Show ai THOU A 6 Y ERNEST E an WT 0 makor of C CRACKSMAN RAFFLES r T etc illustrations av 0 AYERS COPYRIGHT 4 aa me 1 COX COMPANY PAMy SYNOPSIS cazalet on the steamer kaiser fritz lio alo bound from australia eilla cries out 0 ut in his sleep that henry craven who ten en years before had ruined his father and himself Is dead and finds that hll 1111 ton toys r wl who I 1 os oshayes shares hares the stateroom with him bim knows no ws cra cravan v en and also blanche macnair a former neighbor and playmate mate when the dally daily papers come ab aboard 0 ard at southampton toye reads that craven has been murdered and calls C Ca aza zaleta lets dream lie he thinks 4 of 1 doing a little amateur detective work on the case himself in the train to town tow n they d discuss escuss i i the murder which was committed at cazalens Caza lets old home toye hears from cazalet that scruton who had bad been Caza cataleta Ca zaleta letar friend and the scapegoat for cravens dishonesty has ha been released ctorn prison cazalet goes down the ir river ver and meets meeta blanche toye also comes to see her and tolla tells cazalet C that scruton has been ar arrested bated but as he believe tile the old clerk Is guilty he la Is going to ferret erret out the murderer cazalet and blanche bianchi go to cazalens Caza lets old homo home and meet mr drinkwater of scotland yard cazalet goes with drinkwater t er to the library where the murder was committed shows allows hini him passage lie he know knew as a boy and leads the way through it in town toye talking with cazalet about the murder su suggests augg bests ests finger prints prina t on the weapon found found in fai the secret passage as ameant of trapping the murderer and succeeds in n securing a print of C Cazalet abets shand hand CHAPTER vill VIII continued cazalet excused himself with dealy slon sion he had a full morning in front of him he was going to see miss brother son eon of the late head of his fathers old firm of solicitors and now one of the partners to get them either to take up ns case themselves yes or else to recommend a firm arm perhaps more accustomed to criminal practice cazalet was always aatto apt to elaborate be in the first person singular zin gular ei therIn the past or I 1 in a the future tense but he was more so than usual in explaining hl his considered intentions lif in this matter that lay so very near his heart going to see scruton too said toye not necessarily was the short reply but it also was elaborated by cazalet on a moments consideration the fact was that he wanted first to know it it were not possible by the intervention of a really influential Influent lal lawyer lawver to obtain the prisoners immediate re release liase at I 1 any rate on ball bail it if imps he might hesitate to force him celilia belf on scruton in the prison but he be would see its ibe a perfect dieci scandal that he should be there at all said cazalet as he be rose first and ushered toye out into the lounge only think our old gara gardener garadner ener saw him run butof out of the drive at halt half past seven when the gong went when the real mu murderer aderer m must have been shivering in the cupboard wondering how the devil he was ever going to get out again then you think old man craven begging bugging his poor pardon was getting out some cigars when the man whoever he was came in and knocked himon him on the head cazalet nodded vigorously the likeliest thing of all he cried then the gong iong went there may even davd come a knock at the door and there was that cupboard standing open athis elbow with a hole in the floor boor that might have been made for him As it happens yes hed search every inch like a rat in a trap you yo see and there it was as id left it twenty years before well its a ivond wonderful erful yarna yarn exclaimed hilton toye and he lighted the cigar that cazalet had given him 1 I think it may be thought one if the police ever own how they made their find agreed cazalet laughing arid and looking at his watch toye had never heard him laugh so often by the way drinkwater want an any y of all this to come out until he hes a dragged his man before the beak again which you mean to prevent it if only I 1 c can ini imore I 1 more or less promised not to talk however and im sure eure you wont you knew so much already you may ju just st as well know OW the rest mst this week as well as next it you dont mind keeping it tv tc yourself nobody could have minded lala particular embargo less than hilton toye he saw cazalet off with a smile that was as yet merely puzzled and not unfriendly until he had time to recall miss blanches part in the strange affair of the previous afternoon say they rather intimate those two even if