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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Master Mystery, by Arthur B. Reeve and
+John W. Grey
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Master Mystery
+
+
+Author: Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 1, 2005  [eBook #16168]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MYSTERY***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Eva Sweeney, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 16168-h.htm or 16168-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/1/6/16168/16168-h/16168-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/1/6/16168/16168-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MASTER MYSTERY
+
+Novelized by
+
+ARTHUR B. REEVE and JOHN W. GREY
+
+From Scenarios by Arthur B. Reeve in Collaboration with John W. Grey
+and C.A. Logue
+
+Profusely Illustrated with Photographic Reproductions Taken from the
+Houdini Super-Serial of the Same Name. A B. A. Rolfe Production.
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+
+Published May, 1919
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE MASTER MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Peter Brent sat nervously smoking in the library of his great house,
+Brent Rock.
+
+He was a man of about forty-five or -six--a typical, shrewd business man.
+Something, however, was evidently on his mind, for, though he tried to
+conceal it, he lacked the self-assurance that was habitually his before
+the world.
+
+A scowl clouded his face as the door of the library was flung open and
+he heard voices in the hall. A tall, spare, long-haired man forced his
+way in, crushing his soft black hat in his hands.
+
+"I _will_ see Mr. Brent," insisted the new-comer, as he pushed past the
+butler. "Mr. Brent!" he cried, advancing with a wild light in his eyes.
+"I'm tired of excuses. I want justice regarding that water-motor of
+mine." He paused, then added, shaking his finger threateningly, "Put it
+on the market--or I will call in the Department of Justice!"
+
+Brent scowled again. For years he had been amassing a fortune by a
+process that was scarcely within the law.
+
+For, when inventions threaten to render useless already existing
+patents, necessitating the scrapping of millions of dollars' worth of
+machinery, vested interests must be protected.
+
+Thus, Brent and his partner, Herbert Balcom, had evolved a simple method
+of protecting corporations against troublesome inventors and inventions.
+They had formed their own corporation, International Patents,
+Incorporated.
+
+Their method was effective--though desperate. It was to suppress the
+inventor and his labor. They bought the sole rights from the inventor,
+promising him glittering royalties. The joker was that the invention was
+suppressed. None were ever manufactured. Hence there were no royalties
+and the corporations went on undisturbed while Brent and Balcom
+collected huge retainers for the protection they afforded them.
+
+Thus Brent Rock had come to be hated by scores of inventors defrauded in
+this unequal conflict with big business.
+
+The inventor looked about at the library, richly paneled in oak and
+luxuriously furnished. Through a pair of folding-doors he could see the
+dining-room and a conservatory beyond. All this had been paid for by
+himself and such as he.
+
+"Sit down, sir," nodded Brent, suavely.
+
+The man continued to stand, growing more and more excited. Had he been a
+keener observer he would have seen that under Brent's suavity there was
+a scarcely hidden nervousness.
+
+Finally Brent leaned over and spoke in a whisper, looking about as
+though the very walls might have ears.
+
+"My dear fellow," he confided, "for some time I have been considering
+your water-motor. I will return the model to you--release the patent to
+the world."
+
+He drew back to watch the effect on the aged inventor. Could it be that
+Brent was lying? Or was it fear? Could it be that at last his seared
+conscience was troubling him?
+
+At that exact moment, up-stairs, in a private laboratory in the house,
+sat a young man at a desk--a handsome, strong-faced, clean-cut chap. All
+about him were the scientific instruments which he used to test
+inventions offered to Brent.
+
+A look of intent eagerness passed over his face. For Quentin Locke was
+not testing any of Brent's patents just now. Over his head he had the
+receivers of a dictagraph.
+
+It was a strange act for one so recently employed as manager of Brent's
+private laboratory. Yet such a man must have had his reasons.
+
+One who was interested might have followed the wire from the
+dictagraph-box in the top drawer of the desk down the leg of the desk,
+through the very walls to the huge chandelier in the library below,
+where, in the ornamented brass-work, reposed a small black disk about
+the size of a watch. It was the receiving-end of the dictagraph.
+
+Suddenly the young man's face broke out into a smile and without
+thinking he stopped writing what the little mechanical eavesdropper was
+conveying him from below. He listened intently as he heard a silvery
+laugh over the wire.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know you were busy. I thought these flowers--Well, never
+mind. I'll leave them, anyway."
+
+It was Eva Brent, daughter of the head of the firm, who had danced in
+from the conservatory like a June zephyr in December.
+
+"My dear," Locke could hear the patent magnate welcome, "it is all
+right. Stay a moment and talk to this gentleman while I go down to the
+museum."
+
+Locke listened eagerly, glancing now and then at a photograph of Eva
+Brent on his own desk, while she chatted gaily with the inventor. It was
+evident that Eva had not the faintest idea of the hard nature of the
+business of her father.
+
+Meanwhile, Brent himself had left the library and passed through the
+portiered door into the hall. He did not turn up the grand staircase in
+the center of the wide hall, but hurried, preoccupied, to a door under
+the stairs that opened down to the cellar.
+
+He started to open it to pass down. As he did so he did not hear a light
+footstep on the stairs as his secretary, Zita Dane, came down. But he
+did not escape her watchful eye.
+
+"Mr. Brent," she called, "is there anything I can do?"
+
+Brent paused. "Wait a moment for me in the library," he directed, as he
+turned again to enter the cellar.
+
+He closed the door and Zita watched him with an almost uncanny interest,
+then turned to the library to join Eva and the new-comer.
+
+Down the cellar steps Brent made his way, and across the cellar floor,
+pausing at the rocky wall of the foundation of the house blasted and
+hewn out of the cliff on which it towered above the river. A heavy steel
+door in the rock wall barred the way.
+
+Brent whirled the combination and shot the bolts, and the door swung
+ponderously open, disclosing a rock-hewn cavern. Three walls of the
+cavern were lined with shelves containing inventions of all
+kinds--telegraph and telephone instruments, engine models,
+railroad-signaling and safety devices, racks of bottles containing
+dangerous chemicals and their antidotes--all conceivable manner of
+mechanical and scientific paraphernalia. It was literally a Graveyard of
+Genius--harboring the ghosts of a thousand inventors' dead hopes.
+
+Brent entered hastily and went directly to a shelf. There he picked up a
+model of a motor. He blew the dust from it and examined it approvingly.
+
+Suddenly he saw something that caused him to start. He looked down at
+his feet. There was a piece of paper on the floor.
+
+He picked it up and read it, and as he did so he started back,
+frightened--then angry. He looked about at the rock-hewn cavern
+walls--then read again:
+
+  BRENT--This is my last warning. If you persist in your course you
+  will be struck down by the Madagascar madness.
+                                                             Q.
+
+Under his breath, Brent swore. Again he looked about the cavern, then
+turned hurriedly, picked up the motor, passed out the steel door,
+clanged it shut, and locked it.
+
+No sooner had Brent shut the door, however, than it seemed as if the
+very face of the outer rocky wall of the cavern began to move--to tilt,
+as if on hinges.
+
+If a human eye had been in the Graveyard of Genius at that instant it
+would have sworn that it perceived in the inky blackness of the tilting
+rock a passage, and in the shadows of that passage a huge, weird,
+grotesque figure peering in.
+
+Then the tilting rock door closed again, as the figure disappeared down
+the rocky passage on the opposite side--a menace and a threat to the
+owner of Brent Rock, insecure even in his millions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+When Brent arrived back at the library he had quite recovered his poise,
+at least to the eyes of those in the library. Zita had joined Eva with
+the old inventor, Davis.
+
+As Brent entered, Davis uttered an exclamation of joy at the sight of
+his motor. For the moment Brent almost glowed.
+
+"Along with your invention," he beamed, as he handed the model to the
+old man, "I am going to release many others to the world."
+
+All this not only Locke was noting, but Zita, too, appeared to be an
+almost too interested listener.
+
+The others were chatting when Zita heard a noise in the hall and hurried
+out. She was just in time to see a rather hard-visaged man, with cruel,
+penetrating eyes. It was Herbert Balcom, vice-president of the company.
+
+Zita whispered to him a moment and Balcom's hard face grew harder.
+
+"Go up-stairs--watch _him_," he ordered, passing down the hall.
+
+Balcom entered the library just as Davis was about to leave, hugging
+close to him his brain child. Davis clutched it a bit closer at sight of
+the other partner.
+
+A glance would have been sufficient to show that Brent was secretly
+afraid of his partner, Balcom, and that Balcom dominated him.
+
+"Go to the gate with him, my dear," whispered Brent to his daughter, who
+was clinging to his arm, convinced of the goodness of her father,
+ignorant of the very basis on which the Brent and Balcom fortune rested.
+
+Balcom's mouth tightened as he came closer to Brent, menacing, the
+moment they were alone.
+
+"How long has this double crossing been going on?" sneered Balcom,
+jerking his head toward the door through which Eva had just gone with
+the inventor, and shoving his face close to Brent's.
+
+"It's not double crossing, Balcom," Brent attempted to conciliate,
+"but--"
+
+"No 'buts,'" interrupted Balcom, with deadly coldness. "Keep on, and
+you'll have the government down on us for violating the anti-trust law.
+What's the matter? Have you lost your nerve?"
+
+As Balcom almost hissed the question, up in the laboratory Locke was now
+writing furiously in his note-book, when he was interrupted by a knock
+at the door. He whipped the dictagraph receiver off his head and jumped
+to his feet, hiding all traces of the dictagraph in the desk drawer.
+Then he moved over to the door, unlocked it, and flung it open.
+
+"Oh, I hope I haven't interrupted you in any important experiment,"
+apologized Zita, innocently enough.
+
+"Nothing important," camouflaged Locke.
+
+Though Locke did not seem to notice it, another would have seen that
+Zita cared a great deal for him.
+
+"May I come in?" she asked, wheedling.
+
+"Certainly. I am charmed, I assure you."
+
+While Zita was gushingly effusive, Locke was correct and formally polite
+as he bowed his acquiescence. Zita felt it.
+
+For a moment she stood looking at a half-finished experiment on the
+laboratory table, then finally she turned to Locke with a calculated
+impulsiveness.
+
+"Why do you treat me so coldly," she asked, "when you know I admire your
+wonderful work?"
+
+"Really, Miss Dane," he apologized, "I didn't mean to be rude."
+
+Yet there was an air of constraint in his very tone.
+
+"Do you know," she flashed, "I can't help feeling that you are so
+brilliant--you must be something more than you seem."
+
+Locke suppressed a quick look of surprise. Was she trying to worm some
+secret from him? He masked his face cleverly.
+
+"Indeed, you must be imagining things," he replied, quietly, turning and
+strolling toward the window of his laboratory.
+
+The moment his back was turned Zita picked up the photograph of Eva on
+the desk. For a moment she stood glaring at it jealously.
+
+Out of the window Locke smiled. For, down on the gravel path, walking
+slowly toward the gate to the Brent Rock grounds, he could see Eva and
+Davis.
+
+The smile faded into a scowl. He had seen a young man enter the gate. It
+was Paul Balcom, son of Herbert Balcom, and Paul was engaged to
+Eva--thus giving Balcom a stronger hold over Brent.
+
+Locke knew enough about Paul to dislike him thoroughly and to distrust
+him. Had Locke been able to see over the hedge he would have confirmed
+his suspicions. For Paul had actually driven up to Brent Rock in the
+runabout of as notorious a woman as could have been found in the night
+life of the city--one known as De Luxe Dora in the unsavory half-world
+in which both were leaders. Had his dictagraph been extended to the
+hedge he would have heard her voice rasp at Paul:
+
+"Your father may make you pay attention to this girl, Paul, but
+remember--you had not better double cross me."
+
+Paul's protestations of underworld fidelity, would have added to Locke's
+fury.
+
+However, Locke had not seen or heard. Still, it was unbearable that this
+fellow Paul should be engaged to a girl like Eva. Tall, dark, handsome
+though he was, Locke knew him to be a man not to be trusted.
+
+Paul hurried up to Eva, not a bit disconcerted at the near discovery of
+his intimacy with Dora. And, whatever one may believe about woman's
+intuition, there must have been something in it, for even at a distance
+one could see that Eva mistrusted Paul Balcom, her fiance. Locke scowled
+blackly.
+
+Paul thrust himself almost rudely between Davis and Eva. Again Davis
+shrank, as he had from the young man's father, then bowed, excused
+himself, and hurried off, hugging his motor to him, while Paul took
+Eva's hand, which she was not any too willing to give him. Locke
+watched, motionless, as the couple turned back to the house.
+
+Somehow Eva must have felt his gaze. She turned and looked upward at the
+laboratory window. As she saw Locke her face broke into a smile and she
+waved her hand gaily. Paul saw it and a swift flush of anger crossed his
+face. He pulled Eva abruptly by the arm.
+
+"Let's go into the house," he said, almost angrily.
+
+Seeing the action, Locke also turned from the window to encounter Zita,
+still watching. Without a word he left the laboratory.
+
+While this little quadrangle of conflicting emotions of Locke, Eva,
+Paul, and Zita was being enacted the two partners in the library were
+disputing hot and heavy. As they argued, almost it seemed as if Balcom's
+very face limned his thoughts--that he desired Brent out of the way, as
+a weakling in whom he had discovered some traces of conscience which, to
+Balcom, meant weakness.
+
+Balcom leaned forward excitedly. "I do not intend to let you wreck this
+company because your conscience, as you call it, has begun to trouble
+you," he hissed.
+
+Brent's hand clutched nervously. He was afraid of Balcom--so much so
+that he fought back only weakly.
+
+Locke was down in the hallway just in time to meet Eva and Paul as they
+entered.
+
+"Oh--do you know, I'm so glad--I think my father is the most
+kind-hearted of men," Eva trilled to Locke, as she recounted what had
+happened in the library with Davis.
+
+Locke listened with restrained admiration for the girl, whatever might
+have been his secret opinion of her father or of the story he already
+knew.
+
+On his part, Paul did not relish the situation, nor did he take any
+pains to conceal it. He shrugged and turned away.
+
+"Come," he said, with a tone of surly authority, "I think I hear my
+father in the library."
+
+Eva looked back swiftly at Locke and smiled as Paul led her toward the
+library door. But that, also, made Paul more furious.
+
+"Why do you make me ridiculous before that fellow?" he demanded.
+
+"I'm sorry," replied Eva, in surprise. "I didn't meant to do that."
+
+Vaguely Paul understood. The girl was too unsophisticated to have meant
+it. Somehow that made it worse. Though she did not know it, he did.
+Unknown to herself, there was a response in the presence of Locke which
+was not inspired in his own society. He hurried her into the library.
+
+It was as though the entrance of Paul and Eva had been preconcerted. The
+partners, in their dispute, stopped and turned as the young people
+entered and moved over to a divan. Balcom lowered his voice and plucked
+at Brent's sleeve as he nodded toward the couple.
+
+"I could trust you better if they were married within a week," suggested
+Balcom.
+
+Brent recoiled, but Balcom affected not to notice.
+
+"Then I will believe that you are dealing fairly with me," he
+emphasized.
+
+Brent studied a moment, then nodded assent. Balcom extended a cold,
+commanding hand and the partners shook hands.
+
+Outside, Locke had paused, about to enter the library. The pause had
+been just long enough for him to hear--and it was a blow to him. He
+watched, dazed, as the two older men walked over to the younger couple;
+then he turned away, heart sick.
+
+"My dear," began Brent, as he patted the shoulder of the girl, the one
+spot of goodness that had shone in the otherwise blackness of his life,
+making him at last realize the depth to which lust of money had made him
+sink, "we were just saying that perhaps it would be advisable
+to--er--hasten your marriage to Paul--say--perhaps next week."
+
+The words seemed to stick in his throat.
+
+As for Eva, she felt a shiver pass over her. Without knowing why, she
+drew back from Paul, at her side, shrank even closer to her father,
+trying not to tremble. Did Paul realize it?
+
+Brent felt the shudder with a pang. He leaned over. "Promise to do
+this--for my sake," he whispered, so low that there was no chance of the
+others hearing. "By to-morrow all may be changed."
+
+There was something ominous about the very words.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+Brent had no intention of keeping the promise which Balcom had extracted
+from him by a species of moral duress that afternoon.
+
+In fact, already he had gone too far in his plans for restitution--or
+was it self-preservation?--to turn back. It was late in the night that
+he himself secretly admitted to the house a tall, dark-haired stranger
+who evidently called by appointment.
+
+"Well, Flint," he greeted, in a hushed tone, "what was it you asked to
+see me about?"
+
+Flint replied not a word, but impressively tapped a bundle which he
+carried under his arm and began to undo the cord which bound it.
+
+Brent looked startled, then caught himself. He had known Flint for some
+time--an adventurer, more or less unscrupulous, who had been the foreign
+representative of International Patents.
+
+Flint took off his coat and threw it on a chair with an air of assurance
+that seemed to increase Brent's anxiety, then began again to untie the
+bulky package.
+
+"Just a moment, Flint," cautioned Brent, stopping him.
+
+With an air of uneasy secrecy Brent hurried to the door that led from
+the dining-room to the conservatory and bolted it securely. Then he made
+sure that the door to the library was bolted.
+
+As he did so he did not see his secretary, Zita, watching in the hall,
+for the footsteps of Locke, approaching, had caught her quick ear and
+she had fled.
+
+"Locke!" called Brent, hearing his laboratory, manager. "Under no
+circumstances allow me to be disturbed to-night."
+
+"Very well, sir," responded Locke.
+
+Just then the light step of Eva was heard on the stairs.
+
+"What's the matter, father?" she asked, still upset by the events of the
+afternoon. "Is there anything wrong?"
+
+"No, my dear, nothing," hastily replied Brent. "In the morning I shall
+have something to say to you. Now run along like a good girl."
+
+Dutifully Eva turned. Brent watched her out of sight. Then with a keen
+look at Locke he pulled out a paper from his pocket and handed it to the
+young scientist, who read:
+
+  BRENT,--This is my last warning. If you persist in your course you
+  will be struck down by the Madagascar madness.
+                                                                 Q.
+
+Locke looked up from the scrawl in alarmed perplexity.
+
+"What does this mean?" he queried.
+
+Brent merely shook his head cryptically.
+
+"Study this message. I shall have something very important to tell you
+in the morning."
+
+As Brent turned back into the library he paused a moment and looked
+after Locke, hesitating, as if he would call him back. Then he decided
+not to do so, turned, and carefully locked the door from the dining-room
+into the hallway.
+
+Eva was waiting at the head of the stairs as Locke, perplexed by the
+strange actions of his employer, came up.
+
+"What _is_ the trouble?" she repeated, anxiously. "Please tell me. Is
+there anything wrong?"
+
+"No--nothing," reassured Locke, in spite of his own doubt. "Everything
+is all right."
+
+"I hope so." Eva lingered. "Good night."
+
+Locke bowed admiringly. But there was the same restraint in his look
+that had been shown in the afternoon.
+
+"Good night," he murmured, slowly.
+
+Eva quite understood, and there was a smile of encouragement on her face
+as she turned away and flitted down the hall to her room.
+
+Outside, Zita had hurried from the house to the nearest public
+telephone-booth and was frantically calling Balcom at his apartment.
+
+"Mr. Balcom," she repeated, breathlessly, as the junior partner
+answered, "Flint has returned. I have seen him."
+
+"The devil!" exclaimed Balcom, angrily, then checked himself before he
+said any more. "Keep me informed."
+
+Abruptly he hung up.
+
+It was scarcely a moment later that Paul Balcom entered the Balcom
+apartment, admitted by a turbaned black suggestive of the Orient.
+
+Paul was surly and had evidently been drinking, for he shoved the
+servant roughly out of the way as he strode toward his father.
+
+Apparently outside Paul had overheard and had gathered the drift of what
+Balcom had been saying. Or perhaps, from his own sources of information,
+he already knew. At any rate, as Balcom turned from the telephone,
+father and son faced each other angrily.
+
+"Brent's lying," exclaimed Paul. "That marriage to me must take place
+to-morrow."
+
+Talking angrily, sometimes in agreement, at others far apart, the two
+left the room.
+
+Back in the dining-room by this time Brent had rejoined Flint and now
+watched him eagerly as he took the last wrappings from the package which
+he had carried so carefully.
+
+As the last wrapping was stripped from it, on the table before them lay
+a small steel model, perhaps three feet high--a weird-looking thing in
+the miniature shape of a man, designed along lines that only a cubist
+could have conceived--jointed, mobile, truly a contrivance at which to
+marvel.
+
+Brent gazed incredulously at the strange thing. "An automaton!" he
+exclaimed.
+
+"More than that," replied Flint, calmly.
+
+Flint unrolled a chart of the human nervous system and spread it out on
+the table. Pointing to the brain, he leaned over tensely, and whispered:
+
+"This model is merely a piece of mechanism. But the real automaton
+possesses a human brain which has been transplanted into it and made to
+guide it."
+
+For a moment Brent listened incredulously, then sat back in his chair
+and laughed skeptically. But even Flint recognized that there was a
+hollowness in the laughter.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," demanded Brent, "that a human brain has been
+made to control a thing of no use except as a terrible engine of
+destruction?"
+
+"Not only possible," reiterated Flint, "but it is true."
+
+"Oh, Flint," rallied Brent, with a sort of uneasiness, "you can't tell
+_me_ that!"
+
+"Believe it or not," insisted the adventurer, "I have been in Madagascar
+and I know."
+
+For a moment Brent paused at the vehemence of Flint's answer. What had
+Flint to gain by misrepresentation? A thousand images of the past
+flitted through Brent's brain. Then slowly a look of terror came over
+Brent's face. Suppose it were indeed true--this Frankenstein, this
+conscienceless inhuman superman? Brent gripped himself and composed his
+features and his voice.
+
+"But this thing," he rasped. "What does this prove?"
+
+"Oh, this is merely automatic--a piece of mechanism--a model which I
+stole. It works when it is wound up--not like the real one. Look."
+
+Flint put a pencil in the little steel hand of the model and pressed a
+lever as he held a piece of paper under the pencil. Brent leaned over,
+fascinated.
+
+Instantly the tiny hand began to trace on the paper one letter--the
+simple letter "Q."
+
+As the hand finished the tail of the "Q" Brent gripped the table for
+support. His eyes bulged and stared wildly.
+
+"My God!" burst from his lips. "It is the warning--Q!"
+
+For minutes Brent strove to regain his composure.
+
+Nor was Flint less impressed than the man before him.
+
+What would have been the emotions of both if they had been able to
+penetrate with the eye through the rocky cliffs on which the stately
+mansion of Brent Rock stood would have been hard to say.
+
+For, down in a rock-hewn cavern, not many hundred yards away and below
+them, reached by a secret entrance from the shrubbery of the cliffs near
+the shore, already had congregated several rough characters. They were
+playing cards and drinking, now and then glancing furtively at the
+passage entrance, as though they were expecting the arrival of some one
+or something.
+
+Suddenly came a dull metallic clank through the passage, strangely
+echoing. At once all leaped to their feet, at attention, not unmixed
+with awe and fear that sat strangely on their desperate features. What
+was it that they, who feared neither God nor man, feared?
+
+They strained their eyes, looking into the passage that led darkly away
+into blackness.
+
+Dimly down it now could be seen two gleaming spots of light, points in
+the Cimmerian darkness. They seemed to be growing larger and coming
+nearer as with each hollow reverberation the dull metallic thuds
+increased.
+
+Faintly now could be made out in the blackness a huge, stalking figure,
+having the shape of a man, with gigantic, powerful shoulders, powerful
+arms, a thick body, hips, and thighs that spelled terrific strength,
+legs and feet that suggested irresistible force.
+
+"The Automaton!" escaped involuntarily from all lips.
+
+Slowly, irresistibly, the horrendous figure stalked forth into the dim
+light. There it paused for a moment--a figure of steel, larger than most
+men, yet not so large but that it might have incased a man. And yet its
+motions, its every action, were like nothing mortal. Even these hardened
+denizens of the underworld shuddered.
+
+In its hand the Automaton carried a five-branched candlestick, for what
+purpose none seemed to know. Yet all bowed and quaked at every pantomime
+motion of the figure, ready to do the bidding of the least motion of
+their inhuman master.
+
+Still holding the candlestick with its five huge yellow candles before
+him, the Automaton stalked forward to the table and impressively
+deposited the candlestick on it, then stepped back a pace and waved his
+ponderous hand at the assembled emissaries, who scarcely repressed their
+own abject terror.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+At a motion from the Automaton a dark-skinned Madagascan stepped forward
+and lighted the five candles. At once a dense smoke began drifting from
+the candles.
+
+The men looked at one another, showing an uncomfortable fear of what the
+negro and the Automaton were doing. Even the negro edged away fearfully
+and all crouched back, afraid of the fumes.
+
+A moment later the Automaton, with a mighty blast of air, snuffed all
+the candles at once, then, without a word, picked up the candlestick and
+stalked off through the passage on the opposite side of the den from the
+entrance, the passage that led to the Graveyard of Genius.
+
+A few moments later the secret rock door from this passage into the
+Graveyard swung open and the Automaton stalked in, going carefully,
+noiselessly, now. Across the floor he walked to the steel door, which he
+swung open, then on out into the cellar of Brent Rock and up the steps
+to the door under the stairs that led to the hallway of the great house.
+
+In the hall the Automaton halted beside a small stand on which stood a
+candlestick exactly like the one he carried. Quickly he picked up the
+original candlestick and replaced it by the one he carried. Then he set
+the original back of the portieres, and with a glance at the library
+door turned back to the cellar, closing the door noiselessly behind him.
+
+Down the steps he went, toward the open door of the Graveyard of Genius.
+Beside the door was the fuse-box of the lighting system of the house.
+
+The Automaton reached out and began rubbing sharply at the insulation of
+the feed wires.
+
+Up-stairs, in the dining-room, Brent had by this time flung off his coat
+and was examining with Flint the curious model the adventurer had
+brought from Madagascar. Brent was very excited and questioned Flint
+eagerly.
+
+"I tell you, Flint," cried Brent, at length, huskily, as he seized a pen
+and dipped in into the ink, "the time has come for me to do what I have
+long intended. I am going to do now what I should have done years ago."
+
+Brent started to write feverishly:
+
+  QUENTIN LOCKE,--I have done you a great injury about which you know
+  nothing, but I am willing to--
+
+His hand had scarcely traced the last word when the room was plunged
+into absolute darkness.
+
+Down in the cellar the Automaton had succeeded in rubbing off the
+insulation of the feed wires. There was a flash of light as he laid his
+steel hand over the two feed wires--then darkness.
+
+In the dining-room Brent and Flint, already keyed to the highest pitch,
+leaped to their feet with an exclamation of terror.
+
+Late as it was, Locke was working in his laboratory on the second floor
+of the house when the lights winked out. Surprised for the moment, he
+ran out into the hall.
+
+Already there was the butler, groping about with a candle.
+
+"What's the matter, Quentin?" asked a breathless voice behind them.
+
+It was Eva in a filmy dressing-gown. Locke turned to vision a creation
+of loveliness in the candle-light which set his heart thumping.
+
+"Nothing," he reassured. "Just the lights short-circuited, that's all.
+I'll see."
+
+Just then the dining-room door opened and Eva saw her father, disheveled
+and preoccupied, stride out and take the five-branched candlestick from
+the hall table. Nervously he began to light the candles. They sputtered
+a bit and he turned quickly, still holding the candlestick, as the smoke
+drifted away from them all.
+
+"Fix the fuses in the cellar," he directed the butler.
+
+"Is anything--really the matter--father?" implored Eva.
+
+"No, no, my child," he answered, hastily. "Go back to bed. And, Locke,
+please don't let us be disturbed."
+
+He was about to say more, then decided not to do so, and turned back
+into the dining-room.
+
+Again Brent carefully locked the door to the dining-room and rejoined
+Flint.
+
+He had placed the candles on the table, not noticing in the half-light
+that the smoke from them was growing denser as they burned down.
+
+The smoke drifted over as the draught carried it. Flint coughed and
+moved a bit, his hand at his throat.
+
+Brent seized the pen again and was about to write, when the smoke from
+the candles drifted into his own face. He, too, coughed.
+
+Uneasy, Brent glanced over at Flint. Flint laughed, a bit hysterically.
+
+"What the devil's the matter?" demanded Brent, with lowered brows, a
+strange dryness in his throat.
+
+Flint was now leaning forward on his elbows and laughing foolishly,
+stupidly. It was a queer laugh, and struck terror into Brent as he
+himself coughed and clutched involuntarily at his throat. Brent stared
+at Flint.
+
+"What is it?" he repeated, anxiously. "Have you suddenly gone mad, man?"
+
+But there was no reply. Instead, Flint laughed all the more madly.
+
+Brent was more than startled. If he could have seen himself in a glass
+he would have seen that he was already wide-mouthed and disheveled.
+Suddenly the smoke again blew in his face. He coughed again. His head
+reeled.
+
+Then, in a flash, it all dawned on him.
+
+He shielded himself from the candles. But it was too late.
+
+"My God!" he exclaimed, starting up. "The Madagascar madness!"
+
+Brent looked about wildly. He rushed to Flint and shook him. But Flint
+only laughed. He turned and moved toward the candles, reaching out for
+them. But even as he did so his hand faltered.
+
+He stopped and passed his hand across his tightening forehead. Slowly
+over his face came a stupid expression. He felt himself going, without
+power of retraining himself. His lips twitched and he swayed.
+
+Then he began to laugh uncontrollably.
+
+Flint rose and clapped him on the shoulder. Then both laughed foolishly,
+loudly.
+
+They were beyond help. It was the laughing madness.
+
+Outside, in the hall, Eva and Locke had been standing, talking for a
+moment, when suddenly, below, they heard a terrific noise in the cellar.
+Involuntarily Eva's hand clutched Locke's arm. Locke drew a revolver
+and, in spite of Eva's fearsome caution, hastened down the cellar
+stairs.
+
+About in the blackness of the cellar he groped until his foot touched
+something soft, a mass on the floor. He bent over. It was the butler, in
+a heap, unconscious, but still breathing.
+
+There was not a sound, not another being in the cellar.
+
+Together Eva and Locke helped the now half-conscious man to his feet and
+pushed and pulled him up the stairs; as slowly he recovered his power of
+speech.
+
+"What was it--tell us?" urged Locke.
+
+"I--I went down to fix the fuses--as the master ordered," muttered the
+butler, incoherently. "A huge figure--steel hand--it flung me across the
+floor--the last I remember."
+
+He passed his hand over his head as though recollection even was too
+horrible for description.
+
+Locke listened a bit doubtfully, then sent the butler on his way to bed,
+while Eva could scarcely restrain her fears.
+
+Over to the dining-room door Locke strode and listened. There was
+nothing but the sound of merriment inside, of uncontrollable laughter.
+Could it be that Brent and Flint were drinking? He dared not betray a
+fear to Eva. Instead he knocked.
+
+At that moment he could hear the sound of some heavy body falling; then
+more laughter as Brent in his hysteria struck the model of the automaton
+to the floor.
+
+With the model, unnoticed by Brent, now fluttered to the floor the
+letter he had been writing. But the madman paid no attention to that now
+as it sifted through the air and fluttered under the sideboard.
+
+"Mr. Brent," called Locke, "please open the door."
+
+Instead of an answer came a loud and insulting laugh, followed by an
+incoherent mouthing of words. Eva looked startled, blanched. It was so
+unlike her father. For the moment Locke was piqued. But he tried not to
+show it as he turned away from the door.
+
+"I am your father's employe," he said, sadly, "and it is his privilege,
+I suppose, to laugh at me." He hesitated.
+
+"Oh, but, Quentin--Mr. Locke--I'm--I'm so sorry. Surely he could not
+have meant it."
+
+At the head of the stairs Locke tried to smile.
+
+"Don't worry," he said, repressing his feelings. "It will make no
+difference between us. Good night."
+
+They parted, Eva closing her door for a sleepless night, Locke to work
+far into the night in his laboratory until sheer exhaustion overcame his
+feelings.
+
+Meanwhile, in the dining-room, the two men kept terrible vigil, hour
+after hour, oblivious of time, in wild and wanton laughter--maniacal
+abandon.
+
+A terrible blow had been struck and Reason was tottering on her throne.
+
+Two men had been stricken by an unknown hand--stark, stark mad.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+"Father--please--open the door!"
+
+It was early the following morning that the butler with frightened face
+had called Eva Brent to tell her that her father and Flint had been
+locked in the dining-room all night and were still laughing madly.
+
+Eva had hurried down-stairs, encountering Zita as she ran. It was true.
+She could hear the voices inside. Nor could she get any answer from the
+two men.
+
+"Oh--Zita--please--can't something be _done_?" Eva implored.
+
+With a hasty word Zita hurried away just as Herbert Balcom himself
+entered the house from the street.
+
+In utter surprise Balcom nodded at Zita as she poured forth the story of
+what had been discovered in the morning, then pushed past her in high
+excitement.
+
+"What's wrong?" he asked as he came upon the butler and Eva still
+knocking excitedly at the dining-room door.
+
+Eva was almost in a panic as she answered, "Father and Mr. Flint have
+been in there laughing ever since last night."
+
+Balcom tried to comfort her. But somehow his sympathy sent a cold
+shudder through the poor girl.
+
+Meanwhile Zita had encountered Locke hurrying down at the sound of the
+commotion. To him she told the story, again hurt that his interest was
+solely for Eva, not in herself.
+
+Locke paused long enough to seize an umbrella from the rack, rip the
+cover off, and break out a rib, to which he tied a piece of string while
+he hurried to the group at the door.
+
+"Break down the door and call the police," ordered Balcom.
+
+The butler reached for a chair and was about to swing it over his head
+to break down the door.
+
+"Stop!" interrupted Locke.
+
+The young scientist knelt down, inserted the umbrella steel through the
+keyhole, and bent it by the string as he fished about with it on the
+other side to find the bolt. Meanwhile the butler telephoned frantically
+for the police.
+
+It was at this height of excitement that Paul Balcom entered. A moment's
+talk with Zita, and he, too, joined the group.
+
+Sympathetically he spoke to Eva, but Eva scarcely responded in the
+fashion of a girl to the man whom she was going to marry. Her attention
+was riveted on Locke, who was kneeling before the door. Paul saw it and
+an ominous scowl crossed his face.
+
+Carefully Locke worked the umbrella steel and the string until he had
+caught the bolt. Then he shot the bolt back and rose to his feet. All
+watched him expectantly as he threw open the door.
+
+Such a sight as met their eyes one could scarcely picture.
+
+There were Brent and Flint at the table--laughing--laughing. The candles
+had long since burned out. On the floor lay the automaton model.
+
+"Father!" cried Eva, running to him.
+
+But there was no look of recognition on Brent's face.
+
+"Don't you know me? Speak to me! Father!"
+
+Instead, Brent merely patted her shoulder and laughed hollowly. Eva, on
+her knees by him, sobbed and smoothed his head by turns.
+
+Locke, bending over Flint, found him in much the same condition.
+
+Meanwhile, Balcom and Paul had picked up the model of the automaton and
+exchanged a quick glance.
+
+"This man Locke's actions are suspicious," exclaimed Balcom, hastily.
+"He was in the house last night."
+
+Outside they could hear the arrival of the detectives summoned by the
+butler.
+
+"Go to Eva," nudged Balcom to Paul.
+
+A moment later the butler entered with the detectives.
+
+At the sight of the automaton model in Balcom's hands the butler cried
+out:
+
+"That is what attacked me last night--only larger--much larger!"
+
+All eyes were now on the butler. Quickly Balcom took advantage of the
+situation thus created. Locke, also, left Flint and moved over to the
+group examining the model. As he did so his eye caught a piece of paper
+under the sideboard. He was about to pick it up when he realized that
+all were looking at him. Quickly he covered his discovery and faced
+them.
+
+"This man is the stranger in the house," cried Balcom, in anger. "Arrest
+him and make him explain."
+
+It was the work of only an instant for the chief detective to step up to
+Locke and slip the bracelets on his wrists.
+
+"Don't!" cried Eva.
+
+"Please--my dear--your father," remonstrated Paul.
+
+At that instant Brent was seized with another violent fit of coughing
+and laughter. Eva, distracted, was half fainting.
+
+Thus, with Locke handcuffed, Balcom and Paul were triumphant.
+
+Locke saw his chance. But the handcuffs prevented him from using his
+hands. In the instant that all were diverted toward Brent, with
+incredible deftness Locke slipped his hand from the cuffs, one link of
+which fell open as if by magic, through a secret all his own. He reached
+down and picked up the paper under the sideboard and read it. It was the
+letter Brent had been writing and served only to increase his
+perplexity. He read it again, then crushed it into his pocket, and
+before any one had discovered his trick had slipped his hand back into
+the cuffs and they were locked again.
+
+At that very moment the telephone rang and the chief of the detectives
+answered. As he did so a perplexed expression crossed his face and he
+walked over quickly to Locke.
+
+"I--beg your pardon," he apologized as he began to unlock the handcuffs.
+
+"Here, my man, what are you doing?" interrupted Balcom.
+
+"I know my business. You lay off," growled the detective.
+
+A moment later Locke, with a slight smile on his handsome face, was
+answering the telephone.
+
+Not a soul save the detective, even yet, suspected the true identity of
+Locke, even as he answered over the telephone with a respectful, "Yes,
+sir."
+
+The fact of the matter was that the message had come most opportunely.
+It was from the chief of the Department of Justice himself, ordering
+Locke to stay at the house until he had secured the evidence that would
+allow the department to proceed against the company under the anti-trust
+law. That, then, was the explanation of the secret dictagraph which
+Locke had installed, the explanation of his apparent faithlessness to
+his employer.
+
+But weightier matters were now on Locke's mind. Here he was faced by the
+case of his life, involving the happiness of the very girl whom he had
+so soon come to love. His incentive was double--love and success:
+triple--above all, justice.
+
+By this time the household themselves were sufficiently calm to help
+Brent to his bedroom and Flint to a guest-chamber.
+
+Balcom was about to follow, when Locke, returning from the telephone,
+touched him on the shoulder and shoved the threat message which Brent
+had given him the night before under the face of the junior partner.
+
+"Read that," he demanded.
+
+Balcom read, controlling his features admirably, if control were
+necessary.
+
+"What's the meaning of this?" he demanded, coldly.
+
+"Were you in Madagascar lately?" shot back Locke.
+
+Locke could not be sure whether or not Balcom suppressed a start. At any
+rate, he did not conceal anger at the insinuation.
+
+"Certainly," he replied. "With my son I cruised through the Mozambique
+Channel and touched at Madagascar last summer. Why?"
+
+Locke nodded and the detective made a note of the reply.
+
+"What do you mean to insinuate by that question?" demanded Balcom.
+
+Without reply Locke shrugged nonchalantly and smiled.
+
+Not ten feet away, in the conservatory door, Paul listened, and his face
+darkened as he clenched his fists.
+
+There was a murderous glare in Paul's eyes as Locke unconcernedly
+withdrew, whispering to the detective, who nodded deferentially to the
+young scientist who had been assigned by the Department of Justice,
+strangely, to the very case which now he realized in some unknown way
+must concern himself and the very mystery of his own identity.
+
+So wore along the morning, with growing mystery and excitement.
+
+It was not long before the Brent family physician was summoned, and
+after a careful diagnosis pronounced Brent in a hopeless state as far as
+his own science was concerned. Eva was by this time more than frantic.
+The consolation of Paul seemed to add to her nervousness. She was almost
+distracted when she heard Balcom and the doctor discussing the case in
+low tones in her father's room.
