THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 207, 22 August 1908, Page 3

THE STORYTELLER.

i (By It. Creagh Henry.)

• THE CAPTIVATING CAPTAIN.

When x became engaged to Dick Daw sou everybody tol(l mellow lucky X Was, which was superfluous information, for nobody knew as well as 1 did Riute the extent of my good fortune. imagine a man six foot two, handsome as Adonis, with £ti,uuo a year and *he temper of an angel, being in love iwith one—and that Then DJ '? ne , makin S suct an obvious '™ ark - Luck^,! 1 «as the luckiest prl in the world, and the funny part of it was Kick tt i wa y s he waa thc luckiest man. He couldn't have been, jwcause I'm not out of the way prettv Sve no money—not a cent-and I'm not f ".v, 1 ?', clever - 1 e *Pla'ned all this to Dick before X accepted hiin, but it made no difference, • t Dick is in the diplomatic service. He u really as perfect as a man can be. ciis worst fault is jealousy. Dick had French who lived »t a lonely old chateau about fifty miles "Qm Palis; He -was very anxious to exhibit me to these people, as I had peen the round of his English conuecitions.

6* it was arranged that we should travel over to Paris together, chaperoned by an old French lady. I was to go to Kochard,.the place where the do Fremont's chateau was, the same evening, and Dick, having to see Bome diplomatic man that nignt in Paris, was to follow the next day. On the boat was the usual depressing crowd of uninteresting people, but amongst them I noticed a little Frenehjttan, with the loveliest blue eyes 1 had ever seen. When Dick was settling Madame de Chambry. in a deck-chair, 1 happened to drop a magazine, and the >lne-eyed Frenchman politely picked it up, and with an elaborate bow handed it back to me. Just at that moment Dick looked up'and came towards me With rather a scowl. '"•What was that Frenchman saving to you?" ' s

■ "Nothing at all," I answered. " Well, what were you saying to him, thent It's/all the same." —"Merer,, monsieur." "Why!" "Because he very kindly picked up my magazine," I said with dignity, stalking away to Madame de Chambry. When we reached Calais we collected the luggage and stood by the gangway, waiting to'get off, when the little Frenchman again made his appearance Close to us. I couldn't help just looking at him, because he was standing exactly opposite, and I found he was looking at me; then, like a little idiot, I blushed-rwhy, I don't know. Dick

-was looking at me, too. Gould anyone erer give any real reason for blushing? I'm sure they couldn't. - Then there was • rush, and we were scurried by the drawbridge and off the pier into the train, and so to Paris. Arrived there, we saw Madame de Chambry into her carriage, then Dick and I went and had tea together. My, train to Rochard went from another station. Dick saw me off with strings of injunctions as to ...where I Was to get o»t, and so on. We were late and I had to hustle into the train. Dick asked an official if it was right for Rochard, and appeared relieved when he learned it was, as two trains were timed to leare within a few ium-

utes of each other, and one didn't go there. - Dick, standing at the carriage door, was in the midat of saying something rather nice to me, when a porter rushed up, followed by two men. The porter pushed Dick roughly aside and J)ick promptly knocked him down. (I think I said Dick had the temper of an angei —of course, I mean when he wasn't annoyed.) While this was - going on, the two men the porter • belonged to seized the bags he had dropped and, laughing heartily, jumped into the car-

riage. 33* train had already commenced to move. One of the men out his head out of the window and threw the porter a piece of silver. I just caught a glimpse of Dick's face, and he lookeo simply wild. 'I couldn't think what was the matter till the man who had spokeii to the porter from the window turned and sat down opposite me. It was the blue-eyed captain! Realising the reasbn of Dick's awesome expression, I ensconced, myself behind the biggest newspaper I had with me—and stayed there. The captain and bis friend talked and laughed, and 1 wished I could only understand what they said. At length I could bear my isolation behind the paper no longer, and emerged from its folds to find the blue eyts op-

posite fixed on me'. Feeling cold, I drew my fur closer about me. The captain raised his hat.

