Evening star., 1924-07-18
RIPPING RUBY
A Thrilling Mystery Story
By ]. S. FLETCHER
cspynsh. 1894 BY G.. p. rut.sm'. so.s

office. There he found Mr.. Pennith-
waite lying across his desk, dead, in
a pool of blood. He had evidently
been stabbed to death as he sat read
ing documents at his desk. The pa
pers before him were saturated with
blood. A half-smoked cigar had
fallen from his hand upon the carpet.
, On the desk stood a tumbler half full
or whisky and water. Everything
showed that he had been caught and
struck down unawares. The object
or the murderer was made plain from
mere glance round the room, an
apartment of considerable size. Every
drawer in the desk had been pulled
thrown all over the floor The muir
dered mans pockets had been turned
out, too, where he sat. In one of the
two safes in the room his keys were
found dangling from the lock. The
contents of the safes We're lying in
confusion in front OF them. There
were numerous chests and bureaus in
! the private room. Every one had
been gone through Systematically.
Whether the murderer succeeded in
finding whatever il was that he
sought for is. OF course, not known.
but there seems little doubt that he
had managed to enter the private
room while Mr.. Pennithwaite was at
his club, that he murdered his victim
immediately after the latter'S return,
ana that he spent most of the night
the middle portion, at any rate-iu
his mad search Nor is there much
doubt that this murder is correlated
to the murders of the three men,
holllment, Quartervayne and Nea-
more, and has been the work Of at
any rate one member of gang oper-
ating in subtly secret manner The
only satisfactory feature of the stu
atlon at present is that the police be-
neVe that three members of this gang
are already under arrest on another
charge. and that they feel confident
that completely in these murders viii
easily be proved against them. AS
regards the murder of Mr. Pennith-
waite, however. there is not up to the
time of writing, the slightest clue as
TO the exact identity and wherea bouts
of the murderer. The most disouiet-
with which he did his fiendish work
and got clean away from the scene
of his crime"
Peyton came into my room as I was
nnishing the last sentences OF this ac-
count. Silently. ] pointed to the head
ilnes and TO the column which fol-
lowed. Silently, he leaned over nv
shoulder and read the thing through
for himself, while I reread some of il.
And at the end we stood up and
looked at each other.
The Chinaman. he said in a low
voice. His work! Didn't ] say soo
murder"
As If I didn't know that" said l.
'And-who next"
He nodded his head, and, sitting
down, began to fill his pipe
This unfortunate old LAWYER
now he asked: Lady Renardsmere's
solicitor. eh?"
Just so" [ assented. "rhe man
to whom ! carried the packet
u n n i
tanned. without doubt, the thing.
whatever it is, that this Chfnaman is
numbering people to get hold of.
Those fellows. the other night. got it
OUT or you that you carried it to
Pennithwaite?
They did:-having first forced it
out of Walker, with their reyoIvers.
that he drove me there" | replied
But, OF course. l didn't know what
was IN the packet. SO l couldn't tell
them"
I'm not on that line" he remarked
I'm on this-thoSe fellows were col
Jared and locked up before they could
act on the Information they extracted
from you. Observation-Disclosures been
visited and murdered. Now then-is
OF his own, or is it just that he, be-
ing left in London. found out about
Pennfthwaite and lost no time in act
ing? Which,
That takes some thinking out" I
said, after a pause. Il think the
Chinaman must have remained in
London while the other three came
down here. In a quiet countryside
like this. a Chinaman would be
spotted at once: in London
Many Of them in London" he in
terrupted me to ask.
quite a lot, Down in the East
End, great many-LimehouSe is
China, to all intents and purposes" 1
answered. But these are Cinnamon
of the-I suppose-inferior classes
In other, better quarters of the town
there are Cinnamon of superior class
what we should call gentlemen.
What licks me about this particular
man, Chuh Small the name 1 know
him by-is this: he's lost part of an
ear! Therefore he's easily identiti-
able. Where can he get? Where
can he put himself ?-how does he
keep in the shadow?-that he hasn't
been pounced upon before now? Good