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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poisoned Pen, by Arthur B. Reeve
+#3 in our series by Arthur B. Reeve
+
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+Title: The Poisoned Pen
+       (From the Craig Kennedy Series)
+
+Author: Arthur B. Reeve
+
+Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5007]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 8, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10a
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE 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 m 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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