"Found Dead"

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 73, 29 April 1929, Page 11

"Found Dead"

BY FRED M. WHITE

COPYRIGHT PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Antlioi of "The Shadow of the Dead Hand," "The Price of Silence," "The Golden Bat," eto.. etc.

CHAPTEE XIX. 13LAKE PLACED THE SHOE back I -*-* with its i'ellow and iaid the pau- | togethur with the kit tliat Mortmain j had lent him. For the present, he j was contenfc to lcave tsJiings as thcy i v.ere, though lie would know how to i laake use of the piece of iniorination , he had just discovered when the riglit | time caine. Ile dressed himself j thoughtfully and, whcn he had fini^h- ; ed, went down to hreakfatt in a rathcr ! cheerful frame of mind. He tound i Mortmain awaiting him with the okl ] frown back on his i'orehcad and the i hrooding Jook in his eyes. "Well, here I am," he said buoyantly. "And ready for the best breakfast t'hat your cook can tuni out. tYhat's the matter ? Have you had some bad news ?" "Xothing worse tlian usual," IMortmain replied. "Oli, yes, the post is in but there is nothing for you, and tliere was nothing for me, eitlicr, if it comes to that. What are you going to do with yourself to-dayp I suppose you wonldn't care to come over with me and liave a day's golf afc Westward Ho ?" "Mt dear chap," Blake said smilingly. "There is nothing T s hould like better. But you seem to forgel that I am down liere on business. If my time was my own " "Well, isn't it?" Mortmain rctorted with something of a siieer. "You have been down here for well over a week now anrl, so far as I can gather, you might have stayed away altogeth'er." "Isn't that a bit inhospitable?" Blake -asked. * » • lyrORTMAIN BECAME ALL peninence at once. "Fpon my word, I beg your par don," he said. "I hope you don't think I meant anything by that remark. I mean anything calculated to make you believe you are not welcome. 1 am afraid that this rotten business lias got on my ntrves.. I hoped when you came down here tliat you would be able to do something." "Well, how do you know 1 haven't? I might he able to put my hand upon the culprit, or culprits, at any monient for all you know to the contrary. But I do my work my own way. If I told you certain things now, it would be as if you were reading an exciting novel with the last hundred pages or so toru out. Of course, it must be very disappointing to you with that pnaiytical mind of yours not to be able to see the busv brain of the master dctective at work. But you can rest assured that it will all come riglit in the end. Suppose I told you now exactlv how that mystery canie about. What then?" Mortmain lookcd up willi genuine alarm. Ho opened his mouth as if about to speak. then began to pace up and down the room with all the symptoms of a eonscience at work. "Do you really mean that?" he stammered. WELL, - MORE OR LESS. My dear i'ellow, you will have to wnit, like everybody else. And the lady will have to wait, too. Mind you, slie is quite riglit in the attitude she I.as taken np.: Don't forget that you can burn a house down a great deal quicker tlian you can huild it up again." With wliich cryptic remark Blake turned to his breakfast and refused to say any more. He liad hardly finished and got .througli his iirst cigarette vlien old Farthing came sedatelv into ihe room and toki him he was wanted at Ihe teleplione. "Gentleman didn't give his name, sir," lie said sedately. He said you vouldn't know him, in anv case." "Is lie waiting now?" Blake asked. Farthing was understood to say that j the stranger was still at the end of j the wire, so that Blake went out into j ihe hall and took the receiver off j the hook. "Are you there?" he called. "Double X," came tlie voice out of r.owhere. j "Double Z," Blake wliispered. | "Where are you?" • * * IX -T-HE TELEP.H OXE BQX.at the Watersmouth post office. Rattrey spoaking, sir. Of course you know that. Ciin I talk quite freely to you or are listeners about?" "Yes." Blake replied. "I can listen t.i all tou have to say. and you can speak freely, but " "I quite understand. sir. You ran't say anything without being overbeard nid I can speak openly, becnuse I am i:i a soundproof box. Things have been happening, sir." "Tliat is good news," Blake said cheerilv. "Go on." "Well. it's like this, sir. I have been going about with my eyes wide open. and T have picked up quite a, few useful pieees of information. To begin with, Mrs Wliiddon is going away to-dav and won't he back hefore Satiirdav. She spends a couple of niglits with a sister of liers just this side of Torrington. A sort of annual affair, if you know what I mean, sir,

a birthday, 1 believe. So she shuts up the farmhouse and leaves it. to look alter itself. Of course, everybody in Watersmouth knows this, in lact, 1 have lieard it lroiu a dozen people. So it occurred to me that perhaps our Iriend with the blue spectacles might make another attempt to-night, to get. into the iiouse." "1 thing it is exceedingly probable." Blake said. "Most interesting. Any more ?" T* t- # WELL, NOT MLCH at the moment, sir. But if you will meet me in an hour's time in Watersmouth " "I can't very well do that," Blake said. "Oh. I quite see what you mean, sir. Not openly But if you will come into the village and call at Yeo's sliop you will sce a bit of comedy there that may interest you. You know tlie sliop 1 mean. sir, it's the one with all thoso beautiful okl curios and china in the window. Known all over tlie world, that shop is. If you drop in there at abcut elevcn, sir — — " "You may take that for grantcd," Blake said, "And, now, if you have nothing more to say " "Just a. second or two, sir," tlie voice at tlie other' end of the wire I leaderl. "It wouldn't be safe for me to speak to you or for you to speak to me in Yeo's sliop. seeing that we are supposed to he strangers io eacli other. so tliat I sliould like to arrange a plar.e whcre we can meet half an hour nfterwards. You had hetter return to ilortmains and hang about tlie gorse near ihe Witch's Cave in the Yalley oi Rocks and I will join you thefe." « * * BLAKE REPTACED . THE receiver on the hook ancl presently strolled apparentlv aimlessly out of the house and along the road througli the vr.lley into Watersmouth. He paused, at le'ngth, hefore tlie famous old curio sliop and turned in througli the doorway just as the clock in the cliurch tower struck eleven. He was a bit of a collector in a small way, and he had mtended more tlian once to cali upon John Yeo with a view to doing a deal in connection with a, small_ piece of square-iiiarked V orcester china which he had noticed in the window on more than oue occasion. There was one man in tlie shop when be entered, and lie smilcd slightly as lie recognised the square sliouldei's of his man, Rattrey. Enttrey was bending over tlie counter exaniiuing what appeared to he a numher of blue spectacles lying tliere. "I am afraid those are all we have. sir," okl John Yeo was saying. "I only keep a few for tlie henefit of visitors who eomplain of tlie glare of the sea sometiines. No, sir, X am afraid J haven't got a single pair with side lens." To be Continued.