Sentenced to Death

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 55, 27 May 1927, Page 14

Sentenced to Death

By

Louis Tracy

Author of “ The Long Lane of Many Windings,** “ One Wonderful Night/* “ Love and the Aces/* ** The Token/' &c. t &c.

(Copyright for the Author In the Edward J. Clode. Inc., New Yo;

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CHAPTER l.—A young officer, Antony lilake learns that he has not many months to live. He arrives at a part ot Regent's Park, where a pony and governess car are stationed. A vivid flash of lightning causes the pony to bolt. As Antony is walking, two men overtake and rush past him, one tall and thin the other short and fat. The rotund runner falls, picks himself up and tears along. Antony notices a dagger in the grass. He reaches a small wooden hut. A girl is sheltering there. She tells him she was to meet her uncle, who was driving a pony in a governess car.

CHAPTER ll.—Blake takes her to her home. Her name is Iris Hamilton. Soon after he is again in the Park and he finds the dagger. The first item that catches his eye in the night’s paper Is “Tragedy in Regent’s Park. Supposed Murder.’’ Another paragraph details how Dr. EnsleyJones found a long-bladed dagger in the body of the dead man. Its description tallies with the one In Blake’s possession He taxis »o the nearest police station and tell 9 his story. Blake.finds himself practically under arrest, suspected of complicity In the murder of Robert Lastingham.

CHAPTERS 111. to Xl.—Blake sees the tall thin man at Albert Gate, and after sending a note to Furneaux, follows him in Soho. Detectives loin him and they succeed In finding the haunt of the criminals. The fat man walks In and is caught. An American crook threatens Blake over the telephone. Blake attends a dinner of detectives where the mention of the name of “Natali© Oortsehakoff” strikes terror Into one of the guests. News comes of a fight between the police and a gang at Blake’s house. Blake himself has another heart attack when he is on his way to Iris He goes to the flat with a detective and Mrs. Hamilton is arrested for complicity In the murder. Natalie rings up Blake and he agrees to take luncheon with her. He is blindfolded and taken in a car to Natalie’s home where the villain ess receives him graciously. Injudiciously he drinks some vodka and loses consciousness. Tie wakes up in Hamstead Heath. From observations he made in the house he is able to lead detectives there and a raid is made. But Natalie has disappeared.

CHAPTER XII.—In Blake’s diary Natalie has written a warning. Iris, who is supposed to have gone abroad, calls to see Blake and the voung people discover their love. Iris explains how it was she came back to London instead of going on to Paris after she reached Dover. In the train her mother met Natalie Gortschakoff and on arriving at Dover she sent Iris back again. She finds a certificate of her birth which proves that “Mrs. Hamilton” is not her real mother. Anthony and Iris then go to dinner with the detectives, Winter, Furneaux and Sheldon.

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Chapter Xll.—(Continued). “The fact is she was and is desperately anxious to send you packing. Even now I don’t understand why Miss Iris was ordered back to London, where D'ou were. However, if the duty is off tobacco, we can discuss matters fully.” “May I tell you first what I discovered while in the train on the homeward journey?” put in Iris. “Mrs. Hamilton is not my mother.” “Of course, she is not, any more than Robert Lastingham was your uncle. She is a clever, designing woman, who, for once in her life, made a fatal miscalculation. Young Sheldon there has a set of remarkable eyes, so, last night, he kept one on you and one on Mrs. Hamilton. Certain documents found in Lastingham’s house helped to clear his vision, no doubt, but an hour’s inquiry this morning, supplemented by a bit of the luck which we poor bobbies always depend on, revealed your parents’ names and your birthplace, Cairo. But, tell me this, and think hard before you answer. Have you ever, before to-day I should explain, received an offer of marriage?” Iris blushed a little, but did not hesitate. “Not exactly,” she said. “We lived abroad a good deal, and I was at school for the most part. Six months ago we came to London, and a young man named Andrews visited us—” She paused, her acute sensitiveness becoming aware of a certain tension among her hearers. As no one interrupted, however, and as Blake had glossed over the shooting in the Belsize Park House in his hurried version of his meeting with' Natalie Gortschakoff, she continued: “I had an idea, as any girl would have, from hints dropped, that an attachment between us would be approved. But I disliked him, not that he was ugly or ill-mannered, because he would have been quite a nice young man if he did not hold such horrid notions. He thought society must be remodelled by getting rid of the ‘Burgoos,’ which, I understand, is Bolshevik for bourgeoisie, yet, at the same time, he had a contempt for the common people. So I avoided him, and was nagged at for misbehavious.” "I see,” nodded the chief. “Any other candidates?” “No—really.”

