Evening star., 1928-10-01
|BLUE MURDER Edmund Sy Shell
Shell
Peril.
With Crime and Rescue of I

Kidnapping scheme. Taking into con-
siheration the swiftness with which her
Preparations for tins lightning visit had
been made. he could not imagine in
what way this king OF crooks could
hRwe 0btained knowledge nd her mDSR-
ImentS unless he was instrumental in
planning them.
There was no reason why the Lizard
should be interested in Gpeta. It was
30 obviously a scheme to get even with
lIimself to auenge those incidents in
TavernerS study and ON the ssRGhore-
: possibly even rtEe to lnre him from
he neighborhood of the Villa Sabino.
With scarcely look at the prostrate
Parsons, he ran through the glass door
/ way to the top of the stone steps on
| which he had had his last interview
With Mafal6a He found no sign OF
movement there or in the garden below.
| Glancing back through the doorway,
! he saw some. one enter the lounge from
\ the 1anding-a waiter With glasses ON
tray drinks that Parsons had probably
ordered
He stepped back into the room and
'srlatched up f1is cap.
"Cameriere," he shouted breathlessly,
! there has been trouble here. The
4 Sgnor Parsons has been injured and I
| can find no trace Of the aady who was
with him. You'd better get him to his
room and telephone for doctor
The man dropped his tray o.. the
nearest table and approached the fallen
EngfiShman timidly
'Dio!" he calculated, and spread out
his hands.
Dighton left him cifthering On the
Itcarpet and descended the flight three
steps at time.
The fact that creta had been taken
n without any noise of a struggle pene-
4 tratmg to the han aStounded him. Hc
could only assume that the Lizard had
drugged her.
Almost at the foot Of the steps he
came to a halt abruptly and went back
to pick UP a Woman'S shoe that he had
almost overlooked IN his haste. It w2s
a plain, fawn-colored shoe with a single
| strap, and he believed it to be one of
the pair he had seen Greta wearing.
4 He had thrust it into pocket and
Il was starting off again when his atten-
\ hon was attracted to a strip of the road
\ which led doUnhi1l to the town. Not
I 20 yards beyond the arcade he saw a
| yellow touring car. with hood up and
punlber plate partly oblfterated, IN the
Iact of starting away. There vas some
ilthing curious about that car. A small
| group Of Italians had gathered on the
pavement looking at it. It was simpler
4 to attract crowd in italy than in
Y probably any other country IN Europe,
4 but even Italians refrain from collect
ing in body to view a perfectly nor
NAL automobile pursuing It's normal
course
As Dighton emerged from the garden
| the car jerled to q sudden halt and a
man in a gray hat peered behind him
from under the hood.
Dighton started.
1t was gray velouriof just that shade
that he had noticed lin LDndon and in
Paris. There were gray hats in Rapallo,
too, worn by quite respectable people.
but, generally speaking, black was the
lEpopular shade. It was imperative that
he should do something instantly-take
same definite actipn to rescue Greta
llfrom the danger which threatened her.
Because of the crowd, the coincidence
|of the hat and the promptings of some
l'mysterious sixth sense winch came up
IIpermost in crisis, he decided to follow
THAT car.