THE Storyteller

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1797, 18 May 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE Storyteller

TRINKETS OF TRAGEDY.

.Hyde thoughtfully turned the ,-cafd over and over in his hand. A smile played about the corners of his mouth as he handed hv to me. <I gave a start of surprise as I read tlie name. "Major Alexander Monro," president of the Monro Detective • Agency. What on earth could the old man - want with us. i had called him the "old man" during the dozen or more 'years that his powerful personality held the sway of life and death over "my destinies. - The name did not impress Hyde so forcibly, of-course,- for he had left the agency after a brilliant six months, taking me with ■'him into private lines

of investigation. "Quite a triumph for us, Captain -~ ' Foster," said Hyde. "He must want ■ • our help." Then to the waiting boy: "Show Major Munro in." "Humph!" grunted Munro, looking around at our new office furniture. "I hope you make money enough to pay the instalment man." Hyde and I bowed deferentially. "We might as well get down to business," he continued. "You, Foster, will never be more than a reliable shadow, if you live to be a hun- *' dred, but I'm forced to .admit that Hyde, here, in tho short time he was with us, showed a remarkable aptitude for cases tnat were a little out of the usual. It's just such a case that brings me here." "It must be a knotty problem," remarked Hyde gracefully, "if the Monro agency confesses its-elf beaten." "I'm not beaten," snorted Monro his white moustache and hair Ibristling at the idea. "But when a man is "bound down oy all sorts of limitations, except the usual one of money, it's impossible to tackle a case in a workmanlike professional way. Let me give you the details and you will see. - "You are.'both familiar with " this Fangbone affair?"

"So far as- the newspaper , reports go," answered —yde.----"Well, tins lsra-s-1 Fangbone was a sort of pawnbroker, curio-dealer, and probably a fence for thieves down in Pell Street. .He was feared and shunned by everybody in the neighborhood, even-to the Chinks. Two weeks ago last Wednesday he was shot to death in his shop in the middle of • the afternoon." ... "Yes, yes," interrupted Hyde. "I have the published details all in nry mind. He was shot in the back, so that) it could not have been suicide. Roundsman Mulvahill was across the street, and rushed over immediately on hearing the shot. , No one could have escaped by the front door without being seen by Mulvahill. Ho' found Fangbone's niece, Miriam, bending .over the-body ..and clasping, a revolver, one chamber of which had recently been fired. The real door was locked from- the inside. The girl,is under arrest and is reported to hava confessed that she killed her uncle. Rather an ordinary case, it strikes me."- .' .

"She has repudiated this confession declared Monro. "When Mulvahill entered the shop he says her first words were: 'He beat me and I killed him.' But now sne declares that she was just coming into the shop from the rear when the shot was fired; then she rushed in, locked the door in her. fright, picked up the weapon mechanically from tlie floor, and was bending over the old man, to sco if he was still living. Weak, as you can see."

"You're- for the defence, of course?"

"Naturally. The State would not spend money to bolster up a dead open-and-shut case. It's my opinion self-defence wiould be our best ticket. The girl seems to have been shamefully abused.. The old miser did not allow her clothes enough for ordinary decency, and treated her little better than a slave. He never allowed her to go farther than to the Chink grocery next door. He probably beat ■her once too often, and she gave him what he.deserved. But it might be absolute innocence or nothing. Thosrare my instructions." "And who is putting up the -money? I take it the girl has none, ' inquired Hyde, getting Tight at the - pt-vr-- ,<! '•■ ■ -• wVi'.ch at ..'--1 i-<----ment ,was puzzling m-. "That line of investigation is absolutely closed," said Munro. "My solemn promise is out not even to throw .a shadow* in that- direction. That's why I need your help. I can say no more, but if you men take the case and your trial leads you along the same route that I would go, if I were not bound down by promises, there will be no comebar L -**ron me. 1 do not; believe there is a possibility in the- world of your stumbling onto the trail and it might" not mean anything if you did; but if you care to interest yourself in the case the terms -ou are five 1 thousand dollars for absolute proof of innocence and all reasonable expenses paid whether you aro successfulor not, and you needn't worry .about the Monro agency.not getting its,' share after yours is paid. Will you take tbe case?" "Do you give, us a free hand?'' inquired Hyde.

"Absolutely. lam up against a stone wall, and my principal is pressing. Burke, whom yon both know, is still on the case, but he- isn't doing much more than poking about the Pell Street place. You are welcome to him, if you can iise him, or you can send him into the office."

