Crimes Of Sirad The Serpent

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Crimes Of Sirad The Serpent

Synopsis: After two star wltnst.es « fla | n#t Sirad the Serpent and M. J,", leaders of a fligantlo opium gang, are slain, polioe install * dictograph in the hotel apartment of the pair, hoping to overnear a convicting conversation. From an additional outlet on the wire, Louis Lemoine, brilhant undercover man, and Captain do Beck, hear one of their own detectives, Legros, confer with the criminals as to their next move. INHERE was Legros? His voice seemed to come from the suite of Ie Roi and Sirad. Whom was he calling "chief?" 1 " question the shocking answer came at once. For le Roi replied to him: "! lie shipment came through to-day." Then lus rapid voice paused. "Can you lien r me '! he asked. •Perfectly!" came the voice of Legros—with a chuckle. And I remembered that it was he who had installed the diet..graph. It was all dreadfully clear now—Legros had installed a two-way dictograph. And now he was upstairs ah'jie, at.his listening post, plotting with <• Ixn. But the opium king was speak--IIILT. 1 "The shipment is at the establishment of a woman known as The Widow L'oux," he said. "She—" "I know where she is chief," came the low, rapid interruption from Legros. "liood. Go as soon as yon can. She must put up 100,000 francs. The next deal is to morrow. But wait—are you 6iire they do not suspect you?" •Suspect? Bah! I iV m a hero. Didn't I swallow a little dope, just for the symptoms' sake? Didn't I bash my head an d cut it, all in the line of duty?" "\ou talk too much. I don't like orators, said the thin, smooth voice of M. le Roi.

No. V.— (Conclusion.) "Someone at door!" murmured Legros. I distinctly heard a door opening. That would be the police stenographer—for, of course, the damning conversation had clearly shown that Legros was not in the hotel suite of the two opium ring leaders. He was at his listening-post in the room directly above them. Lemoine shut off the dictograph. "And that, he said, "is that." He spoke very quietly, his dark eyes unutterably sad, his face implacably stern. Rage Roused By a Traitor But 1 must confess that I had none of my friend's restraint. "That swine!" I cried. "That double-crossing renegade is their agent! And when you told him to install a dictograph to listen to them, he installed a two-way dictograph so that he could communicate with them and get his orders, without fear of being seen by the police. He —" Lemoinc smiled a grim little smile. "Hold. Eugene!" he said. "You don't see the joke my friend. Don't you realise that Legros has unwittingly become a substitute for the two dead convicts? Before their death they were going to help us convict M. Ie Roi and sfrad.

True Stories Of The Marseilles Secret Police

By Captain Eugene de Beck

—Copyright N'ow it is Legro6 who is leading us straight to the proof we need to crush them." It was true! In a flash I realised that for days Lemoine had been biding his time. He had tapped the crooked dicto- (£!•.; ih. Ai. mw he had —evidence. Evidence, and the prospect of obtaining overwhelmingly greater evidence. "Of course," I said. "To-night you can catch ,iiin redlianded, collecting money in a place full of opium!" "We go to the establishment of the Widow Rnux." Lemoim- said, "but first we 'phone the Prefecture. It will be well guarded to-night, that little wine cellar of the widow's. And meantime, our loyal friend Legros will be coming to see me about getting relief from duty. He—" "I don't want to see him!" I exclaimed. "I'm afraid my face would give us away, Louis." Sure enough, Legros went to Lemoine and pleaded that his head was hurting fiom the blow it had received on the ship. He wanted a few hours' relief. And Lemoine, as can well be imagined, acceded to this request.

liven now, the flashing events of the next few hours move in my memory like a motion picture run off too fast. So much happened, and my confused

brain did so rtuch wondering through it all, that I can only hope to sketch the outstanding happenings. After dark, Lemoine, "Garcon" and I, all wearing apache disguise and lurking across the narrow street, saw Legros enter the Widow Roux's wine cellar. Then old Mme. Roux left the bar. She lod Legros through a door into the rear of the establishment. "Come. Eugene!" Lemoine clutched my arm in a grip that bit like the jaws ot a. trap. "He may try to leave by the back door." And so, though operatives hemmed in the little wine shop on all sides, "Garcon" and I followed Lemoine to the rear of the place. We could see them clearly in the dimly lighted back room, so sure of

"Put up your hands. Legros!" cried Lemoine. Legros brought up his hands —but one contained a gun and it spat a lead slug through the window sash a few inches from Lemoine'e head. Then young "Garcon" fired. Legros dropped his gun. A look of profound surprise changed his startled, guilty face, making it look almost innocent. And then Legros dropped to the floor. He was dead before we crawled through that window. And through the night there sounded the pounding of many running feet and the shrilling of police whistles. In the Widow Roux's respectable cellar we found a great cache of opium. The Widow Roux gladly turne'd State's evidence, though this ■wouldn't have been necessary. Louis Lemoine had broken the opium ring. But what interested me even more than that Lemoine had managed to snatch success from failure. "I knew a few minutes after we reached the Monteluma,'' said Lemoine, as we broached a bottle of Montrachet in my apartment, "that Legros had murdered Casario." On Methods Of Murder "But how ?" I askea.

