The Wrong Letter
Contents
| Preface | |
| I | The Crime |
| II | Speculations |
| III | At the Vale |
| IV | The Missing Letter |
| V | A Mysterious Visit |
| VI | At Leveson Square |
| VII | Valuable Information |
| VIII | Enter Mr. Allery |
| IX | A Confession |
| X | The Portrait |
| XI | An Apparition |
| XII | What Happened in the Night |
| XIII | The Car in the Dark |
| XIV | Back in London |
| XV | The Crisis |
| XVI | The Criminal Found |
| XVII | The Wrong Letter |
Preface
I can say with all sincerity, nay with allsolemn responsibility, that this detectivemystery deceived me. And as I have beenlooking out for a long time for a detective mysterythat should be at least deceptive, whatever itsother merits or demerits in being detective, Ivery willingly write a word to serve as a prefaceto it, though such books ought not to need suchprefaces. The detective story is in this way aparadox (if I may use a word that has verypainful memories for me) because the true reader andcritic not only desires to be gulled, but evendesires to be gullible. I wish when reading such astory to become as simple as Dr. Watson; to bein the happy, cheerful, childlike, radiantcondition of Dr. Watson and not in the much moredark and disillusioned and satiated and scepticalcondition of Sherlock Holmes. I generally am inthat childlike condition. But in every case it ismy ardent and aspiring ambition to be stupiderthan the man who wrote the story. And in thecase of this story I actually succeeded.
This desire to be deceived is really peculiar todetective romance. It is in another sense that wesay the same thing of other types of romance. Itis sometimes said that when we go to the theatrewe pay to be deceiv