CHATEAU SINISTER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 224, 5 July 1939, Page 7

CHATEAU SINISTER

by LESLIE BERESFORD.

CHAPTER VI. (continued.)

"THEY HATED EACH OTHER!”

"Peter Burnaby.” That's/the follow. He was sort of servant to obi Payne, but they might have been brothers. They were the right pair to live together, and no mistake. Though why they did so, I can’t say. For, if ever two men suspected and hated each other, I reckon those two did. I’d a feeling, that one night I slept up at the Chateau, I’d probably be wakened in the night by one murdering the other.” y

"You wouldn’t bo at all surprised then, if it proved that something of that sort may have happened in the end?” O’Hara suggested to the other, who swung round and stared at him blankly, protesting:'

"But—it didn’t. What I heard of it from tho lawyer in London, and one here—a follow named Lemaire—old Payne was accidentally drowned.” On acquaintance Hi it on berg had risen jn O’Hara’s estimation. Over dinner, lie had found the man much to his liking, not by any means the over-exaggerated Hollywood director for which he had at first been inclined to size him up. He was travelled, knowledgable, resourceinl and, from his talk, a irian of good principles, reasonably to bo trusted.

Additionally, since he had met both Andrew Fayne and Burnaby in person, it seemed only reasonable now to O’Hara that he should be taken into some degree of confidence, with an eye to possible future happenings. He proceeded at once to tell him the news which the French detective, Carnot, had brought that evening. "Looks like I was right, and Burnaby got his own bapk first !” Rittenberg chuckled grimly. "Likewise, if he’s been missing ever since that blow was struck—well, I’d say he has a complete get-away to his credit as well! Too late for the cops to get busy now, I reckon!

•* "Say, the old Chateau’s got more right than ever to be immortalised on the screen!” he went. on. "I sensed drama, that night. I spent there, talking to those twisted-faced old fellows, with tho place all shuttered and barred, as if they were afraid for their own skins, or to let an,y fresh air and moonlight in! It gave me the creeps.” "So they .were all shuttered up and barred in, were they?'; O’Hara. seized instinctively on . this piece of information. -- ~ '■ - ■ - ■ .

CHAPTER VII

“Just as if they were expecting a police-raid, or gangsters. I put it that way to them, as a matter-of-fact, though quite politely, of course.” "They didn’t otter any explanation?”

f "No more than a couple of oysters would have done!” JKittenberg laughed . ‘‘Anyhow, from what. you’ve just told me, they were safer from outside than they /were from each other. Mat-ter-of-fact, of the two, I’d have betted -bn. old Payne as the cuter. Howover, •whatever happened to either, tlio old Chateau’s better with a girl like Miss -Payne owning it. She’s not worrying, T guess?”.. .: " ''. , * "Oil. the contrary.” > O’Hava, briefly outlined the exact situation at the moment, with the other listening intently, more and more ■alert and interested.

"Oh, wliy. go to fiction writers for a scenario, when we’ve one right here, carved straight out of life?” lie gasped in the end, and suddenly sensed O’Hara’s instinctive impatience.

- “I know what you’re thinking!’’ he said. r.“ But, you’re wrong, my friend! ■ You can do much worse than approach a story like this from the film-angle, believe me! It’s an angle that gets “right to the root of things, cuts out all the snags, gives motives and reactions this story of yours as we haye it at ;the fullest play. Now, just what is this story, of yours as wo . have it at -the minute?”

“Briefly, the main issue is that Miss Fayne is clearly the victim of a vendetta, which was pursuing old Fayne till he died, and now is following her up as his heiress,” O’Hara put the case.

“That’s the mam interest!” the other nodded. “The main issue goes further back, before she came on the scene. The cause of the vendetta and the people originally concerned in it. That’s old Fayne and Burnaby and someone, or others, so far unknown. The last might be this Egyptian crowd at the villa here, as you say. That doesn’t matter at the moment.

“What we’ve got to worry out, as I see it,” he continued, “is the exact relationship of old Fayne and Burnaby. Were they both being followed by this vendetta? If so, why weren’t both of them /murdered, and not only old Fayne? If, as you seem to suggest, ■ Burnaby killed Fayne, what was the motive? He didn’t get any s money. Miss Fayne has that.” ~ “It’s quite possible, of course, that Burnaby didn’t murder Fayne,” . O’Hara admitted. “I merely suggested that his complete disappearance, although he must have read in the papers of old Fayne’s drowning, arouses natural suspicions. VThy, after living with the man all the time, hasn t he turned up, and given to the police nil the evidence he could?” A “FILM” OF PROTECTION. I Kitten berg lit another cigarette, in chain-smoker fashion. “My Aim-sense suggests several ex--planations■ -These. vendetta-guys may fhave killed Burnaby when they killed > Fayne. Both were possibly escaping from this neighbourhood together. Or, ;■ assuming that to bo so, Burnaby may have got away-while J’ayno went under. In such a case, Burnaby would ; probably be too frightened to come out • of hiding. ' “Again, there’s another explanation that fits' in with my own opinion of the strained relations between the two as I saw them that one night I stayed at 'the Chateau. Burnaby may secretly "have joined those avengers, and—at a . price—delivered Fayne into their hands. Then he certainly wouldn’t go to the police. This story’s a regular jig : saw “puzzle, and needs a lot of piecing together before wo get .it right.” “The main issue still remains, to my ’mind, the position of -uiss Fayne in the matter,” O’Hara insisted. ■" ~ “I think she sits quite comfortable on top of the -world!'’ Eittenberg

% :: (Copyright).

A Tale of Mystery and Romance.

