WELL OF GOLD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 13 (Supplement)

WELL OF GOLD

By BENTLEY RIDGE

(COPYRIGHT)

CHAPTER Xlll.—(Continued) Lynne sat down limply by the table, evidently the. camp's mess table, on which was a chess board with the pieces set out on it as in a half finished game. Guthrie went out again; she could hear his voice outside as he discussed the situation with Cartwright, and she hated him weakly. Her arm still ached intolerably. After some minutes Guthrie camo into the tent', still wearing his dark blue Chinese dressing gown. Cartwright. who was clad in a khaki shirt and shorts with a woollen lumber jacket over his shirt for warmth, came in with him. Cartwright stared at Lynne with great curiosity, and some discomfort. .Despite some dishevolment, and a long streak of dirt across her forehead, he could see that she was a very pretty girl, and quite the last one would expect to be mixed up with any underhand tricks like the one that had been played hv the llvats. that night. He sat down 011 the other si lie of the table while Guthrie stood a few feet away. lighting a cigarette. " Well, now." said Guthrie, turning to Lynne. " Will you kindly explain to us what you were doing in the camp to-night P" " 1 wasn't in the camp," said Lynne. She lay hack with her aching arms hanging loosely over the arm of the chair. She was cold from lying out on tin- clifl, and she began to shiver, partly from this and partly through shock. But you were on the cliff, and you took part in the raid to-night to that extent at any rate," went 011 Guthrie's. Voice remorselessly. 1 Has only on the clilf by chance," Said Lynne. I ry as she would she could not control the tremor of her limbs. " What were you doing then —sp}"ing on us?" "No; 1 was there quite by chance." " But you don't expect us to believe that P" ' " Yes. What happened was that I Was sonic miles from here —and Lynne broke off. She had been about to say that Julian had left her to go oiul make arrangements for the very raid which had taken place that night. It was quite impossible to explain. Guthrie was gazing at her with an expression of grim exasperation-. Lynne looked away helplessly, and began Bringing her arm to and fro trying to relieve the, pain in it which seemed rather to be getting worse than better. "Now. look here.*' said Guthrie. " It's no use trying to blufl me I oil tricked me into following you the other day, in ordor that your brother might deface some markings, whatever they' Way have been, on the pillars of the gateway of that ruined fort we found the oilier day. I'raeninon, no doubt: .a,nd I suppose lie thought that the Markings on the pillars were a clue to

A STORY OF A SEARCH FOR TREASURE, A QUEST THAT LEADS TO ADVENTURE AND ROMANCE

the fact, or to the whereabouts of tho cups of Alexander! Now to-night, we're raided by Ilyats, for no reason that I can see. Ihcv don't steal anvtiling, they have 110 grudge against us. It s obvious that someone has put them lip to it! Jjvnne said nothing; Guthrie, noticing'tho swing of her arm and the contortion of suffering about her mouth, realised that tho arm was hinting her, and recollected his violent treatment of it when lie had caught her on the cliff. She was as white as a sheet, ihe piicking of his conscience at the sight of her damaged arm, contributed to Guthrie s exasperation with tho whole affair.

" I have no doubt at all that your brother put .the Ilyats up to this business to-night! None whatever! That you had a hand in it, too, is 'equally obvious, and what on earth is behind it, I don't know!" he said. Still Lynne said nothing. " Hut what I do know is," Guthrie continued, " that to deface markings thousands fir years old and of immense archaeological value is the lowest trick I ever came across! I don t care about the raid to-night—that's nothing. But I do care about that, and I'm going to sec that both you and your brother pay pretty heavily for it!'' Lynno's lips parted a little at that. She stared at his angry face, and shivered so hard that her teeth chattered. "I'm going to lay information about this raid in Tehran," said Guthrie, unable to keep his eyes off her monotonously swinging arm, and painfully conscious of the lines of suffering round her tender, softly curving mouth. "I'm going to send you down to Tehran to explain to the police there your presence

