, 1925-09-30
CHAPTER Ix-Continued

DrummOnd, l propose TO send an
anonymous letter TO Scotland Yard.
Surprised though they would be to
| get it. 1t might help them to clear up
the mystery of Mr.. Latter's insanity.
1t may prove rather unpleasant for
you. of course. but that can't be
helped"
ITS kind of you to give me a loop
hole of escape" said Drummond pleas
antly. what are the e~ventualities
to which you allude?"
1.-THE nonreturn to me of a little
bag containing diamonds" remarked
the h%unchback quietly. "They were in
| the desk which was wrecked by the
bomb"
Dear. dear" said Hugh. "Am /
supposed to have them in my posses
sion?"
II 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"
For a while Drummond smoked In
silence: then, with a lazy smile on his
face, he sat down in an armchair fac
ing the ~hunchback.
"There are one o. two things l have
to say to you before depriving myself
of the pleasure of your company. BY
the post following the one which car
ries your interesting disclosure will
go 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
owe the extraordinary delusion that l
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 1t he will state that he
was present mt 5 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
n other things which might he there,
n that while engaged In this emil
nentty virtuous proceeding he found
that he was trapped in the room by
some mechanical device. And then
will come n very interesting disclosure.
He will state how suddenly he saw
through a crack in the door a pair Of
eyes looking mt him. And their color
see, what is the color of your eyes?
-gray-blue. very noticeable. Much
the same as Did Longmoor's-though
his are n little bluer. And then the
owner Of the eyes was so inconsider.
ate as to throw a bomb in the room;
and wrecked the desk. So that the
owner of the eyes, gray-blue eyes Just
Ike yours, is n murderer common
murderer. And we hang men In Eng
land for murder" He paused and
stared at the hunchback. "Thls is a
jolly game. isn't lit"
"And you really imagine" said the
h~unchback contemptuously. that even
your police would believe such n story
that a man would wreck his own Of
fee, when on your W showing he
had the men trapped inside III"
Probably not" said Drummond af-
fably. ANY more than they would
believe that I was the leader Of the
Black Geng. So since they're such a
wretched crowd OF unbelIevers I don't
think It's much good playing TINT
game. Waste OF time. isn't Il? So I
vote we play another one. all on our
own-n little game of make-believe-
like we used to play in the nursery"
II haven't an idea what you're talk
ing about. Captain Drummond." said
the ~hunchback. shifting ~uneasily In his
chair. Fol all trace OF %afrnbility had
vanished from the face Of the man
opposite him, to be replaced by nm
expression which made Mr.. Atkinson
pass his tongue once or twice over lips
that had suddenly rome dry.
Haven't you, you ratY" said Drum
mond quietly. ''Then ri tell you. Just
for the next five minutes we're going
to pretend that these two astonishing
statements which the polIce-stupId
fellows-won't believe nre true. We're
going to pretend-only pretend. mind
you-that ! am the leader OF the
Black Gang: and we're going to pre-
tend that you are the man who flung
the bomb last night. Just for Ave
minutes only. then we go back TO real.
ity n unbelIevIng policemen"
And II during the following five min.
utes strange sounds were heard by
Denny In the room below. he was fur
too accustomed to the sounds OF
breaking furniture to worry. IL
wasn't until the hunchbnck pulled n
knife that Drummond warmed 10 his
work. but from TINT he lost