THE Novelist

Otago Witness, Issue 3881, 31 July 1928, Page 74

THE Novelist

The Mystery Maker

By

SEAMARK

(Copyeight.—For the Otago witness.;

CHAPTER Vl.—Continued.

“ I suppose all you knew was that those diamonds shouldn’t have been in London ? ” Stayne asked sarcastically. “ I know they shouldn’t,” Varris* replied. “ I was the man who made all the arrangements for bringing them to London. I packed every piece of jewellery separately in the boxes and saw them officially sealed by the insurance agents. They went straight into the safe. I alone held the key.” “ What you are trying to tell me, then, is that the diamonds you were found running away with were fakes, and that sooner or later an insurance swindle was to be worked on the ones stolen? ”

Varris looked steadily at Stayne for a moment, and then slowly shook his head.

“ No,” he said dully. “ You’ve got it all wrong. So did we—at least, I mean so did Lady Demorval. She was pulling the swindle at Mentone. She was up to her ears in debt. Perrigo and Canning had got her by the throat on the other matter. She planned the burglary to be done by some of Perrigo’s paid thugs. The trick failed because, unfortunately for her, real thieves broke in a few hours before the fake burglars. Perrigo had schemed to get possession of the Demorval jewels- and leave Lady Demorval with the insurance award. “Well?” “ The stones I found were the real ones! She had double-crossed Perrigo. She had left" him with the fakes! And I’ll swear I locked the real ones in the safe that night. Perrigo went mad. That’s why she’s gone back to France. Perrigo must have -sent her the call. Maybe he’s in London himself. I don’t know. All I knovy is that nothing will stop Perrigo now. He will pull the whole bag of tricks.” Stayne was seriously thoughtful. That was an aspect of the affair that had never occurred to him. He had sensed the possibility of the insurance swindle, and was quite prepared to have discovered that the ropes stolen from the London hotel were imitations. But the double shift added a new piquancy to a dish that was already overseasoned. Did Lady Demorval invite you into ihe secret of the faked burglary? ” Stayne asked. “ No. But I knew it was coming off. Lady Demorval was so insistent on the jewels going into her bedroom safe. That safe was about as secure as a petty cash box. It was only meant as an emergency measure, anyway. Usually it contained nothing but furs—and not very expensive ones at that. The real safe was down in the library, let into the wall.” “ Was that a really strong one? ” “ One of the best, on the market. Blowpipes wouldn’t have cut through it. And there was an electrical equipment on it, too, that would have electrocuted anyone but a person holding the right key. Nothing short of dynamite would have opened that one. But, in spite of my advice and protests, she insisted on them going into the one upstairs.” “Did she offer any reason?” * * * Varris sniffed his indifference. “ Said she wanted them near her on the last night she was in the villa.” “ Any other reason why you suspected her? ” “ Yes, she was always taking out the insurance documents and re-reading the terms. She asked me for the plain English definitions of many of the more complicated legal phrases. Then the fact that she didn’t travel with the jewels herself, though I begged to be allowed to bring them along with us. They were deliberately left there to be stolen.” “ And Perrigo? ” “I’d seen him nosing about the villa several times. He and his friends used to stroll in and pretend to. chat to Lady Demorval about this and that—and all the time they were taking measurements of the rooms and the windows—-

and things. And then again she had » never let me hold the key of the jewels before. On that occasion she was insistent, as she said she feared she might lose it in travelling.” He smiled again and smiled faintly—“ as though she had not travelled that key herself hundreds of times before.” ' “ Lady Demorval was gambling ? ” “Very heavily indeed.” “At the Casino in the Rue Pigalle? ” “ Call it a casino if you will. I suppose it is really—there’s every murderous gambling game under the sun going on there. They call it the Club Taba»in.”

