The Bantyre Fortune

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1009, 27 June 1930, Page 5

The Bantyre Fortune

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

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FRANK PRICE

CHAPTER XXIV.— (Continued.)

“ That was my mother’s name,” she said. “Did you know her?” “Know her!” he gasped. “Would I see her again in you if I didn’t? But I never dreamt you’d be like this—that you’d be herself all over again as she was then! I only thought of you as Henry Bantyre’s daughter! if I’d known you were here—a second Minnie!—l'd have cut off my right hand before I did you wrong!” “Have you done me wrong?” she asked. “I don’t know you nor how you come to be here tied up like that.” “He is one of the gang who are trying to rob you,” said Mark. He had placed himself beside and a little behind the armchair so that he could see the other while keeping the barrel of the revolver tightly pressed against Cyprian’s neck. “And what are you?” Burke’s voice suddenly became shrill and he struggled so frantically to free himself from his bonds that the veins on his neck and face showed purple and swollen. '‘lsn’t that what you’re after, too? Didn’t you take Big Dave’s money for nothing else than to rob her? And why did you bring her here ?”

“You shall know that now!” said Mark. “Naomi, I have reason to believe that this fellow has something belonging to you in one of his pockets. Will you come and take it out?” “What the devil ” Cyprian started furiously and was almost on his feet, but sank back again as Mark screwed the revolver barrel into his neck. “What do you mean?” he gasped. “Why do you say I have something of hers?” “Because I happen to have seen Mr. Rosenbach where you and Barstow left, him. and to have heard his story.” “You have found Rosenbach?” exclaimed Cyprian incredulously. “But Rosenbach was out to doublecross us!” cried Burke. “He wanted to sell us to that fellow!” He glared at Cyprian. “I came here to stop it.” “This fellow had stopped it already with Barstow’s help,” said Mark. “He got what he wanted without paying Rosenbach a cent, and then, as well as 1 can make out, he threw Barstow overboard without paying him! And all the rest of you seem to have been ready to do the same with each other if you got half a chance! You must be the dirtiest collection of scoundrels that was ever gathered together! j Come, Naomi, take what is your own ] and we will get out of this! And you,” i ke leaned over Cyprian, “if you stir so ; much as a finger while she is near | you, I’ll kill you as gladly as I would j a rat!” | He reached across and threw back j the left side of Cyprian’s coat. ! “Try the breast pocket there,” he j said. She advanced hesitatingly, for ' Cyprian’s face was contorted with rage ; and there was foam at the corners of i his mouth. As he watched her hand ! nearing his breast his lips went back | from his teeth so savagely that she | half expected to be bitten. But Mark reassured her: “Don’t be afraid. He doesn’t want to die, and he knows he will if he doesn’t behave himself!” Keeping at arm’s length she slipped her hand into the pocket and snatched it back with a pocket book in her grasp. “See what’s inside,” said Mark. . She slipped off the elastic which held it together and took a bundle of papers from the pocket at the back. “What am I to look for?” she asked. “Your mother’s marriage certificate, of course!” he told her. “Try that dirty-looking paper outside.” The document which had attracted his eye was old and dog-eared with | frayed edges and strips of gummed ; paper pasted over places where the ! creases had worn through. Naomi : had some difficulty in opening it and when she had succeeded she uttered i a cry of disappointment. ■ It is only a sheet torn from an ; old exercise book!” she said to Mark. “Never mind that! It will be good ! enough if it is what we want and was : duly signed and witnessed!” he ex- | claimed. “What does it say?” “This is to certify that I, being a priest in Holy Orders, have this dayunited in holy matrimony' Henry Mat- : t.hew Bantyre and Minerva Katherine Travers ” “That is what we want!” ex-

