"THE MYSTERY OF THE PEARLS”

Wairarapa Daily Times, 5 March 1934, Page 7

"THE MYSTERY OF THE PEARLS”

BY JOHN LAURENCE (Author of “The Double Cross Inn,” “Mystery Money,” “Ihe . Riddle of Wraye,” etc).

CHAPTER Y.—Continued. His eyes lighted idly on the window of tjie chemist's shop opposite where lie had stopped and caught a display of a well-known shaving cream. “Now that is something I do want," he reflected. ‘ ‘ Though I # certainly do not need the razor they give away with it." He climbed reluctantly out of the car, feeling the small packet in his pocket to be a leaden weight, sagging down his pocket and drawing the attention of everyone to what he had got in it. , “Will you have some extra blades?" asked the assistant. “I don’t even want the raozr," replied Reeves. “I still stick to the old-fashioned cut-throat variety. ’ ’ The chemist’s assistant visibly shuddered. He had been brought up on safety razors and couldn’t understand anyone preferring such a dangerous type as Reeves admitted using. Reeves smiled grimly at the look on the other’s face and then, as the assistant began to wrap up the cream and dab the inevitable blob of sealing wax on the small parcel Reeves’s smile broadened.' An ounce of inspiration, he reflected, was worth a ton of hard thinking. There, staring him in the face among the bottles lining the counter, was one which simply asked to be bought. “How much is this?" he asked casually. He had the sensation that the other would read his mind if lie were not careful; would know exactly why he wanted the bottle labelled “Headache and Health Cure—a certain remedy for neuralgia, tooth ache, nervous exhaustion, lassitude and all nervous disorders. “One and nine," said the chemist. “I take them myself. They’re the finest cure on the market, and we guarantee them." Reeves slipped the bottle into his pocket. “No need to wrap them up. I’m in a bit of a hurry. Thanks." He counted out the exact money and hurried out of the shop. He hardly had the patience to wait until he was out of the ten-mile speed limit, and then he trod on the accelerator until he was on the loneliest part of the road half-way between Reigate and Newdigate, and pulled out the* bottle and package from his pocket. “Pearls and pills!" he chuckled. “The police can swallow them if they find them. The luck’s with me." He had ripped open the small sealed package as he spoke and was holding up the string of pearls. “Everyone the same size! What luck!" Reeves spread his handkefehief on the seat, and cutting the string let the pearls fall free. The bottle of pills he emptied into his hat, and then dropped the pearls into the bottle carefully, one by one. They about halffilled the bottle, and he covered them with the “Certain remedy." “Sheer luck!" he repeated, as he eyed the full bottle. ‘ ‘ Same size and colour. Pearls for policemen! Health pills for hunters! Merton’s Marvellous Mixture! Reeves’s Royal Remedy!"

j He flung the remainder of the pills i and the box which had contained the | pearls over the small bridge over the | Biver Mole and watched them float down the stream, slowly sinking. “And that’s that!” he cried cheerfully, as he engaged the clutch. “And now for a spot of lunch.” 'Reeves stopped, for a few minutes at the inn. “Mr Merton stayed here quite a while, Mr Beeves,”' said the landlord. “I don’t fancy if he done it they'll catch him in a hurry. lie struck me as fair cute.” “Did he ask anything about the new landlord/” asked Beeves with a smile. “That he did, Mr Beeves, and I told him you was a proper gentleman. He told me all about the search the police made. Fair laughing up his sleeve, he was.” “Would you mind putting these on my dressing table, Mrs Bracken bury ! ’ ’ asked Beeves. “I get pretty bad neuralgia someimes, and I always find these pills cure it. I. must run off to lunch now.” “Somebody was telling me about them the other night,” said Mrs Brackenbury complacently. “I ’as u.vache, something cruel —” “Well, try them next time,” said was determined to be as casual as possible, despite a certain sinking sensation as the landlady placed the bottle conspicuously on the shelf behind her. “If they do you good I’ll get you a bottle all to yourself.” “Thank you, sir.” What Beeves did not know was that Mrs Brackenbury not only liked taking pills, but revelled in taking them and inducing all her acquaintances to try them as well. He arrived at the White House satisfied in his own mind that in the very carelessness of his method of dealing with the pearls lay safety. None of the three at the White House made any allusion to the pearls until lunch was over and they were | sitting in the garden drinking their coffee. It was Merton who broached the subject. “Mary tells me you saw us the other night and have now got the pearls, Beeves. She said you knew more than the police knew.” Beeves nodded. “I knew there was going to be a search here this morning,” he ex-

plained. ‘‘l was told it in confidence by a policeman friend of tlie landlord of the inn. I came up here to warn you.” . ‘•Why?” asked Merton quickly. “You must have learnt the pearls had been stolen from Whiteoakes’s safe, ami if you behoved Miiry oiul I took your car to get them you couldn t help thinking I killed him. Why warn us then'? Why did you not go straight to the police and denounce us?” Reeves pulled stolidly at his pipe. He could not say he did suspect Merton, but that it was for Mary’s sake he had come up. Nor could he say lie had fallen in love with her. Now the question was asked by Merton the only answer he could give appeared worse than foolish —it was almost unbelievable. He cast round for a plausible reason and found none. “Does the reason matter?” lie asked. “I just felt somehow I’d like to warn yoii. It was easy to go to the police. The fact I didn’t ought to be sufficient to show I would like to help.” . . “I think Mr Reeves is quite right,”

(To be Continued)

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT,

“Yes, I got them all right, and it was lucky I did. It seemed to me a wild scheme to place them where you did.”

