"KATE, PLUS TEN."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12647, 3 June 1919, Page 8

"KATE, PLUS TEN."

- ——t By EDGAR WALLACE. (AulW of "Four Just Men" "Sandsvn oJ lbs River," "Bosambo," "Bonos," oio.)

CHAPTER IV. " THJB IDJiAI, PKtMLNAI, IS A !ynU I rEGIST,' > "Where did he go?" she asked. "He went Lo .Millet," said the Colonel, throwing himself down to v. divan a.nd biting off tho end of a fresh cigar. "I wonder what the diektinu lie wants?"- bo mused. Kato West-hanger made a little grimace. "You can never tell whether a policemau finds hi» dut.y a pleasure, or hia pleasure a duty," sho said- "I suppose ho is just renewing acquaintance with Crime Street." "Don't use that phrase," snapped her uncle. "J. shall u&o whatever pbram T wish/ 1 she said calmly, "You are getting nervous. Why?" "I'm no I. nervous," he protested loudly. "1 am gotti'ng old, I suppose and the job m such a big one. It is almost, too big for me, and if f occupied the position I bnd a- few years ago, Kate, J. would drop it. After all, we have made a. good deal of money, and we might as well nil of u& live'to enjoy it." Sho was back at the piano again, and was playing with the soft pedal down. "Can't you find anything more cheerful than the' Death of Asa'?" growled, her relative. "It is nerves, of course; I am. awfully sorry. 1 ' Sho got up and closed the piano with ii bang which made him jump. "1 don't know whu-t to do about Alike," she mused. " Gregori has a solution," Bald tho Colonel, " To cut his throat, I suppose," said tho girl coolly. " Gregori is so elemental and so horrific! I can't imagine that he ever has cut a throat in his \ life, but 1 rvupposa he feels that it is in keeping with his sunny southern nature to talk like that. 'No, Colonel mio," she mimicked, " we havo stopped short of murder so far, and I think we will remain on the safe side. My I theory coincides with Mike's. I was J reading an article of hia in a Socialistic paper tho other day, and it was all I about the Right to Lire. I don't believe in killing people. I believe iu. I bleeding thoso who have grown apoplecfic with their money, and I don't oven know whether I believe in that." " What do yon mean?" The Colonel looked up at her under his shaggy brows. She shrugged her shoulders. "I mean," she said slowly, "I never know whether my views fire my own views, or whether they are jus.t your • views, which I reflect like a mirror. You see, dear," she said, "I am very young, hut I have a. logical mind, aud my logical, mind tells mo that no girl can have any very definite views, at nineteen—not of her own, I mean. Perhaps when T am twenty-five I shall look upon you as a terrible person, and all this "—she spread her hands out—"as something to think of with a shudder." . " In. the meantime," said her uncle practically, "you are 'Miss AH Baba, chief strategist of our little army and a very exigent young lady—by tho way, Gregori is kicking. She- looked -at him with a contemptuous little twist of her lips. " There is a great centre forward lost in Gregori," she said. " What has moved that dago's feet?" " Hush, hush, my child," cautioned her uncle. " Our admirable friend is upstairs, and, anyway, it doesn't do to speak disrespectfully of one's criminal associates- There is a certain punctilio in our profession which you may hare noticed." "How queer it sounds." she said, leaning forward and clasping her knee. " Do yon know, uncle, I cannot think straight, Ever since \ was so high'' —she stretched her hand out .before her —" .1 have never known a desire to secure-anything I wanted, save, by taking it from somebody else. At the school in Lausanne before I came back to Irelaud I seemed to be amongst the queerest people, aiid, honestly; although you had warned me, 1 thought they were? all mad. All their fathers made money in. business, which seems to bo a slow method of stealing allowed by the law. Think of the horriblo monotony of working steadily day after day without any holidays, with no excitement, no adventures, save the artificial thrill of> a. then Ire and the adventures that meet you on your'way home." *' I didn't even, know there were | those kind of adventures," said the Colonel, fingering his trim moustache, and enjoying with closed eyes the fragrance of his cigar- i " Oh. yes," nodded flic girl, " you ! meet, all sorts of men who raise thein, ■ bats and say, ' Good evening, miss,' or ; ' Haven't wo met before,' I don'fj think they have ever said anything rise," she reflected thoughtfully; "they all belong to tho ' Good evening ' or the 'Met you before' school' 1 , :T,d they all want lo know if you are ' ffoinc their way.' " ■ '"What happens then?" asked the j amused Colonel, carefully removing his cigar in order that he might laugh without detriment to the accumulating, ash. . , i "I have only had one experience,"! said Kate, "ft was with a young man j with a horribly weak chin. Me had! studied in both schools, for his 'Good evening' was followed by a request for information upon my immediate plans, and I let him walk with me. 1 expected something dreadful, but he, talked mostly about his mother, and the difficulties he had about * latch-key. He wanted to take, my arm, but "1 told him it w a sniff done.) and then he suggested that, I should: meet him on Sunday. By this time I had learnl all about his family, his mother, and the girl ho was prepared, to sacrifice to retain a continuation of our intimacy. I. also discovered his name was Ernest, aud that he was the cleverest- mau'in bis office." '• He wanted to kiss you. I'll be bound." said the Colonel. "1. think be did." admitted the girl, "kit he. didn't say so. All he said was that lie hoped if wouldn't rain, and asked if be might- write to m?. 1 loir! him he might, but, unfortunately. ! he forgoi to ask me ray address—"j She broke off suddenly. "What is ! i Grecorj kicking about?"' ! "That Madrid affair didn't, so off at; ! well as it. micht." said tho Colonel, avoiding her eye. Slip, nodded. "T know; and Givgori blames me, 1. presume'" "-Grecori never blames you.'' said the. Colonel. " f think Gregori would ; knife anybody who said ,i, word against j you." j ' ; No." Mie said, nodding her head, I her oys fixed on the opposite wall. I "The Madrid affair went badly, in j spite of the fact ihul there were forty-i-v.o sheets of manuscript, in Spanish. I and English, givijig the. most elaborate j directions. It was a month's work for mo. and it was all wasted, with the creator part of a hundred thousand '' pc-i'i.a>. la-cause Grvgori's trusted S'-nor Kahboulla thought he could improve upon my instructions, and joined tho train ai Cordova in a lieht grey suit flheii I told him to wear the conventional black of the madrillcno and. I insisted upon his making bis entrance I i<> Madrid from Toledo. 1 knew that Cordova was watched hy_ the French •■'lid Knanish police, and 7 kuew, too, I that t.hcv would be looking for a stranger. Hahboulla advertised himself, [ ths arrested, and the chain which 1 had earefully pieced together was ; broken. "By the time he had shaken off the police and arrived in Madrid the closing hour of the I'rado had been ad- | r i need from six to five, and Ihe wise-- | •I'-K-nc'- - h -till i n the picture