Produced by Al Haines. *THE RED WIDOW* OR THE DEATH-DEALERS OF LONDON BY *WILLIAM LE QUEUX* CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1920 *CONTENTS* CHAPTER 1. Concerns a Man in White 2. Who is Mrs. Braybourne? 3. The "Game"—and its Players 4. Progress of the Plot 5. Contains a Note of Alarm 6. The Locked Room In Hammersmith 7. What Happened in Bridge Place 8. On Loch Lomond 9. A Gentleman named Greig 10. More Mysterious Circumstances 11. Spreading the Net 12. The Person from Upstairs 13. Relates a Strange Conversation 14. On Saturday Night 15. Carries the Mystery Farther 16. Baiting the Trap 17. "News" from Lancaster Gate 18. The Coup and its Consequence 19. What Happened to Gerald 20. The Room of Evil 21. Lost Days 22. From out the Past 23. The Cry in the Night 24. Hard Pressed 25. The Recluse 26. "Get Rid of the Girl!" 27. "The Day After To-Morrow" 28. At the Window 29. On Thin Ice 30. Through the Darkness Conclusion *THE RED WIDOW* *CHAPTER I* *CONCERNS A MAN IN WHITE* "I can’t understand what it all means. The whole thing is a mystery—_a great mystery_! I have my suspicions—grave suspicions!" declared the pretty blue-eyed girl emphatically. "Of what?" asked the young man strolling at her side along the sunny towing-path beside the Thames between Kew and Richmond. "Well—I hardly know," was her hesitating response. "But I don’t like auntie to remain in that house any longer, Gerald. Some evil lurks there; I’m sure of it!" Her companion smiled. "Are you quite sure you are not mistaken, Marigold?" he asked in a dubious tone. "Are you absolutely certain that you really saw Mr. Boyne on Thursday night?" "Why, haven’t I already told you exactly what I saw?" asserted the girl excitedly. "I’ve related in detail all I know. And I repeat that I don’t like auntie being there any longer." "Well," said the young man, as they strolled leisurely along near the water’s edge on that Sunday afternoon in summer, their intention being to take tea at Richmond, "if what you have described is an actual fact, then I certainly do think we ought to watch the man very closely." "You don’t doubt me—do you?" exclaimed the girl, with quick resentment. "Not in the least, Marigold," he replied, halting and looking straight into her clear, almost child-like eyes. "Please do not misunderstand me. But what you have said is so extraordinary that—well, it seems all so weird and amazing!"