Detective Fiction

Trent's Last Case

When the scheming, indomitable brain of Sigsbee Manderson was scattered by a shot from an unknown hand, that world lost nothing worth a single tear; it gained something memorable in a harsh reminder of the vanity of such wealth as this dead man had piled up—without making one...

Chapters

15. Chapter 15

An old oaken desk with a deep body stood by the window in a room that overlooked St. James’s Park from a height. The room was large, furnished and decorated by some one who had...

4. Chapter 4

A painter and the son of a painter, Philip Trent had while yet in his twenties achieved some reputation within the world of English art. Moreover, his pictures sold. An original...

13. Chapter 13

The following two months were a period in Trent’s life that he has never since remembered without shuddering. He met Mrs. Manderson half a dozen times, and each time her cool fr...

11. Chapter 11

My Dear Molloy:—This is in case I don’t find you at your office. I have found out who killed Manderson, as this dispatch will show. This was my problem; yours is to decide what...

16. Chapter 16

“What was that you said about our having an appointment at half-past seven?” asked Mr. Cupples as the two came out of the great gateway of the pile of flats. “Have we such an ap...

3. Chapter 3

At about eight o’clock in the morning of the following day Mr. Nathaniel Burton Cupples stood on the veranda of the hotel at Marlstone. He was thinking about breakfast. In his c...

5. Chapter 5

There are moments in life, as one might think, when that which is within us, busy about its secret affair, lets escape into consciousness some hint of a fortunate thing ordained...

7. Chapter 7

The sea broke raging upon the foot of the cliff under a good breeze; the sun flooded the land with life from a dappled blue sky. In this perfection of English weather Trent, who...

10. Chapter 10

Mrs. Manderson stood at the window of her sitting-room at White Gables gazing out upon a wavering landscape of fine rain and mist. The weather had broken as it seldom does in th...

12. Chapter 12

“I am returning the cheque you sent for what I did on the Manderson case,” Trent wrote to Sir James Molloy from Munich, whither he had gone immediately after handing in at the _...

6. Chapter 6

“Calvin C. Bunner, at your service,” amended the newcomer, with a touch of punctilio, as he removed an unlighted cigar from his mouth. He was used to finding Englishmen slow and...

8. Chapter 8

The coroner, who fully realized that for that one day of his life as a provincial solicitor he was living in the gaze of the world, had resolved to be worthy of the fleeting emi...

2. Chapter 2

In the only comfortably furnished room in the offices of the _Record,_ the telephone on Sir James Molloy’s table buzzed. Sir James made a motion with his pen, and Mr. Silver, hi...

1. Chapter 1

When the scheming, indomitable brain of Sigsbee Manderson was scattered by a shot from an unknown hand, that world lost nothing worth a single tear; it gained something memorabl...

14. Chapter 14

“If you insist,” Trent said, “I suppose you will have your way. But I had much rather write it when I am not with you. However, if I must, bring me a tablet whiter than a star,...

9. Chapter 9

Mr. Cupples entered his sitting-room at the hotel. It was the early evening of the day on which the coroner’s jury, without leaving the box, had pronounced the expected denuncia...