WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20323, 2 August 1929, Page 22

WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?

BY LOUIS TRACY

CHAPTER XI (Continued.)

/' Foxton boasted nn ambulance unit, and some of its members wero doing their best to bind the shattered hand and lacerated shoulder of tho fellow who had fired at' Dunkeld. lie was delirious with pain, and Furneaux alone knew that he was , muttering imprecations in Russian. Tho chauffeur, too, hnd come off badly. Pellets had lodged in his jaws, neck, and chest. Possibly, none of the punctures would prove fatal, but he was in for a most unpleasant experience when some eminent surgeon had him on the operating tablo and began demonstrating to a score of watchful students the correct treatment of gunshot wounds. Lysaght, Whirling into Foxton like a thunder-cloud, approved tho .work of his class and saw to it that two such excellent cases were not wasted on tho nearest cottage hospital j ho despatched them to Leeds. The extra journey was uncomfortable for tho patients, but most beneficial to the medi- ' cal school of the university. Furneaux and DunkeUl ascertained quickly enough that this precious pair werfe mere hirelings. The only important item was tho identification of liie gunman by the constable who had been told off ta mount guard over Betty. Ho was practically uninjured. He had seen tho car halt in front of the doctor's house, and watched Doolan making a leisurely statement to tho young lady when slio appeared. That she should he bundled into the limousine so unceremoniously, however, was a different matter. He ran forward, whipped out his pistol, and fired ' at the off front tyre when the engine started. He missed, but hit a spoke of tho near artillery wheel, thus contributing to its collapse later. In response, the specialist seated by tho driver's side leaned out and aimed at tho policeman's upper works. The direction was accurate but the elevation faulty. Tho bullet sent tho policeman's helmet flying, and ploughed a slight furrow along the centre of his scalp. The blow was hard enough to knock its recipient off his feot, which was fortunate, because a second shot struck tho road some feet in rear of tho 6pot where bo was lying. /For a few minutes, of course, all Foxton was a prey to excitement and confusion. It was discovered, for instance, that < Mrs. Dunkeld, looking out from a bedroom window, hnd witnessed the brief duel between her husband and the desperadoes in the car. When it was over she fell in a faint. A servant heard the i/shoofing, followed by the thud of her mistress' body on a carpeted floor, and rushed out screaming that the " mussus " had been shot. The burning car, too, set fire to some woodwork in the Georgian porch. During the resultant scurry with a hose someone trod heavily on the fore paws of the Yorkshire terrier, whose shrieks of afiguish wero heartrending. All this Furneaux described callously AS " comic relief." "If I had not actually seen the wretched whelp," lie added with a/ laugh, " I would never have believed that one small dog coiild make so much noise. And* he seemed to blame Tags for his injuries. Within a minute, he was sitting on Dunkeld's doorstep, Waiting for his enemy to come out." At last, however, order was restored. The wreck of the car was dragged into the stableyard of the inn, and the two wounded prisoners were laid out on stretchers in the chargeroom of the police station. Then Dunkeld and Furneaux took Betty and her dog to the room where tho uninjured captives were seated. Pierre Girard, a southern. Frenchman by ' birth, but a Spaniard by descent, looked sulky and thoroughly out of conceit with life, but Doolan, to whom Betty had applied the right adjective, was actually | trying to ingratiate himself with the solid Yorkshiremen who held him in charge. His attitude changed at once, however, | when the girl came in. He had his own reasons for knowing that she would show him no mercy. Furneaux, of course, needed no enlightenment on this point. He saw how Betty's eyes hardened at sight of the man, and noted the expression of genial truculence fade from her captor s face. , It// was typical of tho little detective's in- | nate chivalry that he sought no explanation, yet, from that instant, Big Doolan's chance of saving his own. skin by incrimin- | ating others vanished' utterly. " We have no use for this Bolshic from ; Pork," he said to Dunkeld in a contemp- ; tuous undertone. " Can't you lock him up in a cell till it is decided what is to be ! done with him ? Charge him with ag- j gravated assault and attempted murder, j '•and have him thoroughly searched. \ou ■should have plenty of reinforcements here before you are ready to put hirn away. " Reinforcements 1" The Superintendent raised his eyebrows. " Where will they come from ?" 11 Malton, Pickering, Kirbymoorside. .The Chief Constable at York promised to 'phono your headduarters. Of course, this Js' all Greek to you. Winter and I had a half-hour's wait at York, so we gave the ■* Yard' a call, and were told that these four lads had arrived in Middlesborough this morning from London. That was enough. While I arranged for the hire of a motor-cycle and disguised myself as a f 6pecd merchant, Winter saw tho York police, and they ascertained from Middles- ! fioi'ough that the gang had gone openly : to a garage and secured a reliable car by j leaving n deposit, as well as full rates for j a hundred miles' run. They explained | that they were touring the country to ' pick up greyhounds for racing purposes. 1 suppose you can guess the remainder of ' the story for tho time being?" I A car stopped in the street outside. Dunkeld was near a window. " Hero are five able-bodied policemen," he said. Give me as many minutes and I'll be with you. For half that time I really must see to my wife, who nearly j faded away when the shooting began. I forgot that she was in the room overhead. Come along, Doolan! You'll be able to walk in those leg-irons if you watch your step." The big man rose, lie was in a tower-

