A SOCIETY SENSATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 11543, 30 November 1900, Page 3

A SOCIETY SENSATION.

Ah! talking of sensational disappearancesold Dave "VVishart, the famous ex-detective, closed his eyes and shook silently over some exquisite recollection — about the electric shock that ran round when Miss Valerie Carstairs, Lord Lohmann's niece and ward, and the star of her season, vanished as completely as if she had been ethcrealised, within a few months of her marriage to a duchess' nephew, and of stepping i«to a fortune of a cool hundred thousand? I was one of those after the biggest reward ever offered. : Five thousand pounds— anyone who could bring her back to life, as one paper wont and put it. First of all, it seems, there was a queer paragraph one day in one of the society papers. It hinted at the. strange disappearI ance of a young heiress moving in the highest ; circles—at a mystery that was being hushed , up. The daily papers snatched at it inside a week all London was debating the question I whether Lord Lohmann's beautiful niece had , been spirited away or had committed suicide. Lord Lohmann himself, it was said, would tell nothingadmit nothing; but it was quite enough for the public to know that ho had offered a cheque for £500 for definite news of her whereabouts. It appeared that one evening she had driven to a big drapery establishment in Regentstreet. There she vanished. Over an hour the coachman waited, and then, as Miss Valerie was not to be found on the premises, he concluded that she had left -by a side entrance ; home ho.went. She was not there; Lord Lohmann sent him scurrying back. Another search lot of whispering and wondering—a crowd got round. It looked somehow serious ; the coachman, in a vague fright, hung about for another hour before daring to return. When he did, Lord Lohmann himself met him at the gates, and seemed to turn deadly white when _he saw the man's face and the empty carriage. However, a queer thing ..happened here. My lord ordered him to go back again and . assure the proprietors it was all right; Miss Valerie had now reached her residence after a walk. And it was not till next day that the coachman was petrified at hearing that nothing of the kind had oocurred—Miss Valerie had -.really disappeared, leaving no trace. The sensation would have been a. week old when, one morning, an envelope was handed in at the Yard, marked "Most vital." j It contained Lord Lohmann's card. I hap- | pened to be in my chief's private room, re-! : ceiving instructions, when his lordship was shown in. He was a tall, white-whiskered old gentleman, famous for his fierce, military appearance; but if ever a man looked scared and haunted, ho did. For ever so long he sat whispering thiokly, and then the chief turned to me. "Singular, this! Er—Wishart, let that other matter slide. Go back with his lordship, and see what you make of it. Report to mo as soon as possible." A cab waited. Within an hour, seated in the cosy study of the mansion in Maury Gardens, I had heard it all, and was as completely at a loss as Lord Lohmann himself seemed to be. " I'd have given anything," he fumed, pacing the floor, "if I could-have kept it out 01" these gossiping papers. I hate publicity of that sort at any time. I'm afraid almost to go out; I'm inundated with letters and telegrams. Just look at this hint that the mystery is intensified hy the fact that I sent the coachman to say my poor niece was at home. A mere flashthought of niiuo to stop scandal, to prevent the news reaching and scaring her intended husband, the Hon. Rupert Lovell! Does he ! know? Know! He had started abroad for a health trip. Here's a raving telegram from him j at Nice, telling mo to make the reward i £5000. He's prostrated with the shock. And i the duchess, his auntl dread seeing her! | I shall go mad! ... A mutual love I affair? Certainly! Everyone knows; the I thing was arranged long ago between the | two families. My poor niece had boen planning her trousseau. —certainly! j What could that have to do with tho I case?" | "I merely asked," I said, carefully. "And ; there was no prior attachments-nothing that might suggest tho possibility of a romantic escapade?" "My niece!" Ho stared pitifully. "Pooh! 110. Has that got about? There ! was a sort of girlish attraction, years ago, i mow you speak of —some good-looking • young secretary, named Harold \Vilberforce. i I showed her the madness of that; sent : him off to a berth in Jamaica. Mr. Wishart, i as you sit there, I believe my ward has : been watched—followed—abducted. Motive? i. Heavens! doesn't she step unconditionally i into her fortune in six months' time?. Lured " into some mock marriage, trapped into signing papers that she doesn't understand, and » that will have to bo met later." i " Don't worry, my lord!" His