Planters' Punch

f


.-. .... P::::- : ON. HILLIG.'. '....r,
1922--23. PRICE: ON SiHILLING


CONTENTS
This issue of 'Planters' Punch" contains a long complete "Impressions of Jamaica." by R B. Cunninghame-Gra-
Novel, The Devil's Mountain." by Herbert G. ham.
deLisser. C.M.G.
A Jamaica Story. "Ivan Greet's Masterpiece." by the late Poems by Miss May Farquharson and Miss Eileen Bliss.
Grant Allen.
"A J S b M G e o Character Sketches" of well-known gentlemen in Jam-
A Jamaica Story by Mary Gaunt, entitled "O.ie of tlhe
First Families.'" aica, etc.





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REPIESIENTING TIlE FOLLOWING FIRMS:
C. CLADDER, AMSTERDAM .... ....
KEHLOR FLOUR MILLS CO ....
BERNET CRAFT & KAUFFMAN MILLING CO.
E- -EBERLE ALBRECHT FLOUR MILLS ....
THE G. H. HAMMOND COMPANY ..


LIBERTY OIL COMPANY
PETERBOROUGH CEREAL CO.
JOB BROS. & CO., LTD.. NEWFOUNDLAND.
POLAK & SCHWARZ ....
LEVER BROS. (EDWARD COOK & SONS)
WILLARD'S CHOCOLATES LTD.
BECK'S .... .... ....
PETER DAWSON'S
ALBERT MACKIE CO., LTD., NEW ORLE
HOYLAND FLOUR MILLS
POWELL & O'ROURKE....
PLYMOUTH MILLING CO.
AUNT JEMIMA MILLS COMPANY.
KANSAS FLOUR MILLS COMPANY.
HOLMES & COMPANY ....
PATTERSON. McGUIRE & PALMER
JAMAICA BISCUIT CO., LTD ....


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WHITEHOUSE BROTHERS


....rapping Paper of t vl'/r description.
"Rcex" and "Goldco Star" Flour.
"SlSnow IWhite", Middle Grade Flour.
"Peericss", Middle Grade Flour.
Pork: and Beef Packers. Cottonseed Oil, Lard
and (Compound.
Kerosine Oil. Gasolene. Motor Oil and (;Gr'tts.s
"I'estern Glory" and "Jupiter" Flour.
Fish Stuffs.
Essences and Extracts.
.. "Bull Dog". Laundry and Toilet Soaps.
Chocolates of Quality.
"'Keyu Brand" Beer.
"Perfection" WI'hiski.
I lWholesale Grocers and Jobbers.
'."'Roamer" and "Ranger" Flour.
.... Corn.
.... Con meal.
Cerrals.
Flour.
Sardines.
A. Matches.
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Hardware of crery description.


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HEAD OFFICE: 64 HARBOUR STREET, KINGSTON JAMAIA. B.W.I.
BRANCH OFFICE: MONTE BAY JAM


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VOL. 1, NO 3


FICTION NUMBER


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PLANTERS' PUNCH


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GENERAL MERCHANTS


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Selling Agents for several of the Largest
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We specialise in the selling of


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ON BEHALF OF ESTATE PROPRIETORS.

We have our own POST AND TELEGRAPH OFFICE in our
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We are in constant touch by cable with the leading FOREIGN
MARKETS.
Planters who have not yet made arrangements for the Handling
of their crops are invited to call and confer with us.


Lascelles deMercado & Co., Ltd.,
1-1 & 14, PORT R(OYAL STREET, KINGSTON, JAM.AICA.


Lasce!les de MCtrcado CoUi.
41-4 Poitt ROYAL STREET,
S ilC TON ,AMAI..,
, _':' ... .. ...., -- \ .f "`


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1922-23


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et throll work 'dii1e; "the
-Otaa he -),ad
t"a
era" t1w I*d 1ft*4Ot1W
aud be wft 9 ib*lr TD, 4

moment; a de- U"Ow l'o of the Wan.'
*dy bowed
ikW;;4iWt#* Imt
1qrie a tit M&
oldl lre
th da'
Then slxe Vve
ofter har J' 6d
im., r t*J J"C
0 06M* IttO 31OUi I L ", L I 1_ I ,
W haws d bet4ir tllat t YOU
tL IN, bronAt
Brat r
UpStAt
vwtir qri* omo ot MU1W
ftacy Itf'tug in a COUWY *h16M**O*
!4dy
and, the t1M,,'And UOt $Ialr3bg Ilk g d4"--,
down to-
d
link gr *Orft of VNTSU *KI&I f thkt'by his adbi14r. "A
t6su*ft 11trotu"d Winu, a 4 Meta one, 1*", *0 Tdarian, Only wIM oil 00A,
y"rg, vrag a Uo6nl, 1*4am'bad lookeA Into MatlaWS, eVr*w,,,%%W to daw!e. Lady
00,
with her ,a In alltheir. ?44ndt-'
AeryA* h#axd h"
stl0red ftrtY
Oh the I*wi '6U that Dut 6U, dftr,"
hile: hie 11UWel, ty'
but were w t1le babiti'.01 re Jt6amaU WoRI4"jjQt Wnk
sb"e bel _of von
()*r, oemtion thso was his
But am IW"v the hetMtt of y-eum *ere shaken r to tk*lr rM 4j,,*' Aft"4$3* b
Ave,
spoke fowadaMha.- Tbe ne urnwL and, *e iaWge, Ili a _PWWtjMO in *hloh he 4,nd#T#td bav
Omed tO now IWWLas visitor at the T'Ania94_fte, even 'Whon he Wudh R
briskly ifjwdj.vzd fA tbo eveningit
now 11L,1
And 44 In hot$L IL rareAhtug vath him in former days,
11 "
of tuiligh Sometinkeshe, jiAt with,, Wr 41oue: th6ser were bit "Ito P04 MQ a gretit, coi
-10
ba a,,_ at, the timea' or gfia., f6tinne, to s *t ed ga)lr, then
UjtO6nW'v, society with others. Not many
Myrtle, or
a, -WO='n of i)htlve that she W", W6 ttttraCtionl b044 you 140' 1-40i *to,
Ing
title, hey theri *"e aoasewr- 41d. Her brotixeT fore
su en uA Lady RosedWw':, Phip" AW, biit Mr. PhIPPs Wit of the
6" l Pa rendered lt,:::,ft CC,
any gig tA Wali geoermAly re*v# l,'" &-curious, prying -portof LA4,y k0fAL"NO q
apy. ter jer-
#f that; an4 ersou, wh6 appu;40'ma4e It his buslue"t6 notici twtl,004, t
the D#t 01 4 Ub&` ,
j'o derlare eyerjWy and everything- AO #Ift
not aft4tt"IL Vhi hft'14"V" oAt #V ii"
sight, it was n(*r!Y five Welmk fia f1W S
tJO)tA_1y, it I F britit* gun WMWnst W 9 "UM 4i JO Wv "Jiivsletf
aWd to her., 4ofted here 9 b 0 Ot Reetw cloud nePx'the
Og 4:1, 14 there wit
-00, W,
ifig their skapezAsAbey drifted, 'to tl19 EMr
wrftce deating slowly, thspg
Dut Ah (11d, 1* 'IS d tittiei
And ill- itqqextO4- or rather
1*q late, an $atfte Ivin Into tht' P6W*i4-
twi v I "j&, %troog *wind that liad NoWh lie *W-
liffa lady ed ether,
more thm a stead0j, diiri",Uie hAA`41041 40WD, but'OW-W 'n't go, Mr., Wd, #Oarw
r it the -don't gp no*OT_
wn, 1eiwftw WMA de1*b1ft0*,OOl. 'fttre 4,41
t4 ajj, set out with t04 lgiun. Tte br nolie8 of "d j(d rd 'ee -'her"
of fu
men in a r-A thLi eted Its rayg; the ujetalh4t surfac,s of their fmil", -TOOre's tbat a
-ag tbeysllghtlY $WAYed Iu a geUtW b1`00M jT44WTwaUth
tfllr-,Wrls Tw fing-41he W'*Pt#d bnev.,,-, shinf r
to reathe Vrt tWo,$L
'an I "g happiness, an4,th
Th and 'j, th dWAUW`
f -hat. r at freQ*,Iat
yleaffaiat sojindL.. WOW U416" t tout t#teryaivo&ftw ,
and thelighter,'01,604gter thiftV of of 4#Agfjht in life.
fijjt,4'
iO4 11 robe 11 i PIA
trocks 4,thoyol,Ug or,'Ohe had
or- (kA 0' "1"',
'e4i1ppliTif iau dr4s,-Und all' tr,(Z= ,had
Dion, liter.. tbg 4POO-11 OWlt, 40
i4 *ffft*M AP from mrp --UO r tin 11 bmt #1*" tdtwa
as 131it) j ; jBjnj161j$fj, **M at Vr
Kuht*', wlviw L
whei-6 fil 'this *a '_ onee ttktt she )ikd diil, br&fiWW"*JWhW SJO tr o
W1 eyo;,"& and wdkir "top*S-WO, 01
t
_V*4d 'JW
a -bqUd& A:hfktZ"W!

P, rN








........ -- 1922-23

r yo^. ieek agt b u t #hIe a) that you didn't seriously. "Every man knows how to propose, what-
I al. th -, ,, ad I .sought, sa i .i....i A.'i a s titk me the first time I .saw ever he may say. I think, too, he is being en-
:.:;::.: :':. ., EiS.'.r.Lada. You can kieep people off, You courage by that detestable Mr. Phipps, who simply
: tt o.em'. remarked Lai.y asteia..l tq-i ae th iasti ehl ma ,ner 'liven the lowly cannot be insulted. Except for being positively rude,
too. Say, but you know rt rln iieft*. tarm can teach us there is something in descent,' as I have done all I can to show Mr. Phipps that I do
W. "' r,,M;: Mt Phpps?" asled Mriat :. one of yourtiets samid-I forgat.who it was. It is the not desire his company, but it is of no use whatever.
::.' Betese, my tte iUti ie tar, am a .~ajt it i frlege of ArtM' that It makes itself felt, and the And now I am sure he la egging on that young man
*i .'v 6ed social tastes,.. I:adfti pcPit.ity of :mIn't .wy T baw you freeze. oi some folk the other night to make love to you."
i rused in upifting condveiatibU', ad though: FIam W.a.: corker. That'."a nice boy, as I was saying, and "It is very foolish of him, if he is, "replied Marian
S.... Anericuan I aive A*ihoirn ti'e t fa 'le. birth, Ia glad you like him." thoughtfully. "I do not care that way. for Mr.
E..; ..'.a Itseedale ful]ils these: requiremJn .Be. uty, This personal conversation was interrupted by Eeaman; I like him as an acquaintance, ftat is all.
t; .,,I simply. adore, and youthful. ini ceiee and the return of Lawrence with the.chair. Marian, who It ought to be plain to him.'(.
A:-''jsie; ased that's. sure you. And* I like manly was well aware oa Lady Rosedalettrue feelings with "My dear," said Lady Rosedale, "you believe to-
:pIt9idgtah 4.. dosigged delitiaaau all the rest -tf the regard to both Mr. Phipps and Lawrence, -had been day tn-t you only like him as an acquaintance, but,
d art' of tl atyout' get 'l the fifth chapter of ihe listening to the former with much amuset-ent. She it he goes on following you about with his eyes, as iL
I l.. l:ate t uovel when ttie.S:trfng, silent man. comess4pdn .now turned to Lawrence, offering him a slice of cake. you were the only girl in the world, you may. begin
..th sate te'. 4.f. begins to be strong'and silent. lFriend "There's no tea lett," she said, "but you will join to feel to-morrow that be is more than an acqdaint-
Man.:here:tl that part beautifully, especial ththe. as in the cake, won't you?" ance, more than a friend. It is a dangerous game he
:..'t.- A. ..- is it d. i1- ow are you, this afternoon, Lady Lady Rosedale darted a warning look a; her, is playing-for you. Who is he? And wiat is his
::. ?..' which hbe affected riot to tee. Lawrence, feeling position?"
rell as I was at noon, when I saw you last," awkward, accepted the cake. Mr. Phipps, with "And who am I, Lady Rosedale, and what is my
reptlSt Lady Rosedale, bringing her arctic manner c(hr.-acteristic impetuosity, immediately bogged for a position?" asked Marian laughing. "A movie actress
Pt.: : play, though with a despairing sense of its being bit of cake. of the fifth or the sixth class. That isn't much, is
ul"ieiently adequate to freeze Mr. Phipps. "It isn't the cake I really wart;" he explained, it?"
'. :"Well, that's a blessing!" exclaimed Mr. Phipps "but the pleasure of receiving it from such loveiv "But you may be of the ilrer class to-morrow,"
S fervently. "I am always anxious about your health, hands. That's what you ought to have said, BeamAn. nrolested Lady Rosedale. "I Lave heard," she con-
Lady Rosedale, for you are not yet actlimatised, and You young fellows are slow at saying the right ibi'ng, tinued. "that the movie people make fortunes when
there is no telling what may not happen to one be- but it was different in my day. When the three of they become popularr"
tween lunch ag d tea in the tropics. I have known you are as old as I am-and that will ce many. mean "I am afraid I am not one of those," said Marian
men die betwepeithose two meals." years to come-you will treasure up in your memory a little sadly, shaking her head. "They give me roles
While speaking, his quick eyes had been roaming all the nice things said to you and about you." of a very ordinary description to play. The directors
about the ground in search of something. "Wait a Lady Rosedale was not visibly mollified by this say I have not sufficient personality for success on the
moment!" he cried, "I'll be right back in a moment." .uggesticn that she was still young. Ste desired no screen."
He carted away, towards a chair from which some- compliments from Mr. Phippe. She finished her tea "You have all the personality that a moving pie-
one had risen the instant before, and had probably in- and roza. ture play can possibly want," asserted Lady Rosedale,
tended to resume almost immediately. But Mr. "Miss Braeme will have to get ready for dinner who was scandalised at any moving picture director
Phipps seized'the chair, and,'with a rapid "thank you" and the ball," she remarked, "so we had better go up- having an opinion differing from hers. "I am
to its original possessor, he sped.back towards Lady stairs.now. Are you ready, Marian?" s afraid that moving picture directors are not an
Rosedale's table. Placing the .chair near the table, "Quite." said Marian brightly. "Shall we see estimable body of persons; but if you are_ patient
le sat down as though he bid been expressly invited you to-night?" she asked Mr. Phipps. your time must come. If you throw yourself away
to form one of the party, and took out his cigarette "Always on the job,.. my dear," answered that on a young man with but a few hundred pounds a
case. Lady Rosedale ostentatiously poured out tea gentleman, agilely rising with Lawrence. "It is on year. and who does net seem to be even in such so-
without offering to order a cup for him. festive occasions that I am at my best. A do my finest 'iety as this place affords-which is not saying much
"Tea," said Mr. Phipps, "is an English institution work then" -you will regret it. I am sorry you promised to
implanted out here by the English,. along with the "Work?" cried Marian; "do you ever work?" dance with him to-night, Marian. I was trying to
penitentiary and the protestant religion. All these "Some day you may find that I do," he protested. -catch your eye when he was asking you tb, but I
are useful things, the penitentiary being especially "I toil and spin while others enjoy themselves. couldn't. 'rake an older woman's advice, my dear,
good for the natives. As an American, I have never Beaman. let's go and have a drink." arid be cold and distant to him. I wouldn't say this
taken to tea. Will you have a cigarette, Beaman?" Mr. Phipps led a protesting Lawrence in the di- if he were merely nice and courteous to you, but he is
Lawrence smilingly refused. reaction of the bar, while Lady .csedale took Marian in love with you, and that is a very serious matter.
"The ladles don't mind my smoking," Mr. Phipps upstairs to her own room. Would your brother approve of him?"
explained. "I regard them as old friends now, though A shadow passed over Marian's face at this ques-
we haven't known one another for long. It is com- CHAPTER TWO tlon. He would not." she answered simply, "but
munity of spirit and not length of acquaintanceship there will be nothing to disapprove.of. I-can assure
that makes friends, isn't it, Lady Rosedale? The LD ROE L' ADv you." She paused.for.a nmcent, then continued slow-
moment I saw you in this hotel, giving us object les- LADY ROSEDLeB'S AI ICE. ly. "I like Mr. Beaman, as a friend. He has always
sons in true majesty of deportment and nobility ADY ROSEDALE'S room, one of the largest in treated me, not as an actress to be flattered and made
of mind, I said to myself, 'I can see we two are going the main building of the hotel, was on the first love to, but as a lady, as a-a-"-
to be friends.' As to my little movie star, why, we floor, looked directly out upon the gently slop- "Divinity," suggested Lady Rosedale. "Yes, I
were all in love with her from the start. Why don't ing metal roof of the verandah -elow, and have seen it. I don't say the young man is not nice
you sit down, Beaman? What's the big idea in your commanded a view of the gardens that fronted the in his own way, though he appears to me to be rather
standing?" Myrtle Bank Hotel. The entrance to the hotel faced wocden; and I am glad that you don't care for men
Lawrence hesitated. He had been invited by northwards; less than thirty yards from the northern who think that because you are a picture actress they
Lady Rosedale to remain, but the purpose of that in- verandah was the street. Glimpses of flaming red can be familiar. If anyone here does it," she went on,
vitation had not been achieved; still, he had been in- from the low-growing poinsettias in the garden, the with haughty aspefity, "1 wish you would let me
vited, but no seat was available. Again Mr. Phipps's flash of a fountain playing in the sun, the welcome know who it is. I should certainly seek an opportuni-
keen eyes swept the grounds, and he pointed out to green of tender grass, and the purples and yellows of ty of speaking to him: once would be all that would
Lawrence a vacant chair some distance away. "Bet- broad-leaved crotons attracted and charmed the eye be necessary. You cannot,.,-however, -gire unt your-
ter run and get that one,' he advised, "or it will te as one's gaze travelled onward to the ornamental career because Mr. Beaman seems to you to be moie
snapped up by some selfish person. There is not iron fence which seemed to shut off the hotel from the gentlemanly than some other men. He is not the man
much consideration for ethers to be expected In this outer dusty city with a touch of finality. This was for you, my dear: with your looks'and disposition and
world." the view which greeted Lady Rosedale's eyes when youth. you could marry anyone. I said as much to
Lawrence walked leisurely away to fetch the she Icoked out of her window, but it is to be feared your brother yesterday."
chair, meanwhile Lady Rosedale angrily resigned she did not greatly appreciate it. "And what did he say?" asked Mariin.
herself to another quarter of an hour's torture (so she On entering her room Lady Rosedale latched the "He said he would look after your future and
inwardly termed it) in the company of two persons light slatted half-door at the top, but left the heavy would take care that you made no mistake. Which
-whom she detested. wooden door ajar, so that there should be plenty of is the proper sentiment for a brother to express, no
Mr. Phipps appeared to be enjoying his cigarette. air. She seated herself in a straight-backed chair, doubt, though how he is to act up to his resolution I
He was a spare, middle-sized man, about fifty-and-five insisting that Marian should take a rocker. "You .o not know. Your future is in your own hands, my
years of age, with scanty hair, small mobile features must bathe in my bath-room this evening, dear," she dear, not in the hands of any brother, however affec-
and agile manner. A heavy pair of moustaches, began at once, "and you must use my bath whenever tionate or careful he may be. You don't mind my
once brown, now almost completely grey, covered his you like; that's ode reason why I got you to change speaking to you as I have done, do you?"
lip; but a careful observer would have noticed that to the room next to me. And now, my dear, I want "No, dear Lady Rosedale," cried Marian, "but I
that lip was a very long one, coming firmly down on to talk to you seriously; I am sure you won't mind, wonder why you lake all this interest in me. I am a
the under-lip, and that the chin beneath, though for I am old enough to be your mother, and you know stranger to you; you know nothing about me."
small, was well formed and strong, with alight sug- I am your friend. Don't you think that young man, "I know you are a good little girl," the elder wo-
gestion of aggressiveness. Mr. Phipps's keen grey Mr. Beaman, is just a little too pushing where you are man was on the point of saying Impulsively, but
eyes seemed hardly ever in repose; he was constantly concerned?" checked herself and replied instead, "I like to see
glancing at everything and everybody. He was well- "What do you mean, Lady Rcsedale?" asked things going as they ought."
dressed, a sort of elderly dandy. Light flannel Marian, looking with a twinkle in her eyes at her Marian laughed. She knew that Lady Rosedale
trousers, a dark blue jacket beautifully cut. an up- friend. She had taken off her hat, and her hair, did indeed love to play the part of a dictatorial
standing collar set off with a spotted blue butterfly tumbled but wonderfully thick and glossy, lent to her Providence; Mr. Phipps had more than once said
tle, a jaunty straw hat and highly polished brown face a singularly child-like appearance, which, how- so in quite a disrespectful manner behind Lady
shoes completed his attire this afternoon. His hands ever, was contradicted by the laughter in her eyes. Rosedale's back, and Marian had already come to
'evre small and well-kept; his whole appearance in- "I mean that he is trying to make love to you," perceive that Mr. Phipps formed remarkably accurate
dirated a man who thought very highly of himself and said Lady Rosedale directly. "I have noticed it now estimates of the characters of the people with whom
treated himself very well indeed. He apparently as- for the last couple of weeks. Before you came, that he came in contact. Perhaps it was because Lady
taumed that his company was in request by everyone, young man, whenever he happened to come to this Rosedale had some Inkling of this that she never felt
and .his conversation most entertaining. Mr. Phipps. hotel on an afternoon, would moon about by himself, quite at ease in the society of Mr. Phipps.
it was said by his acquaintances, loved tha sound of hardly talking to anyone, and certainly never to a "And now." she said, rising witha self-satisfied
his own voice, woman, so far as I could see. Now he.js about the air, "we had better call the maid to see about the bath.


"A nice young man that," he observed, when place every day, and it he is not with you, he manages And, by
Lawrence had got out of hearing distance. "A re- to be as near you as possible. He tries to make op- night, Ma
liable, intelligent young fellow. I feel that I share portunities for speaking to you. ,Je wants to dance set my n
your opinion bfi.hnim, Lady Rosedale." with you to-night, and I can't guess what he will not no refusal
"I am not airare.tbat I have ever expressed any be doing next. Proposing, I suppose!" Mari
opinion of Mr. eBoma,"' replied Lady Roaedale, pur- Marian laughed. "Barely you take him too seri- Rosedale
posely.misprononno Lawrence's name to thow her ously, Lady Rosedale! He is very pleasant-and very "Not
general atck of inter Ct a t .ih .quet B"L at he hardly ever pays me a compliment, and mind abe
"You have not i ra i m sya Wwf.*.;Xi '* P 5b I don't think he would know how to propose!" Mari
agreed heartily; "but I often" b.Mi anb m g i don't you think t,* returned Lady Rosedale Roeedale'

.., ., "2 \ .. :..

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the way, I want you to wear my pearls to-
arian, they will suit you beautifully. I have
lind upon seeing you wear them, so I'll take
].
an was about to say something, but Lady.
would not listen.
a.& word!" she cried, "I have mad -my
but the pearls." 4m
an. said noting, knowing %&l that Lady
would listen to no protest.


'.;... r" -


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PLANTERS PU:NCHz:

PTER, THREE. Not. far from: this group; at a table for twjo, sat: that Isn't likely to prepossess me to a favourable -*to
Mr. Phippe and. Lawrencee Beaman. Now Iud. then of he oa ulte.As for "you--
'PftPPSIN TDVICE. Lawrence would 'steal a look at Marian, and Mr. "She-icetestB me," admitted Lawrence.,
Phipps's eyes Invariably followed his glance. -'Bul's eye!- agreed Mr. Phtpps. h ftret
NO EI ANK HOTEL was ablaze with I"She is note looking happy to-nilght, Phipps,". said, form in dealing With you, son; she suspects you hav.
-h long: walk leading from the south Lawrence guardedly, after one of these Fwift glances. an eye an her little favourite, and she thinkK ltfwil
to the eaf-wall. and the pier was an "I can see that even from here." ly cheeky of you. She's got that girl's future all
ourorebytemn-tinted "Do you attribute her unhappiness to an insuffth mapped out -ha her mind. Shia wants to. do great
ibi1~ -W A rcistic summer houses on the lawn vinyo hman? nurdM.Pip."Lady thfhgs for Miss Marian at a minimum of personal
ilowd IA eJrdnal hues, to the east the annex R:)sedale may be somewhat prarimonious when it expense and with great self -Hatisf action, and you
An .. rd' iwea-walt can a rowi of little glittering co mes to the drinks. She may believe In a, dry coun- threaten to butt in and spoil the plan as duly out-
,eletriclm66try when she has to stand treat. I Whnk I have lIinted by her ladyship. I guegs she is top-notch 10
firffably, :hone myrids of stars in noticed that peculiarity of hers." selfishness all right; but I think she really has a 901t
a .dep bluoi i wad ward faintly gleamed a cres- "I don't thin: Miss Braeme Is particularly fond spot for Marian."


















































,. WHEN THE SIES ARE O@ AND CRIMSONSUSET IN JMAI~CA
cenmon The night air was coot and crisp, brae- of drink," returned Lawrence with perceptible cold- "She is thinking mo e of herself than of Marian,"
Ing;ada one watched the wonderful constellations ness; "she may be Ill." said Lawrence angrily. "Ever since that girl came
tha blzdoverhead, one might see at intervals the "Miss Braeme, like the modern girl, and especial- here Lady RosedAle has hardly let her have a minute
meer they rushed through space, trails of fire, ly the girl who acts for the movies, is not likely to be to herself. You would think Miss Braeme was her
thins evanescent beauty. In a few moments they a strenuous advocate of a duly Jamaica, my boy," said property."
ba~ fasedin all their glory into human ken, and Mr. Phipps tritely. "I have not observed that she re- "Has. Diss Braeme sahown any objection? Said
thia -2 fde entirely out of the tropic sky. gards a cocktail with marked dishfaour, or refuses to anything to you to indicate: that the old dame is a
The dnin room of the hotel was crowded to its look upon the wine when it is white.' kinad of old man of the sea on her shoulderss" asked
,-ms capciy. Flower-bedecked tables set close "Carn't you be serious for _once?" asked the Mr. Phipps.
t6onwa ioterwere surrounded by diners, the men younger man impatiently. "'I feel sure she is being "No; I can't say that she has," admitted Law-
iiT o,,tn evening dress, the women in' low-cut bored. Look at that little ass of a director who is rence.
gownj,vfaof ak and glossy satin, with jewels flash- just hanging upon every word spoken by Lady Rose- "Then I reckon she can bear the butrden of Lady-
Int and bosom, with fire glinting from dale. What sort of a company is that for a sensible Rosedale's interest in her life. One can stand much
their w- ,n laughter pealing from their lips. girl?'* from a title, as iou' are now finding out. Look at.
Bak-vatb Iad -ln white hurried about bearing "Meaning that she would have been happier had your friend the director. He's so proud to be seen
dises botf fhssing, sparkling wine, and boxes of she dined with you? Did you ask her?" in her ladyship's company that he'll die of excessive
tr~antJa~icw-fars. The.guests were at different "How did you know that I wanted to ask her?" delight he don't look sharp. Perhaps it's that way
stae oftedine progress. Some, coming late, demanded Lawrenie. too witkGoar movie star-and yet---"
hadJiv beunaters were sipping coffee or liqueurs, "I .didn't know; I merely guessed. Well,: why "e?
a~dsmkig igrete, the girls delicately blowing didn't you ask her?" "I'm rot so sure that it is. She hasn't droppect
Me m~a Itothe air, the men puffing wiith more. "Hadn't the opportunity.". you, as I am dead certain the oid lady has asked her
de~b~ft vnomn. "Lacked the nerve, yout mean: you could have to do. Bunt don't be too sure that she won't cut you
On ~ a tad nthez lawn a military band, each written her a note. .Nothing incriminating, you some day, Lawrence. There's something in the Ja.;
muiia ativ soldier, trashed out a popular air. know: a few words of chaste politeness seignifying a maica atmosphere that leads people, to treat their
Bu temui was we~rxc*1y heard because of the hum meal and a bottle of iced fizzs. You thought of it, and bosom friends like dirt if they only get for a moentit
an lmur of hun dredsi of, voices, each striving to then funked It. Isn't that so". in the company of someone bigger than themseslvfes.
mkitef distinct:i ,'. Lawrence admtitteid by his silence that .it was. It Is habit of you people here, and a man is l ialeto
Lay osedale had a table -for. four. Marian sat Mr. Phipps glanced quickly7 around hmn. No one wias acquire it after three weeks' residesree in th coun
opa iet her; her other two gnagta were the director likely to hear what he mIigh say "Wa's h i try."
ofte moing picture company' and his leading lady, idea?" he quetioned Are youl serious about the "She's dancing with me to-night," Lawrec re-
a MisHditgworth, who was being "fealturead" Ini a little movie starf" minded him.
pla inwich Marian had some part, Lady Rosedale "I have a. high regard for her," replied Lawrence "Make the most of the'giddy mazes ofthewlt,
cosdrdthe director a vulgar, odious person, but with a reserve of manner that was not lost upon Mr. urged Mr. Phipps. "If you want the girl to like you,
sh .adaked him to dinner for the purpose of in- Phipps. "That Is all. Even Lady Rosedale, as you push ahead and 'get in your spade work at once. You
tntcnhim In Mariau's favour; for much the same have observed, has taken to Miss Braeme. If it were are reserved and shy. Drop It. In a girl's eyes a.
yvsnhdthe star actress been Invited. These aP- anyone else, I should think that Lady Rosedale had shy man's a fool, a sissy. IBut, say, look at how she
Tere hgly sensible of the compliment which Lady an Ulterior object." is dressed, son; simply stunning, ain't it? The man

p "d them, and delighted, fr In the recent "You don't credit the old lady, then, with any who marries her will have to have some pieces of the
q t k e e i n pi ro. a t 8 r e e t u I f n o r e D y o ? a,. 9 m i llol n n a i r e y e t T hc o u g ht ffn b l f a51 7l Htb a t1 4? 4 .A
d Wel Idn' no.Sh ur ontlaeme nd "Ihvetcuh o o~n o hetrt"sad






PLANTERS' PUNCH


Lawrence. "Who am I that I could think of-you
know what I mean. I have w me money saved, yes;
and: a salary. But you are r;ght; she woult want a
aim mi"ch better aircumstanced than I am. I am a

S"With your opinion of yourself it would be im-
polite for me to disagree," said Mr. Phipps; "but a
tool will act according to his folly, Lawrence, and
you are going to do that. Sure!"
Lawrence smiled; then made haste to finish his
deo rt. The .oom was now thinning rapidly, and
le saw Lady Rosedale and her party preparing to
ri., The military band on the lawn had ceased to
play: the dance, he knew, would shortly begin. "Are
you ready?" he asked his companion after a little,
when Marian and the others had disappeared from
view into the crowd outside. Mr. Phipps signified
that he was, and together they strolled on to the
verandah and towards the open doors of the ballroom.
The lobby and the verandah were crowded with
people, the younger ones eagerly booking dances, the
older ones looking about for comfortable seats. The
ballroom itself, when Lawrence and his friend reach-
ed it, was already filled to its utmost capacity. A
native string band, the musicians swaying to the
sound of their own music, was playing a popular rag-
time, and under parti-coloured lights and a root pro-
fusely decorated with flags the dancers moved round
and round the room, a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours
and of flushed and merry faces.
Now and then Lawrence could see Marian as she
came abreast of the door by which he stood and swift-
ly passed him, her partner a tall good-looking offier
of the British West India Regiment. Lawrence's
waltz with her was third on the programme, and he
knew that to every dance there would be an encore or
two. He had therefore some time to wait, and, as he
could not possibly hope for a word with Marian before
his dance, be turned to move away. As he did so be
came face to face with Marian's brother, Stephen
Braeme. From the exprqseion on the latter's face,
Lawrence realized that Stephen had been watching
him for some moments as his eyes had followed
Marian's movements.
Stephen Braeme was one of the actors of the
moving picture company who lived outside of the
hotel, in private lodgings, but at the Myrtle Ban he
was a frequent visitor, and there he had been itro-
duced to Lawrence. At first he had been cordial; a
little later on his manner had distinctly changed.
Stephen was much taller than his sister and decidedly
darker; he looked about thirty years of age. Their
mother (It had got about, as these things sometimes
will) had been a lady of good family in Peru, their
father an Englishman who had met and married her
there. Of aquiline features, his black eyes quick and
glittering, his hair coal black, and with full, clean-
shaven lips, Stephen Braeme was unquestionably a
very handsome man: a boon companion too and of
aociable-'diposition, though patently vain. Lawrence
knew that the reason of Stephen's dislike of him was
the attention which, however unobtrusively, he
paid to Stephen's sister. Stung to resentment by
Stephen's change of manner, and realislng that he
exercised an immense influence over Marian, Law-
rence had come to detest him heartily. Yet when
they met, as they often did of necessity, there was a
fair show of politeness in their greeting. At the very
least Stephen Braeme was never quite so distant in
attitude as was Lady Rosedale, and Lawrence appre-
ciated the pride he so obviously took in his sister.
The two men bowed to one another, Lawrence
endeavouring to inform his salutation with a degree
of friendliness which he did not feel. Mr. Phipps
grasped Stephen warmly by the hand and was greeted
with equal enthusiasm. He immediately invited
Stephen to come and have a drink; the latter appeared
on the brink of accepting this invitation, but altered
his mind, and murmured something about having to
find his partner for the next dance. Lawrence guess-
ed that this excuse was given because Stephen did
not wish to be in a party of which he, Lawrence,
would necessarily be one; Stephen desired to keep
aloof from him. This reflection stung him to anger,
and Mr. Phlpps remarked instantly the frown on
Lawrence's brow.
"A handsome fellow that," observed Mr. Phipps
as they moved away: "but he thinks an almighty lot
of himself-that's the Spanish blood. He thinks an
almighty lot of his sister too," added Mr. Phipps
slyly.
"There is reason for that," said Lawrence. "but
be sometimes acts as if he owned her. Is that a
Spa8nifh cuEtofl?"
"My dear boy, you would never have got to know
her had she not been here as an actress, and he
had desired that she should not know you! There is
no such thing as the emancipation of woman in Span-
ish-American countries: there'are still the watchful
father and brother, the vigilant duenna, the barred
windows, the whole blessed family on the spot when
a man wants to say a nice word to the girl of bis
admiration. That *tall fellow regards himself as
father and brother In one. so far as authority goes
anyhow, and you have got to reckon with that until
you can get him ror.nd. What with him and Lady
Rosedale. son, you are in for a bad time!"
To this Lawrence madnoe no repl: he was think-
ing much the same thing himself. His pride was
hurt: but he was willing to make a sacrifice of pride
if only he, could bring. these two to a better ftwnme of


mind towards him. And yet, he asked himself, as
he had done more than once before, what exactly did
hp have in view?
Mr. Phippa had pointed out to him that he might
be too poor for a girl who dressed as Marian did, who
was probably so accustomed to hectic excitement that
it had become a necessity of her existence. Hitherto
he had had no good reason to be discontented with his
position, or discouraged by his prospects: now it
seemed to him that that position was utterly miser-
able, those prospects appalling. He supposed that
both Stephen Braeme and Lady Rosedale knew all
about them: In a small city personal information
could be gathered from the garrulous in a week.
Those two wopid probably use all their influence with
Marian against him, they had shown him plainly that
they did not regard him as desirable, while he-he did
not dare go further than sit with her for an hour or
ask her for a dance.
"Beaman," said Mr. Phipps firmly, breaking in
upon Lawrence's reflections after a silent walk that
had lasted tor several minutes, "you are coming with
me to have a drink. You could not possibly take that
stunning young woman into the ballroom feeling as
you are, and with a face such as you are wearing.
Whisky has been universally pronounced good for
snake bites in the United States, event since prohibi-
tion was put over the people in that free and ?n-
lightened country. You have been bitten, my boy-
I won't say by a snake, but you have been bitten.
Come and have a drink."


CHAPTER FOUR.

"IT 18 IMPOSSIBLE."
HEY went into the bar, and Lawrence, usually
an abstemious man, had one whisky and soda,
after, which Mr. Phippe declared that he looked
better. "It is about time that I should go
back now," he said to Mr. Phipps, as soon as he had
finished his drink; "you must excuse me; I'll see you
later." He hurried out of the bar to look for Marian,
and found her, as he had expected, standing by Lady
Rosedale's chair.
The waltz was beginning. He led her in, and to-
gether they began to dance. But in a crowded room
Lawrence soon realized that he was but an indiffer-
ent dancer; do what he would, he could not prevent
himself from bumping against other waltzers, and,
though these took it all in good part, he flushed hot
with annoyance at his own clumsiness.
"I am afraid that I am making you appear ridi-
culous," he whispered to Marian with a blank look of
chagrin, after a vain struggle to keep out of other
people's way.
"Let us go outside," she replied quickly. "We
can sit the rest of it out together. It's close in here;
and I don't feel that I want to dance to-night."
"You wouldn't want to, with me." he agreed
grimly, as they made their way outside and walked
slowly towards the sea-front. "I am ashamed that I
have spoilt part of your evening."
"No; you are quite wroug," she assured him
earnestly. "I really don't want to dance."
She spoke with an earnestness that surprised
him, and he experienced a strange thrill of elation.
She was not, then, a girl who would care for a man's
company only if he could keep her always amused.
These little revelations of character that she made
from time to time were always a delight to him. It
seemed to him that he was always discovering some-
thing new and wonderful about her. something finer
and more lovable than he had suspected before. He
wondered, too, if she did not care to dance because she
preferred to be alone with him; a thought which. if
he instantly dismissed it as vain and presumptuous,
imparted to him, nevertheless, an exquisite glow of
pleasure.
"Marian!"
They were nearly at the end of the lawn when a
voice behind called out to her. The speaker was not
far behind.
"My brother," she murmured quickly, and stopped
dead. "He-he probably wants to say something to
me, and I have-I must go and hear what he has to
say. Wait; I will come back in a moment."
Stephen himself, after calling to her, had paused,
making no attempt to come up with them.
She hurried towards him and joined him:
Lawrence could see them both dimly where they stood.
He guessed that Stephen was remonstrating with
her for being with him, and his lips closed ominously.
Whatever Stephen said to her. however, did not pre-
vent her from keeping her word; for she came back,
and quickly, as she had promised, without any re-
ference to the brief interruption. They resumed their
walk towards the seawall; where he found a vacant
garden bench. The seawall itself was deserted. They
seated themselves in silence. He was angrily moody;
she seemed somewhat depressed and sad.
"Your brother does not like me," he said at last,
bluntly.
"No," she replied with a frankness which he
hardly expected. He resolved to be equally plain
"Why?"
She made no reply at once. He glanced at her
face, discernible in the light shed by the little lamps
that stretched overhead along the seawall's length.
I It was drawn, nervous: she was visibly agitated.


"I can't say," she answered, after a little while;
"but he is lik that at times. He takes likes and diM
likes to people for no reason whatever. It is foolish
of him."
"Shall I tell you why?" he asked, and it appeared
as it she did not hear him. "I will tell you," he
continued, with a ring of determination in his vokle.
"It Is because he knows I love you. He has seen
It, and he thinks I am not good enough for you.' r
am not, dear; but I love you, though I never meant
to tell you so to-night, or at any other time."
He had spoken without premeditation, uttering
words that had been in his heart for days. breaking
through all his habits of reticence and reserve. And
now that he had told her he loved her, he found
further speech, and gave full vent to it.
"I love you, dearest, love you as I never could
have thought it possible for me to love a woman. I
have been very lonely all my life, hut I never felt
it before. I did not wish it otherwise; but you came
and I saw you, you who are so beautiful, so wonder-
ful, and now I could wish only to live for you, to be
everything to you. I should not say it, for how can
I ask you to marry me? I, who am nothing, com-
pared with you-a mere sort of clerk, I suppose, at-
best. And yet I am glad I have told you what an
hour ago I should have thought it foolish to mention,
for you know now that to me you are everything,
everything ...
The lap, lap of the waves against the seawall,
the gentle rustle of coconut palms in the avenue be-
hind them, the hum of the tropical night insects
among the trees, the sound of the music, softened as
it came to them throbbing through the air, the mur-
mur of human voices from the lawn, all these they
heard with a strange distinctness when he ceased
and waited for her reply. They were listening to no-
thing. intent only upon themselves. Yet all these
mingled sounds impinged upon their consciousness
with peculiar insistence as they stared at the dark
sea in front of them, with the little lighted ships at
anchor upon its bosom.
"I know it," she replied at last, "but I wish you
hadn't said it. It's no use," she went on, as if talk-
ing to herself; "it is impossible. You don't know
how impossible it is."
"I do, only too well," he answered bitter.I--.-"T
have known it all along. It is hopeless, but who
would blame me for daring to hope? And yet I did
not even dare to hope!"
'What is the good of hoping?" she asked. -I am
going away in a few weeks, and then it will be all
the same to you. Some day you will wonder why
you cared for a moving picture actress you knew no-
thing about-and you will feel ashamed."
He exclaimed passionately against the sugges-
tion; suddenly he seized the hand lying nearest to
him and would have carried it to his lips had she not
quickly pulled it away.
"If you do that now you will do it again," she
said softly, "and then you-surely you must know
what yielding to temptation means? We yield once,
and say it is only for that once; and after that we
yield again, and again, and then-! You mustn't.
And I mustn't let you. It would not be fair to you.
"I am a Bohemian," she continued, "a wanderer;
here to-day and gone to-morrow, and I do not love
you. Besides, I am afraid ."
"Of what?" he demanded
"Of everything, I was always a coward. I am
afraid now, horribly."
He glanced at her, and her face bore witness to
her words. His gorge rose. "Afraid of your
brother?" he cried. "If that is all, there is nothing
to be afraid of. I would tell him now."
"No," she protested; "no. You must not. You
promise me that you will not?"
Involuntarily she.had placed her hand upon his,
as if to beseech him by touch as well as by word. "If
you wish it," he said, gladly obedient to her faintest
desire. .---
A slight pressure of her hand on his suggested
that she realized why he so readily consented to do
what she wished.
"And this is the end?" he asked here after another
pause.
Of our friendship? Why should it he? I like
you; you have been very nice to me. I like you
to be near me: I know I could trust you at any time.
Why should it be the end?"
"I would be your friend and your lover for ever,"
he answered. "Your lover I shall be always. If you
let me continue to be your friend-"
"Yes;" she Interrupted softly. "1 want you to
be."
And again a silence tell between them, and they
heard the soft lapping of the waves at their feet.
To Lawrence everything seemed a blank; bhe was
conscious of a peculiar feeling of numbness in his
mind, numbness and an intense stillness. He had
said he had not dared even to hope: he knew now that
he had been deceiving himself, that he had hoped
much with all the strength of his being. And now he
felt this absolute refusal of him with every nerve."
his body. She did not love him; she had said-om
frankly as if to put that matter at rest for eve?. But
if he should persist in offering her his derotlan, might
she not feel differently towards him, come to, care
for him? But did his position warrant that? W Sf d
she be aatlafied with what .be bad to offer ? .Vp*se


.


1922-23


_


-d







a^Ir r '.


PL,


ENTERS


"~~~~~~~~~ ............ .%:, .." W ""
t o o .... ........ .,..
r H .i"...'.':....


questions thronged through his mind half uncon-
sciounly. He could find. no answer to then. *
"I have missed one of the dances," said Marian,
-rising at last, "and my partner must be looking all
-about for me. We ought to go back now, don't you
think?. They'll wonder what has become of us."
Thus brought back to practical realities, Lawrence
. ed her from the seawall and towards the ballroom.
At one of the entrances of this room they were met
.by the young man who had engaged Marian for the
. sixth dance; the fifth was now in progress: she had,
involuntarily, cut that. The young man suggested
;Ihat they should sit together until his dance came
round: and at this moment Mr. Phipps made his ap-
pearance.
"Not a dance for the old man!" he exclaimed,
shaking his head in affected sorrow. "No one wants
him, and yet I can foot it deftly with the youngest of
them. Never seen me dance, have you?"
While speaking he had been keenly scanning
-Marian with admiration in his eyes. She was dressed
in rich yellow satin: the skirt covered with beautiful
lace. On her bosom and neck glowed with soft lustre
.a wonderful necklace of pearls which he had seen on
Lady Rosedale more than once. Some flowers were
-fastened at her waist by a diamond brooch; but these
were wilting alreaov and hanging loose.
"If you are not careful," went on Mr. Phipps with-
-out waiting for any answer to his last question, "you
will lose that fine brooch of yours, young lady. The
eaten seems weak, or something."
Marian glanced at the brooch. "I must get it
tightened," she said a little absently; "but it's all
right, the catch will hold." She took out the faded
flowers and threw them away.
"Careless, careless," reproved Mr. Phipps, "you
deserve to lose it to teach you a good lesson for the
future. Sometimes we want what we say we don't,
and sometimes we lose what we think we have for
certain, and then waste time in regrets." He spoke
with the most innocent of expressions, but Marian
and Lawrence shot a sharp look at him. They were
extremely sensitive just now to any remark that
might appear to have a hidden meaning.
"Let us all sit down while we may, and before
the chairs are monopolised," counselled Mr. Phipps.
He shepherd them to a small table with chairs set
around it, and placed between two low, broad-leaved
palms: here they could see the ballroom distinctly.
He suggested drinks. It was a habit of his, and he
hade a waiter take the order before his invitation
could be refused. For himself he chose a low rocking
chair next to Marian and luxuriated in its comfort.
He seemed to realise that no conversation was to be
got out of Lawrence or Marian just Ihen, so turned
-his attention to the strange young man and animated-
ly chatted about nothing in particular with him until
the refreshments were brought. These consumed, the
sixth dance began and Marian and her partner rose
to go; so did Lawrence, who, informing Mr. Phipps
that he would see him later on, moved away also.
When Marian and her partner had nearly reached the
verandah, Mr. Phipps rose briskly, took a step or two
towards the disappearing couple, paused and seemed
to change his mind, then returned to his seat. He
-elevated his feei on a chair and smiled as if much
amused by everything around him. He was still
sitting in the same spot and in the same posture when
Lawrence came back about an hour afterwards to re-
jotn lint.' ---
"I am a very active man," observed Mr. Phipps,
"but when I see a host of young people moving to
music for hours, I just want to sit still and watch
them do the exertion. Then I understand the mean-
ing of real rest, and appreciate the charms of an idle
life. Had your second waltz yet?"
"I could not dance the first, so 1 don't know if I
shall attempt Ihe second. It is low down on the pro-
gramme, anyhow," said Lawrence.
"You ought to cultivate poetry, like I do," advised
Mr. Phipps. 'If you try and don't succeed, try, try,
-try again': I guess it was an American who invented
that line. Long ago I asked the same girl to marry
me no less than five times. How's that?"
"Yes? said Lawrence, abstractedly, and with
obvious lack of interest.
"Yes, sir. And she refused me very time. She
was a real good kind of girl. now that I come to
think of it. She refused me to the lasi. and -now I
could not sufficiently express my gratitude to her. T
showed her what perseverance meant, and, by Jove!
she proved that she had a wrinkle or two on that same
moral quality. She out-persevered me; but I'd have
been ashamed if I had given up at the first No. I
would have gone on suggestion' the altar and the
happy hearth if she hadn't accepted someone else:
but she did. Man wasn't a patch on me, but there's
no accounting fo4 tastes. I have been happy ever
since her marriage: she was rall and slender just like
-our movie star here. She is now tall and stout."
Lawrence made no comment.
"I did not take No for an answer till there was no
sense in asking the question any more." Mr. Phlpps
insisted.
But Lawrence was evidently not to be led Inlo
'baking any disclosures. He knew Mr. Phipps's
methods of indirect enquiry, but was not disposed
to be communicative just then. He allowed the hint
to p1. Phlpps did not try again, but, instead, took


out his cigarette case, and, finding but one cigarette in
it, hailed a passing bellboy.
"Run up to my room, Ethiopa," he commanded,
"and you will find a tin of cigarettes on my table or
on the dressing table, or the bed-if you use your eyes
you will see it. Hurry back with it." The boy grinned
and went quickly to do as he was ordered. Mr.
Phipps was known to be generous in the matter of
tips.
Mr. Phipps lay back in his rocking chair. "The
charm of the tropics," he soliloquised, "is its cheap
labour. Cheap and inefficient, but wonderfully will-
ing at the prospect of modest remuneration. These
bellboys now; taey never say that a thing can't be
done, or confess that they do not know how to do it.
They make a real effort to help you. Only last week
there was a busy American down here, and he wanted
to telephone someone. Asked a bellboy to bring him
a telephone directory, and that boy said, yes, he
would, and went away at the double-quick. Stayed a
little longer than seemed necessary, but came back at
last with a lemon squash. It wasn't quite what was
wanted, but the helpful intention was there. Ah,
here's my boy! Well, where are the cigarettes?"
"Please, sir," said the boy, "there is no cigarettes
on the bed or the dressing table, sir."
"And it didn't strike you to look elsewhere, is that
it? Too much of a demand upon your Imaginative
powers, eh? Well, I am not going to smoke any
other cigarettes except my own, so I guess I'll just
foot it upstairs and get them. Beastly shame to have
to do It."
"Don't trouble," said Lawrence, seeing that Mr.
Phipps did not wish to stir. "I'll run up and get
them for you."
"Will you, son? That's kind of you, sure. You'll
find me right here when you come back."
Lawrence was away for quite ten minutes before
he came back. "No wonder the boy couldn't find
them," he observed, handing an unopened tin of
cigarettes to Mr. Phipps; "you had none out. I had
to bunt for them, and found two or three tins at last
in the bottom drawer of your dressing table." Mr.
Phipps said nothing. but opened the tin, extracted
some cigarettes, with which he filled his case, and
proceeded to smoke. He made no effort to draw
Lawrence into conversation; the look on Lawrence's
face was not inviting. Only one question did he ask:
"About what time is your second waltz?" "Some-
where between twelve and one o'clock," said Lawrence,
and Mr. Phipps knew that he would remain till the
dance was over, or till Marian went upstairs.
At midnight Mr. Phipps got up to retire. "These
festivities will go on until three o'clock," he observed,
"and you are likely to be here until then. You want
to see the last of everything. Lawrence, meaning
thereby one certain young person. But I see no
reason why I should stay down here any longer, so
I'll go and hit the hay. And take my advice: quit
looking so darned grim and gloomy. Anyone seeing
your face will know that something has happened to
you. Well. good-night."
"Good-night," echoed Lawrence.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE JEWEL ROBBERY.
THE bellboy who first heard Lady Rosedale's bell
flew incontinently up the stairs, showing a
celerity not habitual with persons of bis pro-
fession. But there was something so loud,
so imperative, so persistent about the summons, that
he t.l1 impelled to swiftness; even as he sped up the
servants' stairs he heard that summons shrilling be-
low him and knew that whoever was ringing would
tolerate no nonsense on his part.
He had no need to knock at Lady Rosedale's
door. It was wide open, and that lady's voice was
heard calling out to her neighbour, who was Marian
Braeme, and telling her of a terrible misfortune.
-Guests on the opposite side of the corridor, some of
them awakened suddenly, were hurrying into bath-
robes and kimonos, preparatory to emerging upon
the scene. Maids were speeding to the spot. Lady
Rosedale was not loud or hysterical, but the word she
had sent out to Marian had been caught by one other
person, and (so significant and sinister it was) had
been instantly repeated to another. It was "theft,"
a sort of magic talisman for unlocking all kinds of
fears. By the time the bellboy reached Lady Rose-
dale's door be was joined by a little crowd of people,
and the crowd grew momently.
The boy beard Lady Rosedale gasp, "My diamond
necklace-gone!" and in his innocence he answered,
"Yes, ma'am," as if it were the most natural thing in
the world that diamond necklaces should disappear
overnight out of a lady's room.
"The manager; quick, bring the manager!" order-
ef Lhdy Rosedale, as Marian joined her. Marian's
[ace was bloodless, her lips white. She it was to
whom Lady Rosedale had first called out on discover-
rng her loss; she had thrown on a loose robe as quick-
ly as she could, and had hurried to join her friend.
Her eyes looked frightened, as indeed did the eyes'of
everyone in the corridor. The diamond necklace they
had all heard of; its reputed value was ten thous-
and pounds. It had been stolen? surely, surely
there was some mistake. "Why not telephone for
the police?" suggested one of the startled guests, and,


without waiting for an answer, flew to the telephone ..
nearby.
The manager mAde his appearance, having been
given to understand by the bellboy that Lady Rowe
dale had been robbed of everything she possessed, and
nearly murdered In addition. The boy had been
dramatic in his relating of Lady Rosedale's condition;
consequently the manager was considerably relieved'
at seeing her alive, and apparently perfectly well, even
if somewhat agitated. He looked congratulations.
Lady Rosedale, aware that he must have heard of her
loss, regarded his look as a premeditated insult. She
turned upon him with dignity.
"So this is how guests are treated in this hotel,
is it, sir?"
"It is impossible, Lady Rosedale, qlite impossi-
ble," protested the manager, who was a Frenchman
with a plentiful supply of ingratiating gestures. ''It
has never happened before, and it cannot have hap-
pened now. Have you searched? Maybe a little over-
sight: mislaid, perhaps. I assure you we shall do
everything to find it for you. With your permission,
we shall look at once."
The dapper little man was ready to conduct the
Investigation himself. The very idea of policemen in
the hotel filled him with consternation and dismay.
"Search!" exclaimed Lady Rosedale, who, in her
flowing kimono, chocolate coloured, and embroidered
with bright birds that flew in every direction, appear-
ed now of almost striking height as she looked down
upon the manager from ti e summit of her great in-
dignation-"search!" Do you think I would make a
fuss about nothing? Will any amount of search ac-
count for my trunk being open? You can search if
you like; that will be necessary, I dare say. But I
inform you at once that I shall hold you and your
hotel responsible for my loss."
The manager shrugged his shoulders deprecating-
ly. "The hotel is not responsible for any money and
jewellery not deposited in the safe downstairs," he
reminded Lady Rosedale, but succeeded in' throwing
into his words and attitude a suggestion of regret
that such responsibility could not rightly be placed
on the hotel. "But the necklace, It is safe, I am sure.
Let us begin to look."
By this time most of the people on the first floor
were in the corridor. Among these was Mr. Phipps,
who was already completely dressed. Mr. Phipps
pushed his way to Lady Rosedale's door, outside- -r _
which stood the other guests, then calmly entered the
room. One or two others, emboldened by his example,
followed suit, but drew back hastily as a withering
glance from Lady Resedale's eye fell upon them. It
fell upon Mr. Phipps also. But he did not seem to
see It.
"Your diamond necklace gone?" he enquired et
Lady Rosedale. "Too bad, too bad! Sent for the
police yet?"
"Yes," answered someone in the corridor. "They -
are coming along immediately."
"In the meantime," said the manager, "let us
search; there s no knowing-"
He began energetically to peer about, looking at
all the places where, if the necklace had been there,
Lady Rosedale herself must certainly have long age
discovered it. Everybody who could see him followed
his movements closely, Lady Rosedale with obvious
-disdain. At length the manager desisted, with the
remark that a more thorough search could be made
later on. There was nothing to do now but to await
the arrival of the police.
"But are the police going to be a week In getting
here?" demanded Lady Rosedale impatiently. It
seemed not. Just then, Indeed, two men appeared
upon the scene, pushing their way into the room with
a businesslike air. One was a slim man, not more
than thirty, dark brown in complexion. The other
was over forty; a black man, big and burly, with
tiny, prying, suspicious eyes End heavy lips. These
men had been sent posthaste from the Kingston de-
tective office, which was not quite half a mile from
the hotel, on the telephone message being received
there that a robbery had taken place at the Myrtle
Bank Hotel.
Lady Rosedale looked them over critically. Her
look said as plainly as speech could have done that
while these men migh be useful in dealing with.an
ordinary theft, they did not seem capable of handling
an important case such as hers. Her nest words gave
expression to her feeling.
"Is there no such thing as. a white detective in
Jamaica?" she asked.
"The detective inspector is a white man," Mr.
Phipps informed her, "but he is not supposed to know
anything about detective work. He is an administra-
tive officer with very little experience in criminal in-
vestigations and an astonishing acquaintanceship with
fishing, shooting and other manly Eports. I would
suggest that you contented yourself with the aid of
these two men."
Lady Rosedale made a gesture of despair. The
elder of the two detectives, with a sight movement of
annoyance at the almost openly expressed disbelief in
the skill of himself and his colleague, now took' a
definite band in the business. "If the lady will tell
us what she lost and how she found it out," be eng-
gested. "we can get to work. But standing here and
doing nothing lI not going to help us."
Even to Lady Rosedale this appeared an eminent
ly sensible way of stating the situatioft. :liqecoles


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her thoughts, and proceeded at once to give her state-
meat.
S..he had retired at about one o'clock In the morn-
tag. On entering her room she had observed nothing
peculiar. During the rest of the night she had slept
soundly; she had, consequently, beard nothing, if
there was anything to hear. This morning she had
got up at her usual hour: while dressing she noticed
that the hasp of her largest trunk was hanging down.
She felt at once that something was wrong. On
searching the trunk and her jewel case she missed
her diamond necklace, by far the most valuable
trinket she possessed. Immediately she had given the
alarm.
The elder detective looked narrowly about him;
then eyed th'e manager suspiciously for a moment.
The manager stared back haughtily at him. The
detective began a cross-examiaation.
"You say, ma'am. that your trunk was locked last
night. Are you sure?"
"Perfectly," answered Lady Rosedale. "I will tell
you all about it. I don't travel with much jewellery
as a rule: a couple of necklaces, a few rings, a couple
of brooches, and a pendant or so. I leave the rest
with my bankers in England; but I never leave my
diamond necklace behind. I have always liked to
have it with me: I see now how unwise I was. When
I came to this hotel I saw no reason why I should
put away my jewel box in the hotel's safe; I had
never had any reason for doing so at any other hotel,
and I had always heard that the Jamaica thief con-
fined his attention to trifling articles, things of really
no value, such as a banana or a coconut "
"As a general proposition, that is quite true,"
interrupted Mr. Phipps. "The native mind has not
yet attained to the heights of scientific burglary. But
it will improve."
"Have the goodness not to interrupt, sir," growled
the big detective, with an almost malevolent look at
Mr. Phipps: he did not like the latter's reference to
the native mind. Lady Rosedule, who had also
favoured Mr Phipps with an indignant stare, con-
tinued.
I1 took out the jewel case last night. I wanted
to-to." she hesitated, glanced at Marian, then hurried
on. "I wanted Miss Braeme to wear a pearl necklace
of mine. I opened the Lase, and after we had
taken out the necklace and a small pendant for my-
oelt. we closed the case and put it back in the trunk.
The trunk was then locked, and shortly after we left
the room."
"You locked the trunk yourself, rna'am?"
:'No; I asked Miss Braeme to do that for me. But
I saw her lock it: I saw it with my own eyes She
handed the key ba>.k to me "
"And you had the key with you when you were
downstairs?"
"No. It is one of a bunch, you see, and I don't
care to carry a thing like that about with me. But I
have a safe hiding place for it in my room; besides,
this morning I found the keys exactly where I had
left them. M1y trunk must have been opened with
a false key; it could not Iave been opened in any
other way."
The younger detective went over to the trunk and
.--- 'sx" --1-te lock. He took the key, placed it in the
key-hole and turned it again and again. "The lock
has not been broken," he remarked, "and no false key
for this lock was ever made in this country. There's
nobody here who could make it."
"Evidence again of the undeveloped state of the
native mind," murmured Mr. Phipps, but this time no
one took any notice of him.
The man raised the trunk-lid, disclosing a deep
tray with several compartments, in some of which, as
he opened them. he perceived a number of articles.
One fairly large compartment contained the jewel
case. "I always keep it there," explained Lady Rose-
dale, and lifted it out.
The case, a flat, beautifully inlaid box of polished
ebony, was placed on the dressing table; in the
presence of the people in the room Lady Rosedale
now opened it. As she had said, she did not travel
with many articles of jewellery, but some that she
took about with her were still lying in the box: the
diamond necklace was all that had disappeared. She
opened several compartments; then, las:ly, the little
drawer at -the bottom where the necklace had been
kept.
"Why," questioned the elder detective, "did the
thief take only one thing and leave the rest? It looks
very funny."
"It is positively hilarious," agreed Mr. Phipps
"You suggest, I see, that the thief had a sense of
humour, and left something behind him to show that
he could resist temptation. That is certainly not a
common characteristic of burglars."
"Has this gentleman anything to do with you,
ma'am?" asked the detective, turning to Lady Rose-
dare.
"Certainly not?' she replied haughtily.
"Then," began the detective, but thought better
of it, and closed his lips. But he gave a warning
glance to his subordinate, who seemed to understand
what was passing in his mind.
S "Did you see the diamond necklace"-he called It
S diamondd necklace"-"in the box last night?' he re-
sumed.
"No; we did not open the drawer in which it was,"
Lady Rosedale answered.


"And the case was opened or locked when you
took it out this morning?" continued the detective.
"I-think It was locked," said Lidy Rosedale,
puckering up her brows to remember. "I know I put
the key into the lock and turned It. I don't quite
remember, you see; I was excited when I found my
trunk open, and knew I had left'it locked last night,
so I am afraid that in my hurry to find out If I had
lost anything I did not very closely observe what I
did. But almost any key could open a box like this,"
she added.
"But if a thief had opened it. he would not have
taken the trouble to lock it again," pointed out Mr.
Phipps. "Indeed, I don't see why, when he opened
Lady Rosedale's trunk, he should have taken the
trouble to close it after him. That looks like a
precious waste of valuable time.
"If the thief was anybody in this house." returned
the detective darkly, "he would close the trunk if he
had time. He wouldn't want his robbery to be found
out too quick; for that wouldn't suit him"
Mr. Phlpps, with a slight nod of the head, ad-
mitted that there was something in this way of look-
ing at the matter. Thin an idea seemed to strike
him
"Anybody else lost anything?" he enquired sud-
denly, "or is it Lady RoFedale alone who has been the
victim of burglarious attention?"
No sooner had the question crossed his lips than
there was a general scurrying of the people in the
corridor to their rooms. In a few moments some
were back at Lady Rosedale's door, their momentary
apprehensions relieved. Others soon followed these,
and )et others, and when it had been ascertained that
none had lost anything they all prepared to enjoy
with disinterested thoroughness a sensation that
would have been considered delectable even in a
European or American city. Mr. Phipps had not
stirred, nor had Marian, while the other guests were
busy with their search. "Whit about you?" he en-
quired, turning to her jestingly, when everyone had
declared that he or bhe had lost nothing. "As for me,
not even a tin of r.iy cignrcttes has been touched.
Good fortune dogs my heel:_."
"Yes. de.r. you had better go and look," advised
Lady Rosedale. and Marian left the room.
In a minute or two she was back. her face and
demeanour elo nent of calamity. "Everything is
gone;" she exclaimed. "The pearls, my rings, my
brooch-everything!"

CHAPTER SIX.

MR. PHIPPS GOE. O1'T.

F Lady Rosedale had beeu excited before, she was
struck with absolute consternation now. The first
blow she bad sustained with a fine appearance of
righteous indignation tempered with dignity;
under the second she staggered. She stared at Marian
in blank astonishment, unable to utter a word. There
were murmurs of surprise and commisseration from
the spectators, an exclamation of horror from the
manager. The elder of the two detectives was again
about to begin a sharp interrcgatory when Mr. Phlpps
Intervene.
"What did you say had been stolen?" he asked,
looking narrowly at Marian.
"Everything I wore last night," she answered.
"Lady Rosedale's pearls and my own things. I put
them in the upper drawer of my dressing table after
taking them off before going to bed. I thought they
would be perfectly safe there. I keep all my jewellery
there, and nothing has ever been stolen before."
"Are you sure you were wearing the pearls when
you came up to the room last night, or rather, this
morning?" enquired Mr. Phipps. "You might have
dropped them, you know."
"Miss Braeme was wearing the pearls when I
left her downstairs at a little past twelve o'clock last
night," Interrupted Lady Rosedale, sharply, annoyed
that Mr. Phipps should be interfering in a matter
which did not directly concern him. "She must have
come to bed very shortly after that.".
"I came upstairs with Miss Hellingworth," Marian
resumed. "About the last thing she said to me when.
I bade her good-night was how beautiful the pearl
necklace was. That was at my door."
"I only asked for the purpose of not leaving any
possible explanation unexplored," explained Mr,
Phipps. "You were about to say something," he con-
tinued, turning to the chief detective.
"I was about to say, sir," replied that individual,
"that if you are going to ask questions, I had better
stop."
"Please proceed," implored Mr. Phipps: "the
sagacity of your enquiries simply fills us all with
admiration. I can already see the necklaces being
discovered In an hour or two, thanks to the local
Sherlock Holmes."
"Did you lock your drawer after you had put the
necklace and other things in it, miss?" the detective
asked Mariap, merely giving a glance at Mr. Phipps
which seemed to threaten future trouble.
""I did," said Marian in a low voice, "and I think
the lock has been forced. You had better come and
see for yourself."
Led by the detectives, the party now went into
the adjoining chamber occupied by Marian, which was
smaller than Lady Rosedale's. Here both the detec-
tives examined carefully the lock of the first drawer


of the dressing table, a standardized piece of Ameri-
can furniture with three drawers whose locks were
all opened by the same key. It was easy to see that
the lock of the first drawer had been picked, not by
any means a difficult matter to accomplish. Satisfied-
on this score, the two detectives withdrew into a
corner of the room and whispered together. Lady
Rosedale, Mr. Phipps and Marian watched them keen-
ly, Mr. Phipps being intent on studying the expres-
sions on their faces.
The conference lasted but a few minutes; when
it was over the elder detective turned to Lady Rose-
dale.
"Did you lock your room door last night, ma'am?"
"Yes," she replied. "I always do."
"And you, miss?"
"Yes," said Marian.
"So that the thief must have entered through the-
window." observed the irrepressible Mr. Phipps; "and
he must have done so after two o'clock in the morn-
ing. But would he not have been seen by the night
watchman? There is a watchman always about, isn't'
there?" he enquired.
"There is," the manager hastened to afirm, "and
he is a most zealous and competent man. I am sure
he would have seen any thief clambering through a
window."
"He would have seen the thief if there was enough
light and if he was where he could see him when he
was climbing in." remarked the younger detective,
somewhat incoherently; "but there is nothing about
this window to show that anyone came in through
here."
"No," admitted Mr. Phipps. who was already at
the window conducting a personal examination.
*There are no finger prints observable, and the cur-
lain shows no sign of having been disturbed." He
threw open the window and peered outside. "No foot-
prints visible on the verandah's metal roof," he added,
"this r:of beine rather remarkable for affording what
naval strategists would call 'a low visibility': in fact,
it is too hard and clean for the traces of foot-prints to
be left on it. It would seem that the thief did not
enter this way; and ?et he must have. A wide-
awake and active man would have avoided disturbing
anything or making any noise, wouldn't he?"
"This thief, whoever it is." said the elder detec-
tive dogmatically, "is somebody who knows this
place well. It is nobody from outside." He gave the
slightest of signs to his colleague, who, with well-
affected indifference. sauntered out of the room. "It
would be easy for anyone who is active to get on to
the verandah roof." the speaker continued; "but it
would take hinm Fene time to get into one room and
open a trunk and then nlimnb out again and get into
another room and open a drawer. Could you send
for the night w-.tchman, sir?" he asked, addressing
the manager
"Certainly," said the manager, and hurried out of
the room. Without a word, Mr. Phipps followed him;
seeing which, the detective, hastily asking Lady Rose-
dale and Marian to remain where they were until he-
returned, quickly left the room also
Lady Rosedal" had seated herself on one of the
chairs, her eyes fixed on Marian's face with an ex-
pression in which were blended amazement and dis-
may. The discovery that her pearls were indubitably
gone had apparently touched her heart and bewilder-
ed her mind. It could not be said that she was utter-
ly crushed, for it would have taken mountains of
calamity to crush Lady Rosedale's spirit. She gave
one the impression of being always able to rise su-
perior to circumstances. Yet she was grieved, pro-
foundly disturbed; it also seemed as If something un--
expressed and perhaps inexpressible were perplexing
her greatly. Marian noticed her troubled appearance,
and now that the temporary absence of the detectives
and the withdrawal of Mr. Phipps and the manager
gave her the opportunity of a word or two with Lady
Rosedale, she looked at that lady pathetically, and
with obvious regret.
"I am so sorry this has happened," she said in
broken tones, "you know I did not want to wear the -
pearls last night."
"If you had only been a little more careful, my
dear Marian," returned Lady Rosedale with the first
touch of bitterness she had ever imported into her
voice in speaking to Marian, "it you had only been
more careful it might not have happened. A drawer
is hardly the place where one should place a valuable-
necklace for safe keeping."
"Your trunk did not seem to have been safer,"
retorted the girl, trembling, but with some spirit.
"Yet you know I locked it securely; I sa* you try the
hasp after I had handed you tne keys."
"That is quite true," replied Lady Rosedale with
dignity; "I always make sure that things are properly
done. And if only one of my necklaces had been
stolen I should not now feel so distressed. But both!
Just think of it." She added after a pause, more
kindly, "But I am not blaming you, dear; you must
not believe that."
Before Marian could say anything further the-
elder detective and the manager reappeared, the latter
explaining to Lady Rosedale that he had sent for the
night-watchman, who would shortly be there. As.
for the detective, he showed quite plainly that be-
was waiting for someone or for some development, for
he made no further effort at finding out anything
by search or question, but merely pretended to be
(Continued on Page 17).


.4<> I


e PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-23


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1922-23 PLANTERS' PUNCH 7


] TME mo a MNOM aWe mom O SEo E ME amWW -1 M



POEMS

Mr The cultured reader will welcome these poems by Miss May Farquha, son and Miss Elieen Bliss. Miss May Farquwharson, a daughter of
S Mr. A. W. Farquharson, is of course Jamaican: Miss Bli.s too was born ,n Jamaica. at U'p Park Camp. These poems have been selected from a
fairly large number, none of them hitherto published, which 1 have read with genuine pleasure.
d As to the photographs, I had to select those that would lend themv'ires Lest to reproduction in a publication like this: so, on the advice of a fl
competent photo-engraver I chose one representing .iss rarquhrsoun in the costume of a Red Cross Nurse, in which capacity she rendered
service during the War.
I am quite confident that the poems of Miss Farquhlarson and Misa Bli.ss irill tr read witih great enjoyment and will meet with, lide and
Sdeserved appreciation.


ALLEY CHURCHYARD. THOUGHTS IN A GARDEN.
So cool, so green and full of peace they lie Once when the world seemed quiet I stood 5
Those lonely graves amidst the luscious alone
grass; Within a wind-blown garden, out of eight
The blazing, glarey, tropic skies of brass And sound of men with wrongs they cannot
Are shut out by the broad trees' canopy; right;
S To this sweet spot Life's turmoil comes not And here I rested quiet as a stone.
nigh, Glad for the wind's low voice, and glad that
Tho' down the road the tired feet still pass-- none
The restless lives of tragedy or farce:- Was there to make a clamour on delight
Look they not longing in, those passers-by? So exquisitely subtle; from the height
For whom the years add mile to weary mile; Among grey hills to greater pity grown,
And are they not beyond the living blest I looked below, beheld the scorching plain
..... These quiet dead? who lie here at their ease, Stretched dryly by the margin of the sea, M
SNor sleep, nor dream, nor stir to listen, while And pitied men that knew no god but Gold;
S'Rest, rest forever, everlasting rest' And pitied men who in such wanton pain
S The wind sighs through the giant cotton trees. Could eke out life to find him. As for me,
M.F I shared contentment with the hills grown
M old. E. B. V"

THE VALLEY. THE OLD LOVE.
0 we went down the valley, Love, Once with my old Love I went walking
4 When you and I were, young: One showery day in May; 0
".. Heard music in the valley, Love, Her eyes were like two fire-flies,
Where merry songs were sang: But all that they Would say,
Picked flowers white and yellow, Love, Was, "0O my Love," and "0 my Love,
n With laughter gay and free; "We shall not meet again,
Were happy in the valley, Love, ." We shall not go out walking.
SWhen you went down with me! "In the late spring rain."
MISS MAY FARQUHARSON
'.I still go down the valley, Love, And I believed my old Love, s
Now Life and I are old; As I believe her yett
But leafless is the valley, Love, We shall not meet again, again,
.. And gone the flowers' gold: We shall not feel regret;
It lies now in the shadow, Love. But for the sake of other days
..And save the low winds' moan We shall not know again,
t All silent is the valley, Love, We kissed, and went upon our ways,
Por I go down alone. In the late spring rain. E. B.

"ALL MEN HAVE HAVENS OF THE
SONG OF A BIRD. HEART." 00
0 there's music in the mountains. and music All men have havens of the heart,
In the seas, Conceived in various lovely places;
And singing in the valleys, and distant Some in lithe forms, and tender faces,
melody, Some in the woodlands, some apart 0M
And gladness in the sunshine, and laughter Among grey hills grown old and quiet;
in the breeze Far from the hubbub of the city,
And blossoms in the wilderness,-for Spring By greater wisdom taught to pity.
to is come to me! o
iceoeAnd some on homeland downs and moors,
.There's colour in the mountains, and colour And some at lowly cottage doors.
in the seas, And others in the busy town
And brother birds are piping in Spring-time Have made a corner that they own.
ecstacy; And some in dim cathedrals where I
And glowing are the flowers, and shimmering Christ Jesus is the Minister.
... the trees
Alive with leaves and sunlight,--for Love is And others make their earthly haven 0
S c-owe to me! In friendly hearts, where deep engraven,
Supreme desire may find its rest.
The colours will be- faded, the music die Perhaps this haven is the best.
away,
The sunshine too will vanish, the skies grow For me, I love a shady nook,
cold and grey, A pen, some foolscap, and a book;
But what care I for Winter?-O'er all the Beneath a tree where I may lie,
flowery lea And through green lace-work see the sky.
I'll praise the God of Heaven ihat Love is Here let me in the windy grass,
thcome to me! isMake one sweet rhyme before 1 pass.
come to me MISS EILEEN BLISS E. B.

FRAGMENTS. THE TRULY-LOVED.
Deep pain; and happiness; The daylight dies, while sunset makes The Truly-Loved is beautiful. The Truly-Loved, what does she
Laughter; and a sigh The molten glory flow; t(For all true loves are fair); know
IThe splendours fade. and pass away, Her little hands are kind and cool, Of raw seafaring men?
.rrow: and world-weariness: And then,-the after-glow. And her deep eyes are clear She was made for the mothering.
Striving; achieving: And so wilb our brief happiness row, O many men have many loves!
vingThough deep, though vast it be: But I'll be home again. (For seas are broad and wide)
Loving, t may be: It lives, it fades, it dies away, To kiss away that sorrow, But there's one man that only wants
Hoping; deceiving: Remains-a memory. And soothe away that pain. One Love to be his bride.
Life holds for you and me. M. E.B.
M. F.a

&4~ 0401 Mom 9020 mom MEW ME3 00WW OM MEW M0* 014 IEEE O 0 MEN




cr' 'a r''t'I


~'"` ~c..:.'`"
'":


1922-23


MR" CUN. NGHAME GRAHAM
AS SEEN BY
It '- "'THE HAMLET OF THE VKEST INDIES."
I'-.


:':'::


THE neglected island of the woods and streams
has always seemed to me a piece of Africa gone
astray in the Carribbean Sea. The only European
things can discover in it-I speak but as a passer-by,
and know there is a settled, well-established planter
life in the interior-are the hideous houses of the new
Kingston, and the stunted little thoroughbreds that
draw the cabs. It is said there is no other horse in all
the island, but the thoroughbred. In-breeding and
the climate have stunted him in stature. He still
remains a thoroughbred, with all the qualities and
defects inherent to his caste.
The white race rules, of course, in Jamaica, but
does not dominate. Now, man cares little for mere
rule, one would suppose, it he cannot dominate; not
by tne knout, but by his moral force. This certainly
he falls to do in the fair island that seems always In
one fashion or another to have eluded us. Streets.
lanes, and fields, the beach, the valleys, sides of
streams where clusters of negro huts hang like wasps'
nests from a bough of larch-they all are filled with
negroes engaged in their chief function of continuous
babbling. Though the men wear what they, I think,
call "pants" and "vests," and certainly straw hats
and clean white shirts, the women, always more racial
than the sex they rule, revel in their pink skirts under
green blouses ,and purple neck-hand-kerchiefs, an
atavism of the "Long Ju-Ju," that seems appropriate
enough in the surroundings where they live. The
general look of being at home in their own house is
very striking amongst negroes in Jamaica. They
may have once been slaves, although I doubt it,
thinking that the alleged "masters" were most prob-
ably the slaves, in the same way the owner of a great
country house in England is the servant of his servants
and has to humour them to make them take their
pay. Possession, philosophically viewed, is moral, not
material. Although most of the property in Jamaica
is vested in the whites, who make the laws and have
imported their religion and their code of morals, the
blacks have modified them all, insensibly. In the
same way that the "mere Irish" altered the substance
of all the Normans brought to Ireland, and carefully
preserved the shadow, so have the black race in Ja-
maica Insensibly fashioned the social aspect of the
land, according to their taste. Whilst they look quite
at home, the whites look mere exotics and mere
foreigners, This in spite of the fact that Jamaica is
one of our oldest colonies, woi for us by that Lord
Protector who revived the glories of our flag, but en-
tailed the now happily mitigated "British Sunday"
on an ale-loving, once merry land. He it was who


M R. B. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM is one of the
greatest living masters of English prose. He is
tmao one of the most interesting of living nlen, full
of old-world charm and courtesy, one who bas
travelled much, seen many men and countries, and
lived a life replete with incident and with adventure.
An aristocrat by birth, he went at an early age to
South America. engaged in cattle rearing, married an
Argentinian laay, wandered through Mexico, then re-
turned to England to become Socialist, Member of
Parliament, and the author of some wonderful books
embodying the experiences of his life. Born in Spain,
his mother a Spaniard, his father a Scotch laird, he
represents what is best and finest in both races, and
those who have met him (as it has been the pleasure
and privilege of this writer to do) will never forget
the handsome, distinguished-looking face, the affable,
courteous manners, the humorous, whimsical con-
versation of a man whose pictures of strange life and
equally strange scenery linger in the memory as a
possession too priceless ever to be forgotten.
I had often hoped that some day Mr. Cunning-
hame Graham would come to Jamaica. He did, early
in 1917, on his way to Colombia to purchase cattle for
the British Government. From Colombia he went on
to Brazil; thus revisiting some of the scenes of his
early youth. Since his return to England he has pub-
lishen three new books, each of them a delight to the
lovers of good prose. In one of these books he has
written the story of Cartagena, the old Spanish city
which many Jamaicans know, and in his book on
Cartageno And the Banks of the Rlnu there is a chap-
ter on Jamaica which everyone will thank me for re-
producing in this annual.
The book itself is one of Cunnlnghame GrOglt's
best, and should be read by everyone. Some book-
seller should order it and place it here on sale: there
is certain to be a demand for it from those who will
read below what its author has written on Jamaica
and who will surely be charmed by the vividness of
his descriptions and the beauty of his prose.
Mr. Cunninghame Graham Is now about seventy
years of age. But his spirit is untouched by age, his
observant' eye is as keen as ever, his sympathies as
quick. For many more years, I hope and believe, we
shall continue to have books from his pen; and each
and all of them will be well worth reading. His
works are unique: there is nothing quite like them In
English. In his hand he holds the magic wand of
charm, so that what he touches with it is endowed
with a strange and haunting loveliness which appeals
to the imagination and the heart.


THE CATHEDRAL AT SPANISH TOWN


from Cromwellian times, that serve to show the riches
and the state in which the planters lived in the old
days. They seem like pieces of Old England gone
astray amongst luxuriant vegetation, clear skies, and
brilliant sun. They yet remain in testimony of a
brighter time. They remind me of old houses In
South Carolina or in Georgia, states that have suffered
as Jamaica suffered when slavery came to an end; but
in those states proprietors seem to have adapted them-
selves to the new conditions more readily than In the
"Island of the Woods and, Streama." The difficulty
is the labour question, complicated by the undoubted
fact that the black race is singularly averse from
work.


malca without their muscle and their brawn. Good'
wages and, above all, fair treatment are essential in
all dealings with them, and it should be remembered
that the natural man is quite averse from work it be-
can live without it. This in the island of Jamaica he
can do quite easily, and thus to work at all Is to con-
fer a favour, a proposition that the negro understands
thoroughly.
In such a natural garden of Eden as in Jamaica,
the chief blots are the towns and villages. The larger
towns are commonplace beyond belief, bad copies of
poor originals at home. The villages, long straggling.
streets of negro huts, all built of wood looking like-
(Continued on Page 11).


* Ylll~ -~~__


PLANTERS' PUNCH


sent the first thoroughbred horses to the Island, for
Old Noll, though he upset nis coach with the six
Flemish mares at Hyde Park Corner, loved horses all
his life.
The island might become a centre for horse-breed-
ing, or certainly for that of mules. At the time of the
conquest of Mexico, and generally of Ticrra Firme, it
sent out most of the horses that trampled the Indians
underfoot to the satisfaction of Don Pedio de Heledia,
and no doubt of Cortes. Some of the horses and the
mares whose colours, qualities and fate Bernal Diaz
has preserved for us in his great chronicle, perceiv-
ing that they too were "conquerors," came, no doubt,
from the plains round Spanish Town. As the whole
island lacks advancement, and certainly should be
able to export at least two thousand mules a year, if
the breeding of them were attended to, perhaps the
Government might be Induced to look into the matter,
for the Jamaica mule is excellent. It lacks the size
and weight of mules bred in Missouri and in Kansas,
but it is a well-made, compact, and lively animal of
about fourteen hands, active and-4rviceable. Its feet
are good, and high, and very hard-remarkably so,
even amongst a breed of animal renowned for stand-
ing work on stony roads. A little encouragement
from the Home Government would do wonders in the
island, but that encouragement never seems to come.
The result is that the attention of the people is turn-
ed to the United States, where a market always is to
be founu for all the island can produce.
Tourists from New York descend in flocks upon
Jamaica every winter, whilst those from England are
few and far between. Little by little, as it appears
to the casual observer, the Island is being delivered
bo~ctlbthe:aiWf tMtb. 'This'may not be a bad thing,
for after all they till the soil and do all the hard work,
but when they begin to rise to administrative offices
a serious problem will present itself to British states-
manship.
The island, a terrestrial paradise of lofty moun-
tains, clear, crystal rivers, rich alluvial plains, and
beaches fringed with coco-palms, only wants develop-
ment to be once more one of the most flourishing of
our Crown Colonies. Glasgow imae t-, or it made
Glasgow, a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago,
and there exists no reason, except the absolute neglect
of it by every Government, why Kingston should not
have a Glasgow Street, nearly as full of traffic as Is
Jamaica Street in the great city on the Clyde.
Even in Kingston, hideous and Board-of-Works
looking as it. s,-there-yet exist-fine, old colonial houses
that htve qaBE.- hbq rgat#s.of. earthqpsas and of
fites. ThrAighdut th b sial are dotthd:.here and
there great country mlnsions, some of them dating



M4


All the roads and the lanes of the island are full
of chattering negroes, merry and well-fed looking,
going apparently to nowhere, to do nothing in parti-
cular. No land in all the world is.better suited to
the race. The earth laughs crops. The climate does.
not require warm fires or winter clothing, and so-
they chatter on, having grasped the fact that in In-
creased production lies the future of finance.
in no part of the world do they appear more ab-
solutely at home. Their religion, always a chief pre-
occupation of their race, they take even more Jovially
than their ancestors could have done on the coast of
Africa. There at Ilast there was the chftf who made
them work for him occasionally; the Ju-Ju man who
terrified them with his gri-gria and his fetishes; the-
fear of spirits that.pervades the savage negro's life,
like a black nightmare; and the once present terror
of the witch doctor with his accusations of mysterious-
crimes, and almost certain death by poison or by tor-
ture to everyone accused.
In Jamaica these all are absent. In the various
sects in which the negro race is shammed, as Swift
so jovially expresses It, the congregation pays the-
minister, and thus takes away from him the keys of
hen. As the gates of heaven are uaid to be cast open
by the gift of Peter's pence, so are the gates of hell
fast closed by the withholding of the pence. No one-
was ever easier to convert to Christianity than the-
negro. Animistic to the core, a god or two was but a
welcome addition to the black Pantheon, In which
Aphrodite was the chief divinity. The churches,
Anglican and Roman, said but little to him; the-
chapels claimed him as their own. In them he felt he--
was at home; the fervent prayers-be likes to "sweat
'we'm "-'-adfdthelbeulewed bhnns *ere far more--
to his taste. No man more fervent in belief, no man
less actuated by mere works, than is our coloured
brother in the Lord.
It is hblspered darkly in the island, that the--
Voodoo cock sometimes is still slain at midnight, and
that mysterious rites are held In secret, remote froua
observation of the whites. Who shall say whether
this is true? They certainly exist, both in Haiti and
in Santo Domingo, and perhaps in other islands. The
phallic dance, the mento, the counterpart of the can-
domble of the negroes of Brazil, and the cumbiamba of.
Colombia, is danced quite openly, for negroes do not.
dance exclusively for exercise as people are alleged
to dance here in this frigid isle.
Still, all the hard work of the island is done by
.the negro race. They dug the Panama Canal and
made -most. otelWeallwys. of the Central Republics.
Wel treatiL they work well, and it should never be-
forgotten that nothing can be done throughout Ja-





F R ..


PUNCH


O F HEFURliltA MILFS
a-' '.r-t i" M1 iCe L OF Ar
-. JAALIA..


W-'iigUr a family of those early settlers in Ja-
maisa.at Port Morant. There is the low grey
stone louse with openings for windows in the
:. tiofeet-eix-lnches-thick walls, with folded
b~ shutters of unpolished wood, dark green mahoe
* *-ll::..E!t brown mahogany; no glass, for that was x-
:i ..*E.Ve and the windows rather small, for the house
:.i. 'fl-bi t for defence, and wherever danger of hand-to-
Cf..:11ighting is feared you will find small windows.
";: ';i was a door in the centre, and, at each corner,
|-":,iz storied tower, and both towers and main build-
:* h~i w. loop-holed for defence. The house was set
Si" .. i title plateau facing south where a gap in the
il: aJ a good view of the blue sea, but behind and
:... :l er llde the hills, heavily wooded hills for the
1 I.:::; IIii, mart, the mahogany and bullet wood growing
ht alad tall, stretched out long arms, barriers
'.i.~.ia l Offr the settler from such civilization as he
... :":;.' i .i'~Bad at St. James de la Vegi or Port Royal.
' ':.-:Z*,t1lstesen round the house was cleared, but there
Si 1 1. garden, no tender shrouding greenery, only
i e i'. hd there an outcrop of stones, the grey atones
i l ..:. p ,lnto a retaining wall where a hillside fell
.... too.w teeply. It must be clear round the house,
.i Wil r adetence so that no despoiling pirate, no fur-
!' t"fl.:wAengeful slave, might take advantage of any
i.:. e cover. Only just outside the house there was
:. ''.::i Ous heap. They had no noses in those days,
i here were half charred sticks and gnawed bones
S* .ideeonut. shells and plantain and banana skins
1- intt the sunshine. When it grew too big or
,.: u 4dr.us even for the seventeeth century, the slaves
Clear .It away and scatter it in the bush, or
i'*. It down a sink hole in the mountains. Mean-
~. iltit Viwa handy for the broken crockery-not that
ae. Fi much of.that-and the other waste pf the
*:: :tlul.d. And it it lay long enough an occasional
: at;'i' at pal0m or a banana or a yam head would sprout
Si n "i.: il.ettxour to clothe the filthy heap in decent
: ."' ta'tetOi Beyond, a little way from the main
i"; 'n.6e, wa. the stone wind-mill, the breeze-mill they
.:..'' Ilit", for grinding the sugar cane; there was a
.: m~'~ j hut or two for the white bond servants, and
S li*shaeks til further away hidden among bananas
6iltiattins and naseberries, for the negro slaves.
..-.i ai~tie. the house was divided into three or at
s."igi-i .fTeur rooms, was barely enough furnished, and
'' *g.jts: room was a mahogany bed, ann on the beds
!'.: all things in the tropics!) a great smothering
4.I..: diC r mattress with piled up pillows. The floors
i'f.:.al-ahogany polished like glass. These floor
:^ .b S ri ver ~Jiamica. There was a big square table in the
.. eI-^ ot4he-reosm, a table also of mahogany, and one
:' ,,: .ita'lsmarlle ones that coujd be placed against it
'i"ilteS eomnpany was more than usual. There was
::-*.^:6"l: tet" (we would call it a sideboard) and on it
H one e'or two pieces of silver the planter pos-
: ':iiiii The ordinary crockery they used was of the
"wit and commonest, and the dress of the family
'-' thtlA plainest.
;e i.. ; fteou fruld generally find the planter's wife
: l-hersughter, a slip of a girl of fifteen just bud-
V w. atiwtzsnhbood and ripe for marriage if there
i' any one to marry her. They wore coarse linen
*' ts pade all in one piece, something like
"t t only girt in at the waist into the semblance
i* '-it'res:; very likely their feet were bare for the
Wti r was hot, and as they sat at their spinning
they felt it hotter than it really was, hotter
:I -.than the great square of sunshine that fell on
2 q e oor through the open door proclaimed it.
"` M .gruidged that sunshine on her floor, but
w it lIdbase do? Of air she hardly realised the
..,tl1ght she must have it they would
.i'ltked to look out and make sure for
,tjh^tew re was no sail in the sea that would
''?to hid-e.ber silver in the forest behind,
: 6iar ,t and her daughter, too, belike. And the
Igi`b from her spinning-hardly knew
id.. ishared her mother's fears of the buc-
o*r nbt. They had an eye (so said Grace at
t oV the other side of the mountains) for a
girl, and the scrap of mirror in her mother's
Idth irshe was a pretty girl, that her eyes were
att. rP blair gold, and the dimpled shoulders
siiie ofi t t her shift were softly rounded. In-
l Ofroiaus. the chief of the white bond servants,
U iat er sometimes, and Aloyslus was young and.
c .ha not.been for a great scar right down his
oiiFild have been good looking. But that scar
a4; the corner of hi. mouth and gave him a sinis-
S"ad she had seen the back of his torn shirt
.:. | aana knew that her father and brother had
i.'wlIth.a green hide for some misdeamour. real
S je. Sometimes the little ignorant girl, the
S0*th". e pioneer, pitied the bondservant, but
el .age and there mingled with her pity
Sdl-ontempt for the white man who could
be manhandled; she felt herself in sym-
tf8 the buccaneers who feared no man and
I.4 t was .a word and blow. She could not
s.I e could n6t write, neither could her
:ih could spin and she could sew and
.wot ni&el el. the house, and if needs
leuadt a musket and use it as wel as
4.

C.'.."?......
.....1IiS'.:,: ~5...
..