"Is madame cold? Shall I shut the window!" he asked in French. "Oui—non—merci," I stammered as stiffly as I could. He closed the window and said something else I didn't understand about permitting something, and unfastened his rugs. "Non, non, non!" I exclaimed, realising I was to have his rug put over me. Dick might leally %ave thought I was encouraging him if I had accepted the warmth of his rug; as well as his solici-

tude. " i The train was a very slow one. it seemed a long way to Rochard. Presently we slowed down and slid into a tiny, dimly-lighted station, apparently miles from anywhere. The men rose and took up their belongings.- This was evidently their destination. I I- felt an overpowering sensation of loneliness, an inexplicable terror at be-. 'inn left by myself in the cheerless, 'shadowy compartment of this foreign '■ train, in a foreign country, understanu- ' ine little of their jargon, and speaking i' less. In sheer desperation I addressed f the man who wasn't the captain as he ~'was stepping out of the carriage. I "Monsieur, monsieur, please! how long is it before I get to Rochard! i "Rochard!" he exclaimed. This : train is not to go to Rochard." b "Not going to Rochard!" I cried, not ! e °«You must descend, mademoiselle, dcf- scend at once. The train is to go on. i. This way, immediate." [!- The guard came up to see what was I the matter. „ J- "I want to go to Rochard, I exS plained in my best French. "Madame has missed the connection. There is no other train to-night. { "Oh, what shall I do, what shall I * do!" I wailed, feeling hopelessly, help-

* of the train, bag and baggage, an. ■i stood before my two fellow-travellee, ■t and the guard, pathetically appealing | SthMR in execrable French to help I euwd with his venerable grey 1 beatd and official uniform inspired « S sft the most confidence. He look* very kind and paternal as he stood there X SMs lantern, and I wondered whethE 7rt mght not be better to accompany Wm in the guard's van to winder destination his tram A „ "I beg mademoiselle will P erm V\"" lhat we be of service to her," sard the " "flowed vaguely. Then an inspiration »meCme. telephone! nnisUeU, phone Dick to come to me at once. P °L telephone, La -telephone. 1 veux, vite!" I appealed excitedly to the madame, ca, il n'y en a pa,,"

he said. to say to this proposal didn't know, B»d i wink j : r^: Monsieur

*gEyft.W There was ohviouslv no alternative. mademoiselle, said tnc up my 'Pj ; ; „ ,«j,| ( . 'l followed, hmp v olK' "'■„ Tn „ the station gates on, 0,W,., ( lamps looked like tm ~, | huge and tcrrifymg uion tcr of the d»;^;--. nto -Vh, ca". sank as I was as.is " ,n ~„..,„ fur ami carefully • , m<r The cap ain and Mon>uu u glinafter'me.and -Hhahoot.w. rr ;--; S^ttlSUiStw;: girl who had hut a few liouts hefor, parted with Diek Dawson.

Snow commenced to fall, and for the first time the Count spoke to His companion. It sounded to me as though he were swearing in French. They said something to the chauffeur, and he went taster than before. Suddenly the car slowed down, turned a sharp corner and stood still. The Count got out and opened some gates. We went forward again slowly, and with a heavy clang the gates closed upon us. Though 1 could see nothing distinctly, I realised we were in some sort of tunnel, for the darkness became denser. We stoppwl again, and the Count came an d handed me out of the car iwas trembling, I suppose, for he sa'dl Have not fear, mademoiselle."

A shiver ran through inc. He guided me through a narrow, dark passage. 1 heard the snorting of the motor-car grow less distinct. Presently a door opened at a touth from he Count, and we passed into a luxuriously furnished room, where a bright fire burned and a supper I,able was laid for two. Ihe Count rang a bell and an elderly, sour-faced woman appeared. "Serve supper for mademoiselle. We will have ours after," he said in French, the woman looked at me suspiciously I was cold and horribly hungry, so when my meal appeared I sat down and did full justice to it. The hard-featured woman hovered in ami out of the room and watched me continually, as a !at might a mouse. When I rose from the table and went to warm myself before tin. «,■„ „i,.

mado a noise to attract my attention, and motioned me, with a jerk of the head, to follow her. I obeyed, and we passed out of the room, up a staircase and along a passage. The whole place was dimly lit and mysterious. She stopped before a room at the end of the passage, the door of which stood open. She motioned me to enter. 1 did so with a sinking heart, and had scarcely crossed the threshold when I heard the door close heavily behind me. It was not like the sound of the closing of an ordinary door, but seemed like the shutting of a trap—a trap in which I found myself inextricably caught! The room was lit by a small lamp. It

was a bedroom, simply furnished. 1 | made a tour of inspection. There was a door in the wall which 1 regarded with suspicion, and, after considerable hesitation, ventured to try. The handle was a false one and would not move. I ran across the room to the door by which I had entered. In vain I turned the handle, pushed and rattled it—the door was locked!

