"GAY VENTURE"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 October 1940, Page 10

"GAY VENTURE"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

By

T. C. BRIDGES.

1 CHAPTER V. tContinuedi. "A sand storm,” said Keith as he pushed open the door of the lounge and the big ship heeled to the force of the wind, and all the outside lights were eclipsed by what seemed a thick brown fog. “Just in time,” Keith remarked. “Phew! but this is the worst ever. I doubt if we shall be able to move till it’s over.” He was right. The Dunoon was headed into one of the deep embrasures which are cut at intervals in the banks of the canal and moored bow and stern, and there she lay for three hours while sand in tons scoured her decks and piled in drifts in every angle and corner. Just after midnight the storm passed as suddenly as it' had come and the liner's engines began to throb. The air was clear, tne temperature down I twenty degrees, and, though the heat was that of an English July day, it felt cool compared with what they had been through. Eve who had hardlyl slept during the past two nights, went' straight to bed and did not move until j the stewardess came in at eight. The woman was bubbling with excitement. “That Tarver, Miss. He’s gone.” Eve sat up. "Tarver —gone! How, where?” ‘That’s just what they don’t know, Miss. His port was open and they think he got out during the storm.” "Then he’s drowned.” “No, Miss. Remember we were tied up to the bank. He could have got ashore easy enough.” i “I’d forgotten. So he could. But in that storm! He couldn’t get far, could he?” “They haven’t heard anything of him. They wirelessed as soon as tney missed him. They say he’s sure to be picked up.” Eve waited till the stewardess had left the room then turned to Mrs Kingscote. “Oh, I do hope they don’t catch him,” she said earnestly. “They are bound to, Eve. There is no hiding place for man on the desert.” “I suppose we shall hear when we get to Port Said.” “We are certain to. And, Eve, one thing. Tarver won’t be in this ship.” “But I shall see him again at the trial,” Eve said. “My dear, that need not worry you. Either they will hang him or he will go to prison for life.” Eve shivered. ‘Even then he will be hating me.” Mrs Kingscote came across, sat on Eve’s bed and put an arm around her. "You are foolish, Eve. You are letting this man get on your nerves. Put him out of your mind altogether.” “I wish I could,” Eve answered, “but I can't get his face out of my thoughts. I feel that he will do me harm and — and I think he will hurt Keith, too.” “Keith Hedley is quite capable of taking care of himself and —of you, too, if you let him.” Eve looked round. ‘You mean that —that Keith wants to marry me? He hasn’t said so.” “He will say it before we get home,” said Mrs Kingscote smiling. “Now we had better dress. We shall be in Port Said almost as soon as we have finished breakfast.” Eve was with Keith on deck as the Dunoon steamed slowly into the big port at the north end of the Canal. The whole ship was in a ripple of excitement about Tarver's escape, but the general opinion was that he could not have got far. Keith thought the ! same but did not say so. He knew ! Eve’s feelings too well. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We shall get news as soon as any one. Saw- . bridge, the fourth officer, has promised : to let me know when they hear any- \ thing. Ah here he is.” Sawbridge, smart in white uniform, came across 1 the deck.

“Have you heard?” Eve asked quickly. “Is there any news of Tarver?” “We’ve heard from Suez, Miss Nisbet but there’s no news. The fellow has vanished. If you ask me, I’d say he was drowned trying to get ashore or else swallowed up by the sand.” “Swallowed by the sand?” repeated Eve. “Nothing more likely,” said Sawbridge. “No one could face a storm like that in the open, and, if he tried, he would have been blinded and forced to lie down. Then he would be buried in a few minutes. But I must go. This is my busy day.” Eve turned to Keith. “Is it horrid of me to be glad, Keith?” "Why should it?” he answered. “If Sawbridge is right it’s the best thing that could have happened. Tarver was a bad hat and the world is well rid of him. Now what about going ashore? We don’t sail until four o’clock.” The passage up the Mediterranean was delightful, and the Bay, too, was kindly. It was dead calm when the ship passed Ushant and Eve went to bed that night full of eager anticipation. A melancholy roar roused her next morning, and she sat up hastily, still half asleep, not yet realising what the sound was. “Fog, Eve," said Mrs Kingscote. “Bad luck to run into it at this time of the year.” “Fog,” wailed Eve. "Then we shan’t see the white cliffs or anything." "Don’t be so sad, my dear. It may clear. If it doesn’t I only hope we keep a respectable distance from the cliffs —white or otherwise.” • “There was no sign of clearance when Eve went on deck after breakfast. The big ship was nosing her way up the Channel at little more than half speed through a blanket of soggy mist. Everything dripped dismally and at regular intervals the whole ship vibrated to the harsh bellow of the fog horn.

