To Bryan...

It is a ponderable fact that had not the 29th of a certain September been the anniversary of Monsieur Victor Pallion’s birth, there would have been no Crimson Circle mystery; a dozen men, now dead, wo...

It was an hour when most respectable citizens were preparing for bed, and the upper windows of the big, old-fashioned houses in the square showed patches of light, against which the outlines of the le...

Philip Bassard paid, and lived, for apparently the Crimson Circle kept faith; Jacques Rizzi, the banker, also paid, but in a panic. He died from natural causes a month later, having a weak heart. Bens...

A heavy weight lay on Jack Beardmore’s mind as he walked slowly across the meadows that morning. His feet carried him instinctively in the direction of the little valley which lay a mile from the hous...

Jack Beardmore looked round, scanning the country. The only human being in sight was a man who was walking slowly away from them, carrying a bag in his hand. Jack shouted, and the man turned. “Who are...

“I can’t understand why that fellow hasn’t come back this morning,” said Jim Beardmore with a frown. “Which fellow?” asked Jack carelessly. “I’m speaking of Marl,” said his father. “Was that the large...

The Commissioner looked down at the newspaper cutting before him and tugged at his grey moustache. Inspector Parr, who knew the signs, watched with an apparently detached interest. He was a short, thi...

Jack heard him and was stunned. He stood motionless and speechless, as the girl, as though unconscious of the scrutiny, hailed a taxicab and was driven away. “Now what the dickens was she doing there?...

Mr. Parr’s interview with Harvey Froyant was a short one. At the sight of the detective, that thin man blanched. He knew him by sight and had met him in connection with the Beardmore tragedy. “Well, w...

The magistrate was a kindhearted man and seemed uncomfortable. He looked from the unemotional Mr. Parr who stood on the witness-stand, to the girl in the steel pen, and she was almost as cool and as s...

Thalia Drummond went back to the lodging she had occupied before she had entered Mr. Harvey Froyant’s service as resident secretary, and apparently the story of her ill-deeds had preceded her, for the...

At three minutes to ten the following night, a closed car drove slowly into Steyne Square and came to a halt at the corner of Clarges Street. A few minutes later Thalia Drummond walked into the square...

Mr. Felix Marl sat behind the locked door of his bedroom, and he was engaged in a task which had the elements of unpleasant familiarity. Twenty-five years before, when he was an inmate of the big Fren...

Another agent of the Crimson Circle found her lines cast in pleasant places. She had been accepted by Mr. Brabazon without question, and evidently the man in the car possessed extraordinary influences...

Mr. Marl had to pass through the bank premises, and he glanced along the two rows of desks without, however, catching a glimpse of the girl whose face he sought. Near the end of the counter was a smal...

Thalia Drummond was almost the last of the staff to leave the bank that night, and she stood on the steps looking idly from left to right as she pulled on her gloves. If she saw the man who was watchi...

“So you’ve come, eh?” said Mr. Marl, rising to greet the girl. “My word, but you look smart! And you look lovely, my dear, too!” He took both her hands in his and led her into the little gold and whit...

It was long after midnight and Derrick Yale was sitting in his pretty little study⁠—he lived in a flat overlooking the park⁠—when the knock came to the door and he rose to admit Inspector Parr. Parr r...

Inspector Parr, after a further search, proceeded to the nearest police station to interview Mr. “Flush” Barnet. “Flush,” a depressed and weary man, had no illuminating information to give. The procee...

It took over a week to settle the preliminaries of Brabazon’s insolvency, and at the end of that time, Thalia walked from the bank with a week’s salary in her little leather bag, and no immediate pros...

It was arranged that Froyant should draw the necessary money from his bank on the Thursday morning to pay the demand, and that Yale should call for it and meet Parr at the former’s office in ample tim...

Thalia went straight back to the office and found Derrick Yale sitting in his room reading through a heap of unanswered correspondence. “Is that the key? Thank you. Put it down there,” he said. “I am ...

