THE KILLERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21935, 19 October 1934, Page 18

THE KILLERS

By LEONARD R. CRIBBLE

CHAPTER XX.—(Continued) The water was cold, and in spite of the continued motion of his limbs the circulation pf his blood seemed slowly to stop. Minute after minute passed, and he remained battling onward, no fixed idea in bis mind, but harrowed by a dreadful uncertainty. What bad happened at Bunter's Wharf? Where was Maude and Trench . . . and ZJta? As he thought of her he saw her face before him, white against the blackness of the river. Then the likeness disappeared, and he was squinting up at the smot-choked lamp of a barge. Still questions thronged his brain. Had the police discovered his friends ... or had Grigorni acain passed off a clever trick? Ronald's teeth snapped as he. thought of the ambassador, and the fingers cutting a way through the water twitched with sudden desire. After what seemed hours, when his strength was ebbing fast, he turned on to his back and made for the shore. However, it took him some time before he arrived at steps which he could mount. Weary, cold, his teeth chattering, and a heavy drowsiness drugging his brain 'and weighting his eyhds, he groped up the steps, clambered over & small iron gate at the top, and rolled like a drunken man into a small, evil-smelling street. Dingy lamps lit this unsavoury thoroughfare at intervals, affording by no means an adequate light for the unfortunate wayfarer unfamiliar with the burrowlike streets of the vicinity. Ronald wast too tired to care where he found himself. He was on dry land once more, and he had escaped the police, That was as much as he could ponder on at once. Gradually, however, as liie proceeded through the haze of tiny waterside streets his thoughts clarified. A new warmth surged through his veins. His teeth still chattered, even though he pressed them hard together, and a longing to get to somewhere warm came over him. He begsin to take an interest in his surroundings. Street names all at once took on a new significance. Where was he? 7

Almost before he was aware of it he found himself in a street wider than the others, a lone street, which stretched out in front of him for as far as he could see. Then he saw the name —Shadwell High street.

He turned north instinctively, to escape the scrutiny of the police in that neighbourhood!. Up Solander Street he went, crossed the long length of Cable Street, and continued up Watney i Street till he found himself in Commercial Road East? Xow he began walking westward again, intent on getting to Aldgate, when be was brought up short by a devastating recollection. j. ; Where was he to go to? He could itiot go to bis fiat, and Maine's apailments were out of the question now be was away. A hotel? He looked doira at his soiled and damp clothes and smiled feebly. No, hardly a hotel. / Then, where? Shivering sriih cold/ he recalled the refuge offered by Hannibal s sister, but her little house Fas in Poplar, and to get to it would mean going through Limehouse, where the police— He might istrike still farther north, through Bromley, and down St . ] Leonard's Road to the East India Dock : Road. The naimes seemed to return to i him without ;u*y effort on his part to recall them. Then, he bad a great stroke of luck. A lone taxi Itame. chugging along, the driver making for - hoine. HaOed by Ronald, he diew in to the kerb, and a i bargain was struck. T3tt> tfljdmaii, agreed to dirop Ronald, outside the library in Pedlar High Street. As a result of thisi deal Sirs. Seggins was /woken up at ;» quarter-past five in the morning by a discreet. knock at her front door. Peace Street was unaccustomed to discreet knocks, and Mrs. Seggins at once hastened below, thinking the won it, that the police had called again about Jim. But upon opening her front door, fully prepared to . combat guile with a downright lie, the truculenoe evaporated from her attitude. " "Why, Gaiw' lummy, if it ain't 'Annibal's guV'nor, so it is! Strewth, an' all wet an' shiverin'! An', oh! ' them poor wiists! Come in, sir, come 'in!" ■ ; Her first inspection had been made by the light of a street lamp opposite the house. She now led the way into i an exceedingly small and congested / kitchen, whidti, however, was scrupu- ■ - lously clean . Ota lines hung at-all angles across the room humc the various arti- j des of a ; " general wash.'-' The place ; smelt of the fresh, sharp tang of strong ; yellow soap. Ranald, his more immediate wants administered to by the attentive Mrs. Seggins, who bustled about, a portly figure considerably past the first flush, ; attired in a large overcoat, which completely covered her from neck to ? ' ankles, her wispy black hair done up in old-fashioned curl-papers, allowed himself to be ushered- into the front . parlour, a 'small, boxlike room on the ground floor, badly in need of re- j decorating, and smelling of furniture polish ,and Iblack lead. Here the family sofa was fitted up as a passably ! comfortable bed. Wrapped in a large j hairy blanket,, bis body aglow after a /vigof-ous towelling, he threw his sodden garments into the little hall, j and came back to the sofa, settled him-, self comfortably, and then commenced sipping a iarge jug of hot tea the good woman had nisde bim. He did not wake until mid-day, by which time the seven other members of the Seggins family had dispersed, to j the four quarters of Poplar, leaving j the mother to a full day's ironing. At j half-part three Ronald set out again, j ■i- hie clothes once more pressed into some j semblance 'of respectability. In Poplar j High Street he entered a tobacconist's j establishment and requested the loan j of' the telephone. Putting through a j call to his own fiat, he was fortunate \ / enough to issue a few hurried jnstruc- ! tionE to the intelligent Hammond be- ! fore the latter was interrupted by a j suspicious pailioe detective. Ronald j thereupon /'hung up v paid for ihe call j I and bought seme cigarettes, and then. | with, his spirits soaring once more, set j cut for Aldgate. He continued his journey by easy j stages, until at half-past five he was i walking up Ration Garden. At ten minutes past six he was lounging ont- , side a three-storeyed house, fronted : with railings, and with a low, gloomy ; basement, in Fenton Street. Saffron . Hill. To paaMsrs-by he was jnst idling,

