The Wrong Letter by Walter S. Masterman with a preface by G. K. Chesterton CONTENTS Preface I The Crime II Speculations III At the Vale IV The Missing Letter V A Mysterious Visit VI At Leveson Square VII Valuable Information VIII Enter Mr. Allery IX A Confession X The Portrait XI An Apparition XII What Happened in the Night XIII The Car in the Dark XIV Back in London XV The Crisis XVI The Criminal Found XVII The Wrong Letter PREFACE I can say with all sincerity, nay with all solemn responsibility, that this detective mystery deceived me. And as I have been looking out for a long time for a detective mystery that should be at least deceptive, whatever its other merits or demerits in being detective, I very willingly write a word to serve as a preface to it, though such books ought not to need such prefaces. The detective story is in this way a paradox (if I may use a word that has very painful memories for me) because the true reader and critic not only desires to be gulled, but even desires to be gullible. I wish when reading such a story to become as simple as Dr. Watson; to be in the happy, cheerful, childlike, radiant condition of Dr. Watson and not in the much more dark and disillusioned and satiated and sceptical condition of Sherlock Holmes. I generally am in that childlike condition. But in every case it is my ardent and aspiring ambition to be stupider than the man who wrote the story. And in the case of this story I actually succeeded.