THE DUCHESS OF DATCHET'S DIAMONDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 148, 25 June 1898, Page 6

THE DUCHESS OF DATCHET'S DIAMONDS.

By Richard Marsh,

Author of " The Crime and the Criminal,**

CHAPTER XI. JOHN IRELAND'S WARRANT.

Mr Franklyn was unable to find a cab. He walked. And as he walked he wondered. Mr Paxton's conduct seemed to him to be stranger than, in the presence of Miss Strong, he had cared to admit. It was unlike Cyril to have allowed so amazing a change to have taken place in a holding in which he was so largely interested, and yet to have held his peace. Mr Franklyn had made more considerable efforts to place himself in communication with Cyril than he had hinted at. There had been several things lately in that gentleman's conduct which had struck him as peculiar. But all his efforts had been vain. It was only by chance that that afternoon he had run across an acquaintance who informed him that he had just seen Mr Paxton leaving Victoria in a Brighton train. Taking it for granted that he was journeying towards Miss Strong, as £oon as he could, Franklyn followed on his heels. And now Miss Strong had seen nothing of him! Indeed, she had been told that-he intended to spend the night in town. Coupled with other circumstances, to Mr Franktyn the thing seemed distinctly odd. Arrived at Makell's Hotel, he accosted the porter who held the door open for him to enter. 'Is Mr Paxton staying here?' 'Mr Paxton is out.' -'Out? Then he is staying here?' 'He has been here. I don't know if he is returning. You had better inquire at the office.' Mr Franklyn inquired. At the office their acquaintance with Mr Paxton's movements did not appear to be much greater than the porter's. He was out. He might return. He probably would. When, they could not say. 'How long ago is it since he went out ?' 'Something over an hour.' 'Did he say anything about where he was goingto?' 'Not to me. I know nothing, it's only what I surmise, but he went hurrying out as if lie had an appointment which he wanted to keep.' 'An appointment? Something over an hour ago? Yes, he had an appointment about that time, but he never kept it.' Franklyn looked at his watch. The thirty minutes of which he had spoken to Miss Strong were already nearly past. 'Can I have a bed here to-night?'

Tbe clerk said that he could. Franklyn took a card out of his poc-ker-book, be scribbled on it in pencil:

•..shall be at Medina Villas till eleven. Come at once. . They are very anxious to have news of you.' Securing it in an envelope, he handed it to the clerk, instructing him, should Mr Paxton return before he did, to let him have it at once. Then Franklyn left the hotel, meaning to walk to the cab rank, which was distant only a few yards, and then drive straieht back to Medina Villas.

As be walked along the broad pavement someone stopping him addressed him by name.

Ms that you, Mr Franklyn?'

The speaker was John Ireland. In his professional capacity as a solicitor Mr Franklyn had encountered tbe detective on more than one occaeasion. There was no necessity for him to admit that the reply to Ireland's inquiry was an affirmative one; Ireland was aware of it, without his admission. Tbe detective's next question took Mr Franklyn a little by surprise.

'Where's Mr Paxton?'

Mr Franklyn looked at his questioner as attentively as the imperfect light would permit. To his trained ear there was something in the inquirer's tone which was peculiar. 'Mr Paxton! Why do you ask? Ireland seemed to hesitate. Then ■blurted out bluntly—

'Because I've a warrant for his arrest.'

Franklyn made a startled movement backwards.

'His arrest! Ireland, you're dreaming!'

'Am I? I'm not ot a dreaming- sort, as you ought to know by. now/ Look here, Mr Franklyn, you and I know each other. I know'you're Mr Paxton's friend, but if you'll take my advice, you won't, for his sake, try to give him a lead away from us. You've just come out of Makell's hotel. Is he there?'

Mr Franklyn answered, without pausing- a moment for reflection. 'He is not there. Nor did they seem lo be able to tell me where he is. I'm quite as anxious to see him as you are.'

Ireland slapped his hand ag-ainst liis legs.

