The lazy detective

"And remember, Labar, you don't bluff me." The Chief Constable, who had been through the game himself, tapped the string of figures that lay upon his desk with an aggressive for...

Anyone who could afford to live in Streetly House, that imposing and historic residence just off Park Lane, must by that fact alone, be known in some degree to the public. Mr. S...

Lacking any more definite line at the moment, Labar felt impelled to the theory that there had been collusion between the thieves and someone in the house. That at least furnish...

Labar was a little uncertain of the value of his hand. Therefore, he hesitated to disclose his cards fully to Solly Gertstein, the more so as that gentleman at almost the first...

In silken pyjamas, and propped up on his pillows, Mr. Larry Hughes toyed with coffee and toast, the while he lazily scanned the _Daily Mail_ with its account of the Streetly Hou...

It was with the conviction that Penelope Noelson was the key to the mystery that Labar made his way back to town. The hint that she would be detained would scarcely have stirred...

The incidence of crime among fifty million people affects the average individual very seldom. Any ordinary man who has his pocket picked or the domestic silver stolen, has the f...

Although it would have pleased Harry Labar to tumble into the fastest motor car he could find and engage in swift and melodramatic chase of Larry Hughes and Penelope, he was det...

A couple of days passed, and although the newspapermen still pestered Labar, and other potential sources of information at Scotland Yard, the space allotted to the hue and cry i...

Through the gate of a high wall set about a low-built house the car containing Penelope Noelson and Larry Hughes passed. A ground mist as high as a man's waist was rising; but a...

To one approaching casually Adèle Gertstein might have seemed asleep. She reclined with a sort of feline luxuriousness in a deck chair on one of the wide terraces of "Maid's Ret...

It was a blow to Labar that Malone's journey to Goodwood in company with the bank cashier should have been wasted. He had fully made up his mind that Mrs. Gertstein was the auth...

The inspector read her purpose as an open book. He shook his head. Five minutes--one minute--alone, and such a woman in such a state of mind was ripe for any desperate act. He h...

Hughes leaned his back to the wall near the window and his gaze wandered from one to the other while the pistol dangled in his hand. He could not fail to observe the signs of th...

From the cover of a group of lilacs the detective inspector glanced swiftly back at the house a hundred yards away. A man was standing by the window scanning the shrubbery. Appa...

"There are two turnings. They might have gone right or left," said Labar gloomily. He descended to examine the tracks. "They've done neither," he added. "Look here. They pulled...

No one can tell with certainty how a great disaster will affect a man. Gertstein, chewing a cold cigar, and with hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets, strode with rolling g...

There was no charge made against Stebbins that night, and inquiries from the newspapers which were anxious to know more of the cause of the affray were met with a stubborn silen...

The days moved with leaden feet for Penelope Noelson. She had come to know every inch of space in the walled garden, and although she gazed wistfully through the iron bars of th...

Larry Hughes stood beside them, a gold cigarette case open in his hand. He had entered so silently that neither of them had heard him. Mrs. Gertstein delicately selected a cigar...

Although perhaps the most spectacular, in reality the most simple of the problems that arise at Scotland Yard is the pursuit of a known man for a known crime. A criminal may esc...

The conveniences of civilisation are rarely noticed until they are missed. Harry Labar would have given much to have had a telephone within convenient access just then. He regre...

He took off his old tweed coat and, in spite of her protests, made her put it on to protect her from the clammy cold of the fog. Making her as comfortable as possible on the dam...

Labar's first business was to interview the wife of his temporary landlord, the retired constable. Into her hands he confided Penelope, with instructions that the girl was to be...

Harry Labar had been in many tight corners in his life, but now he knew himself in the tightest of them all. He had fallen into an ambush. He was certain that at the first false...

In the underground chamber where the little group awaited the return of Larry time passed slowly. Labar could hear the ticking of his watch above the whispered conversation that...

Explanations were deferred till such time as the prisoners could be dealt with. Half a dozen stalwart constables, each armed with a shot gun, took charge of the captives who wer...

The immediate question to be solved was whether Larry Hughes was still hiding on the marsh, or whether he had eluded the network of police and got safely away. So far as the det...

Limp, hysterical, and half-paralysed by her own emotions, Mrs. Gertstein took the place of Sophie Lengholm. It was an interview that did not last long, for she literally flung h...

"I told you that you couldn't go on bucking against the machine for ever, Larry," he said. "And talking of fools, what made you mad enough to go to Rye?"