זן
3
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MAY
A Visitor Is Expected
S. we entered the drawing room, Travers hurried for- werd.
"Good-evening, Inspector," he said nervously to my companion. "I'm so glad you've come. My wife and I were afraid that....'
"Speak
By
CLIFFORD WEST
It was to the wife that Forbes addressed his reply.
"A truck driver reported having given a lift to a stranger. and we cant afford to ignore the possibility that it may have been our man."
Mrs Travers booked out of the window into the dark auturan evering." "So he may be...: quite near, then“
Mrs Travers," I said."
be near the house."
"Yes, for yourself, Henry," interrupted the "He may at this very moment tall, stern-looking woman at the ornate marble fire- place. "I'm not in the least afraid. I think this whole business is being grossly exaggerated."
"I must disagree with you there, Mrs Travers," objected Inspector Forbes, "This man's escape con- stitutes a serious threat to your life and is not a mat- ter to be treated lightly."
Mrs Travers shrugged. you please. Inspector. And this gentleman.
"A
Dr Merton is the superinten dent of the institution," explained Forbes," and is. here to help us in the search."
I
BOWED to the lady, and Forbes, after consulting his notebook, continued. "The man got away just after five o'clock this afternoon, which means he two had has
approximately hours in which to make his way here....
"Unhindered?" flashed
"Travers.
"How did he manage it" she demanded.
•
"This afternoon," I explained, He scok part
in an amateur performance, and dramatic after the Birow must have slipped our with the visitors"
"There seems to have been COTVARANCIS sortwhere," was Mrs Travers' acid rejoinder,
"It will be investigated on my return," I informed her, "Mean wale, I am more anxious about your protection The mani dangerous."
"Yea" added the Inspector "I discussed the case with Dr TRAVERS gave a little whim Merton on his arrival, and from pering sound and opened his what he told me, together with
on to speak, but his wife intprmation received. the mouth silenced him with a glance, telephone from the asylum 'm convinced that we are dealing "Don't let the doctor frighten with a criminal who will go to to achieve his lengths you Henry" she said,
con- object." Nevertheless, she temptuously. went to the window and pulled the heavy curtains across. Then, cerning back to the fireplace, she spoke to the Inspector,
"I am to understand, then, that a homicidal maniac has been permitted to escape from
public institution,
and to travel about quite freely, making what plans he pleases to com- mit murder?"
*
Forbes sighed almost imper- ceptibly. "I appreciate your echern. Mrs Travers, and can only repeat that we are doing everything in our power to ap- prehend him."
any
"That is true," 1
"
confirmed
The alience that followed my words was broken caly by the crackling of the fire.
She considered this for a. moment. "In other words doctor, I may be murdered for administering justice?"
"Justice, Mrs Travers?? echoed. "Was it justice to turn a hungry boy into an orphan and a criminal?”
TOOM.
One Of The World's Strangest Stories
The Disappearance Of Mr. Howe
BY PETER JACKSON
Although free from debt she to live in a quiet back street in
And for 17 years to have occupied
found it difficult to support her- Westminster, self and her two children and he appears, was forced to apply for a special his time in keeping an eye on. Ast of Parliament to be parand his wife.
so that she could have a weekly Every Sunday he would follow
"He was given a life sentence, acd in
prison,
breeding over his wrongs, his already unstable mind became completely unhinged, leading to his transCertainly, Inspector. Come to my establishment. During this way, And, Travers, happy
allowance out of her husband's her to St James's Church, Ple- the years he has been there, I to escape, led Forbes from the
ostate.
cadilly, and sit, undetected. have got to know him very well,
was successful, few pews away from her. When In this she and if you
are to appreciate
fate had another blow in sto www.forced to apply to Mas Travers gave me a Jong B HOWE should, have been store for her, Beth her children Parliament for a regular allow- your position, Mrs Travers, you
MR. must grasp the fact that he stare tha: came very near to a happy man. He enjoyed died Then Mrs Howe decided ance out of his estate be had holds you entirely responsible hatred. They, turning her back the comfortable incons of £800 to move to a smaller house and enjoyed reading about the pro- for his sufferings."
