The Japanese Parasol

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1021, 11 July 1930, Page 5

The Japanese Parasol

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CHAPTER XXXI.— (Continued.)

He was less surprised to see them than he would have been had he not read Hugh’s futile telegram to Gwen —and iu thi3 respect the arrival of a detective-sergeant from the Yard with certain instructions soon after he had got back to the station further enlightened him—but Lucas's brief and emphatic recital of what had taken place on their week-end jaunt left him with open mouth, and welllight dazed. "Colonel Winthrop!” he gasped. "Tried to murder you, you say’.' But—but he’s one of the leading lights about these parts!” "Possibly,” Lucas retorted drily, “but I’ve known a churchwarden rob a till before now.” “Well, well, well! Marvels will lever cease. Even now, I can hardly believe it.” “You’d have believed it all right if you’d been standing on that reef with the water slowly creeping up to your chin,” was the sardonic response. ’Eh. Monro?” “He certainly -would,” the latter asreed, "but I don’t wonder he’s surprised. Winthrop was a little tin god *i my eyes, too, until recently. One would never have thought he was a villain.” “And how great a villain we have lot proved even yet,” Lucas added gravely. “It is with a view to discusrh T ays an< * weans of doing that mat I’m here now, Blagdon. You’ve earned out the Yard’s instructions, I suppose Yes, although 1 couldn’t see the wee of them at the time. However, you sa Y Puts a different light on .But Winthrop—you could •nock me down with a feather!” kpeed into silence, pondering er the revelations which forced him * local magnate, of whom lad stood in some awe, in the guise a criminal, but even while Lucas him, with secret enterhia face brightened. Pie » Just recollected that he, too, had i-.f® 17 h) tell, one which might even »h« u man from Scotland Yard ceivJi ust u P set aH his precon»hli>u conce Ptions, certainly one “ w ould interest and cause the * ®st anxiety to Hugh Monro. he poured it out —the t ,„. “ n< Hug of Gwen’s cloak, liis inallv aT wi *h Mrs. Bourne, and finirlJ ghastly shriek which had If h upou their conversation. Hon h anti cipated making a sensa-sm-L- . was not - disappointed. Lucas i )e .. ng , fro m his seat as if he had ..y Metrically propelled. “Whv jij oo *’” he almost shouted, r didn’t you tell us this at once

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—letting, us sit here and waste preeious time?” Blagdon started. His customary self-satisfied pomposity, which he had reasstimed while making L-j report, fell away from him, as it generally did in Lucas’s presence. All the same, be was moved to remonstrance. “Steady, inspector,” he grumbled. “That’s stroug language to use, you know. After all, I bad to listen to your story, which might have been more important than mine for all I knew.” Lucas recognised the force of this. “You’re right,” he admitted; “I apologise, and withdraw that remark. Hang it all, 1 believe this business is getting on my nerves. Well, Mr. Blagdon, what occurred after you heard that cry?” “There was no getting any more from Mrs. Bourne,” the superintendent said. “She was completely prostrated, and the servant was as bad. I don't wonder, for it gave me quite a turn myself. Whoever shrieked might have been In the room Itself, and yet there was not a sign of anyone over the whole house. I searched it from bottom to top.” Lucas nodded. His eyes were glittering aghin, and bis fingers commenced to open a fresh packet of chewing gum. “Yes?” he commented. “What did you do next?” “What anyone would have done, 1 suppose. Seeing that the had last been seen in Colonel Winthrop’s company the night before, I went over to Grange Hall to find out if he could shed any light on the mystery — though naturally I had no suspicions of any kind against him then.” ’* “Naturally; did you find him in?” “No; 1 saw his sister, Miss Winthrop, who told me that he had had to go away early on urgent business. She was looking worried, now I come to think of it,” he added reflectively. “That is quite likely,” Lucas observed. “I fancy Miss Winthrop has a good deal to worry her in connection with her brother. You didn't tell her your errand, I suppose?” “No, I didn’t; I came straight back here, and set people to work dragging the river.” The Scotland Yard man made a gesture of approval, but Hugh, who all this time had refrained from intervening only by the greatest effort, leapt to his feet. His tormented face showed how badly this news regarding Gwen had bit him. “Surely,” he cried, “surely you don't believe that she is—drowned?” A glance at him decided Lucas’s I<? ‘No. I don’t,” he answered brusquely, “eh, Blagdon?” The latter paused.

