THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9008, 18 December 1907, Page 2

THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

BEING NARRATIVES BY OFFICERS OF THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT, AND OF THE PROVINCIAL POLICE, IN RESIT'""!' 01 DEALINGS WITH THE EMINENT EXPERT, MR RADFORD SIION.

Communicated to and kwtkd by HEADOM MIILJU

[Published By Special Arrangement.!

[All Eights Reserved.]

CHAPTER IX.—Continued. I told her that she had done wisely, as however talented a private investigator might be, the police have faci'ities in disappearance cases which he could not be expected to enjoy. Advising her to go home and inlorm Lord Tressilian tfiut she had called in the police, I promised to follow her almost immediately to her house in Upper Brook street. On my arrival there, I had just been in time to witness the close of a painful interview between Lord and Lady Tressilian, the aged having greatly resented his wife's appeal for police assistance, with its possible consequence of besmirching the family name. I had tried co siSiooth matters by pointing out that Mr Radford Shone having failed in three days to justify his suspicion of Ralph Weyland, there might be an entirely different explanation of the affair. I had hardly made the suggestion, when Shone himself was announced, and I was asked to go with him to the nursery to hear what the nurse had t0 say ' - , .1 ■» Nurse Melvin's narrative, curtailed in the manner I have described, had been meagre indeed. On the previous Monday afternoon she had left both the children in the nursery according to her usual custom while she went down to the basement to fetch their tsa. On her return, Maurice was not there, and though a prompt search was instituted no trace of the little fellow was to be found in the house.

Shorie's theory, which he had been expounding when Ella had interrupted him, was that the boy had been beckoned by Ralph Weyland from the street below, and had run down and joined him, there being no one in the front hall at that hour of the servants' tea. To hurry the boy into a four-wheeled cab or closed carriage would have been the work of an instant, and the trick would have been done.

Th? surmise was not without its merits; yet from my own standpoin it had this drawback—that it wa; the most obvious explanation of the affair. Mr Weyland, in planning the abuuetion that was to re-constitute him his uncle's heir, would have known that he would be the first te be suspected of having had a hand ir it. And he must have been a verj clever man if he had carried out nis plan so as to l.affle ■Jetection by £ man of Shone's reputation. From the first 1 had been conscious of 'a certain latent hostility on the part of Mr Radford Snone, due, nc doubt, to a perfectly natural desire to finish a lucrative case without official interference. As I caught him up on the stairs, I did my best to disarm this fetling by wrapping up my doubt of his theory in a little judicious flattery on the lines indicated. "But Mr Ralph Weyland has no' baffled me," he protested with thai superior smirk of his. "If Lady Tres silian had exer.cised a little patience I should have satisfied her on thai point." Just then we entered the library, where Lord and Lady Tressilian wer< waiting us, and Sho:,e continued ii the same vein: "I have been telling Inspectoi Hammond that by to-morrow at late? I shall be in possession of ful proofs against Mr Ralph Weyland,' lie said. "Of course, as the police have been imported into the case, they must pursue an independent investigation, if they please." "You would let Mr Hammond have the benefit of hearing what you have already achieved?" said Lady Tressilian eagerlj. But Mr Radford Shone shook his head grimly. "My experience is that if the police cannot help themselves, it is of very little use trying to help them," he replied, with a" air of lofty disdain. "I do not mine repeating, however, what I have already reported to your lordshif and your ladyship, that the strict watch which I have set on Mi Ralph Weyland's cottage atMitcham has revealed some very suspicious circumstances, which I am confident that I shall convert into actual proof not later than to-night." Lord Tressilian turned angrily on his wife. "See how premature you have been Augusta?" he cried. He was a well-preserved old gentleman, with snow-white hair and pink complexion—erect as a dart in spite of his seventy-live years. "If Maurice is traced to Ralph the police will have no option but to furnish food for scandal-mongers by locking my .nephew up." "But my boy may have been murdered," wailed the poor lady. ■"Surely you would not have Ralph go scot free just for the honour of the house?" "There are no judications that the .child has met with foul play—yet," Shone interposed significantly. "Though if Mr Weyland were too hard pressed by the police there is no knowing what might, not happen." With this last malevolent shaft for Lady Tressilian, and, incidentally, for the j'orce to which I am proud to belong, -Ir Radford Shone bowed himself out, alleging that the case would

