Three sevens : $b A detective story

All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. CONTENTS PAGE I . “ Solitary ” 11 II . Providence Aiding 21 III . Headquarters 29 IV . By Process of Law 38 V . “ Your Work! ” 48 VI . Just and Unjust 58 VII . The Promise 63 VIII . In San Pedro 74 IX . Old Rags! 83 X . Sancho 94 XI . Live Freight 104 XII . The Second Version 112 XIII . Ship and Beacon 117 XIV . Aunt Katherine 124 XV . Quarry 131 XVI . Mere Rumors 138 XVII . Gathering Storm 148 XVIII . Toward Sundown 156 XIX . The Lull 164 XX . The Magnet 170 XXI . Parley 176 XXII . The Underworld 184 XXIII . The Letter 191 XXIV . In the Throes 202 XXV . Ghosts 213 XXVI . Right and Left 224 XXVII . Tigers’ Den 234 XXVIII . Twelve 242 THREE SEVENS “SOLITARY” It mattered not at all to Craig that he had at least another ten years of prison ahead of him, nor that at least another month of this unexpired term would have to be passed here in the “cooler.” He had already considered these facts through long hours, and had found them as unproductive as stones. But the cat was a brand-new fact. He stroked her fur. He tickled her under the chin. In a sort of tremulous delight he wondered how she got here —where she came from —who owned her. At this last phase of his happy speculation it was as if his mind gave a slight start of surprise. Did she come as a heritage, so to speak, from Chi Slim? Here in San Pedro Prison, the punishment cells were a row of boiler-iron boxes, each of them approximately a five-foot hollow cube —six of them in all, ranged along one side of a dark subcellar. In each cell there was an iron door with two openings in it —one near the top, through which the guard could flash his light, when he made his rounds, and thus see what the inmate of the cell was doing; and the other at the bottom, through which things could be pushed, such as food and water pans, without the door being opened. They took no chances with a prisoner, once he was in his cell. There…