[Illustration] The Yellow Streak by Valentine Williams Contents CHAPTER I. THE MASTER OF HARKINGS CHAPTER II. AT TWILIGHT CHAPTER III. A DISCOVERY CHAPTER IV. BETWEEN THE DESK AND THE WINDOW CHAPTER V. IN WHICH BUDE LOOKS AT ROBIN GREVE CHAPTER VI. THE LETTER CHAPTER VII. VOICES IN THE LIBRARY CHAPTER VIII. ROBIN GOES TO MARY CHAPTER IX. MR. MANDERTON CHAPTER X. A SMOKING CHIMNEY CHAPTER XI. “... SPEED THE PARTING GUEST!” CHAPTER XII. MR. MANDERTON IS NONPLUSSED CHAPTER XIII. JEEKES CHAPTER XIV. A SHEET OF BLUE PAPER CHAPTER XV. SHADOWS CHAPTER XVI. THE INTRUDER CHAPTER XVII. A FRESH CLUE CHAPTER XVIII. THE SILENT SHOT CHAPTER XIX. MR. MANDERTON LAYS HIS CARDS ON THE TABLE CHAPTER XX. THE CODE KING CHAPTER XXI. A WORD WITH MR. JEEKES CHAPTER XXII. THE MAN WITH THE YELLOW FACE CHAPTER XXIII. TWO’S COMPANY ... CHAPTER XXIV. THE METAMORPHOSIS OF MR. SCHULZ CHAPTER XXV. THE READING OF THE RIDDLE CHAPTER XXVI. THE FIGURE IN THE DOORWAY CHAPTER XXVII. AN INTERRUPTION FROM BEYOND CHAPTER XXVIII. THE DEATH OF HARTLEY PARRISH THE YELLOW STREAK CHAPTER I. THE MASTER OF HARKINGS Of all the luxuries of which Hartley Parrish’s sudden rise to wealth gave him possession, Bude, his butler, was the acquisition in which he took the greatest delight and pride. Bude was a large and comfortable-looking person, triple-chinned like an archdeacon, bald-headed except for a respectable and saving edging of dark down, clean-shaven, benign of countenance, with a bold nose which to the psychologist bespoke both ambition and inborn cleverness. He had a thin, tight mouth which in itself alone was a symbol of discreet reticence, the hall-mark of the trusted family retainer. Bude had spent his life in the service of the English aristocracy. The Earl of Tipperary, Major-General Lord Bannister, the Dowager Marchioness of Wiltshire, and Sir Herbert Marcobrunner, Bart., had in turn watched his gradual progress from pantry-boy to butler. Bude was a man whose maxim had been the French saying, “_Je prends mon bien où je le trouve_.” In his thirty years’ service he had always sought to discover and draw from those sources of knowledge which were at his disposal. From MacTavish, who had supervised Lord Tipperary’s world-famous gardens, he had learnt a great deal about flowers, so that the arrangement of the floral decorations was always one of the features at Hartley Parrish’s _soigné_ dinner-parties. From Brun, the unsurpassed _chef_, whom Lord Bannister had picked up when serving with the Guards in Egypt, he had gathered sufficient knowledge of the higher branches of the cuisine to enable Hartley Parrish to leave the arrangement of the menu in his butler’s hands.