absorb every minute of the day. After his departure 1 lingered behind at a gesture from Lord Tressiliaij. "You heard what Rhone's view is," said the old peer, eyeing me askance. " Your meddling in this matter may cost my t-on his life. Humanity demands that you should make v.o move till Shone has completed his task. I had both of the parents against jlie no w ; for Lady Tressilian, frightened by what Shone had said about the boy's safety, joined forces with her husband, and besought me with tears in her eyes to do nothing that day at any rate. In one way the picture which Kbone had conjured up had reached good results, inasmuch as it effectually reconciled the elderly

couple. The old peer put Ins :>rm round his wife, and togi:th*?r they faced ine, pleading as they I eiifved with a ruthless policeman who wouldn't mind how many children were sacrificed if he could only run Mr Ralph Weyland in. So far was this from beinj-;- the case thai; I was touched by their distress.

"See here, my lord," I said, "we of the police do not accept outside dictation, and there is nothing but Shone's word for it that your nephew has stolen your son. I shall take up the case on no such assumption, and shall not go near Mr Ralph Weyland unless my clue leads to him, and then only after due precautions for your son's safety. At present my clue is as likely to lead me to his Majesty the King as to your nephew, for all I know." "You have found a clue already?" they both exclaimed to me. "What may be a clue," I replied. "And with your permission I should wish to go and get to work upon it." Lord Tressilian was as anxious now as he had been reluctant that I should take up the case, and accompanied me to the door with an exaggerated courtesy intended to atone for his initial rudeness. Cutting short his protestations, I asked him rather curtly how long Nurse Melvin had been in his employ. "Two months or thereabout," was the reply. "But surely you don't think that she " "I don't think, and I never speak till I know, my lord," I said, as I nodded and ran down the steps into I the street.

Making my way to a public-house at the corner of the nearest mews, J borrowed a directory, and looked up the house opposite Lord Tressilian's—the one from the windowsill of which the little girl Ella had so missed what she called "the thirsty cat." There being no name opposite the number in the directory, , I concluded that the house was of the class that are let furnished to tern- j porary tenants, which was so far in favour of the notion that had possessed me since my visit to the nursery. In less than half-an-hour I had confirmed my surmise by calling on several neighbouring house-agents, the last of whom informed me that he had recently let the house, No. i 3008, to a Captain Masterman. The | captain had taken the house for two months, paying one month's rent in advance. From the agents, I went back to the police-station, and selecting a young constable of guileless appearance ordered him to put on plain clothes and call at No. 3008, Upper Brook street, in the character of a book canvasser. My instructions to him were to get into conversation with one or more of the servants, and learn what he could of the household and antecedents of Captain Masterman. The constable departed, but was back at the station in next to no time. He had rung and knocked both at the front and rear doors of No. 3008, without meeting with any response. So far as he could judge, the house was unoccupied. On receiving this report, I changed into plain clothes myself, and bidding the young constable accompany me set out for the house. "Having sought admission by the ordinary methods, I descended to the basement and effected an entrance by slipping back the catch of the kitchen window. A glance told me that the house had been evacuated hastily, and that possession had not been given up in the ordinary way to the agents. No tenant would have been so shameless as to leave the place in such a chaos of unwashed . crockery, dirty saucepans,. and lit- . tered floors. Making our way upstairs, we found the reception rooms in scarcely betI ter condition. The furniture in the , dining-room, the windows of which | faced the street, was all higgledy- ; piggledy, and on the table were the '. remains of a half-consumed meal, \ with covers laid for two. But what , drew from my companion and myself - a simultaneous cry of surprise p was a huge, black, sleek-haired cat that was squatting on the side-board , near an empty saucer, regarding us , with a fixed stare from two shining , eyes. Approaching the animal ' closer, I saw that it was wearing a ■ collar to which was attached a long j string, the end of which was not \ fastened to anything but trailed to I the floor. • (To be continued.)