MR. FORTUNE’S PRACTICE MR. FORTUNE'S PRACTICE BY H. C. BAILEY AUTHOR OF “CALL MR. FORTUNE” [Publisher's Mark] METHUEN & CO. LTD. 26 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON _First Published (Crown 8vo) . . . May 17th 1923_ _Second Edition (Cheap Form) . . . July 1924_ _Third Edition (Cheap Form) . . . June 1927_ _Fourth Edition (F'cap 8vo, Cheap Form) . 1934_ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN CONTENTS CASE PAGE I THE ASCOT TRAGEDY . . . . . 1 II THE PRESIDENT OF SAN JACINTO . . . 33 III THE YOUNG DOCTOR . . . . . 64 IV THE MAGIC STONE . . . . . 98 V THE SNOWBALL BURGLARY . . . . 126 VI THE LEADING LADY . . . . . 153 VII THE UNKNOWN MURDERER . . . . 185 CASE I THE ASCOT TRAGEDY THAT is what it would have been called in the evening papers if they had known all about it. They did not. They made the most of the mystery, you remember; it was not good for them or you to know that the sequel was a sequel. But there is no reason why the flats should not be joined now. So let us begin at Ascot on the morning of that Cup Day. One of our fine summers, the course rather yellow, the lawns rather brown, a haze of heat over the distant woodland, and sunshine flaming about the flounces and silk hats. There were already many of both in the Royal Enclosure (it was a year of flounces), and among them, dapper, debonair, everybody’s friend, the youngest middle-aged man in Europe. He, of course, is the Hon. Sidney Lomas, the Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department, though mistaken by some outsiders for a comic actor of fame. Tripping back from a joke with the stewards, he discovered, sprawling solitary on the end of one of the seats, Mr. Fortune, the adviser of him and all other official and important people when surgery, medicine or kindred sciences can elucidate what is or is not crime. No one looks more prosperous than Reginald Fortune. He is plump and pinkly healthy, he and his tailor treat each other with respect, his countenance has the amiability of a nice boy. But on this occasion Lomas found fault with him. “Why, Fortune, you’re very pensive. Have you lost the lady of your present affections? Or backed a wrong ’un?”