THE LORD OF THE MONOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16847, 11 May 1918, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LORD OF THE MONOR.

BY EDEN PHILLPOTTS, Author of "The Secret Woman." "The s? Mother." etc. (COPYRIGHT.) CHAPTER IX.—(Continued.) One important thing was, however, proved by this experiment-: the murderer must have been an exceedingly good shot, and the possession of skill in this respect could not be denied to Nicholas, who was a keen sportsman. But others among the grenadiers were equally well known as marksmen, and the subject of their skill was very fully taken into account at a later stage in the proceedings, when all were brought to trial. Some, of course, were known never to have fired a gun in their lives, before the day of " the hunting." The inquest occupied two sittings, and the coroner's jury brought in. the curious verdict of " Wilful murder against a person unknown, but in custody." Bail was refused all the prisoners by reason of the gravity of the count, and the eighteen grenadiers went back to Barnstaple gaol, there to await the next assizes. But one at least of them was interested in more than the preparation of his own case, and — situation being what it was—Nicholas Trecarrow had liberty to see those whom he desired to see, and work almost as hard as though ho had been a free man, for the discovery of his vanished cousin. The detectives were permitted to confer with him, and learned all that he could tell them. He attached the greatest importance to Julitta's information, and doubted not that it was really Hawke Pemberthy she had seen in Lady's Wood; and that liawke and his foster-father knew far more of the matter than tney pretended. Thus instructed, the police dogged ! Pemberthy and Hawke industriously; but nothing resulted from their spying, and it was at present impossible to say whether the old wrecker had any knowledge of the truth. Though watched very closely in secret, neither he nor Hawke was ever seen by day, or night, to approach Lady's Wood, or Martin Hall; and no anonymous communication, or other light of any sort upon the complete disappearance of Sir Moran, was received, though Nicholas had expected that some such thing might presently reach him or Polwarn. For the lawyer had swiftly come to ] the conclusion that his cousin was cap-! tive against his will, and that it was not j with Sir Moran's consent, but by force, 1 that the dead man had stripped him of the mummer's clothes in Lady's Wood. Nicholas and many others knew of the i feud between the lord of the manor and Saul Pemberthy, and not a few, there- j fore, connected Saul with the mystery: but all practical attempts to do so failed, and an organised raid on the Pemberthy cottage neither produced evidence to associate him with Sir Moran's disappearance, nor discovered any clue to the hiding-place of Sir Moran himself. This fact, however, did not disarm Nicholas Trecarrow's enemies for such still supposed him guilty, and doubted not that his cousin was dead and —either on land or in the sea. The mystery formed subject for ceaseless debate around and about Combe Martin, and, indeed, throughout England. Ashore and at sea men talked of nothing else, and in every village public house of North Devon and Cornwall, the two great problems of where Sir Moran miglit be and who had shot Cyrus Cornford, occupied men's brains and tongues to the exclusion of every lesser theme.

In course of time the people divided into parties, and while the. majority, ignoring facts, or ignorant of them, still believed Nicholas Trecarrow the culprit, others found reasons * for suspecting certain grenadiers, who now became more intimately associated with the vanished lord of the manor.. ,

There met at the Green Man, on Combe Martin quay, a few local characters, and Nipper Nanjulian, for the thousandth time, stated the case as it appeared to him.

"There's three men and only three that, stand in the shadow of murder," said the cordwainer. " That is to say, there's only three you can see had any cause, great or small, to do such a tiling. And when you examine even these three cases, you feel that they aren't based upon any. difference big enough between - the parties to turn into such a thing as murder." . " First, then, there's Mr. Nicholas, the j lawyer," began old William Retallack, j who was in the bar.

