FOUND DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19736, 8 September 1927, Page 6

FOUND DEAD.

BY FRED M. WHITE.

CHAPTER VII (Continued). Mortmain agreed reluctantly, but there was no occasion for Margaret to go into Instaple, he said, because he was expecting Inspector Gore at any moment. And, indeed, that individual put in an appearance while the two were still discussing the amazing turn of recent events. Ha listened to a"l that Margaret had to say with the deepest interest, and when he had heard her to the end, he spoke with some decision. " What an amazing series of events,'' he said, " I am exceedingly sorry for you, Mrs. Grimshaw, but I am afraid you will have to go through with it. Not necessarily to-mcrrow, when the first hearing will take placa here at ten- o'clock. I don't proposo, to call much evidence then, merely to get the jury to view the body so that the doctor can give a burial certificate, after which the inquiry will probably be adjourned for a week or two and resumed in the Town Hall at Watersmouth. I have strong reasons for not calling Mrs. Grimshaw to-morrow morning, and for the moment, at any rate, what has just transpired must remain an absolute secret between us three. Meanwhile, I have not been idle. I shall have some evidence to call in the morning." , "You mean that you have found something out?" Mortmain asked. " Some- ! thing that is really of vital importance." " Well, I am not going quite as far as that," Gore smiled. < " But I can certainly carry matters a" good deal further. And I believe that this is a very complicated case and that we are a long way yet from getting to the bottom of it. It will probably be necessary for me to consult other authorities." • '* Exactly what I was going to suggest," Mortmain said eagerly. "With all due deference to you, inspector, this has looked' to me like a Scotland Yard case from the first. And if I' may be allowed to make a suggestion, I should like Captain Reginald Blake to have the chance of going into the matter." " That is all the same to me," Gore said "Of course, I know the name of Blake, but it doesn't follow that—" ; " Oh, yes, it does, if he is at liberty,'" Mortmain declared. " You see, he is an old friend of mine and we served during the war together until he was transferred to the Secret Service, where he remained and distinguished himself highly. After the trouble ceased, they were only too glad to have him at Scotland Yard, and there he has been ever since. If you can get him down here. I shall be only too glad to put him up. It might be an advantage for him to stay here as my guest, because, in that case, no ques-., tifsns will be asked and nobody will .identify him as a police officer. You see what I mean?" " Yes, that is a very good suggestion," Gore agreed. " I wonder if you would mind my using your telephone ? I can get on to Scotland Yard from here and settle the whole business." It was even as the inspector said. He came back from the little office in, the ! hall where the telephone was situated in rather less time than he had expected, with the cheerful announcement that he had been able to get in touch with Captain Reginald Blake himself, and that that individual might be expected to arrive at Mortmains some time the following afternoon. Mortmain heaved a sigh of obvious relief. He seemed strangely absent and vague in his manner and conveyed the impression that something was weighing heavily on his mind. It was a time, too, when 'he might have been expected to take a cheerful view of things in the face of events, but there was nothing cheeri ful about him, though he seemed relieved when Gore had taken his departure. " And what are we going to do next?" Margaret asked. "What are we going to do next?" Mortmain echoed. " I don't know. I am so utterly bewildered that I can't even think. Things have moved so rapidly during the last few hours that I can hardly grasp the situation. That may be a strange thing for a novelist to say, but even fiction would seem to be less hewildering than fact. Of one thing I am glad, and that is the fact that you will not be called upon to give any evidence to-morrow. If I have my own way, and if I can convince Blake that my view is a right one, perhaps there will be no occasion for you to give evidence at all. Why should you ? You have identified the body to the satisfaction of the police arid you have told Gore all you can as to your husband's identity and his family connections. It would take months to get in contact with them, if ever we found them at all." " But there is my paper," Margaret pointed out. "It is my' positive duty to do the best I can for the people in Fleet Street, and I don't see how I cati keep the personal note out of it." " Of course you can," Mortmain said impatiently. "You don't .write the stuff under your own name. You are called ' our Special Correspondent,' and, as such, anonymous. . But don't you think we are rather beating the air? You leave everything to me and I will see what I can do when Blake comes." " Very well," Margaret agreed reluctantly. *' And now, do you think that this tragedy was the result of an accident 7" " I don't know what to think," Mortmain confessed. "It might have been an accident and, on the other hand, it might have been deliberate murder. You see, all that business of the book taken from the upper shelf and the ladder carefully arranged on the floor might have been thought out by the murderer. But I do think that that wretched men had some object in coming into this house which we have yet to discover. You see, he knew all about me. Ho knew that you and I were engaged at one time, and it was he who deliberately came between us and induced you, by a disgraceful fraud, to marry him. But it is no use talking like this. Now, are you walking back into Watersmouth or shall I place one of my cars at your disposal ?" " I shall bo very grateful for it," Margaret said. "It is not very far and I am fond of walking, but this afternoon I really don't feel up to it." " Then the car it is," Mortmain decided. CHAPTER VIII. The preliminary inquiry into the death of Richard Grimshaw was almost perfunctory. First came Farthing, who testified to the finding of the body, and, after him, Charles the footman, who had been the second to be acquainted with the strange tragedy. Then came Dr. Deacon, who said no more than that he had been called in and testified to the fact that the body had been dead for certainly noli more than six or less than four hours when he reached the library. Nothing whatever was said as to the identity of the deceased, and, at this point, Inspector Gore intimated that he had no further evidence to call. He applied for an adjournment for a week and intimated that, in the meantime, it was his intention to enlist the services of Scotland Yard. The proceedings were over almost before they were started and, with a curt intimation to the effect that the inquest was adjourned until that day week in the Town Hall at Watersmouth. the coroner closed his Court and the more or less disappointed gathering slowly dispersed. It was a real relief to Mortmain to find himself alone, and in the enjoyment of his own house once more. He sat for a long time in the library, thinking matters over with a gloomy frown on his face and a look. of anxiety in his eyes. He was sitting there when Farthing announced Captain Blake. Blako came breezily into the room. He was a tall, thin man with features burnt almost black by exposure to tropical suns, and looking a great deal more like a sportsman than a detective. For the rest, he was quietly dressed and his manner conveyed a certain heartiness and a suspicion of simplicity that effectually disguised the keen, searching look in his eyes.