By MARY GAUNT,
Aneor of "ALONE IN WEST AFRICA."
"A & BROKEN JOURNEY," etc.. etc

an7 man. And she looked out of the window across
the little plateau, across the brilliant green of the
sugar cane to the calm blue sea, and wished the wind
would blow if only because the stir in the tree tops
seemed to bring some movement Into a dull life.
There were gaps in the planter's family and there
were mounds in the stone-walled enclosure beyond
the cane patch by the forest's edge, and the mother
sighed as she thought of the babies she had laid there,
killed, she thought, by the pestilential climate.
The planter wore a check shirt and white linen
drawers with a sheathed knife at his belt. His hair
was straight and clipped across the forehead at the
back of his neck, and he leaned against the door post


MRS. MARY GAUNT


in the shade puffing at a pipe, and dilated to his lie-
lening wife and daughter on the dilatoriness of the
son he had sent to Port Royal to bring back either
slaves or bondservants. Until the twentieth century,
indeed until the Great War brought freedom to wo-
men, wives and daughters always listened apparently
meekly to what the house father had to say. If he
were not God Almighty they generally in his presence
acted as if they thought he were. He too looked at
the sea and gave thanks inwardly that there was no
sail in sight, but openly he grumbled because James
and Aloyslus had not come back yet and because the
other servants were getting on so slowly with the
cane holing.
"They crawl," he said, "they want to spin it out
till their time's out, but I warrant I'll-"
The mother noted a flicker on the girl's face and
held up her hand. The girl, she sometimes thought,
took an undue interest in the bondservants. At her
age she herself was betrothed, but here the only young
man within reach, young George Shappe at Comfort,
it was well known, had eyes for no one but Lucinda,
his mother's bond-maid. She would have no white
bond-maid about her house. These young men gave
her food enough for thought.
"Hist!" she said, "hist! is not that a horse, sir?"
"James never rode so lowly," snorted the father.
"Port Royal is a long way and he may have learnt
wisdom. You yourself were not always wise, sir,"
which flattered him, for be saw that she had thought
him a gay blade and now she thought he was wise.
And indeed was he not? He looked at the field that
he had planted in the wilderness and felt that she was
right. He was wise. James would learn from his
good example.
There was a sound of arrival in the air, and the
women left their spinning and came out on to the
plateau, hastily putting on shady linen bonnets, and
then out of the forest along the beaten track that led
up the hill towards these hdse came a lad clad like his
father in shirt and .drawers, on his head a big hat
made of banana trash. But he was not riding his


.horse, he was leading him. his reins across his arm,
while his other hand was on the shoulder of a tall up-
right girl dressed in a long coarse linen shift with a
green banana leaf upon her head to shade her from
the sun. Behind these two trailed a little company,
the only two whites, Aloysius and the other bond-
servant,- who had gone to help James, bringing up
the rear. The others wwre black, ten men In all with
the dust of travel on their bare feet, and on their loins
cloths which were the only clothes they wore.
Shackled together they were, two and two, the right
hand of one handcuffed to the left of the other. Their
faces were sullen, but the planter only looked at their
fine strong upright figures and approved his son's
bargain. But he did not say so.
"Only ten?" he said, but the lad knew by the tone
that he had done right.
"20 a piece," he said, "all young and strong and
healthy, and the seasoning will worry them not at
all; and this wench," be thrust the girl forward,
"given in as make weight if I took the lot. I reckoned
she would make a handmaid for madam."
And the planter looked at the girl and there came
a little smile at the corners of his mouth that the
stubble on his chin could not hide. For the girl was
beautiful. She stood with her hands clasped toosejy
before her and her round arms were bare nearly to
the shoulders. Her face was a golden brown, soft and
rich, with red lips and milk white teeth. Her eyes
were dark and her long wavy black hair was wound
round her head. The fair haired, blue eyed girl look-
ing at her felt her own prettiness a pale and poor
thing beside the stranger's, and the voluptuous
healthy older woman was angry, as is many a mother
before the woman she sees her son admires.
"I want no wenches. I've trouble enough with
the pair of idle black sluts I've on hand now."
"Send them to the field," coaxed her son. "This
wench"-
But the mother gave him a push.
'~ou and your wenches!"
His father pinched bis arm. "Let be. let be. She
hath a long reach and is a well grown lass. And
where got ye these stout villains?"
"The Gloria" from Annamaboe was in Port Royal
and I had the pick because the planters from St.
George got over-full at the tavern the night before,"
said the lad sullenly, for he did not want the girl to
go to the field.
"Koromantyns." said the planter doubtfully, and
he looked at the new purchases a little more critclal-
ly, for the Koromantyns were beginning to have a bad
reputation even then. They might call them Koro-
mantyne, for they knew little about the West Coast.
these slave buyers in Jamaica, but these men were-
fierce Ashanti warriors, and the captain of the "Gloria"
had been glad enough to palm them off on the young
man who had less knowledge even than his father.
The planter looked again. The Middle Passage had
not crushed them. One and all their hair sloped back
from their foreheads and one had a jawbone slung
round his neck, the Jawbone of a man, though the-
planter did not recognize it; another had a half heal-
ed wound in his shoulder, and another a long cut
along his arm. He was not quite so sure that the lad'
had done well. But they were sturdy slaves, anyway,.
strong and young and-and he called to them to sit
down in the shade, where they should have the-
shackles off. But the row of sullen savages looked at
him resentfully, and the girl standing beside his son
spoke to them in their own jargon.
"She understands." said the planter.
"Oh, she understands," said the boy watching the
row of black men seat themselves with long drawn
sighs, for they were weary. He did not feel called
upon to say that he had let the girl ride much of the-
time, but his father had been young. "She is the
daughter of the surgeon at the Fort," the boy went
on, "and her father took much pride in her. Mark
you, be had made a third voyage to the Coast on ac-
count of her. She thought be would manumize her,
but he died and the factor liked her not, or maybe be
liked her too well, and he shipped her on board the
"Gloria."
"Well, well," the planter walked along Inspecting
his new purchase and shouting to Peter the blacksmith
to come along and take off the shackles. "Well, well,
lad. To the field the wench will have to go. See you
keep her out of madam's way."
Anu then there came Peter the blacksmith. He
was an anaemic looking white man with long greying
hair and sad sunken eyes. Peter had fifteen years to
serve, he had come from Bristol a young man con-
demned for assault and battery, but he would never
serve his term. Death was in his hollow eyes and
shaking hands, and he could assault no one now-s-
days. The planter looked upon him as so much
money lost and he turned his eyes away, for in his
own way he was a kindly man. But he had given
good money for this man and money was hard to come
by. He must get some work out of him.
I wonder how they dared liberate the fierce
Ashantis. but liberate them they must for they could
not keep slaves just to look at. The shackles were
unlocked and the men stretched up their arms with re-
(Continued on Poge o1).


PLA NTE R S'




mmmmmmmmm


PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-23


IVAN GREET'S MASTERPIECE


BY
GRANT ALLEN.,


Grant Allen, the well-known novelist, was born in
1848, and died in 1899, about twenty-three years ago.
While a young man he was for over a year (187S-3-).
Jhe head of the College established in Spanish Town
under the administration of Sir John Peter Grant for
.the higher education of Jamaica youths. The College
was not a success; Allen returned to England and
shortly afterwards took to writing as a means of
livelihood. His Jamaica experiences were embodied
in a long novel entitled "In All Shades." published in
1886, and in two or three short stories. "Ivan Greet's
Masterpiece" is one of the latter; it has never yet been
published in Jamaica. It makes its first appearance
in this island in the pages of "Planters' Punch."


CHAPTER I.
'r'WAS at supper at Charlie Powell's; every one
I there admitted Charlie was in splendid form.
His audacity broke the record. He romanced away
with even more than his usual brilliant recklessness.
Truth and fiction blended well in his animated ac-
count of his day's adventures. He had lunched that
morning with the newly appointed editor of a high-
class journal for the home circle-circulation exceed-
ing half a million-and had returned all agog with the
glorious prospect of untold wealth opening fresh be-
'fore him. So he discounted his success by inviting a
dozen friends to champagne and lobster-salad at his
rooms in St. James's, and held forth to them, after
his wont, in a rambling monologue.
"When I got to the house," he said airily, poising
a champagne-glass halfway up In his hand, "with the
modest expectation of a chop and a pint of porter In
the domestic ring-imigine my surprise at finding
myself forthwith Etanding before the gates of an
Oriental palace-small, undeniably small, a bijou in
its. way, but still, without doubt, a veritable palace.
I touched the electric bell. Hi. presto! at my touch
the door flew open as if by magic, and disclosed-a
-Circassian slave, in a becoming costume a la Liberty
in Regent Street, and smiling like the advertisement
of a patent dentifrice! I gasped out-"'
"But bow did ye know she was a Circassian?"
Paddy O'Connor inquired, interrupting him brusquely.
(His name was really Francis Xavier O'Connor, but
they called him "Paddy" for short, just to mark his
Celtic origin. I
Charlie Powell smiled a contemptuously con-
descending smile. He was then on the boom, as chief
literary lion. "How do I know ye're an Olrishman,
Paddy?" he answered, hardly heeding the interrup-
tion. "By her accent! my dear boy; her pure un-
adulterated Circassian accent! Is Mr. Morrison at
home?" I gasped out to the Vision of Beauty. The
Vision of Beauty smiled and nodded-her English
being chiefly confined to smiles, with a Circassian
flavour; and led me on by degrees into the great man's
presence. I mounted a stair, with a stained-glass
window all yellows and browns, very fine and Burne-
Jonesey; I passed through a drawing-room in the
Stamboul style-couches, rugs, and draperies; and
after various corridors-Byzantine, Persian, Moorish
-I reached at last a sort of arcaded alcove at the
farther end, where two men lay reclining on an
Eastern divan-one a fez on his head pulling hard at
a chibouque; the other, bare-headed, bubbling smoke
through a hookab. The bare-headed one rose; "Mr.
Powell," says he, waving his hand to present me, 'My
friend, Macpherson Pasha!' I bowed, and looked un-
concerned. I wanted them to think I'd lived all my
life hob-nobbing with Pashas. Well, we talked for a
while about the weather, and the crops, and -the
murder at Mile End, and the state of Islam; when.
presently, of a sudden, Morrison claps his hands-so-
and another Circassian slave, still more beautiful,
enters.
"Lunch, Houri," says Morrlson.
"The effendi is served" says the Circassian.
"And down we went to the Dining-room. Bombay
blackwood, every inch of it, inlaid with Ivory. Vene-
tian glass on the table; solid silver on the side board.
Only us three, if you please, to lunch; but everything
as spick and span as if the Prince was of the company.
The three Circassian slaves, in Liberty caps, stood be-
bind our chairs-one goddess apiece-ana looked after
us royally. Chops and porter, indeed! It was a
banquet for a poet; Ivan Greet should have been
there; he'd have mugged up an ode about it. Clear
turtle and Chablis-the very best brand; then smelts
and sweetbreads; next lamb and mint sauce: ortolans
-on toast; ece-pudding; fresh strawberries. A guinea
-each, strawberries, I give you my vord, just naw at
*Covent Garden. Oh, mamma! what a lunch, boys!
'The Hebes poured champagne from a golden flagon;
S that is to say, at any rate"-for Paddy's eye was upon
-tim-"the neck of the bottle was wrapped in gilt tin-
foil. And all the time Morrison talked-great guns,
how he talked! I never heard anything in my life to
equal it. The man's been everywhere, from Peru to
Siberia. The man's been everything, from a cowboy
to a communard. My hair stood on end with half the
Things he said to me; ant I haven't got hair so easily
raised as some people's. Was I prepared to sell my
soul for Saxon gold at the magnificent rate of five
guineas a column? Was I prepared to jump out of


my skin! I choked with delight. Hadn't I sold It
all along to the enemies of Wales for a miserable pit-
tance of thirty shillings? What did he want me to
do? Why, contribute "third loaders-you know the
klin, of thing-tootles on the penny-trumpet about
Irrelevant items of non-political news-the wit and
humour of the fair, best domestic style, informed
throughout with wide general culture. An allusion
to Aristophanes:.a passing hint at Rabelais; what
Lucian would have said to his friends on this theme;


GRANT ALLEN, NOVELIST AND PHILOSOPHER

how the row at the School Board would have affected ga
Sam Johnson. 1.1
"But you must remember, Mr. Powell," says M.r- so
prison, with an unctuous smile "the greater part of oar hi
readers are-well, not to put it too fine-Countly rij
squires and conservative Dissenters. Your articles '"
mustn't hurt their feelings or prejudices. Go warily, w4
warily! You must stick to the general policy of Ihe pu
paper, anu be tenderly respectful to John Wesley's H:
memory." ou
"Sir,' said I. smacking his hand, 'for five guineas or
a column I'd be tenderly respectful to King Ahab Tb
himself, if you cared to insist upon It. You may count tie
of my writing whatever rubbish you desire for the Be
nursery mind." And I passed from his dining-room we
into the enchanted alcove. Fo
"But before I left, my dear Ivan, I'd heard such wi
things as I never heard before, and been promised I'l
such pay as seemed to me this morning beyond the ha
dreams of avarice. And oh. what a character! Fi
"'When I was a slave at Khajrtoum, the man said; or
"Wheu I was a schoolmaster in Texas: when I lived lot
as a student up five floors at Heidelberg; or when I yo
ran away with Felix Pyat from the Versaillais; till I of
began to think 'twas the Wandering Jew himself come til
to life again in Knightsbridge. At last, after coffee th
and cigarettes on a Cairo tray-with reminiscences ha
of Paraguay-I emerged on the street, and saw erect his
before my eyes a great round Colosseum. I seemed by
somehow to recognize it. This is not Bagdad, then, pr
I said to myself, rubbing my eyes very hard-for I an
thought I must have been wafted some centuries off, in
on an enchanted carpet. Then I looked once more. up
Yes, sure enough it was the Albert Hall. And there ev
was the Memorial with its golden image. I rubbed Gc
my eyes a second time. and hailed a hansomn-for mi
there were hansoms about, and policemen, and babies. th
'Thank Heaven!' I cried aloud 'after all, this is Lon- mi
don.' an
be
CHAPTER II. -th
ape
** T'S a most re-gretable Incident!" Ivan Greet said I t
I solemnly. mu
The rest turned and looked. Ivan Greet was their th
poet. He was tall and thin, with strange, wistful pe
eyes, somewhat furtive in tone, and a keen, sharp wi
face, and lank, long hair that fell loose on his fre
shoulders. It was a point with this hair to be always of
annormally damp and moist, with a sort of unnatural
and impalpable moisture. The little coterie of
authors and artists to which Ivan belonged regarded
him indeed with no small respect, as a great man .
manque. Nature, they knew, had designed him for an L
Immortal bard; circumstances had turned him into am pa
occasional journalist. But to them, he represented pre


rt for Art's sake. So when Ivan said solemnly,
t's a most regrettable incident," every eye in the
om turned and stared at him In concert.
"Why so, me dear fellow?" Paddy O'Connor asked,
pen-eyed. "I call It magnificent!"
But Ivan Greet answered warmly, "Because it'll
ke him still further away than ever from his work
life, which you and I know is science and philo-
phy."
"And yer own grand epic?" Paddy suggested, with
a smart smile, pouncing down like a hawk
upon him.
Ivan Great coloured positively
coloured-"blushed visibly to the naked
eye," as Paddy observed afterwards, in re-
counting the incident to his familiar
friend at the United Bohemians. But he
stood his ground like a man and a poet
Lur all th't. "-My own epic isn't written
yet-probably never will be written," he
answered, arter a pause, with quiet firm-
ness. "I give up to the Daily Telephone
what was meant for mankind: I Acknow-
ledge it freely. Still, I'm sorry when I
see any other gocd mn-and most of all
Charlie Powell-compelled to lose his own
soul the same way I myself have done."
He paused and looked round. "Boys," he
said, addressing the table, in these days,
if any man has anything out of the com-
mon to say, he must be rich and his own
master, or he won't be allowed to say it.
If he's poor, he has first to earn his living;
and to earn his living he's compelled to
do work he doesn't want to do; work that
stifles the things which burn and struggle
for utterance within him. The editor Is
the man who rules the situation; and
what the editor asks Is good paying mat-
ter. Good paying matter Charlie can give
him, of course: Charlie can give him,
thank Heaven, whatever he asks for.
But this hack-work will draw him fur-
tier and further afield from the work in
life for which God made him-the philo-
Eophical reconstitution of the world and
the universe for the twentieth century.
And that's why I say-and I say it again
-a most regrettable incident!
Charlie Powell set down his glass of
champagne untasted. Ivan Greet was re-
,rded by his narrow little circle of journalistic asso-
ites as something of a prophet; and his words,
lemnly uttered, sobered Charlie for a while, recalled
m with a bound to his better personality. "Ivan's
ght he said slowly, nodding his head once or twice.
le's right, as usual. We're all of us wasting on
weekly middles the talent'God gave us for a higher
irpoee. We know it, every man Jack of us. But
even help us, I say, Ivan; for how can we help
rselves? We live by bread. We must eat bread first,
how can we write epics of philosophies afterwards?
his age demands of us the sacrifice of our individuali-
is. It will be better some day, perhaps, when
ellamy and William Morris have remodelled the
world: life will be simpler, and bare living easier.
or the present I resign myself to inevitable fate. I'll
-ite middles for Morrison, and eat and drink; and
1 wait for my philosophy till F'm rich and bald, and
ve leisure to write it in my own hired house in
tzjohn's Avenue."
Ivan Greet gazed across at him with a serious
ok in those furtive eyes. "That's all very well for
u." he cried half angrily, in a sudden flaring forth
long-suppressed emotion. "Philosophy can wait
1 a man's rich and bald; it gains by waiting; it's
e better for maturity. But poetry!-ah, there, I
te to talk about it! Who can begin to set about
s divine work when he's turned sixty and worn out
forty years of uncongenial leaders? The thing's
eposterous. A poet must write when he's young
d passionate, or not at all. He may go on writing
age, of course, as his blood grows cool, if he's kept
Sthe habit like Wordsworth and Tennyson: he may
en let it lie by or rust for a time, like Milton or
>ethe. and resume It later, if he throws himself
meanwhile, heart and soul, into some other occupation
at carries him away with it resistlessly for the
moment; but spend half his life in degrading his style
d debasing his genius by working for hire at the
ck and call of an editor-lose his birthright like
at, and then turn at last with the bald head you
eak about to pour forth at sixty his frigid lyrics-
tell you, Charlie, the thing's impossible! The poet
ist work, the poet must acquire his habits of
ought and style and expression in the volcanic
riod; if he waits till he's crusted over and encysted
th age, be may hammer out rhetoric, he may spring
esh rhymes, but he'll never, never give us one line
poetry."

CHAPTER Ill.
E spoke with fiery zeal. It was seldom Ivan
Greet had an outbreak like this. For the most
rt he acquiesced, like all the rest of us in the an-
eme dictatorship of Supply and Demand-those


_~_~__~~__


S RIMMNNr






as PLANTERS' PUNCH I]


sef:o of the modern book-market. But now in his native islands. What a contrast between those
iai:rebdllons fits came over him, and he sloppy pavements, thick with yellow mud, and the
istthe pricks with all the angry in- sun-smitten hillsides, clad in changeless green,
ejr:a born poet. For the rest of that night where the happy nigger Lay basking and sprawling
iie and silent. Black bile consumed him. all day long on his back in the midst of his plantain
r' rose and sang with his usual verve patches, while the bountiful sun did the hard work
'ie .Irish comic song from the music-halls; of life for him uy ripening his coconuts and mellow-
Mi wbray, from Jamaica, told good stories in ing his bananas, unasked, and untended.
di-f lect with his wonted exuberance; Charlie Ivan Greet drank it in. As Fred spoke, an idea
bobabbled over with spirits and epigrams. But rose up vague and formless in the poet's soul. There
sat a little apart, with scarcely a smile on were countries, then, where earth was still kindly.
face; he sat and ruminated. He was and human wanis.ztill few; whee. Nature, as in the
Sthe poetic temperament is a tempera- Georgics, supplied even now the primary needs of
f mooIds and each mood, once roused, takes mln's lite unbidden! Surely, in such a land as that a
r wthe time of a man's nature. So Ivan poet yet might live; tilling hts.own small plot and
fahtry, with a remorseful anger; he was eating the fruits of his own slight toil, he might find
lhie own life, ashamed of floling short leisure to mould without let or hindrance the thought
cihrished ideals. Yet bow could he help that was in him into exquisite melody. The bare
SMal, as be truly said, must live by ure3d, I ney fired him. A year or two spent in those de-
ot by brea4 alone, a sufficiency of fon d IL still vicious climates might enable a man to turn out what
it.. on-precedent artistic reaction. iYou c't was truest and best in him. He might drink of the
your livelihood nowadays by stringing together spring and be fed from the plantain patch, like those
string you never so deftly; and Ivan had no- wiEer negroes. but he would carry with him still all
St es pen to ears it with. He had prostituted the Inhbrited wealth of European culture, and speak
to write harmlness tle essays r on social reub- like a Greek god under the tropic shade of Jamaican
monthly magazines; his better nature cotton trees.
S ltiith horror to-night from the thought of tha cotton trees.
..tat wicked profanation. To the average ratepayer such a scheme would
lj itras i. noisy party. They broke up late. Fred appear the veriest midsummer madness. But Ivan
^L* ra. walked home along Piccadilly with. Ivan. Greet was a poet. Now, a poet is a man who acts on
ij;.oeii of those dull, wet nights in the streets of Impulse. And to Ivan the impulse itself was absolute-
I on when everything glistens with a dreary re- ly sacred. He paused on the slippery pavement, and
from the pallid gas-lamps. Pah! what face his companion suddenly. "How much land does
r! To Fred, West Indian born, It was utterly it take there for a man to live upon? he ask, with
.He talked as they went along of the warmth, hurried energy.
.i'insmhlnhe, the breadth of space, the ease of living, Fred Mowbray reflected. "Well, two acres at
u -


A .AICA AS SEEN BY MR. CUNINGHAME GRAHAM

:, '. (Continued from Page 8).
' s.4Oj zWty match boxes. Nature does all she ran, Somehow one feels that they still haunt the plaza,
b'iWbwlrlig the meanest "shack" in masses of bright- where they walked a thousand times in days forgotten
. pf e d r creepers, and shading miserable wooden liv- and long past. Surely their images are photograph-
I trunder majestic trees that sprung up, as If ed upon the stones and benches, for nature, prodigal
!selic, in a year or two. of life, of vegetation, and of all she makes and casts
:l":*:Man, black and white alike, does little towards away without a thought, must preserve shadows, for
"ilfllshment, though here and there fine villas are after all they are the most enduring part of man.
A een outside the towns, or old colonial houses Spain, or its shadow, still lives in the p-asa; but all
Country districts, surrounded by gre-t trees. around is Georgsian'England, homely and picturesque,
jrgro village is an eyesore, a waste of ragged looking as if a country tow n nSussex had been trans-
ins, with but the coloured petticoats of the wo- planted and had taken root, flourished, and died, and
natagifng out to dry to give relief to it. One town remained petrified.
i$fthe island stands out alone to show what towns The parish church, with due, squat spire on which
: ,iSDibe in such surroundings. Right in the middle St. Peter's cock swings about languidly as if It felt
: iklaln from which it takes Its name stands the heat, brick-built and savouring of the days when
i.iaugo de Ia Vega. Its ancient name Is that I churches were a sort of cross between a barrack and
Ithlnk of when I recall the place to memory, a windmill, fills one angle of the square. A slate-
Sto-day it masquerades as Spanish Town. flagged path leads up to it, and when you enter into
lght, white, dusty road, that breaks off to the the sacred precincts, the familiar, mouldy smell, pre-
M IConstant Spring leads out to it. Along it served, no doubt, just as miraculously as the orders of
Groups of. negroes, all chattering, all merry- the bishops who rule over it, assaults your nostrils,
W% sand looking as if the primeval curse sat lightly bringing back any parish church in Sussex or in Kent.
a Others drive scraggy mules in carts, un- Worthies in full-bottomed wigs, all wrought in
i ~4and uncleaned. After each cart a yellow dog marble or in alabaster, lie under mighty Georgian
'S tW lods on amongst the dust. You pass Tom catafalques, awaiting the last trump that chubby
C~irtngle'p tr-e a bongo or a ceiba, if I remember right- angels perched on the cornices like swallows perched
i-4jn in the distance the town comes into sight. a rail, to blare
uf pon a ral, seem eager to blare out. Their virtues
crub your eyes, not only to get the dust out of and their services to the Island are couched in Latin,
hut because you are amazed. You scarcely note rather bovine than canine; yet they sleep on, as un-
rhtt1veps of negresses that pass you, statues in disturbed by sermons or by hymns as they would
Swth their Inimitable walk, Ivory teeth, bright- sleep in a dark corner next to the yew-tree under the
clothes, their handkerchiefs about their lush grass of a churchyard in the old country, with
and air of Africa, for t appears a cinemato- an intruding nonconformist pony grazing above their
has been at work, and you are looking at a heads. The groups of Georgian buildings and Rod-
either in Mexico or Spain. ney's monument under its cupola give an air of Ken-
o no modern horror of cement-built phalan- sington or Kew, gone astray in the tropics. They do
as in Kingston, no negro squalor as at Port not make too jarring a discord with the old Spanish
%or Annotto Bay. You pass at once into a plaza and its tall rustling trees.
ilSpanlsh plaza, surrounded by great trees. l
brked paths lead to the saramentagarden All seems to blend together into an harmonious
e middle, with its stone benches, flowers and whole. Even the negroes seem to walk more warily
S middle, withits stone benches, flowers and
tains, moss-stained and secular. Great clumps ot in the decaying streets, and the mulatta girls put on
~ .pson bougainvilleas ill the angles of the plaza and a foreign air as they go ch-ttering about the lanes.
a bl-right creeper known in Colombia as "la bellisi- Possibly reformers have marked down Spanish Town,
S.c-lmbs on the mouldering iron railings which as the cockney "big-game" shooter, with his "shooting
the square. The sound of urmuring license," marks down a giraffe for destruction In
Sta'Ba,,aalways in the ear, as the bricked rills a
r to the fountain, where swim goldfish, not In the meantime it slumbers peacefully, a relic of
od and unhealthy looking as they are in colder the days when planters, sitting down to dinner at
a but really golden and deserving of the name. three o'clock, sat on till midnight, eating pork chops
i One looks around, expecting that a Spanish girl and good corned beef. washed down with port and
lsOk manila will cross the square upon her way rum. Long may it slumber, and soon may the other
,followed by an attendant negro woman. She towns wake up; for they need progress and the
ot plast Nor does a ragged gentleman ask alms vivifying breath of trade: but Santiago de la Vega.
Sthe-air of doing you a favour, nor on the benches with Toledo, Granada, Fez. and other relics of the
.there sit a group of politicians, railing at the past. should be preserved intact for us to wander in
I atent and anxious to avail themselves of any and meditate, when our heads ache with the rude
Vpost that It may throw to them. No Spanish shouting of the votaries of ten per cent bowing before
s..er. smart, clean, and olive coloured, In his suit the god.
tW drill, saunters across the plaza (for it is A delightful island with its high mountains and
Si plaza, not a square), rolling a cigarette. No its fertile vales, its tropic forests, and its memories
reading his breviary strolls beneath the trees, of the past: its Spanish names preserved distorted in
with his bare feet and well-lined belly hurries their Anglo-Saxon aspect, Wag-water for "Agua Alta"
~ht i eonvent, not to miss Mass or meat. and "Boca de Agua" turned into Bog Walk. An
tdbf! these types are to be seen; not the lithe island of great capabilities, a sort of Hamlet of the
a saying upon his hips just as a Spanish West Indies, lacking advancements, poor in the midst
I airays and undulates, nor yet the stout and of natural riches, ready to fall into the hands of the
ed women with their unstable busts all United States, unless we, like the Devil, "tak' a
aif stays. thocht,' and mend our ways.


meot, I should say, down in plantain and yam," he
answered,.' would support a family."
"And you can buy it? Ivan went on, with surpris-
ing eagerness. "I mean, there's lots to be had-ft's
always in the market?"
"Lots to be had? Why, yes! No difculty there!
Half Jamaica's for sale, on. the mountains especially.
The island's under-peopled; our pop's half a million;
It'd hold quite three. Land goes for a mere song;
you can buy where you will quite easily.
Ivan Greet's lip trembled with intense excitement.
A vision of freedom floated dimly before him. Palms.
tree ferns, bamboos, waving clumps of tropic foliage;
a hillside hut; dusky faces, red handkerchiefs; and
leisure, leisure, leisure to do the work he liked in!
Oh, soul, what a dream! Yon shall say what you will
there! To Ivan that was religion-all the religion
he had perhaps; for he was, above all things, an
artistic nature.
How much would it cost, do you think? he In-
quired, all tremulous.
And Fred answered airily, "Well, I fancy not
more than a pound or two an acre."
A pound or two an acre! Just a column in the
Globe. The gates of Paradise stood open before him!
They walked on a hundred yards or so again In
silence. Ivan Greet was turning over in his seething
soul a strong scheme to free himself from Egyptian
bondage. At last he asked once more. "How much
would it cost me to go out by the steerage. if there
is such a thing on the steamers to Jamaica?
Fred Mowbray paused a moment. "Well, I should
think," he said at last, pursing his lips to look wise,
"you ought to do it for about a tenner."
Ivan's mind was made up. Those words decided
him. While his mother lived he had felt bound to
support her; and the necessity for doing so had "kept
him straight." his friend said-or. as he himself
would have phrased it, had tied him firmly down to
unwilling servitude. But now he had nobody on
earth save himself to consult, for Ethel had married
well, and Stephen, dull lad, was comfortably ensconced
in a city office. He went home all on fire with his
new idea. That night he hardly slept; co:onuts
waved their long leaves in the breeze before him;
dusky hands beckoned him with strange signs and
enticements to come over to a land of sunlight and
freedom. But he was practical too; he worked it all
out In his head arithmetically. So much coming in
from this or that magazine: so much cash in hand;
so much per contra for petty debts at home; so much
for outfit, passage money, purchase. With two acres
of his own he could live like a lord on his yams and
plantains. What sort of food-stuff, indeed, your yam
might be he hadn't, to say the truth, the very faintest
conception. But who cares for such detail? It was
freedom he wanted, not the flesh-pots of Egypt. And
freedom he would have to work out his own nature.

CHAPTER I'.
r HERE was commotion on the hillside at St.
Thomas-in-the-Vale one brilliant blazing noon-
tide a few weeks later. Clemmy burst upon the group
that sat lounging on the ground outside the hut-door
with most unwonted tidings. "You hear dem sell dat
piece o' land nex' bit to Tammas?" she cried, all agog
with excitement; "you hear dem sell it?"
Old Rachel looked up, yawning. "What de gal
a-talking about?" she answered testily, for old Rachael
was toothless. "Folk all know dat-him hear tell
long ago. Sell dem two acre las' week, Peter say, to
stranger down a Kingston.
Yea, an' de strangerr come up," Clemmy burst out,
hardly able to contain herself at so astounding an
incident, "an' what you tink him is?" Him don't
nagur at all! Him reel buckra gentleman!"
A shrill whistle of surprise and subdued unbe-
lief ran sharply round the little cluster of squatting
negroes. "Him buckra?" Peter Foddergill repeated
to himself, half Incredulous. Peter was Clemmy's
stepfather; for Clemmy was a brown girl, and old
Rachel, her mother, was a full-blooded negress. Her
paternity was lost in the dim past of the island.
S "Yes, him buckra," Clemmy repeated In a very
firm voice. "Him reel white buckra. Him come up
to take de land, an' gwine to lib dere."
"It don't can true!" old Rachel cried, rousing
herself. "It don't can possible. Buckra gentleman
don't can come an lib on two-acre plot alongside o'
black nagur. Him gwine to gib it to some nagur
leeady. White buckra don't can lib alone in St.
Thomas."
But Clemmy was positive. "No, no," she cried,
unmoved, shaking her comely brown head, with its
crimson bannana-for she was a pretty girl of her
sort was Clemmy. "Him gwine to lib dere. Him tell
me so himself. Him gwine to build hut on it, an'
plant it down in plantain. Him berry pretty gentle-
man, wit' long hair on him shoulder; him hab eyes
quiek and sharp same like mongoose; and when him
smile, him look kinder an' anything. But him say him
come out from England for good becos him lub better
to lib in Jamaica; an' him gwine to build him hut
here. and lib same like nagur/'
In a moment the little cluster of negro hovels was
all a-buzz with conjecture, and hubbub, and wonder-
ment. Only the small black babies were left sprawl-
ing in the dust, with the small black pigs, beside their
mothers' doors, so that you could hardly tell at a
glance which was which, as they basked there; all
the rest of the population, men, women, and children.







PLANTERS' PUNCH


i'n ., made a general stampede
..itsr 'the. plot next to Tammas's. A
N'-a-.,* .P MO the.. hillside in their midst! A
*4P to*4t0 a little but like their own! A
:!: ra guola to cultivate a two-acre plot with yam
.:i" :pllanital They were aghast with surprise. It
was wemdertul, wonderful! For Jamaica negroes don't
&itp abreast of the movement, and they didn't know
the.wpys of our latter-day prophets.
As for Ivan Greet himself, he was fairly aur-
pipl in turn, as :he stood there In his shirt-sleeves
nas .yjag his estate, at this sudden eruption of good-
hu troed barbarians. How they grinned and chat-
ted! What teeth! Whrt animation! He had
5ight his two acres with the eye of faith at King-
ston from their lawful proprietor, knowing nothing
but their place on the plan set before him. That
3Rwatng$ h ad come over by train to Spanish Town,
and tr nped-through the wondrous defile of the Bog
Walk to tinsteas, and asked his way thence by de-
vions bridle-paths to his own new property on the
hillaide at St. Thomas. Conveyancing in Jamaica is
but an artless art; having acquired his plot by cash
payment on the nail, Ivan was left to his own devices
to identify and demarcate it. But Tammas's acre
was marked on the map in conspicuous blue, and de-
fneo in real life by a most warlike boundary fence
of prickly aloes; while a dozen friendly negroes, all
amazement at the sight, were ready to assist him at
once in finding and measuring off the adjacent piece
duly outlined In red on the duplicate plan he had got
with his title-deed.
It was a very nice plot, with a very fine view,
in a very sweet site, on a very green hillside. But
Ivan Greet though young and strong with the wiry
strength of the tall thin Cornishman, w'as weary and
hot after a long morning's tramp under a tropical sun,
and somewhat taken aback (as well as he might be,
indeed) at the strangeness and squalor of his new
surroundings. He had pulled off his coat and laid
it down upon the ground; and now he sat on it in his
shirt-sleeves for airiness and coolness. His heart
sank for a moment as he gazed in dismay at the thick
and spiky jungle of tropical scrnb he would have to
stub up before he could begin to plant his first yam or
banana. That was a point, to say the truth, which
had hardly entered into his calculations beforehand
in England. He had figured to himself the pineapples
and plantains as a going concern; the coconuts drop-
ping down their ready-made crops; the breadfruits
eternally ripe at all times and seasons. It was a
shock to him to find mother-earth so encumbered with
an alien growth; he must tickle her with a hoe ere
she smiled with a harvest. Tickle her with a hoe
indeed! It was a cutlass he would need to hack down
that matted mass of bristling underbrush.
And how was he to live meanwhile? That was
now the question. His money was all spent save a
couple of pounds, for his estimates had erred, as is
the way of estimates, rather on the side of deficiency
than of excess; and he was now left half-stranded.
But his doubts on this subject were quickly dispelled
by the unexpected good-nature of his negro neigh-
bours. As soon as those simple folk began to realize,
by dint of question and answer, that the buckra meant
actually to settle down in their midst, ana live his
life as they did, their kindliness and their offers of
help knew no stint of moderation. The novelty of the
idea took them by storm. They chuckled and
guffawed at it. A buckra from England-a gentle-
man in dress and accent and manner (for negroes
know what's what, and can judge these things as
well as you or I can) come of his own free-will to
build a hut like their own, and live on the tilth of
two acres of plantain! It was splendid! it was won-
derful! They entered into the spirit of the thing
with true negro zest. "Hey, massy, dat good now!"
They would have done anything for Ivan-anything,
that is to say, that involved no more than the average
amount of negro exertion.
As for the buckra himself, thus finding himself in
the midst of new friends, 'all eager to hear of his
plans and Intentions, he came out in his best colours
under stress of their welcome, and showed himself
for what he was-a great-hearted gentleman. Sym.
pathy always begets sympathy. Ivan accepted their
proffered services with a kindly smile of recognition
and gratitude, which to those good-natured folk
seemed most condescending and generous in a real
live white man. The news spread like wild-fire. A
buckra had come who loved the nagur. Before three
hou-s were over every man in the hamlet had formed
a high opinion of Mistah Greet's moral qualities.
"Doan't nebber see buckra like a' dis one afore," old
Peter murmured musingly to his cronies on the hill-
side. "Him don't got no pride, cep de pride ob a
gentleman. Him talk to you and me same as if he
tink us buckra like him. Hey, niassy, m-ssa, him
good man fe' true! Wonder what make him want to
come lib at St. Tammas?"

CHAPTER 1T.

THAT very first day, before the green and gold of
tropical sunset had faded into the solemn grey
of twilight. Ivan Greet had decided on the site of his
new but, and begun to lay the foundation of a rude
wooden shanty with the willing aid of his new black
associates. Half the men of the community buckled
to at the work, and all the women: for the women
felt at once a novel glow of sympathy and unspoken
compassion towards the unknown white man with the


CHAEACTERY SNAPSHOT


MR. PERCY LINDO


Mr. Percy Lindo, with his brothers, left Jamaica
at a fairly early aEe for Costa Rica, to be closely
associated with the development of the Atlantic
coast of that "Banana Republic." A few years ago the
Lindos returned to their own country to embark on
sugar production and other business; they were the
first,-as all Jamaica knows, to establish a large sugar
factory here; they also became the owners of the firm
of J. Wray and Nephew, one of the oldest and most
prosperous in Jamaica. While Mr. Cecil Lindo has
occupied himself with the Costa Rican as well as the
Jamaican branches of the Lindo interests Mr. Percy
Lindo has remained in charge of the business at
this end. His duties and responsibilities are mani-
fold; his energy and ability are equal to those re-
sponsibilities and duties.
Those who know him are aware that he is one
of the most hardworking men in Jamaica. The quali-
ties that made him successful elsewhere are displayed
by him in this island to the full. He is early at his
desk, he is one of the last to leave his office, sometimes
he toils far into the night: no clerk fired with ambi-
tion to succeed surpasses him in devotion to his
work. Yet he finds time to see every caller. to listen
patiently to whatever anyone may have to say to him:
indeed, he once remarked that he never refused to
see anybody, accessibility being a matter of settled
policy with him. And although a man with much to
do, he ever preserves an amlible manner. One may
well believe that he perceived long ago that courtesy
in business life is a good asset and that no one loses
anything by being polite in working hours. With his
energy and remarkable application, his pleasant man-
ner and keen business insight, he would have been
successful anywhere. He was successful-highly so-
in Costa Rica Naturally it pleases Jamaicans that he
and his brothers decided to return to Jamaica to em-
bark on business here, and help to increase the coun-
try's wealth. Such men are assets to Jamaica.


wistful eyes, who hau come across the great sea to
cast in his lot with theirs under the waving palm-
trees. Now, your average negress can do as much
hard labour as an English navvy: and as the men
found the timber and the posts for the corners without
money or price, it came to pass that by evening that
day a fair framework for a wattled hut of true African
pattern stood already four-square to all the airs of
heaven in the middle frontage of Ivan Greet's two
acres. But it was roofless, of course, and its walls
were still unbuilt: nothing existed so far but the bare
square outline. It had yet to receive its wattled sides,
and to be covered in on top with a picturesque water-
proof thatch of fan-palm- Still, it was a noble hut as
huts went on the hiltlide. Iran, and his fellow-work-
ers stood and gazed at it that evening as they struck
work for the day with profound admiration for their
own cunning handicraft.
And now cam2 the question where Ivan was to
sleep, and what to do for his supper. He bad doubts
in his own mind how all this could be managed. But
Clemmy had none; Clammy was the only brown girl
in the little community, and as such, of course, she
claimed and received an acknowledged precedence.
"I shall have to sleep somewhere," Ivan murmured,
somewhat ruefully, gazing round him at the little
cluster of half-barbarous cottages. "But how-
Heaven help me!"
And Clemmy, nodding her head with a wise little
smile, made answer naturally--


"You gwlne sleep at me fader, shb; we got berry
nice room. You don't can go an' sleep wit' all dem
common nagur yah." k
"I'm not very rich, yo know.!' Ivan interposed
hastily, with something very like a half-conecious
blush-though, to be sure, he was red enough already
with his unwonted exertion In that sweltering at-
mosphere.
"I'm not very rich, but I've a little still left, and
I can afford to pay-well, whatever you think would
be proper-for bed and board till I can get my -own
house up."
Clemmy waved him aside, morally speaking, with
true negro dignity.
"We invite you, sah," she said proudly, like a lady
of the land (which she was at St. Thomas). "When
we ax gentleman to stop, we don't want nuflin paid
for him board and lodgin.' We offer you de hospitali-
ty of our house an' home till your own house flnsh.
Christen people don't can do no less dan dat, I hope,
for de homeless 'stranger.' "
She spoke with such grave politeness such un-
consciousness of the underlying humour of the situa-
tion, that Ivan, with his quickly sympathetic poet's
heart, raised his hat in return, as he answered with
equal gravity, in the tone he might have used to a
great lady in England.
"It's awfully kind of you. I appreciate your
goodness. I shall accept with pleasure the hospitality
you offer me."
Old Peter grinned delight from ear to ear. It was
a feather in his cap thus to entertain in his hut the
nobility and gentry. Though, to be sure, 'twas his
right, as the acknowledged stepfather of the only un-
deniable brown girl in the whole community. For a
brown girl, mark you, serves to a certain extent, as
a patent of gentility in the household she adorns; she
is a living proof of the fact that the family to which
she belongs has been in the habit of mixing with white
society.
"You come along in, sah!" old Peter cried cheeri-
ly. "You tired wit' dat work. You don't accustom'
to it. White gentleman from England find de sun
berry hot out heah in Jamaica. You lake drop o'
rum, sah, or you like coconut water!"
Ivan modestly preferred the less spirituous liquor
to the wine of the country; so Clemmy, much flatter-
ed, and not a little fluttered, brought out a fresh
green coconut, and sliced its top off before his eyes
with one slash of the knife, and poured the limpid
juice I which came forth clear as crystal, not thick
and milky) into a bowl-shaped calabash, which she
offered with a graceful bow for their visitor's ac-
ceptance. Ivan seated himself on the ground just
outside the but as he saw the negroes do (for the air
Inside was hot, and close and stifling), and took with
real pleasure his first long pull at that delicious
beverage. "Why, it's glorious!" he exclaimed, with
unfeigned enthusiasm (for he was hot, and thirsty),
turning the empty calabash upside down before his
entertainers' eyes, to let them see he fully appreciated
their rustic attentions. "Quite different from the
coconuts one gets in London! So fresh, end pure, and
cooi, It's almost r-orth coming out to Jamaica to
taste it."
Clemmy smiled her delight. Was ever buckra so
affable? Then she brought out a spoon-commcn
pewter, or the like- which she wiped on her short
skirt with unaffected simplicity, and handed it to him
gravely. After that she gave him the coconut itself,
with the soft jelly inside, which Ivan proceeded to
scoop out, and eat before her eyes with evident relish.
A semi-circle of admiring negroes and negresses stood
round and looked on-"Hey, massy, massa! him da eat
de coconut!"-as though the sight of a white man
taking jelly with a spoon were some startling novelty.
Now, Ivan was modest, as becomes a poet; but he
managed to eat on, as little disconcerted by their at-
tentions as possible; for he saw, it be was to live for
some time among these people, how necessary it was
from the very beginning to conciliate and please
them.
The coconuP finished, Clemmy produced boiled
yam and a little salt fish; she brought forth butter
in a lordly dish, anu sat down by Ivan's side to their
frugal supper. Being a brown girl, of course she
coulu venture on such a liberty with an invited guest;
old Peter and her mother, as two pure-blooded blacks,
sat a litLle apart from their new friend and their
daughter, not to seem too presumptuous. And still,
as Ivan ate, the admiring chorus ran round the semi-
circle, "Hey, massy, but dat fine! hey, missy, but him
no proud! My king! you see him eat! You ebber know
buckra do de same like a' dat afore?"
That night-his first night in the Jamaican moun-
tains-Ivan slept in old Peter's hut. It was narrow
and close, but he opened the wooden window as wide
as possible to let in the fresh air, and lay with his
head to it; he was young and strong, and had a fancy
for roughing it. Next morning, early, he was up with
his hosts, and afoot, for his work, while still the South-
ern sun hung low In the heavens. Fresh plantains
and breadfruit, with a draught from a coconut, made
up the bill of fare for his simple breakfast: Ivan
thought them not bad, though a trifle unsatisfying.
That day, and several days after, he passed on his
plot; the men-great hulking blacks-gave him a
helping hand by fits and starts at his job, though less
eagerly than at first; the women, more faithful to
their waif from oversea, worked on with a will at the
wattling and thatching. As for Clemmy, she took a
personal interest in the building from beginning to


1922--23






.": .. ,

i he WW figairded It with a vague sort of proprietary
!i4ji ihe spoke. of It as "de house" in the very
'. iiM.: -we all of us use ourselves about the place we're
i atI ag a building or furnishing.
i %'At Itlaatr After a fortnight, the hut was finished.
n ..ettt hillside turned out with great joy to cele-
"t.ti:anguration. They lighted a bonfire of the
hwood and scrub they had cleared off the little
S .. elkform in front of the door; each man brought
-i. own Tam ; Ivan spent some five of his hoarded
EiJ Mllii In supplying refreshments for his assembled
S.: fghbtaurs Such a house-warming had never before
R t htwan In St. Thomas. Till late that evening
p'ltloe grs~~i sat round the embers, and baked yam
:Ad..laweet potatoes in the hot wood-ashes. It was
4,Wr ; lktnight when the crowd, well drunken, began
:.i ser~Te. -Then they all went away, one by one-
*.Cb. Chmmy.
S- :'1; l.. looked at her inquiringly. She hung her
a"i a a heatsitated.
Ybu think buckra gentleman can lib alone in house
I:l4 out aprbant?" she asked, at last, in a very timid
.'Tea don't want housekeeper? Buckra must
*hb.:Sag? ne to cook for him an' care for him. You
S.Mfiggiii l to go. I tink I make a good housekeeper.
"Ot. : "' course Ivan answered, with a gleam of com-
S nir he iaion. "I never thought about that. Why, just
I itt htthing. How very kind of you! I can't cook
q.: mttilf. I suppose I must have somebody to
,i enage'About boiling yams and plantains."

... CHAPTER TI.
S ;0:. eight or ten months, Ivan Greet lived on in
.ilS' ks wattled but on that Jamaican hillside. He
i is'ead'to the world, and the world to him; he
StjUiil 'lrote to nor heard from any friend in Eng-
h l..:l- ti the local planters' phrase, he simply "went
: IJutdk'. What little luggage he possessed he had left
Vti. ~iish Town station while he built his hut; as
-(iAW U was fully installed in his own freehold
.'JbilltiA had got his supplies into working order,
SiteiaG IIntnlay started off for Spanish Town together,
: 3 I.a' ghtr it back, with much laughter, turn about,
i irdenB them. Clemmy bore the big box on her head,
: .ilies r her turn came, as she was accustomed to
SIafiy pal l of water. It contained the small ward-
,::j i hle brought out from England, and more import-
Silak lBtl fbV pen, ftk. and paper, with which he was
bAitri 4 .-ia immortal masterpiece.
'. f t htiat rIan was in any hurry to begin his great
"lk.fl'bdom and leisure were the keynotes of the
:* > tt He would only set to work when the im-
Supon him. And just at first freedom nor
: m r. impulse was his. He had his ground to




Ii" ,
n


PLANTERS' PUNCH


prepare, his yams and bananas to plant, his daily
bread, or daily breadfruit to procure, quite as truly as
in England. Though, to be sure, Clemmy's friends
were most generous of their store, with that uncon-
scious communism of all primitive societies. They
offered what they had, and offered It freely. And
Ivan, being a poet, accepted their gifts more frankly
by far than most others could have done: he would
repay them all, he said when his crop was ready.
The negroes in turn liked him the better for that;
they were proud to be able to lend or give to the
buckra from England. It raised them no little in
their own esteem to find the white man so willing to
chum with them.
Five or six weeks passed away after Ivan had
taken possession of his hut before he attempted to
turn his hand to any literary work. Meanwhile, he
was busily occupied in stubbing, and planting, witSl
occasional help from his negro allies, and the con-
stant aid of those ever faithful negresses. Even after
he had settled' down to a quiet life under his own
vine and fig-tree, some time went past before the
spirit moved him to undertake composition. To say
the truth, this doice far niente world exactly suited
him. Poets are lazy by nature-or, shall we put it.
contemplative? -When Ivan in England first dreamt
of this strange scheme, he looked forward to it as a
noble stroke for faith and freedom, a sacrifice of his
own personal worldly comfort to the work in life that
was set before him. And so, indeed, it was, from the
point of view of the flesh-pots of Egypt, But flesh-
pots, after all. don't fill so large a place in human
existence as civilization fancies. When he found him-
self at last at ease on his hillside, he was surprised
to discover how delightful bow poetical, how elevated
is savagery. He sat all day long on the ground under
the plantains, in shirt and trousers, with Clemmy by
his side, or took a turn for exercise now and again
in the cool of the evening through his sprouting yam
plot. Palm-leaves whispered in the wind, mangoes
glowed on the branches, pomegranates cracked and
reddened, humming-birds darted' swift in invisible
flight from flower to flower of the crimson hibiscus.
What need to hurry in such a land as this, where all
the world at once eats its lotus in harmony?
After a while, however, inspiration came upon
him. It came unsought. It hunted him up and con-
strained him. He brought forth pen and paper to the
aoor of the hut, and, sitting there in the broad shade
(Clemmy still at his side). began from time to time to
jot down a sentence, a thought, a phrase, a single
word, exactly as they came to him. He didn't work
hard. To work hard, indeed, or, in other words, to
spur his Pegasus beyond its natural pace, was to Ivan
nothing short of sheer wordly Infidelity. Literature


7 U


Is the realization of one's infld: phlo takwi tlr
ternal form. He wanted freedom f I t rayft
pose-that he might write the tilFng waltd ir-f
way that occurred to him. Bit satlfl naose th ieuu
a delicate picture grew up by degtred dk the canvas
before him. It wasn't a poem: the muse Odt i fiom-
him just so to verse, and he would be true to-the core
to her. It was a Ittte romance, a vignette of trbpitil
life, a Paul et Virginie picture of the folk he saw:
then and there on the hillside. And, indeed, the sub-.
ject exactly suited him. A Bohemian in the grain,
the easy, Bohemian life of these children of nature
in their wattled hats appealed to him vividly. For a
month or so now he had lived in their midst as one-
of themselves; he had caught their very tone; he had-
learned to understand them, to know them, to sym-
pathize with them. "'11 tell you what It is, sir," a
dissipated young planted had aidd to him at King-
ston during the few days he spent there, "people may
say what they like about this blessed Island: but what
I say Is, It's a jolly good place to live in, all the same,
where rum Is cheap and morals is lax!" Not so did
th3 poet's eye envisage that black Arcadia.
To Ivan it was an Eden of the Caribbean Sea;
he loved it for Its simplicity, its naturalness, its utter
absence of guile or wile or self-consciousness. 'Twas
a land indeed where the Queen's writ ran not; where
the moral law bore but feeble sway; where men and
women, as free as the wind, lived and loved in their
own capricious, ancestral fashion. ItM ethics were
certainly not the ethics of that hateful Mayfair from
which he had fled in search of freedom. But life was
real, if life was not earnest: no sham was there, no
veiled code of pretence; what all the world did
all the world frankly and openly acknowledged;
Censors and censoriousness were alike unknown.
Every man did that which was right in his
own eyes, and no man hindered him. In such an
environment what space for idylls! Never, since
Theocritus, had poet's eye beheld anything like it. In
the midst of this naive world he so thoroughly under-
stood and so deeply appreciated, Ivan Greet couldn't
help but burst into song, or at least into romance of
Arcadian pattern. Day by day be sat at the door of
his hut, or strolled through the hamlet, with a nod
and a smile for black Rose or black Robert, noting
as he went their little words and ways, jotting mental-
ly down on the tablets'of his brain each striking
phrase or tone or native pose or incident. So his
idyll took shape of itself, he hardly knew how. It
was he that held the pen; It was nature herself that
dicated the plot. the dialogue, the episodes.
In the evenings, whenever the fancy seized him,
he would sit and read aloud what he had written dur-
ing the day to his companion Clemmy. There, in the


B AN K.


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14


PUNCH


b rfiui t-btnid l dust, with the sunset lighting
. ipiar l aI rtftrple the page as he read it, and the
briamet rustring soft through the golden leaves of the
star-apple; that simple tale of a simple life was uttered
and heard in its native world, to the fullest advantage.
But Clemmy! As for Clemmy, she sat entranced; was
there ever so grand a man on earth as Ivan? Never
before had that brown girl known there was anything
other in the way of books than the Bible, the hymn-
book, and the A, B, C, in which she learned to read
at the negro village-school down yonder at Linstead.
And now, Ivan's tale awoke a new interest, a fresh
delight within her. She understood it all the better
in that it was a truthful tale of her own land and her
own people. Time, place, surroundings, all were
wholly familiar to her. It made her laugh a low
laugh of surprise and pleasure to see how Ivan hit
off with one striking phrase, one deft touch, one neat
epithet, the people and things she had known and
mixed with from her earliest childhood. In a word,
it was Clemmy's first glimpse into literature. Now,
Clemmy was a brown girl, and clever at that.
European blood of no mean strain flowed In her veins
--the blood of an able English naval family. Till
Ivan came, indeed, she had lived the life and thought
the thoughts of the people around her. But her new
companion wakened higher chords, unsuspected by


herself, in her inner nature. She revelled in his idyll.
Oh, how sweet they were, those evenings on the hill
side, when Ivan took her into his confidence, as it were,
and poured forth into her ear that dainty tale that
would have fallen so fiat on the dull ears of her cogn-
panlons! Por Clemmy knew now she was better than
the rest. She had always prided herself, of course,
like every brown girl, on her ennobling mixture of
European blood; though she never knew quite why.
This book revealed it to her. She realized now how
inheritance had given her something that was want-
ing to the black girls, her playmates, in the village.
She and Iran were one, in one half their natures.

CHAPTER VIi.
rEN months passed away. Working by fits and
Starts as the mood came upon him, Ivan Greet
completed and re-polished his masterpiece. It was but
a little thing, yet he knew it was a masterpiece.
Every word and line In it pleased andsatisfied him.
And when he was atisfied, he knew be had reckoned
with his hardest critic. He had only to send It home
to England now, and get it published. For the rest,
be cared little. Let men read It or not, let them
praise or blame, he had done a piece of work at last
that was worthy of him.


ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES


(Continued from Page 91.


liet, and then they were taken down by Peter to the
slave quarters and each man given in charge of a
slave already settled on the estate. These were
Joloffs from the Gambia, peaceable fisher folk, and
they could hold no communication with the Ashantls.
But any man who is hungry understands a pot of
yam, or crushed cassava and plantain made into futu,
and to rest free and unshackled in the open air was
peace. A black man was a black man to the planter.
Now-a-days even black men themselves talk as it
Africa held but one race, a noble race held back from
its rights by the white man. They have no idea of
the vast extent of the continent. Neither had the
planter of old days in Jamaica. He only knew that
men were beginning to say that the Koromantyns
were not to be relied upon He did not understand
that an Ashanti warrior brooked no interference when
he was young and strong, and that he might have his
work cut out for him. He did not even tell his wife
and daughter of his doubts: where was the use of
frightening them? But he probably confided in his
son and warned him not to be too wrapped up in the
new girl, but to keep a sharp lookout and glean from
her something of the attitude of these newcomers to-
wards their present environment. He served out
cutlasses and hoes doubtfully, and his heart misgave
him as he saw how capably some of these men
handled the cutlass.
He looked at the. fastenings of the shutters and
doors that night, we may be sure. Those who slept
on the ground floor might stifle in the heat but the
shutters must not be opened.
And then for a day or two he forgot his fears,
swearing at the awkwardness of the. new hands who
came shambling to the fields and stood in sullen
groups apparently not understanding that they were
required to use the hoe. The planter laid about bim
with a supplejack and the bondservants came and
tried by example to show them what was needed. The
girl, who looked like Ruth, came forward swinging
her hoe lightly, for her young arms were strong. She
might not like being a slave, but the boy pleased her
even as she pleased him and she had hopes for the
future, and then the planter turned to her.
"Tell them," he said with an oath, "tell them they
must work or it is something more than supple-jack I
shall lay about their backs."
She laughed up la his face.
"Warriors do not work across the Prah-only
women and slaves."
"And are they not slaves? Great-" and, Puritan
though he was, the planter let out a string of oaths
that would not have disgraced a staggering Cavalier.
But those huddled naked savages looked at him with
lowering brows, and not till one of them had been
stretched out on the ground and held there by three
of the other slaves while another laid on blows on his
bare back, did they fumblingly take the hoes and very
clumsily set to work at the holes Every time the head
driver came along he laid his whip lightly across a
back that was not bending enough to the toil, ju is
an earnest of what would happen, and the plan[tr
went to bed discontented that night for no two men
bad done as much as the girl, and heaven knows she
had done little enough.
And then it happened, as it happened agiin and
again with the newly purchased Koromantyns. To-
wards morning, after they had rested a little from
their toil, they rose. The planter had taken the pre-
caution of collecting the cutlasses and putting them
in the hut where the. four white bondservants lived,
for the white bondservants were not likely to rise.
They could not live in the modntains. They must
submit to whatever their master laid upon them.
And the bondservants were weary with the day of
toll and slept heavily, and when they awakened It was
to, .fd the..little hut. lU..o.at euching..hlael .fl~u~ e..


Aloysius was quick and active. He overthrew the
savage who fell upon him and sped swiftly up the hill
shouting to the Great House, but the other three died
as soon as the matchetts were found. There had
been death in Peter's face, and he died with hardly a
sob. They did not torture, they were too keen on
killing; then they too followed.
The planter was roused Irom his uneasy sleep by
the shout'-"e l ltoromint'n'i! The Koromantyns!"
He hesitated a moment. But he heard his
daughter's voice.
"'Tis Aloysius!" and then a shriek of fear, for
looking from her window in the tower she saw plainly
ty the light of the waning moon dark naked figures
rushing up the hill. He opened then. and his bond-
servant fell in panting.
"Peter! The others!"
"Dead, I think."
"Quashie and Mutton and Villain," naming some
of the old slaves, asked the planter, barring the door
again.
"In their quarters! I know not, but quiet enough,
I reckon. These be the new Koromantyns." and even
as he spoke they heard them at the stout shutters.
And then the planter had his loaded musket
ready, and another each for wife and daughter, and
looked around for his son. But the boy was not there,
he had stolen out to visit the girl he had found like
Ruth. They found his dead body next day, but of
the girl there was no sign.
And so the battle began. The two white men and
the two white women against those ten raging
savages; and the other slaves; the Joloffs, lay snug in
their huts taking an unexpected day's rest. They
dared not oppose the fierce Ashantis, and all they did
after the day had well dawned was to send a couple
of their number trembling to Comfort to say the new
slaves had risen and that the planter and his family
were in danger of their lives.
It was a good deal for slaves to do when one comes
to think of it, for if the white people had all been
killed it might well be they would suffer unthinkable,
things at the hands of the angry whites.
I think those four white people made a stout re-
sistance, so stout a resistance that the Ashantis, un-
accustomed to their new surroundings and fearing
every shadow, at last drew off and, taking their hoes
and machetes, fled away into the inaccessible moun-
tains behind the plantation. there to be a thorn in
the side of the planter for many a long day to come.
They had killed the young master, killed him as he
ran out at the sound of their shouting, but the two
servant wenches and the quadroon girl they carried
off with them, because warriors must have some one
to work for them and to till the ground.
When help came from Comfort they were gone.
And the planter thanked God for the foresight that
had made him keep plenty of powder and shot on the
premises and see to it that the water cask in the
corner of the living room was kept full, and he mourn-
ed for his son and cursed himself for a fool for trust-
ing a boy to buy slaves. Since he had not been well
enough to ride to Port Royal himself he should have
left the holing of the new cane-piece till another sea-
son.
And because It is an ll wind that blows no one
any good. Aloysius, the fair haired, stout hearted
bondservant, came into his own. The planter needed
a right hand man, someone whom he could trust, and
I think that he trusted Aloyslus who had sold himself
into slavery because he was poor and penniless, and I
think Aloysius married the daughter of the house
and-presently there was a grand-son to be worked
for by his grandmother and spoiled by his grand-
father and-
Often I think in the history of Jamaica such
things must have occurred.


And Clemmy admired it more than words could.
fathom. Though she spoke her own uncouth dialect
only, she could understand and appreciate all that
Ivan had written-for Ivan had written it. Those ten
months of daily intercourse with her poet In all moods
had been to Clemmy a liberal education. Even her
English Improved, though that was a small matter;
but her point of view widened and expanded unspeak-
ably. It was the first time she had ever been brought
into contact with a higher nature. And Ivan was so
kind, so generous, so sympathetic. In one word, he
treated her as he would treat a lady. Accustomed as
she was only to the coarsely good-natured blacks of
her hamlet, Clemmy found an English gentleman a
wonderfully lovable and delightful companion. She
knew, of course, he didn't love her-that would be
asking too much; but he was tender and gentle to her,
as his poet's heart would have made him be to any
other woman under like conditions. Sometimes the
girls in the village would ask her in confidence, "You
tink him lub you. Clemmy? You think de buckra lub>
you?"
And Clemy, looking coy, and holding her head on.
one side, would answer, in the peculiar Jamaican sing
song, "Him mind on him book. Him don't think ob
anything else. His mind too full. Him don't tink-
to lub me."
But Clemmy loved him-deeply, devotedly.
Clemmy would have died for Ivan Greet; her whole
lie was now bound up in her Englishman. His mas-
terpiece was to her something more divine than to'
Ivan himself; she knew by heart whole pages and
passages of it.
In this delicious idyllic dream-a dream of young.
love satisfied (for Clemmy didn't ask such impossibi-
lities from fate as that Ivan should love her as she-
loved him)-those happy months sped away too fast.
till Ivan's work was finished. 'On the morning of the -
day before he meant to take it it to the post at Span-
ish Town, and send it off, registered, to his friends.
In England, he walked out carelessly bare-footed-so.
negro-like had he become-among the deep dew on-
the gra s in front of his shanty. Clemmy caught sight
of him from the door, and shook her head gravely.
"If you was my pickney Ivan," she said, with
true African freedom, "I tell you what I do: I smack
you for dat. You gwine to take fever!
Ivan, laughed, and waved his hand.
"Oh, no fear," be cried lightly. "I'm a Jamaican-
born by now. I've taken to the life as a duck takes
to the water. Besides, It's quite warm, Clemmy.
This dew won't hurt me."
Clemmy thought no more of it at the time, though
she went in at once. and brought out his shoes and
socks, and miae him put them on with much womanly
chiding. But thst night, after supper, when she-
took his hand in hers, as was her wont of an evening..
she drew back in surprise.
"Why, Ivan,' she cried, all cold with terror, "your
hand too hot! You done got de fever!".
"Well, I don't feel quite the thing," Ivan ad-
mitted grudgingly. "I've chills down my back and
throbbing pain in my head, I think -I1 turn in and
try some quinine, Clemmy."
Clemmy's heart sank at once. She put him to bedt,
on the rough sack in the hut that served for a mat-
tress, and sent Peter post haste down to Linstead for
the doctor. It was bours before he caqe; he was
dining with a friend at a "penn" on the mountains;
he wouldn't hurry himself for the "white trash" who
had "gone nigger" on the hillside. Meanwhile Clemmy
sat watching, all inward horror, by Ivan's bedside.
Long before the doctor arrived her Englishman was.
delirious. Tropical diseases'run their course with
appealing rapidity. By the time the doctor came he-
looked at the patient with a careless eye. All the-
world round about had heard of the white man who
"lived with the niggers," and despised him accord-
ingly.
"Yellow fever," he said calmly, in a very cold
voice. "He can't be moved, and he can't be nursed
here. A pretty piggery this for a white man to die-
in!
Clemmy clasped her hands hard.
"To die in!" she echoed aloud. "To die In! To
die in!"
"Well, he's not likely to live, Is he?" the doctor
answered, with a sharp little laugh. "But we'll dor
what we can. He must be nursed day and night, and
kept cool and well-aired, and-have arrowroot and
brandy every half-hour,- awake or asleep-a couple.
of teaspoonfuls. I suppose you can get some other
girl to help you sit up with him?"
To help her sit up with him! Clemmy shuddered
at the thought. She would have sat up with him her-
self every night for a century. What was sleep or
rest to her when Ivan was in danger' For the next
three days she never moved from bis side except to
make fresh arrowroot by the fire outside the hut, or
to bring back a calabash of clear water from the
rivulet. But ho* could nursing avail? The white
man's constitution was already broken down by hard-
ships and bad food, nay, even by the very idleness or
the past ten months; and that hut was, indeed, no fit
place to tend him in. The disease ran its course with
all its fatal swiftness. From the very frst night Ivan
never for a moment recovered consciousness. On the
second he was worse. On the third, with the sudden-
ness of that treacherous climate, a tropical thunder-
storm burst over them unawarea, chilled the air
fast Before it had rained itself out with peal upori


PLANTERS'


1922-23


__~_ L






I PLANTERS' PUNCH 15
"TO!- "" n--


M:. :uepon flash, in quick succession, Ivan
:.,a the hut with a corpse, and her unborn


CHAPTER VIII.
a week or two the world was blank to Clemmy.
hs.new only one thing-that Ivan had left her
'. legacies. To print his book, to bring up
Oi.:.ose were now the tasks In life set before
tALke very first moment she regarded the
Shis masterpiece with the profoundest
I.ven before six stalwart negroes in their
came to bury her dead poet on the
-0 hilllside under a murmuring clump of
boJb o she had taken out that precious
bt ers from Ivan's oox in the corner, which
sofa In the bare little shanty, and had
gPsd it up tenderly In his big silk handker-
fid replaced it with.care, and locked up the box
and .put the key, tied by a string, round her
Sher own brown bosom. And when Ivan was
-eier, and her tears were dry enough, she
that boi every night and morning, and un-
:it.handerchief reverently, and took out the
Libook, and read it here and there-with pride
sand sorrow-and folded 1'. up again and re-
it its ark till another evening. She knew
Wit books till this one: it had never even
'"they were the outcome of human brains
miWe bute she knew it was her business in life
pnbtilkh it Ivan Greet was gone, and, but for
W tlegactes he left behind him, she would have
l~fodle-she would have died, as negroes can,
ay.wishing it. But now she couldn't. She
fr for hit child; she must live for his idyll. It
ity laid upon her. She knew not how-but
,;si0nme time, she must get that book printed.
I weeks later, her baby was born. As it lay
;i., a dear, little, soft, round, creamy-brown
hirdly brown at all, indeed, but a delicate quad-
ith deep chestnut hair and European features
ied it in her heart for its father's sake chiefly.
r*'tans child, made in Ivan's likeness. They
sit it Vanna; 'Twas the nearest feminine form
rW. -devise to Ivan. But even the baby-her
ti baby-seemed hardly more alive to Clemmy
'thali the manuscript that lay wrapped with
Is hbf and leaves in the box In the corner.
twas all Ivan's, and it spoke to her still with
Sintic voice-his own very words, his tone, his
:; M~iay a time she took it out, as baby lay
lth tender eyelids closed, on the bed where
I~:dfd (for sanitary science and knowledge of
Theory haven't spread much as yet to St.
Ih'-the-Vale) and read it aloud in her own
ifk: way, and laughed and cried over it. and
it to herself, time and again, "He wrote all that!
jacerfal? how beautiful!
Ftl~sn as ever she was well enough, after baby
fmfity took that sacred manuscript, reverently
'Wttii Uits soft silk handkerchief, among its
e and with baby at her breast, trudged
;'along the dusty road, some twenty-five
"eWay into Kingston. It was a long, hot
Iu' wa4sBweak and ill; but Ivan's book must
timaeit cost what it might; she would work
....t.aMth, but she must manage to print it.
~i tiitRing of his family, his friends in Eng-
T few nothing of publishing, or of the utter
p0 itttting the type set at a Kingston printing-
le ly knew this-that Ivan wrote that book,
ittjbetOre he died, be meant to get it printed.
iu Itr'y trudge, buoyed only by vague hopes of
lan's latest wish, she reached the baking
satthe grim white city. To her that squalid
ftBse.d avery big bustling town. Wandering
.'.erslf, alone and afraid, down its unwonted
db~tre, full of black men and white, all hurry-
Mllr own errands, and all equally strange to
A'Neo at lait to Henderson's, the printers.
iEre. timid air, she mustered up courage to
i^iho)p, and unfolded with trembling fingers
Cmt burden. The printer stared hard at her.
joi.o, wn,. I suppose?" he said, turning it over
-Lc.urwai eye, like any common manuscript, and
t:yamused at the bare idea of a book by an
tirriown girl. And Clemmy, half aghast that
pihjuild touch that holy relic so lightly, made
'rairy? low, "No, not me own. Me fren's. Him
iid Luti. t to know how much y'on ax to print

e man:ran his eye through It, and calculated
f:Oi."n paper like this," he said, after jotting
iw, figures, "five hundred copies would stand
thing like five and thirty pounds, exclusive

iid-thirty :pounds! Clemmy drew a long
li.t Was appalling, impossible. "You haven't
.thib about you. I suppose!" the printer went
a', laugh. Clemmy's eyes filled with tears.
-thirty pounds! And a brown girl! Was it

4i%'t want It print jes' yet," she answered.
r*thardlykeeping back her tears. "I only
ti-walk. in all de way from St. Tammas-in-
C inake me. tired. Bime-by, p'raps, I print
" .Q.1-:done got de money. I don't got it jes'
fIs igwfne home to get it.
S5 she *ent, heavy-hearted; home she
.ji -Five-aad-thirty pounds, but she meant


to earn it. Tramp, tramp, tramp, she trudged along
to St. Thomas:
Between the pestilential lagoons on the road to
Spanish Town she thought it all out. Before she
reached the outskirts, with her baby at her breast,
she had already matured her plan of campaign for
the future. Come what might, she most make enough
money to print Ivan Greet's masterpiece. She was
only a brown girl, but she was still in possession of
the two-acre plot; and possession is always nine points
of the law, in Jamaica as in England. Indeed, with
her simple West Indian notions of proprietorship and
inheritance, Clemmy never doubted for a moment they
were really her own, as much as If she were Ivan's
lawful widow. Nobody had yet come to disturb or
evict her; nobody had the right, in Jamaica at least:
for Iran Greet's heirs, executors, and assigns alum-
bered at peace, five thousand miles away, overseas In
England. So, as Clemmy tramped on, along the dusty
high road, and between the malarious swamps, and
through the grey streets of dismantled Spanish Town.
and up the grateful coolness of the Rio Cobre ravine
to her home in St. Thomas, she said to herself and to
his baby at her breast a thousand times over how she
would toil and moil, and save and scrape, and earn
money to print his last work at last as he meant it
to be printed.

CHAPTER IX.
AND she worked with a will. She didn't know it
was a heroic resolve on her part; she only knew
she had got to do it. She planted yam and coffee and
tobacco. Coffee and tobacco need higher cultivation
than the more thriftless class of negroes usually care
to bestow upon them; but Clemmy was a brown girl,
and she worked as became the descendant of so many
strenuous white ancestors. She could live herself on
the yams and breadfruit: when her crop was ripe she
could sell the bananas and coffee and tobacco, and
hoard up the money she got in a belt round her waist,
for she never could trust all that precious coin away
from her own person.
From the day of her return, she worked hard with
a will and on market-days she trudged down with her
basket on her head and her baby in her arms to sell
her surplus produce in Linstead market. Every
quattle she earned she tied up tight in the girdle
round her waist. When the quatties reached eight
she exchanged them for a shilling-one shilling more
towards the Lhirty-five pounds it would cost her to
print Ivan Greet's last idyll! The people in St.
Thomas were kind to Clemmy. "Him don't nebber
get ober de buckra deal'." they said. "Him take it
berry to heart. Him lub him fe' true, dat gall wit' de
buckra!" So they helped her still, as they had helped
Ivan in his lifetime. Many a one gave her an hour's
work at her plot when the drought threatened badly,
or aided her to get in her yams and sweet potatoes be-
fore the rainy season.
Clemmy was an Old Connexion Baptist. They all
belonged to the Old Connexion in the Linstead district.
Your negro is strong on doctrinal theology, and he
likes the practical sense of sins visibly washed away
by total immersion. It gives him a comfortable feel-
ing of efficient regeneration which no mere infant
sprinkling could possibly emulate. One morning, on
the hillside, as Clemmy stood in her plot by a grace-
ful clump of waving bamboos, hacking down with her
cutlass the weeds that encumbered her precious coffee-
bushes-the bushes that were to print Ivan Greet's


last manuscript-of a sudden the min ster rode by on
his mountain pony-sleek, smooth-faced, oleaginous,
the very picture and embodiment of the welbte,
negro-paid, up-country missionary. He halted on the
path-a mere ledge of bridle-track-as he passed
where she stood bending down at her labour.
"Hey, Clemmy," the minister cried in his half-
negro tone-for, though an Englishman born, he had
lived among his flock on the mountains so long that
he had caught at last its very voice and accent-"they
tell me this good-for-nothing white man's dead who
liven in the hut here. Perhaps it was better so! In-
stead of trying to raise and improve your people, he
had sunk himself to their lowest level. So you've got
bis hut now! And what are you doing, child, with the
coffee and tobacco?"
Clemmy's face burned hot; this was sheer dese-
cration! The flush almost showed through her dusky
brown skin, so intense was her indignant wrath at
hearing her dead Ivan described by that sleek fat
creature as a "good-for-nothing white man." But she
answered back bravely, "Him good friend to me fe'
true, sah. I don't know nuffn' 'bout what make him
came heah, but I nebber see buckra treat nagur any-
where sameway like he treat dem. An' I lubbed him
true. And I growing' dem crop deh to prin' de book
him gone left behind him."
The minister reflected. This was sheer con-
tumacy. "But the land's not yours," he said testily.
"It belongs to the man's relations-his heirs or his
creditors. Unless of course," he added, after a pause,
just to make things sure, "he left It by will to you."
"No sab, him don't make no will," Clemmy
answered, trembling, "an' him don't leave it to any-
body, but I lib on de land while Ivan lib, an' I don't
gwine to quit it for no one on eart' now him dead and
buried."
"You were his housekeeper, I think," the minis-
ter went on, musing.
And Clemmy, adopting that usual euphemism of
the country where such relations are habitual, made
answer, hanging her bead, "Yes, sah, I was him house-
keeper."
'What was his name?" the minister asked, taking
out a small note-book.
"Dem call him Ivan Greet," Clemmy answered in-
cautiously.
"Ivan Greet," the minister repeated, stroking his
smooth double chin and reflecting inwardly. "Ivan
Greet! Ivan Greet! No doubt a Russian! Well,
Clemmy, you must remember, this land's not yours,
and if only we can find out where Ivan Greet belonged,
and write to his relations-which Is, of course, oar
plain duty-you'll have to give it up and go back to
your father." He shook his pony's reins. "Get up,
Duchess" he cried calmly. "Good morning, Clemmy;
good morning."
"Marnin', sah. Clemmy answered, with a vague
foreboding, her heart standing still with chilly fea."
within her.
But. as soon as the minister's ample back was
turned, she laid oown her cutlass, took up little Vanna
from the ground beside her, pressed the child to her
breast, and rushed with passionate tears to the box
in the hut that contained, in many folds, his precious
manuscript. She took the key from her neck, and
unlocked it eagerly. Then she brought forth the
handkerchief, unwound it with care, and stared hard
through her tears at the sacred title-page. His rela-
(Continued on Page 2.-).


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PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922--23






, PLANTERS' PUNCH 17


tDevUI's Mountain

Continued from Page 6).
i*gI tIn a little pocket book. Everyone
tLei absence of Mr. Phipps. but no one com-

O..a.heavy tread, accompanied by a jing-
~il.w'a heard in the corridor, and then in
0_tippeared a tall, handsome young English-
d1jilfke a cavalry officer, and dressed in the
!iA d dark-blue trousers of an Inspector of
..PoIice. On seeing the ladies, his hand
iKute, and he greeted Marian by name, as
i-tr. He turned to Lady Rosedale, who
her chair at his appearance.
M Iednggly sorry to hear about your loss,"
.lefIr eoutteously, in a pleasant but business-
i of 0oce. "Brown,"-he indicated the de-
7*.bown telephoned for me to come down, as
aeed a peculiar and delicate one, and I
Ilown in the hope of being of some service.
Swtbllbe able to recover your diamond neck-
-&trtly, Lady Rosedale."
I-earl necklace also," said Lady Rosedale.

t. please. Inspector, I would like to say a
Ot by yourself," interrupted Detective-Ser-

IWtely, brown," agreed the Inspector. and re-
Ml-Ois subordinate into the corridor, which
Wi~been deserted by many of the guests, who
'.'to breakfast. Some persons still hung
iwevier, eager to learn at first hand the latest
iia~E of this interesting situation. These
Si* ed Inspector Harmsworth and his sub-
WjtltI their eyes, though their ears could
Set g of what passed between the two, who
=n another in whispers.
Witlapeetor Harmsworth returned, after about
It whispered conversation with the detec-
I~Wi-looking exceedingly grave and embar-
2 mattered a word or two in the manager's
u: manager, in his turn, went out into the
r. d hinted to the people who still lingered
iAtthe dining room would shortly be closed.
luiaged to suggest delicately that the Detec-
0c"tr would like to conduct his investigations
S.This hint had the desired effect, and when
i 'the curious and excited spectators had dis-
) .Inspector Harmsworth closed the door of
i:room, and, seating himself at the writing
:the window, rapidly filled in some official

id..a commission as a Justice of the Peace,"
iatld to the manager as he wrote; 'it is use-
igencies. I am afraid we shall have to
or two of your rooms."
*hch?" cried the manager; "surely you
with everybody's private apartment!"
i no such intention." said Inspector
soothingly; "indeed, I am sure no one
y auifficulty about a search quietly con-
efned officers. I am sorry, but, in

rested on Marian apologetically, and at
i w ith relief, and yet with something like
; ,he understood the look. Before she
ij~ t ".remark, Lady Rosedale replied.
Tb Ad Miss Braeme will be glad to have our
roe hly overhauled. Inspector," she said,
iti with mine. What othcr rooms do you

SHartnsworth pretended not to hear the
tore embarrassed than ever. he resumed

iould yourself go over every article of-
Lidy Rosedale, so as to be absolutely
n-othng has been mislaid in them. Miss
S;no doubt assist you."
Iiy Rosedale can assist me," said Marian
e bad better begin with my room. After
iatEhed, your.people could go over the rooms
ai iif you like. Mightn't that help?"
bualt immensely." agreed the Inspector,
'!Mid ."anl you had better get one of the
r to help you: you'll need someone to
kitngua in the room."
tted the job he had in hand: he had never
~tEg like it before. But the girl's quickness
~ aved him -frnom making any deliberate
.:that a search of persons as -well as of
desirable if suspicion was. not to ctdn-
on Marian. The police could not venture
yoie unless he or she was arrested, and
good grounds as yet for the arrest of
~:t Brown had stated plainly to him his
flarian, and in the latter's own interests
that it should be settled once and for all
lis none of the missing jewellery hidden in
Sconcealed on her person-that is, assum-
Sgant Brown was wrong. Marian would
Insist upon Lady Rosedale "assist-
a minute investigation, and, to save
Lady Rosedale would also submit to a
SThe police would not he called upon
Sgo through either lady's person or

,the Inspector thought Detective


Brown's suspicion of Marian absurd; but the man
had had much experience in the detection of robberies,
and duty was duty. It was Harmsworth's duty, as
head of the local detective department, to discover the
thief and recover the jewels. The value of these, the
position of Lady Rosedale, the peculiar circumstances
of the double theft, rendered this case the most im-
portant of which he had ever had the handling. There
was going to be a great fuss and to-do about it; lhat
he could already see: what he could not see was his
way to success if the jewels had really disappeared.
The whole business seemed to him an infernal
nuisance, and one, moreover, with which a gentleman
should have nothing to do. But there It was: he was
Detective Inspector, and Brown had sent for him
because Brown had felt that he could not personally
deal with a white lady as a suspect, however much
he might suspect her: that was a job for an Inspector
at least. She was not, however, the only person
against whom Detective Brown entertained suspi-
cions; he had also whispered the name of AIr. Phipps.
In one of the search warrants just signed appeared
the name of Mr. Phipps, whom Inspector Harmsworth
knew very well indeed. Often he had enjoyed Mr.
Phipp's hospitality. Now to be called upon to coun-
tenance and then to order a search of his rooms was
positively awful. Police work, when it touched the
better classes, was decidedly'not work for a man with
decent feeling, thought Inspector Harmsworth, as he
silently sympathised with himself. He was sorry he
had not applied for protracted leave of absence a week
or two before.
"We shall remain outside until you are ready for
us," he said, rising from the table as he finished writ-
ing, and addressing Lady Rosedale. He would not
venture to look at Marian. "Please take your own
time," he added, anxious to be as nice as possible, and
bowed himself out of the room.
Once outside, he breathed a sigh of relief, and
turned to the stolid black man at his side. "Now.
Brown." said he, "shall we go to Mr. Phipps's room?
The manager here will help us."
The manager's face indicated quite plainly that
there was nothing that he could possibly desire less
to do; but he contented himself with shrugging his
shoulders.
"And where is Mr. Phipps?" asked Inspector
Harmsworth.
"When I sent Sampson to telephone to you, In-'
spector, Mr. Phipps walked out of the lady's room,
where he had no right to be from the first. I knew
he was trying to get away. so I went after Sampson
and told him to follow Mr. Phipps wherever he went.
Sampson hasn't come back yet, nor Mr. Phipps either."
"There's Mr. Phipps now." said the Inspector, as
he caught sight of the well-dressed, jaunty figure of
that gentleman stepping lightly along the corridor
towards him. "He must have just come in."
'Ah, Harmsworth." cried Mr. Phipps heartily,
"on the job. I see. I guessed from the start that this
sable Sherlock Holmes would send a lightning sum-
mons to you. Holmes will make a great reputation
yet if only he lives long enough. avoids drink, and
conquers the tropical tendency to inertia: I especially
want to advise him against drink. Your other man
has been following me all over Kingston in a cab. I
say, old chap, I am awfully sorry to put the Jamaica
Detective Department to such expense. Seems that I
am suspected of barbouring diamonds and pearls on
my person against the Aliens Immlgration Act or
something. Is that so?"
"The matter is rather serious, Mr. Phipps." re-
plied the Inspector. "We have to do all that we can
to recover Lady Rosedale's jewels, so you must excuse
me if I-"
Say, you aren't going to arrest me, are you?" asked
Mr. Phipps.
"Oh, no. There's nothing whatever against you:-
don't imagine that for a moment. But as a matter of
form, you understand, we, that is to say-"
"Just what, son? Say the word!"
"We shall have to go through your rooms. It is
in your interest really. You see that, don't you?"
"No, sir. I don't. What you mean to tell me is
that this bright and shining son of Ham has got out
a search warrant against me and that it is now to be
executed. Well, I have no kick coming, and it
wouldn't matter a brace of sour apples to King
George's Government if I had. So get along, and
make your search, and if you can haul up any dia-
monds and pearls among my belongings we'll just
divide the graft between us. Come along."
Mr. Phipps, smiling as though at an excellent
joke, led the way to his room. Detective Brown lin-
gered in the corridor, while Harmsworth followed Mr.
Phipps. Brown then ran downstairs, with a celerity
of which he would not commonly have been suspect-
ed, and there, as he had expected, he found his assist-
ant. Sampson. waiting for him.
"Where did Mr. Phipps go?" he demanded
brusquely.
"To Jones and Bedlaw," adfwered Sampson, men-
tioning a leading firm of city solicitors.
"What did he want to go to lawyers for at this
early hour? He went nowhere else?"
"No, he came right back, and I came behind him."
"All right, Sampson, wait down here till I want
you; but if he comes down before me, follow him.
But try and don't let him see you." And with that
Detective Brown hurried back up the stairs and into
Mr. Phippi's room.


The search warrant was produced, and the search
Look place, the Inspector watching it with a shame-
faced expression. Brown looked everywhere, leisure-
ly, knowing that the ladies would take some time at
their own task; but his heart was not in the job,
The fact is, he did not expect to find anything. Mr.
Phipps had left the hotel, and if Mr. Phipps was the
man who bad stolen the jewels he surely would not
have left them behind him. They would not be on
him now, either: Brown was convinced of that.
Sampson had followed him in a cab; but had Sampson
been as watchful as possible? Mr. Phipps's cabman,
too: who was he? Sampson should be able to recog-
nise him; possibly he was a creature in the pay of
Mr. Phipps. That cabman must have his room search-
ed this very day, If the Detective Inspector would
consent; but a man like Mr. Phipps wouldn't leave
anything valuable in a cabman's room for ten minutes.
If that cabman could be questioned properly-Brown
was a staunch Presbyterian, but at that moment he
thought with great approval of the means of in-
vestigation which, as he had- read, had in former
days been employed by the Spanish Inquisition.
"There is nothing here, sir," said he at length
to Inspector Harmsworth, "nothing at all."
"And did you think anything would be there,
O wisest of detectives?" asked Mr. Phipps. "In the
meantime, what happens to my reputation if the story
of this search gets about?"
"But it must not! cried the hotel's manager: "it
must be kept a secret."
"It will"be,' promised Inspector Harmsworth;
"I am sorry the search had to be made." He looked
reproachfully at Brown.
"You can say, sir," suggested that worthy, "that
Mr. Phipps was trying to help us. and we had a talk
together in his room-for people have seen us come
In here, and will wonder why."
"That is au excellent suggestion," agreed" Mr.
Phipps. "I perceive that there are depths of intelli-
gence in Sherlock Holmes which I have not yet plumb-
ed. I have heard of rough diamonds, and of Lady
Roseaale's diamonds, and now I have met a black
diamond. The age of discovery is not yet closed."
A knock at the door sounded, and a maid's voice
was heard informing Inspector Harmsworth that Lady
Rosedale was asking for him: he, the manager and
the detective went out to meet her. Mr. Phipps ac-
companied them
Laoy Rosedale and Marian were standing in the
corridor waiting for them. "There is not a jewel to
be found in either of our rooms," said Lady Rosedale
at once. "I am certain of that. We have both
searched thoroughly. Have you made any search
yourself. Inspector"
"We have, but discovered nothing, Lady Rose-
dale" Harmsworth replied. "And now Brown wil
take down your full itement and that of Miss
Braeme, and then we'll go and see the Inspector Gen-
eral. But first we must talk to the night-watchman
and one or two other persons in this hotel. We are
only at the beginning of our enquiry." he continued
hopefully, "and before long I trust you will have your
necklaces back again. You are" not going out to-day
to take pictures, Miss Braeme?"
"No; nor to-morrow. I don't come into the
scenes the director is taking to-day," explained
Marian.
"I am glad of that, after all the annoyance and
excitement of this morning," courteously observed the
Inspector. "Good-morning. Good-morning, Lady
Rosedale. Brown will take down what you both have
to say."
"May I hazard a guess, Harmsworth?" said Mr.
Phipps. as they moved away together.
"What is it?"
"That the necklaces will never be found."
"That will be rather serious for me and for Lady
Rosedale." said Harmsworth grimly.
"It might be much more serious for the thief,"
returned Mr. Phipps, "and, as a- man of humane feel-
ing. I am bound to think of him also. I sympathize
with you; but, frankly, for Lady Rosedale I have not
the slightest sympathy. She does not deserve it."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE POLICE CONFER.
S OME hours after the robbery at the Myrtle Bank
Hotel the Inspector General of the Jamaica
Police was seated in his office, a spacious room
situated on the ground floor of a large block
of yellowish ferro-concrete buildings in the lower or
business section of the city of Kingston. Two wire-
screened windows, facing westwards and opened at
the top, admitted light and air, while shutting off the
interior of the room effectually from all curious or
impertinent glances thrown towards it by those who
passed without.
The Inspector General was a short, thick-set man,
with perky features and of martial appearance. He
had been a Major in the King's Army, and was now
head of the semi-military police organisation of Ja-
maica by virtue of having served in India in an en-
tirely different capacity from that of a policeman.
Ordinarily, in spite of its self-sufficient expression,
his face gave one an impression of determination and
shrewdness; and indeed those who knew him be(t
were satisfied that Major Fellspar was anything bit
Sa tool Just now. however, he was looking neither







PLANTERS' PUNCH


sibfwd nao self-confident, but irritable, worried, per-
gWkiid. For now he was faced with the biggest prob-
lem of his life-the recovery of Lady Rosedale's jewels.
He sat at his desk, and his Deputy, a tall placid
person of noncommittal features, was seated at his
right hand near the desk. Inspector Harmsworth
occupied a chair a few feet away from the Deputy,
while against the western wall of the office, in an
attitude of alert attention, stood the two detectives
who had conducted the Investigation at the Myrtle
Bank Hotel that morning.
Inspector Harmsworth had been specially sum-
moned, with Detectives Brown and Sampson, to a
conference with the Chief and his Deputy. At pre-
sent the role of the Deputy seemed to be to show
sympathy with his puzzled and sorely-tried superior
officer.
The latter had read through carefully the state-
ments made to Sergeant Brown by Lady Rosedale,
Miss Braeme, Mr. Phipps, the hotel's watchman, the
night maid on the first floor of the Myrtle Bank, and
one or two of the bellfoys. Brown had been thorough
in his efforts to educe information which he thought
likely to be at all valuable. The names of persons
who were known to have been in the vicinity of Lady
Rosedale's room during the night before, and their
movements, in so far as these could be ascertained,
were duly recorded in the papers on the Inspector
General's desk. A bellboy-the same whom Mr.
Phipps had sent for his cigarettes-had mentioned
that Mr. Beaman had also searched Mr. Phipps's room
for cigarettes, and had remained upstairs for several
minutes. The night-watchman had stated that he
had seen no one on the roof of the verandah, or mak-
ing any attempt to reach it from the ground. The
Inspector General, after reading through this man's
statement twice, turned to the Deputy with a gesture
of irritation.
"It would seem from what this night-watchman
has said," he fumed, "that he is a model of vigilance
and did nothing all last night except keep his eyes
fixed on that part of the hotel where Lady Rosedaje's
room is situated. I gather that, for some entirely
inexplicable reason, he had that room under his sur-
veillance for several hours. Now how can we be ex-
pected to believe any such preposterous thing?"
"Quite so, sir," murmured the Deputy; "his state-
ment isn't worth much to us."
"There is this man, Beaman," continued the
Chief: "what was he doing so long in Phlpps's room?"
"I understand that he was worried last night;
gloomy and abstracted," explained Harmsworth. "He
wouldn't be very quick and lively in the circum-
stances."
"But what was he gloomy about? That's some-
thing for you to find out."
"Very well, sir."
"Then there is this actress: you tell me that
Brown suspected her from the start?"
"I did, Chief," put in Detective Brown himself
respectfully; "for though it is true that she did lock
the lady's trunk after she put back the jewel box, she
might have taken out the necklace while the box was
on the table, when Lady Rosedale wasn't looking, and
slipped it into her pocket."
"A lady's evening dress does not contain pockets,"
remarked Inspector Harmsworth. "Ladies' dresses
are not made with pockets now-a-days."
"You seem to know a great deal about ladies'
dresses, Mr. Harmsworth," said the Inspector General
grimly. "Could she not have slipped it into her
bodice?"
But Lady Rosedale is positive, as you will see
f im her statement, sir, that she did not take her
eyes off the jewel case while it was on the dressing
table. In fact, she opened it and handled it herself
up to the moment she asked Miss Braeme to put it
away In the trunk. There can be no doubt of that."
"So that takes suspicion off Miss Braeme," said
the Inspector General; "and of course the pearls and
her own jewellery were stolen out of her room."
"But what about Mr. Phipps?" asked the Deputy.
"I am coming to that," said Major Fellspar.
"Phipps admits that he retired to his room last night
almost before anybody else did. His room is situated
near to Lady Rosedale's and Miss Braeme's. It would
be easy enough for him to slip out of his room on to
the verandah, and enter rooms nearby, wouldn't It?
He could do io at different hours of the night if he is
a man of nerve. But how would he know where Lady
Rosedale kept her diamonds?"
"The young lady might have told him, Chief,"
remarked Detective Brown bluntly.
"Brown still suspects the actress," the Inspector
General went on; "and he may be quite right. But
bow can we establish complicity between the two?"
"That is the question, sir," said the Deputy.
"It is, and it is only one of the questions we have
got to answer. The Governor has already beard of
this robbery, and has telephoned me to say T must
leave no stone unturned to get back the necklaces.
He doesn't understand the difficulties in the way.
This Police Force was never intended to deal with
such problems!"
"I think Phipps above suspicion myself," observed
Inspector Harmsworth. "And as Miss Braeme has
been in the island for less than a month, she could
hardly be a confederate of Phipps."
"But what do we really know about him?" asked
the Chief. "Who is he? His name by the way"-he


took up a paper from his desk-"is Archibald K.
Phlpps. What does the K stand for??"
Nobody seemed to know; but, from the look on
his face, the Deputy apparently considered the ques-
tion one of vast importance, the answer to which
would materially assist the Police in a solution of
the problem before It.
"What does the K mean?" again demanded the
Inspector General, looking round the room for inform-
ation. His eyes happened to rest upon the face of
Detective Sampson. The latter, thinking that he was
directly addressed, and wishing to be helpful, hurried-
ly suggested that the K might mean "Cupid."
"You ass!" stormed the head of the Police, "Cupid
is not spelt with a K! How am I ever to find these
necklaces if I have a staff that cannot even spell?
What do you know about this man, Phipps, Mr.
Harmsworth ?"
"He is an American, sir, who has been about two
years in the colony. He owns or rents a small pro-
perty In St. Ann, about fifty or sixty miles from here,
and is believed to be pretty well off. He has been
back to the States three or four times since he settled
In Jamaica."
"Is he really well off?"
"Nobody seems to know exactly. But he is a
very pleasant sort of man. Quite sporting."
'He seems a suspicious sort of person to me,"
sniffed the Inspector General; "besides it is decidedly
queer that he should have hurried away to his lawyers
while Brown was investigating the robbery. What
did he go to Jones and Bedlaw for?"
"That of course we don't know," murmured In-
spector Harmsworth.
'No; and it is a pity that we don't. But we can't
ask a man's lawyers anything about him, and a firm
like Jones and Bedlaw can't even be remotely sus-
pected of receiving stolen goods--that is quite out of
the question."
"True," agreed Inspector Harmsworth. "I don't
quite see myself that there is anything to connect this
robbery with Mr. Phipps," he added.
"We may know more about that later on. His
movements have been very peculiar. Still, it seems
to me that Brown has been clinging tar too much to
his belief that the robbery was committed by someone
in the hotel; why shouldn't it have been done by one
jf our ordinary burglars? Why should we Insist
upon leaving well-known burglars out of account?"
"We are not doing that, sir," Inspector Harms-
worth hastened to assure him. "We propose to search
the rooms of those we have any reason to imagine
might have been connected with this theft. I have
already made arrangements for that. I think it quite
likely myself that some one of them may have com-
mitted this robbery."
"But, begging your pardon, Inspector, no thief
from outside could know about where Lady Rosedale
kept her necklace, or that Miss Braeme next to her
had a necklace for him to steal at the same time," in-
sisted Detective Brown.
"As to the necklaces," replied Inspector Harms-
worth, "any burglar might have heard of them from
a bellboy. From the same source he could have ob-
tained an impression of Lady Rosedale's locks. I
don't think It at all impossible for false keys to be
made by clever crooks here. Why should it be?"
Brown was about to retort to the efect that a
Jamaica burglar who only searched for an expensive
necklace on breaking into a jewel case would be a
type quite new to his experience, but the look on the
Inspector General's face did not encourage him to an
argument with Inspector Harmsworth.
"Have you questioned all the bellboys?" asked the
Inspector General.
"Yes, sir," said Harmsworth; "but what they said
was quite straightforward, and their movements last
night can easily be accounted for. They.are all fel-
lows of good character: we have nothing against them
in our records."
"We are all of.good character until we are found
out," muttered the Chief sententiously. "But if these
boys have no police records, we cannot of course ar-
rest any of them on suspicion. That's a great pity.
Perhaps you could find out something about one of
them by enquiring of previous employes?"
This question having been addressed to Brown,
he answered that he would do his best, his manner
suggesting that he bad no doubt whatever that, by en-
quiring closely enough, he could discover much to the
detriment of anybody's character.
"If one of our ordinary thieves has stolen Lady
Rosedale's jewels," continued the Inspector General,
"their recovery will be an easy matter. You will find
them under his bed, or under the flooring of his
room: they never seem to hide their booty anywhere
else. But if someone of a different type has got hold
of them, then only an accident, so far as I can see,
will put us on their track. We have almost nothing
to go upon. Lady Rosedale completely exonerates
Miss Braeme, and. anyhow, nothing is found in Miss
Braeme's room. Beaman's movements after he went
to Phippe's room, and after he left the hotel, have yet
to be thoroughly investigated, but I don't see that
that will help us at all. We come back to Mr. Phipps;
but what is there damaging against him? Nothing.
He is laughing at us: that is plain from what you
told me this morning. If he is an American crook,
he knows that we are not organized here for dealing
with a man like him. I don't know what the devil we


are organized for," he concluded angrily, "since I can
never get the Government to give me the money I need
for making this Force worth a curse."
Here the Deputy gurgled some words of sympathy,.
and Detectives Brown and Sampson assumed expres-
sions indicative of their deep disapproval of Govern-
ment parsimony. But they did not dare to gurgle.
That would have been indiscipline and rank imperti-
nence.
"I shall have to take an active part in this en-
quiry, Harmsworth," the Inspector Genpral resumed;
"the Governor has asked me to do so. Well, have the-
room of every habitual criminal searched thorough--
ly; you can put all the detectives on the job, saver
those we have at the Myrtle Bank Hotel. How many
have you got there now?"
"One, sir-Dixon. He was left there to watch the
movements of the persons connected with this case."
"Very good. I think I shall call on Lady Rose-
dale this afternoon. It will encourage her to know
that I myself am looking after her case."
He rose from his chair, signifying that the con-
ference was at an end. As be did so, the telephone-
bell tinkled.
The Deputy, who was nearest to the telephone,.
put the receiver to his ear.
"Yes; this is the Inspector General's office; yes.
Inspector Harmsworth is here. Dixon wants you,
Harmsworth," said the ,Deputy, handing Inspector
Harmsworth the receiver; "he is speaking from'
idyrtle Bank."
The Inspector General paused in the act of put-
ting on his helmet, his interest fully aroused. Harms-
worth listened attentively to the voice at the-
other end of the 'phone, then called out to Detective
Dixon to "hold the line." "Dixon says," he informed
Major Fellspar, "that Mr. Phipps left the Myrtle Bank-
in his big motor car a few minutes ago, going at full
speed. Phipps seems to have sent over to the garage
for it, and Dixon believes he is not returning toe-night
He wants to know what he is to do."
A lobk of triumph flitted over the heavy face of
Detective Brown, who evidently saw in this latest
move of Mr. Phlpps's ample justification of all suspi-
cions entertained against him. Major Fellspar smote-
the desk with his open hand.
"Gone, eh!" he exclaimed; "gone to his country
home as quickly and as unexpectedly as possible.
What do you make of that, Harmaworth?"
"He is always coming and going, sir."
I don't like the look of it all the same," returned
the Inspector General. He came to a swift decision.
"We must keep a sharp eye on that man. He'll repay
watching."
"Could we get a car and follow him?" suggested
the Deputy.
"We could, but it would be half an hour at least
before you could start, and he is probably expecting
that we'll make some such effort. We'd hardly be able-
to overtake him it his car is a good one-and I sup-
pose it Is."
"A Hudson super-six," said Harmsworth.
"That makes any pursuit we could offer quite out.
of the question; and if we did overtake him, what
could we do? It would not be wise to arrest himn
without good reason to believe that he had the neck-
laces with him. He may bie a crook; I believe he is
myself; but you can never be certain about Ameri-
cans. He may be a second cousin or something or
some Senator we never heard of, and we don't want















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PLANTERS' PUNCH


A.merimean eitisens being brutally
inhales Police. Let him go! Let
*i.We entertain no further suspicion
t'iay him careless. To-morrow I
steps weimust take with regard to
ed the necklaces in the meantime."
tIm:walked out of the office, the others
IbcTspeetor Harmsworth had informed
Vftat Myrtle Bank to proceed at once to the
huib to await further instructions.
: *lhk emerged upon the public gardens
: building in which his office was, but
to waste upon the grass plots and grace-
ireleved the harshness of the ferro-con-
n every side. He strolled towards the
t with low, thick-leaved trees, and
The street was filled with men and wo-
complexions hurrying home after
a k talking loudly of the things that in-
the black, uniformed policeman at the
e hinmelf up to attention and saluted, but
Ii'nor, policeman did Major Fellspar
a a gloitbus afternoon, an exuberance of
it seemed to characterise everyone that
aSfternoon along the principal business
of Kingston. Brt Major Fellspar did
nt and was Interested In nothing at
Siave necklaces and their recovery. The
Selphone message to him had been far
t .ry than be had mentioned to his sub-
ti'h he Governor had said that the necklaces
fetund.. "I am a soldier and not a damned
. reflected the Inspector General, but that
iranswer he could return to His Excellency.
mli towards Lady Rosedale, as he entered the
lmered the driver to take him to the Myrtle
Yi bordered on personal hate.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

.:tIDY ROOBDALE'S SUSPICIONS.
ifti ellspar did not consider that it was
It all consistent with his dignity that he
:1Uid be personally identified with this
:-marh for stolen jewels. That was work
itctive Department, which should report
ifety now and then to him, and possibly ask
Aljritieons and advice. It would have been so
OiNii01 stolen been of ordinary value, and the
that of ordinary position; in such a case the
It 0wuld have taken not the slightest notice
Uji5f. But Lady Rosedale on her arrival had
tAkng's House, and the Governor and his wife
mned her call. She was a woman whose name
ired in the English society papers and about
l~London Morning Post had more than once
ik.It paragraph. She was therefore, if but in
Ltenner, something of a personage in Eng-
meant that in a British West Indian
0'.was a very Important personage indeed.
f l to be somewhat set aside even by an In-
biea--in dealing with such a lady: this
kiitur distinctly realized. But this reflec-
fat tend to make him feel kindly disposed
;Eady Rosedale. He wished that she had
BSm to the Island, and, but for the fact that
i .ltE of the Police was at stake, would have
Believe that her necklaces would never
K'Atnulhment which he thought she merited
!lte of losing them.
int drive through dingy streets of low, wood-
rblouses with their short fights of steps
,,ion narrow, unpaved sidewalks, and of
~b dreeided over by placid Chinamen attend-
Iaser of difk-hued people making purchases
3latlg's dinner, brought Major Fellspar to
i BankT Hote Received with marked de-
t thoeporter, he handed his card to a bellboy
.tser that it should be taken up to Lady
. Thie lobby was filled with people, many of
Shim curiously, his uniform indicating his
htwith the Police, and his authoritative ap-
-aiggesting that he was someone very high
'l rce. The Inspector General seemed quite
of the glances and conjectures which his
Itt evoked, but nevertheless was keenly
onPe m He was aware that he was, at the
aL ciatre of attraction and attention; this
dieto his v~~ity-and at once he began to feel
lirall, there might be compensations for the
"lid,. been called upon against his will to
ae..' The amiability of his -manner, as he
&i the foot of the staircase to meet Lady Rose-
,i. therefore not altogether assumed. He felt
Siati now than he had done but a brief five
I tWore.
kisaw Lady Rosedale slightly: had met her at
li'.gLven by the Governor some three weeks
th greeted each other with much cordiali-

1b* good of you to come round yourself." she
t feel almost certain now that the thief will
eed. Shall we have tea on the verandah
S~jwna: you take tea, don't you?"
ll be delighted to have a cup." he answered.
eHent." He seated himself at a spot in-
l'.ady Rosedale, on the lawn just beyond
"tbe right wing of the southern verandah,
a view of the lobby, the lawn and the rest
&dah was easily obtained.


