FIVE CROOKED CHAIRS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 22 September 1934, Page 13

FIVE CROOKED CHAIRS

CHAPTER IX.

THE; MYSTERY OF MR MONTADA

Merely to humour her Adam stepped into the corridor and pulled the door to behind him. “Now, lovey,” she wheedled, “couldn’t you manage to get one of them notes through to the barrister in court for me?” “It would be as much as my job was worth, and I’m. not likely to be in court, either.”. ; “Isn’t it worth risking a bit to. save a bloke what’s had years on years of clink and been going straight now for a twelve-month? If he goes down this time it’ll be the end of him, and just as-We,,was getting a nice, little ’ome. together along of ’im : running straight.”

‘‘‘■For your own sake I wouldn’t do anything that was against Mr Perkin’s advise. What was it he wants to be asked anyhow?” Curiosity was mastering Adam’s not over spontaneous sense of loyalty to his employer. “What Hagar says they did ought to ask him is when did he last see Mr Montada.”

She paused cunningly and watched for the effect of this extraordinary question on Adam’s face. “He says if they’ll only ask him that it will all come out and the judge’ll see it’s a frame-up. Now couldn’t you just get a little note about that through to the barrister? If it don’t do no good it’ll make Hagar’s mind easier.”

In spite of the perplexity in his mind Adam bethought him to ask why the man could not mention Mr Montada

himself.

She had her answer ready for that. “You ought to know, sir, as a poor bloke like Hagar can’t say what he likes in the dock. They shut you up cruel if you says a word outside the book, them judges and barristers. What’s more, Hagar ain’t what you’d call' a clever bloke with his tongue, like you legal gentlemen that talks so easy. What he feels is that if he was given a start it’d all come out natural like and they couldn’t stop him same as they would if he was to try to bring v it out himself. There, you see how it is. Ho poor old Hagar a bit o’ good, won’t you? Promise me.” He refused to promise and at last got rid of her, still pleading and beginning to whimper again. Nevertheless he was far nearer to making her the promise she had desired than his ‘ manner had indicated. He seemed to smell roguery of some complicated sort, and if any action of his could upset roguery he doubted if his official loyal- ’ ties ought to be allowed to stand in the way. However, he reflected that leading barristers are not easily got at by junior clerks out of solicitor’s offices, and in any case it was extremely unlikely that anyone from the office would accompany Mr Perkin to the Assizes.

It was a slight chance that influenced him ultimately, merely a glance caught of Mr Montada’s chauffeur when leaving the office late one evening shortly afterwards, and then an unexpected opportunity. . Mr Montada’s gleaming saloon was standing at the kerb that evening and Mr Montada’s chauffeur was leaning over the open bonnet. Interested to .see if the near front axle-cap had been renewed Adam moved to pass as near as possible to the part on which the man’s attention was engaged. As he sauntered past, the bending chauffeur straightened as sharply as he could, not entirely straight, for that was impossible. He was a hunchback. He seemed 1 to have been rendered suspicious, and he shot a glance of sharp enquiry at the hatless stranger. There was a perplexed frown on his face in the light of the street lamps, and there was an equally perplexed one on Adam’s face as he moved away. The man at once turned and bent muttering over the engine once more. And Adam walked on telling himself that he had seen that very person crouched at the corner of Grail Street on a certain miserably wet night only a week or two before.

All the way home he was trying to put two and two together. It was a complicated calculation—Mr Montada, the important client for whom Mr Perkin was making a match-light inspection of a disused warehouse. Mr Montada, the owner of property in Grail Street—Adam had had a chance to verify that. Mr Montada, the client whose car had so nearly dashed into Adam later on the same evening. Hr Montada, who was concerned in the alleged frame-up that was likely to turn out so badly for the ex-burglar, Hagar. And now Mr Montada, the employer of the hunchback who had taken part in the robbery at Grail Street corner. He pondered this sequence of events, but he could get no connected theory out of it; finally he put it from hi* mind.

But it came back a few days later, and with greater force.

“NOT A WORD TO' ANYONE!”

