E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ I was loitering about his room, looking still at that closed drawer, when to my amazement a man entered—a thin, weedy-looking person, with sunken cheeks and a straggling sandy mustache. I am not easily frightened, but it gave me a turn when he closed the door behind him.
“What do you want?” I asked sharply. “How dare you come up here?”
He looked at me earnestly. It was obvious that my first thought was a mistaken one. This was not one of the admirers whom I found it difficult sometimes to keep at arm's-length.
“Young woman,” he said, “I am a police officer. You seem to be a sensible girl. ”

“ I watched her in silence, stooping over the fire, a young woman with a figure whose perfection her ill-fitting corsets and clothes failed altogether to conceal, pale of complexion, with introspective, queer-colored eyes, close-lipped, and with a mass of well-brushed glossy brown hair. When she stood up, a little flushed with her exertions, she faced me for a moment, waiting for orders. I am not a susceptible man, but it struck me for the first time that the girl was more than ordinarily good-looking
“Nothing has happened during my absence, Janet?” ”

“ I was staggered, for it was plain to me now that I must have been at this girl's mercy many a time. She went on slowly.
“I have always believed,” she continued, “that you were leading a double life. The few visitors you have had have come at night, and secretly. Whenever you have arrived here, and Mr. Stanfield has recommenced to play golf, there has been a tragedy or a great robbery reported in the newspapers on the following morning. I always felt that some day or other this would happen. Now that it has come, I am glad.”
“You realize that you have killed a man in cold blood?” ”

“ I have never made them to any man, but I have an instinct. I believe that he is cold and unresponsive from habit. I believe that if I could make him understand the fires which are burning me up night and day, he would throw off this mask of coldness and mystery, would give me that place in his life which I crave. ”

“ MY round of golf with the man who was the declared hunter of my life and liberty afforded me no apprehension whatever, although I must confess that the first sight of Norman Greyes seated in the club grill, only an hour or so after he had witnessed the abortive attempt to arrest me, was something of a shock. I came to the conclusion, however, that his presence here was accidental, and in no way connected with that harmless and respectable inhabitant of the neighborhood, James Stanfield. I played golf steadily and with success. ”

“ It has always been my principle that the best form of defense is prompt attack. While the inspector, therefore, stood with his mouth open ready to inform me that he held a warrant for my arrest, I shot him through the right shoulder. He staggered and would have fallen but for his two companions. Before they had propped him up against the railings and recovered from their surprise, I was round the corner of the street and in an empty telephone booth in the adjacent post-office substation.
I have always maintained that the telephone company is an unjustly abused institution. ”

“ Greyes locked the door and telephoned for the police and doctor.
“You will excuse my apparent officiousness,” he said, “but I once had some connection with Scotland Yard.”
“There is nothing to excuse,” I assured him. “I am only too thankful that you happened to be here. Do you think that it is a case of suicide?”
“I have reasons for doubting it,” he replied, “apart from which, if it were suicide, the weapon would have been found. As the event happened so close to your house and actually on your path, Mr. Stanfield, you will not mind, I am sure, if I question your servants.” ”

“ It is enough to say that after watching him for three weeks, I became convinced that a man of the name of Thomas Pugsley, carrying on business in Bermondsey as a leather broker, and living apparently the most respectable of lives at Brixton, was in some measure connected with these crimes.
He was one of the two plain-clothes policemen I had seen in Woollerton Road that morning.
“Do you know that you are rather a pretty girl?" he ventured. “I am always very careful of strangers who tell me so,” I retorted. ”

“ A merchant with offices in the city and a country cottage for golf, does not carry a loaded revolver about with him. My heart quickened with excitement as I picked it up and handled it. I forgot my master's indifference. ”

“ The girl shook her head.
“I have had no occasion to go out, sir,” she replied. “I have been busy in the kitchen.”
Greyes nodded, and dismissed her after a few more unimportant questions. Soon a police inspector arrived, and the doctor. I let them visit the scene of the crime alone. As soon as they had gone, I went upstairs. I looked in my tie-drawer for the small revolver. It was not there. I looked in the bottom drawer, which I had left locked, for the clothes which I had worn when I had made my escape. The drawer had been forced open, and the clothes, too, had disappeared. ”

“ I decided that the majority of these undetected crimes were due to one person, or rather to one gang of criminals presided over by one dominant leader. Purely from the developed instinct by my long years of service in the police department, I set myself the task of hunting down this super-criminal. It was not long before I began to believe that I was on the right track.
There were three crimes which I became convinced had been committed by the same hand. The first was the great robbery of jewels from Messrs. ”

“ Our attention was attracted by the continued barking of a small dog which had wandered from the adjacent footpath. I had the curiosity to walk a step or two into the shrubbery to see what was the trouble. My companion, however, who was a little on my left, was the first to discover the cause of the dog's excitement. ”

“ Stanfield?” he asked.
“I should be glad of one,” I replied.
“There's a man just come down,” he went on, “—four handicap. You will find him in the grill.”
I made my way there. Seated at a table alone was Sir Norman Greyes, the man who had watched for my arrest, a few hours ago, in Woollerton Road, Brixton.
Sir Norman Greyes Gives His Side
I RESIGNED my position at Scotland Yard for two reasons. ”