The Characters in the Case

JASPER GARNETT, officiating priest of the House of the Sacred Flame.

The Seven Initiates:

SAMUEL J. OGDEN, Warden of the House. A commercial gentleman.

RAOUL de RAVIGNE, Warden of the House. A dilettante.

CARA QUAYNE, the Chosen Vessel.

MAURICE PRINGLE, engaged to Janey Jenkins.

JANEY JENKINS, the youngest initiate.

ERNESTINE WADE, probably the oldest initiate.

DAGMAR CANDOUR, widow.

CLAUDE WHEATLEY, an acolyte.

LIONEL SMITH, an acolyte.

DR. NICHOLAS KASBEK, an onlooker.

THE DOORKEEPER OF THE HOUSE.

EDITH LAURA HEBBORN, Cara Quayne’s old nurse.

WILSON, her parlormaid.

MR. RATTISBON, her solicitor.

ELSIE, Mr. Ogden’s housemaid.

CHIEF DETECTIVE-INSPECTOR ALLEYN, Criminal Investigation Department, Scotland Yard.

DETECTIVE-INSPECTOR FOX, his assistant.

DETECTIVE-SERGEANT BAILEY, his fingerprint expert.

DR. CURTIS, his Divisional Surgeon.

NIGEL BATHGATE, his Watson.

In case the House of the Sacred Flame might be thought to bear a superficial resemblance to any existing church or institution, I hasten to say that if any similarity exists it is purely fortuitous. The House of the Sacred Flame, its officials, and its congregation are all imaginative and exist only in Knocklatchers Row. None, as far as I am aware, has any prototype in any part of the world.

My grateful thanks are due to Robin Page for his advice in the matter of sodium cyanide; to Guy Cotterill for the plan of the House of the Sacred Flame, and to Robin Adamson for his fiendish ingenuity in the matter of home-brewed poisons.