SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE OUTSIDE LEDGE: A CABLEGRAM MYSTERY

 "The Outside Ledge:  A Cablegram Mystery" by "L. T. Meade" (Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith) & "Robert Eustace" (Eustace Robert Barton) (first published in The Harmsworth Magazine, October 1900; reprinted in A Treasury of Victorian Detective Stories, edited by E. F. Bleiler, 1979; reprinted in Purr-fect Crime, edited by Carol-Lynn Rossell Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, & Isaac Asimov, 1989;  reprinted in 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories, edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, & Martin H. Greenberg, 1993; reprinted in the Meade and Eustace collection The Detections of Miss (Florence) Cusack, 1998; reprinted in The Big Book of Female Detectives, edited by Otto Penzler, 2018)

Miss Florence Cusack appeared in only five detective stories by L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace; she was one of the few female detectives who followed the great popularity of Sherlock Holmes.  Unlike with many detectives, Miss Cusack's cases were not whodunnits, for we know n the villain at the outset, but howdunnits.  Miss Cusack's willing but sometimes befuddled Watson was Dr. Lonsdale, who was always willing to give her a hand.

Oscar Hamilton is a successful financier, whose main investments are on South African Gold Mines.   His trading on the Stock Exchange relies on confidential information delivered to him by his gent in South Africa, a man entirely above reproach.  (Although not really stated, I gather the information led to insider trading, a practice that seemed not to bother the financial or legal authorities.  Times were different then.)  Somehow the information is being leaked to one of Hamilton's rivals, a Mr. Gildford.  Despite a layer of secrecy and many protections against the information being leaked out, when Hamilton's broker arrives at the Stock Exchange to follow Hamilton's orders for the day, he finds that Gildford had just been there, dealing in the same stocks, in the same amount, and with the same instructions that Hamilton had given the broker.  The result for Hamilton was a loss of money, or, at the very best, far less returns on his investments than he should have.

Obviously Gildford somehow had access to Hamilton's confidential information.  But how?  the information was cabled directly to Hamilton from South Africa; strict measures were taken there to prevent any leaks.  When each message arrived, the only persons in  the room were Hamilton, his partner Le Marchant, and Hamilton's broker.  Neither Hamilton nor Le Marchant left the room after the broker left with his instructions.  Hamilton's entire staff was also quarantined as an extra precaution.  Telephone and cable wires were disabled to prevent information getting out that way.  Both Hamilton's and Gildfords's offices were under close watch and Gildford's communication wires were also disabled.  There seemed to be no humanly way the information could have gotten out.

The villain, of course, is Le Marchant, who had racked up sizable gambling debts.  Le Marchant is engaged to Evelyn Dudley, the only daughter of wealthy Colonel Dudley of the Coldstream Guards, and the pair is due to be married the following Monday.  Once the marriage takes place, the Colonel will be forced to settle Le Marchant's debts for his daughter's sake.  Evelyn is a dear friend of Miss Cusack, who is determined to prove Le Marchant a blackguard and prevent Evelyn from marrying the scoundrel.  But how?

Miss Cusack arranges a small dinner party with Evelyn and Le Marchant, and Dr. Lonsdale is also present to take help judge Lonsdale's character in case Miss Cusack is in error about Evelyn's finance.  During the dinner, Miss Cusack and Dr. Lonsdale notice a distinct odor.  It is valerian.  The smell is coming from Lonsdale's handkerchief.  He states that he has been nervous lately and his doctor had prescribed a few drops of valerian in water; somehow some drops must have ended up on his handkerchief -- an explanation Miss Cusack finds specious.

The odor of valerian was all Miss Cusack needed to determine what had happened.  As can be expected, Dr. Lonsdale (and the reader) is left completely in the dark until the solution is revealed.

L. T. Meade (1844-1914) was a prolific author of nearly 200 books, many of them novels for young girls.  In the mystery field she is noted for Stories from the Diaries of a Doctor (two volumes), written with Clifford Halifax, The Sorceress of the Strand (with Eustace), The Brotherhood of Seven Kings (with Eustace), and three volumes about occult detective   Diana Marburg, the Oracle of Maddox Street.  In all, Meade published 66 mystery books, as compared to her 149 girl's and children's books, and her 101 miscellaneous books and twelve miscellaneous collections for young readers.

Robert Eustace, a medical doctor, collaborated with Meade on eleven books. and with Edgar Jepson and with actress Gertrude Warden on one book apiece.  He is best known today for co-authoring The Documents in the Case with Dorothy L. Sayers.  Most of his contributions in these collaborations was supplying scientific and medical backgrouns, as well as the occasional plot idea.