The Mystery Of The Glass Bullet

1 ANSON VESTERMAN returned to his offices from the dock, where he had just seen his only daughter— said by the press to be the fourth biggest heiress in the world— off to England; went straight through to his private office ,and locked the door. He took a letter from his notecase read it, put it down, thought for a few moments ,then wrote a check on his private account for 250,000 dollars, scribbled a brief note, enclosed both note and check in an envelope, sealed and stamped it and put it in his notecase. For some moments he sat quite still, staring before him, his lean, firm face looking old and very tired. Presently he reached out and drew towards him the silver-framed photograph which always stood on the right hand side if his desk. It was that of Richard Vanesterman, his son— his only son, d**k— dead in the far desert of Morsalbana. For a long time he studied the picture with a singular and penetrating-regard. It was a fine face at which he looked— calm, clear-cut, keen yet steady, with direct eyes, a firm mouth and a hint of ready .humour about the lips. A handsome, capable-looking boy— self-reliant, disciplined, courageous, not unlike Col. Lindbergh ,in appearance. "No— no— no!" said the multimillionaire suddenly and rose "I will do anything, everything, except , believe them, d**k, my boy! But how is one to prove—" He controlled the sudden spurt of violent emotion instantly, gently replaced the photograph, went over and unlocked the door; returned to his desk and spoke quietly into a telephone. A thin little man appeared. He looked entirely insignificant— until one noticed the angle of his jaw, and the bold, square almost brutally firm contour of his chin. This was Randolph's confidential personal secretary. "Everything in order, Randolph?" "Everything." "Everything steadied as I directed locked— battened down in case of sudden gales?" "Exactly as you directed, sir." "Any suggestions, Randolph?" "None sir. You know better than I do— but from my point of view you will leave everything trimmed, watertight, unwreckable— if you go." Vanesterman nodded. "Good— Yes, I am going. You are dead sure that things are all correct, for Alison? No danger?" "Dead sure that she will go into no danger that you— or I— or any of your advisers— have been able to foresee and prevent in advance. The house, Maiden Fair Manor, is bought paid for and ready for her; Lady Cedar Blanchesson is waiting to receive and attend her; and every possible care and precaution has been taken!" "Good." He thought intensely for yet a few moments more. "Good," he said again. He took out and gave to Randolph the letter he had just written. "This can be mailed immediately after I've sailed," he instructed and stood up— tall, erect, lean, neatly grey-bearded, an admirable model of an elderly, big business American. "Well— " he said, and offered his hand. "Well, au revoir, my friend! " "Au revoir, sir," said Randolph, and said no more than that. From his office, Anson Vanesterman's great car took him uptown, perhaps a mile. There he dismissed his chauffeur, walked a few blocks, then took a taxi which he paid off at the entrance to a restaurant. Half a minute later, he left the restaurant by another door ,and went quickly into a picture house almost adjoining. A minute later he left the picture house, took another taxi, and drove to a quiet street; Here he assured himself that no car, public or private, followed him. He paid off his driver and went quickly down a side street. Then minutes later he walked into the establishment of a rising young doctor not a mile from the big offices in which he had said au revoir to Randolph. Nobody saw Anson Vanesterman come out of that doctor's again, and even if the place had been watched, few people in New York would have connected with the well-known Anson Vanesterman, a person who came out an hour later— a stooping, white-faced old man, gaunt and shabby. Several of his teeth were missing, he was clean-shaven, and very pale. Elaborate tattoo marks showed around his wrists, ending on the backs of his hands. He wore a fresh-coloured patch over one eye, and he did not look particularly clean. He seemed nervous and downcast, and his air and manner were almost those of a fugitive. He went slowly away in the direction of the docks, quietly, even a little feebly, like a man stricken by some mortal malady, anxious only to be unnoticed and left to himself. Nearly "cut" next door to destitution, if not death— on the last rung but one of the social ladder. An hour later he passed into the third class of a liner bound for England. Nobody saw him go— or if they did nobody was interested in his departure. Not even a reporter recognised him. So complete and perfect had been the change effected in the appearance of this man— probably the fourth millionaire in magnitude in the United States of America that his nearest friend, his dearest relative, could not have recognised him. He looked rather like some broken old sailor, long since rendered unsailorly by illness and, maybe, ill treatment, creeping humbly back to some dim home across the Atlantic where he might be allowed to die in peace. And even if he had been detained and searched, his searchers would have found upon him nothing at all to connect him with Anson Vanesterman, except possibly two things. One of these was a big .45 revolver of an old, old pattern, well-worn, yet