Show u ft THOU I 1 ha li IS ta SA li ifie 1 ZV wo uhlan W A bor of Bhe AMATEUR CRACKSMAN C RAFFLES R etc illustrations IV by 0 EWERS pl cop ar P w errall SYNOPSIS 2 cazalet on the steamer kaiser fritz homeward b bound 0 und from aust australia ila cries out in ills his sleep t that henry craven who t ten en years before had bad ruined his father and himself Is dead and finds find that hll ton toye who shar shares q the stateroom with 11 him knows craven and also a iso blanche macnair a former neighbor r and playmate CHAPTER 11 continued it was a soy sorry sample of his talk hilton toye toya did not usually mix the reidy ready metaphors that nevertheless had to satisfy an inner censor of some austerity before they were allowed to wave leave tho those se deliberate lips yet now in his bis strange excitement word and tone ione alike wera were on the level of the stage americans it was not less than extraordinary 1 you dont means mean cazalet seemed to be swallowing about henry craven 11 yep you dont mean to say hes deal dead last wednesday night toys toye looked at his paper no I 1 g guess bess uess im wrong seems it happened wednesday but he only passed away sunday morning cazalet still sat staring at him there was not room for two of them on their feet but into his heavy stare there came a gleam agleam of leaden wisdom this was thursday morning he said so I 1 dream of it when it happened after all you dreamed you saw him lying dead and so he wa was said toye the funerals been today I 1 dont know but that seems to me just about the next nearest thing to seeing the crime perpetrated in a vision crime cried cazalet what crimo crime murder sir raid paid hilton toye willful brutal bloody murder heres the paper better read it for yourself im glad he a friend of yours or mine either but its a bad end even tor for your worst enemy the paper fluttered in Caze lets clutch as it had done in toyes but that was as natural as his bis puzzled frown over the cryptic allusions of a journal that had dealt fully with the ascertainable facts in previous issues some few emerged between the lines henry craven had received his fatal injuries les on the wednesday of the previous week the thing had happened in his library at or about half past seven in the evening but how a crime which was apparently a profound mystery had been timed to within a minute of its commission did not appear among the latest particulars no a airest had been made no clue was men honed beyond the statement that the police were still searching far a definite instrument with which it was evidently assumed that the deed bad been committed there was in fact a close description of an unusual weapon a special constables very special truncheon it had hung as a cherished trophy on the library wall from which chit it was missing while the very imprint of a silver shield mounted on the thick end of the weapon was ads stated to have been discovered on the scalp of the fractured skull but that was a little bit of oe special reporting typical of tho the enterprising sheet that toys toye had procured the inquest merely opened on the monday had been adjourned to the day of issue we must get hold of an evening paper said cazalet fancy his own famous truncheon he had it mounted and inscribed himself so that it be forgotten how hed fought for law and order at trafalgar square I 1 that was the man all overl over his voice and manner achieved the excessive indifference which the english type holds due from itself after any excess of feeling toys toye also was himself again his alert mind working keenly yet darkly in his acute eyes 1 I wonder if it was a murder he be speculated 1 I bet it a deliberate murder what else could it have been kind of manslaughter deliberate murderers dont trust to chance weapons hanging on their victims walls you forget sald said cazalet that he was robbed as well do they claim that said hilton toye 1 I guess I 1 skipped some where does jt it say eay anything uny thing about his being robbed herel here cazalet had scanned the jer en eagerly girly his finger drummed upon the place 1 the police he read out in some sort of triumph have bave now been furnished with a full description of the missing watch and trinkets and the other articles believed to have been taken from the pockets of the deceased that but robbery youre dead right said toye tove 1 I missed that somehow yet who in thunder tracks a man down to rob and murder himin him in his own home but when youve a man because you keep your hands off him you might deliberately do all the rest to wal e it seem like the work of thieves hilton toye looked a judge of deliberation as he measured his bis irrefutable words he looked something wore more w ore cazalet could not tear his blue bide eyes from the penetrating rating pair that met them with a somber twinkle an enlightened gusto quite uncomfortably suggestive at such a moment you arent a detective by any chance are you cried cazalet with clumsy humor no sir but ive often thought I 1 mind being one said toye chuckling 1 I rather figure I 1 might do something at it it things dont go my way in your old country and they put up a big enough reward why heres a man I 1 ikney knew and a place I 1 f know and I 1 might have a mind to try my hand they went ashore together and to the same hotel at southampton for the night midnight found the chance pair with their legs under the same heavy victorian mahogany devouring cold beet beef ham hain and pickles as ly as aa commercial travelers who had never been off the island in their lives yet surely cazalet was less depressed than lie he had been lefore before laddin landing g the old english ale in a pewter tankard oven even elicited a few of those anecdotes and piquant comparisons in which his conversation was at its best it was at its war worst sf on general questions or on concrete topics not introduced by himself and into this category per haps not unnaturally fell such further p particulars ar tic ulars of the thames valley mystery as were to be found in an evening paper at the inn they included a