THE SILVER DAGGER

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 173, 27 August 1914, Page 2

THE SILVER DAGGER

@i<=3oc=3| By R. A. J. WALLING i<=»>e=jii Author of' " Flaunting Moll,' " A Sea Dog of Devon," &c. [copybjght]

CHAPTER XXVI. ■IN WHICH A CONSIDERATE CURATE MAKES A DISCOVERY. "Granger in?" asked Dr Hoskings, putting his head round the door of a little sitting-roonj in a little stucco house in a row of such little houses in "Westport. ''Hullo, doctor! ' Where on earth have you been hiding yourself all these weeks?" asked Granger, rising from one armchair covered; with slippery American cloth, and pointing to another on the opposite side of the fireplace. "My dear Granger, a locum tenens Is a very good thing, but if you give him too much rope he is apt to grow on your patients. In point of fUct, I've been re-making the acquaintance of my ailing natives. But I came to show you a letter from the Rev. Charles Pudifin.'' "Ah! Good news?" said Granger, leaning forward and pushing a tobacco jar at the doctor. V Indifferently." 'i'H'm! I guessed the Bishop would get to hear about that little job at Pensilvetta Cottage.. What's he got — unfrocked? I must say it was indecent for a guardian of the morals of his parish to be caught red-handed in the act of burglary.'' "Nothing to do with the Bishop, my dear Granger. Fact is, Pudifin's been one of the parties in a wedding." '' J iminy!'' exclaimed Mr Granger. 4 'And he never told me! He promised that I should be there to propose the health .of the bride." You mistake me! Not his wedding. Torfrey's. Charlie married him to' Mrs Gomez yesterday." " H'm! I 'll reserve my transports of joy for the wedding-day —THE wed-ding-day," said Mr Granger. "But what about Torfrey's affairs? How the estate stand?'-' "Pudifin says better than they expected. There are no executors of Gomez, and a little law'will remove the lien of the dead hand on the propertv. Of course, all that was realised during the lifetime of Gomez has gone —no trace of it. As to the Pensilvetta estate ' —probably that will revert to the Crown.'' "Well, Mr Torfrey's got all he deserves—that's my private opinion. And more, for the girl's charming. Hanged if 1 wouldn't hav.e run off with Gomez myself if I'd been in her place. But there's one thing that's not cleared ut> doctor. I've been worrying about it; : Where did that coffin come from?'' "Ah, Granger! That's what I particularly cam 6; to talk about. Why was \tlie Senora Elena disturbed from her las*t resting-place and taken to that cavern on the island

"Yes —why? And where did she come from, and how did she get there?" "Quite so. You're a detective. Set your deductive powers to wor." "I have —till they're worn tliin, but no result.." "Well, Pudifin shall tell you. I'll read his letter on it." Mr Granger leant back in his chair and smoked. "Pudifin says: 'After all the fuss was over, we wondered what do to with the coffin containing the body of the Senora Elena. There was a grave in the churchyard of St. Maurice which had belonged to the Gomez family, and we decided at last to bury here there. She was brought up by Torfrey's men, and the grave was opened. Not far below the surface we came upon another coffin, and when the dirt was scraped away from it a breastplate was revealed, and the inscription on it was precisely the same as that upon the one which lay on the grass near by! " 'Here was more mystery. A little' flash .of light came to me. I whispered to Torfrey. We stopped the funeral. The grave was filled in again. We took-the mysterious coffin back to the Villa Zamora, and placed it in the library. ' ' " 'To make a long story short, Hoskings, that night, in the presence of Torfrey and his sister, I myself took the responsibility of opening that thing, telling them beforehand what I thought they might find in it.-- A gruesome business, opening a coffin and exposing a corpse that has been lying there for three-quarters of a century. " 'Brutally I priced the lid off. Brutally I threw off the white sheet on the top of the remains, and exposed —as I thought I should —a number of neat bundles of papers, some boxes of gold coin, more boxes of jewels, including the Torfrey pearls, a quantity of plate, silver things, a delicately sculptured model of a little lady's hand in marble, and other things—things that even Torfrey had or never knew to be in his possession. In fact, there were the whole proceeds of the burglary at the Villa Zamora when Torfrey's cabinet was rifled and Torfrey himself saw the ghost of the senora! '' ' The whole thing explains itself quite simply. But if you don't understand it, you must wait until we meet, as the obliging postman has been cooling his heels on the doorstep for five minutes, and is wearing out his patience.' Now what do you think of that, Granger?" asked Hoskings; Mr Granger gave a few puffs at his pipe. '■ "Mr Pudifin missed his vocation," said. he. "Fancy a man like that wasting his time preaching sermons to a

