The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1925-10-07
rHAPTER IX-Continued

ID
YIN certain eventualtties, Captain
hammond, ] propose to send al
nonvmous letter to Scotland Yard
,rnrised though they would be Il
Of It It might help them to clear vi
10 mystery of Mr.. Latter's insanity
NAV prove rather unpleasant fol
on Of course, but that can't be-
helped"
Tt,s kind of you to give me a loop
,ole of escape" said Drummond pleas
,ntly. "What are the eventualities
10 which you alludef'
"The nonreturn to me of a little
nag containing diamonds" remarked
the bunchback quietly. "They were in
The desk which was wrecked by the
bomb"
.Dear. dear" said Hugh. "Am
supposed to have them in my posses
sionT
81 can only hope most sincerely for
YOUR sake that you have" returned the
other. "Otherwise I'm afraid that let
ter will go to the police
IL
For while Drumnond smoked in
silence: then, with lazy smile on his
face. he sat down in an armchair fac
ing the hunchback.
"There are one o. two things | have
to say to you before depriving myself
Of the pleasure of your company. BY
the post following the one which car
res your interesting disclosure will
70 another letter addressed TO Sir
| Bryan tombstone himself. / shall be
| in the office when he opens it-and we
shall both be roaring with laughter
over the extraordinary delusion that /
quite the biggest fool of his ac-
quaintance-could possibly be the
leader of the Black Gang. And, as if
to prove the utter absurdity of the
suggestion, this second letter will be
from the leader of the Black Gang
himself. In ii he will state that he
was present at 3 Green street. HoXton,
last night in an endeavor to obtain
possession of the anarchist and Boil
shevist literature stored there. That
he took with him a professional bur-
glar to assist him in opening the safe
and other things which might be there,
and that while engaged in this emf
nently yirtuous proceeding he found
that he was trapped in the room by
some mechanical device And then
will come a very interesting disclosure.
Hp will Ctafa hnn- hn
through crack in the door a pair of
eyes looking at him. And their color
see what is the color of your eyes?
-gray-blue. very noticeable Much
the same as old Longmoors-though
MS are little bluer. And then the
owner of the eyes was so inconsider-
ale as TO throw a bomb in the room;
a bomb which killed one of the men.
ana wrecked the desk So that the j
owner of the eyes. gray-blue eyes just ]
'i''e yours, is murderer common
And we hang men in Eng
land for murder" He paused and |
stared at the hunchback. "This is a |
Jolly game, isn't it?"
And you really imagine" said the
'unchback contemporary. that even
your police would believe such story
mai a man would wreck his own Of
ice when on your own showing he
lad the men trapped inside it?"
probably not" said Drummond af-
any. ANY more than they would
eheve that I was the leader of the
lack Gang. SO since they're such
Fretched crowd of unbelievers | don't
'ihk its much good playing that
anne. Waste of time, isn't it? So I
o'e we play another one, all on our
wn-a little game of make-beleve-
Ne we used TO play in the nursery"
l haven't an idea what you're talk
y about, Captain Drummond," said
ie hunchback, shifting uneasily in his
lair. For all trace of affability had
inished from the face of the man
'posite him, to be replaced by an
which made Mr.. Atkinson
'ss MS tongue once or twice over lips
at had suddenly gone dry.
Haven't you, you t?' said Drum
ond quietly. "Then I'll tell you. Just
the next five minutes we're going
pretend that these two astonishing
atements which the polce--stupid J
!ioWs-won't believe are true We're
ing TO pretend-only pretend. mind
u-that | am the leader of the
ack Gang; and we're going to pre-
III that you are the man who flung
bomb last night. just for five
nutes only. then we go back to real
and unbelieving policemen"
and If during the following five min Y
Is strange sounds were heard by
my in the room below, he was far
accustomed to the sounds of n
'aking furniture to worry. 1t p
sht until the hunchback pulled a ! Il
ne that Drummond warmed TO his u
TX, but from that moment he lost Il
temper. And because the bunch. y
* was hunchback-though en-
we'd withal by Nature with singular p
ehgth--it Jared on Drummond 80 X
II MIN as If he had been a normal u