MYSTERY AT MANBY HOUSE

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21370, 14 March 1941, Page 3

MYSTERY AT MANBY HOUSE

BY PETEK MANTON

CHAPTER Xlll—(Continued) I She had been gifted with looks I that were so muen out ol the oraij nary tnat at sixteen she had been offered stardom in Hollywood. It had not attracted her, no one knew why. She had a superb hgure, and a contralto voice tnat had been quickly used lor tne radio and gramophones. At twenty-one sne nad money, a string ol lovers ana a sense ol dissatislaction. Pike did not Know now she had come to meet Baiiuzzi. Probably, he said, when the Prohibition started the gangster racket in real earnest. It naa bred in the Bowery, and she had still lived there —why, no one knew. The early radio announcers put her over the air as Lili of the Bowery. She was —said Pike—a startlingly beautiful flower in a garbage can. And then Baiiuzzi had visited the Bowery, from Chicago. Baiiuzzi taught her what she wanted. Power. The feeling of control over men, not ones and twos, the fools who fell for her beauty: life and death power over them. She was as cruel as a Borgia, ana [ it was said that she had been with I Baiiuzzi on some of his worst jobs in Chicago. Baiiuzzi had lighted out of America before the real scream against tne gangsters started. He had laid low for years. Pike said they had lived at a chateau near Nice, liKe millionaires. And then the time had come when the money was low, and they had need of ample replenishmen. Baiiuzzi made a trip to Marseilhs, and dipped his fingers in the dcoe and while slave traffics. From that ostentatious start in Europe, he had come in contact with the key men ol international espionage. Espionage —where action was wanted—had suited Baiiuzzi, and satisfied Lih’s craving for money. “And from then on,” said Pike, both elbows on the table and his eyes very hard, “Baiiuzzi built up the prize gang on the Continent. Anything done, from bumping off a Crown Prince to finding early details of trade pacts and putting a brake on the League of Nations. Mind you, I’m not saying that’s the game here. I’m thinking it isn’t. This looks private to me, and Big Business. But that woman, Arden “She doesn't sound pretty,” Bill said. “She’s——” began Pike, and then controlled himsell. “Waal, make a guess. But she’s changed, Bill. Maybe she’s feeling old, and she lets Baiiuzzi beat the rap. She just lives and spends. 1 reckon they treated her like royalty at Nice, and it went to her head. She’s got just one God, now, and it's money. And she reckons there’s nothing in trousers she can’t handle. You’re beginning to see?” Bill shifted uncomfortably. “Yes.’ “This time,” Pike said softly, “she’s in England. It may be because she wants to break into London society, but it isn’t my bet. Baiiuzzi doesn’t know how long he’ll be working in this li’l country, and he doesn’t trust his Lili out of his sight. She’s his weak spot, Arden. And you could be Lili’s weak spot if you put yourself to it. No easy falling. Stall her. Make her think you’re ice—and you’ll have her alter you. That way you can get past Baiiuzzi, and I don’t know many who can. Is it a deal?” Arden was staring past the crime reporter. He disliked the prospect. He thought of Anne Wilson, sitting up in bed with that fluffy bed-jacket about her shoulders, and the odd, inconsequential thoughts that had passed through his mind. And then he remembered his uncle. Vital, intellectual, a driving-force out of the ordinary. Murdered in cold blood, by Baiiuzzi. Mann, poor, weak-natured, conscientious Arthur Mann—shot in front of his eyes.! Draper, all but dead If Pike was telling the truth, here 'was a ready made job for him. Did j it matter if it was distasteful? If J Lili Baiiuzzi was the type Pike said, it would hardly weigh on his conscience il he tricked her. Oddly enough, it did not occur to him that things would not work out, in some measure, according to plan. That was an unspoken tribute to Jonathan Pike’s power of persuasion. Bill reached for the coffee pot. “It’s a deal,” he said. “But we can’t start, blast it, until the snow’s cleared, I wonder how Horn’s getting on?” It was not long afterwards that Horn and Inspector Court returned, i The detective sergeant’s right arm had been amputated. Horn said little, and Court seemed quieter. Horn, apparently, had told the Inspector something ol Pike. Pike said, officially, that he had heard of the murder and liked to get on the spot, particularly where others would not think of trying. As for the bombing attack, he claimed that he could neither understand nor explain it. To Bill Arden he said that he expected the 'plane had been followed. 1 Balluzzi's men had been on his trail, j and probably gone up in the air after j him, and made a last desperate effortl to stop him getting to Mamby j House.

But why stop him? Was there something he might find at the house which was likely to work effectively against Baiiuzzi? Questions by the dozen flooded through Bill Arden’s mind in the next twenty-four hours. The only news that came to them was by radio. A special long-wave message had been sent to Court, telling him that all efforts were being made to clear a road to Manby House. None of the snowed-up occupants being wireless wizzards, it was impossible to ring up a transmitting set to send out word of the latest developments. During the atternoon, a fine spell brought the sun out, but it was freezing hard, and the prospects of early relief seemed remote. The servants were beginning to suffer from the strain. What would have seemed a glorious joke had Sir Nicholas Manby been alive, was turned into sinister tragedy. (To be continued) I