"TWO ON THE ROAD"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1938, Page 10

"TWO ON THE ROAD"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT COPYRIGHT.

BY

JOHN MACLEOD

CHAPTER XIII. —(Continued). He made a slit in the lining, and, putting his hand into this, ripped it right out. Underneath was a tightfitting board of three-ply. He prised this up, and there, exposed to their startled eyes, lay hundreds of five pound notes, neatly packed, so that they would take up as little room as possible. They stared at them for a moment, then at each other. ■ “Struth!” ejaculated Shep. “Fivers!” .

“Struth’s the word, Shep,” agreed Smith, weakly. “No wonder there have been two attempts to get this lot. What on earth does it all mean? But how orr earth did anyone know we had it? And what is Lakin’s interest in the matter? I wonder if he’s in any way connected with the police? And if so, why we haven’t been arrested. Good Lord! What a haul.” Shep found his voice at last, but wass till quite incapable of taking his eyes from the five-pound notes. “What luck,” he cried. “Now you can pay Mf Emmerson that two hundred quid.” Smith stared at him. “But— the police, Shep. They ought to get this.” ‘lf you go around makin’ two hundred pound bets an’ not paying them, the police’ll get us. At least, they’ll get you; I’ll be missin’.” Smith paced the room for a moment. It ws certainly a great temptation to take forty of these and hand them over to Mr Emmerson. So easy, and it would get him out of one ghastly mess, but in all probability into one that would be ten times more ghastly if he was discovered.

...“Well,”, he said at last, “we can’t get much deeper in than we are now.”

“That’s wot I say,” agreed Shep. “We’ve fought the police, resisted capture, stole a basket, ah’ kept the suitcase when we knew they wanted it—an’, struth! we’ve made a bet with no money. Anyway, if the horse wins; an’ your conscience is still troublin’ you, you can -put ’em back an’ take it to the police. I’ll come with you—as far’s the city.” Smith wrinkled his brow in perplexity. He didn’t want to become a criminal, but, as Shep said, they had got themselves into all sorts of trouble already.

“We’re going from bad to worse, Shep, and goodness knows how it will all end. When I decided to go to the ball I didn’t reckon on all that has happened since. I really believe it would have been better after all to have pawned the thing. That would have been minor offence, but what we are letting ourselves in for • now I don’t know. Anyhow, we might as well go through with. it. From now on we’ll have to lock the door and .window when we go out—and, we’ll have to keep an eye on Lakin.” He shook his head slowly. “I’m afraid he’s a detective. He knows what’s in this case.” “Gee!” broke in Shep. “Maybe that’s why he was at Suicide Bend. Come to think of it, they laid down their basket an' started searchin’ the scrub where the suitcase was.” Shep’s face on a look of alarm. “That’s what they are—detectives. That sister of his, too, Struth! Shouldn’t we clear out while we’ve got the'chance?” Smith thought of how Mira had tried to draw him out at the ball, and of Lakin’s attitude since, and was sure he had now discovered the reason of it. He relised the futility of running away, however. “No, Shep,” he said, calmly. “You may be right, they may be detectives, but you may depend that if we’re being watched, it won’t be such an easy matter to slip away. The best thing to do is to carry on as we’re doing and see what happens. The very fact that we haven’t been arrested prove,s that they’re not sure of their ground, and as long as we keep them away from this suitcase, they can do nothing. To run away would give them an excuse to arrest us, and quite evidently they’re just quietly looking for an excuse.” He stopped in front of the case. “One would hardly expect sc much adventure from the finding of a suitcase —and I don’t think we’re finished yet. Open the other side, Shep quite likely it’s stacked with them too.”

Shep did so, and sure enough, it was also packed with five pound notes.

