ADVENTURE MYSTERIOUS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23011, 12 April 1938, Page 5

ADVENTURE MYSTERIOUS

(COPYRIGUt)

By FRANCIS MARLOWE 7 World-famtsd author, traveller and dramatist.

STRANGE MYSTERY SURROUNDS A BEAUTIFUL GIRL AND HER LIFE IS IN DANGER, BUT A DESPERATE AND DETERMINED LOVER APPEARS.

CHAPTER Xll.—(Continued) Intent on getting a taxi also, in which to continue h'ifc pursuit, Dick was passing the men with merely a casual glance at them, when he caught, in Tow-voiced instruction, the words: "Don't Jose sight of her, and 'phone when :. . It was an unfinished sentence as far as he was concerned, but it was enough. He moved without pause to the taxi he had chosen, giving not the faintest sign that ,the words lie had heard had any significance for him, but it was clearly established in his mind that the two men had an interest —undoubtedly an inimical one—in Patricia,' and he guessed now that the move that had caught his attention in the station was to ensuie certainty of her identity for the man who had just been assigned to follow her, The driver of the taxicab had the door of it open for him when he reached it. Dick spoke to him quickly. "You'll have five shillings over your fare if you do what 1 want," he said. "Hight, sir," the man replied appreciatively. "Follow that cab the lady's just getting intri. and find out. if you can, if It's being followed also by one of the Hien behind ma." The driver nodded understanding and •prang smartly to his seat. As his/cab moved forward, Dick saw that one of the men in whose movements he was interested wa.s boarding a taxi immediately behind the one ii.to which Pat ricja hnd disappeared. Satisfied that for the moment lie had done all that was possible to deal with this fresh development of the mystery, he sank back into his scat, relying on his driver t6 earn his promised five shillings. He was not in the least afraid that the man who had joined him in shadowing Patricia was aware that he himself was being shadowed, but the Circumstance of this man's startling intrusion • into the queer business added a very unwelcome perplexity to a puzzle already rporo than sufficiently complicated. That the man was not a police officer he felt assured. He might pos**bly be a private inquiry agent, though Dick douhted ei pn this; he had an air of prosperity and fairly good breeding about him not to be found in the averofficial o r iinolfici;i| sleuth. His companion, too. who had given him his instructions, was a typical, well-dressed, Well-groonwd city product, iiniuistak- *% a genuine business man. Whatever these men wore, Dick decided that they * e re in no way connected with the Police; Whoever they were, lie knew that he would recognise them again whenever lie met them. •Absorbed as he was in his thoughts, P'ck was not so entirely wrapped up j® them as to hp oblivious to the loute IS cab was taking. When it turned out Of Liverpool Street into London Wall 6 thought for a moment or two that iwricia was going to make a call at

the office where that morning he had sought Mr. Edward Tuscan, but niton it passed through that thoroughfare with no slackening of speed and took a right-hand turn into Moor gate Street lie exchanged this idea for the belief that she was making for the address in Hnrtipstead which she had given him before he left her at Norwich. When, however, his cab swept westward through Old Street and from thence progressed through C'lerkenwell to Bloomsbury, he felt that he must abandon this guess at her immediate destination or entirely discredit her driver's knowledge of the topography Of London. Ho had not succeeded in hitting on another probable end to her journey when the diminishing speed of his cub 'warned him to be prepared for its actual termination. A moment later his cab drew into the kerb and Btopped. By the time he had realised that he was in Southampton How, iust south of the Russell Hotel, his driver was at his cab door and had opened it. "The lady's cab pulled up at the Colonnade Hotel, sir, and she's just going in there," the man told him; then added, "the man you told me to look out for, sir, followed her all the way, and his cab pulled up just short of the Colonnade." "Thank you, driver," Dick said, and settled with him on a slightly more generous basis than they had agreed upon.

CHAPTER XIII. THK MYSTERIOUS SHADOW EH | Dick -was in no haste to enter tlie Colonnade Hotel. His driver, discreet man, had drawn up some score yards beyond it, thus giving him the opportunity, without arousing suspicion of espionage, of observing the movements of Patricia's unknown shadowei. This man, apparently deliberately slow in paying of! his cabman, was just turning into the hotel entrance when Dick, after a halt to light a cigarette, began a leisurely progress toward it. A slim, well-dressed man of about thirty-live, inconspicuous but for a slight black moustache and a somewhat beaklike nose, the spy was obviously in no way apprehensive of being watched, or ot recognition by Particia, tor there was not a symptom of i'urtiveness in his manner; lie had looked neither to right nor left since Dick had set eyes 011 him, and Patricia could '.ertainh not havo jrot further than the hotel lobby when he swung through the revolving doors after her Dick, so that Patricia should not be discomfited by sudden discovery that lie had followed her, had no mind to show hirnself inside the hotel until she had gone up to the room he presumed she intended to book. Therefore, and because he did not anticipate immediate dancer to bor from the man who had preceded him, he did not enter the •Colonnade until quite a minute after that man. When eventually he reached the hotel lobby Patricia was nowhere in sight, but at the reception desk, in the act of

signing the register, was her shadower. That the man had booked a room was obvious., and to Dirk this was satisfactory evidence that Patricia had already done this. Assured, then, that lie had trailed her to a temporary . haltingplace. lie needed but one piece of information to be rcad\ for his next move It was urgent, he felt, that she should know, without delay, that she was beitip; shadowed, and he intended to lose 110 time in conveying this fact to her. To manage this without a personal approach he had to make certain of the name in which she had registered. Tt might be that she had deemed it prudent to use a name other than her own in hooking the room, and to learn if she had done so he had to see the hotel register. The man who had just signed the book was still at the reception desk. He had just handed the clerk a note as deposit and was waiting for a receipt when Dick reached his side. For this purpose, Dick, if necessary, was prepared to book a room, but it happened that the clerk had not yet swung the register hack to its normal position, so that without need of an excuse for an inspection of the book Dick got the information he wanted in a quick glance at it. Patricia had registered in her own name, and, he noted, the entry beneath, the one made by the mqn beside him, was "James West — Brighton." His business at the reception desk done, Dick improvised an inquiry in response to the clerk's interrogative glance, and, having received an answer, turned from the desk and made his way back to the street, Without betraying any sign of interest in him, he saw that the man who had signed himself James West, of Brighton, had given him 110 more tha 11 a casual glance, and was apparently entirely unsuspicious that his pursuit of Patricia Langley had been discovered.

