BETRAYAL ON JOIN FORDHAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10151, 6 June 1896, Page 3 (Supplement)

BETRAYAL ON JOIN FORDHAM.

NOW FIRST POBHSHED.

, BY B. L. FARJKON, Author of "No. 119, Great Porter Square," " Grif,"

"The March of Fate," "For the

Defence," "Aaron the Jew," etc.

[All Bioiits Reserved.]

PART IV.

CHAPTER XXXlV.—(Continued.)

is as few words as possible I explained to Wheeler the position of affairs and ray plan 5f action, in the carrying out of which his i«sistance was necessary. Ho followed me iviih lively interest, and in a fow minutes no wore on our way to Sobo, 1 entered tho shop alone, Wheeler doping natch in the street. I stood at the counter while Madame Loubert served a customer, and then she turned to me. " What do you require, monsiour J" " A little information, madame." " Well, monsieur ?" "In private, madame," I said, "unless you wish all the world to know." She gathered from my tone that)l had nob crime as a friend, and she was instantly on her guard. •' What is it, monsieur, that I should not wish all the world to know ?" "1 advise that we iipeak in private," I replied. " If I r-refuse, monsieur?" " You will tako the consequences, and we will converse before your customers." " Ah,'' she said, playing a devil's tattoo on tho counter with her fingers, " if I mistake not, you were one of my customers this morning, monsieur. I had the pleasure of serving you." " I had also the pleasure of serving you this morning, madame." So !" I assumed tho voice of the costermonger, and enquired if she wished to buy any more ferns. She caught her breath, and cried, "It was you?" "It was I, madame. It was also I, madame, who purchased of you last night ind gave you a reference." " A reference, monsieur?"

"A reference, madame—to Mrs, Fordham, Louis' mother, and stepmother to John Fordham, now in prison for murder."

" You are clever, monsieur—very clever. I «uiiled. " What is your John Fordham to me'! And what are you ?" '• I have the honour to be adetoctive. In thui capacity behold me here." I thought this rather dramatic and Frenchified, and I hud ihe pleasure of seeing her turn white to thf lips. "A comrade is on watch outfide," I continued. She slipped from the counter to the door, and peering cautiously about, saw Wheeler, who, I being by her side, (rave me a nod of recognition. " Are you satisfied, madame?" 1 asked, when she had taken her place again behind the liter.

"There is protection for women in this country," she said. "Are you employed by the Government?" "Fortunately for you I am not. You will, perhaps, understand when I say I am a private detective. If a Government official were in my place it would be with a warrant."

"A warrant, monsieur?"

"A warrant, madame— your arrest). Shall we converse here or in your private room?" She moved towards the green tain. "A moment," I said. "Last when I had the pleasure of purchasing some of your very excellent provisions, ind happened to mention that I was recommended by Mrs. Fordhaui, you had a visitor in that room, who gave you a signal. Is the gentleman there now 1"

" There is no gontleman in the room," she said, throwing open the door. "How know you there was one?"

"I shall surprise you, madame, with the extent of my knowledge. In order that we may not, be interrupted we will turn the key in the shop-door." "You are not afraid she asked, and there was a look in her eyes resembling that of a cat who is about to spring. "Oh, no, madame," I replied, following her to the inner room, " the English are not afraid of the French."

"Nor the French of the English," she bi?sed.

" You are a brave nation," I said, with a polite bow, "so are we. I propose, in your interests, an alliance." " Not in your own, monsieur?" " Not in my own, madame. lam merely an agent, and am not in any danger. You are a principal." " A principal! What is that!" " Your knowledge of our language, Madame Loubert, is almost perfect; one might take you for a native, you speak English so fluently. But at your wish I will explain what I mean by my use of the word. It is that of a man or a woman who, without actually committing a crime, aids in its perpetration," " I defy you to prove that I knew of it," she cried.

