THE JUMPER

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20906, 11 September 1939, Page 3

THE JUMPER

By JOHN CREASEY

CHAPTER WI. Completely in the Dark The man who iiad registered at The Granby Hotel, Richmond Hill, as Mr Percival Smith, was a 10/ig way from happy. Time and time again in the pas*, few days a memory of the way in which the Special Agent had hurst into the private suite at the Majesty Hotel had returned to him. True, Mayhew had proved himself capable of meeting the emengency, hut that did not mean that the policeman was finished. Jonathan Brigham would have been much happier had he any idea of what was taking place. But since lie had been sent to this hotel by Mayhew, he had been left completely in the dark. Apart from one thing— Lho signing of cheques. There had been a time when he had felt that his association with Rick Mayhew would bring rich rewards, but he was by no means certain of that now. In fact he wished that he had never set eyes on the man, and it would not be far wrong to say that lie was more frightened of Mayhew than lie was of the police. With one vital exception. (He knew enough of the working of the English law to know lhat in the eyes of the law he would be judged an accessory after the fact of P.G. Morgan’s murder. Had lie done what he should, as soon as lie had'been told by Mayhew that the constable was dead, he would have reported immediately to the police. But that was one of the things which it was quite impossible for him to do. Moreover, Morgan had not been the first victim of Rick Mayhew. Jonathan Brigham knew of the other man who had been murdered in cold blood, and he knew also that in the police killing he was even more inextricably caught. Now he wished Lhat he had never allowed himself to be privy to Mayhew’s scheme —but the die had been cast months before, and now there was no turning back. •Either Mayhew must suceeed in the plan which he had prepared so carefully, or he and Brigham would feel the touch of the hempen rope about Hieir necks, and die on the gallows. And Brigham, although a man in whom physical courage was at its lowest ebb, was prepared to light to the bitter end to prevent himself from buffering that kind of death. It was the inaction lhat worried him. If only he had news of what Mayhew was doing. If only he could have taken some more active part in the game he. would have been more satisfied. But there he was, doing no thing but signing the cheques which financed Mayhew and made the whole thing possible. About eleven o’clock on the night of the Jumper's visit to Manchester, the telephone bell in Hie Australian millionaire s room rang out sharply. Brigham literally jumped. u was the first lime since he had arrived at this hiding-pace that the telephone in his room had gone, and immediately lie was filled with anxious thoughts as to what the message would be. It did pass through his mind that it might he the wrong number, but he did not think it likely. He was very quickly assured that it was not simply a mistake on the operator's part. For Mayliew’s voice, although the crook was speaking urgently and running one word into the next, was unmistakable. “Smith, are you all right?” “Quite all right,” said ‘Smith,’ his voice rising a little. "I —Mayhew—' “You brainless swine! Don’t use names! Listen ” The word was hardly necessary, for the man from Australia was concentrating every nerve on his colleague’s words. lie was clutching the telephone in Angers that trembled, and he found it dillicult to control his voice. "Yes —yes—I am listening!” “I want you to go,” said Mayhew, “with a full load to Richmond Bridge. I’ll try and meet you there myself, but if not, you’ll see somebody you know. Do what’s suggested without hesitation* The matter’s urgent. Got that?” The Worst Had Happened Mayhew’s words were staccato now, each one humming with grim meanng. For his part Jonathan Brigham was like a jelly, for lie knew that h«.-: meant only one thing?—trouble! But he answered quickly enough. “Yes 1 I will do it. Da you want me to lake anything with me?” “Take everything,” snapped Mayhew. lie did not. trouble to say good-bye, but barjred the receiver down. 'Brigham followed his example more slowly, and then sat down by Hie telephone, staring blankly ahead of him. So the worst had happened 1 The worst? Perhaps it was not so had as that, but the situation was curia inly desperate. Under the cover of the innocent-seeming words, Mayhow had contrived to tell him Lhat he must get away from the hotel without a minute’s delay, and that he must take all his baggage with him. By ’‘all his baggage” Mayhew meant those things which might give some kind of clue to the police concerning the game which he and Mayhew were playing. After a few seconds of startled dismay, Brigham forced himself to his feet, and then waddled across the room and helped himself to a stiff brandy. The llery spirit went through him, giving him a false courage which would at least last long enough to keep him going while the crucial moment passed. He began to collect his things together, but all the time he was telling himself that he wished he had never started Lo associate with Rick Mayhew. But lie had committed himself too far now to back out, even had .Mayhew allowed it. Jit* was ready within a quarter-of-an-hour, and went downstairs with everything lie wanted packed in a small suit-ease. His travelling trunks were s-lill in his rooms, and consequently none of the hotel staff suspected that lie was actually leaving there for Hip last time. A second glass of brandy bad given Brigham an even greater courage, and no one would have suspected that ha was suffering from a tierce inward excitement. He passed through Hie foyer of the hotel quickly, nodding towards the clerk at Hie reception desk. Then he stood on the porch for a second, Arst looking to the right and then to the left. The night porter, who had only just come on duly, approached him. “A taxi, sir?” L»righam was very conscious of the part he had to play, and he hesitated.

