"CRASH!"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1939, Page 10

"CRASH!"

COPYRIGHT. PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY

ARTHUR APPLIN.

Author of “Adventure for Two,” “Winning Through,” “Cold Cream,” etc.

CHAPTER XXXI. Instead of amusing themselves they began by quarrelling. Mrs Garcia might have thought it amusing—other peoples quarrels generally are! For Johnny it was terribly serious; here they were alone together at last and both were further apart man they had ever been, before. Johnny was jealous and suspicious; Peggy, thrilled by all that was happening, resented his attitude. When she opened her bag to get her powder puff and lipstick, and he saw the mass of chips and mille notes she had won, he lost his temper, told her if she intended keeping the money Garcia had made for her she was behaving like a crook. Peggy got up and walked straight cut of the restaurant. Johnny let ner go; but after sitting miserably for five minutes he realised what a fool he was. Everything had been going too well, and he had lost his head. A panic seized him. If he wasn’t careful he would lose Peggy. And he wasn’t really necessary to her now! She could manage quite well without him. He hurried out of the Casino, crossed the Place, looked for her everywhere. He climbed the steep hill that led to The Continental. Here it was dark and desolate; cats were crawling about the gutters, scraping about the dust bins and refuse heaps; they glared at him with wild luminous eyes. No beaury or romance or glamous here! A stone wall surrounded the lower part of the hotel gardens; luckily the door that led to them was open. As he went in it occurred to him that probably Peggy had gone back to the Baccarat Room and rejoined the Garcias. And Phillipson would be there, hovering around Mrs Garcia like a wasp around a honey pot;he would see Peggy —and if he recognised her it would utterly frustrate all Johnny’s plans. Instead of going into the hotel he turned up a little path on the right and found himself on the terrace. Moonlight bathed the open space and made fantastic shapes of the shadows cast by the trees. The air was saturated with the smell of spring flowers. Away out and below him the sea was a silver mirror. He could have cried for joy at the beauty of the night—and for misery because Peggy was not there to share it with him. Then among the still shadows he saw a moving shadow. It approached, swaying. It rose up and covered him. He clasped it in his arms—found warm flesh and blood . . . Peggy!

They didn’t speak for a long time but just stood clinging to one another. Then Johnny said: “Forgive me ... I don’t know what made me say such an awful thing. I was a swine.” “Hush, darling, it’s forgotten. I was simply longing for you all the time I was running that silly bank —and hating Mrs Garcia! She didn't entrance you, Johnny?" He laughed. “Mrs Garcia! Why even the night, if it took human shape, couldn’t—while I love you.”

They sat on tne stone wall where passion flowers draped themselves. “And what a wonderful night! You do love me, Johnny? Say it again . . . . I'm just beginning to understand." He said it so many times that the night died in the arms of day before they went into the hotel. And they didn’t know that the Garcias had seen them on their return from the Casino! CHAPTER XXXII. Johnny was awakened by the ringing of the telephone bell. He held the receiver against his ear while he tried to remember everything that had happened. “Is that Harcourt?” Garcia’s voice boomed over the wire. “Well, come down to my room at once. I'm expecting Phillipson at .1.30.” “I'll be with you in 10 minutes —I’m not quite dressed." Johnny replied. He jumped out of bed without waiting to hear- Garcia's next remark. Ringing for his breakfast he swallowed a large cup of coffee and ate a roll while he shaved. On his way down he knocked at the door of Peggy's room. She told him to come in. He found her sitting up in bed having her breakfast. “You must hurry and dress,” he said: “it’s past 11, and Phillipson will be here in half an hour. Darling ,you look divine!”

“I don’t—but if I do. it’s all you.” “When will you marry me?” “Whenever you like. Now you must imagine I'm blushing.’ “The end of the week?" he cried. "Tomorrow —today!" He threw her a kiss and dashed out of the room. Silly to count your chickens before they were hatched, he reminded himself. They were in Garcia’s hands. If only he could deal with Mrs Garcia —but she was probably still in bed —and “unconscious."

When he entered the Garcia's sitting room Garcia was walking up and down a huge cigai’ sticking out of the corner of his mouth. He told Johnny to sit down. ‘‘Now listen, I want Peggy's brother’ here. Wire him to fly over at once. Do it now on the ’phone.” He dictated the message. When Johnny had sent it Garcia said: “Now, when Phillipson arrives lie’ll bring the necklace with him. And you'd better realise that all I want is the neckace. He has got to hand it over. Then I’ll hear his story. How he got hold of it. I’ve heard your story, and it's for me to decide who's telling the truth and who is lying. And who is the real thief.'' ••You believe Peggy’s story?"

They all stood together in a little group. Mrs Garcia alone was thoroughly enjoying the situation. She told Johnny to open the door just an inch wider. Garcia must have been standing with his back to it. for a cloud of smoke drifted through the opening, and they heard his voice booming: “Quite. Colonel! If I had been in your place—but carry on!"