jng rage, but ho said no word. He knew, too; that at tho least sign of resistance his right wrist would he nearly broken by a special appliance designed for that very purpose. Nor did Tags forget to growl a farewell. " C'cst bien. n'est-co pas?" said Furncaux'to Girnrd when Doolan had gone.

'"What, does it. matter to me?" ariBwered the other in. his own language. The detective shrugged his shoulders, lie turned to Betty. " I take it that Pierre did not offer you any indignity?" he said.

No. He did not hurt me at all." she declared. "He wouldn't. You seo. lie was horn a gentleman. In fact, if he hadn't been compelled .to be extraordinarily good when /young lie would not be so extraordinarily bad to-dav."

Betty giggled, there is no other name for it. Butcher Thompson rind the farmers in tho room may have grinned Inter—lie it remembered that they had not the least notion as to the. identity of this little wisp of a man in overalls and goggles xvho so coolly assumed command of everyorie and everything in Foxton, if not tlis whole North of England—but the ./Frenchman smiled cynically. He. at least felt, the truth of the epigram Suddenly the detective's attention was pnven to the departure r.f some visitors from tho White Horse. A" touring car had appeared from a neighbouring garage, a couple of portmanteaux wore placed in it, and two men, each carrying a square box covered with rain-proof canvas, took their seats and drove off rapidly southwards.

Furneaux turned to Dunkeld who entered at, that moment, being in need of a duplicate key for tho cells.

A CAPTIVATING STORY OF MYSTERY AND LOVE.

(COPYRIGUT.)

