CATCHING UP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 52

CATCHING UP.

THE NOVELIST.

[Published bt Special Abeahcshmt.}

By

Henry C. Rowland,

Author of “The Dear Eccentric,” “The Pedlar,” “Duds,” etc., etc. [Copyright. J CHAPTER XXII. Just above the Cafe des Cascades, which faces the Loagchamp race track, there is a -beautiful spot rather off the general track of promenadei'e in the big park which falls so far short of beauty as a whole. The Bois de Bou.ogne, scarcely more than a big river-valley flat, with a growth of trees most of which are still in their youth, would have presented a dismaying proposition an a. park to any but the French. They with their centuries-old landscape gardening skilfully devised spots of charming intimacy, and this little duck pond above the Cascades is one of them. The ducks which pitch into this sanctuary are often wild ones, trading from lake to lake, wild only in freedom, but not Dooming the offerings of bread and biscuits tendered them by baby hands. The visitors to this little nook are mostly lovers and the children of the rich, brought there by chauffeurs. The small grey deer sometimes wander that way browsing on the tender shoots and watching the children from a discreet distance, and boys and pretty girls in bloomers drift past silently on bicycles, and there may reach the ears faintly the animated chatter from the terrace of the Cafe des Cascades and the tinkle of the waterfall.

Nita strolled along the path, until pre sently coming to a bench she seated her

self for a brief moment. This was scarcely required, as she had timed her arrival with exactitude and saw almost immediately the tall debonair figure of Townley clad in a well-fitting Scotch cheviot, with a light cloth hat, pearl spats and gloves and a go! d -headed Malacca. He approached her with an ease which betokened an entire familiarity with such little gallantries, and his cold discerning eyes flitted with infinite approval over Nita’s modish and elegant costume, which was of a fine material and in cut and shade neither extreme nor yet effacing to her exquisite lines. The skirt showed just enough and not too much of her charmingankles, and the fullness of chest was slightly masked by the cut. It seemed to Townley that she was the last word in chic, such as might have been expected of a. young femme du nionde who was neither strictly French nor English nor Colonial. “Titania by dav,” said he, lifting his hat, “is as charming as Titania by night, and that’s saying more than I can easily phrase. ’ “You still look a good deal the viking,” Nita answered. “I’ve been a little curious to see how much of you was costume and a good dance step. It’s not often that I extend my revels to the following day.”’

“I knew that,” he answered, “and am therefore all the more appreciative. I could scarcely believe ray luck, which has acted rather badly since the war.’’

“My luck seems looking up a little,’’ Nita answered. “I spent the first years of my life pretty unhappily, and the last few I'm sure I don’t know how I saw through. I now propose to catch up a little.’’ “Shall we sit here, or stroll about, or go to the Cascades for tea?” asked Townley. “I am entirely at your disposition for the next few hours,” Nita answered. “I know scarcely anybody in Paris, and the ones I do are not exciting.’’ “Flow about your late escort?”

She raised her shoulders slightly. “He’s a nice boy but conscientious to the point of being dull. Besides I think lie’s just the least bit weary of me —not quite sure how to class me. As a matter of fact-, I am merely a rather inexperienced young person out for a bit of fun. Let’s go to Pre Catalan for tea and a dance if you’re not exhausted.”

“If I were tired to the point of collapse I shouldn’t know it,” Townley answered. “You have a very decidedly galvanic action on this soldier of fortune.”

Nita rose, and they followed the path in the direction of the Pre Catalan, which was not far. and arrived to find the place thronged and the interminable dancing in full swing. Paris, so lately in the grip of war, had now become suddenly the flitting swarm of bright-coloured gnats living but a- day. or grasshopjiers making no provision for the cold and dark ahead. Precisely the opposite obtained to what might- have been expected in a social movement following the stress of the devastating war. One would have thought that the end of the world had been officially announced on sound authority and that there people were trving to crowd all possible amusement into the few remaining hours of sunshine. They danced for a co-uple of hours, when Howard proposed dinner ehez Larue, where they could have a tete-a-tete. “I’ll tell you what, Rakhir,” said Nita, “we’ll have a light dinner and go somewhere to a dance.’’ “Then afterwards ?” “Well, afterwards ’’ Nita gave him a. deep look—“T haven’t quite decided -cot, about afterwards. I don’t, mind telling vou. Howard, that. I formed a very strong liking for you at first sight. Your tvpe of perfectly ruthless, cold-blooded masculinity appeals to me in a way that no virtuous or honest person could ever do.’’ “But, good Lord, Titania. what makes you think I’m such .a. wolf?” “For one thing I’ve felt it from the first, and for another I took the trouble this morning to look you up a little. T know more about you than vou think. Amongst other things, I know that you tried to kill my late partner last night with n boomerang. and T think f know why.” Howard set down his glass, and the stony countenance he turned her was so bleak

