WEB CENTRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22349, 21 February 1936, Page 20

WEB CENTRE

(COPYRIGHT)

By RALPH TREVOR ' . a. 1t... »rwh in the Stalls." "The Eyes Through the Mask, etc.. etc.

an enthralling story of mystery, love and adventure

CHAPTER Vl.—(Continued)

Peter laid a hand on her arm, "My dear Maryon," he began seriously. You say that this affair took place about one o'clock. It's now about half past three. Has it occurred to you that Vorsada as likely as not wants things kept as .quiet as possible. If not, don't you think ho would have immediately communicated with the police, and that by now a posse of them would have been combing the countryside? We're not such a long way from Carleon Towers: only about three miles, you know. And we've been showing a light for about an • hour. If the police have . been miformed they'd have been knocking at the. door long before this." He paused as he saw the look of. wonder in the girl's face. "And there's another point. Can you explain why' Vorsada allowed you to 'slip quietly away?. Admittedly ho advised you to get back to your room, but if he had called in the police they would have had plenty of time to discover that you weren't in the house at all, and tho search would have begun. You see, my dear, there's a lot behind this that neither -of us knows as yet. My own opinion is that Vorsada, if he was threatening your father, was doing so for tho reason he had no desire to make public. Tho fact that you killed' that hound would not, to my way of looking at it, make him change his plans. To go to the police and give yourself up for committing this crime would be sheer folly After all, you didn't intend to kill the fellow—only to scare him so that lie could not harm your father. "But I did mean to kill him, interrupted tho girl, almost indignantly. Peter groaned, audibly. "My dear, as counsel tor the delence, I do deplore theso bursts of verisimilitude. Of course, you'didn t mean to kill him. Now listen to me. You've got to hide —lie low, in tact, until I've had a chance to find out just what has been happening to-night. It I discover that Vorsada has not informed the police, then I think you will bo safe. I've an idea that friend Vorsada is playing a lowdown dirty game, and that you ve put a spoke in his wheel that he didn't expect. That ho intended to restrain your father from taking a certain line of action, I do not doubt. What he didn't count on was that you would interrupt in the way you did. Can't you see that you must trust.me to know what is best for you at the moment?" "But whatever happens," answered Maryon, desperately, "we cannot get away from the fact that I'm a criminal in the eyes of the law. That if I do as you suggest I shall have to be continually running to earth like a hunted fox. I couldn't do that. Really I couldn't. I'd much rather face a judge and jury and get> the beastly business OVer -" . . 1 *VT 1 J Peter was at his wits end. Never had he, even in his most flamboyant dreams, ever imagined himself faced with such a problem as this. Had it been anyone other than Maryon, he told himself, he would probably have acted quite differently. At all costs ho must save this girl from such folly. When he turned to her his face was grim. "Look here, Miss Santley, I m going to trust you. I'm not entirely what I've led you to suppose. You think of mo just as a young man—and not so young either, if it comes to that —who hasn't anything particular to do in life except amuse himself. That might have been true a few weeks ago. But now it's different. Unofficially I'm attached to Scotland Yard. I'm on the job as it were, and the particular job to which I have been assigned is to bring something homo to friend Vorsada. It was for that, and for no other reason, I was at his beastly party to-night, and why I preferred to sleep under my own roof instead of remaining as his guest. There's something coming to Vorsada, but not just yet. You've given me a heap of interesting information to-night, and believe me when I say I'm grateful. More than that, I'm you're friend. I'm going to help you. A few moments ago you said you were going to give yourself up to the police for the murder of a man at Carleon Towers. Very good. As a policeman, I arrest you here and now, and take you into custody—my custody, and from this moment you do precisely as I instruct you. Now you're going to bed, and, I hope, to sleep. I don't care a dash for proprieties and conventions and all that rot. If a charming young woman is arrested and placed in a cell, the seigeant in charge doesn't telephone for his wife to come along and chaperone him. The police, my dear, are quite above such lunacies. Now upstairs you go. No, wait a moment while I hunt out a nice pair of silk pyjamas." And without waiting for her comment Peter Worthing dashed for the stairs. Maryon Santley gazed after him amazed. She did not know whether she wanted to laugh or to cry. Peter Worthing had a way of making things look so ridiculously easy—almost fantastical, she thought; but all the same she knew it would take more than the Honourable Peter to obliterate the picture of a smoking .revolver and a man falling lifeless to the floor. He returned a moment later bearing a pair of blue silk pyjamas over his arm. "Afraid you'll find them a bit ample," he smiled, "but no doubt by to-morrow night we'll be able to arrange for some of your things to bo sent down, and then you'll bo more comfortable " "I don't know what to think about it all," she told him, "but I'd feel easier if I knew what's happened to Daddy." "No need to worry about that," he reassured her. "Vorsada wouldn't dare —but you mustn't think about that. It's sleep you need—and breakfast in bed. Shall we say ten o'clock? It's nearly four now." Sho turned in the doorway, and their was a look ,of silent gratitude in her dark eyes. "Good-night, Mr. Santley," sho called, huskily. When she had gone, Peter Worthing flung another log on the fire. Then ho felt in tho pocket of his coat and pulled out a workman-liko revolver: gazed at it for a moment and seated himself in a chair, but not before ho had closed the aperture in the curtains. CHAPTER VII. * Coincidental with tho Honourable Peter Worthing sitting racking his brains for some sort of solution to tho puzzle which Maryon Santley had presented him, throe men sat behind locked doors at Carleon Towers. Renol Vorsada looked an evil and sinister figure in the deep armchair. There wore ridges across the yellow parchment of his brow and his beak of a nose imparted just that touch of tho vulturino to complete the unpleosing picture. It was the same room into which Maryon - Santley had blundered with such disturbing consequences—the room from which Robert Santley had disappeared a few moments ago. Vorsada consulted his watch. Two other men were in tho room. Larry Carter was lazing indifferently in a chair beside the electric fire, but Ivan Godorvsky paced the carpet like a nervous panther, easting furtive but anxious glances first at the closed door and then at the curtained window.

