27 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
27 chapters
The House of the Arrow
The House of the Arrow
By A. E. W. MASON New York George H. Doran Company COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY THE HOUSE OF THE ARROW PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Books by A. E. W. MASON THE WINDING STAIR THE FOUR FEATHERS THE SUMMONS THE BROKEN ROAD MIRANDA OF THE BALCONY CLEMENTINA THE TURNSTILE THE TRUANTS AT THE VILLA ROSE RUNNING WATER THE COURTSHIP OF MORRICE BUCKLER THE PHILANDERERS LAWRENCE CLAVERING THE WATCHERS A ROMANCE OF WASTDALE ENSIGN KNIGHTLEY AND OTHER TALES FROM THE FOUR CORNERS OF
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER ONE: Letters of Mark
CHAPTER ONE: Letters of Mark
Messrs. Frobisher & Haslitt, the solicitors on the east side of Russell Square, counted amongst their clients a great many who had undertakings established in France; and the firm was very proud of this branch of its business. "It gives us a place in history," Mr. Jeremy Haslitt used to say. "For it dates from the year 1806, when Mr. James Frobisher, then our very energetic senior partner, organised the escape of hundreds of British subjects who were detained in France by the edict of th
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWO: A Cry for Help
CHAPTER TWO: A Cry for Help
"Simon Harlow," he began, "was the owner of the famous Clos du Prince vineyards on the Côte-d'Or to the east of Dijon. He had an estate in Norfolk, this big house, the Maison Crenelle in Dijon, and a villa at Monte Carlo. But he spent most of his time in Dijon, where at the age of forty-five he married a French lady, Jeanne-Marie Raviart. There was, I believe, quite a little romance about the affair. Jeanne-Marie was married and separated from her husband, and Simon Harlowe waited, I think, for
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER THREE: Servants of Chance
CHAPTER THREE: Servants of Chance
Frobisher found himself at one end of an oblong room. Opposite to him a couple of windows looked across the shining river to the big Théâtre du Chatelet On his left hand was a great table with a few neatly arranged piles of papers, at which a big, rather heavily-built man was sitting. Frobisher looked at that man as a novice in a duelling field might look at the master swordsman whom he was committed to fight; with a little shock of surprise that after all he appeared to be just like other men.
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: Betty Harlowe
CHAPTER FOUR: Betty Harlowe
Jim Frobisher reached Dijon that night at an hour too late for any visit, but at half-past nine on the next morning he turned with a thrill of excitement into the little street of Charles-Robert. This street was bordered upon one side, throughout its length, by a high garden wall above which great sycamores and chestnut trees rustled friendlily in a stir of wind. Towards the farther mouth of the street the wall was broken, first by the end of a house with a florid observation-window of the Renai
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER FIVE: Betty Harlowe Answers
CHAPTER FIVE: Betty Harlowe Answers
"But we cannot see even through the widest of windows," Hanaud continued, "what happened behind them a fortnight ago. In those cases, Mademoiselle, we have to make ourselves the nuisance and ask the questions." "I am ready to answer you," returned Betty quietly. "Oh, of that—not a doubt," Hanaud cried genially. "Is it permitted to me to seat myself? Yes?" Betty jumped up, the pallor of her face flushed to pink. "I beg your pardon. Of course, Monsieur Hanaud." That little omission in her manners
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER SIX: Jim Changes His Lodging
CHAPTER SIX: Jim Changes His Lodging
The library was a big oblong room with two tall windows looking into the court, and the observation window thrown out at the end over the footway of the street. A door in the inner wall close to this window led to a room behind, and a big open fire-place faced the windows on the court. For the rest, the walls were lined with high book-shelves filled with books, except for a vacant space here and there where a volume had been removed. Hanaud put back in its place the book which he had been holdin
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER SEVEN: Exit Waberski
CHAPTER SEVEN: Exit Waberski
Jim Frobisher neither saw nor heard any more of Hanaud that day. He fetched his luggage away from the hotel and spent the evening with Betty Harlowe and Ann Upcott at the Maison Crenelle. They took their coffee after dinner in the garden behind the house, descending to it by a short flight of stone steps from a great door at the back of the hall. And by some sort of unspoken compact they avoided all mention of Waberski's charge. They had nothing to do but to wait now for the analyst's report. Bu
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Book
CHAPTER EIGHT: The Book
The two startling declarations, one treading upon the heels of the other, set Jim Frobisher's brain whirling. Consternation and bewilderment were all jumbled together. He had no time to ask "how," for he was already asking "What next?" His first clear thought was for Betty, and as he looked at her, a sharp anger against both Hanaud and Ann Upcott seized and shook him. Why hadn't they both spoken before? Why must they speak now? Why couldn't they leave well alone? For Betty had fallen back in the
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER NINE: The Secret
CHAPTER NINE: The Secret
