Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 40, Number 140, 24 April 1915 — Page 7

THE RICHMdND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, SATURDAY APRIL 24, 1915

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EIGHTH INSTALLMENT

8YNOPSI8. Sanford Quest, master criminologist of the world, finds thM In bringing to Justice Macdousal. the murderer of Lord Ashleifth'a daughter, he has but Just begun a life-and-death strustle with a mysterious master criminal. In a hidden hut in Professor Ashleign's garden he has Keen an anthropoid ape skeleton and a living inhuman creature, half monkey, halt man, destroyed by fire. In Iits rooms have appeared from nowhere black boxes, one containing diamond! torn from a lovely throat by a pair of armless, threatening hands, both with sarcastic, threatening notes, signed by the inscrutable hands. His valet. Ross Brown, and a caller. Miss Quigg. are murdered In his rooms. Laura and Lenora, his assistants, suspect Craig, the professor's valet. Lenora, abducted by the threatening hands, is rescued. Quest traps Craig, loses him. traps him again in the house where Lenora was Imprisoned, and loses him yet again after a thrilling chafe. The black boxes continue to appear in uncanny fashion with their notes of sarcasm, warning and euKgestlona of clues, all signed by the Inhuman, armless linnets. THE INHERITED SIN CHAPTER XVIII. "Getting kind of used to these courthouse chows, aren't you, Lenora?" Quest remarked, as they stepped from the automobile and entered the house In Georgia square. Lenora shrugged her shoulders. She was certainly a very different looking person from the tired, trembling girl who had heard Macdougal sentenced not many weeks ago. "Could anyono feel much cympathy," she asked, "with those men? Red Gallagher, as they all called him, is more like a great brute animal than r human being. I think that even if they had sentenced him to death I should have felt that it vas quite the proper thing to have done." "Too much sentiment about those things," Quest tsreed, clipping tho end off a cigar. "Men like t"u?t nro better otf tho face of tho earth. They did their best to send mo there." "Hero's a cablegram for you," Lenora exclaimed, bringing it over to him. "Mr. Quest, I wonder if its from Scotland Yard!" Quest toro it open. They read it together, Lenora standing on tiptoo to peer over his shoulder: "Stowaway answering In every respect your de ccription of Crclg found on Durham. Has been arrested, ac desired, and will be taken ta Hamblin ; Houce for Identification by Lord Aahleigh. Reply vhether you are coming over, and full details aa to charge." "Good for Scotland Yard!" Quest declared. "So they've cot him. ch? All tho samo, that fellow's is olippory as an cel. Lenora, how should you like a trip acroaj tho ocean, ch?' "I should love it," Lenora re'i'd. "V- you mean It. really?" Quoot nodded. "TbH ,fel!ow'h fooled me pretty well," he contln'ici "but somehow ! feel that if I get my hands on tin th's fliup, they'll slay there till he stands wl,fre Ticl Callsvliur t'.i'i today. I don't feel content ta' 5c: c;youo olse finish off the Job. Got any relatives o.cr ti:3ic?" ' I have .n uut la London," Lenora told him, "bn Gurcci ol-l Iv.Hy you ever saw. She'd give anjt-Mi ? io have U8 tniko her visit." Ciirt Moved acroe to hi dsk and took up a ftciHag list He studied it for a few moments and tsinod bck to Lonora. '"Send a cable oT at once to Scotland Yard," he .dtrarted. "Say 'Am sailing on Lusitania tomorrow. Hold prisoner. Chargo vrry serious. Have full warrants.' ' Jjencra wrote down the message and went to the tlephono to spd it off. As soon as she had fiutsbsU. Quest took up his hat again. "Cosiie on,' ho invited. "The machine's outside. We'll just go o:id look in on the professor and tell him tho news. Poor old chap, I'm afraid he'll ncer be the came man again." They found tho professor on his hands and kneos upon a dusty floor. Carefully arranged befoie him were tho bones of a skeleton, .each laid in some r.ppo'nted plaoe. "Say, ere we diiturbii.g you, Mr. Ashleigh?" Quest inquired. Tho profo8For rie to his feet end brushed tho duBt from his kne "I shall be glad of a rent," bo said, simply. "You ies what I am dolc? I aa Uying to reconstruct ?rcm memory-- and a littio imagination, perhaps the important part of my missing skeleton. It's a wonderful problem which those bones might have solved, if I bad been ab'e to placo them fairly before the scientists ct tio vorli. Do you understand muca about the human frame, Mr. Quest?" Quest sh-.o't his head promptly. 'What about that tiuhappy man, Craig?" the profcosor ar.ked, gloomily. "Isn't the Durham almost due now?" Quest too!: out the cab'erara from his pocket and passe 1 it over. Tho professor's fingers trembled ?. littln ag he read it Ho paseed it back, however, without imneediato comment. "V'eu Bee. they have been cleverer over there than wo were," Quest remarked. "Perhaps," the professor assented. "They eecm, at ieast. to have arrested the man. Even now I can scarcely believo that It Is Craig my servant Craig who is Jy'r.g in an English prison. Do you know that his people have been servants in tha Ashleigh family for some hundreds of years?" Quest was clearly interested. "Say, I'd like to hoar about that!" he exclaimed. "You know, I'm rather great on heredity, profescor. What class did ho come from then? Wero his people just domestic servants always?" The professor's face was for a moment troubled. Ho moved to his desk, rummaged about for a time, and finally produced an ancient volume. "Thia really belong3 to my brother, Lord Ash-c-igh," ho explained. "He brought it over with him to show mo somo entries concerning which I was interested. It contains a history of the Hamblin estate since the days of Cromwell, and fcere in the back, you seo, is a list of our farmers, bailiffs and domestic servants. There was a Craig who was a tenant of the first Lord Ashleigh and fought with him in the Cromwellian wars as a trooper and since those days, so far as I can see, there has never been a time when there hasn't been a Craig in the service of our family. A fine race they eeem to have been, until " "Until when?" Quest demanded. The look of (rouhlo had once more clouded the professor's face. He shrugged his shoulders slightly. "Until Craig's father," he admitted. "I am afraid I must admit that wo come upon a bad piece of family history here. Silas Craig entered the service of my father la 1S58, as under gamekeeper.

