HIS SUIT.
By Chris Skwell.
Keith Maskell stepped from the tiain at the little coast station with very mixed feelings. To be near Hermione again was in itself bliss — unalloyed bhss, but the dajvs of irresponsible philandering were j over. He had come down on business, I and his business was to demand Hermione's ! hand fiom her aunt .and guardian, Lady j Po\ey. Hermione being under age, this ' little preliminary became not only advisable, but necessary. i Now, Keith was wealthy and good-look- | ing, but unfortunately his affluence was j due to a special embrocation invented and I patented by Ma&kell pere. Lady Povey, j who had Norman blood in her veins, and all the Vere de Veres in cieation in the poise of her lorgnettes, d.'dn't approve of j embiocation. "Maskell's Oil" confronted her on hoardings and made her shiver. ] She had just begun to suspect that in j these matters Hermione was a Vandal of I the Vandals — that this handsome, pleasant I young man, whom one met everywhere and ■whom Society received, oil and all, had become more to her than any of the titles and pedigiees that she (Lady Povey) had taken care should surround her niece. Wherefoie Keith, as we have said, alighted at the little coast station with mixed feelings. It was a glorious afternoon — the sea , lapped the shore with r gentle, soothing sound. j Thiee or four crazy looking bathingmachines suggested to hib mind that a dip into the cool lioom of ocean was the very thing for whu h he had unconsciously longed all day. A swim would work oft Irs supeifluous enei <*y, and the water would refresh him and sootbe him into a stat° of mmd be fitting his encounter with Hennione's le- ' lathe. He would enter the sea tiled, j dusty, and nervous — he would emeiye j bright, aleit, and full of ideas for combating Lady Povey's every objection. With him, to evolve Was to accomplish. In another minute he was pounding down the shore, looking round for the owner of the shabby wooden structures, who was nowhere to be seen, owing to the fact that custom was slack at such an hour in the small, sleepy hamlet. Keith, nothing daunted, took possession of a machine, meaning to hunt up the proprietor later on. In ten minutes more he was ploughing his way with strong, clean, overarm strokes through the oily blue waste of water towards the horizon. Not a eoul was in sight — not a ?oul save the ciouched- j dov n figuip of a man in some light appaiol nho v.! 1 l ovine r. small boat in a [
desultory way about a mile out from shore. The man appeared to watch Keith's movements keenly as he passed, and Keith was idly conscious that he had swung his boat round and was heading towards the shoie when the puie enjoyment of \)\3 physical exercise droie the* idea of men I and boats entiiely out of his head. | He tinned at K-st reluctantly, and swam slow ly b,\ck. Tlie place wis &till debited — oven the man had disappeared ; nut a solitaiv individual watched him as he ran, drippine, muscular figure, back to his shelter. He found a couple of clean towels underneath the peat— the absent-minded owner had evidently overlooked them earlier in the day. and in a very short time he was dry. glowing, and halfdrcseed. Suddenly he made the dumbfounding discovery that though his undergaiments, his watch, his bootfa— everything else, in fact, were available, his suit oi clothes and straw hat were missing. Further, to his horror, he perceived that hanging on a corner hook where they had not befoie caught his e_\e were a coat and a pair of knickerbockeis of a cut that seemed familiar to him. He pulled them down with a muttered exclamation. They were of a coarse yellowish canvas, and marked here and there with a broad, dark arrow, which intimated that their former wearer had lately served in one of the free institutions of his Majesty'e realm. It came upon him like a thunderclap that there was just such a fiee institution only a few miles away, situated on a tongue of land visiible through the door of the bathing machine. The solution of (the why and wherefore of the exchanged garments struck Keith like a physical blow, and made him git suddenly I and heavily upon the small wooden seat, holding the hateful things in his hand. The man in the boat was an escaped convict—there was no doubt about it V He had somehow managed to get away by sea, and wa® waiting for nigliit to fall ere he should land, \i Ken Keith disporting himself in the water and the deiseited coast had suggested a batter idea. Keith opened the door and thrust his head out wil h 'a view to jailing for assistance and explaining matters. Only a nursemaid with a peramibulaJtor was visible now on the distant promenade — he could not weill hail her.
He sat down again to think. To walk out in his present deshabille was out of the question. Boom ! Boom ! The unmistakable, awesome sound of distant firing ! The convict's escape was discovered at the prison — that cold, grim building on the tongue of the land.
Keith caught sight of two men strolling towards him on the sands. He would call to them and tell them, all abouit it — tell them all about what? It struck him with startling force thait explanations under the circumstances might prove difficult.
He 'looked a,t the matter in every light, but could noit see his way clear. Meanwhile, the men passed on. He decided at last to wait till darkness fell, and tlien creep uj to Seaton House (Seaton House being the residence of Lady Povey and Iher niece) and throw himself on the mercy of Hermione. Hermione at least would recognise him. But suppose someone greedy of reward ■came and searched the bathing-machines first? He felt cold once more at the thought.
