1914-01-17 — Page 9

THE HONG KONG TELEGRAPH.

SHORT STORY.

THE THREE KNOCKS.

BY EDITH MACVANE:

EXTRA

HONGKONG, SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1914.....

I

Chatellerault. "At first, the rider where the row of bells hang wild beast nor ghost. Indeed, I not usually considered vital, but The taxicab stopped before an Dake himself told me, they were old-fashioned bronze bells with may say that already, in our rendered so by the piercing of the immenee pile of gray stone, beard in various parts of the wire-pulls, you understand; since reconstruction of the crime, we great femoral artery, equare-roofed in the Renaissance palace. As you se?, it is imm- the Duke's prejudices allowed no have admitted the idea of a emptied the blood-vessels of the which style, and surrounded by a tenense, with many parts closed up. electricity in the house. With certain person." foot wall garnished with iron Lately, however, they seemed al- his eye on the bells, the valet

body before the door could be spikes. A

"And the motive of the crime broken open and aid supplied. silent concierge ways to come from the picture could see the first quiver of No-that is included in your admitted them through a great gallery on the last night, that 18, that of his master's bedroom. reconstruction?"

Fanny's eyes lit up as she took stous gato surmounted with of the ball, certainly so.

the photographs offered her. In And on Friday morning, he swears The motive-we have already.

silence she bent over them. Armorial bearinge in faded Five minutes later, Fanny and that the bell ewang and jingled established at least that it was

"Singular," she murmured. gold.

her guide, having mounted the with precisely its customary deeper than mere robbery The

"The wound is at the side of tho In a vast library where the wide stairway, came to a pause mation and tinkle. The usual wardrobe and escritoire before leg. passing out toward the de light filtered through stained before an open doorway, watched morning ring, neither more nor you, where the Duke was accus-

back. glass, the visitors were received by a silent policeman.

lese. So Philippe dashed to the tomed to keep not only a large fact which we explain by the "As I told you, mademoiselle! by Sir Geoffrey Ffyles, the young Ia marked contrast to the rest kitchen, his master was always sum of money but also certain His voice had sunk very low English nephew of the dead Duke of the house, darkened in token-goized the silver tray from the found to contain all their treshe lay half rolled over on the very angry if the coffee wore cold, valuable family jewels, have been position of Monsieur le Duc. morning, this room Was

As you see by this photograph, Madeincisulle Gor. The restaurant, lit only by what Though his handsodie face still of

light came through the huge bore traces of a recent horror, he brilliantly alight in the afternoon/Cook, ran full speed up the staire,guras intact. The desire to profit

ass roof of the station, was hati grected them with cordiality. sunlight, streaming in through door, and handle of the Duke's by his death may also be excluded, mattress, with extended arm

"This is de Chatellerault who of the arriving and departingrault, this is good" of you!"one of the windows stood a boi-Hekäocked. Then suddenly, to his has left all his property by will brought the servant Philippe "Upon my word, de Obstelle. the two wide-open windows. By twenty-three years found it looked. fanatical Royalist as you know rope for the summons which door, and for the first time in as it appears that the Dake, a presumably to grasp the bell- in abadow, and the acrid smoke trains filled the

ar. Funny he exclaimed earnestly. "And formed official, writing in a little horror, he seems to be a slow-to the last reigning Bourbon.upstairs-loo late.". shivered.

Miss Gordon, too! Miss Gordon, held by the chief article of the moaning sound within. At his remain the motives of revenge, thoughtfully, that it was the book. Funny's eye was however, witted fellow,-he beard a low King Alfonso of Spain. There on whether Eve heard from de Chatellerault,

Then you take it for granted, monsieur,' returned Fanny "Blood-in quantities, I mean- day, in a crowded place like this, so I wouldn't reat till he calledfashioned bed with beautifully Be recognized his master's voice:

you ask me that question at noon-here, you're the keanest in Paris room's furnishing: a bugo, old-knock, tho cries became articulate. of homicidal mania-" or if you come to mo at mistnight, you is. These Parision police gilded woodwork and high. "Help! Asenssins"! Help should (Fanny slowly-"the gold of summons, neither violent, as if "But the treasure?" asked rang the bell?-that singular Johnnies-you know what they dark red silk. In the bright Philippe, Monsieur le Vicomte?" tradition, hidden by the Duke's he had already perceived the ancestor at the time of the horrible vision of the assassin-

i.