'• I have not finished—though your denial, being in the past tense (a point of grammar, mad line), is partial proof that it does not app.y to the present. By the term ' principal' I mean also a man or a woman who, not being a witness of the crime, assists afterwards in keeping those who are guilty out of the hands of justice, and who, at the same time, assists in fixing that crime upon the innocent. That affects you, madame, and if you persist in shielding the guilty, you will see the inside of a prison door. lam going to be quite plain with you. Some years ago you, being then in Paris, entered the service of a gentleman who is now in prison on a charge of murder." "1 did not. I entered the service of a lady." "John Fordham'swife, In English law it i? the same. You were John Fordham's servant. You came to England v/ith him iini his wife, and exercised authority in his I.ousu. I am acquainted with every particular of your conduct during the years you remained with them. You hated your master, and conspired against him. Your mistress was a drunkard, and you secretly applied her with liquor." " She gave me orders, and I obeyed them." 11 You went much further that) that, in. ..irne. You invented lying stories against your master, you gave secret evidence against him. 1 could entertain > <u icr an hour with the details of your treachery and that of other enemies of his with «bom you were in collusion. It succeeded too well. It drove him from his home, it drove him from his country. Con* fers, madame, that I am well informed." " I confess nothing. I wait." "Do not wait too long, madame. I pass over the intervening years, and come straight to the peril in which you stand—a peril which, if you do not avert it by your awn action, your own immediate action, inadanie. will make a convict of you. You know what that means, do you not? A convict—so many years' imprisonment— hard labour—no more red wine, no ix.ore nice French dishes. Somewhat over a year ago a brutal murder was committed in Liverpool, and quite lately your former master, Mr. John Fordham, labouring under a singular hallucination, accuses him self of the murder of his half-brother Louis." _ I kept my eyes on her face as I mentioned the name, but nob a muscle moved. " It is his own business," she said, " nob mine." "I shall prove to you that it is yours in an indirect manner. You know of this murder, you know that John Fordham is in prison on the charge of committing it. It i* my turn to wait now, madame." " Say that I know of it. What then?' " This. You are aware that Louis Fordham was not murdered, you are aware that he i.« this day alive, and that John Fordham s innocent of the crime of which he accused himself, and for which you would like to tee him hanged. You are intimately acquainted with Louis, you know where he liven. Last night, when I was in your shop, a man was concealed behind this green curtain."

" It was not Monsieur Louis," she cried, »nd then she bit her lip, as though she had taid too much.

" No, madame," I said, smiling, "it was not Monsieur Louis. The man was your dead mistress' brother, Maxwell. You see, madame, we have been keeping watch on you. We have even the evidence of the rascal you married under a deplorable misrepresentation. I refer to Monsieur Whybrow."

"Ah!" she exclaimed. "The ingr-rate!" " He is a scoundrel, madame, but evidence ' ■ evidence, and we shall take advantage of his if it be necessary. You can punish him -why do you not ? It is that you fear be might blurt out something about your pre*

sent intimacy with Monsieur Louis' mother andl with Maxwell, who visits you disguised with falsa beard and whiskers ! Ib is that you fear that this might lead * the police to inquire into the reasons for your association wth the villain who murdered Monsieur Morgan ?"' And now I had the satisfaction or seeing her blanch and of knowing that I had hit the nail on the' head, "It would make you in some sense an accomplice in the crime. Do you perceive the danger that hangs over you, madame ? Do you perceive that your hatred of John Fordham may be carried too far? Intensely disagreeable as it will be to you to assist in proving his innocence, it is your only chance of safety. Decide for yourself; I use no persuasion," " No, you use threats," alio said, and I think, if a look from a woman's eyes could kill, I should nob be'"nere now to tell mv tale.

"Hardly that. I have been very frank with you; if I have hurb your feelings permit me bo offer you my apologies." "What do you require of me!" she asked.

"Theaddresses of Monsieur Maxwell, and of Louis Fordham and his mother," I replied. "Nothing more!" "Nothing more." " And then you and yourspies will trouble me no more ?"

" No more than is necessary to pfoteob ourselves from treachery." " I will nob be dragged Into your witnessbox," she cried. " I will not—l will nob!" _ I considered a moment. If success continued to attend me— I believed that ib would could dispense with her evidence. To be able to lay hands upor. John Fordbara's enemies this very nighb was the all-important move in the game. To-mor-row they might be out of our reach, and I should be confronted with difficulties thab might be unsurmountable. "Every effort shall be made," 1 said, not to bring you forward as a witness." And, indeed, as I spoke those words, I was penotrated by a oonviotion that such evidence as she could give would be of little value; but 1 kept this to myself. Ib is not wise to show your weak cards. "You promise it," sho said, "on your honour as a gentleman ?" "On my honour as a gentleman, madame," I replied, with my hand on my heart, and repressing a smile, " I promise it."

To my surprise she sprang to her feet; the devil within her obtained the mastery, and I never heard the human voice express hatred so vindictively and forcibly. The stories I had hoard ot the female fiend in the French Commune came vividly to my mind; a representative stood before me in the person of Madame Loubert, as she hissed.

" No, I will not help him ! I would go in my holiday clothes to see him hanged !" "You shall not have that pleasure, madame," I said. "I wish you good evening." Her fears returned. There is no weapon so effective as calmness in dealing with hysterical natures. If you shriek, they shriek the louder; if you stand firm, they quail. "What to do!" she asked, showing in her face the conflicting emotion by which she was torn.

