The Shadow Crook

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 586, 12 February 1929, Page 5

The Shadow Crook

By

Aidan de Brune

(Author of * ‘Dr NighV ’ “The j Carson Loan Mystery,” ‘‘The Dagger and the Cord,” etc.) j (CorYaioHi.)

CHAPTER XVII (Continued) “Damn the pillow!” Mason spoke feebly. “What happened? How did I come here?”

‘‘Tell your story to the good little reporter and I will do the ‘continued in our next’ stunt.” Branston’s grin w *s infectious. “All I know is that you left me at the door of my flat to —where all good policemen go—if they ever dine. I went back to brush tny hair and wash a little typing off my fingers. Then I came down in the lift. On the way past this floor I noticed Mintos’s door was wide open and felt curious. Stopped the lift and did a reverse. Came in here. Took a header over your prostrate body. Switched on the lights and tried to find out how much water poured over a ‘‘John’s’* head made for sure and certain death. That’s the eaa of ‘Chapter Two’ of our new and excitmg serial. Chapter one will next be published.’* “Chapter One is almost word for Chapter Two,” Mason spoke wearily against a throbbing head. “I came down in the lift and saw' Mintos’s door open. Came in and thought f heard someone moving round. Tried to catch him and was caught instead ! **

“Someone moving about the rooms!” The journalist echoed the Phrase, meditatively. “That explains d Pex'fectly useful automatic, lying under your hand. Say, Mason, that’s unusual, isn’t it?” “What’s unusual?” “Hunting thieves with an automatic. I thought the police only used firearms as a last resource.” “There’ll be a first and last resource when I come up with the chap who wielded that sandbag.” The inspector spoke vindictively. “If ever * catch him . . .” “Cse a sandbag, old man.” The Srave cones of the journalist’s voice 7, ere belied by the tw’inkle in his eyes. •f you caught up to him and used l he butt of this automatic —I see the safety's off—there might be a vacancy ln the force for a perfectly good inspector.”

“Well, there ain’t—or isn’t, if you Prefer that.” The detective painfully levered himself from the chair. “Lucky I had my hat on. Broke the force of the blow and . . .** ‘lncreased trade for the sellers of hard-hitters,’ guaranteed to fit the heads of members of the New South

Wales Police Department." The newspaper man crossed the floor and lifted a very battered hat from the floor. “You can’t wear that, old man. You'll have the street alarmed. Wait a mo’ and I’ll see if 1 have one that’ll fit you. Yes, you're about my size, and I wear soft hats.”

He left the room, warning the police officer to rest a while. In a few minutes he returned, carrying a dark-col-oured hat. By a leather throng dangled from his finger a blackjack.

“Should have brought this back to D 0., but kept on forgetting it.” He placed the jack on the table beside the automatic and handed the detective the hat. "Dark grey—the ShadowCrook’s favourite colour. Mind you keep your identification card handy. One never nows, y’know.” A short rest and the inspector managed to get out of the flat to the street. There Branston turned to him, inquiringly. "What's the next move, old man. I’ll wait until Mintos comes home and explain the water and the pillow. Perhaps he’ll send you a box of cigars. Reward for defending his property, y’know. All the same, he’ll raise Cain over the door being left open.” “Mintos is at Rose Bay,” Mason smiled grimly. He had a suspicion the “unknown” who had attacked him was “short and stout.” He is said to be suffering from a broken crown. Seems popular among friends of the Shadow Crook. Which way are you going, Branston? Citywards? Well, 1 11 catch a tram at the corner and go home. Thanks for the rescue.”

The inspector turned and walked to the junction of Oxford and Liverpool Streets. Half-way along he paused and turned to watch the tall figure of the journalist striding across Hyde Park. When Branston disappeared over the rise of the ground, Mason turned back to Ray Hill Court. He was not satisfied. Someone had known he was searching Mintos’s flat. The "unknown” had not gone there to rob the flat, but to get him. ■Who could have known? He had not mentioned his intention of going to Ray Hill Court when he sat in the General Post Office, conning the strange telegram. He had spoken to no one In the walk across. Only Anstey and Branston knew of his presence in the building. The telegram had been a lure to entice him to the flat. For what

