THE HONEYMOON BUSINESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE HONEYMOON BUSINESS

By MORRIS HAY

SYNOPSIS A young Australian named Grosvenor, up from the country to attend a sheep sa'e at I'lominston, is accosted tliero by a little rat-faced man who makes persistent overtures and is only shaken ofT with difficulty. Later, in the train, another jovial type of man also *' chums up " to him. and afterwards offers him a lift to the hotel, which he refuses. The same man a?ain turns up in the hotel lounge, and in n ts.xi-driver outside Grosvenor recognises his earlier rat-faced acquaintance, and realises that for some reason he is being followed. The climax comes when he is waylaid in a dark corner of the street and forced into the taxi by two assailants. He is taken some distance to a house with a large garden where his jovial train acquaintance is waiting for him. and astounds him by nnnounciiifr that a young lady will shortly arrive whom he is required to marry. Soon after the girl arrives and Grosvenor knows at once that he has met his fate. He is told that the girl. Mary Halford, is an heiress, who is to have full control of her money either on her marriage or on her 25th birthday, but rs she has discovered herself to be in a position of great danger through this strange will, ehe is anxious to marry at once, and enter into the possession of het heritage. Peter Grosvenor, though warned of possible danger to hiinself. agrees to p'iay his part, and Jie and Mary drive at once to her solicitor 3, where an official from the registrar's omco ceremony. After the marriage, Peter is presented with papers setting out the transference of ft large sum c>f money his account. The two proceed to a hotel when it is discovered that Mary has disappeared. 11l the hotel lobby Peter sees a woman whom he suspects to be an associate of his wife's enemies. CHAPTER V.—(Continued) She was dressed, this woman, in an evening gown, which showed more of her body than I thought was decent, but then 1 remembered l knew little of women ip evening dress, and nothing afc ill of the prevailing fashions. Her lips Rnd cheeks were painted, and on lipr head she' wore a large picture hat, which accentuated more than anything else could have done, the nakedness of her body. At any other time, 1 think I would, have been overcome with bashfulness at her approach; but now, perhaps because of the whisky I had had, or because I had already been doing a little gazing into a girl's eyes that night, I met her on an even footing. '• Good evening, my dear. What do you want? This is all a dream, you know so it doesn't matter a bit." She smiled at me, and fumbled in a handbag she carried on her arm. I remember thinking I had never seen such long arms in my life, but they wore very beautiful. " I just want to show you something, Mr. Grosvenor " Of course she would know my name! Everybody around the town seemed to know it to-night! " With pleasure, my dear madame. Anything you like." She smiled again, deeply and sorrowfully, and then drew something from her bag and laid it on tho table before me. Perhaps 1 might have, avoided giving myself away if I had had any warning, or the least; suspicion of what she was going to do—at least, .E was well prepared for another automatic pistol to make its appearance —but at the sight of the photograph she showed me, I could not help starting and putting out my hand for it. " Why, that's a photograph of my wife!" r She laughed in a deep contralto, fashion, and quick as I had been to try to seize the photograph, she was quicker still to prevent me as with a sweep of her long arm she brushed it from the table and returned it to her bag. "Thank you, Mr. Grosvenor!" she said. " You have told me everything I want to know." Already I hated this woman who was loaning over toward nie and showing me so much of her aniitomy—more, I diought thfn it was right for any aoman to show to a strange man. Then she laughed again. Perhaps you will allow me to congratulate 3'ou about your marriage?" I drew myself up with a dignity I hoped was worthy of the occasion. " Excuse me, madam, I am not aware that I have the pleasure of your acquaintance." j She laughed again in her throaty manner, deep and burbling—and says such a speech -would have made a cat laugh—and leaned over to me more than ever. "Oh, excellent, Air. Newly wed! Waiter, bring us champagne. We wish to drink to the health of this gentleman, who has been married this evening. Some friends of mine will be here directly." f®&i£vei» as me spoke, two men came fjrito the lounge and began to thread their way through the 'tables toward us -—and under the terms of truthfulness ■of this story, 1 am bound to say I did not exactly welcome their appearance. Like the woman, they were in evening dress, and before he spoke to her in somewhat uncertain English, I guessed the leader of the little party was a ; foreigner of some sort. "Ah, Madeline This is w'th'out doubt the gentleman whom you have described to me so luckily as the husband of the wealthy young lady?" The woman laughed once more, in much the same fashion a tiger cat would for the viciousness that is in it. " Yes, Hermann. Allow me to intro? duce you Mr Peter Grosvenor—Mr. Axel Hermai n " The man thus introduced to me was tall and hea v y, beyond the weight of most men His hands, like his face, weio fat and puffy, and his finger-nails long, as some women keep tlmm, and sharply pointed like tho claws of a cat, which have evei seemed to me repulsive and disgusting. " So," he said heavily. "You will understand, Mr. Grosrenor, that in marrying your wife, you have declared war on forces which you can yet know nothing about." 