CO
THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, MAY 28, 1937.
I'M SAILING
(Continued from Page 1) Then I remembered my date with Grace. I reached for my watch. I say "reached," because I didn't find it! Then I reached for my wallet. Gone too! shaking hands explored wrinkled folds of my clothes. watch! No wallet! No wonder she wanted to get rid of me!
My the No
Now that particular wallet had a great sentimental value to me. It was a gift from Grace. But I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of the two thousand dollars it had held within its morocco depths. And the watch was platinum!
I looked my hostess over coldly. She certainly didn't look the part But facts are facts. I've been in Paris too long to be fooled by appearances. Besides, I've been taken that way before.
I did
I
some quick thinking. didn't want any police business. She didn't either, or she would have called them the night before. So I decided to take the law in hands. My first move my own
was to lock the door and put the key in my pocket. Then I gave her one of those sneering, search- ing looks of mine.
She backed
away, but I followed her up and grabbed her wrist the way those racketeer fellows do in the pic- tures. I put a lot of menace in my voice, too.
"Listen, baby," I snarled. "You
with can't get away
it! You can't get away with it!"
Her eyes opened in well-feigned amazement.
"Why, I don't know what you're "You talking about," she said. must be crazy!”,
"Yeah, I'm-crazy, all-right —” I sneered, -crazy like a fox!"
*
I can be pretty sarcastic when I think someone is trying to put something over on me. Too bad Alphonse wasn't there to hear me.
I said: "I had intended mak- ing you a nice little present, Miss Lightfinger. Now the situation is quite changed. You are going to make me two nice little presents, instead. My choice is à hand- some platinum pocketbook con- taining two thousand dollars—”
I almost had to laugh at the look of alarm she put on. But I didn't. This was too serious.
"and," I went on, "that's not all. I also want a nice open- faced leather watch, with my initials on the back. My birth- day's to-day, and I want it right now!"
The girl was certainly a won- der. "I don't know what you're talking about,' was all I could get out of her. Then I shook her up a little to refresh her memory. She started to get hysterical. But I didn't let it register. I was tempted to a couple of times, but I kept thinking of the money and the watch. She started to cry. The tears were real ones, too. But I'm hardened to tears., changed my tactics. Better get rough.
-
"Go ahead and cry," I growled. "Cry as much as you like! The human body contains eighty per- cent water. I don't care how you lose yours. But let me tell you one thing, if you don't come through right now, I'm going to wreck this pretty spider's web of yours so badly that it won't catch another golden fly. Give me that money, or I'll smash up your apartment!"
That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I felt her wilt in my arms.
TO-MORROW!
"I think I'm going to faint," she said.
If I'd have been sober then, I might have weakened. But I wasn't and I didn't. I let her slip to the floor. The thing that got me mad was that I really had intended giving her a nice pre- sent. I always do. But no wo- man's going to make a sucker out of me.
So I went into action.
I opened hostilities with the pot of coffee. Threw it bang up against that pretty green satin wall. The splash and stain it made gave
me quite a kick. I thought that might. serve as à warning. But she never batted That girl certainly was some actress, I thought. But I wasn't in any mood for compli- ments. Maybe she still thought I didn't mean it. No use wasting any more time.
an eye.
So I went to work in earnest. Did you ever see a wrecking crew go to work on an old build- ing? Or a gang of firemen put- ting out a small fire? They were schoolchildren compared to me. I kicked over an antique floor lamp as a starter. Then I grabbed my trusty
golf-club fashion,
malacca
cane
and made the mantel- piece course in one. I staggered around the place, putting my feet. through Louis XIV chairs with sickening regularity. I liked that Corot, but I wasn't playing any favourites. With one vicious swing, I knocked the cow right out of her pasture. Antique tables turned to kindling wood under my magic wand. I was enjoying it, too. Take my watch and money, would she? Well, I'd show her! Then I jumped on my own silk hat, and that got me wild. It was a good silk hat. So I took it out on the drapes. "Fore,” I yelled gleefully, and drove Napo- leon's head right through a front window.
