THE SIX-HOUR MYSTERY

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1930, Page 11

THE SIX-HOUR MYSTERY

By

ANTONY MARSDEN

ft was now or never. Timing his effort for the moment when he was neither in nor out of the boat, and when his captofs’ balance was likely to be most ju-ecariotts, Nash got a footing on the gunwale and ptit nil the strength of liis legs into a mighty kick. It told. He felt the negro’s grip relax and heard a stifled yell of pain from the well of the boat; but Woolcroft tripped and threw him heavily, and next moment, fastening on his throat in the pitch darkness, beat his head once or twice with stunning force against the concrete of the landing-stage.. Jakes, too, was ashore again and on him in a flash. Half-dazed, lie heard Woolcroft’s growl. “Try those games, and you 11 finish over the river side.” For a moment he loosed his grip on Nash,.as though to find if he still meant to show fight; then, as the prisoner lay. not far short of insensibility, Woblcroft turned on his partiler. “What the hell made you yap like that?” ' “But the negro was still swearing under his breath. “He threw me on the hot engine. . . By gosh, I’ll give you hot engine when we get you in!” he hissed in Nash’s ear. “Hustle!” Woolcroft muttered. They raised him, feet and shoulders and began carrying him along a path whose -gravel, crunched undci their boots. , , , . •Soon they had left the inky darkness of the trees, and in the misty half-light Nash, limp and helpless, could just make out the coiner of a house loomin' 1 ' up, with a porch beyond. Alueli farther off, and to his right, showed a faint haze of light, which he guessed was a lamp in the foggy road; but the o-arden-fenee was invisible; and even if anvone chanced to pass that way, there would be little chance of attiact ing notice. Now they were in the shadow ol the porch. Woolcroft dropped his legs and while the negro gripped him round the arms, still muttering balefully, Nash heard the rasp of a key. Next moment they ’were all inside, and the dboi closed behind them. . - Woblcrbft switched on the light, revealing a long, bare hall without so much as ah oilcloth by way of furniture. On one side bf this Nash saw a ’flight of stairs; on' the" other ’ the narrow passage disappeared into shadow. Along this latter way his captors bote him, till, where the casing of the stairs came to an end they turned sharp round a, corner and reached a flight of stone steps, at whose head arid foot heavy dobrs stood opeh. “Hustle, man!” yowled Woolcroft, adding triumphantly, as Jakes began to descend: “By- 1 -, we’ll soon have the truth now, anyway!” It was a cellar in which they had now arrived, lit brightly by the powerful bulbs which Woblcrbft had switched on, but with rib wiridbw nor opening of any kind except, in the opposite wall, the door-of an inner vault. The two men had dumped Nash roughly on the Hags, hear a small cook-stove whose flue ran straight up through the brick vaulted roof; but at a word from Woolcroft, Jakes took the prisoner by the should l ers and began dragging him across the floor. Wooiiil'bft, meanwhile, ran up the cellar stairs and closed the door at the top; returning, he pushed the lotyer door shut after him arid rejoined Nash just as the negrb was prilling him through into the inner chamber. Wbolcroft stooped, knife in hand, arid cn| the gag a,way. ’■'Now you can shout y-criir damriedst,” he observed, “if that’s any pleasure lo you.” As he spoke he took Nash's feet and helped Jakes carry him through the narrow doorway into-the other vault. And there they left him in pitch darkness, locking the little door behind them.

Jakes -was the first upstairs, the other pausing once again to close the two heavy doors which made the cellar soundproof. Already the negro’s hand was 011 the latch of the front door, as Woolcroft gained the hall. But as the white man hurried down the passage after him, Jakes sprang -back suddenly from the half-opened door with a, gasp of alarm. A man’s voice Bounded, outside. Woolcroft leaped forward. But it mas only Eddie Roper who stood oil the threshold.

