Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1907 — Martin Hewitt, Investigator. [ARTICLE]

Martin Hewitt, Investigator.

The Loss of Sammy Crockett.

By ARTHUR MORRISON.

Published by Arrangement With Harper & brothers.

[Coucluded I

Sammy Cipckett was overjoyed at his rescue. He hurl not been 111 treated, he explained, but bad been thoroughly cowed by Browdle, who had from time to time threatened him savagely with uu iron bar by way of persuading hi in to quietness and submission. He had been fell and lmd taken no worse harm than a slight stiffness, from his adventure, due to his light under attire of jersey and knee shorts. Sergeant Kentish tied ltrowdie’s elbows flrmly together behind and carried the line round the ankles, bracing all up tight. Then he ran a knot from one wrist to the other osier the back of the neck and left the prisoner trussed and helpless on the heap of straw that had been Sammy’s bed. “You won't be very Joyful, I expect," Kentish said. "I don’t suppose you’ll be disturbed till some time tomorrow . unless our friend Danby turns up in the meantime. But yon can come aloug to jail.lnstead if you prefer it." They left him where he lay and took Sammy to the old landau. Sammy walked in slippers, carrying his spiked shoes, hanging by the lace, In his band. "Ah," said Hewitt; “I think I know the name of the young lady who gave you those slippers.” Crockett looked ashamed and Indignant. "Yes," he said, "they’ve done me nicely between ’em, but I’ll pay her—l’ll” "Hush, husht" Hewitt said. i -" You mustn’t talk unkindly of a lady, you know. Get into this carriage, and we’ll take you home. We’ll see If I can tell you your adventures without making a mistake. First, you had a note from Miss Webb telling you that you were mistaken In supposing she had slighted you aud that, as a matter of fact, she had quite done with somebody else—left him—of whom you were Jealous. Isn’t that so?" "Well, yes,” young Crockett answered, blushing deeply under the carriage lamp. "But I don’t see how you come to know that.” "Then she went on to ask you to get rid of Steggles on Thursday afternoon for a few minutes and speak to her In the back *lane. Now, your running pumps, with their thin soles, almost like pai>er, no heels and long spikes, hurt your feet horribly If you walk on hard grouixd, don’t they?” "Ay, that they do—enough to cripple you.”

“Well, she knew this—l think I know who told her—and she promised to bring you a new pair of slippers and to throw them over the fence for you to come out in." “I s’pose she’s been tellln’ you all this?” Crockett said mournfully. “You couldn’t ha’ seen the letter; I saw her tear It up and put the bits In her pocket. She asked me for It In the lane In case Steggles saw It”' “Well, at any rate, you sent Steggles away, and the slippers did come over, and you went Into the lane. You walked with her ns for as the road at the end, and then you were seized and gagged and put Into a carriage.” ‘•That was Browdie did that," said Crockett, “and another chap I don’t know. But—why, this Is Padfleld High street! They told me It was Newstead Hatch. They drove for about three or four hours and kept me down on the floor between the seats, so as I couldn't see where we was going,” “Done for two reasons," said Hewitt —“first, to mystify you and prevent any discovery of the people directing the conspiracy, and, second, to be able to put you Indoors at night and unobserved. But there Is the Hare and Hounds Just in front. We’ll pull up here, and I’ll get out and see if the coast Is clear. I-fancy Mr.-Kentish would rather you came In unnoticed.” In a few seconds Ilewltt was back, and Crockett was conveyed indoors by a side entrance. Hewitt’s Instructions to the landlord were few, but emphatic. “Don’t tell Steggles about It." he said. “Make an excuse to get rid of him, and send him out of the house. Take Crockett Into some other bedroom, not bis own, and let your son look after him. Then come here, and I’ll tell you all about It.” Sammy Crockett was undergoing a heavy grooming with white embrocation at the hands of Sergeant Kentish when the landlord returned to Hewitt. “Does Dauby know you’ve got him?” he asked. "llow did you do it?” V “Danby doesn’t know yet, and with luck he won't know till he sees Crockett running tomorrow. The man who has sbld you Is Steggles.” “Steggles?” “Steggles it is. At the very' first, when Steggles rushed In to report Sammy Crockett missing, I suspected him. You didn't. I suppose?” “No. He’s always l>een considered a straight man, and he looked as startled as anybody." “Yes, I must say he acted it very well. But there was something suspicious In his story. What did he say? Crockett had remarked a chilliness and asked for a sweater, which Steggles went to fetch. Now, Just think. You understand these things. Would any trainer who knew bis business (as Steggles does) have gone to bring out a sweater for his man to change for his Jersey in the open air, at the very time the man wss complaining of chilliness? course not He would have taken

