MYSTERY OF THE EMPTY NUTSHELLS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 210, 9 October 1909, Page 4

MYSTERY OF THE EMPTY NUTSHELLS.

SEXTON. BLAKE. DISCOVERS. THE • 'KERNEL 01? A STARTLING CASE. "I'm glad I didn't go out of town, after all," thought Blake, looking 'or the tenth time at the telegram which had been handed to him half an hour ago. He was no stranger to startling telegrams—some almost grotesque in their terror, other* utterly iiicphereiil; utlrrs, again, warped from all lmauing Uv tln-ir cumbersome diction ot mystery. lint the (Hie in his hand hail anvsted >»■> attention and tickled his curiosity from the moment lie had mastered its contents. It was explicit, though it was 'brimming over with mystery. "Be in at seven," it read, "lie leaning out of your window. Leave your front door and study door open. 1 will shut both as I come up; but if 1 get through the gauntlet at all it. will l.e a matter of seconds. Don't budge from your window. If they suspect you, you will be useless, and nothing can save me."—James llolroyd (Captain, til Lancers, Knightsbriiige.) It was now live minutes to seven, and the front door and study door of Blake's rooms in Chelsea had been off the latch

for the last ten minutes, and the detective himself had been lolling at th-j open window, in full view of anyone passing •in the square, had anyone passed. But no one had passed. The .square was steeped in that extraordinary silence which belongs peculiarly to London o<i a Saturday evening iu late June. It had been a torrid day. The foliage on the trees in the square hung motionless about the grimy, black branches. The grey outline of the sweltering streets seemed to pant against the palpitating haze of heat. The sun was declining through a fan-like shroud «t

lowering purple clouds, here and there hemmed with a fiery laccwork of vivid gold, here and there splashed with an I i angry, hot crimson. I Seven o'clock boomed, and the figure of a tall, athletic-looking man, with a J morning-coat tightly buttoned about a slim waist, with a soft felt hat hard [ pulled about his ears, darted into the / square. "For heaven's sake, don't move!" he | gasped, n6 he reached Blake's door. "Go . lon looking out. Watch!" j Blake obeyed. Looking below, he' aiv ' I that three men had met almost beneath ' his windows; and a cursory glance led i lilin to believe that they were from I India, from the Punjab. They did not. appear to be blown. They were talking quietly, with an occasional gesture —very slight, but definite enough for Blake—towards t'ns. block of houses in which his own was'! situated. They linked arms presently, I and walked slowly down the blocK, | scrutinising each doorway. They paused ' a few moments at Blake's, and one of ■' them pointed swiftly to two li'ttie.'' spirals of dust that la'y on the top step, in the place where Captain James llolroyd had leapt. Blake's lips drew into a thin line, and ; , his eyes gleamed. He remembered quite j distinctly seeing the dust fly as his visi-1 tor had jumped the steps; but that Others should have deduced their quarry from those little spirals gave his nerves 1 a turn-up to lighting tension. He watched th.' nun intently, and could sec they looked puzzled and only half d'- 1 cided. But, after a moment they walked ■' on to the corner, scrutinising the x other | houses. Then they turned, and, looking i' up, saw Blake, gazing apparently at the beauty of the western sky. : For a good quarter of an hour they stayed there. Then one drifted back to the opposite corner of the block, and - disappeared. One lounged across into ' the little square of garden, and took a seat on a bench commanding a view of, 1 Blake's window; and the third drifted round the corner where lie had been 1 standing. | Blake stood up, knocked the ashes I i from his pipe, flung a light curtain I! across the window, and turned to con- / front his guest. 1 He found him seated in a chair in a , far corner of the room, placidly smoking' ] a cigar. |! "They all three turned up, I suppose>" said -the visitor. "And spotted your arrival here," said I' Blake drily, "by the dust you left when you jumped on to my doorstep," ] A curious grey pallor showed through ' the bronze on the captain's face, and his I: lips twitched. j,