“Thick as soup," said Keith in a disgusted voice as he joined Eve. “and I'd been looking forward like a kid to your first glimpse of the old country.

j But this won’t last. Odds are the sun will break through before midday.” ; ‘Then we shall see Beachy Head and > Dover.” In her excitement Eve caught ! Keith's arm and her touch made him ; tingle. Her face turned up to his was : flushed with excitement, her eyes were shining. She looked so charming that Keith forgot all else except that he ■ wanted Eve above everything on earth. "Eve,” he began. The luck was all against him. There came a loud shout from the bowks, “Port —port your helm!"; a bell rang sharply from the bridge, and the ship quivered as her engines were reversed. The warning had come too late. Next instant there was a fresh shouting, followed by a splintering crash. “That’s torn it,” Keith said. “No, you don’t want to look, Eve. It may be beastly. Go back into the lounge while .1 see if I can do anything.” The decks which a minute earlier had been deserted were filled with excited passengers, orders were being i shouted from the bridge, a boat was I being lowered. It plopped into the I calm grey sea, and a hundred heads I leaned over the rail to watch it. Major Kingscote came along side Eve. “What was it, Eve—a fishing boat?” “We couldn’t see,” Eve answered. “We just heard a shout, and then the crash.”

“It’s this infernal fog,” growled the Major. ‘Who’d have thought of weather like this in June?” “There she is!” came a shout. “There’s the wreck.” The hull of a forty-foot launch loomed through the mist, her deck .almost level with the water. The Major craned forward. “Great Scott, they have made a mess of her. She’s sinking. Is there anyone aboard, Eve?” “Three men,” Eve answered. “And another in the water —swimming. There —they've reached him. It's all right, Major, they’ll get the others.” They did, but it was a close call. As they hauled the third man into the boat the battered remains of the launch rolled over and disappeared. The watchers aboard the liner cheered the rescuers who came pulling smartly back. In a very few minutes the four rescued men dripping with salt water and shivering with the chill, were on the liner’s deck and were hurried below for a change. Keith came back to Eve.

“It’s all right. They got them all. The launch was the Fly-by-Night. but I don’t know who the owner is. There’s the lunch gong. Coming?”

At lunch Eve noticed that Keith ate very little. She knew the reason and little thrills ran through her whenever she glanced at his clean-cut face. When lunch was over Keith got up. “I must see to Zoe." he whispered to Eve. ‘l'll be up soon. You’ll be on deck?”

"I'll be somewhere about,” Eve answered and wondered afterwards how she had been able to speak so quietly. She went straight up and to her delight found that the fog at last was breaking. She went straight to the rail, straining her eyes for a first glimpse of her nattive land and tingling with excitement. The fog kept lifting, something white gleamed through a rift.

"Oh!” cried Eve, and was quite unconscious that she spoke aloud. “England!”

"You must be a Colonial," came a voice with a slight American accent, and Eve turned to see standing next her a man whom she had never seen before. He was dressed in a rather illfitting suit of grey flannel. She had two impressions—one that he was the handsoment man she had ever seen in her life; the other that there was something odd about his eyes. Both these ideas were swamped by annoyance. People from the Dominions simply hate being called Colonials. "I am English,” she answered briefly.

"Sorry,” he said smiling. "Guess I ought to have known. Colonial girls don’t have complexions like yours. ’ Eve stiffened.

“It’s quite plain you are not English,” she retorted.

“What makes you say that? ’ asked the other still smiling.

“An Englishman would have better manners,” said Eve and turned away. In a flash he was by her side. He nad the quickness and something of the grace of a cat.

“You’re not cross?” he said. If he had made a real apology Eve might have forgiven him. but he was still smiling and Eve grew angry. “I don’t know you,” she said, “and 1 don’t want to know you.” Instead of being dismayed the man burst out laughing.

“What a little spitfire it is!” he chuckled. “You look even prettier when you frown.” Eve slopped short and faced him. Her eyes were very bright, her cheeks flamed..

Before she could speak here was Keith. His face frightened Eve. She had no idea he could look like this. “Its all right, Keith," she began, but Keith paid no attention. His big brown hand closed on the shoulder and wrenched him round.

“Clear out!” he said in a low, dangerous voice. With a quick twist the other broke free.

"Sorry!” he sneered. “Didn't know I was poaching."

A number of passengers had begun to crowd around the three. Keith paid no more attention than if they had been so many flies. ‘Will you go?" he said, "or do t have to make you?”

“Make me,” repeated the other. “I doubt if you could. But if the lady prefers you why that’s her business.” With a bow to Eve he turned and strolled away, still with the same smile on his handsome face.

Keith watched him for a moment then turned to Eve. But Eve was gene. Keith caught a glimpse of her passing into the lounge. He followed and

caught her at the head of the companion. “Eve ” he began. She turned on him. “Why did you make that scene?" she asked furiously. "Humiliating me before all those people." Keith looked at her dumbly. “I —I thought ” he stammered. :“You thought I was such a fool 1 couldn't, manage him." .Eve said bitterly. “Please go away. I don't want to speak to you any more.' (To be Continued).