The Flirting Fool

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 86, 12 November 1935, Page 7

The Flirting Fool

By AIDAN de BRUNE

INTRIGUING MYSTERY STORY

For the first time since he had come to that compartment Murmur allowed his eyes to meet the girl's. He saw no signs of recognition in them—yet she could not mistake him. She held out her hand, and her fingers closed on his with a comradely grip. Murmur .sighed; sure this girl had nerve! "Pleased to meet you, Miss Pulton." Murmur managed to retain her hand for a moment longer than was formal. "Say—haven't we met be- | fore ? I seem to remember you well." The girl's eyes widened. She looked up innocently into the baby-blue eyes staring intently down on her, and a smile came on her well-formed lips. "I don't think so, Mr Murmur. If we have met before, I've been rude enough to forget it." "Ever been in Edgcliffe, Miss Pulton?" "Occasionally. I do not live there." "Ever met the late Mr Stanley Griffiths, Miss Pulton?" The Englishan spoke with seeming carelessness. "The late " She drew her fingers from the detective's grip abruptly. "I —I don't think I have ever met Mr Griffiths—l " "What's the trouble, Pater?" Dizz^r Lame interrupted with a hint of anger in his tones. "Miss Pulton " "I met a Mr Stanley Griffiths last 'night." Murmur took on himself the reply. "With him was a young lady " ! "Miss Pulton was with me last night," Dizzy interrupted shortly. "We were at His Majesty's Theatre for the show and then went to Dalmano's for supper. I took her home about two o'clock this morning." "Sorry." Murmur did not look discomposed. "I must have made el "What's the game, Pater?" Dizzy ignored the English detective. "Stanley Griffiths was murdered last night —shot in his home. I've been at the office this morning, and I saw the report turned in by the night-rounds-man." He turned to Murmur. "You are not trying to link Miss Pulton up with that man?" "Keep your hair on, Dizzy!" Pater spoke soothingly. "Saul's not suggesting anything. He's had a few adventures during the past twentyfour hours and they've disturbed his outlook on life. These Londoners are jnot used to Australian speed." ! With a nod to the man and the girl he caught Murmur's arm and led him from the restaurant. In Pitt Street Murmur released himself with a jerk; he turned and stared back at the restaurant. "What of that fellow —Dizzy Lame, you call him?" he asked abruptly. "Crook ?" "Not on your life! As straight as they make 'em." Inspector Pater replied immediately. "Lord, Saul, you put a raw one over there! We'll never hear the last of it." "We won't—l don't intend that we shall." There was an inflexible tone in the Englishman's voice. "Neither will they—that I'll promise them! John, I'll swear that girl was the one I saw in Griffiths's room. I'll swear it now, and by God, I'll swear it in another place!" CHAPTER VIII. " and that you should make a break like that, Saul! Well, I would not have thought it of you!" The two detectives were in the room they shared at Police Headquarters. Inspector Murmur, as usual, was ensconsed in the big lounge chair by the window, puffing steadily at the inevitable cheap cigarette. John Pater was striding up and down the room, obviously perturbed. Saul Murmur was not entirely at ease. He recognised that his surprise on meeting the girl in Sauber's Restaurant had caused him to make a serious break. True, he still believed that his suspicions were wellfounded—that Addie Pulton was the girl he had talked to in Stanley Griffiths's room—yet he admitted, even to himself, that his recognition was entirely unsupported; that opposed to the alibi Dizzy Lame had given he had no grounds on which he could act. Two fine vertical lines between his eyebrows alone denoted that he was worried. To the Australian detective he appeared as unruffled as usual. "And to Dizzy Lame, of all people in the world!" Pater ran his fingers through his hair, in perplexity. "Lord man! We're going to have an earful of this! You got him right up on his hind legs in that restaurant, and with the alibi he gave the girl—why, you haven't a leg to stand on!"

(Copyright)

