THE Great Emerald, OR The Tenant of Hill House.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 36, 11 December 1897, Page 13

THE Great Emerald, OR The Tenant of Hill House.

by Special Arrangement.]

EDMUND DOWNEY f“ F. M. Allen ”), Author of “ A Souse of Tears” “ The Merchant of Killogue ,” “ Through Green Glasses “ Captain Lanagans Log.” fyc.

[All Rights Reserved.] CHAPTER XXV.

An Early Wedding Present,

Joe Mackenna reached his own door, after the encounter with Mosel v’s brougham, somewhat bruised and shaken, and in a state of mind made up of more emotions than he could distinguish, but in which indignation and amazement were uppermost.

With a few words be dismissed the cabraaa and sought Kitty. He tound his sister half-fainting in the little drawing-room where Harry Blair had parted from them sound in body and mind twenty-four hours before. Kitty screamed when she saw her broth* r’a muddy clothes, pale face, and dishevelled appearance. ‘ Don’t be alarmed,’ said he. I’m not hurt. Of all the mysterious and •wonderful events of this mysterious and wonderful affair, the latest is the most unaccountable.’ Then, as soon as she was calmed and reassured with regard to his bodily condition be gave her an account of what bad occurred on the road. He wound up by saying with a laugh that his only explanation was that the whole district had been given over to a peisonage never mentioned in polite society. She had interrupted his narrative with exclaimations of wonder and with perfectly insolub’e questions of great acuteness. ‘ Only that Mosely is not a young man and a dashing cavalier, and that you are sitting before me, Kitty, I could explain the whole matter at once,’ said he with a frown. They sat and chatted after that, and at twelve her brother ordered her off to bed. ‘I came home,’ he said, * with the firm intention of doing some work, but I feel quite unfit for it now. I’ll go to bed presently. In the morning I’ll run over before breakfast to the Nook, and come back with word of how matters are going on there.’ ‘ And when do you intend telling Mr Mosely that you will soon claim the advance of salary ?’ ‘Oh ! ’ said her brother, colouring visibly, and with a flash of love and pride in his eyes, ‘he knows already about Milly. I sent him a line by hand from The Nook, after my interview with her father.’ ‘ you will have no difficulty with Mrs Blair,’ said Kitty, emphatically.

‘lf you can always foretell such pleasant things I will never consult any other prophetess. Now, good night. ■ Sleep well, and keep your heart full of hope. I ara only a man, and men are not now-a-days such good prophets as women, but I stake my reputation, as a seer, against the spray in your dress that a Mackenna and a Blair change names the same day.’ ‘ Good night,’ she cried, and ran upstairs. Before going to bed, Mackenna wrote a line to Thompson, asking the artist and author to take hold of The Wasp ’ for that week, to exclude everything but a mere news paragraph about the great emerald, and to see that week’s paper through the press. Next morning, Joe was up early, and made his way to The Nook by half-past seven. The family were not yet astir, but Jane, the housemaid, told him Mr Harry had passed an excellent night, and that the nurse reported a favourable and wholly an-