Godorvsky interrupted bis P^ 1 ' for a moment and snarled ai Vorsada. " You're certnin that Santley can not get away? Quite, sure of that, eh Vorsada did not bo much as look at Godorvsky when he made his reply- " Don't be a fool, Ivan. No one ever loaves Carleon Towers when Henol Vor sada entertains a guest. Santley win bo safe enough. It's the girl I m f ried about. Where in the name Kremlin can Peterson have got to t Larry Carter twisted his head in the dl " C mers 0 on Always did have a weakne"SHe's pro Sly taken the dame out to breakfast." , Vorsada made no comment to the American's taunt. Carter was a useful boy, and so long as he remained useful he could talk just as much as ho nleased. After that-well, Vorsada had a wav of emphasising tho old saying that "dead men tell no tales. It was one of tho comer stones of Vorsada s rC A?°that moment a small green light glowed like an emerald eye in a cavity of Vorsada's desk, accompanied by a faint hut insistent buzzing. Vorsacja aroso from his chair and crossed over to the other side of the room. Ihose large hirsute hands touched something on the wainscotting. Ivan ceased to pace the room and raised inquiring Vorsada stood before an aperture sufficiently big to accommodate a telephone instrument. Ho removed tho receiver* and tho two men watched him. Carter turned to the Russian. " This joint gives me the jim-jams, Bolshy. I'll bo glad when this racket goes on vacation for a while so's I can live in an lionest-to-God hotel where there ain't no trap doors and concealed wires. Why, every time I get into bed I expect the darn thing to tip up on its head and make a fade-out into the wall. I'm getting kinda nervous, brother."

The Russian made a hissing noise from between his teeth, like the sudden escape of steam from a valve. . The pair of them watched Vorsada replace the receiver on the instrument; saw the panel snap silently back again into position. Vorsada turned toward the two men. There was a smile on his face, tho first for an hour. He turned to Carter.

