THE MYSTERY OF A MARBLE MAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 365, 31 May 1911, Page 7

THE MYSTERY OF A MARBLE MAN.

By the Author of " The Castl# Mystery," etc., etc.

SOLVING THE SECRETS OF A SHEFFIELD CRIME. Being a Strange Chronicle frortS the PJote-book of John Lyon, Elucidatory Known as the 11 Lion of the Law."

* ' rAUT

, CHAPTER 111. A TANGLED SKEIN OF MYSTERY. He turned his eyes upon her swiftly, and with a thrill of amazement, beheld a girl, not more than seventeen years of acre, very evidently of pontic birth. She was unusually pretty, with saucy and piquant features, brown eyes which seemed made for laughter, and a complexion of roses touched with gold. Her hair was dressed low on her forehead, and matched her eyes in colour, sparkling as if filled with prisoned sunlight. An unusually graceful figure was enhanced by » princess dress of bronze satin which shimmered softly in the rays of Lyon's torch. A crimson carnation drooping in the laces at her breast, lent the final picturesque touch to her appearance as she stood gazing at the detective with parted lips and flashing eyes. The apparition was an astounding one in such squalid t-iurroundings, and for a few seconds the Lion of the Law felt himself beyond speech. Before lie could recover himself the girl lifted her right hand, and he saw that her slim fingers were clenched upon the chased butt of a tiny revolver. She levelled the weapon at his heart, and spoke. "Go back upstairs," she commanded insistently, in a very low, sweet voice. "If you do not I swear that I will fire." The ludicrous aspect of the situation struck | upon the elucidator with sudden force. He uowed and laughed. " You are rather young to be handling firearms," he said, coolly. " But I should be sorry to disobey so charming a lady. Where must I go ?" The girl's lips trembled. For a moment Lyon feared that she was going to cry, and felt sorry for his mocking words. But she was made of sterner stuff ; biting back ! <?r emotion with an effort, she spoke as calmly as he himself could have done.

" Return to the room where the coffin-box is. I know who you are, and why you are here, and you will only leave this house over my dead body. If you try to, I will shoot you —or myself. I do not care which."

There was a quality of deadly determination in her voice which shocked Lyon. It seemed to partake of an infinity of despair, and he was man enough to quail before the thought of a bullet ending her young life. The witchery of her appealing beauty may have influenced him or he may have been mindful only of pursuing the strange affair to its conclusion. He chose to believe the latter. Be that a s it may, he turned silently, and wended his way up the stairs. The girl waited till he was halfway to the top and followed. In this way they passed to the attic, and the detective entered with the revolver almost at his head. He was not surprised when .he heard the door locked behind him ; indeed, there was no room in his mind for any other emotion but utter and complete mystification. His fair captress evidently had no mind that he should escape. He heard her drop down on the top step and lay her revolver by her side. After that the sound of soft breathing told him that she was keeping close guard upon him. The position was a strange one, and Lyon had an uneasy feeling that he had been foolish in submitting to the thrall of a revolver—and the appeal of two brown eyes. By way of revenge he removed one of his boots, and with the heel commenced an assault upon the coffin-shaped box careless of the noise he made.

The task was a tough one, but he seldom allowed himself to be beaten in anything he undertool (. One by one he thrashed away the nails which held the brass binding in place. The girl on the landing made no sign, and at the end of half-an-hour he found himself free to investigate the contents of the box. The lid had been smashed away, and a mase of cotton-wool lay revealed. Dropping to his knees, he lifted it gently. The wool had been padded into a thin sheet, and a single movement uncovered a considerable portion of that which lay below. His gaze rested upon a calm, white dead face—the face of a head severed from the trunk to which it, had once belonged, and which now lay in the box along with it. The face was that of a middle-aged gentleman and the body below was clad in spotless black. The man's head had been shaven bare—it did not appear to have bevu naturally bald, and upon the crown the detective saw a jumble of str.-.nge markings, apparently inscribed h\ tattoo.

It was Chinese, a language he understood in some slight degree. He kept his light focusscd upon the lettering for some time, and was soon able to decipher it. The result was disappointing. The words merely formed a quotation from Coleridge's poem of the " Ancient Mariner," and ran as follows : " He holds him with his skinny baud 'There was a ship,' quoth he."

Allowing the wool to drop back into place, Lyon rose to his feet. By pure chance he had discovered a tangle of crime which seemed to defy in-V-esiicatjcm, No ...ordinary process oj

deduction could aid him in elucidating the events of the night ; he might as well have started from the centre of the web and endeavoured to follow all the strands at one and the same time.

