THE WILL AND THE WAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14224, 22 November 1909, Page 3

THE WILL AND THE WAY.

PUBLISHED :BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY BERNARD CAPES,.,. Author, of " The Secret in the Hill." "A ; Rogue's Tragedy," " The Green Parrots," "A Castle in Spain," "A Jay of Italy," '" Th* Lake of Wine," .■•':■-• Etc.. Etc, Sir?--"*

[COPYRIGHT.]! CHAPTER IX.—(Continued.) Le Strang, conscience-stricken) paused a moment to get his moral balance before he faced deliberately round. "You heard me make a remark?"' ho asked. ... '"I did," was the grim answer. The law, in tho person of a county constable, stood overshadowing and menacing him. ■■The-.man had approached, in his felted boots, over the soft grass-borders of. the lane, intent on watching the suspicious movements of this loiterer, whom he had been observing from a distance, and he had been repaid beyond his expectai tions. He was a red-faced, red-haired fellow, no more than normally strong in suggestion, and his eyes measured the width and muscle of the figure before him with some obvious apprehension. Nevertheless". has jaw was set and his nerves braced pluckily for any struggle that might ensue. There is probably help to be had within call," said Le Strang, "but you intend to do it all by yourself, I seevogue la galere, Roberto, which is the French for mincemeat. Believe me, I admire your courage." "What are you a-doing of here?" demanded tho brusquely. " I was," said Le Strang, " contemplating the structure of that dwelling house, until you rudely broke into my reflections. It invites criticism, I assure you, from, one point of view. The fact is as obvious as my exclamation was natural and the j conclusion you drew from it characteristic. j But to talk of burglars is not necessarily to be a burglar, Roberto. What charge do you propose preferring against mo?" " Loitering with intent to commit a felony—eh?" said the constable. "Come now !"' -■-'■~-,■....■.,«.•;

" Do burglars in this part- of the world," said Le - Strang, "refer to themselves as burglars?" . < . • J " Seems they do," eaid the man. " I'm not above laming?" " That's very creditable of you," said Le Strang ; " but it is contrary to the spirit of knowledge to accept statements on trust, or else we might at this day, you know, be believing in the existence of the unicorn, although we have never seen one. Have you ever met a burglar, by the way, who talked as I am talking?" " They're up to every manner of trick," he said doggedly. "Except, I think," said Le Strang, " that of successfully posing as gentlemen to people of your penetration. , Now, do I look like a gentleman to you or not?" The constable conned him officially. \ "I assure you," eaid Le Strang, "that I hang upon, your answer with almost as much concern" for the result as I should if hung upon the gallows." ;... " Your clothes is well enough," eaid the constable, "if your tongue only ekalled them."'--'"''* ■ ; ■" ■; "■''■■■■ -

I "After that," said Le Strang, "any struggle which would imperil their distinction is impossible to me. ; - You have taken, so to speak, the wind out of my sails; I am your passive and obedient prisoner, Roberto. What do you purpose doing with me?"?■-;;■' --■■?■-;;■' -h ■'-■.- y,. •,■•.■■•■ v '-/■ ■

I "I heard you," he said, "with my own ears, proposing o'f a job to yourself. What's your name anyhow?" '.'.., ' , . { Hooky Walker," said Le Strang, serenely, ; and without a moment's hesitation. . ':Vy ■;. : .-, ■■■ i ~,: -iw, , ~.....• ;■ -

X "That ..settles it," said the constable. "You'll have to come with me, you know.'* ' I "With pleasure,"" said Le Stranir. "Where tof*

"To give an account of yourself to the sergeant," said the ;. man.: : f "Delighted," answered , the prisoner. "You may believe me or not; but I was* on the point of myself proposing that solution of the difficulty. Long Wyecombe, I presume ? Does your beat take" you that way?" .

\ "Yes, it does," said the constable shortly ; and began to fumble for his pocket. . "No, no,' said Le Strang. "Put those away. You must really take my word for I it" as a gentleman, or there will be difficulties. . ; -I-? have plenty of money in my purse, positively I have.; If I happened to be what you think me, my first, impulse would be to grease your palm, wouldn't it? But I haven't the least intention of doing so. In fact, if anybody has to pay for this mistake, I propose that it shall be you." ■j "Rightsaway,." .he-said; " but I don't lose sight of you, my man." I "Certainly not," said ~Lo Strang. "We will be pleasant wayfarers and comrades." { They-left the lan© together, or, to be more precise, the constable trod upon hie captive's' heels. • From time to time Le Strang turned cheerfully to engage the other in conversation, but, receiving only monosyllabic replies, desisted after a while, j and pursued his way in philosophic serenity. Dusk was gathering, the road lonely, and caution demanded the utmost, alertness on the part of the official.' Not a soul did they ; pass by the way, but once, 1 at the entrance to a ' by-lane, a solitary old man leaning on a stick. Le Strang paused a moment to regard intently this figure. It was that of a hale gaffer of sixty or so, large eyed and snowy-haired, but with the most vacant expression in its stone-white face that it was possible to imagine. It was dressed curiously, too, for a rustic, in worn but decent broadcloth, and had on a swallow-tailed coat and a rumpled white tic knotted about his collar. . \ ; Le Strang, moving on once more, turned to his' pursuing shadow. " Ambrose Sharp he asked. The officer grunted a surly, affirmative, and redoubled his watchfulness. ; Here, to be sure, was fresh matter for suspicion— a connection,* however indefinite, between a burglary that had been and a burglary to be. He recovered his confidence. *

Lights were already twinkling in the outskirting villas when they reached Long* Wyecombe. Le Strang falling back a pace, walked step to step with his conductor. I "lam a stranger here," he said. "You must direct me.