1 saw it was no use knuckling down / to the domineering tone of the man s voice His eyes, when I came to look at them, were the eyes of the welshing bookmaker, or the successful keeper of the house of ill fame. " That's good news to me. You don't look as though you would be much of a friend to anybody." He glared at me angrily, and 1 hoped I had touched him in a, tender spot. " Your wife, we have lost track of for • the time being; but you, we have had followed from the marrying place by those who had not the knowledge of what you had done, or never would you •- have reached this hotel." " That's awfully pleasant of you! I'd like to know how you've found out so much about me in so ishort a time?" " Ach! We know everythings. Everythings is known to us almost beforo it happens!" " I'm afraid I , can , hardly .believe that, you kiiqw." ■■- >' - 1 \ J

AN INTRIGUING SERIAL

"Everythings is known to ns, so ifc is no good any more striving, to resist us. For, if von make the effort, I give you the straight tip —tlio Hfe of you and your wife will not be the worth of one drop ol: the water in your so wonderful harbour!" I tried to make my voice as genial and pleasant—and sarcastic as possible. " Indeed! May I enquire by which of the many—or —methods I understand are available, you—or —propose to — what is the latest term —bump us off?" The conversation so far had been carried out while the two men stood by the table at which the woman and I were seated, and the second man now put in his spoke. " Say, Hermann, cut the cackle! Tell this bird he'll find it best to come over pretty slick, or our hick'll be out if he ever sees the light of another giddy sunrise." I was beginning to feel anything but happy at the way things were shaping, but decided if these men were seriously entertining the idea of abducting me for the second time that night, or anything like that, on this occasion 0 would do mv best to put up a really strenuous resistance. "If it's as serious as all that," I remarked pleasantly, " you'd better sit down and have something to drink while we talk things over. It's quite a while yet to sunrise, and yotir lady friend here has taken it upon herself to order champagne." The man they had called Hermann scowled menacingly as he sat down. " The joking is all very well, but the money we must at all costs have. Let us show him before the waiter comes back." The two men put their hands in their pockets, and I was not in the least surprised to see them bring out revolvers which they showed to me as though to settle all arguments between us. By now pistols and revolvers seemed to be the most ordinary things for anybody and everybody to have hidden somewhere about them —in fact 1 remembered 1 had one in my own pocket, fully loaded, and the knowledge gave me some comfort. " The lobby outside is empty of peoples," Hermann went on, " and the hour is late. We have a man who at the first sound of a shot will the whole hotel into darkness throw by the main switch, so we shall make the escape while your dead body remains. Is it not better then that you will come with us quietly?" I did not see yet what I could do, but I tried to play them to gain time. " Just let me get this straight. You gentleman, and this lady also, I presume, are determined —is it just to abduct me, or would you really prefer to murder me? Or do you expect to bring my wife to terms when you have. stolen me? If so, perhaps you ought to know she has deserted me." " Your wife is the menace to the lives of all of us while she is herself alive. It is the fault of her she does not let the sleeping dogs lie." " But 1 think you mentioned something about money? That sounds to mo remarkably like blackmail." 1 tell you again—it is no good having the jokes with us." " My dear sir, I assure you I'm notjoking—especially when you say you have arranged it so that at the sound of a shot all the Tights in the hotel will go out?" V Yes —so we can escape after you the fatal shot have received in the chest. Come! It is no use the longer delaying to make up the mind. With us are you'coming —or the shot?" " Of course —with you every time. But would you mind telling me something first? Is this really Sydney—in the year 1932?" " What do you mean? Is this the joke once more?" " Honestly, 1 want to know. Somehow, I've an idea all this is a dream I'm in. Here's the waiter coming back with the champagne, and I want to make a little experiment before he gets in the way." Now the table at which we were sitting was not a very heavy one, but it is wonderful what a sudden push will do to people when they are not expecting it, and I'm willing to rfdmit I shoved the table as hard as ever I could. I'm sorry if the woman was hurt, but when she and Hermann half turned to see if the waiter was coming the opportunity was too good to be lost, and I directed the most part of the push against the man, who overbalanced and fell backward to the floor. For good measure I hit Hermann with' nil my strength as he went over, but I fear without connecting