"Then, Major Muuro, I think you may count on us doing what we can, though at first glance it isn't a case that particularly- interests me."

"Humph! your old line of talk," grunted Monro; *'but I hope you will find some degree of interest in earning a fee like.that. Those plums don't fall often, you'll find, when you've been in the game as long as I have. Draw what you need for expenses. But no—you'd better not be seen at -the agency. Just advance your expense'money, and send the accounts to me. Well, good day—and good luck to you.;- Poster, my hat."

I jumped with alacrity to get the old tyrant's hat and stick, and it was not until he had poundered his way out. that I remembered that I was a free moral agent. I laughed a little at my fear of him.

7 Hyde sat in profound thought for several minutes atter the bluff major's departure. Then he looked up with a gleam of interest in his eyes.

"Foster, I recall that the newspapers said Fangbone had some trinket clasped in his hand when he was found: a square of motlier-or-pearl as I remember. Do you know anything of it?" "The police think it is something he was repairing when he was shot. .*>v havn't been able to make anything out of it except another knock at the suicide theory." "Do you suppose they have saved it?" ' "Undoubtedly it would be up at the Elizabeth Street Station." "Hum, I'd like to have a look at it. Have you heard anything about the girl? I see the papers rave over her beauty, but they always do that." "Kelly, whom I met the other night, says they can't say . half enough. She's about seventeen, he says, with a rich olive complexion and great, round) brown eyes. It quite wrung his heart, he says, to pinch her when he knew it meant a trip up the river." ' "The sentiment does Kelly great credit," answered Hyde, who then relapsed into another profound study. This was hot my idea:of an honest' day's work, so, after I had sat and twiddled my thumbs for about ten minutes, I made bold to interrupt his reverie. ' ', . "It's getting along toward noon. We'll want to'look in at the Pell Street place, I suppose," I remarked casually. . "No, no, that can wait," answered Hyde, rousing to the nervous activity of manner that always told me when he had mapped out his course and was ready to act. "I suppose it's pretty well, mussed up by this time, anyway. "Call a taxicab, Foster. I .want to see that mother-of-pearl first, and if we have to see the girl we'll have to get our other errands over ■before visiting hours close. She's in the' Tombs prison, I suppose."

It was but a few' minutes by taxi from our Broadway office to Elizabeth Street. At the station Kelly, who happened to be on duty, readily produced the bauble, smiling a bit at me as he did so, for Hyde looked more the fashionable man about town than any sort of a detective.

My companion took the square of pearl, and as he looked at it I saw him give a start of surprise. .Then he walked over to the light of the window and began to study it intently, while his brows contracted in astonishment and his lips drew in tight over his teeth.

Interested by this strange excitement, I joined in his examination of the trinket. It was merely a piece of shell, about an inch wide by two and a half long, highly polished on both sides, with three edges finished and the fourth rough, as if it had been broken from a larger piece. But-I was satisfied that to Hyde's admirably informed mind it carried a story lost on the ■ regular force and the private agency alike.

To my untrained eye the most re* markable feature of the thing was that one surface appeared to be inlaid with a delicate tracery of gold; no particular design, but just feathery leaves and lines that might have been part of some figure in the larger piece. On the other side was what the lieutenant pronounced to be a price-mark, and I was able to make nothing else out of it. It was not in figures, but apparently was some dealer's secret code, drawn with a pen or brush in red ink. Hyde took his notebook from his pocket and,; waiting until the lieutenant's back was turned, he ' hastily made a copy of this mark. When he had returned to the taxicab Hyde murmured half'to himself "And" the police think they have got to the bottom of this case." Then turning to me: "Foster, do you knowMrs De Peyton-Reuter ?" "Well," I'said, with a start, "I can hardly say that I hav<-> the pleasure of . her personal acquaintance, but I wouldn't know much if I didn't know that she is about the warmest article socially in upper Fifth Avenue and Newport." - -.-..■

•"Let's see, has she a husband?"

';i believe there is s; man of the

same name down in Wall Street working for her, but you never hear much of him in our circles," in the lame attempt to be facetious.

, "Then perhaps she has a son? I see I must .keep better posted on our aristocracy of the dollar-mark."

"Yes, there's young Frederic he Peyton-Renter., Just out of college, and one of the prize-packages in the matrimonial grab-bag, so the papers say."

"Of course, I remember him now. Yes, it must be the young man. The husband probably is too busy amassing the sinews of war to amuse himself that way."

