THE SECRET HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SECRET HOUSE.

& " BY EDGAR WALLACE,''..'"'; Author of "Four Just Men." " Private v ) f* r ':. -?-_, ■ Seiby,' «tc. - COPYRIGHT. v CHAPTER Xyi.—(Continued.) Frank was singularly silent during that drive; save tomako some comment upon" the amount of traffic in the streets he did net- speak to her, and she was grateful for his forbearance. Her mind was in a turmoil; she was married, that was all she knew; married to a man who had been chosen for her partly against her will. She glanced at him out of the corner of her .'eyes: his face was pale and set; it she was joyless no less was he. It was an inauspicious beginning to a married lite which would end who knew how? Before the gigantic facade of the London Kate Deposit the party descended, Mr. Debenham paying the cabman, and they went down the stone steps into the vaults of the repository. There was a brief check Whilst Mr. Debenham explained his authority for the visit, and it was when the officials were making reference to their books that the party was augmented by the arrival of Poltavo. " Count Poltavo is here, I may say," explained the lawyer, "by your late "uncle's wishes." They were contained in a letter he wrote to me a few days before he disappeared." Frank nodded grudgingly; still he was generous enough to realise something ot this man's feelings if he loved Doris, and he made an especial effort to be gracious to the newcomer. A' uniformed attendant led them through innumerable corridors till they came to a private vault guarded by stout bars. The attendant opened theje, and they walked into a little stout chancer illuminated by overhead lights. Its only article of furniture in the room was a small safe which stood in one corner. A very small safe indeed, thought Frank Doughton, to contain so large a fortune. The lawyer turned tho key in the lock methodically, and the steel door swung back. The back of Mr. Debenham obscured their view- of . the safe's interior. Then he turned with an expression ot wonder. " There,is nothing here." he said. Nothing ! " gasped Doris. " Save this," said the lawyer. > He took a small envelope and handed it to the girl. She opened it mechanically and read : — ~ I have unfortunately found it necessary to utilise your xurtune for the furtherance of my plans. You must try and forgive me for this, but 1. have given you a greater'one than you have lost, a husband—" •'■'': She looked up. ; "What does it mean?" she whispered. Frank took the letter from her hand, and concluded the reading. "A husband in Frank Dough ton—" The words swam before his eyes. " And Frank Doughton is the heir to the Collingwood millions, as his father was bcTore him. All the necessary proofs to establish his identity will be discovered in the* sealed envelope which my lawyer ■holds, and which is inscribed 'C.'"> The letter was signed *' Josiah Farrington." - •- • The lawyer was the first to recover his self-possession; his tactful mind went straight to the business at hand. " There is such an envelope in my office." he said, " given to me by Mr. Farrington, with strict instructions that: it was not to be handed his executors or to any person until definite instructions arrived, instructions which would be accompanied by unmistakable proof as to the necessity for its being handed over— congratulate you. Mr. Doughton." : '* He turned and shook hands with the bewildered Frank, who 'been listening like a man in a dream. He the heir of the Collingwood millions, he the son of George Doughton, and all this time he had been looking ' for —what? For his own grandmother! •'• It came on him all of a rush. ; He knew now that . all his s efforts, * all his search might bare been saved if 'be had only realised the Christian name of his father's j»sother t ;■'->>*'. ''..-■■: \)%^-ir.Zr-'.', ' ','■ He : had only the dimmest ; recollection of the placid lidy who had * died while he was at school • ': he had never associated in his mind this serene old > Woman who had died only, a few .hours< after | her beloved husband with the Annie for ; whom- .he had searched.