THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8994, 3 December 1907, Page 2

THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

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CHAPTER IV. —Continued

Sue's reading of the case had been true in every particular, and so pleased was old Peter lip at the Grange that his daughter had not rounde l on him that he made it all right for the lovers. Philip Gray and Miss Viola are to bo married in the i'ail. The Vinces were never caught, but at the inquest on Carthew it came out that the woman had n<iver been really sick, but had shammed at that j old fiend's instigation.« Her message to Miss Viola to come and see her was clearly a trick to make the poor girl a prisoner. 1 The mystery of the sunshade was made plain by Miss Viola herself. After the Vinces had laid hands on her and shut her up in the roof she had thrown it into the stream — through the same aperture under the eaves by which Mrs Vince had destroyed the testimony of the poisoned milk—in the hopes of making her whereabouts known. They have made a me a sergeant over the job, which means that Sue has more to do than ever. She persists in speaking of her great Radford Shone as a "private tec.," and ' is hoping some day to have another turn-up with one of that breed. CHAPTER V. THE GRANTON RUBIES. " Vague rumours had reached us at the Nctford police-office that the Duchess of Granton had lost her celebrated rubies; but as the loss had not been reported officially I paid very little attention to the matter, thinking that if the gems had ever been lest at all they must have been speedily found. At any rate, it was no part of my duty as Superintendent | of the local force to go poking my ! nose into an affair in which our ser-1 vices were apparently not required, j Then, on the second day, a more j precise rumour came in that the rubies were still missing, but that, rather than have recourse to the police, the Duchess had sent to London for the fashionable investigator, Radford Shone, who had arrived at Granton Abbey and was conducting a rigid inquiry. Finally,on the third day, the whole business was lifted out of the reign » f . rumour and automatically crystal • lised into a police case by the tragedy of the death of Monsieur Lupi, the French tutor. It is open to anyone to employ whom they in the matter of missing property, but when human life has been filched even a duchess has no option but to call in j the constituted authorities. It was shortly after ten o'clock in i the morning when the telephone summoned me' to the Abbey with the meagre information that the tutor was dead, and that I was wanted immediately. Taking a uniformed constable with me in the dog-cart, I quickly traversed the two miles from the town to his Grace's ancestral mansion, and was at once shown into the presence of the Duchess. I was i aware that the Duke was in Ameri- J ca, on a shooting trip out West. Her Grace, a handsome, blonde woman ot thirty, received me in her boudoir, and it was easy to see at a glance that she had been shaken up rather badly. From her attitude when I entered I should "say that she had been staring out over the park, but she jumped up on hearing my name announced, and came forward, talking fast. "Oh, Mr Foster!" she began, "the most dreadful, thing has happened. My eldest boy's French tutor has been found hanging in a disused well in the apple orchard, quite dead! I feel as sure as can be th'at it was an accident. There was no reason why he should commit suicide. He was well and cheerful last night. The idea of a murder is not to be entertained for a moment. It is prepos- , terous!" She spoke in little jerky sentences, her breath coming short. Her lace was twitching nervously, and her fingers kept plucking at the buttons of her silk blouse. "I can better form an opinion on that point when I have viewed the spot and talked with the doctor," I replied. "But—your Grace will paidon me—you speak as if the idea of murder had been mooted." "Did 1?" she faltered. "I didn't mean to. I only thought " Then she broke down, and, if it is permitted to use the phrase about a lady of such exalted position, looked foolish. 1 tried her on a new tack. "We have heard some gossip in ' the town about your Grace having lost some valuable jewellery," 1 said, "and that you were having the matter investigated privateiy. I don't want to pry into what may be only kitchen talk, but I need not remind you that if there has been a robbery it may hove some bearing on this gentleman's death. In justice to every one you ought to give us all vuur confidence." '"J, • two cases are absolutely distinct, ... ;• Foster, yet- she i'altsral, a;..- then went on as_ though impelled against her will, "Yes, this affair of poor Lupin ' has made concealment impossible. I had hoped: to hush it up, but that is out of the question now. It is true that my rubies are lo'.'t and that I sent foi Mr Radford Shone tn find them." "is he al the Abbey new?" I hazarded. "In another room, waiting to see you, and fjll of a theory which I iieg you to disregard," the Duchess replied pleadingly. "He is so convinced that he is right that he insists on imparting his views to you; otherwise I tell you frankly that I should not have put the idea of murder into your head." "Your Grace, it seems, has lost

