THE OTHER MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14972, 20 April 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE OTHER MAN.

BY TOM GALLON. Author of " T&ttcrlej'," " A Rogue in Love," "The Second Dandy Ohater," "The Mystery of John Pepx>eroorn," etc.

[COPYRIGHT.] CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued,) A>r elderly man walked past her, and glanced at the houso she had left; looked sharply at her, and went on. She saw him go to that group about the house; saw a constable speak to him And then Rhoda, with a heart -of lead under the diamond she carried, went away back to her room. Tho elderly gentleman had been Mr. Monkton Corbett. The panic that had driven him from the house had subsided ho realised that lie had a certain course to pursue, and that it must be pursued publicly. Tho difficulty for him lay in the fact that ho did not know what had happened on the previous night at the house of Richard Haydon. He remembered that Flamank and the man of the scarred face, both armed, had. decided-to try conclusions with each other for the possession of the diamond he wondered which of them had succeeded. What lay behind the shut door of Hay don's house What liad happened in the night ? A hand upon his shoulder caused him to jump quickly and to turn his head. Flamank stood beside him. Flamank looked, haggard and tired he had not slept nor broken his fast. " Come away a little I want to talk to you," he said. Corbett allowed himself to be led away along tho side of tho square, until Flamank stopped and faced him. " Our friend who called upon you and asked for Breo paid an unexpected visit to that house last night," he said, jerking his head in the direction indicated. "He was armed— as I was; it would have gone hard for one of us if we had found the diamond." v

" But didn't you find it V' asked Corbett, in

" No— thing was gone," answered Flamank. "Whether it's a trick on the

part of young Haydon, or what it is, I don't know; it baffles me. The upshot of the matter was that we left in a hurry. I suppose you've been sleeping all night I" he added, contemptuously. • "I—l saw the game was up—and I cleared out before you did," Corbett admitted. " I left Ella there,; I've come back to look after her." "That's very thoughtful of you," sneered Flamank. " It's necessary for us both to be here this morning; there will be a few inquiries as to the fire, and as to our friend who was so unfortunately lost in it. By the way, what are you going to call him ? " " Adam Breo, of course," replied Corbett. " We've nothing to conceal now; the fight for the diamond m an open one, and the littleaccident that happened to Bree has been covered up neatly enough. I shall go back now and seo young Haydon. ana take Ella away. If I pretend to know nothing about the business of last night I might hear something that would bo useful.

That plan Monkton Corbett put into execution at once. He thanked Mr. Haydon profusely for the great care taken of his little girl. Ho had gone out, on his own part, lor an early morning walk, and had secured rooms at a modest house not very far away. Perhaps Mr. Haydon might like to call and see them some time or other when he was passing. They would remain there for some time, because there would have to bo an inquest on their unfortunate friend—and it would never do for Mr. Corbett to be far away at such a time as that.

Dick took the address gratefully, writing it down on a slip of paper. He promised to call very soon. As a matter of fact, he called that very evening—just to assure himself that Miss Corbett was not suffering from shock in any way and to know when she would bo able to sit to him again, in order that he might finish the sketch. So it happened that poor Rhoda Nunn, coming to the studio on the following morning, on tho chance that her services might be wanted, found Ella Corbett again installed in her place, but received what she deemed a curt request to com© that afternoon. As a matter of fact, the request was not curt at all; but the girl was in that state that she would have misconstrued anything. She saw that Ella Corbett was just going; she saw also how Dick looked at her and how he held her hand. She slipped away with a very demon beginning to rage within her. , Late that evening Monkton Corbett was in the sitting-room"of the lodgings he had taken for himself and his daughter when a visitor was announced. Monkton Corbett, having always an eye f6r a pretty woman, roso to his feet and stood bowing ceremoniously as Rhoda Nunn was shown in. Ho came to the instant conclusion that tho young lady, whoever she might be, could prove a vixen if she had a mind to it. "I came to see your daughter Miss Corbett," said Rhoda, quickly. "My daughter is out at the moment," said Mr. Corbett. "Perhaps you would care to wait, or will you leavo a message? " " I can leave a message," said the girl, shortly. " I daresay you can remember it. Tell her that I love the man she thinks she has ensnared, and that I know in his inmost heart he loves me. Only I've heard that love may change to hate perhaps mine is doing that, too." " I don't in tho least understand ■" "'Because I loved Mr. Haydon I stole that which might have caused his ruin and his death; now I give it back to her. She has stolen him from —let her guard his life as I would have guarded it. That's the. message." She pulled out from her bodice a little package and flung it with a dramatic gesture on the table, turned, and ran out of tho room. Monkton Corbett, in a bewildered fashion, turned over the little package, then suddenly bent towards it, with an exclamation, and began to cut the stitches that held the canvas. When at last the priceless thing was uncovered Corbett wit down weakly in his chair, staring at it. Good Heavens ! ho whispered, feebly.

