A Race With Rogues

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 73, 27 March 1920, Page 21

A Race With Rogues

SYNOPSIS. Sir Harry Tbirimere entering bis hotel in Xew York Is keenly scrutinised by a. stranger, and on goini; to bis rooms bears sounds from inside. Before he can unlock the door the intruder escapes. The room has been thoroughly ransacked, but nothing is missing, and the ouly clue left by the intruder is a dainty diamond-buckled shoe, size three. Whoever the intruder was it was no common hotel thief, and his Interest is quickened, when he finds that In order to escape from the suite, she had .dropped several feet to a small iron lire-escape ou he tloor below. If this slender foothold •had been missed there was nothing to prevent a sheer .drop of seven storeys to the courtyard below. He decides" to say nothing about the occurrence to the hotel authorities, but to discover the reason for «he mysterious visit and lo Unci the lady. "bile dining that night his attention is attracted by the entry into the crowded room of a girl of singularly striking appearance. The room is crowded with diners, and the girl being unable to secure a place. Is accommodated at Thirlniere's suggestion at his table. In the course of rnnversiition be feels Increasing!v certain that she was the mysterious visiior to his rooms. She admits it. but says her visit was due to a mistake, and shows n photograph, of a stranger whose resemblance to Tbirimere Is certainly striking. She is startled when he tells her of the man who scrutinised him so closely on entering the hotel, but refuses to give any information us to 'tho reasons for her search, except that her brother is concerned, and the brlginnl of the photograph was the instrument of his undoing. In response to a telegram addressed to "Ilnyilcn. Number 247." she announces that she is returning to Knglan.l, and half promises that Tbirimere will iind her at the Savoy. After her departure be Is startled to recognise a niiiii in the lounge who is undoubtedly the original of the photograph he had just seen. CHAPTER 11. THE GIRL WITH SECRET S !. As lie looked down from tho height of seven storeys -to the courtyard below the hotel servant shuddered involuntarily. "That's how she got away, sir. Down tho fire-ladder, I wouldn't make that drop for a thousand dollars. A slip or a miscalculation and—" Then ho paused meaningly. "What sort of a woman miut she be to take a ri.k like that?'' he added. " I don't know, bnt I am going to find out," answered Sir Harry Tbirimere. Bart., quietly; and lie looked acre* to tlie dressing-table win re he had placed the diamond-buckled r-hoc —the one clue! to the daring invader of his rooms in the fashionable Xew York hotel. Who was the woman ? What was her 'object in his rooms? Nothing was missing. Rut the minutest search had been made. Drawers, Wardro'De, cases, bags— everything had been overhauled and his belongings scattered about. The intrud r, alarmed by the return of Sir Harry, had mysteriously and suddenly vanished, leaving behind the clue which placed the 6ex of the interloper beyond doubt—a dainty shoe, the buckle of which wan studded with genuine stones. Evidently no common hotel-thief, but one with a special motive, Sir Harry argued. The open window of the 'bathroom pointed the \viiy of the mysterious woman's escape But what woman would have jumped from the window to the iron staircace below, risking a fall from tho seventh storey? To Sir Harry Tbirimere, sportsman, traveller, and lover of adventure, the pro-D-lem and mystery made a direct appeal. Determined to 'find the Cinderella who had lost the costly shoe, he paid, the hotel servant to hole] his tongue. In the dining-room of the hotel that night he found her—the girl with secrets —-entrancingly beautiful, determined, and cool. Thirlmere flashed one look at her face; another at the foot protruding under the edge of her dress. Then he smiled. " Strength and beauty and a dainty foot! " he whispered to himself. "Enter my lady fair ! " ' There -was 'but one vacant reab in the room, at Sir Harry's table, and the headwaiter, at his suggestion, led the girl to it. Thus did circumstance lead to' an introduction which was to change the whole course of his life. With audacious directness, Sir Harry challenged the girl, and she confessed that the shoe was hers. In the lounge, after