The garden chairs were already set out upon a lawn towards the farther end of the garden in the shadow of the great trees. Hanaud led the way towards them. "We shall be in the cool here and with no one to overhear us but the birds," he said, and he patted and arranged the cushions in a deep arm-chair of basket work for Ann Upcott. Jim Frobisher was reminded again of the solicitude of a doctor with an invalid and again the parallel jarred upon him. But he was getting a clearer insight into the ch
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TEN: The Clock upon the Cabinet
CHAPTER TEN: The Clock upon the Cabinet
Ann Upcott's story was in the light of this new disclosure intelligible enough. Standing in the darkness, she had heard, as she thought, Mrs. Harlowe in one of her violent outbreaks. Then with a sense of relief she had understood that Jeanne Baudin the nurse was with Mrs. Harlowe, controlling and restraining her and finally administering some sedative. She had heard the outcries diminish and cease and a final whisper from the nurse to her patient or even perhaps to herself, "That will do now." T
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER ELEVEN: A New Suspect
CHAPTER ELEVEN: A New Suspect
Monsieur Bex the notary came out into the hall of his house when Frobisher sent his card in to him. He was a small, brisk man with a neat pointed beard, his hair cut en brosse and the corner of his napkin tucked into his neck between the flaps of his collar. Jim explained that the seals were to be removed from the rooms of the Maison Grenelle, but said nothing at all of the new developments which had begun with the discovery of the book of the arrows. "I have had communications with Messrs. Frob
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWELVE: The Breaking of the Seals
CHAPTER TWELVE: The Breaking of the Seals
A few minutes later Jim Frobisher had to admit that Hanaud guessed very luckily. He would not allow that it was more than a guess. Monsieur Hanaud might be a thorough little Mr. Know-All; but no insight, however brilliant, could inform him of so accidental a circumstance. But there the fact was. Frobisher did arrive at the Maison Crenelle, to his great discomfort, before Betty Harlowe. He had loitered with Hanaud at the café just so that this might not take place. He shrank from being alone with
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Simon Harlowe's Treasure-room
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Simon Harlowe's Treasure-room
Like the rest of the reception-rooms along the corridor, it was longer than it was broad and more of a gallery than a room. But it had been arranged for habitation rather than for occasional visits. For it was furnished with a luxurious comfort and not over-crowded. In the fawn-coloured panels of the walls a few exquisite pictures by Fragonard had been framed; on the writing-table of Chinese Chippendale by the window every appointment, ink-stand, pen-tray, candlestick, sand-caster and all were o
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: An Experiment and a Discovery
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: An Experiment and a Discovery
Gaston answered the bell. "Will you please send Francine Rollard here," said Hanaud. Gaston, however, stood his ground. He looked beyond Hanaud to Betty. "If Mademoiselle gives me the order," he said respectfully. "At once then, Gaston," Betty replied, and she sat down in a chair. Francine Rollard was apparently difficult to persuade. For the minutes passed, and when at last she did come into the treasure room she was scared and reluctant. She was a girl hardly over twenty, very neat and trim an
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Finding of the Arrow
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Finding of the Arrow
Ann's rooms were upon the second floor with the windows upon the garden, a bedroom and a sitting-room communicating directly with one another. They were low in the roof, but spacious, and Hanaud, as he looked around the bedroom, said in a tone of doubt: "Yes ... after all, if one were frightened suddenly out of one's wits, one might stumble about this room in the dark and lose one's way to the light switch. There isn't one over the bed." Then he shrugged his shoulders. "But, to be sure, one woul
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Hanaud Laughs
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Hanaud Laughs
At the bottom of the stairs Hanaud thanked the Commissary of Police for his assistance. "As for the necklace, we shall of course search the baggage of every one in the house," he said. "But we shall find nothing. Of that we may be sure. For if the necklace has been stolen, too much time has passed since it was stolen for us to hope to find it here." He bowed Girardot with much respect out of the house, whilst Monsieur Bex took Jim Frobisher a little aside. "I have been thinking that Mademoiselle
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: At Jean Cladel's
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: At Jean Cladel's
At nine o'clock that night Jim Frobisher walked past the cashier's desk and into the hall of the Grande Taverne. High above his head the cinematograph machine whirred and clicked and a blade of silver light cut the darkness. At the opposite end of the hall the square screen was flooded with radiance and the pictures melted upon it one into the other. For a little while Jim could see nothing but that screen. Then the hall swam gradually within his vision. He saw the heads of people like great bul
25 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The White Tablet
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: The White Tablet
