diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/wrtrr10.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/wrtrr10.txt | 13254 |
1 files changed, 13254 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/wrtrr10.txt b/old/wrtrr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3550c34 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wrtrr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13254 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The War Terror, by Arthur B. Reeve +#4 in our series by Arthur B. Reeve + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The War Terror + +Author: Arthur B. Reeve + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5073] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 14, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR TERROR *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +THE CRAIG KENNEDY SERIES + +THE WAR TERROR + +BY ARTHUR B. REEVE + + +FRONTISPIECE BY WILL FOSTER + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + INTRODUCTION + I. THE WAR TERROR + II. THE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC GUN + III. THE MURDER SYNDICATE + IV. THE AIR PIRATE + V. THE ULTRA-VIOLET RAY + VI. THE TRIPLE MIRROR + VII. THE WIRELESS WIRETAPPERS + VIII. THE HOUSEBOAT MYSTERY + IX. THE RADIO DETECTIVE + X. THE CURIO SHOP + XI. THE "PILLAR OF DEATH" + XII. THE ARROW POISON + XIII. THE RADIUM ROBBER + XIV. THE SPINTHARISCOPE + XV. THE ASPHYXIATING SAFE + XVI. THE DEAD LINE + XVII. THE PASTE REPLICA + XVIII. THE BURGLAR'S MICROPHONE + XIX. THE GERM LETTER + XX. THE ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY + XXI. THE POISON BRACELET + XXII. THE DEVIL WORSHIPERS + XXIII. THE PSYCHIC CURSE + XXIV. THE SERPENT'S TOOTH + XXV. THE "HAPPY DUST" + XXVI. THE BINET TEST + XXVII. THE LIE DETECTOR + XXVIII. THE FAMILY SKELETON + XXIX. THE LEAD POISONER + XXX. THE ELECTROLYTIC MURDER + XXXI. THE EUGENIC BRIDE + XXXII. THE GERM PLASM + XXXIII. THE SEX CONTROL + XXXIV. THE BILLIONAIRE BABY + XXXV. THE PSYCHANALYSIS + XXXVI. THE ENDS OF JUSTICE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +As I look back now on the sensational events of the past months +since the great European War began, it seems to me as if there had +never been a period in Craig Kennedy's life more replete with +thrilling adventures than this. + +In fact, scarcely had one mysterious event been straightened out +from the tangled skein, when another, even more baffling, crowded +on its very heels. + +As was to have been expected with us in America, not all of these +remarkable experiences grew either directly or indirectly out of +the war, but there were several that did, and they proved to be +only the beginning of a succession of events which kept me busy +chronicling for the Star the exploits of my capable and versatile +friend. + +Altogether, this period of the war was, I am sure, quite the most +exciting of the many series of episodes through which Craig has +been called upon to go. Yet he seemed to meet each situation as it +arose with a fresh mind, which was amazing even to me who have +known him so long and so intimately. + +As was naturally to be supposed, also, at such a time, it was not +long before Craig found himself entangled in the marvelous spy +system of the warring European nations. These systems revealed +their devious and dark ways, ramifying as they did tentacle-like +even across the ocean in their efforts to gain their ends in +neutral America. Not only so, but, as I shall some day endeavor to +show later, when the ban of silence imposed by neutrality is +raised after the war, many of the horrors of the war were brought +home intimately to us. + +I have, after mature consideration, decided that even at present +nothing but good can come from the publication at least of some +part of the strange series of adventures through which Kennedy and +I have just gone, especially those which might, if we had not +succeeded, have caused most important changes in current history. +As for the other adventures, no question can be raised about the +propriety of their publication. + +At any rate, it came about that early in August, when the war +cloud was just beginning to loom blackest, Kennedy was +unexpectedly called into one of the strangest, most dangerous +situations in which his peculiar and perilous profession had ever +involved him. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WAR TERROR + + +"I must see Professor Kennedy--where is he?--I must see him, for +God's sake!" + +I was almost carried off my feet by the inrush of a wild-eyed +girl, seemingly half crazed with excitement, as she cried out +Craig's name. + +Startled by my own involuntary exclamation of surprise which +followed the vision that shot past me as I opened our door in +response to a sudden, sharp series of pushes at the buzzer, +Kennedy bounded swiftly toward me, and the girl almost flung +herself upon him. + +"Why, Miss--er--Miss--my dear young lady--what's the matter?" he +stammered, catching her by the arm gently. + +As Kennedy forced our strange visitor into a chair, I observed +that she was all a-tremble. Her teeth fairly chattered. +Alternately her nervous, peaceless hands clutched at an imaginary +something in the air, as if for support, then, finding none, she +would let her wrists fall supine, while she gazed about with +quivering lips and wild, restless eyes. Plainly, there was +something she feared. She was almost over the verge of hysteria. + +She was a striking girl, of medium height and slender form, but it +was her face that fascinated me, with its delicately molded +features, intense unfathomable eyes of dark brown, and lips that +showed her idealistic, high-strung temperament. + +"Please," he soothed, "get yourself together, please--try! What is +the matter?" + +She looked about, as if she feared that the very walls had eyes +and ears. Yet there seemed to be something bursting from her lips +that she could not restrain. + +"My life," she cried wildly, "my life is at stake. Oh--help me, +help me! Unless I commit a murder to-night, I shall be killed +myself!" + +The words sounded so doubly strange from a girl of her evident +refinement that I watched her narrowly, not sure yet but that we +had a plain case of insanity to deal with. + +"A murder?" repeated Kennedy incredulously. "YOU commit a murder?" + +Her eyes rested on him, as if fascinated, but she did not flinch +as she replied desperately, "Yes--Baron Kreiger--you know, the +German diplomat and financier, who is in America raising money and +arousing sympathy with his country." + +"Baron Kreiger!" exclaimed Kennedy in surprise, looking at her +more keenly. + +We had not met the Baron, but we had heard much about him, young, +handsome, of an old family, trusted already in spite of his youth +by many of the more advanced of old world financial and political +leaders, one who had made a most favorable impression on +democratic America at a time when such impressions were valuable. + +Glancing from one of us to the other, she seemed suddenly, with a +great effort, to recollect herself, for she reached into her +chatelaine and pulled out a card from a case. + +It read simply, "Miss Paula Lowe." + +"Yes," she replied, more calmly now to Kennedy's repetition of the +Baron's name, "you see, I belong to a secret group." She appeared +to hesitate, then suddenly added, "I am an anarchist." + +She watched the effect of her confession and, finding the look on +Kennedy's face encouraging rather than shocked, went on +breathlessly: "We are fighting war with war--this iron-bound +organization of men and women. We have pledged ourselves to +exterminate all kings, emperors and rulers, ministers of war, +generals--but first of all the financiers who lend money that +makes war possible." + +She paused, her eyes gleaming momentarily with something like the +militant enthusiasm that must have enlisted her in the paradoxical +war against war. + +"We are at least going to make another war impossible!" she +exclaimed, for the moment evidently forgetting herself. + +"And your plan?" prompted Kennedy, in the most matter-of-fact +manner, as though he were discussing an ordinary campaign for +social betterment. "How were you to--reach the Baron?" + +"We had a drawing," she answered with amazing calmness, as if the +mere telling relieved her pent-up feelings. "Another woman and I +were chosen. We knew the Baron's weakness for a pretty face. We +planned to become acquainted with him--lure him on." + +Her voice trailed off, as if, the first burst of confidence over, +she felt something that would lock her secret tighter in her +breast. + +A moment later she resumed, now talking rapidly, disconnectedly, +giving Kennedy no chance to interrupt or guide the conversation. + +"You don't know, Professor Kennedy," she began again, "but there +are similar groups to ours in European countries and the plan is +to strike terror and consternation everywhere in the world at +once. Why, at our headquarters there have been drawn up plans and +agreements with other groups and there are set down the time, +place, and manner of all the--the removals." + +Momentarily she seemed to be carried away by something like the +fanaticism of the fervor which had at first captured her, even +still held her as she recited her incredible story. + +"Oh, can't you understand?" she went on, as if to justify herself. +"The increase in armies, the frightful implements of slaughter, +the total failure of the peace propaganda--they have all defied +civilization! + +"And then, too, the old, red-blooded emotions of battle have all +been eliminated by the mechanical conditions of modern warfare in +which men and women are just so many units, automata. Don't you +see? To fight war with its own weapons--that has become the only +last resort." + +Her eager, flushed face betrayed the enthusiasm which had once +carried her into the "Group," as she called it. I wondered what +had brought her now to us. + +"We are no longer making war against man," she cried. "We are +making war against picric acid and electric wires!" + +I confess that I could not help thinking that there was no doubt +that to a certain type of mind the reasoning might appeal most +strongly. + +"And you would do it in war time, too?" asked Kennedy quickly. + +She was ready with an answer. "King George of Greece was killed at +the head of his troops. Remember Nazim Pasha, too. Such people are +easily reached in time of peace and in time of war, also, by +sympathizers on their own side. That's it, you see--we have +followers of all nationalities." + +She stopped, her burst of enthusiasm spent. A moment later she +leaned forward, her clean-cut profile showing her more earnest +than before. "But, oh, Professor Kennedy," she added, "it is +working itself out to be more terrible than war itself!" + +"Have any of the plans been carried out yet?" asked Craig, I +thought a little superciliously, for there had certainly been no +such wholesale assassination yet as she had hinted at. + +She seemed to catch her breath. "Yes," she murmured, then checked +herself as if in fear of saying too much. "That is, I--I think +so." + +I wondered if she were concealing something, perhaps had already +had a hand in some such enterprise and it had frightened her. + +Kennedy leaned forward, observing the girl's discomfiture. "Miss +Lowe," he said, catching her eye and holding it almost +hypnotically, "why have you come to see me?" + +The question, pointblank, seemed to startle her. Evidently she had +thought to tell only as little as necessary, and in her own way. +She gave a little nervous laugh, as if to pass it off. But +Kennedy's eyes conquered. + +"Oh, can't you understand yet?" she exclaimed, rising passionately +and throwing out her arms in appeal. "I was carried away with my +hatred of war. I hate it yet. But now--the sudden realization of +what this compact all means has--well, caused something in me to-- +to snap. I don't care what oath I have taken. Oh, Professor +Kennedy, you--you must save him!" + +I looked up at her quickly. What did she mean? At first she had +come to be saved herself. "You must save him!" she implored. + +Our door buzzer sounded. + +She gazed about with a hunted look, as if she felt that some one +had even now pursued her and found out. + +"What shall I do?" she whispered. "Where shall I go?" + +"Quick--in here. No one will know," urged Kennedy, opening the +door to his room. He paused for an instant, hurriedly. "Tell me-- +have you and this other woman met the Baron yet? How far has it +gone?" + +The look she gave him was peculiar. I could not fathom what was +going on in her mind. But there was no hesitation about her +answer. "Yes," she replied, "I--we have met him. He is to come +back to New York from Washington to-day--this afternoon--to +arrange a private loan of five million dollars with some bankers +secretly. We were to see him to-night--a quiet dinner, after an +automobile ride up the Hudson--" + +"Both of you?" interrupted Craig. + +"Yes--that--that other woman and myself," she repeated, with a +peculiar catch in her voice. "To-night was the time fixed in the +drawing for the--" + +The word stuck in her throat. Kennedy understood. "Yes, yes," he +encouraged, "but who is the other woman?" + +Before she could reply, the buzzer