“THE CLIFF – PATH MYSTERY.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16848, 26 September 1922, Page 11

“THE CLIFF - PATH MYSTERY.”

OUR SERIAL.

By

HEADON HILL.

CHAPTER lll.—Continued. Inspector Repton emitted a sound ; that was between a grunt and a snort. , It left his intentions undisclosed. Alra | Hoop rose and laid a plump hand on his ! shoulder. " 1 only hope, old friend,” site pleaded, “ that while you are staying J with us you will not make trouble loi j people we simple villagers love.” “ Simple villagers,” repeated Rcpto : drily. *• All right, mother. It 1 givi ! rein to my fancy and root round a bit.. { I‘ll promise to keep you ported before ! 1 make things hum. It is just- possible ; you know, that a little daylight with j experience at the back of it may be to j the advantage oj your friends.” | Interrupting the talk, an electric bei* shrilled from the kitchen at the back o: the house. Mrs Hoop ivaddled to the door. ‘ That will be Miss Braile. the new lodger that came to. me from the hotel to-day," she said. “ It’s the gal's night out. and 1 must go and see what she wants. 1 suppose. Left alone together, the two men smoked in a rather strained silence for a while. It was the elder who broke it with a short laugh. Funny that this should have hap--1 pened while you are with us,*’ remarkI ed Hoop. “ jf it’s a fair question, has | anything .that has transpired in this i room to-night altered your opinion ol ! the verdict?"’ • Not as far as evidence stands.” replied Repton promptly. ‘ £ But enough inis transpired which would have made me look for evidence if I were officially concerned with the case. L>f course we are taught to mistrust the obvious, end here the obvious simply lute one in the eye.” Hoop nodded agreement. ‘ I know.” he said. " The ingredients are all to hand. The scoundrel husband. the lion - ourable lover, the deserted wife. Ihe scoundrel husband attempts to blackmail the lover and the lover shove* him over the cliff behind bis house. Against this you have the fact that Colonel Nasymth voluntarily tendered his evidence at. the inquest and stated, without being asked, that he had given the man the pound note found in his pocket. If tlie fellow pitched a pitiful tale it is just wliat the colonel would have done. Anjffiow be would never have killed a man in cold blood.” ” Honestly 1 don : t believe he would.” Reptoif assented. ” All the same. I am not convinced tlvat it is i such plain sailing at the coroner's jury thought it. That, gap in the r.liff path has a lot to answer for. and by that I don’t mean Archibald Larramore's death. It furnished a clue, possibly a false one, to the obvious and therefore untrustworthy conclusion. And then a.ll these coincidences. Hezekiah—last, but by no means least, that bell which rang in your kitchen just now.” “ What?” demanded Hoop huskily. “ Your good wife said that it was rung by a Miss Braile. a new lodger come to you from the hotel to-day. "When I was trying to arrest. Larr«more seven years ago I searched his rooms and came across home interesting letters from a Miss Leila Braile, an ar Treas at that time in greater demand than she is to-day. Without disparaging your accommodation, old man, f am. curious why she should want to leave the hotel in such a hurry for an apartment house.” ” Good Lord!” ejaculated the ex-detective-sergeant. ” You are right about the mix-up T>iek. Lucius Severin i- staying at the hotel. Does he come into this bea&tly picture you’re stagin" at poor little Biclon-on-Sea ?” ‘ Not vet ” Inspector Repton replied grimly. .. . CHAPTER IV. THE WOMAN'S CODE. Always a welcome visitor at " The Cottage,” Colonel Nasmyth nevertheless knocked at the jessamine smothered door with some diffidence on the morning after the inquest on the unidentified. The little maid who admitted him noticed that liis usually firm and mellow voice shook as he asked if Mrs L arrant ore was at home. He was conducted into the cool sittingroom which so recently had been i>rofaned by an evil presence. The little maid, an observant person for her vears, noticed that her mistress’s voice also shook as she rose from a low chair to greet her visitor- It was the first time that the two had met since the dispatch by the one and the receipt by the other of the letter which Archibald Larramore had read at the golf club the night before last. In passing it may be mentioned that the letter was still in the colonel's Burberry pocket at the club. He had been too much upset, and too much occupied at the inquest, to go up to tlic links on the previous day. When the small servant had ' left them alone they looked long and searchingly into each other’s eyes. Tlie She sank down into- her chair with a strangled sob. ” That scoundrel lied when lie told j me that he had not been to see you,” Nasmyth declared bitterly. “ And,” he added, pointing to a ‘ Devon Gazette'’ on the table, ‘‘you will have gathered that he also honoured me with I nail." " Oh. Lester,’ came the plaintive cry. ‘ Rough luck!” said the man. “I didn’t shove him off the cliff. Lucy. I was sorely tempted, though.” “If you had you would have had nothing to reproach yourself with ” Nasmyth proceeded in a dull tone, as if he had not heard the remark : “In a way I am ns guilty as if I had pushed him over. I set Ins feet on that path well knowing the odds against his l passing the gap safely.” ‘•What does it matter?” said Mrs Larramore dully. “ Evidently no one suspects. It was wise of you. dear, to offer yourself as a witness.” “ I had no option if 1 was to escape suspicion,” rejoined Nasmyth in tlie same toneless voice. “ My footman, Jenkins, admitted him. and it would

