Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1909-09-10

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British trooper.
cold chill shoot up his spine, but he re-
fused to the maids fears by
turning around.
"Your lordship," said Mr.. Saunders
three minutes later. this is Mr..
Bowles. his majesty's agent here. He
is come with me to-
1t was then and not until then that
his lordship turned his stare from the
sea to the clerk and his companion.
"Aw," he interrupted. glad to see
you, I'm sure. Would you be good
enough to tell us how we are to reach
the-er-chateau and why the devil
we can't get anybody to move our lug
gage?"
MIR. Bowles. who had lived in Japat
for sixteen years, vas a ~tortuously
slow Englishman, with the curse of
the cline still growing upon him. He
was half asleep quite Il good bit of the
time and wholly asleep during the re-
mainder.
my lord, and the chateau is two d.
farther up the side of the mQx
It's quite a walk, sir"
Do you NEAR 70 - We IRE 70
walk?" -
Yes, my lord, If you expect to go
there"
"Of course we expect to go there.
Are there no horses on the beastly
island?"
Hundreds. my lord, but they belong
to the people. and no one but their
ride them. The servants at the
chateau turned Mr.. Skaggs' horses u
to pasture before they left"
Before who left?''
@The servants, my lord"
Lady Deppingham's eyes grew wide
with understanding. You don't mean
to say that the servants have left the
placer" she cried.
Eyes. my lady. They were natives,
you know"
whats that got to do with 1T" de-
manded Deppingham.
"Tm afraid you don't understand
the situation" said Mr.. Bowles pa
tiently. You see, it's really a TRAN
gular controversy, If l may be so bold
as to say so. Lady D~eppingham is one
of the angles; Mr.. Browne, the Amer
lean gentleman, is another; the native
population is the last. Each wants to
be the h~ypotenuse. While the in
terests Of all three are merged in the
real issue, there is nevertheless a de-
cided disposition all around to make
1t an entirely one sided affair"
81 don't believe 1 grasp muttered
Deppingham blankly.
81 see perfectly" exclaimed his wife.
'sThe natives are allied against us,
just as we are. in a way, against them
and Mr.. Browne. Really, it seems
quite natural, doesn't 1t, dear?" turn
ing to her husband.
very likely, but very unfortunate.
1t leaves us to broil our brains out
down here on this pier. l say, Mr.
er-old chap. can't you possibly en-
gage some sort OF transportation for
us? Really. you know, we can't stand
here all day"
"T've no doubt / can arrange it, my
lord. If you will just wait here until
/ run back to the bank l dare say I'll
find a way. Perhaps you'd prefer
standing under the awning until l re-
turn"
It was fully half an hour before he
was seen coming down the street, fol-
lowed by a score or more of natives,
their dirty white robes happing about
their brown legs. At first they could
not believe 1T was Bowles. Lord Dep
bingham had a sharp thrill of joy, but
1t was short lived. Bowles had chang
ed at least a portion of his garb. He
now wore the tight red jacket of the
British trooper, while an ancient army
cap was strapped jauntily over his ear.
tits all right. my lord" he said, sa-
luting as he came up. "They will do
anything I tell 'em to do when / rep
resent the British army. This is the
only uniform on the island, but they've
been taught that there are more where
this n came from. These fellows
will carry your boxes uD to the. cha
Continued on mage &