had sounded again and she had +retreated from the door. Quickly Kennedy closed it and opened the +outside door. + +It was our old friend Burke of the Secret Service. + +Without a word of greeting, a hasty glance seemed to assure him +that Kennedy and I were alone. He closed the door himself, and, +instead of sitting down, came close to Craig. + +"Kennedy," he blurted out in a tone of suppressed excitement, "can +I trust you to keep a big secret?" + +Craig looked at him reproachfully, but said nothing. + +"I beg your pardon--a thousand times," hastened Burke. "I was so +excited, I wasn't thinking--" + +"Once is enough, Burke," laughed Kennedy, his good nature restored +at Burke's crestfallen appearance. + +"Well, you see," went on the Secret Service man, "this thing is so +very important that--well, I forgot." + +He sat down and hitched his chair close to us, as he went on in a +lowered, almost awestruck tone. + +"Kennedy," he whispered, "I'm on the trail, I think, of something +growing out of these terrible conditions in Europe that will tax +the best in the Secret Service. Think of it, man. There's an +organization, right here in this city, a sort of assassin's club, +as it were, aimed at all the powerful men the world over. Why, the +most refined and intellectual reformers have joined with the most +red-handed anarchists and--" + +"Sh! not so loud," cautioned Craig. "I think I have one of them in +the next room. Have they done anything yet to the Baron?" + +It was Burke's turn now to look from one to the other of us in +unfeigned surprise that we should already know something of his +secret. + +"The Baron?" he repeated, lowering his voice. "What Baron?" + +It was evident that Burke knew nothing, at least of this new plot +which Miss Lowe had indicated. Kennedy beckoned him over to the +window furthest from the door to his own room. + +"What have you discovered?" he asked, forestalling Burke in the +questioning. "What has happened?" + +"You haven't heard, then?" replied Burke. + +Kennedy nodded negatively. + +"Fortescue, the American inventor of fortescite, the new +explosive, died very strangely this morning." + +"Yes," encouraged Kennedy, as Burke came to a full stop to observe +the effect of the information. + +"Most incomprehensible, too," he pursued. "No cause, apparently. +But it might have been overlooked, perhaps, except for one thing. +It wasn't known generally, but Fortescue had just perfected a +successful electro-magnetic gun--powderless, smokeless, flashless, +noiseless and of tremendous power. To-morrow he was to have signed +the contract to sell it to England. This morning he is found dead +and the final plans of the gun are gone!" + +Kennedy and Burke were standing mutely looking at each other. + +"Who is in the next room?" whispered Burke hoarsely, recollecting +Kennedy's caution of silence. + +Kennedy did not reply immediately. He was evidently much excited +by Burke's news of the wonderful electro-magnetic gun. + +"Burke," he exclaimed suddenly, "let's join forces. I think we are +both on the trail of a world-wide conspiracy--a sort of murder +syndicate to wipe out war!" + +Burke's only reply was a low whistle that involuntarily escaped +him as he reached over and grasped Craig's hand, which to him +represented the sealing of the compact. + +As for me, I could not restrain a mental shudder at the power that +their first murder had evidently placed in the hands of the +anarchists, if they indeed had the electro-magnetic gun which +inventors had been seeking for generations. What might they not do +with it--perhaps even use it themselves and turn the latest +invention against society itself! + +Hastily Craig gave a whispered account of our strange visit from +Miss Lowe, while Burke listened, open-mouthed. + +He had scarcely finished when he reached for the telephone and +asked for long distance. + +"Is this the German embassy in Washington?" asked Craig a few +moments later when he got his number. "This is Craig Kennedy, in +New York. The United States Secret Service will vouch for me-- +mention to them Mr. Burke of their New York office who is here +with me now. I understand that Baron Kreiger is leaving for New +York to meet some bankers this afternoon. He must not do so. He is +in the gravest danger if he--What? He left last night at midnight +and is already here?" + +Kennedy turned to us blankly. + +The door to his room opened suddenly. + +There stood Miss Lowe, gazing wild-eyed at us. Evidently her +supernervous condition had heightened the keenness of her senses. +She had heard what we were saying. I tried to read her face. It +was not fear that I saw there. It was rage; it was jealousy. + +"The traitress--it is Marie!" she shrieked. + +For a moment, obtusely, I did not understand. + +"She has made a secret appointment with him," she cried. + +At last I saw the truth. Paula Lowe had fallen in love with the +man she had sworn to kill! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC GUN + + +"What shall we do?" demanded Burke, instantly taking in the +dangerous situation that the Baron's sudden change of plans had +opened up. + +"Call O'Connor," I suggested, thinking of the police bureau of +missing persons, and reaching for the telephone. + +"No, no!" almost shouted Craig, seizing my arm. "The police will +inevitably spoil it all. No, we must play a lone hand in this if +we are to work it out. How was Fortescue discovered, Burke?" + +"Sitting in a chair in his laboratory. He must have been there all +night. There wasn't a mark on him, not a sign of violence, yet his +face was terribly drawn as though he were gasping for breath or +his heart had suddenly failed him. So far, I believe, the coroner +has no clue and isn't advertising the case." + +"Take me there, then," decided Craig quickly. "Walter, I must +trust Miss Lowe to you on the journey. We must all go. That must +be our starting point, if we are to run this thing down." + +I caught his significant look to me and interpreted it to mean +that he wanted me to watch Miss Lowe especially. I gathered that +taking her was in the nature of a third degree and as a result he +expected to derive some information from her. Her face was pale +and drawn as we four piled into a taxicab for a quick run downtown +to the laboratory of Fortescue from which Burke had come directly +to us with his story. + +"What do you know of these anarchists?" asked Kennedy of Burke as +we sped along. "Why do you suspect them?" + +It was evident that he was discussing the case so that Paula could +overhear, for a purpose. + +"Why, we received a tip from abroad--I won't say where," replied +Burke guardedly, taking his cue. "They call themselves the +'Group,' I believe, which is a common enough term among +anarchists. It seems they are composed of terrorists of all +nations." + +"The leader?" inquired Kennedy, leading him on. + +"There is one, I believe, a little florid, stout German. I think +he is a paranoiac who believes there has fallen on himself a +divine mission to end all warfare. Quite likely he is one of those +who have fled to America to avoid military service. Perhaps, why +certainly, you must know him--Annenberg, an instructor in +economics now at the University?" + +Craig nodded and raised his eyebrows in mild surprise. We had +indeed heard of Annenberg and some of his radical theories which +had sometimes quite alarmed the conservative faculty. I felt that +this was getting pretty close home to us now. + +"How about Mrs. Annenberg?" Craig asked, recalling the clever +young wife of the middle-aged professor. + +At the mere mention of the name, I felt a sort of start in Miss +Lowe, who was seated next to me in the taxicab. She had quickly +recovered herself, but not before I saw that Kennedy's plan of +breaking down the last barrier of her reserve was working. + +"She is one of them, too," Burke nodded. "I have had my men out +shadowing them and their friends. They tell me that the Annenbergs +hold salons--I suppose you would call them that--attended by +numbers of men and women of high social and intellectual position +who dabble in radicalism and all sorts of things." "Who are the +other leaders?" asked Craig. "Have you any idea?" + +"Some idea," returned Burke. "There seems to be a Frenchman, a +tall, wiry man of forty-five or fifty with a black mustache which +once had a military twist. There are a couple of Englishmen. Then +there are five or six Americans who seem to be active. One, I +believe, is a young woman." + +Kennedy checked him with a covert glance, but did not betray by a +movement of a muscle to Miss Lowe that either Burke or himself +suspected her of being the young woman in question. + +"There are three Russians," continued Burke, "all of whom have +escaped from Siberia. Then there is at least one Austrian, a +Spaniard from the Ferrer school, and Tomasso and Enrico, two +Italians, rather heavily built, swarthy, bearded. They look the +part. Of course there are others. But these in the main, I think, +compose what might be called 'the inner circle' of the 'Group.'" + +It was indeed an alarming, terrifying revelation, as we began to +realize that Miss Lowe had undoubtedly been telling the truth. Not +alone was there this American group, evidently, but all over +Europe the lines of the conspiracy had apparently spread. It was +not a casual gathering of ordinary malcontents. It went deeper +than that. It included many who in their disgust at war secretly +were not unwilling to wink at violence to end the curse. I could +not but reflect on the dangerous ground on which most of them were +treading, shaking the basis of all civilization in order to cut +out one modern excrescence. + +The big fact to us, just at present, was that this group had made +America its headquarters, that plans had been studiously matured +and even reduced to writing, if Paula were to be believed. +Everything had been carefully staged for a great simultaneous blow +or series of blows that would rouse the whole world. + +As I watched I could not escape observing that Miss Lowe followed +Burke furtively now, as though he had some uncanny power. + +Fortescue's laboratory was in an old building on a side street +several blocks from the main thoroughfares of Manhattan. He had +evidently chosen it, partly because of its very inaccessibility in +order to secure the quiet necessary for his work. + +"If he had any visitors last night," commented Kennedy when our +cab at last pulled up before the place, "they might have come and +gone unnoticed." + +We entered. Nothing had been disturbed in the laboratory by the +coroner and Kennedy was able to gain a complete idea of the case +rapidly, almost as well as if we had been called in immediately. + +Fortescue's body, it seemed, had been discovered sprawled out in a +big armchair, as Burke had said, by one of his assistants only a +few hours before when he had come to the laboratory in the morning +to open it. Evidently he had been there undisturbed all night, +keeping a gruesome vigil over his looted treasure house. + +As we gleaned the meager facts, it became more evident that +whoever had perpetrated the crime must have had the diabolical +cunning to do it in some ordinary way that aroused no suspicion on +the part of the victim, for there was no sign of any violence +anywhere. + +As we entered the laboratory, I noted an involuntary shudder on +the part of Paula Lowe, but, as far as I knew, it was no more than +might have been felt by anyone under the circumstances. + +Fortescue's body had been removed from the chair in which it had +been found and lay on a couch at the other end of the room, +covered merely by a sheet. Otherwise, everything, even the +armchair, was undisturbed. + +Kennedy pulled back a corner of the sheet, disclosing the face, +contorted and of a peculiar, purplish hue from the congested blood +vessels. He bent over and I did so, too. There was an unmistakable +odor of tobacco on him. A moment Kennedy studied the face before +us, then slowly replaced the sheet. + +Miss Lowe had paused just inside the door and seemed resolutely +bound not to look at anything. Kennedy meanwhile had begun a most +minute search of the table and floor of the laboratory near the +spot where the armchair had been sitting. + +In my effort to glean what I could from her actions and +expressions I did not notice that Craig had dropped to his knees +and was peering into the shadow under the laboratory table. When +at last he rose and straightened himself up, however, I saw that +he was holding in the palm of his hand a half-smoked, gold-tipped +cigarette, which had evidently fallen on the floor beneath the +table where it had burned itself out, leaving a blackened mark on +the wood. + +An instant afterward he picked out from the pile of articles found +in Fortescue's pockets and lying on another table a silver +cigarette case. He snapped it open. Fortescue's cigarettes, of +which there were perhaps a half dozen in the case, were cork- +tipped. + +Some one had evidently visited the inventor the night before, had +apparently offered him a cigarette, for there were any number of +the cork-tipped stubs lying about. Who was it? I caught Paula +looking with fascinated gaze at the gold-tipped stub, as Kennedy +carefully folded it up in a piece of paper and deposited it in his +pocket. Did