He 'had only spoken, when the officoa captured his arm, and, wheeling swiftly under the red glow of a lamp, on which were plainly inscribed the ominous words, " Police Station," ran him under a low portal, and, with" a single dexterous twist, into a small boarded room, where,' at a high desk, sat a thickset bearded official of a keen but domestic aspect—Sergeant Roper, no less. Gas burned under the ceiling and a cheerful fire in the grate; round the wall ran benches for the accommodation of waiting constables; and pinned up here and there were villainous portraits, particulars of lost property, and printed bills advertising descriptions of bodies found, or bodies wanted, the latter entailing cash rewards of anything from ten shillings to a hundred pounds, according to their degrees of villainy or the capacity of their victim's pockets. The burly sergeant, writing a moment unconcernedly, put down his pen, folded his hands together on the high desk, and looked over its brass rail with official equani\'A charge, Williams?" he said. "What?" ' The constable, standing at guard over his captive, stood at stiff > attention. "Under suspicion of loitering with intent to commit a felony/' he said. " I come on the man unobserved in Scars Lane, and heard him give utterance to the words, 'A good chance for, a burglary.'" Le Strang laughed. ; "Roberto," he said, "an imperfect memory is a dangerous thing! But go on." '."Asked his name," continued Williams imperturbably, " gave Hooky Walker, and was requested, in consequence, to attend here and ' offer a satisfactory account of himself." -«;.?'■ ■j,<-.. •■ ' .»■ •"■/."'"""-■ ■-*-'" ' :;

The sergeant looked at the suspect. "Assumed for the occasion, of course," said Le Strang. 7 "I, had reasons for withholding bQ mm"

j| '" Naturally, no doubt,'' said Mr. Roper, drily. %'i ßut perhaps the occasion's past." : " No, it's only beginning," said Le Strang, coolly. ' "You'll understand me in a minute, and when I tell you, in private, what my name really is. In the meanwhile, I'm open to confess my folly-which shall bo a useful . warning to mein uttering my thoughts aloud. But what I really said was ' A simple job for a burglar,' which is a very different thing from the other, and bore- reference, not to any contemplated house-breaking, but to one which, by report, has already been committed on Scars whose- mistress. Miss Vanborough, is, by the way, personally well known to me." A short pmse followed this statement, during which tho sergeant took the speaker's measure, with a certain wonder depicted under his reserve. Then he turned to the constable, who had stood all this while like-a wooden soldier, with his logs glued together and his arms to his sides, and shook his head slightly with a doubtful expression, as much as to say, "Is this another of your mares-nests," Williams?"

"Personally well known to you?" he repeated, addressing the stranger in a tone which, while still guarded, suggested a hint of better respect. "That is so. is it?" , H Personally said Le Strang, "as well as tho circumstances which were tho actual cause of her succeeding to her inheritance. There was a burglary, was there not?"

"Was there, sir?" "I ask you, sergeant?" " I ask you, sir?" ■ "Very well. I answer. In my opinion there was not."

"Oh, indeed." The sergeant, propping his elbows on the toll desk, bridged his finger tips and looked long and intently over them at the speaker. " You have your reasons, no doubt," he said' presently. "I have my ' theories," answered tho other. "It is just possible that they might bear better fruit than yours, which would appear, to say the best of them, to have turned out a rather barren stock."

Not a word said the sergeant; but official rumination spoke in his steady blue eyes ; and, under the thick yellow" beard which covered bis face to the cheek bones, and met, it seemrd, over his head, the busy machinery of his brain was working at dynamic speed. No one might have guessed, from his impassive exterior, the complicate thoughts which had been sot moving in him at the instance of that confident challenge. It had stirred up the dust of an affair, which, pregnant with certain suspicions as it had been — him, at least—circumstances had relegated to the limbo of impossible solutions. It could be nothing less than worth while, at the least, to examine this theory while it offered. No head" of police likes to write off a case, finally and irrevocably, in the sense of a bad debt. He may appear to do so; but that is only to the greater aggravation of his .amour propre. After a period of 20 years, one may touch him on the subject, and find that to do so is still to touch him on the quick. , "You won't mind telling me, will you," he said presently, " if you are representing any interests but your own in this question of a theory?" "Not in the least," answered Le Strang. " I am representing, wholly and solely, the interests of the late William Grenville's son and heir, whose guardian I am." Sergeant Roper descended from his tall stool on the instant, and presented the figure of a wholesome stoutly-built official with 1 a reassuring suggestion of strength and intelligence about him. He addressed the still rigid constable. .': "You can go, Williams;• and another time,; my man, don't be in quite such a hurry to jump to conclusions." But Le Strang interposed. "I'm really indebted to him, sergeant. He gave me the very pretext I wanted for an introduction to you, and I allowed him no chance by explaining." The head waved his hand impatiently, and Constable Williams, crestfallen, wheeled in one piece, and marched automatically j out of the room:

The moment he was gone, Sergeant Roper closed the door upon him, and turned with his back to it and his face to the stranger. "Now, : sir," hi?;; said, ;,"if you p>:ase. What is theory?" ;*

CTo be continued daily).