The double dagger

With a vicious bang, which indicated that his thoughts were not on what he was doing, Nat Ridley hung the receiver on the telephone hook. He swung around in his swivel chair and...

For a moment or two the telephone bell continued to sound its summons, and both men stared at it. The German detective made a motion as though to answer, and then, recollecting...

Nat Ridley was accustomed to seeing strong men exhibit fear under many circumstances. Sometimes it was a fear over the consequences of the crimes the detective had fastened on t...

From the hasty perusal of the flash story in the paper, Nat Ridley gained an idea of how Lemberg had met his death--that is, he knew all the police had found out in the short ti...

"Now just what?" mused Nat Ridley to himself, as the three dark-featured men sauntered on their way. "What does that mean? No good, I'm positive. But were they referring to me o...

Struggling as he was to keep the coils from choking him into insensibility by their constriction, the detective kept his wits enough to remember that this word was Spanish for "...

Berry Todd and Nat made careful plans for what might happen during the next few days. It might be necessary for the assistant to continue the rôle of chief sleuth for some time,...

Silence followed the dramatic plunging of the rooms of the Club Tamalle into darkness, but the silence did not last long. And as soon as Nat Ridley had knocked aside the knife i...

Most of the excitement in the Spanish club seemed to center around the front entrance, probably because, when the lights were dimmed, patrons who had nothing to do with the affa...

"He walked along the coping here like a human fly and got into the next office," decided Nat. "He was a spy, disguised as a window cleaner! I thought he acted like an amateur wh...

For perhaps ten seconds Nat Ridley stood in the aisle of the sleeper, looking at the man who confronted him from the upper berth. It was past midnight, and the passengers enteri...

None of the parties in the Cordova Club was any more lively or gay than the one at the table where Bill Brice, of the National Hardware Corporation, sat buying champagne. There...

Nat Ridley was doing some quick and hard thinking as he made his way like an eel along the floor toward the cellar stairs. He realized that he was in great danger, but he could...

"Stop!" he cried again, and the Negress who had raised the lash let it fall as she turned in astonishment to look at the intruder. "Hit her again," hissed Nat in a low voice, "a...

The detective seemed to be walking down a long, dark lane, at the end of which he saw a faint glimmer of light. The light hurt his eyes as it grew brighter and the radiance incr...

A number of little caves and caverns had been formed in the tunnel with its partial collapse, and Nat Ridley, hearing the approach of someone at the outer end and seeing the dar...

Sun-bronzed and wind-tanned, a lone cowboy rode a pinto pony along the stretch of sand and sagebrush. Now and then, from beneath the flapping brim of his sombrero, he looked at...

"You fellows know this country better than I do," remarked Pocus Pete as he guided his pinto pony out among the hills that led away from the Mexican town where they had just esc...

"Are you two guys supposed to have a claim on this black cave?" asked Pocus Pete as the three reined in their horses and stood looking at the other cavalcade of riders--perhaps...

"They are--for more reasons than one, I fancy," replied the detective. "It isn't altogether the row in the gambling den that makes them want to catch us, though we did put two o...

Nat Ridley's shots in the direction of the advancing Mexicans had hardly ceased rattling amid the rocks of the defile on top of the mesa when the detective hastened toward the e...

"Dogs and pigs!" hissed the man as he leaped to his feet, for the shock of the bullet in his right hand had sent him spinning around so that he fell. "Pigs!"

Within the silence of the dark cave, where, for days, Cora Ardell had been kept a prisoner, a secret conference was held. All the talk was in whispers, for Ike and Jim declared...

Late into the night, yes, almost until the red sun was ready to rise and shine down into the village of Paz amid the Mexican hills, did El Capitan, Don Castro, Pedro and the "ki...

Thought was hardly quicker than Nat Ridley's act as he pulled loose his sleeve from the betraying grip of Don Castro and leaped toward the door dividing the long building in two...