1939-01-27 — Page 5

CHINA

MAIL

FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 27, 1939

EVERYBODY The subject will

thing about the subject will realise that this episode could not have happened in Czechoslovakin, or in France, or in Germany, for in all these countries, as you are aware, judges are bound to try offenders and to sentence them'in accordance with the letter of the law and not in accordance with their shrewd common sense and the dictates of their consciences.

And the fact in this story is a judge who, in passing sentence, was guided not by the statute- book but by sound common sense is due to the circumstance that the incident which I am about to. relate could have happened no- where else than in England; in fact, it happened in London, or to be more precise, in Kensing- ton; no, wait a bit, it was in Brompton or Bayswater-anyway, somewhere thereabouts. The judge was, as a matter of fact, a magistrate, and his name was Mr. Kelly, J. P. Also there was a lady, and her name was plain Myers, Mrs. Edith Myers.

Well, I must tell you that this lady, who was otherwise a re- spectable person, came under the notice of Detective inspector" MacLeary.

"My dear," said MacLeary to his wife one evening, “I can't get that Mrs. Myers out of my head. What I'd like to know is, how the Just woman makes her living. fancy, here we are in the month of February and she's sent her servant for asparagus. And I've

Short Story

discovered that she has between twelve and twenty visitors every day, and they vary from char....

women

to duchesses. I know, darling, you'll say she's probably a fortune-teller. Very likely, but that can only be a blind for some- thing else, say, the white slave traffic or espionage. Look here, I'd rather like to get to the bot- tom of it,

"All right, Bob," said the ex- cellent Mrs. MacLeary, "you leave it to me."

And so it came about that on the following day, Mrs. MacLeary,,

wedding of course without her

ring, but on the other hand very girlishly dressed, and with her hair in ringlets like ፡ young woman who feels that it is time for her to put away frivolities, with a scared look on her baby face, rang at Mrs. Myers's door in Bayswater or possibly Maryle- bone. She had to wait quite a while before Mra. Myers, received her.

"Sit down, my dear," said the old lady, when she

had very thoroughly inspected her shy visitor. "What can I do for you?"

1

"II" stammered Mrs. Mac- Leary:

"I'd like - it's my twentieth birthday to-morrow ~I'm awful- ly anxious to know about futuro.

my

"But, “Miss er, what name, please?" quoth Mrs. Myers, and seized a pack of cards which she began to shuffle energetically.

"Tones,” signed Mrs. MacLeary.

THE FORTUNE

"My dear Miss Jones," con- tinued Mrs. Myers, "you're quite. mistaken. I don't tell fortunes by cards, except, of course, just now. and then, to oblige à friend, as every old woman does. Take the cards in your left hand and divide them into five heaps. That's right. Sometimes I read "the cards as a pastime, but apart from that dear me!" she said, cutting the first heap. "Diamonds! That means money. And the kuave of hearts. That's a nice hand."

"Ah," said Mrs. MacLeary, "and what else?".

"Knave of diamonds," proceed- ed Mrs. Myers, uncovering the. second heap. "Ten of spades, that's a journey. But here!" she exclaimed.

Clubs "I see clubs.

always mean worry, but there's a queen of hearts at the bottom."

"What does that mean?" asked Mrs. MacLeary, opening her eyes as wide as she could,

"Diamonds again,"

meditated

Mrs. Myers over the third heap. "My dear, there's lots of money în store for you; but I can't tell yet whether you're going on a

journey or whether long

it's someone near and dear to you."

"I've got to go to Southampton to see my aunt," remarked Mrs. MacLeary,

"That must be the long jour-

By Karel Capek

ney," said Mrs. Myers, cutting the

fourth yeap. "Somebody's going to get in your way, some elderly man-"

"I expect that's my uncle!" ex- claimed Mrs. MacLeary,

business

"Well, here we've got some- thing and no mistake," declared Mrs. Myers over the fifth heap. "My dear Miss Jones, this is the nicest hand I've ever seen. There'll be a wedding before the year's out; a very, very rich young man is going to marry you-he must be a millionaire or a man, because he travels a lot; but before you are united, you'll have. to overcome great obstacles, there's

elderly gentleman who'll get in your way, but you must persevere. When you do get married, you'll move a long way off, most likely across the ocean. My fee's a guinea, for the Christian mission to the poor negroes."

an

"I'm so grateful to you," de- clared Mrs. MacLeary, taking one pound and one shilling out of her handbag, “awfully grateful. Mrs. Myers, what would it cost without any of those worries?”

