Evening Star Newspaper, March 10, 1935, Page 84

A Dramatic Story of the East By CHANNING POLLOCK, AMN the woman!” said the doctor. *'1 know her kind. We had hundreds of ‘em in India. Hawks, we used to call 'em, always ready to swoop down upon another woman's nest. I can't under- stand your having her in the house."” ' Althea Hill tried to smile 8 The corner of her mouth lifted a little and then trembled and fell back. “What's the use?’’ she asked, raising her hands slightly in an instinctive motion to ward off something painful. “Geoffrey knows what he wants. If he wants Mrs. Daventry, nothing I can do will stop it.”’ She turned to the open French window and pre- tended to look out. Only someone who had seen that same view day after day, night after night, could have failed to be quieted by its beauty. Below her lay the # Bay of Algiers, a liquid /# sapphire set in hills made golden by moonlight. From this square, plastered, pink villa half way up the Mus- tapha Superieur, the gaze passed over gardens and palm trées; over other lighted vil- las whose flat roofs were their al fresco living rooms, to the glow of the town and the brightly illuminated question mark which shuts off its inner harbor from the sea. Still and starlit in the heat of early April. the distant city, with its modern buildings and hotels, its native quarter stretching narrow. crooked street-tentacles up the hill of the Casbah, its churches and mosques, its Arab souks and Parisian shops, shone like a half moon dropped on the edge of the Mediter- ranean. “Lovely, isn't it?"" Dr. Carmichael said, joining the slender, fair-haired American girl at the window. ‘Lovely and poisonous. The East - even the near East does something to white people. Geoffrey was a decent fellow when he came to Algiers. Now . . .”" Althea rurned sharply, but not in time to stop the <xplosion. “Now, he's a drunken bully." “I'm in love with him,"” the girl said, very simply. ~211 right,” Dr. Carmichael blurted; *'get him out of here. Get him out before that hawk zets him, or brandy gets him, or he goes crazy. He's half-mad now, Allie. I didn't mean to tell you, but did you hear he nearly killed a man day before yesterday on the — what's the name of that ship that put in here from Bombay?"” “I don't know." “Anyway, she's a dirty old tramp, and there’'s been trouble with the crew. Her cap- tain wirelessed the agents, and Geoffrey went aboard as soon as she tied up. One of the men said something to him, and he knocked the chap down and kicked him in the ribs. The man’'s in the hospital. Geoffrey’'s not safe vhen he’s drunk, and that's most of the time. it was mad of you to give this party to-night. And i you had to gi. it, why ask Mrs. Daventry?” “If he wants her, I can't stop him,’’ Althea repeated weakly. *“You can stop his wanting her under your own roof,” Dr. Carmichael replied hotly. “If you didn’t have her here, Geoffrey might even regain his sanity. The woman's a constant irritant. She devotes herself to his senses, and she's pretty damned skilful about it. Plenty f training, I guess. Who is she, anyway?”’ lHlustration by A. Bleser THIS WEEK WINNER | ,0SE ALL Fate Toys With the Strings of Four Human ‘Puppets ‘She was married to a judge in Alexandna. “So she says. When the judge died, she went to Monte Carlo. On what? English judges in Egypt aren’t rich men generally. What's she doing here? I tell you, I know the type, Althea. What I don't know is why she's after Geoffrev. If it weren't for you, I should say ‘serve her right if she got him'. Did you ever hear of a game called ‘Winner Lose All'>" “Never." “‘Well, the name gives you the idea. Mrs. Daventry's playing that game right now, if you ask me."’ Mrs. Hill smiled. “I'm going to get Geoffrey out,” she de- clared. I haven't said anything, even to you, but I've written to London. My father got this job for Geoffrey, you know. He’s got a good deal of money in ships, and Clarkson and Sons are his agents. 