THE GREEN SHADOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 963, 5 May 1930, Page 5

THE GREEN SHADOW

By

HERMAN LANDON

Copyright by Publio Ledger

CHAPTER. XXIV. — (Continued) Adele gasped ‘in astonishment. Those had been Dale’s very words. Evidently Wambley was not the only spy in her home. She wondered about Marie, her maid. Axelsou chuckled sarcastically. “Chivalrous cuss, Dale. He didn’t want you to make this trip alone and unprotected. Well, he did us a good turn. Maybe you wouldn’t have come if he hadn’t promised to he on hand. It was a nifty Idea, but Dr. Moffett is a hard man to fool.” She stared at him, a vague, tormenting suspicion shooting through her mind. If something had happened to Dale—“Guess where your friend Dale is tonight?” She tried to control herself. It something had gone wrong, as she gathered from his insinuations, she would only make matters worse by appearing frightened. “Where is he?” she asked evenly. “In gaol,” said Axelson, and the leer on his crooked lips became a little more pronounced. “Serves him right for pitching me out of the window the other night.” Adele regarded him rigidly. She felt a violent shock, followed by a dull ache. Again she sought to steady herself. Perhaps Axelson was lying. “What has he been put in gaol for?” “For the murder of Mrs. Ferryman. He wriggled out of it the first time, but the police discovered new evidence.” “Mrs. Ferryman—Miss Conway!” Adele exclaimed. Axelson regarded her narrowly out of his shrewd dim eyes. “Oh, you can call her Miss Conway if you like it. It makes no difference now. Dale was arrested right outside your house about half past ten tonight. It seems he had been out In your car. The police nabbed liim just as he drove up in front of your house.” Adele lowered her eyes. A feeling of faintness and despair came, but she fought against it. She could not doubt Axelson’s words now. His statements regarding the car coincided with what she knew to be facts. She was alone now, dependent upon lier own wits. Gone was the comfortable feeling that Dale would be near in case of need. The room, the entire house even, began to assume a hostile, menacing character. As she sat with head lowered, she felt the old man’s crafty eyes studying her. A suspicion insinuated itself into her dark forebodings. Odd that Dale should have fallen into the clutches of the law on this particular night. He was innocent of the murder, of course; she was certain of that. But there was a pointed coincidence iit the tact that his arrest should have occurred on this very night. Could Dr. Moffett have brought it about in order to put a stop to Dale's interference in his schemes? It was quite likely, she thought. There seemed to be no limit to Dr. Moffett's villainy and resourcefulness. And if she was right in this conjecture, then Dale’s present misfortune was the direct outcome of his efforts to help her father and herself. It was his kind heart and his generous impulses that had brought disaster upon him. “Now you see how it is," Axelsou was saying. “It’s just as well for you to understand that you haven’t a chance to try any tricks on us.” The taunt and the smug satisfaction in his voice made her raise her head. They acted as a stimulating shock on her pride and her mental faculties. A little disdainfully she fixed her dark eyes on his wrinkled, grizzly face. “Are you acting for Dr. Moffett?” she demanded. “If you are, I am ready to deliver the cheque and receive the documents. But please don’t try to palm off any forgeries on me this time. I want the authentic documents.” The man grinned crookedly. “Did you bring an authentic cheque?” “I did as I was told.” she declared after a moment's bewilderment. “I brought a cheque for 100.000 dollars.” “M ell, Dr. Moffett will attend to that.” Adele rose impatiently,. “Then let me see him at once.”