“I hardly know what to think at preseut," he said slowly. “Certainly my first impression, after the finding of that cloak, and after hearing the message that the colonel had delivered last night—particularly when I learned from Mrs. Bourne of her daughter's engagement—my first Impression was that grief at Monro’s supposed death might have unbaiauced her, and that she might have—” Hugh broke in on what he was about to say. “No,” he asserted positively, “Gwen would never do that. Even though she never got that telegram, and therefore must have believed what that scoundrel told her, I know her well enough to be sure that she would never even think of taking her life.” “I’m inclined to your way of thinking—now,” Blagdon agreed. “The question remains:—How did her cloak get where it was found, and where has she vanished to?” Once more silence fell between the three of them, and Lucas knew that his thoughts and Blagdon’s were both groping around the same point—with the difference that Lucas, for reasons of his own, already held a much clearer view-point. For instance, the cry that Blagdon aud Mrs. Bourne had heard, inexplicable though it was to the superintendent, was by no means so to him. It was, he felt, the key to the mystery of Gwen’s disappearance. But it opened up a vista so grim, so fearful in its ultimate application, as to render almost preferable the Inference that the cloak on the river bank suggested. The trend of Lucas’s thoughts was likely to bring scant comfort to 'Hugh Monro's harassed mind. Watching him. the young man was already conscious of part of what was passing through his mind. With the lifting of the veil of false glamour which had hitherto obscured for him the real Winthrop, trifles that would otherwise have passed unnoticed recurred to him with added magnitude—the colonel’s expression when both of them had been in Gwen’s presence, that look of something approaching enmity in the pagoda, above all his glances at the girl herself. “I know what you think, Lucas,” he cried suddenly, “that, the placing of her cloak by the river is a blind, that she is in Winthrop’s power. And if so, God help her.” he added, almost in a whisper. “Amen to that,” the detective responded softly. “But keep up your heart, boy. We’ll save her yet.” CHAPTER XXIII. “Straight up to Winthrop’s house?” Hugh asked, eagerly. With their common decision that, wherever she might be, Gwen was in the colonel’s keeping, he was all agog to waste no further time before setting out to her rescue, and his disappointment was keen when Lucas shook his head. “No,” the detective replied, “for the time being, Grange Hall can look after itself. I suggest. Monro, that you slip up in the car to your own house and get that second automatic of mine I lent you—you may need it later. Then come back here—by which time Blagdon and I shall be ready for you. In the meantime there are one or two arrangements I want to make with him. “By the way,” he added, as Hugh was about to depart, “don’t be sur prised if you find two or three strange men loafing round your place. “I’ve had them placed there—they’re from the Yard, and all part of the picture. But be quick; neither you nor I want to delay things unnecessarily.” Hugh was quite sure that he, at all events, did not, and without further palaver he entered the car and was driven away. When he reached his gate, two plain clothes men materialised from nowhere in particular, and leaving them talking w r ith the constable who was driving the car he hurried up the path and into the house, letting himself in with his latch-key, and making straight for his study, where he knew the pistol was reclining in a drawer. Had he been asked tlife question, he would have said that nothing could now surprise him with regard to the ramifications of the affair which had commenced with the finding of Violet Chichester’s body in the punt. Since then he believed he had run through the whole gamut of surprise. He little knew when he placed his hand on the knob of his study door that yet another awaited him on the .farther pfda> ope I'hat. under the

