“THE first confirmatory evidence of the thing, Excellency, was the print of a woman’s bare foot.” He was an immense creature. He sat in an upright chair that seemed to have been provided especially for him. The great bulk of him flowed out and filled the chair. It did not seem to be fat that […]

It was a remark of old Major Carrington that incited this adventure. “It is some distance through the wood – is she quite safe?” It was a mere reflection as he went out. It was very late. I do not know how the dinner, or rather the after-hours of it, had lengthened. It must have […]

I shall not pretend that I knew the man in America or that he was a friend of my family or that some one had written to me about him. The plain truth is that I never laid eyes on him until Sir Henry Marquis pointed him out to me the day after I went […]

“Alas, monsieur, in spite of our fine courtesies, the conception of justice by one race must always seem outlandish to another!” It was on the terrace of Sir Henry Marquis’ villa at Cannes. The members of the little party were in conversation over their tobacco – the Englishman, with his brier-root pipe; the American Justice, […]

It was an ancient diary in a faded leather cover. The writing was fine and delicate, and the ink yellow with age. Sir Henry Marquis turned the pages slowly and with care for the paper was fragile. We had dined early at the Ritz and come in later to his great home in St. James’s […]

Sir Henry Marquis continued to read; he made no comment; his voice clear and even. It was a big sunny room. The long windows looked out on a formal garden, great beech trees and the bow of the river. Within it was a sort of library. There were bookcases built into the wall, to the […]

Sir Henry paused a moment, his finger between the pages of the ancient diary. “It is the inspirational quality in these cases” he said, “that impresses me. It is very nearly absent in our modern methods of criminal investigation. We depend now on a certain formal routine. I rarely find a man in the whole […]

The man laughed It was a faint cynical murmur of a laugh. Its expression hardly disturbed the composition of his features. “I fear, Lady Muriel,” he said, “that your profession is ruined. Our friend – ‘over the water’ – is no longer concerned about the affairs of England.” The woman fingered at her gloves, turning […]

The talk had run on treasure I could not sleep and my friends had dropped in. I had the big South room on the second floor of the Hotel de Paris. It looks down on the Casino and the Mediterranean. Perhaps you know it. Queer friends, you’d say. Every man-jack of them a gambler. But […]

The thing began in the colony room of the Empire Club in London The colony room is on the second floor and looks out over Piccadilly Circus. It was at an hour when nobody is in an English club. There was a drift of dirty fog outside. Such nights come along in October. Douglas Hargrave […]

It was after dinner, in the great house of Sir Henry Marquis in St. James’s Square. The talk had run on the value of women in criminal investigation; their skill as detective agents . . . the suitability of the feminine intelligence to the hard, accurate labor of concrete deductions. It was the American Ambassadress, […]

The story of the American Ambassadress was not the only one related on this night. Sir Henry Marquis himself added another, in support of the contention of his guest . . . and from her own country. The lawyer walked about the room. The restraint which he had assumed was now quite abandoned. “That’s all […]

The girl sat in a great chair before the fire, huddled, staring into the glow of the smoldering logs. Her dark hair clouded her face. The evening gown was twisted and crumpled about her. There was no ornament on her; her arms, her shoulders, the exquisite column of her throat were bare. She sat with […]

“What was the mystery about St. Alban?” I asked The Baronet did not at once reply. He looked out over the English country through the ancient oak-trees, above the sweep of meadow across the dark, creeping river, to the white shaft rising beyond the wooded hills into the sky. The war was over. I was […]

There was a snapping fire in the chimney. I was cold through and I was glad to stand close beside it on the stone hearth. My greatcoat had kept out the rain, but it had not kept out the chill of the West Highland night. I shivered before the fire, my hands held out to […]

I was before one of those difficult positions unavoidable to a visitor in a foreign country. I had to meet the obligations of professional courtesy. Captain Walker had asked me to go over the manuscript of his memoirs; and now he had called at the house in which I was a guest, for my opinion. […]

Introduction to The Corpus Delicti The high ground of the field of crime has not been explored; it has not even been entered. The book stalls have been filled to weariness with tales based upon plans whereby the DETECTIVE, or FERRETING power of the State might be baffled. But, prodigious marvel! no writer has attempted […]