friend, requesting him to make inquiries
as to Obadiah Strout's war record, for the great snowstorm had come the
day after he had written it. Second, he was going to take Alice's story
to show to a literary friend, and see if he could secure its
publication. And this was not all; Alice had told him, after he had
finished copying the story she had dictated to him, that she had written
several other short stories during the past two years.

In response to his urgent request, she allowed him to read her treasured
manuscripts. The first was a passionate love story in which a young
Spanish officer, stationed on the island of Cuba, and a beautiful young
Cuban girl were the principals. It was entitled "Her Native Land," and
was replete with startling situations and effective tableaus. Quincy was
delighted with it, and told Alice if dramatized it would make a fine
acting play. This was, of course, very pleasing to the young author.
Quincy was her amanuensis, her audience, and her critic, and she knew
that in his eyes she was already a success.

She also gave him to read a series of eight stories, in a line usually
esteemed quite foreign to feminine instincts. Alice had conceived the
idea of a young man, physically weak and suffering from nervous
debility, being left an immense fortune at the age of twenty-one. His
money was well invested, and in company with a faithful attendant he
travelled for fifteen years, covering every nook and corner of the
habitable globe. At thirty-six he returned home much improved in health,
but still having a marked aversion to engaging in any business pursuit.
A mysterious case and its solution having been related to him, he
resolved to devote his income, now amounting to a million dollars
yearly, to amateur detective work. His great-desire was to ferret out
and solve mysteries, murders, suicides, robberies, and disappearances
that baffled the police and eluded their vigilant inquiry.

The titles that Alice had chosen for her stories were as mysterious, in
their way, as the stories themselves. Arranged in the order of their
writing, they were: Was it Signed? The Man Without a Tongue; He Thought
He Was Dead; The Eight of Spades; The Exit of Mrs. Delmonnay; How I
Caught the Fire-Bugs; The Hot Hand; and The Mystery of Unreachable
Island.

When Quincy reached the city, his first visit was to his father's
office, but he found him absent. He was told that he was conducting a
case in the Equity Sessi