THE BLUE DAFFODIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22191, 19 August 1935, Page 17

THE BLUE DAFFODIL

By FRED M. WHITE Author of "The Secret of the RiveV* "On the Night Express." 'Blackmail, etc.

(COPYRIGHT)

QUICKLY-MOVING LO/II AND MYSTERY NARRATIVE

CHAPTER IX.—(Continued) "But wouldn't he have prosecuted you?" "No fear I He'd got. a stranglehold on me and I had him b.v the short hairs. I was being blackmailed, sir 1 daren't come to you gentlemen lure because of the past, which I loj>ed was buried —and it worn't by a lc ng chalk. But prosecuted! You makes me laugh. Because I'll tell you something. You know a lot about that Ljfion gang? Well, the boss was at the hoad 0 f it. Been so for years." It was with the greatest difficulty that 3 led way prevented himself from leaping from his chair. "We know a whole lot about then," - he said, speaking as calmly as he could. " Before long—" He cheeked himself purposely, hoping to hear more. It came without uny encouragement from him. "I hope so, sir," Gunter said, piously. " But if what I got to tell you comes out, I'm as good as dead." "I don't think so," Med way smi.ed.

"We can go through the faroe of proseouting you for the theft of the flower without saying anything about the past, and giving the magistiato a tip to bind you over. Then no rascal who is bleeding you will think lhat you have given anything away " " Sounds good to me," G unter grinn«d. "Do you happen to k iow ~k' as tho boss were out of the flat on the night of the murder? I see him go out, 'though I never let on at libat there short first inquest hearing what was adjourned. I was afraid to tell about that journey tho boss tock because he «Us up to one of his little game: along with the Leftons. " What particular games?" " Lord, lumme, T don't know, sir. And old Lefton, he ain't going to tell. But ono thing I did find out. My old boss is the biggest, 'fence' in Lonion. " You are abks to prove tlu.t?" Medway asked •'Trove it! Course I can whon the time comes. And I can tell you all about that little brown car as you don't know of." " Ihere you are mistaken," Mec.way iaid. He 'vanted no half confidences now that matters had gone so far. " You mean tho two-seater in the gecre*; garage with the double doors. The one :hat was damaged cn the night of the murder. Gc on!" CHAPTER X Giinter gazed open-mouthed at Medway. What manner of m£.n was this who seemed to know everything without biing told? No use tryir.g to disguise the truth from him. " Lor' love-a-duck!" he muttered. " Wbat's the use of telling ;rer a B ton- when you have heard it a Fore? Maybe you know where the little twoseater is .bidden." " Oh, yes," Medway said quite casually. " T can put my hand on it at sny moment. Who does it belong to— I mean who has owned it rjiiice it came from Norwich?" "Well, if that don't beat thebrnd!" Gunter cried. "And them Leftons walking about like ignorant isids as don't know a danger signal when they s;ee one." " Nevei mind that, Gun;er. A ghairtly murder has been committed in most myiiterious circumstances which haro utterly baffled us. 1 don't mind teltiag you so much because tho police are. not what is called infallible. L watt to get my hands on some likely clue to that murder, and if you can help, so much the better for you. I Btill hate a feeling that the Blue Daf:odil"has something to do with it, although a mere plain theft seems to clear, up that point. You stole it because yon were desperately pushed for moiiey to buy a little peace f ;o:n a—blackmailer. Do you suppose that you have heard the last of him?'' "'He iiwore on his oath, sir-—" " Um. Do you think that v ;ho oath of a blackmailer is worth a brass farihing? Better tell me all nbout it, Gunter. If you can help me, nhen I wil' stretch a point and help you." " Even if it is a case of forgery, airl'-" "" ■V 1 *' Yes, even then. You ha ye done something wrong, Gunter, and this fellow can give you away. You had better make a clean breast of it, and even if I can't help you, I will respect your confidence. Now the i—out with it." Oimter hesitated for a monent bofora he upoke. " Well, it's like this, sir," ho said. V For years I was on my t ppers. Desperate like. Sleeping on th) Embankment and all that. ,Then J come in touch with an old lag who put me on to a foreign bloke —one of i;h<i swell brigade. Regular toff, he wer3, but roften all through. Forging Bmk of England notes, and passing 'en off on tho continent. Me, I was just a bloke ouj er work, a carpenter by trade, se< ? My game was to carry ;h; stuff . about m my bag of tools, tho l oreign bloke taking no risk of being arrested with the snide stuff on hiin. One night in Hamburg I got pinched — drjnk, 1 was, and when they come to scnrch my bag, what ho! There was only three of us in the littlo station house, so 1 made a fight for t. Being I ivas back in England. But not afore I was legging it do.vn the street to a place whore 7 kwnv I could bids until the chase got tired, and' a later I was back in England. But notafore w.f finger-prints was took in tlie station house. "After a long time' 1 met Mr. Garn'stoae and entered his wervice. Sort of bodyguard, you know. It was oily by accident as I learnt about his double ljfo. No business of mine. 1 thinks, so long as my quaiters was snug and the pay regular. And. theh, about six months ago, I banged into Wy old toff in Regent Street —looking a> if he hadn't had a square meal in weeks. G%thes in rags almost. He aiked me for a fiver, and I refuse. "'ien he began to threaten. Uti would pit the German police on to rue, and W ose finger-prints would do :hi; rest. There was no charge against Ihim, he hid never been seen in my company. you see, sir, he was all right, and I had to pay. I'd saved a bit when with my late boss, and he had every . pinny of that. When I told iiim so, ho laughed, and said as how the boss |hio thousands, at the same time hintli'S at Mr. Garnstone's double life. By this time tho foreign )l<ike was tuned out swell as he was when i first «new him, mostly duo to the mttney ho B>t me. Then you cculd have struck me nil of a heap when one day '3 called as bold as brass askinjj to seo '■e boss So I gives his nanio to tho 0 gentleman on the house telephone, flad I am told to show him up, which 1 did." * "to? 00 momcnt >" Medway interrupted. What was the namo of this man who was flencing you 9 " Two, names, he had, sir. When I £ *" e ,y him it was Mnnstar, but now i v *'• hisself Tanberg."' J\g sign came from Medway, though »8 piece of priceless information ' tlon a inward glow of uatisfac- J Do you know his present address?" lo asked. i .Aiunteivwas posted so far, and pave puwbor of the street in whi oh TanJ^r to r use kis present name —re- |. ecl Ik was not for Medway to say t l°nt he had this particular already.

