THE TERROR BY NIGHT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 358, 6 May 1911, Page 7

THE TERROR BY NIGHT.

j Bj S. 11. Asjncw, Author of | "The On stir Mystery," etc.

! Being a Strange Chronicle from the Note-book of John Lyon, Elucida'cor, Known as the " Lion of the Law."

PART 2.. Lesage jumped as the chief sent out n catapultie exclamation under his breath. " What, now ?" lie queried, in an equally cautious whisper. Instead of replying verbally, the elucidator seized his fork and tapped out n message 011 the marble tabletop. " Two men have taken the table behind me," Lesage read from the rapid clicks. " They arc foreigners, and suspected of being shady spies who are stealing English secrets in the hope of selling them to some foreign Government. I had gone down to Harrogate to watch them. Keep quiet and I may overhear their conversation." Lesage nodded slightly, lifting his eyes to treat the newcomers to a casual survey. They did not bear any outward sign of their foreign extraction ; indeed, to the detective's eyes it appeared as though they had been under some pains to render their attire as English as possible. Both were shaven clean, and habited in tweed suits and black bowler hats of British manufacture. The elder man stared keenly at Lyon and his vis-a-vis and then leaned forward courteously. " Will you oblige me with an evening paper ?" he asked in French. The elucidator recognised the trick immediately. He spoke French fluently, but for all that he greeted the query with a looki of utter bewilderment and a shake of the head, at which the speaker fell back with a low bow. " They are all right," he said, still using the French tongue, to his companion. " These Britishers seldom learn any language but their own. Mon Dieu ! The hour is later than I imagined. At what time did this Denis Morrel say he would meet us?" " Eight o'clock," returned the other gutturally. "If he denies that he is the owner of this mysterious airship we will choke the words in his throat, Parisel. We will frighten his secx-et from him if gold will not unseal his lips." " As you say. I cannot help fearing that we have the wrong man. This Morrel does not seem likely to commit murder and robbery. The events of last night have shaken my faith in our suspicions." | " Pah ! We are right enough. Still waters run deep, my friend. To me it seems significant that a moneylender should be killed, and a fine haul of jewels stolen the same night, by means of the ship. It means that Mr. Morrel is in difficulties, and who would know more of Skinner's shop than he ? I hear he is engaged to the daughter." " He cannot be in difficulties now, with forty thousand pounds' worth ! of jewels in his hands. It will make I bribery difficult." j " Jewels or no jewels, the plans of the new airship must be ours bj morning. Come, let us be off." The two men drained their glasses ! and rose abruptly. Lyon and his assistant, now busied with their meal, did not look up as the conspirators passed. The elucidator, how r ever, had heard every word of the whispered colloquy, and the result had been to plunge him into greater depths of bewilderment than before. During his investigations that day he had visited the house oc- | cupied by Irene Skinner's lover, De- ! nis Morrel, who was reputed to be ! enormously rich, and who lived with | only one servant in a big house on i the outskirts of Low Moor. The ! detective had found Morrel a pleasant I and sharp-witted young fellow, who seemed to live only for the pursuit ! of hif" hobby of engineering invenj tion. The latter fact seemed signifi- | :ant, in light of the conversation j just overheard. I "I'm going to follow those men," ! ne said, hastily, to Lesage. "Chance j nas thrown into my path the ! :lue I needed. When you have finishj ?d dinner, hire a car and motor over ' to Croft Fark, and hang about in ; the vicinity of the gates. Bye-bye !" He reached the pavement a few ! yards behind the two foreigners, who ! ->nd set off in the direction of Foster : Square. Paying no further attention i to them, he jumped into the automobile which was waiting, and an ! instant later was gliding past the Midland Station bound for Denis ■ Morrel's house in Low Moor. Leaving the car in the shelter of a ' tree, he walked a few hundred yards, skulking along in the shadow of the bushes as lie neared the gates of the big house, lie knew that the two spies possessed a motor and was not surprised when the faint hum of a car travelling at high speed sounded in the distance. lie had purposely take;] n bye-way, and had no fear that his vehicle would he seen. Five minutes later the head-lights of a small runabout came into view. : The ear swept up to within a few feet of the spot where Lyon was hid--1 ing, swerved,- and dived into the ! , grounds of Croft ('ark. As it passed he saw that, one of the suspected foreigners was driving, the other being seated in the tonneau. I Rising, he crept along in their ■ wake. The night was black as the inside of a pitch-barrel, the moon bei ing veiled by heavy masses of cloud, which rendered the danger of being observed infinitesimal. Ncverthelcs? he preserved the utmost caution, fiiti ting from tree to tree and bush tc j bush as silently as a prowling cat. The spies had brought their ear tc j a standstill midway down the drive, | as the cessation of the engine bore witness. As lie stole nearer the elu-

