THE MYSTERY OF CROCKSANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18458, 23 July 1923, Page 3

THE MYSTERY OF CROCKSANDS.

■.'■;,•■'.;'.!;; '; •;;' >'-'" -~~ ','■<»'' !.","'. ~.'"'1 . !;'.-: ^/SV^' ..:'■; ' BY FRED M. WHITE. •':;.; .Author of "The Secret of th« Sands," "The Devil's Advocate," '* The Man with the Vandyke Board," ;,'• The Edge of - , ,th© Sword," 'etc. •,.;. : (Copyright.) ■•' ■',:.'^. :y : ':./-y - OH.ii'TER X. But the very next morning after the affair of the Death's Head moth three of the hampers had been delivered by cart from Lyndale station;- and one of these had been badly damaged in transit. From it a shower of unopened letters fell out, all of them bearing a Manchester address, and before Wrath could come on • the scene Ellen had managed to conceal some half-dozen of these. She was fully aware of Wrath's annoyance, and the quick way in which he had the hampers conveyed upstairs before Ellen could ask any questions. It was her obvious cue to appear absolutely indifferent; but presently, when she had the opportunity of opening the letters and noting the fact that each of them contained a postal order, she smiled to herself to realise that her conclusions had been warranted by events. She could see now exactly what was going on. Stone and Wrath were running a big racing lottery on fraudulent lines, and the whole of the plunder would go into their pockets. She went back to her typewriter, and sat patiently down till Stone should return. He came back presently looking very disturbed and angry, and Ellen could see that his hands shook rather more than-usual. It was always an unsteady hand, and Ellen, watching him at the. lunch and dinner table, had no trouble in guessing the reason why. 3he had never seen the man actually the vorse for liquor, but no ordinary inlividual could drink what Stone did and lot suffer the necessary consequences. , "Just half a minute, Miiss Marchant," lb said. "I am a bit upset. To tell 'ou the truth, I have been having a few vords with Wrath. Mind you, I am not omplaining of him; he is quite a gene'r- ; iua employer, and we have been working imicably for years. But he is a bit inlined to be brutal when he is upset, and here are times when I don't feel inclined o stand it." With that Stone crossed the library, nd, taking a bottle and a syphon from ,n open cabinet, helped himself liberally, iter which he gradually cooled down and lecame his natural self again. The ;enerous liquor seemed to loosen his ongue, and instead of going on with the isual work he lighted a cigarette and •egan to talk to Ellen in quite a friendly ashion. ( " You are the smartest girl at your ' fork that I ever came in contact with," te said. " You know, I rather wonder i hat one so capable should care for a umdrum job like this. You have no pportunities, whereas if you were in iondon still—-" i " But I hate London," Ellen smiled. ' I hate getting up at a certain time svery morning and going to the dingy .{ :ity day by day for eleven and a-half nonths in the year. You see, Mr. Stone, I love the country. I was brought lp in-it, and it was only sheer necessity ,hat drove me to town. Here in this ovely place I work about ■ three hours a lay, and 1 wander about in the sunshine or the rest. I feel a different girl altojether." " Still, you have got your future to hink of," Stone said, with a benevolent lir that caused Ellen to smile. " Let me >ee, you were with Mr. Melrose, I hink? " ; - ~ -*r 1 " That is right," Ellen said. Mel-, •ose and Clapstone; only there didn't lappen-to be any Capstone." , "So I understand," Stone said, . ablently. "At least, I mean—you see Miss Marchant, I used to know something off the firm. Very good people I aelieve. Didn't I hear rumours to the affect that Clapstone had left the busiless? Something shady— As far is I remember, Clapstone got into trouble faring the long illness of his partner, and if terwar ds— had to make himself scarce. Or perhaps I am thinking of some other firm.' , * .Ellen kept her head well down, ipparenslv busy in fixing ; a new sheet of paper into her machine. She did not want Stone to see her face just then, and she was wondering if this talk was merely coincidence, or if the man who caLed himself Stone was fishing for certain information. Did he suspect, for instance, the real reason why Ellen was there? Then she put the suspicion out of her wind as absurd and groundless; and looked Stone in the face. Ha was smiling quite benignantly, _ and still blandly amiable, under the influence of lis drink. . , , ~ " Yes, I think you are right, she said. Of course Mr. Melrose did not iell me this. In the office our relationship was • strictly that between employer and employed. But Vlr Melrose was very good to me. md I was eswadingly «orry. to leave him. is a matter of fact, my nation came :rom a man called Gabb." r "Ah!" Stone cried. "Peter Gabb, Jo you mean? " ■ , , ■. , xv. He checked himself almost before the vords were out of his lips, but at the same time he looked suspiciously at JMlen rom under his brows. Then he made nore or less a wild effort to recover himself. He laughed a little artificially. " Poor old Gabb," he said. " I renember meeting him once on a matter of jusiness—a queer creature, who ought to lave been pensioned off years ago. ' . "I lived with him," Ellen , explained. 