The strange countess

Lois Margeritta Reddle sat on the edge of her bed, a thick and heavy cup of pallid tea in one hand, a letter in the other. The tea was too sweet, the bread was cut generously ev...

They went off to the office together, walking through the Bloomsbury squares, and only once did Lois look round apprehensively for her unwelcome cavalier. Happily he was not in...

The grim entrance of Telsbury Convict Establishment is mercifully hidden behind a screen of thick-growing pines. Its red walls have mellowed with age, and but for the high tower...

But it was true. That dignified, stately woman who had marched so calmly in the circle of pain was her mother! Incredible, impossible though it seemed, she knew this was the tru...

“Oh, you artful one! You picked him up, did you? Haven’t you got a nerve to come back with him? Suppose old Shaddles had seen you! What have you done to the juggernaut? All the...

Charlotte Street was deserted when she turned the corner. Passing a small closed coupé that stood by the side-walk, she was half-way up the street, and was turning to cross, whe...

She heard the creak and rumble of Lizzy’s bed, the scratch of a match, and saw the white gleam of the gas as it was lit. In another second Lizzy was in her room.

All her life, Lois Reddle could never recall what happened that morning. She went about her work mechanically, like one in a dream; and that she did not commit the most appallin...

“Of course I’m not,” he said brusquely, almost rudely, “but I loathe this fellow. His name’s Dorn--Michael Dorn. He is the only private detective in England who is worth twopenc...

The Countess of Moron, Lois discovered, had one amiable weakness; it was for jigsaw puzzles, which were made especially for her--pictures in greys and blues and elusive shades w...

As she fell, Lois clutched wildly, and her fingers caught a projecting ridge of stone an inch wide; the jerk nearly pulled her arms from their sockets, but for the moment she hung.

Lois did not go into the office; she left her friend on the threshold and went on to the appointment she sought. Leaving the car in Parliament Street, she walked down Whitehall...

“You’re a very naughty boy,” said the countess, intent again upon her pencil-sharpening, “go back and play with your batteries!” and, with a gasp of fear, the man turned and ran...

Lizzy, who was not affected by the stateliness of the surroundings, was asleep almost as soon as she had finished talking. But Lois Reddle had never been more wide awake in her...

In a second she had recovered, and had leapt out of bed. Better the known than the unknown. All fear had vanished; she would face Dorn and have the truth. Snatching up her dress...

Her first impulse was to fly, her second, more merciful, was to run to his side, and, kneeling down, loosen his collar. Was he dead? There was no sign of life or sound of breath...

“My dear, I’ll be glad to get rid of you,” said her ladyship frankly. “That wretched man Dorn has quite upset me, and I’m not going to visit my resentment on you. Go away for a...

At five o’clock that afternoon there was a great thudding of doors and snapping of keys in Telsbury Prison. The evening meal-hour was over. The last visit had been paid by the c...

Lois Reddle was in no mood to return to Chester Square; but she was less willing to break faith with the woman whom she was beginning to dislike, and debated the question, she a...

“Lighton, I’m going to catch a real thief now, if my theories are sound. And my main theory has something to do with an envelope which I begged from a clerk at the Home Office t...

Lois was wakened from an exhausted sleep by the opening of the cell door; she got up unsteadily, not quite knowing what she was doing, and followed the matron to the charge-room...

When Michael Dorn left the police station he hurried his car to Charlotte Street. At such an early hour of the morning there was no sign of life in this thoroughfare. He expecte...

“A very persistent young man,” she said, almost pleasantly. “Will you come into the library? I cannot speak in this draughty hall. Is that Miss Smith you have with you? She may...

It was three o’clock in the afternoon when Lois Reddle woke from a heavy sleep, feeling ravenously hungry. She got off the bed, and, putting on her shoes, walked to the window....

Lois came to consciousness almost at once, as she thought, though she had been lying on the floor for half an hour before she moved, and, sick and shaking, dragged herself with...

It was the worst kind of fortune that Michael Dorn received news of two early morning departures from aerodromes situated a hundred miles apart; and worse that he should have ch...

Two hours after Michael Dorn had gone, Dr. Tappatt sat in his parlour, his elbows on his knees, his big face cupped in his hands. Beside him was a half-filled tumbler of whisky,...

He could almost afford to feel jubilant at the contemplation of his partial success, only he was a man who never counted eggs as chickens; nor did he underrate the resourcefulne...

Dear Miss Smith,--I have been trying to get into communication with a Mr. John Wills, who is an assistant of mine, and possibly I have succeeded. But in case, by any mischance,...

Though she could remember one or two uncomfortable days in her life, Lois Reddle could not recall one that bore any comparison with the twenty hours that followed her departure...

She went out of the room soon after and was gone for half an hour, apparently attending to the needs of the other prisoner, for when she came back she had something to say about...

Earlier that day somebody else had asked for the truth. As a rule, Mr. Chesney Praye had little use for that quality, but, as he explained to the Countess over their protracted...

Mr. Chesney Praye was a welcome visitor. He had parked his machine in the forecourt, and now, sitting before the small wood fire, was warming his chilled hands, for the night ha...

“That you marry me to-morrow. I took the precaution this afternoon of going to Doctors’ Commons and securing a special licence, which allows me to be married to-morrow morning....

As the gates burst open violently and the car lurched on to the road, Lizzy pulled her companion back to the shadow of the wall. At that moment a man came flying through the gat...

Leonora, Countess of Moron, paced her long dressing-room, her hands behind her, a calm, speculative woman, for emotion did not belong to her. Chesney Praye and the doctor she ha...