LADY FOR SHANGHAI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1939, Page 10

LADY FOR SHANGHAI

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

By

KAYE FOX

CHAPTER Vf

(Continued)

After her own breakfast, she had to carry Miss Robins breakfast up to the hospital. There were a good man} people in the pantry when she went to fetch it, and she noticed suddenly that some of the stewards were staring at her in a curious way. Cator, who was filling a hot water jug at the urn while Christine was waiting with her own jug, glanced at her over his shoulder with such an expression of • satisfied spite that she was startled.

No one said anything to her except the chef, who was standing by the hot press, and who called out "Good morning, Miss Jordan,'' much more heartily than usual. Somehow, the chief’s heartiness warned her that, something was seriously wrong. The chef was one of the few men on the staff whose position was assured, and who could afford to defy the Chief Steward, and from the very beginning of the voyage he hard hardly attempted to conceal his contempt for Perrin and his band of toadies. Across Christine's weary brain there flashed the warning—the chef was going out cf his way to be extra friendly because, for some reason which she could not guess, there was bad trouble in store for her.

She hurried up to the hospital with the patient’s breakfast, and then ran down to her own section, hoping foi a word with Grant, who would be sure to know what was the matter. He was sweeping Mrs Carlyle’s room, number ten. but when Christine paused in the doorway, he signed to her to go away. “For goodness sake, Christine, don’t let. Edwards see you speaking to me—we may gel a chance later,” he said urgently, and Christine went on at once to make a start on one of the other rooms.

There was something serious the matter —Grant, who was always so cheerful and happy-go-lucky, was looking pale and worried. And Edwards was watching to see whether she and Grant talked to one another, for he popped out of a bathroom just after Christine had left number ten, and he seemed strangely unwilling to leave Grant's section and go round to Ca tor’s.

Christine was in number ten herself when the. men went down to breakfast. but a few minutes after she had seen Grant and Edwards pass the door. Grant came in to her. “I doubled back,” he said breathlessly, “but I daren't stay a moment. Christine—look out for squalls. That little tick, Pussyfoot, has been spreading a wild tale all over the ship about you and me —wanted to get in first, I suppose, in case we reported him for being asleep. It's bound to reach Perrin—of course we can prove the thing's a lie, if they give us a chance, but I'm afraid we're both in for a bad time."

He disappeared, as silently as he had come, and within a minute Cator strolled along the alley-way, glancing into every room —he had obviously missed Grant from his place at the breakfast table, anfl had slipped up to sec whether Grant was talking to Christine. Grant must have been wise enough to go through the smoke-room, and down the outside companion, to avoid meeting anyone who might come in search of him.

Christine, trying to imagine what tale Pussyfoot could have spread about her and Arthur Grant, remembered now how slily he had looked at them. She realised what sort of accusation Pussyfoot was making against them. But on what other ship, she thought scornfully that morning, would such a silly scandal cause such a commotion? Cator and Edwards were obviously bubbling over with suppressed excitement about it, and for some reason best known to himself. Edwards dogged her and Grant alt morning—she wondered whether he would have dashed off and made a report to Perrin. if lie had happened to hoar her ask Arthur Grant for the loan of a duster, of something equally innocent. They did not give him that much satisfaction. Arthur, who had been badly rattled at. first, recovered some of his usual cheerfulness before long, but though he grinned at Christine when they passed in the alley-way. he did not pause to speak to her. It was not Perrin's own morning for inspection—on alternate mornings, the Mate and the Second Steward came round instead of the Captain and the Chief. Christine was thankful for that, since she was sure that Perrin would have worked off some of his wrath on her and Grant by finding everything possible the matter with their rooms. She was not surprised when a bell boy came tearing up the companion, immediately after inspection, calling out that the Chief Steward wanted to speak to Miss .Jordan in his office —ami it seemed to her that even the bell boy looked pleased and excited because someone else was going to get into trouble. The bell boys saw much too much of Perrin. As she went down to the office, she told herself that she had nothing to fear, since the night-watchman's accusation could be proved false, but her heart was beating wildly. Perrin was going to bully her. she knew that already. and it would take all her courage to face up to him, innocent, though she was.

He was .sitting at his desk, entering some-tiling in a ledger, when she knocked at the otl'ice door, and he kept her waiting for a good five minutes before he turned his head. Then he stood tip suddenly, pushing his chair back with an impatient hand, and took a step towards her, so that he towered above her and she had to look up into his heavy bloated face.

