CHAPTER XX —MY CLIENT : AND HER -FRIEND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2460, 8 May 1901, Page 60

CHAPTER XX —MY CLIENT : AND HER -FRIEND.

The next day 1 wv- engaged. On that following I went up to Fenchurch s-trect, to tire offices of Messi- Staple, Wamwuglit, and Friscoe I had ascertained that (t,udiner was out of, town: and actuated by motives of cmiosity thought I would Win wheie Mr Lander might be found. As I was going up the steps an old gentleman came down. I knew him pietty well. His name was Carti--. He had been, and, indeed, for all I knew, was still, an agent of Lloyd's. For two 01 three years ■« c had met. After x\e had exchanged greet-

ings, I put to him my question

"Do \ou know a man named Landei — Max Linder?" " Late of The Flying Scud?" An odd expression came on hi- face ; as it weie. the suggestion of a gun.

"That's the man

"Yes, I know something of M<x Lindei : Captain Max, a- he likes to be called. Though theieV not much of the captain '"bout linn just at present."

The grin came moie to the front. "He called on me about a matter of which I could make neithei head nor tail I should hke to have another talk w ith him Can you tell me "where he's to be found?"

Mi Cuitis shook hi- head

"Just now he's resting It's been a little too hot for him of late I fancy he's, lying by till it gets a trifle coolei." "what's wrong with the man?" "Nothing's exactly wiong; only he\ had a little experience. Son\ I cant rtay ; this cab'- waiting for me " He stepped into the hansom which was diawn up by the kerb. If you want to know what's wiong with Lander, you mention to him the name of Battei- — Benjamin Batters.

The cab diove off. Before I 'had recovered from my astonishment it was. beyond recall.

Batters? Benjamin BaTteis? My Benijamin Batters? There could haidly be two person* possessed of that alliterative name. If I had only guessed that there Avas any sort of connection between him and Benjamin Batters, Mr L'inder would not have departed till «c had arrived at a better understanding. Why had the idiot not dropped a hint? Why had Curtis driven off at that n'tte at the wrong moment?

I asked at the office for the address of Captain Max Lander. I was snubbed. The name was evidently not a popular one in that establishment. The clerk, having submitted my inquiiy to someone else who informed me curtly that nothing was knowm of such a person there, md appeared to think that I had been guilty of an impertinence in supposing that anything w as. When I followed with a request for information about a Mr Benjamin Batters I believe -that clerk thought I was 'having a game with him. Somewhere in the question must (liave been a sting, with which I -i\as unacquainted ; for, with a scowl, he turned his back on me, not deigning to reply.

As I did not want to have «in argument with Messrs Staple, Wamwright,' and Fr;scoe's staff I went away. I pursued my inquiries elsewhere, botii for Captain Max Lander and for Mr Benjamin Batters. But without success. The scent had nin to ground. By 'the evening I concluded that I had had about enougli of the job. Instead of trying to find out things about Benjamin Batters, I would seek out Mary Blyth. bhe &houM have the good new*,. I

was not mug that T had not alieady kept them horn hei longi'i than 1 w<. pMihcd m doing Mir should leain tint '-lie was the proud po-ses-oi of n tumble-down, disreputable house m C.i infold stiect — tnough, -o far a- 1 could s e e, <-he had not a shadow ot a title to it which would hold good m law ; but pei hap- -hf was not a per-on who would allow hei-eh to be hampried by .i tulle of tlvit dr '.ription — also of a comfortable income dti lved fiom con01-. conditions being attached to both bequests which wcie calculated to dn\e her mad Having nnp.u led thai good new-. I would wash 1113 hind- of th? Batter-, family for good and all. Theie w .1- -oinethmg about it winch was a- Ciegoiy Pryor put

it, "'-mm

w'ltli tint cle-iizn T vt.ntul betimes in ihe momim;. I hud no dinimlt\ in nnding the establishment of Messrs I'aulew and J^fobb-, -\\hcic Mi EaUeis stated in hi^ will tint he 'liad last he.ucl of hi- niece a- an assistant. It was da "empoi aim," v. heic they suld many thiiiL,", you wanted, and in 01 c -wlikli yon did not, fiom glo\es to iireirons. Afiei being kept waiting an uncoiiscion.' 1 )^ length of time, asked many uncalled-for questions, ami endming what I felt to be intention.il indignities, I was inhered into the office of Mr Blobby.

