Sinister Island

Captain's Island is not far from civilisation as one measures space. Dealing with the less tangible medium of custom, it is--or was--practically beyond perception.
James Miller did not know this. When he had thought at all of his friend Anderson's new winter home he had pictured the familiar southern resort with hotels and cottages sheltering Hammonds peerage, and a seductive bathing beach to irritate the conservative. So he sent a telegram from Allairville, instructing Anderson to meet him in Martinsburg and conduct him to the revels of his tropical resort. As a matter of fact it was this wire, dispatched with such smiling anticipation, that became the leash by which he was drawn into the erratic, tragic, and apparently unaccountable occurrences which at the time added immeasurably to the lonely island's evil fame.