The Mystery of Ryeburn Manor

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 923, 17 March 1930, Page 5

The Mystery of Ryeburn Manor

By

JOHN LAURENCE

Author of “The Sign of the Double Cross Inn,” etc.

CHAPTER XLVI (Continued) j At last Sheila looked up as slie wiped away her tears. “I am ready, Mr. Vidler.” She rose, a little unsteadily, and set her lips as she led the way out of doors. Thornton's death in this way had been a great shock to her. She walked slowly, feeling utterly wretched, along one of the pathways through the rhododendron bushes, which were now a mass of luxuriant mauve-coloured bloom. “There’s a seat along here,” she j explained. “We can talk there with-! out being seen from the house.” “We don't want to be interrupted,” I agreed Vidler. It was some minutes after they had ! sat down before Sheila spoke. The j inspector did not press her. Patience j was a virtue, the value of which he i had found many times in his career. “What do you want me to tell you, Mr. Vidler? Where do you want me ■ to start?” sliq asked, at last. “I think you had better start at the j peginning, when you and Mr. Thornton first became engaged,” Vidler advised Sheila. “That was about three months ago. I broke the engagement only at the j beginning of this week.” | She stared ahead of her as she j spoke in an almost toneless voice of | despair. i “Come, now. you must’t blame yourj self for his death,” said Vidler. lay- | ing a hand on her shoulder. 1 “But I do,” she answered. If I had j told you everything before, if I had made him come and tell you everyj thing, perhaps this might not have happened.” i “Life is made up of ifs,” said the ; inspector. “Things always seem so I hard to alter at the time, so easy to alter afterward if we had thought differently. But we think the way we are made. You got engaged secretly to Thornton three months ago?” | “Yes. We were afraid of Mr. Lee. He wouldn’t have kept us, I know. Mr.

Thornton was all the time looking round for another post, but they are not easy to get.” “Why should Lee have sacked you both?” “I had a feeling he would. He was jealous of Thornton, I think. He always looked annoyed if he saw us together and he told Mr. Thornton once that he wouldn’t have any clandestine love-making in his household. You’ve only seen one side of Mr. Lee, Mr. Vidler. He is implacable. It was impossible to make him alter anj'thing he had set his mind on. He used to call me ‘My dear,' and look at me in a way sometimes which made me quite frightened. I feel sometimes ! that if he asked me to do something j I didn’t want he’d make me, even against my will. He makes me feel ! helpless.” "Let. him try, that’s all.” growled j Harding. “He’ll wish he hadn’t.” “He hasn’t tried,” declared Sheila.! ‘ But the way he looks at me—” She shivered and then smiled! faintl3 r as she turned and looked at the j i inspector. “But you don’t want to hear aboutj my fancies,” she said. “I just dislike j Mr. Lee, that is all.” “I want you to tell me your fancies, | Miss Sunderland,” said the inspector ; seriously. “If I hadn’t fancies IJ shouldn’t solve quite a lot of my diffi- j culties. Why did you quarrel with Mr. ! Thornton?” “That is the whole story, really,” j i Sheila answered in a low tone. “Oh, | I dear, it’s difficult to tell you now Mr. j j Thornton is dead. I —hope you won’t i | think too badly of him. It was only j ! because he wanted to make money so ; much and—and he tried to make restitution.” “It was Thornton who stole the oearls in the first place?” asked Vidler. “Yes. He had to take them three or four times to have that wretched clasp mended,” explained Sheila. “Mrs. Lee wouldn't have a new one altogether because she had taken a fancy to it. Then one night, about three weeks ago, Mr. Thornton showed me the necklace, when I knew Mrs. Lee j was supposed to be wearing it. She had gone to the theatre that night. ■ w “ T had an imitation made and put iit in the safe,’ he told me. ‘She’s not • found it out, nor will Lee. That’s the

second time she's worn it, so I know j she’ll not find it out now.’ “I was horrified. It seemed to me j nothing less than stealing, and I am j afraid I was very angry about it. I asked him how he had managed to ; exchange them. He told me he had had a duplicate key of the safe made, and had accidentally found out the combination of the safe one day when Lee opened it in front of him.” “He knew exactly where the safe was, then?” said Vidler. “It was not easy to discover unless you knew.” “Oh, yes, and he showed it to me that night. I tried to make him put the necklace back straight away, but he said he couldn’t because Lee would at once know that an imitation had been made.” “What did he want with the pearls?” asked the inspector. “Mr. Lee had given him a tip about some shares,” explained Sheila.. “He often did, and Mr. Thornton used to make small amounts occasionally, though nothing very substantial, because he had not got very much to invest. He told me that he was borrowing the necklace as security for the | loan of £5,000, so that lie could take j i advantage of Mr. Lee’s information j | and make sufficient money to resign, | j and —and marry me.” ] “And what did you do then?” “He was still very fond of me,” con- i t tinned Sheila, “and I was able to per- ! suade him to let me have the dupli- j 1 cate key he had had made and the ; ■ real pearls. -I thought I should have i ■ more opportunity to replace .them and j get hold of the imitation ones than he ! “Then it was one of the real pearls ! you dropped in my flat that night!” I exclaimed Harding, in tones of aston- ] ishment. “A jeweller in Rye told j me it was worth £IOO, but I never j connected it with Mrs. Lee’s necklace, j At the time no one believed it bad ■ been stolen.” “Do you mean to say that you picked i up a pearl Miss Sunderland dropped | in your fiat, and found it was worth ! £100,” demanded Vidler, “and never j told me?” j Ho spoke sharply, almost angrily, | and Harding went red in the face. I “I —I didn’t see what it had to do | with the murder of Simmonds,” proi tested Harding, a little lamely. “Miss Sunderland admftted she had dropped j it, but she said the necklace was a family heirloom.” | Vidler shrugged his shoulders. “If ’ i you had given me that pearl when .! you found it,” he said quickly, “we • ■ shouldn't be here, and the Ditchling . Road mj’stery might have been solved

