Time, The Avenger

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 414, 15 November 1911, Page 2

Time, The Avenger

(All Rights Reserved.)

THE UNRAVELLING OF A STRANGE WILL MYSTERY.

By HEDLEY RICHARDS, Author of "The Haighs of Hillcrest," "From Mill to Mansion." "Diana's Inheritance," Etc., Etc. I

TWENTY-FOURTH INSTALMENT. " I have not the pleasure of knowing you. Have you come about the advertisements I had put in the papers ? " she said. " So she had advertised in the papers. Evidently she was going to dc her utmost to regain the lost paper," he thought. But aloud, he said : " I did not see the advertisement, but I have just read a poster further up the lane, and I thought I would tell you something I know about it." "Tell all, and whoever took it shall not get into trouble," said Miss Holmes. "My dear lady, I can only tell you what I know. Yesterday I travelled from London. I am an artist, come down to paint your beautiful woods. In the carriage with me were two other men. I did not notice them ; I was thinking of other things. At last the heat caused me to fall asleep. I don't know exactly how long I slept, but I was roused by hearing these men saying, ' What shall you do with the paper now you've got it ? " ' I shall search earth and sea till I've found Lionel Richard Hudspith, then my fortune is made,' said the other.

" ' What if Miss Holmes traces you ? " said the first speaker. " ' She won't. But, hush, that fel-

low in waking.' " A minute later the tram stopped in a rather busy station, and I sat up, but almost as soon as it stopped the men jumped out. Whether they got into another part of the train, fearing I had heard too much, or went into the town, I cannot say ; but I never saw them again, and I don't think I should have attached much importance to the conversation if I hadn't happened to remember some very peculiar extracts from a will that are published at intervals in which the name of Lionel Hudspith appears. Then your poster brought the matter to my mind, sc I came to tell you what little I

knew." " Thank you very much. Do you think you could describe the men? " He shook his head. " I'm afraid not, and I regret that it didn't strike me to notice the name of the town, but we only stopped a minute." " I am your debtor for what you have told me. Do you think it will help me, madame ? " The other woman, who had been watching the detective keenly, said: " We must talk it over ; perhaps it may. It is possible this gentleman might be able to give you some advice. Of course you do not wish him to let anyone know that the paper you have lost had any connection with Mr. Lionel Hudspith." Miss Holmes held up her hands in deprecation, as she said : " You will not name that. I would not have it known for anything in the world. Perhaps I had better tell you that the paper was placed in my hands by the late Mr. Hudspith, to be given to his son ; and, unfortunately, I have not seen him or known where to find him, and I don't wish the present master of Gelder Hall to know the nature of the paper for which I am advertising. In fact, I don't know what the contents are myself. I only know to whom it had to be given." " I will promise to keep your secret, madam," he said, gravely. Then he added : " May I ask if it was known to many of your friends that you possessed a valuable paper ? Of course if it was the% might incautiously name it, and the theft take place in consequence." " Only three people knew I had the paper, and they knew it was destined for Mr. Lionel Hudspith. One of the three was myself, the others my niece, Miss Penman, and my friend here,'madame ; and neither of them would name it." " This renders it quite a mystery. I only wish it was in mj power to help you. If I can you will find me at "the Gelder Inn." " The Gelder Inn ! Well, Jane Hayes will make you comfortable. She was a clean maid when she was at Gelder Hall. I was housekeeper there, but she had some money left her. It puzzled me where it came from, as her parents were dead and 1 she'd always said she hadn't a relaI tive in the world. Then this cousin ' left her five hundred pounds, and she \ got the Gelder Inn—the old tenant i had just died. I suppose she's made | a lot of money there. All the same, I I don't trust her, and I beg of you ! not to tell her anything that you know about the missing paper." " You may rely on me;" and after bowing to madame, and shakint hands with Miss Holmes, he depart ed.

" That Frenchwoman has been uset' to a different position. She is quite a lady. I wonder if she is the Julie of the past and knows anything of the stolen paper ? It is a singular fact that she is one of the three who knew of its existence," thought the detective, as he walked slowly down the lane. , Strange to say, he was at thai moment the subject of madame > tb .. U |hn S " is that man? Is he onl.

his tale merely a 'nlind to sec what else he could discover ? " she reflected, then resolved as far as she could to watch him. She felt thankful that he had happened to call on the Wednesday afternoon the weekly half-holiday, or otherwise she would not have seen him.