"That is- so, farmer; and yet, while I frant that he had more to gain by Sir loran's death than any other, the evidence rules him out more than any other. Not for an instant can it be sai'V' he had ever intended to be a grenadier. 'Twas thrust upon him at the last moment; and such a man never would have yielded to any sudden temptation, even if it had come to him red hot from the devil." " The 'means to do ill deeds make ill deeds done,' as Shakespere says," observed Timothy Chave, who was also pre!-' sent. " Only if there's ill thoughts for 'em to work on. But here you've got a gentleman, the close friend of Sir Moran, and actually tokened to Sir' Moran's sister. i He's loyal to the heart, and he's working 'day and night at this minute, as far as he can while he's locked up, to get at the bottom of Sir Moran's disappearance." " And who else?" asked Retallack. " Your boy," replied Nanjulian bluntly. "Don't be vexed, for to name him only serves to show how little there is on which we can base the shadow of a charge. But the fact is that John Retallack had a proper bitter row with Sir Moran; and, being his father, I should have thought you might know what the row was about, and 60 throw light on the matter." "I've heard of no such thing, Nipper," answered William, " and I doubt your ear's abused, for my son's about the last man in the world to quarrel with Sir Moran Trecarrow. You don't fall foul of those who have saved your life I should think; and be it as it will, there's nothing Sir Moran could do to make my John his enemy." " I'm very glad to hear you say so, William," answered the cordwainsr. " And I'm sure you know what you're talking about. It's contrary to reason and human nature and the ways of the human heart that man should fall out who stand to each other as your son and Sir Moran. So there's number two disposed of, and, strangely enough, number three was another survivor off the wreck, when your dear wife was catched up to be a shining angel." " You don't mean to tell me that Benny Keat had any quarrel with Sir Moran ?" asked Timothy Chave. " Your credit for sense is gone, Nipper, if you was to claim that. "I do not, Timothyfar from it; for Benny must be looked at from quite a different point of view. In the matter of Mr. Trecarrow and John Retallack we've fot to assume that, suppose one of them ad done this dreadful * deed, he'd have thought he was shooting the lord of the manor;.but Keat's different; if Keat fired the shot then he knew more about the business than anybody else in the ranks of the grenadiers, and knew it was Cyrus Cornford, and not Sir Moran, that lie "was going to kill." "Good powers! What beo will get in your bonnet next, Nipper?" asked the landlord. " No bee—only my reasoning intellects and my gre-at skill at putting two and two together and making four of 'em," answered Mr. Nanjulian. " Why for should Benny Keat have any grievance against Cornford ?" asked Timothy Chave. "A proper question, bedmau, and it shows you follow the argument," answered Nipper. "Well, he had a grievance, and a very great one; and it's no less a person than Saul Pemberthy's daughter has thrown light upon it. For she's terribly eared that Benny took the law into his own hands against Cornford and shot him; because he's plotted with Pembarthy to take Norah away from' Benny Keat, and marry her himself. And many ilea against

