NOVEL

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 409, 10 March 1904, Page 2

NOVEL

BY Henrv Dunn

CHaPTSE XIX-(Oontinued) Yes, she would fight for her life, for her own salvation and for Philip's ; she would not wait there to meet without a struggle 'any fate that crime and cruelty might destine for her. Better to die in the attempt so win her way back .to life and freedom than, like seme animal, trapped and helpless. But how P What could she do? What possible beginning was there to so improbable an end? The locked door and the long stair and the man with the srafty face in the shop below made escape through the house hopeless. And the window P Ontaide it were only the numberless slanting roofs and the wellKke space, which to a giddy head or an unwary foot meant destruction. But—-the-thoaght came suddenly—might there net be amongst the roofs, other windows set even as this cue was set, and as possible to g«t in by as this one was to get est of P How foolish not to have thought of it before! There was ho window in sight, and—no, she would not think of that depth by which she might have to pass, she would not think of it. The way through the window was the one possible way, and without another instant's hesitation Muriel proceeded to tak* it. It was not easy, for the'window was high up, narrow, and slanted slightly inwards; but by the aid of an old box she managed to reach, open and pass out of it; and this first little snceais gave her new spirit and eomage-. Now the was on the roof; in the gutter rather, which ran between two slanting rows of tiles, and walking with careful steps towards the stone coping which bordered the top of the court. She must pass by that giddy way; she knew, even while as yet she strove to hide the knowledge from the full grasp of her consciousness, that this was her only path. Jest a few steps more and aha had reached it Yes, it was the only way. Behind her lay the gutter she had juat traversed, and which ended a few paces beyond the window: before her was the geuar e depth, round which ran the narrow eepng, cleft at eaeh corner for the disehargeof rain. She must not look down, she must lock, net at the roof on her left, but steadily at the path beneath her feet, to watch where eaeh step aught fall. She was on it now, half a feet above the gutter, and walking, walking, with fearful tread, but with determination holding her .brain steady j with ami outstretched to guard her balance; with eyes that might not glance either to left or right. •he had traversed nearly one aide of thesquare. Sueh a long way it seems! A mile, a hundred miles in the compass of half a doses yards. She is at the first earner now: she steps down from the eepia g, and looks along the gutter which mas. back-among the roofs. Ia there heps in this vallej-like space? Awindow in the mountain of tilts, sueh as she had left behind? Ho, nothing; no window, skylight, opening of any kind. She must ■teal her nerves anew, be heedless of the shrinking instinctive nature which cries for respite, and brave the height once more. - la it any less dimcult now ? Nay, more; for the thought of the sheer unguarded depths will be held back no longer, and the strain becom«e with every step more tense. How much farther is it ? No, she mast not look forward; her eyes must be kept quite steady, quite still; it is the only way, repeating the words with desperate monotonous precision, a step to each word; the—only—waj—the—only— Is this the comer? Another corner gained? Oh yes, oh yes, at last! She ia very cold, yet the perspiration stands In beads upon her face, and her hands are damp. She hardly darts to question the roofs. If the answer should be but blankness again! But she must not wait; there is not time; it must surely be hours and hours since she started on this journey of deliverance. So she gathers all her courage togsther in her eyee, and lifts them by the aid of it A glance up tee guttered way, a little gasping sob. and it was only a strong effort of will that kept Muriel from break' ing into helpless weeping. Por there was a window set in the tiles; the opening was like the open arms of a friend; and the relaxation of the strain on her endurance threatened to overwhelm her selfcontrol. Only a minute; the knowledge that in her own calmness lay her only chance of salvation was a spur to which her flagging will rose ia response, and after a minute's struggle, Muriel had mastered her emotions, and, cautious, and resolved again, moved forward to the window. It was open, and the room inside was empty, ana the door of the room stood ajar. She most be quick, for the owner might return at any moment, and then— Bui there was no time to reflect; the ills that might beftll her must be met aa they arose. Through the window into the ' rtem, and then across the room and out of the door on to a narrow landing at tha