Adam had Tieen sent with a brief to one of the few barristers who had chambers in the town. The particular barrister for whom this brief was marked did a good deal of work for the PeTkin firm. Adam was frequently at his chambers, and although Adam was not a “good mixer,” he had struck up a friendship with this barrister’s clerk, a man named Meopham. Though always carrying a worried expression, suggesting that the entire burden of his master’s practice fell on his shoulders, Meopham was a kindly fellow, easy to get on with when once you accepted his belief that he was the indis-

By the Author of “ Speed Boat ”

By FAREMAN WELLS

pen sable pillar of his “ bloke’s” practice.

j To Meopham, Adam mentioned the Hagar case. Meopham, who knew the details, of the evidence, announced with an air of assurance, “Hagar has a good chance of going down for three years I should think.” “His wife’s a queer one,” continued Adam. “She’s been trying to. get oiir old man to have him asked a certain question in the box. .When he refused she fastened on me.” . \

“They’re often like that,” said Meopham, .judicially. ‘ ‘Fancy. they know a line of defence that’ll lick. anything. What sore of question was it?”. He coughed drily, burying his face in a coloured handkerchief.; .. . e ~-. ,' . i

“Well, apparently all she, wanted was to get the defence to ask him when he last saw Mr Montada.” . .

“What?” The enquiry was sharp and explosive. He stared ,a moment and .resumed': “Of course your bloke wasn’t going to have him asked that?” “I don’t suppose he thought it would do any good.” “I’ll bet he didn’t, either. Look here, my lad, you’re coming out to have a drink with me. No, I’m not going to pump you. I’ve heard' enough, and you haven’t so much as said a word to anyone, see. But you can watch out for my bloke asking that question.” He coughed wretchedly for a few minutes while he found his hat, and as soon as he had ceased coughing he chuckled as if it had been the most amusing exercise.

Adam normally would have been the last man to take a drink during business hours, but somehow now he was feeling conscious that there was something unusually important behind the other’s knowing look. They drank together in a little bar and ten minutes slipped very pleasantly away until Adam felt h* really must get back to the office. He was almost beginning to feel as if there might be something attractive in the legal profession, something that hitherto he had missed.

“Now not a word to anyone, mind you,” the other told him as they parted. “If we don’t see some pretty , fireworks before this Hagar case is finished I shall be disappointed, that’s all.” Adam went back to the office in a puzzled dream that had nothing to do with, the glass of mild ale he had imbibed.

An evening or two later when he was hurrying off late to the Technical College he came face to face with Mr Montada for the first time; A very small wizened man with a great hooked nose that projected like a talon from his yellow face, and little hot brown eyes that pierced like a stiletto, he seemed so obviously to be Mr Montada that it hardly required the sight subsequently of the' big car below to confirm Adam’s instinctive guess as to his identity. Mr Montada was about to pass along the corridor to Mr Perkin’s private door when the two became mixed up in one of those absurd manoeuvres that occur when two hurrying people endeavour to make way for one another. It seemed doubtful if Mr Montada was as politely disposed as his manoeuvring might have indicated, for when the two had chassed effectively for the third time, his thin long upper lip lifted viciously, and he spat out a foreign word, Spanish presumably, that sounded not at all complimentary. Adam stood still at once, and the little man moved round him and scurried down the passage.

Adam heard Mr Perkin’s door slam a moment later and judged that the client had walked in without so much as a knock. An imperious man, this little Mr Montada who owned derelict property, kept a chauffeur capable of highway robbery and of trying to run down respectable citizens at night, arid who was somehow concerned in what Mr Hagar alleged to be a frame-up. It was in a very puzzled state of mind that Adam hastened along to the College reflecting on these things as he went. BACK TO SCIENCE.

Once in the laboratory Adam forgot all about Mr Montada in listening to the Professor’s account of the splendid progress he had made with his investigations on the valve. It was certainly an interesting account. The Professor had 1 , among other things, stampeded, the members of a visiting committee from the Town Hall just as they were becoming a nuisance to the teaching staff, induced in his own wife a very elaborate attack of hysterics, and had also induced one of the harmless old ladies who cleaned the building after lecture hours to drop her bucket of soapy water in the.middle of the office carpet and dash away to lock herself in one of the cleaner’s cupboards, a refuge from which it required a professional locksmith to extricate her. There was no doubt that the Professor had been enjoying his work on Adana’s invention, but it was more satisfying to learn that, in addition to these scientific pranks, he had found time xo write the famous Dobson and had that day received a reply. It was not until he had, as he put it, •‘got the Tabble started” that they were able to adjourn to his room and study the letter from the famous neurologist. It expressed the utmost interest in the phenomena and went at great length into an analysis of the probable explanations. Its most interesting feature, however, was a series of suggestions for the shielding of certain of the nerve-centres with metal plates. Once they had experimentally decided for him which centres, if any, could be so protected, Professor Dob-

son promised them further enlighten' ment.