dinner, Miss 'Haydon told her story : how she had mistaken Sir Harry for another manone of an unscrupulous gang who had her 'brother in their toils. Sir Harry had to admit, as he looked at the photograph of the man .which the girl showed him, that there wa<s a. great likeness. " It was to And a clue to the whereabouts of my brother, who has been missing three months, that I ransacked your room," said the girl. Eagerly Sir Harry pressed his help. " I cannot ask you to put your life in jeopardy," was the reply, and he had to be satisfied with the suggestion that they might -inert again, at the Savoy, in London, as she, like himself, was returning to England. Chagrined by the girls reticence and her refusal of his help, Sir Harry sat in the lounge after her departure, trying to probe the mystery. Suddenly his thoughts were disturbed by a loud, •harsh voice calling to the waiter for a drink. I Sir Harry looked up. There stood the original of the photograph—the ' man who held the key to the mystery of the missing brother. After the first shock of surprise, occasioned, by the recognition of the raucous-voiced stranger for the man of Whom 'Miss Haj'don had spoken as having been her enemy, Sir Harry Thirlmere set himself to examine the man carefully. •He was about his own height, a little •broader in build perhaps, but the facial himself, now that he saw the in the flesh, was scarcely so pronounced as it had appeared in the photograph. The man was not dTessed for the evening, hut •hie lounge suit, was of perfect cut; and that he was by no me-cUis poor was evidenced by the flash of the stone in the ring which gathered his loocse tie, and by that of the ring which he wore on his left hand. As the man waited for his drink he idly turned over the periodicals on the table, but his eyes, as Thirlmere noted, were roving round the room, apparently searching for someone whom he expected to find there. Was he looking for Miss Haydon? In his own mind Sir Harry decided that he was, and determined that he would warn the girl. This man, if she were right, was the man who had brought about her brother's undoing. Perhaps, wjfh his own assistance, the man might be forced to repent his action in the matter, and lend himself to the deliver} of young Haydon from the toils in which he had become entangled. With this thought in his mind, Thirlmere rose from his chair and began to move towards the entrance of the lounge. A few strides 'brought him _f el with the man by the table, who started as his eyes fell on the baronet, and then stared

By BEN BOLT.

at him with a stare so deliberate that it amounted to rudeness. "Sir "Harry, guessing that the man-; interest had been aroused I>y the superficial resemblance between them, smiled slightly to himself and continued on Irs way. He remembered the number o'i the ft r.'s suite, and consulted the liftman a.s to its location. "Second floor.'' answered the man; "but the young lady has gone out." "Gone out'; " "Yep. About half an hour since. 1 brought her down ami saw her go throng' the ghss tlcor tl'.ere."' "Villi" .-a:.I tiie bar uiet. "Then I must send up a note for when she returns." He went up to Ins own room to write the note. A- lie switched on the light the diamond biiekV cf t':'e shoe, which he had left upon a table, flashed anil twinkled, drawing hi-c gaze. He smiled to himself. Nobbing had been .said as to the return of the shoe, it was, lie felt, legitimate spoil. 11? would keep it for the present. It might at some time servo as an oxv-use for a personal call. Takirg it from the table, he locked it in a di-awci. then wrote a brief note telling the girl that the man of the .photograph was in tlie hotel. Ringing for an attendant, he told the man to deliver it at Miss lluydon'u suite. That done, he decided that it would be wise to keep an eye on the man -himself, lie returned to tiie lounge—but the man had disappeared. Resolved to liml him, be made a tour nf tbe bars, billuml-Tooms. library, ami various places of public rc-ort in the hotel. The man was nowhere to be found. The hotel was one of those extensive and palatial places in which New York abounds, and the search occupied a considerable time; so that when h» returned to the lover something Ike hr.lf an hour had elapsed. . He found the pia'cc seet.nng witn j excitement Excited guests were standing in groups, men and women