Green Bungalow

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 408, 17 July 1928, Page 5

Green Bungalow

BY A POWERFUL WRITER.

Fred M. White

Author of “ The Crimson BEnd.“ “ The Cardinal Moth." " The House on the River.” 6<c., dtc. ~

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS CHAPTERS I and ll.—Hilton Blythe, man of birth and breeding, accomplished swindler and card-sharper, has lived on nis wits for many days at a stretch, and 2 t a world-experienced man. At the metropolitan Hotel, Brighton, he sees, in i an interval of three years, a lady m lavender, and recognises that Nettie Rrf q rr lte U p. With her is a man, n*Harley, lately come into an unexted f ortun e- They commune as lovha’u and are happy. Roy tells her that f® . ha s bought a steam yacht, and insav S s ° yachting with yhute. Nettie u ?/ s that she is amanuensis to Shute, no possesses the Green Bungalow at aven ’ and that she goes there rf,wf*! nornin^s - Roy replies that he is , there this evening to play poker, aiong- with Prest and Andrew Macglendy. p2L lo^' ers Pass out and proceed to the Brighton Golf Links, where they t down on the hillside. After i) o’clock calls on Macglendy, at 201 BrunsJ}„*fiuare. Prest and Shute are al- , there. The four men motor to an - a ,Y en beach. They dismiss the car thai,.^ a k to bungalows. They make op Way to a building a hundred yards lho s ? apart from its fellows. Shute does hat a ® nours at the Green Bungalow. Roy alr eady bought to packs of cards at u.®, ° n s - . They play poker for £SO rises. wins all along the line. Macdrops out after a while, and Hari . the others. He accuses Playing with marked cards, ewi 1 Hoy strongly repudiates. Macfartber accuses Harley of conp . £ the ace of spades in his pocket. jJJv confounded, puts his hand in his and draws forth the ace of spades, swears that he never put it there. Chapters hi and IV.—Hilton Blythe 1*?'? Jfeks the Hotel Metropolitan. Once overhears the conversation beh*rt!L elti . e and Roy. Her lover tells out misfortune, and the marked comf, .Hrest has told him to resign his ber^i SS y° n ’ and to cease to be a memclubs. Nettie suggests that sign??,n at 'S:lendy and Shute have detheir qn Hoy. They go outside to finish Ud v v conversa tion, while Blythe sums it Mari*?,, comparing the scheme by which a hnr>L. \_ as been hooked with the plot of of th?* t has rea d. Has Shute a copy his down b V° k .;, Andrew Macglendy and ctoveAT.' °? <ien wlfe are at present in lavs A * n luxurious dwelling he bred T?,y n « the law to her - He is a halfGl a3Pow SS vvi Jew * who learnt English in door * "ben he hears Shute at the men I orders his wife off. The two Using q , SS business—smuggling and that T,,f; arley and bis steam-yacht for Plan tr! l^ 0861- fter detailing his whole haven°.,^ l^ cglendy > taxis to Shorelow. Th nd thence to his bungang’a "T, re be finds a man sitting readBlvtho backed book. It is Hilton * h ° Pays that «ub is reading House S tory called ■■ The Lonely and li’.. an d that Shute Is to sit down "dthe* ,^. n j'i' ithout an y fuss, if Shute nes lo defy Hilton—well APte RS V. AND V!.—Shute rages;

Blythe sits. Then Shute sils and they discuss terms. Blythe is to take onethird, and hints that he has a scheme of his own which may prove profitable. He begs the loan of a pack of cards. Shute directs him to the c ard-table drawer. Blythe helps himself. He takes another cigar and. sets off to walk back to Brighton. He has made a startling discovery with those cards which will have an important effect on the fortunes of Roy Harley. At the end of the Palace Pier Nettie and Roy are seated in the glass shelter. Blythe places himself so that he can overhear their conversation. Roy says that Prest is adamant. He has given Harley a month in which to send in his papers and resign his clubs. Hilton Blythe takes his cards to Weston’s shop, and handing an assistant a pack says he wants another like that one. The man tells him they cannot supply these cards because they are of the finest Japanese make, used by cardsharpers often, on account of the ease by which they could be marked. Blythe produces another pack which the assistant says was bought at their shop. He recognises their private mark. He will be having a few more packs like them very shortly. Blythe promises to come back a few days hence. He knows what to do. CHAPTER VII. SHEER PHILANTHROPHY. Blythe was almost inclined to smile at himself when he dwelt upon the part he had elected to play In a love comedy that apparently did not concern him in the least. He was getting on in life now despite his rather youthful appearance and his air of luxurious prosperity, and his methods of obtaining the gilded living that was almost second nature to him was not so easy as it seemed and moreover entailed a real amount of hard work and a deal of scheming. And yet here he was deliberately turning his back upon a golden opportunity of making a lot of money and actually watching the plump pigeon of his fluttering into the hands of a brother adventurer. He was telling himself, half cynically, that there must be a certain vein of sentiment in his nature, and that this sort of thing must be suppressed, if he did not want to end his days in the workhouse. But, after all, Blythe had his good points, and impulses, which, from sheer necessity, had to be forced into the background, Buy Radium Polishes for Boots, Floors, Metals, and support an industry exclusively New Zealand owned. Save Coupons.

