To My Friend H. B. Lawford, Esq. (“A Just Man”) Worshipful Master of the Drapers Company, 1925⁠–⁠1926...

Dick Martin’s last official job (as he believed) was to pull in Lew Pheeney, who was wanted in connection with the Helborough bank robbery. He found Lew in a little Soho café, just as he was finishing...

He pursued his leisurely way to the Bellingham Library, one of the institutions of London that is known only to a select few. No novel or volume of sparkling reminiscence has a place upon the shelves ...

Dick was piqued to the extent of wishing to renew the encounter, and there was only one excuse for that. He went to the garage near his flat, took out his dingy Buick and drove down to Gallows Hill. I...

There was a silence of a minute. Dick looked at the man, hardly believing his ears. “Trying to open a dead man’s tomb?” he repeated. “Now sit down and tell me all about it, Lew.” “I can’t⁠—yet. I’m sc...

The big five at Scotland Yard filled Dick Martin’s dining-room, waiting for the verdict of the medical man who had been hastily summoned. The doctor came in in a few minutes. “So far as I can tell by ...

When Dick Martin left England on his curious quest, the Pheeney murder bulked largely in the newspapers, and almost as largely in his mind. There were other thoughts and other fancies to occupy the vo...

At ten o’clock the next morning Dick Martin walked blithely into Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The birds were twittering in the high trees, the square lay bathed in pale April sunshine, and as for Slick, he w...

“Show him in,” said Mr. Bertram Cody. He was a little bald man with a gentle voice and the habit of redundancy. He required five minutes to say all that any other man could express in three sentences....

Dick drove a six-cylinder coupé whose bodywork had seen better days, though he claimed for its engine that the world had not seen its equal. With his screen-wiper wiping furiously, he came cautiously ...

Mr. Cody was not a good walker, and was, moreover, a particularly fearful man, otherwise he might have walked the six miles which separated him from Gallows Cottage on a dark and windy night. Instead,...

Mr. Havelock had scarcely reached his office the following morning when Dick arrived. The bushy brows of that gentleman rose at the sight of his visitor. “I’ve come to make a confession, Mr. Havelock,...

Mrs. Lansdown and her daughter were people who lived as naturally in three rooms as they would have lived in a town house with twenty. A frail woman of remarkable beauty, Sybil’s mother had had both e...

A few minutes later Dick took his leave, and walked down towards Bedford Square. Once or twice he looked back. On the opposite side of the road a man was keeping pace with him about twenty yards to hi...

It was the ringing of the telephone bell that woke him. He rolled over on the bed and took down the receiver. “Hullo!” he said, in genuine surprise. “Your voice was the last in the world I expected to...

Sybil and Havelock had followed closely behind him. Havelock’s face had lost its rubicund colour, and the hand that went up to shake at the rail was trembling. “What foolery is this?” he said angrily,...

At half past nine that night Dick Martin’s car pulled up by the side of the road half a mile short of Gallows Cottage, and, dimming his lights, he sat down to wait for the arrival of the police car. H...

Mr. Havelock was reading a letter for the third time that morning. Twice he had consulted his managing clerk, and he was reading it for the third time when Dick Martin was shown in. “I hope I didn’t g...

Soon they were speeding in a southwesterly direction, and although Mrs. Cody was not an entertaining hostess, the girl found plenty to think about, and certainly did not resent the silence of this ove...

The round-faced chauffeur was standing in the open doorway, smoking. “Where is Mrs. Cody?” asked Cody sharply, his face going dark at the sight of the man’s insolent indifference. “Upstairs.” “Go and ...

It was more than accident that took Dick Martin to the library that previous afternoon. He had come to feel that a day without a glimpse of this tantalizing girl was a day wasted. And he remembered, w...

“Dead,” said Sneed, unnecessarily, as they went slowly up the five stairs that brought them to the top landing. There was no sign of violence, and they now saw what kept the body erect. She had been k...

Sneed came up at his call, and together the men searched the room. “Bloodstains on that door; did you notice them? Down there at the bottom,” said Sneed, working his lamp along the panel. “Fingerprint...

The wind of the bullet came so close to his left eye that it almost blinded him momentarily. He was stunned with the proximity of the explosion, staggered, and dropped to his knees, and then, ahead of...

That moment of terror when Sybil stared up into the round face of Cawler, the chauffeur, remained with her all her life. Behind she heard the grunts and thuds of the beast-man who was trying to open t...

She could see nothing. Fighting like a tiger to free herself, her other hand passed through the bars and caught a wild tangle of beard. “Hush!” The voice was deep, supulchral. “I will not harm you if ...

It seemed to Captain Sneed that there was little excuse for his sometime subordinate taking the girl in his arms unless he was properly engaged to her; for Mr. Sneed was a stickler for the proprieties...

There was much for Sneed to do before he could find the rest he so greatly needed. After a hasty breakfast he met the police chief of Sussex, and together they motored over to Gallows Hill, carrying a...

Whilst the ladies were walking in the park after tea, Dick went from room to room and made a very thorough examination of windows and walls. He had procured a builder’s tape measure, and, with the ass...

It was half past ten when Dick and the lawyer went upstairs to their rooms, and after he had seen Mr. Havelock safely in his suite and had heard the key turned, he went into his own apartment, shut an...

Dick looked round for a safe way to the bottom, and presently was clambering down a projecting shoulder of the hill. He reached the edge of the lake as a figure came wading ashore, blubbering and sobb...

“Seven keys,” said Dick, as, in the early light of the morning, they walked towards the tombs. “Cody had one; Silva, the gardener, had one; Mrs. Cody had another; Havelock, being the chief conspirator...

“This statement is written by Henry Colston Bertram, commonly called Bertram Cody, with the knowledge, approval, and agreement of those persons whose signatures appear hereunder. It was agreed on the ...

“The letters that Havelock showed me,” said Dick, as they were driving back to town, “were, of course, written by himself. I discovered that the day he showed me a message that he said he had received...