The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sleuth of St. James's Square, by
Melville Davisson Post

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Title: The Sleuth of St. James's Square

Author: Melville Davisson Post

Posting Date: January 2, 2009 [EBook #2861]
Release Date: October, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE SLEUTH OF ST. JAMES'S SQUARE

By Melville Davisson Post

CONTENTS

I. THE THING ON THE HEARTH

II. THE REWARD

III. THE LOST LADY

IV. THE CAMBERED FOOT

V. THE MAN IN THE GREEN HAT

VI. THE WRONG SIGN

VII. THE FORTUNE TELLER

VIII. THE HOLE IN THE MAHOGANY PANEL

IX. THE END OF THE ROAD

X. THE LAST ADVENTURE

XI. AMERICAN HORSES

XII. THE SPREAD RAILS

XIII. THE PUMPKIN COACH

XIV. THE YELLOW FLOWER

XV. A SATIRE OF THE SEA

XVI. THE HOUSE BY THE LOCH

The SLEUTH of St. JAMES'S SQUARE

I. The Thing on the Hearth

"THE first confirmatory evidence of the thing, Excellency, was the print
of a woman's bare foot."

He was an immense creature. He sat in an upright chair that seemed to
have been provided especially for him. The great bulk of him flowed out
and filled the chair. It did not seem to be fat that enveloped him. It
seemed rather to be some soft, tough fiber, like the pudgy mass making
up the body of a deep-sea thing. One got an impression of strength.

The country was before the open window; the clusters of cultivated shrub
on the sweep of velvet lawn extending to the great wall that inclosed
the place, then the bend of the river and beyond the distant mountains,
blue and mysterious, blending indiscernibly into the sky. A soft sun,
clouded with the haze of autumn, shone over it.

"You know how the faint moisture in the bare foot will make an
impression."

He paused as though there was some compelling force in the reflection.
It was impossible to say, with accuracy, to what race the man belonged.
He came from some queer blend of Eastern peoples. His body and the
cast of his features were Mongolian. But one got always, before him, a
feeling of the hot East lying low