THE MALLARD MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20105, 16 November 1928, Page 22

THE MALLARD MYSTERY.

CHARLES D. LESLIE

''CHAPTER XV. (Continued). Later that day Price talked freely to lan. , " Alt along I was conscious thai some fact which would explain the mystery v.'us waiting to lie found, that it lay under mv hand only I couldn t see it. Hie minder and thelt' were so purposeless. Of course, as soon as 1 looked into the history of the Mallard family I suspected Lord John and his son, especially when Lord Mallard took his nephew into favour. It suggested (hat in some way the loss of the chest had given the young man a hold on his uncle. And yet his action in first taking you up and then dropping you and accusing you of the thelt, admitting the nephew he'd previously hated into his house might l>e only the instability of insanity. Lord John and his sou were tin elusive pair, I could gather little information about them, nothing to connect tlieni with the crime. Then yesterday I learned that Lord Mallard who kept a medical man as one might keep a cook, Tiad changed him just lielore the crime. If n, coincidence, a very extraordinary one. Suddenly came the ray of light, the clue I'd been seeking, the hypothesis of which would explain everything. Suppose on the night of Dexter's murder Lord Mallard had been murdered, too, and his brother were impersonating him? Suppose the chest contained the body of the murdered man ? Wouldn't that explain the change in the eccentric recluse? " Next morning 1 went off to sco the doctors': first Mackenzie, who'd attended Lord Mallard f-r ten years \\ lien i learned he'd been sent for to l'lorence by Sir Rupert Glynn, the millionaire manufacturer, with the promise of a big lee, only to find when lie got there that the telegram was bogus, and that when lie came back Lord Mallard was so offended with him that lie discharged him, per Arrowsmith, declining to see him, then I knew I was on the right track, three minutes' talk with Dr. Arnott, the new medico, settled the question. Arnott s Lord Mallard was a tall man five foot eleven. Mackenzie's Lord Mallard was throe inches shorter. Two separate men. Oh, yes, I was pretty confident when I took you to Grosvenor Square. 1 knew I should find Lord .John in his brothers C '°'' he was seen about London. Why he called at Mallard House and inquired for his brother." " Clever stroke that. Of course, Arrowgnu th let him out early in the. morning mid admitted him late that night. "After Date; had gone to bed, reflected lan. " Bates was tricked, but then Hales never saw his employer, and, if lie bad, it would have made no difference. He'd nevei - seen the Lord Mallard he thought he was serving. You only saw the iin poster. Sadler also; Hope and I were the only ones who saw both brotners and we were deceived. Its lucky wove cot the confession, by the way, or we might never have found the body. lou sav it- has been found." ■" Yes. I've had a 'phone message trom Suuningdale. It will come to Eon don tomorrow; Mackenzie will identify it. Lord John Mallard's statement, headed .*• Mv Confession," ran thus: —

" It is my firm belief that, had I been born a member of the professional class, I would have been a good and industrious lnoy, and grown up to become a eiedit to mv parents and my generation, l'ate ordained that I should enter life as a second son of a peer. The accursed law ot primogeniture has been my ruin. In no other civilised country in the world are younger sons of great families so badly treated. Because I bad an elder brother not only the title but all the money that went with it was his by right. Arthur ne\er was of a lovable disposition; the fend between us began in the nursery and only ended eight days ago when I struck him outside the'door ot' this room with a loaded stick. The concentrated wrongs of over half a century /were behind that blow, and Arthur fell dead at my feet. I regret the deed because I have been unable to avoid the consequences and must pay life foi life; but X feel no remorse; only regret that our daring coup has failed. " Cursed with a bad father, s. selfish cider brother, resenting my proximity to a title and wealth never likely to bo mine, early in life I ran off the rails. I left school in disgrace. I was sent down from mv university. My father prayed over mo; my father, whose secret harem was the joke oi bohemian London, his combination of philanthropy and dissipation disgusted me. lat least have never been a hypocrite. A more generous allowance 111 youth, a little kindness from father and brother, and I would havo grown up a different man. My father spent money to convert the heathen which might havo saved his second son from ruin. For from the beginning I resented the difference between us, and what made it, worse was that Arthur, whose allowanco was generous, was saving and economical; while I. whoso allowance was scanty, was naturally of an extravagant disposition. I ran into ilebt. Arthur wouldn't help me out, my lather wouldn't wouldn't help mo out, so I turned thief. My father cursed me, Arthur cursed me. I hardened my heart and continued to buy tiio gooii things of life, careless whether I could pay tor them or not. Half the pain of imprisonment was alleviated by tho fact that my father and brother felt the disgrace more than I. All the best years of my life havo been passed in ■war against tho world. " I married. I married, all the world said, a wife too good for me. It is perfectly true. I broke her heart at the end. Honestly and remorsefully, looking back, I repent my behaviour to my wife. But in those days extravagance was an obsession, I coukl not, would not reform.

