THE BAYSWATER BOARDING HOUSE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 139, 13 June 1908, Page 2

THE BAYSWATER BOARDING HOUSE.

Cheltenham Road, Bayswater, is an eminently respectable thoroughfare, .composed mostly of private residences. From end to end there is nonsuch thing as/an "Apartment" card to be seen over its spotless fanlights or in its neatly-curtained windows; but there are a iqw boarding-houses of a superior class, all priding themselves on looking more private than the really private abodes next door or most favoured of these establishments was kept by a Mrs Lorimer, an officer's widow, whose prosperity had never been in doubt since her daughter Ida grew to years of discretion. And discretion is a sorelyneeded asset for a pretty girl whose business in life it is to aid her mother in making boarders feel at home. For if the process is overdone there is always the risk that some male "paying guest", may make himself too much at home, with disastrous results. I had not been five minujbes in the house before I came to the conclusion that some such breakdown in .Miss Ida's programme had been the cause of my being hurriedly sent for from the police-station by the constable on the beat. As the message contained the ominous word "murder," I need, not say that my footsteps did not lag. On entering the front door, I found the whole place buzzing like a mve ; of bees. White faces peeped out of the dining-room, whence the smell of ©offee and bacon told of an interrupted breakfast; from the drawing-room across the hall came the suppressed murmur of women's voices, while a louder commotion on the first-floor landing indicated the centre of disturbance. '.■■■■ Running upstairs, I found the constable surrounded by a little knot of persons who all seemed eager to £11 with their own surmises the note-book which as a matter of fofm he held in Ms hand. At "that moment Dr Winthrop,! a local practitioner, wellknown to me,- emerged from an open bedroom door. "Yes, the poor fellow is quite dead," he said, addressing a comely, middleaged woman dissolved in tears, adding, as he caught sight of me, "Ah, here, is Inspector Burke! Just step inside here, Burke, please, and you too, Mrs Lorimer. It may save time if we put our heads jbogether." The-weeping landlady and I followed him into the room, where, so calm and peaceful, lay the silent figure on the bed that it was difficult to believe that anything was wrong. But drawing aside the bed-cJ6thes, the idoctor disclosed the dreadful fact that the ■ motionless ( figure was lying on sheets saturated .with blood, which had evidently welled from a punctured wound over the heart. The body was that of a 'dark-skinned Oriental, dressed in silk .pyjamas, the jacket of which the doctor had disarranged to make his first examination. "Roughly speaking, he's been dead about five hours, which puts the crime at four o'clock this morning," said Winthrop. "He must have been struck in his sleep and killed instantly. The absence of a weapon puts the theory of Suicide out of court,'even if it were surgically tenable, which it is not." "But," wailed Mrs Lorimer with clasped Hands,; "the door was bolted on the inside. We broke it open to get in when.he did hot come down to; breakfast. . How could anybody have got in?'? : ' :., .. The doctor shrugged his shoulders. "'That is for Inspector Burke to say,v he replied shortly. • For the Kirsfc time I removed my eyes from the corpse and let them range round the room, which was a fair-sized one, with a window facing towards the street. The window was open by about three inches at the top,. Mrs Lorimer explaining, in answer to a question from me, that it was the dead man^s custom always to sleep with the window in that state. .< Going over to it, I saw that it was highly improbable, though not actually impossible that an entrance could have been effected by that route, in full view of the road and the houses opposite as it was. "Tell me as briefly as you can what you know of the deceased, his habits, and associations," I said, turning to the landlady. Mrs Lorimer's account of her late boarder was enlightening as far as it went, but somehow it left the impression on my mind that she was holding something in reserve. The lifeless clay r on the bed was that of Mr Chunder Dass, a young Hindoo barrister, who had been over in England for the purpose of studying'law at the Middle Temple. He had been well supplied with money, and being of a generous and sociable nature had been a favourite with the other boarders. "With the gentlemen, madam, or with the ladies?" I interposed. The question seemed to cause Mrs Lorimer some slight