1937-11-12 — Page 13

CHINA MAIL

FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, NOVEMBER 12, 1937

BLACK CATS ARE LUCKY!

OU are the youngest police known, although its criminal

"Yolices I have ever allowed gangs

in the detective department. You have had a good education, and you showed both courage and initiation in the Haddon Castle. burglary arrests. I trust you will not cause me to regret my decision. There is a great future for young men in police detection to-day That's all. You may go." Thus Major Cornforth, Chief Constable of the Avonshire Con- stabulary. A little pompous per- haps, but a good police chief.

were once notorious throughout the country.

Denis visited one or two re- sorts on the cutskirts of Fur- riners Row that had the reputa- tion of being "tough," saw a few bookmakers and their touts, a pickpocket or two spending the result of their day's prowling at the nearby racecourse, a SUS- pected "fence" in a small way of business, and a rat-faced police informant. Then midnight came and lights went out, except in small, unhealthy Italian cafes, the resort of "Yobos," those u employed and too Chief's office

Young Denis Wingate, to whom the above words had been ad- dressed, left the

just a little overawed. Only just out of his probationership as 2 uniformed and now a detective! He was more pleased than ever that he had given up clerking in a bank in spite of the protests of his family, who lived in res- pectable middle-class Sparrbrook Only Tina, that curious, black- eyed girl next door, had support- ed him. She, too, wanted to get away from monotony, but then she had the soul of an artist and some of the talent

ages

The Major had just returned from a visit to the United States, where he had been a member of the visiting British Commission, and he had acquired some new ideas, with the resultat Denis found himself assigned to special night duty in what is known-is Sparrbrook as Furriners' Bow.

middle Ever since the there had been foreigners in this. very English Midland city. First of all Gascons from France, then Flemish Much later came Huguenots. After them were Ger man revolutionaries of the 1848 period, and now it was Italians who mainly inhabited Furriners' Row, an area, comprising a net- work of narrow streets regarded as a blot on the good name of the town which was justly proud of its model residential quarters which lay to the east of the cen- tral business area, while Fur- riners Row lay to the west, re- versing the usual order of urban

Pansion.

When Denis reported for duty in person and not by telephone at a quarter to ten that night, the night sergeant informed him that Tim, the black cat and mas- cot of the station, had died, pre- sumably poisoned. The sergeant was furious, and so was Denis, who was very fond of animals. especially of thieving and amoral black cats.

He went up to the detectives' office on the second floor-for this building in Market-street, Sparrbrook, was the headquar ters of the Avonshire Constabul ary-and reported to the inspec tor in charge, who handed him a brand new warrant card and small truncheon, also a few

of good advice.

As ten was striking, young Dems went out on his first lone patrol

plain-clothes affi- Nothing very adventur- ous or romantic you may say

matter of routine

in a tolerably la ding Erg- lish city where gun-play is

-1

+1

Short Story

often unem-

ployable youths who live on cheap cigarettes and dish-water tea, and of silly girls who would. be far better off at home--or in a home, as the old song goes.

"Alone in a great city, God help the poor working girl," said Denis out aloud, and laughed quietly as he walked down particularly derelict sort of street where nothing ever hap- pened.

a

It was then he heard the voice of a cat upraised not in a cacop- honous love plaint, but as if in pain. As I have already said, Denis was very fond of animals, and he sought out the owner of this particular miauo. He dis- covered a large and very black young tom-cat trying to enter a door, an inconspicuous sort of door next to a lock-up cobbler's shop. He shone his electric torch on the door and tried the handle of the door purely as a matter of routine. To his aston- ishment, it opened. This was usual down Furriners where locks and bolts were very necessary at night.

He saw a narrow flight of stairs and called out, but re- ceived no answer. The cat had followed him in and still kept up his mournful cry.

Denis went up the stairs. felt that there was something seriously wrong, and never stop- ped to think of the correct police procedure in such cases. If he had stopped to think he would simply have called the uniformed con stable on the beat, and there. would have been no cause to write this chronicle.

The cat followed him up the stairs and scratched at a door at the right of the landing. Denis ed this door and it swung open flashed his light round the room inside, found an electric light switch and put on the lights.

To his astonishment, he found

By Francis X. Delmere

or

himself to be in a luxuriously- furnished study. A thick car- pet, shelves of books, two three excellent black-and-white sketches, a beautiful statuette on a slender pedestal, an eighteen- th century sideboard with valu- able glassware, and, stretched out or the floor, a motionless body.

•The young detective knelt down and very carefully ex amined the body, that of a man in well-cut clothes. It did not take Denis many seconds to see that the man was dead, nor to find blood seeping out carpet

the

The dead man was lying on his face and he had been stabbed in the back!

Denis ran down the stairs, blew his police whistle and rap- ped with his truncheon on the pavement. It seemed years be fore a large uniformed constable loomed up in the darkness. It was Flannigan, a genial veteran of the force, generally known as **Trish**

"Listen "Irish, there's a dead man upstairs. Stabbed. It's mur der. Go up there and mount guard and I telephone the Cen- tral Office. Where's the nearest *phone?"

Flannigan told him, and Denis ent off at the double

He was shocked at the calma way his news was received, but arated when he heard the detective-sergeant at the other end of the wire say, “Good work, kid. You were right

to touch nothing. We'll be out there in a couple of minutes. Get back and have a look round, but keep away from the body. You might

as things up 24

A fast police car drew up with screaming brakes outside the house of death and disgorged a detective-sergeant, a uniformed inspector, and several lesser fry. A second car followed with a fin- ger-print expert, a police photo- grapher, and a doctor.

Murder was a very rare crime in Sparrbrook, but when it did happen the police department

knew how to deal with it. The

constabulary had the advantage of operating throughout the coun- fy as well as in the city and this did away with much red tape.

Denis told what little he knew, and had to repeat his story when the Chief Detective-Inspector ar- rived in person to direct opera- tions

The deal man was tomando Rossi, a well-to-do and scholarly Italian refugee who had fled from the Fascist regime.. He had been charitable to the poor, both Italian

English, and had been prominent in the Cath- phic com

The chief hour's conce his assistants,

you any ideas?

after an work with

to Denis fellow, body. Have

Yes, sir, Rossi probably took pity on some foreig who was down and out or who pretended to be, and was stabbed in the back so the unknown could rob the place. The house is his I believe, and I have heard it said that he has quite a collec tion of valuables, though I did not know before this that he was located down here"

"Why do you say foreigner?” “Because an English thug

(Continued on Page 6)

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