"THE WEB."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8871, 4 November 1907, Page 2

"THE WEB."

CHAPTER :XlX.—Continued. Approaching on foot an ordinary looking bouse «ith Mosaic Hall and various other signs and symbols painted over the doorway, Medhurst pushed onen the door. Leading immediately off.a passage was a fairly hall with seats running up to a certain point where a square platform sightly raised from the ground was railed off. Behind this were two large stone tablets, immediately over which there was a burning lamp with heavy curtains dropping down on either side. A smell of consumed incanse pervaded the place, and there was an uncanny eerie light from the shaded windows and the smouldering lamp. A recumbent figure inside the platform, but shut off from the tablets by brass gates, was murmuring some incoherent incantation, evidently performing some species of solitary early morning devotion. ,„ . , , . , "The old man himself is behind there somewhere," whispered Med hurst. "1 took the precaution to have » Hook'in there one or two nights after you told me about your experience at Holborn Town Hall in one of your letters. They have evidently had a high celebration for the faithful here last night, and one of them there is suffering from the recovery. We 11 slip by him and rush the place it we can." , ~, ~ They silently approached the railing round the platform, and stepped ouietly over it. A weird, wild-look-ing face looked up at them, and the praying man trembled in every limb, as Medhurst leaped over the brass gate. , "The Holy of Holies! Desecrate not the sanctified ground!" he cried wildly, arid held on to Jack with the tena-itv of a maniac as Strangways lifted one leg over the gates. Jack threw him off, and he fell down shrieking and trembling and praying to be delivered from the wrath to come. Roughly pulling aside the heavy curtain, Medhurst rushed forward. The struggle on the platform had evidently warned somebody. A huge negro dressed in a hideously spangle kind of uniform, one of the men whom Jack had wrestled with in Holborn Town Hall, sprang upon the ex-detective, who, whipping out a life preserver felled his assailant without a word, and rushed towards a door over which sparkled in the dim light some hieroglyphics in gold and imitation of precious stones. To his astonishment, it opened with a very slight pressure, and the men bounded into a luxuriantly furnished room. Couches and chairs upholstered in bright red velvet, rich draperies trained in peculiar shapes, and gilded ornaments of rich workmanship were scattered about the room. On the wall, with an electric light staring full upon it, was an enormous picture of the Patriarch in a heavy gilt frame. The room, however, was without an occupant, and Medhurst made a dash for another door, almost conceale-J with drapery, at the other end of the apartment. It opened just an inch or two, and a voice within sbuuted — "Who dares to come unbidden to the sanctuary?" r "Come out of that, you infernal old humbug, or we'll fetch you out," cried Jack in a towering rage.

The excitement of the chase was too much for him, and a minute later he repented his indiscretion. At the sound of his voice, the door closed with a bang, and the door through which they had just entered, at the same moment, clashed to also. The vibration of a wire above their headd showed how this had been accomplished, and with a look of -eproach at his master Medhurst groaned—"Trapned!" The only light to the apartment was through the roof; there was no window, not even a fireplace, not as much opening for speedy escape as would accommodate a cat. The two men looked at each other and swiftly exa-oined the room. Medhurst, from the illimitable depths of his pockets, produced a jemmy and got to work on the inner door. He hacked at the hard oak. and got the thin end of the instrument in the opening it had carved for itself. Jerking and pressing till big beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead, he tried to force the lock.

"We shall simply have to hammer ,our way out," he said. "The roof's .the only chance." At that moment a hissing .sound •above was followed by a choking smell.

"They have trained a gas pipe into the place, and they'll smother us," shouted Jack in alarm.

Picking,up a heavy ornament, Medhurst threw it at the glass skylight, but it rebounded from a gracing of line steel. The gas was pouring into the room fooUifter foot The prisoners barked and.coughed J ike choking dogs. Strang ways felt that the .enemy was going to triumph after all. He Jiad simply led his faithful man after Jiim through adventure after adven,ture, only i. >■& smothered like mad iiinimals in a udial chamber. While •these thought? were coursing wildly •through his brain Medhursfc had .dragged the sofa into the middle of the room, and was piling the furniture upon it. "You are a good shot, I think," he whispered hoarsely to Strangways.

