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Show f Black Sheep s Gold j By BEATRICE GRIMSHAW ' o o 't 'i Copyright by Illustrations by HuB "rl C' IRWIN MYERS :x I i WHAT WENT BEFORE On t pleasure trip on a liner In eastern waters, the narrator, Phll-Ip Phll-Ip Amory. young Englishman, ifi World war veteran, now a trader rV at Daru, on the Island of Papua, i'J new Guinea, plunges overboard I to save the lite of a young must-1;' must-1;' cal comedy actress known on board as "Gin-Sling." Amory Is chiefly conscious of the warm re. gard of a girl In the assemblage. He learns she Is Pla Laurler, Sj member of a wealthy New South j? Wales family. He tells her eome-1 eome-1 thing of his life In Papua and of his knowledge of a wonderful gold field on the Island. "Gln-Sling" "Gln-Sling" tells him Pla Is engaged to Sir Richard Fanshaw. prominent In the islands. His vacation ended, end-ed, Amory returns to Daru. There he meets Spicer, on "development" I work for Fanshaw. Amory recalls re-calls some years before witnessing Ink the escape of a leper. He Is con-re con-re p vinced Fanshaw is the man. ntae- , Ba, CHAPTER III Continued 5 Back again In Omega, I got charts, which I should undoubtedly undoubted-ly have had before, and the Sailing k. Directions. I looked up the islund on which I had so unwillingly landed. This was what our own Admiralty volume said about it "Iota . . . This Island Is the leper quarantine station for the Oraego group. Serious penalties are attached to landing." : ;.l "Yes," I said, closing the book, ;i s "and I can add to that ; getting a 1 leper away from It to Valparaiso L i or elsewhere Is five years on the breakwater. . . ." , All this 1 remembered, point by point, as I walked beneath the man-.: man-.: .1 goes of Daru. three thousand miles " 1 away from Omega Id distance; 1 years In point of time. I remeru--'H hered It clearly, without omission, : .4 as If It had happened yesterday. ( And most clearly of all did I re- member now the face of the man 2 ? who wore the yellow dress with the v"! black spots big as plates. Cn-1 Cn-1 donbtedly. It was the face of Sir .'j j Iflchard Fanshaw. Everything came J hack to me the height of the man. r S his thinness, his chestnut hair and ' ' yellow-brown eyes, the slim arched ' nose and neat chin, the lips, unusu-J unusu-J nil v red for a man's; the voice, peculiarly resounding and deep In tone; even the injured and de-formed de-formed finger nail that I now re- membered I had seen, as Sir Rich- , ard came up the ship's aecommorla-jM,tlnn aecommorla-jM,tlnn ladder, sliding one hand along - the guard-rope. I was as sure as JI was of my own existence, that --jSI'la's fiance was the leper who had. 'that night, escaped from Iota Island. Is-land. cMl Not while I stayed in Omega rectw w,ch was no ongpr tilan tne cn riven i0f the next bon t cJid anyone dis-eme dis-eme Soover what had happened. Down ew i in Auklaud, I came upon a paper that related the daring escape from -Iota of a "foreign speculator" .named Fellows, who had been buy-2ltltfns buy-2ltltfns certain commercial interests for his country, and who had. In ,,the course of these affairs, deemed It necessary to take out papers jiji., 'transferring his nationality to the VWIng that waved over Omega. A :i luckless transfer! It placed him beneath Omegnn laws, and when a v": dramatic accident the .discovery nf a seemingly harmless mark upon v 'Ills body, when bathing obliged : him to go up to the local doctor ... for examination, he was sent with-; with-; out mercy to the quarantine Island. There were those who hinted that Fellows' recently acquired rammer cial Interests had something to do with the case; that a big company : tvns behind the doctor. Be that i;; how It might. Fellows was sentenced sen-tenced to Iota, and, hut for the .tlarlng rescue, would probably have : :; spent the rest of his days there. , Fellows had been nine weeks on Jnta. N'lne weeks on an islet In-. In-. habited by the terrible things I - Jiad seen ; an Islet reeking with -Contagion, and Innocent of any ' . "odcrn sanitary precaution whnt-r whnt-r ,?ver. He might or might not have had "? lie germ with him when he went there; hut nothing was more prob-k. prob-k. I,le than that he had taken it away vjvuh him. In any case. Leprosy, I knew, could lie dormant dor-mant for many years; might when kcquirod, develop so slowly that he victim could live an ordinary - ife without being suspected, for a ,.: . 