The Crime Club

He had then two hours for calm reflection, and to some extent self-reproach. Never in his life before had he been so unnerved, and the expressions of irritation which he had mad...

“You must forgive my intrusion,” Westerham said, now addressing the Prime Minister, “but I must ask you to allow me to have a word with this man.” He pointed to Melun.

Without a word the girl stretched out her hand and took the jewels from him. She hid them quickly in the folds of her cloak, and all the while the expression of amaze and fear o...

In spite of Mme. Estelle's declaration that he should see Lady Kathleen that night, and in spite of the conviction that Madame spoke the truth, Westerham, strange to say, had no...

Westerham pondered over this problem with a puzzled frown. In spite of the checks he had met with, he still felt himself to be, as Melun had said, a strong man. And when he came...

“I mean that you are not keeping strictly to your duty. You seem to be taking upon yourself a great many things which it is not your business to do—certainly you are assuming a...

“He introduced himself to me,” he went on, “as a colleague in our own particular line of business, and suggested certain schemes to me. Some of them appeared to me to be good, b...

As the car went bounding down the hill at an ever-increasing rate of speed Kathleen saw Melun give an appreciative nod to the woman at her side, and she watched a little smile o...

Westerham had decided that, apart from the necessity of giving Lord Penshurst the good news, it would be better to take the Premier with them to the farm in Kent at which Wester...

On the second landing there was no longer any doubt as to where the cries came from. Westerham dashed at the door, only to find it locked. In a second he had his shoulder agains...

Lord Penshurst was beside himself with grief, and clung to Westerham as a child might, weeping passionately in his arms. Rookley, with a miserable face, had slipped out of the r...

The lights were shaded so that the hard lines on her face were softened, and in the dimness of the pretty room she looked the really beautiful woman she once must have been.

Westerham repeated the words, and his face was blank in its amazement. Lady Kathleen caught his expression and her own face changed. She saw that Westerham's surprise was entire...

Horrified though he was, Westerham made no sign. He had stood in the presence of death before, and he had faced it in more dreadful forms, though it is true he had never known i...

As a matter of fact, he found it rather awkward to say anything at all, and did not attempt to break the silence in which Westerham drove back to the hotel.

On second thoughts, indeed, he was inclined to regard the summons as a real and urgent one. The murder at the hotel had shown him that Melun was not the man to stick at trifles.

Together they travelled down to Trant Hall, and on the way Kathleen gave Lord Penshurst a full account of all that had passed since she had been summoned so suddenly to Rouen.

“Out of evil cometh good.” Had Westerham caught the eye of Kathleen as the two motor cars passed each other at the corner of Whitehall Kathleen herself would have been spared mu...

It was for very excellent reasons that Melun had not driven up to St. John's Wood to fetch Mme. Estelle to the Empire; and his caution in other matters thus saved him from an un...

Westerham made his way back to Walter's in a slightly happier frame of mind. He liked to see his difficulties plain before him rather than to be hemmed about with mysteries that...

It was sufficiently rough to justify a great number of persons remaining in their cabins, but it was hardly sufficiently rough to excuse a two-days' absence of Captain Melun fro...

Captain Melun was a man used to being hard hit. He was steeled against cunningly and swiftly-dealt blows, such as he himself administered, but this declaration of Sir Paul Weste...

“We have not much time before us, Lord Penshurst,” he said, “but I think I can promise you that you shall have the papers back before the three days are out.

I have to confess that quite unintentionally I did my Government and my country a great wrong. In spite of all my very considerable experience, I did not see at the time the dan...

As he did so, the captain experienced a painful sensation. He felt a little cold ring of steel pressed against his right temple, and from past experience, both objective and sub...