DEAD MEN’S DRAMA.

chuckled. "If those messages do mean business, she’s prepared. You say she’s getting police-protection. And —with our crowd around up at the Chateau ”

"I’m glad you look at it that way,” O’Hara offered a handshake. Miss Fayne did ask me if a. meant 'to tell you all this when she invited you up, but I didn’t see the need. Still, as you mot Payne and Burnaby, which 1 didn’t know then, it changed everything for me, and I had to tell you. 1 don’t think I’m asking you to take too great risks ’ ’

"Bisks?” The other laughed. "There’s no-one—not even the women —in our crowd afraid of risks. You’d be surprised what chances film-folk have to take every day of their lives’, putting over thrills for people sitting snug in comfortable seats. So if there’s a spot “of bother going ” O’Hara gestured him to silence. They were being joined by Caryl and Virginia West. Caryl was anxious to return to the Chateau, the others being more or less ready to move right away, if Julius Bitten berg gave the word, which he was willing enough to do. "Name of all names, this is a nieo trick to play on mo, m'siour, taking all these nice guests of mine away from me!” old Badinot’s high-pitched voice presently saluted O’Hara, as the baggage-piled cars prepared to set out in procession up,to the Chateau. ’"lf I’d known what you were going to do to mo and my poor wife, Therese, I wouldn’t have been so pleased to see you hero‘again!”

"Como now, Badinot, I’m not ai-

together to blame!” O’Hara said, seeing this point of view 'for the first time, and feeling awkward. "The invitation really came from mad’moisello ”

"No, no. She says it was your idea. .” But old Badinot was smiling ail over his face now. "What does it matter, mon cher ami, anyhow?' .What matters is that romance should come once again to the Chateau! Already, I am quite sure, it is on the way—well on the way!”

O’Hara welcomed tho light-hearted and common-sense company of the film-crowd. Their natural instinct for making themselves at home- anywhere, and their high-spirits, gave to the old Chateau a new atmosphere, dispelling its earlier sense of brooding drama.

During the next couple of days O’Hara saw little of Caryl. Biffcenberg was wasting no time in getting oil with the real purpose behind their stay. In Caryl’s company ho was choosing the locations for the \ arious scenes, as required by the scenario, and discussing with tho others all the arrangements' for rehearsals,-lighting and camerawork.

Having no interest in this O’Hara roamed around tho Chateau, which had changed scarcely at all since his time. He noticed that fairly new and very strong wiridow-fastemngs and doorlocks had replaced those he had known of old. This seemed to explain the hint Rittenberg had thrown out about, his night’s visit, when the whole place had been shuttered and barred as against a siege.

From old Henri he learnt several facts which supported the report that old Fayne and his companion had lived in fear of their lives tor. some time. Facts which he had gathered since he and his wife had come here when Caryl took possession. Certainly they consisted of statements from local people, and might have been merely gossip. But their sources were so varied, while their substance remained so much the same, that O’Hara wondered why the police had taken no apparent notice of them when inquiring into old Andrew Fayne’s drowning. It appeared, for instance, that he scarcely ever left the Chateau, and never without Burnaby, and then by closed car, being driven swiftly into Biarritz and back mostly to see his solicitor, Lemaire. It was after sucli a visit, during a lato afternoon, that the discovery on the Font de ia Vierge had been m/ide. Yet when O’Hara was able to glance through the newspapei--cuttings of the investigation, which Henri produced for him, ho was surprised to find nobody bad questioned why such an obvious recluse should suddenly have taken it into his nead to be strolling—apparently alone—along tho rocky coast during a violent storm. 4

Making up his mind to become acquainted with this solicitor, Lemaire, O’Hara drove himself to Biarritz during the third afternoon, after giving Rittenberg a hint as to what ho was doing. But when he called at the office just behind the Casino gardens, a clerk informed him that the solicitor had gone that morning to Paris, and might not be back for a week. ■Disappointed, and not seeing what good he could do in Biarritz, he was about to return to the Chateau when a hand was laid on his arm. Jt was Carnot, of the Surete, with an expression of supressed amusement in his shrewd eyes.

“An excellent meeting m’sieur!” he greeted. '“And what brings you in here? Not, I. hope., to say any harm has come to mad’moiselle ?” “On the contrary, she is with so many people that the chance of any harm coming to her is small,” o’iHara was replying, when the other laughed: “No need to tell me that. My men reported that a. colony of film-artists moved up there last night.”

“Your men?” O’Hara stared at him. “I. haven’t seen any about.” “You won’t, unless they’ve been instructed to introduce themselves to you. All tho same, no hfvrm in having a colony of film-artists around as well, I assure you. Whose idea?” “Actually—mine'. It’s company for Miss Fayne, anyhow. It frees me too a bit. You. sec—l’m interested—•‘ln mad’moiselle? But of course! Could you bo anything else?” The twinkle in Carnot’s eyes made O’Hara flush hotly despite himself. “'My interest in her is purely through the fact that she lias the Chateau,_and I was born there—” “Surely!” the other nodded, laughing. “We will put it that way, if you wish, m’sieur. And, because of the Chateau you want to get at tho root

of tliis curious business ”

“And lie’s in Paris ”

(To be Continued.)

“That’s why I’m here. I’d meant to call and ask a few questions of her solicitor, Lemaire ”

“Is there anything you do not know, Carnot?” O’Hara .stopped him in surprise.

“I still don’t know who sent those mysterious messages,” tho other retorted. “But—l am glad to have met you like this. Without the presence of -mad’inoiselle, wo may talk more freelv. If you can spare me some little while

“By all means. I should like to satisfy a shocking thirst at the same time, Carnot. If you’re as hot and parched as I am.” “Leave me to choose the ideal spot. A cafe where we’ll not be disturbed, and can talk freely.”