The Riddle of the Purple Emperor

adland, a commercial traveller for beer, from London, with an inveterate taste for gossip. He speedily learned that since the return of Lady Margaret to Ch

" Cleek's ea

ir off yer 'ead. You go down the lane past the gates, one dark night, and 'ear that so

uperstitious peasants? Old as the hills, that is. I'll hear that noise for myself be

t Cleek pounding down the lane at ten o'clock that night to find the nearest doctor. It was not until he was well within sight of Cheyne Court, standing shuttered and dark, that he remembered the innkeeper's words of the morning before. He slackened speed a moment in the dark and all at once, as if from the ground beneath his feet, there issued one of the most horrible and inexplicable sounds that could be imagin

all its ways in the greatest reverence. He refused to discuss the subject of the queer sounds, and as he very soon concocted a

y terms with the great official. He clearly had no recollection of ever having seen Mr. George Headland before, and had any one told him that he was in the presence o

say on the subject of that escapade and commend

to the little inn, and t

addressing Mr. Narkom, though he had g

rred and shuttered, so there is evidently still someone in the place. Don't you think you could take the law into your own hands and force an en

cally, and stole a side glan

excuse of a forcible abduction of the young lady perhaps, and if it is Miss Cheyne who is at the bottom of it, I don't mind

proval and Cleek, with a little smi

ave another look at Cheyne Court by day

y. "I was beginning to think my brain was giving way

ition is that

the past week nearly everyone seems to have heard her. I refused to believe it till last night, when I couldn't keep

ere's some villainy on foot and I don't take heed of any waili

abode. Silent and grim-looking, with its lower windows shuttered, an oppressive silence seemed to overhang i

Narkom sprang to his side just in time to see the wrinkled and malevolent face of Miss Cheyne looking down on them. That she was bitterly angry they could see, for though they could only guess at the stream of invective pour

there with that harridan, who has perhaps killed her for the sake of those accursed

s lips and gave fo

r Edgar darted along the terrace and on his way to the rear of the house. All the windows were shuttered and barred but a

ollops on gu

ops," he said. "Whistle if anybody atte

l put some of my 'tickle tootsies' along here as I follows yer, an

care of the outside to Dollops. Already he could hear Sir Edgar impetuously racing from floor to floor,

rch. Neither did subsequent tapping and close scrutiny reveal a panel or trap-door. No cornered criminal was to be found; no gagged and bound figure of the girl they sought. There

ure dusty and moth-eaten, there came a sound that made even Cleek, to whom it was no st

he spot in horrified silence, then

above! wh

search the house again from garret to basement, but Miss Cheyne had apparently disappear

t-back to their plans. They both had counted on coming face to face with the eccentric guardian of the girl whose life was in such evident danger. Suddenly

ght, for it was the woman who meant more to him than all t

ve called and called, but have always been refused admittance. Now this morning I was in the lane when I saw Lady Margaret at a window and she dropped this scrap of paper. See!" She handed Cleek a little scr

ngerous stone, the Purple Emperor, is

om Ailsa's fingers, and read it slow

f I commit murder

, the ill-fated words lingering in the

aven't yet fathomed, and I'd like to have a shot at finding it. I think, too, we shall have to keep an eye on our young friend, Sir Edgar, or he will be getting

ent message to the Towers asking Sir Edgar to come down to him. He meant to

er with the disconcerting news th

n his heel, aler

ering about Piccadilly Circus? Well, anyhow, he is safe up there out of reach of doing any mad trick

he world wot's got your kind o' brains, and that's a fact. You'll find the secret out all right, sir, if yer only has patience. And in the mean

ole awful affair. But it was like some jig-saw puzzle in which all