'I had lodgings in Mrs. Gabb's house at Dalston. It is very strange, Mr. Stone, ,hat you should hapjrou to know him. " Oh I don't," Stone., said, hastily. But Gabb was quite a figure in the i?ity, a sort of survival. I suppose somelody pointed -him out to me in the street me day. But let's get on with our work. iVe are wasting the whole morning." ~ Left to herself presently, Ellen had time o turn this conversation over in ler mind. It was quite clear to ler now that Stone bad no real, mspicion as to why Ell6n had chosen ,o como'to Crocksands, ad no doubt his mestions had been dictated entirely v by i spirit of curiosity. But it was good to enow that'occasionally Wrath and the nan called Stone had their serious _ uisicrrcfiments, because the fact might be nade use of later on, and .stone imloubtedly was in , a position to say whether or not that deed cutting off the jqtail had been sigr.ed by Gordon Blanc, 'ossibly he was actually in pos.< ssion of t, and was holding it over as tv, weapon therewith to extract a large ;,"im _ of nouey from Wrath when the proper time ;ame. Ellen has seen enough of her emplover and his confederate to know that though their . interests were more or less n common there was no real confidence . between them, and either would have been prepared to throw over the other had it been to his ■advantage to do so: Therefore,' it seemed to Ellen that this man who called himself Stone was well worth watching. - She could see at lunch time that there was a coldness between the two, and certain angry words were exchanged that caused, her to rise from the table as soon as possible and make some excuse to get ar-ay, She would go up to the musicians' gallery and get a .book from the library there, and spend the afternoon in one of the nooks under the Tower overlooking the sea.- But in the library she sat down, and fell into a sort of waking dream. She was aroused presently by a suppressed ream and the noise of voices down below in the music room. Without hesitation she crept- to the screen and lookecTdown. ■■."{} Standing there was Mrs. Amberley. She had a handtvehief pressed to her cheek, and when this was removed Ellen could see a red mark standing out evilly on the white flesh. A yard or two away was Wrath, in one of his most truculent attitudes. And in a flash Ellen could see exactly what had happened. The woman

had been the victim of , personal violence, and the .-: staiu on j Mrs. Amberley's .. - pallid cheek had ■ been caused by a brutal blow from Wrath's fist. Sick and faint as she was with indignation, Ellen ; did ; not scruple to listen. She was on the verge ■of discovery now. : :-- : '.i ] \-: ■ \ ■ ■ ' * >..[' You cowardly brute!" the woman cried. There were no tears in her voice, only a hard, hopeless indignation.: Evidently it was not ; the first time she _ had suffered. " You miserable scoundrel! .But you shan't doit—if you kill me you shan't! And let me tell you this. If anything happens to me I have left it so that other people will know what is .'going on, and you will get no mercy from them. Because' of the affection I once had for you, you take this mean advantage. Why are such men as you allowed to. live? And yet, God help me, a few kind words can bring me to your .side again as if I were a dog. But you shan t do it, Chris, you shan't do it." _ " Don't push me too far," Wrath muttered. "My whole future is ;at stake, and if I like- — .. •.. , "Never!" the woman cried, never . I will proclaim the whole story from, the housetops first and what would the say if they knew that I was your illtreated wife? " ''• ... , " Well, I know that," Wrath hissed. " Who is going to deny it? Now listen. Ellen crept away, through the billiard room and down the stairs into the open. Here was something to occupy her mind with a vengeance. She must go away to some quite corner and think it over. CHAPTER XL So this pallid, hunted woman with the ! slumbering eyes and the suggestion of the j panther half-untamed despite 1/he lash : was the wife of Christopher Wrath. Something vile and sinister was going on here, and in some vague, intangible way Ellon felt that it was not remotely connected with her own case. And yet it seemed ,almpst impossible to link Crocksands Abbey> with its serene and ancient beauty and its old-world flavour, with I vulgar crime. j She was thinking much the same as she sat presently at luncheon in one of the smaller dining rooms looking out over the sea%through'a. bewildering picture of sweeping woodland and uplifting crag, beyond the latticed windows, where in red and gold and pallid blue.the arms of the encient race blazed and twinkled. It was all exactly as Ellen had known it in the bygone days, when she had been so happy there; and the knowledge that this beloved place should have been all hers caused her to stir uneasily. She looked from Wrath, seated there,.