THE RIDDLE OF WRAYE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20869, 11 May 1931, Page 14

THE RIDDLE OF WRAYE.

(COPYRIGHT.)

By JOHN LAURENCE. >f m Ant-Tin, of "The Purauing Shadow," "The Double Cross Inn," My,tery Money, etc.

A SPLENDIDLY TOLD STORY OF MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE.

CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued). Faith's heart rose as she crossed the field between tho wood and the white house. Sho had suddenly remembered her uncle's words that ono of Inspector Philip's men was watching. Ho would be bound to sec her, and even if ho did not know her by sight, would be able to report that Attray and Parslow had entered tho houso at midnight with Tonnison and a woman. She knew that Martin—funny how she thought of him then and not of her uncle—would jump to tho only conclusion possible when he learnt of her disappearance. And then, search warrant or no search warrant, the white house would be* ransacked from top to bottom to find her. She felt almost light-hearted > at tho thought when she found herself once more in the room where she had tea with her uncle and Attray. At the worst her captivity would only be a matter of hours and the end of it was bound to be disaster to the lawyer and Attray. Neither Temple Fortune nor Martin would give them any mercy, and the only possible result of what they were doing now would be to drive them out of the neighbourhood and make it more simple to search for the missing securities. Faith had no sense of the real danger in which she stood, though Tonnison s obvious fear made her feel uneasy as to wluit lengths these two men would go. Attray rang the bell and gave an order to tho servant for some coffee to be brought immediately. " Now, Tonnison," he continued, turning to the shrinking man who stood waiting. Tonnison's eyes goggled. " I know nothing, Mr. Attray, really I don't," he muttered. * "Where's that paper?" demanded Parslow. " I—l don't know. Mr. Daggs had it. " You were with Daggs this morning. Last night you were digging down by the brook. I was watching you. You believed I thought you were in London, eh?" Tho servant came in with a tray and placed it on the table before the unhappy clerk could reply. " Help yourself, Miss ITcrrion, said Attray. " Tonnison will want it black, without sugar." Faith deliberately poured herself out a cup of coffee. After all, there was no sense in letting either Parslow or Attray believe she was anything but indifferent to what they might do, or say or threaten. They must know now. that their movements would be too closely watched for them to hope to be successful without extraordinary luck. She slowly sipped her coffee as she watched the unhappy Tonnison.

" Turn out your pockets," said Parslow harshly. " There's nothing—" " Turn out your pockets." Tho lawyer made one step forward and Tonnison began hurriedly placing a miscellaneous collection of objects on the table in front of him. Parslow picked up tho papers and letters Tonnison had taken from his jacket pocket, glanced through them one by one, and then deliberately tore them across and dropped them on the floor. Faith saw that the clerk was beyond protest at any treatment which might bo meted out to him, that he was, indeed, in genuine terror of his life. He was only too eager to placate the two men, each of whom he had done his best to deceive._ Faith felt like standing up and attacking, but her commonsense warned her that she would only make it more difficult for the clerk, that lie might ho taken to another room and subjected to indignities and tortures from which he would certainly bo free as long as she was present. " Where's vonr wallet 1 "

Reluctantly Tonnison produced it from his hip pocket. Tho last time ho had done so for Parslow the latter had thrown tho notes which it contained into the fire. Tho recollection rankled. Money was Tonnison's god. He could forgive, had, in fact, forgiven his employer a lot, but ho could never forgive his deliberate destruction of money, even though that money had been paid to him by Attray to betray the very man who had so calmly thrown it into the fire. To Tonnison's obvious relief Parslow paid no attention to the notes. He emptied the wallet on to the table and turned to the clerk. " Stand up and turn all your pockets inside out," he commanded. " They're empty," protested Tonnison, who nevertheless feverishly exposed the lining of each pocket in turn. As lie showed the last lining, Tarslow caught him by tho arm. " You don't like being hurt, eh ? Your precious little body doesn't like being bruised, ch ? But it's going to be hurt, it's going to bo black and blue presently, unless I get that letter." Tonnison shrank away and Attray, from behind, gave him a violent dig in the back, which made him lot out a whimper. " I haven't got it, Mr. Parslow, really I haven't. Mr. Daggs never let me have it."

