Show P irack black cheeps 3 h ee gold G 0 1 d BY YI BEATRICE 5 illustrations by irwin myers co copyright vy I 1 h t by hughes masile fassl 6 co service THE T E STORY at FF 0 on n a pleasure plea eure trip in eastern W water ate arx amory english world war veteran now a trader on the eland of papua new Cul guinea nea plunge overboard to ato the lire life of a musical comedy actress known an a oln blank amory become interested in pla pa Lf LL lurler urier member of a wealthy new N OW south wales walea family CHAPTER 11 II continued 3 what I 1 wanted what I 1 was prepared to pull the ship in alev s to get was another talk with ilia I 1 knew her mother would nose us out before long still the dining sri saloon loon between menla meals Is a good place for quiet on almost any ship chip and I 1 h hoped aped she ehe would be there she was wag lingering over the last just of her breakfast alone fit at her table tible ti I 1 ordered breakfast ond and asked if 11 1 I might joint her she bowed her head a little coolly and I 1 remembered that one could tee see passing figures on leek deck from the open scuttles above us you curse gln gin sling if you were jl man like others but if I 1 had been extraordinary enough to dislike alu ny I 1 should certainly have cursed her then in that she had shorn horn away st a few of my inestimable moments wasted them for me with the necessity of making explanations I 1 dont know what we talked about at first it was like orchard robbing when you run from one freeto tree to another plucking eating cramming hurrying intent on getting as much as aa you can in the few minutes before you are found and chased out by the farmer with the cart whip you hard ly know what you have had in the end only that athas it has been fun by and by all the stewards had breakfast and were gone and somebody was dusting at the far end of the saloon and bells sounded of which we took no note we wore were too busy orchard robbing I 1 remember about this time that we began to tell each other the story of our lives ilia ha had got to the diamond bracelet and the day she rode for it and won it on lck race course and an interesting te incident that had the prince of wales in it when suddenly she checked herself and said its ita all such tosh it you live a real life tell me some secrets and adventures in new guinea now I 1 dont know or perhaps I 1 oo 00 0 o what had bad helped tilled her to read me as she ehe did but it Is a fact that while she was waa talking something that was both a secret and an adventure and a big one of both kinds had been floating about in my consciousness I 1 bad never spoken of it never hinted it to a soul it was waa my chief and almost only reason for burying myself on the wild west coast as a trader beyond call of civilization and it night might bean be in the end the means of setting me free to choose between tie tween the wild life and th the tame etame to choo choose se indeed between any and all of the goods of this pur world I 1 had been sitting on the sebret sec apt rpt W with ith the persis persistency tency of a wild fowl on an egg and now in ain an instant behold it discovered given over to the girl whom I 1 had bad not yet known forty eight hours bours there Is an adventure I 1 said glancing about the emptied silent ellent saloon ive never told anyone I ila ija ja nodded as aa if to say of course not till I 1 came it was wan amazing how we talked without words that morning on the sea ive explored a bit I 1 went on not much it if takes money hut but I 1 know something there was an expedition starved out years ago between two unknown rivers and just as it had to turn back they saw something wonderful it was so wonderful that the leader of the expedition just looked at it and came away and never said a word to any one his mate died on the way back but he always meant to go back as as he could get the money to it fit out again bebau because a e he knew there might be b a fortune in it it welt well he bo never did he be died too does every one die in papua cut la in PU weil well it exactly a sanatorium outback but the towns never mind about abour tife the towns tell me the secret did your friend who died give it to you no he left it to the woman he be had been engaged to only jahe ale she 11 II died ed 7 no she was dead when he left it to her 4 and I 1 find out any thing about about her people and hla his diary was wag in my hands so I 1 simply kept it ft partly because I 1 suppo suppose sot anyone would believe it but myself and partly because I 1 going to io have anyone else trying na no he hd had bad ab nb no relations elther either h does doe 5 nobody if we have we dont tell about lern cm either too loo bad or too good it if you understand me well but the secret what was it I 1 looked round bieak log ing almost I 1 thought I 1 heard the tramp of feet feel hut but that was not likely no one came caine there at that hour of the day I 1 was ang on when ila jumped out of her seat ns as it if a bucket of water had been poured over her and without a word bolted up the wide staircase tier her flying heels ds disappeared appeared ed on deck just s at i t the moi moment nent when d a stately procession through some unknown ships ahapa alleyway entered the saloon the captain the purser the doctor the cotef toward steward all in white all sparkling in their several degrees with gold buttons gold stripes gold epaulettes epaul ettes gold cap hands eleven inspection nothing less I 1 gosh I 1 I 1 murmured collecting myself and standing up the captain pali paused sed gave me a kindly nod and asked me ine it I 1 was none the worse for yesterdays adventure said one or