Four Flush Island

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1935, Page 15

Four Flush Island

(by

L. C. Douthwaite)

CHAPTER V. AN OFFER. The following day was Saturday, and Natalie occupied the afternoon by paying the still apathetic Mrs. Swales, following and transporting her belongings to a clean new residential hotel in the neighbourhood, at which for a long time she had cast a covetous eyeu Here during the week-end, she revelled in a bright clean room, a bright clean bath, and bright clean meals. For the first time was brought home to her the stupendous increase in comfort and selfrespect that can be brought about by only three or four pounds a week in revenue. It was on the Tuesday morning that the letter came; not to Kempstone and Champneys’, but accessed care of her employers. Typed upon ornate and heavily embossed paper, it was headed: Alaskan and Hudson’s Bay Districts Development. Corporation (Inc.), Development House, Kingsway, . W.C.2. and ran as follows; Dear Madam, As we understand that under the will of the late George Ferdinand Barraclough you have inherited the property known locally as Fourflush Island, and situated in Northern Manitoba, we shall be glad, in order to disconsolidate our interests in that locality, to discuss reasonable terms of purchase either by this Corporation or by our nominee. We would, however, point out that as the area under consideration is small, and the gold claim thereon entirely unproductive, any offer which we might .be inclined to consider must of necessity be in the nature of a nominal figure.

We shall be glad if you can see your way to make an appointment with the writer, when the matter may be more fully discussed than is possible by correspondence. We are, madam, Yours truly, For the s Corporation, Lemuel Platt. President.

Mr. Gripstock not yet having returned from Yorkshire, Natalie was her own mistress, and so had leisure to give the effusion her consideration. Her first thought was as to how the “Corporation” had discovered her address; that someone was keeping a pretty close eye upon her movements was obvious. Equally apparent, too, was that the letter was a sequel to the conversation with her dubious table companion of the New Oxford Street restaurant. Why were those people so anxious to obtain possession of a property which, even according to the young Mr. Champneys, was by no means an Eldorado, she asked herself.

If her life in London had taught her nothing else, at least it had given Natalie a very definite self-reliance, and for a moment she felt that the problem was one for her own solution. Then it occurred to her that this had nothing to do with self-reliance; it was in the nature of‘finance and with which she was inadequate to cope. Besides, what was the use of employing a perfectly good solicitor if one couldn’t go to him with a business difficulty? So she rang up Champneys and asked for an appointment, and instead of replying in the rather resigned voice she had feared, he seemed genuinely glad to regain touch with hex. “Except for lunch, I’m booked three deep for the next two ’days,” he said. “Oh!” Natalie said in a rather flat tone, for until she heard his voice she had not realised how much she would welcome another chat with him. “So we’d better make it one o’clock at the—where would you like to go? Savoy? Berkeley?” he invited. Natalie chuckled delightedly. “In my present costume I think Lockharts would be more suitable,” she said. “Still, I wouldn't mind risking Simpson’s. And thank you so much.” Immaculate and debonnaire as ever, he was waiting for her in the vestible, the type of family solicitor who, due to a vivid interest in the world about him, had achieved the distinction of freedom. from red tape and all that this involves. “I’ve brought my son along,” he remarked as Kit raised his hat. “Really, he’s the authority on this new possession of yours. And as no solicitor who knows his business ever confesses to ignorance about anything at all that had to do with the affairs of a client, probably you’ll find me casting mute appeals to him for information.” • It was a long time since Natalie had enjoyed a meal as she did the one that followed. Rather poignantly it reminded her of her father; it occurred to her that

these two were of the type he’d have enjoyed rubbing shoulders with. Certainly Kit was rather quiet, but she attributed this to shyness. That at least he wasn’t bored was shown strikingly by the circumstance that throughout the whole of the meal he took his eyes from her hardly at all. Extraordinary, it struck her, the contrast between the way men looked at a girl. That outsider of the restaurant, for ’instance. She’d resented his calculating stare as much, though perhaps in a different degree, as she resented the stares of that perfectly beastly type who made you feel as if you were insufficiently clothed. It came to her, indeed, that both contained the same quality of greed; where they differed was only in the desire. “Was it something upon which you wish to consult me about that induced you to ring up?” Mr. Champneys asked after they were served. Whereupon Natalie related her encounter with the man in the restaurant, and succeeded, apparently, in investing the solicitor with her own mistrust. She noticed, too, that Kit’s rather lazy blue eyes became suddenly alert. “You Say he was a Canadian?” he asked shortly, and before his father had time to comment on her story. “Either Canadian or American,” Natalie confirmed. “Describe him—if you don’t mind,” Kit said, looking at her very keenly. Something in the personality of her restaurant acquaintance had impressed itself upon her with a clarity that remained still vivid; certain characteristics of appearance and gesture that were as persistant as the aftermath of a nightmare, and so her response was a clear cut picture. When she had finished his mouth and jaw were grimmer still. “Unless I’m mistaken,” he said quietly, “that is my old friend Mike Stagsden.”

