The hand of power

A gale of wind and rain swept across the barren face of Dartmoor, that ancient desolation. The howl and shriek of it came to Betty Carew above the rattle and roar of the motor e...

Betty Carew listened, aghast. In that gloomy, dusty room, ill-lit, badly ventilated, redolent of musty paper and ancient leather bindings, she had heard many fantastic views and...

“What most people call modesty is merely the wish that the authorship of anything nice which may be said about them in the Press, shall not be traced to them. Modesty is only a...

Outside the East India Dock Gates lies an area of squalor and meanness which has no exact parallel in any other part of London. It is a district of poor, jerry-built streets, wh...

Benson gave a final and approving glance at the tea-table, filled a silver cigarette box from a carton he took from the sideboard cupboard, lit a tiny spirit lamp and drew back...

Dr. Laffin, in the brighter light of the dressing-room, was revealed as being a little above middle height, but he was so very thin that he appeared taller. He was dressed in a...

Betty Carew might have prayed, and did pray, for deliverance from many evils, great and small. That she had failed to include a supplication for quittance of an untidy young Ame...

The Proud Sons of Ragousa were celebrating the inauguration of a new lodge, and the opening of a new lodge-room, and Bill Holbrook, standing on the edge of the sidewalk, watched...

“It cost me twenty-five pounds,” he said laconically. “Every time the police pinch me, they try to find an owner for it, and after I’ve kept them walking about London till their...

Dr. Laffin lived in a large and gloomy house in Camden Town. It was a property he had bought when he came to London, and had furnished according to his own bizarre tastes. In th...

“No, I’m not drunk, if that is what you mean,” said Bill without resentment. “I’m talking about a real policeman, though I admit that there is something very unreal about him. I...

It was the third day of Betty Carew’s ordeal, and she groaned as she turned into Duke Street, and saw the little knot of curious sightseers waiting before the store window with...

She could only thrust forward the letter. It was unaddressed. In the top left-hand corner was a queer sign which had excited her curiosity before, and which was now to have an e...

The doctor opened the door of his study, and again she hesitated. There was no reason in the world why she should fear him any more at that moment than she had in the past; but...

“One of the lower orders, by which I mean the common or criminal classes, would hesitate to approach a gentleman with the plain and straightforward statement that any burglar, w...

Bill thrust his hand into his pocket, felt something hard and sharp, as his fingers closed over an uneven surface. When he brought his hand forth he uttered a cry of amazement a...

Betty Carew felt something more than a mental relief in the knowledge that her nightmare experience was at an end. She awoke from a deep, refreshing sleep, and it was significan...

She went to the door and looked out. Walking slowly along the opposite sidewalk was a short, stout man, with a long black beard. If he were not a clergyman, the janitor’s mistak...

“Yes--no,” she stammered. “I saw him a few minutes ago. He came to the stage door of the Orpheum to see me, but I had never met him before. Is he--is he dead?”

Lodge No. 1107 of the Proud Sons of Ragousa was housed in a hall that had been an unsuccessful cinema theatre, and, having been purchased by the Proud Sons, had, at no inconside...

“Nobody knows anything. Who are the members of the Grand Lodge, where it holds its meetings, who are the Twenty-Thirders, and why. The only thing the poor simps are sure about i...

“No--come in. Mother and I were discussing ways and means. You’ll quite understand my position; naturally I don’t wish mater to take boarders, not ordinary boarders; I shouldn’t...

La Florette was hardly out of the house before Toby Marsh had followed her. He saw the lights of her car turn the corner, and regretted that he had not the same form of transpor...

Despite all the precautions that Bill had taken, Betty Carew had been interviewed twice by the police that afternoon--interviews which, however, were completely unsatisfactory a...

It was not till a day later that Betty learnt of the extraordinary circumstances under which she was found. A police patrol, who crossed Clapham Common just before daybreak, saw...

Bill had not seen Laffin since the night the doctor had lost his golden buckle. He had very wisely left the police to interview him concerning Betty Carew’s strange disappearanc...

Lambert Stone was halfway down the stairs with Holbrook’s coat on his arm, when he heard the shot. The night porter had also heard the _plock!_ of a pistol fired with a silencer...

That a man should be shot dead in broad daylight, on one of the most crowded streets of London, and that the murderer should have escaped, offered to the leader-writer of every...

Clive’s flat was indeed a restful spot. At his suggestion, Betty Carew, newly released from hospital, had broken her journey to have tea with him. She lay in a deep arm-chair, s...

“It happened on my seventeenth birthday,” she went on in a lifeless voice. “I had discovered something about the doctor; he had been guilty of a most heartless fraud. I was acti...

“I think, if you will leave him with me, he will be all right,” said Benson. He was feeling Clive’s pulse with a professional touch. “The heart action is normal, and there is no...

