THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 93, 15 May 1909, Page 4

THE STORYTELLER.

THE TIGER'S EYE. I HOW SEXTOX BLAKE SOLVED THE • GREAT SCARFPIN CASE. I. It has already been recorded how tne British Minister at Tangier, having Instil - robbed of W«. official code-book, wired vjfor Sexton Wake, who was then nt % Oibraltar, and how the detective, in less than twelve hours, found the book and raitorad it to its' delighted owner. It was Ute on Saturday night when Seiton Blake achieved this notable triumph, And as the next boat to Gibraltar .did not leave until Monday morning, hej accepted the Minister's pressing invito-1 turn to remain at the Legation as hisi guest. And it was while he. was staying as the guest of the Minister and his wife that the following interesting and pceuliar case was brought to his notice. There were several other guests staying at tbu Legation, and amongst thorn ■was a wealthy young American widow named Mrs. Cavendish, who was on her way back to the States after a prolonged tour in the East. She was an extremely pretty and charming woman, but her face wore an ever-present air of profound melancholy, eloquent of some great sorrow that had robbed her ; life of all its sunshine.

f'. ; After attending service at the Engir tish church on Sunday morningt the | '4; Legation guests went for a stroll preff'';'. vious to lunch. Absorbed in their talk,] jj ,: ' '■ Sexton Blake and Mrs. Cavendish un- ?', wittingly became separated from the £-' seat, and were sauntering, quit e alone. (V along a secluded bypath leading off the S\ Gteat Fez Road, when they were ac- %. i coated by a dirtvj ill-clad Moor, who, j with on, ingratiating smile, asked the >;-: detective if he would like to buy "a vsr* ,? good curio." --, It should here be explained that there ■■*'!'. ate three "Sundays" in Tangier—the * Mohammedan ''Sunday," on Friday; the f""■'•. Jewish "Sunday." on Saturday; and the ;', Christian Sunday. The Mohammedans, f of course, keep no Sunday but their '?',' own, and no surprise need be felt, thereK fore, at'this dirty, ill-clad Moor en'~v'-" deavoriug to do a stroke of "business on i\- the "Infidels'" Sunday.

V'-' "Would your excellency like to buy a ;**; ver' good Moorish curio?" asked the %'■• man. "I sell him ver' cheap." & , Sexton Blake was about to reply in

> the negative, when his eye fell on Uie * "ver" good Moorish-curio," which thel i- man was holding out for his inspection. To Kis amused surprise, he ptrceived f- that it was a quite modern and very, smart-looking' ecarfpin, consisting of a short gold pin surmounted by an ex,quiaitely cut and polished stone of the kind which is technically described as a

\ variety of crocidolite, but which :sj 51 fopularly known-Mm account of its < brown color—as "tiger's eye." V "There's not much of the'curio'about I thrg, my man!" he said, taking it from] the outstretched hand, and holdImt it up to the light. "And not much 'Moorish,' either! Where did you "■ Tho sentence was never completed, for at that moment Mrs. Cavendish • caught sijjht of the pin, and, to Sexton t Blake's bewildered stupefaction, she * uttered & wiH and incoherent cry, and *"■ . snatched It rtrt of his hand.

> "This pin"—she gasped, quivering •"' from head to foot with emotion and

excitement—"this pin "

f Then emotion overcame her, and she | '-'' stumbled forward, and fell fainting into ? * the detcctive'svrms, whilst, at the samel t_ instant, with a look of guilty terror on ;*' bis face, the Moor spun round and took h to his heels. i, "Com« back!" roared Sexton Blast, who, with Mrs. Cavendish hanging limpj,. ly in his arms, was unable to give chase. \ "Some back, you scoundrel!" i_ But the Moor only quickened his pace, ' and by the time th« detective had car- ; ried Mrs. Cavendish to the side of the

' path, and had laid her gently down on i' the grassy teink, the Moor had vanished ~ into a neighboring thicket.

It Mrs. Cavendish's faint was not of f. long duration, but was succeeded by a prolonged fit of almost hysterical sob- !* bin", and many minutes elapsed before 1 Se«on Blake could persuade her to *alm herself and tell him the cause of ' l ;> her agitation. ?, "Why were you so excited when you y saw this pin?" he asked. •?, "Because," she said, "the moment 11 tf saw if: il recognised it as a pin that

formerly belonged to iny. husband.

' a matter of fact, I gave it to him for a if birthday present before we were niar- *( ried, and ne was wearing it on the day j. that he so mysteriously disappeared.' f "Mysteriously disappeared?"

