ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES JOHNSON POST
NEW YORK
THE CUPPLES & LEON CO.
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY
G. SIDNEY PATERNOSTER
All Rights Reserved
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | "LET THEM GET WHO HAVE THE POWER, AND LET THEM KEEP WHO CAN" | [7] |
| II. | CONCERNING THE GREUZE, SOME GENTILES AND A JEW | [22] |
| III. | THE MAKING OF A CRIMINAL | [33] |
| IV. | THE REFLECTIONS OF LYNTON HORA | [42] |
| V. | THE COMMANDATORE MAKES A DEDUCTION | [52] |
| VI. | WHEREIN A KING'S MESSENGER IS DESPOILED OF HIS DESPATCHES | [62] |
| VII. | MERIEL MAKES AN IMPRESSION | [76] |
| VIII. | A SUCCESSFUL SPECULATION AND ITS RESULTS | [87] |
| IX. | CONCERNING A GREAT MAN'S VEXATION | [97] |
| X. | A NEW VIEW OF THE FLURSCHEIM ROBBERY | [105] |
| XI. | GUY FINDS A NEW HOME | [116] |
| XII. | INSPECTOR KENLY'S LODGER | [128] |
| XIII. | POISONED WORDS | [137] |
| XIV. | THE SHADOW-MAN | [146] |
| XV. | INSPECTOR KENLY FINDS A CLUE | [157] |
| XVI. | GUY MAKES A RESOLUTION | [168] |
| XVII. | STAR-DUST | [177] |
| XVIII. | CORNELIUS JESSEL DREAMS OF A FORTUNE | [190] |
| XIX. | INSPECTOR KENLY REPORTS | [201] |
| XX. | GUY'S LAST THEFT | [213] |
| XXI. | EXPECTATION | [224] |
| XXII. | TEMPTATION | [235] |
| XXIII. | A FRIEND IN ADVERSITY | [248] |
| XXIV. | INSPECTOR KENLY CONTEMPLATES ACTION | [258] |
| XXV. | THE PARTING OF THE WAYS | [269] |
| XXVI. | CAPTAIN MARVEN'S SURPRISE PACKET | [280] |
| XXVII. | DUTY CALLS | [289] |
| XXVIII. | THE FRUITS OF A CRIMINAL PHILOSOPHY | [300] |
| L'ENVOI | [312] |
THE MASTER CRIMINAL
CHAPTER I
"LET THEM GET WHO HAVE THE POWER, AND LET THEM KEEP WHO CAN"
The night was of velvety blackness—one of those soft, warm, dark nights of June when the southwest wind rolls a cloud-curtain over the stars, when the air is heavy with unshed rain, when lamps burn dully, and when a nameless oppression broods over the face of the land.
Seated at an open casement looking out into the London night was a woman. Her hands grasped each other over her knee with a tense grip which gave the lie to the calm of her face. Hers was a face to which in repose Rossetti would have woven an adoring sonnet, though not as to another "lazy, laughing, languid Jenny, fond of a kiss, and fond of a guinea," but a sonnet of purity and peace. Yet if the sonnet had been written, and the woman had read, the full scarlet lips which seemed to have gathered into them all the colour from her face, would have parted in scornful laughter.