The Red Room

In this narrative of startling fact there is little that concerns myself. It is mostly of the doings of others--strange doings though they were, and stranger still, perhaps, tha...

In a black velvet lounge coat, a fancy vest, and bright, bead-embroidered slippers, he beamed a warm welcome upon me, and drew up a big saddle-bag arm-chair. From what I had see...

That sallow-faced man who had conducted me there was himself a mystery, and upon his own confession was suspected of a foul crime. Besides, it was being kept rigorously from the...

There, upon the end of the unfortunate man's watch-chain, were the two keys which he always carried, keys which held the secrets of his experiments away from the prying eyes of...

During the hours I spent in bed before the dawn I lay thinking. The problem was utterly inexplicable, the more so now that the dead man's daughter was also dead.

I stood awaiting his return for a few moments, and then followed him out upon the landing, where my feet fell noiselessly upon the thick Turkey carpet. Almost opposite, across t...

I was uncertain what to do. Was it best to ascend the steps, knock boldly at the door, and inquire the reason of that frantic appeal? Or should I remain silent and watch?

Here was the whole affair in danger of being exposed to the police and public by this young man's encounter with the Professor's servant! If it were exposed, then I should be co...

Strangely enough, however, a bright fire burned in the grate, while upon the table were the remains of a repast--dinner, no doubt--of which three persons had partaken. Dessert h...

My eager glance was everywhere, but I discerned nothing further of an unusual nature. The one great truth had become impressed upon me that the man Kirk, madman or master crimin...

"Yes," he replied. "She tells me that her father went up to Edinburgh, but was suddenly called abroad upon business connected with one of his newly-patented chemical processes....

I confess to having been half-inclined, when I returned home that night, to take Mabel into my confidence. But I hesitated, because I knew that her frankness and sense of justic...

Ten minutes later I was with the German hairdresser on a tram-car, going up Regent Road, towards Abbey Hill. On turning into the London Road at the station, we descended, and, c...

The morning was cold, with fine driving rain, when at eight o'clock I alighted from a hansom before my own house in Bath Road, and entered with my latch-key. In the dining-room...

He said that Mrs. Holford, accompanied by her husband, had arrived at about seven o'clock on the morning of the day before yesterday, remained there the day, and had left by the...

"I had some family affairs to attend to," he answered. "I had to go to my home at Lucca to arrange for the future of my two nephews whose father is just dead. Pietro joined me t...

Then, in the falling twilight, we slowly descended the road together, he giving me his address in the Via Tordinona, a side street close to the Bridge of Sant' Angelo, which I n...

Then I bade her farewell, and walked back along the cliffs, past the Grand Hotel, to the quaint parade of the old-fashioned little watering-place, turning up to the chemist's sh...

It struck me that this keen-eyed, crafty-faced, round-shouldered specialist in diseases of the throat intended to profit by information derived from me regarding the mysterious...

One fact was quite plain. It was the false Professor who had written to my wife. For aught I knew, the man whom I had followed from Edinburgh to Glasgow might have already been...

Talking with the pair was a well set-up, alert man whose back was turned to me--a man in a soft grey felt hat and heavy travelling coat with beaver collar. Both men were speakin...

I had, I confess, allowed my anger to rise above my gorge. That action of mine in attacking Kirk was both ill-timed and very injudicious, for in an instant--before even those fr...

"Your main reason, then, for telling us this story is in order to compel those responsible for your wife's absence to reveal her whereabouts, I take it?" asked the younger man.

Beside myself with fear and anxiety regarding the woman I loved so well, I again called that very same evening upon Kirk at Whitehall Court, but on doing so was informed by the...

What actually occurred was this. I had risen from the table when Annie entered with a telegram which, on opening, I found to be an urgent message from Langton, at Broadstairs, b...

The house in Sussex Place was still in the hands of the caretaker, and, though I watched both Doctor Flynn and Leonard Langton in secret, the results of my vigilance were nil.

Alverton Hall, a noble old mansion, had been purchased by the Sheffield steel magnate Sir Mark Edwards some ten years before. In addition, I heard that he owned a beautiful plac...

In the failing London light, as Kirk rose and stood near the window, his countenance was even more sinister and more mysterious than ever. About his lips played that enigmatical...

The careless manner in which Kirk seemed to treat the grave issue of my life enraged me. This man, who in Chiswick posed as shabby and broken-down, was certainly no ordinary per...

"Well," continued the dark-eyed man, "the rude awakening came in the following way. The thirteenth of January was on Sunday. Kirk, who had been engaged in watching the movements...

"I think so," was Greer's reply. "I'll cross to-night. But if I go, I must first run into the City to see Meyrick," and he glanced at his watch, exclaiming, "By Jove! I must be...

I scanned it through--then held my breath. It was from Angouleme, in Central France, and signed by somebody named Croxton, evidently a person in the secret employ of our Governm...