{"product_id":"2940013770584","title":"The Final Count","description":"In endeavouring to put before the public for the first time the truth\u003cbr\u003econcerning the amazing happenings of the summer of 1927, I feel myself to\u003cbr\u003ebe at a disadvantage. In the first place I am no storyteller: so maybe my\u003cbr\u003epresentation of the facts will fail to carry conviction. Nay, further: it\u003cbr\u003eis more than likely that what I am about to write down will be regarded\u003cbr\u003eas a tissue of preposterous lies. And yet to those who condemn me offhand\u003cbr\u003eI would say one thing. Take the facts as you know them, and as they\u003cbr\u003eappeared in the newspapers, and try to account for them in any other way.\u003cbr\u003eYou may say that in order to write a book--gain, perhaps, a little cheap\u003cbr\u003enotoriety--I have taken the ravings of a madman around which to build a\u003cbr\u003efantastic and ridiculous story. You are welcome to your opinion. I can do\u003cbr\u003eno more than tell you what I know: I cannot make you believe me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn one respect, however, I feel that I am in a strong position: my own\u003cbr\u003epart was a comparatively small one. And it is therefore from no reason of\u003cbr\u003eself-aggrandisement that I write. To one man, and one man only, is praise\u003cbr\u003eand honour due, and that is the man who led us--Hugh Drummond. But if\u003cbr\u003eunbelievers should go to him for confirmation, it is more than probable\u003cbr\u003ethey will be disappointed. He will burble at them genially, knock them\u003cbr\u003esenseless with a blow of greeting on the back, and then resuscitate them\u003cbr\u003ewith a large tankard of ale. And the doubter may well be pardoned for\u003cbr\u003econtinuing to doubt: I, myself, when I first met Drummond was frankly\u003cbr\u003eincredulous as to his capabilities of being anything but a vast and\u003cbr\u003egood-natured fool. I disbelieved, politely, the stories his friends told\u003cbr\u003eme about him: to be candid, his friends were of very much the same type\u003cbr\u003eas himself. There were four of them whom I got to know intimately: Algy\u003cbr\u003eLongworth, a tall young man with a slight drawl and an eyeglass; Peter\u003cbr\u003eDarrell, who usually came home with the milk each morning, but often\u003cbr\u003eturned out to play cricket for Middlesex; Ted Jerningham, who fell in\u003cbr\u003elove with a different girl daily; and finally Toby Sinclair, who was\u003cbr\u003eresponsible for introducing me into the circle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, there was Drummond himself of whom a few words of description\u003cbr\u003emay not be amiss. He stood just six feet in his socks, and turned the\u003cbr\u003escales at over fourteen stone. And of that fourteen stone not one ounce\u003cbr\u003ewas made up of superfluous fat. He was hard muscle and bone clean\u003cbr\u003ethrough, and the most powerful man I have ever met in my life. He was a\u003cbr\u003emagnificent boxer, a lightning and deadly shot with a revolver, and\u003cbr\u003eutterly lovable. Other characteristics I discovered later: his complete\u003cbr\u003eabsence of fear (though that seemed common to all of them); his cool\u003cbr\u003eresourcefulness in danger; and his marvellous gift of silent movement,\u003cbr\u003eespecially in the dark.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut those traits, as I say, I only found out later: just at first he\u003cbr\u003eseemed to me to be a jovial, brainless creature who was married to an\u003cbr\u003eadorable wife.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was his face and his boxing abilities that had caused him to be\u003cbr\u003enicknamed Bulldog. His mouth was big, and his nose was small, and he\u003cbr\u003ewould not have won a prize at a beauty show. In fact, it was only his\u003cbr\u003eeyes--clear and steady with a permanent glint of lazy humour in\u003cbr\u003ethem--that redeemed his face from positive ugliness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo much, then, for Hugh Drummond, D. S.O., M.C., who was destined to play\u003cbr\u003ethe leading part in the events of that summer, and to meet again, and for\u003cbr\u003ethe last time, the devil in human form who was our arch-enemy. And though\u003cbr\u003eit is not quite in chronological order, yet I am tempted to say a few\u003cbr\u003ewords here concerning that monstrous criminal. Often in the earlier\u003cbr\u003estages of our investigations did I hear Drummond mention his name--a name\u003cbr\u003ewhich conveyed nothing to me, but which required no explanation to the\u003cbr\u003eothers or to his wife. And one day I asked him point blank what he meant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe smiled slightly, and a dreamy look came into his eyes.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079723434224,"sku":"2940013770584","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013770584_p0.jpg?v=1763590038","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013770584","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}