"But you copied it, ch ? Just as you copied tho faked one ho sent to me. Where's that copy ? " " I've lost it, really I have, Mr. Parslow." . The lawyer gavo a twist to the arm he was holding, and Tonnison gave a cry of real pain. His features were contorted and ill his eyes was a dumb appeal to Faith. To her tho atmosphere of tho room seemed to have become very stuffy during the last few minutes. Her head appeared to havo a tight band across it. She made a desperate effort to rise from her chair, to protest against the treatment to Tonnison. Her voice seemed to her to come from a long way off, and it was an effort to bring out the words. " Can't you f«e lie's talking—the—truth ? He's—he's—too frightened, too frightened, too " Sho laughed a little hysterically as the words she wanted to say refused to come, as sho stood swaying by the side of her chair.

'What have you done to her?"

Tonnison's high-pitched, cracking tones did not reach Faith's dulled brain. Her logs doubled beneath her and she slipped to the floor.

" What we're going to do to you, Tonnison, unless you tell us what you have done with that paper, or where we can find your precious friend, Daggs. She's been poisoned."

" Poisoned ! " Tonnison's underlip quivered as lie moaned tho word. Ho seemed to shrink visibly in his clothes as he looked down on the still form of Faith. And then, suddenly, his nerve went. He was alone in a room with the two men he feared most in the world, men who, lie had only too certain knowledge, were utterly unscrupulous. For long ho had suspected that Maxwell Herrion had been murdered by them in an effort to obtain his secret. Now they had murdered his daughter, for Tonnison had no doubt Parslow had spoken (he truth when he said Faith had been poisoned, and they were going to murder him. With a sudden movement, he twisted his arm free from Parslovv's grasp. Sheer mad terror of the fate which might overtake him gave him a temporary strength which was not his normally; made him lose that cringing feai of Parslow which had dominated all his actions for the past dozen years. With a wild, choking cry, his hands closed on the lawyer's throat. The very force and unexpectedness of Tonnison's attack threw Parslow off his feet, and he crashed to the floor with the half-crazy clerk 011 lop of him. .Tonnison's triumph was but short-lived, for Attray's fingers gripped the hack of his neck and closed like the jaws of a vice. Nor did they let go until the struggling form of the clerk went limp. " We're not going to get much there," said Parslow philosophically. '' I didn't know he'd got so much fight in him." " He was scared stiff," said Attray contemptuously. " What are you going to do about her?"-