cumstances, he would least have expected to oecuv. His crdpe-soled shoes made no sound on the rugs which carpeted the hall floor, and, as he pushed open the door and entered, he became conscious of a tall figure standing in the room. At the noise of Hugh’s entry he swung round, and involuntarily Hugh came to a sudden stop, his faculties, as he confessed later, shocked into a whirl. For, staring at Hugh as if he were looking at a ghost, was Colonel James Winthrop. There was that about it. If Hugh was staggered, so without doubt was Colonel Winthrop also. The unfortunate part was that the colonel recovered first. “Good afternoon. Monro,” he said, “so you got off the reef?” It was then that Hugh played into his hands. He forgot the existence of the police outside, was conscious of oue thing only—that he was face to face with the man with whom he meant to have a reeko«ing. He closed the door behind him, and advanced into the room. “You scoundrel,” he exclaimed, furiously, “what have you done with Gwen?” The colonel’s eyebrows went up. Had Hugh been cooler, he would have seen the danger signal In his eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you,’’ he declared. “Won’t you be a trifle more explicit?” Whilp he was speaking, he had backed up against Hugh’s writing table, and was feeling behind him for something with his hand. All at once he grasped it, and, too late, Hugh saw what was coming. With a bound Winthrop was at him, a heavy brass candlestick swung aloft. He threw up his arm to ward the blow, but with a crash the candlestick descended upon his head. He fell like a log, and, standing over him, with an expression that was truly murderous, the colonel seemed tempted to repeat the stroke, In the end, however, he replaced the candlestick —and the next moment was no longer in the room. Hugh’s first act, when liter bn he groped painfully to his feet, was to survey himself iu a glass, and it became evident that he had at all events partly broken the force of the blowotherwise, considering the weight of the weapon, he would have been lucky to escape with his life. As it was, an ugly bruise and a lump that was rapidly assuming gargantuan proportions were there to remind him of the encounter. He rang the bell. “Never mind me,” he said impatiently, when It was answered by his housekeeper, who was patently surprised to find him there and as patently alarmed at his appearance, “1 want to know when Colonel Winthrop came into the house.” The woman stared at him in mystification. “Colonel Winthrop?” she repeated, “I haven’t seen Colonel Winthrop, sir.” “He was here in my study when I arrived,” Hugh told her. “Find out if any of the servants let him in.” She was soon back again, shaking her head to herself as she came down the passage.” “No one let him in, or out, sir. Are you sure you weren’t mistaken ?” “Quite!” Hugh assured her, with a sardonic emphasis that was lost upon her.

He went over to the window, and tested it. It was fastened, aud after a moment’s reflection he hurried out of the house, and down the garden to the waiting police, leaving the housekeeper to return to her quarters with another shake of her head. “It’s not like Mr. Hugh to talk wild like that.” she told herself. “r do hope as he’s not taking up with bad companions. And whht on earth’s he been a-doing\o his head?” But to Hugh’s excited questioning the police returned a blank negative. They had seen nothing of Winthrop, and evinced keen interest in Hugh’s narrative.

“Tall, grey-haired chap, name of Winthrop,” one of the plain-clothes men repeated. “That’s the % bloke we’re lookingout for. There’s a rVar-

rant out against him. and we’d have held him if he’d come along. But he didn’t; not a sign of hint. I’ll take a look over the house with you. if you like, sir.” He went back with Hugh, and together they searched the house from cellar to attic, hut there was no trace of lurking Winthrop. “Funny where he can have got to,” the policeman observed, a statement with which Munro found himself in thorough agreement. How the colonel had got both in and out was a mystery, and he wondered what his object had been in coming to the house at all. Presently they stopped and looked at one another. “He’s nowhere about now. I’ll bet my bottom dollar,” the plain-clothes man declared. "Better let me attend to that knock of yours, sir, and then we’ll let the inspector know. It’s a rum business altogether.” “Rum. I should think it was,” Hugh muttered. “The fellow seems to have the power of dissolving into thin air. As you say, it will be another little problem for Inspector Lucas.” He allowed the man, who possessed some knowledge of first aid, to bind up bis hurt, retrieved the pistol he had come for from its drawer, and then drove hack to Hengrave. Lucas, who had been wondering what was keeping him. uttered an exclamation when he caught sight of the bandaged head, and listened with absorbed intentness while Hugh related his story. “I was an idiot not to have been ready for him,” the young man said apologetically, “but the fact is the sight of him took my breath away. He seemed pretty staggered for the moment at the sight of me, too.” “Naturally,” Lucas remarked drily, “lie would be—having just read in the papers that your body had been washed up on the seashore.” “Oh, I’d forgotten that newspaper effort of yours. No doubt that was it. But how was it that no one spotted him either entering or leaving the house?” “That,” Lucas responded, “I think I can promise that I shall shortly show you. But we must waste no more time. Our adversary will be on his guard now, and we must be prepaied for squalls. A cornered rat will fight, but a coruered Indian tiger is a much more formidable proposition. Come, let us get a move on.” “To Grange Hall this time, I suppose?”