his innn Indoors again and let "him change there under shelter. Then supposing Steggles had really been surprised at missing Crockett, wouldn’t he have looked about, found the ,gnto open and told you It was open when he first came In? ne said nothing of that—we found theyjpite open for ourselves.” "But,* If Steggles wns selling us, why couldn’t he have drugged the lad? That would have been a deal simpler.” "Because Steggles is a good trainer and has a certain reputation to koep up. It was much the safer thing to conrtive at kidnaping. That put all the active work into other hands and left him safe even If the trick failed. Now, you remember that we traced the prints of Crockett’s spiked shoes to within a couple of yards of the fence and that there they ceased suddenly?” “Yes,” said Kentish. "But I was sure that it was by that gate that Crockett had left and by no other. As the footprints ceased where they did and were not Repeated anywhere in the lane I knew that be had taken his spiked shoes off—probably changed them for something else, because a runner anxious ns to his chances would never risk walking on bare feet, with a chance of cutting them. Ordinary broad, smooth soled slippers would leave no Impresslou on the coarse cinders bordering the track, and nothing short of spiked shoes would leave a mark on the hard path in the lane behind. The spike tracks were leading not directly toward the door, but iu the direction of tliq fence, when they stopped. Somebody bad handed or thrown the slippers over the fence, aud he had changed them on the spot. The enemy had calculated upon the spikes leaving a track In the lane that might lead us lu our search and had arranged accordingly. “So far so good. I could see no footprints near the gate in the laue. You will remember that I sent Steggles ofT to watch at the Cop before I went out to the back—merely, of course, to get him out of the way. I went out Into the lane, leaving you behind, and walked Its whole length, first toward the Old Kilns and then back toward tbe road. I found nothing to help me except these small pieces of paper—which are here in my pgyketbook, by the bye. Of course this ’mmy’ might have meant ‘Jimmy’ or ‘Tommy’ as possibly as ‘Sammy,’ but they were not to be rejected on that account. Certainly Crockett had been decoyed out of your ground, not taken by force, or there would have been marks of a scuffle in the cinders. And as his request for a sweater was probably an excuse—because It was not at all a cold afternoon—he must have previously deslgued going out. Inference, a letter received, and here were pieces of a letter. “Now, In the light of what I have said, look at these pieces. First, there Is the ‘mmy,’ that I have dealt with. Then see this ‘throw them ov’—cleariy a part of ‘throw them over;’ exactly what had probably been done with the slippers. Then the ‘poor J,’ coming just on the line before and seen by Joining up with this other piece, might easily be n reference to ‘poor feet.’ But there Is something else. Two other pieces evidently mean ‘left him,’ and ‘right away’—send Steggles ‘right away’ perhaps. But there Is another, containing almost all of the words ‘hate his,’ with the word ‘hate’ underlined. Now, who writes ‘hate’ with the emphasis of underscoring—who but a woman? Here was something more —Sammy had been enticed away by a woman.

