t
CHINA
Belin, as he walked back across the Place de l'Opera, seemed preoccupied. I ask- ed him the reason, but all he said was:
"There's something wrong. Something has happened to that girl. What occurred don't know. I have to think it out."
MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT, 1928.
and at once received a reply that the gentle- man in question left his wife and family and went to Paris several months before, but had not been seen since.
As I was listening upon the second re- ceiver, I heard the Belgian police director add:
E
Days went on, and Belin continued his activities. From the old concierge he dis
"We have made inquiries in Paris, and it covered that the English miss had several seems very probable that he has gone away men friends, including a handsome young with a young English girl with whom he bachelor name Pierre Petit, who lived on the seen on several evenings in Montmartre." same floor as herself, the doors of their flatss there any actual evidence that they being opposite. The old woman had often have gone off together?" asked Belin. seen them pass in and out of each other's "None. But our inquiries showed that door, and they appeared to be on excellent just after Christmas they both disappeared. terms. But the curious feature was that we found the English girl's apartment lock- about a month before the inquiries" were | ed."" made, young Petit had packed a large trunk, locked his door, and, giving the concierge the kty, told her that he would be absent from Paris for at least six months.
With Belin I entered the young man's apartment, but there was nothing abnormal. All was in excellent order, his clothes care- fully packed away against moths.
"Have you a photograph of Maertens?" Belin asked.”
"Yes. I will post one to you 'to-night, But one was sent to your department on February third last, with particulars."
Thanks. I'll look it up. I am Belin, of the Surete, and I may probably travel to Antwerp, to see you. Au revoir!" And he rang off.
"It looks like an elopement. They are in America, I think," said my friend. And then we parted, for I was entertaining friends at dinner at Vian's that night.
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The father of the young man Petit was found to be living about thirty miles out of Paris, at Moret-sur-Loing, so thither we went. He was a pleasant old fellow, a retired bookseller, who had kept'a shop in the Rue de Rivoli, and at once he told us how his
Next morning the missing girl's sister son had gone on business to South America called at my little flat in the Rue Lafayette, for the firm with, which he was employed. and in high glee showed me a telegram, from Only a week before he had received a letter | her mother to the effect that Lilian had writ from him in Rio de Janeiro.
ten to her from the Hotel de Londres, at Genoa, to say that she was quite well and would be returning to England shortly. I at once took her to Belin, who telegraphed to Mrs. Enderby asking that the letter should
"Do you know of his association with a young English lady who lived on, the same floor as himself, a Mademoiselle. Enderby?"
Belin asked.
--on
the photograph. "It is Monsieur the Baron the great friend of mademoiselle. He was her Santa Claus, she said."
"Did he often come here?"
"Sometimes he would come in two or three times a day, and then I would not see him again for weeks. The Baron gave me many 'pourboires,' He is a very nice gentle-
man.'
"When did you see him last?" queried
Belin.
The old woman hesitated.
"I think it was the evening before made- moiselle went away," she replied.
"Did she go away alone?" asked Belin. "I did not see anyone with her, mon-
sieur."
"You are sure that this gentleman was with her on the night of Christmas Eve?" he asked; tapping the photograph.
"Certainly he was, monsieur."
If he had been there on the night in ques- tion, then it was probable that he had dined But for whom had that third place at table been prepared? with her.
At ten o'clock next morning we let our- selves into the stuffy little place, opened the windows, and with his assistant; named Peyron, we made a minute search of the place. Some letters from the girl's mother und sister were found, as well as one from her American employe. She had certainly left hurriedly, and could have taken scarcely any of her wardrobe. What, we wondered, was the great haste?
Searching in the bedroom, Belin found concealed under the paper lining of a drawer a tiny white paper packet containing a white powder, which we took at once to be cocaine.
"This may be snow!" the detective re- marked. "We'll send it to Doctor Paull to be analysed." And he at once dispatched his assistant out to Versailles with the little packet.
"He brought her here on two occasions. be sent at once.
a Sunday," replied his father. "I On the following evening Miss. Enderby thought her a very nice young lady. She brought it to me, and I took it at once to was engaged to marry a rich Belgian-a Belin. diamond-cutter in Antwerp, my son told me. "I'm!" he grunted after scrutinising the He came here orice,"
-post-mark. "An envelope of the hotel in "Do you recollect the name, monsieur ?" Genoa posted at Forli, the other side of asked Belin, eagerly. "Try and remember, Italy! She recognises her sister's handwritty as it is of the greatest importance."