expected change for the better in the patient. With this joyful news he hurried back to Olive Lodge, and arrived as the postman came up the road. Mackeuna waited for him, and was handed one letter. Glancing at the superscription he saw it was from Mosely. He must tell Kitty the good news before he even opened his proprietor’s letter. Kitty was down already. She saw him at the gate, and ran to meet him. He told what Jane had told him, and thought the flush of pleasure on"her cheek a finer sight than any daybreak he had ever witnessed. He put his arm round her as they walked up the garden path, and when he went inside to look after breakfast, he leant his shoulder against the doorpost, and broke open Mosely’s envelope. He was disappointed io his first glance. It was much shorter than he expected. But if the length of it disappointed him, the substance struck him with such amazement thatjhis hand dropped to his side as though he had been shot. After staring a few moments into vacancy, he read tbe note again. He folded it mechanically, replaced it in the envelope, and thrust it into his pocket. Then he walked slowly and deliberately into the dining room where the breakfast table was laid. Presently Kitty came in with a dish of jam in her hand and put it down on the cloth. ‘ Well, Joe, what does your proprietor say P’ ‘ You shall breakfast with the proprietor of The Wasp this morning,’ replied Joe. ‘ Oh, Joe ! If he is coming, why did you not tell me at once.’ ‘ He is not coming. He is come.’ ‘ I think you’re mad.’ ‘ I thought so too when I read that letter first. Try how you’ll feel when you have scooped in its meaning,’ he said in his ordinary voice, as he dropped the part of tyrant and handed her Mosely’s letter. It ran as follows: — ‘Hill House, Norwood, S.W., 21st April, 1895. ‘ My dear Mackenna : ‘ I have this moment got your note. Your choice does the highest honour to your intelligence and taste. I congratulate you and wish you and the young lady every happiness. My wedding present to her and you is the Wasp. You are proprietor from this moment. In tbe year of your editorship it cleared seven hundred pounds above working expenses. It will, I know, become more valuable under you as time goes on. ‘ I write in the greatest haste. I am leaving here, and cannot say when I may be back. With best wishes for you and yours, and for your joint future. ‘ I am, my dear Mackenna, Yours very sincerely, Benjamin Mosely.’ ‘ P.S.—I am glad for more than one reason to give you The Wasp : first, because Mr Blair is an old friend, and I should like to think his daughter’s circumstances will be easy. Second, because I have always liked you and you made the paper a success. There is a third reason which I cannot explain now, but which makes me glad to do what I can for yon and your future. I am not sure when I may see you again.— B.M.’ ‘ Has the third reason anything to do with the great emerald, I wonder ?’ said Kitty. ‘ Good gracious ! What a horrible thought! In my delight and excitement I forgot all about that accursed stone,’ cried he, dropping on a chair and staring in dismay at Kitty. CHAPTER XXVI. Tandy’s Discovery, The day had opened auspiciously for the brother and sister of Olive Lodge. Joe had by a stroke of the pen become proprietor of a newspaper with a future, and yielding twelve hundred a year in the present. It was splendid, it was princely of Mosely. He felt profoundly grateful to the

strange, mysterious ugly man, but lie was in no way embarrassed. When he became editor twelve months ago ‘ The Wasp ’. was losing money, loa, v ing heavily. Mosely had told him that if the paper turned the corner the editor would be well remembered.

There was another delightful aspect of that letter; it afforded an excellent excuse for his calling again, and immediately, at The Nook. He had met none of the family on his previous visit. He would run up after breakfast and meet them all.

It was a bright clear day as he strode along the road. All nature was steeped in the light of an unsullied sun shinning out of a cloudless sky. Joe was in superb health and splendid spirits. He had not yet got far enough on the journey of life to know what feeling young meant; but he was full of the joyous confidence of youth, and every motion of mind and body told him that he was capable of all things possible to man.

‘And to think,’ he reflected as he walked along, ‘ this detective creature Tandy dare to suggest that the man capable of the generosity Mosely has shown this morning has sunk far below tiie level of a common thief; has committed a murderous assult upon a a fellow be knew, the son of an old friend, and stolen a gem for which he could have no nse, and which a rich man could have easily bought. I think if Tandy says any more of that kind of rubbish I would be justified in strangling him on the spot. Anyway, justified or not, I feel I ought to do it.' When he arrived at The Nook he found the sunshine of the morning shining on its mellow brick walla and the sunshine of Harry’s improved condition shining on the faces of all its denizens.

Milly was radiant and tearful with joy, and never seemed to notice that Joe kissed her at meeting-, although her mother was by. Mrs Blair took both his hands and offered him a kiss, saying, ‘ Milly has told me. 1 always thought she was a girl of sense. Now lam sure of it. God bless you my son,’ a speech which filled Joe with delicious confusion and made him feel next moment, without any cause, a desperately unworthy creature who had crept into this good woman’s regard on false pretences. It was all very well to love Milly and to take her love. They were young and understood’ that sort of thing. But the mother’s faith made him feel that he was a mean hypocrite, and if she only knew all about him she would tell him he was in no way worthy of her child.

