THE FULHAM MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 108, 10 May 1927, Page 18

THE FULHAM MYSTERY

BY HILDA SINE.

§YWOPSIS OP PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. DR. JOSEPH BLOND, * young doctor, unable to purchase a practice, "pitches" at *ulham. One foggy night he is visited by a mysterious woman, who asks him whut amount of belladonna constitutes a fatal dose. Just as tUe doctor is explaining that he cannot answer such an irregular question, the telephone bell rings. Dr. Blond bears a voice asking him to call at 48, the rest of the address being lost in the noise of a struggle at the other end of the line. There is a shriek, then the click of the telephone receiver being replaced. Startled, the doctor turns to apologise to his mysterious visitor, only to find that she has vanished. He then discovers that he cannot get into touch with the telephone exchange. After a stiff whisky and sodu lie falls asleep. Finding early next morning that his telephone is in order, he rings up for the police. Later, on going to his bedroom he finds the mysterious woman, her face bloodless and distorted, lying across his bed. The woman is dead. A policeman arrives and, after taking notee, asks the doctor to accompany him to the police station. On tie etairs they meet MRS. TREGOLD, the charwoman. A little way from the house, the constable decides he ought not to have quitted it. When he and the doctor reach the consulting room again they find that the charwoman has had a stroke; while the body of the dead woman has vanished. Baffled, the police retire. Blond summons his friend, DR. GRIERSON, who is making investigations, when he learns that Blond has been decoyed from the house by a false telephone message. He went to Blond's house to investigate the mystery, and received the doctors evening patients, the first of whom was a man named Rawlings. Grlerson was confident that he had seen this man before, and that he was acquainted with some of the details of the tragedy at Dr. Blond's. Blond was

kept a prisoner in the bouse of the man who decoyed him away, his presence greatly mystifying a visitor. CHAPTER XII. A Message from Adela. There was no doubt about the genuineness of the newcomer's surprise. He looked at Blond and then at the other man, as though expecting one or other of them to supply an explanation. As neither of them understood his surprise, it was hardly to be expected that they should be able to relieve it. "I dont understand," said the doctor. The bituation was so far beyond the grasp bf all three inhabitants of the room that they remained silent. It was Blond who broke the silence. "Let us get back to sanity," he suggested. "To begin with I don't know either of you. Can't we have a little ceremony of introduction?" "With pleasure," said the man to whom Blond owed his imprisonment. "This gentleman is Mr. Samuel Parkyn." "Rawlings," corrected the other. "I beg your pardon, yes; Samuel Rawlings. lam Solomon Bainbridge." -"Thank you," said the doctor. "And now would it be trespassing mo far on your generosity to ask why I am here and on what conditions I might expect to be set at liberty?" By way of answer Bainbridge addressed him quickly in Italian. Dr. Blond looked mystified. His mind was capable of working very quickly on occasion, and he had decided that it would be well to pretend to know nothing of Italian. As he anticipated, his attitude was taken to mean that it would be quite safe to talk Italian in his presence, and the two men began a rapid conversation in that language. The results were somewhat disappointing, for it is one thing to be able to read a foreign tongue with moderate ease, and another thing to be able to follow a conversation conducted by two men who speak it with complete fluency. The doctor was able to gather that there was some difference of opinion between the two. Bainbridge was fcr making a frank statement, and tht other urged the necessity of caution. They didn't know how much il medico knew about it all. Perhaps he was bluffing them. Blond caught a reference to Grierson, and eomething about being knocked down by a motor cycle. What had happened to Grierson? He longed to ask, but reflected that he was not supposed to understand iny of the conversation. There was a good deal about somebody called Adela and Bainbridge was very excited. It threatened to go on interminably. After a time the mental etrain of following it was too much for the doctor, who resigned himself to watching the faces of the -wo disputants without seeking to find anything intelligible in the sounds. Like all doctors, Blond was a student of phsyiognomy, and he soon felt that he knew a good deal about the two men. Of the two he preferred Bainbridge. In fact he rather liked him; and had a feeling that he would do harm unwillingly. True, he had little reason for gratitude towards a man who had lured him into a taxicab by false pretences, struck him and brought him to the place. Parkyn or Rawlings, on the other hand, had done him no harm at all. Yet he felt that the fellow was a scoundrel, and that if he was to emerge from this trouble at all it was to Bainbridge that he must look for help. At last the two men appeared to have arrived at an agreement, and Bainbridge constituted himself their spokesman. "1 suppose," he said, slowly, addressing the doctor, "it has dawned upon you that you have not been brought here for nothing." Dr. Blond nodded. "How far you are aware of the reasons for it I do not know," Bainbridge went on, "but I must warn you that it will be far better for you to be perfectly frank with us. The consequences of any other course will be as bad for you as any consequences can be to a human being. I don't think you will need me to explain myself more definitely on that particular point." He paused as though expecting an answer, and Dr. Blond remarked acidly, "Your meaning is perfectly clear to me." "Very good, then. I propose that you should tell us quite plainly and straightforwardly all that has happened to you since last Saturday. Leave out nothing. Wβ are not without means of checking your statements, and if we find that in any particular you are lying .you will deserve no mercy and you will receive none." Dr. Blond hesitated for a moment, and then decided that since he was entirely ignorant of the extent of his persecutor's knowledge the wisest course would indeed be one of complete frankness. He felt some compunction about introducing the name of Dr. Grierson, but he remembered that the name had been frequently mentioned in the Italian conversation. He would not, therefore, be disclosing any secret in revealing his connection with the case. Beginning at the beginning, he went over the whole circumstances from the arrival of the woman in hie surgery to the outrage in the taxi-cab. That it made an impression on his two hearers was evident enough, and it was not the same in its effect on the one as the other. Bainbridge seemed to be sincerely affected by the fate of the woman. Rawlings gave an impression of annoyance. They resumed talk in Italian, and Blond understood that Rawlings was throwing doubt on the story. Turning abruptly to the doctor, he tflaid: ' ;, •+ "Whe ipmd m ttesy ©f ten tetag laiockgfl-dowp, bf | motor «£cifi'' ~

