10
THE
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
THURSDAY, MARCH
10,
1938.
Th&FIREFLY
Copyright 193-Cor's Ing.
WHEAT HAR Jarrence Thur Tani Wishing to avold an impetuous French altor from whom she has been probing military ac
beautiful Nina crott,
Azara, young Spanish singer, encour apasa jirtation that involuca him in a duel with a handsome young Don. Meantime she con- fere with the Marquis de Malita and undertakes to go to Bayonne as a povernment "spy. On the way the driver of her couch aights a noat of bandita,
Chaptor. Throo
__ABARTIN 190K 101__ÝRO'GOLDWYN MATKA, PICTURE
alley Rained
haps I won't be no discouraging.
With this Don Diego and to he contout, un he watched hor earrings vanish along the dusty road.
Nina's mind worked rapidly as she entered the gay city of Bayon ne, neroay the French border. Not a minuto wan to be lost. She made Arrangements to do some numbers In cafe that evening, realizing this would provide the best means of meoting one of Napoleon's alder.
Iler reasoning was accurate. In the cafe were many officern whone uniforms bore the insignia of Bona parto. As she sang a haunting love lyric, with all eyes in the room fixed on her in fascinated approval, Nina moved from table to table. With casual, roving eye she manag- od to study the badges designating the rank of the Napoleonle guard. No one could possibly have suspect-
Wrapped up in the song.
"Drive on! Hurry! cried Niox. The driver needed no urging. He whipped up the mules. Nina, ned her motives, for she appeared Lola were clinging for dear life as the coach rolled from side to side.
Major Julian de Rougemont whe "They're honding us off!" Thea sooned campalgace of middle torrified. "And, look! years. Ile sat with a half dozen boy wag There's one behind us!"
officers, and his eyes glowed under the spell of Nina's provocative song. When the singer caught a glimpse of the badge he woro, she itnow that hor goal had been attained. He was oon of Bonaparte's personal aldon.
In the dust, in the distanco, a solitary rider was following the coach at top speed. Knowing he couldn't possibly escape the bri- Kands, the driver pulled the mules to a stop. As the long rider ap-de-camp! proached, the driver and the boy put their hands up in sign of sur tender. But as to whirled up to the coach in the next moment, the driver doffed his bat and bowed smilingly. Nisa was bowildered, unable to bo- love her eyes. For the lone rider was Don Diego.
"You!" Nina exclaimed.
Diogo Don "It really mo," smiled, "I wasn't killed. As a mat- ter of fact, I never got to that duck I D. rajopt."
For a moment the bandits had Ireen forgotten.
Thank heaven you've come!" Nina anid.
"Come! Do you think I could stay
"The King will leave
Madrid soon." whispered.
Knowing that ho was the one per- son who would know most about Napoleon's plans, and concentrating all her attention on him, Nina Bang
and smiled as never before. The Major, though he tried to re- main dignified in the presence of his fellow-officers, felt the growing spell of the singer's capricious chal- longe. When she passed close to his table, and playfully picked up his hat, he raised no objection.
Then, Just at the moment when she felt her triumph assured, there was a slight commotion at the outer dopr. Nina turned. Her heart scem- ed to stop beating. It was Don Dlago!
He had followed her to Bayonne, away after that kiss?" Don Diego Bald with passionato fervor. "No But if she so much as recognized thing could discourage me after him now, she would ruin the mis- that. I don't care about that other alon on which who had come to man. I don't care how many mos France. There was no question of R choice, no matter how much it hurt there are in your life!" "Well," Nina broko in drily, "thors hor. As he draw a chair up near ara about twenty of them, right her, smiling eagerly, sho ignored now!" She pointed toward the fast- him, and continued to flirt with
Major de Rougemont approaching brigands.
"And if you don't care about them, I do!" she exclaimed.