1've asked him to speak to George Clarkson." “Where shall you go?"” *Back to England, I hope. We were married there. I've always liked England.” “All right,” Dr. Carmichael said. There was no need of saying more. Althea knew what he felt. Althea knew he had been in love with her all the six years they had lived in Algiers. She knew, too, that she could count on his silence, and his patient and disinterested friendship. He was that kind of man. If he meddled in her affairs — often and hotly — it wasn't for his own sake, but for her’s. She half crossed the room to him, moved by an impulse to touch his arm gratefully, then decided against the gesture. ““What time is it?"’ she asked. ““Twenty minutes past nine.” “Dinner was ordered for nine,"” Althea re- marked. ‘“What can have happened to Geoffrey?”’ “And Mrs. Daventry?”’ */Oh, she’s always late.” “They're fussy about holding tables at the St. George.”” “Let's wait ten minutes,” Mrs. Hill sug- gested. *‘Then we'll leave word, and go on."” She sat at the piano and ran her fingers How could anvone listlessly over the kevs prefer Mrs. Daventry to this girl, Dr. Car- michael thought - that dark, plump, vul- garly sensuous woman to this slim almost boyish figure with its vellow-gold hair and its frank boyish eyes? She talked like a boy, too, this Althea, straight at you, saying just what she meant. No one ever believed Mrs. Dav- entry, a bird of prey, with the feathers of a peacock, the softness of a dove, and something else that suggested a serpent. A ship’s clock on a console table had struck three bells and Althea had risen from the piano when Geoffrey came in. He was an Englishman--tall, square-shouldered, square- faced. He was plainly drunk now, although Dr. Carmichael, standing beside him, noticed that his eyes were not those of a drunken man. Pain-racked, rather. “I've got a hell of a headache,” Geoffrey said. “Blinding headache. Been sitting in the office in a kind of stupor. What are you two dressed up for?”’ “We were going to the dance at the St. George,” Althea said. “You reserved the table yourself."” : “*Who was going?"’ “You and I and the doctor and Daventry.” **Where's she?"’ *'She hasn't come yet." “Well, I'm not going anywhere. Not with this head. I'm staying right here. You go.” “You'll have to dine somewhere,” Althea said. “Makes me sick to think about dinner,” Geoffrey blurted. “I've been sick twice. This headache's driving me mad. For heaven's sake, get out of here."” His voice had risen almost to a cry. “‘Go on, and enjoy yourselves. You won’t miss me too much, I guess.” Dr. Carmichael reached for his hat. “*Come on, Althea,” he said. “1 don’t think we should leave Geoffrey." ] think we should.” Hill started laughing, and stopped short. “My head!” he exclaimed. “Got any sleeping stuff in the house, Allie?"” Mrs. March 10, 1935 Dr. Carmichael Clasped Althea’s Arm, Locked the Door to the Bedroom and Removed the Key “There's some luminal on my bed table.” “All right, That's all I want sleep, and to be left alone.” Geoffrey flung out of the room. ‘Come along, Althea.” ; Mrs. Hill hesitated. *'1'd rather not.” “If you stay, I do,” Dr. Carmichael de- clared. “We'd both better go, Allie. He's drunk, and ugly.” “If Mrs. Daventry comes “She won't come now. o'clock."” Yielding at last, Althea climbed into the doctor’s car, and they drove up the steep hill of the Mustapha Superieur. Ten minutes later, Mrs. Daventry phoned. “Is that you, Geoff? Waiting for me?" “No," he answered, dully. ““‘Aren’t vou going up to the dance?” “No," he said. ‘“The others have gone. 1've got a sick headache.” “You don't mean they've left you alone?”’ “1 want to be alone,” Hill replied. *‘I'm going to bed. I was just starting when you phoned."” “What a shame,”’ Mrs. Daventry remarked. ] was just about to come over."” There was an insinuation in her tone. Ill though he really was, Geoffrey Hill warmed to it. His sluggish pulse quickened. For one instant, he forgot that racking agony back of his forehead. “Come ahead, then,"" he said, and hung up the phone. A native boy entered the room, wearing what looked amusingly like a nightgown, with a tiny curved dagger stuck through his red sash. “Open my bed,” Geoffrey ordered. “Then you can go anywhere you like. T shan’t want you.” The boy disappeared. Geoffrey went to the window. The night was hot, and he felt as though he were stiffling. His tongue seemed swollen and dry. Had he really drunk so much? He couldn’t remember. Where was the brandy? After a ( Continued on Next Page ) " It's nearly ten