SHORT
THE
STORY.
THE THREE KNOCKS.
BY EDITH MACVANE:
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
EXTRA
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1914.
horrors! If you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a very, frivolous question."
"Fire away.
She handed him a hammer whose head was direfully cowed pounced upon it... ap in black cloth. The two men
clear and steady as bis own. knock, then I tell you that you it hangs my theory. Listen. "Melodramatic to the last . Mon er l'Albe, I regret that are simply mooking me! And I Your sentinel there at the door Ah, well, bit as you will I have no longer anything to commend you, in the name of the will give you his word, corrobor- mademoiselle." show you. The pane of glass law, if you have found a clue to sted by that of the night "In melodrama we should have That pretty gray camel's hair where the ancient writing was the whereabouts of this hiding- watshman, that I have not entered suitable weapons!" roturned wrapper of the abbe's that I saw is gone; it lies in fragments on place, to lead me to it at once. this room, except in your presence, Fanny suavely, as she unfolded the housekeeper sewing on this the stone flags below us.'
"I regret, monaleur, that is since the day I was introduced the eatin jacket that she carried morning-I'd so like to get one “Writin'?" oried Sir Geoffrey what I am unable to do to you. into this house."
on her arm "Should you, cars. like it, to send home for a prosent Ffgles with interest. "I say, It you, however, will kindly to my noole! Did you ever see weren't they jaily proud of their give me
The Chief bowed in silence. to carry this instead of your your aid, I hope The Vicomte Axed keen eyes on revolver, Ohief?" it, Sir Geoffrey?"
diamonds, in those old days? to do better."
is protegee. Fanny walked over "The abbe's wrappert The Qucon Bae, and Raleigh, and all
"What?"
to the bed; then recoiled. no; I never saw it in my life! of'em goin' round spoilin all
"I hope to make the murderer Haven't an idea what the poor the windows-".
"Messieurs, I will own my himself lead us to it !" old scout gets into when he slips "Not so badly as it is spoiled
weakness-I cannot touch that out of his blacke, I'm sure!"
"Where did you find that?" now, that window," returned De Chatellerault to whom ex-bed. Will you be so kind, Chief,
"I found it where I looked for "Too bad! I hoped yon could Fanny dryly. "I am Borry, perience had given a considerable as to look under the mattress
because perhaps you could have respect for Fanny Gordon's here, on the left side of the beditia the picture gallery!" said tell me where he bought it.
"Hash! Speak of angels-"
told me the meaning of thore powers, leaped to his foot. The and see if there is anything bulky Fanny Gordon. doggerel lines in old French that older man, however, preserved his between the insttress and the To wait in the dark for the At the upper end of the little were scrotobed there. However, sceptical calm.
springs ?"
ooming of a murderous criminal chapel, from behind the altar, now they are gone for ever. And, "Pardon me, mademoiselle. At the unoccupied side of the is far from pleasant business, suddenly appeared a tall figure in if you will excuse me, I must go, You will excuse me if I wait to bed indicated by Faany, the stout even when one's fear is merely black assock. At sight of the too. The Chief of the Scoret be startled till you shall have official stooped. He puffed se that he may come. The unples baronet and his companion, Service is waiting for me. Au made your words good. As for he tugged at the sheet and heaved santness, however, becomes far the newcomer paused. Then, revoir!”,
my aid, I will not refuse it to up the edge of the mattress. more pronounced when one's
Then: with bent head, he- advanced
fear is that he may stay away! Sure enough, in the library she you--" slowly down the aisle.
foun the Chief waiting for her, "Bon jour, mademoiselle. Bon with Rioul de Chatellerault. jour, cousin, Any nowe?"