reason? Had the telegram been sent by Mintos? If so, then the man had not been seriously hurt by the Shadow Crook’s attack. But how had he managed to leave “Avonlea” secretly? Mrs. Etheringham had undertaken to keep the Jew at her home, or in the event of his leaving the house to telephone a warning to Police Headquarters. But he had not been in his office for some time. It was possible that a message lay there from “Avonlea.” There had been ample time for the man to leave Rose Bay and get to the flat. Was there? To have started the telegraphic lure he would have had to leave “Avonlea” before Mrs. Etheringham arrived home. Yet she would have had ample time to telephone to his office before he started on this adventure. He put the problem from him with a shrug of his shoulders. For the time he must devote his attention to the work in hand. In the flat lay the clue to the attack and also to the mystery of the Shadow Crook. He must work fast. In the morning the caretaker would discover the mess and turn his cleaners into the place. They would destroy all evidence of the “unknown’s” visit.

The hall of the building was empty and the lift at one of the upper floors. Mason did not bring it down. He did not want anyone to see him about the place. Tired, and w’ith a throbbing head, he turned to the stairs and climbed w'earily to the fourth floor. At the top step he sat down and rested. He was all in. A minute’s rest and he turned to the door of the flat. It was locked. Now he remembered that when Branston helped him from the flat he had returned to fasten the door. Mason bent and examined the lock. It was a Yale. He felt in his pockets, fruitlessly, He had nothing on him that would open the door. The door was composed of small panels of frosted glass. On the other side of the door there would be a knob to release the lock. For the moment Mason considered smashing one of the small panels of glass, but that would cause noise and possibly bring some neighbour to investigate. He did not want to attract attention. He could go to the basement and bring the caretaker to unlock the door, but that meant explanations and possible obstructions to his plans. He wan f ed to be alone in the flat—to be able to search as he w'illed. Anstey thought well of Mintos. He might raise objections and Mason might have to obtain a warrant for the search. No, he must get into the flat unknown to anyone in the house. His wandering eyes fell on his left hand, supporting him against the frame of the doorway. On the little finger was a single-stone diamond ring. A sudden idea came to the inspector. He would burgle the flat in professional style. Surely a high official of

the police could equal the work of the best “buster” in the Commonwealth. He drew off the ring and mentally outlined the work he had to accomplish. But first he must be certain he could control the glass circle he proposed to cut from the door. A piece of chewing gum would accomplish that, but a search of his pockets failed to reveal any. For some seconds he stood considering the problem. At length, he drew a small circle of the glass close to one of the corners. A sharp tap and the little piece of glass fell, with hardly a sound, into the hall. Again Mason attacked the glass, this time drawing a circle with the diamond large enough to pass his hand through. He felt in his pockets and produced a pencil. Passing this through the small hole he pressed firmly. Some minutes’ careful work and the glass came forward into his hand. Another moment and the

door opened and he stepped into the hall.

He must repair the glass before he went further with his plans. He remembered that on Mintos’s desk he had seen a small box of throat lozenges, simple gums. A short search and he found them. Five, minutes’ work and the circle of glass was again in place. When the gums dried the glass would stand quite a hard knock before giving way. Only the small hole he had first cut in the glass remained and that was hardly noticeable in the gloom of the passage. - Mason closed the hall door and went to the study. It was as he and Branston had left it. On the carpet a big dark stain marked where the newspaper man had poured the water over him. He wriggled inside his limp collar with uncomfortable remembrance.

Damn the man! He seemed to think a police officer was a fish, and could stand any amount of water.

First, he had to discover who his unknown assailant had been. Very carefully Mason passed from room to room, searching for some sign. There was none. Again he came to the study and looked around him.

The big desk in the cprner fascinated him. He crossed the room and looked down on the mass of papers scattered over it. Why should he not examine them? He had the whole night before him. Something told him that here he would find matters of interest, even if they did not help him to solve his immediate problems. A few minutes’ hard work, and Mason became interested. The man, Mintos, was an utter scoundrel. On the desk lay papers that would place him in the dock, faced with a sentence of many years’ hard labour. He was purely criminal—a fraudulent company promoter, a dealer in crooked stocks and shares. Methodically Mason searched through the various piles of documents. Suddenly he paused and ra-read a letter in his hand. A slight whistle escaped his lips. There were others in the fraud —big men of the city and the State. The detective continued his examination, taking from the various stacks of correspondence and documents evidence for the case he proposed to institute against the Jew. For over an hour he worked steadily, the pile of evidence growing in proportion. At length he sat back. Before him lay documents that would expose one of the greatest commercial frauds perpetrated in the Commonwealth.

