[Gutenberg 2371] • The Filigree Ball / Being a full and true account of the solution of the mystery concerning the Jeffrey-Moore affair

**CONTENTS:** ***BOOK I*** I. "THE MOORE HOUSE?"

II. I ENTER

III. I REMAIN

IV. SIGNED, VERONICA

V. MASTER AND DOG

VI. GOSSIP

VII. SLY WORK

VIII. SLYER WORK

IX. JINNY

X. FRANCIS JEFFREY ***BOOK II* ** XI. DETAILS

XII. THRUST AND PARRY

XIII. CHIEFLY THRUST

XIV. "LET US HAVE TALLMAN!"

XV. WHITE BOW AND PINK

XVI. AN EGOTIST OF THE FIRST WATER

XVII. A FRESH START

XVIII. IN THE GRASS ***BOOK III*** XIX.IN TAMPA

XX. "THE COLONEL'S OWN"

XXI. THE HEART OF THE PUZZLE

XXII. A THREAD IN HAND

XXIII. WORDS IN THE NIGHT

XXIV. TANTALIZING TACTICS

XXV. "WHO WILL TELL THE MAN?"

XXVI. RUDGE

XXVII. "YOU HAVE COME!" **** a selection from* **CHAPTER I: **** "THE MOORE HOUSE? ARE YOU SPEAKING OF THE MOORE HOUSE?"** For a detective whose talents had not been recognized at headquarters, I possessed an ambition which, fortunately for my standing with the lieutenant of the precinct, had not yet been expressed in words. Though I had small reason for expecting great things of myself, I had always cherished the hope that if a big case came my way I should be found able to do something with it-something more, that is, than I had seen accomplished by the police of the District of Columbia since I had had the honor of being one of their number. Therefore, when I found myself plunged, almost without my own volition, into the Jeffrey-Moore affair, I believed that the opportunity had come whereby I might distinguish myself. It had complications, this Jeffrey-Moore affair; greater ones than the public ever knew, keen as the interest in it ran both in and out of Washington. This is why I propose to tell the story of this great tragedy from my own standpoint, even if in so doing I risk the charge of attempting to exploit my own connection with this celebrated case. In its course I encountered as many disappointments as triumphs, and brought out of the affair a heart as sore as it was satisfied; for I am a lover of women and- But I am keeping you from the story itself. I was at the station-house the night Uncle David came in. He was always called Uncle David, even by the urchins who followed him in the street; so I am showing him no disrespect, gentleman though he is, by giving him a title which as completely characterized him in those days, as did his moody ways, his quaint attire and the persistence with which he kept at his side his great mastiff, Rudge. I had long since heard of the old gentleman as one of the most interesting residents of the precinct. I had even seen him more than once on the avenue, but I had never before been brought face to face with him, and consequently had much too superficial a knowledge of his countenance to determine offhand whether the uneasy light in his small gray eyes was natural to them, or simply the result of present excitement. But when he began to talk I detected an unmistakable tremor in his tones, and decided that he was in a state of suppressed agitation; though he appeared to have nothing more alarming to impart than the fact that he had seen a light burning in some house presumably empty. It was all so trivial that I gave him but scant attention till he let a name fall which caused me to prick up my ears and even to put in a word. "The Moore house," he had said. "The Moore house?" I repeated in amazement. "Are you speaking of the Moore house?" A thousand recollections came with the name.