‘ I—l’ll try to be good to her,’ he said in a hesitating, half-hearted kind of way, as if just five minutes before he had assured some one else, one to whom be always opened his heart, that he meant to be brutally cruel to her daughter. ‘ She’s a good girl without any nonsense about her,and ought to make a good wife.’ To Mackenna this seemed horribly matter of fact and outspoken. For all the world he would not look at Milly. He was quite aware she wasn’t a goddess, but he didn’t want to have the consideration of that fact forced upon him ; for, perhaps, after all, she was as good a goddess as any of them. He said, ‘You are very kind, Mrs Blair, and I thank you awfully.’ He was aware of the blank insanity of this speech, and he felt angry with Mrs Blair for causing him to make it. ‘ She isn’t an ornamental creature— ’

‘ Will you allow me to say I think she is ?’ said he, with a smile. He would not have all the romance taken out of his love affair.

‘ I meant she is not merely an ornamental creature. She knows all about housekeeping, and can do everything about a house.’ ‘Upon my word, mother,’ said Milly, flushing and laughing, ‘ you will make him expect too much, and when he finds out the truth he will feel imposed upon and be sorry be ever saw this place.’ Mackenna laughed uneasily and felt very foolish, and wished there were only one woman in the whole

world,- and that woman. Milly, and that she and he could there and then take a nice quiet walk in a beautiful solitude where he could tell her she was a goddess, as sure as ever one drew breath.

Here to Joe’s great relief Blair entered the room. 4 1 have come, sir, to tell Mrs Blair and you a most extraordinary piece of luck I had this morning,’ said Mackenna, recovering himself.

‘ News about the stone P’ asked the old man, with a quick flash of his eye and keen interest.

‘ No,’ answered Joe slowly, taken aback. His own affairs had driven the emerald clean out of his head,, and he felt abashed that he should be so selfish.

4 Oh,’ said Blair, suddenly losing animation and interest. 4 1 thouebt you had heard something of the

atone.’

4 1 am sorry to say I have not. T was referring to a letter from Mr Mosely ’

4 Yon had a letter from Mr Mosely P’ said the diamond merchant, with strong emphasis on the pionoun and revived interest. 4 You had a letter from Mr Mosely ?’ he repeated,, with the same emphasis. 4 And pray what may your letter be about ?’ 4 Well,’ said Mackenna, a little put out by Blair’s manner, ‘I told yon yesterday that Mr Mosely owned The Wasp. It was then a secret. It is a secret no longer, I infer from a letter I had from him this morning.’ ‘ Indeed,’ said Blair, drily.

Mrs Blair and Milly listened and looked on. This was business, and though both were eager to speak,, they had a feeling common to all women whose men are connected with trade, that they must not interfere in business matters without invitation.

‘ Yes,’ went on Mackenna, under some difficulty. ‘The past or present proprietorship of The Wasp is no longer private, Mosely has made me a present of the paper.’ ‘ Indeed, I am delighted,’ burst from Mrs Blair, in spite of herself. Blair looked at his wife angrily. ‘ Why. Emily, should you say you areglad the young man has got a present of a white elephant ?’ ‘ Now, John,’ said Mrs Blair, with affected simplicity, ‘ I know a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, but I never heard of a wasp turning into awhite elephant.’ ‘ Emily, don’t be a fool. You know nothing about business,’ Blair snapped at his wife.

‘I assure you, sir, the Wasp is nowhite elephant,’ said Mackenna with a smile which he could not repress,, though he saw that Mis Blair’s jest had made the diamond merchant savage. * Over and above expenses it cleared seven hundred pounds last year. This would make it worth twelve hundred to me.’ ‘ Blair stared at him. ‘ Bless my soul! You don’t mean to say that a thing like that with a lot of stories, and poems, and now and then art article on some swindle, about which an honest man had better know nothing, could be worth —’ * The pay of three commercial travellers,’ interposed Joe, slyly. ‘ Itis.’

‘Oh, bother you!’ cried Blair,, impatiently. ‘ But you really don’t tell me this paper is worth twelvehundred a year F’ said he, and in a more amiable tone. He was beginning to think that not many men of hisacquaintance had started housekeeping on much more, or, indeed, anything like twelve hundred a year. He looked at Mackenna as though he expected to discover in him some limb or feature which had hitherto escaped his notice.

‘lt will be worth that to a proprietor who is also editor. lam very glad of this for my own sake, sir, and I am very glad of it for Mr Mosely’s, too.’

‘For Mr Mosely’a too!’ repeated Blair, in astonishment. ‘ Yes, for his sake, too; because such splendid, 1 might almost say reckless generosity must put an end to the infamous suspicion of that odious creature Tandy.’