+
+"Don't you think, Doctor," she overheard, "that he would be far better
+off in a sanitarium?"
+
+She shuddered as the doctor agreed with Balcom, and Balcom sought to
+persuade her that the course was best. Even the solicitations of Paul
+annoyed her. Paul was more than vexed at this new repulse from his
+bride-to-be. His anger knew no bounds as he caught sight of Locke, who
+had overheard and showed his doubt over the whole proposal for the care
+of Brent. He plucked at his father's sleeve and nodded toward Locke.
+
+Balcom needed no prompting from his crafty son.
+
+"I'll have you understand, Locke," he cried, his face growing apoplectic
+red, "that I am in charge here now. Your services are no longer
+required."
+
+"I quite understand," returned Locke, quietly. "We shall see."
+
+Balcom stormed down from the room to the telephone, where, a moment
+later, he telephoned to an asylum, asking them to send a conveyance with
+nurses, keepers, and whatever paraphernalia was necessary to take care
+of his partner, Brent.
+
+"Is he violent?" demanded the doctor over the telephone.
+
+"Yes. Bring a strait-jacket," snapped back Balcom. "And the sooner he is
+under your care the better."
+
+With that Balcom stamped out of the house.
+
+In Brent's room, Paul was attempting still to ingratiate himself with
+Eva, who was growing more distant toward him with every moment. Finally
+Paul could stand it no longer. He turned on his heel and faced Locke
+angrily in the hall.
+
+"You'll regret this, confound you!" he ground out, as he swung out of
+the room rapidly in a high state of feeling.
+
+Unconcernedly Locke turned on his heel.
+
+"Don't worry," he whispered to Eva. "I'll see that no harm comes to your
+father."
+
+For answer, her own heart too full for words, Eva pressed the hand of
+the young scientist. It was reward enough for Locke.
+
+Meanwhile, at Doctor Shaw's sanitarium, to which Balcom had telephoned
+with the permission of the doctor, elaborate preparations had been
+completed for the reception and transportation of Brent.
+
+It was perhaps an hour later that the ambulance, with three
+white-uniformed attendants, pulled out, carrying all those appurtenances
+necessary for the care of the insane, including the strait-jacket which
+Balcom had so testily suggested.
+
+That same hour had seen intense activity in another quarter. In the den
+of the Automaton, the hard-visaged emissaries had been already roused by
+the entrance of the Automaton.
+
+Hasty directions had been uttered by the metallic, phonograph voice of
+the monster, and already four of the most desperate of the characters
+had hurried through the entrance out on the cliffs. The Automaton
+himself had turned toward the passage through the Graveyard of Genius to
+Brent Rock itself.
+
+Thus it happened that when the ambulance from Doctor Shaw's sanitarium
+came bowling along the road to Brent Rock as fast as its motor would
+permit, the driver was forced suddenly to put on the brakes to save
+himself from being wrecked by a huge log that lay squarely across the
+road.
+
+No sooner had the attendants jumped out to remove the log than four
+desperate men fell upon them from ambush, beat them, and left them
+trussed up and unconscious, while they donned the jackets and uniforms
+of Doctor Shaw's men, seized the ambulance, and swung off again at a
+fast clip in the direction of Brent Rock.
+
+Lulled into a false security, as her father slept now for a time under
+an opiate, Eva was sitting beside him with loving care when she heard
+the noise below of the arrival of the car from Doctor Shaw's sanitarium.
+At once she was in wild alarm. Nor was Locke off his guard. While Zita
+tried to reassure Eva, Locke met the men.
+
+There were four of them, and as the first passed, Locke halted him. The
+parley gave another a chance to push past, while Locke held three at
+bay.
+
+A moment later there was a scream from Eva, who had hurried from her
+father's room at the sound of the high voices. The emissary had seized
+her.
+
+It was a signal for the other three, who leaped on Locke all at once.
+With almost superhuman strength Locke seized one of them and flung him
+over his head for a fall down the whole flight of steps as he fought the
+other two single-handed.
+
+Even then the third came back to the attack and Locke was forced to give
+back step by step down the stairs.
+
+Another scream from Eva.
+
+In the heat of the fray Locke caught a glimpse of her battling on the
+landing above with the first emissary. It gave him redoubled strength.
+
+Flinging the two men off and eluding the third, he leaped to the
+chandelier in the hall and with a giant swing wrapped his legs about the
+fellow struggling with Eva. Literally throttling him, he pulled him
+backward over the balcony railing for a fall clear to the lower hall.
+
+At the moment when Locke was actually subduing all of his assailants the
+door to the cellar suddenly opened and the huge figure of the Automaton
+strode out.
+
+With one blow of his steel fist the monster struck Locke senseless, then
+turned and began ascending the grand staircase.
+
+Almost paralyzed with fear, Eva screamed again and fled through the
+nearest door, locking it. On strode the Automaton, crashing down the
+door as if it had been a mere shell.
+
+Meanwhile the emissaries had seized Locke, still unconscious and unable
+to resist. Feverishly they began to bind him in the strait-jacket which
+they had taken from the ambulance. Then they carried him and flung him
+roughly on the floor of the library.
+
+Still screaming, Eva fled to the next room, again bolting the door and
+piling furniture frantically to barricade it. Again the Automaton rained
+blow after blow on the door. It splintered, and his powerful fist began
+breaking and overturning the barricade which the unfortunate girl had
+improvised.
+
+Wildly she looked about. Only a closet now offered refuge. The door was
+splintered through. She could see the terrible face of the monster.
+
+In the library, Locke, recovering by this time, began flopping and
+twisting, spurred by the muffled screams from above-stairs as he worked
+with miraculous dexterity to release himself from the strait-jacket.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+Locke struggled with superhuman effort to release himself from the
+strait-jacket in which he was held prisoner. The throat-straps pressed
+against the neck muscles and the strain on the straps could be heard
+like pistol-shots as the leather stretched under his prodigous efforts.
+
+With every nerve keyed up and his reflexes answering his keen brain, he
+swayed backward and forward, rolled from side to side until his
+shoulder-blades were thrown completely out of joint. The pain was
+intense, but he summoned every ounce of strength at his command and
+finally succeeded in getting one of his arms free by gradually working
+his body toward a settee, where, with his elbow on the seat, he pushed
+his disjointed arm over his head.
+
+Agony was written all over his face as at last with a final effort he
+extricated his arms and was in a position to loosen the straps which
+bound them, with his teeth.
+
+Nor was his labor over now. The canvas jacket cut into his flesh and the
+buckles bruised his muscles. His body ached with weariness, yet he clung
+to his task. Like a thing incarnate he toiled as he realized the danger
+that confronted Eva.
+
+Up-stairs, the monster was pursuing Eva. The heavy oaken doors were as
+straws to him, and he plunged through them as a mad elephant dashes
+through a canebrake. Destruction lay in his wake as he crashed through
+the improvised barriers which Eva had constructed to delay his
+onslaught. A crouching, desolate figure, she waited for what she knew to
+be her end. There was only one barrier left between her and this engine
+of destruction. It was only a moment now when she would be a crushed,
+mangled mass. With terror in her heart she waited for the thing to crash
+through the last remaining barrier, and even now she could hear his
+ponderous step as he crossed the room toward the door which would only
+momentarily stay his progress. Her lips moved in prayer as she waited
+and the dread moments seemed eons to her.
+
+Suddenly she heard a crash, and she could see the panels of sturdy oak
+in the door give way as though they were egg-shells. The gigantic fist
+of the monster crashed through and she could discern the dim outline of
+the enormous head, and the glaring eyes of fire looking toward her. With
+a shrill shriek she raised her arms above her head and fell swooning to
+the floor just as a pistol-shot rang out.
+
+Locke, disheveled and weak, had released himself from the strait-jacket,
+and with the speed of a panther had ascended the stairs. He saw the
+monster crashing through the last remaining barrier, and without
+hesitation he fired at the thing as he closed in. His one thought was to
+delay it or make it swerve in its course momentarily, with the hope that
+by some chance Eva might have time to escape. Could he only accomplish
+this, he thought his mission successful, regardless of the outcome as
+far as he himself was concerned.
+
+He pulled the trigger of his automatic again and again as he rushed
+forward. By some strange trick of fate the figure reeled for a second
+and one of its arms dropped swinging to its side. The bullet had entered
+a joint. Had it in some way deranged the mechanism, causing the
+Automaton to turn in its tracks and confront Locke as he charged
+forward? Or was some human being concealed in the armored creature and
+wounded?
+
+Eva, in her semi-conscious state, saw the mass of metal charge toward
+Locke, and closed her eyes so as not to be a witness to his end. She
+waited, dumb and helpless with fright, and before her surged the meaning
+of this man's great sacrifice for her. In the brief interval she
+realized that men of his ilk were few. She realized that her interest in
+the young chemist was more than a passing fancy and the truth was driven
+home to her in his hour of peril. She closed her eyes and all before her
+went blank.
+
+As the Automaton faced Locke voices could be heard in the hall, and the
+gardener of Brent Rock, who had summoned aid, came to Locke's
+assistance. Armed with clubs and garden tools, the men charged the
+monster. Like a lion at bay, the thing turned from its task of
+destroying Locke to face its new enemies. _En masse_ they attacked the
+Automaton, but it shook them off, one by one, as a terrier would rats,
+and made its way toward the grand staircase. Some of the gardener's aids
+suffered broken bones, while others were left unconscious as a result of
+the conflict.
+
+Locke picked himself up and rushed to Eva's side. He took the prostrate
+form in his arms and looked down into her beautiful face. The room was
+in ruins, and Eva slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. Her hand
+went out in a momentary caress, but as she fully recovered consciousness
+she moved her hand away lest he really know. She looked up at him
+gratefully, and Locke, a little confused, took his arm from around her
+waist. With boyish bashfulness he hung his head and asked her if she was
+all right. The sound of his own voice amid the ruins brought back his
+composure.
+
+"We must see about father. Perhaps something has happened to him," said
+Eva, as she started toward the door.
+
+Locke looked after the girl, then followed her.
+
+Propped up in bed, Peter Brent presented a pitiable sight. His glassy
+stare and shrill laugh like a coyote baying at the moon sent cold chills
+down Eva's back as she entered the room. This man, at one time a power
+in the business world, was only a shell of his former self, and his
+inhuman laughter caused even Locke to shudder a little as he entered the
+room.
+
+Eva walked over to her father and put her hand to his brow, looking
+wistfully in his eyes for some sign of recognition.
+
+She kissed him on the forehead and called him, but he still stared
+blankly ahead of him, unconscious of even her presence. Locke felt the
+pulse of the patient and looked at the dilated pupils.
+
+"There must be some antidote for this Madagascar madness, and I shall
+move everything to find it," he said, as he looked at Eva with
+determination.
+
+She turned toward him eagerly as he spoke and his words gave her a
+little cheer. Eva continued her caresses, but the demented man showed no
+signs of recognizing even his own daughter.
+
+From another room the shrill laughter of Flint could be heard as he
+raved in delirium. Bereft of reason, he fought an unseen enemy.
+
+"Q did it, I tell you--it's Q," he raved and shrieked in his insane way
+as he rocked back and forth in bed. He was fighting his own conscience,
+and kept pushing some unseen thing from him as he shook in a paroxysm of
+fright.
+
+The front-door bell rang and Balcom entered. He was suave in manner, but
+this time he seemed a little excited as he gave his hat and stick to the
+butler.
+
+"Tell Miss Brent I must see her at once," he ordered.
+
+As the butler turned to mount the stairs, Balcom reached his hand up and
+rubbed his shoulder as though he were in pain. Perhaps the gesture meant
+nothing, but a keen observer would have noticed that his arm did not
+move with the freedom that one would expect of a man of his frame and
+build. As he rubbed his shoulder his eyes followed the butler up the
+stairs and his lips tightened. He watched him until he was out of sight,
+then turned and entered the library.
+
+As Balcom entered the library the door-bell rang and the three ambulance
+men who had been overpowered by the emissaries of the Automaton entered.
+Balcom approached them and hasty explanations were forthcoming. In his
+suave manner he quieted the most noisy of the trio, who by this time had
+found the strait-jacket from which Locke had just released himself.
+
+"This looks like a put-up job to me," growled the driver, as he
+confronted Balcom, holding the strait-jacket toward him. "And I believe
+you know something about it."
+
+"My dear man, I am the person who telephoned for you to come for my
+stricken partner," said Balcom, "and I still insist that he is in dire
+need of treatment."
+
+As he spoke Eva entered the library in time to hear him. She was
+followed by Locke.
+
+"My father shall not be taken from this house," she cried, in reply to
+Balcom's orders to the attendants.
+
+As she spoke she turned toward Locke and looked at him for his
+acquiescence. He quietly nodded toward her in an assuring manner, and as
+he did so one might have noticed Balcom's face cloud up with evil
+purpose. He was thinking of this young whipper-snapper and his
+interference with his plans. As he stood meditating he noticed that
+Locke was looking at him, so he turned toward the young chemist and his
+whole expression changed. A bland smile crept across his face as he
+spoke.
+
+"I was only suggesting that my partner be taken to an institution,
+because I believed that he would receive better treatment there." He
+addressed Locke, but looked toward Eva as he did so. "Miss Brent should
+have trust in me. I have only her interest at heart."
+
+"It would be better for Mr. Brent to stay here," said Locke. "The
+treatment his daughter can give will be better than that of an
+outsider."
+
+As he spoke he sauntered away with an air of finality, while Balcom
+shrugged his shoulders and gave orders to the ambulance men to go.
+
+Locke walked toward the dining-room, and there amid the candle drippings
+and the wreckage of the night before espied the miniature automaton. He
+picked it up and examined it minutely as Balcom strolled in.
+
+Balcom's quick gaze caught what Locke was looking at, and he approached
+the young chemist and sauvely said:
+
+"It seems almost unbelievable, Mr. Locke, that a giant form like that
+could be endowed with a human brain."
+
+As he spoke he pointed toward the miniature automaton in Locke's hands.
+Locke turned and faced him, his jaw tightening with a snap.
+
+"Not unbelievable, but impossible, Mr. Balcom," he said. "I believe that
+there is some one in this thing that attacks us and calls himself Q."
+
+He eyed Balcom as he spoke, to see the effects of his words. But if
+Balcom knew anything, he cunningly concealed it. Locke walked to the
+table and closely examined the candles and other stuff strewn about. He
+was looking for some clue to what had caused the madness of Brent and
+Flint. The crumpled anatomy chart lay on the floor, and as Locke stooped
+to pick it up Eva entered and came toward him. She shuddered slightly as
+she passed the miniature of the monster, and Balcom, with an air of
+satisfaction, noticed her fear. He turned and was about to go out, when
+the butler entered with the duplicate candlestick in his hands.
+
+"Mr. Locke, in cleaning the hall I found this behind the portieres at
+the entrance to below-stairs," he announced. "I was quite puzzled for a
+moment, for I knew the master had taken it into the dining-room with him
+last evening."
+
+As he spoke he handed the candlestick to Locke, who quickly compared it
+with the one on the dining-room table which contained the burnt candles.
+
+In appearance the candelabra were identical. Locke with great care
+examined every feature of them, looking for a clue. He took one of the
+whole candles from the candlestick which the butler had brought in and
+scraped the wax from in with his penknife. He examined the particles
+carefully, then approached the candlestick which stood on the table the
+fatal night, and very carefully removed the wax from the stumps of
+candles which were still in the sockets.
+
+"The Madagascar madness came from _that_ candlestick," he announced,
+with assurance, as he pointed toward the one on the table.
+
+While he was so busily engaged Balcom was eying him cunningly. He
+watched his every move and was most intent in seeing just how the young
+man would prove his contention.
+
+"Good morning, every one!" came the clear voice of Paul as he entered
+the room and crossed over to the side of his fiancee. He was particular
+to ignore Locke in his greeting, and as he approached Eva he bent over
+her hand and kissed it.
+
+A close observer would have noticed that the girl rather drew her hand
+back from his caress.
+
+"I am so sorry about your father, Eva," whispered Paul. "I trust the
+ailment is but temporary."
+
+As he spoke Eva thanked him mechanically for his solicitations, while
+Balcom glanced at his son in admiration.
+
+Locke, who was still engaged in looking at the candle drippings through
+his pocket magnifying-glass, paid slight attention to Paul, but glanced
+up in time to see that there was a look of insincerity on his face.
+
+Could it be that this young scion of the Balcom fortune could in any way
+be connected with the Automaton? Could this man, this suave, polished
+gentleman, have any motive for seeking the ruin or death of his fiancee?
+Locke seemed to be busily engaged in his task, but he was making mental
+notes on the conduct of young Balcom. He looked up finally and turned to
+Eva.
+
+"Miss Brent, I find minute particles of some foreign substance in the
+wax of these candles," he announced. "They seem to be of organic origin
+and I am certain that they contain the poison which has robbed your
+father of his mentality. I am going to take them to a chemical
+laboratory where there will be proper facilities to have them analyzed.
+Perhaps there is an antidote that will restore your father's sanity."
+
+As Locke spoke he carefully wrapped up the particles of drippings in a
+piece of paper and put them in his pocket. As he did so, both Balcom and
+Paul exchanged hurried glances, and Balcom left the group and started
+toward the hall.
+
+During all this procedure Zita, clad in a sumptuous morning frock hardly
+befitting a secretary, was standing behind the portieres in the hall and
+listening intently to all she could hear within the dining-room. As she
+heard Balcom's footsteps she hurriedly turned and seemed to be going up
+the hall. He looked after her and then called.
+
+She came toward Balcom with a nod of understanding, and, as she
+approached, he led her to a corner of the hall and whispered to her.
+
+"It is imperative that we get Flint out of the house to-night. I can
+trust you to take care of this if I arrange the details?"
+
+Zita quickly nodded acquiescence, looking furtively over her shoulder to
+see if they were observed.
+
+"I will get him to your apartment," she hurriedly said, as she looked up
+at him for further instructions.
+
+Balcom turned quickly from her, got his own hat and sack, and departed,
+just as Locke came into the hall, bound for the chemist's shop. He
+looked after the disappearing form of Balcom, and then turned and
+noticed that he was being watched by Zita. Zita in turn hastily entered
+the library, without looking over her shoulder.
+
+"I wonder what her real position in this house can be," mused Locke, as
+he took his hat and went toward the front door.
+
+In the dining-room Paul was now standing close to Eva and had taken her
+hand.
+
+"You know it was your father's wish that we be married," he was saying,
+"and I know that he would be happy if we had the ceremony performed at
+once."
+
+His eyes narrowed as he said this, but Eva was too preoccupied to see
+it. With a shudder, ever so slight, she looked up at his handsome face
+and spoke.
+
+"I will not even speak of marriage until my father recovers, Paul, and I
+don't know how you can ask me to at such a time."
+
+She was not thinking so much of her father as of a certain young chemist
+who had risked his life for her. Why had fate thrown him in her way, she
+wondered. What was there about Quentin Locke that compelled her
+attention--that made her feel secure when he was about? What was the
+difference between the young chemist and Paul that she felt perfect
+trust in the one whom she had known only a short time and distrust and
+uncertainty in the other to whom she was about to be married?
+
+She hung her head and went into the drawing-room, leaving Paul standing
+there. He looked after her, and a slight smile crossed his face as he
+thought of what a fool she was to think that he cared for her. His
+self-assurance led him to believe that the reason that Eva was not
+consenting to his proposal was indeed because of her father's condition,
+for he little dreamed, nor would his egotism permit him to believe, that
+anything else could be the case.
+
+His mouth hardened in a subtle smile as he sauntered after Eva to bid
+her farewell. He remembered that De Luxe Dora was waiting outside for
+him in her speedster.
+
+He had made this paramour of his take him to the very door of his
+fiancee's home, and there wait until he had paid his respects to the
+moneyed lady who would make happiness possible by supplying him with the
+funds to pursue his pleasures and insure his father's hold on the
+International Patents, Incorporated.
+
+Paul looked at his watch, then, after a few words of condolence which
+would hardly sound sincere from any one less gifted, made a hurried
+departure toward the corner where the speedster was waiting.
+
+"Who was the funny gink that hurried by a little while ago?" queried
+Dora, in the vernacular of her calling. "He gave me the double O as
+though he had something on me."
+
+"That's a fellow we've got to look out for, kid," answered Paul, in the
+same terms by which he was addressed, for, if nothing else, Paul could
+be as much at home in the underworld as in a mansion on the Drive.
+"Brent claimed that he was a chemist before he went 'bugs,'" continued
+Paul, "but I have my doubts; in fact, I'm very leery of him because I
+think he's a fly cop."
+
+He took his place beside Dora, who started the car and headed down-town.
+
+After Paul's departure Eva hurried to her father's room and tried to
+comfort him. He was seated in a chair, staring blankly ahead of him. He
+was quieter now, but his body twitched nervously from time to time.
+
+The tears started to come to Eva's eyes as she saw her father's plight,
+and she knelt down beside him and took his hand in hers. She stroked it
+with her own hand and bent over and kissed it. As she knelt, crying
+softly, she sobbed half-aloud:
+
+"Why can't I confide in you, father? Why can't you advise me? I don't
+love Paul Balcom and could never marry him. I know I love Quentin
+Locke--I do--I do--"
+
+As she sobbed she bent over his hand and pressed it to her lips.
+
+Peter Brent sat staring into space, staring like a graven image.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+After her brief encounter with Balcom in the hallway Zita stealthily
+mounted to Flint's room.
+
+Flint's condition was unchanged. He lay sprawled out in a huge
+arm-chair, his head swaying from side to side, as he muttered and
+mumbled incoherently, while his leering smile caused even Zita to
+shudder.
+
+She was, however, alive to the importance of her mission. Steeling
+herself, she raised Flint from the chair and steadied him with one hand
+while she tried to smooth out the wrinkles of his clothing so that his
+mad condition would not be too apparent when they went outdoors. It was
+a hard task, but Zita soon accomplished it and, half supporting, she led
+him through a door on the farther side of the room. They crept down a
+back stairway and so away from the house.
+
+At times Flint stumbled and almost fell, and once that insane laugh
+startled a passer-by, who started after them, then changed his mind and
+proceeded on his way. It was then that Zita's heart almost stopped
+beating. She realized that the situation would be unexplainable to a
+stranger and she urged the insane Flint on faster.
+
+Renewed hope came to her with each step. She had almost relaxed her
+precautions when, suddenly, from a clump of bushes, several men leaped
+out. They seized Flint, who merely started babbling afresh. Zita,
+ignorant of what was really happening, struck out right and left in the
+hopeless encounter, until one of the men with a grin seized her wrist in
+his powerful grasp and twisted it until she screamed with pain. Then she
+realized for the first time that she had fallen into the hands of the
+emissaries of the Automaton. Had Balcom planned it, or had that
+mechanical monster taken advantage of what Balcom had ordered?
+
+In the mean time, the other thugs, with Flint between them, made off
+hurriedly. With a last push that almost threw Zita to the ground, the
+last of them dashed into the shrubbery, and for several moments Zita
+dazedly stood there as he crashed through the underbrush, making good
+the escape and capture. Then she turned and ran back to Brent Rock.
+
+Locke, in the mean time, had arrived at the laboratory of his old friend
+Hadwell, the chemist, where he was warmly welcomed.
+
+It was the usual dusty workshop of one devoted to one
+idea--science--with no touches of comfort. Hadwell fairly lived amid
+retorts, Bunsen burners, and reagents.
+
+He was a man of profound research, rather than the commercial chemist,
+and it was from him that Locke, in earlier days, had learned many
+lessons so well that now his career was watched with interest by many
+distinguished men of science.
+
+Hadwell was delighted at the chance to examine the strange scrapings of
+wax which Locke had dug out of the sockets of the candlestick, the more
+so as they must contain some mysterious poison. First he studied them
+under a powerful lens, then by chemical reactions, until he made visible
+some peculiar crystals. Locke himself was amazed as his friend worked.
+
+"You don't know it all--yet--my boy," smiled the aged professor.
+"There's still something the old teacher can add to your education, and
+I'm glad, Quentin, very glad, for it will draw you closer to me again. I
+need you to carry on my work when I must lay it down. I'm not positive,"
+he continued, "but I believe these crystals to be those of _Dhatura
+stramonium_, and, as you say speed's the thing, we'll begin by noting
+the effect of the stuff as a gas on that guinea-pig over there."
+
+"Have you masks?" asked Locke, with true scientific caution.
+
+"Yes--on the shelf. You're keen, Quentin. These fumes can penetrate the
+tiniest aperture and, if my guess is right, without a mask, you would
+quickly laugh yourself to death."
+
+"Don't, Professor, don't joke, for there is no joy in that mad laughter.
+It is horrible, maddening, even to the hearer. Let us get to work. The
+father of the girl I love may even now be sinking to his death. We must
+determine the nature of this deadly stuff, and then find an antidote."
+
+The chemist brought out the cage in which the guinea-pig was placidly
+munching a lettuce leaf, and placed it in a convenient spot on the
+table. Then, after Locke, as well as the professor, had carefully
+adjusted the masks, the latter lighted a Bunsen burner and applied the
+flame to the deadly crystals. A pungent fume was given off and collected
+in a rubber bag, or cone, from which a long tube protruded.
+
+This tube the chemist introduced into the cage. For a moment there was
+no perceptible change in the animal's actions. Then it stopped eating,
+sniffed at the strange odor, and commenced to twitch violently. This
+twitching continued for several minutes, when the creature started to
+revolve in circles, like a Japanese dancing-mouse. Finally it became
+subject to spasms, and, although the professor withdrew the tube, these
+symptoms continued.
+
+"I was right!" he cried. "It is an especially poisonous variety of that
+almost unknown Oriental drug, _Dhatura stramonium_. I think I can find
+an antidote to it, also. To work, my boy, to work!"
+
+One experiment after another resulted in failure, however, and it was
+while they were so engaged that the telephone bell rang and a feminine
+voice inquired for Locke.
+
+It was an excited Eva who called. "Quentin," she burst forth,
+breathlessly, "what do you think has happened? The strangest thing!
+Flint has escaped. Tell me what to do. Can't you come to me at once? I
+need you."
+
+Locke needed no further urging. Important though the work of finding the
+antidote was, Eva's call was more imperative to him. He reassured her as
+best he could over the wire, for he had no idea what had really
+happened. Zita, as might have been expected, on her return to Brent Rock
+had been far too clever to disclose the exact truth that Flint had been
+abducted, and that while in her own charge.
+
+When she arrived at Brent Rock she had mounted by the same stairway by
+which she and Flint had departed. Entering Flint's room, she had raised
+the alarm and had acted her part so well that Eva thought that she had
+discovered Flint's absence at the precise moment at which Zita had cried
+out and she had come running in answer to her call.
+
+Locke gave Hadwell a brief outline of what had just occurred at Brent
+Rock.
+
+"Professor," he pleaded, "for Heaven's sake don't fail me. Try as you
+never tried before to find the antidote for this strange combination of
+poisons. Telephone me when you have it."
+
+Locke seized his hat, and Hadwell redoubled his efforts to fathom the
+toxic secret.
+
+At Brent Rock, in the mean time, everything was in confusion, Eva was
+almost distracted, and, to add to her discomfort, Paul took occasion to
+call.
+
+In the past few days her distrust of him, for she could call it by no
+other name, had grown, and the furtive glances which he exchanged with
+Zita, little trouble-maker, were not reassuring. But when Eva's maid,
+motioning her aside, told her that she had been a witness to the
+departure of Zita and Flint, Eva's suspicions from a vague misgiving
+became a stern reality. She longed for Locke's return and protection
+from the very man to whom she was engaged.
+
+As Locke left the chemist's he noticed a light runabout across the
+street, half hidden in the shadows. But he failed to notice the evil
+face of De Luxe Dora peering at him from beneath the rim of a
+well-pulled-down hat.
+
+"Huh!" she muttered. "We'll get his number and here's where I go after
+it."
+
+Locke hailed a passing taxicab, gave a hurried direction to the
+chauffeur, and jumped in. The taxi snorted, cut out open, and jumped
+forward as the driver clumsily shifted the worn gears. But out of the
+shadows there glided a low-hung runabout with a purling motor that
+without effort kept Locke's taxi just in sight without seeming to be
+following.
+
+At the time that the emissaries abducted Flint he had been roughly
+handled and some of his clothing had been torn. But as he had been
+incapable of the slightest degree of real self-defense, the thugs had
+soon desisted beating him up, with the result that he had escaped bodily
+injury except for a few slight scratches.
+
+The emissaries of the Automaton led him by devious winding paths down to
+the shore, and, half walking, half running, pressing close to the high
+cliffs, they urged him forward.
+
+Soon they came to a cleft in the rock, and, with one hand using a
+well-hooded electric torch to light the way, they dragged the poor
+unfortunate into the cave entrance to the den.
+
+This cave was a marvel of nature, hewn out of the solid rock by
+countless tides, its dome lost in the darkness. It gave an impression of
+immensity, while in many directions passageways gave off from what might
+be called a main chamber.
+
+Flint was roughly thrown on a rock, where, head in hands, he swayed
+backward and forward, now moaning, now chuckling, now laughing outright.
+The echo of that laugh resounded hollowly in the dismal place and must
+have notified the supreme master of this underground world that his
+domain had been invaded.
+
+A metallic clanging in the distance, as of struck anvils, a crunching,
+as the smaller rocks broke in twain under the enormous weight of the
+iron monster, then far, far down the passageway two points of fire--the
+eyes of the thing--and with arms swinging like flails, from out the
+passageway there stalked--the Automaton.
+
+Even the emissaries, slaves to this monster through fear, and seeing it
+often, fell back in awe and consternation, so terrible was its menace.
+
+It strode over to Flint and, pushing him backward, glared at him with
+burning eyes that seemed to search his soul. The monster then turned to
+one of the emissaries and, with a sweeping gesture, gave a command.
+
+The emissary understood and immediately ran up one of the passageways,
+returning in a few moments with a bottle which contained a purplish
+mixture. At another sign from the Automaton the emissary took a
+drinking-glass and poured out a portion of the purple fluid. Then he
+forced the draught between Flint's clenched teeth.
+
+A violent trembling shook Flint from head to foot, a shudder of so
+exhausting a nature that after the spasm Flint, weakened, reclined
+against the cold wall of the cave, his body in a clammy perspiration.
+But gradually there came a change in his dazed, mad eyes. The iris
+contracted and became more normal. Even the leaden hue of his face
+slowly passed away. The face muscles relaxed and gradually the light of
+reason appeared in his eyes.
+
+In a questioning manner Flint gazed about him. He saw the cave with its
+scintillating points of fire, as the man with the torch gesticulated. He
+saw the emissaries, and the realization that his position was perilous
+came to him. But it was only when he saw the towering form of the
+Automaton that his blood froze with horror and he made a frantic effort
+to escape the very thing which he had feared existed in Madagascar and
+had attempted to betray to Brent on the fatal night.
+
+It was useless. He was soon borne down by the thugs, who stationed two
+of their number to guard him. Seeing the utter hopelessness of any
+attempt to escape, Flint sat quietly, while his crafty mind schemed for
+some other plan. Suddenly he saw the bottle, the contents of which had
+restored his reason. Reaching out slyly, he turned it around until he
+could read the label, and then, even in his predicament, he exulted over
+his discovery. It was the antidote. Like a flash came to him a shrewd
+scheme to use the knowledge.
+
+An emissary who seemed to be a leader came over to him.
+
+"Flint," he snarled, "you get one chance--see? Beat it back to Brent
+Rock and see that you get that Brent girl to come to the place where we
+will turn you loose. Understand? If you fail it means death. Think it
+over."
+
+Flint could only agree.
+
+They bandaged his eyes and quickly led him back over the road by which
+they had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Brent Rock was brilliantly lighted against Locke's coming. At the foot
+of the great stairway a group of excited servants had gathered, as if
+for mutual protection.
+
+"Not another day will I stay in this house," quavered the cook. "What
+with crazy laughing and the other carryings-on, I'm fair distracted."
+
+"Take shame to yerself, Mary Dolan, for yer gab of quittin', with the
+master and Miss Eva in sore trouble," answered the second girl. "But as
+you say," she continued, shaking her head, "it's a gloomy old place, and
+if it wasn't for Miss Eva I'd not be long in going myself."
+
+"'Ave you no loyalty?" asked the butler, turning on them both.
+
+"Hould yer jaw, Johnny Bull," threatened the cook. "Indade no foreigner
+can tell Mary Dolan her duty."
+
+So they wrangled back and forth, and the underlying cause of all the
+discord was the old one--fear.
+
+Nor was Eva exempt from its baneful influence. She was here, there,
+everywhere, allaying one servant's apprehension, commanding another to
+perform some task in order to occupy that servant's mind--but, for
+herself, she knew that the strain would not lessen until Locke arrived.
+She ran up-stairs and to a window from which she could obtain a better
+view of the drive along which he must come.
+
+In a very short time, which, nevertheless, seemed an age to her, Eva was
+rewarded, and she fairly flew down the stairs, out of the house, and far
+down the drive. Locke's taxi stopped, he leaped out, and, regardless of
+the chauffeur, took Eva's hand.
+
+"Tell me quickly what has happened?" he inquired.
+
+From a distance Dora was a witness, exulting.
+
+"Paul stands a swell chance with her," she sneered.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you're here," confided Eva, letting down just a bit of
+her restraint as, like a frightened child, she told of what she had
+learned about the disappearance of Flint.
+
+Locke dismissed the driver, and together they walked slowly toward the
+house.
+
+Not only Eva, but the entire household was relieved by Locke's presence.
+The cook rushed forward and, with a "God bless you, sir!" would have
+embraced him had he not stepped aside. Even the dignified old family
+butler tried to take his hand, an unheard-of liberty on his part. For,
+unknowingly, all had come suddenly to rely upon this quiet, unassuming
+young man.
+
+Locke immediately asked to be shown to Flint's room in the hope that
+Flint might have left some clue behind. But, although they searched high
+and low, no success met their efforts.
+
+It was then that they faced their darkest moment. Feeling, as they did,
+that they were encircled by hidden enemies, the very air they breathed
+became a menace. Every attempt to find the thread that might unravel the
+dark mystery proved futile. It was not to be wondered at that they
+despaired. Even the weird laughter of Eva's stricken father, echoing
+hollowly through the house, seemed to be mocking their efforts.
+
+The Automaton's emissaries were anxious to do their job and return to
+the cave, for, like rats, they preferred the security best found
+underground. They did not lead Flint very far.
+
+At the edge of the Brent estate there was an Italian marble fountain
+decorated with bronze dolphins and water-nymphs disporting themselves.
+It was at this fountain that the men halted Flint and, with a final
+warning, left him.
+
+For a few moments, such was his fear, Flint did not remove the bandage
+from his eyes, but moved groping around until his hand came in contact
+with the edge of the fountain. For a moment he stood quietly, listening
+for sounds of the emissaries. Then, as he heard nothing, he tore the
+bandage from his eyes, gazed wonderingly around him until his mind
+grasped his exact location, then, with a bound, started to run toward
+Brent Rock.
+
+Had he noticed the bestial face of an emissary peering from the
+shrubbery he would have been even more frightened. Retribution, he would
+have known, would be swift and sure had he disregarded their commands
+and moved in another direction.
+
+As Flint left the fountain Balcom, suave and well groomed as usual, was
+just giving his hat and stick to the butler when Locke and Eva,
+returning from Flint's room, encountered him in the hallway.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Balcom," exclaimed Eva, "Mr. Locke and I are at a loss to
+account for Mr. Flint's disappearance! I told the gardeners, and they
+have hunted for him all over the estate and beyond, but he has
+disappeared as completely as though the ground had swallowed him."
+
+Balcom expressed his utmost astonishment and at once insisted on going
+to Flint's room to solve the mystery himself.
+
+Eva and Locke went directly into the library, where Locke for the first
+time had an opportunity to tell Eva the result of his visit to the
+chemist. The fact that they had discovered the nature of the toxin was
+in itself encouraging, and Eva felt that, even now, she could see the
+glimmer of a silver lining to the clouds.
+
+"If we can only locate Mr. Flint, Quentin," she murmured, "I feel that
+much would be explained."
+
+Hardly had the words passed her lips when, breathless and disheveled,
+Flint staggered up the stairs from under the porte-cochere and into the
+hallway. Balcom, just descending from his brief inspection of Flint's
+room, hailed him.
+
+"What has happened?" he demanded. "Don't go into the library."
+
+"I've just escaped from the Automaton," shouted Flint, "and I've found
+the antidote!"
+
+Before Balcom could stop him he rushed into the library, Balcom
+following in a towering rage. Eva gave a startled little cry at the wild
+intrusion and Locke moved closer to her.
+
+"Is the antidote that will restore your father's reason worth ten
+thousand dollars to you?" demanded Flint; then, before Eva could reply,
+added: "Speak quick! I've got to get out of the country to-night."
+
+"Ten thousand!" gasped Eva. "Ten times ten thousand! Tell me what it
+is."
+
+"Show me the money first," haggled Flint, "and remember I must have the
+hard cash."
+
+"Just a moment, Eva," interrupted Locke. "Consider this thing well. We
+can deal with this fellow as a final resort."
+
+Eva looked from Locke to Balcom, her mind in a turmoil, as the
+telephone-bell rang and Locke hurried to answer it.
+
+In the room now there was a conflict of emotions and desires that fairly
+electrified the place. Eva ardently craved her father's recovery at all
+costs. Flint's avaricious mind wavered between a scheme nearing success
+and the possibility of failure and the fear of the Automaton. Balcom
+strained to hear the purport of the message that Locke was receiving.
+
+At the sound of the chemist's voice Locke was tense with suppressed
+excitement.
+
+"I've found the antidote," hastened to report the professor.
+
+With a cordial word of thanks Locke turned from the telephone and faced
+the group in the room. As he made the announcement, Eva almost embraced
+him in the flood of relief at the thought of her father restored.
+
+"Eva," growled Balcom, "you forget yourself. As Paul's father, I cannot
+countenance such actions."
+
+"Mr. Balcom," interrupted Locke, "I am sure you will be kind in your
+criticism of Miss Brent. She has merely overrated my service to her."
+
+"Paul shall hear of this," stormed Balcom.
+
+"If your son cares to take the matter up with me," returned Locke, now
+on his dignity, "I am always to be found--here."
+
+"Never mind," interposed Flint, who feared to see his chance slipping,
+"I've got to get out of the country. Mr. Locke, your antidote is
+probably valueless; mine is the certain one. Look at me, Miss Brent. Am
+I not cured?"
+
+"You miserable sneak," scowled Locke, stepping over to him, "we don't
+need your assistance now."
+
+"I'm dealing with Miss Brent," insisted Flint, insolently.
+
+Eva, a bit nervous over Balcom's overbearing manner, interposed. "Mr.
+Locke," she said, with just a touch of dignity for effect on Balcom,
+"this is a matter of life and death, and I am not in favor of permitting
+a proven antidote to be taken out of the country by this--this man. I
+have every confidence in you, but suppose--just suppose--that your
+chemist friend is mistaken."
+
+Flint immediately saw his advantage and pressed it home. "Are you going
+to let ten thousand dollars stand in the way of your father's recovery?"
+he insinuated. "Here," he added, taking pencil and paper from his pocket
+and writing hurriedly.
+
+"Baker's dock," Eva read, as he handed her the paper, "until five
+o'clock."
+
+Flint bowed decently enough to her, glanced upward, and, as he thought
+of Eva's father lying stricken with the Madagascar madness in the room
+above, an evil leer came over his fox-like face. As he left he
+completely ignored both Locke and Balcom, unless it was that the look in
+his eyes meant a sort of sinister triumph.
