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ewwmmr. THE lI Wall of Silence

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ewwmmr. THE l I Wall of Silence A STORY OF CARDIFF, I Specially Written for the "Evening Express" By SIDDY W ABWICK, AUTHOR OF The Ancel of Trouble," "Through a Woman's Heart," No Past Is Dead," Eyes: A Mystery," "Shadow of London," kc., &c. i FOR NEW READERS. I This thrilling serial began in the 1 Ivsnins Exproaa" on November 7. Vack numbtri can be obtained from iriy nowsatont, or direct from the >ubli»her. The following outline Mbles new readers to commence the lory to-day Character* In the Story. fIX MEREDITH, heir to his uncle's great wealth, and now head of the firm of Meredith. Muir. and Co. ALIVE LINDSAY, old Meredith's adopted daughter, cut out of his will because she W. convicted of stealing pearls. HEfcOIVAL DETMOLD, one of the witnesses ajainst Olive in the Black Pearl ca-t. found shot through the heart at his house in Liandaff, and wuom a woman is suspected of murdering. BLYA KENNEDY, whom Jim finds on the road near Detmold's house on the night of the murder. and, at her request, conveys in kis motor to Kadyr Station. BTHEL EESTAi?RICK. a young widow, for- merly Jim's sweetheart and a jœlouti woman, who hears of the lajft-n&mud inm- dent, and suspects. &WEN HUGHES, who is accepted by Elsie Kuir, aad, when leaving the Muira house at Penarth. meeta JOHN SARROI., whom he accuses of having been in league with Detmold to rob him (Hughes) of his rights in a certain inven- tion. Sarroi retorts by accusing II ug-hea of Detmotd's death. Hughes replies that it was an aocident. Sarroi deolaree he is going to set vhe police on to Hughes, but promises to held his hand until nine o'clock that night, when he to meet Hughes a "IBATHICE SAR-ROI, and PHILIP MTJIR, for- merly sweethearts, who meet at dinner ¡ that night and afterwards in tJle grounds of Muir's house, exchange confidences Sarrol surprises nis wife in Philip Muir'a arms. A derce quarrel and fight follow, and Philip Muir kilia Sarroi with a blow from a stick left behind by Hughes. Mrs. fearrol plots to save Philip from the oon- sequences, and to throw .suspicion on I Hugiies. Meredith meets Hughes and brings him to his house, where, when a polioe-rnepector calls, he is concealed behind a screen. Meredith's butler volunteers a statement. of the Story To-esay-ponsirtib. CHAPTER XXIV (continued). I AT A HOUSE IN PENAETH. Meredith glared at the m&n, speechless. Did Roberts suspect that Hughes was hiding in this very room, or what was more prob- able. that he had seen Hughes enter the gates some ten minutes ago, and mellnt to divulge the information? It was the last thing he would have ruspected of Roberts, whom he had found the best of servants, and whose father he had known before him. He felt savagely inclined to bid the man hold his tongue, but that might only make matters worse: it might convince the inspec- tor that he was hiding Hughes—make it finally impossible for him to save his friend. But Soberts should leave his service to-mor- row Meredith was telling himself very emphatically. "I was going to say this, sir," went on ioberts in an embarrassed way, glancing nervously at Meredith's f"L- because I think in a case of murder I have no right to keep silent when my information may enable the police to catch the murderer-" "Don't speak of my friend by that term I until there is proof that it is jugrtifit,,i broke in Meredith shaxwy, feeling that o Y-1 by a stong effort of restraint he could keep I himself from laying violent hands on this man, who seemed determined to play this treacherous part. I beg pardon, sir," said the man humbly. Perhaps I'd better say no more-" Oh, but you've got to say everything," said the inspector, suddenly full of authority and importance. "You've made an admission that you know where this man is to be found; and whether you want or not you've got to speak now. Come, what do you know? Is he hiding on or near these ■premises?" Hwe?" The man for all his nervousness permitted himself to indulge in a surprised smile. Here? NQ, I should think he's at Cardiff by now." And Meredith drew a sud- den deep breath of relief, and bewilderment came into his eyes. At least, I understood be was riding back to Cardiff." Riding? What do you mean?" demanded the inspector. "Mr. Hughes came here shortly before my master returned home. He seemed disap- pointed not to see my master. He had come to ask if Mr. Meredith could lend him a bicycle-be said he was in a great hurry to set back to Cardiff," went on the servant. I explain-ed that my master hadn't a bicycle;, and then, as he seemed so urgent, knowing he was a friend of my master's, I told him I would lend him mine. He rode away on it. That's why I think he will be in Cardiff now." Roberts paused. The inspector turned to Meredith. "Did your servant tell you this OIl your return home, sir?" Meredith, inwardly full of bewilderment, maintained an admirable appearance of self- control. He understood now: Roberta had suspected, and instead of being disloyal, had flung himself gallantly into the breach. His acting had evidently been perfect enough to deceive the inspector. Ho shrugged his shoulders as he answered carelessly: I didn't think it necessary to inform yen. After all, we do not know that it was to Cardiff that he rode." But at least it tells us that we've got to search for the man in a wider radius than we thought," said the inspector, with a touch of spleen in his voice. "Roberts, that waa splendid! cried Mere- dith to the servant, after the inspector had gone in haste. What made you do it?" "Well, sir, I took the liberty," Roberts said with a deferential cough, "beca.use after the inspector had pushed his way here —which I reserted on your behalf, sir-as I was turning to go, I happened to see through I the crevice of the dcor the toe of a boot pro- truding beyond the screen-and the E-creen had been moved; I formed my own conclu- sions accordingly, sir. I thought that the inspector was suspicious—and I feared he might be inquisitive enough to make a pre- text for looking behind the screen, unless something was done to divert his suspicions. It was the only thing I could think of, sir," he added modestly. Meanwhile the inspector hurried