"The Gold Bag" is so unlike the usual products of Miss Wells' pen that
one wonders if she possesses a dual personality or is it merely
extraordinary versatility, for she can certainly write detective stories
just as well as she can write nonsense verse. The story is told in the
first person by a modest young sleuth who is sent to a suburban place to
ferret out the mystery which shrouds the murder of a prominent man.
Circumstantial evidence in the shape of a gold mesh bag points to a
woman as the criminal, and the only possible one is the dead man's niece
with whom the detective promptly falls in love, though she is already
engaged to her uncle's secretary, an alliance which the dead man
insisted must be discontinued, otherwise he would disinherit the girl.
The story is well told and the interest is cleverly aroused and
sustained.
Second edition. With a colored frontispiece, 12mo.
Decorated cloth, $1.20 net.
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