SINISTER HOUSE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18830, 6 August 1929, Page 16

SINISTER HOUSE

—— NEW SERIAL

By

FRED M. WHITE

Author of “The Cardinal Moth.” “The Crimson Blind,” “The Riddle of the Rail,” etc.

CHAPTER lll.—(Continued.) “That is for you to say. You heard what Goldsworthy had to say about Beaucaire, and yet in the face of that you deliberately choose to dance with the man Have you no sort of regard for your reputation?” "I think I can take care of that.*’ Pamela said icily "Oh, be a sport, Joe,” Jimmy pleaded “Don’t spoil the evening because Pamela likes to cut a caper. Hang it all, we are yotir guests here, don’t you know.”

“I haven’t forgotten it," Joe growled. “But even a host is entitled to some sort of consideration. I am going home and you others can stay or not. as you like.” “J’y suis, j’y reste,” Pamela quoted. “Besides, this cave-man stuff- doesn’t appeal to me.” “Just a little longer, Joe,” Daphne implored.

“Might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb,” Jimmy suggested. “I mean Daphne might. I’ll see her home.” “Very well,” Joe said grimly. “You others can do as you like. I am going home to bed.”

With his head high in the air, Joe stalked out and the place knew him no more. Pamela smiled languidly.

“What a masculine cat,” she ex claimed. “Where do these Victorian survivals come from? And what ought we to feed them on? Dear old Methu selah.”

“Think he really has gone home? ’ Jimmy asked. “Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Pamela laughed. “It was ever Joe’s habit, when peeved, to go straight to bed. He will probably lie awake the rest of the night worrying about us and wondering if he did the right thing. When I get back home I will ring him up on the telephone. He has an extension to his bedside and it might soothe his anxious mind to know that I have not been abducted by a sort of West End sheik. And now let’s get on with it. I am fed up with Joe.” But somehow Pamela did not get on with it. A wave of tiredness swept over her, a tiredness which was not altogether without a touch of remorse She would pick up a partner presently she told the others; meanwhile she would sit and look on. There were several fnen in the room who were known to her and one of them would come up and ask her for a dance.

So she sat there alone, in that fine calm pose of hers, feeling a little delected and unhappy. Not that she waworrying about Joe —oh, dear, no. Joe would be all right when they met on the morrow, as he always was after a tiff. It was part of the ritual. Still, she wished now Some sort of a disturbance at the far end of the floor distracted her introspective philosophy. An erratic per former, probably the worse for a glass or two of the club's vile champagne, charged into a passing couple and brought them down. Just for a moment the suggestion of a football scrim mage was there. Then the tangle of silk and black and white resolved itself, and from it emerged Daphne and Jimmy, hot and indignant. “Drunken swine,” Jimmy fumed “Barged right into us. And if some chap hadn’t given Daphne a hand she might have been hurt. Took a toss as it was, poor girl.”

“So you were in the melee?” Pamela asked. “In my more penitent moments I wonder why we come to these places But, Daphne, old thing, what has be come of your pearl necklace?” Daphne put a trembling hand to her throat and gasped. The precious family pearls were no longer there. “Pinched for a million,” Jimmy groaned “Let’s raise the cry. Have the door locked and everybody searched.’

Pamela laid a restraining hand on his arm. It was in moments like this that her natural courage and coolness stood her in such good stead. “Be quiet,” she whispered. “Sit down Don’t let anybody see that we are disturbed. If we pretend not to notice the loss the thieves, who are probably watching us, will stay where they are Once we start a hue and cry, then they will go hand to hand and Daphne will never see her family treasures again Probably even the waiters are in league with the thieves No, our only chance is to keep quiet and watch. We don't want a scandal, or to give the papers anything to talk about 'Now, Daphne try and look natural. Smile at me smile as if you had nothing on your mind. That’s better. Did you nptice any sort of snatch. Daphne? I mean, when that man picked you up?” “I believe I did, now I come to think of it.” Daphne declared. “The man who caught me as I was falling was probably the cause of all the trouble.” “Could you pick him out?” Pamela asked.

“Of course I could.‘ Daphne said “He is the man you were dancing with The man called Beaucaire.”

“By Jove, you are right,” Jimmy exclaimed. “Let me go and speak to him. Take him on one side and punch the stones out of him. That’s the idea Pamela.”

“Really,” Pamela smiled pityingly And get punched for your pains. You would have half a dozen confederates on you at once. For goodness’ sake let us keep our heads. Dahpne, pretend to ignore your loss. Act as if you were ignorant of the robbery. That man won’t leave the club yet, he is too cool a hand at' the game for that. There! You see, he is dancing again with that lovely Dover Street girl just as if nothing had happened. What a splendid nerve.'