" Nina, I have something to tell you," said Hugh, in a tone of suppressed excitement, as he entered the drawing room shortly after his sister, the two having dined alone, as Mr. Hudspith had gone up to town on business. Hugh had kept the dinner waiting, and been unusually silent while, they went through the usual number of courses, but Nina had fancied he was excited and impatient for the meal to be over. Therefore she was not surprised to see him though he usually remained to drink a glass or two of wine and smoke a cigar on the lawn. "What is it?" she asked, her interest aroused by something unusual in his manner. He seated himself close to her, saying, in a low tone : "You know that mother left her jewellery to be divided between us ?" "I know ;" ana she looked still more surprised. "Hasn't it struck: you that the governor was very slow in handing it over ?" he asked. " No. Why should he trouble himself about the matter just yet ? I am in mourning, and, of course, mother expected that you would save your share for your wife, as the Hudspith jewels will go to Lionel Hudspith, or his heirs, if he proves his innocence, which she always believed he would do," said Nina. "He hasn't given them because there are none to give," said Hugh,

impressively. " What do you mean ? " " I mean that they are all gone. There isn't even a ring left. I was going upstairs to dress for dinner, and as I happened to be in good time I was taking it leisurely, and just close to the door of the governor's dressing room I saw a key lying on the floor. When I picked it up [ felt sure it was the key of a jewelcase, and I guessed it belonged to mother's ; so, as the pater was well Dut of the way I thought I'd have a look at the jewels, particularly as I vanted one or two trifles. You neca not look so vexed, Nina, I should aave told you I had taken them and made it square when the governor

came home." "Dear Hugh, I would gladly give vou some of my share. But do not ;ivc any of our mother's jewels to Gertie Hayes. I have heard that you are seen a great deal with her." " Then you have heard a parcel of lies. Gertie Hayes will never have any of those jewels, so make your mind easy, Nina. Well, I took the key and went into the governor's room and unlocked the door leading

to mother's dressing room. I found it was the key, as it unlocked the ;ase at once ; but when I opened it rou could have knocked me down with a feather—every tray was empty. I couldn't believe my own eyes, and I stood staring at the empty trays till the second bell rang. Then I locked the case and went of! to my own room. But I've the key of the jewel-case, and I mean to know where those jewels are gone. What do you think has become of them ? " he asked, looking at his sister, who had turned very pale.

" I don't know. Surely, Hugh, you must be mistaken, because lather told me they were safe. Not one of them had been taken at the time mine were stolen, and he told the police the same.' " Then he's done something with ;hcm. The governor cannot be hard up, or I should say he'd sold them. Don't look horrified—you needn't. He is no saint. Put him in a corner ind he'd help himself the best way nc could. But as I don't believe he .s in want of money. I'm puzzled," said Hugh. " Perhaps be didn't think the case ,vas safe, and has put them somewhere else, or he may have taken ;hem to the bank," said Nina. " Of course, it's a likely thing he'd :arry jewels to the value of forty thousand pounds in his pocket. If ie had taken them he would have saken the case. By the way I think ie has been very careless to leave it about in the dressing room. It used to be kept locked up in a cupboard :hcre, but I suppose as the room was iot in use be thought it didn't matter. Still, I consider he's been very ;areless, and he'll have to tell me what's become of them." " I don't believe that father has lone anything with them. I cannot ielp thinking they were stolen the light I lost mine," said Nina, speak.ng on the impulse of the minute. " But the governor told you they were all right," said Hugh. Nina did not reply, and her ■jrother looked keenly at her for a moment.