'ery long time. If Fellows was ", ndeed Fanshaw If he had gone to 811 t0 cnrry out B faring spec-i spec-i sanation In Omcgan products, con-inan?e"!,ng con-inan?e"!,ng h,s nne. and altering his ioto?r:'" tlnnnlly a course that sounded c1tugl'?ry "ke wllllt one hn1 known of lice S the war then, the most lornhle peril that can be conceived Jm ovcr I'la. and there was no ne but myself to get her out of It. ;r3 W Myself with 'a hundred odd reriounds of capital, no position and Jed. io reputation, save the unluckv one - T being n ove wi(ll ,ulr Mvself. gainst a rich and famous man, , fent s Placed In society, and np-rharlroved np-rharlroved h-v ''ia's family no doubt , t0 KnPrved by the girl. Time against o -or;,'e'i P'nce nP'linst n'e, everything p cu?' Ka st ,np' save oe thing the vionv'"0' 'i'1" Fnslmw was coming to Man) jew Guinea. sales'11; 'otd3,t! CHAPTER IV ratlit:T WAS late before I ended that a rif;' restless tramp. The night Had ver se to rain, as It so often does ioluSic"' u; my torch' wllan I snapped on t0 see the way, shone on a (i.vrlad of crystal rods, dancing all ' strite'ver Hle road. The frogs bad be-, be-, "is lot gun their nightly chant "Port, port, port I Starboard, starboard I" In the near distance, among the mungroves of the beach, an alligator alliga-tor belled, as they do on these wet steamy nights. I said to myself, with sudden resolve "I'll go to Rnssett; tell him the alTair, and see what he says." They were not yet gone to bed. In the Residency. I could see them from the roadway, Basselt's grave, ministerial face (lie was the son of 8 well-known parson, aud looked It) ; Northanger's narrow countenance, coun-tenance, that was like the face of a schoolmaster, until you caught something strangely hard at the back of Ihe blue eyes; Purchase, hair ruffled like the feathers of a hen, and features, as always, on the verge of a laugh, seeming to take the world, and his share of It, which was assuredly a hard one, very merrily Indeed. Spicer was not to be seen; 1 was glad of It, for island houses offer small privacy, pri-vacy, and I had that to say which would not pass with Fanshaw's friend. The others looked, In their fresh white shirts and pipe-clayed shoes, exceedingly clean, comfortable comfort-able and peaceful enjoying for a few days, an oasis In the desert of hardships that made up their common com-mon lives. Into the midst of this, I came, wet and bedraggled, and I make no douht, looking like a last year's corpse. I could see the effect of my looks mirrored Instantly in the faces about me; but nobody jumped up, or said "My G d, what's huppened to yon?" or "What's the row?" or any other silly thing, such as fellows elsewhere would certainly certain-ly have thrown out at me. These fellows were not given to taking any circumstance In life other than quietly. "Where's Spicer?" 1 asked of Bassett. It did not occur to me to offer any explanation of my return, when I was supposed to be abed with fever; nor did anybody ask for one. "Sit down. He went back to Maidstone's; he's staying there." Nnrthanger got up. "I must be going," he said. "The missus will be sending a patrol after me. Ready, Purchase?" If there was a hint, Purchase took it. They were gone in another minute, and Bassett and I were left alone in the austere, shiny parlor. Bassett, In his precise way, became busy, lie brought out a suit of clothes neater and better mended than anything I possessed, if somewhat cheaper in kind and handed it to me. "You haven't a dry thread on you." he observed. "Better shift." He went off Into the kitchen, and I heard him stirring up a sleeping boy; heard the clink of a kettle lid, the jingling of glasses. Bassett came back, looked at me, as I sat, fresh clad, and made no remark. The boy followed almost Immediately Immedi-ately with hot punch, and a quinine bottle. I helped myself to a share of both. "I wanted to ask you something," I said. "Yes," answered Bassett. It was a brief reply, but it carried a good deal, the tone, the look of Bassett's brown eyes, beneath his high ministerial min-isterial looking forehead, the settled set-tled attitude, hands crossed on knees, all suggested calm, reliability, reliabil-ity, and, what he must have known I desired above all things as sick men consulting doctors, sinful men consulting priests, desire it the professional attitude. I knew he would do anything that could be done. I told him the whole thing. It was not easy to tell, because I had to bring Pia into It, and I found, to my Intense disgust, that my voice got unsiendy when 1 spoke of her. Bassett listened quite to the end, making no comment. When lie thought I had quite done, he came out, surprisingly, with "You are very much In love with this girl." It was not a question. It was a statement, made much as one's physician might offer a comment com-ment on the condition of one's lungs or liver. "Am I?" I said stupidly. Something Some-thing had hold of me 1 hardly knew what It was, but It shook me. What was the matter? Had I not agreed with myself that the wind which was Pia l.aurier had blown through my life and passed away? To save her from marriage with one Incredibly vile that was a duty ; but a duty that devolved on me merely as a man ; not as the man who loved her. I had been so certain that I should not, therefore did not love the girl will) the black shingle and blue eyes; the girl who, even if she were ten times free, was not for me, wanderer, rolling stone, black sheep. Things cleared In my brain. The thought that had come to me was nothing brilliant, nothing new; It was only this "If I am hurt, I am hurt; well, then. I've got to stick It." I found It steadying, comforting comfort-ing even. "It's uot what you would call material ma-terial to the evidence," I answered