Edgar Wallace

“ Why did Cæsar, the last of the Borgias, who had, Smith suspected, so quick a way with his enemies, retain her in custody when he could have so readily and so easily rid himself of the necessity of keeping her locked up?
If Cæsar had come to him and said: “Slay this woman—I have not the courage,” Tray-Bong would have understood. That he would have killed in cold blood is unlikely. Tray-Bong Smith did not kill women. ”

“ Mr. Smith thought it was curious, too, but asked: “Why is it curious?”
The old man hesitated a moment, then said: “Come in,” and led the way down to a basement kitchen. “Did you know Mr, Welland?” asked Tray-Bong, when they reached the janitor's cozy little apartment.
“Know him?” he said contemptuously. “As well as I know my own hand. As nice a man as ever I met, Mr. Welland was. He had the three upper floors” he shook his head. “Ah, it was very sad, very sad indeed.”
“I don't know the whole story,” said Smith with truth. It was true, too, that he had never taken Cæsar wholly at his word. ”

“ Acting on a sudden impulse, he went out again to the British Museum, where, in the reading room, he revived his acquaintance with the Borgias, for it was certain that Cæsar had not only inherited their vices, but was a faithful copyist of their methods.
The book he chose was a small monograph by an eminent American professor, the best he knew, and it took him an hour and a half to read it from cover to cover. Tray-Bong Smith had always held that the coincidences of life are part of life's normality. That they are not confined to plays and stories, any observer will agree ”