" It seems to me that you haven't mite as much faith in the governor as you had," he said. Then he walked out of the room, and went to the smoke room, where he lighted a cigar and tried to solve the my-

stery. Meanwhile Nina's thoughts went back to that night when she had seen her father steal across the park and heard him enter the house. He had passed her in such close proximity that there could be no possible room for doubt that it was he. Yet from the first he had denied it, and she knew that he had lied Moreover, he had forbidden her tc speak of the matter. She remembered with a shrinking horror that the time he had been out was the very time the man had been drowned in Dead Man's Pool ; and she thought of the horribly suggestive note that

burned them ; but it was impossible to forget. She tried to tell herself that she was judging hor father unjustly, but deep down in her heart there was the conviction that he knew something of the man's death, and that some other person was cognizant of it ; and she wondered if her mother's jewels had gone as hush money. Happening to glance down, her eye rested on a letter which lay on the floor, and, stooping, she picked it up, when she saw it was addressed in an uneducated hand that she had learned to know. With trembling fingers she opened it, and read: " Miss, you ask a party as we both knows on to settle his property on you smart, as he'll soon be taking a journey on the conveyance below." Then came a rough sketch of the gallows, from which a tall, slender

figure was dangling. Vith a low moan Nina crushed the letter in her hand and walked to the open window, near to which she had been seated. It would have beer, quite dark outside but for the moon, and the room was only dimly lighted bv lamps, as it was a hot night. As she drew near to the window she distinctly saw the face of the man whom she had seen one afternoon in the lane" near Housesteads. and as she looked she remembered that Lord Ovingham had said he was the man who was drowned in Dead Man's Pool.

For a minute she gazed at him, then a loud scream escaped her, and she fell on the floor in a dead faint, and as she lay there an arm was stretched through the open window and a hand took the letter from out of hers, which still gripped it firmly. A moment more and the man was making his way across the park, keeping well in the shade of the trees.

Nina's scream brought the butler to her help, and in a minute or two Hugh and her maid appeared. But it was some time before she rallied and Hugh seeing that she was really ill, sent a groom for the doctor ; but neither to Hugh nor to the doctor iid Nina say what had made her faint. CHAPTER XXVI. CHASING THE GHOST. The lamp was not lighted at the Gelder Inn, though it was nearly eleven o'clock, Mrs. Hayes having declared that she was too hot to bear it ; but the firelight prevented the room from being dark. Sally, the servant, had suggested it would be better to let the fire die out, and light the lamp ; but her mistress had refused to listen to her proposal.

" She couldn't bear to see an emptj grate," she declared, so the tire had been replenished and its flickering light danced on the brasses and tins. Mrs. Hayes was seated in her rocking-chair, gently rocking herself backwards and forwards while she talked to Mr. Jones, who had asked permission to smoke his pipe in the kitchen, as it was more sociable than sitting alone in the parlour. He had gently led his landlady on to talk of old times, and unconsciously Mrs. Hayes was more communicative than it was her custom to be. Sally stood lounging against the :lresser at the far end of the kitchen, while she knitted industriously, and on a low chair opposite the window, over which the blind had not been drawn, Gertie Hayes was seated, bethands lying idly in her lap, while she gazed listlessly out at the branches of the apple-trees, which swayed softly in the evening breeze. Not that she noticed them ; betthoughts were with Hugh Hudspith and her heart ached at his indiflcr 3nce. Suddenly she was aroused hy seeing the face of a man peering intc the room—a face that made her foi a moment forget her lover and hb disloyalty. She uttered a piercing ;cream and pointed to the window and at the same time Mrs. Have; shouted : " Oh, Lord, he's come again ! "Who is it?" asked Mr. Jones ivho was surprised at the cornmo tion.

"Its the man wiio was mowueu. | Thank the Lord he's gone ! " replied j Mrs. Hayes ; but before she had fin- j ished speaking her lodger was out j of the kitchen and catching up his | straw hat, which hung in the pas- ! sage, he ran out of the door into the back garden, and was just in time to see a man disappear through a, gap in the hedge. The detective was a good runner, and he made such good use of bis legs that he was through the gap and stood on a piece of greensward just as the man darted along a narrow lane which entered a little beyond the inn. On they went, pursuing and pursued, then presently the former crept through a hole in the hedge, and dashed down a bank overgrown with ferns, raspberry bushes, and great trees that made it dithcult to keep him in sight ; but as the moon was fairly bright it was possible. Moreover, the detective was evidently the more active man. and in a few minutes he caught him by the collar. " Now, then, turn round, and let me have a look at you," be said. "It's no use wriggling, you won't get away," he added. as lie swung the man round. " Joe. the cracksman, T declare !" he exclaimed in tones of surprise. To be Continued.