Show x iti BLACK in N li oil in ii N it V GOLD jn in at by beatrice grimshaw i p i N by irwin mym A 1 NN ij ed 0 N aw V a 00 a e 8 iel a copyright by fjug hugha as X lk ea M uail ua il co ti 4 it 4 bervice k ean 11 held THE STORY ori od a pleasure plea gur trip in easte eastern irn waters philip amory english world war veteran vt teran now a trader on the th leland of papua new I 1 guinea plunges e overboard v to give ave th the 6 alf if of a m musical comedy actress known FLA gln gin sling amory becomes interested in pla pis laurier tAur ler member of a wealthy new south wales family Hs he tells her of his bis knowledge of a wonderful gold cold field on the island 6 gir gin islin tells him pla 1 la Is engaged to sir richard pan adlaw hla hilt holiday ended amory arrives back at daru he meets an englishman spicer there on development business for L syndicate of which pan fan thaw Is IB head ranshaw fanshawe Fan shaws a name recalls to amory a lons long forgot ton ten incident in which he witnessed the escape of fanshaw fa from s leper colony he H tells hla his friend bassett about it and decides to inform laurier Laur ler he goes to thursday island to send the message amory hears fanshaw dictate a message which indicates that mat tha secret of the gold field to Is known amory meets meet with an s accident that lays him up tor for three weeks recovered he nails bills alone tor for port moresby A storm compels him to put in at thursday island IV where here he finds fanshaw Fans baw t lik CHAPTER VI continued ii t 12 it h it matter I 1 thought eight miles Is only eight miles and 4 i ill be there not much behind him I 1 11 4 picked up my little dinghy slung it into the light green water and pulled out I 1 was getting up anchor when it occurred to me to look and see what 1 fanshaw might be about what I 1 saw puzzled me he had got his en 1 pine gine going but not thrown in the y clutch the launch was drifting a little with the tide but no start had i been made I 1 hoisted sall sail and got I 1 i under way when the wind had laid hands on 4 jib and ma mainsail Insall and we were running fairly I 1 gave the sheet a turn round its cleat and looked back the launch now under way was beginning to eat up space re 8 it was said she ate up fuel put on as much speed a as 9 you like thought watching her til ill do it IN with iab t this 11 is wind in forty minutes and good enough nevertheless I 1 could not feel quite easy it seemed to me that fanshaw was just the sort of man to keep a card up his sleeve what card could bi be have I 1 argued with myself 1 I can say enough and I 1 will to put a dozen weddings off and once put oft off once let me have time P I 1 topped stopped seized the tiller and snatched the boat over I 1 gosh I 1 said to myself Is that your card my man for he had bad turned the launch and was heading her thirty miles an hour straight for me all I 1 had beard of sir richards daring as an airman in the war went racing through my head bead his fierce I 1 attack his famous stunts truly he was stunting now ile he might i probably would cut my boat in two and spill me in a shark haunted sea beven and a halt half miles from the maini land he might merely wreck himself in the attempt anyhow he meant to 0 try that was fanshaw f A and d 1 I 5 swear ear even as I 1 saw him drive right down on me I 1 found time somehow to think G d richard fanshaw it if you the biggest villian 11 what friends we two could have beell in the same moment I 1 had reached for or the sporting rifle that lay loaded in its clip beste beside the deckhouse flung it to my shoulder and shot him dead he fell from the wheel of the launch right down into black blue water sank and was gone the launch released from control went ahead furiously I 1 stayed a minute watching it wondering whether it would get to the ibe mainland without bitting anything and what would be thought of its arrival empty if it did I 1 had little thought of myself though I 1 was vaguely aware that my own life might some day be forfeit to pay for the life I 1 had that minute spilled into the pacific ocean it did not seen seem to matter very much nothing seemed to matter for now I 1 understood that killing during the red years of war vf had not b been een the same as tills this killing billing chow iop I op ow I 1 fe felt t myself for the th first time in my days blood guilty the man had tried to run me down yes but I 1 had not cot even attempted to escape to maneuver out of his way I 1 had shot him not because he was but because trying to ram my cutter to marry pla pia b he e was on his bis way laurier lanner with that thought came strange relief the chill stupidity cleared away lind I 1 not said I 1 brain troia from my had I 1 her for would div give 0 my life if I 1 anyone potentially not done it business of odthe came to know ever should hang as a ure ture t 6 aws W I 1 as aa god made little apples good flood well and rood good that seemed to wipe out the I 1 cannot explain I 1 can only say how I 1 felt about it I 1 can only tell you yon that I 1 steered the cutter cuer with a light enough heart towards the back of the island took a great sweep out to sea and made for port again by a round that I 1 calculated would bring me into town towards afternoon when I 1 came in hoisting the yellow flag that asks tor for the doctor and I 1 was waa leatto wait sometime some time at last the doctors launch came out and freed me the customs let me go with an easy question or two scarcely had I 1 landed before halt my acquaintance it seemed were about me with one another tor for first chance to relate the avent e vent of the day sir richard fanshaw had bad taken out his launch early that morning and had never come back and the launch had been sighted actually coming in from fisherman on its own till it ran aground on a shoal when they got to it there a soul on board and no trace of the bridegroom but his gold dp arcase fisherman and the surrounding sea had been fruit she was setting on my knee by and by I 1 dont know where I 1 had found a chair lessly searched but