TURNING THE TABLES.

Waikato Argus, Volume VI, Issue 382, 14 January 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

TURNING THE TABLES.

HOW NURSE TREGENNA SAVED TFE LINER.

' I don't like the job, Parsons, that's flat, I may be a scoundrel, but I've not come to murder yet." 'Murder! Who calls ib murder? Like it or not, it's got to be done. There is no doubt that the skipper suspects us of tampering with the mails. He must no overboard this trip, with a couple of fire-bars to his sides."

The speakers were the first s.nd second officers of the White Call liner City of London, then on a voyage from Bombay to London with a freight of over a hundred passengers and £300,000 in specie. The face of Heywood, the second ofriier, shone a sickly white. His forehead steamed, his limbs shook, for he was framing his mind to murder. The smooth, quite voice of Parsons souuded like thunder, drowning the steady thumping of the propeller as the City of London churned her way northwards over the troubled waters at the Portuguese coast. ' It's every man for hims If, you see,' Baid Parsons,' and he'll die easily enough. A few grains of morphia injected with a hypodermic syringe will do his business.'

' But the doctor ?' shuddered Heywood.

' I've arranged for him,' replied Parsons, with an ugly laugh. ' I'm a bit of a doctor myself, and I know that an unsuspecting medico will hardly trace morphia-poisoning by injection, more especially when that injection contains atrophine, which prevents contraction of the pupil of the eye." There was a deadly pause, ' Will you or will you not ?' came the smooth, inexorable accents of Parsons. i Don't, for Heaven's sake 1 I will, I will !'

' Very well, then. Here is the syringe, ready charged. First we'll put her ashore at Ushant.' ' The passengers ?' mowed Heywood. ' They'll shift for themselves. Think of it. A hundred and fifty thousand apiece, and an end to this clog's life !' ' Who's going to do it ?' • I'll use the syringe,' replied Parsons calmly. 'Now I'll just step outondeck and see that the coast is clear. You will follow me.'

He stepped softly out and looked round. The deck was deserted. ' Come along,' he whispered. And Heywood stole after him into the cabin, where the captain lay sleeping. Heywood turned his face away. There was a stifled sigh; and a faint struggle. The captain rolled uneasily in his bunk. Then the bedclothes seemed to stiffen. Then silence.

The next morning consternation reigned. Captain Symouda was dead in his bunk.

Doctor Maurel, in his certificate, attributed the death to be a ruptured blood vessel in the brain, but kept his own counsel concerning a tiny punctura on the left arm of the dead man. Unable to sleep the night before, he bad been leaning on the rail indulging in lovesick dreams, suugly hidden in the shadow of one of the boats. There he had smoked a meditative cigar, pondering on the graces of Nurse Tregenna. She had come on board at Port Said, bound for England after the arduous work of nursing the sick and wounded of one of Britain's small wars. He was head-over-heels in love with her.

The doctor had been suddenly brought back to earth, or rather shipboard, by the sight of two figures stealthily creeping out of the captain's cabin. At the time he took but little notico of the occurence, as it was not unusual, when traversing' these dangerous sea--, for the officers to consult tho ciptain, even though he were in his berth. Concerning the small punctured wound ho made no comment, and took no notice beyond sending for Nurse Tregenna. To her he confessed Im suspicions of foul play, and recounted his experiences of the previous night. 1 Did you recognise the men ?' queried Miss Tregenna. ' One—Parsons ; the other I am not certain of.'

' Could it have been Mr Heywood ?'

' how I come to think of it I believe it was,' replied the doctor. 'He limps slightly, I know. There has been foul play of some sort,' concluded the doctor. •I'll keep my eye on them.' Early tho samo evening the City of London passed Cape Finisterre, Parsons aud Heywood were on the bridge. Nurse Tregenna absented herself from the saloon dinner table, and seated herself on the steps of the bridge. The doctor, too, was absent on a mission to the forecastle to attend a sick Lascar.

Presently the doctor made his appear - auce.

' Keep them in conversation if either of them come down from the I am going to take the liberty of searching Parsons' cabin,' said he. Soon the doctor made his appearance again. ' Well ?' queried Phyllis Tregenna anxiously. ' I have found,' said the doctor, 'my nvssing phial of morphia, a phial of atrophine, and a hypodermic syringe in a case that I gave the medical man who proceeded me on the boat.' ' What can their motive be ?'

' I can't tell—yet,' answered tho doctor.

By the following nightfall the City of London was nearing Ushaut. Parsons was about to relieve Laylaud on the bridge as they neared the dangerbus entrance to the English Channel. He stepped into the chart-room, followed by Heywood. ' We shall go ashore about 2.30,' remarked Parsons grimly, touching the chart with the point of a pencil. ' Here is the spot. Jument, they call it; about two miles south of Usliant.'

'Now look here, Heywood, I'm just going to tell Chips to hoist out the quarter-boat. You have the bottles of whiskey, and must see that every man has his dose, with a double do3o to the two look-out men.'

