"THE ORANGE TAXI,”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 27 January 1932, Page 7

"THE ORANGE TAXI,”

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT,

COPYRIGHT.

CHAPTER II. —MISS SARK GETS A

SURPRISE.

Smith uttered a short laugh. ‘•A little previous, aren’t you, Inspector! When you know me better vou'll find I never leave people I’ve strangled in my cab. I always throw

’em out.” , n . “I never said you'd strangled him. I said it strikes mo you know more about this than you pretend. How came this man in your cab “I tell you I don't know. 1 left

it empty.” The two men got out and the -Inspector, whose name was Bond, produced his official notebook and pencil. “Is it a murder case, sir,” eagerly asked the policeman. His superior nodded and glared at his wrist watch. “1.50,” lie announced. “How long has this cab been standing here?”

“Three-quarters of an hour.” “What is this place?” Smith told him and the information went down. “Let’s have your name and particulars.”

“Name: Smith, number 45875. Taxi Ho. N.II. 728, owned by Joseph Parker, Westminster Mews, Argyle Street, behind the County Hall.”

“You said you’d been collecting a fare: how did that come to take you three-quarters of an hour?” ‘This way; I drove a lady from the Minerva. Brought her here just before eleven. She’d no money on her. Told me to wait. I did. She never came back and I -went in after her. Saw the night porter; he said her name was Miss Sark.” The speaker paused.

“Go on, Smith.’’ So far the taximan had spoken the truth, but the truth would no longer serve him; invention was necessary. In-

spiration came: “Well I knew the name at once. It was the’ Miss Sark. Haven’t, you heard of her.’”' “I haven’t.”

“She’s a young lady who came into a pot of money last Autumn, and she comes from my part of the country. I used to know her when she was li\ing at the vicarage at Buckhurst. I did odd jobs there. Well, I left and came to London. I read how she’s an heiress and I wonder ‘Shall I ever come across her in London, for she’s bound to come up to London,’ and then to-night she takes my cab from the Minerva, but I never recognised her in her fine clothes, and of course she never recog'nised me, but when the porter gave me her name I knew it was her.” Smith stopped. “You introduced yourself?” prompted the Inspector. “Y r es, and she remembered me and was very nice to me. Insisted on giving me some supper and talked to me of old times, as friendly as anything.” “Ha!” ejaculated the Inspector, frowning at his notebook. “And while you’re supping in this lady’s flat, two men, we must presume two men, get into your cab, and one strangles the other, and then goes home and leaves us to clear things up. Dammit,” declared the speaker, tilting his hat the better to scratch his head, “it's the queerest case that’s ever come my way. ’ ’ “We’d better see if the hall porter knows him,” suggested the policeman. “I don’t,” he had carefull scrutinised the dead man.

Inspector Bond glared at his subordinate; it was not the duty oil that functionary to make suggestions. “Naturally,” he said, “I shall start by interviewing the hall porter. You ’ll have to think of something more brilliant than that, Higgins, to earn good conduct stripes. Now stand by the cab. ’ ’ He turned from the crushed constable and, motioning Smith to accompany him, ascended the steps. The porter’s box was empty. Smith explained it was so when he came out of the liat. “Ah! here he comes,” said the Inspector, as a man in uniform appeared from the basements.

‘* You on duty here?” “Yes. Anything wrong ” was the gruff reply. “ Only a man stangled in a cab outside these flats. ’ ’ The porter received the news with British calm. “Well, what about it? D’you want to use the ’phone?” “Doesn’t seem to worry you much,” sardonically commented the .Inspector. “It’s my wife I’m worrying about,” was the frank reply, “she’s got a bad touch of influenza, feverish she is, and wants nursing, and the girl's gone home to-night. I don’t like leaving her.” “Come and look at the man; sec if vou know him.”

The dead man was elderly, and obviously well-to-do, judging by his signet ring, gold watch chain, and the high quality of his clothes and linen. The sort of man who would live at Birkenhead Mansions, but the porter disclaimed him; he wasn’t a resident. At this point, as the little group stood round the cab and the Inspector hesitated as to the next step, the elements decided for him. A sudden shower of warm rain descended, and cover was essential. Bond dismissed the hall porter to his box, and the policeman to his beat, and entering the cab told Smith to drive to Wauchope Police Station. Arriving there, just as the shower ceased, the taximan had to wait, but not for long. The dead man was lifted out and carried into the mortuary attached to the station; and here for Inspector Bond the case ended, for a C.I.D. man happened to be in the station and immediately took charge. Ho came out and entering the cab 'examined it thoroughly. “Where do you sleep, Smith?” he inquired of the driver. “Two, Argyle Street, a few yards

