NO WOMAN'S LAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1938, Page 10

NO WOMAN'S LAND

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

COPYRIGHT

BY

JANE ENGLAND

(Author of “Sjambok,” “Trader’s Lie ense,” &c.)

CHAPTER XIX. —Continued. They were all three having tea on the stoep when Archie and Nella rode back through the hot afternoon. Dolly made im exclamation when she saw them; and looked hopelessly at Wentworth. Wentworth merely looked depressed, and young Fingall looked supremely uncomfortable. “It’s precisely the sort of thing they would do,” said Wentworth heavily. It will be my painful duty to inform Fellowes that it would be highly imprudent of him to be seen about a lot with this girl, much less marry her, until he’s out of the wood.” “Look here,” said Dolly, “surely, there’s no suspicion attached to Archie Fellowes?” Wentworth looked at her. “Until this infernal death has been cleared up properly,” he said, “there will always be a certain amount of suspicion attached to Archie Fellowes.” Dolly made a face and relapsed into silence. Suspicion was a foul thing. And the worst of this was that it was undoubtedly Nella herself, through her distracted reactions, who had first set this suspicion afloat. j Wentworth turned suddenly. “I told you before,” he said in a hard, rough voice, “that I don’t believe myself that Fellowes had anything to do with it. But, Mrs Hastings, it’s got to be proved; and that’s going to take time. And until then he had better keep out of any entanglements. I’m going to tell him so.” Fingall stared at Dolly. “I’m afraid he’s right, you know,” he said. “It’s so sickening,” said Dolly. “I know it’s rotten for her,” said young Fingall, and looked miserable. “Well, you’ll have to try and cheer her up,” said Dolly brightly. How foully maternal that sounded, she thought. “She’ll hate me, naturally,” said Fingall. “Oh, I don’t know .about that,” said Dolly with a nauseating optimism. “Judging from my far-off youth, a young man was never absolutely amiss. He sort of softened the blow, if you know what I mean.” “I think I’ll go out and see how those fellows are getting on with the hut, if you don’t mind,” said Fingall. “Go along, by all means,” said Dolly, “I’ll hold the fort here.” ‘'Do you think I’m funking it?” he asked. “No, I think you’re very wise. Cheer up.” Archie and Nella dismounted. Dolly saw Wentworth stroll towards them. His voice came very clearly through the still air of . the afternoon. “Hullo,” Wentworth was saying. “How do you dd, Miss Howard? Oh, by the way, Fellowes. I’d like a word with you. I’ll come down with, you while you water the horses.” “Oh, all right,”, said Archie. “I’m taking them now. Come along.” CHAPTER XX. Wentworth and Fellowes strolled back together from the stables. “Thought it was better to tell you,” said Wentworth. “It’s unpleasant, but if you must know, although Hudson got no change in Salisbury, he banged in his conviction that you did it. And so, until either you or I prove that you didn’t, the situation is awkward.” He pulled his nose and slouched on. He had a vivid recollection of a telephone conversation with Major Sinclair, during which Sinclair had made it quite clear just precisely what he would do to Wentworth if Wentworth .proved to be wrong in the end. Sinclair seemed to take the view that Archie Fellowes was as likely as not to have done it.

“There’s packets of evidence,” Sinclair had said. “I’m sure, sir, that he didn’t do it.” “All right. I’ll give you a couple of weeks in which to work our your intuition, and if you haven’t got anything at the end of that, then you’ll arrest Fellowes and bring him in. Understand?”

“Very good, sir,” said Wentworth. It was all very well for Fellowes to take up this Old School Tie attitude, this “It’s absurd to think for one moment that I should do such a thing.” Evidence, and particularly circumstantial evidence, was pretty tricky stuff to handle,

