BIRDS OF PREY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22695, 6 April 1937, Page 17

BIRDS OF PREY

By JOHN GOODWIN

(COPYRIGHT)

Author of "Dead Men's Shoes," "Without Mercy," etc.. etc.

SYNOPSIS

Jeff Ballard is in a cottage at Dartmoor, not far from Dartmoor Prison, when a girl, who has lost her way, arrives. She learns that Joff has lived in Nebraska and been in mining camps for a long while. On the death of his mother he came to England to see about some property she had. When he arrived he found that Deeping Royal had been sold and all that was left was the small farm where the cottage stood. He is showing the girl on the way to Friar's Cross when they met a party of convicts. The girl noticed one of tho prisoners, who seemed to recognise her. lhe warder addressed him as Dench, A smart car caught up on the pair and Jeff is introduced to Philip Dalton. Jeff is invited to tea and finds the car turning in at his old homo, Deeping Royal, and learns that the girl is Mrs. Joyce Nisbet, a widow who had purchased it. She explains that Dalton was her late husband's cousin and ho and his father resided at Deeping, tho elder Dalton managing her affairs. Her marriage to Charles Nisbit. at the age of eighteen, did not prove very liappy and after a year he went to Wyoming and was killed in tho Rogue Valley railway accident. The elder Dalton arrives during the conversation. He is most cordial and hopes Ballard entertains no hard feelings about their having his old home. CHAPTER JH.—(Continued) " None whatever," said Jeff, quietly, as he shook hands. " I'm delighted to see how perfectly Mrs. Nisbet has kept up tho old place. " That's a fact," agreed Dalton. " Joyce has right good taste. Say, now you are hero I'd like to show you round." Jeff would much rather nave stopped and talked to Joyce, but could think of no excuse for refusing the invitation, and Joyce herself gave him no help. So he accepted as gracefully as might be and followed Dalton, who took him a tour of the downstairs rooms. The house had been thoroughly redecorated, but in the drawing room and dining room nothing had been changed. All the old furniture was there, even the same pictures accustomed places on the walls, and in. the library his father's handsomely bound books stood in the solid oak cases. It gave Jeff a queer pang to see a big carp which he had caught as a boy in a pond in the park and had set up, still in its glass case against the wall. The first change he found was when Dalton took him into what had formerly been the gun room, but which was now richly carpeted and furnished with a roll-top American delk, luxurious arm-chairs and a cellarette. Photographs of scantily-clad ladies decorated the brightly-papered walls. The wholo appearance of the place fairly set Jeff's teeth on edge. " I had to have an office," said Dalton, apologetically. " So I fixed up this little place to suit myself. Say, I've got some right nice whisky. You'll take a drink?"

" Not just after tea, thank you," replied Jeff, politely. " Then a cigar?' offered Dalton. " I've cigars," smiled Jeff. " I'll have a cigarette, if I may.' Dalton gave him a light and pushed forward a chair, and Jeff took it. Though naturally anxious to get back to Joyce he first wanted to learn a little more of her uncle. He had his doubts about this gentleman—it might be simpler to say that he had no doubts. " You're living up on the Moor, I hear," said Dalton. " Now I wonder how the deuce you heard that," was Jeff's thought, but he nodded. " Yes, I have a small house up at Dicken Tor." " And you're settled there?" Dalton's casual tone did not conceal the anxiety behind his question. 4 "For tho present," said Jeff, briefly. "That's right nice. Then you and I will be company for one another this summer." Jeff could not make out what the man was driving at. " I shall hope to see something of you and Mrs. Nisbet in the future," he answered politely. Dalton smiled. " 1 don't figure you'll see much of her for a while yet. She'll be away on her honeymoon." Jeff's face remained perfectly wooden. " Is that so?" was all he said. "It's a fact," said Dalton, genially. " She and my boy have fixed it up and are going to be married soon." Jeff had a burning desire to get up and tell the stout gentleman exactly what he thought of him and his son, but he restrained it admirably. "Ho is to be congratulated," he said very quietly. Then he pinched out the stub of his cigarette on the ash tray and rose to his feet. " 1 must not keep Mrs. Nisbet waiting," he added as he moved toward the door. Exactly as he had expected, Philip Dalton was with Joyce in the hall. He was talking eagerly but Joyce did not seem greatly impressed. On tho contrary Jeff thought she was rather bored, but her face brightened at sight of Jeff. " I was just thinking of coming to look for you," said Joyce. " I shall have to be starting for Taviton in a few minutes. Remember that I am giving you a lift, Mr. Ballard." "You are not going out again this evening, Joyce," remonstrated Philip. " Yes I am meeting that new butler of ours," was her reply. " You had better let Philip go," put in the elder Dalton as he camo up behind Jeff. " There's a pretty bad fog, .Tovcc."

