The Nemesis a of Crime

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20832, 16 June 1939, Page 5

The Nemesis a of Crime

By ACEITUNA THURLOW

CHAPTER XXll—(Continued) There was no key to the door, only the holt on the outside. 1 knelt down and placed my eye to the keyhole. It was some minutes before Mrs 'Lemaire came into my range of vision, and then she was apparently preparing to leave the room. As her figure came into view, 1 gasped. In the place of a lady, in a becoming travelling dress, there stood a slight, small figure in man's clothes, with a pot hat jauntily placed on the wig of short hair. Mrs Lemaire's thinness lent itself to the part, and the man's mackintosh (it was raininig slightly outside,; covered any imperfections which might otherwise have been manifest in the disguise. In another moment she had left the bedroom, carefully shutting the door, and 1 heard her reeeding steps echoing down the passage. i redoubled my efforts —1 thumped, I called, till at last 1 had to desist from sheer weariness. My thoughts were l'ar from pleasant. Through crass stupidity on my part Mrs Lemaire had escaped, and Molly was in all probability lost to us for ever. Hadn't I seen enough of the woman and her ways? Didn’t 1 know her to be as slippery as an eel? Yet 1 had behaved like a fool. 1 bad given her the opportunity she needed, and lost the game for everyone. It was nearly twenty minutes before 1 heard someone knocking at the bedroom, hut they seemed like a lifetime. I shouted, and Maurice's voice answered me. In another second the bolt of my prison was withdrawn, and Maurice, white with emotion, was holdinig me in his arms. •‘Maurice, I’ve been such a fool,” I sobbed, hopelessly. "She has escaped, and it's all my fault.” "At any rale, you are safe, my darling,” he answered, with a lover's disregard oi Lire importance of anyone else's affairs, "and that is all that matters.” "Looking over his shoulders at Mr Gellender's face, 1 could not agree. Penitently I began my story; Mr Gellender was very kind. ”R was entirely our fault, Miss Cathcart. We ought never to have allowed you to run such a risk.” In spite of his reassuring words I could see that his disappointment was too great to he hidden. For years he had waited to regain his child, and now when she had at last been within his reach, she was ios't through my mis Lake. A Waiter’s Evidence The room was scattered with Mrs Lemaire's possessions. Hurriedly we descended the stairs, and made our inquiries at the Bureau. The young woman did not remember anyone answering to our description, and called up one of the waiters. He, after a minute’s thought, said that a young man had cannoned against him rather violently, and seeming in a great hurry, and run down the steps and jumped into a passing cab, shouting to the driver to take him to the station. Under the circumstances we decided to follow this individual’s example, and tipping the waiter, engaged a cab and started, making our plans as we went. It was arranged that as it. was now five o'clock, and there was no chance of regaining Molly that night, even if Mrs Lemaire was captured and brought to terms, that I should return to London alone. Mrs Gaynesford would be certain to give me a bed, and Maurice would stay with Mr Gellender and assist in the search. In all probability Mrs Lemaire would have taken the first train indiscriminately, in the hope of throwing us the scent. Mr Gellender left the planning to Maurice. lie was very silent. I could not help fancying that the sight of his wife had perhaps affected him as much as the loss of his child. Mrs Lemaire was a person who might inspire love or hatred, but never indifference.

While we were still deep in the disoussion of what plan she would have been likely to adopt we arrived at the station. Here hope returned to us. An intelligent porter had noticed a young gentleman, dressed in the manner described, who had hurried in, and alter wandering about the station, had returned to the ticket office, had demanded a ticket for Deal. He had left by the last train. The porter had no recollection of a mackintosh, but otherwise the description tallied. Maurice and Mr Gellender settled to follow by the next train, which followed in three-quarters of an hour. My train for London went sooner, and Maurice came round to the platform to put me in. "What a mess I have made of things,” I said miserably. “Mr Gellender will never forgive me.” ”lt was we who were the fools,” returned my lover, “leaving you as we did alone with that woman. I thank Heaven my darling is not a match for an adventuress.” He comforted me a good deal, hut I must confess that as the train steamed away, bearing me on my lonely jourjourney, there were tears of vexation in my eyes. CHAPTER XXIII. Mv train was a good deal delayed, owing to a block on the line, and i was feeling quite hungry when it drew up at the platform in Victoria. Threading my way successfully through the hurrying people who were trying to collect their luggage, 1 was turning the corner by the bookstall, when 1 was nearly knocked down by a flying figure, and a well-known voice begged my pardon. 1 seized him unceremoniously by the arm. “Mr Lemaire,” I cried, “you must stop a minute.” “Good gracious, Miss Cathcart, I didn't recognise you! I can't stop—positively, I must catch this train.” As he spoke the train on the platform began to move, and lie dashed wildly away. 1 followed at a less violent, pace, and witnessed with some satisfaction his unsuccessful effort to open the door of a locked compartment. I broke cheerfully into the volley of oaths with which he relieved his feelings. "Please, Mr Lemaire, listen to me. You will have plenty of time now.” "What on eartii can you have to say to me?” he asked wearily. “Gan 1 repair the injury that has been done vou? if. indeed, I can help you in any wav. vou have only to command me.” "You are very good.” I said slowly. “And yet. Mr Lemaire, 1 am acting the part of your enemy. I wish to find out Molly's whereabouts.” "Molly's?'' he cried. "God knows, so do I. That is why you have caught me rushing down to Dover like a madman.”