"I want you to explain to mo, Miss Jordan,” he said, with a very dangerous calm, "why you were wandering about lite shipj n d lt . promenade

deck —at midnight last night. And why Grant was in your company at tiiat time?"

“I was in the hospital until nearly midnight," she said quietly. "On my way down. I met one of my passengers, Mrs Carlyle, looking for the night watchman, and 1 offered to find him for her. I met Grant by chance —”

"That's a pack of lies, and you know it." he shouted suddenly crashing his fist down on the desk. "You met Grant by appointment, as you have often done before "

"Dr Stanhope will toll you when 1 left the hospital, Mr Perrin, and Mrs Carlyle will tell you that she wanted .he night watchman."

For a brief moment he looked, disconcerted, and she realised that he had taken no steps at all to check Pussyfoot’s story, and that he did not know either that she had been in the hospital oi 1 that she had talked to Mrs Carlyle—he only know that Pussyfoot had seen her and Grant together at midnight. But he had worked himself up into a passion, and he was not going to be convinced that he had no excuse for bullying her. "So that’s your story," he sneered. “You know perfectly well that I won’t question a passenger about the staff and as for your being in the hospital —that was the reason, f suppose, why you had to meet your lover so late, i Your affair with Grant is the talk of .he whole ship.” “Then the whole ship is talking nonsense,” she declared, meeting his eyes bravely, "for 1 met Grant by sheer accident last night, as I tcld you, and I have never met him before. There is no one on board who has the slightest real reason to think that there is anything between Grant and me.” “Because you are clever —or lucky,” ho thundered, crimsoning with anger. “This isn’t the first time, by a long way that you’ve played this sort of game, and you think you can get away with it—but you've not had me to deal with before, Miss Jordan. I’ll catch you yet, you crafty little hussy, and when I do, it won’t be a question of being dismissed at the end of the voyage—we cross the Yes Tor at Singapore, and I’ll pack you straight back to England in the Yes Tor. Do you get that?” ■She did not answer, for she knew that if she spoke she would burst into tears, and that would delight him, that was just what he hoped would happen. Never in her life before had anyone shouted and stormed at her as Perrin was doing, and it seemed to her that his bellowing voice filled the little room, so that she wanted to put her hands over tier cars and shrink away from him.

"I’ll have no fooling about on my ship." he went on,, coming a step closer to her. “I warned you before you signed on at the beginning of the voyage and I warn you again—if it’s your idea of fun to flirt with your bedroom stewards, upsetting their work and getting your owh done for you, you've come to the wrong place for it. This affair with Grant will stop here and now, or it’ll be your finish, not only on this ship but with the Company. That mother of yours won't be able to persuade them to give you another chance, believe me."

He turned away from her at last, sat down at the desk, and opened the big ledger. Christine lingered for a few moments, in case he had any more to say, but he rang the bell on the desk, and told the bell boy who answered. it to, send the ship’s writer to him. so she knew that he had done with her.

She remembered, thankfully, that old Mi’s Carlyle always spent the whole morning with a group of friends who sat gossiping and knitting in their deck chairs, so tnat number ten would almost certainly be empty. There was not any place where she could be alone

except in a passenger’s room, and she must be alone for a few minutes, before she faced the hostility of Mrs Parr and Miss Crane, or the curiosity of the men —everyone on board know that Perrin had sent for her. and know why. Even in number ten she could nut give way to he)- tears, in case Mrs Carlyle came in. lor it was an unwritten law that passengers must, never be allowed to guess that there was any trouble on the staff. She must make a pretence of polishing the silver on the dressing table, while she fought for self-control, wondering desperately how she could possibly endure nearly three more months of this life. CHAPTER VII.

"Did Perrin bully the life out of you?" Arthur Grant asked Christine, with a worried frown. He was "on watch" from three Io five that afternoon, a time when the alley-ways were always deserted, since both passengers and staff were resting.

"tie shouted mo down." she said. "He hasn't cheeked up Pussyfoot's story, and he's not going to. Arthur — I feel as though there' were eyes everywhere."

"We’re pretty safe for a few minutes.” he said, but he glanced over his shoulder along the alley-way. "Radloth who’s on watch with me. always oversleeps and comes on duty quarter of an hour late, and it’s only just three. Anyhow, he won’t give me away—l’ve never said anything about his always being late.” She said wearily: "It seems to me that the only way to be safe, in this ship, is to know some black secret about everyone—then they won’t give you away. It’s all too complicated—it makes my head ache to think of it.” "You poor kid." he said sympathetically. “I ■ don’t wonder that it’s got you down. But you mustn’t lose your nerve.” (To be continued.)