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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poisoned Pen, by Arthur B. Reeve
+
+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 Poisoned Pen
+       (From the Craig Kennedy series)
+
+Author: Arthur B. Reeve
+
+Posting Date: September 15, 2012 [EBook #5007]
+Release Date: February, 2004
+First Posted: April 8, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POISONED PEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CRAIG KENNEDY SERIES
+
+THE POISONED PEN
+
+
+BY
+
+
+ARTHUR. B. REEVE
+
+
+FRONTISPIECE BY WILL FOSTER
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+   I THE POISONED PEN
+
+  II THE YEGGMAN
+
+ III THE GERM OF DEATH
+
+  IV THE FIREBUG
+
+   V THE CONFIDENCE KING
+
+  VI THE SAND-HOG
+
+ VII THE WHITE SLAVE
+
+VIII THE FORGER
+
+  IX THE UNOFFICIAL SPY
+
+   X THE SMUGGLER
+
+  XI THE INVISIBLE RAY
+
+ XII THE CAMPAIGN GRAFTER
+
+
+
+
+THE POISONED PEN
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE POISONED PEN
+
+
+Kennedy's suit-case was lying open on the bed, and he was literally
+throwing things into it from his chiffonier, as I entered after a
+hurried trip up-town from the Star office in response to an urgent
+message from him.
+
+"Come, Walter," he cried, hastily stuffing in a package of clean
+laundry without taking off the wrapping-paper, "I've got your suit-case
+out. Pack up whatever you can in five minutes. We must take the six
+o'clock train for Danbridge."
+
+I did not wait to hear any more. The mere mention of the name of the
+quaint and quiet little Connecticut town was sufficient. For Danbridge
+was on everybody's lips at that time. It was the scene of the now
+famous Danbridge poisoning case--a brutal case in which the pretty
+little actress, Vera Lytton, had been the victim.
+
+"I've been retained by Senator Adrian Willard," he called from his
+room, as I was busy packing in mine. "The Willard family believe that
+that young Dr. Dixon is the victim of a conspiracy--or at least Alma
+Willard does, which comes to the same thing, and--well, the senator
+called me up on long-distance and offered me anything I would name in
+reason to take the case. Are you ready? Come on, then. We've simply got
+to make that train."
+
+As we settled ourselves in the smoking-compartment of the Pullman,
+which for some reason or other we had to ourselves, Kennedy spoke again
+for the first time since our frantic dash across the city to catch the
+train.
+
+"Now let us see, Walter," he began. "We've both read a good deal about
+this case in the papers. Let's try to get our knowledge in an orderly
+shape before we tackle the actual case itself."
+
+"Ever been in Danbridge?" I asked.
+
+"Never," he replied. "What sort of place is it?"
+
+"Mighty interesting," I answered; "a combination of old New England and
+new, of ancestors and factories, of wealth and poverty, and above all
+it is interesting for its colony of New-Yorkers--what shall I call
+it?--a literary-artistic-musical combination, I guess."
+
+"Yes," he resumed, "I thought as much. Vera Lytton belonged to the
+colony. A very talented girl, too--you remember her in 'The Taming of
+the New Woman' last season? Well, to get back to the facts as we know
+them at present.
+
+"Here is a girl with a brilliant future on the stage discovered by her
+friend, Mrs. Boncour, in convulsions--practically insensible--with a
+bottle of headache-powder and a jar of ammonia on her dressing-table.
+Mrs. Boncour sends the maid for the nearest doctor, who happens to be a
+Dr. Waterworth. Meanwhile she tries to restore Miss Lytton, but with no
+result. She smells the ammonia and then just tastes the
+headache-powder, a very foolish thing to do, for by the time Dr.
+Waterworth arrives he has two patients."
+
+"No?" I corrected, "only one, for Miss Lytton was dead when he arrived,
+according to his latest statement."
+
+"Very well, then--one. He arrives, Mrs. Boncour is ill, the maid knows
+nothing at all about it, and Vera Lytton is dead. He, too, smells the
+ammonia, tastes the headache-powder--just the merest trace--and then he
+has two patients, one of them himself. We must see him, for his
+experience must have been appalling. How he ever did it I can't
+imagine, but he saved both himself and Mrs. Boncour from
+poisoning--cyanide, the papers say, but of course we can't accept that
+until we see. It seems to me, Walter, that lately the papers have made
+the rule in murder cases: When in doubt, call it cyanide."
+
+Not relishing Kennedy in the humour of expressing his real opinion of
+the newspapers, I hastily turned the conversation back again by asking,
+"How about the note from Dr. Dixon?"
+
+"Ah, there is the crux of the whole case--that note from Dixon. Let us
+see. Dr. Dixon is, if I am informed correctly, of a fine and
+aristocratic family, though not wealthy. I believe it has been
+established that while he was an interne in a city hospital he became
+acquainted with Vera Lytton, after her divorce from that artist
+Thurston. Then comes his removal to Danbridge and his meeting and later
+his engagement with Miss Willard. On the whole, Walter, judging from
+the newspaper pictures, Alma Willard is quite the equal of Vera Lytton
+for looks, only of a different style of beauty. Oh, well, we shall see.
+Vera decided to spend the spring and summer at Danbridge in the
+bungalow of her friend, Mrs. Boncour, the novelist. That's when things
+began to happen."
+
+"Yes," I put in, "when you come to know Danbridge as I did after that
+summer when you were abroad, you'll understand, too. Everybody knows
+everybody else's business. It is the main occupation of a certain set,
+and the per-capita output of gossip is a record that would stagger the
+census bureau. Still, you can't get away from the note, Craig. There it
+is, in Dixon's own handwriting, even if he does deny it: 'This will
+cure your headache. Dr. Dixon.' That's a damning piece of evidence."
+
+"Quite right," he agreed hastily; "the note was queer, though, wasn't
+it? They found it crumpled up in the jar of ammonia. Oh, there are lots
+of problems the newspapers have failed to see the significance of, let
+alone trying to follow up."
+
+Our first visit in Danbridge was to the prosecuting attorney, whose
+office was not far from the station on the main street. Craig had wired
+him, and he had kindly waited to see us, for it was evident that
+Danbridge respected Senator Willard and every one connected with him.
+
+"Would it be too much to ask just to see that note that was found in
+the Boncour bungalow?" asked Craig.
+
+The prosecutor, an energetic young man, pulled out of a document-case a
+crumpled note which had been pressed flat again. On it in clear, deep
+black letters were the words, just as reported:
+
+                 This will cure your headache.
+
+                          DR. DIXON.
+
+"How about the handwriting?" asked Kennedy.
+
+The lawyer pulled out a number of letters. "I'm afraid they will have
+to admit it," he said with reluctance, as if down in his heart he hated
+to prosecute Dixon. "We have lots of these, and no handwriting expert
+could successfully deny the identity of the writing."
+
+He stowed away the letters without letting Kennedy get a hint as to
+their contents. Kennedy was examining the note carefully.
+
+"May I count on having this note for further examination, of course
+always at such times and under such conditions as you agree to?"
+
+The attorney nodded. "I am perfectly willing to do anything not illegal
+to accommodate the senator," he said. "But, on the other hand, I am
+here to do my duty for the state, cost whom it may."
+
+The Willard house was in a virtual state of siege. Newspaper reporters
+from Boston and New York were actually encamped at every gate, terrible
+as an army, with cameras. It was with some difficulty that we got in,
+even though we were expected, for some of the more enterprising had
+already fooled the family by posing as officers of the law and
+messengers from Dr. Dixon.
+
+The house was a real, old colonial mansion with tall white pillars, a
+door with a glittering brass knocker, which gleamed out severely at you
+as you approached through a hedge of faultlessly trimmed boxwoods.
+
+Senator, or rather former Senator, Willard met us in the library, and a
+moment later his daughter Alma joined him. She was tall, like her
+father, a girl of poise and self-control. Yet even the schooling of
+twenty-two years in rigorous New England self-restraint could not hide
+the very human pallor of her face after the sleepless nights and
+nervous days since this trouble had broken on her placid existence. Yet
+there was a mark of strength and determination on her face that was
+fascinating. The man who would trifle with this girl, I felt, was
+playing fast and loose with her very life. I thought then, and I said
+to Kennedy afterward: "If this Dr. Dixon is guilty, you have no right
+to hide it from that girl. Anything less than the truth will only
+blacken the hideousness of the crime that has already been committed."
+
+The senator greeted us gravely, and I could not but take it as a good
+omen when, in his pride of wealth and family and tradition, he laid
+bare everything to us, for the sake of Alma Willard. It was clear that
+in this family there was one word that stood above all others, "Duty."
+
+As we were about to leave after an interview barren of new facts, a
+young man was announced, Mr. Halsey Post. He bowed politely to us, but
+it was evident why he had called, as his eye followed Alma about the
+room.
+
+"The son of the late Halsey Post, of Post & Vance, silversmiths, who
+have the large factory in town, which you perhaps noticed," explained
+the senator. "My daughter has known him all her life. A very fine young
+man."
+
+Later, we learned that the senator had bent every effort toward
+securing Halsey Post as a son-in-law, but his daughter had had views of
+her own on the subject.
+
+Post waited until Alma had withdrawn before he disclosed the real
+object of his visit. In almost a whisper, lest she should still be
+listening, he said, "There is a story about town that Vera Lytton's
+former husband--an artist named Thurston--was here just before her
+death."
+
+Senator Willard leaned forward as if expecting to hear Dixon
+immediately acquitted. None of us was prepared for the next remark.
+
+"And the story goes on to say that he threatened to make a scene over a
+wrong he says he has suffered from Dixon. I don't know anything more
+about it, and I tell you only because I think you ought to know what
+Danbridge is saying under its breath."
+
+We shook off the last of the reporters who affixed themselves to us,
+and for a moment Kennedy dropped in at the little bungalow to see Mrs.
+Boncour. She was much better, though she had suffered much. She had
+taken only a pinhead of the poison, but it had proved very nearly fatal.
+
+"Had Miss Lytton any enemies whom you think of, people who were jealous
+of her professionally or personally?" asked Craig.
+
+"I should not even have said Dr. Dixon was an enemy," she replied
+evasively.
+
+"But this Mr. Thurston," put in Kennedy quickly. "One is not usually
+visited in perfect friendship by a husband who has been divorced."
+
+She regarded him keenly for a moment. "Halsey Post told you that," she
+said. "No one else knew he was here. But Halsey Post was an old friend
+of both Vera and Mr. Thurston before they separated. By chance he
+happened to drop in the day Mr. Thurston was here, and later in the day
+I gave him a letter to forward to Mr. Thurston, which had come after
+the artist left. I'm sure no one else knew the artist. He was here the
+morning of the day she died, and--and--that's every bit I'm going to
+tell you about him, so there. I don't know why he came or where he
+went."
+
+"That's a thing we must follow up later," remarked Kennedy as we made
+our adieus. "Just now I want to get the facts in hand. The next thing
+on my programme is to see this Dr. Waterworth."
+
+We found the doctor still in bed; in fact, a wreck as the result of his
+adventure. He had little to correct in the facts of the story which had
+been published so far. But there were many other details of the
+poisoning he was quite willing to discuss frankly.
+
+"It was true about the jar of ammonia?" asked Kennedy.
+
+"Yes," he answered. "It was standing on her dressing-table with the
+note crumpled up in it, just as the papers said."
+
+"And you have no idea why it was there?"
+
+"I didn't say that. I can guess. Fumes of ammonia are one of the
+antidotes for poisoning of this kind."
+
+"But Vera Lytton could hardly have known that," objected Kennedy.
+
+"No, of course not. But she probably did know that ammonia is good for
+just that sort of faintness which she must have experienced after
+taking the powder. Perhaps she thought of sal volatile, I don't know.
+But most people know that ammonia in some form is good for faintness of
+this sort, even if they don't know anything about cyanides and---"
+
+"Then it was cyanide?" interrupted Craig.
+
+"Yes," he replied slowly. It was evident that he was suffering great
+physical and nervous anguish as the result of his too intimate
+acquaintance with the poisons in question. "I will tell you precisely
+how it was, Professor Kennedy. When I was called in to see Miss Lytton
+I found her on the bed. I pried open her jaws and smelled the sweetish
+odour of the cyanogen gas. I knew then what she had taken, and at the
+moment she was dead. In the next room I heard some one moaning. The
+maid said that it was Mrs. Boncour, and that she was deathly sick. I
+ran into her room, and though she was beside herself with pain I
+managed to control her, though she struggled desperately against me. I
+was rushing her to the bathroom, passing through Miss Lytton's room.
+'What's wrong?' I asked as I carried her along. 'I took some of that,'
+she replied, pointing to the bottle on the dressing-table.
+
+"I put a small quantity of its crystal contents on my tongue. Then I
+realised the most tragic truth of my life. I had taken one of the
+deadliest poisons in the world. The odour of the released gas of
+cyanogen was strong. But more than that, the metallic taste and the
+horrible burning sensation told of the presence of some form of
+mercury, too. In that terrible moment my brain worked with the
+incredible swiftness of light. In a flash I knew that if I added malic
+acid to the mercury--perchloride of mercury or corrosive sublimate--I
+would have calomel or subchloride of mercury, the only thing that would
+switch the poison out of my system and Mrs. Boncour's.
+
+"Seizing her about the waist, I hurried into the dining-room. On a
+sideboard was a dish of fruit. I took two apples. I made her eat one,
+core and all. I ate the other. The fruit contained the malic acid I
+needed to manufacture the calomel, and I made it right there in
+nature's own laboratory. But there was no time to stop. I had to act
+just as quickly to neutralise that cyanide, too. Remembering the
+ammonia, I rushed back with Mrs. Boncour, and we inhaled the fumes.
+Then I found a bottle of peroxide of hydrogen. I washed out her stomach
+with it, and then my own. Then I injected some of the peroxide into
+various parts of her body. The peroxide of hydrogen and hydrocyanic
+acid, you know, make oxamide, which is a harmless compound.
+
+"The maid put Mrs. Boncour to bed, saved. I went to my house, a wreck.
+Since then I have not left this bed. With my legs paralysed I lie here,
+expecting each hour to be my last."
+
+"Would you taste an unknown drug again to discover the nature of a
+probable poison?" asked Craig.
+
+"I don't know," he answered slowly, "but I suppose I would. In such a
+case a conscientious doctor has no thought of self. He is there to do
+things, and he does them, according to the best that is in him. In
+spite of the fact that I haven't had one hour of unbroken sleep since
+that fatal day, I suppose I would do it again."
+
+When we were leaving, I remarked: "That is a martyr to science. Could
+anything be more dramatic than his willing penalty for his devotion to
+medicine?"
+
+We walked along in silence. "Walter, did you notice he said not a word
+of condemnation of Dixon, though the note was before his eyes? Surely
+Dixon has some strong supporters in Danbridge, as well as enemies."
+
+The next morning we continued our investigation. We found Dixon's
+lawyer, Leland, in consultation with his client in the bare cell of the
+county jail. Dixon proved to be a clear-eyed, clean-cut young man. The
+thing that impressed me most about him, aside from the prepossession in
+his favour due to the faith of Alma Willard, was the nerve he
+displayed, whether guilty or innocent. Even an innocent man might well
+have been staggered by the circumstantial evidence against him and the
+high tide of public feeling, in spite of the support that he was
+receiving. Leland, we learned, had been very active. By prompt work at
+the time of the young doctor's arrest he had managed to secure the
+greater part of Dr. Dixon's personal letters, though the prosecutor
+secured some, the contents of which had not been disclosed.
+
+Kennedy spent most of the day in tracing out the movements of Thurston.
+Nothing that proved important was turned up, and even visits to near-by
+towns failed to show any sales of cyanide or sublimate to any one not
+entitled to buy them. Meanwhile, in turning over the gossip of the
+town, one of the newspapermen ran across the fact that the Boncour
+bungalow was owned by the Posts, and that Halsey Post, as the executor
+of the estate, was a more frequent visitor than the mere collection of
+the rent would warrant. Mrs. Boncour maintained a stolid silence that
+covered a seething internal fury when the newspaperman in question
+hinted that the landlord and tenant were on exceptionally good terms.
+
+It was after a fruitless day of such search that we were sitting in the
+reading-room of the Fairfield Hotel. Leland entered. His face was
+positively white. Without a word he took us by the arm and led us
+across Main Street and up a flight of stairs to his office. Then he
+locked the door.
+
+"What's the matter?" asked Kennedy.
+
+"When I took this case," he said, "I believed down in my heart that
+Dixon was innocent. I still believe it, but my faith has been rudely
+shaken. I feel that you should know about what I have just found. As I
+told you, we secured nearly all of Dr. Dixon's letters. I had not read
+them all then. But I have been going through them to-night. Here is a
+letter from Vera Lytton herself. You will notice it is dated the day of
+her death."
+
+He laid the letter before us. It was written in a curious greyish-black
+ink in a woman's hand, and read:
+
+DEAR HARRIS:
+
+Since we agreed to disagree we have at least been good friends, if no
+longer lovers. I am not writing in anger to reproach you with your new
+love, so soon after the old. I suppose Alma Willard is far better
+suited to be your wife than is a poor little actress--rather looked
+down on in this Puritan society here. But there is something I wish to
+warn you about, for it concerns us all intimately.
+
+We are in danger of an awful mix-up if we don't look out. Mr.
+Thurston--I had almost said my husband, though I don't know whether
+that is the truth or not--who has just come over from New York, tells
+me that there is some doubt about the validity of our divorce. You
+recall he was in the South at the time I sued him, and the papers were
+served on him in Georgia, He now says the proof of service was
+fraudulent and that he can set aside the divorce. In that case you
+might figure in a suit for alienating my affections.
+
+I do not write this with ill will, but simply to let you know how
+things stand. If we had married, I suppose I would be guilty of bigamy.
+At any rate, if he were disposed he could make a terrible scandal.
+
+Oh, Harris, can't you settle with him if he asks anything? Don't forget
+so soon that we once thought we were going to be the happiest of
+mortals--at least I did. Don't desert me, or the very earth will cry
+out against you. I am frantic and hardly know what I am writing. My
+head aches, but it is my heart that is breaking. Harris, I am yours
+still, down in my heart, but not to be cast off like an old suit for a
+new one. You know the old saying about a woman scorned. I beg you not
+to go back on
+
+                  Your poor little deserted
+
+                              VERA.
+
+As we finished reading, Leland exclaimed, "That never must come before
+the jury."
+
+Kennedy was examining the letter carefully. "Strange," he muttered.
+"See how it was folded. It was written on the wrong side of the sheet,
+or rather folded up with the writing outside. Where have these letters
+been?"
+
+"Part of the time in my safe, part of the time this afternoon on my
+desk by the window."
+
+"The office was locked, I suppose?" asked Kennedy. "There was no way to
+slip this letter in among the others since you obtained them?"
+
+"None. The office has been locked, and there is no evidence of any one
+having entered or disturbed a thing."
+
+He was hastily running over the pile of letters as if looking to see
+whether they were all there. Suddenly he stopped.
+
+"Yes," he exclaimed excitedly, "one of them is gone." Nervously he
+fumbled through them again. "One is gone," he repeated, looking at us,
+startled.
+
+"What was it about?" asked Craig.
+
+"It was a note from an artist, Thurston, who gave the address of Mrs.
+Boncour's bungalow--ah, I see you have heard of him. He asked Dixon's
+recommendation of a certain patent headache medicine. I thought it
+possibly evidential, and I asked Dixon about it. He explained it by
+saying that he did not have a copy of his reply, but as near as he
+could recall, he wrote that the compound would not cure a headache
+except at the expense of reducing heart action dangerously. He says he
+sent no prescription. Indeed, he thought it a scheme to extract advice
+without incurring the charge for an office call and answered it only
+because he thought Vera had become reconciled to Thurston again. I
+can't find that letter of Thurston's. It is gone."
+
+We looked at each other in amazement.
+
+"Why, if Dixon contemplated anything against Miss Lytton, should he
+preserve this letter from her?" mused Kennedy. "Why didn't he destroy
+it?"
+
+"That's what puzzles me," remarked Leland. "Do you suppose some one has
+broken in and substituted this Lytton letter for the Thurston letter?"
+
+Kennedy was scrutinising the letter, saying nothing. "I may keep it?"
+he asked at length. Leland was quite willing and even undertook to
+obtain some specimens of the writing of Vera Lytton. With these and the
+letter Kennedy was working far into the night and long after I had
+passed into a land troubled with many wild dreams of deadly poisons and
+secret intrigues of artists.
+
+The next morning a message from our old friend First Deputy O'Connor in
+New York told briefly of locating the rooms of an artist named Thurston
+in one of the co-operative studio apartments. Thurston himself had not
+been there for several days and was reported to have gone to Maine to
+sketch. He had had a number of debts, but before he left they had all
+been paid--strange to say, by a notorious firm of shyster lawyers, Kerr
+& Kimmel. Kennedy wired back to find out the facts from Kerr & Kimmel
+and to locate Thurston at any cost.
+
+Even the discovery of the new letter did not shake the wonderful
+self-possession of Dr. Dixon. He denied ever having received it and
+repeated his story of a letter from Thurston to which he had replied by
+sending an answer, care of Mrs. Boncour, as requested. He insisted that
+the engagement between Miss Lytton and himself had been broken before
+the announcement of his engagement with Miss Willard. As for Thurston,
+he said the man was little more than a name to him. He had known
+perfectly all the circumstances of the divorce, but had had no dealings
+with Thurston and no fear of him. Again and again he denied ever
+receiving the letter from Vera Lytton.
+
+Kennedy did not tell the Willards of the new letter. The strain had
+begun to tell on Alma, and her father had had her quietly taken to a
+farm of his up in the country. To escape the curious eyes of reporters,
+Halsey Post had driven up one night in his closed car. She had entered
+it quickly with her father, and the journey had been made in the car,
+while Halsey Post had quietly dropped off on the outskirts of the town,
+where another car was waiting to take him back. It was evident that the
+Willard family relied implicitly on Halsey, and his assistance to them
+was most considerate. While he never forced himself forward, he kept in
+close touch with the progress of the case, and now that Alma was away
+his watchfulness increased proportionately, and twice a day he wrote a
+long report which was sent to her.
+
+Kennedy was now bending every effort to locate the missing artist. When
+he left Danbridge, he seemed to have dropped out of sight completely.
+However, with O'Connor's aid, the police of all New England were on the
+lookout.
+
+The Thurstons had been friends of Halsey's before Vera Lytton had ever
+met Dr. Dixon, we discovered from the Danbridge gossips, and I, at
+least, jumped to the conclusion that Halsey was shielding the artist,
+perhaps through a sense of friendship when he found that Kennedy was
+interested in Thurston's movement. I must say I rather liked Halsey,
+for he seemed very thoughtful of the Willards, and was never too busy
+to give an hour or so to any commission they wished carried out without
+publicity.
+
+Two days passed with not a word from Thurston. Kennedy was obviously
+getting impatient. One day a rumour was received that he was in Bar
+Harbour; the next it was a report from Nova Scotia. At last, however,
+came the welcome news that he had been located in New Hampshire,
+arrested, and might be expected the next day.
+
+At once Kennedy became all energy. He arranged for a secret conference
+in Senator Willard's house, the moment the artist was to arrive. The
+senator and his daughter made a flying trip back to town. Nothing was
+said to any one about Thurston, but Kennedy quietly arranged with the
+district attorney to be present with the note and the jar of ammonia
+properly safeguarded. Leland of course came, although his client could
+not. Halsey Post seemed only too glad to be with Miss Willard, though
+he seemed to have lost interest in the case as soon as the Willards
+returned to look after it themselves. Mrs. Boncour was well enough to
+attend, and even Dr. Waterworth insisted on coming in a private
+ambulance which drove over from a near-by city especially for him. The
+time was fixed just before the arrival of the train that was to bring
+Thurston.
+
+It was an anxious gathering of friends and foes of Dr. Dixon who sat
+impatiently waiting for Kennedy to begin this momentous exposition that
+was to establish the guilt or innocence of the calm young physician who
+sat impassively in the jail not half a mile from the room where his
+life and death were being debated.
+
+"In many respects this is the most remarkable case that it has ever
+been my lot to handle," began Kennedy. "Never before have I felt so
+keenly my sense of responsibility. Therefore, though this is a somewhat
+irregular proceeding, let me begin by setting forth the facts as I see
+them.
+
+"First, let us consider the dead woman. The question that arises here
+is, Was she murdered or did she commit suicide? I think you will
+discover the answer as I proceed. Miss Lytton, as you know, was, two
+years ago, Mrs. Burgess Thurston. The Thurstons had temperament, and
+temperament is quite often the highway to the divorce court. It was so
+in this case. Mrs. Thurston discovered that her husband was paying much
+attention to other women. She sued for divorce in New York, and he
+accepted service in the South, where he happened to be. At least it was
+so testified by Mrs. Thurston's lawyer.
+
+"Now here comes the remarkable feature of the case. The law firm of
+Kerr & Kimmel, I find, not long ago began to investigate the legality
+of this divorce. Before a notary Thurston made an affidavit that he had
+never been served by the lawyer for Miss Lytton, as she was now known.
+Her lawyer is dead, but his representative in the South who served the
+papers is alive. He was brought to New York and asserted squarely that
+he had served the papers properly.
+
+"Here is where the shrewdness of Mose Kimmel, the shyster lawyer, came
+in. He arranged to have the Southern attorney identify the man he had
+served the papers on. For this purpose he was engaged in conversation
+with one of his own clerks when the lawyer was due to appear. Kimmel
+appeared to act confused, as if he had been caught napping. The
+Southern lawyer, who had seen Thurston only once, fell squarely into
+the trap and identified the clerk as Thurston. There were plenty of
+witnesses to it, and it was point number two for the great Mose Kimmel.
+Papers were drawn up to set aside the divorce decree.
+
+"In the meantime, Miss Lytton, or Mrs. Thurston, had become acquainted
+with a young doctor in a New York hospital, and had become engaged to
+him. It matters not that the engagement was later broken. The fact
+remains that if the divorce were set aside an action would lie against
+Dr. Dixon for alienating Mrs. Thurston's affections, and a grave
+scandal would result. I need not add that in this quiet little town of
+Danbridge the most could be made of such a suit."
+
+Kennedy was unfolding a piece of paper. As he laid it down, Leland, who
+was sitting next to me, exclaimed under his breath:
+
+"My God, he's going to let the prosecutor know about that letter. Can't
+you stop him?"
+
+It was too late. Kennedy had already begun to read Vera's letter. It
+was damning to Dixon, added to the other note found in the ammonia-jar.
+
+When he had finished reading, you could almost hear the hearts
+throbbing in the room. A scowl overspread Senator Willard's features.
+Alma Willard was pale and staring wildly at Kennedy. Halsey Post, ever
+solicitous for her, handed her a glass of water from the table. Dr.
+Waterworth had forgotten his pain in his intense attention, and Mrs.
+Boncour seemed stunned with astonishment. The prosecuting attorney was
+eagerly taking notes.
+
+"In some way," pursued Kennedy in an even voice, "this letter was
+either overlooked in the original correspondence of Dr. Dixon or it was
+added to it later. I shall come back to that presently. My next point
+is that Dr. Dixon says he received a letter from Thurston on the day
+the artist visited the Boncour bungalow. It asked about a certain
+headache compound, and his reply was brief and, as nearly as I can find
+out, read, 'This compound will not cure your headache except at the
+expense of reducing heart action dangerously.'
+
+"Next comes the tragedy. On the evening of the day that Thurston left,
+after presumably telling Miss Lytton about what Kerr & Kimmel had
+discovered, Miss Lytton is found dying with a bottle containing cyanide
+and sublimate beside her. You are all familiar with the circumstances
+and with the note discovered in the jar of ammonia. Now, if the
+prosecutor will be so kind as to let me see that note--thank you, sir.
+This is the identical note. You have all heard the various theories of
+the jar and have read the note. Here it is in plain, cold black and
+white--in Dr. Dixon's own handwriting, as you know, and reads: 'This
+will cure your headache. Dr. Dixon.'"
+
+Alma Willard seemed as one paralysed. Was Kennedy, who had been engaged
+by her father to defend her fiance, about to convict him?
+
+"Before we draw the final conclusion," continued Kennedy gravely,
+"there are one or two points I wish to elaborate. Walter, will you open
+that door into the main hall?"
+
+I did so, and two policemen stepped in with a prisoner. It was
+Thurston, but changed almost beyond recognition. His clothes were worn,
+his beard shaved off, and he had a generally hunted appearance.
+
+Thurston was visibly nervous. Apparently he had heard all that Kennedy
+had said and intended he should hear, for as he entered he almost broke
+away from the police officers in his eagerness to speak.
+
+"Before God," he cried dramatically, "I am as innocent as you are of
+this crime, Professor Kennedy."
+
+"Are you prepared to swear before ME," almost shouted Kennedy, his eyes
+blazing, "that you were never served properly by your wife's lawyers in
+that suit?"
+
+The man cringed back as if a stinging blow had been delivered between
+his eyes. As he met Craig's fixed glare he knew there was no hope.
+Slowly, as if the words were being wrung from him syllable by syllable,
+he said in a muffled voice:
+
+"No, I perjured myself. I was served in that suit. But--"
+
+"And you swore falsely before Kimmel that you were not?" persisted
+Kennedy.
+
+"Yes," he murmured. "But--"
+
+"And you are prepared now to make another affidavit to that effect?"
+
+"Yes," he replied. "If--"
+
+"No buts or ifs, Thurston," cried Kennedy sarcastically. "What did you
+make that affidavit for? What is YOUR story?"
+
+"Kimmel sent for me. I did not go to him. He offered to pay my debts if
+I would swear to such a statement. I did not ask why or for whom. I
+swore to it and gave him a list of my creditors. I waited until they
+were paid. Then my conscience"--I could not help revolting at the
+thought of conscience in such a wretch, and the word itself seemed to
+stick in his throat as he went on and saw how feeble an impression he
+was making on us--"my conscience began to trouble me. I determined to
+see Vera, tell her all, and find out whether it was she who wanted this
+statement. I saw her. When at last I told her, she scorned me. I can
+confirm that, for as I left a man entered. I now knew how grossly I had
+sinned, in listening to Mose Kimmel. I fled. I disappeared in Maine. I
+travelled. Every day my money grew less. At last I was overtaken,
+captured, and brought back here."
+
+He stopped and sank wretchedly down in a chair and covered his face
+with his hands.
+
+"A likely story," muttered Leland in my ear.
+
+Kennedy was working quickly. Motioning the officers to be seated by
+Thurston, he uncovered a jar which he had placed on the table. The
+colour had now appeared in Alma's cheeks, as if hope had again sprung
+in her heart, and I fancied that Halsey Post saw his claim on her
+favour declining correspondingly.
+
+"I want you to examine the letters in this case with me," continued
+Kennedy. "Take the letter which I read from Miss Lytton, which was
+found following the strange disappearance of the note from Thurston."
+
+He dipped a pen into a little bottle, and wrote on a piece of paper:
+
+What is your opinion about Cross's Headache Cure? Would you recommend
+it for a nervous headache? BURGESS THURSTON, c/o MRS. S. BONCOUR.
+
+Craig held up the writing so that we could all see that he had written
+what Dixon declared Thurston wrote in the note that had disappeared.
+Then he dipped another pen into a second bottle, and for some time he
+scrawled on another sheet of paper. He held it up, but it was still
+perfectly blank.
+
+"Now," he added, "I am going to give a little demonstration which I
+expect to be successful only in a measure. Here in the open sunshine by
+this window I am going to place these two sheets of paper side by side.
+It will take longer than I care to wait to make my demonstration
+complete, but I can do enough to convince you."
+
+For a quarter of an hour we sat in silence, wondering what he would do
+next. At last he beckoned us over to the window. As we approached he
+said, "On sheet number one I have written with quinoline; on sheet
+number two I wrote with a solution of nitrate of silver."
+
+We bent over. The writing signed "Thurston" on sheet number one was
+faint, almost imperceptible, but on paper number two, in black letters,
+appeared what Kennedy had written: "Dear Harris: Since we agreed to
+disagree we have at least been good friends."
+
+"It is like the start of the substituted letter, and the other is like
+the missing note," gasped Leland in a daze.
+
+"Yes," said Kennedy quickly. "Leland, no one entered your office. No
+one stole the Thurston note. No one substituted the Lytton letter.
+According to your own story, you took them out of the safe and left
+them in the sunlight all day. The process that had been started earlier
+in ordinary light, slowly, was now quickly completed. In other words,
+there was writing which would soon fade away on one side of the paper
+and writing which was invisible but would soon appear on the other.
+
+"For instance, quinoline rapidly disappears in sunlight. Starch with a
+slight trace of iodine writes a light blue, which disappears in air. It
+was something like that used in the Thurston letter. Then, too, silver
+nitrate dissolved in ammonia gradually turns black as it is acted on by
+light and air. Or magenta treated with a bleaching-agent in just
+sufficient quantity to decolourise it is invisible when used for
+writing. But the original colour reappears as the oxygen of the air
+acts upon the pigment. I haven't a doubt but that my analyses of the
+inks are correct and on one side quinoline was used and on the other
+nitrate of silver. This explains the inexplicable disappearance of
+evidence incriminating one person, Thurston, and the sudden appearance
+of evidence incriminating another, Dr. Dixon. Sympathetic ink also
+accounts for the curious circumstance that the Lytton letter was folded
+up with the writing apparently outside. It was outside and unseen until
+the sunlight brought it out and destroyed the other, inside, writing--a
+change, I suspect, that was intended for the police to see after it was
+completed, not for the defence to witness as it was taking place."
+
+We looked at each other aghast. Thurston was nervously opening and
+shutting his lips and moistening them as if he wanted to say something
+but could not find the words.
+
+"Lastly," went on Craig, utterly regardless of Thurston's frantic
+efforts to speak, "we come to the note that was discovered so queerly
+crumpled up in the jar of ammonia on Vera Lytton's dressing-table. I
+have here a cylindrical glass jar in which I place some sal-ammoniac
+and quicklime. I will wet it and heat it a little. That produces the
+pungent gas of ammonia.
+
+"On one side of this third piece of paper I myself write with this
+mercurous nitrate solution. You see, I leave no mark on the paper as I
+write. I fold it up and drop it into the jar-and in a few seconds
+withdraw it. Here is a very quick way of producing something like the
+slow result of sunlight with silver nitrate. The fumes of ammonia have
+formed the precipitate of black mercurous nitrate, a very distinct
+black writing which is almost indelible. That is what is technically
+called invisible rather than sympathetic ink."
+
+We leaned over to read what he had written. It was the same as the note
+incriminating Dixon:
+
+     This will cure your headache.
+
+     DR. DIXON.
+
+A servant entered with a telegram from New York. Scarcely stopping in
+his exposure, Kennedy tore it open, read it hastily, stuffed it into
+his pocket, and went on.
+
+"Here in this fourth bottle I have an acid solution of iron chloride,
+diluted until the writing is invisible when dry," he hurried on. "I
+will just make a few scratches on this fourth sheet of paper--so. It
+leaves no mark. But it has the remarkable property of becoming red in
+vapour of sulpho-cyanide. Here is a long-necked flask of the gas, made
+by sulphuric acid acting on potassium sulpho-cyanide. Keep back, Dr.
+Waterworth, for it would be very dangerous for you to get even a whiff
+of this in your condition. Ah! See--the scratches I made on the paper
+are red."
+
+Then hardly giving us more than a moment to let the fact impress itself
+on our minds, he seized the piece of paper and dashed it into the jar
+of ammonia. When he withdrew it, it was just a plain sheet of white
+paper again. The red marks which the gas in the flask had brought out
+of nothingness had been effaced by the ammonia. They had gone and left
+no trace.
+
+"In this way I can alternately make the marks appear and disappear by
+using the sulpho-cyanide and the ammonia. Whoever wrote this note with
+Dr. Dixon's name on it must have had the doctor's reply to the Thurston
+letter containing the words, 'This will not cure your headache.' He
+carefully traced the words, holding the genuine note up to the light
+with a piece of paper over it, leaving out the word 'not' and using
+only such words as he needed. This note was then destroyed.
+
+"But he forgot that after he had brought out the red writing by the use
+of the sulpho-cyanide, and though he could count on Vera Lytton's
+placing the note in the jar of ammonia and hence obliterating the
+writing, while at the same time the invisible writing in the mercurous
+nitrate involving Dr. Dixon's name would be brought out by the ammonia
+indelibly on the other side of the note--he forgot"--Kennedy was now
+speaking eagerly and loudly--"that the sulpho-cyanide vapours could
+always be made to bring back to accuse him the words that the ammonia
+had blotted out."
+
+Before the prosecutor could interfere, Kennedy had picked up the note
+found in the ammonia-jar beside the dying girl and had jammed the
+state's evidence into the long-necked flask of sulpho-cyanide vapour.
+
+"Don't fear," he said, trying to pacify the now furious prosecutor, "it
+will do nothing to the Dixon writing. That is permanent now, even if it
+is only a tracing."
+
+When he withdrew the note, there was writing on both sides, the black
+of the original note and something in red on the other side.
+
+We crowded around, and Craig read it with as much interest as any of us:
+
+"Before taking the headache-powder, be sure to place the contents of
+this paper in a jar with a little warm water."
+
+"Hum," commented Craig, "this was apparently written on the outside
+wrapper of a paper folded about some sal-ammoniac and quicklime. It
+goes on:
+
+"'Just drop the whole thing in, PAPER AND ALL. Then if you feel a
+faintness from the medicine the ammonia will quickly restore you. One
+spoonful of the headache-powder swallowed quickly is enough.'"
+
+No name was signed to the directions, but they were plainly written,
+and "PAPER AND ALL" was underscored heavily.
+
+Craig pulled out some letters. "I have here specimens of writing of
+many persons connected with this case, but I can see at a glance which
+one corresponds to the writing on this red death-warrant by an almost
+inhuman fiend. I shall, however, leave that part of it to the
+handwriting experts to determine at the trial. Thurston, who was the
+man whom you saw enter the Boncour bungalow as you left--the constant
+visitor?"
+
+Thurston had not yet regained his self-control, but with trembling
+forefinger he turned and pointed to Halsey Post.
+
+"Yes, ladies and gentlemen," cried Kennedy as he slapped the telegram
+that had just come from New York down on the table decisively, "yes,
+the real client of Kerr & Kimmel, who bent Thurston to his purposes,
+was Halsey Post, once secret lover of Vera Lytton till threatened by
+scandal in Danbridge--Halsey Post, graduate in technology, student of
+sympathetic inks, forger of the Vera Lytton letter and the other notes,
+and dealer in cyanides in the silver-smithing business, fortune-hunter
+for the Willard millions with which to recoup the Post & Vance losses,
+and hence rival of Dr. Dixon for the love of Alma Willard. That is the
+man who wielded the poisoned pen. Dr. Dixon is innocent."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE YEGGMAN
+
+
+"Hello! Yes, this is Professor Kennedy. I didn't catch the name--oh,
+yes--President Blake of the Standard Burglary Insurance Company.
+What--really? The Branford pearls--stolen? Maid chloroformed? Yes, I'll
+take the case. You'll be up in half an hour? All right, I'll be here.
+Goodbye."
+
+It was through this brief and businesslike conversation over the
+telephone that Kennedy became involved in what proved to be one of the
+most dangerous cases he had ever handled.
+
+At the mention of the Branford pearls I involuntarily stopped reading,
+and listened, not because I wanted to pry into Craig's affairs, but
+because I simply couldn't help it. This was news that had not yet been
+given out to the papers, and my instinct told me that there must be
+something more to it than the bare statement of the robbery.
+
+"Some one has made a rich haul," I commented. "It was reported, I
+remember, when the Branford pearls were bought in Paris last year that
+Mrs. Branford paid upward of a million francs for the collection."
+
+"Blake is bringing up his shrewdest detective to co-operate with me in
+the case," added Kennedy. "Blake, I understand, is the head of the
+Burglary Insurance Underwriters' Association, too. This will be a big
+thing, Walter, if we can carry it through."
+
+It was the longest half-hour that I ever put in, waiting for Blake to
+arrive. When he did come, it was quite evident that my surmise had been
+correct.
+
+Blake was one of those young old men who are increasingly common in
+business today. There was an air of dignity and keenness about his
+manner that showed clearly how important he regarded the case. So
+anxious was he to get down to business that he barely introduced
+himself and his companion, Special Officer Maloney, a typical private
+detective.
+
+"Of course you haven't heard anything except what I have told you over
+the wire," he began, going right to the point. "We were notified of it
+only this noon ourselves, and we haven't given it out to the papers
+yet, though the local police in Jersey are now on the scene. The New
+York police must be notified tonight, so that whatever we do must be
+done before they muss things up. We've got a clue that we want to
+follow up secretly. These are the facts."
+
+In the terse, straightforward language of the up-to-date man of
+efficiency, he sketched the situation for us.
+
+"The Branford estate, you know, consists of several acres on the
+mountain back of Montclair, overlooking the valley, and surrounded by
+even larger estates. Branford, I understand, is in the West with a
+party of capitalists, inspecting a reported find of potash salts. Mrs.
+Branford closed up the house a few days ago and left for a short stay
+at Palm Beach. Of course they ought to have put their valuables in a
+safe deposit vault. But they didn't. They relied on a safe that was
+really one of the best in the market--a splendid safe, I may say. Well,
+it seems that while the master and mistress were both away the servants
+decided on having a good time in New York. They locked up the house
+securely--there's no doubt of that--and just went. That is, they all
+went except Mrs. Branford's maid, who refused to go for some reason or
+other. We've got all the servants, but there's not a clue to be had
+from any of them. They just went off on a bust, that's clear. They
+admit it.
+
+"Now, when they got back early this morning they found the maid in
+bed--dead. There was still a strong odor of chloroform about the room.
+The bed was disarranged as if there had been a struggle. A towel had
+been wrapped up in a sort of cone, saturated with chloroform, and
+forcibly held over the girl's nose. The next thing they discovered was
+the safe--blown open in a most peculiar manner. I won't dwell on that.
+We're going to take you out there and show it to you after I've told
+you the whole story.
+
+"Here's the real point. It looks all right, so far. The local police
+say that the thief or thieves, whoever they were, apparently gained
+access by breaking a back window. That's mistake number one. Tell Mr.
+Kennedy about the window, Maloney."
+
+"It's just simply this," responded the detective. "When I came to look
+at the broken window I found that the glass had fallen outside in such
+a way as it could not have fallen if the window had been broken from
+the outside. The thing was a blind. Whoever did it got into the house
+in some other way and then broke the glass later to give a false clue."
+
+"And," concluded Blake, taking his cigar between his thumb and
+forefinger and shaking it to give all possible emphasis to his words,
+"we have had our agent at Palm Beach on long-distance 'phone twice this
+afternoon. Mrs. Branford did NOT go to Palm Beach. She did NOT engage
+rooms in any hotel there. And furthermore she never had any intention
+of going there. By a fortunate circumstance Maloney picked up a hint
+from one of the servants, and he has located her at the Grattan Inn in
+this city. In other words, Mrs. Branford has stolen her own jewels from
+herself in order to collect the burglary insurance--a common-enough
+thing in itself, but never to my knowledge done on such a large scale
+before."
+
+The insurance man sank back in his chair and surveyed us sharply.
+
+"But," interrupted Kennedy slowly, "how about--"
+
+"I know--the maid," continued Blake. "I do not mean that Mrs. Branford
+did the actual stealing. Oh, no. That was done by a yeggman of
+experience. He must have been above the average, but everything points
+to the work of a yeggman. She hired him. But he overstepped the mark
+when he chloroformed the maid."
+
+For a moment Kennedy said nothing. Then he remarked: "Let us go out and
+see the safe. There must be some clue. After that I want to have a talk
+with Mrs. Branford. By the way," he added, as we all rose to go down to
+Blake's car, "I once handled a life insurance case for the Great
+Eastern. I made the condition that I was to handle it in my own way,
+whether it went for or against the company. That's understood, is it,
+before I undertake the case?"
+
+"Yes, yes," agreed Blake. "Get at the truth. We're not seeking to
+squirm out of meeting an honest liability. Only we want to make a
+signal example if it is as we have every reason to believe. There has
+been altogether too much of this sort of fake burglary to collect
+insurance, and as president of the underwriters it is my duty and
+intention to put a stop to it. Come on."
+
+Maloney nodded his head vigorously in assent with his chief. "Never
+fear," he murmured. "The truth is what will benefit the company, all
+right. She did it."
+
+The Branford estate lay some distance back from the railroad station,
+so that, although it took longer to go by automobile than by train, the
+car made us independent of the rather fitful night train service and
+the local cabmen.
+
+We found the house not deserted by the servants, but subdued. The body
+of the maid had been removed to a local morgue, and a police officer
+was patrolling the grounds, though of what use that could be I was at a
+loss to understand.
+
+Kennedy was chiefly interested in the safe. It was of the so-called
+"burglar-proof" variety, spherical in shape, and looking for all the
+world like a miniature piece of electrical machinery.
+
+"I doubt if anything could have withstood such savage treatment as has
+been given to this safe," remarked Craig as he concluded a cursory
+examination of it. "It shows great resistance to high explosives,
+chiefly, I believe, as a result of its rounded shape. But nothing could
+stand up against such continued assaults."
+
+He continued to examine the safe while we stood idly by. "I like to
+reconstruct my cases in my own mind," explained Kennedy, as he took his
+time in the examination. "Now, this fellow must have stripped the safe
+of all the outer trimmings. His next move was to make a dent in the
+manganese surface across the joint where the door fits the body. That
+must have taken a good many minutes of husky work. In fact, I don't see
+how he could have done it without a sledge-hammer and a hot chisel.
+Still, he did it and then--"
+
+"But the maid," interposed Maloney. "She was in the house. She would
+have heard and given an alarm."
+
+For answer, Craig simply went to a bay-window and raised the curtain.
+Pointing to the lights of the next house, far down the road, he said,
+"I'll buy the best cigars in the state if you can make them hear you on
+a blustery night like last night. No, she probably did scream. Either
+at this point, or at the very start, the burglar must have chloroformed
+her. I don't see any other way to explain it. I doubt if he expected
+such a tough proposition as he found in this safe, but he was evidently
+prepared to carry it through, now that he was here and had such an
+unexpectedly clear field, except for the maid. He simply got her out of
+the way, or his confederates did--in the easiest possible way, poor
+girl."
+
+Returning to the safe, he continued: "Well, anyhow, he made a furrow
+perhaps an inch and a half long and a quarter of an inch wide and, I
+should say, not over an eighth of an inch deep. Then he commenced to
+burgle in earnest. Under the dent he made a sort of little cup of red
+clay and poured in the 'soup'--the nitroglycerin--so that it would run
+into the depression. Then he exploded it in the regular way with a
+battery and a fulminate cap. I doubt if it did much more than discolour
+the metal at first. Still, with the true persistency of his kind, he
+probably repeated the dose, using more and more of the 'soup' until the
+joint was stretched a little, and more of an opening made so that the
+'soup' could run in.
+
+"Again and again he must have repeated and increased the charges.
+Perhaps he used two or three cups at a time. By this time the outer
+door must have been stretched so as to make it easy to introduce the
+explosive. No doubt he was able to use ten or twelve ounces of the
+stuff at a charge. It must have been more like target-practice than
+safe-blowing. But the chance doesn't often come--an empty house and
+plenty of time. Finally the door must have bulged a fraction of an inch
+or so, and then a good big charge and the outer portion was ripped off
+and the safe turned over. There was still two or three inches of
+manganese steel protecting the contents, wedged in so tight that it
+must have seemed that nothing could budge it. But he must have kept at
+it until we have the wreck that we see here," and Kennedy kicked the
+safe with his foot as he finished.
+
+Blake was all attention by this time, while Maloney gasped, "If I was
+in the safe-cracking business, I'd make you the head of the firm."
+
+"And now," said Craig, "let us go back to New York and see if we can
+find Mrs. Branford."
+
+"Of course you understand," explained Blake as we were speeding back,
+"that most of these cases of fake robberies are among small people,
+many of them on the East Side among little jewellers or other
+tradesmen. Still, they are not limited to any one class. Indeed, it is
+easier to foil the insurance companies when you sit in the midst of
+finery and wealth, protected by a self-assuring halo of moral
+rectitude, than under less fortunate circumstances. Too often, I'm
+afraid, we have good-naturedly admitted the unsolved burglary and paid
+the insurance claim. That has got to stop. Here's a case where we
+considered the moral hazard a safe one, and we are mistaken. It's the
+last straw."
+
+Our interview with Mrs. Branford was about as awkward an undertaking as
+I have ever been concerned with. Imagine yourself forced to question a
+perfectly stunning woman, who was suspected of plotting so daring a
+deed and knew that you suspected her. Resentment was no name for her
+feelings. She scorned us, loathed us. It was only by what must have
+been the utmost exercise of her remarkable will-power that she
+restrained herself from calling the hotel porters and having us thrown
+out bodily. That would have put a bad face on it, so she tolerated our
+presence. Then, of course, the insurance company had reserved the right
+to examine everybody in the household, under oath if necessary, before
+passing on the claim.
+
+"This is an outrage," she exclaimed, her eyes flashing and her breast
+rising and falling with suppressed emotion, "an outrage. When my
+husband returns I intend to have him place the whole matter in the
+hands of the best attorney in the city. Not only will I have the full
+amount of the insurance, but I will have damages and costs and
+everything the law allows. Spying on my every movement in this way--it
+is an outrage! One would think we were in St. Petersburg instead of New
+York."
+
+"One moment, Mrs. Branford," put in Kennedy, as politely as he could.
+"Suppose--"
+
+"Suppose nothing," she cried angrily. "I shall explain nothing, say
+nothing. What if I do choose to close up that lonely big house in the
+suburbs and come to the city to live for a few days--is it anybody's
+business except mine?"
+
+"And your husband's?" added Kennedy, nettled at her treatment of him.
+
+She shot him a scornful glance. "I suppose Mr. Branford went out to
+Arizona for the express purpose of collecting insurance on my jewels,"
+she added sarcastically with eyes that snapped fire.
+
+"I was about to say," remarked Kennedy as imperturbably as if he were
+an automaton, "that supposing some one took advantage of your absence
+to rob your safe, don't you think the wisest course would be to be
+perfectly frank about it?"
+
+"And give just one plausible reason why you wished so much to have it
+known that you were going to Palm Beach when in reality you were in New
+York?" pursued Maloney, while Kennedy frowned at his tactless attempt
+at a third degree.
+
+If she had resented Kennedy, she positively flew up in the air and
+commenced to aviate at Maloney's questioning. Tossing her head, she
+said icily: "I do not know that you have been appointed my guardian,
+sir. Let us consider this interview at an end. Good-night," and with
+that she swept out of the room, ignoring Maloney and bestowing one
+biting glance on Blake, who actually winced, so little relish did he
+have for this ticklish part of the proceedings.
+
+I think we all felt like schoolboys who had been detected robbing a
+melon-patch or in some other heinous offence, as we slowly filed down
+the hall to the elevator. A woman of Mrs. Branford's stamp so readily
+and successfully puts one in the wrong that I could easily comprehend
+why Blake wanted to call on Kennedy for help in what otherwise seemed a
+plain case.
+
+Blake and Maloney were some distance ahead of us, as Craig leaned over
+to me and whispered. "That Maloney is impossible. I'll have to shake
+him loose in some way. Either we handle this case alone or we quit."
+
+"Right-o," I agreed emphatically. "He's put his foot in it badly at the
+very start. Only, be decent about it, Craig. The case is too big for
+you to let it slip by."
+
+"Trust me, Walter. I'll do it tactfully," he whispered, then to Blake
+he added as we overtook them: "Maloney is right. The case is simple
+enough, after all. But we must find out some way to fasten the thing
+more closely on Mrs. Branford. Let me think out a scheme to-night. I'll
+see you tomorrow."
+
+As Blake and Maloney disappeared down the street in the car, Kennedy
+wheeled about and walked deliberately back into the Grattan Inn again.
+It was quite late. People were coming in from the theatres, laughing
+and chatting gaily. Kennedy selected a table that commanded a view of
+the parlour as well as of the dining-room itself.
+
+"She was dressed to receive some one--did you notice?" he remarked as
+we sat down and cast our eyes over the dizzy array of inedibles on the
+card before us. "I think it is worth waiting a while to see who it is."
+
+Having ordered what I did not want, I glanced about until my eye rested
+on a large pier-glass at the other end of the dining-room.
+
+"Craig," I whispered excitedly, "Mrs. B. is in the writing-room--I can
+see her in that glass at the end of the room, behind you."
+
+"Get up and change places with me as quietly as you can, Walter," he
+said quickly. "I want to see her when she can't see me."
+
+Kennedy was staring in rapt attention at the mirror. "There's a man
+with her, Walter," he said under his breath. "He came in while we were
+changing places--a fine-looking chap. By Jove, I've seen him before
+somewhere. His face and his manner are familiar to me. But I simply
+can't place him. Did you see her wraps in the chair? No? Well, he's
+helping her on with them. They're going out. GARCON, L'ADDITION--VITE"
+
+We were too late, however, for just as we reached the door we caught a
+fleeting glimpse of a huge new limousine.
+
+"Who was that man who just went out with the lady?" asked Craig of the
+negro who turned the revolving-door at the carriage entrance.
+
+"Jack Delarue, sah--in 'The Grass Widower,' sah," replied the doorman.
+"Yes, sah, he stays here once in a while. Thank you, sah," as Kennedy
+dropped a quarter into the man's hand.
+
+"That complicates things considerably," he mused as we walked slowly
+down to the subway station. "Jack Delarue--I wonder if he is mixed up
+in this thing also."
+
+"I've heard that 'The Grass Widower' isn't such a howling success as a
+money-maker," I volunteered. "Delarue has a host of creditors, no
+doubt. By the way, Craig," I exclaimed, "don't you think it would be a
+good plan to drop down and see O'Connor? The police will have to be
+informed in a few hours now, anyhow. Maybe Delarue has a criminal
+record."
+
+"A good idea, Walter," agreed Craig, turning into a drug-store which
+had a telephone booth. "I'll just call O'Connor up, and we'll see if he
+does know anything about it."
+
+O'Connor was not at headquarters, but we finally found him at his home,
+and it was well into the small hours when we arrived there. Trusting to
+the first deputy's honour, which had stood many a test, Craig began to
+unfold the story. He had scarcely got as far as describing the work of
+the suspected hired yeggman, when O'Connor raised both hands and
+brought them down hard on the arms of his chair.
+
+"Say," he ejaculated, "that explains it!"
+
+"What?" we asked in chorus.
+
+"Why, one of my best stool-pigeons told me to-day that there was
+something doing at a house in the Chatham Square district that we have
+been watching for a long time. It's full of crooks, and to-day they've
+all been as drunk as lords, a sure sign some one has made a haul and
+been generous with the rest, And one or two of the professional
+'fences' have been acting suspiciously, too. Oh, that explains it all
+right."
+
+I looked at Craig as much as to say, "I told you so," but he was
+engrossed in what O'Connor was saying.
+
+"You know," continued the police officer, "there is one particular
+'fence' who runs his business under the guise of a loan-shark's office.
+He probably has a wider acquaintance among the big criminals than any
+other man in the city. From him crooks can obtain anything from a jimmy
+to a safe-cracking outfit. I know that this man has been trying to
+dispose of some unmounted pearls to-day among jewellers in Maiden Lane.
+I'll bet he has been disposing of some of the Branford pearls, one by
+one. I'll follow that up. I'll arrest this 'fence' and hold him till he
+tells me what yeggman came to him with the pearls."
+
+"And if you find out, will you go with me to that house near Chatham
+Square, providing it was some one in that gang?" asked Craig eagerly.
+
+O'Connor shook his head. "I'd better keep out of it. They know me too
+well. Go alone. I'll get that stool-pigeon--the Gay Cat is his name--to
+go with you. I'll help you in any way. I'll have any number of
+plain-clothes men you want ready to raid the place the moment you get
+the evidence. But you'll never get any evidence if they know I'm in the
+neighbourhood."
+
+The next morning Craig scarcely ate any breakfast himself and made me
+bolt my food most unceremoniously. We were out in Montclair again
+before the commuters had started to go to New York, and that in spite
+of the fact that we had stopped at his laboratory on the way and had
+got a package which he carried carefully.
+
+Kennedy instituted a most thorough search of the house from cellar to
+attic in daylight. What he expected to find, I did not know, but I am
+quite sure nothing escaped him.
+
+"Now, Walter," he said after he had ransacked the house, "there remains
+just one place. Here is this little wall safe in Mrs. Branford's room.
+We must open it."
+
+For an hour if not longer he worked over the combination, listening to
+the fall of the tumblers in the lock. It was a simple little thing and
+one of the old-timers in the industry would no doubt have opened it in
+short order. The perspiration stood out on his forehead, so intent was
+he in working the thing. At last it yielded. Except for some of the
+family silver, the safe was empty.
+
+Carefully noting how the light shone on the wall safe, Craig unwrapped
+the package he had brought and disclosed a camera. He placed it on a
+writing-desk opposite the safe, in such a way that it was not at all
+conspicuous, and focused it on the safe.
+
+"This is a camera with a newly-invented between-lens shutter of great
+illumination and efficiency," he explained. "It has always been
+practically impossible to get such pictures, but this new shutter has
+so much greater speed than anything ever invented before that it is
+possible to use it in detective work. I'll just run these fine wires
+like a burglar alarm, only instead of having an alarm I'll attach them
+to the camera so that we can get a picture. I've proved its speed up to
+one two-thousandth of a second. It may or it may not work. If it does
+we'll catch somebody, right in the act."
+
+About noon we went down to Liberty Street, home of burglary insurance.
+I don't think Blake liked it very much because Kennedy insisted on
+playing the lone hand, but he said nothing, for it was part of the
+agreement. Maloney seemed rather glad than otherwise. He had been
+combing out some tangled clues of his own about Mrs. Branford. Still,
+Kennedy smoothed things over by complimenting the detective on his
+activity, and indeed he had shown remarkable ability in the first place
+in locating Mrs. Branford.
+
+"I started out with the assumption that the Branfords must have needed
+money for some reason or other," said Maloney. "So I went to the
+commercial agencies to-day and looked up Branford. I can't say he has
+been prosperous; nobody has been in Wall Street these days, and that's
+just the thing that causes an increase in fake burglaries. Then there
+is another possibility," he continued triumphantly. "I had a man up at
+the Grattan Inn, and he reports to me that Mrs. Stanford was seen with
+the actor Jack Delarue last night, I imagine they quarrelled, for she
+returned alone, much agitated, in a taxi-cab. Any way you look at it,
+the clues are promising--whether she needed money for Branford's
+speculations or for the financing of that rake Delarue."
+
+Maloney regarded Craig with the air of an expert who could afford to
+patronise a good amateur--but after all an amateur. Kennedy said
+nothing, and of course I took the cue.
+
+"Yes," agreed Blake, "you see, our original hypothesis was a pretty
+good one. Meanwhile, of course, the police are floundering around in a
+bog of false scents."
+
+"It would make our case a good deal stronger," remarked Kennedy
+quietly, "if we could discover some of the stolen jewellery hidden
+somewhere by Mrs. Branford herself." He said nothing of his own
+unsuccessful search through the house, but continued: "What do you
+suppose she has done with the jewels? She must have put them somewhere
+before she got the yeggman to break the safe. She'd hardly trust them
+in his hands. But she might have been foolish enough for that. Of
+course it's another possibility that he really got away with them. I
+doubt if she has them at Grattan Inn, or even if she would personally
+put them in a safe deposit vault. Perhaps Delarue figures in that end
+of it. We must let no stone go unturned."
+
+"That's right," meditated Maloney, apparently turning something over in
+his mind as if it were a new idea. "If we only had some evidence, even
+part of the jewels that she had hidden, it would clinch the case.
+That's a good idea, Kennedy."
+
+Craig said nothing, but I could see, or fancied I saw, that he was
+gratified at the thought that he had started Maloney off on another
+trail, leaving us to follow ours unhampered. The interview with Blake
+was soon over, and as we left I looked inquiringly at Craig.
+
+"I want to see Mrs. Branford again," he said. "I think we can do better
+alone today than we did last night."
+
+I must say I half expected that she would refuse to see us and was
+quite surprised when the page returned with the request that we go up
+to her suite. It was evident that her attitude toward us was very
+different from that of the first interview. Whether she was ruffled by
+the official presence of Blake or the officious presence of Maloney,
+she was at least politely tolerant of us. Or was it that she at last
+began to realise that the toils were closing about her and that things
+began to look unmistakably black?
+
+Kennedy was quick to see his advantage. "Mrs. Branford," he began,
+"since last night I have come into the possession of some facts that
+are very important. I have heard that several loose pearls which may or
+may not be yours have been offered for sale by a man on the Bowery who
+is what the yeggmen call a 'fence.'"
+
+"Yeggmen--'fence'?" she repeated. "Mr. Kennedy, really I do not care to
+discuss the pearls any longer. It is immaterial to me what becomes of
+them. My first desire is to collect the insurance. If anything is
+recovered I am quite willing to deduct that amount from the total. But
+I must insist on the full insurance or the return of the pearls. As
+soon as Mr. Branford arrives I shall take other steps to secure
+redress."
+
+A boy rapped at the door and brought in a telegram which she tore open
+nervously. "He will be here in four days," she said, tearing the
+telegram petulantly, and not at all as if she were glad to receive it.
+"Is there anything else that you wish to say?"
+
+She was tapping her foot on the rug as if anxious to conclude the
+interview. Kennedy leaned forward earnestly and played his trump card
+boldly.
+
+"Do you remember that scene in 'The Grass Widower,'" he said slowly,
+"where Jack Delarue meets his runaway wife at the masquerade ball?"
+
+She coloured slightly, but instantly regained her composure. "Vaguely,"
+she murmured, toying with the flowers in her dress.
+
+"In real life," said Kennedy, his voice purposely betraying that he
+meant it to have a personal application, "husbands do not forgive even
+rumours of--ah--shall we say affinities?--much less the fact."
+
+"In real life," she replied, "wives do not have affinities as often as
+some newspapers and plays would have us believe."
+
+"I saw Delarue after the performance last night," went on Kennedy
+inexorably. "I was not seen, but I saw, and he was with----"
+
+She was pacing the room now in unsuppressed excitement. "Will you never
+stop spying on me?" she cried. "Must my every act be watched and
+misrepresented? I suppose a distorted version of the facts will be
+given to my husband. Have you no chivalry, or justice, or--or mercy?"
+she pleaded, stopping in front of Kennedy.
+
+"Mrs. Branford," he replied coldly, "I cannot promise what I shall do.
+My duty is simply to get at the truth about the pearls. If it involves
+some other person, it is still my duty to get at the truth. Why not
+tell me all that you really know about the pearls and trust me to bring
+it out all right?"
+
+She faced him, pale and haggard. "I have told," she repeated steadily.
+"I cannot tell any more--I know nothing more."