"Well,
mademoiselle, "What is that long_loop_of "First, I want this
Fanny's pretty rosy face droop results?" Understand me! I gray twine up there, dangling guarded.
into lines of unwonted from the lower apex of the do not speak of half a dozen ed
(Continued from last Saturday.)"Understand me, Monsieur le Vicomte! I make no charge, as
"Romances again, mademoi- yet. But the abbe is a Jasnit. sella? No; the murder was not As you know, the Soiety of Jesus. committed by a trained soaks is all-powerful in Spain. " who orawlet down the bell-rope
Fanny rose to her fest. and returned later to the loop of
"Monsieur. I will datain you her master's whip. The aper no longer. To the courtesy you tore through which the wire have already abowa me I will ask passe has been examined, and
three favours would admit the passage of not you so much as a trained earth. more." worn."
ly.
.to
add
"Name them, mademoiselle!
house.
place thoroughly sentineled, aight
ed:
す
ance.
пру
.
rows
of cushions-white
breath
"You will even begin now, by "Name of toad! Look,Such was the terror of Fanny Gordon in the long watobes of answering one or two questions Monsieur le Vicomte 1
that atifling summer night, as for me, monsieur ?.".
There, beneath the deep woollen she lay orouohod in the picture "Certainly !"
mattress, carefully arranged on gallery behind a carved oak "Tell me, that pretty gray the covered springs, were row chest, and waited. Breathlessly she related the triangle ?" asked Fanny sudden-policemen-I want the whole discouragement as she answer incident that has just passed. Abbe Fornarini's that the house- pillows, satin cushions, little amatrack. In hardly more than an
camel'e-hair dressing-gown of the und
Half past one
had already The official, who invariably and day. A policeman for every None at all, Monsieur l'Abba: scoffed at Fanny's methods as keeper was sewing on yesterday broidered head-rests, all neatly hour it would come now, the The official started, then re two or three rooms, in day and I know the police are all at sea."dreams" nevertheless gave to
-have you seen it?"
flattened together to form a umed his ironical calm.
night shifts, who will patrol And as for a girl-what can she this unsuccessful attempt a With a puzzled expression, the smooth, symmetrical slope. The early June dawn. Suppose it broke, and this wearisome watob, Vicomte drew bis "The loop of the whip.perhaps, constantly. And in the picture hope to do, against auch
sudden and exaggerated import-Chief shook his head. Fanny
planned by her, had been all in mademoiselle? Or else, a hun-gallery, monsieur, I should like criminal as this?"
sharply. leaned forward,
vain! Is spite of the heat, Fanny dred years ago workmen, were to have always two meu !"
Her visible shudder thrilled
"Mademoiselle! What does shivered and the cold sweat": 'My God, mademoiselle! So "You haven't? I asked the perhaps as careless as they are to The Chief surveyed this rosy-like electricity through her two this is American intelligence! same question of Sir Geoffrey
this mean?
broke out over her body. day, and as likely to leave trasos faced young vision in dark blue listeners. The pricat's pale To show your discovery to the Ffyles, and he never saw it,
"You have as much reason to "Two and two make four!" of their packing material behind atin, isaning her orders so de aquiline face was, however, im- Italian priest, of all men in Paris. either! In fact,
know, Viomte, as I! And now she argued fiercely to herself for on the finished work! And now, cidedly. The exca of her pre-/movable as he answered Biern You do not show it to me, or to has seenit, that gray wrap kindness of looking beneath the as surely, he must come here to- -I beg you, Chief, do me the the thousandth time. "And, just mademoiselle, it happens that the sumption seemed almost to please ly:
Monsieur le Vicomte here; you per of the abbe's, except serious aspects of this cues call him, like the impertinence of a "Against an enemy such as do not even take a copy-"
just the housekeeper
and mattress on this other side here night. He can't fail-he can't !''
beneath the spot where the poor this a young girl, provided.. her
"Pardon, monsieur!" Fanny me. "Monsieur, one thing more! I
Dake was lying." **Indeed, mademoiselle, your heart be pure can do more than opened her hand-beg. "Here is should like, if I may, to ace the requests are not small ones! the entire polion of this republica tracing of the writing on the "Not a stain, I assure you!
