Lord Peter views the body

_First published November 1928_ _Second impression December 1928_ _Third impression (first cheap edition) October 1929_ _Fourth impression February 1930_ _Fifth impression April...

"Of course not," interrupted Pettifer, before Lord Peter had time to reply. "Why should it be? Wimsey's seen enough queer things not to have to waste his time inventing them."

"Ah!" said he, dropping two heavy bags and looking round for moral support. "Vous dîtes? En voila du joli! Allons, mon p'tit, ce n'est pas parce qu'on porte un faux col qu'on a...

Amid a deafening babble of voices in a low-pitched cellar, the Soviet Club meets and dines. Ethics and sociology, the latest vortices of the Whirligig school of verse, combine w...

"I was about to observe, my lord, that the words you mention do not appear to agree with my recollection of the passage in question. In my mother's Bible, my lord, it ran, I fan...

"I'll come across with it," said the wretched Simpkins, sitting hand-cuffed in the Hatfield police-station. "I swear to God I know nothing whatever about it--about the murder, I...

He shuffled them as he spoke, and handed them over. Melville dealt, satisfied the demands of the other three players, and was in the act of taking three new cards for himself, w...

"No, sir. I've been a hale and hearty man, I'm not denying. But I've been called, sir, and I've got to go. It must come to all of us, I know that. But it's a fearful thing to se...

"Lame in the near fore," he said, dismounting. "If you've been and gone and strained anything, my girl, four miles from home, father _will_ be pleased." It occurred to him for t...

"N-no," said the magistrate. "Not with Graham, anyway. Personally, I rather liked the lad, though he was a bit harum-scarum. I dare say he's sobered up with time--and marriage....

"And so did I," said the vicar. "I was present when it was transferred from the temporary shell in which it crossed over from the States to a permanent lead-and-oak coffin provi...

"Well," said Wimsey deprecatingly, "if this will business comes into court, I shall probably have to give evidence, because I was the bird who found the thing, don't you see?"

"Quite so," agreed the constable. "Of course, these foreigners are like that--even the decentest of 'em. Stabbin' and such-like seems to come nateral to them, as you might say....

Bredon entered the room with a jaunty step. He had created for himself the mastery of this situation. The count, a thin, elderly man, his fingers deeply stained with chemicals,...

"He probably wants me to find a lost dog for his maiden aunt. What it is to have acquired a reputation as a sleuth! Show him in. Gherkins, if this good gentleman's business turn...

"During the last year I have made very great efforts to solve the mystery of 'Old Cut-throat's' treasure. I have been able to leave much of my experimental work in the most capa...

"And I direct that, after my death, the alimentary organs be removed entire with their contents from my body, commencing with the œsophagus and ending with the anal canal, and t...

"No, we haven't. What's all this mystery about? And what's Robert doing here? What did you mean by saying he was the burglar? And why is Great-Uncle Joseph so important?"

"It's a very pretty theory," said the prim man, "but, all the same, you'll find it's a secret society. Mark my words. Dear me! We're just running in. Only twenty minutes late. I...

"Silly, isn't it?" said Miss Twitterton, with her mouth full of roast duck and green peas. "I should think everybody was only too glad to get rid of Plant--nasty, rude creature....

"Nothing, of course. Only I wouldn't advise him to try it, that's all. The last man who had that bright idea was fished out of the river down Rotherhithe way, before he had time...

"If you mention names here, you will certainly have no hope of mercy. There is a fifth treatment--kept specially for people who mention names. Bring the prisoner to my office. K...

Wimsey, staggering with pain, as the blood rushed back into his bound and numbed arms, crawled after her into the room above. A moment, and she had flung back the shutters and t...