+
+Was she lying? I was not expert enough in feminine psychology to judge,
+but down in my heart I knew that the woman was hiding something behind
+that forced steadiness. What was it she was battling for? We had
+reached an impasse.
+
+It was after dinner when I met Craig at the laboratory. He had made a
+trip to Montclair again, where his stay had been protracted because
+Maloney was there and he wished to avoid him. He had brought back the
+camera, and had had another talk with O'Connor, at which he had mapped
+out a plan of battle.
+
+"We are to meet the Gay Cat at the City Hall at nine o'clock,"
+explained Craig laconically. "We are going to visit a haunt of yeggmen,
+Walter, that few outsiders have ever seen. Are you game? O'Connor and
+his men will be close by--hiding, of course."
+
+"I suppose so," I replied slowly. "But what excuse are you going to
+have for getting into this yegg-resort?"
+
+"Simply that we are two newspaper men looking for an article, without
+names, dates, or places--just a good story of yeggmen and tramps. I've
+got a little--well, we'll call it a little camera outfit that I'm going
+to sling over my shoulder. You are the reporter, remember, and I'm the
+newspaper photographer. They won't pose for us, of course, but that
+will be all right. Speaking about photographs, I got one out at
+Montclair that is interesting. I'll show it to you later in the
+evening--and in case anything should happen to me, Walter, you'll find
+the original plate locked here in the top drawer of my desk. I guess
+we'd better be getting downtown."
+
+The house to which we were guided by the Gay Cat was on a cross street
+within a block or two of Chatham Square. If we had passed it casually
+in the daytime there would have been nothing to distinguish it above
+the other ramshackle buildings on the street, except that the other
+houses were cluttered with children and baby-carriages, while this one
+was vacant, the front door closed, and the blinds tightly drawn. As we
+approached, a furtive figure shambled from the basement areaway and
+slunk off into the crowd for the night's business of pocket-picking or
+second-story work.
+
+I had had misgivings as to whether we would be admitted at all--I might
+almost say hopes--but the Gay Cat succeeded in getting a ready response
+at the basement door. The house itself was the dilapidated ruin of what
+had once been a fashionable residence in the days when society lived in
+the then suburban Bowery. The iron handrail on the steps was still
+graceful, though rusted and insecure. The stones of the steps were
+decayed and eaten away by time, and the front door was never opened.
+
+As we entered the low basement door, I felt that those who entered here
+did indeed abandon hope. Inside, the evidences of the past grandeur
+were still more striking. What had once been a drawing-room was now the
+general assembly room of the resort. Broken-down chairs lined the
+walls, and the floor was generously sprinkled with sawdust. A huge
+pot-bellied stove occupied the centre of the room, and by it stood a
+box of sawdust plentifully discoloured with tobacco-juice.
+
+Three or four of the "guests"--there was no "register" in this
+yeggman's hotel--were seated about the stove discussing something in a
+language that was English, to be sure, but of a variation that only a
+yegg could understand. I noted the once handsome white marble mantel,
+now stained by age, standing above the unused grate. Double
+folding-doors led to what, I imagine, was once a library. Dirt and
+grime indescribable were everywhere. There was the smell of old clothes
+and old cooking, the race odours of every nationality known to the
+metropolis. I recalled a night I once spent in a Bowery lodging-house
+for "local colour." Only this was infinitely worse. No law regulated
+this house. There was an atmosphere of cheerlessness that a
+half-blackened Welsbach mantle turned into positive ghastliness.
+
+Our guide introduced us. There was a dead silence as eight eyes were
+craftily fixed on us, sizing us up. What should I say? Craig came to
+the rescue. To him the adventure was a lark. It was novel, and that was
+merit enough.
+
+"Ask about the slang," he suggested. "That makes a picturesque story."
+
+It seemed to me innocuous enough, so I engaged in conversation with a
+man whom the Gay Cat had introduced as the proprietor. Much of the
+slang I already knew by hearsay, such as "bulls" for policemen, a
+"mouthpiece" for a lawyer to defend one when he is "ditched" or
+arrested; in fact, as I busily scribbled away I must have collected a
+lexicon of a hundred words or so for future reference.
+
+"And names?" I queried. "You have some queer nicknames."
+
+"Oh, yes," replied the man. "Now here's the Gay Cat--that's what we
+call a fellow who is the finder, who enters a town ahead of the gang.
+Then there's Chi Fat--that means he's from Chicago and fat. And Pitts
+Slim--he's from Pittsburgh and--"
+
+"Aw, cut it," broke in one of the others. "Pitts Slim'll be here
+to-night. He'll give you the devil if he hears you talking to reporters
+about him."
+
+The proprietor began to talk of less dangerous subjects. Craig
+succeeded in drawing out from him the yegg recipe for making "soup."
+"It's here in this cipher," said the man, drawing out a dirty piece of
+paper. "It's well known, and you can have this. Here's the key. It was
+written by 'Deafy' Smith, and the police pinched it."
+
+Craig busily translated the curious document:
+
+Take ten or a dozen sticks of dynamite, crumble it up fine, and put it
+in a pan or washbowl, then pour over it enough alcohol, wood or pure,
+to cover it well. Stir it up well with your hands, being careful to
+break all the lumps. Leave it set for a few minutes. Then get a few
+yards of cheesecloth and tear it up in pieces and strain the mixture
+through the cloth into another vessel. Wring the sawdust dry and throw
+it away. The remains will be the soup and alcohol mixed. Next take the
+same amount of water as you used of alcohol and pour it in. Leave the
+whole set for a few minutes.
+
+"Very interesting," commented Craig. "Safeblowing in one lesson by
+correspondence school. The rest of this tells how to attack various
+makes, doesn't it?"
+
+Just then a thin man in a huge, worn ulster came stamping upstairs from
+the basement, his collar up and his hat down over his eyes. There was
+something indefinably familiar about him, but as his face and figure
+were so well concealed, I could not tell just why I thought so.
+
+Catching a glimpse of us, he beat a retreat across the opposite end of
+the room, beckoning to the proprietor, who joined him outside the door.
+I thought I heard him ask: "Who are those men? Who let them in?" but I
+could not catch the reply.
+
+One by one the other occupants of the room rose and sidled out, leaving
+us alone with the Gay Cat. Kennedy reached over to get a cigarette from
+my case and light it from one that I was smoking.
+
+"That's our man, I think," he whispered--"Pitts Slim."
+
+I said nothing, but I would have been willing to part with a large
+section of my bank-account to be up on the Chatham Square station of
+the Elevated just then.
+
+There was a rush from the half-open door behind us. Suddenly everything
+turned black before me; my eyes swam; I felt a stinging sensation on my
+head and a weak feeling about the stomach; I sank half-conscious to the
+floor. All was blank, but, dimly, I seemed to be dragged and dropped
+down hard.
+
+How long I lay there I don't know. Kennedy says it was not over five
+minutes. It may have been so, but to me it seemed an age. When I opened
+my eyes I was lying on my back on a very dirty sofa in another room.
+Kennedy was bending over me with blood streaming from a long deep gash
+on his head. Another figure was groaning in the semi-darkness opposite;
+it was the Gay Cat.
+
+"They blackjacked us," whispered Kennedy to me as I staggered to my
+feet. "Then they dragged us through a secret passage into another
+house. How do you feel?"
+
+"All right," I answered, bracing myself against a chair, for I was weak
+from the loss of blood, and dizzy. I was sore in every joint and
+muscle. I looked about, only half comprehending. Then my recollection
+flooded back with a rush. We had been locked in another room after the
+attack, and left to be dealt with later. I felt in my pocket. I had
+left my watch at the laboratory, but even the dollar watch I had taken
+and the small sum of money in my pocketbook were gone.
+
+Kennedy still had his camera slung over his shoulder, where he had
+fastened it securely.
+
+Here we were, imprisoned, while Pitts Slim, the man we had come after,
+whoever he was, was making his escape. Somewhere across the street was
+O'Connor, waiting in a room as we had agreed. There was only one window
+in our room, and it opened on a miserable little dumbwaiter air-shaft.
+It would be hours yet before his suspicions would be aroused and he
+would discover which of the houses we were held in. Meanwhile what
+might not happen to us?
+
+Kennedy calmly set up his tripod. One leg had been broken in the
+rough-house, but he tied it together with his handkerchief, now wet
+with blood. I wondered how he could think of taking a picture. His very
+deliberation set me fretting and fuming, and I swore at him under my
+breath. Still, he worked calmly ahead. I saw him take the black box and
+set it on the tripod. It was indistinct in the darkness. It looked like
+a camera, and yet it had some attachment at the side that was queer,
+including a little lamp. Craig bent and attached some wires about the
+box.
+
+At last he seemed ready. "Walter," he whispered, "roll that sofa
+quietly over against the door. There, now the table and that bureau,
+and wedge the chairs in. Keep that door shut at any cost. It's now or
+never--here goes."
+
+He stopped a moment and tinkered with the box on the tripod. "Hello!
+Hello! Hello! Is that you, O'Connor?" he shouted.
+
+I watched him in amazement. Was the man crazy? Had the blow affected
+his brain? Here he was, trying to talk into a camera. A little
+signalling-bell in the box commenced to ring, as if by spirit hands.
+
+"Shut up in that room," growled a voice from outside the door. "By God,
+they've barricaded the door. Come on, pals, we'll kill the spies."
+
+A smile of triumph lighted up Kennedy's pale face. "It works, it
+works," he cried as the little bell continued to buzz. "This is a
+wireless telephone you perhaps have seen announced recently--good for
+several hundred feet--through walls and everything. The inventor placed
+it in a box easily carried by a man, including a battery, and mounted
+on an ordinary camera tripod so that the user might well be taken for a
+travelling photographer. It is good in one direction only, but I have a
+signalling-bell here that can be rung from the other end by Hertzian
+waves. Thank Heaven, it's compact and simple.
+
+"O'Connor," he went on, "it is as I told you. It was Pitts Slim. He
+left here ten or fifteen minutes ago--I don't know by what exit, but I
+heard them say they would meet at the Central freightyards at midnight.
+Start your plain-clothes men out and send some one here, quick, to
+release us. We are locked in a room in the fourth or fifth house from
+the corner. There's a secret passage to the yegg-house. The Gay Cat is
+still unconscious, Jameson is groggy, and I have a bad scalp wound.
+They are trying to beat in our barricade. Hurry."
+
+I think I shall never get straight in my mind the fearful five minutes
+that followed, the battering at the door, the oaths, the scuffle
+outside, the crash as the sofa, bureau, table, and chairs all yielded
+at once--and my relief when I saw the square-set, honest face of
+O'Connor and half a dozen plainclothes men holding the yeggs who would
+certainly have murdered us this time to protect their pal in his
+getaway. The fact is I didn't think straight until we were halfway
+uptown, speeding toward the railroad freight-yards in O'Connor's car.
+The fresh air at last revived me, and I began to forget my cute and
+bruises in the renewed excitement.
+
+We entered the yards carefully, accompanied by several of the
+railroad's detectives, who met us with a couple of police dogs.
+Skulking in the shadow under the high embankment that separated the
+yards with their interminable lines of full and empty cars on one side
+and the San Juan Hill district of New York up on the bluff on the other
+side, we came upon a party of three men who were waiting to catch the
+midnight "side-door Pullman"--the fast freight out of New York.
+
+The fight was brief, for we outnumbered them more than three to one.
+O'Connor himself snapped a pair of steel bracelets on the thin man, who
+seemed to be leader of the party.
+
+"It's all up, Pitts Slim," he ground out from his set teeth.
+
+One of our men flashed his bull's-eye on the three prisoners. I caught
+myself as in a dream.
+
+Pitts Slim was Maloney, the detective.
+
+An hour later, at headquarters, after the pedigrees had been taken, the
+"mugging" done, and the jewels found on the three yeggs checked off
+from the list of the Branford pearls, leaving a few thousand dollars'
+worth unaccounted for, O'Connor led the way into his private office.
+There were Mrs. Branford and Blake, waiting.
+
+Maloney sullenly refused to look at his former employer, as Blake
+rushed over and grasped Kennedy's hand, asking eagerly: "How did you do
+it, Kennedy? This is the last thing I expected."
+
+Craig said nothing, but slowly opened a now crumpled envelope, which
+contained an untoned print of a photograph. He laid it on the desk.
+"There is your yeggman--at work," he said.
+
+We bent over to look. It was a photograph of Maloney in the act of
+putting something in the little wall safe in Mrs. Branford's room. In a
+flash it dawned on me--the quick-shutter camera, the wire connected
+with the wall safe, Craig's hint to Maloney that if some of the jewels
+were found hidden in a likely place in the house, it would furnish the
+last link in the chain against her, Maloney's eager acceptance of the
+suggestion, and his visit to Montclair during which Craig had had hard
+work to avoid him.
+
+"Pitts Slim, alias Maloney," added Kennedy, turning to Blake, "your
+shrewdest private detective, was posing in two characters at once very
+successfully. He was your trusted agent in possession of the most
+valuable secrets of your clients, at the same time engineering all the
+robberies that you thought were fakes, and then working up the evidence
+incriminating the victims themselves. He got into the Branford house
+with a skeleton key, and killed the maid. The picture shows him putting
+this shield-shaped brooch in the safe this afternoon--here's the
+brooch. And all this time he was the leader of the most dangerous band
+of yeggmen in the country."
+
+"Mrs. Branford," exclaimed Blake, advancing and bowing most profoundly,
+"I trust that you understand my awkward position? My apologies cannot
+be too humble. It will give me great pleasure to hand you a certified
+check for the missing gems the first thing in the morning."
+
+Mrs. Branford bit her lip nervously. The return of the pearls did not
+seem to interest her in the least.
+
+"And I, too, must apologise for the false suspicion I had of you
+and--and--depend on me, it is already forgotten," said Kennedy,
+emphasising the "false" and looking her straight in the eyes.
+
+She read his meaning and a look of relief crossed her face. "Thank
+you," she murmured simply, then dropping her eyes she added in a lower
+tone which no one heard except Craig: "Mr. Kennedy, how can I ever
+thank you? Another night, and it would have been too late to save me
+from myself."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE GERM OF DEATH
+
+
+By this time I was becoming used to Kennedy's strange visitors and, in
+fact, had begun to enjoy keenly the uncertainty of not knowing just
+what to expect from them next. Still, I was hardly prepared one evening
+to see a tall, nervous foreigner stalk noiselessly and unannounced into
+our apartment and hand his card to Kennedy without saying a word.
+
+"Dr. Nicholas Kharkoff--hum--er, Jameson, you must have forgotten to
+latch the door. Well, Dr. Kharkoff, what can I do for you? It is
+evident something has upset you."
+
+The tall Russian put his forefinger to his lips and, taking one of our
+good chairs, placed it by the door. Then he stood on it and peered
+cautiously through the transom into the hallway. "I think I eluded him
+this time," he exclaimed, as he nervously took a seat. "Professor
+Kennedy, I am being followed. Every step that I take somebody shadows
+me, from the moment I leave my office until I return. It is enough to
+drive me mad. But that is only one reason why I have come here
+to-night. I believe that I can trust you as a friend of justice--a
+friend of Russian freedom?"
+
+He had included me in his earnest but somewhat vague query, so that I
+did not withdraw. Somehow, apparently, he had heard of Kennedy's rather
+liberal political views.
+
+"It is about Vassili Saratovsky, the father of the Russian revolution,
+as we call him, that I have come to consult you," he continued quickly.
+"Just two weeks ago he was taken ill. It came on suddenly, a violent
+fever which continued for a week. Then he seemed to grow better, after
+the crisis had passed, and even attended a meeting of our central
+committee the other night. But in the meantime Olga Samarova, the
+little Russian dancer, whom yon have perhaps seen, fell ill in the same
+way. Samarova is an ardent revolutionist, you know. This morning the
+servant at my own home on East Broadway was also stricken, and--who
+knows?--perhaps it will be my turn next. For to-night Saratovsky had an
+even more violent return of the fever, with intense shivering,
+excruciating pains in the limbs, and delirious headache. It is not like
+anything I ever saw before. Can you look into the case before it grows
+any worse, Professor?"
+
+Again the Russian got on the chair and looked over the transom to be
+sure that he was not being overheard.
+
+"I shall be only too glad to help you in any way I can," returned
+Kennedy, his manner expressing the genuine interest that he never
+feigned over a particularly knotty problem in science and crime. "I had
+the pleasure of meeting Saratovsky once in London. I shall try to see
+him the first thing in the morning."
+
+Dr. Kharkov's face fell. "I had hoped you would see him to-night. If
+anything should happen----"
+
+"Is it as urgent as that?"
+
+"I believe it is," whispered Kharkoff, leaning forward earnestly. "We
+can call a taxicab--it will not take long, sir. Consider, there are
+many lives possibly at stake," he pleaded.
+
+"Very well, I will go," consented Kennedy.
+
+At the street door Kharkoff stopped short and drew Kennedy back.
+"Look--across the street in the shadow. There is the man. If I start
+toward him he will disappear; he is very clever. He followed me from
+Saratovsky's here, and has been waiting for me to come out."
+
+"There are two taxicabs waiting at the stand," suggested Kennedy.
+"Doctor, you jump in the first, and Jameson and I will take the second.
+Then he can't follow us."
+
+It was done in a moment, and we were whisked away, to the chagrin of
+the figure, which glided impotently out of the shadow in vain pursuit,
+too late even to catch the number of the cab.
+
+"A promising adventure," commented Kennedy, as we bumped along over New
+York's uneven asphalt. "Have you ever met Saratovsky?"
+
+"No," I replied dubiously. "Will you guarantee that he will not blow us
+up with a bomb?"
+
+"Grandmother!" replied Craig. "Why, Walter, he is the most gentle,
+engaging old philosopher----"
+
+"That ever cut a throat or scuttled a ship?" I interrupted.
+
+"On the contrary," insisted Kennedy, somewhat nettled, "he is a
+patriarch, respected by every faction of the revolutionists, from the
+fighting organisation to the believers in non-resistance and Tolstoy. I
+tell you, Walter, the nation that can produce a man such as Saratovsky
+deserves and some day will win political freedom. I have heard of this
+Dr. Kharkoff before, too. His life would be a short one if he were in
+Russia. A remarkable man, who fled after those unfortunate uprisings in
+1905. Ah, we are on Fifth Avenue. I suspect that he is taking us to a
+club on the lower part of the avenue, where a number of the Russian
+reformers live, patiently waiting and planning for the great
+'awakening' in their native land."
+
+Kharkoff's cab had stopped. Our quest had indeed brought us almost to
+Washington Square. Here we entered an old house of the past generation.
+As we passed through the wide hall, I noted the high ceilings, the
+old-fashioned marble mantels stained by time, the long, narrow rooms
+and dirty-white woodwork, and the threadbare furniture of black walnut
+and horsehair.
+
+Upstairs in a small back room we found the venerable Saratovsky,
+tossing, half-delirious with the fever, on a disordered bed. His was a
+striking figure in this sordid setting, with a high intellectual
+forehead and deep-set, glowing coals of eyes which gave a hint at the
+things which had made his life one of the strangest among all the
+revolutionists of Russia and the works he had done among the most
+daring. The brown dye was scarcely yet out of his flowing white
+beard--a relic of his last trip back to his fatherland, where he had
+eluded the secret police in the disguise of a German gymnasium
+professor.
+
+Saratovsky extended a thin, hot, emaciated hand to us, and we remained
+standing. Kennedy said nothing for the moment. The sick man motioned
+feebly to us to come closer.
+
+"Professor Kennedy," he whispered, "there is some deviltry afoot. The
+Russian autocracy would stop at nothing. Kharkoff has probably told you
+of it. I am so weak----"
+
+He groaned and sank back, overcome by a chill that seemed to rack his
+poor gaunt form.
+
+"Kazanovitch can tell Professor Kennedy something, Doctor. I am too
+weak to talk, even at this critical time. Take him to see Boris and
+Ekaterina."
+
+Almost reverently we withdrew, and Kharkoff led us down the hall to
+another room. The door was ajar, and a light disclosed a man in a
+Russian peasant's blouse, bending laboriously over a writing-desk. So
+absorbed was he that not until Kharkoff spoke did he look up. His
+figure was somewhat slight and his face pointed and of an ascetic mould.
+
+"Ah!" he exclaimed. "You have recalled me from a dream. I fancied I was
+on the old mir with Ivan, one of my characters. Welcome, comrades."
+
+It flashed over me at once that this was the famous Russian novelist,
+Boris Kazanovitch. I had not at first connected the name with that of
+the author of those gloomy tales of peasant life. Kazanovitch stood
+with his hands tucked under his blouse.
+
+"Night is my favourite time for writing," he explained. "It is then
+that the imagination works at its best."
+
+I gazed curiously about the room. There seemed to be a marked touch of
+a woman's hand here and there; it was unmistakable. At last my eye
+rested on a careless heap of dainty wearing apparel on a chair in the
+corner. "Where is Nevsky?" asked Dr. Kharkoff, apparently missing the
+person who owned the garments.
+
+"Ekaterina has gone to a rehearsal of the little play of Gershuni's
+escape from Siberia and betrayal by Rosenberg. She will stay with
+friends on East Broadway to-night. She has deserted me, and here I am
+all alone, finishing a story for one of the American magazines."
+
+"Ah, Professor Kennedy, that is unfortunate," commented Kharkoff. "A
+brilliant woman is Mademoiselle Nevsky--devoted to the cause. I know
+only one who equals her, and that is my patient downstairs, the little
+dancer, Samarova."
+
+"Samarova is faithful--Nevsky is a genius," put in Kazanovitch.
+Kharkoff said nothing for a time, though it was easy to see he regarded
+the actress highly.
+
+"Samarova," he said at length to us, "was arrested for her part in the
+assassination of Grand Duke Sergius and thrown into solitary
+confinement in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. They tortured
+her, the beasts--burned her body with their cigarettes. It was
+unspeakable. But she would not confess, and finally they had to let her
+go. Nevsky, who was a student of biology at the University of St.
+Petersburg when Von Plehve was assassinated, was arrested, but her
+relatives had sufficient influence to secure her release. They met in
+Paris, and Nevsky persuaded Olga to go on the stage and come to New
+York."
+
+"Next to Ekaterina's devotion to the cause is her devotion to science,"
+said Kazanovitch, opening a door to a little room. Then he added: "If
+she were not a woman, or if your universities were less prejudiced, she
+would be welcome anywhere as a professor. See, here is her laboratory.
+It is the best we--she can afford. Organic chemistry, as you call it in
+English, interests me too, but of course I am not a trained
+scientist--I am a novelist."
+
+The laboratory was simple, almost bare. Photographs of Koch, Ehrlich,
+Metchnikoff, and a number of other scientists adorned the walls. The
+deeply stained deal table was littered with beakers and test-tubes.
+
+"How is Saratovsky?" asked the writer of the doctor, aside, as we gazed
+curiously about.
+
+Kharkoff shook his head gravely. "We have just come from his room. He
+was too weak to talk, but he asked that you tell Mr. Kennedy anything
+that it is necessary he should know about our suspicions."
+
+"It is that we are living with the sword of Damocles constantly
+dangling over our heads, gentlemen," cried Kazanovitch passionately,
+turning toward us. "You will excuse me if I get some cigarettes
+downstairs? Over them I will tell you what we fear."
+
+A call from Saratovsky took the doctor away also at the same moment,
+and we were left alone.
+
+"A queer situation, Craig," I remarked, glancing involuntarily at the
+heap of feminine finery on the chair, as I sat down before
+Kazanovitch's desk.
+
+"Queer for New York; not for St. Petersburg," was his laconic reply, as
+he looked around for another chair. Everything was littered with books,
+and papers, and at last he leaned over and lifted the dress from the
+chair to place it on the bed, as the easiest way of securing a seat in
+the scantily furnished room.
+
+A pocketbook and a letter fell to the floor from the folds of the
+dress. He stooped to pick them up, and I saw a strange look of surprise
+on his face. Without a moment's hesitation he shoved the letter into
+his pocket and replaced the other things as he had found them.
+
+A moment later Kazanovitch returned with a large box of Russian
+cigarettes. "Be seated, sir," he said to Kennedy, sweeping a mass of
+books and papers off a large divan. "When Nevsky is not here the room
+gets sadly disarranged. I have no genius for order."
+
+Amid the clouds of fragrant light smoke we waited for Kazanovitch to
+break the silence.
+
+"Perhaps you think that the iron hand of the Russian prime minister has
+broken the backbone of revolution in Russia," he began at length. "But
+because the Duma is subservient, it does not mean that all is over. Not
+at all. We are not asleep. Revolution is smouldering, ready to break
+forth at any moment. The agents of the government know it. They are
+desperate. There is no means they would not use to crush us. Their long
+arm reaches even to New York, in this land of freedom."
+
+He rose and excitedly paced the room. Somehow or other, this man did
+not prepossess me. Was it that I was prejudiced by a puritanical
+disapproval of the things that pass current in Old World morality? Or
+was it merely that I found the great writer of fiction seeking the
+dramatic effect always at the cost of sincerity?
+
+"Just what is it that you suspect?" asked Craig, anxious to dispense
+with the rhetoric and to get down to facts. "Surely, when three persons
+are stricken, you must suspect something."
+
+"Poison," replied Kazanovitch quickly. "Poison, and of a kind that even
+the poison doctors of St. Petersburg have never employed. Dr. Kharkoff
+is completely baffled. Your American doctors--two were called in to see
+Saratovsky--say it is the typhus fever. But Kharkoff knows better.
+There is no typhus rash. Besides"--and he leaned forward to emphasise
+his words--"one does not get over typhus in a week and have it again as
+Saratovsky has."
+
+I could see that Kennedy was growing impatient. An idea had occurred to
+him, and only politeness kept him listening to Kazanovitch longer.
+
+"Doctor," he said, as Kharkoff entered the room again, "do you suppose
+you could get some perfectly clean test-tubes and sterile bouillon from
+Miss Nevsky's laboratory? I think I saw a rack of tubes on the table."
+
+"Surely," answered Kharkoff.
+
+"You will excuse us, Mr. Kazanovitch," apologised Kennedy briskly, "but
+I feel that I am going to have a hard day to-morrow and--by the way,
+would you be so kind as to come up to my laboratory some time during
+the day, and continue your story."
+
+On the way out Craig took the doctor aside for a moment, and they
+talked earnestly. At last Craig motioned to me.
+
+"Walter," he explained, "Dr. Kharkoff is going to prepare some cultures
+in the test-tubes to-night so that I can make a microscopic examination
+of the blood of Saratovsky, Samarova, and later of his servant. The
+tubes will be ready early in the morning, and I have arranged with the
+doctor for you to call and get them if you have no objection."
+
+I assented, and we started downstairs. As we passed a door on the
+second floor, a woman's voice called out, "Is that you, Boris?"
+
+"No, Olga, this is Nicholas," replied the doctor. "It is Samarova," he
+said to us as he entered.
+
+In a few moments he rejoined us. "She is no better," he continued, as
+we again started away. "I may as well tell you, Professor Kennedy, just
+how matters stand here. Samarova is head over heels in love with
+Kazanovitch--you heard her call for him just now? Before they left
+Paris, Kazanovitch showed some partiality for Olga, but now Nevsky has
+captured him. She is indeed a fascinating woman, but as for me, if Olga
+would consent to become Madame Kharkoff, it should be done tomorrow,
+and she need worry no longer over her broken contract with the American
+theatre managers. But women are not that way. She prefers the hopeless
+love. Ah, well, I shall let you know if anything new happens.
+Good-night, and a thou-sand thanks for your help, gentlemen."
+
+Nothing was said by either of us on our journey uptown, for it was late
+and I, at least, was tired.
+
+But Kennedy had no intention of going to bed, I found. Instead, he sat
+down in his easy chair and shaded his eyes, apparently in deep thought.
+As I stood by the table to fill my pipe for a last smoke, I saw that he
+was carefully regarding the letter he had picked up, turning it over
+and over, and apparently debating with himself what to do with it.
+
+"Some kinds of paper can be steamed open without leaving any trace," he
+remarked in answer to my unspoken question, laying the letter down
+before me.
+
+I read the address: "M. Alexander Alexandrovitch Orloff,--Rue de----,
+Paris, France."
+
+"Letter-opening has been raised to a fine art by the secret service
+agents of foreign countries," he continued. "Why not take a chance? The
+simple operation of steaming a letter open is followed by reburnishing
+the flap with a bone instrument, and no trace is left. I can't do that,
+for this letter is sealed with wax. One way would be to take a matrix
+of the seal before breaking the wax and then replace a duplicate of it.
+No, I won't risk it. I'll try a scientific way."
+
+Between two pieces of smooth wood, Craig laid the letter flat, so that
+the edges projected about a thirty-second of an inch. He flattened the
+projecting edge of the envelope, then roughened it, and finally slit it
+open.
+
+"You see, Walter, later I will place the letter back, apply a hair line
+of strong white gum, and unite the edges of the envelope under
+pressure. Let us see what we have here."
+
+He drew out what seemed to be a manuscript on very thin paper, and
+spread it out flat on the table before us. Apparently it was a
+scientific paper on a rather unusual subject, "Spontaneous Generation
+of Life." It was in longhand and read:
+
+Many thanks for the copy of the paper by Prof. Betaillon of Dijon on
+the artificial fertilization of the eggs of frogs. I consider it a most
+important advance in the artificial generation of life.
+
+I will not attempt to reproduce in facsimile the entire manuscript, for
+it is unnecessary, and, in fact, I merely set down part of its contents
+here because it seemed so utterly valueless to me at the time. It went
+on to say:
+
+While Betaillon punctured the eggs with a platinum needle and developed
+them by means of electric discharges, Loeb in America placed eggs of
+the sea-urchin in a strong solution of sea water, then in a bath where
+they were subjected to the action of butyric acid. Finally they were
+placed in ordinary sea water again, where they developed in the natural
+manner. Delage at Roscorf used a liquid containing salts of magnesia
+and tannate of ammonia to produce the same result.
+
+In his latest book on the Origin of Life Dr. Charlton Bastian tells of
+using two solutions. One consisted of two or three drops of dilute
+sodium silicate with eight drops of liquor ferri pernitratis to one
+ounce of distilled water. The other was composed of the same amount of
+the silicate with six drops of dilute phosphoric acid and six grains of
+ammonium phosphate. He filled sterilised tubes, sealed them
+hermetically, and heated them to 125 or 145 degrees, Centigrade,
+although 60 or 70 degrees would have killed any bacteria remaining in
+them.
+
+Next he exposed them to sunlight in a south window for from two to four
+months. When the tubes were opened Dr. Bastian found organisms in them
+which differed in no way from real bacteria. They grew and multiplied.
+He contends that he has proved the possibility of spontaneous
+generation of life.
+
+Then there were the experiments of John Butler Burke of Cambridge, who
+claimed that he had developed "radiobes" in tubes of sterilised
+bouillon by means of radium emanations. Daniel Berthelot in France last
+year announced that he had used the ultra-violet rays to duplicate
+nature's own process of chlorophyll assimilation. He has broken up
+carbon dioxide and water-vapour in the air in precisely the same way
+that the green cells of plants do it.
+
+Leduc at Nantes has made crystals grow from an artificial "egg"
+composed of certain chemicals. These crystals show all the apparent
+vital phenomena without being actually alive. His work is interesting,
+for it shows the physical forces that probably control minute life
+cells, once they are created.
+
+"What do you make of it?" asked Kennedy, noting the puzzled look on my
+face as I finished reading.
+
+"Well, recent research in the problem of the origin of life may be very
+interesting," I replied. "There are a good many chemicals mentioned
+here--I wonder if any of them is poisonous? But I am of the opinion
+that there is something more to this manuscript than a mere scientific
+paper."
+
+"Exactly, Walter," said Kennedy in half raillery. "What I wanted to
+know was how you would suggest getting at that something."
+
+Study as I might, I could make nothing out of it. Meanwhile Craig was
+busily figuring with a piece of paper and a pencil.
+
+"I give it up, Craig," I said at last. "It is late. Perhaps we had
+better both turn in, and we may have some ideas on it in the morning."
+
+For answer he merely shook his head and continued to scribble and
+figure on the paper. With a reluctant good-night I shut my door,
+determined to be up early in the morning and go for the tubes that
+Kharkoff was to prepare.
+
+But in the morning Kennedy was gone. I dressed hastily, and was just
+about to go out when he hurried in, showing plainly the effects of
+having spent a sleepless night. He flung an early edition of a
+newspaper on the table.
+
+"Too late," he exclaimed. "I tried to reach Kharkoff, but it was too
+late."
+
+"Another East Side Bomb Outrage," I read. "While returning at a late
+hour last night from a patient, Dr. Nicholas Kharkoff, of--East
+Broadway, was severely injured by a bomb which had been placed in his
+hallway earlier in the evening. Dr. Kharkoff, who is a well-known
+physician on the East Side, states that he has been constantly shadowed
+by some one unknown for the past week or two. He attributes his escape
+with his life to the fact that since he was shadowed he has observed
+extreme caution. Yesterday his cook was poisoned and is now dangerously
+ill. Dr. Kharkoff stands high in the Russian community, and it is
+thought by the police that the bomb was placed by a Russian political
+agent, as Kharkoff has been active in the ranks of the revolutionists."
+
+"But what made you anticipate it?" I asked of Kennedy, considerably
+mystified.
+
+"The manuscript," he replied.
+
+"The manuscript? How? Where is it?"
+
+"After I found that it was too late to save Kharkoff and that he was
+well cared for at the hospital, I hurried to Saratovsky's. Kharkoff had
+fortunately left the tubes there, and I got them. Here they are. As for
+the manuscript in the letter, I was going to ask you to slip upstairs
+by some strategy and return it where I found it, when you went for the
+tubes this morning. Kazanovitch was out, and I have returned it myself,
+so you need not go, now."
+
+"He's coming to see you today, isn't he?"
+
+"I hope so. I left a note asking him to bring Miss Nevsky, if possible,
+too. Come, let us breakfast and go over to the laboratory. They may
+arrive at any moment. Besides, I'm interested to see what the tubes
+disclose."
+
+Instead of Kazanovitch awaiting us at the laboratory, however, we found
+Miss Nevsky, haggard and worn. She was a tall, striking girl with more
+of the Gaul than the Slav in her appearance. There was a slightly
+sensuous curve to her mouth, but on the whole her face was striking and
+intellectual. I felt that if she chose she could fascinate a man so
+that he would dare anything. I never before understood why the Russian
+police feared the women revolutionists so much. It was because they
+were themselves, plus every man they could influence.
+
+Nevsky appeared very excited. She talked rapidly, and fire flashed from
+her grey eyes. "They tell me at the club," she began, "that you are
+investigating the terrible things that are happening to us. Oh,
+Professor Kennedy, it is awful! Last night I was staying with some
+friends on East Broadway. Suddenly we heard a terrific explosion up the
+street. It was in front of Dr. Kharkoff's house. Thank Heaven, he is
+still alive I But I was so unnerved I could not sleep. I fancied I
+might be the next to go.
+
+"Early this morning I hastened to return to Fifth Avenue. As I entered
+the door of my room I could not help thinking of the horrible fate of
+Dr. Kharkoff. For some unknown reason, just as I was about to push the
+door farther open, I hesitated and looked--I almost fainted. There
+stood another bomb just inside. If I had moved the door a fraction of
+an inch it would have exploded. I screamed, and Olga, sick as she was,
+ran to my assistance--or perhaps she thought something had happened to
+Boris. It is standing there yet. None of us dares touch it. Oh,
+Professor Kennedy, it is dreadful, dreadful. And I cannot find
+Boris--Mr. Kazanovitch, I mean. Saratovsky, who is like a father to us
+all, is scarcely able to speak. Dr. Kharkoff is helpless in the
+hospital. Oh, what are we to do, what are we to do?"
+
+She stood trembling before us, imploring.
+
+"Calm yourself, Miss Nevsky," said Kennedy in a reassuring tone. "Sit
+down and let us plan. I take it that it was a chemical bomb and not one
+with a fuse, or you would have a different story to tell. First of all,
+we must remove it. That is easily done."
+
+He called up a near-by garage and ordered an automobile. "I will drive
+it myself," he ordered, "only send a man around with it immediately."
+
+"No, no, no," she cried, running toward him, "you must not risk it. It
+is bad enough that we should risk our lives. But strangers must not.
+Think, Professor Kennedy. Suppose the bomb should explode at a touch!
+Had we not better call the police and let them take the risk, even if
+it does get into the papers?"
+
+"No," replied Kennedy firmly. "Miss Nevsky, I am quite willing to take
+the risk. Besides, here comes the automobile."
+
+"You are too kind," she exclaimed. "Kazanovitch himself could do no
+more. How am I ever to thank you?"
+
+On the back of the automobile Kennedy placed a peculiar oblong box,
+swung on two concentric rings balanced on pivots, like a most delicate
+compass.
+
+We rode quickly downtown, and Kennedy hurried into the house, bidding
+us stand back. With a long pair of tongs he seized the bomb firmly. It
+was a tense moment. Suppose his hand should unnecessarily tremble, or
+he should tip it just a bit--it might explode and blow him to atoms.
+Keeping it perfectly horizontal he carried it carefully out to the
+waiting automobile and placed it gingerly in the box.
+
+"Wouldn't it be a good thing to fill the box with water?" I suggested,
+having read somewhere that that was the usual way of opening a bomb,
+under water.
+
+"No," he replied, as he closed the lid, "that wouldn't do any good with
+a bomb of this sort. It would explode under water just as well as in
+air. This is a safety bomb-carrier. It is known as the Cardan
+suspension. It was invented by Professor Cardono, an Italian. You see,
+it is always held in a perfectly horizontal position, no matter how you
+jar it. I am now going to take the bomb to some safe and convenient
+place where I can examine it at my leisure. Meanwhile, Miss Nevsky, I
+will leave you in charge of Mr. Jameson."
+
+"Thank you so much," she said. "I feel better now. I didn't dare go
+into my own room with that bomb at the door. If Mr. Jameson can only
+find out what has become of Mr. Kazanovitch, that is all I want. What
+do you suppose has happened to him? Is he, too, hurt or ill?"
+
+"Very well, then," Craig replied. "I will commission you, Walter, to
+find Kazanovitch. I shall be back again shortly before noon to examine
+the wreck of Kharkoff's office. Meet me there. Goodbye, Miss Nevsky."
+
+It was not the first time that I had had a roving commission to find
+some one who had disappeared in New York. I started by inquiring for
+every possible place that he might be found. No one at the Fifth Avenue
+house could tell me anything definite, though they were able to give me
+a number of places where he was known. I consumed practically the whole
+morning going from one place to another on the East Side. Some of the
+picturesque haunts of the revolutionists would have furnished material
+for a story in themselves. But nowhere had they any word of
+Kazanovitch, until I visited a Polish artist who was illustrating his
+stories. He had been there, looking very worn and tired, and had talked
+vacantly about the sketches which the artist had showed him. After that
+I lost all trace of him again. It was nearly noon as I hurried to meet
+Craig at Kharkoff's.
+
+Imagine my surprise to see Kazanovitch already there, seated in the
+wrecked office, furiously smoking cigarettes and showing evident signs
+of having something very disturbing on his mind. The moment he caught
+sight of me, he hurried forward.
+
+"Is Professor Kennedy coming soon?" he inquired eagerly. "I was going
+up to his laboratory, but I called up Nevsky, and she said he would be
+here at noon." Then he put his hand up to my ear and whispered, "I have
+found out who it was who shadowed Kharkoff."
+
+"Who?" I asked, saying nothing of my long search of the morning.
+
+"His name is Revalenko--Feodor Revalenko. I saw him standing across the
+street in front of the house last night after you had gone. When
+Kharkoff left, he followed him. I hurried out quietly and followed both
+of them. Then the explosion came. This man slipped down a narrow street
+as soon as he saw Kharkoff fall. As people were running to Kharkoff's
+assistance, I did the same. He saw me following him and ran, and I ran,
+too, and overtook him. Mr. Jameson, when I looked into his face I could
+not believe it. Revalenko--he is one of the most ardent members of our
+organisation. He would not tell me why he had followed Kharkoff. I
+could make him confess nothing. But I am sure he is an agent
+provocateur of the Russian government, that he is secretly giving away
+the plans that we are making, everything. We have a plot on
+now--perhaps he has informed them of that. Of course he denied setting
+the bomb or trying to poison any of us, but he was very frightened. I
+shall denounce him at the first opportunity."
+
+I said nothing. Kazanovitch regarded me keenly to see what impression
+the story made on me, but I did not let my looks betray anything,
+except proper surprise, and he seemed satisfied.
+
+It might be true, after all, I reasoned, the more I thought of it. I
+had heard that the Russian consul-general had a very extensive spy
+system in the city. In fact, even that morning I had had pointed out to
+me some spies at work in the public libraries, watching what young
+Russians were reading. I did not doubt that there were spies in the
+very inner circle of the revolutionists themselves.
+
+At last Kennedy appeared. While Kazanovitch poured forth his story,
+with here and there, I fancied, an elaboration of a particularly
+dramatic point, Kennedy quickly examined the walls and floor of the
+wrecked office with his magnifying-glass. When he had concluded his
+search, he turned to Kazanovitch.
+
+"Would it be possible," he asked, "to let this Revalenko believe that
+he could trust you, that it would be safe for him to visit you to-night
+at Saratovsky's? Surely you can find some way of reassuring him."
+
+"Yes, I think that can be arranged," said Kazanovitch. "I will go to
+him, will make him think I have misunderstood him, that I have not lost
+faith in him, provided he can explain all. He will come. Trust me."
+
+"Very well, then. To-night at eight I shall be there," promised
+Kennedy, as the novelist and he shook hands.
+
+"What do you think of the Revalenko story?" I asked of Craig, as we
+started uptown again.
+
+"Anything is possible in this case," he answered sententiously.
+
+"Well," I exclaimed, "this all is truly Russian. For intrigue they are
+certainly the leaders of the world to-day. There is only one person
+that I have any real confidence in, and that is old Saratovsky himself.
+Somebody is playing traitor, Craig. Who is it?"
+
+"That is what science will tell us to-night," was his brief reply.
+There was no getting anything out of Craig until he was absolutely sure
+that his proofs had piled up irresistibly.
+
+Promptly at eight we met at the old house on Fifth Avenue. Kharkoff's
+wounds had proved less severe than had at first been suspected, and,
+having recovered from the shock, he insisted on being transferred from
+the hospital in a private ambulance so that he could be near his
+friends. Saratovsky, in spite of his high fever, ordered that the door
+to his room be left open and his bed moved so that he could hear and
+see what passed in the room down the hall. Nevsky was there and
+Kazanovitch, and even brave Olga Samarova, her pretty face burning with
+the fever, would not be content until she was carried upstairs,
+although Dr. Kharkoff protested vigorously that it might have fatal
+consequences. Revalenko, an enigma of a man, sat stolidly. The only
+thing I noticed about him was an occasional look of malignity at Nevsky
+and Kazanovitch when he thought he was unobserved.
+
+It was indeed a strange gathering, the like of which the old house had
+never before harboured in all its varied history. Every one was on the
+qui vive, as Kennedy placed on the table a small wire basket containing
+some test-tubes, each tube corked with a small wadding of cotton. There
+was also a receptacle holding a dozen glass-handled platinum wires, a
+microscope, and a number of slides. The bomb, now rendered innocuous by
+having been crushed in a huge hydraulic press, lay in fragments in the
+box.
+
+"First, I want you to consider the evidence of the bomb," began
+Kennedy. "No crime, I firmly believe, is ever perpetrated without
+leaving some clue. The slightest trace, even a drop of blood no larger
+than a pin-head, may suffice to convict a murderer. The impression made
+on a cartridge by the hammer of a pistol, or a single hair found on the
+clothing of a suspected person, may serve as valid proof of crime.
+
+"Until lately, however, science was powerless against the bomb-thrower.
+A bomb explodes into a thousand parts, and its contents suddenly become
+gaseous. You can't collect and investigate the gases. Still, the
+bomb-thrower is sadly deceived if he believes the bomb leaves no trace
+for the scientific detective. It is difficult for the chemist to find
+out the secrets of a shattered bomb. But it can be done.
+
+"I examined the walls of Dr. Kharkoff's house, and fortunately was able
+to pick out a few small fragments of the contents of the bomb which had
+been thrown out before the flame ignited them. I have analysed them,
+and find them to be a peculiar species of blasting-gelatine. It is made
+at only one factory in this country, and I have a list of purchasers
+for some time back. One name, or rather the description of an assumed
+name, in the list agrees with other evidence I have been able to
+collect. Moreover, the explosive was placed in a lead tube. Lead tubes
+are common enough. However, there is no need of further evidence."
+
+He paused, and the revolutionists stared fixedly at the fragments of
+the now harmless bomb before them.
+
+"The exploded bomb," concluded Craig, "was composed of the same
+materials as this, which I found unexploded at the door of Miss
+Nevsky's room--the same sort of lead tube, the same blasting-gelatine.
+The fuse, a long cord saturated in sulphur, was merely a blind. The
+real method of explosion was by means of a chemical contained in a
+glass tube which was inserted after the bomb was put in place. The
+least jar, such as opening a door, which would tip the bomb ever so
+little out of the horizontal, was all that was necessary to explode it.
+The exploded bomb and the unexploded were in all respects
+identical--the same hand set both."
+
+A gasp of astonishment ran through the circle. Could it be that one of
+their own number was playing false? In at least this instance in the
+warfare of the chemist and the dynamiter the chemist had come out ahead.
+
+"But," Kennedy hurried along, "the thing that interests me most about
+this case is not the evidence of the bombs. Bombs are common enough
+weapons, after all. It is the evidence of almost diabolical cunning
+that has been shown in the effort to get rid of the father of the
+revolution, as you like to call him."
+
+Craig cleared his throat and played with our feelings as a cat does
+with a mouse. "Strange to say, the most deadly, the most insidious, the
+most elusive agency for committing murder is one that can be obtained
+and distributed with practically no legal restrictions. Any doctor can
+purchase disease germs in quantities sufficient to cause thousands and
+thousands of deaths without giving any adequate explanation for what
+purpose he requires them. More than that, any person claiming to be a
+scientist or having some acquaintance with science and scientists can
+usually obtain germs without difficulty. Every pathological laboratory
+contains stores of disease germs, neatly sealed up in test-tubes,
+sufficient to depopulate whole cities and even nations. With almost no
+effort, I myself have actually cultivated enough germs to kill every
+person within a radius of a mile of the Washington Arch down the
+street. They are here in these test-tubes."
+
+We scarcely breathed. Suppose Kennedy should let loose this deadly foe,
+these germs of death, whatever they were? Yet that was precisely what
+some fiend incarnate had done, and that fiend was sitting in the room
+with us.
+
+"Here I have one of the most modern dark-field microscopes," he
+resumed. "On this slide I have placed a little pin-point of a culture
+made from the blood of Saratovsky. I will stain the culture.
+Now--er--Walter, look through the microscope under this powerful light
+and tell us what you see on the slide."
+
+I bent over. "In the darkened field I see a number of germs like
+dancing points of coloured light," I said. "They are wriggling about
+with a peculiar twisting motion."
+
+"Like a corkscrew," interrupted Kennedy, impatient to go on. "They are
+of the species known as Spirilla. Here is another slide, a culture from
+the blood of Samarova."
+
+"I see them there, too," I exclaimed.
+
+Every one was now crowding about for a glimpse, as I raised my head.
+
+"What is this germ?" asked a hollow voice from the doorway.
+
+We looked, startled. There stood Saratovsky, more like a ghost than a
+living being. Kennedy sprang forward and caught him as he swayed, and I
+moved up an armchair for him.
+
+"It is the spirillum Obermeieri," said Kennedy, "the germ of the
+relapsing fever, but of the most virulent Asiatic strain. Obermeyer,
+who discovered it, caught the disease and died of it, a martyr to
+science."
+
+A shriek of consternation rang forth from Samarova. The rest of us
+paled, but repressed our feelings.
+
+"One moment," added Kennedy hastily. "Don't be unnecessarily alarmed. I
+have something more to say. Be calm for a moment longer."
+
+He unrolled a blue-print and placed it on the table.
+
+"This," he continued, "is the photographic copy of a message which, I
+suppose, is now on its way to the Russian minister to France in Paris.
+Some one in this room besides Mr. Jameson and myself has seen this
+letter before. I will hold it up as I pass around and let each one see
+it."
+
+In intense silence Kennedy passed before each of us, holding up the
+blue-print and searchingly scanning the faces. No one betrayed by any
+sign that he recognised it. At last it came to Revalenko himself.
+
+"The checkerboard, the checkerboard!" he cried, his eyes half starting
+from their sockets as he gazed at it.
+
+"Yes," said Kennedy in a low tone, "the checkerboard. It took me some
+time to figure it out. It is a cipher that would have baffled Poe. In
+fact, there is no means of deciphering it unless you chance to know its
+secret. I happened to have heard of it a long time ago abroad, yet my
+recollection was vague, and I had to reconstruct it with much
+difficulty. It took me all night to do it. It is a cipher, however,
+that is well known among the official classes of Russia.
+
+"Fortunately I remember the crucial point, without which I should still
+be puzzling over it. It is that a perfectly innocent message, on its
+face, may be used to carry a secret, hidden message. The letters which
+compose the words, instead of being written continuously along, as we
+ordinarily write, have, as you will observe if you look twice, breaks,
+here and there. These breaks in the letters stand for numbers.
+
+"Thus the first words are 'Many thanks.' The first break is at the end
+of the letter 'n,' between it and the 'y.' There are three letters
+before this break. That stands for the number 3.
+
+"When you come to the end of a word, if the stroke is down at the end
+of the last letter, that means no break; if it is up, it means a break.
+The stroke at the end of the 'y' is plainly down. Therefore there is no
+break until after the 't.' That gives us the number 2. So we get 1
+next, and again 1, and still again 1; then 5; then 5; then 1; and so on.
+
+"Now, take these numbers in pairs, thus 3-2; 1-1; 1-5; 5-1. By
+consulting this table you can arrive at the hidden message."
+
+He held up a cardboard bearing the following arrangement of the letters
+of the alphabet:
+
+   1  2  3  4  5
+ 1 A  B  C  D  E
+ 2 F  G  H  IJ K
+ 3 L  M  N  O  P
+ 4 Q  R  S  T  U
+ 5 V  W  X  Y  Z
+
+"Thus," he continued, "3-2 means the third column and second line. That
+is 'H.' Then 1-1 is 'A '; 1-5 is 'V '; 5-1 is 'E'--and we get the word
+'Have.'"
+
+Not a soul stirred as Kennedy unfolded the cipher. What was the
+terrible secret in that scientific essay I had puzzled so
+unsuccessfully over, the night before?
+
+"Even this can be complicated by choosing a series of fixed numbers to
+be added to the real numbers over and over again. Or the order of the
+alphabet can be changed. However, we have the straight cipher only to
+deal with here."
+
+"And what for Heaven's sake does it reveal?" asked Saratovsky, leaning
+forward, forgetful of the fever that was consuming him.
+
+Kennedy pulled out a piece of paper on which he had written the hidden
+message and read:
+
+"Have successfully inoculated S. with fever. Public opinion America
+would condemn violence. Think best death should appear natural.
+Samarova infected also. Cook unfortunately took dose in food intended
+Kharkoff. Now have three cases. Shall stop there at present. Dangerous
+excite further suspicion health authorities."
+
+Rapidly I eliminated in my mind the persons mentioned, as Craig read.
+Saratovsky of course was not guilty, for the plot had centred about
+him. Nor was little Samarova, nor Dr. Kharkoff. I noted Revalenko and
+Kazanovitch glaring at each other and hastily tried to decide which I
+more strongly suspected.
+
+"Will get K.," continued Kennedy. "Think bomb perhaps all right. K.
+case different from S. No public sentiment."
+
+"So Kharkoff had been marked for slaughter," I thought. Or was "K."
+Kazanovitch? I regarded Revalenko more closely. He was suspiciously
+sullen.
+
+"Must have more money. Cable ten thousand rubles at once Russian
+consul-general. Will advise you plot against Czar as details perfected
+here. Expect break up New York band with death of S."
+
+If Kennedy himself had thrown a bomb or scattered broadcast the
+contents of the test-tubes, the effect could not have been more
+startling than his last quiet sentence--and sentence it was in two
+senses.
+
+"Signed," he said, folding the paper up deliberately, "Ekaterina
+Nevsky."
+
+It was as if a cable had snapped and a weight had fallen. Revalenko
+sprang up and grasped Kazanovitch by the hand. "Forgive me, comrade,
+for ever suspecting you," he cried.
+
+"And forgive me for suspecting you," replied Kazanovitch, "but how did
+you come to shadow Kharkoff?"
+
+"I ordered him to follow Kharkoff secretly and protect him," explained
+Saratovsky.
+
+Olga and Ekaterina faced each other fiercely. Olga was trembling with
+emotion. Nevsky stood coldly, defiantly. If ever there was a consummate
+actress it was she, who had put the bomb at her own door and had rushed
+off to start Kennedy on a blind trail.
+
+"You traitress," cried Olga passionately, forgetting all in her
+outraged love. "You won his affections from me by your false
+beauty--yet all the time you would have killed him like a dog for the
+Czar's gold. At last you are unmasked--you Azeff in skirts. False
+friend--you would have killed us all--Saratovsky, Kharkoff--"
+
+"Be still, little fool," exclaimed Nevsky contemptuously. "The spirilla
+fever has affected your brains. Bah! I will not stay with those who are
+so ready to suspect an old comrade on the mere word of a charlatan.
+Boris Kazanovitch, do you stand there SILENT and let this insult be
+heaped upon me?"
+
+For answer, Kazanovitch deliberately turned his back on his lover of a
+moment ago and crossed the room. "Olga," he pleaded, "I have been a
+fool. Some day I may be worthy of your love. Fever or not, I must beg
+your forgiveness."
+
+With a cry of delight the actress flung her arms about Boris, as he
+imprinted a penitent kiss on her warm lips.
+
+"Simpleton," hissed Nevsky with curling lips. "Now you, too, will die."
+
+"One moment, Ekaterina Nevsky," interposed Kennedy, as he picked up
+some vacuum tubes full of a golden-yellow powder, that lay on the
+table. "The spirilla, as scientists now know, belong to the same family
+as those which cause what we call, euphemistically, the 'black plague.'
+It is the same species as that of the African sleeping sickness and the
+Philippine yaws. Last year a famous doctor whose photograph I see in
+the next room, Dr. Ehrlich of Frankfort, discovered a cure for all
+these diseases. It will rid the blood of your victims of the Asiatic
+relapsing fever germs in forty-eight hours. In these tubes I have the
+now famous salvarsan."
+
+With a piercing shriek of rage at seeing her deadly work so quickly and
+completely undone, Nevsky flung herself into the little laboratory
+behind her and bolted the door.
+
+Her face still wore the same cold, contemptuous smile, as Kennedy
+gently withdrew a sharp scalpel from her breast.
+
+"Perhaps it is best this way, after all," he said simply.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE FIREBUG
+
+
+A big, powerful, red touring-car, with a shining brass bell on the
+front of it, was standing at the curb before our apartment late one
+afternoon as I entered. It was such a machine as one frequently sees
+threading its reckless course in and out among the trucks and
+street-cars, breaking all rules and regulations, stopping at nothing,
+the bell clanging with excitement, policemen holding back traffic
+instead of trying to arrest the driver--in other words, a Fire
+Department automobile.
+
+I regarded it curiously for a moment, for everything connected with
+modern fire-fighting is interesting. Then I forgot about it as I was
+whisked up in the elevator, only to have it recalled sharply by the
+sight of a strongly built, grizzled man in a blue uniform with red
+lining. He was leaning forward, earnestly pouring forth a story into
+Kennedy's ear.
+
+"And back of the whole thing, sir," I heard him say as he brought his
+large fist down on the table, "is a firebug--mark my words."
+
+Before I could close the door, Craig caught my eye, and I read in his
+look that he had a new case--one that interested him greatly. "Walter,"
+he cried, "this is Fire Marshal McCormick. It's all right, McCormick.
+Mr. Jameson is an accessory both before and after the fact in my
+detective cases."
+
+A firebug!--one of the most dangerous of criminals. The word excited my
+imagination at once, for the newspapers had lately been making much of
+the strange and appalling succession of apparently incendiary fires
+that had terrorised the business section of the city.
+
+"Just what makes you think that there is a firebug--one firebug, I
+mean--back of this curious epidemic of fires?" asked Kennedy, leaning
+back in his morrischair with his finger-tips together and his eyes half
+closed as if expecting a revelation from some subconscious train of
+thought while the fire marshal presented his case.
+
+"Well, usually there is no rhyme or reason about the firebug," replied
+McCormick, measuring his words, "but this time I think there is some
+method in his madness. You know the Stacey department-stores and their
+allied dry-goods and garment-trade interests?"
+
+Craig nodded. Of course we knew of the gigantic dry-goods combination.
+It had been the talk of the press at the time of its formation, a few
+months ago, especially as it included among its organisers one very
+clever business woman, Miss Rebecca Wend. There had been considerable
+opposition to the combination in the trade, but Stacey had shattered it
+by the sheer force of his personality.
+
+McCormick leaned forward and, shaking his forefinger to emphasise his
+point, replied slowly, "Practically every one of these fires has been
+directed against a Stacey subsidiary or a corporation controlled by
+them."
+
+"But if it has gone as far as that," put in Kennedy, "surely the
+regular police ought to be of more assistance to you than I."
+
+"I have called in the police," answered McCormick wearily, "but they
+haven't even made up their minds whether it is a single firebug or a
+gang. And in the meantime, my God, Kennedy, the firebug may start a
+fire that will get beyond control!"
+
+"You say the police haven't a single clue to any one who might be
+responsible for the fires?" I asked, hoping that perhaps the marshal
+might talk more freely of his suspicions to us than he had already
+expressed himself in the newspaper interviews I had read.
+
+"Absolutely not a clue--except such as are ridiculous," replied
+McCormick, twisting his cap viciously.
+
+No one spoke. We were waiting for McCormick to go on.
+
+"The first fire," he began, repeating his story for my benefit,
+although Craig listened quite as attentively as if he had not heard it
+already, "was at the big store of Jones, Green leaders have been
+arrested, but I can't say we have anything against any of them. Still,
+Max Bloom, the manager of this company, insists that the fire was set
+for revenge, and indeed it looks as much like a fire for revenge as the
+Jones-Green fire does"--here he lowered his voice confidentially--"for
+the purpose of collecting insurance.
+
+"Then came the fire in the Slawson Building, a new loft-building that
+had been erected just off Fourth Avenue. Other than the fact that the
+Stacey interests put up the money for financing this building there
+seemed to be no reason for that fire at all. The building was reputed
+to be earning a good return on the investment, and I was at a loss to
+account for the fire. I have made no arrests for it--just set it down
+as the work of a pure pyromaniac, a man who burns buildings for fun, a
+man with an inordinate desire to hear the fire-engines screech through
+the streets and perhaps get a chance to show a little heroism in
+'rescuing' tenants. However, the adjuster for the insurance company,
+Lazard, and the adjuster for the insured, Hartstein, have reached an
+agreement, and I believe the insurance is to be paid."
+
+"But," interposed Kennedy, "I see no evidence of organised arson so
+far."
+
+"Wait," replied the fire marshal. "That was only the beginning, you
+understand. A little later came a fire that looked quite like an
+attempt to mask a robbery by burning the building afterward. That was
+in a silk-house near Spring Street. But after a controversy the
+adjusters have reached an agreement on that case. I mention these fires
+because they show practically all the types of work of the various
+kinds of firebug--insurance, revenge, robbery, and plain insanity. But
+since the Spring Street fire, the character of the fires has been more
+uniform. They have all been in business places, or nearly all."
+
+Here the fire marshal launched forth into a catalogue of fires of
+suspected incendiary origin, at least eight in all. I took them down
+hastily, intending to use the list some time in a box head with an
+article in the Star. When he had finished his list I hastily counted up
+the number of killed. There were six, two of them firemen, and four
+employees. The money loss ranged into the millions.
+
+McCormick passed his hand over his forehead to brush off the
+perspiration. "I guess this thing has got on my nerves," he muttered
+hoarsely. "Everywhere I go they talk about nothing else. If I drop into
+the restaurant for lunch, my waiter talks of it. If I meet a newspaper
+man, he talks of it. My barber talks of it--everybody. Sometimes I
+dream of it; other times I lie awake thinking about it. I tell you,
+gentlemen, I've sweated blood over this problem."
+
+"But," insisted Kennedy, "I still can't see why you link all these
+fires as due to one firebug. I admit there is an epidemic of fires. But
+what makes you so positive that it is all the work of one man?"
+
+"I was coming to that. For one thing, he isn't like the usual firebug
+at all. Ordinarily they start their fires with excelsior and petroleum,
+or they smear the wood with paraffin or they use gasoline, benzine, or
+something of that sort. This fellow apparently scorns such crude
+methods. I can't say how he starts his fires, but in every case I have
+mentioned we have found the remains of a wire. It has something to do
+with electricity--but what, I don't know. That's one reason why I think
+these fires are all connected. Here's another."
+
+McCormick pulled a dirty note out of his pocket and laid it on the
+table. We read it eagerly:
+
+Hello, Chief! Haven't found the firebug yet, have you? You will know
+who he is only when I am dead and the fires stop. I don't suppose you
+even realise that the firebug talks with you almost every day about
+catching the firebug. That's me. I am the real firebug, that is writing
+this letter. I am going to tell you why I am starting these fires.
+There's money in it--an easy living. They never caught me in Chicago or
+anywhere, so you might as well quit looking for me and take your
+medicine.
+                       A. SPARK.
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated Kennedy, "he has a sense of humour, anyhow--A.
+Spark!"
+
+"Queer sense of humour," growled McCormick, gritting his teeth. "Here's
+another I got to-day:
+
+Say, Chief: We are going to get busy again and fire a big
+department-store next. How does that suit Your Majesty? Wait till the
+fun begins when the firebug gets to work again.
+                       A. SPARK.
+
+"Well, sir, when I got that letter," cried McCormick, "I was almost
+ready to ring in a double-nine alarm at once--they have me that bluffed
+out. But I said to myself, 'There's only one thing to do--see this man
+Kennedy.' So here I am. You see what I am driving at? I believe that
+firebug is an artist at the thing, does it for the mere fun of it and
+the ready money in it. But more than that, there must be some one back
+of him. Who is the man higher up--we must catch him. See?"
+
+"A big department-store," mused Kennedy. "That's definite--there are
+only a score or so of them, and the Stacey interests control several.
+Mac, I'll tell you what I'll do. Let me sit up with you to-night at
+headquarters until we get an alarm. By George, I'll see this case
+through to a finish!"
+
+The fire marshal leaped to his feet and bounded over to where Kennedy
+was seated. With one hand on Craig's shoulder and the other grasping
+Craig's hand, he started to speak, but his voice choked.
+
+"Thanks," he blurted out huskily at last. "My reputation in the
+department is at stake, my promotion, my position itself, my--my
+family--er--er--"
+
+"Not a word, sir," said Kennedy, his features working sympathetically.
