་
NEW SERIAL STORY
THE MERAFIELD MYSTERY.
CHAPTER XXI.
By R. A. J. WALLING. (Author of "The Third Degree," "Fatal
alovo," ets.).
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
WEDNESDAY,
THE ANGLO-IRAK TREATY.
MAN WHO WAS NOT THERE.
STRANGE MISTAKEN IDENTITY CASE.
"TO TIGHTEN INTER-COUNTRY"
TIES.
London, Oct. 21.
King Felsal of Irak Conferred with Sir Henry Dobbs, the Consul- General for Irak, for 45 minutes to- day.
HHHHH Now I come to the most remark- able part of the chain of circum-Park Hotel. stances in the Merufield case..
After the court was over I re- marked signs of excitement among the police, whispered consulta
between
and Rossiter Grainger, à general atmosphere of impending events.
Qf course, Greene held all the cards, as I alone in the court knew. He was aware that he could not possibly get either of the prisoners discharged that day, buttons he was going to set up a current of feeling in their favour-create the impression that ultimately they must get off.
"Smart man, Mr. Greene," said Grainger to me when Rossiter had Having removed from his path gone out and I and my clerk were the suspicion with which Rossiter learing up books and documents. had surrounded Quance, he turn "But I think we ahall be a bit ed his attention to Lady Merafield. smarter this time, Mr. Franks."
"Well, don't be too hard on him. I was curious to know how he would deal with that side of his Grainger," said I. "He's only a case, which was far more obscure.[ poor lawyer, you know, doing his Actually he dealt with it in pre-best for his clients."
I wish I was poor like that," cisely the same way.
He asked that Grainger should said Grainger. be recalled and his evidence read "Well, if you bring this off it'll Any over, and then proceeded to cross-be a feather in your cup.
thing moving?" said with a fine examine him.
nasumption of indifference.
prise.
CONTRACTOR'S ALIBI.
London, Oct. 7.
NOVEMBER 9, 1927.
OUR BADLY PAID ORGANISTS.
CINEMAS THAT GIVE MORE THAN CHURCHES,
As a handy Peps tablet dissolves in 'the mouth it gives? off healing and germicidal which are breathed into deepest recèss- esofchestandlungs."
fumes
Peps disinfect the throat and kill mis- chievous germs. They ward off sud- don chills, clear and strengthen the bron- chials, arid soon banish
London, Oct. 6. Criticisms of the "vulgar" and "mawkish" character of much church music and the slender Sir Austen Chamberlain, Mr. W. A remarkable case of mistaken payment of organists and cholra G. A. Ormsby-Gore, Field-Marshal Identity was concluded at Liver.were made by Dr. C. FL. Moody. Viscount Allenby, Sir Henry Mac-pool yesterday when, aftor a hear-organist of Ripon Cathedral, at
yesterday. Mahon and Sir Herbert Samuel ing lasting several days, the the Ripon Diocesan Conference
the worst cough. He said that the great spiritual called on His Majesty at the Hyde magistrates dismissed the charge against Mr. Edward Brown, aged.. The actual Anglo-Irak negotia 58, a builder of Gloucester-terrace, awakening brought about by the S.W.. of stealing £4.350 from Mr. Oxford Movement was followed by the Introduction of much decadent tions will begin on Tuesday.
Interviewed by Reuter, King Thomas Gibson Johnston, a re-
Church music. He continued:
Old Ideals were turnished by the Feisal expressed his belief in the tired Australian chemist. complete success of the negotia-Mr. Johnston, in evidence at the wholesale introduction of tawdry Composers opening of the case, alleged that hymns and anthems. He said that the political, finan- Mr. Brown was introduced to him busied themselves with more or cial and military development of in the name of Carson by a man less feeble imitations of Mendels- Irak had been such since the sign-named Duff, whom he and his wife sohn. Strength was put aside for ing of the Anglo-Irak Treaty that met in a steamer while on a voyage sentimentality. revision was necessary, but he only from Australia to England. Car was drifting with a mawkish tlde, intended to tighten the ties beson described himself as a South and old-time vigour was super- tween Baghdad and London. African former and hotel pro-seded by vulgarity. The Bunti- prietor. Mr. Johnston alleged mental tide is said to be at the that he was induced to part with ebb, but it requires very careful $4.350 so that the credit of all
watching. three could be established on the' Stock Exchange to enable them to draw the profits of a joint speculation in Italian lire.
tions.