country congregation! He'll never get to Lambeth Palace, but he might have been at the head .of Scotland Yard before he was fifty. Jiminy! He told me about the marks outside the window —but, 'pon honour, it never struck me!'' "Well, that clears one mystery. But there's another. What became of Diego?" "Yes," said Mr Granger. "That's what I've been more interested in than anything else. When vOu leave a man trussed up as I left him, and he vanishes as if lie had never been —what are you to make of that?" '' Of course, the maft you thumped on the head when you got Miss Torfrey away must have released him.'' "Of course. But he was never seen after that, although Radford —Gomez, I mean —was about the place constantly for a fortnight.'' "Yes. Pudifin met him outside the shrine in the wood, you remember." Mr Granger dropped his pipe on the floor, picked it up, started from his chaii*, and took two strides across the little room. * "Yes," he said slowly, his grey eyes looking through Hoskings, "that was where Pudifin met him. . . I wonder, doctor —but you say you've had enough locum tenens." "What do you mean? What's up?" "I was going to say I wonder whether you could run out there?" '' I might. When ?'' "Now —to-day—with me—this instant. '' '' You mean- —you think '' "I don't think anything, but I want to find out." "A perfectly horrible suggestion, my dear Granger. You don't really put it forward in earnest?" Pudifin spoke. He was walking with Hoskings and Granger from St. Maurice towards the Villa Zamora.' '' Indeed, Mr Pudifin, if I had not put it forward seriously, nothing would have induced me to come here before your wedding. When is it to be?" Pudifin laughed his .answer. "It's not fixed —not even thought about yet." "Ahem!" said Mr Granger. "Well —the Bishop's not within hearing, that's one thing: However; the fact is that I have come with this idea. I hope it will prove to be a myth. But, you see, L Was the last man who saw him alive so far as we know, and I feel a certain amount of responsibility about him. Can we get in?" "I suppose so. Torfrey's away on his honeymoon, Of course " "Not gone to St. Malo, I suppose?" growled Granger. ' "But Miss Torfrey's home. We can't alarm her with a business like this." "Certainly not," said Mr Granger, emphatically, "I wouldn't have her alarmed for all —but there, she is not so easily frightened as her bold brother. '' '' Granger's got an edge on Torfrey,'' said Hoskings, in explanation. "And who wouldn't—a man that let his girl slip out of his hands' into the arms of the buccaneer! Question is: How tan we get : into; that beastly hole without letting Miss Torfrey know?" "Tom Gannett^ —Polly," suggested Pudifin. , fi The very thing. Gannett shall get the key from Polly: we wait in the

wood. You go on, Mr Pudifin, and do it on the quiet." The three men turned into the park at the little gate and traversed the path through the woods. At the Torfrey Shrine, Hoslungs and Granger halted. Pudifin went pn alone. "Of course/' said the detective, as they stood in the little clearing awaiting the curate's return, "it's a wild notion. But I cannot help thinking that I see through the maze. I may be wrong. I'll say nothing till we discover what is in there." '"•Curious that none of them should have .visited it in all these months," said Hoskings. "How long is it since we parted after that nightmare out there?" pointing towards the sea. "Five months, almost exactly," Granger replied. "But is it so curious? I don't think any of them had very pleasant recollections of the place. What an old devil Torfrey ! s grandfather must have been!" "I wonder what became of all the crowd of hangers-on, and of the Castilian'?" Iloskings said. '' To my knowledge the yacht was never seen in an English port afterwards. You know the form in which the thing got into the papers—the suicide of the romantic Mr Wilton in a romantic secret chamber on the island, the deep regret which the whole neighbourhood felt for the tragic fate of that unhappy and atractive young man, so newly married!" "Yes. By Jove, do you recall how old Hayland carried on when he was confronted by visions of whole pages filled with the details of his ignominy in the eyes of the county ? Do you remember his language. What amazed me was the complaisance of the Chief." "Well, you see, it wasn't in his district," said Granger, with a wink. "Ah, here's Mr Pudifin coming." The curate hurried along from the direction of the house.