off, for once outwitted shrewd man though he was, by Roberts' amateur performance, to tele- phone further information to the Cardiff police. But by the next morning, when the Muirs met at the breakfast table in that house at Penarth, at a meal that was a mere ghastly pretence, no trace of the fugitive had as yet been found.. Upstairs Mr3. Sarroi, the partner in that guilty conspiracy of silence shared by four people, was lying delirious with fever, fol- lowing a complete collapse—between life and death. CHAPTER XXV. THE MORNING AFTER. Elsie was the last to oome down to the breakfast room that morning. There were dark ringg under the girl's eyes; the old buoyant elasticity had gone out of her step; she was like a ghost of the living, J among themselves. Three men, each fur- tively watching the other, wondering what thoughts were passing behind each mask of a. face—but each the prisoner of an unsur- mormtable mutual constraint. God knows if the honour of any of us would stand the strain if put to such a test," Stephen Muir muttered to himself, this man invariably the soul of scrrapoilousness until now, castijQig about for the consolation of what shred of justification he ooald find, aga-in and again. "I never wished Hughes to be suspected; I tried to destroy the evi- dence that might apfoarently connect him with this. But when I could only save him by denouncing my son. could any man in my position have acted otherwise than I acted?" And the burden of Alfred's thoughts: After all it was my father who spoke. who made the decision and after all Sarroi wrote that letter to the police accusing Hughes; in any case Hughes would t have been a hunted man, arrested for mur- der if caught." And the thoughts of the man whom this wall of silence was being built to shield— what was in his mind? Perhaps a foretaste of the torments of that purgatory that an infamous cowardice can create within tho secrecy of a man's soul; that,, and a dozen momentarily entertained thoughts, flitting phantoms of purposes never to be acted on, one s-ucceeding the other: to make confession —to bolt-to put a bullet through his head: those haJf-formcd resolves of a weak, irmvo- lute man. who knows in his heart he has the courage for none of then- So far all po-lioe suspicion centred about Owen Hughes, whose very flight lent colour to the suspicion. His description had been circulated, and "Y oll've made an admission, that you know where this man is!" I I with the white face stamped with the tragic impress that the grief and horror of the previous night had left there, as she came into the room where the rest of the family were already assembled. She would not have made an appearance at all that morning, only she knew that Alfred inevitably would have oome to her bedroom door to ask if she were ill, to worry her with questions—Alfred who always fussed and had a passion for details. All night through Elsie had scarcely closed her eyes in sleep, thinking of her lover, a man flying from arrest. waiting through the long, endless hoars for the da-wn. to come, and the news that she feared the morning might bring. Stephen Hair's voice was strained and un- like his usual tones, as he greeted his daughter; he felt a guilty sense of treachery as he stooped and kissed the listless, apathe- tio face. Her broken cry of laat night, tell ing him that she loved Owen Hughes, had added for him the culminating touch of poignancy in the tragic situation in which he had compromised his honour. Elsie loved the man he had tacitly betrayed. And then, he had told himself, the time was gone by when the truth could be spoken. "Father, have the police ?" She could not finish the whispered, almost inaudible, question. But be knew w- she meant. "No; so far they have found no trace of Owen," he told her. N Breakfast was a mere pretence. No one had any appetite, and each of the five per- [ sons felt it a relief when at last they rose from the table. The great house with the drawn blinds was strangely silent, where until late last night I there had been the incessant sound of heavy footsteps moving to and fro, of opening and j closing doors, of questioning voices of inves- tigating authorities- Instinctively, everyone I seemed to move noiselessly, to speak in whis- pers, as though afraid of disturbing the last eleep of the dead man who lay in that room behind locked doors. The long day stretched before them, when there woald be the horror of more questions to be answered, the renewed invasion of the police busily investigating, and the suspense of the inquest. And three men, father and. sons, had not even the relief of mutual inter- course to help them to face the ordeal. Since la8t night a constraint had fallen an the three oonepi-tors. causing them in some strange way to avoid speaking to each other. The shameful au-ender had been tadtty arrived at in the falling of a moment, wheu?, Stephen Muir, suddenly called upon for a definite Yes or No, had had to make his deci. sion; then that surrender to cowardice seemed suddenly to have become an accepted fact—an I accepted thing that was too ugly and shame- ful to be put into words or spoken of even the authorities had little doubt that sooner or later he would faJI into their wide-spread- ing net. The story that the Muirs, father and sons, and Mrs. Sarrol-now lying up- stairs delirious with what is known to the layman as bman-fever-,had been in the billiard room at the time John Sarroi must have met his death, and had neither heard nor suspected anytimg until the servant* sen/t with a message to the library, had come upon the tragedy, had apparently not been questioned. The police-superintendent had evinced some surprise th,at no sound of any altercation or cry, or the fall of a man of Sarroi's weight., had reached them in the biNiard room; but a personal test of the 0-&rrying] powers of sounds from behind the closed door of the library had convinced him how thick, solid walls and a, heavy carpet could deaden sound even in the comparatively short dis- tan-c-e between the two rooms. The servants in turn had been questioned, but they bad nothing to tell. "Oh, father, cam nothing be done-nothing to dispel this terrible suspicion threatening Owen ? [TO BE CONTINUED TO-MORROW.]

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