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Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 403, 28 January 1904, Page 2

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OBAfTER VnL—(Continued.) •We were late getting out of the theatre,' she said, 'for the piece was a long one, and when Mr Selwood suggested walking home I was afraid at first that m, aunt would think I was btaying out too long. But* it was our last evening-, anil it nude the time a little longer, and 10 I aoon agreed. It had been a dull, chilly evening, but it had cleared by the tone we came out cf the theatre, and I remember the stars were shining, in between fiie clouds. We ware talking all the time, or, if we were silent, were thinking of the parting bafore us, and we did not pay any attention to anybody or anything in the streets- I remember only one thing happening on the way, and it happened at the corner of Hare Street.' ' The street where Aden Bow is/- inter, posed Willow. Muriel nodded. "That's whatmakesit all the more important,' she said. 'You know that all about that neighbourhood the streets are generally quiet, and especially so at night, and aa far as I remember we met nobody after leaving Bupert Square but thia one man.* 'You met a man. Well?' said the inspector, aa she paused, 'I noticed him,* Muriel went on, 'because he leaded me—ran into me almost—coming round the corner. He was not running, but he was walking very quiakly. i didn't think anythinkof it at the time, iX, and I didnt even know that I had noticed Us face; but afterwards I remembered that I had seen it, aad that the light from the lamp had shone en it aa he passed.' •Why did jouthin* of it afterwards?' Willow aaked. 'Because I saw it again. Mr Willow,' Muriel said, getting up from her chair and walking up and down the room, 'that man is the murderer.' . 'You've hardly produced enough evidence so far to convict him,* obeerved the inspector, drily. 'Well, and where did you see him again P* 'ln the Ratskeller at PJoraheim. It's a place where you go. under the Town Ball, to diink beer and smoke, and they all sag. My employer, Herr Ladenburg, took me there last Sunday morning, because I was in such a state and couldn't keep still. I'm governeea in his family, you know' 'Tec, yes,* said the inspector, 'I know all about you.' 'And he—that man—was there. I wondered why I noticed him more than anybody else: it must have been because, in some indistinct way, I remembered him, 'Bower mind about the whys,' broke in Willow, somewhat brusquely. * Just tell me the facts. The theories can wait.* 'Well, I noticed him,' Muriel said, *c me what abashed, 'and—and I don't know whether you will call this a fact or a theory—but it may have been that he was rather a etriking-looring man, audi wondered whether he were a German or an Kngrjaftman, Ha seemed to speak German so well, aad yet I thought his hair looked Eke an Englishman's.* 'An right,' nodded the inspector as she hesitated. 'Gion!'

'Well, another man at his table hadapaical, and be couldn't undo the - string, and this man took out a knife and cafe it; and the knife— * she paused a cnunr. * the knife bad a long thin Uade.*

. The inspector did not move a muscle ot hie face, though his eyes, had they not been cut down, would have betrayed a quickened interest. •Welir was all he said. ■ * Well V repeated Muriel, tome what indlgnaatly. • Well 1 It's y&ut own theory, M* Willow, that the murder mast have been committed with a kn:!e witn a long thin blade, and this man had jaet such a knife.*

•But not necessarily the knife. There mast be many knives. with long, thin blades.' * Ye*, bat tfcea Ireraembered hia face; and it vu the une una who was coming away from A.dcn E >w on the night of the murder, a->d sc—Oh, doa't jou see, with ill jour experience and jour cleverness at potting things together, don't yon see that he most have been the murderer ?' The inspector could not iuppreea a smile. * I'm not nearly so quick at putting things together as you axe, Miss Pais,' he said. Then becoming grave again! 'You are quite sure it was the same manP That your memory, your lancy, your excitement, perhaps, were not playing you a trick Y •No. How could I think of a thing I wasn't thinking of?' Muriel said in- - noceaily. ' I mean/ she went on, ' that 1 had not connected the man I had seen in London and the man in the Ratakeller in the very least I had been wondering how it was that the face seemed in some itriage way vaguely familiar, but it was only after he had cut the string that it suddenly became ekar to me where I had seen it before. 1 . * And you would know it again?' 'Anywhere; and the voice.* •You're surer * Quits sure.* * You said,' Willow remirkEd presently, ~> 'that he was a striking-lcoiißg man. Can you describe him at all T *He was rather tall,' Muriel said slowly, • and neither dark nor fair, but more than lifcht He had a moustache and a short bf azd, and hia hair was thick. Hi had iather a reckless look, and I wouldn't be sure whether he was good-looking or not, but ha was the sort of roan that a

