CHAPTER XXVIII.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 36, 11 December 1897, Page 15

CHAPTER XXVIII.

News op Mosely. It was Wednesday, the twentyeighth of September. Of Mosely and his butler nothing had been heard. Matters at The Nook had been going on well, Harry was making a recovery which astonished Freeman and more than ever satisfied the Blairs that Pinkerton and the great Harley Street specialist ought to change places if merit alone was to be considered ; but they all agreed Pinkerton had not a sufficiently commanding presence for Harley Street; he was at least four inches too short. Harry’s power over speech had almost fully returned, and the doctors were of opinion that in a couple of months he would be as well as ever. He had furnished as clear an account as he should ever be able to give of that unlucky Monday night. He had said to Mackenna a week after the night the emerald was lost:— ‘I was carrying the stone in my special coat pocket, the one on the inside under the ordinary inside breast pocket. It is more like a case than a pocket, being secured to the lining and cloth of the coat. It cannot be turned inside out, nor can it be cut out without cutting a hole in both lining and cloth. This pocket is furnished with a flap over it and a button to secure the flap. ‘ Without any warning I was struck on the back of the head from behind. I did not see who struck me. 1 suppose I became unconscious instantly. When 1 came partly to myself I was lying on my back and some big man of extraordinary and revolting ugliness was stooping over me. I was not sure, I am hardly sure, whether this man was a real man or a creation of my battered head. ‘ My impression is that it was a real man. My belief is that after I was stunned the robbers pulled me through the hedge to rifle me in security. The big man, the man in the fur coat, lifted me off the ground, and carried me a long distance. My head hung down. My brain felt bursting, and my mind was confused, and I am more than doubtful of the rest. ‘ Mind, I am telling you what appears to have occurred. It may be all the phantom of my own brain. It is fantastic enough for delirium. ‘ The fellow held me round the waist, and while holding me so got over a wall and then went on slowly. • All at once he gripped me by the knees, so that I huug as though held by the feet. My eyes could see nothing of which 1 could make sense, and we seemed to be going up and up by jerks until I thought my head would be puffed off. Then I remembered no more until I came gradually to myself here in my own bedroom.’ ‘ You are sure the man who carried you wasn’t Mosely bringing you to the door of The Nook ?’ asked Mackenna. ‘lf I am sure of anything lan sure it was not.’ ‘ And yon do not know how you got to this door ?’ ‘ No more than yon do.’ So far this account had satisfied Mackenna that Mosely was not the second assailant or good Samaritan, whichever it might be, upon whom

Harm’s half unconscious eyes had opened. Tandy, the detective, had got his thousand pounds and disappeared from the scene, owning that the case against Mosely was weakened by Harry’s written discharge of the owner of Hill House from suspicion, and declaring himself unable to suggest any alternative theory. John Blair had resumed his attendance at his office in Hatton Garden. He had said to Mackenna, ‘ I have got back the stone, and Harry’s name is clear, and his health is improving beyond all hope and expectation. I have paid through the nose for that infernal night, and I want to forget it as soon as ever I can ; and 1 do not mean to give information to the police, and I’ll advise Harry not to do so, if he can possibly avoid it.’ ‘lt looks very queer for Mosely. I believe he had no more to do with the affair than the Emperor of Onina. But I mean to clear it up. He has been munificent to me. I cannot bear to think he rests under any kind of suspicion which I could remove.’ ‘Who suspects Mosely ? ’ asked Blair. ‘ You ?’ ‘ Ho. Can you ask ?’ ‘Who but ourselves knows enough of this affair to suspect Mosely ?’ ‘ Well, sir, it may be on account of your close connection with the affair people do not speak freely to you, but all the men I meet ’ ‘ A party of prating, gossiping scribblers, who ought to pitch their pens into the fire and try to find some honest work for their hands.’ ‘ My reading of the case is this,’ said Blair ; ‘ Mosely is a head-strong, impetuous man, who has succeeded in everything he has ever undertaken. He made up his mind to get married, and he was disappointed. He found out some one had been before him, and he threw np the whole game, and has gone back to his old roving life.’ ‘ But how came the emerald in the the gutter of the turret ?’ ‘That I cannot say. The third man, the man in the boat cloak who went away in the brougham with Mosely, may have been some disreputable friend of Mosely’s, who engaged the two men to attack Harry.’ ‘ There is, I find, some local legend about Mosely carrying on some occult pursuits in that turret. Perhaps his mysterious companion is connected with the Prince of Darkness,’ interrupted Joe, with a forced smile. ‘ Ah, well, this unknown person—man or devil—may have got hold of the emerald and concealed it where it was found with the intention of recovering it when the commotion about the robbery bad died away.’ ‘ There is a good deal in what you say. I will go at once, sir, and hunt up these Groombridges.’ Thus parted Blair and Mackenna at Blair’s office in the forenoon of the twenty-seventh. The morning of the twenty-eighth after breakfast Mnc* kenna walked into The Hook, and found the diamond merchant and Milly in the dining-room. Mackenna said he wanted a few moments with the head of the house. ‘ I have a letter to write before I go to town,’ said Blair. ‘ Come to me in five minutes. I’ll be in the library. ‘ What is it now, Joe ?’ said Blair when he and the young man were in the library. The father had never before called the other ‘Joe,’ and for a moment Mackenna was again overcome by that sense of responsibility and tin worthiness. ‘ It’s about those Groombridges,’ said he. I went to Sefto'n Lane in Dulwich, 1 w.heie they lived, and found the place deserted. I learned that the injured man’s mother and brother had suddenly cleared out.’ ‘ About time they did, I should think.’ ‘ Then I found the injured man at St. Thomas’s, and on my pledge that no proceedings would be taken he told me all. ‘ A pretty tale no donbt.’ ‘ The man m hospital, and his brother, knowing nothing of the emerald, started to rob this place. They emptied the safe and made off

with all in it. They met Harry accidentally, and stunned and robbed him, still knowins? nothing 1 of the emerald. In fact, they never saw it at all, and did not know anything about it until next evening. Tom Grroornbridge, the injured man, beard that Mosely kept articles of enormous value in the turret, and went there in the ordinary way of business, and—now prepare for astonishment.’ Blair sat up in his chair. ‘ Tom Groom bridge was never on the roof at all! He found no plunder whatsoever in the turret, and he was almost crushed to death and flung out of the window by the man in the fur coat.’ ‘ What can it all mean ?’ cried Blair aghast, ‘And this must have been close to the time that Tandy saw Mosely wearing such a coat ?’ ‘ Yes.’ ‘ Why—why—why, it looks, Joe, as if there could be no doubt!’ ‘ Until Mosely himself tells me with his own lips that he did this I will not believe it. And even then lam not sure 1 shall credit him. t have made inquiries about Mosely. It is not known where he is. Absolutely nothing has been heard of him since this day week.’ ‘Yes. Something has been heard. I got this letter from him this tnoruing.’ (To be concluded next week.)