Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

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hands forced the end of the scarf more closely over her face and forced her head back against the cushions till all resistance had gone and she was limp and senseless. The woman spoke to the girl at the wheel in a foreign language, and the girl replied in it. The car gathered speed, swung left into a road that was little more than a rough cart-track, and began to climb towards the coast. A wet mist was blowing in from the sea and the light was fading. The girl at the wheel leaned forward to peer tlirough the windscreen as she drove along the edge of a high cliff without lights. The purr of the engine was drowned by the pounding of the sea against the rocks below the cliff. Anne had been unconscious for the better part of a quarter of an hour when a little stone hut loomed up out of the mist. No light showed in its single window, no smoke issued from its solitary chimney. The car came to a standstill within a few yards of the hut, and the girl driver got down from it and opened the rear door. In the light of an electric torch, she received a tweed costume, a tam-o'- shanter, and other garments, and these things she carried across to the hut. She opened the door set in its side wall, and hands reached out from the dark interior to take the garments. She returned to the car, got in behind the wheel, and backed slowly to the edge of the cliff. Then the brakes were locked and once more she descended to open a rear door, this time on the cliff side of the saloon. The woman got down beside her, the electric torcji in her hand, and between them the two dragged forth the limp body of Anne Burnett, clad only in underclothes, and heaved it into space. Above the noise of the breakers they heard the splash as the body struck the water, a hundred feet below, and for several minutes they stood motionless upon the brink, staring down at the in- visible sea. They could not hear the chuK of an engine, though a patrol boat was close inshore not far fi-om the spot where their victim had sunk. But they heard the door of the hut being opened, and as they turned a girl flitted over to them. She was wearing a tweed costume and a tam-o'-shanter. "All is arranged," whispered the white- haired woman; and then she got back into the car, the girl climbed in beside her, and the girl who had been called Edwards closed the door and returned to her seat at the wheel. The big saloon moved forward, turned right, and presently was on its way to the railway station at Dunnet. THE NEW SCHOOL MISTRESS THE steamship, St. Magnus, bound for the Orkneys, was lying alongside the pier at Thurso when passengers from a train that had stopped at Dun:/et passed through a little Customs shed at the shore end of the structiu-e. One after another the few people bound for the islands sub- mitted their passports to a young naval officer, then hurried along the boards to the boat. A girl in a tweed costume approached the officer, opened a handbag that had belonged to Anne Burnett, and took out the passport Anne had shown to the woman in the black saloon. She was not unlike Anne in general appearance, but was more beautiful and more self-pos- sessed. Her hair was nearly black, and she wore a fringe upon her forehead; her brown eyes were very dark and suggested a high degree of intelligence; she had the jaw of a determined young person. The officer took the passport from her and studied first the details in it and then the photograph on the third page. "Miss Anne Burnett?" he questioned. "Yes," she replied emphatically. She met his gaze steadily enough as he compared her face with the face in the photograph. OctoljCT 2Ut, 10S9. BOY'S CINEMA "This pictui'e doesn't really do you justice," he said. "I thought it as good as most passport photographs," was her quiet rejoinder. "Destination?" "Long Hope." "Age?" "Twenty-one." "Married or single?" "Engaged." "Oh!" The young officer smiled slightly, nodded, and handed back the passport, and she went serenely on along the pier to the gang-plank propped against the side of the St. Magnus, carry- ing her two suitcases. From the main deck she descended a companionway to the saloon, and she had barely made herself comfortable in a leather-covered seat when the ship's siren sounded, the gang-plank was removed, and the vessel began to drift away from the pier. A steward approached to ask if she would like some hot tea. "Yes, please," she replied. "What time do we get to Long Hope?" " In about an hour, miss," was the reply, and the steward added: "You're the only passenger for there, except some tele- phone linesmen." The mist of the evening had turned to rain with the night, and none of the passengers ventured on deck during the crossing of Pentland Firth. The gu'l who was masquerading as Arme did not leave the lounge till after the harbour at Long Hope had been entered and the steamer had been made fast at a pier which was in darkness. Then she rose an* went up on to the deck in the streaming rain. On the pier, a long-featured