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Oman might either dislike or like very much indeed Oh, I'm afraid that's do good, and won't be any use at all.' ' You have told m 8 something,' Willow answered, and he sat and thought for a while. «And afterwards/ he said, by and bye, ' what became of him—this man ?' •I got giddy for a minute or bo,* Muriel answered, * and everything was blurred, and when I could see again he was gone.' 'And did you make no effort to trace himP

*Oh, yes. Herr Ladenburg asked the people who had been near him if they knew- who he was. Nobody did, but one man said he had seen him in Fforiheim before. We asked at the' Post,' the chief hotel, on the way home, for a list of the people staying there. There was one man who, from the host's description, might have been him. ( He was a German, Hermann Meister by name, and he had left by the twelve-thirty train for Carlsrahe, having given directions he went out in the morning that his luggage should be sent to the station to meet him.'

' And from Carlsruhe yon can get to allparts of the Continent,' said Willow. •Tee, I suppose so. Herr Ladenburg says that very few people come to Pforzheim excapt on business.' * What business ?* 'Either to buj or sell silver or gold.' ' No trade in stones P* 'Not that I know of.'

. f No, and it would not be a big enough place/ said Willow, half*to himself. 'But you have not told me the rest of what happened on the night of the murder,' he added.

'Nothing more happened. We walked home here and said good-bye, and the clock in the hall struck the three-quarters as I shut the front door.'

* And Mr. Sal wood said nothing as to his movements, i suppose P He left you with the impression that he was going straight home f

' Not straight. I'm glad yon asked me. He said that he did not feel like Bleeping, and that he should take a walk round so as not to get back too soon.' Willow got np. • I think thaf s all today,' he said. 'Do yon know that there's a reward offered for the discovery of the murderer, Miss Fale? .Perhaps you'll get it.' 'I don't want a reward,' cried Muriel. * You shall have it all, Mr Willow, if we can only clear Philip. Bat we will work together, won't we P Yen for money, and 1 for love ?'

* I work mostly,' said the inspector, as he took np his hat, 'because I want to win.'

CHAPTER IX.—THE INSPECTOR BETS TO WOBK.

When Beuben Bathbone arrived in Paris, after at week spent in travelling about, he found a letter awaiting him from Inspector Willow. 'Yon asked me to keep you posted up in the case/the inspector wrote. 'The newspapers will have told yon all that is publicly known, and the newspapers and the public are dead against Philip Salwood, who waa brought op again before the magistrate for tbe second time to-day, and committed for trial. Mias Fate's evidence seemed at one time as if it would turn tbe scale, but it was not strong enough; though it agreed in every detail with the prisoner's statements. There is no doubt, though, that the double crime might have been committed after he left her, and that is the view the magistrates took. Privately, lam of opinion that we have not caught the right man yet, and I nhali work hard between this and the trial to see if I can find him. I have Business in Germany which will bring me through Paris to-morrow night, and I will take the liberty of waiting upon you if you are in P*ris jost now.—Yours respeitfuliy, F. Willow.* Beuben Bathbone read the letter and knitted his brows ' He's a shrewd fellow, is mine respectfully,' he said, 'I wonder if he's on the right track—if he has any sort of a clue. It will be interesting, at any rate, to see him. I must make a po:nt of being in, and must give orders that he is admitted.'

Rathbone finished his coffee and roll?, changed his clothes and went out. He had business to see to, and was engaged upon it all day, only returning in time to dine. He had barely finished his dinner when Inspector Willow was announced. 'Have you dined, inspector?' Beuben asked. 'Yes, thank you; had something as soon as I arrived. I'm putting up at the hotel by the station,' * Well, a cup of coffee, st any rate, and a cigar.' Beuben ran th* bell. 'Two coffees/ he said to the waiter, ' and some brandy; and you can take these things away.' When the waiter had brought what was ordered, and the two men were left alone, Beuben turned to the inspector. •So you think you have got a clue V he said.

•Hardly.' ' Bat it lakes you to Germany.* ' I am going to Germany on some business I am looking after for a lady.' •-Connected with the murder ?' •Perhaps. Perhaps not. Things axe sometimes oddly connected.' 'Yen said in your letter that you were going to be bard at work on the murder case,* pursued Rathbone, 'so I supposed you-would be hardly likely to take up anything that had not some bearing