'"I think I can put a spoke in his wheel," he :said. "The next timG ho asks for money tell him to go to the devil. Call his bluff. He dare not give you awav. Now tell me all you know about the Garnstone-Lefton connection." "I'll do my best, sir. 1 know a lot about them Leftonsi. Never been in gaol, either father or son, yet, though the police know their little game. Sort of go-between when a big burglary has been puller off. Within a few hours the stuff passes to the Leftons, who used to call up my old boss from some call office, using some few code words for the purpose.. Sometimes the old man worked'alone if the Leftons were suspicious that the police were on the watch. Then when the code came on the telephone the old man set out by bus for the Commercial Road, and took out his two-seater. Sometimes the car was garaged off the Commercial Road, sometimes close to the flat. In the latter case he took the car out openly, and worked the oracle on his own. lie would drive to some chosen spot down East and meet his man, who had to give a certain password. Then the messenger was blindfold and taken to some house, which I know nothing of, and there the stuff was handed over to Mr. Garnstone for cash. Mind you, this game always began in a back street, where it was very dark, and the old man wore a sort of mask before he responded to the signal." "How did you know that?" Medway asked. "Because 1 followed the boss once on my motor-cycle, arid saw most of tho game. 1 told a lie when I said he never left the flat, on the night of his death." "I was pretty sure of that," Medway said. "Go on." "He did go out that night about nine o'clock on one of hir little games, for he crept downstairs) if wishing to get out without being seen. He had a little despatch-case in his hand, and his head was muffled up. On the doorstep he dropped the case and swore at hisself for doing so. 1 think " "Just a moment," Medway interrupted. "Was the case you speak of light or heavy " "Very light sir, but heavy enough when he came back an hour or two later," Gunter chuckled. "That's why 1 was certain that he had been up to one of his little games. And that's about all I can tell you, sir." And quite enough, too, Medway thought when once more he was alone with his own thoughts. Remarkable that a man like Garnstone standing so high as he did should stoop so low as to become a common trafficker in stolen goods. His mere social status should have come between him and such criminality. And yet the opportunities were unique. Who would suspect a man handling half the art treasures in Europe of such a trade? And what had become of .most of the £IOOO that Garnstone had drawn from his bank on the morning of his murder? Certainly the man who now called himself Tanberg had had one of the notes and probably more than one. Therefore it was fair to presume that Garnstone and Tanberg were engaged in some sinister deal in which the alleged gold cup played some part, -That was if there "was such a thing as a gold cup. As likely, perhaps, that Tanberg should have some overpowering reason to see the inside of Garnstone's safe directly he heard that the old man had met. with his death. Or was the gold cu;p a mere excuse for the visit to the flat to remove some evidence the murderer had left behind him, Tanberg being himself the criminal.