"I have hda a day of it," began Lady Rosedale,
after she had given the order for tea. With a quick
sweeping glance she had taken In the scene round
and about her. There were at least two hundred
people on the lawn besides those sauntering about the
lobby and on the verandah. And momently the
number grew. No person there but knew now who
she was and of the great misfortune that had recently
befallen her. They must know, moreover, that this
military-looking man was one of the big men of
the colony, and the word would soon go forth that he
was no less than the Inspector General of the Police
himself, a-man at the mention of whose name (so she
thought) every criminal in the colony trembled. As
a matter of tact, mist of the criminals had never
heard of him, and would not have been greatly dis-
turbed if they had. Their main concern was with the
common interfering policeman and the prying plain-
clothes detective. But Lady Rosedale would never
have imagined that, and certainly, to those per-
sons in whose opinion she was interested, the In-
spector General stood as the embodiment of the might,
'majesty and unceasing vigilance of British Law.
The whole hotel was now taking note of the cir-
cumstance that, beginning with the advent of two
native detectives to investigate her loss, the day was
closing with the coming of the Inspector General him-
self to talk the matter over with her. But when she
said she had had a day of it, she meant merely to
imbly that she had passed through a most trying ordeal.
The keen satisfaction she had extracted out of that
ordeal was not to be suspected by anyone.
"I have had a most trying day of it," she said.
"After your detectives left, some reporters came
and asked to see me. I thought of refusing to see
them, but that might have been churlish: after all,
newspapers must print news. .Those of this city are
usually without any."
"Yes; and I wish they would confine themselves
to news," said Major Fellspar, with a nasty feeling
that, if the necklaces were not speedily recovered, the
newspapers might begin to say unpleasant things
about the local Police and its head.
"That is what I said to the young men to-day,
when they asked me for a photograph. I hate seeing
my picture in the papers; I have always avoided it
when I can. But they were quite pressing and I did
not know how to refuse them. I suppose one must do
in Rome as the Romans do. Do you take sugar, Major
Fellpar"'
"One cube, please. I would not advise you to do
in Jamaica as the Jamaicans do, though."
"What is that?"
"Oh, everything," he replied rather vaguely, but
*ith his mind still on the possibility of bitter and un-
necessarily personal criticism if the necklaces should
not be found. "So you gave them your photograph?
That was very kind of you, I am sure. Did they get
one from Miss Braeme?"
"Marian? No; she would not hear of it. And I
did not press her to give them one. As a matter of
fact she would not see the reporters: she has not left
her room all day, she is so disturbed and distressed
by aH that has happened."
Lady Rosedale did not mention that why she had
not aided the reporters and pressed Marian to have
her photograph reproduced in the newspapers, was be-
cause she had seen no necessity why, the really valu-
able jewels being hers, anyone else should appear be-
fore the newspaper'footlights as a sufferer. Marian
would be mentioned In the reports, of course; but
she herself would dominate the stage of publicity.
Considering the magnitude of her loss, there was no-
thing unfair about that. It was indeed but eminently
just.
"So Miss Braeme would not allow her picture to
appear," commented the Inspector General. "But she
is an actress, and can have no real objection to pub-
licity. She gets it every day."
"She said she'd rather not; and, anyhow, she had
no photograph with her and would have had to take a
new one. The one of myself that I gave the reporters
was taken two years ago, but of course I could not
think of being photographed specially for a newspaper
in connection with a robbery. I don't know that I
ought to have given them my photograph at all."
"One has to dp these things now and then," re-
marked the Inspector General sympathetically, "but
I can quite understand the ordeal through which you
have gone. The lose first, and the confusion and the
interviews after-terrible. But we'll get the jewellery
and the thief; both yours and Miss Braeme's. You
can depend upon us for that." Thus he spoke, with a
fervent hope that some special Providence would come
to the aid of the Police. Less than this he did not
dare to say to Lady Rosedale.
"Whom do you suspect?" she asked him.
"In a case of this kind," he answered confidential-
ly, "the Police cast their net wide. We have our eye
on several persons. You may rest assured that the
Police of England and America have been informed
of this robbery, and your description of the jewels
has been telegraphed to them. Everybody leav-
ing this Island during the next few weeks will have
their luggage carefully examined on the lther side.
There is no possibility of their being smuggled
through any foreign custom house."
"And you suspect several persons?"
"I do. And, as I have said, I have my eye on
them."
"There he is again!"


40.


Lady Rosedale spoke with petulance, ald, follow-
Ing her glance, the Inspector General found himself
looking at a quiet, strong-featured young man who
had just come out of the lobby and was busily scani
ning the lawn in evident search of someone.
"Who is that?" he asked.
"A Mr. Beaman. He makes it a practice to come
here every day now."
"He is the man who went upstairs to Mr. Phippe's
room last night and remained there for some time,
isn't he?" enquired Major Fellspar, looking narrowly
at Lawrence, who was totally unconscious that he was
an object of scrutiny and discussion.
"Did he?" asked Lady Rosedale. "I hadn't heard
of It. Besides--"
She paused as an idea seemed to dawn and de-
velop in her mind. "How did you hear that, and
why?" she demanded.
Major Fellspar was sorry he had said anything
about Lawrence; but there was no evading an answer
to Lady Rosedale's question.
"It is our business to make an enquiry into the
movements of everyone who was in your part of the
house last night," he replied. "It doesn't mean any-
thing more than a necessary precaution."
"Do you believe that a poor man who is deeply in
love would commit a burglary?" suddenly asked Lady
Rosedale.
"Being in love would have nothing to do with
the theft, so far as I can see," replied Major Fellapar,
thinking that she was making a humorous sally.
"Love and theft have no necessary connection, have
they? A poor man, if a thief, would steal whether he
were in love or not. Unless he was taken with sudden
ambitions about reforming and becoming honest; but
those wouldn't last, I am afraid. Once a thief, always
a thief."
"But," insisted Lady Rosedale, "if a man was
poor, and desperately in love, and wanted money bad-
ly; if he could not get the girl he loved while he re-
mained poor; do you think he would rob?"
"He might," admitted Major Fellspar, "that has
happened again and again. He fixed his eyes keenly
on Lady Rosedale's face. "What are you thinking
about?" he asked, now fully aware that her remarks
were not intended as light conversation and meaning-
less.
"Well," said Lady Rosedale slowly, "It is only an
idea that has just occurred to me, and I don't say or
think myself that there is anything in it. Still, I
suppose I should not conceal anything from you,
should I? That would not be quite fair to you?"
"It would not," agreed the Inspector General.
"That young man,"-her voice was hardly above
a whisper-"comes here to see Miss Braeme: he is
deeply in love with her. Her brother knows It and
is furious at the very thought: quite rightly, for 1 feel
the same way myself. I am trying to do what I can
for Marian, of whom I am very fond, and I agree with
her brother that it would be madness for her even to
think of a young man who has only his salary, which
may not be very much, and who has to live all his
life in a country like this."
"The salary may be ample," replied Major Fell-
spar, a little stiffly, "and I have been in many worse
countries."
"But this man is not an official," Lady Rosedale
hastened to explain, conscious that the Inspector Gen-
eral was offended. "He has no position. It is really
presumption In him to have fallen head over ears In
love with a bright and promising girl like Marian:
don't you think so?"
"I am not acquainted with Miss Braeme," return-
ed Major Fellspar, "but you should be able to judge
admirably."
"He was here last night, and you say he was near
my room for some time. Well, I would not dream of
accusing him of anything, but I know he was looking
desperate last night: perfectly miserable. I hope he
did not yield to any sudden temptation ... What do
you think?"
"I can hardly believe that he would have robbed
Miss Braeme if, as you say, he is desperately in love
with her. That doesn't seem reasonable, does it?"
"But the pearl necklace was mine, and not
Marian's, and perhaps he knew it. He saw her wear-
ing it: why should she not have told him whose it
was? There was nothing to hide."
"Oh, that puts a different complexion on this
business!" exclaimed Major Fellspar. ".You think he
may have robbed you first and Miss Braeme after-
wards, knowing that both necklaces were yours. And
of course be would take the rest of the things he
found in her drawer. The wonder is that he-or
rather, the thief-didn't take everything you had in
your jewel case."
"I should imagine that he took quite enough,"
said Lady Rosedale. "He did not rob everything from
Marian either. Only the things in her top drawer."
"He would have had to be contemplating the rob-
bery for some time," reflected Major Fellspar aloud;
"no sudden impulse would have enabled him to get
an impression of your locks. There was nothing
sudden about this business, I am afraid."
"I don't suppose there was,'and, mark you, I am
suggesting nothing against this unfortunate young
man. But I should like my jewellery back, and he
was as poor a week ago as he was last night. Would
anyone have required more than a week to plan a
burglary like thls, do you think?"
"Not necessarily, f will keep in mind what vou


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PLANTERS' PUNCH 21,


jMbid, and of course you will mention it to no one
i -you understand, don't you? I say! he seems to
miiminng up to us."
SThis was true. Lawrence, satisfied that Marian
is not within sight, had determined to ask Lady
da dale about her. The latter's aversion for him
id not affect him greatly now; it was Marian's own
laration of the hopelessness of his love for her that
Present dominated his thoughts.
SHe went up to Lady Rosedale, indifferent to her
itltue of aloofness, and, as he had already heard of
r. lose, begged to offer his sympathy. Lady Rose-
ie made no attempt to introduce him to Major
Slpar, who, while Lawrence stood there, studied
Im'quietly He remembered having seen the young
an before, but had not observed him particularly
i6b. As for Lady Rosedale, she thanked Lawrence
irthis sympathy and said she hoped and believed the
olies would be successful.
S."And Miss Braeme was also robbed?" said Law-
me. "I was extremely sorry to hear of it. Is she
t-?"
'liSfhe has not left her room since morning," re-
e4 Lady Rosedale.
"Do you know if she is coming down?"
:'"I believe she said she might: she wasn't sure."
' There was nothing to say after this. Lawrence
Uded to wait and see if Marian would appear. He
red and walked away.
:.What do you think of him?" enquired Lady
~iale of the Inspector General, after Lawrence
I moved off.
ia~lrst impressions may be absolutely deceptive,"
That gentleman, "but he looks to me about the
| man 1 should suspect of breaking into your room.
has the face of the sort of men who make reliable
rmrB. I know the type."
jWell, that is something in his favour," admitted
.Losedale; "but I don't think he is a very popular
man; be has very few friends. The only per-
*Iho speaks very highly of him is an American
ePhipps. Do you know Mr. Phipps?"
:.".seem to have been hearing of almost nothing
ihippa to-asy." said the Inspector General.
Firybody mentions him."
dy Rosedale-Miss Braeme-Mr. Carfew-
.liSmth-Miss Hellingworth-" a bellboy with a
Sof telegrams in his hand was lustily "paging"
-pl people without, as it seemed, pausing once
iEbeath. He was hurrying by, when Major Fell-
I 'led out to him: "Here's Lady Rosedale." To
yhe handed a telegram and sped away on his
,of further discovery. With an "excuse me,"
i-oedale opened the telegram and swiftly
its contents. "From Mr. Phipps," she said.

CHAPTER NINE.

THE INVITATION.
".'I, here is Marian."
Major Fellspar, though burning with
anxiety to know what Mr. Phipps had tele-
Sgraphed to Lady Rosedale about, followed
'eyes the movement of her head and saw com-
i&y towards them a tall. graceful girl, with a
'Diette complexion and large dark eyes.
nCreature," he commented, and the next
introduced.
are you feeling now, my dear?" enquired
dale kindly, after Marian had accepted the
I Major Fellspar had hastened to secure for
rny better?"
Ieh better, thank you," said Marian, and Major
admired the low musical tones of her voice.
che's gone, but of course the anxiety is

t:it had not was evident from the strained
of her eyes and lips. She felt the
more keenly than Lady Rosedale, con-
Inspector General, and it came to his mind
hi .his detectives had suspected her of the
iUt like a damned detective," he reflected
lor he had taken at once to Marian, and
S as an officer of the King's Army and not
n* i that be thought of himself.
X.tOius about nothing," he assured her;
ieave the Police to do the worrying for you.
Police may not be quick, Miss Braeme,
Warwonderfully sure. I have known them
itbfi:six months after he had made a haul."
tirf 'must have been very stupid then,"
....Bosedale's comment "Six months! I do
:to remain here for half that time."
.wUill it be necessary," said the Inspector
well-assumed conviction.
km for you, miss!"
,balboy with the telegrams had returned; he
ja one of the messages which he had been

t. Phipps," said Major Fellspar smiling.
lng on that."
opened the envelope. "You are right,"
t-.reply, and read aloud:
hftigue of last night. I propose excur-
tr.. home Sunday. Gone to arrange
'to-dnrrow. Do you good. Will take
j..kj ie invited. Cars to take you."
iPe also," cried Lady Rosedale; "only
rina party. Considering that I know
t.y, this is strange."


"He seems "to have invited a lot of other people
here, judging by the batch of telegrams that boy was
carrying round," said Major Fellspar. "But why tele-
grams, and where did he send them from?" The ques-
tion was casually put, but Major Fellspar very much
wanted to have an answer.
Marian glanced at the paper in her hand. "They
were handed in at the central telegraph office in
Kingston an hour ago," she said; "the place is not
much more than a quarter of a mile from here. He
could have written us notes in this hotel."
"He went or sent from here to the central tele-
graph office and wasted money in despatching these
messages," said Lady Rosedale. "But that's just the
sort of thing you would expect him to do," she added.
"The man is perfectly eccentric."
"He certainly does things in a way of his own,"
agreed Major Fellspar, who was now wishing very
much to meet this strange and eccentric Mr. Phippa
who threw away money on telegrams without any
apparent reason. Half-a-dozen other persons had
these messages in their hands and were comparing
them. The picnic that Mr. Phipps was arranging
was evidently to be on a considerable scale.
Some of these people now came up to Marian with
kindly enquiries. They had not seen *her the whole
day; they wanted to hear from herself all about her
sensations; she was, in their minds, the central figure
of a very interesting drama.
She soon found herself in the midst of them,
and drawn away from Lady Rosedale and Major Fells-
par. These, looking on, saw Lawrence Beaman join
the group. The Inspector General felt that he had
been with Lady Rosedale long enough; it was time
for him to take his leave. He rose to go.
"This Mr. Phipps," he remarked casually, pre-
paratory to saying good-bye, "has shown a good deal
of interest in your loss, I believe?"
"Far more than acquaintanceship would seem to
warrant," replied Lady Rosedale. "And what Is more,
he looked thoroughly unsympathetic. I shall not
accept his invitation."
"Well, good-bye for the present," said Major Fells-
par: "I hope to see you shortly agaLn, and with good
news."
"Come in whenever you like," said Lady Rose-
dale; "it will be a comfort to know that you are doing
something to help me;" and the Inspector General
walked away.
As he passed through the lobby, he met a number
of men and women who were just coming in. He
formed the correct conclusion that these were the
members of the moving picture company that had been
out taking pictures that day. These strolled out into
the lawn, and all of them, the director included, rush-
ed up to Lady Rosedale to express their sympathy,
though to some she had never spoken before. With
her the director and his star actress remained after
the general expression of condolence, the rest of the
company trooping off towards Marian.
Marian was obviously the heroine of the hour.
Everybody was eager to know if, during the night,
she had not heard some stealthy, mysterious step, or
stirred in her sleep with a premonition of imminent
danger. "That's how it ought to have happened,"
protested the company's chief actor. "You should
have awakened just in time to see a man disappear-
ing through the window, and you should have dimly
recognized him by something familiar about his form.
But say, Marian. it's all very well for Lady Thing-am-
bob over there to lose her pretty things, but what
about yours? That is a real shame. The crook
might have left you something."
"He didn't take absolutely everything I possessed,
smiled Marian; "I have a ring or so left."
"Yes; but that diamond broach of yours was a
beauty, and that's gone. Say, boys, what about giv-
ing Marian a broach as a birthday present to make up
for the one she has lost.
"But my birthday isn't for some months yet,"
cried Marian.
'It's going to come quicker this year than ever
before," asserted the star actor, a merry, handsome-
looking fellow. "It's going to be this month. "I am
down for fifty dollars. Who's next?"
The idea was caught up by other members of the
company, and the news of what was afoot flew swiftly
among the guests. The holiday spirit implies a gen-
erous mood. Everybody wanted to subscribe some-
thing: insisted upon it. A subscription list was open-
ed at once, and in their eagerness to collect a large
sum of money. Marian's colleagues forget her com-
pletely and went eagerly about their undertaking.
leaving her alone with Lawrence. He had refrained
front putting his name down as a contributor to the
present suggested; he felt instinctively that she would
not like him to be one of the donors; he did not be-
lieve that she even favoured the suggestion. But he
was glad that it caused her to be alone with him, and
she seemed glad of this also. "Let us go on the pier,"
she said quickly, "before they come back: there may
be nobody there."
"I heard all about this robbery fo-day," said Law-
rence gently, when they had found seats. "You must
have had a dreadful time."
"More dreadful than you think," she answered,
.and now her face was no longer smiling. There was
no longer any reason why she should act as though
she were not deeply affected. "The detectives suspect
me. They believed that I had stolen the necklaces."


"What!"
S"It is true; but Lady Rosedale was very nice about
it. The suspicion exists, though, and I feel that I
am going to hear more about it yet."
She was very distressed. For the first time since
he had known her, he saw her eyes fill with tears,
and a wave of wrath swept through him. It was mon-
strous that she should be worried like this, and that
anyone-anyone-should dare to suspect her of theft.
"'This comes," he said bitterly, "of that old
woman's interference with you. I am sure you did
not want to wear her pearls."
"I did not, but she insisted; it can't be helped now.
But I wish I had never come to this country. I have
hardly been happy since I came,-at least, well, I
don't know-"
"You have been unhappy; why?"
"I can't tell you, though you are the best friend
I have here, you and Mr. Phipps. He sent a note up
to my room to-day to tell me not to worry about any-
thing. He was present when the detectives were
making their enquiries, you see, and he followed their
meaning."
"There is nothing for you to worry about." said
Lawrence vehemently. He luoked at her, a some-
what pathetic figure now in the waning light. He
longed to take her in his arms and tell her that if she
would trust to him no evil should come near her. He
felt capable of protecting her against anyone or any-
thing, if onlI she would give him the right to do so.
As it was, he felt strangely impotent, realising as he
did that, as matters stood, he could do nothing to take
her troubles upon himself.
The gold and crimson glory that had flamed on
the western horizon had suddenly passed into deep
purple, and here and there in the sky above a silver
star peeped forth. The sea murmured, darkling, and
a vague melancholy seemed to creep slowly over sea
and sky. in tune with the sad spirits of the girl who
rested her head wearily against the railing of the pier.
"You "are overwrought," he said gently. "You
have been working very hard in an unaccustomed
climate. You were dancing last night until a late
hour, and from morning you have been worried al-
most to death. That is why you feel so cast-down and
distressed. The feeling will pass; what can it matter
what a stupid policeman thought or suggested? He
would not dare to put his impertinent suspicions into
words. Don't think any more about it. Phipps sent
you an invitation to go to th.i country on Sunday, did
he not?"
"ies: I intended to tell you of it."
"He telephoned me from the hotel to-day to say
that he was going to arrange for the trip and the pic-
nic at his place in St. Ann. I believe he has done it
all on your account; he wants to get you away from
here, even for a day. You will go?"
'I don't know. My brother-I don't know if he
has been invited."
"Others have been. You can go without your
brother, though probably he too has been Invited.
You ought to go; promise me that you will?"
"You are going? You know the place, I suppose?"
"Very well indeed." He smiled slightly. "It
belongs to me, as a matter of fact. I leased It to Mr.
Phipps a few months after he came to this country.
I was born in that house, and I love it. I should like
you to see it. Will you go?"
'I think I will: I should like to see your old
home."
She rose, and wiped her eyes with a little lace
handkerchief she carried. "I suppose I must go up-
stairs now and change for dinner," she said; "you are
coming down here to-night?"
"I am remaining right on; I'll .stay here and
dine," he replied. "You won't mind my telling you
now that I want to be near to you always, especially
if you are in any way worried and distressed. Re-
member you can always depend upon me in any
emergency. I want you to feel that I am ever ready
to do anything I can for you. That is the least that
can be said by-a friend."
She looked at him gratefully. The brief talk had
done her good, had relieved something of the oppres-
sion at her heart. There was almost a happy look on
her face as they left the pier together.

CHAPTER TEN.

A PASSAGE-AT-ARAS.

T HEY strolled up the gravel walk towards the
hotel, now blazing with light at every window
and through the graceful arches which sup-
ported the verandah's roof. As they entered
the lobby Marian was gaily greeted by a tall fair girl
who was sitting just by the staircase with Stephen
Braeme. Both rose to meet them.
"Marian, I hardly saw anything of you last
night!" exclaimed the girl, impulsively kissing her.
"I was mostly with your brother, and you were with\
everybody. How popular you are!"
"So are you, Nora," smiled Marian. "If you
didn't dance with a lot of men last night, that was
because you didn't want to. How many did you re-
fuse?"
"Oh, a host. But this brother of yours and I get
on famously, so I gave him most of my dances. My
dear-" she turned abruptly to another subject- "I
have been hearing all about the burglary from Mr.
Braeme. I think I should have died of fright If r


MEMEM







PLANTERS' PUNCH


tM t awake an4 seen a man robbing in my room!
It's a blesast that you slept through it all. I'll tell
you what I have come down here for to-night: I want
to take you and your brother off to dinner; you must
come."
Lawrence felt himself out of the picture. He
knew Nora Hamilton, a bright attractive girl, fairly
well, and he admired her freshness, her gay spirits,
her impulsiveness. Her white and pink complexion,
hazel eyes, her soft bronze hair and finely moulded
features, delighted the eye; and, as Marian had said,
she was immensely popular. You thought of her at
once as "a nice girl": that expression described her
perfectly. Like Lawrence, she was Jamaican by birth,
her parents being Scotch settlers in the colony. She
herself had been educated in England, ana had been
back in Jamaica now for something over a year.
.Lawrence was a mere acquaintance of hers. He
had not gone much into society when younger, the
hard conditions of his life, as well as his naturally re-
served and proud spirit, forbidding, and society
had come to the conclusion that he was out of It. He
had never been of it, so now there was a sort of sub-
conscious determination on the part of some of
its members that he should never be. He himself
never made any effort to extend the narrow circle
of his friends; on the other hand it was quite clear
to him that very few people of the class to which
Nora belonged showed any desire to make of him a
friend, a circumstance which had never troubled
him, since it fitted in so well with his own inclina-
tions. Nora would not willingly have hurt his feel-
ings; she would have done anything to avoid doing
so. Yet it never occurred to her to include him in
the invitation she was extending in his hearing to
Marian and Stephen. Both of these had often noticed
before that Lawrence was by a sort of general agree-
ment excluded from social functions by people who
pressed their invitations on the members of the mov-
ing picture company, and Lawrence kney that they
had noticed it. This, he was also aware, could scarce-
ly help to induce Stephen Braeme to adopt towards
him a particularly friendly attitude. Stephen chose
fashionable company by preference, though in his re-
lations with everybody he was certainly not a snob.
"It is awfully nice of you to want me, but I am
afraid I cannot come to-night, Nora," said Marian.
"I shan't be up late to-night: I have had a pretty
troublesome day of it."
"Then come and spend the day on Sunday."
"I am going down to St. Ann to spend Sunday
'with Mr. Phipps."
"Phipps!" broke in Stephen; "has he invited you
too? He seems to have asked a lot of people here."
"Aren't you invited?" enquired Marian.
"No," said Stephen, "I cannot understand it; he
must have purposely forgotten me. Have you been
invited?" he questioned Lawrence.
"Yes," answered Lawrence dryly.
"I might have guessed it! I hope you are going
to refuse the invitation. Marian. Even if Mr. Phlbps
has no liking for me-though I thought we were
friendly-it would at least have been polite of him.
remembering I am your brother, to have included me
in his party. I say it is downright rude of him!"
Stephen looked intensely annoyed, his eyes rested
on Lawrence as though he believed that Lawrence had
had something to do with his being Ignored by Mr.
Phipps. He clearly wished Marian to refuse the in-
vitation.
"I have made up my mind to go," she said quiet-
ly, but with a ring of determination in her voice. "I
don't suppose my going will make any difference to
you."
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.
"Just what I have said. I cannot imagine that
your not being with me at Mr. Phipps's house will in
any way disturb you."
"I wouldn't have gone if I had been invited," he
retorted hotly, though with evident insincerity. "It
is not his invitation that I desire, but polite treat-
ment."
"I did not believe you really wanted to go," she
replied.
"No; and I do not want you to go either."
Nora looked from the one to the other with a
smile at first, then realized that both were in deadly
earnest.
"Oh, come," she cried, "you two are surely not
going to quarrel! I am not a stranger, but a row al-
ways makes me feel uncomfortable. Never mind Mr.
Phipps, Mr. Braeme; he is a little peculiar, but such
an old dear. He doesn't mean anything by not asking
you; but he is just the man to think that a brother
is a nuisance when a sister is around. Brothers
think sisters dr trop at times also," she concluded
archly: "I have known such. Besides. he hasn't in-
vited me either, and I am not vexed."
"Mr. Phipps can be counted on to make special
facilities to assist those in whom he happens to be
interested," said Stephen, still in angry tones. "He
has done so now."
"Why, what do you mean?" asked Nora curiously;
then noticed that Stephen's eyes were fixed with a
contemptuous expression on Lawrence Beaman. A
swift look of comprehension swept over her face. It
flashed upon her that perhaps the reason why Marian
had refused her dinner Invitation was because Law-
rence hid not been included. She hesitated. Law-
rence Beaman-well, but Lawrence Beamin was not
in society, not in her set, and how could she invite


CHARACTER SNAPSHOT


MR. O. K. HENRIQUES


Mr. 0. K. Henriques always looks as though he
n.ver had a care in the world. He seems to take life
easily. Yet he is the head of two of the largest
businesses in Jamaica, is admittedly one of our ablest
business men; withal he is only thirty-live years of
age, and has had his own way to make in the world.
He has made that way exceedingly well, for, in
spite of his jovial, debonair appearance, he is a man
of great application and sagacity. Like some other
Jamaicans, he first showed his worth in another coun-
try. He and his brothers were in Panama while the
Canal wis being constructed, and there they not only
accomplished some useful work but learnt a great deal
that was to be useful to them in later'days. They
returned to Jamaica; there came the earthquake of
1907-"O. K." was hardly more than twenty then-and
at once, seeing that buildings were the first necessity
of that time, they opened in business as constructors.
They knew their work; and that was a good beginning
for them. And the guiding mind was the young fel-
low who was to prove that he was "0. K." in more
than one sense of those letters.
The Kingston Industrial Works is one of the
biggest engineering establishments of its kind in the
British West Indies to-day, but we all can remember
when it was a very tiny concern, started in hope and
faith, but with indomitable perseverance and energy
behind It. It has grown greatly, and the boys have
grown with it, all of them believing firmly in their
brother "O. K." He has made money, but it has not
spoilt him; success has not turned his head, nor is
ever likely to do so. This young Jamaican has a lot
of solid common sense, he can appreciate values-true
values-and he is marked out to be one of the leading
business men of Jamaica. Indeed, he is already that,
but he has still more to achieve, and all who know
him will wish him the best of luck. What he gains
he deserves, and that is a great deal to say of any
irT.n.


him without her mother's permission? She thought
it best to bring the conversation to an end.
"I should love to have gone with you on Sunday,
Marian, if I had been invited," she said gaily; "you
are sure to enjoy yourself." She turned to Stephen:
"Are you coming now? You won't need to go home to
dress: it's nothing formal."
With narrowed eyes Marian watched her brother
and her friend leave the lobby 'and go out upon the
porch, whence they were whirled away in Nora's big
motor car. She mrde a quick little gesture with
her head, as if dismissing Stephen from her
mind; then, with a nod to Lawrence las if, in her
present mood, she would not trust herself to speak,
she began slowly to mount the stairs. "I will wait
for you down here," he called out to her, and again
she nodded.
He sat down by the foot of the staircase to think.
Watching Stephen and Nora closely while the little
scene of a few minutes before was being enacted,
he had become acutely conscious of something which
he had vaguely felt rather than realized previously.
Stephen was evidently attracted by this bright, fresh-
looking girl, and It had been borne in upon Lawrence,
with the full force of conviction, that Nora liked, and
perhaps more than liked, the handsome actor. How
much did she like him, he wondered. Somehow he
did not feel that it was all quite right; he became
aware of a certain prejudice in his mind against the
Peruvian because be was a Peruvian and a moving
picture actor. Lawrence had always liked Nora; he
tried now to envisage her as his sister, and he asked


himself this question: were Nora his sister of a truth,
how would he view- this attraction between her and
Stephen? Would he be pleased with this growing
intimacy between them? The question was answered
almost before it was put; yet Lawrence recognized
that these reflections were, in a way, an act of
treason to Marian. For she too was Peruvian, she
was an actress, and perhaps she had perceived in him
that strain of racial pride which had just stirred
to active consciousness within him, and of which
he had not himself been aware before. He felt
ashamed. He tried to get to the root of this feeling
of his. Was it, after all, only his personal dis-
like of Stephen, a dislike engendered by the latter's
frank and unconcealed antagonism to him, that caused
him to regard Stephen as an inferior? For'the word
inferior exactly summed up and expressed the content
of his mind and attitude towards Stephen Braeme.
And yet, reflected Lawrence with a touch of scorn,
the man; was made welcome by people who professed
to be select, who set themselves up as arbiters in the
Little social world of a little country. Nora had gone
off with him to her home, and all Nora's friends would
be glad to see him and would make much of him. He
was a stranger, he was "romantic," he had a sort of
meretricious brilliancy about him that passed among
superficial observers for the real thing; they were
ready to regard him as a great actor on the strength
of his own suggestion: they took him at his own
valuation, and that was high. They would gladly
agree with him that it was impertinence and pre-
sumption on the part of a man like Lawrence Beaman
to love his sister; some would be ready to take a
hand in punishing such presumption with all the
weapons of social boycott and expressed disdain they
could command. Nora Hamilton, whose natural fine-
ness of disposition could never be wholly spoilt by any
extraneous influences of snobbery and littleness,
had defended Mr. Phipps when Stephen had spoken
disparagingly of him; but most of the people in her
set would be surprised that Phipps should have in-
vited Lawrence Beaman to his picnic on Sun-
day, and have Ignored Stephen Braeme. Indeed, they
would be greatly astonished that he (Lawrence)
should have been invited to the picnic at all. At
this point of his reflections Lawrence realized that
jealousy of Stephen had suddenly taken possession of
him, and that, by the mere act of being jealous of
another man, he was acknowledging an inferiority to
that man. Lawrence was fair-minded: he per-
ceived that, the personal relations between them
being what they were, he could never be just to
Stephen. But this intellectual admission in no way
affected his feeling that Stephen and Nora were
worlds apart and should so remain. "They are as
different as Scotland and Peru," he muttered to him-
self.
He rose, for Marian was coming down the stairs
with Lady Rosedale. Two hours before, that lady
had greeted him, if not with cordiality, at least with
politeness passable enough if somewhat frigid. Now,
he noticed as she reached the lobby, her manner had
definitely and perceptibly changed for the worse.
Marian's attitude also suggested to him that some-
thing had occurred upstairs. There was constraint In
the manner and appearance of both.
Lady Rosedale, as a.matter of fact, had since his
departure been thinking of the chance remarks of
the Inspector. General as to Lawrence's movements
on the night before, and of her own question whether
a man, poor and In love, would become a burglar for
the purpose of obtaining at one stroke a large amount
of money. And the more she had pondered over these
things, the more inclined she had become to believe
that Lawrence was in some Intimate way connected
.with her loss. Not that she had clearly formulated
in her mind the bald proposition that Lawrence was
a thief; but, without any regard to logic, she had
concluded that he would need to explain a very great
deal if he were wholly to free himself of suspicion.
This belief of hers she had just imparted to Marian,
who had vehemently repudiated the very suggestion of
Lawrence's being suspected of dishonesty. For the
first time since their friendship, there had nearly been
a quarrel between Marian and Lady Rosedale. But
the latter had not pressed her point; she had content-
ed herself with an admonitory shake of the head and
a word of general warning. "I don't like your defence
of him, my dear; it is altogether too warm. You tell
me that you like him only as a friend, and when I
merely bint that perhaps the young man, overcome
by temptation, may have done something which he
ought not to have done, you flare up in passionate
anger. Well, let us say nothing more about it. But
it is always an advantage to be warned about other
people's characters. It often saves us from many a
serious mistake."
She was not, however, even to please the girl
she liked and desired to befriend, prepared to treat
Lawrence as though nothing had happened. To her
mind, something very serious indeed had happened,
and he had to be regarded as a possible suspect until
his innocence was fully established. Marian bad
agreed to dine. as usual, at her table: on descending
to the lobby, .therefore, Lady Rosedale walked
straight on towards the dining room, not giving
Lawrence a moment's opportunity to utter a word.
Moral reprobation was expressed in her brisk, mas-
terful walk and attitude of aloofness. A bellboy
who witnessed her progress to the dining room, whis-
pered to a colleague that "the duchess was great this


1922-23


I







PLANTERS'


PUNCH


!:Bellboys are sometimes keen observers of
|^ter:'in spite of their apparent devotion only to
fittr of tips. Some of them at the hotel bad -
,come to name Lady Rosedale "the duchess,"
.a all the while in great awe of her and being
illy- alive to the circumstance that while she
spS acknowledged services with a dignified "thank
"' she was often backward in the production
'hei sixpenny pieces and other coins so dear to
lbellboy's heart. They also knew from brief but
1sible experience that when she donned her
idest manner the idea of remunerating the humble
tmeat never entered her mind. On such occasions
i stood in greater awe of her than ever. But thoy
0tet appreciate her.
: lawrence guessed that, so far as she was able,
'..iRosedale would keep Marian from him that
lfg. The event justified his belief. After din-
l:litg,lagered in their vicinity, but the elder lady
lsd solicitous to guard Marian against his ap-
Nor dia Marian manifest any desire to ce
kJlilm; she was patently more depressed than she
pislen in the afternoon, Ill in mind and almost
it body. What she had heard from Lady Rose-
is.a to the latter's suspicions of Lawrence had
abed her gravely; she knew that Lady Rose-
'. though not exactly garrulous, was not, on the
l ihead, a model of reticence. What she whis-
u:A.to one person she might vaguely communicate
F ,ther and rumours detrimental to the character
or woman are rapid of circulation in commu-
1:where interest in personal matters takes pre-
of interest in almost all things else. She
ot hint to Lawrence what was in Lady Rose-
-i.dnd; she could only hope to be able to dis-
b- dy Rosedale of her extraordinary suspicion.
KijlSale, though she might not dare, without
Pguis proof, to put her suspicion into words when
fto strangers, might indirectly suggest almost
and that, Marian thought, might be harmful

~jl:an. hour after dinner she intimated that
4s ded to retire. She bade good-night to Lady
|bl quickly, before the latter could offer to
ipany her upstairs. Then she crossed over to
H. of the lawn where Lawrence was sitting,
ri umf, and bade him good-night also. "I want
l she explained, "and am going to bed. Per-
i'Biallbel better to-morrow. I am not work-
g' t orrow, and on Sunday the trip to St. Ann
; me good."
1J probably see you to-morrow here." said
e, and bade her good-night. He observed
.eyes wore a troubled expression, and her dis-
lted him deeply. What, he wondered, after
Left him, would be the final outcome of all
'of worry. The robbery and her connection
[.,'--light and accidental as it seemed to him-
ed as of no importance; her future relation
r hope be would and must in spite of all
had said-was what he dwelt upon. Lady
Santagonism was of itself but little; she
jnger to Marian. But Stephen's hostility
With growing dislike on both sides, with
Sof contempt for Stephen, which went so
hat he even objected to Nora Hamilton associ-
,Stephen as an equal..and with Stephen's
.dislike of him, it would not be easy to
.Marian to give herself to him, especially as
io brilliant prospects to offer. The odds were
ii3la. And, in a matter of this kind, he was
greatly to'exaggerate these odds.
L-te thing he bad observed with secret satls-
S-Marian was becoming less disposed than ever
itmely to her brother's dictation. There was
a suggestion of revolt In her manner; the
at-arms in the lobby that evening had
.an open breach between them. That breach
'1idea-and if It did? Thus did he balance
fearr, possibilities on this side and on that,
.to make the most of any favourable oppor-
t.might come his way, and. even to create
g t.nity. For even while he told himself
.nothing to offer to a girl like Marian. he
W eras with him always; his doubts and fears
e surface of his mind: unshakable convi-2-
it success lay deep within it. He knew
.lhieved a certain measure of material pros-
.. had no doubt that more would come to
zH .was ready to try his fortune elsewhere it
olld desire that. The world was all before
,with her to plan and work for. what might
loeve?
..he dreamt, the man who was believed to
a spark of romance, and unimaginative.
'dreaming he went home.

p". CHAPTER -ELEVEN.

SPELLSPAR MEETS MR. PHIPPS.
anpyt day, Saturday, Major Fellspar on en-
,i..rig his office was presented with a tele-
nme message from no less a person than
~o*e Governor of the Colony, asking him to 'o
i S' House, the Governor's residence. It
thee same day. It was then nine o'clock,
at the Inspector General had interviewed
Sh-iramsworth and deasatched one or two
rk he proceeded to obey the Governor's




I-


He knew what he was summoned to discuss: it
would be the robbery and nothing else. The Governor
was-something of a martinet, insisting on the utmost
efficiency from his subordinates: it would not be to
the credit of his Government that so great a robbery
should not speedily be traced to its perpetrator and
the stolen things restored. Major Fellapar had all
along feared that the Governor himself would take a
hand in this business-it was just what might be ex-
pected-but he had hoped that he would be given a
couple more days for investigation before hearing
from His Excellency. Harmsworth had been diligent-
ly searching the dwellings of burglars under police
supervision In the city, and enquiring into the where-
abouts and movements of those who were not within
easy reach. Nothing possibly connecting any of them
with the robbery at the Myrtle Bank Hotel had been
discovered. The enquiry was not yet over, however;
later on that day there might be more encouraging
Information. Major Fellspar thought out the most
promising presentation of the case that the facts
permitted, and proceeded to King's House in the hope
that the Governor would agree that the Police was
doing everything in the matter that could reasonably
be expected of it in the circumstances. He was ad-
mitted immediately after being announced. The
Governor was waiting for him.
"Found the thief who stole Lady Rosedale's neck-
laces?" demanded His Excellency curtly, after reply-
ing to the Inspector General's salutation.
"Not yet, sir," said the latter; "but" (hopefully)
"I think it won't be long before we do."
"Why do you think so?"
"We are searching all the burglars' rooms ia
Kingston: we are having all the persons about whom
there is any suspicion watched."
"Who are they?"
It occurred to Major Fellspar that he really did
not know. For, with the possible exception of Mr.
Phipps, he had dismissed from his mind both Marian
and Lawrence Beaman as in any way connected with
the crime. But the Governor was probing Itim with
his eyes. and as he had spoken of "persons" he could
not well confine himself to mentioning but one name.
"There are two men whose movements have seemed to
me highly suspicious," he answered thoughtfully.
"One is Mr. Arthibild K. Phipps; the other is a young
man by the name of Lawrence Beaman; and our men
think that the actress, Miss Braeme, may be the
guilty party."
"Is it likely that three persons were concerned
in this theft-they are not intimately connected, are
they?"
"Not particularly, sir; and no, I do not think
that they have been working together."
"Then are you suggesting to me, Major Fellapar,
that tU.ree different persons. each without the know-
ledge and connivance of the others, have stolen Lady
Rosedale's jewellery?"
"No. sir; you misunderstand me: what I meant
was---"
"I am sure I understood you very well, sir. I
understood and understand you to say that you have
not the slightest idea as to who is the thief, that you
are groping in the dark, and that there is not the
remotest likelihood of your police being able to lay
hands on either thief or jewels!"
"I am doing my best. Your Excellency," replied
the Inspector General stiffly. He had a great respect
for the old mirtlnet, and not a little fear. But there
were limits to his official acceptance of rebukes.
"Yuur best, so far. Major Fellspar, has resulted
in absolutely nothing. This man Phipps, for instance,
who is he?"
"An American, sir."
"So is the American Consul; so is every other
American in the country. Your explanation is not
enlightening. Has it not occurred to you that Phipps
may be an assumed name? That is how it sounds to
me."
"It may be," agreed Major Fellspar.
"And this woman, Braeme: Is her name Braeme?
Who is she? You do not know, of course; but have
you taken any steps yet to find out?"
"Not yet," admitted the Inspector General, "but
it was only yesterday that the robbery was reported."
"In twenty-four hours a good deal may be done if
you set about it the proper way. That is what you
are not likely to do."
"I am sorry you think so, sir," said Major Fells-


par, with what he flattered himselU. was a moiim-
pressive attitude of offended dignity. -
-"I am -orry I hafe to think so," replied the Gov-
ernor grimly, in no tise impressed by the Inspector
General's dignity. "I have a great deal of work to
do, and should not be expected to look after yours."
Major Fellapar tried to control his temper; he felt
that this attack was unwarrantable.
"I have always wanted to introduce the finger-
print system of detection here," he reminded the
Governor, "but the Government has never authorized
It. It might have been helpful in this case."
"It might," retorted the old man dryly. "It
might have helped you, for instance, to set in motion
enquiries into the past of Mr. Phipps, and Mis
Braeme, and all the rest of those you have-miscellane-
ously suspected of this theft. Major Fellspar, I de-
sire you to get for me, by Monday at the latest, a
photograph of this Mr. Phipps and of the members
of the moving picture company here. I intend send-
ing them to the British Consul in New York, and ask-
ing him to obtain for me the aid of the New York
Police in ascertaining if anything is known about
these persons. Is Mr. Phipps from New York?"
"So I understand, sir; and the moving picture
people came here from New York."
"The Police Department of that city will doubt-
less know something about them, it there is anything
to be known," the Governor continued. "I will ask
their assistance in the name of my Government, and
the British Consul General in New York will also ask
it in the name of the British Government; the New
York authorities will doubtless do all they can. But
you must get the photographs."
Poor Major Fellspar wondered how in the name
of reason he was going to do that by Monday, but he
merely replied that he would do his best.
"Not later than Monday afternoon," said the Gov-
ernor, and bowed in intimation that the interview
was over.
The Idspector General withdrew in bad humour,.
and, to obtain some sort of emotional relief, sped
down to his office to put the fear of God into the
hearts of his subordinates. It was while engaged In
this laudable undertaking that a brilliant idea oc-
curred to him. He rang up Lady Rosedale Immediate-
ly and asked if he could go and see her that day.
The answer came back promptly: would he come and.
have lunch with Lady Rosedale? It was a little past
one o'clock: lunch would be going on now at the
Myrtle Bank Hotel. Major Fellspar telephoned to
say that he would be at the hotel in ten minutes.
Arrived there, he was conducted to Lady Rosedale
with whom he saw Stephen Braeme, who, like his
sister and some other members of the company, was
not working that day. Stephen was introduced to.
him. and then the Major managed to suggest that he
would like to speak to Lady Rosedale alone. Stephen
was dismissed with a friendly word or two. "What
is it?" asked Lady Rosedale; "or you can tell me at
lunch if you like. We shall lunch alone."
"It's nothing very much," said the Inspector Gen-
eral, "but I think I am right in saying that Mr.
Phipps Invited you and your party to go down to his
house christening to-morrow: isn't it so?"
"Yes, but it is not a house christening."
"That does not matter. Could I be one ef your
party?"
"Now this is strange," exclaimed Lady Rosedale;
"you are the second person who has asked me to take
him with me if I am going; though I did not intend
to go."
"Who is the other one?" enquired the Inspector
General, seeing that she expected the question.
"Stephen Braeme. It is Just like Mr. Phipps to
invite Marian and leave her brother out. I consider
it very proper on Stephen's part to wish to be with
his sister, especially as Mr. Beaman will be at the
picnic. As you also wish to go, I shall accept the
invitation of course; and if Mr. Phipps does not like
my guests I shall not be to blame for that: he gave me
carte blanche to ask whom I pleased, did he not?"
"He did," agreed Major FeUspar, relieved that
he had so easily gained his point.
"Why," asked Lady Rosedale, after they had sat
down to lunch, "why, if I may ask. do you care to go
to this picnic? I thought you didn't know Mr.
Phipps."
"I don't, but I want to. You see, as I told you
(Continued on Page 26.)


------- --------- ---------------- Z

PRESCRIPTIONS CAREFULLY AND ACCURATELY DISPENSED.


E. D KINKEAD,

Dispensing Chemist and Druggist.


Deltr in
Pure Drugs
Patent Medicines,
Perfumery.
ConfectionPry.
Teas, Ac., &c ,


r


American Iced
Sodq Drinks of
Fine Flavoured
Syrups and
Ice Cream.


Opposite Bank of Nova Scotia.


L




24 PLANTERS' PUNCH
I I


Atlantic


Fruit


Company.


1922-23



I


President -- T. O. MULLER.

Head Office of Company: 17 BATTERY PLACE, NEW YORK CITY, U.S.A.


Exporters & Carriers

of Tropical Fruits.


TROPICAL DIVISIONS:


JAMAICA

CUBA




NICARAGUA


Kingston, Port Antonio, and all
Principal Shipping Ports.
Cayo Mambi, Sama, Baracoa and
Cananova, (In the Province of
Oriente), and Agencies at Hav-
ana, Santiago, and other Principal
Ports.
Bluefields and Pearl Lagoon.


A STEAMSHIP SERVICE IS MAINTAINED BY THIS COMPANY BETWEEN
JAMAICAN & CUBAN PORTS, & NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA & BALTIMORE.






PLANTERS'


PUNCH


-f0iftited from Page 15).
It.'-Wo was nearer him than herself?
i~iioim.uch right to till that plot of land
-i u the guardian of his two dying
"i ould use It to feed his child, and to
y.b;Ok. She could kill his own folk if
i to take It from her!


S CHAPTER X.
as d weeks after that, Clemmy worked
Hliad trembling. Would Ivan's friends
Gatl that precious plot from her-the
rios- publish his Immortal masterpiece?
it was immortal; had not Ivan himself,
it,' explained so much to her? But
fided up heart, as week after week pass-
rbd, and no interloper came to des-
eIeas. She began to believe the minis-
*flgthr more than he meant; he never
all to Ivan's folk in England. Month
rdlpped away; and the mango season
:tob eco leaves were picked in good con-
fi and the coffee berries ripened. Negro
itebr hut, nodding kindly salute. "You
J:.moey, Clemmy? You sell de leaf
IfCbt de ptikney look well? Him harder
litta can see de pickney.
.1ti rainy season was over, and the rivers
rMugonito larvae swarmed and wriggled
.In the shallow lagoons: and when they
i tga'the sea-breeze drove them up In count-
I to the deep basin of St. Thomas, a lake-
,bin tne central range ringed round by a
,jiaptheatreo of very high mountains.
-..4rt'ible plague, those mosquitoes: ihey
irtite Vanna half wild with pain and
a~tientimes in the night the tender little
ifE trying from their bites. Clemmy
over her face, but that made little dif-
j. *wretched mosquitoes bit right through
eEmy didn't know where to turn to pro-

lskra baby; dat what de matter," old
iOtd gravely. "Nagur baby don't feel
riite same like o' bnckra. Nagur folk
1r6elotg to de same country. But buckra
'akeeter in England. Missis Queen
i;-dem. Now die 'ere chile buckra-tree
F.' one part tagur. Dat what for make
Ieel de 'skeeter."
at an I do fe 'top him, Marra?" Clemmy
naently
p way," old Rachel answered with a
I."Burn smudge before de door. Dat
btr."


For two or three nights little Vanna slept peacefully.
Old Rachel nodded her head.
'Keep him burning," she advised, "tiU de water
dry up, an' de worm dem kill, and it don't no more
skeeterr."
Clemmy followed her mother's advice to the letter
in this matter. Each morning when she went out to
work on her plot, with little Vanna laid tenderly in
her one shawl on the ground close by, she lighted the
smudge and kept it smouldering all day, renewing it
now and again as it burnt out through the evening.
On Thursday, as was her won't, she went down with
her goods to Linstead to market. On her head she
carried her basket of "bread-kind"-that is to say,
yam, and the other farinacious roots or fruits which
are to the negro what wheaten bread is to the
European peasant. She walked along erect, with the
free, swing gait peculiar to her countrywomen, un-
trammelled by stays and (he other abominations of
civilized costume; little Vanna on her arm crowed
and gurgled merrily. 'Twas a broiling hot day, but
Clemmy's heart was lighter. Was there ever such a
treasure as that fair little Vanna, whitest of quad-
roons?-and she was saving up fast for the second of
those thirty-five precious pounds towards printing
Ivan's manuscript!
In the market-place at Linstead she sat all day
among the shattering negresses, who chaffered for
quarties, with white teeth displayed, or higgled over
the price of breadfruit and plantain. "ris a pretty
scene, one of these tropical markets, with its short-
kirtled black girls, bare-legged and bare-footed, in
their bright cotton gowns rnd their crimson band-
annas. Before them stand baskets of golden mangoes
and purple star-apples; oranges lie plied In little
pyramids on the ground; green shaddocks and great
slices of pink-fleshed water-melon tempt the thirsty
passer-by with their juicy lusciousness. Over all rises
the constant din of shrill African voices; 'tis a perfect
saturnalia of hubbub and noise, instinct with bright
colour and alive with merry faces.
So Clemmy sat there all day, enjoying herself
after her fashion, in this weekly gathering of all the
society known to her. For the market-place is the
popular negro substitute for the At Homes and As-
sembly Rooms of more civilized communities. Vanra.
crowed with delight to see the little black babies in
their mother's arms, and the pretty red tomatoes
scattered around loose among the gleaming oranges.
It was late when Clemmy rose to go home to her ham-
let. She trudged along, gaily enough, with her
laughing companions; more than a year had passed
now since Ivan's death, and at times, In the joy of
more money earned for him she could half forget her
great grief for Ivan. The sun was setting as she
ilechea her own plot. For a moment her heart came
up into her mouth. Then she started with a cry. She
gazed before her in blank horror. The hut had dis-
appeared! In its place stood a miss of still shoulder
Ing ashes.
In one second she understood the full magnitude
of her loss, and how It had all happened. With a wo-
man's quickness she pictured it to herself by pure in-
stinct. The smudge had set fire to the clumps of dry
grass by the door of the hut; the grass had lighted up
the thin wattle and palm thatch; and once set afire,
on that sweltering day, her home had burnt down to
the ground like tinder.
Two or three big negroes stocu gazing in blank
silence at the little heap of ruins-or rather of ash,
for all was now consumed to a fine white powder.
Clemmy rushed at them with a wild cry of suspense.
"You save de box?" she [altered out in her agony.
"You save de box? You here when it burning.
"Nobody don't see till him all in a blaze," one
young negro replied in a surly voice, as negroes use
in a moment of disaster; "an' den. when we see, we
don't able to do nuffin."
Clemmy laid down her child. "De box, de box!"
she cried in a frenzied voice, digging down with tre-
mulous hands into the smoking ashes. The square
form of the hut was still rudely preserved by the
nile of white power, and she knew in a moment In
which corner too look for It But she dug like a mad
creature. Soon all was uncovered. The calcined re-
"mains of Ivan's clothes were there, and a few charred
fragments of wnat seemed like paper. And that was
all. The precious manuscript itself was utterly des-
troyed. Ivan Greet's one mad'erpiece was lost for
ever.

CHAPTER XI.
(LEMMIY crouched on the ground with her arms
-' round her knees. She sat there cowering. She
was too appalled for tears; her eyes were dry, but
her heart was breaking.
For a minute or two she crouched motionless in
deathly silence. Even the negroes held their peace.
Instinctively they divined the full depth of her misery.
After a while she rose again, and took Vanna on
her lap. The child cried for food, and Clemmy open-
ed her bosom. Then she sat there long beside the
ruins of her hut. Negresses crowded round and tried
in vain to comfort her. How could they understand
her loss? They didn't know what it meant: for in
that moment of anguish lemmy felt herself a white
woman. They spoke to her of the hut. The hut!
What to her were ten thousand palaces! If you had
given her the King's house at Spanish Town that
night it would have been all the same. Not the rool
over head, but Ivan Greet's manuscript.


She rocked herself up and down as she cowered
on the ground, and moaned inarticulately. The rock-
krg and moaning lulled Vanna to sleep. -HIs child was
now all she had left to live for. For hours she
crouched on the bare ground, never uttering a word:
the negresses sat round, and watched her Intently.
Now and again old Rachel begged her to come home
to her stepfather's hut; but Clemmy couldn't stir a
step from those sacred ashes. It grew aark and chilly,
for Ivan Greet's plot stood high on the mountain.
One by one the negresses dropped off to their huts;
Clemmy sat there still, with her naked feet buried
deep In the hot ash, and Ivan Greet's baby clasped
close to her bosom.
At last with tropical unexpectedness, a great flash
of lightning blazed forth, all at once, and showed the
wide basin and the mountains round as distinct as
daylight. Instantly and simultaneously a terrible
clap of thunder bellowed aloud In their ears. Then
tne rain-cloud burst. It came down in a single sheet
with equatorial violence.
Old Rachel and the few remaining negresses fled
home. They seized Clemmy's arm, and tried to drag
her: but Clemmy sat dogged ..nd refused to accom-
pany them. Then they started and left her. All
night long the storm raged, and the thunder roared
awesomely. Great flashes lighted up swaying stems
of coconuts and bent clumps of bamboo; huge palms
snapped short like reeds before the wind; loud peals
rent the sky with their ceaseless artillery. And all
night long, in spite of stoim and wind, the rain pelted
down in one unending flood, as though it poured by
great leaks from some heavenly reservoir.
Torrents tore down the hills; many huts were
swept away; streams roared and raved; devastation
marked their track: 'twas a carnival of ruin, a
memorable hurricane. Hall rattled at times; all was
black as pitch, save when the lightning showed every-
thing more vivid than daylight. But Clemmy sat on,
hot at heirt, with her agony.
When morning dawned the terrified negroes creep-
ing forth from their shanties, found her still on her
plot, crouching close over his child, but stiff and stark
and cold and lifeless. Her bare feet dug deep in the
ashes of Ivan's hut now washed by the rain to a sod-
den remnant. Little Vanna just breathed in her dead
mother's arms. Old Rachel took her.
And that's why the world has never heard more
of Ivan Greet's masterpiece.
THE END.



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PLANTERS' PUNCH


The Devil's Mountain

(Continued from Page J2.)
yesterday, it is absolutely necessary that we should
keep in touth-merely as a matter of precaution-
with everybody who is even remotely connected with
this loss of yours. Mr. Phipps may be able to throw
some light on it: one can never tell."
"He may be," agreed Lady Rosedale. "His trying
to get Miss Braeme away from her brother, to throw
her into the society of Mr. Beaman, seems to me a
highly suspicious circumstance. I begin," she con-
tinued darkly, "Lo connect both those men with the
loss of my jewels. Mr. Phipps said to me, only a few
hours before the theft. that he did his best work at
night. I suspected be had been drinking from the
way he went on: invited himself to tea with me with-
out being asked, you know, and talked a lot of non-
sense. He is always drinking: and they say that
drunken men and children speik the truth, though
at the time I thought his remark was only one of his
usual jokes, the point of which I can never see. What
is the best work that a man like that can do at night?"
"I only wish I knew," said Major Fellspar frank-
ly.
"I am glad thft you have thought of going dowti
to his house." continued Lady Rosedale. "Are you
going to have it searched: '
"No; I haven't decided upon that. I merely
-want to learn something about him, and I can do that
best by making his acquaintance. I can't say I like
it," he blurted out.
"There is nothing to like about his acquaintance-
ship."
"It's not that I mean." confessed the Inspector
General. "What I don t like Is going to a man's
house as a sort of friend-though, of course, I go as
your friend, not his--and spying upon him all the
time. It is not the sort of thing I should be called
upon to do. But," he went on hastily, "we must
leave no stone unturned to find your necklaces, and
I need not accept any refreshment when I am under
his roof. I will not."
"It will be awfully good of you to fast all day on
my behalf." said Lidy Rusedale gratefully, thinking
as she did so that the Major would indeed show him-
self a martyr to duty. For she judged, seeing the
hearty lunch he was making, and noting his well-fed
appearance, that the Major never willingly missed a
meal.
The prospect of a foodless day did, indeed, seem
to depress Major Fellspar a little. With something
like emotion he ordered a serving of Maryland
.chicken, having just demolished a lamb cutlet. "It
is very important." he warned Lady Rosedale, "that
nothing should be hinted as to my having asked to be
taken down to this picnic. You will merely mention
that you invited me. Better let him know that I was
here when his telegram arrived: that will probably
lead him to believe that you Invited me on the spur
of the moment."
"There's the man himself now," remarked Lady
Rosedsle. "He must have just returned from St.
Ann."
It was indeed Mr. Phipps. He was hastening
into the dining room, preceded by the head waiter.
who was leading him to a vacant table opposite the






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entrance. Mr. Phipps had to pass Lady Rosedale's
table. Instead of walking on when he came up to
her, he paused.
"Ah, Lady Rosedale, good-afternoon," he cried
cheerfully. "Heard anything yet about your things?
I have been thinking a great deal about you since I
saw you last."
Lady Rosedale, purposing to be at his house on
the following day, could not but affect a certain de-
gree of cordiality.
"No, nothing has been discovered yet," she
smilingly informed him, "and It is very kind of you
to have been, thinking about me."
"The pleasure is entirely mine," Mr. Phipps as-
sured her. "I feel distinctly better whenever I think
of you." He glanced at Major Fellspar.
"Don't you know Major Fellspar?" asked Lady
Rosedale: "Major Fellspar, Mr. Phipps."
"1 am delighted to meet you," said Mr. Phipps
heartily, as the Inspector General rose to shake hands.
"If you have no objection, Lady Rosedale, I will have
my lunch at your table. One eats ever so much more
comfortably amongst friends."
"Very pleased indeed," Lady Rosedale murmured.
Mr. Phipps had seated himself in a vacant *chair
at the table even before Lady Rosedale had given
him permission to lunch with her. He was beaming
with pleasure. "You got my telegram yesterday, of
course, end you are going with me to St. Ann to-mor-
row, aren't you?" he asked.
"You were so good as to invite me to bring one
or two friends and I have ventured to ask Major
Fellapar, who was with me when I received your in-
vitation," said Lady Rosedale.
"I could have wished for nothing better," cried
Mr. Phipps: "who else?"
"I have also asked Stephen Braeme, Marian's
brother, you know. You didn't ask him: I thought
it was-an oversight. I hope you don't mind?"
"Mind? Not a bit of it: only too delighted! I
should have asked Braeme, but I had an idea that he
wouldn't care to come-stupid of me! I invited a
few more folks this morning: wired 'em from St.
Ann. The Emery-Smythes and the Hamiltons. Fine
girl that, Nora Hamilton. Bright as a summer's day.
And how's Miss Braeme?"
"Not as well as I should like," said Lady Rose-
dale. "She kept her room yesterday and only came
flown to dinner. She is having lunch upstairs now.
The robbery has got on her nerves."
"Quite natural, Lady Rosedale. I must say that
the way you bear your loss Is a marvel to me A
diamond necklace, worth ten thousand pounds, a
pearl necklace of much less value, but, still, one or
two thousand pounds; I must say it requires the
English noblewoman's sense of deportment and
mental equilibrium to stand such a shock without any
display of emotion. I will tell you, Major, I just
admire the British sany fioid. I have seen something
of it in India, and am quite prepared to meet it any-
where else. It's marvellous."
"You have been in India?" questioned Major Fells-
par, interested.
"Yes, sr: I have trodden on India's coral strand
and wandered about her bazaars what time the
breezes were anything but spicy. You know. I al-
ways say that the English rule India by suppressing
all symptoms of emotion, like Lady Rosedale does
when she discovers she's been robbed, and as you do
if the waiter i-rings you cold coffee in mistake, as I
can see he has just done by the look on your face."
Major Fellspar laughed. "I am afraid that my
emotions are rather forcibly expressed at times," he
admitted. "Were you long in India?"
-"Spent a year in that country 'way back in 1905.
Wanderin' up and down, as the poet says, seeking
-whom 1 might devour. It is a country of wonderful
extremes: great riches and great poverty: loin cloths
and priceless jewellery. The ropes of pearls that
some of thore Indian Princes dress themselves in,
Lady Rosedale, when they go to a big pow-wow,
would make your mouth water. I have always had a
weakness for pearls."
Lady Rosedale tried her hardest not to'glance at
the Inspector General to see if he had taken notice
of this confession oi Mr. Phipps'. She succeeded, and
that she succeeded was proof that Mr. Phipps was
right when he attributed to her great qualities of
self-restraint. Major Fellspar, who had some know-
ledge of men and of the world, was absolutely con-
vinced that Mr. Phipps was speaking thus of set pur-
pose. He had felt on the previous day, from what
Inspector Harmsworth told him. that Phipps had
been laughing at the Jamaica Police Force. He ex-
perienccd that unpleasant sensation again.
"There's a fine description of the robbery in this
morning's paper." Mr. Phipps rambled on. "On my
way to Kingstop I stopped at a little country town
and bought copies of to-day's issue: everything on
the front page, with Lady Rosedale's picture adorn-
ing the display, like. shall I say, a bright star in a
black sky-not a bad simile in a country where the
darker brethren are in the vast majority, is it?"
"Not at all." replied Major Fellspar. seeing that
he was expected to answer, and wondering whether
Mr. Phlpps had had lunch before coming in. For he
was hardly eating anything.
"The reporters have done themselves proud over
this burglary," Mr. Phipps continued. "Language a
little strained perhaps, but very effective for the pur-
pose of conveying to the minds of the public the Idea


that L.dy Rosed-.e might not have escaped with her
life had it not been for her marvellous presence of
mind in remaining asleep. Lady Rosedale's picture
is quite nicely produced, too, all things considered.
The foreign press correspondents here must have
cabled a report of this robbery to their papers: heard
anything about that, Lady Rosedale?"
"I believe that one of them did mention something
of the sort to me yesterday," replied that lady.
"Sure they must have done so. There's nothing
the English-speaking nations like better than a good
robbery, unless it be a particularly barbarous murder.
I always say, in noticing how closely crime is follow-
ed in England and the United States, that the popu-
larity of the sensational newspaper in both countries
is proof that the Anglo-Saxon peoples of the world
are at heart the same, in spite of all outward differ-
ences of dress and accent. I believe. Major Fellapar,
that together they are destined to rule the world as
soon as they have learnt how to rule themselves."
"I have always been an advocate of Anglo-Ameri-
can unity," returned Major Fellspar politely.
"Same here," said Mr. Phipps. "And that is
why, yesterday morning, the moment I heard that
Lady Rosedale had been robbed of her jewels, I
hastened to give assistance. I can't say that my ef-
forts to elucidate the mystery were exactly appre-
ciated ny your stiff, but you are not responsible for
that. There was one of your men loitering about
here when I left for St. Ann, and he seemed to take a
mighty keen interest in my movements. He was peep-
ing at me when I scooted out in my car: I saw him
through the corner of my eye right enough. Guess
he thought I was bolting with the jewels in my
pocket, but I only went to the telegraph office on my
way to St. Ann,'as that bright sleuth of sombre hue
would have discovered if he had taken the trouble to
follow me In a cab. Say, Major, you must have an
awful lot of trouble with these fellows. Do they ever
find out anything?"
Major Fellspar realized that he was in a cruel
position. Here he was, at lunch with a man whose
house he intended visiting the next day, and this man
a -s not only telling him that his detectives had been
watching him, but probably had not the smallest doubt
that he, the Inspector General, was going down to St.
Ann because he suspected him. And this man was
pretending to sympathize with him on the dull-
ness or his subordinates, and to treat him as though
he had nothing whatever to do with the actions of
his own detectives! But for the Governor's sarcastic
attitude and rebukes of a couple of hours ago, Major
Fellspar would then and there have abandoned all
thought of his visit to Mr. Phipps on the following
day. As it was, he did nct even dare murmur a sort
of apology for what members of his staff had done to
Mr. Phipps. He took refuge in a glass of water. He
had finished his lunch some time now, and so had
Lady Rosedale. The latter was merely pretending
to toy with her coffee. He devoutly wished that Mr.
Phipps would give a sign that be had lunched and
was ready to leave the table.
Perhaps Mr. Phipps guessed what was passing
in Major Fellspar's mind. Anyhow, he abruptly an-
nounced that he would not have coffee and that he
had made an excellent lunc.b, which was palpably un-
true. The three of them left the dining room to-
gether, Mr. Phipps mentioning that he wanted to have
a word or two with Marian if possible. He excused
himself and went off to scribble a note to her. This
he gave to a bellboy to take upstairs to Marian, then,
catching sight of Stephen in the lobby, hurried over
to him with every appearance of friendliness.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

MARINE AND MR. PHIPPi.
M Y Y dear boy, I am so glad that you are going
down to my old ranch to-morrow," Mr.
Phipps assured Stephen. "Should have
invited you myself, but had a sort of hunch
that you wouldn't want to come. Hunch all wrong,
as it turns.out, and nobody so glad as I. A liqueur
now would not be out of place, would it?"
"No thank you, Mr. Phipps," said Stephen cordial-
ly; "I think I have already had about as much as is
good for me just now. I prefer to indulge in the
evening."
"Don't go!" cried Mr. Phipps, seeing Stephen
make a movement as if to withdraw; "let's talk a
couple of minutes. We see sd little of one another.
I want to explain that why I did not send you a wire
like the rest was because, of late, you don't seem to
take to me any: proud and aloof and all that sort of
thing, you know: not like your charming sister. The
fault must be mine, and now that you are going to
pay me a little visit I feel that you are willing to let
bygones be bygones: is that so?"
Stephen had a notion that Mr. Phlpps was a
trifle crazy. But be amiably remarked: "Th-re are
no bygones to let be bygones, unless perhaps I have
teen showing any foolish side. It's merely a manner
of mine, Mr. Phipps: a silly manner, and I apologise
for it. You have been so kind to all of us since we
have been here that I did feel hurt at your leaving me
out of your party, but I am afraid the fault han been
mine.
"Say! isn't that just fine of you!" exclaimed Mr.
Phipps. "I begin to see that you have much of your
sstter's-lovable disposition. And here she comes, look-


-a


1922-23


__


__I







PLANTERS'


PUNC H


S. out but still keeping her end up.
hAo.ay little movie star?"
ift" Marian murmured with a not un-
i~ftion of brightness, "and thank you
".for your invitation. We'll have a great

tfitand make it so," said Mr. Phippa. He
i l.tephen by the elbow, though the
t islinio to move away. "Your brother is
lni.U he informed Marian. "He's coming
iUEidale, though it is I who should have
iKthe first place. Didn't think somehow
.i:-.want to travel sixty miles to my old
F. hbut that's all my mistake. Plenty of
jacoming too: about thirty from here and
a'e: the Emery-Smythes and the Hamil-
h:ithem. Nora is coming, anyhow, and if
:Papa Hamilton don't come, the loss will
*able."
t.'asked Marian with a side glance at her

rpeat pal.of yours, isn't she?"
IWtold me last night that she hadn't been

biehave been lost and won between one day
,L said Mr. Phipps. "I only invited her
morning, when I found that we could
l.Iat Triton-that's my place-more guests
pl:.ed yesterd y."
ihknow that Nora was going down to Mr.
tled Marian, looking her brother full in

repliedd shortly, "I heard of it to-day."

bhisielf. I had occasion to ring her up,
losed it:'

--te Mnatter?" innocently enquired Mr.

~ briefly replied Marian. "I got your
ibiutes agb: you want to see me?"
turned away from Stephen, completely
iteeuce. He saw the gesture, but he hit
that sprang to his lips, and with a
t freed his arm from Mr. Phipps's
illEd swiftly out of the lobby, Mr. Phipps
i in as if surprised.
i*her of yours Is a man of impulses and
i ti l en, my dear," he remarked. "He's
: what about?"
i .E the least know or care," answered
*4*abed to see me?"
tihot always? I heard you were upstairs
dlt's the worst thing you could do. So
I" wanted to see you, and here you are.
in the breeze, with friends, than shut
i'tm thinking about a robbery that you
You didn't steal the jewels, so wh3
"fry?" While talking Mr. Phipps had
t:the northern verandah. There, in *
y rated themselves in two comfort-
fg-chairs.
SItnpulse seized Marian. "But the de-
did steal them," she murmured, and
l.tupa closely to see what he would

~$ thought so," be admitted at once,
S"The black man did and does,
Sis considered quite a clever fellow
4~t. But what of that?"
od Maria.; then hesitated. She
sfitt d to say what was in her mind.
Ltfripnd of Mr. Beiman's. aren't you,

l'.-I regard myself." Mr. Phipps ad-

to suspect him too," whispered

j al. surprising in that: they have mot
Sand-the more the merrier. That
.Does Lawrence know this?"
I hardly think so. Of course it's
t you see that it may be rumoured
Swill do him harm?"
want any sort of harm to happen

1'f le eyes were peering into her
tjtitt they were turned away from
t for any answer, but continued

That he is suspected," he ad-
.'iB have a way of achieving a
: t can't be helped, my little
us cold as Ice and as hot as fire,
m'ape calumny. That comes from
I iam thinking of your English
m i. It's quite true: but Lawrence
W.fME.ak prove all the alibis that the
k Vte'essitate. Besides, their sus-
ot.hing like their firm belief that
ees somewhere. It's me that they
pi .kltsig eyes upon: they have been
LA y Rosedale raised the screech.
has got it fixed in her mind that
:'W an she can do to keep herself
i:: ,~ge day she may blurt out the
got" his high nibbs, the Inspec-
Smy track. Don't let on to
",y you?"

AUi r belefse don't woMrry me-


any. You see, it is simply impossible for them
to have three different persons in mind and come to
any reliable conclusion. And if they did come to a
definite conclusion, they wouldn't know what to do
with it. It isn't what they think, but what they can
prove, that matters. So why should any of us
worry?"
"It's easy for you to say that," answered Marian;
"but not for me. You see, I wore the pearls, and they
were taken from me."
"And Lady Rosedale hid her diamonds, and they
were taken from her," said Mr. Phipps with a twisted
smile. "Why shouldn't we say that Lady Rosedale
stole her own jewellery?"
Marian smiled in spite of herself. She felt re-
lieved now that she had taken someone Into her con-
huence; one that she could talk to freely about this
matter because she felt she could trust him. She
did not dare hint to Liwrence the suspicions enter-
tained about him, but Mr. Phipps was his friend, and
Mr. Phipps seemed impervious to care. And he too
was suspected; so here were three of them in much
the same situation. She felt drawn nearer to Mr.
Phipps.
"You like Nora Hamilton?" he asked her abruptly.
"Very much," she answered; "Nora Is a nice girl,
and friendly. She has been very kind to me."
"Your brother seems very fond of her. I was
wondering-"
"What?"
"Whether he is in love with her: he is always
with her when he has a chance, you know."
"He has no right to be!" retorted Marian warmly.
"But it doesn't matter: Nora would not think of him."
"Why has he no right to be In love with her, and
why would Nora not think of him?" asked Mr. Phipps
banteringly, continuing the conversation.
"He isn't in love with her," replied Marian,
severely. "Stephen is in love with no' one but him-
self, and never will be. What I meant was that he
has no right to make love to her, if he's doing so.
He'd simply be deceiving Nora. He'll be gone from
this country in another few weeks, and perhaps would
never give her another thought. People here are very
kind to us; but, after all, we are only a sort of
strolling actors, you know; and we have no right ,o
make love to people."
"I don't suppose that another member of your
company would sly as much," mused Mr. Phipps;
"I don't believe they would even admit it Lo ,herm.
relves-not the least of them. How long hive you
been connected with the moving picture business,
Martian"
It was the first time he had ever addressed her
by her Christiin name; but she showed no objection.
".Abut two years." she said.
'A'nd your brother?"
Off and on. for several years."
'And he would not think lightly of himself .ny-
way," said Mr. Phipps emphatically.
"No: just the contrary."
"And Nora may think highly of him. He is
young, handsome, dark. She is young, pretty, fair.
There's the attraction of opposites to begin with. He
is being made much of here, as much of as my friend
Lawrence Beamau is made little of, for no good rea-
son in the world except his cold manner. If your
brother is making love to Nora, what is to prevent
her from falling in love with him? There is nothing
impossible in that, surely."
"It would be a calamity." said Marian bitterly.
"You and your brother are not on very good
terms. if you will allow me to say so," commented Mr.
Phipps. "I have seen that, and I mention it as I con:
eider myself a friend of the family. I think you know
your brother fairly well. I am a friend of Nora and
her family too, and that's why I am talking to you
like this. I don't myself quite see Stephen settling
down into a model slay-in-one-place husband, and I
don't see Nora travelling about with him making
pictures: do youZ-"
"She should wish rather to die first!" exclaimed
Maria-n.
"Perhaps she might wTsh to die very shortly
after," said Mr. Phipps "But L. agree with you:
Stephen is only passing the time with her: he is much
too wrapped up in himself to love anyone--I am only
agreeing with you, nty little movie star, so don't cut
up rough if I seem to disparage your brother. No
uoubt be is a man of great talent in his line; and he's
a very nice fellow to meet. But Nora-well, Nora is
still a girl, like you, and needs some looking after.
Strange that her people don't see it; but in these days
it is the children who look after the parents, not the
parents the children. The time is coming when chil-
dren will spank their parents regularly, and perhaps
in public: don't you think so?"
But the question drew no smile from Marian.
She was angrily grave. "He has no right to try to
deceive Nora." she said vehemently, reverting to the
subject which Mr. Phipps now appeared not very
anxious to pursue. "It is wrong of him. But that is
just like him."
Mr. Phipps, however, thinking perhaps that he
had said enough, rose abruptly.
Lady Rosedale had come out to the northern-
verandah, and was now surrounded bv a number of
neoDle busily condoling with her. Since the robbery
Lady Rosedale had decidedly unbent: and now graci-
ously allowed strangers and others to tender her
their respectful sympathy. "Misfortune has im-


proved her," someone had said: she positively looked
happy just now as she found herself the centre of at-
traction and knew-that she and her necklaces were
the hourly talk, not only of the hotel, but of the Ilalnd.
"She sure is enjoying herself some," re.nj.ried Mr.
Phipps glancing In her direction, "she's still oa a
pedestal, but another kind of pedestal this time.
Will you join her, Miss Marian? I've got to be going
now to look after that picnic of mine: I am going to
get some cars to take down those folks who have
none. Remember, you travel in my car."
"I shall love to," said Marian, and Mr. Phipps
jauntily took himself away.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"AN IRON STRAIN IN HIM."
A FEBRUARY morning in Jamaica is a supreme
delight. The sun rises at some time after
six o'clock, but long before its coming the
skies are a shining blue from horizon to
horizon: blue tinted with gold to the east, and pat-
terned with delicate streaks of frosted silver and pink.
The atmosphere exhilarates, there is a tang in
the air th.t awakens pleasant memories and couches
one's mind to ro.nantic fanciea. The new day ma3ne
a new life; no feeling of enervation blunts the keen
edge of enthusiasm; even the old are fired with some-
thing of the fervour that thrills through the soul of
youth. One awakens to a delicious coolness, to bri3ht-
ness of spirits, to the splendour of glorious sunshine
and magnificent sweep of sky, to the call of joy and
gladness and a sense of the worth of living.
All the guests of Mr. Phipps, assembled early on
Sunday morning by the porch of the Myrtle Bank
Hotel. were affected by the spirit of the morning.
Mr. Phipps had arranged everything beforehand, and
now moved about busily, an efficient master of cere-
monies. At h4s summons the first car rolled up to
the porch, and into this went Lady Rosedale and
Major Fellspar, with the moving picture director
and his leading lady, whom Lady Rosedale, with the
righteous consciousness of doing something to pro-
mote Marian's welfare and progress in the moving
picture life, had graciously invited to ride with her.
Lady Rosedale had done so, however, only after
having asked Marian and Stephen to share the car
with her and Major Fellspar. But Marian had
excused herself by mentioning her promise to ride in
Mr. Phipps's car, and Lady Rosedale had perforce to
be content with this arrangement. She did not al-
together approve of it, but admitted that if Mr.
Phipps, their host for the day, had arranged that
Marian should ride with him, there could be no rea-
sonable objection. Stephen also had thanked her
warmly for her invitation, but had mentioned that
Mrs. and Miss Hamilton would take him over to
St. Ann. So the moving picture director and Miss
Hellingworth had been invited to travel with Lady
Rosedale, to their own intense satisfaction, but some-
what to the uneasiness of Major Fellspar.
Truth to tell, Major Fellspar was not quite cer-
tain that it fully consorted with the dignity of His
Majesty's Inspector General of Police (albeit only for
the island of Jamaica that thte said Inspector General
should be going to a picnic with one whom he secretly
regarded as a vulgar if presumably talented moving
picture min. Major Fellspar was not sure that he
would relish being seen in such society. But Lady
Rosedale's presence might be held sufficient to cover
a multitude of minor social indiscretions, and the
moving picture lady was undoubtedly pretty and
extremely vivacious. Then the morning was so fine,
the atmosphere so inspiriting, that Major Fellspar
almost felt himself a boy again: he forgot his mission,
he was conscious mainly of very agreeable sensations.
He was attired, it may be mentioned, as a sort .of
tourist: that is to say, he had donned a flannel shirt.
a gray tweed suit, and a soft felt hat: across his
shoulders, by a leather strap, hung a camera which
he sometimes took with him on excursions like the
present. He did not expect to be called upon to
operate this camera to-day, because of a circumstance
which, he believed, would happily prevent his having
personally to take snapshot pictures of Mr. Phipps
aid his guests, though, after leaving the Governar
on-the day before, he had decided that he would have
to attempt something of the kind, however much
against bis will and his instincts it might be.
This fortunate circumstance was an application
from Inspector Harmsworth, late on Saturday after-
noon, for permission to spend the Sunday out of King-
ston and in the parish of St. Ann. Strictly speaking,
Inspector Harmsworth was entitled to the day: it was
a Sunday when, ordinarily, he would not have to be
on duty. But with the Rosedale jewellery theft still
on his hands, the young man felt that every moment
of his time should be at his department's disposal.
On the other hand, the search under his direction of
all the burglars' homes in Kingston had yielded ab-
solutely no results, and his detectives had informed
him that nothing of value was to be expected from
any further investigation in similar quarters. It had
therefore seemed to Harmsworth that no harm could
be done by his going out of town for a day. especially
as he was secretly convinced that he himself would
never be able to do any good in this case, whether he
remained in Kingston this Sunday or for the remaind-
er of his life. Permission to leave the city, how-
ever, had first to be obtained from the Inspector Gen-









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PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-23







PLANTERS' PUNCH 29


taif lpoached that authority,
: tft nkly where it was that he de-
i following day.
'Xpeted a stern rebuke. To his ex-
at and Joy, Major Fellapar had
the suggestion. "And take p
jgr orth-I know you have one
V 'tun i for me. Get the guests and
't especially the guests. I have
myselfel, but I don't think I'll take any
tor Harmsworth thanked him with
that Major Fellspar wondered if the
B on the same job as himself and was
f thtbl Opportunity to demonstrate his
Seork. Such zeal was eminently praise-
the Inspector General, but also most
north was a gentleman, and the
-pnderstand how any gentleman could
ITe's task when he had to deal with
SWhom he moved on friendly terms.
ilJ 1to Harmsworth's motive, -however,
that his desire to go to Mr. Phipps's
a mot fortunate circumstance in the
Id save Major Fellspar from many
wni enee and much inconvenience.
ImOrning, Inspector Harmsworth, clad in
Sof flannels, and with camera properly
6W right shoulder, was among the party
flOaded to Mr. Phipps's Invitation. He
t Sfto Mrs. Hamilton and Nora, who had
AL$the hotel in their own car. With them
S-raheme, and Stephen just now was not
~tker amiable.
i ld expected to be the only stranger in
ikb had just overheard Inspector Harms-
SHamilton if she could take him with
.1ady,,a pleasant-featured Scotch matron
~ igure and kindly eyes, had readily con-
sea wifemed delighted, said openly that she
Wfata north was going to the picnic, and
bir at all to regard his company as an
1tls had moved Stephen to some quite
hfltce. He would gladly have dispensed
fir-Harmsworth's presence for the day.
lip. came bustling up. "You four to-
Eiked, and ordered up Mrs. Hamilton's
pL go, Mrs. Hamilton," he cried cheerily,
"iinto the car. "Now, Mi:s Nora, you.
it jump in, Harmsworth; Braeme will
L'He'Ii see the scenery better there; he'll
gas more used to it."
i nothing to do but follow Mr. Phipps's
p, though Stephen could not prevent him-
ronaing at Mr. Phipps's officiousness. At
i. had counted upon sitting beside Nora,
r. Phippa had completely upset his cal-
i. t that gentleman seemed sublimely
W. t having caused anybody the slightest
'.
Pcear swept away, each one following the
Snals of five minutes to avoid the dust.
.were only three persons left to go: Mr.
Mt, arian, and Lawrence Beaman. Mr.
atxeed that he would ride beside the
Lwrence protested, with no warmth of
0m. three could easily be accommodated
j&it of the car. Bur Mr. Phipps ignored
(, and Lawrence did not persist In it.
a.-and easily, they glided out of the hotel
street, turning their fares towards the

