Chapter I: Foreword

This tale of mystery must be regarded as a diversion from war, a word which does not occur in its pages. It was planned in a base-hospital in France, and written during recovery at home; if it serves to interest for an hour or two those similarly placed and those still in the trenches, its existence is amply justified.

It tries, at any rate, to deal fairly with its readers, who are not called upon to admire clevernesses of deduction they are prevented from performing for themselves. Nothing is more irritating, and more common, in tales of the investigation of crime, than to find such sentences as “the great detective rose from his knees and put away his magnifying-glass with a self-satisfied air,” and not be told what he saw to make him self-satisfied. In the following pages, therefore, every essential fact is related as it is discovered and readers are, as far as possible, given the eyes of the investigators and equal opportunities with them of arriving at the truth.

R. G. B.