The evening world. Newspaper, October 30, 1914, Page 23

‘eI | | One Woppright. 1019. fo Auwerics by Moffat, Yerd & ‘ed QTNOVSIN OF PAECEDING CHAPTERS, Gir Avthony Urde, « millionaire banker, gom te & cottage co the Cumberland fella to talk with fexderious artist namod Kicin, who te apendi few weeks there, After Gyde's departure Klein's * fpeadiens bevy to found fe the cottage, ond near it ‘a Dlewhmailing fetier addremed to Gyde, Meantiom Gre returee to his London bouse, but at midnight fom owas cod is not aren again, In the morning We selet, Leloir, te found dead, The doctors de- lara Be died of fright, and en effort ls mode to Vhotogreph the reting of hie ee fer @ portrait of © the mmureerer, Detective Freybergtr is put om the cane, We leerne that Gye, on leaving bome, went to @ dhabby lodging howe for the wight, Preyber- Grr goes 0 this house and makes inquiries of the "Yanttedy, Ge tello him Risin hee been one of bev < ledgers ond lets him see the room the artist for: mextz occupied and in which he bes left come of fila ‘Belongings, I this room Frayberger finds « ‘martée bust hammered to fragments, He tales it to Antonides, ao antiquary, who “restores” Ut, It oe trust of Bir Anthony Gyde, Next Fregberser learns thet Bir Anthony has cashed « check at @ jewel. gr’s shop, Examining the check, he Aiscovers that ft wes made out ot some date prior to the day it es gupposediy written and cashed, Varidhe clues lead Frerberger to believe Klein end mot Grde to ror warderer, Frevbawer's theory fo thet Klein ‘Billed Grae, cut off bie head and “made up to resemble him in every outwant detatl, then excapet. SMe Yarce of 0 cdmilar case, wherein on artist ‘aamed Muller billed Letarge, © French banker, and q@raped by making use of bie victim's identity, _WPurther rescarch proven to him that Kida ond ‘Malige are the same mas, Working with Freyberser the caso io Helle, © lawyer, whe lores Le farge's deughter, Some months leter s farm le borer mamat Davis is passing the cottage on the fails by movolight and suddenly sone the figure of © teen moving just ip frost of him, CHAPTER Xill. (Contioued.) T was just now that Davis re- membered that he was close to the cottage where the murder was committed and he increased his pace, hoping to overtake the man and walk with him for company’s sake. As he drew cloner he recognised that the person before him was not an ordinary _Countryman or farmer, but evidently & man used to the pavement of a stown and eeemingly well dressed. “phen, to his astonishmént, Davis saw the stranger pause at a gate on the left of the road, unchain it and waik through, carefully putting the chain yp again, : Instantly Davis recognised the gate, and the fact that it was the gate that gave entrance to the field beyond which, hidden by a dip of the fells, lay the cottage of the murder. He was passing the gate, when the etranger, who was only twenty paces or eo away in the field, turned, saw Davis and beckoned to him to follow Dim. : _ ‘The moonlight was full on the atranger’s face, and, horrified, Davis fecognised that the man before him Im the field was Sir Anthony Gyde, "pa he stood spellbound, gazing at .) the murderer, a cloud passed over f the moon, and the shadow of the cloud, like a black handkerchief, | swept over the Geld and seemed to eweep Sir Anthony Gyde away. For @hen the moon returned be was gone. : ‘Then Davis ran, and he did not stop running until he reached the Avor of his relative. The aeeounts he gave of the occurrence were so con~ fused as to cast discredit on his nar- * pative, and he was put down as & Nar for the strange reason that he was not gifted/with the power of ‘story-telling. Had he seen, or pretended to have , the ghost of Klein, every one fould have believed him, for every ‘one knew that Klein was dead, But Sir Anthony Gyde was alive, and tho ‘countryside was walting to see bim caught and banged, and no one * wished to belleve in his ghost for that ‘very reason. "tt was May 9, cue day after that fon whith Mr, Davis, away up in Cu i+ ‘beriand, had secon what he had seen upon the road to Biencarn. ¢ It had been a glorious day, but the beauty of the weather did not appeal ‘to Freyberser. ‘The Gyde case had hit him badly: after all his researches and caleula- tion, after all the energy he had .,...t n it, it bad slipped away and loft evening his chief semmoned sald: is ap express to Birmingham ington at a quartcr past The Cottage on the Fells of the Strangest Detective Stories Ever Written ‘ By H. De Vere ‘Stacpoole (Author of “The Ship of Corel,” 4c.) The Evening World Daily Magazine, Friday © “Yes, air.” “I want you to catoh it.” “Tes, sir.” “The train stops at Reading.” “So I believe, si “You must get out at Reading and: epend the night there. I want you early on the epot