SCORPION'S REALM

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 116, 18 May 1932, Page 15

SCORPION'S REALM

CHAPTER XXII. A Vain Search. In the city of Tidemouth is a chain of docks that stretches inland from the river, each separated from the next by a bridge that, being an integral portion of a principal thoroughfare, when raised to allow of the passage of ships, is prolific source of profanity. It having occurred to some enterprising corporation, however, that the waste of time and labour involved in sending ships into the heart of the city was distinctly uneconomic, harbourage directly on ® river was provided, so that, of la vears, and excopt for one or two pa 6 *c derelicts of laid-up vessels, whose deserted decks, rusted sides and corroded brasswork appeared to form an inseparable portion of the prevailing dejec ion, those older harbours had fallen into di=>use. It was the most inland and Relict of them all that was Chief Constable Parrot's objective. At the Station Hotel, though without previous information as to the ex ?_ reason for this visitation of t' ie 1 11 °, gods, the chief constable of the local force awaited them. . . "And you're sure the whole place 1 deserted?" Parrot demanded of his provincial colleague, following intensive questioning.

By L. C. DOUTHWAITE

The Tidemouth man nodded. "Unless they've turned up within the last half-houi- or so, in wliich case I shall receive a report at any moment, it's certain there's no one -been there since you telephoned," he said definitely. Parrot thought for a moment. "I hope those flat-footed sleuths, o' yours aren't making themselves too much a feature of the landscape," he said' at last. "He's about as safe to handle as a mad snake in a drainpipe, is The Scorpion, and with a brain that'd've made the late Professor Moriarty look like a case of retarded mentality. And once he catches a glimpse of even one of your local flatties, it'll be the skyline for him, and you with no idea that he's even been, included among those present." "Wait until you've seen where my men have taken cover," Colonel Goodenough said, with a touch of asperity. "Have you brought any kind of disguises with you?" Parrot pointed to the suitcases that were piled in a croner of the room. "Right there," he said. "More or less honest British workman, so's to merge into the dockside landscape." Camouflaged thus, and led by a local inspector, who from the hotel window Colonel Goodenough had pointed out as the artisan who was leaning against a shop-front outeide, it was arranged that one by-one they should make their way

to the Rising Star public-house that, on the opposite eide of the same street, stood some fifty yards past the point that was their destination.

Five minutes' walk from, the hotel brought Colin, disreputable in stained o-reaee-ridden overalls, to a street that was the hub from which radiated the tramway system of the city; at one end was a bridge over the narrow waterway between two of the older docks, while at right angles, and midway down, branched a narrow and sordid thoroughfare that ran parallel with the more inland of these latter.

It was down this sordid street, that was lined on the left by meagre little shops and tenement houses, and on the right by a 10ft high hoarding, that the local police sergeant turned. A couple of hundred yards, and Colin saw that the hoarding was broken by a pair of gates as high as itself, so that apart from the roof of what looked like a email office building, and the upper lavers of two piles of timber, one considerably higher than the other, no sight could be obtained of what lay beyond.

Outside the Kising Star, clad in the stained blue jersey and bell-bottomed trousers of a seaman, was Parrot. When Colin was within ten yards, without a, hint of recognition the detective turned into a side entrance of the public-house, and, followed by Colin, slouched along a passage and passed through a door at the farther end. Once Colin was inside, Colonel Goodenough closed and locked the door behind them.

"Notice the lock-up shop immediately opposite the yard gates V" he inquired, turning to his fellow chief constable. "I miss nothing," the C.I.D. replied modestly. "Instead of Parrot, my name ought to have been Hawk." "One of our men is in the top window of that building, where he can overlook everything that goes on in the yard," the local official told him. "The only other entrance is a gate that opens on