Lore at the time it took place." Cartwright was staring at his cliiof in surprise. In all the four years that lie had known Guthrie, lie had never seen him really angry, apd he had never known him do or say an ungenerous tiling. Now, obviously, Guthrie was labouring under some emotion which seemed deeper, more 'complex, than mere anger over the raid that night, or file vandalism at Praetnnon. Astonished by his senerity with this girl they had caught, and by the expression in Guthrie's lace as he looked at her. Cartwright hardly knew what to think. "That's all," said Guthrie, in a tone of finality. "You needn't explain to me, you can explain to the Persian police!" Lyiine turned a shade paler, and raised her left hand to cover her eyes. They waited for her to speak but she said nothing The silence became painful and Cartwright noticed that her whole body was shuddering as she lay in the chair. "Are you—are you cold. Miss Orniond?" Cartwright asked, breaking the portentous silence. "Yes," said Lynne, biting her lip to steady it. "Get tho whisky—there was some in the store tent, if you can find, it now," Guthrie said shortly to Cartwright. Cartwright got up, hesitated as to whether to take tho rug of the improvised couch in the corner and put it over her, thought better of it and went out to get the whisky. Lynne closed her eyes almost overcome by this relief of tension. Guthrie moved toward her, and she started when ho momentarily closed bis hand over hers. "Yes, you arc cold," he said drawing back, half pretending that he had made certain because he had fancied that she was lying. His face was still stern, but looking at her lying so obviously pale and ill-looking in the chair, ho felt suddenly bitterly ashamed of himself. With a gesture he indicated her arm that hung over the side of the chair. "That arm hurts, does it?"

"Yes," breathed Lynne. "Verv much?" "Pretty badly." He hesitated for an instant, then took her hand, lifting the arm very gently, and ran his fingers along it, feeling it through the sleeve of her shirt for any possible breakage or dislocation. Lynne stared up at him, and he looked for a moment into her eyes, seeing them darken as the pupils widened, as the last vestige of colour drained out of her face.

He could feel the shuddering of Iter whole body through his fingers 011 her arm, and realising that she was just on the verge of fainting, he hesitated an instant, then bent and scooped her up out of the chair into his arms. Carrving her like a child, lie walked across the tent and deposited her 011 the couch in the corner. He picked up the rug that was lying on the end, and with a queer, embarrassed and rueful look, put it gently over her " There you arc," he said. " Now try to warm up!" Lynne rolled over on to her sido away from him, and from sheer physical weakness, burst into tears. Guthrie stared in acute embarrassment at her, and turned to meet Cartwright's gajjo as the young man entered, and for the first time in their acquaintance Guthrie saw a look other than respectful in the face of his young subordinate. Cartwright, apparently, thought him an unspeakable brute. His thoughts at that moment wore anything but brutal; but Cartwright had no previous knowledge of Lynne's apparent conspiracies to worry him. " Leave her alone," said Guthrie, in an undertone. " She'll get over it in a moment or two." Every impulse to comfort her that arose in him was checked by the thought: " 1 must keep a hold on myself I I mustn't play the fool as I did last time 1 wrts with her." Both men waited uncomfortably for Lynne's convulsive weeping to cease; and then Cartwright took matters into liis own hands. He had five sisters at home in England, and therefore ample experience of feminine tears. He sat down 011 the edge of the couch, put his hand 011 Lynne's shoulder, and said ooaxingly: "Come on! Pull yourself together! There's nothing to worry about. . . . No one is going to hurt you Dr. Guthrie looks as though he's going to burst into tears himself Come on, now cheer up!" His action had some effect, for in n moment or two the sobs had relapsed into sniffs and gulps. "That's better!" said young Cartwright. Ho drew the rug hack slightly from hop face. " You're all right!" In ft moment or two Lynne raised hothead. The smiling hoy in front of her offered her a large blue silk handkerchief to wipe her eyes with, and seeing her difficulty in supporting herself and using her only sound arm at the same time, he dabbed the tears nwny from her checks himself. (To be continued daily)