The Baroness Emmuska Magdalena Rosalia Maria Josefa Barbara Orczy (1865-1947) created many memorable characters during her long and productive career as a writer. They include the celebrated Lady Molly of Scotland Yard; Monsieur Fernand, a secret agent of the Napoleonic Era; Patrick Mulligan, the grotesque master detective known as "Skin o’ My Tooth"; the swashbuckling Leathermask; and others. But she is best known as the creator of her two celebrated contributions to the historical-adventure and the detective story: Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and the nameless crime-solver known simply as "the Old Man in the Corner," respectively. The adventures of this anonymous sleuth, who solved all his cases without leaving his comfortable chair in the corner of his local tea shop, filled three volumes - The Case of Miss Elliott (1905), The Old Man in the Corner (1909) and Unraveled Knots (1925). The Old Man even starred in a series of silent British short films in the 1920s.

The man in the corner looked quite cheerful that morning; he had had two glasses of milk and had even gone to the extravagance of an extra cheesecake. Polly knew that he was itching to talk police and murders, for he cast furtive glances at her from time to time, produced a bit of string, tied and untied it into scores of complicated knots, and finally, bringing out his pocketbook, he placed two or three photographs before her.

"Do you know who that is?" he asked, pointing to one of these.

The girl looked at the face on the picture. It was that of a woman, not exactly pretty, but very gentle and childlike, with a strange pathetic look in the large eyes, which was wonderfully appealing.