 The Red Hill Sisterhood by C. L. Pircus. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alan Winteroud. The Red Hill Sisterhood by C. L. Pircus. They want you at Red Hill now, said Mr. Dyer, taking a packet of papers from one of his pigeonholes. The idea seems gaining ground in many quarters that in cases of mere suspicion, women detectives are more satisfactory than men, for they are less likely to attract attention. And this Red Hill affair, so far as I can make out, is one of suspicion only. It was a dreary November morning. Every gas jet in the Lynch Court office was a light, and the yellow curtain of outside fog draped its narrow windows. Nevertheless, I suppose one can't afford to leave it uninvestigated at this season of the year, with Country House robberies beginning in so many quarters, said Ms. Brook. No, and the circumstances in this case certainly seem to point in the direction of the Country House burglar. Two days ago, a somewhat curious application was made privately by a man giving the name of John Murray to Inspector Gunning of the Ryegate Police. Red Hill, I must tell you, is in the Ryegate Police District. Murray stated that he had been a green grocer somewhere in South London, had sold his business there and had, with the proceeds of the sale, bought two small houses in Red Hill, intending to let the one and live in the other. These houses are situated in a blind alley known as Paved Court, a narrow turning leading off the London and Brighton coach road. Paved Court has been known to the sanitary authorities for the past ten years as a regular fever nest, and as the houses which Murray bought, numbers seven and eight, stand at the very end of the blind alley with no chance of thorough ventilation, I daresay the man got them for next to nothing. He told the inspector that he had had great difficulty in procuring a tenant for the house he wished to let, number eight, and that consequently, when about three weeks back, a lady dressed as a nun made him an offer for it, he immediately closed with her. The lady gave her name simply as Sister Monica, and stated that she was a member of an undenominational sisterhood that had recently been founded by a wealthy lady who wished her name kept a secret. Sister Monica gave no references, but instead paid a quarter's rent in advance, saying that she wished to take possession of the house immediately and open it as a home for crippled orphans. Gave no references, home for cripples, murmured Love Day, scribbling hard and fast in her notebook. Murray made no objection to this, continued Mr. Dyer, and accordingly the next day, Sister Monica, accompanied by three other sisters and some sickly children, took possession of the house, which they furnished with the barest possible necessities from chief shops in the neighborhood. For a time, Murray said, he thought he had secured most desirable tenants, but during the last ten days, suspicions as to the real character have entered his mind, and these suspicions he thought had his duty to communicate to the police. Among their possessions, it seems, these sisters number an old donkey and a tiny cart, and this they start daily on a sort of begging tour through the adjoining villages, bringing back every evening a perfect hoard of broken victuals and bundles of old garments. Now comes the extraordinary fact on which Murray bases his suspicions. He says, and Gunning verifies his statement, that in whatever direction these sisters turn the wheels of their donkey cart, burglaries, or attempts at burglaries are sure to follow. A week ago, they went along towards Horley, where, at an outlying house, they receive much kindness from a wealthy gentleman. That very night, an attempt was made to take into that gentleman's house, an attempt, however, that was happily frustrated by the barking of the house dog, and so on in other instances that I need not go into. Murray suggests that it might be well to have the daily movements of these sisters closely watched, and that extra vigilance should be exercised by the police in the districts that have had the honor of a morning call from them. Gunning coincides with this idea, and so has sent to me Love Day closed her notebook. I suppose Gunning will meet me somewhere and tell me where I'm to take up my quarters, she said. Yes, he will get into your carriage at Merstham, the station before Redhill, if you will put your hand out of window with the morning paper in it. By the way, he takes it for granted that you will save the 11-5 train from Victoria. Murray, it seems, has been good enough to place his little house at the disposal of the police, but Gunning does not think espionage could be so well carried on there as from other quarters. The presence of a stranger in an alley of that sort is bound to attract attention, so he has hired a room for you in a draper shop that immediately faces the head of the court. There is a private door to this shop of which you will have the key and can let yourself in and out as you please. You are supposed to be a nursery governess on the lookout for a situation, and Gunning will keep you supplied with letters to give color to the idea. He suggests that you need only occupy the room during the day. At night you will find more comfortable quarters at Lakers Hotel just outside the town. This was about the sum total of the instructions that Mr. Dyer had to give. The 11-5 train for Victoria, the carried love day to her work among the Surrey Hills, did not get clear of the London Fog till well away on the other side of Perley. When the train halted at Merstham in response to her signal a tall soldier-like individual made for her carriage and jumping in took the seat facing her. He announced himself to her as Inspector Gunning recalled to her memory a former occasion on which they had met and then naturally enough turned the talk upon the present suspicious circumstances they were bent upon investigating. It won't do for you and me to be seen together, he said. Of course I am known for miles around and anyone seen in my company will at once be set down as my co-agitor and spite upon