"Then I'm a dead man!" lie said, in *• dull tone of despair. "Xofc if I can help it" said Blake quietly. "Suppose you give me the dotails?" "I will," said the captain, stiffening visibly under the intluence of Blake's words. "The thing is all a mystery to me. It bogan five daye ago—my knowledge of it. I was down at my uncle s, at Hazeldene, in Sussex. We were at breakfast, when the mail-bag brought this box." He placed a small cedar-wood box before the detective, who opened it. and stared blankly at its contents. These consisted of thirteen nutshell*, from which the tops had been removed, ami which were threaded together on a loop of silver wire. "Xo writing with them?" asked dak*. "Xot a word," said the captain. ''Hut that they had a message of their own was evident enough from their effect upon my poor uncle. lie had no sooner set eyes on them than he got up with a suffocated cry, clutched at his throat, and fell back in his chair, gasping, tireat heavens! The brothers of Jahore] 5 They were his last words. Jle was a big, full-blooded man, and the shock, whatever be its explanation, simply killed him. Apoplexy, the doctor called it. "I must tell you/' went on the captain, after draining the tumbler uf whisky-and-eoda Blake had pushed towards him, "that my Uncle Jasper and I are the last of our race. We were close chums, and, as far as I know, lie lvad no secret from me. After the funeral—which was three days ago—l returned to Hazeldene to hear the reading of a will by which Uncle Jasper left me all he had.' You may be sure that with that cry, 'The brothers of Jahore/ ringing in my eare, I went carefully through my uncle's papers. There was nothing to throw light on the matter. The only thing I found out of the ordinary, and which seemed as if it might have some kind of relation to the contents of that cedar box, was this." He passed over a curiously-worked, heavy little casket. It was made of Vide, and stamped all over, in the ordinary Indian hammer-work, with basreliefs of Buddha. Blake opened it. The inside was lined with saffron-colored satin. It was empty, hut in the sillc cushion, half-way down the box, was distinctly visible the impress a« of a necklet of thirteen stones, each the size of an ordinary hazel-nut. Blake examined the box minutelv, took careful .measurements of it, 'scrutinised it through a powerful lens; then, with a face devoid of any suggestion of the • xcitemcnt that wn« thrilling him, asked calmly:

"And afterwards?" j "The business commenced," said the iaptain grimly. "After dinner I was on j ;he terrace at Hazeldene. It was about line. I felt someone at my elbow. I turned, and saw a chap garbed as a | [brahmin priest. 'I have called for the ' jade casket, sahib/ he said, a« cool as ' rou please. Then you won't get it!' t r-eplied. 'The brothers of Jahore always ?ct what is theirs,' he replied. 'lf it : s | not delivered here by eleven o'clock on ] Saturday evening—you see. we give yo.i I three days, sahfb—'you will be dead at 1 midnight! 5 jfe had hardly finished be-1 fore I had grabbed him. 'lf you're a ( brother Jahore/ I said to him, 'you are j just the man I want to talk with!' But | he was too slippery for me. Before I'd got the words out of my mouth he hail, slipped out of his garment and was gone, j Here if, his wretched linen robe, if that = can tell you anything!" 1 Blake examined the roll the captain j flung open before him. and an exulta it smile hovered about his lipa, | "Finish the yarn," he said. j "Next morning I got a counterpart of the cedar box with the thirteen nutshells in it," said the captain. "Here it is, and I've left in the lid the paper that was in it." "Put the jade box on the terrace at eleven on Saturday, and all will he well," Blake read. "Fail, and nothing shall save you from the doom of the brothers of Jahore."

"I came to town." continued the captain, "but those beggars have stuck to me like teeches. T don't pretend to know how they've worked it. hut their confounded menaces, always in the same print, have reached me at mess, in my club, fn my flat. T come across them under my pillow, in my hoots, on my plate; and" the servants swear thny know nothing of it. I can't sot foot out of doors without picking up the threfe yellow-skinned brutes within three minutes. They mean to have thai box or my skin. And T mean 'em to have neither. That's -why I'vo come to you. "What do you make'of it?" For anßwer, Blake took the jade bo.? in hia hands and beckoned the captain to his side. 'ln examining the satin lining through 'thin tens," be said, "you will see ut tUo

groove, where ®o gloss of the satin ha sales of the box a narrow, circul i been worn to a dull polish. Now ol serve!" He placed a thumb and little fing» on the extreme imprints in the satii cushion, mill, with the index linger o the other hand placed on the centrn impression, gently pushed. The side ■> tile cushion nearest tlieni sunk in. Tin side towards the top rose, coming fur ward ui the circular groove lie had point ed out. Xexl moment til• cushion was reversed, and Ihe captain was giuim «u a necklet of thirteen diamonds. eac 1 ! the size of a hazel nut, thai glow-.'d ant llaslieil and glittered against a cviinsoi background. "If you shut, the box," saV, Blake caiuuy, "the cushion reverses again automatically. It is the diamonds this little ging is after!" '"(jivat Scott!' gapped the captain. "But they're worth a lortimc, Blake! Uow on earth did you spot it?" "The groove in" tin- saiin," smiled Blake, "coupled with a lit-!e kuuwlcdv m" Indian workinansilip and a fainy exnaustive knowledge ol ..lutn.v treasure, Yes, the stones are worth a fortune. As it stun-ls. the necklet is un.i|iie, and should he ,vm- h anything from a hundred thou ..urn p..uads ui° wards." The captain heaved a long sigh. "it is a big temptation;' he said. "]V.i„ if these things really belong to tht'be dahore people " "Jalitire fid<ltesticks!" said Blak:- with a dry chuckle. "Your title is as' good as anybody's, my dear fellow. Tippo Sahib was the last owner of this neci;Ict. It was entrusted by him to the care of four brothers, priests of a little temple at Jahore, and the active engineers of some of the ghastliest atrocities of the -Mutiny. Tiiive of them were passed under anus b v Havelock. The