Besides, thought Wentworth, as‘he slouched towards the house, the chap was really odd. He seemed more preoccupied with the slur on himself than with the fact that this was going to knock the Howard girl pretty badly. Apparently, she had come back expecting to announce her engagement, and now no engagement was going to be announced. Fellowes had fallen in with that suggestion far more readily than one would have expected. “Pup!” thought Wentworth, and he considered David Hastings, whose mule cart he could see in the far distance. Now there was a man who wouldn’t have been easy! He pulled his nose and contemplated himself persuading David Hastings that he had better let Dolly Hastings down! He squinted down the track towards the mule cart, and saw that there was a horseman alongside, a man riding a raking black horse. “Don’t tell me,” he thought to himself, “that here we have Mr Peter Drew in person? Can such a boon be vouchsafed to me?” Archie also saw the cart and the horseman. “Who is that chap?” he asked ly“Fellow called Drew, I believe,” said Wentworth. “Turned up from somewhere round Beeston’s looking for’ a farm.” “He wants to rent Nella's place,” said Archie, “but ” “Good idea,” said Wentworth heartily. “I suppose it’s all right,” said Archie grudgingly. “If we can’t get married

until after you have solved this affair, she might as well.” Wentworth looked at him with some unfriendliness.

“I propose to solve it, as you say,” he remarked, “and within a short time.” Archie made a strange snorting noise. Suddenly he flung down his riding whip, and swung round to Wentworth. “Oh, go to hell,” he shouted, “go to hell! You probably think I did it—you would think I did it, you and your talk, talk, talk. Just like that old fool Howard, who talked and talked and talked. I’m not staying here. I can’t break this to Nella. You can do your own dirty work and tell her yourself.” He turned and ran back to the stables. Wentworth appeared to be unmoved. In another moment, he reflected, he’d have tried to paste me one. That’s a very nasty temper of his —and a senseless one. Much more of that from him, and I shan’t have a leg to stand on. I’ll even have to arrest him. Hastings, in the mule cart, came ratting up to the homestead. .The man on the black.horse took off his hat, and the slanting golden rays of the sun fell on his thick yellow hair. “This,” said Hastings cheerfully, “is one Drew. It seems that he is wishful to rent our Nella’s land.” “So I understand,” said Wentworth. Drew looked down at him and smiled acidly. “What an Intelligence Department you must possess,” he said lightly. “I was only sure of it myself this morning.” Hastings looked round, and saw the two police horses. And also Archie Fellowes, who at that moment was leading his own horse out of the stable. Fellowes had finished saddling his horse. He flung himself into the saddle and came galloping up. He went past them with a flying scurry of hoofs that made the mules jib and stamp, and caused Drew’s black to rear and dance. Hastings 'raised his eyebrows.

Wentworth merely frowned. “Come on,” said Hastings to Drew, tactfully. “We’ll get down, and I’ll outspan.” As Drew dismounted, he said casually “Who was the young Lochinvar?” David scowled. “Oh, that was Fellowes,” he said. “I don’t know what the devil was the matter with him.” “The fellow,” said Drew pleasantly, as he unbuckled the girth straps, “who was supposed) to have slugged Old Howard?” David said coldly, “Oh, we don’t play any attention to that canard.”. “No. It’s absurd, I agree. Bdt what I wanted to know is, was that the fellow?” “Yes, that was the chap,” said David. “But I don’t like your tone.” Drew pulled the saddle off the black, and stood upright. He passed a hand across his forehead and laughed suddenly. “Sorry,” He said. “I’m really sorry, Hastings. But you know what this place is—we all talk. Nothing much else to do, when you come to consider it. I’d no idea that it was a personal matter with you.” “Oh, that’s all right,” said David, in a depressed voice, “but —oh, what I mean is, don’t you see how foul it all is? Here you are, a stranger, and the very first thing you hear about is all this chat about Fellowes. Naturally, you don’t know him, and so you take all this talk-talk at its face value, and pass it on. And look at the harm you can do!”

“Yes, there’s always that,” said Drew thoughtfully, “Oh well, I take it, then, that you don’t believe in hearsay?” “I don’t,” said David, “and that’s flat.” “And so you’re not going to mine at Bloots?” said Drew irrelevantly. “No ” David pulled open the stable doors, and led in the mules. In the odorous gloom, he shouted over his shoulder. “There is a sad and tragic story attached to it. I heard about it, and it didn’t make me feel much like mining there. But apart from that I hadn’t the capital.” “A tragic story?” said Drew, “is delicate mockery. Africa is full of tragic stories. You shouldn’t let a thing like that weigh on your mind. Dead and gone people. Dead and gone. Why should they worry you?” David came out of the stables. He didn’t answer that last question. 'AU he said was “There’s just room for your animal. Can you get him in? Then we’ll go along and fix things.” (To be Continued).