THE TOKEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18664, 21 March 1924, Page 6

THE TOKEN.

BY LOUIS TRACY. Aothor-of "The Second BaToneC' " B^tabow Island." "The House of Peril, One Wonderful Fight." etc., etc.. (CopyrißM.) CHAPTER lll.—(Continued). Without incident, MaeDermott and his aides found themselves standing behind a clump of laurels bordering a circular drive, with a flower-bed in the centre. A light shone faintly through the vasistas over the front door, but the rest of the house was in darkness, though, as it-transpired, the ground-floor windows were shuttered within, a fact soon revealed bv a momentary increase of light in the ball when an inner door was opened, apparently that leading to a front room on the right of the watchers. "Luckily vou are in plain clothes, Linton" said the chief, after ascertaining that the allotted ten minutes had expireu '"Go quietly to the door or windows, and listen? If surprised by anybody say you want to find the nearest way to Box Hill, as you were told of a short cut by «■* path. But for Heaven's sake don't take it, or those two warriors will give the game awav, even if they don't shoot you. Of course, you may accomplish nothing. Un Still mindful of the fact that watchful eves might be peering from an upper window, Linton did not advance furtively, but took to the carriage drive, though he strolled forward so quietly that his feet did not crunch on the gravel. A glance at the front door showed that it had neither knocker nor letter-box, but the white disc of an electric bell gleamed at him. Halting there, he looked up at the windows on the first floor. Apparently, he had not been seen. Then he went to the windows of the room which seemed to be occupied. . . They were so closely shuttered within that not a chink of light was visible, and he was sure that voices in ordinary conversation could not be heard through that solid screen. He waited some minutes before he thought he could distinguish the scraping of a chair on a parquet floor. Then someone shouted: ( "Mille diables! Wake up, girl!

Here, drink this ! . Though muffled, the words reached him clearly. They reminded him so strongly of an impatient French anaesthetist, trying to revive a patient struggling back to consciousness, that he turned -and ■waved an arm to the watchers among the laurels. The three joined him, and he told Superintendent MacDermott whht happened, but, although certain' vague sounds of speech were audible, it was impossible to catch their drift. Suddenly a woman screamed. "Ah,.no, for God's sake ! Not i hat '. Not that ! Take it away !"' The concluding words rose to an eldritch screech, and a man bt'hiwed, also in a sort of falsetto:

"You will speak, then ?" "Yes, yes. Take it away "' drilled the woman. '■-'".'. "Have your pistols ready, and "watch the upper part of, the house '." nied Mao* Dermoti to two constables, £ 'owing a shrill peal on a whistle; he ran,* to the door, rang the electric bell, which jairfcd quite closely the entrance hall, it would : appear. He hammered loudly, too, with the butt of an automatic, & nd growled over his shoulder to Lin<~m: ..; "Confound it ! This is a steel d»i." He had whistled of course, irtentionally, not only as la warning to Hie men ■: stationed at J the back, bat also 'to create alarm, if not: terror, in the minds of those behind the shattered windows. i The clamour of the bell and the thundering on the '■';'- door v might be trusted to achieve the same purpose, and, indaod, a ;, voice soon came from the ball. > , "Who is there ?" it demanded . "What is the matter'?" . * ".". "Open— the King's name '."said the superintendent. ' , 'Who are you V "The police." . ......, ~ "Go away ! You have no business here .

