"IN HONOUR BOUND,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 2 January 1936, Page 7

"IN HONOUR BOUND,”

BY MAY WYNNE. (Author of "Tlio Marrying of Mariette,” '‘Henry of Navarre,” “ Gwennola, ’’ etc.)

COPYRIGHT. PUBLISHED B Y SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

CHAPTER XIII (Continued). “I wish I had brought my canoe, said Gay. ‘‘Dad won’t let mo paddle her across the bay, but you could have paddled for me, Mervyn, and I could have dreamed. If ever I have a honeymoon I shall insist on Venice and a gondola,” and she began to sing very softlv, in crooning fashion. “For here am I ... to live or die. As you prove hard ck kind or hard or kind. ’ ’

Susan jumped up. ‘‘Snips!” she laughed, “the sun is absolutely blistering my forehead. Ibn going to paddle. One must take exercise after all that tea. Come along, you two, I’m going to explore the cave.” Gay looked across at Mervyn and grimaced. “Dear old Susan,” she murmured, and Mervyn was horribly conscious of disloyalty to his chum as he signalled back his pity for Susan’s obtuseness. It was was Gay who presently suggested they should follow Susan. “After all, wo are picknieking to please her, aren’t we?” she said to Mervyn; “or is it to please ourselves? I’m not quite sure! I am years older than Susan in all but mere time. You see I have lived in Prance where most young called mo Peterina Pan because I would not grow up. And now I am in England I have grown up. What is it?” Mervyn dared not tell her what he hoped the change was due to —he hardly dared tell himself that Love was the great transformer, for, during the last few davs, ho had swung to the other end of the pole and called Dan Cupid a mere charlatan. They found Susan seated on a rock, looking as if she were half asleep, and how guilty she started as they came up! Mervyn thought of Rosie Brutton, for there were suspicious-looking teardrops on Susan's face, though she laughed her challenge. “I’ve been right to the back of the cave,” sho said, “and I believe if one were bihve enough to wriggle through the narrowest opening there is another cave beyond. But I decided not to go. I’m too big.” “Let’s see,” urged Gay, suddenly niterested. “I’m the smallest, and I’d enjoy making a discovery. Come along.” . Mervyn came reluctantly, saying he was sure the cave was dangerous,. and if anvone wont through the opening it must be he. Gay flouted him and ran on, whilst Susan followed more cautiously, wishing she had never told the stoiv. Meivyn passed her without a word, ho was thinking only of Gay and her dangei, real or imaginary. “Come back,” he called, and the cave echoed with the sound of his ■voice. ‘ ‘Not till I find the buried treasure, teased Gay, and flung herself forward recklessly. Susan in the background never quite understood what followed. She heard Mervyn’s cry of horror, saw Gay come reeling back almost into her arms, and simultaneously a fragment of rock came crashing down not far from them. CHAPTER XIV. “Mervyn,” shrieked Susan, and left Gay to scramble out from the cave as she climbed over the scattered rocks. Mervyn was dragging himself as she came near. Her torch showed his f aee —pale with suffering. “Clear out,” lie ordered, “part of the roof is giving way. ” Then he collapsed with the muttered words: ‘‘ My leg! ” Susan was quite calm now, ready with her first aid, though it was only a clean handkerchief torn into strips. Sho had seen the blood-stained sock and guessed what had happened. A sharp piece of rock had cut deeply, and the blobd came spouting out. With quick, capable fingers Susan had tied the tourniquet and applied strips of bandage. . . “It’s an arterv,” she said, you must lie still. You simply can’t move. I’ll get help.” . Ho looked at her with dazed eyes. “You are a brick, Susannah,” he muttered; “brave as a lion. Poor little Gay was within an ace of being smashed. Never mind me. Go to her.” Susannah was looking at the dripping walls of the cave. At high tide it would be flooded — and the tide was coming in. With a curious chill combined with a fighting spirit she went out to where Gav was seated huddled on a rock.. The girl looked white enough. “Is he killed?” she asked, “he just pushed me away in time. It it wasn’t fake this time, Susan, and—oh —l’m terrified.” “Ho has injured an artery,” said Gav “I’ve bandaged him up, but he can’t walk.” Sho looked towards the incoming wa“We have an hour and a half at most,” she said, “and however hard we run we can’t get help in the time. It would bo as much as we could do to get round the point now. ” Gay did not speak, sho knew whai Susan meant.

Tho latter looked at her. _ 1 ‘Yon could do it,' ; she said, if you go at once. Once round tlio point you’ll be all right—but it is. two miles to the village.” ‘ ‘ And Mervyn? ’ ’ asked Gay. Susan was standing back looking up at the cliff.

“I .am going to climb,” she said. “There are some fishermen’s cottages on the cliff top. They will be in time. ’ ’ Gay shuddered.

“You will be killed,” she said. Susan was moving towards the spot selected by her quick judgment, but she paused. “That’s not as bad as drowning,” she said. “And you?” It was a tremendous moment.

