THE RIVER HOUSE MYSTERY

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143473, 21 April 1911, Page 5

THE RIVER HOUSE MYSTERY

By SIDNEY WARWICK.

CHAPTER XXXlV.—Continued.

Jim grasped the situation, and wasted no further words. Unceremoniously he dragged the old man, inert and unresisting, to the door; and there the man fainted away. Row Jim succeeded in dragging that dead weight down the stairs through the smoko he can hardly toll to this day. But the task was achieved somehow. Scorched and almost blinded, the boy dragged the form of the old man across the hall, his own strength born of desperation fast failing, to the open door of the hall, where The swooning woman, Martha Grimwade, lay—and into the cool, refreshing night air beyond, just as George Armstrong and the police came rushing up, to meet Jim staggering out with the senseless man he had rescued, exhausted and almost fainting himself.

Now, half an hour later, the lane was far from being quiet and deserted; the grounds of the old house had been invaded by the firemen and the police, who had difficulty in keeping back the growing, excited crowd. Jim had poured out his story almost hysterically in the revulsion of relief, and Carr* the arch criminal of the gang, a stricken, trembling man, was under arrest. A rope had been let down into the well, and he had been drawn up from that ghastly prison; and the handcuffs were on the wrists of the eminent scientist, Lucian Desmond.

Then Inter the dead man had been brought to the surface. The sight of the old man whom Jim had rescued from the burning house was a partial' explanation of the mystery that to-night was solving; his own faltering story when at last he was able to tell it in a weak, dazed way, threw further light on much that had puzzled the police. , /‘The real Mr. Hollis!” cried the superintendent.

That was the fact. This pitiful figure was the real owner of the place, the actual Mr. Hollis. Ho hod been kept a prisoner in his own hoiißO by these scoundrels who, had no friends to institute inquiries, had taken possession of the house. Carr had, on the occasion of the police visit, impersonated him, thus lulling the .superintendent’s supicions if not Armstrong’s. All that he had undergone had brought the old man to the verge of loss of reason; it was pitiful to hear the childish way in which he spoke. The strenuous efforts of the firemen saved tlfc old place from being burnt ont; and the subsequent examination of tho house—and especially of the room in tho tower —was to reveal to Goorgo Armstrong on the following day tho solution of that mysterious spectral face that ho had seen at the window more than once.

A simple enough explanation, that made tlic doctor laugh, as in that room that had.,4)0011; the laboratory ,of this criminal, who was a scientist, too. lie panic, across the glass mask which Carr, otherwise Desmond, doubtless wore to protect his face from tho fumes of chemicals and acids whilst conducting his experiments—borrowing a hint from the old poisoners of the Middle Ages, who had invariably used such a protaction as this whilst distilling their deadly potions. A mask of thick, greenish glass that, fitting over tho human features, would distort them strangely, as an untrue mirror will give hack a false reflection. Little wonder that, when the moonlight had touched this mask worn by Carr, seen at a distance by Ocorgo Armstrong against the dusk of tho room behind, the effect had been not a little startling. But that discovery was not made until tho following day; and there was plenty to-night to occupy their with what had been actually discovered.

The woman whom Jim’s promptness had saved from being burnt to death, was recognised by tlic doctor as one of the evil gang; sho was put under arrest. '

“Probably we shall ho able to lay our bauds on the rest of tho gang through her,” said tho poiico-suporinteudeiit to George Armstrong. “She’ll blow tho gaff, and with luck wo shall got ’em all in our not!” Meanwhile Jim had heard with utter dismay why Dick Wyntor had not come ■ —that he was in prison on a suspicion of murder.

“But he's all right, my hoy!” added the doctor quickly, laying Ids band on Jim’s shoulder. ' “Tho woman who really shot Mardyko has made a - confession in hospital; and his release is only a matter of time.” •‘‘Well, anyway, I’ve got a pleasant surprise for him,” said Jim, plucking up heart again. “I’ve got tho blessed diamond safe; Air. AVynter will got that ’arf-million. No fear of hislosin’ that nowl”

As Goor.go Armstrong had predicted, Wynter’s detention was a mere formality. Tlie dancing girl’s confession in hospital, the sworn deposition in the presence of a magistrate, was substantiated by the police inquiries. Briefly, when Dick Wynter was brought before the magistrate, the police intimated that, in., view of new facts that had come to their notice, the ease had utterly broken down against AVynter, who was accordingly discharged. “Jim, old chap, if it hadn’t been for you and your pluck, that night, I should have lost my fortune. I’m not going to talk about the gratitude I feel—l’m going to prove my gratitude!’’ cried Wynter earnestly, realising as he- gripped the boy’s hand that lie owed everything to this lad who had shown himself so grateful for a trifling kindness. “Von didn’t expect 1 was going to fulfil the conditions of tho will so soon, Mr. Wharton?’’ Wynter laughed, as on the day of his release ho formally handed over to the solicitors tho groat diamond that was tho pivot of old Daniel Wyntcr’s curious will. The solicitors in turn handed the stono over to the authorities at Scotland Yard, where it was identified 'beyond question as tho diamond stolon from Mr. Isaacstein of Park Lane, under mysterious circumstances. In this way tho millionaire unexpectedly received hack his treasured jewel, that had been stolen from him as a punishment for one of his many, infamous acts. But, though he recovered the diamond, another punishment was falling on him. Tho millionaire was dying, and personal possessions, had lost their savour for him when the diamond was placed in his hands again—a doomed man with only a few weeks to live. The restoration of tho “Eye of Light” proved a startling piece of nows

for the Press; but how the diamond came to bo found and restored remained a mystery to the public. Wynter was in no mind to divulge that secret confession of his cousniPs. He merely tendered this explanation, that the- diamond had been found in tile possession of the scoundrels who had raided Ills house on the night Garth died. (To bo continued.)