OpOB it.' ">,.>"■"• :":'/' " •I'm thinking over things,' was Willowb only anßwer. 'What the diokens did he come here for if he had nothing to report P* thought Ben Den to himself; but aloud he only said, with a smilet'l see yon are not going to tell me anything,- inspector P' ' I have nothing to tell," answered the other. 'Ton may be sure that when I have, you shall hear of it Ton have offered the reward, and yon have a right to know what there is to t>e known; but it is no good worrying you with vague conjectures' *":;'• «As yon like,' said Bath bone carelessly. * Yon are the best judge.* *Do you know P/oraheim P' asked Willow, after some further conversation. •I can hardly say r I. know it ?"T have been there once. • , 'i •Long agoP \-~-r: ■-■-■ 'About eight months' ago, I should think—or it may be a little longer.' •What sort of place is it P' , ' licouldn't judge. Dull, I thought but I was only there one night.' ' Is it a place many people go to ?' 'I should have thought not—if they cculd help it.' 'lt has a considerable trade in gold and Bilver, I believe ?' 'Ah, indeed P., I-daresay; Are you thinking of going there P' " * I was wondering whether it waß a big enough town to make it worth my while. I- almost think It isn't.' • | * If s cot my idea of the kind of town a criminal would choose for a hiding-place,' laid Bithbone,' if that's what you mean. But, of course, one can never tell: crinrnal* have their vagaries, I suppose, as well as other people.' •' • 'No, I suppose not,' said the inspector, answering the first part of the speech. Soon after he rose to go. ' I'm off by the first train in the morning,' he said, ' and shall turn in early, if you will excuse me, sir.'

*Of course, and thank yon for your ▼ait'

When the inspector had gone Beubeß Battbsne s*t and reflected. 'He's got something in his head,' he thought, 'and I'd give a good deal to know wbat it is. Bat he's evidently not going to tell me. I've a good mind——' He got op from his chair and began to walk up and down the room—' I've a jolly good mind to do a little detective work on my own account.' He changed his smoking coat for another, lighted a fresh cigar, and went out into the street; and as he went he said to himself, ' 1 wonder!' Asd the inspector, walking back to his hotel, said also, as he went aloßg, 'I wonder I'

_ CHaITEB X—'CHIM Tnat same evening, a little later on, a 'fiacre' drew np before a house in the neighbourhood of the Arc de Triomphe. A man stepped out of it, and havißg paid the coachman entered the house and rang the bell of a door on the second floor, He was tall, with dark brown hair, and wore a short beard and a moustache.

The door was promptly opened. ' Madam is at home ?' asked the man. 'Oui, monsieur j' asd the servant led the way through the entrance hall. ' Ton needn't announce me,' the man aid.

He opaned the door of the saloon very softly, and stood for a minute looking in without speaking, It was a dainty room, luxuriously furnished, and decorated with many costly knick-knacks. There was an open fireplace in which burned a small wood fire, and by the fire sat a woman, bending over it, and with her back towards the door.

' Claire!' said the man. _ The woman sprang up and came towards him as he advanced iHto the room. 'Oh, monamil' •I couldn't get here before/ the man said.

'Was the train late V ' A lttfcla, and I had to dine.' * Why not here, Jim ?' She pronounced it Chim. 'Business reasons. But never mind, T'm here now at any rate; and I want to look at yon.' The woman—she was hardly more than a girl—let her arms drop by her Bides, and throwing back her head a little, turned her face upwards towaids the light. 'Well, look!' The somewhat reckless look in the man's eyes died out as he obeyed her. 'You are good to look at, Claire,' he said, aB he stooped and kissed her. « And now come and eit down and tell me what yon have been doing with yourself.' ' Yon will take nothing ?' * No, except- * * I know, I know. It is all prepared.' Claire pushed forward a little table and placed on it a box of cigars, a small flisk of cognac, and a syphon; then she came and sat down close to the man's side, and they talked together, sometimes in French, chit fir in English, which Claire spoke fluently enough, but with a quaint foreign accent. ' Oh, I am happy,' she exclaimed after a pause; 'so happy that you are here!' 'ls that enough to make your happiness?' the man asked. His voice was full and rich, and, when he spoke to this woman, wonderfully soft. 'Almost.' The woman's face grew wistful. 'lf you were just—quite good.' 'lf I were to go regularly to mass, you mean, and get weekly absolution for ray sins. Oh, woman, woman! what a mixture you are! Devote and—Never mind ! I like yon, Claire, as you are.' ' Your soul is dearer to me than my own body, Chim.' He looked at her with an odd smile, half mockery, half tenderness. 'ls that the way you reason P Well, it's as good 88 another. And now I mußt get to work.'

•To night P* ' Yes, for—l can't help it—l must leave Paris again to-morrow. Don't, little girl, don't I*

But the tears overflowed from Claire's evs3. ' You go so long and you stay so short,' sbe said. ( ' Can I help it, do you think?' «No, I know you cannot. It is eo bad for you as for nre; and 'worse, for you travel, very uncomfortable, and I am all tb.9 time here.'(To be continued,)