"To obtain a warrant for your arrest,' 1 1 answered boldly. "My spies will take care that you do not escape." I was half out of the room when she cried, " Stop ! I will do it—l will do it I" "I do not know, madame," I said, appearing to hesitate. "We can manage without your aid. You shall stand in the dock by the side of your friend Maxwell. And now she was thoroughly terrified ; she wept, she implored, she fell upon her knees. It was a great victory, but though I knew I could not do without her I did not yield easily. Whtn I had worked her up to a proper pitch I said : " Rise, madame, and write the address in Fincliley where I shall find your friends." " They are not ray friends," she cried, tottering to the table on which lay writing materials. "They would ruin, they would destroy me ! And you, monsieur -you will save me? You have promised on the honour of a gentleman. You will save me —you will save me!" "I will keep my promise, madame. Write—it is your only chance. You allowed your hatred of John Fordham to carry you too far. Be thankful that I came here as your friend." "If I had never met these Fordhams," she said, her hands trembling' as she took' up a pen, "it would have been better for me."

"It would have been better for you if you had been faithful to your master, and not entered into a conspiracy against him. We English have a proverb—honesty is the best policy. Take it to heart, and for the future be content with making money out of us." I looked at the address she had written, 23, Lethbridgo Road, N.W. "Do they all live together, madaine ?" "I think so, monsieur," she replied, and even now she made a motion, as though sho would have liked to pluck the paper from me.

There was no fear of my forgetting the address, and I held ib out to her.

" Do you wish for it back ?" " No, no 1" she said, with a shudder. "Very good. Just another word of sensible advice, madame. Keep in your shop, and preserve silence until I bring this affair to a satisfactory conclusion. If you stir you will be followed; if you write a letter of warning it will fall into the hands of the police. You understand ?" "Ye I understand."

" It only remains to me to thank you for this very pleasant interview." So I left her, saying to myself as I rejoined Wheeler, "Checkmate to Madame Loubert."

" Well ?" said Wheeler.

" Success, my boy, success ?" I replied. "The game is in our hands, but not a moment must be lost. I am going in for desperate measures. Will you back mo up?" " In anything." " Do you carry a pistol ?" I asked, grasping his hand. "Colt's double action revolver, six chambers," he answered, tapping the back of his waistband. 41 Took it to Liverpool with me."

" Good. I have mine on me, I want two more men. Jack for one. Can you recommend another?" "A capital man. Pick him up in five minutes. Sure to be at home. Just married, and in want of a job. Name, Bob Garlick."

" Ho's the man for us." I hailed a growler, and Wheeler told the driver where to go. " I have screwed Maxwell's address out of Madame Loubert," I said, as wo rattled along. " You would have laughed if you had beard us argue—l fairly frightened her. I shouldn't be surprised if no and Louis, and perhaps Louis' mother, are preparing for flight, and I hope to catch the lot to-night. There's nothing in the last two that would warrant us in arrcatin them, but it is on the cards that I shall arrest Maxwell for the murder of. Morgan, whose real name is Philip Barlow." "How do you know ho murdered him? Best bo sure of your ground, Godfrey." " I will make sure. The plan I have in my head will not fail. I never in my life felt more confident, but everything, of course, depends upon our coming face to face with the scoundrelly crew. We are going rtrateht to their house, you, I, Bob Garlick, and Jack, and then we shall Bee what we shall see."

What my plan was will presently be made clear, Sufficient now to say that we found our new recruit at home, and that he took it as a compliment to be invited to work with me. Jack alto joined us. He was overjoyed to hear that it was not a ghost he h&d seen in Finchley Road, but Louis himself in the flesh.

" You've lifted a ton weighb off me, guv'nor," he said. " That clears me, don't it ?" " You will come out of it with flying colours, my lad," I answered, clapping him on the shoulder. "Bub 'ow did it happen?" he asked, in wonder. "We shall know soon," I said. "Only keep cool." "Poor Morgan I" he sighed, with genuine feeling. "'E was worth a 'underd of sech stuck-up cads as Louis." Over a hasty and ample meal, for a full stomach puts courage into a man, I gave my recruits their instructions, and then the four of us rattled on to Lethbridge Road. Night had fallen before we reached our destination. A dark night, too, for which I was not sorry, Directing the cab whereto wait for us, we proceeded to the house. "How are we to geb in?" whispered Wheeler. I did not answer him, bub rang the bell, and gave the double rat-tat of a messenger i from the telegraph office. ' * ( I [To be continued on Wednesday out.) ~