Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-06


bourne in that exasperatingly deliberate way
of his. But | think you must blame-or
thank-me for that
CHAPTER XIV.
Southbourne's Suspicious
YOU What had you to do with ?" I ejac-
We'll, Freeman was hunting cold scent
yearning to arrest some one, as they always do
in a murder case He'd thought of you, of
course. Considering that you were on the spot
at the time, / wonder he didn't arrest you
right off but he had formed his own theory, as
detectives always do, and in nine cases out OF
ten they're utterly wrong"
DO you know what the theory was?"
asked.
Yes. He believed that the murder was
committed by woman, simply because
woman must have helped to ransack the rooms
during Cassavettis absence
How did he know that"
How did you know it?" he counter queried
Because he told me at the time that wo-
say any more, except that she was red haired
or fair haired and well dressed l. wondered
how he knew that; but he wouldn't tell me. )"
He has never told me-" Southbourne said
same. and he couldn't deny it when asked
him. She dropped hairpins about, or halrpln
rather.-women always do when they're agl-
tated,-an expensive gilt hairpin. That's how
he knew she was certainly fair haired and
probably well dressed
| remembered how more than once l had
picked up and restored to Anne hairpin that
had fallen from her glorious hair. i'm and
Mary Cayley. had often chaffed her about the
way she shed her hairplns around.
"What sort of hairpins?" asked.
"A curved thing He showed it to me when
bowled him out about them. l know the sort.
My wife wears them,-patent things warranted
not to fall out so they always do. They cost
half crown packet in that quality.
| knew the sort too. and knew also that my
former suspicion was now certainty. Anne
had been to Cassavetti's rooms that night.
though nothing would ever induce me to be-
lieve she was his murderess.
V/ELL, fail to see how that clue could have
w led him to me, l said, forcing laugh.
ddn' t mean to let Southbourne or anyone else
guess that | knew who that hairpin had be-
1onged to.
1T didn't it led him nowhere; though be-
lieve he spent several days going round the
West End hairdressers' shops. There's only
one of them. shop in the Haymarket, keeps
that particular kind of hairpin. and they
snubbed him-they weren't going to give away
their clients names And there was nothing
in the rooms to give him a clue. All Cassa-
vettis private papers had been carried off, as
you know Then there the old Russian
you told about at the inquest He seems to
have vanished off the face of the earth; for
nothing Deen
said, Freeman was on cold scent, and thought
of YOU again. He came to me. ostensibly on
other business I'd just got the wire from
Petersburg-Nolan of The Thunderer sent
it-saying you'd walked out of your hotel
three nights before and hadn't been seen or
heard of since. 1t struck me that the quickest
way to trace you, if YOU were still above ground
was to set Freeman your track straight
away. So told him at once of your disappear
ance, and he started cross questioning me-
with the result-well. he went off eventually
with the fixed idea that you were more 1mpl!-
Gated in the murder than had appeared posi-
BILE at the time, and that your disappearance
was in some way connected with 1T. Wait
bit, let me finish! The next l heard was that
he was off to ST. Petersburg with an extradi-
ton warrant. and from what he told me just
now, he was just in time. Yes, it was the
quickest way-they'd never have released you
on any other consideration!
mo, guess they wouldn't" ! responded:
you've certainly done me good turn, Lord
Southbourne: saved my life, in fact. But what
about this murder charge? Is it a farce, or
what, You don't believe | murdered the man,
do your"
III Good heavens, no! If l had shouldn't
have troubled to set Freeman on you" he an
swered languidly.
I've met some battling individuals; but never
one more battling than Southbourne.
LAS far as we are concerned 1T is farce
though he doesn't think it one. He 1magines
he's got case after his own heart To snatch
a man out of the Jaws of death, nurse him back
to life, and hand him over to be hanged, that's