THREE STRANGE MEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23169, 15 October 1938, Page 17 (Supplement)

THREE STRANGE MEN

CHAPTER XXL—(Continued) TOE decoy wire to Sophie at the Trust offices fitted into the scheme in two ways —if the cottage after .-ill was to seo the end of it —either to suit the designs of Rumeley as lie had expressed them at the farmhouse they had left, or to draw George away from London again in search of her, in case he missed or evaded the trap which had been laid for him.

Hero Headley Barling might have had something very interesting to say. But he had not been seen since the morning after the Chatham wire, when he had reported merely that all seemed well at Tooting.

"I had no idea,of anything happening like that when Mr. Barling got me out of it," Sophie went on. "When I reached the steps of the Town Hall at Croydon, a man standing beside a car came and asked if 1 were Miss Cordery. When I said yes, ho replied that ho had been sent to meet me, and would tako mo to where you were lying hurt. Ho said you had slipped in front of his 1 master's car, but it was not very serious. He was certainly not the man who had taken me to Stepney. The minute I got into the car, ho was fumbling with the cushions, and something fell to the lloor and broke, like glass. I don't know what happened then. Something came over me, and I knew nothing more until I found myself in that strange empty room. When I looked round, it frightened me so dreadfully for the moment that —" "You screamed. I heard you." "I guessed Rumely at once,, and I knew that he had meant to kill me. Ho meant it last night—that is what he would have done, if you had not been there. Now tell me how you camo to be there! It was like something arranged by an unseen power." George responded, but before the story was ended they reached the city. Sophie ignored the call of Leadenhall Street; probably she was not expected thero this morning.. George's details were completed on their way to Brixton.

Leaving Sophie to tell the tale and dispel her mother's nightlong anxiety, George Parmitter lost no time in getting back to affairs. Ho went first to his office in Tottenham Court Road, saw that matters were in reasonable order thero, and hurried thence to his rooms in Brompton Road. Here be found a letter which occasioned him some surprise. It was from Cursitor Street, and ran as follows: "Dear Sir, —We regret to inform you that in consequence of an impending rearrangement of our affairs we are reluctantly obliged to relinquish from this date tho esteemed privilege of acting professionally on your benalf, and that we propose, subject to your approval, to transfer your interests now with us to Messrs. Thorgood and Wrenfold, of Dodworth Chambers, Long Acre, to whom we hope you will state your sanction or otherwise of our proposal at your early convenience. Meanwhile we unreservedly commend Messrs. Thorgood and Wrenfold to your implicit confidence. —Yours faithfully, Reed, Price and Tprkney." Putting this aside, with such dim speculation as came to his mind, George left his rooms intending to allay without more ado his anxious misgivings about the cottage at Tooting. If he hesitated, it was with a lurking hope that he might come upon Detective Hardy, in whom, it appeared, an interest in Rumely had been inspired. This hesitation sent him to the trust offices to drop in a word; and thence he was inclined to present himself at Dodworth Chambers for a brief interview. Before he turned into Long Acre, however, he observed the very man he was wanting to see, hurrying toward him from the direction of the Strand. ,» "I was hardly hoping to find you, Mr. Parmitter," the detective greeted him; "you have been like a needle in a haystack the last few days. I want a talk with you." "And T," said George, "want a companion as far as Tooting. You, in fact. Can you come?"

"I was about to suggest the same thing." So they set off together. On the way, Hardy explained how he had been put on the track of John Rumely of Bristol by Headley Barling, who knew something, and had mentioned other names; and he told the sequence of inquiries to which the trifling note about a man named Markham had given rise. Those inquiries had been met with strange answers here and there. But the most singular light on things had been thrown by Miss Cordery, when she that Runielv was moving in a secret affair with which the lawyers in Cursitor street had to do. An affair that seemed to him, Hardy, fantastic—absurd. The lawyers had refused either to talk, or to ? roduce a bit of Rumely's writing, hey would do nothing without the sanction of their client, George Parmitter, whose private affair it was. And what had George Parmitter to say to that? It was a question of joining one link to. another in a chain of evidence that should bring crime to justice, in the name of the law. George Parmitter had this to say to it: "I know what Miss Cordery told you, much in the same way as she told Mr. Barling. I don't disagree. But as for me, the lawyers are quite too considerate. It was my father's affair, not mine. The lawyers were concerned to keep me out of it." "Oh indeed?" "And look at this!" —George produced tho letter he had opened at his rooms. Hardy's expression grew shrewd as he read tho letter. "Think of that,'now.

(COPYRIGHT)

By C. T. PODMORE Author of " The Fault," etc. A thrilling story of a mysterious inheritance an<l a queer tangle of human emotions.

