THE SECRET AGENT

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 139, 14 June 1935, Page 15

THE SECRET AGENT

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(Author of ** Solution of & rartc," " Who ™

CHAPTER XVIII. The Real Mr. Hayden. Mr. Cyrus P. Hayden, the real, was staying, according to the fashionable intelligence in the morning papers, at one of London's most exclusive hotels —for a few days only. Acting on the advice of our friend at the American Consulate, and armed with a letter of introduction from him, I determined to see him, taking 'with me a selection of cuttings from the newspapers in which were particulars of the Nidderdale Mystery, and of the use which the supposed murderer had made of his name when staying at the Grand Hotel at Harrogate. But before I called on Mr. hayden Chancy and I settled, to the best of our knowledge and belief, a point of high importance.

When Charles Rensie, taken by surprise, and acting on impulse, had hailed Taverner as Wilford, his uncle's old secretary, at the Great Central Hotel, and Taverner, seeing Fanny Platt and recognising her as the young lady he had seen the night before at Koccaboni's Restaurant, had fled, presumably carrying oft' the Princess Sarentzoflf with him, or, at any rate, causing her to flee simultaneously, I had come to the conclusion that Taverner was the man who had posed as Cyrus P. Hayden at Harrogate, figured in various transactions in

Hull, been last seen on the Corporation pier of that city, bound —ostensibly— for London, by way of New Holland and Lincoln. I worked it out this way. The pseudo Cyrus P. Hayden of the Grand Hotel at Harrogate had been described to us as a bearded and inoustached man—in all other respects, figure, colour of hair and eyes, and so on, he corresponded with what Rensie, on the one hand, remembered of Wilford, and on the other with what we knew of Taverner. My theory, based on the knowledge that the man seen in Hull had purchased a safety razor and a case of scissors there, was that the fugitive, after leaving Hull, rid himself of his beard and moustache, changed his layman's garb for that of a clergyman, and as ft clergyman, clean-shaven and of a pleasant, well-fed countenance, appeared in London. A further question arose —-was he the Rev. Francis Wilford Taverner, who, according to Crock ford's Clerical Director} , , had been, years and years before, an Anglican chaplain in St. Petersburg, or was lie once more assuming a name to which he had no right? Leaving that, however, aside for the moment, was the man Rensie swore to be Wilford the same man that we had heard of at Harrogate and in Hull? That was the real question.

Now, until Mr. Isidore Mosenberg's clerk, Marks, came on the scene both Chaney and I were of opinion that the answer to that question should certainly be in the affirmative. But what Marks toldyUs and Jalvane at the interview at New Scotland Yard upset all our calculations. Chaney was quick to see it.

"It's utterly impossible, Camberwell, that this man, Taverner, whoever else he is, can be the man who was at Harrogate, and in Hull," he said. "What Marks told us settles that point. Marks eays that Taverner, as described to him by Fanny Platt, a clean-shaven, very smartly dressed parson, called two or three times on Mosenberg six weeks ago. Now, that would be just before the socalled Cyrus P. Hayden descended in his nice, modest manner on the Grand Hotel at Harrogate. But Mr. Cyrus P. Hayden of the Grand Hotel had a full beard and moustache, but I never heard of a man growing a full beard and moustache in a few days —impossible! What do you say?" "I suppose it is," I answered. "Yes, of course it is—if Marks was right about Tiis dates." "Well, he said six weeks, or about six weeks, and according to our dates that wouldn't be very long before the so-called Cyrus P. Hayden turned up at Harrogate," said Chaney. "No, Camberwell —the Taverner of the Great Central Hotel in London, is not the so-called Cyrus P. Hayden of the Harrogate Grand Hotel. That's flat—if what Mark's says is correct; and I see no reason whatever to think that it isn't. What's of more importance is—where is the man who called himself Cyrus P. Hayden? And—who is he?" "There's another question, Chaney," I said. "Is Rensie right when he says that Taverner is Wilford—the Wilford whom he knew as old Mr. Rensie's secretary at Rain Stang House?" "Rensie swears that he is right!" replied Chaney. "I've never known a man so positive in my life as he is on that point.' And if. he isn't right, why did Taverner got the wind up and bolt? I'll tell you what it is, Camberwell— we shall have to go back, and go back a long way, and find out all we can about Taverner. If he's the real, genuine parson man referred to in Croekford we can surely trace his career. Mind you, he may have been old Rensie's secretary, posing at the time as a layman.' But if ne's a genuine parson—that is. if he's the man mentioned in Crockford —we can trace him. Ho doesn't appear—from Crockford —to have done any clerical , work since he was in Russia, but the

