THE GREEN ARROW

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21717, 5 February 1934, Page 17

THE GREEN ARROW

By BEN BOLT, Author of "Th s Purple Diamond," " Eyes Through the Mask," etc.

AN EXCITING MYSTERY STORY

SYNOPSIS The opening scene is laid at dead of night Jn a gloomy old house, where a man is described as standing at the head of a staircase listening intently for any sound which might vara him of' intruders. Satisfied, he returns for the perusal of some papers, when he is startled by the crash of glass downstairs. Seizing a pistol, he hides in the gallery to watch, and presently sees the figure of a man reflected in a mirror by the light of his torch. The intruder begins a rapid search for plunder, enters another room, discovers an open safe which appears to have been rifled already before his arrival, and then is horrified to see the figure of a dead man sitting in a chair in a distant •corner of the room. CHAPTER I.—(Continued) Just before he reached it he became %ware of a dark shadow against the bookcases, outside the bright beam of his torch. The shadow moved suddenly, silently, and with his nerves already badly shaken, overwrought, he gibbered in overwhelming terror. The shadow seemed to be making for him, and he gibbered again as he brought his light to bear on it. For the fraction of a second ,he visioned clearly a fierce face-, with dark eyes that fairly blazed at him; and with the vision, the greater part of his fear went. The shadow was a man, and could be dealt with. His fibbering became a snarl. The hand that eld the jemmy swung backwards to ■strike. But the other was before him. .'Something struck him a terrific blow ■on the side of the head, and without a igound he collapsed to.the floor and lay 'there in a huddled heap. It was a whole 20 minutes later when jhe emerged from the insensibility which 3iad overtaken him. Lying there on the .floor, in dense darkness, in his head a throbbing that was like a roll of drums, Jie tried to remember where he was and -what had befallen. At first his mind was iblank. He could recall nothing, but all the time he was uneasily conscious that there was something that he must do, something tremendously urgent,_but twh&t it was he could not think. \V ith ran effort he achieved a sitting position, ith en despite his throbbing head he staggered to his feet. The effort was almost too much for him. He nearly fell, and stretched a hand in the darkaiess feeling for support. He found a ibookshelf and with that, remembrance came in a rush. Books! that room! The open safe! Ine dead man in the chair! the shadow by the door!. The fierce face he had glimpsed! The blow which he himself Sad suffered! Again he was assailed by •terrible apprehension. He must get out of the house at once. He remembered lis torch, his bag and jemmy. Ihev -must, be on the floor somewhere and, srreat as was his desire to be gone, it ;was inadvisable to leave them behind "him. He stooped and groped. He round the bag almost immediately, but the jemmy and the torch evaded his B r ®P" -j-ncr hand. Producing a box of from his pocket he was about to make a light when a sound outside caught liis attention. He listened, and distinctly heard the crunching of gravel on the terrace in front of the house. Plainly there was someone coming, tie had'no time to waste. He would have to leave the torch. He groped hurriedly for the door, found it, and stepped into the hall. As he did so he heard feet mount the steps outside, then through the stillness £ voice reached him. ~ " Here's the bell-push, Grandison. Two of them. There was no time to lose, and sick and reeling as be was he had little more than a dog s chance at the best. But such as it was, he took it. Fear for his neck helped him to overcome his weakness. He had a perfect remembrance of the way he had come on entering the house. He had but to turn right and follow the wail to reach the door which led to the rear of the premises and to the windows by which'he had made his entrance. He stayed not on the order of his going. The fierce whirr of an electric bell was like a spur. Blindly with his hand on the wall, he stumbled forward. He found the door by falling through it and, nicking himself up, he groped for it. dosed it gently, then risked striking a match. The bell whirred again startlingly just above his head. But with the match's aid he found the door of the scullery and felt the chill of the fog blowing through the open window. A moment later he was outside and on the grass border which led to the gate. Before he reached it the purr of an engine came through the stillness. The mist -in front of him* took on a certain luminosity which told him there were strong lights close at hand, then he heard a car stop. His ears further informing him of an opening door, of a man -descending to the pavement and & second later a voice reached him through the mist. " Holmgarth! This is the house, Handley. Seems quiet enough. Wonder if it is a hoax? " That voice chilled him with new fear and drove him hurriedly to the bushes, .jyhere he crouched like a rabbit waiting for the weasel to strike. He knew it only too well, since the owner of it had been instrumental in sending him to Dartmoor for four weary years. Loye of Mike! What had brought Inspector Bilham to this place so pat? Even as he asked the question, a dim apprehension of the truth camo to him. That fierce-looking guy whose face he had seen for half a second before being knocked out must have sent word to the police. Telephoned, likely as not, with the idea of shopping him with - murder. He ground his teeth at the thought. " If ever I meet that bird—! At the moment his chances of doing so were exceedingly slim. He recognised that, but nevertheless hia purpose hardened. "I'll wring his foul neck." ; Then his chance grew less slim. Out of the luminous patch in the mist came Inspector Bilham's her in, Handley. On a night like this phe'll be safer inside the gate." To the burglar's ears the words were jnusic. If the officers ran the car into the drive his own way would be clear since .both of them would go to the house. Waiting hopefully he heard the car manoeuvre for the gate, caught the crunch of wheels on the gravel and huddled closer in the bushes as the two officers passed him within three yards. Then, before the sound of their feet had died away, he slipped from his hiding-place, passed through the gateway and faded into the fog. Inspector Bilham and his subordinate moved round the house and the latter ventured a whispered remark. " Place is in darkness. What s become " S-s-s-h-h! " The inspector stretched p. detaining hand. " Listen! There s a bell ringing in the house —" " And somebody moving round the corner," answered the other quickly. " I heard—" . The remark went unfinished. From the misty darkness, very close at hand, came the sound of footsteps, then a crisp voice spoke clearly: " I say, Grandison, there's a window here wide open. What about taking a Jook round? " The answer came from further away: " An open window on a foggy night. That's queer, Nell. I don't like it. Looks as if something were wrong. I think we had better—" " Wait! " jerked the inspector, much to his subordinate's surprise, and in the same second he stepped round the corner and-switched on a small flashlight. . , Its ray illumined a handsome, boyish face with blue eyes that blinked in the light as they tried to see the face of the man behind. Then the inspector ppoke again. " Good-evening, Mr. Helenburgh. ig unexpected pleasure<"