theory I seemed to be about as feasible as that a gang of brigands had whisked her abroad and were wiring tho terms of her ransom. It was awkwardbut more than one nowspaper had hinted at tho sombre possibility of suicide. And his lordship's flush and tremble were not wanting in significance. "Cause for unhappiness?" Ho quivered from head to foot. "Let'me find out which of the servants has been chattering! Mr. Wishart, any such suggestion abroad as ! that will be the last straw for mo. No, no ! j I may have been a little harsh, unsympathetic, in my capacity—and, Heaven knows, 'I don't sleep for thinking of it." He stopped, overcome, as I rose. '"Only find —bring her quietly back!" he exclaimed brokenly. " I'll ask no questions, stop at no expenseand there's a cheque for five thousand pounds!" Phew! An hour later I had turned tho coachman's memory inside out, questioned several other servants till thoy trembled, sealed all their lips, and was scurrying off to the drapery establishment. Not the ghost of a cluo herenone of the shopwalkers could recollect ushering Miss Carstairs out. As I passed out the " evening" papers wei;e making their appearance. Nearly all the contents bills had a tempting reference to the great society sensation. By next morning I had waded through a. record of all the coroners' inquests held throughout the country for the fateful week. Nothing came of thatnor of a brief study of tho criminal trials for the same period. Oil. for some starting-point! Following up bare theories, I had only one card left to play. Before leaving Lord Lohmann's house I had obtained a few particulars concerning tho good-looking young man who had dared to fall in love with a society heiress; my cablegram was on its way to Kingston, Jamaica. The reply came late that evening. Harold Wilberforce had loft that place some months before. I drew a sharp breath, and wired to the police centre at Islington for two plain-clothes inspectors. We set to' work. In less than 24 hours I had burrowed beneath a tremendous fact. Harold Wilberforco had certainly been in London not three months beforehad been seen by people who knew him locally. To ..trace him step by step might occupy weeks. I was going "to jump to my ultimate idea. Besides, I saw in that day's paper a report that news of the vanished heiress had been received. I lurried off to Maury Gardens. His lordship was in his study. He had another visitor there—a t*ll, brown-bearded gentleman, with bluo spectacles. The moment I entered I noticed that his mental agitation was of a different order from that shown in our first interview. "Why, here is Mr. Wishart!" he gasped. " I made sure you had turned the case over to someone else. Have—have you succeeded, too?" "Succeeded?" A sort of cold shock crept down my spine. "Well, no; but I have some information for you which might— " Might! Why, but you're just an hour too late, man! Here's this other gentleman from the Yard actually traced herfound her! It's all over. Unless anything happens she'll be here within three hours from now. Well, you may are!" "Indeed?" I got out. I glared blankly at my lucky rival. I'll own my head was whirling in a way new to me. If nothing else, the offhand way in which, after ail the profound sensation, the affair was being wound up and tho reward handed over would have nettled any man in my place. "I should like to ask, if I might, how —" "He won't tell!" breathed his lordship. I'm quite in the dark myself. I know nothing except that my poor girl is found." Merely business," said the other man, i peering into a note book ho held. "I 1 couldn't afford to have my theories criticised | yet. As I said, a whisper, a rumour of any : sort, and all my work might be undone." j Tho hint seemed broad. Hardly knowing i it, I got up. I had expected at least that ! his lordship would inquire as to my inci- . dental expenses, but he was too much , flurried and absorbed. lie shook hands convulsively ; and there I was, walking out of ■ the house in a prickly heat. It was just j growing dusk. I walked a few paces, and I then waited, watching the house. I Five minutes—fifteen, maybe; then out 1 came tho man who had cut the ground from under my feet so smartly, and was going to collar the reward. As he hurried past I took a run across and put out my hand and seized his. "Congratulate you!" Thon, on an impulse, I pulled him quite close, and stared into the blue spectacles. "Come!" I whispered. "Share the game! You're not from i Vate) Yard, you know."

"Really?" Ho gave an awkward laugh. "Never said I was—his lordship's mistako. I'm from a private agency. And, for once, we've been smarter than your people, eh?" . "'So it seems. Perhaps," I said, "you simply found out where she had married, by license or otherwise, the man she had always wanted— man from Jamaica —Harold Wilberforce?"