+
+Locke followed him out of the library, and for a few moments Eva and
+Balcom were alone.
+
+Balcom had been quick to realize that it would not further his plans if
+he continued to antagonize this high-spirited girl. He took another
+course. The kind and fatherly manner which he could assume so readily
+was now apparent.
+
+"Eva, my dear child," he ingratiated, "I am really sorry for the hasty
+way in which I spoke, but, aside from our duty to International Patents,
+your marriage to my son has been my greatest hope and ambition."
+
+"I can't see why you should wish a daughter-in-law of whose actions you
+disapprove," retorted Eva, pointedly.
+
+It was a facer for Balcom and he quickly guided the conversation into
+less dangerous channels.
+
+Eva's candid nature could not comprehend treachery of any kind in
+others, and yet, although she was unable to put a name to it, she had a
+vague feeling of insecurity in dealing with her father's partner. This
+feeling had been heightened by Balcom's actions. In speaking of the
+proposed marriage to Paul he had come quite close to her. She shuddered,
+for, out of the corner of her eye, only a few moments before, she
+remembered him in the same position when Flint had handed her the
+address, and she knew that Balcom had surreptitiously read it. Why had
+he taken that underhand method when, if he had only asked frankly to see
+the paper, she would have handed it to him without hesitation or
+suspicion.
+
+Eva started to leave the library, but Balcom stopped her with a gesture.
+"My dear," he said, "your father is stricken with a deadly malady. His
+affairs are in your hands to protect his interests. I must urge that you
+marry Paul at the earliest possible moment."
+
+Eva scarcely knew what to say. "I can't," she blurted out, then tried to
+cover her confusion and made it worse, "only--as a last resort--to save
+my father--Oh--good-by!" And she almost ran from the room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+Meanwhile, as Flint left Brent Rock, his fear of the Automaton returned
+to him with redoubled force. He had been false to his mission. Nor had
+he even succeeded in his treachery. A few minutes he had been certain
+that Eva would come to Baker's dock at the time set, but now doubts
+began to assail him. With her obvious faith in Locke, she might decide
+on the chemist's antidote, and there was always a possibility that it
+might restore Brent, in which case Flint realized that his life would be
+forfeit to the Automaton.
+
+Nor were his fears unfounded. He had barely passed the fountain where,
+half an hour before, he had been set free, when an emissary came out
+from behind a neighboring tree and took up his trail.
+
+De Luxe Dora also had waited only long enough to see Eva and Locke enter
+Brent Rock, when she turned her runabout around and drove rapidly back
+to Professor Hadwell's. She arrived there just in time to meet an
+automobile coming from the opposite direction and containing three
+emissaries of the Automaton.
+
+In answer to an inquiry, Dora pointed out the chemist's house to them.
+They piled out, and their leader knocked at the door, while Dora drove
+off.
+
+The chemist answered, and the leader produced a vial, glibly lying as he
+handed it over.
+
+"The Williams Drug Company sent me to have this stuff analyzed," said
+the leader. "I'll wait."
+
+As the professor admitted him he did not see the other two men pressed
+close to the wall on either side of the door. The moment the professor's
+back was turned they slinked after their leader into the house. In a
+dark corner of the hallway they crouched as their leader went into the
+laboratory with the chemist.
+
+The professor sniffed at the vial, which contained nothing but pure
+water, and in surprise turned to the emissary for an explanation. But it
+was too late. The emissary dealt him a blow with a blunt instrument that
+stunned him and, as he reeled back and grasped at a table, the other
+thugs rushed from the hall and rained blow after blow on his venerable
+head and beat him to the floor. A convulsive shudder--a long-drawn-out
+sigh--and he lay still.
+
+With barely a glance at him the emissaries set to work to smash all the
+paraphernalia of the place, sparing nothing in order to make sure that
+the antidote would be destroyed. Glass tubes, retorts, bottles, even
+furniture were smashed to bits in their orgy of ruin--and there, in the
+midst of the debris, his life's work finished, lay the old chemist,
+dead.
+
+Tiring of their own efforts, the murderers at last desisted. One of them
+went to the street door and peered out, but in a moment was back with
+the others.
+
+"Quick--that fellow Locke is coming."
+
+He was right. Locke had immediately quit Brent Rock and had come
+directly to the chemist's in the hope of forestalling any further
+attempt by Flint to inveigle Eva into dealing with him.
+
+The door had been left ajar and, although he thought it strange, Locke
+was without suspicion and entered the hallway. He called to his old
+friend, but the dead lips could not answer and the emissaries would not.
+
+Greatly alarmed now, Locke strode to the laboratory. For a moment he
+stood as though petrified as the horrid scene burst upon his vision. He
+ran to the chemist and knelt beside his battered body.
+
+With a rush the emissaries darted from their hiding-place and were upon
+him.
+
+Although taken unawares, Locke was, in a measure, ready for them. One he
+grabbed in a clever jiu-jitsu hold and sent him hurtling through the air
+to crash in a heap in a far corner of the room. Leaping to his feet, he
+beat another to the floor. The third villain was of tougher fiber. Up
+and down the laboratory they battled, stumbling over broken furniture,
+now falling to the floor, where they rolled over and over, first one,
+then the other gaining the mastery, while the broken glass with which
+the floor was littered cut their clothing to ribbons and bit into their
+flesh.
+
+Locke was slowly gaining the upper hand when the thug whom he had thrown
+over his head recovered. The brute took the situation in at a glance,
+saw his pal in trouble, and, sneaking treacherously behind Locke, dealt
+him a terrific blow with the butt of a revolver. Locke dropped to the
+floor as if pole-axed and lay still.
+
+One of the thugs kicked him as he lay defenseless, and then, spying a
+row of coat-hooks in an inner hallway, with fiendish ingenuity directed
+the others who had joined him. They strung Locke up by his thumbs so
+that he hung, half suspended, with his toes just off the floor.
+
+As one of them searched him Locke was still unconscious. They found
+nothing but a few bank-notes and the automatic revolver that Locke
+always carried.
+
+Slowly Locke regained his senses. The agony of his strained thumbs was
+almost unbearable. But he was not the man to give up.
+
+By this time two of the emissaries had gone, leaving one, who seated
+himself quite close to Locke, where he was examining the revolver. With
+the stoicism of an Indian, Locke manfully tried to evolve a plan by
+which he might escape. Like a flash it came to him, but it was a plan so
+fraught with the possibility of failure that he would not have decided
+on it except for the agony of the strain on his thumbs.
+
+Directly opposite him and at a distance of four or five feet was a door
+leading to a back alley. This door the emissary now guarding him had
+locked as a precaution against surprise and had carefully placed the key
+in his vest pocket.
+
+Locke weighed each detail of his plan and then, bracing his feet firmly
+against the wall, he suddenly shot his lower limbs forward and, like the
+closing of a pair of giant shears, he wrapped his legs about the neck of
+the emissary and immediately exerted enormous pressure with his knees.
+
+The emissary, taken totally by surprise, struggled to break the hold,
+and Locke's thumbs were almost wrenched from their sockets. But he held
+on grimly. Soon the thug's struggles subsided, Locke released him, and
+he slipped to the floor.
+
+Locke was wearing a low-cut shoe. Strange that a man's life may hinge on
+such a slight detail, but this fact enabled him to work off his right
+shoe and his sock. He extended his bare foot, and with his toes searched
+the pocket of the emissary for the key to the door. Finally he found it.
+
+Locke held the key as firmly as he might between his toes and,
+projecting his body by a muscular effort far away from the wall, he
+managed to insert the key in the lock. He turned it. The door was
+unlocked now. A swift downward movement of his foot against the knob and
+the door swung open.
+
+He braced himself against its edge and, with his back firmly pressed
+against the wall, relieved the strain on his thumbs. He rested a moment
+and then, as it were, walked up the edge of the door until his feet
+reached the top. Swinging one leg over the door, by patient effort he
+was enabled to release one swollen thumb, then the other. An instant
+later he dropped down and leaned exhaustedly against the wall.
+
+While Locke was held in the room things had happened which would have
+set him nearly crazy with anxiety. Eva, having heard nothing from him,
+had become alarmed and had telephoned to the chemist. This was at
+quarter to five, and she had supposed that it was the chemist who
+answered her. In reality it had been an emissary, and he had told her
+that the final experiment to find an antidote for her father's malady
+had been really a failure and that Locke had left some time before.
+
+After all that she had endured, this was almost the final blow to Eva.
+She thought of Flint and Baker's dock and five o'clock. There was no
+time to lose if she were to save her father. So she pulled herself
+together, seized her hat and cloak, and started for the door.
+
+Here Zita stopped her and offered to accompany her, but she declined.
+She hastily asked the direction of Baker's dock from the butler, and
+then ran out of the house and sprang to the steering-wheel of her
+waiting car. With a whir of the starter she was away.
+
+Flint had arrived at the dock long before and was now slinking in and
+out among the crates and boxes as he sought diligently for a safe
+hiding-place. But his nerves, none too strong at the best, were now
+running riot, and nowhere could he feel a sense of security so that he
+could remain quiet.
+
+It was while he was sneaking from one pile of bales to another that an
+emissary hailed him.
+
+"Are you Flint?" he demanded.
+
+"Y-e-s," came quaveringly from Flint.
+
+"Well, there's a lady in the office asking for you."
+
+Such was the fascination of any of the emissaries of the Automaton over
+Flint by this time that he followed the man without question,
+particularly as he felt that he would be spared, since the lady in the
+office could be none other than Eva.
+
+Together they walked toward the entrance and, with an order to wait, the
+emissary halted Flint close to a pile of crates and left him. Flint
+dared not move. A premonition of impending disaster must have come over
+him, for his knees shook and a clammy sweat broke out on his forehead.
+
+Without sound a gigantic iron hand and arm protruded from behind a crate
+and, for a moment, hung suspended over Flint's head. Then, with a swift
+encircling movement, that hooklike arm wrapped itself around Flint's
+neck and drew him into the shadow. The mighty form drew the victim
+close--and it was over.
+
+The Automaton picked up the body as though it had been a mere
+feather-weight and stalked out to the waiting emissaries. A trap-door
+was opened and Flint's body was dashed into the river. Thus it was that
+all his scheming came to an end and his secret from Madagascar, which he
+had told Brent, but which now lay locked in that mad-man's mind, was
+stilled with Flint's dead lips.
+
+At the chemist's shop Locke was by this time recovering from the
+terrible ordeal through which he had passed. He bathed his swollen
+thumbs, and by rubbing them was able somewhat to restore the
+circulation. Then he stepped to the telephone and gave the Brent Rock
+number.
+
+It was Zita who answered him.
+
+"Eva has gone alone to Baker's dock," she answered to his inquiry, in
+half-triumphant jealousy.
+
+Locke did not wait to hear more. There was not a moment to be lost. He
+rushed out, disheveled as he was, into the street, slamming the door
+after him. It seemed hours before he could find a taxicab.
+
+"Baker's dock!" he yelled. "And twenty dollars if you make it in ten
+minutes."
+
+He did not know that the emissaries had robbed him of everything, nor
+would it have made any difference, for he could easily have fixed it
+with the driver through his police and Secret Service connections.
+
+In the mean time Eva's car had met with misfortune, and she had been
+compelled to stop. She jumped out and busied herself with a missing
+cylinder.
+
+Locke's taxi was running smoothly and arrived at the dock well within
+the time he had ordered. Locke jumped out and started to pay. It was
+then that he discovered that he was without money. The driver became
+angry and hard to pacify with the story of the robbery, but Locke
+finally convinced him that all was right with the Department of Justice.
+
+Locke walked through the gates to the dock and for a moment stood
+nonplussed. This dock had none of the turmoil and bustle naturally
+associated with docks when a steamer is about to leave.
+
+He cautiously proceeded between the piles of merchandise toward the end
+of the wharf. Of one thing he was now certain and a prayer of relief
+came to his lips. He was there before Eva and able to guard her from any
+danger that might arise.
+
+His eyes were keen, but he failed to notice the emissaries who, from
+behind crates and bales, were watching his every move. Nor did he see
+that fiend of iron, the Automaton, which, standing rigid, glared at him
+from behind an enormous packing-case.
+
+He continued down the wharf as, slinking like coyotes, those sinister
+forms glided from hiding-place to hiding-place and were never far from
+his heels. He reached the end of the wharf and gazed up and down the
+dark river. Here and there he could distinguish the colored lights that
+marked a tugboat or some other small craft, but of a large steamer there
+was no sign. It is rarely that a boat warps into a dock just a few
+moments before leaving for foreign parts, and it flashed upon Locke's
+mind that Flint had deceived them about his leaving for Madagascar that
+night.
+
+He was still wondering what it could all mean when the emissaries leaped
+upon him. Although weakened by his previous battle, Locke proved no easy
+customer for them. Time after time he struggled free from them and with
+arms working like piston-rods for a while he kept them at a distance.
+But, like a pack of wolves, they were not to be denied, and they finally
+succeeded in holding him firmly.
+
+One of them brought leg-irons which he snapped around Locke's ankles.
+Once again Locke managed to get one of his arms free and, before they
+could prevent him, two emissaries lay prostrate on the wharf. But that
+effort marked his last, for the Automaton, stalking up behind him,
+pinioned his arms as though he was a baby.
+
+An emissary now placed a pair of handcuffs on his wrists and, to bind
+him more securely, fastened a chain that extended from the handcuffs to
+the leg-irons.
+
+Two of the thugs now carried him to the edge of the wharf, while a third
+attached a heavy weight to Locke's feet. Locke realized his
+helplessness, realized that his death was imminent. But he determined to
+rid the world of at least one murderer. By a mighty effort he shook off
+his captors and, as one rushed forward, he grabbed him in his manacled
+hands and leaped with him into the river as they grappled.
+
+At the shore end of the wharf an emissary was leading Eva, as she
+thought, to Flint.
+
+Locke and the thug sank immediately to the bottom of the river and,
+under water, there ensued a terrific battle. Locke, semi-helpless
+because of his shakles, had the greatest difficulty in preventing the
+thug from breaking loose. But he was determined that the fellow at least
+would pay for his crimes with his life.
+
+The thug's struggles gradually became more feeble. Air bubbles rose from
+his bestial lips and he became limp in Locke's grasp. Locke released him
+and, feet first, he floated upward, dead.
+
+Locke's lungs were almost bursting now as he struggled at his chains;
+his senses reeled; he thought of Eva, and redoubled his efforts. If he
+could only get rid of that great weight that was holding him down. A
+singing came in his ears.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+As Eva hurried down the dock, looking for the renegade, Flint she found
+herself cornered between the emissary and the terrible Automaton
+himself. With a scream of terror she ran until she came to a door that
+divided the dock into fireproof sections. Through it she darted, the
+Automaton following relentlessly.
+
+Meanwhile Locke, his lungs almost bursting and the blood surging to his
+head, had managed to free himself from his shackles and had floated to
+the surface of the water. As he came up he swam to the piles of the dock
+just as several boatmen saw him and hurried to his aid.
+
+They heard the screams of Eva, and all started running up the dock, but
+not in time to capture the Automaton, who, warned by the emissaries,
+crashed through the side of the dock house nearest the shore and
+escaped.
+
+A moment later Locke, searching through the piles of boxes, bales, and
+crates, found Eva, just recovering from her fright, and in the joy of
+having saved her by his timely return forgot, for the moment, to pursue
+the terrible villain, who managed to reach a waiting closed car and was
+whisked away.
+
+Thus it was that after their return to Brent Rock, on the following day
+Eva was ministering to her father, still hopelessly insane through the
+failure to discover the antidote to the madness.
+
+While Eva was engaged in her ministrations up-stairs Locke was finishing
+some experiment in his laboratory. Down-stairs, Balcom had just arrived
+in the hall, where he was met by Zita with a report of what had happened
+the day before.
+
+"Tell it to me in the strong-room while I place this package there,"
+Balcom whispered, indicating the package which he had brought.
+
+Together Balcom and Zita descended to the cellar and made their way to
+the Graveyard of Genius as Zita poured forth her story, unmindful of the
+fact that the butler had seen them go down and was watching very
+skeptically. In the Graveyard Balcom unwrapped a small model of a motor
+and placed it on the shelf.
+
+Eva, having left her father, came upon Locke in the hall, and there they
+stood talking for a moment, when the butler approached apologetically.
+
+"Begging your pardon, Miss Brent," he reported, "but I just saw Mr.
+Balcom go down to the strong-room with Miss Zita, and I thought you
+might like to know."
+
+"Thank you," nodded Eva, dismissing the butler and trying to show no
+concern in the matter.
+
+But Locke shot a quick glance at her as the servant left, and it was
+evident that both felt the same suspicion, for Locke immediately excused
+himself and hurried down-stairs.
+
+In the Graveyard Balcom and Zita were talking in subdued tones as Zita
+whispered.
+
+"I suppose you know," she nodded, "that before Mr. Brent went mad he
+wrote a confession with a list of these inventions which International
+Patents has suppressed?"
+
+Balcom could scarcely conceal his rage. "Yes, I know it," he replied,
+savagely. "That confession would cause a great deal of trouble."
+
+Low as they were talking, they would have been even more careful had
+they known that Locke was listening outside and that, even as they
+turned to leave the strong-room, he had sidled out of the way and was
+rejoining Eva in the library.
+
+Locke had scarcely told Eva what he had heard when she moved over to the
+safe and would have tried to open it had he not stopped her. For he had
+heard the other two coming from the cellar, and even as it was they were
+at the hall door.
+
+"My dear," remarked Balcom as he entered and went to Eva, "since your
+father is not likely to recover, I must ask you to transfer all the
+company papers from his private safe to the office of the company."
+
+Eva did not respond to the fatherly manner assumed by Balcom. Instead
+she almost point-blank refused to do as he had requested.
+
+Just then Locke, whom Balcom had almost ignored up to the present, heard
+the noise of some one coming through the conservatory. It was Paul
+Balcom, his coat on his arm, his sleeves rolled up, and a tennis-racquet
+in his hand, as he had come just from the courts.
+
+Paul glanced surlily at Locke, who bowed pleasantly to him, as well he
+might, considering their relative positions in Eva's real affections.
+Catching sight of his father with Eva, Paul paused a moment.
+
+It was just at that instant that Balcom had been saying to her: "Why
+don't you marry Paul, as you promised your father and me? That would
+settle all the difficulties."
+
+Paul had suspected the nature of the conversation, though he approached
+as if ignorant of it. Apparently catching the drift, he deftly urged
+her, but Eva tactfully changed the subject, greatly to Paul's chagrin
+and his father's ill-suppressed anger.
+
+The suspense of the situation was relieved for Eva by the nearer
+approach of Locke, who must have had some inkling of what was going on.
+Paul and his father exchanged glances as the young chemist and detective
+joined Eva, and it was evident that no love toward him was wasted by
+either.
+
+"Excuse me," she apologized, walking away with Locke, "but there is
+something very important that I must attend to for my father's
+interests."
+
+Locke and Eva walked to the safe, while Balcom and Paul watched like
+hawks.
+
+A moment later Eva was kneeling before the safe, after giving Locke a
+paper which contained the combination numbers to open the bolts. Locke
+glanced at it, then held it where Eva could read:
+
+  Combination of Safe
+  Turn once left to 40
+  Three right to 18
+  Once left to 40
+
+As Locke held the paper and Eva's slender hand spun the combination
+lock, Balcom and Paul moved silently forward. Although Locke was holding
+the paper with the combinations for Eva, he heard them come up behind
+him and knew that they were watching. With a quiet smile to himself he
+moved the paper over so that they could see it, nor were they slow to
+take advantage of the chance. Locke's mind was working fast, and he had
+a purpose in what seemed to be carelessness or even foolishness.
+
+A moment later Eva opened the safe and from it she took a typewritten
+document of many pages.
+
+It read:
+
+  BOARD OF DIRECTORS,
+
+  International Patents, Inc.,
+  New York.
+
+  GENTLEMEN,--In view of the government's anti-trust investigation,
+  I have prepared this list of inventions we have suppressed.
+  I think we should discuss at our annual meeting
+  the advisability of surrendering our rights to these inventions,
+  no matter what may happen to the corporations we have
+  been protecting.
+
+  Very truly yours,
+
+  PETER BRENT.
+
+Following this letter was a bulky paper, or rather set of papers, which
+detailed the inventions and their history, exposing some of the
+nefarious operations of the corporation.
+
+Balcom, as he read the top letter, showed great agitation. As Locke took
+the package from Eva, Balcom interrupted:
+
+"That's very dangerous," he said. "If it gets out, the corporations are
+ruined."
+
+Locke scarcely replied. Instead, he very ostentatiously replaced the
+document in the safe, refusing to intrust it either to Balcom or to
+Paul, who withdrew sullenly, leaving Eva alone with Locke in the library
+as Locke whirled the combination of the closed safe door.
+
+It was perhaps half an hour later in the secret den of the Automaton in
+the rock-hewn foundation of Brent Rock that the emissaries were watching
+the arched and dark passage. Suddenly there was the warning clank, and
+the huge steel monster strode in.
+
+For some time he stood before the table, giving his instructions by
+means of mysterious, cryptic motions.
+
+Meantime, above in Brent Rock, Locke had been busy, for he had conceived
+an entirely new plan to capture the Automaton. It was nothing short of
+an electric trap, and deadly in its simplicity.
+
+From the wall switch Locke had led wires carrying the house current.
+Already, also, he had let Eva in on his secret plan, and she was all
+eagerness as he planted his trap.
+
+Before the safe, now, Locke paused, and there for a moment twisted the
+combination so that he could get his correct position. That done, he
+noted the place where he had been standing, and removed a mat from the
+floor in front of the safe. At that place he set in on the floor a
+fairly large iron plate. To this iron plate he attached a wire, then
+replaced the rug, but in such a way that a part of the plate was
+exposed, though it would never be noticed.
+
+"If the Automaton attempts to open the safe," he remarked to Eva, as he
+worked, "he will complete the electric circuit and it will hold him
+until we capture him."
+
+"How clever!" Eva exclaimed, involuntarily.
+
+"Now for making my signaling connection to the laboratory," continued
+Locke. "Then I must get some of my men up here from the department."
+
+However, while Locke and Eva were busy arranging this electric trap,
+they did not notice that they were being watched by Zita, who had stolen
+into the conservatory and was eying them eagerly from the protection of
+the fronds of a palm. Zita, moreover, was greatly excited, as she
+gathered with her quick perception just what it was that they were
+doing. Nor did she wait to see the work finished, but stole out of the
+door and away hurriedly.
+
+Locke had finished his preparations, and as he and Eva were discussing
+the possibilities of what he had devised, he remarked, in answer to her
+eager inquiry about his suspicions, "I am sure we shall prove that there
+is a man inside the terrible machine that attacks us."
+
+"Then you don't think it is really an automaton?" asked Eva, with great
+respect for Locke's opinion, though it was sufficiently in evidence that
+she was not at all convinced that the monster was not really of steel
+and controlled by something that resembled a human brain.
+
+Locke was non-committal. "This trap will tell us," was all that he would
+say.
+
+Zita, hurrying out from the conservatory, and wishing to waste not an
+instant in notifying Balcom, sought a near-by telephone pay-station, and
+there in frantic haste she demanded Balcom's number.
+
+It was some moments before Central could make the connection, and then
+it was only to Zita's disappointment and growing fear. The Madagascan
+servant of Balcom answered in the absence of his master.
+
+"Is Mr. Balcom there?" asked Zita, adding, "Or Mr. Paul?"
+
+The black shook his head. "Neither Mr. Balcom nor Mr. Paul is at home,"
+he replied.
+
+Zita was now thoroughly alarmed. Had she some connection with the
+Automaton? Or was it her fear that either Balcom or Paul might know more
+than they would care to have the authorities know? Or was the Automaton
+really an iron monster, after all?
+
+That and many other questions were surging through the minds of all who
+had encountered this unique mystery.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+It was midnight when, far down in the rock-hewn cavern in which the
+Automaton had his secret den, the steel monster and one of his men
+stalked out through the arched passage that led to the very cellar of
+the house above them.
+
+A few moments later the swinging rock door in the Graveyard of Genius
+tilted and the two entered the strong-room, passing across the room and
+out through the steel door into the cellar. Up the cellar steps they
+proceeded until they reached the hall, then noiselessly they crossed
+into the library. With his human companion the monster approached the
+safe deliberately. Just as deliberately the Automaton reached out to
+turn the handle of the combination.
+
+There was a flash as the current passed through the arm of steel to the
+foot of steel resting on the plate Locke had set in the floor. A
+suppressed cry escaped from the henchman. As for the monster, he strove
+with superhuman force to wrench himself away from the electric trap.
+
+Meanwhile, up in his laboratory in the house, Locke and four men from
+the Department of Justice had been waiting.
+
+"The Department expects us to get this evidence _right_," he had
+emphasized as he gave them their instructions.
+
+Hardly had he finished when a signal light which Locke had arranged on
+the wall flashed, giving the information that the trap had worked.
+
+Out of the laboratory all piled, running down the hall, Locke paused
+only a second to tap on Eva's door, as she had asked, if anything
+happened, so that she might be present at the capture. An instant and
+Eva, too, had joined the pursuit.
+
+Down in the library the Automaton struggled with the current. As the rug
+was kicked aside, the emissary saw the wire from the plate and quickly
+traced it to its source.
+
+The result was that in a few seconds the emissary had found a wall
+switch and pulled it. Instantly the Automaton was released from the
+power that held him.
+
+Quickly the man of steel raised and lowered his arms, as though to be
+sure that he could do so, at the same time indicating orders to his
+follower, who leaped to guard the entrance to the room. Then the
+Automaton turned to open the safe, making swift use of the remaining
+seconds before the alarm might bring interference.
+
+In almost no time he had the safe open, reached in, and seized a packet
+of precious papers, apparently. Then he turned and was gone, regardless
+of the man whom he had sent to guard him.
+
+In the hall, Locke's sharp ears had detected the approach of the
+emissary. Not knowing whether it might be the villain himself, he
+cautioned the men to wait an instant. The emissary, coming along,
+crouching and listening, did not see Locke, and thus Locke was able to
+seize him and with a spectacular throw project him literally into the
+hands of the law in the person of one of his own men, who snapped the
+bracelets on the astonished thug as Locke, followed by Eva and the rest,
+ran on to the library.
+
+No one was in the library as Locke ran in and looked about. He turned
+toward the door to the hallway where the portieres were drawn. As he was
+standing there, looking about, the portieres moved behind him. Suddenly
+they were jerked aside from their fastenings and flung over his head. As
+this happened, the ponderous hand of the Automaton descended on Locke's
+head and he sank to the floor as the portieres wrapped about him.
+
+When the department agents with Eva arrived, they were merely in time to
+untangle Locke from the curtains. The Automaton had fled safely.
+
+Although his head was still reeling from the blow, Locke started to
+question the prisoner, but gave it up as a bad job and hurried over to
+examine the safe, followed by Eva.
+
+Their dismay was mutual. Not only was the safe door open, but the paper
+was gone.
+
+Question the emissary as they would, they could get nothing out of him.
+Such men have keenly developed the gang instinct of silence. They would
+sooner die than squeal.
+
+Even a night in jail failed to break the reticence of the emissary,
+although he had been subjected to the most strenuous third degree.
+
+Not only had his spirit not been broken, but the fellow was keenly alert
+and planning a way to secure his own release.
+
+As a prison guard was taking the emissary back to his cell, after a
+thorough quizzing by Locke in the warden's office, the emissary
+whispered:
+
+"Want to make a piece of change--safe?"
+
+The guard looked about, saw that the coast was clear to speak, but
+before he could do so the emissary spoke again.
+
+"Give me a piece of paper and a pencil."
+
+Quickly the thug scratched away at a note.
+
+"Deliver that," he said to the guard, handing him the note he had
+written, "and you'll get something worth while."
+
+The guard nodded as he shoved the thug into his cell and locked the
+door, then walked off, while the fellow watched eagerly through the
+bars.
+
+Locke in the warden's office, unsuccessful in making the prisoner talk,
+had evolved another scheme.
+
+"Put me in the cell next to him," decided Locke. "I have a plan."
+
+It was while the false guard was reading the address on the note that
+Locke and the warden entered the cell row. The guard hastily stuffed the
+message in his pocket as Locke and the warden passed up toward the empty
+next cell.
+
+Locke went through all the actions of one who was being thrown into a
+cell, and the emissary in his own cell listened without suspecting
+anything. Locke had arranged with the warden to leave the cell unlocked,
+but no sooner had the warden left than the guard, who had been
+observing, moved over and shot the bolts.
+
+Here, then, was a predicament. Locke could not give the alarm without
+putting the emissary in the next cell on guard. Rapidly Locke revolved
+in his head scheme after scheme. He was an expert on bolts and knew that
+at any moment he could release himself. Should he do so now? Instead he
+concluded to wait until the guard returned, for by the man's actions
+Locke was sure that something queer was going on, although, naturally,
+he did not know what it was. Accordingly Locke lay down on the bunk in
+the cell and decided to wait.
+
+Some time later, at a deserted house not far from the rock-hewn den of
+the Automaton, the false prison guard might have been seen delivering
+the message which the prisoner had written to two other emissaries of
+the Automaton.
+
+After a hasty conference they decided on their course of action. Not
+only did he receive the money the prisoner had promised him, but the
+emissaries gave him minute instructions regarding the rescue which they
+planned. A cap and a pair of goggles for the prisoner were given to the
+guard and he was sent on his way.
+
+Scarcely had he gone when the Automaton himself entered the deserted
+house, and under his direction one of the emissaries wrote a note which
+he addressed to Eva. For, with Locke out of the way, it was a splendid
+time to take advantage of the poor girl.
+
+The note read simply: "Our prisoner has confessed. Meet me at the Cliff
+House at eight o'clock," and bore the signature of Locke.
+
+Thus, with their plans carefully laid, the Automaton and his emissaries
+plotted, and soon a messenger was on his way to Eva with the faked
+message.
+
+Meanwhile, as the day wore on, the treacherous guard returned on duty at
+the prison, and at the first opportunity made his way to the cell in
+which the emissary was locked. In a hoarse whisper he told the fellow of
+the success of his mission and of the plan, slipping to him the cap and
+goggles through the bars.
+
+Locke had been waiting for hours impatiently on his bunk, but now was
+all attention, though he was careful not to betray it. As the guard left
+and the emissary was trying on the cap and goggles, Locke came to his
+cell door. Now was the time to act.
+
+He began working noiselessly and swiftly with the bolts, deftly
+determining just how the tumblers fell until he was able to slip the
+bolt. He peered into the next cell. The emissary had retired to his own
+bunk to await the time of rescue. Locke saw his chance, and at once
+began unlocking the cell door. As the emissary heard him, he concluded
+that it was the guard come to release him, and sprang from his bunk just
+as Locke entered. He suspected nothing until a stray ray of light fell
+on Locke's face. But then it was too late either for him to put up much
+of a fight or to make an outcry. For with a swift blow Locke disposed of
+him and carried the fellow, unconscious, into his own cell, where he
+locked the door again, hurrying back to the emissary's cell, where he
+donned the fellow's clothes, of which he had stripped him, and
+appropriated the cap and goggles. Then Locke waited for the rescue that
+was to lead, he was sure, straight to the villains he wished to capture.
+
+At Brent Rock, the faked telegram from Locke had been delivered and Eva
+was overjoyed to learn of his seeming success. As it happened, Zita was
+in the library when the butler brought the message in, and, all
+animation, was eager to accompany Eva to the meeting-place. But Eva
+would not listen to it.
+
+So, not many moments before eight that night, while Locke was waiting in
+the jail for the rescuers, Eva climbed into her speedster, eager to keep
+the appointment which she was convinced would clear up the mystery.
+
+In the darkness outside the jail, by this time, was waiting the false
+turnkey when an open car drove up with its motor silenced. He had been
+expecting it and so was ready when a heavily goggled man climbed out and
+signaled to him. In the back of the car was another man, also goggled,
+while the chauffeur, alone, had his face also well hidden by a cap over
+his eyes and his collar pulled up.
+
+Understanding perfectly, the guard hurried into the jail, making sure
+that the coast was clear, and down the cell row to the cell where Locke
+was waiting impatiently, now dressed and hunched up in a perfect
+imitation of the emissary. The turnkey opened the door and whispered to
+Locke, who nodded gruffly, and together they sneaked quietly out.
+
+With scarcely another word, outside, Locke leaped into the waiting car
+and the four were off, leaving the false turnkey chuckling over his
+cleverness and ready to make a get-away.
+
+Locke glanced furtively from the driver to the other two passengers in
+the car as it sped along in the direction of the cliffs. So far
+everything had gone fine. When would they begin to suspect the
+substitution he had played on them? He revolved rapidly in his mind just
+what he would do under various circumstances.
+
+"Well, old pal," exclaimed one, clapping him on the shoulders, "how does
+it seem to be out?"
+
+Locke replied with gruff heartiness, and the others now began to remove
+their goggles. Locke, however, did not do the same. They exchanged a
+glance.
+
+Already Eva had arrived at the Cliff House, had left her car, and was
+approaching on foot, just as Locke with the now thoroughly aroused
+emissaries swung into sight.
+
+With a shout to the driver, the two in the back of the car leaped at
+Locke at once, and, as the car stopped, the chauffeur joined them.
+
+Even prepared as he was, Locke was no match for three of them, and,
+fighting furiously, all four combatants rolled over and over as they
+came closer to the door of an old acid-mill that adjoined the Cliff
+House.
+
+"We must keep him from saving the girl," panted the leader of the
+emissaries to the others.
+
+Inside the old building stood some huge tanks of acid, and as they
+rolled nearer and nearer to them it became evident that Locke was in
+their power.
+
+Suddenly one emissary reached out and secured a coil of rope, which he
+unwound quickly. The others, too, saw their chance. It was fiendish.
+Round and round they wound the rope until they had Locke well-nigh
+helpless. Then one of them cast the end of the coil over a beam, all
+seized the end as it fell on the other side, and Locke found himself
+dangling head downward from the beam, suspended over the vat of acid.
+
+They were about to drop him into it when one, more alert and more
+fiendish than the rest, cried out, "Look!"
+
+Through a window now they could see Eva, and back of her the terrible
+figure of the Automaton, stalking. She had walked directly into the
+trap, but the fight with Locke had delayed the emissaries. Wildly now
+Eva was running over the lawn, full in the direction of the acid-room
+from the Cliff House.
+
+"Quick!" directed the emissary. "She'll come in that door. Fasten the
+rope on it. Then his own sweetheart will drop him into the acid!"
+
+It was only a matter of seconds, as the screams of Eva came closer and
+closer, for the emissaries to carry the rope and jam it into the door
+through which pretty soon Eva would run to take refuge from the pursuing
+Automaton. Then they slunk back through a rear door, with muttered
+taunts to Locke, who struggled in the tangle of rope as he felt the
+stinging fumes of the acid below.
+
+Outside, Eva, who had realized at last that it was a trap and had no
+thought that Locke might be anywhere about, fled toward the acid-room,
+while the emissaries hid, ready to seize her as she opened the door
+which was to plunge her lover into a horrible death in the acid seething
+below him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Locke's case seemed at last hopeless. The cruel ropes bit into his flesh
+and increased his agony, while the acrid fumes from the seething acid
+were slowly stupefying that keen brain of his.
+
+Backward and forward like a huge pendulum his body swayed, and in an
+agony of suspense he watched the fatal rope. With writhing body he
+swayed far out, and then he saw just one chance.
+
+The emissaries had thrown the rope over a beam which was far above
+Locke, and it seemed an impossibility for him to reach it. For one less
+resourceful or with a physique less perfectly developed, even to try
+would have been useless. But there was one chance in a thousand, and he
+grasped it eagerly.
+
+Alternately contracting and relaxing his muscles, Locke succeeded in
+swinging himself in an ever-widening arc. Nearer he swung--back--and
+again nearer. Could he make it? Back again and a terrific effort. He was
+gaining.
+
+There came to him the sound of running feet. In his fear and agony he
+could have shrieked, but from his parched throat there issued no sound.
+Friend or foe, for him it meant the same fate--one touch on that knob
+and a torturing death by fire.
+
+With bursting muscles he redoubled his efforts. In a long sweep his body
+swayed out and up. Would he be in time? Those pattering feet, they were
+coming nearer and nearer. There were now but a few yards between them
+and that knob.
+
+A mighty swing, a monstrous heave, his fingers crooked talon-like, and
+he touched the rafter, clutched--and missed.
+
+Downward and backward, his mind now reeling in black despair. He had
+tried and failed. This was the end. The sound of footsteps had ceased.
+Well he knew that some one was at the door. He tried to pray and
+then--he crashed against the rafter. Mechanically he grasped at it and
+clung.
+
+The door flew open, and there stood Eva. All the horrors of imminent
+death, even the pain of sorely tried muscles, were momentarily forgotten
+in his relief at seeing her safe and having saved himself. But not yet
+was he free. The emissaries had been thorough in their work, but it was
+not many moments before the last knot was loose and he dropped to the
+floor.
+
+Locke peered stealthily about. To all appearances everything was clear.
+He placed his arm about Eva and they started to steal out. Well they
+knew that, with such enemies, not for a moment would they dare relax
+their caution. For them every angle and nook was a temporary haven.
+Slowly they drew away from the dread spot, and soon came to a more
+populous locality where the lights of honest shops and peaceful homes
+gave them a sense of greater security and brought a feeling of unreality
+to the horrors through which they had passed.
+
+A taxi-driver hailed them, and in a short time they were rolling along
+the Cliff Drive and had arrived at Brent Rock.
+
+It was the following day that the old butler handed Locke a letter
+addressed to International Patents, Incorporated, from the Diving and
+Salvage Company. Locke was about to read it, when Eva entered and they
+read it together.
+
+"We are reliably informed," read the letter, "that the Under Seas
+Corporation is trying to obtain possession of the self-liberating
+diving-suit which you control in our interest. This must be prevented."
+
+Locke was immediately interested. At once it occurred to him that here
+was a patent which the company had suppressed which might prove of
+incalculable value.
+
+"This suit might be very valuable to the government," he exclaimed to
+Eva. "I am going to try it myself."
+
+"Please don't," pleaded Eva. "It isn't worth it. It's not worth the
+risk."
+
+Locke, however, realized that here was something of extreme importance,
+and as he visualized to Eva the helplessness of a deep-sea diver, his
+air-line cut, struggling in vain to release himself and rise to the
+surface, he began to win her over.
+
+At the moment when Quentin and Eva were in the library, Zita was taking
+advantage and was ransacking Locke's laboratory, not with any definite
+purpose in mind, but searching in every nook for some clue which might
+tell her what he was about.
+
+The speed with which she worked was extraordinary. Yet, before she moved
+an instrument, a retort, a book, its position was minutely studied, so
+that she could restore it to its former place without any one suspecting
+that it had ever been moved.
+
+It was while she was thus occupied that her eye fell upon an instrument
+which aroused in her an excited interest. It was very like the headpiece
+used by operators of telephones, and she hastened to adjust it. In a
+moment it was as though she were in the library. She could hear Locke's
+earnest laugh and in it Zita could detect an undercurrent of tenderness.
+Her lips compressed and her eyes hardened as she listened. Locke was
+speaking about a letter and it seemed to be something important. Zita
+was all ears.
