FALSE LOVE AND TRUE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20786, 22 April 1939, Page 25 (Supplement)

FALSE LOVE AND TRUE

SERIAL STORY

By MARGARET GLENN

A Love Story of Outstanding Charm

CHAPTER X. continued) Rene had taken thQ brandy, .and was spluttering, but she recovered Quickly and felt better. Her limbs stopped trembling. She looked towards her mother. “We —we must go out —' ••Get a coat on.” said Edna, practically, “and wait for me. Janev, find the electric torches. Help yourself to a drink. Mason.” She went out of the room, unhurriedly, and her composure settled the others. But there was a terrible anxiety in Rene's mind. Supposing anything had happened. Supposing— i Mason, white-faced, could see the i burning eyes of Martin Wingate, when i be had fluns out of the house, could remember the noise, the screaming, just before the woman had gone, and he was afraid. He knew what Wingate thought of Rene. “Drat them torches.” muttered Janey, crossly. “I never can find ’em. although I always put 'em where I can lay me hands on 'em. " No one benefited fern her unoonscious humour. R p n*' put 'her hands across li-r hot 1 >n ii- ,<l. and her limbs ach* d to -■ ' on.>ide, to start look.in— ~i>- shivered at the thought of what Ro y might find. Mason drowned his memories in a strong whisky, and help' d Janey to rommapp in a -‘uphoard for the torches. Edna didn I come. Rene . felt she could scream, she would ,

Edna was speaking into the tele)hone. "Yes, Mr Brent, please—'Hallo, Malcolm! Can you come over? As :ast as you can.” "Yes,” said Brent. “John's not —” "No,” said Edna, "it’s Martin Winjate. Nothing, yet, but we're worried, rtene—" “I'll be there in an hour,” promsed Brent. Rene was standing by the open Joor when Edna reached the kitchen ;gain. She turned imploringly. "Mums —hurry, please!” Edna was slipping a coat on as she walked towards the door. Janey looked uncertainly at her mackintosh. Edna caught the glance. "You stay, in case you’re wanted upstairs,” she said. Janey nodded, her angular face working. The door closed behind Mason, -who lowered above the two women. But Edna led the way. the pencil of light fn*m her torch stabbinp through the darkness. "We’ll walk up the lane,” she said. The darkness was unnerving. All three kept close together, looking ii* ;!l,er right nor left until they reached the slope. They stopped. Rene shuddered, white-faced, but she braced herself for the effort. Edna said, very coolly: “If he's fallen down here, we’ll be able to see the gap in the hedge. Mason. Keep all the torches in that direction.”

Mason murmured and, unseen by them, shuddered. Rene, her teeth clenched, shone the white beam of her torch on the bared hedges. She hardly knew what to expect, or what to look for. She did not pause to ask herself whether they were being wise by making this search. She couldn’t reason. She just felt they were being wise. Edna felt it, too. She had watched Martin closely, and had judged there was some deep root cause behind his moods, his occasional fits ol’ sullenness, his bitterness. She knew what it was, now, and she was afraid, as deeply as Rene was afraid. Martin Wingate had been facintg this dread from the moment he had first met Rene. He had never mentioned, never suggested, there was anything between them. But his love for her had been written on his face, in his eyes. And then this had happened. He was married. She confirmed that from Mason, with a short question which brought an equally short “yes.” Married, in love with another woman, filled with the repressions of years, with the hopelessness of his desires. They kept a yard away from each other, *and the three pencils of light ! looked eerie against the darkness. ’ For a while they saw nothing. The darkness was all about them, a moan- ■ ing wind sprang up. the air was filled with the leaves of the trees carried , hither and thither. A little cry from Rene stopped the others. "Oh,” she said, and the hedge, the ground. Mason, her mother, the lierht , from the three torches, all whirled ! round, faster, faster, faster — • Hold her. Mason. " snapped Edna, j Mason’s arms went round the girls shoulders. Re heard lmr moan again, 5 then felt her dead weight in his arms. 1 He laid her on the grass verge, gently, k while Edna said: [ ‘-She’s better like that. What did she see?” , i Together they peered at the cap in ' the hedge: they saw the broken twigs, t a littlo. piece of cloth, fluttering m | t.hc breeze. Mason muttered sorneI thing, beneath his breath. Edna felt

