The Black Company

To be quite honest about it, I have no very clear idea what happened in that private room at the Princeton Inn the night of the last nip-and-tuck baseball game with Yale, except...

I now knew that I, and I alone, had been drunk the previous night, and had got only what I deserved. I realized that Bob Hewitt had tried to save me from myself, as he had done...

The Varney residence proved to be one of those modern country houses of the rich that needs no describing. It was less ambitious than some of its neighbors, and sat well in from...

The following morning at ten I was ordered round with the touring car, and Miss Gelette saw me for a moment alone before her uncle appeared. She had to look twice before recogni...

Arnold Frean came over the next morning in his car, and was out with Brenda Gelette until noon. I viewed the incident with misgiving and dislike, though, of course, it was no ea...

By the sober light of morning, if I had been inclined to regard the Black Company as a myth, and the man Corby as a harmless lunatic, such thoughts would have been dispelled by...

It was nearing the end of the third week, and I had got no "forrarder" with the Black Company. No other messages in the algebraic notation had followed, and though I went to Kni...

I would have liked very much to know the meaning of it myself, for, of all things, this was naturally the last I had expected. How could the grave give up its dead? How could th...

I had no intention of leaving without having, by some means or other, a word with Brenda Gelette. No doubt she would refuse to see me, but, whether she wanted to or not, I would...

Half an hour later I was on my way to Philadelphia, not New York; not to "face the music," but to begin investigations concerning this mysterious organization styling itself the...

I left my lodgings the following morning, unobtrusively, to say the least. As my landlady had had the forethought to secure the week's rent of my room in advance, there was no o...

It is impossible to describe adequately the effect that this news had on me, to convey the relief I felt; it seemed too good, far too good, to be true, and yet Mr. Hannay spoke...

This and last night's affair was asking too much of coincidence. They must be related and instigated by the same hand, and I decided to finish the rest of my homeward trip by ta...

The following morning found me in the offices of the Blunt Detective Agency. James Blunt, popularly known the length and breadth of the land as "Lisping Jimmie," represented the...

A week had passed since the tragic death of Ashton, a week that dragged interminably, and which to me was one of the bitterest and most miserable I had ever known. The relief ex...

I had dropped most of the old crowd--rather, they dropped me, not approving of my new mode of life--but that evening, Saturday, I dined with Roupell at Sherry's. It was one of t...

Very soon I learned that Mr. Varney and she were stopping at the Waldorf. They had come up the previous day on "business," which included a visit to a famous specialist, and she...

It was Watkins' night out and when I got home, shepherded by the ridiculous Nast, I was thinking more of Brenda Gelette than of the Black Company, which was not to be wondered a...

Frean's last words rendered me speechless, all my old suspicions regarding Theodore Varney boiling to the surface of my mind. The fact of my genuine regard for the man wasn't en...

It is strange how occasionally one has a repetition of the same fantastic dream. I dreamed now, as I did that night at Varney's, that Corby was an animate Black bishop trying to...

I was disappointed. In the head of this crime trust I had looked for one who bore some outward and visible sign of that subtle and keen intelligence which undoubtedly ruled the...

Now it pains me even yet to write of what followed. Having conceived and contrived such an ingenious method of escape--and I needn't pretend that I don't think it pretty clever...

For a time I was prevented from inquiring further into this amazing matter of Varney's brother, a person, by the way, whose existence I had forgotten. I learned later that he ha...

"Well," resumed Blunt, "I told you the boat docked at eight thirty, special customs arrangements having been made, and when Miss Gelette got back to the Waldorf--I believe she h...