CHINA
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, APRIL 21,
HE plump, middle-aged Mr. Bristol
Maid," slackened to a halt in his progress along the platform to- wards the ticket-barrier. A visage that he had glimpsed but absently, a few moments ago, was recurring on the rim of his mind. Mr. Bint turned, and craned up to look back. "Damme, and so it was!" cx- claimed Mr. Bint, in pleased sur- prise, and with long strides eager- ly returned the way he had come.
His grin widened as he drew while . an individual whe, manifestly awaiting a train, ap- peared sunk in rankling reverie.
near
He was of a rotundity equal to Mr. Bint's, and clearly a close con- temporary to that gentleman in His complexion was high years. his moustache was like some trophy over an explorer's mantle- shelf, he was clad in the stiff im- peccability of "Sunday best," and he wore his bowler hat as through it were austere insignia.
Mr. Bint, now advancing stealthily upon this preoccupied worthy, greeted his shoulder with a resounding smack. The waiting traveller, thus violently disturbed in his meditations, lost not 3 moment in posing himself in a fistic attitude.
"Come on, all the lot of you!" he bawled, bellicosely. "I'm just in the mood to-"
He stopped to gape incredulous- ly at the beaming Mr. Bint.
"Why, if it ain't old Sam Bint!" he marvelled.
"Fancy meeting old Teddy Lumsden again, after all this time!" cried Mr. Bint.
And the pair fell to an affection- ate pummelling and pounding of each other in token of mutual gratification in the reunion.
since "Why, I ain't seen you you left the "Bristol Maid' to get married!" recalled Mr. Bint, when they had subsided to calm.
.
A faint shadow visited Mr. Lumsden's brow.
*"That's so," he agreed, in no particular tone.
"Quite the old married
man,
you are now," observed Mr. Bint, eyeing his old friend. “Gloves and all, eh?"
"Yes," Mr. Lumsden, and looked misfavouringly on each of his then gloved hands in turn, and put them behind his back.
"Well, and 'ow's married life. suiting you?" inquired Mr. Bint.
"Oh, all right," answered the other, quite without enthusiasm,
"And what do you do with your- self, now you've give up the sea?”
"Got a job in a ware 'ouse, but the guv'nor give me a day off. 'caring it
birthday. Thought 'e was doing me a favour, I daresay."
was
my
"And ain't 'e?" asked Mr. Bint. Mr. Lumsden eyed his aforetime crony with a certain bleakness. and shook his head.
"Well, and 'ow's the wife?" said Mr. Bint, imagining that he was tactfully changing the subject.
"Same as usual," supplied Mr. Lumsden.
"Any famb'ly ?””.
Again Mr. Lumsden shook his, head, "Thanks be!" he supple- mented,' briefly.
"Just the two of you, eh?” "And Emmer!" said Mr. Lum- sden, with a certain expletive bit- terness. "Don't forget Emmer!"
"And 'oo's 'Emmer'?” Mr. Eint asked.
1939
'RETURN OF A TRUANT'
"Wife's sister. Come to stay with us for a few days, a fort- night after we was married, and 'as been with us ever since. Never likely to leave us, now, what's more! She and the missis, rums a bit of a shop between 'em! I never even knew what they was up to till I come 'ome from work one evening, and they told me we was moving into the shop the next day! I'ave to admit that it's doing pretty well, toò, but—”
"Never even told you what they was up to? Blowed if I'd put up with that kind of treatment !”
"That's only a sample," declared Mr. Lumsden, almost with gloomy pride. "I'm nobody in the 'ome. I'ain't!"
"Well, fancy you that, Ted!"
talking like
"I know, Sam, but there it is!" "No one sighed Mr. Lumsden. was more surprised, at first than myself.”
"Mean to say you lets them two females boss you like that?”
"It ain't a question of 'letting," Sam. They just does."
"I wonder you don't clear right
Short Story
out, and leave them to their. selves!" declared Mr. Bint, in- dignantly.
"Well I'll tell you why I don't, Sam," responded Mr. Lumsden, gazing down at the platform. “It's because I daren't, and that's а fact! I 'ave thought of it, more than once, but I I daren't. Sam, and I never will dare, neether, 'caven 'elp me!”
an
an'
"Am I talking to my old ship mate, Ted Lumsden, or am I talk- ing to
I-don't-know what? "Mr. Bint, in outraged accents, appealed to the universe.
"You ain't talking to the Ted Lumsden-as-was, I can tell you that other. that," sadly stated "Them two Women 'ave got
their me right under
thumbs, Sam. They've kep' on till they've took every bit o' sperrit out of me. I ain't got a shred of pluck left, and-and-”
"Mr. Lumsden's tone tailed mournful silence. away into. a Mr. Bint, viewing his friend's woebegone countenance with wag Bud- sympathetic concern,
little start of denly moved to a excitement.
"Ever think of the 'igh old times you and me used to 'ave to- gether. Ted, when you was with the "Bristol Maid'?” he asked.
