THE GAY ADVENTURERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22574, 12 November 1936, Page 23

THE GAY ADVENTURERS

By CAPTAIN E. C. COX Author of " Achievements of Carruthers,"* etc.

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CHAPTER Xl. (Continued) "Keep it back, Felix; for heaven's sake bottle it up till we have had our drinks, or else there'll be a much worse misfortune. Sample a drink yourself. A good old prosit will steady your nerves. Try to smile." Felix tried, but the smile was as satanic as any that Mephistopheles could have bestowed upon Faust. "I'm still more indebted to you," said Thompson as he set down his glass. Ho was a well-made good-looking man of about forty, with a pleasant twinkle in his blue eyes. "Now, Felix," said Bingo, after ho had emptied his glass, and Hervey had thoughtfully replenished it, "I'm prepared for tho worst. Out with it." "Dick, the petrol is nearly all gone. There is a bad leak. Tho landing on the stones must have caused it." "Whew! That's a facer. What tho blazes arc wo to do? Any chance of petrol here, Mr. Thompson?" "Devil a bit. None nearer than eighty miles. I'll send one of my vans, and they'll bring some by the morning. My men will let you know when it arrives. You'll have to stay here for the night. There's a bungalow just outside tho town. It isn't exactly the Ritz, but it's just possible. I'll have mv tent pitched in the compound. D'you think you can put up with it, Mr. ?" "Strange," said Bingo, "I forgot to introduce ourselves." "A dak bungalow!" laughed Sally. "That'll be a new experience. I love experiences." "You showed it to-day when you dropped thoso bombs and dispersed an army." -T O ,1 u "Mr. Thompson, said Sally, who had had just a sip of Bingo's whisky, "1 confess I'm dying for a cup of tea. Does a dak bungalow run to that height of luxury?" "Wo'll manage that all right. Ive got tea and sugar unci a tin of ideal milk, and a loaf of bread and somo butter. 1 think the dak bungalow can do tho rest. Let's go and investigate. " 'The rest' would seem to be tho hot water, 1 ' laughed Sally, as they walked away. The best of dak bungalows are not over comfortable, and this was far from being one of the best. There was a dining room, and two bedrooms very poorly furnished, and looking neglected and far from clean. The ceiling cloth was hanging down in several places. Thompson was extremely apologetic. "What a place for you, Mrs. Strange. But the days of dak bungalows are past. They are seldom used. People flash by in motors nowadays without troubling them." But Sally wasn t in the least put out. "A nice bit of local colouring for an article on our trip to the gorgeous East." And it was a gay little party that sat down to tea. "I've a hundred things to do," said Ihompson as they finished their meal, "lake evidence, record statements, see to the prisoners, and goodness knows what all. I must leave you here until dinner, when 1 hope we may join forces again. 1 expect you are all worn out. Shall we say seven o'clock for the bean-feast? Dinner was a scratch sort of meal, but travellers stranded in India have often had a worse one. Thompson provided a tin of tomato soup, and the aged messman had caught and killed a j couple of chickens and converted them i into curry, while the Rajah's lunch basket still contained various odds and ends of food, and an unopened bottle of Johnny Walker. Sally made her first acquaintance with chupattis or flat cakes of unleavened bread, and pronounced t them excellent. The meal finished with a concoction that the messman called brown custard pudding. "I expect you are tired of being asked how you like India, Mrs. Strange," said Thompson, "but 1 should awfully like to know what you think of it? You have chosen an original way of sight-seeing. I suppose we shall all take to flying soon. Have you been to all the show places? There is one not so very far from here, a native state called Kandiara. It is seldom visited. I wonder if you have seen it?" Sally's alert mind was instantly on the defensive. She caught Bingo's eye. "India's all been delightful," she said. "I've been thrilled and intrigued everywhere. But I'm afraid I get these places terribly mixed up. D'you remember the American lady who had been doing a tour in Europe? Someone asked her how sho liked Rome. 'Rome,' she said. ' Well, now, did we go to Rome? Yes, I guess we did. That was where I got the dandiest pair of silk stockings. Well, I feel rather like that lady, only 1 don't think 1 got any silk stockings anywhere. But I shall never forget that lovely Taj Mahal. We saw lit b.v moonlight, and it looked too j etherial for words. And I tell you what j impressed me more than anything, the ruins of the Residency at Lucknow. To I think of what our people endured there in the mutiny! It makes one feel very proud. But 1 wish you would tell me about your polico work. It must be awfully interesting." Thompson laughed. 11 1 really don't know that I find it very interesting. Perhaps because I am too accustomed to it after twenty years' service. And we don't get such clever criminals as you do at home. I've read a lot about the doings of that escaped convict, Joseph Pickering. I should like to get on to that chap." "By Jove, he's a corker!" said Gilmore. 'Tin keen on detective stories, but that chap beats the lot of them." "I can't make out why tliev don't get him," said Bingo. "They seem to have had a lot of chances. But Scotland Yard isn't what it was." "Few things are," said Thompson. "We live in a world of changes, mostly for the worse. Look at India. It's rotten. No peace or quiet. You have seen something of it to-day." "That subject was very adroitly turned," said Thompson to himself as ihe walked to his tent after good-nights had been exchanged. "Sally," said Bingo, when they had retired, "the danger signal's hoisted." "I know it, boy, I'm afraid 1 gave the show away. But what could I say about Kandiara?" "We must beat it as quickly as we know how. That's to say if wo can." Sally laughed. "That's the right stuff,'' said Bingo. "Keep it up." "We've got out of some tight places before now, laddie, and we'll do it again. We must keep our backs up." But she did not feel so light-hearted as sho endeavoured to appear. "It's that darned petrol. But for that we'd boat it now. But it's no use footing it over an unknown country in tho dark. The nearest railway station may be miles off. I'll give Felix tho tip that we're off tho moment tho potrol turns up." He went to the other bedroom, knocked and entered. "Felix," ho said, "there's another little diplomatic affair in hand. Directly tho juice arrives off wo go, by daybreak, if possible." Felix was by now used to the ways of diplomacy. "That will bo all right, Dick," he said; and Hervey, who had listened with respectful interest, said that ho would have some tea ready for everyone however early they set off. "That's settled, old dear," said Bingo as he returned. "But we havo to remember that though Thompson seems a good-hearted chap yet bo's a policeman; and if his professional instincts are roused there's no knowing what lie' 11 do. For one thing wo might be detained as witnesses for weeks or

