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The Exeter Times-Advocate, 1930-05-29, Page 7J*t l«5 * THE EXETER T1MES-ADVOCATE K THVRSPAY, MAY 29, 1930 ill llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll THE STORY SO FAR II ill The police sur- place: every entrance was picketed when the He was presumably d'etailed instructions to in to to been booked by Matthews. “And that is .all -ancient is nothing whatever to little affair today, save you a good idea of the we are dealing with.” jolly,” murmured the “He sounds an absolute topp­ I? they had no notion of its possibilities a,s an instrument of crime. And to them, pottering along with their little footpad tricks, came this sud­ den summons. , The car, driven by the Nightingale alone, was to be taken to the small town of M.aguy, halfway between Paris and Rouen, and there further instructions would be given him.” 'Matthews smiled slightly. "I can imagine the feelings of Le Rossignol,” he went on, "as he drove out through the Porte Maillot on that fine September mdrning. The ever­ present fear of the driver of those days that the car would break down was for once forgotten; he probably prayed devoutly that it would. But his prayer was unanswered*, and at eleven o’clock he drew up outside’ the Hotel du Grand-Cerf, in Magney, and proceeded to fortify himself with some alcohol. "Lunch time came, and with it a wild hope that there had been some mistake, and that he was to be al­ lowed to continue his normal life undisturbed .by Le Bossu Masque. Vain thought; the summons came as he finished his meal. A letter was handed to him by the garcon, which he opened with trembling hands. It ran as follows: “ 'At eight to-night you will take the road to Gisors on foot. Four kilometers out of the town, on the left of the road, is a wood-cutter’s shed. Go there.’ “He told us at the trial, that thr.ee times that afternoon did he ’g,et' as far as the local gendarmerie, only on each occasion to have his courage fail him at the last moment. Poor devil! one can hardly blame him. No one knew better than he what had been the penalty for treachery in Paris. And if it occurred in Paris with the whole force of police avail­ able, what chance had a cOuple of stout local gendarmes at night in the middle of a* wood? And so at eight o’clock found him 'taking the road to Gisors. He trudged along whistling, probably trying -to keep his spirits up, until at length the copse on the left of the road loomed up out of the darkness. Like all town-dwellers, the country at night was full of nameless terrors for him, even op normal occasions. The sudden scream of a night-bird could make him sweat with fear far more easii’y" than any report of a revolver. So It isn’t' dif­ ficult to imagine his feelings, on this far from normal occasion, when he struck into -the. trees and began to search for the wood-cutter’s shed. "At last he found it. It was irf pitch darkness, and when he tried the door it was locked. ’ (Interrupt­ ing myself foi* a moment, I think at the trial,, when all this came out that our friend made ns good a story as lie could out of it, to try and en­ list sympathy. But even granted that,. I’ll bet lie had a pretty grim lialfhour.) After a while he. sat down, and took out a packet of Gap­ orals. A cigarette, he reflected, might help to quieten his nerves. And even as he felt in his pocket for a match a hand came out of the darkness and took the cigarette out' of his mouth. "Frozen with horror he sat there, leaning against the wall of the shed. Speech lie could understand: the roar of Paris ho was at home in, but that silent .action in the middle of a deserted wood, where he had believ­ ed himself to be alone, literally pet- rifield him with terror. His tongue was cleaving to his dry mouth: he couldn’t even scream. ‘Somewhere close to him was. that most dreaded being in Paris—the masked hunch­ back. "The sweat ran in streams from -his forehead: his teeth chattered. If only this other one would speak: if only something would* happen to break this ghastly silende! But there was nothing—nothing save the faint creaking of the trees in the night breeze. At last he forced himself to look round: there, standing just behind him, was the figure of a man. * 'Hugh Drummond and Peter Farrell -are interested in Mr. Granger, who Hyes at Temple Tower, which is strongly fortified. Miss Vhrney accepts a position as private se­ cretary to Mr, Granger and her friend (Freckles) Tom Scott is staying with Hugh, John, an old . friend of Hugh’s, has the plans, .of Temple Tower but someone stol« Them out of his room. A boarder at Spnagge’s Farm hides a rope ladder near the tower and at night mses it to climb the wall. Hugh and his three. friends also go in to find the big dog poisoned and •ilie servant Gaspard ‘choked to death. They meet Victor Mat­ thews, a member of the New York police, who retuns with them and gives the history of this myster­ ious person in black. • 3N0W GO ON WITH THE STORY “Sure enough, one day we -got a wing on the telephone. And a guard­ ed voice informed us that le Bossu liad summoned the speaker—a par­ ticularly unpleasant form ot brute Ituown at the Rat—to. go-to a small hotel not far from the Gare de I’Est at ten that night, rounded the 4o the hotel Rat arrived, receive more the hall as to which room he was -go to, and we gave him orders coil,municat,e the number to the man sat the door. It had been decided to ■allow him a little time with le Bos- su so that we could find out what scheme that gentleman had in view, and it was ten minutes after the Rat had, dissappeared upstairs that we rushed the room. “Now, gentlemen, f was in the pas­ sage out-side theu'o/m from the time lhe Rat went in. And I will swear That no one came out. Yet, when we went in, he was lying, stone dead du the middle of the carpet, with a knife driven up to the hilt in his hack!” “Good Lord!” said Freckles, a cigarette he ‘had forgotten to light between his lips. “But liow did the fellow get away?” Matthews shrugged his shoulders. •“The window was open,v and so •that' was where he Escaped,' Presum­ ably. But that w>s only one case out of a dozen.” 