\f-. "That is 'Mon Vieux,' "mattered Lin„ton in MacDermott's ear. • "If yon don't open the door it will le broken in," went on the superintend int. , "Try itrv .:;\ ... , ■:- ■ ,::.■ The unseen speaker seemed to *ick ip . the gage of battle with a confidence thai was surprising in the circumstances, because, j no matter what '■ thai outcome ' in legal redress for unlawful entry into an inhabited building, few people in the England of .to-day are prepared' to resist the officers of .the law in the execution of that which they deem to be their duty. ;.'■'. . Vl.warn you we.are here in force, and well armed ',]■' vociferated MacDermott. He and the others thought they caught a mocking laugh, and the hall light was ■ extinguished. The superintendent was a strong man, and he knew how to apply his, weight, but a single attempt at a panel with his shoulder told ' him that crowbars : and a battering-ram . would be needed before a door of solid steel yielded. "Go for the centre window * wth a jemmy, Adamson." he said to one of the constables. '-. ."'.'lf they fire at yon, try and "sprin«-clear..;Then we all scatter to the - shrubbery, and I'll send for reinforcements. We can keep them/boxed up till daylight, at' any rate." ";•' From the rear of the house came a series.of heavy thuds, and the very sounds suggested that the back door also was constructed of steel. ■; , "We'll let these boys carry on," he said coolly to Linton.. "If we get in at all, it will;be through "V: window, though this, den of thieves is a fort, not a house." Adamson tore the .lower sash out of the window with a few vigorous leverings by a : jemmy, a" veritable house-breaking implement, taken from a burglar captured some years earlier in Dorking itself. Then .he, : attacked the shutters, which were constructed of thinner material than the door," and they began to give way.; When a ragged opening of a few inches was made, Linton inserted an electric torch. - and peered ! inside. He saw. a table laid for a meal, with wine-bottk-» and glasses. some, of which had been used, but the eatables were untouched; The chairs were in disorder. On the table stood a small black box, with raised lid. On a couch beyond the table he thought he could discern .the corner of a shoulder and the rounded hip of a woman. She was dressed in a blue serge costume, and Monica Jack- **? h , ad , worn blue serge that afternoon. At of the tail of his eye, so to speak, no fancied he saw something scuttling under an armchair near the fireplace, as though it wanted to hide, but he could not be certain, since the periphery of the ra ys of an electric torch is a small one, and he had to sweep the whole room with its beams as rapidly as possible. ' The door of the room was wide open, being so placed that it excluded any view of the passage. The noise of the assault on the back door now resoundec} through the house, and. was so deafening, while apparently so ineffectual, that MacDermott, peeping eagerly over Linton's shoulder, stepped back a pace or two, and blew a Jong blast on the whistle, whereon the greater clamour ceased. "Those fellows are doing no good," he said, "and may be missing the actual retreat while trying to break a hole through steel with a clothes' prop or a paling." ' ■ Adamson was making excellent progress-. While he was readjusting the jemmy to dislodge ! a hinge, Linton called to the figure on the couch. "Is that you, Monica Jackson?" he said. There was no answer. The person lying there was either dead or unconscious. Adamson's next thrust forced out of position, a whole section of the shutter, and Linton instantly threw a leg over the window-sill. ''Don't hurry," came MacDermott's j calm voice. "Wait on this side of the talkie until Adamson and I are in the ; room." Perhaps Linton did not obey the order mute literally, but he did stand still and listen, : with every faculty tense, .the moment he gained the interior. He could hear nothing. A thin mist, bluish white in the light of ' the lamp, seemed to be sweeping, in through : the, doorway, just as though a wisp of cigarette smoke wem floating on an air-current. 1 , With a rapidity; of judgment born of many a 1 "raopping-up" rush through a Jierman trench, he decided instantly that

such danger as now threatened could come only from behind the door,, while, the electric light switches must be situated in that section of the wall behind farther jamb, unless some master-switch elsewhere had shut off the current at the main. At any rate, he ran that way. threw a light into an empty hall, found, a switch, and the room itself was not only lit up, but, as he learned afterwards, the hall and upstairs passages as well, because the men at the rear testified to the fact. At that instant, by some instinct rather than actual knowledge gained by breathing through mouth and nostrils, he became aware that the mist-wraith which seemed to roll downwards from a hidden staircase instead of rising like smoke, was an enemy more deadly and irresistible than a whole platoon of armed men. Leaping away from the door, the room being most fortunately flooded with light now, he shouted to MaeDermott, standing near the table, and Adamson, half-way through the window: — "Back, for your lives! Poison gas!" Picking up "the limp body of Monica Jackson, whom he recognised at a glance, he ran round the other end of the table and made for the window, retaining his breath, and trying to press the girl's mouth and nostrils against his breast. Even with these precautions he was just in time. As he thrust his burden into "the hands of the men outside, since the others obeyed the warning cry forthwith, he gasped with the faint touch of nausea which is the first warning of gas-poison-ing. He did not wait to climb out. He plunged forth headlong, careless whether or not face and hands met the litter of broken glass on the ground. His right hand and left wrist were cut slightly, but he was on his feet in a second, only'to feel his faculties becoming dazed.

"Take care!" he wheezed, not knowing that MaeDermott had grasped his arm. "Gas! They must ——or die!" So slight "was the attack of vertigo that his brain began to clear while the burly superintendent supported him across the lawn to the cover of the trees.

"I'm all right now," he said valiantly. "A miss is as good as a mile, and I just missed getting a real dose.. But that's a peculiarly vicious carbon monoxide. Is the girl dead?" VI don't know. She is here, lying on the grass. Still, we cannot attend to her now. Can you stand fast while I and the others cover a wider front?"

"Yes. I'll carry on. How about the men at the rear?"

"They're safe if they have obeyed orders. . . . Smith, move to the left, until you can see that side of the house Adamson, watch that greenhouse on the right. Segeant Linton and I-— " A blindinp flash of light, and an explosion which was heard as far away as Epsom and Horsham, came from the centre of the building, and the solid mass of masonry crumbled into ruin. Of course, it was the motor-cyclist who described most accurately what took place. The six men stationed within a few yards of the house itself were so stunned by the shock that they were either hurled to the ground at once or collapsed Weakly within the next second. No one was rendered absolutely unconscious, which was fortunate, because a fire which succeeded the explosion raged so fiercely that its heat was scorching, and some of the trees began at once to crackle ominously, while their heavy-laden branches groaned and creaked in th© air-draught which the devouring flames called to their aid from Nature's Cave of the Winds. (To be continued daily.)