' Inspector Bilham! By jovel I say, Grrndison, here's —" The man to whom he called was already almost at his shoulder.

"You, Bilham?" he cried. "What brings you here? "

Had a telephone message at the Yard to say that a man here had been murdered.

Murdered! My stars! Who? It can't be Calstock, surely? " " Don't know the name, captain, but—''

" This window —quick, Bilham. It may be important. Helenburgh and I had an appointment. We had been ringing for five minutes without getting an answer. You have a light. Lead the way."

Inspectcir Bilham made no more ado. Swinging p leg over the low windowsill, he stepped into the room. As he did so the light of his lamp fell on the dead man in the chair. He gave a sharp whistle and the man who had urged him to. action snapped quickly: " Found something? " " The corpse," replied the inspector. " It's here—in a chair! "

The other made no reply. He vaulted into the room, took one glimpse at the sagging form revealed by the inspector's light, then spoke quickly. " The switches are by the door. Just turn your lamp this way, Bilham." As he spoke he was already moving across the room as if he were well acquainted with the plan of it. The inspector obeyed his instructions, and as the other found the switches and turned them, the room was flooded with light. The inspector swung round to the silent figure at the desk. The other began to recross the room, checked sharply at the sight of something on the floor — the platinum and emerald pendant which the burglar had so hastily discarded. He glanced at the inspector. The latter was stooping over the dead man with his back toward him. The other officer climbing through the window had eyes only for his superior and the murdered man. Stooping swiftly, unobserved, he retrieved the pendant, and slipped it into his pocket. Then he moved toward the man in the chair, around whom the other three men were grouped. He took one look at the dead man's face, then met the inspector s questioning gaze. "You know him?" asked the officer tersely. ' " Yes. It is Richard Calstock." " The owner of the house?" " Yes, the man whom Helenburgh and I came here to meet." " Pity you hadn't got here earlier, Captain," said Inspector Bilham. " You might have saved his life. He was bashed on the head> apparently by someone who was burgling the house, and —"

