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slash promo. And the The Welcome back everyone to one thousand Classic Short Stories and Tales.

This is your host, John Haggadorn.

Today, two stories from Andrew Forrester.

Real name, James Redding, where?

He was a British writer, novelist, and playwright, and creator of one of the first female

detectives in fiction. Today we offer two stories from his collection of stories called

Secret Service, or Recollections of a City Detective.

Our first story is called The Duke's Mystery.

And now our story.

Little more than five years ago, And now our story.

Little more than five years ago, a series of robberies on a grand scale was perpetrated at the West End of London. There was hardly a tradesman of note who did not suffer from these depredations,

which for a long while baffled all the skill and vigilance of the police.

After a lapse of perhaps six months from the formation of belief that these robberies were the result of a concerted

action by the rascaldum of the metropolis. The victims and their friends formed themselves

into a committee, and I was retained to investigate the affair.

As the matter had by this time assumed great importance,

...