| Show BANNER SERIAL FICTION She Painted Her Face I IA sQ A o tw Mid avid it hr que fy DORNFORD YATES I Io O TaUa Tat f SYNOPSIS Richard Exon a poor young Englishman English English- I man befriends elderly Matthew Goring Coring who at his death gives him a statement claiming he Coring Gering Is Rudolph Elbert Virgil Count of Brief of ancient Austri Austri- Austrian an nobility who was betrayed 20 years yearl before before- by his twin brother Ferdinand whose sentence for forgery he himself served Ferdinand appropriated his title property and daughter Before he dies Gering Cering tells Exon there Is a family se se- secret secret cret known only to the head of the house to be found In the great reat tower at Brief by a doorway none can ever find Exon Inherits his uncles uncle's fortune and andset sets set out to right wrongs En route he encounters Percy Elbert Virgil son Ion of the villainous Ferdinand and sees him In conference wU a diamond dia dla diamond mond merchant He ne engages a valet Winter who hates Percy and meets by chance at a garage arage John Herrick who Is a linguist and who as a youth served as a page at Gering's wedding and had visited Brief Herrick agrees to aid Exon They establish headquarters at Brenda Revokes Revoke's farm at Raven a few miles from Brief and make their plans They find the castle almost Inaccessible They see aee a closed car occupied by Percy Virgil a chauffeur and a woman Hearing a dog scream they see lee the chauffeur flogging It It Just as a horse orse with witha a girl astride bounds along the path and andIs andIs andis Is felled by a strung wire The girl un conscious Is picked up carelessly by bythe bythe the chauffeur and woman who then run runaway runaway away after ater dropping her Exon rescues the girl Irl and carries her to his waiting car lie He Identifies the girl as Elizabeth daughter of the disowned Gering Cering tells her of her cousins cousin's plot to abduct her ber herand berand herand and takes her to Raven where he tells teUs her the story of her father and promises to go the limit to help her right her fa fa- fathers father's fathers fathers father's ther's wrongs Elizabeth wins faith In her benefactor Percy Virgil brings the police to Raven announcing that two strangers are being sought for the kid nailing naping of Elizabeth Herrick discomfits Virgil tells of the mornings morning's adventure names a man called Max and hands the police poUce a sealed scaled envelope with the name of the leader In the abduction Percy abduction Percy Virgil Exon and Herrick suspect Percy of having sold the family jewels through All AU realize the only solution Is Isto Isto isto to find the Secret of Brief which the Impostor Ferdinand does not know They decide to take possession of the Tower CHAPTER Ch APTER IV IV Continued 9 Holding my torch in my teeth I 1 Inspected the four beddings care care- carefully carefully carefully fully one by one There was nothing to choose between them all were apparently sound I put my torch away and tested the bars them them- selves The first was not rock rock- steady the second however might have been a part of the tower Clinging to the cage like some ape I fought to loosen the first and when I stopped to take breath I could move it an eighth of an inch But B t for the cage cag I could never never have done what I 1 did As it was I could cowd work with freedom and when I 1 was tired I could cowd rest and this without the dragging deadly oppression of what wha t I will call self self- support Never at any time was I holding my own weight up Without the mallet the chisel was of no use use and I could not have used them together because I had to hold on but by working the bar to and fro tro I gradually crushed the cement which was lying within the sockets between the bar and the stone After nearly half hat an nn hour this bed bed- bedding bedding bedding ding was gone and I could cowd move the bar sideways a n full two inches each way but wrench it out I 1 could cowd not and after a little I knew that its ends had been purposely bent bent bent- to defeat the very object I had in view I could cowd loosen but I could not displace it unless I had the strength to pull a stone from the tower Now the bars had been set in the wall four inches apart By hold hold- holding holding holding ing my bar to one side I now had hada a space spa e of six inches between that bar and the next But that was not wide enough After a moment or two I began to try to loosen the second bar As well try to shake a statue statue statue-or or orso so it seemed As A I have said the thing was a part of the tower But after fter ten frantic minutes I felt it stir I stopped for a moment to rip off oil my tic tie and collar and let them drop Then I fell upon that bar like a man possessed Twenty five minutes went by be be- before before fore I had the sockets clear of ce ce- cement cement ment If I moved the two bars I had loosened as far apart as I could I now had a space of eight inches through which to pass but short of displacing a bar I could cowd have no nomore nomore nomore more for the iron of which they were wrought was not to be bent bentI I have sometimes heard said that