OUTPOST IN CHINA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23358, 29 May 1939, Page 16

OUTPOST IN CHINA

By VAL GIELGUD Author of " Africa Flight," " Chinese White," etc., etc. Two white men and one white girl are in a trade station in a war torn land and the girl is the wife of the weaker character.

(COPTIiIGRT)

CHAI'TJSK XI. GKHAI.D RUNS AMOK "This doesn't strike me as particularly funny," said Gerald savagely. "It was pinned to the desk in the office — infernal impudence! What does it mean. Dale?" Leslie Dale picked up the crumpled paper and looked at it, a queer expression 011 his lean face. " 'With the compliments of General Wu Tso Ling. One thousand dollars, if you please—on account.' I see. Wu must nave heard that mv going was definite." Gerald hit his lip. "I couldn't get a word of sense out of the clerks about the fellow who brought it," lie muttered. "They all seemed scared to death. ' "They would he. 1 think I told you once that Wu has a sense of humour." "Yours," sneered Gerald, "must he peculiar, if yon share it! Well, what ought I to do?" Leslie put the paper down again on the table, ami turned back to lace Gerald. "I seem to remember, Mavelock, that, vou're now agent in charge of lan I'u, he s: lid coldly. "It looks as if Will proposes lo call upon you formally, so you'll have plenty of time to make up your mind.' Kor a moment • Sheila thought that i her husband was about to lose all self- ! control, lie had gone very pale, and his hands were clenching and unclenching at his sides. What would she do. she wondered absurdly, if Leslie and Gerald came to a puerile bout of fisti--1 cuffs? Which would she choose to back? She just managed to prevent herself from laughing hysterically. And then, with a certain unwilling admiration she | realised that Gerald had got himself ; in hand again. Me took out his cigarette-case, chose in cigarette with elaborate care, and | then held out the case to Dale with a murmured apology. "I ran across the skipper ill the : town," he said, deliberately casual. : "lie's got loaded up sooner than he ex- | nected. He wants to get oft at noon i lie asked me to let you know," i "Thanks," said Leslie. "I've only to strap my last bag." And with the faintest inclination of his head he dis- ' appeared into 11 is bedroom, i Sheila watched the door close before i turning to her husband. t j "You know, Gerry," she said, you re ; an awful fool." Gerald said nothing, and his silence exasperated her. "Well," she went on, "what are you going to do?" "1 suppose I shall have to see the I bli'diter," said Gerald uncertainly. "And that's the best notion you can think of! And you let Leslie go! The 'moment anything happens you find you're utterly dependent on him. How i you i l X|)(M. , t to tackle a brigand when you can't even get hot water out of vour bouseboys?" Gerald flung his cigarette on the floor and ground it out under his heel. 4 'Look here, Sheila," he said, j know we've been inclined to squabble lately, but vou'vo never been quite like this before. You seemed to \>c having a very intimate farewell scene when i walked in." Sheila recoiled. "So that was why you wanted lnm to stay on so much! 1 suppose he's been slow in the uptake, eh?' i Sheila walked to the door of her own ; room before replying. "I know that I'm only your wife, she said, one hand on the handle, 'but ! voti might remember your manners. I There was a time when you were proud of them." j Gerald sprang up. "Do you expect —Oh what s the good of talking? It doesn't matter anyway. ; Thank Heaven Dale's going to-day anyf U "6h, yes, he's going." agreed Sheila, I and opened the door. "But perhaps lie ! will have to come back." And the door closed behind her, leav- ! i ing Gerald staring wretchedly after her.

