{"product_id":"2940013740907","title":"The Devil Man","description":"On the western outskirts of Sheffield--the Sheffield of 1875--there was a\u003cbr\u003edingy red factory that had seen the bankruptcies of at least three\u003cbr\u003econcerns which had been housed within its high walls. In this year it was\u003cbr\u003eoccupied by the staff of a Mr Wertheimer, who produced nothing that was\u003cbr\u003eof commercial value, and was rather secretive about what he hoped to\u003cbr\u003eproduce at all. He called himself and his partner, known and unknown,\u003cbr\u003e\"The Silver Steel Company\", which, as Baldy said subsequently, was a\u003cbr\u003econtradiction in terms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a certain wintry night a young man dropped a rope ladder from one of\u003cbr\u003ethe walls and came gingerly to the ground. His name was Kuhl, he was a\u003cbr\u003eSwiss from the Canton de Vaud, by profession an engineer, and by\u003cbr\u003edisposition an admirer of attractive ladies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe picked his way across the uneven ground towards the road and was met\u003cbr\u003ehalfway by two men. A woman, driving into Sheffield, saw the three\u003cbr\u003etalking by the side of the road where a closed wagonette, drawn by two\u003cbr\u003ehorses, was standing. The men were talking loudly and gesticulating at\u003cbr\u003eone another. Looking back over her shoulder, she saw what was apparently\u003cbr\u003ea free fight in progress, and whipped up her horse.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe did not inform the police because, as she said, it was none of her\u003cbr\u003ebusiness, and, besides, fights were pretty frequent in those days and in\u003cbr\u003ethat part of the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLater she informed Sergeant Eltham, but could give no satisfactory\u003cbr\u003eaccount of how the fight finished.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis Sergeant Eltham was a police officer who never ceased to apologize\u003cbr\u003efor being seen in public without his uniform. But for this it might\u003cbr\u003ealmost have been forgotten that he had ever worn a uniform at all, since\u003cbr\u003ehe was the most astute of the \"plain clothes men\" that ever went on the\u003cbr\u003eroll of the Sheffield Police Force. He was tall, broad-shouldered,\u003cbr\u003ebushy-bearded, bald. Wrongdoers, who did not like him and never spoke of\u003cbr\u003ehim except in the most lurid terms, called him \"Baldy\" or \"Whiskers\" as\u003cbr\u003ethe fancy seized them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was a man who was seldom at a loss even in the most baffling\u003cbr\u003esituation, but he confessed to being beaten when the Silver Steel Company\u003cbr\u003ecalled upon him, for the second time in three months, to ask him to solve\u003cbr\u003ethe mystery of a lost employee.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe came into Alan Mainford's surgery one cold night in December to drink\u003cbr\u003ehot rum and water and gossip about people and things, as was his\u003cbr\u003epractice. The sergeant was a bachelor living with a widowed sister, and\u003cbr\u003ehis recreations were few. Dr Mainford often wondered what he did to pass\u003cbr\u003ethe time before the beginning of their friendship--it had its genesis in\u003cbr\u003ea violent toothache which Alan ended summarily and in the early hours of\u003cbr\u003ethe morning with a No. 3 forcep and a muscular forearm.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070259347696,"sku":"2940013740907","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740907_p0.jpg?v=1763589612","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740907","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}