The Jade Token

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 423, 14 November 1930, Page 10

The Jade Token

Serial Story

(By

Ralph Trevor)

(Author of “Under Suspicion, ”, etc.) (All Rights Reserved)

INSTALMENT FIVE.

SYNOPSIS, A murder is committed in the surgery of Dr. Wallace Langley, he being decoyed from the place at the t’me. The police, find the murdered man, named Conrad Ricks, has come from South America, and had recently asked Jules Conn, an antique dealer, tn value a piece of jade set with a valuable ruby and inscribed with hieroglyphics. This jade token is now missing. Scotland Yard have been perplexed by a series of daring jewel robberies. Curtis Burke, a brilliant young detective. who is given control of the case, ccnnects these robberies with the murder of Conrad Ricks. Inspector Ames, an elderly detective. assists Burke. Ames is hostile to Dr. Langley, and feeling that he is under suspicion. Langley consults Sir G-arvice Watkin a great criminal lawyer. Langley is engaged to Sonia Cranston, a niece of Sir Garvice. Sir Garvice tells the young doctor that there is something suspicious about Inspector Ames. Sir Garvice Watkin invites Burke Io his country house for the week-end, and there he meets Ann Marvin, a friend of Sonia Cranston. There is an atmosphere of m'slrry about Ann Marvin and Burke, although attracted to her, suspects her of being a criminal. A gold crucifix belonging to Sir Garvice is stolen during the night. Looking for clues Burke finds a black bone button of an unusual type. There was only one man he knew who wore buttons like, that, and that was Detective Inspector Ames, of Scotland Yard. CHAPTER IV.— (Continued.) Burke was duly introduced, and he felt that Ann Marvin was no ordinary young lady. She was, he discovered, a friend of Sonia Cranston even before Sonia went to Paris to study art. Ann Marvin talked easily and naturally. Her conversation always had a definite point about it. It was not the idle chatter of an emptyheaded woman who talks because balking is easier than thinking, and when haif-an-hour later Burke found himself strolling leisurely through the grounds of Rio Court with Ann Marvin at his side, he felt that it had been well worth while coming down at Sir Garvice’s invitation. Yet there were moments when Ann Marvin puzzled him. She was not alloglher the ingenue he had at first expected. She had a habit of giving him a quick glance from beneath her dark, long lashes that was rather disconcerting. IL was, m fact, almost as embarrassing as to hear her say that she, was, au fait with the criminal quarters not only of London but also of Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Added to which, she was a member of no fewer than three clubs whose reputations were as unsavoury as they were varied.

It was with a puzzled frown that Curtis Burke made his way an hour or so later to the study where Sir Garvice Watkin awaited him. “ All, Mr. Burke,” smiled the lawyer, as the detective advanced in-

to the room, ’’ I'm glad to see you so interested in Miss Marvin. Charming girl, Ann, but as deep as the sea and probably as unfathomable. But i wanted to speak to you about Ames. Burke accepted a cigar from the ( lawyer’s case and sealed himself in a big leather armchair. " I suppose it is rather hard luck on poor Wally,” said Burke. ” But 1 am afraid that Ames has rather a good case against him —at least it sounds good to me. I hope you won't ask me what it is, because i can’t tell you. I’m in an exceedingly difficult position.” *' 1 quite realise that, Mr. Burke.” said Sir Garvice, “and it is not my intention to embarrass you by asking. But there is a question I do not want to ask you, however, and that is how long have you known Inspector Aines?” 1 “ Ever since I have been with the Force,” responded Burke. ” That will be two years, or just over.” •• Aou never knew Ames before he was sent to America, then?” “ I had heard he had been to America, but of course 1 don't remember that.” “ You have heard no rumours down at Scotland Yard with regard to the man whom you know as Inspector Ames ?” “None whatever, sir, although I will say that he has always given me a suggestion that he might have a skeleton in the cupboard.” Sir Garvice Watkin was fixing Burke with his keen, piercing eyes. • You will probably think my questions rather extraordinary, Mr Burke.” he proceeded, “ and 1 assure you that j I would not be asking them if it were not for the fact that Wallace Langley appears to ha\e aroused Aines’ suspicion in some way or another, but I want to tell you this. Ten years ago Sergeant Ames, as he was them, was sent out to America to study crime investigation over there. He visited New York, Boston, Chicago and Baltimore in his travels. I remember Ames before he went out. He was a bright, enterprising man and was looked upon by the then Chief Commissioner of Police as a man of considerable ability and even greater promise. Ames would then be about forty. He went out, if I remember rightly for a term of five years, with the idea that when he came back he would deal exclusively with the American business over here. He was supposed to make himself familiar with most of the main crooks on the other side, for at that time a great many of these professional gentlemen were beginning to find London and Paris happy hunting grounds, especially among the nouveau riche, who are always fair game. v Well, Ames came back, and was promptly promoted to the rank of Inspector. As I have told you. I knew Ames when he went away. 1 also saw the Ames who came back. I am a reasonable man, Mr. Burke. 1 am prepared to make allowance for the change that five years can make in a man, but I was not entirely prepared for the change that I found in Ames. He looked nearly ten years older. His hair had gone grey. You would