"Yes, but i haven't a thing 01 any sort to shoot with," cried Jack in despair.

"But 1 have," replied the exdetective, pulling out a beautifully mounted little silver revolver. I don't carry these things myself as a rule, they're unbusinesslike; but I thought it wise to pick it up quietly last night instead of trusting that young lady with something she might hurt herself with."

PAUL UHQUHART. T

[Published^BYi Special Arrangement.] [A.ll. Eights Reserved.]

Although he had been chattering in this way to keep up his companion a. spirits, he had been working as he spoke; testing the stability of the littfe platform he was building, and lifting Strangways up to the third chair, he handed him Miss Rentoul s revolver. "You see that skylight is protected with a stout =teel mesh. Go for a bull's eye every time, and shoot through the rings." ... , Strangways took a steady aim. There was a crack and a splash. A tiny stream of inrushing air met the furious gas. He took further aim and drilled six holes one after the other. "That saves us," croaked Medhurst. "Now to get out." By this time he had his ready wits at work again. "Balance yourself as well as you can on those chairs," he said, "I am coming up on your,shoulders." Jack sat himself squarely on his topmost chair, and the detective, putting one foot on each of his shoulders, got his fingers through the mesh of the steel grating. With his jemmy in the other hand he hammered at the glass just immediately around the tiny holes drilled by the j revolver. In a few seconds he had | got a big enough aperture to wedge j the point of the Jemmy., He worked it backwards and forwards; the glass began to fall in little bits, and the air very gradually lighted. "We must have that grating out now," he said, slipoing down over Jack's back, and -glancing hurriedly round the room. As his burden suddenly lifted off him, Jack swayed slightly, and the whole of the impromptu scaffolding came down with a crash. The sound of his falling body had evidently attracted' the attention of somebody outside. The door through which they had come wa3 wrenched open, and one of the bullies whom Jack had seen at the Holborn Town Hall pushed his head in. He had evidently come to relieve the man who was lying senseless outside, and from the noise suspected that he was wanted within. The Patriarch obviously had not had time to warn everybody of what had happened. While these natural deductions were

rapidly evolving in Jack's mind, Medhurst was doing something more practical. Before the owner of the head knew what wa? happening to him, he was lying in unconscious partnership beside his brother of the patriarchal bodyguard. He fell forward when he was hit, and thus formed a useful wedge to keep the door open. As they bounded out into the hall, and from there to the street Medhurst sharply instructed his master.

"Round for the motor car and drive hard for Hampstead Road!" As fast as it was safe to risk it in the busy London streets, they sped along to the den in Hampstead Road. Away in the distance as they neared the place they could see another motor car drawn up outside. At that moment they were approaching a crossing. It was not a traffic point, but the policeman held up his hand. Jack felt like rushing through, but in a moment he saw the reason why he had been stopped. Another motor was coming across the road, and had he not obeyed the policeiran's hand, there would have been a collision, A carriage came behind the crossing motor, and half a dozen nursemaids who had been waiting on the kerb took advantage of the opportunity to wander across at their leisure, with their little charges pattering along beside them. The engines of the motor groaned and snorted as though in sympathy with their fuming human controller, but there was no help for it; three precious minutes at least were wasted and, when they got fairly off again, Medhurst and Jack almost screamed with disappointment as they saw two figures jump into the waiting motor and drive rapidly off. Putting on as much speed as he dared Strangways crashed up the hill. "They have found that the place has been cracked, and they have made off with everything incriminating. Drive on! D—— the regulations! We'll explain when we get summoned," howled Medhurst in his master's ear. Jack nodded and let the thing rip. The huge racer bounded off like a horse at the starting gate to the astonishment of the passers-by, who a moment or two afterwards let out a combined yell of "Stop! stop!" (To be continued.)