have soon leaked out that I had been visited by a disreputable stronger whom I had myself shown out by the garden door. T was more concerned -or you than myself, Lucy. It would never do for your connection with the affair to give cause for scandal. No fear of that now. since there was nothing found on him to lead to identification.” “ Then we can be to each other as before,” said Lucy Larramore with yearning tenderness Teh pleading note in the gentle voice seemed to rouse tlie man from the semi-stupor in which he had been talking. It was suddenly borne in. on him that the dead "man's widow believed him guilty of her husband’s murder and that she was trying to convey to him that she condoned it- He snatched at her phrase, as offering

escape for the moment from what was to him a horrible dilemma. Yes,” he said more briskly, ‘‘Yes, certainly, dear. We will bo to each other a<s before this horrible thing overtooK us.”

A slow flush mantled in the still girlish cheek. Lu-cy Larramore, starved of happiuess, did not perceive the ambiguous nature of his repiy—that it might be taken to mean that they wore just to remain friends of the golf course and the bridge table, as they had been, till that fatal interchange of letters. Seeing that he was edging towards the door, she jumped up as one to whom hig lightest wish was law. ‘‘You want to be off. ' he said impulsively. ‘‘Kiss me, darling, before you go.” Stooping down, he brushed her lips with his greying moustache, and ten seconds later was marching down tlie garden path with a pair ol luminously protesting eyes watching him from the cottage door. The quality of that kiss had left much to be desired. Lester Nasmyth was a miserable man that bright autumn morning. His conscience told him that by sending Larramore in a drunken condition along that frayed path he had as surely killed him ns if he had choked the life out of him with his own hands- He felt that to marry the woman whom he had made a widow would be a sin more heinous than tlie initial one, while by yielding to the temptation, lie would miss the salve to his conscience, which lie would gain hv sacrificing his love on the altar of self-respect. Yet he could foresee that the path of duty was going to be made hard for him. A woman’s code of honour differs from a man’s. With woman love is over all. and he realised that Lucy was supremely indifferent to whether he was responsible for her husband s Heath or not. He was assured that she had forgiven him the deed even if she. had seen bim hurl Larramore to his doom. In fact he thought she believed he had done it. The milder means he bad adopted would not worry her in the least. Tt was the woman’s code—that- over everything j love must prevail. There was, too, the chance that bv somo enl stroke of fate Lucy’s relationship- to the dead man might come tt. light. In which case the verdict at the inquest would amount to nothing. His Infatuation for the charming occupant of “The Cottage” was well known. He might find him Foil arraigned oil a charge of murder, in which if he had married her, Lucy’s position would be rendered a hundredfold more terrible. On the other hand, there was the blow he would have to strike at that tender heart if he went hack on tho proposal he had made in the letter which had led to such a distracting maze. The thought of Lucy’* reply to his proposal turned his steps towards the golf club-hou<;«*. Tt would he as well to verify Larramore’s statement that he bad pioked up the letter in the road and a f ter ward « destroyed it. He could not understand how that could be. He remembered putting it in the. pocket of his overcoat., but he had no recoUe-'-lion of taking it out again. And tltat garment he had Ipft, at the. club-house on the