* Hollo ! don ?

"Here!

sy saks. Tell me, inademoiselle, do you turn sick at the sight of blood?"

"What!"

Does it make you faint?"

LI

"No!".

"It all depends

in the silence--"

are! Take on idea into their

teat-like canopy and curtains of

you care to interview this fellow

hand of the Dake himself that

"It was at midnight that heads, pull faors this way and sunlight, she bebeld the dark red Later, later What did he Hundred Years' War-to say nor feeble, as if the death-blow past twelve at the restaurant of heard them, lemoiselle-thors that to suit their theory till they manse stain like a pool, darkening do then? Break down the door?" nothing of the mass of wealth in bad already fallen!"

"Good! Then meet me at half

the Quai d'Ors 17. I'll give you luncheon, if you'll accept it, and an explanation.

Three quarters of an hour later, Fanny Gordon, die aud charming summer But of

three knocks which wines thousand years have been accepted in the Vaucaire family as the hand of the Great Intruder him self, knocking for admittance their house and which they say have invariably been followed by corbeau satin, entered the smoky catastrophe. Twelve years ago, dining-room of the great station before the Duke's sister died -88, unobserved a place for a rendezvous, perhaps, as existe in again in the year '60, before the Paris Rooal de Chatellerault

in her ow

hurried to meet her.

"Mademoiselle! I thank you. Bere this corner table. Give ine your parasol. Here let me help you to caviare. And now mademoiselle, want your help!"

"We?"

We

three mysterious knocks heralded

sudden death of his father-tho-e

omte?"

#have the crime reconstructed'-- then cop their man, with their dashed reconstruction" as proof! And I say, Vicomte, who do you suppose the beggars are a ter

a

DOW?"

"This morning, when I saw the Chief," returned Raoul, told me they had not yet.

**he

"Oh, but now they have!

tint bideously repeated in an im- the snowy surface of the em broidered sheets.

we are at

up.

we

them

"He tried it, and found it cash added by the Duke himself, beyond his strength. He seems, you said, Vicomte, when he sold persons in this room. It is "Mademoisella, there were two Deliberately she dragged, away

in short, to have lost his head as his estates on the proclamation of perfectly obvious that the mur- her eyes, and nodded in grave did also the other servante, Thoy the Republic? Did I not under derer rang no summons to the doscribe the ories na heartrending stant, it is all secreted somewhere household at the very instant of acknowledgment.of her

present- Service, ation to the Chief of the Secret So, while half a dozen of them in this ancient houss ?"

fumbled at the door,it is a "Possibly.!

his erime. Ergo-that bell was Though this rung massive one, as you see, the family treasure, after all. existe himself!

by Monsieur de Dao That official bowed. His eyes others ran out into the streat and perhaps nowhere butiu tradition. showed that while as a man to. And who do you suppose? The he expected little from the vision Monsieur le Duc dotested house was there the slightest sign

approved, as a minister of the law summoned the police she police Bat, in any case, nowhere in the murmured Fanny dreamily. "You "Two persons in the room-" of the Republic, that poo Duke's room or in the whole say two persons in the room." the event, on in this past month. Abbe Fornarini! You

know of girlish prettiness before him. However, it was a policeman who of a rifled hiding-place. Besides. following the direction of her when again they began to sound him, of course-he's lived here

And the impatient official, "You through the partly closed up with my poor uncle for the past moiselle?"

are English, made finally managed to break down remember this: the mere escape bright, dark eyee, Baw palace night after night, some ten years. A sort of nephew on

1 the door.

of our criminal unencumbered travel from the large red silk times loud, sometimes soft, but the other side of the house.

"I am American, monsieur!"

