The Bantyre Fortune

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1010, 28 June 1930, Page 22

The Bantyre Fortune

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPKCIAC ARRANGEMENT

W

FRANK PRICE

CHAPTER XXV (Contiued) "Don’t forget that I am ready to shoot if I must!” he said. "I am not afraid, of having to explain my motives to the law! You go first, Naomi!” She passed out with even steps and Mark followed, keeping the little group in the corner covered with the revolver. Garfield was standing, with his I hand on the door-knob, lean and cadaI verous, watching their exit with sinister eyes. Coming abreast of him Mark suddenly switched the revolver round so that the muzzle was almost in his face and Garfield fell back a couple of paces with a cry cf alarm. Mark was out in the hall like a flash, dragging the door to behind him and turning the key in the lock. “It’s a bit of luck that the key is on this side!” he said over his shoulder. “They meant to follow us but the police will be here before they can break through and by the time they have satisfied them we shall be well away. Now, run for it!” They fled down the steps, meeting no one. At the bottom Mark called a halt. "Steady now,” he said. “We don’t want to attract attention.” They walked sedately down the steps and along the street with nothing in their demeanour to differentiate them from the others who were there. Nearing the corner they were passed by a sergeant of police and three constables hurrying in the direction from whence they had come. They watched until the four disappeared into the house before which the shabby twoseater still stood. e “That’s all right!” said Mark with I relief. “Now we can move without j fear of being followed.” “But where do we move to?” asked ; Naomi. He looked at his watch. “A good lawyer first. I know one, 1 and we have time to catch him at his ! office; then a clear path to the Ban- 1 tyre Fortune for you!” “For us!” she corrected him, as she slipped her hand through his arm. The sudden appearance of an heir- ; ess for the great business left by Henry M. Bantyre was a romantic sensation eagerly seized upon by the newspapers as soon as it became publiely known, and it was followed by others which kept the Press sup- j plied with stories for many days. The first of these was the disappearance of j Wayne Garfield, the manager, who j vanished on the evening of the day ]

on which he learned that the firm of solicitors to whom Mark had taken Naomi had decided that her case was strong enough to justify them in taking it up.

They were a little doubtful on this point at first, regarding the frayed scrap of paper Naomi and Mark produced in sole evidence as of doubtful value without some proof of its authenticity. But this proof was quickly forthcoming for James Burke lost no time in seeking Naomi out and placing himself entirely at her service without bargaining for fee or reward. It was a curious expei'ience to see this shrivelled, ferretty-eyed little crook, who might have been thought dead to all the softer feelings, devoting himself to the task of seeing right done to Naomi for no other reason than that she was the daughter of the woman he had loved.

It was by his advice that steps were taken with all speed to remove Garfield from the control of the business; and this was done so promptly that plans he had been making with frenzied haste for gathering funds into his own hands were frustrated in the nick of time. If he had been allowed another 24 hours he would have got away with sums which would have seriously crippled the business and made Naomi’s inheritance almost a mockery; as it was, he fled in such haste that he got no farther away than Liverpool, where his body was identified some weeks later, after he had died from a self-inflicted dose of poison in a cheap lodging house. Investigation shoved that Grierson and his friends had been correct in their assertion that all the time that Henry M. Bantyre was too ill to attend to his affairs, Garfield had been pursuing a systematic course of fraud, and there were strong presumptive reasons for suspecting that Hector Cousins was aware of this and shared in the proceeds; but Hector had never

