THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9009, 19 December 1907, Page 2

THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

BEING NARRATIVES BY OFFICERS OF THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT, AND OF THE PROVINCIAL POLICE, IN RESPECT OF DEALINGS WITH THE EMINENT EXPERT, MR RADFORD SHONE.

Communicated to and edited by IlllJi,

[Published By Special Arrangement.]

[A.ll Rights Reserved.]

CHAPTER IX.—Continued. "Puss, puss! Poor pussy!" said my assistant,, eliciting, however, no friendly "Miauvv" in reply. Then he went up and stroked it, turning to me the next moment with a sheepish grin. 'The thing ain't real," he cried. "It's a stuffed cat." I had guessed as much directly I saw the collar and the trailing string, and I knew that I had made no mistake in following the clue of the "thirsty cat." Whether or not it would lead me to Mr Ralph Weyland as the culprit was another thing.; but I had the satisfaction of certainty that mine was an entirely different start-ing-point from that of Mr Radford Shone. I was considering my next step when out of the tail of my eye I caught sight of Nurse Melvin coming from the area gate of Lard Iressilian's house opposite. Glancing nervously at the windows of the house we were searching, she made off down the street at a fast walk. "Shadow that woman," I said, pointing her out to my companion. "When you have located her destination, report to me at the station.' The young constable sped downstairs on his congenial errand, and 1 continued my examination of the house. I was now tolerably well assured what had happened. Some person or persons had taken the house with the special purpose of kidnapping Lord Tressilian's little son and heir, and Nurse Melvin was in collusion. The stuffed cat had been used to excite the boy s inteicst and curiosity from his nursery, window, and finally at a convenient hour to lure him across the street. The door once shut upon him, he would have been at the mercy of his captors, and had doubtless been removed after dark to sorre place at a distance for greater secuiity. The nurse's anxiety to check little Ella's' persistent references to the "thirsty cat" had planted the germ of suspicion in me, and I now had little doubt that, having seen me enter the. vacated house, she had "found some pretext for asking leave to go out, so that she might warn her employers or confederates that the police were following a true scent.

There was nothing, of course, in this reading of the case to contravene Shone's tfteory that the Hon. Ralph Weyland was at the bottom of the plot, and I might find that the "Captain Masterman," of No. 3008, was none other than Lord Tressilian's nephew. At the same time, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had,gained a legitimate clue, while Shone had suspected Mr Weyland through jumping to a conclusion about him as the most interested party. It would be at curious cqincig dence if these two divergent methods drew together at the finish. Personally, as a believer in' beginning at the right end of a case. I hoped that the late owner of the "thirsty cat" would prove to be someone quite different.

The only material fact that I found at the house was that the late tenants must have been of slovenly, not tu say dirty, habits, though there was evidence that there had been plenty of eating and drinking, especially the latter. On the whole, I was inclined to the view that "Captain Masterman" was not a scion of the aristocracy; but I was immediately afterwards shaken in it by remembering that he had made a mesalliance. The music-hall artiste to whom Lord Tressilian had taken such exception might be responsible for the unmade beds and unswept .carpets. I returned to the police-station, and shortly afterwards my hopes of confounding Radford Shone were knocked out to zero by the receipt of a telegram from the constable, detailed to follow Nurse Melvin. It ran