fourth escaped, and H is within mv knowledge that he died two years a«j at Dartmoor, whither he was si-'nt fo»' burglary at your uncle's house, in the course of which he stabbed'a butler I may say at once that your uncle con- i suited me in the matter; but he was so extraordinarily r eticent that I threw up the case, and he was probably unaware that the last of the brothers of the Ja(r.e, passed in his checks." 1 ''Then who the dickens are these fel-' lows after me?" asked the captain. ' "That remains to be seen." said Blake. But 1 do not think we shall have much trouble in identifying them. One at least of them must have been in the araon hospital with the Jahore brother ivho died, and. become the repository oi n I ' cst ' s «»»}' to imagin". that Imcn garb you showed me was lever made for Indian wear. It wis irobably bought at Whiteley's. The.-e mlar boxes are Hrummagem war;. Llioso printed characters are as English is they can be. Now, if you will be 1 ;ood enough to get into m v dressingSown, and lend me your clothes I will lorrow your personality for an hour or wo, and see the thing through. Meanvhile, 011 no consideration whatever' liust you budge from this room an.l -hat ehaiy. You had better stick that lecklace m your pocket. I shall want he jade box." J.he disguised detective crept out with lie air of a man in mortal fear of bein" il'-iiwd, iind, after ;i stealthy scrutiny iround, made a bolt for the'corner oil us l ight, lie was carrying the jade box imler his left arm. ft was stoutlv corl'd with twine, the ends of which.wm« lassed through a couple of holes in ins roi 't and tightly attached round his )ody. This detail was, naturally, not ipparent, and the box looked the easiest ,hing in the world for anyone to snatch.' The seeming Hindu spotted it at once, md set oil' at a swift trot after the man le took for the. captain. At the same -inie he gava three calls of the woodngcon, and his comrades, waiting at the lanking ends of the block, stood to the tlei't at the agreed-on signal. Sexton 31a ko rounded the corner carelessly, md three doorways down halted, as if ''resolute, as a dusky-faced man leapt rom the shadow and made a savate 1 ■natch at the jade box. ' j The dusky-faced one got a grip of the >ox in both hands, tugged, then gasped., ts the box remained firm and a pair of' landcufls glittered and clicked about his vrists. The man running from behind >aw nothing of what had happened to lis friend, save that he was tugging at ■he box. He aimed a violent blow with i loaded cane at the detective's arm.] Jut Jliake had expected that, and had--witched his prisoner's head suddenly, orward, so that he received the spent ilow. I

Before the giver of it had time to recover his balance, Blake had snapped the bracelets on him aUo, and, with a (deft ankle-kick, had swept the man off ma feet, and laid him athwart his half- , unconscious comrade. He was on the • two like a cat aftej* a mouse, and had | noosed them knee to knee and neck lo jneck before they had a chance to slow j tight. He hauled them into tlie doorway of the empty house, and gently I blew a police-whistle. In a couple of minutes a constable came running up. "I've got another to collect, Hansen,'' ) said Wake. '-Just stai>d bv these till I give you a call." Hansen grinned, drew his truncheon, anil stood to attention. Blake made the tour of tho block, and fell on the third man from behind as lie vas peering anxiously round the corner. ! In live minutes, Blake leading one. ;mau and Hansen kneeing 011 the other : two, the little procession rejoined CapI lain .lames llolroyd in Make's rooms, j ''Hell, I'm jiggered!" gasped the cap- ] tain. "You've got the lot!" , "Looks like it, doesn't it?" said Blake gaily. 'There they are, the brothers of Jahore, otherwise Mooncv, Slikey Rat, | ami \\ hispercr, wandering conjurers, the last late of Dartmoor. You can take them away, Hansen. The captain and I will be following you 011 to the station I presently;' | ''By jove, Blake!" cried the gallant 1 captain, his face flushed with pleasure, as he broke the central stone from the necklet and laid it 011 the detective's .table. "'You've not only saved niy life, I but you've given me a fortune; and j you've jolly well got to keep that stone .as a memento, if only to break the ua lucky thirteen!" "Oh. well, if you put it that wav," said "Blake, eveing the lustrous gon proudly, "I ,-cally don't mind if I dol" Answers.