Here we come upon the first black mark against the name. He appears to have lived reputably for some years, and then, after a quarrel with a neighbor about some trivial matter, he deliberately murdered him, a crime for which he was tried and executed in 1867. John Craig, bis only son, entered our service In 1880, and, when I left England, accompanied me aa my valet." There was a moment's silence. Quest shook his head a little reproachfully. "Professor," he said, "you are p scientific man, you appreciate the significance of heredity, yet during all this time, when you ro48t have seen for yourself the evidence culminating against Craig, you never mentioned this this damning piece of evidence." i The professor closed the book with a sigh. "I did not mention it, Mr. Quest," he acknowledged, "because I did not believe in Craig's guilt, and I did not wish to further prejudice you against him. That is the whole and simple truth. Now, tell me what you are going to do about his arrest?" "Lenora and I are sailing tomorrow," Quest replied. "We are taking over the necessary warrants and shall bring Craig back here for trial." The professor smoked thoughtfully for some moments. Then he rose deliberately to his feet. He bad come to a decision. He announced it calmly, but irrevocably. "I shall come with you," he announced. "I shall be glad to visit to England, but apart from that I feel it to be my duty. I owe it to Craig to see

1The Hunted Man and the Black Box. 2 "What ties the Captured that ho has a fair chance, and I owe it to the law to see that he pays the penalty, if, indeed, he is guilty of these crimes." CHAPTER XIX. The professor rose from his seat in some excitement as the carriage passed through the great gates of Hamblin park. He acknowledged with a smile the respectful curtsey of the woman who held it open. "You have now an opportunity, my dear Mr. Quest," he said, "of appreciating one feature of English life not entirely reproducable in your own wonderful country. I mean the home life and surroundings of our aristocracy." They swept presently round a bend in the avenue. Before them on the hillside surrounded by trees and with a great walled garden behind, was Hamblin house. Quest gave vent to a little exclamation of wonder as he looked at it. "This is where you've got us beat, sure," he admitted. "Our country places are like gewgaw palaces compared to this. Makes me kind of sorry," he went on regretfully, "that I didn't bring Lenora along." The professor shook his head. "You were very wise," he said. "My brother and Lady Ashleigh have recovered from the shock of poor Lena's death in a marvelous manner, I believe, but the sight of the girl might have brought it back to them. You have left her with friends, I hope, Mr. Quest?" "She has an aunt in Hampstead," the latter explained. "I should have liked to see her safely there myself, but we should have been an hour or two later down here, and I tell you," he went on, his voice gathering a note almost of ferocity, "I'm wanting to get my hands on that fellow Craig! I wonder where they're holding him." "At the local police station, I expect," the professor replied. "My brother is a magistrate, of course, and he would see that proper arrangements were made. There he is at the hall door." The carriage drew up before the great front a moment or two later. Lord Ashleigh came forward with outstretched hands, the genial smile of the welcoming host upon his lips. In his manner, however, there was a distinct note of anxiety. "Edgar, my dear fellow," he exclaimed, "I am delighted! Welcome back to your home! Mr. Quest, I am very happy to see you here. You have heard the news; of course?" "We have hears nothing!" the professor replied.