fragmentary report of the adjourned inquest and the actual otter offer of such a reward by the drad mans firm for the apprehension of his hia murderer as you arent a detective by chance are you cried cazalet made toyes eyes glisten in his sagacious ganious head but cazalet though he had skimmed the many headed column before sitting down to supper flatly declined to discuss the tragedy his first night ashore CHAPTER ill III in the train discussion was inevitable on the way up to town next morning the two strange friends planted opposite each other in the first class smoker traveled inland simultaneously engrossed in a copious report of the previous days proceedings at the coroners court the medical evidence was valuable only as tracing the fatal blow to some such weapon as the missing truncheon the butlers evidence explained that the dinner hour was seven thirty that not five minutes before he had seen his master come downstairs down stairs and enter the library where at seven fifty five on going to ask it he be had heard beard the gong he had obtained no answer but found the door locked on the inside that he be had then hastened round by the garden and in through the french window to discover the deceased gentleman lying in his blood the head gardener who lived in the lodge e had sworn to having seen a bareheaded bare headed man rush past his windows and out of the gates about the same hour as he knew by the sounding of the gong up at the house they often heard it at the lodge in warm weather when the windows were open and the gardener swore that he himself had heard it on this occasion the footman appeared to have been less positive as to the time of a telephone I 1 call he had answered thought it was between four and five but remembered the conversation very we the gentleman had asked whether 4 air ir craven was at home had been told that he was out mot motoring oring asked when he would be back told he say but before dinner some time and what name should be given whereupon the gentleman had rung off without answering the footman footma tf thought he was a gentleman from the way he spoke but apparently the pollee police had not yet succeeded in tracing the call Is it a difficult thing to do asked cazalet Caza lct touching on this last point early in the discussion which even he showed no wish to avoid this morning lie ho had dropped his pa paper to find that toye had already dropped his and was gazing at the flying dying english fields with thoughtful puckers about his som ber eyes it if you ask me ho be replied 1 I should like ilka to know what biffl cult connected with the telephone system in III this coun tryl why you dont have a system and ill all there Is to it but its not at that end put the salt on their man which enil end will it be then the riv river er end that hat or cap do you see what the gardener says about the man who I 1 ion an out bareheaded it if lie ho went and left his hat or his cap behind him that should be good enough in the long run its the very worst thing you can leave ever hear of franz muller cazalet had not heard of that important notoriety nor did his ignorance appear to trouble him at all but it was becoming more and more clear that toys toye took an almost unhealthy interest in the theory and practise of violent crime franz fanz muller he be continued left his hat behind him only that and nothing more but it brought him to the gallows even though he got over to the other side first he made the mistake of taking a slow steamer and that s just about the one mistake they never did make at scotland yard give them a nice long plain sailing stern chase and they get thereby bedtime wireless or no wireless eleas I 1 but cazalet was in no mind to discuss other crimes old or new and he closed the digression by asserting somewhat roundly that neither hat nor cap had been left behind in the only case that interested him dont be too sure said toys toye even scotland yard show all its hand at once in the first inquiry that comes along they dont give out any description of the man that ran away but you bet its being circulated around every police office in the united kingdom cazalet cazale said they would give it out fast enough if they had it t to 0 give by the way he was surprised to see that the head gardener was waa the same who had been at uplands in hla his fathers time he must be getting an old man and no doubt shakier on points of detail than he would be likely to admit cazalet instanced the alleged hearing of the gong as in itself an unconvincing statement it was well over a hundred yards from the gates to the house and there were no windows to open inthe in the hall where the gong riold be rung 11 ive ve dreamed of the old spot so often be said at length im not thinking of the night before last I 1 meant in the bush and now to think of a thing like this happening there in the old governors den of all places I 1 seems like a kind of poetic justice said hilton toye it does it is cried cazalet fetching in moist dist yet fiery eyes in from the fields 1 I said to you the other night that henry craven never was a white man and I 1 wont unsay it now nobody may ever know what hes done to bring this upon him but those who really knew the man and suffered for it can guess the kind of thing exactly murmured to toye v e as aa though he had just said as much himself his dark eyes twinkled with deliberation and debate how long Is it by the way that they gave that clerk and friend of yours A keen look pressed the startling question at least it startled cazalet you mean scruton what op on earth made you think of him talking of those who suffered tor for being the dead mans friends I 1 guess said raid toys toye was it fourteen years that was it but I 1 guess fourteen mean mea n fourteen ordinarily it if a prisoner behaves himself A little more than ten then scruton may be out now just toys toye nodded with detestable aplomb that gives you something to chew on said he of 01 course I 1 dont say hes our man 1 I should think you cried cazalet white to the lips with sudden fury TO BE CONTINUED |