:idator saw that cliey were already in conversation with a third man, whom he recognised as John Calling, a slow-witted fellow, who served Morrel in the capacity of gardener and general factotum. " The master told me to say as he was away and couldn't see anybody" he was repeating stolidly. " He will not be back for a day or two, for all I knows." An oath of great vehemence grated on the air. " But we have an appointment !" the elder man —Lyon knew his name to be Frennson—vociferated. "Mr. Morrel was to meet us here at—" " Well, he won't, do it," the servant interrupted curtly. " And the quicker you clear off the better as I shall the sooner be able to close the gates." The two foreigners sat gritting their teeth in futile wrath, and confabulating together, when Lyon decided to appear on the scene. Rising abruptly, he drew his revolvers, and Sounded into view. "I am a detective," he said, coolly. " I have a warrant here for the arrest of Denis Morrel, on a double charge of murder and robbery. I 2harge you to reveal anything you may know of his present whereabouts, or you will be arrested as accessories after the fact." The surprise was a dramatic one. The detective had appeared no suddenly that for a full minute the three men could scarcely credit the evidence of their eyes and ears. Before they could gather their senses together a still more startling thing happened. A vibrant hum broke from the duskiness of the storm-clouds overhead ; something that dropped as swiftly and unerringly as a falling lark came darting down to the drive hovering above them like a giant hawk. Then, ere they could stir hand or foot, the three men saw the detective gripped by an unseen force and borne with the swiftness of a shooting-star up into the skies. CHAPTER IV. IN THE AIRSHIP. Seldom had the Lion of the Law been taken more by surprise. So intent had he been on forestalling any attempt at treachery on the part of the Germans that he did noi no JJ ce the hum of the airship's ent as it swooped down upon him. Only when a strong hand gripped his collar did he realise his peril. Before he could struggle or even cry out he was swaying in mid-air, with the earth dropping away from his feet at a tremendous speed. It was an eerie sensation, and one that might well have terrified the most courageous man. Only thai hand upon his coat collar intervener between a swift and horrible death for in less than a minute the car had risen to an altitude of two hundred feet. John Lyon, however, never lost his coolness for a minute. With his arms pressed to his sides, he hung straight and stiff in the grasp of this mysterious .captor, his eyes turned upward in an effort to examine the aeria vessel which had already created sue! sensation in the neighbourhood o; Bradford. So far as he could see, it was the smallest heavier-than-air machim ever designed to carry human passengers. The car itself was wedge-shap ed, tapering to a long point in front, the engines being concealed in the broad end, whence a whirling propeller protruded. Overhead a cylindrical air-chamber, fashioned apparentlj from an amalgam of aluminium, showed whitely against the stormclouded sky. Suddenly the propeller stopped, and an intense silence took the place ol the whirring. Simultaneously a pail of fanlike wings rose from the sides of the air-chamber and the ship poised motionless in mid-air steady as a rock. " Keep steady and I'll lift you in." A voice husky with physical strain reached the elucidator's ears. He felt himself lifted steadily, a series of grunts marking his progress from above. He lifted his arm quickly as the side of the airship came within reach, pulled himself up and rolled panting on the flat deck. A couple of feet aft his captor was seat 2d in a well-shaped opening, gripping hard at the handle of a lever. " Keep still, or you'll break the fans," he cried warningly. " The Vulture isn't meant for two, though she'll do all right. You'd better lie Sat in the middle, my man." Lyon obeyed, unquestioningly. Outspread on the smooth flatness of the leek, he eyed the nonchalant driver Df the vessel keenly, but found the larkness baffling. Dimly lie could see a blacki-clad form, a face covered by a close-fitting yellow mask and a skull-cap of the same hue. A suspicion which had been forming in his mind took definite shape as he examined the outline of the dim figure, ft as it Denis Morrel ? The situation was a, curious one. Above, the sky showed as a patch of blackness, across which ragged streamers of grey cloud made grotesque patterns ; below, the earth was a thing of yellow shadows, spangled levc and there by pin-points of light. The faint:..sound of a train screeching >rc it entered a tunnel reached the .letective's ears, but otherwise he >vas poised in a silence so tense that it seemed as though Nature herself was holding her breath at his perilous position. " I don't know why you brought me up here," he said, coolly, finding that his masked captor did not seem inclined for conversation. " But you might have allowed me to get my overcoat first." The man in the well favoured him with a long stare. "Egad, you are cool enough tc need a hundred overcoats," he ejaculated. " You don't speak much like a foreigner." " For the simple reason that 1 air