:'wam rising now; the silent, sleeping city
with light and looked strangely deserted
u usually seen it when its streets were
t& e slow-moving, loud-voiced, dark-hued
s in nondescript attire who formed the
oan. A stray dog or two. searching
the early bone with a persistent but
Were visible; beyond these there was
STwo minutes' running brought the
thoroughfare of the city. Main Street
Called in an American town, King
Nied in a colony of the British Crown;
turned northwards. Here were the
storess in the island, two- and three-
of yellow-white reinforced concrete
Side of a thoroughfare paved with
beautified by gardens in its centre,
;ms and green sward, and with trees
. eaon, bear a beautiful blossom of
S lhS street also was deserted, sleeping
mt:al;re-*ocLthere was hardly a sign
~iwence it was all familiar: to Marian
i of strangeness. She had known it--
is.iy and peopled by a motley crowd
4Ju heavy speech she could never quite
SNow she saw it as though it were dead,
..t morning breeze swept through it.
a.they turned again; suddenly they had
t.;the. region of concrete buildings into
with low wooden structures, with
llngs, some of the latter in the last
tptude. Fences bankrupt of paint re-
NO"l-upright position apparently from
$ ; doorsteps, irregular and broken,
%only at the peril of those who used
W u there was something like activity;
IP ere already about, exiguously clad
nts with vacant expression and un-
ioI a..apther minute Kingston was be-
.ls... d*'with green pastures and thick


woods on either side, stretched out before them: the
mountains, grey and mist-wreathed, lifted their im-
mense bulk to the right, while the low-growing
shrubs and grass glittered with a million dewdrops.
Marian had never come this way before. She had
worked with her company to the east and north of the
city, and then she had always been in the midst of a
chattering, laughing group of people intent upon the
trifles and trivialities of their own little world. She
was now seated beside a man who was instinctively
able to sympathize with her silent admiration of the
beauty of plain and hills which was beginning to un-
roll itself before her eyes. Hers was naturally a gay
personality: she loved light and laughter, the sun-
shine, and all the bright pleasures and amenities of
life. And she was yeung, and reacted readily to the
stimulus of enjoyment. She knew she was speeding
onwards to a day which would be brimful of bright-
ness; she was looking forward to the hours to come
with glad anticipation. The very calm of the morn-
Ing, its coolness, its glory of sun and majesty of
solemn mountains, filled her with a sense of separa-
tion from the worries and annoyances she had so re-
cently endured. But she did not want to talk Just
then; but merely to sit still and look about her, happy
in the presence beside her of one who had offered her
everything that a man could give, and in whose love
and sincerity she implicitly believed.
They swept by level fields green with the spears
of the cane and the large drooping leaves of the
banana; they passed by pastures where sleek brown
cattle browsed; they rushed .cross a great Iron bridge
which spanned a sluggish river, green of hue, that
wound its way between cultivated land towards the
sea. Soon they were passing through another town
which was Just awakening to the day, an ancient
town it seemed, with houses of an olden type;
Lawrence told her that this was the former capital of
the country, St. Jago de la Vega-St. James of the
Plain-as the Spaniards had named it, and to this
day called Spanish Town. .Their way took them
through its centre, and when she saw the square
around which the old administration buildings had
been built by the English, as they are built around
the plaza of every Spanish city in every country where
Spain has ruled, she experienced for a moment the
nostalgia of the past.
"This is a touch of my old home," she cried;
"there is something familiar here."
"Of Peru?" he asked.
"Yes; but I was thinking mainly of the little
town I first knew before I left Peru; I was only a
child then: It is very long ago."
'Long ago?" he smiled, glancing at her. "That
is not to be taken literally of course." To his eyes
she seemed little older than a child.
"Oh, I am older than you think." she retorted
gaily. "How old do you think I am?"
"About nineteen," he said, and truthfully.
"I am twenty-five."
"You are jesting," he replied, and thought she
was: she could hardly be more than twenty.
"Twenty-five," she repeated, nodding her head
emphatically. "Quite a grown-up woman, you see. I
spent five years in the States, and went back to Peru
three years ago. I wish-"
"Yes?"
"Oh, nothing."
"Were you going to say," he asked insistently,
"that you.wished you had never gone back?"
"Did my voice suggest that?"
"I thought it d.d; why do you wish that?"
She evaded the question. "And yet," she said, as
if merely continuing her own remarks, "only a
minute ago a longing for the life of my childhood
came over me, though I suppose if I were to go back
to the little town that I have almost forgotten, near
which my father lived, I should not be able to remain
there for longer than a week. Still, in my heart, I
love it."
"We love the places where we have been happy,"
he remarked, "and there is always a glamour about
the memories of our childhood."
"I was happy," she said, "until my mother died.
Then my father sent me away to the States. He
would have preferred England, being English him-
self, but his only near relative, my aunt, was in
America. and he had been so long away from his own
home that he had no friends left there."
"Did your brother go to the States at the same
time you did?" asked Lawrence.
"Stephen? Oh, no. You have never been to Peru,
have you?"
--No; I have been to Colombia and Venezuela fair-
ly 'often on business; never as far south as Peru.
But if you were there I would come. I would go
wherever you might be,"T wbuld--"
'Sh-h!" she warned, with a nervous glance at
the two occupants of the front seat, though she and
Lawrence had been speaking so quietly that they
could not have been overheard.
"Is that to prevent my saying what I want to
sayr? he asked her, and she answered "yes," but
so brightly that his hand stole to hers and cover-
ed it, as It rested beside him. She gently disengaged
it from his grasp, and with It made a gesture as if to
point out to him some new aspect of loveliness with-
out. But it was upon her and not upon the scenery
that his eyes were fixed.
To their left a wide shallow river fretted Itself
into foam against the bowlers that strewed its bed;


to their right, precipitous, towered to the sky the
spur of mountains from out of whose side the road
had long since been hewn. Beyond the river on the.
other hand the mountains also rose, from base to-
summit clothed .n living green. Green with golden
flashes was the water as it danced and foamed and
glinted below, and wild cane grew upon its banks,
and fish leaped into the air, sudded spurts of silver,.
to fall back into their native element in the twinkling
of an eye. The shadows of the mountains on either
side plunged the road into grateful gloom: this, and.
the solemn aspect of the great heights touched
Marian and Lawrence to something like awed silence,.
The trees that grew a thousand feet above them
seemed to bend their heads in prayer as the breeze
went through them: the whole earth appeared to be
silently offering adoration and homage to God.
The ground rose, the mountains receded; they
emerged upon a tiny settlement with people wide
awake and going about their morning duties. Black
were the faces everywhere, but kindly, and the chil-
dren waved them a friendly welcome, and the women
curtseyed and the men touched their foreheads, un-
wearied in courteous salutation. Over another bridge.
from which they glimpsed a perfect picture of barm-
boos dipping their graceful feather-branches in the
water, which now seemed scarcely to move, so deep
it was; then again on a road that ran between culti-
vated fields and pastures, with thick hedges here and
there, through which one saw the tiny thatched.
houses of the peasants and the smoke which had
begun to curl In light blue spirals from scores of
fires kindled for the morning meal. Higher and
higher rose the land, and sometimes they were travel-
ling through a forest of thick trees, with houses
nestling among them, and the scarlet and yellow of
tropical shrubs glowing amidst the mass of variegated
green. Now and then -Lawrence would name the
trees to Marian: orange and starapple, breadfruit and
akee, and the shrubs he might mention as coffee and
cocoa and the like, until she realised that what she
would have taken for a mere tangle of tropical vege-
tation was often the farm of some peasant-proprietor
whose dwelling could not be seen.
"Do you love this country?" asked Marian sudden-
ly.
"I must explain that we Colonials of English
descent have two countries," he answered. "England
and Jamaica. England is always "home" to us,.even
to those of us who may never have seen it. But Ja-
maica is home also, as many find who leave it, forever
as they believe, but pine in colder lands for its bright
sunshine and radiant skies. I could have left Ja-
maica for good five years ago," he continued thought-
fully, "but did not care to do so. Yes, I love this
country; it Is backward but beautiful; sleepy but
good-natured. We drift too much perhaps, but we do
not hate bitterly. We are dreadfully snobbish, but
there is almost always a helping hand for the man
who is down and out."
"That would never be you," said Marian; "I can't
imagine you 'down and out.' "
"No," he agreed quietly, "I can't imagine myself
so. But here one has to fight against climatic in-
fluences, you know: in the very warmth and bright-
ness and beauty that we see around us now there
lurks a danger. It is so easy for the weak to drift
and be content: to give up struggling and see life
slip away while resolutions are made that are never
intended to be kept. Not many of us yield in these
days to the temptation of going down unresisting
with the stream; there is some public opinion, some
ambition, to keep us from that: but a few do; and
there is always the danger. I could leave Jamaica to-
morrow if I wished," he added suddenly, "or if you
wished." His voice sank upon these last words.
"You are not afraid of the natives, the people
here?" she asked, ignoring his last remark.
"What is there to be afraid of?"
'They are so greatly in the majority; they are
everywhere; If they chose they might be danger-
ous."
"They will not choose to he dangerous," he
smiled. "Some day you might ask Mr. Phipps what
he thinks of that situation; he is a stranger, and may
see it differently from me."
Without waiting for another time, as Lawrence's
remark suggested, Marian leaned forward and
called to Mr. Phipps. He turned at once, the first
time he had done so since they started. "Well, what
is the idea, my little movie star?"
"Mr. Beaman and I have been talking about the
natives here," she began.
"Is that all you have been talking about?" he in-
terrupted. "I admit that the topic Is full of interest;
still, I don't exactly think that I could spend the whole
of a bright morning discussing the sons of Ham, un-
less there was some politics in it. I think I should
find other matters of more absorbing personal con-
cdrn. Well, antf hat do you think of them? You
think, I suppose, that they are oppressed, like a man
from Ireland I met with the other day who said to me
that the coloured people of this country were terribly
oppressed and kept down and trodden upon, and
robbed and exploited, and I don't know what else
besides. He looked like a philanthropist all. right;
he was full of righteous indignation and vicarious
generosity from the word 'go.' But I happened
across that same bright leader cf light and liberty
the next day, and he was having the deuce of a dust-
up with a Kingston caiman aibut sixpence. He







PLANTERS'


PU NCH


seemed to think that the cabman wanted to oppress
Wta, and the cabman had no sort of doubt at all that
my philanthropic friend was one almighty thief. My
friend wanted to give the cabman in charge, but I cut
in and pointed out that native labour must be allowed
to cheat the stranger if it is to be restrained from
forming trade unions, and, anyhow, the cabman was
quite right. I don't say that, as a rule, the cabmen are
right; but by sheer perverse accident this one happen-
ed to be, and the Irishman had to produce another
coin. I guess that when he returns to his own peace-
ful and harmonious country be will give it out that
the white man in the English tropics is terribly op-
pressed and trodden upon by the black."
"Never mind your friend," cried Marian, "we
wanted to know whether you think the people here
are dangerous or not."
"I'l bet you anything that friend Lawrence
doesn't want to know anything of the sort," said Mr.
Phipps. "But if your mind's uneasy, I'll set it at
rest at once by saying that they are terribly danger-
ous to any stray coconut you might leave loose about;
while to a bunch of ripe bananas, hanging temptingly
and promiscuously within reach, they will become
positively hostile. At such times no coconut is in
safety and the life of the banana is apt to be short.
But that's about all, or nearly all, anyhow. So you
don't need to worry."
Mr. Phipps turned his faceaway, and settled him-
self in his seat again as though he had nothing fur-
ther just then to say.
"Why did you bring him into the conversation?"
whispered Lawrence. "It is not often that we have
the chance of a long talk by ourselves."
"He would have thought it very strange It all
during this trip we said nothing to him," Marian
whispered back. "He would have wondered what
we could have to say to one another to his entire ex-
clusion. You must think of appearances, sir!"
"I don't think Phipps is troubled much about ap-
pearances," he rejoined; "he usually sees through
them."
Marian nodded her head. "'Yes," she answered
seriously, "he Is the sort of man whom one would be
afraid if it he were not one's friend. He Is always
gay and cheerful, but sometimes his eyes and his
mouth are hard: I have seen that once or twice. But
he is your friend, Isn't he? I believe he likes you
very much."
"And you too," said Lawrence; "but you are
right. He's got an Iron strain in him somewhere."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE DEVIL'S MOUNTAIN.
THE car stopped. The chauffeur slowly and
methodically got out and walked towards the
tore of his car, opened the bonnet, and began
to probe into and tinker diligently at the ma-
ohinery. Mr. Phipps, after watching him for a
moment or so, turned towards Marian and Lawrence
with the remark-
"You know, I don't believe there's anything at
all wrong with the car?"
"Then what is your man doing with it?" asked
Marian.
"Making sure; taking precautions, and all that
sort of thing. It is a habit of his, a rather unusual
habit in this country, and therefore I do not dis-
courage him, even when I feel he is overdoing it. We
are at the foot of the Devil's Mountain now, and
Arthur is fixing up things against accidents. Acci-
dents may still happen, of course; but he'll have
the consciousness, if he is not killed, of knowing
that he did everything possible for the sake of safety.
And that's about all that any of us can do," added
Mr. Phipps, "when once we have started, or been
started, on any course. We can take precautions
against accidents and surprises: the rest we must
leave to-shall I say Providence?"
"You are in a peculiarly moralising mood this
morning," remarked Lawrence.
"Must be the effect of Sunday," returned Mr.
Phipps smiling; "I am finding sermons in stones and
moralities in motor cars."
"This mountain: you call it the Devil's Moun-
tain," Marian observed: "why?"
"The old owners of this country, the Spaniards.
called it that long ago. They named it la Mofitana del
Diablo, because it was long and steep, with danger-
ous precipices: and in those days the road was bad.
I think there Is a Devil's Mountain, and more than
one, in the life of every one of us, little movie
star. and if we cross It successfully there are scenes
of beauty and delight on the far side, as there are
on the other side of this 'Mount Diablo'; and if we do
not cross It safely-well! But It has to be attempted,
tor there is never any way round, once we have set
out on the journey."
"But," said Lawrence, falling in with Mr. Phipps's
rather unusual mood, "we need not begin the jour-
ney."
"No: sometimes. But that is if we know we are
about to begin it and can stop ourselves. Often we
do not know until we are well on the way, and then
it is too late to do anything except-take the best
precautions."
"And those?" enquired Marian.
"Those each of us must find out for himself or
herself, my dear when we begin to see where
we are going to."


darian's eyes contracted slightly at these words;
she seamed to find a hidden meaning in them.
Lawrence, who had never before heard Mr. Phipps
speak like this, lifted his eyebrows in astonishment
and wondered at his friend's lapse into something
like sentimentality. He changed the conversation by
saying abruptly to Marian, "You must not imagine
that there is anything dangerous about Mount Diablo
in these days, no accident ever occurs here now: the
road is perfectly safe."
"'Yes," agreed Mr. Phipps, "with careful driving
it is. With indiscreet driving it would not be, of
course:, t would be terribly dangerous. There Is al-
ways danger, Lawrence, on the Devil's Mountain.
But I see that Arthur has done fooling with the en-
gine, and we are about to do some pretty climbing.
Look to your right, movie star!"
The car had started with a powerful movement,
not swiftly but steadily, for the frequent curves and
sharp turns of the narrow road would not permit of
-high speed with safety, as the chauffeur knew full
well. Marian, obeying the injunction of Mr. Phippa,
turned her eyes in the direction indicated, and ut-
tered one low long sound of delight.
To the left, and so near that one could almost
touch it with outstretched hand, a mountain lifted it-
self out of range of vision; to the right the ground
broke away, sloping to a hidden valley a thousand feet
below. Far, far in the distance rose the hills that
shut in the valley on the other side, their summits
sharp-defined in delicate azure against the bluer sky.
their slopes and bases covered with a moving misty
mantle of purest white. The mist rolled and drifted
incessantly, silver here and there where the sunlight
touched it, rising now to blot out as if forever the
vivid verdure of some dew-drenched hillside, then dis-
appearing as If dissolved into the air and leaving tree
and tern and gleaming frond to emerge into view
once more. A garment of green picked out with scar-
let and purple was flung over the body of the preci-
pice close by; the overarching sky seemed to sparkle;
a glint amongst the trees suggested a waterfall lpap-
ing and hurrying to join some placid river down be-
low. Deep shadows brooded above the mist and be-
neath the radiant hilltops, shadows dark and still,
and save for th- throb and purring of the car no
sound was to be heard. A dreamy silence hung above
the scene and wrapped it all around; and Marian felt
again, as she had felt before in her own beautiful and
romantic country, the charm and mystery and wonder
of "the sleep that is among the quiet bills."
Higher and higher they climbed, the road twist-
ing and turning like a mighty snake, with precipice
succeeding precipice, and mountain r nge after
mountain range rising In the distance, and the air
growing colder and colder. And to their right the
precipices yawned always, grim and menacing. But
the chauffeur, with his hand upon the steering wheel,
looking neither to right nor to left, nor halting nor
hurrying, held the car upon its course: there was
danger, Marian saw, but only to the careless, or to the
incompetent or reckless, and she remembered what
her old friend had said about taking all due precau-
tions. Again she began to wonder if there had been
a hidden meaning in his words-she had become very
susceptible to veiled suggestions and indirect allu-
sions of late. Now and then she thought that
Mr. Phipps wished to convey to her something that
he could not say directly or was he seeking
to dud out something from her, and had adopted this
means of doing so? Or was it that he meant just
nothing at all, and that she was allowing her imagin-
ation to play tricks with her, to worry her incessant-
ly, to-
"The top of Mount Diablo, and not a jar to our
smooth progress,V cried the voice of Mr. Phipps. "We
are beginning to go downwards now. out of the si-
lence and the cold into the warmth of the sun and the
sound of human voices and beasts and birds. It is
strange how one's surroundings affect one: I don't
think any of us has uttered a single word since we
began the ascent of Mount Diablo."
And now, as he had said, they moved downwards,
and the chasms to their right passed quickly into
elevated valleys, and the hills receded farther and
farther, and pastures began to appear, pastures with
grass of emerald green, and smooth, still, lichen-cover-
ed ponds, and copses of trees with thick umbrageous
branches. The pastures were fenced with stone, and
on these low stone hedges grew green-and-purple
creepers; the scene was fair and park-like, the atmos-
phere had the quality of sparkling wine and was filled
with the scent of the pimento leaves, and the sun, the
great god and tyrant of the tropics, was here a mild
and beneficent deity, calling forth sweetness-and giv-
ing light.
"We are in the Garden of Jamaica,". said Law-
rence: "the most beautiful part of a beautiful coun-
try: the whole parish of St. Ann is called the Garden
of Jamaica."
"Is your old home far from here?" asked Marian.
"Some miles distant; we turn to the north and
travel for a while along the seashore before we come
to Triton."
They passed through the village of Moneague,
a valley among the mountains some two thousand
feet above the level of the sea, then again began
to descend. They went quickly now,. for here there
were no precipices; here the land fell, not abruptly,
menacingly, but with a gradual steady sweep. The
wind sang by them; great ceiba trees, with parasitic


plants clinging to their huge branches or sending out-
tendrils which swung free in the air, reared them-..
selves into sight swiftly and were left behind; flocks).-
of birds rose abruptly from among the grass on;.l
either hand, spread themselves out into long alr-fleeta-s.
and disappeared, the tang of the sea came suddenly
to them, and then-stretching away to the horizon,.:
flashing in the yellow light and painted gloriously .
with pink and blue and imperial purple, lay thej
Caribbean Sea.
The amber sand, smooth as the palm of one's-.
hand, was caressed softly by the waves as they rolled
towards the shore; here and there grew clumps oft'
sea-grape, and groves of coconuts, tall and slender,..
tossing and rattling their branches gaily and laden
with green and golden nuts. Again and again as they
sped along the road by the northern shore they-1
crossed rivulets that emptied themselves into the sea,..
and saw the hosts of tiny red and yellow crabs scur--
rying to their holes or scuttling into the water.
Sometimes there was hardly anything but the road
between the sea and the mountains to the left, some--
times the mountains were withdrawn and a wide-.
space of fertile land, dotted with cattle or covered
with grass, lay between them and the water. These-
plots of land were cut off from the road by barbed--
wire fences; a gate now and then indicated the way
inward to houses which could not he glimpsed from..
the open highway. One of these gates stood ajar;
Arthur, Mr. Phipps's chauffeur, swung the head of his,
car towards it, passed through, and drove with prac--
ticed ease along the winding inclined way that led
from it to some interior mansion. "Triton," said
Lawrence, though Marian knew already what place-
it was. Soon she saw, parked on a grass plot to the-
left, the cars which had preceded them, and a large-
house with a porch which stood on a slight eminence
in front. "Triton!" cried Mr. Phippa, as a matter of"1
form, then sprang out of the car as it stopped, and,
leaving Lawrence to bring up Marian, hastened to-
join his other guests.
These had already been received by Mr. Phipps's
major domo, a dignified and venerable old man, per-
fectly black, whom Mr. Phippa had taken over with
the house and had dubbed Pluto, somewhat to the
bewilderment of the venerable and dignified retain--
er. Mr. Phipps had explained that morning at the i
Myrtle Bank Hotel, to such of the guests as had never
visited Triton, that his butler and general factotum.
would be there to receive them, and would do so quite-
as well as he, Mr. Phipps, himself. And Pluto had
certainly welcomed Mr. Phipps's guests with great
dignity blended with respectful cordiality, and had
offered to show them to rooms where they might re--
fresh themselves pending the arrival of their host.
They had all, however, preferred to remain on the
porch of the Great House until Mr. Phipps himself
should make his appearance. On catching sight of
him" now they gave a little cheer, some of them hur-
rying forward to greet him.
-"Come in, come in," cried Mr. Phipps cordially,
"come and get the dust off and a cocktail in-no, not
a cocktail, a planter's punch. Pluto mixes planter's.<
punch beautifully; it's one of his many accomplish-
ments."
SSaying which, he hustled the crowd Into the big-
dining room, through a corridor that led to it from.
the verandah. The dining room was to the rear of'
the Great House. There, on a long mahogany table,.
were already set out all the Ingredients that go to-
making a planter's punch-old Jamaica rum, limes,
sugar, water and nutmeg-while a huge pail contain-
Ing broken ice showed that Mr. Phipps had forgot-
ten nothing that would make this famous native-.
beverage delectable.
"We'll have the punch first and the wash after-
wards." suggested Mr. Phipps; "there wasn't any dust
to speak of on the road this morning, thank good-
ness. Pluto, will you please see to the punch."
"Yes, sah," agreed Pluto, and summoned a wo-
man somewhat younger than himself to assist in the
operation. "We'll have breakfast in half an hour,'"
Mr. Phipps rattled on, "then we'll begin to enjoy our-
selves. Make yourselves perfectly at home, you
know; I believe It is all in the old Jamaica tradition
that a planter's house belongs to his guests. I am not.
a planter, but that doesn't matter."
While the punch was being prepared, Marian and"
Lawrence, who had not followed the others inside,
lingered on the porch, from which, because of the ele-
ration on which th? building stood, an extended view,
of the surrounding country on three sides was com--
manded. Before them lay the sea, its blue and pur-
ple horizon.far-teyond; on either side was broken
land, undulating southwards into foothills andT
covered with grass and trees; neglected land for the-
most part, only the space immediately around the-
building being maintained in something like order.
The house itself, mainly of brick with a white-and-
green -wooden facade, was of two storeys, with numer-.i
ous windows, and built on foundations three feet
high: a large commodious structure originally erect-
ed by owners who could afford to live In such a resi-
dence when there was plenty of coffee on the proper-
ty and the price was high. The stone that paved"
the porch, as Marian observed, was marble; -she no-
ticed that the solid doors were of polished mahogany.
She knew little of such things, but guessed that a
building such rs this must have been worth some-
thing once, end perhaps was still valued at a fair-
amount of money. And this belonged to Lawrence,


1922-23






PLANTERS'


PUNCH


Mvldintly made nothing of it. This was
SWhitch his parents had lived and in which
.b:orn, the'home of gentlfolk, evidently, of
lt'ust have been amongst the first and the
Er-time.
iM. yeu let Mr. Phipps have this?" she
0i. he brought to her attention points of
bocttbe house. "Mightn't you have been

rt:aeme land," he answered indifferently,
mirte s money to develop, and I had none
jjople died. I had to go and earn some.
il sold Triton, but didn't quite like to; so
,Ote care of the servant you saw a minute
imeasionally I rented it to someone who
tiWidence for a few months of the year.
* it; but, as you see, he does not cultivate
I' the property. He spends money on it
'making anything out of it."'
4t that same moment Major Fellapar also
l himself why a man like Mr. Phipps, who
In.Kingston, who went so frequently to his
Iy, and who possessed in Jamaica no visible
support (as the local Vagrancy Law put it)
Oe such a country residence out of which
kousiy made nothing? Mr. Phipps did not
look, to the eye of the Inspector General,
iwith any taste for farming or cattle breed-
t,'Was certain that he neither farmed land
0je. Then why this property, and why, in
5!:Phipps? Major Fellspar did not wish
task such questions. He had the un-
BUng of being the guest of Mr. Phipps, and
in excellent planter's punch was being pre-
- remembered his determination of the pre-
i refuse all refreshment from Mr. Phipps;
ight of acute Indigestion as a sufficiently
ircuse. But he had not been able at his
Itbetantial breakfast early this morning to
I effect of a long exhilarating motor ride
wnderfuI country, to say nothing of the
pbearance of the punch which was even
handed round. His was a tragic position,
i:khimself to refuse the punch, though his
pilte protested strongly against such un-
;.~ily. Everybody seemed to be taking
ant but determined, he hung on the out-
UiJ1rowd. "What, Major," cried Mr. Phipps,
6t of him. "Not having an appetiser? Im-
UItA he found a glass thrust into his hand
himselfl. There was nothing to do, he de-
tluk it; common courtesy commanded that
though morally he did not want to follow
*r his physical inclinations might be. He
flhe drink, with more appreciation than he
itahoght possible in the circumstances, and
tigly stimulated. This was alarming: the
Wih bad secretly brought with him in his
atmight fail. given his present feeling, to
Litem the temptation of breakfast. And,
I.. Maor Fellspar had already begun to
E ninary personal interest in the ques-
slt4 He did not like this inclination of

ldiidiscussed, the guests hurried to the
i~ or them, Mr. Phippe and Lawrence
i the way to their suite, Mrs. Hamilton
ly, who bad been to Triton before, con-
iomen. When they had all finished re-
$igb-t evidences of the journey from their
.4d, they thronged back to the dining
Ieen previously arranged, and there they
'table'set for breakfast, with three or
tables also laid for the same purpose.
eBaskeeeper had prepared a Jamaica
'was fragrant coffee, tbo berries of
:toasted and ground the night before,
distilled by an all-night dripping
e. A little of this essence of coffee
t followed by a cupful of boiling cow's
t.morning from the cow, made a de-
and with it you had either toast and
better, or crisp buttered cassava wafers
ain the mouth. Salted codfish cooked
.ackees was one of the dishes, and
fifth roasted yams and steamed yam-
also broiled river mullet and cray-
own shells. Ham and eggs for
ed lt dish had of course been pro-
Lteaks f~rom cattle fed on the rich
und in St. Ann. Roasted green
,plantaina fried in olive oil. baked
litle cakes of flour, brown and crisp,
Sbuttered-there was everything
: appetite, and there was hardly in
alred much tempting that morning.
had carefully arranged for the seat-
e is guests; the others sat where
.Aceording to their selection of
'tble. The two persons whom he
were Lady Rosedale and the In-
|fi;:& to his right, the other to his
at.-which Major Fellspar had whol-
ttely to calculate upon. In such
tt.a, it..occurred to him, how was
'to avoid eating without giving
hbared with great distinctness that
y,.Rosedale that he would touch
Phlpps's roof, and Lady Rosedale
lis every movement. She, he
btyt no sort of scruples or com-


functions whatever. It did not seem to occur to her
that part of the proceeds of her jewellery might go
to paying for this feast; or perhaps it was because
she was of opinion that it might that she was so ob-
viously preparing to make a hearty meal. The odour
of the coffee was tempting; it seemed to Major
Fellapar that the Idea of making coffee with boiling
milk instead of water was one which he would adopt
in the future. Clearly, he would have to taste it to
judge adequately of its merits;_ and if Lady Rosedale
found no difficulty in accepting the hospitality of a
man she suspected of dishonesty, there might be some
excuse for an Inspector General placed in the most
awkward position imaginable, and all because of his
devotion to duty. Unconsciously, while pursuing this
train of reflections, Major Fellapar carried his
cup of coffee to his lips, and continued sipping
it with quiet but excessive enjoyment. He next ac-
cepted a helping of baked crayfish without even a
moment's hesitation. The crayfish was delicious. So
were the cassava waters. And the steak was tender
and juicy to a degree. Major Fellspar was fast be-
coming convinced that a man like Mr. Phipps, who so
thoroughly understood the art of entertainment,
could not possibly be guilty of a miserable theft. The
very idea now seemed preposterous.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS.
B REAKFAST proceeded amidst great merriment
and laughter. There was more rum punch for
those who wanted it, and the punch exhilar-
ated still further the spirits of people already
primed for enjoyment. The service was brisk, and
as everyone wanted to be shortly on the move-for
there was to be bathing, boating, fishing and motoring
all during the day-in half an hour the meal had been
disposed of. Lady Rosedale, at the request of Mr.
Pbipps, gave the signal for adjournment from
"the table. "And now," said Mr. Phipps, as everybody
rose, "before we go out I shall be glad to show you
over this old house of my friend Beaman-it is his,
you know, and some day I shall have to hand it back
to him."
His guests expressed themselves delighted with
his suggestion: led by him, they went from room to
room; most of the apartments contained some furni-
ture but were obviously in disuse. "This place," Mr.
Phipps explained, "was built in the halcyon days of
sugar and coffee; it must be a century and a quarter
old, but is sound in every Etone and timber. I in-
habit three rooms of it when I am here, and the bats
come in when I am not and take possession. I sleep
in a bedroom, I dine in the dining room-it is so large
that I quite see plainly the ghost of the first owner
standing in one of the corners: he is supposed to be
there, and I see him. The other room I call my
library or study, though I do not study there: care to
see it?"
He flung open the door of a room on the second
storey as he spoke, then drew aside to let the others
enter. It had evidently been built as a library; the
walls were almost hidden up to two feet of the roof
by bookcases. But most of these cases were empty
now; only one contained a few old books, and a goodly
number of large volumes like albums. These bore
paper labels with pen-and-ink lettering. They were
all dated. It was Nora Hamilton who casually drew
one of them from its shelf and idly opened its stiff
pages.
"What is this?" she asked laughing, glancing at
the newspaper cuttings neatly pasted within the book.
"My record of interesting happenings," replied
Mr. Phipps. "Curious thefts, murders, revolutions
and so on are always occurring, and if I find any ac-
count of these in the papers that interests me. I just
snip it out and paste it in my newspaper-cutting book.
When depressed and bowed down by weight of woe-
you know the song, Miss Nora-I adjourn to my study,
and by the perusal of the story of sensational crime
I revive my drooping spirits. Nothing is so enter-
taining as a murder admirably executed, the perpetra-
tor of which is never discovered-unless it be a rob-
bery."
"What a morbid taste!" cried Nora, "and what a
lot of clippings you have-made!"
"My collection of newspaper clippings is surely
extensive," Mr. Pbipps admitted; "it shows that the
old fellow is diligent in the pursuit of instructive in-
formation. I brought over to-day all the newspaper
accounts of Lady Rosedale's misfortune, and they
will be pasted up along with the others, but specially
marked, for I know the victim of this latest crime and
that makes it all the more interesting."
"Do you mean, Mr. Phipps, that you have been col-
lecting these records of crime for years?" asked Lady
Rosedale, "and for mere pleasure?"
"Not records of crime only," explained Mr. Phipps,
"and not merely for pleasure. All the stories in these
books are not about crime. You will find-" he drew
a volume out of its shelf and looked at the Index at
the back of it-"you will find that there is a good deal
in them about revolutions, for instance, and conspira-
cies. and jewellery-I always had a weakness for
jewellery and its movements. And I don't keep these
records for amusement only; I often read them
over to expand and enlighten my mind. It's not be-
cause a man is getting old that he should neglect his
education, and there's a lot of education to be got aut


of reading about real happenings. But come! We
don't want to waste the precious hours of a lovely day
among my musty old clippings."
He moved towards the door and the others trooped
after him, nothing loth to be out of doors.
Major Fellspar was puzzled. An idea had flashed
into his mind. Could it be possible that this man was
a detective, a retired detective? But, if so, he was
quite unlike any detective that Major Fellspar had
ever heard of; in spite of his occasionally queer locu-
tions he spoke like a gentleman; in spite of his ap-
parent obtuseness to obvious hints he could act the
part of a perfect host. He seemed, too, to be a man
of means. Then, surely, no one who was a burglar
would speak as he did about his interest in theft, in
crime, in jewellery, and would so openly invite the
Police to inspect the room where he kept his records
of criminal and related events. He seemed actually
to be inviting suspicion, and no guilty man would
dream of doing that.
Major Fellspar glanced at Lady Rosedale. Lady
Rosedale was thoughtful and troubled, as the set of
her lips and the little horizontal line in her forehead
clearly showed. It was plain that Mr. Phipps had set
her thinking; she did not look like a woman at ease;
there was plainly something on her mind. Major
Fellspar wondered if she had discovered, or thought
she had discovered, anything new in the last few

I r1


Arnold L Malabre & Co,

(ESTABLISHED 1856.)


Steamship Agents,


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REPRESENTING:-


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THE WHITE STAR LINE,


NEW ZEALAND SHIPPING CO,


LAMBERT BROS,, LTD,








KINGSTON---JAMAICA.


_ _




32 PLANTERS' PUNCH 1922--23
3 I T= FIT OM Af a NYL



UNITED FRUIT COMPANY
.. 1I


STEAMSHIP SERVICE.


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FOR TROPICAL TRAVEL.

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UNITED FRUIT COMPANY. HEAD OFFICE 17 BATTERY PLACE.
40 HARBOUR STREET, KINGSTON. NEW YORK.



ELDERS & FYFFES, Limited.


TWIN SCREW STEAM1ERS
LUXURIOUSLY APPOINTED


- 6,000 tons each.
- Superb Accomnmodation.


SAILINGS


REGULAR

FORTNIGHTL

MONTHLY


For Rates and all Infornlation apply tc:-
UNITED FRUIT COMPANY.
40 HARBOUR STREET, KINGSTON.


FROM


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( BRISTOL (Avonmouth Docks) -
TrO LIVERPOOL (Garston Docks)-
and SANTA MARTA, Rep. of COLOMBIA.
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or ELDERS A FYFFES LTD.,
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HOTELS:-
Myrtle Bank Hotel, Kingston;
5 Hotel Titchfield, Port Antonio.


A B ,l ^= : ^' .l^^l-, 1,- l.- .l i= ,


-.~




S WW S S


PLANTERS'


PUNCH


t ISIT Jamaica. Queen of
the West Indian Is-
I:." lands-a- rare jewel,
s'iet i the opalescent waters
f. the beautiful Caribbean
`Ada.

i" deal. all-year round clim-
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frtn sea and mountains.
''Etdrnal Summer and glorious
:isahshine.
ia': .
Two thousand miles of
tplendid motor roads through
Banana, cocoanut. coffee and
.-tugar plantations, and magni-
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..Five glorious days at sea
.from New York to this en-
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S..'The two-finest hotels in
*:b tropics are located in
Ajmaica; luxuriant-palatial.
Fprlete with every modern
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irirate baths, all with hot
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;., Large ball rooms, attract-
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ig rooms. cool verandahs,
unique porch dining rooms.

* I.nexcelled cuisine, atten-
ire service, adequate refri-
lration.

i:Ladies' hairdressing. mani-
ttre and massage salon:
r shop and steam laun-


MYRTLE BANK HOTEL, KINGSTON.
S I at Kingston the capital of Jamaica, on south side of the Island is
Open throughout the year. It is situated in its own beautiful pri-
vate park with an extensive water front on Kingston Harbour, gay
with ships from all nations at anchor. Majestic Cocoanut, Royal. and other tropical palms and foliage, afford
inviting shade for the spacious well kept lawns, which are constantly swept by refreshing sea breezes, making
Mvrtle Bank the coolest spot in Kingston. It is the popular rendezvous of the Island, and the scene of all
brilliant social functions. At nights the grounds are transformed into a veritable fairyland by softly shaded
electric lights. twinkling from tree to tree. Dinner "all fresco" add an indescribable charm to the scene.
To m3et the increasing demand for accommodation, a fire proof annex of forty-two rooms, each room with
a private bat.h, has been added; dining rooms have been remodelled and enlarged. and for the further comfort
and pleasure of guests, a new bail room and a beautifully furnished lounge have been built. Golf and tennis
are available.


Itel U[Tir tl tb( exclusive, palatial, on north shore of the Island at Port Antonio, is
i w b.9, open for the winter only. Ideally situated on a high peninsula,
'commands magnificent vistas of towering mountain peaks on one side, and the alluring Waters
the Garibbean on the other. Beautiful lawns, stately palms, broad verandahs, tennis courts:
lest bathing in the world, temperature of water 86'. Dancing. fishing, golf, horseback riding
cir mountain trails, rafting on the Rio Grande; excursions to Folly Point, Gaves and Blue Hole,
are some of the many diversions.


.' ,: <. *,
t4,,, -!,,




S;,2:' ?". :*


IOTEL TTCHFIELD PORT ANT


Kingston has splendid
shops, fine government
buildings, public markets,
and is easily accessible
to the many old historic
pointsof interest. Myrtle
Bank is the starting point
for many of these en-
trancing motor runs.


THE

MOST

MODERN

AND

LUXURIOUS

HOTELS

IN

THE

TROPICS.


"~' a


Thomas G. S. Hooke,
Roidest Maruser.


~-i~-- -;... -


3, r
"'' ;'
.:
,-


;'r :alje
;







PLANTERS'


PUNCH


mitaut. Major Fallapar, it has already been remark-
l was really a shrewd sort of man. Those who, be-
cause of his perky expression, his humorously up-
turned nse, his great regard for personal dignity, and
his nobbhisbness took him for a fool, were often dis-
aggreeably surprised. That Mr. Phipps had a very de-
finite object in allowing them all to see his newspaper
eqttings he realized quite clearly; his business now
was to ascertain what that object was. He fixed his
attention on this, became silent and pre-occupied. An
idea, a suspicion, had dawned in his mind.
By this time they had got downstairs again, and
the men had donned their hats preparatory to setting
of for the open-air picnic. The cars were ready and
waiting; Mr. Phipps was on the verge of giving the
signal tor the general departure when Nora Hamilton
called out: "Oh, I say! Do let us take some photo-
graphs before we go!"
Major Fellspar felt certain that this suggestion
had been hinted to Nora by Inspector Harmsworth,
and he noted with appreciation this proof of resource-
fulness on Harmsworth's part. The suggestion came
much better from an attractive girl like Nora, whom
everyone. would be willing to oblige, than it.would
have come from his subordinate.
"Good ideal" exclaimed one or two of the younger
girls, and those who said nothing nevertheless looked
their readiness to have their pictures taken. The ob-
lection came from Mr. Phipps.
"Why waste precious time taking photos now?"
he urged; "let's get away to the river."
But Inspector Harmsworth bad already unslung
his camera, and some of the younger people were pre-
paring to pose. Mr. Phipps saw that there would be a
friendly contest with him should he persist in pooh-
poohing Nora's suggertlon; he saw that he could not,
without being positively rude, insist that no photo-
graphs should be taken. So be shrugged his shoulders
slightly, and at the same time glanced in Major Fell-
spar's direction. Major Fellspar had a self-con-
scious look. He was uneasily aware at the moment
that the only two persons who had brought cameras
with them were he and Harmsworth, two members
of the Police Department. He wondered whether Mr.
Phipps had observed that circumstance. He would
not have wondered if he had caught the glance which
Mr. Phipps directed at him.
The photographs were taken in groups of four
and five, the ladies removing their broad-brimmed
jippl-jappa hats for the purpose. Major Fellspar him-
self was photographed with Lady Rosedale, Mr.
Phipps. the moving picture director and the e4upany's
principal actress. Stephen posed beside Nora Hamil-
ton, and Lawrence stood by Marian's side. Lastly,
Inspector Harmsworth, handing his camera to the
moving picture director, was photographed, with Nora
and one other girl to make up a group. He promised
to show the negatives to everybody within a day or
two, and then they streamed, laughing and talking,
towards the waiting cars. Major Fellspar was de-
lighted that he had had nothing, directly, to do with
this business: he was satisfied that he could not, with
any dignity, have acted as amateur photographer to
the crowd. He could not have carried off the thing
with the lightness and ease of Harmsworth; but
Harmsworth had not been ordered by the Governor to
do a disagreeable piece of work, and In all probabili-
ty, Major Fellspar now concluded, was totally un-
conscious of why his chief had asked him to take these
photographs.
They set off for the picnic ground, a picturesque
spot some two miles away. amidst the foothills and
close to the sea. There was a little house on the
ground, and this Mr. Phipps had borrowed from its
owner. Here they would lunch, the lunch being pack-
*ed in a light motor lorry; here. too, they could change
for bathing in the river that flowed through the pro-
perty, or in the sea if they preferred sea-bathing.
Arrived at this place, the party separated into groups,
each group going its own way, or coalescing with
another as it thought fit, during the couple of hours
that preceded luncheon. Thus each group followed
the bent of its own collective mind, and pursued its
own idea of pleasure. When they all reassembled at
some Lime after one o'clock, it was evident that they
hau all exceedingly enjoyed themselves.
They were not so much inclined to strenuous
exercises after lunch as they had previously been;
Indeed, the tendency of the younger people particular-
ly was to stroll off in pairs end lose themselves among
the surrounding trees. One of the first couples to do
so was Nora Hamilton and Stephen Braeme, thanks
to Major Fellspar, who called to Inspector Harms-
worth just when the latter was about to ask Nora to
accompany him for a walk. He would probably have
made a party of three, for Stephen had shown clearly
that he too. was determined to be as much as possible
with Nora that day. But Major Fellspar imagined
that he had something to say to Harmsworth just
then, and Major Pellspar was precisely the one man
in the party whom Harmsworth could not put off for
another occasion. By the time the Major had finished
his remarks-he had merely intended to be nice to
Harmsworth, who had executed so neatly the task en-
trusted to him-Nora and Stephen had disappeared
from view, and Harmsworth could not bring himself
to hurry purposely after them: that would have been
much too marked. Marian and .Lawrenee too were
among those who went off soon after luncheon; so in
a little while there were only about half a dozen of the
more elderly people remaining in and about the little


house. Lady Rosedale had decided that too much
movement just then would be bad for her digestion;
she was therefore holding a sort of court just where
she was, and was duly being made as much of as
though she were a scion of royalty. Major Fellspar,
also, saw no sufficient reason why he should peram-
bulate about. Mr. Phipps had lingered behind, his
eye on all his guests and ready to anticipate their
wants. He had in the meantime kept a particular
watch on Inspector Harmsworth, and as soon as he
could he joined him and, after a few commonplaces,
casually turned the conversation to the subject of
amateur photography.
Mr. Phipps asked to be allowed to look at Harms-
worth's camera, and loudly admired it. He spoke of
different makes of cameras; in a little while Inspector
Harmsworth discovered that Mr. Phipps knew a good
deal about photography: far more indeed than Harms-
worth knew himself.
"Do you often take pictures?" enquired Mr.
Phlppa carelessly; "but I suppose that you don't get
much opportunity for that sort of thing in Kingston?"
"No," admitted the younger man; "when I was
stationed in the country I did more photographing in
a month than I have done in Kingston during the last
year. I am very much of an amateur, I am afraid."
"Then you don't develop your own photographs?"
"I don't know how to," Harmsworth candidly con-
fessed, 'and it isn't really necessary, you know. You
can get developing work done quite well and cheaply
in Kingston."
"Quite true," admitted Mr. Phipps; "but there's
some drawback: sometimes you may have to wait
long for your pictures. The photographers are so
busy that they may keep you any length of time before
giving you the negatives. I guess we shan't see those
photographs you took to-day for quite some time."
"I have already promised to show them to'you to-
morrow evening," said Harmsworth, "and I'll do it.
These are for the old man, you see,"-he indicated
Major Fellapar, whose short, .sturdy figure could be
seen through an open window in the house. "He
seems to be keen upon photographs just now: every
now and then he has a new hobby. He asked me to
take those I got this morning. They'll be a memento
of a very pleasant day with yon."
"That's kind of you to say so," said Mr. Phipps
heartily, but his eyes were narrowed and his look
piercing. "You can get those photographs developed
in a very short time, then?" he asked, returning to the
subject.
"Naturally: if the old man wants them, and he
usually wants everything in a hurry. Any photo-
grapher in Kingston will finish them in a few hours."
"What does he want them for?" demanded Mr.
Phlpps sharply, as if to surprise Harmsworth into a
truthful answer before he could pause to think.
"Blest if I know," replied the young man; "just
wants them, I suppose. He's a man of moods, you
know."
"I suppose so." agreed Mr. Phlpps. "Shall we go
for a stroll? We are certain to meet some of the
others."
Inspector Harmsworth consented, saying that he
would be able to get some pictures of the scenery
for his chief, which remark caused Mr. Phippa to
smile.
They went by easy ways, Harmsworth now and
then stopping to take some particularly pretty or
striking bit of scenery. Mr. Phipps talked, and
Harmsworth listened with a preoccupied air, and
whenever they saw some couple or group of persons
in the distance the younger man's eyes scanned them
closely, then left them with a disappointed expression.
They must have spent an hour thus, when, their steps
having taken them southwards among the rising
ground, they came suddenly to the verge of a bluff
overlooking a little glade forty or fifty feet below and
surrounded by great leafy trees. Paths from the bluff
led downwards to this glade. Mr. Phipps's eyes swept
over the ground beneath them. He saw, and at the
same time Inspector Harmsworth saw, Nora Hamilton
and Stephen Braeme.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"1 BPEAKI-AS A SPANIARD."
THEY were seated on a fallen tree trunk, side by
side; Nora had taken off her wide-brimmed
hat and her bronze hair gleamed in the
tempered sunlight. Her face was directed to-
wards the ground; Stephen, in stopping posture, was
talking to her eagerly: his attitude, the movement of
his lips, showed that. Her left arm hung loosely by
her side, and, as they stared, Inspector Harmsworth
and Mr. Phippe saw Stephen's hand steal slowly to-
wards it.
tarmsworth rapped out an ugly oath, and stiffen-
ed himself. "What-what is that damned moving
picture man saying to Miss Hamilton?" he exclaimed:
"what right has he-"
"We seem to be spying upon a scene that is not
Intended for our eyes," said Mr. Phipps. "You don't
approve of it, Harmsworth?"
"What's going on down there? No! By God, I
don't.. And I am going .to stop it."
'"Y ,uaeasnilyjo inthem," suggested Mr. FPtippe,
indicating one of the downward paths; but Inspector
Harmsworth had already seen it. Mr. Phippa did not
look at him as he dashed of; Instead, his gase fasten-


ed itself on a spot on the opposite side of the glade,
where a flutter of white had a moment before in-
dicated the advent of some other unwitting intruder.
There were two persons there; his keen glance Identl-
fled them: they too must be spectators of the little
love scene-for there could be no doubt it was a love
scene-that was being enacted in the glade. Mr.
Phipps was deeply interested.
Inspector Harmsworth made no effort to conceal
his swift approach as he strode down the path which
led from the bluff Into the open space below. Stephen
heard the noise and loosened his clasp of Nora's hand;
she looked up, a little startled; there was a fluttering
of her eyelids, a slight quivering of her nostrils, a
mantling of her cheeks with pink, as Inspector Harms-
worth marched up to them, endeavouring to appear as
if he had noticed nothing, but with a brusque con-
straint of manner that was not lost on Stephen.
"I thought you would find us," exclaimed Nora
quickly. "We saw that you were with Major Fellspar,
and so did not wait for you."
"How did you find us?" asked Stephen haughtily.
"Followed us?"
"You promised to go for a motor ride along the
seashore this afternoon," said Harmsworth. ignoring
Stephen altogether, and addressing Nora. "You
haven't forgotten, have you?"
"No," answered Nora, who was already recovering
from her surprise of a moment before. "We, the
three of us, can go: when do you propose to start?"
"Perhaps Mr. Braeme might not want to go," said
Harmsworth directly, and.even rudely. "I thought
we two could go together and take some pictures."
"May I ask why I should not want to go for the
ride?" demanded Stephen, and there was an
angry note in his voice. "I do not think my going
depends upon you. As Miss Hamilton has suggested
that I might do so, I am certainly accompanying her."
"Yes," cried Nora, with a nervous little laugh,
for the anger in both men's faces was plain for her
to see, the antagonism in their tones and attitude
patent. "A lot of us can go together: here's Marian
and Mr. Beaman now: let's get a big car and go to-
gether!"
Mr. Phipps, from his point of observation, had
watched Marian and Lawrence as they entered the
glade, unseen by those already there. Lawrence and
Marian, he was quite sure, had been witnesses of
what both he and Harmgworth had observed, and
probably would have withdrawn unnoticed had not
Inspector Harmsworth made his sudden appearance.
Maybe something in the attitude of Harmsworth and
Stephen had suggested to Lawrence that a quarrel,
disagreeable to Nora, would be averted if he and
Marian joined the group. Whatever their reason, Mr-
Phipps saw them emerge into the open, and decided
that he also would go below.
"Quite a pleasant reunion," he called out, as he
stepped briskly towards them; "we have all been
wandering round and about, and yet we are not much
more than a furlong from our headquarters."
He was speaking to everyone, but it was on
Marian's face that his gaze was fixed. It was ab.
solutely bloodless, and her eyes held in them a
strange and angry look. He remembered what she
had said to him about Stephen's lack of earnestness,
about his being able to love none but himself. She
was looking at Stephen with the bitterest, most scorn-
ful expression he had ever seen on her face. Stephen
was staring stormily at her, while Harmsworth was
eyeing Stephen In a very unpleasant and challenging
fashion. But Nora had already recovered her pose
and was her bright and cheerful self again. Shelook-
ed from one wrathful face to the other, then burst into
laughter.
"Well, aren't we all serious!" she cried. "What
is the matter? I have had a very pleasant time walk-
ing and talking with Mr. Braeme, and we are going
for a motor ride later on. Won't you all come? You,
dear Mr. Phipps, will, I know. You won't refuse me
anything, will you?"
"Not even my life!" returned Mr. Phippe, in
the same spirit. "A motor ride is just what I myself
was going to suggest. We'll take my car, aid do an
hour's spin: those who want to follow the, good
example can do so. But, say,.we had better be. going
back now to look after that ear. You must. come
with me, Miss Nora; you land I are the bosses of this
particular show."-'
"T am comingg," said Nora, taking Mr. Plppe's
arm'gaily.
They moved off, in a bunch, but Mr. Phipps was
to Nora's left and Inspector Harmsworth to her-right.
There seemed no place exactly for Stephen, who show-
ed no disposition to join his sister and Lawrence.
Constraint was visible in everyone's attitude, for even
Nora's buoyancy could not successfully contend
against the glumness of the others, and Mr. Phlpps
appeared to be thinking seriously. Fortunately they
had not far to go, and as soon as they came- to the
house Mr. Phipps began giving directions to his
chauffeur to get ready for a drive along the-sea coast.
They started soon after, going westward; they
went at moderate speed, and every now an# then
stopped for a few minutes if anything' striking
caught their attention. But the drive, froi the view-
point ojibnuine enjoyment, was not a.sucees. : There.
were many angry passions at work, and- thpse in-
hibited any feeling or expression of pleasiire. 'It was
with. a view to interesting the others in something,
and so taking their minds off their several annoyances,


1922--2









SE2-23

ur. Phipps ordered Arthur to" stop when they
s'to a little bay In which a few boats, tied with
ae- to the shore, swung Idly to the motion of the
. Sle suggested that they should take a walk about
ibay. "It, is interesting," he said, "for here the
Sof the old masters of this Island made his
iape; they call the place Runaway Bay."
SThey looked about them curiously. The little
t was almost completely surrounded on the land-
e with trees and shrubs: the few natives about,
slhrmen and boatmen obviously, were taking their
O-.in the boats or on shore; there was nothing
iFtieular, nothing significant about this spot, save
bt the last Spanish Governor of the island had
barked from here for Cuba after his final attempt
dive; the English conquerors out.
.."Runaway Bay," laughed Nora, "prosaic but
ie."
"Runaway Bay," repeated Stephen, "prosaic and
ieanmpllmentary, seflorita." For the first time since
i had known her he spoke to her as he would have
ft sMed a lady of Spain or of Peru.
, Re was now no longer angry or sulky. Stephen
iW by profession an actor, and he had an instinct
:the dramatic. The scene, and especially its his-
ieassociations, seemed now to stir that instinct
VRlivid life; he was standing erect, dark, handsome,
e ilBaing eyes, and surveying land and water
a mingled expression of pride and regret. "And
lionly uncomplimentary, but untrue," he urged,
hg Nfora with his eyes. "Think of it, seforita: an
r ini-for he was old, as I have heard-comes over
Iga from Cuba with but a handful of followers to
Back a land won generations before by his own
and which had been wrested from him, not by
r bravery, but by superior force and by sur-
Be struggles hard, he does his utmost; he is
nate, but still he strives; the dice are loaded
him, but he fights with fate itself. Then, loot
fighting always, he is forced backwards, and
reallse that the task of regaining Jamaica is
him. He comes to this little spot, with a
lhandful of men. Here they make their last
.iebut they know that the enemy pursuing them
.-overwhelming numbers. So they depart-these
iE iran open boat, braving the storms of the sea
e other perils of the deep, preferring death from
oents rather than capture and humiliation at
atds of the English. In Peru we should not
I ven such a spot as this so poor a name as
Siay Bay. We would have called it something
.TRe Last Stand of the Spaniard'- El uwiimo
WI del speIol!"
sle spoke with fire and eloquence, and as he
admiration flashed from Nora's eyes. Uncon-
y, Marian also had drawn her form erect, while
Slowed and her delicate head was proudly
Mr. Phipps recognized that the Spanish blood
lirring in both of them: Inspector Harmsworth
tmit Stephen was appealing to the romantic in
t dfiposition and was posing almost as a hero
pain just then, as one who In a desperate
could also make a last stand and make it

"iWell," said Mr. Phipps, "your poet has asked,
a In a name?' so why quarrel about 'Runaway

poet, seaor.'
re. Bill Shakespeare, you know; he said that
pgod many other questionable things, and since
'kther was English you should have no kick
h le English calling this place Runaway Bay.
seem to be in the nature of the ordinary
n to be over-poetic in naming anything;
how, if one half of you was driven out of
atry, the other half was the driver. So you
pathise with both sides."
Iafess that I am thinking of my Spanish side
i" replied Stephen a trifle coldly. "The side
so often been unfortunate, but which has
itself with imperishable glory. You may
that a Peruvian should say this, remembering
revolted against Spain and declared her in-
under the great Bolivar. But Peru revolt-
.it the Spanish Government, not against the
.:and the Spanish blood: that had been im-
Besides, I come of the blood of the first
in Peru, of the blood of the conquistadores,
irwho conquered the New World for Spain, and
Smdehli to make her glorious. I speak as a
:' You understand now what I feel about
de de Sissi and his last stand here. 'Runa-
ltdeed!"
w striking to look at as he spoke; and even
not easily impressed by anything, felt
Iman true fervour In the tribute this young
paying to Spain and her wonderful past.
saw Nora's eyes meet Stephen's, and there
-'of deep sympathy and admiration In them.
y Bay, indeed!" Mr. Phipps repeated
le laugh, not offensive, but sufficiently
Discount some of the heroics of Stephen;
lnk, friend, that there is so much 'indeed'
:you say, or perhaps It is 'indeed' in a very
I am talking now to the son of an
-ad talking merely as a one hundred per
a ho would have fought on the side of
eMgton in the Revolution if he couldn't
VGoing so, ghting not being much In my
ittesve me, there wasn't much of a last
sad man Sal when he got to this spot In


PLANTERS' PUNCH 35


those historical times you've been reciting about.
Sasal was running all right enough, and the only
question with him was whether he could run faster
than the English folk who wanted to get him. He
made a beeline for this spot, having been careful to
map out his retreat beforehand, in case of accident.
When he reached it, he stood not upon the order of
his going, but went at once. I guess it was a real
runaway and no mistake. And I don't blame him: I
should fancy that the fellows behind him were one
almighty terror and had precious little use for a
Don."
"That's your version," said Stephen, "but If he
had been a coward would he have come back to try to
reconquer the country, and would he have left it at
last In an open boat, as I have read in one of your
local publications that he did?"
"No, I allow he wasn't a coward," returned Mr.
Phipps, "but his valour was liberally tempered with
discretion. As for the open boat, he did escape in one,
it is true, but what else could he do? Walt for a
caravel? I am afraid he would have waited forever!"
It was Nora who turned the conversation into a
different channel, wishing to save Stephen from the
polite but unmistakable raillery of Mr. Phipps.
"But think of an open boat living In the sea from
here to Cuba," she cried; "I can hardly believe it!"
"It is done even now, Miss Nora," put in Inspector
Harmsworth. "These boatmen, in ordinary weather,
will go very far out to sea, and Cuba is only about a
hundred miles from the nearest point in Jamaica. A
boat like that-he pointed to a fairly large boat in the
bay-could carry a dozen men over to Cuba without
tremendous risk, except in the hurricane months."
"A little boat like that?" she asked Incredulously.
"They would sail all the way; they only row when
going for short distances along this shore."
"Well, one not unlike them carried Mr. Sassi for
good out of this island, and I think he was wise
to go," said Mr. Phipps turning away and mov-
ing towards the car, so as not to give Stephen another
chance of breaking out into another rhapsody. He
saw that Stephen was about to do this, and that Nora
at any rate would listen to him. It was all very
romantic, but, in Mr. Phipps's view, decidedly unsafe.
After what he had seen in the glade, Mr. Phipps pre-
ferred sober prose and prosaic conduct. He was not
sure he could depend on Inspector Harmsworth's
temper.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

MR. PHIPPS CHANGES.
HEY went back to their camping place, and
thence to Triton, in good time for dinner.
The picnic had been on the whole a great
success, ana when Mr. Phipps announced that
be had arranged for a light supper at the Myrtle Bank
Hotel on their return that night, it was voted that the
ending of the day would be perfect. Even Lady Rose-
dale appeared satisfied, for again and again had the
conversation turned on her great loss, and she felt
that the seriousness of this subject had not been un-
duly obscured. Lawrence, who had been most of the
time with Marian, looked quietly happy; Nora was
bright and brimful of excitement. Stephen, too, for
whom the day had begun in disappointment, and who
had been angry at his sudden and almost rude inter-
ruption in the glade by Inspector Harmaworth, had
now apparently recovered his good spirits: he had
not tailed to notice the impression he had made at
Runaway Bay, in spite of the good-humoured chaff-
ing of Mr. Phipps. But Marian and Inspector Harms-
worth were troubled and depressed, though they did
their best to simulate light-hearted enjoyment. It
would not have required a particularly observant per-
son to notice that these two were completely out of
tune with the rest; and there were one or two who
noticed it. Lawrence did, and it was patent to
Stephen. Mr. Phlpps not only perceived It, but seem-
ed affected by It. Even he was not his usual gay-
hearted self.
The short twilight had faded Into dusk, the sea
had changed from purple to slate, and the stars had
begun to peep forth one by one when the party started
on their homeward journey.
Mr. Phipps saw Stephen step into Mrs. Hamilton's
car, with Nora and Mrs. Hamilton, and made no ef-
fort to repeat his manoeuvre of the morning and send
him to sit beside the chauffeur. Lawrence, on his
part, was much surprised when Mr. Phipps, whom he
had fully expected would ride beside Arthur as he had
done during the drive to Triton. got Into the hinder
part of the car with Marian and himself Mr. Phipps
murmured something about Its being chilly in front,
and spread the rug in the car with great solicitude
over the knees of the three of them; but Lawrence,
who ordinarily would have done anything for the
comfort of his friend, had the feeling that this was
an unnecessarily selfish act on his- part, since Phipps
was' a tough and wiry person who would as a fact
think much less of the cold than he or Marian. Of
course, his sitting with Marian and Lawrence render-
ed anything but conventional conversation impossible.
Marian was placed between the two men and did
not seem inclined to any conversation; Lawrence
was not then prepared to indulge in common-
places; Mr. Phlppa himself, from whom a constant
stream of talk might usually be expected, sank into
a profound reverie, making no attempt to excuse It.


Lawrence's had sought and fo id that of Marina
under'the wrap; but Marian gently disengaged het
hand. Lawrence wondered why a day, which Mf
him had been so full of happiness, seemed about to
end so sombrely. He knew Phipps too well not to
feel certain that something of more than unusual im-
portance must have occurred to send him into such a
brown study, to render him so inconsiderate of what
he mast have known would be the wishes of younger
people who found pleasure in each other's society.
The night was beautiful, with the silver sickle of
moon to the west, the looming shadows of hills before
them, tie vast splendour of the star besprfnkled
sky. But Lawrence gave no glance to any of these
things; he was trying to puszle out the explanation
of the depression of both his companions. True, .iher
was that scene with Nora and Stephen; but was there
so much in it to affect these two so Intimately? He
also had felt angry, alarmed, at the scene in ihe
glade; he was incensed at the idea of Stephen mak-
ing love to Nora Hamilton, though, inconsistently
enough, he had been doing the same to Stephen's
sister. Stephen's effort by the bay to appeal to Nora's
admiration, to show himself romantic and at his
beat, had not been lost on Lawrence, who had felt
that it was not merely a pose. But Lawrence knew
that Harmsworth cared for Nora; that had been made
quite patent to-day: he was satisfied that Harms-
worth would see the danger of allowing Nora to be
subdued by the assaults of the brilliant Peruvian. H6
could not believe, indeed, that Nora was yet in
love with Stephen: he felt certain that she was only
flattered and pleased by Stephen's attentions. He
could not agree that it was solicitude for Nora that
so filled the minds or Mr. Phipps and Marian that a
day which had begun happily for both was now ending
in silence and gloom.
It was nearly ten o'clock when they got back to
the Myrtle Bank Hotel. Here Mr. Phipps roused him-
self, and springing lightly out of the car, began to
marshall his guests for supper. All, however, were
not staying to supper. Mrs. Hamilton and Nora were
going home, and Stephen, as he did not live in the
hotel, announced that he would leave with them. So
would Inspector Harmsworth have done but that Major
Fellspar suggested that he should remain, and under-
took to take him home: which suggestion Harmsworth
interpreted as a command. To Lawrence's delight,
Marian also said that she did not care for any supper,
and asked him to take her down to the hotel's pier
for a few minutes. "You had better come in and have
something before you go to bed," Mr. Phippa said to
both, but Marian was frm. Mr. Phippe lifted hia
eyebrows a little and went off to his other guests.
Lawrence determined to ask Phipps what his change
of attitude meant, and why he did not seem mo want
the two of them to be alone together any more.
"Phipps is a peculiar fellow," he remarked, as
they strolled down to the pier. "This morning he
acted so nicely: left us alone, I mean: and to-night
he planted himself along with us so that I could not
say a word to you."
"He is your friend." said Marian quietly, "and
would do nothing against you: we both agreed on that
this morning. So he must believe that he is helping
you, and he is right."
"What do you mean, Marian?"
"He doesn't want you to be alone with me; he
thinks that LL is bad for you, harmful; and-and for
me also. He is right; but it is not about that that I
want to talk to you now. I know you are on friendly
terms with Mr. Harmsworth: are you not?"
"Yes; you are referring to Nora and Harmsworth,
aren't you?"
"Yes. You saw to-day what was happening In
that wood, and afterwards by the sea you saw-didn't
you-how Nora looked when my brother was speak-
ing. Nora likes him, she thinks-she thinks a lot of
him: oh. I know; I know how well Stephen can speak,
and how he can flatter and make love. Your friend
Mr. Harmsworth cares for Nora, doesn't he?"
"That is apparent enough: it was quite plain to-
day," said Lawrence.
On a bench at the head of the pier they seated
themselves. There was no one else In sight.
"You want me to speak to Harmsworth abaut your
brother and Nora? I think he has seen as much as
we have, and Is far less pleased than you and I could
feel. I fancy that Harmsworth is in much the same
position as myself. He is a man with an ordinary
salary, and Nora's parents are very well off: that is
his difficulty. But now that your brother-well, I
think I can say, if I know anything at all about
Harmsworth, that he will no longer allow the grass to
grow under his feet where Nora is concerned. She
used to like him; I have no doubt she likes him still."
"Tell him," sala Marian tensely, "that he should
show her plainly that be loves her: that he should
tell her so and be with her as much as be can, so as
to prevent Stephen from being with her; he should
prevent Stephen from making love to her, he should
tell her father, her mother, that Stephen should not be
in her company, should not touch her hand, should not
speak to her! Tell him to-night! Will you do It?"
'I will do whatever you want me to, Marian," said
Lawrence: "but, remember, you are asking me to
derate your brother."
"I would do It myself if I could! T will do It! I
will speak to Nora about him; but-but would that be
of any use? She might think he is being badly sed
and that might cause her to care for him. What am
I to do?"




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iesen the matter in Harmsworth's hands,"
ltied Lawrence;" I don't think he will require
IOmpting from anyone after to-day. And don't
rjyyourself about other people, dear; surely they
14k after themselves. 1 want you to talk about
*elf; I want to talk to you about yourself. You
at happy; I see that; and it is not about Nora
.yao are unhappy. Won't you tell me what is
matter? I love you, Marian, and I want you to
fpVy. Dearest, dearest!"
oi was crying quietly, her face in her hands.
arm slid around her waist aDd clasped It firmly;
IW. she sat upright and pushed him away, drew
lf a little from him, then suddenly she swayed
ials him and her head was on his shoulder and
Wron her lips.
_th, this is wrong, all wrong," she muttered, "it
* Devil's Mountain, Lawrence, and there is dan-

There are beautiful fields and the blue sea be-
L" he whispered.
"oe." she murmured, "for us there are only the
ipices, and that is why your friend told us ol them
: and did not wish us to be alone together to-
.* .
PSr answer, he kissed her on her lips again and
,-and she made no resistance; but still she con-
idweeping and murmuring that it was all wrong.
at the drew herself resolutely away, and when he
d again have put his arm around her she rose,
began to wipe her face nervously with her little
.handkerchief. "Let us go back," she pleaded.
Sbout to work to-morrow; I must go to bed now."
*And to-morrow night: shall I see you here?"
eas--No," she corrected herself; "at least, not

.B4t why, Marian; for you care for me a little,
it, do you not?"
loveoe you," she answered simply; "but I ought
laove you; and you too-it is silly for you to
Si.:te, dear. I should not have let you kiss me
gti but I was weak. and I know that I shall be
ilgin if we meet alone ... ."
bse had left the pier, he at her side, and there
to chance now of a last embrace. When they
W.the verandah she gave him her hand, saying
uiigt. He pressed it, and her fingers tightened
H convulsively, and her eyes looked love into
S... then she was gone.
Th bdtt waiting to see his friend Phipps, or any
otl'ers with whom he had been that day, Law-
tunrried out of the hotel. His heart was beating
7,his brain was on fire. Marian loved him; that
iapinow; she had told him so, and her look was
'iore eloquent than her words. And, for the
#M, to-night she had called him Lawrence. But
blig kept her from him: her brother no doubt,
~ier who was all vanity and self, who sought
ZIr'pleasure where it might be found and denied
thing ssave what he decided was good for her.
that brother should learn in no great length of
'that there was a limit to selfishness, and that
fte Spanish-American doctrine and custom of the
tion of women to their men folk, which so often
tla the Spanish-American woman a mere play-
iad its limits, especially outside of Spanish-
I. This gentleman who so proudly boasted of
kJmat from the conquistadores, who was so evi-
AIrouder of his Spanish than of his English
1lWOuld shortly find that English vigour and
lition were something with which he would
ipled to reckon.
with the fied idea in his head that Marian
leave the country with him, if she left it,
went home to think all the long night of his
ipiesa and of the poor little girl's so evident
And all that night Marian lay awake, star-
.open eyes into the darkness, crying softly
then, perplexed and wretched. "What am I
'he moaned, again and again, "What am I
tad could find no answer to her question.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

Mi MAJORR FELLRPAR'S BELIEF.
P SIIPPS'S supper was quickly despatched.
Bortly after Marian had retired and Law-
sare had left the Myrtle Bank Hotel, the
'ity broke up, and Major Fellspar took In-
hrmsWorth into his car, which he had order-
S tmb (Wt night at the hotel. Inspector
.was in no mood for conversation with
fact he felt that Major Fellspar was an
lanee whose main object that day had
I sen to keep him from Nora Hamilton.
0o the Inspector General's remarks, he re-
a iA strictly polite rejoinders.
lepar had promised to take Inspector
home; arrived at the Inspectors' quar-
at of the car, and drew Harmsworth out
s hearing. "I'll not be In the office in
to-morrow, Harmsworth," he said, "and
this matter in hand. Have those photo-
Sby afternoon-the men and women,
: I don't want that. They must be at
before four o'clock. That is under-


.tn Now about this Mr. Phipps."

what he did to-day? How he showed


PLANTERS' PUNCH 37


C-HARACTER SNAPSHOT


MR. F. W. KENNEDY


Mr. F. W. Kennedy was Intended for the Govern-
ment service by his parents, and had he himself
chosen that line of life he would doubtless by this
have won to a first-class clerkship, with the position
of head of a department as no distant possibility. He
would have been a success as Government officers go,
but the slow movement and routine that distinguish
the average official's career at no time appealed to
him; at an early age he chose business as his calling,
and his choice has been abundantly justified by re-
suits.
He was for years a trusted employee of the United
Fruit Company; then he entered the service of Mr.
Wessels, and continued as manager of the firm when
it passed over to the Grace Company. Another
change took place recently; the business was pur-
chased by Dr. Grace and Mr. Kennedy; thus the latter
has won from clerk to manager and then to partner,
while still a young man: he is one of those Jamaicans
who have made their mark. This was inevitable,
given his robust energy and his keen business apti-
tude. He belongs to that type of Jamaican who
emigrate to the United States or Canada and achieve
success; he himself might have followed the example
of other brainy Jamaicans and gone abroad. But with
characteristic self-confidence he decided to make his
way in his own country. It certainly has need of him
and such as he.
Mr. Kennedy knows every part of Jamaica, and is
known all over Jamaica.- He has travelled much in
the interests of business in neighboring countries
and in Canada and America. He possesses what must
be of great value to every young business man, name-
ly, the confidence of the local business community.
When he decided not to enter the public service the
Government was deprived of the services of one who
would always have brought enthusiasm, energy and
ability beyond the average to the performance of his
duties. But his decision was the wisest for himself,
if one may judge by the position he now holds In the
colony's commercial life. It is a position of which
any man of his age might well be proud.


us his newspaper records of criminal cases, and talk-
ed. as he is so fond of talking, of his Interest in crime
and jewels, and revolutions, and so on?"
"Yes, I noticed it, and it strucK me-"
"What?"
"That he had a purpose in doing all this, but still
I do not think he is a thief." '
"He is none," said the Inspector General briskly;
"he is trying to confuse us, and he is the sort of man
who will play with fire for the mere love of doing so.
He would actually lead us to arrest him, if that suited
his purpose. Well, I am glad that your views agree
with mine. He knows who the thief is, Harmsworth!"
"You think so?" questioned Inspector Harms-
worth.
"I am sure of it. Brown, you remember, suspect-
ed Miss Braeme from the first."
"Yes, sir: but surely-"
"Anything is possible. Do you forget Miss
Braeme's brother?"
"Good heavens! Then you think?"...
Phippa doesn't care a brass farthing about the
brother; but he Is Interested in this girl. The
brother, with all his airs and good looks, Is probably
a damned thief, and his sister must be in collusion
with him. Phipps is a keen sort of man, with evident-
ly a good deal of experience of criminals; he knows
we can't touch the brother without bringing the sister
into it, so you see-"


"I do see," interrupted Inspector Harmsworth
slowly, with his mind riveted upon the fact that
Stephen Braeme was trying to make Nora Hamilton
love him. "Shall 'we arrest him, sir'"
"I could wish to with all my heart, Harmsworthi
but we must have some evidence. At present we have
only a feeling of moral certainty, and that would not
go in a court of law: we should be made ridiculous If
we charged a stranger with burglary and could not
present even a decent case to the jury. Phipps ap-
parently has lots of money and is just the sort of
person to bring out from England the most famous
criminal lawyer to defend the girl, if he thought the
local barristers would not be sharp enough. We must
get some good evidence against them before we lay
any charge. Tell Brown to be at my office at two
o'clock to-morrow afternoon, and be there yourself at
the same time. Good-night."
"Good-night, sir," replied Inspector Harmsworth,
saluting, and went into his quarters.
His mind was a whirl of conflicting emotions. He
was conscious of an active feeling of dislike for
Stephen Braeme, and now he believed that he had al-
ways disliked that young man and been suspicious of
him. He found nothing extraordinary in Major Fell-
spar's suspicion; he did not think of asking himself
whether he would have been more charitable towards
Stephen if the latter had not happened to be his rival.
But when he thought of Marian, for whom he enter-
tained a genuine liking, his heart turned sick within
him: surely if her brother were the guilty party she
must be in collusion with him: and, if she were, what.
sort of character could she have, and how could she
escape, assuming that the Police could bring the
robbery home to both of them? This brought him to
another train of reflections: how indeed could the
Police bring the robbery home? They had made no
progress whatever in the last three days.
For what were the photographs wanted? Evi-
dently they had some connection with the case: the'
Governor himself was to have them.' He would have
liked to ask Major Fellspar for an explanation, but
deemed it wisest not to: no doubt the chief would tell
him in good time. What was expected of him Was
simple, and he would see that it was done. Conse-
quently, on the following morning, Inspector Harms-
worth took his negatives to a well-known firm of
photographers who developed them by noon; at two
o'clock that same day the photographs-several sets
of them-were lying before the'Inspector General on
his desk, Inspector Harmaworth was seated near the
desk, while Detective-Sergeant Brown stood waiting
to hear what the chief might have to say to him.
"I suppose, Brown, that there is little use in our
going on with the search of our habitual criminals'
rooms, is there?" asked Major Fellapar, as a sort of
introduction to what he had to say.
"None at all, chief, we have searched nearly all of
them," answered Brown, "and that sort of people don't
rob big things."
"I am sure you are right," said Major Fellspar,
and Brown's eyes brightened at this word of praise.
"I think," continued the Inspector General deliberate-
ly, "that Miss Braeme's brother has had a great deal
more to do with this robbery than we have thought."
"Yes, chief," replied Brown without hesitation;
"he and the young lady, and Mr. Phipps."
Major Fellspar looked keenly at his detective.
"Did you suspect Mr. Braeme?" he asked.
"No," answered Detective Brown truthfully, "I
didn't, sir; but seeing as he is the young lady's
brother, and that she and the old gentleman, her
friend, knew about the necklaces, i' is to be supposed:
that Mr. Braeme knew about them too. All these-
foreign people are not too honest, chief."
"That may be so," returned Major Fellspar, "but I
do not think that Mr. Phipps has had anything to do
with the robbery, or does more than know who is the
thief. And he is trying to shield the thief-either'
Miss Braeme herself, or her brother, because he Is her-
brother. Do you understand?"
"Yes, chief."
"So there hardly seems anything to be gained by.
watching Mr. Phipps. It is on the other man that we
have to keep a sharp but wary eye: we must find out'
all about his movements on the night of the big dance
at the Myrtle Bank Hotel, and since then: as a matter
of fact he ought to have been watched from the
moment the robbery was discovered. You will there-
fore watch Mr. Braeme very closely, and you will make
all possible but cautious enquiries as to what he did
and where he went on the night of Thursday last."
"Yes, sir."
"And Mr. Phipps we'll leave alone."
"Yes, chief .But, begging your pardon, chief-"
"Well?"
"I was just wondering why. if he had nothing at
all to do with this business, Mr. Phippe so quickly
slipped out of the hotel last Friday morning. He was
the only one to do it, and his action was very funny."
."He probably wished to divert suspicion to him-
self," said Major Fellspar. "That is what I am now
convinced he has been endeavourtug to do all the time.
He knew"-Major Fellspar paused at the beginning
of his sentence. If Mr. Phipps really knew anything
on that morning of which they were speaking, his
knowledge must have concerned Marian Braeme.
There was no getting away from that. So It was
probable that she was the thief and her brother mere-
ly an accessory! Secretly. Major Fellspar wished that
it was the other way about; yet that Marian was Im-
plicated he bad no doubt at all.. As to Lawrene


~E~E~"






38 ,


PLArNTERS' PUNCH


Beamnn, there was really nothing against him. Hi
being in Mr. Phippe's room before midnight could not
by any peosaiblity account for thefts which, quite ob-
viously, must have taken place two or three hours
after. With Phipps and Lawrence eliminated, there
were only Marian and Stephen left. He would arrest
them both the moment he had one really damaging
fact to produce against them!
"Chief!"
"Yes, Brown?"
"Begging your pardon, sir, but I would just like
to say a word to you before I leave."
'"uo on, Brown."
"Begging your pardon, sir, I would like to say
that nothing can get it out of my mind that when Mr.
Phipps walked out of the Myrtle Bank Hotel on Friday
morning, he went away with the Jewellery. I don't
know where he managed to hide it; Sampson aaid he
only went to his lawyers, but there are other people
In the same building with his lawyers. Mr. Phipps
had the jewellery, chief. I feel that I could swear to
It."
Detective-Sergeant Brown spoke with the utmost
conviction. Ordinarily, had the matter been of
trifling importance, Major Fellspar would not have
permitted this implicit criticism of his theory to pass
without severe rebuke; nor, indeed, in such circum-
stances,.would Detective Brown have ventured to offer


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it. But this matter was serious, and the detective
knew that Major Fellspar had a high opinion, of him.
"Then where does Mr. Braeme come in, Brown?"
asked Major Fellspar quietly.
"That's what I can't tell, Chief; but three of
them know about the jewellery, and Mr. Phipps is
one."
Major Fellspar thought deeply for a moment.
"Very well, Brown; I am glad that you have told me
Just what is in your mind. Carry out my instructions
with regard to Mr. Braeme."
"Yes, sir," said Brown respectfully, saluted, and
withdrew.
"Brown has a conviction that Mr. Phipps is one
of the culprits," said the Inspector General, thought-
fully, "and his insistence on that tends to complicate
the issue. And he has more, at this moment, to urge
in favour of his belief than I have in favour my con-
viction that Braeme is the man we want to lay
our hands on."
"It is the most baffling case I have ever had to do
with" said Hamswor. agree with are you, sir, that
Braeme s in it: but he does not live in the hotel ...
that puts us off somewhat."
"We want to find out where he was between one
and three o'clock on Friday morning," said Major
Fedspar. "When we have done that, we shall really
be on his track. Enquiries must be made, Harms-
worth. Someone at the place where he lodges must
surely know, at least approximately, the time at .which
he came home on the night of the dance. We must
find that out."
"I will do my best, sir."
"Very well. Report to me to-morrow morning."
Both the Detective Inspector and his subordinate
made the most of that afternoon. Inspector Harms-
worth went himself to the house at which Stephen
lodged, ostensibly to call upon a lodger there, and had
a talk with the landlady, an intelligent widow lady
of middle ae who was fairly well-knowi In the city.
The house was one o e best of Its kind, the lodgers
were given private keys if they desired them, con-
sequently anyone could let himself In at night without
disturbing the rest of the household by ringing or
knocking, and no one need know who came in and
at what time of the night. Brown, on his part, found
opportunity of questioning the two servants who lived
on tne premises. They knew nothing of the move-
ments of the lodgers after nine o'clock at night. His
enquiry was therefore fruitless.
Inspector Harmewonth, thanks to an apparently
casual question, learnt the location of Stephen's room;
it was on the first floor, with two large sash windows
opening to the north. It required no particular
knowledge of Jamaica houses of that type to know
that any man who wanted to enter the room at night
by either of those windows could easily do so, if they
did not happen to be fastened, without any fear of
being seen from the street. The high brick wall and
the darkness would effectually screen him. The re-
port that was handed in to Major Fellspar on the
following morning was therefore of a highly dis-
couraging nature; it led absolutely nowhere. "We
are in a blind ally," confessed the Inspector General
dismally. "We must keep on watching carefully,
but-" he shook his head, discouraged.
"Suppose this man Braeme, or any one else whom
we suspect, tries to leave the island shortly," said
Harmsworth: "what are we to do In that case?"
"I have thought of that and arranged for it,"
answered Major Fellspar. "No one can leave without
a passport, and, n the circumstances. it will not be
possible for Braeme to obtain a passport without de-
lay. I understand too that these actors and actresses
are engaged for some time; so It would be a highly
suspicious circumstance for any of them to want to
quit before their work was finished. If any did
manage to go, he or she would be met by detectives
on landing In the United States."
"You have it .all nicely fixed, sir!" Inspector
Harmsworth desired to show his loyalty to his Chief,
and to hearten him.
Major Fellspar was sensible of the compliment,
but his face expressed nothing. He felt that he was
training this young min to his work. He'also felt
that the Governor did not adequately appreciate his
efforts.
"We must keep our eyes open," he said. "Of
course, the public and the press will say that we have
failed utterly. They are suggesting it already."
With what had been written in that morning's
papers in his mind, It was impossible for Inspector
Harmsworth not to agree with his superior officer.
The papers still expressed a belief that the thief or
thieves would be discovered, but they did so in a
very lukewarm and unconvincing manner. Major
Fellapar and Inspector Harmsworth knew what would
shortly follow. They did not appreciate the prospect.
"We can't prevent the newspapers from saying
what they please," said the former, looking very much
as though he wished he could prevent them. "If we
arrested anybody in mistake, if we failed to secure
a conviction, those same papers would be the first to
hound us down!"
"They have no principle, sir," agreed Inspector
Harmsworth.
"Nor any intelligence. They are not concerned
with helping justice, but with selling their miserable
rags. They are a curse to this country."
lspector Harmsworth thought that, very soon,


.'
-------- ----- -- ~ ~ ~ ~ -





the newspapers were likely to prove a curse to th.e -i
Police, but he kept this reflexion to himself. M
"Yet," continued Major Fellspar, "it might actual---
ly be an advantage if, for some little time, it got-
about that we had entirely failed. That will be rather -
unpleasant for us, but it may help."
Inspector Harmsworth agreed.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

LAWRENCE AND MR. PHIPPB.
BY the end of tfie week the local press and thb--
public had openly come to the conclusion that.
if Lady Rosedale's jewellery were ever found
it.would be by the merest of accidents and.
in no wise due to the ability and activity of the
police. Such a view was vastly consoling to news-
paper writers and correspondents who, having nothing.
to lose, professed to be frightened by their insecurity-
from terrible lose and by the risk they ran of having-
Imaginary valuables subtracted from their places and
persons at any Lime of night or day. One nervous.
gentleman even wrote anonymously to one of the-
papers descroing his arrangements for protecting;
himself and detecting the advent of a thief. Not only-
had he placed innumerable bells on all his gates andi
doors, with wire netting over the windows, and bar.
where bars could scarcely be an advantage, but s--
had employed a watchman to sleep in a room on hisl-
premises, the leg of this watchman being attached to -
a stout cord which led from his habitation into hisk
employer's bedroom. A lug at this cord was supposed
to be an effective awakener of the soundest sleeper,.
and the man so awakened would spring up ready to--
fare forth silently and to attack and capture the most
daring rogue. On the very night of the day this de-
vice was described, the cord was vigorously palled
by the gentleman in question, he being under the im-
pression that he had heard distinctly suspicious.
sounds in his backyard. Unfortunately the watchman
forgot that his cue was perfect silence at such a
thrilling conjuncture, and, at the first tug, which-
threatened to dislocate his leg, he fell violently from
his bed, broke loudly into blasphemous execrations.
and challenged all the thieves In the neighbourhood
to await his coming and then see what horrible pun-
ishment he would inflict upon their miserable bodies.
The thieves, If any, refused this invitation, and when
the story found its way into the press it caused philan-
thropists to abandon their efforts to Instruct other-
persons as to how they might render their houses
burglar-proof.
During the first few days of all this heated eor-
respondence and scathing editorial rebuke, Major
Fellspar and his lieutenants suffered greatly in
temper, especially as they were permitted no reply.
One reporter even had the temerity to approach the,
Inspector General for an interview on the robbery
and on the efforts at discovery put forth by the
Police; he subsequently declared that if ever a man
looked assault and battery it was the Inspector Gen-
eral. Then, after a week of much ink-spilling and
excitement, the press and the public gave up the
jewels for lost and offered their sincerest condolences
to Lady Rosedale.
She was now, of course, the most talked-of pernoe
in the country. No social gathering but mentioned
her name; at every dinner table everything that was
known about her was amply discussed, with details-
Invented for the purpose of making such discussion
piquant and interesting.
She received innumerable callers. All the
grandees of the official, professional, planter and mer-
cantile world felt that they owed it to themselves to-
make the acquaintance of so remarkable a woman.
By the popular imagination she was endowed with
extraordinary qualities. No one troubled to ask him-
self this simple question: "what has this lady done,.
and in what way has she benefited art, religion,
science, or anything or anyone indeed except her-
self?" Such a question woald have been deemed
irrelevant, Impertinent, if not indeed almost impious;
for, after all, anyone might do something for art or
religion-that sort of thing depends upon 'an accident:
of mind or temperament. But how many persons
could afford to lose a splendid diamond necklace? It
was generally admitted that Lady Rosedale bore her
lose, not only with Christian fortitude, but with'
patrician calm. "Her manners." remarked one en-
thuslastic lady admirer, "have all the repose that.
stamps the caste of Vere de Vere."_ This tieing said in
Mr. Phippe's presence, he observed that he didn't
know the de Veres, but supposed that they were quite,
nice and respectable people: did they often come up to
the city? A remark which was regarded as purposely
offensive, and so a coolness sprang up between the
enthusiastic lady and Mr. Phipps.
To know Lady Rosedale was a very great privi-
lege. It had always been a privilege: she had taken
good care to make it so. But now it was a greater
privilege than ever, for now her acquaintanceship was
more sedulously sought than ever. Her afternoon
teas were receptions. She required a small army of
the Myrtle Bank Hotel's waiters to attend on her
guests alone. On these occasions she sat in the midst
of her admirers, saying kindly but condescending
things about the police and local matters in general,
and introducing Marian and her brother, when these'
happened to be back from work it time to meet her
guests. She still pstrontsed the director of the mov-
ing picture company and his leading lady, and thbea


I
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t


I
k


I


I





PLANTERS' PUNCH


irSknowledge that they were moving
social circles of the colony. But
was farther of from grace the
in Mr. Phippe, though he did some-
the charmed circle of Lady Rosedale's
Was not regarded by her as belonging to
pde, if her wish had merely been to
about her for her own convenience,
thave dispensed with Marian now. That
:At ppl pointed out one afternoon to Law-
ithe latter was again reproaching Lady
arch-selflshnese where Marian was con-
dy Rosedale showed no desire to drop
1end: "she's genuine where the girl is con-
i'.thing!" Rid Mr. Phipps; "it's the one
*i.ture In a character and career other-
..blU s." And Mr. Phipps did nothing
to prevent Lady Rosedale from monopo-
n, a circumstance which Lawrence was
.perceive.
about ten days after the picnic at Triton,
ce by then had realised beyond the shadow
that Phipps had ranged himself amongst
S object was to keep Marian away from
'had hinted at this on one or two previous
and Mr. Phlpps had dismissed the sub-
'lfng; but Lawrence had become imbued
illiet that Marian was avoiding him, not
e he herself thought it best to do so, but
.*3 Phipps had in some way, by speech or
tuggwted to her that she ought to do so.
fti decided, was not quite candid with him;
s' some reason for this decided change on his
i ,kie was keeping that reason secret. Phipps
(ipided him now, whenever he could do so
iapearing rude; the old spontaneous cordiali-
i. existed between them-did It any longer
since that Sunday night when, on their
Triton, Marian had said that Phipps was
'and knew that it would be best for him
t they should be apart, Lawrence believed
seen some constraint in her manner when
ny of the older man. Once or twice what
told him about her being suspected of
the necklaces flashed across his mind, and
framed itself: did Phipps suspect her
iacmnected with the robbery? He dismissed
*na impossible. But what was the true ex-
of Phipps's change of manner?
tls afternoon, ten days after the picnic, and
-d1 Rosedale was entertaining some friend*
l rfn among them and he entirely outside of
e, Lawrence was at the hotel, whither he had
e determined to have a talk with Phipps about


Marian. He had seen neither of them during the pre*
vious four days. Marian had been away with some
members of the moving picture company who had
been taking pictures in a little town to the east of
the island, some thirty miles r.way; Mr. Phipps had
left the hotel within one hour of her departure, and
had only returned this afternoon, his return syn-
chronliing with hers. Lawrence concluded that there
was deliberate intention In the coincidence of Phipps's
movements with those of Marian. So this afternoon
he would have with Phippe what that gentleman him-
self would call "a heart to heart talk."
Mr. Phipps was among Lady Rosedale's guests.
Lawrence deliberately sent a bellboy to ask him for
an interview. When she heard the message Lady
Rosedale's eyebrows went up In astonishment at this
Impertinence; some of her guests, observing her look,
glanced in Lawrence's direction, then glanced away
as though he were of no importance. Marian kept her
eyes steadily from him; but Mr. Phipps rose at once.
Lady Rosedale did not particularly desire Mr. Phipps
to remain, but she objected to anyone being so un-
ceremoniously summoned from her party. "Can't
you send and tell him that you will see him later on?"
she suggested to Mr. Phipps.
'"I can, Lady Rosedale," he replied; "but I gather
from the attitude of that young man that he means
to see me just as soon as he can: so I might as well
go now. If needs be, he's going to fight on these
lines all summer."
"Fight on these lines?" questioned Lady Rose-
dale, puzzled.
"Merely an amiable remark made by an American
general during our civil war when he didn't know
what else to do," explained Mr. Phipps to the further
mystification of Lady Rosedale. "Our young friend
wants to have a conversation with me, and he intends
to have that conversation. So, if you'll excuse me,
I'll trot over right now and hear whet he has to
say." And Mr. Phippe left the group and went to-
wards Lawrence.
"I tried to get you earlier to-day," began Lawrence
coldly, "but you could not spare me any time."
"That's true enough, son; as you know, I have
been coming and going from the country to the town
these last few days, and have been almighty busy all
the time."
"Not buster than usual," said Lawrence bluntly;
"but simply too busy to see me. You have been avoid-
ing me, Phipps. You have joined Stephen Braeme and
Lady Rosedale against me: why?"
"Lawrence," said Mr. Phipps quietly, "do you
really believe I would join anyone against you?"
"At any rate, you are acting just as they do


. 30


where Marian is concerned, and that amounts to about
the same thing. Why do you do itr
"You tnaget," retired Mr. Phipp, thatt the last
time I asked you questions about yourself and this
young lady--aking advantage of my superior years
and friendship for both of you-you aid that you had
nothing defnite in mind with regard to her, and
that you couldn't think of doing heaven only known
what, and all that sort of thing. Seems to me, in
the circumstances. that if I were the young lady's
father I would feel that you had no serious intentions
and ask you to discontinue your visits. That's a big
mouthful to say to you, son, but you recognize the
justice of it, don't you?"
"I did say something of what you have Just re-
peated," admitted Lawrence, "but It was nonsense.
You know I care for Marian. I have asked her to
marry me."
"Of course, you did! Guessed It years ago, and
saw on the night of the big dance down here that she
had refused you. You had a look that night that
recalled a Cuban revolution to my mind. Well, she's
refused you more than once, hasn't she? She knows
her own mine, and that's all that there is to it."
"She-she cares for me," said Lawrence, redden-
Ing; "but something keeps her back: her brother's
objection. I do not set much store by that; there are
limits to her brother's authority. But be is helped
by her fear of him-it cannot be affection for him-
and by Lady Rosedale's dislike of me. I have few
friends here; you I have always believed to be my
friend, but you oo not help me now. You could bring
us together if you liked, Phipps. She hasgreaf faith
in you."
"She's a charming girl!" exclaimed Mr. Phipps;
"but I don't think she's exactly the girl for you,
Lawrence, and-"
"That is what I must junge for myself."
"She seems to think as I do," returned Mr. Phippe
a trifle dryly.
"She would not if she did not believe that that
was your.opinion. You are influencing her in this
matter."
Mr. Phipps shot a sharp glance at Lawrence. Mr.
Phippa had hoped that Lawrence would not easily
discover that his Influence had been used to strengthen
Marian's resolve to keep away from her lover. Mr.
Phipps had been very discreet in his actions
and his hints and suggestions. But here was
Lawrence openly charging him with doing what Lady
Rosedale had done ever since she had perceived that
Lawrence was in love with Marian. He fenced.
'Youthful jealousy is a liar,' as one of your poets


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PLANTERS' PUNCH


has. B forcibly expressed it," said he; "you are rather
hard on the old man, son."
'That Is my belief." replied Lawrence; "you can
easily prove that I am wrong. I have told you that, I
intend to marry Marian, who cares for me. She is
keeping away from me because of some wild notion
of hers that she ought to do so, and she ia being en-
couraged to do so by the woman she is always with,
and by her brother. You are a close friend of hers.
Talk to her honestly about me, about herself-you
know everything about me that is to be known,
Phipps. I am not asking you to do anything you
could regret."
"I cannot do it, Lawrence!"
wir. Phipps's voice was firm, his look resolute,
The iron strain in him, which both Lawrence and
Marian had observed, was showing plainly how.
p, "YqOL cannot do it?"
"No."
"Will not, you mean."
"Well, it amounts to the same thing, I suppose."
Lawrence was silent for a little while. When he
spoke, his voice had a rather harsh tone.
"Your friend, Mrs. Hamilton, is giving a party on
Saturday night," he said; "Marian is invited and is
going. You are invited, of course."
"The old lady has sent me a ticket, yes," Mr.
Mr. Phipps said lightly, "but that doesn't mean that I
am going to claim admission."
"You are very friendly with the Hamiltons: can
you get me an invitation? She will invite me if you
hint that she might."
Mr.'Phipps thought rapidly. Only because Law-
rence knew Marian would be at this party, and that,
once there, no one could prevent him from being with
her-only because of this had Lawrence brought him-
self to ask that be should be invited to the party.
Mr. Phipps realized that it must have cost the young
man much to make the suggestion, the request, even
to him. And if Jie refused to have anything to do
with this invitation also? Something in his friend's
face told him that Lawrence had made up his mind to
be at the Hamiltons on Saturday night, even if he had
to ask a dozen different persons to get hin! an invita-
tion. And Nora would do so it she were asked. Mr.
SPhipps decided. "I'll fix it for you, if you like," he
said.
"Thank you," said Lawrence briefly..
"And look here, Lawrence, I want you tb under-
stand that I am your friend, ano that I am not acting
against your interests. The girl herself has told you
that she cannot marry you-hasn't she? Why not
leave it at that, and go your old way like a man?
You are not a weakling; you can stand a pretty hard
blow. And you cant force her against her will."
"Is It really htr will, Phipps?
"She has said so, hasn't she?"
"That Is not what I asked."
"I can say nothing more," replied Mr. Phipps firm-
ly. "She has refused you, and that is enough for me.
Remember, Lawrence, that I am her friend as well as
yourra, am acting as her friend."
"Yes?"
'Yes!"
"And only on that Sunday at Triton," continued
Lawrence slowly, "did you discover that we had better
remain apart? You said just now that you know that
on the night of the dance down here-I asked her-
you know what I mean."
"Clear as a crystal! Yes; it was on that Sunday
at Triton that I made up my mind that you and she
had each better go your own different ways; but I had
been thinking something of the sort before. I wasn't
quite certain before: that is all."
"And so," said Lawrence with asperity, "you
.were kind enough to give us the benefit of the doubt
'up to then. You thought you had the right to in-
terfere in our business in any manner you liked."
"Don't let us quarrel, son: that would be foolish."
"I wish I understood you, Phipps," exclaimed
Lawrence bitterly: "you surely do not think, do you,
that Marian had anything to do with those Infernal
necklaces? She told me-but you would not dare to
think anything of the sort! You haven't a mean
mind. Even Lady Rosedale knows better, and if I
thought that you-"
"I am her friend as I am yours," broke in Mr.
Phipps, "and I am not In the habit of discussing the
character of one friend with any other. One man's
business Is not another's, and you must not ask me
too much."
"So then," began Lawrence suspiciously, but Mr.
Phipps had begun to walk back to the party on he
lawn.
When Lawrence passed him a little later, and he
looked into the young man's face, he wAs not sur-
prised that Lawrence deliberately avoided his glance.
He had expected some action of the sort.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

A BLIP OF THE TONGUE.
T FE next day, at about noon, Lawrence received
from Mrs. Hamilton an invitation' to her party
of the following-niLht. He regretted now
that he had not withdrawn his request to Mr.
Phippe that the latter should secure for him this in-
vitation; he had no desire to be further indebted to
his whilom friend. Becoming convinced that Phipps
suspected Marian of the robbery, Lawreane had
as~lly resola d to sever all cordial. relation with
him; he was in that frame of mind when he waes ain


1t92-s-n


-'II1 --Y


to regard as positively inimical those who appeared "Then, Marian? ... "
to be not unequivocally with him. "Let us be as we were before we went to Triton.
As for himself, he had made up his mind to in- And don't think harshly of your friend; he has meant
duce Marian to marry him, and so to put an end to all well. He is wonderful, he is a clever man; but he
her expressed and suggested fears, and to his own un- thinks I am stronger than I am, Lawrence, and that
certainties. If he could not offer her affluence, at you-"
least he could provide her with comforts and protect "It doesn't much matter what he thinks of me."
her against annoyances. Of two things he was cer- "And that you," she continued, as if he had not
tain: that she did not like the life she was leading interrupted, "are less determined than you are.
and that she cared for him: he therefore considered "I knew you better than he did," she went on..
that there was sufficient Justification for his urging with perhaps just a little thrill of pride in her be--
upon her an Immediate marriage. He would not be llef that she understood Lawrence's character more..
put off by Lady Rosedale's interferences or Mr. thoroughly, In this particular connection, than even
Phipps's manoeuvres; as for Stephen's objections, the penetrating Mr. Phipps. "I knew that nothing I
they should be altogether ignored. Having thus made could do would keep you away from me."
up his mind to act promptly, he repaired that after- "I love you, and nothing-will keep me away from
noon to the Myrtle Bank Hotel, where, happening to you," he said, with a ring of determination in his
see both Mr. Phipps and Lady Rosedale, he pretended voice. "But there must be no talk, now, you say,.
to be unaware of their presence. Stolidly he waited about our getting married?"
In the lobby until Marian should return from work, She noticed that "now," but she resolved not to-
and when the car in which she rode drew up at the argue with him on it. It did not matter much oue-.
porch he. was on the verandah to meet her. Marian, way or the other.
glancing at his face, perceived at once from its ex- "No; we must meet and act as friends, not lovers:
pression that Lawrence was determined to speak -to you will promise?"
her, and that not merely for a minute or two. Her "It is hard," said he, "hut I promise-to do my
eyes fluttered in the direction of Mr. Phipps: best."
there was something of a question in them. Mr. "That will make it easier for both of us."
Phipps shrugged his shoulders almost imperceptibly; He knew that she would have to go to her roo.
then Marian seemed to make up her mind for herself, to change for dinner: he asked the old question, which
She readily assented to Lawrence's suggestion that indeed she expected.
they should go down to the seawall, his favourite "I shall see you down here to-night?"
rendezvous for a talk with her. Not until they had "Yes," she consented; "and remember that your
reached it, and seated themselves out of the hearing ot friend has been right."
other people there, did Lawrence speak. But although Marian had spoken of Mr. Phipps
*"I told Phipps yesterday," he began abruptly, as having acted rightly, Lawrence was still conselous-
"that I felt he was endeavouring to influence you of a marked coldness in his heart towards Mr. Phipps.
against me, and he did not deny it. Will you tell me He could not forgive Phipps for feeling or believing.
why he is doing so, Marian?" that there was something wrong about Marian;
"Perhaps I ought," she answered in a low voice. Phipps, he argued, should have found such a feelia
"It would be fairer to you. But-but I am selfish; I or belief Impossible; should resolutely have crushed
am thinking of myself, and that has kept me from it out of his mind. It was awful to think of his.
being as frank with you as I should be." friend entertaining any suspicion of Marian; all the
"Then it is not you, of your own will, who have more awful because he, Lawreice, owas usually pre-
tried, to avoid me these last few days?" he asked, pared to back Phlpps's judgment against that of any
though he knew it was not she. other man he knew. That very fact Irritated him.
"No," she answered, after a moment's hesitation: It might not, had he himself not been haunted with a
"no. Your friend Is right, Lawrence, and I am wrong; secret longing for certainty which he would ot frank-
butI want to be with you. I saw you here yester- ly acknowledge. There was something to be explatd--
day and wished to come to you; but I could not, as ed, that was patent; and when Marian left him her
you saw, and I thought I was glad I could not. But words came to life again In his memory. Nothing-
I wasn't really glad, dear ... But Mr. Phipps is could come between them, and yet this terrible un--
right ...." Her voice trailed off into silence. certainty, mystery, whatever it was, would continue
'I do not agree that Phipps is right," be replied to haunt and harass him, as--her look and voice
in quiet, level tones. "I wish and intend to marry proved that-it was harassing her. So some of'diW
you: there's nothing I can think of that would pre- rage against inexplicable circumstances that possessed
vent me now. Don't let us talk about what Phipps or him was directed against his old friend, whom he-
aiy other person may think is best for you or me. again avoided as he left the hotel that afternoon
Neither of us is a child to be hedged about with pro- And Mr. Pbipps divined the reason of his alooefe
tective devices or frightened by solemn warnings from and had a shrewd idea that Marian also was not
anyone." kindly disposed towards him as she had been before-
"You can speak for yourself, but what about me?" he had endevoured to put barriers between herself
she asked with infinite sadness. and Lawrncee.
"You too can judge for yourself; it is not what Nor was she. Marian was not vividly conscious.
others think, but what you yourself thtnk that mat- that she entertained any sort of resentment against
terms Mr. Phipps; but she knew that he would pot ap-
His face was set and hard: the peculiar half-sug- prove of her meeting Lawrence frequently, o being
gestions of Phipps, the insistence of Marian herself much alone with him. Mr. Phippa had suggested to-
that Phipps was right, had not failed to have a cer- her that it would not be wise: delicately suggested it,
ain effect upon him. What could it be that made vaguely hinting at reasons without specifying them-
Marian speak so despairingly as she did? The neck- She had said nothing, but had resolved to follow his.
laces? But, good God! she could not be ia thief. advice, but now she felt that she could never main-
Even if she had-he forced himself to face that issue- tain of her own will and motion that resolution to-
even if she had taken the necklaces, she was no thief: the end, and she concluded that Mr. Phipps would
there must surely be some reason for her action, blame her, not openly, but in his mind. That moved.
something that she could explain. He dared not put her to resentment, a vague, undefined, unacknowledged.
his thought into words; dared not tell her that, even resentment; it meant that henceforth she too, like-
though she had taken the necklaces for some extra- Lawrence, would hold herself aloof from Mr. Phipps.
ordinary reason which she could not now explain, he He realized this quite clearly that evening; her
was satisfied that she was no gulrty thing, that her hurried greeting and passing of him as she went.
soul remained unsmirched. He knew that the d To r se T pd n r m at e
soul remained unamirched. He knew that the upstairs to dress for dinner brought it home to-
moment he began, haltingly, painfully, to protest his his quick mind- mere gesure was often enough
belief in her uprightness and honesty, a barrier would for Mr. Phipps. "It seems to me that I haven't a
build itself between them. She herself shrank from friend in this blooming caravanera," he mused half-
mentioning what stood between them. She had humorously. Nevertheless he met the two of them-
spoken to him, nearly two weeks ago, of the suspicion later that night and offered to take them up to Mrs.
which she was sure was entertained with regard Hamilton's party in his car. Marian thanked him,.
to her. and he hd bade her dismiss the very idea but said she would go with Lady Roeedale: Lawrence-
from her mind. How could he now dare say that if said that he had already made other arrangements
even that suspicion were still held, even if she had for gog to the party. So the next night Mr. Phipps
had something to do with the disappearance of the went alone.
necklaces, that could make no difference to him? The Hamlltoo lived about four miles from the
And then was he so certain after all that it would yrtle Bank Hbtel in one of the handsome villas
make no difference to him? Perhaps she saw farther situated north of the city. Their home stood lis
than he did, knew him better than he knew him-
than he did. knew him bettehar an eknewgr hir several acres of land, the area immediately in front
of the building being laid out In walks and flower
that would make him believe that she had been iin e d in a spacious lawn for tennis. To the-
any way connected with a crime. He did not believe left of the house, little distance away, were rows and
it, and would not believe it. There was some miser- clumps of great trees with here and there a garden
able mistake somewhere. He had made up his mind bench or chair f any who might choose to wander
"If you will marry me, by special license if you like," among them. The house itself had been built with
he said, "we can let the others think what they please an ee to elegance o appearance as well as comfort
about our act. You and I aJone are concerned." I was two storeys high, the apartments were corn-
She smiled faintly; she had been watching the modious and fty, and tastefully furihed.
various expressions as they swiftly followed one, a t
another over his face, had guessed something of.what Over eighty people were assembled in the big
he had been thinking. "Let us put marrying out of drawing room and on the adjoining verandahs upon
the question." she said definitely; "and as for not which the drawing room opened; amongst these were-
meeting in the future about ten members of the moving picture company.
"Yes?" Inspector Harmsworth same early, and Mr. Phippe,
"I think it is useless my trying not to meet you" observing him closely, noticed that he seemed con--
useless, because you will insist, bcr1, s want tented with the number of dances with Nora which
to meet you, to be witli you," *3 jtted n n et thei progreans. Frost

*p. '^
4 -






PLANTERS' PUNCH 41


P r. Phippn concluded that the young man had
kSasking excellent use of his time during the last
i, though Stephen still seemed a high fa-
Swith Nora. Other admirers, of whom Nora
iy, were definitely far behind these two in se-
her for a partner.
;,.;jwrenee knew most of the persons present,
ly for the most part. But if he, as was his
M nd ineliniation, wbre disposed to be reserved,
bi of them, and those the most .lghly placed, gave
Ipno chance of being so. They were friendly.
~iRosedale observed and was somewhat impressed.
tthat lady, though affecting great independence of
ijent, was secretly influenced by what other
Ie aid and did, and her hostility to Lawrence bad
..# origin as much in her belief that be lacked
[position as that he was a sort of poor struggling
' jioee. Noticing that he was genuinely welcomed
Sibes of Mrs. Hamilton's friends, she was not, on
t iaston, inclined to regard as a positive calamity
smnporary close association with Marian. One
P0 would not greatly matter. Still she felt he mnst
'flcthed, as all ineligible suitors should be, even
h, as Major Fellspar had assured her, there could
vno possible connecting of him with her recent loss.
i'Promptly at nine o'clock the hired 'orchestra
0" up a dance tune and the dancing began. Those
pokdid not care to dance, or could not, either watched
'ifters from the vine-sheltered verandah where the
slb stephanotis filled the air with pleasant odour,
dered into the grounds now deep in darkness
ag rant with the perfume of flowers.
,es moments flew quickly away to the accom-
ut of merry music, and the sound of laughing
and swiftly-moving feet. As midnight ap-
ted, the tropical moon, now some days past its
emergedd into the sky. The brilliant sphere of
.clear light rose in a heaven of pale blue, obliterat-
"lost every star, and everything touched and
ted by its glow assumed a soft distinctness,
Ih.i. and beautiful, while gentle breezes murz
i through the branches of the trees, which cast
tremulous shadows on the ground.
S Ibout this hour Marian and Lawrence were
big out one of the dances that she had given to
Bk.-O a garden bench set in the midst of a group
lih, heavy-foliaged trees they sat, silent for the
Part, an access of delightful emotions inhibiting
on. Now and then other couples came near
or passed by, each intent on its own affairs;
ti*a crepuscule no face could be distinctly seep,
I the forms as they moved seemed but dimly.
l ar. Sitting thus silent, Marian and Lawrence
b.scarcely visible saye to any who might come dl-
upon them. They heard footsteps, apparently


of people approaching them, but took no notice. Two
fgtlres, a man's and a woman's, came into view.
Then the man's voice murmured softly- but distinct-
ly, "I love you," and Marian sprang to her feet.
Lawrence was startled. He had always regarded,
Marian as one too timorous by nature for bold and
decisive action; in a moment he was undeceived. She
had stepped towards the two, the man and the woman,
who had come upon them, and in a voice pitched low,
but vibrant with anger, she was addressing the man.
"You have no right to say that to Nora!" she exclaim-
ed, 'you know that you have none! You told me you
would leave her alone, though I might have known
that nothing you could say would mean anything to
you." She ceased, breathing quickly; one could
guess, if not see, that her body was trembling violent-
ly.
"Marian!" cried Nora Hamilton sharply but
quietly, and in her voice anger struggled with shame
for the mastery. Nora was ashamed at having been
caught in the'midst of what seemed to be a proposal,
though she felt that she had done nothing to be
ashamed of. She was angry, outraged, that Marian
should thus dare to intrude upon her. But even at
this moment Nora remembered that Marian was her
guest.
"This is not the first time you have spied upon
me," retorted Stephen, controlling his voice with a
mighty effort, "you and this gentleman, who seems to
have made himself your constant companion-or
more! As you are so much interested In each other's
company, I should think it would be only good man-
ners for you not to thrust yourselves where you are
not wanted."
The rudeness of this remark moved Lawrence to
begin a protest, but Marian was before him. "I over-
heard purely by accident what you were saying to
Nora," she said, "though I should certainly have fol-
lowed and interrupted you on purpose if I had known
beforehand what you were going to do. This man,"-
she turned to Nlora-"has no right to speak to you as
he is doing. He is infinitely beneath you. He is only
-only playing with you: it is a habit of his." She
faced Stephen again, and her voice quivered with con-
tempt as she cried, "You to make love to any girl-
you-you--thel-"
A sudden exclamation from him silenced the word
which trembled on her lips, but Lawrence guessed in-
stantly what It was, though Nora did not.
"You are inclined to be abusive and shrewish,"
retorted Stephen hoarsely, but still keeping extraordin-
ary control over his voice. "I am afraid we do not
appear to you as a well-bred family, Miss Hamilton.
Shall we go inside?"


