SNOW-BOUND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21596, 14 September 1933, Page 15

SNOW-BOUND

A BRILLIANT ROMANTIC STORY

CHAPTER XlX.—(Continued) Melnotte swallowed convulsively? Stuart thought that he had never seen a man give himself away so badly. "Do you mean that they'll be hung?" asked Melnotte shakily. " I suppose so,'. answered Stuart with intentional callousness. " I don't see how they can escape, if they do manage to bring the murder home to them." He held out his case. For the last few minutes Melnotte had been drawing at an extinguished cigarette. The dancer shook his head. " No thanks. I've got packing and things to do. Are you going to-day, Mr. Stuart?" " I shan't make a move till to-mor-row, at the earliest. I want to sec what the weather's going to do. By the way, if you \wnt a lift to lledsands, 1 can give you one." " That's really exceedingly kind ol you, Mr. Stuart'," ho said in his most refined tones. " But I can't say vet whether they expect me now at Redsands. I'm going to get them on tbe 'phone to-day." He took himself olf, and Stuart, after a moment's thought, decided to forego the walk he had > intended tp tako, and establish himself in the lounge. If Melnotte had anything to say, he should find him available. He was doomed to disappointment. Melnotte did not materialise again, and, after lunch, Stuart was driven to make the first advances himself. " What about a cup of cofFee in my room?" he asked as they left the table. " These two maniacs are spending the afternoon scowling over the chess board and everybody but myself seems to be packing furiously." "Rather!" assented Melnotte, a look, half o£ relief, half reluctance on his face. Constantine's eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch, but all he said was, " I'll drop, in on you for a pipe before dinner." " Trust you for that," reflected Stuart, with an internal chuckle, as he led the way upstairs. He called over the banisters to the aged waiter and told him to bring up coffee and ask Girling for a bottle of the brandy E»r. Constantine liked. "I'm such a poor judge of brandy that I don't know what to ask for," he confessed to Melnotte with a grin. " But the others said this was something exceptional, a/id even I was able to enjoy it. I hope you're more of a connoisseur than I am." Melnotte sipped his brandy. Stuart waited in silence till he had finished, then filled up his glass again. " Oh, I say!" expostulated Melnotte, but continued to sip with appreciation. Stuart watohed the colour deepen on his cheek-bones, noted the added lustre in his eves, and felt ashamed of himself. A 'little Dutch courage was so obviously all -that the man needed to bring him to the point. if It's curious how much I miss those two funny little spinsters next door," he remarked conversationally. " I know that, whatever happens, I shall never be able to think of them as anything else. Mother and daughter seems preposterous." . 1 , Melnotte's face grew suddenly haggard. t . He sat hunched in his chair, staring into the fire. The grip of his hands, which hung clasped between his knees, tightened until the knuckles whitened with the strain. Then suddenly he spoke. - . ■ . " I —l've been/ wanting a word with you alone," he said. ""The t Filth is, I'm in a hell of a mess." His voice died away. Now that he had committed himself he looked aghast. Stuart hastened to reassure '" Whatever it is, it's probably not nearly so bad as you think," he told him. " Things are apt to look better once they are put into words." " This is going to look worse," was Melnotte's gloomy rejoinder. " I don't know what you'll think of me when vou hear what I've got to tell you, and I know what I think of myself. I've been a fool and worse. My only excuse is that part of it, at least, wouldn't have happened if I hadn't felt that every one's hand was against me." He fell silent again, and Stuart did not dare to speak. " I can clear those women," came Melnotte's voice at last. Stuart forgot iill caution and sprang to his feet. This was more than he had expected. " You mean you know who committed the murder?" he exclaimed. " I've known all along," said Melnotte miserably. "I saw the chap as clearly as I can see you." Stuart hesitated for a moment, then laid a hand on Melnotte's shoulder.

