A RING OF STEEL

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 183, 4 August 1932, Page 22

A RING OF STEEL

GILBERT LITTLESTONE.

CHAPTER VII. Chief Inspector Craik was perfectly correct when he told those whom it might concern that his connection with Scotland Yard had only commenced after he had left the Army in 1919. He had been all through the Boer War as a subaltern, where he had done the State good service in one way or- another, not entirely connected with purely military matters. And when he had offered his services again on a far more serious occasion, he had not been entirely forgotten by the powers than be, and had found himself in the autumn of 1914 in some sort of secret work which he carried out in a manner eminently satisfactory to his superiors.

Now, there are many things connected with a military campaign outside the actual fighting and secret service, and all that sort of thing, of which the public knows nothing. It is absolutely impossible to handle troops by the million without there being more than one grave scandal which, bad as it is, does not affect the' general progress of war at all. And it was in this particular line that Craik shone pre-eminently.

So that when he found himself at a loose end, and more or less impoverished at the end of hostilities, he offered his services to Scotland Yard, where he was immediately accepted. „ His . promotion was rapid, so that, in five or six years, he had attained a position which promised even greater things.

He was the very man to handle what within a few hours was known as the Foxeraft Mystery, so it was passed over to him,.and now, as he sat in his office on the morniilg following the discovery of the tragedy, he was still brooding.over it, in fact, had been doing so most of the previous night. Ho was not alone, for with him was ■his assistant in the person of Detective Sergeant Coates, who always acted with him in cases that needed careful handling. "I can't make it out at all, Coates," he was saying. "I have been puzzling my wits for hours and I can't see daylight anywhere. How . the deuce did those people, because there must have been more than one, manage to get into Mr. Foxcraft's flat? They might just as Well attempt to get into the Tower of London and steal the Crown Jewels. But I have told you all about that."

"Not quite, sir," Coates said. "Of course, I know all about that wonderful fireproof door, and the fact that the flat is three storeys above the ground. But, of course, I haven't been there and know nothing abo*ut the surroundings." "It's like this," Craik explained. "The small block of buildings called Regent Gate Mansions, is divided into three flats. A few years ago it was one house in Lunt Street, and next door was a long series of buildings, consisting of several shops, and the whole thing was sold to a speculator in real estate, who pulled down the lot and built what is now a private hotel where the shops stood. But he didn't want the whole of the ground for the hotel, so, where the dwelling house stood, he made flats. To light the side windows of these it was necessary to leave a space between the flats and the hotel, which formed a sort of blind alley, running the whole depth of the flats. Looking into this blind alley are the windows of the flat.sitting rooms, one above the other, from the ground to the third floor. But I can't see how this fact helps us much."

"No, sir?" Coates asked. "Then you don't think that the murderer entered by way of the window? When I say the window, I mean the one in Mr. Foxcraft's sitting room that looks out into the blind alley." "I don't see how he possibly could," ! Craik said. "It would require a ladder, and a precious long one, to reach up to that window. Your modern burglar is a pretty audacious sort of man, but I don't see him walking through the West End with a ladder over his shoulder in the dead of night. He could not have done so without .meeting half a dozen policemen, every one of whom • would have asked him what he was doing and where he was going with a thing like that on his shoulder. And as one man couldn't possibly carry a ladder as long as that, there would naturally be two of them. • No, I can't, really see that that way has the least chance of success." "Anything in the way of fingerprints, sir?" Coates. asked. "Oh, I have seen to that. Nothing, except those of the dead man, and, of course, Mr. Brent's. The only thing in the shape of a possible clue is this little thing." With that, Craik took a small envelope out of a drawer and from it removed a black object of about an inch square, which he crumbled between his fingers. "This is the only sort of clue," he said. "This and two or three long hairs which I picked up off the floor in the flat. You see what it is—a chunk of soot." "Well, sir?" Coates asked. "What do you make of it fi Craik went on to tell his subordinate that he had picked up the piece of soot from the carpet in the dead man's sitting room,, and that at the same time ho had found two or three long, stiff hairs, which he showed his companion. "I gather from this bit of soot,"- he said, "that the chimneys of the flat have been swept recently. When I picked up those dingy-looking bristles I was certain of it. They come from the top of a sweep's brush. I am-certain of that, because I put the question to the caretaker, and' he told me that within the last week or two a sweep had certainly been in the flat." "Interesting up to a certain point, sir," Coates said. "But what has the sweep to do with it ?" "If you asked me to answer that question on the spur of the moment, I should say nothing at all," Craik confessed. "However, let me tell you what the caretaker said." Coates listened carefully to all his superior had to say, and then shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "We are not much further, sir, are we?" he asked. "It doesn't seem to me that the sweep in question had anything to do -vith it, seeing that his visit to the flat was prior to Mr. Foxcraft's Paris excursion. What you might call a mere coincidence." . . "Wcl., perhaps so," Craik agreed. "Anyway, on the testimony of the caretaker the sweep left the premises; being released by Mr. Foxcraft himself, and nothing was missing. As a matter of fact, there was nothing valuable in the flat at the time, and moreover the robbery and the crime did not take place till ' something like a fortnight afterwards.. Still, I am going to inquire into this sweep business because it might lead to something I have got the address of the agent of the Hats and I think I will run round and have a few words with him. Oh, yes, whilst I am away get on the telephone to the police

in Paris, and ask them to communicate with the auctioneers who sold the Due de Lancy's historic treasures. What I want to get at is exactly what Mr. Foxeraft brought over. So far as I can make out, there was no record of his purchase in the flat, and if Mr. Foxeraft took a receipt for the cheque he paid the auctioneers 1 can find no trace of it. You see, I want a complete list of the missing property, though I am afraid it won't help us much. Still, you never know, and it is just possible that some of it found its way into a pawnshop. Of course, this coup was financed by some master criminal who would naturally expect to handle all the plunder afterwards."