clerical authorities must know something about him. It's another case of harking back, Camber well," "But who's the other chap?" I said dolefully, no doubt. "The man who called himself Cyrus P. Hayden at Harrogate?" "Well, here's the real, proper Cyrus P. in town," answered Chaney. "Go and ask him if ho can throw any light on the matter —if lie knows of any bad man likely to assume his name for wicked purposes? He won't know, of course —but it'll do no harm to see him. Besides, hero's this much to remember—the coincidence would be a bit too much if the mysterious man of Harrogate had just invented that name. Come to thine of it, he'd probably a purpose in adopting a real name." "You're forgetting, Chancy;" I said. "Of course he'd a definite purpose in adopting that name. The real Mr. Cyrus P. Hayden is an American mil-lionaire—multi-millionaire, in fact, from what we've learned. The Harrognte impostor adopted that name in order to deceive and lure Esmore to go up there with the jewels." "That's forgotten," admitted Chaney. "Multiplex scheme all round, I'm thinking, and we're only in possession of a few threiids now. Well, Camberwell, go and see the real Mr. Hayden—if you can get at him." Thanks to the letter of introduction I have just mentioned I had no difficulty in obtaining an interview with Mr. Cyrus P. Hayden at his luxurious suite in one of London's most fashionable hotels. I found a courteous, silverhaired old gentleman, very much mentally alive, who listened to ray story with keen interest, and was evidently a good deal amused by it until I came to its tragic parts. He checked my narration of the fact:; from the newspaper clippings which I had carefully arranged for him, anrl I saw that his business instincts quickly enabled him to get the whole thing very clearly into his mind, and that by the time I had finished he had takeii a thorough grip of it. "What you are now wanting to find out," he said, when I had done, "is —who is the man vho assumed my name at the Grand Hotel at Harrogate?" "That is it," I answered. "So that wo may be f helped in the further problem of his presen ; whereabouts." "You have no idea of his actual identity?" he asked. "Or have you?" "We think it likely that he is a man who, under the name of Wilford, was secretary, or compan ion, to an old gentleman named Eensie, who lived at Rain Stnng House, n?ar the scene of the murder," I replied. "This man, Wilford, was left a small legacy—a thousand pounds —by old Mr. Eensie. The executor of Mr. Hensic's will-paid out the legacy at once, as Wilford said that he was wanting 1:o go to America. We don't know if he n-ent." * "How long ago is that?" asked Mr. Hayden. "Just alvMifc two years," I replied. "He said that ho hail a librarianship in view somewhere in the United States. According to the information we have about him he was a bookish man—the late Mr. Riinsie was a collector of books, and this man Wilford, I imagine, had been as much librarian to him as secretary or companion." Mr. Hayden was'reflecting. Presently he laid aside the newspaper clipping? and took ofT his spectacles, as if preparatory to a speech. "Well." lie said slowly, "I am something of a maniac in that way myself —book-collecting, young man, is a disease which is difficult to eradicate from the system if it has once made an inroad. And I hive had a great many transactions with booksellers and bonksollors' agents and similar people, in both Europe and America, over a long period of years. But I can't recall the name you mention — Wilford. Can you describe this man?" "I can't describe him from personal knowledge." I answered, "but I can give a description of liim as given to me by a man who knew him well." "I think I recognise that description," he said. "It sounds to me like that of a man, an Englishman, who something short of two yeari ago sold me, at my house at Elmersville, a parcel of old parchments. But tie called himself Smithson." "Probably assumed for the occasion." I remarked. "But—a parce) of old parchments? Of what nature?" "Oh, just old deec s, conveyances, indentures, that sort of thing." replied Mr. Hayden. "Old leoral documents— English, of course. Trey were of very special and particular interest to me. personally, because a ir'eat many of them—-in fact, nearly cv cry one of them —referred to Enilisli ancestors of mine; our name. Hayden. cropped up in almost each of them. You see, the first Hayden who settled in the United States was an Englishman—he hailed from the County of Lincolnshire!" Lincolnshire! * Some, subtle instinct make me nrick mv ear.'. Lincolnshire? "Indeed V I said, as calmly as I could. "That's, very interesting, sir. What part of Lincolnshire?"