claimed Mark. "Of course it. is signed by' the clergyman, but is it properly witnessed?” “By two,” said Naomi. “Their names are Karl Weigand and James Burke.” “Burke?” Mark turned to the man bound to the chair. “Was that you?” "It was,” replied the Irishman. "I stood by while she was married and put my name to the record after, though I’d have given the hand that held the pen if it could have been my name that was coupled with hers as Henry Bantyre’s was, and it might have been better for her if she had chosen me instead of him!” “Do you expect us to believe that, when we find you plotting to rob her daughter?” asked Mark sternly. “I tell you I never thought of her as Minnie’s child!” returned Burke. “She_ was Bantyre’s and I hated him. as his wife had good cause to do. But if I’d seen the girl—if I had known she was Minnie over again, Big Dave Grierson would have got no help trom me in harming her!” “We shall see how real y'our feelings are when you are called on to prove the genuineness of this document Mark was beginning, when he was interrupted by a rasping exclamation from the door. Glancing round quickly, he saw that David Grierson was on the threshold, and crowding behind him were Wayne Garfield, Hector Cousins and Mara Whitton. CHAPTER XXV. TO SAFETY. The sudden incursion took all in the room by surprise, and for some seconds there was a tense silence, during which no one moved. Mark Seymour was the first to stir. He saw that David Grierson’s eyes were fixed on the paper in Naomi’s hand and instinct told him that the big man’s first impulse would be to attempt to recover it from her. "With a couple of strides Mark was beside her and, taking her by the arm, drew her behind the table so that it formed a barrier to protect her from attack. Then, standing behind the chair which Cyprian had pushed back when he rose from the telephone to answer Bastew’s ringing at the front door bell he faced Grierson with the revolver held slightly forward. At Mark’s movement Big Dave checked himself in the act of advancing on Naomi and remained still and watchful, as though not quite sure what to expect. The forward step he had taken had cleared the doorway, and Mara Whitton pushed her way >nto the room with Garfield and Hector Cousins crowding close upon her heels. Until then the woman’s position in the hall had made her invisible to Cyprian, but now he sprang to his feet with a curse. Damn you!” he cried. “It’s you that have brought all these here!” “Wasn’t it time I did?” she flung at him venomously and, going to him, thrust her face close to his with the manner of a fish-wife. “You poor fool, did you think you could play a game

like this -when a man worth 50 of you was working on the other side?” Cyprian’s answer was another curse and he raised his clenched fist as though to strike her contemptuous face; but, before the blow could fall, his father had slid to his side and caught his arm. ‘‘Stop that, my soil!” said Hector in his smooth, soft voice. “Your quarrel with this lady must wait, just as the ■, explanation of your association with her and the fact that she has a key to this flat, whose very existence was unknown to me, must wait. There will be many things for you and me to talk over; but at present our concern is with the other young lady yonder and the gentleman who seems to be keeping guard over her with a quite unnecessary weapon!” He turned his chubby face to Mark.. “You’re right there, Cousins,” rasped Grierson. “There’ll be a lot of little matters to be settled among ourselves when we know exactly where we are! But what we want just now is that paper Miss Bantyre has in her hand.” “You won't get it!” said Mark. “Who’ll stop us?” “I will!” “You! Mara was right, then! You've turned traitor!” “If she told you that she was wrong,” said Mark. “You seem to have been surrounded by traitors each one of whom would have sold the others if he saw the slightest chance of profit for himself. According to what Miss Whitton told me you were as ready to do that as the rest of them.” “Did she say that,” exclaimed Grierson, with a scowl at Mara. “She did,” replied Mark, glad of any opportunity to sew distrust among the plotters, while he was puzzling in his brain to think of some way in which he could escape from among them with Naomi and the all important paper. “And I believe her! But as for my turning traitor, my attitude to you has not altered by a hairsbreadth since you first told me of your plot. You declared yourselves a set of cowardly scoundrels bent on swindling a helpless girl, and I never meant to do anything but save her from your clutches!” “And now I suppose you think you have done it?” rasped Grierson. He had advanced to the opposite side of the table and leant over it, resting on his left hand with his body turned obliquely so that his right arm was half hidden. “I am on the way,” said Mark and then, with a sudden snap as he brought the revolver up to Grierson’s breast: “Put your other hand on the table! Quick! ” The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes enforced the order and Grierson obeyed instantly; but as he stood there leaning forward an evil grin came to his mouth. “You fool!” he said. “How much good do you think that’s going to do you? lou’ve got me covered now, but tvhat about the others? And what i about yourself and the girl when you try to get out of this room? There ■ are four of us, not counting Mara. Do you take us for such idiots as to let you go?” It was the question that had been troubling Mark for the las-t ten minutes. The door was in front of him directly behind Grierson with the table intervening. On its right stood the lank figure of Wayne Garfield, who j had not uttered a word since he en- \ tered the room, but whose sunken ! eyes, peering from their penthouse in I his gaunt death mask of a face, had ! never wandered from the paper in ■ Naomi’s hand. To the left were Hec-! tpr Cousins, round, plump and soft!

to look upon but, as Mark was fully assured, implacable in his determination not to lose the fortune he had come to regard as his own; ■ Cyprian, massive and muscular as Grierson; and Mara, who, in the last resort, might well be more formidable than any of the men.

