The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories Read online

  THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  GREAT

  DETECTIVE

  STORIES

  Edited by Herbert van Thai

  In one giant v o l u m e , three of H e r b e r t van T h a i ' s popular

  b o o k s of great detective stories containing classics o f the genre

  by f a m o u s writers.

  Herbert van T h a i w a s o n e of the w o r l d ' s m o s t prolific

  anthologists. Best k n o w n for his collections o f h o r r o r and

  suspense stories, w h i c h sold millions of copies, his o t h e r

  publications included Lander, a biographical a n t h o l o g y and

  The Tops of the Mulberry Trees, his a u t o b i o g r a p h y .

  The Mammoth Book oi

  GREAT

  DETECTIVE

  STORIES

  The Mammoth Book of

  GREAT DETECTIVE

  STORIES

  Edited by Herbert van Thai

  With Best

  Compliments

  from

  gnv64

  J A ICO PUBLISHING HOUSE

  Bombay • Delhi • Bangalore

  Hyderabad • Calcutta • Madras

  0 by Robinson Publishing 1985

  Published'm arrangement with:

  Robinson Publishing

  11, Shepherd House

  5. Shepherd Street,

  LONDONW1Y 7LD

  The Mammoth Book of

  GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES

  First Jaico Impression: 1990

  Published by

  Ashwin J. Shah

  Jaico Publishing House

  121, M.G. Road.

  BOMBAY - 4 0 0 023.

  printed by

  Prabhai Fiimwi.

  17 A Z Industrial Estate.

  Lowrr Patcl,

  Bombay 400 013.

  CONTENTS

  BOOK ONE

  The Inoffensive Captain 1

  E. C. Bentky

  The Scapegoat 19

  Christianna Brand

  The Mystery of the Child's Toy 45

  Leslie Charteris

  The Rubber Trumpet 61

  Roy Vickers

  The Moabite Cipher 79

  R. Austin Freeman

  The Little Old Man of Batignolles 103

  Entile Gaboriau

  The Scarlet Butterfly 161

  DuUie Gray

  Out of Paradise 171

  E. W. Homung

  The Cave of Ali Baba 187

  Dorothy Sayers

  BOOKTWO

  Superintendent Wilson's Holiday 11

  Margaret Cole

  The Treasure Hunt 45

  Edgar Wallace

  Sing a Song of Sixpence 65

  Agatha Christie

  Inspector Ghote and the Miracle Baby 85

  H. R. F. Keating

  ' The Biter Bit 95

  William Wilkie Collins

  We Know You're Busy Writing . . . 127

  Edmund Crispin

  Murder! 145

  , Arnold Bennett

  The Eye of Apollo 165

  G. K. Chesterton

  A Matter of Goblins 185

  Michael Innes

  The Woman in the Big Hat 233

  Baroness Orczy

  B O O K T H R E E

  Goldfish 9

  Raymond Chandler

  The Girl with the Red-Gold Hair 51

  June Thomson

  Mr Bovey's Unexpected Will 63

  L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace

  The Mystery of the Sleeping-Car Express 79

  Freeman Wills Crofts

  The Alibi 103

  J. C. Squire

  The Evidence o f the Altar-Boy

  Georges Simenon

  The Judge Corroborates 155

  J. S. Fletcher

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  T h e editor is grateful t o the following for permission t o reprint

  the material in this v o l u m e :

  A. P. Watt & Son for The Inoffensive Captain by E. C . Bentley

  A. M . Heath & C o . Ltd f o r The Scapegoat by Christiantia Brand

  H o d d e r and S t o u g h t o n Ltd f o r The Mystery of the Child's Toy by

  Leslie Charteris

  C u r t i s B r o w n Ltd for The Rubber Trumpet by Roy Vickers

  A. P. Watt and Son for The Moabite Cipher by R. Austin

  Freeman

  L o n d o n M a n a g e m e n t Ltd for The Scarlet Butterfly by Dulcie

  Gray

  David H i g h a m Associates Ltd. for The Cave of Ali Baba by

  D. L. Sayers

  David H i g h a m Associates Ltd for Superintendent Wilson's

  Holiday by Margaret C o l e

  H u g h e s Massic Ltd for Sing a Song of Sixpence by Agatha

  Christie

  A. P. Watt & Son for We Know You're Busy Writing by E d m u n d

  Crispin © E d m u n d Crispin 1969

  Michael Innes and Victor Gollancz Ltd for A Matter of Goblins

  by Michael Innes © J . I. M . Stewart 1954

  M r s Joan O r c z y - B a r s t o w for The Woman in the Big Hat by

  Baroness O r c z y

  T h e estate of the late R a y m o n d C h a n d l e r and H a m i s h H a m i l -

  ton Ltd for Goldfish

  J u n e T h o m s o n and L o n d o n M a n a g e m e n t for The Girl with the

  Red-Gold Hair

  T h e Society of A u t h o r s and A. P. Watt and Son for The Mystery

  of the Sleeping-Car Express

  H a m i s h H a m i l t o n Ltd for the Secretariat of Georges Simenon

  for The Evidence of the Altar-Boy. Translation © J e a n Stewart

  1977

  Mrs R. G. Flctchcr for The Judge Corroborates

  BOOK ONE

  E. C. Bentley

  THE INOFFENSIVE CAPTAIN

  ' I N S P E C T O R C H A R L E S B. M U I R H E A D . Introduced by Chief Inspector

  W. Murch.' Trent was reading from a card brought to him as he sat at

  breakfast. 'I had no idea,' he remarked to his servant, 'that Mr Murch

  was introducing a new kind of policeman. What does he look like,

  Dennis ?'