So my suspicions had been well founded—l was a prisoner. I sat down-and tried to think, to devise some plan by means of which 1 might make my escape. Rising from the floor, I once more looked round the room. A spider was creeping slowly up the white blind drawn over the window. I watched it, vaguely fascinated. It reached the top and disappeared round the other side of the blind. Then a sudden inspiration came to me. What lay outside? Might not some possibility of escape. lie that way? I drew aside a corner of the blina, but I could see nothing, all was dark and silent. Very carefully I opened the window and peeped out into the night. The ground gleamed faintly white below, but it was difficult to judge the, distance. I must find out if- it were possible to drop from the window. To that end I took a small ornament from the mantelpiece, and, running back, dropped it out and listened intently. It touehed the ground, and I realised that the distance was far too great for me to think of dropping. I turned away again, throwing up my hands with a gesture of despair.

I caught sight of the bed standing with its neat white coverlet, and I remembered to have read of daring escapes from a window by means .if sheets. No sooner thougiit than done. I rushed to the bed, tore off the coverlet, blankets, and the sheets, which I knotted firmly together, made ofte end fast to a bed post, and threw the other end out of the window.

I stooped to fasten- my bootlace, fixed my hat more firmly on my head, aud to the window. For one moment I hesitated, then I took hold of the impromptu rope by which I was to descend. It was taut. Some weight was on it. What could it be? A moment later a man's hand clutched at the window-sill. Another hand appeared, followed immediately by the head and shoulders of a man. He had evidently climbed up my ladder of escape.

I was in u worse plight than before. I covered my face with my hands and retreated into the room. I heard the man's.steps behind me as I cowered in a corner. He came close to me and, as I uttered a shriek of terror, he clapped his hand quickly over my mouth. Then, I am ashamed to say, I was so frightened that I fainted dead away. When I awoke to consciousness, who should be bending over me but Dick, my own Dick! Then the whole situation flashed back to my mind. I remembered that I was a .prisoner in the house of French criminals, that 1 had been on the point of escaping, and was prevented by the apparition of a strange man, which man, Dick informed me, to my astonishment, was no other than he—Dick—himself. He explained how he had found out almost as soon as my train had gone that it was the wrong one, and would not take me to Rochard. He suspected the blue-eyed ;captain and felt furiously jealous, so finding out their destination from the booking-clerk, he had hired the fastest motor-car ho could procure in Paris, and raced after us to the little wayside station at which we had alighted, where he learnt of the arrival of two gentlemen and an English "Miss," and of our departure all together in the Frenchman's car.

Beside himself with anxiety and jealousy, he had traced the direction the motor had taken, and had followed hotly on our tracks, helped by the snow which had fallen, and lay crisp and thin on the roads. Reaching the iron gates, and seeing by the tracks of the ear that we had turned in there, he climbed over the high wall, and crept up a long drive of overarching trees to reconnoitre I round the house.

A light in one of the windows had attracted his attention. As he watched it, my shadow was suddenly thrown on the white blind. He saw me move towards the window and turn away

again, throwing up my arms with a gesture of.despair. He realised I was in trouble, and while he was trying to hit on some scheme for communicating with me, the impromptu rope was thrown out.

It took only n few moments to tell me all this, and we promptly decided to lower ourselves by the sheets without loss of time, and escape in the motor which awaited us outside. We had reached the window and were just preparing to descend, when .the door of the room burst open and the blue-eyed captain rushed in, followed by the stern-faced woman and Monsieur de Bre. The captain levelled a revolver at Dick's head. I shrieked and threw myself between them. . "What are you doing- here, sir? thundered the Frenchman. "Mademoiselle is under my protection. ■ Leave this house immediately." "Mademoiselle was in my care. Mon Dieu' Mon Dieu! I fastened the door, but never thought of the window,' wailed the stern-faced housekeeper. The captain stopped the torrent of her eloquence and turned to Dick. "Explain your presence, sir," he commanded sternly. \nd Dick explained. When be had finished the blue-eyed enptain laughed heartily, and turned to me with a low

"Since mademoiselle is so anxious to | leave us I will not keep her against her will Does she prefer to- leave by the window or will she accent my escort lo the front door?" Oh' how small and utterly foolish T felt when I realised t h(sl not fallen into the hands of villains after nil but most courteous and correct hrenclimen. who had placed me in charge ot ..,.; „V woman available, wdule T evolved the thrilling situation from my own imagination.