' Certainly suspicions pointed that way. But, then, how on earth did Tanberg r get into the flat after tho old man's " return? According to Gunter's recent 1 evidence—evidence which Medway had no reason to doubt —Garnstone had returned alone. He had fastened ther 1 steel door behind him, a precaution he 3 was never known to forget, and Vera r had found it Tast when she returned from her evening out. It was possible that the safe held a clue to the mystery ' though no search had been made there. To break into such a complicated piece of engineering would be a matter of days though it was possible that the key to the letter combinations might be found after a further search. Strange that thin should be missing unless the murderer had taken it away so as to gain time. Surely if the same was in Tanberg's possession he would have made some excuse to find it or how otherwise could lie establish the whereabouts of the gold cup? «■ "We must have that safe opened," Medway told the deputy-commissioner bluntly. "They say that it means taking half the side of the house down or something like that, but it must_ be done. We are wasting precious time, and giviing the criminal too great a chance of covering his tracks. Will you give mo the necessary instructions, sir?" Sir Giles scribbled a few words on a sheet of paper, and handed it to his subordinate. Almost before Medway reached his roc:m the telephone bell rang. He took up the receiver. "Yes, -Medw-iy speaking," he said, "Who is it?" "Miss Goff," a voice replied. "We have found the letter key to the safe, Inspector. Perhaps you would to come round here and see it opened.^ "I'll be round ia 10 minutes," Medway said crisply. CHAPTER XI But it was considerably more than ten minutes before Medway reached the flat. He had first of all to listen to a telephone call that cnused him to smile cheerfully to himself. " All right, Huxtable," he said at length. 'T will be down there about ten o'clock this evening. Get another man or two. Yen. 1 think we had bettor be inside the building—we might pick up something by a little eavesdropping. Tlien we can make a raid as if we were outside all tho time. You do the arrest business as they reach the street, and then we will come on the scene as if by accident.. So long." The line went dead, and Medway took his way in the direction of the flat using a taxi' for the purpose. Ho dismissed his driver some hundred yards from the flat, reaching it on foot. But he did not at once proceed to mount the stairs. First of all he wanted a few words with Gunter, so he crept down into the basement and called tho caretaker by name. At once Gunter appoared. " Now look here, my man," Afcdway said. " There is nothing against you remember, and there won't be so long as you play tho game by me. So far you havo." " Course I have," Gunter growled. "1 ain't looking fer no trouble with that there murder still unsolved. Already I've told you a lot as I didn't need to." " True enough," Medway agreed. " Now cast your mind back to the night of the crime. You told mo that, Mr. Garnstone went out carrying a dispatchcase which seemed to be empty." " Empty it was, Bir. Give you my word." " Very well. When Mr. Garnstone I came back in his car which hp bad picked up somewhere—" Gunter made a noiso that was intended :for laughter. (Tq bo continued daily) '