Title: The Mystery of M. Felix

Author: B. L. Farjeon

CHAPTER I.

A CRY FOR HELP FLOATS THROUGH THE NIGHT.

"Help!"

Through the whole of the night, chopping, shifting winds had been tearing through the streets of London, now from the north, now from the south, now from the east, now from the west, now from all points of the compass at once; which last caprice--taking place for at least the twentieth time in the course of the hour which the bells of Big Ben were striking--was enough in itself to make the policeman on the beat doubtful of his senses.

"What a chap hears in weather like this," he muttered, "and what he fancies he hears, is enough to drive him mad."