"iVs," said Mrs 1 . Cavendish. "You have heard the story of my brief married life, haven't you!'' The detective shook his head. /He had

r only met Mrs. Cavendish the previous f evening, and knew nothing of her his- '" tory. beyond, the fact that somebody

V ■ ]ud' told him she was a widow and in r* old school-friend of the Minister's wife, Jl who was also an American. «* "My husband, who was only two if,' .Team older than myself," said Mrs. 1 Cavendish, "had inherited a fortune of / over half a million from his father, so he had no financial troubles. If I tell *i you that be was as much" in love with ,' me ?s I was with him,' it is only that V you may Understand that he had 10 domestic worries. j "Alter our marriage, which took place five years ago this month, we went to f " Kv(s on a small estate which my husband * f had b»ught in Massachusetts. When we li'ad been living there about three, months, my husband went out one even-1

ing, saying he was going down to the village to post a letter, and from that day to this I have never seen or heard k of Mm," .; "Extraordinary!" said Sexton Blake. j "You communicated with the police, -jf course!" "Everything that money and brains ji could do to solve the mystery of my ' husband's disappearance was done," she said. "Two of the cleverest detectives' in the States were employed on the l ' case for nearly a year, but, as I've already told you, from the moment my husband left the house to go down to the village, no trace of him has ever been discovered. * "And now," she concluded, beginning to cry again, "five years after his disappearance, and five thousand miles from the placo where he disappeared, ! find this scarfpin—the pin J gave him - the pin he was wearjng when he left the bouse, in the possession of a Moor! What does it mean, Mr. Blake?" Again the detective s!»ook bin head. "f cannot even guess," he said. "If i

could have captured the Moor, and forced him to tell me where he got the pin, we might have obtained some light on the problem. But the Moor has disappeared, and with him, T fear, has All- , appeared onr only hope." "But you Will find the man and question him, won't you!" pleaded Mrs. Varendish. ; '■ • "I will do my best," said Sexton Blake. "But now tliat the man has slipped through our fingers, I am hound to confc* that my own. opinion is we shall never see him again." For once, however. Sexton Blake was wronir. When they returned to the Legation and told their story, one of thp Minister's secretaries the Hon. Pereival Fitzgerald—exclaimed: "I know the man! He tried to sell' me th 6 same pin four days ago! His flame is Bra Abdullah, and he was formerly a waiter or something of that kind at the Grand Hotel, Gibraltar. He lives on the Kasbah. and if you want ia question him I'll take you to his house after lunch with all the pleasure in the world." "Not after lunch, hut now!" svid Sex ton Blake, picking up his hat. "Coma along!"

Ben Abdullah was cooking his midday kousskoussoo when Sexton Blake and the Honorable Percr walked into hi« dirtv and dilnly-lighted hovel. , "Don't 'be alarmed." said the detective, in Arabic. "You have nothiag to fear if you only act like a sensible man. 1 1 have only come to ask you where and when and liow you obtained possession :" of this scarfpin." ~ . "I fooad it in the Sok two days ago." r said Ren Abdullah sullenly. '•That's' a lie," said the. Honorable Percy quietly. "You offered it to ir.e four days ago!" V "I should have «»id that I found it ■! five days ago." said Ben Abdullah. And J.. in suite of all bis visitors could say ho "'/. would only repeat. "I found it in the §' ' fiofc five days ago." &.",'• ''"Very well," said the Honorable iff. Percy, 'We have tried to deal fairly |*iv with Ton. but. since you will not tell us pi. the tVutb, we mu«t take you to the Ei& /Bulf.'' " : W[d ' Ft is impossible for an Englishman to the terrible meaning of MT'HiW words.. But Ben Abdullah under-1 KPtStood! Hejigew that if he was' hauled: theVipPsha by one of the secrrthe British 'Legation, he would' HjJßLjfitbjWted, to (as most fiendish and

i mali"naul tortures until lie confessed ■the truth. -I will U-ll you everything!" he cried. "Then be quick about it!" said thu Honorable Percy curtly. -I stole the pin," said Ben Abdullah. -When;" "Six mouths ago." •■Where r"

"At the Grand Hotel, Gibraltar. As your Excellency knows, I was a waiter ■there at that time. I stole the pin, and some rings and other things', from one of the bedrooms. I was suspected of the theft, 'but nothing could be proved against me. 1 was dismissed, and came to Tangier, and I swear that that is the truth."

"The pin and the rings and other things belonged to some visitor who was staying at the hotel, I suppose!" "Yes, Excellency." '•Do you know the visitor's name?" '•No,* Excellency. I think he was a priest, what.you call in English a clergyman. H e and his wife were staying at the hotel, but I do not know their names."

After questioning, the Moor at considerable length, but without eliciting any more information, the detective and the secretary returned to the Legation.

"As von know." said Sexton Blake to iMrs. Cavendish. "I am returning to Gibraltar to-morrow. I will interview I the proprietor of the Grand Hotel, and II will let you know if " "There "will be no need for you to let me know," interrupted Mrs. Cavendish. ■'l shall come with you." Nothing that the detective or the Minister could say could alter her decision, and. accordingly, she and Sexton (Blake left Tangier next morning, crossed the Straits, and reached Gibraltar in the afternoon. From the Waterport they drove to the Grand Hotel, where the manager listened to their story with the deepest interest and attention.

