: Mary Roberts Rinehart
: The Bat
: Seltzer Books
: 9781455332069
: 1
: CHF 0.70
:
: Erzählende Literatur
: English
: 587
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
According to Wikipedia: 'Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.[1] She is considered the source of the phrase 'The butler did it', although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing.... Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays, such as The Bat (1920) were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the 'Had-I-But-Known' school of mystery writing. The Circular Staircase is a novel in which 'a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt. This novel is credited with being the first in the 'Had-I-But-Known' school.'[3] The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does less than sensible things in connection with a crime which have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: 'Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor.' The phrase 'The butler did it', which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did do it, although that exact phrase does not actually appear in the work.'

CHAPTER NINE  A SHOT IN THE DARK


 

 A key clicked in the terrace door - a voice swore muffledly at the rain.  Dale lowered her revolver slowly.  It was Richard Fleming -  come to meet her here, instead of down by the drive.

 

She had telephoned him on an impulse.  But now, as she looked at him in the light of her single candle, she wondered if this rather dissipated, rather foppish young man about town, in his early thirties, could possibly understand and appreciate the motives that had driven her to seek his aid.  Still, it was for Jack!  She clenched her teeth and resolved to go through with the plan mapped out in her mind.  It might be a desperate expedient but she had nowhere else to turn!

 

Fleming shut the terrace door behind him and moved down from the alcove, trying to shake the rain from his coat.

 

"Did I frighten you?"

 

"Oh, Mr. Fleming - yes!" Dale laid her aunt's revolver down on the table.  Fleming perceived her nervousness and made a gesture of apology.

 

"I'm sorry," he said,"I rapped but nobody seemed to hear me, so I used my key."

 

"You're wet through - I'm sorry," said Dale with mechanical politeness.

 

He smiled. "Oh, no."  He stripped off his cap and raincoat and placed them on a chair, brushing himself off as he did so with finicky little movements of his hands.

 

"Reggie Beresford brought me over in his car," he said. "He's waiting down the drive."

 

Dale decided not to waste words in the usual commonplaces of social greeting.

 

"Mr. Fleming, I'm in dreadful trouble!" she said, facing him squarely, with a courageous appeal in her eyes.

 

He made a polite movement. "Oh, I say!  That's too bad."

 

She plunged on. "You know the Union Bank closed today."

 

He laughed lightly.

 

"Yes, I know it!  I didn't have anything in it - or any other bank for that matter," he admitted ruefully,"but I hate to see the old thing go to smash."

 

Dale wondered which angle was best from which to present her appeal.

 

"Well, even if you haven't lost anything in this bank failure, a lot of your friends have - surely?" she we