SUSPECTED.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 280, 26 September 1894, Page 6

SUSPECTED.

BY FAY P. RATH BUN.

CHAPTER I. • WHAT LAY BEYOND THE LOG. William Cayton and Robert Wincrafb, summer visitors in the little town of Brookside, had met as strangers in the village hotel, and a speaking acquaintance had ensued. On the June afternoon when our atory opens, they had strolled from the hotel by the side of the brook which gave ft name to bhe village, and were watching' the stream for a glimpse of the speckled troub for which it was famous, when sud. denly their attention was aroused by a strange cry, which came from tbe summit of the hillside. To Wincraft, ib seemed to carry no intelligence, but Cayton's attitude became on the instant alerb and anxious. His face reflected intense eagerness and resolution, and he appeared not to breathe as he looked in the direction from which the sound had come. Ho had recognised, in that cry, the Masonic appeal for aid in deadly peril. The elevation from which the alarm had come exteuded for many miles down the valley. Along its top it was heavily wooded, bub on the side next bo the broo.k ib was covered with a growth of tall bushes, with here and there a few trees interspersed, through winch wound many devious paths. • It was from this hillside labyrinth that the mystic alarm had been.sounded ; and Cayton stood motionless, while ib was twice repeated, vainly trying to fix his eyes upon the exact spot in the wilderness of busheß whence the summons came. 'What in the world is the mutter ?' demanded Wincrafb. / 'Hark!' said Cayton, speaking rapidly and holding up a hand to Wincraft for eilence. ' Help^me to locate that voice.' ■ And then, straining ab once the sense of hearing and of sight, the two men stood still. For a moment there was no sound, Bave that made by the rippling of the water over tbe shallows. Directly there came down to them a new cry which, if possible, made Cayton's heart throb still faster—for ib was the shorter, sharper cry of an Odd Fellow in distress. This, like bhe ''other, was repeated. It wbb now evident to both that the voice came from a small cluster of oaks two-thirds of the distance to the top of the hill. Wincraft was aboub to poinb oub bhe place, when Cayton asked -. 'Are you a—a "member of any secreb society ?' 'No.' • Well,' said Cayton, speaking hurriedly, 'up there in those oaks is some one in deadly peril, being murdered, perhaps. I aim going to his relief. YVill you help me?' 1 Yes,' Wincraft answered, with a decisive .promptness and earnestness. , Aba bound they crossed bhe stream aide by side, and started to mount the hill at whab was a killing pace, considering bhe nature of the ground before them. Ab firsb they attempted to force a straighb course through bhe thick growth of saplings and bushes, but Bonn finding that impossible, they took to the paths which seemed to run iv every direction but the right one. And so the two excited men, entering the first path which promised to take them, nearer the place they sought, ran, now this way, b'pw thabi never quite in the direction they wished, but always drawing nearer the oak».-o'#'bfK'had not long breasted the hill before their breathing became so laboured as to be painful. Bub without a halt they followed the devious way, encouraged occasionally by a view of the oaks from places where the bushes were sufficiently low for them to see over their tops. At last, affier having traversed twice the distance a straight route would have been, they entered a path, at the farther end of which, and not faraway, they saw tho oaks. Making a dash, they arrived, panting, at the end of their race. To their surprise, they found the place a solitude, and looked about in astonished disappointment for an explanation of .the cries they had heard. Beneath the trees the ground was free from bushes and the view unobstructed except by. the trunk of a fallen tree which lay near ,the opposite eide of the grove. All this they marked while they looked about them. They saw nothing to indicate that they were not the first persons who had recently visited the place. They had expected to find some one there injured or dead, but there was not even tbe evidence of a struggle to be seen. Cayton attempted a halloo. Wincrafb repeated, it, and they listened for ah answer ; bub none came. Wincrafb was the first to rally sufficiently from the effect ef the run to attempb an investigation. • We must make a aearch,' heeaid, and started to walk through the grove. He had nearly reached the fallen tree which has been spoken of when he stopped short with the explanation: ' Great Scott! Here's ' a dfad woman !' Cayfcon hurried to his side, and saw; bub a few feet distant, what before had been concealed from view by the tree trunk, the prostrate form of a woman. One glance at the face was eufficionb to tell him that he was looking at a corpse and aba victim of • violence. Awe-struck the two men silently contemplated the scone.

