THE RAVEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22461, 3 July 1936, Page 20

THE RAVEN

By LIONEL HAMILTON

AND ROMANCE

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued) Roger began to think of his uncle. Ho expected that tho years would have made great changes. Midas Lee, from tho time that ho had retired from active work, had lost a great deal of his energy. During the five years since he had last seen him, the old man had rarely moved from The Towers, if rumour was true.

Tho Lagonda turned toward the drive gates of the big house. As always, a sense of his own impoteney overawed Roger Trentham as he saw the great piles of Tho Towers, its sweeping lawns, carefully kept, the granite pillars in front of tho building itself, and the two Norman Towers on either side, not part of the actual building, but kept because of their historical importance. After the storm of the previous day, tho weather was clear, and a strong sun was shining from a cloudless sky. A nip in tho air, seasonable and welcome, gave a crispness to the fields and trees. He could hardly have returned to The Towers on a better day. Roger brought the car up outside the main doors of tho house, and hurried up the granite stops. As he reached the doors, they swung open. He saw the bent figure of an old man, Parker, butler to Midas Lee for as long as l'rentham could remember. The latter smiled and stretched out his hand. An answering smilo illuminated the face of the old man —

And then tho thing happened which turned Roger Trentham's blood cold! There was no sound, but his hat was whisked suddenly from his as though by a vagrant eddy of wind. Then something bit into his leg, making hiiu wince—and as lie winced, he looked at Parker, and saw the sudden, dark hole in tho centre of tho old man's forehead! Tho hole widened, and grew red. Parker's eyes opened and closed, a queer, ■ croaking sound echoed in his throat. Then ho dropped forward, into Roger's arms. The man was dead! Killed by a bullet in the brain! » * • * *

"No sign of a man at all," said Superintendent Fowler. "Ho'd ample time to get away, of course. He used a rifle, and tho rango was probably several hundred yards." Roger Trentham nodded. Ho was sitting in the library of Tho Towers, a lofty, sunlit room, cheerful and bright in the morning air. But Trentham was a long way from being cheerful. He drank a strong whisky-and-soda, which he needed badly to steady himself, and looked at tho detective grimly. "He got away this time," he admitted, "but we'll get him, in the long run." Fowler nodded, but ho was a badly worried man. "The trouble is," he said, how many more crimes are we going to meet before we get him. r lhis is ; tho third killing we can tie on to lhe Raven —" Roger Trentham nodded, but he felt sick. The death of the old man was the more terrible because Parker had died, bevond doubt, instead of him. The bullets, fired by a man who had been in hiding in the grounds of The Towers, but for whom tho police had searched in vain, had unquestionably been intended for him. "How's your leg?" Fowler asked. "Only a scratch," said Roger. "What beats me is—why did they shoot at me? How could they know that I was in the game anywhere?" Fowler grimaced. "A dozen ways," he said. You might have been followed from Guildford, last night. You might have been seen while you were waiting jutside the Denver Club. You might have been overheard, talking with Carliss. ino Raven's powerful, Trentham, and lie s got an organisation which is nearly perfect. We've no idea who his men are. For all we know—" the detective 'smiled a little as he went on— you might be Tho Raven himself, pulling the wool over our eyes." Trentham recognised the truth or tne other's words. The Raven was unknown. He might, literally, bo anybody, known or unknown to the police. And, judging from this morning's grim affair, his organisation was perfect. "All the same," said l'owler, la be surprised if you were our man, Trentham. Well—you'd better see your uncle." " Ho hasn't been told about —about Parker, has he?" " No. Best leave that for a while, I think." Roger nodded, and took another drink, milder this time. Then he went along the passages of the great house, led by a footman who was white-faced with the horror of the murder.

" I'll go in by myself," said Roger, as the man stopped by a door. "Go and take a strong drink, man. You need it."

The man nodded, and turned away. Roger Trentham, for the first time in five years, entered the room in which a man who had once been reputed to be among the richest men in England, was sitting.

