Prof. Ashleigh } |
| Lord Ashleigh } William Worthington |
| |
| Lady Ashleigh Helen Wright |
| |
| John Craig Frank MacQuarrie |
| |
| Laura, Quest's assistant Laura Oakley |
| |
| Mrs. Bruce Rheinholdt Hylda Sloman |
|--------------------------------------------------|

THE BLACK BOX

CHAPTER I

SANFORD QUEST, CRIMINOLOGIST

The young man from the west had arrived in New York only that afternoon,
and his cousin, town born and bred, had already embarked upon the task of
showing him the great city. They occupied a table in a somewhat
insignificant corner of one of New York's most famous roof-garden
restaurants. The place was crowded with diners. There were many
notabilities to be pointed out. The town young man was very busy.

"See that bunch of girls on the right?" he asked. "They are all from the
chorus in the new musical comedy--opens to-morrow. They've been rehearsing
every day for a month. Some show it's going to be, too. I don't know
whether I'll be able to get you a seat, but I'll try. I've had mine for a
month. The fair girl who is leaning back, laughing, now, is Elsie Havers.
She's the star.... You see the old fellow with the girl, just in a line
behind? That's Dudley Worth, the multi-millionaire, and at the next table
there is Mrs. Atkinson--you remember her divorce case?"

It was all vastly interesting to the young man from the west, and he
looked from table to table with ever-increasing interest.

"Say, it's fine to be here!" he declared. "We have this sort of thing back
home, but we are only twelve stories up and there is nothing to look at.
Makes you kind of giddy here to look past the people, down at the city."

The New Yorker glanced almost indifferently at the one sight which to a
stranger is perhaps the most impressive in the new world. Twenty-five
stories below, the cable cars clanging and clashing their way through the
narrowed streets seemed like little fire-flies, children's toys pulled by
an invisible string of fire. Further afield, the flare of the city painted
the murky sky. The line of the river scintillated with rising and falli