Bassett. "But you can take it so if you like." "Very well. Oo you know where her parents are?" "Could tind 'em, I snppose." "The only thing to do is to tell them. Mind, they may not believe you. The story's thin, and I daresay dare-say they know you are gone on t lie girl yourself." "The mother does, and she'd poison me If she could," was my reply. re-ply. "What if the marriage is coming com-ing off Immediately?" "It couldn't," pointed out Bassett. Bas-sett. "If he's going on this trip but If you have any uneasiness on that point, you can go to Thursday Island and send a wireless. "For all Australia to read 1" "Cross to Cape York und get the land line." "I don't mind," said 1 thoughtfully, thought-fully, "If I clo. You see It may seem foolish, but I can't help fearing fear-ing she might he attracted to the country. She's dead nuts on bearing bear-ing about It." ' "Don't forget, Black Sheep," said Bassett (and I knew by the nickname, nick-name, that he wanted to say much he would certainly leave unsaid; much kindness, much consideration for that which could not be helped or consoled) "Don't forget that there's such a thing as a law of libel; It you make mistakes, you may have to pay for them very dearly." "I'll pay anything and everything," every-thing," I said, rising. "I'll pay my life If I have to. Thanks. I'll do as you suggest. .The sooner I can get to T. I." There I stopped, halting, In the middle of my walk to the door. A sound had checked me. "What was that?" I said to the It. M., in a low voice. I had thought I heard a noise, just under my feet ; a sneeze suppressed, yet audible not coming from outside. We stood, two figures turned to stone, and listened. I don't know what Bassett thought I had heard ; "You Haven't a Dry Thread on You," He Observed. "Better Shift." maybe the beginning of a revolt among the maneater and murderer prisoners, lightly confined In a wooden jail some few score yards away; maybe the movements of some half-crazed native, oppressed with the strange Vailala madness that has filled a few hurried graves. In Papua's West. "There's nobody," said Bassett. I did not answer him. I made a sudden dart for the steps, down the steps, under the house, where eight foot high pile3 made a little forest of darkness and secrecy, beneath the Residency floors. There was nobody there. But In the garden, the peering water-logged moon showed me a spray or two of the hibuscus hedge in sudden, agitated motion. I jumped the hedge and come down unexpectedly on something large and dusky, that heaved beneath be-neath ray feet, threw me off, as a bucking outlaw throws its rider 1 1 fell, recovered myself, and saw, down the croton avenue, a man running run-ning away. He was tall, and thin and he ran in a flat-footed, heavy, plunking manner that instantly suggested to me two large, fiat feet I bad seen earlier in the evening. "Spicer!" I said to myself, and gave chase. It had begun to rain again, the paths were slippery, and the crash of falling water on drenched and down-beaten leaves, made noise enough to cover any retreat. Using Us-ing my torch, 1 caught a glimpse of the fugitive, lost him, thought I saw him again, and finally pulled up ou the beach road, near the trader Maidstone's, alone. We aren't formal. In Western Papua. 1 went at once and knocked at Maidstone's door. "Who's sick?" was his first query. "Who It is?" "Amory," I answered. "Nobody sick. Is your hoarder in?" "He's not a boarder, we don't take boarders," was Maidstone's answer. "If you mean the nut who blew In today, he's in bed." "Sure?" Maidstone disappeared. "Well, now, It's a queer thing," he commented, com-mented, coming back and standing, -an odd, pajama'd figure, on the soaked veranda hoards, which re-tlected re-tlected his bare feet like ice. "He's not there Eh, what are you d nlng him for? What's he done?" "1 don't know what he hasn't done," I answered, furiously, for now I was almost sure this Spicer, the creature of Fanshaw, had overheard over-heard every word I said to Bassett. "Break his neck when he conies In, or chuck him to the alligators; It's the best thing you cau do with him." "Well, now, the wife wouldn't like any rudeness," answered Maidstone placidly. "1 suppose he's got a right to go In the house, or out of the house, as he likes. You go back to your store, Phil Amory; you'd ought to be in bed. Good-night." I did not go to bed. I went back to Bassett's. "Bassett," 1 sold, bolting up the staircase. "That brute of a Spicer chap was underneath the house." "Yon go to bod. Amory, and let other people go," he answered. "You're fanciful." "I saw him, I tell you," was my angry response. "Running away among the mangoes. And Maidstone Maid-stone said he wasn't there." "Tackle him yourself tomor row morning," counseled Bassett. "Aren't you going to let anyone on the Island go to sleep? Be off, Black Sheep, or I'll arrest you." "I can tell you this," was my parting shot, "there's no power In Papua will get me to Thursday Island Is-land now." Nevertheless, when morning came, 1 began to think differently. I went to Maidstone's as early as possible. Spicer