talking volubly, waiters also and clerks, while the manager of tbe hotel was explaining something to a couple of smart-looking individuals, whom the baronet instinctively knew were of the police force of the city. A word or two i reached him from one of tbe groups. "Shot in bis suite! An attendant heard the report and gave the alarm. The. murderer must have been in the suite at the moment. . . . Down the lire-escape, apparently. A shocking business!" As the policemen accompanied the manager to the lift. Sir Harry moved towards a couple of clerks who were whispering to each other. "What has happened?" he inquired. As he asked the question one of the men stared at him as if he had seen a ghost. His jaw dropped, his eyes bulged. It was the other man who replied. "One of the guests on the eighth floor has been shot—a newcomer. Hasn't been in the place an hour and a half. The murderer must have used the fireescape, as the shot was heard, and one of the doormen waited outside the door." "What was the man's name?" "Randling, Amos P.. from Chicago. Had his suite booked for a week, though he only turned up to-night." " 'Sense mc," said the other clerk. "This Randling was so like you that you might be his twin, brother. 'Gave mc quite a turn just now when you came up. You don't know him. I suppose?" "Never heard of him in my life," answered Thirlmere, as casually as he could; then, turning, walked to one of the bars and ordered a drink of brandy. As he -took it his hand shook. He returned to the lounge and strove to curb the wild thoughts careering through his mind. So the man whom Miss Haydon had mistaken himself for had been shot; and the murderer bad escaped up or down the fire-escape. As he considered these facts Sir Harry was conscious of a clutch of fear at his heart. Inevitably they pointed bis thoughts one way, and though he at once told himself that the conclusion towards which they led was folly, he could not completely banish the possibility from his mind. He found himself wondering if the girl, knowing of the man in the hotel, had ventured to search his room as she had searched his own a few hours previously. Had she been surprised, and in the flurry of the moment proceeded to the extreme; or had she interviewed the man, and had the interview ended in a quarrel? He could not even dimly conjecture. The possibility of either was there, and he did not shut his eyes to the fact. The escape by means of the fire-ladder might be no more than a coincidence. That was the obvious way of retreat for a person bard pressed, of course; but he could not hide from nimsclf the fact that a girl with the nerve to make the drop she had made from his own window would have the courage to deal sternly with a man who in her judgment deservad it. Then a thought struck j him. Possibly the whole thing might be no more than a coincidence, and the girl might even be ignorant of the man's arrival at the hotel. That thought brought him quickly to his feet. If that were the case, she ought to be warned. If she showed anyone the photograph of the dead man, it would certainly lend to unpleasant interrogations, if not to actual arrest. With that thought he hurried from the lounge and took tbe lift to the second Hoor. Then he found an attendant, and asked for Miss Haydon's suite. "Left, sir," was the man's reply. "Left?* he echoed, blankly. "Yep. Most of an hour since. She'll be going down North River now." "Down North River?" "Yep, for Eii-rope." Thirlmere stared at the man as if he could not believe his ears, and after a moment asked, "What boat?" "The Omaha." "But the- Omaha sailed .this after .toon." "Guess not. Missed her scheduled time for once. Some tinkering in the engineroom. Miss Haydon heard she was delayed, an' 'phoned down to the dockoffice. There was a state-room she could have—an' off she went as slick as a gun. Some hurry, I tell you!" "Well it can't be helped," said Thirlmere, feeling for a dollar to give the man. "I had a message for her, but I shall have to write now." He took the lift and, oppressed by forebodings, went to his own floor. There he interviewed the attendant who had carried the note down to Miss Haydon's suite. "That note —you took it?" "Yes, sah. Gave it to the lady herself." i "She was in, then?" asked Sir Harry, in surprise. "Met her going in as I went up to the door, sah." I "She gave you no answer?"