For the rest of the evening, therefore, the two busied tnemselves plastering Adam’s person with strips of tinfoil, and exposing him to the rays with each of the various protections that the neurologist had suggested. It needed only a few seconds’ exposure under most of these conditions to decide Adam that the current must be switched off immediately. “Off, for heaven’s sake!” he would cry as the sense of fear seemed to soak into him, and then a little later: “That’s better. It seems to get worse every time.” But one method that [ consisted of a sheet of foil running over the head from ear to ear seemed ■ to be completely effective until the foil slipped. “Switch off!” he cried. The Professor humanely switched off, though there was a twinkle in his eyes as he did so that showed how much he enjoyed the infliction of a little terror. He crossed the room.to some coat-hooks and took ddwn a greasy. old felt hat. “Put this over it,” ho suggested. On complying Adam was able for the first time to* resist the effects completely. “Looks as if a fellow had only got to line his hat with foil to be immune,” he commented.

“A most important step, Meriston. A most important step,” agreed the Professor. “I must write Dobson .to-night about it. Meanwhile if you only knew how delightful you look iu my hat you .would be wanting to scream with laughter instead of with terror.” He chuckled delightedly.

Evidently the new inferest was doing him good, rejuvenating him, for never before had he been suspected of harbouring a sense of humour of any but the most academic kind. Another unexpected effect of the investigation was to decide Adam that he would in future wear a hat on all suitable occasions and that inside the hat should be a lining of superior foil. He was beginning to feel that he would never be able to trust the Professor not to play, one of his little jokes. This impression was confirmed by the story of the old fellow’s next experiment. This time, being anxious to determine the effect on cold-blooded creatures, he had succeeded in so frightening his wife’s pet goldfish that it had leapt gasping out of its Sowl. Only the fact that the domestic cat was at that moment clinging distractedly to the curtain rail had saved the fish from complete destruction. Undoubtedly tho Professor was finding a mew interest in the scientific life.

What with his scientific achievements, his love affair, and his mysterious adventures Adam was just then living a very full life himself. Of late he had been unexpectedly neglected by Mr Perkin, who, for all he could tell, might have been ■ too much engaged with his professional work to take any further interest in the Norvals and their chairs. Adam was content that this should be so, indeed he did not look forward with any relish to a renewal of their conversations concerning these matters. However, his exemption was not to be permanent for on the Saturday morning following the discovery of the immunity head shield his chief sent for him.

Severe and parchmenty of face as ever, the solicitor was sitting erect behind his broad mahogany desk. From the beginning he seemed to have made up his mind to be affable, but there was always a glint in his hard eyes that belied any benevolent assumptions. “Ah, good morning, Meriston,” he said. “I think it is time I had a chat with you regarding your position in the office. Let me see, how long have you been with me?” Adam told him that it was rather more than four years. “And you are satisfied with your own progress?” “I think that, is rather a question whether you are satisfied or not, sir.” was the somewhat adroit answer. Mr Perkin smiled drily. “Witnesses are there to answer questions.” he remarked, “not to ask them. How long before you expect to sit for your final?” At this leading question the articled clerk felt a guilty resurgence of all his misgivings regarding his work for the Final examination. For some months now he had not so much, as opened a legal textbook. “I don’t quite know- sir,” was all the reply he could muster. “Well, the sooner the better, the sooner the better, you know. I am hoping to put you in the way of more advanced experience and the sooner you qualify the sooner you will be able to become of real use to me.”

Adam forced a look of gratification such as he was at that moment very far from feeling. Mr Perkin answered the look. “Oh yes,” lie said', “I am more interested in your career than perhaps you realise. I think I can say that I take far more interest in the progress of the staff than they commonly give me credit for. Now in your own case, I have watched you quite a good deal and one thing at any rate has given me satisfaction, that is I have been gratified to find you are popular with clients. A great thing to make a good impression with clients, my boy.” Adam could only look mystified. It was so rarely that lie had any contact with the firm’s clients. Mr Perkin, however, did not ’see.m to require an answer. Ho nodded and went on, “Mr Montada was very favourably impressed with you the other day when, I understand, he met you on the stairs.” “Mr Montada? I was really rather afraid I had annoyed him. I seemed to get in his way.” “Not at all. Not at all. As a matter of fact he spoke quite nicely to me about you just afterwards. Now I might as well say that it would be a very important thing for your career if an outstandirig man like Mr Montada were disposed to take an interest in you. He has far-reaching interests, very far-reaching interests. It was he, as I think I mentioned at fhfe time, that instructed me to try to secure those chairs of old Norval’s. By the way, have you been able to make anvi progress in that little matter?” | (To be continued.)