- It made him gasp, and then he came to earth quickly, as he realised that success had come with the knowledge of his ' wife's financial ':■ ruin. \% He looked at i her as she stood there—white I and shaking. She had not taken it all in —it was too,, vast a shock for i her * to realise at once. He -put; his arm about her shoulder, and Poltavo, "twirling, his little moustache, looked at the two through his bowed lids with an ugly smile playing at the corner of his mouth. '"'":;. ■'-■■■ ■ **It 4s all right, dear," said Frank soothingly, "your money is secure—it t was only. a temporary use he made of it." • '* '■- » " It is not that," she said, with a- catch in her ; throat.;"it'is the feeling that my uncle trapped yon * into this marriage. i I did ; not . mind .his dissipating my i own fortune,' the 'money is nothing to me. 5 But he has caught you by a trick, and he has used ; me as ( a • bait." She- covered ■. her! face with her hands. - In a few moments ■he had: composed herself; * she spoke J no other word, . hat suffered J herself/ to I be Vd out of the building' into the i waiting cab. Poltavo watched them drive off, with that fierce little, smile ■ of ;' his, v and . turned to the; lawyer. X.. '^'"-•"''• '.'v'^r-'* : ;';,/-': ■:: ■"* ;-.■-' fi "A clever man, Mr. Farrington,'* he said,' in a bitter tone of reluctant? admiration. " .- . . : ~ ;^; -"0"- ; '' ■.■;•> ■-. ' - r -~~ ' ■ Tho lawyer looked at him steadilv. :V.- •' "His Majesty's prisons are I filled with men*,.: who specialise .in;: that kind - of cleverness," he said drily, and left Poltavo without another word. ' " '•' ..:,•''..■ CHAPTER XVII., ; ' ./ '; POLTAVO CONGRATULATES HIMSELF. T. B. Smith was playing a { round ■. of golf at Walton Heath when the news was telephoned through to him. He left immediately for town, and picked,up Elk at luncheon at the Rite Hotel. . '' The whole thing is perfectly clear now," he said "the inexplicable disappearance of Mr. Farrington is written in poster type that he who runs may read." "Ira» little hazy about the solution myself," said Elk dubiously. " Then I will put it in plain language for you," raid T. 8., as he speared a sardine from bis hors doeuvre dish. "Farrington knew all along that the heir to the ■ Collingwood millions was George Doughton. He knew it years and years i ago, and it was for that reason that he settled at Great Bradley, where the! Doughtons had their home. 'Evidently the two older Doughtons were dead at this time, and only George Doughton, the romantic and altogether unpractical ex- j plorer, represented the family. George i was in love with the lady who is nowknown as Lady Constance Dex, and know- j ing this Farrington evidently took every j step that was possible to ingratiate himself into her good graces. He knew that; the fortune would descend equally to, Doughton and to his wife. Doughton was a widower and had a sou, a youngster at! that time, and it is very possible that the boy, being at school, and being very ! infrequently in Great Bradley, Farrington had no idea of his existence. The know-1 ledge that tins boy was alive must have changed all his .plans : at any rate, the i engagement was allowed to drift on whilst he matured some scheme whereby he! could obtain a large portion of the Collinsrwood millions for his own use. Again i I think his plans must have been changed. It was whilst he was at Great Bradley that he was entrusted with the guardian- : ship of Doris Grey, and as his affection for the young girl grew, an affection ♦which I think was one of the few wholesome things in his life, he must have seen the extraordinary chance which' fate had placed in hia" way. With diabolical ingenuity and with a remorselessness which is reminiscent of the great figures of the Renaissance he planned, first George Doughton'B death and the bringing together of , Doughton's son and his own ward. There is every proof of this to be .found in his subsequent actions. He was prepared, to introduce the young people | to one another, and by affording them opj portunities for meeting and such encour- j | agement as he could give, to bring about j [the result he so desired, • ,'

