The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-12-21
That Last
Chapter
How a Detective Story
Was Finished.
By F. A. Mitchell

"Wel?"
care you Mr.. MacKinnon?"
| eyes. What is it?''
I'm Hayden, composing room. The
| last chapter Of that detective story is
missing"
"Miss1ng?"
eyes"
"Great Scott! What are we to do,
| Connolly read it, and | sent up the
| manuscript just as l received it from
| him. You say 1t is a detective story?
Yes. That's what the title indi
| Gates"
| Here was a beautiful situation. A
| detective story with the last chapter
| missing. Connolly was the only per
son connected with the office who had
| read it, and he had gone away. / or
| dered a search made for the missing
| chapter without success. Nothing re-
| manned but the author. I called to
| the telephone operator, Give me No.
| 2O7S Penfeld."
1t seemed an hour, though it was
but forty seconds, before l heard a
click, and q woman's voice answered:
"Wen?"
as this Miss QuigleyY'
"This is Miss Quigley's home, but
she's not here. She sailed this morn
ing for Japan"
The groan / gave was doubtless audi
BILE to the woman On the other end of
the wire, for she asked if anything
was the matter. In reply l asked her
if Miss Quigley had left any manu-
scripts or parts Of manuscripts with
her. The reply was that before leay-
ing the authoress had burned every
scrap of paper she had except a de-
tective story In the hands of her pub
fishers. I groaned again and hung up
the receiver without even thanking
the person for her information.
There was nothing for it but to read
the story and write the last chapter
myself. Just think-make an ending
to a detective story, a detective story
written by woman famed for weav-
ing plots that no human being but her
self could unravel. l must first wade
through a labyrinth Of incidents In
tended to throw the reader off the
track, my head at the same time being
full of other matters. Connolly attend
ed to such work, and l knew little or
nothing about it. He had gone into
hiding to escape legal summons and
no one but himself knew where. With
the authoress in the middle of the big
gest ocean on earth, there was no res
pite for me. l took up the telephone
receiver again.
"Send me the manuscript Of that de-
tective story at once. There's been
some COMPOUNDED carelessness some
where, and whoever is to blame will
get his head taken off,
The latter part of this message was
superfuous. 1t was merely a blowing
off Of the mad that was in me. The
manuscript came down, and, placing 1t
on the desk at one side, the rest being
covered with an infinite variety of
matter, principally galley proofs, page
proofs and everything else that can
come from printers to distress an ed
itor, | turned to the first chapter and
began to skim, for had altogether too
much to occupy me to give the matter
| undivided attention. While reading
the first chapter l gave orders concern
ing the making of pictures, the buying
of supplies, the turning down Of sub
mitted manuscripts. ! apOlOgiZed for
having offended suffragists, anti-suf-
fragists, prohibitionists and winebib-
bers.
l have given this information re-
speeding the Interruptions attending
my reading Of the first chapter simply
for sample Of the rest. When l fin
ished all Of the story l possessed l
knew no more about the plan on which
1t was written than of the last chapter
But / had formed some idea of what
might possibly be thrown in to worry
the reader-it certainly worried me-
and I went over it all again, this time
to get a comprehensive view, and the
result was more satisfactory. But as
to who stole the watermelOn-it was
either a watermelon or sapphire as
big as a watermelOn-I had not the
faintest conception. However, since
there must be a conclusion I selected
from a number of intended misleaders
one that thought wouldsbe the easiest
to make fit the conditions. This done,
I locked my desk and went home to
dinner.
At 9 O'clock / sat down to write the
last chapter of ''The Gem of Good
Hope" My work consisted in fitting
my denouement to the rest Of the sto-
| ry. or, rather, in fitting the rest of the
story to my denouement. Whoever
| has tried to work out one of those puz-
zles in which there is always one
piece which cannot be made to fit In
| its proper place will understand the
nerve racking task in which | was en-
gagged. Just as I had come to believe
| that I was meeting with some success
| l smelled smoke and heard commo.
| ton below.
Running downstairs. | found an in
| cipient fire in the kitchen back Of the
| range and set about putting it out
| Some one had turned in an alarm. and
| IN a few minutes the changing fire en-
| gines were pulling up before the door
| The house was filled with firemen
small boys. water and smoke. FOrtu-
| nately the disturbance did not last
| long. but after it was all over and .
| returned to my literary labors l was
obliged to listen to the sounds of The