the colour ebbing from her cheeks, '< and clenched her teeth. “Can you get through?” she asked, but before he had time to answer she was squeezing between the hedge. She reached the other side, breathing hard, her hands scratched with thorns. The light from the torch shot downwards. It lit on nothing but the grass, an occasional bush. The point of the light went round in a wide arc. A rustling behind her told her that Mason was squeezing through. His light joined hers. She stopped moving, suddenly, and the. circle of light, twenty feet or more below them, shone on a bush. There was something beside it, partly hidden. “His arm,” breathed Mason. “Steadily,” murmured Edna. The man hardly heard her. Cautiously he went down the slope, slipping once and sending Edna’s heart in her mouth. He steadied, and went on. Foot by foot, he neared the bush — He reached it, and bent down. His voice came up. queerly far away, through the night air. “He's here, Ma’m.” “I'm coming,” said Edna. “In a moment.” She turned back as she heard a rustling in the hedge. Against the dark background of the sky she saw Rene’s face, chalk-white. Her voice was very soft as she called: -All right, dear. Come through—” • ‘You —you’ve found him?” Rene's voice was* a whisper. ••Yes.” Edna spoke with forced confidence. "lie’s bruised. but there's nothing serious. Will you run back and telephone for a doctor? Wilberforce. if lie's in.” Thov stared at each other in the darkness for a moment., and then Rene turned away, with a little moan. Edna wailed until her daughter had crone j through the hedge, and then turned hack towards Mason, and Martin Wingate's huddled body. CHAPTER XT Mason was folding hi* coat and making a pillow for Martins heal. Martin was unconscious and lying very j still. Mason had straightened his legs j

and arms, although one hung oddly from his side. Edna bent down. “ He's alive,” muttered Mason, anc she hardly recognised his voice. “ Oh God, Ma’m! He'll be all right?” There was entreaty, piteous ye* noble, in the servant’s voice. Edn« thought, oddly: “There’s nothing th» matter with a man whose servant ca] feel for him, like that.'' Aloud: “ Yes of course. Ease his shoulders mori on your coat —that's better.” The ghostly darkness surroundei ' them, as she put her hand on Martin' chest, feeling the fluttering of hi heart. It was stronger than she ha expected. She straightened up. “ Yes,” she repeated. “ A doctor.” suggested Martin, peer ing down. ” Ilene’s telephoning for one. Ca: you get him to the top, do you think? “ I —l could try.” Edna shook her head. “ We'd better wait,” she saic “ Someone will be here. soon. Don' worry. He’s better there than h if we tried to get him up, and slipped. Mason’s hand went towards hi pocket, but came away quickly. Edn saw it. “Smoke if you want to.” she saic “ I’ll have one. please.” Two red dot broke the blackness. “ Mason.” sh said, “ will you go to the stables an get some ropes. I'll watch him.” “ You’ll be all .right?” Mason looke doubtful. And then he reminded him self of the slim, confident woman wit him. If he could have seen her face set grimly, he would never have ques tioned. “ Yes, Ma'am ” He left her. She stood on the slope, starin across the hills and meadows, seein nothing. The tip of her cigarette gre-< bright, and fiery, then died down. N: '■nee did the man at her feet move e | make a sound. The minutes dragere by. She was thinking of Rene, slier fair, lovely Rene, who was alway ready with help and encouragemen who had tael.led the problems con fronting her with dauntless courage ami who was now faced with this. P"or. poor Rene, Edna's lips were ver\ tight toge | l her.