accordingly. I walked from Red Hill to Merstham on purpose to avoid recognition on the platform at Red Hill and halfway here to my great annoyance found that I was being followed by a man in a workman's dress and carrying a basket of tools. I doubled however and gave him the slip taking a shortcut down a lane which if he had been living in a place he would have known as well as I did by Jove. This was added with a sudden start. There is the fellow I declare he has weathered me after all and has no doubt taken good stock of his both with the train going at this snail's pace. It was unfortunate that your face should have been turned towards that window, Miss Brooke. My veil is something of a disguise and I will put on another cloak before he has a chance of seeing me again said Love Day. All she had seen in the brief glimpse that the train had allowed was a tall powerfully built man walking along a sighting of the line. His cap was drawn low over his eyes and in his hand he carried a workman's basket. Gunning seemed much annoyed at the circumstance. Instead of landing at Red Hill he said, we'll go on to three bridges and wait there for a Brighton train to bring us back. That will enable you to get to your room somewhere between the lights. I don't want to have you spotted before you so much as started your work. Then they went back to their discussion of the Red Hill Sisterhood. They call themselves undenominational whatever that means, said Gunning. They say they are connected with no religious sect whatever. They attend sometimes one place of worship, sometimes at other, sometimes none at all. They refuse to give up the name of the founder of their order and really no one has any right as no doubt you see up to the present moment the case is one of mere suspicion. And it may be a pure coincidence that attempts at burglary have followed their footsteps in this neighborhood. By the way, I have heard of a man's face being enough to hang him but until I saw Sister Monica's I never saw a woman's face that could perform the same kind office for her. Of all the lowest criminal types of faces I have ever seen are repulsive. After the sisters, they passed an review the chief family's resident in the neighborhood. This, said Gunning, unfolding on paper, is a map I have specially drawn up for you. It takes in the district for 10 miles round Red Hill and every country house of any importance is marked in it in red ink. Here, in addition, is an index to those houses with special notes of my own to every house. Love they study the map for a minute or so, then turn her attention to the index. These four houses you've marked, I see are those that have already been attempted. I don't think I'll run them through but I'll mark them doubtful. You see the gang, for of course it is a gang, might follow our reasoning on the matter and look upon those houses as our weak point. Here's one I'll run through, house empty during winter months. That means plate and jewelry sent to the bankers. Oh, and this one may as well be crossed off. Father and four sons all athletes and sportsmen. And that means firearms always handy. I don't think burglars will be likely to trouble them. Ah, now we come to something. Here's a house to be marked tempting in a burglars list. Wooten Hall, lately changed hands and rebuilt with complicated passages and corridors. Splendid family plate with daily use and left entirely to the care of the butler. I wonder, does the master of the house trust to his complicated passages to preserve his plate for him? He dismissed a dishonest servant with supply a dozen maps of the place for half a sovereign. What are these initials E.L. against the next house in the list North Cape stand for? Electric lighted. I think you might almost cross that house off also. I consider electric lighting the greatest safeguards against burglars that a man can give his house. Yes, if he doesn't rely exclusively upon it it might be a nasty trap under certain circumstances. I see this gentleman also has a magnificent presentation and other plate. Yes, Mr. Jameson is a wealthy man and very popular in the neighborhood. His cups and apparenges are worth looking at. Is it the only house in the district that is lighted with electricity? Yes, and begging your pardon, Miss Brooke, I only wish it were not so. If electric lighting were generally in vogue it would save the police a lot of trouble on those dark winter nights. The burglars would find some way of meeting such a condition of things to pin upon it. They have reached a very high development in these days. They no longer stalk about as they did 50 years ago with blunderbuss and bludgeon. They plot, plan, try and bring imagination and artistic resource to their aid. By the way, it often occurs to me that the popular detector stories for which there seems so large demand at the present day must be at times uncommonly useful to the criminal classes. At three bridges they had to wait so long for a return train that it was nearly dark when Love Day got back to Redhill. Mr. Gunning did not accompany her thither having a lighted at a previous station. Love Day had directed her Portmanteau to be sent direct to Lakers Hotel where she had engaged a room by telegram from Victoria Station. So unburdened by luggage she slipped quietly out of the Redhill station and made her way straight for the Draper shop in the London Road. She had no difficulty in finding it thanks to the minute directions given her by the inspector. Street lamps were being lighted in a sleepy little town along and as she turned into the London Road shopkeepers were lighting up their windows on both sides of the way. A few yards down this road a dark patch between the lighted shops showed her where paved court led off from the thoroughfare. A side door of one of the shops that stood at the corner of the court seemed to offer a post of observation when she could see without being seen and here Love Day shrinking into the shadows ensconced herself in order to take stock of the city and its inhabitants. She found it much as it had been described to her a collection of