Four Flush Island

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1935, Page 13

Four Flush Island

CHAPTER XXIV (continued.) “Now you’ve asked me!” she said, “I’ve told you before that all you can bank on an Indian doing is the thing you' least expect. He may go all out to corral those two crooks—and you can take it from me they’ll never see him land—or he may just swipe the canoe and come straight back here.” She hesitated, turning the situation over in her mind. “But I guess he’U deal with the crooks first,” ’ she said at length. “Johnnie Bill’d never take us right back to fall into a gun-fight with a couple of killers like Stagsden and Platt. And I’m dead sure he won’t be content to wait here while they do what they like on the island.”

Natalie was inclined to agree. She knew that Johnnie Bill held his responsibility as a trust, and that he would expose himself to certain death to keep her out of danger. And while she had faith both in his. cunning and his courage, she shuddered at the thought of him facing criminals whose record demonstrated their contempt for the value of any lives but their own. There was, however, nothing to do but wait with what patience she could muster. Now it was, that confronted with a really hazardous situation, Betty proved the true worth of her coinage. “Well, T guess there’s nothing to bs gained by sitting clutching one another in terror of the unknown,” she said practically, “and no harm was ever done* yet by a perfectly good cup of tea imbibed by two females. Get busy gathering sticks while I fill the kettle.” They felt better after the meal, and sat at the lakeside to await the Indian’s return. Hours passed with incredible slowness. They watched the sun sink' below the line of trees on the mainland, silhouetting their dark irregular fringe against the afterglow of gold, orange and primrose. Slowly and majestically the moon swung across the heavens, plating the. lake to irridiscent silver, and the night sounds of fur and feather began cautiously to emerge from the silence. It was close upon midnight when, faintly across the ,water, came the beat of an engine, Betty sat up alertly. “Attaboy!” she exclaimed. “As true to time as the trans-Continental, that Cre6

Natalie rose -more slowly, endeavouring to penetrate the intervening., dimness. “If it is Johnnie Bill,” she said. Betty whisked the sand from her short khaki skirt. “Oh, it’s him all right,” she stated confidently. “No need to worry about that.”

,It was a good half hour, however, before the truth of her supposition could be proved, an interval employed by Natalie in preparing a meal against the Cree’s arrival.

Half a 'mile away, as they saw the canoe swing into the pathway throw# by the moon across the lake 1 there was no mistaking the motionless figure at the tiller. They saw, too, that he was adequately clad in shirt and breeches. “Oh, you Johnnie Bill!” Betty sang out in greeting, and ‘hullo’ the Cree’s deeper voice came in reply. He landed in. silence, and in silence' pulled the canoe to the sand. That he did not beach it efitirely told the girls that there would be no delay in their return.

“Any trouble, Johnnie Bill?” Betty asked, for already Natalie was at the fire, dishing up his supper. “No trouble,” the Cree replied quietly, moving towards the five. “But- surely to goodness,” Betty protested, “they didn’t just sit quiet and let you swipe the canoe without putting up any kind of kick to stop you?” The -Iridian took a long and rather noisy draught from his cup. Then, addressing Natalie rather than in reply to Betty: “They were not there,” he said. CHAPTER XXV. PLATT AND STAGSDEN AGAIN. “Not there!” they echoed, and the Indian inclined his head. “Beeit--but gone,” he said. The two girls exchanged a startled glance, and Natalie’s heart sank. “That looks as though they’d found what, they went for,” she said. “Tell me,” she inquired, “was the shack disturbed at all, as if they’d been hunting for something?”

Again Johnnie Bill inclined his head. “Yes,” he said, and shot her a look which, until he spoke again, she interpreted as one of sympathy. “But they take—nothing,” he added surprisingly. He seemed to check himself then, but he added, after a moment: “Or not to amount to anything, anyway.”

Betty turned on him sharply. Now that the situation was surmounted, reaction had set in.

“For the the love of Mike speak so’s a person can understand!” she exclaimed. “What did they take, anyway?” He did not answer; his habit of ignoring inconvenient questions was a perpetual annoyance to her. She had no particular prejudice against. Indians as a people; it was only that they were not of the same order of mentality as their overlords—pitied rather than despised. And that one of this subservient race should have no hesitation in treating her in the way Johnnie Bill had got into the habit of doing, was a constant goad to her pride. They packed the grub-box. and in less than a couple of hours drew level with their own island. Everything looked as usual as they trudged up the slope, it was not until Natalie turned her flashlight about the room that the wholesale disorder became apparent. There was hardly an article of furniture left in its usual place; not a drawer or cupboard having been ransacked,

(by L. C. Douthwaite)

(To be continued.)

had not the contents overturned in an untidy heap on the floor. The pictures had been taken from their frames, the mattress was cut open and the straw sifted into a general bedraggled heap. Even the books from the shelf in the corner had their backs wrenched off.

