FOUND DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19743, 16 September 1927, Page 18

FOUND DEAD.

BY FRED M. WHITE.

CHAPTER XIX. Blake placed the shoe back with its j fellow and laid the pair together with the kit that Mortmain had lent him. For the present, he was content to leave things as they were though he would know how to make use of the piece of information he had just discovered when the right time came. He dressed himself thoughtfully and, when he had finished, went down to breakfast in a rather cheerful frame of mind. He found Mortmain • awaiting him with the old frown back on his forehead and the brooding look in his eyes. - *' Well, here 1 am," he said buoyantly. And ready for the best breakfast that your cook can turn out. What's the matter ? Have you had some bad news ? " Nothing worse than usual, Mortmain replied. " Oh, yes, the post is in but . there is nothing for you, and there was nothing for me, either, if it comes ] to that. What are you going to do with j yourself to-day? I suppose you wouldn't j cars to come over with me and have a | day's golf at Westward Ho ? " " My dear chap," Blake said smilingly. " There is nothing 1 should like better. But you seem to forget that 1 am down here on business, if my time was my own " "Well, isn't it?" Mortmain retorted with something of a sneer. " You have been here for well over a week now and, so far as I can gather, might have stayed away altogether." " Isn't that a bit Inhospitable? " Blake asked. Mortmain became all penitence at once. " Upon my word, I beg your pardon," he said. " 1 hope you 4 don't think 1 mean't anything by that remark. I mean anything calculated to make you believe you are not welcome. I am afraid that this rotten business has got on my nerves I hoped when you came down here that you would be able to do something." " Well, how do you know 1 haven't ? I might,be able to put my hands upon the culprit,, or culprits, at any moment for all you know to the contrary. But Ido my work my own way If 1 told you certain things now, it would be as if you were reading an exciting novel with the 4 last hundred pages or so torn • out. Of course, it must be very disappointing to you with that analytical mind of« yours not to be able to see the busv brain of the master ('elective at work. But you can rest assured that it will all come rig.'at in the end. Suppose I told you now esactly how that mystery came about. What then ? " Mortmain looked up with a genuine alarm. He opened his mouth as if about to speak, then began to pace up and down the room with all the symptoms of a conscience at work. " Do you really mean that ? " he stammered. " , " Well, more or less. My dear fellow, you will have to wait, like everybody else. And the 1a ,j \ will have to wait, too. Mind you, is quite right in the attitude she has up Don't forget that you can burn a house down a great deal quicker than you can build it up again. * With which cryptic remark Blake turned to his breakfast and refused to say any more. He had hardly finished and got through his first cigarette when old Farthing came sedately into the room and told him he was wanted at the telephone; " Gentleman didn't give his name, sir," he said sedately. "He said you wouldn't know him, in any :ase." " Is he waiting now ? " Blake asked. Farthing was understood to say that the stranger was still at the end of the wire, so that Blake went out into the hall and took the receiver off the hook " Are you there ? " he called. " Double X." came the voice out of nowhere. Double Z," Blake whispered '"Where are you ? " " In the telephone bos at the Waters mouth pqst office, 1 Rattrey speaking', sir.' Of course you know that. Can I talk quite freely to you or are listeners about ? " " Yes," Blake replied. " 1 can listen to all you have to say, and you can speak freely, but " " I quite understand, sir. You can't say anything without being overheard and I can speak openly, because "I am in a sound-proof bos Things haves been happening, sir " *' That is good news." Blake said Blake cheerily "Go on." " Well, it's like this, sir. 1 have been going about with my eyes wide open, and I have picked up quite a few useful Sieces of information. To begin with, [rs. Whiddon is going away to-day and won't be back before Saturday. She • spends a couple of nights with a sister of hers just this side of Torrington. A sort of annual 'affair, if ,ou know what I mean, sir, a birthdav, I believe. So she shuts up the farmhouse and leaves it to look after itself. Of course, every-