" There's a jemmy on the floor there, inspector—" " Don't touch it, Handley. Find the telephone, and ring up the surgeon. He won't thank us for bringing him out on a night like this, but we must have him.". Then, as his subordinate left the room to hunt for the telephone, he addressed himself to Captain Grandison again. " Queer business. Here's a man murdered. . . He is apparently alone in his house, but someone rings up the Yard to put us wise. Who?" He looked round, stared at the open door of the safe, the scattered pajiers, the little pile of loot on the carpet, then shook his head. " It beats me. I never heard of a burglar who announced his own crime to the police by telephone. Someone must have called here and interrupted the burglar—'' " You think it was the burglar who killed Calstock?" Inspector Bilham waved a hand indicating the things he had already noted. "Sure thing! Look about. This disorder —and that jemmy. It has blood on it. I expect that was the tool the ruffian used to destroy your friend. Came in this room and surprised the owner at his desk, I should say. Bashed him with the jemmy—and was himself surprised by some caller." He pointed toward the little pile of discarded loot. " Meant to take that stuff, but left it when he ran, and—" He broke off as he saw that Captain Grandison was scarcely listening, but was keenly intent upon the desk at which the dead man was seated. The inspector himself gave the desk his attention. On it was an open volume of an encyclopaedia with a full page chart of some kind, and on the page lay a pencil as if it had fallen from the dead man's hand, at the moment when he had been stricken. The inspector stared at' the chart.

" Some curious old map—" " No! It is a chart of the Signs o: the Zodiac."

" Um!" ... The inspector, being a practical man, was a little contemptuous. " Calstock went in for astrology then? Well, this isn't going to help us much. That jemmy is a more promising clue. I must get busy. May find something else —for a scared man bolting is bound to be careless." He left the neighbourhood of the desk, but Captain Grandison still stared at the chart with frowning intentness. Then suddenly he moved, stooping over the book.

" Nell," he said urgently, to his companion, " take a look. Unde? the Centaur there —isn't there a dotted line?" Helenburgh looked. " Seven dots," he announced tersely. " Looks as if Calstock had been jabbing idly with a dull pencil—•" " Idly? Maybe! But I fancy if we knew what those seven dots stood for we should know why he was murdered."

The other whistled thoughtfully. " You don't believe in Bilham's burglar then?"

"I don't know. May have been one. Bilham will bo able to tell us that, certainly, I expect. But it wasn't any Bill Sikes who scuppered Calstock. It was some one desperately anxious to silence him, who was afraid of him—of what he had discovered maybe, and took this way of bottling him up." " Phew-phew!" Helenburgh whistled again. "Then it's up to us?" " Yes," answered Grandison grimly. He looked at the dead man's battered head. "And that may be the end of us, too!"

" Pessimist!" answered the other lightly. " I mean to perish in the ancestral four-poster, with my weeping grandchildren —" "Hallo! Here's something!"

, The interrupting voice was that of Inspector Bilham, and instantly the pair swung round to learn what he had discovered.

CHAPTER II THE EMERALD PENDANT

Inspector Bilham held a small electric torch in his hand, and was staring at it " Fellow must have left this behind," hp commented. " Yes, and also his jemmy and his loot," said Grandison. " Wonder if he took his trousers with him?" queried Helenburgh, lightly. " Seems to have left 'most everything else." ■ The inspector looked round. Does seem odd," he agreed thoughtfully. " You'd have thought he'd need the torch to find his way out, and that he'd have been at some pains not to leave the jemmy." He examined the torch more closely. " Wore gloves by the look of it. That means an old hand, which makes things queerer gtilL. £)f,

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course he may have been surprised and have had to run for it —" Helenburgh broke in suddenly. " He didn't open the safe with the jemmy, Bilham. There's a key on a key wallet in the lock."