she know something about the case, I wondered? + +Without a word, Kennedy seemed to take in the scant furniture of +the laboratory at a glance and a quick step or two brought him +before a steel filing cabinet. One drawer, which had not been +closed as tightly as the rest, projected a bit. On its face was a +little typewritten card bearing the inscription: "E-M GUN." + +He pulled the drawer open and glanced over the data in it. + +"Just what is an electro-magnetic gun?" I asked, interpreting the +initials on the drawer. + +"Well," he explained as he turned over the notes and sketches, +"the primary principle involved in the construction of such a gun +consists in impelling the projectile by the magnetic action of a +solenoid, the sectional coils or helices of which are supplied +with current through devices actuated by the projectile itself. In +other words, the sections of helices of the solenoid produce an +accelerated motion of the projectile by acting successively on it, +after a principle involved in the construction of electro-magnetic +rock drills and dispatch tubes. + +"All projectiles used in this gun of Fortescue's evidently must +have magnetic properties and projectiles of iron or containing +large portions of iron are necessary. You see, many coils are +wound around the barrel of the gun. As the projectile starts it +does so under the attraction of those coils ahead which the +current makes temporary magnets. It automatically cuts off the +current from those coils that it passes, allowing those further on +only to attract it, and preventing those behind from pulling it +back." + +He paused to study the scraps of plans. "Fortescue had evidently +also worked out a way of changing the poles of the coils as the +projectile passed, causing them then to repel the projectile, +which must have added to its velocity. He seems to have overcome +the practical difficulty that in order to obtain service +velocities with service projectiles an enormous number of windings +and a tremendously long barrel are necessary as well as an +abnormally heavy current beyond the safe carrying capacity of the +solenoid which would raise the temperature to a point that would +destroy the coils." + +He continued turning over the prints and notes in the drawer. When +he finished, he looked up at us with an expression that indicated +that he had merely satisfied himself of something he had already +suspected. + +"You were right, Burke," he said. "The final plans are gone." + +Burke, who, in the meantime, had been telephoning about the city +in a vain effort to locate Baron Kreiger, both at such banking +offices in Wall Street as he might be likely to visit and at some +of the hotels most frequented by foreigners, merely nodded. He was +evidently at a loss completely how to proceed. + +In fact, there seemed to be innumerable problems--to warn Baron +Kreiger, to get the list of the assassinations, to guard Miss Lowe +against falling into the hands of her anarchist friends again, to +find the murderer of Fortescue, to prevent the use of the electro- +magnetic gun, and, if possible, to seize the anarchists before +they had a chance to carry further their plans. + +"There is nothing more that we can do here," remarked Craig +briskly, betraying no sign of hesitation. "I think the best thing +we can do is to go to my own laboratory. There at least there is +something I must investigate sooner or later." + +No one offering either a suggestion or an objection, we four again +entered our cab. It was quite noticeable now that the visit had +shaken Paula Lowe, but Kennedy still studiously refrained from +questioning her, trusting that what she had seen and heard, +especially Burke's report as to Baron Kreiger, would have its +effect. + +Like everyone visiting Craig's laboratory for the first time, Miss +Lowe seemed to feel the spell of the innumerable strange and +uncanny instruments which he had gathered about him in his +scientific warfare against crime. I could see that she was +becoming more and more nervous, perhaps fearing even that in some +incomprehensible way he might read her own thoughts. Yet one thing +I did not detect. She showed no disposition to turn back on the +course on which she had entered by coming to us in the first +place. + +Kennedy was quickly and deftly testing the stub of the little +thin, gold-tipped cigarette. + +"Excessive smoking," he remarked casually, "causes neuroses of the +heart and tobacco has a specific affinity for the coronary +arteries as well as a tremendous effect on the vagus nerve. But I +don't think this was any ordinary smoke." + +He had finished his tests and a quiet smile of satisfaction +flitted momentarily over his face. We had been watching him +anxiously, wondering what he had found. + +As he looked up he remarked to us, with his eyes fixed on Miss +Lowe, "That was a ladies' cigarette. Did you notice the size? +There has been a woman in this case--presumably." + +The girl, suddenly transformed by the rapid-fire succession of +discoveries, stood before us like a specter. + +"The 'Group,' as anarchists call it," pursued Craig, "is the +loosest sort of organization conceivable, I believe, with no set +membership, no officers, no laws--just a place of meeting with no +fixity, where the comrades get together. Could you get us into the +inner circle, Miss Lowe?" + +Her only answer was a little suppressed scream. Kennedy had asked +the question merely for its effect, for it was only too evident +that there was no time, even if she could have managed it, for us +to play the "stool pigeon." + +Kennedy, who had been clearing up the materials he had used in the +analysis of the cigarette, wheeled about suddenly. "Where is the +headquarters of the inner circle?" he shot out. + +Miss Lowe hesitated. That had evidently been one of the things she +had determined not to divulge. + +"Tell me," insisted Kennedy. "You must!" + +If it had been Burke's bulldozing she would never have yielded. +But as she looked into Kennedy's eyes she read there that he had +long since fathomed the secret of her wildly beating heart, that +if she would accomplish the purpose of saving the Baron she must +stop at nothing. + +"At--Maplehurst," she answered in a low tone, dropping her eyes +from his penetrating gaze, "Professor Annenberg's home--out on +Long Island." + +"We must act swiftly if we are to succeed," considered Kennedy, +his tone betraying rather sympathy with than triumph over the +wretched girl who had at last cast everything in the balance to +outweigh the terrible situation into which she had been drawn. "To +send Miss Lowe for that fatal list of assassinations is to send +her either back into the power of this murderous group and let +them know that she has told us, or perhaps to involve her again in +the completion of their plans." + +She sank back into a chair in complete nervous and physical +collapse, covering her face with her hands at the realization that +in her new-found passion to save the Baron she had bared her +sensitive soul for the dissection of three men whom she had never +seen before. + +"We must have that list," pursued Kennedy decisively. "We must +visit Annenberg's headquarters." + +"And I?" she asked, trembling now with genuine fear at the thought +that he might ask her to accompany us as he had on our visit to +Fortescue's laboratory that morning. + +"Miss Lowe," said Kennedy, bending over her, "you have gone too +far now ever to turn back. You are not equal to the trip. Would +you like to remain here? No one will suspect. Here at least you +will be safe until we return." + +Her answer was a mute expression of thanks and confidence. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MURDER SYNDICATE + + +Quickly now Craig completed his arrangements for the visit to the +headquarters of the real anarchist leader. Burke telephoned for a +high-powered car, while Miss Lowe told frankly of the habits of +Annenberg and the chances of finding his place unguarded, which +were good in the daytime. Kennedy's only equipment for the +excursion consisted in a small package which he took from a +cabinet at the end of the room, and, with a parting reassurance to +Paula Lowe, we were soon speeding over the bridge to the borough +across the river. + +We realized that it might prove a desperate undertaking, but the +crisis was such that it called for any risk. + +Our quest took us to a rather dilapidated old house on the +outskirts of the little Long Island town. The house stood alone, +not far from the tracks of a trolley that ran at infrequent +intervals. Even a hasty reconnoitering showed that to stop our +motor at even a reasonable distance from it was in itself to +arouse suspicion. + +Although the house seemed deserted, Craig took no chances, but +directed the car to turn at the next crossroad and then run back +along a road back of and parallel to that on which Annenberg's was +situated. It was perhaps a quarter of a mile away, across an open +field, that we stopped and ran the car up along the side of the +road in some bushes. Annenberg's was plainly visible and it was +not at all likely that anyone there would suspect trouble from +that quarter. + +A hasty conference with Burke followed, in which Kennedy unwrapped +his small package, leaving part of its contents with him, and +adding careful instructions. + +Then Kennedy and I retraced our steps down the road, across by the +crossroad, and at last back to the mysterious house. + +To all appearance there had been no need of such excessive +caution. Not a sound or motion greeted us as we entered the gate +and made our way around to the rear of the house. The very +isolation of the house was now our protection, for we had no +inquisitive neighbors to watch us for the instant when Kennedy, +with the dexterity of a yeggman, inserted his knife between the +sashes of the kitchen window and turned the catch which admitted +us. + +We made our way on cautious tiptoe through a dining room to a +living room, and, finding nothing, proceeded upstairs. There was +not a soul, apparently, in the house, nor in fact anything to +indicate that it was different from most small suburban homes, +until at last we mounted to the attic. + +It was finished off in one large room across the back of the house +and two in front. As we opened the door to the larger room, we +could only gaze about in surprise. This was the rendezvous, the +arsenal, literary, explosive and toxicological of the "Group." +Ranged on a table were all the materials for bomb-making, while in +a cabinet I fancied there were poisons enough to decimate a city. + +On the walls were pictures, mostly newspaper prints, of the +assassins of McKinley, of King Humbert, of the King of Greece, of +King Carlos and others, interspersed with portraits of anarchist +and anti-militarist leaders of all lands. + +Kennedy sniffed. Over all I, too, could catch the faint odor of +stale tobacco. No time was to be lost, however, and while Craig +set to work rapidly going through the contents of a desk in the +corner, I glanced over the contents of a drawer of a heavy mission +table. + +"Here's some of Annenberg's literature," I remarked, coming across +a small pile of manuscript, entitled "The Human Slaughter House." + +"Read it," panted Kennedy, seeing that I had about completed my +part of the job. "It may give a clue." + +Hastily I scanned the mad, frantic indictment of war, while Craig +continued in his search: + +"I see wild beasts all around me, distorted unnaturally, in a life +and death struggle, with bloodshot eyes, with foaming, gnashing +mouths. They attack and kill one another and try to mangle each +other. I leap to my feet. I race out into the night and tread on +quaking flesh, step on hard heads, and stumble over weapons and +helmets. Something is clutching at my feet like hands, so that I +race away like a hunted deer with the hounds at his heels--and +ever over more bodies--breathless... out of one field into +another. Horror is crooning over my head. Horror is crooning +beneath my feet. And nothing but dying, mangled flesh! + +"Of a sudden I see nothing but blood before me. The heavens have +opened and the red blood pours in through the windows. Blood wells +up on an altar. The walls run blood from the ceiling to the floor +and... a giant of blood stands before me. His beard and his hair +drip blood. He seats himself on the altar and laughs from thick +lips. The black executioner raises his sword and whirls it above +my head. Another moment and my head will roll down on the floor. +Another moment and the red jet will spurt from my neck. + +"Murderers! Murderers! None other than murderers!" + +I paused in the reading. "There's nothing here," I remarked, +glancing over the curious document for a clue, but finding none. + +"Well," remarked Craig contemplatively, "one can at least easily +understand how sensitive and imaginative people who have fallen +under the influence of one who writes in that way can feel +justified in killing those responsible for bringing such horrors +on the human race. Hello--what's this?" + +He had discovered a false back of one of the drawers in the desk +and had jimmied it open. On the top of innumerable papers lay a +large linen envelope. On its face it bore in typewriting, just +like the card on the drawer at Fortescue's, "E-M