to-morrow mo, A murier has been committed” “At Reading?” “No, at Sonning.” “The village of Sonning-on- Thames?” “Procieely. Do you know it?” “Slightly. “Yost “Well, tt is @ pleasure resort, a Place where young couples”—~ “Precisely—where a young man might take a young woman.” Freyberger smiled discreetly. “Well,” continued the chief, “I am sending you down there hoping you may meet some one more interevting than oa girl.” “And who may that be, sir?” asked Freyberger, a audden glitter coming into his eye. “Klein.” ant” “Muller, Kolbecker—call him what you will.” “Bot” “You do not seem as jubilant as one might expect.” “IT am not jubilant, sir; I would swear not to laugh again until I have this man by the shoulder, only the oath would be unnecessary. I am not Jubilant, but I am giad, May I have the details of this crime?” “A man mamed Bronson, « farm la- borer, fifty years of age, has been found stabbed to death in a field at TI have, in fact” — Sonning.” > “ptabbed!” > “Stabbed; there was no apparent for the orime, and the body wae hacked as if by a maniac.” “That is he!” said Freyberger. “I euspect eo. The only thing that makes me fee! doubtful is the use of the knife. A strangier once, a stran- gler always.” “He is frightened,” said Freyberger. “He must assuage his passion for murder, and we has changed his method.” “Do you think you will Gnd him in the neighborhood of Sonning?” “I think it probable.” “Probable?” “Yes.” “We have a few minutes to spare before you need start to catch your train,” said the chief, who always Mked to get at Freyberger’s line of Teasoning. “fo you can just tell me why you think it probable, I would have put it down only as possible.” “In thie way, air. Why has this murder (If it ts one of Klein's), why has it taken place at Sonning rather than anywhere else? Sonning is a pleasant place enough to spend a day. it would be pleasant enough to spend a week there, but that fact is not an inducement to a murderer. I believe this man commits his crimes within easy reach of some den of bis. We know from the house agent that aman similer to him, took a house in St. A road. We have seen that he furnt#hed only one room and had Ro servant or help of any sort. He does not want to be spied on. “We may suppose he left London, and for some reason or another took probably a cottage near Sonning, just as he took a cottage on the Fells of Cumberland.” “Yes, we may suppose “Well—when as this murder com- mitted?" “Yesterday morning.” “Then it te probable he is still in the neighborhood. Leaving aside the assumption that this murder was & sudden affair, tho impulse of a mo- ment, and that he had not made plans for leaving Sonning, there is the fact that a murderer of this type has a tendency to clii.¢ t. the nelghborhood of his crime, Well, we will see. There is one thing I would like to have before I start.” “What is that?” “The sheath of the inife | found at St, Ann's road.” “You shall have it.” The chief rang, and ordered the officer who answere | thy summons to bring the arti’: in question, and saat." 'END IT! Mag RH tg. tr Freyberger, placing it in his pocket, Geparted. CHAPTER XIV. Butterfly Hunting. E caught the Birmingham ex- Press that leaves Paddiig- ton at 12.15, and arrived at nine minutes after 1. Here he took a bed at the Vastern Hotel and went to sieep. At 8 o'clock the next morni: : he was in con@ultation with the chief of the Berkshire Constabulary. “It is a most extraordinary case,” sald that gentleman. “Of course, it can be nothing else but the work of a lunatic, The body was found at 3 o'clock yesterday in a turnip field, close to the river. The man had no enemies—a simple, inoffensive crea- ture with a wife and five children. Our surgeon says that the murder must have taken place some time early in the morning. The throat was cut from ear to ear, most extraordinary case—mutilated, too, but you will sce the body for yourself.” “Have you the knife’ “Yes. “May I see it?" “By all means.” The chief constable opened a drawer ‘and produced something wrapped up in brown paper, He unwrapped the paper and pro- duced a savage-looking knife with a green shagreen handle. “It is a case knife,” said the chief constable. “The cave will be a clue when we come upon it.” “I believe J have it in my pocket,” sald Freyber nd he produced the sheath he had found in the house in St. Ann's road, The chief constable took the sheath and fitted the knife into It. It fitted exactly. “But how did you get it?” asked the chief constable in considerable surprise, “We founa the knife ta the body; It was fixed by such a ferocious blow between the ribs that the murderer could not extricate 1t. How did you come upon the ah a? You came from London only last night; did you find it here or ip London?” “L have not time