THE FOAKES MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 18 (Supplement)

THE FOAKES MYSTERY.

BY- tW. F. HARVEY.

'! CHAPTER XVn.—(Continued.) Martin took from thq car a jack", a ' couple of lamps, and a spanner. He : would require something to throw at the window in order to break, the glass. And then, rememberinglngleby, he' pocketed .the sparking plugs. Step by step he rehearsed the proceedings. Now tho window : was broken. Up with the loose boards arid-into the pit. Ugh! how abominably cold and oily it ,was! Now .for replacing them. Talk about, suffocation! Two minutes. Good they would hardly take as short a time as that before they opened the door. • He hoped they would take no longer. Now, he told himself, the door is opened and fhey have left it open. Of course they would leave it open, any sane man would. He removes one plank, so, and then another, so, but far more quietly. He is out in .3 minute and in half a. minute the boards are replaced. The dress rehearsal is /finished. And . there wero five, hours to wait. Martin i was far too excited to sleep. He took the ordnance map from his poclcet — Voles had not thought ifc. worth while removing—and studied the lie of the land. From'Brunton Hall, Uggleswick was nine miles as the crow flies, and by the road it 4vould be, he reckoned a good eighteen. He wondered if Mary Quinton had been able tojmake anything of that cipher; he wondered if Simeon knew that they were working together. There was just a possibility - that he might have no evidence of their collaboration. If he had, surely he would not I 'have 'neglected the opportunity of taunting him; with ifc at their last interview. .But no, he must not think of Mary. ' Slowly, slowly the hours'passed. Never had time dragged his feet- with such funeral slowness. . -. At last the hour for action arrived; and i he sent the jack" clattering through the ! wiridow. There was the sound of. broken glass slithering down the side of a roof, and a. dog barked. He had not counted oh the dog. Seizing the spanner—ifc | would make a useful weapon if the worst ! cams to the worst—ho got into tho pit j and replaced the boards. The barking of the dog continued. A minute passed, i two minutes, and then came the sound of - hurrying footsteps.- He heard the key ; turned in the lock, and the door was , thrown open. Who was it? Simeon, i Ingleby, or Voles t ?' It was Voles' voice that announced with conviction that he'was i damned. " He'll be out -through ' the kitchen i garden! " he said; then with a bellow jof "Gone away!" he was off to the i house to give the alarm.' ' Quietly Kenyon slipped from his hid-, i ing place. Silently he replaced; the j hoards. A glance through the open door : showed him that the' was clear.. lOn tip-toe he crossed the drive. It was.. I skirted on tho farther side by a low hedge of laurel, and under cover of this I he ran, bent almost' double. Looking (back he saw lights in the house. The. ! whole, place seemed astir. At last he ' reached the gate, and in another moment i had crossed the high road, scaled a hmestone wall, and was scrambling up the } bare slope of the fell. .«. | At ten'o'clock, seated on a moss-covered i boulder, .he folded up his map with a isigh of satisfaction. That house below. ' him in the trees without doubt was Brun- , ton Hall, It had not been easy to fincl;' : Hb had only seen one man in the dis--1 tance, shepherd, and he had purposely avoided him. The going-had been hard: He was weary, footsore, ■ and e all i ravenously hungry. ..... Over a. wall he climbed —there seemed no end' to the walls that had blocked his 1 way that morning—down through a hazel, copse, and out into a'pasture where long-" ■ v. oolled Weynesaale sheep were browsing ; and which was crossed by a, -road that 'led to the Ha 11..,.,, . A familiar, voice hailed him. It was 'Holroyd,. Holroyd:.;with'a" gun under his ' arm and a spaniel at his-heels. f "Just in time, to spoil "my mornings shooting," he said. "So you've come \ down after all. Miss Quinton would _ have J ;t, that- your telegram was to be interipreted literally." i " How did it read, and when did it | tome?." ..' '. s ! " ' Deeply regret, unexpectedly detained." It came last evening just after ;I arrived. They were beginning to get anxious." . ' , .mi " 'So" was I-answe.red Kenyon. But : for goodness sake take me somewhere j jwhere I can gefc a ; wash before I put in an official appearance. And don't tell me you forgot to _ bring down my bag with