properly with his ugly features; and then I pulled my automatic from my pocket and fired it, almost at random, at the great electric chandelier hanging in the centre of the room. 1 suppose it was more by good luck than skill that I hit the light, so it fell with a resounding crash—and almost before the glass smashed to the floor the whole of the hotel lights went out. Through the gloom I heard the woman' screaming,, and the two men swearing heartily, one of them in a language 1 could not understand, but the savage tone of their voices made me glad J. had had the wit to forestall the shot which would have meant my death, and at the same time given the signal for my assassins' escape. I knocked against two more tables, and almost fell over them in the dark before 1 reached the doorway and dashed through it into the equally blaekened-out lobby. Screams were coming from every direction now, and as I hesitated, wondering which direction I should take, 1 caught the sound of a fat chuckle once more —and then the voice of the man Dunnicliffe called to me softly. " Eh, Laddie —but you did that fine! Give me your hand, I know my way about this place in my sleep! We must get out of it before the lights coiup on I" CHAPTER VI. I think 1 can honestly say I heard Dunnicliffo's voice without the least surprise. As 1 felt my way toward him 1 could hear him laughing contentedly to himself, and somehow it made me feel more pleased than ever that 1 had been able to trick my friends in the lounge. Although I could not see it, I guessed the grin was spreading itself generously on his face. " Oh, Laddie! Your wife's the bonnie lass for knowing the men! Though I'm bound to tell you I had those fellows covered, and there'd have been something doing if they'd turned nasty!" I found his hand stretched out to me, and he guided me rapidly through a door which swung to behind us, as I could tel? by the way it shut out the excitement my shot had raised. Then he produced a small torch from his pocket, and by its light we ran down a long passage which I supposed led to the kitchens, and presently passed a place which I think was a boiler room, where a fire glowed brightly in a furnace, and came out at u little deserted side street or lane. " Where are we now?" I asked my tracks as quick as we can!" IT jit awav I could ho<ir men calling excitedly to each other, and the sound of a police whistle, but in the lane there was nothing to disturb us, and waiting only to make sure all was clear we slipped across the road into the deep shado-iv of a tall building. Then,

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running as fast as we dared, Dunnicliffe brought me through a maze of little cross streets to a garage where a ear was waiting for us with its engine running, and a man standing guard by it. " You can drive, laddie?" Dunniclilfe asked me. " A little, 1 think," I claimed modestly. As a matter of fact I can drive fairly well, if only " on country roads, and care not so greatly for heavy city traffic. Dunnicliffe spoke a word or two to the man who had been guarding the car, and he came over to me. " She can touch ninety easy—straight eight and four speeds forward and reverse. There's nearly thirty gallons of juice in her —special tank fitted to-day—and enough oil for more than a thousand miles." Dunnicliffe cut in on the man impatiently. " Never mind the rest! Quick with vou, laddie —into the driving seat or they'll be after us in a minute or two." 1 jumped into the car and put the gears in mesh and drove slowly across the garage, while Dunnicliffe stood on the running board until we reached the street. Then he stepped off. " I guess you'd better push on the gas. Those fellows will be along any second, and " He broke off, and I heard someone arguing in the garage behind us, and Dunnicliffe gave an exclamation with more than a note ot admiration in it. / "By gosh! Shove her along, laddie. They'll be potting at you before you -know where you arc!" He was running along the footpath, and 1 slipped in the second gear and caught up to him. " But where the deuce am I to drive to? Where shall I go?" " It doesn't matter," he called back to me, " only go like tho wind —she's in your charge now." Somewhere behind us a man called out loudly. I saw Dunnicliffe, like a rabbit making its hole, disappear up a side street; and then a loud explosion front the direction of the garage which I suspected was somebody potting at me, told me it was more than time to be gone. The car responded to the touch of my foot on the accelerator like a thing alive, and 1 was thankful the streets were almost deserted. In a few yards I was doing thirty miles an hour, and as 1 swung round the first corner I put the gears into top and hit fifty before the end of the block. Without anv clear idea where I was going I headed for the only road 1 knew out .of Sydney—the main western road to the mountains, for 1 thought if Dunnicliffe wanted me to take the car for a drive, I might as well give it a good try out. Perhaps, I thought, it was his intention to present it to mo for a wedding gift, or something like that. Everything had been happening in such a topsy-turvy way since 1 had met tho man; it seemed quite reasonable he would do it in some such fashion, off-handedly, and without rhyme or reason like the people in Alice's dream of Wonderland. Then