Result of the Holiday competition Tim description or impression of
some exciting or entertaining incident actually experienced by the writer diiring a holiday proved to be a much more ,plea.sint. task to mir'eompetitors than the more theoretical planning of a future holiday. The description was required, 'how6rer, to be graphic. We received a large number of entries for" this competition, most of which admirably fulfilled our first condition-the variety of the incidents described was indeed -surprising--but few of these incidents were *kid as interestingly as they might have been. Among the contriblitioias submitted, there were a quite inexplicable story of two apparently ghost motor cars on the mountains in' Noith WaleO ;- an extraordinary case of premonition ; a skelch- of 'exciting experience in Moscow ; an account of What miglithaie been a fatal holiday on Exmoor on Easter Eve, 1929, and records of many other equally strange experiences.
The prize of five guineas has been awarded to Mr. Walter Ashley, of 5 Langton Avenue; N.20, for his description of what must have been a most astonishing adventure but which has all the appearance of truth. . .
AN ADVENTURE IN PARIS.
I had only one night in Paris on my way to Geneva, but it was a night I am not likely to forget. 'The bizarre and even haiardous incidents which came my way within those few short hours were enough to satisfy even the most jaded seeker after the unusual. The boat-train was late. By the time I had had my bath and changed, it was approaching the fashionably late hour at which Paris now dines. To my disappointment, the restaurant at which I had decided to dine was apparently closed. Through the glass door, I saw signs of scaffolding. A discreet card by the bell, however, directed MM. he patrons to a side door round the corner. Within a few seconds, I had found it and pushed it open.
One or two vestiaire-people in the small hall looked at me, I thought, a little curiously. The next minute, I was following one of them up a narrow stair at the side. It seemed an -unusual way to approach the central dining-hall of a restaurant ; but; after all, they were obviously rebuilding. At the top of the narrow stairs there was a long passage, badly lit. At the end of this passage, at a shafp angle to the right, another passage even darker Half-way down this second passage, my guide pulled brick a curtain, and knoCked on a door concealed behind it.
The door was immediately thrown open. A flood of light, completely dazzling after the gloom of the passage, burst upon us. Before I had regained any kind of effective eyesight, I had shaken hands with a tall woman in some kind of wonderful black gown, refused a cocktail, and seated myself at a long table at the place which was obviously being kept for me.
By this time I was ready for almost anything. I was doomed, however, to a momentary disappointment. I had not, as I was rather hoping, invaded the sanctum of some more than usually sinister secret society. Neither was I to assist at a banquet in honour of the Queen of the Paris underworld. I had merely walked inadvertently into a private dinner party. The only guest not well known to the hostess was an Englishman of about my age who had said he might be late. All the other men happened to be in tails and white waistcoats-hence the slightly surprised look of the attendants in the hall.
My hostess, whose name apparently was Marie-I heard no other-was most charming, and insisted on another couvert. I could not now have withdrawn without unpardonable discourtesy. The dinner was excellent=a good deal better than any I should have got elsewhere.
About eleven, most of the guests started to go. For some reason, " Marie " had set her heart on an hour or two in Montparnasse, and asked me if I would escort her. I was tired ; but, 'after her kindness, I could not very well refuse. (Besides, she was really rather beautiful.) Hall an hour later, the two of us were sitting in a small underground cafe-chantant sort of place half-way up the Boulevard St. Michel. Everything about this café was Eastern or pseudo-Eastern- hangings, divans, low tables, music, even the turban of the obviously Italian proprietor and the cummabund of his no less obviously French wife. In a corner, someone was smoking a hookah. The habitues, on the other hand, seemed ordinary enough, most of them were young students from the Sorbonne near by, out for an evening's fun. Some of them were dancing. Others were sipping light beer or coffee, nothing stronger ; " Marie " began to look bored. iidenly, the whole atmosphere changed. A girl sitting with a man at the next table to ours started dancing with one of the other men. The man she had left jumped up, overturned a table, seized a chair and made for his rival. The girl sprang away. The rival ducked just in time and seized another chair. The two men clashed, broke away, clashed again, stumbled, and rolled over, fighting on the ground. One of them at least, I could see, had a
knife. _
Within a second, the place was empty. All the girls had gone scurrying up the stairs. The proprietor, hurling away his turban, threw himself on the men and at length managed to separate them. Somehow sur,rether, I -4'autui myself holding the knife. .Handing it over to the pianist with some care, I went up the stairs to look for my companion. " Ah, monsieur, c'etait terrible, n'est-ce-pas l Henri sem hie I" said a voice in my ear as I stepped into the street. It was the girl who had_ caused Au the trouble. " Yes, indeed," I replied, but I think it's idr right-now." She looked terribly white, as if she might fall on the pavement at .any minute. " Look here," I added, you must sit down somewhere and pull yourself together." Across the boulevard, at a terrace café, were the nearest chairs: Somehow I got her into one of them. I ordered some brandy, and gave her some. I must confess I was• glad of a little Myself.
At that moment, who should cross the road and make straight for us but " Marie," with Henri himself in tow. She must have seen us sitting together ; and, no doubt, thought the two of them could separate -us more effectively than either of them alone: " Two more brandies," I called to the waiter, " and move all those chairs before my friend can get at them. He has a weakness for chairs."
" And you for involving yourself with unknown women," said Marie, as she led me away. I called a taxi and, as politely but as speedily as possible, " de-involved " myself from the first unknown woman I had encountered. that night, by dropping " Marie " at the door of her flat, within fifteen minutes of leaving the second unknown woman tearfully reunited to her Henri.
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