A ROLLICKING STORY OF A PAIR OF LOVABLE SCAPEGRACES

months and cross-examined in the courts about every mortal thing while he communicated with Scotland Yard. Well, we'd better hit the hay and woo Morpheus while we can." But Thompson had no thought of sleep. He was thinking furiously. He sat down in his little tent, and lit a long Trichinopoli cheroot. Then lrom his notebook be drew a printed paper. He had read it so often that he almost knew it by heart, hut he perused it ] carefully once more by the dim light of a lantern. "It's the devil of a fix," he said half aloud. What am 1 to do?" He replaced the paper in his notebook and walked up and down, taking long ; strides outside tho tent. It was a lengthy document headed: SCOTLAND YARD ! WANTED BY THE POLICE JOSEPH PICKFIUNG It went on to describe the escape of j convict No. 531., Joseph Pickering, ■ from Porchcster prison, by means of a I forged order of release. It detailed his j appearance as recorded in the prison i register, and it gave a list of his j offences. But what Thompson's atten- ; tion was focussed on was the psychology ' of the man, his facility in assuming j any character and personating well- j known individuals, his preference for j travelling in a hired aeroplane, and his j courageous suppression of tho mutiny | at Portinoor. Ho noted, too, that | Pickering was a man of good appearance ' and address, and that ho was always j accompanied by his wife, who was said i to bo an attractive-looking woman; and finally that according to tho notification there was some reason to suspect ; that these people were now in India. j Thompson reflected on all these i points. This was his train of reasoning, i He was well aware that in India the ! wildest rumours, for the most part entirely baseless, are in cdnstant circu- ; lation, and that occasionally one of j them had some foundation in part. It j was his business as a police officer to i listen to rumours. Whether true or j false they were not to bo ignored. And j in the last two or three days there had reached him strange reports about the Governor with his wife and his staff being at Kandiara, when they were beyond all doubt naturally at the headquarters of Government. Ho had laughed at tho rumour. But hero was a man, to all appearances a Sahib, who, with his wife and three friends, or associates, was flying about the country, whose identity was wrapped in mystery, who, when he pointedly asked them about Kandiara, carefully avoided giving any reply, who had shown extraordinary bravery in suppressing a savage disturbance, and who, the document stated, might now be in India. The chain of coincidences was so strong as to be irresistible. (To be continued daily)