four-roomed houses of which more than half were unleashed. Number seven and eight at the head of the court presented a slightly less neglected appearance than the other tenements. Number seven stood in total darkness but in the upper window of number eight there showed what seemed to be a nightlight burning so Love Day conjectured that this possibly was the room set apart in the middle of the cemetery for the little cripples. While she stood thus surveying the home of the suspected sisterhood the sisters themselves, two at least of them came into view with their donkey cart and their cripples in the main road. It was an odd little cortege. One sister, habited in a nun's dress of dark blue surge led the donkey by the bridle. Another sister similarly attired walked alongside the low cart in which were seated two sickly looking children. They were evidently returning from one of the long country circuits and unless they had lost their way and had been belated it certainly seemed a late hour for the sickly little cripples to be abroad. As they passed under the gas light at the corner of the court Love Day caught a glimpse of the faces of the sisters. It was easy with Inspector Gunning's description before her mind to identify the older and taller woman as Sister Monica and a more coarse featured as Love Day admitted to herself she had never before seen. In striking contrast to this forbidding countenance was that of the younger sister Love Day could only catch a brief passing view of it but that one brief view was enough to impress it on her memory as of unusual sadness and beauty. As the donkey stopped to the corner of the court Love Day heard this sad looking young woman addressed as Sister Anna by one of the cripples and they were going to have something to eat. Now at once said Sister Anna lifting the little one as it seemed to Love Day tenderly out of the cart and carrying him on her shoulder down the court to the door of number eight which opened to them at their approach. The other sister did the same with the other child. Then both sisters returned unloaded the cart of sundry bundles and baskets and this done led off the old donkey and trapped down the road possibly to a neighboring costamonger stables. A man coming along on a bicycle exchanged a word of greeting with the sisters as they passed then swung himself off his machine at the corner of the court and walked it along the paved road to the door of number seven. This he opened with a key and then pushing the machine before him entered the house. Love Day took it for granted that this man must be the John Murray of whom she had heard. She had closely scrutinized him as he had passed her that he was a dark well featured man of about 50 years of age. She congratulated herself on her good fortune and having seen so much in a brief space of time and coming forth from her sheltered corner turned her steps in the direction of the draper shop on the other side of the road. It was easy to find it. Go Lightly was the singular name that figured above the shop front in which were displayed a variety of goods calculated to meet the wants of servants and the poorer classes generally. A tall powerfully built man appeared to be looking in at this window. Love Day's foot was on the doorstep of the draper's private entrance her hand on the door knocker when this individual suddenly turning convinced her of his identity with the journeyman workman who had so disturbed Mr. Gunning's equanimity. It was true he wore a bowler instead of a journeyman's cap and he no longer carried a basket of tools but there was no possibility for anyone with so good an eye for an outline as Love Day possessed not to recognize the carriage of the head and shoulders as that of the man she had seen walking along the railway sighting. He gave her no time to make minute observations of his appearance but turned quickly away and disappeared down a by street. Love Day's work seemed to bristle with difficulties now. Here was she as it were unearthed in her own ambush for there could be but little doubt that during the whole time she had stood watching those sisters that man from a safe vantage point had been watching her. She found Mrs. Golightly a civil and obliging person. She showed Love Day to her room above the shop brought her the letters which Inspector Gunning had been careful to have posted to her during the day. Then she supplied her with pin and ink and in response to Love Day's request with some strong coffee that she said would keep a doormouse awake all through the winter without winking. While the obliging landlady busied herself about the room Love Day had a few questions to ask about the sisterhood who lived down the court opposite. On this head however Mrs. Golightly could tell her no more than she already knew beyond the fact that they started every morning on the rounds at 11 o'clock punctually and that before that hour they were never to be seen outside their door. Love Day's watch that night was to be a fruitless one. Although she sat with her lamp turned out and safely screened from observation and took close upon midnight with eyes fixed upon number 7 and 8 paved court, not so much as a door opening or shutting at either house rewarded her vigil. The lights flitted from the lower to the upper floors in both houses and then disappeared somewhere between 9 and 10 in the evening and after that not a sign of life of either tenement show. And all through the long hours of that watch backwards and forwards there seemed to flip before her mind's eye as if in some sort it were fixed upon its retina the sweet sad face of sister Anna. While it was this face should so haunt her she found it hard to say. It has a mournful past and a mournful future written upon it as a hopeless hole she said to herself it is the face of an Andromeda. Here I am to say tied to my stake helpless and hopeless. The church clocks were sounding the midnight hour as Love Day made her way through the dark streets to her hotel outside the town. As she passed under the railway arch that ended in the open country road the echo of not very distant