Edgar Wallace

“ Meister gaped at her.
"Heard about him, have you?" he said dully. "I suppose you have—you couldn't come in and out of Flanders Lane without hearing of the—The Ringer. I wonder somebody doesn't write a story about him."
He was trying hard to be composed and flippant, but the strain was visible.
"Why shouldn't they! He's a picturesque criminal, isn't he? The only man in the world who can disguise himself so that the proverbial mother wouldn't know him—just like a man out of a book! God! ”

“ The old man sitting at the window looked up with a snort as his assistant came dancing in.
"Well, what do you think of Wembury!" he growled. "Good fellow? I saw your almost friendly good-byes."
"Yes, a good fellow," hesitated Lomond, smoothing his grey hair. "Ye-es. Rather limited, as most of these policemen are, by a lack of imagination. It is no use saying 'Pah!' to me, my dear Young. The absence of this divine gift is fatal to every police force in the world. That is why crime is steadily on the increase——""
"Nothing of the sort," snapped the old doctor. ”

“ Police work is different. In stories and these fool plays any half-witted policeman could pick the criminal in the first chapter. You know all the characters; you're introduced to 'em, their peculiarities are described, and the more innocent they look the more guilty they are. But police work! You drag a man out of the river—no papers, no means of identity, laundry mark on his linen—and that's all. ”

“ For the second time that morning Lomond saw the face of Alan Wembury's friend.
"Who is she—Mary something?" he asked.
"She's romance!" said the sardonic old man. "Mary Lenley—she works for Meister——""
"And Meister is——""
"A crook lawyer." Dr. Young delivered the libel in a matter-of-fact tone. "You ought to meet him. Wembury thinks he's the biggest receiver in London."
"'Fence' is the word, isn't it? I've been reading——""
"Never mind what you've been reading," interrupted the impatient surgeon. "This is real life. Yes, he's a fence. ”

“ CHAPTER IV A NORMAL girl is neither wholly saint nor wholly materialist. Bread and butter and the comfort of a bed are indispensable requisites for the Joans of Arc and the Guineveres who have existence in a world largely dominated by its animal needs; and the first thought of Mary Lenley when she awoke in the morning was not of the paper photograph, not even of the dainty lady who had so impertinently obtruded herself into her life, but the most important fact that she had returned home too late on the previous night to buy butter. ”

“ Alan Wembury possessed a breadth of vision which marked him out as a man destined to hold a high place in his profession. In justice to him it may be said that it was a long time before Dr. Lomond's "but whys?" began to get on his nerves. Some people stop learning at an early stage, but Dr. Lomond was apparently one of those enthusiasts who never passed a new discovery without turning it over with his stick. Moreover, he was full of information, for he took his duties as police surgeon very seriously.
"You say there is no romance in police work," he said. ”

“ A blackguard, of course, but he's got grit. Haggitt would tackle a man as big as a house. It's a queer thing about these Cockneys, they are fearless."
"Haggitt is the man with the gold-rimmed spectacles, isn't he?" He nodded.
"Yes. It is only right that one should help him to make an honest living. I always say that the first duty of the law is to reform rather than to punish. That is how I see it."
The open window was responsible for the unusual freshness of the atmosphere—by the side of his desk she saw three black bottles, empty. Mr. Meister was afraid of something, terribly afraid. ”

“ Weary-looking youths were polishing the window of the big outfitters on the hill, and shapeless women in nondescript attire were emptying the débris of the previous day into the huge zinc barrels that stood at the side of the road waiting for the leisurely dustman. ”

“ Haggitt's dreams the vulgarity of doing a little cutting himself never intruded. He was an optimist, and optimism is largely founded on the faith that other people will do the work.
When she left that night she thought she saw the gaunt-looking man watching the house from a doorway on the opposite side of the road. She hurried through Flanders Lane with an uneasy feeling that she might conceivably be the object of the watcher's observation. ”

“ He was inwardly cursing the presence of the doctor, which prevented his turning round and accompanying the girl the rest of her way.
"Then probably she's a Sussex Lenley. There was a Felix Lenley who had a big house at Petworth and a shoot in Suffolk, fifteen—twenty years ago. Dear me! How time flies! Yes, a very pretty girl. One of the loveliest I've seen."
"You were offering me your valuable views on police work, doctor," said Alan, a thought resentfully.
It is a fact characteristic of large-minded men that they are susceptible to the minor irritations of life. ”

“ There is romance —the nearest you'll get to it."
In Dr. Lomond's eyes was a look of infinite sadness.
"'Tragedy' is the better word after all," he said.
When Mary reached Flanders Lane she was astonished to discover unusual signs of activity. The black door of No. 9 was open, and two workmen were moving in a large square grille of steel. One of the men stood aside with a grin to let her pass.
"That's not a bad job to be done in twelve hours, miss," he said, and she gathered from his pride that he was responsible for this rough steel structure. ”

“ Meister gets the stuff and pays for the best defence at the Central Criminal Court, and, more than this, keeps the crook's relations whilst he's 'inside'—that is, if the loot is big enough. He's a rich man. ”

“ The grille, which was carried in with some labour, was to be fixed on the inside of the window and hinged to stout jambs which were to be fitted in the wall so that it could be opened from the inside like a door. The grille folded back against the wall during the daytime, and closed across the window, and at night was to be fastened by two patent locks, affording ample protection against intrusion through the window. ”