GUN." + +"It is the original envelope that contained the final plans of the +electro-magnetic gun," he explained, opening it. + +The envelope was empty. We looked at each other a moment in +silence. What had been done with the plans? + +Suddenly a bell rang, startling me beyond measure. It was, +however, only the telephone, of which an extension reached up into +the attic-arsenal. Some one, who did not know that we were there, +was evidently calling up. + +Kennedy quickly unhooked the receiver with a hasty motion to me to +be silent. + +"Hello," I heard him answer. "Yes, this is it." + +He had disguised his voice. I waited anxiously and watched his +face to gather what response he received. + +"The deuce!" he exclaimed, with his hand over the transmitter so +that his voice would not be heard at the other end of the line. + +"What's the matter?" I asked eagerly. + +"It was Mrs. Annenberg--I am sure. But she was too keen for me. +She caught on. There must be some password or form of expression +that they use, which we don't know, for she hung up the receiver +almost as soon as she heard me." + +Kennedy waited a minute or so. Then he whistled into the +transmitter. It was done apparently to see whether there was +anyone listening. But there was no answer. + +"Operator, operator!" he called insistently, moving the hook up +and down. "Yes, operator. Can you tell me what number that was +which just called?" + +He waited impatiently. + +"Bleecker--7l80," he repeated after the girl. "Thank you. +Information, please." + +Again we waited, as Craig tried to trace the call up. + +"What is the street address of Bleecker, 7180?" he asked. "Five +hundred and one East Fifth--a tenement. Thank you." + +"A tenement?" I repeated blankly. + +"Yes," he cried, now for the first time excited. "Don't you begin +to see the scheme? I'll wager that Baron Kreiger has been lured to +New York to purchase the electro-magnetic gun which they have +stolen from Fortescue and the British. That is the bait that is +held out to him by the woman. Call up Miss Lowe at the laboratory +and see if she knows the place." + +I gave central the number, while he fell to at the little secret +drawer of the desk again. The grinding of the wheels of a passing +trolley interfered somewhat with giving the number and I had to +wait a moment. + +"Ah--Walter--here's the list!" almost shouted Kennedy, as he broke +open a black-japanned dispatch box in the desk. + +I bent over it, as far as the slack of the telephone wire of the +receiver at my ear would permit. Annenberg had worked with amazing +care and neatness on the list, even going so far as to draw at the +top, in black, a death's head. The rest of it was elaborately +prepared in flaming red ink. + +Craig gasped to observe the list of world-famous men marked for +destruction in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, St. +Petersburg, and even in New York and Washington. + +"What is the date set?" I asked, still with my ear glued to the +receiver. + +"To-night and to-morrow," he replied, stuffing the fateful sheet +into his pocket. + +Rummaging about in the drawer of the table, I had come to a +package of gold-tipped cigarettes which had interested me and I +had left them out. Kennedy was now looking at them curiously. + +"What is to be the method, do you suppose?" I asked. + +"By a poison that is among the most powerful, approaching even +cyanogen," he replied confidently, tapping the cigarettes. "Do you +smell the odor in this room? What is it like?" + +"Stale tobacco," I replied. + +"Exactly--nicotine. Two or three drops on the mouth-end of a cigar +or cigarette. The intended victim thinks it is only natural. But +it is the purest form of the deadly alkaloid--fatal in a few +minutes, too." + +He examined the thin little cigarettes more carefully. "Nicotine," +he went on, "was about the first alkaloid that was recovered from +the body by chemical analysis in a homicide case. That is the +penetrating, persistent odor you smelled at Fortescue's and also +here. It's a very good poison--if you are not particular about +being discovered. A pound of ordinary smoking tobacco contains +from a half to an ounce of it. It is almost entirely consumed by +combustion; otherwise a pipeful would be fatal. Of course they may +have thought that investigators would believe that their victims +were inveterate smokers. But even the worst tobacco fiend wouldn't +show traces of the weed to such an extent." + +Miss Lowe answered at last and Kennedy took the telephone. + +"What is at five hundred and one East Fifth?" he asked. + +"A headquarters of the Group in the city," she answered. "Why?" + +"Well, I believe that the plans of that gun are there and that the +Baron--" + +"You damned spies!" came a voice from behind us. + +Kennedy dropped the receiver, turning quickly, his automatic +gleaming in his hand. + +There was just a glimpse of a man with glittering bright blue eyes +that had an almost fiendish, baleful glare. An instant later the +door which had so unexpectedly opened banged shut, we heard a key +turn in the lock--and the man dropped to the floor before even +Kennedy's automatic could test its ability to penetrate wood on a +chance at hitting something the other side of it. + +We were prisoners! + +My mind worked automatically. At this very moment, perhaps, Baron +Kreiger might be negotiating for the electro-magnetic gun. We had +found out where he was, in all probability, but we were powerless +to help him. I thought of Miss Lowe, and picked up the receiver +which Kennedy had dropped. + +She did not answer. The wire had been cut. We were isolated! + +Kennedy had jumped to the window. I followed to restrain him, +fearing that he had some mad scheme for climbing out. Instead, +quickly he placed a peculiar arrangement, from the little package +he had brought, holding it to his eye as if sighting it, his right +hand grasping a handle as one holds a stereoscope. A moment later, +as I examined it more closely, I saw that instead of looking at +anything he had before him a small parabolic mirror turned away +from him. + +His finger pressed alternately on a button on the handle and I +could see that there flashed in the little mirror a minute +incandescent lamp which seemed to have a special filament +arrangement. + +The glaring sun was streaming in at the window and I wondered what +could possibly be accomplished by the little light in competition +with the sun itself. + +"Signaling by electric light in the daytime may sound to you +ridiculous," explained Craig, still industriously flashing the +light, "but this arrangement with Professor Donath's signal mirror +makes it possible, all right. + +"I hadn't expected this, but I thought I might want to communicate +with Burke quickly. You see, I sight the lamp and then press the +button which causes the light in the mirror to flash. It seems a +paradox that a light like this can be seen from a distance of even +five miles and yet be invisible to one for whom it was not +intended, but it is so. I use the ordinary Morse code--two seconds +for a dot, six for a dash with a four-second interval." + +"What message did you send?" I asked. + +"I told him that Baron Kreiger was at five hundred and one East +Fifth, probably; to get the secret service office in New York by +wire and have them raid the place, then to come and rescue us. +That was Annenberg. He must have come up by that trolley we heard +passing just before." + +The minutes seemed ages as we waited for Burke to start the +machinery of the raid and then come for us. + +"No--you can't have a cigarette--and if I had a pair of bracelets +with me, I'd search you myself," we heard a welcome voice growl +outside the door a few minutes later. "Look in that other pocket, +Tom." + +The lock grated back and there stood Burke holding in a grip of +steel the undersized Annenberg, while the chauffeur who had driven +our car swung open the door. + +"I'd have been up sooner," apologized Burke, giving the anarchist +an extra twist just to let him know that he was at last in the +hands of the law, "only I figured that this fellow couldn't have +got far away in this God-forsaken Ducktown and I might as well +pick him up while I had a chance. That's a great little instrument +of yours, Kennedy. I got you, fine." + +Annenberg, seeing we were now four to one, concluded that +discretion was the better part of valor and ceased to struggle, +though now and then I could see he glanced at Kennedy out of the +corner of his eye. To every question he maintained a stolid +silence. + +A few minutes later, with the arch anarchist safely pinioned +between us, we were speeding back toward New York, laying plans +for Burke to dispatch warnings abroad to those whose names +appeared on the fatal list, and at the same time to round up as +many of the conspirators as possible in America. + +As for Kennedy, his main interest now lay in Baron Kreiger and +Paula. While she had been driven frantic by the outcome of the +terrible pact into which she had been drawn, some one, +undoubtedly, had been trying to sell Baron Kreiger the gun that +had been stolen from the American inventor. Once they had his +money and he had received the plans of the gun, a fatal cigarette +would be smoked. Could we prevent it? + +On we tore back to the city, across the bridge and down through +the canyons of East Side streets. + +At last we pulled up before the tenement at five hundred and one. +As we did so, one of Burke's men jumped out of the doorway. + +"Are we in time?" shouted Burke. + +"It's an awful mix-up," returned the man. "I can't make anything +out of it, so I ordered 'em all held here till you came." + +We pushed past without a word of criticism of his wonderful +acumen. + +On the top floor we came upon a young man, bending over the form +of a girl who had fainted. On the floor of the middle of the room +was a mass of charred papers which had evidently burned a hole in +the carpet before they had been stamped out. Near by was an +unlighted cigarette, crushed flat on the floor. + +"How is she?" asked Kennedy anxiously of the young man, as he +dropped down on the other side of the girl. + +It was Paula. She had fainted, but was just now coming out of the +borderland of unconsciousness. + +"Was I in time? Had he smoked it?" she moaned weakly, as there +swam before her eyes, evidently, a hazy vision of our faces. + +Kennedy turned to the young man. + +"Baron Kreiger, I presume?" he inquired. + +The young man nodded. + +"Burke of the Secret Service," introduced Craig, indicating our +friend. "My name is Kennedy. Tell what happened." + +"I had just concluded a transaction," returned Kreiger in good but +carefully guarded English. "Suddenly the door burst open. She +seized these papers and dashed a cigarette out of my hands. The +next instant she had touched a match to them and had fallen in a +faint almost in the blaze. Strangest experience I ever had in my +life. Then all these other fellows came bursting in--said they +were Secret Service men, too." + +Kennedy had no time to reply, for a cry from Annenberg directed +our attention to the next room where on a couch lay a figure all +huddled up. + +As we looked we saw it was a woman, her head sweating profusely, +and her hands cold and clammy. There was a strange twitching of +the muscles of the face, the pupils of her eyes were widely +dilated, her pulse weak and irregular. Evidently her circulation +had failed so that it responded only feebly to stimulants, for her +respiration was slow and labored, with loud inspiratory gasps. + +Annenberg had burst with superhuman strength from Burke's grasp +and was kneeling by the side of his wife's deathbed. + +"It--was all Paula's fault--" gasped the woman. "I--knew I had +better--carry it through--like the Fortescue visit--alone." + +I felt a sense of reassurance at the words. At least my suspicions +had been unfounded. Paula was innocent of the murder of Fortescue. + +"Severe, acute nicotine poisoning," remarked Kennedy, as he +rejoined us a moment later. "There is nothing we can do--now." + +Paula moved at the words, as though they had awakened a new energy +in her. With a supreme effort she raised herself. + +"Then I--I failed?" she cried, catching sight of Kennedy. + +"No, Miss Lowe," he answered gently. "You won. The plans of the +terrible gun are destroyed. The Baron is safe. Mrs. Annenberg has +herself smoked one of the fatal cigarettes intended for him." + +Kreiger looked at us, uncomprehending. Kennedy picked up the +crushed, unlighted cigarette and laid it in the palm of his hand +beside another, half smoked, which he had found beside Mrs. +Annenberg. + +"They are deadly," he said simply to Kreiger. "A few drops of pure +nicotine hidden by that pretty gilt tip would have accomplished +all that the bitterest anarchist could desire." + +All at once Kreiger seemed to realize what he had escaped so +narrowly. He turned toward Paula. The revulsion of her feelings at +seeing him safe was too much for her shattered nerves. + +With a faint little cry, she tottered. + +Before any of us could reach her, he had caught her in his arms +and imprinted a warm kiss on the insensible lips. + +"Some water--quick!" he cried, still holding her close. