Project Gutenberg's The Clue of the Twisted Candle, by Edgar Wallace

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Title: The Clue of the Twisted Candle

Author: Edgar Wallace

Posting Date: December 11, 2008 [EBook #2688]
Release Date: June, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CLUE OF THE TWISTED CANDLE

By Edgar Wallace

CHAPTER I

The 4.15 from Victoria to Lewes had been held up at Three Bridges in
consequence of a derailment and, though John Lexman was fortunate enough
to catch a belated connection to Beston Tracey, the wagonette which was
the sole communication between the village and the outside world had
gone.

"If you can wait half an hour, Mr. Lexman," said the station-master, "I
will telephone up to the village and get Briggs to come down for you."

John Lexman looked out upon the dripping landscape and shrugged his
shoulders.

"I'll walk," he said shortly and, leaving his bag in the
station-master's care and buttoning his mackintosh to his chin, he
stepped forth resolutely into the rain to negotiate the two miles which
separated the tiny railway station from Little Tracey.

The downpour was incessant and likely to last through the night.
The high hedges on either side of the narrow road were so many leafy
cascades; the road itself was in places ankle deep in mud. He stopped
under the protecting cover of a big tree to fill and light his pipe and
with its bowl turned downwards continued his walk. But for the
driving rain which searched every crevice and found every chink in his
waterproof armor, he preferred, indeed welcomed, the walk.

The road from Beston Tracey to Little Beston was associated in his mind
with some of the finest situations in his novels. It was on this road
that he had conceived "The Tilbury Mystery." Between the station and the
house he had woven the plot which had made "Gregory Standish" the most
popular detective story of the year. For John Lexman was a maker of
cunning plots.

If, in the literary world, he was regarded by superior persons as a
writer of "shockers," he had a large and inc