“It would take a week’s search to find the body,” said Bullott, as they were driving home together. “There are dozens of pits and caves into which they could have thrown him. It...

Dr. Laffin had spent the greater part of the evening with a companion who, æsthetically, was repugnant to him, but in other ways was a wholly desirable associate. He finished hi...

“The return of the wanderer,” he murmured. “Please tell the cashier to have the fatted calf slaughtered with appropriate ceremony. You will find your room in order, and your des...

At six o’clock that summer evening a station taxi dropped Mr. Pawter at the Two Bridges Hotel, an ancient hostelry set in the heart of Dartmoor. He paid the driver and watched t...

Slowly Pawter took off his robe, dropped it on the ground, and thrust his hands into his pockets. Bald, middle-aged, a creature of commerce, he had in him a something which brou...

Betty Carew made a call on the residence of De Fell, the manager, and that young man was not too busy to see the girl to whom he had written on the previous night.

The five o’clock west-bound mail carried a saloon in which were fifteen men and one woman, who did not usually undertake a journey to the West of England. Bullott was taking no...

Pawter looked at the phosphorescent dial of his watch and with some difficulty returned it to his pocket, for the handcuffs about his wrists were of a type that he had never see...

Pawter too had recognised the voice of Inspector Bullott, and he drew a long sigh. In another second the Prior had lifted the lantern and blown out the light; there was the ratt...

“I’ve got a bit of news that will interest you, Holbrook,” he said. “There were three people in that car that left Exeter; I’ve been able to trace them. The driver was a tall ma...

“It was an accident, you fool!” stormed Bill, making the situation worse. “Take that man--he’s Laffin, I tell you. They’ll have the coat off your back if you let him escape!”

They went down to the purser’s office together, and Bill received the steamship ticket, which had been ordered by wireless, and was shown to a small cabin on one of the upper de...

Later, he was to find that Mr. Bullott’s enthusiastic description was by no means far-fetched. The United States liner _Escorial_ was by far the most luxurious vessel that ever...

In a second Bill was out of bed. The little alleyway was empty, and when he reached the longer corridor there was nobody in sight. He came back to his room, turned on the light...

His first act was to carry the note to the captain’s cabin. That officer was awake and was standing at the door of his handsome quarters in pyjamas and slippers, a big pipe clen...

“We needn’t experiment on anything living,” said the officer, as he poured a little of the water into a test tube. “I pretty well know the contents of the glass in Bullott’s cab...

“Come up on to the boat deck.” He gripped her arm, and together they ran up the companionway. Halfway along the deck, at a place just behind the fourth funnel, was a little cabi...

“Shut the door,” said Bullott faintly, “and lock it. They got me last night. It was my own fault. He told me to be careful, and, like a fool, I came on to the deck and Laffin re...

There was nothing unusual in the appearance of U.S.S. _Escorial_ to suggest the imminence of a tragedy. The bugles called regularly to luxurious meals, the pillared swimming-bat...

The curious mixture of pomp and argot would in any other circumstances have aroused Bill to merriment; but now, as something cold gripped his heart, he knew that the hour of cri...

Bill looked at him curiously. The captain had changed for the worse since he had seen him last. He wore a pair of old khaki trousers and a golf coat buttoned up to his chin, ove...

The _Escorial_ had a maximum speed of thirty knots, and she had steamed considerably over seven hundred miles northward. He guessed that they were somewhere in the region of six...

He returned to the bridge with the information that he had fulfilled his errand, and that the list could be placed in Hale’s hands before the evening. It seemed an opportunity,...

The caboose had three windows, one port, one starboard, and the other facing the bridge. All, however, were so placed that it was difficult for anybody outside to look in--for w...

From the lower promenade deck he saw the ship come to an anchor, watched the lowering of a boat and the skin-coated crew pull towards the liner. A gangway had been lowered, and...

The man leapt at his word. Bill, standing in the chart-house, heard the click of the sword as it dragged along the deck… there was a loud splash. It was so horribly matter-of-fa...

Somebody else had seen the ship. He heard Hale roar an order, and in a few minutes a rattle and quiver as the anchor of the _Escorial_ was dragged from its bed. The telegraphs w...

“Tie his hands,” said Hale. “And, young lady, if you give me any trouble, you’ll be sorry sooner than you expect. You’ll be sorry enough, anyway,” he grinned, and leered into he...

With a roar of rage, Hale sprang at her and tried to wrench her loose, but she clung desperately, and the thunder of the siren drowned all sound until he pried her fingers away.

“That is the gentleman. Very few people are aware of the fact, but it is nevertheless true, that he is the top man in this ship at this identical moment.”

“Your name is Clive George Lowbridge; you are the ninth Baron Lowbridge. I am taking you into custody on the charge of wilfully murdering your cousin, Cyril Francis Lowbridge, b...