OUT FOR A RIDE ON THE PONY SULKY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 9 (Supplement)

OUT FOR A RIDE ON THE PONY SULKY.

strance. * ‘ 1 will give you ten pounds for it. cash down far too much,” he added. ■ If it is worth ten pounds to you,” I replied. “ there must be a reason for it, and I feel like investigating for myself.” “Oh!” he replied, “it is only that I have a fancy for the little thing. It will just fit into a corner, that is all.” “In that case. 1 will keep it.”l said, “ for l have a fancy for the little thing also.” “Ten pounds,” he reiterated, “ten pounds in gold. Look here.” and he displayed a number of glistening coins in his hind, and chinked them together in soft music. “ Put the money back into your pocket. my friend.” I said, adding in a lordly way befitting a man receiving publishers’ cheques. “ filthy lucre lias no attraction for me.” He glowered at me for a time, then assumed—or tried to do so--a frank, ingenuous look, as if he wished to be perfectly open with me. “ Look hero, sir. 1 will he quite truthful with you. The fac t is, 1 have reason to believe that somewhere hid- J den away in that desk there is a 1 document which can be of no possible i use to you, but which I could make use j of ’ ’ 1 interrupted for a moment. *• And if you had found it when I i was' not looking you would have pocketed it. I suppose.” “Oh!” lie replied, “that i.s neither here nor there.” *• Pardon me.” T said. “ but it is decidedly here, and as you are trying to be a George Washington. I should like an answer to my supposition.” Oh! veil!” he said impatiently, a.s if all this talk about veracity were a waste of time. “ perhaps I might.” “Then that’s all right.” I said cheerfully. “ Now sail along according to your personal compass, which appears to me to be a funny sort of an instrument and to want magnetising afresh.” He looked at me for a moment or two as if he doubted my sanity but, bringing himself to the matter in hand he continued : “ That bit of paper I was talking about cannot be of any possible use to you, for if you had it before you vou would not understand a word of it. being in a secret code, of which I have the key.” “Dear me!” I ejaculated. “How very interesting; and all this for ten pounds, or was it ton thousand—it would bo •" cheap it half the price.* if you will excuse the slang.” “ Now look here.” said he for the second time- “ I am looking.” \ cut in. “ and T sec a man very much in earnest trying to secure a document which is evidently of considerable value “No! .No!” he interjected. “No!

a false bottom of the cabinet. With j u glass of whisky by my side and a pipe drawing as well as could be desired, 1 set myself to a study of them. Mr Leopold Moyer was right. They j certainly required a key to unlock i their meaning—the only part which j offered anything at all intelligible was '• a map in colours, which was sprinkled ■ with names redolent of South America, ] such as Chaco, Ignacio, Bogota, etc., ■ and in the centre, as the point of interest, painted red with a gold border, was a place named Tupapo, evidently the mystery spot. What it was ail about 1 could not get at ; it might he gold, silver, copper diamonds or radium, or it might be a joke, but three hours’ pondering over it convinced me that for all the good I could extract from its perusal, the places referred to might as well be in Mars or the Moon. L had refused a profit ol ten pounds on my purchase and had got a. shabby old desk 1 did not want—not a very wise proceeding—and yet! 1 dill not feel like letting Mr Meyer have it. No! 1 would hold on and see if lie would make a move; and lie did. ! About a week had passed when a i letter came by post. ” To Mr Templeton, Author. Sir. - ! You have. I am informed, found some ! papers in the desk, and a.s I said, they am not of any value to you l will . make one la-* offer to you of £SO for them, which offer will not stand good for over a week. Let mo know at Leopold Meyer, 9. Tisdale Street.” “ Confound the fellow with his ultimatum.'' said I on reading his letter, ho shall have a reply at dace,” so 1 scribbled an answer to ».cupolcl Meyer, Agent. “Yes! I discovered the documents you mention, also the map—though how you know that I had rather puzzles me. L find the papers quite interesting, and think of taking a run over to the parts mentioned and have a look round. Meanwhile I will keep the map, etc., for future use, and you can keep your £SO. “Howard Templeton.” 1 thought that would finish liim 4 but the result proved otherwise. Another week passed and I was engaged at my desk on an attempt to get another cheque from my publishers —the last attempt. entitled ** The Musings of a Vagabond” having run through one edition—-when Mrs Johnj son, the lady who “does for me,” anj nounced “some one to see vou sir,” i the announcement being backed up by J the someone, a lady in expensive furs. with the atmosphere about her of havI ing just stepped out of a carriage or : motor you can always deterL it. She i was about thirty, very .effusive, and,

• ass. conceited fool, etc., but the futility of so doing was apparent, and I I burst out laughing, which was about j the best thing I could do—it restored t inv sanity. j Let them gloat over their spoil. The ! blessed papers were no good to me, j though fifty pounds would have been I very useful just now—when and to | whom is not fifty pounds nice and usei ful? | Of course I connected Mr Leopold i with the little trick, and made ini quiries at 9. Tisdale Street, but equally i of course found that the renting of a i back room in a house of that number i had served as a postal address —he had ; left several days ago. I 1 grinned a little sourly to myself as 1 pictured him chuckling a.s he dei ciphered thto coded manuscript and • studied the map, thinking how he had i done me. | He would be off. so I supposed, to j South America by some early boat and get to Bogota or Tupapo or whatever I the name was of the Tom Tiddler’s I ground over there, and fill his pockets I with gold and silver. Well ! let him, I and be blowed to him. As for me, I I would get on with my new book and j make it a best seller. Three rears had gone bv, and : though a best seller had not eveni tuatecl. I lmd obtained a certain j measure of success, as my presence in the lounge of “The Ritz ” in Paris as a very much paying guest, ought ] to testify. : The diners were pouring out of the great salon, some to the theatres, ; some to social functions, and there was 1 J a dazzling spectacle of well-dressed t women, some being assisted into their wraps by willing cavaliers for outside adventure, others selecting the various | comfortable settees in which to en- ' ! sconce themselves and criticise their ' j dear friends and acquaintances. ! The scene was interesting, not only i i as a spectacle, but the perfumed air i i pleased the sense of smell, and the • car was intrigued by the polyglot chatter of the careless throng, all seem- } ingly bent on the pursuit of that elusive' lady Pleasure., “But yes! surely over there is that - i Jew fellow —Meyer or some such name i ! —who they say has just arrived with i | more gold than lie knows what to » i do with, or is it silver, or copper, or i oil? it matters not. that’s the man, • j lucky chap! ’ 1 heard this remark from a mar. I alongside me to his companion, and ! my gii/.*- followed the indication of his rigai . and I saw my friend Mr Leopold J Mt-ver. !ato of 9. Tisdale Street, Lon- • ! don. EC. ' Hr repi'<v.oiii d ihf last word in ,j I'kuaul.-.plutocracy, the huge ‘ Regia "