+"To-night at eight I will go on watch with you. By the way, leave me
+those A. Spark notes."
+
+McCormick had so far regained his composure as to say a hearty
+farewell. He left the room as if ten years had been lifted off his
+shoulders. A moment later he stuck his head in the door again. "I'll
+have one of the Department machines call for you, gentlemen," he said.
+
+After the marshal had gone, we sat for several minutes in silence.
+Kennedy was reading and rereading the notes, scowling to himself as if
+they presented a particularly perplexing problem. I said nothing,
+though my mind was teeming with speculations. At length he placed the
+notes very decisively on the table and snapped out the remark,
+
+"Yes, it must be so."
+
+"What?" I queried, still drumming away at my typewriter, copying the
+list of incendiary fires against the moment when the case should be
+complete and the story "released for publication," as it were.
+
+"This note," he explained, picking up the first one and speaking
+slowly, "was written by a woman."
+
+I swung around in my chair quickly. "Get out!" I exclaimed sceptically.
+"No woman ever used such phrases."
+
+"I didn't say composed by a woman--I said written by a woman," he
+replied.
+
+"Oh," I said, rather chagrined.
+
+"It is possible to determine sex from handwriting in perhaps eighty
+cases out of a hundred," Kennedy went on, enjoying my discomfiture.
+"Once I examined several hundred specimens of writing to decide that
+point to my satisfaction. Just to test my conclusions I submitted the
+specimens to two professional graphologists. I found that our results
+were slightly different, but I averaged the thing up to four cases out
+of five correct. The so-called sex signs are found to be largely
+influenced by the amount of writing done, by age, and to a certain
+extent by practice and professional requirements, as in the
+conventional writing of teachers and the rapid hand of bookkeepers. Now
+in this case the person who wrote the first note was only an
+indifferent writer. Therefore the sex signs are pretty likely to be
+accurate. Yes, I'm ready to go on the stand and swear that this note
+was written by a woman and the second by a man."
+
+"Then there's a woman in the case, and she wrote the first note for the
+firebug--is that what you mean?" I asked.
+
+"Exactly. There nearly always is a woman in the case, somehow or other.
+This woman is closely connected with the firebug. As for the firebug,
+whoever it may be, he performs his crimes with cold premeditation and,
+as De Quincey said, in a spirit of pure artistry. The lust of fire
+propels him, and he uses his art to secure wealth. The man may be a
+tool in the hands of others, however. It's unsafe to generalise on the
+meagre facts we now have. Oh, well, there is nothing we can do just
+yet. Let's take a walk, get an early dinner, and be back here before
+the automobile arrives."
+
+Not a word more did Kennedy say about the case during our stroll or
+even on the way downtown to fire headquarters.
+
+We found McCormick anxiously waiting for us. High up in the sandstone
+tower at headquarters, we sat with him in the maze of delicate
+machinery with which the fire game is played in New York. In great
+glass cases were glistening brass and nickel machines with discs and
+levers and bells, tickers, sheets of paper, and annunciators without
+number. This was the fire-alarm telegraph, the "roulettewheel of the
+fire demon," as some one has aptly called it.
+
+"All the alarms for fire from all the boroughs, both from the regular
+alarm-boxes and the auxiliary systems, come here first over the network
+of three thousand miles or more of wire nerves that stretch out through
+the city," McCormick was explaining to us.
+
+A buzzer hissed.
+
+"Here's an alarm now," he exclaimed, all attention.
+
+"Three," "six," "seven," the numbers appeared on the annunciator. The
+clerks in the office moved as if they were part of the mechanism. Twice
+the alarm was repeated, being sent out all over the city. McCormick
+relapsed from his air of attention.
+
+"That alarm was not in the shopping district," he explained, much
+relieved. "Now the fire-houses in the particular district where that
+fire is have received the alarm instantly. Four engines, two
+hook-and-ladders, a water-tower, the battalion chief, and a deputy are
+hurrying to that fire. Hello, here comes another."
+
+Again the buzzer sounded. "One," "four," "five" showed in the
+annunciator.
+
+Even before the clerks could respond, McCormick had dragged us to the
+door. In another instant we were wildly speeding uptown, the bell on
+the front of the automobile clanging like a fire-engine, the siren horn
+going continuously, the engine of the machine throbbing with energy
+until the water boiled in the radiator.
+
+"Let her out, Frank," called McCormick to his chauffeur, as we rounded
+into a broad and now almost deserted thoroughfare.
+
+Like a red streak in the night we flew up that avenue, turned into
+Fourteenth Street on two wheels, and at last were on Sixth Avenue. With
+a jerk and a skid we stopped. There were the engines, the hose-carts,
+the hook-and-ladders, the salvage corps, the police establishing fire
+lines--everything. But where was the fire?
+
+The crowd indicated where it ought to be--it was Stacey's. Firemen and
+policemen were entering the huge building. McCormick shouldered in
+after them, and we followed.
+
+"Who turned in the alarm?" he asked as we mounted the stairs with the
+others.
+
+"I did," replied a night watchman on the third landing. "Saw a light in
+the office on the third floor back--something blazing. But it seems to
+be out now."
+
+We had at last come to the office. It was dark and deserted, yet with
+the lanterns we could see the floor of the largest room littered with
+torn books and ledgers.
+
+Kennedy caught his foot in something. It was a loose wire on the floor.
+He followed it. It led to an electric-light socket, where it was
+attached.
+
+"Can't you turn on the lights?" shouted McCormick to the watchman.
+
+"Not here. They're turned on from downstairs, and they're off for the
+night. I'll go down if you want me to and--"
+
+"No," roared Kennedy. "Stay where you are until I follow the wire to
+the other end."
+
+At last we came to a little office partitioned off from the main room.
+Kennedy carefully opened the door. One whiff of the air from it was
+sufficient. He banged the door shut again.
+
+"Stand back with those lanterns, boys," he ordered.
+
+I sniffed, expecting to smell illuminating-gas. Instead, a peculiar,
+sweetish odour pervaded the air. For a moment it made me think of a
+hospital operating-room.
+
+"Ether," exclaimed Kennedy. "Stand back farther with those lights and
+hold them up from the floor."
+
+For a moment he seemed to hesitate as if at loss what to do next.
+Should he open the door and let this highly inflammable gas out or
+should he wait patiently until the natural ventilation of the little
+office had dispelled it?
+
+While he was debating he happened to glance out of the window and catch
+sight of a drug-store across the street.
+
+"Walter," he said to me, "hurry across there and get all the saltpeter
+and sulphur the man has in the shop."
+
+I lost no time in doing so. Kennedy dumped the two chemicals into a pan
+in the middle of the main office, about three-fifths saltpeter and
+two-fifths sulphur, I should say. Then he lighted it. The mass burned
+with a bright flame but without explosion. We could smell the
+suffocating fumes from it, and we retreated. For a moment or two we
+watched it curiously at a distance.
+
+"That's very good extinguishing-powder," explained Craig as we sniffed
+at the odour. "It yields a large amount of carbon dioxide and sulphur
+dioxide. Now--before it gets any worse--I guess it's safe to open the
+door and let the ether out. You see this is as good a way as any to
+render safe a room full of inflammable vapour. Come, we'll wait outside
+the main office for a few minutes until the gases mix."
+
+It seemed hours before Kennedy deemed it safe to enter the office again
+with a light. When we did so, we made a rush for the little cubby-hole
+of an office at the other end. On the floor was a little can of ether,
+evaporated of course, and beside it a small apparatus apparently used
+for producing electric sparks.
+
+"So, that's how he does it," mused Kennedy, fingering the can
+contemplatively. "He lets the ether evaporate in a room for a while and
+then causes an explosion from a safe distance with this little electric
+spark. There's where your wire comes in, McCormick. Say, my man, you
+can switch on the lights from downstairs, now."
+
+As we waited for the watchman to turn on the lights I exclaimed, "He
+failed this time because the electricity was shut off."
+
+"Precisely, Walter," assented Kennedy.
+
+"But the flames which the night watchman saw, what of them?" put in
+McCormick, considerably mystified. "He must have seen something."
+
+Just then the lights winked up.
+
+"Oh, that was before the fellow tried to touch off the ether vapour,"
+explained Kennedy. "He had to make sure of his work of destruction
+first--and, judging by the charred papers about, he did it well. See,
+he tore leaves from the ledgers and lighted them on the floor. There
+was an object in all that. What was it? Hello! Look at this mass of
+charred paper in the corner."
+
+He bent down and examined it carefully.
+
+"Memoranda of some kind, I guess. I'll save this burnt paper and look
+it over later. Don't disturb it. I'll take it away myself."
+
+Search as we might, we could find no other trace of the firebug, and at
+last we left. Kennedy carried the charred paper carefully in a large
+hat-box.
+
+"There'll be no more fires to-night, McCormick," he said. "But I'll
+watch with you every night until we get this incendiary. Meanwhile I'll
+see what I can decipher, if anything, in this burnt paper."
+
+Next day McCormick dropped in to see us again. This time he had another
+note, a disguised scrawl which read:
+
+Chief: I'm not through. Watch me get another store yet. I won't fall
+down this time.
+                       A. SPARK.
+
+Craig scowled as he read the note and handed it to me. "The man's
+writing this time--like the second note," was all he said. "McCormick,
+since we know where the lightning is going to strike, don't you think
+it would be wiser to make our headquarters in one of the engine-houses
+in that district?"
+
+The fire marshal agreed, and that night saw us watching at the
+fire-house nearest the department-store region.
+
+Kennedy and I were assigned to places on the hose-cart and engine,
+respectively, Kennedy being in the hose-cart so that he could be with
+McCormick. We were taught to descend one of the four brass poles hand
+under elbow, from the dormitory on the second floor. They showed us how
+to jump into the "turn-outs"--a pair of trousers opened out over the
+high top boots. We were given helmets which we placed in regulation
+fashion on our rubber coats, turned inside out with the right armhole
+up. Thus it came about that Craig and I joined the Fire Department
+temporarily. It was a novel experience for us both.
+
+"Now, Walter," said Kennedy, "as long as we have gone so far, we'll
+'roll' to every fire, just like the regulars. We won't take any chances
+of missing the firebug at any time of night or day."
+
+It proved to be a remarkably quiet evening with only one little blaze
+in a candy-shop on Seventh Avenue. Most of the time we sat around
+trying to draw the men out about their thrilling experiences at fires.
+But if there is one thing the fireman doesn't know it is the English
+language when talking about himself. It was quite late when we turned
+into the neat white cots upstairs.
+
+We had scarcely fallen into a half doze in our strange surroundings
+when the gong downstairs sounded. It was our signal.
+
+We could hear the rapid clatter of the horses' hoofs as they were
+automatically released from their stalls and the collars and harness
+mechanically locked about them. All was stir, and motion, and shouts.
+Craig and I had bounded awkwardly into our paraphernalia at the first
+sound. We slid ungracefully down the pole and were pushed and shoved
+into our places, for scientific management in a New York fire-house has
+reached one hundred per cent. efficiency, and we were not to be allowed
+to delay the game.
+
+The oil-torch had been applied to the engine, and it rolled forth,
+belching flames. I was hanging on for dear life, now and then catching
+sight of the driver urging his plunging horses onward like a charioteer
+in a modern Ben Hur race. The tender with Craig and McCormick was lost
+in the clouds of smoke and sparks that trailed behind us. On we dashed
+until we turned into Sixth Avenue. The glare of the sky told us that
+this time the firebug had made good.
+
+"I'll be hanged if it isn't the Stacey store again," shouted the man
+next me on the engine as the horses lunged up the avenue and stopped at
+the allotted hydrant. It was like a war game. Every move had been
+planned out by the fire-strategists, even down to the hydrants that the
+engines should take at a given fire.
+
+Already several floors were aflame, the windows glowing like
+open-hearth furnaces, the glass bulging and cracking and the flames
+licking upward and shooting out in long streamers. The hose was coupled
+up in an instant, the water turned on, and the limp rubber and canvas
+became as rigid as a post with the high pressure of the water being
+forced through it. Company after company dashed into the blazing
+"fireproof" building, urged by the hoarse profanity of the chief.
+
+Twenty or thirty men must have disappeared into the stifle from which
+the police retreated. There was no haste, no hesitation. Everything
+moved as smoothly as if by clockwork. Yet we could not see one of the
+men who had disappeared into the burning building. They had been
+swallowed up, as it were. For that is the way with the New York
+firemen. They go straight to the heart of the fire. Now and then a
+stream of a hose spat out of a window, showing that the men were still
+alive and working. About the ground floors the red-helmeted salvage
+corps were busy covering up what they could of the goods with rubber
+sheets to protect them from water. Doctors with black bags and white
+trousers were working over the injured. Kennedy and I were busy about
+the engine, and there was plenty for us to do.
+
+Above the shrill whistle for more coal I heard a voice shout, "Began
+with an explosion--it's the firebug, all right." I looked up. It was
+McCormick, dripping and grimy, in a high state of excitement, talking
+to Kennedy.
+
+I had been so busy trying to make myself believe that I was really of
+some assistance about the engine that I had not taken time to watch the
+fire itself. It was now under control. The sharp and scientific attack
+had nipped what might have been one of New York's historic
+conflagrations.
+
+"Are you game to go inside?" I heard McCormick ask.
+
+For answer Kennedy simply nodded. As for me, where Craig went I went.
+
+The three of us drove through the scorching door, past twisted masses
+of iron still glowing dull red in the smoke and steam, while the water
+hissed and spattered and slopped. The smoke was still suffocating, and
+every once in a while we were forced to find air close to the floor and
+near the wall. My hands and arms and legs felt like lead, yet on we
+drove.
+
+Coughing and choking, we followed McCormick to what had been the heart
+of the fire, the office. Men with picks and axes and all manner of
+cunningly devised instruments were hacking and tearing at the walls and
+woodwork, putting out the last smouldering sparks while a thousand
+gallons of water were pouring in at various parts of the building where
+the fire still showed spirit.
+
+There on the floor of the office lay a charred, shapeless,
+unrecognisable mass. What was that gruesome odour in the room? Burned
+human flesh? I recoiled from what had once been the form of a woman.
+
+McCormick uttered a cry, and as I turned my eyes away, I saw him
+holding a wire with the insulation burned off. He had picked it up from
+the wreckage of the floor. It led to a bent and blackened can--that had
+once been a can of ether.
+
+My mind worked rapidly, but McCormick blurted out the words before I
+could form them, "Caught in her own trap at last!"
+
+Kennedy said nothing, but as one of the firemen roughly but reverently
+covered the remains with a rubber sheet, he stooped down and withdrew
+from the breast of the woman a long letter-file. "Come, let us go," he
+said.
+
+Back in our apartment again we bathed our racking heads, gargled our
+parched throats, and washed out our bloodshot eyes, in silence. The
+whole adventure, though still fresh and vivid in my mind, seemed
+unreal, like a dream. The choking air, the hissing steam, the ghastly
+object under the tarpaulin--what did it all mean? Who was she? I strove
+to reason it out, but could find no answer.
+
+It was nearly dawn when the door opened and McCormick came in and
+dropped wearily into a chair. "Do you know who that woman was?" he
+gasped. "It was Miss Wend herself."
+
+"Who identified her?" asked Kennedy calmly.
+
+"Oh, several people. Stacey recognised her at once. Then Hartstein, the
+adjuster for the insured, and Lazard, the adjuster for the company,
+both of whom had had more or less to do with her in connection with
+settling up for other fires, recognised her. She was a very clever
+woman, was Miss Wend, and a very important cog in the Stacey
+enterprises. And to think she was the firebug, after all. I can hardly
+believe it."
+
+"Why believe it?" asked Kennedy quietly.
+
+"Why believe it?" echoed McCormick. "Stacey has found shortages in his
+books due to the operation of her departments. The bookkeeper who had
+charge of the accounts in her department, a man named Douglas, is
+missing. She must have tried to cover up her operations by fires and
+juggling the accounts. Failing in that she tried to destroy Stacey's
+store itself, twice. She was one of the few that could get into the
+office unobserved. Oh, it's a clear case now. To my mind, the heavy
+vapours of ether--they are heavier than air, you know--must have
+escaped along the surface of the floor last night and become ignited at
+a considerable distance from where she expected. She was caught in a
+back-draught, or something of the sort. Well, thank God, we've seen the
+last of this firebug business. What's that?"
+
+Kennedy had laid the letter-file on the table. "Nothing. Only I found
+this embedded in Miss Wend's breast right over her heart."
+
+"Then she was murdered?" exclaimed McCormick.
+
+"We haven't come to the end of this case yet," replied Craig evasively.
+"On the contrary, we have just got our first good clue. No, McCormick,
+your theory will not hold water. The real point is to find this missing
+bookkeeper at any cost. You must persuade him to confess what he knows.
+Offer him immunity--he was only a pawn in the hands of those higher up."
+
+McCormick was not hard to convince. Tired as he was, he grabbed up his
+hat and started off to put the final machinery in motion to wind up the
+long chase for the firebug.
+
+"I must get a couple of hours' sleep," he yawned as he left us, "but
+first I want to start something toward finding Douglas. I shall try to
+see you about noon."
+
+I was too exhausted to go to the office. In fact, I doubt if I could
+have written a line. But I telephoned in a story of personal
+experiences at the Stacey fire and told them they could fix it up as
+they chose and even sign my name to it.
+
+About noon McCormick came in again, looking as fresh as if nothing had
+happened. He was used to it.
+
+"I know where Douglas is," he announced breathlessly.
+
+"Fine," said Kennedy, "and can you produce him at any time when it is
+necessary?"
+
+"Let me tell you what I have done. I went down to the district attorney
+from here--routed him out of bed. He has promised to turn loose his
+accountants to audit the reports of the adjusters, Hartstein and
+Lazard, as well as to make a cursory examination of what Stacey books
+there are left. He says he will have a preliminary report ready
+to-night, but the detailed report will take days, of course.
+
+"It's the Douglas problem that is difficult, though. I haven't seen
+him, but one of the central-office men, by shadowing his wife, has
+found that he is in hiding down on the East Side. He's safe there; he
+can't make a move to get away without being arrested. The trouble is
+that if I arrest him, the people higher up will know it and will escape
+before I can get his confession and the warrants. I'd much rather have
+the whole thing done at once. Isn't there some way we can get the whole
+Stacey crowd together, make the arrest of Douglas and nab the guilty
+ones in the case, all together without giving them a chance to escape
+or to shield the real firebug?"
+
+Kennedy thought a moment. "Yes," he answered slowly. "There is. If you
+can get them all together at my laboratory to-night at, say, eight
+o'clock, I'll give you two clear hours to make the arrest of Douglas,
+get the confession, and swear out the warrants. All that you'll need to
+do is to let me talk a few minutes this afternoon with the judge who
+will sit in the night court to-night. I shall install a little machine
+on his desk in the court, and we'll catch the real criminal--he'll
+never get a chance to cross the state line or disappear in any way. You
+see, my laboratory will be neutral ground. I think you can get them to
+come, inasmuch as they know the bookkeeper is safe and that dead women
+tell no tales."
+
+When next I saw Kennedy it was late in the afternoon, in the
+laboratory. He was arranging something in the top drawer of a flat-top
+desk. It seemed to be two instruments composed of many levers and discs
+and magnets, each instrument with a roll of paper about five inches
+wide. On one was a sort of stylus with two silk cords attached at right
+angles to each other near the point. On the other was a capillary glass
+tube at the junction of two aluminum arms, also at right angles to each
+other.
+
+It was quite like old times to see Kennedy at work in his laboratory
+preparing for a "seance." He said nothing as I watched him curiously,
+and I asked nothing. Two sets of wires were attached to each of the
+instruments, and these he carefully concealed and led out the window.
+Then he arranged the chairs on the opposite side of the desk from his
+own.
+
+"Walter," he said, "when our guests begin to arrive I want you to be
+master of ceremonies. Simply keep them on the opposite side of the desk
+from me. Don't let them move their chairs around to the right or left.
+And, above all, leave the doors open. I don't want any one to be
+suspicious or to feel that he is shut in in any way. Create the
+impression that they are free to go and come when they please."
+
+Stacey arrived first in a limousine which he left standing at the door
+of the Chemistry Building. Bloom and Warren came together in the
+latter's car. Lazard came in a taxicab which he dismissed, and
+Hartstein came up by the subway, being the last to arrive. Every one
+seemed to be in good humour.
+
+I seated them as Kennedy had directed. Kennedy pulled out the extension
+on the left of his desk and leaned his elbow on it as he began to
+apologise for taking up their time at such a critical moment. As near
+as I could make out, he had quietly pulled out the top drawer of his
+desk on the right, the drawer in which I had seen him place the
+complicated apparatus. But as nothing further happened I almost forgot
+about it in listening to him. He began by referring to the burned
+papers he had found in the office.
+
+"It is sometimes possible," he continued, "to decipher writing on
+burned papers if one is careful. The processes of colour photography
+have recently been applied to obtain a legible photograph of the
+writing on burned manuscripts which are unreadable by any other known
+means. As long as the sheet has not been entirely disintegrated
+positive results can be obtained every time. The charred manuscript is
+carefully arranged in as near its original shape as possible, on a
+sheet of glass and covered with a drying varnish, after which it is
+backed by another sheet of glass.
+
+"By using carefully selected colour screens and orthochromatic plates a
+perfectly legible photograph of the writing may be taken, although
+there may be no marks on the charred remains that are visible to the
+eye. This is the only known method in many cases. I have here some
+burned fragments of paper which I gathered up after the first attempt
+to fire your store, Mr. Stacey."
+
+Stacey coughed in acknowledgment. As for Craig, he did not mince
+matters in telling what he had found.
+
+"Some were notes given in favour of Rebecca Wend and signed by Joseph
+Stacey," he said quietly. "They represent a large sum of money in the
+aggregate. Others were memoranda of Miss Wend's, and still others were
+autograph letters to Miss Wend of a very incriminating nature in
+connection with the fires by another person."
+
+Here he laid the "A. Spark" letters on the desk before him. "Now," he
+added "some one, in a spirit of bravado, sent these notes to the fire
+marshal at various times. Curiously enough, I find that the handwriting
+of the first one bears a peculiar resemblance to that of Miss Wend,
+while the second and third, though disguised also, greatly suggest the
+handwriting of Miss Wend's correspondent."
+
+No one moved. But I sat aghast. She had been a part of the conspiracy,
+after all, not a pawn. Had they played fair?
+
+"Taking up next the remarkable succession of fires," resumed Kennedy,
+"this case presents some unique features. In short, it is a clear case
+of what is known as a 'firebug trust.' Now just what is a firebug
+trust? Well, it is, as near as I can make out, a combination of
+dishonest merchants and insurance adjusters engaged in the business of
+deliberately setting fires for profit. These arson trusts are not the
+ordinary kind of firebugs whom the firemen plentifully damn in the
+fixed belief that one-fourth of all fires are kindled by incendiaries.
+Such 'trusts' exist all over the country. They have operated in
+Chicago, where they are said to have made seven hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars in one year. Another group is said to have its
+headquarters in Kansas City. Others have worked in St. Louis,
+Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo. The fire marshals of Illinois,
+Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio have investigated their work. But until
+recently New York has been singularly free from the organised work of
+this sort. Of course we have plenty of firebugs and pyromaniacs in a
+small way, but the big conspiracy has never come to my personal
+attention before.
+
+"Now, the Jones-Green fire, the Quadrangle fire, the Slawson Building
+fire, and the rest, have all been set for one purpose--to collect
+insurance. I may as well say right here that some people are in bad in
+this case, but that others are in worse. Miss Wend was originally a
+party to the scheme. Only the trouble with Miss Wend was that she was
+too shrewd to be fooled. She insisted that she have her full share of
+the pickings. In that case it seems to have been the whole field
+against Miss Wend, not a very gallant thing, nor yet according to the
+adage about honour among thieves.
+
+"A certain person whose name I am frank to say I do not
+know--yet--conceived the idea of destroying the obligations of the
+Stacey companies to Miss Wend as well as the incriminating evidence
+which she held of the 'firebug trust,' of which she was a member up to
+this time. The plan only partly succeeded. The chief coup, which was to
+destroy the Stacey store into the bargain, miscarried.
+
+"What was the result? Miss Wend, who had been hand in glove with the
+'trust,' was now a bitter enemy, perhaps would turn state's evidence.
+What more natural than to complete the conspiracy by carrying out the
+coup and at the same time get rid of the dangerous enemy of the
+conspirators? I believe that Miss Wend was lured under some pretext or
+other to the Stacey store on the night of the big fire. The person who
+wrote the second and third 'A. Spark' letters did it. She was murdered
+with this deadly instrument"--Craig laid the letter-file on the
+table--"and it was planned to throw the entire burden of suspicion on
+her by asserting that there was a shortage in the books of her
+department."
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed Stacey, smoking complacently at his cigar. "We have
+been victimised in those fires by people who have grudges against us,
+labour unions and others. This talk of an arson trust is bosh--yellow
+journalism. More than that, we have been systematically robbed by a
+trusted head of a department, and the fire at Stacey's was the way the
+thief took to cover--er--her stealings. At the proper time we shall
+produce the bookkeeper Douglas and prove it."
+
+Kennedy fumbled in the drawer of the desk, then drew forth a long strip
+of paper covered with figures. "All the Stacey companies," he said,
+"have been suffering from the depression that exists in the trade at
+present. They are insolvent. Glance over that, Stacey. It is a summary
+of the preliminary report of the accountants of the district attorney
+who have been going over your books to-day."
+
+Stacey gasped. "How did you get it? The report was not to be ready
+until nine o'clock, and it is scarcely a quarter past now."
+
+"Never mind how I got it. Go over it with the adjusters, anybody. I
+think you will find that there was no shortage in Miss Wend's
+department, that you were losing money, that you were in debt to Miss
+Wend, and that she would have received the lion's share of the proceeds
+of the insurance if the firebug scheme had turned out as planned."
+
+"We absolutely repudiate these figures as fiction," said Stacey,
+angrily turning toward Kennedy after a hurried consultation.
+
+"Perhaps, then, you'll appreciate this," replied Craig, pulling another
+piece of paper from the desk. "I'll read it. 'Henry Douglas, being duly
+sworn, deposes and says that one'--we'll call him 'Blank' for the
+present--'with force and arms did feloniously, wilfully, and
+intentionally kill Rebecca Wend whilst said Blank was wilfully burning
+and setting on fire--'"
+
+"One moment," interrupted Stacey. "Let me see that paper."
+
+Kennedy laid it down so that only the signature showed. The name was
+signed in a full round hand, "Henry Douglas."
+
+"It's a forgery," cried Stacey in rage. "Not an hour before I came into
+this place I saw Henry Douglas. He had signed no such paper then. He
+could not have signed it since, and you could not have received it. I
+brand that document as a forgery."
+
+Kennedy stood up and reached down into the open drawer on the right of
+his desk. From it he lifted the two machines I had seen him place there
+early in the evening.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "this is the last scene of the play you are
+enacting. You see here on the desk an instrument that was invented many
+years ago, but has only recently become really practical. It is the
+telautograph--the long-distance writer. In this new form it can be
+introduced into the drawer of a desk for the use of any one who may
+wish to make inquiries, say, of clerks without the knowledge of a
+caller. It makes it possible to write a message under these conditions
+and receive an answer concerning the personality or business of the
+individual seated at one's elbow without leaving the desk or seeming to
+make inquiries.
+
+"With an ordinary pencil I have written on the paper of the
+transmitter. The silk cord attached to the pencil regulates the current
+which controls a pencil at the other end of the line. The receiving
+pencil moves simultaneously with my pencil. It is the principle of the
+pantagraph cut in half, one half here, the other half at the end of the
+line, two telephone wires in this case connecting the halves.
+
+"While we have been sitting here I have had my right hand in the
+half-open drawer of my desk writing with this pencil notes of what has
+transpired in this room. These notes, with other evidence, have been
+simultaneously placed before Magistrate Brenner in the night court. At
+the same time, on this other, the receiving, instrument the figures of
+the accountants written in court have been reproduced here. You have
+seen them. Meanwhile, Douglas was arrested, taken before the
+magistrate, and the information for a charge of murder in the first
+degree perpetrated in committing arson has been obtained. You have seen
+it. It came in while you were reading the figures."
+
+The conspirators seemed dazed.
+
+"And now," continued Kennedy, "I see that the pencil of the receiving
+instrument is writing again. Let us see what it is."
+
+We bent over. The writing started: "County of New York. In the name of
+the People of the State of New York--"
+
+Kennedy did not wait for us to finish reading. He tore the writing from
+the telautograph and waved it over his head.
+
+"It is a warrant. You are all under arrest for arson. But you, Samuel
+Lazard, are also under arrest for the murder of Rebecca Wend and six
+other persons in fires which you have set. You are the real firebug,
+the tool of Joseph Stacey, perhaps, but that will all come out in the
+trial. McCormick, McCormick," called Craig, "it's all right. I have the
+warrant. Are the police there?"
+
+There was no answer.
+
+Lazard and Stacey made a sudden dash for the door, and in an instant
+they were in Stacey's waiting car. The chauffeur took off the brake and
+pulled the lever. Suddenly Craig's pistol flashed, and the chauffeur's
+arms hung limp and useless on the steering-wheel.
+
+As McCormick with the police loomed up, a moment late, out of the
+darkness and after a short struggle clapped the irons on Stacey and
+Lazard in Stacey's own magnificently upholstered car, I remarked
+reproachfully to Kennedy: "But, Craig, you have shot the innocent
+chauffeur. Aren't you going to attend to him?"
+
+"Oh," replied Kennedy nonchalantly, "don't worry about that. They were
+only rock-salt bullets. They didn't penetrate far. They'll sting for
+some time, but they're antiseptic, and they'll dissolve and absorb
+quickly."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE CONFIDENCE KING
+
+
+"Shake hands with Mr. Burke of the secret service, Professor Kennedy."
+
+It was our old friend First Deputy O'Connor who thus in his bluff way
+introduced a well-groomed and prosperous-looking man whom he brought up
+to our apartment one evening.
+
+The formalities were quickly over. "Mr. Burke and I are old friends,"
+explained O'Connor. "We try to work together when we can, and very
+often the city department can give the government service a lift, and
+then again it's the other way--as it was in the trunk-murder mystery.
+Show Professor Kennedy the 'queer,' Tom."
+
+Burke drew a wallet out of his pocket, and from it slowly and
+deliberately selected a crisp, yellow-backed hundred-dollar bill. He
+laid it flat on the table before us. Diagonally across its face from
+the upper left-to the lower right-hand corner extended two parallel
+scorings in indelible ink.
+
+Not being initiated into the secrets of the gentle art of "shoving the
+queer," otherwise known as passing counterfeit money, I suppose my
+questioning look betrayed me.
+
+"A counterfeit, Walter," explained Kennedy. "That's what they do with
+bills when they wish to preserve them as records in the secret service
+and yet render them valueless."
+
+Without a word Burke handed Kennedy a pocket magnifying-glass, and
+Kennedy carefully studied the bill. He was about to say something when
+Burke opened his capacious wallet again and laid down a Bank of England
+five-pound note which had been similarly treated.
+
+Again Kennedy looked through the glass with growing amazement written
+on his face, but before he could say anything, Burke laid down an
+express money-order on the International Express Company.
+
+"I say," exclaimed Kennedy, putting down the glass, "stop! How many
+more of these are there?"
+
+Burke smiled. "That's all," he replied, "but it's not the worst."
+
+"Not the worst? Good heavens, man, next you'll tell me that the
+government is counterfeiting its own notes! How much of this stuff do
+you suppose has been put into circulation?"
+
+Burke chewed a pencil thoughtfully, jotted down some figures on a piece
+of paper, and thought some more. "Of course I can't say exactly, but
+from hints I have received here and there I should think that a safe
+bet would be that some one has cashed in upward of half a million
+dollars already."
+
+"Whew," whistled Kennedy, "that's going some. And I suppose it is all
+salted away in some portable form. What an inventory it must be--good
+bills, gold, diamonds, and jewellery. This is a stake worth playing
+for."
+
+"Yes," broke in O'Connor, "but from my standpoint, professionally, I
+mean, the case is even worse than that. It's not the counterfeits that
+bother us. We understand that, all right. But," and he leaned forward
+earnestly and brought his fist down hard on the table with a resounding
+Irish oath, "the finger-print system, the infallible finger-print
+system, has gone to pieces. We've just imported this new 'portrait
+parle' fresh from Paris and London, invented by Bertillon and all that
+sort of thing--it has gone to pieces, too. It's a fine case, this is,
+with nothing left of either scientific or unscientific
+criminal-catching to rely on. There--what do you know about that?"
+
+"You'll have to tell me the facts first," said Kennedy. "I can't
+diagnose your disease until I know the symptoms."
+
+"It's like this," explained Burke, the detective in him showing now
+with no effort at concealment. "A man, an Englishman, apparently, went
+into a downtown banker's office about three months ago and asked to
+have some English bank-notes exchanged for American money. After he had
+gone away, the cashier began to get suspicious. He thought there was
+something phoney in the feel of the notes. Under the glass he noticed
+that the little curl on the 'e' of the 'Five' was missing. It's the
+protective mark. The water-mark was quite equal to that of the
+genuine--maybe better. Hold that note up to the light and see for
+yourself.
+
+"Well, the next day, down to the Custom House, where my office is, a
+man came who runs a swell gambling-house uptown. He laid ten brand-new
+bills on my desk. An Englishman had been betting on the wheel. He
+didn't seem to care about winning, and he cashed in each time with a
+new one-hundred-dollar bill. Of course he didn't care about winning. He
+cared about the change--that was his winning. The bill on the table is
+one of the original ten, though since then scores have been put into
+circulation. I made up my mind that it was the same Englishman in both
+cases.
+
+"Then within a week, in walked the manager of the Mozambique Hotel--he
+had been stung with the fake International Express money-order--same
+Englishman, too, I believe."
+
+"And you have no trace of him?" asked Kennedy eagerly.
+
+"We had him under arrest once--we thought. A general alarm was sent
+out, of course, to all the banks and banking-houses. But the man was
+too clever to turn up in that way again. In one gambling-joint which
+women frequent a good deal, a classy dame who might have been a duchess
+or a--well, she was a pretty good loser and always paid with
+hundred-dollar bills. Now, you know women are NOT good losers. Besides,
+the hundred-dollar-bill story had got around among the gambling-houses.
+This joint thought it worth taking a chance, so they called me up on
+the 'phone, extracted a promise that I'd play fair and keep O'Connor
+from raiding them, but wouldn't I please come up and look over the dame
+of the yellow bills? Of course I made a jump at it. Sure enough, they
+were the same counterfeits. I could tell because the silk threads were
+drawn in with coloured ink. But instead of making an arrest I decided
+to trail the lady.
+
+"Now, here comes the strange part of it. Let me see, this must have
+been over two months ago. I followed her out to a suburban town,
+Riverwood along the Hudson, and to a swell country house overlooking
+the river, private drive, stone gate, hedges, old trees, and all that
+sort of thing. A sporty-looking Englishman met her at the gate with one
+of those big imported touring-cars, and they took a spin.
+
+"I waited a day or so, but nothing more happened, and I began to get
+anxious. Perhaps I was a bit hasty. Anyhow I watched my chance and made
+an arrest of both of them when they came to New York on a shopping
+expedition. You should have heard that Englishman swear. I didn't know
+such language was possible. But in his pocket we found twenty more of
+those hundred-dollar bills--that was all. Do you think he owned up? Not
+a bit of it. He swore he had picked the notes up in a pocketbook on the
+pier as he left the steamer. I laughed. But when he was arraigned in
+court he told the magistrate the same story and that he had advertised
+his find at the time. Sure enough, in the files of the papers we
+discovered in the lost-and-found column the ad., just as he claimed. We
+couldn't even prove that he had passed the bills. So the magistrate
+refused to hold them, and they were both released. But we had had them
+in our power long enough to take their finger-prints and get
+descriptions and measurements of them, particularly by this new
+'portrait parle' system. We felt we could send out a strange detective
+and have him pick them out of a crowd--you know the system, I presume?"
+
+Kennedy nodded, and I made a mental note of finding out more about the
+"portrait parle" later.
+
+Burke paused, and O'Connor prompted, "Tell them about Scotland Yard,
+Tom."
+
+"Oh, yes," resumed Burke. "Of course I sent copies of the finger-prints
+to Scotland Yard. Within two weeks they replied that one set belonged
+to William Forbes, a noted counterfeiter, who, they understood, had
+sailed for South Africa but had never arrived there. They were glad to
+learn that he was in America, and advised me to look after him sharply.
+The woman was also a noted character--Harriet Wollstone, an
+adventuress."
+
+"I suppose you have shadowed them ever since?" Kennedy asked.
+
+"Yes, a few days after they were arrested the man had an accident with
+his car. It was said he was cranking the engine and that it kicked back
+and splintered the bone in his forearm. Anyhow, he went about with his
+hand and arm in a sling."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"They gave my man the slip that night in their fast touring-car. You
+know automobiles have about made shadowing impossible in these days.
+The house was closed up, and it was said by the neighbours that
+Williams and Mrs. Williams--as they called themselves--had gone to
+visit a specialist in Philadelphia. Still, as they had a year's lease
+on the house, I detailed a man to watch it more or less all the time.
+They went to Philadelphia all right; some of the bills turned up there.
+But we saw nothing of them.
+
+"A short time ago, word came to me that the house was open again. It
+wasn't two hours later that the telephone rang like mad. A Fifth Avenue
+jeweller had just sold a rope of pearls to an Englishwoman who paid for
+it herself in crisp new one-hundred-dollar bills. The bank had returned
+them to him that very afternoon--counterfeits. I didn't lose any time
+making a second arrest up at the house of mystery at Riverwood. I had
+the county authorities hold them--and, now, O'Connor, tell the rest of
+it. You took the finger-prints up there."
+
+O'Connor cleared his throat as if something stuck in it, in the
+telling. "The Riverwood authorities refused to hold them," he said with
+evident chagrin. "As soon as I heard of the arrest I started up myself
+with the finger-print records to help Burke. It was the same man, all
+right--I'll swear to that on a stack of Bibles. So will Burke. I'll
+never forget that snub nose--the concave nose, the nose being the first
+point of identification in the 'portrait parle.' And the ears, too--oh,
+it was the same man, all right. But when we produced the London
+finger-prints which tallied with the New York fingerprints which we had
+made--believe it or not, but it is a fact, the Riverwood finger-prints
+did not tally at all."
+
+He laid the prints on the table. Kennedy examined them closely. His
+face clouded. It was quite evident that he was stumped, and he said so.
+"There are some points of agreement," he remarked, "but more points of
+difference. Any points of difference are usually considered fatal to
+the finger-print theory."
+
+"We had to let the man go," concluded Burke. "We could have held the
+woman, but we let her go, too, because she was not the principal in the
+case. My men are shadowing the house now and have been ever since then.
+But the next day after the last arrest, a man from New York, who looked
+like a doctor, made a visit. The secret-service man on the job didn't
+dare leave the house to follow him, but as he never came again perhaps
+it doesn't matter. Since then the house has been closed."
+
+The telephone rang. It was Burke's office calling him. As he talked we
+could gather that something tragic must have happened at Riverwood, and
+we could hardly wait until he had finished.
+
+"There has been an accident up there," he remarked as he hung up the
+receiver rather petulantly. "They returned in the car this afternoon
+with a large package in the back of the tonneau. But they didn't stay
+long. After dark they started out again in the car. The accident was at
+the bad railroad crossing just above Riverwood. It SEEMS Williams's car
+got stalled on the track just as the Buffalo express was due. No one
+saw it, but a man in a buggy around the bend in the road heard a woman
+scream. He hurried down. The train had smashed the car to bits. How the
+woman escaped was a miracle, but they found the man's body up the
+tracks, horribly mangled. It was Williams, they say. They identified
+him by the clothes and by letters in his pockets. But my man tells me
+he found a watch on him with 'W. F.' engraved on it. His hands and arms
+and head must have been right under the locomotive when it struck him,
+I judge."
+
+"I guess that winds the case up, eh?" exclaimed O'Connor with evident
+chagrin. "Where's the woman?"
+
+"They said she was in the little local hospital, but not much hurt.
+Just the shock and a few bruises."
+
+O'Connor's question seemed to suggest an idea to Burke, and he reached
+for the telephone again. "Riverwood 297," he ordered; then to us as he
+waited he said: "We must hold the woman. Hello, 297? The hospital? This
+is Burke of the secret service. Will you tell my man, who must be
+somewhere about, that I would like to have him hold that woman who was
+in the auto smash until I can--what? Gone? The deuce!"
+
+He hung up the receiver angrily. "She left with a man who called for
+her about half an hour ago," he said. "There must be a gang of them.
+Forbes is dead, but we must get the rest. Mr. Kennedy, I'm sorry to
+have bothered you, but I guess we can handle this alone, after all. It
+was the finger-prints that fooled us, but now that Forbes is out of the
+way it's just a straight case of detective work of the old style which
+won't interest you."
+
+"On the contrary," answered Kennedy, "I'm just beginning to be
+interested. Does it occur to you that, after all, Forbes may not be
+dead?"
+
+"Not dead?" echoed Burke and O'Connor together.
+
+"Exactly; that's just what I said--not dead. Now stop and think a
+moment. Would the great Forbes be so foolish as to go about with a
+watch marked 'W. F.' if he knew, as he must have known, that you would
+communicate with London and by means of the prints find out all about
+him?"
+
+"Yes," agreed Burke, "all we have to go by is his watch found on
+Williams. I suppose there is some possibility that Forbes may still be
+alive."
+
+"Who is this third man who comes in and with whom Harriet Wollstone
+goes away so willingly?" put in O'Connor. "You said the house had been
+closed--absolutely closed?"
+
+Burke nodded. "Been closed ever since the last arrest. There's a
+servant who goes in now and then, but the car hasn't been there before
+to-night, wherever it has been."
+
+"I should like to watch that house myself for a while," mused Kennedy.
+"I suppose you have no objections to my doing so?"
+
+"Of course not. Go ahead," said Burke. "I will go along with you if you
+wish, or my man can go with you."
+
+"No," said Kennedy, "too many of us might spoil the broth. I'll watch
+alone to-night and will see you in the morning. You needn't even say
+anything to your man there about us."
+
+"Walter, what's on for to-night?" he asked when they had gone. "How are
+you fixed for a little trip out to Riverwood?"
+
+"To tell the truth, I had an engagement at the College Club with some
+of the fellows."
+
+"Oh, cut it."
+
+"That's what I intend to do," I replied.
+
+It was a raw night, and we bundled ourselves up in old football
+sweaters under our overcoats. Half an hour later we were on our way up
+to Riverwood.
+
+"By the way, Craig," I asked, "I didn't like to say anything before
+those fellows. They'd think I was a dub. But I don't mind asking you.
+What is this 'portrait parle' they talk about, anyway?"
+
+"Why, it's a word-picture--a 'spoken picture,' to be literal. I took
+some lessons in it at Bertillon's school when I was in Paris. It's a
+method of scientific apprehension of criminals, a sort of necessary
+addition and completion to the methods of scientific identification of
+them after they are arrested. For instance, in trying to pick out a
+given criminal from his mere description you begin with the nose. Now,
+noses are all concave, straight, or convex. This Forbes had a nose that
+was concave, Burke says. Suppose you were sent out to find him. Of all
+the people you met, we'll say, roughly, two-thirds wouldn't interest
+you. You'd pass up all with straight or convex noses. Now the next
+point to observe is the ear. There are four general kinds of
+ears-triangular, square, oval, and round, besides a number of other
+differences which are clear enough after you study ears. This fellow is
+a pale man with square ears and a peculiar lobe to his ear. So you
+wouldn't give a second glance to, say, three-fourths of the
+square-eared people. So by a process of elimination of various
+features, the eyes, the mouth, the hair, wrinkles, and so forth, you
+would be able to pick your man out of a thousand--that is, if you were
+trained."
+
+"And it works?" I asked rather doubtfully.
+
+"Oh, yes. That's why I'm taking up this case. I believe science can
+really be used to detect crime, any crime, and in the present instance
+I've just pride enough to stick to this thing until--until they begin
+to cut ice on the Styx. Whew, but it will be cold out in the country
+to-night, Walter--speaking about ice."
+
+It was quite late when we reached Riverwood, and Kennedy hurried along
+the dimly lighted streets, avoiding the main street lest some one might
+be watching or following us. He pushed on, following the directions
+Burke had given him. The house in question was a large, newly built
+affair of concrete, surrounded by trees and a hedge, directly
+overlooking the river. A bitter wind swept in from the west, but in the
+shadow of an evergreen tree and of the hedge Kennedy established our
+watch.
+
+Of all fruitless errands this seemed to me to be the acme. The house
+was deserted; that was apparent, I thought, and I said so. Hardly had I
+said it when I heard the baying of a dog. It did not come from the
+house, however, and I concluded that it must have come from the next
+estate.
+
+"It's in the garage," whispered Kennedy. "I can hardly think they would
+go away and leave a dog locked up in it. They would at least turn him
+loose."
+
+Hour after hour we waited. Midnight passed, and still nothing happened.
+At last when the moon had disappeared under the clouds, Kennedy pulled
+me along. We had seen not a sign of life in the house, yet he observed
+all the caution he would have if it had been well guarded. Quickly we
+advanced over the open space to the house, approaching in the shadow as
+much as possible, on the side farthest from the river.
+
+Tiptoeing over the porch, Kennedy tried a window. It was fastened.
+Without hesitation he pulled out some instruments. One of them was a
+rubber suction-cup, which he fastened to the window-pane. Then with a
+very fine diamond-cutter he proceeded to cut out a large section. It
+soon fell and was prevented from smashing on the floor by the string
+and the suction-cup. Kennedy put his hand in and unlatched the window,
+and we stepped in.
+
+All was silent. Apparently the house was deserted.
+
+Cautiously Kennedy pressed the button of his pocket storage-battery
+lamp and flashed it slowly about the room. It was a sort of library,
+handsomely furnished. At last the beam of light rested on a huge desk
+at the opposite end. It seemed to interest Kennedy, and we tiptoed over
+to it. One after another he opened the drawers. One was locked, and he
+saved that until the last.
+
+Quietly as he could, he jimmied it open, muffling the jimmy in a felt
+cloth that was on a table. Most people do not realise the disruptive
+force that there is in a simple jimmy. I didn't until I saw the solid
+drawer with its heavy lock yield with just the trace of a noise.
+Kennedy waited an instant and listened. Nothing happened.
+
+Inside the drawer was a most nondescript collection of useless
+articles. There were a number of pieces of fine sponge, some of them
+very thin and cut in a flat oval shape, smelling of lysol strongly;
+several bottles, a set of sharp little knives, some paraffin, bandages,
+antiseptic gauze, cotton--in fact, it looked like a first-aid kit. As
+soon as he saw it Kennedy seemed astonished but not at a loss to
+account for it.
+
+"I thought he left that sort of thing to the doctors, but I guess he
+took a hand in it himself," he muttered, continuing to fumble with the
+knives in the drawer. It was no time to ask questions, and I did not.
+Kennedy rapidly stowed away the things in his pockets. One bottle he
+opened and held to his nose. I could distinguish immediately the
+volatile smell of ether. He closed it quickly, and it, too, went into
+his pocket with the remark, "Somebody must have known how to administer
+an anaesthetic--probably the Wollstone woman."
+
+A suppressed exclamation from Kennedy caused me to look. The drawer had
+a false back. Safely tucked away in it reposed a tin box, one of those
+so-called strong-boxes which are so handy in that they save a burglar
+much time and trouble in hunting all over for the valuables he has come
+after. Kennedy drew it forth and laid it on the desk. It was locked.
+
+Even that did not seem to satisfy Kennedy, who continued to scrutinise
+the walls and corners of the room as if looking for a safe or something
+of that sort.
+
+"Let's look in the room across the hall," he whispered.
+
+Suddenly a piercing scream of a woman rang out upstairs. "Help! Help!
+There's some one in the house! Billy, help!"
+
+I felt an arm grasp me tightly, and for a moment a chill ran over me at
+being caught in the nefarious work of breaking and entering a
+dwelling-house at night. But it was only Kennedy, who had already
+tucked the precious little tin box under his arm.
+
+With a leap he dragged me to the open window, cleared it, vaulted over
+the porch, and we were running for the clump of woods that adjoined the
+estate on one side. Lights flashed in all the windows of the house at
+once. There must have been some sort of electric-light system that
+could be lighted instantly as a "burglar-expeller." Anyhow, we had made
+good our escape.
+
+As we lost ourselves in the woods I gave a last glance back and saw a
+lantern carried from the house to the garage. As the door was unlocked
+I could see, in the moonlight, a huge dog leap out and lick the hands
+and face of a man.
+
+Quickly we now crashed through the frozen underbrush. Evidently Kennedy
+was making for the station by a direct route across country instead of
+the circuitous way by the road and town. Behind us we could hear a deep
+baying.
+
+"By the Lord, Walter," cried Kennedy, for once in his life thoroughly
+alarmed, "it's a bloodhound, and our trail is fresh."
+
+Closer it came. Press forward as we might, we could never expect to
+beat that dog.
+
+"Oh, for a stream," groaned Kennedy, "but they are all frozen--even the
+river."
+
+He stopped short, fumbled in his pocket, and drew out the bottle of
+ether.
+
+"Raise your foot, Walter," he ordered.
+
+I did so and he smeared first mine and then his with the ether. Then we
+doubled on our trail once or twice and ran again.
+
+"The dog will never be able to pick up the ether as our trail," panted
+Kennedy; "that is, if he is any good and trained not to go off on
+wild-goose chases."
+
+On we hurried from the woods to the now dark and silent town. It was
+indeed fortunate that the dog had been thrown off our scent, for the
+station was closed, and, indeed, if it had been open I am sure the
+station agent would have felt more like locking the door against two
+such tramps as we were, carrying a tin box and pursued by a dog, than
+opening it for us. The best we could do was to huddle into a corner
+until we succeeded in jumping a milk-train that luckily slowed down as
+it passed Riverwood station.
+
+Neither of us could wait to open the tin box in our apartment, and
+instead of going uptown Kennedy decided it would be best to go to a
+hotel near the station. Somehow we succeeded in getting a room without
+exciting suspicion. Hardly had the bellboy's footsteps ceased echoing
+in the corridor than Kennedy was at work wrenching off the lid of the
+box with such leverage as the scanty furnishings of the room afforded.
+
+At last it yielded, and we looked in curiously, expecting to find
+fabulous wealth in some form. A few hundred dollars and a rope of
+pearls lay in it. It was a good "haul," but where was the vast spoil
+the counterfeiters had accumulated? We had missed it. So far we were
+completely baffled.
+
+"Perhaps we had better snatch a couple of hours' sleep," was all that
+Craig said, stifling his chagrin.
+
+Over and over in my mind I was turning the problem of where they had
+hidden the spoil. I dozed off, still thinking about it and thinking
+that, even should they be captured, they might have stowed away perhaps
+a million dollars to which they could go back after their sentences
+were served.
+
+It was still early for New York when Kennedy roused me by talking over
+the telephone in the room. In fact, I doubt if he had slept at all.
+
+Burke was at the other end of the wire. His man had just reported that
+something had happened during the night at Riverwood, but he couldn't
+give a very clear account. Craig seemed to enjoy the joke immensely as
+he told his story to Burke.
+
+The last words I heard were: "All right. Send a man up here to the
+station--one who knows all the descriptions of these people. I'm sure
+they will have to come into town to-day, and they will have to come by
+train, for their car is wrecked. Better watch at the uptown stations,
+also."
+
+After a hasty breakfast we met Burke's man and took our places at the
+exit from the train platforms. Evidently Kennedy had figured out that
+the counterfeiters would have to come into town for some reason or
+other. The incoming passengers were passing us in a steady stream, for
+a new station was then being built, and there was only a temporary
+structure with one large exit.
+
+"Here is where the 'portrait parle' ought to come in, if ever,"
+commented Kennedy as he watched eagerly.
+
+And yet neither man nor woman passed us who fitted the description.
+Train after train emptied its human freight, yet the pale man with the
+concave nose and the peculiar ear, accompanied perhaps by a lady, did
+not pass us.
+
+At last the incoming stream began to dwindle down. It was long past the
+time when the counterfeiters should have arrived if they had started on
+any reasonable train.
+
+"Perhaps they have gone up to Montreal, instead," I ventured.
+
+Kennedy shook his head. "No," he answered. "I have an idea that I was
+mistaken about the money being kept at Riverwood. It would have been
+too risky. I thought it out on the way back this morning. They probably
+kept it in a safe deposit vault here. I had figured that they would
+come down and get it and leave New York after last night's events. We
+have failed--they have got by us. Neither the 'portrait parle' nor the
+ordinary photography nor any other system will suffice alone against
+the arch-criminal back of this, I'm afraid. Walter, I am sore and
+disgusted. What I should have done was to accept Burke's
+offer--surround the house with a posse if necessary, last night, and
+catch the counterfeiters by sheer force. I was too confident. I thought
+I could do it with finesse, and I have failed. I'd give anything to
+know what safe deposit vault they kept the fake money in."
+
+I said nothing as we strolled away, leaving Burke's man still to watch,
+hoping against hope. Kennedy walked disconsolately through the station,
+and I followed. In a secluded part of the waiting-room he sat down, his
+face drawn up in a scowl such as I had never seen. Plainly he was
+disgusted with himself--with only himself. This was no bungling of
+Burke or any one else. Again the counterfeiters had escaped from the
+hand of the law.
+
+As he moved his fingers restlessly in the pockets of his coat, he
+absently pulled out the little pieces of sponge and the ether bottle.
+He regarded them without much interest.
+
+"I know what they were for," he said, diving back into his pocket for
+the other things and bringing out the sharp little knives in their
+case. I said nothing, for Kennedy was in a deep study. At last he put
+the things back into his pocket. As he did so his hand encountered
+something which he drew forth with a puzzled air. It was the piece of
+paraffin.
+
+"Now, what do you suppose that was for?" he asked, half to himself. "I
+had forgotten that. What was the use of a piece of paraffin? Phew,
+smell the antiseptic worked into it."
+
+"I don't know," I replied, rather testily. "If you would tell me what
+the other things were for I might enlighten you, but--"
+
+"By George, Walter, what a chump I am!" cried Kennedy, leaping to his
+feet, all energy again. "Why did I forget that lump of paraffin? Why,
+of course--I think I can guess what they have been doing--of course.
+Why, man alive, he walked right past us, and we never knew it. Boy,
+boy," he shouted to a newsboy who passed, "what's the latest sporting
+edition you have?"
+
+Eagerly he almost tore a paper open and scanned the sporting pages.
+"Racing at Lexington begins to-morrow," he read. "Yes, I'll bet that's
+it. We don't have to know the safe deposit vault, after all. It would
+be too late, anyhow. Quick, let us look up the train to Lexington."
+
+As we hurried over to the information booth, I gasped, in a whirl:
+"Now, look here, Kennedy, what's all this lightning calculation? What
+possible connection is there between a lump of paraffin and one of the
+few places in the country where they still race horses?"
+
+"None," he replied, not stopping an instant. "None. The paraffin
+suggested to me the possible way in which our man managed to elude us
+under our very eyes. That set my mind at work again. Like a flash it
+occurred to me: Where would they be most likely to go next to work off
+some of the bills? The banks are on, the jewellery-houses are on, the
+gambling-joints are on. Why, to the racetracks, of course. That's it.
+Counterfeiters all use the bookmakers, only since racing has been
+killed in New York they have had to resort to other means here. If New
+York has suddenly become too hot, what more natural than to leave it?
+Here, let me see--there's a train that gets there early to-morrow, the
+best train, too. Say, is No. 144 made up yet?" he inquired at the desk.
+
+"No. 144 will be ready in fifteen minutes. Track 8."
+
+Kennedy thanked the man, turned abruptly, and started for the still
+closed gate at Track 8.
+
+"Beg pardon--why, hulloa--it's Burke," he exclaimed as we ran plump
+into a man staring vacantly about.
+
+It was not the gentleman farmer of the night before, nor yet the
+supposed college graduate. This man was a Western rancher; his
+broad-brimmed hat, long moustache, frock coat, and flowing tie
+proclaimed it. Yet there was something indefinably familiar about him,
+too. It was Burke in another disguise.
+
+"Pretty good work, Kennedy," nodded Burke, shifting his tobacco from
+one side of his jaws to the other. "Now, tell me how your man escaped
+you this morning, when you can recognise me instantly in this rig."
+
+"You haven't altered your features," explained Kennedy simply. "Our
+pale-faced, snub-nosed peculiar-eared friend has. What do you think of
+the possibility of his going to the Lexington track, now that he finds
+it too dangerous to remain in New York?"
+
+Burke looked at Kennedy rather sharply. "Say, do you add telepathy to
+your other accomplishments?"
+
+"No," laughed Craig, "but I'm glad to see that two of us working
+independently have arrived at the same conclusion. Come, let us saunter
+over to Track 8--I guess the train is made up."
+
+The gate was just opened, and the crowd filed through. No one who
+seemed to satisfy either Burke or Kennedy appeared. The train-announcer
+made his last call. Just then a taxicab pulled up at the street-end of
+the platform, not far from Track 8. A man jumped out and assisted a
+heavily veiled lady, paid the driver, picked up the grips, and turned
+toward us.
+
+We waited expectantly. As he turned I saw a dark-skinned, hook-nosed
+man, and I exclaimed disgustedly to Burke: "Well, if they are going to
+Lexington they can't make this train. Those are the last people who
+have a chance."
+
+Kennedy, however, continued to regard the couple steadily. The man saw
+that he was being watched and faced us defiantly, "Such impertinence!"
+Then to his wife, "Come, my dear, we'll just make it."
+
+"I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you to show us what's in that grip,"
+said Kennedy, calmly laying his hand on the man's arm.
+
+"Well, now, did you ever hear of such blasted impudence? Get out of my
+way, sir, this instant, or I'll have you arrested."
+
+"Come, come, Kennedy," interrupted Burke. "Surely you are getting in
+wrong here. This can't be the man."
+
+Craig shook his head decidedly. "You can make the arrest or not, Burke,
+as you choose. If not, I am through. If so--I'll take all the
+responsibility."
+
+Reluctantly Burke yielded. The man protested; the woman cried; a crowd
+collected.
+
+The train-gate shut with a bang. As it did so the man's demeanour
+changed instantly. "There," he shouted angrily, "you have made us miss
+our train. I'll have you in jail for this. Come on now to the nearest
+magistrate's court. I'll have my rights as an American citizen. You
+have carried your little joke too far. Knight is my name--John Knight,
+of Omaha, pork-packer. Come on now. I'll see that somebody suffers for
+this if I have to stay in New York a year. It's an outrage--an outrage."
+
+Burke was now apparently alarmed--more at the possibility of the
+humorous publicity that would follow such a mistake by the secret
+service than at anything else. However, Kennedy did not weaken, and on
+general principles I stuck to Kennedy.
+
+"Now," said the man surlily while he placed "Mrs. Knight" in as easy a
+chair as he could find in the judge's chambers, "what is the occasion
+of all this row? Tell the judge what a bad man from Bloody Gulch I am."
+
+O'Connor had arrived, having broken all speed laws and perhaps some
+records on the way up from headquarters. Kennedy laid the Scotland Yard
+finger-prints on the table. Beside them he placed those taken by
+O'Connor and Burke in New York.
+
+"Here," he began, "we have the finger-prints of a man who was one of
+the most noted counterfeiters in Great Britain. Beside them are those
+of a man who succeeded in passing counterfeits of several kinds
+recently in New York. Some weeks later this third set of prints was
+taken from a man who was believed to be the same person."
+
+The magistrate was examining the three sets of prints. As he came to
+the third, he raised his head as if about to make a remark, when
+Kennedy quickly interrupted.
+
+"One moment, sir. You were about to say that finger-prints never
+change, never show such variations as these. That is true. There are
+fingerprints of people taken fifty years ago that are exactly the same
+as their finger-prints of to-day. They don't change--they are
+permanent. The fingerprints of mummies can be deciphered even after
+thousands of years. But," he added slowly, "you can change fingers."
+
+The idea was so startling that I could scarcely realise what he meant
+at first. I had read of the wonderful work of the surgeons of the
+Rockefeller Institute in transplanting tissues and even whole organs,
+in grafting skin and in keeping muscles artificially alive for days
+under proper conditions. Could it be that a man had deliberately
+amputated his fingers and grafted on new ones? Was the stake sufficient
+for such a game? Surely there must be some scars left after such
+grafting. I picked up the various sets of prints. It was true that the
+third set was not very clear, but there certainly were no scars there.
+
+"Though there is no natural changeability of finger-prints," pursued
+Kennedy, "such changes can be induced, as Dr. Paul Prager of Vienna has
+shown, by acids and other reagents, by grafting and by injuries. Now,
+is there any method by which lost finger-tips can be restored? I know
+of one case where the end of a finger was taken off and only
+one-sixteenth inch of the nail was left. The doctor incised the edges
+of the granulating surface and then led the granulations on by what is
+known in the medical profession as the 'sponge graft.' He grew a new
+finger-tip.
+
+"The sponge graft consists in using portions of a fine Turkish surgical
+sponge, such I have here. I found these pieces in a desk at Riverwood.
+The patient is anaesthetised. An incision is made from side to side in
+the stump of the finger and flaps of skin are sliced off and turned up
+for the new end of the finger to develop in--a sort of shell of living
+skin. Inside this, the sponge is placed, not a large piece, but a very
+thin piece sliced off and cut to the shape of the finger-stump. It is
+perfectly sterilised in water and washed in green soap after all the
+stony particles are removed by hydrochloric acid. Then the finger is
+bound up and kept moist with normal salt solution.
+
+"The result is that the end of the finger, instead of healing over,
+grows into the fine meshes of the pieces of sponge, by capillary
+attraction. Of course even this would heal in a few days, but the
+doctor does not let it heal. In three days he pulls the sponge off
+gently. The end of the finger has grown up just a fraction of an inch.
+Then a new thin layer of sponge is added. Day after day this process is
+repeated, each time the finger growing a little more. A new nail
+develops if any of the matrix is left, and I suppose a clever surgeon
+by grafting up pieces of epidermis could produce on such a stump very
+passable finger-prints."
+
+No one of us said anything, but Kennedy seemed to realise the thought
+in our minds and proceeded to elaborate the method.
+
+"It is known as the 'education sponge method,' and was first described
+by Dr. D. J. Hamilton, of Edinburgh, in 1881. It has frequently been
+used in America since then. The sponge really acts in a mechanical
+manner to support the new finger-tissue that is developed. The meshes
+are filled in by growing tissue, and as it grows the tissue absorbs
+part of the sponge, which is itself an animal tissue and acts like
+catgut. Part of it is also thrown off. In fact, the sponge imitates
+what happens naturally in the porous network of a regular blood-clot.
+It educates the tissue to grow, stimulates it--new blood-vessels and
+nerves as well as flesh.