hardly have credited his being the same man.” Sir Garvice Watkin paused, and fixed Burke with a stare of inquiry. “What jtrecisely do you mean Io suggest, Sir Garvice?” asked Burke, a curious numb feeling stealing over him. “I suggest that Ames who went to America and the Ames who returned Io Scotland Yard were not necessarily the same person,” returned the lawyer. “Now do you understand what I mean?” “Your suggestion is certainly staggering, sir,” said Burke. “But surely his colleagues at the Yard would have known him?” “Yes,” agreed Sir Garvice, “I’m quite willing to admit that, but Sergeant Ames whom I knew ten years ago could not speak a word of French. Can you explain why it is that the Inspector Ames who returned could not only speak French, but alsu German and Italian?” And Curtis Burke had Io udnJt that even five years in Xiiirrica studying police melhorp were not long enough for a nun lo become an expert linguist in Ilin u languages CHAPTER V. The Gold Crucifix. That Curtis Burke Aas astonished at the suggestion made lo him by Sir Garvice Watkin regarding Inspector Ames was merely a mild statement of fact. Burke knew’ Sir Garvice well enough lo know that he was not the type of man to make accusations against anyone without some good foundation for his assertions and he felt disturbed. Of course Burke really knew very little about his colleague and he had never considered it his business to probe into eitlier the private or official life of anyone at Scotland Yard. He frankly liked Ames. There was something about the man that was intriguingly fascinating, some indefinable quality that Burke felt compelled to admire.

Yet what Sir Garvice had told him had materially altered his outlook regarding the man. The seeds of suspicion had been sown and Burke felt that no longer could he regard Ames with that dispassionate detachment he had hitherto felt for him. In his mind be was wondering if Ames was not what be purported to be. Then who was he?

That night Burke made up a four al bridge. He was partnering Ann Marvin against Dr. Langley and Sonia Cranston, but Burke felt himself utterly unable lo concentrate on the cards and more than once he noticed Ann Marvin glance sharply at him. She little guessed that auction bridge exactions were not quite in Burke s line just at that moment and there were times when he reprealedly transgressed the conventions with rather disastrous results.

Shortly before midnight the small party broke up, Burke politely apologising to Ann Marvin for his wretched play which had cost them something like thirty shillings which Burke insisted on paying. Half an hour later in the comfortable privacy of his room Burke sat for a while pondering over the curious case he had on hand. True, he was apparently getting little nearer, but he was quietly convinced that sooner or later he would break down the impassable wall that met him at every twist and turn of his investigations.

All this was now further complicated by what he had heard about Inspector Ames. It was difficult for Burke to imagine that Ames was a crook, and that was what it amounted to when he had sifted it all. Sir Garvice suggested that Ames wnis not a detective at all, that he was someone else who had taken Ames’ place, I who was imoersonating him for some reason that was not, at the moment apparent. The more Burke thought about it the more he convinced himself that Ames was an honest man. Never for one moment had Inspector Ames acted otherwise than became a responsible official of Scotland Yard. “This beats me completely,” Burke mused as he crossed the lloor of his bedroom and Hung open the window. It was a refreshingly delightful spring night. The deep velvety blue of the sky was stabbed with stars and a thin crescent moon was just disappearing over the distant hill that sloped blackly beyond the deep belt of trees to the southward. For no reason whatsoever except that electric light seemed soinewiiat incongruous on a night like this Burke turned to the wall switch and plunged the room into darkness. He did not feel in the least sleepy, and drawing up a chair beside the open window, he sat with hlj arms folded I on the narrow sill gazing out into the I pleasantly perfumed night.

Somehow that night seemed to Burke as inscrutable as the mystery which seemed to be weaving itself more and more closely about him. The shadow’s that crayoned the lawn beside the heavily budded rhododendron bushes were themselves mysteries. One of them in particular intrigued the young man. It was a denser black than any of the others. It fascinated Burke. Why should one shadow be different from another when what light the night cast from the stars and the narrow moon was uniform in character.

Burke continued io stare at that shadow as though it was something strangely important—something that held a portent. Suddenly from out of the night came the eerie baying of a hound. Burke started up instinctively, but his eyes never left that shadow down by the rhododendrons. He tried to think whether lie had noticed a farm anywhere near Rio Court, and then he remembered that down by Die garage Sir Garvice had his kennels and that each week one of the dogs— Great Danes they were—was on duty in the house at night. (To be Continued.)