OCR Text |
Show MED HOUSE jlMriS; "J! SuUcq Qaprrva tBMu 1J1..I HERE TODAY. WDio hud shot and killed n'er-do-wcll ROBERT ABLETT. within two minutes min-utes .iftf-r hlo arrival at The Red House, the country estato of hl wealthy bachelor brother. MARK A B LETT 7 Robert's body was on ihn floor of the locked office, Mark whs not to be found and, In' the opinion of Police Inspector; j Birch, It wm clear that Mark, v. ho had looked forward with annoy-j anco to Robert s roturn from a 15-year 15-year stay In Australia, had shot him, and then disappeared. But tl.rr- ur-ro mysterious clr- , cumsiances The ehot was fired a few moments before , ANTU.NY QILIiINOHAM, gentleman adventurer, had entered the hall where ho found MATT CAY LEV. Mark's constant companion, pounding on tho door and demanding admittance The. two men entor tho room through a window win-dow ami, find tho body. Mysterious; c-lrciimntnncca puzzle Antony 1 1 o and Bill Investigate and Antony discovers that a secret! passago leads from the house to a bowling green. Antony discovers Cayloy using this to ovorhoar a conversation con-versation between him and Bill. 1 . ON NTH THE STORY. Antony wanted to shout his applause. ap-plause. It was neat, devilish neat. Eor a moment he BJUedi fascinated, at that wonderful new kind of croquet-ball Which nad appeared so dra-, I matically out of the box, and then' I reluctantly wriggled himself back.: , There was nothing to bo gained by afaiylnaj there, and a good deal to be lost, i r Hill showed signs of run-! n!ng down. As quickly ns he could Antony hurried round tho ditch and took up his place at the back of the seat. Then ho stood up with a yawn. stretched himself and said' carelessly, "Well, don't worry your-! self about It, Bill, old man. I daresay, you re right Vou know Mark, and I don't; and that's the difference, i Shall we have a game or shall we go to bed?" Bill looked at him for Inspiration, and, receiving it said. "Oh. Just let's have on game, shall we 7" ' Right you are," said Antony. But BUI was much too excited to, take the game which followed very' sorlously Antony, o the other! hand, seemed to be thinking of noth-' lng but howls. lie played with great' deliberation for ton minutes, and, then announced ho was going to bed.1 Bill looked at hlni anxiously "It's all right." laughed Antony. "You can tcflk II you want to. Just' let'a put 'em away first, though' They made their way to the shed, j ond while Bill was putting the bowls away. Antony tried the lid of the closed croquet-box. As he expected. It was locked. "Now then." said Bill, as they were walking back to the houso agalnl "I'm simply busting to know. Who was It?" "Cayley " ' Good Ixrd' Where?" "Inside one of tho croquet-boxes." ' Don't be an ass." "It's quite true. Bill." He told the other w hat he had seen. "But aren't ue going to have a look at It?" asked Bill in great disappointment dis-appointment "I'm longing to explore ex-plore Aren't you" ' "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow to-morrow We shall see Cayley coming com-ing along this way directly. Besides, T want to get in from tho other end if I can. I doubt very much If we ean do It this end without glvlnc ourselves away . . . Look, there's Cayley." They could see him coming along the drive toward them. When they were a little closer- they waved to him and ho waved back. "I wondered where you were." he id. as he got up to them, "r rather i bought you might bo along this way What about bed?" "Bed It la," said Antony Bill left the rest of the conversation, conversa-tion, as they wandered back to the house. to Antony He wanted to think Thero seemed to be no doubt now that Cayley was a villain, Blllt had nevor been familiar with a il- lain before. It didn't seem quite fair of Cayloy. somehow; he was taking rather a mean advantage of his friends Lots of funny peoplo there were In the world funny peo-pl peo-pl with secrets. Look at Tony, that I flrpt tlmo he had met him in a to bacconist's shop. But what on earth had Miss Nor ris got to do with It? Miss Xorrls, who had proposed to catch an after-dinner train at tho Junction. In the obvious hopes that she might have in this way a dra-I dra-I matlc cross-examination at the hands I of some keen-eyed dotectlvo. wis en-: en-: couraged tactfully, but qulto CJrmly to travel by the earlier train with the others. Why? W U, that question was not to be answered off-hand. But the fact that It was fo had made Antony Interest-fA Interest-fA In her By sheer luck, as It1 soemod to hlrn, he had stumbled on tho answer to his question. Miss Norrls was hurried away be-cause be-cause she knew about the secret passago. pas-sago. The pajtsago. then had something to do with the mystery of Robert's death. Miss Norrls had used It in order to bring off her dramatic appearance ap-pearance as tho ghost. Possibly she had discovered it