becoming hackneyed, but it is undoubtedly true that he has written another masterly mystery story in this case. Other volumes will follow quickly in The Crime Series, until it is a regular show gallery of clever criminals and clever detectives. Meanwhile, it is a pleasure to introduce (though the actual formal introduction is postponed until almost the last page of the book) the reader to Exhibit No. 1, than whom there will be none more interesting or charming--Four Square Jane! The Editor. THE CRIME SERIES What is The Crime Series? It is a collection of many of the best “crook,” detective and mystery stories of the day, published in handy volumes which will look pleasant and uniform on the library shelves of devotees of this class of fiction. They are a series within the Readers Library, which, for a long time past, has published some of the best “crook” fiction of the times. Famous writers whose books have appeared in the Library include Edgar Wallace, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Sydney Horler, Thea von Harbou, Earl Derr Biggers and many others. The popularity of “crook” stories apparently never dies. In order that readers may be able to recognize particularly good volumes coming within this category at sight, the Readers Library proposes to make a careful selection from amongst “crook” stories and to produce a set of the best of them in the Crime Series, which will have a specially designed paper wrapper by which they can be known. The Series will not only include original stories by the most celebrated authors of detective stories, it will also contain the novelised versions of many of the first-class “crook” plays and films which are produced from time to time. The Crime Series therefore promises to be a unique collection of ingenious and thrilling stories. Look out for volumes in The Crime Series! CONTENTS Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX FOUR SQUARE JANE I Mr. Joe Lewinstein slouched to one of the long windows which gave light to his magnificent drawing-room and stared gloomily across the lawn. The beds of geraniums and lobelias were half-obscured by a driving mist of rain, and the well-kept lawns that were the pride of his many gardeners were sodden and, in places, under water. “Of course it had to rain to-day,” he said bitterly. His large and comfortable wife looked up over her glasses. “Why, Joe,” she said, “what’s the good of grousing? They haven’t come down for an al fresco fête; they’ve come down for the dance and the shooting, and anything else they can get out of us.”