The Case of the Negligent Nymph

Начало книги

FROM ins RENTED CANOE PERRY MASON SIZED UP THE ALDER estate as a general sizes up a prospective battlefield.

The moon, a few days past the full, made a shimmering path of silver in the east, and served to illuminate Mason’s objective, an island connected with the mainland by a fifty-foot steel-and-concrete bridge.

On that island George S. Alder’s huge two-storied mansion faced the narrow channel, as a castle might look down upon its protecting moat.

Fencing off the estate from the curious eyes of passers-by on the mainland was a brick wall topped with wrought iron and studded with broken glass. On the bay side were signs warning trespassers they would be prosecuted. A long wharf ran out into the sluggish waters, a sandspit on the northern side gave a crescent-shaped bathing beach and, back of that, a well-kept lawn became a velvety green carpet, thanks to the aid of loam which had been trucked in at great expense.

Читать дальше →