He had prepared himself for changes, but not for a moment had he expected to find Midas Leo as he did. Fie was genuinely shocked, although he had little enough cause for affection toward the old man.

Midas Lee was sitting in an invalid's chair against the high, open window of his bedroom. The room was sparsely i furnished, very much the same as it had been five years before. Only the man had changed.

The snow-white hair was now thin and straggly, barely covering his great head. The head itself seemed to have shrivelled up, like Midas Lee's whole frame. It was covered with blue, upstanding veins, which grew larger over tho high forehead, and ran down into the scraggy neck. Tho skin was stretched tight across the face—Midas Leo looked like a, living skeleton, a horrible effigy of a man. But his eyes, grey and alert, were still strong, and he stared at Trentham with a twisted smile, offering his thin, veined hand, a hand which trembled in Trentham's grasp. " Well?" The voice was high-pitched, but strong. "How do .you think I'm looking, Roger? Like an old crow, eh, who's too long adying?" Roger forced a smile. He had prepared himself for the old man's caustic speeches. " You're not looking so well," lie admitted, " but you're talking pretty much tho same, uncle," " Glad to see me, eh?" " Of course. I wouldn't have come if I hadn't wanted to." Midas Leo chuckled.

" And what about tho old money chests, Roger? Didn't they have any kind of attraction?"

" I've enough money and to spare," said Roger, cheerfully. " I camo because you sent for mo."

Midas Leo nodded, and his head moved backward and forward, as though pulled by a string. " Aye," ho said, staring hard at the younger man, " you always said you could get along without me, and you proved it. You've got guts, Roger—and I didn't think you, had." " You didn't stop to think," said Roger, still cheerfully. " You assumed that I hadn't, and left it at that." Lee chuckled, a high-pitched chuckle. " Aye, and your talk isn't so bad. either. You're the only man who told me what I could do with myself, Roger,

AN ABSORBING TALE OF CRIME, MYSTERY

Midas Lee laughed again

(COPYRIGHT)

and that's a thing you ought to be' proud of. You annoyed me, young fellow. i thought you'd come back, grovelling, and 3'ou didn't. But that's the past, eh? Gone and forgiven, eh?" " I've never borne malice," said Roger, " and I'm not going to start now."

"Ah I" Midas Lee's head stopped moving, and he peered at his nephew through his heavily lidded eyes. "I've followed your career, Roger. From the time that 1 found you were with The Wire, I've watched you. You've done well. You ought to have learned how to handle money. Do you think you have?"

Roger laughed, but there was grimness in his voice.

" I've learned not to think of it as the beginning and end of everything," lie said.

" Well said, Roger, well said. If I'd learned that before I did, maybe I'd have had you with me, instead of being surrounded by a lot of moneygrubbing little varmints. A3 r e. Well—who's the woman, Roger?" His nephew looked startled. " What woman?" he asked. Lee went off into a high pitched cackle.

" No girl, eh? Just the bachelor 1 You've a wise old head on those young shoulders—•"

" I haven't met anyone whom I'd like to marry," said Trentham quietly. " If I had I'd have been married."

Lee stopped laughing and peered at him.

"Do as you like, eh? No one to worry what you do with your life? Well—l've found a girl for you, Roger." There was a sudden silence in tho room. Trentham stared at tho old man as though he had seen a ghost. Midas Log stared back, with a glint in his old eyes.

" Do you mean to tell me," asked Roger at last, " that you sent for me to tell me that?"

"Nonsense! I sent for you to tell you a lot of things. One of them's about the girl. You'll be a fool if you lose her, Roger. She's a handsome wench, and a worthy one for a Lee."

" What's meat for a Lee might poison a Trentham," said the younger man, quietly. Inwardly he was still gasping. This was the last thing th<at had entered his head! Midas Lee scowled at him.

" Your mother was a Lee," he said, " and you're more my family than Trentham's. But we'll not go into that, Roger. You treated me fairly and I'll do the same for you. But the girl. You'll give her a run?" Roger brushed his hand through his hair.

