THE CRIME ON THE FILM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 48, 26 February 1923, Page 10

THE CRIME ON THE FILM.

lAU, RIGHTS RHSKRVTU

(HAPTF.K XXJI. Tlio hard-focpd stewardess brought in Sinner-a simple but very dainty meal, accompanied by the usual bouquet of downs. She looked curiously at her captive as sac laid the table. What had happened to the girl- s »e "as as one transformed, she smiled. Sue seemed, for the first time, to have become thornil<*hlv alive. For the lirst lime also the , woman understood Sir .lames's infatuation. The young lady was beautiful indeed. Was" it all right then t Had >he and Uic baronet come to term.- , .' If so. how was it that Sir James had locked himself in his own state-room, cursing everyone who came near him. ill one , " of his well-known black tempers, which made everyone on board go silently and speak in whispers?

Muriel ate her dinner and drank a little wine. She did not think or make plans. She felt that every action was being guided, and was content to have it so. "When the meal was taken away she took some crumpled papers from the bosom of her dress and sat down to the piano.

For some reason or oilier, ever since Thumbwood had given them tr> her. she had been carrying the music manuscript and lii~ efforts at discovering the cipher. >Tow she down :it the little pinao. propped the papers tip upon the musicstand, and le-t her fingers run over the keys.

She stared ill 1 lie Intricate series of letter.-, now and then playing them as they occurred, making odd, fantastic Twittering founds which were not music. lmt yet hail ii curious appeal, punctuated as each set of disconnected notes was Ijv n true musicul chord.

Supposing thnt Tliumbwood was right and that the musical notes represented letters of the alphabet, there were seven different interpretations. She played through each one. striving, with her quickened sense of attention, to make the notes as they indicated letters into some sort of words.

It was impossible. Her brain was ■working as if packed in ice. She felt that if she had been ut school again she could have explained the most complex mathematical problem to her pupils, and vet this entirely baffled her.

The curious thing was that while it baffled her she no longer experienced the old sense of hopelessness. On the contrary, as she went on her excitement grew. She felt that she was nearer and nearer to a solution. Xot only that, some inward voice told her that everything, everything in her own life and in Antony's, depended upon her power to solve this riddle—to tear the secret from those bewildering notes and letters. . .

Hardly knowing what she did. she brought both hands down upon the piano in one loud dominant chord —a cliorfl that was not in the manuscript but in O Major. She modulated, her white fingers van up and down the ivory keys, end again she struck the same chord, but this time in B Minor. As the sound died away Muriel understood! In a flash of intuition the whole secret became plain. She must transpose. The odd music of old Squire Rodny was written in E Flat Minor. Tingling in every nerve she began to play it in C Sharp Minor. She counted a few notes of the first of Thumbwood's translation. They meant nothing. At random she plunged into another. It was number five, and in ten seconds she know the cipher was discovered. It was the work of a mojnent to cross the cabin, take, a sheet of paper and a little jewelled pencil which lay upon the table, to return to the piano, "and, transposing all the time, note down the message from the dead. Letter by letter, word by word, always with difficulty, always owing to the trained musical skill with which one letter in the original became another in the transposition to another key, she spelt it out and wrote it down. And as she did so her face became paler and paler, her eyes filled with horror and amazement, as she saw one side at least of the mystery of Hose Regis displayed before her in all its stark, naked wickedness.

At last it was over. Her whole brain blazed with the astounding truth. She stood in the centre of her prison breathing rapidly, realising what a tremendous weapon she held in her hands, and vet. confined here, was unable to use. She wanted air. In the day time they never allowed her' to unscrew ' the portholes. At night, before she went to sleep, the stewardess generally name in and opened one or the other, according as to which was to leeward. Muriel turned to the one on the left side of the cabin 'he port side of the yacht, had she but known it. There waa no difficulty in unscrewing the heavy mechanism but as her hands went up to it she started back in alarm, for there was a sharp tap in the centre of the glass. For a moment she thought that some bird, attracted by the light, had flown against the thick circle of toughened glass, but in a second more she realised it was not so for once again came the sharp imperative tap—just as if someone outside were knocking wiUi the edge of a coin. With a great effort she turned the screw over its first threads. Then her white hands worked like lightening, and gradually the porthole swung open, inch by inch. The cool night air flowed into the cabin as she stood on the end of her ncr h and began to pevr out. She had •but hardly dune s o when she was conscious that within a f not of llor was another face. It «- a3 black all over and seemed floating there before a vfeta of starlit horizon --an astounding phenomenon had she not immediately rea lised to whom the hanging countenance belonged. "You. miss: you. mis? at last?" "Elijah! - "The same, miss, but all so gay! But 'ush, as they says in the drama. * We're in a tight place, miss." "Elijah, thank God. How did you find mc?" "Xever mind, miss"—the voice was raw with arixietv "I'm standing on a rope ladder hooked to the taffrail. There's no particular watch being kept at the present. Can you squeeze out through the porthole? Everything's in that." Muriel considered for a moment. It! would be a terribly tight fit. but she; thought she could do it. "Yes. and if I do?" ''I have a boat down below. We're only quarter of a mile from shore. Once you're in that boat then you're safe. Can you come out legs forward, miss!"