Ing?" he asked, and I replied in the affirma-
•
"The name was Maertens, I believe-in-tive. deed, I am sure it was. He was a stout, red- After a delay of nearly an hour he spoke faced man, rather coarse, I thought. Next to the manager of the hotel in Genoa, say- time my son came down a week before he ing who he was, and inquiring about the left-I questioned him about the Belgian, young English girl and the stout, red-faced but he said that he had but little knowledge man who was missing.
We remained there for another hour, after which we parted, and I returned home. That evening I was summoned hurried- by telephone to the Prefecture, where I. found Belin awaiting me in a state of some excitement.
•
"That powder we found is pronounced by Doctor Paull, the medico-lcgist, to be one of the most dangerous.of all Eastern poisons. It is, he says, prepared from the juice of the tuber Alocasia Denudata with Papaya, and
of the man except that he was very rich and "We had a young English girl answer- the dose can be so regulated as to cause came to Paris frequently to sell diamonds.ing the description staying here about ten either permanent insanity in two or three It was just after Christmas, and he said that days ago. There was a young Italian with days or death within a quarter of an hour. she had told him that Maertens had acted as her. I do not recognise the description you He has asked for the wine-glasses on the a very generous Santa Claus to her."
give of the Belgian."
table, and has found traces of the poison in "You have no suspicion that mademoi "What was the name given by the one of them!" selle has cloped with your son?" asked the Italian?". famous detective-inspector.
"Giovanni Marchetti. They were appar- ently husband and wife, and were devoted to each other. When they left they took the Rome.express."
"Not in the least. She left her apart ment just after Christmas, saying that she was returning to England to prepare for her marriage."
"Then perhaps she has,eloped with the Belgian?" I suggested.
Belin shrugged his shoulders. And finding that he could learn no more, he took down the address of young Petit's employer and the address of the firm's branch in South America, and together we returned to Paris.
That evening I sat in his office at the Surete while he rang up the Antwerp police. He was not long in speaking with the director of the detective department of that city, having given the code prefix which the police used to guarantee that the conversa- tions are genuinely from the source they are supposed to emanate. Police officials are naturally always on their guard against re- ceiving false information, or such as will lead them off the scent of some absconding criminal.
--
Belin wasted no words. He asked if they had received any report concerning a dia mond-cutter of Antwerp named Maertens,
1
Then, after some further inquiries, he hung up the receiver, and turning to me, said:--
"I think that's all we can do. It is a funny case, but the girl is evidently alive, and, as I fully expected, has gone away with a young man."
"Then somebody was evidently poisoned in the flat the evening the girl left!" I ex- claimed, amazed.
"Yes. Was it the Belgian, Maertens?" he asked.
He
In an hour a hue-and-cry was raised all over Europe, and inquiry soon made in all the lunatic asylums, with the result that from the great asylum outside Lyons came a few days later a report that a patient an- swering the description, and identical with the photograph, was an inmate there. "But where is Maertens ?" I queried. had been found wandering insane and penni- "Ah! That is a matter for the Belgian Jess in the streets of Lyons on the night of police." And, taking up the photograph December 27, arrested by the police and, which had been sent to the Surete in Feb being unable to give any account of himself, Fruary, he carefully examined it. His was had been taken to the asylum,
the face of a "bon viveur," a heavy, sensual. At once. Belin became active. Inquiries In the underworld of Paris resulted in the countenance with half-closed eyes...
"But she could furnish some informa- girl's companion, young Marchetti, being tion?" I suggested. "It is proved that they identified as a desperate young Italian disappeared from Paris almost simultane-criminal. It was plain that the girl and he were associates in the dastardly attack upon ously."
True. Perhaps that old concierge in the the Belgian. They secured from him on Rue des Petits Champs might tell us some that Christmas Eve loose diamonds and cash. thing about him," he said. And together we to the extent of nearly fifty thousand strolled round to the dark, gloomy old house. pounds.
"Oh, yes, monsieur, croaked the old woman How the man managed to secure the in her high-pitched voice-as soon as she saw poison is not known.