One thing he was determined upon

He must leave the house at once and bring the police on the scene. He did not anticipate that breaking out would be a difficult task, but the memory of his fair young gaoler decided him against that course. She might shoot herself, or do something equally desperate in her efforts to prevent his escape. Crossing over to the window, he leaned out, and with his eye measured the distance to the rope which had served as a bridge to the man who had entered the house next door. The chance was a risky one, but he took it. A moment later he was out on the sill, and a strong spring sent him out to the rope. With both hands he grasped it, swaying in a sickening fashion in mid-air. Presently the violence of the oscillations ceased, and he was able to make his way to the roof without difficulty. The skylight had been left open and he descended without hesitation, Almost before he set foot in the room below, a strong scent of paraffin drifted to his nostrils, and as he stepped out on to the landing it became overpowering. The cause of the stench was not far to seek. From room to room, trailing round the balustrade, winding down the stairs, and festooning even from the pictures, yard after yard of oil-soaked muslin had been twisted. Everywhere that the detective turned his eyes he saw the same thing. Pools of oil lay glittering on the floors, and dripped insiduously over the furniture. A single match in the house would have produced a blaze that would become a roaring furnace within a minute. Of the man who had entered there was no sign. Pie had vanished utterly, and after a hurried search the Lion of the Law unbolted the front door, and hastened into the street.

A police whistle was between his lips, but he was not given time to blow it. As he set foot in the road he saw a great motor-car whirl round the corner in a cloud of dust, and shudder to a standstill before "the house, where the disguised woman had disappeared. An elderly man sprang out before the wheels had fairly ceased to revolve, and ran in the direction of the detective. Next second he had hurled himself upon that startled worthy and was flourishing a revolver in his face, as he hissed : " Where is May ? Where is my daughter ? Tell me, you blackhearted scoundrel, or I will tear jou limb from limb !"

"Caesar !" Lyon shouted, wrenching himself free. "Is everyone mad to-night ? Who are you, sir, and whom do you take me for that I should be aware of the whereabouts of your daughter ?" The man drew back a pace, composing himself with an obvious effort. Then he placed his lips within an inch of the detective's car and hissed in a tone fraught with deep meaning :

" I tell you I am May Temple's father. Listen. 'He holds him with his skinny hand. " There was a ship," quoth he.' I have given you the sign ; now answer my question!" CHAPTER IV. "HE HOLDS HIM WITH HIS SKINNY HAND !" John Lyon did not lose his equipoise, although mentally bewildered as any man could be. He writhed his shoulder from the venous clutch of the portly gentleman and at the name moment leaned forward and hissed in his ear : " I am a detective, and my name is John Lyon. I know nothing of the matters you mention. I—" " Liar ! With my own eyes I saw you leave that hoase." " If you will steady your temper I might have time to explain that I got entangled in this mystery by accident," the detective said, acridly. "Is your daughter a girl of seventeen or so, dressed in brown ?" A frenzied nod was the answer. " Then she is in that house," rejoined Lyou, indicating the teneme> adjoining the one from which he just emerged. " I left her gut:, the door of the room in which she had imprisoned. me. She seems a very determined young lady." Mr. Temple—as he had given his name —did not hear the last few I words.

With a single bound he had reached the porch pointed out by Lyon. The elucidator had expected him to hammer wildly on the door, but instead he inserted a skeleton key, turned the lock with a deft movement, and disappeared. The gentle closing of the portal aroused the detective from his astonishment. He emitted a long, low whistle as he started forward.

" I wish I had Lesage here," he muttered. " There is a darned sight too much material for me to handle. Who is this Mr. Temple ? What is his daughter doing in that house of crime ? Why is the house next door all prepared for being fired and razed to the ground. What was the body in the coffin-box ? and why do they keep hurling that quotation from Coleridge at my head ? The case bristles with questions, and it would puzzle an astuter man than myself to answer even one of them." He paused indecisively, a policewhistle between his teeth. Duty urged him to summon the aid of the law immediately, but inclination urged him even more strongly to pursue his investigations in his own way. He knew that if he called in a constable it-would mean an end of his control of the mystery. The officers of the law were sufficiently jealous to put every conceivable obstacle ia his way whilst they made

their own inquiries into the strange, affair.

He was by no means blind to the kudos that would be his if Ik brought the mystery to a successful outcome, and it did not take hinlong to decide that he would trusl to his own prowess, for the present, at any rate.

One significant fact he noticed. The chauffeur of Mr. Temple's car hac with apparent carelessness thrown a rug over the bonnet in such a waj that the number-plate was completely concealed, and he stood in an attitude that made it plain that he was on the watch for an intervention. He was a. small, loan man of g Swiss type, and his ferret cjes fiittec incessantly from end to end of the deserted street. To Lyon he paid nc attention whatever. The elucidator's reflections had occupied only a few minutes, and he speedily decided to follow Mr. Temple into the house, which he had already noted was numbered with the figures 21.

Entering by means of a skeleton key, he closed and locked the "door behind him. A short period of listening brought no sound to his ears, and he ascended the stairs rapidly until he found hirruself on the upper landing. A surprise awaitet* him there.

Not only had Mr. Temple disappeared, but- his daughter also. Moreover not a whisper could be heard in the "building s to indicate their presence, and with a suddec qualm Lyon set about making a second search of the premises, commencing by unlocking the door of the attic with a skeleton key. "Queer !" he murmured aloud. "I think lam suffering from delusions if this stout man and his daughter have vanished in addition to the three men who carried that coffinbox in there. I wonder if I am by any chance having a particularly vivid and unpleasant nightmare." Pie laughed to himself, then choked the sound gutturally in hit throat as the portal swung open and he caught a glimpse of the chest which contained the dead man. A quick glance about the bare room showed him there was no trace oi those he sought, and he lost nc time in prosecuting his search in another direction. To lie Continued.