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      ‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’

       Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929

      Now the Man with the Gun is back in this series of COLLINS CRIME CLUB reprints, and with him the chance to experience the classic books that influenced the Golden Age of crime fiction.

       Copyright

      Published by COLLINS CRIME CLUB

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1918

      Published by The Detective Story Club Ltd 1930

      Introduction © David Brawn 2017

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1930, 2017

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 978000813656

      Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008137663

      Version: 2017-01-30

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Editor’s Preface

I. THE MYSTERY OF THE ‘SYBARITE’

II. THE SECRET SERVICE

III. THE CABARET DANCER

IV. THE BURGLAR’S MICROPHONE

V. THE WHITE LIGHT CAFÉ

VI. THE POISON GAS

       VII. THE DIVORCE DETECTIVE

       VIII. THE PULMOTOR

       IX. THE TRAILING OF PAQUITA

       X. THE DETECTAPHONE DETECTOR

       XI. THE FRAME-UP

       XII. THE EAVESDROPPERS

       XIII. THE SERPENT’S TOOTH

       XIV. THE GEOPHONE

       XV. THE NIGHT OF TERROR

       XVI. THE INVISIBLE INK

       XVII. THE CIPHER LETTER

       XVIII. THE RADIO DETECTIVE

       XIX. THE WIRELESS WIRETAPPER

       XX. THE SPEED DEMON

       XXI. THE SUBMARINE EAR

       XXII. THE TELAUTOMATON

       XXIII. THE CURB MARKET

       XXIV. THE PHANTOM CIRCUIT

       XXV. THE ADVENTURESS

       Footnote

       The Detective Story Club

       About the Publisher

       INTRODUCTION

      ‘The name’s Kennedy. Craig Kennedy.’

      The twenty-first century crime reader might be forgiven for replying, ‘Who?’ But a hundred years ago, Craig Kennedy, ‘scientific detective’, needed no introduction. He was a household name on both sides of the Atlantic, acquiring the impressive tagline ‘The American Sherlock Holmes’ and conquering newspapers, magazines, books, comic strips, stage, films—silent and spoken—and early television, destined, or so it seemed then, for literary immortality.

      Kennedy’s creator, Arthur Benjamin Reeve, was born in the New York town of Patchogue on 15 October 1880. A gifted academic and polymath, he graduated from Brooklyn’s exclusive Boys’ High School in 1899 and went to Princeton University, studying ‘about everything with an ’ology or an ’onomy at the end of it’, inspiring and even tutoring fellow students. Law School beckoned, and although