E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 24451-h.htm or 24451-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/5/24451/24451-h/24451-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/4/5/24451/24451-h.zip) THE BLUE WALL A Story of Strangeness and Struggle by RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD [Illustration: A PICTURE THERE AMONG THE LAW BOOKS] New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Copyright, 1912, by Richard Washburn Child All Rights Reserved CONTENTS BOOK I--THE PROBLEM OF MACMECHEM I. The House Next Door 3 II. A Moving Figure 22 BOOK II--THE AUTOMATIC SHEIK I. A Woman at Twenty-two 39 II. A Pledge to the Judge 65 III. The Torn Scrap 80 IV. The Face 101 V. At Dawn 126 VI. The Moving Figure again 137 BOOK III--THE DOCTOR'S LIMOUSINE I. A Shadow on the Curtain 157 II. Margaret 170 BOOK IV--A PUPIL OF THE GREAT WELSTOKE I. Les Trois Folies 181 II. The House on the River 196 III. A Visitor at Night 219 IV. A Suppression of the Truth 240 V. Again the Moving Figure 261 BOOK V--THE MAN WITH THE WHITE TEETH I. Blades of Grass 283 II. In the Painted Garden 292 BOOK VI--A PUPPET OF THE PASSIONS I. The Vanished Dream 301 II. Mary Vance 312 III. The Ghost 323 BOOK VII--THE PANELED DOOR I. The Scratching Sound 337 BOOK VIII--FROM THE WOMAN'S HAND I. The Voice of the Blood 351 II. This New Thing 362 BOOK IX--BEHIND THE WALL I. An Answer to MacMechem 371 II. "Why Care?" 378 ILLUSTRATIONS A picture there among the law-books Frontispiece "Listen to me, Estabrook" 120 "It must be Julianna!" 238 She did not speak. She seemed in doubt 372 From drawings by Harold J. Cue.