The Buckled Bag by Mary Roberts Rinehart (1914)

 

This short story is contained in The Mary Roberts Rinehart Crime Book, a collection of five stories published in 1925. This review is of that edition.

Major characters:

• Clare March
• George March, her father
• Mrs. --- March, her mother
• Fraulein Julie Schlenker
• Nurse Hilda Adams
• Detective Patton

Synopsis: Detective Patton enlists Nurse Hilda Adams to investigate a case, knowing that a private duty nurse could pick up more from the family than he. She is hired to nurse a Mrs. March, who is suffering from nervous anxiety. 

Mrs. March and her husband, George March, are worried as their 20-year old daughter Clare March disappered two months earlier while returning from their summer home in Maine to the city. There has only been one brief note from her, simply stating "I'm OK".

Nurse Adams notices a mysterious old woman lurking in the house at night, and it is neither one of the family nor one of the servants.

One night, Clare unexpectedly returns to the house. Nurse Adams finds her in terrible condition, almost starving. Once she recovers, she tells a story of being held captive in a derelict house outside the city.

Following clues from Clare's story, Detective Patton locates the house. Nurse Adams is not convinced it is the correct house, and investigates on her own to find a similar house nearby is the one Clare was confined in.

Review: This is a nice, tight little short story - being a missing-person mystery. It is a good introduction to the Hilda Adams series of longer stories. The descriptions of the two derelict shacks are very well done, and the reader can envision the exact scenes easily. The ending is a surprise explanation of the disappearance.