THE LITTLE BLUE GODDESS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 8

THE LITTLE BLUE GODDESS

OUR SERIAL

I ~ II By WILLIAM LE QUEUX II

In Author of: "Sins of the City," "The Great O ■J White Queen" "The Bond of Black" " The Man about Town," etc. etc.

CHAPTER V.—(Continued). I stepped over to my writing-table and. picked up a smaJl engagement book. " Have a look at this," I said. " You can take it away ii it ■will help voti ail all. You 'will see by that that I dined with my fii&nd, Arthur Seat-on, at eight o'clock oxi the Thursday, five weeks and four days ago, and that we afterwards went on to Shepherd's to a dance, where he introduced me to Mies Retford." '"That was absolutely the first no-, caslon on whioh you met her?'' ho asked. Absolutely," I replied emphatically. *' If you want proof that we went to adance that night, I think I can give you that." " iNow, we are getting along famous ly/' said Smith, with a smile which was no doubt meant/ to be reassuring but. which, in the high-strung state of my nerves, annoyed me immeasurably. . l ■went into ray bedroom and after rummaging about in a drawer in which I lieot all sorts of little momentoes of pleasant days and evenings, I found what T required. Returning with it to the other room, I handed it to -the defective. "Oh, good sir!" exclaimed the man from Scotland Yard. "A ball programme, bearing the date. That is excellent." "Now," I said. "I will try anrt find my friend Seaton. He may or may not be in town. Anyway, the programme proves that, so far. my story is complete, and that we wont to 'a dance that night." " It proves more than that, sir, fortunately," Smith replied. ""What do you mean?" I asked, for what more could it prove? " I think this is all we shall require," the detective continued, "because it fchows that this was the first occasion on 'which you met liuth Retford." " I don't see how a dance programme can do that," I answered. '-What is your point?" " Well, sir, it shows that you danced twico with her during the evening. It also shows that you had only been recently introduced to her, and that between the two dances you spoko to one of your friends about her." " You'll be telling me what I Raid to her next," I laughed. ''Are you sure you're not making all this up?" " It is perfectly simple, really, sir/' he replied. "You have written the name on the programme yourself. Am J right?" . " Very probably," I admitted. " And when you wrote it the first iime you spelt it ' Redford.' It was, I presume, after the first dance that you arranged the second. You again misspelt the name, and subsequently corrected it. You left the first name uncorrected, from which I gather that between the two dances someone told you that her name was Retford, and not Redford." " I see, you think that jf I had been told what her name really was after the whole thing was over, I should 'have corrected them both or left them both just as they were?" " Precisely, fir," said Smith. "It only shows'you how little things can clear up quite big points at times." 'I am very glad yen noticed that," naid Littledale. "You have probably saved us a good deal of trouble. Iti remains for you to find out where Miss Retford was" during the time that ]\fr Stafford was up the Nile and during his return to London."

"That we pretty well know already, Bir. The. date on which tho house in Tfr Vere Gardens was taken gives Ms that, or a good deal of it." '"Mv part of the concern"—l said, as I picked np the telephone receiver—- " can be gathered from my engagement book."

"You will leave these two, the book and the programme, with me, sir?" "By all means," I agreed readily, i" And if you think you can find anything else of any interest, have a look round and satisfy yourself." " 1 am very much obliged to you, Mr Trafford," said Smith. "It must bo an extremely annoying thing to bo asked for details of one's movements in H.his faslu'on. But, of course, I ha,d to do my duty, and it is very good of you to be so courteous."

T (noticed that Philip hid a broWd smile behind his hand. He knew me well enough to realise- that my '"courtesy" was intended to be an elaborato form of pointed sarcasm. The telephone bell sounded presently, and at last I got the number I had inquired for. "Bv Jove!" I exclaimed. ."That's a bit. of luck I Kfrlrb, Seaton, old chap! T never expected to find you in. How long have you been in town? Well, I want to see you au. once . . • yes . - . mo3t important. Xo . . . no . • ■ no,, old man, nothing to do with a card party. It really is most frightfully urgent. It is a very serious matter- Thanks so much, old fellow. Expect you in a few minutes." I hung up the receiver with a sigh of relief. Arthur Seaton was already on his way to my rooms. "You found him, then, Hugh?" Littledale asked.

"Yes," I replied. "He got back to town on Friday. He's been in Italy, it Beems, so he won't bo able to tell us where Miss Retford was, but he may help us if he can tell us anything fresh about her."

''May T use your 'phone, Mr Trafford?" Smith asked. "I should just like to ring up the Yard." ■" With pleasure," I assured him. • w I hope you will have something to tell us when you hear what has happened. " But he had no news of any real importance for us. They had consulted the files of the "Egyptian Observer" and found that Ellerant had arrived at

shepherd's the day after I left .for Assouan, and that neither his name nor that of his "adopted daughter" appeared in the visitors' lists for tho following week. " But as to the man himself, and where he is now, we know nothing as yet. He has not been to De Vero Gardens to-day. By this time, if he is anywhere near civilisation at all, he will have seen the papers, and. unless he has something to conceal, will probably communicate with us during the next few hours."