For a long while the girls gazed at the chaos, too overcome for speech and lighted the lamp.

“They sure have made hay of this little old home frbm home,” Betty said in a voice of sympathy, for she knew how her friend had come to love the comfort of her legacy. Still Natalie did not speak. It was not that she had lost whatever material treasure might have been hidden there; it was the atmosphere of ruthlessness and squalour the raiders had left behind that turned her heartsick. She felt as though the spirit of home with which she had succeeded in investing those four walls had been desecrated. She righted one of the overturned chair, and, with her head on her arm across the table broke into bitter sobbing. An instant and Betty was at her side, arms about her neck, comforting. “Don’t* you worry morn’n you can help, Honey!” she said over and over again. “Don’t you worry, Nat. We’ll get that bunch of crooks yet, you see if we don’t. Or Kit and Tim will, anyway.” Natalie jerked upright, wiped her eyes with hasty purposefulness. “Sorry, Betty!” she said shortly. “I’m a fool.” She rose to her feet and with the idea of hustling the disturbing thought away in work began to pick up the books. Then, while still' in a stooping position, she paused. She put down the volume and pointed to the base of the fireplace, which was made crudely but not inartistically of home-made bricks, baked hard in an impromptu furhace. “Look, Betty,” she said quietly. “It looks as if Johnnie Bill was wrong when he said that nothing of value had been taken.”

Close to the floor two of the bricks had been withdrawn from their setting, leaving behind a hollow space some twelve inches square. It was empty. For a moment Betty regarded it curiously. “Now what . . she exclaimed, “had that old moron of a great-uncle of yours got Cached away there? And more than that I wonder how those crooks got on to where it was.” Natalie replaced the bricks, arid tapped the enclosed space sharply with a hammer the marauders had left on the table, and which, judging by the dents here and there about the walls, they had employed for the same purpose. By comparison with the surrounding brickwork the result sounded hollow. “That’s how they got on to it,” she said quietly. “Certainly they had all kinds of time to make a 4*eal honest-to-goodness inspection,”. Betty agreed. “But, what I can’t understand is how they knew triere was anything here at all.” Natalie threw back her head as one who dismisses the inevitable. “Probably we shall never know that, anyway,” she said, “so it’s no use worrying.” She glanced about the disordered room, her brows creased in thought. “Well, as they've got what they came for," She said, “I expect we’ve seen the last of them. The best thing now is to tidy up and just forget it.” Betty’s face lighted. “Say, you certainly weren’t behind the door when sand was distributed,” she said appreciatively, “But there’s going to be no clearing up to-night. You’re juit about all in. We’ll go to bed, and put things straight to-morrdw.” Early the next morning the two set about restoring order from the prevailing debris, work that carried them through until well after a late supper. It was while they were still at the table that suddenly Natalie’s relaxed attitude stiffened.

“Listen!” she said tensely. Across the lake came the throb of an engine.

Simultaneously they went to the door, but the moon had passed into a bank of clouds, and they were unable to see across the lake.

As they waited the moon swung clear again, flooding the night with the accustomed radiance. The canoe was not a quarter of a mile away, and heading directly for the island. So far as they could make out it held two men, one bigger and heavier than the othei. “Platt for a hundred dollars!” Betty exclaimed.

Natalie hastily around. Johnnie Bill’s tent -loomed ghostlike against the trees, but of the Indian himself there was no sign. She was on the point of shouting to him, but Betty stopped her peremptorily. "No!” she whispered. “No use putting them wise we’re here until we have to, and voices carry pretty far on a still night like this. Besides, you can bet your life Johnnie Bill knows . already. That Cree sleeps with eyes wide open and his ear to the ground.” “I wonder what he’ll do?” Natalie said.

PILES—“EVERY CASE CURED.”

“I have strongly recommended your treatment to sufferers from Piles and I don’t know of any case it has failed to cure, no matter how bad it was. A Reefton resident wrote the above, in praise of Zann Double Absorption' Remedy for piles. Generous trial treatment sent on receipt of ninepence in stamps. Zann Proprietary, Box 952, Wellington. Booklets and stocks of “Zann” obtainable from Teed and Company, Chemists, Devon Street, New Plymouth. 1