"TWO ON THE ROAD"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1938, Page 10

"TWO ON THE ROAD"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT COPYRIGHT.

BY

CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued). It still required an hour until lunch time, and neither was in the mood for returning home immediately. Smith proposed that she show him the lake, as she had promised, so they wandered off on a toUr of inspection. Shep had gone back to the house as sqon as the match was finished, glad to escape from what, in his opinion, was a ridiculous waste of time, and wanting to be missing if they suggested another round. He reckoned he had had most of the fun, looking on, and probably he was right. Smith would have found quite sufficient to interest him without the aid of scenic beauty. Being in the company of Marie, be she ever so far removed from him, acted like a tonic, making him forget, for the time being, that he would soon have to take the road again and join the great army of life’s unfortunates in the struggle for existence. Hidden deep in the forest, they came suddenly on the lake. Hemmed in by trees, its presence was never suspected until one actually came .on . it. Smith stood stock still and drank in the wonderful scene. It was all Marie had claimed for it. About three acres in extent, it had been formed from the old river bed, and was fed by a connecting pipe from the river itself, which was just about fifty yards away. The surface was covered in patches by water lilies, and here and there a weeping willow sent its trailing branches down into the water, where they moved about in the breeze, giving the impression of the tentacles of some monster seekings its prey. . A flock of wild ducks rose at their approach and flew noisily to the other end of the lake. “Isn’t it wonderful?” asked Marie. “Beautiful,” agreed • Smith. “I often come here. I like to take a canoe out on the water, and just drift about at the will of the wind, thinking.” “Of what do you think?” “Oh, lots of things. I think of all the beautiful things there are in the world, and the few people who know anything about them. I sometimes think of the future, and what it has in • store for us.” “It would be very interesting to know, wouldn’t it?” , “It would —sometimes.” They sat on a log near the water. “It would be nice if we had some faculty which warned us of impending danger,” continued Smith. “Something that would tell us when we had gone far enough.” He turned and looked at Marie. She was gazing away into space, and her head very lightly rested against his shoulders. It required a great effort of will for Smith to refrain from taking her in bis arms. He realised, though, that things were sufficiently complicated at present, and he restrained the impulse. “Coo-ee!” It was Cyril’s voice, from the direction of the house. “What a humbug!” grumbled Marie. “I could have sat here for hours. Lunch, I suppose.” “I could have sat here for ever,” said Smith, with a smile, ‘but I’m afraid even now I won’t have risen any higher in the estimation of Walter.” “Oh, bother Walter!” Marie returned Cyril’s coo-ee, and presently he burst through the bushes, red and perspiring. “Don’t you people ever get hungry?” he demanded, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. “We thought you were right behind us until we got to the house, and when you didn’t turn up to lunch, we began to get worried —or, at least, your boy friend did,” he added maliciously. Smith glanced at Marie sympathetically, but, though they all thought they knew what was worrying Lakin, they were a long way out in their guesses. CHAPTER XIII. Lakin was badly worried. His plans with regard to Marie were as far off maturity as ever, and he was beginning to feel that Smith was cutting him right out. Money was an urgent necessity with him now. If he only had a few hundred pounds to put on Sloth he might have been able to keep going for a while. Tim’s failure to get the suitcase had made matters worse than they had been before. If Smith and his valet were detectives, and had been suspicious of him before, then their suspicion was now a certainty. They would have no doubt whatever as to who had been behind that attempt. Lakin felt certain that Shep had been on the watch, otherwise he should have been dining with the servants at that time. He had made careful enquiries before leaving to meet Tim, and he knew just where everyone in the household should be. Of course, they had though he would go after it, himself. Thank heaven he hadn’t! If Tim had only been successful, it would have been all right. Smith would never have seen the case again, and could therefore have proved nothing.

He' knew, of course, that if they were detectives, the case would be no good- to him, but there had been a chance that they had been the tramps, in which case they wouldn’t have found the notes. That chance was now gone. He was convinced they were watching him all right, and his talk with Mr Emmerson that morning had removed all doubt on the matter. Smith had put two hundred pounds on a horse, and tramps don’t do that sort of thing.