“Not Mr. Lastingham, for instance?” “My uncle,” and Iris’s blue eyes, violet in' that shaded light, opened wide. “He was not your uncle, remember.” “Oh, no no! He certainly was opposed to Mr. Andrews, but he never said one word to me which might be construed in any other sense than his wish to look after me as a guardian—to take my father’s place, he always put it.” “Good! I was only wondering if that was what upset Mrs. Hamilton, because there is no doubt she expected that Lastifigham would marry her.” “But—she hated him. I had to use all sorts of unpleasant subterfuges to see him at all during the past two months. They were unpleasant because I regard concealment as rather akin to downright lying.” “An excellent point,” grinned Furneaux. The Chief swept him aside loftily, and diverged into a history of the girl’s parents. Her father had been in the diplomatic service during the vexed period of the Dual Control in Egypt, and Lastingham had rendered good service to the British Government in financial matters. The two became firm friends, and Hamilton had not lessened his own value as a diplomat by marrying the daughter of a prominent French official in Cairo, since he thus placed a foot in both camps, as it were.

After some years they drifted apart, Hamilton and his wife going to Constantinople, while Lastingham took up certain interests in Syria, where he became involved in the turbulent politics of the Levant. When the Great War was heralded by the fighting in the Balkans, his life was in danger, and his old-time friend assisted him to escape, his threatened assassination

being then a mere matter of hours. Iris was a child of three when brought to England, and lost both father and mother during an outbreak of influenza. Lastingham saw the deaths announced in the newspapers and made a pact with Iris’s maternal grandparents—Hamilton’s relatives having all passed away—that he would see to her education and provide for her future.

Unfortunately, he was secretive by nature and this very drawback practically forced him to put her in charge of the soi-distant Mrs. Hamilton, who assumed the name to cloak her own identity. There could be no doubt that this woman in her youth had been associated with the most dangerous class in the Near East—those people who are not immoral—but unmoral —the harpies, both male and female, who prey on many men and every woman who have risen to social and political eminence by means which will not bear undue publicity. Lastingham was one of those.

“There are plenty like him whose names you read constantly in the newspapers,” said the Chief. “They are not necessarily scoundrels or tricksters. On the principle that a reformed drunkard often becomes a teetotal fanatic, they are only too anxious to remain free of a taint from

which they have purged themselves. I am given to understand that of late years Robert Lastingham’s credit stood high in the city. His murder was a dastardly act. Our main difficulty in dealing with Mademoiselle Natalie Gortschakoff will come when it is shown that she not only disapproved of the crime but is taking her own measures to avenge it.”

Blake listened to all this with a new sense of foreboding which not even the presence of Iris, sitting there in utmost security, could dispel. He was troubled first by a fact of which Winter had given the barest hint, being scared away from it by Furneaux’s impish comment. His difficulty was exactly the dilemma condemned by Iris. There could not be the least doubt that the banker was killed because he had made known his wish to marry his ward. Probably there were other circumstances predisposing his slayers to get rid of him, but the crowning offence was the contemplated marriage. This she must never know. It would cast a shadow over her life.

The girl herself, luckily, was far too interested in gathering such details of her parents’ history as the Chief could supply that she should pay heed to his seemingly casual avoidance of a topic which he had been forced to raise. Looking back through her own few years she was able now to throw a flood of light on certain obscure places.

For instance, she could fix dates precisely, and that would mean a definite linking of “Mrs. Hamilton” and Natalie Gortschakoff in certain of their activities. When five people are discussing matters of great moment the hands of the clock move quickly. It was past ten when the Chief said he must be going. To make assurance doubly sure Sheldon went with Iris and Blake to the St. John’s Wood police station, where a still crippled inspector received them. They elected to walk to Sutherland Avenue, the young couple in front, with Sheldon and two constables close behind. There appeared to be no nightprowlers in the streets, but Sheldon took no chances. He and the policeman searched the house swiftly but thoroughly before a very tired girl was allowed to go to her room. Then the detective accompanied Blake to his flat for a farewell drink. “I hope you did not miss the significance of La Gortschakoff’s final threat?” he said, in his quiet way, when they were within four walls. “You mean the words, ‘You have no right to expect further warning,’ I suppose? No. I got that all right. But now I don’t give a hang for her or any of her crew. If I knew where to reach her I’d send her a message that I’ll shoot at sight if any of them dare come near me or Iris.” (To be Continued.)