LADY FOR SHANGHAI

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1939, Page 12

LADY FOR SHANGHAI

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

By

KAYE FOX

CHAPTER VI. (Continued). "Because I’m going to need it? Perrin has made up his mind to catch me —and before we reach Singapore, too —and all his toadies will be helping in the good work.” "Did he tell you that he was going to send you home in the Yes Tor? I’m to go home in the Yes Tor. too, Christine —Perrin and I had a little chat after lunch, and he told me all about the arrangements he was going to make—if he caught us.” “What did you tell him, Arthur?" she asked. "I didn't say a word. I just bowed to the storm, and believe me, it was some storm. I was in a bit of a fix really, because' I couldn’t explain just what I was doing at midnight last night, without doing a very bad turn to old George and the others at the poker party." “It wouldn’t have done any good if you had explained —Perrin wasn’t listening to explanations.” “That’s what I thought, Christine. I knew that you could prove what you were doing, and if he wouldn’t believe you, he certainly wouldn’t believe me —but he would have taken up the matter of a poker party in the bar. all the same. So I just stood at attention, while Perrin told me what he thought of me, in language which would have made the boatswain turn pale.” “He didn’t actually swear at me.” “Much too careful. He's not going to give you a chance of reporting to the Liverpool office that he swears at women.” They both heard footsteps in the cross alley-way, and Grant immediately disappeared into a bathroom, while Christine walked on. It was only a passenger, but for a moment Christine’s heart had stood still because she thought it was Radlett coming: it was as though since that morning, every man on the ship had become her declared enemy, and she had to be on guard against every one of them. There were some, of course, who were not Perrin’s spies, but Perrin had been Chief Steward on the Hay Tor for three trips now, and every trip he had got rid of a few more of the men who would not fawn upon him. Some had been dismissed because of the bad reports he gave of them, and others had escaped him by wangling transfers to other ships. Of the men on board now, only the little group which included George, the bar steward, Arthur Grant, and three or four of their friends, held aloof from the Perrin faction. . Perrin sent for her again after inspection the next day. He had taken so long over his inspection of Grant's section that Christine had been shaking in hqr shoes by the time he got to her, but'he had passed her without speaking. She was in the stewardesses cabin, drinking the after-inspection cup of tea, when the bell boy came for her. “You seem very popular with Mr Perrin just now, Miss Jordan,” Miss Crane said acidly—it was the first word which either of the others had spoken to her since the previous morning. "Miss Jordan. I have sent for you to warn you that you will gain nothing by this defiant attitude,” Perrin said grimly, as soon as she entered the office. “Your work has always been below the standard of this ship, but this morning you seem to have made a childish attempt to show me that you are not afraid of me.” “What have I done, Mr Perrin?" she asked, genuinely puzzled. “You know perfectly well what you have done. It was not ordinary carelessness —it was done deliberately. You left a tray with two dirty glasses on it in the alleyway outside number five, the room which I did not inspect because of Miss Robins’ illness, there was a box of powder spilt right across the dressing table in nine, a child’s toy engine in the middle of the dock in seventeen.”

“I didn’t ” she began. "Don’t lie to me.” ho told her, his voice rising to the angry note which was growing so familiar to her. “I'm just warning you, Miss Jordan, that that sort of thing won’t go down with me. I suppose you thought that I’d just point those things out to Cator. as usual on inspection, and leave him to tell you. but you’ll have me to deal with if you ever try such tricks again. You can go now, but I shall go personally through all your rooms tomorrow, after the Second Steward’s inspection." She realised, of course, that Cator was responsible for this new trouble, for it could not be by mere chance that two rooms in his section had been messed up. after she had finished on that side, and she had certainly left no tray in the alleyway. That meant that at the very last minute before inspection she must rush through all the rooms on the starboard side, and that even then Cator might trick her by doing something which could not be put right quickly. Edwards showed his hand the next day. There was some muddle over the baths, so that two of Christine’s early passengers, who could be depended on to leave their rooms well before breakfast, were kept waiting long past their usual time. It' was only by working at frantic speed that Christine finished before inspection, but she was not worrying much about inspection itself that day • —it was Perrin’s personal tour afterwards that she had to fear. What

