OUR NEW SERIAL THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIII, 22 May 1922, Page 3

OUR NEW SERIAL THE YOUNG ARCHDUCHESS

M LE QUEUX) CHAPTER XVIII. (Continued). Vincent explained very patiently.

“We will assume for the moment that the Colonel fired three shots, though how he got those three shots out of two barrels has got to be accounted for later.” ■» “How is it to be accounted for?” interjected Smeaton.

“ Only one man can explain that mystery, Colonel Ashdown himself. Well, that bullet we have just picked out from the cornice was the second shot.”

“I quite agree,” said Smeaton. But as poor Geradine still looked bewildered, Vincent proceeded to give his reasons. . “ Let us go through it step by step. Hugh is standing with his back to the window. The first shot misses him and goes through the pane of glass. The men then change positions. Hugh probably rushes at his father and drives him to the door, where he fires a second time. That second shot is fired by an unsteady hand, perhaps Hugh had knocked it up, and lodges in the cornice. Hugh, dazed, falls back towards the window again and is killed by the third shot.”

But still Geradine could not understand, annd Vincent had to go over it again.

“ How can I put it to you, Miss Torella’, so as to make it appear plain? I will put it this way. The first shot missed, the seconnd shot missed also. Because if it had killed him. there

would have been no necessity for a third one. When a man has killed his opponent he doesn’t waste a third bullet on the ceiling. Do you see now?” Yes, at last Geradine thought she did. “ Yes, I think I understand. The shot 1 located was the second one fired from the door?”

Smeaton assumed temporary command. “Well, thanks to this young lady’s sharp eyes, we have not had our journey for nothing. We have yet to solve the mystery of the three shots out of two barrels. We had better be

going back to London.” They drove back swiftly in the mo-tor-car. There was a big car running several yards in front of them. There was another car following them. Smeaton observed all this, but made

no comment. Evidently Miss Torella was a person of considerable importance, and this clever young Vincent was guarding her very thoroughly. Miss Torella would have to be called on the trial, when something about herself would have to come to light. He could wait till then.

In that rapid ride, very little was said. As the two men shook hands, Smeaton remarked casually: “ Well, Vincent, we’ll both set our wits to work on this, but honestly, I’m not very sanguine We have found something to-day, I’ll admit, but it only makes it a bit more puzzling.”

Vincent looked rather gloomy, too. “ We must piake Ashdown give up that parrot cry of ‘ I killed him,’ and make him speak. And if he won’t we must find out the reason that keens him silent.” It wanted a month to the trial of the unfortunate Colonel Ashdown, the trial which would be held in the modernised Great Hall of the Castle of Simon de Montfort. Mrs Ashdown, in some measure recovered from the first stupor and horror which had assailed her on the night of that tragic spectacle, when she had seen her son’s dead body stretched towards the windows, was staying at the “ Granby ” in Market Harborough. She had no doubt in her own mind that her husband was guilty, that the jury would return a verdict to that effect. When all the history of the past was raked up, as it would be by clever counsel, when it became known

how discreditable had been Hugh’s career, how grossly he had traded upon the long-suffering patience of his father, they might find extenuating circumstances, they might add to that inevitable verdict a strong recommendation to mercy. But there could be no doubt that he was guilty. Besides, there was the fact of his own confession to the police when he gave himself up

Sir Richard Hawksley, the eminent K.C., who had obtained a knighthood for political services,” was detained for the defence, also Basil Long. ~ :

Vincent, had detailed to Long the fresh evidence which had been discovered on his visit to Hithercombe Hall, in company with Smeaton and Gera-

which only revealefi two empty barrels out of the five.

Long agreed that there was something in this that required explanation. Hawksley and his Junior held a long consultation Over the point, , but they could make nothing out of it. The only man who could succinctly relate the events of that night was the Colonel himself. But this he refused to do.

Long visited him' twice in his cell, exhorting him to explain what seemed unexplainable. The two solicitors did their best.

But Ashdown never moved from his impassive attitude, even when Long began to show a natural irritation at his prolonged obstinacy.

“ How are we to defend you, if you will not speak, if you will not tell us your story?” cried the young barrister with pardonable indignation. “ There is a considerable amount of sympathy with you in the neighbourhood. Give us something to go on, so that we can put you in the box with a fair chance of success.”

The Colonel passed his hand wearily across his brow. The once handsome, genial face was lined and furrowed now. When he spoke it was with the accents of a man who hardly seemed to know what he was saying.

“My dear Long, I know you and the other man will do your best for me. But if you put me in the box,

what sort of a tale could I trump up that would convince a hard-headed jury? Anybody can tell a plausible story if he can bring corroborating evidence. I can bring none.” “You at least can tell me this,” ,said the barrister now fairly exasperated. “ But no, perhaps I had better not ask that.”

The Colonel spoke in his low, weary voice. “I am prepared for my punishment. They can hang me if they wish.”

“If they wish! ” It was a strange remark to make. But Long could get nothing more out of him. He went back to the Granby Hotel and had a few words with Mrs Ashdown. He had put other questions, but could get no satisfactory answer. In this strange, reserved and somewhat cold-blooded woman, the mother had always been predominant over the wife. But at tne same time, she had no feelings save those of infinite compassion for her unfortunate husband, lying in a felon’s cell. He was no deliberate murderer. Goaded, exasperated beyond endurance, he had used that revolver in a moment of unreasoning passion with fatal results to the worthless Hugh, results equally fatal to himself.

“ Has he told you anything that will help you?” she asked as they shook hands.

“ Nothing,” answered Long gloomily. “To all my pointed questions he will not reply. Of if he does give an answer, it is so incoherent that it is no answer at all.”

“Has his mind given away, do you think? ” “I did not like to suggest that, for fear of giving you pain,” was the young man’s answer. The unhappy woman, childless and now practically a widow, spoke in a sad voice. “You need not fear to pain me. lam almost past feeling Continued in to-morrow’s Advertiser.