"I'm not afraid of a little fog. It's not at all thick in any case, and I shall be back long before dark." Philip looked out of the window, then turned to Joyce. "It's much too thick for you to be"out, Joyce," he said with decision. " 1 shan't let you go." A faint colour rose in Joyce's cheeks. " Who gave you the right to dictate to me, Philip?" she asked. Philip turned sulky. "1 don't wantto dictate to you, but T .should think you would pay some attention to the man you're going to marry." Jeff saw the flash in Joyce's fine eyes. " You flatter yourself, Philip. When did I ever say I was going to marry you'" Philip looked as if he had been hit by a brick and before he could recover Joyce turned to Jeff. " I am quite ready, Mr. Ballard," she said in a very different tone and led the way to the door.

The car, Joyce's own two-seater, was in tho garage, but it was not until she had got it out and started down the drive with Jeff beside, that she spoke again. "I am sorry to have let you in for that absurd little scene," she said.

Jeff smiled. " Don't lot that worry you. Mr. Dalton h'id already told me that you and Philip were engaged." " And you' believed him!" "I had my doubts." said Jeff, drily. " I am glad of that. Philip and I have been quite good friends, and perhaps I have allowed him to presume too much but he has no right whatever to say we are engaged. The fact is," she went on with a little air of distress which went to Jeff's heart, " that I am much too good-natured. I hate hurting people's feelings. I should never have married Charlie except to please my mother." " You did not show any sign of weakness when you answered Philip just now," Jeff told her comfortingly. " It is quite clear that you can put your foot down when you want to."

"Do you really think so?" asked Joyce rather wistfully. "I do indeed," he declared. "And while we are talking of this sort of thing, why do you put up with those two crooks?"

Joyce started and jerked the steering wheel, nearly tipping the car into the ditch, but she righted it in a moment. "Crooks," she repeated in a scared voice. " Do you mean—