"Through the burst panels, the amounts in this case, to a miraclettassel which lay upon the pillow, recurring often more than a dozen The most decent sort of chap, "Hum! Ever handle a murder policeman entered first of all. H How much more impossible, then, up the heavy rod silk cord of the times in a night-

Miss Gordon! But just because case fore?

found the Duke already dead, the idea of his fight, whether at bell-pull to the brass triangle "And

you board it, Vic be's a Jesuit, these dashed,

Fanny assumed an air of ex-transfixed by a huge kaife that the moment of the crime or later which by the old-fashioned republicans are after him as keen treme mcaknees. "No monsieur bad been thrust into his body as weighed down by the bulk and system, connected it with the "The Secret Service. In the affair of the Qteen of Swabia's '

a mastard. You see, he wie The Vicomte de Chatellerault the left thigh-thrust in with such immense weight of a treasure in wire beyond. So long she stood The night of the ball, when missionary to the Assawabis, on will tell you I have only help viclence that it had completely gold coin!" pearl, my chief was immensely we had all goue downstairs to the West Coast, for years after be

motionless, with her eyes fixed impressed with your wit and supper. The picture gallery; left flume; and he's got rather

"Well, well! I may as well tell severed the femoral artery and Fanny walked up and down upon that commonplace instru- courage. Your name was mou- where we had danced, was empty jolly oullection of native wear you, mademoiselle, the police buried its point for two centime the room. "You have made a ment, that the chief became tioned in bía official report. And I had gone back to fetch my poos and that sort of thing. And beliovo that they have tors in the bone. The super thorough search of the palace?"slightly ironic.

found an indication, which human violence of the blow, a

"Surely, mademoiselle! The (To be Continued Next Saturday.) well as the fact that it had been rooms, a hundred and two in all, following present

should dealt from the side, renders the have been thoroughly examined However,

THE CONDITION OF your own independent line-if sible, even had we been tempted of their inmates." be glad to have you take idea of suicide physically impos-even the luggage and persons

ALBANIA.

you one!" His patronizing air were bolted. The window, im it consist, the household of the your woman's intuition suggests to entertain it. Yet the doors

"Those inmates in what did said, plainer than speech: "Play possibly high from the ground, Duke?" about all you please, little girl!" were barred, The room WAS "A fine old boy, the Duo do

she held them resolutely down.

Fanny's dark eyes blazed, but eply. The murdered man was the Abbe Fornarini, his kinsman; Gerraan publicist who has lately

51 alone! Vaucaire, who at sixty-three

the young English lord, bis made a long journey through preserved the life and spirit of

"Monsieur, if you will be so Vicomte quickly.

"The witnesses?" asked the nephew; twenty-eight servants, that country. still those three knocks!" twenty Nevertheless, like many;

good, I should like the facts!"

"There are in excluding the concierge and Albania at present," said the others of the ancient nobility of Angrily Fanny Gordon flung Trance, his traditions were all of off the influence that his words

comte.rather than to the young Chabanne, who himself stood keeper, and the butler-"

Addressing himself to the Vithe

"The Duke's servants. Alsp stableman, who sleep outside; German traveller, "five Covera young policeman, Andre six maid-servants, the house ments-the Provisional Govern- the past. Men roi was his religion, produced upon her. From his beautiful old palace in."Yes," she cried; "and ycu

American, the official began the brief narrative of the crime.

ment of Valona, the Cabinet of guard at the broken-down door "And, besides the valet Easad Pasha at Durazzo, the two the Faubourg Saint-Germain all were all so taken up with your

On Thursday night, as you a scientific search of the room, vants that had admission to the Elbasan and Alessio, and the

till I arrived. Together we made Philippe, there were other ser- autonomoas

Governmenta of modern life

ow wonderful sensations of

know, Monsieur le Vicomte, the which yesterday afternoon was Duke's bedroom?" was excluded- newspapers, books, even clectric artistic horror that I suppose no

Duc de Vaucaire received his completed by two of my experts.

