DEAD MEN'S SHOES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23222, 16 December 1938, Page 3

DEAD MEN'S SHOES

CHAPTER CXLII. WORD FROM JUDE Sonia made her way through the crowd that was shuffling through a drizzle of rain in tho open square behind the town hall. The next moment she saw one of the King's Elm cars sliding into the square, driven by Grant, who jumped out. She pushed her way toward him. "Here, ma'am! This came just after you lel't," lie said, and thrust a telegram into her hand. She ripped open the envelope. "Handed in at 10.5. Dykeiield. "Clicked. Meet me Bull Hotel. Dead certainty. Jude." To Sonia it was like a lightning Hash from a black sky. She crushed up the rag of paper in her hand. She hurried off to the side door of the courthouse. Approaching the door was Sergeant Howe, in full uniform. Sonia touched him on the arm. "Howe, 1 want you," she said, and drew him aside toward tho big Bontley saloon in which she had driven down to the court. "Look here!" She showed him the telegram. Howe looked at it and blinked. "It's him!" said Sonia. "Jude's found him!" "Found him!" Howe turned eyes of utter incredulity upon her. "I'm going at once. You're coming with me," said Sonia. "Don't stand there blinking. Jump into my car." "Me!" For a second Howe looked staggered. "But . . ." Then he slipped quietly into the car. "Get on with it, ma'am!" said Howe, as Sonia climbed into the driver's seat and snapped her foot down on the starter. "You've better slide us out of it, quick. If I'm seen quitting like this they'll be arresting me!"* Sonia glanced at him and laughed aloud as sho drove down High Street and clear of the town "If the luck holds, Mrs. Chalmers," added Howe, "we ought to be able to do each other a bit of good—but I'm not quite dressed for the part." Sonia frowned and swung tho car toward King's Elm. "I've two hundred miles to cover—under five hours, so we'll have to burn the ground," she said, braking as they neared Howe's house. "1 don't know how long it takes a policeman to change his suit." "I'll break my own record," said Howe, throwing the door open. He ran along the garden path and dived into his office. Sonia waited in the car, breathless, reviewing the incidents of the morning. Presently she saw another policeman approaching. She stiffened with dismay and-foreboding. It was P.C. Willett, who was on duty in the village street. He came up to the car, peeped in through tho window, and, seeing Sonia, saluted her gravely. "If you're wanting the sergeant, ma'am, he's up at the assize," ho said. "Is he?" returned Sonia. Ho had not been called at the trial. "I think they're treated Sergeant Howe rather unfairly over this case. Don't you?"

Willet glanced at her and nodded very slightly. "It's come all right, ma'am, in spite of Guthrie," said Willet. "1 don't know how much of a surprise it'll be to the superintendent when lie hears about this. They've sent the message along to him at the court; he'll know in 20 minutes or less." "Know what?" "About this body they claim they've found over at Stannary—and I'll take my oath it wasn't there yesterday, for I came by the place." CHAPTER CXLIII. in 13 DEAD IIAND Sonia gasped. "Body ?" "1 said body—but it seems what they've found is a man's hand, or it may be his arm, jammed between the rocks in the outflow of the water. But the body must be there. Unless " Sonia gripped the door handle. "In the mine!" "Not the mine—away down at the outfall by the river—far side of Stannary Hill, ma'am. Can't quite make it out myself—-sounds queer. These floods must have shifted it. You wouldn't think a dead man " "For goodness' sake, tell me what you know!" exclaimed Sonia. "Have you see)) it?" "No, ma'am. Met Baxter from Norchester just now, and he told me. Not sure who found it, whether it was Guthrie's men or Inspector Fryth—he's over there on the spot now. 1 suppose you know, ma'am, there was a lot of searching done at the Stannary mine, which is all flooded out. Well, it seems they have found somethin' now — though it sounds to mo a bit like a miracle out of the Scriptures —this dead chap's hand " "That's no miracle —unless natural causes are a miracle," broke in Howe's voice; and Sonia was suddenly aware of him, clad in a suit of plain blue serge, close against Willct's elbow, listening eagerly. "You say Fryth's there, joe?" "Yes; only just found it —sent for Guthrie. They haven't got the body out yet, but when they do- " "But whose?" exclaimed Sonia. "They know who it is?" "By what 1 could hear they allow it's tiie sailor chap Barber. They " "Never mind who it is, Joe; where is it?" cut in Howe. "Got the spot?" "The middle adit, above the river by Crockett's farm."

