ADVENTURE MYSTERIOUS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 19 (Supplement)

ADVENTURE MYSTERIOUS

(COPT RIGHT)

By FRANCIS MARLOWE World-famed author, traveller and dramatist.

STRANGE mystery surrounds a beautiiful girl and her life is j N DANGER, but a desperate and determined lover appears.

f. CHAPTER IX.—(Continued) fN the few minutes that it took him i reach his office, in spite of the unpleasant task of having to confess his remissness in the matter of the letter, iis thoughts dwelt pleasantly on tho r o spect of talking to Patricia. Ho did pot doubt that she would answer his jail having not the least mistrust of tiwj lie pictured her as comfortably and securely housed in The Antlers, waiting, n- little anxiously perhaps, but n ot unhappily, for a message from, him. ge had 110 f car that Inspector Nailhead would run her to earth for neither he nor she had signed the register at The Antlers, and good-heurted Mrs. Stone, the wife of tho proprietor of tho liotel, whose sympathy he had captured Trith » n improvised romance about Patricia, bad promised that not by anything, nor for anyone, would she be disturbed during his absence, or until he sent for bor. To provide against unforeseen eventualities he had given Patricia his private address —18, Tavisplnce, South Kensington—• and had received from her an address in Hampetead, where, sooner or later, should circumstances place her temporarily out or his reach, he could get in touch with her again. In making these arrangements he had assured Patricia that she could look forward confidently to hearing from him within a few hours, and might even expect to see him not later than the next day, but, as he reminded her, he was fond of precautions. As he had a little more than a quarter of an hour to spare when he re-entered his office, he decided to ring Tip Patricia without further delay. "Let me know when Mr. Colter arrives," ho told Miss Jonas; "I may have to keep him waiting a few minutes." To his great satisfaction, his call to Norwich was put through with the minimum of delay, and Mrs. Stone, who answered it, brought Patricia at once to the telephone. "I was just beginning to worry," she said. "It's good to know you've arrived safely." ' "You've had no trouble at your end, I hope," Dick said. "None whatever," she replied serenely. "You delivered my letter all right, I suppose?" Her though he expected it, took him somewhat aback. "I was just-about to speak of that; I'm sorry r"

"Don't tell me it's not delivered," iihe cut in, a sharp note of anxiety in her voice. "That's what I must tell you, I'm afraid," Dick said, regretfully. "But—Dick " There was dismay and almost tearful distress in her voice "Xou promisod so faithfully." "I know," Dick admitted penitently; >'l have no excuse —it was alter twelve when I got to London Wall, and Mr. Tuscan had just gone. Is there anything I can do to make amends? J! still have the letter of course." "Nothing can be done now." The letter should hare been delivered by twelve; vt's very upsetting and most unforianate." Her voice dropped away brokenly. "But Miss Langloy—Pat—surely there's something I can do," Dick protested. "Tell me where I can find Tuscan and " "No, no —not now; it's too late," Patricia interrupted. "You mustn't part with the letter to anyone now. I don't know what to do," she added weakly. "I must think." "I can't tell you how sorry I am " Dick got as far as this whein he realised that he was speaking over a dead line. At the same instant Miss Jonas showed herself at the office door, and be knew that his expected visitor had arrived. With an impatient gesture of his free hand he kept Miss Jonas silent while still, though hopelessly, he held the receiver to his ear. No sound came to him over the wire; it wan plain—as certain at it was disturbing—that Patricia had hung up and left, the telephone. Dick slowly, in a das;ed sort of way, returned, the receiver to its place. "Ask Mr. Colter to com« in, Miss Jonas," he said listlessly.

CHAPTER X. PATRICIA LANGLEY DISAPPEARS

Important as his business with Mr. Goiter was, Dick found it almost impossible to concentrate his mind on it. la spite of his efforts to keep his thoughts on the matter in hand, they persisted in straying to the unsatisfactory and abrupt ending of his telephone conversation with Patricia. The figures with which he was dealing in his talk with.Colter seemed to turn in his brain to crazily dancing interrogation points, 4ttd, instead of absorbing and collating the material which Colter was so painstakingly presenting to "iiim, he found Himself trying to fit answers to a series of bewildering questions about Patricia and .her affairs. Who was the mysterious Mr. Tuscan? Why should the delay in delivering her letter to him affect Patricia so calamitously? And—most persistent in its recurrence —what was this queer and seemingly evil web in which Patricia, was enffleshed, and how could he extricate her from it? At last Mr. Colter, when for the •econd time he was interrogated on a fflatter which' he had twicsi carefully Wd meticulously explained, realised that Dick's usually keen and alert mind *as strangely dull, or eists occupied With thoughts entirely foreign to the •übject of their consultation. 'You're tired, Leslie," lie suggested "■Dick had told him he'd been travel--ling. "Why not defer this business till j#ter in the afternoon and come and have a bit of lunch with me! 5 " '"lt's not a bad idea." Dick remarked, welcoming a cessation of the Jtrain which the interview was imposon him. "I'm not exactly tired, hut I've had rather a worrying matter tfl deal with, and I can't quite get my tt'nd off it yet." "I know how it is," Colter said sympathetically. "Let's get out, then; a

little lunch, a cigar, and a chat about things that don't matter will get you into your regular groove again." Dick looked at his watch as he and Colter emerged into the outer office. It had turned half-past one. "Can you put off your lunch hour till 1 get back, Miss Jonas?" he asked. "Quite comfortably, Mr. Leslie," the young woman said cheerfully.

