Ellery Queen and the Mystery of the Yellow Thing

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In the novel Ellery Queen and the Vanishing Corpse (1941), there’s this odd bit at the end. Ellery is up a tree pulling objects out of a crow’s nest, and there’s the following exchange with the police below.

Ellery’s arm was back again in Joseph’s treasure hole. He extracted an envelope sealed with red wax, and a bit of yellow china. Across the envelope was scrawled, The last will and testament of John Braun.

“What’s that yellow thing you found, El?” Velie asked. “Hold! That’s against the law,” said officer Ryan piously. Velie glared at him. Ellery laughed.

“A bit of broken china old Amos dug out of the grave he’s making.–No, dad. I didn’t mean to deceive you.” Ellery tossed down the piece of china.

What the heck did Officer Ryan think was against the law about the yellow china?

[choie]

Wow it’s weird, I don’t remember that title but the idea of Ellery Queen searching for clues in a bird’s nest seems really familiar to me. Huh.

Anyway… without context it’s hard to tell, but given what we read here, I don’t think the officer was complaining about the bit of china, particularly; it sounds more like he’s complaining about Queen handling criminal evidence on his own. Does that make sense to the story?

Looking a little into this title–I wasn’t familiar with it, though I’ve read many of the EQ books–I see it’s actually one not written by the usual Ellery Queen authors (Frederic Dannay & Manfred Lee), but rather a semi-transcription of the film Ellery Queen, Master Detective, starring Ralph Bellamy with a screenplay by Eric Taylor–although the story is credited to Dannay/Lee. (Not, presumably, the football coach in East/West Dillon, Texas. :D) Taylor is probably responsible for this novelization. Maybe that’s why it’s a little off?

OH. After reading more, now I know why the bird was familiar… The film and this novelization were both based on the earlier EQ book, The Door Between, which I know features a similar locked door mystery and theme (and apparently the same solution to the puzzle, including the bird bit… except it wasn’t a crow, IIRC). See if you can find that book, that’d be fun for you to see the story and how it was changed.

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@choie

Wow it’s weird, I don’t remember that title but the idea of Ellery Queen searching for clues in a bird’s nest seems really familiar to me. Huh.

Anyway… without context it’s hard to tell, but given what we read here, I don’t think the officer was complaining about the bit of china, particularly; it sounds more like he’s complaining about Queen handling criminal evidence on his own. Does that make sense to the story?

It’s possible, but he’s been hauling stuff out of the crow’s nest for the last page, including putting some stuff in his pocket. Seemed odd for the officer to speak up at this point.

I guess I was really curious as to whether the yellow china resembled some item of the time (drugs or drug paraphernalia came to mind) which the reader would automatically know, but is lost on the reader decades later.

I’ll have to track the film down, now, and those other stories. Thanks.