+
+But Locke's next words which she heard were his decision to test the
+diving-suit, and as she listened she became tense, for this information
+she knew was important. The continued note of tenderness in Locke's
+voice more infuriated Zita. She removed the headpiece of the dictagraph,
+slammed it back into the desk drawer from which she had taken it, and
+hurried out.
+
+In the library, Locke, having persuaded Eva, left her and went down into
+the Graveyard of Genius, where he touched the secret spring and the
+massive door flew open. He entered the gloomy place and went at once to
+the shelf upon which lay the self-liberating diving-suit. He took the
+suit down and examined its every detail minutely. As he did so he became
+more and more enthusiastic and he could find no fault with any of its
+features.
+
+"It's entirely practical," he exclaimed to himself. "I'm going to try it
+to-day."
+
+He closed the great door and remounted the stairs, carrying the suit
+with him. But had he noticed the fiery eyes that had watched him through
+the secret rock door of the cavern he would not have been so eager to
+try the test he had in mind.
+
+By this time Eva had called her car, and together Locke and Eva drove to
+the near-by cove, where there was a little launch which he planned to
+use.
+
+Out into the river they sailed, Eva at the wheel, while Locke busied
+himself over the sputtering engine. Soon they arrived at a spot which
+was suitable for the test of the suit.
+
+Locke had brought along the full equipment, and, while Eva took charge
+of the air-pump, Locke donned the diving-suit. Soon all was ready and
+Locke descended over the side, after carefully instructing Eva in each
+detail. Eva started pumping, while with her other hand she carefully
+paid out the air-line and signal-cord.
+
+But in their close attention to the task in hand, neither had noticed a
+low, knifelike launch that had followed them and that was now hovering a
+short distance off.
+
+Locke was now walking over the shell-strewn bottom, examining curious
+objects here and there. The tide was setting in strongly and at times it
+was with difficulty that he kept his feet.
+
+He had become satisfied that this particular suit filled all the
+requirements of a first-class diving-suit, and he was about to try its
+special, self-liberating feature, when his attention was arrested by a
+vague mass which seemingly moved against the current.
+
+This was so extraordinary that his first thought was of a shark. He
+stopped in his tracks and became motionless, for it is a well-known fact
+that these sea tigers rarely see an object unless it is in motion.
+Still, the vague form slowly took on more distinctness as in its course
+it gradually drew nearer to him. It was then that Locke was almost
+overcome with surprise. For there, groping his way toward him, was a
+diver, like himself.
+
+What was this strange being doing there on the bottom of the sea? Whence
+had he come? Locke could not guess. For, like Eva, he had not noticed
+the other launch. It seemed impossible to him. Still, to him, apart from
+curiosity at the appearance of the other diver, the incident had no
+other interest. What had he to fear from any man at the bottom of a
+peaceful harbor? Locke moved nearer.
+
+The stranger allowed him to approach, stopped, even, as though he were
+himself amazed at Locke's appearance, and Locke made gestures to
+reassure the man of his good intentions.
+
+Locke was quite close now, and through the glass gate in the other's
+helmet he could see his eyes. But in those eyes he could see no
+responding friendliness. There was a murderous hate instead. He tried to
+step back and place himself in a position for defense, but he was too
+late. For, with a movement amazingly rapid for one under water, the
+stranger leaped upon him, at the same time drawing a long knife. There,
+under the sea, commenced a battle royal.
+
+Locke was unarmed and so from the start was at a disadvantage. The
+stranger seemed not so anxious to stab him as to come to close quarters,
+and before Locke could prevent him he had done so. With his left hand he
+grabbed Locke's lines, while with the other, in which was the keen
+knife, he slashed murderously.
+
+Locke tried to break his grip. But the other was not to be denied. With
+one stroke he cut through both lines, pushing Locke backward and himself
+springing free at the same time.
+
+Immediately Locke's helmet filled with sea water, while the pressure
+became enormous. Locke tried to hold his breath, while his hand searched
+for the liberating knob. He gave it one twist. It worked perfectly.
+Locke's suit, including the helmet, simply opened and fell from him.
+
+Propelled as much by the pressure that the water exerted as by his own
+powerful strokes, Locke shot to the surface.
+
+The day was perfect and the bay was calm. For a few seconds Locke
+floated, drawing the air into his starving lungs. Then he raised himself
+and gazed about him. At first glance everything seemed the same except
+for the fact that, whereas before his own boat had been alone, there
+were now two. Then Locke heard an agonizing call for help--from Eva.
+
+After he had gone over the side of their launch Eva was naturally very
+intent upon keeping him plentifully supplied with air. He had been down
+some time before, glancing about, she had spied the other launch. But at
+the time she had thought little of it. For her, all thought of danger
+was centered on the man who was now risking his life many fathoms
+beneath her from pure motives of patriotism.
+
+It was only, some minutes later, when she heard the grating of another
+boat against the side of her own that she realized that she herself
+stood in danger. But even at that moment her thoughts were of Quentin,
+who now for the first time was wholly dependent on her efforts alone.
+She looked up fearfully, and what she saw fairly congealed the blood in
+her veins. Directing a murderous emissary to board Eva's launch, in the
+cockpit of the other boat stood the Automaton!
+
+Not for an instant did Eva cease her efforts at the pump. But she
+shrieked with terror again and again. Now, to add to that terror, the
+pressure on the air-pump suddenly ceased. From the depths myriads of
+bubbles of air arose.
+
+Knife in hand, the emissary leaped aboard and came toward her.
+Automatically, frantically, she still turned the useless pump, while
+with her free arm she tried to ward off the poised knife.
+
+Again her shriek for help echoed across the water--and this time her
+call was answered.
+
+Had she gone mad? The voice that answered her was the voice of the man
+she loved. Her brain reeled and she fell at the feet of the murderous
+thug.
+
+Other cries, then shouts were now heard, for some fisher folk were
+putting out off shore to discover what all the tumult was about.
+
+The Automaton made a hasty gesture to the emissary, who sprang back from
+his victim and leaped to his own launch, where, with his assistance,
+there was barely time to haul aboard the chief thug, who had been sent
+below to attack Locke. The launch cast off and with ever-increasing
+speed headed down the river.
+
+Locke was the first to arrive and climb over the side of the boat.
+Dripping though he was, he took Eva in his arms and bathed her face,
+while by this time other craft arrived and friendly hands did all they
+could to care for them both.
+
+It was some minutes before Eva was restored and all headed again to the
+shore, eager to help Locke.
+
+As he assisted Eva to land, and they waited for a carriage, Locke
+hastily offered a boatman a liberal reward for the discovery of the
+precious diving-suit, for it had been his intention to present the
+patent to the government.
+
+Meanwhile some strange things had happened. Paul and his father had
+quarreled over money, over De Luxe Dora, over Paul's manner of life and
+his ill luck in winning Eva's affections.
+
+At the same time Dora had become more insistent in her demands for money
+to meet her extravagances, and Paul conceived an idea of selling one of
+the patents to a rival company. Strange to say, it had been the
+self-liberating diving-suit and the rival company was the Under Seas
+Company.
+
+All this took place some time after the disappearance of the Automaton
+and his precious crew.
+
+Some hours later that evening a telephone message came for Locke from
+the boatman that the diving-suit had been recovered and was being held
+by him.
+
+Locke replied that he would be down in an hour. But during that hour
+other strange things occurred. For no sooner had the boatman hung up his
+receiver than a pleasant voice hailed him and he left his house to
+investigate. It was Paul Balcom.
+
+It was in a clever, insinuating, affable manner that Paul approached the
+real object of his visit. His appeal was cleverly worded, cleverly
+presented. The sole object was to awaken the poor boatman's cupidity.
+
+The sum mentioned, no less a sum than five thousand dollars, would mean
+luxury to the poor man. And all for what? Simply to call up a stranger,
+a Mr. Locke, to tell him that the boatman demanded more money since he
+had telephoned before, that the cash was to be placed by him in an old
+packing-case from which a stationary engine had been removed that
+morning. It was just an exchange. That was all.
+
+"Sure I'll do that," the boatman told Paul, and Paul, smiling craftily,
+gave him his hand to seal the bargain.
+
+The boatman went back to his quarters and again called Brent Rock,
+making his new demands. Locke was tremendously indignant, but he wanted
+the suit quickly to prevent its falling into unscrupulous hands. He
+agreed and immediately started for the dock.
+
+The boatman turned from his telephone and, picking up the suit, regarded
+it curiously. "Five thousand dollars," he muttered. "Five thousand
+dollars." And he shook his head wonderingly.
+
+He was standing near an open window and was commencing to fold the suit
+preparatory to taking it to the end of the dock where lay the
+engine-case, when, without the slightest warning, three emissaries of
+the Automaton, who had appeared just a moment before on the dock, leaped
+through the window and felled him to the floor. He struggled feebly, but
+it was no use, and a final blow left him unconscious.
+
+The emissaries next grabbed the diving-suit and left hurriedly by the
+way they had come. But they had not completed what it was they sought to
+do.
+
+The old boatman was not as badly hurt as it seemed and was able to drag
+himself across the floor with just strength enough to pull the telephone
+from the table and call Brent Rock. Then as weakness again overcame him
+he managed to blurt out a message to Eva, who answered.
+
+"Don't let Mr. Locke come to the dock," he managed to gasp. "He'll be
+killed." Then he collapsed and fainted.
+
+Eva tried frantically to get the boatman again on the wire, but it was
+useless. Quickly a plan formed in her mind.
+
+If she could only intercept Locke before he reached the dock!
+
+She dashed out to the garage, realizing that it was almost hopeless,
+since Locke had been gone some time. Hoping against hope, she jumped
+into her speedster and swung out and down the road.
+
+The fact was that even as she sped along toward the cove Locke was
+passing the arched gate of the dock.
+
+He called at the boatman's little shack. Of course there was no reply.
+To all appearances it was deserted. Thinking to find him at the very end
+of the dock where he had been told to place the money, he proceeded to
+the engine-case.
+
+He was slightly surprised at not finding the boatman there, but as that
+was no part of the agreement it engaged his attention for only a moment.
+He started to withdraw the money from his pocket, groping at the same
+time to see if the diving-suit was actually in the case.
+
+He was bending over when suddenly there was a rush of men behind him and
+a blackjack in the hands of one of the ruffians just missed his head.
+
+He fought, but their numbers were overwhelming. Like a pack of wolves
+they pulled him down.
+
+Locke was quickly bound with ropes and forced into the engine-case. The
+cover was put on and they nailed it down solidly. To make it doubly sure
+this time the case was then lashed with ropes and they were knotted.
+
+Next the emissaries carried the case to a sloping landing stage,
+preparatory to casting it into the river.
+
+It was at this moment that Eva came running down the dock in wild search
+to intercept Locke. Wide-eyed, in the moonlight, she paused at what she
+saw.
+
+The emissaries had given the packing-case its final shove. Scraping, it
+slid down the incline and toppled overboard. There was a great splash as
+it struck the water and immediately began to sink in the depths.
+
+The engine exhaust had evidently protruded from the case, as there was a
+hole in its side slightly larger than a man's hand. To Eva's horror,
+though she had half expected it, she saw actually a hand thrust forth
+from this hole as if waving frantically.
+
+The box sank lower as it rapidly filled with water.
+
+Eva knew not what to do. Instinctively she knew that it was Locke. It
+was as though he had waved a last farewell.
+
+Only the hand now showed above the surface. Finally that, too,
+disappeared beneath the waves.
+
+Despairingly she turned to see if there was anything on the dock with
+which she might help Locke--and she saw the Automaton himself advancing
+from the shore toward her. She turned. The emissaries on the other end
+of the dock cut off any chance in that direction.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Eva poised herself a moment on the edge of
+the dock and leaped far out into the blackness of the river.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The box that held Locke a prisoner was now undoubtedly resting on the
+slimy bottom. Eva had totally disappeared. The Automaton, convinced that
+at last he had rid himself of his victims, waved away the emissaries and
+departed.
+
+Except for the tiny lights of ships on the river and the staccato
+exhaust of a tugboat, the river flowed with nothing to remind one of the
+two tragedies of only a few seconds ago.
+
+As far as the eye could see, the surface of the water was unbroken.
+Then, suddenly, the scene changed. For from out the water, as though
+hurled up by a catapult, shot a man's body.
+
+It was Locke.
+
+By what miracle had he escaped from the watery grave?
+
+From the time he was a small boy the study of locks and bolts, of knots
+and strait-jackets, of anything that could restrain or bind a man, had
+held a marvelous fascination for him, until now he was recognized as one
+of the world's greatest experts on these subjects. The great lock
+concerns often sent for him to test new inventions, and invariably he
+could point to any flaw in the constructions of them that existed. As he
+came to manhood his knowledge had grown apace until to many he seemed a
+veritable sorcerer.
+
+It was by a trick known only to himself that he had been able to
+extricate himself from his desperate plight at the river's bottom. True,
+his flesh was lacerated. True, he was on the verge of total collapse.
+But he lived.
+
+He made his way slowly toward the dock and was resting against one of
+the piles when he heard a faint cry. He strained his ears to locate the
+direction whence it came. Once again that feeble call floated across the
+water, and in it there sounded something vaguely familiar.
+
+He was more rested now and he swam farther under the dock. Again came
+the cry. With a thrill now he recognized the voice.
+
+"Eva!" he called, again and again.
+
+"Here I am," came back the echo.
+
+With a powerful stroke he breasted the current and in a moment he was
+supporting her half-fainting body. Precarious though their position was,
+Locke felt the thrill of her words. The effect was to spur him on to
+fresh efforts.
+
+Eva had become stronger now. For a few moments he swam, in order, if
+possible, to find some means by which they might escape from the water
+and reach the dock.
+
+They had no way of knowing but that the Automaton and his emissaries
+might still be lurking above, ready to thrust them back into the water
+or to reserve for them some even more terrible fate. But it was a risk
+that they realized must be taken and at once. An attempt to swim to
+another dock could end only disastrously.
+
+Locke soon returned with the cheering news that he had discovered a
+ladder that came even to the surface of the water, a landing for small
+boats. More than that, he had mounted the ladder, and from a short
+survey he had seen no sign of their enemies.
+
+Carefully aiding Eva, Locke swam to this ladder and soon they stood upon
+the dock, safe.
+
+With great caution they moved toward the street and, without harm,
+finally passed beneath the arched gates again and were in the city
+street.
+
+Eva went at once to her father's room. His condition was one of great
+weakness. The laughing madness had abated in so far that the poor victim
+was so weak that the spasms could not maintain a very violent form.
+
+Eva practised all those little kindnesses which are known only to women,
+and tears were in her eyes as she stroked his poor gray head.
+
+How terrible was it that, after all they had attempted, all that they
+had suffered, they should still stand defeated in their aim to get the
+antidote that would cure her father's malady. However, the brave girl
+was not one to admit herself beaten, and even as she sat there she was
+planning new ways to discover who were her terrible adversaries and to
+bring defeat to them.
+
+At Brent Rock the next morning an aged inventor named Winters arrived
+before Locke was down-stairs, and was shown into the library to wait.
+
+Locke soon descended from the laboratory and went into the room to meet
+him. But Winters was so agitated that at first he could hardly speak. It
+was some moments before he gained control.
+
+"What can I do for you, sir?" inquired Locke, although he knew the man
+must be one wronged by the patents company.
+
+"One of my inventions was returned to me, when I protested once," the
+man replied, "but nothing has been done about two others."
+
+"Please try to have a little further patience," pleaded Locke.
+"Everything is being done to assure justice to all."
+
+"But, Mr. Locke," the man persisted, "I must insist on the return or the
+immediate marketing of the two inventions now in the possession of
+International Patents or I will--"
+
+He paused, for Eva had entered and was overhearing what Winters was
+demanding.
+
+"I am sure that, as my father returned one of your inventions," she
+interrupted, "he would wish me to return the other two, and I shall do
+so at once. Mr. Locke, will you be so kind as to get them?"
+
+Locke immediately left the room and descended to the Graveyard of Genius
+for the two models.
+
+In the laboratory above were Balcom and Zita, for she had told him of
+her discovery of the dictagraph. Balcom had the headpiece firmly clamped
+over his head and was drinking in the purport of the conversation down
+in the library.
+
+Zita was almost beside herself with curiosity, as Balcom repeated only
+scraps of the conversation that went on below, but finally the real
+subject of the whole matter was repeated to her and she was satisfied at
+last. A peculiar look came into her eyes. As for Balcom, one would have
+thought that a whole world's treasure had suddenly been placed within
+his grasp. Yet each was cautious not to betray too much to the other.
+
+Over the dictagraph came the words spoken by Eva, "Mr. Locke and I will
+come to your workshop at eight this evening to complete the
+transaction."
+
+Locke in the mean time had brought the two models into the library and
+the inventor had almost danced with joy at seeing the children of his
+brain again.
+
+Sent down by Balcom, Zita had been ordered to spy on Eva and Locke. She
+had been nearly caught by Locke as he was returning from the Graveyard
+of Genius, but had slipped behind a pair of portieres at the end of the
+hall and had emerged only when Locke had entered the library. She had
+crept close to the door and was listening.
+
+She, too, now heard the inventor exact a promise from Eva and Locke not
+to fail to be at his workshop at eight that night.
+
+Zita had but a second to glide backward from the door as the inventor
+came out into the hallway where she stood. He gazed at her in such a
+strange, fixed manner that an uncanny feeling came over her. Then he
+passed out, just as Balcom came down the stairs.
+
+"Why did that man look at me in such a strange manner?" she queried of
+Balcom.
+
+A moment Balcom considered her, as though undecided to speak, then made
+up his mind.
+
+"Because," he replied, slowly, "he knows the secret of your birth, knows
+who you really are."
+
+Zita had no further chance to question Balcom, for at this instant Eva
+and Locke, still carrying the inventions, were leaving the library.
+Locke turned down again toward the stairway leading to the Graveyard of
+Genius, while Eva, nodding pleasantly to Zita and Balcom, mounted the
+stairs leading to her father's room.
+
+Zita turned questioningly again to Balcom.
+
+"Half of everything that girl possesses rightfully belongs to you," he
+whispered.
+
+Zita apparently did not understand. "What shall I do to obtain my
+rights?" she asked.
+
+"Do as I say," returned Balcom, as he left quickly.
+
+It was some hours later that in the dark corner of the Graveyard of
+Genius the huge rock slowly swung outward. There was a clanging and
+clanking of metal. Two fiery eyes gleamed through the aperture and out
+stalked the hideous monster, the Automaton. With strange ominousness it
+went directly to the two models which Locke had returned, took them,
+turned and went back through the great gap in the wall from which it had
+come. Again slowly the huge rock swung back into place.
+
+Locke, with some sort of intuition, had deduced that young Paul Balcom
+by his very absence might have played a leading part in all the events
+in which both Eva and himself had been thwarted and almost killed.
+Accordingly he determined to find and trail Paul.
+
+It was some time after the models had been stolen in his absence that,
+in a taxicab, Locke, having gone from place to place which he knew Paul
+frequented, at last caught sight of him leaving a dance-hall of very ill
+repute. Paul was just stepping into a car which whisked him off rapidly
+and Locke gave an order to his own driver to follow him.
+
+They wove in and out of various streets and finally turned up the Drive,
+where, after a few minutes, Paul's car came to a stop before a palatial
+apartment-house and Paul alighted. Looking up and down the Drive and
+seeing nothing to cause him suspicion, Paul entered the house.
+
+Locke carefully noted the address, then leaned back in his cab to await
+developments.
+
+Paul was taken to the third floor and there was admitted to a gorgeous
+apartment.
+
+"I thought you'd never get here," languidly greeted the feline De Luxe
+Dora.
+
+She led him to a chaise-longue seductively, taking care, however, that
+he should see a pile of unpaid bills that lay upon a table near it.
+
+Paul was not entirely at his ease and wasted no time in coming to the
+point.
+
+"Look here, Dora," he began; "I know you can't run this shack on air. I
+got your note this morning. I've been busy and I've got an idea. I've
+made up my mind to take a couple of those inventions the company owns
+and sell them. It means coin."
+
+Dora's eyes gleamed avariciously.
+
+"Be patient," Paul added, "and I'll have you swimming in gold."
+
+At this juncture three young fellows of the cabaret type, better known
+as "lounge lizards," were admitted to the apartment.
+
+Paul cast a glance at Dora which clearly spelled jealousy and reproach.
+He knew the fellows. In fact, there were few denizens of the underworld
+whom he did not know. Concealing his vexation, he tried to greet them
+easily.
+
+The fellows returned the salutation hastily.
+
+"Say, Balcom," hastened one of them, "some one is on your trail,
+shadowing you."
+
+Paul was startled and furious, but in this emergency it was Dora who
+thought out the plan of action.
+
+"In a taxicab?" she repeated, as the others told what they had seen
+outside. "Listen to me, Paul. Go to the window and show yourself. Then
+leave the house. This fellow Locke will investigate--and we'll tend to
+the rest."
+
+Paul moved to the window, opened it, and stepped out on a small balcony.
+Dora slipped to his side and for a moment they stood there gazing
+apparently at the view of the river. Then they re-entered the apartment.
+
+"Now go, Paul," said Dora. "Whoever this fellow is, we'll handle him."
+
+Paul started to get his hat, then stopped and from his pocket drew out a
+small package.
+
+"I was going to use this elsewhere," he said, "but it might come in
+handy to--"
+
+Dora reached for the package, but Paul withdrew it hastily.
+
+"Careful, Dora," he admonished. "There's a small gas-bomb inside."
+
+The five now conferred a bit and it was agreed that this time the
+inquisitive Mr. Locke would surely trouble them no more.
+
+"With Locke out of the way," promised Paul to Dora, "the road to our
+fortune is clear."
+
+A moment later Paul left the apartment, descended in the elevator, and
+jumped into a taxicab and was off.
+
+Locke from his cab had, of course, seen all this, had seen Paul and Dora
+on the balcony and the departure. But he knew nothing of the three men
+who had gone to the same apartment.
+
+He waited until Paul passed out of sight, then stepped out of his cab,
+making a careful calculation as to the exact location of the woman's
+apartment, for he had determined to find out about her. From the hall
+boy he learned that it was De Luxe Dora, of whom he knew, and it was
+only a matter of seconds when he was admitted.
+
+Dora swept over graciously toward him.
+
+"Will you answer me one question?" he asked, in answer to a query from
+her.
+
+She nodded assent.
+
+"How long have you known Mr. Balcom's son?"
+
+"He is an old friend," she replied. "I'm expecting him to return at any
+moment. Won't you be seated? Please excuse me just a moment."
+
+Before Locke could say a word she had left the room. Left alone himself,
+Locke took in all the details of the room and again and again his eye
+wandered to a Louis XIV desk.
+
+Feeling certain that this woman was without doubt connected in some way
+with the plots, he felt justified in opening the desk to obtain
+evidence. He tiptoed over to it and tried to open it. It stuck at first,
+but after one or two silent, well-directed blows which he so well knew
+how to administer the sliding panel stood unlocked.
+
+He glanced around. There was no one to be seen. He moved back the panel.
+There was a flash and a tiny puff of smoke. Locke coughed once, clutched
+at his throat, and lay gasping on the floor.
+
+Immediately the three men rushed out, carrying ropes and holding
+handkerchiefs to their nostrils. One ran to the window and threw it wide
+open, admitting gusts of air to clear away the fumes. The others began
+to bind Locke as De Luxe Dora appeared in the doorway and calmly
+directed operations.
+
+On the roof of the apartment several moments later in the just-gathering
+dusk five figures might have been seen. Three men and a woman were
+conferring, while at their feet was a man tightly bound and unconscious.
+
+In the background was a huge water-tank, with a ladder leading to its
+brim.
+
+Suddenly the conspirators straightened up. They had come to a decision.
+The three men lifted the unconscious figure and bore it up the ladder.
+The tank was empty. One of the men jumped down into it, while the others
+lowered their victim after him. Then they passed down ropes.
+
+There were two spouts at the bottom of the tank through which water was
+pumped. Also there were pipes running upward. To these pipes they tied
+Locke. Then the men climbed out and, as their last fiendish act, turned
+the water on.
+
+With a sneer Dora turned and led the way down-stairs again.
+
+"They'll find his body when they have to clean the tank again," she
+exclaimed.
+
+At Brent Rock, during the absence of Locke, Eva had donned her street
+clothes, since it was nearing the hour of eight when she and Locke were
+due to be at the inventor's workshop to render the restitution. She went
+down-stairs and asked the butler about Locke. But the man replied that
+Mr. Locke had not yet returned.
+
+Eva was very uneasy by this time, and, thinking to save time, was about
+to go down to the Graveyard of Genius to get the models of the two
+inventions, when Zita came down the hall carrying a fair sized package
+which she tried hard to conceal. Eva greeted her and continued down to
+the cellar, as Zita, with a sort of grim smile, left the house.
+
+Eva came to the great door, pushed the secret spring, and in a moment
+was inside the gloomy place. She went directly to the spot where the two
+inventions had been kept. They were gone.
+
+Alarmed, she rushed up-stairs.
+
+Still Locke did not return. Nor did any word come from him. It was now
+very near to eight. Eva decided to go, for surely Locke would be there.
+
+When Zita arrived at the inventor's, in her hands was still the
+mysterious package. She carried it gingerly, then raised it to her ear.
+From within it there came a faint ticking sound. What was it inside?
+
+She looked at her wrist-watch. It was still some minutes before eight.
+She knocked at the inventor's door.
+
+The inventor at once admitted her. It was a neat little workshop in
+which every detail had been thought out with care--the home, one might
+say, of a methodical workman.
+
+The inventor manifested some surprise at seeing Zita, but politely asked
+her to enter, and offered her a chair. Zita declined and plainly showed
+her nervousness.
+
+"Will you please give this package to Mr. Locke and Miss Brent when they
+come at eight?" she asked.
+
+Winters agreed and accepted the package, looking quizzically at her as
+he did so, just as he had earlier in the day.
+
+Zita, unable to control her curiosity, burst out with the question
+uppermost on her mind.
+
+"Why do you look at me in such a strange manner?" she queried.
+
+The inventor merely turned his gaze away and shrugged.
+
+"Mr Balcom tells me that you know the secret of my birth," pressed Zita.
+
+The inventor looked up quickly. "Who did Mr. Balcom say you were?" he
+asked.
+
+"He told me that I was Brent's daughter," replied Zita, keenly watching
+the aged face.
+
+"Balcom lied to you," hastened the inventor.
+
+Already there was a ponderous tread on the stairs, but Winters did not
+seem to notice it.
+
+"You are not Brent's daughter," he pursued, more slowly.
+
+The door opened swiftly and an emissary stood framed there, a knife
+poised in his hand. Behind him stood the Automaton.
+
+"You are--"
+
+At that instant the inventor caught sight of the intruders. With a look
+of horror in his eyes he threw out his hands to protect himself, but he
+was too late. The knife whizzed through the air and a second later
+pierced his throat. He fell to the floor--dead.
+
+At the moment when the emissary, followed by the Automaton, entered,
+Zita, watching her chance, managed to escape from the room, stumbled,
+and almost half-fell down the stairs.
+
+Already, in the huge water-tank that stood on the roof of the apartment
+of Dora, Locke had revived as he felt the water and had found himself
+already half submerged, with the water rapidly pouring in. At first he
+could not grasp his terrible predicament, but before long the full
+horror of it burst on him and he struggled madly to free himself. Since
+his body was stretched at full length, it was impossible to use the
+ordinary tricks of which he was master. His arms were bound, and he well
+knew that to release one of them constituted his sole chance of escape.
+
+He contracted his muscles and, inch by inch, he worked his right arm
+free. By this time the water had risen until he was fairly beneath its
+surface. Could he last long enough to free himself?
+
+He worked frantically. Finally, with his lungs almost bursting, he
+managed to free the other arm, then the rope that bound his neck. To
+release his feet was, to him, child's play, and he stood up.
+
+But the water had risen almost to the top of the tank before he was able
+to grasp its brim and draw himself out.
+
+Once on the roof, there was only one thought in his mind. It was nearing
+eight o'clock, and if Eva kept the appointment at the inventor's he knew
+his adversaries well enough to be sure that they would take advantage of
+his absence.
+
+He dashed down the stairs and out of the building. Dora and her evil
+band could wait. He must reach the inventor's shop. As the seconds sped,
+so increased his premonition that all would not be well there.
+
+It was at the moment that Zita came flying down-stairs that Locke burst
+into the hallway to the inventor's.
+
+Zita saw him. Above, she knew was the terrible Automaton and his
+bloodthirsty emissary. More horrible yet, she had her fears of the
+package that had been given her by Balcom to deliver.
+
+"You must not go up there!" she cried, impulsively, flinging her arms
+about Locke's neck.
+
+Locke tried to remove her arms as he questioned her. But Zita either
+would not or could not tell more. Instead she merely clung to him.
+
+Thus it was that Eva, determined at keeping her appointment with the
+inventor at all costs, entered the hallway at just this unpropitious
+moment. To her it looked as if Locke and Zita were very familiar. Could
+it be that Quentin was such a cad? She could not deny the evidence of
+her eyes.
+
+Indignantly she brushed past them and rushed up the stairs. Locke called
+after her, but she refused to heed him. He flung off the arms of Zita
+and dashed after her. But Eva was too quick for him. She opened the door
+to the inventor's and went in, slamming it behind her. The lock snapped.
+In an instant Eva saw what she had fled into. There was the Automaton,
+near him the emissary with the knife--and on the floor their victim in a
+pool of blood. She shrieked and tried to escape. But the lock had
+snapped. Besides, the emissary, now directed by the monster, blocked her
+retreat.
+
+Outside, Locke pounded on the door, but could not open it. It was of
+stout oak and would take some moments to break down.
+
+The emissary circled in one direction. Eva turned, and there was the
+Automaton advancing on her from the other side of the room.
+
+On the table the clock-work bomb, delivered by Zita, whether with full
+knowledge or not, ticked out the last few seconds before its timing at
+precisely eight!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+Eva flattened herself against the door at her back. She could feel and
+hear Locke pounding on the other side. She thought that she would die of
+sheer terror.
+
+The Automaton raised his mighty fist, and Eva instinctively ducked under
+the monster's arm. There was an inner room. Could she reach it in time?
+Would the door be unlocked? At most she could only try.
+
+The emissary tried to catch her, but she proved too quick for him. She
+reached the door. It opened, and she flew into the room, slamming and
+bolting it behind her.
+
+Now she could hear the thunderous blows of the Automaton raining against
+the door. One huge fist of the monster crashed through the panel. Eva
+crouched down in a far corner and closed her eyes. At that instant the
+time bomb exploded and the house was rocked to its foundations.
+
+Everything was demolished. One entire side of the house was blown out.
+The door leading to the workshop which a moment before Locke had been
+vainly striving to open crashed full upon him and felled him,
+half-stunned, to the floor.
+
+The force of the explosion had dazed Eva. As for the Automaton and the
+emissary, they had both been blown through a gaping aperture in the wall
+to land in the garden beneath. Only Zita, in the lower hallway, was
+totally untouched by the catastrophe.
+
+Locke, dazed, crawled from under the door and made his way into the
+demolished room in search of Eva, a cold fear gripping his heart. How
+could any living thing have lived after such an occurrence? But in
+another instant he saw her, as she half swooned and staggered into the
+room.
+
+"Quentin!" she gasped.
+
+He caught her in his arms. But the next moment she remembered what she
+had witnessed in the hallway below and she drew herself away from him.
+
+"Go to the girl you really love," she scorned.
+
+"The girl--I really love?" repeated Locke; then there ran through his
+mind what had happened, as though it had been ages ago.
+
+He protested and tried to explain. But protestations and explanations
+only made matters worse, as usual. Had she not with her own eyes seen
+Locke in Zita's arms?
+
+"Eva," he persisted, manlike, "I swear that she was only trying to save
+my life. I cannot help it if she--"
+
+Locke saw that his defense was only making an innocent matter worse, and
+checked himself. His mind recalled that some one had once said that a
+jealous woman believes a man guilty until he proves himself innocent;
+when he has proved himself innocent she merely still suspects. Eva's
+manner was very constrained.
+
+At that moment a policeman, followed by Zita, entered, and Zita, running
+up to Locke, cried, anxiously, "You're not hurt--are you?"
+
+Locke answered in an annoyed negative.
+
+The policeman now questioned them very closely and examined the dead
+inventor's body. Then he entered their names and addresses in his
+note-book.
+
+Next the officer lead the entire group down to the garden. There the
+horribly injured emissary was trying miserably to crawl away.
+
+The Automaton had totally disappeared.
+
+Eva immediately ordered that the injured man be taken to Brent Rock in
+her car. Then she turned sharply to Zita.
+
+"How did you come to be here?" she demanded.
+
+Zita was startled and confused. It lasted only a minute. Then, her mind
+made up, she replied, defiantly:
+
+"I came here to discover the secret of my birth. I have been told that I
+am Mr. Brent's daughter."
+
+Eva was stricken dumb with astonishment at this startling claim, but
+Locke laughed outright.
+
+"What nonsense!" he scoffed. "Eva, don't listen to it."
+
+Zita glared at him and with a haughty nod to Eva swept out of the
+garden.
+
+Eva was still frightfully indignant with Locke and insisted on going
+home alone. However, they arrived at Brent Rock at about the same time.
+
+The emissary had been placed on a lounge in the library and a doctor was
+called. The case was quite hopeless and they merely hoped to obtain a
+confession before he passed away.
+
+When Eva arrived she went directly to her father's room, but, as he was
+receiving every attention from a trained nurse and she could do nothing
+further to aid him, she returned to the library.
+
+Locke, too, after changing his clothes, still wet from the water-tank on
+the top of the apartment, also went to the library.
+
+At his entrance the doctor glanced at him in a manner to indicate that
+there was no hope of saving the man's life. Locke went over to examine
+him. He was struck by the sly rascality of the professional criminal,
+but he thought little of it at the time. He tried to question the
+emissary, but, except for a labored breathing, could extract no
+response.
+
+There were voices in the hallway. For a moment the dying man showed some
+signs of returning consciousness. A crafty look came over his face. What
+was he contemplating?
+
+The door opened and Balcom and his son Paul entered. Balcom walked
+jauntily, but with a suavity of manner that was always his. Paul looked
+at his best, except for the fact that he carried his left arm in a
+silken sling.
+
+Balcom greeted them all, and at his voice the dying man actually showed
+a sort of agitation. A strong shudder seemed to pass through his body,
+then, like a spring suddenly uncoiled, he sat up.
+
+He was fully conscious now and strove to rise to his feet. It was a
+tremendous effort, but he succeeded, and stood confronting Balcom, while
+the ominous light of hatred that gleamed from his eyes as they
+encountered those of Balcom made even that well-poised man recoil and
+shudder.
+
+With the muscles of his face working convulsively the dying thug tried
+to speak. All those standing in the library realized that it was to
+accuse, to denouce.
+
+However, the effort proved too great, and with a groan that was ghastly
+the man fell backward on the couch, dead.
+
+Murdering brute that he had been, still to Eva and Locke he now
+represented nothing but a stricken human being, with a human soul,
+blackened and warped. But Balcom and Paul seemed to show unmistakable
+signs of joy and relief. It was so evident, Locke thought, that he
+turned to them.
+
+"Your coming seemed to have an unfortunate effect," he hinted. "The man
+seemed to know one of you--at least."
+
+"Nothing of the kind," retorted Balcom, nettled.
+
+Locke turned to Paul and regarded his injured arm questioningly. Paul,
+however, never lost his accustomed aplomb.
+
+"I was hurt in an automobile accident," he explained, though with what
+seemed to be a trifle of nervousness.
+
+Locke turned to the doctor. He was rubbing his hands, and smiling, with
+great unction, an action very unbecoming, to say the least, in a medical
+man who had just lost a patient. Taken all in all, Locke felt he could
+now sense the web of conspiracy tightening around him. The cards were
+still in the hands of his enemies.
+
+He determined to incur any risk, to leave no stone unturned in order to
+bring the criminal to justice, whoever he might be. One thing encouraged
+him. The events seemed to have mollified Eva. He made an almost
+imperceptible signal to Eva, who left the room to dress for the street.
+
+Meanwhile Locke left the library and went to a private telephone that
+connected the garage to the house. He ordered the chauffeur to have a
+fast runabout ready for instant call. Then, at the other telephone, he
+notified the coroner's office of the death of the emissary.
+
+By this time Balcom, Paul, and the doctor came out of the library, the
+doctor in high good humor, for had he not received a huge fee? He left
+in his car.
+
+Balcom and Paul, however, were slower in going, and paced the hallway in
+earnest conversation. Once they came to a dead halt close to the
+stairway leading down to the Graveyard of Genius. They listened
+intently. Evidently they came to a decision on something, for they left
+the house very hurriedly.
+
+Immediately Locke called for the runabout. Eva came running down-stairs
+and in a moment they took up the trail of the Balcom car.
+
+It seemed as if they traveled for miles, and Locke was commencing to
+think that it was merely a wild-goose chase, when Balcom's car came to a
+halt in one of the lower quarters of the city, before a house that was
+apparently tenantless.
+
+To avoid discovery, Locke backed his car around a corner, got out, and
+watched their movements from a safe distance.
+
+He saw Balcom, senior, alight, but Paul did not leave the car. Locke was
+in some quandary what to do. To attempt to enter the house without
+Paul's seeing him and raising the alarm would, he realized, be
+impossible. Therefore he waited for nearly half an hour before his
+patience was rewarded by seeing Balcom come out of the house, jump into
+the car, and drive off hurriedly with Paul.
+
+Locke walked to the house and looked closely over the exterior. It was
+little different from others in the same street. Then he walked
+thoughtfully back to Eva and they argued pro and con about the
+advisability of attempting to enter.
+
+Locke insisted on entering alone, but Eva would not hear of it.
+Therefore, it was decided that they would go in together.
+
+When Balcom had alighted from his car half an hour before he had merely
+stood for a moment in front of the door of the house when, mysteriously,
+the door had opened.
+
+There was no one in sight. But he was so familiar with the house that it
+might have been his own. He descended a flight of stairs and stood
+before another door, where the same door-opening process was repeated.
+
+Balcom entered a darkened room and for a moment seemed quite alone. Then
+from out the shadows, with a little half run, half lope, a strange
+figure of man came toward him.
+
+He was in reality large of frame, but stooped and bent with age. An old
+frock-coat was wrapped about him. But the most remarkable things about
+the man were a pair of weirdly fascinating eyes with a mad glint in them
+and an enormous full beard, snow white, that fell almost to his waist.
+
+At times the man talked rationally, in fact with the forcefulness of a
+great savant. Then, abruptly, he would leave off and the rest of his
+conversation was that of a babbling child. He was seldom at rest,
+scampering here and there, not unlike a bird-dog on a fresh scent.
+Seeking--always seeking--what?
+
+Balcom grasped his arm in order to arrest his attention.
+
+"Doctor Q," he addressed him, "you can have the revenge you have sought
+so long. Have you prepared everything?"
+
+The old man chuckled and wagged his head in senile fashion. Balcom
+grabbed both his shoulders so that the old man was facing him, and shook
+him slightly.
+
+"Your enemies are here," he emphasized. "Have you prepared for their
+reception?"
+
+And then the haze beclouding the old man's brain seemed to pass away and
+his next moments were lucid.
+
+"Ah, it's you, Balcom. You were just saying--"
+
+Balcom explained that Locke and Eva had tracked him and on his departure
+would undoubtedly enter to investigate the place. Doctor Q, for such was
+his odd name, understood now, and an evil grimace distorted his wrinkled
+face.