they had known each other all their lives he had it from blanche with her second refusal that she sha was not and never tied bad been engaged and a fellow who ont wrote to her once in a year still ew they must have been darned intimate ind and this funny affair would bring them together again quicker than anything aay what aliat a funny affair it was when you came to thing of itt funny all through it now struck toyo toye begin ning on board ship with that dream of cazalens Caza lets about the murdered man leading to all that talk of the old grievance against him and culm culminating luat in his hia actually finding the implements odthe crime in his inspired cf borts to io ea nion men of choso whoso innocence he hii etseo so positive sa say y it that cazalet had not been on his way home from australia at the time like many deliberate speakers toye thought like lightning and had reached this point before he was a hundred yards yarda from thoi thel otel then he thought of something else and retraced retrace ed his steps he retraced them even to the table at which he had sat with cazalet nut not very many minutes ago the waiter was only now beginning to clear away say waiter what have you done with the menu that was in that toast rack there was something on it that we rather wanted to keep 1 I thought there was sir air said the english waiter at that admirable hotel toye however prepared to talk to TO ulm him like ake an american uncle of dutch extraction you thought that and you took it away not at all sir air I 1 appended app ened to observe the other gentleman put the melau in his pocket behind your back as you yere were getting up because I 1 passed a remark about it to the head waiter at the time CHAPTER IX fair warning it ws was much more than a map or of the metropolis that toye his able head he knew the right places for the right things lie he gazed critically at his boots he was not so BO dead sure BUTO that be had struck the only man for boots there had been a young fellow aboard the Kaiser Kalser fritz quite a little bit of a military blood who had bad come ashore in a pair of loth cloth tops that had rather unsettled mr toyes toyee mind just on that one point captain aylmer had said he would like to have to toye ye see his club any time he was passing and cared to look in for lunch he had bad said so GO as though he would like it a great deal and suddenly toye had a mind to take him at his word right now the idea began with those boots with cloth tops but that wd s not all there was to it there was something else that had been at the back of toyes mind all morning and now took charge in front aylmer had bad talked some about a job I 1 in the war office that enabled him to lunch dally daily at the rag but what his been aboard a german steamer toye did not know and was not the m man an to inquire it was no business of his anyway reference to a card traded for his own in southampton water and duly filed in his cigarette case reminded him of the rags proper style and title and there he was eventually entertained to a sound workmanlike rather expeditious meal say did you see the cemetery at genoa suddenly inquired the visitor on their way back through the hall A martial bust bad had been ad extravagantly before the question never want to see it again or genoa either said captain aylmer the smoking rooms this way did you say you were there two days toye was cutting his cigar as though it were a corn T two w 0 whole days and wed had a night in the bay of naples just before Is that so 9 1 I only came aboard at genoa I 1 guess I 1 was wise added toye as ae though he was thinking of something else there was no sort of feeling in his voice but helas he was sucking his left thumb 1 I say you youve ve cut yourself 1 I guess its nothing notting knife too sharp please dont worry captain aylmer I 1 was going to say I 1 on only ay got on oil at genoa and they give me a room to myself I 1 had to g go 0 in with cazalet how I 1 saw so much of him etwas it wan toyes third and separate independent attempt to introduce the name and fame of cazalet as a natural topic of conversation twice his host had listened with adamantine polite ness this time he was enjoying quite the second best liqueur brandy to be had bad at the fie rag and he leaned back in his bis enair you ou were rather impressed with him you said captain aylmer well frankly I 1 but it may have been my fault 11 1 I was only going to ask you one thing about mr cazalet toye said and I 1 guess ive a reason for asking though theres no time to state it now what dilyou did you think of him captain ay iy aylmer almer on the whole ali ah there you have me on the whole la Is just the difficult said ayl aal mer answering the tha