and terrible that it took all of Nita’s selfcontrol to keep from betraying the chill which struck through her. He did not turn pale, nor was there the slightest expression of dismay or panic in his hard and regular features. But there was a toil of abyesmai cruelty in the set linos of his face, and almost a glaze of relentless, devastating purpose in the dull blue depths of his eyes. “Are you mad, Titania?’’ he asked. “Far from it, my friend. You needn’t look at me with that homicidal stare, Mister Bluebeard.” Howard moistened his dry lips without taking his eyes from her face. Only a very brave and daring personality could have supported their mortal, fatal, penetrating examination. But Nita was not an ordinary person. “Come now, Howard,” said she, “you might as well ’fess- up.” CHAPTER XXIII. "I sa y,” Townley asked a little thickly from the murderous rage beginning to gather in the cold sources of his nature, “who is this fellow, anyhow. - ’’ Hig name is Calvert {Steele, and he was one of the four beneficiaries of the man Hazard. He knew that you wore Agnes’ beau, and suspects you of having killed him to marry her and get your hands on the million or fo which is shortly to be paid.” In the silence which immediately followed Nita seemed to hear only the drumming of her heart, and wondered if it must not be audible to her companion. She dropped her elbows on the table, leaning closer toward him, thrusting her lovely face fearlessly and confidingly almost into lus. I m inclined to believe it myself, Howard, raid she. I know something about your sort. I think you are a throwback t-.> some early pirate ancestor or Sydtiey duck. This has a peculiar; inspiring efiect on me, because I believe myself to Le the same. If you were just an ordinary cheap scoundrel I shouldn’t look at vou. But I don’t think you are.” ‘ Why did Calvert (ell you this ?” growled Howard. t 1 pumped it out of him.’’ “Does Agues suspect?” “Of course not. That little fool will spill everything, but if you play your cards right, Howard, you may still be'able to get away with it—■ if I choose to help.” “What can you do?” W hat I m doing now. Put you on your guard.” Of couKre as Agnes’ suitor its natural that I should be suspected, but I can prove an alibi.” “A, good one? Stop and think. You haven t left any loose end untied—any bit of e\ idence finger prints or object of any sort or ’—her eyes burned lambently—weapon, like that boomerang you were so foolish as to throw last night?” There s just one thing,” he muttered. “Then get rid of it,- Howard,” said Nita, belore it is too late. There’s almost always something. Nobody seems able to what sort of implement Hazard was stabbed with— but I think I know.’’ “The devil you do !” “Perhaps I’m wrong, but I’ve made some study of crime, and think I can reconstruct what happened very, very closely to the truth.” “Well, let’s hear it-.’’ “The idea, came suddenly,” murmured Nita—“almost like an inspiration, and it was suggested to the killer as he stood with his hand resting on the top of the bedpost looking -at Hazard, who was in a drunken sleep. It took but a second or two. and he then went out unobserved. Cut her eyes narrowed and she shook her finger slowly in his face—“he left something behind.” For the first time during the tense interview Howard showed a sign of shock and terror. His pupils contracted and the ashen hue about- his lips became a livid one. The veins etood out on his forehead. Nita nodded slowly as if to herself. “Take my advice, Howard,’’ said she—“get that thing—and get it this very night. ’’ “How?’’ he murmured. “I 11 help you. I’ll go there with vou. You couldn’t manage it alone without running some risk. But if we were to go there together, .as a travelling Englishman and his wife, there could be no cause for suspicion.” “Do you suppose the room is watched?” “I don’t- know. But why should they ke.ep on watching a room which has been minutely searched? Nbbodv would ever have thought of such a thing.’’ “How did you?” “Because I once had a- similar piece of furniture, and the idea came into my head when putting it together.” “It ou almost convince me,” Howard muttered. “but I don't quite see yet why you should want, to help me.”