still capable of much more and very deadly wear— a weapon which would be very familiar indeed to those, who lived in the cattle States of the Far West many years ago. And the other clew to his identity was the worn-edged fragment of the photograph of a young man— a handsome, capable-looking-boy. Self -reliant, disciplined, courageous, and not unlike Col. Lindbergh in appearance— even more like d**k Vanesterman, dead and buried in a far desert. So, three days after his 60th birthday, Mr. Anson Vanesterman left New York. Some days later he was reported in the daily press as "travelling in Europe." MR. "SMILER" Bunn and Lord Fortworth were gentlemen of extremely elastic conscience, who, in bachelor partnership, had lived luxuriously upon their wits for many years, amassing during that period a sum of money that was far from trivial. .It would be incorrect to the point of sheer carelessness to state that they were not crooks, and it is not to be denied that each possessed a past that would bear no closer inspection than a hurried glance. Mainly because they had specialised in securing for themselves the portable property, preferably in the form of very hard cash, of those who had little, if any right, to the said property, they had never clashed with the police; and they had now acquired a technique in this particular profession so very perfect and painless in its operation that it was extremely unlikely that they would so clash. There had been a period in the distant days of his youth when the difference between Mr. Smiler Bunn— then so-called by a few intimates— and a crook was so slight that it was imperceptible to the human eye. But lie had long" said goodbye to all that. And it is equally true that if the police of a long past year had been able to lay their prehensile hands upon Mr. Bunn's partner at the time when, as Lord Fortworth, a London financier and company promoter, he had "failed" with extraordinarily dismal completeness, he would never have been able to disassociate himself from the long-term penitentiary to which he would inevitably have been consigned, in time to partner Mr. Bunn— or anyone else. Lord Fortworth was still wanted— but they did ,not want him quite so hungrily as they had needed him fifteen years before. Scotland Yard had more or less written him off as a total loss. But neither of the totally hard-boiled old adventurers had become utterly careless, and although each thought of the other in the old terms and names, they were not using the names of their youth. Thus, to the public at large. Smiler was Mr. Wilton Flood, a plump and kindly, middle-aged gentleman of private fortune ,who shared a luxurious London flat, a comfortable country house, and other benefits of like nature with another middle-aged party, apparently rich, called Mr. Henry Black. In appearance they were much alike in manner and character they differed to an extent which will duly make itself evident. During their years of diligence they had naturally found themselves entangled in a good many dangerous complications; but a time came when the affair to which they usually referred as "that business with those man-eaters from Mors" ranked in their minds as incomparably the most appallingly dangerous and risky complication they had ever known. It began, as far as they were concerned, one afternoon when they were riding home after a gallop on the downs. Both were very hungry, very saddle sore, very thirsty and, consequently, very curious-tempered. Neither liked riding for riding's, sake, and both bitterly hated it, when, as now, they were doing it- in order to get themselves merely plump instead of frightfully fat. "What sense is there in riding till you're so sore that you're practically crippled for life, just, to work off a few ounces of first-class weight― weight that cost probably as much as 50 pounds worth of sterling per ounce to put on— living as well as we live," snarled Fortworth, standing carefully in his stirrups. "The doctor told you that you were digging yourself into your grave with your teeth, didn't he? And he advised a course of hard riding to cure you of your over-eating!" Mr. Bunn reminded him gloomily. "Yes— and I told you he was a damned liar, didn't I. And, if you ask my opinion, this riding prescription is his revenge," said Fortworth sourly. "There's never any sense in being-rude to your doctor," declared Mr. Bunn, "and the sooner you realise that the better for your body if not your soul— if you've got one." Fortworth glared. "Got one— me got a soul ? I suppose I've got a right to claim that I've got a good a soul as you." "You can claim so, Squire," agreed Mr. Bunn, growing more good-humoured as his partner grew worse. "And I'll not deny it. You can claim that you've got curly golden hair, for that matter. But you'll have to keep your hat on while you're trying to prove it " He laughed. "Claiming to have a soul as good as mine doesn't give it to you, Squire. As it happens I have studied you pretty closely during the past ten years or so and my observations have driven me to the conclusion that if you have a soul, you keep it mightily well concealed. Still, I should be inclined to concede that you have got a soul— a sort of soul. Pretty much about the average I'll say. But when you claim that you've got the same quality soul as— through no particular merit of my own— I happened to be born with— by sheer good luck— I feel that it's