THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9007, 17 December 1907, Page 2

THE SOLUTIONS OF RADFORD SHONE.

COJIMUXJCATKD TO AND EDITED lIV HfiADON HIIJL.

[Published By Special Arrangement.]

[All Eights Reserved.]

CHAPTER V]II.-Continued. "This is it, then, gentlemen," I began. "Harry Lawson's story of having been carried off and shut up in South London i« true in substance and in fact, the motive of his abductors having been to introduce a substitute into Mr Pry me's house who should accompany Lord Allanton to Chievely Castle and assist in a well-planned scheme for stealing the Sunderland family jewels." "Good gracious!" The mild expletive escaped Mr Pryme. "Yes, .it sounds incredible," I proceeded, enjoying the dismay that was beginning to spread over Shone's face. "Though the idea of a substi- ' tute occurred to me from the first, I dismissed it as too far-fetched till you, Mr Pryme, took me a step further in the right direction by mentioning that Mr Lawson had changed his name from Levisohn. That is where we of the regular force score over irresponsible genius," I added with a bow to Shone. He was glaring at me, openmouthed, now, but beyond a funny little gurgling noise made no comment. "1 remembered that among our records at the Yard," 1 continued, "was one dealing with a criminal who had absconded from the Cape several years ago after robbing his partner, who was named Levisohn. I also remembered that these two partners, one an honest man and the other a scoundrel, had married twin sisters, the daughters of a lawyer at Kimberley. The recollection was useful as bearing on this case by the fact that Samuels, the absconding partner, had utilised the extraordinary likeness between his wife and child, and Mr Levisohn's wife and child to make good his escape. The escape was made good, and we had lost sight of Samuels till late yesterday evening, when I had the pleasure •of arresting him in a house at Vauxhall—the same house where Harry Lawson had spent a very unhappy week." Shone perked up a little. "The arrest was due to the information I gave you about the Eton boy leaving Windsor by the 3.45 train?" he interjected. "You may have saved me an hour or two." I conceded him; "but I must really take credit for something Mr Shone. * My guess that the spurious Harry—really Ikey Samuels, as clever a young rascal a« I have met —would have telegraphed to his people after Lord Allanton's 'straight talk' to him expedited matters most. I got the Vauxhall address from the telegram at the post-office, which read —

'"Broken down. Returning.'" "That must have been pre-arranged in case of failure to sustain the assumed character!" exclaimed Mr Pryme. "Exactly, sir," I said. "So that they could release Harry directly there was no reason for detaining him longer." Radford Shone, still with one eye on the bits of pink paper, cocked the other at the financier. "I presume, sir," he said, "that I shall be a material witness in the charge which you will bring against Samuels for abducting your son?" "I think 1 understand what you mean," said Mr Lawson, and going to his writing-table he scribbled a cheque. Then he handed it to Shone. "I am bringing no charge against Samuels for this Eton business," he said.'"There is quite enough against my old partner, now that the polic* have got him, without that. As Mr Timpany has nipped the projected robbery at Chievely in th 3 bud, there j is no reason for you to go round talking about it; you understand?" This cheque is to keep you quiet." "My dear sir, I shall be dumb," replie-1 Shone, pocketing the cheque, and bowing himself ou*; with the air of having saved the situation. We laughed a little after his departure, and then Mr Lawson, looking rue fuly at the torn paper on the floor, said: "Won't you think better of it, Timpany?" Let me write another — for half the amount, if" you like." "If you do I shall tear it up again," I replied "It will be quite enough for me to know that Harry is going back to Eton with Mr Pryme, to be put right with his schoolfellows, and eventually to fulfil his engagement at Chievely Castle." "He shall do all those things," said the master, shaking hands with me solemnly. "And if, Mr Timpany, you should find yourself in the neighbourhood of Eton next Fourth of June, please remember that my house is an cpen house on that day—for the boys' friends."

