A ROGUE IN AMBUSH?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14587, 25 January 1911, Page 11

A ROGUE IN AMBUSH?

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY HEADON HILL, Author of " Millions of Mischief," " The Hidden Victim," " Unmasked at Last," Etc, Etc.

COPYRIGHT.

AFTER XL—(Continued.)

After all, Phyllis reflected, this man who spoke to her so fairly had done nothing to forfeit her confidence "so far as she knew, whatever Raphael might have done. And even if there had been connivance between them there was nothing to show that it had not been directed at the shielding of Dick. In which case they were all on common ground, and mutual trust would tend to more effectual co-operation. On the other hand, if Ravenscar or Raphael or both combined, had some other more sinister reason for hushing up the origin of the pistol, they had already as good as failed of their mark; for in less than an hour she would have gob the truth from Dick and would bo able to shape her future action solely in his interests. ~v

So she related in detail her discovery of the old duelling.case,■ Raphael's elaborate description to her. of his sale of the missing - pistol to an American twelve years before, and his repudiation within an hour to the detective of any knowledge of the weapon submitted \to him, though its fellow and fac-simile was at that moment reposing in his desk. Phyllis went on to say though she had thought the curio-dealer's conduct reprehensible, she had thought no more of it till the paragraph in the evening- papers opened her eyes -to the fact that the pistol the detective was trying to trace was the one picked up in the study at Beacon Audley Rectory. She had then decided to ask Dick without delay whether she might safely carry her' chance-found clue to tho police. They had left the town behind long before -she came to tho end of her narrative. • Ravenscar listened without a word of interruption, and at the conclusion walked some twenty paces in - silence. "You have done perfectly, right in coming down," ho said at last. "It seems almost like the hand of Providence that I should have found you a refuge at the shop where that clue was to be obtained, for I need hardly assure you. that I was in ignorance of ; it. I had had transactions with Raphael, and knew that* ho . wanted a catalogue made—that was a 11. I can quite understand his attitude both towards yourself and the detective, deplorable lis it was from the; moral point of view. Directly you unearthed the case he must have connected with the newspaper accounts of the pistol, and being, like all Jews, shy of being cross-examined in Court, lie must have decided to preserve the secret. As a matter of fact, we are deeply indebted .' to him for his underhand behaviour."-

"You mean," stammered Phyllis with a sinking at her heart, " that the truth, if told to the detective, might have been have been—

" Injurious to Richard Wenslade," Ravenscar helped her out with gentle sympathy. "It is impossible to form any conclusion till you have fulfilled your wisely undertaken mission of questioning the poor boy. We who are moving heaven and earth to save him can but hope that your clue may remove the black cloud that threatens to overwhelm him, and which to-day has induced him to take what I cannot but deem a false step." " Oh, what has he done came the little fluttering cry. " He has gone into hiding rather than subject himself tg» examination at the adjourned inquest to-morrow," was Ravenscar's grave reply. " I am afraid that it will be considered a sign of guilt, though I myself prefer to regard it as anything but "that—as doubt of his ability to prove his innocence, as hot-headed resentment of the suspicion he knows to be rife, or as an unselfish desire to spare his relatives the pain of an arrest, God knows I worked hard enough to dissuade him, but the same end will have been gained if your discovery emboldens him to come out into the open and face his accusers." "You know where he is?" demanded Phyllis quickly/' ■' "Yes. When I found that nothing would deter him from the project I thought it best to make the arrangements myself rather than let him blunder . into some pitfall where he would be speedily caught. I flatter myself that the most astute police officer will never guess at his retreat, even if he has to remain there a year before we can clear him— failing that; assist him to a wider flight." " "But you will disclose his hiding-place me?"" pleaded Phyllis. "I had hoped to ? see him to-night, so that if he consents I, may go to the police with my information at once." '

"My clear young lady, I am going to take you to him," replied Ravenscar, contriving to impart to his tone a faint touch, of impatience, as though 'he were hurt by her persistent questioning. "We are on our way to what I trust will provo a satisfactory - interview , now. In less than an hour, if the tide serves any case in an hour and a halfyou will know the best or the worst./ Dick Wenslade is safely lodged in the basement of the abandoned lighthouse on Deadman's Reef.' I had to enlist the help of Michael Standish. the fisherman, but he can bo depended on to keep a still tongue. It has been made well worth his: while."

