at his sleeve. It was David's hand. Ho stepped out of the trench into tho sap.

" Yes—yes, old marl?" " There s something I wanted to say." David's voico was very low and dry. " In caso anything—l mean—oh, God." ' Something struck tho trench and burst witli a hideous uproar a couple of feet beyond tho angle round which they stood. With the foeling that his head had been shut in a. steel door, Harley staggered breathless against David, beneath an avalancho of falling earth. It was a full minuto bofore they recovered their breath and their senses, nnd were ablo to take stock of the havoc that confronted them.

The mouth of the sap had opened up funnelwiso to give a view of a wider crater beyond, upon whose sides reclined a number of sleeping men, in tired, careless postures. In the centre of the group lay the colonel, but he was not asleep. He lolled, like a Dutch doll, motionless, with his eyes open and a smile of tho utmost surprise wreathing a paper-white face. Tho joke, whatever it may liave been, was a good one, as a last joko should be. Dizzily Harley looked to left and right. Along the trench in both directions wero moro tired men, lazily lolling or coiled up on the duck boards like dogs before a fire. Besido him someono parroted, " Oh, my God, oh, my God!" ovor ai)d over again. It was David. " You all right?" said Harley. " Yes, but oh, my God." " If you hadn't pulled mo in then," Harley muttered. And, "Poor devils!" Suddenly ho gripped David's shoulders and forced him round. " Don't look. Keep your back to it. Battery's just coming into action. How is it signaller?" " 0.K., sir." " Telephone in order?" A test was made. " Yes, sir." From left and right, men came running to fill the gap left, in the breached line by tho careless dead. " Timo 1"

" Watch stopped, sir." " Mine, too," said Harley, jumped on to the firing platform and reached out a hand to haul David up, as every battery on that section of tho front burst into a chorus of snriekiug, whirling hate.

CHAPTER XXVII. A nip of whisky from Harloy's flask and heavy draughts upon his own roßOurce9 of pluck kept David Drayton together through the rest of the day ; But as they stumbled homo in the twilight his lefjs behaved in the strangest fashion and his hand kept smearing his mouth as though by this action somo vile taste could he rubbed away. Sometimes ho would stop and stare like one confronted by a hideous barrier, before which voluntary advance was powerless. Then, with a crack of laughter, he plunged blindly forward, fending off unimagitable terrors with extended hands.

Where tho trench debouched into the Sunken road a corporal was mustering the remnant of a platoon. The order he gave, Fall in, two deep, and hold each other up," appears in no training manual. Harley slipped an arm round David's shoulders and coaxed him along tenderly. " Not far to go, old son—tho worst of it's over now."

David stumbled on a few paces and stopped. " Ho is sitting there laughing—laughing "he whispered. "He was laugh* ing because he was out of it. That was tho iokc. Did you know that was the joke*'" . , . . Harley gripped him more tightly. " Only one more day and you'll bo in England." " Yes, England," David nodded. "Those men were only asleep, weren't they ? They'd chucked it and gone to sleep—and he sat there laughing to keep them company." Harley tried to coax his mind along other paths. " You saved my life, old soh. you hadn't pulled me into the sap—- " You might have been laughing too. Yes—yea, but that girl would have cried —and Paula—Paula —" " You two'll have no end of a time on leavo. There aro some jobs you might do for mo, if you're not too busy." Once more ho urged tho boy forward. " What sort of jobs?" The tone was listless, tho shrill notes of hysteria for tho moment muted by a commonplace. "What sort of jobs?" he repeated, suddenly irritablo. Harley enumerated a list of imaginary needs ns long as his leg. That "he wanted none of these things did not matter. The effort to memorise them was keeping David's mind from the spectral horrors of that pit. " And one of those new self stropping razors," he droned, " and you might soe my tailor, too, Burwash and Raeburn, in Vigo Street, and order me some riding bags and a new British wurm." " I'll never remember everything." " Forget what you like—as much as you like. Forget everything if you can." His voice now was low and murmurous like the hum of bees about a hive.

David's head began to nod and his eyes closed, only his feet moved to the dull rhythm of walking. The rest of his con* 6ciousness was asleep. They reached the battory a little after eight o'clock. With the tenderness of a woman, Harley laid the boy down and covered him with a blanket. An orderly entered, but Harley laid a finger to his lips, and followed the man outside. " The O.C. wants you, at once, sir."

CHAPTER XXVHI. Major Fawlk was seated at an improvised table in a sandbagged looso box which was doing duty as orderly room. He was alone, and his expression betokened a mood of exaggerated wellbeing. Tlio " strafe" had been a success. The Brigadier had so far forgotten his usual pi-jKltice as to express satisfaction in the part played by the heavy artillery. Fawlk acknowledged Harley's salute with a lean smilo and listened to the brief report he gave, drumming his fingers the whilo table top. " H'm. Nearly went up, did you 1" " Near enough, sir." " That would have been a pity. Is Drayton all right ?" * •" He was a bit shaken, sir. He did very well, though." "I"must have a word with him."<

Harley hositated, " He's nsloep. I think ho needs it pretty badly." " Il'rn! To-morrow will do as well. Yes. I hoar things will be rather lively in the near future." " So I understand, sir." " Very lively indeed." He stopped and looked at Harley through half closed eyes. " Tell me, Trevelyan. who was it you wont to see at Amiens?" " A friend, sir." " But what friend ?"

Thero was no justification whatever for any such interrogation. On the other hand, if Harley were to get leave, he would havo to give reasons. " Sitico you ask, sir, I went to see Miller's sister."

Fawlk raised his brows uneomprehendingly. "Miller's sister! It is wore usually the miller's daughter, is it not? What miller?" " The T.O.'s sister, sir. Joan Miller." Fawlk put the palms of his hands flat on the table, got up and barked: "What's that? Who?" But Harloy didn't repeat what he had said. Fawlk's tongue ran along hid lips. " Why should you wish to see her?" " For the best reason, sir. We are going to be married." "Oh," said Fawlk. "Oh, you are? You are ? That—that's most interesting." <To be continued daily.)