The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-03


pit. from which cold and damp air
streamed upon eur faces.
I'm going through" said Tredways.
Follow me. F'rancie. Spells. wait
here"
BE careful, Francie. There's a ring
bolt just inside, overhead. Get a grip
on it and lower yourself on to the iron
ladder which runs down inside the
hole"
It wasn't easy. but I soon found
myself standing by his side on a rat
gnewed wooden staging from which
half dozen steps went down.
see the green mould on those
steps?" exclaimed Tredways. "Go easy,
old man. or you win slip and perhaps
make a big bruise in the middle Of
your forehead, just as Pendrill did"
Holding the candle above his head
he descended before me- The smoky
light showed us passage with walls
of concrete slabs a-drip with foul
moisture. The end of this passage
seemed quite barred by a wall. also of
concrete. Tredways fumbled and toiIed
with his chisel for fully twenty minutes
before he got the hang OF the spring
which, released, showed that the ap-
parent wall was in reality door that
into large cellar"
1.-The place where the body of Pendrill
was discovered" announced my COM
panion. wiping the sweat from his
forehead. I'VE have reached it rtG
an unorthodox way-that is to say,
the way left for ingress or egress by
| the trio of banknote forgers who here
made their plates. their mills. their
| dies. Needless to say, all that para
phernalia was cleared away before the
police made their pounce. NJ case for
establishing the innocence Of our friend
Spells is. I am assured, now complete"
| He stuck the candle on a box and
| lighted cigarette.
| I stamnered. too astonished for clear
| speech. But how on earth did you
know of the existence of that hole in
the wall. that staircase and tunnel?"
How? I suspected something Of the
kind. I was bound to. Pendrill gave
1t away. After he had tried to test the
wretched memory of guilt which had
come to him, by sending to the houses
in Cover Street and Mortimer Street.
he could not rest until he had convinced
his agonized conscience by visit to
the haunt where he had worked with
his conjreres. He realized that IL he
found that. then his unhappy past Of
crime would be proved to himself But
he discovered that the house in Timber
rtreet was changed that It was the
establishment of secondhand book
seller. He made his way upstairs to
the secret. the stea1thy place OF en-
| trance which we have just used 1t
was a@ncealed, as it happened, by a row
of big volumes, The History of the
Peruvian Aborigines'. Pendri11 sent
away the bookseller under pretext of
wanting to study the work. Once alone,
he found the place of ingress. But he
had grown corpulent; he could not get
through burdened with his heavy top
coat So he left 1t behind him. When
he was through, fearing that the book
seller might return, he replaced the
volumes. which he had left within
reach, in their places. On his way
down those slippery steps he fell. as I
mentioned, hurt his forehead badly,
and may have been unconscious for a
few minutes. Finally. he entered this
cellar.
And then? He was alone with the
former scenes of his bad life. The
dread and horror of it rushed upon him.
He was aware from the duplicate note
| he had -received-the note which first
stirred the chords of memory--that an
enemy had found him. The past was
frightful; there was tereror in the
future. He had not ventured to this
sinister place without arms; and have
no doubt at all that he suddenly drew
the pistol from his pocket and-went
out eternally into the dark"
"Ah. good Heavens!" gasped.
ANY more questions?"
| Eyes, one more. The bookseller had
received an anonymous card asking
him to reserve the ten volumes of the
History. We know that it was in the
same writing as the code sent by Gold
sack: that is to say. Goldsack sent the
card, also. How did he come to do
that?"
| Simple. Afater sending that copy
of the code to Pendrill he watched, I
repeat, every movement of his victim.
He knew he had tried to find some EVIL
dence OF Peterson or hirnself-Go1d-
sack. It was clear to the latter, there
fore, that Pendriil would probably en-
deavor to find this place here. to ascer-
tain whether 1t really did exist in fact,
and not in a mental nightmare. And
he was right, only at that point Gold
sack made a bad move. He was pre-
! sumably SO suddenly and nervously
afraid that some chance customer would
purchase the Peruvian book and that
the secret entrance here would be
prematurely discovered. that. he hit
i upon the idea Of reserving the History.
! There he stupidity overreached himself:
but it is just the kind of slip which is
so often made by men of his sort. The
secret had been kept by time all those
years; 1t was safe enough. But he
worried about it; he wanted Pendrill to
! come and find 1t just as It was and
uninterfered with. He Is now, you will
perceive. my dear Francie, in our power.
Confronted with these facts by the
police. he will assuredly admit their
validity in order to save himself from
extreme unpleasantness. When state
Therefore that William Spells will be
EcIeared Of the charge Of numbering
Howard PeendriH I am convinced that