" force?" I was certain he whitened a bit. "Pooh! You're right off the scent there, I assure you." ] And he hurried away, as if hard hit. I must have stood transfixed for quite ten minutes, my brain fairly _ burning its way through a film of obscurities. Three hours, Lord Lolimann had said, and it was now a little ' after seven. I slipped into Knightsbridge and took a cab for Islington. No, my men had traced Wilberforce no farther; but incidentally thoy had secured something from his former landlady which might be useful. I took it, made, some mental calculations, and decfded to be "in at the death." It was barely ten as I rang the bell and asked to see his lordship again. I was in time; I found him pacing a sittingroom, very pale, his nerves at the highest tension. "You?" he breathed. "She hasn't co . mo —he can't have failed! That poor girl! Just think; shut up in some den, perhaps, breaking her heart!" "Very likely," I said. "Hasn't it yet struck vour lordship that there is something exceptionally strange in this development? I mean „ _ , "Strange! I hardly know whether Im dreaming or not. I've wired a lie to the Hon. Rupert stop him coming. I can't think at all—l only want to see her back here safe and sound! You don't think he — "I think .he'll manage it," I said, "and I was going to ask your lordship if I may remain here till your nieco arrives—l will tell you why, afterwards. Perhaps—" A sharp, thrilling ring at the hall bell. His lordship sprang a step forward—forgot mo entirely in his supreme v suspense. I glanced round. There" was an art-screen in the corner; on an impulse, I stepped^behind it. ■ Through the interstice Issaw his lordship's arms go out, as a woman, heavily veiled, hesitated at the doorway. She threw back the veil, and moved towards the arms like a tragedy queen. " Valerie!"__ Yes, it was Valerie Carstairs; I recognised the starry eyes in the oval face at once; and the blue-spectacled man had followed her in, closed the door, ; and stood with his head delicately turned. "Valerie!" his lord almost sobbed it. "Is it you? I thought—l thought you were lost for ever. What does it all mean? Where have you been?" "Don't ask me!" cam© a whisper. I can't tell you daren't yet. I m hore; you shan't , worry any more—l never thought you would. —I— And then, without another word, she threw up both hands to her face and rushed out of the room. , _ r . V A moment's strained silence. My rival s low voice broke it: "Well, my lord, I think I have done my part fairly well to time? "Yes, indeed!". With another sob he fumbled in his breast-pocket. I honestly believe to this day that he had the cheque ready and would have handed it over on the spot. But here was the psychic moment. I cleared my throat and stepped out. _ "One moment!" I said. "I'm going to take a liberty. Lord Lolimann, with all respect, I think as much of the credit for solving this mystery is due to me as to this gentleman. You mentioned a man named Harold Wilberforce. If you look at this photograph of him, and then at this gen tieman without his disguisa, I think you 11 find allow me I" Possibly mv rival had made a movement as if to go. lam not certain. I only know that I jumpod forward, and made a grab at that homely brown beard. Taken unawaros, he flashed up his hand just too late—it came away, and his hurried movement knocked off the blue spectacles simultaneously. Done! With only a vivid spot on either cheek ho drew himself up— the original of my precious photograph ; not Wilberforce ; but a clean-shaven, aristocratic-looking young gentleman who. ... „ "Great heavens! Rupert! Ru— That was the husky, indescribable whisper that broke on his lordship's lips. If he stood as though paralysed, I was not much better. My inspiration had borne fruit with a vengeance; but this—! It was the Hon. Rupert Lovell, nephew to a auchess, the man whom Miss Carstairs was down to marry, and lie wa£>at the door. "Yes, sir," ho said, quietly> "I have played you a trick, against my better sense. One more act of folly of mine. I think I have paid the price." He went out, A rustle, a feverish whispering, and then, before we had half realised, Miss Valerie was in the room, her white face and the sic«c dread in her eyes showing that she had heard all. "No, I'll pay! Uncle!" It was a moan I can hear now. " Uncle! blame me punish me ! I was wicked ; at my wits end. i. ninlc —listen! Rupert in debt; in terror of his aunt and exposure; a gambling affair that will never, never happen again! I knew it all; knew ho was .going to the Jews or to escape the conscquences. I asked you to advance me some of my money; you refused, you were not kiijd to meyou drove me to do a foolish thing. I wanted to save him; I made him do it. I ran away on purplanned it all in a momentand hid in apartments. I made him suggest the reward ; I meant to pay you back every farthing of it. Kiss me, forgive me all, and let me help him to be a man! Ho will try —he has promised. Uncle uncle, dear!" And of a sudden the old gentleman caught her in his arms and fairly broke down— a relief in both senses, no doubt. I know there was a rare lump in my own throat. "Wishart! Your hand! Not a wordthat gentleman's honour! I shan't forget. Call again!" And I did; and, I can tell you, my blood tingled to rights at sight of the cheque his lordship handed me. I only smiled when I saw in the papers that the society sensation had fizzled right out— Valerie had only met a friend, and hurried off to see a sick relation in the suburbs. ,