The Bat

The Bat gives its isolated mansion a determined center in Cornelia Van Gorder. Elderly, single, and unwilling to be frightened away, she rents the Long Island house left by bank president Courtleigh Fleming. On a stormy evening, the electricity fails intermittently and most servants have already fled, convinced the place is haunted. Cornelia remains with her maid Lizzie and a small household even as reports spread of an elusive criminal known as the Bat.

Mary Roberts Rinehart makes Cornelia more than a witness to the gathering mystery. Someone has tried to enter the house at night, so she invites a detective and advances her own suspicion that Fleming concealed stolen bank money somewhere inside. New arrivals complicate the scene: a recently hired gardener, Cornelia's niece Dale, and Dr. Wells each bring connections to the dead banker or to the disappearance of cashier Jack Bailey.

Cornelia's character sets the tone because curiosity repeatedly outruns fear. The mansion may contain a hidden room, a fortune, a fugitive, or a criminal who has evaded the police, but she treats uncertainty as something to investigate. Rinehart places that practical intelligence against darkness, bad weather, and nervous servants. The pleasure of the setup lies in watching an apparently vulnerable hostess become the person most willing to question every convenient explanation.