THE GIRL IN THE CAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 17

THE GIRL IN THE CAR

By OTTWELL BINNS Author of "The Stolen Debutante," "The Lavenham Treasure," " The Cry in the Night," etc.

A POWERFUL STORY OF LOVE AND ADVENTURE

CHAPTER Vlll.—(Continuod) " All in good time. There's that man in Fleet Street whom 1 must see first," broke in Judson. " When I've wired to Mary to catcli the next train to Town I'm going out to find my journalist. ] may get something from him that will be helpful, and, at any rate, he'll he able to give me information about the unknown financier. When I've seen him I'll either come back here or telephone to you, Roy." " I shall be here," answered Huntley.

" Haven't a doubt of it, 1 " laughed Judson, with a smiling glance at Janet. He laughed again, and added: "Don't keep him to the apron-strings, Miss Janet, if I send a message. I shall reallv want him."

" I promise to send him," answered Janet smilingly. It was a whole two hours later when the message came to Huntley in the form of a telephone call. " That you, Roy? Good! I have news. S. and Co. fill the bill, though of course, there's no certainty. I want you to meet me at the top of Norfolk Street in half an hour." " Right!" " If Lamington is about, tell him that ® have just seen that man Hammersley in Fleet Street with a yellowfaced Colonial who for anything I knowmay be th_e man he is looking for." " Lamington is out."

" Um! A chance missed. But it doesn't affect our business. I shall expect you on time." Huntley arrived at the top of Norfolk Street five minutes before the time to find his friend already waiting for him. " We can't talk in the street," said Judson, " so a cafe is indicated." He led the way to the nearest, ordered coffee, and lit a cigarette. " Before wo beard the lion, I'm going to tell you what I have learned." " Stallwart'iy is the lion, then." " Or the dark horse —a crooked runner in any case. The news I have is that ho works with Arnheim, who, I suspect, is the ' it Co ' of the firm. Anyway, the two are hand and glove with a connecting dock between their offices. And here's a little item for you—Arnheim has recently returned from Africa." " Sounds significant!" " There's more to follow. Stallworthy's speciality is mines, and for weeks there have been paragraphs in the financial columns boosting a forthcoming flotation of a Rhodesian property which in more than one sense is reputed to be a gold mine. Stallworthy's name is associated with it by City gossip, and in a paragraph of one of the files through which I worked, I came on the name of a well-known African mining expert—guess who?" " Haven't a notion!" " Hammersley, no less! The fellow* who was with Arnheim last night." " Phew!" " A case of little drops of water, little grains of sand, and straws blown in the wind, hey?" " Evidence is certainly cumulative." " And points to Jacob Stallworthy. Question is what is the next step. If he is the man, you can't walk in on him without giving things away. Ho would be bound to recognise you. Yet somehow we must find out if he is the big bunny who was at Thorlev Burrow." Huntley looked at his watch, then remarked, " Ten minutes to one."

" I don't get you, Roy." " Fellow looked like a man who did himself well. Not the typo to stay himself at midday with a bun and a glass of milk. He wiil lunch somewhere, and if he's in Norfolk Street —"

" He is," laughed Judson. " I rang up his office to make sure, and lie is expecting a caller about now —who will disappoint him. . . We should be able to carry out your notion. Follow him, 1 suppose— but we've got to be sure we follow the right man." "Big burly man! Long whiskers, dark goggles, florid of countenance." '" Easy running, if goggles weren't removable, and long whiskers not a fake. But difficulties are surmountable. You wait here and I'll see what I can do. I've shadowed niggers and millionaires in my time."

He went out, and Roy waited for him a whole 20 minutes. When he returned he was whistling. " Come on, Roy. I am hungry as a lion. We will lunch at the Medici." "That is the place?" " Yes. And to prevent accidental excursion a table is reserved for us, by telephone." " You saw the fellow?"

" A lift-boy was pleased to earn an easy shilling by pointing out the great man —who was not alone. He and his two pals departed in a taxi, and Mr. Stalhvorthy made no secret of his destination. ' The Medici,' ho said to the taxi-man in a voice that it was easy for a. passer-by to hear. . . Thereafter I dived into the nearest telephone box. . . . 1 have a taxi waiting. So we will depart to lunch forthwith." The Medici as it chanced was crowded, but with the table booked, they had no difficulty. Once seated, Jiulsonsaid: " Order the lunch, Roy, while I spot our game " He began to stare round the room. When Roy had given the order and the waiter had departed Judson was still searching, his eyes roving from table to table, intently, for in a crowded room, with pcoplo passing, and hurrying waiters, it is not easy to locate a particular person. Then ho gave a little ejaculation." " Eves of a fool I" " What—"

" Your pious education has been neglected, Roy. ' The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth.' Mine roved too far. The table is four paces to the right. Three men there, in earnest confab. One of them you should recognise; as for the others —" Huntley looked swiftly in the direction indicated, and saw the three men, two of whom were almost facing hint, while the third presented his back. One of the pair facing him had a familiar look, and after a moment ho remembered. " Hammersley!" he whispered a little excitedly. "Yes! Man next him, facing this way, is Jacob Stallworthv." A little chill of disappointment checked the excitement which Huntley had betrayed. Except that the man in question was of bulky build and had a ruddy face he was not in the least like the man who had been at Thorlev Burrow two nights ago. His disappointment showed in his face, and was expressed laconically. " A frost I" " Sure?" " Quite sure." " Try' Lamington's recipe. Put dark goggles on the fellow's nose, give him a flowing beard —sort of thing the fake photographs do when they put an eminent statesman of to-day in Victorian locks and whiskers." Huntley made the effort, then shook his head. " No use, I merely visualise the other fellow's face. The trick won't work."

