THE PASS OF PERIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22596, 8 December 1936, Page 17

THE PASS OF PERIL

By EDMUND BARCLAY Author of " Karona," etc.

(COPYMGUT)

CHAPTER Vlll.—(Continued) " And why the deuce should the Deemings finance an attack upon India?" growled the Colonel. "Now don't start supposing again," he hastily interposed. " Let's bo hearing some facts." " J can't give you facts, sir. 1 can only give you hazily formed notions, and, well, what the Deemings themselves would call ' hunches.' I don't know how, and I don't know why, and I don't know when, but the volcano which has long been threatening to erupt here, north of Khyber, shortly will erupt. That also is only an tinwarranted supposition if you like, sir, but I've been long enough in India to know that a thing can exist without being actually seen, heard or felt."

The colonel nodded his head wisely. He also, through a long experience of the East and its ways, had come to accept the fact that in North-west India and beyond, it is invariably the wildly improbable which happens. "How do you feel about things, Garvie? I mean in 3'our health and so on. Want to carry on with the job?" " Yes, sir." This most decidedly. " As I see it, the Deemings and Ali Khan are working together for mutual benefits. Assuming that my wild supposition happens to be the truth, that explains what Ali Khan expects to get out of it. But what of Deeming? He's not the sort of man to give away handfuls of anything, unless he can get about ten handfuls back. What's he after?"

The colonel shrugged his shoulders. " He's coming hero in a minute or so," he said. " I demanded a full explanation of his conduct and he promised to give it to me, in your hearing, he said, so that there would be nothing underhand in it."

"Wh at 1 propose is this, sir. I suggest that I play the pale and interesting invalid for all I'm worth. Speak in a weak, wan voice, and smile sadly with heroic endurance and all the rest of the Hollywood bilge. As a matter of fact, sir, in less than a week 1 shall be fit and well again. 1 propose that I totter pitifully about here for a day or so, and then collapse, after which I'm placet! in a litter and carried softly, slowly, and sadly down to the Pass. Yon can ride by the side of my litter and hold my hand, if you like, sir. Sort of really enter into the spirit of things." Garvie grinned happily at his colonel's biting retort. "You may be sure, sir," Garvie continued, "That our stately progression will be watched by scouts in the bills, until we're half-way down the Pass again, but ... 1 shan't be in the litter. After the first night, you'll all be fussing most attentively round a sick man who isn't there. The first night out from Wali/.anee I'll bolt into the hills, rest there for a day or two, then come down again here, on the chance of catching the Deemings on the hop, as it were."

Melodramatic as the plan undoubtedly was, Dalrymple could really find no fault with it, and it was decided to put it into operation with the amendment that Subahdar Hira Trewarn and Trooper Clark Should start back immediately, ostensibly with despatches for the Pass, but really so establish a secret cainp in the hills, where the.y might wait for Garvie's arrival. To Garvie's keen' questioning, Dalrymple strongly denied that ho knew of the identity of "K. 21," and insisted that the first he had ever heard of that gentleman's existence was from Garvie himself. They both agreed that Army Intelligence was playing a slow and careful game. In view of conditions in Kurope, particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean, the last thing the British Government would want to do, would be to engage itself in a frontier war against nominally free States and peoples, unless absolutely forced into it. The colonel even felt distinctly unhappy about his present position, where really he had no business to be, but comforted himself with the thought that he possessed a signed and sealed written request from Ali Khan that the regiment should come to his assistance. With all sorts of people asking all sorts of questions in Parliament and at the League of Nations, a mere colonel of a native regiment couldn't be. too careful, dash it! Therefore, it seemed as if Garvie would have to play a lone, subtle hand, and plav it very quietly. A sentry's challenge was heard outside the door, and an American voice in answer. Garvie smiled at his colonel, and with a warning gesture, moved his chair so that he sat with his back to the light, his face in shadow, his hands hanging limply at each side of him. There was not the slightest tinge of embarrassment about the Deemings as they entered, and greeted Garvie, although a careful observer might have noticed that Mvra's eyes held a softer, warmer expression than usual, but hardened enough before the end of the interview. Both father and daughter inquired, sincerely enough it seemed, as to the state of Garvie's health, and then waited upon the colonel, as if politely hinting that the next move was his.

