THE PARACHUTE MAIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23382, 26 June 1939, Page 19

THE PARACHUTE MAIL

CH A PTER X. —(Con tin ucd)

She continued to smoke; it steadied her taut nerves. She felt no fear, for; had not Peter promised her a body-1 guard somewhere among these guests?! She ran her eye over all of them, as j lar as her limited lino of vision com-j mandod, and tried to pick out the ! probable plain-clothes man. She found it impossible to decide upon any one; and, after all. of what use would lie have boon to her if a casual glance as inexpert a.s her own could pick him out from the genuine club-haunters? She gave it up, and smoked patiently, j watching the outer door. Suddenly it occurred to her howl many people as young as herself, per- i haps even younger, had come to this table 011 the same quest, with the difference that their business was genuine and urgent and implacable. Boys, perhaps, who had money enough* to be worth plucking, and had been drawn into this experiment just for a lark, j Or someone who had been initiated j into the celestial joys and infernal sorrows of drug-taking by people who pro-1 fessed to bo their friends and bene- i factors offering them a new thrill. People had come here, 110 doubt of it, with wrec'kcd lives and broken health, to pay out heavy money for the means of burning life out a little longer. And here was she, Peggy Calder, assaying the same unhealthy purchase with an easy mind—for compared to theirs,! surely her mind was easy—and an 1111- j trammelled body. The thought cooled; her brain as 110 other thought could | have done. She felt herself hating the racket and its masters so intensely that! to be face to face with them and to | outdo them would be a joy. The negrcss had finished her song, j and was being applauded languidly i for a second, when the outer door i opened again. "This," thought Peggy, ; "is the vampire!" She expected she did | not know what, a gorgon, or something 1 cloaked and sinister. No, it was not her enemy, it was just another guest, ! someone gay and young and very ele-1 gaut, in evening dress.

Peggy sat back, and took her eyes' from him, and for some minutes did not ! realise that he was coming toward her j table. She recognised it at last with a I distinct jolt, so completely had she j abandoned any claim to him. Yes, it j was toward this very table lie was j sauntering so easily; a debonair young man, one who knew himself to be liand- ' some; a blond young man, of a pale j &£)> complexion, rather full-fleshed, and i fijj with a mouth which she disliked. &g though it smiled at her as he slid H] through the curtain. j H She was fastidious about mouths. Z? This one was short and taut and shining, a strong line to it, where lips so _ short and full should have been loose; it spoiled utterly the good-looking face, and it stirred with complete success tho S;| card-index memory for faces which Peggy knew to be her biggest asset in p this struggle. _ i & She felt her inside turn with in- j H stinctive dread, though she knew of 110 j H reason to fear even tho young man of j [3 the grey car. She might—she did —re- > H member his face perfectly; but even if j 9 the very shape and colouring, and char- | M acter of her own had not been changed, j ■ even if he had known her, as he would j ffl certainly have known her then, whati fl could he do? They were here in a

