The Adventures of Jimmie Dale | Page 3

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THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMIE DALE
by Frank L. Packard

CONTENTS
PART ONE: THE MAN IN THE CASE
I. THE GRAY SEAL
II. BY PROXY
III. THE MOTHER LODE

IV. THE COUNTERFEIT FIVE
V. THE AFFAIR OF THE PUSHCART MAN
VI. DEVIL'S WORK
VII. THE THIEF
VIII. THE MAN HIGHER UP
IX. TWO CROOKS AND A KNAVE
X. THE ALIBI
XI. THE STOOL-PIGEON

PART TWO: THE WOMAN IN THE CASE
I. BELOW THE DEAD LINE
II. THE CALL TO ARMS
III. THE CRIME CLUB
IV. THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER
V. ON GUARD
VI. THE TRAP
VII. THE "HOUR"
VIII. THE TOCSIN
IX. THE TOCSIN'S STORY
X. SILVER MAG

XI. THE MAGPIE
XII. JOHN JOHANSSON--FOUR-TWO-EIGHT
XIII. THE ONLY WAY
XIV. OUT OF THE DARKNESS
XV. RETRIBUTION
XVI. "DEATH TO THE GRAY SEAL!"

PART ONE: THE MAN IN THE CASE
CHAPTER I
THE GRAY SEAL
Among New York's fashionable and ultra-exclusive clubs, the St.
James stood an acknowledged leader--more men, perhaps, cast an
envious eye at its portals, of modest and unassuming taste, as they
passed by on Fifth Avenue, than they did at any other club upon the
long list that the city boasts. True, there were more expensive clubs
upon whose membership roll scintillated more stars of New York's
social set, but the St. James was distinctive. It guaranteed a man, so to
speak--that is, it guaranteed a man to be innately a gentleman. It
required money, it is true, to keep up one's membership, but there were
many members who were not wealthy, as wealth is measured
nowadays--there were many, even, who were pressed sometimes to
meet their dues and their house accounts, but the accounts were
invariably promptly paid. No man, once in, could ever afford, or ever
had the desire, to resign from the St. James Club. Its membership was
cosmopolitan; men of every walk in life passed in and out of its doors,
professional men and business men, physicians, artists, merchants,
authors, engineers, each stamped with the "hall mark" of the St. James,
an innate gentleman. To receive a two weeks' out-of-town visitor's card
to the St. James was something to speak about, and men from Chicago,

St. Louis, or San Francisco spoke of it with a sort of holier-than-thou
air to fellow members of their own exclusive clubs, at home again.
Is there any doubt that Jimmie Dale was a gentleman--an INNATE
gentleman? Jimmie Dale's father had been a member of the St. James
Club, and one of the largest safe manufacturers of the United States, a
prosperous, wealthy man, and at Jimmie Dale's birth he had proposed
his son's name for membership. It took some time to get into the St.
James; there was a long waiting list that neither money, influence, nor
pull could alter by so much as one iota. Men proposed their sons' names
for membership when they were born as religiously as they entered
them upon the city's birth register. At twenty-one Jimmie Dale was
elected to membership; and, incidentally, that same year, graduated
from Harvard. It was Mr. Dale's desire that his son should enter the
business and learn it from the ground up, and Jimmie Dale, for four
years thereafter, had followed his father's wishes. Then his father died.
Jimmie Dale had leanings toward more artistic pursuits than business.
He was credited with sketching a little, writing a little; and he was
credited with having received a very snug amount from the combine to
which he sold out his safe-manufacturing interests. He lived a bachelor
life--his mother had been dead many years--in the house that his father
had left him on Riverside Drive, kept a car or two and enough servants
to run his menage smoothly, and serve a dinner exquisitely when he felt
hospitably inclined.
Could there be any doubt that Jimmie Dale was innately a gentleman?
It was evening, and Jimmie Dale sat at a small table in the corner of the
St. James Club dining room. Opposite him sat Herman Carruthers, a
young man of his own age, about twenty-six, a leading figure in the
newspaper