. “And who,” inquired Mr. Champneys before Natalie could speak, -“is Mike Stagsden?” “That,” replied Kit, holding Natalie with his eyes, “is a point upon which the Mounted Police would be glad to have information. He arrived in the north a year or eighteen months ago, apparently with money to burn. In an area where fifteen hundred dollars represents a winter's trapping, and which usually is sunk in supplies for the next summer’s development work on the claim, that In itself is enough to cause comment. There’s nothing actually against him, but on the other hand there’s mighty Tittle in his favour. It may be coincidence, but since he arrived in the North there’s been more trouble through the Indians getting hold of fire-water than in any previous time since another man, who ran the business, was . run out of the district.” He paused, tracing patterns on the tablecloth with his fork. “I’d give six months pay to find out what’s brought that cheap little crook to England,” he added, half to himself. “I shouldn’t wonder if he’s not here to get hold of my island," Natalie said. She spoke upon impulse. Apart from Stagsden’s anxiety that she should not live on her property, she had no logical justification for making the statement, but at that moment she was convinced of its truth. Her meeting with the man might have been, probably it was, mere coincidence. But that he had come to England with the determination to get hold of Fourflush Island she was assured. She expected Kit to smile tolerantly at her assumption. To her surpffise, however, he appeared to regard it seriously. She noticed with interest that although the solicitor had withdrawn from the conversation, from time to time his eyes rested keenly upon his son, and from thence travelled speculatively to herself. “Why exactly do you say that?” Kit asked, and the question contained less of doubt than a desire to confirm a conclusion of his own. Natalie shrugged her shoulders. “Just a hunch,” she said, “but one that’s supported by. Stagsden’s suggestion that there are what he called ■ ‘interests’ who are willing to make an offer for the island.” The lawyer broke in: “How does that support you theory?” he inquired. “Who are the Alaskan and Hudson’s Bay Districts Development Corporation, of Kingsway?” Natalie asked. “The biggest sharks and worthless share pushers in the city of London,” replied Mr. Champneys quickly. “Why do you ask?” “Only that this was waiting for me at the office this morning,” Natalie ■explained, and produced the letter. The lawyer read it carefully. When, eventually, he laid it down, his face was grave. • “This puts a new complexion on the business,” he said quietly, “and, quite frankly, one I don’t altogether like.” He laid an immaculate forefinger on the signature of the letter. “Platt, whose real name appears to be Blomberg, came to England about a couple of years ago. Since then the police have been figuratively avalanched with complaints from people he's swindled. And though he’s contrived somehow to keep out of prison, within a month from now there s little doubt that action will be taken, and pretty strong action at that.” Natalie went rather pale. A week ago she had been lamenting the hum-drum drabness of her existence. Now it looked as if change of circumstances was likely to remove all cause for complaint. Something of this seemed to occur to the lawyer. .

“My dear,” he said, and she was 'conscious of a little thrill of gratitude for the familiarity. “I’m not at all sure the advice I gave you in my office was quite in your best interests.” “In what way wasn't it?” Natalie asked gratefully. “I’m quite sure it was intended to be.” • i suggested that you should go and live on this island of yours,” she said. “Now I’m not Sure it would be either wise or—safe. This man Blomberg has plenty of money, and reading: between the lines of his letter there’s po doubt he’s keen on getting hold of ypur property. If you’ll leave it with! me, I m pretty, sure to get you a good price. Natalie considered for a moment before replying. j “What do you call a good price? she asked at length. \ “That’s rather difficult to seffi. Mr. Champneys said. “For the Sake of argument, however, put it at a thousand pounds.* .

With what she had already that would mean a capital of over two thousand. Well invested, this would yield an income of about two pounds a week, a sum that would make all the. difference between penury and comfort. Probably it was the thought of the high adventure of it all, and the romance of stirring days that turned the scale. There was roving blood in her ancestry, and the pioneer spirit is hard to eradicate. . '*l “Mr Champneys,” she said quietly, : “I’m going to live on that island if I have to face half the gunmen in America.’?-. She saw Kit’s face light up with .the appreciation of one good fighter for another. The glance they exchanged was one of understanding. Intercepting this, the solicitor smiled quietly to himself. “Well, well,” he said tolerantly. “Youth will have it’s way, I suppose.

All things considered, moreover, I’m not going to say I’m sorry you’ve decided as you have. Only I thought it fair to warn you of what you may possibly be called upon to face.” “It’s not so much the challenge I mind,” Natalie protested. “It’s those definite orders not to live on ,my own property.” She looked across at Kit, whom she felt had identified himself with her attitude. “That’s how you read the signs, isn’t it?” she asked. • He nodded slowly; already she had discovered how difficult it was to make him speak before he had decided what he wanted to say. ’ That was one of ’the things she liked about him. It gave her a sense of reliability; in some intangible fashion conveyed that she would* not be without his backing. .. . (To be .continued.) .. .