" I suppose the Egyptian has been found and arrested?" Philip asked.

" No, sir, they have no news of him at all. No one seems to have 'Seen him. I am rather surprised at that, as I expected ho would have been arrested in a very few hours." "I don't see how he could possibly escape," I declared confidently. "His complexion, to say nothing, of hia clothes, makes him a. very conspicuous object anywhere." "He has probably found a hidingplace near at hand." Smith explained. " In that oji.se, it .von't. take very long to dig him out, !,nd f am certain that, if he had moved far from De Vero Gardens hn must have been noticed and commented upon." "You have heard nothing of the friend Miss R-etford wrote to, Dilys?" "They would have told me if there had been any news of her," the policeman replied. "There is evidently nothing yet." " Well, T hopo you'll get hold of her soon," said the doctor. "I am sure she must know a great deal, and it will help Mr Trafford if you learn from her, as you are bound to do, that she has never met him in her life."

''"We shall probably know a lot more to-morrow morning, sir," the other answered. " The papers will be full of it, and a good many of the people mentioned will very likely come forward and tell us all they can."

"I hcpe so, I'm sure,'' I said earnestly, "'because " and broke off abruptly to greet my friend Sea ton, who had arrived at that moment.

"What is all tho trouble, Hiijrh?" he asked, eh eerily. ''You speak of a very serious affair as if you really meant it."

"I do indeed," T replied solemnly. '•' But first let me introduce you. I think you've met- Mr Littlodalc. and this is Mr Smith of Scotland Yard." Seaton looked grave at the mention of Scotland Yard, and evidently began to take the matter seriously. I gave him a rough outline of the' morning's tragedy. Ho was dumbfounded. "Little Ruth Retford!" he cried [' Killed herself? My dear fellow, it's impossible!"

" I am afraid it is only too true, sir," said Smith, tritely.

"But, good heavens, mv dear Hugh, she was the brightest little girl I have met for many a long year, and a« to imagining herself an/Egyptian goddess! Why. the whole thing's taroical." " Was she a very great friend of yours, Mr Seaton?" Arthur turned to the policeman with a look which appeared to ask what business it was of his, but he answered civilly enough. << t' C! V lt - say wa V he replied. J met her in Paris two vears ago and again in Berlin last year. She was a very charming, pretty and lively little lady, and I have always been very glad to meet her. It was quite a surprise to me to see her in Cairo. Those aro the only three occasions on which I have met her."

" {low do you mean it was a surprise to see > her in Cairo, Mr Seaton?" tho detective asked. "Evidently yon both travelled about a good deal,'and' travellers are seldom surprised to meet anyone anywhere."

""Well, I was rather surprised." ho explained, "because she told me when I met her in Berlin that she would not go to Egypt. I am very fond of Cairo, and whenever T am anywhere near I fike to make, a point of spending a vrcA' there. 1 ran over from Naples this trip, and I was going there from Berlin on the previous occasion. T told her so, and asked her whether she knew Cairo and n£ she intended going there."

"And what did she say?" T asked. "As far as I remember. she told me that she hatod the idea of anything Egyptian, because her father was an Egyptologist, and she had been brought up on what, T think, she called a diet of sand, mummies' and hieroglyphics. She seemed to have a positive dread of anything Egyptian." "War; her father travelling with her?" Philip asked. " No; she has always been with her guardian. Her father is dead." "Are you sure, sir?" Smith asked quickly " Xo." Seaton admitted, "I'm not sure. In fact, I don't know anything about it. T naturally gathered from the fact that, as she spoke of her guardian, her father was not living. 1 took it she had no parents at all. I never saiv any sort of woman about her."

""You met her two years ago, Arthur." T s,iid. 'Had she an Egyptian servant with her?"

"Yes," he replied, "she had. A picturesque old rojrue she used to call Mahomet or something." " Achmed," T corrected.

"You're right," Arthur agreed. "It was Achmecl. I supposed that ho was a legacy from her Egyptologist father." " Would you be very surprised to hear that her father is still alive, and that he is an Essex vicar?"

"I should," ho said, "verv. T was quite under the impression "that she was an exceedingly wealthy orphan." "Well, she was not," T replied. "As a matter of fact, wo don't know yet what means she had, hut we believe her to have been poor."

"She certainly wag not poor," Seaton asserted confidently. "Why, just after you left Cairo she ra«ide a present of a hundred thousand piastres to some Arabian pilgrimage fund." "You mean Jier guardian did?" " I don't think it was her guardian. Anyway, it was given in her name." " What was it for exactly, do you remember?" Philip asked.

"It Was to enable a lot of dirty Arabs to pay a pilgrimage to some shrine in the desert," he replied. "When I asked her about it she smiled and said it was an offering to the Goddess of the Death Which was not Eternal." " Nephthys !" I cried.

"That's "the name, Nephthys," Seaton agreed. "What about it?" (To be continued.)