The Bantyre Fortune

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1007, 25 June 1930, Page 5

The Bantyre Fortune

COPYRIGHT

PUBLISHED BY SPEOAJC ARRANGEMENT

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FRANK PRICE

CHAPTER XXl.—(Continued.)

'‘Of course not! I promised to wait in till you came back. But I sent for my boxes/'

“Sent for them? To Wimbledon?” “Yes. You said we could send somebody to collect them, and I couldn’t live for ever in one frock!” Then, seeing how serious his face was:— “Does it matter? Have I done wrong?” “No, no —not wrong. If you had suggested it before I left you I should probably have agreed, but things have been happening since then. Anyhow, Grierson will soon know that I came here—though he is not the important person just now’.” “Who is?” she asked, as he stood frowning down at the floor in thought. “Why don’t you tell me what has been happening?’ “I am trying to decide what we had better do,” he said. “As for your first question, Cyprian Cousins is the most important person for us to consider at the present moment.’’ “Cyprian? Why?” “He has got hold of your mother’s marriage certificate, with the help of a traitorous servant of Grierson’s, t expect he is somewhere in London now. racking his dull brains for a method of finding your whereabouts,

just as I am racking mine for a way of findiDg him.” “And thanks to my folly he has only to go home to get this address from whoever gave my boxes to the man I sent for them,” she exclaimed self-reproaehfully. “I don’t think he will go home. I wish he would. Nothing would please me better than to know he had this address and was coming straight to it. I was never so anxious to meet anyone as I am to see him just now. Unfortunately all your enemies are likely to know where you are, except him.” “All of them?”

“Big Dave, Hector Cousins, Garfield —I left them all together at Grierson’s place little more than an hour ago. They had come to terms among themselves to rob you and divide the spoils. Now Cyprian’s move has upset their plans. They don’t know that yet,” be glanced at his watch, “but probably will in the next ten minutes. I don’t know how they will react to the knowledge, but if his

father and Garfield conclude that Cyprian is playing them false and intends to bargain with you on his own account, they may rush here to intercept him if he has found you, or to get you away on some pretext before he can. You don’t want to see them, neither do I. Get a hat and come out. It doesn’t matter where we go, but your mere absence will keep them guessing.”

She ran up to her room at once, and Mark glanced round the hall. Save for himself, it was empty, and he had seen no one pass through it while they were talking. A girl in the glass-fronted office seemed to be busy with accounts, and, strolling toward her, he saw that she was not the one who was there when Naomi rebooked her room earlier in the day. He went to the foot of the stairs, and, as Naomi ran down with her hat on, and the key of her room in her hand, he said:

“When you give that in, say that if anybody calls to see you they are to be told you will probably not he hack until late. Then call me Cyprian, so that the girl can hear.” Naomi wrinkled her nose at the suggestion but went to the * office, and. handing in her key, gave the message. Then she turned to Mark and said distinctly: “Come along. Cyprian. I am quite ready!” As they passed out through the door and down the steps she asked: “What was that for?” “Heaven knows!” he responded, slipping his hand through her arm. He felt a quick pressure as she responded to his touch and they laughed happily at each other. “It just struck me that if any of the Grierson or Cousins crowd inquired for you it might be useful to put them on a false scent. One never knows. If Cyprian were the caller he will be surprised to hear that you have gone for a walk with him!” .

They laughed again; but Naomi said: — . . “Now tell me what all this is about. You haven’t really told me anything yet.”

“You shall have the whole story, but let us get out of sight of the hotel first.” They had turned away from the busy thoroughfare which ran at one end of the street the hotel was in, and were walking quickly toward a quieter region. Mark’s fingers tightened on her arm and he drew in a long breath. “It’s good to be with you like this!” he whispered. "I’m afraid I am slacking, f ought to be planning to outwit your enemies but I can only think of you!” “J, like you to!” she said. “But all

the same, I’m dying to know what has been happening.”

“So you shall,” he said, and was about to launch on the full story of his adventures since leaving her when the sound of a motor entering the street behind them reached his ears. Something familiar in the throb of the engine made him turn his head. Grierson’s big car was drawing up outside the hotel and already a door was open and the slim, slik-stockinged leg of a woman was reaching for the step. “Down here, quick!” he exclaimed, and swung Naomi into aside street they were passing. “What was that for?” she asked in amazement.