"But what on earth has all this got to do with the murder of Fangbone?"

"Oh, I forgot, Foster, that you were not following my train of rea- ( soning. It means that we have struck the trail Monro thought I never would find, and that this is a case after my own heart. It's contrary to our rule of independent action, but I'm going to let you catch up with me. ■ A long time ago, Foster —about the middle of the eighteenth century, to be partially exact—there was, in the city of Antwerp, an old goldsmith who discovered a very wonderful process of inlaying gold on pearl. He died without imparting his secret to the Avorld, but before his death he completed his masterpiece, a magnificent fan, the sticks of which were pearl beautifully traced in the gold inlay. "This fan was preserved in the family of the maker through the turbulent close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, and finally came into the possession of Leopold 1., who, upon the marriage of his daughter, Carlotta, with Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, presented it to her among his wedding gifts. After the brief and inglorious reign and death of Maximilian in Mexico, and the insanity of Carlotta, the fan passed into the hands of the curio mongers. It was sold several times at enormous prices. I noticed several years ago that it had been bought ,by Mrs De Poynton-Reuter. It is safe to say she still owns it, for she is a discriminating and enthusiastic collector and never would part with such a treasure.. Foster, the piece of inlaid pearl clasped in the hand of the murdered Fangbone was a part of one of the side panels of the fan of Carlotta." ''Great Heavens, you don't mean to connect the De Peyton-Retiters with | this murder? " 'What wouldn't -the-| papers give for such a sensation?" "The fan connects them, without any intent on my part. We're up against a pretty mystery, anyway. It's wasting time in futile speculation,but it's my opinion that De PeytonReuter .money is paying for this

mxi." "But what became of the rest of the fan?" I inquired eagerly.. . "That is tlie very smallest obstacle. Here is what stamps this case as something deeper than the harvest of a rich young man's wild oats sown in rthe Tenderloin, takes it out of the sensational into the bizarre and make it a mystery after my own heart." Whereupon Hyde took his notebook from his pocket and laid .before my eyes the drawing he had made of the mark on the square of pearl. It was .a peculiar cabalistic scrollletter or monogram, I could "not say which, something like the -printed letter "Z," with the lower line disproportionately long and upcurring, and having on is inner edge. short vertical marks like the teeth of a comb.

"What do you make of it?" he asked, and I only looked blank. "What do the police know about it? What would any one know about, it who did not have at hfs tongue's end all the peculiar obsessions that have warped the minds of men. , But 1 know." ■ • '

If I have anything against Hyde it is his egotism over his superior knowledge, for there; are few of us who like to be reminded, of how little we know..

"It may be an old mark, put there years ago by some former owner ?" 1 suggested too nettled to give Hyde the satisfaction : of asking him a question.

I No, the ink was fresh. I have •■•.-■ id some attention to graphology and could, not be deceived there."

"But what is it?" I exclaimed.

"It is tne seal of the third talisman of the Sage of the Pyramids. •Ihere, Captain Foster, is your mystery. Israel Fangbone is murdered in his little shop while clasping in one side of, it, the symbol of one Reuters famous fan; bearing upon of the most terrible - of the orders of black magic. A very pretty mystery. But where are we going anyway?"

In default of definite directions tho shauffeur had been driving us .up one street and down the. other and, no doubt, contemplating the indicator with satisfaction. I looked out of tlie window and found that we were st that moment just turning off. the Bowery into Pell Street. As it was but a short ride to Fangbone's place, I suggested that we had better go there and relieve Burke.

"No," he answered, "you relieve Burke, and I'll keep the taxi. I want to go to the library to do a little reading, .and then I shall probably want to see the girl. You might meet' me' at the Tombs in the course

Inside I found only Burke and the sergeant in charge for the police department. Interest in the tragedy was dead since the newspapers had dropped it 3 and passers-by did not even turn their heads.

The interior arrangement of the place was simple, just a long room about twenty feet in width in a onestorey, frame -building, with no external evidence of either attic or basement. At the rear and connected with the storeroom by a single door was a smaller room which had served as kitchen, dining-room and sleeping quarters for Fangbone and his niece.

It .snowed the squalor of penury rather than of poverty. One corner, containing one of the two rude beds; was curtained off and was evidently the domain of the girl. It bore a striking contrast to the rest of the room in that it was neat and that an effort had been made to beautify ihe rough walls with pictures.