Nita smiled. She leaned still further forward, her glowing face held up to his. “You .see, mv dear. I have other plans for vou than the guillotine—and it might he that, as you are now a civilian and have to deal with the French law.” “What nlans?” “Well, I don’t think that- I on re to have you marry Agnes. Tt should not be necessary, and if you arc now to transfer vnur affections to me it would score rat-hei stron-fly for your innocence.” Howard sprang .suddenly to his feet, conviction of her infatuation no longer to be denied. “You’re worth more than anv mouldy million, my girl !” He reached for her with both arms, but Nita slipped away. “Not yet, mv dear.” she said. “You might, have both some day before long, but I don't propose to sign on a lover or husband who is standing in the shadow of the guillotine.” “Then what- do you advise?” he asked. “There is only one thing to do, my dear. And tlie sooner ’tis done the safer. You must go to that room and get possession of that bit of evidence. But I don’t think you ought to go alone. For one thing, wo don’t know but that ,a man of your figure might have been seen go into the hotel that night. Then there is the theory of a murderer being led to re-visit the scene of his crime. But more than that, I learned

from young Steele that in the opinion of the experts Hazard’s death wan caused as much by the force of the blow over the neart, which mutt have been dealt by a v ‘”'. v strong arm, as the slight injury to that cugan itself.” ’.then why ri.-k going there at all, since they ve got nothing positive on me?” J own ley asked. I do not see how there could be the •'lightest risk if we were to go there together, and 1 think it of vital importance for you to get possession of that thing. I can go pack a valise and meet you at the Gate du Xord, where we can take a station taxi directly to the hotel.” ’But we must have a part to substitute for -the one I take,” said Townley. Nita smiled and opened her beaded bag. “Loom” said she. “I’ve thought of that.” 1 ownley peered into the bag, and at sight of what it contained a rime of sweat beaded his forehead. “You’re right!” he said, and reaching for the decanter of cognac served with the coffee, he filled lr’.s empty cup and drained it at a gulp, then looked at Nita with a scowl. “You think there’s no danger?” “How can there be? We arrive in a station taxi, an English gentleman and his wife on a trip to Paris. Mind you now, there is to be no nonsense about our going there—no love adventuring. That can wait. We are going there to get this thing— and that’a all.” “That’s enough for the time being,” muttered Townley, “but I don’t like it. I might be running into a trap. Since you’ve guessed it why couldn’t it have occurred to the police?” “Steele told me that they thought it had been done by the gimlet in one of the e tool knives, probably the swiss kind with the red handles. I don’t mean to claim superior intelligence. It happened to occur to me because mv own bed is that sort. I remember having put it together.” Townley drew out his handkerchief, passed it across his forehead and stared for a moment at Nita with so baleful a glare that she could feel a panic struggling within her. She almost feared that lie suspected her, and it required all her force of will to meet his eves steadily and without flinching. But his eyes shifted to the decanter again, from which he helped himself, then asked in a dry, croaking voice. “Then we’ll go to-night?” “This very night,” said Nita. “All right,” said lie briefly, “I’m on.” Tlie blood flared into his face again. “It’s worth the risk if only to get you, my girl. You’re the mate for a wild man like me.” CHAPTER XXIV. Calvert had passed his day in a very dissatisfied frame of mind. The more he’d thought over the affair which he had set himself to solve the more he felt convinced that as a secret-service sleuth lie was far from be’ng the brilliant success which most of us would like to feel that we would prove in such a capacity. “If I keep on as I’m going,” thought Calvert dismally, “everybody in Paris will know what I’m up to —that is if Townley doesn’t manage to get me before I have time to give the game away.” And now to crown his mortification Nita appeared quietly to have taken the job out of his hands without so much as giving him the satisfaction of knowing what she proposed. Her cheerful instructions to Calvert had been about as flattering in their expression of esteem for his ability as those of Sherlock Holmes to his plodding and not. over brilliant recorder. “Stick round the hotel,” said Nita, “and wait for a note or ’phone or other message from me.” There being apparently nothing else to do, Calvert had stuck, and as the evening wore on with no word received he became very restless, nervous and irritable. At nine o’clock the chasseur brought him a note addressed in a clear round hand. Calvert opened it and read as follows : Dear Calvert, —My trap should be sprung in the room where Hazard was murdered, sometime between twelve and one. Go there not later than midnight, when you will be admitted by a man with a scar across bio face. He is a secret agent of the surete. Tn the room you will find a big, old-fashioned wardrobe, with an empty keyhole from which the lock has been taken. It books on the inside. You and the agent must get inside this wardrobe and keep perfectly still. It is so p'acod that vou will be able to watch the foot of the bed through the keyhole. After we come in watch Toward when near the foot of the bed. If I am not mistaken you may see him perform a rather curious manoeuvre, which should immediately suggest its own solution. The signal for you to rush out and secure him will be mv saving, “Now you ought to breathe easier.” Do not take any chances with him at all. T think it probable that he will fight. If it seems be t to kill him. do so immediately and without the slightest hesitation. Nita. This note roused in Ca’vett astonishment, inten.-e curiosity, and irritation. He spent a wretched period of waiting for the time to come. He walked about the streets feeling half inclined to go and toll Lady Audrey what was afoot, but decided that lie had done enough talking for the time being. Then as midnight apnroached lie drifted down to the hotel, and on slipping into it was immediately met by the man Nita had described and who had indeed precisely the look of q middle aged veteran, across whose sou are but alert face was an ugly scar, possibly from a saw-edged bayonet. “You have your instructions?” Calvert asked. “Oui. monsieur. Monsieur is armed ?” “Yes.” Calvert answered. “\Ve might as well go back to the room.” The man led the way down the corridor. The room was large, high ceiled, with a fine, oh) bard wood floor. A modern and rather incongruous note in what might have been in its day the lodging of som*

