THE LOST JUDGE.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXI, Issue 2440, 4 May 1925, Page 6

THE LOST JUDGE.

[OUR SERIAL]

(By

C. RANGER GULL.)

And mow, as the keen, analytic bra, n j surveyed tire situation, it seemed that at any moment now he might hear’that dreadful knocking at the door —tha'c knocking at the door that Us the- nfQct. awful thing in “Macbeth.” He loc>a-e-d at the clock. It was half-past ei(;ht. By his side upon the table was a l ittle silver gong. He? struck it, and tne butler came m, bringing coffee. “I wish you to send to, the n\ess of the Junior Bar,” the Judge said., ‘'and ask Mr Alexander Carr to come- to m*. Explain that I only request h's presence for a few minutes, and that ho will bo able to return to his friends/* In a few minutes Carr «amd into the room. He was a fresh, ruddyfaced young fellow who -obviously enjoyed life, and, as he wa's only playing at Bar work and would succeed to a baronetcy and twenty thousand a year, his lines were cast i.ji very pleasan* places.

“I don’t want ;you to exactly do anything for me, my ddar boy,” Moultrie 'explained. “J. think what is th® matter is probably a little touch of liver. Now I ’propose to put on an overcoat and a cap and go for a long I walk. I’m no'c going to take you from your mess. As a matter of fact, „ would rather be alone-. I don’t want it known that. I am going out, and I don't want to be recognised in anj way. Jv.st arrange that the servant; > of the Lodging and every one' shall g(> to oed. I have a key. I want to bo absolutely free- in every way. See that this fire is kept up and that the Hr® in my bedroom is lit, and then, when you come, in, you can go to be\l to® In fact, I want to be quite alone for the rest of the evening. I am sorry to trouble you, Alexander, but, as you know 1 , my man Wh-e-eler left me in an extraordinarily sudden way, and I I have not been able to hear anything 61 ‘ him. I have a nevz man coming'dov 1i to-morrow. Lord Perth offered to lend me a main, from the Castle, but it w. a ® hardly worth wIiJ.H. Well, I can ma n,age very well for m'yself—for to-nigln:, at any rate. All I want is to he absolutely alone ” In a moment more he was left aloi i<). He had just risen from his seat, and was going once more to the sideboa rd for some brandy, when there was a knock at the door, and the marshal i ? titered again.

“Excuse me, he said, “but » quite forgot to tell you soimOii) ,g, something most extraordinary. I can’t think what on earth made nic forget it.” Moultrie controller L a start We,th an iron effort

he said, standing stilt a aid without much interest in his vo te.

“ Well, do you know, sir, that Wd have just heard at the mess —a poi liccinspector camo to tell Foxo, who 'prosecuted in the first case tliH a'ftern oor: —that the safe at Barchaster Casl.tit.-, the identical safe which was the f u! jjcct of the case, has been blown up ai id the contents abstracted? Most of the manservants at the Castle were ?.d ?re for the trial. They stayed at th 3lt lull while the storm was on, and 1111 .red back a litlo in advance of Lord : P( :rth, Miss Moultrie, and the rest of thI’J 1 ’J people. It seems that they found a 1 mos* immediately that a successful ip iurgjarv, this time, had been comm htted, and thdy arc w'ondering if it could have been possible that the pri toner, who was released in plenty of time, could have done it. Of course, it lobody knowms anything, and the people at the Castle are in a state of great agi tat.on. It is rumoure'd, sir, that some il mportant War Office plans, which (? fen oral Mostyn and Captain Haytor wei re discussing with Lord Perth, have -disappeared.” “Dear me! dear me!” said, the Judge. “What an extraordinary • thing! Poor Lord Perth wllli be frightf a lly upset, and so will Captain Hayt ( it. I made his acquaintance this af 1 ;ernoon for the first time,, as you saw, , and I was very much struck with th<] ? young man. Dear me! dear me! W( JI, it is not at all uncertain that I shf ill make Barchaster Castle, the object of my walk to-night. I really fce.l I , ought *0 see Lord Perth. Well at any i| ,-ato, thr.t need make, no difference to nJ iy wishes -about this evening. Sec that, 0 yvery one goes to bed, and go to bed i when you: come in. ; Go bad/ ito your mess, and meanwhile find out[ any more details that you can, and let I mme hfivj. them to-ffiorrow at breakfast? . Once more, the marshal 1 withdrew. The door had hardly closed upon him when Moultries was again at the decanter of brandy. . He spit ished some soda into his glass, and dr; ink off tn-'