I studied these pictures with interest. They were all drawings in charcoal made upon wrapping-paper. I am hot judge of art, but I knew they were by the hand of genius, for street types, Chinese children, the faces of the quarter were there as I knew them in life. If they were by the Fangbone girl, she was an artist of no mean ability.

This completed my examination of the rear, except that a back door opened upon a iTotle court and was flanked with the usual garbage and ash cans.

The shop, lighted only through the dirty windows at the front, was cluttered from one end to the other with almost every conceivable article that finds its way into a pawn-shop, a curio-store, qr a fence for thieves. Every available space was utilised until the room seemed to be fairly bursting with junk. , -

Grinning Chinese masks looked down from the walls; shields, swords, pieces of armour, faded old paintings, oriental rugs, bits of tapestry and muscial instruments of all sorts hung everywhere, all covered with a thick layer of dust.

In one back corner, at the side of the rear door, stood a fierce figure of a gigantic Japanese warrior, clad in the complete armour of the Samurai order, the skirts of overlapping steel plates coming almost to the floor.

Nothing had been touched since the murder save that the body had been removed to the morgue. A spot of clotted blood still remained .on the floor, and the police and reporters , had tracked gingerly round it.

i "We've found something," said Burke mysteriously, when he and the sergeant had. finished showing me over the place. "Come here and see what you think of it."

They led me into the dark corner corresponding to the one in which the Japanese warrior stood. There, behind a pile of rugs, was a curiously . carved and silver-mounted cabinet, of teakwood, evidently 1 the opinum cabinet of ; some Chinese mandarin. -'

An open shelf at the bottom contained opium pipes, and at one side was a little silver lamp. The place was so dark that Burke lighted a candle.for me to examine it.

"Now, look wnat's inside," he said, throwing open the doors and holding the candle so I could see the interior.

There was a flutter and angry squawk, and I started back in dis-. may, while Burke and the sergeant fairly doubled up in laughter at my discomfiture. ■■-..-

Then I looked again, and saw within the cabinet a perfectly black hen setting on a nest of black velvet. Her head was completely enveloped in a black velvet hood, drawn close over the eyes, with a hole- through which the beak protruded. The sides and the top of the box were also lined•with black velvet. ,

While Burke held the candle low the sergeant carefully lifted her off th? nest and I saw that she was setting on a single pure-white egg.

In the dim , candle light I noted that on the side of this egg was the identical mark Hyde had copied from i the square of pearl, the seal of the third talisman of the Sage of the 'Pyramids. I kept my own counsel on this pointy but I was bursting with anxiety to find out what Hyde would say to this.

"She was nearly starved when we found her," said Burke. "The sergeant and I have watered, her and fed her with some bread crumbs from tho kitchen."

I was so anxious' to get to Hyde with the news that I thought it wise not to send Burke into his office, but, to leave him at Fangbone,s' where I knew he and the sergeant would watch each other.

•'-■n I reached the gloomy old city prison I found Hyde waiting for me, already armed 'with permission to see the prisoner.

"She's a stubborn piece," said the guard who guided lis up to the third tier of the woman's prison. "You can't get a word out of her."

He then retired to the end of the corridor.

The pitiful figure huddled in the back of the cell may have been stubborn with the police but their methods were, not tihose of Hyde. He spoke to her gently and adroitly, and something in the very tone of his voice

seemed to reassure 'her. She advanced to the light and, clasping the bars, looked at us with helpless pleading in her big, limpid, 'brown eyes

Somewhere I 'have seen a painting of Charlotte Corclay in prison. The artist must needs idealize that face still more I thought, to equal the beauty of this one.

"I wish that l might convince you that we mean you no harm, Miss r-angbone," continued Hyde, in his gentlest tone. "On the contrary, we ■have come to help you, but you also mustihelp us, .and you can do so best by telling me truthfully whether or not you know young Frederic de ..•--■ton-Renter." The blood deserted the girl's face and a look of terror came into, her eyes as she stammered :— "Nol No! No! I—ln-never heard the name before." "Thank you, Miss Fangbone," replied Hyde sympathetically. "You have told me all I wanted to- know. I. do not think the recording angel will take,into account the .falsehood you have told, and I wish you to understand that I am working to prove not only yourself innocent of this crime, but young De Pevton-Reuter as well."

Fora moment a look of hope flashd across the face of the girl; then it vanished, and she desperately clasped her hands before her eyes and sank back into the darkness of the cell; nor could Hyde's gentle persuasion draw her again to tlie light.

(To be concluded) x