T©u." •. - - \ " You should havq como in overalls, ! my dear Martin. You look as if you had I been' dabbling in oils. When did you ;breakfast? " j '.'Yesterday at Bedford.: I m as hungrv as an ox." j Half-an-hour later he was seated in the ;'dining room sating ham and eggs, while 'Mary Qninton poured out coffee of an indescribable fragrance. Holroyd stood with liiis hack to the,fire waiting impatiently •until he could ask Martin to tell his 'etory. 'He had arranged that they should | not be interrupted. His uncle and cousin had gone to one of the out-barns, .and old Mrs. Holroyd, his grandmother, i a lady whose curiosity was increasing 'yearly-with her deafness, had not yet ; come downstairs. , " You've- had quite enough, He said at last! ".Put the marmalade down and • get going with your story.- It's just a i plain'unvarnished narrative we want with ino attempts at subtle psychological an* ■a lysis." , * " Poor old Martin;" - he said, when Kenyon had finished. "-.You ve had..ai. ! close shave and no mistake about it. iDon't you worry any more. We'll get the police on to the job." •_ ' ' •] ,*' '] "We can't do that," Kenyon replied.. j»" T can't corroborate my evidenco in.ar.y< Single particular. I've putr myself:on the : wrong side of the law. "No,' our only [hope is to make something 'out of that ic.ipher and to act 011 that. * What luck •have you had, Miss'Quinton 1 " ; " I'm afraid I've nothing to report," iishe said. " Dr. Holroyd and I have Ipuzzled over it in vain. I sent a copy i to my cousin last night, but putting aside ithe cipher for a moment, what do we 'know 1 about the people at Uggleswick? " "j " From .what my uncle has told me," ifcaid Holroyd, " an American rented'the Hall from' Sir James Petty some months ago and came here for the shooting. My !people here have never called, hut I ' jknow they have a wireless set. When !the Bartons went over there three weeks jago they were asked to listen-in. Very [sociable and very American they said the bellow was. Couldn't express his gratitude ifor little old England remaining.wet. Used {to-hunt water rats-with a terrier he called 'Pussyfoot/- But you're" half asleep. If iyou are going to use your brain to-day Syou'd better do the thing properly and go'to bed. We'll excuse you, and don't (bother to put in an appearance at lunch. I'll invent some story about your being persuaded to motor round by Ugglcs,wick, and that as a result of a breakdown y£u were obliged to spend a night there. I have given you a reputation ior good natured idiocy—eccentncity.-.rather *—which ought to account for. much. \ CHAPTER XVIII. j' Kenyon needed no pressing. He went jOpstairs to his room and;dead tired, jthrew himself on the bed with a sigh of iquiet satisfaction.' When he awoke'sine gong for lunch was sounding. He.did his ■ best at the meal to live down, the reputation which-Holroyd had given,, him,- a,nd the loquacity. t Mary .Quinton >vas"' unusually silent. , As they fose to leave the room she came up to '{where he was 'standings ~ ./

