SOME PERSON UNKNOWN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21859, 23 July 1934, Page 17

SOME PERSON UNKNOWN

. /' SYNOPSIS Motoring through Yorkshire one dark night, Bernard Gilfont is stopped on a lonely moorland road by an attractive girl, smartly dressed but gloveless, who begs a lift to the nearest railway station. Gilfont readily assents, and after she has gone finsls an envelope bearing her name and address, ■which he pockets for future reference. Finding that the radiator of his car is dry, he now sets off in search of water towards, a lonely houufc where he sees a light burning. In it, to his horror, he finds the body of a murdered man and in the same room discovers a .vjiair of grey kid gloves. Gilfont takes charge of the gloves himself and sets out for the nearest police station, where he reports thei murder. CHAPTER IV.—(Continued) " Haven't got a motor-cycle," he answered, after a moment. " But we needn't worry about means of transport just yet. I want to hear more about this murder pf yours. Who murdered who and where. Half a mo'," he added, quickly, " just come inside. More comfortable in my room, and you're looking pretty much all in, young fellow. How about a drop of short? That's what yoO want. Just see if old Ben Travis left us any after he popped in last night," turning to the constable. " In my cupboard, you know. This way, eir," to Gilfont. " It's very nice of you and all that, sergeant," Gilfont thanked him, quickly, as the officer pushed him a chair, "but can't we do any talking, there is to be done afterwards, or on our way/Out? The mau who committed the* crime, may be miles away by this. Every minute is valuable." At that moment Constable Thwait.es entered with a bottle and a glass. "What about me?" queried the sergeant. "Or perhaps we have only one tumbler!" Constable Thwaites smiled, and withdrew. Sergeant Birtwistle uncorked tho bottle carefully and poured out the whisky wjth a generous hand. "I should try that neat, if I were you," lie observed, handing tho tumbler to Gilfont. The constable placed a second beaker on the table beside his superior and Waited for instructions. _ , "Got your notebook, Thwaites. asked the sergeant helping himself from tho bottle. "You'd better tako down this young man's statement." Gilfont,. having drained the glass, felt a deal better than ho had done for the past forty minutes. He was inordinately glad of such thoughtful hospitality, but confound the man, why wasn't he making a, move? "Now," observed the sergeant, wiping his sandy moustache with tho back of his hand, "now we'll hear about this murder." Rapidly Bernard Gilfont gave an account of . the happenings from tho moment lie discovered his car to bo in Tieed of water, to tho time when he had filled his petrol can and gone back to the car./ "The description sounds like Carfax Middleton, Thwaites," tho sergeant mused, turning to the sergeant. . d better phono tho Super." Suiting the action to the word ho went out into the charge-room and Gilfont heard him calling a number. He returned a few minutes later, and picked up. his tunic, and hat. 'Wo 11 get along now, Mr. Gilfont," ho remarked, quietly. "You'd better conic along, too, Thwaites. I'll arouse Mrs. Birtwistle and get her to tell Holmes to take charge while we're away. Twenty minutes later they left the tar by the roadside and trudged along the rutted track to the house. "I came out by the front door," explained Gilfont, "so we'll have to get Sn by way of the window."

(COPYMGIIT)

By RALPH TREVOR Author of "The Jade Token," "The Eyes Through the Mask," etc.

