Earl Derr Biggers
The Complete Charlie Chan Series – All 6 Mystery Novels in One Edition
The House Without a Key, The Chinese Parrot, Behind That Curtain, The Black Camel…
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2017 OK Publishing
ISBN 978-80-272-2016-8
Table of Contents
The House Without a Key
Chapter III. Midnight on Russian Hill
Chapter V. The Blood of the Winterslips
Chapter VI. Beyond the Bamboo Curtain
Chapter VII. Enter Charlie Chan
Chapter IX. At the Reef and Palm
Chapter X. A Newspaper Ripped in Anger
Chapter XI. The Tree of Jewels
Chapter XII. Tom Brade the Blackbirder
Chapter XIII. The Luggage in Room Nineteen
Chapter XIV. What Kaohla Carried
Chapter XV. The Man From India
Chapter XVI. The Return of Captain Cope
Chapter XVII. Night Life in Honolulu
Chapter XVIII. A Cable From the Mainland
Chapter XX. The Story of Lau Ho
Chapter XXI. The Stone Walls Crumble
Chapter XXII. The Light Streams Through
Chapter XXIII. Moonlight at the Crossroads
Chapter I. Kona Weather
Miss Minerva Winterslip was a Bostonian in good standing, and long past the romantic age. Yet beauty thrilled her still, even the semi-barbaric beauty of a Pacific island. As she walked slowly along the beach she felt the little catch in her throat that sometimes she had known in Symphony Hall, Boston, when her favorite orchestra rose to some new and unexpected height of loveliness.
It was the hour at which she liked Waikiki best, the hour just preceding dinner and the quick tropic darkness. The shadows cast by the tall cocoanut palms lengthened and deepened, the light of the falling sun flamed on Diamond Head and tinted with gold the rollers sweeping in from the coral reef. A few late swimmers, reluctant to depart, dotted those waters whose touch is like the caress of a lover. On the springboard of the nearest float a slim brown girl poised for one delectable instant. What a figure! Miss Minerva, well over fifty herself, felt a mild twinge of envy—youth, youth like an arrow, straight and sure and flying. Like an arrow the slender figure rose, then fell; the perfect dive, silent and clean.
Miss Minerva glanced at the face of the man who walked beside her. But Amos Winterslip was oblivious to beauty, he had made that the first rule of his life. Born in the Islands, he had never known the mainland beyond San Francisco. Yet there could be no doubt about it, he was the New England conscience personified—the New England conscience in a white duck suit.
"Better turn back, Amos," suggested Miss Minerva. "Your dinner's waiting. Thank you so much."
"I'll walk as far as the fence," he said. "When you get tired of Dan and his carryings-on, come to us again. We'll be glad to have you."
"That's kind of you," she answered, in her sharp crisp way. "But I really must go home. Grace is worried about me. Of course, she can't understand. And my conduct is scandalous, I admit. I came over to Honolulu for six weeks, and I've been wandering about these islands for ten months."
"As long as that?"
She nodded. "I can't explain it. Every day I make a solemn vow I'll start packing my trunks—to-morrow."
"And to-morrow never comes," said Amos. "You've been taken in by the tropics. Some people are."
"Weak people, I presume you mean," snapped Miss Minerva. "Well, I've never been weak. Ask anybody on Beacon Street."
He smiled wanly. "It's a strain in the Winterslips," he said. "Supposed to be Puritans, but always sort of yearning toward the lazy latitudes."
"I