X 14

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

X 14

Sy

I. M. GILBERT

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued).

Tiptoeing across, I placed my ear against the baize, and was able to distinguish words fairly distinctly.. In my excitement I leant too far, and the partition swung halfopen, nearly pitching me forward. Mercifully the hinge made no noise, and I managed to recover my balance. To all intents and purposes my head was now in the room, but concealed by the screen in front, and I no longer ■had the least difficulty in following the conversation. Jude was doing most of the talking. It sounded as if he was' making a report to his superiors, and they seemed amused, for there were bursts of loud laughter. “Yes,” he was saying, “it was a fine piece of window dressing. After the young fellow bolted we thought it would only be a matter of minutes before he returned with a policeman, but the .delay proved to be much longer than we expected. Our most pressing problem was how to get rid of the dead man, and we had no time to. lose. . It was far too risky to attempt to-.carry him away, and we were at our wits’ end to And a suitable hiding place. Lazaroni, who was in a blue funk, gibbering with fright, could suggest nothing. His wife, on the other hand, was as cool as a cucumber. She had been in the bedroom with the old woman, and now she joined us and took command of the situation. Her notion .was that the obvious spot is often the,best, so why not put him in the window? The space was quite large enough, and was sheltered .from view inside the shop by the frosted glass screen at the back of it, and it was unlikely anyone would ever dream of looking over the top. It was bur only chance, and we hoisted our late friend out of sight amongst the chocolates and tobacco. He would have made a pretty picture if the shutters had been down!" The .others laughed and then Jude went on—> “After that ‘The Nipper’ end I cleared out one at a time. Not far off a couple of cops were in earnest conversation; but they didn’t notice us, and we found cover in an alley,' near enough to see what happened and to give any help should it be required.’’ He explained that they had watched our arrival, and how everything had gone smoothly until, to their consternation, .•they saw their own car, the big blue saloon, approaching. Fortunately for them' it came from the opposite direction to that in which the police ' oar was standing, and also we were all in the shop at the time. They had jnanaged to signal ito the driver not to stop, and had gone on to a neighbouring square to await developments. < Ths cigarette episode Jude described as an absolute , “That woman is an artist,” he declared proudly. “To-pick a packet from beside the body and offer it to the inspector "was a stroke of genius. She Is- worth ‘four of her husband.” -, -The third man, whose face I hadn’t Seen yet, remarked that in his opinion they * owed more to luck than good judgment. ' . “All is well that ends well,” fee admitted rather grudgingly. - “I allow that the scar on the cheek was an amazing ■coincidence, but Lazaroni had better- be more careful. He can’t expect his wife to pull him through every time. Another mistake like this and he will find himself sent back to , Mussolini, who, we understand, is longing fa meei-him.” He -sniggered -Unpleasantly. “Now Comrade -Ellis, please -give me an account -of your activities.” , . (Ellis must have been the visitor to my flat, for I recognised his voice. He ■explained how he ■ had been , driving the blue car, and had tracked me in it to Scotland Yard and : thence to Jermyn;. Street. The actual removal of Sinar’s remains, had been'a simple ■affair. • ’ When everything was quiet the’car had acted as;hearse, and while it was at the shop “The Nipper,” who was evidently the -little Cockney, had kicked'; up a. mock disturbance some distance away to distract attention, and.then disappeared before being ar- '* Although Ellis didn’t mention it, I had ho\need to speculate as to the final : disposal of the body. This house, was a-safe mortuary, .convenient to an improvised cemetery. Apparently there had been no time to carry out' the burial’ before daybreak, and it was therefore to be done that night. The .'spades and coil of rope took on . an-added significance. ‘ The interview with me was dismissed in a few curt sentences. ■ “It was most satisfactory,” Ellis said. “The young-fool swallowed everything he was told and promised to leave the country at once. The poor mutt thinks himself no end of a hero. Ho can easily be settled with if -he causes any trouble. That kind is better dead.” . After this brutal summing up of my character, the three went on to talk of' matters of greater importance. My position was a very uncomfortable one, for .my legs felt cramped; but I dared no* move, for the plot itself was now being discussed, and it was essential that I should learn as much as possible about, it. A "great deal of what followed was meaningless to me; but, although much remained obscure, there was no difficulty in working ou tthe main essentials. Briefly, this was the gist of it: International quarrels were in the background. An unfriendly foreign power had found that, in ‘ spite of costly efforts, its attempts to undermine the authority of the British Government were checkmated at every turn-. Our counter espionage was good; we knew too much. Several alarming discoveries had already been made by us, and even more startling exposures were expected in the near future. Only, as yet, very few people were in the know, and' our enemies had determined to silence them before it was too late. An ordinary blatant series of political murders would never do, so air the latest aids from science were to be used to help, in the nefarious scheme. There was to be no suggestion of intentional violence. Certain gentlemen, about six in number, would die in various ways. Two, perhaps, from apparently natural causes —the attack of some fatal disease, for instance. Another might meet with an unfortunate -motor accident. Yet a fourth would forget to turn off the gas in his bedroom. I didn’t hear all the methods, but that was the general idea. ‘None of the -victims was actually mentioned (by name, but they were evidently persons of importance. All the gruesome details had been thought out; • the whole plot was far advanced, and I was startled to hear that the first or • the .“removals,” as they termed them, was. to take place no later than next I could see that Jude and Ellis were -merely cogs in the wheel. They were to help to carry out the dirty work, but the people behind the scenes, the real Instigators of the plan, were io .take no active part—except for one star performer. He was the mysteri- / ous* X 14. I gathered that this individual was an experienced “killer," a - tort pf highly trained murder sneoial-