“Who owns the place?” »“■—

“ Perrigo and Canning.” “Do they, indeed ? ” “ Yes. It’s a sort of headquarters—the. centre of all their obligations in Paris.” “ Were you responsible for the murder of the man found dead there on the night you got Lady Demorval out of the plqce? ” A reminiscent smile flickered for a brief moment over the drawn face. “ You mean the man whose head was bashed in with the fizz bottle? No. I had no hand in that. It was a case of the biter bit. I saw what was coming. Four of the blighters were all edging towards me. They were doing their best to look nonchalant--but I saw the hands go out and grip on the necks of the champagne bottles. Another son of a gun was strolling over towards the electric. light switches. I got over quietly to one of the refreshment buffets and pretended I knew nothing of what was in the air.' They were mad at me—and I knew it.” 3 “ Why was this? ” “ I’d been into Perrigo’s raising hell with the bunch for enticing Lady Demorval in there. They had stripped her of every penny she possessed—and of Lord Demorval’s money, too. That’s why he was supposed to have committed suicide. You can’t stay on in the Corps Diplomatique unless you’ve a bank balance the size of a multiplication table. I kicked up the devil of a shindy. They flung me out on my neck, and told me to go to blazes. I went to the police.' The next thing they knew I was at the private telephone telling the Surete enough to bring the gendarmerie round. That caused it. Some of the gentleinanlydressed bandits inside were detailed off to scalp me and get the debris cleared away before the raiders arrived.” “ But the raiders were too quick for them? ” “ They were round almost immediately. They came in from a local station, and I heard them thundering at the door just as I got to the refreshment buffet. The lights went out, and I ducked. t I was out and away from them as they came at me. I s’pose they all swung at the spot where my head had been the second before the lights went out. Something made a most horrible crunching sound behind me, and I knew 1 they had hit one of they own number on the head. The women had all gone into hysterics the moment the police began pounding the door down. They were shrieking blue murder, and I don’t suppose they heard me at the window. Neither did they hear the groaning of the man they had dropped. But in the darkness they finished him off. Ugh! Those champagne bottles were full, too. They must have given him a terrible beating up because next morning he was unrecognisable. They. honestly thought they had got me. Their mistake was only discovered when the absence of one of their own number was discovered — and when news got through to Perrigo that I was travelling with Lady Deinorval to London.” “ That is the truth ? ” Varris relapsed again into sheer indifference. “ Take it or leave it,” he said; “ I don’t care a hoot either way. You just told me I was too big a fool to do anything else than tell the truth.” “ Then why did you remain silent in the dock? ” Varris began to colour again. “ There was no need to rake up old scores,” he said defensively. “ The French police had hushed up the murder, and I didn’t see why I should blurt it all out.”

“ Not at the. expense of five years’ penal servitude? ” “ That wouldn’t have helped me. I got five years for pinching diamonds; not for being implicated in the raid on the Club Tabarin.”

Stayne leaned towards him, and Varris noted, with a bit of a shock that he was commanding, dominant even in that absurd make-up. “You kept your mouth shut in there' for a great deal bigger reason than a raid on a gambling hell, or a diamond robbery—or even than the. shielding of Lady Demorval, didn’t you? ” Varris nodded with a single stiff jerk of the head.

“ What was it? I want'to know, Varris, and I want to know right now. Otherwise you can look out-for yourself now that you’re out of gaol—and I warn you that a letter concerning the whole of the case goes straight to the

authorities concerned; not here—but in France. Now then.”

Varris had blanched. And the last threat drove him over his breakingpoint. He fidgeted nervously in his chair and his finger tips drummed an unconscious tattoo on the edge of the table. “It’s—it’s not a story, I.can tell in a single sentence,” he said, with hesitation, as though hunting about for the words he wanted.

“ Well—tell it in your own way. I won’t hurry you.” Varris fixed his eyes on the table-run-ner and his-fingers picked uncertainly at the braiding. “ Mr Stayne,” he said, “ there is the biggest bank swindle blossoming to life over in Europe that you’ve ever heard of in your life. It’s not just a matter between England and France—but all Europe is involved. Operating centres have been established in Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Paris, Lisbon, Vienna, Amsterdam, and Oslo. That is, you’ll realise, every country whose currency has the slightest claim to stability. The whole thing is an intricate and involved as a crossword puzzle in Latin, and I can only give you the baldest idea of its scope and organisation. “ It’s a matter of securities for loans now being raised by the various banks concerned. The totals run into incredible figures; millions and millions. Perrigo and Canning are raising the loans —ostensibly for huge commercial exploitation schemes in the still only halfcivijised States of South America. But the reason for the loans does not trouble the banks an iota, and the reason is that the securities which Perrigo and Canning are putting up are as gilt-edged as' any securities could well be. For every pound raised they are depositing securities worth 30s—it’s one of the finest deals a big bank could wish. That is—if the securities were genuine. But they’re not. They’re fakes from beginning to end. They are some of the most beautiful forgeries I’ve ever seen. The banks haven’t questioned them. And the simple reason is that most of it has been worked through Lady Demorval. You see what it means? Lord and Lady Demorval have the privilege of Ambassadorial immunity. They are beyond arrest. And therefore, as our Ambassadors are and have been all over the world, above suspicion. The Perrigo crowd, having got Lady Demorval into their clutches, have built up the whole organisation round her.

