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The Disappearance of Marie Severe


The Disappearance of Marie Severe
Ernest Bramah
This page copyright й 2002 Blackmask Online.
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Text scanned and proofed by Arthur Wendover

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June 22, 2002
"I wonder if you might happen to be interested in this case of Marie Severe, Mr.
Carrados?"
If Carrados's eyes had been in the habit of expressing emotion they would
doubtless have twinkled as Inspector Beedel thus casually introduced the subject
of the Swanstead on Thames schoolgirl whose inexplicable disappearance two weeks
earlier had filled column upon column of every newspaper with excited
speculation until the sheer impossibility of keeping the sensation going without
a shred of actual fact had relegated Marie Severe to the obscurity of an
occasional paragraph.
"If you are concerned with it, I am sure that I shall be interested, Inspector,"
said the blind man encouragingly. "It is still being followed, then?"
"Why, yes, sir, I have it in hand, but as for following itЧwell, 'following' is
perhaps scarcely the word now."
"Ah," commented Carrados. "There was very little to follow; I remember."
"I don't think that I've ever known a case of the kind with less, sir. For all
the trace she left, the girl might have melted out of existence, and from that
day to this, with the exception of that printed communication received by her
mother-you remember that, Mr. Carrados?Чthere hasn't been a clue worth wasting
so much as shoe leather on."
"You have had plenty of hints all the same, I suppose?"
Inspector Beedel threw out a gesture of mild despair. It conveyed the patient
exasperation of the conscientious and long-suffering man.
"I should say that the case 'took on' remarkably, Mr. Carrados. I doubt if there
has been a more popular sensation of its kind for years. Mind you, I'm all in
favour of publicity in the circumstances the photographs and description may
bring important facts to light, but sometimes it's a bit trying for those who
have to do the work at our end. 'Seen in Northampton,' 'seen in Ealing,' 'heard
of in West Croydon,' 'girl answering to the description observed in the
waiting-room at Charing Cross,' 'suspicious-looking man with likely girl noticed
about the Victoria Dock, Hull,' 'seen and spoken to near Chorley, Lancs,'
'caught sight of apparently struggling in a luxurious motor car on the
Portsmouth Road,' 'believed to have visited a Watford picture palace'Чthey've
all been gone into as carefully as though we believed that each one was the real