CONSTABLE ROBERTS, Police Officer at Hampton Village. DOLLOPS, Cleek's trusted friend and protégé. LADY MARGARET CHEYNE, the only and orphan daughter of LORD CHEYNE, whose title became extinct on his death, some years previous, but by his will he has left her all the family jewels, including the ill-fated PURPLE EMPEROR, a big violet-coloured diamond looted from an Indian temple, and set as a pendant. She comes of age at 18, until when she is left in the charge of his eccentric sister, THE HONOURABLE MISS CHEYNE, a recluse, living in a lonely house, Cheyne Court, on the banks of the Thames. She has kept her niece at the convent of Notre Dame in Paris, since her childhood. Disappointed in love herself, Miss Cheyne has decided that her niece shall be a spinster also, but Lady Margaret has contrived to meet and fall in love with SIR EDGAR BRENTON, the son of the man who jilted the Honourable Miss Cheyne, and whose chance visit to Paris with his mother, a year earlier, led to his acquaintanceship with Lady Margaret, and with whom he is deeply in love. Unfortunately he is also loved by JENNIFER WYNNE, the orphan daughter of a doctor who lived in Hampton previous to the present one. She earns a living by teaching, and lives with her brother, BOBBY WYNNE, a young spendthrift and gambler, in the power of JAMES BLAKE, the head of the Pentacle Club. DOCTOR VERRALL, the village doctor, loves Miss Wynne. THE RIDDLE OF THE PURPLE EMPEROR CHAPTER I WHICH INTRODUCES A NEW FRIEND It was nearly half-past five on a wild March afternoon, in those happy years before the great war, and Charing Cross Station, struggling in the throes of that desperate agitation which betokens the arrival of a boat-train from the continent, was full to overflowing with a chattering, gesticulating crowd of travellers, all anxious to secure first place in the graces of that ever-useful personage, the porter. It was the busiest hour of the day, and everyone seemed to be making the most of it. What wonder, then, that tempers were grazed, nerves jangled, and peaceable individuals were transformed into monsters with bellicose intentions! In the yard outside the station a medley of motors chug-chugged unceasingly, crushed in upon each other like closely packed sardines, and presented to the casual individual a maze of intricacies and noise from which he could evolve no beginning and no end. One car, however, somewhat conspicuous as to colour, stood out amongst the drab hues of the others, like a poppy in a cornfield. It was the red limousine of Mr. Maverick Narkom, Superintendent of Scotland Yard and the car in which that gentleman was wont to take his numerous voyages abroad.