■"You remember the papers wo were i'alking about. I've found out row where ilhey were placed. Come into tlfe library und I'll tell you how I did it." Mary Quinton in the last few hours had discovered the key to the cipher! .And there was Holroyd with his cousin Phyllis discussing whether it were better l;o try to carry tho bunker at the fifth hole or to play for safety round it! "It was a piece of pure luck," said Mary as soon as they were alone in the library. " I'll start from;the beginning. When I left' you I went to help poor John, who was struggling with the laws of prosody. I believe lie has got the hang of them now, and any natural taste that he may have for poetry will be killed. But that is incidental. John was trying to find the meaning of iambus, trochee, spondee and tho rest, and he couldn't make head or tail of them. They had printed in the grammar book that ingenious mnemonic that begins: Trochee'trips from long to short From,'long to long'in solemn sort Slow spondee stalks a.nd so on." " Well, I did my best to explain about longs and shorts and covered a sheet of paper with dots and dashes. ' It's like the Morse code only twice as difficult,' said John, and, since I knew nothing a,bout the Morse code, I got him to ex-, plain it to me. And then the idea came to me, or part of the idea. I felt sure that somehow or other the Morse code was concerned in the cipher. John was longing to see if the ice would bear; I had half-an-hour to myself. Wasted a lot of time at first over long and short syllables before I realised that it was' not nearly so complicated as that. The longs and short for the Morse code were long and short words. And yet when I tried to decipher that poem that Nicholas had sent to Hauptmann I found that though each ling, made a letter tho first five letters could not be part of any word I knew." " Show me how it worked," said Martin. Mary Quinton wrote down the first four lines, substituting a dot for words of one syllable and a dash for those of more than one. Eternal daybreak! >— The stars palo .■ a a Awakening birds. * Prophesy, exultant, triumphant, " That, you see, gives the letters M S N O, which didn't strike me as being particularly hopeful. However, I persevered, and tried my hand at the first I oil-the Poems of Revolt, the one beginning: ■' The banner waves high • Blood red.' There-1 struck oil. Decoded it reads 'List of- Secret service agents.' -Then I went back to the original letter. I had made no mistake; it runs like this: MS;NO: SIX IN SHELLEY'S BUST." Arid where the deuce is Shelley's bust?" asked Kenyon. : " In. the library at Chandos Mount. It stands -on an oblong ebony pedestal. You mast" have seen it every time you went into the room." "Shake hands on it!" cried Martin ,excitedly* "Miss Quinton, vou are a genius!"' 1 " Not p bit of it," she answered, laughing, " I'm a shorthand typist, with a-working knowledge of French _and German, earning four pounds a week, with two years, yet to go before I get a vote. ; But what are we going to do about it?" ... " I should suggest that we wire straight away to Neville Cartwright. There's no harm in giving him the code. We'll-- do our best to get the report to him by to-morrow, and in the meantime he will be able to make arrangements for its transmission to the authorities in London and for its publication as soon afterward as they sanction in all the newspapers. Together they drew up a telegram. I'll get Holroyd to send a boy with it to the post-office right away," he said, " and. then he must como and join us in a council of war." They -eventually decided that the simplest plan would