"I'll be back soon after two —cer-

tainly not later than half-past." • While ho spoke he opened the outer door for Colter to pass out, and was about to follow, when the telephone on Miss Jonas' desk tinkled a call. Hand on the door handle, he waited while she put the receiver to her ear. "For you, Mr. Leslie—a trunk call," Miss Jonas said.

"Switch it into my room," he directed, swiftly, very much alert. Then to Colter, he called: "Sorry to keep you. Colter; there's a telephone call I must answer; I shan't be long."

Ho hurried back to his room, happily confident that Patricia was again the caller, and that this time, even if ho could not pierce tho mystery in which .sho was involved, their talk M ould have a ' moro comforting conclusion for him. But the elation with which he picked up the receiver evaporated quickly when a man's voico addressed him; it was succeeded by depression and intolerable anxiety when he knew that the man was Stone, proprietor of the Antlers Hotel. With his mind obsessed by thoughts of Patricia, he could conceive of no other reason for Stone's call than to give him bad news of her.

"Yes, Stone. It's Leslie speaking." ho said, steadying his voice with difficulty. "What is it? Not bad news, I hope?" "'Depends on how you look at it, Mr. Leslie," was Stone's rather ominous beginning. "It's about Miss Langley. She's gone. 1 thought I ought to ring you up and let you know." "Gone!" Dick ejaculated. "What do you mean, Stone—has she been —?" He checked himself and changed the form of his question, remembering in time that the Stones knew nothing of Nailhead's pursuit. "Did anyone call for her?"

"No, :no ono called for her," Stone answered. "The wife tells me that she seemed a. lot upset after answering your telephone call, and then about a quarter of an hour back she made up her mind to go. The wife tried to persuade her to stay, but it was no use. We couldn't very well keep her against her will, but 1 thought I ought to lose no time in letting you know about it." "Thank you. Stone," Dick said, careful to keep his voice level. "Your news is a surprise to me, but I expect Miss Langley will write or telegraph to me. Did she give Mrs. Stone any idea of wlioro she was going?" "Sho didn't give us a hint. All she. did was to promise to write when she was returning a coat the wife lent her in place of that heavy flying one sho came in."

"Thanks awfully, Stone," Dick said "I've got; a man waiting for me, so I must ring off, but I'll be looking you up again shortly. Perhaps you wouldn't mind calling, me up again if you have any later news of Miss Langley." "Be only too glad to," Stone assented cordially. When lie had hung up Dick stood for a space staring blankly at the telephone, his forehead wrinkled in anxious perplexity. The mystery of Patricia, baffling enough before, had become desperately complex with this new development. If Nailhead had succeeded in running her down and carried her off with him, Dick would have found the situation, though sufficiently alarming, at least presenting something tangible with which he could grapple. Not for an instant would he permit himself to think of Patricia as guilty of a criminal act. Inadvertently, thoughtlessly, perhaps, he told himself, she had got herself mixed up with some law-breaking offence, but that she had personal, responsibility in it was to him a suggestion too incredible to harbour for an instant. He pictured her —the innocent tool of someone in whom she had trusted —alone, in deadly fear of some impending peril, in dire need of a friend, and yet not daring to trust anyone with her story. He found the picture maddening. He regretted now that ho had helped her to escape from Nailhead. Had she been arrested he would at least have known what her trouble was and have found some way to help her. But by leaving The Antlers as she had done, without acquainting him of her intention or destination, without even leaving a message for him, she had put it out of his power to help her; she had shut him out of her life and—it seemed—-had deliberately closed the episode which he had thought was to have been the opening chapter of his life's romance. He slumped down in a. chair at his desk, took from his pocket the letter Patricia had given him, and stared dismally at it. What now was he to do with this letter? Was there .anything in it, he speculated, that might help him to find Patricia? Suddenly he remembered that Colter was waiting for him. He rose and walked slowly through the outer office to the corridor. "I'm sorry, Colter," he apologised; "that telephone message has brought up an urgent matter that makes it impossible for me to lunch with you. 1 in afraid, too, that I'll have to ask you to postpone our consultation for a day or two. It's not so pressing that we can't hold it over till next week. I'll ring you up when I'm freo for it." "That's all right, Leslie," Colter agreed readily. "Ring mo up or make* an appointment by letter and I'll keep it." . .

To Mis« Jonas, as he was returning to his room, he said: "I'd like you to take your lunch now, Miss Jonas, if you will. I 11 bo here till you return, but I'd be glad if you'd get back as soon as possible, as I may want to go out directly you como in." He shut himself then in his room, and with the mysterious letter again in his hands settled down to drag from the chaos of thoughts some decision as to dealing with it, and, above all, to trv and bit upon some plan of finding Patricia —as bo was determined to * before some trouble worse than sho was in might befall her. (To bo contiauc<l daily)