where a mans man's head will enter there his body can pass On that exact exact- exacting exactIng ing night I proved that saying un true I could cowd put my head into the cage but do what I would I could cowd not pass my body between the bars Three feet below me I saw Eliz Eliz- Elizabeth's Elizabeths Elizabeths Elizabeth's abeth's upturned face She was standing on Herricks Herrick's shoulders leaning against the wall What is it I whispered What is it Leave It Richard You must No man could do any more but it cant can't be done It was the phrase she used that opened my eyes No man could cowd do any more Perhaps But a woman could cowd Listen I said youve come in inthe inthe inthe the nick of o time Can you see these bars bard The two two middle ones are are splayed but I cant can't cant can't move them far ther apart and Im I'm too big to get through But you can pass easily easily- and the window Is b open beyond Very welL In a minute Im I'm going to lean down and pick you up but not by your hands hands hands-by by your y ur belt Put your hands above your head as though you were going to dive and when you come up to the bars Just j t wriggle your way between them and get a knee on the sIlL Without a word she put up her hands as I said and I disposed my my- myself self set as well as I could Holding fast with my left to a crossbar cross I reached my right hand down till I touched the small of her back Then I tool took too her by the belt of her breeches and lifted her up She could cowd not have played her part better If we had rehearsed the ma ma- maneuver maneuver maneuver a score of times As she came to the bars she turned side side- sideways sideways sideways ways her back to me and before I knew where I was she had taken her weight And then It was all over and she was within the tower tower standing standing A ts' ts t 4 t y Ti 2 v 1 1 Q r Jj We Dee Been Within the Tower for lor Thirty-Nine Thirty Hours Dours w looking out of the window with her delicate hands on the silL For a moment we regarded one another she as unearthly fair as I Iwas Iwas Iwas was foul fow Then Then- What cant can't you do she said quietly I shall never forget that moment The iron bars were between us the bars which I could cowd not pass Like some beast I was peering be be- between between between tween them at a beauty which was not of my world Corruption sur sur- surveyed surveyed surveyed incorruption incorruption and and found it his hearts heart's desire When you talk like that I said hoarsely you make me feel rich Elizabeth smiled That was the idea she said gently gen gen- Be De careful how you get down CHAPTER V VI VI VI I shall not set down In detail the search we made for the doorway which no one would ever find for for one thing we went about it as anyone else would have done and for another almost the whole of our labor was thrown away But that I suppose was inevitable There was the winding stairway scaling the wall of the tower and within its coils were the chambers which made the suite From top to bottom its walls and its steps were of stone and the flight rose without interruption except for four landings so slight as scarce to de deserve de- de deserve serve that name It was very simply sim simply ply built and served or was served by five doorways not one of which was hidden In any way and since its form was that of the ordinary winding stair it was hard to see how any other doorway could really be bethere bethere bethere there and harder still to divine where such another doorway could possibly lead lead for for on one hand you had bad the chambers and on the other the wall of the tower Itself itsel The door from the courtyard gave to a miniature hall which just ac accepted ac- ac accepted the oak when Elizabeth swung it back This hall was but four feet square and might in days gone by have been held by one man against fifty who strove to pass As you entered catered the hall the stair stair- stairway stairway stairway way rose on your right and be be- before before before fore you another doorway led to the first of the chambers within the tower These were three In num num- number number ber and all would have had the same shape but for the demands which lavatories and a bathroom had bad h d made Before we did anything else we bolted the door between the tower arid and the castle as well of course as the door by which we came in After that I made for tor the window whose bars I had forced aside and roughly repacked the sockets from which the cement was gone Jone and since before we came In we had gathered the scraps which had fall fall- fallen fallI fallen en whilst I was at work there now I was nothing to show that the cage had been tampered with Then I joined my lady and Here Her Henrick Herrick rick who were surveying the stair If 11 this was dark by night it was dim by day and we could cowd do nothing useful without the help of a torch so though we had not brought Bren- Bren Brenda Brenda da with that idea she had very soon to come to Elizabeths Elizabeth's aid together er they shed the light whilst Her- Her Herrick Herrick Herrick rick and I conducted the actual search That the work would require great patience was