(To bo ContinuM)

BY CHARLES D. LESLIE. (Yu t-h or of “The Mallard Mystery,” “A Plunge into the Unknown, “A Wild Wager,” etc).

from the .garage.” “Well, you can go home. We shall want you to give evidence later; but you’ll have full notice when and where. Goodnight.” Smith was a little surprised at tins casual dismissal, but on reaching the converted mews, now a garage, "'here he kept his cab, he found the police were not so trustful as they seemed. Inquiries had been made about him over the ’phone, and at the local police station; he had been certified as existing, and a respectable taximan. “Is it a summons, matey?” asked.

the man on duty. The police are the natural enemies of taximen, but the Avar is seldom bitter, as the police, with occasional exceptions, merely enforce and do not strain the law against the drivers. “It’s wore than that,” he replied, and recounted briefly how a man had been found dead in the cab; and pleading fatigue took his departure. He wanted to bo alone, to think things oA'er, and having shut the door on himself in the small bedroom lie occupied in Argyle Street, he sat down on the bed and reflected. Within tivo hours two entanglements had come into his life. First Miss Sark. Yes, entanglement Avas the word. Whatever had made him accept the “job” she offered him? True, nothing Avas settled, and by not keeping the appointment at the MiirerA'a he could drop the whole affair Avith the utmost ease. But though he toyed Avitli the idea he knew he Avould certainly go. And Avhy not? His motives were above criticism, he Avanted to help her, he felt sure he could help her. There were drawback's; buff the advantage outweighed them. Their association would be beneficial to both. Truth to tell lie Avas sick of cab-driving, it would be pleasant to go back to his own Avorld, to rejoin the class Avho dressed for dinner and, Avhen they wanted anything, rang a bell find told a servant to

fetch it. But the murder complicated things horribly. It Avould be a first-class sensation. The neAvspapers would take it up; and feature it. His “picture” Avould be wanted to illustrate the “story,” and his counterfeit presentment Avas tlie last thing Mr. Smith desired to see in the daily and CA’ening papers. In fact, rather than see it there he Avould disappear. At this point it occurred to him that the complications balanced each other. The murder forced him to disappear, the Sark entanglement provided a hiding place. As Sir Arthur Barrington DaAve Sefton, at Penrodc, Avherever that was, lie could be safe from the police, avlio Avould be looking for Smith. Only it Avould be necessary to let Miss Sark know Avliat he had told the police to explain his having had supper in her flat. They Avould be calling on her early that day; he must got a communication to her first; but that could be done by means of one of the taximen using the garage. “I Avisli,” Avas his last Availing thought after he got into bed, “I’d never picked that girl up at the Min-

erva. • But he Avasn’t quite sure that he meant it.

The officer who examined the cab outside Wauehope Police Station Avas Thomas Hall, an Inspector fairly high up in the Division. Ilis seniors regarded him as a sound detective; he never did anything spectacular, but he usually caught the criminal he was after; indeed, in the nether Avorld he Avas known as “put ’em up, Hall;” an allusion to the invitation lie so frequently extended to “wanted” men.

Having finished his examination Hail went to Scotland Yard to report the case, and to put in an application to take charge of it. Whom lie saw and what strings he pulled do not matter; suffice it to say that at ten o’clock next morning on arrival at his room he found official sanction to deal with -it awaiting him. His first step was to visit the mortuary, and have a consultation with the doctor who, in his presence the previous night, had examined the body. Since then a post mortem had taken place.

“He had a weak heart,” said the doctor, “which helped to kill him, but strangulation was the primary cause. The murderer took him by the throat, the marks of his fingers are plain to see, and finished him off by tying a silk handkerchief or scarf round his neck and pulling it; he wouldn’t have effected his purpose so easily had the deceased, otherwise healthy, had a normal heart. ’ ’ Hall nodded. “As I thought,” he agreed. “Shall we fix the inquest for to-morrow at two o’clock; that suit you?” He took the papers and effects of the dead man and retired to study them, but was disturbed a few minutes later by Divisional Inspector Bond. “I’ve been to the Mansion, sir,” lie explained, “to get corroboration of the taximan’s story, and it’s all 0.K.” The C.I.D. man received the news without any outward pleasure; he considered Bond had been poaching on his preserves. “You’ve seen Miss Sark?” “Yes, sir, and she confirms Smith’s story. And I’ve seen the secretary of the company that owns the Mansions, and the doctor attending Mrs. Downs, the porter’s wife. It’s quite true about her ’flu, and the secretary gives the husband the highest character. The secretary also gave me a list of the tenants; the place is very select and high-priced. So it looks as if we can rule Smith and Downs and everybody else in the flats out of it.”