embarrassment. "With both," she replied after a moment's hesitation. "With the ladies most, perhaps. He was very musical, and was more often in the drawingroom after dinner than in the smok-ing-room with the men." At this point I became conscious that some of the boarders congregated on the landing were gradually pressing into the room, and I raised my voice rather sharply to bid them stand clear of the doorway. They most of them obeyed—all but a tall spare man with curious protuberant eyes and a stout, stupid-looking individual in a loud check suit, to whom the former was whispering, regardless of my injunction. "Come, sir! Be so good as to step outside." I said peremptorily/ I cannot have the general public in here at nresent." The spare man surveyed me with an insolent stare. "So you class me with the general public on an occasion of this sort, do you.Mr Inspector ?" he said in a high-pitched squeaky voice that reminded me of a bagpipo. "It is Mr Radford Shone, the celebrated private detective," Mrs Lori- ! mer vrhic-porstl to me hurriedly. "He

is boarding here with his friend while his rooms in Gower Street are being re-painted." . i Mow the reputation of this gentleman as a specialist in investigation cases had reached me from several source?., and 1 recognised that he was not quite on the same footing as the gaping spectators on the landing., It was natural that he should take a professional interest in the tragedy, ana it was even possible that the trained acumen of an expert who had chanced to be living in the house prior to the crime might be useful to me. At any rate, Mr Radford Shone might be expected to put matters tersely and lucidly which otherwise I should have to sift from a mass of inconsequent verbiage. '„_.,. "I didn't know you," I said ma tone of half-apology. "This is a bad business, Mr Shone, in which, perhjaps, }our experience has led you to form a conclusion?" He gave a short laugh, in which his companion joined. "The whole thing is an open book to me, bufrthen, of course, I have had the advantage of residing here for over a week and have been able to study the social ; under-currents of the house." "Oh, Mr Shpne, I am sure that there are no under-currents in our pleasant little circle," the unhappy landlady began. "Everything is quite above board^ and you can't think that any of my boarders "' "If I can have a few words with you alone, inspector, I can make the thing perfectly plain to y«u," Shone interrupted her rudely. "In the meanwhile just look at this."; That to which he drew my attention was a Mass bolt on the inside of the door, having its bar still protruding, just as' it had - been wrenched away from its moorings in order to break into the room when ,its occupant had made no sign. It was not, however,. to the general wreck of the bolt that Shone's lean forefinger, was poir-tinsr, but to an almost invisible strand 'of yellow silk tied round the shank of the bolt and broken off short at. the knot. Having " examined it cursorily, I followed Shone into r his own bedroom, which was down a passage on the same floor. His friend, Mr Samuel Martin, cajne, with us. "You see what that bit of sUk means?" said Shone as soon as we were shut into his room. "It was used.to draw the bolt into its socket, so as to give the impression that the ■door had remained bolted all night, by someone leaving the room by way of the door. I don't think you will want to pay any more attention to the window, inspector." "The inference being that the murderer is an inmato of this house?" I suggested rather doubtfully. I was by mTmeans carried away by the force of his theory, though it was by no means untenable. Yet it semed to m^1 that if it was correct the mm-derer must have left a good deal to chance. To take'one instance alone, he could have been by no means certain that' even after many attempts he would be. able to steer the bolt into its socket through the clamping rings from the> other side of the door. And ib would have been leaving a good deal to Providence to expect to be able to" break the silk off short at the knot after It had served its purpose without leaving a loose end that would have been noticeable even by an ordinary police officer. . "What other inference could there I be?" said Shpne, exchanging a glance with his hanger-on, as though commiierating my density. "You could have,found.that much out for yourself, I should hope, without any undue strain upon your intelligence—provided when you came to make an examination of the room you had noticed the circle of silk. I can go further than that, thanks to/having exercised my powers of observing while; residing in the house, and indicate to you which particular inmate of the house is the murderer." His tone jarred my self-respect, but it was clearly my duty to hear what he had to say, and as civilly as I could I asked him to enlighten me. "Jack Kentish is the fellow's name," he said. "It's simply a case of common or garden jealousy. Kentish and the, dead man were both