“The first of your callers!” he answered. “We were only out. in time! But I didn’t expect her to come here. She must be chasing me! Then she can’t have warned the others! If I could get to them first ” “Oh, do explain!” cried Naomi. “Remember I don’t know a thing of what you are talking about!” “I’m sorry!” he said penitently, and at once gave her a rapid account of his experiences at Grierson’s house, his drive with Mara and the state of affairs they found on reaching Big Dave’s hiding hole. “But this is dreadful!” she said, as the story ended. “I seem to he the centre of a circle of villains who not only want to rob me but are willing to cut each other’s throats while doing it!” “That is the exact position, and if I could induce them to concentrate on cutting each other’s throats for the time being it. might give me a chance of foiling their schemes against you. What I want is to get hold of Cyprian; as I told you, he is the importaht person at the moment, since he has the certificate in his possession, but I haven’t the ghost of an idea where to look for him. It’s just on the cards that his father or Garfield might drop some phrase that would suggest where he ought to be looked for, in the first anger of hearing the trick he has played them. They are sure to go up in the air at the news and there win be a holy row between them and Grierson as each side will believe the other is behind Cyprian. The Whitton woman evidently hasn’t been to them 3*et with her story; I don’t know if she intends to but, whether or not, if I could get to them first I might get the clue I want.” “Then let us go to them!” she cried. “Not you!” he said, decidedly. “I wouldn't trust you among those devils now that they are to see all their plans going to smash. I’ll tackle them alone, but I want some safe place I can leave you for an hour or two and be sure of finding you unmolested when I want you.” “This all sounds very thrilling, hut I don’t know that I like it,” said Naomi. “I can enjoy watching adventures in a film, but it’s quite a different thing to meet them in real life!” “Why, that’s the very thing!” exclaimed Mark. “Come across here! ” The street they had dived into was crescent shaped and had brought them out into the main road almost opposite the entrance of a huge cinema. He piloted Naomi across to the doors. “Go in here. Book one of the best seats so that I shall know where to look for you. You can get tea and stop as long as you like and nobody will think of searching for you there. No!” as she was about to speak. “Don’t stop to talk. I want to get on—and I am doing this because I Ibye you! Please go!” He almost lifted her up the first step but she slipped from his grasp and turned to face him. Eor a moment she looked at him hesitatingly; then she said: "Very well, I will do what you command,” she bent toward him and her voice sank to a whisper, “because you love me and because I love you, too!” She ran lightly up to the booking office. He watched her get her ticket and disappear through the swinging doors and then he turned away with a feeling of glorious elation. CHAPTER XXII. BASTOW Mark looked undecidedly along the

street. The traffic was thick and a crowded block had just been released by the policeman on point duty a hundred yards away. Three doors from the cinema was the entrance to a tube station and he went toward it, thinking a train would probably be a quicker means of reaching Grierson's place than a taxi. On the point of going in he glanced across the road to the street from which Naomi and he had emerged a minute or two earlier. The big car was coming along it in his direction and, through the glass he could glimpse Mara Whitton, sitting forward as though ou the watch.

Mark plunged sideways for the shelter of the station entrance, coming into violent collision with a man who was emerging. The bump was so severe that they both staggered and the other would have fallen if Mark had not caught him by the arms and held him up. i

“Sorry!” he exclaimed. (The reply was a sanguinary condemnation of his intelligence and he had a view of a dark, sullen face whose most striking feature was a livid bruise which was well on the way to developing into a very nasty black eye. But he had no time to be interested in other people’s troubles and, releasing the man as soon as he seemed to be firmly on his feet, he hurried to the booking office and took a ticket for Westminster. A lift was just about to descend and he was crossing to it when he heard a woman’s voice from the street calling out a name. “Bastow!”

it was Mara’s voice. There was a grating of brakes suddenly applied and Mark saw the big car, which had crossed the road, slipping past the station entrance. It was out of his sight in an instant, but he had sees; that it would stop in a few yards, and had gained a glimpse of Mara leaning out with her eyes fixed on the man to whom she had called. He swung round and dashed into the station, leaping into the lift beside Mark just as the gates were closed and the descent began. Mark had recognised him inevitably. He was the man into whom he had bumped: the man with the blackening eye: and he was named Bastow and known to Mara Whitton! “My luck is in,” Mark thought, triumphantly. “Bastow! Gi-ierson’s missing servant! The man who was with Cyprian when they tied up Rosenbach and took the certificate! Now things should begin to move!” The lift was crowded and they stood shoulder to shoulder. Assuming an air of friendly sympathy, Mark opened the conversation: “That was a near squeak, but I’m glad my clumsiness didn’t make you miss your train!” The man raised his surly face as Mark spoke, ejaculating: “Who the ,” but broke off, looking at him. Then with an expression of unmistakable relief, he went ou:

“Oh, it’s j’ou that barged into me at, the mouth of the tube! No, it wasn’t 3'ou that made me—nearly late, sir.” His manner had become that of a servant addressing one of a class he had been trained to regard as his superiors and Mark sensed anxiety to prevent his sudden dash for the lift from exciting undue comment. “I'm glad of that. But, Great Scott, you have had an awful bang on the eye ! Was that m3' doing? I didn’t think I did any real damage when I bumped you.”