+
+"Let them come," he growled. "I am prepared. Why, I have even improved
+certain features of the Chair of Death."
+
+He led Balcom into an inner room where many electric bulbs were dimly
+glowing. At their entrance two brutal-looking men straightened up from
+their task and saluted Balcom with great deference. Then they resumed
+their tasks as electricians.
+
+"Want to see her work, sir?" one of the pair asked.
+
+Stepping around a partition that separated the knife-switch from the
+room in which stood the electric chair, Balcom watched.
+
+The chair was of practically the same construction as the chairs used in
+prisons for the supreme penalty, with electrodes to connect at the head,
+arms, and legs of the man to be electrocuted.
+
+"Stand back, sir," called one of the men as he shot the switch home.
+
+Instantly a snapping sound was heard as the current surged through, and
+the crackling sound such as the now familiar wireless makes as the long
+sparks leap from pole to pole. It was Force.
+
+A satisfied look came into Balcom's eyes and he warmly congratulated the
+mad inventor, who followed him to the door and watched him as he mounted
+the stairs to depart with his son.
+
+Soon after the departure Doctor Q went to a strange-looking instrument
+that seemed to have many of the characteristics of the periscope. He
+pulled a lever, a panel opened, and immediately the space directly in
+front of his street door was revealed to him. He stood there, watching
+intently, much as a spider watches for a fly.
+
+Soon Locke and Eva showed in the panel above. He next pressed a button
+and saw the two enter. Then he went to a huge divan on the other side of
+the room and whipped off a covering that was concealing some gigantic
+thing beneath.
+
+It was the Automaton, prostrate, at full length, without motion. At
+least it seemed so.
+
+The madman glanced around, and then glided into an inner room from the
+larger one. He was just in time, for a moment later Locke and Eva
+entered.
+
+They, too, glanced around fearfully. They saw the dread form of the
+Automaton and, although it did not move, Locke would have admitted he
+was ready to beat a retreat.
+
+It was uncanny, weird. In the dim light the monster seemed to assume
+gigantic proportions. But he lay so still that their jangling nerves
+became quieted. They even approached him, Locke with automatic in hand
+in case the iron terror were shamming. But there was no sign of life--or
+whatever it was that animated this thing.
+
+Locke, handing his gun to Eva, determined to investigate further. He
+went to the inner door and listened. But he could hear no sound. He
+turned the knob and entered. He was amazed at what he saw. But, as there
+was apparently no living thing about, he took courage and entered
+farther. He took note of the switches, saw the deadly chair, and was
+about to test the apparatus to see if it could be possible that a
+practical electric chair existed in the heart of a peaceful city, when
+he heard Eva shriek in heart-rending terror.
+
+He rushed madly back to where he had left her. But as he passed through
+the door some one dealt him a blow on the head, and as though pole-axed
+he dropped to the floor.
+
+After Locke had left her to go into the inner room Eva's fears revived
+and she wished to follow him. But she was ashamed to have him think her
+a coward. She forced herself to remain rooted to the spot.
+
+Her eyes had followed Locke through the doorway and her ears were
+strained to hear the faintest sound from the other room. In her anxiety
+about Locke's safety she even forgot the Automaton, and, in turning the
+better to watch the doorway, she drew nearer to the divan upon which the
+monster lay.
+
+It was this action that had brought her into peril. Slowly one of the
+monster's arms commenced to move, and before Eva could spring away she
+was enfolded in his deadly embrace. It was that that made her shriek
+madly, wildly, in utter terror.
+
+Then she saw Locke running through the door to her, saw him struck from
+behind, and she fainted.
+
+The Automaton, evidently thinking Eva dead, let her limp body slip to
+the floor. For a moment it towered over her, as though contemplating
+whether to trample on her or no. At this juncture an emissary distracted
+its attention and the terror left her lying there without further
+injury.
+
+The Automaton now assumed command of Locke's electrocution.
+
+Under its direction the emissaries picked up Locke's body and placed it
+in the electric chair. They slit his trousers so that the deadly
+electrodes might form a better contact with his flesh. His sleeves were
+rolled back for the same reason. Next the headpiece was firmly adjusted.
+Now all the straps were tightly clinched.
+
+The Automaton waved his arm.
+
+A man stepped to the switch.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+There was a moan from the front room. Eva was recovering from her faint.
+The Automaton indicated to the emissary at the switch to do nothing
+until he had found out what was going on.
+
+Locke had, meanwhile, recovered consciousness and realized his awful
+position. Here was a situation which, on its face, seemed unescapable.
+Yet Locke would not give in.
+
+Straining every effort, he tried to extricate himself before the deadly
+current could sever the thread of life. Seconds seemed ages. Still he
+tried.
+
+With a mighty effort he strained every muscle of his gigantic chest and
+the very straps that held him groaned from the force of his muscular
+exertion. Even now the death-man was at the switch and it was barely a
+question of seconds or heart-beats between him and death.
+
+With a quick twist of his giant shoulder he threw his whole weight
+against the chest strap and it parted. Lurching forward, he freed his
+head and neck from the cruel straps, which snapped and parted.
+
+The death-man paused for a fraction of a second to see what caused the
+commotion in the chair. To that pause Locke owed his life. With a final
+supreme effort he threw himself on the floor just as the knife-switch
+swung into position and the wicked blue flame of death leaped across the
+head electrodes.
+
+Once freed, he catapulted himself across the room and with a vicious
+upper-cut sent the emissary sprawling unconscious to the floor. Without
+a thought of himself he rushed into the next room where Eva now stood in
+panic, glued to the spot, in fear of the Frankenstein monster that would
+crush her in its grasp.
+
+With murderous mien the thing crossed the room slowly, until only the
+table stood between her and destruction.
+
+Like a wild animal Locke hurled himself into the room and with a master
+stroke of quick wit flung the heavy oaken table over at the monster.
+Then he seized Eva, and before the monster could turn in its tracks,
+half dragged, half carried her from the room.
+
+In the hall further difficulty confronted Locke, for the place was well
+guarded. Several henchmen darted forth from dark corners of the murky
+place and would have intercepted him.
+
+As the first approached, Locke, with a quick jiu-jitsu thrust, hurled
+him for a fall that would have broken the back of a less hardy man. The
+next one was just turning the top of the stairs, and Locke, quick to
+take advantage of the situation, adopted the only means of escape.
+
+He seized the man bodily about the waist and, lifting him over his head,
+threw him upon his other oncoming foe. The result was that the two were
+flung down the stairs.
+
+"Run!" he cried to Eva in a voice that was a command.
+
+Without waiting he picked her up and carried her over the sprawling mass
+of legs and arms to safety below.
+
+Once outside, he felt a little embarrassed at having the beautiful girl
+in his arms and he half murmured an apology as he placed her feet gently
+on the ground.
+
+Life at Brent Rock was far from monotonous.
+
+Like a great game of checkers, the various members of the establishment
+were being moved about, guided by some strange hand, it seemed.
+
+Now one, then another seemed to gain the advantage, and as each strove
+for control of the vast fortune, the battle of wits surged back and
+forth.
+
+Balcom was playing a game, it was plain. But to what extent? Sometimes
+it seemed as though Zita was his aide and would stop at nothing to
+succeed. Again it was that Zita played the game alone, still fostering
+her secret but hopeless love for Locke. Again it seemed as if Paul were
+playing the game, either alone or with some one else.
+
+Just now it was apparent that Balcom and Zita, for their own ends,
+whatever might be the identity of the Automaton, planned a coup for
+themselves.
+
+During one of Locke's absences Zita had secured access to his
+laboratory, and while looking around had discovered the dictagraph
+hidden in the desk drawer. Often Balcom and Zita, either together or
+alone, had taken advantage of the discovery.
+
+It was at a time when both were using the mechanical eavesdropper on
+Locke and Eva in the library that Locke suddenly decided to return to
+the laboratory, without saying anything about it.
+
+Zita's quick ear heard him down the hall.
+
+"Quick!" she warned. "Some one is coming!"
+
+She sprang toward the closet door, which stood ajar, and in an instant
+Balcom was with her. The two were concealed in the closet as the
+laboratory door opened and Locke entered.
+
+Locke walked to his table of test-tubes and picked up one containing
+mercury. What prompted this action he did not know. Perhaps it was his
+fascination for the elusive metal. Perhaps it was some subconscious
+feeling. At any rate, he held it aloft and gazed at it in the light. As
+he did so a strange thing happened. Reflected in its surface on the
+glass, yet distorted like a convex mirror, he could see the door of the
+closet open just a crack and the evil faces of Balcom and Zita peer out.
+
+He did not move nor did he in any way betray what he saw, but
+nonchalantly set the tube of precious metal down and pretended to seek
+something from the table. He turned slowly and retraced his steps to the
+library below, where he entered, holding his fingers to his lips in
+warning to Eva not to speak. He walked quickly over to a writing-desk,
+took a pencil, and began to write.
+
+"Balcom and Zita are listening on the dictagraph. Pretend to quarrel
+with me."
+
+Eva read in amazement as he wrote. Quickly she comprehended. Then they
+walked silently until they were almost under the chandelier which held
+the transmitter of the dictagraph.
+
+"I have something I want to say to you, Mr. Locke," began Eva, with a
+wink and a smile at him, "and it grieves me to say it."
+
+"What is it?" asked Locke, with distinct anxiety, winking back.
+
+"I am afraid I shall have to dispense with your services," continued
+Eva, as she reached out her hand and gave Locke's a little squeeze.
+
+Up-stairs, Balcom and Zita listened intently, their heads close together
+so that each could catch every word. Balcom was nodding with
+satisfaction. Each looked at the other as though they could hardly
+believe their ears.
+
+"But I have tried to serve and protect you," protested Locke, as his
+face wreathed in smiles at Eva, who was carrying the deception off
+perfectly. Then he added, plaintively, "I am sorry that I have failed."
+
+"Your protection has led me into danger," returned Eva, in her best
+voice to denote anger, "and your seeming interest is out of place--and,
+besides, _Mr._ Locke, Paul Balcom does not like your being here. You
+know he is the man I am to marry."
+
+As she said this, Eva looked roguishly at him. Locke's face clouded a
+little, although he knew it was only in a joke.
+
+"But, Miss Brent," he continued to protest, "I had hoped--"
+
+"Not another word, Mr. Locke," interrupted Eva, as she edged very close
+to him and gazed into his eyes. "Please leave this house at once--I hate
+you!" And, not suiting the action to the word, she reached out and gave
+his hand a squeeze that told more than words what her true thoughts in
+the matter were.
+
+Locke leaned over and was on the point of kissing her when she held up
+her hand and pointed to the receiver above in the chandelier as if it
+really had eyes as well as ears. He looked up and was forced to check a
+laugh lest it be heard by the listeners above.
+
+In the laboratory, Balcom had heard enough. He turned to Zita, and with
+a hurried command told her to go down-stairs.
+
+"Keep an eye on him and tell me where he goes," was the parting
+instruction of Balcom as the two separated on the stairs at the very
+time that Paul blustered in the front door.
+
+"Morning, Governor," nodded Paul, as he gave his hat to the butler.
+
+"A very good morning, Paul," emphasized Balcom, quite unctuously, as he
+went on to tell his son of the supposed quarrel between Eva and Locke
+which he had overheard.
+
+A light of triumph came into Paul's eyes. Eva's happiness, even her
+life, meant nothing to him. She was merely a means to his own evil ends
+and he now felt sure that he held her in his grasp. Besides, in so far
+as such a selfish nature can care for another human being, Paul cared
+for De Luxe Dora. There was a fascination for him in her tigerish,
+unscrupulous nature that a good woman could never inspire.
+
+And now, as he eagerly listened to his father, he visualized new
+motor-cars, a yacht, rivers of champagne, a life of mad gaiety with his
+favorite pals, men and women.
+
+Locke, in the library, was laughing quietly with Eva over the success of
+the ruse. But there was, notwithstanding, an undercurrent of seriousness
+running through their thoughts. For, although they had scored against
+their adversaries in misleading them as to their intentions, both
+realized that Balcom was a tremendously clever man, astute and wise
+beyond the average in the ways of the world, and that the slightest lack
+of caution, the smallest flaw in the acting of the parts they had
+elected to play, would inevitably lose for them the advantage they had
+gained.
+
+They went into the most minute details of the plans they had formulated,
+and they realized that in order to keep the wool pulled over Balcom's
+and Paul's eyes it was necessary that they separate, at least
+apparently, for a few days. Locke gave out that he was to seek evidence
+in the lower quarters of the city, while Eva was to play the game at
+home. It was to Eva that the more difficult role fell.
+
+Locke bade her an affectionate farewell and left by a door opposite to
+the one leading to the main hallway, where the voices of Paul and his
+father were now audible.
+
+Eva opened the hallway door and greeted Paul, feigning delight and
+chiding him for his long absence--which had not been even a
+day--intimating that there must be some woman in whom he was interested.
+She made a pretty show of jealousy.
+
+Paul, wearing his vanity on his sleeve, was delighted and his eyes shone
+with satisfaction. He took a step forward and attempted to take Eva in
+his arms. But she evaded him playfully, while he pursued her. Finally
+she could bear no more. The game revolted her. She made the excuse that
+she must attend her father, and ran up-stairs.
+
+So a day or two passed, days which were sheer torture to Eva. Paul
+called every day, bringing her little gifts, and it must be acknowledged
+that he showed exquisite taste.
+
+They took long walks together. On horseback they cantered all over the
+country. Friends called, and it was at such times that Eva found her
+only relief from Paul's attentions. Many a rubber of bridge she played
+just to escape being alone with him.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+At last, late one afternoon, the faithful old butler announced to Eva
+privately that Locke was on the wire and wished to speak to her.
+
+Eva almost ran to the telephone, and her hand shook with sheer joy as
+she took the receiver.
+
+"Yes, everything is moving along even more rapidly than I expected,"
+replied Locke to her eager inquiry. "Whenever Paul leaves Brent Rock he
+goes directly to a miserable cafe and there I see him with a number of
+people of the underworld. He seems to have a great deal of influence
+over them. I'm sifting all the clues, and as soon as I unmask him I will
+send for you."
+
+Eva gave him a brief outline of how she had fared in his absence and an
+account of her father's condition, which was now very bad. Everything
+the doctor had done seemed to be without effect.
+
+Locke assured her that he hoped soon to lay hands on the antidote that
+would restore Brent to health and sanity, and begged Eva to be brave in
+the mean time.
+
+When the conversation was over Eva felt certain that no one had
+overheard what she and Quentin had said. But she was mistaken, as she
+was to learn at her cost. For, far down in the bowels of the earth, in
+the den of the Automaton, an emissary had tapped in on the telephone
+wire and had heard every word.
+
+Down-town, among the haunts of Paul, on the west side, was the Black Tom
+Cafe. Every attempt had been made to make the place bizarre. About the
+walls were palings that represented a back fence, along which crawled
+painted black cats in every conceivable state--a rather odd conceit for
+a cabaret.
+
+Although the sun had not yet set, the electric lights were already
+agleam. On a raised platform three weary-eyed musicians were pounding
+and thumping out the latest Broadway hit.
+
+There were not half a dozen people in the place, and these were
+obviously denizens of this quarter of the town. They were listless and
+weary, mere shells of human beings. And yet it was such as these that
+the slumming parties at night romantically dubbed bohemians.
+
+They showed scant interest as De Luxe Dora, unaccompanied for once,
+swept into the place. Dora was gorgeously and flashily dressed and
+fairly scintillated with jewels. She seated herself not far from the
+door and ordered a cocktail. Then she whistled a bar of music
+suggestively to the piano-player, who immediately caught it, and the
+"orchestra" with a show of animation strummed out her suggestion. She
+sent over drinks for them and was rewarded with more song hits.
+
+Jauntily now Paul came in. A couple of men roused themselves and
+slouched over to him. They held a whispered conversation, and Paul was
+insistent on some point. He evidently had his way, for the men slunk
+back to their places and, sprawling out, were in a moment as listless as
+before.
+
+Paul nodded to Dora in greeting, but she turned her back. He gave a low
+whistle of astonishment and went over to her.
+
+"Say, Dora, why the grouch?" he asked.
+
+For a moment she disdained to answer and glared at him witheringly. Then
+she blurted out, "You're throwing me down for that baby face with the
+money!"
+
+Paul gave a short laugh and shrugged his shoulders. "Don't be silly," he
+laughed. "She'll be our meal-ticket."
+
+He sat down, and over a couple more cocktails he had Dora quite
+mollified.
+
+A few moments later Locke entered and slipped quickly into a chair,
+since he did not wish to be seen. In his hand he carried a newspaper
+which he now unfolded and held up in front of him so that it hid his
+face. Next he poked a hole through the center of the sheet so that he
+could see without being seen.
+
+At this moment, seemingly in all earnestness, Paul and Dora resumed
+their quarrel, and Dora's strident voice echoed through the cafe.
+
+"If you throw me down you'd better look out," she bawled.
+
+Paul jumped up, and for a moment it looked as though he would strike
+her. But he changed his mind, cursed her, and finally stalked out of the
+cafe.
+
+Locke folded his paper, paid his bill to the sleepy waiter, and started
+after Paul. At the entrance he stopped, thought a moment, and then went
+directly to Dora's table and sat down.
+
+"Why, what are you doing here?" she gasped, in great surprise. "Don't
+you know that you may be _killed_?"
+
+"It's a risk that I must run," replied Locke. "But tell me--you tried to
+kill me once--why?"
+
+"Because I was a fool, controlled by my love for Paul Balcom--the beast!
+I hate him!"
+
+Dora drank viciously, then, with jealous venom, leaned over to Locke,
+and asked, "If that girl, Eva Brent, finds out about him, will she throw
+him over?"
+
+Locke played the game diplomatically, and apparently succeeded in
+further incensing Dora against her lover, for, suddenly she jumped up.
+
+"Meet me here in an hour. I'll have everything arranged to spoil Paul
+Balcom's game," she whispered, as she swept out of the cafe with
+demi-mondaine majesty.
+
+Locke was elated at the thought of having won so powerful an enemy to
+his side. But, had he heard Dora's remark to Paul as she met him around
+a convenient corner, his elation would have given way to caution.
+
+Paul eagerly questioned her with a glance as she approached.
+
+"Well, he fell for it," she announced, toughly, then added, "just as you
+fell for his dictagraph game with the girl."
+
+There was just a bit of jealousy yet in the tone of Dora. She was not
+yet convinced of her complete triumph over Eva.
+
+At the same time Locke left the cafe and entered a telephone-booth, from
+which he called up Eva.
+
+"Come to the Black Tom immediately," he said. "Dora is now on our side
+and we'll learn the truth, she promises."
+
+Eva at once started to get ready so that she would arrive at the time
+Locke had fixed, while he loitered in the neighborhood, waiting until
+the hour agreed upon with Dora was almost gone.
+
+Dora was already waiting for him outside the place when he returned to
+the Black Tom.
+
+"How is everything?" inquired Locke.
+
+"All arranged. You'll get Paul right."
+
+Just then a man slouched past.
+
+"Follow that fellow," whispered Dora.
+
+Locke nodded and did so.
+
+The man proceeded into the cafe and Locke followed. But instead of
+sitting down in the main room the man passed through into an inner room.
+Locke followed. He looked about. It seemed to be a sort of storeroom, as
+nearly as he could make out.
+
+His guide pressed a secret panel and, stepping through an aperture,
+beckoned Locke to follow. Locke drew his automatic and went ahead in the
+inky blackness that lay beyond the panel. The next moment the very floor
+under his feet seemed to give way. He felt himself thrown down bodily
+into a sort of subcellar.
+
+Locke was immediately pounced upon by lurking emissaries who seized him
+after a terrific battle and held him firmly.
+
+"Where's a rope?" growled one.
+
+There was no answer as the men struggled. The question was repeated.
+Apparently one of them looked about.
+
+"Use the wire," he growled.
+
+The questioner gave a grunt of brutal satisfaction. There in this
+storeroom lay a huge roll of barbed wire. Coil after coil of this barbed
+wire was wound about Locke as he struggled, but ever more feebly, for
+with each coil now the barbs began to cut cruelly into his flesh.
+
+Some one lighted a candle and by its light he saw many carboys of acid
+standing in a row.
+
+Directly behind them, so that there could be no doubt of the horrible
+fate in store for him, stood the Automaton.
+
+Already at the entrance to the Black Tom Cafe Eva's speedy runabout came
+to a stop. Dora was at the curb to meet her and was all winning smiles.
+
+Instinctively Eva shrank from this overdressed woman. But it had been
+Locke's desire that she come to this place, and she decided to follow
+the woman, for would it not lead to the unmasking of Paul, whom she
+hated?
+
+Once or twice on the descent into the cafe Eva hesitated, but was gently
+urged on by Dora.
+
+Eva was utterly disgusted by the flotsam and jetsam in human guise that
+she found sprawling at the tables, but she decided to brave the place.
+
+"Wait a moment and I'll get Mr. Locke," smiled Dora.
+
+For a moment, the better to blot out the distasteful scene, Eva closed
+her eyes.
+
+When she opened them again it was to look into the ferocious, bestial
+face of the giant emissary who, with fingers clutched like the talons of
+some foul bird, was reaching toward her to grasp her by the throat.
+
+In the noisome cellar Locke lay as though fascinated by the dread form
+that confronted him, as well as by its more dreadful purpose.
+
+The Automaton drew back its massive foot and deliberately kicked over
+one after another of the carboys.
+
+A pungent odor at once permeated the cellar air as the acid ate into the
+floor.
+
+Its purpose accomplished, the Automaton stalked toward Locke, and stood
+towering above him.
+
+Would it crush out Locke's life under its ponderous heel? Or would it
+leave him to a death more horrible?
+
+Like writhing serpents, the rivulets of seething, burning acid crept
+closer, closer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+The Automaton and its emissaries left the cellar. In the distance a door
+slammed and Locke was left to his terrible fate.
+
+Except for the gurgling of the flowing acid and the scampering of the
+rats all was silent.
+
+Locke tried to move. But the sharp barbs of the wire cut into his flesh,
+a torture to test the fortitude of a stoic.
+
+Moreover, Locke had barely recovered from the shock of his fall into the
+cellar. Thus for a few seconds that seemed to him to be ages he lay
+there watching the fiery death creep closer. Then the will to live
+surged through him and he struggled furiously to escape from the deadly
+path of the acid. Gone now was his flinching and shrinking as the sharp
+barbs lacerated his tender flesh. Gone was the calmness that denoted
+surrender and the acceptance of his fate.
+
+With bunching muscles he writhed inch by inch to one side, out of the
+path of the flow of the acid. He was just in time, for, at his last
+mighty effort, the consuming fluid flowed past, not an inch from his
+face.
+
+To extricate himself from the coils of the wire was a slow and painful
+task. Wounded with a hundred wounds, with each movement of his body
+adding a further injury, many times Locke was forced to desist in his
+efforts to free himself. However, he persisted, though, strong man that
+he was, the tears of agony burned his eyes and beads of cold sweat stood
+on his brow even before the first coil was loosened.
+
+He could not, even to save his own life, have persisted in this
+self-inflicted torture had it not been for the thought of Eva hurrying
+to this dreadful den. That thought almost drove him mad and spurred him
+to furious effort.
+
+It was well that it did. For at this very moment the beastly emissary in
+the cafe above was closing in on her.
+
+Locke gave a final heave and tugged at the last strands of the wire that
+held him prisoner. His clothes ripped to tatters and his flesh torn and
+lacerated, he at last stood free.
+
+Without an instant's pause he collected packing-cases and even barrels.
+He stacked them one upon the other, pyramiding them under the trap-door
+through which he had fallen into the cellar. Then he climbed upon them,
+leaped, and tried to grasp the edge of the floor above him, but fell
+short and came tumbling down amid the boxes and barrels, only to start
+stacking them up all over again.
+
+Finally he managed to grasp the edge of the floor with one hand and draw
+himself up. For a few moments he lay panting on the floor, then groped
+for the panel through which he had entered not half an hour before. It
+was locked, but a shrewd kick above the lock opened it to him and he
+rushed through the storeroom and out into the now brilliantly lighted
+cafe.
+
+He was barely in time.
+
+The emissary already had Eva in his grasp and was choking her into
+unconsciousness. The foul habitues of the resort, far from aiding the
+poor girl, seemed for the first time that day to be showing interest and
+to be thoroughly enjoying the brutal sight.
+
+With a shout Locke charged. His right swing landed just behind the
+emissary's ear and the man dropped, pulling Eva down with him. But Locke
+had her up and behind him in a second.
+
+Three other emissaries appeared as though by magic and attacked him on
+all sides.
+
+Locke's automatic had been lost when he fell into the cellar.
+Consequently he grabbed up one of the cafe chairs, which he wielded like
+a club.
+
+One emissary had worked around until he was at one side of Locke and
+almost behind him, a blackjack raised in his hand. But Eva warned Locke
+in time. Whirling about, he made a full swing with the chair and caught
+the emissary full in the face with it. The man went down and stayed
+down.
+
+"Run quick as you can," panted Locke to Eva. "Get the car started."
+
+She was reluctant to leave him, and Locke saw that delay was dangerous.
+He hurled what remained of the chair into the faces of the last two
+emissaries, then turned and rushed up the steps, carrying Eva along with
+him.
+
+A whir of the starter, the throbbing of the engine as the gas in the
+cylinders ignited, and they were streaking toward Brent Rock, safe.
+
+In a still fashionable, but older, part of the town, the elder Balcom
+had his quarters. They were spacious and furnished in Oriental style,
+with many a suggestion of the Indian Ocean.
+
+Balcom was evidently annoyed, and seriously so. He was striding up and
+down the apartment, scowling and puffing furiously at a black cigar. In
+his hand was a letter, and from time to time he halted and glanced at
+it, then fell back to his quick walking again, while a sinister light
+came into his eyes. Yet the contents of the note were hardly such as
+would have seemed likely to cause a man of honest purpose any agitation.
+
+  MR. HERBERT BALCOM,
+
+  International Patents, Inc.
+
+  DEAR SIR,--A special meeting of the executive board of
+  International Patents, Inc., will be called at Brent Rock
+  this afternoon to determine the future policies of this company.
+
+  [Signed] EVA BRENT.
+
+Balcom had read the notice for the tenth time when a negro servant
+entered and announced that his son Paul wished to see him.
+
+"Show him in--then," growled Balcom to the servant.
+
+Paul entered. He was evidently somewhat chagrined and crestfallen. Nor
+did his father's next words tend to cheer him up.
+
+"I suppose you'll acknowledge that you've made a miserable mess of it,"
+accused the older man. "When will you stop mixing women with business?"
+
+Paul was silent. Indeed there was nothing that he could say.
+
+"And now look at this note," pursued Balcom, in growing rage. "It brings
+things to a head. What can we do?"
+
+He thrust the note at Paul, who read it. Balcom himself reread it,
+crumpled it in anger, tore it, and threw the pieces in violence on the
+floor.
+
+This time it was to be Paul who was to formulate a plan. It was of such
+a dark and criminal nature that even Herbert Balcom, hardened as he was
+himself, was for the moment appalled at his son's temerity. But as he
+listened to Paul's words they fascinated him and he leaned forward the
+better to take in the scheme.
+
+As Paul and his father planned, it seemed that here was power unlimited,
+wealth beyond all counting and without the possibility of discovery.
+For, like most men of his caliber, the approbation of the community was
+dear to Balcom.
+
+"Good, Paul!" approved Balcom. "Go to it at once."
+
+Paul looked keenly at his father.
+
+"Haven't you anything to add?"
+
+"No, I have nothing to advise. The scheme is perfect, and as you
+conceived it you can also execute it. The best of luck to you, my boy."
+
+A few moments later Paul went out, his dark face beaming at being
+reinstated in his father's good graces. He was full of his plan.
+
+Down in one of the city's worst sections and near the river-front there
+stood an old ramshackle building. Why it had not been condemned by the
+building inspectors was a mystery. But it stood in all its squalid
+ugliness. The door and the windows were locked and shuttered. One could
+see at a glance that the building had been long unused.
+
+There was an alley strewn with tin cans and other refuse leading to the
+back of the house, and it was down a flight of broken brick steps that
+Old Meg, the fortune-teller, had her den where through the superstitions
+of those inhabiting the neighborhood she managed to eke out a miserable
+existence. The interior of the den was unspeakably filthy. The furniture
+consisted of a broken-down couch, a chest of drawers in a like
+condition, a card-table, a few kitchen chairs, and some boxes. Most of
+the panes in the windows had been broken and the empty spaces had been
+covered with old newspapers. Consequently, a candle thrust into an old
+wine-bottle supplied the only real light.
+
+At the table, idly shuffling a pack of grimy cards, sat Old Meg, a
+horrible old hag, wrinkled in face like a mummy, with only the stumps of
+teeth which had more the appearance of tusks. Her unkempt hair was
+matted and ugly wisps of it hung down over her bleary eyes. For clothes
+she wore an old-fashioned faded gingham wrapper and around her shoulders
+a dirty torn shawl. On her feet was a pair of man's shoes, many sizes
+too large, which had evidently been cast away as useless by some former
+owner, himself squalid. These she managed to keep on by tying the tops
+with wrapping-cord. A more unlovely human being it would have been hard
+to find in all the great city. There she sat, crooning a ballad to
+herself in a high, cracked voice. It sounded like an incantation.
+
+A step sounded in the alley and Old Meg looked up and listened intently.
+The sound came nearer. She got up and retreated into a dark corner, for
+she knew the neighborhood well, and many a time some thug, brutal with
+drink, had entered her den and wrung her last few pennies from her.
+
+But it was no inhabitant of this quarter of the town who entered this
+time. It was Paul Balcom.
+
+The hag grinned in a horrible way at him, for it was not unusual for
+people of his kind to visit her and it always meant money. With her
+apron she dusted off the chair that stood at the table and begged him to
+be seated. Then she shuffled the cards and cut, shuffled and cut, and
+then as though at last satisfied she laid them face downward on the
+table and spoke.
+
+"Wish, my handsome gentleman, and may your wish come true."
+
+"Go ahead with the hocus-pocus," growled Paul.
+
+Mother Meg picked up one card after another and her cracked voice was
+evidently following a set formula.
+
+"If the queen of spades comes between the king of clubs and the queen of
+hearts--"
+
+Paul listened with a strained intentness as the hag singsonged on and
+on. Then a look of satisfaction came into his eyes and he smiled
+happily. Next his look changed to a nasty look of determination, and he
+abruptly got up, tossing a bank-note on the table which Old Meg grabbed
+with avidity, calling down Heaven's blessings on the handsome gentleman
+until Paul, running up-stairs, could hear no more.
+
+Paul returned immediately to his father's apartment, where Balcom was
+impatiently waiting for him. He described minutely Old Meg, her
+eagerness for money, and the squalid quarters in which she lived. The
+elder Balcom seemed satisfied and they left the apartment together.
+
+"Paul," directed Balcom, "get out to Brent Rock as soon as you can while
+I make arrangements with this Old Meg."
+
+Balcom stepped into his own car, while Paul hailed a taxicab, and a few
+minutes later Balcom alighted before the house of Old Meg. He walked
+down the alley and descended into the den.
+
+As before, Meg was in hiding in a dark corner until she could ascertain
+just who her visitor might be. Seeing Balcom, she came out and
+courtesied and scraped as she had for Paul.
+
+Balcom announced the object of his visit immediately, and while he was
+speaking he fingered a roll of bills which he had taken from his pocket
+the better to arouse the old hag's avariciousness.
+
+It had the desired effect and her eyes fairly gleamed with the craving
+of possession.
+
+"Do as I tell you, Meg," directed Balcom, "and I'll make you rich. Do
+you understand? Rich!" he emphasized, rolling out the last word silkily
+on his tongue.
+
+Old Meg's last scruples, had she ever had even one, fell before this
+temptation and she became almost the slave of Balcom.
+
+Balcom now gave a command and the old hag sidled to the door of an inner
+room.
+
+"Jimmy! Jimmy!" she called. "Come here to me."
+
+In a moment a boy slunk into the room. He was sharp-faced, pinched for
+food, and in tatters, as disreputable-looking as the hag herself. Meg
+whispered something to him, and, as though galvanized by an electric
+current, the boy shot up-stairs. He was soon back again with two
+brutal-looking men who looked suspiciously at Balcom and then shuffled
+into a corner, where they conferred eagerly with Old Meg.
+
+At first it was plain to be seen that they were refusing to do her
+bidding, but Meg made a movement as though she were counting money.
+After that it was equally plain that they agreed.
+
+Meg sidled over to Balcom and he unwrapped a few bills of large
+denomination and handed them to her. She immediately hid them in her
+dress, with many a furtive look toward her accomplices.
+
+Balcom's eyes followed those of the old hag, and, realizing that his
+whole conspiracy might fail unless the men were assured of further
+reward on the completion of their task, he approached them smoothly.
+
+"Of course," he insinuated, "you understand that if you three follow
+instructions to the letter I'll double that amount." Then he left the
+place, brushing his coat with his handkerchief as he did so. "Brent
+Rock," he said to his chauffeur, curtly, as he stepped into his car.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+Eva and Locke were seated at a long table in the library of Eva's home.
+Before them were many ledgers of International Patents, Incorporated.
+Eva was reading certain entries in the books, while Locke was making
+notes to be used at the coming directors' meeting.
+
+Eva closed the ledger from which she had been reading and announced, "I
+intend, at the meeting, to insist that the patents held in the Graveyard
+of Genius be released to the world."
+
+"It is the only honorable thing to do," agreed Locke. "You will
+undoubtedly meet with violent opposition from Balcom and some few who
+owe their fortunes to him, but in the end you will win."
+
+"If we could only have found the antidote," sighed Eva, "and my father
+could only be again in control of things."
+
+"All we can do is to act as we think he would have acted if he were in
+control," soothed Locke.
+
+"May I speak to you a moment, Mr. Locke?" interrupted a voice.
+
+It was Zita who had entered noiselessly and now stood well within the
+room.
+
+How long had she been there? How much had she overheard? Both Eva and
+Quentin exchanged worried glances.
+
+Locke rose and went over to Zita, who spoke to him in a whispered
+undertone.
+
+The matter was so trivial that it hardly warranted her intrusion. Locke
+was puzzled. But he was a man and, therefore, did not understand. For,
+as Zita continued, there was a world of longing in her eyes. She even
+went so far as to finger the lapel of his coat.
+
+Eva understood only too well, and her face crimsoned. She bit her lips,
+and in vexation at Zita her finger-nails pressed into her palms. Paul's
+entrance at this moment was a distinct relief, much as she despised the
+man.
+
+"What's all the fuss about?" he inquired.
+
+Paul had a gaiety of manner that he could slip on like a coat, and it
+was this quality that made him dangerous. He was popular and attractive.
+
+Paul took Eva's hand and managed to hold it just the fraction of a
+second longer than was necessary to convey friendship. Then Eva withdrew
+her hand, but not before Locke saw it and scowled.
+
+It was not long before the elder Balcom also arrived.
+
+"Good afternoon, my children," he greeted, jovially. "I'm just a bit
+ahead of time, I imagine. But why you children don't leave dry matters
+of business to us older heads I'm blessed if I know."
+
+"Mr. Balcom," retorted Eva, keenly, "the older head that would protect
+my interests and the interests of those poor inventors lies stricken, as
+you know, in the room above. In his absence the children, as you are
+pleased to call us, will do their best."
+
+Balcom glared, while Zita with a strange glance toward Eva left Locke
+and joined Balcom in a far corner of the room.
+
+"Zita," Balcom whispered, "the time has arrived to take you out of this
+false position."
+
+Zita trembled with suppressed excitement as she heard this, and followed
+Balcom back toward the table, where the others were already seating
+themselves.
+
+It was approaching the hour, when Eva rose and was about to speak.
+Balcom motioned and stopped her with a gesture.
+
+"One moment, please, Miss Brent," he interrupted. "Before the others
+arrive I am going to establish Zita's real position in this house."
+
+All at the table looked at one another in openly expressed astonishment.
+Zita, with eyes cast down, hands clasped in her lap, seemed almost
+demure, though about her mouth played a faint smile.
+
+Even Paul did not understand this phase of the conspiracy and looked at
+his father as much as to say, "I wonder what the old man is up to now?"
+
+Locke was the first to recover his coolness. "Just what, Mr. Balcom, do
+you mean?" he asked.
+
+"I mean--" began Balcom, then stopped. "But first I will produce a
+witness who can vouch for all the facts which I am about to relate."
+
+Balcom went to the door and opened it. There, bobbing her head and
+smirking mechanically, stood that loathsome creature, Old Meg. In these
+rich surroundings her frightful squalor was all the more accentuated.
+Those at the table drew back in utter disgust as she tottered into the
+room. As she passed Zita she paused.
+
+"I held you in these arms when you were but a wee baby," she muttered,
+hideously.
+
+Zita drew away from her and looked at Balcom questioningly. Balcom now
+leaned far over the table and spoke impressively.
+
+"Twenty years ago Brent was secretly married to his secretary. There was
+a child. But Brent craved money, and power that the money would bring.
+Saddled with a wife and child, he was barred from his ambition, which
+was to marry some rich woman. So he made a hell on earth for his wife
+until, in desperation, she consented to an annulment of their marriage."
+
+The room was breathlessly quiet as Balcom continued.
+
+"Years passed and then his conscience smote him. He made his own child
+his secretary." Then he turned to Zita, pointing at her. "There she
+sits," he exclaimed, "and half of the voting power of this company
+belongs to her--Zita Brent, Zita Dane _Brent_."
+
+Instantly Locke was on his feet.
+
+"Balcom, you lie!" he rasped.
+
+"Lie or no lie," retorted Balcom, "as vice-president of the company I
+refuse to permit any action to be taken until Zita's position is legally
+established."
+
+Locke turned to Eva. "Miss Brent," he asked, with a bow, "may I speak
+for you?"
+
+Eva nodded.
+
+"Then, Balcom," remarked Locke, "we shall carry the proposed motion over
+your head. You cannot produce sufficient proofs to retard our action."
+
+"My protests," sneered Balcom, as he strode toward the door, "will be
+entered in the minutes of this meeting."
+
+Zita, in the excitement, had already disappeared. Paul bowed to Eva and
+Locke mockingly and followed his father.
+
+Old Meg squeezed herself against the walls of the library and was trying
+to get out of the room without being detected. But Locke was too alert
+for her and caught her by the shoulder, detaining her. She tried to
+fight him off with her feeble arms. Again and again he tried to question
+her.
+
+"The story is true, I tell you, gospel true," Meg repeated over and over
+again.
+
+Locke let her go and she started toward the door. Then the habit of a
+lifetime overcame her and she turned.
+
+"If you would know the truth, my pretty," she croaked at Eva, "come to
+Old Meg." Then she hobbled out.
+
+Eva was naturally perturbed, although Locke tried to comfort her. Yet
+she could not forget what had happened between him and Zita just before
+the meeting, and, woman-like, she now held aloof.
+
+"Eva," pleaded Locke, "won't you trust me? Things are in such a critical
+state that we must not have any misunderstanding."
+
+But Eva merely tossed her pretty head. "I don't care for Zita or her
+actions," she replied, petulantly.
+
+Locke diplomatically changed the subject. "I believe," he said, slowly,
+"that that old hag is in the pay of either Paul or his father, and I
+mean to find out which it is."
+
+Locke had started across the hallway when Eva called him back.
+
+"Quentin," she said, earnestly, "I trust you--absolutely." Then she hid
+her face in her hands and almost ran into the dining-room.