!/ A GLAMOROUS TALE OF MYSTERY AND ROMANCE

- "We'll get in all right," answered the sergeant, stoically. Gilfont led the way through the room still plunged in darkness and out into the hall. For a fraction of a second ho paused before the closed door_ of the room of death. Then'he flung it open. The electric light was still burning as he had left it, but as he looked at the body, the young man choked back an exclamation. Sergeant Britwistle, who had followed him into the room, noticed it. "Anything wrong?" he asked, swiftly; more swiftly, in fact, than Gilfont had thought him capable. "The body!'-' cried Gilfont._ "It's not not —not the same. I mean it's . . . . been moved." He clutched his emotions firmly, realising that hysteria would be no help to him. "I mean that when 1 left him he was lying on his back, and n °Sergeant Birtwistlo saw the body of Carfax Middleton lying face downward on the blood-soaked rug. CHAPTER V "You are quite certain you loft him lying on his back?", asked Sergeant Birtwistle, stroking his chin with his short, stocky fingers. "I'll take my oath on that, answered Gilfont. "Well, it's the first time I ever knew a corpse do gymnastics," muttered the sergeant, as he bent down to examine the body. "And you say you neither saw nor heard anyone in the house, he asked, without looking up. "Not a soul. But, of course, there must have been." ' "Why?" The sergeant did glance up this time. Gilfont related his experience of the suddenly extinguished electric light. "And in addition to that," he went on, "someone must have been in here after I left. I'll swear he was dead." "Oh, ho was dead all right," agreed the sergeant rising from his examination. "Jt merely proves that whoever did that," indicating the body at his feet, "wasf hereabouts all the time you wore in the house. Not a nice thought is it, Mr. Gilfont?'" Bernard Gilfont shuddered and turned away. , "Do you think you will be wanting me any longer?" he asked. "I'd like to bo pushing along. I'm due in Scotland in the morning." "There won't be any 'pushing along for you, young man," returned the scrge'ant. '"You discovered the body. That makes you a material witness. Besides," he added, with a sly grin, "wo don't know much about you, remember. Why, you might have killed hini yourself witli that, little gun you carry in the right-hand pocket of your overcoat." , ~ - The blood mounted to Gilfont s face. "What do you know about that.- 1 he demanded, "angrily. "I'd like to remind, you sergeant, that you d better be careful." , "I was that," smiled the sergeant, unruffled at Gilfont's tone. "I felt, it very carefully as wo camo up to the house in the dark. But I'm quite sure we shall find it has not been discharged and that all its six chambers are fully lo! *'Must we stay in here?" demanded the young man. "And how long will the superintendent be in getting here:* "The Super ought to be here any minute now. He'll probably send mo back to Riugdalo. I'll try and persuade him to let you drive me over. I don't want to have to walk and maybe I'll be able to knock up Bob Turner at the 'Fox-and-Hounds.' You'll be wanting some sleep, I guess."

They left the room together and passed out into tho hall. "We'll wait here," announced the sergeant, cryptically. "By tho way, just a minute," and he was gone in tho direction of tho room through which they had entered the house. In a moment ho returned, and Gilfont, from the old oak settle where he was sitting, saw that the officer held something in his hand. "Well, here's one of your mysteries solved, Mr Gilfont," ho chuckled broadly. "This lamp didn't need any assistance in being extinguished. It just burnt itself out. Take a look at it." He handed the lamp to Gilfont. Yes, the sergeant was right. The filament within the vacuum was shattered and blackened. "That often happens with home-made electricity," he explained. "If there's the least defect in a lamp and too much voltage through tho transformer, they blow out easily." . "But that doesn't explain that business about the body," protested Gilfont. "And I always thought it was customary for the police to institute an immediate search for the murderer. As I pointed out to you before, he may bo miles way by this time." _ Tho sergeant took out his pipe and applied a match to the lialf-smoked "Maybe, and again, maybe not," he mused. "And what chance d'you think we'd have in tho dark, Mr. Gilfont? he asked, logically. "We don't even know whether wo are looking for a man or a woman." , , . Bernard Gilfont's hand went instinctively to the inside pocket of his coat where lay the pair of woman s cloves he had found in that room, tie realised, now, that it was impossible for him to continue with his visit to Tony Hartington. He was needed here. Perhaps sho would need him. He was convinced that tho girl he hiad ofriended could not possibly have been cuiltv of such a terrible crime as this. And "yet, there were the gloves; and she had made the excuse that she must have left her gloves in her car. Thoughts of that car perturbed him even more than ho cared to admit Ho remembered ho had looked eagerly for that car and ho had found „o trace of it. What if she had lied about tho wholo business? What if sho had been to this lonely house omul the moors? Did that prove anything a all? Did it prove that sho was a murdeiGS "Do you really think a woman could have dono it?" ho found himself asking tho philosophical sergeant. Sergeant Birtwistlo puffed thoughtfully at his pipo. " There aro few cases of murder in which, at some stage or another, a woman is not involved. I do not say directly involved, mark you. Crippen, Smith, House, are throo that come more readily to mind. Ah, hero comes tho Super," as the sound of feet crunching the gravel was heard. Tho sergeant opened the door and admitted a tall, lean man in the uniform of a superintendent of tho North Riding Police. "Well, Birtwistle," lie greeted quietly. " Is it as you mentioned on tho 'phone?" " Yes, sir. Except that tho body's been moved. Leastways, Mr. Gilfont so." Superintendent Haythorno swung round to where Gilfont had risen." " So you found tho body, eh?" ho remarked. " And what's this'about its being moved?" Gilfont told him tho facts. " Um!" murmured the superintendent. " Well, let's havo a look around. You've discovered nothing,l suppose?" he added, addressing tho sergeant. " Only a burnt-out electric lamp, sir. I have it hero. Also that Mr. Gilfont carries a revolver in his pocket." They had reached the door of the room whero-the body of Carfax Middleton lay in enigmatic death.