in Englishman, Dora and oreaV* The masked man uttered an oath. " Devil take it 1 Aren't you Parsiral or Frensson ?" "No ; you left , the-m behind. I iaresay they are still wondering why ! left them so abruptly." The driver of the airship uttered a • ccond oath, even more pungent than ;he first. Bending forward, he subjected the Lion oi the Law to a sharp scrutiny. " I've made a mess of it this -,ime," he muttered. " Who the deuce ire you, if you don't belong to Fritz J'rensson's gang ?" " I think you ought to know me ; i you are Denis Morrel I had a long conversation with you this morning." " I am not Denis Morrel." " I think you lie. You have bor--owed his voice at all events." He of the yellow mask made no •eply to this sally. He touched the an-lever, causing the airship to carsen slightly, and then bent down to peer into the grounds below. Then he jave Lyon another puzzled glare. " By the Lord, I have it," he burst nit suddenly. " You are that inferlal meddler of a detective, John 1-yon ! I heard you had been investigating at Bradford and your face seemed familiar." " You are right on the mark this ;ime," rejoined tne detective. He !elt convinced that --. he masked man ,vas Denis Morrel, and felt no surprise at the pretended discovery of lis own identity. " And as soon as fou get down to earth I shall be compelled to arrest you on a double charge of murder and housebreaking." He drew a revolver as he spoke, taking careful aim at his captor, his land as steady as if he had been in the middle of a lawn. " Down we go," he jerked out. " I pull trigger in ten seconds if you lon't descend." " Down we go !" The threatened man echoed the words with a wild snarl of rage. "Down you go!" he thundered. " You will never spoil a smart game again, you cursed spy !" As the last words left his lips he pressed his feet sharply on the bottom of the well. Instantly the airship turned almost completely over, hanging in the air at an acute angle. Lyon, reclining on the glass-smooth surface of the deck, had no chance to save himself. Like a leaden plummet he shot into space, his revolver flying from his fingers and exploding harmlessly in mid-air. Down he went, whirling over and over, as he endeavoured to gain a position which would break the force of the terrible fall. Hours seemed to pass whilst the wind lashed his face and thundered in his ears. Then suddenly the grounds of Croft Park unfolded from the darkness below, dimly visible as a maze of flat-looking flowerbeds, intersected by winding paths that shone white as ribbons in the gloom. He raised his arms to shield his head as the earth leapt towards him. With stunning swiftness the feathery top of a tree opened its branches to receive his hurtling body. A boneshaking crash, and he went slithering and smashing through the boughs bleeding and insensible from the violence of the impact. Mechanically his fingers gripped a strong branch. He held on grimly, the blood roaring dizzily through his head, red flashes splitting the dim field of his vision, every nerve in his body the plaything of a fiendish pain. Then with a heave the darkness seemed to engulf him and the last shreds of sensibility were lost in a merciful swoon.

CHAPTER V.

VICTIMS OF THE TERROR,

The Lion of the Law was accustomed to recovering his senses in strange situations and peculiar places, but for the life of him he could not surmise where he wa£, when he opened his eyes some two hours later after his rapid and unpremeditated descent from the clouds. He found himself in a large and gloomy apartment, which had at some remote time been an old-fash-ioned wash-house. The feeble glimmer of light which penetrated a grimy window at one end showed dingy white-washed walls, a floor of stone, and a smoke-coloured ceiling ornamented by cobwebs and scars. The furnishings of the place consisted of two wooden chairs, a copper, and a table boasting only three legs, propped against a long nail driven into the wall. None of these things furnished the elncidator with any clue as to his surroundings. When he tried to move he found that he had been bound hand and foot in a most efficacious manner. The discovery accounted for an uncomfortable sensation of "pins and needles " in hi" }cgs, and increased his astonishment. " Can I be in Croft Hall ?" he thought. " I must be a goodish way from any other dwelling, or my kind captors would have gagged me. I may as well try a yell just for the luck of it." Lifting up his voice he sent up a shout that startled a shower of plaster from the ceiling. It soon proved that he was not entirely alone. Before the echoes had muttered away, they were drowned by the louder sound of hasty footsteps. A moment later Fritz Frensson, the elder of the two foreign spies, entered the room. " Silence !" he snarled, harshly in English. " You'll get a tap on the head with a mallet if you make that row. Do you want all Bradford to hear you ?" (To be Continued.)