(COPT RIGHT.)

" Weil, here we are again," he said. " Do you mean to spend the rest of yonr life down here "doing nothing, or are we' to see you in town again ? And what about that famous novel?"

" The famous novel will come along all in good time," Mortmain smiled. "You see, one is rather handicapped, living in the country. It is like being shut up in a house without any books. And besides, I don't want to make a real start until I can have an opportunity of seeing a real detective at work and studying hi 3 methods. That is why I sentfor you, old chap. It will be an education to me to see how you handle this, case. In ail probability I shall found my book on it. I consider myself very lucky to have a real original and startling plot developed for me by an outside agency under my very roof. And now I suppose you want me to tell you everything to the minutest detail." " If you don't mind," Blake said. "And please don't forget those details, in fact, there are none in my profession. Details, as you-call them, are something of the utmost importance. You talk and I will listen. Pass those cigarettes and ask your man to get me a cup of tea. I shall want nothing else till dinner time. Now, go ahead with the story of the tragedy. And, by the way, it took" place in this very room, didn't it ?" " In this very room," Mortmain echoed. " Now, don't interrupt, and ask questions afterwards." There was no interruption on Blake's part until the story was finished down to the very last item. " Yes, quite a case," Blake said critically. " Now, have you made up your mind? I mean, have ybu any theories?" " Speaking as a novelist, a dozen," Mortmain smiled. " But then, you see, a novelist can twist his facts to fit into his plot. And when you coipe to realities, it is a different matter. Speaking as a mere man, I have no theories. That unfortunate • individual might have been murdered, or he might have met with an accident here while he was trying to steal some of. my literary treasures. It is impossible to say." " For the moment, perhaps," Blake said thoughtfully. " Anyway, lam not going to allow myself to be led astray by outward appearances. You didn't know that man, of course ? " . " Never saw him in my iife," Mortmain said. " I have already told you what a sorry trick he served me, and I suppose he came down here with the intention of serving me yet another one. At any rate, it is a strange thing that he should have picked out perhaps the most valuable book in my library.'' " Yes, i haven't overlooked that point. Now, I wonder if he was aware of the fact that his wife was down here at the " same time as himself. I mean, did he follow her here for some purpose ? Did they meet and quarrel?" " I am quite sure they didnlt," Mortmain said with some warmth. '* Margaret would have told me that. You know her almost as well as I do. Surely after identifying her husband and telling me who he was she would never have played such a trick upon me as concealing tlie fact that they had met down here." " No, I don't think she would," Blake agreed diplomatically. " But then we, at the Yard, never take anything for granted. We have-to treat everybody aa "suspect until we have proved their evidence. And lam going to take the liberty of applying the same test to Mrs. Grimshaw. Anyhow, I can't do anything till I have had an opportunity of looking round, possibly not before I have studied the witnesses at the adjourned inquiry. Meanwhile, nobody knows that I am down here in connection with Scotland Yard, and that will be greatly in my favour. And now, come and show, me round this lovely'old place of yours. After being mewed up in liondon for the best part of a year, it is a blessed privilege to come down to such a paradise as this." For some time the two friends roamed about the house and