A DESPERATE GAME

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10132, 31 October 1910, Page 2

A DESPERATE GAME

(OUR SERIAL.*

CHAPTER XXXlll.—Continued

"Yes; it is always that man; but this time he is playing a desperate and liopeles game, and I hold the trumps. The open window is easily explained. Miss Vanneck had gone up to her room when she heard a tapping on the window, which was raised a couple of inches, so as to allow of the note being slipped inside. When she read it, she flung the window wide open and peered out, but seeing nobody she ran downstairs and along the garden to the wood at the bottom." "You seem to know a great deal," Maynard interposed. "I know that, at all events, because—you see—l was there." "Then you saw who hit me." "No, though I could give a close guess. But I was on the other side,

keeping my eye on the girl. I did not expect you and I did not hear you. The other man must have been on guard, and he must have downed you in the most effective manner. I came along here with them and then sent Nora to Fetch you." "Where is Miss Vanneck?* 5 "They brought her here.' ; "They?" "Turbutt and his man." "Yes—go on." "The idea was that they should poison her and carry her to the bottom of the Devil's Punch Bowl, leaving her there with a vial and a letter clasped tightly in her hand, so as to give the idea of suicide. The letter wns +,n he> in ririT>s+nrir>p'c r»wn liaYirl-

"Precisely who perpetrated the jewel robbery I do not know—probably Vanneck and Murgatroyd, with Vanneck waiting for them outside. It was beautifully worked out, and every point was watched. As soon as Vanneck heard for certain that my father was dead, he went and pawned the buckle disguised to resemble Ronald, and with that the whole train was fired. Ronald safely put away, Ephraim collared the cash, and then came Vanneck's opportunity. His idea had not been to help Turbutt to a fortune, but to procure one for himself; in other words he began remorselessly to blackmail his accomplice. I fancy, indeed, that Vanneck had some idea of _ getting Ronald and Constance married, and then rounding on Turbutt. Anyway, they quarrelled over it, and Turbutt shot the other dead! Ido not think he meant to do that when he came there, and when he had done it he was frightened. It was his first murder, and " "You seem to— —" Maynard was beginning the other interrupted, "I was there. I was with Nora in the kitchen. I heard the shot and ran towards the dining room just in time to see Turbutt rushing out of the front door."

writing—a forgery, of course." ' 'Turbutt must be an expert hand at forgery." "Oh, it's not he, it's Murgatroyd who does that. Murgatroyd is Turhutt's Old Man of the Sea. Each could hang the other, and they dare not part company. It was Murgatroyd who forged Ronald's handwriting both recently and at the Coyton jewel robbery. He was imported into England by Vanneck. They met in prison in Australia, and there-

arter ran in double harness. When Vanneck was killed Murgatroyd came to Turbutt. He—l mean Murgatroyd—is the greatest forgery that ever lived, a curious mixture of cleverness and stupidity. On everything but that he is a bit of a fool. But I guess he has nearly run his course. Turbutt had been using him merely until he had cleared Normington and Miss Vanneck out of the way. Then Murgatroyd would have followed and Ephraim would then have been clear." "He must be an utter scoundrel, this Turbutt!" "Oh, I don't know. He is a very clever man, a sort of Napoleon in his Will- ollnu-inrr nr. nlie+eiolo +« +.i,^n

"It was you who spoke to Ronald in the garden, then," Maynard said. "Yes, it was-1," Andrew replied. "Why didn't you come forward at once and say what you had seen?" "Because I was hard on the trail of the other affair, and I had still a use for Ephraim Turbutt. It cjtijfc very near to bringing Ronald and Constance, I know, but I did not forsee that Ephraim would act so promptly. Since that I have followed him up. It was he who tried to murder Ronald with the curara, and it was I who prevented him; it is he who has brought Constance here to-night, and again it is I who—" "And where is she now?" Margaret demanded. "Safe —in a moment or two we shall go to her." "And how have you found out all this?" Maynard demanded. "All this about the Coyton plot, I | mean." I