The doctor lying on the roof of the chart-room gapped with horror. Then he crept cautiously info the surgery and loaded his revolver. Ho rang his bell, and the steward appeared. ' Tell the stewardess to ask Miss Tregenna is she will kindly come to the surgery at once.' Sooii Miss Tregenna made her appearance.

The doctor told what he had overheard and unfolded his counterplot. ' Why not atop them now—at once ?' cried she.

'We have no proofs. It would be mutiny,' said Dr. Maurel, taking her arm, ' Now, be a brave girl, ami if anything should po wrong, you will find me by the quarter-boat—and if we should fail I want you to know that I was going

to ask you a question when wo reached she docks.'

Nurse Tregenna blushed furiously. The doctor coughed—and found him self seated alone, with the impression that a kiss had fluttered down on his left eyebrow. A few minutes later he heard the order given to hoist out the starboard quarter-boat. ' A darned rummy order nt this time o' night,' growled Chips, the Carpenter. Iu 10 minutes the boat was over-side ready fur lowering, aud the watch were assembled at the bridge imbibing whisky. Bjwles, the man at the wheel, had some whisky, too, congratulating himself on a double dose.

■ You can go below now, Mr Chips, aud your men,' said Parsons. ' Thankee, sir/ said Cnip3 drowsily, and soon the watch were snoring in their bunks. Bowles at the wheel suddenly fell on the bridge like a log. Parsons took the wheel.

'Quick, now? commanded Parsons, as he spun the wheel. ' Get the bullion into the boat ! Ushant is heaving in sight.' Sure enough, straight ahead flashed the white and red lights of Ushant. Heywood ran to and from the Captain's cabin to the quarter-boat, carrying each ourney two little wooden boxes. The doctor, creeping forward, fouud the two look out men were lying iasensible on the deck.

' Morphia again,' he murmured ; then stole noiselessly up to the bridge. A flash of light gleamed on the port bow.

The doctor's hand stole to his pocket as he dashed to the engine room telegraph and jerked the brass indicator over to ' Stop ?'

' Tiug-a-ling!' rang out tho engine room bell.

' Ting-a-ling !' responded the answering signal. 'What the deuce" screamed Parsons,

' Is the light on Ushant doing on the port bow?' slid the doctor, fiai3hiug the sentence for him.

There was a flash and a report. The doctor's cxp went spinning over the rail. Iu a second the doctor was at Hey wood's throat.

The latt°r's revolver clashed oa the deck bslow.

Parsons, keeping one hand ou the wheel drew a revolver srom his pocket and levelled it at the writhing pair, wait ing his chance.

A shot rang out from below, and Parsons dropped his hand to his side with a bullet through his wrist. Then, with one mighty effort the doctor rose, whilst Heywood went toppling over the side. Bang 1 another bullet whizzed past the doctor.

Parsons fired with his left hand, steering tin ship to its doom with his elbow. All the time the five-thousand-ton bulk of the City of London was tearing through the darkness towards the fatal rock of Jument.

The doctor rushed at Parsons, who fired again. But the shot whizzed harmlessly overhead as a woman's arms closed round the miscreant's neck.

A faint yell of inquiry sounded up tho engine-room tube. The doctor closed with Parsons, and fell with him, the revolver clattering far out of reach.

Nurse Tregenna struggled out from beneath their writhing bodies. • Take the wheel while I keep the brute under !' he gasped. ' Twist it over to the left—hard.'

Phyllis Tregeuna tore the wheel over, for right ahead a dark mass loomed in the darkness.

Slowly the great liner turned her nose.

Would she do it ? At her feet struggled the doctor and Parsons.

In another second a knife gleamed io Parsoas's released hand.

Phyllis Tregenna turned sick. Should she save the ship or help her lover in his need ?

Parsons was uppermost. The knife shone in the air.

' Stick to the wheel, lassie !' cried the doctor, and Phyllis obeyed, closing her eyes as the knife gleamed. ' She's ashore ! Who's on the bridge ?' The chief engineer, Leyland, and the boatswain dashed up from below. Over the bow loomed tb.9 massive rocks of Jument. The stent seemed almost to touch.

The chief engineer sprang up ou the bridge and thrust the pointer of the telegraph to 'Hard astern.' Too late ! ' No i she clears it.' With a yell of exultation Leyland leaped to the bridge, to find Nurse Tregenna in a dead faint clingiug to the wheel. Two men lay at her feet clasped in a death-grip. ' Parson 3 ! Djctor !' exclaimed Leyland. ' I'm all right! Look to the wheel ; she's heading up the Fromveur Channel !' ' What does it mean?' ejaculated the engineer, as he lifted Parsons, who hung limp in his arms. ' Why, the man's dead ! Now, doctor !' ■ Will you kindlv pull that knife out of my coat? I'm piuned to the dock ; then we'll look to the lady.' The doctor rose and wiped his brow. Then he strode over to the port side and gazed at the jagged crag of Jument, fast disappearing astern. 'By George, that was a close shave !' he remarked. ' Keep her head northwest, Mr Leyland, till you open up the Vierge light. Now bring the lady along to the surgery-' 'What does it mean ?'demanded the engineer. 'lt means that there's three hundred thousand pounds in the quarter-boat and two scoundrels less in the world.'