"Mystery Island"

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 216, 12 October 1929, Page 15

"Mystery Island"

By PALMER WHITE

Uim" A limUNT'DRAMA^ 1

| CHAPTER XVI. | Rita Remington Continues. I " A RRIVED AT SYDXEY I sought | a modest boarding liouso to serve as iu.y base. Then I set to work. ' It took liie three weeks to find out | that the big place in La Perouse was the lieadquarters of the Communist I organisation. There was also a place in Akerston Street nsed for meetings." "I know," I said. "That's where I put old Brodi to sleep." ''Yes," said the girl. "As a matter of fact I heard about that afterwards. There was an awful fuss." "How did you know?" I asked mystified. "Well you see," she replied smilingly, "I was the crippled maid with the 'scarred face, who waited on you tlie next night at Ivarnoff's." "Good Lord!"- I exclaimed. "Surely not?" "I wasl" "But — that awful place — you must have had a terrible time." "Xo, on the contrary, I was as safe as the bank. Karuoff, like most people of his type, has a sort of sujierstitious regard for hunchbacks. The scar, too, did not make me loolc any more attractive. He never took much notice of me." Sfc ^ * , £'"|VrISS REMINGTON," I broke in, 1Y1. "You're a wonderful girl, and an absolute brick iiito the bargain."She smiled.. "Oh, no ! I think I had the easiest job of the lot. You see I was on the inside, and was unsuspected." "How did you get the job?" I queried . "Well, I found out that he never kept a maid for any length of time. They couldn't stand the beast, I suppose. So I applied and got the job. I knew if I looked as if I had some deformity I would be safe enougli, so I adopted the hunched back and the scar. As it turned out, my reading of the man was correct." Maxwell' s . eves were shining and I knew he couldn't contain himself for long, "Gee!" he broke out, "what a nerve you had." "Oh, I don't know," continued the narrator. "It's like the statement a doctor made to me, once, referrihg to a fussy voluutary worker in a military liospital. The lady in question was obviously afraid of getting fever. The doctor said, 'When you take on this game, you take the risk!" It's just the same in this business. Of course I was scared stiff half of the time, but I managed to conceal it when a nyone was around, and between times I was able to collect quite a lot of information. I found out several things. For a start, I discovered that the Ijig house where Karnoff lived was headquarters for the Coommunist activiti$s in Australia. There would be nocturnal confor tlie Communist aetivities in Ausover the eountry. You, ]\Tr Barstow struck oue the night that they nearly made an end of ydu." "I thought as much," I exclaimed. , "/TiHEN *AGAIN, ^ I DISCOVERED .that Karnoff, although connected in some way with tlie Communist movement, was less interested in the dissemination of Communist propaganda tlian in some deep game of his own. It appeared, too, that Karnoff had some liold over Brodi. Vliat it .was I never found out, but' on several occasions, when I have been listening to them on a microphpne arrangement I managed to instal in Karnoff' s ahsence, it appeared to me as if Karnoff was trying to force Brodi to do something that he was unwilling to do. Brodi always in the end gave in. I found, too, that Brodi was English. I wondered if he had been a highly placed official at one time and had been lured into betraying some official secret. This, of course, would have put him into someone's power — as likely as not, Karnoff' s. At that time I had not any information about Karnffo himself. ! Since you have told'me that father had •seeu liis dossier, and that in reality he is an international swindler on a big scale, I have been led to think that probably Karnoff wanted Brodi to subscribe to some big swindle, and Brodi still had sufficient of the Britisher about him to raise au objection. * * , * rp.HEIR CONVERRATIONS were carried on mostly in Russian, and, although I understand it a little I could not always follow what they said. ! Brodi,' liowever, occasionally took notes j and those notes were taken in English. | I found that out when I ma.de a search j of his room one day when botli Brodi and Ivarhoff were away. This made me i doubly sure of liis nationality for a | man always thinks and makes such rough memorahda in the language whicli comes first to his mind — his . mother" tongue. Brodi's notes were scrappy enough, but ai'ter tbe nfreeting at No, 8, Akerston Street, I found a wallet in the suit he had worn the evening hefore. Apparently he had •forgotten to cliange his po.ckets when he clianged the suit. The wallet contained letters botli in English and Russian, but they didn't seem to have much hearing on the business in band. I was just beginning to think I' was stumped when I found a slip of paper ■torn from a writing pad. It was a mass of figures and a few letters on it. I yielded to tlie impulse of the moment and copied it. I have the copv I made here." She dived into the cabin and rcturncd with a' little attache case. She opened a falso bottom in it, and took out some papers from wliich she selected one and lianded it to me. ' I looked and read : — I, 2, 3, 4 12, 16, 23 24 Int. 5, 6. 7, 9, 8, 10 II, 13, *3, 17, 19 E & O 12, 16, 14, 18 20, 21, 22 A.P.' K. I. F. rpHERE WAS SOMETHING oddly -*■ familiar about it. "By Jove!" I exclaimed, "This is the same as I. copied from Brodi's pad oii the evening previous to when you discovered, this. Not quite thougli. Let me see, I believe T can rememher the way it runa, for I memorised it at the time." I ran it over in my Inind. There was something strange about it. Sometliing a little different. Ah! I had ; it! ■ i "I remember," I said. "On the one I copied tbere was not K. I. F. Tliis j looks" as if be had scribbled it on after I saw it." "Very likely," replied tbe girl, "for tbcy probably returned to their discus- ■ sio'n after the disturbance created by