Nora moved off with him without a word, and
Lawrence waited until they disappeared. Then he
would have retaken the seat they had Vacated, but
Marian shook her head. She seemed afraid to speak;
she had said more than she had intended, Lawrence
felt. In sympathy with her feeling, he wished to
pretend' that he had not understood her meaning
They went slowly back to the houe.
On the verandah they found Steihen waiting for
them, with hat and cloak, ready to take his departure.
His face was set, dark and grim; there was a menac-
ing glint In his eyes. "I am going down to the hotel,
Marian," he said quietly, "and I want you to come
with me." He spoke in a manner which showed that
he intended to Insist upon this: the look in his eyes
left no doubt as to his determination.
"Very well," she replied, and slipped into the
house to say good-bye to her hostess and to tell Lady
Rosedale that she was going. She returned to the
verandah, accompanied by Lady Rosedale. The three
of them went down to the hotel together.
Almost immediately after, Lawrence took his de-
parture. He wanted to think Over what he had Just
heard and seen. The key to the mystery of Marian's
conduct, her hesitancies and her sadness, the key to
Mr. Phlpps's hints and warnings, he felt that he had
discovered by the mere utterahce of a half-formed
word. Stephen Braeme was the man who had robbed
Lady Rosedale's jewels, and Marian knew it and
dared not say a word. She was his sister, the dis-
grace if not the penalty of the act would bt.qually
hers if the truth were known. But she wad making
far too much of her connection with Stephen: how
coud she be in any way responsible for what he dldT
Who could blame her for his acts? Who could point
to her In reproach? Lawrence went to bed that night
with the determination to urge this aspect of the
matter upon her when they should meet again.
The next day when he went to the hotels he was
told that she was keeping her room. On the follow-
ing afternoon he was again at the Myrtle Bank wait-
ing for her return from work; but when she came she
greeted him with the most formal of bows, and went
direct to her room. He sent her up a note, asking if
she could see him then, or later on; the reply was
brief: "Not now, nor at any other time. You must
respect this wish of mine. M. B." And that evening
she never left Lady Rosedale's side, never looked in
his direction, and he noticed that her face was pale
and drawn, her whole attitude that of one whose mind
is made up irrevocably. Lawrence realized that it
was hopeless to attempt to approach her. There was
no breaking through that armour of reserve.


Permanency.




There's a logical reason for the
steadily increasing sale of our
goods. In their search for value.
the public have become discri-
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important factor in the trade of
W to-day.



We have recognized the importance of catering to


this demand, and our lines of


American and English Staples, Cotton
Torchon Laces, Nottingham Valen-
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are closely identified with the firm's ability to offer
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S PRICES THAT CANNOT BE BEATEN.



SC. J. HANDAL & SON,
13ii0 Harbour Street. Kingston.



. r a n .


BY APPO EITIT TO H.I. THE K G







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"The Cream of Milks."


REFUSE
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AND



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:,' ,t




42 PLANTERS' PUNCH 1922-23


WRAY


& NEPHEW


ESTABLISHED


The


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are


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One Dagger
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i






PLANTERS'


PUNCH


CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE..
THE TRANGER.
0, my dear," Lady Rosedale had said with an
expression of intense disinterestedness, "it
Is you who must make the presentation to
dear Marian: I could not think of doing it.
Ike being In the limelight. Of course, there are
Win social duties' which one cannot escape, and
i' position entails obligations. I have recognized
t even here: but I much prefer to remain in the
round; my disposition is essentially retiring."
I: It was to Miss Hellingworth, the star actress of
fl.oving picture company, that Lady Rosedale was
i.giving an entirely inaccurate description of her
1iactsr; and as the star actress was a young
Sima with some insight into character she was not
Ithee least deceived. Yet she was flattered. Lady
ledale desired that she should occupy the leading
SIn a little function to take place on the follow-
g afternoon, and to stand socially just next to Lady
adlale was a distinction not to be despised even by
star of some magnitude in the moving picture
i!ament.
Some two weeks before, as has already been men-
Mel, It had occurred to the chief actor of the moving
ietre company that a broach in lieu of that which
rian had lost In the burglary should be presented
er, and among the members of the company and
e .guests at the hotel no less than eight hundred
lers had been subscribed for the purpose. The
Iet had straightway been despatched to New York,
A m.ow the broach had arrived. This was Wed-
.iday: the presentation would be made on the
Slt afternoon, and arrangements for it were al-
|dy forward. To-night invitations would be sent
|, and Lady Rosedale had kindly consented that
wg should be sent in her name.
*:lt there was one thing upon which Lady Rose-
=h:Was firm: she would not present the broach to
e. That must be done by some other lady.
pr herself suggested Miss Hellingworth who, -in
. way, was decidedly a personage and could also
k~ene social benedictions, though not of course
th the same amplitude and recognized graciousness
I ayy Rosedale. Lady Rosedale, in determining
play second fddle in the pleasant little ceremony
the coming Thursday, was conscious of that vir-
EW glow which accompanies an act of aelf-abnega-
L. Subconsciously she may have felt that while
r 'was to receive a broach, Marian's loss was
g compared with hers; consequently it was
btltable that during the speeches to be made she
blf would be awarded, as it were, a vote of con-
lhfce. Indeed, given the character of the star
lw., it could confidently be predicted that for every
rennece in her address to Marian, there would be
;At least to "dear Lady Rosedale." So nothing
. move Lady Rosedale from her determination
:"not she, but Miss Hellingworth, must take the
41ng part in the presentation. "You will do it so
1 my dear," she graciously remarked, "and I am
rally retiring."


man like Major Felispar one must expect the unex-
pected. 'By the way, you never wore your diamond
necklace here, did you?"
"It was a very gorgeous affair," said Lady Rose-
dale coldly; "and at my age I do not consider that it
is proper to deck myself out with jewellery. I was
very fond of wearing it ten years ago."
"Dignity unaaorned is dignity at its height," cried
Mr. Phipps in tones of admiration. "Expect plenty of
people here this afternoon?" he continued, quickly
changing the subject.
"Quite a number is sure to come," the manager
remarked. "I expect that not only this part of the
room will be full, but part of the verandah. We shall
have a tea dansant afterwards."
"Such is life in the tropics," commented Mr.
Phipps, "the life of those who can afford it, I mean.
A nice young laoy gets a fine diamond broach, there Is
dancing afterwards, and only Lady Rosedale is re-
minded of a cruel loss. Yet I doubt if anyone here
will feel happier than Lady Rosedale this afternoon."
'Why?'" enquired that lady.
"Because," saiu Mr. Phipps, with a gallant bow,
"you always prefer the happiness of others to your
own, and that brings true happiness."
Lady Rosedale, for the moment, concluded that
Mr. Phipps was a man of real discernment, he seemed
to read her character so well!
"We'll see each other a little later," said Mr.
Phipps, and took himself away; but there was already
a crowd on the spot when he reappeared and he was
separated by many persons from Lady Rosedale.
Lawrence was there. He had heard about this
function, and if he could do no more than merely
bow to Marian, at least there was some pleasure in
seeing her, in being near to her, in waiting with what
patience he could command until her strange and
sudden reserve disappeared and they should be as
they had been before. Major Fellapar came also in
response to Lady Rosedale's invitation; the Hamiltons
came, and many others who were residents within
three or four miles-of the hotel. All the guests in the
hotel were on the spot. There was quite a crowd
assembled when Miss Hellingworth rose to express.
her great pleasure at having been asked to present
to one of the most charming and popular members
of the company a slight token of the esteem in which
she was held, and to express the regret which
everyone felt at the great loss sustained by Lady
Rosedale, for whom everyone who knew her enter-
tained the highest affection and most unbounded re-
gard, etc. Thus the lady proceeded for a little while,
with Lady Rosedale's name figuring in her speech
sufficillently to gratify even that not unexacting per-
sonage, who sat with mien composed as some of her
wonderful qualities were detailed for the public's
edification. There was a press reporter present: he
had asked for admission. His pencil flew busily over
the pages of his notebook. Lady Rosedale observed
him through the corner of one eye. Certainly she was
as happy as anyone else present; perhaps more than
anyone; which showed that Mr. Phipps's prediction
had not been at all extravagant.


The manager of the hotel, obliging and indefati- Marian sat calm. but pale, with signs of tension
Sa usual, insisted upon arranging a proper visible only to the observant. She appeared to find
iensoene for the. function. The moving picture no pleasure in this function. Lawrence was not far
many was to return on Thursday afternoon a from her, but she never once glanced in his direction.
Earlier than usual from work; at half-past four Stephen stood immediately behind her, with other
iDIly the function would begin. The eastern see- members of the moving picture company, the director
aof the big ballroom was accordingly decorated being much in evidence, as he always succeeded in
at tastefully. with flags; a low table, behind which being. The chief actor, the man who had made this
bre chairs were set, was placed in this part of the presentation possible by suggesting that Marian
0; on this table would repose the box containing should be given a broach in place of the one she had
broach to be presented, in these chairs would sit lost, was called upon to speak after Miss Helling-
. 4Rosedale. Miss Hellingworth and Marian, worth, and this he did as briefly as possible, but made
"t about three o'clock Mr. Phipps appeared upon no sort of allusion to the fact that he had had any-
~aene and surveyed it with what appeared to be thing to do with the making of this present. He also
1&atisfactifn. The manager happened to be show- said nothing about Lady Rosedale. His remarks *ere
.*Lady Rosedale the arrangements he had made; not loudly applauded.
aly, M'. Phipps joined them. "T wish," said Then the little package on the table was opened,
I Lady Rosedale, "that there were going to be two the broach extracted and placed in Marian's hand, and
linttations this afternoon: the breach to Miss a murmur of admiration immediately made itself
.tene and two necklaces to you. I guess, though I beard both from those who saw and from those who
air you can stand a loss like a British regiment of did not see it. This murmur was, so to speak, ready-
iesra can stand a charge, Lady Rosedale, that you made; but the little trinket was really a pretty piece
Sdd. pot mind having that diamond necklace back." of workmanship and deserved appreciation. Marian
. 'It is natural that I should wish it, is It not?" she at once handed It to Lady Rosedale, who glanced at
i. it. and passed It to Major Fellspar. It went from
naturall, agreed Mr. Phipps sympathetically, hand to hand amongst those acquainted with Marian,
of course you have given up expecting to see who at the same time was heartily congratulated by
ia single pearl or a single diamond returned to those standing nearest to her.
l haven't you?" While the broach was still being admired there
I am coming to the conclusion that I might as appeared one of the hotel's bellboys with some letters
Give up any hope," replied Lady Rosedale with and parcels that had arrived by the last afternoon
Bitterness. "The police here are quite in- mall. He moved leisurely, chanting the names of
e. Even Major Fellspar, who promised so those for whom he had anything, and delivering these
Seems now to have given up trying. A really when claimed. "Miss Braeme," he called, and ap-
policeman would have done something by preached Marian, who was now standing, the cere-
mony in which she had figured being practically over.
He may yet do something." said Mr. Phipps To her he handed a small parcel, very like that which
haly. "He may at any moment determine to had contained the broach; she held it in her hand
ft some perfectly innocent person: I have been michanaially, making no attempt to open it,. until
6ttng that all this time. At one time I thought MiEs Hellingwortl laughingly suggested that it might
hw going to arrest me." be another present. Miss Hellingworth said this,
.'"Do you feel that you should be arrested?" Lady animated by curiosity; Marian, smiling slightly, un-
sde asked; "perhaps it may happen." She spoke did the string and the wrapper, opened the little box.
Mi toe attempt at badinage, but there was a note gasped, and sat suddenly down in the chair behind
e slounese in her voice. her. She was staring at the thing in her hand with
|IJ a, I don't know," returned Mr. Phipps udi- undisguised amazement, even with consternation; and
il'Moie or ltss. we all do things for which we. as Stephen caught slgt. of it a sharp exclamation
l rigteously be arrested; and in dealing with a escaped him. "Well! what is this!" exclaimed Lady


i.: :..


Rosedale, in tones of wonder, and Major Fellepar,
bending forward, perceived, netling in a bed of'-ot-
ton wool, glinting back the light that ell upon it, a
beautiful diamond broach.
"It is Marian's broach, the one that was stolen
when my jewellery was robbed!" cried Lady Rose-
dale; "where has it come from?"
Stephen had snatched up the broach and was
turning it over in.his fingers. "It is either the same,
or one Identical with here," he admitted: "what does
it mean?"
Mr. Phipps, aware that something unusual had
happened, now rapidly edged himself backwards to-
wards the verandah's railing. Thursting his heels
into the open woodwork of the railing, and resting
his hands on the top of it, he managed with a Jerk to
elevate himself a few inches above the heads of those
who were standing about. His ouick eyes took in the
scene at a glance; he saw that Marian had collapsed,
though already she was endeavouring to regain her
self-possession; Stephen was darting sharp enquiring
glances around as if to discover the sender of this last
broach; Major Fellspar, who had the trinket in his
hand, was looking at it minutely. There was a babble
of voices, a confused interrogatory addressed to no
one in particular.
"Where did this come from?"
"Who sent It?"
"The thief, is it not?"
"But why?"
"If the thief sent it back, what about the neck-
laces?"
"If we can find out who sent this, we shall know
where the necklaces are," cried one of the guests; and
Mr. Phipps saw Major Fellepar return the broach to
Marian, then stoop and secure the box and the wrap-
per in which it had been enclosed and put them in
his pocket. Mr. Phipps, watching the Inspector Gen-
eral closely, noticed thit there was a look of quiet
reserve on his face, and when Major Fellspar had
secured the box and the wrapper he began glanc-
ing about him as if to find .someone whom he evident-
ly expected to be present. Mr. Phipps tried to follow
the direction of his glances; suddenly, and entirely by
accident, as his eye swept over a group of persons
standing by the wide southern door of the section of
the room in which the presentation to Marian had
been made, Mr. Phipps saw a tall, clean-shaven man
who, quite obviously, was a stranger; evidently one
of the new arrivals who had come by the New York
boat the day before. There was a number of other
nbw guests present, but Mr. Phippe paid no attention
to these. The man on whom his eyes were fixed, he
perceived, was intently noting the confusion in the
group amongst whom was Marian. A look of re-
cognition flashed over Mr. Phipps's face; at once he
sprang from his point of vantage and mingled with
the people about. He seemed anxious to escape ob-
servation. As unobtrusively, but as rapidly as he
could, he began to move towards the north-western
end of the verandah.
Arrived there, Mr. Phipps, threw a quick glance
around to see if he were noticed. He was not; every-
body's back was turned to him; everybody seemed
eager to see the broach that had so strangely been
returned. Satisfied that he attracted no attention, he
cast, as it were casually, one leg over the railing, fol-
lowed it with the other leg, and jumped into the gar-
den but two feet below. He hurried round to the
(Oontinued on Page 45.)




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It is the boast of our establishment
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PLANTERS' PUNCH


A GOOD GAMBLE ON ONE'S LIFE


Life insurance has been described by a prominent
English jurist as a form of gambling, yet the severest
moralist would advise old and young to indulge in this
form of gambling, and the man who does not is usual-
ly regarded'as taking a tremendous risk-as risking
the well-being of himself or of his family in'later
years.
Insurance is worked out on the chances of a cer-


tain number of men paying a certain amount of money
in a certain number of years, this average allowing
benefits to be paid with some profit left over. John
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not pass away until he is seventy years of age. But
taking a large number of Smiths and Browns, it Is
safe to say that, barring an awful epidemic, most of
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sunts for which they have been insured, provided al-
ways that they have paid their premiums. This is
what makes life insurance a gamble that is not a
gamble. No one loses.
The Insurance Company in Jamaica with the
largest local clientele is the Jamaica Mutual. In
1924, some fifteen months hence, it will be eighty years
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as Edward Jordan, C. B., and N'. Wemyse Andersen,
persons of much note In their day, men of fine charac-
ter and benevolent dispositions. We are told that the
society commenced business without capital-"not a
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been large! At the end of the first year of its exist-
ence it had issued 53 policies, assuring 31.450. and,
of course, the premiums received from these original
holders of policies formed the nucleus out of which


any first claims could be met. What the Society
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But after that it had no need to worry. For from
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At the end of the first three years of its existence
it declared a bonus. It has continued to declare


bonuses at similar intervals since then, having paid
out under this head no less than 346,460 up to the
present. In death claims it has paid 689,209, these
two sums making over a million sterling. We are
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of small coin, but here is a Jamaica institution with
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With fifty-three policies it began. Last year the
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Ernest B. Nethersole, F.C.R.A.. is a highly competent
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..
I ~ ~ ~~~~~~~ i-- i l IiI IIlml ll


44


1922-28











h 'Devil's Mountain

(Continued from Page 4J.)
i's. front entrance; then, with calculated leisurely
Lgitered the lobby and went up the steps leading
firt floor. He passed into his room, closing
:i''the slat-door behind him, then sat on the edge
h s bed listening sharply. Three or four minutes
tisrda he heard footsteps; measuring the dis-
i with his ear, he concluded that the steps paused
i about where Marian's door should be. "The girl
I.l, and they have brought her up," he mused;
- he heard the footsteps repass.
:Silently opening his-slat-door, he peeped after the
rating figures: there were two. "Lady Rosedale
I femalneu with her," he thought, and again sat
ia to wait.
:Ih about ten minutes he heard Lady Rosedale's
i-kaown tread; to make absolutely sure, he peeped
i'When certafh fftit she was a little dlsta'nce away
t his room door. He recognized Lady Rosedale's
jistakable back, as she pressed on, anxious to get
r'stairs once more to hear all that was being said
$it the strange reannearance of Marian's broach


t
6



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,PLANTtKS' PUNCH M


my near, and go through with the game bravely to,
night: to-morrow we'll get on the right side of eir-
cumstancea somehow. You can trust me that far."
And when they went back to the veragdah he
ordered a half bottle of champagne and insisted on
Marian drinking a full giass of it. It brought some
colour to her cheeks. His talk, his self-assurance,
made a deep impression upon her; when Lady Rose-
dale came down and joined them she was more her
normal self than she had been'an hour before. Mr.
Phippe surrendered Marian to Lady Rosedale with a
few inconsequential words, and with a half-pathetic
lament that he was compelled to leave them. Then
he ordered his ear, having observed that the strange
man, for whom he had not ceased to watch, was no-
where to be seen. "But he is on the Job all right
enough," he muttered, and (as he drove out of the
Myrtle Bank Hotel), "I wonder if he recognized me?"
Mr. Phlpps thought not, but knew that recognition
was in any case bound to come within the next twenty-
four hours. "But I have a few hours' start of him
anyway," he concluded, not without satisfaction.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

THE STRANGER EXPLAINS.


the possible recovery of her own jewellery. r- HE stranger, as a matter of fact, had left the
Mr. Phipps had counted upon her doing some- Myrtle Bank Hotel shortly after Marian had
g of the sort; he had always said that she was j gone upstairs subsequent to the extraordinary
to form. reappearance of her diamond broach, and the
Ne sooner had she disappeared than he sat down confusion occasioned thereby. On leaving the hotel
scribbled a brief note. "You must make an ef- he drove straight to tle high-walled principal police
" he wrote, "and get down to dinner. Go down station of the city in which were situated the offices
IF say half-past six: there will not be many peo- of the Detective Department. There he was met by
about then. I will be at the pier; meet me there. Inspector Harmsworth, who Informed him that the
er mind how 1I1 you feel; you must see me before Inspector General would be calling round later on,
tmr. It is absolutely necessary. Write your and that Detective Sergeant Brown had been ordered
Wer on this same sheet of papermand send it back to report himself there as soon as possible. Brown
ihearer, In an envelope." He signed the letter had been In Spanish Town that day, but was expected
ring for a bellboy and bade him take the letter back by the last passenger train, which would ar-
Ug Braeme's room and wait for an answer.- In rive soon after sil o'clock.
minutes the boy was back; Mr. Phippe took the At about half-past six Major Fellspar arrived, and
ad envelope from him, handed him a shilling, and almost upon his heels came Brown. It was evident
him downstairs for a cocktail. When the boy left that the stranger was held in high respect by Inspec-
eom, he read Marian's reply: two words only, "all tor Harmsworth, while Detective Brown regarded him
it," and her initials. He tore the sheet of paper with something approaching awe. Major Fellspar, as
tiny fragments and threw them into the basin in befitted his position evinced no emotion whatever.
rom, turning on the tap as be did so and watch- He Immediately addressed to the stranger a question
the fragments disappear down the waste pipe. which showed that he had met and talked with him
boy came back with the cocktail and went away before. "Is it the same man?" he asked, without any
ii, and Mr. Phipps sent the liquor the way that preliminaries.
ideees of his letter had gone. He went and stood "Sure." returned the other laconically; "have you
is window for some time, scanning the people many formalities about extradition to go through
!t the hotel westward, in motor cars and in cabs. down here?"
Wa not certain if he saw in one of these the "You will have to see the Attorney General to-
nger at the sight of whom he had been so startled morrow, and then you must appear before a Judge and
fhe While before; but he thought he did. Others swear to your charge. We can expedite you; in a
ecognised quite plainly. The guests were leaving day or so everything should be fixed," explained Major
hotel, to spread the news of the remarkable re- Fellspar.
iarsnce of a broach reported stolen, and to revive "And be can't make a getaway?"
*.-more the faded interest in the jewel robbery. "He hasn't had his passport vised, and he couldn't
0. It was about twenty minutes to six, and Mr. attempt to get it done without our knowing. He can't
pp judged that all those who had been at the even hide as a stowaway on board a ship, for all the
entation niust now either have gone home or have outgoing ships will be warned and watched. Did be
-S to their rooms to change for dinner, he went see you?"
stalrs and strolled idly towards the pier. As "I don't think he did, and I don't believe he would
had anticipated, there were very few folk about, know me If he did; so that doesn't matter."
Snone of them was the man for whom his eyes "Very well; that Is all right from your point of
rhed keenly. After a swift but searching explora- view; now what about our own affair? We want to
;:Mr. Phipps's face assumed a relieved expression, hold him on that too; we want those necklaces back
:In another few minutes he saw Marian approach- it we can get them."
*and went casually to meet her with a gesture of "'I must talk to your men about that, sir." said
lome. "Will you take pity on an old man and talk the American detective. "The return of that broach
tim for a while before dinner?" he asked, loudly Is a bit puzzling, isn't it?"
fih for one or two people to hear;-"I have to go "I don't understand it," confessed Major Fellspar;
t.0 dine this evening, and am trying to kill the "unless it was sent back to throw us off any scent we
before then." There was no one on the seawall; might have picked up. But even so no, I cmn
led her there: then at once he began to talk in make nothing at all of it. I admit I am all at sea."
Imt, low, incisive tones. Marian was desperately The American detective, James B. Baker by name,
out. Mr. Phippe himself was grave, graver than made no effort to relieve Major Fellspar's perplexity,
lhad ever seen him before, and with a. strength but, taking out of an inner pocket a packet of papers
ftpose showing in his set mouth and narrowed on the jewel robbery with which he had earlier in the
, that seemed to contradict entirely the reputation day been furnished by Major Fellspar, laid It on
bad gained for light-hearted and even fussy fri- the table before him and turned to question Detective
Brown. Brown looked ill at ease; he had often heard
Anyone could see them, but none could overhear, of American detectives and had a keen desire that
.Mr. Phlpps's voice was purposely lowered, and the Jamaica Detective Department should appear to
iaa spoke in a voice audible to his ear alone, good advantage before so eminent a critic.
*t he was saying was evidently of the utmost Im- "I gather from your chief," said Mr. Baker, "that
tanee to her, for her face went deathly white, her from the first you suspected this young lady, Miss
ier.were clenched, and perhaps only the influence Braeme. but you didn't think of her brother: is that
is stronger personality and the need there was for right?"
mlssession on her part prevented her from again "Yes, sir." said Brown nervously.
apsng as she had done that afternoon. She spoke "Then you have never made any attempt to find
effort, with eyes that looked straight In front of out definitely whether Mr. Braeme went upstairs on
seeing nothing: and for over an hour this queer, the night of the robbery?"
it talk in an undertone went on. Then be sug- "I didn't ask about him specially," Brown ad-
ed something to her and she shook her head mitted; "I asked the night-maid to tell me who she
ty as If the very Idea were impossible. remembered going about the corridor that night, but
toy an cannot avoid it," said Mr. Phiips .tensey7, there was-so many-people that she-didn't know that-"
ittjwould be serious if anymne.thieght you were "I see," Interrqpted the Americatn: "I guessed na
tly trying to do so. People will want to talk much. And it wouldn't have helped. I am thinking, if
l aboot the robblery'and the broach: you will you had asked her specially about Braeme. for If she
t~ gothrough with it. Oh, I know it is awfully had seen him he woula have gone downstairs again."
Lt you'll have to go through with ft. You have "You are sure, then,". said the Inspector General,
is; a w hf 'am taikring tWUOtl like this. why l "'that your man and mine are the same?"
k t yot everything. I made a great mistake to- -I have no doubt of it," said Baker with a slight
it~tg n a bi tool," he added half whimiallfy, smile; "I was sure ofCt,.bere I left New York. If
i mtkold la tit-'itL-tft aaan wan be you don't miad ity EMI P anljr. siir, I may say
t*i-w-hoo (t to tallT-perhap I have deaw.. Aht it ioabhtta hak"Iiuftte clear that this young
i are4ms his tratU. Pull yourself together. woman -ho calls herself Miss Braeme knew more


D*


about the robbery than she tried to make out. This
malt here-" be indicated Browi6-"was on the right
traek Lroat the start; he even gdBes that she had
accomplice who helped her to get away with the neck-
laces. Who more likely to be that accomplice thal.
her brother?"
"I agree," ejaculated Major Fellspar, "but that did
not occur to me until some time arter. Brown did
think she had an accomplice, but he suspected some-
one else, a Mr. Phipps. You see, Braeme does not live
at the Myrtle Bank."
"It wasn't necessary for him to do so in the cir-
cumstances; his sister was there. When he went into-
her room that night-"
"So you think he was in her room?"
"Sure. How else could he have got the stuff?
She could have passed it out to him through her win-
dow, of course, but he would not be sure Just when
she would hand it over, and he would run a great risk
if he was too song on the verandah root. Sure he was.
in her room when she retired that night.- It was dead
easy."
"You mean she had arranged it?"
"Sure."
"But suppose any one had entered her room with
her that night?"
"I went through one or two rooms at the Myrtle
Bank to-day," replied Baker: "I said I would like to-
see them, if there was no objection, before making up
my mind whether I would stay there. Those that I
saw had two closeataoe-eurtained and the other with.
a heavy door. The closet with the door could qufte
comfortably conceal more than one man; you would
only know anyone was In It if you opened the door.
See? Now if she had arranged with him that he
should hide in her room, she would have left her
room-door open. He walks up the staircase--"
"He couldn't escape being seeo by the clerks In
the booking office," interposed Inspector Harmsworth.
"You forget that. And they-would know him. They
would have remembered if he had gone upstairs dur-
ing that night. There were also certain to have been
a few people in the lobby."
The American smiled with the air of one to whom
obvious explanations are too obvious to contain the
truth. "That's what you might think," he said, "but
to notice that a particular man has gone up a short
flight of steps, up and down which people arer con-
tinually passing, means either that you are particular-
ly watching for him, or ths. something occurred to
fix the fact in your mind. The clerks were doing their
work as usual, I guess, and weren't looking out to see
what people were going upstairs. Nor was anyone
else. Had Braeme met anybody on the staircase or
in the corridor who knew him and could have sworn
to his identity, it would have been different. He
would probably have gone but a little way, and then
gone downstairs again to wait for another time. Had
he met the night-maid or a bellboy or a permanent.
*guest in the corridor, there would have been no
robbery that night. But the hotel is built in a sort
of semi-circular form-you know that. The night-
maid might as easily be at one side of it as at the
other, and when our man got on to the first floor she
must have been at the other side of it. Well, you can
easily see for yourselves what happened. The passage
Is carpeted and-he wears dancing shoes. He meets no-
one, and be knows that it is one chance in a hundred
that anyone in the lobby or the booking office noticed
that he ran up the steps. They were not watching
him, you see, but he was watching them. Besides,
could any guest venture to connect him with a big
steal on the strength of a sort of belief that they saw
him running up the steps, unless the suggestion was
squarely put to them? People don't like to make
positive accusations that they can't prove. That
might get them in trouble."
"Yes, that mhat be so," said the Inspector Gen-
eral thoughtfully.
"He knows this. girl's room," the detective con-
tinued, "opens it and slips into it. I should figure
that he did this between twelve and one o'clock, when
people would be going to bed, one by one, but not as
yet in any numbers. She comes up a little past one
o'clock and hands him over the pearl necklace. He
waits for a little while, then gets into the other lady's
room."
"But how?" asked Major Fellspar.
"There are two ways. He could get out of and
into any room by the windows: there is no difficulty
about that to an active man, and be is one. Or he
may have had a key to open the old. lady's door.
From what you have written here, sir," (he touched
the papers before him) "I gather that he must have
had a false key to fit her trunk."
"But, sir," deferentially suggested Brown, "how
could he get one made, unless he made It himself?"
"He could have got a good impression of the key
and of the lock through his sister, couldn't he? And
he could have sent it over to some pal of his in New
York, couldn't he, and have got a key maUe? There's
nothing difficult in that. Or he may have a number
of false keys for jobs of this kind: that is very likely.
He knew of the diamond necklace and he went
straight for it: he knew where to find it-his sister
told him. He had now to get away. He doesn't live
In the hotel, so he wouldn't dare risk being seen in the
corridor or the lobby long after the dance was over.
And he couldn't have escaped being noticed If he had
tried to leave by way of the staircase and the lobby
after Pll th- other people had gone home. So he aust
got out of the lady's room by way of the win4dao;.tn




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I 'I







I PLANTERS' PUNCH 47
j "'.


Itlcverandah roof until he came to the
e. fit, which almost overhangs the bar-
*tnow. He was dressed in black and the
dark. There was nobody about at that
Eas had gone home or to bed. The only
sight meet was the night watchman, and
sa peeled for him. He didn't see anyone;
Sdo was to let himself quickly down over
ohe.verandah'roof: the height Is not more
i f.eet, which meant for him a fall of not
Idouple of feet when he let go his hold on
,.:; He landed square and softly on the
..shoes; had anyone caught sight of him
Idtave been a chase, but once out of the
sold probably have got away among'some
row lanes here. You see, he had it all
itbe0orehand in his mind; he took some
couldn't be avoided. But with a popular
I. the house the risk wasn't so big after
bilow, Quesada, is as sharp as they make

Ita?" questioned Major Fellspar in sur-

A a!? echoed Inspector Harmsworth.
I his real name; Braeme Is the name he
: though I may say that it is legally his
bikanged from Quesada to Braeme about
ago.in New York; and as lots of people
hanging their names during and since the
ually the foreign ones-that alone wouldn't
~Ita. But he's a dago all right, Is Esteban
wIthe name used to belong to a swell Span-
'lmewhere down in Peru, and I believe in
riaimed that his great, great grand-father
atgwas a sort of Washington in those parts,
.-asy but what he may be right. He hasn't
mpon the family history, though, by adding
&.their other accomplishments. But he is
N-bound to hand that to hii."
know a great deal about him." remarked
bpar; "but you have had no dinner; will
iiiwth me and have some?" Major Fellspar
1: to be,hospitable, but, it must be con-
thflinking of his own physical requirements
:than of those of the detective whom the
prtment of New York had so kindly sent
0i6.lre the problem that had baffled the
,iee.
ft aidad if I do," said the American.
good. Harmsworth, you must come with
A, report yourself at my office to-morrow at
yi. we may need you."
ir," said Detective Brown; and then the
p general, Inspector Harmsworth and the
F :ctive-left the Police Station and were
hven to the Inspector General's residence,
.t quite a mile away.
= aid of some cold meats a respectable
I' oon provided by Major Fellspar's capable
pe; while discussing the meal Mr. Baker

k:your Governor wrote up to New York,"
4Aeeat the photographs of the moving plc-
e.tosee if w knew anything about them,
.,t our Depirtment was anxious to help
'ent over t ie pictures; there was a man
.rom Boston who was certain that he had
a'a face before; as for me, I spotted Phipps

pi!" exclaimed Major Fellspar, "then he

A bit," interrupted the detective. "I don't
.:has had anything to do with this steal;
SOw that he has. I have run across him
.nce .before: in Cuba and in Guatemala.
hwas interfering with what didn't seem to
i.;. the Guatemala Government was going
it once, but he got out in time. I think
ial.'Lt wasn't deportation they meant, but
.finaflon .If it could be done without
.nwirie being provoked. I was down
i'tellow that hal absconded from the
g.ldn't connect Phipps with him. Phlpps
i.: me; evidently thought I might spoil
kre, whatever it was. There's nothing
'that we know of, but I regard him as a
s sort of a customer; one that you have
tap pretty early in the morning to watch.
W.dn't interest me any, however, after our
0Osnlaed Quesada. We knew something
a.. The Boston police believed he hbd
j"iuabtie jewellery in that town a .llttl
rthee years ago; they know ,now that he

aIe proved that?" asked the Inspector Gen-

'a ay. After one of our boys had recog-
'# .in one of the photos you sent us,
, b4S had been suspected of robbery In a
Twasdespatched that Game day to Bos-
I coud find out about him. You must
~:j, tlkt you can almost divide up the
Those who forge will keep on
will remain yeggmen all their
lifters are always jewel lifters: each
owinte. Isn't that so out Lere?"
ttihire seems to be any number of
blie es here," replied Major Fellspar
.think you are quite right: the same
,le nthi g again and again."
lWB, there was a big Jewellery
inle years ago, and a man called


Queeada, who was a movie actor, was suspected. And,
here we had a photograph of Quesada, a movie actor,
and the story of a big jewellerX robbery In Jamaica.
It looked as if Providence was taking a hand jn
Quesada's career.
"The police in Boston remembered him quite well.
He had been staying at a-hotel there-one of the beat
-when a rich woman from one of the Western States
was robbed. The police thought that the crook must
have got into her room. at night by a fase.key, or been
secreted in it, and they were sure he- hd a pal In
the hotel itself. Quesada had the oom next to the
woman who was robbed. Early ia the morning, be-
fore the theft was discovered, he left the hotel,
returning a couple of hours later. He was arrested
and questioned; he denied having anything to do with
the robbery; he said be had only gone out for an
early morning walk, as was his custom. He could
prove that he had gone out every, morning early
while staying at the hotel; and nothing was found on
him. He was watched all the time he remained in
Boston, which he did for three or four weeks
longer. He only left when he got an engagement in
a moving picture company in New York, who wanted
a foreign-looking actor to do some athletic feats.
The Boston Police couldn't get a thing against him,
though.they found out that some big steals had been
brought off in some other towns where Quesada had
happened to be at the time. And they couldn't get
anything against the fellow who they believed was
working with Quesada, one of the night men in the
hotel This man was discharged for carelessness; a
year ago they caught him red-handed In a robbery in
another hotel, where he was helping an outsider. He
went to jail for five years."
"Yes?" queried Major Fellspar, as the detective
paused.
"A few days ago we put a lot of photographs be-
fore him, with Quesada's in the bunch, and promised
that his sentence would be greatly reduced if he could
point out from among those photographs the man who
had robbed Mrs. Hiram B. Stone's diamonds three
years ago. We told him that we had got the dope
on that man all right, but that he could help. He had
been a year in prison already and he didn't want to
stay longer than be could help. Talked about wishin'
to lead an honest life and all that kind of bunkum,
Lnd went through the photographs. The moment he
came to the group with Quesada in It, he put his
finger on Quesada: 'that's the man,' he cays, and
then he told us the whole story. The police had
guessed quite right how the thing had been worked,
but they had not been able to dig up sufficient evi-
dence to bring before a court. But you have only to
wait long enough," concluded the detective sententi-
ously, "and you will catch the cleverest thief at last.
They don't vary their methods, you see, and some day
they are bound to make a big mistake."
"But why if Quesada is a professional jewellery
thief has he become a moving picture actor?" asked
Major Fellspar.
"I don't know that he was a thief before he.be-
came an actor," the detective answered; "I rather
figure that he was an victor before-he became a thief.
That is," he corrected himself, "I guess he was always
a thief by disposition, but didn't take up stealing
regularly until he saw the opportunities that travel-'
ling about and having a profession gave him. An
actor don't need to be always working; it won't look
suspicious if he Is on his own for a little while. Then
In thepe movie companies you can go from one part
of the world to another where they won't have heard
of you, unless you are very high up In the acting pro-
fessaln,'and then you don't need to steal, A man like
Quesada wouldn't try to rob in another hotel in Bos-
ton, but he would risk it in San Francisco or in
'Vancouver, or'ln Cuba or Jamaica; and as (I suspect)
he has always gone for big hauls-nothing less than
'a few thousand dollars at-a time-it has paid him
to work that way. He figured that he would always
be able to get away with it. That's where he made
his mistake. All of 'em do."
"I have suspected him for some little time," said
Major Irellspar, "and now we must decide what we
are going to do with regard to him. There are still
grave difficulties in the way. We have no direct evi-
dence against him. And you say that Mrs.--Mrs.
What's-her-name's diamonds .were never found?"
"Not one. That's where he had Boston beat."
"I shouldn't care if he escaped so long as I could
get back Lady Rosedale's jewels!" cried the Inspector
General: "those are what we want. I can have his
room searched, but I know quite well I should never
find them there."
"You are right, sir." the detective agreed, "your
won't find them that way. Quesada does not work
alone. I am sure he sent Mrs. Stone's jewellery out
of Boston when he went for that early walk of hbs
after lifting them. He has done the same thing with
Lady Rosedale's necklaces."
"This man, Phlpps. may have helped him?"
"I don't know: but I'll tell you what I think. If
you want to get rid quick of any article likely to las'-
you in jail you will try and get It out of your hands
by a simple and yet pretty safe method. You hbve
P fellow that works with you, say over in New York
You put your necklaces in the middle of a bundle of
newspapers, or in some such innocent-looking parcel,
and it is taken by the mall oaer to him and delivered.
The chuaes of that bundle ining astray isn't one in
a hundred. You can aL&ord to takes risk like that. and
with olafn-e1othes mene watching you for weeksand


ready to arrest and search you any time, you want
thegoods to be far from you. Quesada knows quite
well that he might be searched on landing in New
York even three months hence, so he wouldn't have
kept them with him. He would have to get someone
td dispose of them for him, anyhow; someone in touch
with Jewellers and that lot. If he has a good arrange-
ment, he would supply the goods by mail, so unless
Syou catch him with them within a few hours after he
has stolen 'em, it's good-bye to the booty."
The situation looked appalling to the Inspector
General. To discover the thief and not the things
stolen would afford but little satisfaction either to
Lady Rosedale or the imperative Governor, through
whose communication to New York this American de-
tective had been sent down. However illogically, the
Jamaica Police Force would be blamed. He simply
dared not give up the hope that the necklaces would
be discovered and restored. There was Marian
Braeme's diamond broach .
"The return of Miss Braeme's broach," he sug-
gested, "shows that the rest of the things'taken may
Ltill be in this country."
"Miss Braeme and her brother would hardly steal
from themselves," mused the detective; "or, if
they did, it was with a purpose. I can't think just
now what that purpose was, and I don't know that it
matters much. Iou may find out when you take some











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A THREE-WEEKLY FREIGHT AND PASSEN-
GER SERVICE is maintained between
Kingston, Belize, Nassau, Bermuda, Halifax
and Montreal.
THROUGH TICKETS AND BILLS OF LADING
issued to interior points in Canada and to
Glasgow, Liverpool and London. Also to
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FULL PARTICULARS AS TO RATES, ETC.,
WILL BE FURNISHED UPON APPLICATION.
." ". .,





PLANTERS' PUNCH


steps against the.pair. What are you going to do, i
I may ask?"
"I am damned if I know!" said Major Fellspa
flatly.
"I should like to carry my man away with me a
soon as ~an,' ten oetecrive went on; "but my ii
structions are to place myself at your service. WU
have got him nailed anyhow; he'll be put away sal
.and sure for a few years up North. But naturally yo
would like to nail him on the spot. Couldn't you a
rest him and summon the girl as a witness again
him? You might be able to find someone who will,
the question is put direct after Quesada is arrested:
remember seeing him going upstairs that nigh
and as he doesn't live in the hotel be would have 1
do a lot of explaining away his presence where he he
no right to be. But it's the girl who should be of tl
greatest use to you. She's likely to break down an
give the whole show away, especially if she know
that unless she tells the true stof -she herself wi
be put in the dock. You might convey that to he
in a delicate but explicit sort of- way." '. ,
"I see what you mean," said the Inspector Genera
"but I shall have to take the opinion of the Attorne
General to-morrow on that plan."
"H'm," said the detective.
"It will be the wisest course to adopt," urge
Major Fellspar, "and nothing can be lost by it. LI
me see; to-day is Thursday. I shall be able to have
talk with the Attorney General in the afternoon, about
two o'clock: he'll be engage otherwise In the for
noon. If he approves of the plan you suggest, we ca
arrest Quesada either to-morrow afternoon or c
Saturday. In the meantime you will be able to attle
to that extradition business of yours. I think, to
Mr. Baker, that you had better go with me to-morro
afternoon to see the Governor; it is due to his asu
.gestlon that we are able to avail ourselves of yor
valuable services."
"I am at your disposal, sir," replied the America
"with a friendly bow.
"And you are sure that nobody knew or reco
.nised you at the hotel this afternoon?"
"I didn't advertise myself any; and I am sur
Quesada doesn't know me. I can't think how i
could."
"But Phlppe was at the function this afternoon
"I didn't see him."
"No, but he might have seen you."
"Quite possible, sir; now what is troubling yo
about that?"
"He's very friendly with this girl, and he hi
acted peculiarly ever since the robbery. He knov
something about it."
"I see; but you say that Quesada cannot make
getaway."
"Not possible," affirmed Major Fellspar positively
"Then it seems to me that this Phipps can't d
nuch harm, even it he's inclined to play monkey
tricks with us. I would advise that you have a ma
Ito watch Quesada, though."
"He has been watched ever since the day I su
pected him," said Major Fellspar grimly, "though w
have had to be careful that he doesn't know it"
"Right!" said the detective. He thought
moment, then added: "And perhaps you'd better hav
the girl watched too."
He rose to go, and so did Inspector Harmsworth
"I'll send you both home In my car," said Majt
Fellepar. "I hope, Mr. Baker, that you find your rooi
at the Inspectors' quarters comfortable."
"Quite," said Mr. Baker; "good night, Majo
By Saturday something should be doing with those
two nirds."
"Something will be done," promised Major Fell
par; "but whether that will get us back the nece
laces-"
He left the sentence uninished.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

MR. PHIPPS EXPLAINS.
LAWRENCE was surprised when, on going hit
self to answer a rap at his front door, he found
Mr. Phipps on the doorsteps waiting for a'
mission. Mr. Phipps was about the last pe
son he expected to see that night; he was keen]
aware that Phipps must have perceived, and probabi
had resented, his recent attitude of alonmeass, kiam
disguised efforts at avoidance of personal intercourse
Tet his immediate emotional reaction to the presence
of Mr. Phipps was one of pleasure and satisfaction; I
vividly reallsed that he had missed his cheerft
friend far more than. he had believed: he was co
scious of a feeling of elation at this obviously friendly
overture on Phtppa's part.
There was another and equally potent reason ft
Lawrence's feeling. The scene at the little present
tion ceremony of that afternoon was still vivid in h
.-....nin4-.he,had betn pumaled.y.lt;. ever since Mariw
had retired upstairs at the hotel and he had left th
building for his own house he had been pondering i
possible meanings. That something new had d
-veloped with regard to the robbery was certain: thb
Marian was in some way involved in it appeared
probable. And perhaps the only person who could
throw light on all this complicated business, or
least could make a good guess at what it might meat
was Phipps. And now, here was the mln himself
*-g*e4u he cried warmly, taking Mr. Phipps by th


CHARACTER SNAPBSOT


MR. ALFRED H. D'GOSTA


in Mr. Alfred H. D'Costa was for years a practising
S solicitor of this country; and some tiine'after that was
g. Registrar of the Supreme Court. Blessed with an.
equable temperament and an unfailing courtesy of
re manner, knowing well the members of the legal pro-
ie leseion, and taking an interest in his work, he suc-
ceeded as Registrar in giving satisfaction to those
with whom he had to deal-not so easy a matter as it
may sound by any means. He had become an official;
it was believe that an official he would remain: in-
ou deed, it never occurred to anyone to think for a mo-
ment that he would become anything else. Then it
as was announced that he had entered the firm of
ps Lascelles deMercado as a partner, and everybody won-
dered how a lawyer and an ex-official could possibly
a be transmuted into an efficient End successful com-
mercial man.
y. The unexpected has happened. Official life might
do have spoilt him for business had he been all his pre-
ey vious working days a Government Officer (though
in there are some men who can always transcend the in-
fluende of custom ana surroundings). Bat he rlhad
s been trained and had practised as a lawyer, and this
S had brought him into contact with business life at
many points. Besides, he had a natural aptitude for
business, and a quick mind that could easily asslmi-
e late and learn. He is the sort of man who will ask
if he does not know, and who will not need to be told
S twice; underlying his suave urbanity, too, is a strong
Svein of stubbornness which causes him to stick to any-
thing that be has set his mind upon, and so to conquer
difficulties. He takes an interest in other things be-
r sides business; those who have bad to do with him in
as public matters-who have heard him speaking, for
instance, to the elected members on the country's
financial policy-will admit that he displays a clear
k- grasp of such matters and is able to express himself
lucidly and to the point. A persuasive manner, a
patient attitude, and a sound understanding of any
question that he undertakes to deal with, have made
him a valuable factor not only in business life but in
that part of public life which is not usually played be-
fore the public. Those who know him In the capaci-
ties indicated in this snapshot of his character agree
that he is a clever and sagacious man, one'who
m- "arrives" without noise or fuss or demonstration of
d any sort.
.d-

y hand, and pulling him inside. "I am awfully glad
y you came round."
a- Lawrencflt ed In a little bungalow by himself on
e. one of the main roads to the north of the city; his
ce wants were attended to by an elderly native woman,
e who, with a boy that looked after the garden, con-
u stituted the domestic establishment. "If you haven't
n- had dinner yet, you are in time to join me," he said;
ly "Matilda can always dish up something. We'll only
have a few minutes to wait."
or "I came to have dinner with you," replied Mr.
a- Phipps with equal warmth: both men had automati-
Is cally slipped back to the old relationship of mutual
n confidence -and friendliness. "I wanted- to have a
Ie talk with you, and thought I'd invite myself to
ts dinner. Anything will do for me."
e- In the light of Lawrence's sitting room, a bache-
at lor's apartment-sparsely furnished with a few wicker
id lounge chairs, two or three small tables, a couple of
Id book cases filled with books, and a large crex carpet.
at the two men glanced enquiringly at each other, and
n, each pair of eyes saw worry and anxiety in the face
If. into which they looked. Mr. Phipps was not surprised
ie at Lawrence's troubled expression. but LEawrence


.. .. .. I =


1922-23

knew that' it required something of more thkn ordin-
ary moment to disturb so markedly the habitual
jaunty cheerfulness of the man before him.
"You want to talk to me?" he. asked, making no
attempt- to pretend that he did not know of whom
Phipps wished to talk. "About Marian and the
curious thing that happened this afternoon?"
"Bull's eye again, son," said the other, with
something of his old manner although the effort was
visible; "you have a gift for deduction which must be
singularly unnecessary in the shipping business." He
stretched himself in a lounge chair, and Lawrence sat
facing him. "You saw what happened this afternoon,
of course?" he asked.
"Of course," said Lawrence; "it puzzled me as it
puzzled everybody else. The sending back of the
stolen broach at that particular time, when the oc-
currence could not fail to attract great attention, the
break-down of Marian, her brother's evident appre-
hension-what in the name of God does it all mean!
Who could have sent that broach?"
"I," said Mr. Phipps. "Didn't you guess as
much?"
"Your' cried Lawrence; "you? But how could I
guess, man, and how did you get it? Why did you
choose such a moment for its arrival?" He was sit-
ting straight up in his lounge chair, his whole figure
tense with astonishment. "You sent back the broach,'
but the necklaces-Phipps, I don't understand!"
"You won't until I have explained. I have had
the broach, Lawrence, from the night on which it was
lost."
"Lost? Stolen you mean."
'Lost,' I said. It never was stolen."
"But the necklaces: they too were taken. And
don't you see, Phipps, that the man who has been
keeping them-"
"Is a thief? That may be, son: but I said nothing
about the necklaces; I was speaking about the broach,.
which is quite a different matter."
The tinkling of a bell in the adjoining room inti-
mated that dinner was served, but neither man took
any notice of the call. Mr. Phipps resumed.
"You will remember that on the night of that big
ball at the hotel, Marian wore her broach. She used]
it to pin some flowers to her waist. I noticed that the
catch was loose and called her attention to It. She
seemed careless and indifferent: I thought I guessed
the reason of her indifference. She had just come
back from a long talk with you: you call that to
mind?"
Lawrence reddened slightly, but said nothing.
"I rallied her about her carelessness; later on
that night she was sitting next to me on the lawn;
after a while she left with the man to whom she was
engaged for the next dance. While she was sitting
down, or on rising to go off with her partner, she
dropped her broach."
"I see."
"I was. lna low rocking chair, my fingers easily
Touching the ground: my hand came in contact with
the broach before she got far away. I picked it.
up and was going to take it to her, when I thought I
would teach her to be more careful In the future by
letting her discover her los. .:I slipped the thing into
my pocket, aot mentioning it even 'to you. You
wouldn't have been- much Interested anyhow. You
were thinking your own thoughts then, and it didn't
require a mind reader to know that they weren't very
happy ones.
"I intended to produce the broach the next dair
when Marian would have given it up for lost, and after
Lady Rosedale would have suspected everybody of
having stolen it. I wrapped it up neatly when I went
upstairs that night; the following morning I put the
parcel in my pocket after I had dressed; and then
there came the alarm about the robbery."
"And you said nothing?" Lawrence observed.
"Not having any desire to be instantly arrested,
I did not. But that wasn't my main reason for keep-
ing silence. It I had confessed to having the broach
-I should have haji to explain how It had come into.
my possession. But Marian had already distinctly
said In the hearing of many people that her broach
had been stolen along with Lady Rosedale's pearl
necklace; Marian stated quite positively that she had
taken off the broach in her room that night. It wasn't
Sthe truth, and she knew it."
"Phipps! Do you mean-"
"You'll get aK measlte in good time, Lawrence,
aad you will need all your calmness and wits during
the next twenty-four hours, so don't get excited now.
Marian must have realized after she got up to her
room that night that she had lost her broach. But If
she had told that quite truthful story, and yet asserted
that the pearl necklace had been stolen, who could
possibly have believed her? Her tale would have
sounded like a silly attempt to deceive. There was
nothing for her but to say that all the jewellery she
had worn that night had been robbed.
"The moment I heard her say that, I had to make
up my mind. For me to have produced the broach
then and there, after her positive assertion, might
have fad an ugly result for her. If the police chose'
to believe me, she must have been. arrested on sus-
picion. If they preferred to believe her,.apd came to'
the conclusion that I was the thief and was. merely
trying to throw supiciona on her, they would have
arrested me. I gus I cou ld have cleared my charae-
ter all right, but her own story would have been terrt-
bly against her. Thee was only one thing to do.

i






.s3


J hdto get away with that breach quicklyy as
; It wa burning a hole in my waftcoat pocket
tht moment, I can assure you. -I left the investi-
suddenly and went rouna to my lawyers. Jones
lsdlla,. and asked them to lot me deposit the
pwut a4ng' with some other things I -keep in
safety valt.. I put the broach'awky with my
h bands, talked to them, a little while about busi-
and then I went back to the hotel in time to. find
4i.ectives preparing to search my room."
PIn the dinner bell tinkled, but neither man
to hear it. "You saved Marian that morn-
otin tarest," aid Lawrence gratefully; "tell me,
yo believe that she had anything to do with the
Pk& "Yes."
S. "She had not, Phlppe: it was Stephen Braeme
I wras the thief."
4SI.;:- know that, son; but she knew how the things
-en stolen; and don't you see that that connects
with the wretched business? She pretended not
know; she was therefore, technically, an accessory
theact. She might with one word have Indicated
eulprit. She did not. What would a Judge and
.rsay jbout that in a court of law?"
I Lawrence answered nothing, but waited, with
J.i peering out of his narrowed eyes, to hear what
U hils friend might have to say.
S"The moment Marian said that her own broach
i.11 as Lady Rosedale's necklace had been stolen
a her room, I realized that she knew who had
te necklace and was trying to screen him, per-
ng under Instructions from him, for friend
knew that no one would readily accuse
Sf betng'a thief. Her face, too, told its own
Those with eyes to see. She was desperately
ed, though she had nerved herself to go
Sa terrible ordeal. Happily for her, the posi-
ement of Lady Rosedale about the handling
ltewel box made it impossible for anyone to con-
tMarten directly with the diamond necklace. The
Should have been a simpler one without the dia-
neck lace; but no one could imagine Marian
lig into Lady Rosedale's room through a window
mtbt It, and if any did think she may have had
nliee it was not of Stephen that they thought.
Sof me. I was the.red. herring across his trail.
iai.!ortunately, the police here are more circum-
In dealing with people of our position than they
d be in the States or in England. A white man
J a person of importance. Marian was sus-
-you 'also for a little time, and I-that black
.Brown, would have had me arrested first thing
..'d had his way. But his chiefs were more cir-
ct; they have been waiting for evidence; and
E.am beginning to fear that they may get some-
iat any rate, to make serious trouble."
":"Do you mean," asked Lawrence In a voice that
ed slightly, "do you mean that Marian is in
I danger?"
S'I am afraid she may be," Mr. Phlpps answered
.Vy, "and that is why I think It Is best that you
Know exactly bhow matters stand."
C..fam listening,' Said Lawrence. "I want you to
nothing back. from..me."
'I didn't think the police would find out enough
m ake much trouble rq anyone. -fr the scent was
a'way from Stephen, and Marian kept up won-
flly. But that Sunday, at b or picnic at Triton,
itg armsworth began taking photographs, and I
at once that he was acting for someone else.
a idmltted it to me that same day. I got worried
S...verything depended on whether Stephen had
any bad record behind him In New York or the
States; if he had, his picture might be recog-
d then! It was a cute idea that, sending up
Pictures to the New York police; for I know
tiat that Is what they were taken for: indeed,
ad it at the time. Well, the plan has succeed-
"Tsey have discovered something?"
nelteve so: and they have sent a man down
whO will discover something more It I am not
SI have met that man In other countries,
'nei; his'name in Baker, a rather slow but a
di.lly shrewd and persistent tUtDw. Take It
me, he is on Stephen's track-and MaMiaj stands
hat same track!"
S'Marlan? But, Phipps, you know she did not
the Jewels. Good God, man! you know that she
Sot help him to steal them. All that might be
against her is that she knew he was the thief,
who would expect a sister to send her own brother
.e prison ?"
i' barian has told me the whole story: I guessed
..of It -before, but she has filled in the details. I
itlaid that she Is in more danger than you seem
ik. Lawrence, and I want her to get out of it
ahot wait to face It. She must leave this country
n the next twenty-four hours."
'"Alone, or with her brother?"
4.i"vle. I believe that Stephen Is being watched.
t&.A, Baker, if he has a, line on Stephen, will
it go until he pulls him In with it. Stephen
escape; there is no possible way of escape
But. Bat with Marian it is different I am sure
hdotks nothing against her, though he may ad-
't-shae should be arrested along with Stephen.
w :'ill hardly believe that she will try to get
Itl the nert day or so independently: any-


PLANTERS' PUNCH ..


how I hope -he won't. Now if. we-could get her
away ... you will .help, I know,"
"I will do anything for her, Phippa; anything;
though I see no reason why she should attempt to fly
and thus perhaps stain her name. Do you really be-
lieve that she runs a serious risk? I do not believe It.
T'Ie idea is monstrous."
:You have ships running to Costa Rica, haven't
you?" asked Mr. Phlpps. ignoring Lawrence's in-
dignant protests.
"One goes to-morrow night, at about two o'clock."
"I gathered that from your advertisement In this
morning's paper. You know, of course, that Costa
Rica is a country which. has no extradition treaty
with.either England or America. Once Marian is in
Costa Rica, she could not be brought hack here.
"I know the Costa Rican Consul quite well. He'll
make- out a proper passport for Marian to-morrow;.
so there won't be any difficulty about her landing on
the other side. The difficulty will be to get her aboard
your ship without anyone seeing her who oughtn't
to but I, think that can be -managed. You'll call
to take her out for a ride; you will take her to the
ship; It wUl all be done so openly that.no one will
suspect anything. Even if they do they can't stop her
unless they have orders to do so; they can only ask


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49

her to show her passport. and she will have one
all properly made out."
"And when she is in Costa Rica, what?"
"Time will have to answer that question. Shell
have enough money to live on there for some time,
anyhow."
"I am not thinking of that, Phipps. She'll be
there alone: that's what I am thinking But no;
she will not be." The last words suggested some
thought that was passing through Lawrence's mind.
Mr. Phlpps fied a penetrating glance on his'face
and read there a dogged determination upon which
mere argument could have no effect. He saw that
Lawrence did not approve of Marian's endeavouring
to escape from Jamaica; and he had felt all along.
that if Marian went to Costa Rica, where she would
be but two days' journey from Jamaica, Lawrence
would go with or follow her-unless. "Unless," he re--
peated to himself, and he weighed a question in his
mind. Lawrence broke in upon his reflections. "You
haven't made some things clear," he said. "You
haven't explained why you sent back the broach in so
extraordinary a fashion, or how Stephen managed to
steal the necklaces out of Marian's and Lady Rose-
dale's rooms."
"Marian long had a shrewd suspicion that I knew




.'V,_ W.. W W ...... -


" 50


a great deal about the theft," Mr. Phlpps replied,
"but it was only a suspicion based upon little hints
I had thought it wise to let drop. I used to may
things that made her thoughtful, sort of pulled her
up, you know; and they pulled her."
"You distressed her, Phlpps; and God knows she
had enough to distress her without your adding to it,"
.aid Lawrence with some bitterness. "You once said
,to her something about the Devil's Mountain, and
she wondered what you meant. From that to this
she has been a changed woman: why did you do it?"
"Sh guessed I was acting for the best, even
If that did not altogether prevent her continuing to
trip up the Devil's Mountain," retorted Mr. Phipps
grimly. "My hints warned her, but hints would have
been of no avail with friend Stephen. I should have
had to tell him plainly that I knew he was a thief,
and that was.not what. I.,wanted, to do In cold,blood.
I would have done It, though, If I hadn't had that
broach, for it was necessary that he should clear out
of this country. He had nothing to tear by going
*openly; they would have found nothing on him; he's
too smart for that It was Nora Hamilton that was
keeping him here, or he'd have said good-bye already.
I didn't think it was good for Nora that he should
remain, ant it wasn't good for you that Marian should
remain."
"Of that, Phippe-"
"You are not the best Judge, son," said Mr. Phipps
decisively; then, noting the angry light that leapt into
Lawrence's eyes, he held up a deprecatory hand, and
hurried on. "Marian agreed with me, though we
never talked the matter .wer n so many words. She
knew that I knew quite enough about her and Stephen
to come to a sound conclusion. But I had to frighten
Stephen Into making up his mind to leave. A broach
was to be presented to her this afttl7f n. ~I got her
-old one, posted it to her, knowing when It would
arrive, and I trusted to luck to its being opened at
just the right time to give Seflor Stephen a turn. It
*did. It hit him like a blow. He must always have
been puszled by the alarm raised over the diamond
necklace which he never took; and with the re-
appearance of the lost breach he must have had a
hockk"
"Then who stole the diamond necklace?" demand-
ed Lawrence astonished.
Mr. Phipps, despite his gravity, smiled mocking-
ly.
"No one stole it," he said; "there was none to
steal."
"None to steal?" repeated Lawrence incredulous-
ly.
"Not a single diamond. Has it never struck you,
son, that no one In the hotel had ever seen this neck-
lace, but had.only heard about it from Lady Rosedale?
'Tot even to Marian had she shown it. She-announces-
its loss with a little scream one morning, but she was
not really perturbed until she learnt that her pearl
mneklace was gone. Then indeed she showed con-
sternation and distress. She has talked a lot about
hIr pearls since then, but not very much about her
diamonds: it was I who did that. And she could be
wry positive that Marian bad not stolen her dia-
monds because she knew that there was none to steal.
Besides, I don't think she would ever have believed
Marian capable of such dishonesty."
"But her motive for saying they had been stolen?
What on earth caused her to raise that hue and cry?"
"A silly hunger for notoriety. The woman simply

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PLANTE It'S' P'U NC H1:


loves to be noticed and made a fuss about; he'd do
anything to get her name in the papers, to e the
centre of attention, to be always talked of. For year
she must have lived mainly for this sort of thing, apd
now she cannot do without It; behind all her selt
possession is an enormous vanity. The sa@e cravtl|p
for notoriety makes men anarchists sometimes; they
want to be conspicuous in the world's eyes. She bd
the diamonds once, but about tour years ago, when
the price of everything was high in Amasrle, kse ltdM
them at a handsome price. There were stom part.
graphs about the sale of her beautiful stntop in the
society pages of some of the New York pa lrs apnd
her photograph appeared. She didn't imagiie anyone
down here could have heard of that: shk wanted a
fuss made about her, and so she put up that stupid
story about her trunk being opened and )hr u!Klpce
.taken. ,All she had to do was to opea the truk, p y
she had been rdbbed, and pretend to be dlstresped'and
indignant and outraged. That would secure pqy her
all the notice and publicity she could possibly desire.
"And now we come to the really curious part of
this whole affair, the sort of thing which may not
happen once in a thousand times, but which does
occur on occasion and upsets all one's previous alcaula-
tions. It was probably because she had lent her
pearls to Marian, and believed that they were perfectly
safe in her room, that the idea occurred to lady Itoe-
dale to give out on the morning after the dapoe that
she had been robbed. It was then or pever; there
might be no other such opportunity; for of courep she
could never venture at any time to say that her
diamonds had been stolen and a fne pearl necklace
left. That sort of tale might go down w rqo only a
few small trinkets, were concerned, hut it would not
otherwise be credible. The idea must buhsav e to
her in a flash; it could hardly have been premedt*ted;
she is always, consciously and unconsctougly, e.k-
ing opportunities of being in the limelight, and that
sort of folly will give rise to all sorts of extraordinary
resolutions and projects. The one thing that d44 not
enter her mind was the possibility of a' rep theft
having taken place; it would scarcely have oequrred
to anyone to suppose that on that Thursday night, s
ing the pearls within his reach, a professional) g1ue
would plan to steal them. But with Stephen tpq t
was a case of them or never; that Marian should be
wearing Lady Rosedale's pearls must have seased to
him the most wonderful piece of luck. And if Lady
Rosedale was thunderstruck to find that an authlotic
robbery had taken place, Stephen was no less aston-
ished to learn that her diamonds had been stoleop t
the same time.
"I fancy that Lady Rosedale would not have said
much about her reputed loss, after the publicity she
craved had.been securad,,had she not-acimally loqt her
pearls. She could not haverwanted to injure any aqs
by throwing unjust suspicion on him; she did nu4
pause to consider whether any one might he injure;
she probably believed that an investigation by A*.
police would end in nothing. But with the disappppr
ance of the pearl necklace the matter became serious;
she desired very much to recover her pearls. Recealp
ly, however, she had not said much about them. '
figure that she has been wondering whether anybody
would find out that she had been pulling the leg of
this whole community over those diamonds. She
knows I keep track or good jewel stories, for I told
her so, and she has seen my scrap books.at Triton.
She isn't any too comfortable.n mind, for she doesn't
know what I might say or do. I am sure she'd prefer
now to hear no more about the pearls than hear too
Much about the diamonds.
"Now Stephen, don't you see, has felt that some-
one else besides himself has been at work on Lady
Rosedale's property, and that, up to a certain point,
Swas in his favour. There would be somebody else to
suspect. But wlih the broeah returned,-he would
be likely to think that the man who had had it all
the time knew something about the diamonds also,
and might know who took the pearls. He couldn't be
certain that he was not suspected: to a guilty mind
Everything Is suspicious, even normal happenings as-
same a signicance which is really created by fear.
Still, I ought to have given Stephen a direct warning
before, and not have waited to make a fool demonstra-
tiea Inke the one today. I have done the same thing
lefItr an. regretted it, yet I don't seem to learn any_
I- lWnftr rthat--disposition, I suppose. I am a Mt
too fond of creating dramatic situations. that's why I
delayed until Mr. Detective Baker turns up and queers
the whole bally pitch. You can't know how badly I
feel about it."
"You would have allowed Braeme to take the
pearls with him, Phippe?"
"Take them? Do you believe he is fool enough to
have thlr with him? If he hasn't got rid of them
long ago, I am a Chinaman! Stephen has some brain,
son; and this is not the first time that be has got
away with the goods."
"Well, then," insisted Lawrence, "they will be
able to prove nothing against him if he is arrested,
and Marian will have nothing to fear. There will be
the scandal of her brother's arrest, I know-"
"And of her own: would you like her to be ar-
rested?"
"At!"
"Besides, there may be some defaite charge that
the Government of the State of New York an lay
agaiiit Stephen. That would Insure Iarrest evean


_ ~___*_~___C__


1922-as

here. Rmembear, .h probably has something against
him. In fac, I know he haa."
"But Marian has none."
"No, she hasn't; bat-"
"It she runs away, Phipps, her character will be
smirched. People will believe the worst about her. I
have agreed to your plan, and am prepared to carry
It out if there Is nothing else to do, but 1 do not like
it. Perhaps she will accept no advice just now from
me, but s4t knows you are her friend. Tell her that
it is best that she should confess the whole truth
about her brother It her sllene cannot save him."
"She would not do that, Lawrence, and you would
think the less of her it she did. You will agree with
me later op."
Lawrence shook his head obstinately; he could
see no reaon why Marian should make any sacrifice
for StepAeu.
"And besides, continued- Mr. Phipa. seeing the
look, "when all the truth was known, her evidence
would not even be admitted."
"Wi ?"
Mr. Phipp rose abruptly out of his chair, and
Lawre4a, attraotea by his movement, rose with him.
"You have grit," said Phipps kindly, placing his hand
on Lawrence's phoulder, "and you have got to hear
the truth sooner or later, though I did not want to
tell it to you to-night. You ar dealing with a bitter-




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"VTla and Jealous ma LE Bipnhen QuOada, AW-,J
ngows that you lovs Mariad. He will b sfrede h ,
Sgad. it he believes be cannot hope to escamle, ie.
fragt Marian to destrtotion with him if she is within
'Ieac of, his anger and his bitter Jealousy. It is not
* iry froam'ut .o the reah of -the- law: ofli of.tthis
.a mmtry that I want her to go; it is bsybnd tht of
I *t"hen. He will strike at her, I tell you, and Itrike
:t .you, and might even find some attfatetton in his
(i::a downfall In knowing that he had injured you
toth. She told him-I had it from hat own lfps this
* alna--she told him before you a f W nfllts ago
that he was a thief, and he hates her for hiding aid
It, and you for having heard it. He hates hdr because
J.a loves you, and you because you love her and des-
pise him. He is Spanish, remember, and revenge Is
:art of the Spaniard's nature and tradition: he will
'aditro if he can because of wounded Vanity or of a
mral or imagined injury. Even now I fear that he may
,strke at Mrilan before we can get her out of his
i.sy. Until she has gone I shall not cease to fear
him."
S"But why aH this mad Jealousy about his sister,"
etied Lawrence with anger and scorn. "Is the man
l$mne aas well as a villair'
"You have to know, Lawrence, and it will not
Wake you less ready to help the poor little girl if you
eo. he is no sister of his-"
"Good God!"
"She is his wife."

S CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.
BTEPHEN:
PrI DBAN DE QUESADA, scion of one of the best
S'Peruvian families, a descendant of one of those
feckless Bpanish adventurers who had con-
...aered and dominated the land of the Incas,
nb twelve years of age when his father sent him
( i eUnited States or America. He was an only
a.sd estate owing to their nneonquerable propen-
t for political plotting and their peoullar genius for
ouritng ps a rule the losing faction In those bitter
:Oifrtgmruggles which so largely.make up the, sum of
,i -American politics. His people were. conserva-
t. passionate and proud; In former days. they had
t.in the seats of the mighty. But Jlstaban's father
Id concluded, when the boy was. atil yonag, that
S 1rN would be no future for him in hls.own country
zt e s to remain in it. At that,tims the llfe.gf the
t 1eb himself was held on. a precarious tenure, and
ere was no saying but that Eateban too ,mi&t be,
jclunded in any vengeance planned, and prosecuted
lourt the elder Quesada.
80 Juan de Quesada had collected Wrat little
llIIrmatined to him and had arranged with friends
SAmerica that Esteban should be put to school there,
,thinellcine as his future professlon In view. The
went to New Orleans: his father continued on his
of political plotting, which was a- the breath
Ire to him, and which was also now a necessity of
ilal existence. In this career he persisted far
years more, then at,last passed within the walls
iali:uat adobe calabose, whence, a month or so after-
it was given out that he had been shot while
tempting to escape. Esteban was:"now eighteen
Jrs o0 age. He found himself thrown entirely upon
own resources. He had to face life in a foreign
utry with but his own wits to aid him, for he knew
'i return to Peru, where his father's enemies were
11 In power, could but mean his own destruction.
Fortunately, he possessed a good command of
lh, which he spoke as well as any American. He
tall, too, and strong, with the dark handsomeness
Wh.ancestors and a look of distinction which he
inherited from a family that had always counted
apiething in Peru. With his knowledge of Eng-
a'pd Spanish, he found no difficulty in securing a
hp in a store in New Orleans, but the life and
were not congenial to him. After a couple of
i.tn this city, in which he changed positions more
a '.ace, Esteban drifted to New York, where he
Sto secure a footing in one of the large moving
IireWtudtos.
He learnt his work, and learnt it well: it was
ethint that appealed to his excitable, romantic
re. But he did not excel in it. He was theatrl-
but not a great actor; he loved the dramatic but
not shin" conspicuously In impersonation. Was
ibut another illustration of his family's inability
jitg the last three or four generations to achieve
striking or ultimate success? Whatever it was,
iS certain that ksteban was but an ordinary actor
an ordinary salary; meanwhile he had developed
gaXnt tastes and a gambler's disregard of con-
esaces. He was restless, too, going from one com-
yI: another. Then, in a Western city, an op-
~ rity cIme to him of possessing himself of a
-Wgmm of money through theft. It was an actress
9a jewels he succeeded In purloining, probably
k some help, and the crim% was never traced to
soon came to know others who followed a
bla'bcareer, crooks of a superior Intelligence like
aind though the risks were sometimes great the
da were accounted greater. Nor was constant
Sre quired to bring about rich gains. In one
'. a' e single venture, Esteban and some of his
na made a haul of Jewels in Canada worth
h thousand pounds.
about tW0a7tr=sw..7M0su a oh m ha..


PLANTERS' -PU.NCH 51


7


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HEADQUARTERS JEFFREY'S MALTS

4 & 13 King & Port Royal Streets, Kingston, Jamaica.


embarked on the rogue's profession, and, though the
police of different cities had long had theit doubt
about him, only once had direct suspicion fastened on
him. That wag in Boston, ana for the firt time in
his .Ife -asra erook he had. been gravely 'frightened.
Although nothing h-d. been found, or traced to. him,
he was nevertheless seized with a desire to leave
America for a time: while in that country he could
not easily conquer a certain nervousness which his
narrow escape had engendered. He suddenly became
possessed with a wish to visit the land of his birth,
to pass some time once more among the scenes of his
early days. He had quite enough money to last him
for a whili: work was by no means an immediate
necessity. He obeyed the impulse; he decided to re-
turn to Peru. It was sate for him to do so now;
his father was almost forgotten; the party in power
might be more friendly than otherwise; besides, he
had entirely escaped the infection of violent political
sympathies and partisan hates, which were the com-
monplaces of his own country. He went back to
Peru pt thirty years of age as a stranger almost. He
knew no one as intimate friend. But his name. and
the. circumstance that he was of one of-the first
families, made his social path comparatively easy for
him. Then too he suggested that he was a man of
means, and his command of ready money and his
manner of assurance seemed to vouch for him. He
cut some figure in Lima. He had not been there


many months before, at she house of an English Iay
resident, he was Introduced to Marin Braeme.
Like. Esteban, Marian had been educate In, the
United 8tateas there for Ave years she had remained,
Smeturunng to her own couVtry at the age.of twenty.
She was twuetyrone when hew English 'lher died, a.
good. kindly,Ineffectual man who had but.little to
leave to his daughter save an enduring and beloved
memory. Marian wanted to return to America then,
but she shrank from plunging alone into the whirl-
pool of a great American city to fght unaided for her
bread. Her father had known some of the English.
anu American residents in Peru; one of these at Lima.
an Engllsh lady whose husband was connected with
the railway system of that country, offered to Maran.
on her father's death the position of governess to her
two little boys. Marian accepted the position. She
had been living as one of the family for something
over a year when Esteban came upon the seen.
* He was brought to the house by the head of It, de-
lighted to meet a companionable man fresh from the
United States and full of enthusiasm for modern lif
and institutions. This gentleman knew what the-
name of Quesada had meant in'the hfatory of Peru.
And with a frank sociability, very different from
Spanish-American formality and exclusiveness, he had
not thought twice about making Esteban one of his
circle of friends.
For himself, Esteban took what came to him for






PLANTERS' PUNCH


greeted and as part of his lue. Had anyone alluded
to him as-a thtkf, he would have smitten down that
man: the notion that he was but a thlef never once
*ooea0wsdrto khi. Ever pince he was a lad he h d en-
tetainued the belief that the world had treated him
and. his in a dastardly fashion. It had impoverished
his people (of whom he was genuinely'proud), had
murdered his father, had left him penniless ani
forced him to take to tasks beneath his dignity;
therefore it owed him not merely a living but repara-
tion. He had been a victim of circumstances; why
should he not revenge himself upon others who had
been favoured by circumstances? What they had
they owed to-no merit or virtue of their own; what he
took from them would but go to redressing the balance
of undeserved lil-fortane. Thus he reasoned in his
vanity and overwhelming egoism, being in this quite
true to the character of the men from whom he was
descended.
Petty stealing Esteban would have regarded with-
loathing and contempt; he had never stolen anything
insignificant. He was no picker up of unconsidered
trifles. He was, he doubtless considered himself, a
sort of gentleman adventurer risking liberty and life
in the pursuit of excitement and gain; so had done
that ancestor of his who had helped Pizarro to conquer
the Incas against overwhelming odds, so had done
many of his subsequent ancestors who had made re-
volutions or fought revolutionists for place and power
and wealth in Peru. To the victor belonged the
spoils, and his war was with the rich. To most of
those whom he victimised he considered himself su-
perior: by bti-th a gentleman of purest Spanish blood
whose family name must live in the history of Latin-
America. So it was with no sort of qualms of con-
science or sense of social anfitness-that he entered the
circle of Marian's employer and friend, and it was
with perhaps the firm belief that he was madly in love
with her that he, withbharacteristic Impetuousness
and ardour, offered her his hand and heart.
He was not exactly the sort of man that, under
happier circumstances, Marian would have listened
to with any degree of seriousness. His brilliant
theatricality, while it appealed to her imagination, lit
no fire in her heart. He was handsome, and that ap-
pealed to her sense of physical fitness, yet he lacked
that firm strength of character and calm steadfastness
of purpose in which her gentler, clinging disposition
would have found its complement. That it was this,
among other things, that he lacked, she herself did
n .t of course realise; she could not have formulated
in words her bidden cravings and desires, was not
aware of their specific existence. Nevertheless she
felt that Stephen, though she admired him, though she
liked him, was-how should she express it?-not the


man she had imagined she could ever marry. Yet
there was something in common between them. He
was ulfferent from the younger men of her own conn.
try, the country of her mother. He was fond perhaps
of display, but not a fop; his outlook on life was that
of a citizen of a great country: his years in America
had not been without marked effect upon his mind.
All that was English in her blood and American in
her training appreciated the differences in him from
what was purely Peruvian, differences with which his
upbringing and sojourn In the United States had en-
dowed him. To her, when he spoke English (as he
invariably did in her society or in the society of
American and English people), and discussed matters
with which she had been more or less familiar in the
States, be was, not a Peruvian, but an American. And
the American, to Marian's understanding, was first
cousin to the 'English, and her father, and-all her
father's people, had been English. Then she wanted
to leave Peru; the nostalgia of the North was In her
blood and in her brain. The thought of life as a
Peruvian lady, with all the conventions and stifling
social restrictions of that life. amazed and sickened
her: she'could not calmly contemplate it. Her friend,
too, in whose house she lived, saw Esteban's infatua-
tion and smiled a benediction on it. It was Marian's
golden chance, she said, a marriage with a man
like Esteban de Quesada, whose future lay in America.
So in three months all Marian's hesitations had been
swept away. They were married, and almost imme-
diately after they left for the United States.
For some little while life went smoothly for them;
it ran on pneumatic tyres and was clad in silks.
But unly for a little while. In the intimacy of
married life traits of character unsuspected at first
peep out, and then stand fully revealed. Marian was
conscious that Esteban had not told hqr the truth,
or, at any rate, had caused her to believe what was not
true. He spent money freely, but admitted that he
had no reserves and began to talk about the need of
finding something to do; he hinted that she too would
have to work with him. It was not the prospect of
having to work that troubled Marian, it was that
Esteban had posed as a man of means in Peru; also,
she did not quite like the sort of life that he suggested.
He was going back to the moving pictures and wished
her to go with him: they would act, he said, under aq
assumed name, her maiden name, and she would
pass as his sister. For the mere purposes of acting
in a company, she had no objection to her maiden
name being used by them both, but she saw no reason
why they should not be known to their acquaintances
generally as man and wife, and she said so. She
argued the point, and then she perceived that she had
to do with an imperious man, one bent upon having


his way without reference to any other person's feei
ings. She yielded; moon she began to boleve that
Eeteban's insistence that she should be known as hti
sister and not as his wife, was motived by his desire
to appear to be a bachelor still, especially among the
women of the company for which he worked.
They occupied separate apartments now; some-
times, when moving about, they did not even live Ia
the same building; and again and again she saw
Stephen devoting himself to some attractive young
woman without much regard to any objection she
might have. Withal, he was Jealous of any attention
which men, believing she was a single girl, might pay
to her. His jealousy, originating In a desire for ex-
clusive possession, in pure personal vanity, in the feel-
ing that his wife was his property, and that, whatever
he might do, her course of conduct was to regard all
men t- s rangers .and be as Ice to them,.expressed
Itself in bitter rebuke at times, and this unjust. She
resented it; the belief in the necessary subjection of
women, which she may have inherited from her
Peruvian mother, was sapped and mined by the
memory of what her English father had thought of
women, and of how he had treated and regarded her;
it was sapped and mined too by those years that she
had passed in the city of New York, in a country
where the personal freedom of women is part of the
social religion. Moreover, she knew that there wan
no reason for his arrogant jealousy, that it did not
arise from love of her, that he had no right to com-
plain of her innocent actions when he himself flirted
outrageously with other women, and did not, she had
a shrewd suspicion, stop at mere flirtation only. By
the end of a year they were estranged in feeling, com-
pletely. They remained as brother and sister, both
working for a moving picture company in which she
played minor parts, her face and figure eiunring her
employment. Marian now began to wonder how long
this would last; she would have thought of divorce,
but her mother had brought her up a Catholic, and she
still clung to that faith. Yet she wondered how long
this existence of hers could possibly last.
Esteban not only adopted her name, but present-
ly he legally changed his for Braeme, and so became
Stephen Braeme. Years before he had taken out his
first papers as an American citizen, knowing that bh
would never return to Peru to live. He now took out
his final papers; henceforth he was Stephen BraeoiL,
and under that name he engaged himself for a term
of three months to a picture company which
planned some photo-dramas with a tropical setting
and interest. His pay was fairly good, and he-stipa-
lated that Marian should also be engaged. There was
no difficulty about this. And thus they came to Ja-
maica.