, , , "Do you remember Casario's four lemsehes that they hadn't taken any wounds'?" Louis asked. '"Remember the specia precautions. wound in his left wrist? Remember how lliey were seated at a little table, from that wound there was dried blood Legros and the white-haired Widow on the inside of his forearm, all the way Roux. Had Inspector Guichard or Legros' to. his elbow." police superior, the excellent Inspector I did, but still I didn't see. Pascal Marin, walked into the room, "But, Eugene," Louis exclaimed, there would have been nothing to excite "When will blood run up a man's their suspicion. The Widow Roux did arm?" not have a bad reputation with the "When he's got his hands in the air!" police. X exclaimed. And then I saw it. Legros' Between the two was a bottle of wine, account of the shooting of Casario was Each had a glass partly filled. utterly false on the face of it. With And then—the Widow Roux passed a Lemoine's help, it was now easy to renewspaper to Detective Legros. construct the scene. Of course, Casario As if she had pulled a hidden switch, was not armed. It was—it must have Lemoine acted. His pistol was out, his been—Legros who had come in from the poHce whistle to his lips. other state room, shot Sub-Inspector "Crash!" went the glass in the grimy Hassan twice in the back with the window. The whistles shrilled. The two Spanish automatic (no doubt using a in the room turned startled faces toward clean handkerchief tor protect the gun us - from his fingerprints).

"And what would Casario naturally do, seeing this astounding thing? Especially when Legros turned on him?" Lemoine asked me. "Put up his hands, of course!" I exclaimed, inwardly cursing my own stupidity for not having seen it sooner. "Exactly!" said Lemoine. "The natural reaction of an unarmed criminal who has faced police guns before. Casario raised his hands, Legros fires, severing veins or an artery in the wrist. Tne blood pours out, flows down the forearm to the elbow. But while it is doing «o Legros is pulling the trigger—and three slugs tear through Casario's heart!" "What about Delrey?" I asked. "Remember that welt 011 his head?" asked Lemoine. "Undoubtedly Legros did that while Delrey was sleeping. Then he tore the sheet into strips, made a rope, mounted the chair and without much difficulty, tied the sm.ill, light Delrey tc the grating. The poor little devil never had a chance. "And remember, Eugene, when I told you that this murderer had unusual handicaps, he had the unusual advantages of unquestioned right of entry to his victims. But also because of his duties as a policeman, he could not, after killing his victims, rush from the scene of the crime as an ordinary murderer probably would. He had to be

present—and we heard him boast to hia bosses, over the two-way dictograph, that he had swallowed dope 'for sake of the symptoms.' also that he had hit and cut his own head.'' "Of course, it was he who doped Suchez?" I asked. "Of course. But Sub-Inspector Hassan t;poiled liis plan by declining doped food and drink. Otherwise, it is reasonable to assume, he would not have had to shoot Hassan. "One cryptic thing you said, Louis. You said that there was a third element in this case. Did —*' "I mean." said Lemoine, "treachery. And when I said that element came into irreat prominence in human affairs 2000 years ago, I was referring to Judas Iscariot. Among policemen, Legros was a Judas Iscariot." This was true. Marseilles was noted for the honesty of its police. "Of course," Lemoine continued, "as soon as I knew that Legros had shot Casario. the rest was clear. Justice demanded that Casario live, to help convict M. le Roi and Sirad. But those criminals desperately needed the death of Casario. When it was clear that Legros had murdered Casario, it waa equally clear whom Legros was serving. "That was why I didn't arrest Legros. That was why I didn't hold up the docking of the Monteluma. That was why I caused le Roi und Sirad to be brought to Marseilles. That was why I made Legros my apparent confidant. That was. why I permitted him to install the rlictograph between his room and theirs. "I knew they would want to get in touch with him. and he with them. The rest you know." I looked at Louis Lemoine. He appeared older than when I had first met him. The fight with the opium octopus had tired him out. But he had won. "You used their own spy against them!" I said. "And I—l thought you were slipping when you had that dictograph installed!" Lemoine grinned, a boyish grin. "Main thing is," he said, "we're broken the ring."

Next Week—"Death Sign on the £ Window Sill."