“See him?” The old man chuckled in a way that gave her a sense of something horrible. “See him?” You don’t want to see him, young woman. It will be an evil day for you if you ever do. But you will have a talk with him directly, and you will arrange everything with him. If the cheque is all right——” He paused on a startled note. Somewhere in the house a gong was clanging. A wave of pallor swept across the old man’s grizzly face. His knees shook a little. The gong ceased, an interval of silence came, and then another series of sharp peals sounded. Axelson breathed hard while he regarded her with a baneful look. “Hear that?” he snarled. “It means there is somebody at the gate. If you’ve played us dirt ” He came toward her threateningly. The look in his face, pale with anxiety and spite, made heir shrink back. He seized her arm roughly. A hope buoyed her even while the ugly gleam in his eyes caused her to shudder. Again the gong clanged. DaleShe thrilled to the thought as it flashed through her mind. She jerked her arm free and fixed him with a level look of defiance. For a few moments his quick, asthmatic breathing was the only sound in the room. Then Joan’s head appeared at the door. There was a look of alarm on her small, hard face. Axelson went toward her and they conversed excitedly in an undertone. Then the old man left the room. Adele’s heart beat tumultuously with suspense. Hopes and doubts thronged her mind. Who could it be hut Dale? Yet she had an uneasy feeling that Dale’s arrival would not be heralded by the clanging of gongs. Joan came forward, her blue eyes full of rage and derision. A faint, hateful tjmile was on her lips; her little chin quivered. “Well, you were cleverer than I thought,” she declared, furiously. “Now you come with me.” She pointed to a room at the farther side of the room. Adele raised her head and looked with outward calm into her blazing eyes. “I prefer to remain liere,” she announced. “Oh, do you!” Joan tossed her head angrily and ran to the door. “Caesar!” she called. The great, black beast came loping into the room. Joan stroked his head, pointed to Adele, and addressed the dog in an undertone. Caesar bared his teeth, growled menacingly, and approached Adele, his yellow eyes gleaming with ferocity,' his slavering jaws set for attack. With an instinctive ery of fear Adele sprang back. She loved dogs, but the sight of this malignant beast filled her with dread. Joan laughed spitefully as she ran to another door and flung it open. With Caesar snapping at her ankles, Adele hastily fled through the opening. “Up the stairs,” Joan snapped. Adele obeyed, the low rumbling growls of the beast quickening her pace. She ran up still another flight of stairs and then with a flashlight in Joan's hand showing the way, through a succession of rooms. The light patter of paws at her heels filled her with a sense of savagery and venom as she hurried on. At length, breathless, she, stopped before an obstruction. Caesar growled. Joan's hand fumbled along the wail. An opening appeared. Adele hesitated a moment. All she could see was a dark place. “Get in!” Joan ordered. “Caesar will keep you company.” A surly snarl and a nip at her | ankle drove Adele forward. Darkness | rolled in over her from all sides. She ! felt a furry, loathsome form rubbing against her legs. i Joan laughed spitefully. “There, ; smarty! Now your friends can search ! for you all they like.” ! Adele shivered. She heard the ' sound of a door closing, and then all j svas still. CHAPTER XXV. i THE VANISHING CANDLE. ! The period of waiting, with Caesar’s eyes glinting menacingly in the darkness, grew to be a torture. Whenever she moved, a light patter of

paws reminded her of the brute’s vigilance. She had tried friendly overtures at first, but the dog had spurned them with growls and nips at her heels, and in the end she gave up the attempt to win him over. Now, her nerves demanding action of some sort, she groped along the wall. Caesar pursuing her with muffled snarls and an occasional tug at her skirt. She thought there must be a door somewhere on this side, tut her fumbling hand found only an unbroken expanse of wall. Suddenly she stopped. She pressed her ear against the surface. Caesar emitted a low growl and pressed closer to her. Her heart gave a little bound. She strained her nerves to catch the faint sounds which told her the search was drawing close. Little by little they grew more audible. There were movements on the stairs outside. She could hear voices. People were passing down the hall. Her heart beat tumultuously with hope-.and anxiety. Would they find her? As if her tension had been communicated to Caesar, he stopped his intermittent growls and pressed still closer. She stood in an agony of suspense. Her hopes began to totter. The footsteps and voices were moving away. A shout trembled on her lips, but in an instant, before she could make an audible sound, the beast was upon her, his paws clawing at her breast and his jaws worrying at her throat. The shout? died in a feeble groan of horror. Her hopes ebbed quickly with the dwindling footfalls. She could hear no sounds now. The silence told her w ith stinging emphasis that the chance of rescue was gone. No one would find her now. She tried bravely, but it was hard to shake off a sense of chill despondency, and Caesar’s nearness kept her in a constant state of dread. As she stood leaning dejectedly against the wall, a sharp quiver ran through her. She stared into the darkness toward the opposite wall. She stood rigid, scarcely breathing. A startled movement on Caesar's part told her that he also had heard some- ! thing. The slight sound was followed | by an interval of nerve-tearing stillness. Hot and cold pulsations shot though her body. Then a little jar came, a squeak like that of an unoiled hinge, and then there appeared to be a pause, a period of uneasy -wait?

