Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/22

6 "Well," he asked, "what did you get out of the newspapers?"

"I found so much that it's worse than if I'd found nothing at all,—several murders, an elopement, and a bank robbery. I don't see how any of them help, though. The criminals all seem to be known. Perhaps Hudson was an accomplice."

"My dear girl, never go on general principles; general principles are the refuge of the hopelessly incompetent and inane. If you will follow general principles long enough, you will find yourself in a class that is unlimited in its generalities and hidebound in its principles. If there is no significant detail that dovetails into Hudson's disappearance, we'll simply have to go about it in another way. You will be better able to judge when I tell you what happened this forenoon before I came down to the studio here.

"Mrs. Hudson was ready for me with the news that she had found her husband's check-book, and that it showed him to have an unexpected deposit in the bank of some six thousand dollars. Then she showed me into the bedroom; but as they shared this apartment I thought it unnecessary to look there for anything significant. Hudson's own den was a bare office-like sort of place, small, and furnished with a leather couch, a bookcase, and an old office desk. In this, all the drawers were unlocked except one. I got Mrs. Hudson's permission to pick that lock, and here is what I found." He smiled. "Of course, you understand these were absolutely necessary for me to get my vibrations."

They both laughed at the remark, and he took from his pocket several articles, which he laid upon the table. There were, first, two advertising pictures posed by a