The Siamese Twin Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

blinds of the windows in that room while their host was ushering them into the foyer. The remarkable creature to whom their host inexplicably referred as “Bones”? Probably not; for to their ears from the room on the right came the sibilant sounds of several whispering voices; and among them Ellery detected at least one of unmistakably feminine pitch.
    But why were they sitting in darkness? Ellery experienced a recurrence of the chill, and shook it off impatiently. There were several things uncommonly mysterious about this house. Well, it was quite clearly none of his business. Let well enough alone! The important thing was that food lurked in the offing.
    The tall man ignored the door on the right. Still smiling, he motioned them to follow him and led them through the foyer a few steps along a corridor which bisected the house, running from front to back to terminate in a closed door vaguely seen at the end of the long passageway. He paused at an open door on the left.
    “This way,” he murmured, and motioned them into a large room which, they instantly saw, fronted the entire half of the terrace between the foyer and the left side of the house.
    It was a living room, dim with tall hangings over the French windows, sparsely starred with lamps, dotted with armchairs and small scatter rugs and a white bearskin and small round tables bearing books and magazines and humidors and ash trays. A fireplace occupied a good section of the far wall; oil paintings and etchings hung about, all of a faintly dismal character, and elaborate tall candelabra threw swaying shadows which flowed and mingled with the shadows caused by the flames in the fireplace. The whole room for all its warmth and inviting chairs and books and cosy lights struck the Queens as unaccountably depressing. It was— empty.
    “Please sit down,” said the big man, “and take off your things. We’ll get you comfortable and then we can chat.” He pulled a bell rope near the door, still smiling; and Ellery began to feel a tiny irritation. Damn it all, there was nothing to smile about!
    The Inspector, however, was made of less critical stuff. He sank into an overstuffed chair with a loud sigh of satisfaction, stretched his short legs, and murmured: “Ah, this is good. Makes up for a lot of grief, sir.”
    “I daresay, after the chill of your ascent,” smiled the big man. Ellery, standing, was slightly puzzled. In the light of the fire and lamps the man was vaguely familiar looking. He was a powerful fellow of perhaps forty-five, big in every way, and despite his predominating blondness, Ellery thought, a Gallic type. He wore his rough clothes with the unconscious carelessness of a man indifferent to convention; a brute of a chap with distinct charm and physical attractiveness. His eyes were rather remarkable—deep-set and glowing, a student’s eyes. His hands were strangely alive; big, broad and long fingered, and given to authoritative gesture.
    “It was warm enough to start with,” said the Inspector with a grin; he looked quite comfortable now. “Barely escaped with our lives.”
    The big man frowned. “As bad as that? I’m horribly sorry. Fire, did you say? … Ah, Mrs. Wheary!”
    A stout woman in black, white-aproned, appeared in the corridor doorway. She was rather pale, Ellery thought, and distinctly nervous about something.
    “D-did you ring, Doctor?” She stammered like a school-girl.
    “Yes. Take these gentlemen’s duds, please, and see if you can’t scrape together something in the way of food.” The woman nodded silently, took their hats and the Inspector’s duster, and vanished. “I’ve no doubt you’re famished,” went on the big man. “We’ve already had our dinner or I should invite you to something perhaps a little more elaborate.”
    “To tell the truth,” groaned Ellery, sitting down and feeling very good all at once, “we’re both reduced almost to the point of cannibalism.”
    The man laughed heartily. “I suppose