" Got the car out and shove her in it. To-morrow lliere'll be a devil of a row if she's not to be found, and wo can't afford it. Fortune won't stick at anything if we hurt her. Purdon will be on tho look-out, and wo. can dump her on her own bed. His wife can undress her. She'll wake up and think she's had a bad dream, that's all. Bring the car round to the front of the house. Philip's man may have come back. ".And Tonnison?" " We'll.leave him here with Jim. I'll put the wind up him enough to make sine he'll take the first train back to town to-morrow. It's Daggs we want, • and .Daggs we've got to find. And there Tonnison will come in useful." CHAPTER XIII. KOGUES* CUNNINCi. Parslow's prediction that Faith would wake up in the morning and think she had had a bad dream in the night was inoro than fulfilled. A vivid dream it appeared to her, a dream which left her feeling heavy and dull, and with a headache, but nevertheless a dream. She almost, had to drag herself out. of bed, and dressing seemed to take an interminable time. " You look as though you'd had a sleepless night," said Temple Fortune cheerily, when sho appeared. " Wo were just about to send Hope along to find out What had happened to you." " [ have been dreaming," confessed Faith, slipping into the seat which had been left vacant next to Martin. " I must have slept very heavily. In fact. I don't feel awake, properly awake, yet." " What was it all about asked Stephen. " I'm going lo have my sleep after breakfast. 1 had a giddy night of sentry go, down by the brook in tho moonlight." Faith recounted her experiences of the night before, and when she had finished, Martin, who had been listening p,uvely. said quietly: "Do you mind letting mo take your pulse? A dream only lasts a few seconds, no matter how long it appears to take, and it shouldn't leave you feeling so heavy." He put his finger on her wrist and afterwards lifted her eyelid and looked closely into the pupil of her eye. " You went straight to bed after you left us last night?" he asked. " I think so," said Faith, a Utile doubtfully. "You are thinking your dream was so vivid it might have been true," he said with a smile. " But. suppose for a moment it wasn't a dream. Suppose it all really happened. Did you notice anything unusual about your room when you woke up?" The others wore now all attention. " You think Faith has been drugged?" said Temple Fortune, quietly. _ " She has every symptom of it," declared Martin. "My clothes weren't in their usual places,'" said Faith, with a puzzled frown. " 1 didn t think about it when I pot up. I felt so tired, I suppose. You think I was drugged and my dream wasn't a dream at all? It seemed so vivid when I awoke this morning that T looked for my shoes immediately. I remembered walking across the clayey path, and getting them fearfully muddy, but I found them outside my door this morning, perfectly clean, as usual. " They weren't outside your door last night," interposed Hope, quietly. I came to bed about half, an hour after you had gone, and I called out ' Good night,' but you did yot reply. J am positive tliev weren't outside then. ( "You don't remember undressing.' asked Martin. " I haven't the slightest recollection ot that," declared Faith. " After I left you I remember nothing, except my dream, and in that I went out and walked across the fields, with a feeling that I should find out something at tho white house. Ever since 1 had tea there with you, uncle, 1 have had a queer feeling 1 can't ishake off that it's in the white house we shall find what we want, and not. here at all, though that message says the inn." Temple Fortune leant forward. There was that keen, searching look in his eyes which had been the undoing of so many prisoners whom lie luid cross-examined "In your dream, my dear, do you remember which way you went out of the i"'i?" • • ~ , " Through tho front door, replied Faith, immediately. " I remember that I did not shut it because I thought it would make a noise." " You weren't dreaming, my dear. All that you have told us really happened to you, and you have been drugged. It was a, clever scheme bringing you back and putting you to bed." Faith flushed at the thought. "I happened to decide to go downstairs and stroll out and see how Stephen was getting on," continued her uncle. "And I went oiit through the front door and found it on the latch. I shut it behind .me when I returned. " I'm going to the white house after breakfast," burst out Martin angrily. " No, no," protested Faith, and her uncle nodded his agreement. " You mustn't do that, Doctor Shellwood. They would know then, and we should never find out what we want. As long as we act as though I remembered nothing they will not run away. If wo frighten them and they leave Wraye wo shall never bo able to find out. anything." ~ " I am inclined to agree with Faith, said Fortune. "We must meet cunning with cunning. There's no doubt lonnison's been trying to betray them, and I have •no sympathy with him. l>ut it looks as though he hadn't got the cipher with him, and that means Daggs has still got it." , " I can't understand why 1 lump s man. who was watching the house, didn't interfere." said Stephen. "No one watching could have failed to have seen Ihein crossing the field from the woods." The answer came to that question an hour later, when a note was brought to Temple Fortuno from Ihe inspector. " Something was happening the white house last night," he wrote. " But. what, I cannot say. Just beiore one ot my men was due to go on duty there and relieve his colleague, he received a note at his lodgings saying there was no need to watch that night. The note was a clever forgery of my own handwritings" I liuvo only just lcumcd. I you have any news, meet me in the usual place." . (To be continued dni.y.)