“THE BLACK OWL”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17833, 29 April 1926, Page 16

“THE BLACK OWL”

“ STAR’S” NEW SERIAL

[By

William Le Queux.

CHAPTER XVI.— (Continued.)

Mr Saunders grinned cheerfully. By the way in which he clenched his huge hsts it was plain to see the lust of battle had begun to stir in him at the bare chance of what he might be called upon to do. He had attended Marsden several times in his more dangerous quests, but to his great chagrin it had never been necessary to exhibit the prowess of which he was justl> proud. “All right. Mr Marsden. seven o'clock you saw ru be there to time l shall be guided by your signals, and if one of 'em misses, the Lord have merev on him. 11l be in on him, and his own mother won’t know him when I've done with him." “Ves. turn up at seven sharp My man isn’t due. till e ight, but as there s money about he might be anxious and turn up a bit earlier. You can stop in the sitting-room till I hear his knock, and then I‘ll bundle you into your hiding-place." At seven o'clock the big man made his appearance and was regaled with a copious tumbler of whisky mixed with a little water, which his robust taste preferred to soda. During an agreeable three-quarters of an hour he entertained his host with a thrilling narrative of his two last battles, lie heaved a deep sigh when he had finished the heroic story. “Glorious old flays those. Mr Marsden. 1 wish 1 could put the clock back. Thank vou, sir. I still have a pretty good business. 1 often long to give them one of my straight ’uns. but I daren't. I should spoil their pretty faces if I did. So I let thorn hit me as hard as they ran instead, and bless you. with the exception of one chap, and he isn’t any great, shakos. I hardly feel ’em. Still, I manage to jog along pretty comfortably, and now and then an odd job or two comes in my way, as it has tonight." He had just finished speaking when a knock sounded at the door . Mr Attwood’s impatience had struck about a quarter of an hour off the appointed time. Quick as thought Marsden bundled the pugilist with his half-consum-ed glass of whisky in his hand through the folding doors. He was to take, up his station a little way behind them, and keep control over every movement, particularly his breathing. The signal had been arranged between them, a slight cough at the interval of about every two minutes. If that cough ceased, or Marsden raised a shout, Mr Saunders was to rush to the rescue. Attrwood was ushered into the peaceful scene by the maidservant. Marsden was sitting in an casy-cbair, the whisky and syphon of soda on the tAblc, one tumbler half-empty, another one waiting for the visitor. lie could have no idea of the formidable man waiting behind those folding doors, ready to intervene if occasion arose. Marsden rose to receive his visitor, and greeted him with a cough instead of a handshake. “Good evening, Mr Attwood, a little before your time, but that’s a good fault, and I am quite ready for you. Excuse this l»eastly cough. I swallowed some whisky the wrong way, and I shall bark like this for ever it seems to me. Sit in that, chair and start right away. Don’t take any notice of the cough, I shall be listening.”

Mr Attwood obeyed his instructions, and occupied the seat indicated him, a quite good way from his host. He took from his pocket *a foolscap-size envelope, from which he extracted a considerable amount of manuscript.

“I have employed the time since I saw you this morning, in writing out the past history of Mrs Winterton, so far as I know it, with subsidiary details of that of the persons connected with her. It occurred to me it might give you the information in an easier form," and it will be useful for reference. If you kindly take it and read it, I shall of course be pleased to explain any points on which you are not quite clear." It might be a quite honest suggest tion, or it might mask a sinister intention. Anyway, Marsden would not accept it. With a man like “The Black Owl" he would not take the smallest risk. While his eyes were upon the MS. he could not watch Attwood’s movements. The man might spring upon him in an unguarded moment, and do him serious injury before the trusty Saunders would know it was time to make an appearance.

"Let it be the other way about, if you please," he said briskly. “You read very slowly to me. I will stop you when 1 think there is any necessity. I am quite ready when you are." Whether or not Attwood discerned the nature of the suspicion which prompted the reversal of the proceedings lie made no comment, but commenced to read in a low but very clear voice. And this carefully written MS. from which lie read so steadily disclosed the following facts: Julia Lancing, the only child of her parents, was born in New ork. Her father was an Englishman who had emigrated to the land of freedom early in life, had settled down there and married an American girl, like himself. of the lower middle class. Lancing was not a man of any considerable