“The Ranger was well prepared for emergencies,” went on Smith. He must have kicked himself when he got safely away and left this behind—Well, I : ve been in the Ranger’s shoes, but I wouldn’t like to be in the one’s he’s wearing when he gets caught. They’d pinch!” He counted out forty of the notes and put them in his pocket. He had found a way out of one difficulty; at least, for the time being. If the horse lost and he was unable to replace these notes; then he couldn’t hand the suitcase up to the police as he had found it, and that would be merely getting out of one difficulty into another. The fact that Smith should want to hand it up, was incomprehensible to Shep. Shep looked on the matter as a wonderful stroke of luck, being of the opinion that someone- else’s loss was their gain. Anyway, the police might never have found it, and according to all accounts, the Ranger could well afford to lose it. Shep wasn’t exactly a criminal, but it was rather fear of the consequences than conscience that prevented him from being one. There were thousands of such people in ou? midst; they prefer to allow life along the easiest path, /f it had to be work, Shep would work, but if an easier’ method presented itself, he would take it. There is a wide gulf between this class and the hardly criminal class. A criminal can hardly be said to make the easiest path. He carries a big risk into every undertaking he engages in, knowing that if he is caught, his life for the next uncertain period will be anything but easy. For this reason, the other class will take no such risks, not because it is wrong to commit a crime, but because it is hard to pay the penalty. The criminal class are gamblers, looking on their crimes as their profession, gambling with their freedom, and usually prepared to take the consequences. After all, they are merely pursuing a business Ime any other

business man, with this difference, they are on the wrong side of the law. CHAPTER XIV. Lakin paced backwards and forwards in his room like a caged animal. He expected every minute to hear, a knock at the door and be confronted by Smith and Shep in their official capacity, with all pretence thrown aside. A guilty mind can conjure up all sorts of possibilities. He saw them discussing the matter amongst themselves and smiling delightedly at the success of their ruse. Like the veriest amateur, he had walked right in to their hands. If he hadn’t been certain that every avenue of escape would be watched, he would have made an attempt to get away. He walked to the window and looked out gloomily. In his guilty imagination, he pictured every tree and shrub concealing a policeman and cursing under his breath, he turned away again. What the devil were they waiting for? Why didn’t they come and get it over? His mind wandered to the sensation his arrest would cause. Society would gasp at the newspaper headlines. ‘Walter Lakin Unmasked!’ ‘The Ranger Run to Earth at Cranford Hall!’ ‘Society Beauty Was To Be Next Victim!’. A good many people would get" the shock of their lives, and dozens would come forward to give evidence against him. His thoughts then turned to prison, and he shuddered. For forgery alone, he could expect nothing less than fifteen years. Good Heavens! Fifteen years! No, he couldn’t stand it. He paced nervously about for a few minutes; then his eye fell on the dressingtable, arid a determined look pame into his face.

“No!” he muttered. “They won’t put me away for fifteen years.”

He walked over, and opening one of the drawers, took out a revolver. They could hardly do much more to him if he made fight for it; at least they couldn’t do much worse. He had. never been in jail, but he had had lot? of dealings with people who had. They had given him a very vivid impression of what prison life was like, and he had no desire to test the truth of their assertions. Let them come and try to arrest him. Someone was going to get hurt in the process. A knock came at the door, and he wheeled round with his revolver ready for use. The knock was repeated, and ir a voice, which he hardly recognised himself, he called “Come in!” Mira entered. At sight of Lakin with a revolver shakily pointed at her, she almost collapsed. Her voice refused to function or she would have screamed.

“It’s—it’s you!” stammered Lakin, letting his arm drop to his side. “I —i expected someone else.” He took a handkerchief and mopped his forehead, which although perspiring freely, was dead cold. “For heaven’s sake, close the door, Mira and don t look at me like that—Lock it!” he added, as Mira pushed it shut. Mira recovered from her first shock and staggered weakly to a chair. “What on earth’s the matter, Jim? Who were you expecting?” “Messrs Smith and Shep,” he muttered, with a hard smile. “I suppose you might as well know, Mira, the game’s up. We’ve been watched ever since we came here. Tim was watched the night he broke into Smith’s room. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they had the telephone wires tapped and knew the whole business; watched me going out to meet him, too. That un.dersized valet of Smith’s was lying in wait for him. They brought that suitcase here to tempt us out into the open.” (To be, Continued.)