By GUY THCXRNE.

Author of "When It Was Dirk," etc

I-'i<r nn=«er Muriel looked wildly round the riihiu. Standing as she was on the m.l rif the roiicli. the lower edge of the purOiole v.a- about level with her waist. >he -nvl-'iicd out her arms and felt, along tin* cornice at '.lie top of the, panelled »a!l- where the domed ceiling, l.vjraii. It was of hard polished teak wood., slippery, bul so moulded that her lingers could get a good grip of it tor a moment, held hard, swung out for a moment. , and then, lifting her legs, shot 'hem out i through tli" porthole until she was bill-j miced on the sharp brass rim a little below the small of (he back. She fell her ankles clutched with an I in.,, grip, let go her hands from above, fell half way back fero the rabin with an excruciating p.mg of pain—it seemed as if her whole body were being cut in ' iwu -and tlie-n "as dragged ruthlessly] outwards with a tearing and rasping; of all her clothes until only her bead j and shoulders were still ill the cabin.; and her feet were being pressed down j upon si yielding rung of rope. l-".- v - U-low her, so it seemed, came ai hoarY whisper. -Now. miss, whatever Vim do don"' fall forwards. Slither out. and directly you get your arms free catch hold of the side of the ladder. It was touch and go. There was oiio moment of sickening uncertainty as she almost lost her balance and fell forward down the dark side of the ship into 'he black water below, and then she gripped and steadied herself. Her rescuer said nothing more, but she felt his grip upon her ankles relax a little, and then begin to move them round. She understood, turned her whole body. releasing and regaining iei orins of the sides of the rope ladder, until she was face to it, panting, trembling, but safe. For one brief instant she lilted herself on her toes and peered into the, cabin She saw the tumble of papers upon the table, but rtid not realise that her translation of the cipher was among them. Then she began to slowly lower herself until there was a firm grip of her waist, and she sank upon the thwart ot a little boat. A tarry hand pressed itself over her j mouth for an instant. In the light pouring out from above she saw tlie black figure of her rescuer carefully unhooking the rope ladder from the taffrail. catching it dexterously, and tlrawinn- it into the boat. Then a pair of . sculls dipped noiselessly into the water, though with a Hash of blue phosphorescent light, and slowly, with infinite caution, the dinghy seemed to drift away from the dark side of the ship. H was a moment of tense excitement, for Muriel at least. It seemed an age before the blazing yellow eye of the porthole dwindled and dwindled until it became no larger than a shilling, and there was no sound. Not a single soul aboard the Stella knew of her escape. When they were a considerable distance i away Thumbwood rested on his oars for a moment. "Xow, miss," he said, 'it is quite dark, and I cannot see anything. Even if it weren't it wouldn't matter. We're filming something big! Take off some of your clothes and drop them into the water, all you can. I've got some more waiting for you on shore, and here's a cloak." Muriel took off her skirt, petticoat and blouse, enveloping herself in the tweed golf cloak Thumbwood handed her. "Why should I do this?"' she asked. "The" tide's ebbing, miss, or just about to. These clothes will be carried out into the bay. They'll be found wlien they miss you, and they'll think that you're a dead 'un. On the contrary, you will be very much alive, and so we shall have them." He bent himself once more to the oars. '"It won't be safe, miss, to land in St. Abbas Cove. There are fishermen about to-night. Xot that anyone from the yacht would ever get you again, but no one must know where you are for a day or two. Miss, X have been a long, long time at it. but I know the truth at last." "You know the truth. Elijah?" "A long time ago. miss. 1 said to you that everything depended upon Miss Ogilvv. Well. I know all about Miss Ogilvy now. I never went to London. That was a blind. I've been hiding, and watching, and waiting for weeks.'" They were past the opening to St. Abbas Cove now and were skirting the cliffs in the dark. The lights of the yaoht Stella were only twinkling points in the darkness a mile away. Once or twice a flashing light upon Portland Breakwater circled round them and passed, but there was no need for caution of speech now. The two significant words "Miss Ogilvy" echoed and ran over the quiet water. "And T." said Muriel, in tones which vibrated no less earnestly, "have disI covered the cipher of the music. Elijah. it is terrible beyond thinking. I don't know what you will say when I tell you." "Wait till you hear about Miss Oeilvv. miss.' , said Thumbwood. ''An>now, we've got two miles to go before 1 take you to the little place where you and 1 have got to lie hidden for a day or two until the biggest screen sensation that ever was. is ready for exhibition." So they went on in the dark, upon the bosom of the friendly sea. with only the stars looking down upon surely the strangest pair of seafarers anywhere that night. (To be continued daily.)