ist, and he was coming to England to act as a kind of stage manager. The more difficult “removals” were to be his own particular concern. XI4 had been delayed; but, as all was ready, he had decided that operations could begin before his arrival provided—and he had been most Insistent on this—that there was no likelihood of things leaking out. If tHere were the least ohanoe of the authorities getting wind of the plans nothing was to be done until he took command personally. As the project was unfolded, I saw what deep waters the lack of a match had led me into. This was no petty Soho crime. Sillar’s death had been a mere incident. I was up against a. big thing. The fate of others and the safety of the country, might depend on my actions. During the conversation, although both Ellis and Jude had addressed the other man as Comrade Wane, they had spoken to him with a certain deference, as if he were a person of importance.- He was probably the most dangerous of the three, so I decided to try to have a look at him. Putting my right hand on the floor, I sank on to my knees in order to get close to. the screen. There was a tiny gap at the joint where it folded, which served as a peep-hole, and fortunately the man was directly in my line of vision. As his manner’of speech had indicated, he was very unlike the other two. He had the thin aesthetic face of a dreamer, topped by a. mop of long, -straggling hair, which fell in tufts over his ears. He might have been a university professor, but the mouth gave a deeper insight to his character. It was straight and firm, and -shut like a vice. As I watched, he was busily engaged in putting papers into a number of long . envelopes which he placed in the dispatch case.

“Our friends ought to Arrive soon, he said quietly. “The tools are in readiness, everything is prepared. Our other work is also completed, and 1 leave King’s Gross for Edinburgh on Friday night.” He tapped the case which he had closed. “The full.reports for X 14 are, contained here. Meanwhile. I will take temporary charge of this, for the fewer people who handle it the better.”

Producing a bunch of keys, he was about to lock the little box when he caught sight of a letter still lying on the table.

“What is that?” he asked. “Oh, of course, the communication of our late lamented companion. I see that he used one of our. own envelopes. It is lucky it wasn’t put away with the others. That address might have contaminated them!” He picked up the packet and thought for a moment. “After all, Sillar knew few important facts,” he went' on, “not enough to have frustrated the scheme; but If the police had got hold of this wo would have been, compelled to postpone operations. It had better be burned." He rose and crossed to the fireplace. Atjthat instant there was the sound of a motor approaching, and the other two got up. I remained where I was, ready to dodge back under cover. It might have been prudent to retire into the laundry, only more information was wanted, because the little I had gleaned was not nearly sufficient. Wace made some remark about meeting the new arrivals. He hesitated, then put the envelope on the mantelpiece, and the three left the room together. --- -• Now was my chance., If I could get that letter and bolt witljput being seen, the game would be in ,my .hands. The glass -door from the dining-room Into the garden offered a quick means of escape. It was hidden from the main entrance to the house-by a .corner of the veranda, and would obviate, the necessity of my finding my way' again in the dark through the kitchen'. ~ : When the car came to a stop, I stole from behind the screen, and. crossed to the glass door to make sure of my line of retreat. It was a 'flimsy affair, held by light bolts, and opened.without difficulty, any noise', being •'more than drowned by the babble of conversation which had arisen in the’ front hall. I next went over to the fireplace for the letter. Suddenly the notion came to take the dispatch case as well. Why not. It contained the reports, and lay temptingly unlocked within my reach. In a moment I had slipped the long envelope in beside the others, for that would be the easiest way to carry it. Just as I closed the lid the telephone bell rang. I leapt across, to unhook the receiver, but was too late—some one' else had also heard and was coming into the room. I had barely time to dart out of aight into the pantry without going .back for the case, which I had left lying on the table with Sillar’s letter inside it. The telephone rang again, and Wace’s voice said ‘‘Hillo.” Next moment he gave a gasp. “Who opened the garden door?” he cried. Then, a second later, “My God, Sillar’s letter has gone 1” There was a rush of feet, followed by perfect pandemonium, and I fled into the back passage with the object of getting to the laundry. My escape In that direction was cut oft, however, for a light was burning in the kitchen where people were moving about, so I ran up the stairs. At the top I felt my way -along in the dark, until my hand touched a door handle. I gripped hold of it, and stopped to listen as the confused, noise of shouting gradually grew less. My enemies were evidently searching the grounds, having been led astray by the false .trail on to the verandah. After a few minutes footsteps echoed below. “We have found nothing, boss,” said a voice. “It looks as if the thief had got clean away.”

(To be continued.)