"1 know. 0.K., get on with your job; I've one of my own now. And, Joe, don't tell 'em." Howe took the constable by the arm, taking him up the path, said a few words under his breath. Willet nodded, gave a faint grin, and walked stolidly into the office. Howe returned to Sonia, sitting in the car, white with excitement. "Howe, we must go and see this first. I've got to know. Can we get near the place?" "There's a road runs close by it. I'll direct you.

They crossed the railway by the bridge lower down, and left along the valley on the far side of Stannary Hill. Presently the car was running along a narrow road just above a rooky river swollen by the Hoods on their right hand. On the leit rose the steep slope of the hill. "But we're nowhere near the mine here," said Sonia. "Certainly we are. We're comin' round to what you might call the back door of it —far side of the hill from King's Flm. You, see, Mrs. Chalmers, anything that did happen to be down inside there might drift round through the pits till Judgment Day. There's just the chance, I expect, that it might drive through to this side, for no one knows the inside of the Stannary mine, and fetch up behind one of the old blocked drainage channels —adits, they .call 'em. That's what must have happened, unless Joe Willct's story is a dream. You'll see directly. Go steady, ma'am; this is a wicked road." Thy car humped along the stony track and stopped. Howe threw tho door open. A small turbid stream running down the hillside cut across tho road and barred the way. A farmhouse in ruins stood below by the river. The spot looked utterly desolate in tho driving rain.

A group of five men in police uniforms and waterproof capes stood silent at the! head of the little gully 200 yards away up the steep slope to'the left..

Sonia followed Howe up tho brink of tho gully. She saw before her a rubble of rocks * and boulders of limestone,

(COPYRIGHT)

By JOHN GOODWIN Author of -Scaled Orders," "Paid In Full." "The Shadow Man." etc. A story of a crime that was beyond solution until a loving girl followed her intuition.

almost as steep as a wall, blocking what had evidently been an outlet through the hillside —a small tunnel or culvert. A stream from under the rocks flowing down the slope. A little above the ground level, through a narrow fissure between two boulders, a thin stream of limey water spouted forth. And here was a sight arresting and uncanny. Through the centre of the waterspout a man's hand and wrist protruded. Of the body nothing was to be seen. That was behind the jammed screen of rock. Nothing but a handas though he were trying to grope his way out of the flooded' channels that riddled the interior of the Stannary Hill. Some trick of the underground currents had driven the body there. A largo hand, white ami bloated, with a thick wrist and an inch or two of dark, sodden sleeve. It seemed to point ironically at Sonia. It waggled slightly' in the stream of water that gushed through the cleft; one could almost have imagined it alive and Reckoning. Sonia stared at the thing dumbly. One of the policemen was speaking, but sho hardly heard him. "Needs a. quarry gang . . . shift those rocks . . . screwjacks and levers . . . get him out • . • half a day's work." She moved a step or two nearer to the hand and looked again. Then, with a sigh and a little shiver, she turned away, glancing round for Howe. Ho was away to 0110 side, talking in an undertone to the inspector. "Let's get back," said Sonia; somehow her own voice sounded strange to her. She made her way down the hillside. Before she reached the car Howe overtook her and opened the door. She swung the car with difficulty; neither of them spoke till they were clear of tho place and nearing the high road. "That's that," said Howe softly. "Was Guthrie right after all? He's a bit lato with it. And so's the dead man. Hut murder will out if you give it time." Sonia said nothing. "You win," said Howe. "This fits into your case all right, Mrs. Chalmers —fits it like a glove; unless we've made one last big mistake. Not a nice sight, though, was jt? I take it we agree who that fellow is?" "Yes," said Sonia. "Of course, I know. So do they, so does Guthrie by this time—if he doesn't he soon will! But Brian's not out of danger yet. We haven't got our man. I'm not interested in the dead. I'm only concerned with the living. Now let's get on, Howe!" She turned over the railway bridge, and in 30 seconds the car was roaring along the northward road. (To bo continued daily.)