Irak's admisalon to the League of Nations certainly would be discussed.
did not think Rossiter was likely Over: to make a second mistake. bury had not now the assistance of the chauffeur, as Grainger had said. But there was another per- son whose assistance he would have, and of her Rossiter seemed unconscious. There was to be Mrs. Brisene.
Disappeared With Money. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston identified Mr. Brown as the man they had known as Carson, who with Duff disappeared after the money had been handed over at Liverpool on
At the last hearing Mr. J. C. Jackson, K.C., for the defence, said he had a complete alibi in answer to the charge.
"I am not going to ask you, Mr.
"It lookshe spoke behind. Els Grainger, what your theory of this érime is. I merely want to put hand and into my ear-ng if we to you the grounds of this charge shall have Overbury with 'em in against Lady Merafield, You the dock next time."
I had taken my biggest field- August 12: I could not feign' indifference at arrested her on the charge of
Butlass with me an my walk. When complicity because you found in this. I male me jump.
I reached the point at which Mrs. her room a revolver with which | Grainger took my gesture for a the murder, if it was murder, may quite natural expression of sur-Brisdce and I had parted com- nany that night I sat down on a have been committed?"
Yesterday he completed the de- boulder of shale, trained the glass "Yes," said Grainger, for that
over every acre of visible coun- fence by calling five witnesses all and other reasons."
try. The creek at this point was of whom recalled seeing. Mr. about a mile wide. Opposite. the Brown and speaking to him at the slopes were grass-clad, divided by Warden Lodge Hotel, in the Isle low stone walls and spotted with of Sheppey, Kent, on August 12, clumps of furze. There was no the date on which he was alleged building in sight and no wood. I to have received the money in
possible to examine | Liverpool. through the glass every yard of
"And the other reasons?"
"Oh, yes," said he, "we're on his track. You'll be astonished, Mr. Franks-really astonished.
"Chiefly Lady, Merafield's lack It's the most amazing thing of candour in neglecting to tell can't say any more. You just us of the relations which had wait."
not
1
formerly existed between her and Just to wait was the last thing Overbury. Overbury's "disappear-I meant to do. Seeing what my ance in these circumstances was not to be explained except by the rent intention was, I could
catéchise Grainger, but I did ven- complicity of Lady Merafield."
ture one remark. "Well," Greene countered, "that's only an opinion, Mr. Grainger, Let a stick to facts. The one fact against Lady Mera- field is this weapon. Whose pro- perty is it?"
"I do Grainger.
not
know," replied
"Do you suggest that it is Lady Merafield's?"
"No, I don't know."
"Or Major Overbury's?" "I don't know."
"In fact, it's a very common revolver, and apparently almost new, and it might have belonged to anybody, eh?"
"Under our very noses all the time, I suppose," I said.
"You're not very far out, Mr. Franks."
"Trying for him to-night?" I asked, as nonchalantly as I could.
Grainger nodded.
"Rossiter missed him by inches hast time. There'll be no mistake BOW. He hasn't got his precious chauffeur to help him."
I did not go to Westport after the court. I walked home to Rosebank, and telephoned to the ex office to say that I was not particu- Jarly well, and must not be pected again that day.
ward some adequate explanation send them out to Highcliff to look of the presence of Lady Merafield for you?"
