No. 17

No. 17
J. Jefferson Farjeon

The first book featuring Ben, the lovable, humorous ex-sailor and down-at-heels rascal who can’t help running into trouble.Ben is back home from the Merchant Navy, penniless as usual and looking for digs in fog-bound London. Taking shelter in an abandoned old house, he stumbles across a dead body – and scarpers. Running into a detective, Gilbert Fordyce, the reluctant Ben is persuaded to return to the house and investigate the mystery of the corpse – which promptly disappears! The vacant No.17 is the rendezvous for a gang of villains, and the cowardly Ben finds himself in the thick of thieves with no way of escape.Ben’s first adventure, No.17, began life in the 1920s as an internationally successful stage play and was immortalised on film by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. Its author, J. Jefferson Farjeon, wrote more than 60 crime thrillers, eight featuring Ben the tramp, his most popular character.

J. JEFFERSON FARJEON

No. 17

Copyright (#u7ca16c01-447c-5b16-8b79-1883a958847f)

COLLINS CRIME CLUB

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Hodder & Stoughton 1926

Copyright © Estate of J. Jefferson Farjeon 1926

Cover design by Mike Topping © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016

Cover background images © shutterstock.com (http://shutterstock.com)

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008155889

Ebook Edition © August 2016 ISBN: 9780008155896

Version: 2016-06-28

Table of Contents

Cover (#ub8fa45ca-a695-5dad-b4be-d5e02b3150f9)

Title Page (#ub3d5869f-d6ff-5cf8-ba1d-6f3368f8ee8d)

Copyright (#u5a568a4d-9ec1-562c-8a17-f166f063191c)

Foreword (#u392fed1e-41b8-5575-9a23-b60f2aaae5d2)

Chapter 1: Figures in the Fog (#u1b67444b-30ea-5504-8ea8-5a2eb5d7ad40)

Chapter 2: Enter No. 17 (#u147ffc99-b354-50dd-9ce7-57f0f7053d99)

Chapter 3: Ben Finds His Port (#u76698a1a-6813-577d-a05a-b5821816bb9c)

Chapter 4: The Empty House (#u77073dd5-333f-5cd8-b56a-c71ced55d200)

Chapter 5: Up and Down (#ucdd8d003-856d-59b7-9604-c1350deb2aa3)

Chapter 6: Under the Lamp-Post (#udefe1194-a921-53d3-85bf-8874a057479b)

Chapter 7: Ben Tells His Story (#u8788a692-491d-5e99-82bf-6d686793b930)

Chapter 8: On the Stairs (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9: The Corpse (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10: In the Cupboard (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11: Across the Roof (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12: The Girl Next Door (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13: The Telegram (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14: Half-Past Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15: The House-Hunters (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16: Cross-Examination (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17: Trapped! (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18: The Unseen Figure (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19: Ben Enters the Cupboard (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20: The Man with the Crooked Shoulder (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21: Smith (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22: Through the Window (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23: On the Stairs Again (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24: The ‘Royal Cellars’ (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25: Into the Tunnel (#litres_trial_promo)