him from his path. I think I never mot a man so unscrupulous and J cold-blooded in following his ambitions, but outside of that ho is J all right. He has, for example, no vices—never gambled in his life, abominates women, and is a teetotaler. He is rigidly honest, pays up I to the uttermost farthing, is a good | master to his servants, and a just | landlord to his tenants. No, I should not call him a scoundrel in \ the sense that Vanneck, for instance, was one. He simply regardj ed all mankind as pawns in the 1 game, and those who opposed him i lie swept away. He has committed crimes, it is true, both many and black, but they were all part of his play, and all but one arose from the necessity of concealing the first. When he joined hands with Vanneck ad sent Normigton to prison " "Then he did that!" Margaret cried. "Stay a moment!" Maynara interposed. "Either you know too much or vou sav too little. Who are you ?" The man paused a moment or two, then replied with a smile, "I am Rogerson, Mr Ephraim Turhutt's butler." There was another silence, again broken by the same speaker: "But that is only a nom de guerre," he continued. "Have you ever heard of Andrew Casterman?" "Ronald Normington's cousin? I have, heard of him—yes." "I am Andrew Casterman, and the lady who , brought you here—Nora Hardcastle, as the world thinks—is my wife, Nora Casterman." There was another long pause. "No doubt Ronald would tell you all about my father's will. I was disinherited because T had been in prison. My father was of the sterner sects of Methodists, and the stain on his name was more than he could bear. .1 was convicted of a forgery I never committed ,and it was Vanneck and Murgatroyd that worked it up. I was a young ass, but probably no sillier that nine out of ten chaps my age, with plenty of money. Of course, they had no idea then that my father would disinherit me; they were only making me the scapegoat of the crime they had committeed. When I came out of prison I found myself alone and , penniless, with only one faithful heart in all the wide world—only one who believed in me.,, Ho paused and glanced at Nora, who nodded and smiled. Margaret looked from one to the other, then went and kissed Nora, and for the rest of the interview remained by her side. "We. came to England when my father died,'' Andrew Castermaii went on, "and sought out Vanneck, to whom my wife hired herself out as servant in the hope of discovering something that would exonerate (

"By continual and unwearied spying ; by piocing together scraps, conversational and documentary, by making Murgatrovd half drunk, and by ■" "Can you prove it?" "According to the requirements of a court of law, I fear not." "Then Ronald cannot clear himself?" "Unless Ephraim should confess n "He will never do that—never in this world!" said a new voice, in thick hoarse accents, and, wheeling round, they saw, standing in the doorway, a .revolver in each hand, his face a dead, ghastly white, his eyes aflame with mingled rage and terror—Ephraim Turbutt himself!

CHAPTER XXXIV.

CONSTANCE CHARGES TURBUTT.

When Constance received in her bedroom that amazing, almost terrifying, message, signed "Ronald," her first thought had been to summon Mayliard and Margaret to her aid. But for the words, "do not tell the others," she would have done so, and the course of events might have been materially different. The rapid sequence of events in connection with the reception of the note had been pretty much as described to Maynard by Andrew Casterman. Constance heard a. tap at the window, but before she could answer it, almost, indeed, before she realized that it was a summons for herself, the sash was raised and a note flung sideways into the room, resting on the edge of the dressing-table. (To be Continued.)

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me. And in so doing d.e lit upon the Coytoit jewel mystery, and Ave followed that np. That affair is plain enough. By some means Vanneck had wormed himself into my father's eonfidonce, and had become acquain-,

ted with the terms of my father's will. Indeed, you know he Avas one of tlio trustees, and he came to England offering Turbutt the chance of a fortune, knoAving that my father Avas dying. "Turbutt Avas in a hurry to be rich, but things had gone a little awry Avith him. One or tAvo speculations had turned out badly, and he was possessed just then of something less than nothing. He caught eagerly at Vanneck's suggestion, and together they concocted the plot/ Vanneck taking rooms at Hudspith's next to Ronald's, and preparing the, plant for the jewels when they Avere secured. He Avas a past master in all the arts of burglary. Murgatroyd forged the letter to you asking for money. You see, they had to invent' a motive for the robbery, and nothing takes the average British jury like horse-racing and betting. It. was done when Ronald Avas taking a week's holiday; and when the parson delivered your notes Vanneck took them in.