The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-08
FICTION

game up and that safety lay in flight"
'1m afraid that's the only reasonable
explanation for her disappearance, replied
Crewe. "But who warned her."
THAT'S the point" excaimed0Gillett. II
have been thinking it over ever since | dis
covered she had gone, and I've come to the
conclusion that it must have been that in
fernal little dwarf or her husband, though
what is their object is by no means clear.
Who else could it have been? The only
other people who know that l intended to
unmask her are yourself, Westaway and Mr..
Marsland. BY process of elimination sus-
picion points to the Oranges"
Crewe did not reply. While Gillett was
speaking a flash of that inspiration which
occasionally came to him when he was
cropping in the dark for light revealed to
him the key by which the jigsaw of clues,
incidents, hints suspicious, and evidence in
the Cliff Farm murder could be pieced to-
gether. But the problem was one of ex-
traordinary intrcacy, and he needed time
to see if all the pieces would fit into the
pattern.
1t was at Detective Gillett's suggestion
that they walked up to the top of the hill
to the headland where Marsland's horse had
taken fright on the night of the storm.
He took Crewe's arm and walked ahead
with him. leaving the sergeant to follow
with Marsland. AS they went along, he I'M
consciously revealed the extent of his de-
pendence on Crews stronger intelligence by
laying before him the remaining difficult
ties regarding the case. His chief concern
was lest Miss Maynard should warn Brett
in time to enable him to slip through the
net which had been woven for him. To
Crewe's inquiry whether the London police
had come across any trace of him he shook
his head
mo, he is lying low, wherever he is. Ny
own belief is that he has not gone to Lon
don but that he is hidden somewhere in the
Staveley district l shall look for him here,
and Scotland Yard is watching his Lon
don haunts. He's pretty bad egg, you
know. We've a record of him at Scotland
Yard"
"What has he done?'
"He's identical with fashionable rogue
and swindler who, under the name of De-
lancey, kept night club and a gambling
hell in Piccadilly during the first year of
the war. We had reasons for closing the
place without prosecution, and Delaney,
instead of being sent to goal, was allowed
to enlist. He returned to England a few
months ago, invalided out of the army,
where he known under the name of
Powell. Since then he has been employed
by the government in secret work, mixing
with the Germans who are still at large in
this country and getting information about
German spies. He was given this work to
do because he speaks German so fluently
that he can pass as a German among Ger
MANS"
II suppose this girl Maynard will try
to join him wherever he isl resumed Gil
lett, after a pause. cts a queer thing,
don't you think, for well-brought-u Eng
lish girl of good family to make such fool
of herself over an unmitigated scoundrel
like Delaney, or Brett or Powell, or what
ever he calls himself? From what l have
learned up at Staveley this girl first met
Brett about three months ago. l do not
know how they came to know each other,
but from her visit to Cliff Farm on the
night of the murder think that Lumsden
must have introduced them. There was
some bond between Brett and Lumsden
which have been unable to fathom 1t is
true they knew each other through being
in the army together, but that fact doesn't
account for their continued association aft
erward, because there was nothing in COM
mon between the two men-Brett was q
double-dyed scoundrel and Lumsden was
a simple, quiet sort of chap.
ut may have been the attraction of OPP
posites, or, it is more likely that Lumsden
knew nothing about Brett's past" continued
Gillett. Brett was certainly not likely to