on me ungraciously, she stood a year. and lived in Jenny she found one to a taste in greas of the Bill in the various looking, with smouldering fury, Street, And in the early days
Brewer Street, where she "gazettes" at his coffee-house, into the fire,
of Queen Anne's reign that was resigned herself to a life of
At A Distance -> income and as Jonely widowhood. "You My
the
is substantial man
She was not entirely alone, He' watched his wife's unex- intelligent"
she flung over her fashionable an address as any-
however, for she had a sister rected move from Jermyn Street shoulder. "Doesn't be, in that one could wish for. I case.
realise the consequences The lady he married came of who was married to a Doctor to Brewer Street at a respectful that would follow a good West Country family Rose. It was when she was at distance and noticed that the to himself the success of his plan? Or must was a devoted mother to their dinner with them one night 17 building opposite her new house after her husband had was a cornchandler's shop kept 1 assume he will be allowed to two children and proved to be a years escape from here as easily as faithful wife, It appears o vanished that a letter was de- by a Mr Salt. Howe made it his which an business to scrape an acquain- Do you presume to criticise he did from your institution?" have been a happy family yet livered to her in
anonymous writer asked her to fance with this Mr Salt and they me, sir?" she blazed.
I smiled wryly. "No. Mrs something was wrong
meet him in Birdcage Walk the scon become so intimate that he Travers, his escape is
was frequently invited to dinner. text evening. He Vanished
This could not have been more stemy unlikely, I believe that,
Dr Rose examined the mys- once his mission was peccm- The soul of Me Howe was, for terious note mase carefully and
olber dinner, puched, he would not count the same reason
he was able to shall never "declared that the handwriting cost to himself."
know, unsatisfied by mere
was that of her husband. Where stand at Salt's window and look. domestic bliss.
Mrs upon
Howe
the street into promptly directly across
his A slight tremor ran through
and W'e's eight One
some
dining-rooms. morning
swooned-in those days the re- her tall figure, the only sign of years after his marriage, he rose rogaised procedure in such cir- watch her comings and going human, feeling she had shown
Howe tell his all this than round, cumstances. а little earlier chroughout the evening.
his wife that he had some
that evening they mat for the telling
The following evening her
relations escorted first time in 17 years? And it "You dalk as though you re-urgent businers at the Tower of friends and
There Was nothing is Howe to Birdcage Walk and he did, how did he answer her gard my death as inevitable. unusual in this and his un- promptly at the appointed time inevitable "Why?" doctor."
suspecting rife gave him break her husband appeared, fast and saw him off.
Kissed Her
gravely. "He is possessed of a een, at unbalanced, Intelligence, and is driven on by an insatiable thirst for revenge upon society.
"when he piars to sutisty by Reyes met in sudden con- killing me?" said our hostess.
"Precisely," I agreed,be: cause you
have stood, in his eyes, for the community that has always persecuted him ever since, 35 Chairman of the Juvenile Court, you sent him to a reform school....
in
"But naturally I did," broke He Nau Travers.
Mars
flict.
AS a doctor." I answered with severity, "I know the disastrous effect your "justice" has had on this man's life, and I feel very strongly about it,”
"I had a judicial responsi bility," insisted the implacable woman, "and I discharged it.'
*You
in a position." I were burgled shops and stolen food-countered, to see that both the boy and his mother got the help they so badly needed. That was not once, but several times."
responsibility, and your moral you chose to igriore it"
"How dare you?" she demand- Y tone became firmer. "He ed angrily. I should be very
glad if you. .. ..
"I'm sure yea are," answered Mrs Travers, coldly, "but it says of OUT Ettle for the efficiency
force that he is still at police large, and even less"-she transferred her steely gaze to
the Mrs me "for
competence of those in charge of our mental hospitals that he was allowed M to escape at all"
"Every available policeman in the county is looking for him, madam
+
'
replied the Inspector. I could not help feeling a gut so far he has reluctant admiration for this evaded capture. It is essential woman, who gave all her stien therefore, that you should re- tion to criticising the authorities. main under constant surveillance while having. apparently, no
qualms for her own safety. until he is caught."