. CHAPTER IX. THE THIRSTY "CATj "Oh, Nuvsey, Nursey, I want to see the thirsty cat!" cried the blueeyed little girl, as, perched on a chair, she clutched at the windowbars. Mr K.nlford Shone raised his hand for silence, and tor the sixth time since we entered the nursery the good-looking nurse picked up her noisy charge and taking her on her lap tried to soothe her. But the quiet thus obtained lasted only a minute or so. Nurse Melvin, absorbed in the wisdom that was dropping from the great man's lips, relaxed her hold, and once again the little one scramb led to the window sill. "Want to see the thirsty cat, Nursey!" the shrill clamour broke afresh bringing Mr Shone's discourse to an eft'ectal fnll-atop, and an angry flush to his sparsely-covered brow. "Really, it is impossible to proceed while Ihe child is making that noise," he said.impatiently.

BEING NARRATIVES BY OFFICERS OF THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT, AND OP THE PROVINCIAL POLICE, IN RESPECT OK J ■: ALINGS WITH THE EMINENT EXPERT, MR RADFORD SHONE.

"Come, Ella, you must keep still," the nurse exclaimed, making another pounce on the little obstructionist. "These gentlemen want to find your little brother Maurice, and they can't talk about him if you are so naughty. You mustn't trouble the:n about that silly cat." "But I want the thirsty cat. Maurice wants her, too," pleaded the struggling captive. "We had better pursue the matter in another room," said Shone in despair, as he strode to the door. "We have no time to be worried by thirsty cats that can have no possible bearing on the case." A gleam of intense relief, or some kindred emotion, seemed to flit over the nurse's face, causing me to linger for a moment before following Shone out of the room. "What does the child mean by the 'thirsty cat'?" I asked her. "Oh, nothing at all, sir, really—at least nothing that's of any consequence," was the reply. "She and Master Maurice used to sit at the window and watch a cat that was often drinking milk out of a saucer on one of the windowsills of the house opposite. It hasn't been there for the last few days, and Miss Ella is put out about it." There had been a great sensation on its becoming known in West End circles that the seven-year-old son and heir of Lord and Lady Tressilian was missing. His lordship's enormous wealth, and the circumstances of his marriage nine years before, sufficed to lift the case out of the commonplace, and classify it as a first-class mystery with possible family complications. At the time of the marriage, which had created so much talk, Lord Tressilian .had been sixty-five years old, and till within a few months of the ceremony had been regarded as a confirmed bchelor. His presumptive heir had been his nephew, the Hon. Ralph Weyland, a young officer in the Guards, whose extravagant living and excesses about town had gained him an unenviable notoriety.

Ralph Weyland's final escapade of j marrying a third-rate music-hall ar- | tiste had so disgusted Lord Tressilian that he had also made an excursion into the realms of matrimony, taking to himself a wife in his old age in the hope of providing himself with a direct heir who should keep his disreputable nephew out of the title and entailed estates. His lordship's hope was entirely realised, a son having been born to him in the second year of his married life, and a daughter a year later. Thence onward the affairs of the Tressilians were of the quiet and jog-trot order till one morning, several years later, Lady Tressilian walked into the Vine street police-station and asked to see the inspector on duty. 1 happened to be that individual, and went forward to attend to the lady. She was a tail, angular woman, past her prime, and was labouring under considerable agitation. It appeared from her disjointed narrative that her little boy, the Hon. Maurice Weyland, had been missing for three day's, and that she was now seeking the assistance of the police to recover hin}.

'.'l know," she said angrily, when I pointed out that we should be handicapped by the delay in coming to us. "It is owing to Lord Tressilian's absurd family pride: and even now I am here without his knowledge. He formed the idea that his nephew 'and former heir, Ralph Weyland, was responsible for the dis appearance, so he has been moving heaven and earth to get the boy back without a public scandal. Have you heard of Mr Radford ihone?" "The private investigator? Yes, I have heard that he has a very extensive practice," was my non-com-mittal rejoinder. "Well, Lord Tressiiiar, rushed off to him and entrusted the flaJingof our child to him," her ladyship continued. "Mr Shone agrees with my husband that Ralph Weyland is at the bottom of the business, but he has utterly failed to obtain a shred of evidence substantiating that view. I could not allow the matter to drift any longer, so I decided to report it officially." (To be continued.}