" It is a profound truth, as well as a platitude, that tho way of tho transgressor is hard. Slowly I realised it. Middle age bring:? perforce a certain measure of philosophy. I found myself content with comparatively little, content, indeed, with what that kind, foolish cousin of mine allowed me; f was resigned, with a curse and a shrug, fo let the world of pleasuro run on without me.

" And then to me, the wicked Lord John, canto the tempter. The irony of it ! Let I lie law with a heavy hand descend on Matthew Cobbold. Mo organised the plot; f hope ho will have 14 years iri Dartmoor to repent it. He deserves no less. He was .Arthur's man of business, who. after running straight for hall a century started running crooked. What was behind it, a woman or a weariness of respectability, I never troubled fo inquire. Suffice it to say ho slid into debt and look advantage, of Ins opportunities, as Arthur s solicitor, to pawn securities he. belli. He found himself unable to redeem them, exposure threatened him. We had a nodding acquaintance. One day, ,1 lew weeks ago, he canto to me with a daring proposition to rob Arthur. .1 listened and was templed.

"I he Mallard money now.' he pointed out, 'is entirely in securities. Your brother's deal It will riot benefit, you one penny, nor your son. Lord Mallard's will is made; the money is left chiefly to charities, with a few legacies for distant relatives. There is a clause expresslv stating that not one pennv is to go to his brother who has disgraced the family name, nor to his son. Now do voit know, .Lord John, you havo grown very like your brother?'

"Tan ?" "Yes

■" It, was many years since I'd seen Arthur; we'd never been alike as boys, arid while T havo always shaved my face Arthur has always been bearded; I heard this with astonishment.

" 'Our voices are alike,' I said, ' hut otherwise there is less facial resemblance than generally exists between brothers. But supposing I can impersonate Arthur what good will that do?'

" CnVifjoM nnfolficd tho pint. Arrow Rmitli liihl alreadv I,pen sound ; >d. Tlio idea was simply to kidnap Arthur and him in safo-koppinjT fl f (!W ( | llvSi ( | ur j nß time I would rpnlisp his smiritirs and transfer flip money in a fictitious riamo to the continent. When the money was Mlely transported wp would follow if, and then, and not till tlien, would fho prisonpr lie relpaspd. TMnrclor was the

A CRISPLY-TOLD STORY BY AN EFFECTIVE WRITER.

(COVYIUGaT.)

last thing we intended. The question of copying Arthur's signature, by the way, would be easy for me.

" Looking into the plot it grew quite feasible. I had just acquired a short lease of Iho house in Sunuingdale, the Hoopers were to bo bought; so, too, was Arrowsmith, though his price came high. Dexter was one stumbling block and the doctor the other; neither were corruptible. At last wo decided to send the doctor out of the country by means of a bogus telegram ; on lijs return lie would find his patient had changed his medical man. Dexter was to share his master's imprisonment. " George camo in. Indeed, he welcoined the idea. He had fallen in love with Hope Ashley and saw no chance of winning her as tilings were. So we five planned it, the Hoopers, Cobbold, George, and mvself. "The night arrived; everything wont well. The only incident unforeseen was the arrival in London that day of lan Mallard, and his call on Arthur. Indirectlv' his coming complicated Arthur, indirectly caused George's death. Poor George!" being born into the cadet branch of the fainilv proved his ruin. " But from the moment Dexter opened the door to Hooper and myself, Georgo remained at the wheel of tho car, things went wrong. Dexter scented mischief as soon as tho door closed. Ho shouted ' Help, thieves,' at tho top* of his voice; it was a wonder the femalo servants didn't hear him. Arthur did, but then sound ascends. Dexter turned on Hooper and was struck down dead. I believe Hooper purposely struck hard, not wishing to he burdened with two prisoners. As we stood over the body Arthur appeared armed with a revolver, the one in the desk; it is merely for show, there arc no cartridges. He saw me, read murder in my eye and fled. I snatched the si tele from Hooper and followed, outside his door he turned on me and cursed me, and I killed him. So his crazy belief that death lay in waiting for him outside his room was justified. " We had brought some chloroform and intended semi-stupefying both men and leading them into tho car, but tho double murder changed our plans. Hooper fetched George: wo left Dexter where he lay, put Arthur's body in tho chest and Georgo and Hooper carried it into the car and drovo off, leaving the door open, tin accident which brought tho police on tho spot immediately. I d hardly any time to settle into my new rolo heforo Sadler burst in upon me. However, Arrowsmith, who'd purposely kept out of the way that night—we knew he'd bo the first person to bo suspected—came back early next morning, and with his assistance mv part was quite easy. " Arthur's body, I'm informed, found in the garden at East View Cottage, near the cucumber frame—if I remember rightlv, cucumbers disagreed with him as a youth. Myself, I have found the masquerade fairly amusing and quite easy, and I have enjoyed playing with Arthur's monev. I have already transferred lialf-a million to Paris; in two days' time I would have slipped away, by the night mail, with another half-a million and left London to enjoy another Mallard Mystery. It was not to be; the change of" doctors was tho ono weak link in tho chain and it has broken. Unlucky in birth, unlucky in crime, 'I leave the world ' —how does it go on ?—'to point a moral or adorn a tale.'