BEING NARRATIVES BY OFFICERS OK T1; t." I! I 111 N INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT, AND OF THE PROVIi;n !V! KT. '-I RESPECT OP DEALINGS WITH THE EMINENT i'! :i:V. \n: ir-• 1 ORD SHONE.

conlhi'-'.kv in iM: Shone?" Tli-.: is !•.. iu.'r;; Kmked down and hesitated, tuning witli those blouse buttons violently that I expected them to come oli*. "N-o-o —not exactly/" she said at last. "On the contrary, 1 believe him to be very clever. ) now- that is, I feel certain that he has been misled about the cause of Lupin's death." "Has he found the rubies?" "Not yet. He thinks he has a clue —at least:, ho suspects some one in whose innocence I believe firmly. But there I have not patience to discuss it. You would never have heard of Shone's idea if it had not been for this calamitous death of the tutor. As it is, there is no help for it. You had better see Mr Shone at once and hear what he has to say." She touched a bell, and a footman came to conduct me to the room where the eminent investigator awaited me. As 1 passed through the corridors I could not resist an inward chuckle at the irony of fate which had driven the Duchess to employ the costly aid of a private expert and then have to beseech the police to treat him with contempt. For, practically, that was what her vehement disclaimer of his theory amounted to. The servant showed me into a small library where two men were sitting, one on either side of the hearth. The tallest, a clean-shaven fellow with curious cod-fish eyes, jumped up on my entrance; the other, who was stout and stolid, retained his seat and surveyed me with lazy insolence. It was not intended to reach my ears, but I distinctly heard him mutter: "The usual type of provincial copper, Shone. Plenty of zeal, but limited intelligence. A nice mess he'd have made of it if you hadn't been here." The tall man took no notice, hut advanced lo meet me, his proturberant eyes, making play on my face with what struck me as affected keenness. It was as though he wished to impress me with his powers of insight—that he was summing me up and probably finding me deficient. "1 am Radford Shone—you will have heard of me," he began, in a strident, high-pitched voice. "You will be Superintendent—er—Foster? Well, as this jewel robbery on which I have been engaged has devolved into a case of murder, you will have to take charge, but you can have the benefit of my notes. They will enable you to arrest your prisoner within an hour." "That will be very convenient," I replied. "It is my duty to view the body ana go over the ground as soon as possible, but I shall be glad to hear the opinion you have formed. The Duchess hinted " Mr Radford Shone checked me with a wave of his long, hony hand. "The Duchess!" he snorted. "Her Grace is the most impossible client I have ever had. She employs me, sir, to recover her rubies, and then, when 1 am on the point of adding another to my long list of achievements, she—what's the word, Martin?" He turned angrily to the stout man in the chair. "Flouts you," was the response, in a tone almost awe-struck. "Flouts me," snapped Shone, affecting an explanation of an intro- / duction in one by adding: "Mr Samuel Martin, my literary helpmeet and —er " "Advertising agent," I could not resist mildly suggesting, for somehow this man chafed me with his airs of superiority. "Historian," Shone corrected me in turn with a scowl. "As I was saying, the Duchess declines to accept my theory—flouts me, as Martin puts it —because my discoveries run counter to her personal regards and will hang the son of her pet parson. Here it is in a nutshell." The expert swung himself on to the table and sat there, dangling his longlegs while he plunged into his narrative. Martin watched' him with a strange mixture of nervousness and adoration. And I—well, lam only an official, and no genius, as you know—so I simply listened. On the previous day, in response to an urgent wire, Shone had arrived at the Abbey about noon, had been informed by the Duchess that the rubies, which she kept in a locked drawer in her sleeping-apartment were missing, and had at once started his investigation by questioning her Grace's maid. This woman, by name Larraway, informed him that she had seen the Duchess place the rubies in the drawer three days since and lock it with a key which she wore night and daj on a chain round her neck. Lar - raway had also been present that morning when the Duchess had un~ | locked the drawer and had discovered ! that the gems were missing. The lock had not been tampered with and they had never left the Duchess's person, so Shone naturally concluded that a false or skeleton key had been used to open the drawer. (To be Continued.)