"NO HONOUR—"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22167, 22 July 1935, Page 17

"NO HONOUR—"

CHAPTER EX.—(Continued) " The most outstanding thing about this case," he said, " and the thing that has struck me from the first, is the fact that there are at least a dozen times the usual number of suspects. Further, not one of these is really convincing, either in his innocence or in guilt. " You, Stephen, are by no means clear. Both Henderson and Rees are fupposed to have been seen near Kettling at about the time of the murder, yet both have an alibi. They claim to have spent the evening on thew premises—and there are plenty of witcesses to support them. " Dr. Drake, too, ist well in the running. He admits that he left his home with the intention of calling on Sandyman, but says that he changed his mind, and after going for a stroll, returned to his home. Unfortunately for him, he, like you, Stephen, met nobody during his walk. In fact, he is a little worse off than you, he didn't even meet a Btranger outside his own front door. You did meet Mr. Crooker."

" Yes," the little man interrupted, "and I don't think you attach sufficient importance to the fact that when I saw Mr. Adams he was not coming from the direction of Sandyman's house* In fact, he wais coming from the Ashbury Road.

Vinser smiled faintly and shook his head.

I have not lost night of that," he said, <" but you must realise that it would have been easy for Mr. Adams to have avoided you or anybody else so as to approach ' The Man in Green from the opposite direction." "Possibly," Crooker conceded. "But I oertainly do not think he did so. When I spoke to him, he had very definitely the air of a man startled to find that he was noit alone. However, I am interrupting you, Inspector; go on with your summing; up. I am anxious to know jusfc how I stand."

" I. don't come to you yet," Vinser went on. " There are two other suspects, or rather, three. T\rt> of them you know as much about as I do. 1 am referring to the two tramps, ol cours^."

This time it was Adarns 'who brokn

" Do you mean to say that you have learned nothing more about them?" he asked. " I can't see how they managed to get away. After all, strangers arc fairly obvious about here and unless they went by train or bus —where they *"°ulcl surely be noticed —it is going to toke them at least a day or two to a sufficiently jwpulous district to hide themselves. You don't disbelieve my story about them, I hope?"

" No, I don't doubt your story 7 . ] have taken the trouble to investigate ft) a'nd at least a dozen people who *ere in the bar corroborate you. None the less, they are a major problem. " Like you, ] confidently expected to pick them up almost at once. The fact that they have been able to disappear so completely is very puzzling, ■roxn the time they Left your pub, they

By COLIN HOPE Author cf " The House in the Way," etc.

(COPYRIGHT)

A FIRST- CLASS MYSTERY THRILLER

seem to hare vanished into thin "air. They were not even seen in or near the village after leaving the bar." "If I were you," Crooker said, " I should give up looking for the men and content myself with searching for theiir clothes. Are there any handy ponds or rivers about here?"

Viinser turned sharply. " I see. You think they may have disguised themselves." " Yes. I am inclined to think they were disguised. Assuming that they came here to murder Sandyman, or event to rob him, there was something rather strange about their actions, don't you think?" For a moment Vinser was puzzled. Then a light dawned. He smote his palm with his fist. , " Got it," he exclaimed. " Those confounded tramps have worried me from the start. They were too obvious altogether. They came here and deliberately advertised themselves, and called very loudly for Sandyman. Then they very quietly and very thoroughly disappeared, although everything was against them." Vinser did not go far enough for Stephen and Vera, and Crooker took up the explanation. " What the inspector means," he supplemented, "is that the tramps were not tramps at all. They were two people who had designs of some sort on Sandyman and before they went to Settling they deliberately created two new characters in order to provide the police with a couple of ready-made suspects. Unfortunately for them, they made the ruse a little too obvious, and Insjjector Vinser has seen through it.' There was a barb in the little man's last words and the policeman accepted it with an ironic bow. " Yes, I see through it now you have lent me your spectacles," he said. " but I doubt if even now 1 see as much as you do. Won't you take us a little further?"

" It's his modesty," Crooker explained to the Adams. "If you had heard half of what he told me when I arrived at Ashbury this afternoon, vou would realise what an observant man he really is.

" However, since I like to display my modest powers of reasoning, I will, as the inspector suggests, take you a littlle further. It seems to me that this littlle masquerade of our unknown friends is a little pointless, really. The idea of manufacturing a couple of new characters is certainly rather taking, although I would not go so far as to say that it is original. Yet why should they go to all that trouble? " Surely they could have gone to Saiiidyman's house without coming to the inn. I should think they could have done all they wanted to without being seen at all. Mington is not very densely populated and at night-time it should be easy for anybody to get to Keittling—which is outside the village—without being seen." Perhaps their idea was to establish an alibi," Vera suggested doubtfully. " I agree, but how could they do that? Even though they were disguised, they were here just as surely as if they had been here in their true selves. They might put on different clothes, but they could r.ot also assume the power of being in two different places at the same time. How then, could they profit by the masquerade?"

" I give it up," Stephen said. " It sounds something like the herring-and-a-half business to me." Vera was scarcely happier. " The more you explain, the more incomprehensible it becomes," she complained. " For goodness sake put us out of our misery. We all give it up. Tell us the answer and we will pay our forfeits." Crooker was enjoying himself hugely. Not the most precious of his firm's publications had given him half the pleasure that did this tribute to his powers of reasoning and his observation.

