SNOW-BOUND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21576, 22 August 1933, Page 15

SNOW-BOUND

By MOLLY THYNNE Author of " Tho Red Dwarf," " The Murder on the Enriquetta," etc.

A BRILLIANT ROMANTIC STORY

SYNOPSIS Angus Stuart, lately blossomed into a successful author and playwright after three years of poidid poverty, sets out in his car to spend Christinas at Redsands. Snow haj fallen for days, until the roads have become so blocked that it is doubtful if holiday-makers will rea,2h their destinations. After taking three hours to travel loss than fifty miles, unusually steep hills and huge drifts prove too much for even Stuart's new car, as they do for several parties of motorists. The district is tparsely populated, but fortunately there is near by an old-fashioned country inn. dating from coaching days, which affords shelter to tho stranded motorists. Stuart helps two helpless, elderly, maiden ladies, tho Misses Amy and Connie Adderley. to the inn, where they are shortly followed by other people until " Tho Noah's Ark" houses in addition to themselves, Dr. Luke Constantine, a noted chess player; a commercial traveller named Soames; Trevor, an accountant's clerk; Melnotte, a professional dancer: Lord Romsey, with his son, the Hon. Geoffrey Ford, and two daughters, tho Hon. Victoria and the Hon. Angela Ford, Mrs. Van Dolen, a rich American widow, who makes a habit of travelling about with quantities of jewellery, including an emerald girdle of enormous value. CHAPTER ll—(Continued) " She lives in hotels —anywhere—provided tho hotel is expensivo enough. During the London season, slio takes .a furnished house and entertains lavishly. From all accounts she is an amazing creature. Tho story goes that her first husband took her from behind tho bar of a public house in Deptfonl, and that she has only acquired her American accent of late years. Her enemies sa.y that she is apt to revert to Cockney in moments of stress." He shifted lus seat and peered round the corner of tho oak stair-rail, only to give a gasp of dismay. " Lord Romsey!" he exclaimed. "I know him, and what's moro unfortunately still, he knows me." Stuart, following his example, caught a vision of a portly figure; above it, a pale, expressionless face, surmounting a massive double chin, and then Lord Romsey was upon ';hem. " Ha, Constantine!" he exclaimed advancing with ponderous affability. " On your way to Redsaads, of course!" " I suppose you may call it that, admitted Constantine. " Though it seems a somewhat optimistic way of putting it." . Lord Komsey's pale, rather protruding eyes fastened themselves suspiciously on Constantino's face. He did not like jokes, and ho had a dim idea that the older man had endeavoured to perpetrate one. , " Ah, tho weather," lie ejaculated, his seriousness unmarrcd. "Wo can only hope it may mend." He strolled through the open door into the coffee-room. They watched him, a dark majestic figure, standing by the window, gazing out into the falling snow. , , , Tho front door suddenly burst open and two figures, the one tall, tho other short and slim, plunged into the lounge. They were so completely enveloped 111 snow that it was difficult at first to determine even their sex, and one ot them, at least, was speechless with laughter. . Lord Romsey stood looking at them in silent disapproval. , . fi , . " Angela fell into a, snow-drift about 10ft. deep and it was all I could do to get her out," announced the taller ot tiie two, shaking himself like a dog. They pulled off their liats and ievealed themselves. Three years ago, Angela Ford had been quoted as the prettiest debutante of her season, and her portrait had hardly ever been out of the illustrated papers since, Stuart noted with mingled relief and appreciation that she bore no resemblance to her father, and that no photograph he had seen, so far, had done anything like justice to her vivid beauty. Ueotlrev Ford, her step-brother, and her senior by 16 years, had inherited Lord Komsey's heaviness of build, but lie struck Stuart as sedate rather than pompous, and the . grave smile with which he was looking down into-his sister's glowing .face was very pleasant and human. • , , Lord Romsey did not sliaio his children's mirth. . " 1 should suggest your going to your rooms at once," he said frigidly, You are making the lounge in a disgusting mess. A most foolish expedition altocaught sight of Constantine, who had risen at her entiance. She came forward with outstretched hand. . _ T . . . " l)r Constantine! How nice! Am 1 too wet to shake hands with you: There's a car coming up the lane. \\o saw it from tho corner. It looks as if we were to have moro companions in misfortune." Soames had picked up a magazine and was apparently absorbed in its contents. These people, bis manner proclaimed, were not for him. But his attitude had not escaped the keen eyes of Constatine. . " May I introduce Mr. Soames, lio said suavely, ""and Mr. Angus Stuart, whose books you have no doubt read. " Not the Angus Stuart? sho exclaimed. „ , , „ " The Angus Stuart," assented Constantino imperturbably; while Stuart, his face a rich brick-red, was still trying in vain to frame a suitable answer. He was saved by tho opportune arrival of the latest, and, as it afterwards turned out, tho ultimate addition to the oddly mixed company. At the sight of her, Stuart realised that, no matter how sorry a trick the weather might play him, ho was to receive some compensation. L'or it tno snow did not abate, he would spend Christmas under the same root with two of the most attractive women ho had ever met. Tho new-comer was a good ten years older than the girl to whom lie had just been introduced, but was of tho tvpe that gains, rather than loses, by maturity. One had but to look at her to know that she would bo beautiful even in old age, and she was possessed of that subtle charm that somo women carry with them to tho grave. As slio stood there making her arrangements with tho landlord, the eyes of every man in the lounge, down to the elderly waiter who* stood peering out of the coffee-room, were upon her. Stuart could see even Lord Romsey straighten himself and givo a thoughtful touch to his tie. Sho had reached the foot or tno staircase before sho noticed her companions in misfortune. Until then she had been fully occupied with tho landlord, but now sho cast an idlo glance at the little group round the table. As she did so, her whole body seemed to stiffen. For a moment she stared blindly, while the colour drained slowly from her face, leaving it as white as the drifting snow outside. Then, with an obvious effort of will, she mastered her emotion, her grip on the bannister relaxed, and she turned and went swiftly up tho broad stairCa ]3ut not before Stuart had had time to follow tho direction of her eyes. Lord Romsey was standing as ho had seen him last, pompous and unperturbed, with, if anything, a faint look of complacency on his heavy features.