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dfterwn said I t pic:a4tuh e oestnn n aeydg
ofa thise Maria toldly methr perqfes Qmokd; e igaore ofe the itsheft
ivpp,~~~~~ "DmhrI us ed orpraps not.e anld the. thisaef. Steph en ddnterivle- inds,the hoel o1
themYou ay onde, Lwhrene how Ican been "on; tprhentoo., lie haid taesomeo hear *Wlk
i hat a anealy ge Stphnam Brae be- tht nkingsof the wastratefu forl that-and the bryoactho
a crok- ellI hae reords oromebbig had gonene; sih he screweoer courg pt the ulprit.
twenty~~~ yeasan those tht ehver men-oo perctl. e erves gd;that she knew thapetIf she
as beink -his took plac when hewsi he faiedthe disgrae, atn osewa would be terbedndst one
and ~ ~ ~ ~ M eeth egbubowrea tey, icin Oenethiof appragehesn, she, waited tohear It ay oe
:In ~ ~ ~ ~ r cuea rotehs namrel Is hro aetought Inlngo he tuhwas Ien thie mind of an nofthos angF* A C
tbl reors. e kew th peole obbed; hel concrned wihe the adisoey Rof the, clprt.te -K N S O
.U90"Iewed; ~ ~ s hed was qustond but there neve She soonprceive that Le her wasn spetoted lsheLI IT D
anytking ~ ~ ~ ~ An agis i aeol ocwe ebcm assve, watng to see rwha woul bes done. h A A C
as e ws 'e oul no awasenationmrel thro daetoudigh shel hlad t bee n a tril caeess notvhings

""Pipp heha remain slet,. listening. His credit," commented Mr. Phipps. "She cares for
wasdranhiseys fxe onhi companion in a Marian In her own way, Lawrence, and I don't know,
..tmr. M. Pipp reume lhi narrative. that any of' us can do any more than that."
"'Hr metig ithLawenc canged Inwardly, It By the next morning Marian had begun to feel
an he urfceth corseof aran's life. Re ap- that no one 'was even remotely connecting Stephen
to erandthi apeal copled with,her in- with the Jewels. But her own feeling towards him, N A1M SE D 183
alieatin fom tepenswept her off her angry and resentful and bitter before; was now one
Shefel hesel tobe rifin perilously; she of absolute loathing mud dread. He was a thief; he
ledaganstth curen tht as taking her out had not hesitated to plae her ina sprecarious and
rouxdephs;butshewasnot helped by the dangerous position, counting uone her fears and her
remustancs o he huban, whose own con- dread of scandal and digacem to: kee her silent, and
was o pten aninsut ad afrot to hper. On perhaps even Intendiang if he were accused by her, to
'Tkht f te bg hteldan wen she had left throw the crime upnger and; leave her to; sink or
roomfora wak wth Lwrece, Stephen had swim as best she could. U
,.hrcaledhe bck ora while, and angrily She feltSthat she was bond to sucha man by a
ed~hr t hae nthig t dowith Lawrence. legal but o other tie: she hated him. AndAa aeation
,ba zeusd t oey iman ha kptherenage sprang upIn her mind: was he merely flringa with
wit Lamnc. Se sw nthinhtg more of Nora, the girl'wlio was so niea and so kind to her, or
on ha nihtunil sh wa I hr room. would he not attempt, to injure Nora If he coudy
The oomwas mpt, toallappeartne, w thens Nora's friendship; for her, Nora's genuine delight in E -CAT 1
it. Sh bad nt been in si e for moeta n giving her ple asue, Norsa's frank comradeship and
.x~utewhn te dorof er lohes cloeat opened charm of manner had touched her heart, and Its tung
he soodbefoe hr; hr frst- Impulse# to -her to anger tosee Stephen playing the lover to the
-,ot.die aay n he ecgniedwho It was. She girl with such assiduous attention. She had no faith
thathe usthavecom upsome time befoer in him, no trust;she saw ls~l him l baks besides, what
hadbee watin fo he. Tat he should con- right had a tmaliketha.tit to dare mauke love to a
himelfwasnotver stang, ice somle other girl like Nora Hamilton? As for herself, shekniewr It Seventy-Nine Y e r
U miht-ave omeintotheroo with her, and was little less than madn~ess for thertoA love Lawence, -
JU B msqurad asherbroher would no wish who could be nothing to haer nothing but. a friend, Bln ig R m n a
.1 me, and tat A for a short time only.: But a resolution m ia
She houht e hd cme o qargrel with her formed Itself In her add; she would not .allow
t'!wtacebu hesai vry 1tteinfi that score. Stephein to dictate tohe -in the future her course
tookoffherJewes ad P acedhe under some of action, to say what she i aboud do and not do.
Ing n te tp drwerof er dressing table; She did no harm, she assured herself, mount and in-
terthefist im sh mssehr' broach, and tended none; and h should not.lbe her menator, should Our Rum s are as near
tha sh ha lst t, s M. hipps had 'warned not assume over her the authority of a tyrant. Thus
0,0 ight -Sh, metioed the lose to sthe justified to .herself, as much as she could, though Pe fcin a x ri
nAoseme nnye a I.She then lockht With secret fears akid ddulks and thmistivings, her
draerandsa don n arokig chair to wait Increasing craving to be with Lawrence often, and she 09, ca Accom plish,
be soul sa wht h miht ave to may, and go. decided to go to Mr Phipps's picnic without caring
He tlke comonpace, tuchd an how he was whether Stephen approved of It or not, or went him-
Ingshot f mney ws mod and evidently Ill self. He 'would net now dare advertise that he was "O DMEDAL." cases for Export.
The coveredin hiser so as to prevent her husband, And no one else would kow, bandIn a
r bingoveherd;sher wwery of this at last, little while sh would leave this country. and, ocean "BU CAN ER" bulk ,
toW im hathe wnte wih her, and did he out of Its, woul separate from hma forever. So
intndtol~e~te oo? protested that It she believed until, on their drive to Triton, an ap- STAR Rms AND Fines
ony ohe ar f eweeseen leaving her parently chance remark from Mr. Phipps had opened POEERI 8
-.& tht hurandbiterl bame tte for being hd eyes> to ithe possibility of others knowing heir S~ LRSRE Jmia
"Evn I I eresee," e eplied coldly, "all secret beidesila Stephen and herself. Mr. Phipps had
be roprtyexpaind b m merely #roving spoken about a Devil's Mountain in everyone's life,
youaemyife Theonl peson, who. might be and the need of precautions whenf oea had once begun o al ndfrE p r
Is ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ s yorfinM.Lwec eaman." She to cross it: "when we beinh to see where we -are go-
not ishto tlk boutLawenc after what had ing to," The had added, with a curious inflectiona of w n e sa dt eR -
beteenthe ealie tat night., so she voice, and Marian had seen more in the words than
prednoting.Bot remineasient after this; Lawrence. ur m n s
ovecoe b waries, se ozed. She awoke Later on that same day, on the return journey
a s~rL, Te oomwasIn arness, and Stephen from Triton, Mr. Phipps's evident deoire-to keep her
jultlyleain byoneof windows which away from Lawrence 'satisfied her that he had guessed
I dpetl~uonherof f keverandah below. her secet. t H 'er hypersensitiveness, induced by her re W e sell Rum by Punch-.
At ha mmet hewal oosuprised to guess at 6seat experiences and athe tension of bpr -nerves, caitsed
i adhapeed;Inee hr immediate feeling what might have seemed to. others to be mere trifle eon or any siz Cask, Cin
relef t is oig, hogh ismethod of doing to become symbols and warnings of grave significance
stage ndaperd vn dangerous. He to her. 8 8 F7 88
d he strt p, hisere toher to be silent, She wasl right in this reading of Mir. Phipps's
tly ulle-the-widow own ehid him and dis* words, this Interpretation of his tones and looks.
red.She teped hstiy toard it and petered Mr. Phitpps had for some time been genuinely
ughtheglas, ut he aw othting, hieard no pu;led das towhy Sitephen should show such aversion
d, ndfo aothr uate o an ou she awaited to and jealousy of awr ene. Although he knew, saa If ou need Rum the'
rq~~~~~~~ tunn naan h lcrclght which he he had told Lawrence, that In. Latin-Amuerica a girl
extinguisne wieseasslp. Sh noticed, enjoed far less freo than she-dd in England or abov is our Recom!
ifig~~~ ~ unuual sh nrse n etto bed.. In America, yet it had occurred to him that Stephen
morin, ftr troin o hr dressing own, wont beyond all ordinary limits: as a brother his menO dation to you.
went o herdrawewith th nitento of taing at titudes was hardl reasonnable. Mr. Phipps, always
LadyRoseales neklac to retr It. Then she watching cqloely. 1)(gai to weave a curious conjec-
ture. Thre camae that asceneaIn the glade at Tritofi
She ndestod ina fash her horible position. and he caught a glimpse of Marian's face. It was
(*.~d~g0seh~ ofenerig er room and steal- not that of a~sister. Marian's remarks to himt about
Me ewes~ bu i Wold'L e dvuged that 1 h2 was Stephen sind Nora riisheo back into his, mind;, a man
husan .. sh srak ro that revelation. of rapid perceptions and almost instinctive reasoning,
jowcoud, he.themans wfe, accuse him of Mr- Phipps then definitely and finally accepted the C 0
?, t igt e elevd ha se was a party to conclusion that had been forming in his mind. D allle11 111n O.
hadonl cofesedbecusehe nerve had given No longer now had he any doubts. What re-
andshewasafrid f dscoer and punishment. Pomblance was there between Marian and Stephen
In n goy o farandheittion she was still that indicated, a blood relationship? None. ThereLE1T D
lv~g I he mnd hatsheshuld do, when she was no gesture that either of them had In com-
Lad Roedae eclam fom he adjoining room' Ion, no tone of voice, no trait of character. And the
t~eha benrobed A oceMarian leaped to jewels which had been stolen' out of Marian's room --
,.cnclsin tat onleain he rom, Stephen had must have been stolen by someone who knew that he
0. hatof adyRosdal ad' had' stolen, the could enter thmt room .. 114 made up his mind im-
neckace andIn hisals she saw herself mediately. A brother, oven If a rogue, might not mat-
)4tuiy mllaw:He ipiso wsau~a--er retl; bta ubad Ta wsa. ~ace .. ..





PLANTERS' PUNCH


19ZI45.


which Lawrence With all his qulet determination
aiud not overcome. It would be better for both
4aulna and LAwrence that they should meet as little
S IppW.. bheast tor them both. that they should be
dliierted-by'hundreds of miles of ocean. Mr.-Phipps
was genuinely distressed; he was a romanticist at
heart; he loved to play the beneficent god out of the
machine, but now he must act the part of an unwel-
come intruder into other people's affair. He tried to
interfere without showing his hand too openly, but
Lawrence perceived and resented this new attitude of
his And Marian, though feeling that Mr. Phippe was
fLght, had not sumfcient strength, or rather, experi-
enced no real desire, to hold herself aloof from Law-
rence. Even while saying that she should and would
do so, she was drifting nearer and nearer to him: or,
as Mr. Phipps had grimly put it, she continued to
Devil's Mountain in spite of the threatening danger.
But a slip of her tongue, on the night of the
Hamilton's party, brought matters to a climax.
stephen insisted on taking her back to the hotel, and
dt parting from her that night he had spoken a few
Sinisterly significant words. He told her that unless
she broke with Lawrence he would make it known
that she was his wife; he informed her curtly that he
had nothing to fear from anything she might dare to
say about the Jewels, since not one pearl would be
found in his possession, but that, if she uttered one
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word to direct suspicion against him, he wauld know
the cause and reason of it and would not hesitate to
shoot Lawrence like a dog. She knew the tempera-
ment that dictated this threat; she believed him
capable of carrying it out, if brought to. bay. 'And
now you know," concluded Mr. Phlpps, "why she has
not spoken to you since that night. She was thinking
of you far more than of herself, my boy, and now we
hav both got to think of her."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.
LADY ROSEDALE INTERVENES.
S M leaving on Cecllia for Costa Rica to-night.
Jefferson left in charge. Writing."
Lawrence himself coded this message to his
head office in London, signed It, and put it
In his pocket to be despatched later on. It was not
the first time that he had suddenly left Kingston for
some South or Central American country; sometimes
he had done this on Instructions from his London
chiefs, sometimes on his own initiative and Judgment,
in the interest of the.business with whose local man-
agement he' was entrusted. There would be no ques-
tioning his decision to go; the real reason of his pre-
sent determination, if and when it came to the know-
ledge of head office, might create some surprise, per-
haps astonishment, but he had calmly discounted all
that. There was plenty of leave due to him, the man
next to him was quite competent to carry on in his
absence for a few weeks; they would know in London
that only something of vital urgency, imperative In
Its call, could have induced him to make up his mind
to leave so precipitately and without first asking per-
missioners a matter of form; but whatever they might
think or do his course to him appeared straight and
clear: therawas no other.
He could not allow Marian, in her present terrible
predicament, to go, a girl without friends and ap-
parently without a future, to a strange country where
she might be the prey of awful anxiety, of loneliness,
of depression, and even of despair. He had on one
or two unaorgotten occasions seen something of her
distress without, realizing its reason, he knew how
deeply, sa evoud feel, how: pathetic was her'helpless-
ness. The. discovery that she was Stephen's wife had
come upon him with the force of a blow, half stunning
him. He had listened the night before in unbroken
silence to his friend's narration of Stephen's life, of
Marian's brief unhappy experience as a married wo-
man; and when Mr. Phippja a0 that both of them
must help her now he had come to a resolution which
he had not thought it necessary to meation, feeling
that his friend would offer opposition, and not being
of a mind to argue or discuss the point. Phlpps could
not decide for him. Phlpps was the truest, the
staunchest of friends, but it was he and not Phippe
who loved Marian, It was he whom Marian loved. He
saw it all clearly now: her fight against yielding to
his pleading, her reluctance, struggles, bitter regrets;
she was linked to another man, and the secret chain
checked her every movement and clanked its warning
to every impulse of her.heart. But now the whole
aspect of her life had swiftly and suddenly changed.
She loved him: alone and in a strange country she
would be the more unhappy because of her love for
him. Surely be could not leave her to face the un-
known future alone.
He would not. for her future was ineluctably
bound up with his, and he did not wish it otherwise.
What was she to this man she had married? He had'
deceived her, treated her wretchedly, stooped to rob
her: was a marriage vow made in ignorance, regarded
with contempt by her husband, with poignant regret
by herself, to stand between her and happiness? Per-
haps she would decide that it should: he would not
dwell on that Just now. At the least she must have a
chance to think it all out calmly, must be free to
choose; she must not leave Jamaica as a fugitive,
alone, perhaps to drift from one country to another it
she found it safe to move about at all, with not one
human being on whom she could absolutely rely, with
no one who would make the uttermost sacrifice for
her sake.
A-nd there was himself. He was no mere youth
row, but a man who knew his own mind, one who,
for better or for worse, had made up his mind' In so
far as Marian was concerned. Stephen Braeme would
be sent to prison; Marian would be done with him
forever. Without her he, Lawrence, could doubtless
continue to toll. perhaps to succeed, but his whole
being was in high revolt against the hideous tedium
and sordidness and aimlessness of that. He could not
be again what he had been: his lifehad taken a new
direction, had been touched to deep and passionate
issues; his most vital interest now was centred
in someone other than himself. His course was
planned; he would go with her to-night, would see
that she was suitably placed in Costa Rica, would
shortly return to Jamaica to straighten out any
matter that might need his personal attention, and
then go back to her if she would let him. He would
go back to her forever. That was whpt he desired:
the final decision must be left to her. There might
be some talk about it in the land of his birth, some
gossip, then indifference and forgetfulness. It did not
matter. Nothing mattered to;him now.but Marian:
the future would be sharply separated from the past.
"May I come in?"
"Please do," replied Lawrence, recognistng his


friend's voice on the other side of the door. Mr.;
Phippa had not troubled the porter to announce hbim
"You nave seen her this morning" asked Law.i
rence, as Mr. Phipps seated himieluf opoeate to him
"Yed..son, as I arranged to do lat night. She tI
in a bal state, almost broken down at last, I fancy.
She cold not go out to-day, but her director said that!
did not matter: I guess they have nearly finished with.
her."
"And she will go?"
"She doesn't know what to do; It Is terribly difi-
cult for her to make up her mind: but she will go.
She knows many people here, and--quite naturally,
poor girl-she doesn't want to face a scandal amongst
them all. I told her plainly that I had talked over
this matter with you, and that you agreed that these
best thing she could do would be to leave quickly and
quietly, though that isn't exactly what you agree
with. I knew she would want to know what you:
thought: she would be guided by your wishes, Law-
rence, far more than by mine, In any great crisis.
of her life.
"But there is no telling exactly how any woman-
will act. Last night, after I left her, she saw her'hus-
band and warned him that there was a detective from,
America here. She told him that 1 feared the worst.
and that I knew and had known all along who took
Lady Rosedale's pearls."
Lawrence started. "But didn't you warn her-
against saying anything to him?" he asked quickly.
"I did; but she'll have her own Ideas; you know,
as to what is right and what not. I suppose she re--
membered he's her husband, and felt that she ought
to give him a warning. He's gone out of town with.
the company to-day; gone to work as usual. It seems.
that he has some pluck or he could never have done'
that. He's going to show Aght, Lawrence. I aht.
afraid we may have yet to reckon with him."
"But he does not know-that she Is leaving to--
night, does he?"
"No. Fortunately she refrained from saying any-
thing about that to him, but she told me quite plainly
to-day that she must tell Lady Rosedale. She said
that she must iet Lady Rosedale know everything that:
has ocurred--vereryt iB.-.Sei doesn't want the- old.
dame 't'think tiat he ehad a hind in the stealing of`
the necklace; she doesn't want to appear ungratefl.
I argued against this decision, but she was firm, anld
now I can only hoe the old Lady will keep her mouth
shut for.twenty-tour hours. I have got the. passport
all right. Marui. and I went out together and
fixed that, but there was a mans watching. her. It's.
that lca aw S peo .of th DOasetive Depmatmet" ,
"And be saw yea go into the Costa Rian. conmsut.
offce!" exclaimed Lawence; "woa't he. gae what.
for, Phlp?"
"He may and he may not," returned Mf.. -Phipps
calmly; "but, remember, the consul basaonly onseoflee
in a big building; there's dresmaker's parlur in.
that same building; there Is a curia shop, and, some
other business offices. In spite of ah h bis evernes,
Mr. Sampson could not efface himself before... saw,
him. and I bought Jleott, .of curapfwyth,lrlwni's help.
this morniagn. See? The 4ltetw edda'tant.eiter the,
building; he watched from outside. By the time that
he has reported my movements, and they have thought
out the meaning of 'em, Marian should be quite safe."
"Once she is on board, the ship will sail with her,"
said Lawrence quietly, "whatever they may choose to'
do. They will not find her, Phippa, or bring her back."


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"I guess they won't, son, if you have a hand in
ibouneas: the trouble Is going to be to get her out
1te hote."
"*'ie can leave by boat from the hotel' seawall;
ge go rowing from there at night."
.1 have thought of that too; she could go for a
.witth yoi. But we must leave nothing to chance.
rnay be more closely watched to-night thin she has
a today. Then there Is hr husband: he may be
k her. If he is, you cannot be on the spot. Law-
i, and there will be only one thing to do. Ill
to take Marian out for a ride, and if I am follow-
1 ilr break every speed limit in this old country
! lhow the natives, white and black, what a real
t maniac is. I'll throw 'em off the track, never
r, and get Marian on board, whatever happens.
ia she 1s there, the ship must sail at once. Can
iroitr
:~thetcaitain iaheady,knows that, he may, receive
pr to sall at ay time from midnight. Will that
"You've got It fixed fine,' aid Mr. Phipps heart.
:I.oou't see how we can tail."
A knock sounded at the door, and the porten
nlg his head into the room, announced that a lady
irking to see Mr. Beaman: a Lady Rose, he said.
."Ah," said Mr. Phipps and puckered up his lips
.lii likely to be an unpleasant interview, son.
,a.ust keep your temper for the little girl's ske."
i_ ow the lany In," said Lawrence to the porter,
rit hls lips sternly.
itdy Rosedale entered with her usual self-posses-
k'hat it needed no second glance at her face to
pver that she was agitated. She looked searching-
f Lawrence, noted the drawn lines about his eyes,
, hard mouth, the rigid attitude of his figure;
Sglaneed at Mr. Phipps. That gentleman, his
WiMbut a smile, was eyeing her curiously. Lady
Spearceived that she had a hostile audience.
"MWariaa has told me everything," she began at
:, hot taking the trouble to shake hands. "She
i' about half an hour ago. I have come here to
SXRi about it."
Y 'tRosedale addressed her words to Lawrence.
it ihe considered him the principal character
IaitaiUon, with Mr. Phlpps of little or no im-

~weab 's monosyllabic question, and the man-
-, maisested conflict. Lady Rosedale sttfened
4ju eyed him sMuarely.
it' wil understand, Mr. Beaman," she said,
L ena sieaking as Misa Braemsa friend, her dis-
friend. She had suffieent confidence in me
e just what has happened and what she pro-
do. I have suffered a heavy loss through her,
A. it was not her fault, and I never thought
1 popr girEs life must hIve been a hell al this
Sady Rosedale went on hurriedly, and the two
erved a visible softening in her tones and look,
t trembling of her hands. "I can fancy what
t ave suffered to-day when confewing every-
't e.S he has no mother, no sister: I am the
iewmau anywhere to whom she can speak. You
aiderstoantd what that means, Mr. Beaman!
doa't understand these things."
*tlsua a revelation of an aspect of Lady Rose
Skuharacter which neither man had seen before.
E*arching, curious look In Mr. Phippe's eyes
S"subtly but Lawrence still sat rigid, anta-
Sand cold.
~ very kind of you to arrange to send the poor
Sshe continued; "but tell me, Mr. Beaman,
d to go with herr'
question came suddenly and caught Lawrence
Mr. Phipps started perceptibly. Lady
g oe straight to the heart of Lawrence's
an insight tor which Mr. Phipps had never
Credit. Bfeth;t them afeHed the$ntrac-
L aLruce's eyes and the sternel setting of his
S.r meedaale di not wait fr ah answer.
S .s that you do," she.added, "and I under-
.',fi.1I know that you care for Marian, Mr.
"isjt 'think I was the first to see it. I know
irfetl: you are thinking that the world would
~i l for her lake, and that, now especially, you
kief her alone. But you mustn't go withiber.
litjni et That would be fatal to you both, don't
?abhd tar more fatal to her. Can't you see it?"
Snot ," said Lawrence. "I do not!" he repeat-
l:the first expression of passion he had dis-
ice Lady Rosedale entered the roop.
fiel I do, and I am a woman of the world," said
Lase le, with a slight resumption of her old
ie manner. "She doesn't know that you con-
e going, with her, and it Is better that she
'IN,-for that would oply make her dreadful un-
sw worse. Poor obild!" Once mere-there was a
Sof the lines about Lady Rosedale's mouth,
ispiapclon of a mist over her eyes. She now
Io' the older man.
i lrl lost her mother, years ago; her father,
L:ow, was an Englishmin. Of good family
has told me a good deal about him. To me
E English girl, Mr. Phlpps; her father's people
are of the same country, and she loved him,
Slaves England too, although she never saw It.
.aig hter, .no child, and I took to this poor
pt rmoiment I saw her. She did not need to
tnWhe had nothing to do with the loss of my
0l-.i'bA ap soon have believed a daughter of
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mie capable of taking them. I love Marian too,"
Lady Rosedale went on, speaking with unwanted
simplicity, and looking again at Lawrence, "and my
affection is more unselfish than yours, Mr. Beaan.
You are thinking of her, I know, but you am thinking
also of yourself: you cannot help it: you are thinking
of your own happiness as well as of hers. The love
of a man Is far more selfish than the love of a mother,
and it Is as a mother that I feel towards Marian.
You must stay here. If you go with her, her name
will be smirched and the things raid about her may
follow her tar: remember, she is a married woman.
She will have no place anywhere if you are with her.
You can never know what is to happen in the future;
meanwhile she is too young to have her life more
spoilt than it has been. You must remain behind.
It will be hardly I sympathize with you; but you must
remain. You see what I mean, don't you, Mr.
Phipps?"
"I do, Lady Rosedale," said Mr. Phipps gravely;
"and I agree with you. But it is for our friend and
for Marian to decide."
"No," said Lady Rosedale decisively, "it Is for an
older woman than Marian to decide, and one who can
me farther than Mr. Beaman can Just now. Don't
think" (she addressed Lawrence), "don't think I am
actuated by any feeling of opposition to you now.
Why, I wish a thousand times that she had met you
before she met that miserable man who has brought


her so much unhappiness! I am sorry for you both,
Mr. Beaman: but sorry most for Marl for she is a
woman, and her life has been spoilt almost from the
beginning. You mast not help to poll it firther.
"poil her life!" cried Lawrence fiercely, "and
what has she before her? Exile, leeiness, unhappl-
ness? 1 would.give up everything lor her sake, and
you call that spoiling her life? I am-going with her
io devote my whole life to her, and you call that spoil-
ing her life.?"
"Yes, I do. At least, let her eave thi country
with no one able to may a word against her. If you
go, suddenly, on the same ship, to the s-me country.
with her, there will be the gravest suspicions, the
worst beliefs. Away from you de may be lonely at
heart, but not friendless, Mr. Saman; you may de-
pend on me for that."
"Ah!" cried Mr. Phipps. "God bless you. Idy
Rosedale!"
It was a sudden exclamation, springing urom the
heart of the pan; it escaped him as it were, ad the
quick working of his face showed already that he was
ashamed of this momentary display of emotion. But
Sdly Rosedale threw a grateful glance at him, and
again a mist passed over her masterful eyes. "I as
going with Marian to Costa Rica," she continued, "it
should be easy to arrange."
"That will solve all our diflculties," murmured
Mr. PhippL


_L






PLANTERS' PUNCH


"I ean ee that," said the Nngl9shwoman, taking
large ti the ltuation at once, as she had taken
eisarge 6f Mar a situation In her-time. "Marian be-
11ev i s to betla watched; it makes her dreadfully
nervous. But no one, I suppose, would think of
watching me. She will leave the hotel with me to-
night; we can go for a drive somewhere, perhaps to
Constant Spr'ng, and then to your sh!p. I will speak
to the manager this evening and tell him that I am
going away for a short time but don't want it known.
I will retfin my room at the hotel and send to the ship
'only such things as I may actually need: some of'
.Marian's things can go with mniie. It is my Jewellery
that was stolen, and even. an American detective
would hardly believe that I would aid the escape of
anyone who had taken them: so they won't follow
me to-night. Do you agree?"
She looked from one to the other of the men. Mr.
Phippa's face was radiant. He had been more
troubled about the Adiiculties Marian might have to
overcome it getting away from the hot than he had
thought it wise to confess to Lawrence.
Lawrence was thinking deeply. He had always
known Lady Rosedale as an enemy of his. But now
there could be no doubting her sincerity, her genuine
affection for Marian. She was a woman, conventional
undoubtedly, and the fear that Marian's reputation
might suffer if he went away with her touched her to





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the quick. She was fighting for Marian: he saw
that, and fighting because of her love for her. He
saw too that she would go with the girl, or, if he
would not give her a passage, would follow after as
quietly as she could; the resolute expreisnon on her
face could leave him in no doubt of her intention.
And Marian? She had clung to the older woman, in-
stinctively divining, perhaps, that Lady Rosedale
loved her; and In her present distress she would still
cling to Lady Rosedale as to a mother. He might de-
cide to go, might refuse Lady Rosedale a passage, but
she had said that he was selfish na this love of his, In
this very resolution to set everything at defiance and
go with Marian, ana in the depths of his- heart he
knew there was much truth In this assertion.
And she had used the same argument -he had
urged on Phipps when protesting agaPnet Marian fee-
ung from the country: her name might be stained.
He could no longer contend to himself that Marian
was about to face the future friendless. No one would
suspect that Lady Rosedale had left Jamaica hurriedly
because she personally desired to escape the atten-
tions of the police. She would say that she would
shortly be return iigad had taken Miss Braeme as a
companion: the act might be regarded as eccentric,
.but hardly as anything more.
"And I think you could square it with the moving
picture director," broke in Mr. Phipps who had been
watching Lawrence keenly, but who spoke now to Lady
Rosedale. "You might write him a note to-night, to
be delivered to-morrow, saying that you had suddenly
bedided to take Miss Braeme for a short tour with you,
as yon noticed that she was run down and needed a
rest. I guess he can do without her. And she may
come back with you a little later on: nothing may be
said about her, either by Baker or her husband, once
she is out of the way. Anyho*, we must take the
chance of that."
"Are they likely to go on with my case in the
courts If I am out of the island?" Lady Rosed-Ile
asked Mr. Phipps.
"Hardly, unless they have some good evidence on
which to arrest somebody, and- that.could only mean a
preliminary Invesilgaflon. The whole fair may
blow over if you are not on the spot."
"Thea.Illt write to theIlaspector Geneal to-night
and tell him that I won't be here for a little while,
and thank him for what he has done to help me. I
will write as If the case no longer Interests me."
"You might drop a note to the Governor too."
"I will; I will leave them-to be posted to-morrow.
I am taking Marian up to Constant Spring after din-
ner. We'll remain there until-what o'clock shall
we come on board, Mr. Beaman?"
"At midnight, or as near after that as you can."
"Very well: I shall see you then?" she said, put-
ting out her hand kindly.
"Yes: and I want to thank you, Lady Rosedale,
tfom the bottom or my heart for your kindness to
Marian. I will remain in Jamaica until I hear from
her. Perhaps you are right that it is best for her
that I should."
"I am sure of it, Mr. Beaman,. and so is your
fMend here. I am going now to see about my pass-
port."
She walked towards the door, Mr. Phipps hastet-
ing towards it, to open it for her. She turned for a
moment towards Lawrence.
In her eyes he read more sympathy than he would
once have thought her capable of feeling. Then she
passed outside.
"I take off my hat to that dame," said Mr. Phippe
gravely, going back to his seat. "She doesn't like
spending too much money; but she's going to keep
her room at the hotel so as to make it appear that she
may return at any moment, and that's for Marian's
sake. She's going to a country which she never before
thought of visiting, and that's because she doesn't
want the little girl to be alone. I don't care a damn
how disagreeable and foolish and pretentious she is;
she's pure white where Marian is concerned. I always
believed she loved Marian.
"And you, son, are doing a finer thing to remain
here than if you went with the little movie star. It is
the harder thing of the two to do. But don't think
that only you. and Lady Rosedale would go wito
Marjan if she could not go alone. The old man has
also a warm place in his heart for that little girl."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
THE ONLY WAY.
HARDLY any of the people moving about the
lawns and gardens of the Myrtle Bank Hotel
took any particular notice of two dark men,
natives of the country obviously', who
hovered in the vicinity of the American bar, from
which position they commanded a clear view of the
four gates-two to the East, the others to the West-
which opened on the street. Now and then one of
these men would stroll unobtrusively about, going
down to the seawall, wandering by the annex, paying
marked attention to the boats that came along the
waterfront plying for hire. These men were taken
by those who saw them to be persons connected with
the hotel. But Lady Rosedale knew why they were
there, and so did Marian; Mr. Phipps also, and
Stephen Braeme.
Stephen wab af the hotel this afternoon. It was
about six o'leek :.half an hour before he had returned
from his work with some other members of his con-


pany, and he had been keenly conscious that day that-
one of these men had been watching him. The man.
had always kept at some distance away; but now he
was within the grounds of the hotel itself, and
Stephen remembered having often seen him before-
'He had paid no particular attention to him on those.
previous occasions; only to-day, when he knew for
certain that he was under the surveillance of the-
police, did the presence of the man become apparent
to him with a sinister significance. He was certain.
that if he had stopped at the house where he lodged,
the detective would have stopped in the neighbour-
hood also. He was under unremitting scrutiny. His-
every movement was watched.
And the other man was probably watching.
Marian. And at any moment the order for the arrest
of one or both of them might be pronounced.
He had seen Marian the night before: she had
warned him, bitterly, despairingly, and he had rea-
lised that, with the advent of the American detective,
there would be put forth a grim effort to trace the
man who had stolen Lady Rosedale's necklace. He-
knew now that it was Mr. Phipps who had returned
Marian's broach, ana also that Mr. Phlpps, for
Marian's sake, would give no hint of what he knew.
Stephen was quick-witted. He was terribly
startled when Marian broke the news to him of De-
tective B.ker's arrival, of Mr. Pbipps's fears that he
had something of a record in America, but he did not
allow his rrignt to get the mastery of him; he realized.
he must have time to think, and that, above all, he.
must give no Inoacal on that he believed himself sus-
pected. Escape-by any ordinary means wa-.out of
the question. Mr. Paipps had told Marian that it was
certain that, tephen would be stopped it he were
seen entering a wharf; and no consul of any country
in the island would now rise his passport; they had
probably all been warned. He was surrounded, as it
were, by a cloud or visible ann Invisible witnesses;
along tae waterrroot were sentinels placed to prevent.
him from leaving the island; if he left the hotel for
ain mitant, tiere would be a man in a car nl full pur-
suit. So much he fully realized, and yet, with the in-
stinct of self-preservation, with the instinct of an.
actor also, he aept a grip upon himself, and strove to
*appsa not unduty -4entekqiedt
te had gone to his work that day chiefly to dispeL
any suspicion mat he realized he was in danger. Yet,
inwardly, he was tearfully apprehensive. True, he.
had been in Light pLaces before and had made good his
escape. They had discovered' nothing againsthim
In the States; merely to have been arrested was quite
a different tning from having a conviction record
against one; yet he knew In his heart of hearts ;hat
his former arrest on suspicion, in connection with a
jewel roboery, would count against him now with the
local police bnouui they know of it, and e was poe
Lessen of tme 'oavitilon that at mast they knew.
He had sent away the pearls long since; they had
arrived safely in New York; they could not be brought
in evidence against him. No one had seen him enter
ing or leaving Marian's room on the night he took th
necklace; no one-and yet Marian said Mr. Phipp
knew all ahout the theft. But Phlpup would be silent,
for Marian's sake Phipps would be silent: what the
had he to tear? Let him keep calm, let him go about
his work as usual, and, no matter what they might
wish to suspect, they could not touch him: there was
no evidence against him.
Again and again he went over the ground, reach-



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-92a-23


~






PLANTERS' PUNCH


Nthit conclusion, but not deriving from it that feel-
|o'bf certainty without which the most hopeful of
Illusions is vain. The dread and terror Which,
iaee years before, had driven him out of America and
IAWeru, assailed him now; be was plagued by doubts.
Ed anything been discovered about the robbery of
t. Stone's Jewels? Had anything been brought to
ht in connection with some of his former acts?
at question would obtrude itself into his mind.
d--would Marian remain silent? She had assured
Jn that she would say nothing, would give no hint,
Rat suppose her nerves gave way? The American de-
aetive might question her, press het hardly, might
*turn again and again to the charge: what would she
kw? She had no reason to wish to deal gently with
ts, she might think she had a very good reason to
10.otherwlse. She might want to be rid of him: he
alleved that she did. Fear and jealousy and wound-
kd:vanity lit a fame of wrath In his heart. What it
W "should say a word now that should send him to
ihson and leave her alone with Lawrence Beaman?
SHe did not believe in the loyalty of women. And
Iten, did not Marian and Lawrence Beaman love one
iethir?
~' He slipped his hand mechanically into the back
sket of his trousers; he would not go to prison,
Bk 'Lawrence Beaman should not have her. She
ibald die first: the next shot would be for himself.
Ranan would have the awful satisfaction of being
to:sarner at her funeral. His wife, the wife of a
.sada of Peru, should be no Englishman's leman.
':"That was one reason why he was at the hotel this
tternoon. He had booked a room there on coming
pk to the city. He would remain there for as long
lube could. To-morrow he would insist upon Marian
ioig'out to work with him: and if she could not go
aJlso would find some excuse for not going out with
a company: he would keep her under his eye always,
iBil the end came. If arrested while away from her,
*i:would ask leave to speak to her for a few minutes;
Wi'kew the Jamaica police would never refuse such
iK~iuest, or think of putting handcuffs on him, or of
lltIng him in any way harshly. If arrested, with
FrAmerlcan detective in the island, there would be
Uii1. chance of escape. He would act then, swiftly,
~ilaively, but not before. He would not abandon
pe until the police took a definite step; not until
SilSt moment would he utterly despair. He drew
|.:..and away from his pocket, and, with the feeling
tbt someone was eyeing him latently, he turned his
Hil" l the direction from which this subtle, intangi-
i.ndication came. He discovered Mr. Phipps look-
iurlously at him.
:'iAnd something in Mr. Phipps's face told Stephen
t' Phipps had guessed his intention from that in-
atittary movement of his towards his pistol pocket.
pt-I ijps had had no time to disguise the startled
ejprlion that had swept over his face: looking full
i:one another, both men discerned clearly the doml-
Sthought in the mind of each. Mr. Phippe's coun-
ance assumed a hard expression: the light of a
hter shone in his eyes, his jaw was thrust forward
ahis gaze riveted itself on the face of the other man.
phen smiled mockingly, and stared defiance at Mr.
app. Then, as though moved by a sudden im-
,he walked over to where Mr. Phipps was stand-

'The latter met him calmly. "To carry a gun
ithoat a license is a punishable offence in this
tpltry, friend," said Mr. Phipps softly.
::.."Ihdeed," said Stephen; "but how would it be

."Ah, that is the question. This part of the Bri-
mimpire goes in a lot for all the formalities of
i'they make sure of their ground before they lay
ge against anyone. That is why I too think I
siate in carrying a gun." And Mr. Phippe lightly
his own pistol pocket with a meaning smile.
"Stephen understood. He was to be under the
nee of Mr. Phipps. He shrugged his shoulders
y and threw back his head. He was pre-
ifr risks and struggles; he would not be fright-
-iby. a threat.
aet us walk," suggested Mr. Phipps. "One of
se men over there is watching us rather keenly.
Swalk up and down he can scarcely follow us. I
t to talk to you."
:Deliberately turning their backs on the detective,
Phipps and Stephen strolled eastward until they
out of the man's sight; then they turned and re-
their steps. They noticed that the detective
already begun to follow them, but that he stopped
ly when he saw that they were coming back.
they turned to repeat their walk. "What are
going to do?" asked Mr. Phipps quietly. 'Tour
told you what I said to her, I know."
"I think you already know what I am going to
said Stephen. "I am a Quesada, and she bears
.sme. I will not leave her to Lawrence Beaman."
n are not generous, certainly," retorted Mr.
in. "You have treated her shamefully, but you
only of yourself to the very last. If you wish
-pat.an end to your life, do so: I for one would not
et you. It might be the best thing, all things
that you could do: for a man like you
l nofunture worth having if you are once con-
and sent to prison. But why pursue the poor
girl with your unreasoning hate and jealousy?
to her for once, -Quesada!"
'And leave her for your friend, aeAorT' laughed
bitterly. "That is not how a gentleman of
: but you, of course,-yoti wvoti not under-


CHARACTER SNAPSHOT


HON. HORACE MYERS


When Mr. HIorace Myeis became a nominated
member of the Legislative Council there were specula-
tions as to how long he would retain the position.
"Six months," said one man, remembering how busy
a person Horatio was, and how wrapped up in his
business. Some said a year. Others gave him two
years, and were nearer right than the rest. But the
time limit set has been passed; all the calculations
have been upset. Mr. Myers (better linown polititcal-
ly as Horatio) is still a member of the Council.
What is more, he speedily developed into quite an en-
thusiastic politician, throwing into political duties the
same energy he has always displayed in his own ex-'
panding and exacting commercial affairs.
The secret of this is the enthusiasm which is part
of his temperament and which has helped to form his
character. There is something boyish about the
ebullition he displays, the keeness and joy with which
he enters into everything. He works as though his
work were a play, a great game to be enjoyed; and it
is the same with him in politics. I have never seen
him looking tired o.' depressed in the Council Cham-
ber. He enters with swinging gait, eager to debate,
ready to make a speech; he has his facts prepared and
he welcomes contradiction if that will give him an op-
portunity of further elucidating his points. Under-
lying all this is a strong vein of seriousness; be takes
politics, as he takes his business, seriously. This does
not contradict what has been said of him above, for
what is taken more seriously than an interesting
game? One sees Horatio an enthusiastic man always.
Always will his enthusiasm endure, his joy in en-
deavour, his rejoicing in achievement. He is sanguine
beyond most people, and this is why he is never
affrighted by any opposition. Consciously and sub-
consciously he believes in his ultimate success.


stand! And let me tell you this: you must not again
speak to me as you did just now. If you do--"
"I carry a gun as well as you, friend," broke in
Mr. Phipps warningly, "and you are not likely to take
me unawares. Please remember, too, that any insane
act on your part will only lead to your immediate ar-
rest. You need not anticipate that by some hours."
To and fro, west to east, in front of the main
building of the hotel they walked, and the detective,
noting that they were talking and promenading with-
out giving him a glance, made no effort to keep them
always in sight. But he kept the four gates of the
hotel continually under his eyes, and he took the pre-
caution to send his colleague to the southern part of
the grounds which ended at the seawall. He knew
that Stephen could slip round the eastern end of the
building and get down to the seafront if he wished,
and there a boat could easily be hailed.
"We came here together, and if I cannot escape
she will go the way I go," said Stephen in a bitter
voice. "I don't know that I would care to escape with-
out her, even if I had a chance of doing so-which I
have not."
"Yet-pardon me for saying so, Sefior Quesada,"
said Mr. Phipps with elaborate politeness-"yet it is
scarcely love that dictates your decision."
"It is pride," answered Stephen, drawing himself
up with a flash of the eye. Mr. Phipps saw the
motion, noted the impetuous, arrogant look, and a
memory of a scene by the shore of St. Ann, a scene in
which were mingled the sea and some rocking boats,
and a far-off horizon, and a little group of people,
flashed -into his mind.,
"Let us stop here a few minutes," he commanded


briskly: they were again out of the detective's sight.
"Listen to me. Beaman knows that Marian is your
wife; Lady Rosedale knows it too; Lady Roesdale is
very fond of her and will take care of her. I don't
think you need have any fear about your 'honour'-it
is that you are thinking of, isn't it?"
"You know, Befior."
"So that if you could get away and leave the poor
girl in peace-don't try and bluff me, friend," exclaim-
ed Mr. Phipps testily, seeing that Stephen was about
to resent his plain speaking: "it can't be done, and
you are not the man to do it, anyhow-if, I say, yon
could get away, she would be all right. She is among
friends, and you ought to know, in spite of all your
foolish jealousy, that she is not a light character, but
a good woman at heart."
"I would not have married her if I had thought
she was not what she ought to be," returned Stephen
coldly.
"Then there is less excuse for the way you have
treated het," said Mr. Phipps firmly. "Now, if you
could get away-let us walk back: we have been
standing here quite long enough."
They retraced their steps again, and the detective,
vigilantly waiting, and already beginning to wonder
if they had gone round to the opposite side of the
building, relaxed his tension.
Mr. Phipps was thinking rapidly. He could in-
form the detectives that Stephen was armed, and that
might lead them to take some immeditr.te-actio. But
that might also lead to Stephen's saying or doing
something that might render Marian's departure im-
possible. Such a risk could not be faced.
"You were saying, if I could get away," said
Stephen. "But I cannot. I am like a rat trapped: I
am hunted, and the hunters are always in sight. I
have been thinking, thinking, thinking, and I can
see no way. There is only oaniway," he added gloomi-
ly, "but I am not afraid of that. My people have
never been afraid of it when it was a choice between
disgrace and that only way."
"There was only one way left to Don Arnaldo de
Sassi," murmured Mr. Phipps reminiscently. They
had again left the detective out of sight, and their
pace was slow. "There are boats along the northern ,
shore that even now sail to Cuba with labourers who
cannot get a passport here, or with folk who for rea-
sons of their own do not want to apply for one. I
wonder."
Stephen stopped dead. "Sefior?" he cried.
"My car, which can go fifty miles an hour at full
speed, is just over there," and Mr. Phipps pointing
east to an open space where waiting cars were park-
ed. "To my chauffeur I have given the evening off; I
thought I might want to drive myself. Now if I were
leaving this place and did not wish to be seen by
anyone on the grounds, I would not make the mistake
of going west, for that would take me past the hotel
and I should probably be seen. I should go direct
east for a block or so, turn north, and then go west-
or whichever way I wanted to go. I guess some folk
would spend some time looking and asking for me be-
fore they would think of my having driven my car fn
a direction that hardly anyone ever takes on leaving
the hotel. Let us walk back."
"For the last time," said Stephen.
"I suppose you carry plenty of money with you?'
asked Mr. Phipps casually.
"I have enough now on my person for- any pur-
pose."
"Some food purchased at a wayside shop, a hand-
some sum to a few boatmen, and I should soon be
landed somewhere along the coast of Cuba safely,"
continued Mr. Phipps, as though he were pursuing
a train of personal reflections. "I speak Spanish
fluently, you know, and so long as I do not trouble the
Cuban officials, and am geneirous to'those of them I
come in contact with, I should hardly be molested in
Cuba until I could slip out of it. Perhaps I might
easily pass for a Cuban-will you excuse me if I love
you here?'
Without waiting for an answer Mr. Phipps walked
rapidly away towards the hotel's annex, and did not
glance once behind him. Stephen stood still for a
moment ortwo. Already it was darkling; the shadows
of evening were dimming the sky: a little while and
night would descend upon the earth, night and ob-
scurity. He seemed to make up his mind to a final
decision. Hurrying to the park wherein a few cars
were waiting, he entered the one which he knew.be-
longed to Mr. Phipps, started it and turned ifs head
eastward. A block or two away from the hotel and
he turned the car north; presently he was running
dead west towards the only road he knew by which
he could reach that little bay on the northern shore
from which the last of the conquering Spaniards had,
for the last time, embarked from Jamaica. Swiftly
he sped towards this road; he remembered it well. In
a very little while he must cross the mountain to
which it led, the mountain which lay between him and
safety. He was leaving Marian. But the imperative
need of the moment was to think of himself. To Ndra,
to be with whom he had lingered longer in this coin-
try than prudence dictated, he gave not a thought
His mind was obsessed by what lay before him, by
what lay behind-all the selfishness of the man i*as
uppermost and dominant now: with an opiportuilty
of escape had vanished all thought of protecting his
"honour" even at the cost of a woman's life.
Once over the mountain that lay ahead, and-ie
had no doubt that he could land safely in Cuba, Wrtk


t-23


LI*i~Li~ ~ .~- -il---





PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-26'Tji::


he could easily pass for a Cuban, and thence steal
away to some "other Latin-American country where
he would need fear no agent of the English or the
American police: That was his plan. So, swiftly and
ever more swiftly, as the boundaries of the city were
left behind, the car rushed forward towards la Mon-
tagla del Diablo, as the old Spaniards had named it-
towards the Devil's Mountain, as it still a called.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

MR. HAMMOND'S STORY.
A POLITE request from Major Fellspar, about an
hour after Stephen's hurried departure from
the Myrtle'Bank Hotel, brought Mr. Phipps
down from his room (in the seclusion of
which he had determined to remain as long as it was
possible to do so). He found Major Fellspar in the
manager's private office, with Inspector Harmsworth
and Detective Sampson: Sampson looking just then
thb picture of dejection and dismay. And with them
was the American detective, Baker, whom Mr. Phipps
immediately greeted with well-simulated surprise and
cordiality.
"I believe you were the last person seen with
btephen Braeme this evening, Mr. Phipps," said Major
Fellspar immediately,.after somewhat coldly return-
ing Mr. Phipps's bow: "did you notice where he went
when he left you?"
"I can't say I did, Major," replied Mr. Phipps.
"As a matter of fact, he didn't leave me; I left him.
I had something to do in my room before dinner, so I
asked him to excuse me--we had been walking to-
gether. What's up, if I may ask?" .
"It is very important that we should know where
he, has gone to," returned the Inspector General grave-
ly; "we believe that be did not come back into this
building. He may have slipped behind the annex, of
course, and gone out into the lane; it seems that that
way of escape was not watched this afternoon"-Major
Fellspar glanced angrily at Inspector Harmsworth,
who reddened-"but you say, Mr. Phipps, that'you did
not notice the direction that he took?"'
"I did not, Major; and for all you know he may
still be somewhere in the hotel. But won't you tell
me what you are so anxious to find him for? You
have awakened my curiosity. I lake it, myself, that
Stephen has gone out somewhere in the legitimate
exercise of his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness, as is guaranteed to all men by our Ameri-
can Constitution. But you sort of suggest that you
want him badly and that he has slipped out of your
hands. I'd like to be wise on that."
Mr. Phipps was aware that Baker was eyeing


him keenly, but he took no notice of a scrutiny that
was too searching to be polite. Baker distrusted him;
that he felt certain of. But Baker could not. know
how much he knew about Stepheh, and there he had
Mr. Baker at a disadvantage.
"'Breame cannot possibly escape from Jamaica,"
said Major Fellspar decisively; "so much at least is
certain." (Mr. Phipps took these words to 'mean:
"No friends of Braeme's need try to aid him, for they
cannot succeed.") "Yes, I will take you into our con-
fidence. Mr. Phipps. Stephen Braeme, or Quesada, as
his real name is, is wanted by the American Govern-
ment for robbery. All the necessary formalities for
his arrest and extradition will be completed to-morrow
forenoon; in the meantime we have thought it ad-
visable to keep an eye on him. You were seen with
him an hour ago. When he had not appeared for a
few minutes-that is the time Detective Sampson
mentions, but it must have been longer-- search was
made for him, and he was nowhere to be found.
Sampson then telephoned tp Detective Headquarters,
and I thought I would come down myself to see what
should be done. I tell you all this, because you will
suspect that there is something serious about our
enquiries after Braeme, and because I should not like
you to aid and abet-in ignorance no doubt-a crimi-
nal who is wanted for a number of serious offences.
That would be a most unfortunate position for you."
Mr. Phipps whistled loud and long. "So this ex-
plains Mr. Baker's presence here!" he exclaimed.
"Stephen a crook! Say, Major, that will be hard on
his little sister when she comes to know of It. I
haven't much use for the young man, but I tell you
right now that I have a tender spot for his sister.
Guess she doesn't know anything about this, does she,
Baker?"
"Could you show us where you left Braeme?"
drawled Mr. Baker, without troubling to answer Mr.
Phipps. The American detective was plainly, though
not rudely, hostile.
"Sure!" said Mr. Phipps getting briskly up from
his chair: "come right along." He led them, talking
the while, to where he had parted from Stephen not
long before. They looked about them: the spot told
them nothing. Mr. Phipps still talked.
"'Stephen was depressed," be admitted: "talked
pessimistically like a man crossed In love; suicide
and that sort df thing you know; a desire to be away
and at rest. But it isn't easy for anyone to get away
from this country, is it, Major? I should find con-
siderable difficulty myself."
"He can escape from no port of this Island, not
the smallest," said the Inspector General. "There is
not a ship, not a vessel leaving, that is not being
watched by some officer of the Government. So, if he


happens to have become suspicious and is trying ;
get away, he will fail. I suppose that when he tN
caught he will blab about any confederates he ma$r.
have had. I wouldn't trust a rogue to keep his mottiL
shut out of gratitude or any fine feeling."
"I hope he will blab If he has anything to ay,':
agreed Mr. Phippa. "So Stephen's a crook, eh? WeUl
I am beginning to feel scared. He didn't pick myr
pocket this afternoon: that I know, for my watch t.:
still in my possession. But who is to tell if he
wouldn't have done me in the eye if he had had halt
a chance?"
They returned to the building and Mr. Phipps in-
vited the two officials and Mr. Baker to dine with him.
They declined, Mr. Baker explaining that he had al&
ready arranged for dinner, and that Major Fellspar
and Inspector Harmsworth would be dining with him.
Would Mr. Phipps join them?
"Delighted," said Phipps, and wished that thea
three men were miles and miles away; "and after-
dinner we might go for a spin somewhere in my car,
when we can talk at ease over this extraordinary
news you have just been giving me. I told my chant-
feur that I didn't think I'd want him to-night, but LA
know where to find him."
Without paying any attention to the protests of"
the other men that they would not care to go driving.
after dinner, Mr. Phipps called one of the bellboys and. '
precisely instructed him to send a message to hisa-
cnauffeur, bidding him present himself for duty at
the hotel at nine o'clock sharp. He gave the chauf--
feur's address, then went in to dinner. As they pass-
ed up the dining room they had a glimpse of Lady-
Rosedale, regally attired, and of Marian, also dressed
superbly. Lady Rosedale bowed to them-her face
was towards them-Marian did not look round. But.
of her profile Mr. Phipps had a swift view, and there-
was a little twinkle in his eye as he saw it. "Rouged,"
he thought. "Rouged by Lady Rosedale. That old
dame can put up a good bluff: no pallor and tears br
her. Nothing to give the show away. She's got grit.
and bounce anyhow."
It was obvious to Mr. Phipps that the Inspector-
General was just now acting under the advice of
Mr. Baker, and that Mr. Baker, for reasons of his
own, was determined to stidk to the hotel for some
time to-night, and perhaps for the whole night.
Phipps felt In his bones that Baker linked him up
in some way with Stephen's disappearance and per-
haps even thought that he had managed to smuggle
Stephen into his room preparatory to smuggling him .
oat of the country. Mr. Phipps remembered vividly
an incident of the sort in which he had figured in
Guatemala. and Baker had been in Guatemala at the-
time. Had Baker heard of it? The latter was nowr


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a






PLANTERS'


PUNCII


ealy on the alert. He wanted to know more about
tat last conversation between Stephen and Mr.
4Lpps; Mr. Phipps knew it, and persisted in talking
boat all sorts of subjects, Stephen included, without
sing back to the enief incident of the afternoon.
Ie-might have to talk about it later, and he wanted
lie to make sure of his ground. If Stephen escaped,
ihire would not be much difficulty. If by any chance
bifaled-well, an explanation would have to be forth-
oming, and it would have to be extremely plausible.
le must not say too muen this evening.
SClose upon nine o'clock they finished dining; on
ling into the lobby they were joined for a moment
y Lady Rosedale and Marian, who, after dinner,
ad gone into the Ladies' Room for their wraps. The
lIerican detective swept Marian's face with a search-
M glance, but bowed politely as he was introduced
..her by the Inspector General. Major Fellspar said
athlng about Baker's profession to either Marian or
iuy- Rosedale, and neither of these gave any sign
pt they knew who Baker was. Indeed, Lady Rose-
ile rose to the occasion with magnificent aplomb.
Wing Major Fellspar and Inspector Harmaworth
itRh the American detective, and Mr. Phipps in their
Wapany, she surmised that they were at the hotel
i some reason connected with the robbery, and pos-
uly closely connected with Marian. She addressed
itself to Major Fellspar, assuming her grandest
maner, which always made the Major feel that Lady
h tiWdale regarded him as a not very efficient police-
*llto whom she consciously showed exceeding kind-
l-. "I am sorry I won't have the pleasure of your
mpany' this evening," she said to him, "but I am
maing the usual dance here to go and see the dance
t -ostant Spring, and I am taking Miss Braeme
t me. By the way, I have .. big surprise in store
lryoU, Major Fellspar."
.'-What is it?" asked the Major gallantly, "some-
.dellightful, I am sure."
'-I should be much mortified if I heard that you
ijly thought it delightful!" remarked Lady Rosedale
JxSy. "I rather hope, in my vanity, that you will
taorry."
S.&Aht, now you pique my curiosity," said the Major.
'! .A woman's curse, Major. Let me keep my little
set to myself, until I choose to reveal it to you.
il future day we shall probably laugh over it.
ear is at the door?"-this to a bellboy. "Very
Good-night." She bowed to the four men
ly. and Marian did likewise, but Major Fells-
'tened after her to hand them both into the
,and Mr. Phlpps and the others followed moro
l~y. "You'll get my little surprise before long,"
bbtLady Rosedale, as the car started, and Major
1j@r bowed his best.
'"What's this surprise?" enquired Mr. Phipps,
-he knew quite well that Lady Rosedale had
referring to her Intended sudden departure with
from Jamaica.
g Some silly fad or other, I suppose," said Major
Di r, who secretly detested Lady Rosedale.
: .'Carious woman," commented Mr. Phipps; "al-
s saying or doing something strange or eccentric.
'ir.what about this little spin of ours, Major?"
t ,"I don't think I can go," said Mr. Baker decided-
ST'll,just stay here and watch the dancing and
!nlBB.- -
"Well, then." said Mr. Phippa, "I think I'll stay
l. Here's my boy, Arthur. Say, Arthur, I don't
Itklni want you after all. You can put the car up
ti.e garage and go home."
i-.A-thur stood in the driveway under the porch,
t~litly perplexed.
.iT: e car, sir?" he asked. "I came to ask you
-i it."
.'.Yes? Well, what about itT'
.*I* went over to the park there, sir," said Arthur,
gla with his hand, "and it wasn't there."
.-ase't there?" repeated Mr. Phipps, "but didn't
it there?"
sir, this afternoon; but it isn't there now."
deedd" exclaimed Mr. Phipps; "well, let us go
.ee. There's surely some mistake."
lRowed the chauffeur, and Major Fellspar and
;ther men walked out with him. Arthur led
:to the spot where he had parked the car some
before; there were other cars there, some with
chauffeurs, others unattended. Mr. Phipps's
course, was not to be seen.
et us enquire of these men here," said Mr.
ab "perhaps they can give us some information."
:Tint all the (hauffeurs just then in the enclosure
arrived after seven o'clock; they knew nothing
SMr. Phipps's car, had not seen it. It was a
Swho volunteered to help them; he knew Mr.
and his car very well. He had been there a
of hours before, he said, waiting to be called
eengrs, when he had seen a tall, foreign-look-
tUehman enter Mr. Pbipps's car and drive to-
the eastern end of the street. He had thought
g of the incident, for the man was a white man
gentleman from the hotel, and he had supposed
:all right. He had seen the gentleman often.
heun undoubtedly!" exclaimed Mr. Phipps.
9'with my car!"
i'~ agined so." said Baker quietly, "the moment
J tht the machine was not to be found."
ter developed sudden energy. "He would not
taken a car if he was not going for some dis-
'..fere would he be likely to go to out of the
.ike. Majdar.. Rlaar,? .. ..


"There are three main roads leading out of the
city," said the Inspector General, "but after any car
has got some miles away it can turn from the main
highway into some other. If he went east as this
cabman says-"
'if he went east it was to throw us off the track,"
interrupted the American brusquely. "Can you get
some quick cars and send them all three ways in
pursuit? You are bound to hear something about
him if you go quick and make enquiries. I want that
man, sir, and I am not so sure as you are that he
can't get away from this place. We've got to follow
him. I'll stand the expense of the cars."
"That won't be necessary," said Major Fellspar
quickly. "Harmsworth, go to the Sutton Street Sta-
tion at once and get some of our men ready. The
cars will meet you there. I'll make out warrants for
Quesada's arrest on my own authority. I'll take the
responsibility. Come with me, Baker!"
M3jor Fellspar hurried back into the hotel and
immediately telephoned an order to a garage, then he
rejoined Mr. Phipps and Mr. Baker.
"Harmsworth will go with a detective in one of
the cars." he said. "It is not customary, but I myself
will go to get this man. My chauffeur is a policeman.
You?" he looked enquiringly at Baker.
"I'll go in the third car,"'said the latter, "though
I feel that it wouldn't be a bad thing If somebody
remained here." He looked with unveiled suspicion
and anger at Mr. Phipps. "Funny that it is your
car that Quesada took," he remarked.
"Not at all," replied Mr. Phipps calmly. "I re-
member saying to him this afternoon that I didn't
think I should be requiring it to-night. If I were
trying to get away. and time was an object, I should
take a car that was not wanted in a hurry. Wouldn't
you ?"
Baker answered nothing, hut got into Major
Fellspar's roadster, which rapidly drove off towards
the Police Headquarters. Mr. Phipps watched tl'-
car disappear. then sat down. thoughtful, to wail
until midnight should be past. He had not dellber-


ately planned getting rid of the two officers and the
detective; his sending for his chauffeur, his enquiry
for his car, had been deemed by him a prudent pre-
cautionary act in view of the enquiries that would be
made in tIe certain event of his car being discovered.
at Runaway Bay or in the vicinity. It would easily
be identified; therefore it was best that its disappear-
ance should be proclaimed as early as was consistent
with giving Stephen a fair chance to escape. Mr.
Phlpps did not for a moment believe that in a country
where many cars travelled night and day over the
roads, anyone would take particular notice of his;
the darkness of the night would surely aid and shield
the fugitive. Besides, Stephen would have had nearly
three hours' start by the time the pursuit commence;
already he must be at Runnaway Bay; already, in-
deed, if they had provisions enough for the boat-abd
there were shops on Stephen's route and the boatmen
would have some native provisions-the'men must be
putting out to sea. Stephen would pay liberally, and
these boatmen would take a desperate risk for gold;
not until morning would the police discover the ear.
Stephen should be safe-for the present. What might
happen to him after he was out of the country would
not matter, for if he were taken In Cuba it would be
to the United States, and not to Jamaica, that he
would be extradited, and it was only in Jamaica that
any harm through him could come to Marian. So far,
everything had gone well; in another three hours at
the latest the Cecilia would have sailed, with Lady
Rosedale and the girl, and he, Phipps, would be free
to consider that he had accomplished in his life an-
other bit of useful work.
He was pleased to think this: his vanity was
touched and gratified. It seemed to him extraordin-
ary how often in the course of his existence he had
been mixed up with matters which, on the surface,
seemed no affair at all of his. Other people had
sometimes said that it was he who Interfered with
things that did not in the least concern him, that he
had often, quite unasked, thrust himself into the very
micZt of other folks' business and made it his own;


--2


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I I II III II I I I II


_~~__ ___~__







PLATES'PUCH'lZ -2


but that was never his own reading of any situation In
which he found. Himself involved. It had always ap-
peared to him inevitable that he should find himself
just where he happened to be: there was a job to be
done, a job that needed doing, and somehow he found
himself taking a hand in the doing of it. Curious?
Inquisitive? Irrespressible? Well, they did say he was
all these things, but if he had let such criticism
trouble him, what a useless life the reflected) would
have been his. He was well off; he never had had to
do a stroke of work in all his life for his living, thanks
to a father who had made money in manufacturing
.hoes for the multitude, and who had been able to send
his son to Harvard and then had allowed him to travel
round the world in search of his proper vocation.
That vocation had been wonderfully interesting: he
was always finding It. He had played a part in Span-
ish-American revolutions, had been an amateur de-
.4 .;ectlve, had been a political agent in one of the West-
-ein States of America for the mere fun of the thing,
had figured in many other roles and situations, and
now was in Jamaica helping an unfortunate girl
for whom he had a deep fatherly affection. He
wondered how she would have fared without him;
he concluded that she would have fared but badly.
Then-"I am getting a little foo vain," he thought.
feeling a trifle ashamed of the elation he experienced
whenever he surveyed his own achievements. "I am


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too fond of showing off; I must keep that tendency
down. 1 am not sure I am much different from Lady
Rosedale after all. I wonder it vanity is the true
source of all our important actions?"
"A telephone message for you, sir. Please speak
at the telephone said a bellboy.
\'ery good, my lad." Mr. Phipps rose briskly,
"That's Lawrence, no doubt,"'he thought, "but what
can he want to talk to me about? Has anything gone
wrong?"
He hurried to the telephone room, carefully closed
the door behind him, and put the receiver to his ear.
Of a sudden he was conscious ot being troubled,
anxious; he realized then that he had been far more
apprehensive about the success of Marian's departure
than he had been willing to confess to himself. And
this anxiety at least had not its origin In any feeling
of vanity.
"Yes; this is Mr. Phipps, speaking from the
Myrtle Bank. Who is that?"
A strange voice answered. "The Inspector Gen-
eral. sir, ask if you could kindly come up here, to the
Sutton Street Police Station, at once. It is very im-
portant."
Mr. Phlpps'a heart gave a tremendous leap. But
he mastered his emotions and answered briefly: "Very
well: say I am coming at once."'
What did this summons mean? Some new develop-
ment? SomE discovery? Stephen captured? Marian's
plans found out? Everything gone to ruin on the very
verge of success, anu perhaps he himself to blame?
He would very shortly know! In the meantime he
must keep his wits about him: he could not allow
people like Major Fellspar and Baker to get the better
of him; he must beat them yet if that were at all
possible. "I am getting old," he reflected grimly, "for
I feel more disturbed and panicky.to-night than when
I have been in far worse situations. Poor little
Marian: I hope she will be safe!"
The cab that he took, driven swiftly, arrived at
the Police Station within ten minutes. The big gates
were shut; Mr. Phipps went through a wicket In one
of them. and the wicket banged behind him. "That
way, sir." said a policeman, pointing to a flight of
wooden steps leading upward, and on the landing
above Mr. Phipps found another policeman who iTn-
mediately took him into a room wherein were the
Inspector General, the American detective, Inspector
Harmsworth, and a man whom Mr. Phipps knew he
had seen more than once before. This man was terri-
bly agitated; his clothes were' crushed and stained
with earth; his face pale, his eyes eloquent of fear and
distress. And the faces of the other men in the room
gave evidence that something of a very serious nature
had occurred.
"This is Mr. Hammond, Mr. Phipps," said the In-
spector General. "We were just about to start out on
our business-you know what I refer to-when Mr.
Hammond came in and told us of a terrible experience.
he had just passed through. I sent for'you, for your
car, I fancy, is the one he alludes to. and perhaps you
would like to go with Inspector Harmsworth to identi-
fy it. Mr. Hammond, will you tell Mr. Phipps what
has happened?"
The man steadied his voice with an obvious effort.
"I was coming over to Kingston from Trelawny,"
he began, "in my car, and by eight o'clock I was more
than half way over Mount Diablo. I was driving very
carefully; my chauffeur was with me, but I drove my-
self; I am a very careful driver." He emphasled these
words. Major Fellspar nodded sympathetically.
"The night Is a dark one, and I sounded my horn
whenever I came to a turning. For some time not a
car passed me on the hill. I was glad of that; you
know how very narrow in some parts is the road over
Mount Diablo."
He paused and shuddered violently, the muscles
of his face working and twisting. He was awfully
shaken and upset.
"I came to a sharp curve and sounded my horn as
I made the turn. I hear no other sound save my
own; perhaps the car coming In the opposite direc-
tion may have sounded at the sime moment. If it did,
I could not hear it, you know; you can't hear another
man's horn if it sounds at the same time as yours.
But I don't think the other man blew; at any rate,
as I rounded the curve, I saw a car rushing full speed
towards me, and it was on the wrong side of the road."
He stopped again for a moment; Mr. Phipps's eyes
opened wide in horror-struck anticipation of what was
to follow.
"I was on the left-hand side of the road, the other
car was on the right-hand side, where it should not
have been; and both of us, you will understand, were
travelling near to the edge of the precipice. But that
would not have mattered if the other car had not been
going at such a terrific speed. There was no time for
me to stop-you know the curves, Major Fellspar--
but Idid what I could. I was on my proper hand, but
I swerved inwards-the only thing to do. That saved
me; a moment too late and I should have been hurled
over the precipice. The other car never lessened
speed for a second; I think the man driving it must
have lost his head. I think he must have swerved a
little to the right-the worst t] fng he could possibly
have done. All I know is that his car crashed down-
wards, and I thought I heard a cream. My God, I
never want to go through such an experience again!"
"The rile for cars and other vehicles in America
and Canada is to keep to. the right," broke in Major
Feilapar. "Here we keep always to the left. Mr.
Hazmmond was on his proper band."


"I was," agreed Hammond eagerly. "I .pe
my car, and my boy and I got out and hurried tb
were the other car had gone over the precipice. It
hadn't fallen very far; the trees prevented that... Wej!
climbed down to where it was-I always carry an elec-.
tric torch with me, and it helped me to see my way..
The man had fallen out of his car and lay a little
distance away. He must have pitched headlong out dt.
it and his head was twisted round .. .."
"Injured or-?"
"Dead, quite dead." whispered Hammond, reply-
ing to Mr. Phipps. "The poor fellow! But it wasn't
at all my fault."
"Mr. Hammond says he had seen the dead man:
before; he recognized the corpse," said Major Fellspr
quietly.
"Yes," assented Mr. Hammond; "It is a man that.,
I have seen at Myrtle Bank; one of the actors that":
are out here, you know; a tall, dark, good-looking
man; but I don't'know his name.
"We-my boy and I-tried to get him up to the,
road, but we couldn't manage It. So I pushed on to
Ewarton, which was not far, and I gave the alarm
there.. I hired four men with a car to go and pick
up the body, and I sent my boy, David, back with.
them, to show them the spot and to help them. I told
them to bring up the body-I hope I haven't done
wrong-and I drove right on to this station to tell '
the police and give myself up. But I can pledge you
my solemn word, Major Fellspar, that It wasn't at all
my fault. I suppose I'll be able to get bail to-night?"
"I don't think there will be any difficulty about
that, Mr. Hammond," said Major Fellspar kindly,
"As a matter of fact, this business is within the.
province of the police in whose parish, the accident
occurred. But I can arrange that you won't have..
more trouble than is absolutely necessary. -I think
you understand what has happened, Mr. Phipps?"
Mr. Phipps nodded. A picture of that awful ac-
cident rose clear and distinct In his mind. He saw
Stephen rushing at full speed along the level pad.-
towards the Devil's Mountain, all restraint and prud-
nce thrown to the winds in that wild, desperate ef-
fort to win to freedom and security. Every sound,
every ray of light projected from behind him, he mast
have believed to have come from some car containing
his pursuers, every moment he must have imagined
that the hunters were relentlessly speeding on his
track. Every second was precious; his blood was On
fire; his nerves tingling with terror; however fat. he
went it must have seemed to him he was far toe'~i~y,
however swift his passage-it must have been bordit
in upon his fear-stricken mind that there might be be-
hind him others who were swifter. And unconsciona-
ly, following the practice of another country, he had-
kept his car to the right-hand instead of to the left-
hand side of the road. He knew buEt upertieally
the way he was traversing; aot to familiar know-
ledge but to the light from the lamps bf the car
must he trust when he began the ascent of the terri-
ble Devil's Mountain. And even whet that ascentL
began he hardly slackened speed; there.too he hung,
as a matter of habit, on the right-hand side of the
narrow path, by the edge of the precipioe,-on the very
verge of death.
So, swiftly, up, up, up, he rushed, unlj the sum-
mit of the mountain was nearly reached. : -
Then had appeared, suddenly, springing as it werg
out of the bowels of darkness, a car right opposite
to him, and flying straight towards him. He may



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~1928j~







-28 PLNTERS PUNC


en the swerve made by it to escape collision,
-rve made to the wrong side of the road, the side
h hfinsef was entitled to take. Instinctively, he
t his steering wheel, perhaps ever so slightly,
e other directiop;- turned it ever so slightly,
it ee was no room for safety, and the impetus of
r. could not be checked. There came the mad
at the machine into space, a scream of terrorised
nation, the hurtling of a body through air as the
plunged downwards, then swift and merciful
b. Yes, Mr. Phtpps understood it all: saw it all
I awful distinctness with the eye of his mind.
evil'ss Mountain had claimed one more Spaniard.
t4 justified again the name by which It had been
t"W. Its Spanish masters of former days.
S is Queseda and no other," said Detective
i"we are going, Mr. Harmeworth and I, to
ity the body. The Inspector General didn't know
K1Wt yo might want to go along with us and see
ttr car, Mr. Phipps. Do you care to go?"
Ill follow you immediately," said Mr. Phipps,
aun't wait for me."
11 and Inspector Harmsworth left the room;
bwobrth taking Mr. Hammond with him; then
'ilps addressed Major Fellspar. "That ends all
ilnal proceedings, doesn't it?" he asked, and Major
par nodded. "It seeu ..so," he said; "he would
been taken back to the States, you know. Now,
lchap he'll never go."
"No, -~bor fellow!" aid Phipps, "poor fellow!"
the fate that had overtaken Esteban de Quesada
touched both-men to pity.
I'fhippe knew that he had something to do that
;attended to at once. Thanking Major
for sending for him, and intimating that be
i*btortly set dut to look after his car, he left the
i^ition and took a cab down to Lawrence's
s si .= and Lawrenee patiently waiting
civi. EniSale a and Marian should arrive.
i,? ask led the younger man at the sight of
forafr Mr. Phipps's manner indicated news
importance. In a very few moments the
'had been told,.
S. p ...to Constdnt Spring myself and tell
what has happened," said Lawrence;
S hAtime to see to the sailing of. the
.4i;iW1. how Marian will take it?"
tlbetter Jow nothing about it .until she
I .wnrooam at the hotel," coauaulled Mr.
?i'4aJ Rosedale will break the news to her.
tway out of tlf:whole difficulty, but, you
gi'irr~yar, pthatIchap. He took the wrong
over :te mountain. He teems always
Sthe wrong path in life."

PTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
~~o:oi t0-BYEB."
:; :,


RAME: BA had been buried for two
It9. c tI e cemetery of the Roman
Blil.. an among the mourners had been
:. Lady Roeddale and Mr. Phipps. It was
ae who lad insisted upon this attendance:
4aitrange, she sai4.t4t they remained away
a"ineral; for Marian's isae they must try to
l"the reputation of the unhappy young man.
'.was at the;graveside,. too, regretful and
tilll wondering why Stephen had gone on
night ride which had had so tragic a con-
,-,him bi The metrbers of the moving picture
tzoe(i A instances he had made in Jamaica,
i:toneae asbdued of his fine qualities, of his
blr~ inhomie, his striking appearance, al
and left him in his grave, and Lady
Supported Marian through it all with the
t....one who had suffered the loss of a
l "TFat same day she had a long talk
Fellapar, Who was accompanied by Mr.
e Inspector General took her completely
iden; when he had finished his state-
ase h0n understand that she in no way
t il police responsible for the non-recovery
i.g. "We don't need to say anything more
rbery," she said: "I don't want It known
mae's i rother"- she stressed the word
e. I shall write and thank 'your Gow
R you have done for me in this matter,
lr." The Major felt, that this last offer
Sul. after all, what was due to him:
less he appreciated it, for he knew that one
ti Lot alw fa obta obne's due in this ungrateful
Shis oent caarer, he was satisfied, was proof of
SHe ws greatly relieved too that she accepted
Salmanei s and.dequanimity his announcement that
Irs was dal.
hbr. lay afterwards Mr. Baker went back to
bl 4Ul Before goiag he had a long and
dly t t Mr. Phipps. "I Should l]ke,""he
r,"tio know just how much you knew about that
S.Queada's. plans when he tried to make a get-
. from Jamaica. Where was he going-for he
u TA-Agoing somewhere when he lfte for that
*.. Diablo.Woa dark night at full speed. Where
!iU eoe N ke.on that business, Mr. Phipps?"
Iun. "l0 ask me whdie my car tine i., not
-A...Phipps. "I shallthave to get a now

..i'.ieea the tIpr *.ai; "yol wTerp willing
lf'ilthe losi oft that 6o. kitd tell. you
ihat bat tefor Sat I'd had Queeade


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safe :nd sure by now... But what beats me is that no
one here seems to be able tq guess why he was going
the way he went; they s'y that no ship was leaving
that night from any of the Nothaside ports, and he
must have known that if he couldn't escape that night
we would get him the ftqlowlpg day."
"Quesada must have known," agreed Mr. Phipps;
"Quesada also knew some History."
Baker looked puzzled but did not pursue the con-
versation further. But when he repeated it later In
the day to Inspector Harmsworth the latter knitted
his brows and began to think, as if trying to remem-
ber something. But what It was, if he did remember,
he refrained from mentioning to the American de-
tective.
And now two weeks had elapsed since Stephen's
burial, and the accident had been almost forgotten
save by those who had been closely connected with
him. It was Sunday night. To-morrow Lady Rose-
dale was leaving the island for England, and Marian
was leaving with her.
Lady Rosedale was giving a little farewell dinner.
On this occasion she had not invited the moving pic-
ture director or Ik:iss Hellingworth to dine with her;
it has in all honesty to be confessed that she had
rather drawn away from those two persons of late,
a fact which they had not been slow to observe, and


which had caused them to speak of her in terms the
reverse of complimentary or even respectful. She
herself would have been astonished to learn that she
was no longer regarded by them as a Woman of re-
markable personality, and still more shocked to know
that Miss Hellingworth had even suggested in Mr.
Phippe's hearing that she was not a lady. Such base
Ingratitude would haVe moved Lady Rosedale to in-
dignation, but Mr. Phipps gave her no hint of it. He
was on remarkably good terms with Lady Rosedale
now.
It was a small inner party she was giving this
evening: Major Fellspar.and Mr. Phipps, Mrs. Hamil-
ton and Nora were the only guests. Marian, Lady
Rosedale had decided, should not take part In what
might be considered a social function so soon after
her "brother's" death: Lawrence had been asked, but
Lady Rosedale had readily appreciated the reason of a
his excuse. Mariad had dined early, by herself, and*
even now was somewhere by the waterfront; Lawrence
hid come into the hotel half an hour before, and had
disappeared in the direction of the waterfront. Lady
Rosedale knew it all; she looked upon it in Providen-
tial manner and sdw that it was good. "Marian,
naturally, is not yet recovered from the shock of her
brother's sad death," she explained to her guests, "but
she Is very young, and Mr. Beaman is very attentive


if


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Ms8


PLANTERS' PUNCH

















































































ikc* e-and Marian sitting side by
4'3:1,the seawall. They rose to
ared them back. "Sit still," he
e of voic "I know that two
q l -ee e, and yogihayve

ask ian otly..
making the newspapers
d. ; the old dame'duly
Lt4-.yonu a jtp be mliedfn:.n .the
have told Iker, to i. liter
t.ibourA.mene sign about
p irot!ti at least.! an
; i- e tatr, butand cit .ie' old

"ltle-d kil Ctut, but ape.waNik.,..


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ESTABLISHED 1879.
ri





Estabid in 9. Our business Fa iteBrand

unable us to render Most efficient choice old crops,



abroad. ;M. ce. highest awards.
S UtA White Vacuum Pan
2. The total-area of the premises of the. Yellow Vacuum Pan
Houe of Myers. The Sugar WharfCen.rifugal Muscovado
nd adjacent lands 172,859 s ft.
roughly eql t Ourbusiness Favom titeBrandS.
onr lrii "imalia and abroad Cocoa Limeuice Divi 1 an previDivus
unable us to render nost efficient choice old crops.-" --";
ierdice to outr supporters here and Jamaica -rD-JuceD Myers' O.d Rum carries
abroad. r highest awards.


= nd ^d cent lands. 17,859 sq, ft., SUGAR RUM From the best Es"ates in

Cocoa Limejuice Divi Divi
Total rea of all Buildings use.up to RICE Direct from the Orient.
the time of the fire. 71,782 sq. ft Coffee Annatto Sarsaparilla White Siam, Saigon and
qqual to 1 acres. Pimento Orange Oil "Goatskins Rangoon.
Brown Rice of choicest
N.B.-Of the above the area of the Ginger Kola Nuts Cassava Starch Qualities.
Storesdestroyed by fire. now being -- --
replaced by more substantial build- Honey Wax Jippi Jappa Hats SAILl Fine alo Coarse imported
ings is 11.315 sq. ft. and manyotherF. in Cargoes.
5. The seawall at Myers' Sugar Wharf. PAPER Straw Wrapping 20xO0.
516 ft. long, with a depth alongside 15x20. and 11x11.
sufficient for Coastal Vessels to
load and unload cargo with a mini- A I
mum of landing. Our Agencies in Jamaica,...
4. Wharf Pier at Myers' Sugar Wharf, r S Include:
552 ft. of berthing space for Ships Our West India Saw Mlls,
and Sailing Vessels. Moet & Chandon "' Dry Imperial."'
N.B.-Smoothest water in the Har- Handle Native Woods. Champagne.
bour. Hennessy's Brandy
W. & A. Gilbey's Wines & Spirits
5. Railway siding on Myers' Sugar And manufacture Doors Windows, J. &J. Colman's Mustard, Starch
Wharf (standard gauge line connect- Shingles. Bee Frames, Church And Blue.
ed with island) 4Z2 yards or over Riise's St. Thomas Biy Rum
mile. Benches. Cigar Boxes, Packing "Vulcan" Swedish Safety Matches
6. Myers Wharf P.O., Telegraph and C a s e s, and all descriptions of MCherry os som" Buootg Piass
M. B. Foster's Bugle Brand Bass'
Postal Service on Myers Wharf Woodwork including Fretwork, Fan & Guinness"
premises, connecting our business A. J. Caley & Go's Cocoa
with every part of the world. Lights, etc., etc. Schweppe's Ginger Ale & Ginger
Beer
If you are in business, and in business Prompt deliveries and satisfaction Rockwood's Cocoa
for business, come and see us. or write
to us-the sooner the better, because guaranteed. "Tricent ol" Gasolene & Fuel Oil.-
in serving you, every day and in every New Pin and "Btolic" British
way, we are getting better and better. Soaps.











Cables: MYERS WHARF P.O.
"PEGASUS" Jamaica. F E I YERS SON On our Premises in touch with
Island Telegraph
Telegrams:
M" ERS," Myers Whari. "THE SUGAR WHARF," .an.d
ALL CODES USED. roreign bale'.
188 Harbour Street, Kingston.








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TPsI GLEANER Co., LTD., PRiNrTEa, 148, 150 & 152 HARBOUB ST., KINGSTON.


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11 01,
t6 X11W


,Q 0
IF, Rpm01 JEW 9
E vink, And P now In,'
two rows of oven,. we for
leA4;to,.h4:f&" a singularly, vi
expression. There was a siggeAinn
forelgii, about her. She looked *"V, -VAS(
realltv-4-Asughter of the Soath.
01M in
inted-,by LwAy: Rosedale,: Marlan4wed, totwar4a
one -99 the VV31ftsklables tbathaA just 1*w-VacaUd
obe of the'story i W by 1 mither couplet; and, seelng thwt ghe -*am"w#
% Luly Rosedale, maiiy of, t4e, youxjg mpn about- hdth
H6t4 tad in
of :jAk" "SUSAN pR0UJ)LE1CJi," "estu inthe hotel and resfdent*,
-in Of Etc, -X4 -to W
'4REVENGF," FA- bother, they shoull"ntgrd'th Joitt *q
wa* a tribute to I Ady Rose4ale's. lity, t vik-f
ver darod,1W J44a her;or. her plirty'Alllo
".Psoao_
'this afternom desptW_1 1disvq*uy encouraged t6' 44ff
few minuWa. In 'her company he
PV fro2e:4how with the sto ritish ataria!;Ahe sJW#WtC-.
A- ER ONE. the objections of "the IAdY Rosedales In the WDrld,.
-~ ,awlet-and. oelf-tontin6d, a Dim Of few didn't to`4
friends 4jr even Wellwbuilt a Able Juiliersonation of the teebori-when:ahe
and she very aft liked if'she happened to dim
middle hftht VIM. light brown hair and steady, clear, en
11EAMAX*96 one bfthe. IWrst t6 wo '; tone th I e impmssmaot self-confident 'of the person orpersons seeking. hai society.
blue eyes, h;,Va
ft *tito Moving ComDany "* ngtb, and even of obstina The 'brown mous- .-Lawrence Beaman was 4 inaii o reso ton
y arriv Tlie nitof, 144jd re laut, f lia
of tbe-" T anA,"W'- t4-,OV,6 covered., his uppm Up did not conceaI the :He 4allowed Marian aaid% her friondl-AAkil when they
modthAhe chin Was almost soare, sat (town, and 144Y Rosedale tad'sniinmbned, wo
LM] ;Abe foroh*44 immosted keex waiter to 'order tL th
ioom wlio wor pr.
'by dressed Maria 7 t
and IAwrezleo Was of, English deseenti -n.
Uirth. 'He was 42floclatad with an "There is only -,o& dance that T-khd*," he begaW
ftolt04 fbt*,Aid WM tU. he ap- company',held I ocally, in connection at once. "the kew 4ances I VT 14exat. ftt
with I I could w and I h= .... wilktresexve*
rtAnt position, and was once tz,
much trusted
'tAn eirl hot and dusty just now, but 40C, ill 7-*
waltz or two for me this veurni, W
r She "Wed a bright amtle avv._by his f1w Landoti., heid office because of his YOU -
trw ud, d de-votion to duty., -4-",How log4igo was It since yb
jVt out hat liand.. and, Some of those who .u last w1itt"d.
t c1>1*,a In;' shi laughedi. "and I a M 'W ed with him had more than bnoe laughingly re- am40d Marian mischievously. "You speak aff? It
erid With dust. i" 'you.been, marked that Lawreoes had no romanee In his com- Wete Ages.`
position but was MeMy a business machine, 'with "Nobody waltzes nowadays," broke in wr*omdc
work He dale; "the waltz, Is no 16 r po *nI, sa,!:
hobx.: did rough and yet more w4k as bft p in life. no, pk"r.,
ftthirty-three, and I they doubted: it he had ever thitt I approve int.ther. chadger, but,.Totutir peoliio do,
*40; the Fa I X less cross than 4W had a love affAW,.thVT wrre, positive that passion and their tastes d6ght to be couBld rie
and he would. alwaya be Btr*ngets. Thus 1heir judg. is now considered po41tiv6Iy Wdious to Waite~
k some good seenes." ment, based upon yjArs of- a I #sooLc4J6n and'mpon what "I am sure I uld- tot' del ibera
,bo very Hred, my dea.T," broke In, a We
they believed to, be sainttmite knowled6 of the man. Braeme to do anythin_,WXWW,"
her. and"k4ext moment, a do Yet this atteftoon hi'D was waiting for a. Emoving pie- witha slight smilev underOAnding perleetl WAi thAt
lRay was a her side.. This lady bowed 1 1
birra act ess, a*d counting_** MQE*nts until she Lady Rosedale was Suggesting that' Nlaria
n "din'Atilcji'4 the hea4.,-L, 'T bba IW*Vv shimld reappear. not, dance With him. "By lollirIA10, *1"
W t1w girl. He hadmet.h.4A* W Es before, a tow daya mean eight or teu Yo
after her arrival. iv Jd&Iva. The company had come "Then probably tt'iL b r0v I-Vook"
11pstairs now, Marlan,.and refresh 'a q = I I -
our to the Island, to fLke a g4jies:0f tr.opital pictures: IAdy Rosedale. od t __y
during the.dayzthey Worked outside of the citybut least."
perbaps=r hO 416ft
W u: thlxiil' 6- d
sit4l .1 order tb In W afternoons and eveuingg they werefree. Meet ius that what yo woLiA,, ad
3- of'uem lived in the botel, though some. cliloffy men, himself directly. Lo lWarifin. z
t, pretterredprtvato lodgiAg$,in the upper part of King- "You deser to 61 fig
ot yow
ston. In a little while 4 "Fancy living in a country Where 'dwla# aul
-118plw Marian, -qut' I'd ra, 3$6 Ome W had made numerous ac
quaffitanees.,'Ahey: wer& sd&ble in theifAftbits; and, the time, and.not joining in a dalite Oven couf&V
JaWn,-Cor tea'. If you doix1t mind-'
and as strangers. and Artists, theyware greatly in demand Th sileme. Lawrefx* rtabmd
Iforall sorts of prt*&e social fundions, Poineone had Jhat by his ad! ton he bad ffhown piaomiythaf It.,
w1xarW-Ad tJ*eglrVs walst, E
heraWay.. ew"lly In M.to it'giumpr _t' trad aced bi f he4ioi*- after- was Mariak ax9d Mkrian, only with whorn haidaldrek
fifty year% noon-. Lawrance had lookedlto Marfan's eyft-and to dance. Lady ASC44U v-ai" the
In sp
fier, Itubr had slivered e4.r!y board her 1.4#gh; he had talked Ith hs*-ftqp,* little I I their
Ing; ., her, eyes Wore while; lie lin" "'longer on the, 14" on that., or loik,"my Oe r "Mr.
h detAr1UJ&d. just a shade below occasion thaii was his: wout. TJen the habits of rw_' Would not think of even boliig4t
invIined to be k0ut. But she serve,., the habits of yrAM_' -or#" tLAAkeA to their :rltozyou. win bb dafteipg he in ialift L
briskly,, spoke foool0lonfL The noxt40 ha 40rnc0, *hd the _dulge .h fre inAbilgidAit-i"
I ndw M 10sltor I ikKikgine, even: wben he was rawh' youhger t
M40 her' Pr Tot and dreamed' to TXAW,td Inthe at -the
h io 91 in former
W aaiwftI1 her alone: t ww wpi-6'his "T" ygmola Ci4t coniplw
an Innglish $,40* mf Muip' 40'
the vl
am bo ed' gaily;, tho*t: T belleve there itre si '40a
-rinj in Jan at 'the .had ,uBbu
JJW
_amofith VIien'thewov- society w.ia'. o0wrs. %ot mi-W:16ftoui SCOIT"
"0 a of notice tka -for you Wylo4: liiiiL: they art the
tMi '040. was ticulgIr attraCtiolf.
110r, there were sc&#ftho d Hei brot4er. for 'QXaPVe, 91*1ribe.,
t1evated w,2h'rehdered ft 4ndW Y R096dale. Mr. Phipps also, b% Ut. Phipps th saw
T-f
was Ageraily regarded As a, ouriouA' pr -dale"'
Undej"her Datrau#ge any glrl iw- sort ot Lady Hjs, 81
tijjid for the M of that mrgon, who a rently made it his ha"Sa to Dot*6, notimd that wbile, MIX em always
An to declidll cverybwy, andT;Airythiag., Dleiage her, frieudAri h36 contintlsA to
'hJM'dMpJU, thatL
iirst s It W" nearly live Wcld*W the rtfteft'COU _fta H
Fe6ruary sun IWAS W"terilig" the taky, a" to-ftw litinwivii, ay, hi
'A'to her. d J*0re.V&h pahieS IDV -4, ex" to o- i to H itr nea r t he, in, mnph as
s hapesas i'dr^44, -do so)* when, to- h& surprise,'tAdY
into W- tguV or.,
after d M4 wind tko 4ad- b1oft 'he was.
dV' 114-U$ 4aWs; b1FC,1J* RIr lt big'
ed aboutzWe lawft; b4V41kv"*i, Tberewiis no jbarprem Ill, 1 I't4uietly, `d60 go ell
L er iaam" i t
TP guju#,-words gavel',
-'tea and Jjj(tl ana'S Ales T I i rlieri(Aidi
64 I'TheXe'a
attire, =yf fteulv surth es, of th r ft,4&
CIn'tWant hlijLf
rw,'yed, In a g"V
IegateA.bUes. Rb*-- D 13L 0- ,I, 104'a Am wfl wwl' =0 *
jj:, 41#`, Pe a A,*40 J 00*0 o lawn t,61d L
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it lqk" -was Xr PJAPPC a Xapp*
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PLANTERS' : .,PU.NCh I .,


ie. trut.; e was eookta for you.. Seek and ye-a.jal you would not have anyone about you that you didn't
.:itli:tbale..:Srliptures, and I sought and have lhke. That's what struck me the first time I saw
i" .: ybu, Lady'"osedale. You can keep people off. You
I': It seems," remarked Lady Rosedale.distantly. have the distinguished manner. 'Even the. lowly
F:': ."Bealman, too. Say, but you know I am in loca!" farm can teach us there is something in descent,' as
.. "Why, Mr. Phippe?" asked Mlrian. one of your poets said-I forget who it..yas. It t the
4'Because, my rttle movie star, I am a man of privilege of birth that it makes itself felt, and the
vared social tastes. I admire nobility of mind as ex- way 1 saw you freeze off some folk the other night
.presed in uplifting conversation, and though I am was a corker. That's a nice boy, as Iwas saying, and
:a American I have an inbs respect for noble birth. I am glad you like him."
Lady Rosedale fulfils these requirements. Beauty, This personal conversation was interrupted by
:too I simply adore, and youthful innocence and the return of Lawrence with the chair. Marian, who
grace; and that's sure you. And I like manly was well aware o, Lady Rosedale'a true feelings with
strength and dogged devotion n an all the rest of ihe regard to both Mr. Phipps and Lawrence, had been
sort of thing that you get in the fifth chapter of .he listening to the tormer with much amusement. She
latest novel when the-strong, silent man comas upon now turned to Lawrence, offering hinra slice of cake.
the scene and begins to be strong and silent. Friend "There's n5 tea left," she said, "but you will join
Beaman here-fills that part beautifully, especially the us in the cake, won't you?"
silent part. And how are you, this afternoon, Lady Lady Rosedale darted a warning look at her,
Roaedale?" which the affected not to see. Lawrence, feeling
"As well as I was at noon, when I saw you last," awkward, accepted the cake. Mr. Phippe, with
replied Lady Rosedale, bringing her arctic manner characteristic impetuosity, immediately bogged for a
Into play, though with a despairing sense of its being bit of cake.
sufficiently adequate to freeze Mr. Phipps. "It isn't the cake I really wart;" he explained,
"Well, that's a blessing!" exclaimed Mr. Phipps "but the pleasure of receiving it from such lovely
'ervently. "I am always anxious about your health, hands. That's what you ought to have said, Beamin.
Lady Rosedale, for you are not yet ac-limatised, and You young fellows are slow at saying the right thing ,
there is no telling what may not happen to one be- but it was different in my day. When the three of
tween lunch and tea in the tropics. I have known you are as old as I am-and that will Le many, many
men die between those two meals." years to come-you will treasure up in your memory
While speaking, his quick eyes had been roaming all the nice things said to you and about you."
about the grounds in search of something. "Wait a Lady Rosedale was not visibly mollified by this
-moment!" he cried, "I'll be right back in a moment." suggestion that she was still young. Ste desired no
He narted away, towards a chair from which some- compliments from Mr. Phipps. She finished her tea
One had risen the instant before, and had probably in- and ro;?.
tended to resume almost immediately. But Mr. "Miss Braeme will have to get ready for dinner
Phipps seized the chair, and, with a rapid "thank you" and the ball," ebe remarked, "so we had better go up-
to its original possessor, he sped back towards Lady stairs now. Are you ready, Marian?"
Rosedale's table. Placing the chair near the tible, "Quite." said Marian brightly. "Shall we -see
he sat down as though he hid been expressly invited you to-night?" she asked Mr. Phipps. -
to form one of the party, and took out his cigarette "Always on the job, my dear,". answered that
case. Lady Rggedale oatentatiously poured out tea gentleman, agilely rising with Lawrence. "It is on
without offering to order a cup for him. festive occasions that I am at my best. Ido-my finest
"Tea," said Mr. Phipps, "is an English institution work then."
implanted out here by the English, along with the "Work?" cried Marian; "do you ever work?"
peVaitentiary and the protestant religion. All these "Some day you may find that I do," he protested.
are useful things, the penitentiary being especially "I toil and spin while others enjoy themselves.
good for the natives. As an American, I have never Beaman, let's go and have a drink."
taken to tea. Will you have a cigarette, Beaman?" Mr. Phipps led a protesting Lawrence in the di-
Lawrence smilingly refused. reaction of the bar, while Lady Rosedale took Marian
"The ladies don't mind my smoking," Mr. Phipps upstairs to her own room.
explained. "I regard them as old friends now, though
we haven't known one another for long. It is com-HAPTR TWO
munity of spirit and not length of acquaintanceship CHA R T .
that makes friends, isn't it, Lady Rosedale? The L YR EDALS
moment I saw you in this hotel, giving us object les-
sons in true majesty of deportment and nobility ADY ROSEDALE'S room, one of the largest in
of mind, I said to myself, 'I can see we two are going the main building of the hctel, was on the first
to be friends.' As to my little movie star, why, we floor, looked directly out upon the gently slop-
were all in love with her from the start. Why don't ing metal roof of the verandah Ielow, and
you sit down, Beaman? What's the big idea in your commanded a view of the gardens that fronted the
standing?" Myrtle Bank Hotel. The entrance to the hotel faced
Lawrence hesitated. He had been invited by northwards; less than thirty yards from the northern
Lady Rosedale to remain, but the purpose of that in- verandah was the street. Glimpses of flaming red
vitation had not been achieved; still, he had been in- from the low-growing poinsettias in the garden, the
vited, but znf seat was available. Again Mr. Phipps's flash of a fountain playing in the sun, the welcome
keen eyes swept the grounds, and be pointed out to green of tender grass, and the purples and yellows of
Lawrence a vacant chair some distance away. "Bet- broad-leaved croutons attracted and charmed the eye
ter run and get that one," he advised, "or it will he as one's gaze travelled onward to the ornamental
Snapped up by some selfish person. There is not iron fence which seemed to shut off the hotel from the
'"..nch consideration .or others to be expected in this outer dusty city with a touch of finality. This was
world." the view which greeted Lady Rosedale's eyes when
Lawrence walked. leisurely away to fetch the she looked out of her window, but it is to be feared
chair, meanwhile Lady Rosedale angrily resigned she did not greatly appreciate it.
herself to another quarter of an hour's torture (so she On entering her room Lady Rosedale latched the
inwardly termed it) in the company of two persons light slatted half-door at the top, hut left the heavy
whom she detested. wooden door ajar, so that there should be plenty of
Mr. Phipps appeared to he enjoying his cigarette, air. She seated herself in a straight-backed chair,
.He was a spare. middle-sized man. about fifty-and-five insisting that Marian should take a rocker. "You
years of age, with scanty hair, small mobile features must bathe in my bath-room this evening, dear," she
'.iand agile- manner. A heavy pair of moustaches, began at once. "and you must use my bath whenever
once brewn, now almost completely grey, covered his you like; that's one reason why I got you to change
,lip; but a careful observer would have noticed that to the room next to me. And now, my dear, I want
..~'4hat lip was a very long one, coming firmly down on to talk to you seriously; I am sure you won't mind,
*- .. under-lip, and that the, chin beneath, though for I am old enough to be your mother, and you know
ifaau, was well formed and -trong, with a slight sug- I am your friend. Don't you think that young man,
g~satn of aggressiveness. Mr. Phips's keen grey Mr. Beaman, is just a little too pushing where you are
eyes seemed hardly ever In repose; he was constantly concerned?"
$glaseing at everything and everybody. He was well- "What do you mean, Lady Rcsedale?" asked
dr;aum' a sort of elderly dandy. Light flannel Marian,' looking with a twinkle in her eyes at her
trousers, adark blue jacket beautifully cut, an up- friend. She had taken off her hat, and her hair,
'- standing collar set off with a spotted blue butterfly tumbled, but wonderfully thick and glossy, lent to her
tie, a jaunty straw hat and highly polished brown face a singularly child-like appearance, which, how-
:.. hoes completed his attire this afternoon. His hands ever, was contradicted by the laughter in her eyes.
S e rge ~ small and well-kept; his whole appearance in- "I mean- that he is trying to make love to you,"
dicad a man who thought very highly of himself and :said Lady Rosedale directly. "I have noticed it now
-treat hBimself very well indeed. He apparently as- for the last couple of weeks. Before you came, that
SUlUa that.his company was in request by everyone, young man, whenever he happened to come to this
Sand Irtl conversation most entertaining. Mr. Phipps, hotel on an afternoon, would moon about by himself,
I It was said by his acquaintances, loved the sound of hardly talking to anyone, and certainly never to a
his own voiee. :., woman, so far as I could see. Now he is about the.
Ss- :'~. ."A al: nice yng- makn that," he observed, when place every day, and if he Is not with you, he manages
rct'-had igot. out of hearing distance. "A re- to be as near you as possible. He tries to make op-
m tetlligegnt young .fellow. I feel that I share portunitles for speaking to you. He want to: dance
iopiaion of hfI., Lady. Resdale." with you to-night, and I can't guess what he will-not
: am ntUtaware tat I lre ever expressed any .be doing next. Proposing, I suppose!"
t of at o .1r: T aa/"' replied Lady Resedale, pur- Marian laughed. "Surely you take him toe seni-
: 3 miaroi~n l ing.Ltwraes teil to phow her ously, Lady Rosedale! He is very pleasant--4d very
hl .~i.b 'lir Ut. "..... -. quiet. But he badly ever pays me a compmest, and
05 M S i edt'ain so mauy worgla Mr. PUifs: I don't. tak he w onul knowJ L..els'.'.r '.
I..;, g.e heaf &-;.."but I often see, i.m about you, and "Don~ t yaoFsthink that," raerned 4ile
M : ": .. "... '. 6. .. "
.-:, .


