STRANGE MISSILES

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1935, Page 7

STRANGE MISSILES

CHERRY STONES IN THE DARK/ . INCIDENT AT NEW PLYMOUTH. ~ 11 1 1 / . They had paid for a shilling’s worth of romance, and they were, getting it, even at unromantic New Plymouth, where their usual preoccupations were dish washing and the price of butter. The star gathered his sweetheart into his > practised arms, and his lips came nearer—nearer—for a moment of calcu- . lated ecstasy. • The coqple in the stalls wriggled with excitement, , and their hands crept to- i gether. ■ Then, abruptly, the girl tore her hand ■ away, gasped, and scratched her ear. She peered round the dark hall, but could see nothing that would explain that sudden, 'Sharp pain. She surrendered herself once more to the second-hand kiss. Again the sharp pain—this time in the back, of the neck. Something rattled onto the floor, and the. girl stooped to pick it up. A cherry stone, still with the vestiges of fruit upon it, and slimy from an unknown mouth! \ It was no longer love, but war. The couple sat quiet, waiting. /They heard, three or four times, the light tinkle of falling stones. But it was fully a quar- ; ter of an hour before they got . their first real clue. Across the aisle, not many seats from them, was the surreptitious rustle of a paper bag! The couple stood up and. moved into other seats. Their gimlet .eyes were fixed straight ahead..... Two . minutes later a very startled small boy felt a hard hand grip his ear and- twist it—gently, but in an. anticipatory way. ■ ' The boy swallowed hastily, and a cherry stone flew • out aimlessly /from between his finger anti thumb. A deep voice said: “Come along, now!” The boy went. But he took his bag of cherries! .