THE FOAKES MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20521, 24 March 1930, Page 16

THE FOAKES MYSTERY.

BY W. F. HARVEY.

CHAPTER XlX.—(Continued.) " I am not acquainted," said Mr. Foakes. " with the extent of my debt to you gentlemen. I can imagine that it is no small one, and I won't attempt now to express my thanks. I must attend this meeting at eight. Afterwards, it was my intention to take the night train up to town. There is no time to lose. I promised that the Society should have the report to-morrow, and there are one or two of their people, I hope no more, to whom I must explain what has happened during the last few weeks. I am perfectly willing that any one of you three should present the document. You have worked hard for its preservation, vou have discovered it by your own ingenuity, and, unless I am greatly mistaken," he added with a smile, "you btiil have a lurking belief that I may bo transformed into Simeon the moment your back is turned." ,Miss Quinton and Holroyd both looked ai Martin.

" Mr. Kenyon is our leader," shq said, " and his is the credit for what we intended to do. I can't say for what we have done when that is so little.

Kenyon smiled. "It was Miss Quinton who discovered your cipher," he said, " but if I am to be spokesman I say that henceforward we are prepared to act under you, Mr. Foakes, and to do whatever you think best." " Always remembering," added Holroyd. "that I am not yet a member of the Society of Service, and reserve the right to think of it as I please. It may be not at all ; I'm not decided. Are you going to take any steps against your brother, Mr.' Foakes?" The question had already been on Martin's lips. Nicholas Foakes was silent for a minute.

"It is a question," he said at last, " which you have svery right to ask. I have given my brother to know that as far as I am concerned I shall not inform the police on condition that he conforms to a plan I have drawn up which will ensure his leaving the country within three days. We are both the bearers of an honourable name. Exposure means publicity, and I am getting old. I do not say that I forgive him, or even want to forgive, but I cannot withhold admiration for a man who, in different circumstances, might have played with distinction an honourable part. I speak, however. for myself alone As far as others are concerned I have no right to plead for leniency." " I personally," said Kenyon, ' would like time to think the matter over. In the Wantime, I should suggest that you do not disclose your hand."

f Thank you for the reminder," said Nicholas, " and until I am convinced of Simeon's surrender of my identity, I will wear a glove. I must not, however, keep you longer. .1 have still one or two things to do in preparation for my speech tonight. I hope you will be present, unless you are too tired. Eight o clock in the Council School in Bannerman Lane. I catch the 10.30 express and return to Ledford to-morrow morning. I should deem it an honour if you can all make it convenient to , dine with me at halfpast six to-morrow evening. Is there anyone else in Ledford who has been engaged in this adventure and who should hear the story ? " i' What about Sommerscales ? " asked Miss Quinton.

"•Well, ask him 'by all means, if you think fit. In case I have not time to speak to you after the meeting., I will wish you all good-night. And, I repeat, my thanks will come, later."

I CHAPTER XX. In the dining room at the Station Hotel crowded sufficiently to secure privacy, MaTtin and Mary Quinton could speak without chance of' eavesdroppers breaking through their defence of clattering knives, bustling waiters and other people's talk. They had nearly an hour before the meeting in' the Bannerman Lane Council School commenced. Martin told himself that he had deserved it. Holroyd had been in luck all afternoon. Now it was his turn and he was more than content to listen and to watch. The afternoon's ride had brought a glow of colour into Marv Quinton's cheeks,' her dark eyes sparkled with excitement, an excitement he told himself that must be of the past rather than of the present. Things were out of his hands now, out of hers. The climax had come in a way they could never have guessed. There was relief from the mental and bodily strain of long days and nights all too short, but with it." too, a subtle feeling of regret for lost endeavour. As Mary said,, the part they had/ played was after all a minor part. They had not held the stage to the end. And now nothing remained for them but to stand in the wings, spectators of the final act.

" Of course, there is a bit of mq that's disappointed," said Mary, " but it's only a litle bit. and I expect we were all getting just a little too conceited, fancying ouiselves another Big Three. As if that was everything i'l the world! And now I want to hear more about the awful time you had at Ugglcswick and your interview with Sinnvn. 1 wish I could have seen him when he discovered your cseane."

And are you sntiMien that lie and his, rascals should get off vol free'' " sho asked when lie had dune. " I'm not. These are just the son. of people who to Diy mind justify pen;'! sei viMide."

" I don't know," said Martin. "As far as I aiii concerned I wouldn't lift a linger to help Simeon and his sang out of gaol. So long as they're at laige they'll be up to tome devilry or other, 15ut, if I were an Nicholas' position 1 should art as he. has done. Not from any feeling of magnanimity, 1 admit. 1 don't believe he professes that, hut solely to avoid a public scandal. However illogical it may appear a man's work is bound to suffer if his brother is a convict. Can't you imagine how, in every speech that Nicholas made his enemies would recognise the criminal strain ?"

They were in plenty of time for the meeting. The Bannerman Lane Council School, a 'big brick building wedged in between a printing works and a boot and shoe factory, looked what it but recently had been, a cheap warehouse for the temporary storage of dirty children. "Seventy of them in a class," said Mary Quinton. "I know a girl who is teaching hero. And the smug satisfaction with which Led ford used to -pride itself on its special schools for consumptive children! The whole business made me sick, until the society got to work oil such places in Ledford and effected great changes there as elsewhere." , Early as they were the great schoolroom:-; vtij, already crowded, and they had begun to giye up hope of finding a seat, when they caught sight of Sommerscales, who greeted-'them from afar with a broad grin. " Can't" shake hands," he shouted. ' Here', Jim, show these two round to the / back. We can squeeze them in on

A THRILLING ROMANCE OF LOVE, CRIME AND MYSTERY.

