“The Anderley Affair”

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1930, Page 30 (Supplement)

“The Anderley Affair”

By

JOHN. LAURENCE

“One moment,” he said quietly. “Let’s see if we can find where he is going.” “I heard him say four-fifty two, sir,” volunteered the clerk, with a note of respect in his voice. -“Good, said Rithcrdale. “Plenty of time. Get me a taxi, will you, while I look through.” In half a minute he looked up.

“There’s only one 4.52 —Brighton to London via Redhill, Hunter. This is your job. You get after him ami I’ll stay here and see the Oakes’s. Wire Chalmers when you get any news. I’ll wire him straight away or get him on the ’phone and tell him what you are doing.” CHAPTER XXVII. MARLEY’S FIND. Marley would have much preferred to travel by car to Brighton instead of by train. Trains did not appeal to a man of his temperament, a temperament which demanded speed. Three years ago Marley would have been only too glad to travel any way that was not too expensive. Since then he had fallen on his feet> since, indeed, he had come into touch with Oster. The latter had found Marley to be one of his' most capable lieutenants. . The episode in Marley’sJife which had resulted in his marriage to Eveline Oakes was one which had come when he had had a run a bad luck. Necessity had made him take a step which wisdom -would certainly have prevented him from taking. -But Evelina Oakes had money, and Marley wanted money, and, as marriage was the only way to make the transfer, Marley had paid the price required... . Brighton was not a town he would normally have chosen to visit. It had unpleasant memories, memories of money lost through meeting someone a little smarter than himself. He arrived there a few minutes before one o’clock and, characteristic of the man, decided to have lunch instead of going straight to the Cable Hotel. Marley believed in doing himself well, and, as he was in no hurry to meet Evelina Oakes, his lunch lasted the best part of two hours.

The Cable was one of the smaller hotels in the town itself, and some minutes walk from the front, and as he entered it his sharp eyes glanced quickly round for any sign of the woman he had married. Despite his outward assurance he was a little uncertain of his reception. Not seeing her he went up to the reception. Not seeing her he went up to the reception counter. “Miss Trenchard,” said the clerk in reply to his question. “Yes, room 242.” He looked round at the keyboard?

“Yes, she’s in,”’ he added. “All right, I’ll wait, I’m her brother. Don’t say anything. I want to give her a surprise,” remarked Marley. He sat down at the back of the lounge, sat. where he could see the revolving fluor of the hotel and anyone bringing the keys of his room down to the clerk. But he was careful to keep well in the background. He did not want to see Evelina yet, for that m.ght make it awkward to get in touch, with Arnheim’s secretary. What Oster was driving at, he reflected, in making inquiries in this direction Marley could not make out.

He had smoked two cigarettes before he hurriedly raised his paper so that his face was partly hidden. There had come into his range of vision the very woman about whom he had been thinking, whom he had not seen fof the last two years. She had not changed, he thought to himself. Then lie received a shock as Lena Oakes appeared, gave a key to the clerk, and the two sisters disappeared through the revolving doors. “Gee, so that’s where. Lena is,” he muttered. “I might have guessed it.

That alters things a bit. She’s a spitfire. I must go slow. The sooner I get that Trenchard girl out of the way the better, I think. Those two have probably gone' out for the afternoon.”

He strolled .over to the clerk. “Think I’ll go up and see what she’s doing,” he said casually. “What,. Miss Trenchard?” asked the clerk. “I thought you’d see her. She’s just gone out with a friend of hers Didn’t vou notice her ?”

“I must have missed her,” said Marley. “I was on the look-out for one person only. I didn’t know she’s got anybody staying with her.” “Only came down yesterday,” volunteered the clerk. “Expect you know her, as she’s a friend of your sister. A Miss Oakes. Comes from Kensington.” “Oh, yes, I know her,” replied Marly grimly. “Fact is, we used to be pretty friendly once on a time. • Expect I’ll see them in the town. Can I have a wash here ?”