strai straight glit question readily enough 1 I thought he was a very good chap as tar far as hapl naples es but after genoa he was another being I 1 ive ve sometimes wondered what happened in his tareo or four days ashore three or four did you say and at the last moment toye would have played wedding guest to ayl aal mers ancient mariner yes you see he knew these german alts boats bastea A couple of days at genoa so BO he be landed at naples and did his italy overland rather a goo good didea idea I 1 thought especially as he be said he had friends in rome but we neier never heard of em cm before beforehand liand and I 1 should have let lef the whole thing strike me a bit sooner if id been Caz cazalet alef I 1 soon enough to 0 o take tak e a handbag hand bag and a toothbrush eh and I 1 dont think I 1 1 should have run it quite so fine at genoa either but there are rum birds in this world and always will bel ba toys toye felt one himself as he picked his way through st james square it if it had not been just after lunch he be would have gone straight t and had a cocktail for of couise course he knew the only place for them what he did was to slue elue round out of the square and to oata obtain n for the asking at another old haunt on cockspur street the latest little timetable time table of continental trains this he carried not on foots foot but in a taxi to the savoy hotel where it kept him busy in hla his own room for the best part of another hour but bu by that time hilton toye looked mor ethan an hour older than on sitting bitting down at his writing table with pencil paper and the little book of trains lie he looked horrified distressed and yet he looked crafty determined and immensely alive he proceeded however to take some of the life out of himself and to add still more to his apparent age by repairing for more inward light to a turkish bath row now the only turkish bath according to hilton toyes somewhat exclusive code was not even a hundred yards from cazalens Caza lets hotel and there the visitor of of the morning again presented himself before the afternoon now merely a little worn as an a man did I 1 tell you 14 id any friends there will look after losing a stone an hour on a warm afternoon and a jilt bit blue again about abou tAbe the chin which of course looked a little deeper and stronger on that account cazalet was not in his friend would wait and in fact waited over an hour in the little bunge an evening paper was offered to him he took it listlessly scarcely looked at it at first then tore it in his anxiety to find something he had quite forgotten from the newspaper end but he was waiting as stoically as before when cazalet arrived in tremendous spirits stop and dine he cried out at once sorry I 1 cant got to go and see somebody said hilton toye then you must have a drink no I 1 thank you said toye with the decisive courtesy 0 of a total abstainer you look as it if you wanted one you dont look a bit fit said cazalet most kindly nor am 1 I sirl sir exclaimed toye 1 I guess londona Lon dons no place tor for me in the fall just as well too I 1 judge since ive got to light out again straight away you yes sir this very night the worst of a business that takes you to all the capitals of europe in turn it takes you so long to flit around that you kou never know when botne youe got to start in again which capital Is it this time said edid cazalet his exuberant geniality had been dashed very iery visibly for or the moment but already his high spirits were reasserting themselves indeed a cynic with an ear might have caught the note of sudden consolation in the question that cazalet asked so briskly got to go down to rome said eald toye watching the effect of his words but youve just come back from there I 1 cazalet looked no worse than puzzled no sir air I 1 missed rome out that was my mistake and heres this situ I 1 aaion been developing behind my back what situation oh why it interest youl you but ive got to go down to rome whether I 1 like it or not and I 1 dont like tt it any because I 1 dont have any friends there and what im doing right here I 1 was wondering it if do something tor for me cazalet it if I 1 can said eald cazalet with pleas jure are 11 but his smiles were gone 1 I was wondering if give me an introduction to those friends of yours in romet romel there was fab a little pause and cazo lets tongue just showed between his bis lips moistening them it was at that moment the only touch of color la in his face did I 1 tell you id any friends there the sound of his bis voice was perhaps less hoarse than puzzled toye made himself chuckle as he sat looking up out of somber eyes well it you said be 1 I guess I 1 must have dreamed it if TO CONTINUED |