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The Gloved Hand

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 6 months ago

Stevenson, Burton E - The Gloved Hand (1912)

 

Lawyer and narrator Mr Lester takes up an offer from his police reporter friend Jim Godfrey to spend a few days at a house leased for the summer "on the far edge of the Bronx". They arrive there at ten to midnight, whereupon Godfrey and Lester climb a tree. Strange behaviour, you may say, but stranger yet is the sight revealed over the l2 feet high garden wall, for a bright light descends in a straight line, hovers, and then disappears in a shower of sparks. Not to mention there's a pair of white-robed figures standing on the roof of the house over there with their arms extended.

 

As you might expect, Lester is so intrigued that next day he goes up the tree again and while looking down into the grounds of the estate next door -- owned by widower Worthington Vaughan -- sees a young woman who throws a letter over the wall and pleads with him to deliver it. She is Marjorie, Vaughan's daughter, and the letter is to her fiance Frederic Swain. Even so, the address on it is out of date, for Frederic has come down in the world and by coincidence now works in Lester's law office. Marjorie is extremely worried about her father and asks for Swain's help even though they are not supposed to communicate.

 

Swain goes over the wall at midnight to meet Marjorie in secret but no sooner has he returned when a terrible scream is heard next door. Vaughan has been strangled to death. Swain, arrested for murder, declares his innocence but what about his bloody fingerprints on the robe Vaughan is wearing?

 

Godfrey, Lester, and associates must establish who killed Vaughan. Other suspects are thin on the ground but include two exotic members of the Vaughan household, Francisco Silva -- priest of Siva and owner of a cobra called Toto and a strangely hypnotic crystal sphere -- and his Thug servant Mahbub.

 

My verdict: Since Swain declares he is innocent, if true the problem is how was the evidence against him manufactured? Readers of a certain GAD novel will know right away -- but there still remains the identity of the culprit, which I felt became obvious as the novel unwound. However, I could think of no explanation for the astral benedictions, as the midnight fireworks were termed, and it is certainly clever when revealed. All in all, though, not one of the GAD's best.

 

Etext

 

Mary R

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