footsteps caught her ear. When she stopped they stopped and when she went on they went on and she knew that once more she was being followed and watched although the darkness of the arch prevented her seeing even the shadow of the man who was thus dogging her steps. The next morning broke keen and frosty. Love Day studied her map and her country house index over a seven o'clock breakfast and then set off for a brisk walk along the country road. No doubt in London the streets were walled in and roofed with yellow fog. Here however bright sunshine played in and out of the bare tree boughs and leafless hedges onto a thousand frost spangles turning a prosaic matacomized road into a gangway fit for a queen titania herself and her ferry train. Love Day turned her back on the town and set herself to follow the road as it wound away over the hill in the direction of a village called Northfield. Early as she was she was not to have that road to herself. A team of strong horses trudged on their way to their work in the fuller earth pits. A young fellow on a bicycle flashed past at a tremendous pace considering the upward slant of the road. He looked hard at her as he passed then slackened paced dismounted and awaited her coming on the brow of the hill. Good morning Miss Brooke he said lifting his cap as she came alongside of him. May I have five minutes to talk with you? The young man who thus accosted her had not the appearance of a gentleman. He was a handsome bright faced young fellow of about two and twenty and was dressed in ordinary cyclist's dress. His cap was pushed back from his brow over thick curly fair hair and Love Day as she looked at him could not repress the thought how well he would look at the head of a troop of cavalry giving the order to charge the enemy. He led his machine to the side of the footpath. You have the advantage of me said Love Day I haven't the remotest notion who you are. No he said although I know you you cannot possibly know me. I am a north countryman and I was present about a month ago at the trial of old Mr. Craven of Troids Hill. In fact I acted as a reporter for one of the local papers. I watched your face so closely as you gave your evidence that I should know it anywhere among a thousand. And your name is George White of Grenfell. My father is part proprietor of one of the Newcastle papers. I am a bit of a literary man myself and sometimes figure as a reporter sometimes as leader writer to the paper. Here he gave a glance toward the side pocket from which protruded a small volume of Tennyson's poems. The facts he had stated did not seem to invite comment and Love Day ejaculated merely indeed. The young man went back to the subject that was evidently filling his thoughts. I have special reasons for being glad to have met you this morning, Miss Brooke. He went on making his footsteps keep pace with hers. I am in great trouble and I believe you are the only person in the whole world that can help me out of that trouble. I am rather doubtful as to my power of helping anyone out of trouble, said Love Day. So far as my experience goes our troubles are as much a part of ourselves as our skins are of our bodies. Ah, but not such trouble as mine quite eagerly. He broke off for a moment, then with a sudden rush of words told her what the trouble was. For the past year he had been engaged to be married to a young girl who until quite recently had been fulfilling the duties of a nursery governess in a large house in the neighborhood of Redhill. Will you kindly give me the name of that house, interrupted Love Day? Certainly Wooten Hall the place is called and Annie Lee is my sweetheart's name. I don't care who knows it. He threw his head back as he said this as if he would be delighted to denounce the fact to the whole world. Annie's mother, he went on died when she was a baby and we both thought her father was dead also. When suddenly about a fortnight ago it came to her knowledge that instead of being dead he was serving his time at Portland for some offense committed years ago. Do you know how this came to Annie's knowledge? Not the least in the world. I only know that I suddenly got a letter from her announcing the fact and at the same time breaking off her engagement with me. I tore the letter into a thousand pieces and wrote back saying I would not allow the engagement to be broken off but would marry her tomorrow if she would have me. To this letter she did not reply. There came instead a few lines from Mrs. Copeland the lady at Wooten Hall saying that Annie had thrown up her engagement and joined some sisterhood and that she Mrs. Copeland had pledged her word to Annie to reveal to no one the name and whereabouts of that sisterhood. And I suppose you imagine I am able to do what Mrs. Copeland is pledged not to do? That's just it Miss Brooke cried the young man enthusiastically. You do such wonderful things. Everyone knows you do. It seems as if what anything has wanted to be found out you just walk into a place look around you and in a moment everything becomes clear as noonday. I can't quite lay claim to such wonderful powers as that. As it happens however in the present instance no particular skill is needed to find out what you wish to know. For I fancy I have already come upon the traces of Miss Annie Lee. Miss Brooke. Of course I cannot say for certain but it is a matter you can easily settle yourself. Settle too in a way that will confer a great obligation on me. I shall be only too delighted to be of any the slightest service to you cried quite enthusiastically as before. Thank you I will explain. I came down here especially to watch the movements of a certain sisterhood who has somehow aroused the suspicions of the police. Well, I find that instead of being able to do this I am myself so watched, possibly by Confederates of these sisters, that unless I can do my work by deputy I may as well go back to town at once. Ah, I see. You want me to be that deputy. Precisely. I want you to go to the room in Redhill that I have hired, take your place at the window, screened of course from observation, at which I ought to be