"You didn't go to Scotland Yard?" Lord Ashleigh asked. "We haven't been to London at all,". Quest ex plained. "We got on the boat train at Plymouth, and your brother managed to induce one of the directors whom he saw on the platform to stop tha train for us at Hamblin road. We only left the boat two hours ago. There's nothing wrong with Craig, is "there?" Lord Ashleigh motioned them to follow him. "Please come this way," he invited. He led them across the hall which, dimly lit and with its stained-glass windows, was almost like the nave of a cathedral into the library beyond. He closed the door and turned around. "I have bad news for you both," he announced. "Craig has escaped." Neither the professor nor Quest betrayed any unusual surprise. So far as the latter was concerned, his first glimpse at Lord Ashleigb's face had warned him of what was coming. "Dear me!" the professor murmured, sinking Into an easy chair. "This is most unexpected!" "We'll get him again," Quest declared, quickly. "Can you let us have the particulars of his escape, Lord Ashleigh? The sooner we get the hang of things the better." "You know, of course," he began, "that Craig; was arrested at Liverpool in consequence of communications from the New York police. I understand that it was with great difficulty he was discovered, and it is quite clear that someone on tha ship had been heavily bribed. However, he was

Does It Mean, Mr. Quest?" 3 Lord Ashleigh IdentlMan as Craig. arrested, brought to London, and then down here for purposes of identification. I would have gone to London myself, and, in fact, offered to do so, but on the other hand, as there are many others on the estate to whom he was well known, I thought that it would be better to have more evidence than, mine alone. Accordingly, they left London one afternoon, and I sent a dogcart to the station to meet them. They arrived quite safely and started for here, Craig handcuffed to one of the Scotland Yard men on the back seat, and the other in front with the driver. About half a mile from the south entrance to the park the road runs across a rather desolate strip of country with a lot of low undergrowth on one side. We have had a little trouble with poachers there, as there is a sort of gypsy camp on some common land a little way away. My head keeper, to whom the very idea of a poacher is intolerable, was patrolling this ground himself that afternoon and caught sight of one of these gypsy fellows setting a trap. He chased him, and more, I am sure, to frighten him than anything else, when he saw that the fellow was getting away, he fired his gun, just as the dogcart was passing. The horse shied, the wheel caught a great stone by the side of the road, and all four men were thrown out. The man to whom Craig was handcuffed was stunned, but Craig himself appears to have been unhurt. He stumbled up. took the key of the handcuffs from the pocket of the officer, undid them and slipped off into the undergrowth before either the groom or the other Scotland Yard man had recovered their senses. To cut a long story short, that was last Thursday, and up -till now not a single trace of the fellow has been discovered." Quest rose abruptly to his feet. "Say, I'd like to take this matter up right on the spot where Craig disappeared," he suggested. "Couldn't we do that?" "By all means," Lord Ashleigh agreed, touching a bell. "We have several hours before we change for dinner. I will have a car round and take you, to the spot" The professor acquiesced readily, and very soon they stepped out of the automobile on to the side of a narrow road, looking very much as it had been described. Farther on, beyond a stretch of open common, they could see the smoke from the gypsy encampment. On their left-hand side was a stretch of absolutely wild country, bounded in the far distance by the gray stone wall of Ihe park. Lord Ashleigh led the way through the thicket, talking as he went. "Craig came along through here," he explained. "The groom an4 the Scotland Yard man who hft4

