Page 10 Advertisements Column 1

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 138, 13 June 1922, Page 10

YOU WILL FIND THESEALOFATRAGEDY ABSOLUTELY ENGROSSING FICTION. Therefore do not Miss the Opening Chapters NEXT SATURDAY, JUNE 17. Thereafter the story will entertain you in our columns Daily. "I tliink that will do," Gilmour*sai<] quietly. He was quite cool and collected now. and finished his drink with a steady hand. "I am much obliged to you for your candour. Inspector, and I don't "think I will say any more at present." With that, he stood up and held out his hands. Without a word Lock fitted a pair # of handcuffs on them. Outside, a taxi was waiting, and at Lock's suggestion, both Ellis and Rust followed him into the cab. They drove along for some wav in silence towards the police station, with Gilmour sitting in the corner like a statue. Then suddenly he jumped to his feet and flung himself violently against the door of the cab. Before Lock could pull him down a?ain the doT had given under the strajn. and Gilmour made a wild dash for liberty. The cab was going swiftly alon<r the deserted street, so that directly Gilmour touched the ground he twisted round like a scrap of paper in the wind, and crashed head first upon the greaey asphalt. As his head fell forward, the hind wheel of the cab went over him. When the taxi pulled up at length, Gilmour lay there quite unconscious and quite obviously very seriously hurt. They lifted him to his feet and laid him down on the pavement with his coat under his head. "I think he is done for," Lock said. 'Driver, go to thp Thames Police Court at once and get an ambulance." I Thej- waited in the deserted street for some time until the ambulance, accompanied by the police surgeon, arrived, and an examination of the wounded ms»n wa-s made. "Rather serious, isn't it?" Lock asked. "Very. ,, the doctor slid curtly. "Unless 1 am altogether mistaken, it's a bad fracture of the base of the skull. He must have done that when he fell, and the weight of the cab on the top of him has completed the mischief. I shall be very surprised indeed if the poor chap lives tin niorninjr.' , ~ They did what they could for Gilmour, who- at length found quarters in the London Hospital, where he lay utterly unconscious on a bed. evidently waiting for the end. There was nothing to do now but to get back to Rust's rooms, where Lock accompanied them. He ha<] not yet finished his nifrlit's work, he explained, but he could spare half an hour to discuss the events of the evening. "Well, gentlemen," he said, "you can't] say that you haven't had an exciting time." "That is true enough," Rust said, as he poured himself nut a generous dose of spirit. "I wouldn't so through it again for all the money in the world." "I quite agree with you. ,, Kllis remarked. "I wanted a sensational series of articles for my paper, buj T did not expect anything quite so tragic as this.' They talked over the matter in low tones for some time, until at length the tension of the atmosphere relaxed and they began to get the events of the evening into proper proportion. "I suppose there will be an end of these river robberies now,"' Ellis sug<rpsted. "Once the secret hiding-place in Crombies Wharf is closed, there won't be many more of these raids. But I don't believe we have got the chief rogue even yet.". "Ah. there T mute agree with you. Lock said. "Tt will take a great deal to 1 convince mc that Mr. Croot knew nothing about it. But. to identify him with the robberies will be quite another thing