The Innocent Accomplice

Taranaki Daily News, 11 March 1932, Page 10

The Innocent Accomplice

BY

ETHEL F. HEDDLE

CHAPTER Xin.—(Continued.)

Ah, well! but Peggy knew anxiety tnd care could come even there! Would she ever be freo from the haunting dread of Ted, and Ted’s •trange, dangerous career? The affair at England’s had passed over, and ■oihlng was discovered. ...but he ♦ould not go on like that.. She ‘broke off. and went across the private bead into ths wood. As she did so < man drove up in a car., He got out,’ looked about him, and took out two •alt cases and a bag, which he deposited on the path. jpeggy saw his face as she looked back, and she had an Qdd sensation of toeing it somewhere before. Where?

“I believe it was one time in Englands," she told herself. “I believe he..... .once brought a message to Michael England. A mere coincidence, I .expect.” ■ But It was of Michael England she Was thinking as she walked back—of his look that night when he bade her food-night, and stood and watched her ..of the other day in the office ...and in the .street. Always wjth such kind, grave eyes that somehow enveloped her "with care. Well, of course, it was highly improbable she would ever set eyes on him again. They were merely ships that had “hailed each other in passing”—passing like shadows into the night and forgetfulness. She sighed njitfle. , . .J ' ■ She got back and entered by the tide door, . and up. the side stairs to her room.- There she changed her shoes, and put on the neat little muslin apron.. ~ Rosemary was in her room, reading, and she looked up and smiled at the girl. . “Peggy, you little genius! Iveseen the yellow frock and it’s lovely. I etruck oil when 1 got you, Peggy! D'you know sally came in and saw it. tnd guessed I got it in Paris'! I didn’t undeceive her.”

“I’m very glad you like, it,” Peggy said. “It ■wants your aquamarines, Mrs' Trevor. Stall Igo and ask the Admiral , for them? You know he looked them away, And with Mrs Hunt wearing all her pearls, ” — “You want me to bo upsides witn. her!" Rosemary yawned. “But, my dear, aquarmarines are nothing! Even sapphires, though they are Princess Mary's stones..... .Oh, well, Peggy, go and ask him. He could give you the keys if he grumbles about going down. ' I only made him put them away she fussed about hers. Pegffy went down. The Admiral usually sat late, snoozing In his chair •in the library', after coming-in. They were' setting the dinner table as Peggy passed. and she had a glimpse of 6 Southgate majestically directing affairs from the sideboard. She could gee'the glitter of silver and crystal under the soft glow of the candles in [the silver candleabra,. and smell the [great yellow roses. In the library the Admiral woke, and growled, and got out the case 'of the aquamarines. “Tell Mrs Trevor to keep them in her own room,” he said. “I’m not going to dance about unlocking this safe. Mrs, Silas p.i came for hers herself —I was to •keep my eyes peeled.’ I forget on what. ■ She seems to think I’ve . got senile decay, and can’t, look after my own safe! -Heard that young ass, I suppose, and his talk about the burglar someone saw lai Winchester ■Assizes hanging round here. All tommy rot I I looked in on old Hobbs of the Anglers' Rest, and asked him about the chap, and he laughed at me. Said the man was a commercial traveller. . Well, here you are, Peggy, my girl. Fine old necklace! Grandfather got it In India.” ‘Peggy ,'left the room thinking. Hobbs said Chips was a “commercial -traveller." Was that Chips storj, and was Hobbs deceived? She was crossing the hall with the case, when she saw Southgate come out of the dining rom, a big silver dish In his hands.' The footman followed with a huge -salver, on which he had placed the array of delicate wine . glasses. Walking, carelessly, he caught his foot In a bearskin rug just in the centre of the tiled hall, and It slipped under him. He went down with a crash, and so did the glasses, and Southgate stood, a petrified figure of ■wrath and scorn, glaring at the--.un-lucky man. Peggy, too, stopd half unconsciously, and helped to pick up the glass, the poor servant, red and apologetic, was almost too dazed to ’help her. « . “You dithering idiot!’ 1 Southgate foamed. “I suppose you couldn’t watch your feet, and remember the rug! Ring the bell! Peggy, would you ring the bell? Ah, here is the new man —just in time, I should say I You are Belton, aren’t you? Well, Belton, begin your work by calling a maid to come with a brush and pan.” “Belton,” the new footman, however, had not seemed to hear anything of these orders. He stood staring helplessly before him at the glass scattered on the floor, and -on the girl who had made a pile of broken pieces •and was now staring wildly up at him from the floor. A pale face lit by the lovely dark blue eyes Ted!-knew so well. Peggy here! Peggy! Peggy in a black dress and little white apron! Peggy taking orders from the butler, addressed by the butler as “Peggy!" Was the world mad? Or was he mad? And Peggy, in her turn, staring up, aghast, saw Ted, her brother, dressed in the dark blue livery, immaculate white shirt, and silver buttons of a footman! Ted’s fine hair brushed back —and his good-looking effeminate face full in the Jight of the hall 1 Ted, the new footman, whom Southgate called “Belton" ! Belton! Ted here! -Why? Why? The world seemed reeling about trer« ‘

CHAPTER XIV. The Admiral Is Disappointed In Pefloy.