“It was a risk and it wouldn’t have come off as it so happened,” admitted Merton. “I went on the principle that the best place to hide" anything was very much where everybody would look. Of course, we knew the police i were watching the house. In fact, Sanders was watching them while we were in the garden. If it hadn't been for you, Mr Reeves—” “If I hadn’t turned up,” interrupted Reeves, “that other man would have got them and none of us would have known where they were. That strikes me as being almost a bigger risk than my having them. You don’t appear to know who he might be. "Un*lcss he was just a casual burglar lie’s got to be found.” “I have no idea who it was,” said Merton. “You’ve got the pearls at the inn, I suppose? Do you think that’s safe?” “They’re at the inn all right, but they won't be found if all the police in lhigland pull the place down brick bv brick,” said Reeves confidently. He fancied there was a puzzled look on Merton's face and he had little doubt that Merton had made a search and a pretty thorough one. Manlooked across at him. “I think we shall have to tell Mr Reeves everything,” she said. “If I were in his place Ido not think I should give them up without knowing why.” “What exactly do you want to know?” asked Merton quickly. “I’d like to know why you took the pearls and what you intend doing with them. And what you know about the murder of Whiteoakes.” “We didn’t kill him,” asserted Merton. “I’d better begin at the beginning, I suppose. The pearls are a Reynolds family heirloom. I am Mary’s and Billy’s uncle by marriage and that’s how I came in,, as the only member of the family alive beside Mary and Billy and—my wife.” There was a slight hesitation in his tone, but he resumed speaking almost immediately.

interposed Mary quietly. “Perhaps we might hear all his story.” Reeves threw her a grateful glance. There was an unexpectedly friendly look in her eyes, and she smiled a little as he told them how he had been awakened at dawn by the sound of his car returing, how he had overheard the brief whispered conversation about “them,” how he had learnt of the suspicions of the police from Joe Stevens. “Whew! —no wonder they suspect us!” cried Billy Reynolds. “I’m beginning to go hot all over. My 3iat, if they had dug up the pearls, we should have been hanged by the neck until we were dead.” , “Don’t, Billy!” protested his sister. “1 think we owe Mr Reeves a great debt,” said Merton; “But I do not think we ought to run any further risks. ’ ’ “I’m not running any risks,” said Reeves, cheerfully. “But you’ve got the pearls, and sooner or later, probably sooner now they’ve failed here, the police' may take it into their heads to search your rooms,” declared Merton. “They won’t find much,” chuckled Reeves. “We should very much like to have them,” said Mary. “If we took the risk of getting them we are not afraid of keeping them. We must have them quickly. It’s a matter of life and death.” There was an appeal in her tones which Reeves found difficult to resist, but he shook his head obstinately. “I can’t let you have them like that, Miss Reynolds. You haven’t told me why you wanted them, why you stole—l mean why you took them. I know nothing. Besides, there was another man watching you bury them; in fact, he actually dug them up, and I took them away from him. He was > > “Another man watching?” Merton learnt forward as he spoke. For the first time there was a look of real anxietv in his eyes. ‘CHAPTER VI. “Yes. He struck me as the queerest policeman I’ve ever met.” Briefly, Reeves described his encounter with the unknown watcher. “That was no policeman,” declared Merton decisively. “If he had been, he would have roused the neighbourhood. Nor would he have bolted like that. I wish you had seen him.” “I saw his face,” said Reeves. “And I’d recognise him again if I saw him. ’ ’ “He was either a stranger who happened to be there, perhaps with an idea of burglarising the house, or he was someone who definitely suspected — perhaps knew—we had got the pearls,” said Merton thoughtfully. “If he was a stranger I don’t suppose we need worry, but if he knows us then there’s going to be trouble. What was he like?” “Well, I can’t say exactly,” confessed Reeves. “I had only one quick glance at him in the flash of the torch, so to describe him that you might recognise him is not easy. He’d got thick ears and a bit of a funny nose, as though it had been knocked sideways—broken perhaps. He was wearing a cap pulled over his eyes so I didn’t notice them. I didn’t wait to make Bertillon measurements. I admit »I was as scared as he appeared to be.” “But you got the pearls,” said Mary softly.