"Well, it was from a place called Sedney," replied Mr. Hayden. "That's near Boston—your Boston. Sedney is a fen village—Tve seen it, of course, more than onco when I've been over in Europe. There are, as a matter of fact, two Sedneys—Sedney St. Peter and Sedney Episcopi. They're a little apart —what they called a lode, or drain, between them—but, still, practically one place. My ancestor. Accepted Hayden, came from Sedney St. Peter; I've seen his name in the parish books there. He was one of the men," continued Mr. Hayde-, with obvious pride, "who eventually sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower." "That's still more interesting," I said. "And these parchments that you spea'x of, that this man Smithsoh sold you — they referred to your ancestors at Sedney St. Peter? But —how had he got them 1" "Oil, well, he told me he dealt in that sort of thing, buying up old bundles of parchments —he was, or claimed to be, and, indeed, from his conversation I think he certainly was, a specialist in that line," said Mr. Hayden. "And lately, he said, he'd collected a lot of these old documents, had sorted them out carefully, and had brought them over to New York in the hope of selling them to people who were successors of the folk mentioned in them. Of course, I bought every one- of the documents that related to my ancestors. Some of them were of the very deepest interest to me—all of them were worth ha-ving." "You no doubt gave him a handsome price?" I ventured to suggest. "Well, I gave him what he asked,'" replied Mr. Hayden. "That was five thousand dollars for the collection. He appeared to be very well satisfied." "And that is all you know of him?" I inquired. "That is all I know of him," assented Mr. Hayden. "Well, yes, Ido just remember one other thing —he told me ho was a Lincolnshire man, come of an old Lincolnshire family, and that his father had been a well-known antiquary and archaeologist." "Of the name of Smithson?" I asked. "Oh, well, that was the name he gave me!" replied Mr. Hayden, smiling. "It may have been his business name." "And from my description —though at second-hand —you thinK the nan I have epoken of as Wilford reminds you of the man you knew as Smithson?" 1 asked. "It raises a chord of memory?" "It certainly doee that," said Mr. Hayden. "I should say the man you're thinking of was the man who sold me these oid deeds. Your description and my recollection fit in very well." "I am infinitely obliged to you," 1 said. "There's just one more question —did this man tell you if he was intending to stay over there, or had he just made the trip for the purpose of selling thoee old papers?" "Ah, I can't say as to that," replied Mr. Hayden. "But I do know that both before selling to me and after selling to mo he sold to other people. Personally I never saw him again after his call on me." "Would you recognise him if you saw him now, sir?" I asked. "I should!" said Mr. Hayden. "At once!" I went away after that. I had a sort of vision before my eyes. I sa.w a man carrying a handsome euitcase boarding the New Holland boat at Hull. The boat made its way across the Humber and touched Lincolnshire. The man left it. Where did he go? (To be continued.)