STORY OF INTRIGUE, ROMANCE AND CURIOUS SITUATIONS

" I do," said Jeff firmly. "I haven't spent three years in the West without getting a pretty wide experience of gamblers and crooks of all sorts, and if Grant'Dalton is not of the breed I never saw one. And now, if yon want to" stop the car and tell me to get off you have every right to do so." Joyce drove on in silence; though her face was troubled, Jeff realized thankfully that she felt no resentment against him. " You may be right," she said at last. " I—l confess that I have had my doubta for a long time past. I —" "Stop, please!" They had corne to the bridge over the River Arrow and a man in a dark uniform had suddenly stepped out on the crown of it and was holding up his hand. Joyce clapped on the brake quickly and the car came to a standstill. '• It's a warder," said Jeff in her ear, and then the man was alongside. " It is my duty to stop all cars," he said, apologetically. " You won't mind my searching yours." " I'm afraid you won't find much," said Jeff with a smile. " But do your duty. I take it there has been an escape From the prison." " Yes, sir," said the warder as he looked into the car. "Two men got away in the fog this afternoon. It came on thick quite sudden and they escaped into the plantation. They were gone before anything could bo done." " The plantation," repeated Jeff. "It wasn't the turf-cutting party by any chance?" A look of surprise crossed the warder's face. " Yes, sir, it was. But what do you know about it ?" " Mrs. Nisbet and I saw the men on their way in and stopped to watch them," said Jeff. He turned to Joyce, "I wonder if it was our friend, Dench?" " Yes," said the warder, "one of them's Dench!" He glanced at the girl. " It won't be long before we get him. The riflemen are after him now. But let me advise you, ma'am. Go home and stay there till you hear it's all clear. You ought not to take the. chance of running up against that kind of man." CHAPTER IV. JOYCE MAKES A BARGAIN For a moment Joyce seemed staggered. Then' she laughed, and without making any answer she released her brake and drove on. She glanced at Jeff; he did not seem to have heard the warder's word of warning, but he was looking a little anxious. " Hadn't you better turn back and go home?" he said. " What for?" returned Joyce. " I'm not going to turn back because an unlucky convict's being chased like a fox; besides, I've something to say to you." She broke off for a moment. " So it's Dench! It would be. Well, I hope ho gets away." " The odds are all against that." " That's just it. My sympathies are all with the underdog." Before Jeff could answer a boy on a red Post Office bicycle came in sight, coasting down the hill. Joyce checked the car and waved an arm to stop him. "He must be going to Deeping, and if so that telegram will be for me," she said. The boy halted and produced a telegram from his pouch; she tore it open and read it — " Regret cannot come until same train to morrow, Jenkins." " And to-morrow we shall probably hear he can't come at all," said Joyce, vexedly, as she gave the boy a shilling and stuffed the telegram into her jacket pocket. " But I'm not going to bo done out of my drive. I'll take you home, Mr. Ballard." " But the fog," objected Jeff. " Surely you'd better let me walk." " No," said Joyce with sudden decision, treading on the accelerator. " The fog's nothing. And —and I'm not very keen about going homo yet." She stole a glance at Jeff, and something she saw in his face encouraged her to go on. " You see, it's certain there'll be a row. And—l hate rows." Jeff's expression changed.

" You mean you're really going to take my advice?" he said quickly. "You're going to turn the Daltons out?"

" Well, not quite that," said Joyce with a rueful laugh. " But I'm going to suggest it will be* as well they should think of moving." She drove at a reckless pace till they reached the gate in the stone wall with one lonely windtwisted beech standing beside it, blurred by tho mist. "This is your place, isn't it?"

" Yes, this is ' Wonnacot,' ho said. " Won't you come in and see it again. There's something I want to say to you." She shook her head.

" No —I won't come in now. ' Wonnacot!' I like the name," she said softlvf glancing towards the little house that was just visible on the hillside. " It's a dear little place." Jeff had got out, but instead of saying good-bye stood beside the car. He was oddly reluctant to leave her, and it was not merely the attraction Joyce had for him that held him; it was rather that he sensed that she was feeling overwrought, and ho hated the idea of her returning alone to face the Daltons. Nothing would have pleased him better than to bo allowed to go back and fight her battles for her, yet at tho same time he realised that this was out of the question. He had no standing whatever in the matter, no possible right to interfere. " It's not a bad little place," he answered. " One might make something of it with monev."

" Money," repeated Joyce, and there was a touch of bitterness in her voice which was very foreign to her sweet nature. " Yes, money can do wonders, vet sometimes I think it is a curse. Mine has given me a delightful homo and many luxuries, but it has brought me also a great deal of trouble and anxiety. Sometimes I almost wish that I had never met Charlie and never inherited his fortune, for after all I could have lived on the two hundred a year which father left me." , Jeff, leaning over the door of tho ear, spoke suddenly. " Do, you know what 1 would do if that wero so—if you really had only two hundred pounds a year?" He paused, but Joyce did not speak and Jeff went on steadily. " I would ask you to marry me!" For an instant a startled look showed in Joyce's eyes, but it passed as quickly as it had come. " Why?" she asked. " Because you are sorry for me?"

Jeff looked her full in the face. " Because I love you," he said. " Oh, of course you think I am crazy," he went on rapidly, " but I never knew until to-day that there was anyono like you in the world; and there never will be anyone else for me." He stood breathless, watching her, and could hardly believe his eyes when he saw her lips curve into a smile.

" I don't think you are mad at all," she said. " A little impulsive, perhaps." She paused, then went on more deliberately. " But supposing I held you to your word ? For all I know I might loso the Nisbet fortune. There are reasons why that might happen. Grant Dalton, who knows more of my business than 1 do, has hinted as much." (To be continued, daily)