The cards can't be bribed,”" said the "old lady with dignity. "What is your uncle?!”

"He's in the police," lied the young lady with an innocent face, “You know, the secret service."

"Oh!" said the old lady, and drew three cards out of the heap. "That's very nasty, very nasty. Tell him, my dear, that he's threatened by a great.' danger, He ought to come and see me, to

-

There's

find out more about it. lots of them from Scotland Yard come here and get me to read the. cards for them, and they all tell-

me

what they have on their, minds. Yes, just you send him to me. You say he's on secret ser- vice work? Mr. Jones? Tell him I'll be expecting him. Good-bye, dear Miss Jones. Next, please!"

"I don't like the look of this," said Mr. MacLeary, scratching his neck reflectively, I don't like the look of this, Katie. That woman. was too much interested in your late uncle. Beside that, but her real name isn't Myers, Meierhofer, and she hails from Lubeck. A damned German!" growled Mr. MacLeary, "I won- der how we can stop her little game? I wouldn't mind betting five to one that she worms. things out of people that are no business of hers. I'll tell you

TELLER

strate. The nine of spades means hope. It's the jack pf spades that means journeys; and when it turns up with the seven

means long. of diamonds, that journeys that are likely to lead to something worth while. Mrs. Myers, you can't bamboozle me. You prophesied to the witness here that before the year was out she'd marry a rich young man. But Mrs. MacLeary has been married for the last three Detective-Inspector years to MacLeary, and a fine fellow he is too, Mrs. Myers, how do you explain that absurdity?”

"My goodness me!" said the old lady placidly. "That does happen now and then. When this young person called on me she was all dressed up, but, her left: glove was torn. So that looked as if she wasn't too well off, but she

Then she said she

what; I'll pass the word on to the 50 make a show all!

· And Mr. MacLeary did, in Was twenty, but now it turns out

the bosses."

"

good sooth, pass the word on to the bosses. Oddly enough, the bosses took a serious view of the matter, and so it came about that the worthy Mrs. Myers was summoned to appear before Mr. Kelly, J.P.

she's twenty-five

"Twenty-four," Mrs. Mac- Leary burst forth.

"That's all the same. Well, she wanted to get married, what I mean to say, she made out to me she wasn't married. : So I arranged a set of cards for her that'd mean a wedding and

".....

a

"Well, Mrs. Myers," the mag istrate said to her, "what's alrich husband. I thought that'd this I hear about this fortune- meet the case better than a

any- telling of yours with cards?" thing else."

obsta- "And what about the wor-

cles, the elderly gentleman and the journey across the ocean?" asked Mrs. MacLeary,

"Good gracious, your ship," said the old lady.. "I must do something for a living. At my age I can't go on the music-halls and dance!".

"Hm," said Mr. Kelly. "But the charge against you is that you don't read the cards proper- ly. My dear good lady, that's as if you were to give people slabs of clay when they ask for cakes of chocolate. In return for a fee of one guinea people are entitled to a correct", "pro-` phecy. Look here now, what's the good of your trying to pro- phesy when you don't know how to?".

It isn't everyone who com plains," urged the old lady in her defence. "You see, I fore- The tell the things they like, pleasure they get out of it... is. worth a few shillings, your worship. And sometimes......... I'm right. Mrs. Myers, said one lady the me; nobody's ever read cards for me as well as you have. given me such good advice, She lives in St. John's Wood and is getting a "divorce from her hus- band."

to

"Look here," the magistrate cut her short. "We've got a witness against you. Mrs. Mac- Leary, tell the court what hap- pened.

"Mrs. Myers toll me from the cards," began Mrs. MacLeary. glibly, "that before the year was out I'd be married, that my fut- ure husband would be a rich young man and that I'd go with him across the ocean

"Why across the ocean parti- cularly?" inquired the magis- trate.

"Because there wag the nine of spades in the second heap; Mrs. Myers said that journeys.”

means

"Rubbish!" growled the mag-

"That was to give you plenty for your money," said Mrs. Myers artlessly. "There's quite a guinea.”

a lot has to be colds gh,"

"Well, that's

said the magistrate. "Mrs. Myers, 'it's no use. The way you tell fortunes by cards is a fraud. Cards take some understanding. Of course, there are various ideas about it, but if my memory serves me the nine of spades never means journeys. You'll

pay a fine of fifty pounds, just the same as people who adulter- ate food or sell worthless goods.-

(Continued on Page:

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