"It will be most inconvenient, did not, however, let the slur
Mrs Poss unchallenged. protested Inspector," Travers.
"But better than being dead," rejoined that officer, drily.
Travers shuddered visibly. "Do you really think he's in the district, Inspector?'
I
"Escapes from our institutions madam" I re turned,
"Indeed, are very rare.
stify.
the mere fact of iris escape provides ample evidence of the man's cunning and
resource, and therefore, of the seriousness of the present situation."
stole. because, after the death of his father, he and his mother were left destitute. While he was away, the mother-deprived of the little help he had been able to give her married again. She was ill-treated by her second husband, and died...."
I paused, watching for some trace of feeling to appear on those hard features,, bat Mrs Travers, unmoved, waited for "As you know, me to go on
was released when the youth
hunted down the step father he never met and killed him. To be exact, he strangled him with a leather strup.”
"Mrs
11
Travers,"
:
1
intervened you
Inspector Forbes"-and, Dr Merton,--I must ask you to keep mind the reason we are all here. It is to prevent a madman from carrying out 3, murderous design, and we shan't" do it by losing our tempers."
-
SAID nothing for a moment, but casually slipping my hand into my pocket, studied her face in the gilt-framed mirror above the mantelpiece.
Then I said quietly, "It is inevitable, Mrs Travers."
She looked up at me sharply, and began to shake her head, Arst slowly, then more quickly. "No," she gasped, "No...you can't be...."
She started to scream, but I was already twisting the strap around her throat.
we.
.
to Mr Howe's, liking, for now.
He must have found some ex- planation
her satisfaction. IoT we are tald that they spent. the rest of their lives together in perfect harmony.
She watched him walk along. Jermyn Street and pause at the
He gently kissed his wife and Haymarket to wave back to her.
·ber escort.
We don't know what his ex- Then he disappeared ramd the bowed politely to
But for just how long Then he took her by the arm, planation was, for although he he had vanished Mrs Howe and they walked off chatting made no secret of his moVÉ- could not possibly have guessed. gaily. What they chatted about ments he never give a reason
At least, for his extraordinary conduct, not difficult to imagine Mrs
corner.
one can easily Howe's side of the conversation,
the
circumstances
A few hours later as she was preparing a meal for his return she was surprised to receive a note from him explaining that though in he had to go immediately to her Holland and would be away for you about a month,
And that was the last Mrs Howe heard of her husband for 17 years.
When it became evident that Mr Howe was not returning his wife began to think that he must have fled the country to escape some large debt, and she lived in constant fear of demands from crediters.
Inevitable
beer.?"
Exacting
If he had grown tured of his "Where have "perfoot wife" and wanted to
DO
stums hardly get away from her for a time, adoquate to cover the situation why the persistent interest
Perhaps What Mr Howe's reply, at the her
actions? time was we have no way of wanted to test her didelity, in axwing. What could be tell which case to be convinced of her? Where had he been?, it only after 17 years of privaba He had not been to Hollard or detective work seans a little
exacting. indeed out of England.
He had, in fact, been
We will never know the William King, further than a few streets away answer for Dy He turned to the trembling
from his wife all those 17 years who wrote what is, so far as I The house is being
of separation
can discover, the only rat Travers. closely watched, but in case he
But nothing of the kind hap- As soon as he had lot her hand account of the affair, is
vague should get through somehow and
about 'Mr The pened, and upon examining his Mr Howe had disguised himself tantalisingly (All Rights Reserved. try to effect an entrance during
and incidenta in papers she discovered that he in the long black periwig of the Howe's motives. would
characters Eke ta the night, I marsine the doors and windows this story are entirely Betitious and settles all his bills and paid period (he was normally a fair However we must be thankful se of debts before he dis- man and had, apparently, worn to him for giving jus a word with the. No reference is Intended to all his
his Own hair). Then he went London's quaintest Hitle' enigmas. and have servants."
any persons, living or dead). appeared.
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