CHAPTER XIII. Monckton Corbett could not remember, of course, ever having seen Rhoda Nunn before; ho was completely at a loss to understand why she should have come there in search of Ella, and why, above all things, she should have left that strange message for tho girl. He could not knpw all tho watching and waiting that had been going on; he could only trace the tre-

mendoua fact that the- diamond was there before him, miraculously recovered. That was fact enough for any man to digest in a hurry. Corbett, still watching the diamond like one fascinated, had time ■to turn over in his mind various, points, and to note that each point was notched off, as it were, in his favour. In the first place, by a species of special Providence, he had been alone when Khoda , Nunn came in, and a girl, whoever she was, who could so recklessly toss away a fortuno was not likely to talk about the matter to anyone else. So far so good. Corbett had the game in his own hands — and ho could play it alone. Hitherto he had fought first fide by side with Flamank, and then had had the mortification of seeing that yet another —Eli Oldershaw—had stepped in and threatened to snatch away the fortune from both. Now, by all that was wonderful, Monkton Corbett had the thing to himself, and only a strange, half-mad girl was aware of the fact. It will readily have been discovered by this time that Monkton Corbelt wjis not a strong man, in the mere dominant meaning of the word. He had been dragged into this business in the beginning by association with Flamank; ho was, _in a sense, one of those purposeless sinners who sin becauso the beginning of the part is an easy one; they trust the part will go on being easy. Corbett had trembled at the thought of how many difficulties wore rising up day by day to confront him. There were moments when he wished heartily that the great diamond had been at the bottom of tho sea and had never come in his way at all. But now, with the thing so easily obtained, the man's cupidity was roused. He knew that Flamank and Oldershaw, and even young Haydon, were all searching for this diamond, without the faintest clue as to its newest thief; and they could not possibly suspect Corbett,' who had taken no active part in getting hold of it. It was with quite a triumphant air— a feeling, indeed, that these things happen to a man who deserves them—that Monktoil Corbelt rolled the wrappers about the diamond and thrust the package into his pocket. "This gives me a new lease of life," he said, pacing up and down the room in a great state of excitement. " I can throw off Flamank. With this in my-hand I can pretend that I have done with all the business, and that I decline to pursue the search any further. I can leave tho great fool still fumbling about, and suspecting people, and searching; and I shall hold the trump card all the time. I won't even tell Ella; she's indiscreet, and has got all sorts of queer notions about honour and honesty. Besides, since that night when Bree was killed she looks at mo sometimes in a fashion that makes me shiver. Thank Heaven that busin'ess is done with. Thank Heaven, too, that I have won, after all, as I meant to do from the first!" Ho was still strutting up and down the room, building airy castles in a great and wonderful future, when ho should have

disposed of tho diamond, reaped the proceeds and got away to ono of those countries where tho sun shines always, and where a man with money is welcome, when the door opened and Ella came in. And on this occasion the girl was not alone she was accompanied by Mr. Richard Haydon.