  'He might be anything, sir. A very ordinary-looking man, I should

  say.'

  'Well, that's the highest compliment you could pay a plainclothes

  officer, I suppose.'

  Trent finished his coffee and stood up. 'Show him into the studio. And

  if he should happen to arrest me, telephone to Mr Ward that I am

  unfortunately detained and cannot join him this evening.'

  'Certainly, sir.'

  The two men who came together in Philip Trent's studio looked

  keenly at each other. The police officer, who did not much approve of the

  mission on which he had been sent, was not reassured by what he saw.

  Trent was at this time - it was a few years before the unravelling of the

  Manderson affair came to change his life - a man not yet thirty, with an

  air of rather irresponsible good humour and an easy, unceremonious

  carriage of his looseknit figure that struck his visitor as pleasing in

  general, but not in keeping with great mental gifts. His features were

  regular; his short, curling hair and moustache, and, indeed, his whole

  appearance, suggested a slight but not defiant carelessness about

  externals.

  Mr Muirhead, knowing nothing of modern painters, thought this

  quite right in an artist, but he wondered what could have led
such a man

  to interest himself in police problems.

  As for Inspector Muirhead, he was a lean, light-haired, upstanding

  man with a scanty yellow moustache, dressed in an ill-fitting dark suit,

  with a low collar much too large for his neck. The only noticeable things

  about him were an air of athletic hardness and a pair of biue eyes like

  The Inoffensive Captain

  3

  swords. He looked like a Cumberland shepherd who had changed

  clothes with a rent-collector.

  'I am very glad,' said Trent, 'to meet any friend of Inspector Murch's.

  Sit down and have a cigar. Not a smoker ? So much the worse for the

  criminal class - you look as if your nerves were made of steel wire. Now,

  let me hear what it is you want of me.'

  The hard-featured officer squared his shoulders and put his hands on

  his knees. 'Inspector Murch thought you might be willing to help us

  unofficially, Mr Trent, in a little difficulty we are in. It concerns the

  escape of James Rudmore from Dartmoor yesterday afternoon.'

  'I hadn't heard of it.'

  'It's in the papers today - the bare fact. But the details are unusual. For

  one thing, he's got clear away, which has happened only in a very few

  cases at Dartmoor. Rudmore did what others have done - made a bolt

  from one of the gangs doing outdoor labour, taking advantage of a mist

  coming on suddenly. But instead of wandering on the moor till he was

  taken again, as they mostly do, he got on a road some miles from the

  prison, where he had the luck to meet a motor-car, going slowly in the

  mist. He jumped out in front of the car, and when the chauffeur stopped

  it Rudmore sprang at him and gave him a knock on the head with a stone

  that stunned him. The car belongs to an Amc -ican gentleman and his

  wife, by name Van Sommeren, who were touring about the country.'

  'Gratifying for them,' remarked Trent. 'They will feel the English are

  not making strangers of them - that we are taking them to our bosom, as ~

  it were.'

  'Mr Van Sommeren drew a revolver,' pursued the detective stolidly,

  'and shot twice before Rudmore closed with him. He managed to get

  hold of the weapon after a struggle, and so had them at his mercy. He was

  hurt slightly in the arm by one of the shots, Mr Van Sommeren thinks.

  Rudmore made him give up his motor-coat and cap, and all he had in his

  pockets ; also the lady's purse. Then he put on the coat and cap over his

  convict dress and drove off alone, going eastward. The others waited till

  the chauffeur was all right again, then made the best of their way along

  the road on foot. It was hours before they got to Two Bridges and told

  their story.'

  'He managed it well,' Trent observed, lighting a pipe. 'Decision and

  promptitude. He ought to have been a soldier.'

  'He was,' returned Mr Muirhead. 'He had been, at least. But the point

  is, where is he now ? We now know that he drove the car as far as Exeter,

  where he abandoned it outside the railway station, taking with him two

  large suitcases and a dressing-bag. There can be no doubt that he came

  4

  Great Detective Stories

  on by train to London, arriving last night. He has particular business

  here, as well as friends who would help him. Do you remember the

  Danbury pendant affair, Mr Trent ? It's nearly two years ago now.'

  'I don't. Probably I was not in England at the time.'

