THE GREEN ARROW

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE GREEN ARROW

AN EXCITING MYSTERY STORY

, CHAPTER I THE BURGLAR The night was very still. But for the melancholy drip of moisture from the trees and bushes there was no sound at all. Nor was there much to be seen, for the stars were hidden by the mist from the river which veiled everything, and even the house itself was no more than a vague shadow in the fog. Within the house -a heavier silence reigned, since the dripping in the garden was inaudible behind the closed doors and shuttered windows; whilst the darkness was Cimmerian, more impenetrable than that of the fog-ridden night outside. Not even a mouse stirred, nothing could bo seen, and the place was like a tomb—dark, still, forbidding. But presently both the silence and the darkness were broken. In the gallery above the hall, on which-the sleeping apartments opened, a man appeared with a lighted candle, and looked over the rail to the hall below. The candlelight illumined his features sufficiently to show that they were almost fiercely aquiline, eagle-like, with eyes blazing and dark, and a moustache the up-turned ends of which served to give the face an almost, ferocious look. He appeared to be listening for any sound either within or without/ the house, but at length, apparently satisfied, he returned to the room whence he had emerged, set the candlestick on a chair, ana turned to a chest in which semingly he had been rummaging before he had appeared in the gallery. He drew from it a handful of papers and bent toward the candle with the evident intention of examining them. The next moment he dropped them on the floor, straightening himself with a jerk, /as from somewhere below there came a sudden crash of shattered glass. Immobile as a bronze image he waited. A rather lengthy silence followed, then there reached him the sound of a window-sash being raised. At that he drew a small Browning pistol from his pocket, blew out the candle, and stepping lightly left the room and took up a position where from the gallery he could command the stairs- and the hall below. For a brief time the tomb-like silence once more held the house. It was broken by the soft pad of rubber-shod feet on thick-piled carpet. A faint rustle of draperies followed and a metallic clink as of brass rings on a curtain pole, then a little click. With the. latter sound a tiny beam of light pierced the darkness of the hall like a rapier, darting here and there as swiftly as that weapon in a cunning hand,' flickering all over the wide hall. It passed from door to door, flashed on the panelled walls hung with trophies, cleft the darkness of the broad staircase, then harked back and and again focussed on each door in turn. Then a second time the click sounded and darkness and silence resumed Jhcir reign. The man in the gallery. remained perfectly still, his hand still grasping the Browning, prepared for any emergency that might arise. The other, in the hall, also remained still and silent for a space of perhaps two minutes, then a rumbling chuckle broke from him. " Not a guy about the place. Here's free, hnntin'." As the words reached him; the man watching from the' gallery chuckled responsively, but softly; and relaxed his tenseness a little. Here was no one'who was looking for him, but just a burglar on the trail of loot, and a gift of the gods if properly used. He grinned to himself in the darkness, and summoned patience to wait an opportunity. The man below, utterly unconscious of the watcher, switched on his flashlight once more, and began to advance across the hall. A mirror on the wall caught the wandering ray of the torch, throwing back the light, and at the same time reflecting dimly the face and shoulders of the advancing man. Thus revealed, the shoulders were broad and heavy, the face coarse and brutal, with rather bleared eyes, altogether unprepossessing and repellent. The reflection was visible for no longer than a couple of seconds, but that was sufficiently long for the watcher on the gallery to form his judgment. "A bull!" he recorded mentally. "With a bull's stupid brains! Capital!" The man below moved forward. His flashlight directed on one of the doors, threw /.a white disc on the dark, polished panels. The disc sank a little, rested on the knob of the door for a fraction of time, then, abruptly, the light was switched off, leaving the hall in profound darkness, and for a little space the graveyard stillness once more prevailed. It was broken by a slight creaking which 'proclaimed a door cautiously opened. For & second or two no tiling happened. At the end of time once more the thin ray of light pierced the darkness, swept round the hall and disappeared bevond the door which had been opened. The watcher laughed silentlv to himself, and tiptoed to the balustrade the better to see and hear. From the room where the man with the flashlight had disappeared came a sudden chagrined exclamation. "Lumine! —Forestalled!" The watcher again laughed silently, and waited for what was to follow, lhe second man, unseen by the other, turned his flashlight here and there, noting the confusion of a room which, to his expert eye, had plainly been rifled by someop.o in his own line of business. Drawers were opened, papers scattered 011 the floor, an antique bureau had been violently forced, the poker, 'which had been used, lying 011 the Persian carpet. A small davenport was a mere wreck, the top of it smashed almost to kindling wood, while a valuable Chipese lacquer cabinet had been wrenched, operi, quite regardless of the damage done. The man stared 011 the wreckage with the scorn and distaste of a professional for a bungled job. "Some bloomin' amatoor!" he commented contemptuously, and again flashed his small torch round the room. A silvery gleam on the Adams mantelpiece caught his eye, and he moved toward the fireplace to investigate. The thing which had arrested his attention was a statuette of the hunting Diana done in silver. Ho lifted it, weighed, it in his hand, and appraised it with an expert eye. Then he grinned, and whispered to himself: " The blighter hadn't a notion, I guess." His flashlight travelled along the mantelpiece and found another statuette, which balanced the one in his hand—a silver Mercury. He chuckled gleefully. " There's pickings loft, seemingly/' Unhrittoning his slack-fitting raincoat, from an inner pocket he took out a black > stuff bag, not unlike the bags which provincial undertakers use in their trade. Into it he slipped the statuettes, and with a hungry eye, looked, round for further pickings." He found plenty. A brace of old miniatures painted on ivory, and circled with gold followed the statuettes into the bag. A Georgian silver candelabra 011 a side table next claimed his attention. " Chump must 'ave been boss-eyed," he commented as he added it to his collection, and then proceeded to examine a pair of fluted candlesticks, which had flanked the more elegant' I piece. /