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head of joafc each a staircase as the one she had mounted lately. She paused a moment to arrange her veil carefully over her face, and then downward, downward, as fast as might be, but warily, not knowing what or whom she might meeb at any moment, Voices as sha passed the rooms on the different landings, but nobody to question or interfere with her, till—yes, here was somebody coming; a man—no a woman, coming upwards, towards her. The only way was to go on, not too hurriedly, but as though it were natural that she should.be where she was. Her heart beat rapidly, though, as the woman passed her, looking at her curiously she either felt or fancied; and when she was allowed to go on her way unmolested, she felt as though she had escaped a danger. The staircase ended in a narrow passage and the passage opened on to a court, the very one, perhaps, she had skirted a short while since. From the court an alley led out into the street; she saw the people passing at the further end of it; and when she had gained its shelter, she let her feet have their way, and ran from one end to the other. In the street again! Could it be true P Was she really safe at last ? Not yet, for the whole neighbourhood se<yaed to her full of peril, and this street that she had gained might be—She glanced to right and left; yes, it was the very street to which she had been brought; for a few yards, just a very few yards away, was the locksmith's shop, and at any moment mitrht bring discovery and capture. Sbe must flee at once and as quickly as might be; anywhere; the direction did not matter to begin with, so long as she went far, far away from this terrible spot. She hurried on, remembering to note the name of the street as she turned from it into the first one that croasea it, and then, without pause or sideward glance, continued her flight, conscious only that each step bore her further away from danger. But at last, all being still strange about her, she paused; she must find, ask her way back to Paris that she knew. But -whom could she ask? Was there anybody in all this crowd of people she could dare to trust P In her unstrung state it seemed that each fellow creature might betray her. On a litjtle further; and now she turned into a wider thoroughfare, aad there were omnibuses and carriages passing to and fro. She hailed a cab; her hand bag had been left behind in the prison room, but her purse was in her pocket and not quite empty yet, 'The Glare du Nord, the hotel/ she gasped; and it seemed to her afterwards that she could not have baen wholly conscious during the drive, for the memory of it was always blurred and dim. The carriage stopped at last: she alighted, and uttered a little try, for there on the doorstep of the hetel, stood Inspector Willow. He hurried forward as he caught sight •of her. 'Miis Pale 1 I have been ' 'Oh, take me inside,' Muriel broke it. * I—l—' and she could Bay no more. The inspector had not been a detective for nothing. He asked no further questions, but, taking her by the arm, led her into the hotel, and upstairs to a room with a big armchair. He placed her in the chair, and Muriel, looking up and seeing him, and realising that she was indeed safe at but, broke into hysterical sobbing, as is the way of a woman when her courage has been greater than her strength. CHAPTEB XX—THE EVIDENCE OP NUMBER THBEE. Inspector Willow arrived in London two hours before Muriel had left it. He went at once to Vjner Street, but Muriel and her aunt had juat started for Charing Cross, and as the servant did not know where they had gone, or when they would be back, the inspector, knowing there was not much he could do that evening, determined to devote the next two hours to some business be was anxious to attend to as soon as possible. He went first to the house agents, who had the letting of the houses in Aden Bow. The office was closed, but Willow managed to obtain admittance, and asked for the key of number three. The agents demurred: it was late—past business hours—they never let people into the house at that hour, and there was nobody they could send with him; hut the inspector, havisg given some hint of bin calling and purpose, and having proved his identity to the agents' satisfaction, was entrusted with the kej and allowed to go alone and in peace. It was dark when he reached Aden B)w; nevertheless he took a cautious glance at the windows of number one and two before entering number three. He went first into the dining-room, and then into the room at the back. The house was built on the same plan as the other houses, panelled in the same way, and with the same ancient air about it. Did it hold a secret hiding-placa snah as number two heldP That was what the inspector wanted to know, and that was what, after

