The Mystery of the Skeleton Key. Bernard Capes

      

      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 as The Skeleton Key

      by Wm Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1919

      Published by The Detective Story Club Ltd 1929

      Introduction © Hugh Lamb 2015

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1929, 2015

      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: 9780008137144

      Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780008137151

      Version: 2019-05-30

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Introduction

       Epigraph

       Introduction

       Chapter I: MY FIRST MEETING WITH THE BARON

       Chapter II: MY SECOND MEETING WITH THE BARON

       Chapter III: WILDSHOTT

       Chapter IV: I AM INTERESTED IN THE BARON

       Chapter V: THE BARON CONTINUES TO INTEREST ME

      

       Chapter VI: ‘THAT THUNDERS IN THE INDEX’

      

       Chapter VII: THE BARON VISITS THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

      

       Chapter VIII: AN ENTR’ACTE

      

       Chapter IX: THE INQUEST

      

       Chapter X: AFTERWARDS

      

       Chapter XI: THE BARON DRIVES

      

       Chapter XII: THE BARON WALKS

      

       Chapter XIII: ACCUMULATING EVIDENCE

      

       Chapter XIV: THE EXPLOSION

      

       Chapter XV: THE FACE ON THE WALL

      

       Chapter XVI: THE BARON FINDS A CHAMPION

      

       Chapter XVII: AND AUDREY

      

       Chapter XVIII: THE BARON RETURNS

      

       Chapter XIX: THE DARK HORSE

      

       Chapter XX: THE BARON LAYS HIS CARDS ON THE TABLE

      

       Chapter XXI: A LAST WORD

      

       The Detective Story Club

       About the Publisher

       INTRODUCTION

      All authors, especially fiction writers, have to tread at some time on the edge of the dark slope that leads to obscurity. Some are unlucky enough to miss their step while still alive; many more slide down after their death. Such an unfortunate was Bernard Capes, who published 40 books (in 20 years) but passed into the shadows within three years of dying. He deserved better.

      Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born in London on 30 August 1854, a nephew of John Moore Capes, a prominent figure in the Oxford Movement. He was educated at Beaumont College and raised as a Catholic, though he later gave that up and followed no religion. His elder sister, Harriet Capes (1849–1936) was to become a noted translator and writer of children’s