When the place was a complete wreck, I grabbed my battered bat and opened the door. I looked over, my work with pride. A cyclone couldn't have done a bet- ter job. But still not a move out of my lady friend. Too tough a proposition for me.
Better go home.
In the hall I turned. "We're quits now," I panted. “You can use the money for new furniture. As for the watch, you know what you can do with that!".
With this parting shot, I took. one last devastating swing at a full-length mirror for luck, and dashed out.
Good old Alphonse! There he was nodding at the wheel. I sprang on the box with him. Not until we arrived safely home, and Alphonse was mixing me one of those Bacardi's of his, did I think of my appointment to meet Grace and her mother.
"What time do you Alphonse?"
asked enough.....
make it, casually
"Here you are, sir,” said Al- phonse unperturbedly.".
And he handed me MY WATCH AND WALLET!
Were you ever out in the great alone? I mean, that's a poem, of course. But do you know what I'm trying to get at- that sort of detached feeling? That's the way I felt. Alphonse's" voice sounded far away..
"Begging your pardon, sir," he was saying, "but I took them last night, as a measure of precaution, sir."
Alphonse annoys me at times. He's too calm in a crisis. He went on mixing another drink.
"You'll be all right after you drink this, sir," he said.
The bounder thinks a drink is a cure-all. 'Maybe he's right. I: drank the thing off. Then he told me.
"You see, sir," he said, "after you tore the lady's dress she call- ed me in. At her suggestion, I tried to take you home. Then when you hit me the second time, and dismissed me from your ser- vice, I realised it was quite impos- sible, sir, begging your pardon,” "Go on, Alphonse," I said. "Don't spare me. Don't spare
Alphonse did go on. No need to repeat the harrowing details. It appears that my perfect blank had been an amorous one!
me."
I felt rather badly about the whole thing. I'm not such a bad fellow. And suppose Grace should hear about it. An incident like that can become quite annoying. Better forget about it, and send Alphonse over in the morning with some money. That's it! Forget about the past and think of the future bride. The fateful timepiece showed a quarter of ten. Time to be going to the station.
I must admit that Alphonse is a great help in some ways. He got me all cleaned up in a jiffy, slipped a lifesaver in my mouth, a gardenia in my buttonhole, and we rolled into the station just as Grace and her mother got off the Deauville train.
Grace didn't notice a thing wrong with me. She was all en- thused about something or other. I had an idea her mother sniffed a little suspiciously when I kiss-
7
ed her, but she didn't say anything. I didn't talk much. Alphonse
if you keep still you can get away with murder.
Grace hugged "Darling,"
can
me playfully. she said, “you never guess the wonderful sur÷5 prise mother has for us??ents,
I didn't feel much like guess- ing right then, and I said so. I. wasn't in the mood for any more surprises either. Her mother was: beaming.
"It's just a little nest," she said, " "that I furnished up for you, and.... Grace as a wedding present."-...
the Bang! went
conscience. Here I'd just broken up one home, and they were giving me another. I tried
smile- to give a feeble But Old Man Remorse was work-
as I stood w ing overtime. Then staring vacantly down the station platform, one of those: premoni- tion things of mine hit me square in the face. Alphonge says I'm psychic. Maybe I am. But I think it was that broken mirror. I knew something terrible was going to happen. And it did: Right then and there.
The person. I was thinking of was coming straight toward us. She must have followed me.. We saw each other at the same mo- ment. She recognised me at once and opened her mouth.
"I think I'm going to faint," I heard her say.
I recognised her when fainted.
she
A tall athletic-looking, young man, who resembled her, caught her in his strong arms. I stood rooted to the spot. Grace and her mother rushed up to help. NOGIE body was noticing me except
raid Alphonse. From his expression,
(Continued on Page 8)-
Equal to a
fine liqueur.
"I can
can tell
White Horse
blindfold! And to think that at one
time I used simply to ask for whisky-and-soda! White Horse is just like a fine liqueur !"
Sole Agents for B, China; Jabdine Matheson' & 'Co,, Lærp.
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