“You didn’t. I got that somewhere else, and I’ll make the one that gave

it me sit up for it before I’ve clone with him!” His tone tvas fiercely truculent. “That sounds as if you didn’t come by it in fair fight,” said Mark. “I should judge by the look of you that you could take care of yourself, unless the odds were too heavy.” “So I could!” Mr. Bastow’s vanity was evidently touched. “But when a hulking swine, twice my own size, lands me when I’m not looking and does a guy while I’m laid out ” He choked into momentary silence, as though unable to find "words adequate to express himself. The lift stopped at the bottom of the shaft and he pressed toward the gate muttering. Mark caught the words: “But I know where to iQpk for him, and when I come across him——” He tvas out and hurrying to the platform. Mark followed carefully, keeping him in sight, but avoiding any risk of seeming to dog him. The man’s words had convinced him that he was on the right track. The hulking assailant, twice his size, was a descrip-' tion that fitted Cyprian like a glove, and Mark was sure that treachery an«j bad faith had been at work again. Cyprian had, no doubt, used Bastow while he needed him, but as soon as he had got what he wanted had dispensed with him in exactly the brutal manner Cyprian might have been expected to adopt. Apparently, however, Bastow was not to be disposed of so easily, and Mark hoped he was right in saying that he knew where to look for his late accomplice. If the two met. Mark was resolved that he would make a third at the party*! A train came in as they reached the platform, and they both boarded it, Mark entering the carriage next to that chosen by Bastow. He kept a watch on the platforms at each stop, and at the second station saw Bastow alight and make for the exit. He was walking quickly, as though driven bv his vengeful feelings. Mark followed at a leisurely pace, sure of overtaking him in the lift, and anxious not to rouse suspicion by too close a rvatch. He seemed quite safe on that score, for apparently it never entered Bastow’s head that he might be followed. but when he got to the street level his demeanour became more cautious. He spent several seconds at the exit, peering to right and left, scrutinising every car in sight, and Mark came to the conclusion that he was assuring himself that Mara had not followed by road. The chance that she could have got so far in so short a time was extremely remote, and Bastow 3vas soon satisfied, for he pulled his hat yvell down over his eyes, and, running to a bus which was just moving away, he ascended to the roof, and, dumping himself on the rear seat, huddled inconspicuously in the corner. Mark sprinted after him, gained the bus as it was gathering speed, and sank into an empty place on the offside next to the door, from which he could watch all 3vho alighted from above without being seen himself. It tvas only when he had settled down that he noticed in what direction they were travelling, but he was not surprised to find that they were heading toward Kensington again. He had guessed from the first that Bastow’s plunge into the tube had no object but to evade Mara, and had wondered that he did not leave the train at the first stop. Now he realised that going on to the second station was a precaution in case she had seen through the ruse and pursued him in the car. She might hav*e been at the first station by the time he reached it, and came up to the street, hut it was practically Impossible that she could have got to the second stop in time. The bus roared its way through the streets and presentls* Mark saw that he was once again in the neighbourhood of Mear Street and the cinema in which he had left Naomi. The bus drew up at a street corner. A crowd was waiting to board it and several | inside passengers were making for | the doorwav'. Mark heard quick footsteps on the stairs and, between the heads and shoulders of the people who were trampling past him, saw' a hat w-hich he recognised as Bastow's.

There was a slight scuffle on the platform, a woman screamed, the conductor called out, “Steady, there! steady!” and Mark, on his feet, saw Bastow break through the crush, dart across the pavement and disappear at a run down the street at -whose cornet they had stopped. Following as quickly as he could Mark was just in time to see his man disappearing once more round another turning to the right, about fifty yards ahead. Sprinting sharply he arrived at the turning and pulled up to glance along it. He had reduced the dis tance between himself and Bastow who was now in a street lined by old fashioned, faded houses, most oi which seemed to have been converted into flats. A well-worn two-seater stood before one of them and It -was into this house that Bastow turned Mark hastened after him. The house door was open showing ar old-fashioned empty hall with doors each bearing a name plate, on elthei side, and a gloomy wooden staircase winding with half-landings to the upper floors. Mark tried each of the doors and, finding them locked, con

- eluded that Bastow could not have i- passed through either of them since there had been time neither for him , t to unlock them nor to summon anyone t else to admit him. Then he must T have gone higher and Mark hastened | noiselessly up the stairs. Reaching ] | the first landing he found that the I doors leading from it were also fast , r I shut and was continuing his ascent g ! when the sound of an electric bell I ringing persistently came to his ears. | Pausing to lisetn, he decided that it __ came from within one of the flats on the next floor, and was probably ,' caused by Bastow, who, having reached his objective, was trying to gain admission. r Mark stopped on the half-landing, is and, craning his neck, peered up i. through the semi-darkness of the stairway. He was just able to get a view n of the lobby above and to make out s, i the figure of Bastow where be stood sr at a door with his finger pressed hard ;e | on the button of a bell. The next le i instant Mark had thrown himself face ie I downward on the stairs above him a-1 to avoid being seen by a man who had

flung open the door and appeared face to face with Bastow. Brief as was the glimpse he had obtained, Mark knew that his pursuit of Bastow had led him to his quarry. The man in the doorway was Cyprian Cousins. If Mark had not recognised Cyprian by sight he would have known the voice which came to him now in accents of savage rage:— “You here! What the devil do you want?” “You know what I want! My share! And I’m going to have it!” I Bastow’s tones were shrill and venomous. “You’ve had your answer to that once, you fool. and I should have ' thought it would have been enough ; for you! But you can ba've more of the same sort if you want it: if you don't clear out of this and leave . me alone ” The threat in Cyp- : ; rian’s manner was unmistakable, bn* it only served to enrage Bastow the ’ j more. i lj (To be Continued Tomorrow.)