THE STOLEN MASTERPIECE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20598, 24 June 1930, Page 16

THE STOLEN MASTERPIECE.

By T. C. BRIDGES.

CHAPTER XV.—(Continued). Jim rose to his feet. " Nance isn't hero to protect you now," ho said tlueatinglv. Pip grinned. "So you've got as far as calling her Nance. Well, that's something, at any rate. You'd better sit down, Jim, for here's Oiling with the tea." As Ching set out tlio saffron buns and other good things, ho addressed Jim. "Did you lind anything, sir?" " Nothing but a mighty big hole about twenty yards in, Ching. That stopped us going any further." "How wido is it, sir?" " Seven or eight feet." " Then it could bo crossed by a plank ?" " Yes, but it would be rather a job to get a plank down there." " I suppose it would," agreed Ching. Nance came up wi*h somo letters. Post arrived late at the Roost. " 1 have heard from Mr. Aylmer, Ching. Pie comes back the day after to-morrow." " Very good, miss. I will have bis room ready," said Ching, as ho picked up his tray and went back to the house. " Uncle Hob is having tea with Maurice," Nance told tho two men, " so you will have to bo content with my company. Let mo see, two lumps for you, Mr. Paget, and none for you, Jim." " I protest." said Pip. and Nance "looked at him in surprise. " Why should ho bo Jim, and I Mr. Paget? I've known you just as long as ho has. In fact I believe I spoke to you first." Nance blushed a little, then laughed. " I should hate to hurt your feelings," she answered. " What am Ito call you —Peter or Pip?" " Pip, I think, please. But so long as it's not Mr. Paget, I don't mind." " l'ip, it shall be then," smiled Nance, as sho handed him his cup. It was n very pleasant little meal. The tea was delicious, the saffron buns beautifully made, and the three who sat around the table chaffed ono another light-heartedly. At last Nance got up. " Letters," sho said. " I have not written ono for a week," and with a gay nod went lightly across tho lawn. Jim gazed after her and half rose. _ " No, Jim," said Pip firmly. " You know very well you can't help her to write letters. Besides, I want to talk to you." Something in Pip's (ono made tho other realise that ho was in earnest. " Go ahead," ho said, as he dropped back in his chair, and, handed his cigarette case to PipPip looked at him. _ " I suppose that picture is really safe?" he" said. Jim's eyes widened. " You know ' where it as well as I do. No one could ' get near it unless they knew tho secret of that door in tho cellar wall. But why do vou ask ?" " I'll tell you. While you were taking your little constitutional I got a bit thirsty and went to the house to get. a drink. As I came out of the French window of the smoking room it struck me how wonderful was the light on tho opposite hill, and I stood looking at it. All of a sudden I spotted something moving among the gorse high up on tho hill. You know I have pretty good eyes, and 1 knew in a minute it. wasn't a pony or a sheep. I went back and cot a pair of glasses. Old-fashioned things and beastly difficult to focus, but I finally cot them 011 the spot, and sure enough it was a man hiding in the gorse and watching the house." "Midian!" Jim exclaimed. Pip shook his head. " No. it wasn t Midian. It was a bloke I've never seen before. Not so tall as Midian, and better dressed." "It must have been Butch, then," declared Jim. " I don't know who it was," said Pip._ " And anyhow, I couldn't see much of him. But I can swear to it, that he was watching the house." " Let's go and collect him," said Jim eagerly. Pip shooked his head. " T don't know whether he saw me or not, but anyhow he shifted away. He was gone lone before you and Nanco came back." Jim looked thoughtful. " This means then that Sharland has discovered the trick you nlaved on him, Pip, and that he is on tho war path again.*' " That's about the size of it," said Pip briefly. "Do we tell Nauce?" "No need;" Jim answered. " She's got enough to think of. We'll tell Ching and let it go at that.'' CHAPTER XVI. Sl'ErS IN THE NIGHT. Jim took the first opportunity of telling Ching about tho watcher, but Ching took it very calmly. ." No more n what I was expecting, sir," ho said. " But t hey won't get into tho house very easy, and even it they does, what can they do? Sharland's lot don't know anything about tho inner cellar, and I reckon they n'liglit search a mouth without finding it." " They'd certainly have their work cut out," Jim agreed. " And with four able-bodied men in the house, we ought to be fairly safe. .Ml tho sanio I shall feel a lot happier when Mr. Vanneck has taken away his precious masterpiece." " Maybe that won't, bo tho end of it, sir," said Ching. " There's still the treasure." " You believe in that?" askod Jim, in somo surprise. " I don't seo why not, sir. The master believes in if, and it always seemed to me that if there was one secret cellar there might just as well be anot her." '"There's something in that," agreed Jim. " I'm sure I hope the treasure will be found. It would bo a great thing for the family." " 11, would bo a wonderful thing for them, sir. It's hard for a lady like Miss Nanco to live hero without a car, or any society or amusements. And you wouldn't believe, sir, wlui-t a deal of work sho does, herself, in the house." " I'd believe anything of Miss Tromayne. as long as it was good," said Jim warmly. A ghost of a smile crossed China's lips, but ho made no comment. " I'll see to the doors and windows myself, to-n „ht, sir," ho promised. as he turned away. Nance was very gay that evening. After dinner she turned on a gramophone and danced with Jim. She offered to dance with l'ip, but Pip reluctantly con fessed that, dancing was not among his accomplishments. Afterwards they three and Mr. Trernaytic played bridge for six pence a hundred. Robert Tremayne was very fond of a rubber and played a good if rather old-fashioned game. It was nearly twelve, before they went to tlieii rooms, but Ching was still up. He brought drinks into the smoking room, last, thing, and took the opportunity of assuring Jim that all doors and windows were well secured, and Jim thanked him and went to bed. He lay a little while thinking, but his thoughts were not of tho picture. They wore of Nanco, and they were very pleasant ones. Sho had been so friendly and sweet all day. She had let him call her Nance. Jim was a modest man, with a very modest estimate of his own abilities, but he did not think he was deceiving himself in tho belief that Nance liked him. In time she might love him—as he loved her. And so presently and very happily ho went to sleep. The next thing Jim knew was a hand shaking him by tho shoulder and a voice iu his ear. " Mr. Cory ton—i\lr. Coryton, wake up, sir." Jim opened his eyes and blinked at the light in them. Ching was at his bedside. Ching, wearing an old-fashioned nightshirt fucked into a pair of black trousers with one brace over his shoulder, and a look of sharp excitement on his thin face. Ho had a candlo in a tin candlestick in one hand, and a thick stick under his arm. Jim sat up quickly. " What, is it?" he asked in a whisper. " I don't know, sir. but there's someone in the house. I heard llieiu moving duw list airs."

