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Transcriber's Notes:
     1. Page scan source:
        http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-90469872
        (National Library of Australia)






THE RED-HEADED MAN






BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

CLAUDE DUVAL OF '95
_A ROMANCE OF THE ROAD_

Some Press Opinions

Athenæm.--"The book is cleverly written and will interest the reader
who can forget its impossibilities."

Academy.--"The book is a story of modern highway robbery by a lady
instead of a gentleman of the road."

Scotsman.--"A capital story of mystery, and unravelled with an
entertaining thought."

Pall Mall Gazette.--"Mr. Fergus Hume has shown his wonted skill in
steering his reader plausibly through the pitfalls of a tangled plot
in his 'Claude Duval of Ninety-Five.' The conception of a mounted and
masked highwayman in our own day is daring and original and is worked
out with great ingenuity."

Daily Graphic.--"Mr. Fergus Hume starts with a good idea in his tale
of a modern highwayman and he has crowded a variety of incidents into
the pages of his book. The story opens dramatically and with some
novelty."

Whitehall Review.--"A rattling romance of the road, well written, well
conceived and capitally told. The present book is one of absorbing
interest and it is impossible to put it aside until the last line is
reached."

Black and White.--"There is abundant action and a well-sustained
mystery in Mr. Fergus Hume's 'Claude Duval of '95."

Morning Post.--"Less characteristic than the majority of Mr. Hume's
stories this 'Romance of the Road' is one of the most entertaining
among them."

Gentlewoman.--"Mr. Hume's latest contribution to fiction 'Claude Duval
of Ninety-Five' is a good honest tale of adventure which you cannot
easily put by when you take it up."

Westminster Gazette.--"'Claude Duval of '95' is an excellent story."

Manchester Guardian.--"A female highwayman is a somewhat daring
variety in fiction of which crime and audacity is the chief merit of
Mr. Fergus Hume's latest work. Mr. Hume is a clever writer in a very
fertile vein."

Literary World.--"In 'Claude Duval of Ninety-Five' we have a
recendesence of highway robbery very skilfully contrived."

Weekly Sun.--"The plot is very cleverly worked out. The book is to be
heartily commended as one of its author's masterpieces."

Literature.--"The story is novel, and is worked out into a present day
environment with real dexterity."

Yorkshire Post.--"An entertaining romance which should agree with the
prevailing mood of the libraries."

Observer.--"Mr. Hume's story will rank among the best of its type."

DIGBY, LONG & CO., PUBLISHERS, LONDON.






THE RED-HEADED MAN


BY
FERGUS HUME

AUTHOR OF
"_The Mystery of a Hansom Cab_," "_Claude Duval of '95_,"
"_A Masquerade Mystery_," "_The Rainbow Feather_," _etc._




London
DIGBY, LONG & CO.
18 Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, E.C.
1899






CONTENTS

CHAP.
I.      AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME
II.     THE BLONDE LADY
III.    MR. TORRY'S THEORY
IV.     THE DEAD MAN'S NAME
V.      "DE MORTIUS NIL NISI BONUM"
VI.     THE SECRETARY
VII.    EVIDENCE AT THE INQUEST
VIII.   THE ROBBERY
IX.     CAPTAIN MANUEL
X.      DONNA MARIA
XI.     UNEXPECTED EVIDENCE
XII.    A CHANCE MEETING
XIII.   A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
XIV.    THE SECRET SOCIETY
XV.     A WOMAN SCORNED
XVI.    THE TURQUOISE RING
XVII.   MORE MYSTERIES
XVIII.  A STRANGE OCCURRENCE
XIX.    ANOTHER PUZZLE
XX.     THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
XXI.    DONNA MARIA EXPLAINS
XXII.   THE LOCKET
XXIII.  A CONFESSION
XXIV.   A QUEER MESSAGE
XXV.    THE MEETING IN HYDE PARK
XXVI.   CONCLUSION






THE RED-HEADED MAN




CHAPTER I
AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME


Frank Darrel was a young man of twenty-five, with a sufficiency of
good looks, and a comfortable income of five hundred a year. Also by
way of employing his spare time, he was a realistic novelist of a
particularly new school, founded on the axiom that fact invariably
poaches on the domain of fiction