The Bantyre Fortune

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 5

The Bantyre Fortune

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

CHAPTER XVIII.— (Continued. ) “How surprised you look! Well, I don’t blame you. I feel that way myself, for I hadn’t the remotest intention of talking like that when I got. into the car. I don't know why I did it then, but what does it matter? On<* does not what one thinks one will, hut what one must. And if what I said has not explained what puzzled you, have you forgotten that you de dared your love for Naomi Bantyre before witnesses this morning?” “Who told you that?” he demanded “Those who heard you. Hector Cousins and Wayne Garfield are both convinced that you are her lover and that you intend to marry her—if you can be sure of getting her father’s fortune with her!” “A charming way of putting it!” ha said, with a frown. "Do you object to the way?” “Why should I? After all, it is what I wanted them to believe. People who undertake the sort of work you and I are engaged in ought not to worry if the wrong motives are imputed to them. The important thing is to get the job done.” “The work you and I are engaged in!” she repeated with mockery in her tone again. “Do you really expect me to believe that you and I have the same object in view?” “Why not? Hasn’t everything ! have done tended to that end?” “Then you don’t love Naomi Bantyre?” She was leaning toward him again and had laid a hand on his knee. Her eyes burned into his, and her breathing seemed to be suspended while she waited for his reply. Mark had to take grip on himself to conquer an impulse to recoil. She was asking him to deny the love that in a few short hours had become the guiding principle of Els whole existence, and every instinct revolted from even the semblance of betrayal. Yet her manner told him that to admit the truth might mean sacrificing all chance of seeing justice done to Naomi. He resolved to temporize. “I have told you why I said what I did at Cousins’s house,” he said. “It was the only way in which I could account for my interest in Miss Bantyre without letting it be suspected that t was acting for you and Grierson. It had the effect I anticipated. It has brought matters to a climax and made Cousins and Garfield willing to come to terms. Grierson is satisfied or he would not have sent me on this mission. In fact, he seems to trust me more than he does you, since my job seems to be to see that you carry out. his orders to the letter and don’t attempt to play him false!” “Grierson!” Evidently the shot had gone home, for she uttered the word through shut teeth, and. raising her clenched hand, brought it down with a thud on her knee. “He is afraid I may play him false, but how does he intend to treat me and the others if this deal comes off? You say he trusts you. but do you guess why? Because he thinks } T ou are a fool whom he can use while he wants you and then throw aside—as he will me and the others if we let him!” She paused for an instant, and then shot a sudden question at Mark: “Do you know what he has sent me to do?” "How could I? His note said nothing of that.”

FRANK PRICE

He turned to Mara. His outward glance and inward thought had passed in a moment, and she had not yet moved. “Do we get out here?” he asked. “You have not answered me,” was her reply. He had no intention of doing so directly at the moment. Certainly he would give her no promise, though lie felt that the circumstances would justify him in deceiving her; but he was under no obligation to enlighten her as to his real intentions. “Is it necessary to make a compact here?” he said, glancing at his watch. “It is nearly half-past two. If this errand of yours Is likely to take more than a few minutes and I am to see that you are back at Grierson’s by three o’clock —” “Do you intend to do that after what I have said?” she asked, her dark brows lowering over smouldering eyes. “What you have said is only words. I will answer that when you have shown that you can and will make them good. I have a weakness for knowing where I am.” Again she studied Ills face in tile effort to read his thoughts, but It told her nothing, and she made an impatient gesture. “Open the door and let me out!’' Mark obeyed and from the pavement glanced round him while Mara spoke to the chauffeur. He had no idea where they were for, duriflg the latter part of the drive, he had been too deeply interested in what his companion was saying to take note of their course. Probably a more observant watch would not hare added greatly to his knowledge since liis past acquaintance with London did not extend to such regions as this. From the position of the car the driver's intention might have been to pull up before either a gloomy building which seemed to be a warehouse

