Murder in the Gilded Cage

I have just returned to New York and examined in the morgue of the New York Times all the stories written and cabled of the Murder in the Gilded Cage. It is now six months since...

I find upon refreshing my memory that the tragedy really had its beginning on the yacht _Mary Rose_, although no one was aware of it at the time. But the diabolical forces that...

A definite change was apparent in the very feel of that yacht after the events of the morning. Henry Breese had been helped to the cabin by Rice and his mother. I waited for the...

I assured her that my resignation was sincere and that she needn’t trouble herself on my account. And, of course, she swore me to secrecy on all events transpiring on the yacht.

I shall repeat here the story the Russian told me. I made notes of it later in my hotel room, and the facts are exact. In the summer of 1918, Mary Rose Breese was married to the...

A week passed, very pleasantly for me, and during this time I paid but scant attention to the Breese ménage. The Russian seemed to have disappeared, and Ben Smith was busy with...

Smith and I literally threw ourselves into a taxi, and raced to the Gilded Cage. Breese had said he had not the strength to accompany us, and after looking at his ashen face I c...

When we had done examining the servants, these were the undisputed facts that emerged: Mrs. Breese was last seen alive at about ten minutes after ten, and discovered dead at hal...

“I’ll tell you the facts as we have them now. If you can offer anything to offset them, I’ll be very glad to hear what you have to say. But this is the way the thing would appea...

“What does he wish to know?” the actor intervened scornfully. “I’ll tell you. This man was Mrs. Breese’s son-in-law. He murdered a man in Riga. He’s hated Mrs. Breese ever since...

It was the next morning that Boris Sergeivitch Perutkin actively intervened in the Murder in the Gilded Cage, as I called it. Smith sent for him. I still remember how the giant...

The psychological alibi! As the Russian’s theory dawned on me I was shocked to find that every detail clicked into place. Breese _had_ summoned us to his hotel exactly three-qua...

When Ben Smith arrived an hour later he found us smoking placidly in the drawing-room. The Russian was at ease in one of the huge chairs, his big head bowed to his barrel chest,...

Mr. Charles Brennon, Havana representative of several important New York law firms, maintained his offices in the older quarters of the city. Here the streets were so exceedingl...

Smith and I looked at each other incredulously. But later I reasoned that the melodramatic exit Mrs. Breese had elected was entirely in keeping. Even in death Mrs. Breese wanted...

The funeral party assembled upon the ill-lit dock at eleven o’clock that night. Although the moon was shrouded, there were no signs of the prophesied storm. The black and green...

In my memory I have a terribly vivid picture of the first few stifling moments in that black room. There was a scurrying of feet about me, confused shouts. Someone prodded me in...

Perutkin made the sign of the cross, and lifted his voice in the chant of the Russian church. The melancholy litany seemed endless. I watched him in fascinated horror. The rest...

Before any of us could move, before we could realize what had happened, the stilled engines of the yacht were throbbing once more, and we were ploughing ahead. The storm still r...

“Theoretically, yes,” said Smith. “Theoretically we know that someone in this room with us killed Trenholm because he was going to spill. Theoretically we can hammer away at eve...

“Perutkin speaking!” the voice boomed. “Meet me in the lobby of the Biltmore in twenty minutes!” The words were a command. My wishes were not consulted. But I agreed readily eno...

Smith swallowed helplessly. I could sympathize with his exasperation. The Russian had persistently hammered at him to arrest Breese. When Smith finally in desperation had taken...

A crowd of curiosity seekers had gathered about us. Smith tried to shoo them away, but the Havanese are persistent. It is not every day that one is privileged to witness a corps...

When we entered the drawing-room of the Gilded Cage, we found assembled there all our fellow-passengers of the yacht. At first sight, they might have been guests at some informa...

“Every detail is important,” insisted the Russian. “I have done an amount of inquiry in this case, which is stupendous. Most of the information I have gathered is valueless. For...

“I have given you,” he said with his characteristic pedantic air, “a concrete demonstration of the _modus operandi_ of as ingenious and carefully planned a crime as it has been...