| " I suppose the place is ovor-run now I with special correspondents'!" ho said ! sharply. ! " Yes. They liavo been bothering mo [all the morning, but I sent them to i Blaekdown. Why not?" " Including the camera men?" " What camera men 1" " The two who have just scooted away from the inn." j " I did not even know they wero there." " Sacre nom d'un 110 m! Do you hear that, Pierre ? And you, Miss llardacre ? You, I, all of us, are in the movies. Wo have just given tho motion picture industry its first genuine thrill —motor bandits, pretty girl, gallant policeman, faithful hound, abduction., rescue, real shooting, with a perfect setting and a crowd of first-rate supers. And in staid Old England, too, of all places in the world. Look! That pair of babies opened both windows on tho first floor of tho White Hoi •se. The shots exchanged outsido the doctor's house gave them sufficient warning to get ready and focus their machines at landscape distance. Oh, what a story! I'll hot you an even sixpence, Dunkeld, I that they will even show your wife fainting at the upper window. And they'll [ have every name except mine! I shall figure as an unknown but plucky motorcyclist. Oh, la la! We shall all be famous from China to Peru!" CHAPTER XII. DRAWING THE COVERTS. " The Triangle," that unfailing recipe for the plot ot a motion picture, proved a ghastly failure when put to the test of everyday life with .Miss Beatrice Bingham as the woman and Mannering and ! Colonel Westoby as the men during tho I second half the luncheon at tho Ritz. I Indeed, Sir Herbert Bland was hardly in touch with Dunkeld by 'phone before tho lady they wero discussing announced that she must return to Welbock Street at once and alone. It was so evident that she meant what she said that. Mannering did not attempt to dissuade her. Sho was in a taxi and gono within a minute. I'lio colonel, a married man, who probably had never given a thought to any woman other than his wife, was somewhat disconcerted. " I'm afraid I don't understand the ways of the modern girl," he said, apologetically, when he and .Mannering camo together again for a cigarette and a liqueur. " I tried to play up, but, honestly, 1 don't think your young friend listened to a word 1 said. What went wrong ?" Mannering laughed. " Well, for one thing," he grinned, "you're an uncommonly poor liar, sir!" " Dash it all, even if I had the inclination, what was there to lie about?" Oh, scores of topics—the anxiety of tho War Office about Sandling's death, tho increasing strain on the rest of the world of a sudden and ruthless use of a devastating gas by the nation which first discovers it and is able to manufacture large quantities in secret." "Do you call that lying ? I regard each item you have mentioned as a bitter and vital truth." " Exactly. That is why a sensitive and highly-trained intelligence like Fraulein Bertha's would have realised at once that you were saying these things to lead her on, and, in consequence, not have believed you," The older man shook his head. " I don't follow metaphysical reasoning of that sort," he growled. "If you want my candid opinion I can give it without any word-twisting. I don't know what mood you left her in, but she was thoroughly upset and suspicious when we rejoined her." Mannering was well aware of this, but he had long ago seen the unwisdom of anticipating discoveries or deductions which might be made by a senior officer with whom he was working or whose | good services he might need later. * " Oh, you think that, do you, sir?" | he inquired, modestly receptive of so much sagacity. " Yes, and I'll go one better by telling you what happened. If Scotland Yard has some of its agents in this room will probably bear out my guess that the moment you quitted Miss Bingham she received some sort of signal from three men at a table almost behind me, but at the other side of the restaurant. Bland and I spotted them the moment they came in—one is a square-head, the others genuine Slavs. Our London tailors are true democrats, but they cannot change the shape of their customers' skulls ol' the angle of their cheek-bones." "Good for you, colonel!" cried Mannering. " But I, too, must plead guilty j to being a disturbing influence. I was ■ getting along fine with the fair Bertha | until it dawned on me that some, of tho pests who knocked poor old Sandling on the head might possibly suspect Betty llardacre of having a knowledge of tho formula Obviously, they'll stop at nothing to secure it if it has been set forth in black and white." " Well, I may as well tell you now that it has. It will even be tested on a small scale in the Long Valley this afternoon." " I'm sorry to hoar that. Couldn't the, authorities have waited ? Why advertise such a discovery?" " Advertise it ? Who will know of it outside a most confidential circle? Hang it all, we must trust somebody!" • | " All tho same, I wish the practical i experiments could have been deferred." " But. my dear follow, I happen to be aware of some of the arrangements. I A cavalry brigade is to lie trained in j ' screen ' work, starting from Laffan's Plain tialf-an-hotir before the eras is liberated and fired. No unauthorised person can possibly get within a mile of the place from this very moment onwards." Westoby verified the time--two o'clock. He would not have been quite so sure of his ground if he had !<n"wn what was happeninc iust then in v ';*:ton's Hicrh Street, which, for comparison, might be regarded as far less likelv to attract, Hie attention of foreign soios than the principal training centre of the British Army. (To he continued rlnilv.) — I