Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-10
CHAPTER AAXIX.
REDsLADE'S STORY.

7
REDSLADE'S STORY.
| - OMERFIELD stood the shock Of
the new relation between me
| and Veronica with his usual
~ sangfroid when we told him at
dinner that night.
At 8 o'clock came an urgent message
from Laxton demanding the instant
presence of Somerfield and myself at
the Lord Nelson. He took us at once to
his room
mfr. Redslade!" said he.
A tall man rose from a chair at the
table. I started back, unable to sup
press a cry.
Cousin John"
Blind as 1t may seem, we had not
till that moment dreamed of connect
ing the fugitive with Redslade. The
legend of his death had been firmly
established in our minds. But now
explanations of the inexplicable rushed
up in q flood But also, with them,
fresh conundrums.
Why had he masqueraded as Mr..
Richard? Spent three years in prison?
Allowed his ancestral estate to be dis
sipated while he had one fortune lying
In a Belgian bank, and another in gold
and jewels apparently at his hand?
ana, ABOVE iii, WLldG WAS NcIOAllSd .
part in the complication?
Laxton was speaking:
i've arranged with Mr. Fotherbury
for Eastley to come to Newplace at
half past 9 and meet us there. think
we shall then get to the bottom of
Pell's riddle. But Mr.. Grenofen and
Mr.. Somerfleld ought to be put wise to
the preliminaries, I think. eh?"
ITS pretty rotten story Redslade
objected.
was how it shaped. Mr.. Redslade I'M
expectedly inherited Newplace while he
was youth in the army, where he
struck up his close friendship with
Pell. He did not come of age till the
war was over.
Then he found himself the owner
of an estate so encountered that he
could not keep it up. He got into
the hands of the money-lenderS, and
finally he fell to the share of the firm
of Smithins. They made an arrange
ment with him to discharge all the
mortgages on Newplace and give him
a new one-a real thumper.
His lawyers were dead against the
arrangement, but the sight of $4,000
in cash was too much for him. Very
soon he couldn't keep up his interest.
Then Smithins jumped on him.
mfr Redslade was ruined. Not long
before he had met Miss Vandenessen
and fallen in love with her. And that
brings me to Pell and the Seabrokes-
because it was Pell who introduced him
to the Seabrokes at their apartment in
the Rue Rogier, and there that he met
Miss VandeneSsen.
You've already got the hang of
Pelps identity-Philip Lincoln-an old
acquaintance of Mrs. Seabroke in her
younger days, a neighbor of Lincoln's
mother Pell, in two holidays in Bel
GUM, had visited Mrs. Seabroke In
Brussels and her daughter at Bruges.
ION the third visit, in 1924, he had
his friend Redslade with him. Pell was
man of different social rank from Mr..
RedSlade-an accountant in the city.
At various times, he made violent eff
forts to save Mr.. Redslade from his
besetting sin Of gambling. They all
failed
Now, you know that Pell and Mr..
Redslade were together in Brussels in
the Summer of 1925. Pell had gone
with him to Ostend at the most des-
perate point in his fortunes, just after
the foreclosure on Newplace. Pell
feared what Redslade might do-he
that the report of his death was &C
cepted as fact.
but Pell rescued him that night.
He chased his maddened friend along
the digue from the Casino to the Quai
des Pecheurs, where he went over into
the water. Pell followed, dragged him
ashore in the darkness of the railway
pier, spent two awful days with him
in one of the back slums CT Ostend,
and finally took him of to Bruges in
the hope that Miss VandeneSSen would
n,1ra him IF his Y11olanch0lia
Miss VandeneSsen was staying In
! Brussels with the SeabrokeS. They
| went there, and unhappily found that
Comdr. Seabroke, whom they both then
met for the first time, had joined his
family.
you know Comdr Seabroke. To
him, Redslade as owner of Newplace
was a desirable acquaintance. But
when Pell brought to his house this
ruined man, appearing to claim SYM
pathy and the hand of his daughters
| friend, Seabroke saw red. There wa
a terrific row.
"Pell took him away. But the report
of his own death suggested to Redsladt
| the conduct that caused all the trouble
afterward He would have one fling
with his last few hundred francs. Il
he lost, he would stay dead.
THE same night was the night of
| the seven coups at the Kursaal. Mr.
Redslade knew nothing of Markings
presence in the crowd If he was there
Neither did Pell.
"They did meet Marling on the boat
/ next morning. He seemed anxious to
avoid them, but they were full OF a
scheme for employing the windfan to
come to some arrangement with
! Smithins, and they mentioned 1t to
Marling. He would listen to nothing
Again Mr.. Redslade made false step
He told Marling he meant to remain
| dead till the question was settled, and
! that he and Pell were going to STOP
at the Lord Warden that night.
"At Dover they lost sight Of him.
What Marling did in the few hours be.
tween the arrival of the boat and Il
O'Clock at night when the Scufne too.
place on the cliffs we can only guess
| There's something in the backgroun,
of that.
"But the actual fact is that MI
Redslade and Pell we're attacked b,
three men whom they did not know
and might have come badly of If Mr.
Redslade had not been a bit of {
bruiser and an expert with the upper
| cut"
| Laxton rubbed his chin and smilt
with mock ruefulness
HE got bit too much weight b
hind Il that time and laid out his ma
/ too permanently. The essential potl
| is that when they chased the 9th
men who ran away, they found thrG