‘ I quite agree with you in thinking Tandy’s suspicious are not to be listened to,’ said Mrs Blair, warmly. ‘ And I think,’ said Milly, her eyes gleaming, ‘ that it’s a shame for father to allow this detective even to hint at such a thing in his presence.’ Blair did not heed either wife or daughter. He seemed net to have caught their words. He was gazing with a look of profound perplexity at Mackenna. He said, ‘ I beg your pardon, Mr Mackenna —’ ‘Why don’t you call him Joe?’ interrupted Mrs Blair, with a malicious, good-natured smile. ‘ Eh ? What ? Why should I take such a liberty with the gentleman ?’ asked Blair, looking in perplexity at his wife. ‘Just to be even with him. He calls your daughter ‘ Milly.’ ‘ Oh 1 Ay ! Of course. I forgot,’ said he, feebly, and blinking at his wife as though be imperfectly attended and imperfectly understood. ‘ I —l don’t think I could call him that all at once.’ ‘ Try Joseph to begin with, father,’ laughed Milly. ‘Very well,’ said he, with great show of intrepidity, ‘ I’ll do that. I beg your pardon, Joseph— ’ The two women and Mackenna burst into a laugh. ‘What on earth are you laughing at ?’ cried he testily. He looked from one to the other in a half-dazed way. ‘There, John,’ said his wife, soothingly. ‘I suppose you have business to talk about, and we women are in the way. I think we had better leave you two men together.’ I wish to goodness you would,’ said be heartily, as he rose and opened the door for them. ‘ I’m not going to town till 11-15. I’ll wait to see Pinkerton.’ When he closed the door he turned briskly on Mackenna, and said with a look of all his wits iu the face : ‘Did you tell Mosely anything about yourself and my daughter ?’ •» ‘ Oh, yes. After my talk on the subject with you last evening in the library 1 sent him a few lines.’ ‘ And he knew nothing of it until he got that note ?’ ‘He knew I had made up my mind, but he did not know about whom.’ ‘ When wrote you giving yqu ‘ The Wasp,’ did he know it was Milly ?’ ‘ Certainly. It was a wedding present. See what he says.’ Blair took the letter, and having sat down read it slowly. When he had finished he laid it down on his knee, gathered his brows, and said, ‘ I can make nothing at all of it. I can see my way less and less into it the longer I look. My health is not good and I fear this will have a permanent bad effect on my brain, In fact I feel as if 1 were half mad already,’ ‘ It is only a natural and temporary effectof great excitement and anxiety.’ ‘ Perhaps so. 1 hope so. Well, yon told me a secret I never suspected. I can now tell you a secret you will not believe.’ Mackenna sat down opposite the the diamond merchant. ‘For the present,’ said Blair, ‘I must ask you on your honour to keep this secret to yourself exclusively.’ ‘ You may rely on my doing so. I presume it is one which may be kept ■with honour ?’ ‘ Yes. Yesterday morning, in this room Benjiman Mosely proposed to me for the hand of my daughter Milly.’ ‘ Proposed for Milly !’ said the young man, falling back in his chair and staring at Blair, overwhelmed with astonishment and pain. ‘ Can you credit it ?’ ‘Yes. ‘God help him,’ cried Mackenna, in tones of deepest sincerity. ‘ I can hardly believe it even yet.’ ‘ It is the most pathetic story I ever heard in all my life—in all my life!’ cried the young man, with tears in his eyes. ‘No one but you and I know it; not my wife ; not Milly.’ ‘There was no need for you to bind me to silence. I could not speak of such a melancholy affair.’ ‘ I confess I did not take your view. I knew nothing could come of it. I