The clerk pointed along- the corridor behind the main staircase, and Marley hurried aWay. He wanted, to think, to sort things out, before he left the hotel, and the wash gave him the necessary excuse. He'wanted to bury his face in cold water, too, to cool it, to drown, almost, the mad, racing ideas which were chasing one another through his brain in confusion. • ’ . ■■

Lena Oakes was Arnheini’s secretary—and also Olive Trencliard! ,• That was the face which hammered away at the back of his mind. He was trying to place what it meant, trying to sort things out. He had never heard Lena or her sister mention their cousin, mention any other branch of the family, in fact. lie cast his mind back, trying to remember anything Evelina Oakes had ever said about her family, and there came back to him her definite statement that she bad no relations, no uncles and aunts. “Cousin” might, of course, be a euphemism, and one used by Lena Oakes to get a friend of hers a job. Somehow Marley wasn’t convinced. Oster had stated very definitely that Mabel Trenchard was nothing like her so-called cousin, and it struck Marley that the name wasn’t her own. Who was she then ?

It flashed across him suddenly why Lena had taken a holiday almost at a moment’s notice. . She must have seen him, must have been afraid he would see her. Why? And the only solution which occurred to Marley was that Lena Oakes had not obtained the position as Arnheini’s secretary by sheer coincidence. It was too great a coincidence. She must have obtained it deliberately, with some definite object. That she might be afraid of him .personally did not occur to ...hi in.

“I’d like to know what her game is,” he muttered to himself, brushing his hair. “If I: know anything of Lena she’s got more in her than my dearly beloved

wife ever had. Strikes me pretty forcibly that the sooner I find out- what she’s after the better.”

He strolled back into the lounge and immediately noticed that a new clerk had come on duty. He was quick-witted. To think with Marley was to act, and he walked .boldly up to the desk.

“Number 242,” he said without any hesitation. Mechanically the clerk turned and took the key from the rack and handed it over.

“Can I get a trunk call from here?” asked Marley, jingling the key in his hand.

“Oh, yes, sir. If-you will give the operator on the house exchange your number she’ll get through .for you.” Marley turned away, and walked up the staircase. He took the precaution of locking the door of Lena Oakes’s bedroom from the inside before he began to look round. On a chair he noticed her suitcase and without ceremony he opened it and tipped the contents out on the bed. He was in a hurry and was not concerned whether Lena Okes would find out that here clothes had been disturbed or not. He was looking for papers, letters, anything which might throw a light on the problem which was puzzling him. And tucked away among her clothing him all, more than he expected to find out, told him something which made him panic-stricken.

Marley found a writing pad'which fold On the pad were two letters. The first one Marley opened, and which he saw was addressed to “Miss Olive Trenchard,” was signed “Mabel,” and was headed Condor House. It was the non-commit-tal letter which Floyd had written on the first afternoon she had taken over her duties as Arnheim’s secretary, and told him —nothing. It was the second letter, the letter in Evelina Oakes’s handwriting, which made him shake his fist in the air. It was short, but, to a man of Marley’s' intelligence, highly illuminating.

“Dear Lena,” it ran. “I think I’ll run down and stay with you for a few days. Please engage a room for me. I shall be down in the afternoon. I wish we hadn’t let Miss Anderley take your place. lam sure they wilt find out. And you know what Marley is like when he’s in a temper. I am glad she is going to write to you. Evelina.” “So, my pretty beauty, Miss Anderley is Miss Mabel Trenchard, is she?” cried Marley with a vicious laugh. “If that’s not the best joke I’ve heard for years! But the laugh won’t be on her . side if I know anything about Oster. No wonder he suspected something was wrong. I don’t mind betting he was right about her father. I don’t believe she was frightened at all. If she’s got the nerve to take Lena’s place;; a man in black’s not going to frighten her. But; I’ll frighten her, and my name’s Marley!”