There was nothing subtle about the colonel. He leapt into action as if leading a cavalry charge. "Look here, Deeming, confound you," he raged. "I think you owe me an abject apology and a full explanation. At Simla, you pretended to be an ordinary tourist, interested in tigers, and using my influence on your behalf, I was enabled to get you a permission to proceed into the north-west provinces. You had no business to come up here, or even come through the Pass."

Dooming smiled expansively and offered the Colonel a cigar, which was declined. "It's like this, colonel," he drawled lazily, "if I'd have told von that I wanted to come to ' Walizaneo, you would have prevented me from coming. So I just got a sort of general pass from you, and overwent it. You didn't know, and what you don't, know can't hurt you." "May I ask you to ho good enough to toll mo why you wanted to come to Wnlissmiec*?" askod the Colonel with laboured" politeness. "Sure you may, colonel. You see, it's this way. I'm"an. . . an." Deeming snapped his fingers impatiently as the word escaped him, and looked appealing! v at his daughter. "You are an 'entomologist, pop." said Mvra with a little trill of laughter. "Sure, that's it, colonel. I never can rememher the. dnrn word. I'm an onto . . . entomologist. I collect and study rare insects and hugs and croepies. J'in studying entomology right here in Walizaneo, colonel, and I've found some very interesting specimens." Mvra's eyes were alight with mirth, and as Garvio saw the rage visibly mounting the colonel's neck and face, he was hard put to it to refrain from laughter himself. "Do you really expect me to believe that pack of balderdash?" spluttered the colonel. "Well," said Deeming, as ho complacently selected a cigar from a bulging ease, "] suppose von know tlio old gag? . . . That's my story, and I'm going to otick to it." But the colonel was really roused at last, and showed that he too could sting in his turn.

A STORY OF THRILLING ADVENTURE AND A GREAT LOVE

"There's only one thing which prevents me from telling you what i think of you and your story," he said, "and that is the presence of one who is apparently a lady." "Apparently a lady? What the deuce do you mean?" snapped the American, and' liis voice held danger signals. "You should know best whether your daughter merits the title of lady or not," said the colonel. "You've had the upbringing of her 1 take it, hut you can't think so very much of her yourself or else you wouldn't deliberately mix her up in such a filthy game as this appears to ho." Deeming shook and blinked, as if he had taken a blow between the eyes, and Myra jumped to her feet, two angry red spots of shame staining her cheekbones.

"By Jove," thought Garvie, "that was a shot between wind and water if vou like. Deeming has taken it badly." And he attempted to relieve the situation by interposing his first remark. '.'Mr. Deeming," he asked lightly, "I find your bedtime stories very entertaining. Won't you bring your vivid imagination to play upon what happened in the cave?" But Deeming had received enough. "If ever you get me into British territory again," he said, "1 reckon you can have me struck in a dock, and have those (jucstions shot at me by a prosecuting attorney. But until then, I'm not saying any more. Come on, Myra," and with that he stepped heavily out of the room. Myra lingered at the dooi 1m sorry to see you so poorly, Captain Garvie." she said softly, "f did what 1 could for you, but I suppose that L 111 not even an efficient nurse, let alone a lady." . There was nothing Garvie could say to this, but the honest old colonel looked thoroughly ashamed of himself, and was about to apologise when she stopped him. "Please don't, colonel," she said. "Have you told Captain Garvie his news yet?. No? A\ by then captain, let me tell you. There's a very dear friend of yours come to look after you and take you back. L think she will soon cure you. 1 hope she does, indeed I do. Good-bye. and the best of luck always, Captain Garvie." Before he could speak she was gone, and the door closed behind her, leaving the shame-faced old man. and the puzzled voting man. The colonel swore softly at'and to himself. Confound him for a bad-tempered cad, to insult the gal like that, after the way she'd pulled Garvie round during the first dav of his sickness, saved his life, too, up on the wall, if all he'd heard was true. Garvie interrupted his thoughts. "What did Miss Deeming mean by her news, colonel?" he asked. The colonel's face cleared as if by magic. "Oh, that," he said. "Well, as a matter of fact, I was going to break it to you gently, but Miss Conyers is here ... or will be here before the day is out." "What? Ruth here? In Wali/.anee?" And yet he had known. Known last night that she was not very far away, and soon he was to see her