I should like to have this, for the present." "Take it," said George. Hardy resumed: "I'm not asking you to enlarge on Miss Cord cry's Confidence. But it's a good axiom never to conceal 1 anything from the police, however private it may be. You see. it was not so private that Rumely's share in it had nothing to do with your father's death." "How so?" "Through Markham. Markham's illicit interest in jewels. Healings in stolon stuff from the hands of crooks working under all sorts of names. Complications I have to get through. We'll go into it later. That is where the connection is established between your private affair and .John Rumely of Bristol. Jewels are a link in the chain. As for treasure in London, Mr. Parmitter —never heard of such a thing. Treasure of that sort is always where it was originally buried, and nobody ever knows exactly where that is." "You're wrong this time." Hardy shook his head, "it won't be found." "Those lawyers didn't think so. W% shall see." The urge to privacy was still in George Parmitter. He could not bring himself, at any rate, to reveal how desperately Rurnely had pursued Lis quest. The idea of publicity daunted him, even admitting that Rumely was unfit to be at large. But Hardy had already in his hands all the materials of a flaring sensation, whether George Parmitter reserved anything or not. "Now" ho said, "I'll tell you something. We have found out that John Rumely of Bristol is a perfectly respectable, goutly old gentleman of 63, who is now spending a week or two with his sister at Torquay." George stared at him. "What's that?" "Wo think—or 1 think—that someone elso got his letter and is impersonating him. That wouldn't have occurred to you." "Certainly it did not." "Furthermore, don't forget. Reed, Price and Torkney have a peculiar practice. Their cases are nearly all criminal, and they are always for the defence. Civil cases almost nil. Lawyers with an extensive criminal practice like theirs are as familiar with the underworld as the devil himself is. Something else —and you'll begin to see things. My chief at the Yard told mo this morning that when ho inquired of Leicester about Ephraim Diggs yesterday, ho got a reply that Mr. Higgs was just then burying a town councillor. Quaint, isn't it? And Arthur Boxwith, the clerk, lies in tho Manchester infirmary at present with a broken leg." "Good Lord—are you telling me that my father's lawyers were in collusion with peoplo of the underworld, to defeat his intentions? Miss Cordery's mother had an idea that they somehow had a finger in. the business, some secret bargain with the men." "Mrs. Cordery made a good guess. There isn't a deal of difference between her guess and mine. But here we are!" The cottage on their approach presented no unusual features. Walking round to the back, the first thing to greet their eyes was a complete upheaval of the garden, which had been ruthlessly turned over, soil, plants and grass indiscriminately, to the depth of a foot or so, as if in view of an entirely new lay-out. * From this, they saw that the window to the cellar had been boarded over from the inside, but the door was unsecured, while the .steps leading down wore thick with Boil and grit. Inside the collar was a floor of mingled earth «nd bricks, as if they had been tipped in loosely from a cart. Hardy v ripped the timber from the window to let more light in. "Well?" he said td George as they faced each other in brief wonder. "Is this what you expected to find?" "Something like this. It looks as if it's all over."

"Do you mean that treasure hunt? Anyone would rather suppose that you're going in for a renovation." In a corner a partiton of the wall by the floor had been pulled out. George Parmitter stooped to examine the spot. "See," ho said, ' "there was new mortaring here at some recent time. It" lias been scooped out of here like a cupboard that has hidden something. What about that?" "Yes?" said Hardy. "I see. Our men looking in, as they would, of course, would think nothing about tho garden being turned over. Something may have been said at the station to that effect—but we can make sure of that, when we call there. Shall we seo if anyone's inside I ?'' They went up tho inner staircase, finding that the door at the top was not secured. That nobody elso was about wa;s soon evident! In every room some disturbance had taken place, even to the floors. "Well?" said Hardy again, as they stood after another silence. "It doesn't follow that any such thing as treasure has been found." "I wish I could think so." "The question is, Mr. Parmitter, do you want anything done about this?" "I want to avoid reference to this treasure you don't believe in," Georgo replied. "That is easy enough, of course. But really, I had no other reason for expecting the place to be in such a mess, and nothing else explains it. I was thinking, when I asked you to come, there might be something here that would help you to trace Rumely." "Now you're talking," Hardy said, approvingly. "I must say, though, if something has been found which has got into tho wrong hands, I'm quite in sympathy with you. And I admit that, if valuable jewels can be stolen from here as thev have been, its a reasonable assumption that there might be more on the premises for the seeking. But my business is to lay hands on the spurious Rumely of Bristol. If there's anything more to come to light, it will come out then." (To bo continue! daily.)