two polite things and passed on they were all gone in a minute and I 1 hud hod tinie time to recollect myself and bless the ready ears cars of via PI a laurier I 1 did not go out on deck I 1 did not want to what I 1 wanted was to be atone alone end and remember every little thing she had done and looked in that amazing two hours it t was aiu but the secret what was waa it sible that via pla i should hould have fallen in love with me impossible I 1 kept telling myself fiercely A girl like that a girl who had the world at her feet a girl brought up well but if she were not in love ove a girl brought up like that what had bad sha abo been bees doing flirting outrageously with a man she know anything about a man of whom tier her family certainly disapproved if she were not in love with me I 1 was bound to suppose that this sort of thing was tier her usual habit that she sha would dodge away from her people to carry on below decks with anyone and every one there was waa no getting away from it if I 1 were not especially favored then lovely face pure eyes never on earth had lied led as did the face the eyes of via pia laurier Laur ler after 01 after all that plunge yester yesterday daye the sharks I 1 I 1 did not want to shake hands with myself over an exploit that was nothing at all compared to the things one had bad to do as a matter of routine day by day during the not yet forgotten great war still I 1 could not deny that it might have looked well to a girl who know anything about battlefields tle fields certainly jinny 0 0 sky and sea aea pale blue with a laugh in the heart of it and a hint oncoming dark that shadowed the laugh even as some subconscious thought of time that flies beauty that passes was wont to shadow the sun of jin nys merriment gulls screaming about the mast heads beads as they scream at break of even who knows wh why Y rn la tine fine my last day almost done my voyage over all but the night and a use useless less hour or two of early morning for we were not after all to run mn in to thursday island a tender was to meet the ship and take the passengers off what had I 1 done where was waa the link that I 1 had sworn should bridge 1 the space between pla ilia la urlee alf ufa sn and d mine somehow before I 1 left lefi the hip the answer wae waa nothing nowhere jinny and her crew had never left me alono alone from morning until now bow the two other girls hadl been pressed into ethey they with special posse of youthful admirers and never least oln gln sling herself had hadcox combined to keep every moment occupied things had cateri minute by meilute hour by hour into my preciou pre clou s afternoon until now it was near st sunset inset and the west toward which we were running gateway of the old mist lynst was red with the lifeblood d of of the last day ha 1119 and I 1 might I 1 ever know together there a man on the ship who did not envy me I 1 think for jinny made me her partner in every game and if I 1 did not kiss tier her a dozen times or more behind tunnels funnels deck houses inside alleyways and down companions it was not because she did not give me fair chanco chance of mug so BO I 1 suppose I 1 was freely credited with what I 1 did not take at an any y rate I 1 caught the stinging tall of a joke or two while passing the smoke room windows window on one wild ploys she may have been touch touched ae d also I 1 at all events she paused and 4 with th a self possession I 1 haq not thought to the be in her faced me and asked straight out why dont you like me hr PLU amory but of course I 1 do I 1 answered her you dont she stated coolly 1 not after saving my life and all liking I 1 I 1 said no I 1 dont like you it if I 1 saw more of you I 1 should love you but liking another thing jinny puzzled this out she was not used to subtleties but she ehe could jump to conclusions with fearsome swiftness and she jumped now 1 11 I know what you mean by love she he said and suddenly coarsely co anely y she turned and spat into the water do you know she said and she he turned so that I 1 could see her face the birdlike bird like eyes gold eyes rimmed with dark the desirous beautiful mouth the circling hair do you know what the square emerald ring on OD via pla Laur lers hand Is ring I 1 said stupidly most meo men notice rings scarce at all I 1 remembered seeing jewels on plas ilias tanned brown wrist or was it on the lingers with the dainty white V marks between where the sun had spared to strike do you know who set that fashion 1 I know it was a fashion I 1 answered still hopelessly at sea it was princess mary when she ehe got engaged all the smart girls have wanted square emeralds ever since smoke that she whirled one of her dancer whirls and left me come on girls I 1 heard beard her crying down the deck get the gramophone going again nother dance drink hearty well soon be dead so little did I 1 understand what she meant that I 1 was conscious at first only of relief she bad let me go I 1 could hunt up pla pin laurier Laurl cr who had not been visible all afternoon 1 part of my coinage of golden hourt hours was still unspent I 1 must husband it use aso it wisely pla jinny I 1 was hurrying toward the music room an excellent strategic point for viewing the wain main companion arid and the decks when the full meaning of jin nys remar remarks and of her fierce smoke thad broke on me princess mary bad fancied a square emerald for an engagement ring princess bla mary ry had made square emerald engagement rings popular with the set to which pla laurier belonged pla ilia wore a square emerald ring 1 remembered fatally I 1 remembered now on her third left finger TO HE BB CONTINUED |