" I haven't quite got hold of her, yet," he admitted. " What makes you think she'd want. to marry me—even if I wanted to marry her? Does she know anything about me?" The old man shook his head. " Not a thing. But I'm telling you, Roger, that she's tho girl for you. She's the daughter of an old friend of mine—and when you see her you'll feel your blood racing, if you've any blood in your veins." Roger laughed. It was the only thing which seemed to suit tho occasion.

" When do 1 see this paragon?" " I'll give you her address," said Midas Lee. " Don't stand there grinning, you young fool. I've only seen her twice, and 1 told myself that there was Roger's girl. That's enough, isn't it? Stop laughing—"

" Can I have her name as well as her address?" asked the younger man, trying hard to keep a straight face. Lee .'looked at him suspiciously. " You're an insolent young devil," he said. " Her name's Anne —Anne Devine. She lives with her father at 7 King's Terrace, Mayfair. She's as rich as you are—"

" That's not saying much," said Roger. " I'm saying a lot," snapped Midas liee. " You're worth a hundred thousand pounds, Roger. I've not willed it to you. I've made a gift of it. You'll find a credit for that amount in your bank —and you'll see your bank manager's face change, young fellow—money makes the mare go. But that's enough of tho girl. You'll see her, Roger? Promise mo that?" Trentham loked awkward.

" Well—l'll try." " Try nothing!" snapped Midas Lee. " I'll give you a letter of introduction to her father—and when you see him you'll see her. She knows nothing about you," he added quickly. " I'm not fool enough to think you'd have a marriage arranged, for the sake of a bit of money. But —that's enough of the girl, 1 said. What did you do last night, drat you?" Roger laughed again. Now, very differently from the five years before, lie could see tho attractive points in tho old man. Midas Leo was shrewd, but there was a humanity beneath that shrewdness, a humanity which had long been hidden. 1 was in Scotland yesterday morning," he said. " Your wire was sent on from my flat. I came straight down."

"And when you got here you went off on some fool's errand for that idiot of a policeman." Leo scowled. His opinion of Robert Fowler was obviously not high. "Tacha! On tho premises while twenty-thousand pounds worth of jewels were being stolen. Tacha! I'd policeman him! But where did you go?" "London," said Roger briefly. "I traced my man all right " "You moan you've got him?" Midas Lee's voice cracked.

"No," said tho younger man. "Ho dodged nie, but 1 managed to find out where he went to room. But that's nothing for you to worry about, uncle."

Midas glared at him. 'Tool! You always were a fool. Nothing for me to worry about when I loso jewels like that. Who's going to do the worrying? You? Parker? That idiot of a policeman?"

"Fowler's all right," said Roger. "He's one of the best men at the Yard, but he's struck something unusual in The Raven. But he'll get him, in the long run."

"Will ho? And who's going to help him?"

Roger laughed again. "I am," ho said cheerfully, "so that ought to work the oracle. I'm after The Raven "

"For that rag of a paper that,you work for?"

"Partly. Partly because —well, you heard about tho bridge, didn't you?" To his surprise, Leo laughed suddenly. "Aye. 1 heard about it, and you'll admit it was clover, Roger? Too clover for Roger Fowler?" "And murderous," added Roger, grimlv. "I'll get Tho Raven " TI is uncle stared at him, quocrly. "So. You will, will you? And before you do you'll go where the policemen nearly went last night. Suicide's an ugly word, Roger. Do you like it?" "It's not so ugly as murder," said Trentham.

Midas Lee stared at him. Then, for a third time, ho broke into that horrible, high-pitched laugh. Suddenly his head dropped on to his chest and his hands and arms moved convulsively. The laugh died down to a rattle in his throat.

Roger leapt forward, lifting that old head up. Midas Leo's eves were closed, his face was still. With a sudden, horrible thought, the other man felt for his heart. There was no sound Midas Lee was dead. (To be continued daily)