then out into the grounds, x where Blake took a keen stock of everything. He wanted to know how the sands were reached from the house' and where that path through the valley and over the crest of the Castle Rock led to. He even wanted to know all about Mortmain's -prawning expeditions and how the household like to be dragged out of bed at daybreak on those occasions. " They don't," Mortmain explained. "You see, I have an alarm-clock which I set for very early, and I never see the household till I come in to breakfast. But why do you ask ? " " Oh, nothing," Blake said, and with that the conversation dropped, save that Blake expressed a desire to see Dr. Hartley Deacon, of whom he seemed to have heard. "A very clever fellow," was his verdict. " I cannot understand what he is doing dow'n in a quiet place like this. Do you remember that. Hart Lane case 7 3Tes, I see you do. Well, your man, Deacon, worked out a piece of analysis in connection with a couple of grey hairs that put us on the track of the murderer. Most decidedly I want to see him." As a matter of fact, Blake saw Deacon not once, but many times, in the course of the next few days. But,he seemed to make no progress. He pottered about for hours at a time, while Mortmain was otherwise engaged. He seemed to spend whole mornings on the sands at the foot of the Castle Rock and in the bay beyond. But if he wa3 disappointed, ho said nothing, and if he discovered anything, he was equally reticent. " I don't believe you are troubling anything about the case," Mortmain said to him on the morning of the adjourned inquest. " I believe that you have fallen in love with this beautiful old place, and that the scenery has hypnotised you." " Well, there may be something in that," Blake agreed. " Still, I have not been altogether idle. I warned you when I came down here that things were not likely to move until after the adjourned inquest, and I am still of the same opinion. I happened to run against Gore in Watersmouth yesterday, and he seems to have got hold" of a piece of evidence which may help us considerably." The Town Hall at Watersmouth was packed almost to suffocation when Blake and his host arrived. They managed to push their way up to the table in front of the platform on which the coroner was seated, and there Mortmain saw Margaret seated in a bnsiness-like attitude with her notebook. The proceedings dragged on for a time, and then at the witness-table there appeared a little old woman in a cotton bonnet who curtseyed to tho coroner as her name was called. " This is Mary Whidden, sir," the inspector said. " She lives on a small farm at the back of the Castle Rock, and she has something to tell you as to the case in hand." " Go on, my good woman," the coroner said. " Tell your own storv, in your ti own way. Inspector, has the witness seen the body of the deceased or is she speaking from hearsay 7 " "She has identified the body as that of a man who has been lodging in her farmhouse for some week or two." " Yes, that is quite right, sir," the old lady said. "Only he didn't call himself Grimshaw, because he said his name was Brown. He was a quiet gentleman and" came down for the fishing. No, sir, hedidn't have no letters all the time he was with me. And twice, when he was out all night, he told me not to be alarmed, because sometimes he fished all through the darkness. And nobody came near him, except one strange gentleman that he didn't seem to get on with—a gentleman with a dark moustache." " You would identify the stranger again ? " the coroner asked. " Aye, I should that, sir, because I see his face lit up by a match as he was putting to a cigarette. ■ And I seen that gentleman again this morning—aye, that I did. Why, he behind me when I come into court a quarter of an hour ago." (To be continued daily.) <'