W: corner of a public room; one could not 8 do murder there; it would be folly to II make any sort of attack; and also, H there was Peter's promised watchdog. § She hugged the thought of him to her a heart, and looked boldly into the face 3 of her arch-enemy as ho sat down in § the chair opposite to her. I ? 7 Sqirarely she met his glance, -and told | herself truly and exultantly that he I did not know her from Eve. He saw H only a pretty woman; and she was not 8 sure that he did not.at first glance see H only a customer, without sex or age, II but endowed with money, which was all | that mattered. It was queer the amount ;| of confidence she drew out of that slight &! gauze veil through which he saw her. "Sherry," he said to the attendant waiter wii'o hovered like a hawk behind him. And to her, with a lifted eyebrow: 1 "You will drink, won't you?" 1 "Thank you—ves, I'd like a sherry." j ■ Her voice was the only thing which had I not changed; sho could change the I: pitch of it, certainly, but a tone of [• voice was a very individual thing, and 1 [; not easily to be disguised. She steeled j !-• herself to meet coolly the second and more close examination which should mean that he had caught at least a chord of memory in it; but there was j no start. Nothing troubled the self- j I satisfaction of his smooth, vicious face. 1 | * As soon as the waiter had gone, j though she could see no need for par- j if ticular secrecy there, he said easily: ! % "So vou want to purchase? Who put I you on to us? I swear I've never set % eves on you before." " "You're foresworn already," thought Peggv. Aloud .she said, in that same low* and careful voice, and keeping her eyes significantly upon his face: "Corrio dowle told me to come here. Is that j satisfactory credentials?" i Apparently it was. He nodded, j "That's all right. Just a precaution,! vou know. What's your poison?" j " 'I want some marijuana smokes. I; | want them badly. She said you wouldn't i let me down." ! j "Oli, no." he said, his full mouth i smiling indulgently, with a shared and {a cynical pleasure, "no, we novcr do that. It's a boast of ours." j j "Then I can have'them?" A pathetic, . insatiable eagerness in her voice, and her hand half-curling across the table toward him* from the stem of her glass. Like a hungry wild beast. She watched its nervous groping, and thought with admiration: "Is this really the Abbott's Fcrrv amateur?" '•'You can have them. Of coure you can At a price!" "I expect to be hied. Do you take me for a fool? What does it matter what they cost? I've got to have them, 1 tell you. What can you give mo? Fifty? A hundred? Can 1 get more when I want them?" "Whenever you like, always provided you are prepared to pay cash for them, of course. At present ] admit tho supply is a trifle limited. 1 can get you fifty. They'll cost you —" His eyes appeared to be measuring at : once her wealth and her ardour. It was ' hardly fair to Peter's pocket, or maybe ' the police department's, but she had to he convincing at all costs. "Well?" she said feverishly. "What ( will they cost me?" "A hundred quid. Forty bob each,

tnlvf if or leave it." Nlif said, her hand shaking as slio set down the empty glass. "It's robbery, and yon know it. Why, in the States —" "But we're not in the States, and von know flint, too. I'm sorry, hut business is business. We have risks, and we take them out. in this sort of insurance. Of course, if you know of a cheaper market you're at liberty to go to it." She was a stranger, and desperate for her whiff, and lie knew it; she was only too pleased to have found through Corrie's good offices, one place where she could get the forbidden fruit. "All right, I'm n sucker, I'll pay it. It's as good a way of letting blood as any, and I can't do without Mary Jane." She fumbled in her handbag; Peter had given her more than enough for this jaunt. Yet she felt some compunction. the relic of the conscience I ol Peggy Caldcr, as she slid her closed j liand across the table, the thin, crisp i notes folded small inside the palm. ] "Let's see the goods. I've got to get i 3iit of here as quickly as I can." ] Perhaps lie had heard of her; per-

(To be continued daily.)

By PETER BENEDICT Author of " Day Star," " Rents Low In Ec3en," etc.

(COPYRIGHT )

A battle of wits where suspicion is in the air. but romance is in the background.

! haps lie had heard of the admirer, at ; least a little valued, since she had hidden her vice from him for fear of losing his good opinion. At any rate, ; lie smiled as he rose from the table. ; "Wluit's tin! hurry ? Stay and dance. We'll move over toward the floor." She hesitated for one wild moment. Was it more) important to report to Peter at once, or to stay and try to collect still more information? But sho did not think there would he much information forthcoming. She was afraid this person liked her; she could hope for no confidences, and shrank in | anger and disgust from the thought of dalliance. Xo. hang it, her job was to find him, not to vamp him; and she had done her job. Get back to Peter. How good even his name sounded in her mind after this creature • ''Thanks, hut L've got other ploys. This is urgent.'' Me laughed, said: "Oh, very well!" : and went off in search of her prize, i He was not more than five minutes ; away, and came back as jauntily as i ever, with a. flat tin which he drew | from his pocket as soon as the protective curtain had fallen behind him. He sat down again, and slid it across to her calmly, and her trembling hand —a piece of excitement rather than of art this time, folded over it and I drew it, down into her bag. I "And now you'll run away," he said : reproachfully, "What, a pity!" j She waited for perhaps another live minutes, smoked her cigarette out with ; a greedy murmur of satisfaction that i her next would he no mere consolation prize of a Turkish, talked to him abi stractedlv. ami withdrew inexorably, I leaving the impression that she had j come 011 business, that her business was : done, and that she had not even noticed i the form or feature of the man who had 1 conducted it with her. She felt that j this would he good for him; she was 1 sure that lie had liked her. ! I "'merging from The darkness of the ! Oxford Street, she hailed the first taxi I which showed itself, and climbing into i it without more than half of her mind j upon the present moment, tumbled into Peter Milne's arms. "Peter!" she said startled. "How did you get here?" Oh, quite easily, mv darling Eleanor, and just about "thirty seconds before you. L saw you emerging, so I nipped out by the next passage that way, got the taxi, and told him to pick you up into the bargain. Well,' what do you think of the Green Scorpion? Did everything go off all right?" Ho smiled at her in the gloom He trusted her to see that everything should go off all right. She had displayed marked propensities that way. "Where arc wo going?' 'she asked, irrelevantly. "1 don't know. Wherever you like. What tale did you spin? Can you be seen with me hereafter?" "Oh, yes, 1 told him that I had to go quickly, and I'm sure he had you fitted into the necessity quite neatly. He wanted mo to stay and dance." "The devil he did!" said Peter, indignantly. "And you—weren't—attracted ?"

