A COMPLEX CRIME

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 15283, 9 July 1923, Page 3

A COMPLEX CRIME

CHAPTER IV.—(Continued.) She was a very handsome woman still, in spite of her fifty years. She was tall and dark, with a somewhat Jewish cast of ccuntenanee, and was always well and fashionably dressed. Marion was net a scrap like her mother in looks. She took after her dean father, w.ie had been the handsomest man ir. his, regiment. Her disposition, too, was more like what his had been. She, like him, was given to idealising the people she loved, while her mother just took the world as she found it, and credited everyone accordingly, for she had little or no romance in her nature. She was a practical, clear-headed woman of the world; but. for all that, a good woman. She possessed one especial weakness, however, and that was a love of ferreting out things which did not concern her. "How do you people manage to pass your time in this dead-and-alive place?" asked Mrs Rello, as she sipped her tea complacently, blissfully ignorant of the frown which was gathering upon the face of her son-in-law. "You needn't trouble yourself about our mode of existence," he retorted coldly, rising from his seat to ring for the lights. "Marion and I get on well enough. Better, perhaps than those exceedingly fashionable people who live in town and give afternoon teas to a pack of gossiping old women who've always got the latest scandal to relate —true or otherwise. Our life hero is, at all events, wholesome. And we know enough people to suit us. Therefore, why should we be dull?" Marion's mother opened her eyes in astonishment at this decided snub,, but she wisely refrained from commenting upon it, although by the sudden way that she compressed her lips, I concluded that she had discovered a new trait in Darrell's character. Just then a servant entered with the lamps, and my friend's mother looked about her with a keenly appreciative eye. "A handsome room—very," she remarked as soon as the servant had gone. "This appears to be a very large house, too, judging by the exterior. You must allow me to explore it from garret to cellar, Harry. I do so love exploring old houses." Poor lady; she was again venturing on dangerous ground; although she did not know it. I glanced through half-closed eyes at my host to see how he took this hint, which somewhat to my surprise, considering his recent ill-humour, he did more amiably. "You are welcome to gratify your desires, with the exception of the west wing," he replied. And then he told her of the condition of his late aunt's will. "Good gracious," exclaimed the amazed listener, "It must be a sort of Blue-beard's chamber,' I should think. My dear Harry, it is a thousand pities you have'told me of it, fcr you know, like Fatima, I shall now possess an unbounded curiosity to pry therein." "If you aie going to indulge in such a.feeling, remember the fate of Fatima, then," retorted Darrell, grimly. Unheeding the remark, .nowow.r, his m..t'HT-;ii-law continued: "l : j very strange. Not one chamber, merely, but the entire wing of the house. Who has the keys, may one ask?" "I," was the reply. "And I can assure you they never leave my possession on any account. You," turning a serious face towards the questioner, "will oblige mo by not speaking of this question again. /My aunt's wishes, however eccentric they may appear to others, I intend to respect." And so saying he rose rather hastily from his chair and left the room. As the door closed behind him, Marion, who had been vainly trying to catch her mother's eye in order to warn her not to continue her questions, remarked quickly: "You have put your foot in it, mother. Of course, you didn't know, but Harry is hive a bear with a sore head when anyone approaches him on the subject of the west wing. He was very fend of his aunt, I am sure, or he would not so strongly reseut any questioning of her last wishes." "Why should he, my dear? I only asked him very trivial questions. And however dutiful a nephew ho may be, I cannot see why he should fly into u rage about the affair. If so much mystery is to be made out of nothing one is inclined to believe there is something more beneath the surface. Do not you, as his wife, have permission to enter the closed wing?" Marion shook her head. "I do not wish to go against that dead woman's whim," she said. "I am not very curious, and, besides, my husband never even goes there himself. As for the servants, they would as soon think of exploring tombs at the dead of night as to go near the west wing, if avoidable. It has gained the repute in the servants' hall, if not elsewhere,' of being haunted. The ghost, however, does not olten seem to ap-i pear, for," laughing, "I have not seen it —neither has Harry. There are supposed to be Strang and unaccountable noises on occasions in the vicinity of the closed wing; which I do not expect has any more ghastly inhabitants than the rats and mice that generally abound in such places." "Ghosts, indeed," said her mother. "It is not likely that any sane person would, credit such twaddle. But, in spite of that, 1 am inclined lo believe these is some sort of mystery hidden in the place. I'd give something to find out—l don't approve of secrets. Why should Darrell's aunt have wanted that part of the house shut up? What do you think about it all, Carmen?" "Oh, I don't know," I replied. It is no concern of mine. I shouldn't trouble myself to worry out the possible problems or motives of an eccentric old lady's wishes if I were yon, dear Mrs Hello. Let us forget that the west end exists." Marion flashed me a grateful look. But I think that sno, as well as I, knew that her mother, once on the trail of a possible mystery, would never leave the scent until she had found out what there was to know, it there was anything at all, that is. And 1 fancy that, she was beginning to impress some of her own suspicious upon my friend. For Marion was looking decidedly worried. Mrs Hello, however, was a tactlui woman, if she was a curious one, and she promptly changed the subject, upon my hint. "Arc there any good families hereabout';" she asked her daughter,