" I think you will be able to see it for yourselves if I lead you," he said, " and perhaps you can check my logic.

" Now. If you cannot find a ladder long enough to reach the fruit at the top of the tree, you can always cut down the tree, can't you?" "Go on," Vinser commanded. " 1 for one, am still in the dark." " Vwy well. Think of the example of the tree and the axe and now explain why, as one—or two in this case —cannot be in two different places at the same time, they cannot try to be twice in the same place?" " You mean that these two men, disguised as tramps, and as their normal selves, were in the bar at the same time. A little difficult, isn't it?" " It would be difficult, and, strictly speaking, impossible of course. I suggest, however, that that is exactly what did happen." " But that is- ridiculous." Stephen was impatient. " How could they each appear as two different characters at the same time? I understand you to mean that these two men managed, by some miraculous means, to change themselves into four. I'm willing to listen to anything in reason, but that seems a bit too far fetched for me." Crooker was tolerant—and still happy. " Of course, they did not become four men. But they managed to deceive you into believing they did. I don't know who they were, but, judging by what you have told us, I should hazard a guess that the two tramps were tout unwelcome customers, Henderson and Hoes. I seem to remember you saying that after the tramps left, the other two came in."

" Yes, they did, but I am afraid you are wrong there. The tramps came in again while Henderson and Bees were there. My barman told me that Henderson and Rees were there the whole of the evening, and that the tramps were in and out two or three times "

" And I supjxise if either of the two men went outside for, say, a quarter of an hour, the barman would not notice it. He would be reasonably busy and he would still have the impression, still be prepared to swear, that they had been in the bar the whole of the timc^" Yinser exploded, then apologised to Vera.

" I sec it all now," he went on. " They worked a sort of ' Box and Cox' idea, and, by gosh, they would have got away with it but for you, Mr. Crooker. All the same, 1 hand it to them. It was smart. It was sheer bad luck that you happened to come down to Mington just as the murder was committed.

" I wonder if they will be the first two to be hanged because they didn't allow for the brains of a book publisher." '

" Not so fast. Not so fast by a good deal," Crooker protested. "You haven't convicted them yet. The fact that they played hide-and-seek in this pub doesn't prove that they murdered Sandyman. In fact, I have decided doubts. Besides, you told us you had another suspect—in addition, of course, to me, and to the man who broke into Sandyman's town house last night." " Yes, there is another," Vinser admitted, somewhat grudgingly, " but 1 am not worrying much about him. It is old Jan Thomaß, the local bad egg. He is a poacher and an all-round suspicious character. #

"We found his footprints near Sandyman's house, and he is unable to give a satisfactory explanation. As a matter of fact, his wife swears that he was in bed before nine o'clock, and that he did not leave the house again before 6 a.m. However, we know that we cannot trust the woman any more'than we can the man, but there is no definite evidence to connect him with the murder." CHAPTER X. CKOOKEB ISSUES A CHALLENGE " And now we come to the archvillain, Crooker," the little publisher said. " I know you did not call this conference to discuss any of the others. You want to know where I come in, don't you?" " Of course. 1 must confess you led me up the garden when I first saw you. It was not until I noticed the dirt on the lapels of your pockets that I considered you at all as a possible suspect.

" Without giving too much away, I don't mind telling you that on the following day 1 found signs outside Sandyman's window that somebody had been there in stockinged feet. Then 1 saw the reason for the dirt on your overcoat pockets. You were the man who had been outside the window and you had taken off your shoes so as to leave no footmarks." " Don't you think you are overlooking one rather important point?" Stephen asked. " I don't think so. What have you in mind ?" " Mr. Crooker has an alibi. He was with me when Nash brought the news of the murder." " Sorry, but that doesn't constitute an alibi at all. Mr. Crooker might have killed Sandyman before he met you. He was an extraordinarily long time coming from Ashbury, and could easily have gone to Kettling before he came to " The Man in Green."

" 1 arranged to have Mr. Crooker watched, but he was a little too quick for me. He had left for London and for a time I lost sight of him. It isn't necessary for me to go into the remainder of Mr. Crooker's actions and my suspicions. He knows them. Wo have already had a little chat at Ashbury. " Now I come to the whole point of this little talk. I have ample grounds for suspecting both of you. I could produce sufficient evidence to secure a warrant for your arrest, at any rate, Mr. Crooker. 1 will be candid to this extent: Personally, 1 do not think that either of you committed the murder, but I do think that you " —he was addressing the publisher—" know a lot more than 5-011 have told. " I surely need not remind you that if you withhold information or conceal evidence you are liable to be charged as an accessory, even if you escape the more serious charge. " In short, 1 am asking you to be frank with me. I want to know why you came to Mington in the first, place, why you went to Sandyman's house as soon as you knew that he had been murdered, what you did there, why you broke into his town house last night and what you did there." Stephen and Vera looked at Crooker with a new interest. It had never occurred to them that he was other than he pretended to be, and they certainly had not considered that he had any connection with the death of Sandvman.

Crooker, on the other hand, seemed quite composed. He was smiling when he answered the policeman.

" Since you are inclined to accuse me of concealing evidence, 1 should like to remind you that I have, in fact, drawn jrour attention to one or two rather important clues that you had, apparently, overlooked. 1 am prepared to promise you, too, that I will do all I can to find the murderer of Sandyman.

(To be. omtinued daily)