CHAPTER XII. DALE IN SHANGHAI ! or these three, then, the months : that ensued were the most miserable, | the most profoundly meaningless, ol their lives. , . . .. n , , Down in Shanghai Leslie Dale, to his bewilderment, and surprise, ami auainst his better judgment found himself still in the service ot Harwood and Greer. His anger had largely evaporated during the long journey down river. And consideration and common sense told him that at his agt it wa# unwise to start looking i° r a new employer after a blazing row with l,is former one—not that fat would have mattered for .himself. But lie was looking forward t<S the future hi which he would have to earn and work lor tW ]Ye swallowed his pride accordingly, i and that wisdom of the serpent winch I was part of Mr. Samuel Greer s makeand had contributed more than a ! little to that worthy s success, helped j |,j m to take the dose without much (ll Le."lie ,r rocoivc(l a daily allowance of the best butter. Be was treated with consideration and courtcsv. His was sought bv small and lame. Be was vassured that Gerald Havclock had onl,\ been a means to the end of such an invaluable servant of tin. company back to head ofhce Utr.., there were other, bigger and bettu stations than Tan I'll. Leslie needed creater scope for his outstanding abilities—and so forth and so on. Let . take a lew months' leave, and I nk things over. Why not a trip to Singapore at the firm s expense^ J<or a little Leslie toyed with tilt idea of accepting that last suggestion. Hut then he realised that lie could, t dream of going. He oouldn t bother w i it . shooting, or goll.or ruling. f °"» the club intolerable. Be conldn t enen write to Sheila, so that he had no outlet of anv kind for his longings, and bis fears. And, lie admitted to himself with humiliation, the lean,™ in the .ascendant. Be worned despcr ately because Gerald's reports hewune more and more irregular as the week W, The b ''activities of the Japanese had thrown the whole country into confusion. Bandit activities in direction Were on the increase. Ami Leslie thought he knew enough ot his old friend, General Wu, to be certain that that worthy would not be behindhand in exploiting circumstances so blatantlv favourable for his pet nobby. It was nearly three months belore. accurate news came, from Tan Fu, and when it came it was such as to send Leslie storming into Samuel Greer s odice, interrupting an important conference without hesitation or apology. "Tilings look pretty bad, I'atiick ,)aines had written from his missionhouse. "I hear that there has been, a lot of real trouble round Chunking. Kverv boat, that comes up gets hied on. And my people are in a regular stew. I believe your triend \\ ii ( is in it up to his thick neck. 1 'Can t sav for certain, but there's a lot of talk to the effect that Gerald Baveloek has been buving him off on the quiet, paying danegeld. Jf that's true it accounts ior a lot Kverv bandit for miles will want a sip at the honey-pot. 1 wish you were here, my dear Leslie, and even more. 1 wish that Janet wasn't. I've tried to make her quit, but she flatly refuses. Says she's too old. But J believe it's because she won't leave Sheila Havclock alone. Which doesn't altogether surprise me." But why Patrick James had not been surprised he did not say. To Leslie's amazement he found Mr. Greer as disturbed as be was "himself. He didn't wait to hear the end of the

missionary's letter, which Leslie was trying to rend to him, but pulled a. j type-written document out of a drawer in his desk, and thumped it with his 1 "Report from the Consulate at Chunking, Dale," lie said, querulously. Lan Ku's in a blazing mess. And the ■ountr.v seems to he rising all "j* the river. It may be the Red Spears, t may be odd guerillas on the loose. \nyway, we may find the river route U "Anil what," asked Leslie, coldly, 'do vou propose to do about it? •Tm proposing," said Samuel Greer, ;estily, "to ask you to accept my perional' apologies for having transferred ,-ou from Tun Kn, and ask you to go jack and get Gerald llavelock and his vile away. Obviously an outpost job ike that was too much for the young nan. Will yon got"' . Leslie Dale grinned sardonically. "You'll stop me going with one l,j n ,r_ a gun," he said. "And I make me condition. Yon must get a u take me this very evening. And he was out of the office, and | Irivin" to his hotel at the greatest , leril to traffic, almost before Samuel Jreer realised what had happened. | \nd Mr. Greer, having had his own , vav, was not the man to wnstt*. tnne i n wondering how he had got it. \\ Inch vas another reason for bis success. . . For Gerald llavelock those three j months had been a long j >'or perhaps a week the relief of the j removal of Dale's efficiency and dis- | ipproving eye upon himself had ap- I .eared the greatest of blessings. But • itlior aspects of 'lie case syon became | inpareiit. Business fell off—in his eves j maccountably. His clerks, like lus , muse-boys, passed from incompetence j :o downright insolence. And there is to nationality like tlie Chinese for ex,loiting the subtleties of insolence ivliilo simultaneously avoiding tie M'tidities which can be dealt with by the strong hand. , Gerald, be it said to his credit, die ivhat he could. He dropped his natural udolenee. He worked like a black. But lie could not teach himself how to handle the Chinese any more than he .<,,,1,1 teach himself the Chinese language. Alwavs in the background tjicre was the vaguely menacing figure of General Wu, looming over Jan l'u tho proverbial man's hand. If he had appeared in person, thought Gerald, things might' have been better. Ihe ibstacle or peril that can be seen and "need is never so bad as it seems in imagination. u But Wu did not appear. He tnew better than that. His snakey, nurderous-looking emissaries pinned lis demand notes all over the place: o the verandah posts, to the door oi Gerald's private office, even to his jonv's bridle. And Gerald, bewildered uid cursing himself, had paid—and iaid secretlv through the medium of lis comprador, who took a handsome mission on the deal, and despised j era Id as heartily as he feared u. Gerald knew that these payments verc as wrong as tlie.v were futile. Jut he could see no alternative. he trouble down river, lie could see m hope of getting armed help should kVu make a direct attack upon the own. And. typically enough he hoped hat bv putting ofr the evil day somehing 'might crop up to resolve the vhole situation. , . , , , He would not discuss his troubles vith Patrick James. He identified lames too thoroughly with Leslie >ile He was afraid, too. ot tlie nissionarv's romih common sense, jased on years of experience in China roiiic hack to the Boxer Rebellion He •ould not discuss them with Sheila lecause he could discuss nothing with ''si'iice the day of Dale's departure his •elationship with Ins wife had been polite, dreary, indifferent and utterly mhappv. He was working too hard-to ee much of her except at night And ,t night she would read the tattered, hum bed novels Leslie Dale had left lehind him. with an almost furious con•entr'ation, and go to bed early in her nvn room. They seldom squabbled now. 'i era Id would have welcomed even a ~•(>,ie now and then. Sheila never menioned Leslie Dale, and nothing won d ,ave induced Gerald to open the sub-