"Yes," continued the colonel, "I don't know what's come over the young girls of to-day. They go prancing about the Frontier as if it was Hyde Park, and the Khyber Pass a sort of Rotten How. We struck her and her entourage of bearers about halfway through the Pass. An old longdischarged ressalder of her late father's regiment was in charge of her private escort, and she was safe enough, I suppose, but 1 roped her in, much to her annoyance." "What on earth was Ruth doing tip in the Pass," queried Garvie, the whole of him thrilling with anticipation. Ruth! "Looking for you, my boy. I got her to promise to remain at the last blockhouse, until 1 knew where you were, and whether it was safe for her to come on. I sent word by heliograph three days ago, so she should be riding in by" about sunset." Garvie forced himself to his feet, and rocky as he was, made for the door. "Let me got my charger, sir, 1 must ride and meet her." "You'll do nothing of the kind.'" replied the colonel firmly. "Don't forget that your are, in fact, an invalid, and in fancy, a helpless, dangerously ill invalid." Garvie sighed and sank back into his chair again. Ruth! Ruth! I?nth! In his heart a little song was singing, and its refrain was just that one word. Ruth! What was it the olden Ruth had said, in far Judear 1 "Whither thou goest, T will go! and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people." The colonel hemm'd and hnw'd for a while, but the trouble seemed to be in his mind rather than in his throat.

"Look here, Garvie," lie said at last. "I don't know much about these things, but L should say, judging from what ] saw of Miss Conyers, that she is still rather in what you might term a difficult frame of mind."

Garvie's hopes sank. Ho had boon a fool, lie supposed to encourage them, but tlie thought of Huth. the anticipation of her nearness, the realisation that once more he would soon feast his starved eyes upon her winsome English beauty, had come to him like a cool, clean wind of the English spring, shredding and dispersing with its penetrating freshness the disturbing, nameless little emotions aroused by a girl who walked like a woodland nymph, whose every unconscious pose in rest reminded him of Phryne in the Grecian frieze, and whose eyes were as green as the glades of Pan. Ruth, whose eyes were as cool and placid as violets, whose clear complexion was like the pink and white hawthorn buds of hedgerows, and whose hair was the burnished browu of leaves in autumn. . . . Huth! "Dash it all, Garvie," said the colonel, after a significant pause, ".It's none of my business, I know, but why can't you take Miss Conyers completely into your confidence. This last escapade of hers —I mean, dashing up here into this unholy part of the world after you—shows that she's got some strength of character. Why don't you tell her the truth? Because you can take it from me, that in the present state of affairs, aiid in her present state of mind, she's not finding it easy to forgive you." Garvie smiled wryly. "I'm afraid you don't quite appreciate the ironical little twist in which my own initial stupidity has involved me. In order to demonstrate that I did not play the coward, I've got to prove to her that the brother did. Apart from the promise I made, and the general beastliness of the whole thing, 1 ask you this —what would'you think of anybody who came to you, and, no matter how justly, cleared his own reputation at the . expense of, we'll say, your dead brother's reputation?" The colonel grunted at this.

"You see, colonel." continued Garvio thoughtfully, "I think women live in their own emotions and feelings much more than we do, and the deuce of it all is, they're so often right in their intuitions, that it's the devil's own job to make tliem see things hv the light of reason on the few occasions when thoy are wrong." "You seem to have studied the subject," said the colonel, sarcastically, inwardly admitting the truth of Game's statement. "It's a subject which interests me," was the dry rejoinder, and then the conversation drifted in another and more professional direction. (To be continued dailj)