International Government of light, because electricity is one had the time to go and hunt The other shook his head in friends at a fancy-dress ball. No sliding panel or any other, Lзinois, who took care of the characteristic of Albania is the "The chambermaid, Armande Scutari. The most dispiriting supplied by the republican city in the picture gallery!" dreamy bewilderment... "Me? Dancing was continued till three dissimulated entrance exists, The government. It is even said that! You wrong us, randemoiselle! What theories could I have? I o'clock. At half past three the walls, ceiling, and floor are as solid

absolute lack of roads and of was proclaimed, he imitated the As a matter of fact, the echo of only know the padre didn't do Dake retired. I must explain au a fortress. That the assassin, } in the year'70, when the Republic

"Ah! And may one examinexist in any Albanian city decent houses. There does not vxample of a certain famons, the last knock had hardly died Jove, I'll tad goout. And, by that the Due de Vaucaire was a having done bis foul work, should there two servants?

tell you one thing gentleman of most methodical have escaped before that door was

& house suitable for the ancestor of his in the Hundred way before some of us

I'm glad now, for the first time in habits.

"The valet Philippe Duval, yes. abode Every night, after battered down is a physical im- As to the woman, it appears that Wied and his family. Elbasa

of" the Prince of. Years' War sold all the family already in the deserted pietura domains and securities, and stored gallery the English nephew of my life, that I'm not my uncle's his valet had made

heir. You know he has willed ready

him possibility. The concierge at the she was impertinent to the houss the proposed capital, can only be bway the cold, lifeless millions, the host; Sir Ffyles, I myself, one everything to the King of Spain ? accustomed to

for bad, he was gate saw no one pasa. Yet, by keeper on the night of the ball, reached on horzaback, Conse- in gold coin in some secret corner, or two others that very And certainly they can't say Al-man, lock and bolt the door yet to divine, the murderer did and disappeared immediately. it said that Austria and Italy will dismiss the what superhuman menng we have received her eight days notice, quently," he said, "I have heard rather than permit the govern-, and ran upstairs fleetly. We ment that he dotested to profit found nothing! The endless fonso did it! I say, I'm dashed on the inside, and go immediately eucapo!"

She is being searched for; in a place at the disposition of the "of his investments. As he rooms of the palace were empty. glad, too, I didn't sleep here that to sleep. In the morning, when Fanny Gordon apake: "Mozew days we hope to lay our Prince and his family two men-of- never married. And when, this concierge at the gate had opened chance these beggars 'd be yalet was not allowed to wake tain word: superhuman. Do you

The sight myself, or it's a sportin' he woke, ho rang his ball. The sieur, you have twice used a cer-hands on her.'

now, mademoiselle, the Chief of partner's fun, so I can vouch for now, by Jove, these dashed Police sends me to ask your that fact! Wo Bab at supper. beggars are claiming it came services in this mysterious affair The atmosphere was tense we from the Abbe Foraarini's col- of the Vaucaire murder." all know why we had been invited. lection, the knife with which my Fanny started as he named this! We talked and laughed and ate poor Uncle Vancaire was-was- celebrated case which had since and listened! Suddenly we

He broke off, and, orossing to yesterday morning rang through heard it. From the deserted ball- Paris. The Vicomte went on room above us, the sound of ₺, a side table, poured himself a

strong hand knocking, impera stiff drink of whisky. quickly:

thrice! Mademoiselle, laugh at Excuse me Miss Gordon, but I'm tively and slow-once! twice!] "Have some, Vicomte? No? me if you will; but I hear them, a bit on the ragged edge, with all these horrors piling up one on top of the other. And I was frightful fond of, was fond Vaucaire by George, i of him-"

any

i

wished his line to die out, he The gardene-empty.

past month, the mysterious knock- to no one.

¡

were

"Pardon me, Sir Geoffrey. But you yourself-have you, sny information, any thebriss ?"

without

B

mean"!

bis newspaper an interesting ac the Messaggero (Rome) sends to The Vienna correspondent of

count of the present condition of "A bachelor eatäblishment- Albania, furnished to him by a

room."

રા

"Ah!

