It was a perfect autumn afternoon, one of those days when one who is normal feels the call to get out of doors and enjoy what is left of the fine weather before the onset of winter. We strode along in the bracing air until at last we turned into Broadway at the upper end […]

The next day was that of the hunt and we motored out to the North Shore Hunt Club. It was a splendid day and the ride was just enough to put an edge on the meet that was to follow. We pulled up at last before the rambling colonial building which the Hunt Club boasted […]

“My husband has such a jealous disposition. He will never believe the truth–never!” Agatha Seabury moved nervously in the deep easy chair beside Kennedy’s desk, leaning forward, uncomfortably, the tense lines marring the beauty of her fine features. Kennedy tilted his desk chair back in order to study her face. “You say you have never […]

We paid our check and Kennedy and I sauntered in the direction Sherburne had taken, finding him ultimately in the cafe, alone. Without further introduction Kennedy approached him. “So–you are a detective?” sneered Sherburne superciliously, elevating his eyebrows just the fraction of an inch. “Not exactly,” parried Kennedy, seating himself beside Sherburne. Then in a […]

I felt, however, that Seabury accepted this conclusion reluctantly, in fact with a sort of mental reservation not to cease activity himself. The remainder of the forenoon, and for some time during the early afternoon, Craig plunged into one of his periods of intense work and abstraction at the laboratory. It was, indeed, a most […]

“Meet Sylvania Quarantine midnight. Strange death Rawaruska. Retain you in interest steamship company. Thompson, Purser.” Kennedy had torn open the envelope of a wireless message that had come from somewhere out in the Atlantic and had just been delivered to him at dinner one evening. He read it quickly and tossed it over to me. […]

Craig had completed a hasty search of the room, with its little dressing table, two trunks, and a cabinet. Everything seemed to have been kept in a most neat and orderly manner by the attentive Cecilie, who was apparently a model servant. The little white bathroom was equally immaculate, and Kennedy passed next to an […]

As I entered the laboratory I saw before him a peculiar, telescope-like instrument, at one end of which, in a jar of oxygen, something was burning with a brilliant, penetrating flame. He paused in his work and I hastened to tell him of the peculiar experience I had had in the forenoon. But he said […]

“I suppose you have read in the papers of the mysterious burning of our country house at Oceanhurst, on the south shore of Long Island?” It had been about the middle of the afternoon that a huge automobile of the latest design drew up at Kennedy’s laboratory and a stylishly dressed woman, accompanied by a […]

He ripped the little mechanical eavesdropper out, wires and all, but he did not disconnect the wires, yet. We traced it out, and down into the cellar the wires led, directly, and then across, through a small opening in the foundations into the next cellar of an apartment house, ending in a bin or storeroom. […]

Kennedy groped about for a light, stumbling over boxes and bags. “For heaven’s sake, Craig,” I entreated. “Be careful. Those packages are full of the devilish things!” He said nothing. At least we had a little more freedom to move and I managed to find my way over to a little round porthole and open […]

“I’ve got to make good in this Delaney case, Kennedy,” appealed our old friend, Dr. Leslie, the coroner, one evening when he had dropped unexpectedly into the laboratory, looking particularly fagged and discouraged. “You know,” he added, “they’ve been investigating my office–and now, here comes a case which, I must confess, completely baffles us again.” […]

Dr. Leslie looked at Haynes searchingly. “Who was it?” he asked. “Madame Dupres?” Haynes did not hesitate. “Yes,” he nodded. “I had an appointment with her and told her that if I was late it would probably be that I had stopped here.” The answer came so readily that I must confess that I was […]

It was not until the middle of the afternoon that there came a sudden, brief message from the Secret Service in Washington: Mr. Craig Kennedy,New York. I have located the Baroness Von Dorf in a private sanitariumhere and will have her in New York tonight by eight o’clock. BURKE. “In a private sanitarium–will have her […]

“Perhaps race-horses may be a little out of your line, Mr. Kennedy, but I think you will find the case sufficiently interesting to warrant you in taking it up.” Our visitor was a young man, one of the most carefully groomed and correctly dressed I have ever met. His card told us that we were […]

That night, instead of going to the laboratory, we walked down Broadway until we came to a hotel much frequented by the sporting fraternity. We entered the restaurant, which was one of the most brilliant in the white-light region, took a seat at a table, and Kennedy proceeded to ingratiate himself with the waiter, and, […]

He gave me no time for questions, and I had no ability to reconstruct my own theory of the case as we hustled into our clothes to catch the early morning train. “Broadhurst is at the Idlewild Hotel,” Kennedy said, as we left the apartment, “and I think we can make it quicker by railway […]

“I want to consult you, Professor Kennedy, about a most baffling case of sudden death under suspicious circumstances. Blythe is my name–Dr. Blythe.” Our visitor spoke deliberately, without the least perturbation of manner, yet one could see that he was a physician who only as a last resort would appeal to outside aid. “What is […]

Dr. Leslie, the Coroner, was an old friend of ours with whom we had co-operated in several cases. When we reached his office we found Dr. Blythe there already, waiting for us. “Have you found anything yet?” asked Dr. Blythe with what I felt was just a trace of professional pique at the fact that […]

It was apparent that quick action was necessary if the mystery was ever to be solved. Kennedy evidently thought so, too, for he did not wait even until he returned to his laboratory to set in motion, through our old friend, Commissioner O’Connor, the machinery that would result in warrants to compel the attendance at […]