" Look here." he said. " This is too serious a business for me. Won't you let me fetch Arkwright? He's an understanding sort of chap, and it'll save you having to go through the whole thing twice. Let me fetch him?" But, at the mere idea, Melnotte's I nerve deserted him entirely. He wrung his hands together. " T can't see him. I'll tell you. I've got to get it off my chest somehow. After that I'll sign anything you like if it'll get those two women off; but I won't see Arkwright until I have to. When you've heard what I've got to say you'll understand why." Stuart sat down and drew his chair closer. , \ "Do you want me to write it down ?" he asked. " You'll have to answer Arkwright's questions sooner or later, you know." Melnotte flinched. " I know," he said. " I've brought it on myself, and I suppose I shall have to go. through with it. But it'll be easier once you've told him the facts. Stuart reacfied out a long arm and took a block and j>encil from the table. " All right," lie said. "I'll jot down the facts as you give thejm to me so as to pass them on correctly. Go ahead." There was a moment of tense silence, during which it seemed as if Melnotte would never bring himself to the point of speech, then, with his eyes fixed rigidly on the fire, his face drawn with misery and humiliation, he plunged. " I wasn't asleep on the night of the murder," he-began. "When I came out of my room I'd been awake for hours. *1 ought to have said so then, of course, but I couldn't. I suppose, even when I've told you the whole storv, vou won't be able to understand why, but, I give you my word; I couldn't. It's the way I'm made, 1 suppose," he finished bitterly. , Stuart said nothing, but waited in silence for him to continue. He did so almost immediate!v. Now that the first agonizing effort was over, he seemed inclined to luxuriate in selfrevelation. " Something woke me," ho went on. " You know how you can wake and have a more or less clear idea what has awakened you, without having actually heard it. I'm pretty sure now that I was roused bv the opening of the window in Carow's room. Then I distinctly heard Carew shout. I looked at my watch and saw that it was ten minutes to two. It never occurred to mo that there was anything wrong, and mv onlv feeling was ono of annoyance. I thought Carew had woke up and was on the rampage again, and that we should have the same trouble with him thofctfo had had earlier in the evening. I wondered whothor Mr. Soames and Dr. Constantino woro stilr playing chess, and decided that, if Carew showed any signs of being on the move, i £ would fetch thorn. I lay and listonod»

By MOLLY THYNNE Author of "Tho Red Dwarf," "The Murder on the Enrlquetta," etc.

(COPYRIGHT)

but I give .you my word that I never suspected there was anything really wrong with him. Then I heard a bump, as if someone had knocked into a bit of furniture, and the very faint scrape of a chair or table. I made lip my mind that I must tell someone, and got out of- bed. It was then that I thought •of the communicating door between the two rooms, and remembered that the key was on my side of the lock." Stuart looked up quickly. " That's the key they couldn't find," he interpolated. V Yes. It was in my dressing-gown pocket when I came out of my room after the murder. Later, when everything else was quiet, I threw it out of the window. I didn't know what else to do with it." " And Bates found it in the snow next day," exclaimed Stuart. " But that key fitted the lock of Carew's door."

Melnotte nodded. " I found out afterward that the locks of the two bedroom doors and the communicating door were all alike," he said. "If you try your communicating door-key, you'll probably find that it's on the same plan. I don't think any of the other keys on this ,landing suit my door. I tried Dr. Constantine's and it doesn't. 1 was sweating with fear that Bates would discover that it fitted the communicating door. You see, l J d got something else he never spotted when he searched my things." " 1 can quite believe it," remarked Stuart. " I've been thinking all along how.futile a search of that sort really is. Bates asked us to turn out our pockets, but ho never searched them for himself. Wo could have kept back anything, even the girdle if we'd had it, though 1 believe lie was much more drastic with the servants" Melnotte nodded.

"He never actually searched me," he said. " If he had, he'd have been bound to find it. As a matter of fact, I suppose I'm the only person in the house that possesses a revolver." " I know it seems a bit unnatural," the dancer went on. " But the place where I lodge in London has been burgled twice, and a fellow lodger, a man who'd been through the war, decided to rout out his old army revolver and get a license. Then he remembered that he'd been rather a good shot, and took to going 1 " to one of those shooting-galleries. Ho persuaded me to go with him, and I got quite keen. I'm fairly decent at it, too, though you wouldn't think it," he finished ingenuously. " What, made you bring it here?" asked Stuart.