Nervously Fanny'e slim hands knife,"
And yet, the Apaches are quiet [of Anti-Obrist,'
window. Here are two photo And the pockets were empty. I clasped and unclasped, while the The chief turned, unlocked for the moment; our men have
graphs that I made myself yea- draw your attention to this incid. Chief, strangely obedient now, fat black valise, and took from it little to do-perhaps forty or fifty
terday. Here is a translation ent of the wrapper marely to carried out her directions. Then a long slim paper parcel. In a men could be spared. For eight
into modern Freath, made by emphasize the fact that even bis he announced: moment he had produced a days, no longer. And, mind, at
Professor Bochet at the Sorbonne, own cousin denies having ever "On this side, mademoiselle, savage-looking knife, whose the end of those eight days I polished blade was obscared shall expect results!" bear the point with dark and ain
me"
pretty build
•
Then you think, Monsieur Abbe," asked Fanny in a hushed voice, "that the murder lai a supernatural origin ?"
"What you call supernatural, Here" mademoiselle," anawered be
The Chief santched the papers, Abbe Fornariai, in his cold voice, With eager syes the Vicomte istor stains. The Vicomte de sieur ! And now for favour nam"may perhaps be, for God, the leaned over him. They read. Chatellerault bent over it.
bar two a step-ladder!
most natural thing in the De Chatelle zult sprang to his
"Perhaps even sonar, mon
"A brutal weapon-from one "Ab! I should have expected of the Congo tribes, as Sir Geoffrey you to ask for the Eiffel Tower! said, "he remarked in a hushed A ladder you shall have. And voice. They use them as jave: then? lins, to hurl at the
Do enemy. *The freedom of the house for you observe the tiny handle of
the week, monsieur !'”
#
"
elk-hora, perforated for orna- "You shall have it. And now ment? And the disproportionate
world."
size of the blade, with the extra-by the way, I am informed that weight so skilfully introduced the legate has offered, through the Duke died," toward the tip-precisely as our the Spanish Ambassador here, a "And not since then? " own carly ancestors, monsieur, reward of fifteen thousand fravos tipped their arrows
stone!
1 "
"No, with for evidence leading to the cap-warning has been fulfilled."
tare of the assassin. Had you heard that ? Au revoir ["!
With a gesture of contained. horror, Fanny took the repulsive- looking weapon into her bands.
"But "your explanation, Vi- comte, does as no good-because,
"I say, Miss Gordon! Do you mind if I trot around after you bit?"
sure.
"Blood stains?"
до
one
seen it! And now-the woman Armande Loinois has she been found yet?"
With the annoyed expression of one who confesses a failure, the
Chief shook his head.
..
Suddenly her muscles tiffened, her breath stopped. Surely, at the end of the long gallery, & door had opened cautiously.
Silence. Then, through the dark, came the unmistakable padding sound of soft-shad
feet.
the
there are no cushions.".
Silence again. Then the spurt
· "Ah!" Fanny's breath exhaled itself in a long gasp. She stood of a match fame. A faint blus for a long time in thought, star fare. A moment's pause. Then, ing at the bed; then spoke suddenly, on the wall near her
| hiding-placé a hand knocked. beneath her breath: feet. "The family hoard (" "Who knows?" murmured
For the first time, Fanny realiz For noe
the Chief did not "The description of her will
"No. There can be no more ed how terrifying it was in its Fanny.
• Those
mysterious scout this idea as fantastic, you please let me see it? Thanks! doubt now, any more," knocks of warning-tell me, abbe,
stark sad naked simplicity, that "But,mademoiselle, explain" traditional death sign of the "One sees now why the Abbe Ham-large dark eyes; nose, when were the last kucoke Fornarini did not wish you to small Roman; ststare, medium:
"No, Chief. Later! Now the house of Vaucaire. Fear, in- heard ?"
