That amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase at Chimneys two steps at a time. So precipitate was his descent that he collided with Tredwell, the stately butler, just as the l...

“Now, where shall we put them?” Dinner was over. Lady Coote had been once more detailed for duty. Sir Oswald had unexpectedly come to the rescue by suggesting bridge⁠—not that “suggesting” is the righ...

“Twelve o’clock,” said Socks despairingly. The joke⁠—as a joke⁠—had not gone off any too well. The alarm clocks, on the other hand, had performed their part. They had gone off⁠—with a vigour and élan ...

“Very inconsiderate, that’s what I call it,” said Lord Caterham. He spoke in a gentle, plaintive voice and seemed pleased with the adjective he had found. “Yes, distinctly inconsiderate. I often find ...

“Father,” said Bundle, opening the door of Lord Caterham’s special sanctum and putting her head in, “I’m going up to town in the Hispano. I can’t stand the monotony down here any longer.” “We only got...

Bundle stared at him. And very slowly the world, which for the last three quarters of an hour had been upside down, shifted till it stood once more the right way up. It was quite two minutes before Bu...

Getting hold of Bill presented few difficulties. Bundle motored up to town on the following morning⁠—this time without adventures on the way⁠—and rang him up. Bill responded with alacrity, and made va...

We must at this point go back to some twenty minutes earlier, to a moment when Jimmy Thesiger, emerging from the mists of sleep, was conscious of a familiar voice speaking unfamiliar words. His sleep-...

Jimmy’s words lifted the discussion at once into a more practical sphere. “All things considered,” he said, “we haven’t got much to go on. In fact, just the words Seven Dials. As a matter of fact I do...

Now it may be said at once that in the foregoing conversation each one of the three participants had, as it were, held something in reserve. That “Nobody tells everything” is a very true motto. It may...

Bundle set out to keep her appointment with Bill on the following evening full of expectation. Bill greeted her with every sign of elation. “Bill really is rather nice,” thought Bundle to herself. “Ju...

Bundle’s temperament was certainly not inherited from her father, whose prevailing characteristic was a wholly amiable inertia. As Bill Eversleigh had very justly remarked, the grass never did grow un...

Bundle reached 14 Hunstanton Street about six p.m. At that hour, as she rightly judged, the Seven Dials Club was a dead spot. Bundle’s aim was a simple one. She intended to get hold of the ex-footman ...

It would be as well to pass over the sufferings of the next four hours as quickly as possible. Bundle found her position extremely cramped. She had judged that the meeting, if meeting there was to be,...

Bundle reached home about six a.m. She was up and dressed by half past nine, and rang up Jimmy Thesiger on the telephone. The promptitude of his reply somewhat surprised her, till he explained that he...

Bundle drove over to Wyvern Abbey just in time for tea on Friday afternoon. George Lomax came forward to welcome her with considerable empressement. “My dear Eileen,” he said, “I can’t tell you how pl...

George was not a believer in modern innovations. The Abbey was innocent of anything so up to date as central heating. Consequently, when the ladies entered the drawing-room after dinner, the temperatu...

Our chronicle must here split into three separate and distinct portions. The night was to prove an eventful one and each of the three persons involved saw it from his or her own individual angle. We w...

Bundle Brent was a resourceful girl⁠—she was also a girl of imagination. She had foreseen that Bill, if not Jimmy, would make objections to her participation in the possible dangers of the night. It w...

Loraine Wade sat up in bed and switched on the light. It was exactly ten minutes to one. She had gone to bed early⁠—at half past nine. She possessed the useful art of being able to wake herself up at ...

“Der liebe Gott!” said Herr Eberhard in a whisper. His face had gone chalky white. George turned a face of dignified reproach on Battle. “Is this true, Battle? I left all arrangements in your hands.” ...

The Countess’s return to consciousness was very different from that of Jimmy Thesiger. It was more prolonged and infinitely more artistic. “Artistic” was Bundle’s word. She had been zealous in her min...

It was ten o’clock on the following morning. The sun poured in through the windows of the library, where Superintendent Battle had been at work since six. On a summons from him, George Lomax, Sir Oswa...

There was no doubt that Superintendent Battle was taken aback. He fingered his chin thoughtfully. “Sir Oswald is right, Battle,” said George. “This is the man. Any hope of catching him?” “There may be...

Jimmy Thesiger was feeling depressed. Avoiding George, whom he suspected of being ready to tackle him on serious subjects, he stole quietly away after lunch. Proficient as he was in details of the San...

“That friend of yours is a nice girl, Bundle,” said Lord Caterham. Loraine had been at Chimneys for nearly a week, and had earned the high opinion of her host⁠—mainly because of the charming readiness...

Jimmy Thesiger arrived at Letherbury on a sunny autumn afternoon and was greeted affectionately by Lady Coote and with cold dislike by Sir Oswald. Aware of the keen matchmaking eye of Lady Coote upon ...

It was just on the appointed hour of twelve o’clock that Bundle and Loraine entered the park gates, having left the Hispano at an adjacent garage. Lady Coote greeted the two girls with surprise, but d...

“Mr. Lomax is here, my Lord⁠—” Lord Caterham started violently, for, absorbed in the intricacies of what not to do with the left wrist, he had not heard the butler approach over the soft turf. He look...

Loraine, playing with a small and delectable puppy, was somewhat surprised when Bundle rejoined her after an absence of twenty minutes, in a breathless state and with an indescribable expression on he...

Very slowly Bundle returned to consciousness. She was aware of a dark, spinning blackness, the centre of which was a violent, throbbing ache. Punctuating this were sounds. A voice that she knew very w...

“That’s right,” said Battle, as Mosgorovsky leapt up and came round to Bundle. “Get a chair for her. It’s been a bit of a shock, I can see.” Bundle sank down on a chair. She felt limp and faint with s...

Superintendent Battle settled down to explain. He spoke comfortably and cosily. “I didn’t suspect him myself for a long time. The first hint of it I had was when I heard what Mr. Devereux’s last words...

“Father,” said Bundle, “I’ve got to break a piece of news to you. You’re going to lose me.” “Nonsense,” said Lord Caterham. “Don’t tell me that you’re suffering from galloping consumption or a weak he...