The Seven Dials mystery

That amiable youth, Jimmy Thesiger, came racing down the big staircase at Chimneys two steps at a time. So precipitate was his descent that he collided with Tredwell, the statel...

Dinner was over. Lady Coote had been once more detailed for duty. Sir Oswald had unexpectedly come to the rescue by suggesting bridge--not that suggesting is the right word. Sir...

Pongo performed his job neatly and efficiently. Cautiously opening the bedroom door, he disappeared into the darkness inside bearing the two largest clocks. In a minute or two h...

The joke--as a joke--had not gone off any too well. The alarum clocks, on the other hand, had performed their part. _They_ had gone off--with a vigour and _élan_ that could hard...

"You'll certainly never amass a large fortune," she observed dryly, "though you didn't do so badly out of old Coote, sticking him for this place. What was he like? Presentable?"

"Father," said Bundle, opening the door of Lord Caterham's special sanctum and putting her head in, "I'm going up to town in the Hispano. I can't stand the monotony down here an...

Bundle stared at him. And very slowly the world, which for the last three quarters of an hour had been upside down, shifted till it stood once more the right way up. It was quit...

Getting hold of Bill presented few difficulties. Bundle motored up to town on the following morning--this time without adventures by the way--and rang him up. Bill responded wit...

We must at this point go back to some twenty minutes earlier. To a moment when Jimmy Thesiger, emerging from the mists of sleep, was conscious of a familiar voice speaking unfam...

"All things considered," he said, "we haven't got much to go on. In fact, just the words Seven Dials. As a matter of fact I don't even know exactly where Seven Dials is. But, an...

Now it may be said at once that in the foregoing conversation each one of the three participants had, as it were, held something in reserve. That "Nobody tells everything" is a...

"You look tremendously fit, Bundle. I can't tell you how pleased I am to see you. I've ordered oysters--you do like oysters, don't you? And how's everything? What did you want t...

Bundle's temperament was certainly not inherited from her father, whose prevailing characteristic was a wholly amiable inertia. As Bill Eversleigh had very justly remarked, the...

Bundle reached 14 Hunstanton Street about 6 P.M. At that hour, as she rightly judged, the Seven Dials Club was a dead spot. Bundle's aim was a simple one. She intended to get ho...

It would be as well to pass over the sufferings of the next four hours as quickly as possible. Bundle found her position extremely cramped. She had judged that the meeting, if m...

She rang off in a tantalizing manner which left Jimmy pleasantly puzzled. He had the highest respect for Bundle's capabilities, though there was not the slightest trace of senti...

"My dear Eileen," he said, "I can't tell you how pleased I am to see you here. You must forgive my not having invited you when I asked your father, but to tell the truth I never...

George was not a believer in modern innovations. The Abbey was innocent of anything so up to date as central heating. Consequently, when the ladies entered the drawing-room afte...

Our chronicle must here split into three separate and distinct portions. The night was to prove an eventful one and each of the three persons involved saw it from his or her own...

Bundle Brent was a resourceful girl--she was also a girl of imagination. She had foreseen that Bill, if not Jimmy, would make objections to her participation in the possible dan...

Loraine Wade sat up in bed and switched on the light. It was exactly ten minutes to one. She had gone to bed early--at half-past nine. She possessed the useful art of being able...

"No, no, Mr. Lomax, it's not so bad as you think. Everything's all right. But you can't lay the credit for it at my door. You've got to thank this young lady."

Artistic was Bundle's word. She had been zealous in her ministrations--largely consisting of the application of cold water--and the Countess had instantly responded, passing a w...

It was ten o'clock on the following morning. The sun poured in through the windows of the library, where Superintendent Battle had been at work since six. On a summons from him,...

"No, it isn't," confessed Battle. "Yes, it certainly looks as though Bauer were the man. But I can't quite see how he got in and out of these grounds unobserved."

Jimmy Thesiger was feeling depressed. Avoiding George, whom he suspected of being ready to tackle him on serious subjects, he stole quietly away after lunch. Proficient as he wa...

Loraine had been at Chimneys for nearly a week, and had earned the high opinion of her host--mainly because of the charming readiness she had shown to be instructed in the scien...

Jimmy Thesiger arrived at Letherbury on a sunny autumn afternoon and was greeted affectionately by Lady Coote and with cold dislike by Sir Oswald. Aware of the keen match-making...

O'Rourke, who had been reclining in an immense arm-chair, began at once to talk with great animation to Loraine, who was listening with half an ear to Bundle's highly technical...

Lord Caterham started violently, for, absorbed in the intricacies of what not to do with the left wrist, he had not heard the butler approach over the soft turf. He looked at Tr...

Loraine, playing with a small and delectable puppy, was somewhat surprised when Bundle rejoined her after an absence of twenty minutes, in a breathless state and with an indescr...

Very slowly Bundle returned to consciousness. She was aware of a dark, spinning blackness, the centre of which was a violent, throbbing ache. Punctuating this were sounds. A voi...

"You didn't expect to see me, Lady Eileen. No, and no more did some of the others sitting round this table. Mr. Mosgorovsky's been my lieutenant in a manner of speaking. He's be...

"I didn't suspect him myself for a long time. The first hint of it I had was when I heard what Mr. Devereux's last words had been. Naturally, you took them to mean that Mr. Deve...

"Very nearly as bad," said Lord Caterham. "I suppose I shall have to come to the wedding, all dressed up in tight, uncomfortable clothes, and give you away. And Lomax may think...