"On, no account," I answered, and Majur. Overbury in the gal lery at this time, and you accept emphatically, "If anybody calls it, then there is no evidence of for me, say I'm in bed with neuralgia, or sciatica, or anything.
t
WAS
Church music
Invertebrate Tunes.
"A good many popular hymn tunes," he added, are inverte- brate, weak in melody, and bol- stered by flimsy harmonies."
Dr. Moody said that occasional- ly the organist's life is brightened by an enlivening juxtaposition, for having to play and sometimes he has been com- nensated humiliating tunes by hearing "Christian, seek not yet repose," is a prelude to the sermon, and "Art thou weary" at the end of it.
Dr. Moody dwelt on the finan- cial difficulty of maintaining cathedral services on the present basis, and antd there was a rent danger of the passing of the daily choral service.
The combined
salaries of the cathedral organist and the lay clerks was, he said, less than the remuneration of many an organist in a cinema.
He advocated the holding of congregational rehearsals
tunes.
as
a
the ground. Not a soul was in Dismissing the charge, Alder-means of introducing unfamiliar sight Away to the southwest, man J. Edwards said it had been between the point and the Cora must remarkable case and one morant Rock, old Bill Newberry's that had given him plenty of food erah pots bobbed about on the for serious thought. swell. But there was not a boat in be seen. My glass brought up the slender tower of the light-I
the Channel. house far out in That was all.
I trained it on my own side of the creek, which was more diffi- cult country. Here the cliffs were very high and very steep, I was
"I have weighed the circum- stances carefully," he added, "and feel that I would not be justified in sending this case for trial."
Mr. Brown "was allowed costs for the witnesses he had called in his defence.
A VIVID JUNGLE PICTURE,
at least a hundred and fifty feet MALAYAN WONDERS.
clothed sides of the cliffs were above the water. The precipitous right down to the creek with trees." beeches and ash, which had root- ed in the detritus of the soft rock and made a dense mass of green. A little clearing here and there was empty.
In
LONDON EXPRESS IN COLLISION.
GOODS TRAIN CUT IN TWO.
women.
the
was not
Courless on Honeymoon, One of the passengers, Mr. W. J. soid a reporter at St. Pancras: Mason, a Manchester business man, I was in one of the two dining
Sfon
COUGHS COLDS&
THE PASTINA
SIR
GET A BOTTLE TO-DAY
PROTECT CHEST & LUNGS
London, Oct 0 During a dense fog last night tho 5.00 pm: Manchester to London due at St. express, which was Pancras at 10.5 p.m., came into collision with a goods train near a short distance Hendon station, from the viaduct crossing a corner "Yes," said Grainger.
My wife who overheard the "Now, what makes you think
a work entitled "Malaya," of the Welsh Harp
The goods train was cut in two that there was some collusion message, looked curiously at me.
of the wagons strewn Merafield between Lady
and She said I was the picture of health, and she hoped I had no
just issued, Major Enriquez giyes and many a graphic account of the peoples, about the permanent way but, Major Overbury?!!
"I should think," said Grainger, secret complaint which I was hid-
I satisfied myself that nobody the history, and the fauna of
of the passengers in попе "that was obvious from the evid-fing from her. She spoke in a
teresting section is that in which 1 pocketed the glass and rose. ence that they had knowh each tone of amusement, and did not else was within a mile of me, then Malaya. Perhaps the most in beyond shock and slight bruisce,
wonderful but express was injured.
The accident caused considerabio other before the marriage of Sir pursue the subject.
What I now meant to do was he describes the "I want a few hours' rest," I Charles and Lady Merafeld, that they had, in fact, been engaged, said. "I'm going to take the ad-rough work, and it might last a terflies and strange insects and alarm, however, among the passen and that they were both up and vantage of a fine afternoon and Inng time. At any rate, I thought, snakes that haunt the peninsula, gers, composed mainly of Manches
with a smile, it was no job for Of leaf insects he says:
All that can be said of these tor business men and a number of dressed and talking together just have a laze on Highcliff."
a man badly afflicted with sciatica,
amazing creatures is that they are
The accident occurred shortly "Oh, very well," said she. "1 --before the crime was "committed."
