THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 92, 18 April 1908, Page 2

THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

by SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.],

Being Narratives by Officers of the Criminal Investigation Depart- ' ment, and of the Provincial Police^ in respect of dealings with the eminent Expert, Mr Radford Shone.

COPYRIGHT. Communicated to and edited by HEADON HILL. ' CHAPTER 11. THE BULLION ROOM. ■r '"'■ .\- ■' (Continued.) There seemed to be a cryptic meaning, in this utterance, which I was coo wary to try to extract on tiie spur of the moment. The more so as ohe bombastically, devised self-advertise-ment of. Shone had sent my thoughts back to that other captive who was making the voyage home under such infinitely harder conditions than my stoical professional friend. I could picture, to; myself the dull misery of the young sailor, eating.his heart out in. the bowels of the ship that was bearing him to justice. '' ' , Yet, would it be justice if he was, called on to expiate his unauthorised presence in the bullion-room? He had put forward no defence, nor uttered a word of explanation, preserving a sullen silence in face.of ishone's triumphant accusation ana the captain's acceptance of the same. He fyad seemed" to acquiesce in:the situation, as though the fact of his beine- found in me bullion-room was proof of guilty inten; and in a way it was so, for it was a strict rule of the ship that except in the casek -of ' a fire or, wreck neither he nor the captain should enter till the end of the ; voyage;. and then only in the presence of the other. '■ Yet fpr all that, it was1 against the grain to 'believe Phil Lancaster a thief -4-ohe, too, who, if he was a thief at all, must have, worked systematically.' As this passed through my, mind, my gaze strayed after the author of Lan--■caster's undoing,, and I observed that Shone and his: henchman hadVeached the stern-most limits of the pronienK ade'deck. andVthatyi ..fiavirig wheeledrourld?. they .would 'shOT,tly.,pa& us again.- At thfe same monie^it, a sup-" pressed exclamation from: ;; Taylor caused me: to shift my eyes '.to.-the' other direction-^—to the head of the stairs leading up from the deck below.- To my astonishment^ the Due, de Vionville and'his charming slaughter, whom I had naturally supposed to be in New York, had just mounted to the promenade deck and were strolling aft,: In a few seconds they would meet Shone and his friend, and, as it happened, theme! e#rig; took Splace exactly opposite to where Taylor and /were lounging against; the rails. I watched it closely^ eager to see, how the" French grandees would com-: port themse.lv.es under the altered conditions now prevailing between them and. their former cronies. The Due and the Y icomtesse were deep in con- j Tgrsation, and did not appear to recognise Radford Shone till he stopped r then they greeted him with raised eyebrows, as though surprised at Ins effrontery in making overtures! "This is indeed a pleasant and unexpected rencontre," Shone simpered. "I had thought that your Grace was making a longer stay than three days in America."

"Oh, ah! It is our friend the detective," said De Vionville with haughty condescension. "Yes, we decided to return at once, to take advantage of any developments that;, may follow your clever piece d£, work on tne outward voyage. If my daughter's necklace is recovered, through your agency, Mr Radford Shone, you will not find me remiss as a paymaster, but you will understand that as there ■can no longer be any need for the intimacy which doubtless served its turn on the outward voyage, that intimacy must now cease." < , _ Shone bit his lip and passed on, Martin f-c^ldwing with a hopelessly unrequited glance of: admiration at the Vicomtesse de.Mericourt. And then Qnee more my attention was diverted to my prisoner by the sotto- voce—

Am Lion iny'head or my heels?" ■-.•' Nonsense, man;vthere's no motion "We're noc in the'open sea yet," I replied, affecting to misunderstand him. , -I had not forgotten Ms exclamation or two minutes ago on first seeing me Due de VionviUe, but it Was not my cue to put leading questions to one of his type. .'"■;.. "Come down to the cabin, Mr Royds," he breathed earnestly in my ear. "You x have treated me like a gentleman, and I'll do the same by you." ■■■ '•-; ■ • ■■•.■■•• ■.• -.

So we sought our two-berthed stateroom, and there "Flash Taylor" unburdened to me his Wicked but sportsmanlike soul to such a tune that I fairly gasped. When it was all over I knew\ that the conveyance of that manufacturer of bogus notes to England was by no means the most serious woris before me on the Petunia's homeward trip. It was.one of the penalties of my official position on that trip - that, travelling now strictly on duty, I was no longer able to use the saloon for meals. I could not well expect decent folk to sit at table -with a notorious forger, nor would the captain have permitted it, and I had therefore to mess, in the seclusion of the state-room with, my prisoner. I had not looked forward to the nrospect with much pleasure, but after Taylor's confidence 1 prepared to take full advantage of my enforced ostracism; On that first night, however, I connived to take a peep.into the saloon atter the passengers had taken their vf^f :n anU \ ?? w" that the Due de' IwSf Pni hi i**Ste«T no longer "Se two W 01? Rone and Martin, the Wv te- r ihi d been relegated to tabli ?^T lal |?P th of the doctor's Martini T TTr? h°? es air and iXS 8tt h S IC r of honom- •&' the chart-room and asked .his permit sion to see Phil Lancaster. Thcf™ quest.was none too cordially received —for a reason that made me like th« man better.tnan I.had ever done before.. - ,

"No " he said angrily. "There's a good deal too much detective business going- on in this ship, what with that chap Shone getting himself gassed among the passengers over Lancaster's disgrace, and now you. Jtoyds, wanting, I reckon, to trip the poor lad into some sort of confession. No; I will take him home for a i'air trial, but

I'll be hanged if he shall be badgered into talking if he doesn't want to!"