"I have never heard the story except in this room." "According to what you have told us," persisted Rawlings, "Dr. Grierson would not know that you were away from your surgery. Who arranged for him to take your consultations and to tell patients that you had met with an accident and would be seeing patients to-day?" "I know nothing whatever about that. Was it yesterday that I was brought here? I don't even know what day it is." "Yes," exclaimed Bainbridge, "you have been here a little more than 24 hours. It appears though that Dr. Grierson was at your surgery very soon after you left it." "I can only repeat," said Blond, "that I know nothing whatever about that. , I have told you absolutely all I know about the whole affair." "Are you sure,," asked Bainbridge, "that the woman you saw on the bed was dead?" "I felt no doubt about it. There was no pulse. I concluded, too, that there had been a struggle. Several things pointed to it." "Have you any idea how the body disappeared ?" "None at all. I fancy Grierson believed that the woman was not dead at all, and that she walked out of the house." The effect of these words on Rawl-

ings was remarkable. His face suddenly went white and then red. "I believe," he said huskily, "that this is all a pack of lies." "I'm afraid I can offer you no evidence," said Blond, "though I confess I have not the faintest idea what interest I am supposed to have in telling you lies." "Well," said Bainbridge, "you have told us a story which may or may not be true. My belief is that it is, but we

can take no risks. You know, I suppose, that we want something that was in your house." "I had concluded that," Blond admitted. "Do you know what it is?" "Not in the least." "Do you know who lived in the house before you were there?" "I have heard it was a man with an American name. The neighbours seemed to have had some sort of grievance over his matrimonial affairs, but I know nothing about him." "Do you know what his profession was?" "No." "What I say," broke in Rawlings, speaking in English, '"is, if he hasn't got it, who has?" "I will tell you this," said Bainbridge deliberately, "that the woman who called on you on Saturday called to obtain certain papers. She has disappeared, and in view of the fact that the police have been to your house, our opinion has been that you have handed her over to them. Do you swear that this is not the case? You must admit that the story you have told us is an extremely unlikely one." "Very unlikely," said Blond, "I don't think I -would believe it myself if I had not seen it happen." "We have not had that privilege," remarked Bainbridge drily. "Can you tell me who it was that rung me up?" said Blond. "I have not the faintest idea. It was nobody associated with us or connected with the lady's visit. If we accept the truth of your story, there are peopre working against us and we are entirely in the dark." "Everybody appears to be in the dar.i in the affair," protested the unhappj doctor, "but meanwhile what do you propose to do with me?" "Keep you here," ejaculated Rawlinge. "Until we know more," Bainbridge agreed, "we cannot take the risk of letting you get away. You will be well treated here, the gentleman downstairs will look after you. When we are in a position to let you go again it will have to be with efficient precautions against your finding out where you have been. : "Can't you let Grierson know that I'm still alive?" "I'm sorry, but I am afraid anything of that sort would be too risky." "Grierson's a blasted busybody," Interpolated Rawlings, with an ugly grimace. At this point a violent knocking at the door disturbed them all. "Idiot," said Rawlings, "what does anybody want to batter the door in for?" An unsteady shuffle of feet along the lower passage followed, and then somebody stumbled up the stairs and knocked at the door of the room. The two mon simultanpously cried "Come in!" in Italian, and the foreigner whom Blond had first seen in the room came in with a letter which he explained had been posted in the letter box but not by the postman. " Adcla's writing," ejaculated Bain bridge with a glance at the envelope. "Who brought it?" "There was nobody there," replied the now inebriated man. Bainbridge opened the envelope and then let Its contents fall on the table where Rawlings read them. On a half sheet of note paper was written in a cultivated feminine hand:— "Don't trust Parkyn—Adela," (To be continued daily.)