seated, watch as closely as possible the movements of these sisters and report them to me at the hotel where I shall remain shut in from morning till night. It is the only way in which I can throw my persistent spies off the scent. Now in doing this for me, you will also be doing yourself a good turn for I have little doubt but what under the blue surge hood of one of the sisters you will discover the pretty face of Miss Annie Lee. As they had talked they had walked and now stood on the top of the hill at the head of the one little street that constituted the whole of the village field. On their left hands stood the village schools and the master's house, nearly facing these on the opposite side of the road beneath the clump of elms to the village pound. Beyond this pound on either side of the way were two rows of small cottages with tiny squares of garden in front and in the midst of these small cottages a swinging sign beneath a lamp announced a postal and telegraph office. Now that we have come into the land of habitations again said Love Day it would be best for us to part it will not do for you and me to be seen together or my spies will be transferring their attentions from me to you and I shall have to find another deputy you had better start on your bicycle for Redhill at once and I will walk back at leisurely speed come to me at my hotel without fail at one o'clock and report proceedings I do not say anything definite about remuneration but I assure you if you carry out my instructions to the letter your services will be amply rewarded by me and by my employers there were yet a few more details to arrange White had been he said only a day and night in the neighborhood and special directions as to the locality had to be given to him Love Day advised him not to attract attention by going to the draper's private door but to enter the shop as if he were a customer and then explain matters to Mrs. go lightly who no doubt would be in her place behind the counter tell her that he was the brother of the Miss Smith who had hired her room and asked permission to go through the shop to that room as he had been commissioned by his sister to read and answer any letters that might have arrived there for her show her the key of the side door here it is said Love Day it will be your credentials and tell her you did not like to make the young man took the key endeavored to put it in his waistcoat pocket found the space there occupied and so transferred it to the keeping of a side pocket in his tunic all this time Love Day stood watching him you have a capital machine there she said as the young man mounted his bicycle once more and I hope you will turn it to account in following the movements of these sisters about the neighborhood I feel confident you will have something definite to tell me when you bring me your first report at one o'clock white once more broke into a profusion of thanks and then lifting his cap to the lady started his machine at a fairly good pace Love Day watched him out of sight down the slope of the hill then instead of following him as she had said she would at a leisurely pace she turned her steps in the opposite direction along the village street it was an altogether ideal country village neatly dressed chubby face children now on their way to the schools dropped quaint little curtsies or tugged at curly forelocks as Love Day passed every cottage looked a picture of cleanliness and trimness and although so late in the year the gardens were full of late flowering chrysanthemums and early flowering Christmas roses at the end of the village Love Day came suddenly into view of a large handsome red brick mansion it presented a wide frontage to the road from which it lay back amid extensive pleasure grounds on the right hand and a little in the rear of the house stood what seemed to be large and commodious stables and immediately adjoining these stables was a low cut red brick shed that had evidently been recently erected that low built red brick shed excited Love Day's curiosity is this house called North Cape she asked of a man who chanced at that moment to be passing with a pickaxe and shovel the man answered in the affirmative and Love Day then asked another question could he tell her what was that small shed so close to the house it looked like a glorified cow shed now what could be its use the man's face lighted up as if it were a subject on which he liked to be questioned he explained that that small shed was the engine house where the electricity that lighted North Cape was made and stored then he dwelt with pride upon the fact as if he held a personal interest in it that North Cape was the only house far or near that was thus lighted I suppose the wires are carried underground to the house said Love Day looking in vain for signs of them anywhere the man was delighted to go into details on the matter he had helped to lay those wires he said they were two in number one for supply and one for return and were laid three feet below ground in boxes filled with pitch the door switched on to jars in the engine house where the electricity was stored and after passing underground entered the family mansion under its flooring at its western end Love Day listened attentively to these details and then took a minute and leisurely survey of the house and its surroundings this done she retraced her steps to the village pausing however at the postal and telegraph office to dispatch a telegram to Inspector Gunning it was one to send the inspector to his cipher book it ran as followed rely solely on chemist and coal merchant throughout the day LB after this she quickened her pace and in something over three quarters of an hour was back again at her hotel there she found more of life stirring than when she had quitted it in the early morning there was to be a meeting of the Surrey Stags about a couple of miles off and a good many hunting men were hanging about the entrance to the house discussing the chances of sport after last night's frost Love Day made her way through the throng in a leisurely fashion and not a man but what had keen scrutiny