Ashes to ashes

“Well, that’s the situation.” Wendle Foulkes’ keen old eyes narrowed as they gazed into the turbulent ones of his client across the wide desk. “This last batch of securities is...

“Didn’t you sleep well, dear? You look dreadfully tired.” Leila’s eyes fluttered upward to meet her husband’s across the breakfast table and then lowered as she added hesitating...

In his little den at the rear of the house Storm closed the door softly before, with shaking fingers, he sought the chain of the low light upon his desk. Then, dropping into a c...

Storm turned from the window with a sudden realization that his task, instead of having been finished, had only begun. If he were to keep up this farce it would not be enough to...

While Storm hesitated, relaxed in that moment of utter abandon to relief, it came again; a wild shriek mounting from below in a high feminine voice and dying away in a quivering...

“You were right, unquestionably, Storm,” Dr. Carr announced twenty minutes later as the other joined him in the library. “I don’t mind admitting that my thoughts—my sensations,...

Upon the departure of Dr. Carr and the officials, George Holworthy had to be told in detail the story of the night’s tragic event, and its reiteration drew heavily upon the stor...

“I am the resurrection and the life——” The white-frocked minister’s voice rose solemnly above the subdued rustlings and sighing whispers in the little vine-wreathed church, and...

When Storm came to himself he was lying on the library couch with the gray dawn seeping in at the curtained windows and George’s rotund figure in the hideous striped bathrobe lo...

“Told you you’d like it here.” George Holworthy crossed one pudgy knee over the other and eyed his friend’s back at the window with immense satisfaction, “Old Jim certainly know...

He uttered a quick monosyllabic assent to some evident query, listened intently for a minute and then threw back his head in a smile of elation. The next instant he was speaking...

Storm realized later when the dawn brought coherency of thought that it was blind instinct alone, not conscious will, which had enabled him to shield the death blow that had bee...

Morning found Storm with a desperate, hunted look in his eyes still pacing the floor, his heart sick within him. Why had that blundering ass, Millard, told him yesterday? Why ha...

In contemplation of the money Storm was stirred despite his sang-froid. Horton’s psychology had been sound; it was one thing to deal in figures and quite another to view the act...

The night elevator man was almost slumbering peacefully before the telephone switchboard as they traversed the hall to the vestibule, and the street itself seemed deserted, but...

With an almost physical effort Storm flung off the vague, harrowing suggestion which had laid itself upon him; and shrouding the window carefully with its curtains he turned on...

When Homachi, usually as punctual as a time-clock, arrived twenty minutes late in the morning he found his employer already risen and attired for the day. His elaborate protesta...

Storm received the news with outward composure, feigning a natural irritation at being aroused from sleep to mask the chaos of his thoughts, and cut George off as soon as he was...

When, a few minutes later, they came down the steps of the building, Millard was still descanting on the infallible methods of the bureau they had just quitted; but Storm was si...

They finished packing the trunk, made and devoured the rarebit, and still George lingered. His mind had been jarred from its placid routine by the tragic death of their former c...

Baffled fury that was half despair swept over Storm at Millard’s words, but he controlled himself by a mighty effort. More vital than at any moment in the past was his need now...

On the following day, to George’s surprise and gratification Storm appeared at his office at noon and dragged him unceremoniously off for lunch. In the course of their long frie...

The next morning as Storm was on the point of starting for his office Homachi ushered in a visitor. He was a sturdy, well-built man with sandy hair and a lean, lantern-jawed fac...

After a hasty and solitary lunch Storm returned to his office, and forcing all other thoughts aside he devoted himself throughout the long afternoon to getting his books and fil...

When Storm arose in the morning his head still ached in a dull, insistent way; but his energy had returned, and the thought which had been his last before sleep had crystallized...

“By Jove, old man, I forgot that I have had the gas and electricity turned off!” Storm’s voice echoed back eerily, mockingly, from the silent rooms to where George had halted on...

George returned to the library, and sorting the smaller keys from the others on the ring he tried them one after the other in the lock of the trunk. He was beginning to despair...

“Ah-h!” The answering cry of stark terror echoed back from the night as Storm started up, convulsed, in his bed. “Take her away! Take her—George! My God, don’t look at me like t...