y"Bat things ' did not move ■: fast enough - for him,; and then he must have learnt,"' as the other trustees seem to have learnt recently, '- that there was an undiscovered >■'=*' time-limit. ; He t threw "out hints f. to" his : && niece, hints which were received rather "?-m cold He had taken the bold step of employing Frank Doughton to discover— himself 1 That was a move which had a %■ twofold purpose. It kept the young man t ■"". contact with him, it also satined the j- other trustees who had entrusted >. to Far- , nngton the task of employing the neces- » heir' me^ to discover th * missing . . r 'j -snt5 nt neither hint nor suggestion served ham The girl's fortune wtfdue J for delivery to her care, and his guardian--1 S'V*?- 1 * 1 ??**?* at **« ■»" time • ft th . e ,^ une luait l? T the discovery of * the °SX7 a } millionaire «ST? an i end. He had to take a desperate step; *.ere "were other reasons. of course con- . tnbuing to this move.'The knowledge 3 that .Lady Constance Dex would betray » L once * he , discovered that he had sent, her lover to his death, all these were t contributing factors, but the main reason f for Ins disappearance was the will that . was read after lys bogus death. In that . will he conveyed unchallengeable instroc- . tions for the girl to marry Frank Dough- , ton without delay. I suspect that the girl . no !. kno *\ he is alive. That oanfestricken by her tardiness he has disclosed . his hand so far as the alleged death is concerned." » T.B. looked oat of the window on the i stream of life which was flowing east and west along Piccadilly: his face was set 5 in a little frown of doubt and anxiety. I " I can take Farrington to-morrow" if i 1 want." he said after a moment, " but 1 s wish to gather up every string of the t whole organisation in my "hands-"" » " What of Lady Constat Dex? " asked J Elk. " Whilst we are waiting she is in « some little danger." T.B. shook his head, j 'Ii she is not dead now." he said simply, "she will be spared, if Farnng- . ton wished to kill her— Farrington it was who spirited her away— could have ' done so in the house: no one would have been any the wiser as to the murderer. ; Lady Constance must wait, we must trust to luck before I inspect that underground [ chamber of which I imagine she is at present an __ unwilling inmate. I want to crush this blackmailing force" he said thumping the table with energy, " I want I to sweep out of England the whole orfc ganjsatkm which is working right under . the nese of the police ami in defiance of all the laws, and until I have done that I shall not sleep soundly in ray bed." "Poltavo," smiled T. 8., " can wait for j just a little while.". ! He paid -the bill, and the two men . passed out of the hotel" and crossed Piccadilly. A man who had been < along—apparently studying the shop win-r . dosaw them out of the comer of hid t eye and followed them carelessly. Another man, no less ostentatiously" reading : a newspaper as he walked along "the pavement on the opposite side of the thorougu- > fare, followed close behind. T.B. aad his ' 5 companion turned into Burlington Arcade , and reached.Cork Street. Save for one I or two pedestrians the street was deserted, r and the first of the shadowers quickened his pace. He put his hand in his tail . pocket and took out something which glinted in the April sunlight, but before 5 he could raise his hand the fourth man, t now on his heels, dropped his newspaper, and flinging one arm around the shad- ' ower's neck,- and placing his knee in. tk» , small of the other's back, wrenched; the . t pistol away with his disengaged band. v T.B. turned at the sound of-the-sfaug-"T , gle, and came back to assist the shadow-' d ing detective. " The prisoner was a little y man. sharp featured, and obviously a : e member of one of the great Latin branches of ; the human race. Deftly the .'three e police officers searched and disarmed him; g a pair of adjustable handcuffs snapped it upon the man's thin wrists, and before the >f inevitable crowd had gathered the prisoner.. Ie and his custodians were being whirled Ito - Vine Street. ' They placed - the man in the steel dock, and asked him the usual quesw tions, but he maintained a dogged silence. h That his object : was,a&sassinatiom no on* y could doubt, for in addition to the sate-' • 's ma tic pictol, j they, found ; a long stiletto id S J his breast-pocket, , . " n ; More to the-;point;and. of greater inter* ; ie est to T.B. there was ja. three-line scrawl n in Italian on a piece of paper, which transi lated showed that minute instructions had a been > given %to : the .would-be | murderer \as ■*: *■ 0 to T.B. whereabouts. : ""-'-'.;;^ 1 "Put him in*a cell,'" said T.B. **£ " think we are going to find things bat. . If . - " this is not one of Poltavo's things ?