Kastle Krags: A Story of Mystery

As soon as daylight came the coroner held another inquest. Again the occupants of the great manor house, black and white, were gathered in the living-room, and the coroner calle...

Grover Nealman had disappeared, and no search could bring him back to Kastle Krags. The hope that we all had, that some way, some how he would reappear--destroying in a moment t...

The sheriff had finished his investigations by noon of the following day, and after lunch I was free to work upon the problem that I felt was the key to the whole mystery--the c...

The tide reached its full, shortly after two o'clock, and then began to ebb. Almost at once the little waves of the lagoon smoothed out, they lapped no more against the craggy m...

The room was that of Lucius Pescini. If I had not been mistaken in the handwriting, I had proven a previous relationship and acquaintance, extending practically over the whole l...

Nealman had me take a chair, then seated himself before the window from which he could overlook the lagoon. "I always like to sit where I can watch it," he told me--rather earne...

After the dinner hour Nealman came for me, in the room just off the hall from his own that he had designated for my use. I'd never seen him in quite so gay a humor. His eyes spa...

There was nothing in particular to say or do. We simply stood looking down, that huddled body from which life had been struck as if by a meteor, in the center. From time to time...

In midafternoon the coroner called all the occupants of the manor house together in the big living-room. He had us draw chairs to make a half circle about him, and the sheriff t...

The allurement of a September day had brought me far down the trail, past the neck of the marsh, and far from my accustomed haunts. But I could never resist September weather, p...

Just before the dinner hour I met Slatterly on the lower floor, and we had a moment's talk together. "You've been in on most everything that's happened around here," he said. "Y...

Though we were out of the water, we were not yet out of the woods. There were many explanations to be made and many guesses that took the place of explanations. No questions cou...

We searched through the house, grimly and purposefully; but Nealman, the genial host of Kastle Krags, was neither revealed to our eyes or gave answer to our calls. It was no lon...

After I went to my room I worked for an hour on the cryptogram, found beside Florey's body. The mysterious column of four-letter words, however, did not respond to any methods o...

In reply to the coroner's questions, he testified as to the finding of the body, the nature of the scream we had heard and gave a similar report as to the appearance of the woun...

It wasn't easy to steady Wilkson so that he could tell an intelligent story. His own dark superstitions had hold of him, and his shambling search through the darkened corridors...

There was no further possibility of a mistake. Marten's inability to find the body could not be further attributed to a mere confusion as to its correct location. In the few min...

The sheriff and the coroner arrived from Ochakee in a roadster soon after dawn. All of us felt relieved at their coming: they represented the best and most intelligent type of s...

No wonder the sportsmen liked to gather at this old manor house by the sea. It represented the best type of southern homes--low and rambling, old gardens and courts, wide verand...

The most outstanding thing about that sound was its amazing loudness. It was hard to believe that a human voice could develop such penetration and volume. It had an explosive qu...

The next two weeks sped by as if with one rise and fall of the tides. I spent the time in locating the various fields of game: the tall holly-trees where the wild turkeys rooste...

The water surrounding the underground outlet was not of great depth--an inch or so over five feet--but the suction of the sink-hole was irresistible. Once caught in those sinkin...

The guests refused to go back to their city homes until they had seen the contents of the chest that had brought such woe to Kastle Krags; and there was nothing to do but to mak...

After Nealman and I had each smoked a cigarette, I thought of a little plan that might increase his guest's interest in the week's shoot and hunt. He had been right when he said...

Two telegrams had come for Mr. Nealman during the inquest; but the negro messenger who had brought them had been too frightened by the august session in the living-room to distu...

Who could forget the Ochakee River, and the valley through which it flows! The river itself rises in one of those lost and nameless lakes in the Floridan central ridge, then is...

Nealman did not come down to dinner. He sent his apologies to the guests, pleading a headache, and through some mayhap of circumstance the coroner took his place at the head of...