"GAY VENTURE"

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 10

"GAY VENTURE"

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

By

T. C. BRIDGES.

CHAPTER XX. (Continued >. -i By that time the others had left, and when I got up there was no one in the room but Tarver. I asked him for my gun, and just as I got it Lamotte came back for his, which he’d forgotten. Then the row started afresh. Lamotte, who had put his pistol in his holster pulled it, but I was a split second quicker and next thing Lamotte was on the floor with a blue hole in the centre of his forehead. I turned to Tarver. “You saw he pulled first.” Tarver looked at me oddly. “You were the only one to shoot,” he said. “I reckon this is a job for the sheriff.” He’d got a sawed-off doublebarrel in his hands. I hadn’t a chance. “You dirty blackmailer,” I said. He was quite cool. “You won a bit tonight.” he said. “Sixty dollars,” I told him. “I’ll take that to keep my mouth shut,” he said, “but you’d best cleat out.” Sagar paused again and looked at Eve.

“Like a fool I paid him. Like a worse fool I cleared. Next thing I heard was that there was a reward out for my arrest. I moved again and changed my name. Then I saw notice of my father's death and came home to claim the money.

“I’d forgotten Tarver but he hadn’t forgotten me. Somehow he tracked me down and found me in London. You can’t kill a man in England and get away with it. I bargained with him, paid him a lump sum and bought him a ticket to Singapore. I reckoned I’d seen the last of him, but I might have known better.” Once more he paused and his lips tightened. “You know the rest,” he ended. Eve sat quite still. She was frowning Slightly. "What about Kemp?” she asked “Where does he come in? He must have known what Tarver knew.” “It looks like it,” Sagar agreed, “but how he came to know I can’t tell. I never heard of the man until you mentioned him.”

“But now you know that Tarver killed Kemp, doesn’t that square matters. I mean you can threaten Tarver with being arrested.” “That’s the very first thing I did,” said Sagar. “He took it quite coolly and told me to go ahead and have him arrested. Then we’d both be hanged together.” “What arrangements have you made with Tarver?” Eve asked.

“He wants two thousand pounds. Says he can buy a business in Peru with that money and that, once he’s safe out of England, I can trust him not to come back.” “You can never trust a blackmailer,” Eve said. “If he can’t come he will write. He will go on extorting money from you for the rest of his life or of yours.”

“No,” said Sagar. “He won’t do that. I have already written to a lawyer I knew in the States to go to Gold Star and fix up the business.” “Fix it up!” “Yes. In a place like that money will do anything. This man —his name is Melville —will find Wallace and Harkell and, with their testimony, get the indictment quashed. After that I can snap my fingers at Tarver.” “Why didn’t you do that at once?” Eve nodded. “It never occurred to me until I consulted my own solicitor in London.” Eve nodded. "I hope very much that your plan will work, Jack, but I tell you quite frankly that I have not the least idea of marrying a man who is being blackmailed.” “I reckon that's only reasonable,” Sagar agreed. “But I'll have it all fixed up before December, even if I have to go out myself to America.” Evo glanced at her wrist watch. “We had better get back to lunch,” she said. Sagar nodded. “Afterwards I'll run into Exeter and see the bank manager. I'll get that money off today.” “It’s very good of you,” said Eve quietly. Sagar drove off immediately after lunch; the girls were busy packing and getting ready for their journey. Sagar himself went with them to Exeter to see them off. He tipped the guard, and they were looked after like royalty on the way up. “He’s very kind,” Joyce said to Eve. “I—l wish I liked him better." Eve shrugged. “That's the trouble with me. But 1 suppose I must make the best of it.” Joyce did not reply, but she looked troubled. Dicky met them at Paddington. He had borrowed a car from a friend and drove them to Greenwell Gardens. To their surprise tea was ready laid and the kettle boiling. Dicky explained. “It was Rose Prosser. She has a job in a teashop in Victoria Street, and it was her afternoon off. She’s a brick, that girl.”

“I hope she'll come to me at the Dower House,” Eve said. “At the Dower House?” Dicky repeated. “Yes, Dicky, I’m going to marry Jack Sagar.” Dicky's boyish face hardened. ‘Eve, have you gone crazy?” “I don't quite know,” said Eve. “But listen.” She told him of Sagar’s ready help for Peter and Jane and of his oflei of the Close. Dicky's face did not relax. “Bribes," he said curtly. “Eve, that mans rotten and Joyce and I would lather starve than see you marry him.” Dicky! cried Joyce in distress, but Eve raised her hand. If Dicky thinks this is true he has a right to say it, Joyce. I don’t think so, myself, or I shouldn’t have promised to merry Jack. I've told him plainly that I have no affection for him but he does not seem to mind. I believe I can help him and perhaps make him a more useful man." Dicky was biting his lip, "Eve. Joyce and I are pretty fond of