% 8 lam greatly mistaken." - •. - 2 ■■'■■' Whatever he was, J the man offered no 1 information which might assist the "detec- % ' tive in his search for tbe troth. The I prisoner; maintained an unbroken silence. "i I , The next morning at i daybreak the : pris- /| J oner was aroused and told to dress. I}eW' » was -taken out to where a motor-car was * awaiting him, and a few minutes • latert > • he was speeding on his way to Dover. Two' V 3 detective officers placed him on a steamer - and accompanied him to Calais, and at * Calais they took a' courteous leaje of -him, ; i ' handing him a hundred francslfSid the inJ formation in his own tongue that he had . been deported on an order from the Home I Secretary: obtained at; midnight the pre- * vious night. The prisoner took his departure with, some eagerness, and spent the - greater portion of hi» hundred francs ;in . addressing a telegram to-Poltavo.. T. B. ... Smith, who knew that telegram would ;§- '• come, was sitting in* the Continental in- *. strument room of the General Post Uflke ■ when ; it arrived. He was handed a copy ' of the telegram, and read it, then he -, smiled. * '„-"~ --» iv"Thank you," he said, as . ; be passed it back to the superintendent of- the; depart- -; k ment, "this ; may : * now be transmitted for • t f delivery, I know all I want to know." d. ';- Poltavo } received the message an hour ~- later, and having read it cursed his subor--3 dinate's indiscretion, for i the message was in Italian, plain to read for anybody who understood! that language. He waited all - that day lor a visit from the police, and ,{" when T.B. arrived in the evening Poltavo s was ready with an excuse and an expiana- .. tionl But neither excuse nor explanation, ' |j were asked for. T.B.'s questions had to - do with something quite different, namely, r the new Mrs. Doughton and her vanished - y. fortune. V? " .'* .

I "I was in the confidence of Mr. Far- , jrington." said Poltavo, relieved to find that the matter had nothing to do with that -which he most dreaded, ■"'bat I was '-'•'.■ amazed to discover that the safe was . empty. It was a tremendous tragedy? for the poor young lady. She is in Paris now • with her husband." he said.? T.B. nodded. + • i - ; • "Perhaps yon will give me their ad- * dress "he asked. ""■ '-*: •■ '■ ■-" * : " With pleasure," said 1 Count Poltavo, reaching for his address book. v -. : -.* - "I may be goings to Paris myself to-': morrow," T.B. went on, "and I will look •*' these young people np. .1 suppose it?is- v not the correct thing for anyone" to call upon honeymoon couples, but a police offi- .'-'§ l cer has privileges." i i-+ * A '■■'■'■'.s*■ - There was an exchange of smiles. Poltavo was almost exbilirated that the ob- ; ject of T.B.'s visit had nothing to do.Kith,'"■.; him personally. A respect-which amounted -', almost to fear characterised his attitude 'V towards the great Scotland Yard detective. ; , He credited T.B. with qualities -which per-fe'.*' haps that admirable man did not possess, : but as a set off . against this he failed to credit hkn with the -wDiness which was peculiarly T.B.'s, chief asset- For who could imagine j that the--detective's main object in visiting Poltavo evening was to allay his suspicions and 'soothe down his fears. V Yet T.B. came, for no other reason and with no other purpose. It was absolutely necessary that Poltavo should be ' taken off his guard, for T.B. was planning v the coup which ■ was to end for all time ' ■::';' the terror under which hundreds of inno- :' •; cent people in England were living. After an exchange of commonplace civilities the - two men f parted, T. 8., as he said, with - - his hand on the door, to psepare for his Paris trip, and Poltavo to make what i' promised to be one of the most interesting > cases that the Fallock blackmailers had r ever handled. 'He waited till he* heardn the door close : after the detective, until -! he had seen him step into bis cab, and "s whirled■' away, and 1 then he -unlocked ■• ~ the bottom drawer of his desk, touched * -.-,' spring :in ' the false bottom, and took***»gg§||§ a secret receptacle ■ a small bundle- of letters. ' - : ■ '~'.. (To be continued on : Wednesi»y Mxi) . -