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“Well! Is it likely to rain, do you think? I’m not going far. I can easily walk.” “Looks a bit ’eavy up there, sir,” 6aid the porter, jerking an arm towards the heavens. “Then perhaps I’d better have a cab,” said Jonathan Brigham fussily. “Queer o>ld codger,” said the night porter, Imt he said it to himself as he hurried down the steps and beckoned to a taxi which was parked a few yards along tnv read. The night porter was not a particularly observant man, or ne would have no tic 3d that as Brigham had appeared on the *leps of Hie hotel two men on Hie opposite side of Hie road —near The and Garter Hospital —iiad moved out of the shadows, arid one of them had already beckoned to a second cab which was standing {.here. Brigham himself might have noticed Hie two men had lie been waiting on lhe pavement when his cab drove up, but lie was not an expert at ibis kind of crookcry, and the astute move on the part of Tomkins and Sutton— Grabber's reliable shadows—deceived him. For on Hie opposite side of the road to the Granby Ho Lei they walked sharply towards their cab, and entered it while Brigham’s taxi was turning round in the road. The two taxis started towards Richmond High direet almost simultaneously, with the policemen less than fifty yards behind. Tomkins was a tall, cadaverous-looking man with jet black hair, while Sutton was a short, stock fellow, so fair that he might have been one of the early Saxons. The plain clothes men were good friends, had much in common, particularly one thing, which proved of great service to them in their work. Neither looked in any way like a policeman. Nearly An Accident Their taxi had not driven more than a hundred yards, an-d both of them were eyeing the leading cab hopefully, when they were startled more perhaps than at any time during their years at the Yard. For there was a sudden screaming of brakes and their driver pulled up with a jolt that sent both their heads crashing against the roof of the cab! The possibility that they had nearly run someone down leapt to their minds, but it was a secondary consideration to the fact that if the delay lasted long they might lose their quarry. And they knew that their orders to keep the man Smith under their eyes came from no elss a person than Sir William Davis, the Assistant Commissioner. Sutton, sitting immediately behind Uie cabby, leaned forward, ignoring his aching head, and slipped the communicating window back with a bang. “Don’t stop for anything,” he said. “'Police work —understand ?” The driver growled: “O.K. with me, Boss, but I can’t run anyone dalin even if they are the ruddiest, blinkin’ l’ools in creation, can 1?” He accelerated as he spoke, and went on: “Crawsfc the road right in front of me blinking radiator, lie did. Never seed such a bloomin’ ruddy ijit in me life, I ain’t. .1 ” The cabby, who ignored the one essential rule of the road, and took his eyes off it for a moment, jolted upright in his seat, and then looked as if he had seen a ghost. For out of the corner of his eye he had caught sight of the thing that Tomkins and Sutton had realised a moment before. Someone was riding on the runningboard of the taxil They must have been moving at nearly thirty miles an hour, but the figure on the running-board stuck there very easily, and even contrived to open the door. Sutton, who was carrying a gun, had it out of his pocket in a ilash. “Gome inside," he invited heartily. He was sure in his own mind that one of Brigham’s—or Smith’s —asso'oiates had been watching and had seen their game, and was determined to stop it at any price. That conviction had hardly established itself in Sutton’s mind when he had the biggest surprise of his life. “Thank you,” siad the Jumper cheerfully. "That’s just what Ipropose to do.” “Gawd!” exclaimed Sutton —Tomkins was one of 'those men who rarely spoke, no matter what the circumstances. “Lummy!” gasped the taxi-driver. “•George,” said the Jumper to the driver, cheerfully, “if you keep your eyes on the road and follow the cab in front, you'll be doing the world a lot better service than turning your head and looking at nje. 1 know I’m handsome, but not as handsome as all Chat.” It might have been sheer admiration at the coolness of the man who had darted across the road and forced Hie cab to pull up, which made the cabby obey. Although the window was shut, Sutton continued that there was nothing to be alarmed about, and tlie chase continued; the Arst cab was still in sight. The Jumper was grinning to himself, but Sutton was still ilabbergasted. “You certainly gave me a turn, sir,” . he said. “Sorry," said the Jumper cheerfully. “I'd just arrived, and I saw our man leaving. Then I saw you two fellows were off the mark pretty quickly, and I couldn’t see any way of joining you without causing a bit i of a sensation, but all’s well that ends well, and we should get our man.” Tomkins, who was looking out of the window 7, broke his silence. “And it’s not going to he long before we get him, by the look of things. He’s getting out.” It was true. The driver of the police cab realised it, and pulled sharply on his brakes. The Jumper climbed out first, and then a splitsecond later the thing happened. He heard nothing for a moment, but some fifty yards ahead of them, he saw a sudden unexpected stab of llarne. And then something pecked into the rear of the taxi and he realised lie was being shot at. Brigham was very close to them, hut he was not caught yet. While tlie police were under Are (To Be Continued) ITCHING PILES RELIEVED Marvellous relier From agonising- pain with ZA.NN TREATMENT. Trial treatment lor 9d stamps.—Zann Proprietary, Box 952 E, Wellington. (1)