Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday been left lochind, and soon after the train had crossed the border between Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey, he went out along the corridor of several coaches to a buffet car, carrying (he newspaper with him. The Baroness del Trina, alias Carol Rayder, was sitting in one of the very comfortable chairs of the buffet car, but she did not appear to notice him as he passed her to another chair with a reading lamp on one side of it and a little table on the other. Roston was seemingly immersed in the paper when an ebony-faced waiter stopped over him to inquire: "Can I get you anything, suh?" "Yes." said Roston, looking up. "Bring m& a roast beef sandwich and a cup of coffee." "Yassuh," nodded the negro. "Cream?" "Please." The baroness heard, decided that Roston would remain where he was for some little time, and rose and went out. She made her way along the corridors to the compartment Roston had reserved, and she slipped into It and closed the door and pulled down the blinds. She opened the leather bag upon the seat, and she was going through it very thoroughly when Roston was served with the sandwich and the coffee he had ordered. William Fornay entered the buffet car from the far end of it, dropped into a chair nearly facing Roston, and became busy making notes in a book he took from his breast-pocket. The baroness had closed and refastened the Img, and was opening the suitcase by the time Roston had devomed the sand- wich. He lingered over the coffee, but finally rose, gave the waiter a tip, and went to the curved bar at the end of the car to pay the bill. Fornay watched him covertly, and saw him go out into the corridor. The baroness had searched the suitcase and replaced it on the rack, and she was going through the pockets of an overcoat left on the seat when she heard footsteps BOY'S CINEMA approaching. She threw down the over- coat and went to the door; byt before she could open it the handle was turned from outside, and Roston stood looking down at her with a mocking smile on his lips. Most girls, in such circumstances, would have been covered with confusion; but not the baroness. Quite calmly and coolly she said: "You are Major Roston?" "Yes," he replied, viewing her with interest, but not failing to notice that the overcoat was no longer exactly where he had left it; "that's right." "I was waiting for you. You don't mind?" "Not at all." He closed the door and he made no comment about the blinds. "Won't you sit down?" She thanked him, and they became seated on opposite sides of a table between the seats. He lit a cigarette, offered her one, and held his lighter for her. The pill-box hat upon her brown head was ridiculous, he decided, but her piquant little face appealed to him in spite of the fact that he believed her to be a spy. "Well," he said, blowing a smoke ring towards the clerestory roof, "what can I do for you?" "I'm a reporter." she informed him; and then, as the mocking grin reappeared on his face, she pouted and asked: "What's so funny about being a reporter?" "Well," he shrugged, "there's nothing funny about being a reporter, but I don't see why you went to all this trouble to interview me." "Please, Major Roston." she said wheed- lingly, and with a little foreign gesture that went well with her accent, "an ex- clusive interview would mean so much." He frowned and inhaled. "May I ask your name, and what paper you represent?" "I'm Carol Rayder. I work for the Borna News Alliance. It's a European syndicate." She opened a little black handbag, and from it passed over a card that bore her name and the address of the Borna Newrf Allioncc, 3805, Bleeker Street, Nev, York City. He studied the card, tapped with it upon the table, and smoked for a while In silence. "I'm very sorry, Miss Rayder," he said abruptly, "but I can't possibly see what interest your paper would have in me." "To tell you the truth, major," .she con- fessed, "I was thinking of .something mor^ than just an interview." She gave him a glance that was supposed to be significant. "A series of articles, perhaps. It they were interesting they would be well paid for." He asked her what she meant by "well paid for." "There is no limit to the price—if the articles are informative," she replied. "Even financial independence for life ii possible." He stroked his tiny moustache, frowning at her. "I don't know " he began slowlv. "Why not, major?" she broke" in, "What is there for you to hesitate about?" "Well, after all. writing for a newspaper is a little out of my line." "I wouldn't worry about that," she said smilingly. "You'll have my guidance.'' "Now you are tempting me." He looked at the card again. "Where shall we meet in New York?" "Shall we say luncheon to-morrow—one o'clock at the Vendome?" "That'll be fine!" he nodded. "One o'clock at the Vendome." She rose and picked up her handbag, and he opened the door for her. "Until to morrow, major," she said, and went out along the corridor. William Fornay had just entered it from the next carriage, and he and the girl met. "Good-evening, my dear baroness," said Fornay, with a bow. She stared at him as at an impertinent stranger, and passed on across the hooded platform between the two carriages mto the next corridor. Her own compartment was half-wav along it, and she went into it and sat down. She had thrown her cigarette-end out of a window in the corridor, and she took another cigarette from her handbag and lit it. For some time she sat smoking and thinking, but as the train began to slow down for a little station south of Newark she rose with an air of sudden determina- tion and went out to the steps at the end of the carriage, carrying her coat. Fornay emerged from a compartment out of which he had been peering, and he stole after her and watched her descend the steps. She was on the bottom one when the train stopped, and she jumped off It and fled along the low platform. Fornay went back along the corridor as the train began to move again. The failure of the flight and the death of Lieutenant Gray were due to any flaw in Fielding's invention," gritted Roston November 4t!i. !'>'">