The house of the missing

High on the roof of the apartment house, in the darkness, the insatiable, ceaseless murmur of the city came hushed and muted to my ears. I leaned against the parapet, staring ou...

My visitor nodded and sank gracefully into a chair, leaning back negligently. But as soon as the door had closed on Larry he seemed to stiffen in a surprising manner, his neglig...

Next morning I had to deal with a suspicious and indignant Larry, with smoldering rebellion in every line of him. Nothing would convince him that the shot that broke the picture...

After the Chief left, Moore gave me my instructions for that night. We were to leave the room separately. I was to get into the same taxi which I would find waiting and I was to...

The house in which Moore had taken his rooms was of the ordinary brown-stone type and had once been occupied, presumably, by a single family. Now, owing to changes in the neighb...

The following afternoon I had an engagement for tea with Mrs. Furneau. She had told me to come early, ostensibly because we were to have a quiet talk over some plans for amateur...

In spite of the promise of recent events and the possible clews which Moore and I believed we had found, the next three weeks were uneventful. Uneventful, that is, from the stan...

I waited until he had finished hopping around the room, and until the really remarkable richness and variety of his profanity had exhausted itself. Then I told him a little abou...

To my disappointment, there was very little in the desk. A few old letters, an invitation or two, some receipts and a couple of blank income-tax return forms were all that my fi...

The next morning, Friday, I woke and lay for a moment drowsily wondering as to the cause of a sort of vague excitement of which I was conscious. Then recollection of the events...

I sent Larry to get some lunch ready, and in the interval went over my papers again to be sure that nothing else was missing. I had nothing that could possibly involve me in the...

“Wait a minute,” he was saying. “You, Felix, whistle for the car from the window there, while I keep this fool covered.” Then he went on to me: “You thought you’d mix yourself u...

Larry and I went in one entrance to the Times Building and out the other. I led him across the street and into Seventh Avenue, turning south. Already I was beginning to have the...

Larry’s tiny electric torch showed us a small basement room, evidently used as a laundry. An unlocked door led from it into the kitchen, an old-fashioned one and very large. And...

“Wait,” said the new-comer after a moment. “Don’t try anything foolish!” For I had drawn myself together a little, with the idea of risking a dash at him. I stood still, my hand...

I fumbled for a cigar, keeping my head down so that he would not see my face, for I was pretty close to the breaking-point. I sat down opposite him and waited, shading my face w...

“By Jove, yes,” I answered, wondering what on earth Pride had in mind. “I’ll have to take that up before I leave.” I turned to Ivanovitch. “It’s a little matter of business that...

When my eyes had grown accustomed to the soft glow of electric lights, I saw that I stood, alone with Ivanovitch, in a small room delicately furnished in blue and gold. A gilded...

That wait was the most trying time I have ever spent. I lay in the darkness, only daring to shift my position a very little now and then, for the better part of three hours, bef...

Struck dumb with amazement, I stood like a rat in a trap, and waited patiently for some explanation of the voice I had heard. But when it came again, a moment later, I could not...

Almost as soon as my feet touched the ground I struck straight out from the wall which stretched away on either hand, for I had a wholesome respect for the people I had left beh...

When I awoke it was broad daylight. I lay for a moment in the daze of intense fatigue and the temporary befuddlement that follows very deep sleep. I glanced about me at bare sto...

We waited quietly in the woods until darkness fell. None of us spoke above a whisper, and there was no lighting of matches or anything else to draw attention to us. But no one p...

Then the Chief slid the iron grille of the elevator softly out of the way and fumbled at the door beyond. We could hear no sound from the other side of the door, and at last the...

They came very close to rushing us at the start. I have a confused recollection of a mass of murderous-looking ruffians bearing down on us, firing as they came, while the table...

It seemed to me that I was struggling up through miles of deep blue water that gradually turned to lighter emerald. Huge sea monsters swam lazily about me, staring with curious,...