be the safest. They would go to Chandos Mount. Miss Quinton, Ivenyon, Holroyd, all three were in varying degrees known by the maids; in Simeon's absence they would see nothing strange in Martin's request to look, in tho library for a book he had mislaid when he "had been staying with Mr. Foakes. If Simeon were at home—well, he would be surprised to sco them. Martin could present his compliments and say that he had come to ask what further steps Simeon was proposing to take, at tho same time letting him know tfiafc tho officers of the Society of Service were on their guard. The plan that all three should call at Chandos Mount was neither Martin's nor Holroyd's. They were both opposed to Miss "Quinton's coming with thein. She, however, insisted, and they eventually gave way. After all, as she pointed out, this was really her show; three would be better for their purpose than two, and four would be too many, "That's as far as we can get at present," said Holroyd at last. " It's a quarter to three now. We ought to start from here in half-an-hour, and with any luck we should be in Ledford, by halfpast five. I'll go and see about the car now." He was met at the library door by a maid with a telegram. " For Miss Quinton,"- she said. " The boy is waiting to-- know it there is an answer." Mary tore open 'the telegram, and, after reading it with- a puzzled' expression, harided it to Kenyon. It was from Cartwright, and had evidently been despatched from "London several hours befoic their wire could have reached him. I; " Letter-.received hero this morning, ho read, " from Foakes enclosing abstract of Eeporf Number Six foi; immedi-ate-use. 1 'Says Report itself will be forwarded to-morrow. Abstract looks O.K. Was asked to wire receipt to Foakes at Uggleswick. Can you enlighten ?' " Well," asked Mary. " Can you ?" " I should jolly well think not,," said Martin. "All that'l can suggest at present is that Simeon is .beginning to think he may have gone a step too far, and is doing .his best to placate , the Society people. 1 only hope Cartwright won't take that abstract of Report Number. Six too seriously. If Simeon acts with him as he acted with me, he will bail; his hook with truth and won't be sparing of it. I suggest that, you wire Cartwright to go slow, and, if you like, tell him that we arc leaving for Ledford immediately." There seemed little else that they could do. The telegram had at least given them some sort of excuse for a hurried departure. V You must not choose such exciting times in future," said Colonel Holroyd to his nephew as they .said good-bye, " to introduce your friends to"Brunton. And remember, Miss Quinton, that our party is not dissolved, but only prorogued." Kenyon sat by himself at the back of the car. Holroyd, despite his dislike,of woman-kind, seemed to havo no difficulty in maintaining a one-sided 'conversation with Miss Quinton, who, Martin noted, with satisfaction, appeared lpss interested in what he had to say than in the obstacles in the road which he so mir-acu-loulsy avoided. He had plenty to think about. What would they find in Chandos Mount? Would Simeon be there himself? What was the meaning of this last move of his ?" The short-winter afternoon was left behind with the milestones. They left behind the shorter dusk. As they threaded their way through the narrow cobbled streets of the first of thofee towns that were to pollute the clear waters of the stream their road had followed, Holroyd turned on the sidelights, and then once aßa ; n in open country with the headlight cutting a bright way they rushed on into the outer darkness of Ledford,