thought it monstrous. He is rich to be sure, but he is old oi older than I 'am. And then his appearance.’ ‘ Pray, sir, let ns say no more about it. lam glad Milly does nbt know of it. She must not know of it.’ Blair said : ‘ But you may know of it. I have had this letter from Mosely by the morning post.’ He handed Mackenna the letter. It ran : ‘ Hill House ‘ Tuesday Night. ‘ My dear Blair : ‘ I have just had a linn from Joe Mackenna (the best of good fellows, and worthy of any girl) telling me he has proposed to Miss Blair, and has been accepted by her. I never dreamed anything of the kind was in the air when I spoke to you this morning. You will consider I have never spoken to you about her. You will not tell her. You will not tell Mrs Blair. It is only fair that Mackenna should know, but it need not go beyond him. ‘ You are aware how impulsive I am. I had made up my mind to speak to you on Monday night after dinner, and I was called suddenly away. You must have thought my manner-on Tuesday morning most extraordinary when I did ask you if you had any objection to me as a suitor. That morning, you may remember, I insisted on having my say before I would hear you speak. I can now tell you no more in explanation than that if I had let you speak first I never could have spoken. ‘Since you entered this door on Monday evening you have had great misfortunes. I doubt if yours have been more severe than mine. I cannot now make moself clearer. For reasons which I cannot explain I am obliged to go away for a while. I dp not know when I may be back. I most sincerely hope and pray Harry may soon be restored to perfect health, and that you have recovered the emerald by this time. ‘ Always your friend, ‘ Benjamin Mosely.’ When Mackenna ended he looked at Blair. Blair’s eyes were fixed on him. The two men stared at one another without speaking. ‘ What do you make of it ?’ whispered at last the diamond merchant. ‘ Nothing,’ answered Mackenna. ‘ You don’t even now think that Mosely was the man in the grey fur coat.’ ‘ No.’ At that moment a knock sounded at the door. The two men started as though they had been caught red-handed in crime. ‘ Come in,’ said Blair. Walter Tandy, private detective, entered. He wore a very anxious expression as be came up to the table by which the other two sat. ‘Mr Blair,’ he said, ‘ do you think you could recognise the . stolen emerald if you saw it ?’ Blair began to tremble. He tried to rise out of his chair, and fell back again. He essayed to speak, but his trembling lips would not form words, and his effort died in an inarticulate sound in the throat. ‘ Is that the Great Emerald of Oawnpore’ said Tandy, taking a leather case out of his pocket, opening it and displaying a large glittering stone of deepest green and soft velvet tone. ‘My God, that’s it! ’ ‘ Where did you get it ?’ asked Mackenna. ‘ I found it secreted in Hill House,’ said the detective, an air of triumph in his voice and manner. CHAPTER XXYII. Harry Blair’s Plain Woros. After the shock of first seeing the Emerald, Blair’s excitement became great. He rose out of his chair, and hurried up and down the room muttering and mumbling. Now he began a question to the detective and left it unfinished. Now he poured out a cataract of words addressed to no one, and with little connection or meaning.

- To Tandy it seemed the diamond merchant was going mad. To Macken na, who caught a word here and there, and knew that the testy old man had almost suspected his son, the incoherent words sounded as a thanksgiving for the deliverance of Harry from suspicion.

After a few moments Blair drew up in front of the detective, caught his hand, and said, ‘ Mr Tandy, you have found ray Emerald,' and as I contemplated offering a thousand pounds reward I will give you the thousand pounds. That is a mere matter of business. You have also rtß ored my son’s good name. That cannot be made a matter of business. That is a matter which can not be arranged with a cheque. Eor it I owe you a debt of gratitude I never can repay without great good luck. But if now or in the future you think I can do anything for you or yours, ask me in the name of Harry. Say to me, ‘Blair, when your boy was lying without sense or speech, and under a hideous suspicion, I swept away that suspicion. Blair, do you forget that?’ Then, Tandy, if I do forget it, I am the meanest man alive,’ Convulsed with emotion, Blair sank into a seat, and burst into tears.

Mackenna put his finger on his lip, beckoned to the detective, and the two stole out of the room.

Mrs Blair ,vas crossing the hall. Mackenna ran to her and whispered, pointing to the drawing-room door, ‘ Good news ! The stone has been found. The governor is quite overcome. Go to him.’

She darted to the drawing-room. Joe and the detective passed out into the grounds. ‘ It’s quieter here than in the house. Mr Blair will not be fit to talk business for a little while, and 1 want you to tell me all about this astounding find.’ ‘Mr Blair seemed more pleased for some reason about his son than to get back the gem.’ ‘ I believe he was more pleased on his son’s account than if you gave him all the emeralds of Peru.’

1 Did he suspect his son of having a hand in the disappearance of the stone P’

‘ Suspected he had a hand in it ! Why, he had a hand beyond all doubt. But ‘the father was in a foolish terror that his son might have had a guilty hand in it. A more monstrous fear never entered the mind of man, and you will regard what you have seen and heard just now as an inviolate secret.’