time to put you right. I've watched myself very closely for many years and it seems perfectly clear to me that, compared with ,the average soul, mine is―" He was not allowed to conclude the highly promising description of his remarkable soul which he had so blandly begun, for at this moment there ran out from a. small thicket of trees by the side of the road some fifty yards ahead a man who looked like a gamekeeper. This one stared rather wildly up and down the road, and beckoned to the partners furiously. MR. BUNN KICKED in the ribs the great, raw-boned horse which sulkily bore his weight. "Get up, you great lumbering bone-shaking, razor-backed, scrimshanking old soldier," he admonished the animal. The horse rather intelligently tried one-leggedly to kick Mr. Bunn in return, naturally failed, and so lumbered forward at a heavy and sullen canter. (Evidently there was no love lost between Smiler Bunn and his steed— not an unreasonable state of affairs considering that Mr. Bunn hated riding the creature just as much as the horse hated being ridden). Fortworth belaboured his unenthusiastic animal into a kind of a gallop after his partner. "What's the excitement, friend?" asked Mr. Bunn as he dragged his horse to a standstill. "Dead man in the spinney, sir— stone dead— shot, sir. He's been shot dead and only a few minutes ago, for he's still warm. I've just come on him!" "Humph!" said Mr. Bunn, ponderously dismounting. "I've heard no shots! Better look into this, I suppose." He hitched the reins over a gatepost and followed the gamekeeper into a small plantation just of the road. He studied with shrewd, 'hard eyes the body lying just far enough in among the trees to be invisible from the road. It was that of a well-built young man, with a dark, strong, good-looking face. He was neatly dressed in the easy style more suitable for travelling than for wear in cities. The cause of his death was quite obvious— a bullet hole immediately over the heart. "Bullet's still in his body," observed Mr. Bunn, feeling in vain for any sign of its egress. "You had better get along to the nearest call office and ring up the police!" he advised the keeper. "There's one a quarter of a mile down the road." The man hurried off, while Mr. Bunn continued his examination, muttering to himself as he did so. "Unless I miss my guess pretty badly, this boy— for he's very little more— is an American," muttered Mr. Bunn. "Now, who on earth would want to shoot a lad like this here in an English copse— and as far as I can see take off him everything he carried? Why, there's not a thing in his pockets— not a thing! Not even a box of matches, nor a handkerchief— Humph! Whoever shot him didn't mean to let people find out who he was..." Scowling, he again sent his deft fingers quickly prying about the pockets and clothing of the still figure, took off a shoe, examined that, then replaced it, picked up and looked inside the hat, a rather wide-brimmed soft felt, shrugged as he pointed to where a name had been cut out of the inner band, and rose. "Not a thing to tell us who he was or what he was doing here," he repeated. "But the clothes and shoes and hat are American-cut and pretty good quality." He began to look about him. The ground was too hard to bear marks of footprints, and there was not the least sign of any struggle. "It was pretty cold-blooded," said Mr. Bunn ,at last. "The killer whoever he may have been, cleaned up behind him in no uncertain fashion." He walked across the field towards an ancient farm labourer with a hoe who had just worked himself into view from behind the wood. "Have you heard any shots fired in the spinney this afternoon, uncle?" he asked. "Shots, mister? Why, no. I ain't heard nothin'— and I been workin' in this field all the afternoon." "Humph!" said. Mr. Bunn to that. "You deaf?" "No, I hain't deaf— I can hear like a fox, I can!" declared the old chap. "Well, have you seen, anybody go in or come out of that copse to-day, not counting the keeper?" "Aye, I have, I seen a girt motor car stop over there by the gate and two gentlemen go out and come into the spinney. No business o' mine— there's no knowing what motorists be likely to do now-a-days from picking flowers to poachin' pheasants!" "Did you see them leave the copse?" "I seen one. He came out about a quarter of an hour after and went over to the motor car and drove off." "Didn't you see the other?" "No, I didn't. I reckon he'd gone on back to the car afore his mate." "And you didn't notice anything else?" demanded Mr. Bunn. "No sir. There wasn't nothing to notice. I were busy hoeing." He gave the old chap half a crown, and with his partner went back to the gate. The tracks of the car were not discernible on the smoothly polished road, but by the gate Mr. Bunn picked up a scrap of torn paper. It was, indeed, four scraps each exactly of the same irregular size. A motor horn sounded down the read and Mr. Bunn slipped into a pocket the pinch of paper— quite obviously a thumb-and-finger nail pull from a letter which some one had torn up. Then he hurried back to the body in the little wood, hastily slid off a large, loosely-fitting, rather curious-looking ring on the little finger of the dead man, pocketed it, and returned to the gate apparently to sooth with direful and blood-curdling threats his great clumsy weight-carrying horse which was fussing, because of the police car which had pulled up, with a dry