nlxtum swiftly, while a grim nmile 01 triumpli played over his face. “That's something,” he thought to .h mself. “We clon’t know yet how true Lord Perth’s statement about the. final key to the plans is. So far, as any rate, w» are succeeding, but every moment ths tensio n grows. It is upon the events of th j next few hours that we stand ot fall. I have had to leave, everything in Julia ’s hands. I shall' hear everything from. her in a short time now and don’t thin k that one of the astutest braihs in Eng land will fail. ’’ The house seemed still. Moultris stol.c out of the dining room Unto hm bec’Jroom. He walked like a furtive cri miinal rather than -one of His Majesty's Judges in his own palace. Once in his bedroom, he took a pal >r of spew tr teles from his dressing-bag and ad ji isted them before the mirror on the d leasing table. Then, he clothed h. in s .elf in a dark overcoat, and pulled up i ;he. collar round his face. Fmally he * crushed a black, squash hat down over his massive forehead till the br.m hid his eyes, and gazed once more at him seif in the m'irror. This very simple dis guise was wonderfully efficacious. Supreme actor as he was, he had only to plunge his hands in the side pockets of the coat and hunch up h.s shoulders a little, and no one in Barche'stcr would have recognised the Judge, on : Circuit. He, descended the stairs ..into . the hall, where a dying fire showed a fed glow, and let himself out quietly through the big front door. He was now in the central square of Barchester. The rain was falling heavily, and the gas lamps all round the square showiM blue and dim. With qiiict unobtrusive and yet hurried foot step, he passed round the wall of the Cathedral Closd, and went up a road upon the outskirts of the wty. The houses grew less and less frequent as he hurried along. He met nobody, and on the very verge> of the Barchaster cemetery—which was also A sort of public promenadd for the c.tiiens in fine weather—ho crossed the wet road and made for a tall and sombre build ing exactly opposite to the cemetery gates. A single gas lamp hung over the front door, and showed a legend ’.;n faded gold upon a board 'of black, ‘The Barchestc-'r Tcmpranec Hotel.' Moultrie walked up the little gravel pathway to thedoor, and entered the hotel. He found himself in a. dingy hai wt'th a staircase upon his loft. There was nobody there, save only an old collie sleeping upon a mat. He walkcw quietly into the middle of the hall ana looked round. Even as he did so, his quick idars caught a soft, hissing whisper from the top of the staircase. He looked up, and saw h face he knew well gazing down at him, over the balustrade. It wap the face of his wife. Madame Julia was there.

It was extraordinary with whai swiftness, and ydt with absolute noisenessness, Mfoultrie mounted the stairs and entered a little private sitting room in the corridor. The man who had all day been sitting gravely on the bench, the man whom, no -one suspected who had represented the King with the finest dignity and aplomb, nor? almost leaped (into the have-n of the sitting room in a third rate temperance’ hotel, closed the door like a thief, and caught hold of the tall, yellow haired-woman ;n the black dothets of a widow who stood there waiting for him. Much as Augustus Moultrie admired lids wife, much as their incfar.!ous interests were identical, he was not usually an affectionate man; but now h© caught tn* dark, sinister figure round the neck ana kissed her upon both cheeks with a loud and only half suppressed sob relief. “My deaf,” he whispered, “my dear, it is too much. I have done it! 1 have done it! But I can do no more. > have the most deadly fear as to whaj. is to come. Everything seems in a mist. I cannot sde any further. *. conic to you.”

(To be Continued.)