“It began in a small way at first; well, smallish, considering the totals it has now attained. A hundred thousand, or something like that, was the original idea of the haul. Then the thing grew as the possibilities began to dawn on them. Fresh countries were involved, new confederates drawn in, till finally it was so big that it almost got out of hand.

“ Railway stocks, mining shares, controlling interests in all the biggest motor industries in England and America, vast holdings in some of the finest and most prosperous 'commercial concerns in the Empire—those are the stocks with which Perrigo and Canning have stuffed the Continental banks. Stuffed ’em tight. And every single one of them is forged. Forged in England and smuggled over t Paris then distributed with the guarantee of our Embassy on them to every capital in Europe. “ Perrigo and Canning have taken out their loans in the currency of each country concerned, bank notes and bearer bonds, things that can be ct'shed in any bank in the vorld. They are aiming to make their get-away soon, and then they will vanish, leaving the whole affair to drift gradually to light. “By that time the whole crowd of conspirators will have got clear - away to one • f the South American States, where all the hunted criminals go. One of the States that allow no extradition - arrants to disturb the equanimity of its inhabitants. It will take months before the banks even begin to be suspicious. Interest on the loans will not be due for a year at least. Meanwhile, the forged securities are locked away in the vaults, apparently as genuine as actual cash. All Europe is salted with millions of thfm. And up till now the Perrigo cro.wd are as safe as houses.

“ There is just a chance to pull things together before the crash comes. As yet all their notes and money are still in Paris. Where, I don’t know. For all I know they may have begun to send it over the Atlantic already. But when I was last in Paris they had not then made a move. If those two devils can be collared before they close down—if the money can be rescued «nd returned to the banks before they get away with it, there is just the chance that the crash can be averted. But from what you’ve told me to-night it looks as though they’re already at work.”

“ It does! ” cut in Stayne harshly. " And from what I can see of it, it’s all your own lunatic fault! You’ll have a lot to answer for, Varris, before this affair is cleared up.” Varris looked at Stayne then with just a glint of defiance in his eyes. “ That tone doesn’t scare me, Mr Stayne,” he said bitterly. “ You’re only seeing half the case—the half you can see with your own eyes. I’m looking at the rest of it, too —and I’ve nothing to reproach myself with. I’ve done my best, from first to last. In some things I may have acted foolishly, certainly have never acted criminally, or even played the fool- willingly, I couldn’t help myself. I was caught up in the whole web of-it myself. Being private secretary to his lordship almost made me part of the thing.” .

“ But you could have acted before,” protested Stayne. “ Could I? TelF die how? With all that kettle coming to the boil. The moment I open my mouth to the authorities the whole thing would have been exposed. The crash would have come inside an hour. , I would have been-the cause of the very thing I was trying to prevent. •

“ Besides—put yourself in my shoes. To me it was all unbelievable, incredible. At first everything seemed straight and above board. Then, even when I did begin to suspect, I couldn’-t believe it. The magnitude, the daring, the reckless dare-devilry of it was beyond credence. And by the time I realised the thing really was crooked it was too big for me. It had already passed into tlie realms of the tremendous menace it now is. Think of it, Mr Stayne. Instead of villifying me, get your brain to bear on it and work out what it all means, reason out the possibilities. “ It will be one of the- most terrible scandals that has ever confronted the country. .As it nas all happened through the co-operation of one of the Ambassadorial staff—or the wife of one, which is tantamount—we can’t prevent it becoming a national affair. It could no longer be regarded as a private thing —something for the French police to settle and squash. There would be the Government stamp all over it. British securities in Europe would topple with a crash, and British currency values would fall through the floor. With the touchy state of things in France, not to mention some other countries, there is not the slightest doubt that we should be in the midst of another war before we could look round.

“ Perrigo and Canning are . English, the Dernorvals are English, the ’forgeries are English, and the whole conception of the idea and the lesser members of its executive are all English. The fact that Lord Demorval committed suicide would only inflame the continentals the more. They would know from that that he knew all about it—and kept his mouth shut. That’s not true, but it’s obvious to see that that's what they would think.

