MYSTERY IN THE ORIENT

As the Professor sauntered through a narrow back street of Singapore, his observing eyes spotted the man, in clever disguise, whom he had trailed halfway around the world. At that moment a native plain-clothes man stepped to his side and whispered.

Fordney indicated the suspect, got into a police car and drove forty-five miles in the country. There in a roadside ditch lay the bodies of three men, their high-powered American car wrecked nearby. Two of the men were dead, the third, unconscious, was taken to a hospital.

From examination of their clothing Fordney ascertained all were U.S. citizens. Though there was no personal identification on any of them, the criminologist learned from papers in the car the three were Leonard Ball, Cedric Agar and Alfred Huntley. Among the papers was a charred check made out to Cedric Agar from the car’s owner. The following is the only other information Fordney could secure from their clothing and car:

1. Leonard Ball’s wife was a well-known novelist writing under a pseudonym.

2. The wife of the living man was an extremely wealthy woman who had threatened to divorce her husband if his infidelities continued.

3. The car owner had secretly encouraged her, and the living man only recently had discovered the fact.

4. Married to the survivor’s wife’s cousin, Leonard Ball had tried to effect a reconciliation between the survivor and his wife, and had upbraided the car owner, engaged to a planter’s daughter, for his attitude.

Fordney checked his notes, then sent a cable to the living man’s wife.

Who is the survivor of the accident? Turn page for solution.