sweet upon Ida Lorimer, the landlady's 'daughter, and the fair Ida favoured the darkie." And Shone proceeded to describe bow the young Indian barrister had been recently taking Miss Lorimer out a good deal to theatres and concerts, to the unconcealed. annoyance of Mr Kentish, who, according to the gossip of the older boarders, had been the ) girl's undeclared lover till Chunder j Dass appeared on the scene. "A ease of magnetic attraction for the heaviest metal, I imagine," sneered Shone coarsely. "The blackamoor was uncommonly well supplied with cash, and was able to give her a better time than Kentish, who is, only a clerk in a bank." I had thought all along that for a I.rofessional mystery-monger Shone was using that strident, high-pitched voice of his rather freely, and I was ! not altogether surprised , when the . door was flung violently open to a<d- ! Mit a girl in a first-class rage. I "That odious creature has been tell- ' ing you liesl" ,she burst" forth at me. | And, turning her pretty, flushed face !on Shone, she literally poured out the j vials 6f her wrath on him. He was jan infamous spy, whose business in life it was to make mischief.' ,It was a bad day for her mother's house when. Ihe -had set foot in it ; Jack Kentish ] had no more killed Chunder Dass than 1 she had herself; 'it was a wicked calumny to say that she' had preferred the Indian because of his wealth; she | had not preferred him at all, arid more to the same effect, i j Mr Samuel Martin looked horror- j struck at this irreverence to his chicf i ! but Mr Radford Shone himself stood the onslaught easily and sneeringly. To Miss Ida herself he made no direct reply, but to me he remarked with an ugly grin— "I suppose that a live bank clerk is better than a. dead Baboo, from the feminine point of view." These recriminations were not conducive to clearing up the mystery, and it behoved nic to nip them in the bud. I did so by informing Miss Xorimer soothingly that there was nothing against Mr Kentish at present, and by telling Shone - that his dis-. coyery of the silk on the bolt had certainly furnished important matter for inquiry. By this means I managed to .separate! the conflicting parties, the angry girl retiring to the lowerregions, and Shone putting on his hat preparatory to going out, he was careful to say, on business connected ■ with some stones that were missing . from the Duchess of Beaulieu's tiara. "Kentish is employed at the Fleet i Street branch of the London and Sub- | iirban Bank," said Shone as, followed by Martin, he made for the stairs. '"He left the house before Dass's room was broken open, so you'll be able to take him by surprise, if you look sharp. Of course, what you said to the girl was nonsense. You have, in the little precis I have given you, quite sufficient to arrest him on. The gesture with which alone I answered him might have meant assent or mere civility, for 1 was not prepared to arrest MY Kentish or any-. one else without further investigation. To this end I returned to the death chamber which I had left in charge of the constable, and where Dr Winthrop was now making a more prolonged examination of the body. First turning my attention to the bolt, my first impression was confirmed. Once in fifty times, perhaps, the attempt to pull the brass bar into the socket by means of the slender strand of silk passed between the door, and the door-post might have succeeded, but the necessary failures would have been far from noiseless in the dead of night, and would have needed a murderer of iron nerves to persist. (To be continued.) For jßronchial Coughs take Woods' Great Peppermint Cure. Is 6d and 48 fid. Two years of patient excavation by M. Olermont Ganneau on' Elephantine Island, situated in the middle of the Nile at Assouan, have brought a rich and unhoped-for reward in the finding of a portion of a facsimile of the famous Rosetta stone, which, discovered in 1799 at Rosetta, is now preserved in the British Museum. Ths Rosetta stone contains inscriptions in three different languages, hierarchic and cursive. Egyptian and uncial Greek. It is the basis df the whole method of deciphering the ancient Egyptian inscriptions and hieroglyphics. The stone now found at Assouan is a third of the whole block, and it is hoped that the remaining portion will soon be discovered.