“You’re a fool, sir, and an idiot. I thought you were a clever detective, but you’re a fool!” Mr. Froyant was in his most savage mood, and the neat stack of banknotes which stood upon his desk supplie...

Parr bent down, and snatched the saturated towel from the detective’s face, and he opened his eyes, and stared around. “What is it?” he asked thickly, but the inspector was busy unscrewing the handcuf...

The Associated Merchants Bank are authorised to offer a reward of ten thousand pounds for information which will lead to the arrest and conviction of the leader of what is known as the Crimson Circle ...

Mr. Brabazon sat in a chill upper room of River House, eating slowly a large portion of bread and cheese. He wore the dress suit he was wearing when the warning came to him, and he was a ludicrous fig...

Thalia Drummond was writing a letter when her visitor arrived, and of the many people whom Thalia expected to call, Millie Macroy was the last. The girl looked ill and tired, but she was not so far fr...

Jack Beardmore had heard of Brabazon’s arrest, and went straight to police headquarters to see Mr. Parr. He found that excellent gentleman had gone home. “If it is important, Mr. Beardmore,” said the ...

The inspector must have been nearly fifty, and he made a rapid calculation as to the age of this wonderful grandmother who took an interest in crime, and kept the house tidy. “She must be a wonderful ...

It was Harvey Froyant’s boast that he trusted nobody completely. He trusted the lawyer up to a point, but his known connection with questionable people would have been alone sufficient to prevent Harv...

Harvey Froyant’s visit to France had not escaped attention, and both Derrick Yale and Inspector Parr knew that he had gone; so also did the Crimson Circle, if Thalia Drummond’s telegram reached its de...

Derrick Yale sat with his head on his hands, reading a newspaper. He had read a dozen that morning, and one by one he had cast them aside to open another. “Under the eyes of the police,” he quoted. “I...

Police headquarters was on its trial. The uncomfortable amount of space which the newspapers were giving to the latest of these tragedies which were associated with the name of Crimson Circle, the que...

Jack did not find him a pleasant travelling companion; the inspector had brought with him a whole bundle of newspapers, in each of which he read religiously the comments upon the Crimson Circle. His h...

When they reached London the evening newspapers were filled with the new sensation. The Crimson Circle had indeed decided upon an ambitious programme. Briefly the story, as related in an official comm...

The fourth of the month had passed, and Derrick Yale was still alive. He commented on the fact as he came into the office which he and Inspector Parr jointly occupied. “Incidentally,” he said, “I have...

Mr. Raphael Willings was a product of his age. Though he was still in the early forties, he had pushed himself into Cabinet rank by the sheer force of his character. To describe him as a popular Minis...

Jack Beardmore went home savage and sick at heart. Thalia Drummond was an obsession to him, and yet he had every reason to believe the worst of her. He was a fool, a thrice-condemned fool, he told him...

It was the seventh day following the meeting of the Cabinet, and, so far from agreeing with the terms of the Crimson Circle, the Government had made it known, in the most unmistakable terms, that it r...

“As to what happened, I have yet to learn,” said Derrick Yale to a silent but attentive Inspector Parr. “I arrived at Onslow Gardens just after Willings had taken the girl away. The servants at the ho...

The outrage upon Raphael Willings had produced something like a panic in the Cabinet. Mr. Parr learnt how profound was the concern when he returned to headquarters. And the Prime Minister was justifie...

Yale learnt no more details than those he had already read, and took a taxi to his city office, which he had not visited for two days. The escape of Thalia Drummond was a much more important affair th...

In the room three men had mysteriously appeared⁠—the three who had captured Parr’s spy two nights before⁠—and in a second Yale was manacled hand and foot. A deft hand jerked the pistol that he carried...

Jack went to the luncheon party the next day and so, too, did Thalia, who had played such a part, and was the public heroine of the hour. After lunch the inspector completed his story. “If you take yo...