"No, sa>i-" "Thank "on. That's all I want to know." THE DETECTIVES GET BUSY. Sir Harry walked on and entered his own suite. He walked up and down his room in agitated thought, asking himself if the girl's departure were a sign of guilt, a ight after the committal of a crime. He could not decide. One moment he was inclined to laugh at the idea; the next he found himself hall convinced. Then a new thought occurred to him. The man who had been loitering on the side-walk, against whom he bad cannoned later in the evening—bad he been waiting for Randling, as he himself had suggested to the girl? In the light of all that had happened it seemed likely. The dead man's room bad been engaged for c week before his arrival. That man on the side-walk bad been watching for his coming; and within an hour of his arrival Randling had been shot. The man who bad died, no doubt, was the kind of man who would have enemies, and there were gun-men on tlic East Side who Ilefore be finished the thought he found himself filing hack to his previous question. The girl bad frankly owned that she was watching for the man of the photograph. That indicated that she knew of his expected arrival, and her sudden departure about the time that he was murdered looked more than ever like flight. He walked his room for an hour; then, failing to reach any relief from the darker thoughts that .oppressed him, went down to the lounge again. There were only a few people in the place; but one of them, a man who was leading a newspaper, stared at Mm intently over the top of the paper as he entered. Thirlmere caught the stare, and rightly attributed it to his superlieial resemblance to the dead man. Seating himself, he ordered a drink, and then lit a cigarette. The man with the paper signalled to the waiter who had served himself, and spoke to him. The waiter departed, and presently returned with a folded paper which he handed to the man, who conned its contents carefully. Then he looked at tlie baronet again, meeting Thirlmerc's eyes as he did so. The man tossed aside his paper, and. rising, crossed to the chair close to the j baronet's own. As he dropped into it be looked at .Sir Harry again, then he spoke. "I guess, Sir Harry, we got to talk." "I don't see the necessity," replied the baronet. "Maybe not, but- s—■"5 —■" The man lifted the lapel of his coat and for one brief moment exhibited a small silver shield. "I do not understand," said Sir Harry, divining that the shield was meant to be convincing. "What is it—the symbol ot a secret society?'' The man laughed. "You ma}' call it that —if you like. Yes, I guess it's as good a name as another for the New York police." "Oh!" said Thirlmere, with sudden enlightenment. "And why do you ivant to talk with mc?" "You can't guess, Sir Harry?" "Well." replied tbe baronet, with a smile, "T won't go as far as that." The detective laughed. "I wondered if you had seen this man who has been shot; now I guess you have. Randling was an acquaintance?" "Xo. I saw him once in the lounge here, but I have never spoken to him in my life." "Urn!" said the other. "I suppose you know you might be mistaken for his twin?" "So one of the clerks informed mc. Neither of you are —cr—flattering." "There are differences, of course." "I hope so," replied the baronet. The detective laughed again; then he asked sharply: "You don't suppose he was mistaken for you." "You mean that he was killed instead of mc?" "Yep." "I don't know anyone who desires my death. The present heir to the baronetcy is only thirteen months old; hardly of an age to scheme for my decease!" "Would Ibe precocious," agreed the other. "Sure there's nobody else?" "Certain." The officer considered a moment; then he asked: "Told mc all you know?" Sir Harry was conscious of a 'little stab of anxiety. Had the man already connected Miss Haydon. with Randling's death? "Not quite all," he answered slowly, whilst he revolved tbe question. "As 1 was entering the hotel before dinner a man cannoned against mc, knocking off my hat. It may have been an accident, but in view of these later events I am inclined to believe it was done quite deliberately." "Why?" "Well, the man picked up nlv hat, and whilst restoring it to mc 6tared at mc rather hard. It struck mc at the time that he was examining mc, and now I feel quite sure that he was." "Think he took you for Randling?" "Well, what is your opinion?" "Seems likely,'" agreed the detective. "What sort of a fellow was he?" Thirlmere described the man as well as he could, and his listener nodded. "Sounds like a tough from the Kast Side. Haven's seen him since?" "No; I haven't been out of the hotel since." "Care to have a look round?" Sir Harry smiled. "I don't mind." "Then I'll come with you. I'll walk behind. If you see the fellow, give mc the tip." (To be continued Saturday next.)