“Suppose I told you that in a few minutes from now I should have the key to the whole position in my hands. Suppose I were willing to throw Grierson aside as he is ready to throw me—and you!—and to share with you in making separate terms with Naomi Bantyre, what would you say? Would you forget this love for her which you want me to believe is nothing but a pretence?” The words had conic tumbling out in a flood, and now she paused for a reply. But before Mark could collect .himself sufficiently to answer the car slowed down and came to rest. CHAPTER XIX TREACHERY They had stopped in a busy street, noisy with the traffic of trams, lorries and laden vans. The buildings on either side were dull and smokebegrimed, only the fronts of the all-too-frequent public-houses making any attempt at brightness: and the men, women and children who thronged the pavements seemed to have assimilated the dullness and the grime, for their clothes were dingy and worn, and their faces heavy and depressed. Mark looked out at them and shuddered. But for chance he might already be well on the way to becoming as they were: even now he had no assurance this would not be his ultimate fate. If this adventure on which he was embarked succeeded it would make Naomi rich, and would be a future for him. He would never consent to live as her pensioner, but, in the great business which would then be hers, there must be some outlet for whatever talents he possessed that would at least enable him to earn his keep and retain his self-respect. But If he failed! A young man with a thin, refined face on which was an expression of utter hopelessness slunk past the window of the car with his eyes on the ground. Failure personified! The thought shot through Mark’s mind. “It must never come to that with me! 1 must win through with this job 1 have put my hand to if only to prove to myself that the seeds of success are in me.”

“No! Don’t speak to anyone. You don’t know what it might lead to. And don’t appear uncertain. They are watching us and would be only too glad of an excuse to offer advice and help. We should have to choke them off and the next thing would be insolence and a row.” Mark recognised the wisdom of tile warning and strolled on apparently quite at ease, but keeping a sharp lookout for the required number. Presently he saw a number plate hanging drunkenly by one screw on a half closed door. “Forty-five.” he said without turning his head. “It will be the next house.” “Keep close to me and take no notice if anybody is about.” said Mara, in the same way. The door of forty-seven stood wide open and there was no one in the narrow passage. Mara entered unhesitatingly and Mark followed without so much as a glance aside. As far as observers could see they might have been habituees of the house calling on some commonplace familiar business. Bare, rickety stairs led to the upper floors, and Mara ascended them with Mark at her heels. The light was bad and tlie air heavy with stale odours of dust and dirt, impregnated by the rancid steams of much bad cooking. The acrid scent reminded Mark cl the far less objectionable smells to which he had objected so strongly in the house where he had his one room in Kennington. How far away that room seemed now! He could hardly believe that he had been in it only that morning.

or a flambuoyant public house which stood between it and a narrow side street which seemed little better than a slum. “Walt here,” he heard Mara say to the chauffeur. “We shall not be more than ten minutes.” She returned to Mark and, with the words: “This way,” -went quickly past the public house and turned its corner. Keeping close to her side Mark found himself in surroundings even more sordid than his first glimpse of the little street’s opening had led him to expect. Wretched houses in all conditions of dilapidation bordered the way, and the faces of the people already out, and of those who swajmed to the doors to see them pass, as though warned by some instinct of an alien presence, looked fierce and threatening. No wonder if they were, he thought, comparing their patent poverty with his own appearance and the fashionable garb of his companion. “A pleasant choice of an afternoon stroll 12 he said to her in an undertone. “Filthy!” she ejaculated with disgust. “I have known for a long time that Grierson had a hiding hole somewhere, but I never knew where it w T as until he sent me here. I might have guessed It would be In some such mudheap as this. These are the kind of people he would naturally be most at home among!” Her tone was hitter and Mark wondered what had made her so hostile to Grierson. He might be able to discover that later, if it were worth while; for the present It behoved him to take what advantage he could of the circumstance. He recalled Naomi’s description of Big Dave as she had seen him outside her mother’s shop so many years ago in Africa. A tramp in rags, coarse and terrifying. There was reason in Mara’s assertion that he would feel at home in such a ldace as this. Should his criminal schemes -go wrong and flight become necessary what more natural than that he should seek safety among these surroundings? It would be like coming home for him! “I’m afraid we are not welcome to the inhabitants,” he said. “Their faces are not exactly friendly.” “They won’t Interfere with us if we take no notice of them,” she assured him. “It would have been different if I were alone. That is why Grierson sent you with me.” "I see. Of course, that would be one of his reasons —the one he mentioned to you.” Mark was not going to let her forget that there was another, and saw that the reminder took effect. “But why not come himself?” “He hadn’t finished negotiations with Garfield and Cousins. Besides, he wouldn’t trust me alone with them —he doesn’t trust anyone but himself.” Mark could not help being amused by her evidently genuine indignation at Grierson’s want of faith in her, considering liow completely her late conduct had justified it. “The house ought to be about here,” she went on, referring to a slip of paper she had taken from her handbag. “It is number forty-seven.” “Most of these doors have no numbers on them,” said Mark. “Shall I ask which it is?”

