THE RIDERLESS HORSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23149, 22 September 1938, Page 24

THE RIDERLESS HORSE

CHAPTER XXVlll.—(Continued)

"Liquor running!" Adhemar exclaimed scornfully. "Diamonds! What I always said."

"1.8.D. By Jove!" "And gun running," Adhemar added reverently.

"Whew!" whistled Malcolm. "They, were doing all that? How do you know 1 ?"

"Tom, confounded rascal—l never liked that boy; he told the police. And they fpund them —a whole parcel of stones in George Loftus's suit case in his room at Campsie, some of them nearly as big as pigeon eggs! Don't you think that I'm right, when 1 say that if there are diamonds in Basutoland, we'vo got them here too? There's only the river in between, you know; you must remember that."

But the old man did not pause for Malcolm to reply. "

"Old Petros, the boat boy, was here just now. He says that that famous boat of theirs was full of liquor and sixty rifles—sixty! And ammunition! The police have them, and Petros saw them with his own eyes this morning. Would you have believed that, now.'' "I begin to understand," replied Malcolm soberly, "why Mortimer was killed, and then Japie and that boy Sam."/ . "And that poor child Cynthia! "Lord, yes," said Malcolm. "What s happened to her? Did she take it badly? A nd where'e Corneille?" Adhemar hurriedly took his watch from his pocket. "The buggy must be ready, he said. "I must go. Corneille is marrying Cynthia to-day—bv special licence—in Brandfontein. He is taking her away to Durban at once. Poor child she is very upset. I must go. I'll be back this afternoon." , ■ He rose and walked toward the door, but turned half way. . "And you!" he exclaimed. \vhat are you doing still out of bed, when I told you you mustn't get up? Into bed, mv boy; and don't move till I come back." "If you think it's all right," blurted out Malcolm, suddenly realizing tho part he had played in Cj-nthia's bereavement; "give them my love and say 1 ditii sofry. "Ycm! You did quite right. Wo have been cheated too long. Bj' and by Cynthia will know too." And with that he was gone.

CHAPTER XXIX

CURIOUS CONFESSION

"Weil, if you're quite certain," said Malcolm, " that Cynthia is determined to sell/ the place, and that you yourself have no feeling in the matter I d love to buy it." "Good man," replied Corneille, "that's a great relief to me. Cynthia ■wouldn't live here at any price; and as for myself, I feel quite differently about the whole thing, because it's; you. "Right; then that's settled, said Malcolm, and "the two friends shook hands formally over the bargain. Thev were sitting on the Campsie veranda on the day of Cynthia s and Corneille's return from their honeymoon, within sight of the river, kliotlo and kopje, the scene of those events "which, in less than two months, had ■wrought such a change in their future. "Then you don't resent my share in that -wretched business!" Malcolm asked. "Ever since that night Ive wanted to tell you how rotten I telt about, it, but I didn't like to write. 1 swear to you, old lad, that until I fired that Verev pistol I had absolutely no idea that it was Channrag and Loftus. "I know. They had us on toast, just as much as you. What I still can t get over is Channing's cold-bloodedness. And what a consummate actor! Just think, that on that night when we knocked him up to tell him about Mortimer, he was as ordinary and phlegmatic as he was always: and ne had just got home after his first murder. And Cynthia, his own sister—just think of it." t . "Perhaps you'd like to know the true reason for that dirty bit of work, said Malcolm; "and, as it happens, an explanation of the whole business, iron} A to Z. I had a letter this morning; you'4l never guess from whom. A most astonishing epistle, from our friend Kerrivalt." > ... "Kerrivalt!" t , ... "In the flesh, old bird; and written to the life. But hang on; IM get it, and you can read the amazing document yourself." . , . , When Malcolm, who, since Cynthia s and Corneille's departure had been living at Campsie and managing the farm had returned with drinks, he and Corneille filled their glasses, and Malcolm read Dr. Kerrivalt's letter. It was headed Lourenco Marques. "My Dear Green. —In order that you may the better understand iny unfortunate position, I shall explain my connection with the Loftus-Channing combination "from its inception. "Three and a-half years ago, Channing, who was lamentably short of mnripy and who owed Loftus more than he could ever hope to repay, discovered ty accident the secret passage that connects the Campsie cave with the river. . "A few days later. Loftus arrived ort one 6f his periodic visits of exaction. His fertile brain did not take long to assess the value of tunnel. Here was a way of opening a canteen in Basutoland", which, as Mr. Recoulle always realised, would make you a millionaire in no,time. It was a safe venture for Loftus, and Channing, never at any time very scrupulous, did not take much persuading to come in. L was an afterthought, an afterthought, let me add, of Loftus' brain. He was aware of my ,own little , weakness and frankly'l did-not need much urging. After all, to a soul that is forever thirsty, a case a week, free, gratis, merely on condition that it shine a harmless little torch six times from the police post, is not to be despised. The object, I should say, of my signals, was to assure our friends on the river that the police were not on patrol—an (inlikely enough possibility in any case, but pne which had to be eliminated; for this was to be a safe game. And, it was a safe game for three solid years. The trade developed' into one in which diamonds, and then arms,, were included, and before the end of the first year my own honorarium had been increased to two cases. ' "Nothing was left to chance. The whole scheme was fool-proof. Our friend Manko, the'chief, who was, you know, an old racing friend of Loftus, entered whole-heartedly into the spirit of the trade. He readily took on the role of commission and delivery agent, besides being our chief customerj indeed, ho made, everything still safer for us by becoming sole agent and distributor of our commodities. We dealt with him alone, and payments were all in kind — cattle and diamonds on one side and drink and arms on the other; and you will realise that there was no difficulty in accounting for inconveniently large amounts deposited in the bank, when Channing could pretend to do bo regular a speculative trade in Basutoland cattle. "That is how Manko came to close that path to the river;; It gave his minions greater privacy on:the river bank, though that was hardly accessary, as that spot was already known to every native as the lafrof the mythical