from her sharp eyes no there was no cause for suspicion there they were evidently one and all just what they seemed to be loud voiced hard-riding men bent on a day's sport but and here Love Day's eyes traveled beyond the hotel courtyard to the other side of the road who was that man with a bill hook hacking at the hedge there a thin featured round shoulder old fellow with a bent about hat it might be as well not to take it too rashly for granted that her spies was drawn and had left her free to do her work in her own fashion she went upstairs to her room it was situated on the first floor in the front of the house and consequently commanded a good view of the high road she stood well back from the window and in an angle when she could see and not be seen took a long steady survey of the hedger and the longer she looked the more convinced she was that the man's real work was something other than the bill hook seemed to apply he worked so to speak with his head over his shoulder and when Love Day supplemented her eyesight with a strong field glass she could see more than one stealthy glance shot from beneath his bent about hat of her window there could be little doubt about it her movements were to be as closely watched today as they had been yesterday now it was of first importance that she should communicate with inspector gunning in the course of the afternoon the question to solve was how it was to be done to all appearance Love Day answered the question in extra ordinary fashion she pulled up her blind she drew back her curtain in full view at a small table in the window recess then she took a pocket ink stand from her pocket a packet of correspondence cards from her letter case with a rapid pen set to work on them about an hour and a half afterwards white coming in according to his promise to report proceedings found her still seated at the window not however with writing materials before her but with needle and thread in her hand with which she was mending her gloves she turned town by the first train tomorrow morning she said as he entered and I find these wretched things want no end of stitches now for your report white appeared to be in an elated frame of mind I've seen her he cried my Annie they've got her those confounded sisters but they shant keeper no not if I have to pull the house down about their ears to get her out well now you know she is you can take your time about getting her out said love day I hope however you haven't broken faith with me and betrayed yourself by trying to speak with her because if so I shall have to look for another deputy honor miss Brooke answered white indignantly I stuck to my duty though it cost me something to see her hanging over those kids and tucking them into the cart and never say a word to her hand did she go out with a donkey cart today no she only tuck the kids into the cart with a blanket and then went back in the house two old sisters ugly as sin went out with them I watched them from the window jolt jolt jolt round the corner out of sight and then I whipped down the stairs and onto my machine and was after them in a trice and managed to keep them well in sight for over an hour and a half and their destination today was Wooten Hall ah just as I expected just as you expected echoed white I forgot you do not know the nature of the suspicions that are attached to this sisterhood and the reasons I have for thinking that Wooten Hall at this season of the year might have a special attraction for them white continued staring at her miss Brooke he said presently in an altered tone whatever suspicions may attach to the sisterhood I'll stake my life on it my Annie has had no share in any wickedness of any sort oh quite so it is most likely that your Annie has in some way been invagaled into joining these sisters has been taken possession of by them in fact just as they have taken possession of the little cripples that's it that's it he cried that was the idea that occurred Annie when you spoke to me on the hill about them otherwise you may be sure did they get relief of any sort at the hall interrupted love day yes one of the two ugly old women stopped outside the lodge gates with the donkey cart and the other beauty went up to the house alone she stayed there I should think about a quarter of an hour and when she came back was followed by a servant carrying a bundle and a basket ah I have no doubt they brought away with them something else besides old garments and broken victuals white stood in front of her fixing a hard steady gaze upon her miss Brooke he said presently in a voice that matched the look on his face what do you suppose was the real object of these women in going to Wooten Hall this morning Mr. White if I wish to help the gang of thieves break into Wooten Hall tonight don't you think I should be greatly interested in procuring for them the information that the master of the house was away from home that two of the men servants who slept in the house had recently been dismissed and their places had not yet been filled also that the dogs were never unchained at night and that their kennels were at the side of the house at which the butler's pantry is not situated these are particulars I have gathered in this house without stirring from my chair and I am satisfied that they are likely to be true at the same time if I were a professed burglar I should not be content with information that was likely to be true but would be careful to procure such that was certain to be true and so would set accomplices to work at the fountainhead now do you understand White folded his arms and looked down on her what are you going to do he asked in short brusque tones Loveday looked him full in the face communicate with the police immediately she answered and I should feel greatly obliged if you would at once take a note from me to inspector gunning at Rygate and what becomes of Annie I don't think that you need have any anxiety on that head I have no doubt that when the circumstances of her admission to the sisterhood are investigated it will be proved that she has been as much deceived and imposed