“So you're back at last?” the new arrival growled. And to Jakes peevishly: “Open that damned door, can’t you? And take a slant at this.” Roughly, he shouldered Jiis way through the half-open door and pushed past them, dragging with him an object at which the other two gaped in dumb astonishment; it was a bicycle. Woolcroft was the first to recover speech. “We’re back at last!” ho commented to Jakes in hoarse sarcasm. “And now, dear old Eddie condescends to join us — only three hours late. And, by George, he conies in style—on a bicycle.” “'Cut it!” the new arrival snapped. He had deposited 1 the machine against the. end of the banisters, and now faced them nervously. "J. ve got to talk to you. I--” But Wooleroft. had turned bis back, ami was addressing Jakes rapidly. •‘You'll manage the girl alone? Sharp, (hen—we'll wait and let you in. Put that light out first—” Tho switch snapped up. The door reopened and closed noiselessly. Outside Jakes’ footsteps hurried softly away. Woolcroft faced Roper in the dark hall. “Well, Eddie? What the devil has kept you so long? H’s gone ten, we'vo been—” But the other interrupted him. . “Never mind where you ve been. You v-eren't where you ought to be—that s here; or I’d have joined you half an hour’ ago. Whoso is that damned bicycle?" That’s what I want to know!” “How the —’’ _ 4 “I mean, is it Jakes’?” “Of course it isn't. Jakes keeps his in that room behind you. \Vhat the-:”-

“Listen, AVoolcroft —” Roper broke in agnin, with an urgency that brooked no denial. “I’m late because I’ve been delayed. Been pinched; that’s why! I got picked up outside the Golden Calf by a bull that remembered me. Thornton, of Bow Street. That was just after I'd phoned you the second time—” “You only phoned me once. You said In the dark the other swore impatiently. “Are you telling this, or me?” “Go on,” gasped Woolcroft, blankly. “1 guess they’d called in Thornton to the hotel when the taxi dumped Karin there. He was almighty curious, and when ho spotted me be figured I’d had a hand in it. No, he knew nix, of course —or I’d not be here now. He took mo round to Bow Street, though. Tried to bully me into inaking a statement. When ho found there was nothing doing, he chaneed his mind. Turned me loose in the- liope that I’d be mutt enough to lead him to something more worth while.” out. “Of course he followed me—or his pals did.” “And you came here! Aly God, Eddie, what the—” “Oh, come off it! I lost those infants h.e put on to me, easy as a gold watch in a crowd. I left them sleuthing in tljri underground before I started for Watei'lQP- I'm clear enough this end. But I don# like that bicycle,” Roper went on in A Jiiord gnxious tone. “If it’s not Jake’s, wjyit's it' doing here? “But I thouglit‘ybii tame on it 2 The 6ther man laughed J&l'shly. You thought? Say, what would I riding round Twickenham on a blilJ’Tl® • I found it here, Dm telling you. Oiruside; When I turned in at your gate, I slipped back between tlio shrubs and the fbnee, jttst to make doitblc-Sure there was no one following.” “And there wasn’t?” To Woolbroft tlio prospect of a shadowei’ seemed a good deal more upsetting than the problem of the machine.

“No fear. Your road’s as quiet as a boneyard. You can’t see* more than fifty yards tb-iiiglit; and if there d been a soul within a hundred, I’d have heard his footsteps.” “So long as you made sure— put in Woblcroft uneasily. “You bet I made sure. I stopped there two or three minutes. Arid, it was when I turn-d towards the house that I spotted the bicycle, shoved in among the shrubs. What’s that?” /, Knuckles drummed softly on the door. Wdolcroft reached fob the knob ill the dark and opened. “All right?” “Awright, boss—!” Jakes stumbled in, and when the door was closed again Wuolcroft turned up the lights. Roper -are vent to a shrirp exclamation of sill prise when he saw the big. liegib standing close to him, with a girl s liifip body in his arms. She was still bound, but conscious now; her eyes stared at them, terrified above the edge of the Sd “Sav! What the—” Roper started. iVool'cfbft cut him short. “That’s not ycur bike, Jakes, is it? The negro shook his head. “It’s a. doe!” lie observed laconically; arid the two others, stariiig, saw for the first time that it was a lady s machine. , . ~, “Well, shift the darn thing, anyway! Jakes grumbled. He had moved towards the cellar stairs with his burden, but the bicycle sprawling across the passage haired his way. Wuolcroft, his ■brows still wrinkled in perplexity, wheeled it along the hall in front of Jakes till, at tile corner by the top of the steps, he could prop it against a cupboard door and leave the passage clear. „ , “Get on down—l’ll follow .you, he told the negro, opening the tipper door fot him. Then, as Jakes disappeared down the steps with Irma ih his arms Woolcroft turned back towards Ropei, who. stockstill arid dumb with surprise, stood watching this new velo in tense curiosity from the foot of the Upper stairs. “Now then, Ed—”