"Not always, sir,'.' Coates said, shrewdly. "We have both known occasions when the: actual burglar or thief has slipped an article or two into his pocket and said nothing about it to his .principal. ¥ou remember how we tracked the Maddison gang down by a diamond ring that the actual thief kept.back and pawned down at Earnsgate, where he was with his girl."

"Ah, that is precisely what I have got at the back of my mind," Craik said. "However, you get: on to Paris and by the time I return you will have something to tell me." With that, Craik ordered round his two-seater car and drove off with the idea of interviewing the firm of Bentley and Co., who acted, as , agents 'to the owner of the Regent Gate Mansions flats. He gave his name, and saw one of the partners. "I am sorry to trouble you," he said. "And.l hope you will regard this visit of mine as confidential. lam inquiring into the murder of Mr. Foxeraft." "Oh, yes," the agent said. ' "A most shocking affair, that, wasn't it ? A thing I should have thought to be impossible from what I have read in the papers. Of course, if I can give you any information I shall be only too pleased." "Well, it's like this," Craik explained. "Wo never overlook even the slenderest clue. Now, I am informed that the owner of the flats is in the habit of sending a sweep to look to the chimneys twice a year. I don't know whether that order comes in your province, but, seeing that you manage the property—" "Well, wo do and we don't," Bentley said. "You see, the late owner left everything in our hands." "The late owner," Craik exclaimed. "Well, yes. I mean the man who built the fiats and the hotel next door. He was extraordinarily nervous about fires, and he made a stipulation in the leases that all tenants should afford facilities twice a year for having the chimneys swept. But when he died some three or four months ago, and the property came into the hands of a nephew, that was all stopped. The nephew is a man who doesn't waste a penny where ho can help it, and, as the property is •heavily insured, he gave us instructions to countermand this sweep, telling us, quite rightly, that it is the tenants' business to look after their own chimneys. Wo did countermand the order, and I am perfectly certain that the man wo used to employ never sent one of his workmen to the Mansions since the order was withdrawn."

"Now, tha£ is very interesting," Craik smiled. "Would you mind giving me the address of your late sweep?" "Certainly, that I will do with pleasure," Bentlcy said. "If you will com© with me as far as the clerk's office you can have it at once." CHAPTER VHI. Craik proceeded to seek out the master sweep, whom ho ran down in a sort of mews at the back of one of the squares, only to find that what Bentley had told him was absolutely correct. He was a smart, intelligent type of man and answered Craik's questions without the slightest hesitation. "No, sir," he said. "None of my men have been near the Mansions since last March. The gentleman who owns the property to-day didn't need my services any more, and I told my men so at once. I have four of them altogether, and I can account for their time every day for the last, month or. two by looking at the sheet. If you will come into my little office I will do it now."

It was quite plain to Craik at the end of half an hour, that no employee of the master sweep had been anywhere near the Mansions since the previous spring. So Craik thanked his informant and went back to his office. So far, he had found nothing out of a practical nature, though the negative evidence was sinister enough. For some reason or another which had yet to be explained, the gang that had plotted the raid on Foxcraft's flat had found it necessary to get one of their confederates into the house disguised as a sweep. In this they had been successful and the sham sweep had managed to get away without arousing any suspicions. But what he was after and what he had been doing in the flat in the dark of the early 1 morning was something that' Craik had yet to discover.

During his absence Coates had not been idle. "I have managed to get through to the Paris headquarters, sir," he said. "And just before you came in I had a fairly satisfactory reply. The Paris people have seen the auctioneers and I took down a. list of the things Mr. Foxcraft. bought, as the articles were roughly described to me over the telephone. There are not many of them, but they fetched over £60,000 by auction, and Mr. Foxcraft gave his cheque for them. And that is not quite all, sir. As the sale was a very important one the auctioneers in Paris had special catalogues printed. They were illustrated with photographs in colours and sold to the trade at £5 each. A good many hundreds were sent out and several of them are in London to-day. I was told that Letchmere and Company in Regent Street and Farrants of New Bond Street and half a dozen other people in London, have those .catalogues, so I sent a man round to one of these firms to see if we couldn't borrow one, and here it is, sir." Coates indicated quite a work of art in the way of a catalogue which lay on the table in front of him. "Very classy, sir, isn't it J" he said. "Quite a nice addition to any collector's library. I have been going through it with the list I had by telephone from Paris and have marked off practically everything that Mr. Foxcraft had bought." "Good man," Craik said approvingly. "Now, you take this address. You will see that it is that of the Neapolitan Hotel in Rome. Get on to the manager and ask him if lie. remembers a long time ago Air. Foxcraft, the eminent dealer, staying in his hotel. Ha is pretty sure to, because Mr. Foxcraft was known all over Europe. And if that is satis-

factory as far as it goes, ask him if he remembers witnessing a document signed in his presence by Mr. Foxcraft. which, in turn, was witnessed by his head waiter. Now, go and do this at once, and give orders that when Mr. Brent comes he is to be sent in. immediately."

(To be continued daily.)