to tell you, sir, the whole history of the case. I found that sheath than a month ago in a house in London. If that knife could speak, its tale would perhaps turn your hair gray with horror, We must act at once or the game will escapo us. after a person who is more than a man, @ person infinitely more in the shape of @ devil, @ person who ean change his form, 1 tell you, I would sooner tackle a tiger than this man; yet F am going to tackle him and more We are © take bim, too. Have you a map of Sonning?” e The chief constable produced an ordnance map. “This,” said be, “is the Held where the murder was committed.” He placed his finger on the epot. “Ie there a pathway asorees the flelar” “Yes, here between these two ronda.'* : @ ‘There is a cottage here,” said Freyberger, pointing to a spot ao marked at the angle where the patb met the road, “Yes, Bronson's cottage. He was murdered a hundred yards away from his home. There is @ great heap ef Fefuse in the middle of the field and the body lay behind it and so was not discovered for some hours. There are back windows to the cottage and 20 back door.” “Are there any strangers lodging at Sonning?” “Yes a few, but no one at all of a suspicious nature or likely to have anything to do with the crim “I tmagine” said Freyberger, “that the murderer {se still in the neighbor- hood of Sonning, Of course I may be wrong, still I intend to go there and make some observations. I would prefer to go alone; you are known In the neighborhood and I am not.” “How shall you go?” “I—ob I shall go ag if I were going for pleagure, not business. J shall hiro a boat and go by river.” “Have you any arms?” “No; if I had a plato! and if I were so fortunate as to find my man I might be unfortunate enough ‘to shoot ‘him, Pistols have a habit of going off in strugs' Besides, | bave a ner- vous horror of therm.” “I remember you arrested that man in Fashion street and he was a pretty tough customer,’ “Ihave met others worse, but I have never hi rearms about me. A walk- ing atick is the only weapon I ever carry.” “You have lots of pluck.” “Lots, but I tell you, all the same, this man f am after now almost frightens me. No matter, what ia, ts, and what will be, will be. Can you tell me where I can get @ butterfy net?” “What do you want that for?” “To catch butterflies; this warm weather has brought them out in flocks, I want also a flannel coat, such ae boating people wear; one doce not go butterfly hunting in a tall hat.” “I eee; come downtown and I will rig you out; but, @ret, ehall we go to the mortuary?” “Yea,” replied Freyberger. They repaired to the mortuary and there the detective inspected the body of the unfortunate Bronson. “It la @ most extraordinary case,” sald the chief constable. “He was a most inoffensive creature; he had Rever, to any man's knowledge, made He had committed no fault.” “I beg your pardon, but I imagine he had.” “How?” “He had committed the fault of alive. The man we are after {se @ fault-finder when tho ft selzcs him. <A temporary iunacy. Some periodic lunatics have objections. I knew ond who, perfectly sane on ether points, flew into s paroxyam of rage when a muskmelon was brought within his purview. He ob- Jected to muskmelons because they were round. “He wanted them square, The Al- mighty, however, preferred that they should be round. Hence the trouble, “Another quarrelied with gray cats when he met them, simply becauso they were gray. He quarrelied with them by covering them with paraffin and setting them on fre. “The man who did this quarrelled with the thing that Mes here because it wes alive, He bas remedied tho defect.” He had indeed. It Is needful only to sey that tho body exhibited twenty wounds, each in itself suMcient to bave caused death. But the master wound was in tbe throat, It wag evidently the Orst given, The rest were neediess, and the result of maniacal fury on the part of the murderer, They left the place and went to a clothier’s, where Freyberger bought a mulbverry-colored blazer and a straw hat with uw stripedribbon, Having purchased a butterfly-net. he returned to the hotel and dressed. When bis tollet was compicte he looked at himaelf in a glass and feit satinfled, He looked, in fact, like a shop-hoy whose taste for entomology had de- voured his taste in dress, Smug and plump, you never would have suspected this enop-boy or cate walter, out for a holiday, to be a de- tective destined to European fame, A chilly-bloaded calculator, a profound thinker, with an intimate knowledge of all the most terrible abyeses of crime. A man merciless and fearless as a sword, An hour later, at the boat-slip just above the bridge, Freyperger stood bargaining for @ boat, hw lovely day, soft and warm, meeting the murderer J should like toy With » cloudiess shy, sce the victia.” 