New Britain Herald Newspaper, November 17, 1922, Page 13

« candles in a tall by MerviLLe DaviesoN PosT © 1092 NEA Service, THE MAN WITH STEEL FINGERS Begin Here Today . M. JONQUELLE, greatest of French detectives, was ushered into the presence of the strange and fear- compelling LORD VALLEYS, the KEnglish-8erb whé had just Inherited the title and estates of his murdered uncle, Lord Winton Three lives had stood between the * Lord Valleys and the wealth of his uncle. But both of Lord Winton's sons were killed in the great war, Only one, who married an American, left an hear and this helr, a daughter, was barred by English law from: in- heritance. Then came the murder of Lord Winton and the inheritatnce of the estate by the strange, powerful and morose Lord Valleys. GO ON WITH THE STORY CHAPTER 11 “Thé murder of Lord Winton, the wise English authorities attributed to me."” Lord Valley continued coolly. “They spared no cffort to fix it upon me, ' That they were unable to do so is not, I think, attributable to this thing which you call Providence, “Tt is attributable rather, I' think, to the Intelligence of my legal coun- sel and to myself.” He looked directly “at ‘Monsieur Jonguelle, His big, placid face lifted; IMs voice was even and wunhurried.. “I am not embarrassed to discuss it, monsieur,” he continued. “When the war had énded with the death of Lord Winton's sons, I was, by virtue of what you save 8o aptly called ‘the accident of birth,’ next in succession to the title. I thought it both ad- visable and courteous to present my- self to Lord Winton, and I went to England for that purpose. “Lord Winton was an eccentric per- son. As he. grew older, and after the death of his sons, his eccentricity hecame more dominant. 1 did not find him on his estates at Ravens- croft; he was at this time in nondon in a little old house which the family has #lways owned in a street toward Covent Garden. “On the night that T called to see Lord Winton, it was quite late. I found him alone in the house He semeéd disturbed to see me, but he was ¢ourteous, and I cannot complain of his welcome. He semed however, not to realize that I had grown into a man . He seemed to regard me as a queer, foreign lad to whom he owed someé obligation of hospitality.” Lord Valleys stopped. He leaned a littie forward in the chair, and his voice took on a firmer note. “Monsieur,” he said, “I am saying to you now a thing to which T testi- fied .at the English trial, and which was inot believed. . Lorn Winton told me that he expected a person to call on him within'a very few minutes and to rémain for perhaps an hour. He ~ asked me to return at the end of an houry 1 got up to go. As T went down the stairway, a hansom, enter- ing the street from the direction of the eity, stopped before the door. ""he #loor was closed but- the sound was igléarly audible. “Tord Winton, who was behind me, camé also down the steps. . On a con- sole dn the hall were several candles which the servants, according to cus- tom, \had placed -there.‘ An " idea camé to Lord Winton, for he stopped me #s my hand was on the door to go-out. He took up one of these hrass candlestick, and touching me on the arm, handed it to me. ° 5 « qInstead of going out,” he said, suppase vou go down into the wine- cellar, There should be some bottles of Burgundy of a famous year s(orvd_ therd by your grandfather. See if you ean find them, and we shall have a glass of wine with our talk . T have a great deal to say to you, my nephew. The swine will sustain us.’ ‘You will see, monsiur, that jdea that I was merely a grown-up lad ,come to visit an ancient relative, was quite fixed with Tord Winton. As the servants had gone out, he was sending me, as though T were a lad from Elton, to find the wine for our conversation. He gave m ethe key, & direction about the steps and doors. He even sald there was a box of bis- cult on the dining-room table @hich 1 shéuld bring up. Tt was all, you see, monsieur, quite as though 1 were an undergraduate from some English public school.” The man looked down at his firm, placid hands resting upon the = ob- souring the arms of the chair in which he sat. “This,” monsietir,’ he said, "is & pogtion "ot my evidence which the Fn¥iteh criminal court refused to be- Yleve . It was incredibly stupid!" Monstenr Jonquelles looked sharply at that sentence. “The English criminal court,” he gald, “was dven more stupid than you {magine. It was, as you have sald, ‘ncredibly stupid.’" 4 TLord Valleys made no comment. Thers was only my word for the statement,” he said, “1 could not prove it, and yet it was the. truth.” The man was startied by Mon- sleur Jonquelle's reply. “One knew that, although one would -have ben troubled to 'describe the evidence. It {8 precisely the truth,” sald Monsteur Jonquelle. Tord Valleys looked steadily at the Prefect for a moment before he gpoke. “I regret, monsieur,’ ‘he said, “that you were not present in that English court.” The man looked down again at his wonderful hands, steel strong, and as supple as silk; then he went on: “It happened, however, that this chance, which you question, in human affairs, came to my ald ne of the Metropolitan police on duty on this night in the neighborhood of Covent Garden saw a hansom drive away from Lord Winton's door. The time, as nearly as could be fixed, corres- ponded with the hour which T had in- dicated in my testimony. And for the first