" John Poulton Mallard."

Though Price spoke truly in sayirtg that Lord John Mallard, bv his suicide, which robbed the detectives lightly of the credit he gained in solving the mystery and finishing tho Mallard case, cheated tho world of a first-class sensational trial, enough sensation remained to make a nine days' talk. Society, too, was all agog to know more of tho new Lord Mallard, and, in a lesser degree, to see that wellknown society beauty, Miss Ashley, again; her strange disappearance had intrigued her circle vastly. And society was very angry when a newspaper, thanks to an arrangement with the local registrars, burst out with the news that Lord Mallard and Miss Ashley had been married that morning in a Hampstead Registry Office, and then vanished per motor-car into the unknown to enjoy a honeymoon where reporters and curiosity mongers could not trace them.

As a ceremony the marriage was certainly very unspectacular; a best man, a severe looking spinster in attendance on the bride, and a youth of the lower classes, in a brand new serge suit, whom the spinster aforesaid alluded to as a " page d'houneur." He strutted behind the bride like a bantam cock. Price was best man. Price by his own insistanco was host to the small luncheon party which followed tho wedding. Price proposed the health of Lord aud Lady vbillard in champagne of a brand the excellence of which was beyond dispute. Price was gay and eloquent and debonair, the perfect best man. His colleagues at Scotland Yard would have been amazed had they been present. Bjit they have noted since how he has changed: his success in tho Mallard case has given him back his pride, lie doesn't care if the fact that he was cashiered from the army comes out; he has mado a new name for himself, and looks tho whole world in tho face. Incidentally, lan and he are sworn friends.

Jimmy, too, has changed. He is in two minds about his future. Shall ho remain with Miss Fearns and become a furniture and curio expert ? Ho has taken to tho profession like a duck to water. Or shall lie, when Lady Mallard settles down in London, become her page boy with an idea of eventually becoming her butler ? Jimmy thinks professional pugilism, his original idea .of a vocation, rather lowclass just now. Indeed, ho is so violently resectable that some slight lapse from virtue may cotno later. But his career as a burglar is definitely closed. Hope has changed also. She has taken a violent, dislike to London society (but this, I think, will pass). Sho says she never wants to seo May fair again, or its inhabitants Possibly this is due to the fact that fan and society are aliens, and lie shows no desire to mako its better acquaintance. And lan ? lan hasn't changed. He's just tho same lan who came to Brackors so recently and changed his last pound there, wondering where the next was coming from Ho ought single-handed to have rescued Hope from a crowd of ruffians who were abducting her. But there it is. Lan is still puzzled what Hope can sew in him He's frightfully ordinary, lie tells himself, and ho hasn't done anything wonderful. Vet Hope thinks he is unique; but women are strange he never did understand them, and doesn't pretend to Tho car in which fan drove Hope and himself out of London subsequent to tho wedding breakfast went no further than Kastbonrno. One can loso oneself best in a crowd, and, in tho Great Metropolitan IFntol, it is easy to avoid attracting tho attention of others. An unobtrusive couple are Mr and Mrs. Falkland. They take, trips in their car. walk on Beachv Head, and seem well content, with each other and tho world in general. Observn them sitting on the slope watching the sea a very ordinary pair, indeed

"Nothing, f love hearing yon say 'yes' like that." And sho stares into the skyline, wrapped in content, as with a cloak Nothing—nothing whatever can go wrong in the future while Inn is hy her side He falls into a reverie; strange and strange again fhaf he should be sitting hero car» free, married to Hope, financially secure, lie. Fortune's step-son. Almost he wonders if it is all a dream, then a soft kiss falls on bis »nr, aud he knows it is real. "Yes ?" "Let's go and get some tea."

Tan ohedipntly risps. Tlipre is one tiling ho does understand about women—the imperative necpssity of tea toward the close of tlie afternoon. (THE END. |