ELSIE'S ADVENTURE AS A PRINCESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 21 (Supplement)

ELSIE'S ADVENTURE AS A PRINCESS.

(By MABGAKET AITKEN.)

"And so you're'really . a . princess, Daisy?" said Elsie Lambton, Princess Daisy's chum. ,'■■■■ '■'.; .'■" ... ; "Yes, but I wish I -wasn't. It's so horrid to have men trying to kill one all the."time. Tou see/they don't wantl me for a.princess and they;coine here after me. They are dark men with— 08, Elsie, look! There is one.there, •look, through that bush. Oh, Elsie, he '■will kill me. What can I dot" And poor, frightened Daisy burst into tears. "Get"into the, ditch, Daisy, and lie • flown. V.I will deal with him. _ For goodness sake be quiet," said Elsie, in ivhose * quick brain 'a plan was forming. Daiey •obediently stifling her sobs, lay down in .the ditch, while ■ Elsie walked on along the road. The man—a foreigner—came up; and said: "Can you tell me if Daisy Rutherford goes to your school ?" "Daisy- Rutherford? Xes-. 'Do you •want her J'- , .. •■.;';■' . 'fleis/ I do., T.ell me where I can find ■her," said.the man-roughly.'' ' "" ■ ■ 'TVell," said Elsie deliberately, "I am Daisy Eutherford, or the Princess of E." There was a stifled ■ gasp from the ditch, but the man did not hear it.' The man grasped Elsie by.thearm and ■ wound a; thick scarf round her head. She. struggled, but he was a man and the 'only, a girl-of thirteen. .She was i pulled over a fence and up : the hillside, and soon she; knew she wae in some sort 6f>a wood, for she was lifted over What must have been logs and it was jcbol. arid quiet. ■ The; man zig-zagged i»bout for nearly' an hour and then took off the scarf. ".'■ ■,-■'• Elsie found herself in an old quarry, at one end of which was.a. queer house ■hewn<out of rock. Into this her . captor : lurried her."» Then from outside came the hoot of an owl, three times. The man started and then-pushed the only table in the room against the fireplace, opening a panel above it. Elsie was shoved in and the table pushed away, and the man stepped in and closed the panel after him. .J. ... ' ... • :? Poor; Elsie was sadly frightened now and rather regretted haying said she was Daisy. Soon, however, she was let out of her prison and found there - were- now .three more evil-looking men in the house. ...They' all rubbed their hands.and looked.pleased when her .captor introduced her with an ugly lauglj. : "He would laugh the other side' of his face' if he knew my real .name," thought Elsie. Very soon'three of them retired for the night into the room behind, the panel. The other stood guard beside .the locked ■ door.'" "Now Elsie began, to revolve many plans in her nimble brain. But in all of them the man at the locked door was the stumbling block. Then she remembered she had felt a hole in the side of the room behind the panel.

She had put-her hand in. and when rshe came-'out. of the secret room she had found ■it was ■ sooty.' A few minutes more and her plan was made.

;, Turning to her guard she said, "Could I light a. fire here, please J" He looked at her for a minute, and then nodded and went out to; get the wood, locking tlio. door behind him. Hβ brought in several hugo armfuls.of dry, thin brushwood. He gave her a match and she lit the pile, which burned up brightly. Elsie threw on more and.more wood till she had a roaring fire there. .".' :

Then ..came angry shouts from the secret room, "Hey,. there, put that fire, out. The smoke is coming in here! Put it out quickly 1" ■ But Elsie only threw on more wood, and when her guard came ■in answer, to his..comrades' shouts she suatched the wood from him and threw it on the fire. The man gave her a hit which sent.her to the other side of the-room and began to pour water from a'bucket at the side of the flre. In his hurry he had left the door open, and Elsie ran quietly out and up the hillside. From .the top she could see the lights of a town. On reaching it she ran into a ehop and asked where the police station was. ; She was directed to it, and on arriving there she told the sergeant her story and ho sent out a number of men and then took Elsie home. ■■'•■• ■•; • ' ■.'■ '■ .' . • • .

At school she was welcomed by a harassed head mistress and a tearful and grateful Princess Daisy-' Eutherford of E—-.■•' •.. '". . ■. " ■' •