  'Then I may as well tell you the story of it and the Rudmores. You

  must know it if you're to assist us. Old John Rudmore was for many

  years a doctor in very good practice in Calcutta - had been an army

  doctor at first. He was a widower, a man of good family, highly educated,

  very clever and popular. His only son was James Rudmore, who was a

  lieutenant in a Bengal cavalry regiment, very much the same sort of man

  as his father. There was a daughter, too - a young girl. Six years ago,

  when James was twenty-three, something happened - something to do

  with old Rudmore, it is believed. It was kept dark quite successfully, but

  the word went out against the Rudmores. The old man threw up his

  practice, and the son sent in his papers. All three of them came home and

  settled in London. The Rudmores had influential connections, and Jim

  got a soft job under the Board of Trade. His sister went to live with some

  relatives of her mother's. The father made his headquarters in bachelor

  chambers in Jermyn Street. He travelled a good deal and was interested

  in mining properties. He seemed to have amassed a great deal of money,

  and it was believed he made his son a considerable allowance.'

  'Was there supposed to be anything wrong about the money ?'

  'That we don't know ; but what happened afterwards makes it seem

  likely. Well, James Rudmore went the pace considerably. He got into a

  gambling, dissipated set, and wasn't particular about what friends he

  made. He was intimate with some of the shadiest characters in sporting

  circles - people we'd had an eye upon more than once. He was a reckless,

  desperate chap, with a dangerous temper when roused, and he was well

  on his Way to being a regular wrong 'un when the affair of the pendant

  happened ; but he was very clever and amusing, and had a light-hearted

  way with him ; a gentleman all over to look at, and hadn't lost caste, as

  they say.'

  Trent nodded appreciatively. 'You describe him to the life. I should

  like to have known him.'

  'One day there was a big garden-party at Danbury House, and he was

  there helping with some sort of entertainment. Lady Danbury was

  wearing the pendant, which was a famous family jewel containing three

  remarkable diamonds and some smaller stones. It was late in the after-

  noon before she found that the chain it was attached to had broken and

  the pendant was gone. By that time many of the guests had gone, too, and

  James Rudmore among them. A search was begun all over the grounds,

  The Inoffensive Captain

  5

  but it hadn't gone far when one of the maids, hearing of the loss, came

  forward with a statement. It seemed she had been philandering with one

  of the men servants in a part of the grounds where she'd no business to

  be; the countess had been receiving people there, but it was deserted at

  the time. The man's eye was caught by something on the grass, and the

  girl, going nearer to it, recognised the pendant. Just as she was hurrying

  forward to pick it up, they heard steps on the path, and thinking it might

  be one of the upper servants, who would make trouble about her being

  out there, they both stepped behind a clump of shrubbery. They saw

  James Rudmore come round the corner of the path. He was alone and

  seemed to be looking for something on the ground. He caught sight of

  the pendant and stood gazing at it a moment. Then he picked it up and,

  holding it in his hand, went on toward the place where the company

  were. That was all that the two saw. Naturally, they thought he was

  carrying the thing straight to the countess; it never occurred to them that

  a man of young Rudmore's appearance would steal it.'

  'It was a silly thing to do,' Tre
nt remarked.

  'He was in a tight place,' explained the detective. 'It came out after-

  ward that he was deeply in debt and had just dropped a good sum on the

  Stock Exchange. He wanted money desperately.'

  'He had one resource,' suggested Trent. 'I have heard it described as

  tapping the ancestor.'

  'The ancestor,' said Mr Muirhead with a hard smile, 'was away on his

  travels, looking into some East African mining proposition, and appa-

  rently couldn't be got at. Besides, as you'll see, tapping him might not

  have been much good ;and James no doubt knew that, for their relations

  were always very close and confidential. But as I was saying: the two

  witnesses told their story about the finding of the pendant. An hour

  afterward, I was out after James with a warrant in my pocket. About nine

  o'clock I arrested him as he walked into the hotel where he lived. He

  denied the charge with a show of astonishment and indignation, but he

  made no resistance. The pendant was not on him then, and it was never

  found. I took him away in a taxicab. In Panton Street he gave me a blow

  on the jaw that knocked me out, jumped from the cab, and darted round

  the corner into Whitcomb Street. There he ran into the arms of a con-

  stable, who held him ; he fought savagely, and was only secured by the

  help of two men. He didn't get away again.'

  'Until yesterday,' Trent observed. 'Where had he been between leav-

  ing Danbury House and returning to his hotel ?'

  'Apparently at a club in the Adelphi, where he played billiards for

  an hour and then dined. His story was that he'd walked straight from

  6

  Great Detective Stories

  Danbury House and gone straight from there to his hotel. It couldn't be

  shown that he'd been anywhere else; but nobody knew exacdy when he

  had left Danbury House. His line at the trial was that he knew absolutely

  nothing of the pendant and that it was a plot to ruin him. The case against

  him was unanswerable, and the assaults on the police, of course, made

  the matter much worse. He was sent to penal servitude.'

  'Then you think he has his booty hidden somewhere, waiting for him

  to take it when he comes out ?'

  'Sure of it,' the detective replied. 'Doesn't it stand to reason ? He was

  ruined anyway, and the assaults which his temper had led him into made