(COPYRIGHT.)

In a moment she was up on the coping, Mr. 1-fiakes followed with difficulty, damunite his cassock.

And if you meet, the crowd don't run," shouted M;jrtin. He heard them alight on the pavement and then returned with Father Jolly, to the schoolroom, with the playground key in his pocket. " Half of you to the back door," he cried. " and half of you stay here and get that table out of the way. Open the doors when I give the word. They will have, rushed past you before they'know it." (To be continued daily.)

the platform. And tell the fellows at the door that it's no use shoving. There'll be an overflow meeting afterwards in the Square." Guided by Jim, a long-haired youth in spectacles, who had been distributing leaflets, they elbowed their way with difficulty through the crowd that surged round the steps, and re-entered the building by a door higher up the lane. There, in a class room off a narrow ■passage, they found Nicholas Foakes surrounded by a little group of men. The atmosphere was thick with tobacco smoke. He greeted Mary Quinton and Martin with a smile. " And now I'll find you seats," he said, after a brief conversation. " It's a packed house, and I shan't be sorry when my part of the business is over. If I may I will leave my dispatch case with you. It will be safer than in the cloakroom. I have the manuscript in my pocket." The seats that Mr. Foakes had found for them were on the back row of the platform. The room was big and bare, comfortless as a station writing room. The reporters at their table nonchalantly sharpened pencils in a way that suggested boredom and contempt. " That man over there," said Mary, " with the look of a prize fighter about him is Inspector Dorland. He's offered to sell me an Airedale pup when his next litter comes along." Cheers and groans greeted the appearance of the speakers. Nicholas sat on the chairman's right, the seat on his left being occupied by a clergyman, a tall, ascetic figure in a cassock.

" Father Jolly," whispered Mary, " the vicar of. St. Agatha's. Sound fellow on the society's work, but rather hopeless ideas on the position of women." The chairman's speech was brief. When Nicholas rose to speak the cheers with which he had been greeted on his entry were ienewed, but there were strange arid significant groans. These plainly astonished him.. As he proceeded to deal with the aims and achievements of the society it became clear that there was in the audience a distinctly hostile section. Extremists, of course, hated the unifying and inspiring influence of this man, and the society he had founded. They had been robbed of most of the weapons they had formerly used against the hated capitalist system. But this could certainly not account for the size of the section, which was obvoiusly out to make trouble for Nicholas Foakes and the organisers of this particular meeting. Indeed, Miss Quinton was astounded to discover that some of the most pronounced groans came from men and women who were, to her knowledge, intensely keen on the society and its work.

For a time Foakes seemed to be holding his audience by the strength of his personality as much as by his command of the subject. He spoke in cold, incisive - phrases that were all the more effective from their entire lack of passion. But the opposition was only waiting its chance. Presently came ■ boos and hisses, and a cry, " We. want the real Nicholas Foakes—not a blasted traitor." There were cries of " Chuck him out!" and the stewards moved uneasily. For a time Nicholas was able to ignore the interrupters, but not for long., The opposition had obviously been organised with the object of breaking up the meeting. Presently a stone crashed through the window.

There followed a scene of wild confusion. Someone dropped a smoke-bomb that filled the room with choking fumes. A woman shrieked "Fire!"

Nicholas Foakes saw that it would be hopeless to continue. He turned to speak to the chairman, as a bottle struck the table at which he was standing. Kenyon had sprung to his feet. " We'd better get out of this right away. It's no good "trying to .explain," he said. " They have been told by somebody, of course, or his pals—that Nicholas is being impersonated here, to-night, by his brother—a double and ji traitor. They will be rushing the platform in a minute." ,

Sommerscales had, evidently, realised the same thing. He could be seen in the middle of the hall rallying the band of stewards around him. Three or four burly policemen were already having a hard enough fightj for it at the door.

" Keep close to me," shouted Martin to Mary.

" You must get out at the back," he said. " This is something more than an ordinary row. There goes another window !"

The score or so of people on the platform had, by this time, made their way into the classroom. Kenyon locked the door, and, with some assistance, barricaded it with a heavy table. There were shouts of:

"Foakes! Foakes! Smoke out this old fox! We want the real Foakes!"

" Who knows these premises ?" asked Nicholas. This barricade won't hold, for long and the mob in the lane will break open the side door any moment. I can'tpossibly explain to them what the actual position is. • They're too mad to listen."

"There is a way out into the playground," said Father Jolly, " from a door in the corridor, and if you can get over an eight-foot wall you are in Queen Street."

" Mr. Foakes and this lady must try it," said Martin. " They are out to do him in. The rest of us can manage. If you take Father Jolly's hat and cassock, sir, it will be some sort of a disguise if you meet the mob. Hurry up! There's not a minute to lose. I'll bring a couple of chairs into the playground. You will have to manage to drop on the other side' as best you can." "It seems the only plan," said Nicholas. "Once they realise I am not here I do not think that you gentlemen will be in danger. Take the papers, Ivenyon. You know what to do with them. Miss Quinton, are vou ready?"

With Father Jollv" in his shirt sleeves and carrying ;i chair, leading the way, they hurried into the playground. Once outside the building the clamour of the mob assailed their ears with redoubled intensity. Above it came the shrill blasts of the policemen's whistles. Miss Quinton, you go first," said Martin. " iSit astride the wall and give a hand to Mr. Foakes. Once you're in Queen Street go to the central police station, opposite the Town Hall, and keep to the main streets.''