4 He was not @ very good oarsman, 1 October By Robert Minor’) but good enough to cull a boat safely on @ smooth river. After he had passed the bridge and East's boat- slip, he rested on nia oars for a minute. ‘ “I 1 had mot questioned her imag- ination,” be said to himecif, “that man Heller would not have remembered those other crimes, and J would not have come near the bull’s-eye like this. How terribly right she was. She divined this devil, she knew ‘his construction, his capacity for murder without @ motive, fhe is an innocent woman, yet she knew this demon as well as if she had constructed him-— sub-conscioualy, Ah,~the sub-con- sciousness of women, what does it not hide? A woman who loves is a terrible thing, more keen-acented than @ hound, more dangerous than a tiger, My friend, Klein, if 1 miss you here it will not be the fault of Mile, Le- farge, If 1 mise you here, I shall And you again, but if I find you here, I will be the means of saving the lives of perhaps two more men, perhaps three.” He resumed his sculls. The warm weather had brought boats out as well as butterMies and Dutterfly hunters, girls in eummer dresses and men in flannels, who lit- tle dreamt that tragedy was passing them in the form of tho little ican is the mulberry-colored coat, At Sonning Lock he managed to get through without drowning himself or upsetting bis boat. It was the first time be had negotiated @ look, and he was not sorry when his cockle-shell was safely moored to the landing- stage of the White Hart Hotel. There were several people in the gardens, men in flannels and girls in boating costumes, ted in the arbors. He passed them and entered the hotel by the back way, There was no one in the ball, and he took # cane-bottomed easy chair by the bar window, put his butterfly net in a corner and called for a stone winger-beer, He intended to make # thorough ex- amination of Sonning, and his plan would be very much simplified by the fact that he could eliminate ull resi- dents, all people who kept servants. What he was looking for was a man living in @ cottage alone. “Had good sport?” asked the young lady who served him, speaking in & perfunctory manner and twisting & hairpin atraight that had somehow wot loose, while whe gazed over Frey- berger’s head at the suniit garden o8 if whe were addressing some one there. “Oh, the butterfly net?" said he, “It's not mine, I brought it down for a friend. He promised to meet me here, a Mr. Rogers. You haven't seen any- looked around him admiring the place, \ auppose, @ good deal.” 30. 1914 a —— Next Week's Complete Novel in. THE EVENING WORLD. I Fasten a Bracelet By David Potter This Book on the Sineds Wiil Cost You$!.25. YouGetlt fer 6 Cents. ennaemaaaaaad thing of him, I suppose” “What was he like?” asked the lady behind the bar im a disinterested voice, Freyberger drew a word picture of Klein. She shook her head and settied her- self down behind the bar to resume the perusal of a Trumper’s penny story, @ compound of love, murder, arson and religion wonderfully mixed. Freyberger sipped hie drink. le ef starting @ conversation, whee the old man forestalled bim. You never know a man's face proper til yeu talk to him, and Freyherger, as the conversation procesded) eat drinking in with his eyes the Getaile and the tout ensemble of the coupte- nance before him. What a strange, weary, wigked, and altogether mysterious face it was! % One said to oneself, “If blood air: pes culates behind it, that blood mvet surely be gray in color.” i ‘They conversed, and it was wonder: ful how the ald man drew Freyberger out, and in the course of ten migutes ; “Fou have had a murder down here 4 ao, without scoming 4 aniing 7 : e girl behind the Bar aeairs and much about hig lite “Jim Brongon. 1 saw him brought by, : covered with a sheet, Hacked about Frevbermer teld him fraakly and 9g horrid, they sald he wasJ, She ldoknd ‘Feely bow he had come to Kagiead up gike an ‘ogre, and then relapecd only @ few weeks ago from Breaies fe into “Tracked by a Stain” just at the search of a job aa bookkeeper, how — part where the parson in the dog. he had no friends in Kngland, how he cart 1s approaching the murderer, fad 4 matien aunt Iving in Cologue, who Is hidden behind the hedge. and a widowed sister living at Dus- “It’s not often you bave those ‘wort **dort, bow he hed. \dered down of occurrences here? sald Freyberg. ‘© Sonning In search of the plete. er. oe enque. " .” roplied the girl, with her cyes The girl behind the bar here put down her book to answer a call from siued to the book. : “Very quiet neighborhood, the coffee room, end they found them- selves alone. rule, I should think.” “Yer.” “You are fond of nature?” asked the” = i old ma ipping the remains of Bis | ‘Artists and people