CHAPTER 111. The day wore on, and still it snowed. The Homsey clan retired to its selfimposed isolation, and the three men stayed chatting by the fire until the elderly waiter brought them tea, after which Constantino and Soaines disappeared upstairs to the former's bedroom to indulge their passion for chess.

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Stuart sat for a timo smoking, and began to realise that tlie boredom prophesied by Constantino might turn out to bo a very real thing. There was,literally, nothing to do. Dinner proved uneventful, except for a rather stilted little chat with Miss Amy Adderley in the lounge afterward. She announced that she and her sister wefo " exceedingly comfortable," and vouchsafed the information that the house-party included Lord Romsey and the Honourable Victoria, Angela, and Geoffrey Ford, his son and two daughters, finished up with a not very charitable commentary on " that vulgar American woman that arrived this afternoon."

" Fortunately, there are two quite good sitting rooms," she concluded, " so ono will not bo obliged to spend all one's time in ono room. The landlord has just shown them to us. A large billiard room 011 the third floor for the gentlemen, and a comfortable little drawing room for the non-smokers." Later in the evening, Stuart sampled the billiard room. It covered the whole depth and half the frontage of tho old house, and was so vast that the billiard table, tucked away at ono end, looked small in comparison. It was a comfort to feel that here, at least, ho need not bo for over treading on the toes of the rest of the company. After a desultory gamo of billiards, ho and Soames joined tho landlord in his little den behind the bar, and collected data concerning the afternoon's arrivals. The entire party, Girling informed them, now consisted of themselves, Constantino, Lord Rouisey and his family, Melnotte, tho ineffable young man, who Stuart afterward discovered, was a gigolo engaged by the management of the hotel at Redsands to which he, -himself, had been bound, Mrs. Van Dolen, Major Carew, tho Misses Adderley, and Miss Hamilton, Mrs. Van Dolen's secretary. The attractive lady who had been the last to arrive, was a Mrs. Orkney Cloudc. " It's been a job fitting them ill, too," concluded Girling. " It's not the rooms. As far as the house goes, wo could put up double that number. It's the service. Tho American lady wants her meals in her room, same as Lord Romsey and his party, but I had to tell her it couldn't bo done. And now there's a chauffeur just come in. Takin' his master's car to Redsands, he is. Well, he's down with lumbago poor devil. We, hal to all but lift him out of the car when ho got here, and it was all he could do to get himself to bed. He's got to bo looked after, and that means an extra tray at every meal, and mo with only tho waiters, and the chambermaids run off their legs already. And the weather forecast isn't any to cheerful. But it's all. grist to my mill, so I suppose I oughtn't to complain." "The weather forecast! Then you have got a wireless?" exclaimed Soames.