ing. A whisper floated out of the i stillness: “Caesar.” A rasping breath on the silence, and then Caesar appeared to be all attention. Again a muffled voice trailed 1 through the darkness: “Good boy, Caesar; come here!” A scraping of paws, a short low* friendly bark, signified that the dog recognised the voice. “Come here, old fellow!” She listened in acute bewilderment. A fresh hope had sprung up within her when she first heard the furtive sound at the other side of the room. Now, as she heard Caesar bounding lightly toward the speaker, the hope . began to waver. The voice continued to address the dog in an undertone, and Caesar responded with a series of low, friendly growls. Consequently the newcomer must be either a member of the household or a frequent visitor. Otherwise Caesar would not have responded so readily. In either case, she feared the person at the other side of the room had not come with friendly intentions. Again she started sharply. She heard her name spoken in a hushed voice. Astonishment and a conflict of hope and dread filled her anew. If the newcomer were a member of the household, or a friend of Dr. Moffett, why did he approach her with such stealth, as if he did not wish his actions to be known to the others in the house? “Where are you?” came his whisper out of the darkness. “Here!”’ she whispered back, acting on an instant's decision. She could not make her predicament worse byheeding the voice of the unknown, and there was a possibility, despite Caesar’s quick response to his call, that he had come as a friend. She heard cautious footsteps coming in her direction, and she moved forward quietly. A fumbling hand found her arm. “Sh!” a voice whispered as the contact made her start and slip a little. “Not a sound! This way.” She was being led forward. She heard a low whine and a patter of paws. “It’s all right, Caesar, old fellow/* the man at her side whispered. They were moving quickly, silently across the floor, in the opposite direction from the point where she thought she had entered the room. A queer sensation hammered at her brain. IThat voice? It had spoken only in whispers, yet there was something

familiar about it. But it couldn’t be. Not here. “Careful,” her guide whispered. A small creaking sound came, and they squeezed through a narrow opening. Now the man left her side and walked ahead of her. They appeared to be in a hall so narrow that she could feel the wall at either side. Caesar was following behind her. Somehow she felt the dog was not entirely at ease, but the impression was quickly dispelled by other things. She was in a state of trembling, uncertainty. hopes clashing with fears. Suddenly the man stopped and gripped her arm. The touch telegraphed a sense of danger to her brain. A quiver of uneasy premonition ran through her. Her guide was holding his breath. His clutch on her arm tightened. Then, as she stood trembling with a tension that seemed to have comi luunicated itself even to the dog, a ! commotion broke sharply oh the stillness. The sounds of running feet came from the front and from behind. A mutter of chagrin fell from her guide’s lips. Caesar growled loudly. Then a light flashed sharply in her eyes, momentarily blinding her. She vas pushed roughly* aside. Shouts dinned in her ears. Through the hubbub cut Caesar’s thunderous barks. Another violent push sent her reeling to the floor. A thud sounded sickeningly* in her ears. For a few moments her senses swam in billowing confusion, and then a light shone ixi her eyes. Some one reached out a hand to assist her to her feet. “The excitement is over,” said Axelson in a tone of grim satisfaction. She rose dazedly*. On the floor, just beyond the range of Axelsons flashlight, she saw a dark, motionless form. The face was turned downward, one arm flung wide. The others —she felt certain from the violence of the brief commotion that there had been others —were gone. She shuddered as her trembling gaze fixed on the still figure sprawled out on the floor. To be continued tomorrow.