In the glow of her cigarette she tried to see the time by her wrist watch. She could have used the torch, but it passed a few of the lonely minutes away, trying to read the face. Ten past eight, she saw. Forty minutes since she had telephoned Malcolm Brent, and he would be here in twenty minutes, or a little more. She saw his face, suddenly and very clearly, serious, yet with lips and eyes that smiled easily, distinguished with his I iron grey head and his erect carriage. He was proving a very good friend, ; was Malcolm Brent. I She heard a rustling in the hedge, thirty feet above her. Who could it be? she wondered. Rene hadn't had time to get to the house and back; Mason certainly hadn't, i A voice came, ghostly-like, out of ’ the darkness. " Mother!” “ Yere!” She called back, softly, as If afraid t of waking the silent man at her feet. ; There was a scuffling and shuffling. ’ Vere appeared, very suddenly, by her > side. His hand gripped hers, i “ 1 met Rene,” he said. “ Janey told me, too. Is he—?” “ lie'll be all right,” Edna said, al- * though she had no idea whether he ; would or not. She only knew it was 1 wiser to let him stay there, unconscious, than to restore him with i brandy so that he was forced to en- - dure the agony he must be suffering i from his arm. The arm was broken, , she know. “ Fine.” Vere was silent for a moment. Then he lit a cigarette, the first she had seen him light. She r seemed to notice nothing. His voice r came, strained and anxious. " I’ve been let off to-morrow, and 1 t thought I’d make a long week-end of • it.” i " Good lad.” she said. She was . wondering whether she had imagined ; the guilty note in his voice. It was . a night when tilings were easily ima- ■ gined. How long was it since Yere , had been home? Five, six weeks. T* had been once, since he had sent that telegram. Row did hr >pend lus time -in London? She ached to know, to see and to judge his friends, to watch

over him. She couldn't. He had grown a long way from her, since he had gone to London. Further away than he had even at school. And yet —she laughed a little, aloud—he had arrived when he was badly needed. The pain she felt was eased. 14 Is anything the matter?” Vere asked. The night was making him Jumpy, and he was drawing quickly at his cigarette. “ Thoughts,” said Edna. It didn't seem to moment to ask, but they needed something to ease the tension. “ Everything all right, Yere?” “ Fine!” He was almost too enthusiastic. “ I think they’re pleased with my work.” The silence fell again, to be broken by the sound of a car engine, some distance away. They waited, with strained ears. Edna looked at her watch, using the torch this time. Halfpast eight; then minutes, seeming to drag, had flown. The wheels of the car were crunching the gravel surface of the road above. Its headlights suddenly shone a valley of white mist above their heads. The engine stopped, and a voice floated down. “ Edna—Vere—” It was Malcolm. Edna breathed with relief as she called back. “ I’ll dip the lights,” called Malcolm from the road. They could just hear j him moving, heard the car start again, ! move cautiously and stop. The headj lights came, directed downwards, covi erinc both of them with a white glare, i They could not see Malcolm, but he ! could sec them, black flgures in the | sea of light. He went down to them, i cautiously, and not until they could • I him clearly did they see Mason I with him. ! “ Rene’s wait inc: for the doctor.” j Malcolm said. “ We’ll get the invalid | up. shall we?” 1 Re sm'lod: ghostly though he looked ! in the irlare. he filled Edna with a deep ; c.-nfldence. She nodded Mason, nnj coiling some ropes from hi* shoulders. , ; began to fasten one round Martin’s , i waist. Malcolm helped “ Vere, go up to the top with I

! Mason,” he said. " and haul at the ! j ropes, gently. I'll steady Martin—“ Yere and Mason disappeared into the white sea. Edna took Martin's head, 1 very gently, jn her hands. Malcolm took his legs, and together they walked up, supporting Uie unconscious men as Vere and Mason hauled. Once they shipped. Edna’s heart leapt fce her mouth. But they recovered, and went on. The l edge |oom< d out of the darkness, and flie\ hoisted their burden on to the road and into the car. “ A broken arm.” said Dr. Wilberforce, a little, red-faced, pleasantvoiced man, " and concussion, Mrs Malleson. He's lucky to have escaped i so easily. A nasty place to fall, down ! that slope. I often think the hedge i ought to be Mrengthened.” * ' Yes.” said Edna. The doctor had finished his work by • ten o'clock, and Martin was resting comfortably, in the spare bedroom. He ■ was sleeping, after taking a sleeping I draught that the doctor had prepared. (To be Continued)