“And meanwhile I sneak out for the police?” Jimmy queried. “Meanwhile you do nothing of the sort,” Pamela said scornfully.* “We stay here and watch—at least, I stav and watch while vou two go on dane ing When that man leaves we follow him. Track him to his flat in a taxi Tljen perhaps Jimmy can bring off his famous right hook, or whatever they call it in pugilistic circles. Man to man, you are worth two of him. That is, when you are alone together. And it's any monev he has got the pearls, or will have before he leaves the club, because he is not the type to trust anybody else. Buck up, Daphne, don’t look so scared. Off you both go.” For the best part of .an hour Daphne kept a narrowed eye on the fair-haired man. She could see him weaving in and out of the kaleidoscope of dazzling froth of colour on the floor. Then suddenly a whisper ran through the throng which shaped itself presently into one word, and that “Police.”

Followed a sort of frightened silence, like that of scared rabbits when a dog approaches: the staccato sexpam of a woman and the hurried hiding of glasses undei tables. There were countless vessels of contraband there at that hou" of the young morning. Then, tn the \ in doorway, the gleam of a coup.*. of police helmets and the voice of a man speaking with authority. Pamela’s pose of bored detachment fell from her like a garment. She had nothing to fear, neither had her party, for nothing in the way of refreshment had passed their lips since they entered

the club. There might be talk and a little scandal, but nothing worse than that And there were the pearls to consider. Nothing mattered so long as they were recovered The feeling of tiredness left her. the thirst for adventure ran through her veins A mob of dancers drifted by her like smoke driven by the wind, in the direction of the cloakroom at the back of the dancing floor, which was up a flight of stairs And Pamela noticed the fact that these did not return There were not many of them and their class was as the writing on the wall In a flash it came to Pamela that these habitues were in the secret of a surreptitious way out At the end of the queue came the man with the curly hair, who passed her with a languid bored air She turned eagerly to her companions “Look after Daphne. Jimmy,” she commanded “There is no reason why you should get into trouble .because none of us has done any wrong Get Daphne home and wait till you hear from me on the telephone I shall be all right.” Before Jimmy could expostulate Pamela had vanished in the direction of the steps leading to the floor above. She followed close behind the curlyhaired man and reached him just as he slid into the gentlemen’s cloakroom at the end of which Pamela noticed that a door stood open. The secret exit, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Without the slightest hesitation Pamela snatched up a fur coat and threw it over her shoulders. She stepped through the black opening and laid her hand on the shoulder of the man in front.

“Adam,” she said, “won’t you give unhappy Eve the latchkey to this paradise before the angel represented by policemen requests her company—in other words, be my squire of dames?”

CHAPTER IV.

PAMELA SEES IT THROUGH

The man in front turned round and saw Pamela framed in the doorway with the light behind her. an instant or two he could not make out her features, though it seemed to him that he had heard that drawling voice before. And then it flashed upon him who it was that spoke so calmly and collectedly in the midst of all that confusion down below on the dancing floor.

“You,” he claimed with a sort of insolent admiration. “Beauty in distress and all that sort of thing. Noblesse oblige. When class calls to class, there is only one response. Will you give me your hand, fair lady?” Pamela looked out into what seemed to her nothing but darkness and desolation. She could hear the faint echo of traffic from afar off and the occasional hoot of a passing taxi. But exit, so far as she could see, there was none It seemed as if one step forward would pitch her headlong downwards into some bottomless pit. Nevertheless there must have been some path to safety, or the man in front of her, standing, apparently, on space, would not have :>een so cool and collected.

So, without the slightest hesitation Pamela extended her hand, which was clasped all too warmly and familiarly by the fair-haired man. He was carrying it off very well, though Pamela’s sensitive ear did not fail to detect the theatrical suggestion that lay beyond the speaker’s request. Still, she felt that she could afford to ignore that and at the moment of high adventure, the blood of the Dacres was singing in her veins and the spirit of her ancestors was backing her on She was no longer tired and weary The fresh air and the tonic of danger acted on her like a charm. What was to be the end of this exploit she neither knew nor cared for the time being. Nor had she lost sight of the fact thru this man had Daphne’s necklace in his pocket and that the gods of happy chance might show her a way to get it back again. She wa? going to risk it, anyway. Her pulses were beating evenly and there was no suggestion of pounding at her heart. She smiled as Her hand rested in that of the stranger “Thank you so much," she murmured sweetly. ‘But I can see no way out. Do we climb down a rope?” “Not quite as bad as that,” the man •ailed Vivian Beaucaire laughed “Our exit is by means of an old fire escape, very rusty and with worn steps, but I think that if you let me hold your hand and guide vour feet we shall emerge in safety Not that you had anything to fear ” “Perhaps not.” Pamela murmured “But I have no particular desire to see my name in the papers as one of those arrested in the police raid on the club. Nothing romantic about it and a little sordid, don’t you think?” “Perhaps so," Beaucaire agreed. “But what has become of the rest of your party?” “Oh, they will have to look to themselves,” Pamela said carelessly “I dare say they will be all right.” They went quietly and steadily down the stairway and presently emerged into #a narrow ill-lighted court, after ' hich Pamela recognised, to her sur prise, that she was in the Haymarket Not a soul was in sight, not even a solitary policeman. Pamela drew a long breath that ended in a sigh *»f relief.

“Feeling a bit unstuck now,” the fascinating stranger suggested as Pam ela swayed slightly. (To be continued.)