"

Fanny paused Then, in a changed voice and with a slight gesture toward the bed.:

"And, Monsieur, he-it ? " "The Due de Vaucaire, made-

war to serve as a provisional resi-- dence until

ba

spinnin' their dashed

recon- him, but waited for this signal

Bsuitable struction' about me!"

palace can that his master was ready for his "Mon Dieu! How I hated tol inga began in his house, he

ereoted. After "Ab, yes your uncle insisted coffee.

ringing, the refused to call in the police of leave him, dear old Vaucaire!

Mademoiselle, I beg you, de

Commercial competition between for not offer the famous knockings as

Austria and Italy in Albania is the detested Republic-But, But be held his head high. He on your going to the Kitz to sleep Duke invariably rose

instant an

and unbolted his a club! We are not here to

becoming very lively. It seems, instead, he invited all his friends, even insisted on sending his that night. Why?"

tention of renouncing formally moreover, that Austria has no in- to a great fancy-dress ball to help nephew to the Ritz to sleep that "Because he koow I hadn't had door, so that the man, arriving arrest the family ghost that

with the coffee tray, could figment of an overwrought immoiselle, lies downstairs in the her protectorate over the Alban him defy the ghostly death sigu, night, because he said the poor a decent night's sleep for a fort- of his race. I myself, mademoi boy was worn out with Inch of night, by Jove! with all those carry it in to his master's bad agination, of an exaggerated pride chapel of the palace: "

ian Catholica The Austrian Con- selle, was present at that ball, sleep, from the recurrence of the infernal spirit rappio's and warn- Monsieur le moment's delay.of race. The supernatural?

"You have, of course, before sulate at Soatsri is constantly fall unly night before last; and I mysterious sign for the past few in's, and what not! So, to please moi elle, here is the most balling

Bah!". Vicomte-made-

removing the body, taken the of friars and nuna.. At Soutari a heard them with my own care, weeks. So we lalt him alone him, I went. And next mornin' feature, perhaps, of this whole I used your own word-super grams?" asked de Chatellerault. Roman Catholics and Mussulmans "Monsieur, not supernatural. usual measurements and dia hard if silent struggle between those three mysterious knocks!" alone with the servants and his when my man came with my mysterious. On the morning of human! The prodigious olence

He paused a moment: thon other nephew, the Abbe Fornarini. things, he told me that my poor the murder-nay, ot the very of the death-blow, the incompre in black orayon you will find the Roman Catholics there is a ton- ̈ "Treced here upon the sheet is going on, and among the leaning across the little table: And the next morning the Duc uncle="

"Mademoiselle,"

instant, perhaps, of the murder hensible means of the assassin's He shaddered, passed a shoking that bell was rang

escapedo you mean, then, to

exact outline of the body as it doney, fomented by the Jesuits, abruptly, "are you one of thao his bed, behind doors that were hand over hie face, and

hint that the knife was perhaps down of the door. The large Sovereign. At Soutari there are was discovered on the breaking hostile to the future Protestant who believe the boundaries of bolted from the inside and win- reached out again for the

"There is no possibility it was driven home by another agency black cross, made afterward, in 8,000 Malisori, fugitives from another bell that rang !** another world sometimes overlia daws that were barred, with not whisky.

a chink or a cranny by which the

than that of a human hand dicates the exact position of the the new Servian territory, and "These mysterious knooka,"

they were last heard➡

had, it seems, this custom to romance Mademoiselle, aber views. As you see, the wound is about with their Mannlicher and "In the picture gallery, as I ward oight o'clock in the morning don these fancies. It is a human in the left thigh, between the hip Mauser rifles, smoking, eating, told you" interposed Raoul de he would seat himself in the car murderer that we seek; neither and the knees a part, of course, and drinking, and refuse to work,

he

aeked

de Vaucaire was found dead in

and overlap those of ours¿0 1 assassin could have entered or

that we see what mortal eyes are

J

ל

not meant to see and hear what escaped-alone there in his had Baid Fanny Gordon thoughtfully, Vicomte, For Philippe, the valet, haps, as in a certain famous graphs, made from nine different of Austria and Italy. They strat

backed to death

mortal ears are not meant to

kuife !"

hear??

withi