(COPYRIGHT)

A STORY OF THRILLS, ROMANCE AND ADVENTURE

watching a scrubby-looking native of the quarter cut notches in a bagful of doubtfully whole-some chestnuts. At twenty minutes past six Ronald's puis? suddenly quickened. Swinging down the street with an easy-paced, gliding step came a girl dressed in red. A pluin-red hat with a diamante clasp framed an olive-coloured face; a red kasha coa.t, well cut, did justice to her figure, and its collar of fluffy, grey fur softened the keen expression on the face. A red morocco handbag, red shoes, red suede gloves, and gunmetal stockings completed the effective display. Eon ald stepped forward and raisea his hat. " Excuse me. Miss Minetti, I believer" His smile was charming. On the instant he bad been appraised". The girl's full, red lips parted in a flashing smile. " Si, signor." Plainly she found this good-looking, young man with the pleasant manners and the soft voice to her liking. Her frankly, pleased smile drooped in an expression more subtle, more suggestively inviting. " You wanted to see me, sjgenor?" she asked in clipped, pretty English. Ronald's manner became even more ingratiating. " I wanted to see you upon a very urgent matter, signorina," be answered and, baring delivered himself of this, his tone and expression became appropriately grave. " What can it be?" she demanded, aflutter, hc-r long lashes drooping. Ronald leaned nearer to her, and sank his voice lower. "It concerns Mr. Kolletski," She stepped back, her face transformed. Her eyes blazed, her hands, clenched into two bony knots, pounded the air, She stamped a foot angrily. " Do not speak to me of him, signor! He fool me. make me think he love me, and yesterday—sacrista! —I leam from friend that he live-in —where ees it? —St. John's Wood, with anozzer woman, and she have two leetle children!" Tears of vexation welled up in her eves at the thought of how her affections bad been trifled with, Again her hands drummed the air. " When I see him next time, I kill!" she screeched.

The old, dirty-looking chestnut vendor looked up from his tin barrow, his walnut-coloured face fleering from one ear-ringed ear to the other. He brandished his broken-bladed knife in a suggestive gesture and waved his left hand. ,

Ronald, looking up to find heads black and tousled, appearing at windows, took the girl by the arm. "Look here, Miss Minetti," he urged, " I've got to see you alone, understand?" His gaze was earnest. "I have a plan . . . and then; are things I want to talk over with you." He hesitated again, glancing up iand down the street. "' Er —I know people might—er—talk, but " _ Giulia Minetti looked up into his face and smiled reassuringly. Then she ran up the front steps and unlocked "the door. '.p {To be continued daily)