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They were Sheffield plate, genuine stuff, as he recognised, and knowing their value, he promptly annexed them, and looked about covetously for further loot. His ga'iie fell- on a small cabinet of carved ivories—chessmen, ho thought, but was not sure. The cabinetwas locked, and since the lock resisted his efforts to pick it, from a long pocket in his coat lie took out a fine steel jemmy and forced the cabinet. Picking up one of the ivories, he considered it carefully for a moment, then threw it back, upsetting several of the other pieces. "Junk for me!" he grunted, and once more his eyes roved covetously about the room. They found nothing further that appealed to them, and carying the bag and the jemmy in one hand, and the flashlight in the other, he returned to the hall. There, for a little time, ho stood as if considering, quite unconscious of the watching eyes in the gallery above. His flashlight turned toward the broad,, dark'staircase as if he were contemplating an ascent, then it came back to the hall, flashed on each door in turn, and finally rested on one which stood very slightly ajar. He had not previously noticed that it was open,, and was at first a little startled; then he grinned to himself, and deliberately accepting the challenge of tho open door, crossed quickly to it. Thrusting it open, he entered. As he did so, the watcher on the gallery left his place by the balustrade, and swiftly and silently began to descend the stairs. Beyond the door, the man with the flashlight had a swift impression of a large, and handsome room, lined on three sides, from floor to ceiling, with books. They had no charm for him, but in the corner nearest him was a saie built in the wall, its door standing wide, with papers scattered on the floor beneath. A spasm of chagrin shook him as he considered that open door, and reflected on what it indicated. " Curse the blighter!" he muttered in annoyance. " He's sure scooped the pool. If—" He checked himself sharply, as, among the papers on the floor, he caught a flash of green fire, which became very bright as he directed the ray of his flashlight upon it. Moving quickly forward, he picked up what proved to be a pendant, consisting of a circle of platinum with a doublebarbed arrow running slantingly across it, and set with emeralds. " Green sparklers!" he whispered in sudden excitement, and dropping his jemmy andbag of loot on the carpet, he set the pendant in the beam of his flashlight, and for a moment watched the green fire in the stones coruscating, then he commented, "Beauties!" He looked toward the safe, wondering if the man who had forestalled him had overlooked anything else of value. Turning the ray of his torch upon it, he was in the act of stooping to look at it, when a slight rustling sound caught his alert ears. Instantly an alarm bell rang in his brain. In a twinkling he switched off the torch, groped for, aiid found his jemmy, and then straightening himself waited, the jemmy held ready to strike, while his ears strained for any repetition of the noise. It came at last—the very faint sound of a silken curtain swaying in a draught and rustling against a wall, and in the same instant he felt the chill of the moving air strike his face. In a flash understanding came to him. Somewhere in the room there was an open window which, with, the open door, had set up a draught that was shaking the curtains. He drew a breath of relief and again waited for the sound to be repeated. The slight rustle sounded once more:, and again he felt the breath of chill, damp air upon his cheek. Entirely reassured he switched on his flashlight and looking for the window directed the beam round the room. He never found the window, but 'he found something else and suffered a terrific shock. The bright ray of his torch focussed most unexpectedly upon the figure of a man seated at a desk in a recess at the far end of the room. The man's shoulders rested against the circular back of the club chair in which he sat, his bead sagged forward, chin on breast, and one arm hung limply by the side of the chair. All this the burglar noted in his first swift appraisement, then the light of his torch, directed to the sagging head, revealed something that glistened wetly, and a dark stain on the ist rained neck and the white collar. For a moment he stared astonished, then a hoarse whisper was torn from him. "Coshed! . . . God Almighty!" For a second or two longer he stood there, staring across the dark room at the horror which his torch revealed. He had no doubt that the man in the chair was dead. The huddled position in which he sat, the sagging head, the limp arm and hand; and above all that glistening wet less at the back of the head thrust all question of that from his mind. The dead man, he thought, seate'rl in the chair, must have suffered a terrific blow. His reflection on that point went no further. A. sudden perception of his own perilous position banished all other thoi-.ghts from his mind. If he were foui d in that silent house or by any means associated with it, his life was as good as forfeit. Swift panic fell upon him He dropped the pendant hurriedly as if it burned his hand, then he stooped and, turning his bag upside down, emptied the loot he had gathered on 1,0 the floor. Straightening himself, after another horrified glance at the sagging figure in the chair he turned to ::iee, the beam of his torch on the open door. (To bo continued daily)