made that so grossly unfair was that many of the passengers were considerate enough to keep out of their rooms until after eleven o’clock, but that they would often dash in for something as soon as they saw that inspection was over. Perrin kept her waiting for a long lime, probably out of sheer spite, since the half-hour after inspection was at a time at which all the staff found time for a cup of tea, after the morning rush. Cator, Grant and Edwards all disappeared below, but Christine, longing for a brief rest though she was, aad to stand at the head of the companion until Perrin came. “The numbers of your rooms?" he said gruffly, when he came at last. He knew the numbers perfectly well, since it was those very rooms that he had been finding fault with all along, but it pleased him to make Christine repeat them, and then to growl at her to speak up. Of course that tour of the rooms was a mere farce. The doors of some of the rooms were shut, and as the official inspection was over, Perrin could not insist on going in. "Another disgraceful room,” he said, stalking into number ten. “Two drawers of the dressing table open, the washstand has been left unwiped, the piece of knitting on the settee ought to have been folded up and put away. Don’t you know more about your work than that, eh? Did they teach you nothing on the Brent? Or is this impertinence on your part, Miss Jordan?” A very quiet voice interrupted him: “I’ve been in this room myself since inspection. It was I who opened the drawers, used the washstand and dropped my knitting on the settee.”

Christine turned, and saw Mrs Carlyle standing in the doorway—she had come so quietly along the alley-way that neither Perrin nor Christine had heard her. ( “There have been some complaints of Miss Jordan’s work, Mrs Carlyle,” Perrin said, looking very confused, for he certainly had not expected his words to Christine to be overheard by a passenger. "Quite unfounded complaints, I am sure, Mr Perrin,” Mrs Carlyle said quietly. “I’ve travelled a great deal, and Miss Jordan is one of the best stewardesses I have ever had. She and Grant have been most attentive and obliging—and if any official report is made against either of them, I will most willingly report what I think of them.” “I am very glad to hear that, Mrs Carlyle,” Perrin said, “very glad indeed. But of course you will understand. that when any complaint is made. I am bound to look into it.” "You need not look into it in my room,” she told him, with an icy little smile, and she let him pass into the alley-way, with Christine behind him. Since Mrs Carlyle was watching them, Perrin had not the face to go on into the other rooms on the port side, and Christine's ordeal was over for that day. He told her curtly, in an undertone, to go back to the starboard side and set the rooms there in order, then he went on into the smoke room, leaving Christine with just time to tidy up those starboard rooms before she went down to lunch. Christine did not encounter Mrs Carlyle again until just before dinner. "My dear child,” she said gently, “does the Chief Steward often speak to you in that tone? I was horrified—the man is nothing but a bully.” For one moment Christine longed to confide in her, to tell this motherly old lady just what she was being forced to endure from Perrin and his spies. But the tradition of loyalty kept her silent, loyalty not to Perrin but to her ship. There was a barrier set between the staff and the passengers, and even a kindly woman like Mrs Carlyle must not guess what went on beyond that barrier. “Mr Perrin’s bark is worse than his bite.” she said with a little smile. “He is very particular about the work, you know, and when people complain V “But who can have complained, Miss lordan, about you? 1 have heard nothing about you—Mrs Dewhurst, for instance, is most enthusiastic about your kindness to her children.” "Some people are never satisfied.” Christine said. "Surely Mr Perrin knows that, and makes allowances. He was talking as if you’d committed some crime.” "It’s just his way. It means nothing. He does get annoyed if he thinks anyone is being slack—but it soon blows over.” Mrs Carlyle looked at her doubtfully as if she guessed that Christine was making light of something which was really serious. She said emphatically: “If ever you are in real trouble. Miss Jordan, count on me. As I told the Chief Steward. I shall always be willing to speak for either you or Grant. I consider you both excellent workers.” “Thank you very much indeed, Mrs Carlyle,” Christine said sincerely. Grant came swinging down the al-ley-way towards her as she left Mrs Carlyle’s room. Even Perrin's persecution, and the prospect of more to come, could not; quite quench Arthur Grant's habitual cheerfulness, and he was grinning now. “Has Mrs Parr told you the joyful news.' Miss Jordan?” he asked, avoiding her Christian name in case Edwards was lurking in a near-by bathroom. (To be continued.)