to the clock on the farther side. Immediately opposite that there's a steamer laid up. On the deck, but well out of sight, is another of my men." Parrot was eilent for a moment. "That seems good enough," he said at last. With a quick glance he indicated both Colin and the shabby out-of-work bookkeeper who was Dr. Gage. "And now, as I think the less crowd there is in the yard the better, while these two gentlemen an' myself'll take a look-see inside, you'd better dispose your men strategically in the vicinity. Tell both those sleuths who're on watch that if .anyone comes to either gate they're to signal. The one in the winder to hang out a handkerchief; the one in the ship to burst into 'All the nice girls love a sailor's' a good itune —tell him not to worry about harmony so long's he makes it PPP. Have you a key for that gate?" "Say!" The exclamation, as unexpected as it was peremptory, came from Calvin 8., unbeautiful in the guise of a brewer's drayman —a "truck driver" according to himself —and his fighting jaw was outthrust and his grey newly-lined face grimly resolute. "What's that, Senator?" Parrot inquired. "I'm coming with you into that yard— right now!" Calvin B. said, and it needed no thought-reader to determine he meant just that. Parrot, however, looked dubious. "I've been thinking that even three's a bit of a crowd," he said. "Me, I've got to go, because besides being so brilliant, I'm responsible for the success of the operations —if there's goin' to be any. The doctor, here, I need because it was him as first thought of this as a likely nest for The Scorpion, and he might get some other brain wave. Riversleigh I want because he's an expert on dope, an' it's from there that all that 'snow' was dispatched. But you—"

Calvin B.'s jaw out-thrust a further inch. "I'll be your little mascot," he said, and rose to hie feet. "You go first, Mr. Parrot. Then me, then the doctor, then Colin here." When Colin reached the gate, the illlighted street was deserted; apart from the watcher in the window he was certain that none observed him open the wicket that was let into the big double doors behind which was the old timberyard. And as for a moment he stood, the handle still in his hand, it was as if in the silence and darkness beyond was something sinister, menacing; as though this stagnant backwater of one-time prosperity had become, as it were, charged to saturation point with some influence that was definitely malefic. He stood for a moment, hesitant, for in the far background of his mind was struck a note of recollection that for the life of him he could not pin down. It was not, indeed, until having crossed the threshold, he closed the wicket silently behid him that, with the strength of that influence increased immeasurably by the act of isolation, this cudgelling of his brain bore fruit.

He was suffering, now, that same awareness of evil as on the night in Vancouver when first he determined to devote his life to the elimination of the man against whom his whole heart and soul arose in such panic revolt. Thus, now, he knew that whatever this present night was to bring forth, at long last his quest was drawing to its close. For good or evil, the final round of that long drawn-out fight was at hand.

With his experience of night operations it was not long before his eyes were able to penetrate the gloom that upon this wholly moonless night prevailed. At first dimly and uncertainly, but with each passing moment more definitely, he could make out, towards the further side of the yard, the low, meagre pile of office buildings; further down, midway between

street and quayside, a pile of timber that even in this uncertain light contrived to convey an impression of permanence, as though, as it stood now, so for many years it had stood, and so was likely to remain. Midway between the office and that timber-pile was another, and except that it was of considerably lesser bulk,, similar stack to the first. There was movement, quiet and furtive, a few yards ahead; uncertainly he was able to distinguish a vague dark shape that, following a moment's concentration, he determined upon as a human figure. "That you, Dr. Gage?" he inquired in a penetrating whisper, and the query was replied to in a voice that, though so lowpitched as almost to be indistinguishable, readied him with a strange distinctness. "Yes. That Riversleigh?" Gage undoubtedly; those calm accents could come from no one else. Without further hesitation Colin pressed forward to join him. "Where are the others?" he whispered. "Searching the office," Gage told him, but himself made no move toward the building. Instead, his pale face an ivory blur against the. darkness, he stood motionless and somehow tense, so that Colin received the idea that he was listening.

Then, with an absence of sound amid those rubbish-strewn cobblestones that was sign-manual of his competence, Gage moved forward. Xot, Colin was surprised to see, in the direction of the office, where doubtless Parrot and the American Senator were finding so much of interest, but toward the further end of the yard, where stood the timber piles.

"The others are in the building," the doctor reminded him in those same silent but penetrating tones. From which Colin gathered that for some reason that 6trange man wished to be alone.

"And you V he whispered back

"Having eeen inside the office that which tells me much," Gage said, "I am continuing my investigations — elsewhere."

Something in the quality of the quiet voice struck Colin with a sudden sense of chill. Had he thought it possible for that strange man to know fear, Colin would have said that for the first time in his experience of him, Gage was afraid. "Look in the office for yourself," Gage added, and in another moment the darkness had swallowed him. (To be continued daily.)