CHAPTER XXVI BACK TO LOVE AND LIFE Max fell into a chair. He stared at Dudley for a few moments before he could speak. Dudley's father!...

CHAPTER XXV THE MYSTERY EXPLAINED Max helped the detective raise the man from the ground. He was quite dead, and from the position in...

CHAPTER XXIV MAX MAKES A STAND AND A DISCOVERY There was a pause, and then Carrie, without answering him, turned to go back into the...

CHAPTER XXIII THE BLUE-EYED NURSE It was at the door of Dudley's sick room that Carrie informed Max that she had learned a secret from...

CHAPTER XXII TWO WOMEN Bob grinned with satisfaction when Max, expressing his gratification, dropped into his hand a half-sovereign....

CHAPTER XXI A DUBIOUS REFUGE The night was clammy and cold. The fog was growing thicker, blacker. And the water of the Thames, as Max...

CHAPTER XX THE PREY OF THE RIVER "Help! Help!" shouted Dudley. "Do you want to drown me?" Great as the shock was of finding himself flung...

CHAPTER XIX A STRANGE PAIR As Carrie, with her feminine acuteness, had guessed, Dudley Horne had never had any intention of returning to...

CHAPTER XVIII THE SWORD FALLS When Max turned, he found that Carrie had retreated within the door of the sitting room. He followed her...

CHAPTER XVII A SORCERESS Max was standing on the other side of the lamp, and Carrie did not see him. She announced her errand at once in...

CHAPTER XVI A MESSAGE FROM THE WHARF Christmas was over, and The Beeches had subsided into its normal state of prosperous tranquility....

CHAPTER XV MR. WEDMORE'S SECOND FREAK Even if Max had not had such an ugly experience of the ways of Mrs. Higgs, even if this meeting...

CHAPTER XIV IS IT BLACKMAIL? Mr. Wedmore repeated his comment: "Curious, isn't it?" before Max could reply. At last, he nodded and handed...

CHAPTER XIII THE SEQUEL TO A TRAGEDY It was on the evening after that of his expedition to Limehouse that Max Wedmore found himself back...

CHAPTER XII ESCAPE An exclamation, impossible to repress, burst from the lips of Max. At the same moment, he made a spring to the left,...

CHAPTER XI A TRAP Max tried to find the door by which he had been thrown into the room. The upper portion was of glass, he supposed,...

CHAPTER X GRANNY There was some constraint upon them both at first, and Max had had time to feel a momentary regret that he had been...

CHAPTER IX THE MAN WHO HESITATES Max had become accustomed, in the course of this adventurous visit, to surprises and alarms. Every step...

CHAPTER VIII FOREWARNED, BUT NOT FOREARMED "By Jove!" muttered Max. Then, with a sudden outburst of energy, inspired by indignation at...

CHAPTER VII A QUESTIONABLE GUIDE Max started violently at the girl's voice. "A dead man? In there? How do you know?" In a hoarse voice,...