‘ I shall never speak a word of it to a soul. lam very glad the poor gentleman’s mind is relieved of such a horrible weight. And now, Mr Mackenna, I suppose even you can have no doubt as to who the real thief is ?’ the detective asked, formally, without look or toneof triumph, as though the answer were as much a matter of course as the answer to the question how many two and two make.

Instead of answering, Mackenna asked, ‘You said you found the Emerald at Hill Souse ?’ ‘ Yes. And I told Mr Blair last night I saw Mosely drive out of Hill House in a grey fur-coat with Banks, his butler, on the box for coachman.’ ‘Eh!’ cried Mackenna, looking round sharply at his companion. ‘ What is that you say ?’ ‘ I am afraid Mr Blair fell asleep while I was tellnghim.’ Then Tandy gave particulars of what he had witnessed in Mosely’s grounds on the occasion of his first visit the night befc T 3.

Mackenna was appalled. Blair had mentioned nothing about this discovery of Tandy’s, a discovery grave, significant, nay, alarming enough by itself, bat when it came to be considered in conjunction with his own inexplicable encounter with Mosely’s brougham in the road beyond the gate ot Hill House, the affair began to assume an aspect of such certain guilt that he could scarcely bring himself to contemplate it. Ho doubt whatever, Tandy had seen what he now described. The private enquiry agent had the highest reputation for honesty ; be had found the emerald —the object of his search

had been accomplished and within the' strait limits prescribed by Blair. Tandy had earned his reward. He had no longer any interest in this matter. Then why sbould he try to deceive anyone P The stone was in Biair’s possession, , without any obligation upon the diamond merchant to prosecute or to inquire into the means by which Tandy had recovered it. Most likely Blair would prefer to know nothing further of the history of the Emerald since it had left his safe. But Joe Mackenna had acquired that morning an interest in Mosely such as he had not possessed the night before, and he must know all that could be learnt of this distracting affair. ‘ Mr Tandy,’ he said, ‘ would you be so good as to tell me where and how you came upon your great find P Apart from the confidence Mr Blair is so good as to repose in me I am profoundly interested in this matter.’ ‘ With pleasure, Mr Mackenna. I’ll tell yon all I know and all I did ‘ When I left this place for the second time last night I walked back over the ground I had just come until I found myself again under the walls of Hill House. I will not trouble you with any of my thoughts or reflections beyond saying that I had a film conviction some discovery of great importance would be made at Hill House.. ‘ I again got over the wall where I had scaled it before, and found myself for the second time that night in Mosely’s grounds. I had no plan of action in my mind. I meant to do no more than stroll about with eyes and ears open. , I had been so lucky before—’ Mackenna groaned. ‘ You are greatly interested in Mr Mosely.’ 1 Yes, more interested in him now than in any other man alive. But,, pray, do not mind that. Go on.’ 4 Loneliness and the dark are always my best advisers when I am at a stand. I began by making a circuit of the house at a great distance, then I went round it closer in. At last I stole round the house itself, close to the walls, touching the brickwork and woodwork with my hand here and there. I had begun at the east or coach-house wing, and walked round the front to the west or turret wing. * When I came to the side of the turret facing west, I found the door open. It had been forced. I slipped in, and lit a match. ‘lt was a great risk to run, but nothing venture nothing -win. I thought, if it has been safe for a burglar it is safe enough for me. I found the door from the ground floor room to the staircase also forced. Thinks 1, I’ll chance it, and if I am caught I must get out of it the best way I can. ‘ I crept up the stairs, lighting a match now and then. The doors on the landings were locked, and the landing windows shut until I got to the top one. Here both door and window were open. I went into the room. It had in it only a cheap iron bedstead and a couple of chairs. It seemed to be fitted up as a kind of gymnasium. On the floor I found a dark lantern in which remained some oil.’ 4 1 lit the lantern and examined the place well. I found nothing of interest except on the sill of the window overlooking the roof of the main building a few spots of blood.’ 4 Fresh ?’ 4 Yes.’ 4 Good Heavens!: What has occurred ?’ 4 1 am coming to what had occurred.’ 4 Go on,’ said 'Mackenna,. passing the side of his hand across his forehead. 4 1 could not hear a sound. I looked out of the window. I saw nothing unexpected. I could see very littleThe night was dark. 1 stole away from this queer gymnasium, carrying the lantern with me. I crept up the stairs to the roof.’ 4 To the roof ?’ ‘Yes. The stairs went through