presently clear for forthe forthe forthe the walls seemed to be as blank blankas as an untouched page yet we could cowd not believe that a doorway could cowd be concealed In the steps You must go up counting your steps Not until that time did I at all un un- understand understand un- un understand the portion confronting the prisoner of ancient days who set himself to discover a way to break out of his hold but now I know some of the trials those men en en- endured endured endured dured for though our case was dif dif- different different different ferent we did as they must have done The constant chill and the rudeness of naked stone the furtive light the anxious fingering of ma ma- masonry masonry masonry the whispered consultation the sudden shock of unfamiliar sounds sounds sounds-of of such was our two-day two tenure of the great tower of Brief It was five o'clock on the Wed Wed- Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday afternoon when Elizabeth Ellzabeth straightened her back and led the way to the bedroom where Brenda had set out some tea We had now been within the tower for 39 hours for more than 30 of which we had striven to find the door door- doorway doorway way with all our might And we were no nearer our goal than when we had bolted the doors and begun our search At most ten hours were left us for by three on the following morning we must be gone As I stumbled into the bedroom Herrick opened his mouth We have now eight hours In which to discover a secret we know is here Myself I think we should do it In fact if we dont don't I shall think the less of myself When alls all's said and done its it's a question of using ones one's brain And that's where I think weve we've gone wrong When our eyes and our hands had filed us us we ought to have let them be to go on using them was only distracting our r brains Well Im I'm going to give mine a show now now before before before- its it's too toola late la te With that he walked Into the bathroom to lave his head and his hands and I sank down on the bed and did my best to marshal my weary wit wits Hes Hei right said laid Elizabeth slowly One always begins the wrong way Once wed we'd been over the ground we ought to have sat down quietly and let our minds play upon the puzzle You know Like doing a crossword That's all very well said I ac ac- accepting accepting ac- ac accepting some tea from Brenda who showed no sign of fatigue But who could cowd do a crossword without any clews Weve got two clews We know that a doorway exists and we know that to reach that doorway weve we've got to go up the stairs If If It My God said I starting up There was a moments moment's silence Then Then- Go on said Elizabeth quietly What do you know Your father said that there was In the tower a doorway which no noone noone noone one would ever find And then he used the words you must go up counting your steps But he never said that the doorway was on the staircase He said it was in the tower You mean mean- I mean that we have been look- look lookIng looking looking Ing for a doorway which we can reach from the stair but we ought to have been looking for something upon the stair which when we have found it It will disclose where the doorway is right said ald Herrick Herricks voice And the stairway bears him out There is no doorway there there there-I think we can swear to that But there is a spring or something which when we can touch it off will open some hidden door in another an an- another another other part of the tower The case was now greatly altered We knew that the path we were on was the right one and very soon would bring us up to our goal And so It did Not more than an hour had gone by when I 1 found on the thirty sixth step a nick which might have be be- belonged belonged belonged longed to the lid of a pencil box I Iwas It Iwas t was cut in the tread of the step close to the edge and close to the I outer walL It was choked with a I cake of dirt which I had to cut ou out with my knife and an obstinate film of dirt was encrusting that side of ot the tread but when I had used a wet cloth to rub nib the stone clean there were the parallel cracks which I had expected to see In a word I had found a panel panel panel-a a tiny sliding panel which if I 1 could cowd draw it towards me would discover a slot In the tread three Inches by two Here perhaps I should say that I have now no doubt that the film of dirt on the tread was more than the natural deposit which Time will wil willay lay and that after replacing the panel the late Count of Brief had washed the stone with some liquid which when it was dry would form forman an invisible skin Half Hat an hour went by before the little panel allowed me to have my way Then at last with a crack it yielded and two minutes later I Idrew Idrew Idrew drew it out of the tread Its withdrawal disclosed no slot but a miniature well rather more than an Inch across and sunk In Inthis inthis Inthis this well was a bolt of very old iron At once we saw that the bolt was thus holding In place the rise of the step upon which we were now at work and that if we could cowd pull the bolt up the rise would be free to be moved TO BE liE CONTINUED |
