"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8866, 29 October 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

[All Eights Eeserved.]

CHAPTER XVJ.—Continued. It was no part of his duty to examine the premises which were occupied, but if by any chance his lantern had flashed on them, or had he seen them at the window, he would assuredly have sought to know their business, and Jack was bound to admit, as he lay there those few minutes reflecting, that it would have been a difficult matter for them to convince a policeman on his heat that they had good reasons for breaking into other people's houses. The man seemed in no particular hur»:y to complete his visit. Having walked around the premises, he rilled his pipe, and took the opportunity for a quiet smoke. Fortunately he shut off his lantern and made no further direct of indirect survey of his surroundings. They heard him strike his match, and could only assume that he was enjoying half a dozen whiffs in the brief interval premitted him • for his inspection. It seemed an eternity to Strang ways in his impatience, but ultimately they heard the measured' tread of the constable as he walked slowly down the garden path., and made his way out into the street. Medhurst slipped the carpet off his companion, and cautiously raising hin-self on his hands and knees peered carefully around him. Then climbing up to the window, he busied himself with the catch, pushed the lower sash softly up, and, letting himself down, took his master by his legs and shoved him through tha •open window. With the agility of a . .cat, he was through the window him-.-self and had it lowered without a sound, within a few seconds. 'Chuckling softly he turned to his employer, and remarked — "Well, I have caught a few burglars in my time, but it is a new expprience to bo breaking into a house under the nose of the police. Stand here till I see about getting a light." In the darkness, Jack waited while - the ex-detective felt along the wall 1 of the room for a switch. When he found it, it wouldnJtact^^^^_^i HHpHKic^MQHHHHfIHHHHQ^H W want to be the girl may be as artful as the rest, J if they happen to have left her be- | hind, which by the way I very much doubt from the look of things. But I we may as well have a look round now we are here." | Hand in hand they groped their way rstealthily down the stairs; at \the bottom Medhurst paused and listened very carefully. Feeling his way to a room on the right, he carefully shut the door and once more lit a match. In one corner of the room | there was a small cabinet, which he i easily forced, and, striking another match, he discovered a switch, which he promptly turned on. "As I. expected," he remarked to • Strang ways, "they kept control of the light from this room, and the present tenants have utilized this in order that they may be able to put ,the house in darkness at any awkward moment. And now we will take the place, room by room, the upstair .apartments first." "There seems to have been a struggle hero," remarked Jack, ilooking around at the furniture, "and there is more evidence," he added, picking up a lady's handkerchief. * There was nothing else in the room, however, to help them, rand they slowly moved back to the .apartment! they had first entered. Medhurst went first, and switched out he ilight. As Jack followed him, he stopped in amazement at the door. Eight in front of him was a 1 large picture .of-the man he had seen i in the Hoi born Town Hall—the patri- j arch—the New Moses. Beside it j was a picture also of the man in full j vestments who had pointed him out to | the bullies at the meeting. All around the wall were the vestments and the uncanny insignia which had .decorated the platform on that eventful night Medhurst, who with busi-ness-like promptitude had started .searching the place without wasting a moment, gently forced an oblong box that stood on a little side table, and as the door flew ope:i, Strangways saw a beautifully made wig .carefully poised on a wooden block. It was of silvery whiteness, and he recognised at once the hirsute adornment which had given the. patriarch jsuch a venerable and fascinating simplicity. "This then is the den of the leader of the faithful. Well, if we do nothing eise i'(-night, we shall be able to expose o ■■' of the .most impudent frauds of the ,?ntury," he said. "And here, L think, we shall find the key of the whole mystery," added the detective. "But why one earth should this band of fraudulent fanatics wish harm to my father or to myself?" "That's what has puzzled me for some time, but I think I've got the right end of the stick now. They only wish harm to you in self-de-fence; their original spite was against your father. Having failed to get you convicted of his murder, they know perfectly well that you will be on their track sooner or later, and they can only preserve their own schemes by getting you out of the way." "But why should they kill the I old man? He was as obstinate and

PAUL URQUHART.

[Published sßy&Special Arrangement.]

pig-headed as they make them, even in Yorkshire, Imt he was as straight as a reed, and save that he occasionally condemned people to everlasting perdition for th* discipline of their souls, I don't believe in the flesh he ever harmed a man in hi 3 life." "All that you say, sir, is quite true. Everybody says the same, who knew him, but you will pardon me still talking perfectly plain; the experience of my calling teaches us a good many things, and one of 'em is this: There are very few men in this world who have lived to any age who haven't made some mistakes in life. There is a skeleton in every cupboard, as the saying goes, and there is also a kink in every man's career somewhere. Putting all the circumstances together, I came to the conclusion that there was blackmail in this, and that your father had been at one time or another-well, had been—we will say human; but I have been able to track his movements so closely during the last few years and up to now I have only found one woman in the business, and'she is too young for that theory. Whatever slip he made, it must have been many years ago, I think; and lam now convinced that it wasn't the usual weakn3sses that get men into trouble." "No, I'm afraid there was not much poetry, good or bad, in the governor's disposition." "Has your father ever been abroad?" asked Medhurst abruptly. "Not since he went to America, when I was a baby. He was there some time, but how long exactly I don't remember." "That's just the very point. He will be a little bit older, I should think, but not very much than the man who occupies this house—the patriarch Moses, or whatever he calls himself. The explanation is pretty clear, I think. This New Jerusalem gang are noihing more nor less than one of those murderous secret societies which honeycomb Europe and often I have their headquarters in America. j They get hold of men who happen to I be soured with some disaster or disj "Well, he persisted in refusing ' the honour for many years, until he I took on 'The Gappe,' when he dis- ' covered that it was part of his duty Ito take his share as his ancestors I had done in the government of the county. They made him a deputylieutenant right off, and if there is anything in what you say, I am pretty certain his stern sense of duty would have led him to denounce the whole gang at any cost, as soon as ' they appeared in this country." I The ex-ietective heaved a sigh of ! satisfaction. "Well, we start fair now," he said; "we know what we are looking for." "Yes, but do we know? We arc forgetting we came here to look f. a girl. I'll not believe she is in this desperate business. She saved n:y life on the moor." "Turned soft-hearted, as most of 'em do at times," murmured Medhurst, more than half to himself. But with an air of resignation he switched off the light and led the way out into the passage. From room to room they groped their way, and at last Medhurst, with a slight show of impatience, said—"She must have shown herself before now if she had been here. We musn't waste too much time or they will be back, and it won't suit our game to let them know just yet that I we have been here." Jack was about to answer somewhat testily that he didn't care who I found them, so long as he found | the girl, when Medhurst gave him | a warning nudge, and, although ' they were in the dark, Jack instinctively felt that the detective was listening very intently. Suppressing his own breath, he heard a soft continuous regular sound like that of a person asleep and breathing heavily. It seemed to come from a room to their right up the short staircase, and together they made their way to the door. Once again Medhurst performed a trick he had learned from some of his old clients, and with practically no noise at all, the door was opened. Medhurst found a switch and turned on the light, cautioning Jack as he did so not 'to speak or move. (To be Continued.)