upon me who so foolishly let his house to these women remember Annie has Mrs. Copeland's good word to support her integrity White stood silent for a while what sort of note do you wish me to take to the inspector he presently asked you shall read it as I write it if you like answered Loveday she took a correspondence card from her letter case and with an indelible pencil wrote as follows Wooten Hall is threatened tonight concentrate attention there LB White read the words as she wrote them with a curious expression passing over his handsome features yes he said currently as before I'll deliver that I give you my word but I'll bring back no answer to you I'll do no more spying for you it's a trade that doesn't suit me there's a straightforward way of doing straightforward work and I'll take that way no other than by Annie out of that den he took the note which he sealed and handed to him and strode out of the room Loveday from the window watched him mount his bicycle was it her fancy or did there pass a swift furtive glance of recognition between him and the hedger on the other side of the way as he rode out of the courtyard Loveday seemed determined to make that hedger's work easy for him the short winter's day was closing and her room must consequently have been growing dim to outside observation she lighted the gas chandelier which hung from the ceiling and still with blinds and curtains undrawn took her old place at the window spread writing materials before her and commenced a long and elaborate report to her chief at Lynch court about half an hour afterwards as she threw a casual glance across the road she saw that the hedger had disappeared but that two ill looking tramps sat munching bread and cheese under the hedge to which his bill hook had done so little service evidently the intention was one way or another not to lose sight of her so long as she remained in redhill meantime why did the Loveday's note to the inspector at Rygate and had disappeared on his bicycle once more Gunning read it without a change of expression then he crossed the room to the fireplace and held the cart as close to the bars as he could without scorching it I had a telegram from her this morning he explained to his confidential man telling me to rely upon chemicals and coals throughout the day and that of course meant that she would write to me an invisible ink no doubt this message about Wooten Hall means nothing he broke off abruptly exclaiming a what's this as having withdrawn the card from the fire Loveday's real message without emboldened clear characters between the lines of the false one thus it ran North Cape will be attacked tonight a desperate gang be prepared for a struggle above all guard the electrical engine house on no account attempt to communicate with me I am so closely watched that any endeavor to do so may frustrate your chance of trapping the scoundrels LB that night when the moon went down behind Rygate Hill an exciting scene was enacted at North Cape the Surrey Gazette in its issue the following day gave the subjoined account of it under the heading desperate encounter with burglars last night North Cape the residents of Mr. Jameson was a scene of an affray between the police and a desperate gang of burglars North Cape is delighted throughout by electricity and the burglars for a number to fight it in half to being told to enter into Robb the house and two to remain to the engine shed where the electricity is stored so that at a given signal should need arise the wires might be unswitched the inmates of the house thrown into sudden darkness and confusion and the escape of the marauders thereby facilitated Mr. Jameson however had received timely warning from the police of the intended attack and he with his two sons all well armed sat in darkness in the inner hall surrounding of the thieves the police were stationed some in the stables some in out buildings near to the house and others in more distant parts of the grounds the burglars affected their entrance by means of a ladder placed to a window of the servants staircase which leads straight down to the butler's pantry and to the safe where the silver is kept the fellows however had no sooner got into the house than the police issuing from their hiding place outside under the ladder after them and thus cut off their retreat Mr. Jameson and his two sons at the same moment attacked them in front and thus overwhelmed by numbers the scoundrels were easily secured it was at the engine house outside that the sharpest struggle took place the thieves had forced open the door of this engine shed with their jimmies immediately on their arrival under the very eyes of the police who lay in ambush in the stables and when one of the men captured in the house contrived the sound and alarm on his whistle these outside watchers made a rush for the electrical jars in order to unswitch the wires upon this the police closed with them and a hand to hand struggled followed and if it had not been for the timely assistance of Mr. Jameson and his sons who had fortunately conjectured that their presence here might be useful it is more than likely that one of the burglars a powerfully built man would have escaped the names of the captured men are John Murray Arthur and George Lee father and son and a man with so many aliases that it is difficult to know which is his real name the whole thing had been most cunningly and carefully planned the elder Lee, lately released from penal servitude for a similar offense appears to have been prime mover in the affair this man had it seems a son and a daughter who through the kindness of friends was all placed in life the son and electrical engineers in London the daughter as nursery governess at Wooten Hall directly this man was released from Portland he seems to have found out his children and done his best to ruin them both he was constantly at Wooten Hall endeavoring to induce his daughter to act as an accomplice to a robbery of the house this so worried the girl that she threw up her situation and joined a sisterhood that had recently been established upon this Lee's thoughts