+
+Had she been a moment sooner she would have caught that mysterious
+person, Doctor Q, who had entered the house some time before, and, on
+overhearing heated words coming from the library, had remained with his
+ear glued to the keyhole, absorbing every word that was said until
+Balcom left. But he had shuffled away before she ran in.
+
+Back in Old Meg's den some time later the little gutter rat who, a few
+hours before, had brought the two thugs back to Balcom and Old Meg was
+coiled up in a corner, asleep.
+
+With light footsteps that did not awaken the sleeping boy, a strange
+little figure now came scurrying down the brick stairs. The figure
+hesitated a moment, then entered the foul den.
+
+In tatters, like the sleeping street gamin, this other boy still had
+something winsome, something elusively handsome, about him, a certain
+refinement of features. However, a black patch over one eye showed that
+this gamin was manly enough, evidently, when it came to fighting. He
+stirred the sleeping boy with his foot, and the boy, cursing volubly and
+beyond his years, roused himself.
+
+They talked excitedly in whispers and the boy who had just entered gave
+the street arab some money. Then together they tiptoed into the other
+room and down a flight of rickety steps into the cellar. This cellar
+connected with another cellar of large size that was used as a
+storehouse.
+
+The boys barely spoke and, when it was necessary, only in whispers. They
+came to a pile of cotton bales, found a convenient space between the
+bales, crawled in, and lay still.
+
+Night was coming fast as the hag, trailed by Locke, left Brent Rock. She
+walked fast for so old a woman, but, finally, coming to a street-car
+line, she took the first car that came along. Locke had had the
+foresight to have himself followed by one of the numerous Brent cars and
+so was able to keep the street-car in sight until the old woman alighted
+in her squalid quarter of town. Locke got out of his machine and
+followed her on foot, keeping close to the walls of the buildings to
+avoid having her see him.
+
+Old Meg turned the corner that ran alongside her dwelling, and there,
+for the first time, gave an indication that she was aware that she was
+being followed. She chuckled to herself, gave a few stumbling capers
+which might have been an imitation of a dance step, then waved her hand.
+Was it a signal?
+
+Locke was never to reach the alley. Old Meg had whipped around the
+corner so quickly that for a moment he was puzzled as to just where she
+had disappeared. He stopped with his back half turned to a flight of
+stairs leading down to the cellar entrance of a big warehouse. Suddenly
+he was sent stumbling forward to his knees, half dazed by a treacherous
+blow dealt from behind.
+
+He was up again in an instant and was defending himself from the attack
+of half a dozen thugs. He put up a splendid fight, but the odds were too
+great, and in a few minutes he was down on the ground, unconscious and
+bound.
+
+The emissaries of the Automaton, for such they were, carried him down
+the steps and into the warehouse cellar.
+
+Already, on leaving Brent Rock, Paul Balcom had not been idle. He had
+been immediately driven to a telegraph-office, where, after having used
+nearly an entire pad of blanks, he succeeded in composing the following
+message:
+
+  DEAREST QUENTIN,--Have proofs that Old Meg spoke the
+  truth. Meet me immediately at her place.
+
+  ZITA.
+
+The message was addressed to Locke at Brent Rock and was marked
+"Important."
+
+"That ought to fetch her!" muttered Paul, as he left the office.
+
+Twenty minutes or so later the telegram was delivered to the butler at
+Brent Rock, who brought it at once to Eva.
+
+At first she was loath to open a message addressed to some one else. But
+Quentin's affairs and her own were so intertwined by this time that she
+felt that the telegram would, in all probability, concern her as well as
+Locke. She tore it open.
+
+"Dearest Quentin," she read and for a minute could get no farther, for
+it seemed as if a mist had formed before her eyes. She clutched at the
+balustrade. Then pride, jealousy, and a certain anger surged up within
+her and she finished reading the telegram.
+
+Eva was in a quandary what to do. She paced up and down the hallway,
+biting her lips and repressing the tears.
+
+Could it be possible, after all, that Locke was faithless? Was this the
+man who had been so kind, who had saved her from a thousand dangers? At
+any rate, she would find out once and for all.
+
+Faint and heart-sick, she gave orders to have her runabout brought
+around. It was a long drive from Brent Rock, but Eva's fast speedster
+covered the ground quickly. Twice policemen tried to stop her and,
+failing, probably took the number of her car. Nothing could deter her.
+And, as the cool evening wind lashed her face, faith in Locke revived
+and the suspicion came that she might be rushing into danger. But no
+thought of herself entered her mind as she stepped on the accelerator
+and the car shot forward. Her single thought was of speed, more speed,
+to get to Locke quickly.
+
+She was appalled at the squalor of the neighborhood in which she finally
+found herself. Disgusted and revolted at the filth of Old Meg's abode,
+still not for an instant did she falter or hesitate. She ran down the
+steps to Old Meg's home.
+
+The old hag was evidently awaiting her, for this time she did not hide
+at the sound of approaching footsteps, but came forward, courtesying and
+mumbling greetings, while her eyes gleamed with a satisfaction that was
+positively hellish.
+
+"Mr. Locke--where is he?" Eva gasped.
+
+"All in good time, my pretty, all in good time," mumbled the hag.
+"You're to wait for him here."
+
+But Eva insisted on seeing Locke at once and the old hag lied volubly.
+He had been here, and had stepped out for a moment. No, she did not know
+where--to get a cigar, maybe. Would the pretty lady hear her fortune
+told while she waited?
+
+As there was apparently nothing that she could do until Locke returned,
+Eva sat at the card-table while Old Meg droned her old fortune-telling
+rigamarole.
+
+In spite of her growing fear and agitation Eva became interested. There
+was something calming in the monotonous voice of the old crone.
+
+"When the queen of spades comes between the jack of hearts and the king
+of diamonds and the--a--the--"
+
+A door directly behind Eva silently and slowly opened. Stealthily a
+boy's head was thrust out. On the young face was a world of deadly
+hatred. As the sputtering candle burned brighter for a moment,
+startlingly, a vague change was noticeable in the lineaments of the
+features.
+
+It was the same gamin who had given the sleeping boy money. But now, in
+the candle-light, with only the head showing, it was no boy who glared
+malevolently at Eva, but a woman--and that woman was the implacable
+Zita!
+
+The head disappeared to give place to the visages of two
+horrible-looking men, the same brutes who were present when Balcom had
+spread the net of his conspiracy.
+
+"When the jack of clubs," droned the witch, "and the--"
+
+With barely a sound the two thugs entered the room behind Eva. In the
+hand of one was an old gunny sack.
+
+"--and the queen of hearts--"
+
+Eva was so interested now that she leaned far over the table, her eyes
+fastened on the cards as they fell.
+
+A thug stumbled. Eva, startled, sat back quickly and tried to rise. But
+the next instant she felt herself struggling in the heavy folds of the
+grimy gunny sack.
+
+The emissaries, carrying Locke, had staggered with their burden into the
+warehouse cellar until, coming to a closed door, one of them rapped on
+it in a peculiar manner that was evidently a signal. An instant, and the
+door opened.
+
+Through it stalked the Automaton.
+
+The monster gazed intently at Locke as though to determine whether it
+were indeed he, then waved the emissaries on to the shaft of a huge
+freight elevator.
+
+In the shaft, directly under the elevator platform, they now cast
+Locke's unconscious body.
+
+"Are you sure the watchman's still up above?" asked one.
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Then give a ring for the basement."
+
+A thug pressed the button that signaled. In a moment, creaking and
+groaning, the massive elevator started to descend.
+
+A shuffling of feet was heard and down the stairs leading from Old Meg's
+quarters came the two thugs carrying Eva. A few feet behind them, still
+in boy's clothes, was Zita.
+
+The jar to his body as the emissaries threw him on the concrete floor
+had tended to bring Locke back to consciousness. For a moment he lay
+still. Then the sound of the descending elevator attracted his
+attention. He gazed upward and dimly saw the slowly moving platform. In
+a flash he realized his danger.
+
+Locke struggled fiercely to dislodge his bonds. He contorted his body,
+expanded his powerful chest in an effort to break the ropes that held
+him a prisoner.
+
+At this moment the thugs that were carrying Eva passed by, followed by
+others. Apparently they took no notice of him, but continued on their
+way with the helpless girl.
+
+Locke, his own danger forgotten, became frantic with apprehension for
+her and tore savagely at the restraining ropes.
+
+Zita stopped. Her face was a study of conflicting emotions as she saw
+Locke struggling at the bottom of the shaft.
+
+Floor by floor, inch by inch, the enormous elevator, that would crush
+out Locke's life as though he were an insect, continued to descend.
+
+Zita stepped to an electric switch. That switch would stop the elevator
+immediately and save Locke's life.
+
+She raised her hand--and then, looking after the retreating thugs and
+emissaries, she saw Eva again. Zita's lips formed a cruel line and a
+flinty hardness came into her eyes.
+
+Her hand dropped.
+
+There were only a few feet between Locke and the descending elevator.
+Locke was struggling frenziedly to escape and rescue Eva.
+
+Zita's hand went out again and grasped the handle of the switch.
+
+She hesitated, hate on her face.
+
+Would she, for love of Locke, who had not returned her love, save him?
+
+Could she bring herself to save this man--for a woman she hated, who had
+won him from her?
+
+If she saved him it would be only to lose him to the other woman.
+
+With a great creaking the massive elevator was within only a few short
+inches of Locke.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+Every fiber of Zita's body was galvanized into action as she threw the
+whole weight of her body against the elevator emergency-control switch.
+
+There was a sputtering of blue flame as the connection was made, and
+Zita closed her eyes. With a shudder she heard the great elevator strike
+the cellar floor and then rebound.
+
+She dared not open her eyes. The last thing that she had seen was Locke
+struggling frantically to escape from under the elevator that was only a
+few inches above him and seemed destined to crush out his life.
+
+Slowly, fearfully, she opened her eyes. Locke's body lay motionless at
+her feet, separated almost literally by only the breadth of a hair from
+the shaft.
+
+The relief, the reaction from her terrible emotions, made Zita half
+hysterical. Trembling in every limb, she made her way to Locke and fell
+on her knees by him. She wrapped her arms about him and held his head
+up.
+
+It was thus that she was holding him when his eyes slowly opened and
+gazed questioningly into her own, his brow knitted in perplexity.
+
+Then, with a rush, it all came back to him--the descending elevator,
+Zita standing at the switch, while his life hung in the balance, his
+last frantic effort to escape just before the descending elevator had
+grazed his head, rendering him unconscious. That Zita, at the last
+moment, had attempted to save his life he did not know, nor why she now
+gazed at him frankly with eyes of love.
+
+It was all inexplicable to him.
+
+Another instant and he had wrenched himself loose from Zita's arms and
+was struggling with the ropes that still bound him even after he had
+managed to roll out from under the elevator in the last nick of time.
+
+He had suddenly realized that the sight of Eva being carried off by the
+emissaries had not been a hideous dream, but a terrible actuality, and
+that at this very moment she was probably in the most imminent danger.
+
+Zita realized that he wanted freedom to rush to Eva's assistance. Had
+she dared, she would have refused to release him from her arms, would at
+least have hindered his untying his bonds. But there was a masterful
+something about his silent demand to be released that would admit of no
+refusal.
+
+In a few seconds Locke completed the freeing of himself and was dashing
+madly toward the door through which the gang, carrying Eva, had passed.
+
+The door was unlocked, and, hesitating not an instant, Quentin dashed
+through and into a large room.
+
+Eva, the gunny sack removed and still unconscious, lay on the floor. The
+emissaries were grouped around her. In the background, dimly visible,
+stood the iron monster.
+
+Startled, they looked up as Locke rushed into the room. But before they
+could do more, Locke had whipped out his automatic and, point-blank, was
+blazing away at the murderous crew. Two emissaries fell dead or mortally
+wounded. The others scattered.
+
+Only the Automaton, man of iron that he was, showed no sign of fear.
+Instead, he advanced ponderously upon Locke.
+
+The automatic barked again, but did not succeed in deterring the
+monster. Locke realized the futility of using this puny weapon against
+such a foe.
+
+He dashed toward Eva. It was the work of only an instant to snatch her
+up, practically from under the monster's feet, to turn, and to carry her
+through the door by which he had been brought in. Holding her in one
+arm, he slammed the door shut and shot the bolt.
+
+He was just in time, for the next instant the door bulged out beneath
+the dead weight of the Automaton as it hurled its massive form against
+the other side.
+
+Zita vas still waiting at the elevator shaft when Locke, carrying Eva in
+his arms, entered. At the sight Zita's whole body expressed her
+unquenched hatred of the unconscious girl. Her eyes narrowed, her lips
+became livid, and her hands clenched as though she would like to strike
+the helpless Eva.
+
+"Zita," demanded Locke, suspiciously, "why did you hesitate to save my
+life?"
+
+"Because," she replied--and her voice indicated the force of her answer
+whether it were really the truth or not--"I love you, and would not save
+you--for _her_."
+
+Zita turned and ran up the stairs leading to Old Meg's as Locke turned
+to try to revive Eva.
+
+But the hammer blows of the monster resounded throughout the cellar. At
+any moment the door might come crashing down and Locke and Eva might
+again be at the mercy of the iron fiend.
+
+Locke caught up Eva in his arms again and, groping, sought the exit of
+the warehouse.
+
+He dared not follow Zita through Old Meg's den. Love that could for any
+reason hesitate or injure the one loved was incomprehensible to him. He
+felt that the hag's den might now be but an ambush and that Zita might
+have run ahead to warn the uninjured emissaries of his coming.
+
+By a lucky chance he found the path leading directly to the warehouse
+steps and the street. Eva's speedster had not been moved or tampered
+with and he placed Eva gently in the seat, climbed in, and started the
+motor. As he did so three emissaries came running out of the alley
+leading to Old Meg's. But shooting the gears into high speed, Locke
+easily evaded them and turned up the first corner.
+
+He was going to take Eva to the first doctor's or a drug-store, but it
+proved not to be necessary. The rush of the air as the car moved rapidly
+revived her, and in a few moments she was quite herself again, eagerly
+questioning him about her rescue.
+
+Although they were thankful for their escape, still they could not blind
+themselves to the fact that all their efforts had been in vain, that
+they stood no nearer to their great desire, and that, at least until
+now, their enemies had proved too wily and too strong for them.
+
+But they were young, courageous, and resourceful, and as they drew up
+before Brent Rock they were busily engaged with plans for the future.
+
+It was the following afternoon in the Chinese quarter. The Celestials
+were celebrating one of their numerous feasts. Long multicolored banners
+and streamers were hanging from every window and balcony and were even
+strung across the narrow street, almost brushing the faces of the motley
+throng that passed beneath. Tom-toms and cymbals beat and clashed, while
+from the Chinese theater came the shrill piping of reeds and the
+high-pitched chanting voices of Chinamen.
+
+Street venders cried their wares and the windows of the Oriental shops
+were gaily bedecked for the holiday.
+
+Through the dense happy throng a man made his way. He, too, was an
+Oriental, but of a different race. A giant in size, he calmly pushed and
+shoved the smaller Celestials out of his path, and, although they
+chattered angrily at him, their resentment went no farther, for his size
+and the menace of his swarthy face made them pause.
+
+Before the entrance of a curio-shop he halted and consulted a card.
+Then, satisfied that he had found his destination, he picked up a wicker
+carrying-case that for the moment he had placed on the curb and entered
+the shop.
+
+A Chinaman stepped forward, scrutinized him closely, and, nodding
+significantly, bade the new-comer follow him.
+
+They went to the back of the shop. The Chinese clapped his hands, and a
+panel in the wall slid back, disclosing a stairway. The new-comer
+stepped through the aperture and the panel closed behind him. He mounted
+the stairs and came to a room, magnificent in its Oriental splendor.
+
+Priceless rugs covered the floor and walls, while on wonderfully carved
+teakwood stands reposed ancient porcelains, specimens of bygone
+dynasties, antique arms and armor cunningly wrought, jades and ivories
+marvelously fashioned by master craftsmen long since dead. Seen through
+the filmy haze of rising incense, the room was a veritable
+treasure-house of Oriental art.
+
+On low settees a few richly clad Chinese were reclining, and in a far
+corner, gazing intently into a globe of crystal, sat a man of the same
+race as the new-comer, a Madagascan.
+
+Startled at the entrance of the giant, he left off his shadow-gazing and
+came hastily forward, cringing as he did so.
+
+The giant, in an impressive, booming voice, now spoke for the first
+time.
+
+"I, the Strangler, have come from Madagascar with the Great Torture."
+
+A door opened and Doctor Q entered the room, his head wagging from side
+to side.
+
+As he caught sight of the Madagascan he stopped short and put his hand
+to his head with a gesture of perplexity, striving piteously to place
+the stranger. He could not succeed. With a half-running, half-stumbling
+gait he withdrew to a corner of the room and furtively watched the two
+Madagascans.
+
+There came the sound of a gong. A panel slid back, and into the room
+there majestically swept a Chinaman of pure Mongolian type.
+
+He was gorgeously clad in flowing silks and wore the princely cap with a
+button. At a glance his piercing eye took in every detail of the room.
+Then he went directly to the Madagascan, whose overbearing air of
+assurance immediately forsook him at the Chinaman's approach.
+
+He bowed low and reverently, for it was Long Fang to whom he made
+obeisance, Long Fang, leader of a great Tong, and implacable foe to all
+others, a Chinese whose tentacles of power reached into every corner of
+the underworld, spreading terror.
+
+In an incisive, icy voice that sent a chill through the big man's frame,
+he now spoke.
+
+"You have been overlong on your journey and we have been waiting for
+you." Then with a menace in his voice he snarled, "It is well for you
+that you came at last."
+
+The big man shuddered and remained silent. Long Fang crossed to Doctor
+Q.
+
+"The instrument of torture is here," he said. "The Madagascan has just
+brought it. He is an unrivaled strangler."
+
+"Let him approach," commanded Doctor Q.
+
+Long Fang beckoned, and the Strangler came forward. His eyes had been
+fixed on the Chinese, but now they roved to the figure of Doctor Q, and
+he fell back in consternation, clutching the other Madagascan by the
+shoulder and gasping in awestruck tones.
+
+"In our country his magic is supreme!"
+
+With difficulty he controlled himself and bowed low, his forehead almost
+touching the floor. Then he looked away, cringing.
+
+"I see that you recognize me," Doctor Q chuckled, fiendishly. "Good! You
+will not be so foolish as to fail me."
+
+"No, no, master, I swear it by--"
+
+"Never mind your oath. My power is my guaranty. Go--follow Long Fang. He
+will direct you to the torture-chamber."
+
+Doctor Q turned on his heel and hobbled out of the room.
+
+Long Fang and the Strangler were about to proceed to the torture-chamber
+when footsteps were heard on the stairway that led to the curio-shop
+below. Long Fang and the Madagascan stopped and listened.
+
+Another moment and De Luxe Dora and Paul Balcom stepped into the room.
+With a curt command Paul called Long Fang to him and the Chinaman,
+important as he was, hastened to obey.
+
+What was this strange power that Paul, at will, could exercise
+throughout the underworld?
+
+With a few terse questions Paul ascertained the exact condition of
+affairs.
+
+"You say, Long Fang, that all is ready?"
+
+"All, master. We only awaited your coming."
+
+Then with a graceful gesture he asked, "Will you so far honor your
+humble servant?" as he indicated the way into another room.
+
+Dora, followed by Paul and the Chinese, stepped through the portal and
+came to a Chinese temple.
+
+It was a large room and the decorations, although equally well executed
+as those in the room they had just left, were actually terrifying.
+Flying dragons and serpents done in bronze hung from the ceiling, while
+on a raised dais at the farther end of the room was an enormous
+squatting figure of the seven-handed god. Before it, in braziers, fire
+gleamed, giving off a heavy, pungent odor that was almost overpowering
+to Occidental nostrils.
+
+On either side of the huge image hung silken curtains, in all
+probability covering doorways into yet other chambers.
+
+For the first time Dora showed signs of interest. With the shop and the
+first chamber she was already familiar, but this was something new,
+something to give the spur to her satiated, _blase_ nature. She moved
+about the place, fingering the rare tapestries, contemplating probably
+what gorgeous hangings they would make for her own apartment.
+
+Dora's preoccupation gave Long Fang his opportunity to confer with Paul
+alone and he moved closer to him.
+
+"Master," he nodded, "why not use the beautiful lady to lure the other
+one into our power?"
+
+Paul shook his head negatively. He knew that Eva was aware that Dora was
+her enemy.
+
+"But, master," persisted the Chinese, "you told me that this Miss Brent
+loves her father, and that she would do anything for his recovery. Let
+this lady tell her that the Madagascan has brought an antidote that will
+restore his reason. She will come here and we shall trap her."
+
+For a moment Paul stood in deep thought, then called to Dora.
+
+At first she laughed at the idea that Eva would even listen to her. But
+Dora was clever and conceited and in the end she agreed that at least
+she would make the attempt.
+
+At this moment in another quarter of town Paul's father was ready to
+leave his apartment, yet from his nervousness it could readily be seen
+that he was waiting for some one. A Madagascan servant entered and
+salaamed.
+
+"Master," he announced, "the Strangler has arrived from Madagascar."
+
+Balcom's face lighted up with intense satisfaction and cunning at the
+news. He waved the servant away, picked up his hat and stick, and
+hurried out.
+
+In the library at Brent Rock Eva and Locke were having an earnest
+conversation. Locke had on his motoring togs and was on the point of
+going out.
+
+"By elimination," he was saying, "I will prove that either Paul or his
+father is the Automaton. I am going to trap Paul."
+
+"Quentin," cautioned Eva, "for my sake be careful."
+
+Locke strove to quiet her fears, pointing out that his scheme was
+necessary in order to save her father, and in the end Eva reluctantly
+consented.
+
+She went with him to the porte-cochere where his car was already
+waiting.
+
+"Good luck!" she tried to call cheerfully, in spite of her misgivings.
+
+Long after his car had disappeared in the distance she stood there
+gazing after it, a world of anxiety in her eyes.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+Darkness had settled down upon Brent Rock, following the departure of
+Locke, when a trim runabout drew up under the porte-cochere and Dora
+stepped lightly out of it.
+
+She paused for a moment and looked about curiously. For some time she
+hesitated. In this house lived the girl whom in her heart Dora hated
+bitterly.
+
+What sort of reception might she expect? Yet Paul and his
+underworldlings had played on Dora's pride until they had prevailed on
+her to undertake the mission. As she looked about all her old assurance
+came back to her and Dora turned and approached the door boldly.
+
+Eva was just about to go up-stairs to her room when she heard the butler
+at the door and a woman's voice asking whether Miss Brent was at home.
+Eva paused a moment.
+
+There was evidently a slight altercation between the butler and the
+new-comer as the latter raised her voice sharply.
+
+"You will tell Miss Brent I must see her," reiterated Dora.
+
+There was a pause, during which the butler was heard to murmur
+something, and then the woman's voice was heard again.
+
+"Tell Miss Brent that if she refuses to see me she will regret it all
+her life."
+
+Eva was intensely interested now, for she recognized the voice of De
+Luxe Dora. But with her interest there came a feeling of repulsion with
+which this woman always inspired her, and her first impulse was to have
+Dora shown out of the house.
+
+The very nature of the danger with which they were all surrounded,
+however, prohibited such a drastic course. Yet how dare that woman enter
+Brent Rock?
+
+Still, the very fact of her so daring pointed to some serious matter
+which Eva felt she ought to know. At any rate, there could be no harm to
+listen to Dora's reason for coming, and there would probably be much to
+be learned.
+
+Eva called to the butler and he stepped aside, and Dora, all smiles now,
+and with her hand extended in greeting, advanced toward Eva, who ignored
+her extended hand.
+
+"Need I tell you," remarked Eva, coldly, "that I am astounded at your
+presumption in coming here?"
+
+"Miss Brent," replied Dora, "believe me, nothing but my present mission
+could have induced me to do so. There are wheels within wheels which
+have made it appear that I am your enemy. But that is far from being the
+truth, as my present mission to you will prove."
+
+Dora was clever and played her cards cleverly. However, Eva was on
+guard.
+
+"Please come to the point," she insisted. "Tell me exactly why you have
+come."
+
+Dora paused a moment, then replied, impressively, "I have come to save
+your father's life."
+
+Eva caught herself almost gasping in astonishment as Dora covertly
+watched the effect of her words. "You have the antidote, then?" asked
+Eva, breathlessly.
+
+"Not exactly that," replied Dora, quickly. "But I can take you where you
+can obtain it. A man has arrived from Madagascar who has it in his
+possession."
+
+"What shall I do?" almost wailed the poor girl. "How can I know that you
+speak the truth?"
+
+Dora's voice now assumed a cold decisiveness. "That is for you to
+decide," she said merely. "Refuse to come with me and your father will
+surely die of his madness. Consent--and he may live."
+
+Eva could hesitate no longer. Bidding Dora wait, she ran up the stairs,
+returning in a few moments garbed for the street.
+
+They left the house together, but not before the butler had
+surreptitiously slipped a large automatic into Eva's hand-bag.
+
+In the Chinese temple, or Joss-house, the last devotee had departed. The
+hanging lights had been dimmed and now the fantastic shapes with which
+the place was decorated, seen in the subdued light, stood out in all
+their shadowy weirdness.
+
+From the raised dais, the seven-handed god assumed an added majesty and
+awfulness, while, deep-seated as though from a smoldering caldron, two
+points of fire gleamed from the god's eyes with utmost malevolence.
+
+Slowly a panel in the wall slid back and the bestial visage of the
+Strangler peered out.
+
+After making sure that there was no one about, with noiseless tread he
+glided into the temple.
+
+Like a shadow, a second figure, that of a Chinaman, followed him. The
+two made a complete circuit of the temple, stopping now and again to
+examine some object which arrested their attention. Then, as if by a
+prearranged signal, they both prostrated themselves before the fire god.
+
+After making many obeisances they got to their feet and, as mysteriously
+as they entered, slipped away in the same manner that they had come. A
+panel closed behind them, but not the same panel.
+
+The inner room in which they now found themselves was divided by a
+partition that extended a few feet out into the temple room itself.
+
+This room was vividly painted with weird figures depicting Chinese forms
+of torture, a veritable charnel-house of what in Europe would be called
+the Dark Ages. There were plenty of evidences that at no very distant
+date this chamber had been in use to punish horribly those who had
+offended against the fire god or the commands of the Tong leaders.
+
+On one side of the partition was a large iron wheel to which was
+attached a rope extending through the partition and forming a loop or
+noose on the other side. The purpose of this device was only too
+apparent. Once the neck of a victim was in the noose, a few turns of the
+wheel, the noose would tighten, and the victim would be inevitably
+strangled to death. In a slightly changed form it was the
+garroting-machine of old Spain.
+
+The Strangler tested the rope, twisted the wheel, while his companion
+occupied himself by watching the effect of the wheel on the noose on the
+other side of the partition.
+
+Apparently satisfied that the machine was in good working order, the
+Madagascan straightened up and waved his companion out of the room.
+
+The Chinaman returned by means of the sliding panel into the temple
+again.
+
+As she left Brent Rock behind, Eva's fears increased. Speeding through
+the night with this woman whom she instinctively dreaded, whom she had
+every reason to distrust, many times on the trip Eva wished herself back
+at her home.
+
+On the other hand, to remain inactive while there was a chance to save
+her father's life was unthinkable. And so, for his sake, she kept on and
+the car sped ahead.
+
+Dora, on the contrary, anxious to allay Eva's fears, was very voluble,
+expressing many sentiments which even to a young girl of little worldly
+experience were palpably at variance with the woman's character.
+
+In and out of the narrow streets of the city's lower quarter the car
+twisted and turned, and at last entered gaily decked Chinatown, where it
+came to a halt.
+
+If Eva was afraid before she was now doubly so. The strange Oriental
+faces which seemed to leer at her from street and curb seemed to be
+almost of another world, and she thought of the many tales she had
+heard, of their treachery and cunning.
+
+Dora, sensing what was passing through her mind, kept up a patter of
+small talk as she urged Eva forward.
+
+By another entrance than the one that led through the Chinese curio-shop
+they entered the Joss-house and came to the worshiping-room of the
+temple.
+
+Eva gazed fearfully about her now at all the fantastic decorations with
+which she was surrounded. Her only comfort was the handle of the
+automatic that the butler had pressed on her as she was leaving home.
+
+"This Madagascan with the antidote," asked Eva, tremulously, "where is
+he?"
+
+"Don't worry, dearie," quieted Dora. "Wait a moment here and I will
+bring him."
+
+Dora turned on her heel and left the temple by the door leading into the
+beautiful lounging-room beyond.
+
+Eva stood transfixed by the solemn awfulness of the place and the grim
+visage of the fire god. Why had she been brought to such a place? What
+new terrors awaited her here?
+
+She seemed alone--yet was she?
+
+She felt a thousand eyes regarding her, as though a thousand dangers
+lurked to destroy her just beyond those fearful walls.
+
+She was staring now at the god. What made his eyes gleam so banefully?
+
+She thought she heard a sound!
+
+Was the wall at the right of the statue moving? Or was it merely her
+heightened imagination?
+
+Fascinated, she watched.
+
+Yes, she was sure now. Slowly, slowly a portion of that wall was
+actually sliding back.
+
+Now she saw a hand. Then an arm followed. With a slow, gliding movement
+that even to Eva's strained ears was noiseless, a man, his back toward
+her, slid into the room.
+
+Eva, shrinking back, wanted to shriek. But instead she whipped out the
+automatic and in an instant had the man covered.
+
+The man was still evidently unconscious of her presence. But suddenly he
+must have heard Eva move. For he wheeled around, and instinctively his
+hands went above his head.
+
+As for Eva, the cry that she had suppressed at his appearance was
+suppressed no longer, for the man whom she held at her mercy was--Locke!
+
+"How did you come here?" gasped Eva.
+
+Hurriedly he told her his story--how he felt that the clue that would
+lead to the unraveling of this mystery was now to be found in Chinatown,
+how he had made his way, therefore, to the Chinese quarter, how he had
+tracked the Madagascan.
+
+Knowing the futility of trying to enter any private place of the
+Orientals, much less their temple, in Occidental garb, he had waylaid a
+Chinaman in an alley, had stripped him, and had changed clothes with
+him.
+
+Disguised thus, Locke had managed to enter, to observe, and was only now
+on his way to summon assistance. For he had decided to have the place
+raided. Only now he was stricken almost dumb with astonishment at being
+confronted by Eva.
+
+There was no time for more. Before Eva could explain her own presence
+there the door burst open, the panels slid back, and a horde of
+emissaries and Chinamen swarmed about them.
+
+Eva fired her automatic again and again, but could not stay the rush.
+
+Locke fought with the courage of despair. But they were too many and
+soon bore him down.
+
+As they carried Locke into the chamber of torture the last thing he saw
+was Eva surrounded by her foes, who were closing in on the poor girl.
+
+Towering above them all, he saw the gigantic form of the Automaton.
+
+In the torture-chamber Locke was shackled hand and foot to the
+partition, while the noose of the garroting-machine was placed about his
+neck.
+
+The Madagascan supervised this work, then waved the emissaries out of
+the room. They were alone there now, these two--the professional
+murderer and his victim.
+
+With a sneer the Madagascan turned and went to the other side of the
+partition where the wheel was by which the noose was tightened,
+strangling the victim.
+
+But the Strangler little knew with whom he had to deal, for already
+Locke was struggling at his shackles.
+
+With almost incredible dexterity Locke succeeded in loosening them, one
+after the other, so that, as the Madagascan started to turn the wheel,
+Locke, with a marvelous effort, bracing his feet against the wall and
+grasping the staples to which the shackles had been attached, managed to
+pin-wheel his body around and around, as the Strangler turned the iron
+wheel that tightened the noose which was to stifle out his life.
+
+Fortunately the Madagascan turned slowly, so that Locke managed to turn
+his body faster than the wheel was being turned, thus gaining on the
+noose and at each revolution loosening it a trifle.
+
+Another quick turn of his body, the pressure against his neck had become
+less!
+
+Yet another complete circle, and, tearing at the noose, he managed to
+get his head free.
+
+It was the work of only an instant to dash around the partition and beat
+the Strangler to the floor. Another instant, and he had torn back the
+panel into the temple.
+
+The sight that confronted him was sickening.
+
+Two fiends were holding Eva close to the floor, while now from the fire
+god's eyes a blinding glare of flame blazed forth, the two rays
+converging and scorching the very ground as they traveled slowly nearer
+and nearer, in their fatal focus, to the helpless girl.
+
+With a wild shout, Locke charged on them all.
+
+Taken by surprise, the brutes holding Eva were easy to handle, for the
+others had gone.
+
+Fortunately, the automatic which Eva had been carrying was lying,
+neglected, on the floor. Locke snatched it up and, shooting one of the
+thugs, managed to cower the other.
+
+Half supporting Eva, he retreated through the torture-chamber into an
+outer room. There was no time to lose. Already the alarm had been spread
+to the other emissaries and Chinamen, and it was only a matter of
+seconds when all the murderous crew would again be piling after them.
+
+Locke looked about in desperation. There was a window. He flung it open.
+Below, the air-shaft or court was blind. But there was a balcony by
+which he could reach an adjoining low roof. He had no idea where it
+might lead, but any unknown danger was preferable to the known dangers
+that threatened behind him.
+
+Through the window he passed with Eva, and so across balconies and roofs
+until they came to a fire-escape, which they descended.
+
+In another moment they were free of Chinatown.
+
+Many a curious glance was cast at them, a young girl, well gowned, and a
+disheveled white man in Chinese garb.
+
+Locke hailed a night-hawk cabman and they were soon speeding on their
+way back to safety and Brent Rock.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+At the cove fishing-village, set on the extreme outskirts of the town,
+there stood an old fisherman's shack that was shunned by all the good
+folk of the city.
+
+While there was nothing definite that could be said of the evil deeds of
+the inhabitants, there was much shaking of heads and wagging of tongues
+to the effect that all was not as it should be at the cove.
+
+The owner of the old shack, Old Tom, was an ill-favored, taciturn man
+who would have naught to do with any of his neighbors, and asked only
+that they keep out of his path and leave him alone. He even evinced an
+aversion to dogs and to little children, driving them away from his
+shack whenever he found them near it.
+
+The threat that "Old Tom will catch you" would make a cove
+fishing-village tractable at any time.
+
+Old Tom rarely put to sea, and when he did it was more often than not
+after nightfall, a time when the good folk of the village were preparing
+for a night's rest.
+
+It was stated by one old crony that often at night other men came to Old
+Tom's shack, that they entered slyly, and that well into the morning
+revelry, and often oaths and brawls, could be heard from within.
+
+Some hinted that Old Tom was a smuggler; others, even, that he was a
+wrecker. True it was that often strange lights were seen to flicker
+outside the bar to the cove.
+
+Also there had been wrecks, and often, in the morning, when the
+fishermen put out to a wreck, after a storm, it would be discovered that
+some one had been there before them, since valuable and readily portable
+parts of the wreck were frequently missing.
+
+But while suspicion pointed to Old Tom and the strange men that
+frequented his place, proofs positive of a crime were invariably
+lacking, and so the village tolerated Old Tom's presence and predicted
+his bad end.
+
+It was to this shack that there came very early one morning, before the
+break of day, a wounded man assisted by a woman. The woman gave a
+peculiar rap at the door. There was a quick scurry inside, as of
+fast-moving feet, then silence.
+
+The woman rapped again, and this time with more force. After a moment a
+sash was raised and a querulous voice demanded what was wanted.
+
+"It's De Luxe Dora and Paul Balcom, and he's wounded. Quick, open the
+door!"
+
+There was a rush to open the door now and rough hands gently assisted
+the wounded man to a seat inside.
+
+While Paul was not perhaps so dangerously wounded, yet it was easy to be
+seen that the wound was not to be trifled with, for the cut had been
+severe and the blood flowed copiously.
+
+Dora, whatever her attitude toward others, had a true solicitude for
+Paul, and all the womanliness of her nature came to the surface as she
+tenderly bathed Paul's head and attempted to bind the wound with the
+rough bandages at hand.
+
+There were several tough-looking men standing about, and from their
+ready sympathy, real or feigned, it was easy to be seen that these men,
+too, like the others of the underworld, stood ready to do Paul's
+slightest bidding, to guard him with their lives if need be.
+
+What was this strange power that this man, scarcely more than a youth,
+wielded over these outlawed men?
+
+"Quick!" exclaimed Dora. "Watch the window. We've probably been
+followed."
+
+A grim-visaged man moved lumberingly over to the window and glued his
+head against the pane, straining his eyes as he peered out.
+
+For a long time he did not move, while, with the others grouped around,
+Dora tried to stanch the flow of blood from Paul's injured head.
+
+Suddenly the watcher at the window turned and shouted, "Man comin' up
+the lane!"
+
+Instantly there was confusion within the shack. The men scattered in all
+directions, while one old hag, the only woman in the shack besides Dora,
+hobbled over to a stool and took up the mending of a huge net where she
+had left off.
+
+Old Tom ambled over to Dora and for a moment they talked hurriedly.
+Finally Dora came to a decision, as she pointed to the old rickety
+stairway to an attic above.
+
+"Carry him to the attic," she directed. "He can be well hidden there. As
+for the rest of you, remember, no one has come here to-night."
+
+Two of the men lifted Paul, who, while not in an absolutely unconscious
+condition, was much too weak by this time from loss of blood to assist
+himself.
+
+They carried him up the stairs and into an old, disused room to which
+Dora followed, and when the two men had descended the stairs she
+remained, alternately ministering to Paul and listening for what might
+happen below.
+
+Paul and Dora had left the main room of the shack not a moment too soon.
+For barely had the two men who had carried Paul to the attic returned
+when a face was momentarily seen outside, while a pair of eyes peered
+into the room.
+
+A moment later there was a peremptory knock at the door.
+
+"Come in!" growled Old Tom.
+
+With eyes that scanned every cranny and nook and searched every face,
+Locke stepped into the shack.
+
+The men came forward a step, then halted. There was something in Locke's
+face that showed that he was in deadly earnest and not to be trifled
+with.
+
+Locke looked from one to the other, then turned to Old Tom. "The wounded
+man who was brought here," he demanded, "where is he?"
+
+"There 'ain't been no wounded man brought here," retorted Old Tom.
+
+The men crowded a little closer, all denying vehemently that any one had
+entered.
+
+At this instant a drop of blood fell on Locke's sleeve from the ceiling
+above. Quickly he checked the impulse to look up, although he was
+startled by it. He recovered himself on the instant and waited until
+under a pretext he could divert their attention to something else. Then
+he glanced hastily upward, as they looked in another direction. There,
+forming slowly, was another drop of blood, and it was about to fall.
+
+Locke had gained his object. As surely as though he had been brought
+face to face with Paul, he knew that he was lying on the floor of the
+attic above.
+
+Single-handed, against so many and in this shack, Locke realized that he
+could do nothing. He apologized gruffly for his intrusion, conveying the
+impression that he felt he had made a mistake, and backed his way to the
+door.
+
+In an instant the door to the attic stairs was flung open and Dora
+rushed into the room.
+
+"You fools!" she snarled at the surprised men who were just
+congratulating themselves on how they had put one over on Locke. "I tell
+you he's wise. He saw the blood. Look up above you. Now go get him."
+
+But the fishermen had no desire for this outside work and hung back,
+while Dora raved at them.