read these lines!" he commented tinted red hair, which continues time is short; we must act quick-stinctive unreasoning fear, num. "Four nights ago, in the pic-briefly, then returned to the dog to grow in a narrow downy ridge
her collar. That depends"
my directions?" ture gallery-the night before gerol rhymes: "You, inquisitive along the nape of her neck and tell you carry out bed 'her muscles and made her atomach quiver.. A second knock, one, who knock there on the place disappears ander
Her qualm had passed; the in- where you shall hear me, seek That's not very common! Moles,
"It must not depend! You tellect and the will resumed their with boldness the Duke's palace left arm above elbow. That's on- mademoiselle. Their
and its treasure so dear!'"*": ongh. Chief, have you ever have asked me for results. Iway. For from within
thought in what a very singular have done all that I can, and the depths of the wall, rendered dim He paused. Was this to be the abbe's
place it was, that deathwound of reat depends on you. I want by intervening bricks and plaster, defence of himself before the "Me! when you shall bear me!' the Duke?"
you to make immediate public echoed the thin answering tinkle court? Fanny gazed at him Evidently the writer of these with eyes of fascinated specule- lines directs us to go about, that official stiffly.
"I have, indeed!" returned announcement, through the tele of a bell.
Boldly now, with no shelter phone to the evening papers, that tion. His sardonic eyes pierced pounding on the walls of the "It's a pleasure, Sir Geoffrey !
to-day the municipal guards are but that of the darkness, Fanny "Though the Duke, is the act removed from the Dake's palace. lifted her head. Not twenty feet palace, and when we hear him her thought. to hurl the knife, one must be in "Thanks. You know. I'm just
"Aud in your search through answer from underneath, to hunt of lifting his left arm toward the This afternoon I want you to from her, she beheld a tall figure
baldly and we'll find the brea-
ball, left his heart completely ex- remove all your men, conspicu. in a dark dressing-gown, holding the room just as much as to stab back from my poor ancle's faner- this ancient house you have, then,
posed, still the murderer drove with it! And for a savage, the al. This house-it gives me the found evidence which leads you
men, a candle in one hand and running ously, openly-all your problem of escape later would be creepe. I'm all in.""
home his knife in a port which, without one exception. You will the other down the faded gilt to doubt it, this theory of
"Bah! The Vaucaire who had aid arrived promptly, would then give charge of the house frame of a large antique portrait. first hid his money doubtless had not even have proved vital. just as difficult as for a civilized With a violent shudder, Sir mine?" man!" Thefi, bending again Geoffrey Figles sank into one of
over to the late Dake's solicitors. The next moment the whole his own bones buried with it, and Singular clumsiness! Alas, no. Though I have planned to watch over it and an- plicable circumstance that this the legstee, the King of Spain A pause. A gasp. toward the ugly blade in her the high, carved chairs of the come on strange things traces ewer when the right person came atrocious criminal, whose fiendish And tonight"
Iner- to be headed over to-morrow to portrait swang out like a door. little private chapel where, for the of a far-away past that you, to hunt. Quite "What is this little piece of instant, Fanng's researches had doubtless, can interpret better scheme, for those days! And pre-out of a closed room like a spirit, reasonable skill enabled him to slip in and
Rose! Where are you?!?! black and scarlet floss, knotted led her.. His handsome face was than 1 For instance, look at bably it seems very reasonable to
The tender whisper thrilled through one of the perforations of haggard.
with the secret quality of the that window there behind you the priest, who is the inheritor of yet bungled his work so awkward. of the handle?"
voice that apoaks for one ear "I say, I didn't sleep a wink there to the right"
their superstitions. In fact, it at the crucial moment that it
To-night, messieurs, I will alone. Then suddenly the veil of "Probably a merjonto of the last night. This house-agh Simultaneously the two men would not surprise me to know was only by accident that it wask you to meat me at eleven mystery and silence was stabbed Inst war dance in which it figured It's haunted."
turned, the young Englishman that these recent mystericus tap-
Buccessful!".
oolook at the Qasi d'Orsay, You, by a dreadful cry before it was brought to Europe, "But the knockings haven't more quickly than the other. The pings were the work of the abbe
"Evidently," returned mademoiselle," returned the Vibeen heard since since the night abbe, jostled by his cousin's knocking on the wall to get an when his intended victim man- We will drive to the corner of
Chief stiffly, he lost his head best men. All must be armed, dead!