+
+"In another case I know of, almost the whole of the first joint of a
+finger was crushed off, and the doctor was asked to amputate the stump
+of bone that protruded. Instead, he decided to educate the tissue to
+grow out to cover it and appear like a normal finger. In these cases
+the doctors succeeded admirably in giving the patients entire new
+finger-tips, without scars, and, except for the initial injury and
+operation, with comparatively little inconvenience except that absolute
+rest of the hands was required.
+
+"That is what happened, gentlemen," concluded Kennedy. "That is why Mr.
+Forbes, alias Williams, made a trip to Philadelphia to be treated--for
+crushed finger-tips, not for the kick of an automobile engine. He may
+have paid the doctors in counterfeits. In reality this man was playing
+a game in which there was indeed a heavy stake at issue. He was a
+counterfeiter sought by two governments with the net closing about him.
+What are the tips of a few fingers compared with life, liberty, wealth,
+and a beautiful woman? The first two sets of prints are different from
+the third because they are made by different finger-tips--on the same
+man. The very core of the prints was changed. But the finger-print
+system is vindicated by the very ingenuity of the man who so cleverly
+has contrived to beat it."
+
+"Very interesting--to one who is interested," remarked the stranger,
+"but what has that to do with detaining my wife and myself, making us
+miss our train, and insulting us?"
+
+"Just this," replied Craig. "If you will kindly oblige us by laying
+your fingers on this inking-pad and then lightly on this sheet of
+paper, I think I can show you an answer."
+
+Knight demurred, and his wife grew hysterical at the idea, but there
+was nothing, to do but comply. Kennedy glanced at the fourth set of
+prints, then at the third set taken a week ago, and smiled. No one said
+a word. Knight or Williams, which was it? He nonchalantly lit a
+cigarette.
+
+"So you say I am this Williams, the counterfeiter?" he asked
+superciliously.
+
+"I do," reiterated Kennedy. "You are also Forbes."
+
+"I don't suppose Scotland Yard has neglected to furnish you with
+photographs and a description of this Forbes?"
+
+Burke reluctantly pulled out a Bertillon card from his pocket and laid
+it on the table. It bore the front face and profile of the famous
+counterfeiter, as well as his measurements.
+
+The man picked it up as if indeed it was a curious thing. His coolness
+nearly convinced me. Surely he should have hesitated in actually
+demanding this last piece of evidence. I had heard, however, that the
+Bertillon system of measurements often depended on the personal
+equation of the measurer as well as on the measured. Was he relying on
+that, or on his difference in features?
+
+I looked over Kennedy's shoulder at the card on the table. There was
+the concave nose of the "portrait parle" of Forbes, as it had first
+been described to us. Without looking further I involuntarily glanced
+at the man, although I had no need to do so. I knew that his nose was
+the exact opposite of that of Forbes.
+
+"Ingenious at argument as you are," he remarked quietly, "you will
+hardly deny that Knight, of Omaha, is the exact opposite of Forbes, of
+London. My nose is almost Jewish--my complexion is dark as an Arab's.
+Still, I suppose I am the sallow, snub-nosed Forbes described here,
+inasmuch as I have stolen Forbes's fingers and lost them again by a
+most preposterous method."
+
+"The colour of the face is easily altered," said Kennedy. "A little
+picric acid will do that. The ingenious rogue Sarcey in Paris eluded
+the police very successfully until Dr. Charcot exposed him and showed
+how he changed the arch of his eyebrows and the wrinkles of his face.
+Much is possible to-day that would make Frankenstein and Dr. Moreau
+look clumsy and antiquated."
+
+A sharp feminine voice interrupted. It was the woman, who had kept
+silent up to this time. "But I have read in one of the papers this
+morning that a Mr. Williams was found dead in an automobile accident up
+the Hudson yesterday. I remember reading it, because I am afraid of
+accidents myself."
+
+All eyes were now fixed on Kennedy. "That body," he answered quickly,
+"was a body purchased by you at a medical school, brought in your car
+to Riverwood, dressed in Williams's clothes with a watch that would
+show he was Forbes, placed on the track in front of the auto, while you
+two watched the Buffalo express run it down, and screamed. It was a
+clever scheme that you concocted, but these facts do not agree."
+
+He laid the measurements of the corpse obtained by Burke and those from
+the London police card side by side. Only in the roughest way did they
+approximate each other.
+
+"Your honour, I appeal to your sense of justice," cried our prisoner
+impatiently. "Hasn't this farce been allowed to go far enough? Is there
+any reason why this fake detective should make fools out of us all and
+keep my wife longer in this court? I'm not disposed to let the matter
+drop. I wish to enter a charge against him of false arrest and
+malicious prosecution. I shall turn the whole thing over to my attorney
+this afternoon. The deuce with the races--I'll have justice."
+
+The man had by this time raised himself to a high pitch of apparently
+righteous wrath. He advanced menacingly toward Kennedy, who stood with
+his shoulders thrown back, and his hands deep in his pockets, and a
+half amused look on his face.
+
+"As for you, Mr. Detective," added the man, "for eleven cents I'd lick
+you to within an inch of your life. 'Portrait parle,' indeed! It's a
+fine scientific system that has to deny its own main principles in
+order to vindicate itself. Bah! Take that, you scoundrel!"
+
+Harriet Wollstone threw her arms about him, but he broke away. His fist
+shot out straight. Kennedy was too quick for him, however. I had seen
+Craig do it dozens of times with the best boxers in the "gym." He
+simply jerked his head to one side, and the blow passed just a fraction
+of an inch from his jaw, but passed it as cleanly as if it had been a
+yard away.
+
+The man lost his balance, and as he fell forward and caught himself,
+Kennedy calmly and deliberately slapped him on the nose.
+
+It was an intensely serious instant, yet I actually laughed. The man's
+nose was quite out of joint, even from such a slight blow. It was
+twisted over on his face in the most ludicrous position imaginable.
+
+"The next time you try that, Forbes," remarked Kennedy, as he pulled
+the piece of paraffin from his pocket and laid it on the table with the
+other exhibits, "don't forget that a concave nose built out to
+hook-nose convexity by injections of paraffin, such as the
+beauty-doctors everywhere advertise, is a poor thing for a White Hope."
+
+Both Burke and O'Connor had seized Forbes, but Kennedy had turned his
+attention to the larger of Forbes's grips, which the Wollstone woman
+vociferously claimed as her own. Quickly he wrenched it open.
+
+As he turned it up on the table my eyes fairly bulged at the sight.
+Forbes' suit-case might have been that of a travelling salesman for the
+Kimberley, the Klondike, and the Bureau of Engraving, all in one. Craig
+dumped the wealth out on the table--stacks of genuine bills, gold coins
+of two realms, diamonds, pearls, everything portable and tangible all
+heaped up and topped off with piles of counterfeits awaiting the magic
+touch of this Midas to turn them into real gold.
+
+"Forbes, you have failed in your get-away," said Craig triumphantly.
+"Gentlemen, you have here a master counterfeiter, surely--a master
+counterfeiter of features and fingers as well as of currency."
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE SAND-HOG
+
+
+"Interesting story, this fight between the Five-Borough and the
+Inter-River Transit," I remarked to Kennedy as I sketched out the draft
+of an expose of high finance for the Sunday Star.
+
+"Then that will interest you, also," said he, throwing a letter down on
+my desk. He had just come in and was looking over his mail.
+
+The letterhead bore the name of the Five-Borough Company. It was from
+Jack Orton, one of our intimates at college, who was in charge of the
+construction of a new tunnel under the river. It was brief, as Jack's
+letters always were. "I have a case here at the tunnel that I am sure
+will appeal to you, my own case, too," it read. "You can go as far as
+you like with it, but get to the bottom of the thing, no matter whom it
+hits. There is some deviltry afoot, and apparently no one is safe.
+Don't say a word to anybody about it, but drop over to see me as soon
+as you possibly can."
+
+"Yes," I agreed, "that does interest me. When are you going over?"
+
+"Now," replied Kennedy, who had not taken off his hat. "Can you come
+along?"
+
+As we sped across the city in a taxicab, Craig remarked: "I wonder what
+is the trouble? Did you see in the society news this morning the
+announcement of Jack's engagement to Vivian Taylor, the daughter of the
+president of the Five-Borough?"
+
+I had seen it, but could not connect it with the trouble, whatever it
+was, at the tunnel, though I did try to connect the tunnel mystery with
+my expose.
+
+We pulled up at the construction works, and a strapping Irishman met
+us. "Is this Professor Kennedy?" he asked of Craig.
+
+"It is. Where is Mr. Orton's office?"
+
+"I'm afraid, sir, it will be a long time before Mr. Orton is in his
+office again, sir. The doctor have just took him out of the medical
+lock, an' he said if you was to come before they took him to the
+'orspital I was to bring you right up to the lock."
+
+"Good heavens, man, what has happened?" exclaimed Kennedy. "Take us up
+to him quick."
+
+Without waiting to answer, the Irishman led the way up and across a
+rough board platform until at last we came to what looked like a huge
+steel cylinder, lying horizontally, in which was a floor with a cot and
+some strange paraphernalia. On the cot lay Jack Orton, drawn and
+contorted, so changed that even his own mother would scarcely have
+recognised him. A doctor was bending over him, massaging the joints of
+his legs and his side.
+
+"Thank you, Doctor, I feel a little better," he groaned. "No, I don't
+want to go back into the lock again, not unless the pain gets worse."
+
+His eyes were closed, but hearing us he opened them and nodded.
+
+"Yes, Craig," he murmured with difficulty, "this is Jack Orton. What do
+you think of me? I'm a pretty sight. How are you? And how are you,
+Walter? Not too vigorous with the hand-shakes, fellows. Sorry you
+couldn't get over before this happened."
+
+"What's the matter?" we asked, glancing blankly from Orton to the
+doctor.
+
+Orton forced a half smile. "Just a touch of the 'bends' from working in
+compressed air," he explained.
+
+We looked at him, but could say nothing. I, at least, was thinking of
+his engagement.
+
+"Yes," he added bitterly, "I know what you are thinking about, fellows.
+Look at me! Do you think such a wreck as I am now has any right to be
+engaged to the dearest girl in the world?"
+
+"Mr. Orton," interposed the doctor, "I think you'll feel better if
+you'll keep quiet. You can see your friends in the hospital to-night,
+but for a few hours I think you had better rest. Gentlemen, if you will
+be so good as to postpone your conversation with Mr. Orton until later
+it would be much better."
+
+"Then I'll see you to-night," said Orton to us feebly. Turning to a
+tall, spare, wiry chap, of just the build for tunnel work, where fat is
+fatal, he added: "This is Mr. Capps, my first assistant. He will show
+you the way down to the street again."
+
+"Confound it!" exclaimed Craig, after we had left Capps. "What do you
+think of this? Even before we can get to him something has happened.
+The plot thickens before we are well into it. I think I'll not take a
+cab, or a car either. How are you for a walk until we can see Orton
+again?"
+
+I could see that Craig was very much affected by the sudden accident
+that had happened to our friend, so I fell into his mood, and we walked
+block after block scarcely exchanging a word. His only remark, I
+recall, was, "Walter, I can't think it was an accident, coming so close
+after that letter." As for me, I scarcely knew what to think.
+
+At last our walk brought us around to the private hospital where Orton
+was. As we were about to enter, a very handsome girl was leaving.
+Evidently she had been visiting some one of whom she thought a great
+deal. Her long fur coat was flying carelessly, unfastened in the cold
+night air; her features were pale, and her eyes had the fixed look of
+one who saw nothing but grief.
+
+"It's terrible, Miss Taylor," I heard the man with her say soothingly,
+"and you must know that I sympathise with you a great deal."
+
+Looking up quickly, I caught sight of Capps and bowed. He returned our
+bows and handed her gently into an automobile that was waiting.
+
+"He might at least have introduced us," muttered Kennedy, as we went on
+into the hospital.
+
+Orton was lying in bed, white and worn, propped up by pillows which the
+nurse kept arranging and rearranging to ease his pain. The Irishman
+whom we had seen at the tunnel was standing deferentially near the foot
+of the bed.
+
+"Quite a number of visitors, nurse, for a new patient," said Orton, as
+he welcomed us. "First Capps and Paddy from the tunnel, then
+Vivian"--he was fingering some beautiful roses in a vase on a table
+near him--"and now, you fellows. I sent her home with Capps. She
+oughtn't to be out alone at this hour, and Capps is a good fellow.
+She's known him a long time. No, Paddy, put down your hat. I want you
+to stay. Paddy, by the way, fellows, is my right-hand man in managing
+the 'sandhogs' as we call the tunnel-workers. He has been a sand-hog on
+every tunnel job about the city since the first successful tunnel was
+completed. His real name is Flanagan, but we all know him best as
+Paddy."
+
+Paddy nodded. "If I ever get over this and back to the tunnel," Orton
+went on, "Paddy will stick to me, and we will show Taylor, my
+prospective father-in-law and the president of the railroad company
+from which I took this contract, that I am not to blame for all the
+troubles we are having on the tunnel. Heaven knows that--"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Orton, you ain't so bad," put in Paddy without the faintest
+touch of undue familiarity. "Look what I was when ye come to see me
+when I had the bends, sir."
+
+"You old rascal," returned Orton, brightening up. "Craig, do you know
+how I found him? Crawling over the floor to the sink to pour the
+doctor's medicine down."
+
+"Think I'd take that medicine," explained Paddy, hastily. "Not much.
+Don't I know that the only cure for the bends is bein' put back in the
+'air' in the medical lock, same as they did with you, and bein' brought
+out slowly? That's the cure, that, an' grit, an' patience, an' time.
+Mark me wurds, gintlemen, he'll finish that tunnel an' beggin' yer
+pardon, Mr. Orton, marry that gurl, too. Didn't I see her with tears in
+her eyes right in this room when he wasn't lookin', and a smile when he
+was? Sure, ye'll be all right," continued Paddy, slapping his side and
+thigh. "We all get the bends more or less--all us sand-hogs. I was that
+doubled up meself that I felt like a big jack-knife. Had it in the arm,
+the side, and the leg all at once, that time he was just speakin' of.
+He'll be all right in a couple more weeks, sure, an' down in the air
+again, too, with the rest of his men. It's somethin' else he has on his
+moind."
+
+"Then the case has nothing to do with your trouble, nothing to do with
+the bends?" asked Kennedy, keenly showing his anxiety to help our old
+friend.
+
+"Well, it may and it may not," replied Orton thoughtfully. "I begin to
+think it has. We have had a great many cases of the bends among the
+men, and lots of the poor fellows have died, too. You know, of course,
+how the newspapers are roasting us. We are being called inhuman; they
+are going to investigate us; perhaps indict me. Oh, it's an awful mess;
+and now some one is trying to make Taylor believe it is my fault.
+
+"Of course," he continued, "we are working under a high air-pressure
+just now, some days as high as forty pounds. You see, we have struck
+the very worst part of the job, a stretch of quicksand in the
+river-bed, and if we can get through this we'll strike pebbles and rock
+pretty soon, and then we'll be all right again."
+
+He paused. Paddy quietly put in: "Beggin' yer pardon again, Mr. Orton,
+but we had intirely too many cases of the bends even when we were
+wurkin' at low pressure, in the rock, before we sthruck this sand.
+There's somethin' wrong, sir, or ye wouldn't be here yerself like this.
+The bends don't sthrike the ingineers, them as don't do the hard work,
+sir, and is careful, as ye know--not often."
+
+"It's this way, Craig," resumed Orton. "When I took this contract for
+the Five-Borough Transit Company, they agreed to pay me liberally for
+it, with a big bonus if I finished ahead of time, and a big penalty if
+I exceeded the time. You may or may not know it, but there is some
+doubt about the validity of their franchise after a certain date,
+provided the tunnel is not ready for operation. Well, to make a long
+story short, you know there are rival companies that would like to see
+the work fail and the franchise revert to the city, or at least get
+tied up in the courts. I took it with the understanding that it was
+every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost."
+
+"Have you yourself seen any evidences of rival influences hindering the
+work?" asked Kennedy.
+
+Orton carefully weighed his reply. "To begin with," he answered at
+length, "while I was pushing the construction end, the Five-Borough was
+working with the state legislature to get a bill extending the
+time-limit of the franchise another year. Of course, if it had gone
+through it would have been fine for us. But some unseen influence
+blocked the company at every turn. It was subtle; it never came into
+the open. They played on public opinion as only demagogues of high
+finance can, very plausibly of course, but from the most selfish and
+ulterior motives. The bill was defeated."
+
+I nodded. I knew all about that part of it, for it was in the article
+which I had been writing for the Star.
+
+"But I had not counted on the extra year, anyhow," continued Orton, "so
+I wasn't disappointed. My plans were laid for the shorter time from the
+start. I built an island in the river so that we could work from each
+shore to it, as well as from the island to each shore, really from four
+points at once. And then, when everything was going ahead fine, and we
+were actually doubling the speed in this way, these confounded
+accidents"--he was leaning excitedly forward--"and lawsuits and delays
+and deaths began to happen."
+
+Orton sank back as a paroxysm of the bends seized him, following his
+excitement.
+
+"I should like very much to go down into the tunnel," said Kennedy
+simply.
+
+"No sooner said than done," replied Orton, almost cheerfully, at seeing
+Kennedy so interested.
+
+"We can arrange that easily. Paddy will be glad to do the honours of
+the place in my absence."
+
+"Indade I will do that same, sor," responded the faithful Paddy, "an'
+it's a shmall return for all ye've done for me."
+
+"Very well, then," agreed Kennedy. "Tomorrow morning we shall be on
+hand. Jack, depend on us. We will do our level best to get you out of
+this scrape."
+
+"I knew you would, Craig," he replied. "I've read of some of your and
+Walter's exploits. You're a pair of bricks, you are. Good-bye,
+fellows," and his hands mechanically sought the vase of flowers which
+reminded him of their giver.
+
+At home we sat for a long time in silence. "By George, Craig," I
+exclaimed at length, my mind reverting through the whirl of events to
+the glimpse of pain I had caught on the delicate face of the girl
+leaving the hospital, "Vivian Taylor is a beauty, though, isn't she?"
+
+"And Capps thinks so, too," he returned, sinking again into his shell
+of silence. Then he suddenly rose and put on his hat and coat. I could
+see the old restless fever for work which came into his eyes whenever
+he had a case which interested him more than usual. I knew there would
+be no rest for Kennedy until he had finished it. Moreover, I knew it
+was useless for me to remonstrate with him, so I kept silent.
+
+"Don't wait up for me," he said. "I don't know when I'll be back. I'm
+going to the laboratory and the university library. Be ready early in
+the morning to help me delve into this tunnel mystery."
+
+I awoke to find Kennedy dozing in a chair, partly dressed, but just as
+fresh as I was after my sleep. I think he had been dreaming out his
+course of action. At any rate, breakfast was a mere incident in his
+scheme, and we were over at the tunnel works when the night shift were
+going off.
+
+Kennedy carried with him a moderate-sized box of the contents of which
+he seemed very careful. Paddy was waiting for us, and after a hasty
+whispered conversation, Craig stowed the box away behind the
+switchboard of the telephone central, after attaching it to the various
+wires. Paddy stood guard while this was going on so that no one would
+know about it, not even the telephone girl, whom he sent off on an
+errand.
+
+Our first inspection was of that part of the works which was above
+ground. Paddy, who conducted us, introduced us first to the engineer in
+charge of this part of the work, a man named Shelton, who had knocked
+about the world a great deal, but had acquired a taciturnity that was
+Sphinx-like. If it had not been for Paddy, I fear we should have seen
+very little, for Shelton was not only secretive, but his explanations
+were such that even the editor of a technical journal would have had to
+blue pencil them considerably. However, we gained a pretty good idea of
+the tunnel works above ground--at least Kennedy did. He seemed very
+much interested in how the air was conveyed below ground, the tank for
+storing compressed air for emergencies, and other features. It quite
+won Paddy, although Shelton seemed to resent his interest even more
+than he despised my ignorance.
+
+Next Paddy conducted us to the dressing-rooms. There we put on old
+clothes and oilskins, and the tunnel doctor examined us and extracted a
+written statement that we went down at our own risk and released the
+company from all liability--much to the disgust of Paddy.
+
+"We're ready now, Mr. Capps," called Paddy, opening an office door on
+the way out.
+
+"Very well, Flanagan," answered Capps, barely nodding to us. We heard
+him telephone some one, but could not catch the message, and in a
+minute he joined us. By this time I had formed the opinion, which I
+have since found to be correct, that tunnel men are not as a rule
+loquacious.
+
+It was a new kind of thrill to me to go under the "air," as the men
+called it. With an instinctive last look at the skyline of New York and
+the waves playing in the glad sunlight, we entered a rude construction
+elevator and dropped from the surface to the bottom of a deep shaft. It
+was like going down into a mine. There was the air-lock, studded with
+bolts, and looking just like a huge boiler, turned horizontally.
+
+The heavy iron door swung shut with a bang as Paddy and Capps, followed
+by Kennedy and myself, crept into the air-lock. Paddy turned on a
+valve, and compressed air from the tunnel began to rush in with a hiss
+as of escaping steam. Pound after pound to the square inch the pressure
+slowly rose until I felt sure the drums of my ears would burst. Then
+the hissing noise began to dwindle down to a wheeze, and then it
+stopped all of a sudden. That meant that the air-pressure in the lock
+was the same as that in the tunnel. Paddy pushed open the door in the
+other end of the lock from that by which we had entered.
+
+Along the bottom of the completed tube we followed Paddy and Capps. On
+we trudged, fanned by the moist breath of the tunnel. Every few feet an
+incandescent light gleamed in the misty darkness. After perhaps a
+hundred paces we had to duck down under a semicircular partition
+covering the upper half of the tube.
+
+"What is that?" I shouted at Paddy, the nasal ring of my own voice
+startling me.
+
+"Emergency curtain," he shouted back.
+
+Words were economised. Later, I learned that should the tunnel start to
+flood, the other half of the emergency curtain could be dropped so as
+to cut off the inrushing water.
+
+Men passed, pushing little cars full of "muck" or sand taken out from
+before the "shield"--which is the head by which this mechanical mole
+advances under the river-bed. These men and others who do the
+shovelling are the "muckers."
+
+Pipes laid along the side of the tunnel conducted compressed air and
+fresh water, while electric light and telephone wires were strung all
+about. These and the tools and other things strewn along the tunnel
+obstructed the narrow passage to such an extent that we had to be
+careful in picking our way.
+
+At last we reached the shield, and on hands and knees we crawled out
+into one of its compartments. Here we experienced for the first time
+the weird realisation that only the "air" stood between us and
+destruction from the tons and tons of sand and water overhead. At some
+points in the sand we could feel the air escaping, which appeared at
+the surface of the river overhead in bubbles, indicating to those
+passing in the river boats just how far each tunnel heading below had
+proceeded. When the loss of air became too great, I learned, scows
+would dump hundreds of tons of clay overhead to make an artificial
+river bed for the shield to stick its nose safely through, for if the
+river bed became too thin overhead the "air" would blow a hole in it.
+
+Capps, it seemed to me, was unusually anxious to have the visit over.
+At any rate, while Kennedy and Paddy were still crawling about the
+shield, he stood aside, now and then giving the men an order and
+apparently forgetful of us.
+
+My own curiosity was quickly satisfied, and I sat down on a pile of the
+segments out of which the successive rings of the tunnel were made. As
+I sat there waiting for Kennedy, I absently reached into my pocket and
+pulled out a cigarette and lighted it. It burned amazingly fast, as if
+it were made of tinder, the reason being the excess of oxygen in the
+compressed air. I was looking at it in astonishment, when suddenly I
+felt a blow on my hand. It was Capps.
+
+"You chump!" he shouted as he ground the cigarette under his boot.
+"Don't you know it is dangerous to smoke in compressed air?"
+
+"Why, no," I replied, smothering my anger at his manner. "No one said
+anything about it."
+
+"Well, it is dangerous, and Orton's a fool to let greenhorns come in
+here."
+
+"And to whom may it be dangerous?" I heard a voice inquire over my
+shoulder. It was Kennedy. "To Mr. Jameson or the rest of us?"
+
+"Well," answered Capps, "I supposed everybody knew it was reckless, and
+that he would hurt himself more by one smoke in the air than by a
+hundred up above. That's all."
+
+He turned on Kennedy sullenly, and started to walk back up the tunnel.
+But I could not help thinking that his manner was anything but
+solicitude for my own health. I could just barely catch his words over
+the tunnel telephone some feet away. I thought he said that everything
+was going along all right and that he was about to start back again.
+Then he disappeared in the mist of the tube without even nodding a
+farewell.
+
+Kennedy and I remained standing, not far from the outlet of the pipe by
+which the compressed air was being supplied in the tunnel from the
+compressors above, in order to keep the pressure up to the constant
+level necessary. I saw Kennedy give a hurried glance about, as if to
+note whether any one were looking at us. No one was. With a quick
+motion he reached down. In his hand was a stout little glass flask with
+a tight-fitting metal top. For a second he held it near the outlet of
+the pipe; then he snapped the top shut and slipped it back into his
+pocket as quickly as he had produced it.
+
+Slowly we commenced to retrace our steps to the air-lock, our curiosity
+satisfied by this glimpse of one of the most remarkable developments of
+modern engineering.
+
+"Where's Paddy?" asked Kennedy, stopping suddenly. "We've forgotten
+him."
+
+"Back there at the shield, I suppose," said I. "Let's whistle and
+attract his attention."
+
+I pursed up my lips, but if I had been whistling for a million dollars
+I couldn't have done it.
+
+Craig laughed. "Walter, you are indeed learning many strange things.
+You can't whistle in compressed air."
+
+I was too chagrined to answer. First it was Capps; now it was my own
+friend Kennedy chaffing me for my ignorance. I was glad to see Paddy's
+huge form looming in the semi-darkness. He had seen that we were gone
+and hurried after us.
+
+"Won't ye stay down an' see some more, gintlemen?" he asked. "Or have
+ye had enough of the air? It seems very smelly to me this mornin'--I
+don't blame ye. I guess them as doesn't have to stay here is satisfied
+with a few minutes of it."
+
+"No, thanks, I guess we needn't stay down any longer," replied Craig.
+"I think I have seen all that is necessary--at least for the present.
+Capps has gone out ahead of us. I think you can take us out now, Paddy.
+I would much rather have you do it than to go with anybody else."
+
+Coming out, I found, was really more dangerous than going in, for it is
+while coming out of the "air" that men are liable to get the bends.
+Roughly, half a minute should be consumed in coming out from each pound
+of pressure, though for such high pressures as we had been under,
+considerably more time was required in order to do it safely. We spent
+about half an hour in the air-lock, I should judge.
+
+Paddy let the air out of the lock by turning on a valve leading to the
+outside, normal atmosphere. Thus he let the air out rapidly at first
+until we had got down to half the pressure of the tunnel. The second
+half he did slowly, and it was indeed tedious, but it was safe. There
+was at first a hissing sound when he opened the valve, and it grew
+colder in the lock, since air absorbs heat from surrounding objects
+when it expands. We were glad to draw sweaters on over our heads. It
+also grew as misty as a London fog as the water-vapour in the air was
+condensed.
+
+At last the hiss of escaping air ceased. The door to the modern dungeon
+of science grated open. We walked out of the lock to the elevator shaft
+and were hoisted up to God's air again. We gazed out across the river
+with its waves dancing in the sunlight. There, out in the middle, was a
+wreath of bubbles on the water. That marked the end of the tunnel, over
+the shield. Down beneath those bubbles the sand-hogs were rooting. But
+what was the mystery that the tunnel held in its dark, dank bosom? Had
+Kennedy a clue?
+
+"I think we had better wait around a bit," remarked Kennedy, as we
+sipped our hot coffee in the dressing-room and warmed ourselves from
+the chill of coming out of the lock. "In case anything should happen to
+us and we should get the bends, this is the place for us, near the
+medical lock, as it is called--that big steel cylinder over there,
+where we found Orton. The best cure for the bends is to go back under
+the air--recompression they call it. The renewed pressure causes the
+gas in the blood to contract again, and thus it is
+eliminated--sometimes. At any rate, it is the best-known cure and
+considerably reduces the pain in the worst cases. When you have a bad
+case like Orton's it means that the damage is done; the gas has
+ruptured some veins. Paddy was right. Only time will cure that."
+
+Nothing happened to us, however, and in a couple of hours we dropped in
+on Orton at the hospital where he was slowly convalescing.
+
+"What do you think of the case?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"Nothing as yet," replied Craig, "but I have set certain things in
+motion which will give us a pretty good line on what is taking place in
+a day or so."
+
+Orton's face fell, but he said nothing. He bit his lip nervously and
+looked out of the sun-parlour at the roofs of New York around him.
+
+"What has happened since last night to increase your anxiety, Jack?"
+asked Craig sympathetically.
+
+Orton wheeled his chair about slowly, faced us, and drew a letter from
+his pocket. Laying it flat on the table he covered the lower part with
+the envelope.
+
+"Read that," he said.
+
+"Dear Jack," it began. I saw at once that it was from Miss Taylor.
+"Just a line," she wrote, "to let you know that I am thinking about you
+always and hoping that you are better than when I saw you this evening.
+Papa had the chairman of the board of directors of the Five-Borough
+here late to-night, and they were in the library for over an hour. For
+your sake, Jack, I played the eavesdropper, but they talked so low that
+I could hear nothing, though I know they were talking about you and the
+tunnel. When they came out, I had no time to escape, so I slipped
+behind a portiere. I heard father say: 'Yes, I guess you are right,
+Morris. The thing has gone on long enough. If there is one more big
+accident we shall have to compromise with the Inter-River and carry on
+the work jointly. We have given Orton his chance, and if they demand
+that this other fellow shall be put in, I suppose we shall have to
+concede it.' Mr. Morris seemed pleased that father agreed with him and
+said so. Oh, Jack, can't you DO something to show them they are wrong,
+and do it quickly? I never miss an opportunity of telling papa it is
+not your fault that all these delays take place."
+
+The rest of the letter was covered by the envelope, and Orton would not
+have shown it for worlds.
+
+"Orton," said Kennedy, after a few moments' reflection, "I will take a
+chance for your sake--a long chance, but I think a good one. If you can
+pull yourself together by this afternoon, be over at your office at
+four. Be sure to have Shelton and Capps there, and you can tell Mr.
+Taylor that you have something very important to set before him. Now, I
+must hurry if I am to fulfil my part of the contract. Good-bye, Jack.
+Keep a stiff upper lip, old man. I'll have something that will surprise
+you this afternoon."
+
+Outside, as he hurried uptown, Craig was silent, but I could see his
+features working nervously, and as we parted he merely said: "Of
+course, you'll be there, Walter. I'll put the finishing touches on your
+story of high finance."
+
+Slowly enough the few hours passed before I found myself again in
+Orton's office. He was there already, despite the orders of his
+physician, who was disgusted at this excursion from the hospital.
+Kennedy was there, too, grim and silent. We sat watching the two
+indicators beside Orton's desk, which showed the air pressure in the
+two tubes. The needles were vibrating ever so little and tracing a
+red-ink line on the ruled paper that unwound from the drum. From the
+moment the tunnels were started, here was preserved a faithful record
+of every slightest variation of air pressure.
+
+"Telephone down into the tube and have Capps come up," said Craig at
+length, glancing at Orton's desk clock. "Taylor will be here pretty
+soon, and I want Capps to be out of the tunnel by the time he comes.
+Then get Shelton, too."
+
+In response to Orton's summons Capps and Shelton came into the office,
+just as a large town car pulled up outside the tunnel works. A tall,
+distinguished-looking man stepped out and turned again toward the door
+of the car.
+
+"There's Taylor," I remarked, for I had seen him often at
+investigations before the Public Service Commission.
+
+"And Vivian, too," exclaimed Orton excitedly. "Say, fellows, clear off
+these desks. Quick, before she gets up here. In the closet with these
+blueprints, Walter. There, that's a little better. If I had known she
+was coming I would at least have had the place swept out. Puff! look at
+the dust on this desk of mine. Well, there's no help for it. There they
+are at the door now. Why, ivian, what a surprise."
+
+"Jack!" she exclaimed, almost ignoring the rest of us and quickly
+crossing to his chair to lay a restraining hand on his shoulder as he
+vainly tried to stand up to welcome her.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he asked eagerly. "I would
+have had the place fixed up a bit."
+
+"I prefer it this way," she said, looking curiously around at the
+samples of tunnel paraphernalia and the charts and diagrams on the
+walls.
+
+"Yes, Orton," said President Taylor, "she would come--dropped in at the
+office and when I tried to excuse myself for a business appointment,
+demanded which way I was going. When I said I was coming here, she
+insisted on coming, too."
+
+Orton smiled. He knew that she had taken this simple and direct means
+of being there, but he said nothing, and merely introduced us to the
+president and Miss Taylor.
+
+An awkward silence followed. Orton cleared his throat. "I think you all
+know why we are here," he began. "We have been and are having
+altogether too many accidents in the tunnel, too many cases of the
+bends, too many deaths, too many delays to the work.
+Well--er--I--er--Mr. Kennedy has something to say about them, I
+believe."
+
+No sound was heard save the vibration of the air-compressors and an
+occasional shout of a workman at the shaft leading down to the
+air-locks.
+
+"There is no need for me to say anything about caisson disease to you,
+gentlemen, or to you, Miss Taylor," began Kennedy. "I think you all
+know how it is caused and a good deal about it already. But, to be
+perfectly clear, I will say that there are five things that must, above
+all others, be looked after in tunnel work: the air pressure, the
+amount of carbon dioxide in the air, the length of the shifts which the
+men work, the state of health of the men as near as physical
+examination can determine it, and the rapidity with which the men come
+out of the 'air,' so as to prevent carelessness which may cause the
+bends.
+
+"I find," he continued, "that the air pressure is not too high for
+safety. Proper examinations for carbon dioxide are made, and the amount
+in the air is not excessive. The shifts are not even as long as those
+prescribed by the law. The medical inspection is quite adequate and as
+for the time taken in coming out through the locks the rules are
+stringent."
+
+A look of relief crossed the face of Orton at this commendation of his
+work, followed by a puzzled expression that plainly indicated that he
+would like to know what was the matter, if all the crucial things were
+all right.
+
+"But," resumed Kennedy, "the bends are still hitting the men, and there
+is no telling when a fire or a blow-out may occur in any of the eight
+headings that are now being pushed under the river. Quite often the
+work has been delayed and the tunnel partly or wholly flooded. Now, you
+know the theory of the bends. It is that air--mostly the nitrogen in
+the air--is absorbed by the blood under the pressure. In coming out of
+the 'air' if the nitrogen is not all eliminated, it stays in the blood
+and, as the pressure is reduced, it expands. It is just as if you take
+a bottle of charged water and pull the cork suddenly. The gas rises in
+big bubbles. Cork it again and the gas bubbles cease to rise and
+finally disappear. If you make a pin-hole in the cork the gas will
+escape slowly, without a bubble. You must decompress the human body
+slowly, by stages, to let the super-saturated blood give up its
+nitrogen to the lungs, which can eliminate it. Otherwise these bubbles
+catch in the veins, and the result is severe pains, paralysis, and even
+death. Gentlemen, I see that I am just wasting time telling you this,
+for you know it all well. But consider."
+
+Kennedy placed an empty corked flask on the table. The others regarded
+it curiously, but I recalled having seen it in the tunnel.
+
+"In this bottle," explained Kennedy, "I collected some of the air from
+the tunnel when I was down there this morning. I have since analysed
+it. The quantity of carbon dioxide is approximately what it should
+be--not high enough of itself to cause trouble. But," he spoke slowly
+to emphasise his words, "I found something else in that air beside
+carbon dioxide."
+
+"Nitrogen?" broke in Orton quickly, leaning forward.
+
+"Of course; it is a constituent of air. But that is not what I mean."
+
+"Then, for Heaven's sake, what did you find?" asked Orton.
+
+"I found in this air," replied Kennedy, "a very peculiar mixture--an
+explosive mixture."
+
+"An explosive mixture?" echoed Orton.
+
+"Yes, Jack, the blow-outs that you have had at the end of the tunnel
+were not blow-outs at all, properly speaking. They were explosions."
+
+We sat aghast at this revelation.
+
+"And, furthermore," added Kennedy, "I should, if I were you, call back
+all the men from the tunnel until the cause for the presence of this
+explosive mixture is discovered and remedied."
+
+Orton reached mechanically for the telephone to give the order, but
+Taylor laid his hand on his arm. "One moment, Orton," he said. "Let's
+hear Professor Kennedy out. He may be mistaken, and there is no use
+frightening the men, until we are certain."
+
+"Shelton," asked Kennedy, "what sort of flash oil is used to lubricate
+the machinery?"
+
+"It is three-hundred-and-sixty-degree Fahrenheit flash test," he
+answered tersely.
+
+"And are the pipes leading air down into the tunnel perfectly straight?"
+
+"Straight?"
+
+"Yes, straight--no joints, no pockets where oil, moisture, and gases
+can collect."
+
+"Straight as lines, Kennedy," he said with a sort of contemptuous
+defiance.
+
+They were facing each other coldly, sizing each other up. Like a
+skilful lawyer, Kennedy dropped that point for a moment, to take up a
+new line of attack.
+
+"Capps," he demanded, turning suddenly, "why do you always call up on
+the telephone and let some one know when you are going down in the
+tunnel and when you are coming out?"
+
+"I don't," replied Capps, quickly recovering his composure.
+
+"Walter," said Craig to me quietly, "go out in the outer office. Behind
+the telephone switchboard you will find a small box which you saw me
+carry in there this morning and connect with the switchboard. Detach
+the wires, as you saw me attach them, and bring it here."
+
+No one moved, as I placed the box on a drafting-table before them.
+Craig opened it. Inside he disclosed a large disc of thin steel, like
+those used by some mechanical music-boxes, only without any
+perforations. He connected the wires from the box to a sort of
+megaphone. Then he started the disc revolving.
+
+Out of the little megaphone horn, sticking up like a miniature
+talking-machine, came a voice: "Number please. Four four three o,
+Yorkville. Busy, I'll call you. Try them again, Central. Hello, hello,
+Central--"
+
+Kennedy stopped the machine. "It must be further along on the disc," he
+remarked. "This, by the way, is an instrument known as the
+telegraphone, invented by a Dane named Poulsen. It records
+conversations over a telephone on this plain metal disc by means of
+localised, minute electric charges."
+
+Having adjusted the needle to another place on the disc he tried again.
+"We have here a record of the entire day's conversations over the
+telephone, preserved on this disc. I could wipe out the whole thing by
+pulling a magnet across it, but, needless to say, I wouldn't do
+that--yet. Listen."
+
+This time it was Capps speaking. "Give me Mr. Shelton. Oh, Shelton, I'm
+going down in the south tube with those men Orton has sent nosing
+around here. I'll let you know when I start up again. Meanwhile--you
+know--don't let anything happen while I am there. Good-bye."
+
+Capps sat looking defiantly at Kennedy, as he stopped the telegraphone.
+
+"Now," continued Kennedy suavely, "what COULD happen? I'll answer my
+own question by telling what actually did happen. Oil that was smoky at
+a lower point than its flash was being used in the machinery--not
+really three-hundred-and-sixty-degree oil. The water-jacket had been
+tampered with, too. More than that, there is a joint in the pipe
+leading down into the tunnel, where explosive gases can collect. It is
+a well-known fact in the use of compressed air that such a condition is
+the best possible way to secure an explosion.
+
+"It would all seem so natural, even if discovered," explained Kennedy
+rapidly. "The smoking oil--smoking just as an automobile often does--is
+passed into the compressed-air pipe. Condensed oil, moisture, and gases
+collect in the joint, and perhaps they line the whole distance of the
+pipe. A spark from the low-grade oil--and they are ignited. What takes
+place is the same thing that occurs in the cylinder of an automobile
+where the air is compressed with gasoline vapour. Only here we have
+compressed air charged with vapour of oil. The flame proceeds down the
+pipe--exploding through the pipe, if it happens to be not strong
+enough. This pipe, however, is strong. Therefore, the flame in this
+case shoots out at the open end of the pipe, down near the shield, and
+if the air in the tunnel happens also to be surcharged with oil-vapour,
+an explosion takes place in the tunnel--the river bottom is blown
+out--then God help the sand-hogs!
+
+"That's how your accidents took place, Orton," concluded Kennedy in
+triumph, "and that impure air--not impure from carbon dioxide, but from
+this oil-vapour mixture--increased the liability of the men for the
+bends. Capps knew about it. He was careful while he was there to see
+that the air was made as pure as possible under the circumstances. He
+was so careful that he wouldn't even let Mr. Jameson smoke in the
+tunnel. But as soon as he went to the surface, the same deadly mixture
+was pumped down again--I caught some of it in this flask, and--"
+
+"My God, Paddy's down there now," cried Orton, suddenly seizing his
+telephone. "Operator, give me the south tube--quick--what--they don't
+answer?"
+
+Out in the river above the end of the heading, where a short time
+before there had been only a few bubbles on the surface of the water, I
+could see what looked like a huge geyser of water spouting up. I pulled
+Craig over to me and pointed.
+
+"A blow-out," cried Kennedy, as he rushed to the door, only to be met
+by a group of blanched-faced workers who had come breathless to the
+office to deliver the news.
+
+Craig acted quickly. "Hold these men," he ordered, pointing to Capps
+and Shelton, "until we come back. Orton, while we are gone, go over the
+entire day's record on the telegraphone. I suspect you and Miss Taylor
+will find something there that will interest you."
+
+He sprang down the ladder to the tunnel air-lock, not waiting for the
+elevator. In front of the closed door of the lock, an excited group of
+men was gathered. One of them was peering through the dim, thick, glass
+porthole in the door.
+
+"There he is, standin' by the door with a club, an' the men's crowdin'
+so fast that they're all wedged so's none can get in at all. He's
+beatin' 'em back with the stick. Now, he's got the door clear and has
+dragged one poor fellow in. It's Jimmy Rourke, him with the eight
+childer. Now he's dragged in a Polack. Now he's fightin' back a big
+Jamaica nigger who's tryin' to shove ahead of a little Italian."
+
+"It's Paddy," cried Craig. "If he can bring them all out safely without
+the loss of a life he'll save the day yet for Orton. And he'll do it,
+too, Walter."
+
+Instantly I reconstructed in my mind the scene in the tunnel--the
+explosion of the oil-vapour, the mad race up the tube, perhaps the
+failure of the emergency curtain to work, the frantic efforts of the
+men, in panic, all to crowd through the narrow little door at once; the
+rapidly rising water--and above all the heroic Paddy, cool to the last,
+standing at the door and single-handed beating the men back with a
+club, so that they could go through one at a time.
+
+Only when the water had reached the level of the door of the lock, did
+Paddy bang it shut as he dragged the last man in. Then followed an
+interminable wait for the air in the lock to be exhausted. When, at
+last, the door at our end of the lock swung open, the men with a cheer
+seized Paddy and, in spite of his struggles, hoisted him on to their
+shoulders, and carried him off, still struggling, in triumph up the
+construction elevator to the open air above.
+
+The scene in Orton's office was dramatic as the men entered with Paddy.
+Vivian Taylor was standing defiantly, with burning eyes, facing Capps,
+who stared sullenly at the floor before him. Shelton was plainly
+abashed.
+
+"Kennedy," cried Orton, vainly trying to rise, "listen. Have you still
+that place on the telegraphone record, Vivian?"
+
+Miss Taylor started the telegraphone, while we all crowded around
+leaning forward eagerly.
+
+"Hello. Inter-River? Is this the president's office? Oh, hello. This is
+Capps talking. How are you? Oh, you've heard about Orton, have you? Not
+so bad, eh? Well, I'm arranging with my man Shelton here for the final
+act this afternoon. After that you can compromise with the Five-Borough
+on your own terms. I think I have argued Taylor and Morris into the
+right frame of mind for it, if we have one more big accident. What's
+that? How is my love affair? Well, Orton's in the way yet, but you know
+why I went into this deal. When you put me into his place after the
+compromise, I think I will pull strong with her. Saw her last night.
+She feels pretty bad about Orton, but she'll get over it. Besides, the
+pater will never let her marry a man who's down and out. By the way,
+you've got to do something handsome for Shelton. All right. I'll see
+you to-night and tell you some more. Watch the papers in the meantime
+for the grand finale. Good-bye."
+
+An angry growl rose from one or two of the more quick-witted men.
+Kennedy reached over and pulled me with him quickly through the crowd.
+
+"Hurry, Walter," he whispered hoarsely, "hustle Shelton and Capps out
+quick before the rest of the men wake up to what it's all about, or we
+shall have a lynching instead of an arrest."
+
+As we shoved and pushed them out, I saw the rough and grimy sand-hogs
+in the rear move quickly aside, and off came their muddy, frayed hats.
+A dainty figure flitted among them toward Orton. It was Vivian Taylor.
+
+"Papa," she cried, grasping Jack by both hands and turning to Taylor,
+who followed her closely, "Papa, I told you not to be too hasty with
+Jack."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE WHITE SLAVE
+
+
+Kennedy and I had just tossed a coin to decide whether it should be a
+comic opera or a good walk in the mellow spring night air and the opera
+had won, but we had scarcely begun to argue the vital point as to where
+to go, when the door buzzer sounded--a sure sign that some box-office
+had lost four dollars.
+
+It was a much agitated middle-aged couple who entered as Craig threw
+open the door. Of our two visitors, the woman attracted my attention
+first, for on her pale face the lines of sorrow were almost visibly
+deepening. Her nervous manner interested me greatly, though I took
+pains to conceal the fact that I noticed it. It was quickly accounted
+for, however, by the card which the man presented, bearing the name
+"Mr. George Gilbert" and a short scribble from First Deputy O'Connor:
+
+     Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert desire to consult you with regard to the
+     mysterious disappearance of their daughter, Georgette. I am
+     sure I need say nothing further to interest you than that the
+     M. P. Squad is completely baffled.
+
+      O'CONNOR.
+
+"H-m," remarked Kennedy; "not strange for the Missing Persons Squad to
+be baffled--at least, at this case."
+
+"Then you know of our daughter's strange--er--departure?" asked Mr.
+Gilbert, eagerly scanning Kennedy's face and using a euphemism that
+would fall less harshly on his wife's ears than the truth.
+
+"Indeed, yes," nodded Craig with marked sympathy: "that is, I have read
+most of what the papers have said. Let me introduce my friend, Mr.
+Jameson. You recall we were discussing the Georgette Gilbert case this
+morning, Walter?"
+
+I did, and perhaps before I proceed further with the story I should
+quote at least the important parts of the article in the morning Star
+which had occasioned the discussion. The article had been headed, "When
+Personalities Are Lost," and with the Gilbert case as a text many
+instances had been cited which had later been solved by the return of
+the memory of the sufferer. In part the article had said:
+
+Mysterious disappearances, such as that of Georgette Gilbert, have
+alarmed the public and baffled the police before this, disappearances
+that in their suddenness, apparent lack of purpose, and
+inexplicability, have had much in common with the case of Miss Gilbert.
+
+Leaving out of account the class of disappearances such as embezzlers,
+blackmailers, and other criminals, there is still a large number of
+recorded cases where the subjects have dropped out of sight without
+apparent cause or reason and have left behind them untarnished
+reputations. Of these a small percentage are found to have met with
+violence; others have been victims of a suicidal mania; and sooner or
+later a clue has come to light, for the dead are often easier to find
+than the living. Of the remaining small proportion there are on record
+a number of carefully authenticated cases where the subjects have been
+the victims of a sudden and complete loss of memory.
+
+This dislocation of memory is a variety of aphasia known as amnesia,
+and when the memory is recurrently lost and restored it is an
+"alternating personality." The psychical researchers and psychologists
+have reported many cases of alternating personality. Studious efforts
+are being made to understand and to explain the strange type of mental
+phenomena exhibited in these cases, but no one has as yet given a
+final, clear, and comprehensive explanation of them. Such cases are by
+no means always connected with disappearances, but the variety known as
+the ambulatory type, where the patient suddenly loses all knowledge of
+his own identity and of his past and takes himself off, leaving no
+trace or clue, is the variety which the present case calls to popular
+attention.
+
+Then followed a list of a dozen or so interesting cases of persons who
+had vanished completely and had, some several days and some even years
+later, suddenly "awakened" to their first personality, returned, and
+taken up the thread of that personality where it had been broken.
+
+To Kennedy's inquiry I was about to reply that I recalled the
+conversation distinctly, when Mr. Gilbert shot an inquiring glance from
+beneath his bushy eyebrows, quickly shifting from my face to Kennedy's,
+and asked, "And what was your conclusion--what do you think of the
+case? Is it aphasia or amnesia, or whatever the doctors call it, and do
+you think she is wandering about somewhere unable to recover her real
+personality?"
+
+"I should like to have all the facts at first hand before venturing an
+opinion," Craig replied with precisely that shade of hesitancy that
+might reassure the anxious father and mother, without raising a false
+hope.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert exchanged glances, the purport of which was that
+she desired him to tell the story.
+
+"It was day before yesterday," began Mr. Gilbert, gently touching his
+wife's trembling hand that sought his arm as he began rehearsing the
+tragedy that had cast its shadow across their lives, "Thursday, that
+Georgette--er--since we have heard of Georgette." His voice faltered a
+bit, but he proceeded: "As you know, she was last seen walking on Fifth
+Avenue. The police have traced her since she left home that morning. It
+is known that she went first to the public library, then that she
+stopped at a department store on the avenue, where she made a small
+purchase which she had charged to our family account, and finally that
+she went to a large book-store. Then--that is the last."
+
+Mrs. Gilbert sighed, and buried her face in a lace handkerchief as her
+shoulders shook convulsively.
+
+"Yes, I have read that," repeated Kennedy gently, though with manifest
+eagerness to get down to facts that might prove more illuminating. "I
+think I need hardly impress upon you the advantage of complete
+frankness, the fact that anything you may tell me is of a much more
+confidential nature than if it were told to the police. Er--r, had Miss
+Gilbert any--love affair, any trouble of such a nature that it might
+have preyed on her mind?"
+
+Kennedy's tactful manner seemed to reassure both the father and the
+mother, who exchanged another glance.
+
+"Although we have said no to the reporters," Mrs. Gilbert replied
+bravely in answer to the nod of approval from her husband, and much as
+if she herself were making a confession for them both, "I fear that
+Georgette had had a love affair. No doubt you have heard hints of
+Dudley Lawton's name in connection with the case? I can't imagine how
+they could have leaked out, for I should have said that that old affair
+had long since been forgotten even by the society gossips. The fact is
+that shortly after Georgette 'came out,' Dudley Lawton, who is quite on
+the road to becoming one of the rather notorious members of the younger
+set, began to pay her marked attentions. He is a fascinating, romantic
+sort of fellow, one that, I imagine, possesses much attraction for a
+girl who has been brought up as simply as Georgette was, and who has
+absorbed a surreptitious diet of modern literature such as we now know
+Georgette did. I suppose you have seen portraits of Georgette in the
+newspapers and know what a dreamy and artistic nature her face
+indicates?"
+
+Kennedy nodded. It is, of course, one of the cardinal tenets of
+journalism that all women are beautiful, but even the coarse screen of
+the ordinary newspaper half-tone had not been able to conceal the
+rather exceptional beauty of Miss Georgette Gilbert. If it had, all the
+shortcomings of the newspaper photographic art would have been quickly
+glossed over by the almost ardent descriptions by those ladies of the
+press who come along about the second day after an event of this kind
+with signed articles analysing the character and motives, the life and
+gowns of the latest actors in the front-page stories.
+
+"Naturally both my husband and myself opposed his attentions from the
+first. It was a hard struggle, for Georgette, of course, assumed the
+much-injured air of some of the heroines of her favourite novels. But
+I, at least, believed that we had won and that Georgette finally was
+brought to respect and, I hoped, understand our wishes in the matter. I
+believe so yet. Mr. Gilbert in a roundabout way came to an
+understanding with old Mr. Dudley Lawton, who possesses a great
+influence over his son, and--well, Dudley Lawton seemed to have passed
+out of Georgette's life. I believed so then, at least, and I see no
+reason for not believing so yet. I feel that you ought to know this,
+but really I don't think it is right to say that Georgette had a love
+affair. I should rather say that she had HAD a love affair, but that it
+had been forgotten, perhaps a year ago."
+
+Mrs. Gilbert paused again, and it was evident that though she was
+concealing nothing she was measuring her words carefully in order not
+to give a false impression.
+
+"What does Dudley Lawton say about the newspapers bringing his name
+into the case?" asked Kennedy, addressing Mr. Gilbert.
+
+"Nothing," replied he. "He denies that he has even spoken to her for
+nearly a year. Apparently he has no interest in the case. And yet I
+cannot quite believe that Lawton is as uninterested as he seems. I know
+that he has often spoken about her to members of the Cosmos Club where
+he lives, and that he reads practically everything that the newspapers
+print about the case."
+
+"But you have no reason to think that there has ever been any secret
+communication between them? Miss Georgette left no letters or anything
+that would indicate that her former infatuation survived?"
+
+"None whatever," repeated Mr. Gilbert emphatically. "We have gone over
+her personal effects very carefully, and I can't say they furnish a
+clue. In fact, there were very few letters. She rarely kept a letter.
+Whether it was merely from habit or for some purpose, I can't say."
+
+"Besides her liking for Dudley Lawton and her rather romantic nature,
+there are no other things in her life that would cause a desire for
+freedom?" asked Kennedy, much as a doctor might test the nerves of a
+patient. "She had no hobbies?"
+
+"Beyond the reading of some books which her mother and I did not
+altogether approve of, I should say no--no hobbies."
+
+"So far, I suppose, it is true that neither you nor the police have
+received even a hint as to where she went after leaving the book-store?"
+
+"Not a hint. She dropped out as completely as if the earth had
+swallowed her."
+
+"Mrs. Gilbert," said Kennedy, as our visitors rose to go, "you may rest
+assured that if it is humanly possible to find your daughter I shall
+leave no stone unturned until I have probed to the bottom of this
+mystery. I have seldom had a case that hung on more slender threads,
+yet if I can weave other threads to support it I feel that we shall
+soon find that the mystery is not so baffling as the Missing Persons
+Squad has found it so far."
+
+Scarcely had the Gilberts left when Kennedy put on his hat, remarking:
+"We'll at least get our walk, if not the show. Let's stroll around to
+the Cosmos Club. Perhaps we may catch Lawton in."
+
+Luckily we chanced to find him there in the reading-room. Lawton was,
+as Mrs. Gilbert had said, a type that is common enough in New York and
+is very fascinating to many girls. In fact, he was one of those fellows
+whose sins are readily forgiven because they are always interesting.
+Not a few men secretly admire though publicly execrate the Lawton type.
+
+I say we chanced to find him in. That was about all we found. Our
+interview was most unsatisfactory. For my part, I could not determine
+whether he was merely anxious to avoid any notoriety in connection with
+the case or whether he was concealing something that might compromise
+himself.
+
+"Really, gentlemen," he drawled, puffing languidly on a cigarette and
+turning slowly toward the window to watch the passing throng under the
+lights of the avenue, "really I don't see how I can be of any
+assistance. You see, except for a mere passing acquaintance Miss
+Gilbert and I had drifted entirely apart--entirely apart--owing to
+circumstances over which I, at least, had no control."
+
+"I thought perhaps you might have heard from her or about her, through
+some mutual friend," remarked Kennedy, carefully concealing under his
+nonchalance what I knew was working in his mind--a belief that, after
+all, the old attachment had not been so dead as the Gilberts had
+fancied.
+
+"No, not a breath, either before this sad occurrence or, of course,
+after. Believe me, if I could add one fact that would simplify the
+search for Georgette--ah, Miss Gilbert--ah--I would do so in a moment,"
+replied Lawton quickly, as if desirous of getting rid of us as soon as
+possible. Then perhaps as if regretting the brusqueness with which he
+had tried to end the interview, he added, "Don't misunderstand me. The
+moment you have discovered anything that points to her whereabouts, let
+me know immediately. You can count on me--provided you don't get me
+into the papers. Good-night, gentlemen. I wish you the best of success."
+
+"Do you think he could have kept up the acquaintance secretly?" I asked
+Craig as we walked up the avenue after this baffling interview. "Could
+he have cast her off when he found that in spite of her parents'
+protests she was still in his power?"
+
+"It's impossible to say what a man of Dudley Lawton's type could do,"
+mused Kennedy, "for the simple reason that he himself doesn't know
+until he has to do it. Until we have more facts, anything is both
+possible and probable."
+
+There was nothing more that could be done that night, though after our
+walk we sat up for an hour or two discussing probabilities. It did not
+take me long to reach the end of my imagination and give up the case,
+but Kennedy continued to revolve the matter in his mind, looking at it
+from every angle and calling upon all the vast store of information
+that he had treasured up in that marvellous brain of his, ready to be
+called on almost as if his mind were card-indexed.
+
+"Murders, suicides, robberies, and burglaries are, after all, pretty
+easily explained," he remarked, after a long period of silence on my
+part, "but the sudden disappearance of people out of the crowded city
+into nowhere is something that is much harder to explain. And it isn't
+so difficult to disappear as some people imagine, either. You remember
+the case of the celebrated Arctic explorer whose picture had been
+published scores of times in every illustrated paper. He had no trouble
+in disappearing and then reappearing later, when he got ready.
+
+"Yet experience has taught me that there is always a reason for
+disappearances. It is our next duty to discover that reason. Still, it
+won't do to say that disappearances are not mysterious. Disappearances
+except for money troubles are all mysterious. The first thing in such a
+case is to discover whether the person has any hobbies or habits or
+fads. That is what I tried to find out from the Gilberts. I can't tell
+yet whether I succeeded."
+
+Kennedy took a pencil and hastily jotted down something on a piece of
+paper which he tossed over to me. It read:
+
+1. Love, family trouble.
+
+2. A romantic disposition.
+
+3. Temporary insanity, self-destruction.
+
+4. Criminal assault.
+
+5. Aphasia.
+
+6. Kidnapping.
+
+"Those are the reasons why people disappear, eliminating criminals and
+those who have financial difficulties. Dream on that and see if you can
+work out the answer in your subliminal consciousness. Good-night."
+
+Needless to say, I was no further advanced in the morning than at
+midnight, but Kennedy seemed to have evolved at least a tentative
+programme. It started with a visit to the public library, where he
+carefully went over the ground already gone over by the police. Finding
+nothing, he concluded that Miss Gilbert had not found what she wanted
+at the library and had continued the quest, even as he was continuing
+the quest of herself.
+
+His next step was to visit the department-store. The purchase had been
+an inconsequential affair of half a dozen handkerchiefs, to be sent
+home. This certainly did not look like a premeditated disappearance;
+but Craig was proceeding on the assumption that this purchase indicated
+nothing except that there had been a sale of handkerchiefs which had
+caught her eye. Having stopped at the library first and a book-shop
+afterward, he assumed that she had also visited the book-department of
+the store. But here again nobody seemed to recall her or that she had
+asked for anything in particular.
+
+Our last hope was the book-shop. We paused for a moment to look at the
+display in the window, but only for a moment, for Craig quickly pulled
+me along inside. In the window was a display of books bearing the sign:
+
+BOOKS ON NEW THOUGHT, OCCULTISM, CLAIRVOYANCE, MESMERISM
+
+Instead of attempting to go over the ground already traversed by the
+police, who had interrogated the numerous clerks without discovering
+which one, if any, had waited on Miss Gilbert, Kennedy asked at once to
+see the record of sales of the morning on which she had disappeared.
+Running his eye quickly down the record, he picked out a work on
+clairvoyance and asked to see the young woman who had made the sale.
+The clerk was, however, unable to recall to whom she had sold the book,
+though she finally admitted that she thought it might have been a young
+woman who had some difficulty in making up her mind just which one of
+the numerous volumes she wanted. She could not say whether the picture
+Kennedy showed her of Miss Gilbert was that of her customer, nor was
+she sure that the customer was not escorted by some one. Altogether it
+was nearly as hazy as our interview with Lawton.
+
+"Still," remarked Kennedy cheerfully, "it may furnish a clue, after
+all. The clerk at least was not positive that it was NOT Miss Gilbert
+to whom she sold the book. Since we are down in this neighbourhood, let
+us drop in and see Mr. Gilbert again. Perhaps something may have
+happened since last night."
+
+Mr. Gilbert was in the dry-goods business in a loft building in the new
+dry-goods section on Fourth Avenue. One could almost feel that a
+tragedy had invaded even his place of business. As we entered, we could
+see groups of clerks, evidently discussing the case. It was no wonder,
+I felt, for the head of the firm was almost frantic, and beside the
+loss of his only daughter the loss of his business would count as
+nothing, at least until the keen edge of his grief was worn off.
+
+"Mr. Gilbert is out," replied his secretary, in answer to our inquiry.
+"Haven't you heard? They have just discovered the body of his daughter
+in a lonely spot in the Croton Aqueduct. The report came in from the
+police just a few minutes ago. It is thought that she was murdered in
+the city and carried there in an automobile."
+
+The news came with a stinging shock. I felt that, after all, we were
+too late. In another hour the extras would be out, and the news would
+be spread broadcast. The affair would be in the hands of the amateur
+detectives, and there was no telling how many promising clues might be
+lost.
+
+"Dead!" exclaimed Kennedy, as he jammed his hat on his head and bolted
+for the door. "Hurry, Walter. We must get there before the coroner
+makes his examination."
+
+I don't know how we managed to do it, but by dint of subway, elevated,
+and taxicab we arrived on the scene of the tragedy not very long after
+the coroner. Mr. Gilbert was there, silent, and looking as if he had
+aged many years since the night before; his hand shook and he could
+merely nod recognition to us.
+
+Already the body had been carried to a rough shanty in the
+neighbourhood, and the coroner was questioning those who had made the
+discovery, a party of Italian labourers on the water improvement near
+by. They were a vicious looking crew, but they could tell nothing
+beyond the fact that one of them had discovered the body in a thicket
+where it could not possibly have lain longer than overnight. There was
+no reason, as yet, to suspect any of them, and indeed, as a much
+travelled automobile road ran within a few feet of the thicket, there
+was every reason to believe that the murder, if murder it was, had been
+committed elsewhere and that the perpetrator had taken this means of
+getting rid of his unfortunate victim.
+
+Drawn and contorted were the features of the poor girl, as if she had
+died in great physical agony or after a terrific struggle. Indeed,
+marks of violence on her delicate throat and neck showed only too
+plainly that she had been choked.
+
+As Kennedy bent over the form of the once lovely Georgette, he noted
+the clenched hands. Then he looked at them more closely. I was standing
+a little behind him, for though Craig and I had been through many
+thrilling adventures, the death of a human being, especially of a girl
+like Miss Gilbert, filled me with horror and revulsion. I could see,
+however, that he had noted something unusual. He pulled out a little
+pocket magnifying glass and made an even more minute examination of the
+hands. At last he rose and faced us, almost as if in triumph. I could
+not see what he had discovered--at least it did not seem to be anything
+tangible, like a weapon.