been sitting by W id. followed him. Tbey searched for an hour, but found no trace of him at all. Then they returned to the house to make a report and get help. I will now show you how Craig first eluded them." He led the way along a tangled path, doubled back, plunged: into a little spinney and came suddenly to a small shed. "This is an ancient gamekeeper's shelter," he explained; "built a long time ago and almost forgotten now. What Craig did, without doubt, was to hide in this. The Scotland Yard man who took: the affair in band found distinct traces here of recent occupation. That is how he made his first escape." Quest nodded. "Sure!" he murmured. "Well, now, what about your more extended search?" "I am coming to that." Lord Ashleigh replied. "Ah Edgar will remember, no doubt. I have always kept a few bloodhounds in my kennels, and as soon as we could get together one or two of the keepers and a few of the local constabulary, we started off again from here. The dogs brought us without a check to this shed, and started off again this way." They walked another half mile across a reedy swamp. Every now and then they had to jump across a small dyke, and once tbey bad to make a detour to avoid an osier bed. They came at last to the river. "Now, I can snow you exactly how that fellow put us off the scent here," their guide proceeded.

"He seems to have picked up something, Edgar, In those South American trips of yours, for a cleverer thing I never saw. You see all these bulrushes everywhere clouds of them all along the " river?" "We call them tules," Quest muttered. "Well?" "When Craig arrived here," Lord Ashleigh continued, "he must have heard the baying of the dogs in the distance and he knew that the game was up unless he could put them oft th scent. He cut a quantity of these bulrushes from a place a little farther behind those trees then, stepped boldly into the middle of the water, waded down to that spot where, as you see, the trees hang over, stood stock still and leaned them all around him. It was dusk when the chase reached the river bank, and I have no doubt the bulrushes presented quite a natural appearance. At any rate, although the dogs came without a check to the edge of the river, where he stepped off, they never picked the scent up again either on this side or the other. We tried them for four or five hours before we took them home. The next morning, while the place was being thoroughly searched, we came upon the spot where these bulrushes had been cut down, and we found them caught in the low boughs of a tree, drifting down the river." Quest bad lit a fresh cigar and was smoking vigorously. "What astonishes me more than anything," he pronounced, as he stood looking over the desolate ' expanse of country, "is that when one comes face to face with the fellow ha presents all the appearance of a nerveless and broken-down coward. Then all of a sudden there spring up these evij dences of the most amazing, the most diabolical resource. . . . Who's this, Lord Ashleigh?" The latter turned his head. An elderly man In a brown velveteen suit, with gaiters and thick boots, raised his hat respectfully. "This is my bead keeper, Middleton." his master explained. "He was with us on the chase." The professor shook hands heartily with the new comer. "Not a day older, Middleton!" he exclaimed. "So you are the man who has given us all this trouble, eh? This gentleman and I have come over from New York on purpose to lay hands on Craig." "I am very sorry, sir," the man replied. I wouldn't have fired my gun if I had known what the consequences were going to be, but them poaching devils that come round here rabbiting fairly send me furious, and that's a fact. It ain't that one grudges them a few rabbits, but my tame pheasants all run out here from the home wood, and I've seen feathers at the side of the road there - that no fox nor stoat had nothing to do with. All the same, sir, I'm very sorry," be added, "to have been the cause of any inconvenience." "It is rather worse than Inconvenience, Middleton," the professor said, gravely. "The man who has escaped is one of the worst criminals of these days." "He won't get far, sir," the gamekeeper remarked, with a little smile. "It's a wild bit of country, this, and I admit that men might search it for weeks without finding anything, but those ScftUand Yar& sir, if you'll excuse.

my making the remark, and hoping that this gentle man," he added, looking at Quest, "Is ta so way "connected with themwell, tbey don't know everything, and that's a fact." "This gentleman is from the United States," Lord Ashleigh reminded him. "so your criticism doesn't affect him. By the bye, Middleton. I heard this morning that you'd been airing your opinion , down in the village. You seem to rather fancy yourself as a thief-catcher." "I wouldn't go so far as that, my lord," the man replied, respectfully, "but still, I hope I may say that I've as much common sense as most people. Yoi see, sir," he went on. turning to Quest, "the spots ( where he could emerge from the tract ot eoantry . are pretty well guarded, and he'll be In a lino mess, when he does put In an appearance, to show himself upon a public road. Yet by thia

