A Mysterious Disappearance

"A mere suspicion, indeed!" she said, and there was that in her voice which warned me that I had better try unarmed to control a tigress than a wife who deemed herself wronged;...

It is customary, I believe, for poor wretches who are sentenced to undergo the last punishment of the law to be allowed a three weeks' respite between the date of their sentence...

When the door of Corbett's or Mensmore's flat swung open before the skilful application of a skeleton key, a gust of cold air swept from the interior blackness, and whirled an a...

Her unexpected appearance in the field at this late hour, no less than the bold _role_ she adopted, proved this conclusively. But in England there was no torture-chamber to whic...

Affairs had so jumbled themselves together in his brain the previous evening that he had abandoned all effort to elucidate them. He retired to rest earlier than usual, to sleep...

The _White Heather_ swung quietly at her moorings in the harbor of Genoa the Superb. The lively company on board, tired after a day's sight-seeing, had left the marble streets a...

People in her walk in life should not ape their betters. Lady Dyke, owing to her position, was entitled to some degree of oddity or mystery in her behavior. But for a lady's mai...

Mr. White was actually inclined to preserve silence while they walked to Victoria Street. The events of the preceding hour had not exactly conduced to the maintenance, in the ey...

"You must have seen her," cried the detective excitedly. "I know you have learned the truth, and in no other way that I can imagine could it have reached you."

There were not many people in this part of the Casino gardens. A few love-making couples and a handful of others who preferred the chilly quietude of Nature to the throng of the...

"Guess I slept well last night after the excitement," he said, with a pleasant smile. "You seemed to skeer those chaps more with a few words, Mr. Bruce, than I did with a revolv...

Apart from the main and vital question as to the exact method of Lady Dyke's death, and the identity of the person responsible for it, a number of important matters required att...

"I wonder what he would think if he knew what we are after," he said to his colleague, one of the two who accompanied him when the barrister was arrested by mistake.

"For some ridiculous reason," he communed, "the woman believes her brother guilty. Now I shall have endless trouble at getting at the truth. She will not be candid. She will onl...

Nevertheless, he did not expect to find that useful adjunct to his small household--Smith and his wife comprised the barrister's _menage_--standing on the platform at Charing Cr...

Whether dead or alive, and if alive, whether detained by force or absent of her own unfettered volition, this handsome and well-known leader of Society had vanished utterly from...

Alice, Lady Dyke, puckered her handsome forehead into a thoughtful frown as she drew aside the window-curtains of her boudoir and tried to look out into the opaque blackness of...

"The guv'nor's in a tantrum," observed Smith to his wife, and he settled himself to renew the perusal of Grand National training reports. He had just noticed the interesting fac...

The streets were comparatively deserted as they drove quickly up Whitehall and crossed the south side of Trafalgar Square. It is a common belief, even among Londoners themselves...

There was that in his utterance which betokened great excitement. He was not visible to the occupants of the room. During the audible silence that followed his words, they could...

Yesterday, the surprises of the hour were concrete embodiments, each distinct and emphatic. To-day they were merged in the general mass of contradictory details that made up thi...

Once safe in the seclusion of Claude's sitting-room Mensmore almost collapsed. The strain had been a severe one, and now he had to pay the penalty by way of reaction.

Refreshed by a bath and an excellent _dejeuner_, he decided to go quietly to work and search the visitors' book for himself without asking any questions. The Hotel du Cercle was...

When the young people had gone--Mensmore ill at ease, though tremuously happy that Phyllis had so demonstrated her trust in him, Phyllis herself radiantly confident in the barri...

Not only were their offices commodious and well situated, but a liberal display of gold lettering, intermingled with official brass plates marking the registering offices of man...

The first difficulty experienced by the barrister in his self-imposed task was the element of mystery purposely contributed by Lady Dyke herself. To a man of his quick perceptio...

Such a promising topic did not come in their way every week, and they made the most of it. Where did Lady Dyke die? Under what circumstances did she die? They rolled the morsel...

"Inexorable Fate!" is a favorite phrase with the makers of books; but Fate, being feminine according to the best authorities, is also somewhat fickle in disposition. Not only is...

Elderly women and broken-down men, slovenly and unkempt, kept furtive guard over the exit, waiting for the particular "super" to come forth who would propose the expected adjour...

Sir Charles Dyke's sacrifice must not be made in vain, and the strange chain of events encircled other actors in the drama too strongly to enable the barrister to adopt the cour...

They were both excellent talkers, they were mutually interested, and there was in their present escapade a spice of that romance not so lacking in the humdrum life of London as...