A Calm Exterior

NZ Truth, Issue 1196, 1 November 1928, Page 7

A Calm Exterior

The little ■ girl lay there, her life blood oozing from 1 her, where the blood of many thousand Maori warriors had dyed the ground a hundred or more years ago. t Trying to preserve a calm exterior, the beast m human guise re-enters the blue Whippet car and makes all haste to drive to the furthermost spot he can reach with the remaining petrol m the tank. ,■ , Finally, m the forenoon of that fateful Tuesday morning, he brings the car. *o rest m a side street m Papatoetoe, where it at last attracts the attention of, a nearby ' coachbuilder. That night a man is seen by two lovert who are' sitting oh the wall where behind them — : in the darknesslies; dead; .or dying, Elsie Walker. Was he the same man who had brutally killed the girl or was it just the long arm of coincidence? Is it not possible that her slayer had. returned to see if she had moved, or even crawled nearer to the road and raised the alarm— or might, perchance, do so when another dawn woke the day? < His conduct at least lends support to such a supposition, for why should he retreat rather than advance when he was whistled to by the young "man, Pye? ; • In any case, the mystery man m the dark overcoat and cap does not wish to court recognition, even m so small a degree, and he vanishes again towards Panmure or to hide m the quarry. Who was he?