come here, | is file, ‘ for tho hall of the White Hart Is one of the prettiest and pleasantest little hotel halls in the world. o as 94 may “It is my passion,” replied Frey: rger. . + Just at thi t ado ‘cua sian, @ madow ‘well, if you will allow me te be ‘An old gentioman had entered the your ap I will conduc: you te a . hall of the White Hart, He walked, “Pot (he most Peautiful in Hngiand, leaning on a atick. quiet close here {t Hes.” i, “an é He was dreseed in well-worn gray pe tweed, and wore a felt hat, fawn col- sey yon the myet begun \ Bagiand.” a ored and rether broad of brim. He came to the bar 4 called for “1 ehall be happy.” We will walk together,” cont the other, “A cigar, please,” te the young lady, who had just returned. He hela out the box to Freyberger, who took one and thanked him. « ‘That the stranger was Kiein, de- spite bie miraculous ageing, he felt almost certain, But to arrest him there and thenefor no other redgen than lay ip an usconfirmed belief wan not to be thought of, To let a murderer escape ts bad, Sut te arrest @ man who, if he te got Innesent, still has no stains er proof of guilt, is worse. It ts what the Crigninal Investigation Departmaeat calle & rious mistake,” and Freyberger not fancy such a tag for his repata- tion. ‘The only other course was to leave the protection of houses and people, to go with this satanic eriminal whese | no eye could see what happened, to || be attacked by Bim and to master bun. 4s “Are you ready?” asked the el@ man, “I am ready,” replied Freyberger. The girl, who was putting the cigar } box back on ite shelf, turned reané. “If your friend calls, shail I ay yeu will come back?” she asked, “My friend?" sald Freyberger, @Ba + @aw across the gray face of his aweul companion a shadow pase. . “Your friend, Mr. Rogers,” sald the girl, ““He you brought the butter@y net for," Ho had distinctly told the atranger that he knew nobody in England, aad that he had come down to Sonning moved by impulse and for no especial purpose save the search after the pio- turesque, In his surprise at the old 's likeness to the inan he was in search of he had quite forgotten the butterfly net--a serious mistake, as he % was about to find out, t Another man might have entered into explanations or attempted to do ao. Freyberger laughed in a brutal and eynical manner, tentively. ‘There were many things about thie voice and they all conspired to mark it out asa distinctive voice. A volce in @ million, It was the voice of an educated man, and {t would be very hard te soy what there was in it repellent and chilling, but repellent and ohill- ing it was, But it was the face of the comer that fascinated Freyberqer. “Where bave I seen that face be- fore?” he thought. And then all at once came horn 8f the question. 9 “Tt Is the face of Klein grown old. For a moment Freyberger seized by a feeling of physical sick- noss. The horrors and perplexities of the Gyde case bad culminated in this last horror and perplexity. This eould not be the man who, eight years ago, had sat for his por- trait to the photographer in Paris; this could not be the man whom Hellier had followed on account of the likeness to that photogral This was an old, old man. Had he aged then in the course of @ few weeks? Had promature decay fallen upon him, turning him almost at @ etroke from a man of forty or #o to a man of seventy and more? ‘Was he himaelt mis in? No, Thia was indeed the face of the photograph, the face that had left its imprint on the retina of Laloir, the same face seen through the vell of age. reply Yot if that were #0, vac would have to believe that this vid man, who seemed scarcely strong enough to harm a child, had a few hours ago killed, with brutal fer. ity, @ fellow. being. As Freybeyser sat examining the Reweomer, he became qware that the newcomer was examining him ‘The young lady behind the bar bad relapsed into “Tracked by @ Stain,” the shopboy with the butterfly net, the old gentleman sipping lis ab- alnthe, were of no interest to her. Freyberger yawned, He felt that he was being observed, and he fancied that he was being observed with ap- probation—the approbation with which a butcher observes a fat shoep, If this were eo, the situation was not without its humor, The humor of it did not, however, strike him. tHe was deficient In that sense, 4 He wy on the point of making » ypon His whole being in one swift moment, Me turned hia back on the girl, and, without vouchsafing an answer, sald to the stranger, “Come.” It was almowt as if he nad @aldy “t arrest you.” They pasged out together inte the garden, The day was clouding ever and the last rays of syashine @ed a9 if from thelr presence ea they followed the rose-bordered path to the ifttie med to change r remark the weather in the hope