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Forthcoming titles

(Book titles are subject to change)

A Royal Engineer in the Low Countries

A Cavalry Surgeon at Waterloo

With the Third Guards during the Peninsular War

The First and Last Campaigns of the Great War

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Vincent O'Sullivan

Supernatural and Weird Fiction of Algernon Blackwood

Narratives of the Anglo-Zulu War

and many others

The Complete Four Just Men: Volume 2

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The Complete Four Just Men: Volume 2
Leonaur Original
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Author(s): Edgar Wallace
Date Published: 2008/06
Page Count: 428
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-475-1
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-476-8

A second helping of deadly justice from the Four Just Men

This is the second volume of stories of vigilante justice meted out at the hands of the Four Just Men. These are iconic stories of adventure, intrigue and retribution set in the time immediately following the First World War. Edgar Wallace's prolific pen was never more successful than with the creation of these timeless stories which remain relevant in every way. Wrong doers beware—this is not just a court of no appeal—this is no court! The complete Four Just Men collection has been gathered together by Leonaur in a two volume set with complementing covers and available in soft and hard cover with dust jacket.

It was a familiar sound—the clang of fire bells—and apparently fire engines were in the street, for he heard the whine of motors and the sound of voices. He sniffed; there was a strong smell of burning, and looking up he saw a flicker of light reflected on the ceiling. He sprang out of bed to discover the cause. It was immediately discernible, for the fuse factory was burning merrily, and he caught a glimpse of firemen at work and a momentary vision of a hose in action. Mr. Stedland permitted himself to smile. That fire would be worth money to him, and there was no danger to himself.<br>
And then he heard a sound in the hall below; a deep voice boomed an order, and he caught the chatter of Jope, and unlocked the door. The lights were burning in the hall and on the stairway. Looking over the banisters he saw the shivering Jope, with an overcoat over his pyjamas, expostulating with a helmeted fireman.<br>
“I can’t help it,” the latter was saying, “I’ve got to get a hose through one of these houses, and it might as well be yours.”<br>
Mr. Stedland had no desire to have a hose through his house, and thought he knew an argument which might pass the inconvenience on to his neighbour.<br>
“Just come up here a moment,” he said. “I want to speak to one of those firemen.”<br>
The fireman came clumping up the stairs in his heavy boots, a fine figure of a man in his glittering brass.<br>
“Sorry,” he said, “but I must get the hose—”<br>
“Wait a moment, my friend,” said Mr. Stedland with a smile. “I think you will understand me after a while. There are plenty of houses in this road, and a tenner goes a long way, eh? Come in.”<br>
He walked back into his room and the fireman followed and stood watching as he unlocked the safe. Then:<br>
“I didn’t think it would be so easy,” he said.<br>
Stedland swung round.<br>
“Put up your hands,” said the fireman, “and don’t make trouble, or you’re going out, Noah. I’d just as soon kill you as talk to you.”<br>
Then Noah Stedland saw that beneath the shade of the helmet the man’s face was covered with a black mask.<br>
“Who—who are you?” he asked hoarsely.<br>
“I’m one of the Four Just Men—greatly reviled and prematurely mourned. Death is my favourite panacea for all ills. . . . ”<br>
At nine o’clock in the morning Mr. Noah Stedland still sat biting his nails, a cold uneaten breakfast spread on a table before him.<br>
To him came Mr. Jope wailing tidings of disaster, interrupted by Chief Inspector Holloway and a hefty subordinate who followed the servant into the room.<br>
“Coming for a little walk with me, Stedland?” asked the cheery inspector, and Stedland rose heavily.<br>
“What’s the charge?” he asked heavily.<br>
“Blackmail,” replied the officer. “We’ve got evidence enough to hang you—delivered by special messenger. You fixed that case against Storr too—naughty, naughty!”<br>
As Mr. Stedland put on his coat the inspector asked:<br>
“Who gave you away?”<br>
Mr. Stedland made no reply. Manfred’s last words before he vanished into the foggy street had been emphatic.<br>
“If he wanted to kill you, the man called Curtis would have killed you this afternoon when we played on your cunning; we could have killed you as easily as we set fire to the factory. And if you talk to the police of the Four Just Men, we will kill you, even though you be in Pentonville with a regiment of soldiers round you.”
And somehow Mr. Stedland knew that his enemy spoke the truth. So he said nothing, neither there nor in the dock at the Old Bailey, and went to penal servitude without speaking.<br>