time in the course of the criminal trial, the case for the Crown was shaken. Neither my solicitors wor the Crown were able to discover anything further. The driver of the Tansom could not be located, and the up this "4) /4 B w——| Inc one who called that night upon Lord Winton remained a mystery,"” Lord Valleys continued to speak deliberately and without emotion, \ 1 do not know who tHis person with whom Lord Winton had a mid- night appointment, could have been, and I do not know what oceurred at that mysterious conference, except, of course ,the resultant tragedy, which was afterward known to everyone. ‘I took the candle which Lord Win- ton gave me and went along the hall to the stairway, which descended into the basement of the house, 1 had in my hand the key to the wine- cellar, ' “The last I saw of Lord Wintotn in his life was his tall, he stooped to open the door, his hand on the latch, He seemed a sort of heavy shadow outlined against the door in the dim light of the gas-jet that burned feebly, lighting th hall Lehind him." He made a vague gesture, lifting 6ne of his hands softly from the arm of the chair. “Here, monsieur, chance or my in- telligence failed me: If T had re- mained a moment—~if, in fact, T had looked back as I went down the stair- way at the end of the hall, I should have seen Lord Winton's assassin.' The Prefect of Police made no com- menty,and Lord Valleys continued: “After some little difficulty, I final- ly found the door of the wine cellar, SAW A HANSOM DRIVE AWAY I"'ROM LORD WINTON’S DOOR. - opened it and entered. old-—one of those huge stone cells which the early English built in their houses in which to store the choice wines,of France. ‘i'l seémed to me that this wine cellar:h&d not heen entered in a long time, I was mistaken in this im- presston. Tortunately for me\,it had, from time to time, been looked into by Lord Winton's manservant. 1 have said ‘fortunately,” because this manservant, Staley ,was able to con- firm my statement. “The whole of the low vault was cluttered with straw, piled and heaped with it, like a farmer's rick. It was this aspect of the place that gave me the impression that it had not been entered for a long time. And it was true it had not been dis- turbed for a long time. The walls and the floor of this cellar were stone; the celling was of wood crossed with beams dried out like tinder, and the bins, as I have said, were heaped with the straw in which innumerable wine cases had been packed. “Lord Winton had described the wine which he wished so that I céuld not mistake it. - But he was not cer- tain in which bin it was to be found, vand 1 had to make a search of very nearly the whole of the cellar. This did not disturb me, for Lord Winton tad fixed an hour as the length o ‘YOM, THIS MORNING WHEN You LEFT FOR THE OFFICE | ASKED t was very' TRYING TO ERR NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, the visit of the person whom he ex- pected ,and who, In fact, had arrived, And I was not to return until that time, = It was, a8 nearly as 1 can de. termine, about 11 o'clock of the night when 1 we down the steps to the wine cellar," The man remained silent & moment as If in some contemplation. Finally he continued; “An unfortunate accldent ocourred, In rising from a bin over which I had Feen stooped, the candle touched a whisp of straw hanging from' above, < s , FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1922. - rotten wood of the heamed flashed into flume." He paused again , “I was appalled, but T did not lose my sensé of necessity, I undertook to put the fire out I made a des- perate effort against it, there in that underground oell, for T knew the house must burn if this whole wood celling took fire, The place filled with smoke, It heeame very nearly impossgible to breathe, but I did not give up the fight against the five, Tinally when I was blinded, choked celling and immediately the dried.out, lulf-inud very nearly unconscious, I broke New Things Seen About the bowed back as |f | | Wonderful Leather Hand Bags s open the door leading from the base. ment of the house and ran out into the street, It seemed that I should never breathe, and I continued to run. ‘You know what followed, 1 was teken up by one of the Metropolitan polica; the burning house was ¢én- tered, and Lord Winton brought out. Ho was dead! The smal blade of a knife had been driven into his hody lew down on the right side, The wound, ranging upward, was deep, It had severed a vital artery.” (The final installment of this thrill- n’-ury will appear in our next issue.) MOSCOW COVERS SCARS Cement Belng Used by Ton in Effort to Blot Out Traces of 1917 Revo- Tution, Moscow, Nov, 17.—Putty and oce- ment by the ton are being used in Moscow In an effort to blot out traces WOMANS JAPPAREL SPECIALTIES MIDOLETOWN == NEW BRITAY Another lot to go on sale Tomorrow of those WILLOWBONE CORSETS 1 Silk Petticoats of Unusual Quality et Bath Robes of Corduroy t Smart Looking Brushed Wool Scarfs 1 The Corset Guaranteed to Give Service Of silk and wool or silk $1.00 a pair THE T'AD OF THE MOMENT WOMEN’S HOSIERY —We have a wide varfety of styles and colors to choose $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 r.. t FROM t Brushed Wool Sport Coats t 1 Metal Girdles to Wear With Dresses or Sweaters b2 3 Pleated Dress Skirts—Made of the newest of Fabrics. 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