James McGrath

In the novel The Secret of Chimneys, James McGrath is Canadian man who, at the beginning of the novel, is out in Southern Rhodesia prospecting gold. Some four years before the events in the book, he had been in Paris where he rescued Count Stylptitch from an attack by some gangsters.

Some two months before events in the book, McGrath reads that the Count had died. But shortly thereafter McGrath receives a parcel containing the manuscript of the Count's memoirs. An accompanying note promises that McGrath would be paid a thousand pounds if he can deliver the manuscript to a firm of London publishers Balderson & Hodgkins by a certain date. McGrath is not able to travel to London as he has arranged a gold prospecting trip into the interior so he asks his friend Anthony Cade to go in his place and using his identity for a out of the money.