The Courage of Love

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 934, 29 March 1930, Page 22

The Courage of Love

COPYRIGHT

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

By

MADAME ALBANESI

Author of ** Lore's Harvest," "The Road •» Lore." "The Way to Win," etc..

CHAPTER XVII. “Why, Mr. Joyce, the whole output of that oilfield belongs to Diana Ladbroke! By making very careful inquiries, I discovered that the money is paid to her estate through two men who brought forward papers to prove that they had the right to arrange the money for her, and were in fact ; left as trustees by her dead father. I made no open declaration regarding Jim’s death, but I took an oath that i I would not leave a stone unturned I before I got in touch with these two men, who, having killed him, were about to enrich themselves through his daughter.” “It all sounds like a wonderful book of adventure,” said Martin Joyce, as he flung away the end of his cigarette. 1 “Now what is our best move, Mr. Gresham?” I “The only thing we can do is to wait 1 to see if there is anything forthcomI ing from these advertisements. Through them you got in touch with ; me, and if these two men are anyw'here in London —and I see no reaj son to suppose that they have gone | abroad (they are safer here, you know, i than if they went back to the West) —the mere fact that there is somej one advertising for information about James Ladbroke will put the w'ind up ; them, and pretty badly, too.” “Do you suppose they will come to i this office?” said Martin Joyce. Gresham shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know, but I can only repeat that I am perfectly convinced that this | advertisement will throw a kind of J bombshell into the plans of these two men.” Gresham smiled here grimly. “I’d give a good deal to see their expressions when they read these advertisements.” “What class of men are they? I mean were they miners or farmers?” “Neither. They belong to a type of individual that is to be found hanging about the saloons in any of the small western towns. They both claim to be British, but it is Townley who has the brains. His confederate is inferior to him in every way. In fact, gaolbird is written very clearly all over Burke,” Gresham remarked. Martin Joyce listened and questioned, but the more he heard the greater appeared to him the task he

had set himself, to help his friend and give him hack his happiness. The next day after Burke had returned, and had given jtews to his fellow-conspirator which, despite all Townley’s self-control and assurance, struck him a very sharp blow, the chauffeur had to bring the car round to the house early. The housekeeper had been given the information the night before to have everything tidy and neat. And Townley himself had taken the keys of the furnished house round to the agents, and had paid up a certain amount of money by way of not continuing to occupy the premises. He explained that it was necessary that he and his friends should go abroad Immediately, and as they had been very careful tenants and had paid everything they required, the agents made no objection. So that within about tw'elve hours that house in the northern suburb was vacated, and the two men, the housekeeper and Diana, had been driven rapidly away. Before going Townley had got into communication on the telephone with the doctor and had told him also that he would be going abroad. Having ascertained what still remained to be owing, he left this money in an envelope to be given to the doctor by the agent when he deposited the keys. He did not want to have anyone on his track —that was why everything was paid up to the last penny. Still weak, and at times feeling terribly tired, Diana participated in this quick removal without asking any questions, but evidehtly in a great state of nervousness. She sat with her hand slipped in the rough, workstained hand of Mrs. Stapton, and the housekeeper realised, with a great thrill of relief, that the two men whom she served were not going to share the car with them. As day followed day, so the heart of this woman, which might have been hardened and embittered by all that she had gone through, grew more and more concerned and tender about Diana. The car conveyed her and her charge to a suburb in a southern part of the Metropolis. Mrs. Stanton knew the place to which they were going. It was where she had lived once before when her husband had been alive, and Francis had been a little child. Those had been the days when she had believed in her husband and had cherished many hopes and ambitions for her son.

