His Guiding Star continued

UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL
CONTENTS

'HIS GUIDING STAR'
CONTINUED

JACK'S SITTING ROOM
(He places portfolio on table, and picks up evening paper. Sees notice of man sent to prison for contempt of court on account of debt for xx months. Shudders. Flings paper away. Casually picks up portfolio. It falls open and out tumbles 25 passports, bundles of tickets, money and a letter.) The letter reads :-
Takem, Rookquick and Gett,
International Travel Specialists
2c Pall Mall,
London. SW1
Dear Mr. Jenks,
Miss Zenobia Shufflehanger cables us that having failed to make her connection she will be unable to join the tour, so your number is reduced to twenty four. A list of those travelling is enclosed herewith, together with tickets, passports, itinerary, and you will have already drawn upon our cashier for any incidental expenses. Further funds, as usual, will be available at our continental agents. Kindly note that the reserved seats are, on this occasion, on the 2nd portion of the Paris Express, leaving Victoria tomorrow at 10-45.
We trust that we shall receive the same complimentary remarks from these clients of good social standing, upon your return, with which we have been favoured on previous occasions.
Yours faithfully,
P. Rookquick
for Taken, Rookquick and Gett
(Jack glances down attached itinerary)
LONDON PARIS BRUSSLES THE HAGUE AMSTERDAM FLORENCE ROME VENICE
(Jack picks out of the bunch a passport, then others as listed)
Passport No 1.	Alexis Soper. Printseller. Age 50. A gaunt unhappy looking man.
Passport No 2.	Primrose Cardigan. Widow. Age 55. A handsome, well preserved-woman with rather heavy features.
Passport No 3.	Ralph Sinclair. Stockbroker. Age 28. And Doreen, wife of above. Age 22.
Passport No 4.	Edward Kettering. Artist. Age 32. Pleasant appearance.
Passport No 5.	Adelaide Spent. School-mistress. Age 37.
Passport No 6.	Rawdon Halkin. Tea Merchant. Age 44. Strong determined face.
Passport No 7.	Pearl Cardigan. Spinster. Age 25. Very lovely.
Note. The eight photographs shown in the passports constitute the principal characters who will feature in the tour.
Alexis Soper is very tall. This man is a miserable, unhappy person. In character like Eeyore the donkey in A.A. Milne's Pooh books. He always fails to get a seat in any train, or a bedroom in any hotel, and Jack, therefore, is constantly having to give up his own to him.
Mrs Cardigan is a great grenadier of a woman. Big bust. Big hips. Quite well dressed.
Ralph and Doreen Sinclair are honeymooners. She is always ailing and plaintive. Sends him on small jobs. Loses everything and becomes a general nuisance and a particular pest to Jack.
Rawdon Halkin is a big burly man. He travels with his partner William Blades. Rather a sinister looking man.
The only other member of the party who appears at all prominently is
Alfred Badger Butler. Fat, roundfaced, bald, jolly, wears check suit. He is a crossword puzzle maniac who bothers everybody to help him solve the Daily Telegraph 20,000 crossword, throughout the entire trip.
The principals will be thrown up far better against a plain background, and Lancashire Comics, Vil you buy a vatch Yids, Bowery Americans, Fool Parsons, should be ruthlessly excluded from the other fourteen tourists who go on the trip.
Jack taken from his worries for the moment, by the photograph of the beautiful Pearl Cardigan. Sighs, props the passport on the mantelpiece---takes it of again---kisses the photograph etc., shrugs his shoulders---puts it back with all the others into the portfolio, but one of these, limp from constant use, falls out and opens on the floor.
Passport No 8.	Tobias Jenks---professional guide. Age 30 a youngish face with dark beard.
(The story continues with Jack masquerading as the tour guide. He takes his tourists around the art galleries of Europe without realizing that among them is a gang of international art thieves. He eventually unmasks them, claims the reward of 10,000 and lives happily ever after!!!)