CHATEAU SINISTER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23340, 8 May 1939, Page 5

CHATEAU SINISTER

CHAPTER Xll.—(.Continued) While speaking he had walked to one of the French windows, flinging it wide and passing out on the terrace. The deep song of the sea-wash drifted up from the rocks immediately below the Chateau, and the tide was just on the flow. One? could see the vollow sands of the tiny cove about which he had just, been speaking Far out to sea, still scarcely moving, Tvas that single-funnelled luxury yacht ■ he had earlier noticed off Biarritz. She made a brilliant patch of white against the dark blue of the night, and flood-lit by her lights. Nearer, as if joining her from land, a" tiny white motor-boat sped out to sen, leaving a frothy wake CTHara remembered now that earlier the sea had been hidden bv mist, which sinre had suddenly lifted. The mist could in fact he seen receding swiftly in the far west, in the shape of a long darkish streak of cloud. Much might have been happening. O'Hara suddenly realised, under cover of that blanket ' of'sea-fog in which the Chateau might for some time have been shrouded. Ho to understand how easily that motor-launch heading seawards from shore, clearly making with all speed for that slow-moving luxury-vaeht, might have been connected with the outrage of to-night. Yet what, he asked himself, did that matter? He turned to the waiting and nuzzled Rittenberg, who was asking: "What's, that about secret passages? • "However they got in or out," O'Hara said, "they got away with what thev wanted—" ' "What we wanted! ' the other corrrHrd him. "Anvhow, the clue in that sealed packet-" , "It mav not matter so much, O'Hara said. "And. anyway, we can't do anv good, locking the stable-door after the horse has been stolen." "What about your nolice-friend ? Hadn't we ' better get liini on the •phone, so he can start after those thieves, wherever they've gone?' "I doubt if I could contact with him this hour." O'Hara decided after a glance at his wrist-watch. And it would be worse than useless notifying the local police. Anyhow, I should he seeing Carnot in the morning. Id arranged that already this evening. He's coming here—" "What's the use of bothering about that French policeman?" interrupted ' Carvl, joining them, and looking pale. "A lot of use he's proved up to now. This place isn't safe to live m, if thieves can come and go like that, without even being seen! Just as well, I tlunK, we've decided to go to London m the is decided?'' Rittenberg, interested, looked from 0 Hara to Caryl "T m mo y sV certainly ami Caesar there—" her fingers fluttered in an eloquent gesture toward 0 tiaia seems to think 1 ought to keep in the ' background and stay where 1 am,\\hilo he finds out what that letter of to-day meant, Julius. But I'm doing that for invself, thinks all the same, especially after what's been happening here to-

_• Ui »> "I'll arrange for us to be flown over," O'Hara said, seeing that it was useless to argue with her. In fact, 111 trj at once to get in touch with Lucas at his hotel if the telephone's still operating at this hour of the morning. , He had to admire the spirit m Caryl, which made her refuse to be a mere figure-head, depending on others for help And, .for that matter, he wasti t aware o;' any particular danger to her -if she followed her determination. On the other hand, he saw—and he had hoped to sare her this—considerable shock and humiliation when she discovered the sender of to-day's letter to be none other than Andrew Fayne, to whose estate she really had no right-

CHAPTER XIII. CIiEOPATRA BETRAYS YOUSEF London, p'Hara found rather tantalisingiy, was in singularly brilliant meod,' both socially and as to sunshine during" the , first days of his arrival there. After so long an absence, he rather expected to find more change than there actually was. For there is a chaiigelessness about London at heart, v which no amount of variety in plumage car, affect. It was difficult sometimes for him to realise, in' this atmosphere of solidity and safety, tho purpose which had brought him back sooner than he had intended. '"Yousef Hussein and Andrew Fayne seemed utterly impossible creatures of some wild imagination in such commonsense surroundings as London's people. It was not without some relief at first that he found Caryl had accepted an invitation from -Rittenberg to stay at the small house in Kensington where the film director lived with an unmarried sister.. O'Hara himself saw Virginia West,to tho flat near Regent's Park, which she occupied with her mother.