his first casual surrey, he set himself to And out He knew the trick of the opening in the ether house, but it was not an eatjy job to find-the spring, and here it might be still more difficult. '*-' He set to work carefully, tapping each quarter of aa inch of panelling; at first unsuccessfully; the wall remained merely I a wall, and showed no sign of any part of it' giving: way. But yet he felt sure, from the sound of the wood as he tapped it, that part of it was hollow, and he worked oa peraeveringly, trying every little mark in the wood in the hope of finding the spring. - At last thsre was a quiver in the panelling, a click; he sorely had touched the spring at last.'- He pressed again and again the.-little dent which seemed to make some response to his touch, and at last his. patience was rewarded; the panelling slid aside, and the recess was open before him; just such a recess as the one before which he had arrested the midnipht visitor a fortnight ago. Number two was not the only house, tisn, which contained a secret hidingpa»3, antra* number three possessed one it was more than probable that number one was constructed in the same way. The words Muriel had used during his first interview with her: ' I should have thought that if one of the houses had a secret the others would have had it too,' and • I don't understand why Mr Binnie didn't keep his valuables in his own house,' had impressed him as she spoke, and the problem contained ia them . jwas _ one of the many problems he had been considering lately. Why, indeed, had Mr. Binnie braved the many risks attendant upon his midnight visits to the next door house, if he had an equally secure hiding-place in his own P There aonld be bnt one answer; the recess in number two constituted a depository in which Mr Binnie placed certain articles for the purpose of conveying them to another person who had also access to the hiding-place. What these articles might be Willow had for some time shrewdly suspected} the thing which puzzled him was that on the night of his arrest the jeweller had evidently been profoundly surprised and agitated by the discovery that the recess was empty. The contents' had obviously been removed, then, at a time when removal ought to have been impossible, aad consequently not by the was in the habit of taking them, Could it be, then, that Mr Binnie's accusation wasn just one, and that Philip .Selwood was the thief—aad if the thief, "then the murderer—after allP Unless, indeed, Mr Binnie was a consummate actor, and had counterfeited hia surprise and agitation, and invented the story of the robbery on the spot. Bat in that oase, what was the object of his visit P It was necessary, perhapc, to place a further deposit in the recess; but the jeweller, when arrested, had no valuables of any kind about him, bo that that could not have been hie purpose. The inspector was troubled in his mind Had the murder aud the robbery been committed by two separate people, or by one and the same P And had Mr Binnie any share in either cf the crimes, or was he alike innocent of any part, and ignorant of any knowledge of them P Willow had no time to give to undivided reflection. Soon he closed the recess and went down to the basensenfc, where a lengthy and searching examination convinced him that there was no way of communication between the kitchens of number two and three. This fact strengthened the theory that the recess in number two was used as a means of intercourse between two persons whose acquaintance with each other was concealed ffom the outside world in order to conceal also their joint purpose: for the secret passage between Mr Binnie'a bouse and the next one had evidently not been part of the original building, but had been made later on with some special object. Inspector Willow left the house mystified, but not wholly disappointed. If he should fail in tracing the crimes in which fie was chit fly interested, he was at any rate on the track of others, and those others of Buch a kind and magnitude that their discovery could not fail to add to his reputation, and, what was dearer to him, his confidence in his own intuition. From Aden Bow he proceeded to call on a brother inspector who was engaged in collecting information connected with the recent jewel robbery, accounts of which had lately figured in all the papers. « About that pearl/ said Willow. * There was a very remarkable one, wasn't there, amongst the jewels P' •Have you any news of it?' asked the other. •Wait a bit,' Willow answered. 'Tell me what it was like, and I will tell yen afterwards why I ask,' The other detective then described the pearl, the most remarkable amongst the mat>y jewels which the police so far had teen entirely unable to trace Ha had come to the conclusion, he said, that they had been taken out of England. 'I agree with you,' said Willow, ' and I think I know what has become of the pearl.' He then, in his turn, described what he had seen in Vienna, showing the rough drawing which he had made in Mr Bjichenbach's shop, and the two detectives agreed that there could be little doubt that the pearl which the one sought to trace was identical with the pearl which chance had so lately shown the other. •The case you have in hand will turn out to be more closely connected with mine than anybody has any idea of,' said Willow, 'unless I am very much mistaken.'. ' How P In what way ?' the other asked eagerly. *I must think it out,' was Willow's only answer. He was unusually careful of committing himself, even to an inspector, and he aoon took his departure to do the thinking out alone. Fart of the case seemed clear enough ; that the person who had disposed of the emerald which he had seen not long sgo in Mc Binnie'a shop, was the same peison who had disposed of the pearl. The emerald, to the best of the inspector's recollection, had bean stolen about eighteen months ago, and the disposal of it at this date involved comparatively little risk : but the theft of the pearl was quito recent, and to sell it while its disappearance was a subject of public discussion, was a daring stroke which pointed to an unusually bold player of the game of crime and probably to a need of money. (To te continued.)