Pacific Blue,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18615, 17 November 1928, Page 23 (Supplement)

Pacific Blue,

“STAR” SERIAL.

\ STORY OF SUNNY SEAS AND ISLAND ADVENTURES.

By

CARLTON DA WE

Author of The Knightsbridge Affair ” " The Glare,” “ Desperate Love,” etc. [COPYRIGHT.]

CHAPTER XVIII— (Continued). “Easy on the kickin’; an’ listen. Some one was suspected, some one who’d played, old Abe’s game with a considerable amount of success. But he was clever, that old rogue, an’ they couldn’t just fix on him, an’ so he got away. Some said he died runnin’ down the coast, an’ was buried at sea. No one guessed that he’d hidden himself on one of the hundred an’ fifty Tongan Islands. Get me?” “ I will.” “ Now, then, them pearls was never disposed of jn any of the Australian cities, for, p’r’aps, the best of all reasons ; an' the receiver wasn’t in touch with the European or Amurrican markets. Beginnin’ to see light, cap? Come, I reeo’nised you the moment I seen 3-ou aboard the schooner. More’n once you was pointed out to me up north as a man who hadn't no partic’lar scruples where pearls was concerned fascinatin’ little things, I admit, an’ powerful attractive, especially to women. So, what’s it to be—a square deal with me an’ my pal, or do you insist on that chicken layin’ his egg? Anyway, it’s up to you.” What Captain Harworth might have done or said must ever remain a mystery, for at that moment Doris, who had been listening just inside the door, came forward, her face pale with excitement, her eyes flashing indignantly. “ What does this man mean?” she demanded. Hitherto her father had met the attack with every appearance of stoic indifference, but with her coming the inner man seemed to crumble. He flung an almost frightened glance at her. His great hands, hanging at his sides, shook convulsively; he seemed to dwindle in stature. “ Go inside,” he commanded harshly. “ But first hear a bit of news, miss,” cut in the amiable Steevers, for the first time speaking quickly. Then, immediately relapsing into his accustomed drawl, he continued with mock seriousness, “ I deeply regret to say it, but yore respected father is nothing better than a common thief. True, there’s them that steals with their own hands, and others that gets fools to steal for cm; but the law, bein’ a bonehead, don’t make no sort of discrimination between the two.” Then like lightning he was smitten fair on his sneering mouth, to the infinite damage of his remaining teeth. He reeled back and would have fallen had not the rail of the verandah saved him. With an oath Captain Harworth sprang forward to complete the good work so auspiciously begun. If he could have reached Steevers’s long, lean throat with those great convulsive fingers, much might have happened; but in his fury he failed to notice the swift movement of Mulcready, who swung a vicious right to his head. The old man staggered, and, though half-stunned as he was, turned to the new aggressor—to be met by another blow which sent him reeling backwards and down the steps of the verandah, where he lay an inert mass. Doris uttered a piercing scream and reeled back as though she, too, had been struck. Steevers, his mouth bleeding, no longer a calm philosopher, but a howling and* hideous fury, cried out, “Finish him off, Chimp!” a piece of advice accentuated by a succession of foul oaths. Mulcready, nothing loth, sprang down the steps and kicked the insensible form with brutal ferocity, seeing which, Doris flew to her defenceless father’s aid. “You brute! ” she flung at him.

“You brute!” and attempted to interfere; but Mulcready, grinning like a hideous gorilla, caught her by the arm and swung her round so violently that she crashed to the ground nearly a dozen yards away, where she lay moaning pitifully. Then Steevers smiled once more in spite of a bleeding mouth, while the gorilla looked up at him and grinned, just as a dog, having performed its tricks, looks up to its master for approval ; but before either could further congratulate each other Trenton appeared. With a swift glance he seemed to take in the situation, and instinctively rushed to Doris. She was not hurt, thanks to the suppleness of her young bones, but there was a look of fear and agony in her eyes that maddened him and turned every drop of his blood to fire. “ Father,” she sobbed. “ They’ve killed him ! ” A quick glance showed him the old man lying there as still as only the dead lie. Rapidly he rose to his feet (he had been kneeling with Doris in his arms) and strode to what he believed the dead body. Mulcready, hideously repellent, interposed his massive form. “ What’s the meaning of this?” “ It’s manin’ I am to be doin’ the same wid you.” “ Kill him, Chimp,” cried Steevers from the verandah. “At him, good boy; smash him so’s his of a mother ■won’t know him.” * Newer was Mulcready loth to fight. Being the one thing he knew he could do better than most men, he gloried in administering punishment. All the fighting instincts of his race were instantly on the aggressive. He put up his great hands and grinned with the assurance of victory. It had always come his way, or almost invariably, and consequentlv he failed to anticipate the possibility of defeat. Nor, if the truth must be told, had Trenton any insuperable objection to a scrap, though hoping that his fighting days were over.' Something incomparably better had come his way of late. It was dreams of a quiet fireside now, and the ineffable calm of sweet blue eyes. And yet it was the agony he had seen in those blue eyes which roused once more the combative instinct. With a swift movement he flung aside his thin white coat and stood up in a flimsy, short-sleeved vest that showed a pair of long, muscular arms with rather formidable bunches ! of knuckles at the end of them. '

There was a wicked, cold. deadly glitter in his dark eyes as he faced Mulcready. Doris, watching with a beating heart, and utterly forgetting her father in her new terror, ferared for him. To her thinking Mulcready was scarcely human. That tremendous body, those huge, horrible, hairy arms ! Her eyes blurred, her heart grew faint. She breathed with the utmost difficulty, and might have called a truce had she been capable of speaking. Her blood was frozen with fear for him.

Dimly she saw the flashing of arms, heard the gorilla grunt as he swung ferociously but ineffectiveb' the shuffling of feet as the two men circled round each other. Sharp blows and quick break-aways followed. Then of a sudden her vision cleared and she saw he was smiling, but oh! most dreadfully, most wickedly. Yet she gloried in the sight of it, for her own blood was now pounding furiously through her veins. She, too, came of a fighting race, and much of the old adventurer was in her. This man was fighting for her as men had always fought for women! There was something in this; quite a good deal, if you stay for a moment to consider. (To be Continued).