But Roper gripped his arm. “Wliy—say, that’s Karins filly, isnt it?” he asked in A low tone. Woolcroft nodded brusquely. "Nut said’ She’s going to talk, to us presently—and Mister Kariri. At eve got him downstairs, too.”

“Listen. Ed. Whoever, brought that bike, it wasn’t the police, or why should they hide it in the garden? Whats Uime, i've a sort of hunch who owlls the tll ln’ouick, tense sentences he told of Marie Bressler’s visit to the house an hour and a-half ago. “She’d hung around all day, on her own admission. Maybe Karin sent her here to spy—or, if no , she's got wise to Karin’s game on her own account. And it won’t do. Once we’ve done what we’re going to do, down thm-e” —we’ll have to move, dam quick; and we can’t move with the dame nosing after us. Slip outside,. Ed„ will you? Take a look. Work round the back of the house, so’s you can take a slant at the front gate and road without announcing yourself. And if she s hanging around—” . , “I'll put the fear ot death in hei, all right.” , “Don’t talk like a fool. Active got to vet rid of her —not make her ten times more darned curious than she is already. Tell her I’ve changed my mind about—about what she came to see me for; she shall have what she wants tomorrow, say, and maybe I’ll not be too rough on her. Then see her oil' the premises, and stop around yourself to make sure she doesn't came back. Got that.

“Sure.” , ‘“Oil with you, then. When Jakes and I are through, we’ll pass you the word.” Woolcroft moved towards the door; then, his hand on the catch, he pausyd and added with a trace of his former uneasiness:

“Maybe it’s just as well to have you on the watch, Ed—Marie or no Marie.

I tell you straight, I don’t like this shadow-game you’ve told me about. You took the hell of a big chance, coming here at all, so keep your eyes skinned, see ?”

Roper grinned. “Don’t fret! I’d a clean 'breakaway at Waterloo, or I shouldn’t, have risked it. As for this end —why, there’s no reason fol’ the bulls to look for me here, I guess.” But Woolcroft was only half convinced. “You never know what reason a bull might have for shoving' his nose in—anywhere! So watch out.” He closed the door behind the other with care. Then, frowning, hurried back along the passage and descended tho cellar steps. He found Jakes alone, and bending over the stove. “Where’s the girl?”' „ ‘Tn the spare room with pa,” the negro told him, nodding towaids the ir.ii - vault; and added meaningly, as ho stooped to his task: “Thought Id best get the stove going, boss. ’Cause if that guy won’t squeal we’ll likely be using it?” . . For an instant Karin and Marie Bressler had paused motionless in the pitch-dark—trapped, paralysed by the sound of those heavy, dragging footsteps on the gravel outside. ; But only for an instant. The womans firmer ■- tightened on his wrist, and she tugged at him urgently. “Followquick!” she breathed. Kafin’S first impulse was to make a Aive for one of the front rooms, and (trust to find cover there. But the noiiian, fresh from her systematic told of the premises, knew better; those rooms —all rooms, save Woolcroft’s study upstairs, wore stripped and empty; she had him halfway down the passage, past the foot of the stairs, before the footsteps mounted the porch outside and a k<„. clicked into the lock. (To be continued.)