E-text prepared by David Clarke, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) THE DAFFODIL MYSTERY by EDGAR WALLACE Ward, Lock & Co., Limited London and Melbourne Made and Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS I. AN OFFER REJECTED II. THE HUNTER DECLINES HIS QUARRY III. THE MAN WHO LOVED LYNE IV. MURDER V. FOUND IN LYNE'S POCKET VI. THE MOTHER OF ODETTE RIDER VII. THE WOMAN IN THE CASE VIII. THE SILENCING OF SAM STAY IX. WHERE THE FLOWERS CAME FROM X. THE WOMAN AT ASHFORD XI. "THORNTON LYNE IS DEAD" XII. THE HOSPITAL BOOK XIII. TWO SHOTS IN THE NIGHT XIV. THE SEARCH OF MILBURGH'S COTTAGE XV. THE OWNER OF THE PISTOL XVI. THE HEIR XVII. THE MISSING REVOLVER XVIII. THE FINGER PRINTS XIX. LING CHU TELLS THE TRUTH XX. MR. MILBURGH SEES IT THROUGH XXI. COVERING THE TRAIL XXII. THE HEAVY WALLET XXIII. THE NIGHT VISITOR XXIV. THE CONFESSION OF ODETTE RIDER XXV. MILBURGH'S LAST BLUFF XXVI. IN MRS. RIDER'S ROOM XXVII. THE LAUGH IN THE NIGHT XXVIII. THE THUMB-PRINT XXIX. THE THEORY OF LING CHU XXX. WHO KILLED MRS. RIDER XXXI. SAM STAY TURNS UP XXXII. THE DIARY OF THORNTON LYNE XXXIII. LING CHU--TORTURER XXXIV. THE ARREST XXXV. MILBURGH'S STORY XXXVI. AT HIGHGATE CEMETERY XXXVII. LING CHU RETURNS CHAPTER THE LAST. THE STATEMENT OF SAM STAY THE DAFFODIL MYSTERY CHAPTER I AN OFFER REJECTED "I am afraid I don't understand you, Mr. Lyne." Odette Rider looked gravely at the young man who lolled against his open desk. Her clear skin was tinted with the faintest pink, and there was in the sober depths of those grey eyes of hers a light which would have warned a man less satisfied with his own genius and power of persuasion than Thornton Lyne. He was not looking at her face. His eyes were running approvingly over her perfect figure, noting the straightness of the back, the fine poise of the head, the shapeliness of the slender hands. He pushed back his long black hair from his forehead and smiled. It pleased him to believe that his face was cast in an intellectual mould, and that the somewhat unhealthy pastiness of his skin might be described as the "pallor of thought." Presently he looked away from her through the big bay window which overlooked the crowded floor of Lyne's Stores. He had had this office built in the entresol and the big windows had been put in so that he might at any time overlook the most important department which it was his good fortune to control. Now and again, as he saw, a head would be turned in his direction, and he knew that the attention of all the girls was concentrated upon the little scene, plainly visible from the floor below, in which an unwilling employee was engaged.