“Now, I remember that when we went Into the taproom on Wednesday some of his companions were chaffing Crockett about a certain Nancy Webb, and the chaff went home, as was plain to see. The woman, then, who could most easily entice Sammy Crockett away was Nancy Webb. I resolved to find who Nancy Webb was and learn more of her. “Meantime I took a look at the road at the end of the lane. It was damper than the laue, being lower and overhung with trees. There were many wheel tracks, but only one set that turned in the road and went back the way It came, toward the town. And they were narrow wheels—carriage wheels. Crockett tells me now that they drove him about for a long time before shutting him up. Probably the inconvenience of taking him straight to the hilling place didn’t strike them when they first drove off. “A few Inquiries soon set me in the direction of the Plough and Miss Nancy Webb. I had the curiosity to look around the place as I approached, and there lu the garden behind the house were Steggles and the young lady in earnest confabulation!

“Every conjecture became a certainty. Steggles was the lover of whom Crockett was jealous, and he had employed the girl to bring Sammy out. I watched Steggles home and gave you a bint to keep him there. “But the thing that remained was to find Steggles’ employer In this business. I was glad to be in when Danby called. By way of making assurance doubly Bure I took a short walk thia morning in the character of a deaf gentleman and got Miss Webb to write me a direction that comprised three of the words on these scraps of paper—‘left’ ‘right’ and "‘lane.’ See, they correspond, the peculiar ‘f's/ ‘t’s’ andaal t , “Now, I felt perfectly sure that Steggles would go for his pay .today. In the first place, I knew that people mixed up with shady transactions in professional pedestrianlsm are not apt to trust One another far. They know better. Therefore Steggles wouldn’t have had his bribe first, but he would take care to get it before the Saturday heats were run, because once they were over the thing was done, and the principal conspirator might have refused to pay up, and Steggles couldn’t have helped himself. Again, I hinted ho

should not go out TTIT l cbuldTollow him, and this afternoon when he went follow him I did. I saw him go Into Danby’a house by the side way and come away again, jDanby It was, then, who had arranged the business, and nobody was more likely, considering his large pecuniary stake against Crockett’s winning this race. “But now how to find Crockett? I made up my mind be wouldn’t be In Danb.v’s own house. That would be a dQgl too risky, with servants about, and so on. I saw that Danby was a guilder and hnd three shops to let. It was on a paper before his house. What more likely prison than an empty house? I knocked nt Danby’s door and asked for the keys of those shops. I couldn’t have them. The servant told me Danby was out (a manifest lie, for I had Just seen him) and that nobody could see the shops till Monday, but I got out of her the address of the shops, and that was all I wanted at the time. “Now, why was nobody to see those shops till Monday? The Interval was suspicious just enough to enable Crockett to l»e sent away again and cast loose after the Saturday racing, supposing him to be kept In one of the empty buildings. I went off at once and looked at tl*> shops, forming my conclusions as to which would be the most likely for Danb.v’s purpose. Here I had another confirmation of my ideas. Dauby hnd taken the keys away—and on Thursday, the very day —with some trivial excuse and hadn’t brought them back. That was all I wanted or could expect In the way of guidance. The whole thing was plain. The rest you know all about.” “Well, you’re certainly as smart as they give you credit for, I must say. But suppose Danby had taken down his ‘To Let’ notice, what would you have done then?”

“We had our course even then. We shoulij have gone to Danby, astounded him by telling him all about his little games, terrorized him with threats of the law, and made him throw up his hand and send Crockett back. But as It is, you see, he doesn’t know at this moment—probably won’t know till tomorrow afternoon—that tbe lad is safe and sound here. You will probably use the Interval to make him pay for losing the game—by some of th» Ingenious financial devices you are no doubt familiar with. But about Crockett, now. Won’t Hite confinement be likely to have damaged his speed for a day or two?” “Ah, perhaps,” the landlord replied, “but, bless ye, that won’t matter. There’s four more in bis heat tomorrow. Two I kiiow arenT tirers, and the other two I can hold In at a couple of quid apiece any day. The third round and final won’t be till tomorrow week, and he’ll be as fit as ever by then. It’s as safe as ever it was.” It was on the following Sunday week that Martin Hewitt, iu his rooms in London, turned over his paper and read, under the head “Padfleld Annual 135 Yards Handicap,” this announcement: “Final heat, '(Crockett, first; Willis, second; Trewby, third; Owen, 0; Howell, 0. A runaway win by nearly three yards.”