They saw before them the form of a well-dressed, good-looking youug woman of twenty or twcnby-one years, a stranger to them both. She wa3 resting on her back, with limbs and clothing decently composed, bub the }ighb dress which she wore was all web nud sodden at the lefb breasD with blood, which appeared to have floweU irom a wound of some sort in or near the hear/;. The guard-chain, which bad extended around her neck from the watch at; her helt, was broken on the left Bide several inches from the watch ; but aside from the broken chain, which was composed of large and rather light links, which it seemed, mighb havo been easily Eeparated, there was nothing to indicate that she bad struggled to resist the blow which had caused her death. Cuvinn was the firsb to speak. • What can. this mean ?' he asked. ' She couldn't have given the alarm we heard.' •No,' Wineiafb answered ; 'itsurely was a man's voice.' ' But,' Cayton returned, ' however heavy * her voice may have been, she couldn't have known the words.' 'I suppose,' eaid VVincrafb,' ' that what we heard was some secret society's appeal for aid.' Cayton nodded affirmatively. •I thought as much,' Wincrafb replied, •from the question you asked me before we left the valley and by what we have found hero : for, of course, that alarm had some connection with this woman's death.' 'Yes, certainly,' Coyton assented. 'It must be so. She has just been killed. See, the blood is still wet, and—here he touched one of the dead woman's handa with his finders— 'the bodvia warm.' 'It may be,' VVincrafb suggested, 'that some friond was with her, and when they were assaulted, he, after giving the alarm .we heard, waa cowardly enough to run away add save himself, leaving her to her fate ; or,1 he added, with Rudden interest, • he may be lying in the bushes around here, dead or wounded. We must search them etonce.' Cayton concurred with the suggestion, and, after examining whi\t appeared to be the most likely places of concealment without finding anybody, they began a systematic search. Separating themselves by a few yards, they walked in a small circle around the oaks, Then they made

second and larger circuit. Then a third still larger. And yet a fourth. And so they continued to encircle the grove, each time by a circuit sliehbly greater than the last, "walking slowly and examining each yard of ground. Patiently they penetrated .every thickeb until they had covered a circle with a radius of twenty-five yards. Bub they found do second corpse, no evidence of a struggle, no t rack, trace or remembrance of a fugitive, nor aught else to reward their patient labour. Returning to the grove as ignorant as when they left ib, they again approached the quiet form under the trees, They were remarking that the objecb of the murder could hardly have been robbery, as the sold watch-chain which has been mentioned —as well as a gold watch, which was only partly concoalod in its pocket —remained on the body, when Wincraft uttered an exclamation of surprise and called to his companion : ' Look here ! Mr Cay ton, what'B this ? Here is one of your society pins fastened to this woman's waist—an Odd Fellow's three links.' And ha almosb touched with his finger a small gold badge, consisting of the mystic chain of the order ho named, which was pinned to the dead girl's dress ab her breast and whicb, owing to a lack of contrast in' colour between that and the cloth, had not been earlier noticed, Cayton looked curiously at the little emblem, but said nothing. 'How do you account for thab?' Wincraft asked.

' I do not accounb for it,' was bhe answer. • I can't understand the meaning of all thab we have heard and seen.'

