the seven dial mystry

8/2/2019 The Seven Dial Mystry

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The seven dial mystry

A house party is taking place at Chimneys which has been rented out by the Marquess of

Caterham for two years to Sir Oswald Coote, a self-made millionaire and his wife. As well as the

couple, there is a party of young people staying there, three girls and four young men. One of

them, Gerald "Gerry" Wade, has a deserved reputation for sleeping in very late in the morning,much to the annoyance of Lady Coote. The six youngsters plan a joke on Gerald by buying eight

alarm clocks and putting them in his room that night after he has fallen asleep but timed to go off

at irregular intervals the next morning, starting at 6.30 am.

The next morning, all the clocks having rung at the prescribed times but Wade not having stirred

from his bed, it is discovered that the young man is dead in his bed, having drunk an overdose of

chloralduring the night. The group is shocked and Jimmy and Ronny agree to drive over to

Deane Priory where Loraine Wade, Gerry's step-sister, lives and break the news to her. On the

way, Ronny hints at something about Gerry but stops full at confiding in Jimmy. Returning to

Chimneys and going to Gerry's room, Jimmy points out to Ronny that the alarm clocks have

been arranged on the mantelpiece but there are only seven of them; one is missing. It is laterfound in a hedge, having been thrown from Gerry's window.

Several days later, Lord Caterham retakes possession of Chimneys at the end of its two-year

lease from the Cootes. Theinquesthas taken place with a verdict of "Death by Misadventure"

but no explanation has been reached for the rearrangement of the clocks. His daughter Bundle is

a friend of Bill Eversleigh's and puzzling over the matter she decides to write to him. Gerry

Wade died in her room and pulling out a part of her writing desk she finds an unfinished letter

from Gerry to Loraine dated the day before he died. In it he speaks of being "awfully fit" but "so

sleepy I can't keep my eyes open." Most strangely, he asks her to "forget what I said about that

Seven Dials business." More puzzled than ever, she decides to go to London to see Bill. On the

way there, a man steps out of a hedge and into the road. Bundle misses him but he collapsesanyway, muttering about "Seven Dials..." and "Tell... Jimmy Thesiger." The man dies. Bundle

manages to get the body into the car and to a doctor where she is told that the car didn't hit the

manhe was shot.

A card on the body identifies the man as being Ronny Devereux and Bundle recalls that he also

was one of the Cootes' house party. She returns to Chimneys and tells her father all that has

happened and he tells her in turn that during his absence he received a visit from George Lomax,

theUnder-Secretary for State for Foreign Affairswho received a strange warning letter written

from theSeven Dialsdistrict ofLondon. The next day Bundle finally makes it to London and

gets Jimmy's address from Bill. Going there, she meets Loraine Wade who has also called in to

see Jimmy and breaks the news of Ronny's death to Jimmy. Shocked, he recounts Ronny'sbehaviour in the car on the way to see Loraine for the first time and she, in turn, tells the two of

them that the incident that Gerry referred to in his last letter to her was a list of names and dates

she found with an address in Seven Dials on it when she accidentally opened one of her late half-

brother's letters. He had then hinted to her of some secret society with reference to theMafia.

The three wonder if Gerry's death was murder and the removal of one of the alarm clocks,

leaving seven dials, was a warning signal. Jimmy knows that Gerry was connected in some way

with theForeign Officeand security services. Bundle tells the other two of the warning letter that
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George Lomax received and that he is holding a house party the next week at his house at

Wyvern Abbey and Jimmy and Bundle decide to get themselves an invitation and join in.

Bundle decides to go and see Superintendent Battle atScotland Yardabout the matter, but he

proves unhelpful, aside hinting that Bill Eversleigh knows something about Seven Dials. The

next evening, Bundle meets Bill for a night out and asks him what he knows. He tells her thatSeven Dials is a seedynightcluband gambling den and Bundle insists he takes her there. In the

club, Bundle recognises the doorman as being Alfred, a formerfootmanfrom Chimneys. The

next day, after making arrangements through family connections to get into George Lomaxsparty, Bundle returns to the Seven Dials club and questions Alfred as to why he left Chimneys.

He tells her that the Cootes had as a guest a Russian gentleman called Mosgorovsky who offered

him three times his footman's salary to leave his previous employment and work at the club.

Bundle forces the scared man to show her round and he eventually takes her into a secret room in

which there is a table and seven chairs. She forces Alfred to hide her in a cupboard in the room

and several hours later is able to witness from her place of concealment a strange meeting as five

people gather. They wear hoods over their evening wear with eye slits and clock faces on the

hoods, each clock showing a different time between one o'clock and six o'clock and their accentsreveal their different nationalities. One of the sinister group is a woman with a mole on her

exposed shoulder blade. They talk of the absent Number Two and one of the figures complains

about the always-missing Number Seven. They also talk of Lomax's party at Wyvern Abbey

where a German called Eberhard will be present with a valuable invention. They talk of plans to

divert suspicion from the inquest on Ronny Devereux and mention Bauer, the footman at

Chimneys as being in their pay. The meeting over, the group leaves and Alfred frees Bundle

from her watching place.