duke or prince was a brass bedstead with the usual thick sommier and mattress, and Calvert observed that directly opposite the foot of this, against the wall between the two long windows which looked upon a little garden, there was a tall, ancient armoire, a form of wardrobe still dear to the French heart. The agent opened the door of this. “It will be close quarter’s, monsieur, if we have long to wait,” said he, “but I have put in two pliants”— small folding stools—-“and removed a plank from the top to give us air.” “Since you are of the surete,” said Galvert, “you had better sit opposite the keyhole to get the evidence, whatever this may be. Myself. I am in the dark about the whole affair.” He found himself getting more and more disgusted with the situation. Whatever her object, it did not seem to him that Nifca could be justified in doing such a thing as this. Could it be possible, Calvert wondered, that the rash, reckless girl —in despair of fastening the present crime upon Howard—intended through some disclosure to invite a murderous assault upon herself ? He mentioned such a possibility to the agent, who shrugged. “I don’t know, monsieur,’’ said he. “My orders were merely to arrest this fellow at a given signal. There will be two other men outride. We shall have to waif and see.” Calvert noticed then that there was a large crack in the panel of the band-carved wardrobe door. Placing his eye to this he saw that the arc of his vision was quite considerable. “Ycu watch him through the keyhole,” he said, “and I’ll keep niv eye to this crack. But we must be very careful net to make ano'se.” Notre Dame, net far away, boomed the midnight hour. The agent arranged the two small stools. “I fear we may have a tedious time of it in this box,” he said. If monsieur will tak» his place I shall put out the light. The pair settled themselves in the receptacle, fhe door of which the agent fastened on the inside with a heavy iron hook. Here was one point at which the stratagem might slip up. Should Townlev be poseei’.red of a sixth sense, like many criminals, he might feel the presence of danger and desire to make an examination of the premises, and finding the armoire locked insist that it he opened. The moments then dragged past in that peculiar wav that effects the waiter as interminable. Calvert thought that he must have been there at least an hour, and wondered bitterly why Nita. should insi.-t upon adding this form of dreary torture to her other mysterious and sinister mode of operation. And then came a sudden stir in the hallway, and the creak of the door to the room and a flicker of dazzling light through the crack in the armoire door and keyhole. _ “Here you are, monsieur et madarr.e, raid a crisp voice. . “Very well,” said the curt voice ot Townlev. and added some perfunctory remark about an earlv morning train. The "man went out and closed the door, and Calvert heard the lock click as Tov.nlev turned it. He was conscious of a eenc-e of hitter resentment at his inglorious position, despite the fact that it was merely that of the stalker of a savage beast, a man Viler But his soul protested Ndta s position an the bait. He peered through the slit in the door of the armoire. and then as his eves quickly accustomed themselves to the vivid glare, he witnessed a curious performance on the part of the two ju*t entered. Instead of heinn ashamed, as he had dreaded bv the spectacle of Townlev turning from the lo ked door to make some amorous demonstration. he saw him ster> quickly to the foot of the bed and begin to unscrew the big biafs knob from the top of the foot poet on the side of the night-table. As lie did so, Nita opened her beaded bag and took therefrom another knob of identical proportions. Stepping under the electric light, they appeared to he comparing the two. Townlev gave a grunt of relief. “Nobody could tell the deference,” he growled. “Bet’s see if it fits.” He turned to the bed and screwed the knob .supplied hv Nita into the place of the other. “Well, that’s all right,” he said, and turned again to the light to examine the one taken from the bed. “You’re right—dried blood and tissue.” He dropped it into bis pocket. Nita stooped back a pace, cleared the track as one might say, her flaming eyes turned to the armoire. “Now you ought to breathe easier !” (To be Continued.)