He put up at his club off Piccadilly, the members, of which were either air pilots or concerned intimately with aviation. So; for the first couple of days, he really had returned to the little world of which he was part, meeting old friends, making new acquaintances, attending to his own personal affairs with his lawyer, so discovering himself to be in- a far better financial Position than he had imagined when leaving Egypt, and tasting a-little of that "good time" he had often promised himself in those long and thirsty years of desert heat. This could not last long, he knew. It was not to enjoy himself that he had fipwn here in such haste from Biarritz, and ho was first seriously reminded of this on his third morning in London, when glancing at the newspaper over breakfast.

On the front page, a picture attracted O'Hara's attention. It was that of a vessel lying at anchor in Falmouth ■Harbour. A considerable rent had been Eiade in her bow. After lopking carefully at the picture of the vessel, a white-painted yacht of the one-funnelled, luxury type, u Hara was/ not in the least surprised Jnien he came to road the account of the disaster.

LINER AND YACHT IN CHANNEL CRASH

. Gargantua, world's super-liner. delayed on » *ay to Cherbourg for Southampton by ,?p, "cent heavy foz in the Channel, was "vi further Held up after collision w:th the Pflvate sea-goin? motor-yacht, Cleopatra, on . p* a >' from Bavonne to Shoreham. r ,«»rzantua stood by until reassured by y« pa ra that there was no need for anxiety. yjpPatra, which is owned by a wealthy fWP I tttn, Yousef Hussein, crawled last oveninto Falmouth Hnrbour. with a hole in oe r bowg • n'u e ''" ld this simply-worded story, «nara read answers to several qitest,ons which he had been askinc himself ® Ve r since that last night in St. Pierre ■J?, Brissae. In a way. lit* had been cer•ln of. the-answers already, but with®"t d(.»finitp supnort for them. And here that support, in I • Vac ' l t explained wh.v that even,nSs entertainment at the Villa had Pun palled olf. and whv the Villa had U*ft , empty and closed. Here, nara felt positive now. was the eason why the yacht had been merely rifting, as he had noticed, between i;?,T onn e and the point where that » i e motor ,launch had left the cove Slow; Chateau Brissae to meet her, *of"a taking on board the contents .Andrew, Payne's secret hide-tip. hft ; n motv v ' ta ' t'or the moment, ■a-, r . er i was the reason why Vonsef . Had,-,.50 suddenly left the Villa, rm? crossed to England. He was 0 Hara felt certain, doing that a.: 0 "t some very strong motive. And motive, O'Hara felt equally sure, Br,,- n °t far removed from liis vendetta against Caryl.

(To toe continued daily.)

(CGPTniGHTJ

By LESLIE BERESFORD Author of " The Man From the Airport." etc. . A modern story of swiftly-moving adventure wherein romance develops ' a.ide bv side with a remarkable mystery.

What that could actually be, it_ was difficult, to guess with certainty. O'Hara's natural instinct was to wonder whether, in some way, Yousef had come to know that Andrew Fayne was really aljve and in England? Yet the French detective, Carnot, had clearly indicated to O'Hara that this was so far a piece of information confined to circles of the Surete Generate. Was it possible that Yousef, through somo leakage, had learnt sufficient to turn his attention from Caryl and the Chateau, to England and Andrew Favne?

thero remained, of course, the possibility that, having planned to lull those at the Chateau into a sense of security by leaving the place so openly, previously having carefully planned his coup on that secret hide-up and its contents, which had succeeded so well, Yousef was now merely bringing his loot over to England for safety. The report of the collision galvanised O'Hara into a recognition of the apathy which had overtaken him, in the social whirl of these first days back in London. True, when last seeing Caryl, she had insisted that she did not want to hear anything more about Yousef Hussein and her old relative till it was absolutely necessary, and had promised to telephone O'Hara at his club when she felt like it.

Once or twice he had glimpsed Caryl at various places of entertainment, usually with Rittenberg, apparently enjoying herself immensely. Not that O'Hara blamed her for that. He hoped that this social activity was diverting her mind from what he himself had advised her as wisest to let other people handle. But there were moments when O'Hara was surprised to find that he could not so easily divert his mind from Caryl, Ihat he cordially disliked both the sight and thought of her so continuously with Rittenberg.

This morning, after seeing the newspaper story in which Yousef Hussein and his yacht figured, O'Hara was somehow not surprised when a clubservant ■ informed him that a lady wished to speak to him on the telephone. The sound of Caryl's voice over the wire, sweetly imperious in tone, started those unusual cmotioiiß once again. "And how is mighty Caesar?" she was asking, find—without waiting for his answer —went on: "I thought you knew where I was staying. Anvhow, you could surely have looked up Julius in the telephone directory and given us a tinkle."