"Dead?" whispered Pudifin, who was still standing out in "the open and not, looked. "You say 'dead' after five months!" replied Hoskings huskily. '' But how did he die. Dr Hoskings?" asked Granger, turning his eyes from the Shrine. "I cannot tell# you till I examine him," said Hoskings. "I «an tell you before you examine him," said Granger, in the same strained voice. "He was murdered! " "Murdered! Why? By whom?" cried both men together. " As'cledr as I ,daylight.But I've had a feast, of horrors. You don ',t mind corpses. . Go and. examine him—it's your job." Hoskings pulled Himself'together, and went into the little building.

"NoWj" said the detective, "tell us how he met it."

"He lies," said Hosking, "in the grave on the rummaged coffin of old Torfrey. He is almost a skeleton. He died of a stroke through the heart with a dagger—a stell-handled dagger with a curious'design upon it." The voice ; came to them strangely muffled. In the sunshine .outside Pudifin's teeth were chattering. . 1 ' Do you see any message—any wilting about? " said Granger. "I fancied I saw a paper on his breast.'' "Yes," said Hoskings. "By heaven, this is stifling. L.et me get out! " He stumbled to the doorway and into .the air, holding |n his hand a paper. "Your hand's shfiking," said .Granger. '' Give me the paper.'' He took it and held it up to the light. "Ah!" he cried: " 'Muerte al ■traidor.!,' That: is all. Death to the traitor, I suppose?" • "Obviously," said Pudifin. "But traitor!' What can it mean? "

- "Lock up," said Granger, handing him the key. - "We'll do nothing till we've thought it ouft I want, to get a mile away from. here. What a buffleheaded fool I am never to have thought of it before, and every clue in my hand!" But Mr Granger was literal; he would not speak until they had walked back to St. Maurice and were seated in Pudifin 's sitting-room. '' I 'll give, up the job,'' said he. '' Every clue in ,my possession, and couldn't see it for five months!'' "We'll let you pretend you're as big a fool as ever you "like, Granger. Only tell us how to work it out now," said Hoskings. '' For my part I'm quite in the dark." '' And I, too,'' said Pudifin. " It's a : combination of circumstance#, and character," said Granger; "but mostly a question of ckaracter. Now, as I make it, Bodrigo Gomez, who .let daylight into himself for our amuse-; merit out there, was a man of strong character. Why, the man carried all before him. Sis brother Diego, on the other hand, ; I teoucfefive to have been 'built of Yery different stuff. I got some information about Mr Diego from Miss Torfrey, all unbeknown to heisort of obliquel/ squeezed it out of her. I saw very little ; of Mr Diego myself, and what little I did see was not at all prepossessing. . Mr Pudifin, you remember the evening when you did a thing the Bishop would like to, know about? You remembei: as we lay low in the garr den a conversation between these twO<? " "Yes, very w^ll," said Pudifin. "Perhaps ypu didn't take it all in?" "I thought I did, Granger?" "Well, I didn't. If I'd beeu worth my salt, we should not have been engaged in idle speculation for five months. It is as clear as daylight now. The elder Gomez had dragged Diego into this business his will. He was a young man : who had no particular object, in life except to enjoy himself. 'You don't kpow what love is, and you don't know what hate is!' his brother said to him., What do you make of that? ' You' are ,a greedy spendthrift,' he said. What do you make of that?;" "I'm afraid I don't make much of it." (To be Continued.)

1 ' Here's the key,'' said he. '' Mies Torfrey's gone out riding; I got it from Poll.y. Use it yourself, Granger. I'm feeling a little uncanny." Granger took it from him, and ap 1 proaclied the door of the Shrine. There was a grating of metal. The door was pushed open. : Granger looked in. He loked, and loiolced, but did not pass through. ' ; "Well?" said the others, and were, surprised to find that they ,said it in a whisper. "As I thought,'' 1 Granger replied, clinging to the; post of the door. "Ah!" said Hoskings, shivering. '' So there he is."