the roof. Here was a telescope on a moveable carriage. On the lower bars of the carriage Jay a large tarpaulin, a cover for the instrument, no doubt. There was nothing else on the roof. X looked most carefully round the edges and channels of the roof. I was at first afraid to flash a light outside the walls along the gutters into which the channels emptied themselves.’ ‘ You did not expect to find anything in them ?’ «I did not expect to find anything in the gutters outside the wall. At the end I got courage and flashed the light along the outside gutters, «,nd in one of them, the one facing his house, I found the great Emerald of Oawnpore.

4 What I’ ‘ld the gutter of the turret wall facing us, and about a foot from the pipe which carries the water from the channel of the roof to the ground, I found the great Emerald of Cawnpoie.’ 4 How in the name of heaven did it get there ?’ ‘What safer place on earth could ■anyone who wanted to find a temporary hiding-place choose P’ 4 But you found it at the first attempt!’ 4 What were the odds against me or any one else looting over that wall into that gutter while it was there . A million to one P Twenty million to ■one ?’ . , 4 Perhaps. Well after you had found it P’ 4 1 crawled down stairs like a man among sleeping tigers. I was a thousand times more afraid of being ‘discovered now than when going up. I had then nothing to lose then but my life. How I had my life and a fortune.’ . 4 What about those blood stains f 4 At the front of the house facing ■this spot, facing where we now stand I found stunned and battered body of a man —Thomas Groombridge, the sweetheart of the housemaid, Nannie, that I told you ■of-’ , 4 Good God ! What did you do then ?’ asked Joe, excitedly. 4 Or how do you account for the man being there, and badly used. ? Don’t flurry yourself so ! What could be clearer ? Groombridge gets news from his sweetheart that the emerald is in the turret. He forces an entry. Mosely discovers him and flings him from the window. That seems to be the most likely chain of circumstances; but no doubt the matter will be thoionghly sifted. Mere surmise, I admit, won t do in a case of the kind.’ Mackenna turned at bay upon the detective. If Tandy could show him a confession written and signed by Mosely he would not be convinced that his kind-hearted and generous friend could be guilty of so terrible a deed. He grew white. He pressed his lips together and stopping in his walk, he faced the detective, and said slowly and collectively, but with an undertone of fierceness ; 4 1 wish you to understand, Mr Tandy, that —’ 4 1 be" your pardon, Mr Mackenna ’ broke in the detective. 4 I will not be stopped now. I tell you, Mr Tandy ’ 4 I do not wish to stop you. I only want you to know that the young lady is making signs out of the -window, and the signs are, I think, for jmu, for I don’t fancy would take such liberties with me.’ The .grave face of the detective relaxed. Mackenna started, and looked keenly at the other man for a moment. 4 Tou cannot be a bad sort of fellow,’ he said critically. ‘ I was going to say dreadful things to you for persisting in suspecting Mr Mosely. But your little pleasantry dias knocked my heroics flat. You ‘and I must agree about this affair. 4 I’m quite willing, Mr Mackenna, when vou’re ready to change your mind,’* said Tandy, with another smile as Joe ran off to the window at which Milly stood waving a paper. In a few minutes Mackenna, flashed and radiant, darted back to Tandy, the paper in his hand.

‘ The doctor has been with Mr Harry Blair, and reports him marvellously better,’ said Joe, as he joined the detective, his face glowing. * At Mr Blair’s suggestion the doctor asked his patient if the man in the fur coat was Mr Mosely, and here is young Blair’s reply. How then, my super-suspicious friend, what do you make of this, eh ?’ He handed the detective the sheet of paper Milly had just given him. On it was written in Harry’s hand: ‘ Man in fur coat not Mosely. .Never saw man in fur coat before. Quite sure. Man in fur coat ten times uglier than the ugly man.’ ‘ Impossible !’ cried Tandy. ‘Eh ! What ?’ cried Mackenna. ‘ I saw Mosely last night.’ ‘ Well, what of that ?’ ‘ There is no man alive ten times as ugly.’