afternoon before Larra more’s call on him. Hp. had not been there since. It seemed ages ago. In the entrance lobby of the olub he found the * oat hanging on its accustomed peg. and. sure enough, in the pocket, was Lucy’s letter—the letter that for a few brief hours had lifted him to such heights of hap, ness, only to dash him into tlie depth* of remorse and despair. Of course the wastrel had lied as to his manner of finding the letter, also as to its subsequent destruction. That was quite intelligible. To Mi* Archibald La.rra - more’s tongue a lie would trip more readily than the truth. But why should he have lied in this, instance? The shiftless rogue was too lazy to hatch out a. lie for no reason. The minor mystery was soon explained. After parefullv placing the letter in his pocket-hook, Colonel Naornyth passed on to the general room, where the Becretavy and half a dozen members were listening in some exritement to n communication being made by the steward. That functionary was reporting the burglarious ec. try affected two nights ago by some stranger who had done himself well on beer and whisky. This was the first opportunity be had had of making known the depreciations. On the provious dav the tragedy of th© cliff had caused the club to I>e deserted. Mr Lucius Severin. the London financier staying at The Roya l , had been an absorbed listener to the narrative. His cold eyes lit up when Nasmyth entered the room. “You ought to hear this. Colonel.” be said. “The steward hn.s teilinc- us a yarn about a lion-viva,nt who i,vns evidently the vagrant wlio called o r von la ter with such disastrous re-sults—-in himself.” Indeed?” said Nasmyth, raising hvs eyebrows. Tie only knew Severin eiightly as a temporary member, and didn’t'like bi n. “ Sorry I missed the story. Perhaps Brown will oblige again ?” Brown obliged again, and Nasmy-h weighed the ffcory thoughtfully. From it there stood out the full significance of Larramore’s lie about the letter. Ho had been compelled to'account for its perusal in the way he did. To have told the truth would have entailed, what would have amounted to a confession of having broken into the club-house and stolen his supper. “Yes,” said the Colonel. ‘‘The uninvited guest of the dub was doubtless the dilapidated gentleman who called on me later in the evening. it is a pity this wasn't put. before the Coroner, though it could not very well have affected the verdict.” “I am not so sure,” Severin laugher, vnpleasantly. “The scallywag seem* lo have consumed a. goodish dose of the club whisky. What price a yer cicrt of Culpable Homicide against Colonel Nasmyth for turning a man full of liquor on to the <Jiff path? The remark, doubly offensive from a non-resident enjoying the hospital it.. of the club as a temporary member, was received in chilly silence. Two or three of the members present s&un tered out on to the verandah, mutter ing “Bounder'” A less drastic reproof was administered by a ma,, ; lounging in a can© chair by one of the windows. He got his effect by ignoring tlie question raised in such bad taste by Severin and by interposing one of his own. This was John Thorpe, the officer of Indian police, home on leave. “T wonder if the beggar took anything besides food and drink,” he said, looking round placidly. “ Has anyone missed anything cut of their overcoats?” “ Some one has pinched eightpence out of the ticket-pocket in mine, ’ wheezed a stout member, glad to step into the limelight. ‘' Fairly conclusive,” said John Thorpe. “ A sovereign and eight coppers were found on the body. Colonel Nasmyth testified that he gave the poor wretch a sovereign, so his funds are accounted for.” Mr Lucius Severin had been chafing! under the rebuff banded to bim.

(To be continued.)