The Case for the Crown by Fred M. White — Read

Though Archenfield spoke modestly to Chim Fang and those principally concerned with the result of his investigations, he had gone a great deal further towards solving the mystery than he admitted. It seemed to him, as he sat in his study working the matter out in his mind, that one side, at least, of the mystery was now fairly clear. He had worked the whole thing out with the same infinite care and pains that he bestowed upon one of his ingenious dramas. In his mind's eye he could see the model stage all set out, and the exact position of the leading characters, and he was now more or less able to move his puppets about the mimic boards as he wished. At least, he could but for one thing.

And that one thing was the extraordinary appearance of the Chinese faction in the midst of what had apparently been a story of sordid crime and a base conspiracy against an innocent woman. And yet, try as he would, Archenfield could not dissociate one set of circumstances from another. They fitted in so beautifully, but he would have been ready to swear, when he had first taken the case up, that they had nothing to do with each other. And he was still of the opinion that he could dissociate Cecil Molyneux from that amazing cycle of crime without interfering with the rest of the puzzle. For there were two distinct puzzles that lay before him, interlocked though they were; and if he could succeed in removing one set of figures from that strange and dramatic stage, then it would be easier to manipulate the others as he wished. It seemed to him, as he sat poring over the problem, that he could lay a finger unerringly upon one principal criminal at any rate, but on the other hand he did not want to alarm this particular quarry until he was quite prepared. And it had been, therefore, with a view to expediting matters that he had decided to have Judith Carr under his own roof. For the moment he had no intention of explaining his reasons for doing this to Cecil Molyneux, though she was plainly puzzled, and a little alarmed. Archenfield was not at all surprised to find that the maid was not particularly anxious to fall in with the wishes of her mistress. On one excuse or another, she delayed her arrival for two days, and when she came at length it was evidently with manifest reluctance.