The Twin Mystery: A Dashing Rescue

"Mr. Nick Carter: I have come to town to do business. I give you notice before I begin, because I am quite certain you will be informed immediately after I commence operations. It really makes little difference; you cannot reach me. Really, my dear Nick, I have a contempt for the so-called detective ability. You, with your Ida, Chick and Patsy, are a little better than the rest, but you are in the same running when you undertake to stop me. "The Brown Robin." This letter Nick Carter found in his mail one morning a short time ago, on coming to his breakfast table. He read the letter with some interest, noting that it had been mailed late the afternoon before, and in the sub-district in which he lived. Tossing it over to his wife, Edith, to read, he said: "That might be taken for a challenge, I suppose." Edith read it, and replied that she should take it for an impertinence. "Who is the Brown Robin?" she asked. "Ah! That is the great mystery," answered Nick. "A woman?" asked Edith. "When you ask that question in that way," replied Nick, "you mean to make the statement that you believe it to be a woman." "Well, yes; I judge the writer of this is a woman." "Why?" "The writing, in the first place." "That will hardly do. It might be taken for the writing of a woman a little more masculine than is usual, or of a man a little more feminine than is usual. I carefully examined the writing before I gave you the letter, and could not determine satisfactorily to myself which it was." Edith again examined the letter, and said that she should be afraid, after a second look, to stand on either side. "The truth is, Edith," said Nick, "it is an assumed hand, not the natural one of the person who wrote it, and is not always employed by that person. That is my belief." Again Edith studied the letter. "There is something about the whole thing," she said, "that impresses me with the notion that the writer of this is a woman. But if you were to ask me why, I could not tell you."

Dettagli