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"Who are your nearest neighbours?" Marion told her, adding that Lady Ormond's sister was the wife of Colonel Wallace, who had been a friend and brother officer of the late Captain Hello. "Dear me!" exclaimed her mother. "What a small place the world is after all. As you say these Wallaces move in good society and live mostly in London, I may as well -cultivaii them. (Mrs Rello had a weakness for making fresh acquaintances). And J the Ormonds, your neighbours—l should like to know them. One must needs visit somebody while vegetating, even for a couple of weeks, in a deadly dull place like this." "Well, you're soon condemning it, mother,"' laughed the daughter, "and it is hardly complimentary to us, you know. At all events, we must try and give you a better impression of this auiet part of the globe by doing our best to make your visit a pleasant one. And now, dear, I will show you to your room." The mother and daughter left the room together, while I settled down to enjoy an hour's reading before going to dress for dinner. For my part, I was really glad that Marion's mother had come. It would be less awkward for me. 1 CHAPTER V. ' A CRY IN THE DARKNESS. Nearly a week had passed since Mrs Hello's arrival at the Manor—a week of wild stormy weather, with scarcely a line interval. The hcath- "■ covered moor was sodden; the trees in the avenue dripped incessant y, forming dreary little pools along the carriage drive, and the fallen foliage was scattered over the paths by the high winds which swept over the moorland straight from the sea. Grey and sullen clouds hung low' upon the horizon. 1 It was quite impossible to get out. • Even Darrell remained in the house most of that week; although we saw little cf him, for he shut himself up ' in his own particular den. Mrs Hello wandered disconsolately about the great old house, going from room to room i« an aimless sort of 1 way; for she could not, she said, settle 1 herself to anything. And the Ormonds we had not seen since our visit to the Towers a week ago. "This weather is really too awful for anything," wailed Mrs Hello. "However you young people can stand this slow sort of life is a puzzle to me. I wish to goodness something would happen. Anything by way of excitement, you know." As she uttered the wish, hairjokingly, she little dreamed that before another twenty-four hours had passed the "something" would happen. Something that was, to leave a ; stigma of crime and mystery on Darkleigh Manor for many a long day. On the night of the day in question the household retired to rest unusually early; and I, being somewhat weary myself, got into bed. For a little while I lay with half-closed eyes, listening to the noise of the wind, which whistled and howled outside, shaking the windows and beating the rain against them with such violence ' that one would have scarcely been surprised had they fallen in. At length I dropped off into a sound . sleep, from which I ,was suddenly awakened by a cry in the darkness, which seemed to bo just outside my • window. "Oh, God 1 oh, God! save me from this brute I". it was a woman's voice. I hastily sprang from my bed, struck a match, and lit the candle, which I had left upon a little table near my bed. And then I hurried into my dressing-gown and stood still for an instant, waiting , for the cry to be repeated, and undecided what I should do. I was trembling in every limb, and jet I did not know whether I should give a general alarm or not. And then, on the impulse, I made up my , mind lo call only Darrell. I did not wish to alarm my friend, and it was her husband's place to tind out the cause of that cry. I opened my door quickly, and ' noiselessly crossed the landing and tapped on the door of my host's sleeping apartment. I wailed some , seconds, but there was no response, and, desperate, I knocked again, more loudly. Again I waited, and waited in vain. Then it dawned upon me that the room was empty. Probably Darrell, too, had heard that cry, and gone to see the cause of it. lie must have been quick to have got ahead of me—for I had not been a minute before I had acted, fearing that; some poor creature was in danger probably of being killed. For the cry which had alarmed me had been full of terror. (.To be continued to-morrow). CKEMiST USES COUGH REMEDY. There ar e many cough remedies offered for sale and no one has a better opportunity of judging the value of such remedies than the Chemist who sells them. Here is a letter from a leading provincial chemist —a man who knows practically every cough medicine on the market. He says: "In Pulmoiias you have a good line; I recommend them and have used them myself with benefit." Pulmonas give quick, welcome relief in cases of coughs, sore throats and chest troubles. Keep a tin always handy. From chemists is Gd and 2s Od, or post free for price from Stacey Bros., Gi > Queen Street, Auckland*