+
+Quickly he opened the pocketbook which she had carried. It seemed to be
+empty, and he was about to shut it when something white, sticking in
+one corner, caught his eye. Craig pulled out a clipping from a
+newspaper, and we crowded about him to look at it. It was a large
+clipping from the section of one of the metropolitan journals which
+carries a host of such advertisements as "spirit medium," "psychic
+palmist," "yogi mediator," "magnetic influences," "crystal gazer,"
+"astrologer," "trance medium," and the like. At once I thought of the
+sallow, somewhat mystic countenance of Dudley, and the idea flashed,
+half-formed, in my mind that somehow this clue, together with the
+purchase of the book on clairvoyance, might prove the final link
+necessary.
+
+But the first problem in Kennedy's mind was to keep in touch with what
+the authorities were doing. That kept us busy for several hours, during
+which Craig was in close consultation with the coroner's physician. The
+physician was of the opinion that Miss Gilbert had been drugged as well
+as strangled, and for many hours, down in his laboratory, his chemists
+were engaged in trying to discover from tests of her blood whether the
+theory was true. One after another the ordinary poisons were
+eliminated, until it began to look hopeless.
+
+So far Kennedy had been only an interested spectator, but as the
+different tests failed, he had become more and more keenly alive. At
+last it seemed as if he could wait no longer.
+
+"Might I try one or two reactions with that sample?" he asked of the
+physician who handed him the test tube in silence.
+
+For a moment or two Craig thoughtfully regarded it, while with one hand
+he fingered the bottles of ether, alcohol, distilled water, and the
+many reagents standing before him. He picked up one and poured a little
+liquid into the test tube. Then, removing the precipitate that was
+formed, he tried to dissolve it in water. Not succeeding, he tried the
+ether and then the alcohol. Both were successful.
+
+"What is it?" we asked as he held the tube up critically to the light.
+
+"I can't be sure yet," he answered slowly. "I thought at first that it
+was some alkaloid. I'll have to make further tests before I can be
+positive just what it is. If I may retain this sample I think that with
+other clues that I have discovered I may be able to tell you something
+definite soon."
+
+The coroner's physician willingly assented, and Craig quickly
+dispatched the tube, carefully sealed, to his laboratory.
+
+"That part of our investigation will keep," he remarked as we left the
+coroner's office. "To-night I think we had better resume the search
+which was so unexpectedly interrupted this morning. I suppose you have
+concluded, Walter, that we can be reasonably sure that the trail leads
+back through the fortune-tellers and soothsayers of New York,--which
+one, it would be difficult to say. The obvious thing, therefore, is to
+consult them all. I think you will enjoy that part of it, with your
+newspaperman's liking for the bizarre."
+
+The fact was that it did appeal to me, though at the moment I was
+endeavouring to formulate a theory in which Dudley Lawton and an
+accomplice would account for the facts.
+
+It was early in the evening as we started out on our tour of the
+clairvoyants of New York. The first whom Kennedy selected from the
+advertisements in the clipping described himself as "Hata, the Veiled
+Prophet, born with a double veil, educated in occult mysteries and
+Hindu philosophy in Egypt and India." Like all of them his
+advertisement dwelt much on love and money:
+
+   The great questions of life are quickly solved, failure
+   turned to success, sorrow to joy, the separated are brought
+   together, foes made friends. Truths are laid bare to his
+   mysterious mind. He gives you power to attract and control
+   those whom you may desire, tells you of living or dead, your
+   secret troubles, the cause and remedy. Advice on all affairs
+   of life, love, courtship, marriage, business, speculations,
+   investments. Overcomes rivals, enemies, and all evil influences.
+   Will tell you how to attract, control, and change the
+   thought, intentions, actions, or character of any one you
+   desire.
+
+Hata was a modest adept who professed to be able to explain the whole
+ten stages of Yoga. He had established himself on a street near Times
+Square, just off Broadway, and there we found several automobiles and
+taxicabs standing at the curb, a mute testimony to the wealth of at
+least some of his clientele.
+
+A solemn-faced coloured man ushered us into a front parlour and asked
+if we had come to see the professor. Kennedy answered that we had.
+
+"Will you please write your names and addresses on the outside sheet of
+this pad, then tear it off and keep it?" asked the attendant. "We ask
+all visitors to do that simply as a guarantee of good faith. Then if
+you will write under it what you wish to find out from the professor I
+think it will help you concentrate. But don't write while I am in the
+room, and don't let me see the writing."
+
+"A pretty cheap trick," exclaimed Craig when the attendant had gone.
+"That's how he tells the gullible their names before they tell him.
+I've a good notion to tear off two sheets. The second is chemically
+prepared, with paraffin, I think. By dusting it over with powdered
+charcoal you can bring out what was written on the first sheet over it.
+Oh, well, let's let him get something across, anyway. Here goes, our
+names and addresses, and underneath I'll write, 'What has become of
+Georgette Gilbert?'"
+
+Perhaps five minutes later the negro took the pad, the top sheet having
+been torn off and placed in Kennedy's pocket. He also took a small fee
+of two dollars. A few minutes later we were ushered into the awful
+presence of the "Veiled Prophet," a tall, ferret-eyed man in a robe
+that looked suspiciously like a brocaded dressing-gown much too large
+for him.
+
+Sure enough, he addressed us solemnly by name and proceeded directly to
+tell us why we had come.
+
+"Let us look into the crystal of the past, present, and future and read
+what it has to reveal," he added solemnly, darkening the room, which
+was already only dimly lighted. Then Hata, the crystal-gazer, solemnly
+seated himself in a chair. Before him, in his hands, reposing on a bag
+of satin, lay a huge oval piece of glass. He threw forward his head and
+riveted his eyes on the milky depths of the crystal. In a moment he
+began to talk, first ramblingly, then coherently.
+
+"I see a man, a dark man," he began. "He is talking earnestly to a
+young girl. She is trying to avoid him. Ah--he seizes her by both arms.
+They struggle. He has his hand at her throat. He is choking her."
+
+I was thinking of the newspaper descriptions of Lawton, which the fakir
+had undoubtedly read, but Kennedy was leaning forward over the
+crystal-gazer, not watching the crystal at all, nor with his eyes on
+the clairvoyant's face.
+
+"Her tongue is protruding from her mouth, her eyes are bulging---"
+
+"Yes, yes," urged Kennedy. "Go on."
+
+"She falls. He strikes her. He flees. He goes to---"
+
+Kennedy laid his hand ever so lightly on the arm of the clairvoyant,
+then quickly withdrew it.
+
+"I cannot see where he goes. It is dark, dark. You will have to come
+back to-morrow when the vision is stronger."
+
+The thing stung me by its crudity. Kennedy, however, seemed elated by
+our experience as we gained the street.
+
+"Craig," I remonstrated, "you don't mean to say you attach any
+importance to vapourings like that? Why, there wasn't a thing the
+fellow couldn't have imagined from the newspapers, even the clumsy
+description of Dudley Lawton."
+
+"We'll see," he replied cheerfully, as we stopped under a light to read
+the address of the next seer, who happened to be in the same block.
+
+It proved to be the psychic palmist who called himself "the Pandit." He
+also was "born with a strange and remarkable power--not meant to
+gratify the idle curious, but to direct, advise, and help men and
+women"--at the usual low fee. He said in print that he gave instant
+relief to those who had trouble in love, and also positively guaranteed
+to tell your name and the object of your visit. He added:
+
+  Love, courtship, marriage. What is more beautiful than
+   the true unblemished love of one person for another? What
+   is sweeter, better, or more to be desired than perfect harmony
+   and happiness? If you want to win the esteem, love, and
+   everlasting affection of another, see the Pandit, the greatest
+   living master of the occult science.
+
+Inasmuch as this seer fell into a passion at the other incompetent
+soothsayers in the next column (and almost next door) it seemed as if
+we must surely get something for our money from the Pandit.
+
+Like Hata, the Pandit lived in a large brownstone house. The man who
+admitted us led us into a parlour where several people were seated
+about as if waiting for some one. The pad and writing process was
+repeated with little variation. Since we were the latest comers we had
+to wait some time before we were ushered into the presence of the
+Pandit, who was clad in a green silk robe.
+
+The room was large and had very small windows of stained glass. At one
+end of the room was an altar on which burned several candles which gave
+out an incense. The atmosphere of the room was heavy with a fragrance
+that seemed to combine cologne with chloroform.
+
+The Pandit waved a wand, muttering strange sounds as he did so, for in
+addition to his palmistry, which he seemed not disposed to exhibit that
+night, he dealt in mysteries beyond human ken. A voice, quite evidently
+from a phonograph buried in the depths of the altar, answered in an
+unknown language which sounded much like "Al-ya wa-aa haal-ya waa-ha."
+Across the dim room flashed a pale blue light with a crackling noise,
+the visible rays from a Crookes tube, I verily believe. The Pandit,
+however, said it was the soul of a saint passing through. Then he
+produced two silken robes, one red, which he placed on Kennedy's
+shoulders, and one violet, which he threw over me.
+
+From the air proceeded strange sounds of weird music and words. The
+Pandit seemed to fall asleep, muttering. Apparently, however, Kennedy
+and I were bad subjects, for after some minutes of this he gave it up,
+saying that the spirits had no revelation to make to-night in the
+matter in which we had called. Inasmuch as we had not written on the
+pad just what that matter was, I was not surprised. Nor was I surprised
+when the Pandit laid off his robe and said unctuously, "But if you will
+call to-morrow and concentrate, I am sure that I can secure a message
+that will be helpful about your little matter."
+
+Kennedy promised to call, but still he lingered. The Pandit, anxious to
+get rid of us, moved toward the door. Kennedy sidled over toward the
+green robe which the Pandit had laid on a chair.
+
+"Might I have some of your writings to look over in the meantime?"
+asked Craig as if to gain time.
+
+"Yes, but they will cost you three dollars a copy--the price I charge
+all my students," answered the Pandit with just a trace of a gleam of
+satisfaction at having at last made an impression.
+
+He turned and entered a cabinet to secure the mystic literature. The
+moment he had disappeared Kennedy seized the opportunity he had been
+waiting for. He picked up the green robe and examined the collar and
+neck very carefully under the least dim of the lights in the room. He
+seemed to find what he wished, yet he continued to examine the robe
+until the sound of returning footsteps warned him to lay it down again.
+He had not been quite quick enough. The Pandit eyed us suspiciously,
+then he rang a bell. The attendant appeared instantly, noiselessly.
+
+"Show these men into the library," he commanded with just the faintest
+shade of trepidation. "My servant will give you the book," he said to
+Craig. "Pay him."
+
+It seemed that we had suddenly been looked upon with disfavour, and I
+half suspected he thought we were spies of the police, who had recently
+received numerous complaints of the financial activities of the fortune
+tellers, who worked in close harmony with certain bucket-shop operators
+in fleecing the credulous of their money by inspired investment advice.
+At any rate, the attendant quickly opened a door into the darkness.
+Treading cautiously I followed Craig. The door closed behind us. I
+clenched my fists, not knowing what to expect.
+
+"The deuce!" exclaimed Kennedy. "He passed us out into an alley. There
+is the street not twenty feet away. The Pandit is a clever one, all
+right."
+
+It was now too late to see any of the other clairvoyants on our list,
+so that with this unceremonious dismissal we decided to conclude our
+investigations for the night.
+
+The next morning we wended our way up into the Bronx, where one of the
+mystics had ensconced himself rather out of the beaten track of police
+protection, or persecution, one could not say which. I was wondering
+what sort of vagary would come next. It proved to be "Swami, the
+greatest clairvoyant, psychic palmist, and Yogi mediator of them all."
+He also stood alone in his power, for he asserted:
+
+   Names friends, enemies, rivals, tells whom and when you
+   will marry, advises you upon love, courtship, marriage,
+   business, speculation, transactions of every nature. If you are
+   worried, perplexed, or in trouble come to this wonderful
+   man. He reads your life like an open book; he overcomes
+   evil influences, reunites the separated, causes speedy and
+   happy marriage with the one of your choice, tells how to
+   influence any one you desire, tells whether wife or sweetheart
+   is true or false. Love, friendship, and influence of
+   others obtained and a greater share of happiness in life
+   secured. The key to success is that marvellous, subtle,
+   unseen power that opens to your vision the greatest secrets
+   of life. It gives you power which enables you to control
+   the minds of men and women.
+
+The Swami engaged to explain the "wonderful Karmic law," and by his
+method one could develop a wonderful magnetic personality by which he
+could win anything the human heart desired. It was therefore with great
+anticipation that we sought out the wonderful Swami and, falling into
+the spirit of his advertisement, posed as "come-ons" and pleaded to
+obtain this wonderful magnetism and a knowledge of the Karmic law--at a
+ridiculously low figure, considering its inestimable advantages to one
+engaged in the pursuit of criminal science. Naturally the Swami was
+pleased at two such early callers, and his narrow, half-bald head, long
+slim nose, sharp grey eyes, and sallow, unwholesome complexion showed
+his pleasure in every line and feature.
+
+Rubbing his hands together as he motioned us into the next room, the
+Swami seated us on a circular divan with piles of cushions upon it.
+There were clusters of flowers in vases about the room, which gave it
+the odour of the renewed vitality of the year.
+
+A lackey entered with a silver tray of cups of coffee and a silver jar
+in the centre. Talking slowly and earnestly about the "great Karmic
+law," the Swami bade us drink the coffee, which was of a vile, muddy,
+Turkish variety. Then from the jar he took a box of rock crystal
+containing a sort of greenish compound which he kneaded into a little
+gum--gum tragacanth, I afterward learned,--and bade us taste. It was
+not at all unpleasant to the taste, and as nothing happened, except the
+suave droning of the mystic before us, we ate several of the gum
+pellets.
+
+I am at a loss to describe adequately just the sensations that I soon
+experienced. It was as if puffs of hot and cold air were alternately
+blown on my spine, and I felt a twitching of my neck, legs, and arms.
+Then came a subtle warmth. The whole thing seemed droll; the noise of
+the Swami's voice was most harmonious. His and Kennedy's faces seemed
+transformed. They were human faces, but each had a sort of animal
+likeness back of it, as Lavater has said. The Swami seemed to me to be
+the fox, Kennedy the owl. I looked in the glass, and I was the eagle. I
+laughed outright.
+
+It was sensuous in the extreme. The beautiful paintings on the walls at
+once became clothed in flesh and blood. A picture of a lady hanging
+near me caught my eye. The countenance really smiled and laughed and
+varied from moment to moment. Her figure became rounded and living and
+seemed to stir in the frame. The face was beautiful but ghastly. I
+seemed to be borne along on a sea of pleasure by currents of voluptuous
+happiness.
+
+The Swami was affected by a profound politeness. As he rose and walked
+about the room, still talking, he salaamed and bowed. When I spoke it
+sounded like a gun, with an echo long afterward rumbling in my brain.
+Thoughts came to me like fury, bewildering, sometimes as points of
+light in the most exquisite fireworks. Objects were clothed in most
+fantastic garbs. I looked at my two animal companions. I seemed to read
+their thoughts. I felt strange affinities with them, even with the
+Swami. Yet it was all by the psychological law of the association of
+ideas, though I was no longer master but the servant of those ideas.
+
+As for Kennedy, the stuff seemed to affect him much differently than it
+did myself. Indeed, it seemed to rouse in him something vicious. The
+more I smiled and the more the Swami salaamed, the more violent I could
+see Craig getting, whereas I was lost in a maze of dreams that I would
+not have stopped if I could. Seconds seemed to be years; minutes ages.
+Things at only a short distance looked much as they do when looked at
+through the inverted end of a telescope. Yet it all carried with it an
+agreeable exhilaration which I can only describe as the heightened
+sense one feels on the first spring day of the year.
+
+At last the continued plying of the drug seemed to be too much for
+Kennedy. The Swami had made a profound salaam. In an instant Kennedy
+had seized with both hands the long flowing hair at the back of the
+Swami's bald forehead, and he tugged until the mystic yelled with pain
+and the tears stood in his eyes.
+
+With a leap I roused myself from the train of dreams and flung myself
+between them. At the sound of my voice and the pressure of my grasp,
+Craig sullenly and slowly relaxed his grip. A vacant look seemed to
+steal into his face, and seizing his hat, which lay on a near-by stool,
+he stalked out in silence, and I followed.
+
+Neither of us spoke for a moment after we had reached the street, but
+out of the corner of my eye I could see that Kennedy's body was
+convulsed as if with suppressed emotion.
+
+"Do you feel better in the air?" I asked anxiously, yet somewhat vexed
+and feeling a sort of lassitude and half regret at the reality of life
+and not of the dreams.
+
+It seemed as if he could restrain himself no longer. He burst out into
+a hearty laugh. "I was just watching the look of disgust on your face,"
+he said as he opened his hand and showed me three or four of the gum
+lozenges that he had palmed instead of swallowing. "Ha, ha! I wonder
+what the Swami thinks of his earnest effort to expound the Karmic law."
+
+It was beyond me. With the Swami's concoction still shooting thoughts
+like sky rockets through my brain I gave it up and allowed Kennedy to
+engineer our next excursion into the occult.
+
+One more seer remained to be visited. This one professed to "hold your
+life mirror" and by his "magnetic monochrome," whatever that might be,
+he would "impart to you an attractive personality, mastery of being,
+for creation and control of life conditions."
+
+He described himself as the "Guru," and, among other things, he
+professed to be a sun-worshipper. At any rate, the room into which we
+were admitted was decorated with the four-spoked wheel, or wheel and
+cross, the winged circle, and the winged orb. The Guru himself was a
+swarthy individual with a purple turban wound around his head. In his
+inner room were many statuettes, photographs of other Gurus of the
+faith, and on each of the four walls were mysterious symbols in plaster
+representing a snake curved in a circle, swallowing his tail, a
+five-pointed star, and in the centre another winged sphere.
+
+Craig asked the Guru to explain the symbols, to which he replied with a
+smile: "The snake represents eternity, the star involution and
+evolution of the soul, while the winged sphere--eh, well, that
+represents something else. Do you come to learn of the faith?"
+
+At this gentle hint Craig replied that he did, and the utmost
+amicability was restored by the purchase of the Green Book of the Guru,
+which seemed to deal with everything under the sun, and particularly
+the revival of ancient Asiatic fire-worship with many forms and
+ceremonies, together with posturing and breathing that rivalled the
+"turkey trot," the "bunny hug," and the "grizzly bear." The book, as we
+turned over its pages, gave directions for preparing everything from
+food to love-philtres and the elixir of life. One very interesting
+chapter was devoted to "electric marriage," which seemed to come to
+those only who, after searching patiently, at last found perfect mates.
+Another of the Guru's tenets seemed to be purification by eliminating
+all false modesty, bathing in the sun, and while bathing engaging in
+any occupation which kept the mind agreeably occupied. On the first
+page was the satisfying legend, "There is nothing in the world that a
+disciple can give to pay the debt to the Guru who has taught him one
+truth."
+
+As we talked, it seemed quite possible to me that the Guru might exert
+a very powerful hypnotic influence over his disciples or those who came
+to seek his advice. Besides this indefinable hypnotic influence, I also
+noted the more material lock on the door to the inner sanctuary.
+
+"Yes," the Guru was saying to Kennedy, "I can secure you one of the
+love-pills from India, but it will cost you--er--ten dollars." I think
+he hesitated, to see how much the traffic would bear, from one to one
+hundred, and compromised with only one zero after the unit. Kennedy
+appeared satisfied, and the Guru departed with alacrity to secure the
+specially imported pellet.
+
+In a corner was a sort of dressing-table on which lay a comb and brush.
+Kennedy seemed much interested in the table and was examining it when
+the Guru returned. Just as the door opened he managed to slip the brush
+into his pocket and appear interested in the mystic symbols on the wall
+opposite.
+
+"If that doesn't work," remarked the Guru in remarkably good English,
+"let me know, and you must try one of my charm bottles. But the
+love-pills are fine. Good-day."
+
+Outside Craig looked at me quizzically. "You wouldn't believe it,
+Walter, would you?" he said. "Here in this twentieth century in New
+York, and in fact in every large city of the world--love-philtres,
+love-pills, and all the rest of it. And it is not among the ignorant
+that these things are found, either. You remember we saw automobiles
+waiting before some of the places."
+
+"I suspect that all who visit the fakirs are not so gullible, after
+all," I replied sententiously.
+
+"Perhaps not. I think I shall have something interesting to say
+to-night as a result of our visits, at least."
+
+During the remainder of the day Kennedy was closely confined in his
+laboratory with his microscopes, slides, chemicals, test-tubes, and
+other apparatus. As for myself, I put in the time speculating which of
+the fakirs had been in some mysterious way connected with the case and
+in what manner. Many were the theories which I had formed and the
+situations I conjured up, and in nearly all I had one central figure,
+the young man whose escapades had been the talk of even the fast set of
+a fast society.
+
+That night Kennedy, with the assistance of First Deputy O'Connor, who
+was not averse to taking any action within the law toward the
+soothsayers, assembled a curiously cosmopolitan crowd in his
+laboratory. Besides the Gilberts were Dudley Lawton and his father,
+Hata, the Pandit, the Swami, and the Guru--the latter four persons in
+high dudgeon at being deprived of the lucrative profits of a Sunday
+night.
+
+Kennedy began slowly, leading gradually up to his point: "A new means
+of bringing criminals to justice has been lately studied by one of the
+greatest scientific detectives of crime in the world, the man to whom
+we are indebted for our most complete systems of identification and
+apprehension." Craig paused and fingered the microscope before him
+thoughtfully. "Human hair," he resumed, "has recently been the study of
+that untiring criminal scientist, M. Bertillon. He has drawn up a full,
+classified, and graduated table of all the known colours of the human
+hair, a complete palette, so to speak, of samples gathered in every
+quarter of the globe. Henceforth burglars, who already wear gloves or
+paint their fingers with a rubber composition for fear of leaving
+finger-prints, will have to wear close-fitting caps or keep their heads
+shaved. Thus he has hit upon a new method of identification of those
+sought by the police. For instance, from time to time the question
+arises whether hair is human or animal. In such cases the microscope
+tells the answer truthfully.
+
+"For a long time I have been studying hair, taking advantage of those
+excellent researches by M. Bertillon. Human hair is fairly uniform,
+tapering gradually. Under the microscope it is practically always
+possible to distinguish human hair from animal. I shall not go into the
+distinctions, but I may add that it is also possible to determine very
+quickly the difference between all hair, human or animal, and cotton
+with its corkscrew-like twists, linen with its jointed structure, and
+silk, which is long, smooth, and cylindrical."
+
+Again Kennedy paused as if to emphasise this preface. "I have here," he
+continued, "a sample of hair." He had picked up a microscope slide that
+was lying on the table. It certainly did not look very thrilling--a
+mere piece of glass, that was all. But on the glass was what appeared
+to be merely a faint line. "This slide," he said, holding it up, "has
+what must prove an unescapable clue to the identity of the man
+responsible for the disappearance of Miss Gilbert. I shall not tell you
+yet who he is, for the simple reason that, though I could make a shrewd
+guess, I do not yet know what the verdict of science is, and in science
+we do not guess where we can prove.
+
+"You will undoubtedly remember that when Miss Gilbert's body was
+discovered, it bore no evidence of suicide, but on the contrary the
+marks of violence. Her fists were clenched, as if she had struggled
+with all her power against a force that had been too much for her. I
+examined her hands, expecting to find some evidence of a weapon she had
+used to defend herself. Instead, I found what was more valuable. Here
+on this slide are several hairs that I found tightly grasped in her
+rigid hands."
+
+I could not help recalling Kennedy's remark earlier in the case--that
+it hung on slender threads. Yet how strong might not those threads
+prove!
+
+"There was also in her pocketbook a newspaper clipping bearing the
+advertisements of several clairvoyants," he went on. "Mr. Jameson and
+myself had already discovered what the police had failed to find, that
+on the morning of the day on which she disappeared Miss Gilbert had
+made three distinct efforts, probably, to secure books on clairvoyance.
+Accordingly, Mr. Jameson and myself have visited several of the
+fortune-tellers and practitioners of the occult sciences in which we
+had reason to believe Miss Gilbert was interested. They all, by the
+way, make a specialty of giving advice in money matters and solving the
+problems of lovers. I suspect that at times Mr. Jameson has thought
+that I was demented, but I had to resort to many and various expedients
+to collect the specimens of hair which I wanted. From the police, who
+used Mr. Lawton's valet, I received some hair from his head. Here is
+another specimen from each of the advertisers, Hata, the Swami, the
+Pandit, and the Guru. There is just one of these specimens which
+corresponds in every particular of colour, thickness, and texture with
+the hair found so tightly grasped in Miss Gilbert's hand."
+
+As Craig said this I could feel a sort of gasp of astonishment from our
+little audience. Still he was not quite ready to make his disclosure.
+
+"Lest I should be prejudiced," he pursued evenly, "by my own rather
+strong convictions, and in order that I might examine the samples
+without fear or favour, I had one of my students at the laboratory take
+the marked hairs, mount them, number them, and put in numbered
+envelopes the names of the persons who furnished them. But before I
+open the envelope numbered the same as the slide which contains the
+hair which corresponds precisely with that hair found in Miss Gilbert's
+hand--and it is slide No. 2---" said Kennedy, picking out the slide
+with his finger and moving it on the table with as much coolness as if
+he were moving a chessman on a board instead of playing in the terrible
+game of human life, "before I read the name I have still one more
+damning fact to disclose."
+
+Craig now had us on edge with excitement, a situation which I sometimes
+thought he enjoyed more keenly than any other in his relentless tracing
+down of a criminal.
+
+"What was it that caused Miss Gilbert's death?" asked Kennedy. "The
+coroner's physician did not seem to be thoroughly satisfied with the
+theory of physical violence alone. Nor did I. Some one, I believe,
+exerted a peculiar force in order to get her into his power. What was
+that force? At first I thought it might have been the hackneyed
+knockout drops, but tests by the coroner's physician eliminated that.
+Then I thought it might be one of the alkaloids, such as morphine,
+cocaine, and others. But it was not any of the usual things that was
+used to entice her away from her family and friends. From tests that I
+have made I have discovered the one fact necessary to complete my case,
+the drug used to lure her and against which she fought in deadly
+struggle."
+
+He placed a test tube in a rack before us. "This tube," he continued,
+"contains one of the most singular and, among us, least known of the
+five common narcotics of the world--tobacco, opium, coca, betel nut,
+and hemp. It can be smoked, chewed, used as a drink, or taken as a
+confection. In the form of a powder it is used by the narghile smoker.
+As a liquid it can be taken as an oily fluid or in alcohol. Taken in
+any of these forms, it literally makes the nerves walk, dance, and run.
+It heightens the feelings and sensibilities to distraction, producing
+what is really hysteria. If the weather is clear, this drug will make
+life gorgeous; if it rains, tragic. Slight vexation becomes deadly
+revenge; courage becomes rashness; fear, abject terror; and gentle
+affection or even a passing liking is transformed into passionate love.
+It is the drug derived from the Indian hemp, scientifically named
+Cannabis Indica, better known as hashish, or bhang, or a dozen other
+names in the East. Its chief characteristic is that it has a profound
+effect on the passions. Thus, under its influence, natives of the East
+become greatly exhilarated, then debased, and finally violent, rushing
+forth on the streets with the cry, 'Amok, amok,'--'Kill, kill'--as we
+say, 'running amuck.' An overdose of this drug often causes insanity,
+while in small quantities our doctors use it as a medicine. Any one who
+has read the brilliant Theophile Gautier's 'Club des Hachichens' or
+Bayard Taylor's experience at Damascus knows something of the effect of
+hashish, however.
+
+"In reconstructing the story of Georgette Gilbert, as best I can, I
+believe that she was lured to the den of one of the numerous cults
+practised in New York, lured by advertisements offering advice in
+hidden love affairs. Led on by her love for a man whom she could not
+and would not put out of her life, and by her affection for her
+parents, she was frantic. This place offered hope, and to it she went
+in all innocence, not knowing that it was only the open door to a life
+such as the most lurid disorderly resorts of the metropolis could
+scarcely match. There her credulity was preyed upon, and she was
+tricked into taking this drug, which itself has such marked and
+perverting effect. But, though she must have been given a great deal of
+the drug, she did not yield, as many of the sophisticated do. She
+struggled frantically, futilely. Will and reason were not conquered,
+though they sat unsteadily on their thrones. The wisp of hair so
+tightly clasped in her dead hand shows that she fought bitterly to the
+end."
+
+Kennedy was leaning forward earnestly, glaring at each of us in turn.
+Lawton was twisting uneasily in his chair, and I could see that his
+fists were doubled up and that he was holding himself in leash as if
+waiting for something, eyeing us all keenly. The Swami was seized with
+a violent fit of trembling, and the other fakirs were staring in
+amazement.
+
+Quickly I stepped between Dudley Lawton and Kennedy, but as I did so,
+he leaped behind me, and before I could turn he was grappling wildly
+with some one on the floor.
+
+"It's all right, Walter," cried Kennedy, tearing open the envelope on
+the table. "Lawton has guessed right. The hair was the Swami's.
+Georgette Gilbert was one victim who fought and rescued herself from a
+slavery worse than death. And there is one mystic who could not foresee
+arrest and the death house at Sing Sing in his horoscope."
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE FORGER
+
+
+We were lunching with Stevenson Williams, a friend of Kennedy's, at the
+Insurance Club, one of the many new downtown luncheon clubs, where the
+noon hour is so conveniently combined with business.
+
+"There isn't much that you can't insure against nowadays," remarked
+Williams when the luncheon had progressed far enough to warrant a
+tentative reference to the obvious fact that he had had a purpose in
+inviting us to the club. "Take my own company, for example, the
+Continental Surety. We have lately undertaken to write forgery
+insurance."
+
+"Forgery insurance?" repeated Kennedy. "Well, I should think you'd be
+doing a ripping business--putting up the premium rate about every day
+in this epidemic of forgery that seems to be sweeping over the country."
+
+Williams, who was one of the officers of the company, smiled somewhat
+wearily, I thought. "We are," he replied drily. "That was precisely
+what I wanted to see you about."
+
+"What? The premiums or the epidemic?"
+
+"Well--er--both, perhaps. I needn't say much about the epidemic, as you
+call it. To you I can admit it; to the newspapers, never. Still, I
+suppose you know that it is variously estimated that the forgers of the
+country are getting away with from ten to fifteen million dollars a
+year. It is just one case that I was thinking about--one on which the
+regular detective agencies we employ seem to have failed utterly so
+far. It involves pretty nearly one of those fifteen millions."
+
+"What? One case? A million dollars?" gasped Kennedy, gazing fixedly at
+Williams as if he found it difficult to believe.
+
+"Exactly," replied Williams imperturbably, "though it was not done all
+at one fell swoop, of course, but gradually, covering a period of some
+months. You have doubtless heard of the By-Products Company of Chicago?"
+
+Craig nodded.
+
+"Well, it is their case," pursued Williams, losing his quiet manner and
+now hurrying ahead almost breathlessly. "You know they own a bank out
+there also, called the By-Products Bank. That's how we come to figure
+in the case, by having insured their bank against forgery. Of course
+our liability runs up only to $50,000. But the loss to the company as
+well as to its bank through this affair will reach the figure I have
+named. They will have to stand the balance beyond our liability and,
+well, fifty thousand is not a small sum for us to lose, either. We
+can't afford to lose it without a fight."
+
+"Of course not. But you must have some suspicions, some clues. You must
+have taken some action in tracing the thing out, whatever is back of
+it."
+
+"Surely. For instance, only the other day we had the cashier of the
+bank, Bolton Brown, arrested, though he is out on bail now. We haven't
+anything directly against him, but he is suspected of complicity on the
+inside, and I may say that the thing is so gigantic that there must
+have been some one on the inside concerned with it. Among other things
+we have found that Bolton Brown has been leading a rather fast life,
+quite unknown to his fellow-officials. We know that he has been
+speculating secretly in the wheat corner that went to pieces, but the
+most significant thing is that he has been altogether too intimate with
+an adventuress, Adele De-Mott, who has had some success as a woman of
+high finance in various cities here and in Europe and even in South
+America. It looks bad for him from the commonsense standpoint, though
+of course I'm not competent to speak of the legal side of the matter.
+But, at any rate, we know that the insider must have been some one
+pretty close to the head of the By-Products Company or the By-Products
+Bank."
+
+"What was the character of the forgeries?" asked Kennedy.
+
+"They seem to have been of two kinds. As far as we are concerned it is
+the check forgeries only that interest the Surety Company. For some
+time, apparently, checks have been coming into the bank for sums all
+the way from a hundred dollars to five thousand. They have been so well
+executed that some of them have been certified by the bank, all of them
+have been accepted when they came back from other banks, and even the
+officers of the company don't seem to be able to pick any flaws in them
+except as to the payee and the amounts for which they were drawn. They
+have the correct safety tint on the paper and are stamped with rubber
+stamps that are almost precisely like those used by the By-Products
+Company.
+
+"You know that banking customs often make some kinds of fraud
+comparatively easy. For instance no bank will pay out a hundred dollars
+or often even a dollar without identification, but they will certify a
+check for almost any office boy who comes in with it. The common method
+of forgers lately has been to take such a certified forged check,
+deposit it in another bank, then gradually withdraw it in a few days
+before there is time to discover the forgery. In this case they must
+have had the additional advantage that the insider in the company or
+bank could give information and tip the forger off if the forgery
+happened to be discovered."
+
+"Who is the treasurer of the company?" asked Craig quickly.
+
+"John Carroll--merely a figurehead, I understand. He's in New York now,
+working with us, as I shall tell you presently. If there is any one
+else besides Brown in it, it might be Michael Dawson, the nominal
+assistant but really the active treasurer. There you have another man
+whom we suspect, and, strangely enough, can't find. Dawson was the
+assistant treasurer of the company, you understand, not of the bank."
+
+"You can't find him? Why?" asked Kennedy, considerably puzzled.
+
+"No, we can't find him. He was married a few days ago, married a pretty
+prominent society girl in the city, Miss Sibyl Sanderson. It seems they
+kept the itinerary of their honeymoon secret, more as a joke on their
+friends than anything else, they said, for Miss Sanderson was a
+well-known beauty and the newspapers bothered the couple a good deal
+with publicity that was distasteful. At least that was his story. No
+one knows where they are or whether they'll ever turn up again.
+
+"You see, this getting married had something to do with the exposure in
+the first place. For the major part of the forgeries consists not so
+much in the checks, which interest my company, but in fraudulently
+issued stock certificates of the By-Products Company. About a million
+of the common stock was held as treasury stock--was never issued.
+
+"Some one has issued a large amount of it, all properly signed and
+sealed. Whoever it was had a little office in Chicago from which the
+stock was sold quietly by a confederate, probably a woman, for women
+seem to rope in the suckers best in these get-rich-quick schemes. And,
+well, if it was Dawson the honeymoon has given him a splendid chance to
+make his get-away, though it also resulted in the exposure of the
+forgeries. Carroll had to take up more or less active duty, with the
+result that a new man unearthed the--but, say, are you really
+interested in this case?"
+
+Williams was leaning forward, looking anxiously at Kennedy and it would
+not have taken a clairvoyant to guess what answer he wanted to his
+abrupt question.
+
+"Indeed I am," replied Craig, "especially as there seems to be a doubt
+about the guilty person on the inside."
+
+"There is doubt enough, all right," rejoined Williams, "at least I
+think so, though our detectives in Chicago who have gone over the thing
+pretty thoroughly have been sure of fixing something on Bolton Brown,
+the cashier. You see the blank stock certificates were kept in the
+company's vault in the bank to which, of course, Brown had access. But
+then, as Carroll argues, Dawson had access to them, too, which is very
+true--more so for Dawson than for Brown, who was in the bank and not in
+the company. I'm all at sea. Perhaps if you're interested you'd better
+see Carroll. He's here in the city and I'm sure I could get you a good
+fee out of the case if you cared to take it up. Shall I see if I can
+get him on the wire?"
+
+We had finished luncheon and, as Craig nodded, Williams dived into a
+telephone booth outside the dining-room and in a few moments emerged,
+perspiring from the closeness. He announced that Carroll requested that
+we call on him at an office in Wall Street, a few blocks away, where he
+made his headquarters when he was in New York. The whole thing was done
+with such despatch that I could not help feeling that Carroll had been
+waiting to hear from his friend in the insurance company. The look of
+relief on Williams's face when Kennedy said he would go immediately
+showed plainly that the insurance man considered the cost of the
+luncheon, which had been no slight affair, in the light of a good
+investment in the interest of his company, which was "in bad" for the
+largest forgery insurance loss since they had begun to write that sort
+of business.
+
+As we hurried down to Wall Street, Kennedy took occasion to remark,
+"Science seems to have safeguarded banks and other institutions pretty
+well against outside robbery. But protection against employees who can
+manipulate books and records does not seem to have advanced as rapidly.
+Sometimes I think it may have lessened. Greater temptations assail the
+cashier or clerk with greater opportunity for speculation, and the
+banks, as many authorities will agree, have not made enough use of the
+machinery available to put a stop to embezzlement. This case is
+evidently one of the results. The careless fellows at the top, like
+this man Carroll whom we are going to see, generally put forward as
+excuse the statement that the science of banking and of business is so
+complex that a rascal with ingenuity enough to falsify the books is
+almost impossible of detection. Yet when the cat is out of the bag as
+in several recent cases the methods used are often of the baldest and
+most transparent sort, fictitious names, dummies, and all sorts of
+juggling and kiting of checks. But I hardly think this is going to
+prove one of those simple cases."
+
+John Carroll was a haggard and unkempt sort of man. He looked to me as
+if the defalcations had preyed on his mind until they had become a
+veritable obsession. It was literally true that they were all that he
+could talk about, all that he was thinking about. He was paying now a
+heavy penalty for having been a dummy and honorary officer.
+
+"This thing has become a matter of life and death with me," he began
+eagerly, scarcely waiting for us to introduce ourselves, as he fixed
+his unnaturally bright eyes on us anxiously. "I've simply got to find
+the man who has so nearly wrecked the By-Products Bank and Company.
+Find him or not, I suppose I am a ruined man, myself, but I hope I may
+still prove myself honest."
+
+He sighed and his eyes wandered vacantly out of the window as if he
+were seeking rest and could not find it.
+
+"I understand that the cashier, Bolton Brown, has been arrested,"
+prompted Kennedy.
+
+"Yes, Bolton Brown, arrested," he repeated slowly, "and since he has
+been out on bail he, too, seems to have disappeared. Now let me tell
+you about what I think of that, Kennedy. I know it looks bad for Brown.
+Perhaps he's the man. The Surety Company says so, anyway. But we must
+look at this thing calmly."
+
+He was himself quite excited, as he went on, "You understand, I
+suppose, just how much Brown must have been reasonably responsible for
+passing the checks through the bank? He saw personally about as many of
+them as--as I did, which was none until the exposure came. They were
+deposited in other banks by people whom we can't identify but who must
+have opened accounts for the purpose of finally putting through a few
+bad checks. Then they came back to our bank in the regular channels and
+were accepted. By various kinds of juggling they were covered up. Why,
+some of them looked so good that they were even certified by our bank
+before they were deposited in the other banks. Now, as Brown claims, he
+never saw checks unless there was something special about them and
+there seemed at the time to be nothing wrong about these.
+
+"But in the public mind I know there is prejudice against any bank
+official who speculates or leads a fast life, and of course it is
+warranted. Still, if Brown should clear himself finally the thing will
+come back to Dawson and even if he is guilty, it will make me
+the--er--the ultimate goat. The upshot of it all will be that I shall
+have to stand the blame, if not the guilt, and the only way I can atone
+for my laxity in the past is by activity in catching the real offender
+and perhaps by restoring to the company and the bank whatever can yet
+be recovered."
+
+"But," asked Kennedy sympathetically, "what makes you think that you
+will find your man, whoever he proves to be, in New York?"
+
+"I admit that it is only a very slight clue that I have," he replied
+confidentially. "It is just a hint Dawson dropped once to one of the
+men with whom he was confidential in the company. This clerk told me
+that a long time ago Dawson said he had always wanted to go to South
+America and that perhaps on his honeymoon he might get a chance. This
+is the way I figured it out. You see, he is clever and some of these
+South American countries have no extradition treaties with us by which
+we could reach him, once he got there."
+
+"Perhaps he has already arrived in one of them with his wife. What
+makes you think he hasn't sailed yet?"
+
+"No, I don't think he has. You see, she wanted to spend a part of the
+honeymoon at Atlantic City. I learned that indirectly from her folks,
+who profess to know no better than we do where the couple are. That was
+an additional reason why I wanted to see if by coming to New York I
+might not pick up some trace of them, either here or in Atlantic City."
+
+"And have you?"
+
+"Yes, I think I have." He handed us a letter-gram which he had just
+received from Chicago. It read: "Two more checks have come in to-day
+from Atlantic City and New York. They seem to be in payment of bills,
+as they are for odd amounts. One is from the Lorraine at Atlantic City
+and the other from the Hotel Amsterdam of New York. They were dated the
+19th and 20th."
+
+"You see," he resumed as we finished reading, "it is now the 23rd, so
+that there is a difference of three days. He was here on the 20th. Now
+the next ship that he could take after the 20th sails from Brooklyn on
+the 25th. If he's clever he won't board that ship except in a disguise,
+for he will know that by that time some one must be watching. Now I
+want you to help me penetrate that disguise. Of course we can't arrest
+the whole shipload of passengers, but if you, with your scientific
+knowledge, could pick him out, then we could hold him and have
+breathing space to find out whether he is guilty alone or has been
+working with Bolton Brown."
+
+Carroll was now pacing the office with excitement as he unfolded his
+scheme which meant so much for himself.
+
+"H--m," mused Kennedy. "I suppose Dawson was a man of exemplary habits?
+They almost always are. No speculating or fast living with him as with
+Brown?"
+
+Carroll paused in his nervous tread. "That's another thing I've
+discovered. On the contrary, I think Dawson was a secret drug fiend. I
+found that out after he left. In his desk at the By-Products office we
+discovered hypodermic needles and a whole outfit--morphine, I think it
+was. You know how cunningly a real morphine fiend can cover up his
+tracks."
+
+Kennedy was now all attention. As the case unrolled it was assuming one
+new and surprising aspect after another.
+
+"The lettergram would indicate that he had been stopping at the
+Lorraine in Atlantic City," remarked Kennedy.
+
+"So I would infer, and at the Amsterdam in New York. But you can depend
+on it that he has not been going under his own name nor, I believe as
+far as I can find out, even under his own face. I think the fellow has
+already assumed a disguise, for nowhere can I find any description that
+even I could recognise."
+
+"Strange," murmured Kennedy. "I'll have to look into it. And only two
+days in which to do it, too. You will pardon me if I excuse myself now?
+There are certain aspects of the case that I hope I shall be able to
+shed some light on by going at them at once."
+
+"You'll find Dawson clever, clever as he can be," said Carroll, not
+anxious to have Kennedy go as long as he would listen to the story
+which was bursting from his overwrought mind. "He was able to cover up
+the checks by juggling the accounts. But that didn't satisfy him. He
+was after something big. So he started in to issue the treasury stock,
+forging the signatures of the president and the treasurer, that is, my
+signature. Of course that sort of game couldn't last forever. Some one
+was going to demand dividends on his stock, or transfer it, or ask to
+have it recorded on the books, or something that would give the whole
+scheme away. From each person to whom he sold stock I believe he
+demanded some kind of promise not to sell it within a certain period,
+and in that way we figure that he gave himself plenty of time to
+realise several hundred thousand dollars quietly. It may be that some
+of the forged checks represented fake interest payments. Anyhow, he's
+at the end of his rope now. We've had an exciting chase. I had followed
+down several false clues before the real significance of the hint about
+South America dawned on me. Now I have gone as far as I dare with it
+without calling in outside assistance. I think now We are up with him
+at last--with your help."
+
+Kennedy was anxious to go, but he paused long enough to ask another
+question. "And the girl?" he broke in. "She must be in the game or her
+letters to some of her friends would have betrayed their whereabouts.
+What was she like?"
+
+"Miss Sanderson was very popular in a certain rather flashy set in
+Chicago. But her folks were bounders. They lived right up to the limit,
+just as Dawson did, in my opinion. Oh, you can be sure that if a
+proposition like this were put up to her she'd take a chance to get
+away with it. She runs no risks. She didn't do it anyhow, and as for
+her part, after the fact, why, a woman is always pretty safe--more
+sinned against than sinning, and all that. It's a queer sort of
+honeymoon, hey?"
+
+"Have you any copies of the forged certificates?" asked Craig.
+
+"Yes, plenty of them. Since the story has been told in print they have
+been pouring in. Here are several."
+
+He pulled several finely engraved certificates from his pocket and
+Kennedy scrutinised them minutely.
+
+"I may keep these to study at my leisure?" he asked.
+
+"Certainly," replied Carroll, "and if you want any more I can wire to
+Chicago for them."
+
+"No, these will be sufficient for the present, thank you," said Craig.
+"I shall keep in touch with you and let you know the moment anything
+develops."
+
+Our ride uptown to the laboratory was completed in silence which I did
+not interrupt, for I could see that Kennedy was thinking out a course
+of action. The quick pace at which he crossed the campus to the
+Chemistry Building told me that he had decided on something.
+
+In the laboratory Craig hastily wrote a note, opened a drawer of his
+desk, and selected one from a bunch of special envelopes which he
+seemed to be saving for some purpose. He sealed it with some care, and
+gave it to me to post immediately. It was addressed to Dawson at the
+Hotel Amsterdam.
+
+On my return I found him deeply engrossed in the examination of the
+forged shares of stock. Having talked with him more or less in the past
+about handwriting I did not have to be told that he was using a
+microscope to discover any erasures and that photography both direct
+and by transmitted light might show something.
+
+"I can't see anything wrong with these documents," he remarked at
+length. "They show no erasures or alterations. On their face they look
+as good as the real article. Even if they are tracings they are
+remarkably fine work. It certainly is a fact, however, that they
+superimpose. They might all have been made from the same pair of
+signatures of the president and treasurer.
+
+"I need hardly to say to you, Walter, that the microscope in its
+various forms and with its various attachments is of great assistance
+to the document examiner. Even a low magnification frequently reveals a
+drawing, hesitating method of production, or patched and reinforced
+strokes as well as erasures by chemicals or by abrasion. The
+stereoscopic microscope, which is of value in studying abrasions and
+alterations since it gives depth, in this case tells me that there has
+been nothing of that sort practised. My colour comparison microscope,
+which permits the comparison of the ink on two different documents or
+two places on one document at the same time, tells me something. This
+instrument with new and accurately coloured glasses enables me to
+measure the tints of the ink of these signatures with the greatest
+accuracy and I can do what was hitherto impossible--determine how long
+the writing has been on the paper. I should say it was all very recent,
+approximately within the last two months or six weeks, and I believe
+that whenever the stock may have been issued it at least was all forged
+at the same time.
+
+"There isn't time now to go into the thing more deeply, but if it
+becomes necessary I can go back to it with the aid of the camera lucida
+and the microscopic enlarger, as well as this specially constructed
+document camera with lenses certified by the government. If it comes to
+a show-down I suppose I shall have to prove my point with the
+micrometer measurements down to the fifty-thousandth part of an inch.
+
+"There is certainly something very curious about these signatures," he
+concluded. "I don't know what measurements would show, but they are
+really too good. You know a forged signature may be of two kinds--too
+bad or too good. These are, I believe, tracings. If they were your
+signature and mine, Walter, I shouldn't hesitate to pronounce them
+tracings. But there is always some slight room for doubt in these
+special cases where a man sits down and is in the habit of writing his
+signature over and over again on one stock or bond after another. He
+may get so used to it that he does it automatically and his signatures
+may come pretty close to superimposing. If I had time, though, I think
+I could demonstrate that there are altogether too many points of
+similarity for these to be genuine signatures. But we've got to act
+quickly in this case or not at all, and I see that if I am to get to
+Atlantic City to-night I can't waste much more time here. I wish you
+would keep an eye on the Hotel Amsterdam while I am gone, Walter, and
+meet me here, to-morrow. I'll wire when I'll be back. Good-bye."
+
+It was well along in the afternoon when Kennedy took a train for the
+famous seaside resort, leaving me in New York with a roving commission
+to do nothing. All that I was able to learn at the Hotel Amsterdam was
+that a man with a Van Dyke beard had stung the office with a bogus
+check, although he had seemed to come well recommended. The description
+of the woman with him who seemed to be his wife might have fitted
+either Mrs. Dawson or Adele DeMott. The only person who had called had
+been a man who said he represented the By-Products Company and was the
+treasurer. He had questioned the hotel people rather closely about the
+whereabouts of the couple who had paid their expenses with the
+worthless slip of paper. It was not difficult to infer that this man
+was Carroll who had been hot on the trail, especially as he said that
+he personally would see the check paid if the hotel people would keep a
+sharp watch for the return of the man who had swindled them.
+
+Kennedy wired as he promised and returned by an early train the next
+day.
+
+He seemed bursting with news. "I think I'm on the trail," he cried,
+throwing his grip into a corner and not waiting for me to ask him what
+success he had had. "I went directly to the Lorraine and began frankly
+by telling them that I represented the By-Products Company in New York
+and was authorised to investigate the bad check which they had
+received. They couldn't describe Dawson very well--at least their
+description would have fitted almost any one. One thing I think I did
+learn and that was that his disguise must include a Van Dyke beard. He
+would scarcely have had time to grow one of his own and I believe when
+he was last seen in Chicago he was clean-shaven."
+
+"But," I objected, "men with Van Dyke beards are common enough." Then I
+related my experience at the Amsterdam.
+
+"The same fellow," ejaculated Kennedy. "The beard seems to have covered
+a multitude of sins, for while every one could recall that, no one had
+a word to say about his features. However, Walter, there's just one
+chance of making his identification sure, and a peculiar coincidence it
+is, too. It seems that one night this man and a lady who may have been
+the former Miss Sanderson, though the description of her like most
+amateur descriptions wasn't very accurate, were dining at the Lorraine.
+The Lorraine is getting up a new booklet about its accommodations and a
+photographer had been engaged to take a flashlight of the dining-room
+for the booklet.
+
+"No sooner had the flash been lighted and the picture taken than a man
+with a Van Dyke beard--your friend of the Amsterdam, no doubt,
+Walter,--rushed up to the photographer and offered him fifty dollars
+for the plate. The photographer thought at first it was some sport who
+had reasons for not wishing to appear in print in Atlantic City, as
+many have. The man seemed to notice that the photographer was a little
+suspicious and he hastened to make some kind of excuse about 'wanting
+the home folks to see how swell he and his wife were dining in evening
+dress.' It was a rather lame excuse, but the fifty dollars looked good
+to the photographer and he agreed to develop the plate and turn it over
+with some prints all ready for mailing the next day. The man seemed
+satisfied and the photographer took another flashlight, this time with
+one of the tables vacant.
+
+"Sure enough, the next day the man with a beard turned up for the
+plate. The photographer tells me that he had it all wrapped up ready to
+mail, just to call the fellow's bluff. The man was equal to the
+occasion, paid the money, wrote an address on the package which the
+photographer did not see, and as there was a box for mailing packages
+right at the door on the boardwalk there was no excuse for not mailing
+it directly. Now if I could get hold of that plate or a print from it I
+could identify Dawson in his disguise in a moment. I've started the
+post-office trying to trace that package both at Atlantic City and in
+Chicago, where I think it must have been mailed. I may hear from them
+at any moment--at least, I hope."
+
+The rest of the afternoon we spent in canvassing the drug stores in the
+vicinity of the Amsterdam, Kennedy's idea being that if Dawson was a
+habitual morphine fiend he must have replenished his supply of the drug
+in New York, particularly if he was contemplating a long journey where
+it might be difficult to obtain.
+
+After many disappointments we finally succeeded in finding a shop where
+a man posing as a doctor had made a rather large purchase. The name he
+gave was of course of no importance. What did interest us was that
+again we crossed the trail of a man with a Van Dyke beard. He had been
+accompanied by a woman whom the druggist described as rather flashily
+dressed, though her face was hidden under a huge hat and a veil.
+"Looked very attractive," as the druggist put it, "but she might have
+been a negress for all I could tell you of her face."
+
+"Humph," grunted Kennedy, as we were leaving the store. "You wouldn't
+believe it, but it is the hardest thing in the world to get an accurate
+description of any one. The psychologists have said enough about it,
+but you don't realise it until you are up against it. Why, that might
+have been the DeMott woman just as well as the former Miss Sanderson,
+and the man might have been Bolton Brown as well as Dawson, for all we
+know. They've both disappeared now. I wish we could get some word about
+that photograph. That would settle it."
+
+In the last mail that night Kennedy received back the letter which he
+had addressed to Michael Dawson. On it was stamped "Returned to sender.
+Owner not found."
+
+Kennedy turned the letter over slowly and looked at the back of it
+carefully.
+
+"On the contrary," he remarked, half to himself, "the owner was found.
+Only he returned the letter back to the postman after he had opened it
+and found that it was just a note of no importance which I scribbled
+just to see if he was keeping in touch with things from his
+hiding-place, wherever it is."
+
+"How do you know he opened it?" I asked.
+
+"Do you see those blots on the back? I had several of these envelopes
+prepared ready for use when I needed them. I had some tannin placed on
+the flap and then covered thickly with gum. On the envelope itself was
+some iron sulphate under more gum. I carefully sealed the letter, using
+very little moisture. The gum then separated the two prepared parts.
+Now if that letter were steamed open the tannin and the sulphate would
+come together, run, and leave a smudge. You see the blots? The
+inference is obvious."
+
+Clearly, then, our chase was getting warmer. Dawson had been in
+Atlantic City at least within a few days. The fruit company steamer to
+South America on which Carroll believed he was booked to sail under an
+assumed name and with an assumed face was to sail the following noon.
+And still we had no word from Chicago as to the destination of the
+photograph, or the identity of the man in the Van Dyke beard who had
+been so particular to disarm suspicion in the purchase of the plate
+from the photographer a few days before.
+
+The mail also contained a message from Williams of the Surety Company
+with the interesting information that Bolton Brown's attorney had
+refused to say where his client had gone since he had been released on
+bail, but that he would be produced when wanted. Adele DeMott had not
+been seen for several days in Chicago and the police there were of the
+opinion that she had gone to New York, where it would be pretty easy
+for her to pass unnoticed. These facts further complicated the case and
+made the finding of the photograph even more imperative.
+
+If we were going to do anything it must be done quickly. There was no
+time to lose. The last of the fast trains for the day had left and the
+photograph, even though it were found, could not possibly reach us in
+time to be of use before the steamer sailed from Brooklyn. It was an
+emergency such as Kennedy had never yet faced, apparently physically
+insuperable.
+
+But, as usual, Craig was not without some resource, though it looked
+impossible to me to do anything but make a hit or miss arrest at the
+boat. It was late in the evening when he returned from a conference
+with an officer of the Telegraph and Telephone Company to whom Williams
+had given him a card of introduction. The upshot had been that he had
+called up Chicago and talked for a long time with Professor Clark, a
+former classmate of ours who was now in the technology school of the
+university out there. Kennedy and Clark had been in correspondence for
+some time, I knew, about some technical matters, though I had no idea
+what it was they concerned.
+
+"There's one thing we can always do," I remarked as we walked slowly
+over to the laboratory from our apartment.
+
+"What's that?" he asked absent-mindedly, more from politeness than
+anything else.
+
+"Arrest every one with a Van Dyke beard who goes on the boat
+to-morrow," I replied.
+
+Kennedy smiled. "I don't feel prepared to stand a suit for false
+arrest," he said simply, "especially as the victim would feel pretty
+hot if we caused him to miss his boat. Men with beards are not so
+uncommon, after all."
+
+We had reached the laboratory. Linemen were stringing wires under the
+electric lights of the campus from the street to the Chemistry Building
+and into Kennedy's sanctum.
+
+That night and far into the morning Kennedy was working in the
+laboratory on a peculiarly complicated piece of mechanism consisting of
+electromagnets, rolls, and a stylus and numerous other contrivances
+which did not suggest to my mind anything he had ever used before in
+our adventures. I killed time as best I could watching him adjust the
+thing with the most minute care and precision. Finally I came to the
+conclusion that as I was not likely to be of the least assistance, even
+if I had been initiated into what was afoot, I had as well retire.
+
+"There is one thing you can do for me in the morning, Walter," said
+Kennedy, continuing to work over a delicate piece of clockwork which
+formed a part of the apparatus. "In case I do not see you then, get in
+touch with Williams and Carroll and have them come here about ten
+o'clock with an automobile. If I am not ready for them then I'm afraid
+I never shall be, and we shall have to finish the job with the lack of
+finesse you suggested by arresting all the bearded men."
+
+Kennedy could not have slept much during the night, for though his bed
+had been slept in he was up and away before I could see him again. I
+made a hurried trip downtown to catch Carroll and Williams and then
+returned to the laboratory, where Craig had evidently just finished a
+satisfactory preliminary test of his machine.
+
+"Still no message," he began in reply to my unspoken question. He was
+plainly growing restless with the inaction, though frequent talks over
+long-distance with Chicago seemed to reassure him. Thanks to the
+influence of Williams he had at least a direct wire from his laboratory
+to the city which was now the scene of action.
+
+As nearly as I could gather from the one-sided conversations I heard
+and the remarks which Kennedy dropped, the Chicago post-office
+inspectors were still searching for a trace of the package from
+Atlantic City which was to reveal the identity of the man who had
+passed the bogus checks and sold the forged certificates of stock.
+Somewhere in that great city was a photograph of the promoter and of
+the woman who was aiding him to escape, taken in Atlantic City and sent
+by mail to Chicago. Who had received it? Would it be found in time to
+be of use? What would it reveal? It was like hunting for a needle in a
+haystack, and yet the latest reports seemed to encourage Kennedy with
+the hope that the authorities were at last on the trail of the secret
+office from which the stock had been sold. He was fuming and wishing
+that he could be at both ends of the line at once.
+
+"Any word from Chicago yet?" appealed an anxious voice from the doorway.
+
+We turned. There were Carroll and Williams who had come for us with an
+automobile to go over to watch at the wharf in Brooklyn for our man. It
+was Carroll who spoke. The strain of the suspense was telling on him
+and I could readily imagine that he, like so many others who had never
+seen Kennedy in action, had not the faith in Craig's ability which I
+had seen tested so many times.
+
+"Not yet," replied Kennedy, still busy about his apparatus on the
+table. "I suppose you have heard nothing?"
+
+"Nothing since my note of last night," returned Williams impatiently.
+"Our detectives still insist that Bolton Brown is the man to watch, and
+the disappearance of Adele DeMott at this time certainly looks bad for
+him."
+
+"It does, I admit," said Carroll reluctantly. "What's all this stuff on
+the table?" he asked, indicating the magnets, rolls, and clockwork.
+
+Kennedy did not have time to reply, for the telephone bell was tinkling
+insistently.
+
+"I've got Chicago on the wire," Craig informed us, placing his hand
+over the transmitter as he waited for long-distance to make the final
+connection. '"I'll try to repeat as much of the conversation as I can
+so that you can follow it. Hello--yes--this is Kennedy. Is that you,
+Clark? It's all arranged at this end. How's your end of the line? Have
+you a good connection? Yes? My synchroniser is working fine here, too.
+All right. Suppose we try it. Go ahead."
+
+As Kennedy gave a few final touches to the peculiar apparatus on the
+table, the cylindrical drum before us began slowly to revolve and the
+stylus or needle pressed down on the sensitised paper with which the
+drum was covered, apparently with varying intensity as it turned. Round
+and round the cylinder revolved like a graphophone.
+
+"This," exclaimed Kennedy proudly, "is the 'electric eye,' the
+telelectrograph invented by Thorne Baker in England. Clark and I have
+been intending to try it out for a long time. It at last makes possible
+the electric transmission of photographs, using the telephone wires
+because they are much better for such a purpose than the telegraph
+wires."
+
+Slowly the needle was tracing out a picture on the paper. It was only a
+thin band yet, but gradually it was widening, though we could not guess
+what it was about to reveal as the ceaseless revolutions widened the
+photographic print.
+
+"I may say," explained Kennedy as we waited breathlessly, "that another
+system known as the Korn system of telegraphing pictures has also been
+in use in London, Paris, Berlin, and other cities at various times for
+some years. Korn's apparatus depends on the ability of the element
+selenium to vary the strength of an electric current passing through it
+in proportion to the brightness with which the selenium is illuminated.
+A new field has been opened by these inventions which are now becoming
+more and more numerous, since the Korn system did the pioneering.
+
+"The various steps in sending a photograph by the Baker telelectrograph
+are not so difficult to understand, after all. First an ordinary
+photograph is taken and a negative made. Then a print is made and a wet
+plate negative is printed on a sheet of sensitised tinfoil which has
+been treated with a single-line screen. You know a halftone consists of
+a photograph through a screen composed of lines running perpendicular
+to each other--a coarse screen for newspaper work, and a fine screen
+for better work, such as in magazines. Well, in this case the screen is
+composed of lines running parallel in one direction only, not crossing
+at right angles. A halftone is composed of minute points, some light,
+some dark. This print is composed of long shaded lines, some parts
+light, others dark, giving the effect of a picture, you understand?"
+
+"Yes, yes," I exclaimed, thoroughly excited. "Go on."
+
+"Well," he resumed as the print widened visibly, "this tinfoil negative
+is wrapped around a cylinder at the other end of the line and a stylus
+with a very delicate, sensitive point begins passing over it, crossing
+the parallel lines at right angles, like the other lines of a regular
+halftone. Whenever the point of the stylus passes over one of the
+lighter spots on the photographic print it sends on a longer electrical
+vibration, over the darker spots a shorter vibration. The ever changing
+electrical current passes up through the stylus, vibrates with ever
+varying degrees of intensity over the thousand miles of telephone wire
+between Chicago and this instrument here at the other end of the line.
+
+"In this receiving apparatus the current causes another stylus to pass
+over a sheet of sensitised chemical paper such as we have here. The
+receiving stylus passes over the paper here synchronously with the
+transmitting stylus in Chicago. The impression which each stroke of the
+receiving stylus makes on the paper is black or light, according to the
+length of the very quickly changing vibrations of the electric current.
+White spots on the photographic print come out as black spots here on
+the sensitised paper over which this stylus is passing, and vice versa.
+In that way you can see the positive print growing here before your
+very eyes as the picture is transmitted from the negative which Clark
+has prepared and is sending from Chicago."
+
+As we bent over eagerly we could indeed now see what the thing was
+doing. It was reproducing faithfully in New York what could be seen by
+the mortal eye only in Chicago.
+
+"What is it?" asked Williams, still half incredulous in spite of the
+testimony of his eyes.
+
+"It is a photograph which I think may aid us in deciding whether it is
+Dawson or Brown who is responsible for the forgeries," answered
+Kennedy, "and it may help us to penetrate the man's disguise yet,
+before he escapes to South America or wherever he plans to go."
+
+"You'll have to hurry," interposed Carroll, nervously looking at his
+watch. "She sails in an hour and a half and it is a long ride over to
+the pier even with a fast car."
