ASHTON-KIRK
INVESTIGATOR
BY
John T. McIntyre
Author of "In the Dead of Night," &c.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY
RALPH L. BOYER
PHILADELPHIA
1910
To my Friend
GRANT GIBNEY
INTRODUCTION
Ashton-Kirk, who has solved so many mysteries, is himselfsomething of a problem even to those who know him best. Althoughyoung, wealthy, and of high social position, he is neverthelessan indefatigable worker in his chosen field. He smiles when mencall him a detective. "No; only an investigator," he says.
He has never courted notoriety; indeed, his life has been moreor less secluded. However, let a man do remarkable work in anyline and, as Emerson has observed, "the world will make a beatenpath to his door."
Those who have found their way to Ashton-Kirk's door have beenof many races and interests. Men of science have often beensurprised to find him in touch with the latest discoveries,scholars searching among strange tongues and dialects, and othersdeep in tattered scrolls, ancient tablets and forgotten bookshave been his frequent visitors. But among them come many whoseek his help in solving problems in crime.
"I'm more curious than some other fellows, that's all," is theway he accounts for himself. "If a puzzle is put in front of me Ican't rest till I know the answer." At any rate his natural benthas always been to make plain the mysterious; each well hiddenstep in the perpetration of a crime has always been for him anexciting lure; and to follow a thread, snarled by circumstancesor by another intelligence has been, he admits, his chiefdelight.
There are many strange things to be written of this remarkableman—but this, the case of the numismatist Hume, has beenselected as the first because it is one of the simplest, and yetclearly illustrates Ashton-Kirk's peculiar talents. It will alsothrow some light on the question, often asked, as to how hiscases come to him.
A second volume that shows the investigator deep in anothermystery, even more intricate and puzzling than this, is entitled"Ashton-Kirk and the Scarlet Scapular."
CONTENTS
I. PENDLETON CALLS UPONASHTON-KIRK
II. MISS EDYTH VALE STATES HERCASE
III. THE PORTRAITS OF GENERALWAYNE
VII. THE SCHWARTZ-MICHAELBAYONET
VIII. THE NEWSPAPERS BEGIN TOPLAY THEIR PART
IX. MISS VALE TELLS WHAT SHEKNOWS