MALVERY HOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16761, 30 January 1918, Page 8

MALVERY HOLD.

v I'PfrcßY J. S. FLETCHER. J I j : I j I I ] j

§r (COPYRIGHT.) " - CHAPTER (Continued.) I'n very, Trilling to learn from you, Mr. Stubbs, 'I ean, assure you," said Atherton. " And I'm" sure the coast-guardsmen would be glad to learn too." " " I'm not 60 sure about them, chaps, observed- Mr. Stubbs. "There's a certain class of offiaab in this world, captain, as doesn't lib? anybody to tell 'em aught about their own business. I've said a quiet word, time and again, to big pots in thtt line, and they've, invariably given me the cold eye. But I'm aa dead certain that smuggling goes on in this hero Marshwyke Creek as I am that I seo jou. And I'm certain, too, that them dents, mother, brother, sister, is all mixed up with it. What do you suppose that yon eld haßarbara Clent, came hero this morning for? Why, to keep her ears open and find out if aught .was said about them! Of course! It's just here, gentle men, in mv opinion—all this here mys _ y about young Mr. Dick's strange coming Whatfarff your grounds of suspicion?" asked Atlierton. . . . „ • "Good and plentiful—m my opinion, answered Mr. Stubbs. "You compare them Clents with the rest of the Marsh\vvke fishcrfolk. Them Marshwyke folk j£as poverty-stricken a lot as you 11 lind ' anvwherc ou this coast; it s all they can do" to scratch a living-us tradespeople knows that. But them Clents-why, they've more money than they know what to "do with! Who is there that hasn t „ecu Gillian in Brychester on market and fair davs— well gowned as any fine ladv! They/eat and drink oftho best. Don't I know what they buy • i' my line, and don't I see what they get at Filson's, over the wav i' the shape of butcher's, meat? Doesn't both Gillian and Judah, sport gold watches and gold chains? Judah!—aye, there's a feller for 'you—l would like to know a bit more about that gentleman!" "Judah no doubt makes money when he goes to sea," remarked Athertou. _ Goes to sea!" he exclaimed. " Aye!— and who's to prove that Master Judah ever goes to sea? Disappears from home now and then, no doubt, and comes back and says he's lieeu to Try-east and Buenos Aires and New Orleans, ami Lord knows where, when he's most likely never been a hundred miles away from Snilhamptcn Head! Yah!" £* " Where do you suppose he does go, then?" asked Athertou. Mr. Stubbs looked at the door, then at the window; then he drew his chair nearer to the tablo at which his visitors sat. '""I'll tell you something," he said,, in a lowered tone, suggestive of great •mystery. "It's all between ourselves— •there's nobody but me and my wife knows of it. You see, gentlemen, me and my missis every year we take a bit of a holiday—Brighton, or Eastbourne, or Bournemouth, or one of them places, where there's life and fashion. And last year we {decided we'd try the Continent, 'cause neither of us had ever .been in foreign "parts, and wo thought it was high time 'wo formed an acquaintance with 'em. So .lye went across to Boolong— a .very nice place, t too, specially if you go into -that" there gambling place and watch how things goes there. Happen you're acquainted with Boolong, captain?" . ** "I .. know Boulogne—yes," answered Atnerton. i * 1,1 Very good," said Mr. Stubbs. "Now, jfmaybp you'll remember the street that pleads from the harbour into the middle of ■'the town— something or other—l •never could get my tongue round foreign -lingo!— a number of caffys and .iieetaarants in it,' and there was <Jne in particular that me and the wife took to -sitting in cf an evening when it was as .'busy as a bee-hive. You could take your .'drop of liquor there, and smoke your cigar like a;lord, and stop as long. as you like, and watch the company, 'and it was as good as- being at a theatre. Well, we was .in this place one night,, in a nice,! quiet-little, corner, keeping all our four) ' eyes open, when all of a sudden my missis, she grabs iae by the arm, and she says:'! 'John,' she says, 'there's Judah Clentl't 'And I looks up,' and 'sure enough Judah" : Clent it w;is, large as life. But Master' 'Judah didn't show himself there in 800-' long same as he- does here when he's atj 'home, or in Nick Briscoe's at tho "Anchor's Weighed— he! No, sir— ..there in' Boolong, Judah was quite the duke! Got up in a smart, dark blue serge Suit was Judah, with glazed linen and shiny boots, and gold pins and such-like, and was spending his money as free as- if -he' picked it off the cobble-stones outside, Be never saw me &d Mrs. S., 'cause, of course, he never er.pected to, and we took "good caro not-to let-him know 'we saw -him." J

