"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8546, 2 October 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

CHAPTER I.—Continned

However foolish Strangways might have been, he retained a healthy sense of pride ard self-reliance. He -had deliberately decided to accept the alternative of' poverty, believing that the struggle for existence would be a better morel tonic than the cramped line of ccnJuct approved of by his father. To make the parting With his parent absolutely certain—to prevent any falling away from the course of conduct on which he had decided—he had deliberately accepted the invitation to dinner and the Imperial, knowing it would nerve him for the meeting. The moon had crept up over the horizon. On the opposite bank the mud-flats, against which some stranded vessels stood out like monstrous lumps of darkness, glowed silver-grey in the night-shine. In almost uncanny silence a deeply laden barge swept by on the flow of the-tide, her sail drawing to the slight breeze that had sprung up. Strangways watched the man at the helm immobile as a statue. He ne/er moved, or never seemed to move, until he had shot Waterloo Bridge and was swallowed up in the . reaches beyond. Dreamily Strangways began to speculate on who he was. What were the thoughts, the aims, th) ambition of this man who was gliding like a spectre through the night towards thfi sea? What was the strange fatd that brought such a man within the circle of his ' contemplation? In all probability he would never see him again. Death would come to both of them before either learnt anything of the other. He was a shadow from another land —a phantom of the river, formulated from another existence, to pass him in this manner for some unknown purpose, hidden deep in the Master Mind of Providence. He began to speculate upon the mysteries of the Web, wought on the loom of Fate, which wove so many human threads together, crossing and recrossing | them, and before they came to an j end, deftly fastening on new threads, so that life from its very earliest stages was but one vast fabric, stretched ready for completion, to the confines of Eternity. Tne face of the girl gradually forced its way back kto his dream. He was beginning to in contemplating the memory ot her beauty, when the silence ofi the embankment was broken by the sound of a man running. Strangways turned quickly, as a tall elderly looking gentleman with white hair rushed batless past him. So nearly did he touch him in his flight, that Strangways instinctively leant backwards over the parapet to avoid a collision. As he did so, his opera-hat, which he had pushed far back on his head, toppled off into the water. He turned round with a hope to grab it, before it fell, but he was only •in time to see it being carried swiftly away by the tide. In the distance the patter of the running man's feet on the pavement gradually grew less and less, until it was lost altogether.

The incident had finally awakened Strangways from his dreams. He looked up at Big Ben. It was already after eleven, and the recollection that his father was waiting for him maVle him turn briskly towards Northumberland Avenue. As he neared his chambers a policeman looked at him suspiciously and as soon as he had passed began to follow him at a dignified pace.

At the entrance to the block of buildings where hi 3 flat was situated, lie noticed a man, who as soon as he caught sight of him disappeared up the stairs. He climbed the steps two at a ;ime. On his landing all was in darkness. With his latchkey in his hand, he felt cautiously for the door. As he touched it, it swung opei under the pressure of his finger. Puzzled by this, he pressed down the switch for the electric lamp in the hall. It refused to act. He struck a match and looked around him. Everything was as he had left it. He advanced towards his sittingroom door. As he opened it, the match burnt out in his fingers. Suddenly a sense of terror seized him. Something unknown and intangible seemed to be in the room. He peered forward into the darkness, possessed by a sensation of horror for which he could not account. He strained his ears and listened. It seamad to him that he heard the sound of a man struggling to hold his breath. For a second or two Strangways listened with every nerve tense. But only that sound as of a man trying to conceal himself reached his ears. With something like an effort his hand felt for the switch, and turned on the electric light. He hardly knew what he expected to see in the sudden glare. What he .did see was sufficiently startling. The light disclosed three men, one a policeman. They were standing in front of the sofa at the farther end of the room, gaz.ng motionless at him. Strangways h>Aed at them gin amazement for t,u .ie moments without speaking. Then, at last,, he broke out- • "What the dickens does this mean?" For answer the policeman moved towards him, at a sign from one of the other men. As he did so, .Strangways caught sight of something on the'sofa. He sprang forward, white in the face. The policeman caught him and thrust him back. "You'd better take it quietly, sir," he said. But Strangways had seen enough. Hb had seen the face of his father masked by death; he had caught a glimpse of an ugly wound in the temple, and a mass of matted hair ■ and blco:j.

By PAUL BRQUHART,

[Published By Special Arrangement.] [All Eights Reserved.]

He sank back into a chair trembling with horror, unable to do anything but gaze at the men with frightened, anguished eyes. And all the while not one of the three spoke. At last Strangways found strength to rise to his feet. "Who did it?" he said in a quavering voice, looking towards the sofa and its awful burden. for answer one of the men stepped forward. "I arrest you," he said, "for the murder of John Strangways." In another moment he had slipped the handcuffs on the prisoner's wrists.

CHAPTER 11. Life during the next few weeks was for Jack Strangways one awful, unending nightmare. He lived through it mechanically, like a man in a delirium. The preliminary proceedings at the police court, the endless remands asked for by the police, the final inevitable decision that he should be sent for trial for murder—all these events seemed to happen, as far as Strangways was concerned, in another world. He viewed the proceedings with a detachment which made everything seem unreal. Solicitors, barristers, magistrate and police appeared to him as so many lay figures in a vast marionette show. His mind was stunned by the awful discovery on the night of the murder. He could think of nothing coherently. Before his mental vision there floated but one picture, the figure of his father lying on the sofa with a ghastly wound in his temple. It was not till he was placed in the dock at the Old Bailey that he seemed really to realize the dangers of his position. Meanwhile, the whole country ran with, the story. Long before the shadow of the Criminal Court closed round him, he had been tried by the free and enlightened Press of his countrymen. One half the papers found him guilty, the ether half argued that the probabilities were in favour of his innocence. But however much they might differ as to the author of the crime, the newspapers were agreed about one thing, that the "hat" murder was the most sensational tragedy that had ever harrowed the minds of the public and thrilled the nerves of their morbid readers.

The case had received its title as a result of the ingenious headlines of the Daily Wire, who had seen, With the quick perception of a highly trained journalistic eye, that the innocence or guilt of John Strangways depended entirely upon the fart whether the opera hat found in his flat belonged to him or was the property of some other unknown mysterious personage. Between the magisterial proceedings and the opening of the case at the Old Bailey, the discussion of the tragedy had led to many ■ bye-agitations.J£ Straneways' share in the riots that had taken place at the Imperial Theatre on the night of the induced certain enterprising papers t? thunder against the license of mu3ic halls. Reams of sensational iopy were turned out regarding the doings of 'Varsity men when let loose in town. More careful supervision of these halls, a stricter regime for undergraduates at the Universities were clamoured for. "Disgu&ted," "Paterfamilias," and "The Mother of Ten." wrote their inevitable letters to the papers, saying that their sons should never be allowed to don the cap and gown of either Oxford or Cambridge.

The first day of the trial was al most entirely devoted to the setting forth of the case for the prosecution. Mr Frank Richardson, the eminent K.C., had been entrusted by the Crown with the prosecution. Mr Walter Riddall, who had made his mark in the Cliffe murder case, had been retained by Messrs Penfold and Holmes, for the Strangways' family solicitors, Walford, , Walford and Rawlins, had refused to touch the case. Aa Strangways listened to the opening speech of Mr Frank Richardson, he felt himself a doomed man, for as the eminent K.C. step by step developed the outline of the story was understood by him, the prisoner wo-idered how the ingenuity of any man could release him from the toils which were being spun round him. (To be Continued).