" There's a small one I had put in the bar. We get the National Programme, but nothing much else. From all accounts, the roads will be blocked tomorrow, if this snow doesn't let off." Stuart made his way up to his bedroom on the second floor, leaving Soames turning over tho magazines in tho lounge in search of something to read. The staircase ran up tho centre of the house —wide passages on either side of it, on both the first and second floors, leading to the sleeping quarters. Stuart was wearing house shoes, and his feet made little or no noise on the carpeted stairs. He had almost reached tho top of the first flight when ho became aware of two people, apparently in urgent conversation, in the passage to tho right of the stairs. " I wish to God you could get away!" Tho voice, that of a man, was so urgent that it captured Stuart's attention, and before he had timo to make his prescence known, ho overheard the answer. " You've got to get me away somehow! I don't dare stay here! Goodness knows what will happen if I do!" To do tho eavesdropper justice, his fit of coughing had begun before the woman, for a woman it was, had reached the middle of her last sentence. Stuart heard a low exclamation from tho man, and then silence; but he was so near the head of the stairs that, though tho passage was empty when 110 reached it, he heard tho click of the latch as the second door on the right was hastily closed.

Ho went up tho next flight, almost subconsciously connecting the little episode with the look ho had surprised on Mrs. Orkney Cloude's face as she paused 011 her way upstairs that afternoon. He had had a strong impression at tho timo that if she could have turned and fled from the place then and there, she would havexlone so. His own room was the first on the left, at the head of tho stairs, and there were two more doors beyond his before the passage turned. As in so many old houses, tlio floors were not all 011 tho same level, aiul there was a short flight of steps leading to other bedrooms beyond, opposite tho last door in the pas-

sage. As lie -went into his room, lie glanced at the two doors on liis left, wondering who his neighbours might he. The sight of two pairs of small, square-toed shoes left him in little doubt. They were so neat, yet so manifestly built for comfort, that they brought the Misses Adderley and Tunbridgo Wells irresistibly to his mind. His head had no sooner touched tno pillow than he fell into a deep, dreamloss sleep that would, in normal circumstances no doubt have lasted till morninur. As it turned out, ho opened Ins eyes abruptly, on to a pall of pitch darkness; and lay blinking, vaguely aware that something definite had awakened him, and quito at sea as to lijs whereabouts. Then a faint but persistent knocking brought him to a sense of his surroundings. Ho switched on the light, tumbled out of bed and opened tho door. Ho was confronted by a fantastic figure, which, after a moment of sheer bewilderment, ho recognised as that or the younger Miss Adderley. one was clad in a red dressing-gown of some woolly material, and woro round her head and fastened under her chin that knitted abomination which, for some obscure reason, is known as a fascinator. Certain curious projections in the region of her forehead suggested curl-papers beneath. She was carrying a small kettle, and Stuart could sec that tho hand that hold it was trembling. She stared at him, her eyes wide with apprehension. " I'm so sorry to disturb you, Mr. Stuart," she whispered, with a terrified glance over her shoulder, " but I do

feel that someone ought to •know that there's a man in a mask in that passage!" Stuart stared at her in bewilderment. " A man in a mask?" ho repeated stupidly. "Impossible!" She nodded. " That's what it seemed to mo. So strange! You see, my sister couldn't sleep, and so I got up to re-fill her hot bottle. I lighted tho little spirit-lamp without which wo nover travel, and went over to tho bathroom to fetch some hot water. That was when I saw him. He was standing near tho stairs, looking at me, with a mask over his faco." (To be continued daily)