Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter xiv. opening the safe.'"; The four men stood in silence before the body. Jimmy bent and touched the hand. ' Dead!" he said. Angel made no reply, but switched on every light in the room. Then he passed his hands rapidly through the dead man's pockets; the things he found he passed to one of the other detectives, who laid them on the table. "A chisel, a jemmy, a centre-bit, lamp, pistol," enumerated Angel. "It is not difficult to understand why Connor came here; but who killed him?" He made a close inspection of the apartment. The windows were intact and fastened, there were no signs of a struggle. In the sitting-room there were muddy footmarks, which might have been made by Connor or his murderer. In the centre of the room was a small table. During Angel's frequent absences from his lodgings he was in the habit of locking his two rooms against his servants, who did their cleaning under his eye. In consequence, the polished surface of the little table was covered with a fine layer of dust, save in one place where there was a curious circular clearing about eight inches in diameter. Angel examined this with scrupulous care, gingerly pulling the table to where the light would fall on it with greater brilliance. The little circle from whence the dust had disappeared interested him more than anything else in the room. "You will see that this is not touched," he said to one of the men; and then to the other, " You had better go round to Vine Street and report this--stay, I will go myself." As Jimmy and he stepped briskly in the direction of the historic police station, Angel expressed himself tersely. "Connor came on his own to burgle; he was surprised by a third party, who, thinking Connor was myself, shot him." "That is how I read...