+
+"The print is almost ready," repeated Kennedy calmly. "By the way, it
+is a photograph which was taken at Atlantic City a few days ago for a
+booklet which the Lorraine was getting out. The By-Products forger
+happened to get in it and he bribed the photographer to give him the
+plate and take another picture for the booklet which would leave him
+out. The plate was sent to a little office in Chicago, discovered by
+the post-office inspectors, where the forged stock certificates were
+sold. I understood from what Clark told me over the telephone before he
+started to transmit the picture that the woman in it looked very much
+like Adele DeMott. Let us see."
+
+The machine had ceased to revolve. Craig stripped a still wet
+photograph off the telelectrograph instrument and stood regarding it
+with intense satisfaction. Outside, the car which had been engaged to
+hurry us over to Brooklyn waited. "Morphine fiends," said Kennedy as he
+fanned the print to dry it, "are the most unreliable sort of people.
+They cover their tracks with almost diabolical cunning. In fact they
+seem to enjoy it. For instance, the crimes committed by morphinists are
+usually against property and character and based upon selfishness, not
+brutal crimes such as alcohol and other drugs induce. Kleptomania,
+forgery, swindling, are among the most common.
+
+"Then, too, one of the most marked phases of morphinism is the pleasure
+its victims take in concealing their motives and conduct. They have a
+mania for leading a double life, and enjoy the deception and mask which
+they draw about themselves. Persons under the influence of the drug
+have less power to resist physical and mental impressions and they
+easily succumb to temptations and suggestions from others. Morphine
+stands unequalled as a perverter of the moral sense. It creates a
+person whom the father of lies must recognise as kindred to himself. I
+know of a case where a judge charged a jury that the prisoner, a
+morphine addict, was mentally irresponsible for that reason. The judge
+knew what he was talking about. It subsequently developed that he had
+been a secret morphine fiend himself for years."
+
+"Come, come," broke in Carroll impatiently, "we're wasting time. The
+ship sails in an hour and unless you want to go down the bay on a tug
+you've got to catch Dawson now or never. The morphine business
+explains, but it does not excuse. Come on, the car is waiting. How long
+do you think it will take us to get over to---"
+
+"Police headquarters?" interrupted Craig. "About fifteen minutes. This
+photograph shows, as I had hoped, the real forger. John Carroll, this
+is a peculiar case. You have forged the name of the president of your
+company, but you have also traced your own name very cleverly to look
+like a forgery. It is what is technically known as auto-forgery,
+forging one's own handwriting. At your convenience we'll ride down to
+Centre Street directly."
+
+Carroll was sputtering and almost frothing at the mouth with rage which
+he made no effort to suppress. Williams was hesitating, nonplussed,
+until Kennedy reached over unexpectedly and grasped Carroll by the arm.
+As he shoved up Carroll's sleeve he disclosed the forearm literally
+covered with little punctures made by the hypodermic needle.
+
+"It may interest you," remarked Kennedy, still holding Carroll in his
+vise-like grip, while the drug fiend's shattered nerves caused him to
+cower and tremble, "to know that a special detective working for me has
+located Mr. and Mrs. Dawson at Bar Harbor, where they are enjoying a
+quiet honeymoon. Brown is safely in the custody of his counsel, ready
+to appear and clear himself as soon as the public opinion which has
+been falsely inflamed against him subsides. Your plan to give us the
+slip at the last moment at the wharf and board the steamer for South
+America has miscarried. It is now too late to catch it, but I shall
+send a wireless that will cause the arrest of Miss DeMott the moment
+the ship touches an American port at Colon, even if she succeeds in
+eluding the British authorities at Kingston. The fact is, I don't much
+care about her, anyway. Thanks to the telelectrograph here we have the
+real criminal."
+
+Kennedy slapped down the now dry print that had come in over his
+"seeing over a wire" machine. Barring the false Van Dyke beard, it was
+the face of John Carroll, forger and morphine fiend. Next him in the
+picture in the brilliant and fashionable dining-room of the Lorraine
+was sitting Adele DeMott who had used her victim, Bolton Brown, to
+shield her employer, Carroll.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE UNOFFICIAL SPY
+
+
+"Craig, do you see that fellow over by the desk, talking to the night
+clerk?" I asked Kennedy as we lounged into the lobby of the new Hotel
+Vanderveer one evening after reclaiming our hats from the plutocrat who
+had acquired the checking privilege. We had dined on the roof garden of
+the Vanderveer apropos of nothing at all except our desire to become
+acquainted with a new hotel.
+
+"Yes," replied Kennedy, "what of him?"
+
+"He's the house detective, McBride. Would you like to meet him? He's
+full of good stories, an interesting chap. I met him at a dinner given
+to the President not long ago and he told me a great yarn about how the
+secret service, the police, and the hotel combined to guard the
+President during the dinner. You know, a big hotel is the stamping
+ground for all sorts of cranks and crooks."
+
+The house detective had turned and had caught my eye. Much to my
+surprise, he advanced to meet me.
+
+"Say,--er--er--Jameson," he began, at last recalling my name, though he
+had seen me only once and then for only a short time. "You're on the
+Star, I believe?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, wondering what he could want.
+
+"Well--er--do you suppose you could do the house a little--er--favour?"
+he asked, hesitating and dropping his voice.
+
+"What is it?" I queried, not feeling certain but that it was a veiled
+attempt to secure a little free advertising for the Vanderveer. "By the
+way, let me introduce you to my friend Kennedy, McBride."
+
+"Craig Kennedy?" he whispered aside, turning quickly to me. I nodded.
+
+"Mr. Kennedy," exclaimed the house man deferentially, "are you very
+busy just now?"
+
+"Not especially so," replied Craig. "My friend Jameson was telling me
+that you knew some interesting yarns about hotel detective life. I
+should like to hear you tell some of them, if you are not yourself
+too---"
+
+"Perhaps you'd rather see one instead?" interrupted the house
+detective, eagerly scanning Craig's face.
+
+"Indeed, nothing could please me more. What is it--a 'con' man or a
+hotel 'beat'?"
+
+McBride looked about to make sure that no one was listening. "Neither,"
+he whispered. "It's either a suicide or a murder. Come upstairs with
+me. There isn't a man in the world I would rather have met at this very
+instant, Mr. Kennedy, than yourself."
+
+We followed McBride into an elevator which he stopped at the fifteenth
+floor. With a nod to the young woman who was the floor clerk, the house
+detective led the way down the thickly carpeted hall, stopping at a
+room which, we could see through the transom, was lighted. He drew a
+bunch of keys from his pocket and inserted a pass key into the lock.
+
+The door swung open into a sumptuously fitted sitting-room. I looked
+in, half fearfully, but, although all the lights were turned on, the
+room was empty. McBride crossed the room quickly, opened a door to a
+bedroom, and jerked his head back with a quick motion, signifying his
+desire for us to follow.
+
+Stretched lifeless on the white linen of the immaculate bed lay the
+form of a woman, a beautiful woman she had been, too, though not with
+the freshness which makes American women so attractive. There was
+something artificial about her beauty, the artificiality which hinted
+at a hidden story of a woman with a past.
+
+She was a foreigner, apparently of one of the Latin races, although at
+the moment in the horror of the tragedy before us I could not guess her
+nationality. It was enough for me that here lay this cold, stony, rigid
+beauty, robed in the latest creations of Paris, alone in an elegantly
+furnished room of an exclusive hotel where hundreds of gay guests were
+dining and chatting and laughing without a suspicion of the terrible
+secret only a few feet distant from them.
+
+We stood awestruck for the moment.
+
+"The coroner ought to be here any moment," remarked McBride and even
+the callousness of the regular detective was not sufficient to hide the
+real feelings of the man. His practical sense soon returned, however,
+and he continued, "Now, Jameson, don't you think you could use a little
+influence with the newspaper men to keep this thing off the front
+pages? Of course something has to be printed about it. But we don't
+want to hoodoo the hotel right at the start. We had a suicide the other
+day who left an apologetic note that was played up by some of the
+papers. Now comes this affair. The management are just as anxious to
+have the crime cleared up as any one--if it is a crime. But can't it be
+done with the soft pedal? We will stop at nothing in the way of
+expense--just so long as the name of the Vanderveer is kept in the
+background. Only, I'm afraid the coroner will try to rub it in and make
+the thing sensational."
+
+"What was her name?" asked Kennedy. "At least, under what name was she
+registered?"
+
+"She was registered as Madame de Nevers. It is not quite a week now
+since she came here, came directly from the steamer Tripolitania. See,
+there are her trunks and things, all pasted over with foreign labels,
+not an American label among them. I haven't the slightest doubt that
+her name was fictitious, for as far as I can see all the ordinary marks
+of identification have been obliterated. It will take time to identify
+her at the best, and in the meantime, if a crime has been committed,
+the guilty person may escape. What I want now, right away, is action."
+
+"Has nothing in her actions about the hotel offered any clue, no matter
+how slight?" asked Kennedy.
+
+"Plenty of things," replied McBride quickly. "For one thing, she didn't
+speak very much English and her maid seemed to do all the talking for
+her, even to ordering her meals, which were always served here. I did
+notice Madame a few times about the hotel, though she spent most of her
+time in her rooms. She was attractive as the deuce, and the men all
+looked at her whenever she stirred out. She never even noticed them.
+But she was evidently expecting some one, for her maid had left word at
+the desk that if a Mr. Gonzales called, she was at home; if any one
+else, she was out. For the first day or two she kept herself closely
+confined, except that at the end of the second day she took a short
+spin through the park in a taxicab--closed, even in this hot weather.
+Where she went I cannot say, but when they returned the maid seemed
+rather agitated. At least she was a few minutes later when she came all
+the way downstairs to telephone from a booth, instead of using the room
+telephone. At various times the maid was sent out to execute certain
+errands, but always returned promptly. Madame de Nevers was a genuine
+woman of mystery, but as long as she was a quiet mystery, I thought it
+no business of ours to pry into the affairs of Madame."
+
+"Did she have any visitors? Did this Mr. Gonzales call?" asked Kennedy
+at length.
+
+"She had one visitor, a woman who called and asked if a Madame de
+Nevers was stopping at the hotel," answered McBride. "That was what the
+clerk was telling me when I happened to catch sight of you. He says
+that, obedient to the orders from the maid, he told the visitor that
+Madame was not at home."
+
+"Who was this visitor, do you suppose?" asked Craig. "Did she leave any
+card or message? Is there any clue to her?"
+
+The detective looked at him earnestly for a time as if he hesitated to
+retail what might be merely pure gossip.
+
+"The clerk does not know this absolutely, but from his acquaintance
+with society news and the illustrated papers he is sure that he
+recognised her. He says that he feels positive that it was Miss
+Catharine Lovelace."
+
+"The Southern heiress," exclaimed Kennedy. "Why, the papers say that
+she is engaged---"
+
+"Exactly," cut in McBride, "the heiress who is rumoured to be engaged
+to the Duc de Chateaurouge."
+
+Kennedy and I exchanged glances. "Yes," I added, recollecting a remark
+I had heard a few days before from our society reporter on the Star, "I
+believe it has been said that Chateaurouge is in this country,
+incognito."
+
+"A pretty slender thread on which to hang an identification," McBride
+hastened to remark. "Newspaper photographs are not the best means of
+recognising anybody. Whatever there may be in it, the fact remains that
+Madame de Nevers, supposing that to be her real name, has been dead for
+at least a day or two. The first thing to be determined is whether this
+is a death from natural causes, a suicide, or a murder. After we have
+determined that we shall be in a position to run down this Lovelace
+clue."
+
+Kennedy said nothing and I could not gather whether he placed greater
+or less value on the suspicion of the hotel clerk. He had been making a
+casual examination of the body on the bed, and finding nothing he
+looked intently about the room as if seeking some evidence of how the
+crime had been committed.
+
+To me the thing seemed incomprehensible, that without an outcry being
+overheard by any of the guests a murder could have been done in a
+crowded hotel in which the rooms on every side had been occupied and
+people had been passing through the halls at all hours. Had it indeed
+been a suicide, in spite of McBride's evident conviction to the
+contrary?
+
+A low exclamation from Kennedy attracted our attention. Caught in the
+filmy lace folds of the woman's dress he had found a few small and thin
+pieces of glass. He was regarding them with an interest that was
+oblivious to everything else. As he turned them over and over and tried
+to fit them together they seemed to form at least a part of what had
+once been a hollow globe of very thin glass, perhaps a quarter of an
+inch or so in diameter.
+
+"How was the body discovered?" asked Craig at length, looking up at
+McBride quickly.
+
+"Day before yesterday Madame's maid went to the cashier," repeated the
+detective slowly as if rehearsing the case as much for his own
+information as ours, "and said that Madame had asked her to say to him
+that she was going away for a few days and that under no circumstances
+was her room to be disturbed in her absence. The maid was commissioned
+to pay the bill, not only for the time they had been here, but also for
+the remainder of the week, when Madame would most likely return, if not
+earlier. The bill was made out and paid.
+
+"Since then only the chambermaid has entered this suite. The key to
+that closet over in the corner was gone, and it might have hidden its
+secret until the end of the week or perhaps a day or two longer, if the
+chambermaid hadn't been a bit curious. She hunted till she found
+another key that fitted, and opened the closet door, apparently to see
+what Madame had been so particular to lock up in her absence. There lay
+the body of Madame, fully dressed, wedged into the narrow space and
+huddled up in a corner. The chambermaid screamed and the secret was
+out."
+
+"And Madame de Nevers's maid? What has become of her?" asked Kennedy
+eagerly.
+
+"She has disappeared," replied McBride. "From the moment when the bill
+was paid no one about the hotel has seen her."
+
+"But you have a pretty good description of her, one that you could send
+out in order to find her if necessary?"
+
+"Yes, I think I could give a pretty good description."
+
+Kennedy's eye encountered the curious gaze of McBride. "This may prove
+to be a most unusual case," he remarked in answer to the implied
+inquiry of the detective. "I suppose you have heard of the 'endormeurs'
+of Paris?"
+
+McBride shook his head in the negative.
+
+"It is a French word signifying a person who puts another to sleep, the
+sleep makers," explained Kennedy. "They are the latest scientific
+school of criminals who use the most potent, quickest-acting stupefying
+drugs. Some of their exploits surpass anything hitherto even imagined
+by the European police. The American police have been officially warned
+of the existence of the endormeurs and full descriptions of their
+methods and photographs of their paraphernalia have been sent over here.
+
+"There is nothing in their repertoire so crude as chloral or knock-out
+drops. All the derivatives of opium such as morphine, codeine, heroine,
+dionine, narceine, and narcotine, to say nothing of bromure d'etyle,
+bromoform, nitrite d'amyle, and amyline are known to be utilised by the
+endormeurs to put their victims to sleep, and the skill which they have
+acquired in the use of these powerful drugs establishes them as one of
+the most dangerous groups of criminals in existence. The men are all of
+superior intelligence and daring; the chief requisite of the women is
+extreme beauty as well as unscrupulousness.
+
+"They will take a little thin glass ball of one of these liquids, for
+instance, hold it in a pocket handkerchief, crush it, shove it under
+the nose of their victim, and--whiff!--the victim is unconscious. But
+ordinarily the endormeur does not kill. He is usually satisfied to
+stupefy, rob, and then leave his victim. There is something more to
+this case than a mere suicide or murder, McBride. Of course she may
+have committed suicide with the drugs of the endormeurs; then again she
+may merely have been rendered unconscious by those drugs and some other
+poison may have been administered. Depend on it, there is something
+more back of this affair than appears on the surface. Even as far as I
+have gone I do not hesitate to say that we have run across the work of
+one or perhaps a band of the most up-to-date and scientific criminals."
+
+Kennedy had scarcely finished when McBride brought his right fist down
+with a resounding smack into the palm of his left hand.
+
+"Say," he cried in great excitement, "here's another thing which may or
+may not have some connection with the case. The evening after Madame
+arrived, I happened to be walking through the cafe, where I saw a face
+that looked familiar to me. It was that of a dark-haired, olive-skinned
+man, a fascinating face, but a face to be afraid of. I remembered him,
+I thought, from my police experience, as a notorious crook who had not
+been seen in New York for years, a man who in the old days used to
+gamble with death in South American revolutions, a soldier of fortune.
+
+"Well, I gave the waiter, Charley, the wink and he met me in the rear
+of the cafe, around a corner. You know we have a regular system in the
+hotel by which I can turn all the help into amateur sleuths. I told him
+to be very careful about the dark-faced man and the younger man who was
+with him, to be particular to wait on them well, and to pick up any
+scraps of conversation he could.
+
+"Charley knows his business, and the barest perceptible sign from me
+makes him an obsequious waiter. Of course the dark man didn't notice it
+at the time, but if he had been more observant he would have seen that
+three times during his chat with his companion Charley had wiped off
+his table with lingering hand. Twice he had put fresh seltzer in his
+drink. Like a good waiter always working for a big tip he had hovered
+near, his face blank and his eyes unobservant. But that waiter was an
+important link in my chain of protection of the hotel against crooks.
+He was there to listen and to tip me off, which he did between orders.
+
+"There wasn't much that he overheard, but what there was of it was so
+suspicious that I did not hesitate to conclude that the fellow was an
+undesirable guest. It was something about the Panama Canal, and a
+coaling station of a steamship and fruit concern on the shore of one of
+the Latin American countries. It was, he said, in reality to be the
+coaling station of a certain European power which he did not name but
+which the younger man seemed to understand. They talked of wharves and
+tracts of land, of sovereignty and blue prints, the Monroe Doctrine,
+value in case of war, and a lot of other things. Then they talked of
+money, and though Charley was most assiduous at the time all he
+overheard was something about 'ten thousand francs' and 'buying her
+off,' and finally a whispered confidence of which he caught the words,
+'just a blind to get her over here, away from Paris.' Finally the dark
+man in an apparent burst of confidence said something about 'the other
+plans being the real thing after all,' and that the whole affair would
+bring him in fifty thousand francs, with which he could afford to be
+liberal. Charley could get no inkling about what that other thing was.
+
+"But I felt sure that he had heard enough to warrant the belief that
+some kind of confidence game was being discussed. To tell the truth I
+didn't care much what it was, at the time. It might have been an
+attempt of the dark-visaged fellow to sell the Canal to a come-on. What
+I wanted was to have it known that the Vanderveer was not to be a
+resort of such gentry as this. But I'm afraid it was much more serious
+than I thought at the time.
+
+"Well, the dark man finally excused himself and sauntered into the
+lobby and up to the desk, with me after him around the opposite way. He
+was looking over the day's arrivals on the register when I concluded
+that it was about time to do something. I was standing directly beside
+him lighting a cigar. I turned quickly on him and deliberately trod on
+the man's patent leather shoe. He faced me furiously at not getting any
+apology. 'Sacre,' he exclaimed, 'what the--' But before he could finish
+I moved still closer and pinched his elbow. A dull red glow of
+suppressed anger spread over his face, but he cut his words short. He
+knew and I knew he knew. That is the sign in the continental hotels
+when they find a crook and quietly ask him to move on. The man turned
+on his heel and stalked out of the hotel. By and by the young man in
+the cafe, considerably annoyed at the sudden inattention of the waiter
+who acted as if he wasn't satisfied with his tip, strolled through the
+lobby and not seeing his dark-skinned friend, also disappeared. I wish
+to heaven I had had them shadowed. The young fellow wasn't a come-on at
+all. There was something afoot between these two, mark my words."
+
+"But why do you connect that incident with this case of Madame de
+Nevers?" asked Kennedy, a little puzzled.
+
+"Because the next day, and the day that Madame's maid disappeared, I
+happened to see a man bidding good-bye to a woman at the rear carriage
+entrance of the hotel. The woman was Madame's maid and the man was the
+dark man who had been seated in the cafe."
+
+"You said a moment ago that you had a good description of the maid or
+could write one. Do you think you could locate her?"
+
+The hotel detective thought a minute or two. "If she has gone to any of
+the other hotels in this city, I could," he answered slowly. "You know
+we have recently formed a sort of clearing house, we hotel detectives,
+and we are working together now very well, though secretly. It is
+barely possible that she has gone to another hotel. The very brazenness
+of that would be its safeguard, she might think."
+
+"Then I can leave that part of it to you, McBride?" asked Kennedy
+thoughtfully as if laying out a programme of action in his mind. "You
+will set the hotel detectives on the trail as well as the police of the
+city, and of other cities, will make the inquiries at the steamships
+and railroads, and all that sort of thing? Try to find some trace of
+the two men whom you saw in the cafe at the same time. But for the
+present I should say spare no effort to locate that girl."
+
+"Trust it to me," agreed McBride confidently.
+
+A heavy tap sounded at the door and McBride opened it. It was the
+coroner.
+
+I shall not go into the lengthy investigation which the coroner
+conducted, questioning one servant and employee after another without
+eliciting any more real information than we had already obtained so
+concisely from the house man. The coroner was, of course, angry at the
+removal of the body from the closet to the bed because he wanted to
+view it in the position in which it had been found, but as that had
+been done by the servants before McBride could stop them, there was
+nothing to do about it but accept the facts.
+
+"A very peculiar case," remarked the coroner at the conclusion of his
+examination, with the air of a man who could shed much light on it from
+his wide experience if he chose. "There is just one point that we shall
+have to clear up, however. What was the cause of the death of the
+deceased? There is no gas in the room. It couldn't have been
+illuminating gas, then. No, it must have been a poison of some kind.
+Then as to the motive," he added, trying to look confident but really
+shooting a tentative remark at Craig and the house detective, who said
+nothing. "It looks a good deal like that other suicide--at least a
+suicide which some one has endeavoured to conceal," he added, hastily
+recollecting the manner in which the body had been found and his
+criticisms of the removal from the closet. "Didn't I tell you?"
+rejoined McBride dolefully after we had left the coroner downstairs a
+few minutes later. "I knew he would think the hotel was hiding
+something from him."
+
+"We can't help what he thinks--yet," remarked Craig. "All we can do is
+to run down the clues which we have. I will leave the maid to be found
+by your organisation, McBride. Let me see, the theatres and roof
+gardens must be letting out by this time. I will see if I can get any
+information from Miss Lovelace. Find her address, Walter, and call a
+cab."
+
+The Southern heiress, who had attracted more attention by her beauty
+than by her fortune which was only moderate as American fortunes go
+nowadays, lived in an apartment facing the park, with her mother, a
+woman whose social ambitions it was commonly known had no bounds and
+were often sadly imposed upon.
+
+Fortunately we arrived at the apartment not very many minutes after the
+mother and daughter, and although it was late, Kennedy sent up his card
+with an urgent message to see them. They received us in a large
+drawing-room and were plainly annoyed by our visit, though that of
+course was susceptible of a natural interpretation.
+
+"What is it that you wished to see me about?" began Mrs. Lovelace in a
+tone which was intended to close the interview almost before it was
+begun.
+
+Kennedy had not wished to see her about anything, but of course he did
+not even hint as much in his reply which was made to her but directed
+at Miss Lovelace.
+
+"Could you tell me anything about a Madame de Nevers who was staying at
+the Vanderveer?" asked Craig, turning quickly to the daughter so as to
+catch the full effect of his question, and then waiting as if expecting
+the answer from her.
+
+The young lady's face blanched slightly and she seemed to catch her
+breath for an instant, but she kept her composure admirably in spite of
+the evident shock of Craig's purposely abrupt question.
+
+"I have heard of her," Miss Lovelace replied with forced calmness as he
+continued to look to her for an answer. "Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because a woman who is supposed to be Madame de Nevers has committed
+suicide at the Vanderveer and it was thought that perhaps you could
+identify her."
+
+By this time she had become perfect mistress of herself again, from
+which I argued that whatever knowledge she had of Madame was limited to
+the time before the tragedy.
+
+"I, identify her? Why, I never saw her. I simply know that such a
+creature exists."
+
+She said it defiantly and with an iciness which showed more plainly
+than in mere words that she scorned even an acquaintance with a
+demi-mondaine.
+
+"Do you suppose the Duc de Chateaurouge would be able to identify her?"
+asked Kennedy mercilessly. "One moment, please," he added,
+anticipating the blank look of amazement on her face. "I have reason to
+believe that the duke is in this country incognito--is he not?"
+
+Instead of speaking she merely raised her shoulders a fraction of an
+inch.
+
+"Either in New York or in Washington," pursued Kennedy.
+
+"Why do you ask me?" she said at length. "Isn't it enough that some of
+the newspapers have said so? If you see it in the newspapers, it's
+so--perhaps--isn't it?"
+
+We were getting nowhere in this interview, at least so I thought.
+Kennedy cut it short, especially as he noted the evident restlessness
+of Mrs. Lovelace. However, he had gained his point. Whether or not the
+duke was in New York or Washington or Spitzbergen, he now felt sure
+that Miss Lovelace knew of, and perhaps something about, Madame de
+Nevers. In some way the dead woman had communicated with her and Miss
+Lovelace had been the woman whom the hotel clerk had seen at the
+Vanderveer. We withdrew as gracefully as our awkward position permitted.
+
+As there was nothing else to be done at that late hour, Craig decided
+to sleep soundly over the case, his infallible method of taking a fresh
+start after he had run up a cul-de-sac.
+
+Imagine our surprise in the morning at being waited on by the coroner
+himself, who in a few words explained that he was far from satisfied
+with the progress his own office was making with the case.
+
+"You understand," he concluded after a lengthy statement of confession
+and avoidance, "we have no very good laboratory facilities of our own
+to carry out the necessary chemical, pathological, and bacteriological
+investigations in cases of homicide and suicide. We are often forced to
+resort to private laboratories, as you know in the past when I have had
+to appeal to you. Now, Professor Kennedy, if we might turn over that
+research part of the case to you, sir, I will engage to see that a
+reasonable bill for your professional services goes through the office
+of my friend the city comptroller promptly."
+
+Craig snapped at the opportunity, though he did not allow the coroner
+to gain that impression.
+
+"Very well," agreed that official, "I shall see that all the necessary
+organs for a thorough test as to the cause of the death of this woman
+are sent up to the Chemistry Building right away."
+
+The coroner was as good as his word, and we had scarcely breakfasted
+and arrived at Craig's scientific workshop before that official
+appeared, accompanied by a man who carried in uncanny jars the
+necessary materials for an investigation following an autopsy.
+
+Kennedy was now in his element. The case had taken an unexpected turn
+which made him a leading factor in its solution. Whatever suspicions he
+may have entertained unofficially the night before he could now openly
+and quickly verify.
+
+He took a little piece of lung tissue and with a sharp sterilised knife
+cut it up. Then he made it slightly alkaline with a little sodium
+carbonate, talking half to us and half to himself as he worked. The
+next step was to place the matter in a glass flask in a water bath
+where it was heated. From the flask a Bohemian glass tube led into a
+cool jar and on a part of the tube a flame was playing which heated it
+to redness for two or three inches.
+
+Several minutes we waited in silence. Finally when the process had gone
+far enough, Kennedy took a piece of paper which had been treated with
+iodised starch, as he later explained. He plunged the paper into the
+cool jar. Slowly it turned a strong blue tint.
+
+Craig said nothing, but it was evident that he was more than gratified
+by what had happened. He quickly reached for a bottle on the shelves
+before him, and I could see from the label on the brown glass that it
+was nitrate of silver. As he plunged a little in a test-tube into the
+jar a strong precipitate was gradually formed.
+
+"It is the decided reaction for chloroform," he exclaimed simply in
+reply to our unspoken questions.
+
+"Chloroform," repeated the coroner, rather doubtfully, and it was
+evident that he had expected a poison and had not anticipated any
+result whatever from an examination of the lungs instead of the stomach
+to which he had confined his own work so far. "Could chloroform be
+discovered in the lungs or viscera after so many days? There was one
+famous chloroform case for which a man is now serving a life term in
+Sing Sing which I have understood there was grave doubt in the minds of
+the experts. Mind, I am not trying to question the results of your work
+except as they might naturally be questioned in court. It seems to me
+that the volatility of chloroform might very possibly preclude its
+discovery after a short time. Then again, might not other substances be
+generated in a dead body which would give a reaction very much like
+chloroform? We must consider all these questions before we abandon the
+poison theory, sir. Remember, this is the summer time too, and
+chloroform would evaporate very much more rapidly now than in winter."
+
+Kennedy smiled, but his confidence remained unshaken.
+
+"I am in a position to meet all of your objections," he explained
+simply. "I think I could lay it down as a rule that by proper methods
+chloroform may be discovered in the viscera much longer after death
+than is commonly supposed--in summer from six days to three weeks, with
+a practical working range of say twelve days, while in winter it may be
+found even after several months--by the right method. Certainly this
+case comes within the average length of time. More than that, no
+substance is generated by the process of decomposition which will
+vitiate the test for chloroform which I have just made. Chloroform has
+an affinity for water and is also a preservative, and hence from all
+these facts I think it safe to conclude that sometimes traces of it may
+be found for two weeks after its administration, certainly for a few
+days."
+
+"And Madame de Nevers?" queried the coroner, as if the turn of events
+was necessitating a complete reconstruction of his theory of the case.
+
+"Was murdered," completed Kennedy in a tone that left nothing more to
+be said on the subject.
+
+"But," persisted the coroner, "if she was murdered by the use of
+chloroform, how do you account for the fact that it was done without a
+struggle? There were no marks of violence and I, for one, do not
+believe that under ordinary circumstances any one will passively submit
+to such an administration without a hard fight."
+
+From his pocket Kennedy drew a small pasteboard box filled with tiny
+globes, some bonbons and lozenges, a small hypodermic syringe, and a
+few cigars and cigarettes. He held it out in the palm of his hand so
+that we could see it.
+
+"This," he remarked, "is the standard equipment of the endormeur.
+Whoever obtained admittance to Madame's rooms, either as a matter of
+course or secretly, must have engaged her in conversation, disarmed
+suspicion, and then suddenly she must have found a pocket handkerchief
+under her nose. The criminal crushed a globe of liquid in the
+handkerchief, the victim lost consciousness, the chloroform was
+administered without a struggle, all marks of identification were
+obliterated, the body was placed in the closet, and the maid--either as
+principal or accessory--took the most likely means of postponing
+discovery by paying the bill in advance at the office, and then
+disappeared."
+
+Kennedy slipped the box back into his pocket. The coroner had, I think,
+been expecting Craig's verdict, although he was loath to abandon his
+own suicide theory and had held it to the last possible moment. At any
+rate, so far he had said little, apparently preferring to keep his own
+counsel as to his course of action and to set his own machinery in
+motion.
+
+He drew a note from his pocket, however. "I suppose," he began
+tentatively, shaking the note as he glanced doubtfully from it to us,
+"that you have heard that among the callers on this unfortunate woman
+was a lady of high social position in this city?"
+
+"I have heard a rumour to that effect," replied Kennedy as he busied
+himself cleaning up the apparatus he had just used. There was nothing
+in his manner even to hint at the fact that we had gone further and
+interviewed the young lady in question.
+
+"Well," resumed the coroner, "in view of what you have just discovered
+I don't mind telling you that I believe it was more than a rumour. I
+have had a man watching the woman and this is a report I received just
+before I came up here."
+
+We read the note which he now handed to us. It was just a hasty line:
+"Miss Lovelace left hurriedly for Washington this morning."
+
+What was the meaning of it? Clearly, as we probed deeper into the case,
+its ramifications grew wider than anything we had yet expected. Why had
+Miss Lovelace gone to Washington, of all places, at this torrid season
+of the year?
+
+The coroner had scarcely left us, more mystified than ever, when a
+telephone message came from McBride saying that he had some important
+news for us if we would meet him at the St. Cenis Hotel within an hour.
+He would say nothing about it over the wire.
+
+As Kennedy hung up the receiver he quietly took a pistol from a drawer
+of his desk, broke it quickly, and looked thoughtfully at the
+cartridges in the cylinder. Then he snapped it shut and stuck it into
+his pocket.
+
+"There's no telling what we may run up against before we get back to
+the laboratory," he remarked and we rode down to meet McBride.
+
+The description which the house man had sent out to the other hotel
+detectives the night before had already produced a result. Within the
+past two days a man answering the description of the younger man whom
+McBride had seen in the cafe and a woman who might very possibly have
+been Madame's maid had come to the St. Cenis as M. and Mme. Duval.
+Their baggage was light, but they had been at pains to impress upon the
+hotel that they were persons of some position and that it was going
+direct from the railroad to the steamer, after their tour of America.
+They had, as a matter of fact, done nothing to excite suspicion until
+the general request for information had been received.
+
+The house man of the St. Cenis welcomed us cordially upon McBride's
+introduction and agreed to take us up to the rooms of the strange
+couple if they were not in. As it happened it was the lunch hour and
+they were not in the room. Still, Kennedy dared not be too particular
+in his search of their effects, for he did not wish to arouse suspicion
+upon their return, at least not yet.
+
+"It seems to me, Craig," I suggested after we had nosed about for a few
+minutes, finding nothing, "that this is pre-eminently a case in which
+to use the dictograph as you did in that Black Hand case."
+
+He shook his head doubtfully, although I could see that the idea
+appealed to him. "The dictograph has been getting too much publicity
+lately," he said. "I'm afraid they would discover it, that is, if they
+are at all the clever people I think them. Besides, I would have to
+send up to the laboratory to get one and by the time the messenger
+returned they might be back from lunch. No, we've got to do something
+else, and do it quickly."
+
+He was looking about the room in an apparently aimless manner. On the
+side wall hung a cheap etching of a woodland scene. Kennedy seemed
+engrossed in it while the rest of us fidgeted at the delay.
+
+"Can you get me a couple of old telephone instruments?" he asked at
+length, turning to us and addressing the St. Cenis detective.
+
+The detective nodded and disappeared down the hall. A few minutes later
+he deposited the instruments on a table. Where he got them I do not
+know, but I suspect he simply lifted them from vacant rooms.
+
+"Now some Number 30 copper wire and a couple of dry cells," ordered
+Kennedy, falling to work immediately on the telephones. The detective
+despatched a bellboy down to the basement to get the wire from the
+house electrician.
+
+Kennedy removed the transmitters of the telephones, and taking the
+carbon capsules from them placed the capsules on the table carefully.
+Then he lifted down the etching from the wall and laid it flat on its
+face before us. Quickly he removed the back of the picture.
+
+Pressing the transmitter fronts with the carbon capsules against the
+paper and the glass on the picture he mounted them so that the paper
+and glass acted as a large diaphragm to collect all the sounds in the
+room.
+
+"The size of this glass diaphragm," he explained as we gathered around
+in intense interest at what he was doing, "will produce a strikingly
+sensitive microphone action and the merest whisper will be reproduced
+with startling distinctness."
+
+The boy brought the wire up and also the news that the couple in whose
+room we were had very nearly finished luncheon and might be expected
+back in a few minutes.
+
+Kennedy took the tiny wires, and after connecting them hung up the
+picture again and ran them up alongside the picture wires leading from
+the huge transmitter up to the picture moulding. Along the top of the
+moulding and out through the transom it was easy enough to run the
+wires and so down the hall to a vacant room, where Craig attached them
+quickly to one of the old telephone receivers.
+
+Then we sat down in this room to await developments from our hastily
+improvised picture frame microphone detective.
+
+At last we could hear the elevator door close on our floor. A moment
+later it was evident from the expression of Kennedy's face that some
+one had entered the room which we had just left. He had finished not a
+moment too soon.
+
+"It's a good thing that I didn't wait to put a dictograph there," he
+remarked to us. "I thought I wasn't reckoning without reason. The
+couple, whoever they are, are talking in undertones and looking about
+the room to see if anything has been disturbed in their absence."
+
+Kennedy alone, of course, could follow over his end of the telephone
+what they said. The rest of us could do nothing but wait, but from
+notes which Craig jotted down as he listened to the conversation I
+shall reproduce it as if we had all heard it. There were some anxious
+moments until at last they had satisfied themselves that no one was
+listening and that no dictograph or other mechanical eavesdropper, such
+as they had heard of, was concealed in the furniture or back of it.
+
+"Why are you so particular, Henri?" a woman's voice was saying.
+
+"Louise, I've been thinking for a long time that we are surrounded by
+spies in these hotels. You remember I told you what happened at the
+Vanderveer the night you and Madame arrived? I'm sure that waiter
+overheard what Gonzales and I were talking about."
+
+"Well, we are safe now anyhow. What was it that you would not tell me
+just now at luncheon?" asked the woman, whom Kennedy recognised as
+Madame de Nevers's maid.
+
+"I have a cipher from Washington. Wait until I translate it."
+
+There was a pause. "What does it say?" asked the woman impatiently.
+
+"It says," repeated the man slowly, "that Miss Lovelace has gone to
+Washington. She insists on knowing whether the death of Marie was a
+suicide or not. Worse than that the Secret Service must have wind of
+some part of our scheme, for they are acting suspiciously. I must go
+down there or the whole affair may be exposed and fall through. Things
+could hardly be worse, especially this sudden move on her part."
+
+"Who was that detective who forced his way to see her the night they
+discovered Marie's body?" asked the woman. "I hope that that wasn't the
+Secret Service also. Do you think they could have suspected anything?"
+
+"I hardly think so," the man replied. "Beyond the death of Madame they
+suspect nothing here in New York, I am convinced. You are sure that all
+her letters were secured, that all clues to connect her with the
+business in hand were destroyed, and particularly that the package she
+was to deliver is safe?"
+
+"The package? You mean the plans for the coaling station on the Pacific
+near the Canal? You see, Henri, I know."
+
+"Ha, ha,--yes," replied the man. "Louise, shall I tell you a secret?
+Can you keep it?"
+
+"You know I can, Henri."
+
+"Well, Louise, the scheme is deeper than even you think. We are playing
+one country against another, America against--you know the government
+our friend Schmidt works for in Paris. Now, listen. Those plans of the
+coaling station are a fake--a fake. It is just a commercial venture. No
+nation would be foolish enough to attempt such a thing, yet. We know
+that they are a fake. But we are going to sell them through that friend
+of ours in the United States War Department. But that is only part of
+the coup, the part that will give us the money to turn the much larger
+coups we have in the future. You can understand why it has all to be
+done so secretly and how vexatious it is that as soon as one obstacle
+is overcome a dozen new ones appear. Louise, here is the big secret. By
+using those fake plans as a bait we are going to obtain something which
+when we all return to Paris we can convert into thousands of francs.
+There, I can say no more. But I have told you so much to impress upon
+you the extreme need of caution."
+
+"And how much does Miss Lovelace know?"
+
+"Very little--I hope. That is why I must go to Washington myself. She
+must know nothing of this coup nor of the real de Nevers, or the whole
+scheme may fall through. It would have fallen through before, Louise,
+if you had failed us and had let any of de Nevers's letters slip
+through to Miss Lovelace. She richly deserved her fate for that act of
+treachery. The affair would have been so simple, otherwise. Luck was
+with us until her insane jealousy led her to visit Miss Lovelace. It
+was fortunate the young lady was out when Madame called on her or all
+would have been lost. Ah, we owe you a great deal, Louise, and we shall
+not forget it, never. You will be very careful while I am gone?"
+
+"Absolutely. When will you return to me, Henri?"
+
+"To-morrow morning at the latest. This afternoon the false coaling
+station plans are to be turned over to our accomplice in the War
+Department and in exchange he is to give us something else--the secret
+of which I spoke. You see the trail leads up into high circles. It is
+very much more important than you suppose and discovery might lead to a
+dangerous international complication just now."
+
+"Then you are to meet your friend in Washington to-night? When do you
+start, Henri? Don't let the time slip by. There must be no mistake this
+time as there was when we were working for Japan and almost had the
+blue prints of Corregidor at Manila only to lose them on the streets of
+Calcutta."
+
+"Trust me. We are to meet about nine o'clock and therefore I leave on
+the limited at three-thirty, in about an hour. From the station I am
+going straight to the house on Z Street--let me see, the cipher says
+the number is 101--and ask for a man named Gonzales. I shall use the
+name Montez. He is to appear, hand over the package--that thing I have
+told you about--then I am to return here by one of the midnight trains.
+At any cost we must allow nothing to happen which will reach the ears
+of Miss Lovelace. I'll see you early to-morrow morning, ma cherie, and
+remember, be ready, for the Aquitania sails at ten. The division of the
+money is to be made in Paris. Then we shall all go our separate ways."
+
+Kennedy was telephoning frantically through the regular hotel service
+to find out how the trains ran for Washington. The only one that would
+get there before nine was the three-thirty; the next, leaving an hour
+later, did not arrive until nearly eleven. He had evidently had some
+idea of causing some delay that would result in our friend down the
+hall missing the limited, but abandoned it. Any such scheme would
+simply result in a message to the gang in Washington putting them on
+their guard and defeating his purpose.
+
+"At all costs we must beat this fellow to it," exclaimed Craig, waiting
+to hear no more over his improvised dictograph. "Come, Walter, we must
+catch the limited for Washington immediately. McBride, I leave you and
+the regular house man to shadow this woman. Don't let her get out of
+your sight for a moment."
+
+As we rode across the city to the new railroad terminus Craig hastily
+informed me of what he had overheard. We took up our post so that we
+could see the outgoing travellers, and a few minutes later Craig
+spotted our man from McBride's description, and succeeded in securing
+chairs in the same car in which he was to ride.
+
+Taken altogether it was an uneventful journey. For five mortal hours we
+sat in the Pullman or toyed with food in the dining-car, never letting
+the man escape our sight, yet never letting him know that we were
+watching him. Nevertheless I could not help asking myself what good it
+did. Why did not Kennedy hire a special if the affair was so important
+as it appeared? How were we to get ahead of him in Washington better
+than in New York? I knew that some plan lurked behind the calm and
+inscrutable face of Kennedy as I tried to read and could not.
+
+The train had come to a stop in the Union Station. Our man was walking
+rapidly up the platform in the direction of the cab stand. Suddenly
+Kennedy darted ahead and for a moment we were walking abreast of him.
+
+"I beg your pardon," began Craig as we came to a turn in the shadow of
+the arc lights, "but have you a match?"
+
+The man halted and fumbled for his match-box. Instantly Kennedy's
+pocket handkerchief was at his nose.
+
+"Some of the medicine of your own gang of endormeurs," ground out
+Kennedy, crushing several of the little glass globes under his
+handkerchief to make doubly sure of their effect.
+
+The man reeled and would have fallen if we had not caught him between
+us. Up the platform we led him in a daze.
+
+"Here," shouted Craig to a cabman, "my friend is ill. Drive us around a
+bit. It will sober him up. Come on, Walter, jump in, the air will do us
+all good."
+
+Those who were in Washington during that summer will remember the
+suppressed activity in the State, War, and Navy Departments on a
+certain very humid night. Nothing leaked out at the time as to the
+cause, but it was understood later that a crisis was narrowly averted
+at a very inopportune season, for the heads of the departments were all
+away, the President was at his summer home in the North, and even some
+of the under-secretaries were out of town. Hasty messages had been
+sizzling over the wires in cipher and code for hours.
+
+I recall that as we rode a little out of our way past the Army
+Building, merely to see if there was any excitement, we found it a
+blaze of lights. Something was plainly afoot even at this usually dull
+period of the year. There was treachery of some kind and some trusted
+employee was involved, I felt instinctively. As for Craig he merely
+glanced at the insensible figure between us and remarked sententiously
+that to his knowledge there was only one nation that made a practice of
+carrying out its diplomatic and other coups in the hot weather, a
+remark which I understood to mean that our mission was more than
+commonly important.
+
+The man had not recovered when we arrived within several blocks of our
+destination, nor did he show signs of recovery from his profound
+stupor. Kennedy stopped the cab in a side street, pressed a bill into
+the cabman's hand, and bade him wait until we returned.
+
+We had turned the corner of Z Street and were approaching the house
+when a man walking in the opposite direction eyed us suspiciously,
+turned, and followed us a step or two.
+
+"Kennedy!" he exclaimed.
+
+If a fourteen-inch gun had exploded behind us I could not have been
+more startled. Here, in spite of all our haste and secrecy we were
+followed, watched, and beaten.
+
+Craig wheeled about suddenly. Then he took the man by the arm. "Come,"
+he said quickly, and we three dove into the shadow of an alley.
+
+As we paused, Kennedy was the first to speak. "By Jove, Walter, it's
+Burke of the Secret Service," he exclaimed.
+
+"Good," repeated the man with some satisfaction. "I see that you still
+have that memory for faces." He was evidently referring to our
+experiences together some months before with the portrait parle and
+identification in the counterfeiting case which Craig cleared up for
+him.
+
+For a moment or two Burke and Kennedy spoke in whispers. Under the dim
+light from the street I could see Kennedy's face intent and working
+with excitement.
+
+"No wonder the War Department is a blaze of lights," he exclaimed as we
+moved out of the shadow again, leaving the Secret Service man. "Burke,
+I had no idea when I took up this case that I should be doing my
+country a service also. We must succeed at any hazard. The moment you
+hear a pistol shot, Burke, we shall need you. Force the door if it is
+not already open. You were right as to the street but not the number.
+It is that house over there. Come on, Walter."
+
+We mounted the low steps of the house and a negress answered the bell.
+"Is Mr. Gonzales in?" asked Kennedy.
+
+The hallway into which we were admitted was dark but it opened into a
+sitting-room, where a dim light was burning behind the thick portieres.
+Without a word the negress ushered us into this room, which was
+otherwise empty.
+
+"Tell him Mr. Montez is here," added Craig as we sat down.
+
+The negress disappeared upstairs, and in a few minutes returned with
+the message that he would be down directly.
+
+No sooner had the shuffle of her footsteps died away than Kennedy was
+on his feet, listening intently at the door. There was no sound. He
+took a chair and tiptoed out into the dark hall with it. Turning it
+upside down he placed it at the foot of the stairs with the four legs
+pointing obliquely up. Then he drew me into a corner with him.
+
+How long we waited I cannot say. The next I knew was a muffled step on
+the landing above, then the tread on the stairs.
+
+A crash and a deep volley of oaths in French followed as the man
+pitched headlong over the chair on the dark steps.
+
+Kennedy whipped out his revolver and fired pointblank at the prostrate
+figure. I do not know what the ethics are of firing on a man when he is
+down, nor did I have time to stop to think.
+
+Craig grasped my arm and pulled me toward the door. A sickening odour
+seemed to pervade the air. Upstairs there was shouting and banging of
+doors.
+
+"Closer, Walter," he muttered, "closer to the door, and open it a
+little, or we shall both be suffocated. It was the Secret Service gun I
+shot off--the pistol that shoots stupefying gas from its vapour-filled
+cartridges and enables you to put a criminal out of commission without
+killing him. A pull of the trigger, the cap explodes, the gunpowder and
+the force of the explosion unite some capsicum and lycopodium,
+producing the blinding, suffocating vapour whose terrible effect you
+see. Here, you upstairs," he shouted, "advance an inch or so much as
+show your heads over the rail and I pump a shot at you, too. Walter,
+take the gun yourself. Fire at a move from them. I think the gases have
+cleared away enough now. I must get him before he recovers
+consciousness."
+
+A tap at the door came, and without taking my eyes off the stairs I
+opened it. Burke slid in and gulped at the nauseous atmosphere.
+
+"What's up?" he gasped. "I heard a shot. Where's Kennedy?"
+
+I motioned in the darkness. Kennedy's electric bull's-eye flashed up at
+that instant and we saw him deftly slip a bright pair of manacles on
+the wrists of the man on the floor, who was breathing heavily, while
+blood flowed from a few slight cuts due to his fall.
+
+Dexterously as a pickpocket Craig reached into the man's coat, pulled
+out a packet of papers, and gazed eagerly at one after another. From
+among them he unfolded one written in French to Madame Marie de Nevers
+some weeks before. I translate:
+
+DEAR MARIE: Herr Schmidt informs me that his agent in the War
+Department at Washington, U. S. A., has secured some important
+information which will interest the Government for which Herr Schmidt
+is the agent--of course you know who that is.
+
+It is necessary that you should carry the packet which will be handed
+to you (if you agree to my proposal) to New York by the steamer
+Tripolitania. Go to the Vandeveer Hotel and in a few days, as soon as a
+certain exchange can be made, either our friend in Washington or myself
+will call on you, using the name Gonzales. In return for the package
+which you carry he will hand you another. Lose no time in bringing the
+second package back to Paris.
+
+I have arranged that you will receive ten thousand francs and your
+expenses for your services in this matter. Under no conditions betray
+your connection with Herr Schmidt. I was to have carried the packet to
+America myself and make the exchange but knowing your need of money I
+have secured the work for you. You had better take your maid, as it is
+much better to travel with distinction in this case. If, however, you
+accept this commission I shall consider you in honour bound to
+surrender your claim upon my name for which I agree to pay you fifty
+thousand francs upon my marriage with the American heiress of whom you
+know. Please let me know immediately through our mutual friend Henri
+Duval whether this proposal is satisfactory. Henri will tell you that
+fifty thousand is my ultimatum,
+
+CHATEAUROUGE.
+
+"The scoundrel," ground out Kennedy. "He lured his wife from Paris to
+New York, thinking the Paris police too acute for him, I suppose. Then
+by means of the treachery of the maid Louise and his friend Duval, a
+crook who would even descend to play the part of valet for him and fall
+in love with the maid, he has succeeded in removing the woman who stood
+between him and an American fortune."
+
+"Marie," rambled Chateaurouge as he came blinking, sneezing, and
+choking out of his stupor, "Marie, you are clever, but not too clever
+for me. This blackmailing must stop. Miss Lovelace knows something,
+thanks to you, but she shall never know all--never--never.
+You--you--ugh!--Stop. Do you think you can hold me back now with those
+little white hands on my wrists? I wrench them
+loose--so--and--ugh!--What's this? Where am I?"
+
+The man gazed dazedly at the manacles that held his wrists instead of
+the delicate hands he had been dreaming of as he lived over the
+terrible scene of his struggle with the woman who was his wife in the
+Vanderveer.
+
+"Chateaurouge," almost hissed Kennedy in his righteous wrath, "fake
+nobleman, real swindler of five continents. Marie de Nevers alive stood
+in the way of your marriage to the heiress Miss Lovelace. Dead, she
+prevents it absolutely."
+
+Craig continued to turn over the papers in his hand, as he spoke. At
+last he came to a smaller packet in oiled silk. As he broke the seal he
+glanced at it in surprise, then hurriedly exclaimed, "There, Burke.
+Take these to the War Department and tell them they can turn out their
+lights and stop their telegrams. This seems to be a copy of our
+government's plans for the fortification of the Panama Canal, heights
+of guns, location of searchlights, fire control stations, everything
+from painstaking search of official and confidential records. That is
+what this fellow obtained in exchange for his false blue prints of the
+supposed coaling station on the Pacific.
+
+"I leave the Secret Service to find the leak in the War Department.
+What I am interested in is not the man who played spy for two nations
+and betrayed one of them. To me this adventurer who calls himself
+Chateaurouge is merely the murderer of Madame de Nevers."
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE SMUGGLER
+
+
+It was a rather sultry afternoon in the late summer when people who had
+calculated by the calendar rather than by the weather were returning to
+the city from the seashore, the mountains, and abroad.
+
+Except for the week-ends, Kennedy and I had been pretty busy, though on
+this particular day there was a lull in the succession of cases which
+had demanded our urgent attention during the summer.
+
+We had met at the Public Library, where Craig was doing some special
+research at odd moments in criminology. Fifth Avenue was still half
+deserted, though the few pedestrians who had returned or remained in
+town like ourselves were, as usual, to be found mostly on the west side
+of the street. Nearly everybody, I have noticed, walks on the one side
+of Fifth Avenue, winter or summer.
+
+As we stood on the corner waiting for the traffic man's whistle to halt
+the crush of automobiles, a man on the top of a 'bus waved to Kennedy.
+
+I looked up and caught a glimpse of Jack Herndon, an old college mate,
+who had had some political aspirations and had recently been appointed
+to a position in the customs house of New York. Herndon, I may add,
+represented the younger and clean-cut generation which is entering
+official life with great advantage to both themselves and politics.
+
+The 'bus pulled up to the curb, and Jack tore down the breakneck steps
+hurriedly.
+
+"I was just thinking of you, Craig," he beamed as we all shook hands,
+"and wondering whether you and Walter were in town. I think I should
+have come up to see you to-night, anyhow."
+
+"Why, what's the matter--more sugar frauds?" laughed Kennedy. "Or
+perhaps you have caught another art dealer red-handed?"
+
+"No, not exactly," replied Herndon, growing graver for the moment.
+"We're having a big shake-up down at the office, none of your 'new
+broom' business, either. Real reform it is, this time."
+
+"And you--are you going or coming?" inquired Craig with an interested
+twinkle.
+
+"Coming, Craig, coming," answered Jack enthusiastically. "They've put
+me in charge of a sort of detective force as a special deputy surveyor
+to rout out some smuggling that we know is going on. If I make good it
+will go a long way for me--with all this talk of efficiency and economy
+down in Washington these days."
+
+"What's on your mind now?" asked Kennedy observantly. "Can I help you
+in any way?"
+
+Herndon had taken each of us by an arm and walked us over to a stone
+bench in the shade of the library building.
+
+"You have read the accounts in the afternoon papers of the peculiar
+death of Mademoiselle Violette, the little French modiste, up here on
+Forty-sixth Street?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes," answered Kennedy. "What has that to do with customs reform?"
+
+"A good deal, I fear," Herndon continued. "It's part of a case that has
+been bothering us all summer. It's the first really big thing I've been
+up against and it's as ticklish a bit of business as even a veteran
+treasury agent could wish."
+
+Herndon looked thoughtfully at the passing crowd on the other side of
+the balustrade and continued. "It started, like many of our cases, with
+the anonymous letter writer. Early in the summer the letters began to
+come in to the deputy surveyor's office, all unsigned, though quite
+evidently written in a woman's hand, disguised of course, and on rather
+dainty notepaper. They warned us of a big plot to smuggle gowns and
+jewellery from Paris. Smuggling jewellery is pretty common because
+jewels take up little space and are very valuable. Perhaps it doesn't
+sound to you like a big thing to smuggle dresses, but when you realise
+that one of those filmy lacy creations may often be worth several
+hundred, if not thousand, dollars, and that it needs only a few of them
+on each ship that comes in to run up into the thousands, perhaps
+hundreds of thousands in a season, you will see how essential it is to
+break up that sort of thing. We've been getting after the individual
+private smugglers pretty sharply this summer and we've had lots of
+criticism. If we could land a big fellow and make an object-lesson of
+the extent of the thing I believe it would leave our critics of the
+press without a leg to stand on.
+
+"At least that was why I was interested in the letters. But it was not
+until a few days ago that we got a tip that gave us a real working
+clue, for the anonymous letters had been very vague as to names, dates,
+and places, though bold enough as to general charges, as if the writer
+were fearful of incriminating herself--or himself. Strange to say, this
+new clue came from the wife of one of the customs men. She happened to
+be in a Broadway manicure shop one day when she heard a woman talking
+with the manicurist about fall styles, and she was all attention when
+she heard the customer say, 'You remember Mademoiselle Violette's--that
+place that had the exquisite things straight from Paris, and so
+cheaply, too? Well, Violette says she'll have to raise her prices so
+that they will be nearly as high as the regular stores. She says the
+tariff has gone up, or something, but it hasn't, has it?'
+
+"The manicurist laughed knowingly, and the next remark caught the
+woman's attention. 'No, indeed. But then, I guess she meant that she
+had to pay the duty now. You know they are getting much stricter. To
+tell the truth, I imagine most of Violette's goods were--well--'
+
+"'Smuggled?' supplied the customer in an undertone.
+
+"The manicurist gave a slight shrug of the shoulders and a bright
+little yes of a laugh.
+
+"That was all. But it was enough. I set a special customs officer to
+watch Mademoiselle, a clever fellow. He didn't have time to find out
+much, but on the other hand I am sure he didn't do anything to alarm
+Mademoiselle. That would have been a bad game. His case was progressing
+favourably and he had become acquainted with one of the girls who
+worked in the shop. We might have got some evidence, but suddenly this
+morning he walked up to my desk and handed me an early edition of an
+afternoon paper. Mademoiselle Violette had been discovered dead in her
+shop by the girls when they came to work this morning. Apparently she
+had been there all night, but the report was quite indefinite and I am
+on my way up there now to meet the coroner, who has agreed to wait for
+me."
+
+"You think there is some connection between her death and the letters?"
+put in Craig.
+
+"Of course I can't say, yet," answered Herndon dubiously. "The papers
+seem to think it was a suicide. But then why should she commit suicide?
+My man found out that among the girls it was common gossip that she was
+to marry Jean Pierre, the Fifth Avenue jeweller, of the firm of Lang
+goods by Americans abroad. Well, the chief of our men in Paris cables
+me that Pierre is known to have made extraordinarily heavy purchases of
+made-up jewellery this season. For one thing, we believe he has
+acquired from a syndicate a rather famous diamond necklace which it has
+taken years to assemble and match up, worth about three hundred
+thousand. You know the duty on made-up jewellery is sixty per cent.,
+and even if he brought the stones in loose it would be ten per cent.,
+which on a valuation of, say, two hundred thousand, means twenty
+thousand dollars duty alone. Then he has a splendid 'dog collar' of
+pearls, and, oh, a lot of other stuff. I know because we get our tips
+from all sorts of sources and they are usually pretty straight. Some
+come from dealers who are sore about not making sales themselves. So
+you see there is a good deal at stake in this case and it may be that
+in following it out we shall kill more than one bird. I wish you'd come
+along with me up to Mademoiselle Violette's and give me an opinion."
+
+Craig had already risen from the bench and we were walking up the
+Avenue.
+
+The establishment of Mademoiselle Violette consisted of a three-story
+and basement brownstone house in which the basement and first floor had
+been remodelled for business purposes. Mademoiselle's place, which was
+on the first floor, was announced to the world by a neat little oval
+gilt sign on the handrailing of the steps.
+
+We ascended and rang the bell. As we waited I noticed that there were
+several other modistes on the same street, while almost directly across
+was a sign which proclaimed that on September 15 Mademoiselle Gabrielle
+would open with a high class exhibition of imported gowns from Paris.
+
+We entered. The coroner and an undertaker were already there, and the
+former was expecting Herndon. Kennedy and I had already met him and he
+shook hands cordially.
+
+Mademoiselle Violette, it seemed, had rented the entire house and then
+had sublet the basement to a milliner, using the first floor herself,
+the second as a workroom for the girls whom she employed, while she
+lived on the top floor, which had been fitted for light housekeeping
+with a kitchenette. It was in the back room of the shop itself on the
+first floor that her body had been discovered, lying on a davenport.
+
+"The newspaper reports were very indefinite," began Herndon,
+endeavouring to take in the situation. "I suppose they told nearly all
+the story, but what caused her death? Have you found that out yet? Was
+it poison or violence?"
+
+The coroner said nothing, but with a significant glance at Kennedy he
+drew a peculiar contrivance from his pocket. It had four round holes in
+it and through each hole he slipped a finger, then closed his hand, and
+exhibited his clenched fist. It looked as if he wore a series of four
+metal rings on his fingers.
+
+"Brass knuckles?" suggested Herndon, looking hastily at the body, which
+showed not a sign of violence on the stony face.
+
+The coroner shook his head knowingly. Suddenly he raised his fist. I
+saw him press hard with his thumb on the upper end of the metal
+contrivance. From the other end, just concealed under his little
+finger, there shot out as if released by a magic spring a thin keen
+little blade of the brightest and toughest steel. He was holding,
+instead of a meaningless contrivance of four rings, a most dangerous
+kind of stiletto or dagger upraised. He lifted his thumb and the blade
+sprang back into its sheath like an extinguished spark of light.
+
+"An Apache dagger, such as is used in the underworld of Paris," broke
+out Kennedy, his eyes gleaming with interest.
+
+The coroner nodded. "We found it," he said, "clasped loosely in her
+hand. But it is only by expert medical testimony that we can determine
+whether it was placed on her fingers before or after this happened. We
+have photographed it, and the prints are being developed."
+
+He had now uncovered the slight figure of the little French modiste. On
+the dress, instead of the profuse flow of blood which we had expected
+to see, there was a single round spot. And in the white marble skin of
+her breast was a little, nearly microscopic puncture, directly over the
+heart.
+
+"She must have died almost instantly," commented Kennedy, glancing from
+the Apache weapon to the dead woman and back again. "Internal
+hemorrhage. I suppose you have searched her effects. Have you found
+anything that gives a hint among them?"
+
+"No," replied the coroner doubtfully, "I can't say we have--unless it
+is the bundle of letters from Pierre, the jeweller. They seem to have
+been engaged, and yet the letters stopped abruptly, and, well, from the
+tone of the last one from him I should say there was a quarrel brewing."
+
+An exclamation from Herndon followed. "The same notepaper and the same
+handwriting as the anonymous letters," he cried.
+
+But that was all. Go over the ground as Kennedy might he could find
+nothing further than the coroner and Herndon had already revealed.
+
+"About these people, Lang & Pierre," asked Craig thoughtfully when we
+had left Mademoiselle's and were riding downtown to the customs house
+with Herndon. "What do you know about them? I presume that Lang is in
+America, if his partner is abroad."
+
+"Yes, he is here in New York. I believe the firm has a rather unsavoury
+reputation; they have to be watched, I am told. Then, too, one or the
+other of the partners makes frequent trips abroad, mostly Pierre.
+Pierre, as you see, was very intimate with Mademoiselle, and the
+letters simply confirm what the girls told my detective. He was
+believed to be engaged to her and I see no reason now to doubt that.
+The fact is, Kennedy, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn
+that it was he who engineered the smuggling for her as well as himself."
+
+"What about the partner? What role does he play in your suspicions?"
+
+"That's another curious feature. Lang doesn't seem to bother much with
+the business. He is a sort of silent partner, although nominally the
+head of the firm. Still, they both seem always to be plentifully
+supplied with money and to have a good trade. Lang lives most of the
+time up on the west shore of the Hudson, and seems to be more
+interested in his position as commodore of the Riverledge Yacht Club
+than in his business down here. He is quite a sport, a great motor-boat
+enthusiast, and has lately taken to hydroplanes."
+
+"I meant," repeated Kennedy, "what about Lang and Mademoiselle
+Violette. Were they--ah--friendly?"
+
+"Oh," replied Herndon, seeming to catch the idea. "I see. Of
+course--Pierre abroad and Lang here. I see what you mean. Why, the girl
+told my man that Mademoiselle Violette used to go motor-boating with
+Lang, but only when her fiance, Pierre, was along. No, I don't think
+she ever had anything to do with Lang, if that's what you are driving
+at. He may have paid attentions to her, but Pierre was her lover, and I
+haven't a doubt but that if Lang made any advances she repelled them.
+She seems to have thought everything of Pierre."
+
+We had reached Herndon's office by this time. Leaving word with his
+stenographer to get the very latest reports from La Montaigne, he
+continued talking to us about his work.