Phyllis breathed a sigh of relief, convinced at last that Ravenscar was actuated by the motives he professed. She w.'s indeed a little ashamed of the tardiness of her conviction, for nothing against his character had ever come to her notice. She only knew him as the valued and devoted servant of Lord Monksilver, and she remembered now with pleasure that she had never encouraged Dick in his prejudice against his uncle's secretary, who was now heaping coals of fire on his detractor's head. She had never really taken Dick's dielike seriously, looking upon it as the natural antipathy of a high-spirited youth for a man of quiet and industrious tern-, perament. "Dick ought to be grateful Jo you as I am," she said simply. * Thenceforward they walked in silence, the staßle clock at the Priory striking half-past eleven as they neared the village. They had met no one on the road, but late as was the hour this immunity could not be <ountcd upon in the main street of Beacon Audley. If no one else was about they would very likely encounter the local policeman going his rounds. Ravenscar came to a halt at the back of the Priory. "I hope you are not too tired to take the longer way by the cliff path," he said half doubtfully. "It would ruin everything if we were seen, and there would bo a .Treat risk of it if wo went through the village." Phyllis replied by striking into the path, and presently they came out on to the shoulder of the down," with the shimmering sea on their left five hundred feet below, and the few remaining lights of tho village, and the land-locked bay beyond, on their right. In front of them, on the headland,, there flashed and glowed intermittently the occulting beams from the modern lighthouse. Phyllis strained her eyes for a sight of its shattered predecessor on the reef below, which she had just been told was her lover's refuge, but the faint light of a moon nearly spent would not serve. They passed the place where a week ago she had met her present escort, and had lent a willing ear to his suggested subterfuge of feigning suicide -by leaving her hat on the brink of the precipice. He reminded her of it.as:they warily skirted the dangerous point. "This is the spot that is sacred to your sacrifice," he said softly. "Let us hope that it will bear double fruit, Miss Vaughan, after to-night. In helping you to make it 1 little dreamed that it wou'd form the pivot on which might turn the difference between life and death."

... ""But you knew that the difference between honour and shame turned upon it," she answered quickly. "I am glad of the ouDortunity of asking, you about that 4

Mr. Ravenscar, for I was carried away by impulse that morning. I have thought since that Dick Wenslade with all Ins faults had not the making of a thief. Is it possible that you and Lord Monksilver were mistaken in what you saw in the rectory drawing-room?'' i} "Ah, how I should like.to believe that, was the sympathetic reply. "We can, of course, fall back upon the adage_ that to err is human. Lord Monksilver is an old man, and he it was who saw most of the incident. His lordship's eyesight is not what it was, and there is the chance that he saw more than he thought he did. My own view of what happened was, you will remember, of a more or less negative character."

Phyllis's impression was that Ravenscar had distinctly stated that he himself had seen Dick pick up the ring, but she knew she had been so agitated on hearing of the suspicion against her lover that she was quite willing to accept the present version as the original one. And to that acceptance sho was helped by inclination, since it tended to exculpate Dick from the petty meanness of the lesser crime laid to his door. The morrow would indeed be a, day of triumph if both charges fell to the ground. So absorbed was she in the happy prospect that Ravenscar had to touch her arm when they came to,the top of the zig-zag path loading down to the group of fishing huts on the beach of the bay. They were within the radius of the revolving light on the headland, and he drew her gently into the shadow of some ragged gorse-bushes that grew at the side of the path".: "Better be careful," he whispered, "one of the keepers might be on the gallery of the lighthouse. The chances are that he would bo on the seaward side, but we will run as few risks as possible." ', Phyllis co-operated willingly in keeping their progress secret. The descent was steep enough .to need all their attention, but it was safely accomplished at last. As their feet scrunched on the loose shingle of the beach a gigantic form loomed round the corner of the nearest hut. ' :■:•'•■ '

f "That you, Michael?" whispered Ravenscar. • *

-"Michael it is," was the reply. "You've got the lady, I see." : , -,_- "Yes," and the faintest hint : of achievement crept into the secretary's voice, " I have got the lady. Is the boat ready ' . - ." "Been ready and waiting this halfhour," said Standish. " Now, missy, if you ain't too proud to give a poor fisherman your hand I'll steer you down to the. water. There's lobster pots and all sorts of funny things to trip your pretty feet if you don't know the ropes. You just leave it to Michael Standish. He'll be something. better than a father to you before you've done ■with him." ; A sudden instinct of repulsion caused Phyllis to shudder at the wheedling familiarity of the man's tone. But she was committed to the enterprise, and it would soon bo over. Anything that'■ was vexatious about this midnight excursion would be a reparation to her lover for having condemned him unheard. She put her hand in the man's huge fist, and Ravenscar picked his way after them down to the boat. «

CHAPTER XII. THE CORONER'S WARRANT.