turned in another direction he induced his son who had saved a little money to throw up his work in London and join him in his disreputable career the boy is a handsome young fellow but appears to have in him the makings of a first class criminal in his work as an electrical engineer he had made the acquaintance of the man John Murray who it is said has been rapidly going downhill of late Murray was the owner of the house rented by the sisterhood that Miss Lee had joined and the idea evidently struck the brains of these three scoundrels that this sisterhood whose anti-scenes were a little mysterious might be utilized to draw off the attention of the police from themselves and from the special house in the neighborhood that they had planned to attack with this end in view Murray made an application to the police to have the sisters watched and still further to give color to the suspicions he had endeavored to set afloat concerning them he and his confederates made feeble attempts at burglaries upon the houses at which the sisters had called begging for scraps it is a matter for congratulation that the plot from beginning to end has thus been successfully unearthed and it is felt on all sides that great credit is due to inspector gunning and his skilled co-agitors for the vigilance and promptitude they have displayed throughout the affair Love Day read aloud this report with her feet on the fender of the Lynch Court office accurate as far as it goes she said as she laid down the paper but we want to know a little more semester dire in the first place I would like to know what it was that diverted your suspicions from the unfortunate sisters the way in which they handled the children answered Love Day promptly I have seen female criminals handling children and I have noticed that although they may occasionally, even this is rare treat them with a certain rough sort of kindness of tenderness they are utterly incapable now sister Monica I must admit is not pleasant to look at at the same time there was something absolutely beautiful in the way in which she lifted the little cripple out of the cart put his tiny thin hand around her neck and carried him into the house by the way to ask some rabid physiognomist how he would account for sister Monica's repulsiveness of feature as contrasted with young Lee's undoubted good looks heredity in this case throws no light on the matter another question said Mr. Dyer not paying much heed to Love Day's digression how was it you transferred your suspicions to John Murray I did not do so immediately although at the very first it had struck me as odd that he should be so anxious to do the work of the police for them the chief thing I noticed concerning Murray on the first and only occasion on which I saw him was that he had an accident with his bicycle for in the right hand corner of his lamp glass there was a tiny star and the lamp itself had a dent on the same side had also lost its hook and was fastened to the machine by a bit of electric fuse the next morning as I was walking up the hill towards Northfield was accosted by a young man mounted on that self-same bicycle not a doubt of it starring glass, dent fuse all three ah that sounded an important keynote and led you to connect Murray and the younger Lee immediately it did and of course also at once gave the lie to his statement that he was a stranger in the place and confirmed my opinion that there was nothing of the North Countryman in his accent other details in his manner and his appearance gave rise to other suspicions for instance he called himself a press reporter by profession and his hands were coarse and grimy as only a mechanics could be he said he was a bit of a literary man but the Tennyson that showed so obtrusively from his pocket was new and in parts uncut and totally unlike the well-thumbed volume of the literary student finally when he tried and failed to put my latch key into his waistcoat pocket I saw the reason lay in the fact that the pocket was already accompanied by a soft coil of electric fuse the end of which protruded an electric fuse is what an electrical engineer might almost unconsciously carry about with him it is so essential a part of his working tools but it is a thing that a literary man or a press reporter could have no possible use for exactly exactly and it was no doubt that bit of electric fuse that turned your thoughts to the one house in the neighborhood lighted by electricity and suggested to your mind the possibility of electrical engineers turning their talents to account in that direction now will you tell me what at that stage of your day's work induced you to wire to gunning that you would bring your invisible ink bottle into use that was simply a matter of precaution it did not compel me to the use of invisible ink if I saw other safe methods of communication I felt myself being hemmed in all sides with spies and I could not tell what emergency might arise I don't think I have ever had a more difficult game to play as I walked and talked with a young fellow up the hill it became clear to me that if I wish to do my work I must lull the suspicions of the gang and seem to walk into their trap I saw by the persistent way in which Wooten Hall was forced on my notice that it was wished to fix my suspicions there I accordingly, to all appearance did so and allowed the fellows to think they were making a fool of me hahahaha capital that the biter bit with a vengeance splendid idea to make that young rascal himself deliver the letter that was to land him and his pals in jail and all the time laughing in his sleeve and thinking what a fool he was making of you hahahaha and Mr. Dyer made the office ring again with his merriment the only person one is at all sorry for in this affair is poor little sister Anna said love day pittingly and yet perhaps all things considered after her sorry experience of life she may not be so badly placed in a sisterhood where practical Christianity, not religious hysterics is the one and only rule of the order end of the Red Hill sisterhood recording by Alan Winteroud boomcoach.blogspot.com