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE AIR PIRATE + + +Rounding up the "Group" took several days, and it proved to be a +great story for the Star. I was pretty fagged when it was all +over, but there was a great deal of satisfaction in knowing that +we had frustrated one of the most daring anarchist plots of recent +years. + +"Can you arrange to spend the week-end with me at Stuyvesant +Verplanck's at Bluffwood?" asked Kennedy over the telephone, the +afternoon that I had completed my work on the newspaper of undoing +what Annenberg and the rest had attempted. + +"How long since society took you up?" I asked airily, adding, "Is +it a large house party you are getting up?" + +"You have heard of the so-called 'phantom bandit' of Bluffwood, +haven't you?" he returned rather brusquely, as though there was no +time now for bantering. + +I confess that in the excitement of the anarchists I had forgotten +it, but now I recalled that for several days I had been reading +little paragraphs about robberies on the big estates on the Long +Island shore of the Sound. One of the local correspondents had +called the robber a "phantom bandit," but I had thought it nothing +more than an attempt to make good copy out of a rather ordinary +occurrence. + +"Well," he hurried on, "that's the reason why I have been 'taken +up by society,' as you so elegantly phrase it. From the secret +hiding-places of the boudoirs and safes of fashionable women at +Bluffwood, thousands of dollars' worth of jewels and other +trinkets have mysteriously vanished. Of course you'll come along. +Why, it will be just the story to tone up that alleged page of +society news you hand out in the Sunday Star. There--we're quits +now. Seriously, though, Walter, it really seems to be a very +baffling case, or rather series of cases. The whole colony out +there is terrorized. They don't know who the robber is, or how he +operates, or who will be the next victim, but his skill and +success seem almost uncanny. Mr. Verplanck has put one of his cars +at my disposal and I'm up here at the laboratory gathering some +apparatus that may be useful. I'll pick you up anywhere between +this and the Bridge--how about Columbus Circle in half an hour?" + +"Good," I agreed, deciding quickly from his tone and manner of +assurance that it would be a case I could not afford to miss. + +The Stuyvesant Verplancks, I knew, were among the leaders of the +rather recherche society at Bluffwood, and the pace at which +Bluffwood moved and had its being was such as to guarantee a good +story in one way or another. + +"Why," remarked Kennedy, as we sped out over the picturesque roads +of the north shore of Long Island, "this fellow, or fellows, seems +to have taken the measure of all the wealthy members of the +exclusive organizations out there--the Westport Yacht Club, the +Bluffwood Country Club, the North Shore Hunt, and all of them. +It's a positive scandal, the ease with which he seems to come and +go without detection, striking now here, now there, often at +places that it seems physically impossible to get at, and yet +always with the same diabolical skill and success. One night he +will take some baubles worth thousands, the next pass them by for +something apparently of no value at all, a piece of bric-a-brac, a +bundle of letters, anything." + +"Seems purposeless, insane, doesn't it?" I put in. + +"Not when he always takes something--often more valuable than +money," returned Craig. + +He leaned back in the car and surveyed the glimpses of bay and +countryside as we were whisked by the breaks in the trees. + +"Walter," he remarked meditatively, "have you ever considered the +possibilities of blackmail if the right sort of evidence were +obtained under this new 'white-slavery act'? Scandals that some of +the fast set may be inclined to wink at, that at worst used to end +in Reno, become felonies with federal prison sentences looming up +in the background. Think it over." + +Stuyvesant Verplanck had telephoned rather hurriedly to Craig +earlier in the day, retaining his services, but telling only in +the briefest way of the extent of the depredations, and hinting +that more than jewelry might be at stake. + +It was a pleasant ride, but we finished it in silence. Verplanck +was, as I recalled, a large masterful man, one of those who +demanded and liked large things--such as the estate of several +hundred acres which we at last entered. + +It was on a neck of land with the restless waters of the Sound on +one side and the calmer waters of the bay on the other. Westport +Bay lay in a beautifully wooded, hilly country, and the house +itself was on an elevation, with a huge sweep of terraced lawn +before it down to the water's edge. All around, for miles, were +other large estates, a veritable colony of wealth. + +As we pulled up under the broad stone porte-cochere, Verplanck, +who had been expecting us, led the way into his library, a great +room, literally crowded with curios and objects of art which he +had collected on his travels. It was a superb mental workshop, +overlooking the bay, with a stretch of several miles of sheltered +water. + +"You will recall," began Verplanck, wasting no time over +preliminaries, but plunging directly into the subject, "that the +prominent robberies of late have been at seacoast resorts, +especially on the shores of Long Island Sound, within, say, a +hundred miles of New York. There has been a great deal of talk +about dark and muffled automobiles that have conveyed mysterious +parties swiftly and silently across country. + +"My theory," he went on self-assertively, "is that the attack has +been made always along water routes. Under shadow of darkness, it +is easy to slip into one of the sheltered coves or miniature +fiords with which the north coast of the Island abounds, land a +cut-throat crew primed with exact information of the treasure on +some of these estates. Once the booty is secured, the criminal +could put out again into the Sound without leaving a clue." + +He seemed to be considering his theory. "Perhaps the robberies +last summer at Narragansett, Newport, and a dozen other New +England places were perpetrated by the same cracksman. I believe," +he concluded, lowering his voice, "that there plies to-day on the +wide waters of the Sound a slim, swift motor boat which wears the +air of a pleasure craft, yet is as black a pirate as ever flew the +Jolly Roger. She may at this moment be anchored off some exclusive +yacht club, flying the respectable burgee of the club--who knows?" + +He paused as if his deductions settled the case so far. He would +have resumed in the same vein, if the door had not opened. A lady +in a cobwebby gown entered the room. She was of middle age, but +had retained her youth with a skill that her sisters of less +leisure always envy. Evidently she had not expected to find +anyone, yet nothing seemed to disconcert her. + +"Mrs. Verplanck," her husband introduced, "Professor Kennedy and +his associate, Mr. Jameson--those detectives we have heard about. +We were discussing the robberies." + +"Oh, yes," she said, smiling, "my husband has been thinking of +forming himself into a vigilance committee. The local authorities +are all at sea." + +I thought there was a trace of something veiled in the remark and +fancied, not only then but later, that there was an air of +constraint between the couple. + +"You have not been robbed yourself?" queried Craig tentatively. + +"Indeed we have," exclaimed Verplanck quickly. "The other night I +was awakened by the noise of some one down here in this very +library. I fired a shot, wild, and shouted, but before I could get +down here the intruder had fled through a window, and half rolling +down the terraces. Mrs. Verplanck was awakened by the rumpus and +both of us heard a peculiar whirring noise." + +"Like an automobile muffled down," she put in. + +"No," he asserted vigorously, "more like a powerful motor boat, +one with the exhaust under water." + +"Well," she shrugged, "at any rate, we saw no one." + +"Did the intruder get anything?" + +"That's the lucky part. He had just opened this safe apparently +and begun to ransack it. This is my private safe. Mrs. Verplanck +has another built into her own room upstairs where she keeps her +jewels." + +"It is not a very modern safe, is it?" ventured Kennedy. "The +fellow ripped off the outer casing with what they call a 'can- +opener.'" + +"No. I keep it against fire rather than burglars. But he +overlooked a box of valuable heirlooms, some silver with the +Verplanck arms. I think I must have scared him off just in time. +He seized a package in the safe, but it was only some business +correspondence. I don't relish having lost it, particularly. It +related to a gentlemen's agreement a number of us had in the +recent cotton corner. I suppose the Government would like to have +it. But--here's the point. If it is so easy to get in and get +away, no one in Bluffwood is safe." + +"Why, he robbed the Montgomery Carter place the other night," +remarked Mrs. Verplanck, "and almost got a lot of old Mrs. +Carter's jewels as well as stuff belonging to her son, Montgomery, +Junior. That was the first robbery. Mr. Carter, that is Junior-- +Monty, everyone calls him--and his chauffeur almost captured the +fellow, but he managed to escape in the woods." + +"In the woods?" repeated Craig. + +Mrs. Verplanck nodded. "But they saved the loot he was about to +take." + +"Oh, no one is safe any more," reiterated Verplanck. "Carter seems +to be the only one who has had a real chance at him, and he was +able to get away neatly." + +"But he's not the only one who got off without a loss," she put in +significantly. "The last visit--" Then she paused. + +"Where was the last attempt?" asked Kennedy. + +"At the house of Mrs. Hollingsworth--around the point on this side +of the bay. You can't see it from here." + +"I'd like to go there," remarked Kennedy. + +"Very well. Car or boat?" + +"Boat, I think." + +"Suppose we go in my little runabout, the Streamline II? She's as +fast as any ordinary automobile." + +"Very good. Then we can get an idea of the harbor." + +"I'll telephone first that we are coming," said Verplanck. + +"I think I'll go, too," considered Mrs. Verplanck, ringing for a +heavy wrap. + +"Just as you please," said Verplanck. + +The Streamline was a three-stepped boat which. Verplanck had built +for racing, a beautiful craft, managed much like a racing +automobile. As she started from the dock, the purring drone of her +eight cylinders sent her feathering over the waves like a skipping +stone. She sank back into the water, her bow leaping upward, a +cloud of spray in her wake, like a waterspout. + +Mrs. Hollingsworth was a wealthy divorcee, living rather quietly +with her two children, of whom the courts had awarded her the +care. She was a striking woman, one of those for whom the new +styles of dress seem especially to have been designed. I gathered, +however, that she was not on very good terms with the little +Westport clique in which the Verplancks moved, or at least not +with Mrs. Verplanck. The two women seemed to regard each other +rather coldly, I thought, although Mr. Verplanck, man-like, seemed +to scorn any distinctions and was more than cordial. I wondered +why Mrs. Verplanck had come. + +The Hollingsworth house was a beautiful little place down the bay +from the Yacht Club, but not as far as Verplanck's, or the Carter +estate, which was opposite. + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Hollingsworth when the reason for our visit +had been explained, "the attempt was a failure. I happened to be +awake, rather late, or perhaps you would call it early. I thought +I heard a noise as if some one was trying to break into the +drawing-room through the window. I switched on all the lights. I +have them arranged so for just that purpose of scaring off +intruders. Then, as I looked out of my window on the second floor, +I fancied I could see a dark figure slink into the shadow of the +shrubbery at the side of the house. Then there was a whirr. It +might have been an automobile, although it sounded differently +from that--more like a motor boat. At any rate, there was no trace +of a car that we could discover in the morning. The road had been +oiled, too, and a car would have left marks. And yet some one was +here. There were marks on the drawing-room window just where I +heard the sounds." + +Who could it be? I asked myself as we left. I knew that the great +army of chauffeurs was infested with thieves, thugs and gunmen. +Then, too, there were maids, always useful as scouts for these +corsairs who prey on the rich. Yet so adroitly had everything been +done in these cases that not a clue seemed to have been left +behind by which to trace the thief. + +We returned to Verplanck's in the Streamline in record time, +dined, and then found McNeill, a local detective, waiting to add +his quota of information. McNeill was of the square-toed, double- +chinned, bull-necked variety, just the man to take along if there +was any fighting. He had, however, very little to add to the +solution of the mystery, apparently believing in the chauffeur- +and-maid theory. + +It was too late to do anything more that night, and we sat on the +Verplanck porch, overlooking the beautiful harbor. It was a black, +inky night, with no moon, one of those nights when the myriad +lights on the boats were mere points in the darkness. As we looked +out over the water, considering the case which as yet we had +hardly started on, Kennedy seemed engrossed in the study in black. + +"I thought I saw a moving light for an instant across the bay, +above the boats, and as though it were in the darkness of the +hills on the other side. Is there a road over there, above the +Carter house?" he asked suddenly. + +"There is a road part of the way on the crest of the hill," +replied Mrs. Verplanck. "You can see a car on it, now and then, +through the trees, like a moving light." + +"Over there, I mean," reiterated Kennedy, indicating the light as +it flashed now faintly, then disappeared, to reappear further +along, like a gigantic firefly in the night. + +"N-no," said Verplanck. "I don't think the road runs down as far +as that. It is further up the bay." + +"What is it then?" asked Kennedy, half to himself. "It seems to be +traveling rapidly. Now it must be about opposite the Carter house. +There--it has gone." + +We continued to watch for several minutes, but it did not +reappear. Could it have been a light on the mast of a boat moving +rapidly up the bay and perhaps nearer to us than we suspected? +Nothing further happened, however, and we retired early, expecting +to start with fresh minds on the case in the morning. Several +watchmen whom Verplanck employed both on the shore and along the +driveways were left guarding every possible entrance to the +estate. + +Yet the next morning as we met in the cheery east breakfast room, +Verplanck's gardener came in, hat in hand, with much suppressed +excitement. + +In his hand he held an orange which he had found in the shrubbery +underneath the windows of the house. In it was stuck a long nail +and to the nail was fastened a tag. + +Kennedy read it quickly. + +"If this had been a bomb, you and your detectives would never have +known what struck you. + +"AQUAERO." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE ULTRA-VIOLET RAY + + +"Good Gad, man!" exclaimed Verplanck, who had read it over Craig's +shoulder. "What do you make of THAT?" + +Kennedy merely shook his head. Mrs. Verplanck was the calmest of +all. + +"The light," I cried. "You remember the light? Could it have been +a signal to some one on this side of the bay, a signal light in +the woods?" + +"Possibly," commented Kennedy absently, adding, "Robbery with this +fellow seems to be an art as carefully strategized as a promoter's +plan or a merchant's trade campaign. I think I'll run over this +morning and see if there is any trace of anything on the Carter +estate." + +Just then the telephone rang insistently. It was McNeill, much +excited, though he had not heard of the orange incident. Verplanck +answered the call. + +"Have you heard the news?" asked McNeill. "They report this +morning that that fellow must have turned up last night at Belle +Aire." + +"Belle Aire? Why, man, that's fifty miles away and on the other +side of the island. He was here last night," and Verplanck related +briefly the find of the morning. "No boat could get around the +island in that time and as for a car--those roads are almost +impossible at night." + +"Can't help it," returned McNeill doggedly. "The Halstead estate +out at Belle Aire was robbed last night. It's spooky all right." + +"Tell McNeill I want to see him--will meet him in the village +directly," cut in Craig before Verplanck had finished. + +We bolted a hasty breakfast and in one of Verplanck's cars hurried +to meet McNeill. + +"What do you intend doing?" he asked helplessly, as Kennedy +finished his recital of the queer doings of the night before. + +"I'm going out now to look around the Carter place. Can you come +along?" + +"Surely," agreed McNeill, climbing into the car. "You know him?" + +"No." + +"Then I'll introduce you. Queer chap, Carter. He's a lawyer, +although I don't think he has much practice, except managing his +mother's estate." + +McNeill settled back in the luxurious car with an exclamation of +satisfaction. + +"What do you think of Verplanck?" he asked. + +"He seems to me to be a very public-spirited man," answered +Kennedy discreetly. + +That, however, was not what McNeill meant and he ignored it. And +so for the next ten minutes we were entertained with a little +retail scandal of Westport and Bluffwood, including a tale that +seemed to have gained currency that Verplanck and Mrs. +Hollingsworth were too friendly to please Mrs. Verplanck. I set +the whole thing down to the hostility and jealousy of the towns +people who misinterpret everything possible in the smart set, +although I could not help recalling how quickly she had spoken +when we had visited the Hollingsworth house in the Streamline the +day before. + +Montgomery Carter happened to be at home and, at least openly, +interposed no objection to our going about the grounds. + +"You see," explained Kennedy, watching the effect of his words as +if to note whether Carter himself had noticed anything unusual the +night before, "we saw a light moving over here last night. To tell +the truth, I half expected you would have a story to add to ours, +of a second visit." + +Carter smiled. "No objection at all. I'm simply nonplussed at the +nerve of this fellow, coming back again. I guess you've heard what +a narrow squeak he had with me. You're welcome to go anywhere, +just so long as you don't disturb my study down there in the +boathouse. I use that because it overlooks the bay--just the place +to study over knotty legal problems." + +Back of, or in front of the Carter house, according as you fancied +it faced the bay or not, was the boathouse, built by Carter's +father, who had been a great yachtsman in his day and commodore of +the club. His son had not gone in much for water sports and had +converted the corner underneath a sort of observation tower into a +sort of country law office. + +"There has always seemed to me to be something strange about that +boathouse since the old man died," remarked McNeill in a half +whisper as we left Carter. "He always keeps it locked and never +lets anyone go in there, although they say he has it fitted +beautifully with hundreds of volumes of law books, too." + +Kennedy had been climbing the hill back of the house and now +paused to look about. Below was the Carter garage. + +"By the way," exclaimed McNeill, as if he had at last hit on a +great discovery, "Carter has a new chauffeur, a fellow named +Wickham. I just saw him driving down to the village. He's a chap +that it might pay us to watch--a newcomer, smart as a steel trap, +they say, but not much of a talker." "Suppose you take that job-- +watch him," encouraged Kennedy. "We can't know too much about +strangers here, McNeill." + +"That's right," agreed the detective. "I'll follow him back to the +village and get a line on him." + +"Don't be easily discouraged," added Kennedy, as McNeill started +down the hill to the garage. "If he is a fox he'll try to throw +you off the trail. Hang on." + +"What was that for?" I asked as the detective disappeared. "Did +you want to get rid of him?" + +"Partly," replied Craig, descending slowly, after a long survey of +the surrounding country. + +We had reached the garage, deserted now except for our own car. + +"I'd like to investigate that tower," remarked Kennedy with a keen +look at me, "if it could be done without seeming to violate Mr. +Carter's hospitality." + +"Well," I observed, my eye catching a ladder beside the garage, +"there's a ladder. We can do no more than try." + +He walked over to the automobile, took a little package out, +slipped it into his pocket, and a few minutes later we had set the +ladder up against the side of the boathouse farthest away from the +house. It was the work of only a moment for Kennedy to scale it +and prowl across the roof to the tower, while I stood guard at the +foot. + +"No one has been up there recently," he panted breathlessly as he +rejoined me. "There isn't a sign." + +We took the ladder quietly back to the garage, then Kennedy led +the way down the shore to a sort of little summerhouse cut off +from the boathouse and garage by the trees, though over the top of +a hedge one could still see the boathouse tower. + +We sat down, and Craig filled his lungs with the good salt air, +sweeping his eye about the blue and green panorama as though this +were a holiday and not a mystery case. + +"Walter," he said at length, "I wish you'd take the car and go +around to Verplanck's. I don't think you can see the tower through +the trees, but I should like to be sure." + +I found that it could not be seen, though I tried all over the +place and got myself disliked by the gardener and suspected by a +watchman with a dog. + +It could not have been from the tower of the boathouse that we had +seen the light, and I hurried back to Craig to tell him so. But +when I returned, I found that he was impatiently pacing the little +rustic summerhouse, no longer interested in what he had sent me to +find out. + +"What has happened?" I asked eagerly. + +"Just come out here and I'll show you something," he replied, +leaving the summerhouse and approaching the boathouse from the +other side of the hedge, on the beach, so that the house itself +cut us off from observation from Carter's. + +"I fixed a lens on the top of that tower when I was up there," he +explained, pointing up at it. "It must be about fifty feet high. +From there, you see, it throws a reflection down to this mirror. I +did it because through a skylight in the tower I could read +whatever was written by anyone sitting at Carter's desk in the +corner under it." + +"Read?" I repeated, mystified. + +"Yes, by invisible light," he continued. "This invisible light +business, you know, is pretty well understood by this time. I was +only repeating what was suggested once by Professor Wood of Johns +Hopkins. Practically all sources of light, you understand, give +out more or less ultraviolet light, which plays no part in vision +whatever. The human eye is sensitive to but few of the light rays +that reach it, and if our eyes were constituted just the least bit +differently we should have an entirely different set of images. + +"But by the use of various devices we can, as it were, translate +these ultraviolet rays into terms of what the human eye can see. +In order to do it, all the visible light rays which show us the +thing as we see it--the tree green, the sky blue--must be cut off. +So in taking an ultraviolet photograph a screen must be used which +will be opaque to these visible rays and yet will let the +ultraviolet rays through to form the image. That gave Professor +Wood a lot of trouble. Glass won't do, for glass cuts off the +ultraviolet rays entirely. Quartz is a very good medium, but it +does not cut off all the visible light. In fact there is only one +thing that will do the work, and that is metallic silver." + +I could not fathom what he was driving at, but the fascination of +Kennedy himself was quite sufficient. + +"Silver," he went on, "is all right if the objects can be +illuminated by an electric spark or some other source rich in the +rays. But it isn't entirely satisfactory when sunlight is +concerned, for various reasons that I need not bore you with. +Professor Wood has worked out a process of depositing nickel on +glass. That's it up there," he concluded, wheeling a lower +reflector about until it caught the image of the afternoon sun +thrown from the lens on the top of the tower. + +"You see," he resumed, "that upper lens is concave so that it +enlarges tremendously. I can do some wonderful tricks with that." + +I had been lighting a cigarette and held a box of safety wind +matches in my hand. + +"Give me that matchbox," he asked. + +He placed it at the foot of the tower. Then he went off, I should +say, without exaggeration, a hundred feet. + +The lettering on the matchbox could be seen in the silvered +mirror, enlarged to such a point that the letters were plainly +visible! + +"Think of the possibilities in that," he added excitedly. "I saw +them at once. You can read what some one is writing at a desk a +hundred, perhaps two hundred feet away." + +"Yes," I cried, more interested in the practical aspects of it +than in the mechanics and optics. "What have you found?" + +"Some one came into the boathouse while you were away," he said. +"He had a note. It read, 'Those new detectives are watching +everything. We must have the evidence. You must get those letters +to-night, without fail.'" + +"Letters--evidence," I repeated. "Who wrote it? Who received it?" + +"I couldn't see over the hedge who had entered the boathouse, and +by the time I got around here he was gone." + +"Was it Wickham--or intended for Wickham?" I asked. + +Kennedy shrugged his shoulders. + +"We'll gain nothing by staying here," he said. "There is just one +possibility in the case, and I can guard against that only by +returning to Verplanck's and getting some of that stuff I brought +up here with me. Let us go." + +Late in the afternoon though it was, after our return, Kennedy +insisted on hurrying from Verplanck's to the Yacht Club up the +bay. It was a large building, extending out into the water on made +land, from which ran a long, substantial dock. He had stopped long +enough only to ask Verplanck to lend him the