To my Friend Grant Gibney...

Ashton-Kirk, who has solved so many mysteries, is himself something of a problem even to those who know him best. Although young, wealthy, and of high social position, he is nevertheless an indefatiga...

Young Pendleton’s car crept carefully around the corner and wound in and out among the pushcart men and dirty children. About midway in the block was a square-built house with tall, small-paned window...

It was exactly three minutes later when the continuous tooting of a horn told of the approach of another motor car along the crowded street. Then the doorbell rang. Ashton-Kirk arose and touched one o...

When Ashton-Kirk returned that evening from the theatre, where he had gone to witness a much heralded new drama, he sat with a cigar, in his library; and stretching out his length in great comfort, he...

There were four good-sized windows in the showroom, all overlooking the street. It was a large, square place, and, as Miss Vale had said, literally stuffed with odd carvings, pottery of a most freakis...

It wanted a few minutes of three o’clock when Ashton-Kirk, still accompanied by the curious Pendleton, walked into the outer room of the coroner’s suite. “Mr. Stillman will be here at any moment now,”...

Berg was standing in the corridor waiting for the elevator when Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton came out. The big German mopped his face with a handkerchief, and said apologetically: “A man can only tell wh...

As Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton sat in the former’s library that evening after dinner, there came a knock upon the door and Fuller entered briskly. In his hand he carried a paper parcel which he laid upo...

Next morning Ashton-Kirk lounged in a comfortable window-seat, almost knee-deep in newspapers. The published accounts of the assassination were, in some instances, very sensational. Drawings, by speci...

Ashton-Kirk arose, kicked aside the litter of newspapers, and placed a chair for his visitor. “Your man told me that I was expected,” she said. “How did you know that I would come this morning?” “I kn...

For some time after Miss Vale had gone, Ashton-Kirk stood at one of the windows and looked down at the sordid, surging, dirty crowd in the street. The worn horses went dispiritedly up and down; the th...

The Hammondsville local was taking on its passengers. It was a sooty train, made up of three coaches and a combination baggage and smoking car. The gateman pointed out its conductor, inside, and the t...

Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton were admitted to the cell room at the City Hall without question; but a distinct surprise awaited them there. Through a private door leading from the detectives’ quarters the...

From the City Hall the car headed for Christie Place once more; it halted some half dozen doors from Hume’s and the occupants got out. The first floor was used by a dealer in secondhand machinery, but...

Edouard, Ashton-Kirk’s cook, was astonished and somewhat grieved that day to receive orders that dinner was to be served an hour earlier than usual. And Stumph, grave and immobile, was betrayed into a...

For a moment there was a silence between the two men; then Ashton-Kirk said, dryly: “Miss Vale has, apparently, not been altogether frank with us in this matter.” “You think then⁠—” began Pendleton in...

Shortly before noon next day, Ashton-Kirk, in an immaculate morning suit, was ushered into the presence of Miss Edyth Vale. If he expected confusion, embarrassment or anything of that sort, he was dis...

About half an hour after Ashton-Kirk had left the Vale mansion, a Maillard car drew up before the door. As it did so, an Italian laborer arose from the curb not far away where he had been comfortably ...

It was about four in the afternoon, and young Pendleton sat in Ashton-Kirk’s big chair, reading the newspapers and waiting. Finally he rang a bell and Stumph gravely appeared. “Are you sure that he sa...

After dinner the two young men settled themselves in the library: Stumph served their coffee and they renewed their acquaintance with the Greek tobacco. After a little time there came a knock upon the...

Pendleton looked at his friend in bewilderment. “You don’t mean to say that the philosopher of the Coffin Club and this Tobin of young Morris’s are the same,” cried he. “I only think they are,” said A...

As Ashton-Kirk and Pendleton left the “Rangnow,” the latter said: “You surely do not suppose that Morris will call on you?” “Why not?” “It does not sound reasonable.” “A day or two ago I would have sa...

On the following day, at about noon, Ashton-Kirk’s big French car glided up to the curb before the Vale house. A man with a thick neck and a small head nodded to the investigator; another waved a hand...

The morning papers had all announced the fact that the detail of police would that day be withdrawn from the scene of the murder in Christie Place. With them it had been a mere matter-of-fact news ite...

The second night of the vigil in Hume’s rooms wore on. Unlike the preceding one, the two young men were almost entirely silent; when they did speak, it was in tones so low as to be scarcely above a wh...

Pendleton spent the night at Ashton-Kirk’s; and after breakfast he wandered into the library, a newspaper in his hand and an inquiring look on his face. The investigator was seated in his usual big ch...

“For the first time,” said Pendleton, as the door closed upon Allan Morris, “I can feel sorry for him. To lose a girl like Edyth Vale is indeed a calamity. Think of the courage she’s shown⁠—of what sh...