•q believe nothing I hear. I trust my eyes, not my ears. Now how do you propose —when I’ve got the necklace —to prove that the colonel stole it, in the way you and Peggy described?" “As soon as Phillipson has handed j over the pearls, and while you are, writing out the cheque for him, let Peggy come into the room, with your

They heard the colonel say: “I assure you it wasn’t her looks that attracted me, but she evidently didn't know her job as a stewardess, and it was easy to see she was nervous and ill at ease. Once or twice I surprised her late at night on the upper dock, talking earnestly to one of the stewards. When we reached England I forgot all about her until one day, several months later, she appeared at this boarding-house in Bayswater as one of the guests. I recognised her at

wife. “When then? I don't want a scene." “There'll oe no scene —unless the colonel has a weak heart! Just use your eyes.” Garcia began to walk up and down the room again, blowing rings of smoke through his thick lips. As one ring floated above his head, he poked a fat finger through it, and laughed. "Be ing a chemist I suppose you like experiments. I don't like explosions or stinks, so take care that neither occur in this one.” A servant announced that Colonel Phillipson was waiting in the lounge downstairs. “Show him up!” Garcia said. To Johnny he said: “You’d better clear out —and warn Peggy to be ready. Tell her to go into my wife’s room and wait there with her . . .Dolores!" he shouted, opened the bedroom door. “Hurry up and get dressed, the colonel had just arived with your precious pearls.” As he finished speaking, they heard the lift gates clang, then footsteps approaching along the corridor. “That s torn it!" Johnny cried. “If the colonel find me here, he will be suspicous.” Garcia pushed him to we open window. “Get out on the balcony! It runs the whole length of my suite. You can listen if you like, but don’t barge in until I send for you.” The French window through which Johnny went was the one next Garcia’s bedroom. Instinctively he turned to the right as he heard the servant announce Phillipson. He stood with his back pressed against the wall, wondered how much of the conversation he would be able to hear. Then he remembered that Peggy hadn't been warned. If he walked past the sitt-ing-room windows he would inevitably be seen. There were French windows on his right wide open —of course — they led to the bedroom! he would have to go that way. and trust to luck that the-senora was still “unconscious.” He stepped cautiously into the room then stopped, too embarrassed to apologise. Far from being "unconscious,” Mrs Garcia was sitting in front of her dressing table smoking a cigarette while an attractive little French maid was doing her hair. “Buenos dias!” the senora smiled, pulling together the loose silk wrap she wore: “Don't run away!”—as Johnny backed towards the window—- “ Blanche has nearly finished with me —and we want to hear what the colonel says, don’t we? Please take a cigarette." She indicated a gold box on the table.” “Thanks!” Automatically Johnny took one. Mrs Garcia had a light for him. She reminded him now of a lovely cat that had just been brushed and combed. She stretched herself luxuriously and looked up at him—purring. "I'll send Blanche up to Peggy's room and tell her to come down here.' She gave the maid instructions. “Si, senora,’ the girl said, and went out. “Now,” Mrs Garcia went on, “can you open the adjoining door very, very quietly?—leave it just ajar and then sit in that chair and listen." Was it fair, he wondered? Eavesdropping was a nasty business. Mrs Garcia said: "All's fair in love and war —and we’re both in love and both at war!" What exactly did she mean by that ... He turned the handle of the door noiselessly and stood with his back to it. his ears strained. Mrs Garcia got up and looked at him. smiling. He didn't quite know where to look. The maid returned and Mrs Garcia told her to give her her frock. “Excuse me!” she said, as she slipped off her wrap and. the maid standing in front of her, put on her dress. “Mademoiselle will be down in two minutes." the maid whispered. Mrs Garcia dismissed her, looked at herself in the mirror, sighed, and then standing beside Johnny put her hand on his arm. “This is really quite thrilling!" she said, her lips close to his ear: "I was getting so bored, until you came yesterday.” “Hush!" he said under his breath. "Here there’s nothing to do but to gamble and to eat. and to meet dull men who talk of nothing but money." “I know,” Johnny whispered sympathetically. He didn’t know anything —he was trying to hear what Phillipson was saying, and he was wishing Peggy would come, and wondering why such a lovely, creature as Dolores had tied herself up for life to the bulllike Garcia. Then to his relief the bedroom door opened, and Peggy came in. She was wearing the coat-and-skirt in which she had flown over from Paris! She had done her hair as she used to wear it at the boarding-house—what else she had done Johnny didn't know, but it was quite extraordinary how she could change herself. Definitely, she could change herself. Definitely, she was Peggy Strong now.

once: my wife wasn’t so sure, nut she had been ill all the voyage. When I learnt she was supposed to be working for one of the leading newspapers. I guessed there was something wrong. My suspicions were renewed, when by accident I discovered that she was receiving letters at a local tobacconist’s. She had no friends, and refused to make any at the boarding-house. Sometimes I used to meet her on my way to the club, and she confided in me that she had led a pretty tough life, and was up against it. Then one afternoon, as I was walking down Notting Hill Gate High Street, I saw her going into a pawnbroker’s. I was curious and waited. When she came out she was carrying what looked like a small case wrapped in brown paper. I overtook her. She was obviously disti essed and very nervous. We walked through the Park and sat for a little while under the trees. 1 asked her if she was in trouble, said if she cared to confide in me perhaps 1 could help her.”

Garcia guffawed: “Dangerous thing to do. Colonel! Lots of innocent men have been caught like that!" (To be Continued.)