"I've often and often thought of 'em," said Mr. Lumsden, slowly. "Good old days, they was!?! "Good old days, they was," for- fornly echoed Mr. Lumsden,
"Well, then, why not come back with me, and 'åve some more of 'em?" urged Mr. Bint. "That can be arranged quite easy!”,
"You-you mean I could sail again on the old 'Bristol Maid'?'"' ́ ́ "Providence must ave arranged for us to meet, this
werry day, on purpose!" averred Mr. Bint.
And he proceeded to explain
+
why he ascribed the encounter to the kindly intervention of Pro- vidence. It seemed that there existed a vacancy in the forecastle of the "Bristol Maid,” and, though she was due to sail that evening at midnight, her skipper was keep- ing the berth open to oblige Mr. Bint. For Mr. Bint was of opinion that a friend of his, one Jimmy Drew, might care to sign-on for the job, and it was to interview this Mr. Drew that Mr. Bint had come to town by train.
"But," ended Mr. Bint. "jigger old Jimmy Draw, says I, now that I've met you!. You shall sign-on in the old 'Bristol Maid' in 'is place! Now, what do you say to that, Ted, eh?"
Mr. Lumsden had been listening raptly, but slowly the light now faded from his face, and he sighed as one turning away from a bliss- ful vista.
"I-I'd like to, Sam," he falter- ed. "But-but I tell you I daren't! I just daren't. Them two women at 'ome "
In vain Mr. Bint argued, plead- ed.
Mr. and even threatened,
stipulated the other, "that you won't try to persuade me no more about that signing on. I know what I am when I gets easy-going, and I don't want to take no risks."
Nor could he be induced a single step towards the refreshment- room till Mr. Bint had made in oath that, for as long as the two might remain in company, he would faithfully observe the con- dition laid down by Mr. Lumsden-
"By rights," anon remarked Mr. Lumsden, when they were at a bar, "the missis ought to be with me."
"Ho?" inimically Mr. Bint.
commented
"What I mean," explained Mr. Lumsden, "is that she was to 'ave come along with me to see Alfred. She fixed that up, soon as she 'card about me 'aving the day off. And then, this morning, she 'ad word that 'er aunt was ill a-bed, so she vent off to see 'er aunt, and sent me off to see Alfred."
"I wonder she lets you go any- where by yourself."
"I got to meet 'er in town to- night at eight, and go back 'ome with 'er, any way."
"Well, then, that gives you till eight o'clock to enjoy yourself,
By F. Morton don't it?" put forward Mr. Bint.
Howard
Lumsden was not to be seduced from the tyranny that enslaved him.
"Oh, well, if you won't, you won't!" at last surrendered Mr. -Bint, with illgrace. "Go and strangle yourself with their petti cut-strings! I've done with you! We'll just 'ave one drink together, and then-**
"I-I dunno as I can," demurred Mr. Lumsden. "I ain't got the time to spare. I've got to go and see Alfred."
"And 'oo the 'ell may 'Alfred' be?" demanded Mr. Bint.
"Wife's brother," supplied Mr. Lumsden. "'E lives down in Kent. Ali. 'ere comes my train! Goo'-bye, Sam, old man-glad to 'ave seen you again."
The train came to a standstill. Mr. Lumsden, taking a corner seat, smiled with pathetic resignation upon the xexed and thwarted Mr. Bint.
Mr. Bint, however, posed aloof -and scornful, and it was not till the guard's whistle was shrill- ing that he allowed kindlier emo- tions to master him.
"Dammed if I'm going to let an old pal go like that!" he cried, and wresting open the carriage door, he grabbed Mr. Lumsden by the coat-collar, and hauled him out on to the platform,
Mr. Lumsden, mentioning again and again the name "Alfred" as though it were a pass-word to loosen the grasp of his captor, struggled hard to regain the car- riage. Mr. Bint's hold, however, was inescapable, and the train left without Mr. Lumsden.
"Now you've done it!" he gasp- gasp ed, all but appalled.
"We're going to lave just one in memory of my old pal, Ted- Lumsden-as-was," inexorably an- nounced Mr. Bint.
"Only as you solim promise,"
Mr. Lumsden regrettfully shook his head,
"No, I must go and see Alfred," he said.
"What sort of a bloke is this Alfred?" inquired Mr. Bint, some- what restively.
"Well, e ain't my sort," stated the other. "Tall and thin, with wispy eyebrows, and smiles as if it 'urt 'im. Mind you, 'e's got a very nice little place down there in Kent. Grows lots of flowers and vegetables and things, as a 'obby. 'E's very good at that. Well, every man's got something. --ain't 'e?”- ..
Mr. Bint emptied his glass, and waited.
"My missis, she-she knows ex- actly 'ow much I've got, Sam." mentioned Mr. Lumsden, abashed- ly. "I-I'm sorry.”
"'Eaven 'as
I'm spared me. single," said Mr. Bint, simply. "You gotter 'ave another with
me."
(Continued on Page 7)
PLEASE, MOTHER-
I WANT POWDER THAT'S ANTISEPTIC
MENNEN
BORATED POWDER Antiseptic
Relleyes irritation, prickly heat and chafing, .
JAPBIS
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