+
+"Dressmakers, milliners, and jewellers are our worst offenders now," he
+remarked as we stood gazing out of the window at the panorama of the
+bay off the sea-wall of the Battery. "Why, time and again we unearth
+what looks for all the world like a 'dressmakers' syndicate,' though
+this case is the first I've had that involved a death. Really, I've
+come to look on smuggling as one of the fine arts among crimes. Once
+the smuggler, like the pirate and the highwayman, was a sort of
+gentleman-rogue. But now it has become a very ladylike art. The extent
+of it is almost beyond belief, too. It begins with the steerage and
+runs right up to the absolute unblushing cynicism of the first cabin. I
+suppose you know that women, particularly a certain brand of society
+women, are the worst and most persistent offenders. Why, they even
+boast of it. Smuggling isn't merely popular--it's aristocratic. But
+we're going to take some of the flavour out of it before we finish."
+
+He tore open a cable message which a boy had brought in. "Now, take
+this, for instance," he continued. "You remember the sign across the
+street from Mademoiselle Violette's, announcing that a Mademoiselle
+Gabrielle was going to open a salon or whatever they call it? Well,
+here's another cable from our Paris Secret Service with a belated tip.
+They tell us to look out for a Mademoiselle Gabrielle--on La Montaigne,
+too. That's another interesting thing. You know the various lines are
+all ranked, at least in our estimation, according to the likelihood of
+such offences being perpetrated by their passengers. We watch ships
+from London, Liverpool, and Paris most carefully. Scandinavian ships
+are the least likely to need watching. Well, Miss Roberts?"
+
+"We have just had a wireless about La Montaigne" reported his
+stenographer, who had entered while he was speaking, "and she is three
+hundred miles east of Sandy Hook. She won't dock until to-morrow."
+
+"Thank you. Well, fellows, it is getting late and that means nothing
+more doing to-night. Can you be here early in the morning? We'll go
+down the bay and 'bring in the ship,' as our men call it when the
+deputy surveyor and his acting deputies go down to meet it at
+Quarantine. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your kindness in
+helping me. If my men get anything connecting Lang with Mademoiselle
+Violette's case I'll let you know immediately."
+
+It was a bright clear snappy morning, in contrast with the heat of the
+day before, when we boarded the revenue tug at the Barge Office. The
+waters of the harbour never looked more blue as they danced in the
+early sunlight, flecked here and there by a foaming whitecap as the
+conflicting tides eddied about. The shores of Staten Island were almost
+as green as in the spring, and even the haze over the Brooklyn
+factories had lifted. It looked almost like a stage scene, clear and
+sharp, new and brightly coloured.
+
+Perhaps the least known and certainly one of the least recognised of
+the government services is that which includes the vigilant ships of
+the revenue service. It was not a revenue cutter, however, on which we
+were ploughing down the bay. The cutter lay, white and gleaming in the
+morning sun, at anchor off Stapleton, like a miniature warship,
+saluting as we passed. The revenue boats which steam down to Quarantine
+and make fast to the incoming ocean greyhounds are revenue tugs.
+
+Down the bay we puffed and buffeted for about forty minutes before we
+arrived at the little speck of an island that is Quarantine. Long
+before we were there we sighted the great La Montaigne near the group
+of buildings on the island, where she had been waiting since early
+morning for the tide and the customs officials. The tug steamed
+alongside, and quickly up the high ladders swarmed the boarding officer
+and the deputy collectors. We followed Herndon straight to the main
+saloon, where the collectors began to receive the declarations which
+had been made out on blanks furnished to the passengers on the voyage
+over. They had had several days to write them out--the less excuse for
+omissions.
+
+Glancing at each hastily the collector detached from it the slip with
+the number at the bottom and handed the number back, to be presented at
+the inspector's desk at the pier, where customs inspectors were
+assigned in turn.
+
+"Number 140 is the one we want to watch," I heard Herndon whisper to
+Kennedy. "That tall dark fellow over there."
+
+I followed his direction cautiously and saw a sparely built, striking
+looking man who had just filed his declaration and was chatting
+vivaciously with a lady who was just about to file hers. She was a
+clinging looking little thing with that sort of doll-like innocence
+that deceives nobody.
+
+"No, you don't have to swear to it," he said. "You used to do that, but
+now you simply sign your name--and take a chance," he added, smiling
+and showing a row of perfect teeth.
+
+"Number 156," Herndon noted as the collector detached the stub and
+handed it to her. "That was Mademoiselle Gabrielle."
+
+The couple passed out to the deck, still chatting gaily.
+
+"In the old days, before they got to be so beastly particular," I heard
+him say, "I always used to get the courtesy of the port, an official
+expedite. But that is over now."
+
+The ship was now under way, her flags snapping in the brisk coolish
+breeze that told of approaching autumn. We had passed up the lower bay
+and the Narrows, and the passengers were crowded forward to catch the
+first glimpse of the skyscrapers of New York.
+
+On up the bay we ploughed, throwing the spray proudly as we went
+Herndon employed the time in keeping a sharp watch on the tall, thin
+man. Incidentally he sought out the wireless operator and from him
+learned that a code wireless message had been received for Pierre,
+apparently from his partner, Lang.
+
+"There is no mention of anything dutiable in this declaration by 140
+which corresponds with any of the goods mentioned in the first cable
+from Paris," a collector remarked unobtrusively to Herndon, "nor in 156
+corresponding to the second cable."
+
+"I didn't suppose there would be," was his laconic reply. "That's our
+job--to find the stuff."
+
+At last La Montaigne was warped into the dock. The piles of first-class
+baggage on the ship were raucously deposited on the wharf and slowly
+the passengers filed down the plank to meet the line of white-capped
+uniformed inspectors and plain-clothes appraisers. The comedy and
+tragedy of the customs inspection had begun.
+
+We were among the first to land. Herndon took up a position from which
+he could see without being seen. In the semi-light of the little
+windows in the enclosed sides of the pier, under the steel girders of
+the arched roof like a vast hall, there was a panorama of a huge mass
+of open luggage.
+
+At last Number 140 came down, alone, to the roped-off dock. He walked
+nonchalantly over to the little deputy surveyor's desk, and an
+inspector was quickly assigned to him. It was all done neatly in the
+regular course of business apparently. He did not know that in the
+orderly rush the sharpest of Herndon's men had been picked out, much as
+a trick card player will force a card on his victim.
+
+Already the customs inspection was well along. One inspector had been
+assigned to about each five passengers, and big piles of finery were
+being remorselessly tumbled out in shapeless heaps and exposed to the
+gaze of that part of the public which was not too much concerned over
+the same thing as to its own goods and chattels. Reticules and purses
+were being inspected. Every trunk was presumed to have a false bottom,
+and things wrapped up in paper were viewed suspiciously and unrolled.
+Clothes were being shaken and pawed. There did not seem to be much
+opportunity for concealment.
+
+Herndon now had donned the regulation straw hat of the appraiser, and
+accompanied by us, posing as visitors, was sauntering about. At last we
+came within earshot of the spot where the inspector was going through
+the effects of 140.
+
+Out of the corner of my eyes I could see that a dispute was in progress
+over some trifling matter. The man was cool and calm. "Call the
+appraiser," he said at last, with the air of a man standing on his
+rights. "I object to this frisking of passengers. Uncle Sam is little
+better than a pickpocket. Besides, I can't wait here all day. My
+partner is waiting for me uptown."
+
+Herndon immediately took notice. But it was quite evidently, after all,
+only an altercation for the benefit of those who were watching. I am
+sure he knew he was being watched, but as the dispute proceeded he
+assumed the look of a man keenly amused. The matter, involving only a
+few dollars, was finally adjusted by his yielding gracefully and with
+an air of resignation. Still Herndon did not go and I am sure it
+annoyed him.
+
+Suddenly he turned and faced Herndon. I could not help thinking, in
+spite of all that he must be so expert, that, if he really were a
+smuggler, he had all the poise and skill at evasion that would entitle
+him to be called a cast master of the art.
+
+"You see that woman over there?" he whispered. "She says she is just
+coming home after studying music in Paris."
+
+We looked. It was the guileless ingenue, Mademoiselle Gabrielle.
+
+"She has dutiable goods, all right. I saw her declaration. She is
+trying to bring in as personal effects of a foreign resident gowns
+which, I believe, she intends to wear on the stage. She's an actress."
+
+There was nothing for Herndon to do but to act on the tip. The man had
+got rid of us temporarily, but we knew the inspector would be, if
+anything, more vigilant. I think he took even longer than usual.
+
+Mademoiselle Gabrielle and her maid pouted and fussed over the renewed
+examination which Herndon ordered. According to the inspector
+everything was new and expensive; according to her, old, shabby, and
+cheap. She denied everything, raged and threatened. But when, instead
+of ordering the stamp "Passed" to be placed on her half dozen trunks
+and bags which contained in reality only a few dutiable articles,
+Herndon threatened to order them to the appraiser's stores and herself
+to go to the Law Division if she did not admit the points in dispute,
+there was a real scene.
+
+"Generally, madame," he remonstrated, though I could see he was baffled
+at finding nothing of the goods he had really expected to find,
+"generally even for a first offence the goods are confiscated and the
+court or district attorney is content to let the person off with a
+fine. If this happens again we'll be more severe. So you had better pay
+the duty on these few little matters, without that."
+
+If he had been expecting to "throw a scare" into her, it did not
+succeed. "Well, I suppose if I must, I must," she said, and the only
+result of the diversion was that she paid a few dollars more than had
+been expected and went off in a high state of mind.
+
+Herndon had disappeared for a moment, after a whisper from Kennedy, to
+instruct two of his men to shadow Mademoiselle Gabrielle and, later,
+Pierre. He soon rejoined us and we casually returned to the vicinity of
+our tall friend, Number 140, for whom I felt even less respect than
+ever after his apparently ungallant action toward the lady he had been
+talking with. He seemed to notice my attitude and he remarked
+defensively for my benefit, "Only a patriotic act."
+
+His inspector by this time had finished a most minute examination.
+There was nothing that could be discovered, not a false book with a
+secret spring that might disclose instead of reading matter a heap of
+almost priceless jewels, not a suspicious bulging of any garment or of
+the lining of a trunk or grip. Some of the goods might have been on his
+person, but not much, and certainly there was no excuse for ordering a
+personal examination, for he could not have hidden a tenth part of what
+we knew he had, even under the proverbial porous plaster. He was
+impeccable. Accordingly there was nothing for the inspector to do but
+to declare a polite armistice.
+
+"So you didn't find 'Mona Lisa' in a false bottom, and my trunks were
+not lined with smuggled cigars after all," he rasped savagely as the
+stamp "Passed" was at last affixed and he paid in cash at the little
+window with its sign, "Pay Duty Here: U. S. Custom House," some hundred
+dollars instead of the thousands Herndon had been hoping to collect, if
+not to seize.
+
+All through the inspection, an extra close scrutiny had been kept on
+the other passengers as well, to prevent any of them from being in
+league with the smugglers, though there was no direct or indirect
+evidence to show that any of the others were.
+
+We were about to leave the wharf, also, when Craig's attention was
+called to a stack of trunks still remaining.
+
+"Whose are those?" he asked as he lifted one. It felt suspiciously
+light.
+
+"Some of them belong to a Mr. Pierre and the rest to a Miss Gabrielle,"
+answered an inspector. "Bonded for Troy and waiting to be transferred
+by the express company."
+
+Here, perhaps, at last was an explanation, and Craig took advantage of
+it. Could it be that the real seat of trouble was not here but at some
+other place, that some exchange was to be made en route or perhaps an
+attempt at bribery?
+
+Herndon, too, was willing to run a risk. He ordered the trunks opened
+immediately. But to our disappointment they were almost empty. There
+was scarcely a thing of value in them. Most of the contents consisted
+of clothes that had plainly been made in America and were being brought
+back here. It was another false scent. We had been played with and
+baffled at every turn. Perhaps this had been the method originally
+agreed on. At any rate it had been changed.
+
+"Could they have left the goods in Paris, after all?" I queried.
+
+"With the fall and winter trade just coming on?" Kennedy replied, with
+an air of finality that set at rest any doubts about his opinion on
+that score. "I thought perhaps we had a case of--what do you call it,
+Herndon, when they leave trunks that are to be secretly removed by
+dishonest expressmen from the wharf at night?"
+
+"'Sleepers.' Oh, we've broken that up, too. No expressman would dare
+try it now. I must confess this thing is beyond me, Craig."
+
+Kennedy made no answer. Evidently there was nothing to do but to await
+developments and see what Herndon's men reported. We had been beaten at
+every turn in the game. Herndon seemed to feel that there was a bitter
+sting in the defeat, particularly because the smuggler or smugglers had
+actually been in our grasp so long to do with as we pleased, and had so
+cleverly slipped out again, leaving us holding the bag.
+
+Kennedy was especially thoughtful as he told over the facts of the case
+in his mind. "Of course," he remarked, "Mademoiselle Gabrielle wasn't
+an actress. But we can't deny that she had very little that would
+justify Herndon in holding her, unless he simply wants a newspaper row."
+
+"But I thought Pierre was quite intimate with her at first," I
+ventured. "That was a dirty trick of his."
+
+Craig laughed. "You mean an old one. That was simply a blind, to divert
+attention from himself. I suspect they talked that over between
+themselves for days before."
+
+It was plainly more perplexing than ever. What had happened? Had Pierre
+been a prestidigitator and had he merely said presto! when our backs
+were turned and whisked the goods invisibly into the country? I could
+find no explanation for the little drama on the pier. If Herndon's men
+had any genius in detecting smuggling, their professional opponent
+certainly had greater genius in perpetrating it.
+
+We did not see Herndon again until after a hasty luncheon. He was in
+his office and inclined to take a pessimistic view of the whole affair.
+He brightened up when a telephone message came in from one of his
+shadows. The men trailing Pierre and Mademoiselle Gabrielle had crossed
+trails and run together at a little French restaurant on the lower West
+Side, where Pierre, Lang, and Mademoiselle Gabrielle had met and were
+dining in a most friendly spirit. Kennedy was right. She had been
+merely a cog in the machinery of the plot.
+
+The man reported that even when a newsboy had been sent in by him with
+the afternoon papers displaying in big headlines the mystery of the
+death of Mademoiselle Violette, they had paid no attention. It seemed
+evident that whatever the fate of the modiste, Mademoiselle Gabrielle
+had quite replaced her in the affections of Pierre. There was nothing
+for us to do but to separate and await developments.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when Craig and I received a hurried
+message from Herndon. One of his men had just called him up over long
+distance from Riverledge. The party had left the restaurant hurriedly,
+and though they had taken the only taxicab in sight he had been able to
+follow them in time to find out that they were going up to Riverledge.
+They were now preparing to go out for a sail in one of Lang's
+motor-boats and he would be unable, of course, to follow them further.
+
+For the remainder of the afternoon Kennedy remained pondering the case.
+At last an idea seemed to dawn on him. He found Herndon still at his
+office and made an appointment to meet on the waterfront near La
+Montaigne's pier, after dinner. The change in Kennedy's spirits was
+obvious, though it did not in the least enlighten my curiosity. Even
+after a dinner which was lengthened out considerably, I thought, I did
+not get appreciably nearer a solution, for we strolled over to the
+laboratory, where Craig loaded me down with a huge package which was
+wrapped up in heavy paper.
+
+We arrived on the corner opposite the wharf just as it was growing
+dusk. The neighbourhood did not appeal to me at night, and even though
+there were two of us I was rather glad when we met Herndon, who was
+waiting in the shadow of a fruit stall.
+
+But instead of proceeding across to the pier by the side of which La
+Montaigne was moored, we cut across the wide street and turned down the
+next pier, where a couple of freighters were lying. The odour of salt
+water, sewage, rotting wood, and the night air was not inspiring.
+Nevertheless I was now carried away with the strangeness of our
+adventure.
+
+Halfway down the pier Kennedy paused before one of the gangways that
+was shrouded in darkness. The door was opened and we followed gingerly
+across the dirty deck of the freight ship. Below we could hear the
+water lapping the piles of the pier. Across a dark abyss lay the grim
+monster La Montaigne with here and there a light gleaming on one of her
+decks. The sounds of the city seemed miles away.
+
+"What a fine place for a murder," laughed Kennedy coolly. He was
+unwrapping the package which he had taken from me. It proved to be a
+huge reflector in front of which was placed a little arrangement which,
+under the light of a shaded lantern carried by Herndon, looked like a
+coil of wire of some kind.
+
+To the back of the reflector Craig attached two other flexible wires
+which led to a couple of dry cells and a cylinder with a broadened end,
+made of vulcanised rubber. It might have been a telephone receiver, for
+all I could tell in the darkness.
+
+While I was still speculating on the possible use of the enormous
+parabolic reflector, a slight commotion on the opposite side of the
+pier distracted my attention. A ship was coming in and was being
+carefully and quietly berthed alongside the other big iron freighter on
+that side. Herndon had left us.
+
+"The Mohican is here," he remarked as he rejoined us. To my look of
+inquiry he added, "The revenue cutter."
+
+Kennedy had now finished and had pointed the reflector full at La
+Montaigne. With a whispered hasty word of caution and advice to
+Herndon, he drew me along with him down the wharf again.
+
+At the little door which was cut in the barrier guarding the shore end
+of La Montaigne's wharf Kennedy stopped. The customs service night
+watchman--there is always a watchman of some kind aboard every ship,
+passenger or freighter, all the time she is in port--seemed to
+understand, for he admitted us after a word with Kennedy.
+
+Threading our way carefully among the boxes, and bales, and crates
+which were piled high, we proceeded down the wharf. Under the electric
+lights the longshoremen were working feverishly, for the unloading and
+loading of a giant trans-Atlantic vessel in the rush season is a long
+and tedious process at best, requiring night work and overtime, for
+every moment, like every cubic foot of space, counts.
+
+Once within the door, however, no one paid much attention to us. They
+seemed to take it for granted that we had some right there. We boarded
+the ship by one of the many entrances and then proceeded down to a deck
+where apparently no one was working. It was more like a great house
+than a ship, I felt, and I wondered whether Kennedy's search was not
+more of a hunt for a needle in a haystack than anything else. Yet he
+seemed to know what he was after.
+
+We had descended to what I imagined must be the quarters of the
+steward. About us were many large cases and chests, stacked up and
+marked as belonging to the ship. Kennedy's attention was attracted to
+them immediately. All at once it flashed on me what his purpose was. In
+some of those cases were the smuggled goods!
+
+Before I could say a word and before Kennedy had a chance even to try
+to verify his suspicions, a sudden approach of footsteps startled us.
+He drew me into a cabin or room full of shelves with ship's stores.
+
+"Why didn't you bring Herndon over and break into the boxes, if you
+think the stuff is hidden in one of them?" I whispered.
+
+"And let those higher up escape while their tools take all the blame?"
+he answered. "Sh-h."
+
+The men who had come into the compartment looked about as if expecting
+to see some one.
+
+"Two of them came down," a gruff voice said. "Where are they?"
+
+From the noise I inferred that there must be four or five men, and from
+the ease with which they shifted the cases about some of them must have
+been pretty husky stevedores.
+
+"I don't know," a more polished but unfamiliar voice answered.
+
+The door to our hiding-place was opened roughly and then banged shut
+before we realised it. With a taunting laugh, some one turned a key in
+the lock and before we could move a quick shift of packing cases
+against the door made escape impossible.
+
+Here we were marooned, shanghaied, as it were, within sight if not call
+of Herndon and our friends. We had run up against professional
+smugglers, of whom I had vaguely read, disguised as stewards,
+deckhands, stokers, and other workers.
+
+The only other opening to the cabin was a sort of porthole, more for
+ventilation than anything else. Kennedy stuck his head through it, but
+it was impossible for a man to squeeze out. There was one of the lower
+decks directly before us while a bright arc light gleamed tantalisingly
+over it, throwing a round circle of light into our prison. I reflected
+bitterly on our shipwreck within sight of port.
+
+Kennedy remained silent, and I did not know what was working in his
+mind. Together we made out the outline of the freighter at the next
+wharf and speculated as to the location where we had left Herndon with
+the huge reflector. There was no moon and it was as black as ink in
+that direction, but if we could have got out I would have trusted to
+luck to reach it by swimming.
+
+Below us, from the restless water lapping on the sides of the hulk of
+La Montaigne, we could now hear muffled sounds. It was a motor-boat
+which had come crawling up the river front, with lights extinguished,
+and had pushed a cautious nose into the slip where our ship lay at the
+quay. None of your romantic low-lying, rakish craft of the old
+smuggling yarns was this, ready for deeds of desperation in the dark
+hours of midnight. It was just a modern little motor-boat, up-to-date,
+and swift.
+
+"Perhaps we'll get out of this finally," I grumbled as I understood now
+what was afoot, "but not in time to be of any use."
+
+A smothered sound as of something going over the vessel's side
+followed. It was one of the boxes which we had seen outside in the
+storeroom. Another followed, and a third and a fourth.
+
+Then came a subdued parley. "We have two customs detectives locked in a
+cabin here. We can't stay now. You'll have to take us and our things
+off, too."
+
+"Can't do it," called up another muffled voice. "Make your things into
+a little bundle. We'll take that, but you'll have to get past the
+nightwatchman yourselves and meet us at Riverledge."
+
+A moment later something else went over the side, and from the sound we
+could infer that the engine of the motor-boat was being started.
+
+A voice sounded mockingly outside our door. "Bon soir, you fellows in
+there. We're going up the dock. Sorry to leave you here till morning,
+but they'll let you out then. Au revoir."
+
+Below I could hear just the faintest well-muffled chug-chug. Kennedy in
+the meantime had been coolly craning his neck out of our porthole under
+the rays of the arc light overhead. He was holding something in his
+hand. It seemed like a little silver-backed piece of thin glass with a
+flaring funnel-like thing back of it, which he held most particularly.
+Though he heard the parting taunt outside he paid no attention.
+
+"You go to the deuce, whoever you are," I cried, beating on the door,
+to which only a coarse laugh echoed back down the passageway.
+
+"Be quiet, Walter," ordered Kennedy. "We have located the smuggled
+goods in the storeroom of the steward, four wooden cases of them. I
+think the stuff must have been brought on the ship in the trunks and
+then transferred to the cases, perhaps after the code wireless message
+was received. But we have been overpowered and locked in a cabin with a
+port too small to crawl through. The cases have been lowered over the
+side of the ship to a motor-boat that was waiting below. The lights on
+the boat are out, but if you hurry you can get it. The accomplices who
+locked us in are going to disappear up the wharf. If you could only get
+the night watchman quickly enough you could catch them, too, before
+they reach the street."
+
+I had turned, half expecting to see Kennedy talking to a ship's officer
+who might have chanced on the deck outside. There was no one. The only
+thing of life was the still sputtering arc light. Had the man gone
+crazy?
+
+"What of it?" I growled. "Don't you suppose I know all that? What's the
+use of repeating it now? The thing to do is to get out of this hole.
+Come, help me at this door. Maybe we can batter it down."
+
+Kennedy paid no attention to me, however, but kept his eyes glued on
+the Cimmerian blackness outside the porthole.
+
+He had done nothing apparently, yet a long finger of light seemed to
+shoot out into the sky from the pier across from us and begin waving
+back and forth as it was lowered to the dark waters of the river. It
+was a searchlight. At once I thought of the huge reflector which I had
+seen set up. But that had been on our side of the next pier and this
+light came from the far side where the Mohican lay.
+
+"What is it?" I asked eagerly. "What has happened?"
+
+It was as if a prayer had been answered from our dungeon on La
+Montaigne.
+
+"I knew we should need some means to communicate with Herndon," he
+explained simply, "and the wireless telephone wasn't practicable. So I
+have used Dr. Alexander Graham Bell's photophone. Any of the lights on
+this side of La Montaigne, I knew, would serve. What I did, Walter, was
+merely to talk into the mouthpiece back of this little silvered mirror
+which reflects light. The vibrations of the voice caused a diaphragm in
+it to vibrate and thus the beam of reflected light was made to pulsate.
+In other words, this little thing is just a simple apparatus to
+transform the air vibrations of the voice into light vibrations.
+
+"The parabolic reflector over there catches these light vibrations and
+focuses them on the cell of selenium which you perhaps noticed in the
+centre of the reflector. You remember doubtless that the element
+selenium varies its electrical resistance under light? Thus there are
+reproduced similar variations in the cell to those vibrations here in
+this transmitter. The cell is connected with a telephone receiver and
+batteries over there--and there you are. It is very simple. In the
+ordinary carbon telephone transmitter a variable electrical resistance
+is produced by pressure, since carbon is not so good a conductor under
+pressure. Then these variations are transmitted along two wires. This
+photophone is wireless. Selenium even emits notes under a vibratory
+beam of light, the pitch depending on the frequency. Changes in the
+intensity of the light focused by the reflector on the cell alter its
+electrical resistance and vary the current from the dry batteries.
+Hence the telephone receiver over there is affected. Bell used the
+photophone or radiophone over several hundred feet, Ruhmer over several
+miles. When you thought I was talking to myself I was really telling
+Herndon what had happened and what to do--talking to him literally over
+a beam of light."
+
+I could scarcely believe it, but an exclamation from Kennedy as he drew
+his head in quickly recalled my attention. "Look out on the river,
+Walter," he cried. "The Mohican has her searchlight sweeping up and
+down. What do you see?"
+
+The long finger of light had now come to rest. In its pathway I saw a
+lightless motor-boat bobbing up and down, crowding on all speed, yet
+followed relentlessly by the accusing finger. The river front was now
+alive with shouting.
+
+Suddenly the Mohican shot out from behind the pier where she had been
+hidden. In spite of Lang's expertness it was an unequal race. Nor would
+it have made much difference if it had been otherwise, for a shot rang
+out from the Mohican which commanded instant respect. The powerful
+revenue cutter rapidly overhauled the little craft.
+
+A hurried tread down the passageway followed. Cases were being shoved
+aside and a key in the door of our compartment turned quickly. I waited
+with clenched fists, prepared for an attack.
+
+"You're all right?" Herndon's voice inquired anxiously. "We've got that
+steward and the other fellows all right."
+
+"Yes, come on," shouted Craig. "The cutter has made a capture."
+
+We had reached the stern of the ship, and far out in the river the
+Mohican was now headed toward us. She came alongside, and Herndon
+quickly seized a rope, fastened it to the rail, and let himself down to
+the deck of the cutter. Kennedy and I followed.
+
+"This is a high-handed proceeding," I heard a voice that must have been
+Lang's protesting. "By what right do you stop me? You shall suffer for
+this."
+
+"The Mohican," broke in Herndon, "has the right to appear anywhere from
+Southshoal Lightship off Nantucket to the capes of the Delaware, demand
+an inspection of any vessel's manifest and papers, board anything from
+La Montaigne to your little motor-boat, inspect it, seize it, if
+necessary put a crew on it." He slapped the little cannon.
+
+"That commands respect. Besides, you were violating the regulations--no
+lights."
+
+On the deck of the cutter now lay four cases. A man broke one of them
+open, then another. Inside he disclosed thousands of dollars' worth of
+finery, while from a tray he drew several large chamois bags of
+glittering diamonds and pearls.
+
+Pierre looked on, crushed, all his jauntiness gone.
+
+"So," exclaimed Kennedy, facing him, "you have your jilted fiancee,
+Mademoiselle Violette, to thank for this--her letters and her suicide.
+It wasn't as easy as you thought to throw her over for a new soul mate,
+this Mademoiselle Gabrielle whom you were going to set up as a rival in
+business to Violette. Violette has her revenge for making a plaything
+of her heart, and if the dead can take any satisfaction she--"
+
+With a quick movement Kennedy anticipated a motion of Pierre's. The
+ruined smuggler had contemplated either an attack on himself or his
+captor, but Craig had seized him by the wrist and ground his knuckles
+into the back of Pierre's clenched fist until he winced with pain. An
+Apache dagger similar to that which the little modiste had used to end
+her life tragedy clattered to the deck of the ship, a mute testimonial
+to the high class of society Pierre and his associates must have
+cultivated.
+
+"None of that, Pierre," Craig muttered, releasing him. "You can't cheat
+the government out of its just dues even in the matter of punishment."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE INVISIBLE RAY
+
+
+"I won't deny that I had some expectations from the old man myself."
+
+Kennedy's client was speaking in a low, full-chested, vibrating voice,
+with some emotion, so low that I had entered the room without being
+aware that any one was there until it was too late to retreat.
+
+"As his physician for over twelve years," the man pursued, "I certainly
+had been led to hope to be remembered in his will. But, Professor
+Kennedy, I can't put it too strongly when I say that there is no
+selfish motive in my coming to you about the case. There is something
+wrong--depend on that."
+
+Craig had glanced up at me and, as I hesitated, I could see in an
+instant that the speaker was a practitioner of a type that is rapidly
+passing away, the old-fashioned family doctor.
+
+"Dr. Burnham, I should like to have you know Mr. Jameson," introduced
+Craig. "You can talk as freely before him as you have to me alone. We
+always work together."
+
+I shook hands with the visitor.
+
+"The doctor has succeeded in interesting me greatly in a case which has
+some unique features," Kennedy explained. "It has to do with Stephen
+Haswell, the eccentric old millionaire of Brooklyn. Have you ever heard
+of him?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," I replied, recalling an occasional article which had
+appeared in the newspapers regarding a dusty and dirty old house in
+that part of the Heights in Brooklyn whence all that is fashionable had
+not yet taken flight, a house of mystery, yet not more mysterious than
+its owner in his secretive comings and goings in the affairs of men of
+a generation beyond his time. Further than the facts that he was
+reputed to be very wealthy and led, in the heart of a great city, what
+was as nearly like the life of a hermit as possible, I knew little or
+nothing. "What has he been doing now?" I asked.
+
+"About a week ago," repeated the doctor, in answer to a nod of
+encouragement from Kennedy, "I was summoned in the middle of the night
+to attend Mr. Haswell, who, as I have been telling Professor Kennedy,
+had been a patient of mine for over twelve years. He had been suddenly
+stricken with total blindness. Since then he appears to be failing
+fast, that is, he appeared so the last time I saw him, a few days ago,
+after I had been superseded by a younger man. It is a curious case and
+I have thought about it a great deal. But I didn't like to speak to the
+authorities; there wasn't enough to warrant that, and I should have
+been laughed out of court for my pains. The more I have thought about
+it, however, the more I have felt it my duty to say something to
+somebody, and so, having heard of Professor Kennedy, I decided to
+consult him. The fact of the matter is, I very much fear that there are
+circumstances which will bear sharp looking into, perhaps a scheme to
+get control of the old man's fortune."
+
+The doctor paused, and Craig inclined his head, as much as to signify
+his appreciation of the delicate position in which Burnham stood in the
+case. Before the doctor could proceed further, Kennedy handed me a
+letter which had been lying before him on the table. It had evidently
+been torn into small pieces and then carefully pasted together.
+
+The superscription gave a small town in Ohio and a date about a
+fortnight previous.
+
+Dear Father [it read]: I hope you will pardon me for writing, but I
+cannot let the occasion of your seventy-fifth birthday pass without a
+word of affection and congratulation. I am alive and well--Time has
+dealt leniently with me in that respect, if not in money matters. I do
+not say this in the hope of reconciling you to me. I know that is
+impossible after all these cruel years. But I do wish that I could see
+you again. Remember, I am your only child and even if you still think I
+have been a foolish one, please let me come to see you once before it
+is too late. We are constantly travelling from place to place, but
+shall be here for a few days.
+
+Your loving daughter,
+
+GRACE HASWELL MARTIN.
+
+"Some fourteen or fifteen years ago," explained the doctor as I looked
+up from reading the note, "Mr. Haswell's only daughter eloped with an
+artist named Martin. He had been engaged to paint a portrait of the
+late Mrs. Haswell from a photograph. It was the first time that Grace
+Haswell had ever been able to find expression for the artistic yearning
+which had always been repressed by the cold, practical sense of her
+father. She remembered her mother perfectly since the sad bereavement
+of her girlhood and naturally she watched and helped the artist
+eagerly. The result was a portrait which might well have been painted
+from the subject herself rather than from a cold photograph.
+
+"Haswell saw the growing intimacy of his daughter and the artist. His
+bent of mind was solely toward money and material things, and he at
+once conceived a bitter and unreasoning hatred for Martin, who, he
+believed, had 'schemed' to capture his daughter and an easy living. Art
+was as foreign to his nature as possible. Nevertheless they went ahead
+and married, and, well, it resulted in the old man disinheriting the
+girl. The young couple disappeared bravely to make their way by their
+chosen profession and, as far as I know, have never been heard from
+since until now. Haswell made a new will and I have always understood
+that practically all of his fortune is to be devoted to founding the
+technology department in a projected university of Brooklyn."
+
+"You have never seen this Mrs. Martin or her husband?" asked Kennedy.
+
+"No, never. But in some way she must have learned that I had some
+influence with her father, for she wrote to me not long ago, enclosing
+a note for him and asking me to intercede for her. I did so. I took the
+letter to him as diplomatically as I could. The old man flew into a
+towering rage, refused even to look at the letter, tore it up into
+bits, and ordered me never to mention the subject to him again. That is
+her note, which I saved. However, it is the sequel about which I wish
+your help."
+
+The physician folded up the patched letter carefully before he
+continued. "Mr. Haswell, as you perhaps know, has for many years been a
+prominent figure in various curious speculations, or rather in loaning
+money to many curious speculators. It is not necessary to go into the
+different schemes which he has helped to finance. Even though most of
+them have been unknown to the public they have certainly given him such
+a reputation that he is much sought after by inventors.
+
+"Not long ago Haswell became interested in the work of an obscure
+chemist over in Brooklyn, Morgan Prescott. Prescott claims, as I
+understand, to be able to transmute copper into gold. Whatever you
+think of it offhand, you should visit his laboratory yourselves,
+gentlemen. I am told it is wonderful, though I have never seen it and
+can't explain it. I have met Prescott several times while he was trying
+to persuade Mr. Haswell to back him in his scheme, but he was never
+disposed to talk to me, for I had no money to invest. So far as I know
+about it the thing sounds scientific and plausible enough. I leave you
+to judge of that. It is only an incident in my story and I will pass
+over it quickly. Prescott, then, believes that the elements are merely
+progressive variations of an original substance or base called
+'protyle,' from which everything is derived. But this fellow Prescott
+goes much further than any of the former theorists. He does not stop
+with matter. He believes that he has the secret of life also, that he
+can make the transition from the inorganic to the organic, from inert
+matter to living protoplasm, and thence from living protoplasm to mind
+and what we call soul, whatever that may be."
+
+"And here is where the weird and uncanny part of it comes in,"
+commented Craig, turning from the doctor to me to call my attention
+particularly to what was about to follow.
+
+"Having arrived at the point where he asserts that he can create and
+destroy matter, life, and mind," continued the doctor, as if himself
+fascinated by the idea, "Prescott very naturally does not have to go
+far before he also claims a control over telepathy and even a
+communication with the dead. He even calls the messages which he
+receives by a word which he has coined himself, 'telepagrams.' Thus he
+says he has unified the physical, the physiological, and the
+psychical--a system of absolute scientific monism."
+
+The doctor paused again, then resumed. "One afternoon, about a week
+ago, apparently, as far as I am able to piece together the story,
+Prescott was demonstrating his marvellous discovery of the unity of
+nature. Suddenly he faced Mr. Haswell.
+
+"'Shall I tell you a fact, sir, about yourself?' he asked quickly. 'The
+truth as I see it by means of my wonderful invention? If it is the
+truth, will you believe in me? Will you put money into my invention?
+Will you share in becoming fabulously rich?'
+
+"Haswell made some noncommittal answer. But Prescott seemed to look
+into the machine through a very thick plate-glass window, with Haswell
+placed directly before it. He gave a cry. 'Mr. Haswell,' he exclaimed,
+'I regret to tell you what I see. You have disinherited your daughter;
+she has passed out of your life and at the present moment you do not
+know where she is.'
+
+"'That's true,' replied the old man bitterly, 'and more than that I
+don't care. Is that all you see? That's nothing new.'
+
+"'No, unfortunately, that is not all I see. Can you bear something
+further? I think you ought to know it. I have here a most mysterious
+telepagram.'
+
+"'Yes. What is it? Is she dead?'
+
+"'No, it is not about her. It is about yourself. To-night at midnight
+or perhaps a little later,' repeated Prescott solemnly, 'you will lose
+your sight as a punishment for your action.'
+
+"'Pouf!' exclaimed the old man in a dudgeon, 'if that is all your
+invention can tell me, good-bye. You told me you were able to make
+gold. Instead, you make foolish prophecies. I'll put no money into such
+tomfoolery. I'm a practical man,' and with that he stamped out of the
+laboratory.
+
+"Well, that night, about one o'clock, in the silence of the lonely old
+house, the aged caretaker, Jane, whom he had hired after he banished
+his daughter from his life, heard a wild shout of 'Help! Help!'
+Haswell, alone in his room on the second floor, was groping about in
+the dark.
+
+"'Jane,' he ordered, 'a light--a light.'
+
+"'I have lighted the gas, Mr. Haswell,' she cried.
+
+"A groan followed. He had himself found a match, had struck it, had
+even burnt his fingers with it, yet he saw nothing.
+
+"The blow had fallen. At almost the very hour which Prescott, by means
+of his weird telepagram had predicted, old Haswell was stricken.
+
+"'I'm blind,' he gasped. 'Send for Dr. Burnham.'
+
+"I went to him immediately when the maid roused me, but there was
+nothing I could do except prescribe perfect rest for his eyes and
+keeping in a dark room in the hope that his sight might be restored as
+suddenly and miraculously as it had been taken away.
+
+"The next morning, with his own hand, trembling and scrawling in his
+blindness, he wrote the following on a piece of paper:
+
+"'MRS. GRACE MARTIN.--Information wanted about the present whereabouts
+of Mrs. Grace Martin, formerly Grace Haswell of Brooklyn."
+
+STEPHEN HASWELL,----Pierrepont St., Brooklyn.
+
+"This advertisement he caused to be placed in all the New York papers
+and to be wired to the leading Western papers. Haswell himself was a
+changed man after his experience. He spoke bitterly of Prescott, yet
+his attitude toward his daughter was completely reversed. Whether he
+admitted to himself a belief in the prediction of the inventor, I do
+not know. Certainly he scouted such an idea in telling me about it.
+
+"A day or two after the advertisements appeared a telegram came to the
+old man from a little town in Indiana. It read simply: 'Dear Father: Am
+starting for Brooklyn to-day. Grace.'
+
+"The upshot was that Grace Haswell, or rather Grace Martin, appeared
+the next day, forgave and was forgiven with much weeping, although the
+old man still refused resolutely to be reconciled with and receive her
+husband. Mrs. Martin started in to clean up the old house. A vacuum
+cleaner sucked a ton or two of dust from it. Everything was changed.
+Jane grumbled a great deal, but there was no doubt a great improvement.
+Meals were served regularly. The old man was taken care of as never
+before. Nothing was too good for him. Everywhere the touch of a woman
+was evident in the house. The change was complete. It even extended to
+me. Some friend had told her of an eye and ear specialist, a Dr. Scott,
+who was engaged. Since then, I understand, a new will has been made,
+much to the chagrin of the trustees of the projected school. Of course
+I am cut out of the new will, and that with the knowledge at least of
+the woman who once appealed to me, but it does not influence me in
+coming to you."
+
+"But what has happened since to arouse suspicion?" asked Kennedy,
+watching the doctor furtively.
+
+"Why, the fact is that, in spite of all this added care, the old man is
+failing more rapidly than ever. He never goes out except attended and
+not much even then. The other day I happened to meet Jane on the
+street. The faithful old soul poured forth a long story about his
+growing dependence on others and ended by mentioning a curious red
+discoloration that seems to have broken out over his face and hands.
+More from the way she said it than from what she said I gained the
+impression that something was going on which should be looked into."
+
+"Then you perhaps think that Prescott and Mrs. Martin are in some way
+connected in this case?" I hazarded.
+
+I had scarcely framed the question before he replied in an emphatic
+negative. "On the contrary, it seems to me that if they know each other
+at all it is with hostility. With the exception of the first stroke of
+blindness"--here he lowered his voice earnestly--"practically every
+misfortune that has overtaken Mr. Haswell has been since the advent of
+this new Dr. Scott. Mind, I do not wish even to breathe that Mrs.
+Martin has done anything except what a daughter should do. I think she
+has shown herself a model of forgiveness and devotion. Nevertheless the
+turn of events under the new treatment has been so strange that almost
+it makes one believe that there might be something occult about it--or
+wrong with the new doctor."
+
+"Would it be possible, do you think, for us to see Mr. Haswell?" asked
+Kennedy, when Dr. Burnham had come to a full stop after pouring forth
+his suspicions. "I should like to see this Dr. Scott. But first I
+should like to get into the old house without exciting hostility."
+
+The doctor was thoughtful. "You'll have to arrange that yourself," he
+answered. "Can't you think up a scheme? For instance, go to him with a
+proposal like the old schemes he used to finance. He is very much
+interested in electrical inventions. He made his money by speculation
+in telegraphs and telephones in the early days when they were more or
+less dreams. I should think a wireless system of television might at
+least interest him and furnish an excuse for getting in, although I am
+told his daughter discourages all tangible investment in the schemes
+that used to interest his active mind."
+
+"An excellent idea," exclaimed Kennedy. "It is worth trying anyway. It
+is still early. Suppose we ride over to Brooklyn with you. You can
+direct us to the house and we'll try to see him."
+
+It was still light when we mounted the high steps of the house of
+mystery across the bridge. Mrs. Martin, who met us in the parlour,
+proved to be a stunning looking woman with brown hair and beautiful
+dark eyes. As far as we could see the old house plainly showed the
+change. The furniture and ornaments were of a period long past, but
+everything was scrupulously neat. Hanging over the old marble mantel
+was a painting which quite evidently was that of the long since
+deceased Mrs. Haswell, the mother of Grace. In spite of the hideous
+style of dress of the period after the war, she had evidently been a
+very beautiful woman with large masses of light chestnut hair and blue
+eyes which the painter had succeeded in catching with almost
+life-likeness for a portrait.
+
+It took only a few minutes for Kennedy, in his most engaging and
+plausible manner, to state the hypothetical reason of our call. Though
+it was perfectly self-evident from the start that Mrs. Martin would
+throw cold water on anything requiring an outlay of money Craig
+accomplished his full purpose of securing an interview with Mr.
+Haswell. The invalid lay propped up in bed, and as we entered he heard
+us and turned his sightless eyes in our direction almost as if he saw.
+
+Kennedy had hardly begun to repeat and elaborate the story which he had
+already told regarding his mythical friend who had at last a commercial
+wireless "televue," as he called it on the spur of the moment, when
+Jane, the aged caretaker, announced Dr. Scott. The new doctor was a
+youthfully dressed man, clean-shaven, but with an undefinable air of
+being much older than his smooth face led one to suppose. As he had a
+large practice, he said, he would beg our pardon for interrupting but
+would not take long.
+
+It needed no great powers of observation to see that the old man placed
+great reliance on his new doctor and that the visit partook of a social
+as well as a professional nature. Although they talked low we could
+catch now and then a word or phrase. Dr. Scott bent down and examined
+the eyes of his patient casually. It was difficult to believe that they
+saw nothing, so bright was the blue of the iris.
+
+"Perfect rest for the present," the doctor directed, talking more to
+Mrs. Martin than to the old man. "Perfect rest, and then when his
+health is good, we shall see what can be done with that cataract."
+
+He was about to leave, when the old man reached up and restrained him,
+taking hold of the doctor's wrist tightly, as if to pull him nearer in
+order to whisper to him without being overheard. Kennedy was sitting in
+a chair near the head of the bed, some feet away, as the doctor leaned
+down. Haswell, still holding his wrist, pulled him closer. I could not
+hear what was said, though somehow I had an impression that they were
+talking about Prescott, for it would not have been at all strange if
+the old man had been greatly impressed by the alchemist.
+
+Kennedy, I noticed, had pulled an old envelope from his pocket and was
+apparently engaged in jotting down some notes, glancing now and then
+from his writing to the doctor and then to Mr. Haswell.
+
+The doctor stood erect in a few moments and rubbed his wrist
+thoughtfully with the other hand, as if it hurt. At the same time he
+smiled on Mrs. Martin. "Your father has a good deal of strength yet,
+Mrs. Martin," he remarked. "He has a wonderful constitution. I feel
+sure that we can pull him out of this and that he has many, many years
+to live."
+
+Mr. Haswell, who caught the words eagerly, brightened visibly, and the
+doctor passed out. Kennedy resumed his description of the supposed
+wireless picture apparatus which was to revolutionise the newspaper,
+the theatre, and daily life in general. The old man did not seem
+enthusiastic and turned to his daughter with some remark.
+
+"Just at present," commented the daughter, with an air of finality,
+"the only thing my father is much interested in is a way in which to
+recover his sight without an operation. He has just had a rather
+unpleasant experience with one inventor. I think it will be some time
+before he cares to embark in any other such schemes."
+
+Kennedy and I excused ourselves with appropriate remarks of
+disappointment. From his preoccupied manner it was impossible for me to
+guess whether Craig had accomplished his purpose or not.
+
+"Let us drop in on Dr. Burnham since we are over here," he said when we
+had reached the street. "I have some questions to ask him."
+
+The former physician of Mr. Haswell lived not very far from the house
+we had just left. He appeared a little surprised to see us so soon, but
+very interested in what had taken place.
+
+"Who is this Dr. Scott?" asked Craig when we were seated in the
+comfortable leather chairs of the old-fashioned consulting-room.
+
+"Really, I know no more about him than you do," replied Burnham. I
+thought I detected a little of professional jealousy in his tone,
+though he went on frankly enough, "I have made inquiries and I can find
+out nothing except that he is supposed to be a graduate of some Western
+medical school and came to this city only a short time ago. He has
+hired a small office in a new building devoted entirely to doctors and
+they tell me that he is an eye and ear specialist, though I cannot see
+that he has any practice. Beyond that I know nothing about him."
+
+"Your friend Prescott interests me, too," remarked Kennedy, changing
+the subject quickly.
+
+"Oh, he is no friend of mine," returned the doctor, fumbling in a
+drawer of his desk. "But I think I have one of his cards here which he
+gave me when we were introduced some time ago at Mr. Haswell's. I
+should think it would be worth while to see him. Although he has no use
+for me because I have neither money nor influence, still you might take
+this card. Tell him you are from the university, that I have interested
+you in him, that you know a trustee with money to invest--anything you
+like that is plausible. When are you going to see him?"
+
+"The first thing in the morning," replied Kennedy. "After I have seen
+him I shall drop in for another chat with you. Will you be here?"
+
+The doctor promised, and we took our departure.
+
+Prescott's laboratory, which we found the next day from the address on
+the card, proved to be situated in one of the streets near the
+waterfront under the bridge approach, where the factories and
+warehouses clustered thickly. It was with a great deal of anticipation
+of seeing something happen that we threaded our way through the maze of
+streets with the cobweb structure of the bridge carrying its endless
+succession of cars arching high over our heads. We had nearly reached
+the place when Kennedy paused and pulled out two pairs of glasses,
+those huge round tortoiseshell affairs.
+
+"You needn't mind these, Walter," he explained. "They are only plain
+glass, that is, not ground. You can see through them as well as through
+air. We must be careful not to excite suspicion. Perhaps a disguise
+might have been better, but I think this will do. There--they add at
+least a decade to your age. If you could see yourself you wouldn't
+speak to your reflection. You look as scholarly as a Chinese mandarin.
+Remember, let me do the talking and do just as I do."
+
+We had now entered the shop, stumbled up the dark stairs, and presented
+Dr. Burnham's card with a word of explanation along the lines which he
+had suggested. Prescott, surrounded by his retorts, crucibles,
+burettes, and condensers, received us much more graciously than I had
+had any reason to anticipate. He was a man in the late forties, his
+face covered with a thick beard, and his eyes, which seemed a little
+weak, were helped out with glasses almost as scholarly as ours.
+
+I could not help thinking that we three bespectacled figures lacked
+only the flowing robes to be taken for a group of mediaeval alchemists
+set down a few centuries out of our time in the murky light of
+Prescott's sanctum. Yet, though he accepted us at our face value, and
+began to talk of his strange discoveries there was none of the old
+familiar prating about matrix and flux, elixir, magisterium, magnum
+opus, the mastery and the quintessence, those alternate names for the
+philosopher's stone which Paracelsus, Simon Forman, Jerome Cardan, and
+the other mediaeval worthies indulged in. This experience at least was
+as up-to-date as the Curies, Becquerel, Ramsay, and the rest.
+
+"Transmutation," remarked Prescott, "was, as you know, finally declared
+to be a scientific absurdity in the eighteenth century. But I may say
+that it is no longer so regarded. I do not ask you to believe anything
+until you have seen; all I ask is that you maintain the same open mind
+which the most progressive scientists of to-day exhibit in regard to
+the subject."
+
+Kennedy had seated himself some distance from a curious piece or rather
+collection of apparatus over which Prescott was working. It consisted
+of numerous coils and tubes.
+
+"It may seem strange to you, gentlemen," Prescott proceeded, "that a
+man who is able to produce gold from, say, copper should be seeking
+capital from other people. My best answer to that old objection is that
+I am not seeking capital, as such. The situation with me is simply
+this. Twice I have applied to the patent office for a patent on my
+invention. They not only refuse to grant it, but they refuse to
+consider the application or even to give me a chance to demonstrate my
+process to them. On the other hand, suppose I try this thing secretly.
+How can I prevent any one from learning my trade secret, leaving me,
+and making gold on his own account? Men will desert as fast as I
+educate them. Think of the economic result of that; it would turn the
+world topsy-turvy. I am looking for some one who can be trusted to the
+last limit to join with me, furnish the influence and standing while I
+furnish the brains and the invention. Either we must get the government
+interested and sell the invention to it, or we must get government
+protection and special legislation. I am not seeking capital; I am
+seeking protection. First let me show you something."
+
+He turned a switch, and a part of the collection of apparatus began to
+vibrate.
+
+"You are undoubtedly acquainted with the modern theories of matter," he
+began, plunging into the explanation of his process. "Starting with the
+atom, we believe no longer that it is indivisible. Atoms are composed
+of thousands of ions, as they are called,--really little electric
+charges. Again, you know that we have found that all the elements fall
+into groups. Each group has certain related atomic weights and
+properties which can be and have been predicted in advance of the
+discovery of missing elements in the group. I started with the
+reasonable assumption that the atom of one element in a group could be
+modified so as to become the atom of another element in the group, that
+one group could perhaps be transformed into another, and so on, if only
+I knew the force that would change the number or modify the vibrations
+of these ions composing the various atoms.
+
+"Now for years I have been seeking that force or combination of forces
+that would enable me to produce this change in the elements--raising or
+lowering them in the scale, so to speak. I have found it. I am not
+going to tell you or any other man whom you may interest the secret of
+how it is done until I find some one I can trust as I trust myself. But
+I am none the less willing that you should see the results. If they are
+not convincing, then nothing can be."
+
+He appeared to be debating whether to explain further, and finally
+resumed: "Matter thus being in reality a manifestation of force or
+ether in motion, it is necessary to change and control that force and
+motion. This assemblage of machines here is for that purpose. Now a few
+words as to my theory."
+
+He took a pencil and struck a sharp blow on the table. "There you have
+a single blow," he said, "just one isolated noise. Now if I strike this
+tuning fork you have a vibrating note. In other words, a succession of
+blows or wave vibrations of a certain kind affects the ear and we call
+it sound, just as a succession of other wave vibrations affects the
+retina and we have sight. If a moving picture moves slower than a
+certain number of pictures a minute you see the separate pictures;
+faster it is one moving picture.
+
+"Now as we increase the rapidity of wave vibration and decrease the
+wave length we pass from sound waves to heat waves or what are known as
+the infra-red waves, those which lie below the red in the spectrum of
+light. Next we come to light, which is composed of the seven colours as
+you know from seeing them resolved in a prism. After that are what are
+known as the ultra-violet rays, which lie beyond the violet of white
+light. We also have electric waves, the waves of the alternating
+current, and shorter still we find the Hertzian waves, which are used
+in wireless. We have only begun to know of X-rays and the alpha, beta,
+and gamma rays from them, of radium, radioactivity, and finally of this
+new force which I have discovered and call 'protodyne,' the original
+force.
+
+"In short, we find in the universe Matter, Force, and Ether. Matter is
+simply ether in motion, is composed of corpuscles, electrically charged
+ions, or electrons, moving units of negative electricity about one
+one-thousandth part of the hydrogen atom. Matter is made up of
+electricity and nothing but electricity. Let us see what that leads to.
+You are acquainted with Mendeleeff's periodic table?"
+
+He drew forth a huge chart on which all the eighty or so elements were
+arranged in eight groups or octaves and twelve series. Selecting one,
+he placed his finger on the letters "Au," under which was written the
+number, 197.2. I wondered what the mystic letters and figures meant.
+
+"That," he explained, "is the scientific name for the element gold and
+the figure is its atomic weight. You will see," he added, pointing down
+the second vertical column on the chart, "that gold belongs to the
+hydrogen group--hydrogen, lithium, sodium, potassium, copper, rubidium,
+silver, caesium, then two blank spaces for elements yet to be
+discovered to science, then gold, and finally another unknown element."
+
+Running his finger along the eleventh, horizontal series, he,
+continued: "The gold series--not the group--reads gold, mercury,
+thallium, lead, bismuth, and other elements known only to myself. For
+the known elements, however, these groups and series are now perfectly
+recognised by all scientists; they are determined by the fixed weight
+of the atom, and there is a close approximation to regularity.
+
+"This twelfth series is interesting. So far only radium, thorium, and
+uranium are generally known. We know that the radioactive elements are
+constantly breaking down, and one often hears uranium, for instance,
+called the 'parent' of radium. Radium also gives off an emanation, and
+among its products is helium, quite another element. Thus the
+transmutation of matter is well known within certain bounds to all
+scientists to-day like yourself, Professor Kennedy. It has even been
+rumoured but never proved that copper has been transformed into
+lithium--both members of the hydrogen-gold group, you will observe.
+Copper to lithium is going backward, so to speak. It has remained for
+me to devise this protodyne apparatus by which I can reverse that
+process of decay and go forward in the table, so to put it--can change
+lithium into copper and copper into gold. I can create and destroy
+matter by protodyne."
+
+He had been fingering a switch as he spoke. Now he turned it on
+triumphantly. A curious snapping and crackling noise followed, becoming
+more rapid, and as it mounted in intensity I could smell a pungent
+odour of ozone which told of an electric discharge. On went the machine
+until we could feel heat radiating from it. Then came a piercing burst
+of greenish-blue light from a long tube which looked like a curious
+mercury vapour lamp.
+
+After a few minutes of this Prescott took a small crucible of black
+lead. "Now we are ready to try it," he cried in great excitement. "Here
+I have a crucible containing some copper. Any substance in the group
+would do, even hydrogen if there was any way I could handle the gas. I
+place it in the machine--so. Now if you could watch inside you would
+see it change; it is now rubidium, now silver, now caesium. Now it is a
+hitherto unknown element which I have named after myself, presium, now
+a second unknown element, cottium--ah!--there we have gold."
+
+He drew forth the crucible, and there glowed in it a little bead or
+globule of molten gold.
+
+"I could have taken lead or mercury and by varying the process done the
+same thing with the gold series as well as the gold group," he said,
+regarding the globule with obvious pride. "And I can put this gold back
+and bring it out copper or hydrogen, or better yet, can advance it
+instead of cause it to decay, and can get a radioactive element which I
+have named morganium--after my first name, Morgan Prescott. Morganium
+is a radioactive element next in the series to radium and much more
+active. Come closer and examine the gold."
+
+Kennedy shook his head as if perfectly satisfied to accept the result.
+As for me I knew not what to think. It was all so plausible and there
+was the bead of gold, too, that I turned to Craig for enlightenment.
+Was he convinced? His face was inscrutable.
+
+But as I looked I could see that Kennedy had been holding concealed in
+the palm of his hand a bit of what might be a mineral. From my position
+I could see the bit of mineral glowing, but Prescott could not.
+
+"Might I ask," interrupted Kennedy, "what that curious greenish or
+bluish light from the tube is composed of?"
+
+Prescott eyed him keenly for an instant through his thick glasses.
+Craig had shifted his gaze from the bit of mineral in his own hand, but
+was not looking at the light. He seemed to be indifferently
+contemplating Prescott's hand as it rested on the switch.
+
+"That, sir," replied Prescott slowly, "is an emanation due to this new
+force, protodyne, which I use. It is a manifestation of energy, sir,
+that may run changes not only through the whole gamut of the elements,
+but is capable of transforming the ether itself into matter, matter
+into life, and life into mind. It is the outward sign of the unity of
+nature, the--"
+
+"The means by which you secure the curious telepagrams I have heard
+of?" inquired Kennedy eagerly.
+
+Prescott looked at him sharply, and for a moment I thought his face
+seemed to change from a livid white to an apoplectic red, although it
+may have been only the play of the weird light. When he spoke it was
+with no show of even suppressed surprise.
+
+"Yes," he answered calmly. "I see that you have heard something of
+them. I had a curious case a few days ago. I had hoped to interest a
+certain capitalist of high standing in this city. I had showed him just
+what I have showed you, and I think he was impressed by it. Then I
+thought to clinch the matter by a telepagram, but for some reason or
+other I failed to consult the forces I control as to the wisdom of
+doing so. Had I, I should have known better. But I went ahead in
+self-confidence and enthusiasm. I told him of a long banished daughter
+with whom, in his heart, he was really wishing to become reconciled but
+was too proud to say the word. He resented it. He started to stamp out
+of this room, but not before I had another telepagram which told of a
+misfortune that was soon to overtake the old man himself. If he had
+given me a chance I might have saved him, at least have flashed a
+telepagram to that daughter myself, but he gave me no chance. He was
+gone.
+
+"I do not know precisely what happened after that, but in some way this
+man found his daughter, and to-day she is living with him. As for my
+hopes of getting assistance from him, I lost them from the moment when
+I made my initial mistake of telling him something distasteful. The
+daughter hates me and I hate her. I have learned that she never ceases
+advising the old man against all schemes for investment except those
+bearing moderate interest and readily realised on. Dr. Burnham--I see
+you know him--has been superseded by another doctor, I believe. Well,
+well, I am through with that incident. I must get assistance from other
+sources. The old man, I think, would have tricked me out of the fruits
+of my discovery anyhow. Perhaps I am fortunate. Who knows?"
+
+A knock at the door cut him short. Prescott opened it, and a messenger
+boy stood there. "Is Professor Kennedy here?" he inquired.
+
+Craig motioned to the boy, signed for the message, and tore it open.
+"It is from Dr. Burnham," he exclaimed, handing the message to me.
+
+"Mr. Haswell is dead," I read. "Looks to me like asphyxiation by gas or
+some other poison. Come immediately to his house. Burnham."
+
+"You will pardon me," broke in Craig to Prescott, who was regarding us
+without the slightest trace of emotion, "but Mr. Haswell, the old man
+to whom I know you referred, is dead, and Dr. Burnham wishes to see me
+immediately. It was only yesterday that I saw Mr. Haswell and he seemed
+in pretty good health and spirits. Prescott, though there was no love
+lost between you and the old man, I would esteem it a great favour if
+you would accompany me to the house. You need not take any
+responsibility unless you desire."
+
+His words were courteous enough, but Craig spoke in a tone of quiet
+authority which Prescott found it impossible to deny. Kennedy had
+already started to telephone to his own laboratory, describing a
+certain suitcase to one of his students and giving his directions. It
+was only a moment later that we were panting up the sloping street that
+led from the river front. In the excitement I scarcely noticed where we
+were going until we hurried up the steps to the Haswell house.
+
+The aged caretaker met us at the door. She was in tears. Upstairs in
+the front room where we had first met the old man we found Dr. Burnham
+working frantically over him. It took only a minute to learn what had
+happened. The faithful Jane had noticed an odour of gas in the hall,
+had traced it to Mr. Haswell's room, had found him unconscious, and
+instinctively, forgetting the new Dr. Scott, had rushed forth for Dr.
+Burnham. Near the bed stood Grace Martin, pale but anxiously watching
+the efforts of the doctor to resuscitate the blue-faced man who was
+stretched cold and motionless on the bed.
+
+Dr. Burnham paused in his efforts as we entered. "He is dead, all
+right," he whispered, aside. "I have tried everything I know to bring
+him back, but he is beyond help."
+
+There was still a sickening odour of illuminating gas in the room,
+although the windows were now all open.
+
+Kennedy, with provoking calmness in the excitement, turned from and
+ignored Dr. Burnham. "Have you summoned Dr. Scott?" he asked Mrs.
+Martin.
+
+"No," she replied, surprised. "Should I have done so?"
+
+"Yes. Send Jame immediately. Mr. Prescott, will you kindly be seated
+for a few moments."
+
+Taking off his coat, Kennedy advanced to the bed where the emaciated
+figure lay, cold and motionless. Craig knelt down at Mr. Haswell's head
+and took the inert arms, raising them up until they were extended
+straight. Then he brought them down, folded upward at the elbow at the
+side. Again and again he tried this Sylvester method of inducing
+respiration, but with no more result than Dr. Burnham had secured. He
+turned the body over on its face and tried the new Schaefer method.
+There seemed to be not a spark of life left.
+
+"Dr. Scott is out," reported the maid breathlessly, "but they are
+trying to locate him from his office, and if they do they will send him
+around immediately."
+
+A ring at the doorbell caused us to think that he had been found, but
+it proved to be the student to whom Kennedy had telephoned at his own
+laboratory. He was carrying a heavy suitcase and a small tank.
+
+Kennedy opened the suitcase hastily and disclosed a little motor, some
+long tubes of rubber fitting into a small rubber cap, forceps, and
+other paraphernalia. The student quickly attached one tube to the
+little tank, while Kennedy grasped the tongue of the dead man with the
+forceps, pulled it up off the soft palate, and fitted the rubber cap
+snugly over his mouth and nose.
+
+"This is the Draeger pulmotor," he explained as he worked, "devised to
+resuscitate persons who have died of electric shock, but actually found
+to be of more value in cases of asphyxiation. Start the motor."
+
+The pulmotor began to pump. One could see the dead man's chest rise as
+it was inflated with oxygen forced by the accordion bellows from the
+tank through one of the tubes into the lungs. Then it fell as the
+oxygen and the poisonous gas were slowly sucked out through the other
+tube. Again and again the process was repeated, about ten times a
+minute.
+
+Dr. Burnham looked on in undisguised amazement. He had long since given
+up all hope. The man was dead, medically dead, as dead as ever was any
+gas victim at this stage on whom all the usual methods of resuscitation
+had been tried and had failed.
+
+Still, minute after minute, Kennedy worked faithfully on, trying to
+discover some spark of life and to fan it into flame. At last, after
+what seemed to be a half-hour of unremitting effort, when the oxygen
+had long since been exhausted and only fresh air was being pumped into
+the lungs and out of them, there was a first faint glimmer of life in
+the heart and a touch of colour in the cheeks. Haswell was coming to.