Quickly, Nina handed Don Diego, In full bight of the onrushing belg- ants, her money bag. As the lender
Slipping away to her dressing room amid the wild plaudits of the crowd, Nina walted eagerly. It wan only a few moments before tho Major, as bashful as a schoolboy,
of the brigands caught this transae appeared.
tion, he yelled for his band to fol- Apologizing for tubing run off Jow the Spaniard. Riding hard, with his hat, Nina shrewdly extract- blundering his way through the ed an admission that he had come Woods, Don Diego managed to on to Bayonne on personal business throw them off the trail. An hour for the Emperor. later, Don Diego caught up with Nina's coach, which had proceeded along its way to Vittoria. Nina wel comed his warmly, and in the eyes of the driver and the boy, Don Diego was a hero.
"As a matter of fact, I've just Bald boen made one of his aidos, do Raugemont proudly,
"His alde! Let me tough you!" cried Nina, playing her part par- fectly. "If you only know how I Nina's stop in Vittoria was a brief folt about Napoleon!" overnight ona. Her mission there
"I hope you can learn to fool just
was to pick up a confidential megas warmly about one of Itin aides," sage from a servant at the inn. The said the Major, thoroughly taken latter was prepared to recognize in by her artifico.
her As he brought up her bagi
In another moment the Major had
and found himself alone with her disclosed the fact that it was his Job to handle the forthcoming con he whispered:
"The king will leave Madrid soon,ference between King Ferdinand It has been arranged for him to and Napoleon, for the alleged pur stop here in Vitoria before he pose of cementing a boller inter- crosses the border into Franco. If nations! relationship.
you get any information you are to "I can't imagine anything better," Bend it here, so we can keep him smiled Nina. from going any farther."
"I agree with you." and the
"And the means of sending it Major. "I think we should set an "Go to the market place in Bay-xample ourselves. Bhall we start onne. There will be a man selling with dinner some time?"
Then, abruptly as a thunderclap, chickens and live stook. Flo will have carrior pigeons ready for you. there was a knock at the door. She He will know you if you say it answered. A huge bunch of rosen was carried in, with Don Diego's
Ebria,!"
The problem for Nina now war card. The Major rose in Irritation. Nina saw her prizo alipping from
to escape from Don Diego, whoso her, her country betayed. company, the beautiful young spy Tell the gentleman I do not wish could not help admitting to hor to see him, at any timo," she said self, was becoming increasingly en-quickly. She turned hurriedly to do Jayable. But he might seriously in- Itougemont. tortford with the carrying out of her
"You were going to my-", sho leave for Bay-Baked nervously.
mission.
As she prepared
"I had hoped you might dine with
one, and he rose up smilingly to me tomorrow the Major maid,
her aldo she said determinedly: This has to bo good-bye." "You can't go off this way and leave me stranded,” he retorted.
"I'm sorry. There are reason why I can't possibly have anyone with ma."
alearing his throat. "There's a do lightful cafo—”
"Don't you think it would be plossantor totea-tete, in your rooms?" asked Nina.
The Major fell for the bait. Ha pressed her hand; amlled expectant-
Then am I going to see youy and bowed his way out. Nina
again?"
"You go back to Madrid," said Nins her heart, softening, though the laes of her mouth were flrin, "Whon X-como brok, walk,
par
had won her first victory! But her exuitation was mingled with Bor
she realized she might never, Don Diego again.
(To be continued)
COUNT THE TELEGRAPHS”
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BOOKS
PALEFAC
ON THE TRAIL
HADES of Fenimore Cooper and Mayne Reid, the Noblo Bavage (North American species) is no more! Driven from his hunting grounds and corralled sadly in reserves, he has And become a Quaint Figuro. novelists can safely stage his whooping, war-painted forefathers as the villains of the plece.