Gay’s lashes drooped, the next instant she was returning glance for glance. “I am going.in to stay with Mervyn till —help comes,” she said, and added quickly, “I shall tell him what you are doing. ’ ’ Susan put out her hand. “I was a beast to doubt you,” she whispered, “and . . . I . . . I’m glad—for Mervyn’s sake.” If she were sorry for her own she was not aware of it for she had hated to think of Mervyn waiting in the dark believing both she and Gay had deserted him.

(To be" Continued)

CHAPTER XV. Gay picked her way back over the rocks. She was regretting having tormented simple Susan, for she was quite sure she would never survive that climb. The cliff was almost sheer—to look at it made Gay shudder. She hated cliffs! She was even wondering at herself as she went back to Mervyn. Why had she chosen to risk losing her life ... to face possible drowning in a dark cave for the sake of a man she did not . . . no! . . . did not think she loved? As she climbed, one small hand groping along the wet wall, Gay was puzzling over her very complex self. If her mother were no actress, she was an accomplished one! And sho had the gift, if gift it be, of living in any role she chose to adopt. To-day she had thrilled over the spell of a June day, the rippling of wavelets, the blue of the sky, the harmonies of Nature, and the eager eyes of a lover. Venice and romance had spelled her —and on the heels of the dream came the sharp shock of danger, her rescue from death, the peril of the man who had saved her, and the charm of self sacrifice.

But, till this moment, she had never lost sight of the happy ending. Rescuers always came; and, in the meantime, Mervyn would be adoring her for returning to his side. As to Susan—well! she was sorry for Susan —the homely character in the drama, the simple, deadly-in-earnest young woman who would blunder part of the way up the cliff and then — Gay dismissed what marred the charm of her fairy tale. Possibly Susan would get panic, and sit up there on some ledge till she was helped down. A horribly dull ending—but better than tragedy. Who would help Susan down, and incidentally save her and Mervyn, she did not know, but bo sure the heroes would arrive in the nick of time.

Then she heard Mervyn call. “Susan —you darling —you ought not to bo coming back. Clear out and help Gay home. Gay—” “Here, sir,” sang Gay, taking up her role again, “I’ve come to take care of you. The sea disputes the tenancy of the cave, so Susan is off to get help. She’s splendid —climbing the cliff like a mountain goat. Don’t you worry. Xin coming. ’ ’ Sho pushed out her torch as . she spoke and Mervyn saw her face in a circle of pale light. How his pulses raced. ' This was Gay in a new and most fascinating role. A heroine, charming, smiling, brave. The curls clustering over her white forehead were damp with moisture which only seemed to tighten the ringlets. Her eyes were merry, her red lips curved in a smile. Why Mervyn thought of tlie_ heroines of the French revolution going to the guillotine he did not know. It was an absurd fancy, but it came—and went, leaving him to worship his comrade m peril the more ardently. “Susan ought not to have allowed you to come,” he said faintly, as he fell back against the rock. Gay did not reply. Instead, she knelt by his side and kissed him on the forehead. She was almost quite sure she loved Mervyn devotedly. She cqfild not see his eyes, but she heard the quick catch of his breath. . “I wish I could make the pain easier,” she said. “Susan is a marvel. She told me she had tied up the artery. I never could. I feel awful at the sight of blood. I believe I might have been idiot enough to faint.” He only saw in the confession a fresh proof of her ivomanliness. One to be protected from the ugliness of life. Her return to him was the more heroic for her inward fears. “Susan has always been keen on first aid,” he said, “and hasn’t a nerve in her body. I’m glad you were not here. I —l wish you were not here now. ’ ’

She laughed very softly. “That’s not true,” she retorted. “You like to have me here.” “Not to place you in danger,” he groaned. Gav uns enjoying herself. “We shall be all right,” she said. “Someone will come along. There will, be fishermen in the bay. I will go out and see later on. Isn’t there anything I can do for you?” “You have done everything, ’ he replied. “When I saw your face—ah, Gav —that lovely, sweet little face, not an angel’s, but—” “But?” she questioned. “The one I love,” he said. Gay was silent. She did not want to burn her boats, and she knew herself well enough to realise that the romance now clinging to Mervyn Crant.on might have vanished by to-morrow. She enjoyed a forbidden love-mak-ing; she revelled in tho thrill of having subjugated this man. lie was quite an interesting lover, but to-morrow, when she met Dicky, she was not at all sure that she would not welcome him as her first lover in a very charming setting. She had called herself broken-heart-ed when Dicky fled away from the little French seaside resort which had been her home nearly all her life, but she had managed to put his image quite successfully in the background, till, wholly unexpectedly, she had met him at the Dellingtons. He had had to leave the next day, but he told her he would return to Welsted— simply because she was the magnet. And foolish little Gay listened to the handsomo young sinner, though she had ample proof of his worthlessness, and knew in her heart of hearts that her parents were wise in refusing to let her meet him. Now her father was putting the veto on a very different typo of man, and Gay deceived herself by saying it would always bo the same, and she must take tho law into her own hands. But, even so, who was to be the favoured one?

As she knelt beside the man who had just saved her life in Boland’s Cave, and listened to tho breaking of tho waves amongst the rocks outside, she told herself Mervyn had won what Dickie had at one time not troubled to take.