Evening star., 1918-05-19


Mr.. Narkom. Don't you see the an
swers. the Acknowledgements. in the
Personal columns of the papers now
and again? Wheresoever l robbed IN
those old days 1 am repaying in
these. When the score is wiped on.
my hand will be clean, and l can
offer it: never before"
''Cleek! My dear fellow! What a
man, What a man. Oh. more than
ever am 1 certain now that old Sir
Horace wyvern was right that night
when he said that you were gen.
tleman. Tell me-I'll respect it-tell
me. for Gods sake. man. who are
you? What are you. dear friend ?"
Cleek." he made reply. Just
Cleek! The rest is my secret and
Gods! We've never spoken of the
past since that night. Mr.. Narkom.
and. with your kind permission. we
never will speak of 1t again. I'm
Cleek. the detective. at your service
once more. Now. then. let's have the
me here. What's it all about?"
"Necromancy-wizardry-fairy-lore
all the stun and nonsense that goes
to the making of The Arabian
Nights :" said Maroon. waxing excited
as his thoughts were thus showed
hand. "All your Red Crawls' and
your Sacred Sons and your Nine
Fingered Skeletons are fools to it for
wonder and mystery. Talk about
witchcraft! Talk about wizards and
giants and enchanters and the things
that witches did in the days of Mac
beth! God bless my soul. they're moth
ing to it. Those were the days Of
matic, anyhow. as you can take or
leave it. as you like: but this
Look here. Cleek, you've heard of a
good many queer things and run foul
Of Onnd rnvCforioS TIL admit
but did you ever in this twentieth
century. when witchcraft and black
magic are supposed to be as dead as
Queen Anne. hear of such a marvel as
a man putting on a blue leather belt
that was said to have the power of
rendering the wearer invisible. and
then forthwith melting into thin air
and floating off like a cloud of pipe
smoker"
''Gammonr'
''non nothing, Facts"'
Facts? You're out of your head
man. The thing couldn't possibly
happen. Somebody's having you"
well, somebody had him, at all
events. Young Carboys. I mean
the chap that's engaged. or. rather.
daughter: and the poor girls half
out of her mind over 1t. He put the
belt on in the presence of her and
her father in their own house. mind
you. walked into a bedroom and van
ished like smoke. Doors locked.
windows closed. room empty. belt on
the floor and man gone. Not a trace
of him from that moment to this;
and yesterday was to have been his
wedding day. There's a mystery
II !ou like What do you make Of
Geek looked at him for an in
slant. Then
"My dear Mr. Narkom. for the mo-
ment I thought you were fooling."
he said in tone of deep interest.
earnest, although the thing sounds
so preposterous a child might be ex-
pected to scoff at it. A man to get
a magic belt; to put 1t on and then
to melt away? Why. the Seven
tax on ones credulity. Sit down
and tell me all about it."
THE dickens of it is there doesn't
seem to be much to tell" said Mar
kom. accepting the invitation. young
a decent sort of chap. had neither
money, position nor enemies. so
that's an end to any idea OF some
body having a reason for wishing
to get rid of him: and. as he was
devotedly attached to Miss Morrison
and was counting the very hours to
the time Of their wedding. and. in
addition. had no debts. no entang1e-
ments of any sort and no possible
reason for wishing to disappear.
there isn't the slightest ground Tor
suspecting that he did SO volun-
"Suppose you tell me the story from
the beginning and leave me to draw
my own conclusions regarding that.
said cleek. Who and what was the
man? Was he living in the same
house with his fiancee. then? You
say the disappearance occurred there
at night and that he went into a
bedroom. Was the place his home as
we'll as Capt. Morrison's. then?"
''On the contrary. His home was
He was merely stopping at the Nor
risons' on that particular night. I'll
tell you presently why and how he
came to do that. For the present let's
take things in their proper order.
Once upon a time this George carboys
and his parents-long since dead
were we'll to do. The son. being an
only child. was well looked after.
sent to Eton and then to Brasenose.
and all that sort of thing. and the
future looked very bright for him.
his father lost everything through un-
lucky speculations, and that forced
the son to make his own living. At
the varsity he had fallen in with a
rich young Belgian named Maurice
Van Nant, who had a taste for sculp-
ture and the fine arts generally and
they had become the warmest and
closest of friends"
Maurice Van Nant? That's the
sculptor fellow you said in the be-
ginning had gone through his money.
isn't lit"
Yes. Well. when young carboys
was thrown on the world, so to speak.
this Van Nant came to the rescue.
made place for him as private sec
retary and companion. and for three
the world together. going to Egypt.
Persia. India. ct cetera. as Van Nant
was mad on the subject Of oriental
art and wished to study 1t at the
fountain head. In the meantime both
silent majority and left him without
a relative in the world. barring Capt.
Morrison. who is an uncle about seven
times removed. and would. Of course.
naturally be heir at law to anything
poor beggar. which he hadn't. But
that's getting ahead of the story.
We'll, at the end of four or five
years or SO Van Nant came to the
bottom Of his purse. hadn't a silver
left; and from dabblinK in art for
a means of earning a livelihood. And
he and Carboys returned to England
and. for purpose of economy. pooled
their interests. took a small box Of a
house over Putney way. set up q reRu-
lar bachelor establishment and
started in the business of bread win
ming together. Carboys succeeded in
getting a clerks position In town;
Van Nant set about modelling clay fig
ures and painting mediocre pictures,
and selling both whenever he could
ind purchasers.
Naturally. these were slow in COM
fnR; few and far between: but with