OCR Text |
Show (Triumphs of Ot MJonqjoGlle . Itv Melville Davisson Post 1911 NEA 6ervice lnc THE MAN WITH STEEL FINGERS I BE -MAN WITH Mill- FINGERS Begin Sere iii M. JONQUEL.I-.K. greatest of French detectives, was ushered Into ihe presence of the strange and fear-compolllng fear-compolllng I LMRH VALLEYS, the Engllsh-.rh who had Just inherited the title ami estates of his murdered uncle,! Ixrd Wlnton. Thref lives had stood between the Lord Valleys and the wealth of his . uncle. But both of Lord Wintoh's sons were killed In the great war. ' Inlj one. who married an American, left an heir and this hr ir. a daughter, daugh-ter, was barred by English law from inheritance. Then came the murder of Lord Wlnton and the Inheritance of the Vstatc by the strange, powerful and I morose Iord Valleys. Cio on With (he story i CHAPTER IT j "The murder of Ixird Wlnton. the w-Lse English authorities attributed to me," Lord Valleys continued coolly. "They spared no effort to fix It I upon me That they wore unable to I I Art -r la nnt T t li I r. L- n I trlhntn Kl t r this thing which you call Providence, "It is attributable rather. I think, to the lntelligenco of my legal coun-Bel coun-Bel and to myself " Ho looked directly at Monsieur Jonquelle. His big, placid face lifted; lift-ed; his' voice was even and unhurried. unhur-ried. "I am not embarrassed to discuss it. monsieur." ho rontlnut d. "When the war had ended with the death of! Lord Wlnton's sons, I was. by virtue of what you have so aptly called 'tho accident of birth.' next In succession suc-cession to the title, I thought It both advisable and courteous to present myself to Ixrd Wlnton, and I went to England for that purpose. "Lord Winton was an eccentric PrsoD As ho rrew older, and after I the death of his sons, his eccentricity eccentric-ity became nioro dominant I did not find him on his estates at Ra-venseroft; Ra-venseroft; he was at this time in London in a Utile old housi which i the family ha. always owned in a street toward Co vent Garden "On the night that I called to see! Lord Wlnton, It was quite late. I found hi malone In tho house. He, j seemed disturbed to see mo. but he was courteous, and T cannot complain com-plain of his welcome, He seemed, however, not to realize that I had prown Into a man He seemed to rc- gard me aa a queer, foreign lad to whom he owed some obligation ofj hospitality." Ixjrd Valleys stopped He leaned a! little forward In the chair, and his, voice took on a firmer note. "Monsieur," ho said, "I urn saying to you now a thing to which I testified testi-fied at the English trial, and which, was not believed. Lord Winton told! mo that ho expected a person to call on him within a very few minutes and to remain for perhaps an hour I He asked me to return at the end of an hour. I got up to o. As I went down tho stairway, a hansom, enter-i Ing tho street from the direction of; the city, stopped before the door. Tl door was closed but tho sound wasi clearly audible. "Lord Wlnton. who was behind1 me, camo also down tho steps. On1 a console In tho hall were several candles which the servants, accord- I ing to custom had placed there. An Idea came to Lord Wlnton. for he stopped me as my hand was on the door to go out He took up one of tnese candles in a tall brass candlestick, candle-stick, and touching me on the arm. handed It to me. " 'Instead of going Aut, he said, 'suppose you go down into the wine-cellar. wine-cellar. There should be soni" bottles of Burgundy of a famous year stored there by your grandfather See if you can find them, and we shall have a glass of wine with our talk, i have a great deal to say to you, my nephew The wine will sustain sus-tain us.' "You will see. monsieur, that this idea that I was merely a grown-up lad. come to visit an " ancient relative, rela-tive, was quite fixed with Lord Winton. As the servants had gone out. he was sending me, as thougn I were a lad. from Elton, to find the wine for ottr conversation Ho mva me the key, a direction about tho steps and doors. He even said there was a box of biscuit on the dining-room dining-room table which I should bring up It was all, you see. monslcur-xqulte as though i were an undergraduate lrom some English public school." Tho man looked down at his firm, plai Id hands resting upon and obscuring ob-scuring the arms of the chair In which he sat. "This, monsieur," ho said, "is a portion of my evidence which the English criminal court refused to believe. It was Incredibly stupid!" Monsieur Jonquelle looked up sharply at that sentence. "Tho English criminal court." he said, 'was even more stupid than you Imagine. It was. as you have said. 