Mystery of the inn by the shore

Prosperity and the sea had deserted Stroan together. As the waves receded, leaving a bare stretch of sand where once whole fleets had ridden at anchor, the once flourishing town...

“Why, yes, it wasn’t too easy to get them up, because the bank slopes, and the earth is so slimy just here. But I’m very glad to have been able to do you the little service.”

Clifford King sat up in bed when the door had closed with a flicker of dim light and a rush of cool air, shaking from head to foot with excitement and horror which made him cold...

In spite of his own indignation and remorse on hearing Claris make this coarse and cruel speech, Clifford watched the girl narrowly, and was shocked and surprised to observe tha...

To bring a woman into focus, by means even of a scandal, has always been a sure way to bring upon her more than her fair share of the admiration of the other sex. When, therefor...

But when the irregular outline of the old-fashioned town grew more defined under the September sky, and the meeting with Jordan and Conybeare grew nearer, he had to concern hims...

If ever guilt was written on a human face, surely it was written on that of Nell Claris when, seized roughly by her uncle, she stood shaking and stammering in his grasp, just in...

Now the intention of the two conspirators, who were conspiring, without Clifford’s knowledge, to cure him of his infatuation, was to keep this luckless adventure from coming to...

Cursing his own ill-luck and the deftness and fleetness of foot of his antagonist, the detective hurried down the stairs and dashed out by the back door, just as he heard the vo...

The girl was white, and she trembled from head to foot. Her white forehead grew damp, and glistened in the lamplight. Her lips seemed scarcely able to form the answer which she...

Miss Bostal shut the door when the detective had gone, drew a shivering sigh as she folded the shawl more tightly about her thin person, and went into the dining-room.

Clifford was so entirely taken by surprise that he hardly realized, in the first moment, that he was hurt. The next, he dashed open the door at one blow, and finding Jem outside...

In the little dining-room at Shingle End Miss Bostal and Nell were sitting by the fire, the latter still absorbed in thoughts of Clifford, while the former tried to divert her c...

The inquest was held in the little town-hall in the market-place, and the ugly whispers which were afloat concerning Jem Stickels’s death brought together such a gathering that...

To say that you could have heard a pin drop in the crowded court at Stroan, when the doctor announced that he had found a bullet in the brain of poor Jem Stickels, is to underst...

George Claris, who had not been near his niece during the inquest, but had stood in a corner by himself with folded arms watching the proceedings with a heavy frown, came forwar...

As soon as Nell and her uncle returned to the Blue Lion, they were met by the nurse who was attending Clifford. She said her patient was so anxious to see Miss Claris that she h...

In the weeks which followed Nell’s departure for London the spirits of her uncle declined day by day until the red-faced, genial innkeeper had become little more than the shadow...

It was about a month after the shipwreck which brought such strange consequences to the Blue Lion and its inmates that Clifford King, much against his will, found himself, for t...

There was just one ray of consolation for Clifford King in the misfortune which had befallen Nell. She seemed to him, in spite of the trembling of her limbs and the pallor of he...

In the meantime Clifford was proceeding slowly on his way to Shingle End. It was dark by this time, and the way seemed even longer than it had done when he was on his way to Cou...

When she had made the admission upon which the whole matter hinged, and had broken down into tears as a consequence, he gave her very little time to recover her composure, befor...

It was the police-sergeant who had taken Nell Claris to Sir Neville Bax who had brought to Shingle End the warrant for Miss Bostal’s arrest. This warrant he had not, so far, had...