' Bub the badge ; ib doosn'b explain the cries we heard as coming from her,' indicating by a nod the body on the leaves. 1 We heard a man's voice, "nob a woman's,' said Wincraft. ' Yes,' repliod Cayton, ' though Bhe may have had the voice of a man, she yet was a woman, and could have . had no knowledge of the criea we heard. Ib is simply absurd to suppose that they came from her. No, they were uttered by a man, and a crazy man, too, I think, for I cannot imagine a sane one guilty of running away and leaving this woman to be killed. ' Why, 1 see,' said Wincrafb, who had been looking at the three links closely, 1 this badge isn't fastened, the pin is run through bhe cloth, but nob sprung into the catch. It couldn'b have been worn long in bhab way without being lost—bub bhen she wouldn't have been likely to wear it ab all, would she? I don't believe that she did wear it. Who ever beard of a woman wearing such a bhing ? No, sir ; you may resb assured that it was pub where ib is after her death by the man who gave the alarm—the murderer.' ' Why* Mr Wincraft, see here,' Caybon rejoined. 'No man would commib a murder, and then set up a noise like thab to bring people around him. Murderers don't act in bhat way. They keep atill and sneak off. No, the alarm must have been made by some man who wanted help, either for himself or for this woman. The question is, whnb has become of him. If he is dead, we ought to have found him. If he is living, why baa he run away? Bub hold 1 Here is something which is in line with your view. The pin is on tbe right breast. Do you see ? They are always worn on the left. Mr Wincrafb, I don'b know bub you are right, aiter all, aboub" its having been put there by tbe murderer. Do you see why it was pub on the right breasb ? Ib is because the left one is covered with blood, and to pub ib there a man must have gob bloody hands.' Ib was as Cayton had said, bub, owing to the excitement of the occasion* ib had nob been observed. After seme further discussion of the mobives which probably controlled the strange conduct of the mysterious unknown who gave the alarm, Cayton volunteered to return to town and summon aid. Accordingly, he ab once seb oub for Brookside, and Wincrafb, being lefb alone with the body, sab down upon the log and vainly sought a solution of the mystery. • • * * * • The village of Brookside, which thus became the possessor of a myßtery of the first class, than was, and still is, a wellpatronised health reßort of excellent, bbough jonly local, repube. The town is a suburb of an important city, the name of which ib will be convenient to change, for the purpose of this narrative, to Seaboard, and ia connected with its big neighbour, five miles distant, by a railroad as well as by a street-car line. As bhe street-car route was on the farther side of the wide valley until ib reached a point on a line with the village, which lies on the oasb side and near the head of the hill-range described, Cayton was obliged to return on foot, which he did, carrying a grave and troubled face. This gentleman, who is to be a conspicuous figure in the solution of the Brookside mystery, resided in Seaboard, where, beinp,' a bachelor, he lived with his mother. He was thirty-three year 3 old, wealthy and the head of a large mercantile house, which was doing a prosperous business. In person he was a quiet, dignified man, with blue eyes, lighb complexion and a cleanly shaven face. He was of medium height, weighed ono hundred and sixty-five pounds and was well bub modestly dressed. He had a good-looking face, though his mouth and nose were too large to belong to a handsome man. He looked to be, what he in fact was, a very firm, intelligent, quiet gentleman—a man who would be a pleasant and considerate friend, but one who knew very well what he wanted to do and who would be very likely bo do it. He had come to Brookside on this occasion to spend a day with his widowed mother, who, having been for a time in poor health, was making a residence of a month in the place in the hope of relief. The exertion occasioned by the visit having wearied Mrs Cayton, she had retired to rest for a couple of hours, leaving her eon to his own devices. After amusing him?elf lor a half-hour while sitting upon bhe hotel verandah by smoking and looking at the ptjople passing along the street of the little town, Cayton became conscious thab the time was passing heavily. Ab this moment his attention was .attracted to a gentlemanly appearing, neatly dressed man who was entering the verandah from the hotel doorway. He seemed to be not far from Cayton's age, but was of slighter form and a dark complexion. His eyes, hair and moustache were black. Hia face bore tbe expression of ono who is conscious that) he is being closely inspected but whose selS-control is such thab the oaly visible effect is thab the features bear a seb and rather cold look, which expression Cayton afterward found wa9 habitual. He appeared bo be a very positive man, though not ab all demonstrative, and one whom it would be mosb difficulb to turn from a purpose. In poinb of firmness he reeemblod Cayton, bubyeb wibh a wide difference—a difference which may, perhaps, be besb expressed by saying bhab he seemed like one who would say 'No' vigorously, and possibly wibh an oath, if he were a profane man, while Cayton would have said ib quietly and gravely. The stranger bowed slightly, in a toserved way, to one or two of the guests, though he seemed to be on terma of intimacy with nono, a&d walked toward the place where Caybon sab. Whether he_saw something in Cayton's face which indicated a desire for company, or whether ib was by accidenb, ho seated himself sufficiently near to favour the purpose_ of his neighbour, who, being agreeably impressed by the looks and manner of the stranger, addressed a trivial queation or two to him in bhe form of inquiries concerning the town. These being well received, and the stranger showing a willingness to talk, they drifted into conversation.

Cayton having eaid that he should enjoy a walk along the brook which flowed through the village, which his companion had told him was a fish preserve of wide reputation and a favourite walk among those staying ab Brookside, Mr Wincraft —such his card showed the stranger's name bo be—offered to accompany him. , They had prolonged their walk until Cayton began to fear thab the invalid would have arisen before hia arrival if he did nob hasten his return; when every other dnty was forgobten in bhe imperative summons which bo mysteriously broke the silence of the hillside. _ . ; _ ( To be Continued.)