He had sufficient evidence to go to the Crown Law Department and obtain action against the Jew and his associates. He could go to the magistrate the next morning and ask for a search warrant. He could take away the balance of the papers, and submit them to experts. But would that help him in the work he had more immediately at hand —the tracking down of the Shadow Crook and the recovery of the missing jewels?

The immediate arrest of Abel Mintos would hamper him in the chase of the master criminal. The Shadow Crook had sent the telegram that had brought him to that flat. Now Mason believed he knew the reason behind that telegram. - The Shadow; Crook had sacrificed the Jew to turn the inspector from the trail. He had believed Mason would accept the easier path—that he would immediately take up the case against Abel Mintos, and for the present allow the Shadow Crook to remain unmolested.

But Abel Mintos was intimately connected with the missing jewels and the Shadow Crook. The Jew must have some established knowledge of the secret safe in the Carew Lane shop, or he would never have confidently suggested to Stanley Etheringham the purchase of the jewels. He would never have wasted good money

in purchasing from Mrs.jKynaston the reversion of the sapphires, lost for nearly five long years. Who was Abel Mintos, and what was his connection with the missing jewels? What was his title to the White Trinity? True, he had prosecuted the case against Stacey Carr for the theft of the pearls, but what was his previous connection with the jewels? He had come out of the almost unknown north with the pearls for sale. He had stated he was a pearl dealer, and had purchased the White Trinity while at Broome. With the mass of evidence of a long career of crime before him on the table, Mason believed that the history of Abel Mintos and the White Trinity would bear investigation back to the days when the strange jew'el had been lifted from the enclosing oyster from some sandbank of the Indian 06ean. Again he turned to the desk, now searching the pigeon-holes and drawers of the upper structure. Almost immediately he came on a paper that interested him. It was the receipt for the payment of one thousand pounds for the Kynaston sapphires and dated but a month back. At last he completed the search of the desk, and pulling out one of the slides placed on it the documents he intended to take w'ith him when he left the flat. Yet something chained him to his seat before the desk. He was not satisfied. There was something more to find. But he had searched the desk! Again he turned to the shallow' drawers in the upper structure of the desk, pulling each one completely out of its place. One of them caught his attention. It was considerably shorter than its fellows. He tried to force his hand into the ; aperture, but could not. He flashed

the light of the desk-lamp into the space. There was a small white package at the back of the aperture. Again Mason tried to reach it with his fingers, but could not. He found a paperknife on the desk and pried out the packet. It was small, about three inches long and two inches wide, by a little more than an inch deep, wrapped in white paper and fastened with thin string. He snapped the string and unrolled the paper. He held in his hand a small jeweller’s case. With high beating heart he pressed the catch and the lid flew back. From a bed of purple velvet flashed up to his eyes the white iridescence of the White Trinity. The White Trinity! Mason sat back in his chair and stared at the jewel, glowing warmly under the strong light of the table lamp. He had found the White Trinity! He had found it in the possession of Mintos. He closed the case and pushed it to one side, searching eagerly for the sapphires. If Abel Mintos held the White Trinity then it was more than probable he held the other jewels. Where had he hidden them? Ten minutes later the inspector sat back, baffled and angry. The desk contained neither the sapphires nor clue to their hiding place. Angrily he commenced to restore the desk to order. The task accomplished, he again drew* the jeweller’s case toward him and opened it. Not content, he lifted the pearls from their velvet bed and held them close to the light. Something about their pure white sheen puzzled him. Norma Etheringham had spoken of the pearls that morning. She had stated the White Trinity was almost

valueless. The pearls diseased; her father had claimed they w'ere incurable. Again the detective held the pearls to the light. These jewels were not diseased. Pure and limpid they reflected back pure rays of light. There were no signs of disease on them. Then . . . Mason laughed softly to himself. Mintos had had a replica of the famous jewel made. This replica he had found in the desk. It w’as a beautiful piece of work, but it was imitation. A slight sound from the hall caused the detective to swing round to face the half-open door. A few seconds he sat, listening intently. Someone had entered the flat. Was it his unknown assailant —or, better "still, the Shadow' Crook? Moving with caution, Mason crept tow'ard the door of the little bedroom and paused. Again he listened. He had not been mistaken. He could hear the creak of soft foosteps on the polished boards. He went into the bedroom, closing the door until only a small crack remained for him to peer out of. This time he w'ould come upon the unknown unawares. (To be Continued)