THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1939, Page 10

THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS

(PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.) (COPYRIGHT.)

By

JOHN BUCHAN

(Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of Canada.)

CHAPTER V. (Continued). “Nothing. Merely that he was in danger, but had found shelter with a good friend, and that I would hear from him before June 15. • He gave, me no address, but said he was living near Portland Place. I think his object was to clear you if anything happened. When I got it I went to Scotland Yard, went over the details of the inquest, and concluded that you were the friend. We made enquhies about you, Mr Hannay, and found you were rgspec.tabte. 1 thought I knew the motives of your disappearance —not only the police, the other one too—and when I got Harry’s scrawl I guessed at the rest. I have been expecting you any time this past week." You can imagine what a load this took off my mind. I felt a free man once more, for 1 was now up against my country’s enemies only, and not my country’s law. “Now let us have, the little notebook,” said Sir Walter.

It took us a good hour to work through it. I explained the cypher, and he Was jolly quick at picking it up. He amended my reading of it on several points, but I had been fairly correct on the whole. His face was very grave before he had finished, and he sat silent for a while. “I don’t know what to make of it,” he said at last. “He is right about one thing—what is going to happen the day after tomorrow. How the devil can it have got known? That is ugly enough in itself. But all this about war altd the Black Stone —it reads like some wild melodrama. If only I had more confidence in Scudder’s judgment. The trouble about him was that he was too romantic. He had the artistic temperament, and wanted a story to be better than God meant it to' be. He had a lot of odd biases, too. Jews, for example, made him see red. Jews and the high finance.

“The Black Stone,” he repeated. “Der Schwarzstein. It’s like a penny novelette. ' And all this stuff , about Karolides. That is the weak part of the tale, for I happen to know that the virtuous Karolides is likely to outlast us both. There is no State in Europe that wants him gone. Besides, he had just been playing up to Berlin and Vienna and giving my Chief some uneasy moments. No! Scudder has gone off the track there. Frankly, Hannay, I don’t believe that part of the story. There’s some nasty business afoot, and he found out too much and lost his life over it. But I am ready to take my oath that it is ordinary spy work. A certain great European Power makes a hobby of her spy system, and her methods are not likely to stick at a murder or two. They want our naval dispositions for their collection at the Marinamt; but they will be pigeon-holed—nothing more.” Just then the butler entered the room.

“There’s a trunk-call from London, Sir Walter. It’s Mr ’Eath, and he waijts to speak to you personally.”. My host went off to the telephone. He. returned in five minutes with a whitish face. “I apologise to the shade of Scudder,” he said. Karolides was dead this evening at a few minutes after seven.” CHAPTER Vl.’ I came down to breakfast next morning, after eight hours of blessed dreamless sleep, to find Sir Walter decoding a telegram in the midst of muffins and marmalade. “I had a busy hour on the telephone after you wont to bod," he said. "I got my Chief to speak to the First Lord and the Secretary for War. and they are bringing Royer over a day sooner. This wire clinches it. Ho will be in London at fiye. Odd that the code word for a Sous-chef d’Etat Major-General should be ‘Porker.’ He directed me to the hot dishes and went on. “Not that I think it will do much good. If your friends were clever enough to find out the first arrangement they are clever enough to discover the change. I would give my head to know where the leak is. We believed there were only five men in England who knew about Royer’s visit. and you may be certain there were fewer in France.” While I ate he continued to talk, making me, to my surprise, a present of his full confidence. "Can the dispositions not be changed?’’’ I asked. "They couldn't.” he said. But we want to avoid that if possible. They are the result of immense thought, and no alteration would be as good. Besides, on one or two points change is simply impossible. Still, something could be done, I supjjo.se, if it were absolutely necessary. But you see the difficulty, Hannay. Our enemies are not going to be such fools as to pick Royer’s pockets or any childish game like that. They know that would mean a row and put us on our guard. Their aim is to get the details without any one of us knowing, so that Royer will go back to Paris in the belief that, the whole business is still deadly secret. If they can’t do that they fail, for, cnee we suspect, they know that the whole thing must be altered.” "Then we must stick by the Frenchman’s side till he is home again,” I said. "If they thought they could get the information in Paris they would try there. It means that they have some deep scheme on foot in London which they reckon is going to win out.” "Royer dines with my Chief, and then comes to my house where four people will see him —Whittaker from the Admiralty, myseff, Sir Arthur Drew and General Winstanley. The First Lord is ill, and has gone to