“ You see, Mr Stayne, every country of any stability at all in Europe would be holding the baby, as the saying goes, to the tune of millions—millions with not a bob of real money to cover it. If we wanted to keep out of war—and if we wanted to save our honour at all— England would have to refund every penny of it to subsidise some of the biggest criminals our underworld has ever turned out. With the value of the pound sterling'gone in Europe, all our huge commercial enterprises over there would be bankrupt overnight. The whole thing is so tremendous and so unparalleled that my head swims when I try to think of it—-—”

“ You damned fool—is that any reason why . you couldn’t have opened your idiotic head about it weeks ago—before the thing reached these enormous proportions? ”

Stayne was boiling over. In that three minutes Varris had shown him the whole magnitude of the plot that was slowly coming to the explosion point over there in the Bourses of Europe. He realised, all in a lightning flash, a great deal more than Varris ever suspected, the workings and machinations of a foreign Power to overthrow Britain’s credit abroad.

This was not merely the work of a pair of supercriminals. It went far • deeper than that. No gang of criminals on earth could have designed, invented, and put over such a gigantic swindle as that unless someone far greater than an ambassador’s wife franked the guarantees. The whole weight, authority, and credit of a foreign power stood behind it. Criminals alone could- not have got through, immune.

Perrigo and Canning were merely the executive tools. As criminals there -was no doubt they were of an extremely high order—brilliant, subtle, daring, and with all the ice-cold courage of their own knowledge. And it was evident that they would get away with the loot. Such pickings as were to be made would go into their pockets and theirs alone. That would be their reward—and a colossal one—for the far greater prize of having wrecked British credit in the great markets of the Continent.

And it could all have been prevented by anyone with the sense of a hen. Stayne could see how the man felt about ' it, and could visualise the ease with which the thing had progressed beyond his imagination. But, even so, no one but a coward, or one who had lived for weeks in a cold panic, would have acted as Varris had done. If he was scared of going to the police—and Stayne admitted out of hand that Varris was right there, for there were graver risks attending such a course—if he had only gone to his own bank manager and communicated his knowledge, the manager would have had such inquiries set afoot as would have scotched the whole business, and without publicity. As it was, the crash was imminent. It might come that night—ror the’ next morning. And the crash was inevitable the moment the Perrigo gang got away with the money. While "the money still remained in Paris there was a hope. All that would be necessary would be to return the cash, to each bank its own share—and to leave the- financiers behind Perrigo and Canning with nothing but an enormous expense sheet to show for their labours —and no loot to meet it with.

Stayne had gone white beneath the pigment, and his cold eyes were glittering; ominously. There’ was a frosty

atmosphere about his whole attitude. Varris sat back, bolt upright in his chair, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.

Why fly off at me?” lie questioned resentfully. “I’ve told vou all I know, haven’t 1 ? ”

“No, you haven’t—not by a mile!” retorted stayne. “ Maybe you think Perrigo and-Canning are the real niggers in thio "oodpile maybe you know a lot more jet than j-ou’ve told me. But to anyone with half a grain of sense it’s obvious that Perrigo and Canning are not working alone, isn’t it? ” Of course it i s - I’ve already said so. They’ve got their confederates firnilj' established all over ”

“Confederates—pish! I’m talking about riien bigger than Perrigo and Canning ever knew how to be. Men big enough to conceive the plot to begin with. Men big enough to put up the preliminary capital required. Men who could organise such’ a vast scheme and bring it through the various exchanges and banking federations—immune. International crooks can’t bring off such a scoop as that—a scoop that must have taken months to mature. 'There are bigge" fish behind Perrigo and Canning. Men who have the power- to rope in their °J vn . Government’s printing works. Nothing but a combine with the whole printing resources of a Government behind it could have, run off enough of those false share certificates, scrip, etc., to have done what that crowd has done.”

“ Well ? What has that got to do with me?” demanded Varris petulantly. I didn’t engineer the wretched thing, did I? If I did I wouldn’t be here being snapped at bj- you. I’d be hitting’ the outward bound with several millions stuffed in my suiteases.” Stayne was wriggling his fingers in an attempt to hold his patience. “If that was all there was behind it,” he said, “you’d have opened up about it weeks ago. Now—what was the big motive that bound you to silence? You 11 tell me or I’ll have half Scotland Yard round here within 10 minutes.”