+
+From the ceiling, drop by drop, blood was falling, forming a little pool
+on the floor. Paul could not be moved now. They must make the best of it
+and be ready for any raid Locke might prepare.
+
+At Brent Rock Eva was conversing with her lawyer. Matters had reached
+such a state in the affairs of International Patents that it was
+evident, even to her, that some drastic action must be taken, and at
+once.
+
+In a corner of the room, coiled up in a big armchair, Zita was
+apparently reading a new magazine, but was, in reality, listening
+intently to every word that was being uttered.
+
+Finally Eva and the lawyer were in full accord, and she accompanied the
+elderly attorney to the door. As they parted, Zita strained her ears to
+hear the last words. She did not get it all, but quite enough to tell
+her what they had decided upon.
+
+"As my lawyer," she overheard Eva say, "I wish you to have Mr. Locke
+appointed receiver."
+
+There was some more she missed, but that was quite enough for Zita. She
+got out of the chair quickly and left the room without being observed,
+and a few moments later she had left the house.
+
+In a telephone-booth, not far from the cove fishing-village, Locke by
+this time had his chief of the Department of Justice on the wire.
+
+"I've located him, Chief," he telephoned, excitedly, "but it will take
+four good men to capture him."
+
+"I'll send them at once," the chief replied, as both hung up their
+receivers hurriedly.
+
+Meanwhile, in Herbert Balcom's sumptuous, semi-Oriental apartment two
+men were in earnest conversation. One was the owner, Balcom, the other
+that strange, half-demented being, Doctor Q, whose mind now, for the
+moment, seemed to be lucid.
+
+The matter under discussion was undoubtedly a weighty one, for both men
+sat with knitted brows, and for the moment, at least, seemed in a
+quandary about something.
+
+Suddenly there came a hurried ringing at the outside-door bell and
+Balcom leaped to his feet. They could hear the door opened, quick
+footsteps in the hallway, and then, without ceremony, the door was flung
+open and Dora burst into the room.
+
+Balcom scowled a welcome, for he hated this woman, who had, as he
+thought, spoiled the chances of his son with Eva. But Dora did not wait
+for the threatened outburst.
+
+"Hurry!" she cried. "You must do something. Paul has been wounded--never
+mind how--but he lies in a fishing-shack down at the cove--and they are
+going to arrest him--Locke is!"
+
+For the moment both men seemed to be stricken dumb, while Dora, in a
+state of wild excitement, pleaded for them to do something--anything to
+save the one person she loved.
+
+It was at this juncture that the door opened again, admitting another
+woman. It was Zita, very agitated, though, of course, under better
+control than Dora. Besides, Zita did not know what had happened to Paul,
+nor did she love him. It was merely that she felt that things could be
+made to play into her own hands if the news she brought were immediately
+acted upon.
+
+Hastily she told what she had overheard about the proposed receivership,
+and all four now--Balcom, Doctor Q, Dora, and Zita--talked excitedly.
+
+But it was plainly Balcom who was in command of the situation. Although
+livid with rage at the news he had heard, yet he maintained control of
+the others, directing what they should do with a decisiveness that was
+truly remarkable. It showed the mental force of the man, demonstrating
+how greatly he was to be feared by any bold enough to be his enemy. For
+Balcom loved that spoiled son of his and would hesitate at no act, not
+even at a crime, to save him from even what he justly deserved.
+
+At last their plan was formed, and all four departed their several ways
+to execute it.
+
+Balcom had decided upon going directly to Brent Rock. His ire had not
+abated one iota during the trip, either, and, as he almost ran up the
+steps to the mansion, he pushed the astounded butler to one side as
+though he were merely a piece of furniture.
+
+"Tell Miss Brent I want to see her at once," he threatened.
+
+The butler raised a hand deprecatingly at Balcom's tone, but Balcom,
+beside himself, smashed it down and strode toward the library just as
+Eva, hearing the voices, was coming out. For an instant she drew back in
+apprehension and amazement as Balcom advanced on her, still snarling.
+
+"See here, Eva," he hissed, "if Locke tries to arrest my son--he'll be
+killed."
+
+For the instant Eva was stunned. What did the man mean? But as Balcom
+showed no signs of regaining control of himself, and every moment became
+more abusive and violent, indignation gave place to every other
+sentiment, and she sharply ordered Balcom to leave the house.
+
+Threatening dire things and hinting even more if there were a
+receivership, Balcom strode out.
+
+Eva stood for a long time shocked into inaction. Then, slowly, fears for
+Locke's safety came uppermost and she paced back and forth the length of
+the hall.
+
+Finally the old butler came to her deferentially.
+
+"And did you notice, ma'am," he asked, "that during his tirade he
+mentioned about a cove fishing-village? Might I suggest that that is
+where Mr. Paul is and Mr. Locke will not be found far off?"
+
+Eva thought a moment, recognized the sound sense of the remark, and
+ordered that her car be brought. A few moments later she had taken the
+wheel and was soon out of sight of Brent Rock.
+
+Close pressed against a wall of a back lane of the cove fishing-village,
+Locke was standing, waiting for the men whom his chief had promised to
+send.
+
+Finally they came to him, first making their coming known to Locke by a
+peculiar low whistle.
+
+"The other two will be along directly," whispered one of the pair.
+"Thought it better not to come in a bunch."
+
+As Locke laid his plans, the other two came from out of the shadows.
+
+The entire party now moved cautiously toward Old Tom's shack. Just
+before they arrived one of the men said that he could see two figures
+entering the place. But as Locke had seen nothing, no attention was paid
+to the remark.
+
+Locke now placed one of his men on either side of the door. The other
+two he sent to the rear, so that they could surround the gang.
+
+He knocked at the door. This time it was immediately opened. Followed by
+the detectives with revolvers drawn, Locke rushed boldly into the shack,
+while his other two men closed in from the rear.
+
+The emissaries, finding themselves surrounded, would have capitulated,
+probably without a struggle, had not the old hag, to whom no one had
+paid much attention, picked up a small anchor and thrown it at Locke and
+the advancing detectives.
+
+As it was, the anchor struck Locke a glancing blow and he stumbled
+backward against one of his own men, upsetting him. That, of course,
+gave the advantage to the thugs, and they advanced, attacking savagely.
+
+It was at too close quarters, in the midst of such a melee, to use guns
+without danger of getting one of one's own party. Thus it was a
+primitive battle of brute force.
+
+Locke and the detectives were trained men, however, and were surely
+gaining the upper hand, so much so that Locke managed to tear himself
+loose and dash for the door leading to the attic. He opened it, and
+there, with revolver leveled at his head, stood De Luxe Dora.
+
+It was the work of only an instant to disarm her, however, and he rushed
+up the stairs, Dora after him.
+
+There was a body lying on the floor--Paul, undoubtedly, thought Locke.
+
+He took it by the shoulder and turned it over, then fell back in
+amazement, for there, smiling mockingly at him, was Zita!
+
+"You think you're pretty clever, don't you?" jeered Dora.
+
+But it was no time to bandy words, and Locke left them and rushed down
+the stairs just as a horde of emissaries swarmed up to meet him,
+reinforcements to the fisher thugs.
+
+For in some way the Automaton had been warned of Locke's presence, and
+with all the emissaries it could summon had hastened to Old Tom's shack.
+
+Most unfortunate of all, the Automaton and its men had arrived just
+behind the car bearing Eva, and she, not suspecting the danger, had
+entered the shack.
+
+Although she did not see Locke, she was overjoyed to see that the
+detectives held the upper hand. She had started to search for him, when
+there came a terrifying crash at the door and more emissaries, followed
+by the Automaton, came into the room.
+
+The detectives were almost instantly overpowered, and the mob made for
+the stairs just as Locke was descending.
+
+In that narrow space a most terrible battle took place. Man after man
+Locke hurled against his fellows, and they went crashing down, only to
+rise again and attack.
+
+Finally they came to hand-grips, and Locke, lunging furiously to free
+himself, threw his body against the partition of the stairway and it
+came crashing down, hurling Locke and the emissaries to the floor below.
+
+Locke was badly stunned, and before he could rise the emissaries had
+swathed him in the huge net that the old hag had been mending. Next they
+bound him with ropes until he was utterly helpless in the meshes of the
+net.
+
+Eva, half crazed with horror, was in a far corner, and the Automaton was
+advancing upon her. She was paralyzed with fear.
+
+What fate was in store for her--what for Locke?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+The sharp crack of an automatic echoed through the shack. The detective
+known as Jim had come back to consciousness, and now, from behind an
+overturned table where he had fallen, he started to fire shot after shot
+into the mob of emissaries.
+
+He had fallen in a far corner and could be reached only after an attack
+of some paces, and even the emissaries, numerous as they were, hesitated
+to advance on a determined man placed in such an advantageous position.
+Furthermore, the diversion caused by the shots had other effects. The
+sound of the shots brought Locke fully out of his stunned condition and
+he started to struggle frantically in the meshes of the net that held
+him prisoner.
+
+The Automaton, for the moment, ceased to follow Eva, and moved over to
+its men in order to take command and to direct their movements, while
+yet another detective came to his senses and began to threaten the mob.
+
+Locke was threshing about and was slowly but surely freeing himself. An
+emissary threw a chair, and for a moment Locke lay still in pain. But in
+another moment he was working even more frantically at the ropes and the
+net that held him.
+
+Eva started over to help him, but he shouted to her to stand back, since
+that would bring her in line with the detectives' fire. The shots were
+flying over Locke's body as he struggled. Some of the emissaries went
+down; others found places of refuge behind which they hid.
+
+Finally Locke managed to kick his feet free of the net and, rolling and
+tossing, managed to work the meshes up about his shoulders and neck,
+thus releasing his hands. It was the work of an instant only, now, to
+slip the enveloping net over his head and he was free.
+
+Locke rolled out of the direction of the revolver-shots and toward Eva,
+who was now standing before a huge open fireplace.
+
+He was none too soon, for the moment that the Automaton saw that Locke
+had escaped the iron terror left the men and stalked ponderously over to
+crush out Locke's life.
+
+The two detectives fired point-blank at the monster and both shots took
+effect with a ringing, metallic sound. But they did not halt the
+Automaton an instant. Locke, reaching the fireplace, seized a pair of
+old tongs and threw firebrand after firebrand in the path of the
+advancing terror.
+
+To the Automaton fire was evidently quite another affair from mere puny
+bullets, for it not only paused, but came to a full stop, looking around
+as though in a quandary as to what to do against such a defense.
+
+This moment of hesitation gave Locke and Eva their opportunity. Calling
+to the detectives to cease firing a moment, they passed between friends
+and foes, dashed over to and up the attic stairs.
+
+As they reached the attic above they were just in time to see Zita,
+still dressed in Paul's clothes, and Dora, jump from the attic window.
+
+Although it was a low, rambling building, still it was a high jump, even
+for a man, and Locke was astounded that they should attempt such a
+thing, even in their undoubted state of panic.
+
+However, it gave Locke a splendid idea, which he acted upon immediately.
+Hooking his feet on the window-frame, he took hold of Eva's wrists
+firmly and swung her far out of the window. Held in this way, Eva was
+only a few feet from the ground, and when Locke released her she landed
+safely and almost without a jar.
+
+For Locke, always in perfect training, the jump offered no difficulties.
+In an instant he had rejoined her and they were running away from the
+shack toward Eva's waiting car.
+
+Locke had an almost overpowering desire to return to assist his
+detectives, whom he realized might be in sore straits, but he also
+realized that his first duty was to this girl who was in his charge, on
+whom the events through which they had just passed had had a
+nerve-racking effect. Again, he reflected, as he saw people coming down
+the beach, that the Automaton and his men would soon be outnumbered and
+glad to flee.
+
+Quentin and Eva had almost reached the motor which Eva had left at some
+distance from Old Tom's shack, and were passing a low clump of bushes,
+when a low moan fell upon their ears.
+
+At first Locke thought that it might be a trap and was for paying no
+attention to the sound, but Eva, woman-like, insisted. He investigated.
+Reclining on the ground, and looking more like a little boy in man's
+clothes, lay Zita.
+
+She was holding one ankle and her face showed that she must be in great
+pain.
+
+"Help me," she moaned. "When I jumped from the window I sprained my
+ankle. Dora helped me to this place and then she left me and drove
+away."
+
+Although this girl was his enemy, no thought of leaving her in this
+condition entered Locke's mind. Gently raising her from the ground, with
+the help of Eva, Locke supported her to the car.
+
+Locke still held Zita to ease her pain, while Eva took the wheel, and,
+although they could hear shouts and even shots behind them, Eva drove
+slowly in order not to add to Zita's misery. It showed the sympathy of
+their characters that, much as Locke and Eva felt that Zita had injured
+them, nevertheless, pausing in a flight from deadly peril, they found it
+in their hearts to be kind to an enemy.
+
+Arriving at Brent Rock, they carried Zita to her room and the family
+physician was sent for. He pronounced the injury slight and more of a
+strain than a sprain.
+
+While the doctor was at the house he also paid a visit to Brent, who,
+while his mental condition had remained as apparently hopeless as ever,
+had gained much in strength, owing to the diet and restful care. He was
+now able to sit up, fully dressed. As it was a case of drug poisoning,
+the doctor had thought it best not to allow the patient to relax too
+completely. But, whatever the strange drug that had stolen away Brent's
+reason, the effect showed no signs of departure, and they were as much
+in the dark as to the antidote as ever.
+
+A few moments after the doctor had left, when he made his morning call
+the next day, the counsel of the corporation was announced. He was shown
+into the library immediately and it was there that Locke and Eva went
+into conference with him.
+
+The attorney had brought with him many share-holders' proxies, and these
+he handed over to Eva.
+
+"These proxies," he was declaring, "give you absolute control, Miss
+Brent. With them you can force Mr. Balcom completely out of
+International Patents."
+
+"What's that you say?"
+
+It was Balcom himself who spoke. How the man had got past the butler,
+who certainly had no love for him, was mystifying. Yet here he was,
+ready and eager to defend his interests.
+
+"I was just telling Miss Brent," informed the lawyer, coldly, "that with
+these proxies which I have obtained and just handed to her, she was in
+complete control of the company."
+
+"And you, Mr. Balcom," interposed Locke, stepping forward, "will play no
+further part in the activities of the company. Miss Brent desires your
+resignation, to take effect immediately."
+
+"Why--why--this is unheard of--absurd!" sputtered Balcom. "I'll--I'll--"
+And his rage got the better of him.
+
+"No, Mr. Balcom," again interrupted Locke, "you will do nothing. It is I
+who will give you twenty-four hours to arrange your affairs with the
+company before I order your removal--or arrest."
+
+Balcom tried to remonstrate, to plead his innocence of any wrong-doing.
+Finding no sympathy by taking this attitude, his manner changed abruptly
+and he attempted to bluster.
+
+A decisive movement toward the telephone on the part of Locke checked
+this and, chameleon-like, Balcom's usual suave manner came to the fore.
+He bowed himself out.
+
+"It will, of course, be as you say." He smiled oilily.
+
+Once in the hall, however, his manner changed again, and, darkly
+scowling and biting his thin lips, he was about to quit the place, when
+Zita, limping only slightly, intercepted him.
+
+"Mr. Balcom," she pleaded, "come out the back way. I must see you alone
+a moment."
+
+They tiptoed out to the grounds, and, behind a hedge where they could
+not be observed from the house, talked.
+
+"Tell me what has happened," demanded Zita.
+
+"Happened?" repeated Balcom. "Why, they've thrown me out of the
+company--at least, they think they have."
+
+His mind was working quickly, and after a pause he turned to Zita
+sharply. "Can you get Brent out of the house and bring him to me here
+behind this hedge at eight o'clock to-night?"
+
+Zita nodded an eager acquiescence and left him, returning to the house.
+
+That evening Locke, returning from a stroll around the grounds, noticed
+a movement in some shrubbery at the side of the foot-path. He went
+closer to investigate, and a rough-looking individual broke from cover
+and ran away through the underbrush as fast as he could go. It was too
+dark to follow and Locke hastened his steps to the house, fearing some
+new deviltry on the part of the Automaton or his emissaries.
+
+He had just entered the darkened hallway when, much to his surprise, he
+saw the figure of a man, leaning heavily on the arm of a woman,
+descending the stairs.
+
+He stepped behind some portieres and waited until they reached the foot
+of the stairway. Then he stepped out and confronted them.
+
+Zita gave a startled cry, and would have fled had not Locke caught and
+held her. As for poor Brent, he simply stood there, swaying from side to
+side and smiling foolishly.
+
+Eva heard the commotion and came running down the stairs. She was amazed
+until Locke explained the situation to her. Then her indignation knew no
+bounds. Putting her arms around her father, she turned to Zita.
+
+"How dare you?" she demanded, scathingly. "For doing this you will leave
+this house immediately and--never return."
+
+Zita, for a moment, was on the verge of breaking down, but recovered
+herself and, with an angry retort on her lips, went out, slamming the
+door behind her.
+
+Zita slipped around the house and to the hedge designated by Balcom as
+their meeting-place.
+
+She was surprised but relieved when she did not find him there, and
+glanced at her wrist watch, which stood at a few minutes past eight. She
+was about to turn around when she caught sight of a bit of paper. Taking
+it, she read:
+
+  Bring him to my rooms.
+
+That was all, and the message was unsigned.
+
+Zita greatly feared Balcom's wrath at her failure, but, nevertheless,
+she started for his apartment.
+
+At that moment Balcom and the mysterious Doctor Q were talking in the
+latter's dingy laboratory. Doctor Q's mind, for the time being, at
+least, seemed perfectly clear, and he had formulated a daring plan.
+
+"Send Locke word that you will give yourself up," he was saying, "but
+tell him that he must come to your apartment to get you. I will do the
+rest."
+
+Balcom left hurriedly and was driven directly home, where he got Locke
+on the telephone and repeated the instructions that Doctor Q had
+suggested.
+
+"Am I to understand that you intend to turn state's evidence?"
+questioned Locke, doubtfully.
+
+"Assuredly," hastened Balcom.
+
+"Then I'll be right over."
+
+As Balcom hung up the receiver he chuckled sardonically. He was just
+turning to an antique brazier to arrange for Locke's reception when Zita
+was announced and at once admitted.
+
+"I've failed, Mr. Balcom," she apologized, "failed miserably. Locke took
+Mr. Brent away from me--and they ordered me never to return to the
+house."
+
+"You little idiot!" Balcom almost hissed. "I'll not tolerate a failure,
+either. Get out!"
+
+Although Zita almost went on her knees in her pleading to him, Balcom
+was adamant, and finally she left in utter despair.
+
+Outside, she telephoned to Paul to see if she might induce him to use
+his influence in reinstating her in his father's good graces.
+
+As soon as Zita was gone Balcom busied himself with the ancient brazier
+and was standing before a small image of Buddha. He took a small package
+and from it poured a powder into the bowl of the brazier. Then, going to
+the table, he wrote a short note, after which he went to a divan and
+awaited Locke's coming.
+
+Balcom had not long to wait. A ring came at the door and Balcom leaped
+to his feet and lighted the powder in the brazier. Then he adjusted a
+gas-mask that Doctor Q had given him, and, returning to the divan, lay
+down, pulling a camel's-hair coverlet well over himself as he awaited
+results.
+
+There was a rap at the door and a peremptory demand for entrance--a
+pause--and a whispered consultation outside.
+
+"Open the door!" cried Locke, again.
+
+As there was no answer, heavy blows were rained upon the door, and
+finally it gave way.
+
+Three men stumbled into the room. They stared about, then started to
+search the place. One by one they started to cough. Locke, who was the
+farthest away from the brazier, seemed to be the least affected.
+
+Finally he spied the note on the table and snatched it up. By the dim
+light he read:
+
+  You will never live to capture me. The deadly gas is
+  even now killing you.
+
+Locke gasped. There was the sound of a heavy fall behind him. He turned
+and saw that one of his men was down.
+
+He took a step forward, when the other pitched on his face.
+
+Locke tried to rescue them, but by this time the deadly fumes had
+reached him and he, too, fell to the floor, coughing his life away.
+
+At that moment Balcom got up from the divan and, stepping over Locke's
+prostrate body, left the place, forgetting to close the door behind him.
+
+When Zita telephoned Paul, Paul made an immediate appointment for her to
+meet him at Doctor Q's, and when she arrived there Paul was already in
+conference with the doctor.
+
+Over the telephone Zita had already given Paul a brief account of what
+had happened, and thus the two men were prepared with a plan when she
+arrived.
+
+"Get Eva to the hypnotist's on River Street," instructed Doctor Q. "Tell
+her that I have been hypnotized and that under the spell I will tell
+all."
+
+It was a desperate thing for Zita to attempt, after treating the Brents
+so shamelessly. But there was no alternative. For she knew well that,
+with Balcom, only a success would offset her miserable failure earlier
+in the evening. Besides, were not her fortunes tied up with Balcom--or
+perhaps with Paul? She did not demur, but left immediately for Brent
+Rock to make the attempt, revolving in her mind how she was to do it.
+
+Zita had difficulty in persuading Eva to see her at all, but, once she
+had succeeded, the possibility that all the mystery might be cleared up
+appealed strongly to Eva. For Zita had framed her story cleverly and was
+playing desperately.
+
+"Then I'll meet you at the hypnotist's in about half an hour," agreed
+Eva, after Zita had told her how friendless she herself was and how both
+Balcom and Paul had refused her aid.
+
+Zita left Brent Rock alone and was passing a dark corner when a hand
+reached out and grasped her by the arm and she heard a voice that she
+recognized.
+
+"Your failure has made me redouble my efforts," it hissed. "I have just
+killed Locke in my apartment and I--"
+
+It was Balcom. But Zita waited to hear no more. Secretly she had always
+loved Locke. Though she had worked against him, the very thought that he
+might be dead shocked her. She tore herself from the grasp of Balcom
+before she could hear more and ran like a deer toward the apartment.
+
+Fortunately, it was not far. She tore up-stairs and through the door
+that Balcom had left open.
+
+Everything was as Balcom had left it, except that now the three men lay
+quite still. Zita staggered over to a window and threw it open.
+
+Next she got water and extinguished the still smoldering powder. Then,
+falling on her knees, she tried to help the stricken men.
+
+Not much time did she spend with the others, but to Locke with great
+tenderness she gave most of her attention. Tenderly she bathed his brow
+and frantically tried even to breathe her breath into his burning lungs.
+
+Finally she was rewarded by seeing him open his eyes and gaze around. He
+looked up at her.
+
+"I'll atone for all the wrong I've done," she sobbed, "only--"
+
+She would have asked him to love her, but she knew that it was useless
+and the thought of Eva, caused the words to stick in her throat.
+
+Locke did not understand, and the look on his face showed it.
+
+"I didn't want to give you up," wailed Zita, now forgetting herself. "I
+loved you. To prove it--I will help you now. The--the girl you love is
+in terrible danger--you must hurry."
+
+It was only too true. Eva had driven immediately to the hypnotist's, and
+he had been instructed about her coming. At his door she had knocked,
+and an old, evil-visaged man, in flowing robes which were marked in
+cabalistic signs, had opened the door. In true fakir fashion he salaamed
+almost to the floor while in flowery language he bade her enter.
+
+Fearfully Eva stepped within. Signs of the zodiac, of cross-bones and
+skulls, on walls and ceiling met her gaze everywhere. In an alcove Eva
+could see a noosed rope hanging, for what purpose she knew not. But its
+presence she felt was sinister.
+
+"I--I was told that a Doctor Q would be here," Eva faltered. "I do not
+see him."
+
+"Gracious lady," bowed the hyponotist, "I will bring him at once. Pray
+be seated."
+
+Eva seated herself before a table upon which there stood a curious
+stand, supporting many mirrors. She examined it closely, and as she did
+so they all began to move. Each mirror moved on its own axis and she
+watched with fatal curiosity. For now a bright light was cast from
+behind her on the revolving mirrors and they formed a scintillating
+kaleidoscope that was bewildering in its intricacy.
+
+Eva quickly became fascinated. Then she was conscious of a drowsy
+feeling stealing over her. She strove to rise, but her knees refused to
+support her and she fell back in her chair.
+
+The hypnotist now shut off the machine and, stepping before Eva, made
+several passes with his hands.
+
+Eva's eyes closed. The hypnotist turned and made a signal. Several
+panels opened simultaneously and into the room there came a number of
+emissaries, who crept upon the now completely hypnotized girl.
+
+Nor was that all. A sound, as of the clanking of chains, was heard, and
+through an aperture in the wall larger than the others there stalked the
+Automaton.
+
+At this very instant Locke and Zita burst into the room and rushed
+toward Eva.
+
+The hypnotist slipped around them both and in a moment had caught Zita
+in his arms. She struggled to escape, beating him with her little fists
+in a fury of rage and fear. But he held her, and an emissary, bringing
+ropes, with his help bound her securely.
+
+As for Locke, he made a frantic attempt to reach Eva, but his way was
+blocked by a score of emissaries and the Automaton himself. Desperately
+Locke dashed at the iron monster, only to be hurled to the floor as
+though he were a tiny child.
+
+In another moment the emissaries had bound him and carried him to the
+alcove in which hung the noosed rope.
+
+The hypnotist now pulled a lever and the method of the death intended
+for Locke was revealed. Directly under the suspended rope was a
+trap-door, which opened. Locke gazed down into blackness, nothingness.
+An emissary threw some small, heavy object into the yawning hole. For a
+long time nothing was heard. Then finally, far, far below there came to
+their ears the sound of a distant splash.
+
+The fiendish plan was simple--to hang him and then to cut the rope. His
+body would go hurtling down to the subterranean river below and be
+carried out to sea.
+
+The hypnotist reversed the lever. The trap-door closed. Locke was
+dragged beneath the rope and it was adjusted around his neck.
+
+Even in this awful moment his sole thought was of Eva. Would they throw
+her, unconscious, down the same yawning trap?
+
+Powerless, he stood bound, fascinated, as he saw three emissaries seize
+her. But instead of dragging her to the trap, they dragged her toward
+one of the panels in the wall.
+
+What nameless torture was in store for her?
+
+He struggled furiously to get free to rush to her, but the noose only
+tightened on his neck.
+
+The hypnotist stepped to the lever that operated the trap under Locke's
+feet and began to pull the lever down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+With a crash the hypnotist dropped unconscious to the floor as the
+hypnotic machine started to revolve rapidly. The emissaries turned from
+Locke and were dazzled by the blinding flashes from the whirling
+mirrors.
+
+It was Zita who caused all the commotion. Unnoticed by the thugs, who
+were intent on sending Locke to his death and dragging Eva through the
+panel, Zita had managed to free herself from her bonds and, true to her
+promise to Locke that she would help him, she had risked all for his
+sake.
+
+Once free from the ropes, she had seized a heavy bronze vase and, at
+just the critical moment of danger, had hurled it at the hypnotist's
+head, striking him a terrific blow that had felled him and left him
+unconscious on the floor before he could spring the trap. She had then
+set the mechanical hypnotic machine in motion, and, standing behind it,
+was herself practically invisible. It all happened so quickly that it
+seemed like a miracle.
+
+Locke, his hope revived, swiftly grasped the one chance for life that
+was left to him. By contracting his muscles he was able to slip out of
+the ropes which bound his arms. But since the noosed rope around his
+neck held him so that his toes barely touched the floor of the trap, he
+could not, try as he might, manage to get the noose free.
+
+Suddenly a plan flashed across his mind. Hanging from the ceiling a few
+feet in front of him he could see an enormous chandelier. Throwing his
+hands above his head, he grasped the rope, thus relieving the strain on
+his neck. Then, snapping his body backward, his feet came in contact
+with the wall. With tremendous force he kicked out, causing his body to
+swing in an arc toward the chandelier.
+
+It was not until he had wrapped his legs about the branches of the
+chandelier that the emissaries noticed what he was doing, so fascinated
+were they by the revolving mirrors. Even then they could scarcely resist
+the auto-hypnotic powers of the contrivance. Finally, however, with a
+shout they came to the attack.
+
+Locke was now hanging head downward. With one hand he succeeded in
+loosening the noose from about his neck, while with the other he struck
+out, hitting an emissary a fearful swinging blow that sent the fellow
+staggering backward, to fall against the lever controlling the
+trap-door.
+
+With a crash the trap was sprung, with the pit yawning beneath it.
+Struggling, striking, grappling with his assailants, Locke managed to
+hurl three of them to their deaths in the underground river below.
+
+Horror-stricken at the fate of their companions, the other emissaries
+stepped back, when, to add to their confusion, Zita, with remarkable
+strength for so frail a girl, lifted the stand of mirrors and hurled it
+among them.
+
+Locke somersaulted to the floor and, seizing the broken stand, used it
+as a weapon with deadly effect.
+
+The emissaries turned and fled.
+
+An instant later Locke started to the panel through which Eva had been
+dragged, when he heard steps from the other side. It was the emissaries
+who had seized Eva, coming back to see what all the rumpus was about.
+Locke, forewarned, slipped close to the wall, and, as they passed
+through the panel, one at a time, he was able to fell them to the floor.
+
+Then he rushed through the panel just in time to see Eva, pursued by the
+Automaton, running toward him.
+
+The very strangeness of her terrible adventure had brought Eva out of
+the hypnotic state into which she had been thrown and she clung to Locke
+as though she were a child.
+
+Locke took her in his arms and, swiftly evading the slow-moving monster,
+dashed back to the hypnotic room, calling to Zita to run to the street.
+Thus all three were able to make good their escape.
+
+Eva had purposely left her motor turning over, and therefore it was
+barely an instant after they were in the street before they were
+streaking out of that quarter of the town.
+
+Zita was now overwhelmed by her feelings, but it was Eva herself who
+spoke first.
+
+"Forgive me, Zita," begged Eva, in the rush of her emotions forgetting
+all that Zita had done. "But for you, both of us would now be dead."
+
+For some moments Zita could not reply in her silent sadness at seeing
+the joy of Locke with this girl.
+
+"I--I forgive you?" she murmured, at length. "It is for you to forgive
+me." She paused a moment and choked back a sob; then added, bravely,
+"I--I can even wish for your happiness, my dear; my hope is dead."
+
+Only Locke understood, and as he watched Zita he resolved to do all he
+could for her, realizing that some one else had made her a victim of her
+love and jealousy.
+
+All breathed a sigh of relief when at last they came again in sight of
+the lights of Brent Rock.
+
+There was just the trace of a shadow to cloud the momentary happiness at
+their safe arrival, as, on the steps, Zita refused to enter.
+
+"I--I must say good-by," she murmured, wistfully, turning to go out into
+the night alone.
+
+Nothing that either Locke or Eva could say seemed to swerve her purpose.
+
+"Can't you see?" she exclaimed, finally, turning to Locke. "Balcom,
+Paul, and Doctor Q all trust me now. I can help you solve the mystery
+better if I leave the house."
+
+This was so evident that Locke and Eva were forced to consent. They took
+her back to the city, leaving her where she could be unobserved, then
+returned in a very hopeful mood again to Brent Rock.
+
+"I think she can and will help us," declared Eva, intuitively.
+
+"Yes," agreed Locke, slowly, "and if Zita finds the record of her birth
+I believe we shall solve the mystery."
+
+Worn out with the terrors through which she had passed, Eva bade Locke
+an affectionate good-night and went to her room, while he went to the
+laboratory and tried again to find an antidote for the Madagascar
+madness, a work that kept him up late and to which he returned again
+early the following morning.
+
+It was on that following day, in the River Road apartment of De Luxe
+Dora, that Paul and she were having a demi-monde lovers' quarrel. Paul
+was intoxicated, and Dora may have been angry about that. Or it may have
+been that she was jealous of some other woman. However, they were
+quarreling fiercely when there came a knock at the door.
+
+"You open it," flashed Dora to Paul.
+
+He demurred a moment, then, changing his mind, consented and crossed to
+the door, while Dora ran to her own room and hid.
+
+Paul was very much surprised to find that the visitor was Zita, much
+excited.
+
+"I want you to help me on something of great importance," she exclaimed,
+almost before she had entered.
+
+"Why, certainly! Anything you desire!" hiccoughed Paul. "Come on in."
+
+Zita entered the apartment and they crossed over to the chaise-longue,
+where Zita made her direct plea.
+
+"Help me find the record of my birth," she begged.
+
+Paul pulled his wandering wits together and thought a moment; then a
+particularly crafty look came into his eyes as he detached a key from
+his key-ring.
+
+"Here, take this," he directed. "It's the key to my father's apartment.
+The records you want are there. He and I have quarreled and you can go
+as far as you like."
+
+Zita took the key eagerly, thanked Paul profusely, and started for the
+door.
+
+She had barely passed the threshold before Dora, who had heard all, was
+at the telephone in her own room and was angrily calling up Balcom at
+his apartment.
+
+Balcom, assisted by his Madagascan servant, was at the moment packing a
+trunk, perhaps preparatory to a hasty flight, should that become
+necessary. The moment the telephone rang he picked up the receiver and
+nearly choked with anger as he heard Dora's whispered voice over the
+wire.
+
+"Paul has given Zita the key to your apartment," Dora hastened, "and she
+is coming over to steal the record of her birth."
+
+"She is--eh? Well, I'll take care of that," growled Balcom, as he rang
+off.
+
+Balcom went to a drawer in the table and from it took a large book.
+Rapidly he turned over the pages until he found what he wanted. Then he
+made an erasure and an entry and replaced the book in the drawer. Next
+he called the servant.
+
+"When she comes, you make her a prisoner," he directed. "Understand?"
+
+The Madagascan nodded and raised one of Balcom's hands to his own
+forehead as a sign of his fidelity.
+
+Balcom went out and the servant stepped into the empty trunk to await
+the arrival of Zita.
+
+But it was a very different person with whom the Madagascan had to
+contend in the end.
+
+On leaving Dora's apartment, Zita telephoned Brent Rock, and Locke
+answered immediately. Locke readily agreed to make the search of
+Balcom's apartment in Zita's stead.
+
+When the Madagascan heard a key in the door he stealthily peeped from
+his hiding-place and saw, instead of Zita, Locke.
+
+Locke's back was turned, and the Madagascan, undaunted, sprang from the
+trunk and leaped, catlike, on Locke's back. But he had not reckoned on
+his antagonist. Locke, always on guard, was not taken quite by surprise.
+He caught the savage in a jiu-jitsu hold, throwing him over his head to
+land in a far corner of the room.
+
+In spite of the fall, the Madagascan bounded to his feet, like a rubber
+ball, but a few stiff jabs from Locke soon took all the fight out of him
+and he lay still, completely knocked out.
+
+Locke made a hurried but systematic search of the room, and finally
+found the book that he sought, taking it and returning to Eva at Brent
+Rock.
+
+After telephoning, Zita went directly to Doctor Q's laboratory, to which
+she was admitted after he had seen her through his periscope
+annunciator.
+
+The doctor was fumbling with a test-tube, from which some heavy fumes
+were issuing. He motioned her to a chair, near a table upon which were
+many papers which looked to Zita as though they might be of importance.
+Always quick to act, Zita raised her hand as if to arrange her hair, and
+as she did so she purposely knocked the test-tube out of the doctor's
+hand. The acid spattered on some of the papers, quickly setting them
+afire.
+
+Doctor Q, wildly excited, started to beat out the flames, and in so
+doing allowed several unseared letters to flutter to the floor. One in
+particular arrested Zita's attention. It was a drawing, a plan of some
+sort, and was marked, "Plan of Den."
+
+Zita placed her foot on it, and, while Doctor Q was engaged with the
+small blaze, she reached down and, hastily folding it, thrust it into
+one of the low shoes she was wearing. Then she went to Doctor Q's
+assistance and in a jiffy the fire was out. The doctor was furiously
+angry at her, and, feeling that she had accomplished all that she might
+expect, she expressed her regrets for the accident and went out before
+his anger became any worse.
+
+Thus it was that Zita arrived at Brent Rock only a few moments after
+Locke, whom she found in the library with Eva, turning over the pages of
+the record he had secured at Balcom's.
+
+The record purported to be a record of marriages of Wallace County, New
+York, and Locke finally found an entry that read, "Peter Brent and Rita
+Dane."
+
+For a moment Zita was stunned. It was her mother's name.
+
+Locke smiled. "Yes, Zita," he said, quietly, "for a moment Eva and I
+were surprised, too. But it's a palpable forgery. Balcom has tried to
+prove that you and Eva are half-sisters, but look."
+
+He handed her a powerful magnifying-glass and through it the clumsy
+forgery stood out in all its crudeness, showing plainly where other
+names had been erased and these inserted.
+
+Zita was greatly disappointed, for she had thought that at last she
+would establish her identity. Then she remembered the paper she had
+hidden in her shoe. She slipped the paper out and handed it to Locke,
+who was greatly excited over its importance.
+
+They were still studying it when Locke heard a strange noise, as of
+shuffling feet, in the hallway. He jumped to the door, and there, in the
+dim light of the stairway leading down to the Graveyard of Genius, he
+saw a knot of men carrying another man, who was evidently helpless.
+Locke started forward, but they were gone.
+
+Eva hurried up-stairs to her father's room, fearing something was wrong.
+
+"Father's gone!" she cried, despairingly.
+
+Locke threw himself full against the door at the head of the cellar
+stairs which the men had slammed shut. He tried to batter it down, but
+it was too strongly built. Then he drew his revolver and with the barrel
+started to push out the pins from the hinges. He worked feverishly and
+succeeded in driving the top pin out. Then, using it as a lever, he was
+able to pull the door from its frame.
+
+He dashed down the stairs, but was late by only the fraction of a
+second, as a metal hand was just closing the huge door to the Graveyard
+of Genius. He fumbled at the secret combination, and as he was doing so
+Eva and Zita joined him.
+
+The door swung open and they rushed through. But the place was deserted.
+
+"They've carried your father through some secret passage," exclaimed
+Locke. "That would explain much that is strange that has happened about
+the house, too."
+
+Just then Zita stepped forward with the plan in her hand. "See," she
+cried, "there is a secret passage marked on this."
+
+Locke studied the plan for some time, but whoever had drawn it had
+carefully concealed both the exact location of the passage and the
+method by which it was reached. As he searched, however, an idea
+occurred to Locke.
+
+"I'll rig a trap with a camera," he decided, finally.
+
+A few minutes later he returned to the room with his special
+quick-shutter camera, a flash-bag, and a ball of light twine. Carefully
+he focused the camera on the wall where the plan showed the secret
+passage to be. Then he rigged up the flash-bag and connected the whole
+with the twine, which he strung all about the Graveyard of Genius, so
+that, should any part of the wall move, it would cause the twine to
+break which in turn would at the same time release the shutter of the
+camera and explode the powder of the flashlight. Thus, without any
+direct human agency, a photograph would be taken.
+
+Next he attached wires and ran them to the library above, where he
+installed an annunciator, the needle of which would indicate when the
+trap was sprung and the picture taken. Fascinated, the two girls
+watched. Eva was almost fainting with grief at the terrible fate that
+had overtaken her father. Even in his sickness, at least she had had
+him. But now he was gone--to what she could only guess. Locke tried to
+console her as they paced the library above, even though he realized
+that such consolation was hollow.
+
+It was perhaps half an hour later when suddenly the needle of the
+annunciator began to vibrate rapidly. All leaped to their feet and ran
+down the stairs to the Graveyard.
+
+At once Locke rushed to the camera, put in a slide, and took out the
+plate-holder. Then they hurried up to his laboratory.
+
+There Locke procured a developing-bag and started to work. Nervously and
+impatiently Eva and Zita watched him at his task.
+
+At last the negative was ready and Locke drew it from the bag and held
+it to the light.