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Jim leaped out of bed and thrust his feet into a pair of slippers. " Have you waked anyono else, Chinft V ho questioned. " No, sir. No time." Jim strode across the room, Opened n, drawer and took out Maurice's pistol and a torch. " All right," he said swiftly. " I'm ready." " Go quicfc as you can, sir," whispered Ching. "Wo wants to catch them, not scare 'em off." " Right. You'd bettor blow out your candle. I know the way." Jim was thrilling with oxcitement ns he crept down tlio stairs. He felt ho would give anything in reason to meet up with Master Midian on anything like even term's. He owed that gentleman :i privato grudge, which lie naturally longed to satisfy. Then if ho could orly capture tlio robbers, what, a triumph it would be! He paused on tlio landing half-way down and listened, but there was not a sound. The house was quiet, as a grave. All he could hear was Ching's breathing close behind him. " Are you sure it wasn't a falso alarm ?" he whispered. " Suro and certain," replied Ching. " I heard steps plain as I ever heard anything, and a door creaked." "What door was it?" " Couldn't say for certain, but it sounded like it was the front." "It's closed now. If it. wasn't we should feci the draught," Jim told him. " I'll go to the front of the hall, you go to the back. Sing out if you see or hear anything." Jim went down the rest of the stairs and at tlio bottom he and Ching parted company, he crossing the hall to the front door, the other moving toward the back, where the swing door crave on the passage leading to the pantry and kitchen. The front door was closed. It fastened with a spring lock, which, from outside, could bo opened only with a latch key, and satisfied on that score Jim tried tho drawing room. Though thero was 110 moon it was a clear night, and a certain amount of light came though the upper part of tho tall windows, above the cuHvins. Enough to bo suro the room was empty, and with a feeling that thero was no time to lose, Jim went quickly back across tho hall into the dining room. Heavily curtained, this l'uom was dark, so Jim closed tho door and switched on his light. Again, not a sign of life, and all three windows wore fast. He fried the smoking room and the small gun room with exactly the same result. " Ching must have been dreaming," he said and followed him into the back of the house. He heard a movement and paused with one hand 011 his •pistol in his pocket. Someone was moving at the end of the passage, and without hesitation Jim switched on his light again. Its whito ray showed Ching standing just outside the kitchen door. " 1 can't find nobody," said the man, with a very puzzled expression 011 his face. " And the windows uve all fast." " Same liero," said Jim. " There's not a sign of any disturbance. Ching, are you quite certain you didn't hear something outside and imoagino it was steps?" " If it was the last word I ever said I'd swear it was steps I heard," Ching answered, and there was no mistaking the deadly earnestness with which he spoke. " They were the steps of a man, and 1 heard them in the hall. Mrs. Ching she heard them too." " Then what has become of him ? How did he get in? How did he go out?", " That's more than I can say, sir, unless —unless he's in the cellar." Jim tried the door of the cellar steps, but it was fast. "If he's there he must have had a pass key and locked it behind him." " Ho must have had a key to get into the house," said Ching. "So it's likely ho had one to the cellar as well." "It seems a bit beyond belief," said Jim. " But we'd better see. Who keeps the cellar key?" " Miss Nance, sir. Sho has had it since tho picture came here." " Then i think we must wake her—" Jim began, but beforo ho had finished his sentence Nance's voice broke in "Who is it? What is tho matter?" and turning quickly Jim saw her coming through tho swing door. She had a candle in her hand and was wearing a pink dressing gown and pink quilted slippers on her baro lect. Her cheeks were still flushed with sleep and to Jim she appeared prettier than ever. " Ching heard someone moving," he (old her. " But I think it must have been a ghost for thero' isn't a sign of any stranger in the house. However, we thought we ought to try the cellar." " I will fetch the key," Nance said at once. She was back very quickly with the key, and Jim unlocked the door. " You wait » Nance," ho said. "It is cold and damp down below." " No, please," she said, with a little smile, and followed the two men down. Ching, who knew the secret of the inner door, opened it. " Thank goodness, it is a false alarm," said Jim, as the light fell upon the coffer, closed just as he had last, seen it. " We may as well make sure, ' said Nance, as she took down the key and opened tho chest. Then a little sharp Try escaped her lips. "It is gone," she said. " The picture is gone." (To be continued.)