"I have no wish to entrap Mr Lancaster," I replied quietly. "On the contrary, I do not believe that he was. in! the bullion-room with guilty intent;. Alt, I want is to get an assurance from him to that effect, to guard against making a fool of myself, before-iCon-siderably startling you, captain."

'' What! Lancaster innocent ? Shone wrong! By the little cherub that sits up aloft, but you shall have your palaver, anyhow! Come along, right here and now!" And the captain clapped his goldbanded cap on to his grizzled head and led me down to the lower deck and unlocked a door. The cabin was cramped, and but ■ ill-lit by an oil-, lamp; but there was sufficient there for rough-and-ready comfort if the occupant had -een free to come and go. But the chain at Phil's ankles —the "irons" which are part even of a modern shipmaster's creed: —rattled as we entered, telling of 'his close confinement. At the sight of me the young man's face cleared a little, and he rose from the bench on which he had been sitting dejectedly.

"This is kind, of you, Roy_ds," he said; ''that is, if you're going to pu. me .^with the . other , professional criminal. I'm a bit lonely and shall be glad of company."

I saw that he was overwrought, and I sharply bade him not to be a fool, but to tell me as man to man why he went to the bullion-room that night and. gave Redford Shone his chance.

"Not a word more," I added; "only your reason. I' think I. can guess it, but I want to be sure."

Lancaster shrugged his shoulders wearily. ;

"I'll tell you, Royds, that I'd have bitten off; my tongue rather than tell Shone," he replied. "It was; simply that my nerves wouldn't stand the strain any longer. I had,no faith in the fellow, because his mariner, on the first day of the voyage showed me that he suspected me. He might, therefore, have overlooked the real thief, an<x I went to the bullion-room to satisfy, myself that nothing had been tampered with. As God is my judge, -that is the truth, though I do not suppose that it will availme in court."-

" If I can lay my hand on the artist who ought to be in your place you will never have to go into court at all," I answered him. " Come, captain, let us get back to the chart-room and finish our chat." . !

The next three days passed iin.eventfully, and then one morning the Victomtesse appeared on deck alone. Luncheon time came ', and her father not having joined her, I ascertained from a steward that the Due de Viont ville was ill. It' was believed that he had/developed a touch of influenza, which would keep him in his bunk 'tfor^the rest of the voyage. . pc news,' when' I imparted it to Taylor, was received with a wink.

"I wonder if the great (Radford Shone knows what is the matter with him?" he.said drily. "Aml in this with you, Mr Royds?" 7 ;

H nodded, and for the remainder of the day we stuck close to. our stateroom, Taylor amusing, himself with fastening and Unfastening the hand-cuffs-which I; had brought for use upon him if he-had proved refractory. The cabin was in the same corridor as De yionville's, and between the two was a suite of bathrooms. I was smitten with quite a craze for promiscuous "tubs" that afternoon, but nothing happened; nor was it to be expected that vigilance would be rewarded while the passengers were in and out of their cabins.

It was not till dinner w;as in progress in the saloon, and after our steward had brought us our tray an<| departed, that anything. happened i and then it was only the faint click of a door-latch some way along the corridor, but it sufficed. Flash Taylor laid down his knife and fork and took up the hanacuffs which I had entrusted to him.

" You fool 1" I whispered. You'll never live up to your adage that way. Go on eating. Clatter your crockery, and don't be so keen."

My prisoner looked his chagrin, but obeyed, and ten minutes later, when the distant door clicked again, I unleashed him. with the possibly" unkind remark— -

"There must be a crime before there can be a conviction, my son,1 as your own experience ought to have told you. If I am not mistaken the crime has now been accomplished, and you can have your revenge. Come along." . , *Fhe door of the Due de Vionville's state-room was our goal, and our united efforts broke it down in time to prevent its occupant from throwing Lady Ravensbury's million-dollar tiara through the port-hole into the sea.

My prisoner snapped the handcuffs on to the "French nobleman's" wrists, while I covered him .with my pistol.

"There, Toff Larkin," Taylor panted. "That'll pay you for rounding on a pal three years ago." Mr Radford Shone was not seen much during the last days of the trip; but when he did appear his sublime egoism carried nim through without any confession of defeat. His mouthpiece, Mr Samuel Martin, laboured to explain that Shone would have caught the sham Due had it not been for Lancaster's folly in attracting suspicion by his over-anxiety. The eminent expert had, I was told some very bitter things to say about my alliance with a convict in order •to gain my ends. As a matter of fact, I never tried to conceal that my capture of "Toff Larkin" was entirely due to his chance recognition by " Flash Taylor," whose faithless comrade he had been in a former enterprise. Taylor was able to tell me that "the Due" was one of a gang who had begun to systematically work the mail steamers by assuming a rank that was above suspicion and having as a confederate a young and pretty woman. They had procured a key to fit the bullion-room by taking a wax impression of the captain's key, and after all that was plain sailing with •the exception of getting the proper lettering of the combination lock. This they contrived by closely studying the custom of the ship, which was for the captain and the second officer to decide upon just before sailing. One or other of the confederates generally managed to be in the vicinity of the chart-room at the crucial moment and overheard the letters.

, Larkm had abstained from robbing tne bullion-room on the outward voyage this time because he had ascerf^ d ? at be I tter Plunder was to be UrtJ^lt ■*« Spjustified by the clearing of Phil Lancaster, who was on thl bridge when we reached Liverpool, and, as a free man was able to wave a glad ereetW i*> the girl waiting for \^ *£?*J£f quay.