+Another half-hour found him muttering and rambling weakly.
+
+"The letter--the letter," he moaned, rolling his glazed eyes about.
+"Where is the letter? Send for Grace."
+
+The moan was so audible that it was startling. It was like a voice from
+the grave. What did it all mean? Mrs. Martin was at his side in a
+moment.
+
+"Father, father,--here I am--Grace. What do you want?"
+
+The old man moved restlessly, feverishly, and pressed his trembling
+hand to his forehead as if trying to collect his thoughts. He was weak,
+but it was evident that he had been saved.
+
+The pulmotor had been stopped. Craig threw the cap to his student to be
+packed up, and as he did so he remarked quietly, "I could wish that Dr.
+Scott had been found. There are some matters here that might interest
+him."
+
+He paused and looked slowly from the rescued man lying dazed on the bed
+toward Mrs. Martin. It was quite apparent even to me that she did not
+share the desire to see Dr. Scott, at least not just then. She was
+flushed and trembling with emotion. Crossing the room hurriedly she
+flung open the door into the hall.
+
+"I am sure," she cried, controlling herself with difficulty and
+catching at a straw, as it were, "that you gentlemen, even if you have
+saved my father, are no friends of either his or mine. You have merely
+come here in response to Dr. Burnham, and he came because Jane lost her
+head in the excitement and forgot that Dr. Scott is now our physician."
+
+"But Dr. Scott could not have been found in time, madame," interposed
+Dr. Burnham with evident triumph.
+
+She ignored the remark and continued to hold the door open.
+
+"Now leave us," she implored, "you, Dr. Burnham, you, Mr. Prescott,
+you, Professor Kennedy, and your friend Mr. Jameson, whoever you may
+be."
+
+She was now cold and calm. In the bewildering change of events we had
+forgotten the wan figure on the bed still gasping for the breath of
+life. I could not help wondering at the woman's apparent lack of
+gratitude, and a thought flashed over my mind. Had the affair come to a
+contest between various parties fighting by fair means or foul for the
+old man's money--Scott and Mrs. Martin perhaps against Prescott and Dr.
+Burnham? No one moved. We seemed to be waiting on Kennedy. Prescott and
+Mrs. Martin were now glaring at each other implacably.
+
+The old man moved restlessly on the bed, and over my shoulder I could
+hear him gasp faintly, "Where's Grace? Send for Grace."
+
+Mrs. Martin paid no attention, seemed not to hear, but stood facing us
+imperiously as if waiting for us to obey her orders and leave the
+house. Burnham moved toward the door, but Prescott stood his ground
+with a peculiar air of defiance. Then he took my arm and started rather
+precipitately, I thought, to leave.
+
+"Come, come," said somebody behind us, "enough of the dramatics."
+
+It was Kennedy, who had been bending down, listening to the muttering
+of the old man.
+
+"Look at those eyes of Mr. Haswell," he said. "What colour are they?"
+
+We looked. They were blue.
+
+"Down in the parlour," continued Kennedy leisurely, "you will find a
+portrait of the long deceased Mrs. Haswell. If you will examine that
+painting you will see that her eyes are also a peculiarly limpid blue.
+No couple with blue eyes ever had a black-eyed child. At least, if this
+is such a case, the Carnegie Institution investigators would be glad to
+hear of it, for it is contrary to all that they have discovered on the
+subject after years of study of eugenics. Dark-eyed couples may have
+light-eyed children, but the reverse, never. What do you say to that,
+madame?"
+
+"You lie," screamed the woman, rushing frantically past us. "I AM his
+daughter. No interlopers shall separate us. Father!"
+
+The old man moved feebly away from her.
+
+"Send for Dr. Scott again," she demanded. "See if he cannot be found.
+He must be found. You are all enemies, villains."
+
+She addressed Kennedy, but included the whole room in her denunciation.
+
+"Not all," broke in Kennedy remorselessly. "Yes, madame, send for Dr.
+Scott. Why is he not here?"
+
+Prescott, with one hand on my arm and the other on Dr. Burnham's, was
+moving toward the door.
+
+"One moment, Prescott," interrupted Kennedy, detaining him with a look.
+"There was something I was about to say when Dr. Burnham's urgent
+message prevented it. I did not take the trouble even to find out how
+you obtained that little globule of molten gold from the crucible of
+alleged copper. There are so many tricks by which the gold could have
+been 'salted' and brought forth at the right moment that it was hardly
+worth while. Besides, I had satisfied myself that my first suspicions
+were correct. See that?"
+
+He held out the little piece of mineral I had already seen in his hand
+in the alchemist's laboratory.
+
+"That is a piece of willemite. It has the property of glowing or
+fluorescing under a certain kind of rays which are themselves invisible
+to the human eye. Prescott, your story of the transmutation of elements
+is very clever, but not more clever than your real story. Let us piece
+it together. I had already heard from Dr. Burnham how Mr. Haswell was
+induced by his desire for gain to visit you and how you had most
+mysteriously predicted his blindness. Now, there is no such thing as
+telepathy, at least in this case. How then was I to explain it? What
+could cause such a catastrophe naturally? Why, only those rays
+invisible to the human eye, but which make this piece of willemite
+glow--the ultraviolet rays."
+
+Kennedy was speaking rapidly and was careful not to pause long enough
+to give Prescott an opportunity to interrupt him.
+
+"These ultra-violet rays," he continued, "are always present in an
+electric arc light though not to a great degree unless the carbons have
+metal cores. They extend for two octaves above the violet of the
+spectrum and are too short to affect the eye as light, although they
+affect photographic plates. They are the friend of man when he uses
+them in moderation as Finsen did in the famous blue light treatment.
+But they tolerate no familiarity. To let them--particularly the shorter
+of the rays--enter the eye is to invite trouble. There is no warning
+sense of discomfort, but from six to eighteen hours after exposure to
+them the victim experiences violent pains in the eyes and headache.
+Sight may be seriously impaired, and it may take years to recover.
+Often prolonged exposure results in blindness, though a moderate
+exposure acts like a tonic. The rays may be compared in this double
+effect to drugs, such as strychnine. Too much of them may be
+destructive even to life itself."
+
+Prescott had now paused and was regarding Kennedy contemptuously.
+Kennedy paid no attention, but continued: "Perhaps these mysterious
+rays may shed some light on our minds, however. Now, for one thing,
+ultra-violet light passes readily through quartz, but is cut off by
+ordinary glass, especially if it is coated with chromium. Old Mr.
+Haswell did not wear glasses. Therefore he was subject to the rays--the
+more so as he is a blond, and I think it has been demonstrated by
+investigators that blonds are more affected by them than are brunettes.
+
+"You have, as a part of your machine, a peculiarly shaped quartz
+mercury vapour lamp, and the mercury vapour lamp of a design such as
+that I saw has been invented for the especial purpose of producing
+ultra-violet rays in large quantity. There are also in your machine
+induction coils for the purpose of making an impressive noise, and a
+small electric furnace to heat the salted gold. I don't know what other
+ingenious fakes you have added. The visible bluish light from the tube
+is designed, I suppose, to hoodwink the credulous, but the dangerous
+thing about it is the invisible ray that accompanies that light. Mr.
+Haswell sat under those invisible rays, Prescott, never knowing how
+deadly they might be to him, an old man.
+
+"You knew that they would not take effect for hours, and hence you
+ventured the prediction that he would be stricken at about midnight.
+Even if it was partial or temporary, still you would be safe in your
+prophecy. You succeeded better than you hoped in that part of your
+scheme. You had already prepared the way by means of a letter sent to
+Mr. Haswell through Dr. Burnham. But Mr. Haswell's credulity and fear
+worked the wrong way. Instead of appealing to you he hated you. In his
+predicament he thought only of his banished daughter and turned
+instinctively to her for help. That made necessary a quick change of
+plans."
+
+Prescott, far from losing his nerve, turned on us bitterly. "I knew you
+two were spies the moment I saw you," he shouted. "It seemed as if in
+some way I knew you for what you were, as if I knew you had seen Mr.
+Haswell before you came to me. You, too, would have robbed an inventor
+as I am sure he would. But have a care, both of you. You may be
+punished also by blindness for your duplicity. Who knows?"
+
+A shudder passed over me at the horrible thought contained in his
+mocking laugh. Were we doomed to blindness, too? I looked at the
+sightless man on the bed in alarm.
+
+"I knew that you would know us," retorted Kennedy calmly. "Therefore we
+came provided with spectacles of Euphos glass, precisely like those you
+wear. No, Prescott, we are safe, though perhaps we may have some burns
+like those red blotches on Mr. Haswell, light burns."
+
+Prescott had fallen back a step and Mrs. Martin was making an effort to
+appear stately and end the interview. "No," continued Craig, suddenly
+wheeling, and startling us by the abruptness of his next exposure, "it
+is you and your wife here--Mrs. Prescott, not Mrs. Martin--who must
+have a care. Stop glaring at each other. It is no use playing at
+enemies longer and trying to get rid of us. You overdo it. The game is
+up."
+
+Prescott made a rush at Kennedy, who seized him by the wrist and held
+him tightly in a grasp of steel that caused the veins on the back of
+his hands to stand out like whipcords.
+
+"This is a deep-laid plot," he went on calmly, still holding Prescott,
+while I backed up against the door and cut off his wife; "but it is not
+so difficult to see it after all. Your part was to destroy the eyesight
+of the old man, to make it necessary for him to call on his daughter.
+Your wife's part was to play the role of Mrs. Martin, whom he had not
+seen for years and could not see now. She was to persuade him, with her
+filial affection, to make her the beneficiary of his will, to see that
+his money was kept readily convertible into cash.
+
+"Then, when the old man was at last out of the way, you two could
+decamp with what you could realise before the real daughter, cut off
+somewhere across the continent, could hear of the death of her father.
+It was an excellent scheme. But Haswell's plain, material newspaper
+advertisement was not so effective for your purposes, Prescott, as the
+more artistic 'telepagram,' as you call it. Although you two got in
+first in answering the advertisement, it finally reached the right
+person after all. You didn't get away quickly enough.
+
+"You were not expecting that the real daughter would see it and turn up
+so soon. But she has. She lives in California. Mr. Haswell in his
+delirium has just told of receiving a telegram which I suppose you,
+Mrs. Prescott, read, destroyed, and acted upon. It hurried your plans,
+but you were equal to the emergency. Besides, possession is nine points
+in the law. You tried the gas, making it look like a suicide. Jane, in
+her excitement, spoiled that, and Dr. Burnham, knowing where I was, as
+it happened, was able to summon me immediately. Circumstances have been
+against you from the first, Prescott."
+
+Craig was slowly twisting up the hand of the inventor, which he still
+held. With his other hand he pulled a paper from his pocket. It was the
+old envelope on which he had written upon the occasion of our first
+visit to Mr. Haswell when we had been so unceremoniously interrupted by
+the visit of Dr. Scott.
+
+"I sat here yesterday by this bed," continued Craig, motioning toward
+the chair he had occupied, as I remembered. "Mr. Haswell was telling
+Dr. Scott something in an undertone. I could not hear it. But the old
+man grasped the doctor by the wrist to pull him closer to whisper to
+him. The doctor's hand was toward me and I noticed the peculiar
+markings of the veins.
+
+"You perhaps are not acquainted with the fact, but the markings of the
+veins in the back of the hand are peculiar to each individual--as
+infallible, indestructible, and ineffaceable as finger prints or the
+shape of the ear. It is a system invented and developed by Professor
+Tamassia of the University of Padua, Italy. A superficial observer
+would say that all vein patterns were essentially similar, and many
+have said so, but Tamassia has found each to be characteristic and all
+subject to almost incredible diversities. There are six general
+classes--in this case before us, two large veins crossed by a few
+secondary veins forming a V with its base near the wrist.
+
+"Already my suspicions had been aroused. I sketched the arrangement of
+the veins standing out on that hand. I noted the same thing just now on
+the hand that manipulated the fake apparatus in the laboratory. Despite
+the difference in make-up Scott and Prescott are the same.
+
+"The invisible rays of the ultra-violet light may have blinded Mr.
+Haswell, even to the recognition of his own daughter, but you can rest
+assured, Prescott, that the very cleverness of your scheme will
+penetrate the eyes of the blindfolded goddess of justice. Burnham, if
+you will have the kindness to summon the police, I will take all the
+responsibility for the arrest of these people."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE CAMPAIGN GRAFTER
+
+
+"What a relief it will be when this election is over and the newspapers
+print news again," I growled as I turned the first page of the Star
+with a mere glance at the headlines.
+
+"Yes," observed Kennedy, who was puzzling over a note which he had
+received in the morning mail. "This is the bitterest campaign in years.
+Now, do you suppose that they are after me in a professional way or are
+they trying to round me up as an independent voter?"
+
+The letter which had called forth this remark was headed, "The Travis
+Campaign Committee of the Reform League," and, as Kennedy evidently
+intended me to pass an opinion on it, I picked it up. It was only a few
+lines, requesting him to call during the morning, if convenient, on
+Wesley Travis, the candidate for governor and the treasurer of his
+campaign committee, Dean Bennett. It had evidently been written in
+great haste in longhand the night before.
+
+"Professional," I hazarded. "There must be some scandal in the campaign
+for which they require your services."
+
+"I suppose so," agreed Craig. "Well, if it is business instead of
+politics it has at least this merit--it is current business. I suppose
+you have no objection to going with me?"
+
+Thus it came about that not very much later in the morning we found
+ourselves at the campaign headquarters, in the presence of two nervous
+and high-keyed gentlemen in frock coats and silk hats. It would have
+taken no great astuteness, even without seeing the surroundings, to
+deduce instantly that they were engaged in the annual struggle of
+seeking the votes of their fellow-citizens for something or other, and
+were nearly worn out by the arduous nature of that process.
+
+Their headquarters were in a tower of a skyscraper, whence poured forth
+a torrent of appeal to the moral sense of the electorate, both in
+printed and oral form. Yet there was a different tone to the place from
+that which I had ordinarily associated with political headquarters in
+previous campaigns. There was an absence of the old-fashioned
+politicians and of the air of intrigue laden with tobacco. Rather,
+there was an air of earnestness and efficiency which was decidedly
+prepossessing. Maps of the state were hanging on the walls, some stuck
+full of various coloured pins denoting the condition of the canvass. A
+map of the city in colours, divided into all sorts of districts, told
+how fared the battle in the stronghold of the boss, Billy McLoughlin.
+Huge systems of card indexes, loose leaf devices, labour-saving
+appliances for getting out a vast mass of campaign "literature" in a
+hurry, in short a perfect system, such as a great, well-managed
+business might have been proud of, were in evidence everywhere.
+
+Wesley Travis was a comparatively young man, a lawyer who had early
+made a mark in politics and had been astute enough to shake off the
+thraldom of the bosses before the popular uprising against them. Now he
+was the candidate of the Reform League for governor and a good stiff
+campaign he was putting up.
+
+His campaign manager, Dean Bennett, was a business man whose financial
+interests were opposed to those usually understood to be behind Billy
+McLoughlin, of the regular party to which both Travis and Bennett might
+naturally have been supposed to belong in the old days. Indeed the
+Reform League owed its existence to a fortunate conjunction of both
+moral and economic conditions demanding progress.
+
+"Things have been going our way up to the present," began Travis
+confidentially, when we were seated democratically with our campaign
+cigars lighted. "Of course we haven't such a big 'barrel' as our
+opponents, for we are not frying the fat out of the corporations. But
+the people have supported us nobly, and I think the opposition of the
+vested interests has been a great help. We seem to be winning, and I
+say 'seem' only because one can never be certain how anything is going
+in this political game nowadays.
+
+"You recall, Mr. Kennedy, reading in the papers that my country house
+out on Long Island was robbed the other day? Some of the reporters made
+much of it. To tell the truth, I think they had become so satiated with
+sensations that they were sure that the thing was put up by some
+muckrakers and that there would be an expose of some kind. For the
+thief, whoever he was, seems to have taken nothing from my library but
+a sort of scrap-book or album of photographs. It was a peculiar
+robbery, but as I had nothing to conceal it didn't worry me. Well, I
+had all but forgotten it when a fellow came into Bennett's office here
+yesterday and demanded--tell us what it was, Bennett. You saw him."
+
+Bennett cleared his throat. "You see, it was this way. He gave his name
+as Harris Hanford and described himself as a photographer. I think he
+has done work for Billy McLoughlin. At any rate, his offer was to sell
+us several photographs, and his story about them was very
+circumstantial. He hinted that they had been evidently among those
+stolen from Mr. Travis and that in a roundabout way they had come into
+the possession of a friend of his without his knowing who the thief
+was. He said that he had not made the photographs himself, but had an
+idea by whom they were made, that the original plates had been
+destroyed, but that the person who made them was ready to swear that
+the pictures were taken after the nominating convention this fall which
+had named Travis. At any rate the photographs were out and the price
+for them was $25,000."
+
+"What are they that he should set such a price on them?" asked Kennedy,
+keenly looking from Bennett quickly to Travis.
+
+Travis met his look without flinching. "They are supposed to be
+photographs of myself," he replied slowly. "One purports to represent
+me in a group on McLoughlin's porch at his farm on the south shore of
+the island, about twenty miles from my place. As Hanford described it,
+I am standing between McLoughlin and J. Cadwalader Brown, the trust
+promoter who is backing McLoughlin to save his investments. Brown's
+hand is on my shoulder and we are talking familiarly. Another is a
+picture of Brown, McLoughlin, and myself riding in Brown's car, and in
+it Brown and I are evidently on the best of terms. Oh, there are
+several of them, all in the same vein. Now," he added, and his voice
+rose with emotion as if he were addressing a cart-tail meeting which
+must be convinced that there was nothing criminal in riding in a
+motor-car, "I don't hesitate to admit that a year or so ago I was not
+on terms of intimacy with these men, but at least acquainted with them.
+At various times, even as late as last spring, I was present at
+conferences over the presidential outlook in this state, and once I
+think I did ride back to the city with them. But I know that there were
+no pictures taken, and even if there had been I would not care if they
+told the truth about them. I have frankly admitted in my speeches that
+I knew these men, that my knowledge of them and breaking from them is
+my chief qualification for waging an effective war on them if I am
+elected. They hate me cordially. You know that. What I do care about is
+the sworn allegation that now accompanies these--these fakes. They were
+not, could not have been taken after the independent convention that
+nominated me. If the photographs were true I would be a fine traitor.
+But I haven't even seen McLoughlin or Brown since last spring. The
+whole thing is a--"
+
+"Lie from start to finish," put in Bennett emphatically. "Yes, Travis,
+we all know that. I'd quit right now if I didn't believe in you. But
+let us face the facts. Here is this story, sworn to as Hanford says and
+apparently acquiesced in by Billy McLoughlin and Cad. Brown. What do
+they care anyhow as long as it is against you? And there, too, are the
+pictures themselves--at least they will be in print or suppressed,
+according as we act. Now, you know that nothing could hurt the reform
+ticket worse than to have an issue like this raised at this time. We
+were supposed at least to be on the level, with nothing to explain
+away. There may be just enough people to believe that there is some
+basis for this suspicion to turn the tide against us. If it were
+earlier in the campaign I'd say accept the issue, fight it out to a
+finish, and in the turn of events we should really have the best
+campaign material. But it is too late now to expose such a knavish
+trick of theirs on the Friday before election. Frankly, I believe
+discretion is the better part of valour in this case and without
+abating a jot of my faith in you, Travis, well, I'd pay first and
+expose the fraud afterward, after the election, at leisure."
+
+"No, I won't," persisted Travis, shutting his square jaw doggedly. "I
+won't be held up."
+
+The door had opened and a young lady in a very stunning street dress,
+with a huge hat and a tantalising veil, stood in it for a moment,
+hesitated, and then was about to shut it with an apology for intruding
+on a conference.
+
+"I'll fight it if it takes my last dollar," declared Travis, "but I
+won't be blackmailed out of a cent. Good-morning, Miss Ashton. I'll be
+free in a moment. I'll see you in your office directly."
+
+The girl, with a portfolio of papers in her hand, smiled, and Travis
+quickly crossed the room and held the door deferentially open as he
+whispered a word or two. When she had disappeared he returned and
+remarked, "I suppose you have heard of Miss Margaret Ashton, the
+suffragette leader, Mr. Kennedy? She is the head of our press bureau."
+Then a heightened look of determination set his fine face in hard
+lines, and he brought his fist down on the desk. "No, not a cent," he
+thundered.
+
+Bennett shrugged his shoulders hopelessly and looked at Kennedy in mock
+resignation as if to say, "What can you do with such a fellow?" Travis
+was excitedly pacing the floor and waving his arms as if he were
+addressing a meeting in the enemy's country. "Hanford comes at us in
+this way," he continued, growing more excited as he paced up and down.
+"He says plainly that the pictures will of course be accepted as among
+those stolen from me, and in that, I suppose, he is right. The public
+will swallow it. When Bennett told him I would prosecute he laughed and
+said, 'Go ahead. I didn't steal the pictures. That would be a great
+joke for Travis to seek redress from the courts he is criticising. I
+guess he'd want to recall the decision if it went against him--hey?'
+Hanford says that a hundred copies have been made of each of the
+photographs and that this person, whom we do not know, has them ready
+to drop into the mail to the one hundred leading papers of the state in
+time for them to appear in the Monday editions just before Election
+Day. He says no amount of denying on our part can destroy the
+effect--or at least he went further and said 'shake their validity.'
+
+"But I repeat. They are false. For all I know, it is a plot of
+McLoughlin's, the last fight of a boss for his life, driven into a
+corner. And it is meaner than if he had attempted to forge a letter.
+Pictures appeal to the eye and mind much more than letters. That's what
+makes the thing so dangerous. Billy McLoughlin knows how to make the
+best use of such a roorback on the eve of an election, and even if I
+not only deny but prove that they are a fake, I'm afraid the harm will
+be done. I can't reach all the voters in time. Ten see such a charge to
+one who sees the denial."
+
+"Just so," persisted Bennett coolly. "You admit that we are practically
+helpless. That's what I have been saying all along. Get control of the
+prints first, Travis, for God's sake. Then raise any kind of a howl you
+want--before election or after. As I say, if we had a week or two it
+might be all right to fight. But we can make no move without making
+fools of ourselves until they are published Monday as the last big
+thing of the campaign. The rest of Monday and the Tuesday morning
+papers do NOT give us time to reply. Even if they were published to-day
+we should hardly have time to expose the plot, hammer it in, and make
+the issue an asset instead of a liability. No, you must admit it
+yourself. There isn't time. We must carry out the work we have so
+carefully planned to cap the campaign, and if we are diverted by this
+it means a let-up in our final efforts, and that is as good as
+McLoughlin wants anyhow. Now, Kennedy, don't you agree with me? Squelch
+the pictures now at any cost, then follow the thing up and, if we can,
+prosecute after election?"
+
+Kennedy and I, who had been so far little more than interested
+spectators, had not presumed to interrupt. Finally Craig asked, "You
+have copies of the pictures?"
+
+"No," replied Bennett. "This Hanford is a brazen fellow, but he was too
+astute to leave them. I saw them for an instant. They look bad. And the
+affidavits with them look worse."
+
+"H'm," considered Kennedy, turning the crisis over in his mind. "We've
+had alleged stolen and forged letters before, but alleged stolen and
+forged photographs are new. I'm not surprised that you are alarmed,
+Bennett,--nor that you want to fight, Travis."
+
+"Then you will take up the case?" urged the latter eagerly, forgetting
+both his campaign manager and his campaign manners, and leaning forward
+almost like a prisoner in the dock to catch the words of the foreman of
+the jury. "You will trace down the forger of those pictures before it
+is too late?"
+
+"I haven't said I'll do that--yet," answered Craig measuredly. "I
+haven't even said I'd take up the case. Politics is a new game to me,
+Mr. Travis. If I go into this thing I want to go into it and stay in
+it--well, you know how you lawyers put it, with clean hands. On one
+condition I'll take the matter up, and on only one."
+
+"Name it," cried Travis anxiously,
+
+"Of course, having been retained by you," continued Craig with
+provoking slowness, "it is not reasonable to suppose that if I
+find--how shall I put it--bluntly, yes?--if I find that the story of
+Hanford has some--er--foundation, it is not reasonable to suppose that
+I should desert you and go over to the other side. Neither is it to be
+supposed that I will continue and carry such a thing through for you
+regardless of truth. What I ask is to have a free hand, to be able to
+drop the case the moment I cannot proceed further in justice to myself,
+drop it, and keep my mouth shut. You understand? These are my
+conditions and no less."
+
+"And you think you can make good?" questioned Bennett rather
+sceptically. "You are willing to risk it? You don't think it would be
+better to wait until after the election is won?"
+
+"You have heard my conditions," reiterated Craig.
+
+"Done," broke in Travis. "I'm going to fight it out, Bennett. If we get
+in wrong by dickering with them at the start it may be worse for us in
+the end. Paying amounts to confession."
+
+Bennett shook his head dubiously. "I'm afraid this will suit
+McLoughlin's purpose just as well. Photographs are like statistics.
+They don't lie unless the people who make them do. But it's hard to
+tell what a liar can accomplish with either in an election."
+
+"Say, Dean, you're not going to desert me?" reproached Travis. "You're
+not offended at my kicking over the traces, are you?"
+
+Bennett rose, placed a hand on Travis's shoulder, and grasped his
+other. "Wesley," he said earnestly, "I wouldn't desert you even if the
+pictures were true."
+
+"I knew it," responded Travis heartily. "Then let Mr. Kennedy have one
+day to see what he can do. Then if we make no progress we'll take your
+advice, Dean. We'll pay, I suppose, and ask Mr. Kennedy to continue the
+case after next Tuesday."
+
+"With the proviso," put in Craig.
+
+"With the proviso, Kennedy," repeated Travis. "Your hand on that. Say,
+I think I've shaken hands with half the male population of this state
+since I was nominated, but this means more to me than any of them. Call
+on us, either Bennett or myself, the moment you need aid. Spare no
+reasonable expense, and--and get the goods, no matter whom it hits
+higher up, even if it is Cadwalader Brown himself. Good-bye and a
+thousand thanks--oh, by the way, wait. Let me take you around and
+introduce you to Miss Ashton. She may be able to help you."
+
+The office of Bennett and Travis was in the centre of the suite. On one
+side were the cashier and clerical force as well as the speakers'
+bureau, where spellbinders of all degrees were getting instruction,
+tours were being laid out, and reports received from meetings already
+held.
+
+On the other side was the press bureau with a large and active force in
+charge of Miss Ashton, who was supporting Travis because he had most
+emphatically declared for "Votes for Women" and had insisted that his
+party put this plank in its platform. Miss Ashton was a clever girl, a
+graduate of a famous woman's college, and had had several years of
+newspaper experience before she became a leader in the suffrage cause.
+I recalled having read and heard a great deal about her, though I had
+never met her. The Ashtons were well known in New York society, and it
+was a sore trial to some of her conservative friends that she should
+reject what they considered the proper "sphere" for women. Among those
+friends, I understood, was Cadwalader Brown himself.
+
+Travis had scarcely more than introduced us, yet already I scented a
+romance behind the ordinarily prosaic conduct of a campaign press
+bureau. It is far from my intention to minimise the work or the ability
+of the head of the press bureau, but it struck me, both then and later,
+that the candidate had an extraordinary interest in the newspaper
+campaign, much more than in the speakers' bureau, and I am sure that it
+was not solely accounted for by the fact that publicity is playing a
+more and more important part in political campaigning.
+
+Nevertheless such innovations as her card index system by election
+districts all over the state, showing the attitude of the various
+newspaper editors, of local political leaders, and changes of
+sentiment, were very full and valuable. Kennedy, who had a regular
+pigeon-hole mind for facts, was visibly impressed by this huge
+mechanical memory built up by Miss Ashton. Though he said nothing to me
+I knew he had also observed the state of affairs between the reform
+candidate and the suffrage leader.
+
+It was at a moment when Travis had been called back to his office that
+Kennedy, who had been eyeing Miss Ashton with marked approval, leaned
+over and said in a low voice. "Miss Ashton, I think I can trust you. Do
+you want to do a great favour for Mr. Travis?"
+
+She did not betray even by a fleeting look on her face what the true
+state of her feelings was, although I fancied that the readiness of her
+assent had perhaps more meaning than she would have placed in a simple
+"Yes" otherwise.
+
+"I suppose you know that an attempt is being made to blackmail Mr.
+Travis?" added Kennedy quickly.
+
+"I know something about it," she replied in a tone which left it for
+granted that Travis had told her before even we were called in. I felt
+that not unlikely Travis's set determination to fight might be
+traceable to her advice or at least to her opinion of him.
+
+"I suppose in a large force like this it is not impossible that your
+political enemies may have a spy or two," observed Kennedy, glancing
+about at the score or more clerks busily engaged in getting out
+"literature."
+
+"I have sometimes thought that myself," she agreed. "But of course I
+don't know. Still, I have to be pretty careful. Some one is always over
+here by my desk or looking over here. There isn't much secrecy in a big
+room like this. I never leave important stuff lying about where any of
+them could see it."
+
+"Yes," mused Kennedy. "What time does the office close?"
+
+"We shall finish to-night about nine, I think. To-morrow it may be
+later."
+
+"Well, then, if I should call here to-night at, say, half-past nine,
+Could you be here? I need hardly say that your doing so may be of
+inestimable value to--to the campaign."
+
+"I shall be here," she promised, giving her hand with a peculiar
+straight arm shake and looking him frankly in the face with those eyes
+which even the old guard in the legislature admitted were vote-winners.
+
+Kennedy was not quite ready to leave yet, but sought out Travis and
+obtained permission to glance over the financial end of the campaign.
+There were few large contributors to Travis's fund, but a host of small
+sums ranging from ten and twenty-five dollars down to dimes and
+nickels. Truly it showed the depth of the popular uprising. Kennedy
+also glanced hastily over the items of expense--rent, salaries,
+stenographer and office force, advertising, printing and stationery,
+postage, telephone, telegraph, automobile and travelling expenses, and
+miscellaneous matters.
+
+As Kennedy expressed it afterwards, as against the small driblets of
+money coming in, large sums were going out for expenses in lumps.
+Campaigning in these days costs money even when done honestly. The
+miscellaneous account showed some large indefinite items, and after a
+hasty calculation Kennedy made out that if all the obligations had to
+be met immediately the committee would be in the hole for several
+thousand dollars.
+
+"In short," I argued as we were leaving, "this will either break Travis
+privately or put his fund in hopeless shape. Or does it mean that he
+foresees defeat and is taking this way to recoup himself under cover of
+being held up?"
+
+Kennedy said nothing in response to my suspicions, though I could see
+that in his mind he was leaving no possible clue unnoted.
+
+It was only a few blocks to the studio of Harris Hanford, whom Kennedy
+was now bent on seeing. We found him in an old building on one of the
+side streets in the thirties which business had captured. His was a
+little place on the top floor, up three flights of stairs, and I
+noticed as we climbed up that the room next to his was vacant.
+
+Our interview with Hanford was short and unsatisfactory. He either was
+or at least posed as representing a third party in the affair, and
+absolutely refused to permit us to have even a glance at the
+photographs.
+
+"My dealings," he asserted airily, "must all be with Mr. Bennett, or
+with Mr. Travis, direct, not with emissaries. I don't make any secret
+about it. The prints are not here. They are safe and ready to be
+produced at the right time, either to be handed over for the money or
+to be published in the newspapers. We have found out all about them; we
+are satisfied, although the negatives have been destroyed. As for their
+having been stolen from Travis, you can put two and two together. They
+are out and copies have been made of them, good copies. If Mr. Travis
+wishes to repudiate them, let him start proceedings. I told Bennett all
+about that. To-morrow is the last day, and I must have Bennett's answer
+then, without any interlopers coming into it. If it is yes, well and
+good; if not, then they know what to expect. Good-bye."
+
+It was still early in the forenoon, and Kennedy's next move was to go
+out on Long Island to examine the library at Travis's from which the
+pictures were said to have been stolen. At the laboratory Kennedy and I
+loaded ourselves with a large oblong black case containing a camera and
+a tripod.
+
+His examination of the looted library was minute, taking in the window
+through which the thief had apparently entered, the cabinet he had
+forced, and the situation in general. Finally Craig set up his camera
+with most particular care and took several photographs of the window,
+the cabinet, the doors, including the room from every angle. Outside he
+snapped the two sides of the corner of the house in which the library
+was situated. Partly by trolley and partly by carriage we crossed the
+island to the south shore, and finally found McLoughlin's farm where we
+had no trouble in getting half a dozen photographs of the porch and
+house. Altogether the proceedings seemed tame to me, yet I knew from
+previous experience that Kennedy had a deep laid purpose.
+
+We parted in the city, to meet just before it was time to visit Miss
+Ashton. Kennedy had evidently employed the interval in developing his
+plates, for he now had ten or a dozen prints, all of exactly the same
+size, mounted on stiff cardboard in a space with scales and figures on
+all four sides. He saw me puzzling over them.
+
+"Those are metric photographs such as Bertillon of Paris takes," he
+explained. "By means of the scales and tables and other methods that
+have been worked out we can determine from those pictures distances and
+many other things almost as well as if we were on the spot itself.
+Bertillon has cleared up many crimes with this help, such as the
+mystery of the shooting in the Hotel Quai d'Orsay and other cases. The
+metric photograph, I believe, will in time rank with the portrait
+parle, finger prints, and the rest.
+
+"For instance, in order to solve the riddle of a crime the detective's
+first task is to study the scene topographically. Plans and elevations
+of a room or house are made. The position of each object is
+painstakingly noted. In addition, the all-seeing eye of the camera is
+called into requisition. The plundered room is photographed, as in this
+case. I might have done it by placing a foot rule on a table and taking
+that in the picture, but a more scientific and accurate method has been
+devised by Bertillon. His camera lens is always used at a fixed height
+from the ground and forms its image on the plate at an exact focus. The
+print made from the negative is mounted on a card in a space of
+definite size, along the edges of which a metric scale is printed. In
+the way he has worked it out the distance between any two points in the
+picture can be determined. With a topographical plan and a metric
+photograph one can study a crime as a general studies the map of a
+strange country. There were several peculiar things that I observed
+to-day, and I have here an indelible record of the scene of the crime.
+Preserved in this way it cannot be questioned.
+
+"Now the photographs were in this cabinet. There are other cabinets,
+but none of them has been disturbed. Therefore the thief must have
+known just what he was after. The marks made in breaking the lock were
+not those of a jimmy but of a screwdriver. No amazing command of the
+resources of science is needed so far. All that is necessary is a
+little scientific common sense, Walter.
+
+"Now, how did the robber get in? All the windows and doors were
+supposedly locked. It is alleged that a pane was cut from this window
+at the side. It was, and the pieces were there to show it. But take a
+glance at this outside photograph. To reach that window even a tall man
+must have stood on a ladder or something. There are no marks of a
+ladder or of any person in the soft soil under the window. What is
+more, that window was cut from the inside. The marks of the diamond
+which cut it plainly show that. Scientific common sense again."
+
+"Then it must have been some one in the house or at least some one
+familiar with it?" I exclaimed.
+
+Kennedy nodded. "One thing we have which the police greatly neglect,"
+he pursued, "a record. We have made some progress in reconstructing the
+crime, as Bertillon calls it. If we only had those Hanford pictures we
+should be all right."
+
+We were now on our way to see Miss Ashton at headquarters, and as we
+rode downtown I tried to reason out the case. Had it really been a
+put-up job? Was Travis himself faking, and was the robbery a "plant" by
+which he might forestall exposure of what had become public property in
+the hands of another, no longer disposed to conceal it? Or was it after
+all the last desperate blow of the Boss?
+
+The whole thing began to assume a suspicious look in my mind. Although
+Kennedy seemed to have made little real progress, I felt that, far from
+aiding Travis, it made things darker. There was nothing but his
+unsupported word that he had not visited the Boss subsequent to the
+nominating convention. He admitted having done so before the Reform
+League came into existence. Besides it seemed tacitly understood that
+both the Boss and Cadwalader Brown acquiesced in the sworn statement of
+the man who said he had made the pictures. Added to that the mere
+existence of the actual pictures themselves was a graphic clincher to
+the story. Personally, if I had been in Kennedy's place I think I
+should have taken advantage of the proviso in the compact with Travis
+to back out gracefully. Kennedy, however, now started on the case, hung
+to it tenaciously.
+
+Miss Ashton was waiting for us at the press bureau. Her desk was at the
+middle of one end of the room in which, if she could keep an eye on her
+office force, the office force also could keep an eye on her.
+
+Kennedy had apparently taken in the arrangement during our morning
+visit, for he set to work immediately. The side of the room toward the
+office of Travis and Bennett presented an expanse of blank wall. With a
+mallet he quickly knocked a hole in the rough plaster, just above the
+baseboard about the room. The hole did not penetrate quite through to
+the other side. In it he placed a round disc of vulcanised rubber, with
+insulated wires leading down back of the baseboard, then out underneath
+it, and under the carpet. Some plaster quickly closed up the cavity in
+the wall, and he left it to dry.
+
+Next he led the wires under the carpet to Miss Ashton's desk. There
+they ended, under the carpet and a rug, eighteen or twenty huge coils
+several feet in diameter disposed in such a way as to attract no
+attention by a curious foot on the carpet which covered them.
+
+"That is all, Miss Ashton," he said as we watched for his next move. "I
+shall want to see you early to-morrow, and,--might I ask you to be sure
+to wear that hat which you have on?"
+
+It was a very becoming hat, but Kennedy's tone clearly indicated that
+it was not his taste in inverted basket millinery that prompted the
+request. She promised, smiling, for even a suffragette may like pretty
+hats.
+
+Craig had still to see Travis and report on his work. The candidate was
+waiting anxiously at his hotel after a big political mass meeting on
+the East Side, at which capitalism and the bosses had been hissed to
+the echo, if that is possible.
+
+"What success?" inquired Travis eagerly.
+
+"I'm afraid," replied Kennedy, and the candidate's face fell at the
+tone, "I'm afraid you will have to meet them, for the present. The time
+limit will expire to-morrow, and I understand Hanford is coming up for
+a final answer. We must have copies of those photographs, even if we
+have to pay for them. There seems to be no other way."
+
+Travis sank back in his chair and regarded Kennedy hopelessly. He was
+actually pale. "You--you don't mean to say that there is no other way,
+that I'll have to admit even before Bennett--and others that I'm in
+bad?"
+
+"I wouldn't put it that way," said Kennedy mercilessly, I thought.
+
+"It is that way," Travis asserted almost fiercely. "Why, we could have
+done that anyhow. No, no,--I don't mean that. Pardon me. I'm upset by
+this. Go ahead," he sighed.
+
+"You will direct Bennett to make the best terms he can with Hanford
+when he comes up to-morrow. Have him arrange the details of payment and
+then rush the best copies of the photographs to me."
+
+Travis seemed crushed.
+
+We met Miss Ashton the following morning entering her office. Kennedy
+handed her a package, and in a few words, which I did not hear,
+explained what he wanted, promising to call again later.
+
+When we called, the girls and other clerks had arrived, and the office
+was a hive of industry in the rush of winding up the campaign.
+Typewriters were clicking, clippings were being snipped out of a huge
+stack of newspapers and pasted into large scrap-books, circulars were
+being folded and made ready to mail for the final appeal. The room was
+indeed crowded, and I felt that there was no doubt, as Kennedy had
+said, that nothing much could go on there unobserved by any one to
+whose interest it was to see it.
+
+Miss Ashton was sitting at her desk with her hat on directing the work.
+"It works," she remarked enigmatically to Kennedy.
+
+"Good," he replied. "I merely dropped in to be sure. Now if anything of
+interest happens, Miss Ashton, I wish you would let me know
+immediately. I must not be seen up here, but I shall be waiting
+downstairs in the corridor of the building. My next move depends
+entirely on what you have to report."
+
+Downstairs Craig waited with growing impatience. We stood in an angle
+in which we could see without being readily seen, and our impatience
+was not diminished by seeing Hanford enter the elevator.
+
+I think that Miss Ashton would have made an excellent woman detective,
+that is, on a case in which her personal feelings were not involved as
+they were here. She was pale and agitated as she appeared in the
+corridor, and Kennedy hurried toward her.
+
+"I can't believe it. I won't believe it," she managed to say.
+
+"Tell me, what happened?" urged Kennedy soothingly.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Kennedy, why did you ask me to do this?" she reproached. "I
+would almost rather not have known it at all."
+
+"Believe me, Miss Ashton," said Kennedy, "you ought to know. It is on
+you that I depend most. We saw Hanford go up. What occurred?"
+
+She was still pale, and replied nervously, "Mr. Bennett came in about
+quarter to ten. He stopped to talk to me and looked about the room
+curiously. Do you know, I felt very uncomfortable for a time. Then he
+locked the door leading from the press bureau to his office, and left
+word that he was not to be disturbed. A few minutes later a man called."
+
+"Yes, yes," prompted Kennedy. "Hanford, no doubt."
+
+She was racing on breathlessly, scarcely giving one a chance to inquire
+how she had learned so much.
+
+"Why," she cried with a sort of defiant ring in her tone, "Mr. Travis
+is going to buy those pictures after all. And the worst of it is that I
+met him in the hall coming in as I was coming down here, and he tried
+to act toward me in the same old way--and that after all I know now
+about him. They have fixed it all up, Mr. Bennett acting for Mr.
+Travis, and this Mr. Hanford. They are even going to ask me to carry
+the money in a sealed envelope to the studio of this fellow Hanford, to
+be given to a third person who will be there at two o'clock this
+afternoon."
+
+"You, Miss Ashton?" inquired Kennedy, a light breaking on his face as
+if at last he saw something.
+
+"Yes, I," she repeated. "Hanford insisted that it was part of the
+compact. They--they haven't asked me openly yet to be the means of
+carrying out their dirty deals, but when they do, I--I won't----"
+
+"Miss Ashton," remonstrated Kennedy, "I beg you to be calm. I had no
+idea you would take it like this, no idea. Please, please. Walter, you
+will excuse us if we take a turn down the corridor and out in the air.
+This is most extraordinary."
+
+For five or ten minutes Kennedy and Miss Ashton appeared to be
+discussing the new turn of events earnestly, while I waited
+impatiently. As they approached again she seemed calmer, but I heard
+her say, "I hope you're right. I'm all broken up by it. I'm ready to
+resign. My faith in human nature is shaken. No, I won't expose Wesley
+Travis for his sake. It cuts me to have to admit it, but Cadwalader
+used always to say that every man has his price. I am afraid this will
+do great harm to the cause of reform and through it to the woman
+suffrage cause which cast its lot with this party. I--I can hardly
+believe----"
+
+Kennedy was still looking earnestly at her. "Miss Ashton," he implored,
+"believe nothing. Remember one of the first rules of politics is
+loyalty. Wait until----"
+
+"Wait?" she echoed. "How can I? I hate Wesley Travis for giving
+in--more than I hate Cadwalader Brown for his cynical disregard of
+honesty in others."
+
+She bit her lip at thus betraying her feelings, but what she had heard
+had evidently affected her deeply. It was as though the feet of her
+idol had turned to clay. Nevertheless it was evident that she was
+coming to look on it more as she would if she were an outsider.
+
+"Just think it over," urged Kennedy. "They won't ask you right away.
+Don't do anything rash. Suspend judgment. You won't regret it."
+
+Craig's next problem seemed to be to transfer the scene of his
+operations to Hanford's studio. He was apparently doing some rapid
+thinking as we walked uptown after leaving Miss Ashton, and I did not
+venture to question him on what had occurred when it was so evident
+that everything depended on being prepared for what was still to occur.
+
+Hanford was out. That seemed to please Kennedy, for with a brightening
+face, which told more surely than words that he saw his way more and
+more clearly, he asked me to visit the agent and hire the vacant office
+next to the studio while he went uptown to complete his arrangements
+for the final step.
+
+I had completed my part and was waiting in the empty room when he
+returned. He lost no time in getting to work, and it seemed to me as I
+watched him curiously in silence that he was repeating what he had
+already done at the Travis headquarters. He was boring into the wall,
+only this time he did it much more carefully, and it was evident that
+if he intended putting anything into this cavity it must be pretty
+large. The hole was square, and as I bent over I could see that he had
+cut through the plaster and laths all the way to the wallpaper on the
+other side, though he was careful to leave that intact. Then he set up
+a square black box in the cavity, carefully poising it and making
+measurements that told of the exact location of its centre with
+reference to the partitions and walls.
+
+A skeleton key took us into Hanford's well-lighted but now empty
+studio. For Miss Ashton's sake I wished that the photographs had been
+there. I am sure Kennedy would have found slight compunction in a
+larceny of them, if they had been. It was something entirely different
+that he had in mind now, however, and he was working quickly for fear
+of discovery. By his measurements I guessed that he was calculating as
+nearly as possible the centre of the box which he had placed in the
+hole in the wall on the other side of the dark wallpaper. When he had
+quite satisfied himself he took a fine pencil from his pocket and made
+a light cross on the paper to indicate it. The dot fell to the left of
+a large calendar hanging on the wall.
+
+Kennedy's appeal to Margaret Ashton had evidently had its effect, for
+when we saw her a few moments after these mysterious preparations she
+had overcome her emotion.
+
+"They have asked me to carry a note to Mr. Hanford's studio," she said
+quietly, "and without letting them know that I know anything about it I
+have agreed to do so."
+
+"Miss Ashton," said Kennedy, greatly relieved, "you're a trump."
+
+"No," she replied, smiling faintly, "I'm just feminine enough to be
+curious."
+
+Craig shook his head, but did not dispute the point. "After you have
+handed the envelope to the person, whoever it may be, in Hanford's
+studio, wait until he does something--er,--suspicious. Meanwhile look
+at the wall on the side toward the next vacant office. To the left of
+the big calendar you will see a light pencil mark, a cross. Somehow you
+must contrive to get near it, but don't stand in front of it. Then if
+anything happens stick this little number 10 needle in the wall right
+at the intersection of the cross. Withdraw it quickly, count fifteen,
+then put this little sticker over the cross, and get out as best you
+can, though we shan't be far away if you should need us. That's all."
+
+We did not accompany her to the studio for fear of being observed, but
+waited impatiently in the next office. We could hear nothing of what
+was said, but when a door shut and it was evident that she had gone,
+Kennedy quickly removed something from the box in the wall covered with
+a black cloth.
+
+As soon as it was safe Kennedy had sent me posting after her to secure
+copies of the incriminating photographs which were to be carried by her
+from the studio, while he remained to see who came out. I thought a
+change had come over her as she handed me the package with the request
+that I carry it to Mr. Bennett and get them from him.
+
+The first inkling I had that Kennedy had at last been able to trace
+back something in the mysterious doings of the past two days came the
+following evening, when Craig remarked casually that he would like to
+have me call on Billy McLoughlin if I had no engagement. I replied that
+I had none--and managed to squirm out of the one I really had.
+
+The Boss's office was full of politicians, for it was the eve of "dough
+day," when the purse strings were loosed and a flood of potent argument
+poured forth to turn the tide of election. Hanford was there with the
+other ward heelers.
+
+"Mr. McLoughlin," began Kennedy quietly, when we were seated alone with
+Hanford in the little sanctum of the Boss, "you will pardon me if I
+seem a little slow in coming to the business that has brought me here
+to-night. First of all, I may say, and you, Hanford, being a
+photographer will appreciate it, that ever since the days of Daguerre
+photography has been regarded as the one infallible means of portraying
+faithfully any object, scene, or action. Indeed a photograph is
+admitted in court as irrefutable evidence. For when everything else
+fails, a picture made through the photographic lens almost invariably
+turns the tide. However, such a picture upon which the fate of an
+important case may rest should be subjected to critical examination for
+it is an established fact that a photograph may be made as untruthful
+as it may be reliable. Combination photographs change entirely the
+character of the initial negative and have been made for the past fifty
+years. The earliest, simplest, and most harmless photographic deception
+is the printing of clouds into a bare sky. But the retoucher with his
+pencil and etching tool to-day is very skilful. A workman of ordinary
+skill can introduce a person taken in a studio into an open-air scene
+well blended and in complete harmony without a visible trace of falsity.
+
+"I need say nothing of how one head can be put on another body in a
+picture, nor need I say what a double exposure will do. There is almost
+no limit to the changes that may be wrought in form and feature. It is
+possible to represent a person crossing Broadway or walking on
+Riverside Drive, places he may never have visited. Thus a person
+charged with an offence may be able to prove an alibi by the aid of a
+skilfully prepared combination photograph.
+
+"Where, then, can photography be considered as irrefutable evidence?
+The realism may convince all, will convince all, except the expert and
+the initiated after careful study. A shrewd judge will insist that in
+every case the negative be submitted and examined for possible
+alterations by a clever manipulator."
+
+Kennedy bent his gaze on McLoughlin. "Now, I do not accuse you, sir, of
+anything. But a photograph has come into the possession of Mr. Travis
+in which he is represented as standing on the steps of your house with
+yourself and Mr. Cadwalader Brown. He and Mr. Brown are in poses that
+show the utmost friendliness. I do not hesitate to say that that was
+originally a photograph of yourself, Mr. Brown, and your own candidate.
+It is a pretty raw deal, a fake in which Travis has been substituted by
+very excellent photographic forgery."
+
+McLoughlin motioned to Hanford to reply. "A fake?" repeated the latter
+contemptuously. "How about the affidavits? There's no negative. You've
+got to prove that the original print stolen from Travis, we'll say, is
+a fake. You can't do it."
+
+"September 19th was the date alleged, I believe?" asked Kennedy
+quietly, laying down the bundle of metric photographs and the alleged
+photographs of Travis. He was pointing to a shadow of a gable on the
+house as it showed in the metric photographs and the others.
+
+"You see that shadow of the gable? Perhaps you never heard of it,
+Hanford, but it is possible to tell the exact time at which a
+photograph was taken from a study of the shadows. It is possible in
+principle and practice and can be trusted. Almost any scientist may be
+called on to bear testimony in court nowadays, but you would say the
+astronomer is one of the least likely. Well, the shadow in this picture
+will prove an alibi for some one.
+
+"Notice. It is seen very prominently to the right, and its exact
+location on the house is an easy matter. You could almost use the
+metric photograph for that. The identification of the gable casting the
+shadow is easy. To be exact it is 19.62 feet high. The shadow is 14.23
+feet down, 13.10 feet east, and 3.43 feet north. You see I am exact. I
+have to be. In one minute it moved 0.080 feet upward, 0.053 feet to the
+right and 0.096 feet in its apparent path. It passes the width of a
+weatherboard, 0.37 foot, in four minutes and thirty-seven seconds."
+
+Kennedy was talking rapidly of data which he had derived from his
+metric photograph, from plumb line, level, compass, and tape,
+astronomical triangle, vertices, zenith, pole and sun, declination,
+azimuth, solar time, parallactic angles, refraction, and a dozen
+bewildering terms.
+
+"In spherical trigonometry," he concluded, "to solve the problem three
+elements must be known. I knew four. Therefore I could take each of the
+known, treat it as unknown, and have four ways to check my result. I
+find that the time might have been either three o'clock, twenty-one
+minutes and twelve seconds, in the afternoon, or 3:21:31, or 3:21:29,
+or 3:21:33. The average is 3:21:26, and there can therefore be no
+appreciable error except for a few seconds. For that date must have
+been one of two days, either May 22 or July 22. Between these two dates
+we must decide on evidence other than the shadow. It must have been in
+May, as the immature condition of the foliage shows. But even if it had
+been in July, that is far from being September. The matter of the year
+I have also settled. Weather conditions, I find, were favourable on all
+these dates except that in September. I can really answer, with an
+assurance and accuracy superior to that of the photographer
+himself--even if he were honest--as to the real date. The real picture,
+aside from being doctored, was actually taken last May. Science is not
+fallible, but exact in this matter."
+
+Kennedy had scored a palpable hit. McLoughlin and Hanford were
+speechless. Still Craig hurried on.
+
+"But, you may ask, how about the automobile picture? That also is an
+unblushing fake. Of course I must prove that. In the first place, you
+know that the general public has come to recognise the distortion of a
+photograph as denoting speed. A picture of a car in a race that doesn't
+lean is rejected--people demand to see speed, speed, more speed even in
+pictures. Distortion does indeed show speed, but that, too, can be
+faked.
+
+"Hanford knows that the image is projected upside down by the lens on
+the plate, and that the bottom of the picture is taken before the top.
+The camera mechanism admits light, which makes the picture, in the
+manner of a roller blind curtain. The slit travels from the top to the
+bottom and the image on the plate being projected upside down, the
+bottom of the object appears on the top of the plate. For instance, the
+wheels are taken before the head of the driver. If the car is moving
+quickly the image moves on the plate and each successive part is taken
+a little in advance of the last. The whole leans forward. By widening
+the slit and slowing the speed of the shutter, there is more distortion.
+
+"Now, this is what happened. A picture was taken of Cadwalader Brown's
+automobile, probably at rest, with Brown in it. The matter of faking
+Travis or any one else by his side is simple. If with an enlarging
+lantern the image of this faked picture is thrown on the paper like a
+lantern slide, and if the right hand side is a little further away than
+the left, the top further away than the bottom, you can print a
+fraudulent high speed ahead picture. True, everything else in, the
+picture, even if motionless, is distorted, and the difference between
+this faking and the distortion of the shutter can be seen by an expert.
+But it will pass. In this case, however, the faker was so sure of that
+that he was careless. Instead of getting the plate further from the
+paper on the right he did so on the left. It was further away on the
+bottom than on the top. He got distortion all right, enough still to
+satisfy the uninitiated. But it was distortion in the wrong way! The
+top of the wheel, which goes fastest and ought to be most indistinct,
+is, in the fake, as sharp as any other part. It is a small mistake, but
+fatal. That picture is really at high speed--backwards! It is too raw,
+too raw."
+
+"You don't think people are going to swallow all that stuff, do you?"
+asked Hanford coolly, in spite of the exposures.
+
+Kennedy paid no attention. He was looking at McLoughlin. The Boss was
+regarding him surlily. "Well," he said at length, "what of all this? I
+had nothing to do with it. Why do you come to me? Take it to the proper
+parties."
+
+"Shall I?" asked Kennedy quietly.
+
+He had uncovered another picture carefully. We could not see it, but as
+he looked at it McLoughlin fairly staggered.
+
+"Wh--where did you get that?" he gasped.
+
+"I got it where I got it, and it is no fake," replied Kennedy
+enigmatically. Then he appeared to think better of it. "This," he
+explained, "is what is known as a pinhole photograph. Three hundred
+years ago della Porta knew the camera obscura, and but for the lack of
+a sensitive plate would have made photographs. A box, thoroughly
+light-tight, slotted inside to receive plates, covered with black, and
+glued tight, a needle hole made by a number 10 needle in a thin sheet
+of paper--and you have the apparatus for lensless photography. It has a
+correctness such as no image-forming means by lenses can have. It is
+literally rectigraphic, rectilinear, it needs no focussing, and it
+takes a wide angle with equal effect. Even pinhole snapshots are
+possible where the light is abundant, with a ten to fifteen second
+exposure.
+
+"That picture, McLoughlin, was taken yesterday at Hanford's. After Miss
+Ashton left I saw who came out, but this picture shows what happened
+before. At a critical moment Miss Ashton stuck a needle in the wall of
+the studio, counted fifteen, closed the needle-hole, and there is the
+record. Walter, Hanford,--leave us alone an instant."
+
+When Kennedy passed out of the Boss's office there was a look of quiet
+satisfaction on his face which I could not fathom. Not a word could I
+extract from him either that night or on the following day, which was
+the last before the election.
+
+I must say that I was keenly disappointed by the lack of developments,
+however. The whole thing seemed to me to be a mess. Everybody was
+involved. What had Miss Ashton overheard and what had Kennedy said to
+McLoughlin? Above all, what was his game? Was he playing to spare the
+girl's feelings by allowing the election to go on without a scandal for
+Travis?
+
+At last election night arrived. We were all at the Travis headquarters,
+Kennedy, Travis, Bennett, and myself. Miss Ashton was not present, but
+the first returns had scarcely begun to trickle in when Craig whispered
+to me to go out and find her, either at her home or club. I found her
+at home. She had apparently lost interest in the election, and it was
+with difficulty that I persuaded her to accompany me. The excitement of
+any other night in the year paled to insignificance before this.
+Distracted crowds everywhere were cheering and blowing horns. Now a
+series of wild shouts broke forth from the dense mass of people before
+a newspaper bulletin board. Now came sullen groans, hisses, and
+catcalls, or all together with cheers as the returns swung in another
+direction. Not even baseball could call out such a crowd as this.
+Lights blazed everywhere. Automobiles honked and ground their gears.
+The lobster palaces were thronged. Police were everywhere. People with
+horns and bells and all manner of noise-making devices pushed up one
+side of the thoroughfares and down the other. Hungrily, ravenously they
+were feeding on the meagre bulletins of news.
+
+Yet back of all the noise and human energy I could only think of the
+silent, systematic gathering and editing of the news. High up in the
+League headquarters, when we returned, a corps of clerks was tabulating
+returns, comparing official and semi-official reports. As first the
+state swung one way, then another, our hopes rose and fell. Miss Ashton
+seemed cold and ill at ease, while Travis looked more worried and paid
+less attention to the returns than would have seemed natural. She
+avoided him and he seemed to hesitate to seek her out.
+
+Would the up-state returns, I had wondered at first, be large enough to
+overcome the hostile city vote? I was amazed now to see how strongly
+the city was turning to Travis.
+
+"McLoughlin has kept his word," ejaculated Kennedy as district after
+district showed that the Boss's pluralities were being seriously cut
+into.
+
+"His word? What do you mean?" we asked almost together.
+
+"I mean that he has kept his word given to me at a conference which Mr.
+Jameson saw but did not hear. I told him I would publish the whole
+thing, not caring whom or where or when it hit if he did not let up on
+Travis. I advised him to read his Revised Statutes again about money in
+elections, and I ended up with the threat, 'There will be no dough day,
+McLoughlin, or this will be prosecuted to the limit.' There was no
+dough day. You see the effect in the returns."
+
+"But how did you do it?" I asked, not comprehending. "The faked
+photographs did not move him, that I could see."
+
+The words, "faked photographs," caused Miss Ashton to glance up
+quickly. I saw that Kennedy had not told her or any one yet, until the
+Boss had made good. He had simply arranged one of his little dramas.
+
+"Shall I tell, Miss Ashton?" he asked, adding, "Before I complete my
+part of the compact and blot out the whole affair?"
+
+"I have no right to say no," she answered tremulously, but with a look
+of happiness that I had not seen since our first introduction.
+
+Kennedy laid down a print on a table. It was the pinhole photograph, a
+little blurry, but quite convincing. On a desk in the picture was a
+pile of bills. McLoughlin was shoving them away from him toward
+Bennett. A man who was facing forward in the picture was talking
+earnestly to some one who did not appear. I felt intuitively, even
+before Kennedy said so, that the person was Miss Ashton herself as she
+stuck the needle into the wall. The man was Cadwalader Brown.
+
+"Travis," demanded Kennedy, "bring the account books of your campaign.
+I want the miscellaneous account particularly."
+
+The books were brought, and he continued, turning the leaves, "It
+seemed to me to show a shortage of nearly twenty thousand dollars the
+other day. Why, it has been made up. How was that, Bennett?"
+
+Bennett was speechless. "I will tell you," Craig proceeded inexorably.
+"Bennett, you embezzled that money for your business. Rather than be
+found out, you went to Billy McLoughlin and offered to sell out the
+Reform campaign for money to replace it. With the aid of the crook,
+Hanford, McLoughlin's tool, you worked out the scheme to extort money
+from Travis by forged photographs. You knew enough about Travis's house
+and library to frame up a robbery one night when you were staying there
+with him. It was inside work, I found, at a glance. Travis, I am sorry
+to have to tell you that your confidence was misplaced. It was Bennett
+who robbed you--and worse.
+
+"But Cadwalader Brown, always close to his creature, Billy McLoughlin,
+heard of it. To him it presented another idea. To him it offered a
+chance to overthrow a political enemy and a hated rival for Miss
+Ashton's hand. Perhaps into the bargain it would disgust her with
+politics, disillusion her, and shake her faith in what he believed to
+be some of her 'radical' notions. All could be gained at one blow. They
+say that a check-book knows no politics, but Bennett has learned some,
+I venture to say, and to save his reputation he will pay back what he
+has tried to graft."
+
+Travis could scarcely believe it yet. "How did you get your first
+hint?" he gasped.
+
+Kennedy was digging into the wall with a bill file at the place where
+he had buried the little vulcanised disc. I had already guessed that it
+was a dictograph, though I could not tell how it was used or who used
+it. There it was, set squarely in the plaster. There also were the
+wires running under the carpet. As he lifted the rug under Miss
+Ashton's desk there also lay the huge circles of wire. That was all.
+
+At this moment Miss Ashton stepped forward. "Last Friday," she said in
+a low tone, "I wore a belt which concealed a coil of wire about my
+waist. From it a wire ran under my coat, connecting with a small dry
+battery in a pocket. Over my head I had an arrangement such as the
+telephone girls wear with a receiver at one ear connected with the
+battery. No one saw it, for I wore a large hat which completely hid it.
+If any one had known, and there were plenty of eyes watching, the whole
+thing would have fallen through. I could walk around; no one could
+suspect anything; but when I stood or sat at my desk I could hear
+everything that was said in Mr. Bennett's office."
+
+"By induction," explained Kennedy. "The impulses set up in the
+concealed dictograph set up currents in these coils of wire concealed
+under the carpet. They were wirelessly duplicated by induction in the
+coil about Miss Ashton's waist and so affected the receiver under her
+very becoming hat. Tell the rest, Miss Ashton."
+
+"I heard the deal arranged with this Hanford," she added, almost as if
+she were confessing something, "but not understanding it as Mr. Kennedy
+did, I very hastily condemned Mr. Travis. I heard talk of putting back
+twenty thousand into the campaign accounts, of five thousand given to
+Hanford for his photographic work, and of the way Mr. Travis was to be
+defeated whether he paid or not. I heard them say that one condition
+was that I should carry the purchase money. I heard much that must have
+confirmed Mr. Kennedy's suspicion in one way, and my own in an opposite
+way, which I know now was wrong. And then Cadwalader Brown in the
+studio taunted me cynically and-and it cut me, for he seemed right. I
+hope that Mr. Travis will forgive me for thinking that Mr. Bennett's
+treachery was his----"
+
+A terrific cheer broke out among the clerks in the outer office. A boy
+rushed in with a still unblotted report. Kennedy seized it and read:
+"McLoughlin concedes the city by a small majority to Travis, fifteen
+election districts estimated. This clinches the Reform League victory
+in the state."
+
+I turned to Travis. He was paying no attention except to the pretty
+apology of Margaret Ashton.
+
+Kennedy drew me to the door. "We might as well concede Miss Ashton to
+Travis," he said, adding gaily, "by induction of an arm about the
+waist. Let's go out and watch the crowd."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poisoned Pen, by Arthur B. Reeve
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