'Incredibly stupid.' " Lord Valleys made no comment. "1 here wns only my word for tho statement," he said. "I could "hot prove it. and yet It was the truth " The man was startled by Monsieur jonquello'a reply. "One knew that, although one would have been troubled to describe the evidence. It is precisely tho truth " said Monsieur Jonquelle. Lord Valleys looked steadily at the Prefect for a moment before he spoke "I rer. t, monsieur." he paid, 'that you were not present in that English court. - The mnn looked down again at his wonderful hands. Meel strong and as supple as silk; then ho went on ' It happened, however, that this chur., ,., which you question In human affairs, came to my aid. Ono of the Metropolitan police on duty on this night in the neighborhood x i 'ovent (iarden saw n hansom drlvo awav trom lxrd Wlnton's .loot-. Tho lime as nearly as could be fixed corresponded corre-sponded with the hour which I bad Indicated in my testimony And for tho first time in tho courso of the1 criminal trial, the case for the Crown was shaken. Neither my solicitors nor tho Crown were ablo to discover anything further. Tho driver of the hansom could not he located, and the one who called that night upon lord S inton remained a mvMei . Lord Valleys continued to speak deliberately and without emotion "I do not know who thLs person with whom Ixrd Wlnton had a midnight mid-night appointment, could have botfn fi-nd I do not know what occurred at that mysterious conference, except of course, the resultant traredy! which was afterward known to everyone every-one "I took the candle which Lord Wlnton gavo me and wool long the i I hall to the stairway, which descended descend-ed into the Basement of the house. I had in my hand the key to the wine-cellar. "The last I saw of Lord Wlnton In his life was his tall, bowed back as he stopped to open the door, hi j hand on the laUh. lie seemed a ! sort of heavy shadow outlined against the door in the dim light of the gas-Jet gas-Jet that burned feebly, lighting the hall behind him." i Saw n Hansom in- nu i com Lord Winton - Door, Ho made a vague gesture, lifting I one of his hunds softly from the arm of the chair. "Here, monsieur, chance or my Intelligence In-telligence failed me. If 1 had remained re-mained a moment if. in l"a t. I be 1 looked back a-s I went down the stairway stair-way at the end of the hall. 1 should have seen Lord Wlnton's as-assin " The Prefect of Police made no comment, com-ment, and Lord Valleys continued: "After some little difficulty. 1 finally final-ly found the door to the wine-cellar, opened it and entered. It was very oia ono or those huge stone celts which the early English built In their houses In which to store the cholco wines of Francc. "It seemed to me that this wine-l cellar had not been enter' 1 in a longj: time. I was mistaken In this Impression. Im-pression. Fortunately for me, it bad, from time to time, been looked Into! by Lord Wlnton's manservant. I have said 'fortunately.' because this man-1 servant! Staley. was able to confirm my statement, i "The wholo of the low vault was' iuttered with straw, piled and heaped with it. like a farmer's rick. It was this aspect of tho place that gave mo the Impression that It hail not bet n entered for a long time. And It was true It had not been disturbed for a lontr time. The walls and th- floor of this cellar were stone: the colling was of wood crossed with beams dried out like tinder, and the bins, as I ha e said, were heaped wlfrh the slraw In1 Which InnilVnAPn KFa n lna ..o been packed ' Lord Wlnton had described the wine: which he wished so that I could not! mistake It. But he was not certain In which bin it was to be found, anil I had to make a search of very nearly! the whole of the cellar. This did not disturb me, for Ixml V Intnn Had fixed an hour as tho length of the visit of the person wnom he expect-, and who. in fact, had arrived. And I wan not to return until that tlm' It was. as nearly as 1 can determine, about ll o'clock of tin- night when I went down the steps to the wine-; cellar." The man remained silent a moment i as if In some contemplation. Finally I ho continued: "An unfortunate accident occurred.! j In rising from a bin over which ( had beep stooped, the candle touched! a wisp of straw lnnelntj from above, and immediately tne dried-out. half-J I h h'- anH flashed into flame." He paused again. jH hat I tH ; X i rnifl rt against 11 theB I if thiH '! ii, m ten ible to breath) ijatV give up th.' fight ac.'.ns H n I was tlinoB and very nearly uncntclodK of,, i, t) , -loor lending hH emed thsR ILaaV foiiH ',n, ('I tl j B- police, tie burning KUE ii I Lor, Wlnton brSM," all bB knife had been IntoW. down on the rigH r W n rteV lilt llll.ll i . 1 i n . , r ! of ISM i i nn-lorj- appear 1 |