VII.--Last Words




BOOK I

A STRANGE CRIME




CHAPTER I.

RED LIGHT.


Mr. Gryce was melancholy. He had attained that period in life when the
spirits flag and enthusiasm needs a constant spur, and of late there had
been a lack of special excitement, and he felt dull and superannuated.
He was even contemplating resigning his position on the force and
retiring to the little farm he had bought for himself in Westchester;
and this in itself did not tend to cheerfulness, for he was one to whom
action was a necessity and the exercise of his mental faculties more
inspiring than any possible advantage which might accrue to him from
their use.

But he was not destined to carry out this impulse yet. For just at the
height of his secret dissatisfaction there came a telephone message to