Kiuailv. with the outbursts of trouble round Chunking, which had so disquieted Mr. Greer. Gerald had been driven to the desperate measure ol demanding through his comprador that Wu should pay him a formal visit of Ct, |StiV what he hoped for as a result of such a visit, Gerald could probably not have explained. It was something of a gesture of desperation. And now that he had made it. he stood at his window. a, K I looked at the jagged outline of those savage red hills against the e\enin.r'skv, and longed deep down in lus heart for something, anything, to happen to prevent W u from coining. . . \s for Sheila, she was in some ways most to be pitied of the three, l'or Sheila had no" work to do. She soon had,to give up her rides, for the country round Tail l'u became demonstrably more unsale day by day. Though it took a couple of occasions when she was actually fired at to convince her of the fact. Leslie Dale was on another planet, as far as she was concerned. Ho did not write. And though Sheila wrote, she never sent the letters. * , . . .. Somehow, once he had gone. Leslie became queerly insubstantial to her. That lie would ever come back seeimjd bevond belief or hope. Her only com-' paiiv was Janet James, and Sheila suspected that Janet disliked her about as much as she disliked Janet. The missionary's wife was the kindest and most /'•apable woman in the world. Hut she was nearly 50; and she had soon too much in the shape of tribulation and sudden death to the able to feel much sympathy for a young woman whose only apparent problem was that she didn't fit any too well into the environment of Tan I' u. As for Gerald—Gerald had become a shadow on the wall. * * * * * The evening sky over Tan Fu was deepening from indigo to purple. Against that sinister skv. the outline of the hills where lay General "Wus stronghold showed up stark and bare as a ground-row against a stage backcloth. - ..ii' Gerald Havclock, wearing the dinnerjacket and stiff shirt appropriate to the garrisons of the outposts of Empire according to all the novelists, stood at his French window, looked out into the dusk, and furtively gnawed his nails. In the shadowy room behind bun. Sheila flipped over the pages of a novel, which she could not see to read, and held between her lingers a cigarette which it was too much trouble to smoke. She was wearing a skirt and jumper, and sandals on bare feet. At last, with an abrupt movement, she snapped the covers of the together. and sat up in her chair. " Look here, Gerry," she said, " its rot turning me out! I want to stay, and see the fun." Gerald did not move. And that admirably tailored. immovable back irritated her almost beyond endurance. " Well," he answered- " you can't !" " I suppose you don't want me to be here to see you make a 100 l of yourself. That wouldn't be a novelty, you know!" " I'm afraid you can't rile one as easily as you used to be able to," was Gerald's only retort. " One gets used to anything!" " Not if you have any spirit, Gerry. ]/ve not got used to Tan Fu." Hut Gerald was firm in his determinat'ion not to take up the challenge. (To be Continued Daily.)