For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8327, 9 January 1907, Page 2

For Her Sister's Sake; OR, THE LAVENDEN SECRET.

CHAPTER Vl.—Continued. The letter which the detective passed to Mr Merivale ran as follows "Dear Garside: Sorry, but I am short myself for a few days, or would settle up at once. Hope this won't seriously inconvenience ydu. About your making Lady Lavenden's acquaintance, meet me at the club this or to-morrow afternoon, and we will stroll round to Audley Street about tea-time. Yours ever, "GEORGE MERIVALE." "That letter, sir," said the detective who had spoken, "we discovered i;i Mr Garside's rooms an hour or so a?o. His valet who had been allowed to go out of town to visit a sick relative, found him dead there this morning. A bullet wound, sir, in the head." "Good heavens!" cried Merivale, " You don't mean that he has—he has committed suicide?" "We can't say yet, sir," was the answer, "whether it is suicide or murder. Nothing had been taken apparently from the pockets —some loose cash and bank-notes were found on .him, also his jewellery. But we could discover no pistol or revolver. Two shots had been fired—one had shattered the chimney-glass over the maiitcl." ~ Merivale turned the letter about in, his hands. "This is a note," he observed, "I wrote to him, as you see, in reply to one from him. I was in his debt; oddly enough, I was just thinking of sending him a cheque when I got yoijr card. Poor fellow, poor fellow!" He met the detective's gaze coolly, frankly, with the easy superiority of the man of the world. "You are Inspector Quilliam," he said, referring to the slip of pasteboard on the tray. The other made a little salute by way of assent. "And this is my colleague, Detective Quail," he added, indicating his companion with an almost patronizing gesture; "a frequent associate of mine in most of my difficult cases." The pink, clean-shaven detective bowed deferentially. "I have had the honour of serving under the inspector in many such cases, sir," he said, "They call us 'the two Q's' in the force. If I may take the liberty of speaking on behalf of my chief here,, sir, perhaps I may observe that we have troubled you in this matter because the deceased gentleman's belongings were singularly free from letters or addresses of any kind. Finding;that note, sir, we thought you might help us to get into touch with his relations."

George Merivale shook his head. "There, I fear, I couldn't aid you," he rejoined. "I knew little 6f Garside, saving that he was from Australia. I believe he had brought introductions to England from people out there, but I never heard anything about his own folks. 'I understood that he had few or no friends in this country. I myself first became acquainted with him at a race-meet-ing." The chief of the two detectives looked at his subordinate.

"Quite so, sir," he saidthen I fear I have troubled you in vain--- " He stopped; his colleague was whispering to him.; "'Ah! yes, of course," he remarked, arid turned again to Merivale. "These introductions Mr Garside had from Australia, sir," he said, "could you mention any of the persons who had given them to him!" Merivale wrinkled his brows. "I Tiave had a bad memory," he replied; "but Mr Garside wishing to meet my cousins, the Lavendens —I suppose on account of the so-called 'Romance of the Lavenden Peerage'—l did make a few inquiries about him." The bald head of Mr Quail nodded appreciatively. Inspector Quilliam glanced at him, and nodded, too. "He had," continued' Merivale, undoubtedly had introductions from people of standing in Australia. He seemed himself to have moved in excellent circles, and to be well provided with money, so much so that I scarcely took seriously a note in which he spoke of wanting a hundred or two, and reminded me that I owed him a couple : He dined here last night, and left in excellent spirits. I cannot think that he could possibly have contemplated suicide. However one never knows." "Very true, sir," agreed Mr Quail. "Now, these persons to whom the deceased brought introductions—if you could put us into communication with them, it might be of assistance." "Certainly," said Merivale, and he went to a writing-table, scribbled a few memoranda and brought them back. "Here are the names you want," he observed ; "so far as I can recollect them And that, I believe, exhausts my power to be of use to you." The clean-shaven detective was folding up the letter they had brought with them. "Indeed, sir," he said, "we are sorry to have had to trouble you at all in connection with the matter." "Don't mention it," answered Merivale, ringing. "The affair is very shocking, very." The inspector roused from his perusal of the list Merivale had given them. "You are right, sir," he declared. "Come along, Quail." He bowed again, and saluted. "We are much obliged to you, sir," he said, and the two detectives went away. George Merivale was not troubled by over much heart or imagination, and with a muttered anathema on his enforced association with the tragic end of James Garside, he returned to his room, rang for his valet, and completed his toilet.

By R. Norman Silver, ;< i if "A Double MasJc,» "A Daughter of Mystery "Held Apart," *'The Golden Dwarf," etc.

["For Her Sister's Sake " was commenced on December 20th.]

When, dressed to sally forth, he descended the stairs, the morning was well advanced. His automobile was waiting before the house, the little leathe\-coated chauffeur grimly patient of Xis master's tardiness. Merivale had some distance, when he halted the roadside to bow and raise his bat. Winifred and Julia Lavenden had some time before emerged from the park entrance. They were on foot, and walking with them was Edward Agnew. , George Merivale greeted them with his usual air of good-tempered boredum But it did not escape him that Winnie was strangely pale and hollow-eyed, and that Agnew's gaze travelled occasionally to her face with a kind of anxiety. "We have quite spoiled Mr Agnew's ride," said Julia Lavenden, and her voice had a note of artificial cheerfulness in it. "He would insist upon walking with us instead of enjoying his constitutional in the row." "That is the advantage of an automobile," remarked Merivale, shaking hands with the young lawyer. "Had you met me in the park you would have been able to share my constitutional. It is not, by the way, too late. Can I not offer my fair cousins a spin?" "I'm afraid not,' said Julia quickly. "Winnie was confessing to us that she felt a headache coming on." "I am very sorry," exclaimed Merivale, turning, with a swift assumption of sympathy, toward the drooping girl. "I have a very poor head myself at times. I expect our heads will be aching in sympathy this afternoon, for I usually pay up that way for a shock, and I. have had a most unpleasant one this morning. Poor Garside —you know Garside, Agnew, the fellow who dined with us last night " "Yes," said Agnew abstractedly. Winnie's hollow eyes were fixed upon the ground. "Well," pursued Merivale, "he's dead, poor fellow— suddenly. Suicide, if not foul play. Two detectives from Scotland Yard turned up at Lavenden House just now He stopped abruptly. little sigh had broken from Winifred Lavenden's lips. Consciousness deserted her, and she staggered backward into Edward Agnew's arms.

CHAPTJSR JVII. "FATE HAS PARTED US." "You were perfectly right, my dear little cousin. I always faint myself when there is the least ex- ' cuse for it, and a handsome man like Edward Agnew ready to catch me. And your black hair and gray eyes go charmingly with an alabaster complexion." Constance Istria smiled her low, malicious smile. It set her great violet pupils sparkling in the shadow of her ruddy locks, and showed her even teeth in a row of twin pearls against the scarlet of her curving lips, that, in spite of herself, betrayed the bitter jealousy which prompted the laughing sneer. [To be Continued.]