:i


of the fifth or the sixth class. That isn't much, is
it?"
"But you may be of the first class to-morrow,"
protested Lady Rosedale. "I Lave heard," she con-
tinued, "that the movie people make fortunes when
they become popular."
"I am afraid I am not one of those," said Marian
a little sadly, shaking her head. "They give me roles
of a very ordinary description to play. The directors
say I have not sufficient personality for success on the
sreren."
"You have all the personality that a moving pic-
ture play can possibly want," asserted Lady Rosedale,
who was scandalised at any moving -picture director
having an opinion differing from hers. "I am
afraid that moving picture directors are not an
estimable body of persons; but if you are patient
your time must come. If you throw yourself away
on a young man with but a few hundred pounds a
year. and who does not seem to be even in such so-
ciety as this place affords-which is not saying much
-you will regret it. I am sorry you promised to
dance with him to-night, Marian. I was trying to
catch your eye when he was asking you to, but I
couldn't. Take an older womrn's advice, my dear,
and be cold and distant to him. I wouldn't say this
if he were merely nice and courteous to you, but he is
in love with you, and that is a very Berlous matter.
Would your brother approve of him?"
A shadow passed over Marian's face at this ques-
tion. "He would not," she answered simply, "but
there will be nothing to disapprove of. I can assure
you." She paused for a moment, then continued slow-
ly. "I like Mr. Beaman, as a friend. He has always
treated me, not as an actress to be flattered and made
love to, but as a lady, as a-a-" ,
"Divinity," suggested Lady Rosedale. 'Tes, I
have seen it. I don't say the young man is not nice
in his own way, though he appears to me to he rather
wooden; and I am glad that you don't care for men
who think that because you are a picture actress they
can be familiar. If anyone here does it," she west on,
with haughty asperity, "I wish you would let me
know who it Is. I should certainly seek an opportuni-
ty of speaking to him: once would be all that would
be necessary. You cannot, however, give up your
career because Mr. Beaman seems to you to be mote
gentlemanly than some other men. He is not the man
for you, my dear; with your looks and disposition and.
youth, you could marry anyone. I said as much to
your brother yesterday."
"And what did he say?" asked Marian.
"He said he would look after your future and
would take care that you made no mistake. Which
is the proper sentiment for a brother to express, no
doubt, though how be is to act up to his resolution I
Lo not know. Your future is in your own hands, my
dear, not in the hands of any brother, however- affe
tionate or careful he may be. You don't mind my
speaking to you as I have done, do your'
"No, dear Lady Rosedale," cried .Marian, 'but
wonder why you take all this Interest in me. I am
stranger to you; you know nothing about me."
"I know you are a good little girl," the elder w
man was on the point of saying impulsively, bu
checked herself and replied instead, "I like to see
things going as they ought."
Marian laughed. She knew that Lady Rosedal
did indeed love to play the part of a dictatorial
Providence; Mr. Phipps bad more than once..said
so in quite a disrespectful manner behind Lady
Rosedale's back, and Marian had. already come to
perceive that Mr. Phippe formed remarkably accurate
estimates of the characters of the peoplewith who
he came in contact. Perhaps it was because Lady
Rosedale had some inkling of this that she never fel
quite at ease in the society of Mr. Phipps.
"And now," she. said, rising with a self-satisfi
air, "we had better call the maid to see about the bath
And, by the way, I want you to wear my pearls t
night, Marian, .they will suit you beautifully. I hav
set my mind upon seeing you wear them, so I'll tak
no ret~ial.
Marian was about to eay something, but L
Rosedale wil not listen.
S'Not a .word!" ashe..cried, "I hay made up m
mind about the pearls." .
Marian d notgaX, kaowl,. ell that Lad
Rosedale would listen, to no protot..


___ I ;;I_;;


;at
Ins-ga;


*T,* f,.':,. ,' "
a..Aious jy "Every man Ainaew h o*to propom, what-
ever B.. m-1 say. I think, too, he is being en-
Louraged by hat detettlue Mr. Phlipps, who simply
.an.ot be insulted. Basept for being poafttely rude,
I. ~eve done all I can to show Mr. Phippg;that I do
not desire his company, but It is of no uaei:w1 atever.
And now I am sure he is egging on that young aan
to make love to you."
'!KiJt very foolish of him, if he is, "replied Marian
thoughtfully. "I do not care that way for Mr.
Beaman; I like him as an acquaintance, that is. all.
It ought to be plain to him." -:
"My dear," said Lady Rosedale, "you belief*'lo-
day tnat you only like him a's an acquaintance, but,
if he goes on following you about with his eyes, as if
you were the. only girl in the world, you may begin
to feel to-morrow that he is more than an ac uaint-
ance, more than a friend. It is a dangerous game he
is playing-for you. Who is he? And what is his
position?"
"And who am I, Lady Rosedale, and what is my
fonltinn?" aaskLe Mairian laulhini "A mni a






I I v if 'i I-----.
C,; *" rPTf KTREE.

S MR. PHIPPS'B* ADVICE.
ftNE MYRTLE BANK HOTEL was ablaze with
- ;.*ht. The long walk leading from the sf~th
,' ratidah to the sea-wall and the pier wak an
avenue of colour formed by the many-tinted
itlc bulbs; the rustic summer houses on the lawn
iWin the cardinal hues; to the east the annex
ii;`-along the sea-wall ran a row of little glittering
ice lamps.
kWove, serene ineffably, rhone myriads of stars In
Blue sky, and westward faintly gleamed a cres-


-I


Not far from this group, at a table fbi' two, sat
Mr. Phipps and Lawrence Beaman. Now and then
Lawrence would steal a look at Marian, and I r.
Phipps's eyes invariably followed his glance.
"She is nottlooking happy to-night, Phippp," said
Lawrence guardedly, after one of these swift glances.
"I can see that even from here."
"Do you attribute her unhappiness to an insuffi-
rlency of champagne?" enquired Mr. Phipps. "Lady
Rasedale miy be somewhat parsimonious when It
cones to the drinks. She may believe in a dry coun-
try when she has to stand treat. I Lhink I have
noticed that peculiarity of hers."
"I don't think: Miss Braeme is particularly fond


that isn't likely to prepossess me to a favourable Ti
of her moral qualities. As for you-"
"She deteats me," admitted Lawrence.
"Bull's eye!" agreed Mr. Phippa. "She i8 tti t4
form in dealing with you, son; she suspects yot haft
an eye on her little favourite, and she thinks it awil-
ly cheeky of you. She's got that girl's future t"
mapped out in her mind. She wants to do grtat
things for Miss Marian at a minimum of personal
expense and with great self-satisfaction, and yoa
threaten to butt in and spoil the plan as duly uat-
lined by her ladyahip. I guess she is top-notoh La
selfishness all right; but I think she really has a roft
spot for Marian."


WHEN

moo. The night air was cool and crisp, brac-
ia'."nd as one watched the wonderful constellations
f"blazed overhead, one might see at intervals the
ors as they rushed through space, trails of fire,
ls of evanescent beauty. In a few moments they
il:Jlashed in all their glory into human ken, and
ji. had faded entirely out of the tropic sky.
Te dining room of the hotel was crowded to its
.t capacity. Flower-bedecked tables set close
gas another were surrounded by diners, the men
i~tgulation evening dress, the women in low-cut
Als of soft silk and glossy satin, with jewels flash-
tmrom fingers and bosom, with fire glinting from
1* eyes and laughter pealing from their lips.
lwaiters clad in white hurried about bearing
t, bottles of hissing, sparkling wine, and boxes of
litnt Jamaica cigars. The guests were at different
rC of the dinner's progress. Some, coming late,
sat begun, others were sipping coffee or liqueurs,
Wingnaking cigarettes, the girls delicately blowing
f~S oke into the air, the men puffing with more
i te enjoyment. -
a stand on the lawn a military band, each
S a native soldier, crashed out a popular air.
usthe im e was scarcely heard because of the hum
tamour of hundreds of voices, each striving to
itself distinct.
Lady Rosedale had a table for four. Marian sat
te to her; her other two guests were the director
C W~oving picture company, and his leading lady,
Hellingworth, who was being "featured" in a
which Marian had some part. Lady Rosedale
the director a vulgar, odious person, but
asked him to dinner for the purpose of in-
him in Marian's favour; for much.the same
bad the star actress been invited. These ap-
highly sensible of the compliment which Lady
paid them, and delighted, for in the recent
had suffered something from her marvellous
Sat keeingi people at a resmtful if not ie-
distnee. -

1- .:.'

,'.
._ .. ,., .:


THE SKIES ARE GOLD AND CRIMSON-SUNSET IN JAMAICA.


of drink," returned Lawrence with perceptible cold-
ness: "she may be ill."
"Miss Braeme, like the modern girl, and especial-
ly the girl who acts for the movies, is not likely to oe
a strenuous advocate of a dry Jamaica, my boy," said
Mr. Phipps tritely. "I have not observed that she re-
gards a cocktail with marked disfavour, or refuses to
look upon the wine when it is white."
"Can't you be serious for once?" asked the
younger man impatiently. "I feel sure she is being
bored. Look at that little ass of a director who is
just hanging upon every word spoken by Lady Rose-
dale. What sort of a company is that for a sensible
girl?'
"Meaning that she Fould have been happier had
she dined with you? Did you ask her?"
"How did you know that I wanted to ask her?"
demanded Lawrence.
"I didn't know; I merely guessed. Well, why
didn't you ask her?"
"Hadn't the opportunity."
"Lacked the nerve, you mean: you could have
written her a note. Nothing incriminating, you
know: a few words of chaste politeness signifying a
meal and a bottle of iced fizz. You thought of it, and
then funked it. Isn't that so?"
Lawrence admitted by his silence that it Was.
Mr. Phipps glanced quickly around him. No one was
likely to hear what he might say. "What's the big
idea?" he questioned. "Are you serious about the
little movie star?"
"I have a high regard for her," replied Lawrence
with a reserve of manner that was not lost upon Mr.
Phipps. "That is all. Even Lady Rosedale, as you
have observed, has taken tb Miss Braeme. If it were
anyone else, I should think that Lady Rosedale had
an ulterior object."
"You don't credit the old lady, then, with any
kindly human feeling, -Beaman ?"
"Do yn,?"
'*Te4,:4 don't know. She stre don't Ibre ine, and


."She is thinking more of herself than of Marian,"
said Lawrence angrily. "Ever since that girl caine
here Lidy Rosedale has hardly let her have a minute
to herself. You would think Miss Braeme was her
property."
"Has Miss Braeme shown any objection? Said
anything to you to indicate that the old dame Is a
kind of old man of the sea on her shoulders?" asked
Mr. Phipps.
"No; I can't say that she has," admitted 14W
rence.
"Then I reckon she can bear the burden of Lady
Rosedale's interest in her life. One can stand much
from a title, as you are now finding out. Look at
your fi end the director. He's so proud to be seen
in her ladyship's company that he'll die of excessive
delight if he don't look sharp. Perhaps it's that way
too with your movie star-and yet-"
"Yea?"
"I'm rot so sure that it is. She hasn't dropped
you, as I am dead certain the oid lady has asked her
to do. But don't be too sure that she won't cut you
some day, Lawrence. There's something in the ia-
maica atmosphere that leads people to treat their
bosom friends like dirt if they only get for a moment
in the company of someone bigger than themselves
It is habit of you people here, and a man is liable to
acquire it after three weeks' residence in the conn
try."
"She's dancing with me to-night," Law ~nce re-
minded him.
"Make the most of the giddy mazed of the walts,"
urged Mr. Phipps. "If you want the girl to like yon,
push ahead and get In your spade work at dtee. Toat
are reserved and shy. Drop it. lin a girls y"tiW .S
shy man's a fool, a sissy. But, say, look at hew ih i
is dressed, son; simply stunning,. ain't .t? Te .iti
who marries her will have to ~fl' sonle pieeWos ilft
golden calf, and I don't know that you are t es ;`di
a millionaire yet. Thought about aitilit?" -:: .
"I have thought of nothing of the: i ,ort"" l


.: ...


---- ------ --- ---- ---


I /





4' L PLANTERS' PUNCH 1922-23
.. J


Lawrence. "Who am I that I could think of-you
know what I mean. I have some money saved, yes;
and a salary. But you are r;ght; she would want a
man mrueh better circumstanced than I am. I am a
eel."
S"With your opinion of yourself it would be im-
polite for me to disagree," said Mr. Phipps; "but a
fool will act according to his folly, Lawrence, and
you are going to do that. Sure!"
Lawrence smiled; then made haste to finish his
dessert. The room was now thinning rapidly, and
he saw Lady Rosedale and her party preparing to
rise. The military band on the lawn had ceased to
play; the dance, he knew, would shortly begin. "Are
you ready?" hie asked his companion after a little,
when Marian and the others had disappeared from
view into the crowd outside. Mr. Phipps signified
that he was, and together they strolled on to the
verandah and towards the open doors of the ballroom.
The lobby and the verandah were crowded with
people, the younger ones eagerly booking dances, the
older ones looking about for comfortable seats. The
ballroom itself, when Lawrence and his friend reach-
ed it, was already filled to its utmost capacity. A
native string band, the musicians swaying to the
sound of their own music, was playing a popular rag-
time, and under parti-coloured lights and a roof pro-
fusely decorated with flags the dancers moved round
and round the room, a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours
and of flushed and merry faces.
Now and then Lawrence could see Marian as she
came abreast of the door by which he stood and swift-
ly passed him. her partner a tall good-looking officer
of the British West India Regiment. Lawrence's
waltz with her was third on the programme, and he
knew that to every dance there would be an encore or
two. He had therefore some time to wait, and, as he
could not possibly hope for a word with Marian before
his dance, he turned to move away. As he did so he
came face to face with Marian's brother, Stephen
Braeme. From the expression on the latter's face,
Lawrence realized that Stephen had been watching
him for some moments as his eyes had followed
Marian's movements.
Stephen Braeme was one of the actors of the
moving picture company who lived outside of the
hotel, in private lodgings, but at the Myrtle Bank he
was a frequent visitor, and there he had been intro-
duced to Lawrence. At first he had been cordial, a
little later on his manner had distinctly changed.
Stephen was much taller than his sister and decidedly
darker; he looked about thirty years of age. Their
mother (it had got about, as these things sometimes
will) had been a lady of good family in Peru, their
father an Englishman who had met and married her
there. Of aquiline features, his black eyes quick and
glittering, his hair coal black, and with full, clean-
shaven lips, Stephen Braeme was unquestionably a
very handsome man: a boon companion too and of
sociable disposition, though patently vain. Lawrence
knew that the reason of Stephen's dislike of him was
the attention which, however unobtrusively, he
paid to Stephen's sister. Stung to resentment by
Stephen's change of manner, and realizing that he
exercised an Immense influence over Marian, Law-
rence had come to detest him heartily. Yet when
'they met, as they often did of necessity, there was a
fair show of politeness In their greeting. At the very
least Stephen Braeme was never quite so distant in
attitude as was Lady Rosedale, and Lawrence appre-
ciated the pride he so obviously took in his sister.
The two men bowed to one another, Lawrence
endeavouring to inform his salutation with a degree
df friendliness which he did not feel. Mr. Phipps
grasped Stephen warmly by the hand and was greeted
with equal enthusiasm. He immediately invited
Stephen to come and have a drink; the latter appeared
on the brink of accepting this invitation, but altered
his mind, and murmured something about having to
find his partner for the next dance. Lawrence guess-
ed that this excuse was given because Stephen did
not wish to be in a party of which he, Lawrence,
would necessarily be one; Stephen desired to keep
aloof from him. This reflection stung him to anger,
and Mr. Phipps remarked instantly the frown on
Lawrence's brow.
"A handsome fellow that," observed Mr. Phipps
as they moved away: "but he thinks an almighty lot
of himself-that's the Spanish blood. He thinks an
almighty lot of his sister too," added Mr. Phipps
slyly.
"There is reason for that," said Lawrence, "but
be sometimes acts as if he owned her. Is that a
Spanish custom-?"
'*My dear boy, you would never have got to know
her had she not been here as an actress, and he
had desired that she should not know you! There is
no such thing as the emancipation of woman in Span
ish-American countries; there are still the watchful
father and brother, the vigilant duenna. the barred
windows, the whole blessed family on the spot where
a man wants to say P nice word to the girl of hit
admiration. That tall fellow regards himself at
father and brother in one, so far as authority goes
anyhow, and you have got to reckon with that until
you can get him rorvnd. What with him and Lad!
Rosedale, son, you are in for a bad time!"
.. To this Lawrence made no reply: he was think
tag much the same thing himself. His pride wa
hurt: but he was willing to make a sacrifice of prid
It only he could bring these two to a better frame o


mind towards him. And yet, he asked himself, as
he had done more than once before, what exactly did
he have in view? ]
Mr. Phippa had pointed out to him that be might o
be too poor for a girl who dressed as Marian did, who
was probably so accustomed to hectic excitement that a
It had become a necessity of her existence. Hitherto (
he had had no good reason to be discontented with his
position, or discouraged by his prospects: now it i
seemed to him that that position was utterly miser- a
able, those prospects appalling. He mspposed that t
both Stephen Braeme and Lady Rosedale knew all
about them: in a small city personal information
could be gathered from the garrulous in a week.
Those two would probably use all their influence with
Marian against him, they had shown him plainly that
they did not regard him as desirable, while he-he did
not dare go further than sit with her for an hour or
ask her for a dance.
"Beaman," said Mr. Phipps firmly, breaking in
upon Lawrence's reflections after a silent walk that
had lasted tor several minutes, "you are coming with
me to have a drink. You could not possibly take that
stunning young woman into the ballroom feeling as
you are, and with a face such as you are wearing.
Whisky has been universally pronounced good for
snake bites in the United States, ever since prohibi-
tion was put over the people in that free and .nu-
lightened country. You have been bitten, my boy-
1 won't say by a snake, but you have been bitten.
Come and have a drink."


CHAPTER FOUR.

"IT IS IMPOSSIBLE."
T HEY went into the bar, and Lawrence, usually
an abstemious man, had one whisky and soda,
after which Mr. Phippa declared that he looked
better. "It is about time that I should go
back now," he said to Mr. Phipps, as soon as he had
finished his drink; "you must excuse me; I'll see you
later." He hurried out of the bar to look for Marian,
aud found her, as he had expected, standing by Lady
Rosedale's chair.
The waltz was beginning. He led her in, and to-
gether they began to dance. But In a crowded room
Lawrence soon realized that he was but an indtnfer-
ent dancer; do what he would, he could not prevent
himself from bumping against other waltzers, and,
though these took it all in good part, he flushed hot
with annoyance at his own clumsiness.
"I am afraid that I am making you appear ridi-
culous," he whispered to Marian with a blank look of
chagrin, after a vain struggle to keep out of other
people's way.
"Let us go outside," she replied quickly. "We
can sit the rest of it out together. It's close In here;
and I don't feel that I want to dance to-night."
"You wouldn't want to, with me," he agreed
grimly, as they made their way outside and walked
slowly towards the sea-front. "I am ashamed that I
have spoilt part of your evening."
"No; you are quite wrong," she assured him
earnestly. "I really don't want to dance."
She spoke with an earnestness that surprised
him, and he experienced a strange thrill of elation.
She was not, then, a girl who would care for a man's
company only if he could keep her always amused.
These little revelations of character that she made
from time to time were always a delight to him. It
seemed to him that he was always discovering some-
thing new and wonderful about her, something finer
and more lovable than he had suspected before. He
wondered, too, if she did not care to dance because she
preferred to be alone with him; a thiovght which, if
he instantly dismissed it as vain and presumptuous.
imparted to him, nevertheless, an exquisite glow of
pleasure.
"Marian!"
They were nearly at the end of the lawn when a
voice behind called out to her. The speaker was not
far behind.
"My brother," she murmured quickly, and stopped
dead. "He-he probably wants to say something to
me, and I have-- must go and hear what he has to
say. Wait; I will come back in a moment."
Stephen himself, after calling to her, had paused,
making no attempt to come up with them.
She hurried towards him and joined him:
Lawrence could see them both dimly where they stood.
He guessed that Stephen was remonstrating with
her for being with him, and his lips closed ominously.
Whatever Stephen said to her. however, did not pre-
vent her from keeping her word; for she came back,
Sand quickly, as she had promised, without any re-
ference to the brief interruption. They resumed their
Walk towards the seawall; where he found a vacant
Garden bench. The seawall itself was deserted. They
seated themselves in silence. He was angrily moody;
she seemed somewhat depressed and sad.
s "Your brother does not like me," he said at last,
a bluntly.
1 "No," she replied with a frankness which he
r hardly expected. He resolved to be equally plain.
"Why?"
She made. no reply at once. He glanced at her
s face, discernible in the light shed by the little lamps
e that stretched overhead along the seawall's length.
if It was drawn, nervous: she was visibly agitated.


"I can t say," she answered, after a little while;
'but he is like that at times. He takes likes and dis-
ikes to people for no reason whatever. It Is foolish
of him."
"Shall I tell you why?" he asked, and it appeared
is if she did not hear him. "I will tell you," be -
continued, with a ring of determination in his voice.
"It is because he knows I love you. He has seen
t, and he thinks I am not good enough for you. I
am not, dear; but I love you, though I never meant
io tell you so to-night, or at any other time."
He bad spoken without premeditation, uttering
words that had been in his heart for days, breaking
through all his habits of reticence and reserve. And
now that he had told her he loved her, he found
further speech, and gave full vent to it.
"I love you, dearest, love you as I never could
have thought it possible for me to love a woman. I
have been very lonely all my life, but I never felt
it before. I did not wish it otherwise; but you came
and I saw you, you who are so beautiful, so wonder-
ful, and now I could wish only to live for you, to be
everything to you. I should not say it. for how can
I ask you to marry me? I. who am nothing, com-
pared with you-a mere sort of clerk, I suppose, at
best. And yet I am gl-d I have told you what an
hour ago I should have thought it foolish to mention,
for you know now that to me you are everything,
everything. .."
The lap, lap of the waves against the seawall.
the gentle rustle of coconut palms in the avenue be-
hind them, ibe hum of the tropical night insects
among the trees, the sound of the music, softened as
it came to them throbbing through the air, the mur-
mur of human voices from the lawn, all these they
heard with a strange distinctness when he ceased
and waited for her reply. They were listening to no-
thing, intent only upon themselves. Yet all these
mingled sounds impinged upon their consciousness
with peculiar insistence as they stared at the dark
sea in front of them, with the little lighted ships at
anchor upon its bosom.
"I know it," she replied at last, "but I wish you
hadn't said it. It's no use." she went on, as if talk-
ing to herself; "it is impossible. You don't know
how impossible it is."
"I do, only too well," he answered bitterly. "I
have known it all along. It is hopeless, but who
would blame me for daring to hope? And yet I did
not even dare to hope!"
"What Is the good of hoping?" she asked. "I am
going away in a few weeks, and then it will be all
the same to you. Some day you will wonder why
you cared for a moving picture actress you knew no-
thing about-and you will feel ashamed."
He exclaimed passionately against the sugges-
tion; suddenly be seized the hand lying nearest to
him and would have carried it to his lips had she not
quickly pulled it away.
"If you do that now you will do it again." she
said softly, "and then you-surely you must know
what yielding to temptation means? We yield once,
and say it is only for that once; and after that we
yield again, and again, and then-! You mustn't.
And I mustn't let you. It would not be fair to you.
"I am a Bohemian," she continued, "a wanderer;
here to-day and gone to-morrow, and I do not love
you. Besides, I am afraid ... ."
"Of what?" he demanded
"Of everything, I was always a coward. I am
afraid now, horribly."
He glanced at her, and her. face bore witness to
her words. His gorge rose. "Afraid of your
brother?" he cried. "If that is all, there is nothing
to be afraid of. I would tell him now."
"No," she protested; "no. You must not. You
promise me that you will not?"
Involuntarily she,had placed her hand upon his,
as if to beseech him by touch as well as by word. "If
you wish it," he said, gladly obedient to her faintest
desire.
A slight pressure of her hand on his suggested
that she realized why he so readily consented to do
what she wished.
"And this is the end?" he asked her, after another
pause.
Of our friendship? Why should it be? I like
you; you have been very nice to me. I like you
to be near me; I know I could trust you at any time.
Why should it be the end?"
"I would be your friend and your lover for ever,"
he answered. "Your lover I shall be always. If you
let me continue to be your friend-"
"Yes;" she interrupted softly. "I want you to
be."
And again a silence fell between them, and they
heard the soft lapping of the waves at their feet.
To Lawrence everything seemed a blank; he was
conscious of a peculiar feeling of numbness in his
mind, numbness and an intense stillness. He had
said he had not dared even to hope; he knew now that
he had been deceiving himself, that he had hoped
much with all the strength of his being. And now he
felt this absolute refusal of him with every nerve of
his body. She did not love him; she had said so
frankly as if to put that matter at rest for ever. But
if he should persist in offering her his devotion, might
she not feel differently towards him, come to care
for him? But did his position warrant that? Would
she be satisfied with what he had to offer? These






19 M22-23

u.qastion s-thronged through his mind half uncon-
jiouisly. He could find no answer to them.
"I have missed one of the dances," said Marian,
isinug at last, "and my partner must be looking all
Amount for me. We ought to go back now, don't you
'think? They'll wonder what has become of us."
Thus brought back to practical realities, Lawrence
id her from the seawall and towards the ballroom.
k.At one of the entrances of this room they were met
by the foung man who had engaged Marian for the
Lifith dance; the fifth was now in progress: she had,
voluntarily, cut that. The young man suggested
hat they should sit together until his dance came
ijund; and at this moment Mr. Phipps made hie ap-
miiance.
: "Not a dance for the old man!" he exclaimed,
baking his head in affected sorrow. "No one wants
S n, and )el I can foot it deftly with the youngest of
*iem. Never seen me dance, have you?'"
While speaking he had been keenly scanning
Msrian with admiration in his eyes. She was dressed
':Au rich yellow satin: the skirt covered with beautiful
i'.fe. On her bosom and neck glowed with soft lustre
wonderful necklace of pearls which he had seen on
ILldy Rosedale more than once. Some flowers were
iu.tened at her waist by a diamond brooch; but these
:'are wilting alreaov and banging loose.
";. "It you are not careful," went on Mr. Phipps with-
ut waiting for any answer to his last question, "you
.lili lose that fine brooch of yours, young lady. The
~ateh seems weak, or something."
.Marian glanced at the brooch. "I must get it
|lghtened," she said a little absently; "but it's all
ht, the catch will hold." She took out the faded
SWers and threw them away.
."Careless, careless," reproved Mr. Phipps, "you
~esrve to lose it to teach you a good lesson for the
.Wture. Sometimes we want what we say we don't,
~ sometimes we lose what we think we have for
.ltain, and then waste time in regrets." He spoke
cith the most innocent of expressions, but Marian
ud Lawrence shot a sharp look at him. They were
timelyy sensitive just now to any remark that
iht appear to have a bidden meaning.
,.: "Let us all sit down while we may, and before
chairs are monopolised," counselled Mr. Phipps.
s hephered them to a small table with chairs set
:nd it, and placed between two low, broad-leaved
am: here they could see the ballroom distinctly.
suggested drinks. It was a habit of his, and he
a waiter take the order before his invitation
d be refused. For himself ihe chose a low rocking
ii next to Marian and luxuriated in its comfort.
e'sBeemed to realise that no conversation was to be
l'out of Lawrence or Marian just then, so turned
j,|ttention to the strange young man and animated-
ihatted about nothing in particular with him until
.refreshments were brought. These consumed, the
|thdance began and Marian and her partner rose
go0 so did Lawrence, who, informing Mr. Phipps
.Jte would see him later on, moved away also.
In Marian and her partner had nearly reached the
padah, Mr. Phipps rose briskly, took a step or two
rdas the disappearing couple, paused and seemed
ipchange his mind, then returned to his seat. He
ted his feet on a chair and smiled as if much
by everything around him. He was still
Ltg In the same spot and in the same posture when
wrence came back about an hour afterwards to re
him.
Sam a very active man," observed Mr. Phipps,
*l when I see a host of young people moving to
for hours. I just want to sit still and watch
do the exertion. Then I understand the mean
I real rest, and appreciate the charms of an idle
H'Nad your second waltz yet?"
I" could not dance the first, so I don't know if I
i'ttempt the second. It is low down on the pro-
anyhow," said Lawrence.
'Yeu ought to cultivate poetry, like I do," advised
e1 ipps. 'If you try and don't succeed, try, try,
ln': I guess it was an American who invented
lie. Long ago I asked the same girl to marry
Hn less than five times. How's that?"
T.f?' said Lawrence, abstractedly, and with
s lack of interest.
YesB, sir. And she refused me 'very time. She
ifreal good kind of girl, now that I come to
f It. She refused me to the last, and now I
sufficiently express, my gratitude to her. I
her what perseverance meant, and, by Jove!
iWved.tthat she had a wrinkle or two on that same
flnality. She out-persevered me: but I'd have
Vihamed if I had given up at the first No. I
have gone on suggestion' the altar and the
hearth if she hadn't accepted someone else;
e'did. Man wasn't a patch on me, but there's
*I noting for tastes. 1 have been happy ever
'ier marriage: she was tall and slender just like
star here. She is now tall and stout."
ee made no comment.
1 not take No for an answer till there was no
asking the question any more." Mr. Phipps

.Lawrence was evidently not to be led into
any discloures. He knew Mr. Phipps's
ef indirect enquiry. but was not disposed
unieative just then. He allowed the hint

Vfiippe did not try again, but, Instead, took


PLANTERS' PUNCH 5
-- ..


out his cigarette case, and, finding but one cigarette In
It, hailed a passing bellboy.
"Run up to my room, Ethiopa," he commanded,
"and you will find a tin of cigarettes on my table or
on the dressing table, or the bed-if you use your eyes
you willsee it. Hurry back with It." TheboygrLnned
and went quickly to do as he was ordered. Mr.
Phipps was known to be generous in the matter of
tips.
Mr. Phipps lay back in his rocking chair. "The
charm of the tropics," he soliloquised, "is its cheap
labour. Cheap and inefficient, but wonderfully will-
ing at the prospect of modest remuneration. These
bellboys now; they never say that a thing can't be
done, or confess that they do not know how to do ILt
They make a real effort to help you. Only ladt *eek
there was a busy American down here, and he wanted
to telephone someone. Asked a bellboy to bring him
a telephone directory, and that boy said, yes, he
would, and went away at the double-quick. Stayed a
little longer than seemed necessary, but came back at
last with a lemon squash. It wasn't quite what was
wanted, but the helpful intention was there. Ah,
here's my boy! Well, where are the cigarettes?"
"Please, sir.' said the boy, "there is no cigarettes
on the bed or the dressing table, sir."
"And it didn't strike you to look elsewhere, is that
it? Too much of a demand upon your imaginative
powers, eh? Well, I am not going to smoke any
other cigarettes except my own, so I guess I'll just
foot it upstairs and get them. Beastly shame to have
to do it."
"Don't trouble," said Lawrence, seeing that Mr.
Phipps did not wish to stir. "I'll run up and get
them for you."
"Will you, son? That's kind of you, sure. You'll
find me right here when you come back."
Lawrence was away for quite ten minutes before
he came back. "No wonder the boy couldn't find
them," he observed. handing an unopened tin of
cigarettes to Mr. Phipps; "you had none out. I had
to hunt for them. and found two or three tins at last
in the bottom drawer of your dressing table." Mr.
Phipps said nothing, but opened the tin, extracted
some cigarettes, with which he filled his case, and
proceeded to smoke. He made no effort to draw
Lawrence Into conversation: the look on Lawrence's
face was not inviting. Only one question did he ask:
'About what time is your second waltz?" '.Some-
where between twelve and one o'clock." said Lawrence,
and Mr. Phipps knew that he would remain till the
dance was over, or till Marian went upstairs
At midnight Mr. Phipps got up to retire. "These
festivities will go on until three o'clock," he observed,
"and you are likely to be here until then. You want
to-see the last of everything, Lawrence, meaning
thereby one certain young person. But I see no
reason why I should stay down here any longer, so
I'll go and hit the hay. And take my advice. quit
looking so darned griw and gloomy. Anyone seeing
your face will know thit something has happened to
you. Well. good-night."
"Good-night," echoed Lawrence.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE JEWEL ROBBERY.
THE bellboy who first heard Lady Rosedale's bell
flew incontinently up the stairs, showing a
celerity not habitual with persons of his pro-
fession. But there was something so loud,
so imperative, so persistent about the summons, that
he fit impelled to swiftness; even as he sped up the
servants' stairs he heard that summons shrilling be-
low him and knew that whoever was ringing would
tolerate no nonsense on his part.
He had no need to knock at Lady Rosedale's
door. It was wide open. and that lady's voice was
heard calling out to her neighbour, who was Marian
Braeme, and telling her of a terrible misfortune.
Guests on the opposite side of the corridor, some of
them awakened suddenly. were hurrying into bath-
robes and kimonos, preparatory to. emerging upon
the scene. Maids were speeding to the spot. Lady
Rosedale was not loud or hysterical, but the word she
had sent out to Marian had been caught by one other
person, and (so significant and sinister it was) had
been instantly repeated to another. It was "theft,"
a sort of magic talisman for unlocking all kinds of
fears. By the time the bellboy reached Lady Rose-
dale's door he was joined by a little crowd of people,
and the crowd grew momently.
The boy heard Lady Rosedale gasp. "My diamond
necklace-gone'" and in his innocence he answered.
"Yes, ma'am," as if it were the most -atural thing in
the world that diamond necklaces should disappear
overnight out of a lady's room.
"The manager; quick, bring the manager!" order-
ed Lady Rosedale, as Marian joined her. Marian's
face was bloodless, her lips white. She it was to
whom Lady Rosedale had first called out on discover-
ing her loss: she had thrown on a loose robe as quick-
ly as she could, and had hurried to join her friend.
Her eyes looked frightened, as indeed did the eyes of .
everyone in the corridor. The diamond necklace they
had all heard of: its reputed value was ten thous-
and pounds. It had been stolen? surely, surely
there was some mistake. "Why not telephone for
the police?" suggested one of the startled guests, and,


without waiting for an answer, flew to the telephone-
nearby.
The manager made his appearance, having been
given to understand by the bellboy that Lady Rose-
dale had been robbed of everything she possessed, and
nearly murdered in addition. The boy had bees
dramatic In his relating of Lady Rosedale's condition;
consequently the manager was considerably relieved
at seeing her alive, and apparently perfectly well, even
it romewbat agitated. He looked. congratulatiom
Lady Rosedale, aware that he must have heard of her
loss, regarded his look as a premeditated insult. She
turned upon him with dignity.
"So this is how guests are treated in this hotel,
is it, sir?"
"It is impossible, Lady Rosedale, quite impossi-
ble," protested the manager, who was a Frenchman
with a plentiful supply of ingratiating gestures. "It
has never happened before, and It cannot have hap-
pened now. Have you searched? Maybe a little over-
sight: mislaid, pernaps. I assure you we shall do
everything to find it for you. With your permission,
we shall look at once."
The dapper little man was ready to conduct the
investigation himself. The very idea of policemen in
the hotel filled him with consternation and dismay.
"Search!" exclaimed Lady Rosedale, who, in her
flowing kimono, chocolate coloured, and embroidered
with bright birds that flew in every direction, appear-
ed now of almost striking height as she looked down
upon the manager from tie summit of her great in-
dignation-"search!" Do you think I would make a
fuss about nothing? Will any amount of search ae-
count for my trunk being open? You can search it
you like; that will be necessary, I dare say. But I
Tnform you at once that I shall hold you and your
hotel responsible for my loss."
The manager shrugged his shoulders deprecating-
ly. "The hotel is not responsible for any money and
jewellery not deposited in the safe downstairs," he
reminded Lady Rosedale, but succeeded In throwing
into his words and attitude a suggestion of regret
that such responsibility could not rightly be placed
on the hotel. "But the necklace, it is safe, I am sure.
Let us begin to look."
By this time most of the people on the first floor
were in the corridor. Among these was Mr. Phipps,
who was already completely dressed. Mr. Phipps
pushed his way to Lady Rosedale's door, outside of
"which stood the other guests, then calmly entered the
room. One or two others, emboldened by his example,
followed suit, but drew.back hastily as a withering
glance from Lady Resedale's eye fell upon them. It
fell upon Mr. Phipps also. But he did not seem to
see it.
"Your diamond necklace gone?" he enquired of
Lady Rosedale. "Too had, too bad! Sent for the
police yet?"
"Yes." answered someone in the corridor. "They
are coming along immediately."
"In the meantime." said the manager, "let us
search; there s no knowing-"
He began energetically to peer about, looking at
all the places where, if the necklace had beep there,
Lady Rosedale herself must certainly have long age
discovered it. Everybody who could see him followed
his movements closely, Lady Rosedale with obvious
disdain. At length the manager desisted, with the
remark that a more thorough search could be made
later on. There was nothing to do now but to await
the arrival of the police.
"But are the police going to be a week in getting
here?" demanded Lady Rosedale impatiently. It
seemed not. Just then, indeed-, two men appeared
upon the scene, pushing their way into the room with
a businesslike air. One was a slim man, not more
than thirty, dark brown in complexion. The other
was over forty; a black man, big and burly, with
tiny. prying, suspicious eyes and heavy lips. These
men had been sent posthaste from the Kingston de-
tective office, which was not quite half a mile from
the hotel, on the telephone message being received
there that a robbery had taken place at the Myrtle
Bank Hotel.
Lady Rosedale looked them over critically. Her
look said as plainly as speech could have done that
while these men migb be useful in dealing with an
ordinary theft, they did not seem capable of handling
an Important case such as hers. Her next words gave
expression to her feeling.
"Is there no such thing as a white detective In
Jamaica?" she asked.
"The detective inspector is a white man," Mr.
Phipps informed her. "but he is not supposed to know
anything about detective work. He is an administra-
tive officer with very little experience in criminal in-
vestigations and an astonishing acquaintanceship with
fishing. shooting and other manly Eports. I would
suggest that you contented yourself with the aid of
these two men."
Lady Rosedale made a gesture of despair. The
elder of the two detectives, with a slight movement of
annoyance at the almost openly expressed disbelief fi
the skill of himself and his colleague, now took a
definite hand. in the business. "If the lady will tell
us what she lost and how she found it out," he. sug-
gested, "we can get to work. But standing here and
doing nothing is not going to help us."
Even to Lady Rosedale this appeared an eminent-
ly sensible way of stating the situation. She collected





6 PLANTERS'- PUNCH 1922-23


hr thLoughts, and proceeded'at once to give her state-
ment.
.. bh.had retired at about one o'clock in the morn-
tag. On entering her room she had observed nothing
peculiar. During the rest of the night she had slept
amotdly; she had. consequently, heard nothing, if
thee was anything to hear. This morning she had
gEt up at her usual hour; while dressing she noticed
that-the hasp of her largest trunk was hanging down.
She felt at once that something was wrong. On
aerching the trunk and her jewel case she missed
her diamond necklace, by far the most valuable
trinket she possessed. Immediately she had given the
alarm.
The elder detective looked narrowly about him;
then eyed the manager suspiciously for a moment.
The manager stared back haughtily at him. The
detective began a cross-examination.
"You say, ma'am. that your trunk was locked last
night. Are you sure?"
"Perfectly," answered Lady Rosedale. "I will tell
you all about it. I don't travel with much jewellery
as a rule: a couple of necklaces, a few rings, a couple
of brooches, and a pendant or so. I leave the rest
with my bankers in England; but I never leave my
diamond necklace behind. I have always liked to
have it with me: I see now how unwise I was. When
I came to this hotel I saw no reason why I should
put away my Jewel box in the hotel's safe; I had
never had any reason for doing so at any other hotel,
and I had always heard that the Jamaica thief con-
fined his attention to trifling articles, things of really
no value, such as a banana or a coconut."
"As a general proposition, that is quite true,"
interrupted Mr. Phipps. "The native mind has not
yet attained to the heights of scientific burglary. But
it will improve."
"Have the goodness not to interrupt, sir," growled
the big detective, with an almost malevolent look at
Mr. Phipps: he did not like the latter's reference to
the native mind. Lady Rosedale, who had also
favoured Mr. Phipps with an indignant stare, con-
tinued.
"I took out the jewel case last night. I wanted
to-to," she hesitated, glanced at Marian, then hurried
on. "I wanted Miss Braeme to wear a pearl necklace
of mine. I opened the case, and after we had
taken out the necklace and a small pendant for my-
self, we closed the case and put it back in the trunk.
The trunk was then locked, and shortly after we left
the room."
"You locked the trunk yourself, ma'am?"
"No; I asked Miss Braeme to do that for me. But
I saw her lock it: I saw it with my own eyes. She
handed the key back to me."
"And you had the key with you when you were
downstairs?"
"No. It is one of a bunch, you see, and I don't
care to carry a thing like that about with me. But I
have a safe hiding place for it in my room; besides,
this morning I found the keys exactly where I had
left them. My trunk must have been opened with
a false key; it could not have been opened in any
other way."
The younger detective went over to the trunk and
examined the lock. He took the key, placed it in the
key-hole and turned it again and again. "The lock
has not been broken," he remarked, "and no false key
for this lock was evpr made in this country. There's
nobody here who could make it."
"Evidence again of the undeveloped state of the
native mind," murmured Mr. Phipps, but this time no
one took any notice of him.
The man raised the trunk-Md, disclosing a deep
tray with several compartments, in some of which, as
he opened them, he perceived a number of articles.
One fairly large compartment contained the jewel
case. "I always keep it there," explained Lady Rose-
dale, and lifted it out.
The case, a flat, beautifully Inlaid box of polished
ebony, was placed on the dressing table; in the
presence of the people in the room Lady Rosedale
now opened it. As she had said, she did not travel
with many articles of jewellery, but some that she
took about with her were still lying in the box: the
diamond necklace was all that had disappeared. She
opened several compartments; then, lastly, the little
drawer at the bottom where the necklace had been
kept.
"Why," questioned the elder detective, "did the
thief take only one thing and leave the rest? It looks
very funny."
"Tt is positively hilarious," agreed Mr. Phipps.
"You suggest, I see, that the thief had a sense of
humour, and left something behind him to show that
he could resist temptation. That is certainly not a
common characteristic of burglars."
"Has this gentleman anything to do with you,
ma'am?" asked the detective, turning to Lady Rose-
dare.
"Certainly not." she replied haughtily.
"Then," began the detective, but thought better
of It, and closed his lips. But he gave a warning
glance to his subordinate, who seemed to understand
wbt was passing In his mind.
:;"Did you see the diamond necklace"-he called It
"dlmond necklace"-"In the box last night' he re-
samed.
"No; we did not open the drawer in which it was,"
Lady Rosedale answered.


"And the case was opened or locked when you
took It out this morning?" continued the detective.
"I-think it was locked," said Lady Rosedale,
puckering up her brows to remember. "I know I put
the key into the lock and turned it. I don't quite
remember, you see; I was excited when I found my
trunk open, and knew I had left it locked last night,
so I am afraid that in my hurry to find out if I had
lost anything I did not very closely observe what I
did. But almost any key could open a box like this,"
she added.
"But if a thief had opened it. he woulc not have
taken the trouble to lock it again," pointed out Mr.
Phipps. "Indeed, I don't see why, when he opened
Lady Rosedale's trunk, he should have taken the
trouble to close It after him. That looks like a
precious waste of valuable time.
"If the thief was anybody in this house," returned
the detective darkly, "he would close the trunk if he
had time. He wouldn't want his robbery to be found
out too quick; for that wouldn't suit him."
Mr. Phipps, with a slight nod of the head, ad-
mitted that there was something In this way of look-
ing at the matter. Then an idea seemed to strike
him.
"Anybody else lost anything?" he enquired sud-
denly, "or is it Lady Rosedale'alone who has been the
victim of burglarious attention?"
No sooner had the question crossed his lips than
there was a general scurrying of the people in the
corridor, to their rooms. In a few moments some
were back at Lady Rosedale's door, their momentary
apprehensions relieved. Others soon followed these,
and yet others, and when it had been ascertained that
none had lost anything they all prepared to enjoy
with disinterested thoroughness a sensation that
would have been considered delectable even in a
European or American city. Mr. Phipps had not
stirred, nor had Marian, while the other guests were
busy with their search. "What about you?" he en-
quired, turning to her jestingly, when everyone had
declared that he or she had lost nothing. "As- for me,
not even a tin of my cigircttes has been touched.
Good fortune dogs my heels."
"Yes, deer, you had better go and look," advised
Lady Rosedale. and Marian left the room.
In a minute or two she was back, her face and
demeanour eloquent of calamity. "Everything Is
gone;" she exclaimed. "The pearls, my rings, my
brooch-everything!"

CHAPTER SIX.

MR. PHIPPS GOES OUT.
F Lady Rosedale had been excited before, she was
struck with absolute consternation now. The first
blow she had sustained with a fine appearance of
righteous indignation tempered with dignity;
under the second she staggered. She stared at Marian
in blank astonishment, unable to utter a word. There
were murmurs of surprise and commisseration from
the spectators, an exclamation of horror from the
manager. The elder of the two detectives was again
about to begin a sharp interrogatory when Mr. Phipps
Intervened.
"What did you say had been stolen?" he asked,
looking narrowly at Marian.
"Everything I wore last night," she answered.
"Lady Rosedale's pearls and my own things. I put
them in the upper drawer of my dressing table after
taking them off before going to bed. I thought they
would be perfectly safe there. I keep all my jewellery
there, and nothing has ever been stolen before."
"Are you sure you were wearing the pearls when
you came up to the room last night, or rather, this
morning?" enquired Mr. Phlpps. "You might have
dropped them, you know."
"Miss Braeme was wearing the pearls when I
left her downstairs at a little past twelve o'clock last
night," interrupted Lady Rosedale, sharply, annoyed
that Mr. Phipps should be interfering in a matter
which did not directly concern him. "She must have
come to bed very shortly after that."
"I came upstairs with Miss Hellingworth," Marian
resumed. "About the last thing she said to me when
I bade her good-night was how beautiful the pearl
necklace was. That was at my door."
"I only asked for the purpose of not leaving any
possible explanation unexplored," explained Mr.
Phipps. "You were about to say something," he con-
tinued, turning to the chief detective.
"I was about to say, sir," replied that individual,
"that if you are going to ask questions, I had better
stop."
"Please proceed," implored Mr. Phipps; "the
sagacity of your enquiries simply fills us all with
admiration. I can already see the necklaces being
discovered in an hour or two, thanks to the local
Sherlock Holmes."
"Did you lock your drawer after you had put the
necklace and other things in it, miss?" the detective
asked Marian, merely giving a glance at Mr. Phipps
which seemed to threaten future trouble.
"I did," said Marian in a low voice, "and I think
the lock has been forced. You had better come and
see for yourself."
Led by the detectives, the party now went into
the adjolinng.ehamber occupied by Marian, which was
amaner than Lady Ritllf~6rn f..!ere both the detec-
tives examined carefully the lock of the first drawer


of the dressing table, a standardised piece of Ameri-
can furniture with three drawers whose locks were-
all opened by the same key. It was easy to see that
the lock of the first drawer had been picked, not by
any means a difficult matter to accomplish. Satisfied
on this score, the two detectives withdrew into a-
corner of the room and whispered together. Lady-
Rosedale, Mr. Phipps and Marian watched them keen-
ly, Mr. Phipps being Intent on studying the.expres-
sions on their faces.
The conference lasted but a few minutes; when
it was over the elder detective turned to Lady Rose-
dale.
"Did you lock your room door last night, ma'am?"
"Yes," she replied. "I always do."
"And you, miss?"
"Yes," said Marian.
"So that the thief must have entered through the-
window," observed the irrepressible Mr. Phipps; "and
he must have done so after two o'clock In the morn-
ing. But would he not have been seen by the night
watchman? There is a watchman always about, isn't
there?" he enquired.
"There is," the manager hastened to affirm, "and.
he is a most zealous and competent man. I am sure-
he would have seen any thief clambering through a
window."
"He would have seen the thief if there was enough
light and if he was where he could see him when he-
was climbing in," remarked the younger detective..
somewhat incoherently: "but there is nothing about.
this window to show that anyone came in through
here."
"No," admitted Mr. Phipps. who was already at-
the window conducting a personal examination.
'There are no finger prints observable, and the cur-
tain shows no sign of having been disturbed." He
threw open the window and peered outside. "No foot-
prints visible on the verandah's metal roof," he added,
"this roof being rather remarkable for affording what
naval strategists would call 'a low visibility': in fact,
it is too hard and clean for the traces of foot-prints to
be left on it. It would seem that the thief did not
enter this way; and yet he must have. A wide-
awake and active man would have avoided disturbing
anything or making any noise, wouldn't he?"
"This thief, whoever it is," said the elder detec-
tive dogmatically, "is somebody who knows this-
place well. It is nobody from outside." He gave the-
slightest of signs to his colleague, who, with well-
affected indifference, sauntered out of the room. "It
would be easy for anyone who is active to get on to.
the verandah roof," the speaker continued; "but it.
would take him some time to get into one room antd
open a trunk and then climb out again and get into-
another room and open a drawer. Could you send
for the night-watchman, sir?" he asked, addressing
the manager.
"Certainly," said the manager, and hurried out of
the room. Without a word, Mr. Phipps followed him;
seeing which, the detective, hastily asking Lady Rose-
dale and Marian to remain where they were until he-
returned, quickly left the room also
Lady Rosedal' had seated herself on one of the
chairs, her eyes, fixed on Marian's face with an ex-
pression in which were blended amazement and dis--
may. The discovery that her pearls were indubitably
gone had apparently touched her heart and bewilder-
ed her mind. It could not be said that she was utter-
ly crushed, for it would have taken mountains of
calamity to crush Lady Rosedale's spirit. She gave
one the impression of being always able to rise su-
perior to circumstances. Yet she was grieved, pro-
foundly disturbed; it also seemed as if something un--
expressed and perhaps inexpressible were perplexing
her greatly. Marian noticed her troubled appearance,.
and now that the temporary absence of the detectives
and the withdrawal of Mr. Phipps and the manager-
gave her the opportunity of a word or two with Lady
Rosedale, she looked at" that lady pathetically, and
with obvious regret.
"I am so sorry this has happened," she said In .
broken tones, "you know I did not want to wear the-
pearls last night."
"If you had only been a little more careful, my
dear Marian," returned Lady Rosedale with the first-.,
touch of bitterness she had ever imported into her
voice in speaking to Marian, "if you had only been .
more careful it might not have happened. A drawer
is hardly the place where one should place a valuable .
necklace for safe keeping."
"Your trunk did not seem to have been safer," "
retorted the girl, trembling, but with some spirit.
"Yet you know I locked it securely; I saw you try the--
hasp after I had handed you toe keys."
"That is quite true," replied Lady Rosedale with:
dignity; "I always make sure that things are properly
done. And if only one of my necklaces had been
stolen I should not now feel so distressed. But both!
Just think of it." She added after a pause, more,;
kindly, "But I am not blaming you, dear; you must
not believe that."
Before Marian could say anything further the.,
elder detective and the manager reappeared, the latter -
explaining to Lady Rosedale that he had sent for the
night-watchman, who would shortly be there. As
for the detective, he showed quite plainly that he-,
was waiting for someone or for some development, for
he made no further effort at finding out anything-
by search or question, but merely pretended to br
(Continued on Page 17).










fimw Musma ME ma oeam MWept Ieam MA mape moggn mae pqME mom E 00_



~1K
POEMAS

The cultured reader will welcome these poems by Miss May Farqusharson and Miss likeen Bliss. Miss May Farquason, aduhtro
Mr. A. W. Farquharson, is of course Jamaican; Miss Bliss too was born in Jamaica, at Up Park Camp. These poems have benseletdfo
M ~fairly large number, none of them itRtherto put isaed, which I have read with genuine pleasure.
As to the photographs, I had to select those that would lend themselves best to reproduction in a publication like his feago, onteavieo
competent photo-engraver I chose one representing Miss Farquharson in the costume of a Red Cross Nurse, in whichi capaciy&hAenee
service during the War.
I am quite confident that the poems of Missr Farquharson and Miss Blisswill he read wit great enjoyment and will meet wt iea
deserved appreciation.


ALLEY CHURHARD. THOUGHTS INN
So cool, so-green Mand fll of peace they lie VOnce when the world seemen ue to
Those lonely graves amidst the luscious 3P. daloe
grasss. Within a wind-blowna gardenoto ih
The blazing, glarey, tropic skies of brass And sound of m~en with wrngthycno
Are shut out by the broad trees' canopy; right;
To this sweet spotLife's tuirmoil comes not And herelI rested quiet as Lsoe
nigh, Glad for the wind's low voie n ga h
Tho' down the road the tired feet still psso- none
The restless lives of tragedy or farce:- V as there to make a clamorondlih
Look they not longing in, those passers-by? So exquisitely suabtle; from h eih
For whom the years add mile to weary mile; Among grey hills to greaterpt gon
And are they not beyond the living blest I looked below, beheld thescrhnpli
These quiet dead? who lie here at their ease, Stretched dryly by the margno hesaV
Nor sleep, nor* dream, nor stir to listen, while And pitied men that knew n o u od
'Rest, rest forever, everlasting rest' And pitied men who in suc ano pi
The wind sighs through the giant ctton trees. Could eke out life to find hi.A s o e
I shared contentment with te il rw


THE VALLEY. THE OLDLOE
0 we went down the valley, Love, Once with mhy ol Love Iwn akn
When you and I were young: One showery day iMay
Heard music in the valley, Loe Her eyes were like two iefis
Where merry songs were sung: BPAlltatte
Picked flowers white and yellow, Love, Was, "0 my Love," and"0mLoe
With laughter gay and free; "We shall not meetagan
Were happy in the valley, Love, 1 : "We shall not go out walig
When you went down with me! ,,.m I h aesrn
I still go down the valley, Love, MisMYP~o~sNAnd I believe my ol oetl
Now Life and I are old; As I believe her yet
But leafless Is the valley, Loveesal o me g
And gone the flowers gold: We shall not feel rert
It lies now in the shadow, Love, But for the sake ofthe day
And save the low winds' moan Wesal K~o
All silent is the valley, Love, We isheallR not knw gan
For I go down alone. In the late springran E.B
M. F.


SONG OF A BIRD. HARTn.PA
0 there's music in the mountains, and music All mene have havens oftehat
in the seas, Conceived in various loeypacs V
And singing in the valleys, and distant Moei ih oma
melody, Some in the woodlandssoeart I b
And gladness in the sunshine, and laughter M=n re ilsgo
in the breeze. Far from the hubbub ofte ciy
And blossoms in the wildernessi- for Spring By greater wisdom taugtt iy
is come to mne! w
And some ont homelanddon mrs =
There's colour in the mountains, and colour And somte at lowly ctagedos
in the seas, And others in the bus twn"
00 And brother birds are piping in Spring-time Have made a corner tha hy w.R
eastacy; Andt some in dim cathdrlwhe
And glowing are the flowers, and shimpmeringl Christ Jesus is the Minse.k
the trees b
Alive with leaves and unalight,-for Love is Aenter ae hi
coe to me'g In friendly hearts, wher epeorvn
Supreme desire may fdit
g The colours will be faded, the music (lie Perhaps this haven isthbe.
away,
0 The sunshine too will vanish, the skies grow FrmIlv hd
cold and grey, ApDen, some foolseap, anabok j
Bust what care I for Winter?--O'er all te Beneath a tree where I myle
oieyls .And through green lace-oksetek. WJA
v I'lpastae the God of Hekave that Love is Here let-me in the winygras
0oet e Make one sweet rhyme bfr as
Come to me!MISS EILEEN BLItSS


FRAGMENTS. THE TRULY-LOVED.
Deep pain; and happiness; The daylight dies, while sunset makes The Truly-Loved is beautiful, The Truly-Lovedwadoshe v d
Laugter am a sgh;Thenilten glory flow; (For all true loves are fair) know
The splendours fade, and pass away, Her little hands are kind and cool, Of raw seafaring mn
r_ Sorrow; and world-weariness; And then,--the after-glow. And her deep eyes are clear She was maide for temteig
Joyaunce, free and high: They have been filled with sor- And succouring oftem a
Striving; achieving; And so with our brief happiness row, 0 many men havemaylvsZ"
0 Loving, it may be: Though deep, though vast it be, But I'l be home again, ( For seas are broaanwie
70. ~~~~It lives, it fades, it dies away, To kiss away that sorrow, But there's one manta nl at
Hoping; deceiving; Remains-a memory. And soothe away that pain. One Love to be hisbrde
Life hold. for you and me. M
VOM. F.
~~l~~~~POW"


RiWd bpi

MOM M o =AIMWN mm g ilul moo "(C 'of NV M m 3


go=ggomm Mo mo X

MOOIMm-mm 00_ MI Momo o om'ommm g






PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-23


AMAICA C tnC n NNlNG H-AME G AIHIAMAI

AS SEEN- BY o UNLENGHAME GRAH
----- -- "THE HAMLET OF THE VEST INDIES." -


M R. R. B CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM is one of the
greatest living masters of English prose. He is
also one of the most interesting of living men, full
of old-world charm and courtesy, one who has
travelled much, seen many men and countries, and
lived a life replete with incident and with adventure.
An aristocrat by birth, he went at an early age to
South America, engaged in cattle rearing, married an
Argentinian lady, wandered through Mexico, then re-
turned to England to become Socialist, Member of
Parliament, and the author of some wonderful books
embodying the experiences of his life. Born in Spain,
his-mother a Spaniard, his father a Scotch laird, he
represents what Is best and finest in both races, and
those who have met him ias it has been the pleasure
and privilege of this writer to dot will never forget
the handsome, distinguished-looking face, the affable,
courteous manners, the humorous, whimsical con-
versation of a man whose pictures of strange life and
equally strange scenery linger in the memory as a
possession too priceless ever to be forgotten.
I had often hoped that some day Mr. Cunning-
hame Graham would come to Jamaica. He did, early
in 1917, on his way to Colombia to purchase cattle for
the British Government. From Colombia he went on
to Brazil; thus revisiting some of the scenes of his
early youth. Since his return to England he has pub-
lishec three new books, each of them a delight to the
lovers of good prose. In one of these books he has
written the story of Cartagena, the old Spanish city
which many Jamaicans know, and in his book on
Cartagcna And the Banks of the Sinu there is a chap-
ter on Jamaica which everyone will thank me for re-
producing in this annual.
The book itself is one of Cunninghame Graham's
best, and should be read by everyone. Some book-
seller should order it and place it here on sale; there
is certain to be a demand for it from those who will
read below what its author has written on Jamaica
and who will surely be charmed by. the vividness of
his descriptions and the beauty of his prose.
Mr. Cunninghame Graham is now about seventy
years of age. But his spirit is untouched by age, his
observant eye is as keen as ever, his sympathies as
quick. For many more years, I hope and believe, we
shall continue to have books from his pen; and each
and all of them will be well worth reading. His
works are unique: there is nothing quite like them In
English. In his hand he holds the magic wand of
charm, so that what he touches with it is endowed
with a strange and haunting loveliness which appeals
to the imagination and the heart.

THE neglected island of the woods and streams
has always seemed to me a piece of Africa gone
astray in the Carribbean Sea. The only European
things I can discover in It-I speak but as a passer-by,
and know there is a settled, well-established planter
life in the interior-are the hideous houses of the new
Kingston, and the stunted little thoroughbreds that
draw the cabs. It is said there is no other horse in all
the island, but the thoroughbred. In-breeding and
the climate have stunted him in stature. He still
remains a thoroughbred, with all the qualities and
defects inherent to his caste.
The white race rules, of course, in Jamaica, but
does not dominate. Now, man cares little for mere
rule, one would suppose, if he cannot dominate; not
by tae knout, bufby his moral force. This certainly
he fails to do in the fair island that seems always In
one fashion or another to have eluded us. Streets,
lanes, and fields, the beach, the valleys, sides*of
streams where clusters of negro huts hang like wasps'
nests from a bough of larch-they all are filled with
negroes engaged in their chief function of continuous
babbling. Though the men wear what they, I think.
call "pants" and "vests," and certainly straw hats
and clean white shirts, the women, always more racial
than the sex they rule, revel in their pink skirts under
green blouses ,and purple neck-hand-kerchiefs, an
atavism of-the "Long Ju-Ju," that seems appropriate
enough in the surroundings where they live. The
general look of being at home in their own house is
very striking amongst negroes in Jamaica. They
may have once been slaves, although I doubt it,
thinking that the alleged masterss" were most prob-
ably the slaves, in the same way the owner of a great
country house in England is the servant of his servants
and has to humour them to make them take their
pay. Possession. philosophically viewed, is moral, not
material. Although most of the property in Jamaica
is vested In the whites, who make the laws and have
imported their religion and their code of morals, the
blacks have modified them all, insensibly. In the
same way that the "mere Irish" altered the substance
of all the Normans brought to Ireland. and carefully
preserved the shadow, so have the black race in Ja-
maica insensibly fashioned the social aspect of the
land, according to their taste. Whilst they look quite
at. home, the whites look mere exotics and mere
foreigners. This in spite of the fact that Jamaica is
-one of our oldest colonies, won for. ua by that Lord
Protector who revived the glories of our flag, but en-
tailed the now happily mitigated "Brttish Sunday"
on an ale-loving, once merry land. He It was who


sent the first thoroughbred horses to the Island, for
Old Noll, though he upset uis coach with the six
Flemish mires at Hyde Park Corner, loved horses all
his life.
The island might become a centre for horse-breed-
ing, or certainly for that of mules. At the time of the
conquest of Mexico, and generally of Ticrra Firnic, it
sent out most of the horses that trampled the Indians
underfoot to the satisfaction of Don Pedio de Heledia,
and no doubt of Cortes. Some of the horses and the
mares whose colours, qualities and fate Bernal Diaz
has preserved for us in his great chronicle, perceiv-
ing that they too were "conquerors," came, no doubt,
from the plains round Spanish Town. As the whole
island lacks advancement, and certainly should be
able to export at least two thousand mules a year, if
the breeding of them were attended to, perhaps the
Government might be induced to look into the matter,
for the Jamaica mule is excellent. It lacks the size
and weight of mule. bred in Missouri and in Kansas,
but it Is a well-made, compact, and lively animal of
about fourteen hands, active and serviceable. Its feet
are good, and high, and very hard-remarkably so,
even amongst a breed of animal renowned for stand-
ing work on stony roads. A little encouragement
from the Home Government would do wonders In the
island, but that encouragement never seems to come.
The result is that the attention of the people is turn-
ed to the United States, where a market always is to
be found to- all the island can produce.
Tourists from New York descend in Docks'upon
Jamaica every winter, whilst those from England are
few and far between. Little by little, as It appears
to the casual observer, the island is being delivered
over to the negro.race. This may not be a bad thing,
for after all ti'ey till the soil and do all the hard work,
but when they begin to rise to administrative offices
a serious prot'lem will present itself to British states-
manship.
The Island, a terrestrial paradise of lofty moun-
tains, clear, crystal rivers, rich alluvial plains, and
beaches fringed with coco-palms, only wants develor-
ment to be once more one of the most flourishing of
our Crown Colcnies. Glasgow made it. or it made
Glasgow, a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago,
and there exists n: reason. except the absolute neglect
of it by every Government, why Kingston should not
have a Glasgow Street. nearly as full of traffic as is
Jamaica Street in the great city on the Clyde.
Even In Kingston. hideous and Board-of-Works
looking as it is, there yet exist fine, old colonial houses
that have escaped the ravage; of earthquakgls and cf
fires. Throughout the ialaiid are dotted here and
there great country minnsicps, some of them dating


from Cromwellian times, that serve to show the riches
and the state in which the planters lived in the old
days. They seem like pieces of Old England gone
astray amongst luxuriant vegetation, clear skies, and
brilliant sun. They yet remain in testimony of a
brighter time. They remind me of old houses in
South Carolina or in Georgia, states that have suffered
as Jamaica suffered when slavery came to an end; but
In those states proprietors seem to have adapted them-
selves to the new conditions more readily than in the
"Island of the Woods and Streams." The difficulty
is the labour question, complicated by the undoubted
fact that the black race is singularly averse from
work.


All the roads and the lanes of the Island are full
of chattering negroes, merry and well-fed looking,
going apparently to nowhere, to do nothing in parti-
cular. No land in all the world is better suited to
the race. The earth laughs crops. The climate does.
not require warm fires or winter clothing, and so
they chatter on. having grasped the fact that in in-
creased production lies the future of finance.
in no part of the world do they appear more ab-
solutely at hcme. Their religion, always a chief pre-
occupation of their race, they take even more jovially
than their ancestors could have done on the coast of
Africa. There at least there was the chief who made
them work for him occasionally; the Ju-Ju man who
terrifed them with his gri-gris and his fetishes; the-
fear of spirits that pervades the savage negro's life,
like a black nightmare; and the once present terror
of the witch doctor with his accusations of mysterious -
crimes, and almost certain death by poison or by tor-
ture to everyone accused.
In Jamaica these all are absent. In the various
sects in which the negro race is shammed, as Swift
so jovially expresses It, the congregation, pays the
minister, and thus takes away from him the keys of
hell. As the gates of heaven are said to be cast open
by the gift of Peter's pence, so are the gates of hell
fast closed by the withholding of the pence. No one-
was ever easier to convert to Christianity than the'
negro. Animistic to the core, a god or two was but a
welcome addition to the black Pantheon, in which
Aphrodite was the chief divinity. The churches,
Anglican and Roman, said but little to him; the-
chapels claimed him as their own. In them he felt he-
was at home: the fervent prayers-he likes to "sweat
'um qus"'-anu the bellowed hymns were far more
to his taste. No man more fervent in belief, no man-
less actuated by mere works, than is our coloured
brother in the Lord.
It is whispered darkly in the island, that the.-
Voodoo cock sometimes Is still slain at midnight, and
that mysterious rites are held in secret, remote from
observation of the whites. Who shall say whether-
this is true? They certainly exist, both In Haiti and
in Santo Domingo, and perhaps in other islands. The
phallic dance, the mento, the counterpart of the can-
domble of the negroes of Brazil. and the cumbiamba ofr
tclombia, is danced quite openly, for negroes do not
dance exclusive!y for exercise as people are alleged
to dance here in this frigid isle.
Still, all the hard work of the island is done by-
the negro race. They dug the Panama Canal and
made most of the railways of the Central Republics.
Well treated, they work well, and it should never be
forgotten that nothing can be done throughout Ja-


maica without their muscle and their brawn. GQo
wages and, above all, fair treatment are essential.
all dealings with them, and it should be remember.
that the natural man is quite averse from work ifli
can live without it. This in the Island of Jamaica I
can do quite easily, and thus to work at all is to Oi
fer a favour, a proposition that the negro understand
thoroughly. ;
In such a natural garden of Eden as In JamatW
the chief blotaare the towns and villages. The lar
towns are commonplace beyond belief, bad copiesl
poor originals at home. The villages, long straggle
streets of negro huts, all built of wood looking I0
(Continued on Page I ).


THE CATHEDRAL AT SPANISH TOWN




-www -


1922-4


ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES


A PICTURE OF
THE LIFE OF AN
E JAY SEMAI
IN JAMACA.


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By MARY GAUNT,
Author of "ALONE IN WEST AFRICA."
"A 1 ROKEN JOURNEY," etc, etc


P ICTURE a family of those early settlers in Ja-
maica at Port Morant. There is the low grey
stone house with openings for windows in the
two-feet-six-inchea-thick walls, with folded
back shutters of unpolished wood, dark green mihoe
or rich brown mahogany; no glass, for that was ex-
pensive and the windows rather small, for the house
was built for defence, and wherever danger of hand-to-
hand fighting is feared you will find small windows
SThere was a door in the centre, and, at each corner,
a two storied tower, and both towers and main build-
ing were loop-holed for defence. The house was set
on a little plateau facing south where a gap in the
hills gave a good view of the blue sea, but behind and
Son either side the hills, heavily wooded hills for the
Most part, the mahogany and bullet wood growing
Straight and tall, stretched out long arms, barriers
that cut off the settler from such civilization as he
Should find at St. James de la Vega or Port Royal.
The plateau round the house was cleared, but there
S'was no garden, no tender shrouding greenery, only
here and there an outcrop of stones, the grey .tones
:built up into a retaining wall where a hillside fell
:..awa5y too steeply. It must be clear round the house.
i clear for defence so that no despoiling pirate, no fur-
tiUve revengeful slave, might take advantage of any
chance cover. Only just outside the house there was
the refuse heap. They had no noses in those days,
*and there were half charred sticks and gnawed bones
Sand coconut shells and plantain and banana skins
i;rotting in the sunshine. When it grew too big or
too odorous even for the seventeeth century, the slaves
I would clear it away and scatter it in the bIsh, or
: throw it down a sink hole in the mountains. Mean-
l*_ while It was handy for the broken crockery-not that
l there was much of that-and the other waste of the
Household. And it it lay long enough an occasional
I...cocomut palm or a banana or a yam head would sprout
d endeavour to clothe the filthy heap in decent
vegetation. Beyond, a little way from the main
jS"use, was the stone wind-mill, the breeze-mill they
siiled It, for grinding the sugar cane; there was a
ieaoden but or two for the white bond servants, and
me shacks. still further away hidden among bananas
F'=md plantains and naseberries, for the negro slaves.
Ik;:: Inside, the house was divided into three or at
3~dost four rooms, was barely enough furnished, and
itlg each room was a mahogany bed, ann on the beds
(of all things in the tropics! a great smothering
ether mattress with piled up pillows. The floors
re of mahogany polished like glass. These floor
de the be-.uty of toe house, you may see them still
i.l over Jamiica. There was a big square table in the
ddle of thb room. a table also of mahogany, and one
l two smaller ones that could be placed against it
en the company was more than usual. There was
a "beaufet" (we would call It a sideboard i and on it
the one or two pieces of silver the planter pos-
The ordinary crockery they used was of the
set and commonest, and the dress of the family
M of the plainest.
SHere you would generally find the planter's wife
her daughter, a slip of a girl of fifteen just bud-
into womanhood and ripe for marriage if there
Sany one to marry her. They wore coarse linen
iments made all in one piece, something like
lees, only girt in at the waist into the semblance
ai dress; very likely their feet were bare for the
other was hot, and as they sat at their spinning
they felt it hotter than it really was, hotter
than the great square of sunshine that fell on
polishedd floor through the open door proclaimed it.
matron grudged that sunshine on her floor, but
could she do? Of air she hardly realized the
ity-but light she must have if they would
Sand she liked to look out and make sure for
if that there was no sail in the sea that would
Sher fly to hide her silver in the forest behind,
herself and her daughter, too, belike. And the
Looking up from her spinning-hardly knew
r she shared her mother's fears of the buc-
or not. They had an eye (so said Grace at
t over the other side of the mountains) for a
girl, and the scrap of mirror in her mother's
told her she was a pretty girl, that her eyes were
Sand her hair gold, and the dimpled shoulders
..ame out of her shift were softly rounded. In-
|Aloysius, the chief of the white bond servants,
at her sometimes, and Aloysius was young and,
--had not been for a great scar right down his
,would have been good looking. But that scar
up the corner of his mouth and gave him a sinls-
k, and she had seen the back of his torn shirt
y and knew that her father and brother had
on with a green hide for some misdeamour, real
led. Sometimes the little ignorant girl, the
r of the pioneer, pitied the bondservant, but
.a cruel age and there mingled with her pity
of contempt for the white man who could
1 be manhandled; she felt herself In sym-
wiith the buccaneers who feared no man and
ho0m it was a word and blow. She could not
she could not write, neither could her
lmt she could spin and she could sew and
iand ook and clean the house, and if needs
'eould load a musket and use it as well as


MRS. MARY GAUNT


in the shade puffing at a pipe, and dilated to his lis-
tening wife and daughter on the dilatoriness of the
son he had sent to Port Royal to bring back either
slaves or bondservants. Until the twentieth century,
indeed until the Great War. brought freedom to wo-
men, wives and daughters always listened apparently
meekly to what the house father had to say. It he
were not God Almighty they generally in his presence
acted as if they thought he were. He too looked at
the sea and gave thanks inwardly that there was no
sail in sight, but openly he grumbled because James
and Aloysius had not come back yet and because the
other servants were getting on so slowly with the
cane holing.
"They crawl," he said. "they want to spin It out
till their time's out, but I warrant I'll-"
The mother noted a flicker on the girl's face and
held up her hand. The girl. she sometimes thought,
took an undue interest in the bondservants. At her
age she herself was betrothed, but here the only young
man within reach, young George Shappe at Comfort,
it was well known, had eyes for no one but Lucinda,
his mother's hond-maid. She would have no white
bond-maid about her house. These young men gave
her food enough for thought.
"Hist!" she said, "hist! Is not that a horse, sir?"
"James never rode so slowly," snorted the father.
"Port Royal is a long way and he may have learnt
wisdom. You yourself were not always wise, sir,"
which flattered him, for he saw that she had thought
him a gay blade and now she thought he was wise.
And indeed was he not? He looked at the field that
he had planted in the wilderness and felt that she was
right. He was wise. James would learn from his
good example.
There was a sound of arrival in the air, and the
women left their spinning and came out on to the
plateau, hastily putting on shady linen bonnets, and
then out of the forest along the beaten track that led
up the hill towards the house came a lad clad like his
father in shirt and drawers, on his head a big hat
made of banana trash. But he was not riding his


. PLANTER S' P UN C H


23


_


any man. And she looked out of the window across
the little plateau, across the brilliant green of the
sugar cane to the calm blue sea. and wished the wind
would blow if only because the stir in the tree cops
seemed to bring some movement into a dull life.
There were gaps in the planter's family and there
were mounds in the stone-walled enclosure beyond
the can? patch by the forest's edge, and the mother
-sighed as she thought of the babies she had laid there,
killed, she thought, by the pestilential climate.
The planter wore a check shirt and white linen
drawers with a sheathed knife at his belt. His hair
was straight and clipped across the forehead at the
b-ck of his neck, and he leaned against the door post


horse, he was leading him. his reins across his arm,
while his other hand was on the shoulder of a tall up-
right girl dressed in a long coarse linen shift with a
green banana leaf upon her head to shade her from
the sun. Behind these two trailed a little company,
the only two whites, Aloyslus and the other bond-
servant, who had gone to help James, bringing up
the rear. The others were black, ten men in all with
the dust of travel on their bare feet, and on their loins
cloths which were the only clothes they wore.
Shackled together they were, two and'two, the right
hand of one handcuffed to the left of the other. Their
faces were sullen, but the planter only looked at their
fine strong upright figures and approved his son's
bargain. But he did not say so.
"Only ten?" he said, but the lad knew by the tone
that he had done right.
"20 a piece," he said, "all young and strong and
healthy, and the seasoning will worry them not at
all: and this wench," he thrust the girl forward,
"given in as make weight if I took the lot. I reckoned
she would make a handmaid for madam."
And the planter looked at the girl and there came
a little smile at the corners of his mouth that the
stubble on his chin could not hide. For the girl was
beautiful. She stood with her hands clasped loosely
before her and. her round arms were bare nearly to
the shoulders. Her face was a golden brown, soft and
rich, with red lips and milk white teeth. Her eyes.
were dark and her long wavy black hair was wound
round her head. The fair haired, blue eyed girl look-
Ing at her felt her own prettiness a pale and poor
thing beside the stranger's, and the voluptuous
healthy older woman was angry, as is many a mother
before the woman she sees her son admires.
"I want no wenches. I've trouble enough with
the pair of idle black sluts I've on hand now."
"Send them to the field," coaxed her son. "This
wench"-
But the mother gave him a push.
"You and your wenches!"
His father pinched his arm. "Let be, let be. She
hath a long reach and is a well grown lass. And
where got ye these stout villains?"
"The Gloria" from Annamahoe was in Port Royal
and I had the pick because the planters from St.
George got over-full at the tavern the night before,"
said the lad sullenly, for be did not want the girl to
go to the field.
"Koromantyns," said the planter doubtfully, and
he looked at the new purchases a little more critical-
ly, for Ihe Koromantyns were beginning to have a bad!
reputation even then. They might call them Koro-
manlyns, for they knew little about the West Coast.
these slave buyers in Jamaica, but these men were
fierce Ashanti warriors, and the captain of the "Gloria"'
had been glad enough to palm them off on the young
man who had less knowledge even than his father.
The planter looked again. The Middle Passage bad
not crushed them. One and all their hair sloped back
from their foreheads and one had a jawbone slung
tund his neck, the jawbone of a man, though the-
planter did not recognize it: another had a-half heal-
ed wound In his shoulder, and another a long cut
along his arm. He was not quite so sure that the lad'
had done well. But they were sturdy slaves, anyway,
strong and young and-and he called to them to sit
down in the shade, where they should have the-
shackles off. But the row of sullen savages looked at
him resentfully, and the girl standing beside his son,
spoke to them In their own jargon.
"She understands," said the planter.
"Oh, she understands," said the boy watching the-
row of black men seat themselves with long drawn
sighs, for they were weary. He did not feel called
upon to say that he had let the girl ride much of the
time, but his father had been young. "She Is the
daughter of the surgeon at the Fort," the boy went
on, "and her father took much pride in her. Mark
you, he had made a third voyage to the Coast on ac-
count of her. She thought be would manumize her,
but he died and the factor liked her not, or maybe he-
liked her too well, and he shipped her on board the-
"Gloria."
"Well, well," the planter walked along inspecting
his new purchase and shouting to Peter the blacksmith
to come along and take off the shackles. "Well. well,
lad. To the field the wench will have to go. See you
keep her out of madam's way."
Ann then there came Peter the blacksmith. He
was an anaemic looking white man with long greying
hair and sad sunken eyes. Peter had fifteen years to
serve, he had come from Bristol a young man con-
demned for assault and battery, but he would never
serve his term. Death was in his hollow eyes and
shaking hands, and he could assault no one now-a-
days. The planter looked upon him as so much
money lost and he turned his eyes away, for in his
own way he was a kindly man. But he had given
good money for this man and money was hard to come
by. He must get some work out of him.
I wonder how they dared liberate the fierce
Ashantis, but liberate them they must for they could -
not keep slaves just to look at. The shackles were
unlocked and the men stretched up their arms with re-
(Continued on Page 14).




wZiw


PLANTERS' PUNCH


IVAN GREET'S MASTERPIECE


-------BY
GRANT ALLEN.


Grant Allen, the well-known novelist, was born in
184'8, and died in 1899, about twenty-three years ago.
While a young man he was for orer a year (1873-4 ),
the head of the College established in Spanish Town
under the administration of Sir John Peter Grant for
the higher education of Jamaica youths. The College
was not a success; Allen returned to England and
shortly afterwards took to writing as a means of
livelihood. His Jamaica experiences were embodied
in a long novel entitled "In All Shades," published in
1886, and in two or three short stories. "Ivan Greet's
Masterpiece" is one of the latter; it has never yet been
published in Jamaica. It makes its first appearance
in this island in the pages of "Planters' Punch."


CHAPTER I.

'rTWAS at supper at Charlie Powell's; every one
I there admitted Charlie was in splendid- form.
His audacity broke the record. He romanced away
with even more than his usual brilliant recklessness.
Truth and fiction blended well In his animated ac-
count of his day's adventures. He had lunched that
morning with the newly appointed editor of a high-
class journal for the home circle-circulation exceed-
ing half a million-and had returned all agog with the
glorious prospect of untold wealth Opening fresh be-
fore him. So he discounted his success by inviting a
dozen friends to champagne and lobster-salad at his
rooms In St. James's, and held forth to them, after
his wont, in a rambling monologue.
"When I got to the house," he said airily, poising
a champagne-glass halfway up in his hand, "with the
modest expectation of a chop and a pint of porter in
the domestic ring-imagine my surprise at finding
myself forthwith Etanding before the gates of an
Oriental palace-small, undeniably small, a bijou in
its way, but still, without doubt, a veritable palace.
I touched the electric bell. Hi, presto! at my touch
the door flew open as if by magic, and disclosed-a
Circassian slave, in a becoming costume a la Liberty
in Regent Street, and smiling like the advertisement
of a patent dentifrice! I gasped out-"
"But how did ye know she was a Circassian?"
Paddy O'Connor inquired, Interrupting him brusquely.
(His name was really Francis Xavier O'Connor, but
they called him "Paddy" for short, just to mark his
Celtic origin.)
Charlie Powell smiled a contemptuously con-
descending smile. He was then on the boom, as chief
literary lion. "How do I know ye're an Oirishman,
Paddy?" he answered, hardly heeding the interrup-
tion. "By her accent! my dear boy; her pure un-
adulterated Circassian accent! Is Mr. Morrison at
home?" I gasped out to the Vision of Beauty. The
Vision of Beauty smiled and nodded-her English
being chiefly confined to smiles, with a Circassian
flavour; and led me on by degrees into the great man's
presence. I mounted a stair, with a stained-glass
window all yellows and browns, very fine and Burne-
Jonesey; I passed through a drawing-room in the
Stamboul style--couches, rugs, and draperies; and
after various corridors-Byzantine, Persian, Moorish
-I reached at last a sort of arcaded alcove at the
farther end, where two men lay reclining on an
Eastern divan-one a fez on his head pulling hard at
a chibouque; the other, bare-headed, bubbling smoke
through a hookah. The bare-headed one rose; "Mr.
Powell," says he, waving his hand to present me, 'My
friend, Macpherson Pasha!' I bowed, and looked un-
concerned. I wanted them to think I'd lived all my
life hob-nobbing with Pashas. Well, we talked for a
while about the weather, and the crops, and the
murder at Mile End, and the state of Islam; when,
presently, of a sudden, Morrison claps his hands-so-
and another Circassian slave, still more beautiktl,
enters.
"Lunch, Houri," says Morrison.
"The effendi is served" says the Circassian.
"And down we went to the Dining-room. Bombay
blackwood, every inch of it. inlaid with ivory. Vene-
tian glass on the table; solid silver on the side board.
Only us three, if you please, to lunch; but everything
as spick and span as if the Prince was of the company.
The three Circassian slaves, in Liberty caps, stood be-
hind our chairs-one goddess apiece-ann looked after
us royally. Chops and porter, indeed! It was a
banquet for a poet; Ivan Greet should have been
there; he'd have mugged up an ode about it. Clear
turtle and Chablis-the very best brand; then smelts
and sweetbreads: next lamb and mint sauce; ortolans
*on toast; ice-pudding; fresh strawberries. A guinea
each, strawberries, I give you my word, just nw at
-Covent Garden. Oh, mamma! what a lunch, boys!
The Hebes poured champagne from a golden flagon;
that is to say, at any rate"-for Paddy's eye was upon
him-"the neck of the bottle was wrapped in gilt tin-
Sfoil. And all the time Morrison talked-great'guns,
how he talked! I never heard anything in my life to
equal it. The man's been everywhere, from Peru to
Siberia. The man's been everything, from a cowboy
to a communard. My hair stood on end with half the
things he said to me; and I haven't got hair so easily
raised as some people's. Was I prepared to sell my
soul for Saxon gold at the magnificent rate of five
guineas a column? Was I prepared to jump out of


my skin! I choked with delight. Hadn't I sold it
all along to the enemies of Wales for a miserable pit-
tance of thirty shillings? What did he want me to
do? Why, contribute third leaders-you know the
kin. of thing-tootles on the penny-trumpet about
irrelevant items of non-political news-the wit and
humour of the fair, best domestic style, informed
throughout with wide general culture. An allusion
to Aristophanes; a passing hint at Rabelais; what
Lucian would have said to his friends on this theme;


GRANT ALLEN, NOVELIST AND PHILOSOPHER

how the row at the School Board would have affected ga
Sam Johnson. ii.
"But you must remember, Mr. Powell," says MTr- so
rison, with an unctuous smile "the greater part of our hi
readers are-well, not to put it too fine-Country ril
squires and conservative. Dissenters. Your articles "H
mustn't hurt their feelings or prejudices. Go warily, we
warily! You must stick to the general policy of the pu
paper, anu be tenderly respectful to John Wesley's He
memory." ou
"Sir,' said I, smacking his hand, 'for five guineas or
a column I'd be tenderly respectful to King Ahab Th
himself, if you cared to insist upon it. You may crunt tie
of my writing whatever rubbish you desire for the Be
nursery mind." And I passed from his dining-room wo
into the enchanted alcove. Fo
"But before I left, my dear Ivan, I'd heard such wi
things as I never heard before, and been promised I'l
such pay as seemed to me this morning beyond the ha
dreams of avarice. And oh, what a character! Fi
"When I was a slave at Khartoum, the man said; or
"When I was a schoolmaster in Texas; when I lived lo
as a student up five Boors at Heidelberg; or when I yo
ran away with Felix Pyat from the Versaillais; till I of
began to think 'twas the Wandering Jew himself come til
to life again in Knightsbridge. At last, after coffee th
and cigarettes on a Cairo tray-with reminiscences ha
of Paraguay-I emerged on the street, and saw erect hi
before my eyes a great round Colosseum. I seemed by
somehow to recognize it. This is not Bagdad, then, pr
I said to myself, rubbing my eyes very hard-for I an
thought I must have been wafted some centuries off, in
on an enchanted carpet. Then I looked once more. ui
Yes, sure enough it was the Albert Hall. And there ev
was the Memorial with its golden image. I rubbed Gi
my eyes a second time, and hailed a hansom-for m
there were hansoms about, and policemen, and babies. th
'Thank Heaven!' I cried aloud 'after all, this is Lon- m
don.' at
be
CHAPTER II. th
sp
**IT'S a most regrettable incident!" Ivan Greet said I
U solemnly. m
The rest turned and looked. Ivan Greet was their th
poet. He was tall and thin. with strange, wistful pe
eyes, somewhat furtive in tone, and a keen, sharp w
face, and lank, long hair that fell loose on his s r
shoulders. It was a point with this hair to be always of
aonormally damp and moist, with a sort of unnatural
and impalpable moisture. The little coterie of
authors and artists to which Ivan belonged regarded
him indeed with no small respect, as a great man
manque. Nature, they knew, had designed him for an
immortal bard: circumstances had turned him into an pa
occasional journalist. But to them, he represented pr


L for Art's sake. So when Ivan said solemnly,
's a most regrettable incident," every eye In the
Im turned and stared at him in concert.
"Why so, me dear fellow?" Paddy O'Connor asked,
?n-eyed. "I call it magnificent!"
But Ivan Greet answered warmly, "Because it'll
ke him still further away than ever from his work
life, which you and I know is science and philo-
phy."
"And yer own grand epic?" Paddy suggested, with
a smart smile, pouncing down like a hawk
upon him.
Ivan Greet coloured positively
coloured-"blushed visibly to the naked
eye," as Paddy observed afterwards, In re-
counting the incident to his familiar
friend at the United Bohemians. But he
stood his ground like a man and a poet
ior all that. "My own epic isn't written
yet-probably never will be written," he
answered, after a pause, with quiet firm-
ness. "I give up to the Daily Telephone
what was meant for mankind: I acknow-
ledge it freely. Still, I'm sorry when I
see any other good man-and most of all
Charlie Powell-comptlled to lose his own
soul the same way I myself have done."
He paused and looked round. "Boys," he
said, addressing the table, In these days,
if any man has anything out of the com-
mon to say, he must be rich and his own
master, or he won't be allowed to say it.
If he's poor, he has first to earn his living;
and to earn his living he's compelled to
do work he doesn't want to do; work that
stifles the things which burn and struggle
tor utterance within him. The editor is
the man who rules the situation; and
what the editor asks is good paying mat-
ter. Good paying matter Charlie can give
him, of course: Charlie can give him,
thank Heaven, whatever he asks for.
But this hack-work will draw him fur-
tner and further afield from the work in
life fur which God made him-the philo-
sophical reconstitution of the world and
the universe for the twentieth century.
And that's why I say-and I say it again
-a most regrettable incident!
Charlie Powell set down his glass of
champagne untasted. Ivan Greet was re-
rded by his narrow little circle of journalistic asso-
ites as something of a prophet; and his words,
lemnly uttered, sobered Charlie for a while, recalled
m with a bound to his better personality. "Ivan's
ght he said slowly, nodding his bead once or twice.
le's right, as usual. We're all of us wasting on
weekly middles the talent God gave us for a higher
irpoee. We know it, every man Jack of us. But
even help us, I say, Ivan; for how can we help
rselves? We live by bread. We must eat bread first,
how can we write epics of philosophies afterwards?
is age demands of us the sacrifice of our individuall-
's. It will be better some day, perhaps, when
ellamy and William Morris have remodelled the
rrld: life will be simpler, and bare living easier.
.r the present I resign myself to Inevitable fate. I'll
rite middles for Morrison, and eat and drink; and
1 wait for my philosophy till I'm rich and bald, and
ave leisure to write it in my own hired house in
tzjohn's Avenue."
Ivan Greet gazed across at him with a serious
ok in those turtive eyes. "That's all very well for
ou," he cried half angrily, in a sudden flaring forth
long-suppressed emotion. "Philosophy can wait
I a man's rich and bald; it gains by waiting; it's
e better for maturity. But poetry!-ah, there, I
ate to talk about it! Who can begin to set about
s divine work when he's turned sixty and worn out
' forty years of uncongenial leaders? The thing's
eposterous. A poet must write when he's young
id passionate, or not at all. He may go on writing
age, of course, as his blood grows cool, if he's kept
Sthe habit like Wordsworth and Tennyson: he may
'en let it lie by or rust for a tlme, like Milton or
oethe, and resume it later, if he throws himself
meanwhile, heart and soul, into some other occupation
at carries him away with it resistlessly for the
oment; but spend half his life in degrading his style
id debasing his genius by working for hire at the
eck and call of an editor-lose his birthright like
at, and then turn at last with the bald head you
seak about to pour forth at sixty his frigid lyrics-
tell you, Charlie, the thing's impossible! The poet
ust work, the poet must acquire his habits of
bought and style and expression in the volcanic
period; if he waits till he's crusted over and encysted
ith age, he may hammer out rhetoric, he may spring
esh rhymes, but he'll never, never give us one line
* poetry."