" The deuce you do, Gilfont," he spun round quickly and held out his hand. " I think I'll take chargo of that, if you don't mind." " I very much do mind," protested Gilfont. " And what's more, I object to all this innuendo. If you're not propared to take me on my own valuation} perhaps you'll get into touch with Sir Bertrand Knowles. If you haven't heard of him I may say he's the Deputy Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard. He'll be interested to know that you contemplate charging his nephew with murder." " He'll probably get to know sooner or later about this affair," he said quietly. " So perhaps the sooner I get into touch with hiin the better. I'll havo a conference with the chief in the morning. It's for him to decide, of course." , " Thanks," murmured Gilfont drily. " I shall probably be using tho telephone ■ for a similar purpose." His hatred of this cynical, cooly efficient superintendent had grown quickly. Bernard Gilfont told himself he much preferred Sergeant Birtwistle. Gilfont watched the superintendent examine tho body. "You say the body has been moved? The superintendent asked the question without looking up. " You are quite sure of that, Mr. Gilfont?" "Quite! Ho was lying on his back when I left him to go down to Rmgdalc." , , , The superintendent noted that the body was half turned over on its left side. He arose to his feet and took out his pocket book. " You'd better sign that statement," said, handing the book to Gilfont. " It might bo important." Bernard Gilfont was now taking a much greater interest in tho case. Ho had not the slightest objection to doing as the superintendent requested. He felt that ho would find an unaccountable satisfaction in fooling this aggravatingly cool superintendent of police. Well, be was in the affair now, right np to his neck, and, what was more important, ho was heartily glad that ho had in his pocket tho tell-tale gloves he had found on tho mantelshelf. He had never been even a spectator at a murder hunt and though tho experience was not altogether to his liking ho folt that both tho superintendent and Sergeant Bertwistle were wasting an unconscionable amount of time messing about tho house here instead of getting hot-foot on tho track of tho murderer. It would bo rather exciting, ho argued, if he could step in and solve the business on his own; just show these professional man-hunters that ho wasn't such a fool as perhaps ho looked. It would certainly givo Uncle Bertrand a jolt. Gilfont smiled at tho thought and tho superintendent noticed it. " I'm glad you find this affair amusing, Mr. Gilfont," he intimated coldly. " I'm afraid my tense of humour is not quite so highly developed." But Gilfont no longer allowed himsejf to bccomo annoyed at tho policeman's tono. " You're qui to right, superintendent. It is not amusing. Neither is it amusing to see our custodians of law and order standing around here and permitting the man who did this thing get clean away." But before tho superintendent couhl frame a suitablo and sufficiently caustic reply to the taunt, Sergeant Birtwistle announced that Doctor Hargreavcs had arrived. . Hargreaves was a small, thin-fea-tured little man with a high dome of a head on which no hair could bo induced to parade itself. He had obviously been hurrying and he was mopping his spacious brow with a large silk handkerchief as li<J camo into tho room. (To be continued daily)