had an official position in the firm and nothing could be found on which a prosecution against him could be based. Naomi was rather glad of that for she could not help feeling a kind of contemptuous pity for the cherubic looking little man with the childlike eyes, in spite of Mark's assertion that in his opinion Hector was by far the most dangerous of all the scoundrels who had plotted against her. “Still U” he said, “I dare say you have something to thank him for. There is no doubt that he always regarded the business as certain to be his on your father’s death, and that’ gave him ap interest in it as a going concern. I believe that is why, though he and Garfield dipped their hands pretty deeply into profits, they never did anything . calculated to cripple the concern, and it is why you are now a very rich woman in spite of their thefts, instead of coming into a property that is practically dere- 1 lict.” “So I do actually owe him some- j thing,” she said. “Very well, then, j We’ll take account of that and tell | the lawyers to stop bothering about i him and leave him to his conscience —if he has one!” She would have dealt less tenderly with David Grierson if it had been possible to find any moans of letting the law to work against him, but that appeared to be impossible. He and his associates had undoubtedly attempted blackmail, but their intended victims were Garfield and Hector Cousins, and even if these two were available as prosecutors, there would have, been no evidence procurable which would secure a *, conviction. However, Naomi’s solicitors directed j the attention of the police to Big j Dave and his friends, with the re- i suit that, though no actual charge i was brought against them, things were ! made so unpleasant that in a very ! short time both Grierson and Mara J Whitton decided that it would be to j their advantage to shake the dust of j England from their feet and retire i indefinitely to foreign parts. It was evening, six months after the j recovery of the paper which meant! so much to Naomi,. She was at cue j piano in the drawing-room of her J dainty flat in Mayfair, singing for her own pleasure one of the songs she I would now never need to perform in | public for money, when a visitor was ! announced: “Mr. Seymour.” She was up instantly and facing the door as lie came in. "Why did you stop?” he asked almost reproachfully. “1 heard you in the street through the open window and I never thought anything could be so . glorious.” “That is naked flattery,” she said, H ’ ing him her hand, “and I believe you are only saying it to put me off. You knew I was going to ask why you haven’t been near me all the week. Tell me at once!” “Business, madam, business!” he ! replied briskly. “There has been a frightful rush at the office and let me tell you that a junior clerk working for you has got to pull his weight if he is to keep his job!” “Don’t be absurd!" she exclaimed half laughingly; though there was a note of vexation in her voice. “You ! know there isn’t the least necessity for you to keep your ridiculous job lou could have any post you like if you would only let me speak to Mr. Cartwright, the new manager.” “Look here, Naomi,” his manner j suddenly became grave. "You haven't j been speaking to him about me have you ?” Of course not. Y'ou made me ■ promise.” That s ail right.” He was obviously i

relieved. “You know how it is with me. X got such a sickener of my uselessness during those awful weeks when I was looking for work aud getting my nose rubbed in the mud' by everyone I applied to, that I’ve simplygot to prove I’m some good in the world for the sake of my self-respect. That’s why I’ve gone into the office at the very bottom. It’s up to me to work my way as high as I can, but I shall never go one step farther than I know I am fit for.” “And you are going to keep me waiting until you have worked your way right to the top?” she demanded. “As if anything of that sort mattered when we love each other!” “It does matter! I have to prove myself worthy of you.” “You did that long ago. Don't 1 owe everything I have to you? Why won’t you let me share it -with you and be satisfied?” i “It couldn’t be done.” He shook | his head at her, smiling seriously, j “Are you afraid people might call | you a fortune hunter?” ; "Not a bit. I don’t care twopence what anybody thinks or says of mo so long as I know you love me and I'm satisfied with myself. But I’ve got to show cause for satisfaction before I can feel it, and it is for th\' l have been, and shall be, working. I’ve got to wipe out once and for all the memory of that night when I let circumstances get the better of me and, if it hadn’t been for a miracle, 1 should have gone down into depths.” He drew in a long breath “I’ve got to win through by myself'” “And how many years is it going t" take you?” she asked reproachfully. | “I’ve done it.” j “Done it?” I “Well, I’m not at the top of the j ladder by many a rung, but I’m off the j first of them and can see more wait j ing for me to mount. That’s what ] I came to tell you this evening. Y’ou ] know we have been frightfully busy getting out a full statement of affairs ! —and by the way, things are better | than was expected, and you are going Ito be appallingly rich! But, now that | work is done, Mr. Cartwright is conj centrating on the reorganisation of the j staff. He promoted me today and | has promised to give me charge of a I department when the new arrangej rnents are complete. I have proved ! myself, Naomi!” I “Does it mean so much to you, I Mark?” she asked, looking wonder ingly into his shining eyes. “So much? It means everything! Don’t you see! I am some good In the world, I’m not the useless waster I began to think myself when I was down and out. I shall always be poor in money compared with you, out ueither of us cares a rap about that. I have shown myself as good as the next man and as man to man, Naomi —what about it?” “As though you didn’t know!” she said, laughing with a choke in her voice. “You are a silly boy—but you are my man!” “My woman!” he said as he took her in his arms. The End.