A story of Thrilling Romance and Exciting Adventure

"Were you going to see—” I stopped, uncertain what title to bestow on Mrs Lemaire. In Search of Molly *'My wife,” he broke in hastily. "Yes, that was ft. After our interview on Thursday I left the house, and only returned to-day. On my arrival i found her flown, leaving a note to say that she had left for good, and that Molly was safe out of my reach. No one knows the address, the house is deserted, the servants gone, and Roger left as caretaker. He, as you are aware, adores Barbara, and says exactly what she tells him. By a mere chance 1 thought of Torriano, and rushed off to his rooms to ask if my wife had written to him, and given an address. I was told by the servant that the Count had left that morning for Dover, apparently in a great hurry. Knowing that very few things have succeeded in hurrying Torriano, and that Barbara heads the list, 1 put two and two together and rushed oil' here.” "1 see,” 1 said gently. "Now perhaps I can give you some information, for 1 have just come back from Dover, where I saw Mrs Lemaire.” "Weli,” he said breathlessly, "where is she? Is Molly with her?” “1 don’t know where she is now, and Molly wasn't there. Mr Gellender went with us.” He looked at me as if 1 had struck him. “Gellender?” he said slowly. ’His face hurt me. “You see,” I explained hurriedly, Mrs Lemaire called herself Mr Geilender’s sister-in-law. He denied the existence of such a relation, and suspected the truth, so he accompanied Maurice and me to your house at Richmond, where we were told she had gone to Dover. We followed and found her. "Barbara said she was Gellender’s sister-in-law,” he repeated after me. "in Heaven’s name tell me wliat you mean.” "You remember Maurice Hunter’s story the brooch I had with me, and that Mrs Lemaire tried to Lake?” ”1 have the vaguest recollection. Miss Cathcart, of anything he said. Barbara’s face told me that lie spoke the truth —that she was a murderess, and tne horror of it dazed me. The details of Hie affair 1 never even heard.” "But you must have imagined that % he had some reason for attempting

"You knew too much, Miss Cathcart, and you had cut her out with Hunter, so she hated you. That was quite enough. Had you been in England at the time, you would have been safe. Barbara keeps her passions excellently under control; she would never run so severe a risk even to satisfy her craving for revenge. She believed that discovery in Spitzbergen was a practical impossibility, so she left you to die. In the middle ages, when punishment seldom followed crime, she would have been the champion poisoner of her age. Pity for her victim would never restrain her. She would play the part of Lucrezia Borgia to-mor-row if there was no fear of the gallows. People who get in her way she brushes aside without compunction.”

I told him the story of the brooch. ‘T was forgetting that you had no idea that Mr Gellender was a friend of mine. 1 met him while I was staying with my cousin, and we got on very well together. When I was leaving her to uo to you he gave me a brooch as a parting present. I wore it for the first time at Stalheim. Mrs Lemaire saw it, and asked me where I got it, and that night made the attempt to chloroform me that we told you of. 1 then gave it to Mr Hunter to keep for me, without telling him the reason. When we quarrelled I asked 'to have it back. I took it to my cabin, and there accidentally discovered a spring; a lid flew open, disclosing a miniature of Mrs Lemaire. Of course, Mr Gellender had not known of its existence when he gave it to me. While I was still standing, stupefied at my discovery, Mrs Lemaire came in, and saw it in my hand. She told me a long story to the effect that the portrait represented her elder sister, wno had married Mr Gellender. It was both dramatic and touching, and it was only when 1 found myself stranded on .the shore, and lelt to starve that f realised that the whole thing was a myth. Why 1 never mentioned Mr Gellender lo you I can't make out, but you must have imagined that 1 had probably made his acquaintance, as i had been living so close. "1 thought you must have met him, but knowing be had the reputation of a recluse, who went nowhere, and saw no one, I did not suppose that you knew him well.” "So he is trying to regain Molly,” he said, huskly, after a pause, "after all these years.” I nodded. “My God, wliat shall I do?” The exclamation seemed wrung from him. From my heart I pitied the man. His sins had been committed under the coercion of a nature stronger than his own. Mrs Lemaire had cast her spell, exerted her influence, and he had succumbed. His love for Molly, his kindly courtesy and consideration towards myself, had won my liking. At that moment I realised what the loss of the child would mean to him, and felt almost like a traitor for the part 1 had played in trying to restore her to Mr Gellender. His agitation was making us conspicuous. ••Come,” I said, “let us go to the waiting-room. It may be deserted at this hour.” He followed submissively, and my surmise proved correct. \\ e sat down on the hard horsehair sofa, and I waited for him to speak. Presently he lifted his head, looking at me with haggard eyes. •“They will take her away,” he said hopelessly, "and you will help them.” "It is his right to have her,” I began, feebly. (To be continued daily.)