whining of brakes, close by. A police superintendent, a sergeant, and a constable, in charge of the wheel, alighted, followed by the keeper, and, more or less curtly greeting Mr. Bunn and his partner, made for the copse, guided by the gamekeeper. Fortworth would have followed them, but was stayed by the large heavy hand of his partner. "No, no— let them have the body to themselves for a bit, Squire! They'll only want to throw their weight about and be rude— and rudeness is a thing I hate. What do you think a country-side Supe and his merry men can do for that boy?... No, no, stay where you are and leave it to the old man— myself, in fact! There are one or two things I don't like the look about this!" He glanced about him under preteens of talking violently at his violent horse. "This, for example," he said— and showed Fortworth in the palm of his hand a small bit of glass— round, rather thick, with a diameter of about a third of an inch. He put it away and showed something else: "Or this!" The second thing he exhibited was also an object of glass. But it was differently shaped— being in the form of a pencil about two inches long, one end cut off square, as a pencil is, the other end sharpening to a needle keenness. "A damned nasty looking thing, hey?" he asked quietly. "Mister Murderer cleaned up pretty well— but nevertheless he overlooked one or two things... We shall see..." Within ten minutes the superintendent and his men came out, carrying the body. Mr. Bunn opened the gate for them. "Can we do anything?" he asked. The superintendent, a pleasant but not particularly bright-looking man of middle age, shook his head. "I'm afraid not," he said. "Wait just a little— I shall want your names— until we have this poor fellow in the—" He broke off to look at a huge automobile which had slid silently to a standstill at the roadside. The door swung open and a woman stepped out— a tall, shapely woman, beautiful in a rather full-blown way, no longer young, but not so old that she failed to look extraordinarily attractive. She was of the dark type, with that vivid colouring that needs very little assistance from cosmetics, and if her dark eyes were perhaps a trifle too noticeably sophisticated, they were also brilliant. "Oh, has there been an accident? Can I be of any assistance?" Her fine, practiced eyes swept round the little group, absorbing them all, then flashed to the wax-white face of the dead man. Mr. Bunn heard her breath come so sharply that it was almost a hiss, and he saw, too, how the beautiful challenging face was drained suddenly of every vestige of colour, so that the brilliant lips looked against their dead-white background like a red wound, and her eyes huge and inky-black. "But— but he is dead! How fearful!" she said ,and swayed back, gripping her hands. "I am afraid so, madam," said the superintendent , and moved away to direct his men about disposing the body fitly in the car. The woman looked at Mr. Bunn and his partner. Already her colour was returning. "It was very kind of you to stop—" began Mr. Bunn. "But there really isn't anything that you can do—" interposed Fortworth, and held back the door of her car, his eyes frankly full of admiration. "Where shall I tell your man to drive?" said Mr. Bunn, brazenly. She half-closed her eyes, studying them both. "Oh, to Maiden Fain Manor! He knows, thank you." She leaned forward. "Tell me, please— what has happened? Who is that poor boy Has he been killed in some accident?" Mr. Bunn answered swiftly, anticipating his partner. "It isn't quite clear at present," he said. "But I will call at Maiden Fain Manor to-night with what information I can get— if you wish it." She thought, still studying him through those strangely half-closed lids. "Thank you, I should he most grateful," she said at last. "I— have been greatly shocked. He seemed so young and so good-looking— too young to die! If you will be so kind as to call I should be grateful. I am Lady Cedar Blanchesson. You are sure there is nothing I can do?" The partners shook their heads, Fortworth closed the door and the great car swung forward. "Fine woman, that" said Fortworth at Mr. Bunn's shoulder as they watched the car recede. "Very," said Mr. Bunn, absently, and turned at the touch of the police superintendent. "Now, gentlemen, if you will let me know your names and where I can find you, it will be of great service to me" They told him and in return Mr. Bunn asked him if he knew anything of Lady Blanchesson of Maiden Fain Manor. The superintendent thought— looked puzzled. "No— never heard of her. I know Maiden Fain Manor wall. Fine old place not two miles from here. But that's been sold to some rich Americans— a Mr. Anson Vanesterman. I understand that Miss Vanesterman was due to arrive today. Maybe Lady Blanchesson is a guest— joining the house party, or something of the sort." He closed his notebook, politely thanked the partners for their help and moved back to the police car. That, too ,Mr. Bunn and his fellow-adventurer watched out of sight. Then they turned to the horses. "Well, there's a full-sized afternoon's adventure for you, Squire," said Mr. Bunn. "And maybe— a little more. We shall see— if we can get home on these ungainly quadrupeds without getting crippled for life! Come up, you decorated camel!" he concluded, to his horse, and swung himself into the saddle with a heave that made the great horse look malevolent and bitter.