and in his heart of hearts he welcomed the chance of doing Roy Harley a good turn. There were times, years ago, when he had mixed freely enough in that sort of company, and occasionally, in his darker moments, he mourned his own lapse from the straight path more or less sincerely. And there were other reasons that impelled him to put aside altogether his predatory business, and devote himself entirely to straightening out the tangle in which Harley had fieen deliberately Involved by Shute and Macglendy. He might have stopped the whole thing and exposed those two rascals in half a dozen crisp sentences, but then that Involved a certain amount of risk, and might have left behind it something whereby scandal could get a grip. On the whole, he decided, he must wait until the time came when he could show his hand remorselessly, and convince Walter Prest beyond the shadow of a doubt that his friend had been most cruelly used. It was dimly, as yet, that Blythe saw his way to a dramatic situation, where virtue would be triumphant and vice confounded, after the manner of a stage melodrama. And Blythe was not a man to hurry things when he knew perfectly well that, with a little patience, he would have all the cards in his hand. And there was really no reason why he should not benefit materially at the same time. If he could bring about the programme that was dimly simmering in the back of his mind, then he would make for the happiness of a girl in whom he took the deepest interest, and come out of the adventure with bursting pockets. He waited a. day or two before going back to the shop in Castle Square, with the intention of carrying the inquiry into the card business a little further. The assistant he had seen on the last occasion came forward smilingly with the information that he was now prepared to supply Blythe with as many packs as he wanted of the particular sort of card which Harley had purchased In Castle Square on the afternoon of his fatal visit to the bungalow. “Here you are. sir.” he said; “you can take your pick of the new stock. They only came in this morning.” Blythe turned over the stock thoughtfully. These were exactly the same sort of cards that Harley had bought, and Blythe knew this, because a pack of them had been in his pocket on the last time he had entered the establishment in Castle Square. “They look very nice,” he said. “There is nothing better in the trade, sir,” the assistant replied: “they are rather expensive, of course, but we can do them at eight shillings. You will see, sir, that there are two different sorts, though of exactly the same size. Landscapes on the back, in miniature, the rest plain white glaze. You will notice that on one pack appears a view of Buckingham Palace, and on the other a charming

miniature of Sandringham. We call them the Royal packs.” “And very nice, too,” Blythe said. “I suppose these are just the same as the cards you sold the other day to a customer who took all you had left before I called.” “That’s right, sir,” the shopman said; “the gentleman you speak of left us with one odd pack.” Blythe made his purchase, ordering the same to be delivered to him at the Metropolitan, and went on his way quite content with his morning’s work. The next thing now was to scrape acquaintance with Roy Harley, and this was not difficult, in view of the fact that the latter himself was staying at the Metropolitan. The thing came about quite naturally enough in the lounge of the hotel, between tea and dinner time, and, at the end of half an hour, Harley was chatting freely with the most fascinating man he had ever met. any moment there was the chance of an acquaintance strolling up to Har-

ley and telling him that he had better he careful what he was doing, but these sort of contretemps were no novelty to Blythe, and. In any case, he was prepared to run the risk. "Try one of my cigarettes,” Blythe said. "I think you will like them. They are made especially for me. I j am rather particular about my tobacco. You see, I am a man who drinks practically nothing at all, and these

