A Conflict of Evidence

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1318, 5 May 1905, Page 4

A Conflict of Evidence

Y:-V'.'';' : S6®^®o& ■■.': By Rodiigues Ottolengui

.CHAPTER XV (Continued) " Now perhaps you will explain what this means ?" . "I was;ftbout to do so. Understand that if Jyoul make any attempt to leave the city that man will prevent it. You may change boarding houses as often, as ' you like, ba< remain in the city I That is all I Good morning" Before she could say a word he bad gone. , . Mr. Barnes weht directly to the Grand Central railroad'depot and started (or Le'e,wntre;nearrived early on the following morning, hieaohing tho farm he found Virginia in the parlour., _ She ad- ; vanoed to meet him with a cordial greeting.,,'/ -; ' •■' "1 am so relieved to see you back again. ■■ What news have you ?" "Thave.disooyerod the murderer." "You have ? Who is be?. Tell me at once I" '•' It is the man who has. passed as your cousin I",. " Myunole's son ?" "No, not your uncle's 1 son, though that is what, he called himself, > I must find at once. Where is he?" 11 He is gone." ' :>• " Gone I 'Gone where ? I will : follow '- him to the end of the earth. He shall not escape mo. Where has he gone ?" * "We do not know. I told you when! last saw you, that be would pass the night at the Squire's, but it seems he must have retired to his room after the fitpcrnl, for he was.here at breakfast." "Well? Go on I The detective was impatient.". ' " After breakfast he again went to his room,. We saw nothing more of him until . dinner time. Then I went into call him, \ but he was not there; He has not been Been since," v ■ v . '" PerhapVhe wont to tho Squire's ?".'. • ". I went over to see Aloe tbis morning, and learned that no one; had seen him Binoe the funeral," "Too lata! Too late -after; all my troubled": moaned,,the detective. He leaned bis head oh his hands and" seemed almost about to weep.. Virginia did not know what to say to. bim, so thinking it best to leave him to himself she: noise- .*. lessly left the room.. Mr Barnes remain' , ed in the position for fully ton minutes, but suddenly he jumped up and seemed all animation again, ; "'■ " Miss Lewis I .Miss; Lewis I" ho cried in great excitement. At the sound of his voice Virginia came hurrying in, and was astonished at tho change in his demeanour, " Miss Lewis," said he, Bpeaking . rapidly,,"you say that he'.wont to his ' room and has not been Been since ?" "Yes, he must have come out—" "Never mind that I Tell me,;is it tho same room, which heocenpied when he slept here on the night after the murder|?' ! "Yes. Thinking: that he wasmyuncle's . son,rgavehimmyuncle'sroom," , "Your uncle's room? Of course I It is aselearasday. During that first night ,■ Burrows heard mysterious noises. He came down into this man's room and found it empty; -Burrows sat by his door : all night, to ask bim where ho had been, and, although he did not pass him, nevertheless in the morning,the man was in the room. Do you understand ?" ." Notcleuily;" ' "ltisvery simplol. There is a secret apartment in this house and the murderer is at this moment concealed in it." "A secret room! Itis impossible }'• " Auything else h impossible, you mean. This is not the day of miracles,- and a man cannot disappear in this wa" in broad day.light.".' 1 ,-;:■:')■:•;■..., "But how will you find it, if it exists?" ■'■" It will be oasy chough to find it, if wo know that it is in . existenco, In the first place, there /nust bo a way to enter it from that room in which your uncle slept. Come, we will go there first." Together they went to the room, and Mr Barnes looked : about .for some "sign that'would guide him aright; -After reasoning for 'a moment;-as'- Burrows had : done at the Epping house,.tie said—- ■-."_ "I have :it, : I. will go straight to it. Burrows iheard this man in' the secret'; apartment,. arrcl Burrows. . ; . wasupslairsjsolam sure.tbat the place of which wearo in search is above. Now accessible to this room, and yet the room which Burrows occupied is as as this. Now observe that the.closet projects , . out into the hall, In your room there is a similar closet,.. On this floor, in the hall between-these two projections for the closetsj'-is.tbe little passage leading from . the main ball: into' the dining room. I . have: noticed, that upstairs there are no . closets,. and: of course no such pissago way. :Therefpre the space occupied by. them .below, indicateswhere the secret roomislo be.fouudOnthe next floor." ..." But how' Bhall we get ?" "I. think itwill, bo difficult for you to do so,, (or I expect that the enkanoe is through the coiling of tho closet in this room, ; I will now look," Mr Barneß opened the closei door and then started, back,: as he saw tho great mastiff lying 6h. the floor within, The

Author of " An Artist in Grime."

dog arose and went up to Virginia whin* ing pitifully. Then he went back into the closet, raised himself on his hind legs, tested his forepaws against the wall of the clo=et, and with head upturned howled in a horribly suggestive manner. "Do you see," said Mr Barnes, "fit brute knows thot thrro is something wrong up thoro," Virginia coaxed the dog away from the closet, and the detective stood on a chair and oxarninod the ceiling. In a moment he announced—- " I have it, Here is the trapdoor." A minute later he had drawn himself up through the aportiire and disappeared. Very soon, however, ho returned; and as he dropped to tho floor, ho said—"Ho is up there-dead 1 Sucide, I suspect,' You must go at once for the Squire. Pardon my nob doing so, but Ihavo a reason for wishing lo remain with tho body until it be turned over to the corner." Virginia gladly hurried awayupjn an errand which she knew promised the 1 speedy release of her lover. To be coniinud