I heard my wife's voice speaking to me from tho back of tho car and as nearly as anything swerved into the gutter at the sound of it. " Very well done indeed —but I'm not at all comfortable hidden under this stuff! I'm going to climb into the seat beside you. Keep going—don't stop on any account!" After the first swerve I kept to the road without the least deviation. The whole thing was a dream —I knew that for the most utter certainty; but in a second 1 felt a hand on my shoulder, and her hair brushed mine as she fell into place at my left arm. Then I heard her laughing softly above the hum of the racing engine. " What is the time, Peter?" " I should think we've been married about an hour or so. Or perhaps it is nearer two or three centuries at the moment I'm rather confused about things." She sighed contentedly as she settled down in her' seat. " Then it's somewhere around twelve. With-this car and a bit of luck we ought to be able to do over two hundred miles by breakfast time. Two hundred miles by breakfast, or four hundred by lunch—it was all the same to me if only the girl I had married was by my side. " Just as you like, my dear. By the way, 1 did marry you to-night, didn't 1?* I mean, I suppose you're the same girl? So much has been happening lately I'm rather uncertain about anyth inc!' 1 "Of course I married you, silly! But I'd step on it a bit, if 1 were you, although 1 can't see anybody coming after us yet." She leant out of the window on her side of the car, and hung out of it for a time, looking at the road behind us. " See anything?" " No." ' " Then bring your head in—l'm going to step on it." For a few miles, threading my way through the traffic still on the roads, J had sufficient to do without attempting to talk to my now wife; but before long we c-aine to the outer suburbs, and then 1 felt I could safely pay my companion a little more attention. I came back first of all to the most important thing from my point of view. " I'm really awfully glad to hear we are married. An excellent business arrangement. I think it was to be something about wills, and banking accounts." " What an excellent memory you have, Peter!" " I suppose that was smart business, too, sending me back for your hand-bag and the disappearing?" " I'm sorry about that," she confessed in a voice which showed she was nothing of the sort. " Dunny and 1 thought you would be safe if we loft you behind, but before you could get back they found us." " They found me too, whoever they are. Two of them—no, three. A big fat man, and a stylish lady, and another man. 1 pushed a table over them." " You did what?" " Pushed a table over them, and I hope 1 hurt them. Fortunately your Mr. Dunnicliffe turned up at the critical moment, just as he would in the pictures." 1 told her of my shot at the electric chandelier, and our flight in the resultant darkness, and my wife seemotl rather upset at the news. " 1 was afraid they would find you. Dunny wanted me to go on without making sure „what had happeued i to you, but 1 refused until ,1 knew >;ou were safe." " That was awfully kind of you, and dear Mr. Dunnicliffe." " Of course it was kind of us —we changed our plans for you! I think Dunny will have to trust me more than he used to before my " She broke off, but I insisted on her going on. " Thau before what?" " Oh, nothing; but if you can't drive faster than we're going now, you'd better let me try. To the right, and along this road for a few miles." " Certainly—anywhere you like at any speed you like." I was a little - annoyed at the tone of my wife's voice, for we had been

touching fifty and mora even through the suburbs, but the engine only seemed to bo ticking over, so I put it at it. The road laid straight and empty under the glare of our headlights, with little stretches of bushland already beginning to show up on cither hand. I hadn't the faintest notion where we were, or where we were going, but while this girl who at the least was my formal wife was sitting beside mc, i could not think of a* place in the world where 1 would sooner bo; and as I pressed on the accelerator the car leapt forward until I saw out of the corner of my eye the speedometer needle creeping up to eighty miles an hour. Still the engine gave me the feeling there was more left in it, a great ileal more if we had to call on it. Soon the road ran into hilly country, and we passed through two or three little sleeping townships. Then we began to climb steadily, though the grades had little effect on our pace. At last iny wife'spoke to me again. " Peter, are you sure you understand there may bo danger, very great danger for you now they have found out about our marriage?" " You gave me to understand it mightn't be the safest thing in the world, marrying you, before 1 consented to the ceremony." She was silent for a little time, and then went on persistently. " If you want to draw out of it now vou see thy are prepared to shoot you in cold blood. I can drive on from here, i know a place not far away wher© you can catch a train back to Sydney." 