aim. «- !; " With whom was he in company?" tasked Atlierton. . - ' - d " Couple 'what you'd call highlyjcespectable gentlemen as might lia' been aldemien or even - mayors,' replied j .Mr. Stubbs.' "Black coats and shiny I ■hats, and all the rest of it. And Jndah j was evidently hand-iti-glove with both of ..'em, and doing, the large, too, with wine and cigars and euch like. - Not much 9! j the sailor-man about Master Judah as he presented himself in that Boolong caffy; I can tell you! Sailor-man, indeed! Yah exclaimed Mr. Stubbs, derisively. Did either of you 'ever take particular notice ot Judah Glent's hands', now?" The ' guests shook " their heads with mutual consent. t "They're not- the handfi of a man as 4rorks at pulling tarry ropes or oiling steam machinery," said Mr. Stubbs. " Not fney! They aren't as work-worn as what, mine are. But to'go on with this here tale. Next day to that me and the missis finishes our bit of a holiday and comes borne. And a . day or tiro later Gillian comes into this shop o' mine to buy something or other. 'I ain't seen nothing 0' yonr brother of late,' I says to her, innocent-like. ' Oil to sea again, I suppose ?' ' Judah's gone to Archangel this turn,' she says. ' Oh, indeed says I. ' ' Nice cool place to go to this hot weather.' Yah! I reckon Judah never got 110 nearer Archangel nor Ark-anvwhere-else than -what Boolong or Havre is!" • "Tell you what it is, captain," be went on. " I'll stake a good deal that that ?'lace of dent's is naught but a receivinglouse for smuggled goods. Not heavy stuff that 'ud be hard to bring across unobserved, but certain light stuff. Them preventive men isn't gifted with imagination, and they don't see much further than the . end of their noses. But I reckon things up—moreover, being in the trade I'm in, I hear something of what you might call the kindred trades. You don't know, of course, that there's certain chemicals which it pays smugglers splendidly to get- into this country. Look at the duty that's charged on some things if they come in in the regular way. 'There's collodionone pound fourteen shillings and elevenpence a gallon! There's sulphuric etherone pound sixteen arid six a gallon. And there's things like liqueurs—'twenty-ono and fivepence a gallon, and perfumed spirits —twenty-four and a penny in "bottle. And there's always cigars as is'highly profitable —seven shillings a pound duty to escape. You could put a rare valuable lot o' these things into a light boat from a vessel outside yon bar and bring 'em up the creek withoat anybody being wiser. A raid, v captain, a raid on that place 0' Clent's !— that's what's needed in this case. And ha'ig me!" concluded Mr. Stubbs, "if I • don't believe that;young Dick Malvcry'g disappearance and this sailor lad's death isn't mixed up somehow with what I've been tolling .you about. There's ' always wheels within wheels, captain." Athert-oi and Blake went away, from Mr. Stubbs' hospitable parlour pondering "these things deeply, and both conscious that there might be much in what the- fussy little "grocer said. : And as they were getting Atherton's car from the inn the coastguardsman- who had teen , asked to give l evidence came up to them' and gave the chief constable, a look which seemed to imply something. V *. it.-" , "You heard those hints of Mr'. Stubbs', eii'?" ho F.iitl quietly. • " We know more :.j about that than he thinks, and you'll be -leanng of what we know, before very h - .<?*.*&•» v. .. .. . _ . . .. •