“THE CLIFF – PATH MYSTERY.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16861, 11 October 1922, Page 11

“THE CLIFF - PATH MYSTERY.”

OUR SERIAL.

3y HEADON HILL. CHAPTER TX.—Continued. “ I see what you mean.” The veteran detective seized the point. “Severin may liaro pounced on something i i that letter to construct a safety fridge for himself. T. expect you tumbled to that at the time, Mr 'lhcrpe.” The Indian police-officer nodded. ‘ i confess that it influenoed the attitude I took up when Sever in begun to rag the Colonel,” he replied. ‘‘ It is only fair to say that prior to that 1 ha.i my doubts about the Colonel. i had been unfavourably impressed by his manner when Mr and Miss llaven and J met him on the cliff path the morning after the murder.” “The murder?” snapped Hoop. •• You are sure it was murder, then?!'” “ Yes. Didn't Repton tell you?” “ Not he. He wouldn’t, you know, now that lie is officially assigned to the case. Close as wax is Dick Repton when lie’s on the job.” ** Well, not being officially on the job myself. I don’t mind telling you.” said Thorpe. “ Larramorc had got past the dangerous gap in the- path when he went over the cliff. The deduction Is that someone gave him a shove. I have n record of the tests and measurements 1 made.'; Hozekiah’s eyes sparkled. “ Yon ought to be at the Y ard, sir,” was the highest praise he could think of. “ And won't I score off Dick when 1 teil him that he did’t spot the real clue him self. Well, well. Out of the mouth or babes and sucklings ” “ Zoke!” His spouse pulled him up sharply- “You and your babes and sucklings! Don’t you know that the gentleman is high up in the Indian police and has prob’ly forgot more'n you ever learned?” Whether or no Mr Hoop was about to apologise for his well-meant, if awkward, compliment was never revealed. For at that moment the face of Enid appeared framed in the open window of the kitchen. Glancing curiously at the old detective and his wife, she addressed Thorpe in low and cautious tones. l f such a thing was possible, he would have thought that sh<* was frightened. “1 came round to the hack because of the lodger,” she explained. “Miss Braile is sitting at her window. Mr

Thorpe, will you please come out? T I have something rather queer to tell i “ You can safely tell it before theee ‘ good people.” was the reply. “They 1 are Mr and Mrs Hoop, friends of our friend Inspector Repton. The old man we took to the hospital this morning is Mrs Hoop’s father, and I have just been giving her a report of what we | saw of the accident.” ; Enid put her hand on the windowj sill and lightly vaulted into the room. ! “ Accident,?’’ she murmured, with j curl of her scarlet lips. “ Pretty good” i at accidents, is Bicton-on-Sea. You left me starting on a. putting match with a benevolent clergyman ” - She waxed seemingly irrelevant. “Yes?’’ said Thorpe, his pulses quickening. “Well, we finished the game ten minutes ago." I won it. though that is a detail. When wc had paid each other the usual compliments the reverend gent, offered to take me for a spin in the side-car of his mo-bike. He had one waiting in the hotel yard, he said. Like a little fool. T consented—-bn seemed such a nice old thing, and it wanted an hour to dinner. But as he opened the door of the side-ear for me I called the deal off and hopped back into the hotel. Like to know why?” “ I must know why,” Thorpe insisted. Miss Enid Raven, if ever she had to give evidence in a Court of law, would make a very bad witness. She had such a trick of darting off at a tangent. “ You remember Air MacAdoo of Mucklepath Farm?” she continued. ‘ M h**n you and he dumped that poor wounded old man into the car, 1 noticed a livid scar on MacAdoo’s wrist I hero was the same scar, or a precisely similar one. on the wrist, of the clergyman when he opened the door of that j side-car just now- T got a sort of weir i notion that it was an invitation to walk into my parlour, little fly,* an invitation that it would be better to decline. Something to do with Scotch cider.” Enid concluded demurely. Hezekiah Hoop and -John Thorpe ex changed glances. “ You never came to a wiser conclusion in your life. Miss Raven. 5 ’ said the latter. “If T make myself a nuisance bv stick ing close to you for the next few days you mustn't grouse at me. What did the parson do when you jibbed at the side- car?” “Went off on the mo-bjkfe hell forleather,” Enid replied demurely. When they returned to the hotel, Thorpe inquired at the bureau and wainformed that there was no clergyman among the resident guests. The rerer end gentleman who had afterwards gone out on to the lawn had merely looked in for a cup of tea. He had never been at the Royal before. A tourist. probably, cycling along the coast from urte resort to another. Thorpe, though openly assenting, did not think so—unless the term “re sort 5 ' was to be taken in a more restricted sense. Mucklepath Farm was already shaping in his mind as the resoit of some very dangerous characters.

fTo be continued.)