An hour dragged past — another, and yet another. He began to feel as if he had /Epemfc most of his life in a damp bathing .waggon.
a pair of lovers sauntered about near him, w'hispermg fondly — he dare not make so much as a 'creak for fear of exciting their 'suspicions.
At last twiligM faded tardily into darkness, and he drew on the incriminating garments with tremibling hands and crept out.
It was quite a short walk — or rather run — from ,the shore to Seaton House. A'crocs the road an dovei two meadows he -scudded, and then the lamps which stood on either side elf the drive gates came in eight. Stealthily he approached. His plan was to hide in. the bushes till he found a mear.s of attracting ITermione's attention. She would be expecting him, he knew ; staitled probably at his non-appearance, she would &teal to the gate to look out for him — then all would be gam pie. Fortune favoured him. Not. a leaf stirred — not a footstep tave hit own sounded. He pushed the gate open, scarcely daiing to breaithe, and douching well down in the shadow's, -waited. The drive w?fc a short one, and he could see the house fairly outlined from where he stood. In one or twe of the windows there were lights. Occasionally a slender shadow passed acro,s6 the dmawn blind of the drawing room. It was Hermione, rootlets with waiting. Keith's heart beat fasA. If she did not emerge soon he would have to think of some other mode o* action. He wa.s getting tired and hungry. All at once he heard a light patter on the giavel walk, and <-omeone sauntered prist huu to the gate, humming a, tune. He knew the voice — he knew the form — oi imagined he did. " Heimione'.'' he called softly, and the figure paused and turned. In another minute to was pressing it to his breast.
" Child.' 1 he whispered, "if you hadn't come I should ha\e gone mad — I think. Then he stopped short. He was out of the shadows now, standing in a sort of crescent of light which came from the lights on the gate.
Hermione struggled from his embrace and called faintly but haughtily for "police"; only it wasn't Hermione, but Lady Povey ! He groaned aloud, and her ladyship, evidently under the horrified impression that the groan was but the preliminary to another assault, screamed louder than ever. Then she took to her heels and sprinted somewhat shakily down a yar-
row path, on either side of which dark slyubs made a sort of avenue. Keith, feeling hopeless, gave chase, and in another moment there was a third and louder shriek, for the terrified mistiess of Seaton House had run straight into the arms of another man, who seemed also to have been secreted beii.nd the bushes. The man had on a well-cut suit of blue serge and a clean straw hat ; his face was villainous. Keith's brain jumped to the situation, and his courage came back. The man in the blue serge (Keith recognised that blue serge in an instant — he had sent a pattern of it to Hermione for approval) had already clapped a heavy hand over Lady Povey's mouth — what next he would have clone is doubtful, for he had been disturbed and was desperate ; when at that moment he caught sight of Keith and swore deeply and volubly. It was the work of an instant to free her ladyship. '"Get back to the house as fast as you can!" Keith commanded. "I'll — I'll explain later." And Lady Povey finding herself free instinctively obeyed. The battle which Keith Maskell and tKe desperate criminal in Keith's clothes fought in that shrubbery will live in the former's memory for ever. At its climax the village policeman and Lady Povey's butler arrived on the scene. Keith, though battered, was most unmistakably the victor. The convict lay groaning at his feet. At the village police-station a change ox garments was once more effected, and the authorities of the convict prison were communicated with. Half an hour later Keith walked into the drawing-room of Seaton House. Hermione was restoring her aunt with smelling salts. "Oh ! Keith !" she eried — " such an awful thing has happened. Auntie was set upon by a gang of escaped convicts — and one, softer-hearted than the rest, turned sort of King's evidence, and 1 " Then Keith told his story. When he had quite finished, Lady Povey rose from her chair and tottered towards him. " Oh ! Mr Maskell," she said, and her tone had lost its accustomed hauteur, "and so I really owe my escape to you? Oh ! when that terrible man's hand clasped my mouth and I thought I was suffocated — I " And here she broke down and flopped — yes, despite her breeding, actually flopped upon the sofa. "Why, you're bruised all over!" she added, "and all for my sake. Your face is green and purple ! Hermione, ring for Manners and tell him to fetch a bottle oocrf — er " "Embrocation?" suggested her niece demurely. " Very well, auntie !" Lady Povey was not herself for a week, and in that week she consented without a murmur to her niece's engagement to Keith Maskell. "For after all," as she observed to an intimate friend, "pluck and resource are more useful than a pedigree ; and it the young man hadn't behaved as he did, I might have been murdered in my own garden." And six months later, though she had recovered a good deal of her dignity, and her favourite lorgnettes, which had ; been smashed in the garden struggle, had , been replaced, she even consented with < only a very small sigh to give her niece 1 away. — M.A.P.
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Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 90
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1,962HIS SUIT. Otago Witness, Issue 2814, 19 February 1908, Page 90
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