THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9012, 23 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 AXD EDITED BY RGADOI HIM,.

[Published By Special Aebangement.]

[A.LL Eights Reserved.]

CHAPTER X.—Continued,

Leaving the house in charge of a sergeant and several constables, I took a cab and drove, eastwards, instructing the cabman to stop first at the bank. It would give Mr Radford Shone too great a pull over me to i/eg"lect the hint he had furnished as to the jealousy subsisting between Kentish and Chunder ©ass, since if it turned out to be the key to the mystery I should never hear the last of it. And as the investigation had to be made.it would be better to make it before Mr Kentish, .presuming his innocence, had heard of his rival's death. But as my cab drew to the kerb outside the bank I received a nasty jar. Another cab, which had been waiting opposite the great swing doors, was moving a few paces on to make room for mine, when a stylishly attired young lady dashed out of the bank and jumped into it. She must have given her orders to the driver through the flap, for the cab promptly wheeled round and went off at top speed, disclosing to me the face of its occupant. It was Ida Lorimer, who caught my eye and flung me back a look of defiance. The girl had evidently been to warn Kentish of the discovery at the boarding - house, and I hardly knew how to regard her action. It cut the ground from under me in tackling Kentish with all the advantage of surprise, while on the other hand it directly refuted Shone's theory that Miss Lorimer preferred the Hindoo suitor. And if Shone's theory were refutable in part, it might fall to pieces altogether. 1 entered the bank, and on running my eye along the range of busy clerks behind the counter had little difficulty in picking out the man who had just received Ida Lorimer's hastily conveyed news. A young fellow, who evidently occupied the position of an assistant cashier, was staring with unseeing eyes at a customer who had just presented a cheque. Deadly pale, he passed his handkerchief once or twice across his brows, and only when the customer sharply demanded attention did he mechanically take the cheque. I waited till the customer had finished his business, and then quietly slipped into his N place at the counter. "Mr Kentish, 1 believe?" said I, He nodded, a faint tinge of colour coming into his pallid cheeks at sight of my uniform. "I expected you, but hardly so soon," he said. "If you I want to take me into custody, I .should be obliged if you would not do it here at the counter before" all my colleagues. I will come out to you." "Not so fast," I said. "It is lucky for you that I saw Miss Lorimer and am therefore aware how you obtained news of f what has happened at your lodging's. Otherwise what you have just said would bear an ugly construction. At present lam only here to ask questions, and my first shall beWhy are you in such a hurry to suggest your own guilt by taking it for granted that I want to arrest you."

"Because that beast Radford Shone has got his knife into me for chaffing him at the dinner-table, and Ida — Miss Lorimer, that is—says that he has been getting at you about me," was the reply. It was a good sign that it was spoken in a tone betokening more of anger and less of fear. "You can make your mind easy that you won't be arrested on mere gossip," I assured him. "At the same time I am bound to pursue inquiries when.information is tendered. Is it true that there was bad blood between you and Mr Chunder Da<ss?" The young man hung is head, then raised it quiokly and looked # me squarely in the lace. "You can't exactly call it bad blood," he said, "but,in the smoking-room the other night I told him that he was a dirty little nigger and ought to be kicked."" "H'm, hardly a threat, but dangerous language to have used as it turns out, Mr Kentish," I said, with difficulty repressing a smile, for now that we had joined issue his demeanour was scarcely that of a midnight assassin. "One doesn't like to have one's best girl pilfered by a chap like that," he rejoined. "But there," he added, "Ida was very nice to me just now, and explained that if I got into trouble it was all her fault. She had taken up Dass, it seems, to worry me a bit, after a slight difference of opinion, .but it's all right between us now."

"You heard nothing in the course of last night to call for remark?" I asked.

"Not LI slept as usual without waking," was the reply. As the other bank clerks'were beginning to take notice it was desirable in his interest to terminate the interview, and I di.l so by thanking him audibly for his civility in answering my questions. I then quitted the bank and made my way to the Temple, hoping for better results there, for I was pretty nearly convinced that a more subtle influence haa been at work than Radford Shone.'s sketchy tale of boardinghouse jjoiousy. A board at the entrance" of 99, Pump Court, told me that the chambers of Mr Chunder Dass were on the second floor of the building, and those of MrStraddon on the ground floor, so I determined to call at the latter first. The clerk admitted me to the outer office, and conducted me to the inner sanctum, where I found the eminent counsel busy on a pile of briefs. On recognising me he tossed his work aside and pointed to a chair, which, however, 1 declined. "In a hurry, eh? and where do I come in?" said Mr Straddon with his usual cheery good-nature. Without beating about the bush, or even imparting my reason, I asked him if lie could tell me anything

about Chunder Dass, the Hindoo barrister and law-student who had chambers two floors above. As I put the question I noticed that Mr Straddon turned a half-unconscious glance to a small, four-paned window set in the inner wall with the obvious purpose of bringing more light into the room from the staircase, which was visible through it. v "I have but the slightest acquaintance with him, though I see hiir several times a day through that window as he passes up or down the stairs," was the reply. "He is very keen on law, and must have taken it up more as a hobby than a source of livelihood, for he informed me not long ago that he was heir to a very large estate in Bengal. But what has he been up to, Burke; nothing to the discredit of the Inn, I trust?" "Depends on how you look at it, sir," I said drily. "Mr Chundpr Dass has been up to getting himself murdered in his.boarding-house at BayHwater last night." For the moment I was completely staggered by the celebrated advocate's reception of my news. He stared at me as though hardly believing his ears and his clever, smooth-shaven face worked strangely. Innured as he was to startling surprises and to every known phase of crime, I could not understand why he should be so moved by the death of one whom ha had just described as only a slight acquaintance. "At what hour did dfath take place?" he asked in a queer, low voice.

"During the night—between three and four o'clock, according to the medical evidence," I replied. "Seven hours—for it is now nearly eleven in the forenoon," said Mr Staddon musingly, as he glanced at his watch. And then, with a quick change to his ordinary incisive manner he aided—"You saw the body yourself, I presume, Inspector Burke?" j "Certainly," I answered. | "Well, would you be surprised to j hear," he went on, pointing dramati- ] cally to the window in the wall, j "that I saw Chunder Dass through there, passing up the stairs, not ten minutes before you came in. Nor have 1 seen him come down since." "Then he must be up. there now," I murmured, not knowing what to think. * ! 1 suppose that this shrewd criminal barrister and I, the hardened policeofficer, were the two least likely men in London to be shaken by such a situation, but we regarded each other with mutually puzzled eyes before /either spoke. Then Mr Staddon rose quietly. "Come," he said. "You mustn't let it rest at this. Shall I tell you what I make of it?" "If you please, sir," I said, for I confess to being non-plussed by the emergency. "What if the Hindoo whom I saw going upstairs is a compatriot, possibly a relation, of Chunder Dass, closely resembling him? What if he is searching in the dead man's chambers for something of value to himself?" And Straddon's low tones carried a world of suggestion as he looked into my eyes. "In that case," I said, "the chances are that the person up there knows something about the murder." Mr Straddon opened the door of his chambers for me, but did not offer to come out himself. "On second thoughts you had better go up alone,".he said. "I mustn't be a witness in a case in which the chances are that I shall be professionally engaged."'-. Nodding assent, I mounted the stairs to the second landing, where a name in black letters on one of the old "oaks" gave me the necessary information. The door was shut, and tip-toeing to it I stood listening. From inside came the sounds of rustling papers and of drawers being opened and shut. I softly tried the door, but it was locked.

"Mr Chunder Dass! Mr Chunder Dass!" I cried through the panel. (To be continued.)