(COP 7 111 GUT)

" A pity. But there's another trick that's bettor. When he goes out, we'll go out too. You'll trend on his toes —" " Why?" " Anil watch his eyes,' and listen to the swear words he will naturally shed ...If he's the man, he's almost bound to recognise you. You'll see it in his eyes. Also a man's voice is individual. You'll know if he speaks, as ho will if you tread hard enough. . . In my time I've heard a man's voice in the dark and arrested him on the strength of it a week later. Fellow was hanged, too, in the end."

Ho looked round the room, then he chuckled. "That glazed turnstile door is the strategic point. Just made for the trick. When the fellow leaves, we will get in front of him. I'll go through the turnstile first, and give the door a violent jerk. Naturally you'll dodge hack, and if you miss his toes, you'll stick your elbow in his little Mary." " Sounds simple," Roy laughed.

"It is simple, and it is a winning card—a trick that I've used more than once in my blameless public career." Ho laughed lightly, looked across at the man whose toes were to sulfer, then he made a, comment. "Fellow doesn't seem to be enjoying his lunch too well. . . . Looks flushed and irate, as if the company he's in was aggravating him." Huntley gave the trio his attention. Mr. Jacob Stallworthy certainly was not pleased. His ilorid face was an angry red and there was a flash in his eyes. He was leaning forward, apparently addressing the man who faced him, and that there was somo disturbing question under discussion was shown by the quick way in which on some remark of Hammersley's he swung round on that individual, who started so violently that the princenez glasses ho woro were jerked Irom his nose. Judson chuckled.

" Some rift within the lute! At the momcr.t there's a deplorable lack of brotherly love in that trio. I'd give a shilling to be eavesdropping." That, unfortunately, was not possible, but as lunch progressed it was clear to tho friends that the trio were not in accord; and from time to time Judson recorded the signs of tho weather.

" Stallworthy's flustered; number three is responsible . . . Now he's real savage. His eyes are boiling! . . . Calming down . . . wheedling, by the looks of things! . . . Pure sugar and oil now. He and number threo are shaking hands.. Deal put through, I suppose. . . . Great Jove! . . . He's going, by the look of things." Ho turned round and snapped: " Waiter!"

The waiter who had his instructions presented the bill, Judson paid him, and by the time their prospective victim moved from his table, leaving his companions still seated, they were already on their way to the turnstile door. Over his shoulder, Judson carefully measured distances, then paused and stepped aside to allow a couple of hurrying ladies to pass. The pause gave the financier time to come up; and then in a miniature procession they reached the glazed door.. Judson was first, and Huntley was aware that the big man was 110 more than couple of feet behind. His friend stepped into one of the angles of the turnstile. Roy himself made as if to take the next compartment; then, as the door whirled sharply, he stepped smartly back. The strategy was perfect. His heel found a toe heavily. The owner of the toe swore explosively, and instantly Huntley swung round to make amends.

" I beg your pardon, sir—" he began, but the other broke in, not heatedly but in a voice that was slow and cool and smoothly passionate. "Pardon! For a broken toe! Of all the confounded cheek. You oughtn't to be loose outside a seven-acre field. A hippotamus would —"

The man checked suddenly. Something leaped in the blazing eyes which Huntley was watching, a flicker of recognition as he could have sworn. It was there for no more than a second, then it was gone; and the man spoke again, a little hurriedly but no less rudely. "Let me pass, clodhopper. You're blocking the way." And with his heart beating like a drum under the stress of excitement, resenting the man's insults not at all, Huntley stepped aside, yielding precedence to a very angry man whose haste to be gone, to Roy's illuminated mind, seemed enormously significant.

CHAPTER IX. On the other side of the turnstile Judson was waiting with a grin on his face, and asked cheerfully: " You got his toe? " " Hard! " "Well? " " He is the man of Thorley Burrow. He recognised me, and I recognised his voice. Ho is absolutely unmistakable. Those goggles and whiskers must have been mere disguise." "But why were they used at all? Tell me that, Roy. If you are right about tha man's identity with the Thorley patriarch, as 1 am sure you are, then the goggles and the whiskers become little mysteries on their own. Who was the man hiding himself from? Not from Archie Laundy, surely, who probably knows all about him?" Roy Huntley considered the problem put bv his friend. After a moment he answered. "We don't know that Laundy may not have met him. But there is another explanation. Possibly be is known by someone in the district and was anxious not to be recognised, or, by Jupiter, yes—in his identity as Jacob Stallworthy he is unknown to Carroll and his crowd." " A possibility," agreed Judson thoughtfully. " But I gather from your account that those three ruffians spoke of him as the boss." " They might do that- even if they were bravoes hired iust for the kidnapping of Archie Laundy. Though I will own that it did not strike me that they wore very recent acquaintances of the man whom they served." " Well, it is a little mystery that does not matter very much just now. The question is, what are we to do next? We know now beyond doubt that Stallworthy is the man responsible for the disappearance of Laundy, and that all the others, Arnheim included, are probably just his tools." " I think we want to get track of Archie Laundy as quickly as we can. There may be serious risks for him, you know, Harvey." " Yes," Judson owned thoughtfully, and glanced through the giazed turnstile. The two men whom Stallworthy had left were still at the table, head to head as if they were discussing confidential matters. " 1 wonder if that bright pair know anything of Laundy's whereabouts? " " Mayn't know anything at all. Carrol and Company form the executive arm, I fancy." "And Hammersley is merely the discredited technical expert who is willing to help to sell a pup to the innocent investor, eh? " " Maybe so. But who is the other man ? " "He is the yellow-faced colonial who—" " Supposing he chanced to be the man whom Lamington is after? " (To b« continued daily)