To John Vine Milne My Dear Father, Like all really nice people, you have a weakness for detective stories, and feel that there are not enough of them. So, after all that you have done for me, the leas...

In the drowsy heat of the summer afternoon the Red House was taking its siesta. There was a lazy murmur of bees in the flower-borders, a gentle cooing of pigeons in the tops of the elms. From distant ...

Whether Mark Ablett was a bore or not depended on the point of view, but it may be said at once that he never bored his company on the subject of his early life. However, stories get about. There is a...

Cayley looked round suddenly at the voice. “Can I help?” said Antony politely. “Something’s happened,” said Cayley. He was breathing quickly. “I heard a shot⁠—it sounded like a shot⁠—I was in the libr...

Guests at the Red House were allowed to do what they liked within reason⁠—the reasonableness or otherwise of it being decided by Mark. But when once they (or Mark) had made up their minds as to what t...

As Cayley went over to the bell, Antony got up and moved to the door. “Well, you won’t want me, I suppose, inspector,” he said. “No, thank you, Mr. Gillingham. You’ll be about, of course?” “Oh, yes.” ...

The guests had said goodbye to Cayley, according to their different manner. The Major, gruff and simple: “If you want me, command me. Anything I can do⁠—Goodbye”; Betty, silently sympathetic, with eve...

They walked in silence for a little, until they had left the house and gardens well behind them. In front of them and to the right the park dipped and then rose slowly, shutting out the rest of the wo...

Antony’s bedroom looked over the park at the back of the house. The blinds were not yet drawn while he was changing his clothes for dinner, and at various stages of undress he would pause and gaze out...

“What’s the matter?” said Bill sharply. Antony looked round at him with raised eyebrows. “You’ve thought of something suddenly,” said Bill. “What is it?” Antony laughed. “My dear Watson,” he said, “yo...

Antony came down in a very good humour to breakfast next morning, and found that his host was before him. Cayley looked up from his letters and nodded. “Any word of Mr. Ablett⁠—of Mark?” said Antony, ...

“There’s one thing, which we have got to realize at once,” said Antony, “and that is that if we don’t find it easily, we shan’t find it at all.” “You mean that we shan’t have time?” “Neither time nor ...

In the twenty hours or so at his disposal Inspector Birch had been busy. He had telegraphed to London a complete description of Mark in the brown flannel suit which he had last been seen wearing; he h...

Antony’s first thought was that Cayley had hidden something; something, perhaps, which he had found by the body, and⁠—but that was absurd. In the time at his disposal, he could have done no more than ...

Bill had come back, and had reported, rather breathless, that Cayley was still at the pond. “But I don’t think they’re getting up much except mud,” he said. “I ran most of the way back so as to give u...

They left the road, and took the path across the fields which sloped gently downwards towards Jallands. Antony was silent, and since it is difficult to keep up a conversation with a silent man for any...

What was it which Cayley was going to hide in that pond that night? Antony thought that he knew now. It was Mark’s body. From the beginning he had seen this answer coming and had drawn back from it. F...

Cayley seemed very fond of them that night. After dinner was over, he suggested a stroll outside. They walked up and down the gravel in front of the house, saying very little to each other, until Bill...

The inquest was at three o’clock; thereafter Antony could have no claim on the hospitality of the Red House. By ten o’clock his bag was packed, and waiting to be taken to The George. To Bill, coming u...

The Coroner, having made a few commonplace remarks as to the terrible nature of the tragedy which they had come to investigate that afternoon, proceeded to outline the case to the jury. Witnesses woul...

The inquest had been held at The Lamb at Stanton; at Stanton Robert Ablett was to be buried next day. Bill waited about outside for his friend, wondering where he had gone. Then, realizing that Cayley...

My Dear Mr. Gillingham, I gather from your letter that you have made certain discoveries which you may feel it your duty to communicate to the police, and that in this case my arrest on a charge of mu...

“Good Lord!” said Bill, as he put down the letter. “I thought you’d say that,” murmured Antony. “Tony, do you mean to say that you knew all this?” “I guessed some of it. I didn’t quite know all of it,...