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Description: An amateur detective
(as a young attorney) undertakes to solve the abduction of a heroine.
Classification: Mystery & Suspense
/ Mystery & Suspense
Publication Date: 1903
Length: 300 pages
Illustrations: One black and white charcoal drawing
Book attributes: Printable / No code required to
open book
Book ID: GC-HCX-Stevenson
Download Size: 836 kb
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CHAPTER I
A Bolt from the Blue
The atmosphere of the office that morning was a shade less genial than
usual. We had all of us fought our way downtown through such a storm
of wind, snow, slush, and sleet as is to be found nowhere save in
mid-March New York, and our tempers had suffered accordingly. I had
found a cab unobtainable, and there was, of course, the inevitable jam
on the Elevated, with the trains many minutes behind the schedule. I
was some half-hour late, in consequence, and when I entered the inner
office, I was surprised to find Mr. Graham, our senior, already at his
desk. He nodded good-morning a little curtly.
"I wish you'd look over these papers in the Hurd case, Lester," he
said, and pushed them toward me.
I took them and sat down; and just then the outer door slammed with a
violence extremely unusual.
I had never seen Mr. Royce, our junior, so deeply shaken, so visibly
distracted, as he was when he burst in upon us a moment later, a
newspaper in his hand. Mr. Graham, startled by the noise of his
entrance, wheeled around from his desk and stared at him in
astonishment.
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