"The arrangement we made, if you remember," O'Hara reminded her, "vou were to ring me when you felt like it."

"Was that so?" she retorted. "I'd forgotten. I began to think a little bit of London was going a long way with you, that you felt you'd sooner have no more to do with me."

"Matter of fact, I'd meant to get in touch with you to-day." 0 Hara avoided discussion on that point by coming to immediate issues. "I suppose you've seen this morning's papers?" "About Mr. Hussein's yacht? Of course. That's one reason why I rang you. What do you make of it?" "I think vou ought to be careful —" "Of Mr. Hussein.''" She sounded surprised and sceptical. "But —he couldn't do me any harm—not in this country, surely?" "Anyhow, I'd better come along and see you, don't you think?" "It's up to you Caesar. I'll be in till after mid-dav, and if you really can spare the time —?" O'Hara arranged to be at her hotel about noon and rang off. He was irritated a little by that imperious flippancy of hers, but strangly pleased to have heard Caryl's voice again, to be seeing her. He felt somewhat conscience-stricken that although almost three whole days in London he had done nothing about the real business which had brought him. At the .same time, he had felt it wisest not to be? too hasty over whatever steps he took Before leaving France, he had written at considerable length to the French detective, Carnot, who had not appeared at the Chateau before they left for the airport. Hd had Riven ICarnot the fullest'details as to all that had happened since their previous meeting, and had explained why they were all leaving for England. . . O'Hara had been waiting to hear from the detective, whom he had acquainted with the address of the Club where he would be staying in London. And. until he got some reply to that letter, he had decided it best not to make any move as to ar y 8 mysterious communication trom the address in Camden Town. Carnot's silence indeed had begun to perplex him when this morning s news-paper-story revealed the arrnal of Yousef Hussein and his yacht. He had fully expected some reply by this morning's post, but nothing came. It was impossible now, of course, to remain inactive any longer. <■ With over a couple of hours to spare before his appointment with Caryl, O'Hara suddenly decided to take a look over Camden Town way, spying out the The neighbourhood struck him as the very place where a fugitive like Andrew Fayne might secrete himself with comparative safety, becoming a more unit In a densely populated area. The actual address in Silver Street, when he reached it proved to be a shabby-look-ing apartment-house with a front-doot lending to the street, but the groundfloor occupied by a news-agent and tobacconist's shop. O'Hara knocked at the front-door. Within the glass fanlight • above was a "bed-sitting-room to let" card. His knock was answered by precisely the tvpe of person he expected, a frowsy-looking female of immense cor- ' "Favne 5 " she repeated doubtfully, and shook her head. "No such name here, mister. Never had no-one here ol that name, not now nor never, and ought to kuow.' It seemed to O'Hara that she was uerfectlv honest in her information, and he recognised too that quite possiblv a lodger might- mislead her as to his'real name. He was rather afraid of making his enquiries too pointed, in view of the fact that the message to Carvl had specially warned her not to tell'anybody,, but to write. The last thing O'Hara "'.anted was to alarm Andrew Fayne, which would be likelv it he heard that a man had been asking about him. He merely said therefore that lie had probably made a mistake in the number, apologising. Then, uncertain quite what to do, the sicht of the tobacconist-shop reminded him that he was withput cigarettes, so he stepped into the shop. The interior was dark in itself, but—ruining in out <>• the brilliant sunshine in the narrow street—O'Hara was quite blinded for the moment. He heard the Cockney shopkeeper speaking: "There'v'are, guv nor, the cubbyhole's quite -empty, as you ean see for f nT . yourself. Sorry and all that but the postman ain't delivered no Cupid's darts in his bag. not for you, not since vou come along two days since. O'Hara had begun vaguely to realise the lean shape of a medium-height man leaning on the counter. As his vision crew better he saw the man to be elderly and shabbily dressed, though when he suddenly spoke—his voice was quite cultured. It sounded nngiy. "Most extraordinary thing . . . He clipped oif his words sharply. "The letter certain'iv ought to have been here hv now. How ever . . I'll look in tomorrow, sani'3 time.