"I remember the theft quite well," he 6aid. "We always suspected Ben Abdullah, but, as th e rascal says, we could neve r bring it home to him. I remeii-' her the pin, too. now you show it to me. It belonged to the clergyman's' wife, I believe. At any rate, it was she who always wore it." 'What was the name of the clergyman and his wife?" asked Sexton Blak?. "I forget, but I can soon find out." replied th e manager. "They were a ncwiymarried couple, 1 believe, and had. been spending their honeymoon in the south oi Spain. They left here for Engla-Jd two days after "the robbery." He sent for the hotel register, and turned over several pages in silence. Then an exclamation rose to his lips. "Here they are!" he said, quoting from the entry in th e register. "'Uct. C. Knight and wife, the Vicarage, iMicklethorpe, Surrey, England." The detective turned to Mrs. Cavenids'h.

"This doesn't help us much, does it?" he said. "Are you quite sure this is .tfic pin your husband was wearing at the time of his disappearance?" "Absolutely certain!" she replied. "The tiger's* eye was found in South Africa by my father, and the pin was made to iny order by a jeweller in Xew York. I doubt if tlierc is such another pin in the world. At any rate, I could swear to this out of ten thous'and; but how it passed out of my husband's possession, and came into that of an English clergyman's wife, I confess I can't imagine." "Xor I." said Sexton Blake. "We will leave here to-morrow by P. and 0. and go to Alicklethorpe and interview Mrs. Knight."

. Leaving Gibraltar on Tuesday, the detective and Mrs. Cavendish teachvd London on Saturday morning, and Micklethorpc about half-past two on Saturday afternoon.

"Before 1 explain why we have come to see you," s'aid Sexton Blake to Mrs. Knight! who received them in the draw-ing-room at the vicarage, "do you recognise this?"

"Yes," said Sirs. Knight, when lie showed her the tiger's eye pin. "It is mine! It wa« stolen from me on my honeymoon, at the Grand Hotel, Gibraltar, about six months ago." "Would you mind telling us how Hie pin came into vour possession?" asked Blake.

"It was given to me, several years' ago. bv a patient at the cottage hospital,"' said Mrs. Knight, "But why do you ask? Is there any mystery connected with the pin?" By way of reply, Mrs. Cavendish told her the story of her husband's disappearance. Long before she had finished, Mrs. Knight was trembling with excitement, and her eyes were glistening with happy tears. "Wonderful wonderful!" s'he exclaimed. "Surely it must bay,, been the hand of Providence that directed vou here!"

Nhe rang the hell, and a housemaid appeared. "Tell John I wish to see him, please! 71 said Mrs. Knight.

The housemaid retired, . and .Mrs. Knight turned to Mrs. Cavendish. ''About fou r years and a-half ago," she said. "I wan nurse hi charge of the cottage hospital here. On ( , day a man was brought in whom the constable had found lying in the roadway in a semi unconscious' state. He was suffering from pneumonia, due to cold and starvation, and for several weeks his life hung in the balance. Eventually, however, ho recovered, and when he left the nns " pital he gave me that pin the only article of value he possessed—as a token of gratitude. : '"» •'«* "At that time I was already engaged to lie married to my present husband, jwho was then, as he is now, the yiear [of this parish. Being interested in'my patient, and in his strange, sad story, I persuaded the vicar to find him employment. To make a long story short, the vicar took him into his service as under-gardener, ami he is under-par-dener here at the present time. 'T have spoken of the man's strange, sad story," she continued, "and a strange, sad story it was! When he recovered from his illness' lie told me. that he did not know who -he was or where he came from. About a week before he was admitted to the hospital, he saiil, be bad awakened, as it were, from a trance, and had 'found himself in a strange country amougst a strange people. How he had got there, where he had lived before, who he was, even •his own name, he had absolutely forgotten. All his past life was a blank. For a week he had wandered aimlessly about the country, trying to remember who he was and where he came from. Then, as 1 have already told you, he s'iKTUnibed to cold ami starvation, and was brought to the hospital. "We christened him John .Smith," she concluded; "but after hearing your storv. Mrs. Cavendish, T have not the slightest doubt that " There was a knock at the drawingroom door. .

"Come in!" cried Mrs. Knight, her eyes sparkling with expectancy. The door slowly opened, and the under-gardener came in a handsome young fellow, whose good looks, however, were marred bv the dull and vacant expression of his face. "The housemaid snys you wish " he began, when Mrs. Cavendish, with a half-delirious cry of rapture, sprang to he- feet, and rushed towards him. ••Arthur"—site cried—"Arthur! Don't you know nicy"

l'"or a moment, lint only for n moment, t.lio umler-gardencr jrafc'cf It her in blank bewilderment. Then a sudden lijrlit leaped inio his eve*, tiie vacant ionk died out (ii his face, and his whol,, appearance underwent a startling transformation. "Ktbcl. Hiv wife!" ],e cried: mid again. "Ethel, mv wife!" A moment later, husband and wife were sobbing in each other's arms, and Sexton Blake and .Mrs. Knight were quietly stealing from the men:. An-