CHINA
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JUNE 23, 1939
¡HE day Arthur Rowlands met
T Evelyn Pelham he made up 'FATE'S INTERVENTION'
It
his mind that he wanted' her. .did not matter in the least that she was engaged to his partner; in his code of life he took what he desired by fair means or foul.
David Thurston must be smash- ed, he decided, and smashed in such a way that Evelyn would give him up of her own free will. After all it was merely anticipat- ing an inevitable finish to their business association; he had only allowed Thurston to join him in the first place in order to get con- trol of his capital.
It was easy enough to arrange. Thurston knew nothing whatever of business, having only recently retired from the Air Force, and when Rowlands informed him that there was a hitch in the ne- gotiations for a South American mine in which they hoped to pur- chase a concession, Thurston be- lieved him implicitly.
"There's just one possible chance of saving our capital," hinted Rowlands gloomily.
He appeared to hesitate, and David asked the expected ques- tion.
"Well, what is it? Of course I'll do anything. if it will help things."
Rowlands craftily unfolded his plan. By great good fortune, he
Short Story
declared, Signorina Anita Elfer- ́enza, the real owner of the mine, happened to be in London. David was to make her acquaintance, appoint himself her escort, and insinuate himself into her good graces. If he did his part tho- roughly, she might be persuaded to give them the desired option.
"There's only one part of the business you'll find rather irk- some, I'm afraid," concluded Rowlands, laying his hand sym- pathetically on David's shoulder, "You'll have to neglect your fiancee for a while. It would ruin everything if either of the ladies knew the other existed.”
David at once protested; he was quite confident that Eve would understand. But after Row- lands had carefully pointed out how much hung on success, he re- luctantly agreed to be guided by the elder man's advice.
"All right!" he announced brusquely. "I'll do what you say, though I don't at all like it. If Evelyn makes a fuss I shall rely on you to put things right.”
Rowlands had summed up his man to a nicety. Having passed his word, David stuck to it. Eve- lyn found herself gradually ig- nored without being able to dis- cover the reason. The skilful in- 'nuendos of an ever attentive Rowlands increased her unhappi- ness. No one knew better than he how to turn such à situation to his own advantage.
The climax arrived on the day Evelyn entered the lounge of an hotel for tea and saw David în ·· animated conversation
over-dressed girl, with an
made..
ap, who was obviously not quite a lady: He had failed to keep an engagement with herself. Row lands in attendance offered a hateful sympathy which Aured the fire of her wrath.
The following day she return- ed David his ring.
David
It I was flabbergasted. must be a mistake. A word or Row- two of explanation from lands and everything would be put right again. He hurried ea- gerly to the man whom he believ- ed to be his 'friend.
He found him at the office and was at once struck by the change in his demeanour, A different Rowlands this; a hard-as-ice business man who listened to his partner's story without softening.
"I'm very sorry, my dear Thurs- ton, but we must allow Miss Pel- It's ham to know her own mind. probably on account of this”- he passed across a blue paper- "I expect she's heard; women are like that."
David glanced at it quickly. A He read it word caught his eye. through again slowly, only then half comprehending.
"What does it all mean?" he asked at length.
"My good fellow, surely you can read? It means the mine is a fraud.
There never was a mine."
"But what about our money?"
By Captain A.O. Pollard
me
we've "Our money has gone; been had. It's an infernal nui- sance and has left
rather short. I'm sorry to have to trouble you just when this has happen- ed, but I must ask you to pay me back the hundred or so you've had on account.'
David swallowed hard. His mouth seemed to have gone sud- denly dry.
"I can't-you know that quite well, I haven't got a bean."
Rowlands shrugged his shoul-
ders.
"You shouldn't dabble in these risky American investments un- less you can afford to stand the racket. Anyone will tell you that. I won't be hard on you though; I'll give you a week to find the
money.
78
The phrase échoed in David's ears for the rest of the morning→ a week to find the money. How was he to get even a part of it?
But even that was not the up- permost thought in his mind, Did Eve know? Was this the reason she had turned him down. Any- way he was debarred from asking her now; she might think he was eadging for sympathy.
Wandering disconsolately about the West End, chance brought him face to face with the Ameri- can heiress. He raised his hat mechanically and would have passed on, but she seized him by the arm. N
"Don't look at me like that; you've guessed it in one. I'm an actress and I've been fooling you. Dead easy it was too; you don't know much about women, do you? But stand me, a drink some- where and I'll put you wise to the whole game. The dirty tripe- hound! I'll teach him to try his tricks on me! Somewhere, where I can have a double johnnie. I'm sick of all those cocktails I've had to put up with."