body in Watersmouth knows this, in fa£t, I have heard it from « dozen people. So it occurred to me that perhaps our friend with the blue spectacles might make another attempt to-night to get into the house." " I think it is exceedingly probable," Blake said. " Most interesting. Any more ? " " Well, not much at the moment, sir. But if yon will meet me in an hour's time in Watersmouth " "I can't very well do that," Blake said. " Oh, 1 quite see what yon mean, sir. Not openly. But if you will come into the village and call at Yeo's shop you will see a bit of comedy there that may interest you. You know the shop 1 mean, sir, it's the one with all those- beautiful old cnrios and china in the window. Known all over the world, that shop is. If you drop in there at about eleven, sir " " You) may take that for granted," ; Blake said. " And, now, if you have nothing to say " Just a second or two, sir," the voice at the other end of the wire pleaded " It wouldn't be safe for me to speak to you or for you to speak to me in Yeo's shop, seeing that we are supposed to be strangers to each other, so 1 should like to arrange a place where we can meet half an hour afterwards You had better return to Mortmains and hang about the gorse near the Witch's Cave in the • \alley of Rocks and I will join you j there." j Blake replaced the receiver on the hook I and presently strolled apparently aimlessly out of the house and along the ' road through the valley into Watersmouth. i He paused at length before the famous ] old curio shop and turned in through the j doorWay just as the clock in the church j t-ower struck eleven. He was a bit of i a collector in a small way, and he had intended more than once to call upon John Yeo with a view to doinc a deai in connection with a small piece of squaremarked Worcester china which he had noticed in the window on more thar; r>ne occasion There was one man the shop when he entered, and he smiled slightly as he recognised the square shoulders of his man. Rat trey Rattrev was bending over the counter examining what appeared to be a number of blue spectacles lying there I am afraid those are all we have, sir,'" old John Yeo was saving " F only keep a few for the benefit of visitors who complain of the glar* ->ff the sea some times. No, sir, ! am afraid I haven't got a single pair with side lens " '* But you used to keep them." Ratt rev suggested " 1 saw a man vesterdav wearing a pair ver like these." " Oh. yes, sir. quite* richt." the keeper said "1 did sell the last pair J had yesterday tsformng I am very sorry I cannot give von what you want, but if you can wait a day or two 1 am quite certain that f can get them." " Very we!V Rattrev said " 1 will pali in again." With that, he lonnced out of the shop, leaving Blake to follow him as best he

