"And That Had Deepened the Mystery of What Her Game Might Be."

WE take a breather from our usually grim presentations to offer a pair of featherweight crime tales from the same magazine issue, the first of which is quite properly called . . .

(1) "The Baffling Game."

By Keene Thompson (?-?).

First appearance: Argosy, July 1916.

Short short short story (5 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 729).

   "The Sterling Private Detective Agency had not thought it wise to inform him why they wanted him to keep a sharp eye on all the movements of the 'dark young woman, about twenty-two, five-feet-four, weight one hundred and eighteen, attractive, speaks with a foreign accent,' who had been shadowed by another operative to that brown stone house in the middle of the quiet residential side-street between Central Park and the 'L'."

THE enigmatic young lady in question is baffling indeed, but our protagonist is no dummy and will unravel the enigma while deservedly earning his paycheck . . .

Principal characters:

~ Charlie O’Neill, Mademoiselle Amélie Lavoir, the Comte de Brissac, Wade, and the house detective.

- References:

- "the L":

  "An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks). The railway may be a broad-gauge, standard-gauge or narrow-gauge railway, rapid transit, light rail, monorail, or a suspension railway. Elevated railways are normally found in urban areas that would otherwise require impracticably many level crossings. Usually, the tracks of elevated railways that run on steel viaducts can be seen from street level." (Wikipedia HERE).

  - "I am of what we call at home the bourgeoisie":

  "The bourgeoisie are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a 'middle class' between the peasantry and aristocracy." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "the catspaw":

  "'Cat's paw,' an idiom, meaning 'the dupe (or unwitting tool) of another,' derived from Jean de La Fontaine's fable 'The Monkey and the Cat'." (Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

Resource:

- Keene Thompson had quite a few detective fiction story credits over his career (1914-29; FictionMags), primarily in Detective Story Magazine and Argosy, while creating a couple of short-lived series characters: Bije Hicks (6 stories) and Silas Spoggs (2 stories).

IF you go a few more pages into this issue of Argosy you'll eventually come to . . .

(2) "The Stop-Over."

By Helen E. Prouty (?-?).

First appearance: Argosy, July 1916.

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at Archive.org (HERE; go to text page 754).

   "In fact, I put them on the New York train."

   "You did what?"

IN this story, it's unfortunate that Henderson has something in common with a Poe character: "In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember."

Typo: "enable" (should be enabled).

Principal characters:

~ Henderson, Mrs. Fessenden, Mr. Fessenden, and John Rivers.

Reference:

- "the Pullmans were forward":

  "Pullman is the term for railroad dining cars, lounge cars, and especially sleeping cars that were built and operated by the Pullman Company (founded by George Pullman) from 1867 to December 31, 1968." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resource:

- "The Stop-Over" is Helen E. Prouty's only item in the FictionMags list.

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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