Fate had dealt her a terrible blow when it was tevealed to her that the man she had married, and in whom she had believed, was a forger and a thief. And there had been a certain night which was impressed on her memory when she had to provide this man with every means possible for him to make an escape. He did escape the hand of justice, but he did not escape punishment, for he was killed that same night in a railway accident. It Was not until the man, who called himself Townley, came into her life again and brutally informed her that not only had she been the receiver of stolen goods, but that much of the writing which her husband had forced her to do had been forgeries, and therefore if these forgeries were to be traced to her, and her share in her husband’s evil doings were to be disclosed, there would be nothing between her and a long spell of imprisonment. .. , There were times in the years that had followed when Mrs. Stanton had wondered if she had not been a terrible fool to have let herself be overridden by this creature, and whether he had not, for his own purpose, put fear and doubt into her mind. But then she had gone too far along the road upon which he had forced her to travel in which to make a stand and clear herself. Then slid had her son Francis to think of, and so long as she had - money for his education, she - stilled the voice of her conscience, and she put aside doubts, and did everything that was required of her. But this last business was taxing the woman too severely. When the night before Townley had told her curtly that they had to leave and go to another part altogether, and had also said: . “The time is coming when you have to fix things up. I tell you, I’m getting up with this son of yours. My impression is that he has got a woman hanging to him! And Miriam Stanton, it’s your business to bring him to heel. He has to marry Diana Ladbroke, let that be clear between us. Do you understand?” “I understand,” Miriam Stanton had said in a low voice. And indeed she did understand. And her heart sank in her breast as the car carried them through London, and they went in the direction of that old bouse of evil memory. It seemed to her so ominous that she had to go back to that place where she had learnt such bitter truths and suffered j so much. The love she felt for this poor, helpless, stricken girl who was in her care, was a very pure and beautiful affection. The fact that she could be of bodily comfort to Diana was a great joy to her, and the more she dwelt on the possibility of putting Diana into the position of being Francis Stanton’s wife, the more she shrank from the prospect. Though the girl still spoke so sweetly, and so naturally about her father, Mrs. Stanton had noticed that every now and then Diana seemed to be disturbed in her mind, and she would sit With an open hook on her knees, staring out in front of her as though she were trying to piece together portions of a puzzle which she could not accomplish. Somewhere in that stricken mind memory was stirring, and there might come a day when full realisation and full remembrance would come back to ! Diana. And then how would the girl | be treated? She had heard the story' ] through the chauffeur of Diana’s mar-! | vellous strength and defiance before j I she had jumped from the car, and she j j knew now too well by the furious, ugly j I anger of Townley, that nothing would ! j have given him greater pleasure than ! j to have dealt physical suffering to J “SAVAGE" HEALTH MOTORS (as I used by Mabel in “Gold Diggers”) for I home massage and increased vitality. 1' Free Demonstration. ,Ring 44-600. Domestic Vacuum and Radio Co., Queen Street (opp. Civic). 2

this young creature who had dared to thwart him and hold up his plans. As to what these plans were, Mrs. Stanton had no definite conception. She knew, of course, there must be a great deal of money connected with it, and that without her son (or some young man like her son) there would be immense difficulty in these two men handling big money. She had not seen Francis for some little time, but after they had reached the shabby-looking house, and Diana had been led in through a rather gloomy passage, and up some stairs, Mrs. Stanton had to answer the telephone and listen to the voice of her son speaking. Although she knew that the house had not been occupied for some time, evidently It had been kept going by Townley for some purpose of his own, because one of the bedrooms was already prepared for use, and the telephone was still In connection. And there were other signs that on the days that he had been absent from the other house, he must have been staying in this one. The voice of Francis Stanton was peevish, and it was evident that he was in a very bad temper. “See here, mother,” he said, “I’m getting the wind up about this business. I received my orders, my orders, if you please, that I am to be with you some time this evening. What place is this you have come to? Why in heaven’s name did you have to leave that other house? I’m about sick to death with being ordered about like a slave and told I am to do this, and that, and the other.” “Are you coming along tonight?” the mother asked quietly. When he said “No,” adding a very strong expression afterward, she only sighed, but she added a word of caution. “Don’t push him too far, Francis,” she said. “Of course a good deal of this Is difficult for you to follow, but I know the type of mail, he is, and if you don’t fall in with him, and do what he means you to do, well, God kuows what may happen.” “Well, I am not coming in to-night

■ anyhow,” said Francis Stanton, de- i fiantly. “And I tell you frankly. ! mother. I will not marry this girl. I Putting my own feelings on one side altogether.” said Francis Stanton. I “it isn’t playing the game with her. j She doesn't know anything! Whatever | sh'e may have been before she had ; this accident, she’s as dead as she j can be now to everything that belongs to real life. I won’t take it on! And listen, if Townley means to be nasty, well I can be nasty, too. It’s all very well for him to threaten to put the police on to you for something that you are supposed to have done years ago, but let me tell you, my dear mother, he’s the last man in the world who wants to go near the police! Can't you realise that? I should like to get at i what is working in his mind, and why | he wants to be bothered with me?' | Francis’s voice laughed here. “Why,” • he said, “for two pins he’d kick me | into the gutter! But I suppose I am . useful for some reason or other, that’s j what I want to get at. What is that j reason? Well, anyhow, I am not com- ! ing up to the house tonight, and if he i comes along, you tell him —well don't i tell him anything!” the young man j added angrily. “Just let him find j things out for himself!” (To be continued on Monday.)