Chief, must bring two of your "Dead! Dead! Rose, you are comte. "All savages, as you the Duke died, have they?" shoulder, half fet against the answer from the ghostly sentinel know, decorate their weapons, 28 "No--don't you see, that makes window. There was a smart within. Bah! I have two minda aged to ring the bell and give the the Rue Langlois. There we will The sudden glare of electric they do their peraons
it all the worse? It all goes to Crash, & vision of the priest re-to arrest him before he goes to
alarm!?!
descend, and proceed on fort to torches, the leaping out of men's He was interrupted by the show there was somethin' un-coiling with a bleading forehead, eat his laucheon
# "Probably. And yet, the the servants' gato of this house. faces, the cocking of revolvers, Chief, who sat in a brown canny in the business! Hang it a tinkle of broken glass on the Fanny shock bor head. No, startlingly haphazard nature of The housekeeper, with whom I the rush of feet. Fanny, beed study.
less of possible danger, was the -bein' historio family it's stone courtyard below. no! we have nothing to gain by the death-blo-I commend it have made friends, and who was first to arrive at the dark aper "The Able Fornarini was poor sport. I remember, there "I say was that my fault?" hasts. Bat look, Chief! Look to your attention, monsieur passionately devoted to the late missionary among the West Coret at Ffylee Court, before my poor cried the bewildered baronet, again at these lines. Do you not And now, will you kindly Dake, will be waiting for us there sure in the wall. The next in tribes for ten years before he father died, cur family banshee "By George, I'm frightfully ses it is written there who it is accompany me upstairs to the at half past eleven o'clock. We stant she had recoiled. Therpat came here to Paris," he observed whoapin and screechin about the sorry, old scout! See here, shall that the knacker shall hear an bedroom of the late Duke?" will enter the house by the ser her feet, staring up in the faint
tree-top all winter long. And I
swer from within, when he has Five minutes later the three vante stair, in complete darkness, light with fixed, wide-open eyes, De Chatellerault kait his he died. Then my poor mother "It is nothing!" interrupted found the spot ? Weetood together in the grim chan. And then, if those conditions have was the beautiful white face of a
came over hero to her brother, my the abbe coldly" a Boratch that "Written here ? A name writ ber of sudden death, unchanged bean faithfully observed, I think woman... Uncle Vaucaire. And the knock will be healed to-morrow!" and, ten bere ?" The Chief returned except that the red stains of the I can hope to show you some “Nem d'un nom d'un nom 1” evidence. in's bagan, for her. And sits with his handkerchief pressed to to his reading, first with bewilder- bedclothes had become nearly reants"
It was the Chief's voice. The Where is his motiva ?". died. Then, now, after twelve his temple, he turned back to the ment and then with anger, black. Fanny Gordon's eyes In the young girl's voice romotionless body of the woman, dark fenre, huddled over the The official hesitated, When years, the kuccks begin again for young girl. Mademoiselle, you There where you hear me on were full of a dancing fire. Eer vivid intensity like the crackling lifted its head and showed the he spoke, his voice, though almost my poor uncle. And he's dead, had something you wished to swer, hunt boldly Mademoisel-colour was high.
of an electric current. The indudible, yet crackled with the the Lord knows how."
le, if you say that it is written Chief," she said in an excited official tried to shrug his shoul-fco, blanched and distorted, of hatred born of modern and re- Bir Geoffrey, It will do you
Sir Gecifrey Flylus.'~*** publicsa prejudice
good to take your mind off there by the young Americans, as hear beneath the wall when we have come here to prove it. On himself with saying:
(Continued on Page 8.)
hands:
in a low tope.
brows.
"Circumstantial.
show to
ויי
&
اد.
the
་
"To-night, mademoiselle?" She lowered her voice.
His eyes were met here who this me is that we should, voice. "Ifuat had an idea. Idera, bat failed, and coniented.
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