He stood there for a minute or two thinking things over, thinking what Oster had said as the four had sat round the fire. There was no question now in Marley’s mind about Floyd Anderley and Mabel Trenchard being the same person. Robinson had recognised her dress, though he had not been able to join up the connection in his mind. She was the woman who had been with Evelina when the latter had sent Robinson out of the house.

“Yes, that’s her father all right,” said Marley angrily. “And I reckon he never went up the stairs at all. That was all a blind to get us out of the way so that he could pinch those maps. All the time Marley, like the rest, had looked upon Sir Henry as being utterly discredited, as a fugitive from justice, a man for whom there was a warrant out on a charge of murder. All four had been satisfied that Sir Henry had been effectively removed from their path, and, all they wanted now, to perfect their plans, was the one missing map which, as Marley had learnt, had certainly been in the possession of Sir Henry once. And here was Sir Henry outwitting them at their own game, actually hiding in the one place where they least expected him to be. That frightened'Marley badly. It was obvious that Floyd had not entered Condor House on her own initiative. She must have.known, at least, that her father was there, he reflected, and could give her some measure of protection in an emergency. The shooting of the dog showed that he. was armed and a potential danger to everyone in the house, Marley concluded. Like a flash, too, he realised how Alan Hunter had managed to get- away from the house, a tiling which had puzzled Oster and his companions, and had for some time kept them on the_ tip-toe of expectation of being raided. Suddenly he lost his nerve. It did not require much reasoning to deduce that the house was being watched, that he and Oster and Arnheim and. Entleman were under constant observation. That house near Newdigate was.no more safe .than the house on Putney Hill. Marley cursed to himself that he was not familiar with the faces. of those who might be on his track. With the exception of Sir Henry himself, in fact, he had no knowledge what Chalmers or any of the others looked like. He had been, too much out of England. The others had that advantage, and on the slightest hint of danger Marley had no possible doubt they would sacrifice him to save their necks. That he would do the same did not worry his conscience. He determined to be cautious in what he told Oster over the telephone. • . With an effort he pulled himself together and went out of the room. Lena Oakes and her sister didn’t matter now. They could wait, and, by heaven, if anything went wrong he would know how to deal with them both. If they didn’t both live to curse the day they had met him —well, his name wasn’t Marley.'

He handed over the key to the clerk and walked along to the telephone exchange and gave the number he wanted, Beigate 00348. “It’s urgent, miss,” he said thickly. “How long will it take to get through?” he asked. “About three minutes if the lines are clear,” she replied. “If you wait here I can toil you when' it is coming through.” Impatiently he pulled out his watch, and as the minutes gradually slipped by his nerve began to go completely. It was nearly eight minutes before she turned round to him.

“Reigate can get no reply.” she said. “Are you sure there's somebody in the house to reply ?” “No, I’m not,” curtly answered Marley, as he turned awav.

He walked nervously into the lounge, and stood there a moment biting his knuckles, trying to think what had hap-

pened. He wondered if the blow had fallen, o'r if they had failed to hear, the telephone bell; then brushed the latter thought aside. He’d got to know. He could not return to his usual haunts until he did . know. Suspense would break him down completely! Arnheim and Entleman knew, enough to bring terror to his mind. If they once opened their mouths —— : .. . -; ‘

He cursed the drink regulations. What he wanted .now was a good double whisky to pull himself together. He looked roiind the lounge, fearfully, and liardly gave a second glance at. the two men who w.ere sitting chatting together over their tea, their faces half-turned away from him. He Walked up to the reception clerk. “Got a time-table ?”. he jerked out, and thumbed over the. pages for Reigate. ' “Four fifty-two. That’s mine.”

He left the guide on the counter without even a thank you, and bolted through the revolving door. As he did so the two men at the tea table rose, and one walked sharply across. “Know*that man?” he said quickly. “I’m from Scotland Yard.” “Never saw him before, sir,”, replied the startled clerk, reaching mechanically forward to pick up the time-table. Ritherdale, who had. stretched a point in saying he was from Scotland Yard, leant forward and looked at the open page.

Alan Hunter nodded and laughed cheerfullv.

(To be continued.)