services of his best +mechanician, a Frenchman named Armand. + +On the end of the yacht club dock Kennedy and Armand set up a +large affair which looked like a mortar. I watched curiously, +dividing my attention between them and the splendid view of the +harbor which the end of the dock commanded on all sides. + +"What is this?" I asked finally. "Fireworks?" + +"A rocket mortar of light weight," explained Kennedy, then dropped +into French as he explained to Armand the manipulation of the +thing. + +There was a searchlight near by on the dock. + +"You can use that?" queried Kennedy. + +"Oh, yes. Mr. Verplanck, he is vice-commodore of the club. Oh, +yes, I can use that. Why, Monsieur?" + +Kennedy had uncovered a round brass case. It did not seem to +amount to much, as compared to some of the complicated apparatus +he had used. In it was a four-sided prism of glass--I should have +said, cut off the corner of a huge glass cube. + +He handed it to us. + +"Look in it," he said. + +It certainly was about the most curious piece of crystal gazing I +had ever done. Turn the thing any way I pleased and I could see my +face in it, just as in an ordinary mirror. + +"What do you call it?" Armand asked, much interested. + +"A triple mirror," replied Kennedy, and again, half in English and +half in French, neither of which I could follow, he explained the +use of the mirror to the mechanician. + +We were returning up the dock, leaving Armand with instructions to +be at the club at dusk, when we met McNeill, tired and disgusted. + +"What luck?" asked Kennedy. + +"Nothing," he returned. "I had a 'short' shadow and a 'long' +shadow at Wickham's heels all day. You know what I mean. Instead +of one man, two--the second sleuthing in the other's tracks. If he +escaped Number One, Number Two would take it up, and I was ready +to move up into Number Two's place. They kept him in sight about +all the time. Not a fact. But then, of course, we don't know what +he was doing before we took up tailing him. Say," he added, "I +have just got word from an agency with which I correspond in New +York that it is reported that a yeggman named 'Australia Mac,' a +very daring and clever chap, has been attempting to dispose of +some of the goods which we know have been stolen through one of +the worst 'fences' in New York." + +"Is that all?" asked Craig, with the mention of Australia Mac +showing the first real interest yet in anything that McNeill had +done since we met him the night before. + +"All so far. I wired for more details immediately." + +"Do you know anything about this Australia Mac?" + +"Not much. No one does. He's a new man, it seems, to the police +here." + +"Be here at eight o'clock, McNeill," said Craig, as we left the +club for Verplanck's. "If you can find out more about this +yeggman, so much the better." + +"Have you made any progress?" asked Verplanck as we entered the +estate a few minutes later. + +"Yes," returned Craig, telling only enough to whet his interest. +"There's a clue, as I half expected, from New York, too. But we +are so far away that we'll have to stick to my original plan. You +can trust Armand?" + +"Absolutely." + +"Then we shall transfer our activity to the Yacht Club to-night," +was all that Kennedy vouchsafed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE TRIPLE MIRROR + + +It was the regular Saturday night dance at the club, a brilliant +spectacle, faces that radiated pleasure, gowns that for startling +combinations of color would have shamed a Futurist, music that set +the feet tapping irresistibly--a scene which I shall pass over +because it really has no part in the story. + +The fascination of the ballroom was utterly lost on Craig. "Think +of all the houses only half guarded about here to-night," he +mused, as we joined Armand and McNeill on the end of the dock. I +could not help noting that that was the only idea which the gay, +variegated, sparkling tango throng conveyed to him. + +In front of the club was strung out a long line of cars, and at +the dock several speed boats of national and international +reputation, among them the famous Streamline II, at our instant +beck and call. In it Craig had already placed some rather bulky +pieces of apparatus, as well as a brass case containing a second +triple mirror like that which he had left with Armand. + +With McNeill, I walked back along the pier, leaving Kennedy with +Armand, until we came to the wide porch, where we joined the +wallflowers and the rocking-chair fleet. Mrs. Verplanck, I +observed, was a beautiful dancer. I picked her out in the throng +immediately, dancing with Carter. + +McNeill tugged at my sleeve. Without a word I saw what he meant me +to see. Verplanck and Mrs. Hollingsworth were dancing together. +Just then, across the porch I caught sight of Kennedy at one of +the wide windows. He was trying to attract Verplanck's attention, +and as he did so I worked my way through the throng of chatting +couples leaving the floor until I reached him. Verplanck, +oblivious, finished the dance; then, seeming to recollect that he +had something to attend to, caught sight of us, and ran off during +the intermission from the gay crowd to which he resigned Mrs. +Hollingsworth. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +"There's that light down the bay," whispered Kennedy. + +Instantly Verplanck forgot about the dance. + +"Where?" he asked. + +"In the same place." + +I had not noticed, but Mrs. Verplanck, woman-like, had been able +to watch several things at once. She had seen us and had joined +us. + +"Would you like to run down there in the Streamline?" he asked. +"It will only take a few minutes." + +"Very much." + +"What is it--that light again?" she asked, as she joined us in +walking down the dock. + +"Yes," answered her husband, pausing to look for a moment at the +stuff Kennedy had left with Armand. Mrs. Verplanck leaned over the +Streamline, turned as she saw me, and said: "I wish I could go +with you. But evening dress is not the thing for a shivery night +in a speed boat. I think I know as much about it as Mr. Verplanck. +Are you going to leave Armand?" + +"Yes," replied Kennedy, taking his place beside Verplanck, who was +seated at the steering wheel. "Walter and McNeill, if you two will +sit back there, we're ready. All right." + +Armand had cast us off and Mrs. Verplanck waved from the end of +the float as the Streamline quickly shot out into the night, a +buzzing, throbbing shape of mahogany and brass, with her exhausts +sticking out like funnels and booming like a pipe organ. It took +her only seconds to eat into the miles. + +"A little more to port," said Kennedy, as Verplanck swung her +around. + +Just then the steady droning of the engine seemed a bit less +rhythmical. Verplanck throttled her down, but it had no effect. He +shut her off. Something was wrong. As he crawled out into the +space forward of us where the engine was, it seemed as if the +Streamline had broken down suddenly and completely. + +Here we were floundering around in the middle of the bay. + +"Chuck-chuck-chuck," came in quick staccato out of the night. It +was Montgomery Carter, alone, on his way across the bay from the +club, in his own boat. + +"Hello--Carter," called Verplanck. + +"Hello, Verplanck. What's the matter?" + +"Don't know. Engine trouble of some kind. Can you give us a line?" + +"I've got to go down to the house," he said, ranging up near us. +"Then I can take you back. Perhaps I'd better get you out of the +way of any other boats first. You don't mind going over and then +back?" + +Verplanck looked at Craig. "On the contrary," muttered Craig, as +he made fast the welcome line. + +The Carter dock was some three miles from the club on the other +side of the bay. As we came up to it, Carter shut off his engine, +bent over it a moment, made fast, and left us with a hurried, +"Wait here." + +Suddenly, overhead, we heard a peculiar whirring noise that seemed +to vibrate through the air. Something huge, black, monster-like, +slid down a board runway into the water, traveled a few feet, in +white suds and spray, rose in the darkness--and was gone! + +As the thing disappeared, I thought I could hear a mocking laugh +flung back at us. + +"What is it?" I asked, straining my eyes at what had seemed for an +instant like a great flying fish with finny tail and huge fins at +the sides and above. + +"'Aquaero,'" quoted Kennedy quickly. "Don't you understand--a +hydroaeroplane--a flying boat. There are hundreds of privately +owned flying boats now wherever there is navigable water. That was +the secret of Carter's boathouse, of the light we saw in the air." + +"But this Aquaero--who is he?" persisted McNeill. "Carter-- +Wickham--Australia Mac?" + +We looked at each other blankly. No one said a word. We were +captured, just as effectively as if we were ironed in a dungeon. +There were the black water, the distant lights, which at any other +time I should have said would have been beautiful. + +Kennedy had sprung into Carter's boat. + +"The deuce," he exclaimed. "He's put her out of business." + +Verplanck, chagrined, had been going over his own engine +feverishly. "Do you see that?" he asked suddenly, holding up in +the light of a lantern a little nut which he had picked out of the +complicated machinery. "It never belonged to this engine. Some one +placed it there, knowing it would work its way into a vital part +with the vibration." + +Who was the person, the only one who could have done it? The +answer was on my lips, but I repressed it. Mrs. Verplanck herself +had been bending over the engine when last I saw her. All at once +it flashed over me that she knew more about the phantom bandit +than she had admitted. Yet what possible object could she have had +in putting the Streamline out of commission? + +My mind was working rapidly, piecing together the fragmentary +facts. The remark of Kennedy, long before, instantly assumed new +significance. What were the possibilities of blackmail in the +right sort of evidence? The yeggman had been after what was more +valuable than jewels--letters! Whose? Suddenly I saw the +situation. Carter had not been robbed at all. He was in league +with the robber. That much was a blind to divert suspicion. He was +a lawyer--some one's lawyer. I recalled the message about letters +and evidence, and as I did so there came to mind a picture of +Carter and the woman he had been dancing with. In return for his +inside information about the jewels of the wealthy homes of +Bluffwood, the yeggman was to get something of interest and +importance to his client. + +The situation called for instant action. Yet what could we do, +marooned on the other side of the bay? + +From the Club dock a long finger of light swept out into the +night, plainly enough near the dock, but diffused and disclosing +nothing in the distance. Armand had trained it down the bay in the +direction we had taken, but by the time the beam reached us it was +so weak that it was lost. + +Craig had leaped up on the Carter dock and was capping and +uncapping with the brass cover the package which contained the +triple mirror. + +Still in the distance I could see the wide path of light, aimed +toward us, but of no avail. + +"What are you doing?" I asked. + +"Using the triple mirror to signal to Armand. It is something +better than wireless. Wireless requires heavy and complicated +apparatus. This is portable, heatless, almost weightless, a source +of light depending for its power on another source of light at a +great distance." + +I wondered how Armand could ever detect its feeble ray. + +"Even in the case of a rolling ship," Kennedy continued, +alternately covering and uncovering the mirror, "the beam of light +which this mirror reflects always goes back, unerring, to its +source. It would do so from an aeroplane, so high in the air that +it could not be located. The returning beam is invisible to anyone +not immediately in the path of the ray, and the ray always goes to +the observer. It is simply a matter of pure mathematics +practically applied. The angle of incidence equals the angle of +reflection. There is not a variation of a foot in two miles." + +"What message are you sending him?" asked Verplanck. + +"To tell Mrs. Hollingsworth to hurry home immediately," Kennedy +replied, still flashing the letters according to his code. + +"Mrs. Hollingsworth?" repeated Verplanck, looking up. + +"Yes. This hydroaeroplane yeggman is after something besides +jewels to-night. Were those letters that were stolen from you the +only ones you had in the safe?" + +Verplanck looked up quickly. "Yes, yes. Of course." + +"You had none from a woman--" + +"No," he almost shouted. Of a sudden it seemed to dawn on him what +Kennedy was driving at--the robbery of his own house with no loss +except of a packet of letters on business, followed by the attempt +on Mrs. Hollingsworth. "Do you think I'd keep dynamite, even in +the safe?" + +To hide his confusion he had turned and was bending again over the +engine. + +"How is it?" asked Kennedy, his signaling over. + +"Able to run on four cylinders and one propeller," replied +Verplanck. + +"Then let's try her. Watch the engine. I'll take the wheel." + +Limping along, the engine skipping and missing, the once peerless +Streamline started back across the bay. Instead of