In the most surprising fashion Dick had actually been walking past the house when ho had met the girl. Ho had carefully omitted to mention exactly how many'times he had walked past the house, in the hope of seeing her, before she actually appeared. Also he was totally unaware of the fact that Rhoda Nunn, halfrepentant already of having left that message and' the diamond, had seen him bo pacing, and had almost had a- murderous thought in her mind that she would have given much for a weapon, that she might creep behind him and deliver one blow that should end this business that was slowly driving her mad. ' , It was certainly disconcerting fof 'Mr. Monkton Corbett to bo visited in this fashion. That little package in his pocket seemed to weigh, him down on one side. He was quite certain that Dick must notice that he carried something extraordinary about him. But Dick was watching the girl and had no eyes for anyone or anything else. "I took the liberty of coming in," stammered Dick. " Miss Corbett was so good as to suggest that I might do so. Quite a coincidence. I was just passing the houseon an evening walk— "Pray sit'dojvn and make yourself quite at home," said Mr. Corbett, genially, with a. furtive glance at his daughter. "This is but a _humble lodging, Mr. Haydon, but we livo simply because wo are not wealthy people." "You have been alono all the evening, father dear," said the girl. " I am sorrv I left you, but I had a headache, and I wanted a long walk." Monkton Corbett felt that he was extremely glad he i had been left alono so opportunely; he decided that it was impossible for him to say anything about that message that had been delivered. The story that it seemed to suggest did not interest him; all that conoerned him at the moment was that ho. held in his possession the diamond. His brain was full of schemes for turning it into money. Yet it was to happen that Monkton Corbett was to find himself with a very white elephant, with which he could do nothing, and out of which he could make nothing; and Monkton Corbett was growing mighty, short of money. During the next few days all sorts of things happened with which he was intimately concerned. The inquest took place on that poor charred thing found in the ruins of the house. Flaniank and himself were properly condoled with on the loss of their friend; and poor Adam Bree was thus hidden away from the sight of the world, with the real cause of liis death unaccounted for. And still Monlcton Corbett walked the streets of London, and sat in | his shabby room in the lodging he had taken, and puzzled his brains to no pur- | pose to know what he was to do with the diamond. He had but one poor satisfaction,: and that was when Flamank camo to him and sat long each day, advancing all sorts of theories about the loss of the stono, and what was the best way to set about recovering it. " For my own part, I am suspicious of that fellow Haydon," Flamank would say. " He knows more about it than he cares to say : and he's going to wait until all this blows over, and then he's going to dispose of it somehow or other ana snap his fingers at all of us. What do you think 2" Monkton Corbett thought a great deal, and, having his hand at that particular nioment gripped tightly round the packet in his pocket, had some difficulty in saving himself from laughing aloud. Yet when Flamank had gone Corbett could only come again to the bitter conclusion that he was no nearer any safe ending of his difficulties than he had been before. There were moments when a wild thought crossed his mind that ho would confido in Flamank as tho stronger man; they could then share the spoils between them. But ho shuddered when he thought of one man at least done to death on account of tho great diamond; with his mind's eyo he semcd to see a long, ghostly procession of others, of varying races and colours, who had been done to death in something of the same fashion. Flamank was a brute, and Flamank had waited long for his opportunity. It might go hard with an old and feeble man if Flamank knew that the stono could bo so easily got. It was some days after all that remained of Adam Breo had been decently put away in the" earth, . with Flamank and Corbett for mourners, that the crisis camo for Corbett. His funds had sunk so low that the landlady at his lodgings had actually presented an ultimatum; and Flamank, appealed to, bad sourly declared that he was no better off, and that Corbett must ] wait until the diamond was found. And ] then it was that Monkton Corbett, remembering something that had up to that moment slipped his memory, made a great resolution. > _ ! In those few days during which tho strange household in the corner of tho square had consisted of Flamank and the sailor Bree and Corbett and his daughter, Bree had more than once spoken conflden- ; tially concerning his attempts to get rid of the diamond. He had suspected Flamank, but not the older man; and once, under the influence of liquor, he had actually blurted out that tale of how he had gone to a dealer near the docks, and had failed to dispose of the gem. Now the • conversation, broken and esrappy as it' '

was, floated back to Monkton Corbett, and he remembered a name and an address. The name was Quinn, the address was Long Lane, near the East India docks; and for a time after that remembrance had come back to him, that name and that address sang in Corbett's mind, and were not to be dismissed. Almost mechanically, guided by that remembrance, lie found his way one day, with the diamond in his pocket, down to the neighbourhood of the East India docks, and causally inquired for Long Lane. A mere derelict of a man detached himself from a post outside a public-house and huskily offered to point out the way, received" some coppers for his services, and disappeared through the swing doors of the public-house. Monkton Corbett found Long Lane, and after some difficulty discovered a beetle-browed looking little shop with three brass balls suspended over its doorway, and with a heterogeneous medley of things piled up in its windows. Monkton Corbett, deciding, after all, that liis journey had been a fruitless one, spent a little time in flattening his noso against the window and peering info _ the interior. All sorts of people came in and went out slatternly women with bundles and seedy-looking individuals with silverware. Now and then a youth would furtively squeeze himself in at the door, and apparently produce something for which the proprietor was not altogether unprepared;' but the youth would come out with a dissatisfied expression, and would disappear around the first corner- The proprietor. hovering like some species of ugly spider in his web. that attracted so many doubtful-looking flies, was a shrunken man with black eyes peering out of an extremely dirty face, and with wisps of grey hair falling from under a faded green, velvet skull cap. . £ (To bo continued on Saturday next.)