time I should say he must be nigh starved. Sooner or later he'll have to come out for food. I've a life ! tie scheme of my own. sir, I don't mind admltttec the man concluded, with a twinkle In his keen brown eyes. "I'm not giving It away. If I catch him for you, that's all that's wanted. I imagine, and we shan't be any the nearer to It for letting anyone into my little secret.' . His master nodded. "You shall have your rise out of the police. 19 you can, Middleton," he observed. "It seems queei though, to believe that the fellow's still In biding round here." Tbey made their way, tingle file, to the roag and up to the house. Lord Ashleigh did his best, to dispel a queer little sensation of nneaslnesst which seemed to have arisen in the minds p all of them. "Come," he said, "we must put aside our disafx pointment for the present, and remember that aftss all the chances are that Craig will never make hb( escape alive. Let us forget him for a little whil. . . . Mr. Quest," he added, a few minutes later, as tbey reached the hall, "Moreton here will shot) you to your room and look after you. Please let me know if you will take an spertif. I can reeom mend my sherry. We dine at eight o'clock. Edgar, you know your way. The blue room, of course. 1 am coming up with you myself. Her ladyship badf, yet. Moreton?" "Not yet, my lord." "Lady Ashleigh." her husband explained, "hast gone to the other side of the county to open a bazaar. She is looking forward to the pleasure of welcoming you at dinner time." s 4) Ct tff ftS A sV Dinner, served, out of compliment to their trans Atlantic visitor, in the great banqueting hall, wil " to Quest, especially, a most - impressive ' meaL Quest, perhaps for the first time in his life, felt almost lost, hopelessly out of . touch with his surroundings, an alien and a struggling figure. Nevertheless, he entertained the little party with many stories. He struggled all the time" against that queer sensation of anachronism which now and then became almost oppressive. The professor's pleasure at finding himself once more amongst these familiar surroundings was obvious and intense. "It was a queer turn of fate, George,"' he declared, as he held out before him. a wonderfully chased glass filled with amber wine, "which sent you into the world a few seconds before me and made you lord of Ashleigh and me a straggling I scientific man." j "The world has benefited by ft." Lord Ashleigh j remarked, with more than fraternal courtesy. "We J hear great things of you over here, Edgar. We j hear that you have been on the point of proving : most unpleasant things with regard to our origin," J "Oh! there is no doubt about that," the profes- j sor observed. "Where we came from and where we are going to are questions which no longer ; afford room for the slightest doubt to the really scientific mind. What sometimes does elude us Is , tne nature oi our tendencies wnue we are nere on i earth." " . i There was a brief silence. The port had "been j placed upon the table and coffee served. The ser , ants, according to the custom of the house, hai departed. The great apartment was empty. Even Quest was impressed by some peculiar significance in the long-drawn-out silence. ' "I may be superstitious," Lord Ashleigh said' "but there are times, especially Just lately, when X, seem to find a new and hateful quality In silence. What is it, I wonder? I ask you, but I think 1 know. It is the conviction that there Is som alien presence, something disturbing, lurking closest hand." j He suddenly rose to his feet, pushed his chair back and walked to the window, which opened level with the ground. He threw it up and listened. The others came over and joined him. Thercf was nothing to be heard but the distant hooting of, an owl. j "There was something here," he muttered; t "something which has gone. What's that? Quest' your eyes are younger than mine. Can you see - anything underneath that tree?" Quest peered out into the gray darkness. ' "I fancied I saw something moving in the shadow of that oak," he muttered. Wait" He crossed the terrace, swung down on to tha path, across a lawn, over a wire fence and into the park itself. All the time he kept his eyes fixed on a certain spot. When at last he reached tho tree there was nothing there. He looked all around him. He stood and listened for several moments. A; more utterly peaceful night of more utter poaco it would be hard to imagine. Slowly he made his way back to the bouse. "I imagine we are all a little nervy tonight." ho remarked. There's nothing doing out there." They strolled about for a hour or more, looking into different rooms, showing their guest the finest pictures, even taking him down Into the wonderful cellars. They parted early, but Quest stood, for a few moments before retiring, gazing about him with an air almost of awe. His great room, as large as an apartment in an Italian palace, was lit by a dozen wax candles In silver candlesticks. Hi four-poster was supported by pillars of black oak, carved into strange forms, and surmounted by the Ashleigh coronet and coat-of-arms. He threw his , windows open wide and stood for a moment looking; out across the park, more clearly visible now by the light of the slowly rising moon. There was scarcely a breeze stirring, scarcely a sound even from the animal world. Nevertheless, Quest, too, as reluctantly he made his preparations for retiring for the night, was conscious of that queer sensatiom ox unimagined and impalpable danger .- J - - v - . K (To be continued,

I.