sooner, and Thornton might be still alive.” A look of distress appeared on Sheila’s face, and she laid a hand on her lover’s arm as he opened his • mouth to make an angry protest. “It is all my fault, really, Mr. Vid- ! ler,” she said in strained tones. “You must not blame Mr. Harding.” "I’m sorry,” apologised the inspector. “I promise you I won’t criticise j again till I have heard all your story. : You got the key and the necklace from : Mr. Thornton, and wrote down the j name of the combination of the safe on a scrap of paper?” Her voice was very low as she continued, and her eyes were fixed on the pathway in front of her. She . fumbled nervously with her handkerchief, as she told her story. “Yes. One of the things which terrified me was when I found out afterward that I had dropped that piece : of paper. I was afraid my handwriting would be recognised.” “It was,” said Vidler drily. There came back to Harding’s mind the episode in the library, when Lee j had knocked over the inkpot and prac- j tically obliterated the word Sheila . had written, but he made no comment. | “It seemed to me a golden oppori tunity to return the pea f ls when Mr. j and Mrs. Lee came here, and Mr. | Thornton and I were, left in London, j I told him what I was going to do. I | wanted him to come with me, but he ] said Simmonds would talk if we both ! appeared together. He said he might j come along later, as though bv acc:I dent.” “Why didn’t he return the pearls j himself?” asked Harding. “It was a | man’s job. He took them in the first ; place, and he ought not to have lot | you run the risk of being found out. | Sheila flushed. “I —I didn’t trust j him,” she stammered. “As a matter of fact, he offered to do so, but he seemed so eager about it that I tvas suspicious. He kept on talking about the chance he had missed of making money. I felt sure that if he had had the pearls again he would keep | them.” j “Did you let yourself into the ; house?” “Yes. I had a key. and I though’ j it was likely that Simmonds would 1 be downstairs in the servants’ quarters. There was no light to be seen. I stood in the hall for a minute, and I listened, and, hearing nothing, I went ! to the room where the safe was. I I switched on the light and ran fov- ! ward, not thinking there was anything , wrong, and then —and then —” i “You saw Simmonds lying on the j hearthrug?” said Vidler gently. Sheila nodded. “I—l was terrified. I think I must j havje lost my head. I don’t remember 1 anything till I found myself in the

darkness, standing in the hall. And then—” She buried her face in her hands, and shuddered at the recollection. “You heard the burglar alarm?” suggested Vidler. “Oh, you can’t imagine how loud it sounded,” she exclaimed. “But it was not that I hear! first. It was somebody moving—footsteps. I was para lysed with fright. It was the burglar alarm going off which made me run upstairs. I was afraid to go back because of the footsteps, afraid afterward because I looked. out of ihe window and saw a policeman in the street.” CHAPTER XLVII. Sheila continued her explanation to Vidler. “I knew there was a way out on the roof,” she said. “It was a wav of escape in case of fire. Mr. Lee bad shown it to me.” “We can spare you the next fev. minutes,” said Vidler. “You climbed on the roof, into the next house, and Harding found you. You went down into his fiat and took the opj>ortunity to go when he went upstairs with the policeman. I suppose the clasp of the pearls broke?” Sheila nodded. She expressed no astonishment at the detective’s knowledge of her movements, for she knew that her footprints in the dust of the loft had betrayed her. “I was half out of my mind wi’h fright,” she continued. ‘When Mr. Harding had gone downstairs to speak to the policeman, I took the pearls out to look at them. I had some mad idea of hiding them in Mr. Harding - fiat in case I was found by the police, and then the clasp broke. l though 1 I’d picked them all up. I strung them temporarily. You take them and keep them now, Mr. Vidler. They’ve been a nightmare to me.' Vidler nodded, and took the pearls which she had produced from her handbag. “Thornton told me that he was go ng to take the pearls,” went on Sheila. "That was the real cause of our quarrelling in the summerhouse. I forced I the truth out of him when he was | angry. And lam sure, if he had killed Mr. Simmonds, I should have ! guessed it. But he w*as stunned by ; the news. He told me that he knew l who killed Simmonds, but he would I not say anything. He said if I would not let him have the pearls he could get the money he wanted in another way.” "Blackmail.’ murmured Vidler. half to himself. Aloud he added: “I think \ you w ould have been much wiser to have told me your story in the first place. Miss Sunderland, instead of trying to replace those pearls both her and in London.” (To be continued tomorrow.)