Sheringham. At my house he will get a certain document from Whitlaker, and after that he will be motored to Portsmouth, where a destroyer will take him to Havre. His journey is too important for the ordinary boattrain. He will never be left unattended for a moment till he is safe on French soil. The same with Whittaker till he meets Royer. That is the best we can do, and it’s hard to see how there can be any miscarriage. But I don’t mind admitting that I’m horribly nervous. This murder of Karolides will play the deuce in the Chancelleries of Europe. After breakfast he asked me if I could drive a car. “Well, you’ll be my chauffeur today, and wear Hudson's rig. You’re about his size. Yqu have a hand in this business and we are taking no risks. There are desperate men against us, who will not respect the country retreat of an overworked official. I landed Sir Walter at his house in Queen Anne’s Gate punctually by half-past eleven. The butler was coming up by train with the luggage. The first thing he did was to take me round to Scotland Yard. There we saw a prim gentleman, with a clean-shaven, lawyer’s face. "I’ve brought you the Portland Place murderer," was Sir Walter's introduction. The reply was a wry smile. “It would have been a welcome present. Bullivant. This, I presume, is Mr Richard Hannay, who for some days greatly interested my department.” “Mr Hannay will interest it again. He has much to tell you, but not today. I want you to assure Mr Hannay that he will suffer no. further inconvenience." This assurance was promptly given. “You can take up your life where you left off," I was told. “We may want your assistance later on, MacGillivray,” Sir Walter said as we left. Then he turned me loose. “Come and see me tomorrow, Hannay. I needn’t tell you to keep deadly quiet: If I were you I would go to bed, for you must have considerable arrears of sleep to overtake. You had better lie low, for if one of your Black Stone friends saw you there might be trouble. I felt curiously at a loose encl. At first it was very pleasant to be a free man, able to go where I wanted without fearing anything. I had only been a month under the ban of the law, and it was quite enough for me. I went to the Savoy and ordered very carefully a very good luncheon.

After that I took a taxi and drove miles away up into North London. I walked back through fields and lines of villas and terraces and then slums and mean streets, and it took me pretty nearly two hours. All the while my restlessness was growing worse. I felt that groat things, tremendous things, were happening or about to happen, and I, who was the cog-wheel of the whole business, was out of it. Royer would be landing at Dover, Sir William would be making plans with the few people in England who were in the secret, and somewhere in the darkness the Black Stone would be working. I felt the sense of danger and impending calamity, and I had the curious feeling ,too, that I alone could avert it, alone could grapple with it. But I was out of the game now. How could it'be otherwise? It was not likely that Cabinet Ministers and Admiralty Lords and Generals would admit me to their councils.

I actually began to wish that I could run up against one of my three enemies. That 'would lead to developments. I felt that I wanted enormously to . have a vulgar scrap with those gentry, where I could hit out and flatten something. I was rapidly getting into a very bad temper. I didn’t feel like going to my flat. That had to be faced some time, but as I. still had sufficient money I thought ‘I would put it off till next morning, and go to a hotel for the night. My irritation lasted through dinner, which I had at a restaurant in Jermyn Street. An abominable restlessness had taken possession of me. The upshot was that about half-past nine I made up my mind to go to Queen Anne’s Gate. Very likely I would not be admitted, but it would ease my conscience to try. $ I walked down Jermyn Street, and at the corner of Duke Street passed a group of young men. They were in evening dress, had been dining'somewhere. and were going on to a music hall. One of them was Mr Marmaduke Jopley. He saw me and stopped short. By God. the murderer!" he cried. "Here, you fellows, hold him! That’s Hannay, the man who did the Portland Place murder!” He gripped me by the arm. and the others crowded round. I wasn’t looking for any trouble, but my ill temper made me play the fool. A policeman came up, and I should have told him the truth, and, if he didn’t believe it, demand to be taken to Scotland Yard, or for that matter to the nearest police station. But a delay at that’ moment seemed to me unendurable, and the sight of Marin ie’s imbecile face was more than I could bear. I let out with my left, and had the satisfaction of seeing him measure his length in the gutter. Then began an unholy row. They were all on me at once, and the policeman took me in the rear. Through a black cloud of ’ rage I heard the officer of the law asking what was the matter, and Marmic, between his broken teeth, declaring that I was Hannay the murderer. (To be Continued.)