Роберт Артур - The Mystery of the Screaming Clock

In fact, when Jupiter turned on the tape-recorded scream for the first time, he noticed the mirror shiver slightly and guessed what was supposed to happen. By turning up the volume, he was able to shatter the mirror in a dramatic enough manner to satisfy even him.

One point remains. Why did Mr. Clock send the strange messages to three friends, and the screaming clock to the writer, Rex King, instead of just writing to the police? Mr. King himself supplied the answer, which I am sure is the correct one.

To use Mr. King’s own words, “Bert knew I was down on my luck and hadn’t had a job for a long time. Here in Hollywood publicity is very important. I needed something to get my name in the papers, where movie and television producers would see it and remember me.

“He dreamed up a scheme whereby I would find the missing pictures in a very dramatic fashion, which would be in all the newspapers. After all, if I hadn’t been in the hospital when the clock came, I could easily have contacted the others, solved the messages, and taken some reporters and detectives to witness me finding the pictures. It would have been a big story, and I’d have got plenty of publicity.

“Bert was a good friend, even if he was a thief, and the last thing he did was try to do me a favour, so I can’t think too badly of him. I’m only sorry it didn’t work out the way he planned, because I could use the publicity.”

You’ll be pleased to know, I’m sure, that the stories in the newspapers did carry Mr. King’s name, and that he got several jobs as a result.

As for The Three Investigators, they have put this case in their Closed file and are looking for a new one. I can only wonder what it will be!

ALFRED HITCHCOCK