Case of the Missing Men

“Something I want you to do for me . . . But I can’t tell you now. It’s something I’m frightened about.” Ludovic Travers, consulting specialist for Scotland Yard, receives two invitations at once to visit Beechingford. One comes from Cuthbert Daine, his literary agent. Daine is an important and busy man, and it seems strange that he would want to see Travers personally about a matter that might have been handled by mail. The other invitation comes from Austin Chaice, the successful mystery writer. He is, he says, preparing a manual for detective story writers, and needs advice on certain points. The puzzlement aroused in Travers’s mind by these two letters is crystallized by a half-hysterical telephone call from Chaice’s attractive wife. Travers is prepared to find a delicate and involved situation at Beechingford—but not prepared for the