The crime code

At the outset I wish to impress on those who read this straightforward and unembellished narrative of my amazing and often exciting adventures, that I seek not to hide my own sh...

Bewildered, nerve-wrecked, full of apprehension, I looked around me that dull, gray morning. The recent events stood out like a horrible nightmare. At first I wondered if I had...

“Possibly, but, as far as I read, the woman only saw the fellow by the light of the street-lamp, and the description she gave was, after all, a vague one.” Then I added, “I hope...

Down Denmark Hill I went, consoled and gratified that, at least, I still had one big-hearted and affectionate friend in the world, my dear old father, who believed my story. But...

It was plain that the woman was a member of the criminal gang, and, in all probability, the man who had lost his life while grappling with me was also one of its members. In any...

A loud, ringing peal of laughter sounded in my ears, and at that moment my aerial journey ended. In a flash all became transformed. It concluded with a sudden shock.

I had suddenly awakened to a new world, one familiar enough to me before my sudden unconsciousness, but in which two whole years had been blotted out. Of my life or actions duri...

I spent the day wandering about the broad, handsome streets of Rome--Rome under Mussolini. I noted where cobbled piazzas had been bare and dusty there were now bright flower-bed...

On the following Monday afternoon I alighted at Calais Maritime from the dusty _wagon-lit_ of the Rome express, glad to stretch my legs after the long journey. On board the Dove...

Reader, I beg of you to put yourself for a moment in my place. My unfortunate position, as a straw blown upon the adverse wind of circumstance, had become intolerable.

“Hulloa, Lionel!” he exclaimed, greeting me in his usual cheery manner. “Back again, eh? Joan said you’ve been to Rome. How are things there? We were there at the Grand two year...

Through two years my enemies had successfully fooled me. I had no doubt been as clay in their hands, even to the extent that some adventuress had actually married me!

In a couple of hours every police-constable in greater London would hear the description read over before going on duty, while search would be made of every hospital and every a...

“Now our only course is to go to Queen’s Gate, see Joan’s father, and tell him of our knowledge of the gentleman with such a pretty name, Mr. Roddy Owen--a name well known in sp...

The mystery increased hourly. Though Scotland Yard had to its credit the arrest of the fugitive foreign waiter, there was practically no evidence to show that he was even acquai...

“I’m going up to Liverpool by the next train,” I said. “I’ll be at the Adelphi if anything turns up regarding Joan. I’ve got a bit of urgent business to attend to. Bruce will ke...

Then the message from Illona, delivered to me in Kensington Gardens, had been a false one, sent by the Little Countess in order to mislead me! Why? With what motive?

“Laroche, m’sieur!” he said. And I knew we were fast approaching Paris. I pulled aside the blind, and saw the familiar long lines of poplars and the flat, uninteresting landscape.

I knew well she was testing me in order to reassure herself that memory of the past had not returned to me, that I still failed to recognize her. By dint of great effort I had k...

As soon as she had gone, I rang up Mr. Gell at his chambers. But he was still at the Old Bailey, and would not return to the Temple. So I rang up Queen’s Gate, and asked his man...

The enigma was increasingly bewildering. Ever since the moment when that woman of the night, Hilda Bennett, had declared that I was not her lover’s assailant, and in consequence...

From my writing-table I took out my pass-book which had only been sent by the bank the day before. And there, to my surprise, I saw that she was correct.

The woman Illona, by this time, had made herself thoroughly at home in my rooms, for she had passed into my bedroom, where she had powdered her face and settled her hat. And now...

I ate a hasty sandwich, drank a glass of sherry at the club, and then took a taxi to a small, rather shabby office in a narrow street off High Street, Kensington, the registry o...

A steep, tree-lined boulevard of hotels and private residences, upon the hill-side overlooking Ouchy and the lake, the Avenue de la Gare is one of the principal streets of the c...

That afternoon I recrossed the lake to Evian-les-Bains amid a crowd of English tourists, and after tea at the Royal, Lord Oxenwood gave me back the well-filled dispatch box to t...

Dressed in an old suit of Bruce’s, a pair of my oldest shoes, and wearing a golf cap and a flannel shirt without a collar, I presented a rough appearance as I entered the paved...

We conversed in whispers. In the still night air human voices carry far. Our driver remained behind with the car, and with him Rayner fixed a rendezvous. If he heard a pistol-sh...

Everyone who could manage it was away in the country, or at the sea. The West End was like a deserted desert, and half the clubs, including my own, were closed for cleaning. We...