"Alibis have "been broken before now, John.'" Murmur threw the stub of his cigarette through the window and wriggled himself into a position where he could fish for another in his jacket side pocket. "Alibi, be damned!" Inspector Pater turned suddenly. "A journalist who does things. We don't say much about it, but there's been times when Dizzy Lame's helped us quite a lot. He's got a flair for getting information—information that the police find difficult to get—Lord! I'm *betting he's with the Commissioner now —demanding our heads on chargers!" "And—if he don't get 'em?" A slow smile curved the full, red lips. "Then he'll take it out of us in that damned rag t)f his—and let me tell you, the 'Post-Advertiser' is nothing to smile at! Dizzy Lame——" "Gentleman to see you and Inspector Murmur, sir." A constable spoke from the doorway. "Damn the gentleman!" Inspector Pater strode round his desk and threw himself into his chair. "Tell him to go to " Murmur caught the constable's eye ! and nodded. The man left the room i quickly. "Suppose we'd better see him," grumbled Pater, aroused by the closing of the door. "Some damned fool who's lost his back teeth and has a friend who has a friend who has nodded to me in the street " "We're going to see him," said Saul Murmur, tranquilly. "It'll stave off Dizzy, anyway." Pater squared himself to his desk and smoothed his hair. "Lord, Saul, you've let us in for something!" "A drift of smoke sometimes locates a fire." The Englishman was staring at the door. "Now, I have an idea " The door opened, and for a moment the tall form of the constable! showed. He . stepped aside, and Ar-1 thur Skields walked into the room. " that Mr Arthur Skields has reconsidered- his position and has come to the decision that it is impolitic to quarrel with two noted members of the Detective Branch of the New South Wales Police Department." Murmur completed his sentence, ignoring the fact that the man he mentioned was in the room. "I don't know how you came to guess that, Inspector Murmur." A broad smile parted Skields's lips. "You're right. I did a bit of considering and came to the conclusion that I was a bit of a " "So the Psalmist has stated," interrupted Murmur. "What?" "That all men are liars; you'll find the statement in one of his prose poems." "Oh!" "Then you weren't at a poker party last night?" asked Inspector Pater. "I was." Skields came further into the room and seated himself before the desk. "I was playing poker with my brother and Martin; and Martin drove me home. Really, I came to apologise for my show of bad temi per." "Then you didn't shoot Stanley Griffiths?" Almost disappointment showed on Murmur's face. "Sorry not to be able to oblige you," Skields grinned. "I'm not going to say I regret he's dead. I'll admit, if you like, that I'm damned sorry I didn't pump a magazine of bullets into his rotten carcase. I'll say that if I had thought of it I might pro " "But you didn't." Inspector Murmur wriggled himself into a more comfortable attitude in the lounge chair. "Now, as you say, if he deserved it " "He did." "That's your opinion." The Englishman at last attained the position^ he aimed at. "Unpleasant sort of fellow, Mr Skields? Smoke?" The man took the cigarette case with a loud laugh. "Want any more fingerprints, Inspector Murmur?" "I always told Sir Gregory I was too obvious for a detective." There was chagrin in Murmur's voice. "So you saw through that trick?" "Not until I'd thought things over. Then my fingerpi-ints were not on that gun?" "Did you expect them to be?" "I wasn't sure. With Stanley Griffiths one isn't sure of anything." "Then you expected his murder?" snapped Pater. Skields glanced at the stout detective before the window. "Murmur had apparently lost all interest in the visitor; he was staring out of the window, his lips pursed in a low whistle. "You expected that Stanley Grif-

fiths would be murdered?" asked Pater again. "I did." Skields turned his attention to the Australian. "With a man of Griffiths's habits a natural death could not be anticipated." "Why?" "Well —well " "Mr Skields means that Mr Griffiths had the faculty of stirring to anger sex elements in men and women—in women to suit his purposes, in men the primitive instinct for revenge for injuries done to women they possess, or covet." For a brief moment the Englishman faced the room. Skieldg nodded. "Mr Murmur has stated the position fairly," he said. "Then " concluded Inspector ] Pater* "to take Inspector Murmur's definition, you were a male seeking revenge?" "If you like." A shrug accompanied the admission. "Yet you had not thought of shooting him?" "I don't think I had advanced so far at the time somebody anticipated my sub-conscious desire." A strange, primitive light shone behind the man's eyes. "I believe that up to— well, say yesterday—l had only wished and anticipated something su-

premely uncomfortable for him in the future " Skields was interrupted by a little chuckling laugh from the man seated at the window.

(To be Continued),

Napoleon is well-known for his military genius, but his outstanding ability as a civil administrator has been overlooked. From 1792 to 1813, 21 years, he fought the successve European coalitions brought against him, mostly with success, while at the same time he successfully attended to France's civil requirements. Reference to this matter was made by Mr H. E. Herring, the Labour candidate for Mid-Canterbury, in his address at Leeston, and he suggested that not only was it a contest between two political systems, but also between financial systems, the banking system of England and Europe and the French

credit system. Napoleon, he said, so operated the credit of France during this war period that he provided the country with roads, canals, buildings and other public works of magnitude and when he was sent to Elba in 1813 France did not owe one penny. In the same period England had piled up a debt of between £600,000,000 and £700,000,000, which had been paid for six times over and was being paid back now for the seventh time.

Civil servants in the province of Hanover have received instructions to resign from professional organisations attached to the Christian churches or leave the State service.