That gentleman •»?<- disposed to mete out to me even more high-handed tieatment than Mews KUple, YVain\M lght. and Fmcoe. Under the encunWances, however, that w.i- in 01 c tli m I iw^ inclined to Mibmit to. He seemed to legaid it as sheei indolence that a -lionld ventme to speak to him — the great Blobbs '—of Mich a meie nothing cCs one of his a<-MP-tant--. As it I bad wanted to! We had quite a, passage at aims. In the midst who should come limning m but the girl herself, Mary Blyth.

She hdfl just bern di-mU«.ed. I had come in the nick of time to prevent her being tin own — literally tin own — into the slieet. ThaC'was a partial explanation of M'- . obbs s higli-and-hciuchtiness. Pietty badly she seemed to have been. used. And yery* hot she -was with a &ense of injury. She had a companion ip mi^foitune ; a prettier girl I had never The pair had been -ent packing at a moment's notice. It 1 had been a minute or two later I .should have missed them : th«y

„ a iicn c £_une in which case the most stiiking chapter in my life's history might have had to be wntten in a very diffeient fashion.

When it i.ime to paying the two gills the wretched pittance which was due to them a' wage^, an attempt was m vde to keep back the laiger poition of it under the guise of "fines" — that ia-:allv system, by means of "which s 0 many draper impose upon the helpless men and women they employ. A few sharp words from me weic -ufiieient to -bow that this was an occasion on winch that method of loguery could hardly be safely pracfi-ed. I judged that the sum paid them — 15- — lepie-ented their entire foitune. With that capital they were going out to face the woild.

Ip the cau I had an oppoitunity of f owning some idea of what my client was like. Maiy Blylh ivj>. big, law -boned, and. 1 may add. hungry-looking. She gave me the" impie'-sion that she had had a hard life — one in which she had had not seldom to go without enough to eat. In age I set her down as 26 or 27. She was not handsome; on the other hand, she vas not lepellent. Her features were homely, but they were not unpleasing, and thei'fe was about them moie than a suggestion of honesty and shrewdness. Her experience of the rougher side of life had probably given her a readiness of wit and a coolness of head which would cause her to find herself but little at a loss in any position in which a changeable Fate might place her. That was how she struck me. I liked her clear eyes, her pleasant mouth, her determined nose and chin. Intellectuality might not be her strongest point ; obviously, in a scholastic .sense, her educational advantages had been but small. Her tongue ibet rayed her. But, unless 1 greatly erred, she was a woman of character for all that. Strong, enduring, clear-sighted ■within her limits, sure, and by no means slow. A little prone to impatience, perhaps ; it is a common failing. I am impatient myself at times. Still, on the whole, on her own lines, a good type of an Englishwoman.

My client's appearance pleaded me "better than I feared would have been the case. I was not so eager to wash my bands of the Batters connection as I had been.

But it was my client" 5 fiiend who appealed most strongly to my imagination. (She took my faculties by storm. I am not easily disconcerted, yet, in her piesence, I felt ridiculously ill at ea«e She was, only a girl. I kept telling myself that she. was only a girl. I believe tint it was because she was only a gill thai I was conscious of such ciuious sensation-. ISlie sat opposite me in the cab. Kveiy time her knee brushed against mine I felt as if I weie turning pink, and gieen, and yellow.

It via- not onl\ unaini f oi table ; it uas undignified, (To be Continued.