TODAY'S SHORT STORY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 216, 23 September 1940, Page 5

TODAY'S SHORT STORY

A GRIPPING DRAMMER ROMANTIC ELEMENT LACKING One lay Avith his head beneath a canvass cover, his legs pointing sky--Avards Avith the toes Avell and truly turned up; one trouser leg had slipped back, revealing a too daintily stockinged cal-f. Another, with one leg amputated at the knee, partly formed the other's couch. A chocolate faced body lay at right angles to the, others, a half-smoked cigarette betAveen the still lips and a claAv like hand stretched out as though in appeal'. The fourth, with head turned toAvards the sea, Avore a mask of profound peace over dark features. The gulls Avheeled and screeched; a faint breeze ruffled the trappings of the truck on which the bodies lay; the toAvn's rats gambolled unrestrained on the greensAvard and a sense of peace prevailed, the azure sky, unflecked by clouds, covering all in a mantle of stillness. The residents of Whakatane, ignorant of this scene of horror, went about their daily tasks and hurried along to collect Avages (for it was. Friday) and the truck. remained for hours on the Quay Street A^erge. But, shades of Edgar Wallace' Glancing to left and right (a loyal supporter of the Minister of Transport), a man emerges from the Whakatane Hotel; glances quickly over his shoulder and moA r es o\ r er towards the truck. In half an hour he has the engine going and he backs the truck slowly. With supreme disregard he drives the vehicle to -a building in the Strand, pendant legs of the corpses SAvinging as the truck negotiates the uneA T en surface of the roadway.

A little girl says wonderingly to her mother: "Who are those dead men, Mummy?" and Mummy hurries the child away. The crowds of shoppers surge past as the showman nonchalantly carries his dummies into his rented shop.