The next day Bundle tells Jimmy of the meeting. They suspect Bauer of murdering Gerry and

Jimmy tells Bundle that Eberhard has invented aformulawhich could make wire as strong as

steel, revolutionising airplane manufacturing. TheGerman governmentturned the invention

down and the meeting at Wyvern Abbey is for a possible sale to theBritish, represented by Sir

Stanley Digby, the Air Minister.

The next Friday, Bundle and Jimmy arrive at Wyvern Abbey and are introduced to the other

guests including the Cootes, Sir Stanley Digby, Terence O'Rourke and the beautifulHungarian

Countess Radzky. Bundle is further surprised to see Superintendent Battle there. He tells her that

he is at Wyvern to "keep an eye on things". Bill Eversleigh also turns up. Jimmy has told Bill

what Bundle told him of the meeting of the Seven Dials. Realising that Sir Stanley is only going

to be staying one night at Wyvern, they work out that any theft of the formula is going to be

attempted that night and Jimmy and Bill agree to keep two separate watches, changing over at

3.00 am, both using apistolthat Jimmy has brought with him.

At 2.00 am Jimmy, on the first watch in an alcove in the hallway, thinks he hears a noise coming

from the library, a room that leads on to the terrace. He finds nothing in the room and continues

his watch from there.

Bundle, previously told by Jimmy and Bill that there was no part in their plans for her, had

meekly acquiesced but instead had changed her clothes into something more suitable, climbed
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down theivyoutside her room and had promptly run into Superintendent Battle, also on his own

watch outside the house. He persuades her to go back. She does so but goes to check on Jimmy

in his alcove. Finding that he has gone, and not knowing that he has moved to the library, she

goes to Bill's bedroom but finds that she has made a mistake and it is the Countess's room but the

Hungarian lady is also missing. Her puzzlement is interrupted by the noises of a tremendous

struggle coming from the library and two gunshots.

This noise also attracts the attention of Loraine Wade who has arrived at Wyvern at the dead of

night. A few moments before the commotion, a paper packet lands at her feet as she walks along

the darkened terrace. She picks it up and sees a man climbing down the ivy from above her. She

turns and runs, almost straight into Battle whose questions are interrupted by the fight in the

library. Running there, they find Jimmy unconscious and shot through his right arm. The

household is woken by the noise and pours into the room. Jimmy comes round and tells how he

fought the man who climbed down the ivy. They were both armed and each fired a shot. Sir

Stanley rushes back to check his room but finds that the formula has gone. Battle is not perturbed

as Loraine still holds the dropped packet and is able to return its precious contents. Sir Oswald

Coote raises suspicions when he comes in from the terrace, having supposedly been on a late-night walk and having seen no one suspicious but having found the pistol of the escaped man on

the lawn. The Countess is also found in the room, unconscious behind a screen. She tells a story

of coming down for a book to read, being unable to sleep, and hearing what turned out to be

Jimmys approach, hid from fearof him being a burglar. She passed out when the fight

happened. Bill gallantly offers to help her to her room and Bundle suddenly spots a mole on the

Countess's shoulder through her negligee: she is a member of the Seven Dials! She tells Battle

the whole story of her spying on the association and the role the Countess plays and is told to

leave matters alone.

The next morning, Battle searches the scenes of the crime and finds the place where the

assailant's pistol landed when it was thrown onto the lawn, only one set of footprints leading to

this pointSir Oswald'sand a charred, left-handed glove with marks of teeth in the fireplace.

He theorises that the thief threw the gun onto the lawn from the terrace and then climbed back

into the house via the ivy. Bundle hears news from Chimneys that the footman Bauer is missing

and Sir Oswald leaps to the conclusion that he is their man.

Before the house party breaks up, Jimmy asks Loraine to keep an eye on Bundle and make sure

she doesn't get herself into danger by investigating on her own any more while he integrates

himself with Lady Coote and gets an invitation to their new house in Letherbury, wanting to

investigate Sir Oswald further, suspecting him of being the missing Number Seven from the

Seven Dials.

At Letherbury, Jimmy looks through Sir Oswald's study in the dead of night, is almost caught by

Rupert Bateman but manages to talk his way out of the situation. The next day Loraine and

Bundle arrive, their car having "broken down" a short distance away, and Jimmy is able to tell

them that he has found no evidence that Sir Oswald is Number Seven.

Several days later, Bill turns up at Jimmy's London flat. Ronny Devereux's executors have sent

him a letter that Ronny left for Bill, should anything happen to him, and he finds its contents
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