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might. The latter's business was soon finished, and with the small piece of china in his pocket, Blake followed his subordinate cautiously, at a distance, until they were able to meet and speak without interruption. "Well?" Blake said. " Well ?" "That was all right, sir, wasn't it?" Rattrey asked. " You seo, the man we are after had lost his blue spectacles and whs bound to get another pair. And now you know where he got the other pair from. 1 wanted you to hear the shopkeeper say what he did say, because that proves to you that our man got his second pair of glasses at Yeo's. That is why 1 asked you to meet me in the shop at eleven o'clock." " Very neatly done," Blake said approvingly. " 1 suppose the man we are after has no suspicions—l mean, he is not tracking you as well as you tracking him ? ,1 suppose that there is no chance of his having followed us?" - " Not in the least, sir," Rattrey explained. "As a matter of fact, the man who calls himself Barton has gone to lnstaple. I saw him oft from the station myself. But he is coming back this evening, and I have a feeling that late tonight he will pay another visit to the old farm on the moor." " 1 think we can take that for granted," Blake said. " When Barton comes back this evening you keep an eye on him and follow him along the road if he shows any signs of another raid on the old lady s house. I wil\ be waiting for you just at the other side of the lodge gates, and we can follow him up together. There is something hidden in the farmhouse which Barton is more than anxious to get hold of. Moreover, he knows pretty well where if is. What 1 suspect is that there are papers or documents belonging to the late lamented Richard Grimshaw which, when recovered from their hiding place, will represent money to that man Barton. But, of cqurse, his name isn't Barton, and 1 can't for the life' of me recollect who he is. ,1 know I have seen him before in very different circumstances. That peculiar droop of his right shoulder ought to tell me something—but it doesn't. However, if we can catch him red-handed and strip him of that very clever disguise of his, we may be 1 able to kill more than, one bird with the same stone. Now, you get. back to Watersmouth and 1 will return to Mortmains. I have a feeling that this is going to be a really critical <»ening, because I, too, have made a most remarkable discovery." CHAPTER XX. It was close on eleven the same evening when Blake crept out of his bedroom and went very cautiously down the broad I oak staircase in his stockinged feet, carrying a pair of stout shoes in his hand. It had pleased him well enough when Mortmain had suggested a rather early retirement,, and Blake knew perfectly well that the household staff had gone to bed some time since. There'was no particular reason why he have told Mortmain that he was 'cnt on a nocturnal expedition, but on the whole he thought it just as well, for the time being, to keep his movements to himself. He would have a*good deal to say before many hours had elapsed, but meanwhile silence was his policy. He was dressed in a s>uit oi shabby flannels, as he had changed into these directly he had reached his bedroom. It was more than possible that he would meet with some rough and tumble work and perhaps a cross-country chase, so that he did not want to be overburdened with clothes more than necessary. lie donned his shoes and let himself out of the house by a side door, without making the slightest noise* He crept noiselessly past the lodge, vaulting the gates there, and, when once he was in the open, there was no more cause to fear anything in the way of an unpleasant interruption. And there he stood » aiting in the warm, fragrant night, watching intently for anything that miglit pass. It was not a dark- night, by any means, though there was no moon, but at that time oi the year it is easy enough to distinguish large objects' at a distance and Blake had no fear that his mai> would pass him in the gloom. For three- ' quarter# of an hour he stood there, and then from the direction of the valley, ' came the sounds of soft footsteps, so ! soft, indeed, that Blake would hardly have heard them but foi the crackle of little dry sticks on the road. And then a figure loomed in sight. 1 There was no doubt whose figure if wasj for Blake, could make out the peculiar droop of- the right shoulder and even notice that the eyes were hidden behind dark glasses.] Then as th" figure passed him and the thud of those rubber-shod feet died in the distance, another shadow loomed up and Rattrey appeared. "'Did you see him, sir?" the latter asked. " Oh, I saw him right enough," Blake replied. " And ifc is our man, beyond the shadow of a doubt." " Yes, it's Barton," Rattrey murmured. " 1 have been hanging about Mrs. Ridge's cottage for the last hour and ahalf. Indeed, I was on the point of giving him up when I saw him come sneaking out, and as soon as he turned in the direction of the valley, 1 knew where he was going. Shall we follow, sir?" " .Why, of course. Anyway there is no great hurry. We need not keep him in sight, even, it will taKe him a good ten minutes to get into the house, so we can hang behind a bit and talk. Then my idea is to get into the house ourselves and actually watch the man at work. With any luck, we'll take hirn redhanded." " That would have bee"n my idea, sir," Rattrey said. "Do you think, sir, that he can tell us anything about Grimshaw's death? I mean,' did he have any hand in it ?" " Well, upon my word, 1 can't tell you yet," Blake confessed. "If you look at the case from one angle, everything points to that conclusion. 1 worked out the whole problem on certain lines, and I couldn't see but what the man, Barton, must have been responsible for the death of Richard Grimshaw. And yet, in the face of certain discoveries I have made recently, 1 am almost forced to the conclusion* that' there is a much more sensational dimax than that. 1 hope to goodness 1 am wrong, but thsre are times when 1 wish to heaven I had never been brought into this case. Still, I may be entirely mistaken. Now, going aside for a moment, who do you suppose this Barton is?" " 1 don't think it is for me to say, sir," Rattrey replied. " Well, perhaps not. But there is one thing pretty obvious. This miiu-iooking man in th.' spectacles who calls himself Barton is oue and the same individual as Mrs. Ridge's previous lodger—the-man with the black moustache." You don't say so, sir?" Rattrey criefl. Of course, 1 do. lhe man Smith had to disappear. It was not safe for him to stay in Watersmouth a minute alter Mrs. Whiddon's evidence at the inquest. i>o he just vanished, leaving MrS'. Ridge in debt and saying lie was returning. Of course, he was returning, he cause it is imperative, fo. some reason, or other, than, he should get hold of certain property which Grimshav had in his possession. So, being h master of disguise, he changes himself ou. of all recognition and comes down here in the form of the guileless Barton with the bine spectacles and innocent manner. You may depend upon it thai this Barton :s an exceedingly dangerous criminal and when we arrest him to-night, which we shall do with any luck, we shall probably lay by the heels a man who is badlv wanted by the authorities for something else." " Upon my word, sir, 1 believe you are right." Rattrey said. "Only I must sav it never occurred to me that Mrs. Ridge's two lodgers are one and the -ame man Mind yon, i thought they were ccnfeder nfes hut my idea was that Barton came j down here to finish something the other man was nnable to complete. But the more I think of what you sav, the more sure 1 am that yon are risrht." ; (To be continued