He couldn’t imagine how the police had got on his track, unless perhaps, one of the mechanics who had altered the appearance of his car had been responsible. It would have been hard for the police to have benefited from any information they could have given him, but it might have been possible from a description of the ear before and after. The number plates would have been quite useless to them, having been faked that night, and altered since by Lakin himself. He did not communicate his fears to Mira. She would have got into a panic and wanted to leave the place at once. He worried the thing out in the seclusion of his own room, spending nearly two hours trying to think of a speedy means of raising the wind. If it hadn’t been for Smith and Shep, he could have made a clean-up- of

JOHN MACLEOD

jewellery and plate, and departed, but then, if it hadn’t been for Smith and Shep, 'there wouldn’t be any necessity to adopt this method. Suddenly he stared, and rose to his feet in the excitement of a thought which occurred to him. Smith and Shep were at the golf links, and here had he been spending nearly all the morning fretting, instead of acting. He could have kicked himself as he realised that the house had been practically empty for the past two hours. Walford was fishing, four of them were golfing, and Emmerson had gone back to the stables immediately after breakfast. Mrs Walford, he could see from where he sgt, reading a book in the garden. He looked hastily at his watch and decided that there might yet be time. It would only take him a couple of minutes at the outside. The golfers would probably remain at the links until lunch time. Opening the door of his room very softly, he glanced •along the passage. No one was in sight, in fact, the whole house was as silent as a tomb, the servants taking the advantage of everyone’s absence .to take things easy. Lakin’s feet made no noise on the thick carpet as he made his way along to Smith’s room, and he reached the door in a few seconds. Opening it cautiously, he looked around, and almost immediately he espied the two suitcases in the corner by the wardrobe. There was no doubt about the identity of the case; it was the one lost at Suicide Bend all right. In his excitement, he neglected to cast a final look behind him. Had he done so, he would have seen Shep stop dead in' the middle of the stairs, staring at him in mingled astonishment and alarm. Shep’s first thought was, that in front of him was the man he had stolen a basket of ‘eats’ from, and there was yet time to fly. Then he noticed that Lakin was acting suspiciously, being on the point of entering Smith’s room when Smith was absent. Smith had said, tod, that Lakin would be unable to recognise him even if he had taken his photograph at Suicide Bend, so Shep’s fears quickly left him.

Had Lakin been acting naturally, Shep would have though nothing about it, but he was creeping stealthily, as though fearful of anyone hearing him. Shep watched as he entered the room, and his eyes almost started out of h'is head when he saw him pick up the suitcase. That was enough for Shep. He hurried up the remaining stairs and met. Lakin, coming out. Lakin nearly dropped the case in his fright. Visions of prison loomed before his eyes, and he leaned back against the door, weakly. A trap!- and he had walked right in to it. The game of golf, then, had been a sham; this man had been, watching him all the time, and like an idiot, he had blundered ngnt into his arms.

Shep was in a quandry. There was someming wrong here, he knew, but he hesitated to demand an explanation from one of Mr Emmerson’s guests, in case a perfectly natural reason might be forthcoming, yet, he was determined that Lakin wouldn’t get away with the suitcase. Shep was beginning to have curious suspicions about the suitcase, anyway, and he was going to put these suspicions to the test ai me earliest possible mpment. ~ I thought I’d. borrow Mr Smiths case for a while,” stammered Lakin, desperately. “I wanted to send some things to be laundered.” i

“Oh!,” replied Shep, greatly relieved. Sure, Mr Smith won’t mind.” He took the case from Lakin’s nerveless hand as he spoke. “I’ll get you a decent case; this one’s got broken fastening.”

Lakin was too overcome by fright to make any further effort, and almost before he realised it, he was walking back do his own room with Mr Emmerson’s suitcase instead of his own. He went in and shut the door, stared at the case in his hand for a moment; then flung it from him in disgust. Sinking down on a chair, he rested his chin in his hands, trying hard to think of something worse than breaking stones with a hammer for fifteen years. Shep, meanwhile, was sitting on a chair in Smith’s room, staring at the case, which he had placed on another chair in front of him. He was still in this position when Smith came in. Smith looked from Shep to the suitcase in amusement. “Concentrating, Shep?” he asked. ‘Or are you just trying the effect of mind over matter? To begin with, that isn’t the right kind of matter for experimenting.” “I’m beginnin’ to think it is,” muttered Shep. He told Smith of Lakin’s attempt to get it, and of his excuse when he had been caught. Smith described Lakin’s stealthy methods of borrowing, and smiled at the way Shep had tricked him. “Said he wanted to send some clothes to be laundered?” mused Smith. ‘That was rather a poor one. Mr Emmerson runs a fully equipped laundry on the premises. Lakin! I wish I could remember that name, Shep.” He wheeled on Shep suddenly. “Ever hear of a detective called Lakin?” . Shep jumped. “N —no, I didn’t. Gee! You gave me a fright.” "Well, it was most certainly an attempt to steal the ease. That’s the second time now. If it had only been the gentleman who came by the way ol the window, I would be inclined to think that the Ranger himself lipd somehow traced us, but, with Lakin after it, too, it takes an entirely different complexion.” He looked at the cause of all the trouble, doubtfully. “I don't know what to make of it. Anyhow, let’s examine the thing a little more closely.” He opened the case and looked inside; then felt with his hand all around it. It appeared to be quite an ordinary suitcase, with nothing in any way remarkable about it. He next lifted it on to the bed and took a knife from his pocket. “We’ll hold a post mortem.” he said, with a smile. (To be Continued.)