1 slowed down for a moment so I could study her face, though in the dark I could see little more than her profile by the dim glow from the instrument board. " What about you? If I were to leave you, they would still try to make things unpleasant for you?" " j—I suppose so." " Then don't be silly," I said, and opened the throttle again. This. I thought as we sped on, was my wedding night—the one and only night in a man's life —and here I was spending it driving recklessly through the dark with a girl who had deliberately thrust herself into my life for some reason I could not as yet understand! i had every reason to' believe that by marrying her I had earned the undying enmity of at least two men, and apparently one woman, who were quite ready to go to any lengths, deliberate murder if necessary, to get rid of me. " Mary what is it all about? I have heard of gang warfare in America, but I thought that sort of thing wasn't clone in Australia." The girl sat up straight, and her voice had a hard tone in it now. " They shot my father —they shot him three years ago, deliberately, in cold blood because he would not give in to them. If it costs me every penny 1 possess 1 will uso it as I have-used every penny I could get hold of up to now, to bring them to book." "But Mary! Can't the authorities do anything to help you?" " They have; and they're trying to do all they can. But nobody can stop me now I have control of my own money. They are frightened of me already, but I will stop at nothing until I have punished them as far as 1 mean to punish them." " But surely the government or the police can take action if they shot your father!" ' " There has never been anything to go on, legally. They have been too clever for that. There have been others since my father, men who were trying like he did to do something in the world." She mentioned the names of three men, all comparatively young men with achievement to their who had met with mysterious deaths. " Perhaps you will not believe me, Peter, but 1 thought you could bo left out of it. I thought they wjuidti't find out about you until we had finished with them." " Finished with them?'" " Yes, but I knew you had no one depending on you, and I did warn you, didn't I?" I had become rather tired of her harping on that string. " If you keep twanging that silly old note I will get out of the car and leave you. I'd never have married you if I had thought you would try to lose me just because a few half-baked gangsters decided to cut up rough!" "i cannot tell you how sorry I am you have become so deeply involved. If I had known " " I tell you I would never have consented to a business marriage with you if I had only known. . We came to a deviation where the road was under r,epair, and for a moment I was too busy to talk, and the girl sat silently by my side. Then she asked me the question for which 1 was waiting. "If you had only known what, Peter ?" "How pretty you were!" She had nothing to say to that, and 1 knew that come what might 1 was going to enjoy my honeymoon, business arrangement though it might be. Nor did 1 doubt but that, given the time and the opportunity. I could persuade the girl with whom! had already fallen head over heels in love, to repudiate with me the implied bargain of our marriage. I think 1 have already told how there is Scotch blood in my veins—Scotch and Welsh, and a dash of Irish as well — the blood, it may well be, of the old Celtic folk who saw visions, and had the gift of second sight and the knowledge of things' to come. As to how that knowledge comes to me 1 know nothing, except that when it does come it behoves me to take heed to the warning. So presently, as we still fled through the night, 1 knew f" i t danger was coming even more quickly behind us. " Tell me, Mary, do you think anybody will try to overtake us to-night? You said something about it?" " Quito a good chance I should think. But they would have to be travelling to catch up to us, wouldn't they?" " I am certain some danger is coming behind us. You know the road, is there a turn off whore we can hide? Somewhere in among trees, where we can conceal the car?" " How do- you know there is danger?" " Because I do know —for certain." In the dark I could feel, rather than see, her eyes fixed curiously on me, and then she leaned forward and read the speedometer. " I know where we are. There are 15 miles of the best road I've seen anywhere just ahead of us. Let me drive." 1 was tired, for 1 had had a hard day of it before this adventurous wedding night began, and already I had put Sydney many miles behind us —■ how many is is one of the geographical details of this story that, for very good reasons, will have to be left rather vague—so 1 was willing to change seats with my wife. Of the 15 miles she had said laid before us I will also say very little, except that she covered them in less minutes by the clock on the instrument board than I would dare to boast about; and as we made such terrific speed through the night, I heard her singing to herself as she clung to the steering wheel, and took all the curves and bends and dips of the road at a pace which told me there was nothing seriously wrong with her nerves! Then we came to a dark belt of trees' where she jammed on the brakes and swung the car at right angles to the road on to a side track, which led through low scrub to an open space seventy or eighty yards from, the turn off. Here she backed the car round, and drove it slowly in reverse direction along the track until vve were again within a few yards of the main road, when she switched out the headlights and shut off the engine. (To bo concluded next week)