was lounging on the veranda, in Mrs. Maidstone's special chair, with a tin of Maid-stones' Maid-stones' special cigarettes at his elbow. el-bow. Maidstone's boy was busy fetching him matches, soda water, another cushion for his head, a magazine to read. Mrs. Maidstone, In the background, was flying about, busy and energetic as usual. Slim, blue-eyed, pretty In a belated schoolgirl sort of fashion, this middle-aged woman of the outback was a constant wonder to me. She had seen and done almost all that the hardest cases In West Papua had seen and done run risks, In earlier days, that made one's heart stand still to think of; nursed many a man through accident or fever; laid out and dressed for burial some of them. She had taken In houseless strangers, until the small profits of the store were eaten into almost beyond bearing. She had lived hard, and known no luxury for years ; faced danger like a man, and done a woman's work. Withal, she was the merriest thing In Western Papua, and, hut for a line or two, and a gray hair or two, you might have given her five-and-twenty years. I Jumped straight Into the heart of things, which habit is one of my most Incurable faults. But what! life Is short I'd rather jump into now and then a hidden swamp, than spend days-painfully walking round dusty roads. . . . "Do you mind telling me," I said, "what you were doing under the R. M.'s house last night?" I expected a plain denial, more or less angry. But Spicer was too clever for that. "Oh, come now," he answered, wltb a man-of-the-world air, and something like a wink. "You can't expect me to give an account of my wanderings about this very fascinating fas-cinating Island, after dark. No, Black Sheep, I can't let you baa-baa at me; leave that to the missionaries." mission-aries." I could have knocked him off the veranda, with the utmost satisfaction satisfac-tion ; I am not sure that I shouldn't have done it, in spite of Mrs. Maidstone's Maid-stone's presence, if something had not told me to move carefully, keep a lookout for red herrings trailed across the track. "My name Is Amory," I said. "What were you doing?" He made as If to dig me In the ribs with a white, splayed forefinger; fore-finger; I think the look in my eyes made him draw it back, for never, without actually doing It, was I nearer to smashing in any man's face, In my life. "Naughty, naughty," was what he said. "Ladies present." Mrs. Maidstone 1 don't know how managed to melt away. "Really," I said, "I have my reasons, rea-sons, which I dare say " (for I was beginning to think he hadn't heard anything) "you know nothing noth-ing about. I saw you, If not under the house, certainly close to the R. M.'s In the middle of last night, and when I chased you, you ran away. "You bet I did," said Spicer with a giggle. "Thought you were the enraged husband, for a fiver." "Bassett isn't married," I told him. "The warder' Is," he sniggered. "Very pretty wife, too." Now tills bewildered me, for I did know Taluna, the wife of the native warder, and I had seen her, only a week before, brought up in court by fjer husband, in connection connec-tion with a charge of "stealing" her, which he was making against another native. Taluna was no saint, and for a Papuan, she was unusually good looking. It was also true that the warder's house was within a stone's throw of the place where I had stumbled over Spicer. I didn't know what to think. Mrs. Maidstone came back at that moment, with a tray of glasses, Interrupting In-terrupting I fancied, deliberately the conference. She offered us whisky; I took two fingers of It; Spicer took some more soda water. It added to my dislike of him. I have always held that there's as likely as not to be something wrong about either a teetotaller or a non-smoker; If not wrong, half-baked. half-baked. . . . Granted, that there are exceptions. Spicer I did not take to be an except ion. - I knew that Bassett, who was shrewd enough, thought I had been wrong in supposing Spicer to be listening under the house. I knew, too, that he did not tell me that a man who Is overwrought, excited, and begins to fancy himself him-self spied .upon, may he in rather a bad way. Perhaps it was Mary Maidstone who gave the final stroke to my suspicions. "Are you two done quarreling?" she asked gaily, as I put away the tray I had taken from her hands. "And if you are, can I ask you. Phil, when you're going across again? I want you to clo me an errand." "Across," meant the trip of 120 miles, from this near point of Papua, to Australia. "It depends," I answered her, "on Mr. Spicer. "How, on me?" asked Spicer brusquely. "1 heard," I answered him evenly, even-ly, "that you wanted a number of boys recruited. I have a good cutter cut-ter and know the villages. I'd be glad to make you a price." ("If he heard me." my thought ran, "if he knows that I'm off as fast as 1 can go to put a spoke in Fanshaw's wheel, he'll try and keep me here; nothing simpler.") But Spicer, It seemed, did not want me to stay. (TO BE CONTINUED) A man's sins may find him out. but he will he back in u minute. Los Angeles Times. |