The Red Bicycle

"You beast!" snarled the detected murderess, and wrenched herself free, to run swiftly across the open space between the barn and the zig-zag path which led down to the beach.

When it became known--chiefly through the agency of Mrs. Mellin--that a baronet was living at Maranatha the excitement was very great. It appeared strange to one and all that a...

The dingy little cart containing the clean linen of the Rectory, was on its way by an unusually roundabout route. Neddy Mellin, the washer woman's son, who disliked work as much...

After that momentary gleam of consciousness, Neddy relapsed into insensibility, and became dead to the world for a long time. Mrs. Mellin arrived in tears, and insisted that the...

With the death of Lady Wyke and the discovery of her wickedness came the end of trouble. There certainly remained a little to be endured by those connected with the tragedy, for...

All this time Lady Wyke gave no sign of her intentions. After her interview with Craver, when she assured him that a will had been made, in his favour the wily woman remained si...

Mr. Oliver Lemby did not trouble to see Lady Wyke again. The two quite understood one another, and there was no need for further conversation. Seeing what Claudia had learnt fro...

Hall was astonished to find that his bicycle had vanished. Taken by surprise he could only stand at the gate and stare helplessly about him. At last, thinking that something mus...

Having, reduced her enemy to impotence, Claudia returned to the Rectory, and slept the sleep of the just. But her slumber was due rather to exhaustion than to placidity of mind;...

Little Mrs. Craver was greatly excited over the discovery that Lady Wyke was none other than flighty Laura Bright, the sister of the humble washerwoman. It was not surprising th...

The company of Edwin was very welcome to Claudia, as she now had an outlet for her grief. She could talk freely to him and receive the comfort which she very greatly needed, alt...

Having in his adventurous life become accustomed to unexpected surprises, Lemby was rarely startled, and frequently boasted that nothing could astonish him. But on this occasion...

With the open verdict, the red bicycle case, as it was called, ended for the time being, as no new evidence was forthcoming likely to elucidate the problem. Wyke's assassin had...

When in the street, Craver turned over in his mind what the girl had said relative to the hint given by her father. Undoubtedly Lemby had a superlatively bad temper, and undoubt...

"It may be ridiculous, or it may not be," replied the buccaneer, doggedly; "but from what I know of Wyke, he was in no danger from anyone. Who the man is that Mrs. Vence saw I d...

Mrs. Vence spluttered and shook with wrath, in her rage it seemed as though she were about to rise up and denounce her visitor. But a fit of coughing prevented her, and by the t...

The high-spirited girl spent a miserable time alone before her father appeared on the scene. She employed a few minutes in wiring to Craver, saying that she wished him to call....

A week went by and things remained as they were. Claudia attended to her household duties, went shopping, and visited friends, while her father smoked and ate and slept in somew...

Sergeant Purse, who had come over from Redleigh to take charge of the matter, was a foxy-faced little man, lean and dried up in appearance, with beady black eyes like those of a...

It was with a heavy heart that Claudia went to Hedgerton. She could by no means understand the behaviour of her father, who certainly talked, in a most contradictory manner. At...

Needless to say Claudia did not report the conversation with Lady Wyke to the Rector or to his wife, as neither of them would have understood, so shameless a chase of age after...

In a frank manner Lemby had stated that he wanted money, and that he had risked much to obtain the same. His reference to the chance of losing good name, liberty, and life, coul...

At the Rectory, dinner was always placed on the table at seven o'clock, it being a law of the Medes and Persians that everyone should be in time. Yet, much to Claudia's distress...

Lady Wyke's sudden accusation of murder came like a bolt from the blue, and so stunned Craver that he had not a word to say. While he sat silent in the deep armchair, as white a...

After the excitement of the evening and her swift walk in the keen air at so late an hour, Claudia felt faint. Nor did the languid atmosphere of the tropical drawing-room tend t...

How Claudia managed to leave the office of Sergeant Purse and reach homo she never clearly knew. In some extraordinary way she contrived to keep from fainting and maintain her c...