for herself; possibly pos-sibly Mark had reealed It to her secretly one day, never guessing1 that she would make so unkind a uso of It later on; possibly Cayley. haing been let Into the Joke of the 'lrr..riK-up. had shown her how 6he ! could make her appearance on the bow Mng-green even more mysterloui and supernatural. One way or another, an-other, sIik knew about tho secret passage. So sho must be hurried away. "Why? Because If she stayed and talked, she might make some lnno-Ct lnno-Ct nt mention of It And Cayley did not want any mention of It Why, again? obviously because the passage, or even the mere knowledge of its existence, might provide a clue "I wonder If Mark's hiding there," thought Antony, and he went to sleep. CHAPTER X Antony came down In a very good i humor to breakfast nexl morning, and! found that his hoxt was before lilm Cayley looked up from his letter sand nodded. "Any word of Mr Ablott of Mark 7 ' satd Antony, as he poured OUt his coffee. "Ne. The Inspector wants to drag the lake this afternoon.'' "Oh! Is thero a lake?" There was Jut the flicker of a sml!e on Cayley's face, but It disappeared as quickly as It came. "Well, It's really a pond," he said, "but It was called the take.'" "By Mark," thought Antony, Aloud he said, "What do they expert to find?" "They think .hat Mark " He bmk Off and shrugged his shoulders. "May hav,- drowned himself, knowing know-ing that ho couldn't get awny? And IHiH knowing that ho had compromised himself hy trying to get away at all?' ! "Yen; i suppose so," said Cayley slowly He added dryly, "From what I've! rend of detective, Ktorles, Inspectors1 always do want to lrnt; Ihe pond He made a polite apology for dis- iii i in ok in r, first." "Is It deep?" "Quite deep enough," said Cayley as he got up. On his way to the door he stopped. and looked at Antony "I'm so sorry that we re keeping you here like this, but it will only be until tomorrow. The inquest Is tomorrow afternoon. Do amuse yourself how you like till then." "Thanks very - inch. I shall rcallv be quite all right " Antony went o.i with his hreak-f.ist hreak-f.ist Perhaps it was true that Inspectors In-spectors liked dragging ponds, hut the question was, Did Cayley like having them dragged? Was Cayley anxious about it. or quite indifferent: indiffer-ent: He certainly did not seem to be anxious, hut he could hide his feelings very easily beneath that heavy, solid face. BUI came in noisily Bill's face was an open book. Excitement Ex-citement was written all over It. "Well." he said eagerly, as he sat down to the business of tho meal "what are we going to do this morning morn-ing ? "Not talk so loudly, for one thing" said Antony Bill looked about apprehensively Was Cayley under the table, for ex-;-nple- After last night one never knew'. "Is er " He raised his eyebrows 'No But one doesn't want to: shout. tine should modulate the voice, my dear William, while j broithlng gently from the hips Thus' one avoids those chest-notes whlchl have betrayed many a secret In oth- r words, pass Mie toast " "You seem htlght this morning ." j "J am. Very hrlght. Cayley no- tleed It. Cayley said, Were It not that I have other business 1 would j come gathering nuts and may with I thta Fain would 1 gyrate round; the mulberry-bush and hop upon thi.-j little, hills." "It's a touch of the sun, I sup-) pose." said Bill, shaking hi head sadly. ' It's the sun and the moon anel' the stars, all acting together on an I empty stomach. Do yeu know an) -thing about the stars, Mr Beverley','! Do you know anything atfoul 1 irlon'di Belt, for Instance? And why Isn't' there a star called Beerley's Belt ? I Ktlil he masth-atlng Ke-enter W Beverley through trap-door." "Talking about trap-doors " 'Don't." said Antony, getting up. "Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules, but nobody talks about what's the Iatln for trap-door? Mensa a table, you might get it from that Well Mr Beverley' and he slapped him heavily on the back as he went past him T shall See you later. Cayley says that you will amuse me. but so far you have' not made mo laugh once You must try ari l ho rnor, amuBlnTJ have finished vour brtakfJ don't h' . . n I.,, the' upB bles h v. I line i do VM With those words Mr Giii left the spacious npartrnenS 1 : 1 ' ' 1 ontlii.ir-,1 his hrfl i MIX li I! Lev. Ildercd ,TI noi I now t hit I'ayley W1J .i clgaret outside tht iJ bind hlni, not llstnlne I possibly not e ven ov. rheiil within sight of Antony a '" t '! any'rliJ went on wi-h hit breakfJB Ing tint Antnru wa-i tt tJ ood wondennc' If he hj "f '.be nmnzlnfr thtafll ht ' i happened th- day M(tffl Antony went up to hlflH u u l'f r- pc. I wag ocaX housemaid and ho madfH ' P"Iok jt disturbing hM remembered. "Is it Klslo?" ho askedfl a friendly smile. S Yes sir." she said. hv She had no doublq as toH that she had achieved H (Continued In Our Xexjfl |