WILLIAM BRITTAIN “The Zaretski Chain.” First published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, June 1968. Not known to have been reprinted.

   William Brittain, the author of this small rather obscure tale, was known for a long list of detective and mystery fiction published over the years, most of them appearing in EQMM. Many of them were locked room or impossible crime mysteries. A list of them, along with a good deal of in-depth analysis, can be found here:

https://mikegrost.com/laterimp.htm#Brittain

   In “The Zaretski Chain,” a wealthy man with a fondness for the strange and unusual sets up a confrontation between a PI and a famous escape artist named Wrenn. The former has been on the trail of of the latter for a long time, as that gentleman may also have been responsible for many unusual thefts over the years.

   The challenge presented is this: Wrenn is to be secured with his wrists in cuffed on either side of a flagpole, a chain connecting them on the other side, with a horizontal spar across the pole toward the top. With personal incentives offered to each party, the winner of the contest will be determined on whether Wrenn can escape his confinement within the hour, a captive to be left alone during the allotted time.

   But before the hour is up, the man servant of their host announces that a robbery has taken place. Rushing to the scene of Wrenn’s captivity, he is still there, obviously having escaped and having come back to the place in which he had been trussed up.

   I can think of few stories that take as much time to set up and explain as this one does, but Brittain was a good writer, and it is with some fascination that the devoted reader of such tales (such as I) follows along with quite a bit of interest.

   Even more, the solution to this chronicle about the rather excessive need of someone who is a Problem Solver to unravel it (note the capital letters) is well worth the journey.