Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE RIDDLE OF THE PURPLE EMPEROR

The Scotland Yard Mystery Library

THE RIDDLE OF THE PURPLE EMPEROR

by

MARY E. and THOMAS W. HANSHEW

McKinlay, Stone & Mackenzie New York

Copyright, 1918 1919, by Doubleday, Page & Company

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Which Introduces a New Friend 3
II. The Home-Coming 16
III. In the Dark 27
IV. The House of Shadows 38
V. The Threads of Chance 51
VI. The Cry in the Night 62
VII. In the Tiger's Clutches 78
VIII. Complications and Complexities 90
IX. The House with the Shuttered Windows 101
X. A Shot in the Dark 111
XI. A Terrible Discovery 120
XII. The Woman in the Case 130
XIII. Tightening the Strands 142
XIV. The Plot Thickens 159
XV. Tangled Threads 175
XVI. In the Doctor's Surgery 185
XVII. Miss Cheyne Again 195
XVIII. Dollops Takes a Hand 203
XIX. The Twin Scarves 217
XX. A Twisted Clue 230
XXI. "'Tis a Mad World, My Masters" 240
XXII. The Trap 255
XXIII. Untwisting the Threads 267
XXIV. An Unexpected Contretemps 282
XXV. "A Tale Unfolded" 294

CHARACTERS

HAMILTON CLEEK, the Man of Forty Faces, and once known to the
police as "The Vanishing Cracksman."

SUPERINTENDENT NARKOM, of Scotland Yard.

LENNARD, his chauffeur.

HAMMOND } Detective Sergeants.
PETRIE }

CONSTABLE ROBERTS, Police Officer at Hampton Village.

DOLLOPS, Cleek's trusted friend and protégé.

LADY MARGARET CHEYNE, the only and orphan daughter of

LORD CHEYNE, whose title became extinct on his death, some years
previous, but by his will he has left her all the family jewels,
including the ill-fated

PURPLE EMPEROR, a big violet-coloured diamond looted from an
Indian temple, and set as a pendant. She comes of age at 18, until
when she is left in the charge of his eccentric sister,

THE HONOURABLE MISS CHEYNE, a recluse, living in a lonely house,
Cheyne Court, on the banks of the Thames. She has kept her niece
at the convent of Notre Dame in Paris, since her childhood.
Disappointed in love herself, Miss Cheyne has decided that her
niece shall be a spinster also, but Lady Margaret has contrived to
meet and fall in love with

SIR EDGAR BRENTON, the son of the man who jilted the Honourable
Miss Cheyne, and whose chance visit to Paris with his mother, a
year earlier, led to his acquaintanceship with Lady Margaret, and
with whom he is deeply in love. Unfortunately he is also loved by

JENNIFER WYNNE, the orphan daughter of a doctor who lived in
Hampton previous to the present one. She earns a living by
teaching, and lives with her brother,

BOBBY WYNNE, a young spendthrift and gambler, in the power of

JAMES BLAKE, the head of the Pentacle Club.

DOCTOR VERRALL, the village doctor, loves Miss Wynne.

THE RIDDLE OF THE PURPLE EMPEROR