capacity, nor was he at all ambitious. He was a clerk in a big stores, and his moderate salary sufficed for the wants of himself and family. Julia was in many ways a remarkable child, utterly different from her plodding father, and pretty but decidedly commonplace mother. At. an early age she developed remarkable precocity and Vail fair to become a very handsome girl. She read voraciously every book and newspaper that .she came across, and she also evinced a considerable talent for music. Urged by his friends, her father pinched and screwed to give her a sound musical education By the time she was eighteen she had become an accomplished pianist, and was confident she was on the. high road to fortune, These hopes so fondly indulged in. and fostered by the small circle of her not very critical acquaintance, were doomed to disappointment. She was very good, but she was not quite good enough. She could not attract the audiences that were satisfied with nothing short of the master pianists of the day. She played occasionally for small fees at inferior concerts, For small fees she taught a few pupils. Now

and again she went to an evening party as an accompanist. She made about enough to dress herself decent lv, and give her a little pocket money over. But her profession brought her in neither fame nor riches. At the end of twelve months, fed up with her inability to secure success, she formed the project of going to England where she trusted to find greater appreciation. Money was an obstacle of course, but her father, who had put by a little bit, came to her assistance. He furnished her with her passage money and a tidy little sum to provide her passage money and a tidy little sum to provide the sin cws of war while she was feeling her way in the new country. He also promised that if she found herself stranded he would cable over sufficient to bring her back to her old humble home.

Incidentally, she never saw her parents again. They both died while she was in England of a malignant fever within a few days of each other. Lancing had caught it. first while it. was raging in the city, and‘given the contagion to his wife. She came to England armed with a letter of introduction to her aunt, her father’s only sister, who had married a small shopkeeper carrying on business in Fulham, named Pearson. This man had two sons. Attwood, to call him by his assumed name, the elder by a first marriage to an American woman domiciled in England. Pearson, the younger, afterMrs Winterton's butler, was the oilspring of the second union and therefore cousin to Julia Lancing. The two young men were, of course, half-bro-thers, t>eing sons of the same father, and closely resembled each other. With Julia, Attwood had no blood relationship. At the time of her introduction to the Fulham family, the two half-bro-thers were on very cordial terms with j

The elder Pearson kept, a small dra- ' pery shop, not a very flourishing concern, but enough to afford him a decent. living. Attwood, to call himself bv the name best known to Marsden, helped his father in the business at a very inadequate wage. The younger brother, who was a pushing sort of fellow, and greedy for money, had embarked on his own as a bookmaker, in the pursuit of which occupation he met with varying fortunes, up one day - and down the next. Her aunt received the handsome girl with open arms, and insisted that she should becomes a member of their household while\shef was making up her mind what \mbark in. Julia was very Accept this in vita- - tion, it was Jiie with pleasant 1 relatives than in poky and uncomfort- ; able lodgings, which was all hef slender i store of money could afford. And after ! she had been getUixi down for a few i days she hpgan.wer brave fight for fortune in h'er father's .country, a painfully new one\tp I'itv. She went every agent in London, she advertised for pupils to whom she could lessons at their own homes. But the response to her appeals was more meagre than in her own country. Week by week saw her slender store diminishing. This was her blackest time. At one period she had to take a situation as waitress in a suburban tea-shop, thankful for the few shillings she could earn there in wages and tips. •It was while she was in this humble position that her father and mother died suddenly. Lancing had left a few pounds which enabled her to struggle on for a little time longer. But the future looked very dark. Even her indomitable spirit gave way, and she had to admit that the prospects stretching out in front of her were of the gloomiest. Her cousin, John Pearson, had been going up while she was going down, he had enjoyed several streaks of luck lately, and had been able to put by quite a tidy sum of money for a man in his position, something over five hundred pounds. He was not a regular member of the Fulham household, like his half-bro-ther Attwood, but never a week passed by without his paying a visit to his family, to whom he was genuinely attached. From , the beginning he had# been greatly attracted by his handsome cousin, and she was by no means indifferent to him, lie being at that period a quite personable young man, superior to his station in many respects. At the precise moment that Pearson found himself in funds Julia’s hopes of making her way in the world had sunk to zero. There seemed nothing in front of her but an existence of poorly paid toil. Her good looks were very little use to her, for she had no opportunity of coming across eligible men. What a disastrous ending to that journey which the high-spirited gir! had taken full of hope and enthusiasm! It was when her fortunes were at their lowest ebb that Pearson took heart ol grace and asked her to marrv him, well knowing that under different circumstances he would have had no chance of winning her. And, tired out with her vain buffetings against an inexorable fate, Julia Lancing buried her pride and ambition and accepted him. At this point in his narrative Attwood made an impressive pause, and read out with dramatic emphasis the words: “On a certain day in a certain year, Johon Pearson and Julia Lancing were made man and wife at the neighbouring registry office,” (To l*e continued.)