1 ; ■ ' “Hold hard a minute,” said Hugh. ’’•“Had no one in the hotel seen the man who took the room?” “The room had telephone,” said the hotel, though small, is a busy one. Numbers of men had been in there that evening, and it was quite impossible to say which of them it was.” “But a hunchback is a pretty con­ spicuous figure;” I objected. “Ah, but was he a hunchback? True, he had adopted this device, ibut that was no proof that lie him­ self. Or possibly the hump was de­ tachable—-a specially assumed dis­ guise.” “Yes—that’s true,” agreed Hugh. “Yiou may take it from me, gen­ tlemen,” went on Matthews, "that •we took every possible, and impos­ sible, theory into account. But the plain, bald fact remained that under tile very noses of the police the' Rat liad been murdered, and the murder­ er vanished into thin air. However, 3 must get on: history and do with our ■ that it gives type of man “Awfully boy. er.” “I’m coming to a part now that •really concerns us,” continued ^Mat­ thews. "And to make' it clear to y.ou, I will take it as it actually hap­ pened, not as we found it ou’t at the trial of the, Nightingale. He was «our informant ,wlien, unfortunately, at was too late. As you will under­ stand, after the episode of the Rat, and several others of .a similar type, , . __ it had become Impossible to carry ,He could make out no details: only ©n with the method we had .origin- the outline, could be seen against the silly hoped so much from. . No ,one blackness of the woods, dared run the risk, though ’ doubled and trebled the money of-1 Tered. But certain facts* leaked .out from the men who had seen him, and ■two of these were early established. First- said before, whether it was ' ®r not we didn’t know was always masked. a, soul in Taris who ’his face. “It was Aho Nightingale received which caused him to tjirn paid with fear—-a summons ^rdhi’ le Bossu Masque. The” Nightingale dnd “'his gang had, as I have already told you, been playing about With tlieir mo- tt.or-car, and enjoying themselves in Their own mild way. J If the Atttith be known’,, I think they Were fright- -ened of the machine; certain it is; ■lie had a hump, though, as I genuine| .- Second—-he There was not the whole underworld ot’ could 'Claim to And after we a while he scrambled to his feet. ‘I have come,’ he said in a shak­ ing voice. ■ “ 'Why do you suppose, Rossignol,, that I chose a spot like this foi* .our rendezvous?” "According trial the voice most terrible have seen in September 1902, that a message to iMarillard 'at his of Le Bossu was the thing he' had ever . It was never raised, and his own description of it was that it sounded like drops of iced water boring into his brain; " ‘That we should be secret, M’sieur,’ he stammered. » " 'And. that is why you propose to light a cigarette in the middle of a dark wood,’’ went on the voice, ‘That, you were a fool I have long known: I perceive that you are an even more incredible imbecile than I sus­ pected.’ . “ ‘Pardon, M’sieur,.” muttered Le •know But I will find serious? accident occurred You d’Or- food sufficient for two of you a day. The rest of your gang go there by train. They will up at the Hotel St. Louis. Repeat .the * Brantford Roofing Co. Limited, Head Office and Factory: Brantford, Ont, Branch Officer and Waretoweri Toronto, WincLior, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax,-Saint jo!>n, N.B., and St. John’s, Nfid. FOR SALE BY THE ROSS-TAYLOR CO., LIMITED oach Rossignol, ‘J am, not used ,to the country; 1 did not think,’ “ ‘Precisely: you did' not' think. Now pay very close attention. To­ night you will sleep, nt the Hotel du Grand-Cerf, To-morrow you will re­ turn to Paris, The day after you and the .Snipe will take the car and go to Chateaudun. , You road?” “ 'No, M’sieur, out.' " ‘Yes: you will find out, leave Paris through the Porte leans. The distance is one hundred and twenty-five kilometers. Arrived there you will put up at the Hotel de la Place, and see that your car is refilled with petrol and oil. Place also in your car two bottles of wine and for will put what I have said,’ “In a trembling voice Le Rossig­ nol repeated the insturctions. " ‘Good. You will then await further orders. And be careful, Le Rossignol, to put ia guard on your tongue. Too much wnie may be dangerous. If you serve me well, it will he to your advantage. If you Tail—you will not' do so again. It is my pleasure to employ your car for other purposes than frightening old women in the street.’ “ ‘Oui, M’sieur: I will not fail. The Porte d’Orleans, you said?” "B„ut there was no answer: Le Rossignol was alone. As he had come so did Le Bossu Masque go—in uttei’ silence. And an hour later a badly shaken Apache entered the Hotel du Grad-Cerf and called for wine. What­ ever the future might hold, this nerve wracking first fence was safe­ ly over. That eerie wood was a thing of .the past: in the inn was warmth 'and comfors and, most im­ portant of all, light. (To be Continued) A Bayfield when several men were at work shingling the Town Hall. Mr. Walter McLellan slipped and fell to the ground a distance of about 25 feet. A bunch of shingles also fell and hit him. He was removed to Clinton Hospital where it was found his shoulder was broken, his leg bad­ ly injured and also suffering frpm internal injuries. 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