Keat did • Cornford tell the girl. T3« " I much on the poor maiden's nerves, and ' of course, she's got a pretty good^easoa'^*""" l to be troubled. Indeed i bar's aia ? only nerves that are giving out." ' v sj§®li§igß " And d'you think, then, that Bemnr"-'WB done it 1" inquired the landlord, "I do not," answered Nanjulian. ".J SS if you say Keat knew it was Cornford then yon must grant that Keat was in tha great secret of what happened when Corn- -: : ford took his master's place in Lady'j Wood. And I never will believe that®® i Benny knew anything about that. Ha* don't belong to the enemy— to call'"-"-Pemberthy and his lot. And so I told " Norah, and I granted 'twas a very lucky thing for her that Cornford had been sent to a place where hell cease from troubling very lucky for her, and her sweetheart '■ also; but I never would suggest that Benny worked his own luck. Bar from it. If we want the real murderer, wa must look elsewhere." ■ The theory rather appealed to soma listeners, however, and they argued foj it. Benny was passionate and strong. JJ a - bore more than one grudge against Pemberthy and Pemberthy's friends; it wsg quite possible that, through Norah her- ■ self, he had got to know more than other people about what, was going on. Thus he might have learned a measure of the secret, and acted on his knowledge. But this theory assumed that Norah also was in her parent's plot—if plot there were—and Nanjulian would not admit so much for a minute. Indeed he denied it. " Norah knows nought I. will swear to," he said. " And as to nerves," declared Farmer Retallack, "you're right when you say nerves are breaking under the strain. Three of the grenadiers are in the prison hospital; and I daresay many people might think 'tis among them that we shall find the sinner." " And who are they ?" inquired Timothy Chave. "I know Amos Bell, the carpenter, was sick, but none else." " There's him." answered Retallack "and my son-in law to be, Nathan Lobb' and Dick Pretvman, Sir Moran's second gamekeeper. All are sick men in the doctor's hands." "You can rule out Bell and Nathan Lobb,' declared Mr. Nanjulian, "foe neither of 'cm ever fired a gun in his life r.fore the revel; and neither ever will again, you may be sure; Hut Pretyman'j a rar-3 sportsram; and if he had loaded with a bullet and tried to shoot stra'g' which God forbid, no doubt he'd m-ri succeeded." • CHAPTER X. ' - A LETTER FOB NED POLWABN. Despite a great deal of arduous work and the application of all their experience and ingenuity, the detectives _ who • me to solve the mystery of Cyrus Corn-' ford's destruction and Sir Moran Trecarrow's disappearance, made but little progress in either direction. . They accepted the general opinion that they were called,, to face a plot within a plot, and pro- ;> ceeded on the theory that Cornford had fallen a victim to the fact that he took his master's place in the pageant. But whether &e had done this at his master's, wish, could not at present be proved circumstantially. Indeed, since Cornford's mouth was sealed, it might. . never _>he known unless Sir Moran were discovered. ' That Cornford was not working single-; . handed seemed certain; and. that his . death must'have been utterly unexpected< : by the other conspirators could hardly be doubted. Here there had been some C;,' ground for hope at first, and detectives ? were sanguine that, from this failure of a suspected conspiracy, something might result; but for a considerable time no sign' was made and no light penetrated the abr ■ solute darkness surrounding the whereabouts of the vanished man. For this reason it was that other theories were started, and first, one prisoner and then another was suspected of being in the secret. But none of them offered any sort of explanation ; how circumstances; should have . thrust . them • into such a monstrous situation., They began to feel, that the truth would never be revealed, and that for the rest of their lives, seventeen honest men must be called to 'live' under the suspicion and stain *of an - abominable crime. . More than' one, in? deed, found health succumb' before this > strain,' and when Julitta Retallack was permitted to visit her betrothed, she found him suffering from great excitation of nerves. She comforted him arid left ' him calmer; but he 'was very depressed. He declared a conviction that Sir Moran himself might be responsible for the disaster.', '. ' , 4 v,, : • "He knew that somebody meant to. kill him—be sure that's how it was—and so he let the valet, take his place,', and ' then seized the opportunity to disappear himself. Be sure that's how it was," ;he said earnestly. ■ .-■■< , ;f Julitta's heart sank, for she felt .such an opinion irrational and foolish. "Don't imagine - anything, like that," she said.;.. "If Sir Moran Trecarrow had dreamed' of an enemy, he Would have tackled him directly. It's the last thing he- could (; .have done deliberately to let another man, - be subjected to the risk of his life. I'm very sure for my part that Cornford, by some strange act of destiny, received this awful punishment for a crime he had committed. or intended to commit. I believe that he and others had plotted against t Sir Moran for secret and wicked reasons, and that he was kidnar>t>ed. if not actually murdered in Lady's Wood. For think, Nat. what must have happened if Corn- ' ford had not been killed. , He knew what 1 his master intended to do, after the sham' execution, and meant of course, »to do the same." , •' - "What was that?" "Why, jump up quickly before the \ people could reach him, and then run c away up the steps in the cliff to Martin - Hall. There he would have changed his clothes and presently joined the merrymakers upon the village green. It was only the destruction of Cornford that instantly diverted attention to Sir'Morari." "How is his sister taking it?" asked Nathan Lobb. ; " She's terribly distressed, of course, for she 'is called to suffer doubly. Her brother has vanished, and her lover, of all men, is suspected. Not by the police;, or by the law, but by the sense of the people."

" He had most to gain." " You don't know him, Nathan. How could a man, who' wasn't a fiend, kill Sir Moran and wed his sister? As a matter of fact even my slight acquaintance with Nicholas Trecarrow makes the suspicion absurd. He could no mOre have done it than my brother John. But John, too, is suspected." "Why?" " Because he had quarrelled with Si» Moran." "For what reason?" " If you don't know, dear heart, don't seek to know," answered Julitta. "My brother was mistakencruelly mistaken — i and he knows it now. But in such a" 'case, where it was almost impossible to find man, woman, or child at enmity w'th Sir Moran, it was difficult for the public to solve the puzzle, as it always seeks to do in these cases. So they make these absurd suggestions." " It may have been that the man who fired that bullet knew that it was Cornford," argued the other. " A few think so —poor Norah Pemberthy. for one; but I hope Benny Keat has convinced her that her fears are vain." " You're feeling this," he said. " You're looking a miserable woman, Joe." " Naturally I'm feeling it—for yoa first, Nat." " And for him, too." " If you mean Sir Moran Trecarrow, yes. I'm only human, and even if he had been less than a good friend— kind and noble friend— us all—l should still have felt this horrible thing. It mustbe a great disaster :irom his point of view, if he is alive. You'll be free, dea» 1 Nathan, after the Assises, and all the ! world will welcome you home once more, but who can tell what has happened to Sir Moran ? Many think that he is dead and will never be seen again." " Do you?" he asked. " No, I think he will be rescued." Julitta. was right when she spoke of Benny Keat, for all the grenadiers were visit-ed by their friends, and when Norah received permission to see her sweet- 7 heart he speedily convinced her that he* - , fears were unfounded. (To b» coatinuod on Saturday aoxfct •