Mara crossed the landing at the head of the first flight of stairs, and went on to a second. She had opened her hag and was feeling in it for some object. Mark had a glimpse through an open doorway of a squalid room in. which a wan wisp of a woman was working as if for dear life at a treadle sewing machine, while two emaciated children, scarcely covered by the few rags they wore, crawled about her on the boards, and the coarse, unshaven tace of a man, apparently sunk in a drunken stupor, could just toe seen with the end of the foul bed on which he lay. The woman did not dare to turn her head from her work, but the children stared curiously at the passers-by. Mark had time to note the bright intelligence of their innocent eyes. “Poor li.tle victims!” he thought. They can only grow up like the others round them, but if they could be caught now and taken out of this they might become an asset to the world instead of a liability and a danger.” Mara had reached the second landing and gone straight to a door with a key in her hand. Inserting it in the keyhole, she gave a little cry as it slipped from her hand and fell with a tinkle on the floor inside. A a the same time the door swung hack on its hinges, disclosing a small dust-covered room, whose only furniture consisted of a sparsely-clothed camp-bed and one rough chair. But the room had an occupant. Trussed up on the bed in a sheet which had been roughly wound and bound about him so that nothing was visible but his boots and the ends of his trousers’ legs, lay a man. “What does this mean?” gasped Mara. “Who is this —and who else has been here?”

She caught Mark by the arm and dragged him into the room, shutting the door behind them with an apprehensive glance at the landing to make sure that they were not being observed. As she paused to see that the door was secure, the reason for what had happened to the key became apparent. Entry had been forced with such violence that the cheap box lock had been burst from its fastenings, and now lay broken on the floor. Mara threw a quick look round the room, keeping her shoulder to the door as though afraid of some intrusion. “Bring that chair!” she whispered. “We must make sure of the door until we know what has happened.” Mark seized the chair, and together they wedged it firmly against the lower panels. “I think that will hold,” said Mark. “Anyhow, it can't be disturbed without giving us warning.” He was no more desirous than his companion of being interrupted. "And now, we can see wbo this is.” He was going toward the bed but she stopped him. “Wait!” she said. “I want to know what has been done first. Grierson said nobody knew of this place. This may only have been some drunken freak or attempt at petty theft that ended in a quarrel. We shall soon know.” “Nothing seems to have been disturbed,” said Mark, glancing round as she passed him and squeezed in between the foot of the bed and the wall in which a window was situated. Indeed, except for the bed itself, there seemed nothing in the room to be disturbed. Then he saw a square of looking glass in a wooden frame which appeared to be securely nailed to the wall beside the window. Both Mara’s hands were on this. She drew it toward her with a steady, even movement and it came away, the long nails which held it in place slipping easily from their holes. “Hold that,” she whispered, handing it to him. He took it and she turned to the wall again. The room had once

Would he ever go back to it as to his only home? Bad as it was, he was realising now that there were far lower depths to which a man might sink, and his experience of the last six weeks had taught him that the man himself need not always be immediately responsible for the descent. He wondered how many of those people who had filled him with such repugnance in the street a moment ago where what they were, not through any fault of their own, not even through any inherited tendency to evil, but from sheer force of circumstances utterly beyond their control.