your intrusion had quietened down. Strangely enougli, those letters are what put me 011 the track. 1 thought first of all that "K" might stand for Karnoff and "1" to mean that he was number one, for after a lot of brain fag, puzzling the thing out I came to the conclusion that this innocent looking set of figures was the plan of organisation for the big seheme they liad 111 hand. In tlie earlier part of the schedule just before Int. there were placed 1,2,3,4, and some otlier nirmbers. I took these figures to represent Karnoff, Brodi and two otlier men whose names 1 never managed to find out, who were to be responsible for tlie engiiieenng oi* intelligence. The otlier numbers would represent their assistants. Arguing along these lines it seemcd oniy logical to assume that K.L. at the bottom of such a paper might be taken to denote a signaturo of iranking oi some kind. The letter F piizzled me, however. "TT WAS FOLLOWKD by a badly- -®- made letter whicli might have been meant for Y, but wlicli was so indistinct that it might have been anytliing. lv.l.F. — I turned "it over in my brain until my head aclied, but I never saw any possible solution to tbe enigma. Then, strangely enougli, the puzzle seemed to solve itself. Karnoff had an enormous librai*y in the big room where the conclaves were held. It was part of my duty to dust it, and while doing so about a fortuight aftei I had made a copy of Brodi's memoranda, I noticed a book sticking out a little, as if it had been hurriedly replaced on the slielf. More from curiosity thaii from any other motive I took it down. It was a book of New Zealand Coastal Maps on a reduced scale. The kind of thing that cruising yachtsmen use. I wasn't particularlj interested, but I happened to turn over a few pages and struck one of tlie Hauraki Gulf. What I saw made me early wild with excitement. Riglit under my nose was the. solution of the last part of the problem. There were various notes in Karnoff' s smalf, heat hand, and red lines ruled with a fine mapping pen, but what interested me most was the part of the may on whicli these notes and" bearings were written. They were on and about a small island a short distance down the gulf, and the island was Kawhai Island. The mystery of the K.l. was plain at any rate. "■rF'HE F IN THJ* K.I.F. still puzzled •*- me, until I hit on the idea that if K.l. had represehted a place, why should not the F. denote a time. The more I thought over it the more convinced' was I that my idea was correctt. The F. could to my way of thinking represent ony two things in the defnoting of a set time, Friday or February. It might have meant a fortnigbt lience, but this I dismissed as heing beyond the bounds of possibiity, owing to the distance we were from New Zeaand, and the. fact' that there was no evidence of preparations for an early departure by either Karnoff or Brodi." The "Friday" suggestion disappeared along the same road, and this left me with February, the whole import of the K.I.F. now being, as far as I could see, Kawhai Islap.nl, February. In view of tlie fact that there rvas still ample time .for the organisation of a big coup hefore February I think my conclusions were fairly logical. As it turned out they happened to be correct. (To be Continued.)