“No,” was the somewhat cryptic rejoinder, “to the tiger's lair.”

CHAPTER XXIV. So swift, so utterly unexpected, had been the attack on Gwennie Bourne that it seemed to her that she had scarcely begun to struggle before she found herself pinioned and gagged upon the ground. But though she could neither speak nor move, -she could hear every w'ofd that her assailants uttered, and a quiver of terror ran through her at Wintliorp’s ominous words: “We’ll carry her to the water.” Then she was lifted between them, and there commenced the most terrifying period she was destined to experience in her life. Their way led them through the darkness across the fields, and she soon realised that she was being carcried toward the backwater of ominous memories. What, she woudered wanly, were they going to do with her —throw her in. bound as she was, to drown helplessly? Was that to be the colonel’s revenge for her rejection of his advances? She pondered dully over his statement that Hugh, too, had been drowned. Had he had a hand iu that, also? The realisation of his depravity almost stunned her. All that had happened lately began to bear a new significance.

But when they reached the backwater it was into a boat that he was lowered —the same boat, she guessed, that Winthrop had used on the night the snake-charmer had met his end. The colonel took the sculls, and they moved slowly off toward the copse. There the second man scrambled ashore.

He was back in a few minutes. "All clear," he reported. “No one about.”

“Not likely to be,” was the harsh response. Winthrop’s thoughts had gone back to the two men he had left to drown upon the reef. “Help me get her ashore.” She was hoisted up the bank, and laid upon the ground, and the colonel unfastened her cloak. He tossed it to his confederate.

“Put it on the river bank where is will be found.” he ordered. “I can manage with her now.” The other laughed, and threw the garment into the boat, descending after it with a coarse jest which made the girl set her teeth. To her surprise. Winthrop turned on him in sudden fury. “Speak like that again, and it will be the worse for you.” he threatened. "No offence,” the fellow grumbled, and rowed off, muttering. Winthrop watched him out of sight, and then stooped and raised the girl with an ease which proved how unnecessary the other’s assistance had been in this connection, crossed the clearing with her, and carried her into the There he fumbled in his pocket and produced a flashlight. It was now that a startling thing happened. Balancing Gwen on the arm that held the light, he pressed a certain portion of the wall with his disengaged hand, and immediately the secret of the pagoda was revealed. What had seemed a single wall of unusual thickness proved itself to be in reality two—as it were, an outer and an inner shell. At Winthrop's touch a panel of the latter slid black, disclosing the space between, and a flight of steps which led down into unknown depths. The stairs were narrow, and the aperture small for one of the colonel’s physique, especially encumbered as he was with the girl in his arms, but he squeezed through. The panel slid to behind him, and, throwing the beam of light ahead, he went carefully down the steps. It only needed this to produce something akin to panic in the mind of his helpless burden. That unlookedfor and stealthy descent into the bowels of the earth appeared to her to presage unmentionable dangers, to cut her off from all hope or likelihood ; of rescue. Trussed as she was. she ■ tried afresh to struggle, and Winthrop felt the quiver that went through her trame. , , “Please do not be frightened, he said. “There is no need to be —you are as safe here as above ground. I regret that this method of getting you here was necessary, but as soon as possible I will release you. ” There actually was a ring of sincerity in his voice which w’ent some w r ay to allay her fears. At all events, she awaited passively whatever this journey might portend. For ,what seemed to her an age, and was, in fact, a considerable distance, they proceeded along a low, vault-like passage, the walls of which showed damp in the lamp-light, and where here and there, the colonel actually had to stoop, until they reached a small door set in the wall. This At inthrop pushed open, and Gwen saw that they were in a small room, more like a cell than anything else. She found herself placed on a trestle bed, and Winthrop lit a candle. Then he fulfilled his promise, unfastening her bonds, removing the stifling gag, and helping her to her feet. tie. be Continued Tomorrow^