'Then I'll be hanged if I don't believe that he's given ns the slip It'll almost serve me right if he has I ought to have had him without waiting for a warrant, but the responsibility was a bit bigger one than I eared to take. And now some of those pretty friends of his have given him the word, and hes away. If he - s clean away to feelkke ao'mg time myself.' uiien he spoke again Franklyn's manner wai_ caustic mfto'be^im?' y°U appear t0 wish W ,. ,? le UnPro^ssional, perhaps you won't mind being- a little tmStfffrS by way of a **» p« q™. tSoVp^ yyv° teu me is warrant iS^ is s Pecifi^ on the variant which you say yon hold?' least ff.hT* te) lh* y°u' > the yourself in allT" in * you'n see 5t f^ >c_ursen m all the papers—as laro- e as life and twice as natural. Mr ?Ston y<y.js wanted for the robbery +1 ess of DateLoJ'e. t y of the Duchess ot uatchet s diamonds.' ---Fi^l^^d had t Uck h ™' ,^7startled "^ W seem*d Irl\?"SToti f madCllet? diamoncls! 'Both, if yonX° rn. Unk?' choose, Mr Franklyn.'' S ™ Y°U

. Franklyn eyed the detective as if he really thought that he might be mentally deranged. 'Seriously, Ireland, you don't mean to say that Mr Paxton —Mr Cyril Paxton—the Cyril Paxton whom I know —is charged with complicity in the affair of the robbery of the Duchess of Datchet's diamonds?' 'You have hit it, Mr Franklyn, to a T. Regardless of the falling drizzle, Mr Franklyn took oil: his hat, as if to allow the air a chance to clear his brain. 'But — the thing is too preposterous!—altogether too outrageous for credibility! You yourself must be aware that iv the case of a man in Paxton's position, such a step sis that which you propose to take is likely to be fraught, for yourself, with the very gravest consequences. And I, on my part, can assure you that you are on the verge of making another of those blunders for which you police are famous. Who is the author of this incredibly monstrous charge?' .'.Don't- you trouble yourself about that, Mr Franklyn. People who bring monstrous charges will have to bear the brunt of them. But I tell you what Pll do. You talk about being unprofessional. Pm willing to be a bit more unprofessional for the sake of a little flutter. I'll bet you anyreasonable sum you like, at evens, that when we do have him it's proved that at any rate Mr Paxton knows Avhere the duchess' diamonds are.' 'You talk utter -nonsense.' 'All right, put it so. Anyhow, I'm willing to back my talk. And I'm giving you a chance to back yours.' 'Let me understand you. Do you say that you are willing to back your ability to prove that Mr Paxton lias a guilty knowledge of the Datchet diamonds?' 'A guilty knowledge—that's it; you keep on hitting it, and you've hit it again. I'm ready to lay an even hundred pounds—we may as well have something on worth having—that when we •do get Mr Paxton its proved that he lias, as you put it, a guilty knowledge of the whereabouts of the Datchet diamonds.' 'Such a supposition is wholly beyond the bounds of reason.' 'Will you bet?' 'I will.' 'You understand that I'm betting on a certainty; but since you seem to think that you're betting on a certainty too, the thing's about even. It's a bet?' Tt is.' 'Good! Perhaps you'll make a note of it. I'll make one too.' As a matter of fact, Mr Ireland, taking out his pocket-book, made a note of it upon the spot. 'When I've proved my point I'll ask you for that hundred.' 'Say, rather, that when you've failed to prove it, I'll csk you.' 'All right. And you shall have it, never you fear.' Mr Ireland replaced his pocket-bock. 'Now I'm going to Makell's to make a few inquiries on my own account. If those inquiries are not satisfactory, I'll at once wire round Mr Paxton's description. There'll be a reward offered for him in the morning, and if we don't have him within four-and- twenty hours, I'm a Dutchman.'

Franklyn, knowing bis man, was more moved by Ireland's words than he cared to show.

'For goodness' sake,lreland, be care ful what you do. As you say, you know me, and you know that it is not my enstpm to express an opinion rashly. I assure you that it is my solemn conviction that if you take the steps which you speak of taking, you will be doino- a possibly irreparable injury to a perfectly innocent man.'

The detective looked at the lawyer steadily for a second or two.

'Quite right, Mr Franklyn, I do know you, and it is because I know you that I am willing to strain a point, and, without prejudice to that little bet of ours, give you proof that in matters of this sort a man of my experience is not likely to move without good grounds. You see this?' Mr Ireland took something out of his waistcoat pocket. It was a ring. Slipping it on to the tip of his little finger, he held it up for the other to see.

'I see that it's a ring. What of it?' 'As Mr Paxton was coming out of Makell's Hotel this morning he took his handkerchief out of his pocket. As he did so, unnoticed by him, something dropped out of his handkerchief on to the pavement. It was this ring.' 'Well?'

'111, I should call it, if I were you, because this ring happens to be one of tbose which were stolen from the Duchess of Datchet. I had previously had reasons of my own for suspecting that he knew more than was good for him of that business; even you will g-rant that the discovery in his possession of one of the stolen articles was sufficient to turn suspicion into practical certainty.'

(To be Continued.)

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