文档介绍：A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
A STRANGE
DISAPPEARANCE
By Anna Katharine Green
1
A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE
CHAPTER I
A NOVEL CASE
"Talking of sudden disappearances the one you mention of Hannah in
that Leavenworth case of ours, is not the only remarkable one which has
come under my direct notice. Indeed, I know of another that in some
respects, at least, surpasses that in points of interest, and if you will
promise not to inquire into the real names of the parties concerned, as the
affair is a secret, I will relate you my experience regarding it."
The speaker was Q, the rising young detective, universally
acknowledged by us of the force as the most astute man for mysterious
and unprecedented cases, then in the bureau, always and of course
excepting Mr. Gryce; and such a statement from him could not but arouse
our deepest curiosity. Drawing up, then, to the stove around which we
were sitting in lazy enjoyment of one of those off-hours so dear to a
detective's heart, we gave with alacrity the required promise; and settling
himself back with the satisfied air of a man who has a good story to tell
that does not entirely lack certain points redounding to his own credit, he
began:
I was one Sunday morning loitering at the ----- Precinct Station, when
the door opened and a respectable-looking middle-aged woman came in,
whose agitated air at once attracted my attention. Going up to her, I asked
her what she wanted.
"A detective," she replied, glancing cautiously about on the faces of
the various men scattered through the room. "I don't wish anything said
about it, but a girl disappeared from our house last night, and"--she
stopped here, her emotion seeming to choke her--"and I want some one to
look her up," she went on at last with the most intense emphasis.
"A girl? what kind of a girl; and what house do you mean when you
say our house?"
She looked at me keenly before replying. "You are a young man," said
she; "isn't there some one her