"It is my painful duty to caution you, Mr. Richard Wenslade, that you are not compelled to answer any questions of an incriminating nature, but that if you do so answer it will be recorded and will be liable to be used against you hereafter. I need not say how I regret to have to address one of your honoured family in such terms." :

The coroner's voice shook a little as he administered the customary warning to a witness under suspicion. It was not a pleasant task to have to use such language towards one whom the crime they were investigating had left the next heir to an ancient peerage and great possessions. • Flushed and defiant, Dick glared back from the witness-stand where he had just been sworn. The clubroom at the Beacon Arms was insufferably crowded with, two score of the public who had managed to squeeze into a space none too large for those officially engaged. But Dick had no eyes for anyone but the'" presiding officer, whom in his hot-headed resentment he had brought himself to regard as a personal enemy. ... " Oh, don't apologise,. sir," he said with an assumption of haughtiness that was really unnatural to him. " I have nothing to conceal. I shall answer any questions you may put, and I shall not forget that I am on my oath." Nettled by the witness's manner, the coroner felt that he had done sufficient homage to county .; influence. He threw suavity to the winds. ' " I will take you at your word," he said curtly. "On what terms were you with your father for the few days preceding his death?"

" Bad terms. We had been having a serious quarrel for the best part of two days," snapped Dick in his most devil-may-care tone. Elisha Crowe, wedged in among the spectators near the door, glanced surreptitiously from the witness to Ravenscar, who was present to watch the proceedings. for Lord MonksUver, and also in case he might be recalled. The insignificant watcher noticed that the secretary shook his head sadly over the outspoken answer. ■ .

"And the cause of this quarrel pursued the coroner.

" There need lie no secret about that," the witness replied firmly. "In justice to the dead I am glad of an opportunity to explain in public. I had informed my father of my engagement to Miss Phyllis Vaughan, the daughter of Captain Vaughan) of Down Cottage, and my sister's governess. He "-very forcibly expressed his disapproval, and caused her to be dismissed without notice. After she had left the rectory he raised suspicion against her of having stolen a ring that my mother had lost. I considered the accusation an outrage, and only an afterthought conceived in spite. . The next morning Miss Vausrhan's bat was found on a ledge of the cliff, and I had no doubt that she had thrown herself into the sea in consequence of the calumny having come to her ears. That view is shared generally, I believe, by all who knew her." And the young man temporarily transferred his angry gaze to the jury and the audience, losing many sympathisers thereby. For it looked a challenge, the pain of disagreement with him being personal chastisement. Elisha Crowe observed that Ravenscar, though the sadness had deepened in his face, was softly smoothing his long white hands, the one with the other.

"I may take it, then." the coroner went on, " that on the morning of your father's death this bad blood, at any rate on your part, still prevailed—that you believed him to have unjustly driven Miss Vaughan to suicide?"

"That is exactly how you can take it, only a little bit more so," and Dick Wenslade'fi eyes snapped fire as he made the admission. "I will be quite frank with you," he went on. " When I was coming downstairs and heard the shot that must have killed my father I was on my way to the study— to murder him, but to demand a public retraction. He had already withdrawn from the police the information he had laid, but that did not satisfy me. I meant to make him eat his words before, all (he world, or—or tell him what I thought of him." A low murmur ran through (lie room, at this amazing indiscretion. Dick was as popular in the village as the Honourable and Reverend Chaloner Wenslade had been the reverse, and the stupidest rustic among the audience realised that he had dealt a staggering blow to his own case. He had' not only fitted himself wifh a motive for the crime, hut he had now practically confessed that he had been on his way to bring his quarrel to a climax of which murder might well have been the logical conclusion. (To be continued'on Wednesday next.)