the bridegroom had utterly vanished and it had been necessary to call in the anglican parson to meet the unlucky bride and break the news in the midst oi of the clamor I 1 gathered my goods and escaped thankful to have passed the barrier that I 1 had bad unconsciously feared eared the question I 1 bad been awaiting with anxiety untold did you see anything hear anything of an accident I 1 have convinced any one with a dental denial of the facts I 1 should have had to deny but they had deceived themselves assumed without question in their eagerness to tell me all about it that I 1 could have nothing on my part to tell it if I 1 bad doubted my safety I 1 did not cot doubt it now I 1 climbed up the long iong steep stony path that led to the house where pla pis might be found the native in ID a government tunic who came to the steps answered my inquiry with ith Sin abada she stop would she see me I 1 scribbled my name on an envelope and sent it in by the native she would see me the boy came back to say gay that Sin abada she talk you yon come it seemed too easy too simple I 1 felt almost afraid this was pla pia slowly coming through the curtains at the end of the veranda graver older changed I 1 saw her I 1 saw too that the change was not dot as it might have been the work of the last few hours whatever had altered her was less recent than the tragic end of her bridegroom she had indeed the look of one who has been halt half stunned by an unexpected blow and scarcely yet recovered but the grief the wild despair of love parted from love in very hour these were not hers I 1 had bad almost feared the meeting been afraid of what I 1 might feel in her presence might terribly with shut lips remember I 1 thought thou glit my love might have been clouded by the shadow of the alie day as hers here might have been dimmed by time I 1 was to learn h here ere tor for the first time and the last since alnee it was for all time after what love could mean and do there was not between us the bar of any difference din the chill of any variation or shadow of change in the lower flower scented semi dusk dubli we met mel she ehe who should that day have been the bride of another man I 1 who had that man mans blood upon my bands and it was as if the long months since we parted on the great liner at goode island bad been a minute only and as it if nothing no one had ever come between nothing of all the explanations all the talk that should have bare been between us two got itself said for one moment we stood filling our hungry eyes with one another and I 1 think I 1 was in that moment as pale as she then our arms were round each other and the honey of the sweetest kiss in all the world was on my ms lips at last she was sitting on my knee by and by I 1 dont know where I 1 had bad foun found d a chair and we began to talk but tt it was not the talk I 1 had figured what are you going to do till we are married marrie dr was the first thing 1 I remember asking her and she ehe oh go home and mako make it up with dad and mother I 1 suppose I 1 did not ask her what she had to make up I 1 was too busy swallowing a large lump of disappointment somehow I 1 had thought but that of course was impossible 1 a girl with money curse her money 1 and I 1 without even enough cash to buy stores for my trip well if anything or OP earth was sure it was sure that I 1 should have enough to pay for everything I 1 fancied when I 1 came back from that trip the more reason it if reason was wanted for getting away at once for leaving her that hurt she went on talking she sat there on my knee as if 11 it had been a chair her arms supporting her round my neck and yet I 1 felt that for the me moment she had bad withdrawn herself a little you see em they thought at least mother did dad there that there was too much hurry about and now she faltered her face turned in the dusk a little away from me about the marriage I 1 did not answer richard cabled she went on he said he was starting earlier than he be had bad expected on his exploring trip through the unknown parts of europe and he said one never knew one would come back and he asked me to meet him here and marry him before he left I 1 was still silent 1 I telegraphed she went on 1 I said yes mother like it IL she said he could put off his trip come coma to singapore we were staying at government house bouse and do the thing decently she almost forbade mo me to leave but well mothers pretty clever she knows when to stop she said at last that it if I 1 was wag bent on marrying some one it was better richard than than 1 I know inow so she let me go she come herself my sister anoe anne had joined us and mother thought his excellency was rather taken hes bes a widower you know and that made her determined to stop it if the heavens fell well so I 1 came and I 1 I 1 let me go I 1 did not struggle to hold her by so much as a finger or a fold of her dress I 1 knew that for the moment something other than love or I 1 had her in its grip death the thought of today of the man who was to have held her in his arms lying tossed with tangle and with shells at the bottom of the coral sea I 1 understood she came back as I 1 had known she would in a minute or two and shielded by the darkness let me wipe the tears from her face there there sweetheart I 1 found myself saying as one consoles a crying child when its fit of tears to Is past dont mind about bilm mm he worth its not that its because rin fm not sorry not really sorry almost glad I 1 never should have done dine it it I 1 was mad to promise but you you As clearly as it if she had broken them I 1 heard the words you left me there was something she said presently something I 1 quitt quit grasp about it all if ever you know any more about the whole thing richards trip and the hurry he was in and whatever else I 1 have hava heard I 1 know tell me it if ever I 1 know anything more than I 1 do know about it I 1 told her 1 I 1 will certainly tell you and to my self I 1 added god forbid your known know ing half what I 1 do now or ever TO BE BB CONTINUED |