you, and I know you well enough to be sure you aren't influenced by Sagar’s money. But I tell you it won’t work and, personally I mean to do what I can to stop it.” Eve looked at him very kindly. "You needn’t be in a hurry, Dicky. I've bargained for six months’ delay, so in any case I shan’t be married till next year.” They were interrupted by a knock and when Joyce called “come in,” a sturdy figure blocked the door. “You Jan!” said Joyce in surprise. Jan Prout touched his forehead. “I glad I found ’ee in, Miss. I heard you was down to Devonshire.” “We are only just back,” said Joyce “What can we do for you, Jan?” Jan fished in his pocket and brought out an envelope. “I was sorting the Captain’s clothes, seeing as the moth didn’t get in ’em, and I found this in a pocket. It were addressed to Miss. Nisbet so I brought it along.” Eve took it quickly. She had gone rather white and her fingers trembled a little as she tore open the letter. Presently she looked up.

“It’s his will,” she said. “He—he has left everything to me except a h.un- ' dred pounds to you. Dicky, and fifty, to Jan. It —it’s four thousand or a little more.” Jan broke the silence. “But a will ain’t no good till the one as makes it is dead,” he said. A spasm of pain crossed Eve’s face. Joyce saw it and spoke. "Jan, it’s no use hoping. Mr. Trask saw his grave.” “He didn’t see who was buried there,” returned Jan. “They gave me his watch, Jan,” said Dicky. “Do you think I would believe he was dead if I didn’t have to?” Jan remained unconvinced. “The Captain wouldn’t die in any desert as ever was unless someone killed him. And that ain’t likely. Anyway I ain't going to take that money till I’ve been there and seen his body.” He stood a moment looking at them, then touched his forehead again and was gone.

CHAPTER XXL Eve’s eyes were full of unshed tears. “Can he be right, Dicky?” she asked. “Can Jan possibly be right?” “No, Eve! What object could that man Boulifa have had in lying? Get that will proved and use- the money. That’s what Keith would have wished. It makes you independent and that’s what Joyce and I want you to be.” “We do,” said Joyce quickly. Eve sat silent a few moments. When she looked up her face was calm again. “Very well, Dicky. I will do as you wish. But now I think I will go and lie down a little while.” Dicky opened the door for her, then came back to Joyce., “Joyce,” he said in a low voice. “Eve must never marry Sagar,” and

gave her a quick kiss. “I must go dear,” he continued. “I'm looking for a job with Northern Aviation. I’m to see the Manager after office hours. Eve called on Keith’s lawyer, Mr. Dawes, and gave him the will. He was very kind and promised to do all that was necessary. She wrote to Sagar, thanking him for their visit and his kindness and had a reply in which Sagar said that Tarver had not been back. “It’s a mighty funny thing,” he wrote, “for he “\vas to come and see me the evening after you left. If he's been run down by a car I shan't be mourning, but I reckon that's too good to be true.” Dicky failed to get work with Northern Aviation, so Eve decided to help

him. What Dicky wanted was to nuy a second-hand plane and start as a taxi pilot. Eve drew £7oo,'made him take it and almost at once he had as much work as he could do. ’ Four weeks passed, then one Friday evening Eve had a letter from Jane, full of gratitude for the money sent by Jack Sagar. “It makes all the difference," Jane wrote. “We can rebuild, we can carry on. I cannot tell you how grateful we are to you, Eve, and to Mr. Sagar. I hope and pray, my dear, that you and he will be happy together. The enclosed letter will interest you. I found it in one of the few boxes rescued from the fire. It was written by Jack Sagar’s mother to your mother, and tells of the birth of her son whom you are now going to marry.” Eve carefully unfolded the enclosed letter. The paper was yellow and beginning to get brittle with age. It was a pleasant ordinary letter, but near the end Eve came upon a sentence which startled her. “We are calling our little boy John after your John because he has the same blue eyes.” Eve read it again. “Blue eyes,” she said aloud, “but Jack's eyes are not blue." She tried to think what colour they were, but it was difficult to know because of Sagar’s old trick of keeping them veiled under half-closed lids. Yet she was certain they were not blue. Could eyes change colours? On the spur of the moment she rang up Dr. Sanford who had attended Joyce, and asked him if the colour of a baby's eyes ever changed in later life.

"I never heard of such a thing,” he replied in a rather astonished voice. “No, there could be no permanent change of colour.” Eve thanked him and rang off. Each moment she was feeling more and more disturbed. If Jack Sagar's eyes were not blue why then he could not be Jack Sagar. That seemed the only possible conclusion and to Eve a terrifying conclusion.

(To be Continued).