+
+There, glaring out of the plate, was the devilish face of Balcom!
+
+Eva and Zita both uttered a cry of astonishment and consternation. Even
+Locke was amazed. But the strongest feeling he had was anger as he
+turned to them.
+
+"You two take this plan," he exclaimed. "It shows a den with an exit
+indicated. Get some one to go with you; find the place and wait for me
+there. I can find the secret entrance from the Graveyard from this
+negative--and I'm going through it."
+
+Balcom, in the passageway between the Graveyard of Genius and the
+Automaton's den, was livid with fury. He realized that his picture had
+been taken, surmised that the secret passage would be found and that
+some assault on the den would be attempted. But he had had no time to
+locate the camera, which Locke had hidden well, nor had he dared to
+search longer for it when he heard Locke bounding down the stairs from
+the library.
+
+Accordingly, he had retreated and hastened back through the passageway
+into the Automaton's den.
+
+"Quick!" he shouted to the horde of emissaries in the place. "Bring
+dynamite, electric wires, and a rack-bar. They think they have us
+trapped. But if they try to follow me here, I tell you it will mean
+certain death to them."
+
+The emissaires hastened to obey him. They brought the explosive and the
+means to detonate it, and carried the stuff into the passageway, where
+they made the connections. An emissary stepped forward and volunteered
+to use the rack-bar when the time came, but Balcom waved him away.
+
+"No," he growled. "No one can take my revenge from me. I'll do the
+killing."
+
+The emissaries fell back and went into the den.
+
+Balcom was making some final adjustments when the great rock separating
+the passageway from the Graveyard of Genius swung slowly on its balanced
+hinges.
+
+Startled from his work, even though he had expected the thing, Balcom
+looked up, and in the passageway caught a glimpse of the dim outline of
+his arch-enemy, Locke.
+
+Balcom had been right. Locke had found the clue to the secret entrance
+to the tunnel.
+
+He worked feverishly to complete the final connection, but almost before
+he finished Locke charged and the battle was on.
+
+Up and down the passageway they fought. Although Locke was the younger
+man, yet in Balcom he found a giant of strength.
+
+It was a fight between these two alone, for no emissary, no Automaton,
+now entered that passage of death.
+
+Neither uttered a sound. Neither had a weapon. It was the primitive
+struggle of man to man for life.
+
+But now Locke's youth and clean living began to tell in his favor and he
+sensed that his adversary was weakening. He redoubled his efforts.
+
+After a particularly vicious blow from Locke, Balcom threw up his hands
+and toppled over backward--in the direction of the rack-bar itself.
+
+Locke tried to throw Balcom's body out of the way. It was too late. With
+a thud Balcom crashed full upon the plunger, driving it home.
+
+There was a blinding flash, a dull roar, and the earth rocked. Huge
+boulders were tossed about like feathers and the roof of the passage
+caved in.
+
+Balcom was killed instantly. Locke, with better fortune, had been hurled
+to the ground, where the earth and rocks, in falling, had formed a sort
+of arch over his body.
+
+He was alive, though barely conscious. He knew that soon a search would
+be made for him. But, buried under tons of earth and rock, could any
+rescuers reach him in time? Was this the end?
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+For a long time Locke lay quite still. The shock to his nervous system
+had been terrific, and, although physically almost uninjured, he had
+lost his usual grip on himself and felt very helpless.
+
+He felt terribly tired. The thought came to him that he had done enough,
+reached his limit of endurance. He craved sleep, a long sleep, and
+forgetfulness.
+
+But youth and the undying desire for life and accomplishment won over
+this deadly mood and he began to take note of his position. His mind
+became clearer and the ringing in his ears, caused by the explosion,
+gradually passed away.
+
+Then, like a flash, the question entered his mind of how he was able,
+buried under tons of debris, to breathe so freely. Why was the air not
+vitiated?
+
+He tried to move slowly and quietly so as not to dislodge any of the
+rocks that formed an arch over his body. He succeeded beyond his
+expectations, for his body was in a sort of natural pocket and not one
+of his limbs was inextricably bound. Thus, twisting his body, he managed
+to draw himself into what seemed to be an even more open space.
+
+He hardly dared to breathe, so fearful was he that any moment he might
+reach a point where further progress would be impossible. He moved
+slowly, gropingly, then suddenly he recoiled in horror, for his hand had
+come in contact with something which he recognized to be a man's face.
+
+In his shaken condition it was some seconds before he could control the
+wild jangling of his nerves. Then he searched his pockets and, finding a
+match, lighted it. There, covered to the armpits by dirt and rocks, was
+the body of Balcom, whose last act before his own death had been an
+attempt to murder Locke.
+
+Locke shuddered and redoubled his efforts to escape from the gruesome
+place. There still remained a small hole through which he must climb.
+But he negotiated it successfully, and in another moment he was
+aboveground and free.
+
+Eva and Zita had followed Locke's instructions, but had not waited to
+find any one to go with them to the exit from the den. Nor did they wait
+at the exit more than a few minutes.
+
+Eva had taken a small electric torch with her, and, becoming impatient
+at the non-appearance of Locke, she flashed it about as she followed the
+lines and marks indicated on the plan of the den.
+
+She and Zita were surprised at the magnitude of the entrance passageway
+they uncovered. They had had to make a detour in order to reach the
+beach at a point where it was indicated that the exit of the den would
+be found, and even with the plan, which they consulted at every step,
+they almost missed their objective, for the cleft in the rocks slanted
+inward and was difficult to see even when one was standing directly in
+front of it.
+
+They had peered into the cavern and were waiting when they heard the
+explosion. They gazed at each other questioningly and with apprehension.
+
+"What do you think it is?" asked Eva, questioningly.
+
+Zita could, of course, offer no explanation and did not try.
+
+Impulsively both girls took a very foolish chance. Both had thought of
+Locke and they started to run into the cave entrance and toward the
+sound of the explosion.
+
+Zita was in the lead, and it was at this moment that the panic-stricken
+emissaries came tumbling and fighting their way from the den. Zita
+shrieked to Eva to save herself, and Eva, although unwilling to leave
+her, knew that now she could do nothing to save Zita, and took her only
+chance of escape.
+
+As for Zita, the emissaries were too frightened to pay any attention to
+her. But behind them came the iron monster, without nerves, it seemed.
+The Automaton saw her and pinned her to the rock wall until she was
+unconscious. Then, picking her up as though she were a feather, it
+carried her out to the beach.
+
+Locke, the moment he freed himself from the hole which had so nearly
+been his grave, ran staggering toward the beach, for he felt
+instinctively that Eva and Zita were in danger.
+
+Eva and Locke must have started at about the same time, she in her
+flight away from the Automaton, and Locke to find the den exit, for they
+met on the cliffside.
+
+"Thank God you are safe!" exclaimed Eva.
+
+Locke impulsively threw his arms about her and kissed her as they
+related their narrow escapes.
+
+Locke resolved to follow the trail of the Automaton and to rescue Zita.
+Also he had hopes of rescuing Eva's father at the same time. Eva wished
+to accompany him, but he would not think of it, and insisted that she
+return to Brent Rock and keep all the doors barricaded. In fact, he
+followed her almost to the house and saw that she entered safely, then
+hurried back to the beach.
+
+With the aid of Eva's electric torch, which she had given him, it was no
+difficult task to trace the huge footsteps of the Automaton, though, one
+by one, the footprints of the emissaries took divergent directions,
+probably for the very purpose of confusing just such a pursuit.
+
+He followed the main track, however, until he came to the banks of a
+small stream, and there the trail was completely lost, for the monster
+had stepped into the water. Locke waded to the other bank and hunted for
+further tracks, but there were none to be found. The Automaton had
+undoubtedly waded up-stream to the point where he had decided to dispose
+of Zita.
+
+Nothing daunted, Locke started wading upstream. This stream ran in a
+gully between the rocks and the cliffs on either side, which were very
+high. Time and time again Locke thought of turning back for more
+searchers. But he hated to return to Eva without at least some news, and
+therefore he persisted.
+
+He was at last rewarded, for just as he was about to turn to the right
+where the stream made a bend, he thought he heard a low laugh. He
+stopped dead in his tracks. Again the sound of the broken laughter came
+to him.
+
+Cautiously Locke moved slowly forward until he could see around the
+bend.
+
+It was a strange sight that met his gaze. Under an enormous overhanging
+rock he saw about fifteen men standing, while against the cliff he could
+distinguish the form of a girl. It was undoubtedly Zita. Sitting on a
+rock and quite close to her was Peter Brent.
+
+The emissaries were clustered around the central figure, which was
+waving its arms of steel and indicating what they should do. As the
+Automaton gesticulated, tiny points of fire gleamed from its eyes.
+
+Seen in the light of the lanterns held by the emissaries, the Automaton
+never looked more terrifying. Even Locke himself, who had encountered
+the monster so often, felt a cold chill as he watched him and his men.
+
+Locke turned noiselessly, for well he knew that alone he could do
+nothing. He started to retrace his steps to Brent Rock, and no sooner
+had he arrived there than he told Eva that her father still lived and
+was uninjured, and that Zita was safe in the new den of the Automaton
+which he had discovered. Then he telephoned to his chief to send
+officers immediately to Brent Rock.
+
+After the explosion that had killed Balcom and had come so near to
+killing Locke, when he had finally rescued himself and had drawn himself
+out of the hole, there was one who watched him.
+
+It was none other than that mysterious being, Doctor Q. What twist of
+that disordered brain had brought him to the spot was not at once
+evident. However, as soon as Locke had left to go toward Eva, Doctor Q
+came from his hiding-place, madly smiling and wagging his head. He
+peered into the hole and, seeing nothing, lighted a match and thrust it
+far down into the darkness.
+
+There was a sharp intake of his breath, for the match revealed to him
+the dead face of Herbert Balcom.
+
+Doctor Q drew back and stood erect.
+
+"Dead!" he muttered, as he ran his fingers through his hair dazedly.
+
+"Dead!"
+
+A strange thing happened. The mad light fled from the eyes of Doctor Q
+and the twisted brain seemed to become clear.
+
+Suddenly in the very field the old man knelt down and prayed a thankful
+prayer for his recovery.
+
+What was the strange power which Balcom had wielded over him, which
+death had snapped?
+
+The officers arrived at Brent Rock and Locke was ready. The party left
+immediately to go to the rescue of Brent and Zita, and it took them only
+a short time to reach the spot which Locke had located.
+
+Disposing some of his force below the hanging rock, Locke and some
+others went farther upstream. The two parties looked at their watches,
+waiting a certain time agreed on.
+
+Then the two parties moved toward each other. As they came in sight of
+the spot, Locke experienced a keen disappointment. He could see no one.
+Advancing farther, he discovered Brent still on the same rock. Guarding
+him were three emissaries. That was all. Zita, the Automaton, and the
+other emissaries were gone.
+
+The three emissaries, seeing the numbers opposed to them, did not even
+offer to resist. They were placed under arrest, but nothing could induce
+them to tell where the others had gone.
+
+To fail Zita after she had so nobly saved his life in the lair of the
+hypnotist was an unwelcome thought to Locke, and he resolved to rescue
+her at any risk. But first he felt he must restore Brent to his
+daughter, and therefore the party returned to Brent Rock.
+
+Eva was beside herself with joy at the safe return of her father, and
+led him tenderly to his room and sent immediately for the doctor in
+order that he might not suffer from his exposure.
+
+While this was going on at Brent Rock, Paul Balcom was rifling his
+father's papers in the apartment where Balcom had lived. He had
+unceremoniously thrown letters and documents all over the floor in his
+mad search for something. Finally he found what he was looking for, and,
+smiling triumphantly as he read the paper, he thrust it into his pocket
+and hurriedly left the place, not stopping even to pick up the papers
+scattered all about.
+
+Zita had evidently been watching the house, for no sooner had he left
+than she ran up the front steps of the Balcom apartment.
+
+In some way she had procured a key and let herself in. Then began a
+feverish search very similar to that which Paul had instituted. Only,
+this time Zita picked up all the papers, arranging them and placing them
+back in the drawers, after scanning their contents.
+
+She had almost finished when a small book lying in a distant corner of
+the room caught her eye.
+
+At a glance she saw that it was a diary. Turning the pages rapidly, she
+finally came to one over which she fairly gloated, for its information,
+sold to the proper parties, might make her independent for life.
+
+Even as she was gloating over her find there came the sound of many feet
+in the front hallway. Zita had no time to run out of the room before the
+door opened, giving entrance to six emissaries, surrounding her.
+
+The emissaries locked all the doors and tramped out. Only their leader
+remained for a moment to throw a parting shot.
+
+"Remember," he threatened, "this house is watched. See that you act
+accordingly. You will, if you know what's good for you."
+
+Then he slammed the door and locked it behind him.
+
+For a long time Zita sat there, too despairing to move. Then her ear
+caught the sound of stealthy footsteps in the hall, and she ran and hid
+behind the portieres. The door opened slowly and Paul stole again into
+the room.
+
+Having nothing to fear from him, Zita came from her hiding-place and
+confronted him. Paul was startled for a moment at her sudden appearance,
+but recovered himself on seeing that it was Zita.
+
+The paper that he had stolen from his father's desk had proved to him
+that Zita had become highly desirable, and he was not one to miss such
+an opportunity.
+
+As he questioned her, Zita told him briefly her story, or, rather, such
+portions of it as she thought it desirable for him to know. Paul, in
+turn, assured her of his undying friendship and something more. His
+earnestness almost made it seem true, and he talked in his most
+fascinating and attractive manner. He finally ended his conversation
+with a direct proposal of marriage. But he had overstepped the mark and
+Zita was not to be fooled.
+
+"Paul"--she laughed scornfully now--"you should be on the stage. It
+needed only this proposal to prove to me that I am really Peter Brent's
+daughter."
+
+"Peter Brent's daughter!" he exclaimed. "No, not his daughter--the
+daughter of Doctor Q."
+
+"Impossible!" recoiled Zita, astounded at the assertion.
+
+"True, Zita," he asserted, "absolutely true. Here, look at this paper."
+
+With hands that trembled, Zita took the paper and read an amazing table.
+Unless the paper lied, she was indeed the daughter of Doctor Q.
+
+There was only one thing to do and that was to confront Doctor Q at once
+and force him to a full explanation.
+
+In order not to antagonize Paul, Zita was now particularly nice to him.
+Her object was to get him to consent to her escape, so that she could
+inform Locke and Eva of her discovery and all three confront Doctor Q
+and wrest from him the story.
+
+At first Paul would not let her go unless she consented to marry him,
+but Zita played him skilfully, so that finally he unlocked the door.
+
+Then Zita flew down the stairs and to a telephone around the corner,
+where she called up Locke, to whom she told as much as she dared over
+the wire.
+
+Locke told her that he and Eva would meet her within an hour in the
+lobby of one of the city's largest hotels, and Zita hastened there,
+where she waited impatiently until they arrived.
+
+Doctor Q admitted them immediately, and they noticed with astonishment
+the wonderful change for the better that had taken place in the man. For
+with the restoration of his mind all the evil lines of his face had been
+obliterated, as it were, and in the place of the doddering half-imbecile
+they found a genial, kindly, and distinguished gentleman who, with the
+utmost hospitality, brought chairs and begged them to be seated.
+
+Zita, in her anxiety to know the truth, could hardly contain her
+impatience. Tossed from pillar to post, dominated once by the strong,
+evil mind of Balcom, Zita had run the gamut of human emotions before she
+had barely passed her girlhood.
+
+Seeing her agitation, Locke undertook to interrogate the doctor.
+
+"Doctor Q," he began, "I believe you know the perpetrator of the crimes
+to which we have all been subjected, and we have come to you in all
+friendliness to ask you to clear this mystery up for us. Balcom is
+dead," added Locke, pointedly.
+
+"Yes, I know that," interrupted Doctor Q.
+
+"You know?" all asked. "How do you know?"
+
+The doctor told of having seen Balcom's body. But at first he could not
+explain why he was in the spot at the time.
+
+Then Locke went on to tell him of the document that Paul had shown to
+Zita.
+
+Doctor Q sank heavily into a chair.
+
+"That document that Paul Balcom showed Zita," he exclaimed, after a
+moment, "told the truth."
+
+All were startled. Zita would have risen with a cry had not Locke gently
+touched her arm.
+
+"Tell us the story," demanded Locke of Q.
+
+For some moments Doctor Q seemed to be collecting his scattered
+thoughts, as though still a haze hung over his mind. Then he began to
+speak, becoming more certain of his strange story.
+
+"It was many years ago," he began, as all drew closer about him,
+listening breathlessly to his narrative, "and all these years I have
+been quite mad. The man now lying dead, Balcom, was the cause of all
+these years of misery."
+
+The old man passed his hand over his head as though to wipe away a
+recollection of hate and fear, then resumed:
+
+"I was an inventor in those days, and very successful. I had built up a
+great fortune, had built a great house, and in that house I had a
+beautiful wife and two of the loveliest children, a boy and a girl, that
+ever man had."
+
+He paused again, then went on:
+
+"One day, a man entered my life and proposed to put my inventions on the
+market very advantageously. He was suave, polished, and apparently a
+gentleman. At any rate, I trusted him. You all knew him. It was Herbert
+Balcom.
+
+"At the time I did not know that in order to give my inventions a clear
+field the inventions of hundreds of poor inventors were to be
+suppressed. I know now, Miss Brent, that your own father was led along
+in the scheme, even as I was. Balcom possessed the master mind and we
+were all as children in his hands."
+
+Doctor Q stopped a moment. It was evident that he was speaking with
+restraint when it came to Peter Brent, perhaps glossing over what the
+man had done. Though he did not say so, the mere fact that at last Brent
+had seen the light and had planned a wholesale restitution weighed
+supremely in Doctor Q's mind.
+
+"One day," he resumed, "Balcom came to me in what I know now was merely
+feigned excitement and fear. 'They're after us!' he cried. 'Brent and I
+have done our best--but the government is after you, and we can't
+protect you any longer.'
+
+"Then for the first time Balcom told me of the real purposes of the
+company, told me that he had been drawn into it by Brent. It was all a
+tissue of lies--lies that drove me from my home and country. I hated
+your father with an undying hate, Miss Brent.
+
+"Well, to make the sad story short, I took my wife and children and
+sailed secretly for the farthermost parts of the world. Off the coast of
+Madagascar, in the Straits, a typhoon came up. The vessel was driven on
+the rocks and wrecked. I was cast ashore, and I vaguely remember how,
+for days and weeks, I patrolled that beach, subsisting on shell-fish,
+imploring God, day and night, to restore my wife and children to me.
+Then my mind gave way.
+
+"The natives took me in, thinking me a god. They took me many miles
+inland. Savages, the world over, are superstitious about the demented,
+and so they treated me kindly. They installed me in a thatched hut of my
+own and made me a leader.
+
+"How many months, years, I stayed with them I do not know. But, true to
+my mechanical instinct, I rigged up a forge and improved many of the
+crude instruments of the natives, principally those of agriculture.
+
+"But transcending every other feeling, I hated Brent. In my madness, I
+conceived the idea that I would construct an iron giant that, upon its
+completion, if I could only procure the brain of a man who had died of a
+lightning stroke or other electric agency, I could, by installing this
+brain in the brain cavity of the giant, give it volition, make it a
+superman without feeling or conscience. It was a mad idea--but I was
+mad.
+
+"At about this time Balcom came to Madagascar. He found me and, knowing
+my intense hatred of Peter Brent, he cruelly added fuel to the fire.
+Already he must have known that Brent was coming to his senses and
+planning his great restitution to genius.
+
+"He promised me that if I would come to New York with him he would
+secure an electrocuted brain so that I could perfect my steel automaton
+and obtain my revenge. I was easily persuaded and I sailed with Balcom,
+bringing the iron monster with me."
+
+A strange light gleamed in the old man's eyes as he spoke, not the light
+of madness, but of kindliness now.
+
+"Children," he said, at length, "I have, during these lucid moments,
+watched you all closely. Call it instinct if you will, but you, Zita,
+and you, Quentin, seem to be particularly dear to me now. To-day,
+returning from the scene of the explosion, with every faculty not only
+clear, but rather sharpened by long disuse, I pieced the years, the
+months, even the days together. I searched in an old trunk and I
+found--this."
+
+It was a list of those rescued from the steamer _Magnifique_, and with
+amazement they read the names among the passengers:
+
+  QUENTIN LOCKE
+  ZITA LOCKE
+
+There was a short note at the bottom of the list, to the effect that no
+trace of either the father or the mother of the two children had been
+found.
+
+Paper after paper which Doctor Q had found, where they had been
+preserved by Balcom, proved the identification and the story.
+
+Locke's head was in a whirl at the sudden change in relationships, but
+not more so than Zita's. Finally Zita could stand the strain no longer.
+What had been a hopeless love was now explained.
+
+"My--my brother!" she sobbed, as she buried her head on Quentin's
+shoulder.
+
+Both turned to Doctor Q--Doctor Q no longer, but really Quentin Locke,
+senior, whence had come the "Q."
+
+His eyes filled with tears and his voice choked.
+
+"My--children," he murmured, "I see that it is not too late for me to
+find happiness, after all. Our enemy is dead. It was Balcom, of course,
+who was in that frame of armor, who used that terrible poison that stole
+away Brent's mind. The iron monster will walk no more. Henceforth Peter
+Brent and Miss Eva and you, Quentin--will--"
+
+Doctor Q had not time to finish the sentence.
+
+The door burst inward.
+
+The Automaton, its eyes aflame, stalked in among them!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+As the Automaton crashed its way into the room all sprang back
+terrified, aghast.
+
+For this monster, they had felt sure, was now nothing but an inanimate
+shell of armor, since Balcom was dead.
+
+Yet here it was, stalking toward them and evidently as bent on
+destruction as ever.
+
+What did it mean?
+
+In an instant Locke had helped Eva through an open window and turned to
+assist Zita. But Doctor Q forestalled him and had already taken her in
+his arms and had fled with her into another room.
+
+For the moment Locke was surprised to see that the Automaton totally
+ignored him. Instead, it stalked to the door and wrenched it open.
+There, cowering in the hall, in abject terror, was De Luxe Dora.
+
+How and why she had come there was a mystery. But the Automaton did not
+hesitate. It raised its hands and, as it did so, long flashes of blue
+flame leaped from the steel finger-tips toward the unfortunate woman.
+Once she shrieked, then crumpled and fell dead.
+
+The monster then turned its attention to Locke, striding toward him with
+a menacing gesture. But the diversion due to Dora had given all just the
+time they needed to make good their flight. Locke threw a chair to
+impede the progress of the monster, and then, as he saw that all the
+others were safe, he lightly vaulted out of the window himself, to find
+them waiting for him in the little yard below.
+
+"What do you make of it now--father?" asked Locke of Doctor Q. "Balcom
+is dead. Who is now in the iron man?"
+
+Doctor Q shrugged. It was a mystery to him as much as ever, and he
+seemed unable to throw any light on it.
+
+"But De Luxe Dora," queried Zita. "What had she come for? Why was she
+struck down--first?"
+
+Again Doctor Q shook his head.
+
+From the yard they could hear the Automaton's heavy tread in the room
+and, as there was nothing to be gained by remaining, they left the yard
+and hurried away out of the neighborhood.
+
+They had not gone far, however, when Doctor Locke came to a full stop.
+
+"I must go back," he exclaimed.
+
+For a moment all thought he had again taken leave of his senses. Yet he
+was obdurate.
+
+"Miss Brent--Eva," he explained, "you know that a grievous wrong has
+been done your father through me. He lies ill of that most terrible of
+diseases, the laughing madness. I alone possess the antidote, and it is
+in the laboratory that we have just left. I pray that that iron beast
+has not destroyed it."
+
+At the mere words Locke turned as if to go back for it.
+
+"No, Quentin," remonstrated his father. "You must remain to guard Eva."
+
+"Then I will go," insisted Zita. "I am not afraid now. Even when the
+monster carried me off I overcame my fear, watched my chance, and
+escaped from his den, where he left me. I will go."
+
+Finally Doctor Locke agreed that Zita might return with him, remain
+outside, and give the alarm if anything happened to him. Thus, after
+many remonstrances, it was agreed, and Eva and Quentin went on to Brent
+Rock.
+
+No one had molested Brent in the mean time. The terror caused by the
+explosion, as well as the loss of Balcom, for the time, at least, had
+evidently cowed the emissary band.
+
+While Eva made Brent comfortable, Locke went immediately to the
+laboratory, where he had something which he considered very important.
+
+"Quentin," remarked Eva, as she joined him, "your father spoke the
+truth, I believe, when he said that it was Balcom in the Automaton, But
+if that was the case, who is in it now?"
+
+Locke shook his head dubiously. "I give it up," he replied. "It's too
+deep for me. But whoever it is, he won't trouble us long, I'll wager.
+I've been perfecting a special gun and an explosive-gas bullet. No one
+can shoot the monster. Nothing seems to stop it. But this weapon, I
+think, will at last prove a match for it."
+
+Eva, who had always had the deepest interest in Quentin's work, listened
+attentively as he explained in detail the working of the new weapon.
+
+"And now we come to the actual loading of these asphyxiating-poison
+bullets," concluded Quentin. "I really must ask you, Eva, to go into
+another room, for it is dangerous work and you must not risk your life
+here."
+
+"But, Quentin," remonstrated Eva, "we've risked our lives so often
+together that I have ceased to be afraid of anything."
+
+Quentin was insistent, and finally Eva agreed.
+
+As Doctor Q and Zita neared the former's laboratory, they saw that all
+the lights in the house were out. Doctor Locke, against Zita's advice,
+insisted on going in, and told his daughter to wait outside. It was then
+that Zita disobeyed her father for the first time, for she flatly
+refused to be left behind.
+
+"No," she insisted. "I found a father to-night and what we must risk we
+risk together. It is no worse than the peril from which I once escaped."
+
+There was no reasoning with Zita, and they let themselves into the
+little yard and went up the back steps. When they came to the door of
+the laboratory they listened intently.
+
+There was no sound. Then they mustered up courage and cautiously entered
+the room. For a long time they stood quite still, not daring to move.
+Finally Doctor Q suddenly lighted a match.
+
+The room was in terrible confusion, as though cyclone-swept.
+
+Doctor Locke turned on an electric bulb and the room was flooded with
+light.
+
+Everywhere there were traces of the Automaton. But the monster itself
+had left the place. Doctor Locke crossed to the other door. There was a
+sight that made them shudder. The body of De Luxe Dora was still huddled
+in a heap on the floor. She was quite dead.
+
+But Doctor Locke had no time now to waste. Moments were precious. At any
+instant they might again be attacked. Feverishly he began to search for
+the bottle containing the antidote.
+
+At last he found it, carefully hidden, and in a bottle fortunately not
+broken.
+
+They left everything as it was and hurriedly left the place, on their
+way to Brent Rock.
+
+Meanwhile, in one of the worst quarters of the city, down in the cellar
+of a huge warehouse, a mob of emissaries were gathered. They were
+discussing the things that had led up to the explosion in the
+Automaton's den, Balcom's death, and the arrest of their three pals.
+Plans for the future they discussed, but, with their leader gone, these
+hardened men were still as helpless as children.
+
+Suddenly above the din of voices a strange, familiar sound was heard, a
+sound as of clanking chains, and the blood froze in the veins of every
+man present. Then with wild shouts of terror they scattered in every
+direction, for the Automaton was stalking toward them.
+
+Balcom, the man who had given the iron man life, was dead. And yet the
+Automaton was among them!
+
+That night, in the holds of many vessels and on the brake-beams of many
+trains pulling away from the city, emissaries who once were slaves of
+the Automaton were fleeing the city in every direction.
+
+When Zita and her father arrived at Brent Rock, Locke was still working
+at his new gas-gun. Eva was in the library, but when she heard the
+voices in the hallway she ran to welcome them.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you've both returned safe," she cried. Then, unable to
+withstand the suspense longer, she asked, "Have you brought it--the
+antidote?"
+
+When Doctor Locke told her that the bottle that contained it was safely
+stowed in his pocket Eva sank, overwrought, into a chair and cried with
+simple relief and joy.
+
+In a moment, however, she had gained control of herself, dashed the
+tears from her eyes, and almost seized the bottle from Doctor Locke.
+
+"Bring him down here, my dear," cautioned the doctor, still holding the
+bottle. "You would not know how to administer it."
+
+Eva ran to her father's room, stopping only long enough to summon
+Quentin, then together they led Brent down-stairs.
+
+Brent's condition was still pitiable. His mind was a total blank. These
+people--Doctor Q, Zita, Quentin, even his own daughter--meant nothing to
+him. He lived and breathed. But no ray of light entered the poor brain.
+
+They guided his halting steps into the library as if he had been
+something less than a child, and placed him in the same big armchair on
+which he had sunk the fatal morning that the fumes from the candles had
+overcome him.
+
+Doctor Q drew out the bottle and, telling Zita to bring a glass of
+water, measured out a few drops of the antidote, pouring them into the
+glass. Then he moved over to Brent and tried to get him to drink it. For
+a long time Brent merely clenched his teeth, but, once he was induced to
+taste the mixture, he drank it eagerly.
+
+For ages, it seemed to those watching, Brent sat as before, vacantly
+gazing straight ahead of him--so long, in fact, that a terrible fear
+entered Eva's heart that, perhaps, after all, the antidote would fail
+and that her father would remain without reason until the day of his
+death.
+
+Then slowly a change was noticeable in his eyes, and all leaned forward
+with overpowering intentness. What they were watching was like a
+miracle. Slowly, very slowly, they saw the soul creep back into those
+poor, mad eyes.
+
+Brent had been staring directly at his daughter as she watched him
+anxiously. Now a puzzled look came over his face and, raising a hand, he
+rubbed his forehead.
+
+Then a wonderful light seemed to shine from his eyes and he held out his
+arms to Eva.
+
+With a sob of excited happiness Eva rushed to embrace him.
+
+As Locke stood behind him, Zita and Doctor Q walked to the other end of
+the room, turning sidewise to the group.
+
+Suddenly Brent turned his eyes away from Eva and noticed Doctor Q for
+the first time.
+
+"Who is that?" he asked Eva.
+
+"Why, father, that is--"
+
+At the sound of voices Doctor Q had turned around.
+
+"You!" gasped Brent, as he sank back into his chair.
+
+The look on his face was strange, perhaps half fear, half shame.
+
+Doctor Q came no nearer for a moment, while Eva hastened to explain what
+had happened. Then unsteadily Brent rose and walked over to the doctor.
+
+"You are alive!" he exclaimed. "You have come again into my life so that
+at last I can make restitution. My daughter has explained to me all that
+you have suffered. Believe me it was through my own weakness. It seems
+incredible that any man could be so infamous, so utterly without moral
+scruples, as was Balcom. I believed the villain implicitly. That is, and
+can be, my only excuse."
+
+The doctor placed his hand on Brent's shoulder.
+
+"I can understand only too well," he remarked, "for I, too, believed in
+Balcom. You were a reticent man and so my dealings were all with him. I
+was gullible, an inventor, not a business man. I should have come to you
+before I fled the country, I suppose. Say no more about it, for I
+forgive you from the bottom of my heart."
+
+But Brent insisted on explaining that at least he had had a desire to
+right the great wrongs.
+
+"I can remember it all now," he continued. "I was about to make
+restitution when a man connected with the company--I am sure now that he
+was an adventurer, a crook, in the pay of Balcom, although Balcom
+probably tried to hide it--came to me. His name, as I remember it, was
+Flint. I was about to write a letter that showed that it was my
+intention to right a wrong, when--something interrupted me and--the rest
+I can't remember."
+
+Quentin, who had been standing behind the chair, now drew from his
+pocket a piece of paper which he handed to Brent.
+
+"Yes--that is it," cried Brent, excitedly, taking it, and spreading it
+out before them. "See!"
+
+It was a note addressed to Quentin Locke and read:
+
+  I have done you a great wrong about which you know
+  nothing, but for which I will make amends--
+
+"It was broken off," exclaimed Brent, making a sad effort to recollect
+what had happened. "I don't remember how. But this Flint had been
+telling me something about an iron monster. He had a model--said he had
+seen the real thing in Madagascar, that it had a human brain, that it
+walked and fought, that it had strength and life--but no conscience. He
+hinted that the thing would do me harm if I persisted in a course that I
+had determined for myself of giving back to inventors we had robbed the
+things of which we had robbed them. I did not believe him. I thought the
+thing absurd, and started to write the note, going a step farther than I
+had ever threatened Balcom."
+
+Quentin, Doctor Q, and Zita exchanged glances as Eva's father resumed
+his narrative.
+
+"Then I felt a choking sensation at my throat. I remember the effrontery
+of Flint's laughing at me, in a maudlin sort of way, and then--a blank.
+The next I recall was just now--Eva gazing at me with a worried
+expression in her dear eyes. I called to her and kissed her, tried to
+comfort her. Then I saw you, Locke, and Zita."
+
+Peter Brent, from the time he and Flint had been overcome by the fumes
+from the candelabra until he received the antidote and recognized his
+daughter, had not known a thing!
+
+As they talked there were many matters the two aged men discovered while
+they pieced together the happenings of years.
+
+Each had been duped by the same man. Each had suffered great trouble
+through this man's machinations and duplicity.
+
+As they talked, the attention of both turned to the younger Quentin
+Locke, who seemed overjoyed at the recovery of his former employer.
+
+Brent had a very great feeling of affection and respect for the younger
+man, for had he not really brought him up?
+
+As all questioned one another, they asked Brent much about the past, and
+he told them all.
+
+He told how he had become finally suspicious of Balcom, of how he
+insisted upon instituting a search for the doctor, his wife, and
+children. He told how Balcom had opposed him up to the last moment. Then
+he described his sailing half the world over in search of them, how at
+times he found a trail, only to lose it again.
+
+Finally he told how at last he had found that the mother had been lost,
+but the children saved.
+
+"I was in Bombay," he continued, "in despair that I would ever find any
+of you. At that time I was an old man before my time, for my conscience
+gave me no rest. I went down to the quay to purchase a ticket for my
+return to New York, and, true to the habit I had formed, I asked the
+ticket-seller if he had ever heard anything of the survivors of the
+steamer _Magnifique_.
+
+"'Do I know anything of it?' repeated the ticket-seller. 'No, but
+there's a man working on this dock now who never talks of anything else.
+He was a sailor on the ship and one of the few who survived.'
+
+"You can believe me when I tell you that I ran down that dock and found
+the man. He remembered you all well, remembered you children when you
+were taken up with some other survivors, and he said he thought that
+some family had taken you to Hong-Kong.
+
+"I canceled my passage to Liverpool and immediately sailed for China.
+Still, my troubles were not over, for it was weeks before I finally
+located you babies, Quentin and Zita.
+
+"I won't burden you with the difficulties I encountered before the
+English family, the Danes, with whom I found you, would consent to give
+you up. Nor will I take time to tell of our return to New York through
+San Francisco.
+
+"Let it suffice for you to know that we arrived safely after I had
+completely circled the world. I sent you to good schools, and when Zita
+was old enough I made her my secretary so that I could watch over her.
+Quentin, being older, I had not dared to have around at first. I feared
+he might question me too closely. And what answer could I give him?
+Could I tell him that International Patents had driven his father into
+exile, that I had been partly the cause, the indirect cause, it is true,
+but still the cause of his mother's death? I never found the courage to
+do that and so I sent him to a preparatory school and later to college.
+Years wiped out his childhood recollections and when he came here he
+came as a stranger employed in the company's laboratory. I make no
+defense, but I assure you all that my own sufferings have atoned for all
+the wrongs I have done."
+
+Brent broke down and was almost weeping, when Quentin and Eva moved over
+to his side and reassured him.
+
+As soon as Brent had recovered from his weakness he wanted to know all
+that had happened since he had been unconscious under the drug, and as
+he listened he was aghast at the Automaton and Balcom's villainy.
+
+"I've something here that will stop him, though," added Quentin, as he
+showed the new gas-gun he had invented and explained its deadly
+properties. "Bring him on again--I'm ready."
+
+"Quentin--please don't joke about that terrible monster," shivered Eva.
+"It has injured us so often--I don't even want to talk about it--or
+about the government that asked you to come here and set things right.
+Let us forget--now that all is right."
+
+Quentin smiled at her and his quick mind saw that the time had come to
+guide the conversation into pleasanter channels. He moved close to
+Brent.
+
+"It looks, Mr. Brent," he said, quietly, "as though we all were at about
+the end of our troubles. But there are two of us here who are not quite
+happy--yet. Mr. Brent, I am going to claim a reward."
+
+"Anything, my dear Locke, anything I have is yours."
+
+"Then I may as well tell you that Eva and I love each other and I want
+your consent to our marriage."
+
+Brent beamed.
+
+"That, Quentin, is the dearest wish my heart can have."
+
+Quentin turned to Eva to take her in his arms when there was a terrific
+crash of glass in the conservatory, the splintering of wood, and the
+Automaton, arms swinging like flails, charged like a mad thing into the
+room.
+
+Its terrorizing eyes were agleam, its one desire destruction. A large
+table stood in its way and it demolished it as though it were matchwood.
+
+The interruption came so abruptly that Brent, who in his right mind had
+never seen the fiend and was now seeing it for the first time, was
+paralyzed with horror. He tried to rise from his chair, but in his weak
+condition fell back, helpless.
+
+Quentin made a flying leap over the demolished table and placed himself
+directly in front of Brent and in the path of the monster. Doctor Q,
+Zita, and Eva started for Locke's side, but he waved them back
+frantically.
+
+Locke reached into his pocket and drew out his gas-pistol. The Automaton
+was almost upon him when he raised his arm and fired.
+
+There was a blinding flash and a dull report. The Automaton stopped in
+his tracks and, raising one mighty hand to its chest, staggered
+backward. Again Quentin fired, and the Automaton slowly crumpled,
+sinking to one knee. There was no need to fire again, for suddenly the
+monster crashed to the floor and lay still.
+
+Locke started forward, but Eva shrieked for him to stand back. She had
+not forgotten that once she had thought the monster dead and it had
+suddenly seized her and almost crushed out her life.
+
+There was, however, nothing to fear this time. Quentin reassured her
+that the gas fumes had passed away, then knelt by the iron terror. He
+tried to remove the steel headpiece, but before he could accomplish it
+the doctor came forward and in a moment had unfastened the bolts.
+
+As they were doing so a thick voice from inside could be distinguished,
+muttering words about the capture of Brent and Zita just before Balcom
+was killed, the escape of Zita, the rescue of Brent, the killing of
+Dora, who had evidently come to betray something in jealousy. It was all
+incoherent and Doctor Q and Quentin hastened to uncasque the man within.
+
+They lifted off the helmet and there was the contorted and dying face of
+Paul Balcom, who had, in desperation, taken his father's place in a vain
+hope to secure the fortune for himself.
+
+The poison was too strong, and as the girls turned, sickened, away, the
+evil features froze, more evil than ever they had been in his evil life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few days later a brilliant wedding took place at Brent Rock, which
+itself was a present to the bride and groom.
+
+After the guests had thinned out, Quentin and Eva strolled into the
+garden, no longer in fear of attack from the steel Automaton.
+
+Eva glanced at her ring, musing.
+
+"After all the things from which you have escaped, dear," she murmured,
+a bit timidly, "I am afraid nothing in the world can hold you."
+
+Quentin drew her into his arms, while her hand rested on his shoulder,
+and kissed the little golden ring that encircled her finger.
+
+"Nothing but that band of love," he smiled.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER MYSTERY***
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