David dazedly followed his companion into a public house and as soon as they were settled in a quiet corner of the bar she recommenced her diatribe.
"Your girl has chucked you, of course. That's what he was after, and I, poor mutt, didn't realise it. That, and skinning you of all your chink. My, but you look green. Drink up and order another; you look as if you needed it."
David laughed harshly.
"Bring the bottle, waiter," he ordered. "This is an occasion ["
He poured himself half a tum- bler of spirit and drank it neat. The fire ran through his veins.
"Now tell me the whole story," he requested peremptorily.
The pseudo South American needed no urging. She was eager to air her own grievance. She had consented to play the part of the required heiress because she be- lieved herself to be Rowlands' mistress. She had only discover ed that day that Rowlands had been using her merely to prepare. the way for her successor.
David listened silently to the sordid recital. Every now and again he replenished his glass, The bottle was almost empty when she had finished.
He rose abruptly to his feet. His chair crashed clattering on the floor:
"Where are you going?" the woman asked anxiously.
There was a look in his eyes that frightened her. She clutched at his sleeve but he roughly tore himself free. Without a bäckward glance he left the bar.
The hammers in his brain had ceased their pounding. The un- certainty in his mind had given every second. He no longer had any doubt of Evelyn; Rowlands' whole vile plot was palpably transparent. There could only be one fitting punishment; the cad was not fit to live.
rooms
The unaccustomed quantity of spirit he had consumed streng; thened his resolve. He was not drunk; merely drugged into an insensibility to normal life which was dominated by his intention.
He went direct to his and searched for the automatic pistol he had possessed in the ser- vice. He cleaned it carefully and loaded it. Afinal whisky and soda. His face was set in in- flexible lines as he set out on his errand.
trembled as if he were cold. He would wait for five minutes so as to catch them together, he decid- ed fiercely.
As he crossed the threshold of the building he almost collided with a man hurrying in the op- posite direction. The man drew ... away with a nervous start. David recognised Rowlands' servant and smiled grimly, Was his ex- pression so terrible that he made the man afraid of him?
"I was trying to find you," she A car drew up to the entrance announced briskly. "That damn- to the block of flats where Row- ed swine has double-crossed me!" lands lived, as he turned the cor-
She spoke with a cockney aes
acner of the street. He slipped. cent and David stared at her in astonishment Where was the broken English he had been hear- Ing for the past few weeks.A vague suspicion formed slowly in his mind,
"Signorina
Anita Elferenza stamped her foot impatiently.
quickly into the shelter of a door- way as Evelyn stepped out onto the pavement.
So she was going to him then -already. All the suspicions he had put behind him earlier in the day returned with added violence. His blood was on fire, though he ↑
Rowlands' flat was on the sec- ond floor: As he approached Da- vid noticed with surprise that the outside door was ajar. He crept quietly into the hall and listened.
Voices, which he recognised as Rowlands' and Evelyn's sounded from a room on the right. Eve seemed to be pleading.
Suddenly Rowlands.spoke quite loudly.
"I'll give you your lover back on one condition. But before I tell you what that, condition is, I'll just go into the other room and make out his cheque as 1 guarantee of good faith."
Quick steps crossed the floor. Now was his chance, thought Da- vid, and moved forward. His hand silently turned the door knob; his pistol was ready for instant ac- tion. Should he do it now or should he wait until Evelyn had left?
A faint rattle 29 Rowlands rushed up the lid of his roll-top desk. A pause. A startled half- strangled cry. A crack! The sound of a heavy fall. Silence.
David flung open the door and took a pace into the room. Row- lands was lying in a crumpled heap before the bureau. A thin trickle of blood flowed from nasty wound in his forehead.
David's heart turned suddenly to water. His knees quivered as --though with-- an- ague.----His-one- thought was for Evelyn. To think she had been driven to this.
Her head appeared round, the door from the other room. There was a look of frozen horror on her face. Her eyes roamed from David to the body on the floor; then back to David. The two star- ed mutely across the intervening space.
(Continued on Page 7)
MENNEN BORATED POWDER
-ARTISEPTIC-
Soothes and Protects MENNEN Antiseptic
BORATED POWDER
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