I turned off the path into the leaves, with veins, ribs, perfora-. "So that, If the defence put for-anybody cumea for you, shall was going to test a theory.
ging, wood, and scrambled tions, and blemishes all completo. after ten o'clock, and th
sengers to St. Pancras with as little fuss as I could down They hang on a branch and are until 1.30 this morning that a relief
There are said to be, 110 different wood's and down, hanging on by aapling stirred by the wind exactly like engine brought the train and pas- KO no further. The
kinds of snakes in Malay.. Ono trunks and boughs until I could the leaves around them.
of the deadliest, the sun snake, ches hung out over
The small serpent-and it is plunged straight down, and the
were travelling very slowly. arrived at the house, one day, and "And that applies to every-tide swirled by ceaselessly with more than about a foot longis saloons at the time of the accident. 'that two days later Sir Charles body?"
out ever uncovering the bed of the like a cloisonne jewel. The back 10 was shot."
of great creek. It was on this side that is Oxford blue, the sides Cambridge because of the dense fog, hut, never- engine hit the goods waggons throw us all over the compartment. I ought to have intervened innerspicuity, and if she has the the little river ran, keeping the blue, the belly brickred, and the theless, the sudden stop as
Immediately after the accident bank clear of silt and for ever head and tail crimson."
Twenty-four boys, formerly at all the lights went out in the car deepening the channel. edge was clear into the creek, the school for the sons of Scottish ringo, thus adding to our confusion. overhüng it, stretching far out, form the Lochaber Pipe Band, down and look out, but owing to but for the most part the trees soldiers and sailors at Dunblau. Many of us want to open the witr ten and even twenty feet, so that which is going on a five years' tour the fog nothing could be seen. water there was a screen of bran-Canada to entertain the workers, the dining saloon and three couples ches, now thickly clothed with to the skiel of the pipes, foliage, and the water close in ran through a green tunnel..
It was here that I hoped to walked along the edge, cling prove my theory. ing and slipping, for about four hundred yards towards, the mouth of the ereck, and there 1 proved
collusion?"
shelter ceased. Its great brait
the
Kreen
"I should not say that. There you like I simply won't be is the fact that Major Overbury, a bathered with anything this after-water, deep here, for the cliff is most exquisite.
former fiance of Lady Mernfield. noon."
this discussion long before, unt
"Yes, absolutely."
My wife is a woman
Therefore, after lunch I went
1 expected every moment a protestsaal infusion of curiosity in her "from the prosecution. But it didomposition she knows when not
not come, and, as the magistrate accent it. made no objection, and I was myself eager to see where Greene was leading, I allowed it to go on. "But that would also disappear
after me.
I began to test my thenry
In places the view from the
our
ut on the cliff path, with con idence that nobody would be sent Grainger's hint served only to if it could be shown by the demonfirm an opinion I had held between the bank and the open round isolated lumber camps in There were a number of women in fence that Lady Morafield was absolutely ignorant of the fact from the beginning, which bad that Overbury was coming to been confirmed by all that had Merafield Tower until the visit happened. It was that Overbury had never taken light, but was perhaps within was almost due, and that she pro- tested most earnestly to her hus-lying "perdu," band against the action he had shouting distance of us all the taken in inviting Overbury?"
Yes-if," said Grainger, with the emphasis on the "if"
Greene smiled. "If, of course," said he. "Well, we shall see,"
there was
remand.
time..
:
I did so with as little noise as
who had been married during the day and wore on their way to Lon- don for their honeymoon. There Secrecy was just a precautions, no panic, however.. Everyone Nobody knew of the Belle Rose in Bremed to take it all very, very connexion with the Merafield calmly.