been papered, but only hanging fragments of the covering remained now and in places the plaster had fallen, exposing the bricks beneath. A strip was missing about where the glass had liung and Mara’s fingers were busy in the depression. A few seconds work brought out one of the bricks and, after one glance into the hole she had made, she turned to Mark with a shrill cry of disappointment. “It is gone!’’ she exclaimed. “Somebody has been before us and stolen the paper! ” CHAPTER XX. WHEN ROGUES FALL OUT The discovery that they had been forestalled came with as great a shock to Mark as to the woman. For a moment they stared at each other in dumfounded silence; then Mark leaped to the shrouded figure on the bed. “We shall get news of it from this fellow,” he said, attacking the sheet which bound him. “He won’t have it.” cried Mara. “Whoever left him like that has got away with it, whether or not he had it first. But we must see who he is and how much he can tell us!” Mark hastily unfastened the knots which had been tied with evident intention about the man’s throat. Such force had been used in making them that for a long time they resisted all his efforts. “Whoever did this job didn’t care if it ended in murder!” he muttered. “We shall be lucky if we find him alive and able to speak when we get him out by an awkward thought. “What shall we say to the police if he’s not alive?” “We haven't time to think of that now!” she cried impatiently. “See who he is! ” She snatched a pair of nail seisors from her bag, and was about to attack the sheet -with them, but just then the first knot succumbed to Mark’s manipulations, and after that the rest was easy. He caught a loose edge in both hands, and, tugging at it, unrolled the hidden man as though he were a bale of cloth on a bargain counter. As he gave the last tug, and the sheet came free in his hands, Mara leaned forward with a cry. “Rosenbaeh!” she exclaimed. “I

knew the litle worm was trying to double-cross us!” Mark had flung the sheet aside, and recognised the Jew at the same moment. He was lying on his back, his paunch arching in the air, his flabby face puffed and purple from lack of breath, and his tongue protruding slightly through his parted teeth. The indignation in Mara’s voice had almost made Mark laugh. She had been ready to betray her associates, but was plainly outraged to find that they should have dreamed of treating her in the same way. “You seem to have chosen your friends badly,” he could not resist saying. “Perhaps your other colleague. Mr. Burke, has had a hand in this. But what are we to do. The man is alive, but he needs attention. We ought really to call a doctor—” “Impossible! That would mean the police as well,” she interrupted. Mark knew it would, and for a moment *Vas inclined to take the risk. He foresaw a time when he would probably be compelled to ask for police help, but he was not satisfied that it was yet. The essential thing was to learn what had become of the certificate, and if Rosenbaeh could be got into trim to speak he was far more likely to do so freely to Mara and Mark than he would do before any representative of the law. He glanced round the room again, though he knew he would see nothing that could be of use. “Not even a drop of water,” he said. “I suppose you would not care to run back to that pub at the end of the street and get some brandy?” “I would not!” she retorted. “If anybody does that, it will be you! I’ll stay with him.” She nodded at Rosenoach. "But neither of us will do that unless we must. We attracted quite enough attention on our way here without adding to it by running up and down the street. Wait! I have something!” She took a small bottle of smelling-salts from her bag. “This may revive him, but first run through his pockets and see if the paper is there.” Mark obeyed with alacrity, and turned out some silver and copper, keys, a packet of cheap cigarettes and a petrol lighter, a case containing several pounds in notes, and a bulging pocketbook in which were let-

ters and papers of various kinds. He ran through these rapidly, hut there was nothing among them resembling the document of which they were in search. “It’s not here,” he said superfluously, for Mara’s eyes had been on each paper as he turned It over. “I had better put all these things hack.” “Except the pocket book!” ' said Mara, stretching out her hand to take it. “There might be something fn it that would give a clue if he doesn't want to talk. I’ll keep it.” “A good idea,” agreed Mark. “ft will be safe here for the present,” and. Ignoring her gesture, he slipped tiie book into his breast pocket. "Now let us try those salts,” he went on, when he had returned the other things to their owner. Mara was frowning and seemed inclined to dispute the guardianship c£ the pocket-book: but her anxiety to question Rosenbaeh silenced her lor the time, and she handed the hottle to Mark. He held it to the nostrils of the unconscious man, raising him gentle with his other arm and moving him slightly to an fro with intent to promote his breathing. Nothing harpened for a second: then a feeble inspiration drew the vapour from the powerful spirit into Rosenbach’s lungs and set him gasping convulsively. There was a short, sharp struggle, accompanied by fitful heavings of hi-: chest: then the muscles settled down to their accustomed work, his breathing grew stronger and more even and. at last, his eyelids fluttered open and he was looking dimly about him. (To be Continued Tomorrow.)