Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday BOY'S CINEMA " I obey orders in my Service." she said. " What a Service! " The bitterness of his voice stung. "Have you ever fired a torpedo at an unarmed ship?" she qviestioned. "That's different." " It's certainly more wholesale! " They went out from the school-room into the hall of the house. They had had their evening meal together before the rehearsal. She led the way up the stairs, but outside the door of her owii room she turned to face him. "What right have you to look down on me?" she asked defiantly. "I obey orders as vou obey yours. We don't choose the jobs that are given us. or the means of carrying them out. You and I are only parts of a machine for destruction." She moved past him to the door of his room, and she frowned at an empty key- hole as she opened the door. "Where's the key?" she asked sharply. " Here." He took the ke.y from his pocket, gave it to her, and stepped into the room. "Good-night." She closed the door and locked it on the outside. Next day the school was re-opened to the booming of guns out at sea, and Hardt spent most of the day in her bed-room out of sight of the children. The Fleet was at gun practice, and he used the window and his binoculars quite a lot. He saw the children in the playground; he heard their voices. In the afternoon he heard them singing in the school-room, and he watched their departure—and also the departure of the Reverend Hector Matthews who had paid a visit to the school. The guns were still booming when the girl called him downstairs. She had put a kettle on the stove in the kitchen, and he was helping her to lay the table in the living-room for tea when a knock at the window startled him. The girl, in no wav disturbed, went to the front door and re- turned with Lieutenant A.shington, " Any news? " questioned Hardt. "Yes, I've got it," Ashington replied. "They sail to-morrow." "What time?" asked the girl. " Seven a.m." "No changes?" asked Hardt. "No changes. You'll get in touch with your ship to-night? " Hardt nodded and turned to the girl. "You will be ready to leave at ten o'clock to-night," he said, as though issuing an order. She flashed a resentful glance at him, but murmured : " Very well." Ashington thrust back into his pocket a flask of whisky he had taken from it. "Here, what Is all this?" he asked blankly. "Miss Burnett leaves with me," Hardt replied. "Naturally you want her to re- main. " " Well, who cares what I want? " growled Ashington. "What v/ere the actual orders?" asked the girl. " On completion of the mission you were to be taken on board." " On completion?" Ashington echoed. "And is the m.ission completed? Until your submarines com.e up with our squadrons the job has only been begun." "I think he's right." said the girl quietly, but a determined expression was on her face and Hardt gave way. "Very well," he said. "I shall deliver the message and tell Schuster to report to-morrow night for both of us." "Now you're talking sense," approved Ashington, and he took a nip of whisky from his flask. UNEXPECTED VISITORS ON his way down the hill to the Manse, the Reverend Hector Matthews en- countered a young man In clerical garb who was a stranger to him. He was the Reverend John Harris, and he cut rather a ridiculous figure, for he was carrying a suitcase in one hand and with the other was clutching a portable gramophone which possessed a huge horn. The two passed one another, but stopped and turned to stare. "This is the Reverend Hector Mat- thews," stated the elderly minister. "Is it?" The Reverend John Harris smiled feebly. "I mean—ei'—how do you do? I'm sorry I can't shake hands. Mv name's John Harris. I'm looking for the school." " For what purpose, may I ask? " " To see my fiancee. Miss Burnett." " Beg pardon, sfr," ventured the sergeanv of Marines, " but wouldn't you like me to save you the trouble ?^" The minister's brows ascended. "Miss Burnett did not tell me that she had any connection with the English Kirk. " "Well, she soon will have," laughed t'ne cumbered young man. " H'mm! " Matthews perceived a profit- able opportunity. "If you're making a stay on the island we might let you have a room at the Manse. It would be far cheaper than lodging at the post office." "Would it? I mean—er—that's very kind." " Maybe you'd bring your fiancee to take dinner with us to-night? " John Harris hesitated—and was lost. "If you'll give me your meat coupons," said the opportunist. "Mrs. Matthews might manage a roast." "Well, they're in my inside pocket," said the curate, " and I'm rather cluttered up." "Allow me." The Reverend Hector Matthews explored the inside pocket and extracted the card of meat coupons. "At seven-thirty sharp," he said. Ten minutes thereafter a loud "Yoo- hoo! " caused Captain Hardt. Lieutenant Ashington, and the girl who was supposed to be Anne Burnett to leap up from their chairs in consternation. " Who's that? " whispered Hardt. "It came from the school," whispered Ashington. "I didn't lock it," remembered the girl. Hardt ran out to the stairs and ascended them; Ashington went to the door of the school-room and opened it. The Reverend John Harris had deposited his hat and overcoat on a desk in there and was holding the gramophone and the suitcase. " Oh! " he gasped, at sight of the voung lieutenant. "Oh, I'm most awfully sorry! There—there must be another room." "Come on in," said Ashington. The dismayed curate obeyed, the door was closed and locked, and he was escorted to the living-room. The girl was sitting at the table, but to him she was a stranger. Captain Hardt walked in at the door, grim-faced and silent. "I didn't expect to find officers billeted here," murmured Harris, "but I suppose it's difficult to find accommodation for everyone." " Quite," said the girl com.posedlv. " We October 2K~t, I???.