When he left the Colonnade Hotel, Dick crossed the road immediately and entered a post office which was almost exactly opposite to it. Hero ho went directly to a telephone booth, and when he had got its number from the directory, put through a call to the hotel he. had just left. VI want to speak to Miss Patricia he told the operator who answered him. There was a rather long interval, made necessary, he supposed, by a reference to the newly signed register, before he heard Patricia's voice. "Who wants Misis Lanyley?" she asked, anxiety just traceable in her tone. "It's Leslie —Dick Leslie--speaking," Dick snid hurriedly. You mustn't be annoyed with me for following you; von see, I'm sure you're in trouble of some kind . . 'l'm certainly greatly worried," Patricia cut in, "and there nre -reasons why you must not be seen with me, but T don't imagine that I'm in any danger." , "Hut there's a man following you," Dick told her. "He's in the hotel now: he tracked you from Liverpool Street station." There was a momentary pause before Patricia's reply, but when it came Dick was glad to note that his announcement had not the startling effect he had feared it might. "I was rather afraid of that," Patricia said calmly, "and it's useful to be certain about it. Can you describe him for mo?" When Dick had given a description by which she could not fail to identify her follower, Patricia spoke again. "I don't know anyone who looks like that," she said, "but I'll keep my eyes open for him."

"He calls himself James West, of Brighton," Dick added. "You'll find the name immediately after yours in the register." "1 don't know the name, but I might recognise the writing—l'll have a look at it," Patricia said.

Dick began to speak again, but Patricia interrupted him. "Don't say any more now," she said. "Since it's known I'm hero I can't trust this telephone." "But, Miss Latigley—Patricia—" Dick appealed. "If 1 can't meet you I must communicate with you somehow. For your own protection there are, things I should know and . . . " Again Patricia cut him short. 'T can't speak or listen any more now, Dick," .she said,\ her voice friendly but definite in resolution. "I have your address and can get your telephone number. When it's safe, or if I need you urgently, I'll communicate with you without delay." "But there's one think I think you ought to know at once." Dick raised his voice, anxiously, fearful lest Patricia should leave the telephone without hearing him. "Well!" she said. "Your Mr. Tuscan—l'm nearly certain jgit's the same man —it's in the evening papers—was found dead in his office this afternoon —murdered, I'm afraid." "Murdered!" Patricia breathed in an awed voice, and then the click of her receiver told Dick that she had cut him off. As Dick left the post office, gloomily resentful of the mysterious circumstances which still separated .him from Patricia, it occurred to him that} he had forgotten two important matters: First, he had omitted to ask Patricia what he Mas to do with the letter she had given him; and, secondly, he had neglected to trail her shndowcr until he had telephoned, as he had been instructed to, to the man he had left at Liverpool Street Station. Had he only done the latter, he reflected ruefully, he might have traced to its source, and got some understanding of, the menace from which, at all costs, he was determined to shield Patricia. CHAPTER XIV. PATRICIA IS GUARDED BT A DETECTIVE Vaguely defined though it was, the prospect of renewing acquaintance with Patricia, and the fact that he had succeeded in putting her on her guard against Mr. James West aud his accomplices, soon had a cheering effect on Dick Leslie's spirit. Hud he felt sure that she could manage to shake olf Mr. West's attentions he would have been / content to wait patiently for a message from her. Doubt on this point, however, left him unable to throw off his fears for her and it was only the thought that constituting himself her bodyguard and watch dog might add to her worries, and possibly incur her lasting displeasure, that kept him from returning to the Colonnade Hotel to await developments. It was a very considerable relief to him, therefore, when he hit on a plan by which he hoped to provide protection for Patricia without intruding himself personally on her. It meant leaving her unguarded for half-an-liour or so, but that risk would have to be taken. It would probably bo a pogligible one, for he regarded it ns unlikely that she would be in any hurry to leave her hotel. Having decided that he could not better the plan that had occurred to hjin, he hailed a passing cab and directed its driver to take him to Duke Street, Piccadilly. Here, in a first-floor office of the building which he entered, he had the luck to find , disengaged the man whom he sought. This was a Mr. John Everton, a retired Scotland Yard inspector, who was the head of a

private detective agency of excellent repute. Everton, a pleasant-faced giant, who looked more like a gentlemanfanner than a detective, was no stranger to Dick, who a year or so earlier had used his organisation on some delicate business inquiries. Dick plunged quickly into the matter of his call. "Have you a keen, reliable man —an active, hefty chap—that you can let me have indefinitely?" he asked. "There's Long—T think you know him," Everton replied promptly. "He cleaned up ft job this morning, and is free for as long as you want him. What's the nature of the business Mr. Leslie?" "It's rather unusual," Dick explained; "it needs discretion and patience, and may call for prompt and vigorous action —Long's just the man for it." "You know we're not police officers, Mr. Leslie," Everton interrupted suggestively, and added "Prompt and vigorous action isn't always wise unless there's a warrant behind it." (To be continued daily)