v A THRILLING ROMANCE OF! LOVE, CRIME AND MYSTERY. ?

(COPTRIGHT.)

" We will drive up to Chandos Mount and leavo tho car outside," said Holroyd. "There will be no harm in drawing attention to the fact that\ wo. aro : callers here. Now what's the bfetting that the old bird's at homo?"

Miss Quinton rang tho bell, which was answered by the elderly waiting maid. "Is Mr. Foakes in ?" she asked, " Mr. Kenyon thought that ho left somo papers in tho library when he was here last week. He did not. like to trouble Mr! Foakos about them—you must all' have had your hands fulL - wlth_* i this terrible burglary—but I promised to come along with him and give what help I could; "Mr. Foakes is upstairs resting," -said the ma'd. "He did not want to be disturbed, but if you tako tho gentleman into the library, Miss Quinton, it will be all right. It was left in a dreadful state on Wednesday night-, and then the police, instead of trying to straighten things up,- : •only made matters worse. It s taken to all my time to put the place to .*■ " We won't bo more than a few .minutes, Sarah," said Miss Quinton, as she thanked her, "and there will be no need to trouble you to let us out. When >ou see Mr. Foakes you might fell him- that I shall be coming round as usual on Monday morning." '' She led the way across the hall to tnc library, and switched on the lights. There was little change in the appearance of the room, though the table \yas unusually free of papers. " Now," said Kenyon, turning to Mary, "put us out of our suspense and".into the" street again. There is the bust, and here is a cnair for you to stand on. It was the work of a moment to lift the bust on the?table. The pedestal on which it stood was about twelve inches high, oblong in shape, panelled in a shal-low-moulded ebony. The front panel slid in a groove, and was easily removed. " Well," said Kenyon eagerly, " is it there?" For answer, Mary Quinton drew from the receptacle a roll of typewritten manuscript. Next moment she had snatched ifc into her muff. Kenyon and Holroyd looked up in surprise. The door opened, and Mr. Foakes walked quietly into the room. CHAPTER XIX. There followed what could, only be described as an awkward pause. Foakes ,was the first to break the silence. " Won't you all be seated?'*' he said. " There is something so furtively suggestive in our standing like this around a fallen bust with that roll of script peeping out of Miss Quinton s muff in a way. which I am cure she never in- ! tended it' to do. When was it we met last, Miss Quinton?" . "' ' . " Over a. week ago, "jyst before you asked me to go up to London."- : "To be sure. My memory lately has been playing me such tricks, and it" has been a full week for all of us. And you, gentlemen, in what way can I assist you?" He had certainly succeeded in puzzling Kenyon. There was in his tone of voice something more than a suggestion of genial banter. It was as if he held in his hand the winning card, and could afford to los 6 an odd trick. "There is a great deal that you can do for me, Mi*. Foakes," he said. ":Some day I hope to be able to present the bill in full. In the meantime I should bs glad to hear what reason you have to offer for forcibly detaining me at Uggleswick."- i "-So you were forcibly detained at Uggleswick? That is interesting, decidedly interesting. I suppose you have got deeply involved in matters with which you had no concern."- .- " Come,' Mr. Foakes," said Martin, " Bluff will carry you a long way, but it won't carry you away from the point. And the point is this: The officials of tho Society of Service know the double game you've played. They have already an abstract of Report Number Six, and by to-morrow the Report itself will be iji their hands."- " Always interrupted Foakes, "that Miss Quinkm has not themisfortune to leave her muff behind.. If I grasp the situation aright my entryjust now must have been decidedly inopportune. It marred what I- suppose was the climax of a very painstaking investigation. I intervene, believe me, with real reluctance, but I have no choice."- " We're wasting time," said Holroyd. " Give tho manuscript to me Miss Quinton, and let's bo off. It's not Ours,-1 know, but at all events it isn t Simeon's. " I shall make no attempt to stop you. I am opposed, on principle, to the uso of force, as Miss Quinton very well knows. Bnt aren't you taking things a little too much for granted? What proof have you that lam Simeon ? None whatever. Your only hope is-to produce Nicholas Foakes, tho corpus delicti. lam the only man who can do that." " Why ?" asked Kenyon. "Because I happen to bo Nicholas." Kenyon burst out- laughing. " You can't expect us to believe that at this hour of the day. Of couicc, you are Nicholas to all but, the very few who knew the truth, and-for them nothing will. . . " He stopped suddenly.' " Mr. Foakes was holding out to" him his right hand. " Tho finger of truth," said the latter with a smile, ".the finger of, truth, you will observe, is not "missing. Come, Miss Quinton, introduce- mo to these gentlemen. I, have not had the pleasure of meeting them-before." Mary's for' once failed her, as'she, gasped'out, "Mr. Foakes!" "I must'give you'itime to get accustomed to the - idea,"v«b'said. " I can't explain everything now bub you can rest assured there, is an'explanation.' I won't anticipate the story except to say that ifc is only in the last twenty-four hours that I have been able to appear oh .'the scene and to act. lat once gave my brother to understand that his game was up. The wire which he received at Uggleswick this morning acknowledging the- receipt of tho Abstract of Report Number Six would convince him of the -futility of bluff. In my original Jetter to him-Pl have thought is wiser riot to see'.iity brother—l announced my intention-' of speaking this evening at the meeting t»f the Society hero in Ledford for >vhich Nicholas Foakes was already to take the'chair.-, " direcfechMlenge, and- one which be will .not, jjo in a position to accept. the rest*l have already seen- tho manager of my bank. He has heard my story and is prepared to act in case of emergency. Now, Miss Quinton, will you introduce me to your friends ?" It was with curiously mingled feelings that Martin took the hand, that, was offered to him. For the. last fortnight Simeon had effectively filled lus^-' life. Literally and figuratively he had found it difficult to escape from Simeon. •' The clues he had followed, though - starting with Nicholas Foakes had led away from him. He had never really faced the possibility of Nicholas being alive. A chance resemblance between two men is often sufficient to account for a prejudice or an unconscious liking. In the case of these twin brothers the resemblance in feature, voice and gesture, Was so remarkable- that' Kenyon found it almost impossible to believe that he was seeing Nicholas for the first time', that he was a friendj' and not an enemy. ,{To be continued daily.), ,