" Well, Larry, my boy, that was Wrenn on the private line. He's just heard from New York. First thing Monday morning I want you to buy all the Texans you can lay your hands on. They're at fifteen at the moment. They will open at that and there will be blocks of 'em on the market. Split up into ten or twelve operators and don't sell under any circumstances, even if the price rises from fifteen to a hundred and fifteen."

Larry Carter looked interested. This was something ho could understand. Added to which it would give him an opportunity —much wanted—to escape from the surprising, if noble, architecture of one of England's country mansions. Godorvsky's eyes gleamed wildly. He understood. Like Vorsada, the money god had made him a slave. The merest hint of profit proved sufficient to stimulate his desire. " Am I in on this, Renol?" he asked, rubbing his oily hands together. " It is good business, hein?" But Vorsada had slumped down into his chair again, a look of disinterest on his face. His eyes narrowed as he regarded tho Russian. " No, Ivan. This is a special treat for the deserving poor. That is why I am entrusting it to Larry. He adores the bear-baiting." Godorvsky turned away with a gesture of futility. At tho window end of the room he halted in an attitude of listening. A cautious footstep sounded on the gravel outside the window. Immediately Vorsada was alert, his eager face turned toward the direction of the sound.

" He is coming," smiled the Russian, happy as a child. The curtains parted, just as they had done earlier in the evening, and a man stepped into tho room. He had dark hair, dark ejes and a distinctly olive complexion.

" Well?" There was a petulant note in Vorsada's voice as he asked the question. " She's spilling the beans to Worthing," he announced, and watched the surprised lifting of Vorsada's eyebrows. " You're quite sure of that?" " Quite. There was a convenient aperture in the curtains. I expect young Worthing knows all about it by now."

Vorsada appeared amused at the young man's information. " He does not suspect that you were watching?" The man shook his head. " I don't think so, although he did take a look around, so I guessed it was best to be getting back." " I wonder just what she has told him?" mused the financier, intriguingly. "What.could she tell him?" interposed Carter, with a sardonic smile. " I don't suppose she'll be confessing to murder. Not if she's wise, and let me tell you, Chief, that kid's got guts. The way she pulled that gun on Schultz was a fair treat. Couldn't have done it better myself.''

Vorsada fixed Carter with a steady stare.

"I think that's where you're wrong," he said. " I'd like to bet that she's, told him everything that happened . . . well, perhaps not everything," ho amended, with a smile, " and that's just what I didn't want. I've got an idea that young Worthing is snooping around for no good. Why ho should be is one of tho things I'd like to know. I'll swear he'd never met the girl before to-night, so we can rule out any collusion. > I discovered he'd got on to Davenham to get invited, and when I found that I decided to let Mr. Worthing have a little rope. I still think I'll continue to do that . . . keep him dangling a bit." " That's all right," Carter told him, " so long as you don't go giving him enough rope to have a piece over for someone's neck." Godorvsky halted in his almost ceaseless perambulations, and glared at Carter with those wild black eyes. " You have got cold feet, Meester Carter," he spat out venomously.

Carter's hand wont instinctively to his pocket, but Vorsada held up a warning finger. " Is it that \v.e have no more work to do but quarrel?" he asked acidly. " How often have I to tell you fools that when a man loses his temper he should go out of business. Let thero ho no more of it," ho snapped. " And now, gentlemen, thero is nothing more for to-night. Remember, at breakfast, Mr. Santley and his charniirlg daughter have had unexpectedly to return to London. So sudden and so regrettable." Ho paused, and turned to the newcomer, whom ho address as Carlos. " You, my dear Carlos, will continue your watchfulness into the habits of life down at the Honourable Peter Worthing's charming country cottage. Ho is expecting a visitor this morning. For lunch, I think he said. You will report to me at four o'clock, and should you require assistance you are to let me know immediately." Young Carlos drew himself up to attention and saluted smartly. (To be continued daily)