cigarettes are my one great luxury.” Tlie tobacco was excellent, anil Harley was loud in praise of it. Almost before he knew what he was doing, he was telling this casual acquaintance a good deal about himself, and it never occurred to him that he was getting nothing in return. “Yes,” he said. “I came down here for a little change. I am in the Army, you know —the Guards to be particular—though I am seriously thinking of chucking the Service.” “That’s rather a pity, isn’t it,” Blythe said in his most bland and fatherly way. “I always think it is a mistake for a young man not to have some sort of profession. It keeps him out of mischief. If 1 had stuck to my Army career, I should have been a much happier man than I am to-day. Believe me, Mr. Harley, money isn’t everything, though you may think it “I haven’t had money long enough to be a judge,” Harley laughed. “I came quite unexpectedly into a fortune some time ago, and the first thing I did was to buy myself a yacht. She is off Shorehaven, and in my spare time I am cruising about the Channel. When this weather breaks, of course, I shall have to lay the boat up for the winter, but I don’t want to as long as it keeps fine.” “Now. that’s very interesting,” Blythe said. “In happier days when l could afford that sort of thing, I used to go out yachting myself. I wonder if you would think it a liberty if I asked you to give me an afternoon on your boat?” “With pleasure,” Harley said eagerly. “Any time you like. I can’t very well manage this week, because I have a good deal of troublesome business to attend to, and if I am going to leave the Army it will entail a journy or so to town.” It was quiet enough in the lounge, just in the corner where the two were seated, so that it was possible for > Blythe to speak freely, without any- ] body hearing. He leaned forward and laid his hand in friendly fashion upon Harley’s knee. “I hope you will pardon me being personal,” he said. “But I am an older man than you, and I have seen

\ , a great deal of the world. I don’t want to force your confidence on so 1 short an acquaintance, but it is quite evident to me that you are in some sort of trouble. You are young, and j evidently in the best of health; you have money and friends, and yet you are in some great trouble. It is only when you get old and battered as I am that you can successfully hide that sort of thing from strangers.” Harley looked up a little haughtily. ' “Indeed,” he said in a distant man- J ner. “You must be an exceedingly 1 observant man, Mr. Blythe.” “I am,” Blythe said with a direct- ! ness that robbed the words of any suggestion of boasting. “My—er—profession compels me to be so. 1 thought perhaps I might be able to help you, but still, if you resent my interference, I can only apologise and express regret at being so forward Try another cigarette.” All this Blythe said naturally enough, so naturally, indeed, that Harley was quite disarmed. And, after all, there was no mail living who was in more dire need of the help and assistance of a man of the world than was Roy Harley at that moment “I beg your pardon,” he said. “I did not mean to be rude. As a matter of fact, I am rather worried over an unfortunate affair which is no fault of my own. Naturally, I don’t want to talk about it, but if, in the course of a few days, things do not alter for the better, I may be able to avail myself of your offer. Believe me, I am not ungrateful, but there are reasons for the moment ” “Oh, quite so, quite so,” Blythe said with a wave of his cigarette. “But one thing I will say—whatever you do, don’t you leave the Army unless ' you are absolutely compelled to.” “I don’t quite understand,” Harley j said. “You speak as if you knew some powerful reason ” “I know nothing definite,” Blythe j said. “I may have my suspicions, j ; and all the more so because I am not altogether disinterested in a certain young lady. Well. I might just as

well mention her name—l am speaking of Miss Frond.” “You know her?” Harley cried. “I didn’t say so,” Blythe repli d guardedly. “I simply said I was in terested in her. You see, I knew her father.” “Ah, the man who died rather my; teriously.” “So I understand. We were great friends at one t*ime, and 1 knew Frond as well as I know myself. But if you don’t mind, I would much rather yoi. didn’t mention this conversation 1« Miss Frond. Now, take the advice ot a man of the world, and do nothing till you are obliged to. And if mat ters reach a crisis, come to me. should be only too glad to do any thing to help the son of the man whom 1 used to know as Evcrard Harley.” “Oh, you knew my father, too' Harley exclaimed. “Strange that I never heard him mention your nam* “Not in the least strange, ray boy, if you knew all the circumstances. Now, let me be quite frank with you. I forced myself on you for the very purpose of having this conversation. I want you to realise that in me you have a friend whom you can rely upon, and I want you, when we meet casually, to treat me rather distantly, and as a mere nodding acquaintance. There are people watching who must Ibe led to believe that there is no real bond between us. So keep your pecker up, and all will go well yet.” So saying, Blythe rose from his j seat, and walked away, leaving Har- , ley in a state of utter bewilderment. | It seemed to him is if all the world was crumbling about his feet, and ! yet, in some vague way. he felt up- ; lifted and comforted. (To be Continued.>