"I was not." said Peggy, shuddering. "Then we'll go to some nicer place and dance without him—if you can bear me any better than him?" She said that that would be nice, and with half her mind she meant it, but her heart was upon other matters. She tumbled out the unlabelled blue tin into his hands. "There you are, Peter. Fifty of them; the best he could do. I'm afraid they cost rather a lot of money, but maybe they were worth it. 1 got my maul" "Like the Canadian Mounties—quite inescapable," said Peter, facetious but excited. "The man of the morning visitP He's habitually there, is he?" "Seemed to own the place. Peter—did you by any chance stay in sight of the door lor the first few minutes that 1 was inside?" Peter considered, and said: "For maybe five minutes I had it in sight." "That's quite long enough. It couldn't have been more than that. And did you see anyone else come in?" "Not a soul. No, I'm sure of that." "Then he was inside on your right in the short passage before the stair dips. You get the direction? The passage doesn't bend at all." "I get it." "That's where he came from —and that's where he went to get the stuff. Their supplies are there. Did you get anything any good?" ''l've made a memory map of the place. Yes, there was a lit window round that side—shuttered, but the shutters at close quarters let just a chink of light. Those are their private offices, then are they? I'll make a note of that for the time when we can drop on them and blot them out." "When will that be?" asked Peggy. "\ot until we're on to the supply end as well. If, of course, we get so far —and I think we will. Now, later on we'll collect my bulldog, who should bo able to put a name to your companion. Then we have him. too Peggy time, but success had made him reckless. "Yes, Peggy, why not? That's who you are, and I can't think of you as anyone else. Peggy, J. must tell you that up to now your life lias been wasted." He en mo to earth again. "What else? Describe everything that happened, everything you saw. everything you thought." She obeyed all but the last command. There had been a thought or two about himself which it would not have been good for him to know. When the recital was ended, and she could think of nothing more to add as a post-script, she asked practically: "Well, what do we do next?" And at that moment they reached the dancing club for which they were bound, and the taxi pulled in to the kerb. So next they danced. It was an amusement of which Peggy was fond, and there was no doubt that it was pleasant to be able to flaunt so desirable a partner; but the half of her mind, and the half of his, remained always detached upon this problem of what they were to do next. They discussed it fully when they were tired, over cigarettes in a sitting-out placo of which no one else seemed to bo aware. "I want to. hark back," said Peter, "to almost the very beginning of it all, to that little parcel of raw opium—loathly stuff —which you picked up on the moor. Do you remember the slip of paper which was pinned to it?" "Yes, perfectly. We never properly considered that, did we? At least — ] didn't have time, and afterwards the police didn't confide in me. So really I don't know what they thought of it." 'I thought about it a whole heap." said Peter reflectively, "and so did Superintendent Marker. We went about for a week muttering cabalistic phrases from it, and made it mean at least a hundred different things. You remember the full text?" He repeated it, very softly. " 'Quoting you: 9:5 loc. 4: no need await confirmation. Any queries through No. 4. Merc Col.' "I tried to think what it could refer i'o, myself. Hut of course, I soon had something else to think about, didn't I? What, did you make of it? 'Quoting you.' Well, that's simple enough isn't it? The airman was merely a junior member of the organisation. Ho took his orders from here in England—we might say, from our friends here in London."