" Took them off the owner after he'd bashed him, I expect," answered the inspector. Setting down the torch, he moved toward the safe, and peered inside. A moment later an ejaculation broke from him, and leaning forward he brought forth a neat bundle of notes held together by a rubber band. He began to flick the ends over as if counting thom, then he spoke sharply. " There are £4OO or so here in various currencies. Either that burglar was a fool or—" y " Or he never looked in the safe, Bilham," said Grandison quickly. "But —" The inspector s eyes went to the papers on the floor in front of the safe, then pointed to the interior where the steel drawers had been opened and left wide. " It's been searched?- and pretty thoroughly.' " And that money left! " said Grandison pointedly. " Bilham, it wasn't a common-garden burglar who killed Calstock, lam certain?' . _ " But the evidence, Captain Grandison ? That torch and jemmy, and that stuff there on the floor —" " Yes, I know. But why did he dump the loot there? How did he come to leave those notes? They'd have gone into his pocket quite easily . . . . There may have been a burglar, but I am convinced it was not he who bashed Dick Calstock." " You seem mighty Bure, Captain. That's the second time within two minutes you've urged that." " And with reason, Bilham." He looked round to make sure the sergeant was not in earshot, then he spoke significantly. - " Calstock lived , , , er * * , rather dangerously, you know." " Oh, he was one of your lot? " " An amateur whom M.I. was glad to employ. He knew more of the underground politics of Eastern Europe than any living man And just now those politics are highly explosive. Calstock had scented something—and that is whv Helenburgh and I came here to-night. .... You may find a burglar who lias been here, but I should say his call was a mere coincidence —-I mean it had nothing to do with that." He nodded in the direction of the dead man. " The man who killed Dick Calstock had profounder reasons than a mere burglar could boast. Of that, I am quite certain." Inspector Bilham was clearly impressed. " Perhaps you can guess the man, Captain Grandison? " Grandison shook his head. 'No 1 There are half a dozen men in Europe who would have outed Calstock, cheerfully. ... I don't think any one of them is in England just now. . . . But if there was a burglar and you can find him, he may be able to tell us something." . ** The inspector nodded, then he pointed to the little collection which had been dumped on the floor. . " Any of the half-dozen interested in bric-a-brac of that sort? " Grandison shook liis head- I don think so." , " Then all that and the jemmy may be a blind, and I may be mistaken. . . . I'll just take a quick look round, I think. Perhaps you will wait? " "Yes! . . And if I may, I'll have a look at those papers here. They may have to do with the business that brought Helenburgh and me here tom?< No objection that I know of," answered the inspector, and leaving the library called'to his sergeant. Grandison heard the pair cross the hall and then spoke to his companion. " Just run through those papers, Nell. I don't expect you'll find anything, but there's always the hundredth chance. ... I want to look at this chart again." He bent over the volume on the table quite regardless of the dead man at his side and carefully studied the chart and the pencilled dots. He was still so engaged when the inspector returned, his manner betraying some excitement. " I guess you're right about two men having been here, Captain Grandison. There's evidence of that in the room across there." "Ah!" " Somebody's made hay of some fine furniture there and he used a poker; which he wouldn't have done if he had owned a jemmy—" " Quite right, inspector. The poker is the makeshift of the amateur, the jemmy the tool of the professional." "They must both have had a go at things. There's a cabinet in the drawing room on which the jemmy was used. .. I wonder which of them was first in the field."

" Bill Sikes I should say. Other man probably surprised him and scared him off the job. That would account for the loot left here —no it wouldn't, though. Fellow would hardly dump it here while Calstock, alive, sat in the chair there. Bill Sikes was second in the field. Gleaned what he could from the other's leavings and—by jove, I've got it! He walked into this room and found dead. That put his wind up badly, and ho dumped liis gleanings and left without waiting for the bus. May have sent the telephone message that gave you the news, first, you know. Probably had some muddled idea of clearing himself if you at the Yard got on his track." " But why did ho leave the jemmy and the tor oh ? Doesn't seem quite the sort of thing you'd expect—" " Forgot them in his hurry. Sort of thing a map would do if he lost his head in a scare, you know." " Maybe! But ho was a d—d fool —" " What burglar isn't?" answered Grandison, then as Helenburgh camo forward, jerked a question, " Well?" " All private papers. Nothing bearing on the crime that I can see," answered the younger man. " Then we're down to this," Grandison tapped the book on the table in front of the dead man. " Mind if I borrow it for an hour or two, Bilham? It may tell us something, and I'll send it round to the Yard in the morning." (To be continued daily)