Varris chewed at his underlip. “ I think you might let me off that one,” he said at last. “I think I’ve '•old you enough to assure you of my honesty in this affair. Why ask me to break faith on a matter that is, after all, only a secondary consideration? ” “ There is no secondary consideration in a danger of this description,” Stayne rapped back. “ This is an-oceasion when the part is as great as the whole.” “ Well—anj’how, I’ve told j r ou enough for you to get to work on. You can find out the rest for yourself as j r ou investigate.”

“Varris ’ —Stayne’s tone was bitingly smooth, but there were blue, hot daggers darting about among the syllables—- “ in comparison with the enemy I’m only half* armed—but you can take it from me, I’m going to carry every weapon I can possibly get my hands on. And you’ve got one that I want more than anything on earth just now. Now—out with it.”

There was a silence between them that slowly ticked on into a whole minute, a minute of palpitating battle, challenge on the one side, defiance on the 'other. The minute lengthened into two, and still Varris stared Stayne doggedlj’ between the eyes.

“ Bring in your Scotland Yard,” he said at last, almost inaudibly.

Stayne scarcely heard him. His brain w’as working at lightning speed, and on a new track. When he spoke his eyes were looking on beyond Varris as though his words w r ere the vocalisation of thoughts far ahead, thoughts on which every atom of his concentration was centred.

“To have brought this through successfully,” he said, “ they must have been in possession of at least one original copy of all the -shares they duplicated. - That stands to doesn’t it ? ” “ Y-yes,” said .Varris.

“I mean—they could not possibly have produced those marvellous forgeries, so perfect in every line and letter that they deceived the heads’ of big Continental banks without--having at least one genuine original to work on.” “ I suppese—yes, they must have.” “■Some of the designs of those share scrips are most elaborate, are they not?” J “ I— l—don’t know.”

Pardon me—you do. You could not have been mixed up in this business so long, or have become possessed of the amount of knowledge you betray, without actually having seen a great many of the actual documents concerned. I think you’ll agree that some of ths documents to be forged were of exceptionally intricate design ? ” - “ Yes—some of the engraved backgrounds were a bit ornamental.”

“And they w-ould not easily be forged ? ”

Varris ran a finger round the inside of his collar. It was sticky, and little pin-beads of perspiration began to damp his forehead again. “Some of them would be a bit—be very difficult to copy,” he said. “ Knowing as we do that the photographic process is now hopelessly out of date—the damning word ‘ counterfeit ’ comes out inerasibly on the sensitised negative if anyone is fool enough to try forgery with a camera—-onlj- an artist of first-class merit—extraordinary merit —could have engraved the plates from the originals. Isn’t that so ? ” “ It—it seems so to me.” Varris seemed to be talking as though his

mouth and throat were choked with redhot dust. Stayne paused for a moment in his smooth flow. “Who was that perfect artist?” he suddenly demanded. Varris swallowed, and a lump seemed to stick in his gullet. “ Why ask me?” he whispered. And Stayne saw that his fingers had recommenced their nervous plucking at the braiding of the table-runner. ■ “I am asking you!” “Well, I don’t«know.” "Varris, you’re a liar. An absolute liar!”* I tell you I don’t know,” repeated Varris hopelessly. • And I tell"you that no man ever yet told me a lie that I couldn’t recognise as goon as I looked at his eyes.” Varris, hardly knowing what he was doing, pulled his eyes off Stavne as suddenly as though they had been snapped away on elastic bands. Stayne whirled on him? “ That action glone betrays you, you poor fool,” he shot at him. “ Varris, you’re as poor an actor as you are a liar. Over and above .which you’re the most obstinate maniac I’ve ever encountered.” Suddenly his eyes narrowed, and he changefl his tone completely. Reaching over the table, he grasped Varris by the wrist and slowly pulled him towards him. “ Tell me,” he said, looking him Straight in the face. “ Are you in love? ” Varris, unexpectedly released from a brain-storm of doubt and fear, opened his eyes wide with astonishment. “What—me?” he asked. “Me in love? What the devil do you ask me that for? ” “ Never mind why I’m asking. Just take it for granted that I am. Are you ? ” “Good Lord, no! What a silly ass thing to say.” “Are you engaged?” “ Of course I’m not.” “ Have you ever been in love in vour life ? ” “Not to my knowledge. A spot or two of calf-love perhaps when I was a kid, but I wouldn’t rely on it if I were.

you.” “ Then it’s someone connected with your sister,” said Stayne deliberately.

(To be continued.)