At the time of the collision the I have said that the peninsula
ease, even if anybody bad had the goods train was passing at a slant- on which the Mersfield estate
luck to discover her hiding place.ing angle across the ranin line. The I stood looking at her for a press struck it in the middle, minute or two. She had a big cutting it in two. After the accident stands has a mere battle-neck en trance, and that in the time at his it
Under a huge tree, whose outer cuddy, with a wooden slide and a the engine and the front portion of substantial door," which Was the express wore detached. The remainder was taken to Hendon At the end of the hearing disposal after the murder Over Greene urged the court to say that bury could not have got out that most branches dipped into the closed.
She lay close in to the bank, station A pilot angine was shunted no evidence against way without the help of a car stream, catching seaweed on their either of the prisoners to justify which was not then available tips, lay a boat, tled stern and but to board her it was necessary on to it, and it proceeded to St.
on the bank.
to hang on to a branch of the tree Pancras either & committal or another unless, as was unlikely, he had stern to stumps
a distance and drop on deck. accomplices waiting for him. I She was invisible at did not believe in accomplices, of ten yards on shore, and must
A happy sequel has followed the guilt of Overbury.
This conviction was from time foot rise and fall of tide, but even covered with a tarpaulin. The recent arrest of Mias Stephane to time firmly corroborated-first that was not enough to make her cuddy door was padlocked on the Gray, authoress and Journalist, The Superintendent asked for a by the attitude of Quance in his visible at low water, for the ends outside. Nobody was on board. widow of a naval commander, whe week's remand. By that time, he character of chauffeur, by the fact of the great branches evidently This surprised me. I had expect was brought up at Marylebone tempting to commit suicide by sald; the case might have assumed that he had brought Mrs. Briscoe rose and fell with the tide, as was ad to find somebody on board to Police Court on a charge of at I sat on the roof of the cuddy taking an overdose of a Aleeping quite a different aspect, and the to Highcliff Farm, and by Mrs. evidenced by the thick fringe of help me prove my theory prosecution might be in a position Briscoe's remarkable, proceedings weed hanging on to them.
What I saw was the Belle Rose, and lit a cigarette, trying to guess draught. It was stated that she to bring home the crime to the on the evening when I drove her
down to this very cliff path in my for which somebody had paid a where the person might be who did so in a fit of despair, due to culprits..
hundred pounds in bank notes to ought to have been on board the rejection of her novel, "The So It was arranged. Lady own car.
Possibly that Visit to Highcliff Joe Lillcrap. I had
before I heard a voice say: Merafleld and Quance were taken
"Defenso de fumer!" away. The court went on with Farm, when the second man whom about it, though the name had had not taken three whiffs Idol." by a firm of publishers, Mr. other business, and Greene left by I could not identity stood in the been scraped off her bow on the taxi for Westport and took the garden, was a mistake. I could starboard side, which I could see, apparently and, doubtless, off the port side first train back to London. not tell. But it was thought he purposely, avoided the what put Rossiter on to the and off her stern as well, if ever chance of communication with me. theory of a local hiding places I it was painted there.
I had to advise the bench that they would not be justified in dis- charging the prisoners if the police desired a further remand for inquiries.
because I did not believe in the have been quite concealed from I might. The engine, just for- the water. There was a twelve-ward of the stern sheets, was
no doubt
And there was Mrs. Briscoe above me, looking between the (To be Continued.) branches on shore.
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A. curious leathorn case found
MRS. 8. UZUNOYE;,
Expert Missense
A: Fowler Wright, book publisher, on a rubbish heap at the village of MASSAGE HALL of High Holborn, W. C., wrote to Dunholme (Lincolnshire) has been the magistrate while she was under declared by British Museum ex- relic, which at one time comaired remand, promising to consider hor perts to be a valuable 13th century novel. He has now decided to ace sacrificial vessels at the village 37, Queen's Road, O 2nd. Boor cent the M. S
church