Within the minute that case was to be immeasurably strengthened. An exclamation broke from Hanaud. He sprang to his feet and turned on the light of a green-shaded reading lamp, which stood upon the ledge of the bureau. He was holding now under the light a small drawer, which he had removed from the front of the bureau. Very gingerly he lifted some little thing out of it, something that looked like a badge that men wear in their buttonholes. He laid it down upon the blotting paper; and in that ro
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER NINETEEN: A Plan Frustrated
CHAPTER NINETEEN: A Plan Frustrated
The road curled like a paper ribbon round the shoulder of a hill and dropped into a shallow valley. To the left a little below the level of the road, a stream ran swiftly through a narrow meadow of lush green grass. Beyond the meadow the wall of the valley rose rough with outcroppings of rock, and with every tuft of its herbage already brown from the sun. On the right the northern wall rose almost from the road's edge. The valley was long and curved slowly, and half-way along to the point where
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY: Map and the Necklace
CHAPTER TWENTY: Map and the Necklace
Hanaud turned his map round and pushed it across the table to Jim Frobisher. "What do you make of that?" he asked, and Jim drew up a chair and sat down to examine it. He made first of all a large scale map of Dijon and its environments, the town itself lying at the bottom of the red hoop and constituting the top of the handle of the tennis racket. As to the red circle, it seemed to represent a tour which some one had made out from Dijon, round a good tract of outlying country and back again to t
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Secret House
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: The Secret House
It was a dark, clear night, the air very still and warm, and the sky bright with innumerable stars. The small company penetrated into the town by the backways and narrow alleys. Daunay going on ahead, Patinot the last by some thirty yards, and Moreau keeping upon the opposite side of the street. Once they had left behind them the lights of the station square, they walked amongst closed doors and the blind faces of unlit houses. Frobisher's heart raced within his bosom. He strained his eyes and e
15 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Corona Machine
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: The Corona Machine
The detective's hand fell softly upon Frobisher's shoulder warning him to silence; and this warning was needed. The lustres of the big glass chandelier were so many flashing jewels; the mirrors of the girandoles multiplied their candle-lamps; the small gay room was ablaze; and in the glare Betty stood and laughed. Her white shoulders rose from a slim evening frock of black velvet; from her carefully dressed copper hair to her black satin shoes she was as trim as if she had just been unpacked fro
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The Truth About the Clock on the Marquetry Cabinet
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The Truth About the Clock on the Marquetry Cabinet
To the amazement of them all Moreau began to laugh. Up till now he had been alert, competent and without expression. Stolidity had been the mark of him. And now he laughed in great gusts, holding his sides and then wringing his hands, as though the humour of things was altogether unbearable. Once or twice he tried to speak, but laughter leapt upon the words and drowned them. "What in the world is the matter with you, Nicolas?" Hanaud asked. "But I beg your pardon," Moreau stammered, and again me
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Ann Upcott's Story
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Ann Upcott's Story
Early the next morning Hanaud rang up the Maison Crenelle and made his appointment for the afternoon. Jim accordingly spent the morning with Monsieur Bex, who was quite overwhelmed with the story which was told to him. "Prisoners have their rights nowadays," he said. "They can claim the presence of their legal adviser when they are being examined by the Judge. I will go round at once to the Prefecture"; with his head erect and his little chest puffed out like a bantam cock, he hurried to do batt
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: What Happened on the Night of the 27th
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: What Happened on the Night of the 27th
"We are not yet quite at the end," said Hanaud, as he sat with Frobisher for awhile upon the lawn after Ann Upcott had gone in. "But we are near to it. There is still my question to be answered. 'Why was the communicating door open between the bedroom of Madame Harlowe and the treasure-room on the night when Ann Upcott came down the stairs in the dark?' When we know that, we shall know why Francine Rollard and Betty Harlowe between them murdered Madame Harlowe." "Then you believe Francine Rollar
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Façade of Notre Dame
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: The Façade of Notre Dame
For a second time they were fortunate. It was a day without mist or clouds, and the towering silver ridge hung in the blue sky distinct and magical. Hanaud lit one of his black cigarettes and reluctantly turned away from it. "There were two great mistakes made," he said. "One at the very beginning by Betty Harlowe. One at the very end by me, and of the two mine was the least excusable. Let us begin, therefore, at the beginning. Madame Harlowe has died a natural death. She is buried; Betty Harlow
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter