Romance and Mystery.
Zora, the Invisible
By J. R. WILMOT,
(Author of "The Moorcroft Manor Mystery.")
SYNOPSIS,
Montgomery Gaynor, a wealthy diamond merchant, is found by the caretaker dead in his office chair, Inspector Webster, of Scotland Yard, noting that the body appears perfectly lifelike, telephones for „Dr. Peter Blayne, a brilliant young medical criminologist who has fre- quently assisted Scotland Yard in a specialised capacity. Blayne per- forms a blood test, and also finds a quantity of peculiar congealed ash beneath the firegrate together with a scrup of paper bearing the word: Zora. The blood test does not give any of the recognised roue tions, and Bluyne is puzzled over the analysis of the ash. vinced that Gaynor did not die a
"That may be," smiled Blayne, curiously, "but when you've heard my end of the story. I'd like to bet anything you like that you'll change your tone."
pucket the slip of paper on whieh The young man pulled from his was written that one word ZORA, and which he had discovered He is co-beneath the empty grate in the dead man's office, and passed, it uver the desk towards Webster.
natural death. Gaynor leaves a widow and one daughter Sonia, an attractive girl with whom Blayne feels himself secretly in love, Blayne is a modest collector of curios, amt he has recently pur- chased from a dealer
a curious ebony idol about which he knows little, but he later learns from the denier that the idol is known as Zorn, the name on the piece of paper he found under Gaynor's -regrate.
Then he proceded to relate the peculiar co-incidence of the name associated as it was with the squat ebony Indian idol he had recently purchased.
admit it's quear," he said, at length, still toying with the scrap of paper. But for the life of nie 1 can't see any connexion between the two."
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
as the man had no card, the clork who attended to him cannot re- member his name, but he thinks It was something like 'Pryor' or Viner. This young man, who
SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1928.
CHAPTER VII.
- MONEY AND MYSTERY. The house where Montgomery Gayner had lived with his wife
I gather, was tall and rather paie, and daughter was situated wel! was closeted with the diamond back from the white ribbon of road merchant for about ten minutes, that wandered leisurely as ronds and I have evidence from those in sometimes will into the little old-, the outer office that the words world village. of Onktree, about exchanged between the pair were twelve miles, as the crow flies, unnecessarily loud. At any rate, from London.
the
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the young man hurried from tho It was a pleasantly-proportioned office and slammed the door bo-house with south aspect, gardens finger-prints in the office, and hind him. Now I wonder whe-artistically terraced, and its red though I was firmly convinced that ther that letter was delivered in gables falling in low, picturesque everything was not right, I'm person by this unknown young sweeps. There was nothing about damned if I'm not beginning to man. If that is no he may be able it significant of the diamond mer- doubt whether death was not due to throw some light on the mys-chant's reputed wealth. The to natural causes. I know I'm attery, which is perplexing us. Then house itself was just large enough variance with you there, but facts there is another point. If the to make the family of three com are facts, and there's no escaping time of death is definitely fixed fortable and yet not too small tot from them."
as having occurred between 4.30 preclude a few intimate associates and 9 o'clock, this unknown, vial- partaking of week-end hospitality. tor was probably, the last persun
The decorations and the furnish- to see Mortgomery Gaynor alive. inge had been achieved with a If we can find him we may pos- delightful appreciation of artistic sibly have sufficient evidence to proportion. There was nothing ward for him." make things look particularly awk-grotesquely blatant such as one might have assumed in the house lymused Blayne. "I don't dee late eminence by sheer ability and That alters things only slight-of a man, who had risen to lus how this young man, whoever he stupendous hard work. is, could possibly have been the
On this late April morning with: cause of Gaynor's death. You re the fresh scent of daffodils and member there were no indications early tulips beyond the terrace of assault, and I don't think the wafing through the half-open letter was conveyed, that way in window, mother and daughter Fat fact, I'm inclined to rule out the waiting expectantly for a visitor. Possibility altogether. At
It was the day after they had When he had finished and fur-same time we ought to try to find seen the remains of one who was ther mentioned his analysis of the him. I suppose you're looking particularly dear to them carried ash he had also found, Webster after that end?”
into the little churchyard at Oak- was looking puzzled,
Howrah could reply tree and deposited, into the rich, Bengkak Before Webster there was a knock at the door and brown earth from whence comes a young constable entered with a fall Life. The funeral had been calentle CHAPTER VI..
letter which he handed to the marked by little ostentation, for Del Inspector.
Montgomery Gaynor had never al BLAYNE EVOLVES A THEORY.
The envelope was addressed to hemi, in any scuse, a showman, Inspector Webster was scaled- in
"No more can I," Blayne adult- "Inspector Webster, Scotland "I wonder how long he will be?" his office at New Scotland Yard ted. "at least, not yet, but I'm not Yard," and the handwriting was sighed Mrs. Gaynor, glancing a with a sheaf of papers on his desk | a great bollover in coincidence muy unmistakably that of a woman, prehensively at the clock ticking in front of him. They consisted self. One thing is fairly obvious. Carefully Webster opened the relentlessly, on the wide, onker een per annum on Bally Balance and en
"He promised to be fed application. mainly of extensive reports made Samo time before his death Gay-envelope and, having read the con- mantleshelf. by his subordinate into the life of † nor received a letter written in tents of a small sheet of blue-here by eleven and it's now a Montgomery Gaynor. The case green Ink. What that letter con- tinted notepaper, passed it across quarter past."; presented so balling an appearancetained we don't know. But I'm into Blayne without copment: Sonla arose from her chair and that he felt it imperative that a felined to think it must have been
"You will be advised to drop all wandered through the french win- thorough investigation should be something important, otherwise investigations concerning thedow into the garden. made in order to discover some there would have been no object death of Montgomery Gaynor. "William took the car to the justing his pince-nez. "I received possible clue as to the motive for in his destroying it the way he did. You are simply wasting your time. station half-an-hour ago," she call-a telephone message from Inspec- the grime for, in spite of the in- "We do know that Gaynor went Zora."
ed over her shoulder. "Surely tor Webster of Scotland Yard just conclusive medical evidence in out to lunch at 12.15, and that he
they can't be very long now." - as I was about to leave the office which the actual cause of death was returned shortly after two o'clock
At the end of the garden. Senin and in consequence I missed my doubtful, Webster was convinced I have been making a few "in-
was just in time to see the car train. Pertinacious fellow, Webs- that there must certainly have been quiries, and I have found that
coming along the road, and a few ter." He paused awhile as he un- foul play. But just how and why during the time he was absent at
minutes later she was indicating locked his dispatch case and laid BRANCHES-Randleman, remained as much a mystery as lunch it was customary for his
Mr. Crowther Mitchell, of Mit-
a number of documents on the But Blayne was puzzling his chell, Grantham and Mitchell, of polished surface of the table In From the reports he had received oom to be didied up. For this
a chair front of him. Gaynor had always been a highly purpose a woman cleaner was en- brain to know why this letter Lincoln's Inn Fields, to
man. He had been gaged. I have seen her," went on should have been written in or-drawn up at one side of a small
a respected
Mra. Gaynor and Sonila sat close with his the young man, "and she assures dinary blue-black ink, while the mahogany table. to a degree
together at the other side. The generous wealth and his name was to be me that on this particular day the one which the murdered man had "I must apologise for my
unlawyer eleared his throat, before found in almost every charitable grate was quite clean. In fact, received had been penned in punctuality, Mrs. Gaynor," began continuing../
she went over the linoleum 'im- subscription list.
the lawyer, an elderly man, ad- He had been born in Liverpool mediately in front of it with a fty-eight years ago of middle- mop, and she saw no trace of ash. elaas parents, his father having Had she done so she would, of been employed by a well-known' firm course, have swept up. Fur of cotton brokers. After leaving ther than this, she anys that Gay- school he had been apprenticed to nor was not in the habit of burn- the cotton business, but this noting anything in the grate at all. being altogether to his liking be The next step is equally im- took the opportunity of his father'a | portant,, The clerks in the outer death to cut adrift, and coming to office are emphatic on the point London he had entered the firm of that no .communication came for Wardle and Grayman, diamond | the Chief that afternoon. In fact, merchants..
on that day all the letters received His almost uncanny genius for by post were of a business nature business gave him that fillip to in and, according to office custom, dividual enterprise so often denied they were opened in readiness for the young man of only average Gaynor's arrival at the oflice at ability, and it was not long after ten-thirty. Therefore, either he this that he established himself, in received, this letter at his home a modest way, as a diamond dealer.address and brought it
Born to success Montgomery office, or else-and I consider this Gaynor had flourished exceedingly more likely to meet the ease he and in the space of twenty years recrivel it in some way we have he had become a power among his yet to discover during the time kind-u power in business that was
he was out at his lunch." admired as well as envied by his
over.
to the
Blayne paused for a moment to
less astute and capable competitors.light his pipe. Then he proceed-
In business he was as hard as
the precious stones in which he
•].
dealt man' whose will was iron "You see, Webster, if he had and whose word was law. He found received that letter at home, and little use for sentiment in the con- its contents werd as important as duet
of his trading. The weak we naturally assume they were, must always bow before the tumult the chances are that he would uous energy and superior ability have destroyed it in the morning of the strong, and Montgomery and not In the afternoon. There Gaynor was the strongest of them fore he must have received it be all.
tween 12.15 and 230.
.
connex-
Yet he was respected. There "But I am not relying entirely was not a merchant either in the upon hypothesis in this cloister of Hatton Garden or the ion. When I made my survey on wider arena of Rotterdam who | the night you called me in, I found would say ill of him. All were in within the rim of the oxidised, agreement in admiration of his curb a spent wax vesta which undoubted genius. He had travelled tallied with those found in the widely-not for pleasure, but bedend mun's pockets. If that vesta cause he believed that success is had been there in the morning built upon the foundation of know the cleaner could not have missed ledge, and it was just that little ex-seeing it when she entered upon tra knowledge over and above that her mid-day duties at twelve- housessed by one's rivals that thirty. What we have got to do stabilized and substantiated the now is, if possible, to discover success already won.
Twenty-two years ago he had who sent that letter and to do that married Elaine Somerville, an at we have to find the person sign- tractive woman and daughter of aing himself or herself-by the West Country innkeeper at whose name of Zora." -old world establishment he had fre
quently spent what leisure was per- mitted him during the stern de maude of business. From Mrs. Gaynor's testimony Webster con cluded that the diamond merchant had been a model husband and a clusion he was forced to confess devoted father, in fact the more in the light.of Blayne's discovery,
F
ho analysed the
facts before him
mase the
Webster had been listening to Blayne's deductions with his ac- customed keenness. As the young man had proceeded he had care- fully been weighing up point advanced, and at the
every
con-
of that it was not only reasonable more but also extremely probable. obscure became any suggestion, The Inspector leaned forward however slight, of a possible mo- and handed back the piece of tive.
paper to Blayne,
"There is just one observation I
Peter Blayne was announced Just as he had laid the evidence on want to make," said the Scotland one side and filled his pipe, Yard man, slowly. "I find that
one
"Well, Peter, I'm stumped," he about 3.30 on the afternoon in announced, as Blayne drew a chair question, Gaynor received a visi- forward. "Gaynor seems to have tor whom we have as yet been un- been a paragon of virtue. I can't able to trace. According to get hold of anything likely to of the clerks, a young man call- yield the faintest clue. I're satis-ed and insisted upon acelng Mont- factorily accounted for all the gomery Gaynor. Unfortunately,
The eyes of the two. men met across the desk and Webster's lips moulded into a smile.
"Our invisible friend appears to be suffering from nerves," he com- mented, dryly.
green.'
ཨཏྠཾ ནཱིས #wiམརཱིསཝཱི ཨཡཉྩིསཝཱི ཨརཱིཡཏྠིསཏིསམ།ཡདིi44-4 ཡ4-4+1ཨསཱིམས
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