The Black Mask

Saga Magazine: August 1920

This issue of Saga Magazine, a monthly devoted to "Mystery, Romance and Adventure," contains ten short stories and serials by varied authors. The featured work is J. Frederic Thorne's novelette "The Man Who Was Seven," which sets up an impossible crime scenario: a man named Samuel Smith, identifiable by his distinctive appearance—Vandyke beard, egg-shaped spectacles, slight limp—simultaneously checks into seven different Seattle hotels (the Savoy, Butler, Rainier Grand, Washington, Lincoln, Seattle, and Frye) at precisely 10:02 a.m., performs identical actions, and departs at 10:48, leaving hotel clerks bewildered as witnesses to an apparent physical impossibility. The narrative introduces detective Jim Carranaugh and describes the setup for a $200,000 gold shipment arriving at the Totem National Bank, with a mysterious man named Seth C. Seeley leasing a large safe-deposit box. Other stories include "The Summons" by Henry Altimus, "The Abandoned House" by Beulah Poynter, and works by Edwin Carty Ranck, Harry C. Hervey Jr., Harold Ward, Christopher Hawthorne, and others exploring mysteries, murders, and detective plots. The magazine includes a book review column by Capt. Frank Cunningham.