"TWO ON THE ROAD"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 October 1938, Page 12

"TWO ON THE ROAD"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT COPYRIGHT.

BY

JOHN MACLEOD

CHAPTER IV. —(Continued). “Oh, just tablets. Concentrated food. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, out on the great open road with a year’s supply of nourishment in a little bottle? One tablet, one meal; one meal a day. That will be the day of the tramp. Shep.” Shep shook his head slowly. “No good to me,” he decided. “I’d sooner ’ave a chicken.” "But you wouldn’t want a chicken. Everything would be in these tablets. Merely, swallow a tablet and it saves you all the trouble of eating chickens.” “I never found no trouble eatin’ chickens. All my trouble up till now nas been gettin’ them to eat.. The kind of tablets I’d be interested in are the ones the doctors give you after you’ve eaten too much chicken.” Smith smiled. Shep, of course, was hungry, and the idea of a meal from tablets could hardly be expected to appeal to him. If Smith had said that in a hundred years everyone would be provided with a chicken farm and a supply of tablets to feed the chickens on, Shep would have been interested at once. “Of course,” said Shep, after a pause, “it would all depend on what size them tablets was. If they was big enough, I’d risk a couple of"’em right now.” “Feeling weak?” asked Smith, sympathetically. Shep nodded. “Holler,” he admitted. “You know,” he continued, “I’ve been thinkin’. Them people in that car just wouldn’t go to all that trouble to get rid of an evenin’ suit; ’tain’t reasonable. Now, I wouldn’t mind bettin’ that the dame threw more’n the suitcase into the bush.”

“As you say, Sherlock, ’tain’t reasonable, but I can assure you the lady threw nothing else away but the suitcase.” “Don’t believe it,” muttered Shep. “Anyway, I’m going to ’ave a look.” Shep rose to his feet and stepped out to the creek bank to have a look around. He wanted to make sure there were no police hanging about before venturing on his tour of inspection. In the west a great black thunder cloud was gathering, heralding the approach of a storm. Catching sight of this, Shep turned triumphantly to Smith. “I told you it was goin’ to rain,” he said. “Just come an’ have a look at this. I knew my rheumatiz wouldn’t let me down.” Smith came out and studied the approaching cloudbank. “We might miss that,” he said. “What? After me having rheumatiz? Not on your life. Anyway, I can be down there an’ back before that comes up.” “Watch out for the police,” Smith called after him as he walked away. “Hut! I could smell police a mile off.” “How about the one you sat on last night?” called Smith, smiling. “He wasn’t a mile off,” was Shep’s reply. For all his boasting, Shep trod warily. He had a wholesome horror of the police, and if he had last night’s adventure in front of him again; with the knowledge he now possessed, nothing would induce him to stop running in the opposite direction until he put a mile between himself and the scene of hostilities. He looked to right and left as he went along, pausing every now and then to listen. As he reached the trees which commanded a view of the road, and where we first met him, he heard a motor car coming from the same direction as the police car had come on the previous He was just on the point of turning tail, when he noticed that it was a single seater. This, he knew, could not be the police car, so he concealed himself until it would pass. Instead of passing, however, it came to a standstill exactly where the police car had stopped. Shep, ready to fly at the first sign of alarm, saw a man and woman get out and look carefully round about them. He watched the man walk to the rear of the car and open the boot. Taking out a basket they both walked over to the side of the road. ’

At sight of the basket, Shep’s eyes nearly started out of his head. He had no doubt whatever as to the contents, and his mouth watered at the very thought of- it. On reaching the side of the road, the mah and woman stopped, and once again they looked carefully' around them. The woman pointed to a spot in the undergrowth, and the man, handing her the basket, walked in that direction. He beat around in the thick scrub for a few minutes, and then called something to the woman. Laying down the basket, she went over and joined him. “Struth!” muttered Shep to himself. “They’re givin’ it to me.” He crept quietly down the hill, taking advantage of all the cover he could find until he came to the road. The man and woman were concentrating all their attention on their search and didn’t see him. Shep could hear their voices now, but he was so interested in the basket that he paid no heed to what they were saying. Watching his chance when both their backs were turned, he ran around the car and, making a dive for the basket, snatched it up and took to his heels. They were making a good deal of noise themselves, tramping down the dry ferns, so they didn’t hear Shep, but the sound of another car coming up behind them made them scamper for the road in a hurry. As they did so, they espied the speeding Shep, who was by this time half way up the hill, with their basket hugged tightly under one arm. Jim Jeans, for it was he, called on Shep to stop, and was just going to pull a revolver from his pocket to give Shep a fright, when the car which had startled them pulled up alongside. Three men jumped out and ran towards them, and Jeans hastily withdrew his hand from his gun. He explained the theft of the basket and pointed to the fast disappearing Shep. “That’s one of ’em,” cried one of the newcomers, and immediately started in pursuit, followed by his two companions. Shep, meanwhile, had a good start. Just before disappearing over the hill, he cast a hurried glance behind him. Seeing the three men tearing after him, his heart almost missed a beat. “Gee,” he groaned. “The police!” Clutching his basket more tightly than ever, he redoubled his efforts, and raced on towards the spot where Smith lay. Smith heard him coming crashing through the undergrowth and jumped to his feet in alarm. “What wrong?” he demanded, as Shep came panting up. “Quick!” gasped Shep. “Beat it—the police!” There are 'times when argument is

superfluous. Smith decided to reserve his remarks until a more favourable opportunity. Grabbing the suitcase, which had caused too much trouble to leave behind now, he tore after Shep, who had only stopped long enough to warn him. Meanwhile, the. thundercloud was rolling up from the west, and was fast turning the waning afternoon intc black night. Shep cast an eye aloft and shouted back over his shoulder to Smith. “Another few minutes an’ they won’t sec us!” By the crashing of the scrub behind, Smith could tell that their pursuers were gaining. Neither of the two tramps was in good enough physical condition to keep up this pace for any length of time, and if the police didn't give up soon, it would be all up with them. , A big raindrop splashed on Smith s face, and he looked up hopefully. A blind flash of lightning, followed by a deafening peal of thunder, and the storm burst. Down streamed the rain in torrents, soaking them to the skin in a few seconds, and adding considerto the weight they had to carry. _ ' For some time longer they continued their mad rush, until Shep, tripping over a fallen branch in the fast gathering darkness, went over in a heap. Smith, unable to pull up in time, came down on top of Shep, effectually knocking the last remaining gasp out of him. They lay where they had fallen. and waited for the police to come up, neither being capable of any further resistance.

(To be Continued.)