-. big and overpowering, and in one of his very best moods, to the silent woman at the other end of the table with that discoloured bruise on her white face. Stone, rather pale and obviously sulky, was drinking a great deal more than he ate, and Wrath was inclined to rally him on the point. Then one of the well-trained London servants brought in the mid-day post, which a groom had fetched frcm Lynr' '•?, and Wrath turned to hist correspondence. Ho read one letter with a lowering brow and an ominous frown on his face. He threw . the letter across the table to Stone. , " Yon hid belter attend to that, my friend," he snorted. " And see to it that this doesn't occur again." . / Stone said, nothing, but it was obvious that he resented the way in which he had been addressed. Wrath turned to the servant who was waiting at the table. "Tell Johnson to have the car round in a quarter of an hour," he said. " I find I have to go to "Barnstaple." He rose from the table at that, and gathered up Stone, so'to speak, with his eyes. The two men went in the direction of the library, and, as Mrs. Amberley disappeared at the same moment, Ellen followed them. She knew that Stone was going into Lyndale in the afternoon in connection with post office business, and he would in all probability spend a- few hours there, drifting from oris hotel to another. Therefore, if Wrath was going to Barnstaple, eviden in connection with that disturbing letter, then El!en would have a free hand for the afternoon, without the fear of.beintr watched, and she meant to seek out Rollo Bly and his friend and hear all the latter had to say with regard to her father. She might even take them both into her confidence, but that she was rather loth to do for the present. She paused for a moment outside the library door as the sound of high voices raised in a ouarrel came to her ears. It was Stone who was speaking. "I tell you I won't have it," he screamed. » "I will not be treated like a dog, especially in the presence of womenkind. , Don't "you drive me too fur, because if • you do I will break you, I will smash you, I will drive you away from Crocksands back to the slum _in Australia where yon came fromand by God I can do it; Wrath! If I go to Melrose — " Not so loud, ' you damned fool!" Wrath muttered. "Do you want the whole house to hear what you are saying? If you have got- anything up your sleeve whv don't yon out with it like a man? If it's anything good I will buy it at a fancy price." " Yes, and cut mv throat afterwards," Stone muttered. "N0,,. you wouldn't do that, you are too big a coward. You leave me alone and I will leave you alone. I am getting sick' of this. Give me a few thousand pounds Yes, and where are they to come from?" " Oh, that will be all right, if our present scheme comes off." , Stone, said. "Meanwhile. I don't say aVtVthing till I see the ready cash on the table. But mind you, I can do what I threatened." There were sounds of movement inside the library, so Ellen crept discreetly away. She was beginning to learn things now. and that business training of hers enabled her to put two and two together. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Stone held some secret with which he could keep a grip on Wrath—nay, more, he had actually threatened to disgrace ,: and ruin him and drive him away from Crocksands; and if Wrath had no claim to the Abbey, as sounded probable, then the one person in the world who was the owner of the place had overheard that threat made. . Was it possible that f!:on'e either possessed that vital deed bai:vng, the entail or, failing that, couM place his hands upon it when necessary ' v Ellen. went back to the little sitting room behind the main dining room which Mrs. Amberley had made particularly her own. She wanted to tell the lady in otiestion that she was taking her tea down into Lee Gove, and that, she would probably "be away till dinner time. But for the moment Mrs. Amberley was not there, and Ellen waited, going idly over the various objects in the room, until a photograph in a tarnished silver frame caught her _ eye. She ; looked at the beautiful smiling face of the woman it represented with a consciousness that she had seen those features before. ■;■ She was still looking at it when Mrs,. Amberley came silently into the room, ''Well, do ■you recognise it?" she asked, with a tinge of deep bitterness in her voice. "It was onlv three years ago, thouerh you would hardly believe it." . "Why, it's you!" Ellen cried. "I I beg your pardon, but 1 can see the likeness plainly' enough now." And yet it. seemed almost incredible to believe that that fresh, bright, smiling face represented the broken, faded creature "who stood there by Ellen's side. "Yes, that is my photograph," Mrs. Amberley said... and taken ha re'y three years.ago. How old do you think I am?" Ellen hesitated, and the woman smiled bitterly. : • " Oh. I am not going to press the question," she said. "It is not fair. I am just over thirty, Miss Marchant, though you wouldn't think it, and when that picture was taken I was a happy woman, free from all care. r You see what . three years' misery and unhaopiness can do for one: and the manbut I won't co into that. Perhans some day I will tell you the truth. Before long I know that I shall want a friend, and I have seen enough of you to fee! sure that you are both brave and reliable. But not a word of this to a soul. .You go off for your little picnic, and leave me to myself. The trouble is not very far away." ■.:"; , ' ' ■ (To be continued daily.) *