CHAPTER III.
E spoke with fiery zeal. It was seldom Ivan
Greet had an outbreak like this. For the most
irt he acquiesced, like all the rest of us in the su-
'eme dictatorship of Supply and Demand-those


1922-23






1922-23 PLANTERS' PUNCH 11*


ienomic gods of the modern book-market. But now
:i again rebellious fits came over him, and he
&AekeLd against the pricks with all the angry 1im-
isptu yitf of-a born poet. For the rest of that night
ma at moody and silent. Black bile consumed him.
flTdy O'Connor rose and sang with his usual verve
t last new Irish comic song from the music-halls;
Mowbray, from Jamaica, told good stories in
gro dialect with his wonted exuberance; Charlie
Bowell bubbled over with spirits and epigrams. But
,van Greel sat a little apart, with scarcely a smile on
ktih wistful face; he sat and ruminated. He was
Iagiry at heart; the poetic temperament is a tempera-
Meuant of moods; and each mood, once roused, takes
-goir esslon for the time of a man's nature. So Ivan
remained angry, with a remorseful anger: he was
ashamed of his own life, ashamed of failing short 3t
;tis own cherished ideals. Yet how could he help
'`JMlamlf? Man, as he truly said, must live by ure3d,
iaough not by bread alone; a sufficiency of food is still
icondition-precedent of artistic creation. You can't
SUllrn your livelihood nowadays by stringing together
rihym8s, string you never so deftly; and Ivan had no-
imag but his pen to earn it with. He had prostituted
"that pen to write harmless little essays on social sub-
:ets ` l in the monthly magazines; his better nature re-
eo:: ed with horror to-night from the thought of that
Statteful, that wicked profanation.
'Twas a noisy party. They broke up late. Fred
Ifiowbray walked home along Piccadilly with. Ivan.
i::t was one of those dull, wet nights In the streets of
rJ.iadon when everything glistens with a dreary re-
!ilietion from the pallid gas-lamps. Pah! what
."weather! To Fred, West Indian born, it was utterly
leoues. He talked as they went along of the warmth,
lhe sunshine, the breadth of space, the ease of living,


in his native islands. What a contrast between those
sloppy pavements, thick with yellow mud, and the
sunnsmitten hillsides, clad in changeless green,
where the happy nigger lay basking and sprawling
alltday'long on his back in the midst of his plantain
patches, while the bountiful sun did the hard work
of life for him uy ripening his coconuts and mellow-
ing his bananas, unasked, and untended.
Ivan Greet drank it in. As Fred spoke, an idea
rose. up vague and formless in the poet's soul. There
were countries, them, where earth was still kindly,
and human wants Ltill few; where Nature, as In the
Georgics, supplied even now the primary needs of
m.n's life unbidden! Surely, In such a land as that a
poet yet might live; tilling his own small plot and
eating the fruits of his own slight toil, he might find
leisure to mould without let or hindrance the thought
that was in him into exquisite melody. The bare
fLncy fred him. A year or two spent in those de-
licious climates might enable a man to turn out what
was truest and best in him. He might drink of the
spring and be fed from the plantain patch, like those
wiser negroes, but he would carry with him still all
the inherited wealth of European culture, and speak
like a Greek god under the tropic shade of Jamaican
cotton trees.
To the average ratepayer such a scheme would
appear the veriest midsummer madness. But Ivan
Greet was a poet. Now, a poet is a man wh3 acts on
impulse. And to Ivan the impulse itself was absolute-
ly sacred. He paused on the slippery pavement, and
face his companion suddenly. "How much land does
it take there for a man to live upon? he ask, with
hurried energy.
Fred Mowbray reflected. "Well, two acres at


JAMAICA AS SEEN BY MR. CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM

(Continued frowt Page 8).


yorws of empty match boxes. Nature does all she can,
eambowering the meanest "shack" in masse of bright-
'col oured creepers, and shading miserable wooden liv-
i'tg boxes under majestic trees that sprung up, as If
Py magic, in a year or two.
: Man, black and white alike, does little towards
;gimbellishment, though here and there fine villas are
ito be seen outside the towns, or old colonial houses
:'ai the country districts, surrounded by great trees.
.,The negro village is an eyesore, a waste of ragged
:lickens, with but the coloured petticoats of the wo-
men hanging out to dry to give relief to it. One town
na all the island stands out alone to show what towns
' buld be in such surroundings. Right in the middle
tf the plain from which it takes its name stan's
mantiago de Ia Vega. Its ancient name is that I
hlike to think of when I recall the place to memory,
"Athough to-day it masquerades as Spanish Town.
"A Itrkight, white, dusty road, that breaks off to the
keft at Constant Spring, leads out to it. Along it
wanwui r irounp, of negrbes, all chattering, all merry-
itoDpand looking as if the primeval curse sat lightly
i' t m. Others drive scraggy mules in carts, un-
pinted and uncleaned. After each cart a yellow dog
eIE two plods on amongst the dust. You pass Tom
)jngle's tree, a bongo or a ceiba, if I remember right-
t, and in the distance the town comes into sight.
ateu iub your eyes. not only to get the dust out of
tSem, but because you are amazed. You scarcely note
~he groups of negresses that pass you, statues in
ibon*y, with their inimitable walk, ivory teeth, bright-
,beloured clothes, their handkerchiefs about their
.teads, and air of Africa, for it appears a cinemato-
tigaph has been at work. and you are looking at a
k.wn either in Mexico or Spain.
SHere is no modern horror of cement-built phalan-
terles as in Kingston, no negro squalor as at Port
Antonio or Annotto Bay. You pass at once into a
IUtely Spanish plaza, surrounded by great trees.
iilittle bricked paths lead to the sacrament garden
,:iJ the middle, with its stone benches, flowers and
bluntains, moss-stained and secular. Great clumps of
rirlmson bougainvilleas fill the angles of the plaza and
"the bright creeper known in Colombia as "la bellisi-
a" climbs on the mouldering iron railings which
surround the square. The sound of murmuring
waters is always in the ear, as the bricked rills
meander to the fountain, where swim goldfish, not
?l.Motched and unhealthy looking as they are In colder
climates but really golden and deserving of the name.
S One looks around, expecting that a Spanish girl
Jin black manttla will cross the square upon her way
i'to Mass, followed by an attendant negro woman. She
d1bies not pass. Nor does a ragged gentleman ask alms
ilth the air of doing you a favour, nor on the benches
;i'does there sit a group of politicians, railing at the
I Government and anxious to avail themselves of any
.littLle post that it may throw to them. No Spanish
i gldier, smart, clean, and olive coloured, in his suit
t'nowy drill, saunters across the plaza (for it is
fy a plaza, not a square), rolling a cigarette. No
ritest reading his breviary strolls beneath the trees,
ji friar with his bare feet and well-lined belly hurries
Sto his convent, not to miss Mass or meat.
W None of these types are to be seen; not the lithe
tl-fighter, swaying upon his hips just as a Spanish
r sways and undulates, nor yet the stout and
.wi-wruaped women with their unstable busts all
tof stays;
s.. .'.


Somehow one feels that they still haunt the plaza,
where they walked a thousand times in days forgotten
and long past. Surely their images are photograph-
ed upon the stones and benches, for nature, prodigal
of life, of vegetation, and of all she makes and casts
away without a thought, must preserve shadows, for
after all they are the most enduring part of man.
Spain, or its shadow, still lives in the paza: but all
around Is Georgian England, homely and picturesque,
looking as if a country town in Sussex had been trans-
planted and had taken root, flourished, and died, and
remained petrified.
The parish church, with due, squat spire on which
St. Peter's cock swings about languidly as if it felt
the heat, brick-built and savouring of the days when
churches were a sort of cross between a barrack and
a windmill, tills one angle of the square. A slate-
flaggeu path leads up to it, and when you enter into
the sacred precincts, the famllar, mouldy smell, pre-
served, no doubt, just as miraculously as the orders of
the bishops who rule over it, assaults your nostrils,
bringing back any parish church in Sussex or in Kent.
Worthies in full-bottomed wigs, all wrought in
marble or in alabaster, lie under mighty Georgian
catafalques, awaiting the last trump that chubby
angels perched on the cornices like swallows perched
upon a rail, seem eager to blare out. Their virtues
and their services to the island are couched in Latin,
rather bovine than canine; yet they sleep on, as un-
disturbed by sermons or by hymns as they would
sleep in a dark corner next to the yew-tree under the
lush grass of a churchyard in the old country, with
an intruding nonconformist pony grazing above their
heads. The groups of Georgian buildings and Rod-
ney's monument under its cupola give an air of Ken-
sington or Kew, gone astray in the tropics. They do
not make too Jarring a discord with the old Spanish
plaza and its tall rustling trees.
All seems to blend together Into an harmonious
whole. Even the negroes seem to walk more warily
in the decaying streets, and the mulatta girls put on
a foreign air as thay go chattering about the lanes.
Possibly reformers have marked down Spanish Town.
as the cockney "big-game" shooter, with his "shooting
license," marks down a giraffe for destruction in
East Africa.
In the meantime it slumbers peacefully, a relic of
the days when planters, sitting down to dinner at
three o'clock, sat on till midnight, eating pork chops
and good corned beef, washed down with port and
rum. Long may it slumber, and soon may the other
towns wake up; for they need progress and the
vivifying breath of trade: but Santiago de la Vega,
With Toledo, Granada. Fez, and other relics of the
past, should be preserved intact for us to wander in
and meditate, when our heads ache with the rude
shouting of the votaries of ten per cent bowing before
the god.
A delightful island with its high mountains and
its fertile vales, its tropic forests, and .its memories
of the past: its Spanish names preserved distorted in
their Anglo-Saxon aspect, Wag-water for "Agua Alta"
and "Boca de Agua" turned into Bog Walk. An
island of great capabilities, a sort of Hamlet of the
West Indies, lacking advancements, poor in the midst
of natural riches, ready to fall into the hands of the
United States, unless we, like the Devil, "tak' a
thocht,' and mend our ways.


most. I should say, down in plantain and yam," he
answered, "would support a family."
"And you can buy it? Ivan went on, with surpris-
Ing eagerness. "I meat, there's lots to be had-it's
always in the market?"
"Lots to be had? Why, yes! No difficulty there!
Half Jamaica's for sale, on the mountains especially.
The island's under-peopled; our pop's half a million;
it'd hold quite three. Land goes for a mere song;
you can buy where you will quite easily.
Ivan Greet's lip trembled with intense excitement.
A vision of freedom floated dimly before him. Palms.
tree ferns, bamboos, waving clumps of tropic foliage;
a hillside hut; dusky faces, red handkerchiefs; and
leisure, leisure, leisure to do the work he liked in!
Oh, soul, what a dream! You shall say what you will
there! To Ivan that was religion--ll the religion
he had perhaps; for he was, above all things, an
artistic nature.
How much would it cost, do you think? he in-
quired, all tremulous.
And Fred answered airily, "Well, I fancy not
more than a pound or two an acre."
A pound or two an acre! Just a column in the
Globe. The gates of Paradise stood open before him!
They walked on a hundred yards or so again in
silence. Ivan Greet was turning over in his seething
soul a strong scheme to free himself from Egyptian
bondage. At last he asked once more, "How much
would it cost me to go out by the steerage, if there
is such a thing on the steamers to Jamaica?
Fred Mowbray paused a moment. "Well, I should
think," he said at last, pursing his lips to look wise,
"you ought to do it for about a tenner."
Ivan's mind was made up. Those words decided
him. While his mother lived he had felt bound to
support her; and the necessity for doing so had "kept
him straight," his friend said-or, as he himself
would have phrased it, had tied him firmly down to
unwilling servitude. But now he had nobody on
earth save himself to consult, for Ethel had married
well, and Stephen, dull lad, was comfortably ensconced
in a city office. He went home all on fire with his
new idea. That night he hardly slept; coconuts
waved their long leaves in the breeze before him;
dusky hands beckoned him with strange signs and
enticements to come over to a land of sunlight and
freedom. But he was practical too; he worked It all
out in his head arithmetically. So much coming in
from this or that magazine: so much cash in hand;
so much per contra for petty debts at home; so much
for outfit, passage money, purchase. With two acres
of his own he could live like a lord on his yams and
plantains. What sort of food-stuff, indeed, your yam
might be he hadn't, to say the truth, the very faintest
conception. But who cares for such detail? It was
freedom he wanted, not the flesh-pots of Egypt. And
freedom he would have to work out his own nature.

CHAPTER IV.
rHERE was commotion on the hillside at St.
r Thomas-in-the-Vale one brilliant blazing noon-
tide a few weeks later. Clemmy burst upon the group
that sat lounging on the ground outside the hut-door
with most unwonted tidings. "You hear dem sell dat
piece o' land nez' bit to Tammas?" she cried, all agog
with excitement; "you hear dem sell it?"
Old Rachel looked up, yawning. "What de gal
a-talking about?" she answered testily, for old Rachael
was toothless. "Folk all know dat-him hear tell
long ago. Sell dem two acre las' week, Peter say, to.
stranger down a Kingston.
Yes, an' de 'tranger come up," Clemmy burst out,
hardly able to contain herself at so astounding an
incident, "an' what you think him is?" Him don't
nagur at all! Him reel buckra gentleman!"
A shrill whistle of surprise and subdued unbe-
lief ran sharply round the little cluster of squatting
negroes. "Him buckra?" Peter Foddergill repeated
to himself, half incredulous. Peter was Clemmy's
stepfather; for Clemmy was a brown girl, and old
Rachel, her mother, was a full-blooded negress. Her
paternity was lost in the dim past of the island.
"Yes, him buckra," Clemmy repeated in a very
firm voice. "Him reel white buckra. Him come up
to take de land, an' gwine to lib dere."
"It don't can true!" old Rachel cried, rousing
herself. "It don't can possible. Buckra gentleman
don't can come an lib on two-acre plot alongside o'
black nagur. Him gwtne to gib It to some nagur
leeady. White buckra don't can lib alone in St.
Thomas."
But Clemmy was positive. "No, no." she cried,
unmoved, shaking her comely brown head, with its
crimson banuana-for she was a pretty girl bf her
sort was Clemmy. "Him gwine to lib dere. Him tell
me so himself. Him gwlne to build hut on it, an'
plant it down in plantain. Him berry pretty gentle-
man, wit' long hair on him shoulder; him hab eyes
quick and sharp same like mongoose: and when him
smile, him look kinder an' anything. But him say him
come out from England for good becos him lub better
to lib in Jamaica; an' him gwine to build him hut
here, and lib same like nagur."
In a moment the little cluster of negro hovels was
all a-buzz with conjecture, and hubbub, and wonder-
ment. Only the small black babies were left sprawl-
ing in the dust, with the small black pigs, beside their
mothers' doors, so that you could hardly tell at a
glance which was which, as they basked there; all
the rest of the population, men, women, and children,




~w w w a w w '-~


PLANTERS' PUNCH


t922-28S


with. that-trifling exception, made a general stampede
with one accord for the plot next to Tammas's. A
buckra come to live on the hillside In their midst! A
buokra going to build a little -hut like their own! A
buckra going to cultivate a two-acre plot with yam
and plantain! They were aghast with surprise. It
was wonderful, wonderful! For Jamaica negroes don't
keep abreast of the movement, and they didn't know
the ways of our latter-day prophets.
As for Ivan Greet himself, he was fairly sur-
prised in turn, as he stood there in his shirt-sleeves
surveying his estate, at this sudden eruption of good-
humoured barbarians. How they grinned and chat-
tered! What teeth! Whrt animation! He had
bought his two acres with the eye of faith at King-
ston from their lawful proprietor, knowing nothing
but their place on the plan set before him. That
morning he had come over by train to Spanish Town,
and tramped through the wondrous defile of the Bog
Walk to Linsteaa, and asked his way thence by de-
vious bridle-paths to his own new property on the
hillside at St. Thomas. Conveyancing in Jamaica is
but an artless art; having acquired his plot by cash
payment on the nail, Ivan was left to his own devices
to identify and demarcate it. But Tammas's acre
was marked on the map in conspicuous blue, and de-
fineo in real life by a most warlike boundary fence
of prickly aloes; while a dozen friendly negroes, all
amazement at the sight, were ready to assist him at
once in finding and measuring off the adjacent piece
,duly outlined in red on the duplicate plan be had got
with his title-deed.
It was a very nice plot, with a very fine view,
In a very sweet site, on a very green hillside. But
Ivan Greet though young and strong with the wiry
strength of the tall thin Cornishman, was weary and
hot after a long morning's tramp under a tropical sun,
and somewhat taken aback (as well as he might be,
indeed) at the strangeness and squalor of his new
surroundings. He had pulled off his coat and laid
It down upon the ground; and now he sat on it in his
shirt-sleeves for airiness and coolness. His heart
sank for a moment as he gazed in dismay at the thick
and spiky jungle of tropical scrub he would have to
stub up before he could begin to plant his first yam or
banana. That was a point, to say the truth, which
had hardly entered into his calculations beforehand
in England. He had figured to himself the pineapples
and plantains as a going concern; the coconuts drop-
ping down their ready-made crops; the breadfruits
eternally ripe at all times and seasons. It was a
shock to him to find mother-earth so encumbered with
an alien growth; he must tickle her with a hoe ere
she smiled with a harvest. Tickle her with a hoe
indeed! It was a cutlass he would need to hack down
that matted mass of bristling underbrush.
And how was he to live meanwhile? That was
now the question. His money was all spent save a
couple of pounds, for his estimates had erred, as is
the way of estimates, rather on the side of deficiency
than of excess; and he was now left half-stranded.
Bat his doubts on this subject were-quickly dispelled
by the unexpected good-nature of his negro neigh-
bours. As soon as those simple folk began to realize,
by dint of question and answer, that the buckra meant
actually to settle down In their midst, ana live his
life as they did, their kindliness and their offers of
help knew no stint of moderation. The novelty of the
idea took them by storm. They chuckled and
guffawed at it. A buckra from England-a gentle-
man in dress and accent and manner (for negroes
know what's what, and can judge these things as
well as you or I can) come of his own free-will to
build a hut like their own, and live on the tilth of
two acres of plantain! It was splendid! it was won-
derful! They entered into the spirit of the thing
with true negro zest. "Hey, massy, dat good now!"
They would have done anything for Ivan-anything.
that is to say, that involved no more than the average
amount of negro exertion.
As for the buckra himself, thus finding himself in
the midst of new friends, all eager to hear of his
plans and intentions, he came out in his best colours
under stress of their welcome, and showed himself
for'what he was-a great-hearted gentleman. Sym-
pathy always begets sympathy. Ivan accepted their
proffered services with a kindly smile of recognition
and gratitude, which to those good-natured folk
seemed most condescending and generous in a real
live white man. The news spread like wild-fire. A
buckra had come who loved the nagur. Before three
hou-s were over every man in the hamlet had formed
a high opinion of MLetah Greet's moral qualities.
"Doan't nebber Ece buckra like a' dis one afore." old
Peter murmured musingly to his cronies on the hill-
side. "Him don't eot no pride. cep de pride oh a
gentleman. Him talk to you and me same as if he
tink us huckra like him. -Hey. massy. massa, him
good man fe' true! Wonder what make him want to
come lib at St. Tammas?"

CHAPTER V.

THAT very first day, before the green and gold of
tropical sunset had faded into the solemn grey
of twilight, Ivan Greet bad decided'on the site of his
new hut, and begun to lay the foundation of a rude
wooden shanty with the willing aid of his new black
associates. Half the men of the community buckled
to at the work, and all the women: for the women
felt-at once a novel glow of sympathy and unspoken
compassion towards the unknown white man with the


CHARACTER LNAPSHO


MR. PERCY LIUNDO


Mr. Percy LUrido, with his brothers, left Jamaica
at a fairly early age for Costa Rica, to be clos-ly
associated with the development of the Atlantic
coast of that "Banana Republic." A few years ago the
Lindos returned to their own country to rmbark on
sugar production and other business; they were the
first, as all Jamaica knows, to establish a large sugar
factory here; they also became the owners of the firm
of J. Wray and Nephew, one of the oldest and most
prosperous in Jamaica. While Mr. Cecil Lindo has
occupied himself with the Costa Rican as well as the
Jamaican branches of the Lindo interests Mr. Percy
Lindo has remained in charge of the business at
this end. His duties and responsibilities are mani-
fold; his energy and ability are equal to those re-
sponsibilities and duties.
Those who know him Pre aware that he is one
of the most hardworking men in Jamaica. The quali-
ties that made him successful elsewhere are displayed
by him in this island to the full. He is early at his
desk. he is one of tire last to leave his office, sometimes
he toils far into the night: no clerk fired with ambi-
tion to succeed surpasses him in devotion to his
work. Yet he fnds time to see every caler, to listen
patiently to whatever anyone may have to say to him:
indeed, he once remarked that he never refused to
see anybody, accessibility being a matter of settled
policy with him. And although a nmn with much to
do, he ever preserves an aminhle manner. One may
well believe that he perceived long ago that courtesy
in business life is a good asset and that no one loses
anything by being polite in working hours. With his
energy and remarkable application, his pleasant man-
ner and keen business insight, he would have been
successful anywhere. He was successful-highly so-
in Costa Rica Naturally it pleases Jamaicans that he
and his brothers decided to return to Jamaica to em-
bark on business here, and help to increase the coun-
try's wealth. Such men are assets to Jamaica.


wistful eyes, who haa come across the great sea to
cast in his lot with theirs under the waving palm-
trees. Now, your average negress can do as much
hard labour as an English navvy: and as the men
found the timber and the posts for the corners without
money or price, it came to pass that by evening that
day a fair framework for a wattled hut of true African
pattern stood already four-square to all the airs of
heaven in the middle frontage of Ivan Greet's two
acres. But it was roofless, of course, and its walls
were still unbuilt: nothing existed so far but the bare
square outline. It had yet to receive its wattled sides,
and to be covered in on top with a picturesque water-
proof thatch of fan-palm. Still, it was a noble hut as
huts went on the hillside. Ivan, and his fellow-work-
ers stood and gazed at it that evening as they struck
work for the day with profound admiration for their
own cunning handicraft.
And now came the question where Ivan was to
sleep, and what to do for his supper. He had doubts
in his own mind how all this could be managed. But
Clemmy had none: Clemmy was the only brown girl
in the little community, and as such, of course, she
claimed and received an acknowledged precedence..
'I shall have to sleep somewhere," Ivan, murmured,
somewhat ruefully, gazing round him at the little
cluster of half-barbarous cottages. "But how-
Heaven help me!"
And Clemmy, nodding her head with a wise little
smile, made answer naturally-


"You gwine sleep at me fader, ash; we got berry
nice room. You don't can go an' sleep wit' all dem
common nagur yah."
"I'm not very rich, you know." Ivan interposed
hastily, with something very like a half-conscious
blush-though, to be sure, he was red enough already
with his unwonted exertion in that sweltering at-
mosphere.
"I'm not very rich, but I've a little still left, and
I can afford to pay-well, whatever you think would
be proper-for bed and board till I can get my own
house up."
Clemmy waved him aside, morally speaking, with
true negro dignity.
"We Invite you, sah," she said proudly, like a lady
of the land (which she was at St. Thomas). "When
we ax gentleman to stop, we don't want nuffin paid
for him board and lodgin.' We offer you de hospitall-
ty of our house an' home till your own house flush.
Christen people don't can do no less dan dat, I hope,
for de homeless 'stranger.' "
She spoke with such grave politeness such un-
consciousness of the underlying humour of the situa-
tion, that Ivan, with his quickly sympathetic poet's
heart, raised his hat in return, as he answered with
equal gravity, in the tone he might have used to a
great lady in England.
"It's awfully kind of you. I appreciate your
goodness. I shall accept with pleasure the hospitality
you offer me."
Old Peter grinned delight from ear to ear. It was
a feather in his cap thus to entertain in his hut the
nobility and gentry. Though, to be sure, 'twas his
right, as the acknowledged stepfather of the only un-
deniable brown girl iu the whole community. For a
brown girl, mark you, serves to a certain extent, as
a patent of gentility in the household she adorns; she
is a living proof of the fact that the family to which
she belongs has been in the habit of mixing with white
society.
"You come along in, sah!" old Peter cried cheeri-
ly. "You tired wit' dat work. You don't accustom'
to it. White gentleman from England find de sun
berry hot out heah in Jamaica. You take drop o'
rum, sah, or you like coconut water!"
Ivan modestly preferred the less spirituous liquor
to the wine of the country; so Clemmy, much flatter-
ed, and not a little fluttered, brought out a fresh
green coconut, and sliced its top off before his eyes
with one slash of the knife, and poured the limpid
juice (which came forth clear as crystal, not thick
and milky) into a bowl-shaped calabash, which she
offered with a graceful bow for their visitor's ac-
ceptance. Ivan seated himself on the ground just
outside the hut as he'saw the negroes do (for the air
inside was hot, and close and stifling), and took with
real pleasure his first long pull at that delicious
beverage. "Why. it's glorious!" he exclaimed, with
unfeigned enthusiasm ifor he was hot, and thirsty),
turning the empty calabash upside down before his
entertainers' eyes, to let them see he fully appreciated
their rustic attentions. "Quite different from the
coconuts one gets in London! So fresh, end pure, and
eooi: It's almost --orth cowing out to Jamaica to
taste it."
Clemmy smiled her delight. Was ever buckra so
affable! Then she brought out a spoon---common
pewter, or the like- which she wiped on her short
skirt with unaffected simplicity, and handed it to him
gravely. After that she gave him the coconut itself,
with the soft jelly inside, which Ivan proceeded to
scoop out, and eat before her eyes with evident relish.
A semi-circle of admiring negroes and negresses stood
round and looked on-"Hey, massy, massa! him da eat
de coconut!"-as though the sight of a white man
taking jelly with a spoon were some startling novelty.
Now, Ivan was modest, as becomes a poet; but he
managed to eat on, as little disconcerted by their at-
tentions as possible; for he saw, if he was to live for -
some time among these people, how necessary it was
from the very beginning to conciliate and please
them.
The coconut finished, Clemmy produced boiled
yam and a little salt fish; she brought forth butter
in a lordly dish, ani sat down by Ivan's side to their
frugal supper. Being a brown girl, of course she
coulu venture on such a liberty with an invited guest;
old Peter and her mother, as two pure-blooded blacks,
sat a little apart from their new friend and their
daughter, not to seem too presumptuous. And still,
as Ivan ate, the admiring chorus ran round the semi-
circle, "Hey. massy, but dat fine! hey, massy, but him
no proud! My king! you see him eat! You ebber know
buckra do de same like a' dat afore?"
That night-his first night in the Jamaican moun-
tains-Ivan slept in old Peter's hut. It was narrow
and close, but he opened the wooden window as wide
as possible to let in the fresh air, and lay with his
head to it; he was young and strong, and had a fancy
for roughing it. Next morning, early, he was up with
his hosts, and afoot, for his work, while still the South-
ern sun hung low in the heavens. Fresh plantains
and breadfruit, with a draught from a coconut, made
up the bill of fare for his simple breakfast; Ivan
thought them not had, though a trifle unsatisfying.
That day, and several days after, he passed on his
plot; the men-great hulking blacks-gave him a
helping hand by fits and starts at his job, though less
eagerly than at first: the women, more faithful to -
their waif from overseas, worked on with a will at the
wattling and thatching. As for Clemmy, she took a
personal interest In the building from beginning to


.N-


I I






rtu--m I I g rUN .lKC b3 P ULN L, t


'-ad;'she regarded it with a vague sort of proprietary
pride; she spoke of it as "de house" in the very
Sphlrase we all of us use ourselves about the place we're
engagedd in building or furnishing.
At last, after a fortnight, the hut was finished.
'The entire hillside turned out with great joy to cele-
:brate its inauguration. They lighted a bonfire of the
.brushwood and scrub they had cleared off the little
JBlak platform in front of the door; each man brought
Lht own rum; Ivan spent some five of his hoarded
shillingss in supplying refreshments for his assembled
-neighbours. Such a house-warming had never before
-een known in St. Thomas. Till late that evening
little groups sat round the embers, and baked yam
Land sweet potatoes in the hot wood-ashes. It was
..fter midnight when the crowd, well drunken, began
t.to disperse. Then they all went away, one by one-
"cxcept Clemmy.
Ivan looked at her inquiringly. She hung her
i.head and hesitated.
You tink buckra gentleman can lib alone in house
widout serbant?" she asked, at last, in a very timid
o -e. "You don't want housekeeper? Buckra must
*hab someone to cook for him an' care for him. You
no want me to go. I think I make a good housekeeper."
"Of course," Ivan answered, with a gleam of com-
iprehension, "I never thought about that. Why, just
the right thing. How very kind of you! I can't cook
Oirt myself. I suppose I- must have somebody to
'manage about boiling yams and plantains."

CHAPTER rI.
0, for eight or ten months, Ivan Greet lived on in
Shis wattled hut on that Jamaican hillside. He
ifa dead to the world, and the world to him; he
Maither wrote to nor heard from any friend in Eng-
.istd. In the local planters' phrase, he simply "went
ger." What little luggage he possessed he had left
tt Slpanish Town station while he built his hut; as
as he was fully installed in his own freehold
.se, and had got his supplies into working order,
and Clemmy started off for Spanish Town together,
ad brought it back, with much laughter, turn about,
ween them. Clemmy bore the big box on her head,
whenever her turn came, as she was accustomed to
y a pail of water. It contained the small ward-
[ibe he brought out from England, and more import-
t still the pen, ink, and paper, with which he was
write-his immortal masterpiece.
Not that Ivan was In any hurry to begin his great
Freedom and leisure were the keynotes of the
nation. He would only set to work when the im-
se came upon him. And just at first freedom nor
9eiure nor impulse was his. He had his ground to


prepare, his yams and bananas to plant, his daily
bread, or daily breadfruit to procure, quite as truly as
in England. Though, to be sure, Clemmy's friends
were most generous of their store, with that uncon-
scious communism of all primitive societies. They
offered what they had, and offered it freely. And
Ivan, being a poet, accepted their gifts more frankly
by far than most others could have done: he would
repay them all, he said when his crop was ready.
The negroes in turn liked him the better for that;
they were proud to be able to lend or give to the
buckra from England. It raised them no little in
their own esteem to find the white man so willing to
chum with them.
Five or six weeks passed away after Ivan had
taken possession of his hut before he attempted to
turn his hand to any literary work. Meanwhile, he
was busily occupied in stubbing, and planting, with
occasional help from his negro allies, and the con-
stant aid of those ever faithful negresses. Even after
he had settled down to a quiet life under his own
vine and fig-tree, some time went past before the
spirit moved him to undertake composition. To say
the truth, this dolce far niente world exactly suited
him. Poets are lazy by nature-or, shall we put it,
contemplative? When Ivan In England first dreamt
of this strange scheme, he looked forward to it as a
noble stroke for faith and freedom, a sacrifice of his
own personal worldly comfort to the work in life that
was set before him. And so, indeed, it was, from the
point of view of the flesh-pots of Egypt. But flesh-
pots, after all, don't fill so large a place in human
existence as civilization fancies. When he found him-
selP at last at ease on his hillside, he was surprised
to discover how delightful how poetical, how elevated
is savagery. He sat all day long on the ground under
the plantains, in shirt and trousers, with Clemmy by
his side, or took a turn for exercise now and again
in the cool of the evening through his sprouting yam
plot. Palm-leaves whispered in the wind, mangoes
glowed on the branches, pomegranates cracked and
reddened, humming-birds darted swift in invisible
flight from flower to flower of the crimson hibiscus.
What need to hurry in such a land as this, where all
the world at once eats its lotus In harmony?
After a while, however, inspiration came upon
him. It came unsought. It hunted him up and con-
strained him. He brought forth pen and paper to the
door of the hut, and, sitting there in the broad shade
(Clemmy still at his side), began from time to time to
jot down a sentence, a thought, a phrase, a single
word, exactly as they came to him. He didn't work
hard. To work hard, indeed, or, in other words, to
spur his Pegasus beyond its natural pace, was to Ivan
nothing short of sheer wordly infidelity. Literature


is the realization of one's inmost personality in ex-
ternal form. He wanted freedom for that very pur-
pose-that he might write the thing he would la the
way that occurred to him. But slowly, none the less,
a delicate picture grew up by degrees on the canvas
before him. It wasn't a poem: the muse didn't move
him just so to verse, and he would be true to the core
to her. It was a litlte romance, a vignette of tropical
life, a Paul et Virginie picture of the folk he saw
then and there on the hillside. And, indeed, the sub-
ject exactly suited him. A Bohemian in the grain,
the easy, Bohemian life of these children of nature
in their wattled huts appealed to him vividly. For a
month or so now he had lived in their midst as one
of themselves; he had caught their very tone; he had
learned to understand them, to know them, to sym-
pathize with them. "I'll tell you what it is, sir." a
dissipated young planter had said to him at King-
ston during the few days he spent there, "people may
say what they like about this blessed Island: but what
I say is, it's a jolly good place to live in, all the same,
where rum is cheap and morals is lax!" Not so did
Lh3 poet's eye envisage that black Arcadia.
To Ivan it was an Eden of the Caribbean Sea;
he loved it for its simplicity, its naturalness, its utter
absence of guile or wile or self-consciousness. 'Twas
a land indeed where the Queen's writ ran not; where
the moral law bore but feeble sway; where men and
women, as free as the wind, lived and loved in their
own capricious, ancestral fashion. Its ethics were
certainly not the ethics of that hateful Mayfair from
which he had fled in search of freedom. But life was
real, if life was not earnest; no sham was there, no
veiled code of pretence; what all the world did
all the world frankly and openly acknowledged.
Censors and censoriousness were alike unknown.
Every man did that which was right in his
own eyes, and no man hindered him. In such an
environment what space for Idylls! Never, since
Theocritus, had poet's eye beheld anything like it. In
the midst of this naive world he so thoroughly under
stood and so deeply appreciated, Ivan Greet couldn't
help but burst into song, or at least Into romance of
Arcadian pattern. Day by day he sat at the door of
his but, or strolled through the hamlet, with a nod
and a smile for black Rose or black Robert, noting
as he went their little words and ways, Jotting mental-
ly down on the tablets of his brain each striking
phrase or tone or native pose or incident. So his
idyll took shape of itself, he hardly knew how. It
was he that held the pen; it was nature herself that
dirated the plot. the dialogue, the episodes.
In the evenings, whenever the fancy seized him,
he would sit and read aloud what be had written dur-
ing the day to his companion Clemmy. There, in the


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balmy glow of topical dust, with the sunset lighting
up in pink or purple the page as he read it, and the
breeze rustling soft through the golden leaves of the
star-apple, that simple tale of a simple life was uttered
and heaMd in its native world, to the fullest advantage.
But Clemmy! As for Clemmy, she sat entranced; was
there ever so grand a man on earth as Ivan? Never.
before had that brown girl known there was anything
other in the way of books than the Bible, the hymn-
book, and the A, B, C, In which she learned to read
at the negro village-school down yonder at Linstead.
And now, Ivan's tale awoke a new interest, a fresh
delight within her. She understood it all the better
in that It was a truthful tale of her own land and her
own people. Time, place, surroundings, all were
wholly familiar to her. It made her laugh a low
laugh of surprise and pleasure to see how Ivan hit
off with one striking phrase, one deft touch, one neat
epithet, the people and things she had known and
mixed with from her earliest childhood. In a word,
It was Clemmy's first glimpse into literature. Now,
Clemmy was a brown girl, and clever at that.
European blood of no mean strain flowed in her veins
-the blood of an able English naval family. Till
Ivan came, indeed, she had livbd the life and thought
the thoughts of the people around her. But her new
companion wakened higher chords, unsuspected by


herself, in her inner nature. She revelled In his idyll.
Oh, how sweet they were, those evenings on the hill
side, when Ivan took her Into his confidence, as it were,
and poured forth into her ear that dainty tale that
would have fallen so flat on the dull ears of her com-
panions! For Clemmy knew now she was better than
the rest. She had always prided herself, of course,
like every brown girl, on her ennobling mixture of
European blood; though she never knew quite why.
This book revealed It to her. She realized now how
inheritance had given her something that was want-
ing to the black girls, her playmates, in the village.
She and Ivan were one, in one half their natures.

CHAPTER VII.

rEN months passed away. Working by fits and
starts as the mood came upon him, Ivan Greet
completed and re-polished his masterpiece. It was but
a little thing, yet he knew it was a masterpiece.
Every word and line in it pleased and satisfied him.
And when he was satisfied, he knew he had reckoned
with hIs hardest critic. He had only to send It home
to England now, and get it published. For the rest,
he cared little. Let men read it or not, let them
praise or blame, he had done a piece of work at last
that was worthy of him.


ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES

(Continued from Page 9).


lief, and then they were taken down by Peter to the
slave quarters and each man given in charge of a
slave already settled on the estate. These were
Joloffs from the Gambia, peaceable fisher folk, and
they could hold no communication with the Ashantls.
But any man who Is hungry understands a pot of
yam. or crushed cassava and plantain made into futu,
and to rest free and unshackled in the open air was
peace. A black man was a black man to the planter.
Now-a-days even black men themselves talks if
Africa held but one race, a noble race held back from
Its rights by the white map. They have no idea of
the vast extent of the continent. Neither had the
planter of old days in Jamaica. He only knew that
men vere beginning to say that the Koromantyns
were not to be relied upon He did not understand
that an Ashanti warrior brooked no interference when
he was young and strong, and that he might have his
work cut out for him. He did not even tell his wife
and daughter of his doubts: where was the use of
frightening them? But he probably confided in his
son and warned him not to be too wrapped up in the
new girl, but to keep a sharp lookout and glean from
her something of the attitude of these newcomers to-
wards their present environment. He served out
cutlasses and hoes doubtfully, and his heart misgave
him as he saw how capably some of these men
handled the cutlass.
He looked at the fastenings of the shutters and
doors that night, we may be sure. Those who slept
on the ground floor might stifle In the heat but the
shutters must not be opened.
And then for a day or two he forgot his fears,
swearing at the awkwardness of the new hands who
came shambling to the fields and stood in sullen
groups apparently not understanding that they were
required to use the hoe. The planter laid about him
with a supplejack and the bondservants came and
tried by example to show them what was needed. The
girl, who looked like Ruth, came forward swinging
ler hoe lightly, for her young arms were strong. She
might not like being a slave, but the boy pleased her
even as she pleased him and she had hopes for the
future, and then the planter turned to her.
"Tell them," be said with an oath, "tell them they
must work or it is something more than supple-jack I
shall lay about their backs."
She laughed up in his face.
"Warriors do not work across the Prah-only
women and slaves."
"And are they not slaves? Great-" and, Puritan
though he was, the planter let out a string of oaths
that would not have disgraced a staggering Cavalier.
But those huddled naked savages looked at him with
lowering brows, and not till one of them had been
stretched out on the ground and held there by three
-of the other slaves while another laid on blows on his
bare back, did they fumblingly take the hoes and very
clumsily set to work at the holes Every Lime the head
driver came along he laid his whip lightly across a
back that was not bending enough to the toil, ju6t as
an earnest of what would happen, and the planter
went to bed discontented that night for no two men
had done as much as the girl, and heaven knows she
had done little enough.
And then it happened, as it happened again and
again with the newly purchased Koromantyns. To-
wards morning, after they had rested a little from
their toll, they rose. The planter had taken the pre-
aiution of collecting the cutlasses and putting them
in the hut where the four white bondservants lived,
for the white bondservants were not likely to rise.
They could not live in the modntalns. They must
submit to whatever their master laid upon them.
And the bondservants were weary with the day of
toil and slept heavily, and when they awakened it was
to find the little hut full of qrouching black figures.


Aloysius was quick and active. He overthrew the
savage who fell upon him and sped swiftly up the hill
shouting to the Great House, but the other three died
as soon as the matchetts were found. There had
been death in Peter's face, and he died with hardly a
sob. They did not torture, they were too keen on
killing; then they too followed.
The planter wan roused from his uneasy sleep by
the shout-"The Koromintygs! The Koromantyns!"
He besitred a moment. But he heard his
daughter's voice.
"'Tis Aloysius!" and then a shriek of fear, for
looking from her window in the tower she saw plainly
by the light of the waning moon dark naked figures
rushing up the hill. He opened then, and his bond-
servant fell in panting.
"Peter! The others!"
"Dead, I think."
"Quashle and Mutton and Villain," naming some
of the old slaves, asked the planter, barring the door
again.
"In their quarters! I know not, but quiet enough,
I reckon. These be the new Koromantyns," and even
as he spoke they heard them at the stout shutters.
And then the planter had his loaded musket
ready, and another each for wife and daughter, and
looked around for his son. But the boy was not there,
he had stolen out to visit the girl he had found like
Ruth. They found his dead body next day, but of
the girl there was no sign.
And so the battle began. The two white men and
the two white women against those ten raging
savages; and the other slaves, the Joloffs, lay snug in
their huts taking an unexpected day's rest. They
dared not oppose the fierce Ashantls, and all they did
after the day had' well dawned was to send a couple
of their number trembling to Comfort to say the new
slaves had risen.and that the planter and his family
were In danger of their lives.
It was a good deal for slaves to do when one comes
to think of it, for if the white people bad all been
killed it might well be they would suffer unthinkable
things at the hands of the angry whites.
I think those four white people made a stout re-
sistance, so stout a resistance that the Ashantis, un-
accustomed to their new surroundings and fearing
every shadow, at last drew off and, taking their hoes
and machetts, fled away into the inaccessible moun-
tains behind the plantation, there to be a thorn in
the side of the planter for many a long day to come.
They had killed the young master, killed him as he
ran out at the sound of their shouting, but the two
servant wenches and the quadroon girl they carried
off with them, because warriors must have some one
to work for them and to till the ground.
When help came from Comfort they were gone.
And the planter thanked God for the foresight that
had made him keep plenty of powder and shot on the
premises and see to it that the water cask in the
corner of the living room was kept full, and he mourn-
ed for his son and cursed himself for a fool for trust-
Ing a boy to buy slaves. Since he had not been well
enough to ride to Port Royal himself he should have
left the holing of the new cane-piece till another sea-
son.
And because it is an ll wind that blows no one
any good, Aloyslus, the fair haired, stout hearted
bondservant, came into his own. The planter needed
a right hand man, someone whom he could trust, and
I think that he trusted Aloysius who had sold himself
into slavery because he was poor and penniless, and I
think Aloysius married the daughter of the house
and-presently there was a grand-son to be worked
for by his grandmother and spoiled by his grand-
father and-
Often I think in the history of Jamaica such
things must have occurred.


And Clemmy admired It more than words cotulh :
fathom. Though she spoke her own uncouth dialect--.
only, she could understand and appreciate all that-.
Ivan had written-for [van had written It. Those ten-
months of daily intercourse with her poet in all moods.
had been to Clemmy a liberal education. Even her"
English improved, though that was a small matter;
but her point of view widened and expanded unspeak--j
ably. It was the first time she had ever been brought.]
into contact with a higher nature. And Ivan was so--
kind, so generous, so sympathetic. In one word, h.e.
treated her as he would treat a lady. Accustomed as-
she was only to the coarsely good-natured blacks of1
her hamlet, Clemmy found an English gentleman a.
wonderfully lovable and delightful companion. She-'
knew, of course, he didn't love her-that would be--i
asking too much; but he was tender and gentle to her,.,
as his poet's heart would have made him be to any
other woman under like conditions. Sometimes the -
girls in the village would ask her in confidence, "Yot :
think him lub you, Clemmy? You tink de buckra lub,
you?"
And Clemy, looking coy, and holding her head on.
one side, would answer, in the peculiar Jamaican sing-
song, "Him mind on him book. Him don't think ob-.
anything else. His mind too full. Him don't think -
to lub me."
But Clemmy loved him-deeply, devotedly.
Clemmy would have died for Ivan Greet; her whole-.
life was now bound up in her Englishman. His mat-
terpiece was to her something more divine than to.`I
Ivan himself: she knew .by heart whole pages and
passages of It.
In this delicious idyllic dream-a dream of young
love satisfied (for Clemmy didn't ask such impossibi--
lities from fate as that Ivan should love her as she 4
loved him)-those happy months sped away too fast-
till Ivan's work was finished. On the morning of the--
day before he meant to take it in to the post at Span--
Ish Town, and send it off, registered, to his friends- I
In England, he walked out carelessly bare-footed-so-!
negro-like had he become-among the deep dew on
the grass in front of his shanty. Clemmy caught sight-..!
of him 1rrom the door, and shook' her head gravely.
"If you was my pickney Ivan," she said, with.
true African freedom, "I tell you what I do: I smack-
you for dat. You gwine to take fever!
Ivan, laughed, and waved his hand.
"Oh, no fear," he cried lightly. "I'm a Jamaican..-
born by now. I've taken to the life as a duek takesL'-.
to the water. Besides, it's quite warm, Clemmy.
This dew won't hurt me."
Clemmy thought no more of it at the time, though. '
she went in at once, and brought out his shoes and
socks, and mane himn put them on with much womanly-
chiding. But that night, after supper, when she'
took his hand in hers, as was her wont of an evening...
she drew back in surprise.
"Why, Ivan,' she cried, all cold with terror, "your-,
hand too hot! You done got de fever!"
"Well, I don't feel quite the thing," Ivan ad-
mitted grudgingly. "I've chills down my back and,:;
throbbing pain In my head. I think I'll turn in and:
try some quinine, Clemmy."
Clemmy's heart sank at once. She put him to bed.
on the rough sack in the hut that served for a mat-;
tress, and sent Peter post haste down to Linstead for ,i
the doctor. It was hours before he came; he was.
dining with a friend at a "penn" on the mountains;
he wouldn't hurry himself for the "white trash" who-
had "gone nigger" on the hillside. Meanwhile Clemmy-
sat watching, all Inward horror, by Ivan's bedside.-
Long before the doctor arrived her Englishman was..
delirious. Tropical diseases run their course with-l
appealing rapidity. By the time the doctor came her
looked at the patient with a careless eye. All the|
world round about had heard of the white man who3
"lived with the niggers," and despised him accord-
ingly.
"Yellow fever," he said calmly, in a very cold'
voice. "He can't be moved, and he can't be nursed.
here. A pretty piggery this for a white man to die.
in!
Clemmy clasped her hands hard.
"To die in!" she echoed aloud. "To'die in! Toi
die in!"
"Well, he's not likely to live, is he?" the doctor'
answered, with a sharp little laugh. "But we'll do4
what we can. He must be nursed day and night, and'
kept cool pnd well-aired, and have arrowroot and
brandysevery half-hour, awake or asleep-a couple-
of teaspoonfuls. I suppose you can get some other,
girl to help you sit up with him?"
To help her sit up with him! Clemmy shudderedr
at the thought. She would have sat up with him her-
self every night for a century. What was sleep or.
rest to her when Ivan was in danger! For the next!
three days she never moved from his side except to'
make fresh arrowroot by the fire outside the hut, or-
to bring back a calabash of clear water from theli
rivulet. But how could nursing avail? The white'
man's constitution was already broken down by hard-
ships and bad food, nay, even by the very idleness of
the past ten months; and that hut was, indeed, no fiti
place to tend him in. The disease ran its course with!
all its fatal swiftness. From the very first night Ivani
never for a moment recovered consciousness. On the-
second he was worse. On the third, with the sudden."
ness of that treacherous climate, a tropical thunder;
storm burst over them unawares. It chilled the air
fast. Before it had rained itself out with peal upon


1922-23


. -






PLANTERS' PUNCH


peal and flash upon flash, in quick succession, Ivan
Greet had turned on his side and died, and Clemmy
sat alone in the hut with a corpse, and her unborn
baby.

CHAPTER VIll.
SOR a week or two the world was blank to Clemmy.
She knew only one thing-that Ivan had left her
two sacred legacies. To print his book, to bring up
ihis child-those were now the tasks in life set before
.'her. From the very first moment she regarded the
-nanuscript of his masterpiece with the profoundest
:reverence. Even before six stalwart negroes in their
Sunday clothes came to bury her dead poet on the
palope of the hillside under a murmuring clump of
feathery y bamboos, she had taken out that precious
IJbunaie of papers from Ivan's oox in the corner, which
L.erved as sofa in the bare little shanty, and had
.had wrapped it up tenderly in his big silk handker-
-chief, and replaced it with care, and locked up the box
Again, and put the key, tied by a string, round her
.seck on her own brown bosom. And when Ivan was
gonee for ever, and her tears were dry enough, she
,went to that box every night and morning, and un-
aroiled the handerchief reverently, and took out the.
manprinted book, and read it here and there-with pride
iand joy and sorrow-and folded i: up again and re-
hplaced it in its ark till another evening. She knew
jtothing of books till this one: it had never even
truck her they were the outcome of human brains
nd hands; but she knew it was her business in life
tow to publish it. Ivan Greet was gone, and, but for
hose two legacies he left behind him, she would have
wished to die-she would have died, as negroes can,
'y merely wishing it. But now she couldn't. She
snit live for his child: she must live for his idyll. It
iwas a duty Jaid upon her. She knew not how-but
omebow, some time, she must get that book printed.
Six weeks later, her baby was born. As it lay
her lap, a dear, little, soft, round, creamy-brown
irl-hardly brown at all, indeed, but a delicate quad-
won. with deep chestnut hair and European features
he loved it in her heart for its father's sake chiefly.
Swas Ivan's child, made in Ivan's likeness. They
listened it Vanna; 'Twas the nearest feminine form
e could devise to Ivan. But even the baby-her
by, his baby-seemed hardly more alive to Clemmy
relf than the manuscript that lay wrapped.with
noted herbs and leaves in the box in the corner.
r that was all Ivan's, and it spoke to her still with
Authentic voice-his own very words, his tone, his
terance. Many a time she took it out, as baby lay
p, with tender eyelids closed, on the bed where
n had died Ifor sanitary science and knowledge of
geim theory haven't spread much as yet- to St.
omas-in-the-Vale) and read it aloud in her own
song way, and laughed and cried over it, and
ought to herself, time and again, "He wrote all that!
wonderful! how beautiful!
As soon as ever she was well enough, after baby
e, Clemmy took that sacred manuscript, reverently
aed still in its soft silk handkerchief, among its
grant herbs, and with baby at her breast, trudged
herself along the dusty road, some twenty-five
,all the way into Kingston. It was a long, hot
and she was weak and ill; but Ivan's book must
jprinted, let it cost what it might; she would work
lt to death, but she must manage to print it.
knew nothing of his family, his friends in Eng-
Sshe knew nothing of publishing, or of the utter
flity of getting the type set at a Kingston printing-
; she only knew this-that Ivan wrote that book,
that, before he died, he meant to get it printed.
ra weary trudge, buoyed only by vague hopes of
llg Ivan's last wish, she reached the baking
ts of the grim white city. To her that squalid
seemed a very big bustling town. Wandering
e by herself, alone and afraid, down its unwonted
oughfares, full of black men and white, all hurry-
on their own errands, and all equally strange to
;ishe came at-last to Henderson's, the printers.
a very timid air, she mustered up courage to
the shop, and unfolded with trembling fiagers
sacred burden. The printer stared hard at her.
Your own, I suppose?" he said, turning it over
"a curious eye, like any common manuscript, and
tly amused at the bare idea of a book by an
entry brown girl. And Clemmy, half aghast that
t1fan should touch that holy relic so lightly, made
r very low, "No, not me own. Me fren'b. Him
,and I want to know how much you ax to print

i!h n man ran his eye through it, and calculated
r. "On paper like this," he said, after jotting
a few figures, "five hundred copies would stand
ithething like five and thirty pounds, exclusive

endthirty pounds! Clemmy drew a long
It was appalling. impossible. "You haven't
witch about you, I suppose!" the printer went
a laugh. Clemmy's eyes filled with tears.
trty pounds! And a brown girl! Was it

don't want it print jes' yet," she answered,
effort, hardly keeping back her tesrs. "I only
;sz-walk in. all de way from St. Tammas-in-
r make me tired. Bime-by, p'raps, I print
I done got de money. I don't got it jes'
'm gwine 4ome to get It.
'iome she went, heavy-hearted; home she
it.' Five-and-thirty pounds, but she meant


to earn it. Tramp, tramp, tramp, she trudged along
to St. Thomas.
Between the pestilential lagoons on the road to
Spanish Town she thought it all out. Before she
reached the outskirts, with her baby at her breast,
she had already matured her plan of campaign for
the future. Come what might, she must make enough
money to print Ivan Greet's masterpiece. She was
only a brown girl, but she was still in possession of
the two-acre plot; and possession is always nine points
of the law, in Jamaica as in England. Indeed, with
her simple West Indian notions of proprietorship and
inheritance, Clemmy never doubted for a moment they
were really her own;'as much as if she were Ivan's
lawful widow. Nobody had yet come to disturb or
evict her; nobody had the right, in Jamaica at least:
for Ivan Greet's heirs, executors, and assigns slum-
bered at peace, five thousand miles away, oversea in
England. So, as Clemmy tramped on, along the dusty
high road, and between the malarious swamps, and
through the grey streets of dismantled Spanish Town,
and up the grateful coolness of the Rio Cobre ravine
to her home in St. Thomas, she said to herself and to
his baby at her breast a thousand times over bow she
would toil and moil, and save and scrape, and earn
money to print his last work at last as he meant it
to be printed.

CHAPTER IX.
AND she worked with a will. She didn't know it
was a heroic resolve on her part: she only knew
she had got to do it. She planted yam and coffee and
tobacco. Coffee and tobacco need higher cultivation
than the more thriftless class of negroes usually care
to bestow upon them; but Clemmy was a brown girl,
and she worked as became the descendant of so many
strenuous white ancestors. She could live herself on
the yams and breadfruit; when her.crop was ripe she
could sell the bananas and coffee and tobacco, and
board up the money she got in a belt round her waist,
for she never could trust all that precious coin away
from her own person.
From the day of her return, she worked hard with
a will and on market-days she trudged down with her
basket on her head and her baby in her arms to sell
her' surplus produce in Linstead market. Every
quattie she earned she tied up Light in the girdle
round her waist. When the quattles reached eight
she exchanged them for a shilling-one shilling more
towards the Lblrty-flve pounds it would cost her to
print Ivan Greet's last idyll! The people in St.
Thomas were kind to Clemmy. "Him don't nebber
get ober de buckra deal'," they said. "Him take it
berry to heart. Him lub him fe' true, dat gall wit' de
buckra!" So they helped her still, as they had helped
Ivan in his lifetime. Many a one gave her an hour's
work at her plot when the drought threatened badly,
or aided her to get in her yams and sweet potatoes be-
fore the rainy season.
Clemmy was an Old Connexion Baptist. They all
belonged to the Old Connexion in the Linstead district.
Your negro is strong on doctrinal theology, and he
likes the practical sense of sins visibly washed away
by total immersion. It gives him a comfortable feel-
ing of efficient regeneration which no mere infant
sprinkling could possibly emulate. One morning, on
the hillside, as Clemmy stood in her plot by a grace-
ful clump of waving bamboos, hacking down with her
cutlass the weeds that encumbered her precious coffee-
bushes-the bushes that were to print Ivan Greet's


last manuscript-of a sudden the min ster rode by on
his mountain pony--leek, smooth-faced, oleaginousa
the very picture and embodiment of the well-fed,
negro-paid, up-country missionary. He halted on the
path-a mere ledge of bridle-track-as he passed
where she stood bending down at her labour.
"Hey, Clemmy," the minister cried in his half-
negro tone-for, though an Englishman born, he had
lived among his flock on the mountains so long that
he had caught at last its very voice and aceent-"they
tell me this good-for-nothing white man's dead who
liven In the hut here. Perhaps it was better so! In6
stead of trying to raise and improve your people, he
had sunk himself to their lowest level. So you've got
his hut now! And what are spu doing, child, with the
coffee and tobacco?"
Clemmy's face burned hot; this was sheer dese-
cration! The flush almost showed through her dusky
brown skin, so intense was her indignant wrath at
hearing her dead Ivan described by that sleek fat
creature as a "good-for-nothing white man." But she
answered back bravely, "Him good friend to me fe'
true, sah. I don't know nuffin' 'bout what make him
came beah, but I nebber see buckra treat nagur any-
where sameway like he treat dem. An' I lubbed him
true. And I growing' dem crop deh to prin' de book
him gone left behind him."
The minister reflected. This was sheer coan
tumacy. "But the land's not yours," he said testily.
"It belongs to the man's relations-his heirs or his
creditors. Unless of course," he added, after a pause,
just to make things sure, "he left it by will to you."
"No sah, him don't make no will," Clemmy
answered, trembling, "an' him don't leave it to any-
body, but I lib on de land while Ivan lib, an' I don't
gwine to quit it for no one on earth' now him dead and
buried."
"You were his housekeeper, I think," the minis-
ter went on, musing.
And Clemmy, adopting that usual euphemism of
the country where such relations are habitual, made
answer, hanging her head, "Yes, sah, I was him house-
keeper."
'What was his name?" the minister asked, taking
out a small note-book.
"Dent call him Ivan Greet," Clemmy answered in-
cautiously.
"Ivan Greet," the minister repeated, stroking his
smooth double chin and reflecting inwardly. "Ivan
Greet! Ivan Greet! No doubt a Russian! Well,
Clemmy, you must remember, this land's not yours,
and if only we can find out where Ivan Greet belonged,
and write to his relations--which is, of course, omr
plain duty-you'll have to give it up and go back to
your father." He shook his pony's reins. "Get up,
Duchess" he cried calmly. "Good morning, Clemmv;
good morning."
"Marnin', sah, Clemmy answered, with a vague
foreboding, her heart standing still with chilly fea.
within her.
But, as soon as the minister's ample back was
turned, she laid oown her cutlass, took up little Vanna
from the ground beside her, pressed the child to hei
breast, and rushed with passionate tears to the box
in the hut that contained, in many folds, his precious
manuscript. She took the key from her neck, and
unlocked it eagerly. Then she brought forth the
handkerchief, unwound it with care, and stared hard
through her tears at the sacred title-page. His rela-
(Continued on Page 25).


1922-23


15


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PLANTERS' PUNCH 1922-43


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PLANTERS' PUNCH


1922-28





1922-23 PLANTERS' P-UNCH 17
n


The Devil's Mountain

(Continued from Pope 6).
making notes in a little pocket book. Everyone
noticed the absence of Mr. PhlpDs, but no one com-
.mented on it.
Presently a heavy tread, accompanied by a jing-
ling sound, was heard in the corridor, and then in
the doorway appeared a tall, handsome young English-
-.-man, spurred like a cavalry officer, and dressed in the
white jacket and dark-blue trousers of an Inspector of
i? Jamaica Police. On seeing the ladies, his hand
flew to the salute, and he greeted Marian by name, as
one who knew her. He turned to Lady Rosedale, who
had risen from her chair at his appearance.
"I am exceedlnggly sorry to hear about your loss,"
.he said to her courteously, in a pleasant but business-
like tone of voice. "Brown,"-he indicated the de-
.tective-"Brown telephoned for me to come down, as
the case seemed a peculiar and delicate one, and I
hastened down in the hope of being of some service.
I trust we shall be able to recover your diamond neck-
Slace very shortly, Lady Rosedale."
S "My pearl necklace also," said Lady Rosedale.
"That-"
"If you please, Inspector, I would like to say a
,i-word to you by yourself," interrupted Detective-Ser-
.geant Brown.
S "Certainly, brown," agreed the Inspector, and re-
. tired with his subordinate into the corridor, which
had by this been deserted by many of the guests, who
l" bad gone to breakfast. Some persons still hung
about, however, eager to learn at first hand the latest
Developments of this interesting situation. These
keenly followed Inspector Harmsworth and his sub-
r'ordinate with their eyes, though their ears could
:.catch nothing of what passed between the two, who
N.spole to one another in whispers.
When Inspector Harmsworth returned, after about
|five minutes' whispered conversation with the detec-
live. he was looking exceedingly grave and embar-
'-rassed. He muttered a word or two in the manager's
-ear, and the manager, in his turn, went out into the
-.corridor and hinted to the people who still lingered
there that the dining room would shortly be closed.
IHe also managed to suggest delicately that the Detec-
five Inspector would like to conduct his investigations
i4n private. This hint had the desired effect, and when
the last of the curious and excited spectators had die-
P'appeared, Inspector Harmsworth closed the door of
ViMarlan's room, and, seating himself at the writing
table by -the window, rapidly filled in some official

"I hold a commission as a Justice of the Peace,"
e explained to the manager as he wrote: "it Is use-
iul In emergencies. I am afraid we shall have to
arch one or two of your rooms."
"But which?" cried the manager; "surely you
't interfere with everybody's private apartment!"
"There is no such intention," said Inspector
armsworth soothingly; "indeed, I am sure no one
*ill make any aifficully about a search quietly con-
ucted by experienced officers. I am sorry, but, in
he circumstances--"
"His eyes rested on Marian apologetically, and at
nce, he saw, with relief, and yet with something like
hame, that she understood the look. Before she
olihl make any remark, Lady Rosedale replied.
'Both I and Miss Braeme will be glad to have our
coma thoroughly overhauled, Inspector," she said,
you can begin with mine. What other rooms do you
ntend to search?"
S"Inspector Harmsworth pretended not to hear the
question. More embarrassed than ever, he resumed
is remarks.
"You should yourself go over every article of-
r-clothing, L3dy Rosedale, so as to be absolutely
retain that nothing has been mislaid in them. Miss
aeme will no doubt assist you."
"And Lady Rosedale can assist me," said Marian
ulckly. "We had better begin with my room. After
have searched, your people could go over the rooms
themselves if you like. Mightn't that help?"
"It would, immensely," agreed the Inspector,
eatly relieved: "and you had better get one of the
tel's maids to help you: you'll need someone to
ove tbe things in the room."
He hated the job he had in hand; he had never
one anything like it before. But the girl's quickness
f wit had saved him from making any deliberate
estlon that a search of persons as well as of
property was desirable if suspicion was not to con-
nue to rest on Marian. The police could not venture
search anyone unless he or she was arrested, and
are were no good grounds as yet for the arrest of
body. But Brown had stated plainly to him his
iaions of Marian. and in the latter's own interests
va. best.that it should be settled once and for all
t she had none of the missing jewellery hidden in
room or concealed on her person-that is, assum-
Sthat Sergeant Brown was wrong. Marian would
S,'he hoped, insist upon Lady Rosedale "assist-
rtiner in a minute investigation, and, to save
Mi' face, Lady Rosedale would also submit to a
I ie..arch. The police would not be called upon
::that to go through either lady's person or

I himself, the Inspector thought Detective


Brown's suspicion of Marian absurdd; but the man
had had much experience in the detection of robberies,
and duty was duty. It was Harmsworth's duty, as
head of the local detective department, to discover the
thief and recover the jewels. The value of these, the
position of Lady Rosedale, the peculiar circumstances
of the double theft, rendered this case the most im-
portant of which he had ever had the handling. There
was going to be a great fuss and to-do about it; that
he could already see: what he could not see was his
way to success if the jewels had really disappeared.
The whole business seemed to him an infernal
nuisance, and one, moreover, with which a gentleman
should have nothing to do. But there it was: he was
Detective Inspector, and Brown had sent for him
because Brown had felt that he could not personally
deal with a white lady as a suspect, however much
he might suspect her: that was a job for an Inspector
at least. She was not, however, the only person
against whom Detective Brown entertained suspi-
cions; he had also whispered the name of Mr. Phipps.
In one of the search warrants just signed appeared
the name of Mr. Phipps, whom Inspector Harmsworth
knew very well indeed. Often he had enjoyed Mr.
Phipp's hospitality. Now to be called upon to coun-
tenance and then to order a search of his rooms was
positively awful. Police work, when it touched the
better classes, was decidedly not work for a man with
decent feeling, thought Inspector Harmsworth, as he
silently sympathised with himself. He was sorry he
had not applied for protracted leave of absence a week
or two before.
"We shall remain outside until you are ready for
us," he said, rising from the table as he finished writ-
ing, and addressing Lady Rosedale. He would not
venture to look at Marian. "Please take your own
time," he added, anxious to be as nice as possible, and
bowed himself out of the room.
Once oursiue, he breathed a sigh of relief, and
turned to the stolid black man at his side. "Now.
Brown," said he, "shall we go to Mr. Phipps's room?
The manager here will help us."
The manager's face indicated quite plainly that
there was nothing that he could possibly desire less
to do; but be contented himself with shrugging his
shoulders.
"And where is Mr. Phipps?" asked Inspector
Harmsworth.
"When I sent Sampson to telephone to you, In-
spector, Mr. Phipps walked out of the lady's room,
where he had no right to be from the first. I knew
he was trying to get away, so I went after Sampson
and told him to follow Mr. Phipps wherever he went.
Sampson hasn't come back yet, nor Mr. Phipps either."
"There's Mr. Phipps now," said the Inspector, as
he caught sight of the well-dressed, jaunty figure of
that gentleman stepping lightly along the corridor
towards him. "He must have just come in."
"'Ah, Harmsworth," cried Mr. Phipps heartily,
"on the job, I see. I guessed from the start that this
sable Sherlock Holmes would send a lightning sum-
mons to you. Holmes will make a great reputation
yet if only he lives long enough, avoids drink, and
conquers the tropical tendency to inertia: I especially
want to advise him against drink. Your other man
has been following me all over Kingston in a cab. I
say, old chap, I am awfully sorry to put the Jamaica
Detective Department to such expense. Seems that I
am suspected of harbouring diamonds and pearls on
my person against the Aliens Immigration Act or
something. Is that so?"
"The matter is rather serious, Mr. Phipps," re-
plied the Inspector. "We have to do all that we can
to recover Lady Rosedale's jewels, so you must excuse
me if I-"
Say. you aren't going to arrest me, are you?" asked
Mr. Phipps.
"Oh, no. There's nothing whatever against you:
don't imagine that for a moment. But as a matter of
form, you understand, we, that is to say-"
"Just what, son? Say the word!"
"We shall have to go through your rooms. It is
in your interest really. You see that, don't you?"
"No, sir. I don't. What you mean to tell me is
that this bright and shining son of Ham has got out
a search warrant against me and that it is now to be
executed. Well, I have no kick coming, and it
wouldn't matter a brace of sour apples to King
George's Government if T had. So get along, and
make your search, and if you can haul up any dia-
monds and pearls among my belongings we'll just
divide the graft between us. Come along."
Mr. Phipps, smiling as though at an excellent
joke, led the way to his room. Detective Brown lin-
gered in the corridor, while Harmsworth followed Mr.
Phipps. Brown then ran downstairs, with a celerity
of which he would not commonly have been suspect-
ed, and there, as he had expected, he found his assist-
ant, Sampson, waiting for him.
"Where did Mr. Phipps go?" he demanded
brusquely.
"To Jones and Bedlaw," answered Sampson, men-
tioning a leading firm of city solicitors.
"What did he want to go to lawyers for at this
early hour? He went nowhere else?"
"No, he came right back, and I came behind him."
"All right, Sampson, wait down here till I want
you; but if he comes down before me, follow him.
But try and don't let him see you." And with that
Detective Brown hurried back up the stairs and into
Mr. Phipps's room.


The search warrant was produced, and the search
took place, the Inspector watching it with a shame-
faced expression. Brown looked everywhere, leisure-
ly, knowing that the ladies would take some time at
their own task; but his heart was not In the Job.
The fact is, he did not expect to find anything. Mr.
Phipps had left the hotel, and if Mr. Phipps was the
man who had stolen the jewels he surely would not
have left them behind him. They would not be on
him now, either: Brown was convinced of that.
Sampson had followed him in a cab; but had Sampson
been as watchful as possible? Mr. Phipps's cabman,
too: who was he? Sampson should be able to recog-
nise him; possibly he wag a creature in the pay Of
Mr. Phipps. That cabman must have his room seardi-
ed this very day, if the Detective Inspector would
consent; but a man like Mr. Phipps wouldn't leave
anything valuable in a cabman's room for ten minute.
If that cabman could be questioned properly-E rown
was a staunch Presbyterian, but at that moment iW
thought with great approval of the means of ti-
vestigation which, as be had read, had in former
days been employed by the Spanish Inquisition.
"There is nothing here, sir," said he at length
to Inspector Harmsworth, "nothing at all."
"And did you think anything would be there,
0 wisest of detectives?" asked Mr. Phippe. "In the
meantime, what happens to my reputation if the story
of this search gets about?"
"But it must not! cried the hotel's manager: "It
must be kept a secret."
"It will be,' promised Inspector Harmswortl;
"I am sorry the search had to he made." He looked
reproachfully at Brown.
"You can say, sir." suggested that worthy, "that
Mr. Phipps was trying to help us, and we had a talk
together in his room-for people have seen us come
In here, and will wonder why."
"That is an excellent suggestion," agreed Mr.
Phipps. "I perceive that there are depths of intelli-
gence in Sherlock Holmes which I have not yet plumb-
ed. I have heard of rough diamonds, and of Lady
Roseaale's diamonds, and now I have met a black
diamond. The age of discovery is not yet closed." .
A knock at the door sounded, and a maid's voice
was heard informing Inspector Harmsworth that Lady
Rosedale was asking for him: he, the manager and
the detective went out to meet her. Mr. Phippe ac-
companied them.
Laoy Rosedale and Marian were standing in the
corridor waiting for them. "There is not a jewel to
be found in either of our rooms," said Lady Rosedale
at once. "I am certain of that. We have both
searched thoroughly. Have you made any search
yourself, Inspector?"
"We have, but discovered nothing, Lady Rose-
dale" Harmsworth replied. "And now Brown will
take down your full E'-itement and that of Miss
Braeme, and then we'll go and see theInspector Gen-
eral. But first we must talk to the night-watchman
and one or two other persons in this hotel. We ar
only at the beginning of our enquiry," he continued
hopefully, "and before long I trust you will have your
necklaces back again. You are not going out to-day
to take pictures, Miss Braeme?"
"No; nor to-morrow. I don't come into the
scenes the director is taking to-day," explained
Marian.
"I am glad of that, after all the annoyance and
excitement of this morning," courteously observed the
Inspector. "Good-morning. Good-morning, Lady
Rosedale. Brown will take down what you both have
to say."
"May I hazard a guess, Harmsworth?" said Mr.
Phipps, as they moved away together.
"What is It?"
"That the necklaces will never be found."
"That will be rather serious for me and for Lady
Rosedale,"'said Harmsworth grimly.
"It might be much more serious for the thief,"
returned Mr. Phipps, "and, as a man of humane feel-
ing. I am bound to think of him also. I sympathies
with you; but, frankly, for Lady Rosedafe I have hot
the slightest sympathy. She does not deserve it."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE POLICE CONFER.
SOM)i hours after the robbery at the Myrtle Bank
Hotel the Inspector General of the Jamaica
Police was seated in his office, a spacious room
situated on the ground floor of a large block
of yellowish ferro-concrete buildings in the lower or
business section of the city of Kingston. Two wire-
screened windows, facing westwards and opened at
the top, admitted light and air, while shutting off the
Interior of the room effectually from all curious or
impertinent glances thrown towards it by those who
passed without.
The Inspector General was a short, thick-set man,
with perky features and of martial appearance. He
had been a Major in the King's Army, and was now
head of the semi-military police organization of Ja-
maica by virtue of having served in India in an en-
tirely different capacity from that of a policeman.
Ordinarily, in spite of its self-sufficient expression,
his face gave one an impression of determination and
shrewdness; and indeed those who knew him best
were satisfied that Major Fellspar wa anyjitfg but
a fool. Just now, however, he was looatig iteitheB






18 PLANTERS' PUNCH 1922---


shrewd nor self-confident, but irritable, worried, per-
plexed. For now he was faced with the biggest prob-
lem of his life-the recovery of Lady Rosedale's jewels.
He sat at his desk, and his Deputy, a tall placid
person of noncommittal features, was seated at his
right hand near the desk. Inspector Harmsworth
occupied a chair a few feet away from the Deputy,
while against the western wall of the office, in an
attitude of alert attention, stood the two detectives
who had conducted the investigation at the Myrtle
Bank Hotel that morning.
Inspector Harmsworth had been specially sum-
moned, with Detectives Brown and Sampson, to a
conference with the Chief and his Deputy. At pre-
sent the role of the Deputy seemed to be to show
sympathy with his puzzled and sorely-tried superior
officer.
The latter had read through carefully the state-
ments made to Sergeant Brown by Lady Rosedale,
Miss Braeme, Mr. Phipps, the hotel's watchman, the
aight maid on the first floor of the Myrtle Bank, and
one or two of the bellboys. Brown had been thorough
in his efforts to educe information which he thought
likely to be at all valuable. The names of persons
who were known to have been in the vicinity of Lady
Rosedale's room during the night before, and their
movements, in so far as these could be ascertained,
were duly recorded in the papers on the Inspector
General's desk. A bellboy-the same whom Mr.
Phippa had sent for his cigarettes-had mentioned
that Mr. Beaman had also searched Mr. Phipps's room
for cigarettes, and had remained upstairs for several
minutes. The night-watchman had stated that he
had seen no one on the roof of the verandah, or mak-
ntg any attempt to reach it from the ground. The
Inspector General, after reading through this man's
statement twice, turned to the Deputy with a gesture
of Irritation.
"It would seem from what this night-watchman
has said," he fumed, "that he is a model of vigilance
and did nothing all last night except keep his eyes
fixed an that part of the hotel where Lady Rosedale's
room is situated. I gather that, for some entirely
inexplicable reason, he had that room under his sur-
veillance for several hours. Now how can we be ex-
pected to believe any such preposterous thing?"
"Quite so, sir," murmured the Deputy; "his state-
ment isn't worth much to us."
"There is this man, Beaman," continued the
Chief: "what was he doing so long in Phipps's room?"
"I understand that he was worried last night;
gloomy and abstracted," explained Harmsworth. "He
wouldn't be very quick and lively In the circum-
stances."
"But what was he gloomy about? That's some-
thing for you to find out"
"Very well, sir."
"Then there is this actress: you tell me that
Brown suspected her from the start?"
"I did, Chief," put In Detective Brown himself
respectfully; "for though it Is true that she did lock
the lady's trunk after she put back the jewel box, she
might have taken out the neckTace while the box was
on the table, when Lady Rosedale wasn't looking, and
slipped It into her pocket."
"A lady's evening dress does not contain pockets,"
remarked Inspector Harmsworth. "Ladies' dresses
are not made with pockets now-a-days."
"You seem to know a great deal about ladies'
dresses, Mr. Harmsworth," said the Inspector General
grimly. "Could she not have slipped it into her
bodice?"
But Lady Rosedale is positive, as you will see
f-am her statement, sir, that she did not take her
eyes of the jewel case while it was on the dressing
table. In fact, she opened It and handled it herself
up to the moment she asked Miss Braeme to put It
away in the trunk. There can be no doubt of that."
"So that takes suspicion off Miss Braeme," said
the Inspector General; "and of course the pearls and
her own Jewellery were stolen out of her room."
"But what about Mr. Phipps?" asked the Deputy.
"I am coming to that," said Major Fellspar.
"Phipps admits that he retired to his room last night
almost before anybody else did. His room is situated
near to Lady Rosedale's and Miss Braeme's. It would
be easy enough for him to slip out of his room on to
the verandah, and enter rooms nearby, wouldn't it?
He could do so at different hours of the night if he is
a man of nerve. But how would he know where Lady
Rosedale kept her diamonds?"
"The young lady might have told him, Chief,"
remarked Detective Brown bluntly.
"Brown still suspects the actress," the Inspector
General went on; "and he may be quite right. But
how can we establish complicity between the two?"
"That is the question, sir," said the Deputy.
"It is, and it is only one of the questions we have
got to answer. The Governor has already heard of
this robbery, and has telephoned me to say I must
leave no stone unturned to get back the necklaces.
He doesn't understand the difficulties in the way.
This Police Force was never intended to deal with
such problems!"
"I think Phipps above suspicion myself," observed
Inspector Harmsworth. "And as Miss Braeme has
been in the island for less than a month, she could
hardly be.a confederate of Phipps."
"Bat what do we really know about him?" asked
the Chie. "Who ts he? His name by the way"-he


took up a paper from his desk-"is Archibald. K.
Phipps. What does the K stand for??"
Nobody seemed to know; but, from the look on
his face, the Deputy apparently considered the ques-
tion one of vast importance, the answer to which
would materially assist the Police in a solution of
the problem before it.
"What does the K mean?" again demanded the
Inspector General, looking round the room for Inform-
ation. His eyes happened to rest upon the face of
Detective Sampson. The latter, thinking that he was
directly addressed, and wishing to be helpful, hurried-
ly suggested that the K might mean "Cupid."
"You ass!" stormed the head of the Police, "Cupid
is not spelt with a K! How am I ever to find these
necklaces if I have a staff that cannot even spell?
What do you know about this man, Phipps, Mr.
Harmsworth?"
"He is an American, sir, who has been about two
years in the colony. He owns or rents a small pro-
perty in St. Ann, about fifty or sixty miles from here,
and is believed to be pretty well off. He has been
back to the States three or four times since he settled
in Jamaica."
"Is he really well off?"
"Nobody seems to know exactly. But he is a
very pleasant sort of man. Quite sporting."
'He seems a suspicious sort of person to me,"
sniffed the Inspector General; "besides it is decidedly
queer that he should have hurried away to his lawyers
while Brown was investigating the robbery. What
did he go to Jones and Bedlaw for?"
"That of course we don't know," murmured In-
spector Harmsworth.
"No; and It is a pity that we don't. But we can't
ask a man's lawyers anything about him, and a firm
like Jones and Bedlaw can't even be remotely sus-
pected of receiving stolen goods-that is quite out of
the question."
"True," agreed Inspector Harmsworth. "I don't
quite see myself that there is anything to connect this
robbery with Mr. Phipps," he added.
"We may know more about that later on. His
movements have been very peculiar. Still, it seems
to me that Brown has been clinging far too much to
his belief that the robbery was committed by someone
in the hotel; why shouldn't it have been done by one
of our ordinary burglars? Why should we insist
upon leaving well-known burglars out of account?"
"We are not doing that, sir," Inspector Harms-
worth hastened to assure him. "We propose to search
the rooms of those we have any reason to imagine
might have been connected with this theft. I have
already made arrangements for that. I think it quite
likely myself that some one of them may have com-
mitted this robbery."
"But, begging your pardon, Inspector, no thief
from outside could know about where Lady Rosedale
kept her necklace, or that Miss Braeme next to her
had a necklace for him to steal at the same time," in-
sisted Detective Brown.
"As to the necklaces," replied Inspector Harms-
worth, "any burglar might have heard of them from
a bellboy. From the same source he could have ob-
tained an Impression of Lady Rosedale's locks. I
don't think it at all impossible for false keys to be
made by clever crooks here. Why should it be?"
Brown was about to retort to the effect that a
Jamaica burglar who only searched for an expensive
necklace on breaking Into a jewel case would be a
type quite new to his experience, but the look on the
Inspector General's face did not encourage him to an
argument with Inspector Harmsworth.
"Have you questioned all the bellboys?" asked the
Inspector General.
"Yes, sir," said Harmsworth; "but what they said
was quite straightforward, and their movements last
night can easily be accounted for. They are all fel-
lows of good character: we have nothing against them
in our records."
"We are all of good character until we are found
out," muttered the Chief sententiously. "But if these
boys have no police records, we cannot of course ar-
rest any of them on suspicion. That's a great pity.
Perhaps you could find out something about one of
them by enquiring of previous employers?"
This question having been addressed to Brown,
he answered that be would do his best, his manner
suggesting that he had do doubt whatever that, by en-
quiring closely enough, he could discover much to the
detriment of anybody's character.
"If one of our ordinary thieves has stolen Lady
Rosedale's jewels," continued the Inspector General,
"their recovery will be an easy matter. You will find
them under his bed, or under the flooring of his
room: they never seem to hide their booty anywhere
else. But if someone of a different type has got hold
of them, then only an accident, so far as I can see,
will put us on their track. We have almost nothing
to go upon. Lady Rosedale completely exonerates
Miss Braeme, and, anyhow, nothing is found In Miss
Braeme's room. Beaman's movements after he went
to Phipps's room, and after he left the hotel, have yet
to be thoroughly investigated, but I don't see that
that will help us at all. We come back to Mr. Phippe;
but what is there damaging against him? Nothing.
He Ia laughing at us; that is plain from what you
told me this morning. It he is an American crook,
he knows that we are not organized here for dealing
with a man like him. I don't know what the devil we


are organised for," he concluded angrily, "since I can
never get the.Government to give me the money I need
for making this Force worth a curse."
Here the Deputy gurgled some words of sympathy,
and Detectives Brown and Sampson assumed expres-
sions indicative of their deep disapproval of Govern-
ment parsimony. But they did not dare to gurgle.
That would have been Indiscipline and rank imperti--
nence.
"I shall have to take an active part in this en--
quiry, Harmsworth," the Inspector General resumed;
"the Governor has asked me to do so. Well, have the-
room of every habitual criminal searched thorough-
ly; you can put all the detectives on the job, sav6-
those we have at the Myrtle Bank Hotel. How many
have you got there now?"
"One, sir-Dixon. He was left there to watch thea
movements of the persons connected with this case."
"Very good. I think I shall call on Lady Rose-
dale this afternoon. It will encourage her to know
that I myself am looking after her case."
He rose from his chair, signifying that the con-
ference was at an end. As he did so, the telephone'
bell tinkled.
The Deputy, who was nearest to the telephone,.
put the receiver to his ear.
"Yes; this is the Inspector General's office; yes;.
Inspector Harmsworth Is here. Dixon wants you,.
Harmsworth," said the Deputy, handing Inspector
Harmsworth the receiver; "he is speaking from.
udyrtle Bank."
The Inspector General paused in the act of put-
ting on his helmet, his interest fully aroused. Harms-
worth listened attentively to the voice at thep
other end of the 'phone, then called out to Detective
Dixon to "hold the line." "Dixon says," he informed
Major Fellspar, "that Mr. Phippa left the Myrtle Bank.
in his big motor car a few minutes ago, going at full
speed. Phipps seems to have sent over to the garage
for it, and Dixon believes he Is not returning to-night.
He wants o know what he Is to do."
A look of triumph flitted over the heavy face of
Detective Brown, who evidently saw in this latest-
move of Mr. Phipps's ample justification of all suspi-
cions entertained against him. Major Fellspar smote'
the desk with his open hand.
"Gone, eh!" he exclaimed; "gone to his country-
home as quickly and as unexpectedly as possible.
What do you make of that, Harmsworth?"
"He Is always coming and going, sir."
I don't like the look of it all the same," returned
the Inspector General. He came to a swift decision-
"We must keep a sharp eye on that man. He'll repay
watching."
"Could we get a car and follow him?" suggested
the Deputy.
"We could, but it would be half an hour at least
before you could start, and he is probably expecting
that we'll make some such effort. We'd hardly be able
to overtake him if his car is a good one-and I sup-
pose it Is."
"A Hudson super-six," said Harmsworth.
"That makes any pursuit we could offer quite out
of the question: and if we did overtake him, what
could we do? It would not be wise to arrest himn
without good reason to believe that he had the neck-
laces with him. He may be a crook; I believe he is
myself; but you can never be certain about Ameri-
cans. He may be a second cousin or something of
some Senator we never heard of, and we don't want.















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PLANTERS' PUNCH 10


about American citizens being brutally
,l-y the Jamaica Police. Let him go! Let '
e that we entertain no further suspicion e
That may make him careless. To-morrow I a
i you what steps we must take with regard to i
Swe don't find the necklaces in the meantime." 1
nodded and walked out of the office, the others
lag, after Inspector Harmsworth had informed :
etlve at Myrtle Bank to proceed at once to the
.Si station to await further instructions. 3
tajor FelTspar emerged upon the public gardens t
ot of the building in which his office was, but
Glance to waste upon the grass plqts and grace-
~me that relieved the harshness of the ferro-con- t
buildings on every side. He strolled towards the
alk shaded with low, thick-leaved trees, and
ul a cab. The street was filled with men and wo-
,et variegated complexions hurrying home after
ny's toll and talking loudly of the things that in-
ed them; the black, uniformed policeman at the
drew himself up to attention and saluted, but
people nor policeman did Major Fellspar
It was a glorious afternoon, an exuberance of
Spirits seemed ,to characterise everyone that
that afternoon along the principal business
ghfare of Kingston. Brt Major Fellspar did
iel exuberant and was interested in nothing at
teoment save necklaces and their recovery. The
r's telephone message to him had been far
peremptory than he had mentioned to his sub- i
tes. The Governor had said that the necklaces
be found. "I am a soldier and not a damned
ive," reflected the Inspector General, but that
ot an answer he could return to His Excellency.
blings towards Lady Rosedale, as he entered the
Ordered the driver to take him to the Myrtle
Hotel, bordered on personal hate.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

LADY ROREDALE'S SUSPICIONS.
AJOR Fellspar did not consider that it was
at all consistent with his dignity that he
should be personally identified with this
search for stolen jewels. That was work
his Detective Department, which should report
e every now and then to him, and possibly ask
er directions and advice. It would have been so
articles stolen been of ordinary value, and the
of them of ordinary position; in such a case the
r would have taken not the slightest notice
matter. But Lady Rosedale on her arrival had
aitt King's House, and the Governor and his wife
turned her call. She was a woman whose name
aplpeared In the English society papers and about
the London Morning Post had more than once
hed a paragraph. She was therefore, it but in
manner, something of a personage in Eng-
which meant that in a British West Indian
she was a very important personage indeed.
ty had to be somewhat set aside even by an In-
General in dealing with such a lady: this
Fellspar distinctly realized. But this reflec-
lld not tend to make him feel kindly disposed
I Lady Rosedale. He wished that she had
come to the island, and, but for the fact that
mutation of the Police was at stake, would have
lad to believe that her necklaces would never
nd, a punishment which he thought she merited
er crime of losing them.
A short drive through dingy streets of low, wood-
ek houses with their short flights of steps
onat upon narrow, unpaved sidewalks, and of
Shops presided over by placid Chinamen attend-
Snumbers of dark-hued people making purchases
iite evening's dinner, brought Major Fellspar to
Nlyrtle Bank Hotel. Received with marked de-
V. by the porter, he handed his card to a bellboy
the order that it should be taken up to Lady
e. The lobby was filled with people, many of
eyed him curiously, his uniform indicating his
tion with the Police, and his authoritative ap-
suggesting that he was someone very high
the Force. The Inspector General seemed quite
ecious of the glances and conjectures which his
ce had evoked, but nevertheless was keenly
of them. He was aware that he was, at the
t, a centre of attraction and attention: this
eto his vanity and at once he began to feel
-after all, there might be compensations for the
he had been called upon against his will to
ake. The amiability of his manner, as he
to the foot of the staircase to meet Lady Rose-
was therefore not altogether assumed. He felt
.genlal now than be had done but a brief five
before.
E@ knew Lady Rosedale slightly; had met her at
tion given by the Governor some three weeks
They greeted each other with much cordiali-

it'1 so good of you to comeround yourself." she
"I feel almost certain now that the thief will
vered. Shall we have tea on the verandah
the lawn: you take tea, don't you?"
Shall be delighted to have a cup," he answered.
2 Excellent." He seated himself at a spot in-
by Lady Rosedale, on the lawn just beyond
e of the right wing of the southern verandah,
ich a view of the lobby, the lawn and the rest
erandah was easily obtained.


"I have had a day of it," began Lady Rosedale,
after she had given the order for tea. With a quick
weeping glance she had taken in the scene round
and about her. There were at least two hundred
people on the lawn besides those sauntering about the
obby and on the verandah. And momently the
number grew. No person there but knew now who
she was and of the great misfortune that had recently
befallen her. They must know, moreover, that this
nilitary-looking man was one of the big men of
he colony, and the word would soon go forth that he
was no less than the Inspector General of the Police
himself, a man at the mention of whose name (so she
thought) every criminal in the colony trembled. As
a matter of Tact, mist of the criminals had never
heard of him, and would not have been greatly dis-
turbed if they had. Their main concern was with the
common interfering policeman and the prying plain-
:lothes detective. But Lady Rosedale would never
have imagined that, and certainly, to those per-
sons in whose opinion she was interested the In-
ipector General stood as the embodiment of the might,
majesty- and unceasing vigilance of British Law.-
The whole hotel was now taking note of the cir-
cumstance that, beginning with the advent of two
native detectives to investigate her loss, the day was
closing with the coming of the Inspector General him-
self to talk the matter over with her. But when she
said she had had a day of it, she meant merely to
imply that she had passed through a most trying ordeal.
The keen satisfaction she had extracted out of that
ordeal was not to be suspected by anyone.
"I have had a most trying day of it," she said.
"After your detectives left, some reporters came
and asked to see me. I thought of refusing to see
them, but that might have been churlish: after all,
newspapers must print news. Those of this city are
usually without any."
"Yes; and I wish they would confine themselves
to news," said Major Fellspar, with a nasty feeling
that, if the necklaces were not speedily recovered, the
newspapers might begin to say unpleasant things
about the local Police and its head.
"That is what I said to the young men to-day,
when they asked me for a photograph. I hate seeing
my picture in the papers; I have always avoided it
when I can. But they were quite pressing and I did
not know how to refuse them. I suppose one must do
in Rome as the Romans do. Do you take sugar, Major
Fellspar?"
"One cube, please. I would not advise you to do
in Jamaica as the Jamaicans do, though."
"What is that?"
"Oh, everything," he replied rather vaguely, but
with his mind still on the possibility of bitter and un-
necessarily personal criticism it the necklaces should
not be found. "So you gave them your photograph?
That was very kind of you; I am sure. Did they ket
one from Miss Braeme?"
"Marian? No; she would not hear of it. And I
did not press her to give them one. As a matter of
fact she would not see the reporters: she has not left
her room all day, she is so disturbed and distressed
by all that has happened."
Lady Rosedale did not mention that why she had
not aided the reporters and pressed Marian to have
her photograph reproduced in the newspapers, was be-
cause she had seen no necessity why, the really valu-
able jewels being hers, anyone else should appear be-
fore the newspaper footlights as a sufferer. Marian
would be mentioned in the reports, of course; but
she herself would dominate the stage of publicity.
Considering the magnitude of her loss, there was no-
thing unfair about that. It was indeed but eminently
just.
"So Miss Braeme would not allow her picture to
appear," commented the Inspector General. "But she
is an actress, and tan have no real objection to pub-
licity. She gets it every day."
"She said she'd rather not; and, anyhow, she had
no photograph with hdr and would have had to take a
new one. The one of myself that I gave the reporters
was taken two years ago, but of course I could not
think of being photographed specially for a newspaper
in connection with a robbery. I don't know that I
ought to have given them my photograph at all.'
"One has to do these things now and then," re-
marked the Inspector General sympathetically, "but
I can quite understand the ordeal through which you
have gone. The loss first, and the confusion and the
interviews after-terrible. But we'll get the jewellery
and the thief; both yours and Miss Braeme's. You
can depend upon us for that." Thus he spoke, with a
fervent bope that some special Providence would come
to the aid of the Police. Less than this' he did not
dare to say to Lady Rosedale.
"Whom do you suspect?" she asked him.
"In a case of this kind," he answered confidential-
ly, "the Police cast their net wide. We have our eye
on several persons. You may rest assured that the
Police of England and America have been informed
of this robbery, and your description of the jewels
has been telegraphed to them. Everybody leav-
ing this island during the next few weeks will have
their luggage carefully examined on the other side.
There is no possibility of their being smuggled
through any foreign custom house."
"And you suspect several persons?"
"I do. And, as I have said, I have my eye on
them."
"There he is again!"


Lady Rosedale spoke with petulace, and, follow-
ng her glance, the Inspector General found himself
looking at a quiet, strong-featured young man wh6
had just come out of the lobby and was busily scasf
ning the lawn in evident search of someone.
"Who is that?" he asked.
"A Mr. Beaman. He makes it a practice to come
here every day now."
"He is the man who went upstairs to Mr. Phippe's
room last night and remained there for some time,
sn't he?" enquired Major Fellspar, looking narrowly
at Lawrence, who was totally unconscious that he Wal
an object of scrutiny and discussion.
"Did he?" asked Lady Rosedale. "I hadn't heard
of It. Besides--"
She paused as an idea seemed to dawn and de.
velop in her mind. "How did you hear that, and
why?" she demanded.
Major Fellspar was sorry he had said anything
about Lawrence; but there was no evading an answer
to Lady Rosedale's question.
"It is our business to make an enquiry Into the
movements-of everyone who was in your part of the
house last night," he replied. "It doesn't mean any-
thing more than a necessary precaution."
"Do you believe that a poor man who is deeply in
love would commit a burglary?" suddenly asked Lady
Rosedale.
"Being in love would have nothing to do with
the theft, so far as I can see," replied Major Fellapar,
thinking that she was making a humorous sally.
"Love and theft have no necessary connection, have
they? A poor man, if a thief, would steal whether he
were in love or not. Unless he was taken with sudden
ambitions about reforming and becoming honest; but
those wouldn't last, I am afraid. Once a thief, always
a thief."
"But," insisted Lady Rosedale, "if a man was
poor, and desperately in love, and wanted money bad-
ly; if he could not get the girl he loved while he re*
mained poor; do you think he would rob?"