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_Title:_ The Scarab Murder Case
_Date of first publication:_ 1930
_Author:_ S. S. Van Dine [Willard Huntington Wright] (1888-1939)
_Date first posted:_ November 24, 2013
_Date last updated:_ July 4, 2026
Faded Page eBook #20131129

This eBook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, Alex White, Al Haines & the
online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

_THE PHILO VANCE SERIES_
* * * * *

=THE SCARAB=
=MURDER CASE=

A PHILO VANCE STORY

S. S. VAN DINE

La vérité n’a point cet air impétueux.
—_Boileau._

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
MCMXXX

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATED
WITH APPRECIATION
TO

AMBROSE LANSING
LUDLOW BULL
AND
HENRY A. CAREY

OF THE EGYPTIAN DEPARTMENT OF
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
OF ART

[Illustration: VANCE LIFTED SALVETER TO HIS FEET. “I CAN MANAGE THIS
IMPETUOUS GENTLEMAN,” HE SAID.
From a drawing by Raymond Sisley.]

[See page 190.]

Table of Contents

I. Murder!
II. The Vengeance of Sakhmet
III. _Scarabæus Sacer_
IV. Tracks in the Blood
V. Meryt-Amen
VI. A Four-Hour Errand
VII. The Finger-Prints
VIII. In the Study
IX. Vance Makes an Experiment
X. The Yellow Pencil
XI. The Coffee Percolator
XII. The Tin of Opium
XIII. An Attempted Escape
XIV. A Hieroglyphic Letter
XV. Vance Makes a Discovery
XVI. A Call After Midnight
XVII. The Golden Dagger
XVIII. A Light in the Museum
XIX. A Broken Appointment
XX. The Granite Sarcophagus
XXI. The Murderer
XXII. The Judgment of Anûbis

CHARACTERS OF THE BOOK

Philo Vance
John F.-X. Markham
District Attorney of New York County.
Ernest Heath
Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
Dr. Mindrum W. C. Bliss
Egyptologist; head of the Bliss Museum of
Egyptian Antiquities.
Benjamin H. Kyle
Philanthropist and art patron.
Meryt-Amen
Wife of Dr. Bliss.
Robert Salveter
Assistant Curator of the Bliss Museum; nephew
of Benjamin H. Kyle.
Donald Scarlett
Technical Expert of the Bliss Expeditions in
Egypt.
Anûpu Hani
Family retainer of the Blisses.
Brush
The Bliss butler.
Dingle
The Bliss cook.
Hennessey
Detective of the Homicide Bureau.
Snitkin
Detective of the Homicide Bureau.
Emery
Detective of the Homicide Bureau.
Guilfoyle
Detective of the Homicide Bureau.
Captain Dubois
Finger-print expert.
Detective Bellamy
Finger-print expert.
Dr. Emanuel Doremus
Medical Examiner
Currie
Vance’s valet.