'PQSsy Kot up, still dsiGd, find rang the bell for the housemaid. She was aware of Southgate muttering imprecations, his equilibrium quite •shattered like the glass, and that the new Sootman had taken the salver from the old one, and was picking up the fragments. She got away upstairs, going to her own room with the aquamarines io recover for a moment before she answered Rosemary’s bell. . Ted here! Chips here! It could only mean one thing another burglary! Her heart gave one -wild leap, and then seemed to stand still. They were here to steal Mrs Kllas P.’s” pearls. He was here, In the ■house. Chips had given Mm the most difficult and dangerous part of the J on. iChips would work outside, Ted within. I She felt sick and cold. ' She could see her face In the mir »or She must not go to Rosemary looking like that. Rosemary would notice, and ask questions. The old thing must begin again. She must, Mudd ■Ted. She thought e£ her mother, the .Ok

when she spoke of the past—-(“Before

r met your f&ther’ I —L-flia Terror of her look when she gazed on Ted 1 Her eon! A thief! If they caught him—the trial—prison! ’ “Oh, mother,” the girl walled. “Poor mother!" She collected herself as she heard the bell. “You shouldn’t care so much about things, you little fool,” Ted had said' in his strange, bitter voice one day, when he found Peggy sobbing over a 'little snapshot of her father. 1 She remembered the words now, Alas! why was she one of that sisterhood who go through life “caring so much?” How much better to be cool, and selfish, and shallowhearted! One of the “Undines" of life! Was it better?

She was in Mrs Trevor’s room, and managed to dress her, and hear all about the dance, and the dinner, and the “awful business” of precedence. “It will drive me into the grave,” Rosemary cried (tragically. “The widow of a Bishop or the wife of a Baronet 1 Good Heavens I And the Admiral says: ‘Blast the women 11 locked iwo of 'em in their cabins when I took ’em home in a !man-of-war once, and they Quarrelled like Kilkenny cats as to who had the precedence.’ That is him all over. 'But.he doesn’t realise that I hear the hysterics, and the abuse. ' They wouldn’t' dare abuse him on his own ship.”

“Too bad, madam,” Peggy murmured. “Precedence.” Oh, how was it women could care? Could care for such trifles? . ! Rosemary went down to dinner at| last, murmuring still over her list, and! Peggy sat up in her own room. What was she going to do? Could she see Ted? She must see him. and she would entreat —beg. . . . But no one must see'her talking to him. When could she do it? . She. had nexer 1 . mixed much with the staff, excent at meals. She dared not let Miss Pendreth see her hovering round. Ted would not go near the kitchen, even if she, Peggy, had dared to venture into that sacred place/ Southgate would be with him in the' pantry-—and in the hall. “There is as much bother about the precedence there,” poor Peggy thought. “I dare not be seen talking h to him in the house. I must slip a note ' into his hand, and get him to meet me ' outside. But, oh! if someone sees us I And Ted will be so angry. He is always so angry— * J I. try to plead." She slipped downto the hall, by’end by, knowing dinner would be over, and the guests In the billiard-room, and bridge and smoking-rooms. She could pretend she was-looking for a novel “Madam" had said she had lost, either In the hall or in the library. Chance might send Ted there; chance sometimes helped 'the desperate. So she lingered about the hall, -and could see people pass through—a slender slip of a girl with a white face and anxious, lovely blue eyes. She took up cushions, and looked behind the armchairs. Southgate saw her, and She told him she was looking for a book for Madam. He merely nodded.

Me was like a Prime Minister, oppressed by affairs of State. The breaking of the valuable glass—all from Venice —had upset him, and the trouble of-getting out new in a hurry. He had had to give one of the guests a glass from "Woolworth’s. Heavens! If the Admiral Had seen it! One wickedly replaced by a past footman. ; “My situation gone, that is all,” Southgate had eaid to himself tragically. ‘®Just my place—gone.” 1 But Peggy did not eee Belton anywhere. Dinner was over, and dessert an-d ‘coffee. .It was not yet time for the drinks.

She should have waited till then

Then, at last, luck! A bell rang. She could hear Southgate call "Belton 1” and Ted came through and went into the billiard-room, and returned with dry Martinis and then he came back With Hie empty salver. No one was in the hall. Peggy made a swift dart from behind the big ottoman in the window and slid up. “Ted! Ted! I must speak to you!” “What the devil are you doing here?" he got out in a fierce sibilant whisper." “ ’Pon my word, you are a curse! YOu are always upsetting my applecart/ "What are you doing here, dressed like that? A maid! Southgate calling you ‘Peggy.’ What are you ‘up to?" Charged as the moment was with electricity, and though Peggy felt as fi a bomb might explode at her feet at any moment, she could have laughed aloud, bitterly. What was she “up to?” “I am a maid,” she answered back. “I got the sack at England’s. Mr Harold never liked me. He—question,e<i me—someone told him I was out late that night, and I—wouldn’t speak. And I —couldn’t get anything else—l had to find work.” “You could have gone on the stage, or in the movies,” Ted breathed furiously. “With your looks, you littla fool! Well, you’d better get out of here. I won’t have you here.” “Ted.! Listen—'listen! Why are you here? Oh, Ted! “Stop that,” he hissed at her. “By •gad, this is evil luck. You whining and preaching again. Listen! What —” He laid a‘fierce hand on her arm. “Ted, I can’t stop. Anyone may come. But I will slip cut. I’ll be in the avenue near the lodge—by halfpast 11.” “What are you doing here, Belton? Don’t you hear that bell?” Southgate haft come from the back of the hall. Peggy had just . time' to slip down behind the armchair. She did not think he-saw her. And with a respectful “Coming, sir,” Ted went forward and re-entered the billiard-room. KTq be oontlaueiLl