By JEAN and CYRIL CASALIS A mystery story of strange happenings by night beside a South African river, where only slender clues are available to lead toward an answer to a great riddle.

(COPT RIGHT) I

serpent, the great Kwena. One or two natives saw the boat cross when tli6 trade first began. That was enough. The news of the snake spread far and wide through Basutoland and ensured us absolute safety; and 1 doubt that even now you would get natives going to that part of tho river at night. "Shortly after the plan had been conceived that great philanthropist Loftus sent down a batch of a hundred down-and-outs from Johannesburg for a month's holiday at Campsie. During the day they were down-and-outs; doubtless they benefited by the 1 change, for nt night they were a band of most efficient workmen who installed not only the tank at the Campsie pump, which received the daily 'supplies brought from Brandfontein in the false-bottomed whey cart by the admirable Tom, but also the pipe-line which allowed the precious liquid to gravitate to the and then half-way down the passage, where it was tapped into canvas waterbottles.

"That gang also brought with them the mechanical arquebus which fired the life-line bv which the boat was drawn across to Basutoland, and the collapsible boat whose design was conceived by Loftus. Corneille will remember, too. that Channing got all his farm machinery through Loftus and,-unlike everybody else received it in its original export cases; and these provided an excellent means for getting the rifles for the trade in arms to Campsio. "The storekeeper Aaronson supplied us, and his way of doing so was also the safest imaginable. Our daily supplies were poured by his own hands into a wooden vat concealed in the roof above his private office. A pipe led from it into the wall below, at the spot beside which you may have noticed Tom's whey cart always stood when lie was resting his horses in the hotel yard. It was a matter of only a few minutes for Tom to connect the rubber tube attached to the whey cart with the tap concealed in the wall, and to the process of transferring supplies when, conforming to Channing's curious fad lie watered his horses at the Campsie 'pump on his return home. "The only other detail in the organisation 1 have not yet explained is the signal from Campsie to Chief Manko to apprise him of the delivery of consignments. Will you tell me how you discovered the secret of those signals and were thus able to keep watch at the river on the nights on which we operated? .It defeats me that "anyone could have read mischief in a mob of cattle grazing on a bult recognised as set apart for the special delectation of half-starved Basutoland cattle."

"I didn't," interposed Malcolm. "Maraka spotted that." "Our troubles began," the letter continued, "while Tom was carrying sonic; of the rifles intended for Basutoland to the cave. Mortimer had chosen, at a time when all sensible people are taking a well-earned rest, to go to that one place on Campsie in search of a flower. That what he saw interested him cannot be denied. In tlic words of Tom, he gaped, and the speed with which he left the khotlo made it only too plain that he did not intend to keep the knowledge he had acquired to himself. Tom did what he could. He raced back to Channing and reported. (To be concluded.)