But I must admit that Kenneth Roberta has done the staging mag- nificently in the first three hun- dred pages of his long tale of adventure set in those critical eighteenth-century days when the British were fighting the French in the swamps and woods south of Quebec (Northwest Fassage. Col- lins, Os. Od.),
And he has chosen a white soldier for his villain-here-Major Robert, Rogers of Rogers' Rangers. a huge, ugly myth of a man. "Why" as one of his sergeants said, "seems like Rogers begun to
ho chase Indians before
Was weaned!
"He's the size of a moose, but ho goes drifting through the woods like an owl.
... No, sir, you can look for him all day, and you can't find him.
Obviously a myth of a man-and yet he actuallyzed and drank and fought and schemed. In ono of the most exciting and sustained passages in modern historical nc- tlon, you can watch him march a handful of men for miles to raid and burn a French-Indian settle- ment on the St. Lawrence. Hun- dreds of the hardest and most dangerous miles.
He leads his rangers up to death's door-and many stagger through 1 The rest, worn to
YOUR GARDEN
SOME porar is in bloom even
now on a near-by common, but only on certain bushes. It would seem that there is a variety which blooms in midwinter.
Like all the legumes, gorse is good on dry soils. There is a double flowered form, Ulex europeus .pl.
This variety is much the best for it makes bushy parden cultivation plants, and the double blooms last con- siderably longer than the single ones. It is obtainable in pols for present planting, and can be used either to cover dry banks or in the mixed shrub- bery,
January 6.
R. S.
-
review by
ROGER PIPPETT
skeletons and wolfing down wild Illy-bulbs for food, get through.
All this is superbly done. It is 50 convincing that in the second half, which shows us Rogers' decline and fall against the crowded back- ground of hope deferred in London and treachery on the Great Lakes, the story fades away.
The author has his history pat. We meet or hear of nearly Every- body Who Was Anybody-Ho- garth, Burko. Dr. Johnson, Rey-
Garrick, nolds, Franklin,
the King.... In fact, I almost began to wonder when Captain Coram's foundlings would come trooping in...
But these people and these When I scenes don't come off. Anished the book I was left with that carller vision of a thick- lipped, pouch-eyed man in green buckskin and moccasins, defying
F
Now just a Quaint Figure.
the heavens and beating Nature somehow or other on schedule time. Mr. Roberts has a theory that novelists-rather than his- torians can make the past live. He fills the margins of his sourco books with such rude comments
Nuts. as. "He's a llar. Untrue....
What an ass!" Well, Northwest Passaga hns sold over a quarter of a million And those copies in the States. first three hundred pages are un- forgettable. Even a Noble Savage (North American species), taking his squaw and her papoose to the plctures, would admit that.
AFTER CHINA
-WHAT?
"NI Speak for the Chinese (Hamish Hamilton. 3. 68.), Carl Crow is so vigorously articulate, so well versed in his facts, that this is easily the best short defence of China's cause yet published.
He shows how, since the end of the last century, Japanese policy has been consistently directed at the annexation of all China as u first step toward the subjugation of half the world.
And he makes it abundantly clear that this policy is being pur- sued with all the evil genius which is the special perquisite of the Japanese. military caste.
Economic penetration first (be- cause that provides the oppor- tunity for plous excuses of precipi- tate action on the grounds of "defence of special rights"),
Then the deliberate encourage- ment of political disintegration within China-with the uso of every available device, from the subsidising of bandit war-lords to the well bribed plotting with
Manchu princes. And then-be- cause economic penetration is not a unified enough and because and powerful China is being achieved despite the Japanese propagandists and their money- war, hideous and undeclared.
For those who comfort them- selves with the thought that China is a long way off, there is the memorial which Premier Baron Tanaka is said to have presented to the Emperor in 1927,
"In a certain sense Manchuria and Mongolia are key positions, by holding which we can seize the wealth of the whole of China. After this we shall subjugate India, the South Beas, Asia Minor and Central Asia, and finally Europe."
Which rings us to the three last, and most significant, words in this bravely disconcerting book:
W. "After China, what?"
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