and self- important man, carrying a stick under his arm and an' electric torch in his hand, was examining the papers of six men as they disembarked. "All of you on the wire patrol?" he demanded. "What dc you think?" growled the leader. "I'll pass ye." The hatch of the engine-room was opened and a typical Scottish engineer came up from the depths to breathe fresh air and to mop his streaming face with a dirty handkerchief. "A fine passage, James," the bearded captain of the vessel said to him, descend- ing from the bridge. "Oh, you think so. do you, Walter?" retiu-ned the engineer scornfully. "All very well for you—all ye have to do is to stand up there on the bridge But me— it's a niiracle how I keep the old rattle- trap turning. Now listen, my bottom-ends Walter; when am I goin' to get a day in port to see to 'em?" "Och, we'll see about that, James." promised the captain. The girl made her way down the gang- plank, and the man at the foot of it flashed the light of his torch in her face. "You'll be the new teacher?" he siu-- mised. " Yes," she replied. "You'll be a nice change from the last one. iThe youngsters called her ' Wall-eyed Maggie.' Have ye got your pass? " "Yes." She put down the suitcases to produce the passport. " I'm the Special Constable here, you understand," he said, and pointed to an armlet upon his right sleeve. "See that? Orkney Constabulary—that's me for the duration. Nobody goes on or off this pier without my knowing it." He looked at the passport. "Miss Anne Burnett?" " Yes," she nodded. "I'll pass you." He gave her back the book. "Bob Bratfs my name. Miss Burnett. If you'll come with me, the minister and his wife are here to meet you." She stooped to pick up the suitcases, but he took possession of them and led the way along the pier to the wooden office of the pier-master. Inside that office two sailors were sitting on a bench, the pier- master was at a desk, and the Reverend Every Tuesday Hector Matthews and his tall and mannish spouse were on their feet. "Shut that door!" bellowed the pier- master. Bob Bratt closed the door and effected introductions. The Reverend Hector Matthews swept off his clerical hat, reveal- ing a bald head except for a tuft of hair above each ear. He was a full-faced man in the late fifties. "How kind of you to meet me," mur- mured the girl. "Welcome to Long Hope," said Mrs. Matthews. Her husband echoed the gi'eeting, but there was an underlying reason for the reception. "We were thinking," he said solicit- ously, " that maybe you might prefer a room at the Manse to living away up at the school-house." "That's very kind of you," began the girl, " but you see " "My wife agrees with me," interrupted the minister, "that it would be highly improper for so young a girl to be on her own." The girl held her head high. "I'm accustomed to looking after my- self," she said stiffly. "Mrs. Matthews is a thrifty house- keeper. You—er—you would find our charges very reasonable." "I'm sure of that. Shall we discuss it some other time? Good-bye." Bob Bratt turned his head to hide a grin as the girl shook hands with the dis- appointed pair, and then he said briskly ; "I'll put you on your road, miss, if I may." He opened the door and picked up the suitcases. "Shut that door!" bellowed the pier- master. Bob Bratt was not a particularly likeable man, but he proved a very useful guide in the darkness of the night. He carried the suitcases all the way to the school-house, and he even lit an oil lamp that stood on the table of a cosy little living-room there before he went off to resume his duties as a special constable. The nev; school-mistress had impressed him very favourably, and he had done his best to impress hier. At ten o'clock on the following night the enemy submarine was nosing its way through the thickest part of the mine- fields towards Scapa Flow, fifty feet below the surface, and Captain Hardt was stand- ing by a table in the control-room with the chart spread out before him. A haversack and a long-barrelled revolver were lying on the chart, and Hardt was enveloped in the big water- proof coat and was weai'ing the helmet provided for him. The motor-cycle was leaning against the wall. Lieutenant Schuster was standing on one side of him, and Sub-lieutenant Schmidt was on his left. Hardt, tracing a finger upon the chart, barked instructions; Schuster passed them on to the engine-room. The submarine quivei-ed with the throb of the engines; the air was hot and not pleasant to breathe. Death lurked all about the vessel, and on Hardt's orders it sank lower. At a depth of eighty feet it passed the last of the mines indicated on the chart, and its commander wiped perspiration from his .^trained face. "Hot," he said. "Funny how cold feet make a man steam." " We scraped something," said Schmidt. "Did you hear?" "You wouldn't have heard it if we had!" A few moments afterwai'ds Hardt re- "Well, gentlemen," he sighed, "I think we're through." The other two officers sighed their relief. The strain had been tremendous during the last hour. " Whoever got that chart of the mine^