" Well, this chap left after a time and, well, I'm a nervous sort of a person, and I didn't like to think of the place left unprotected. There was another burglary, in the house next door this time, and I suppose that decided me. Anyway, I got myself a revolver and used to sleep with it under my pillow. I suppose I got accustomed to the feeling that it was there, anyway I have always taken it away with me when I've had a job in the provinces. That's how it came to be under my pillow that night", I was thankful for it, I cJin tell you." " How did you manage to keep it out of Bates' hands?" " I had it tucked inside my shirt, under one arm, when he searched my things. If he'd touched me he'd have found it." " Let's get back to the door," said Stuart, " Did you open it?" " Yes. And I wish now that I hadn't, though I suppose the Gearies would be in the soup if I'd done what I first thoyght of and gone to fetch the others. I'he truth was, you'd all made me feel a bit small, and I wanted to be able to say that I had looked into the room. Anyway, I turned the key as softly as I could. As you can imagine, I didn't want to tackle Carew single-haiided. I must have got the door open without making a sound, because the man inside never heard me." '-.("Did you see him?" i " Plainly. He was standing by the open window, leaning out. Of course 1 thought he was Carew. I wasn't expecting to see anyone else. Then he straightened himself and I saw his profile." , ' He paused. Stuart could see the perspiration shining om his forehead, and began dimly to realise the sheer torI ture such-a temperament as Melnotte's could be to a man. " Was it Walker?" he asked, when he could contain himself no longer. Melnotte nodded. " I know now that it was Walker. I didn't then, of course. I don't think I even knew of the existence of the sick —certainly I'd never seen him. All I know was that ho ought not to be there. How I got that door shut without making a noise, I don't know. But I must have, or I don't suppose I should be here now, because I didn't dare lock my bedroom door for ages, for should hear it.4' " What did you do after " I got out the revolver from under my pillow and waited. You see, when he stood up I saw the rope. He was holding the end in his hand. I knew then for certain that lie was up no good, though I'd no idea what had really happened. You must remember I couldn't see the bed from whehj I stood, and for all I knew the man might have been an accomplice of Carew's. I know I ought to have given the alarm, but I wasn't absolutely sure then whether he had seeif me, and I simply couldn't bring myself to move. After what seemed hours I hoard Dr. Constantine's voice saying good-night to Mr. Soames. That seemed to be my chance. I made for the door of 'my room and tore it open. I didn't care then how much noise I made, and I wonder Mr. Soames didn't hear me. He must have stopped to say something to Dr. Constantine, because he wasn't in the passage when I put my head out. Someone else was, though! The man I'd seen in Carew's room was standing at the foot of the flight of steps at the end of the passage and he was looking straight at me." " What did you do?" asked Stuart, conscious that his own breath was coming a bit faster. > "I did the only thing I could do," answered Melnotte naively. " I bolted back into my room and locked the door. He was carrying something that looked like a spanner in his hand, and if you'd seen his face you'd have done what I did."

" When you looked through the communicating door into Carew's room did you see the spanner?" cut in Stuart. " Distinctly. It was lying beside him, across the window-ledge. I noticed that first, and wondered what it was jjnd what on earth Carew was doing with such a thing." " What happened after that?" " I simply waited. I'd have given anything to get along the passage to Dr. Constantino's room, but I didn't dare ope» my door again. I know I looked at the time every now and then. It seemed so endless. It was about half-past two when I heard someone unlock Carew's door softly ami go in. What I supposo happened wns that Walker whs on his way to Carew's room when ho saw mo. He must have bolted then and made his way back later. .Tufiging from what happened afterwards, it must have been Walker I hoard going in the second time. Anywny, I made suro it was him at the time, partly because he wns so quiet over it. If I hadn't beou listening I shouldn't have hoard him. Almost directly afterwards I heard Dr. Constantino's window open. Then I heard him'come along the passage and knock at Carew's door." (To b« concluded to-morrow)