"Traced woman to Lime Tree Villa, Acacia Grove, New Maiden. She stayed only two minutes, and is now on her way back to London." Now New Maiden, that residential suburb beyond Wimbledon, had been mentioned by Shone as the place where Mr Ralph Weyland had a cottage, upon which he himself had bsen keeping observation. The natural inference was that he had jumped to the correct conclusion, alid that Nurse Melvin had been to warn heconfederates that the police had spot ted No. 3008, Upper Brook street as the lair from which the kidnapping had been contrived. In a few minutes I was at Waterloo, and half an hour later strolled into Acacia Grove, New Maiden. "Lime Tree Villa," stood selfconfessed by the name on its gate—a small detached house lying back from the road amid a tangle of «hrubs and fruit trees. I was turning away to perfect my plans when two men wearing the baize aprons of furni-ture-removers came down the circular carriage-sweep and out of the gate, chuckling audibly. Or.e of them, the tallest and leanest of the two, cocked his e.w. at me in passing, and in spite of his v.i-guise, 1 recognised Shone. Perceiving that I knew him, he beckoned me to .follow him to I he end of the, road. "So you made use of'my theory ,after ail, Inspector Hammond," he said in his arrogant manner. "Well, J can add fact to theory now. Ralph •Weyland has gctf Iho boy right .enough. We have been mouching ground in the character of furniture jjjien who had'mistaken the house, and heard Weyland talking to his wjfe." 1 the whole show away, she (did," sniggered Shone's companion, yyho, #8 j subsequently ascertained, wsis iVIr Samuel Martin, the great jnaii's 3(ir»ij*er and -jrideratudy. • "ll,aye thoy got the boy in tho fiouse asked, none too well

pleased by the turn of events; for I had hoped that my cat clue hadn't got the disappointed heir at the end of it. Mr Radford Shone would be able to brag that he had don-i by mere intuition what the police had to do by routine methods. "Yes; I gathered from what they said that the youngster is boxed up in one of the upper rooms," replied Shone. "But there's someone else in it, another house here, with whom Weyland and his wife have got an appointment at 10 o'clock to-night. It's a regular conspiracy, and if you want to bag the lot you should put the arrtst off till then." "Why," I could not resist saying, "you seem uncommonly keen on the arrest of Mr Weyland, in spite of it being so distasteful to your client." "Oh, it will teach old Tressilian to keep his wife in order," said Shone airily. "He's only got himself to thank for letting her bring you into (ha business, and I shall appreciate the advertisement of having given a lead to the police." The fellow was insufferable; but there was no way out of it but to make the arrest and recover the child on his information. As I wished, for the purpose of the evidence which I should have to present in court, to pursue some inquiries on my own account, I fell in with Shone's suggestion, and consented to defer the final overthrow of Mr Ralph Weyland's scheme till the evening. Before we parted I asked Shone who was the other man with whom Weyland and his wife had the appointment. "I couldn't overhear his name," was the reply. "But he is some pal of Weyland's from whom they expect to obtain an advance of money to enable them to take the boy out of the country." ****** When I approached Lime Tree i Villa at 10 o'clock that night, a tall, i spare phantom and a stout one glided j from the shadows at the roadside to ! meet me and my two constables. It was so dark that only when they were close up did I recognise Shone and his toady. "I am come to enjoy my triu-nph," whispered the expert. "I was willing to stake my reputation from the first that Ralph Weyland had got the boy, so it is only fair that 1 should see the coping stone put 'on my j theory—especially as you didn't quite see eye to eye with me, inspector." I had not expected to see Shone there, but never was I more glad to meet anyone in my life. Ignoring the nasty hint that he had come in person to see that I did not allow Weyland to escape in order to spite an unofficial rival, I gave instructions to one cf my men. When the occupants of the villa emerged, he was to enter the house as soon as they were out of sight, and take possession of little Maurice. The other constable was to accompany me in the wake of the culprits so that we could surprise them at their rendezvous.

We had not long to await before a man and a woman came out of the gates. With the exception of the officer told off to remain, the rest of us moved off discreetly aftei* them, and, guided by the footsteps of our quarry, followed them along Acacia Grove, across a short connecting road, and so into another thoroughfare running parallel with the one whence we had started. The man and woman turned into the grounds of a small house which, like most of those around, was embowered in trees. The front door faced the roid, and from two open French windows at the side of the house a gentle glow of lamplight shone upon a cluster of laurel bushes.

"Let them gain admission; then we will make an audience at the window," was my whispered order, which was acted on directly the door had closed. Stealing to the laurels, we ensconeed ourselves just as the visitors were shown into the room by a maid-servant. A good-looking man of forty and a dark-eyed little lady a decade younger, sitting at dessert, were regarding the newcomers with puzzled surprise. "For conspirators the parlies don't «eem particularly well acquainted," I breathed in Shone's ear, drawing from him a suppressed snort. (To be continued. )