He was only holding them now by their fear of the weapon in his hand and he had no faith in that if a concerted attack were made on him. It might be good for one shot or even two, but Bastow was evidently no judge of firearms and Mark would rot be surprised If it jammed at the first pull of the trigger. He had been consciously bluffing with it all along and saw nothing for it but to continue.

“You won’t dare to interfere with our going,” he said calmly. “In the first place I have six shots here and I could wipe the lot of you out; and, in the second place, one shot would be enough to rouse the house and bring the police running to see what was going on. Have you thought of that and what they would be told when they came?”

“Neither of you would tell them anything if they did come!” said Grierson sourly.

“Is that a threat to kill Miss Bantyre and me?” Mark asked. “Would that make it easier to explain what you are doing here? And who is to do the killing? Are you willing to take on the job and trust to your loyal friends to back you in whatever story you told?”

There was a silence. Grierson stood up. He was gritting his teeth with rage, but there was indecision in his eyes as they turned to the paper Naomi was still holding. Mark felt he could read what was passing in the big man’s mind and what must be patent to the other villains also; Their only hope was to get possession of that ragged scrap torn ~om the old exercise book; to get it quickly, silently, without attracting attention from outside and then dispose of it in such a way that neitsfnNaomi nor Mark could ever prove it had existed. The concentration of their thoughts focussed all their eyes on Naomi’s hand and, as though fearing a combined onslaught, she suddenly thrust the paper into Mark’s left hand. “Take this! It will be safer with you,” she exclaimed. “Put it in your pocket! Quick! Quick!” She seemed all at once to have lost her head as she caught his arm and thrust it upward toward his breast so forcibly that he staggered a pace to the right so that it was all he could do to keep the revolver still pointing true. “Make them let us go!” she cried. "I can’t bear this any longer!” and suddenly collapsed into the chair by which Mark had been standing, flinging her arms on the table so wildly that the

telephone toppled over, and letting bar head sink on them. “Stand back!” shouted Mark. There had been a general stir among the others at this diversion, and the rush he had been momentarily anticipating seemed about to materialise at last, but the pointed revolver held them again. Then Naomi’s voice sounded once more, low, tense and distinct: “Police! Send the police at once! I don't know this address but it is life or death—” There was a furious yell from Grierson as he stretched across the table and snatched the telephone from her hands. “You hell-cat!” he roared. “You—” Words failed him and he swung the instrument in the air as though to dash it in her face. “Hook out, Naomi!” shouted Mark as, with a fierce thrust he pushed the table forward and threw himself before her to intercept the missile. But it was not flung, for the table, running freely on castors, struck Grierson in the middle and sent him staggering back, the instrument falling from his grasp. Mark felt Naomi’s hand slip through his left arm and pressed it to his side. “You darling!” he whispered. “You splendid darling!” Then aloud to the others: “I suppose you know that call will bring the police here as fast as exchange can identify this address and notify the nearest station. Hadn’t Miss Bantyre and I better go? You will find it difficult to explain that telephone call if she and I are here to give our version of what led up to it.” “You’re not going out of her with that paper if I swing for it!” exclaimed Grierson gratingly. His hand was moving toward his hip pocket, but Hector Cousins sprang to his side and gripped his wrist. “Don’t be a fool!” he said. “Things are bad enough without making them worse! There is a police station just round the corner—l saw it as we came along. The street would be full of officers before we could get awav>” “Do you want to let them go?” demanded Grierson fiercely. “There is nothing else to be done —at present!” Hector Cousins's voice was as smooth as ever, but the last two words were spoken with a note of meaning that made Grierson look at him sharply. “This is not the time or place, with the police expected every moment, for us to deal with them.” “Cousins is right!” said Wayne Garfield, speaking for the first time. “Thev must go!” As though to clinch the matter he opened the door wide and looked at Mark and Naomi. There was an instant’s silence, then Mark waved Hector and Grierson back to the corner where Cyprian and Mara stood, emphasising the gesture with the revolver. (To be Concluded Tomorrow.)