heading toward +the club, Kennedy pointed her bow somewhere between that and +Verplanck's. + +"I wish Armand would get busy," he remarked, after glancing now +and then in the direction of the club. "What can be the matter?" + +"What do you mean?" I asked. + +There came the boom as if of a gun far away in the direction in +which he was looking, then another. + +"Oh, there it is. Good fellow. I suppose he had to deliver my +message to Mrs. Hollingsworth himself first." + +From every quarter showed huge balls of fire, rising from the sea, +as it were, with a brilliantly luminous flame. + +"What is it?" I asked, somewhat startled. + +"A German invention for use at night against torpedo and aeroplane +attacks. From that mortar Armand has shot half a dozen bombs of +phosphide of calcium which are hurled far into the darkness. They +are so constructed that they float after a short plunge and are +ignited on contact by the action of the salt water itself." + +It was a beautiful pyrotechnic display, lighting up the shore and +hills of the bay as if by an unearthly flare. + +"There's that thing now!" exclaimed Kennedy. + +In the glow we could see a peculiar, birdlike figure flying +through the air over toward the Hollingsworth house. It was the +hydroaeroplane. + +Out from the little stretch of lawn under the accentuated shadow +of the trees, she streaked into the air, swaying from side to side +as the pilot operated the stabilizers on the ends of the planes to +counteract the puffs of wind off the land. + +How could she ever be stopped? + +The Streamline, halting and limping, though she was, had almost +crossed the bay before the light bombs had been fired by Armand. +Every moment brought the flying boat nearer. + +She swerved. Evidently the pilot had seen us at last and realized +who we were. I was so engrossed watching the thing that I had not +noticed that Kennedy had given the wheel to Verplanck and was +standing in the bow, endeavoring to sight what looked like a huge +gun. + +In rapid succession half a dozen shots rang out. I fancied I could +almost hear the ripping and tearing of the tough rubber-coated +silken wings of the hydroaeroplane as the wind widened the +perforation the gun had made. + +She had not been flying high, but now she swooped down almost like +a gull, seeking to rest on the water. We were headed toward her +now, and as the flying boat sank I saw one of the passengers rise +in his seat, swing his arm, and far out something splashed in the +bay. + +On the water, with wings helpless, the flying boat was no match +for the Streamline now. She struck at an acute angle, rebounded in +the air for a moment, and with a hiss skittered along over the +waves, planing with the help of her exhaust under the step of the +boat. + +There she was, a hull, narrow, scow-bowed, like a hydroplane, with +a long pointed stern and a cockpit for two men, near the bow. +There were two wide, winglike planes, on a light latticework of +wood covered with silk, trussed and wired like a kite frame, the +upper plane about five feet above the lower, which was level with +the boat deck. We could see the eight-cylindered engine which +drove a two-bladed wooden propeller, and over the stern were the +air rudder and the horizontal planes. There she was, the hobbled +steed now of the phantom bandit who had accomplished the seemingly +impossible. + +In spite of everything, however, the flying boat reached the shore +a trifle ahead of us. As she did so both figures in her jumped, +and one disappeared quickly up the bank, leaving the other alone. + +"Verplanck, McNeill--get him," cried Kennedy, as our own boat +grated on the beach. "Come, Walter, we'll take the other one." + +The man had seen that there was no safety in flight. Down the +shore he stood, without a hat, his hair blown pompadour by the +wind. + +As we approached Carter turned superciliously, unbuttoning his +bulky khaki life preserver jacket. + +"Well?" he asked coolly. + +Not for a moment did Kennedy allow the assumed coolness to take +him back, knowing that Carter's delay did not cover the retreat of +the other man. + +"So," Craig exclaimed, "you are the--the air pirate?" + +Carter disdained to reply. + +"It was you who suggested the millionaire households, full of +jewels, silver and gold, only half guarded; you, who knew the +habits of the people; you, who traded that information in return +for another piece of thievery by your partner, Australia Mac-- +Wickham he called himself here in Bluffwood. It was you---" + +A car drove up hastily, and I noted that we were still on the +Hollingsworth estate. Mrs. Hollingsworth had seen us and had +driven over toward us. + +"Montgomery!" she cried, startled. + +"Yes," said Kennedy quickly, "air pirate and lawyer for Mrs. +Verplanck in the suit which she contemplated bringing--" + +Mrs. Hollingsworth grew pale under the ghastly, flickering light +from the bay. + +"Oh!" she cried, realizing at what Kennedy hinted, "the letters!" + +"At the bottom of the harbor, now," said Kennedy. "Mr. Verplanck +tells me he has destroyed his. The past is blotted out as far as +that is concerned. The future is--for you three to determine. For +the present I've caught a yeggman and a blackmailer." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WIRELESS WIRETAPPERS + + +Kennedy did not wait at Bluffwood longer than was necessary. It +was easy enough now to silence Montgomery Carter, and the +reconciliation of the Verplancks was assured. In the Star I made +the case appear at the time to involve merely the capture of +Australia Mac. + +When I dropped into the office the next day as usual, I found that +I had another assignment that would take me out on Long Island. +The story looked promising and I was rather pleased to get it. + +"Bound for Seaville, I'll wager," sounded a familiar voice in my +ear, as I hurried up to the train entrance at the Long Island +corner of the Pennsylvania Station. + +I turned quickly, to find Kennedy just behind me, breathless and +perspiring. + +"Er--yes," I stammered in surprise at seeing him so unexpectedly, +"but where did you come from? How did you know?" + +"Let me introduce Mr. Jack Waldon," he went on, as we edged our +way toward the gate, "the brother of Mrs. Tracy Edwards, who +disappeared so strangely from the houseboat Lucie last night at +Seaville. That is the case you're going to write up, isn't it?" + +It was then for the first time that I noticed the excited young +man beside Kennedy was really his companion. + +I shook hands with Waldon, who gave me a grip that was both a +greeting and an added impulse in our general direction through the +wicket. + +"Might have known the Star would assign you to this Edwards case," +panted Kennedy, mopping his forehead, for the heat in the terminal +was oppressive and the crowd, though not large, was closely +packed. "Mr. Jameson is my right-hand man," he explained to +Waldon, taking us each by the arm and urging us forward. "Waldon +was afraid we might miss the train or I should have tried to get +you, Walter, at the office." + +It was all done so suddenly that they quite took away what +remaining breath I had, as we settled ourselves to swelter in the +smoker instead of in the concourse. I did not even protest at the +matter-of-fact assurance with which Craig assumed that his +deduction as to my destination was correct. + +Waldon, a handsome young fellow in a flannel suit and yachting cap +somewhat the worse for his evidently perturbed state of mind, +seemed to eye me for the moment doubtfully, in spite of Kennedy's +cordial greeting. + +"I've had all the first editions of the evening papers," I hinted +as we sped through the tunnel, "but the stories seemed to be quite +the same--pretty meager in details." + +"Yes," returned Waldon with a glance at Kennedy, "I tried to keep +as much out of the papers as I could just now for Lucie's sake." + +"You needn't fear Jameson," remarked Kennedy. + +He fumbled in his pocket, then paused a moment and shot a glance +of inquiry at Waldon, who nodded a mute acquiescence to him. + +"There seem to have been a number of very peculiar disappearances +lately," resumed Kennedy, "but this case of Mrs. Edwards is by far +the most extraordinary. Of course the Star hasn't had that--yet," +he concluded, handing me a sheet of notepaper. + +"Mr. Waldon didn't give it out, hoping to avoid scandal." + +I took the paper and read eagerly, in a woman's hand: + +"MY DEAR MISS FOX: I have been down here at Seaville on our +houseboat, the Lucie, for several days for a purpose which now is +accomplished. + +"Already I had my suspicions of you, from a source which I need +not name. Therefore, when the Kronprinz got into wireless +communication with the station at Seaville I determined through +our own wireless on the Lucie to overhear whether there would be +any exchange of messages between my husband and yourself. + +"I was able to overhear the whole thing and I want you to know +that your secret is no longer a secret from me, and that I have +already told Mr. Edwards that I know it. You ruin his life by your +intimacy which you seem to want to keep up, although you know you +have no right to do it, but you shall not ruin mine. + +"I am thoroughly disillusioned now. I have not decided on what +steps to take, but--" + +Only a casual glance was necessary to show me that the writing +seemed to grow more and more weak as it progressed, and the note +stopped abruptly, as if the writer had been suddenly interrupted +or some new idea had occurred to her. + +Hastily I tried to figure it out. Lucie Waldon, as everybody knew, +was a famous beauty, a marvel of charm and daintiness, slender, +with big, soulful, wistful eyes. Her marriage to Tracy Edwards, +the wealthy plunger and stockbroker, had been a great social event +the year before, and it was reputed at the time that Edwards had +showered her with jewels and dresses to the wonder and talk even +of society. + +As for Valerie Fox, I knew she had won quick recognition and even +fame as a dancer in New York during the previous winter, and I +recalled reading three or four days before that she had just +returned on the Kronprinz from a trip abroad. + +"I don't suppose you have had time to see Miss Fox," I remarked. +"Where is she?" + +"At Beach Park now, I think," replied Waldon, "a resort a few +miles nearer the city on the south shore, where there is a large +colony of actors." + +I handed back the letter to Kennedy. + +"What do you make of it?" he asked, as he folded it up and put it +back into his pocket. + +"I hardly know what to say," I replied. "Of course there have been +rumors, I believe, that all was not exactly like a honeymoon still +with the Tracy Edwardses." + +"Yes," returned Waldon slowly, "I know myself that there has been +some trouble, but nothing definite until I found this letter last +night in my sister's room. She never said anything about it either +to mother or myself. They haven't been much together during the +summer, and last night when she disappeared Tracy was in the city. +But I hadn't thought much about it before, for, of course, you +know he has large financial interests that make him keep in pretty +close touch with New York and this summer hasn't been a +particularly good one on the stock exchange." + +"And," I put in, "a plunger doesn't always make the best of +husbands. Perhaps there is temperament to be reckoned with here." + +"There seem to be a good many things to be reckoned with," Craig +considered. "For example, here's a houseboat, the Lucie, a +palatial affair, cruising about aimlessly, with a beautiful woman +on it. She gives a little party, in the absence of her husband, to +her brother, his fiancee and her mother, who visit her from his +yacht, the Nautilus. They break up, those living on the Lucie +going to their rooms and the rest back to the yacht, which is +anchored out further in the deeper water of the bay. + +"Some time in the middle of the night her maid, Juanita, finds +that she is not in her room. Her brother is summoned back from his +yacht and finds that she has left this pathetic, unfinished +letter. But otherwise there is no trace of her. Her husband is +notified and hurries out there, but he can find no clue. +Meanwhile, Mr. Waldon, in despair, hurries down to the city to +engage me quietly." + +"You remember I told you," suggested Waldon, "that my sister +hadn't been feeling well for several days. In fact it seemed that +the sea air wasn't doing her much good, and some one last night +suggested that she try the mountains." + +"Had there been anything that would foreshadow the--er-- +disappearance?" asked Kennedy. + +"Only as I say, that for two or three days she seemed to be +listless, to be sinking by slow and easy stages into a sort of +vacant, moody state of ill health." + +"She had a doctor, I suppose?" I asked. + +"Yes, Dr. Jermyn, Tracy's own personal physician came down from +the city several days ago." + +"What did he say?" + +"He simply said that it was congestion of the lungs. As far as he +could see there was no apparent cause for it. I don't think he was +very enthusiastic about the mountain air idea. The fact is he was +like a good many doctors under the circumstances, noncommittal-- +wanted her under observation, and all that sort of thing." + +"What's your opinion?" I pressed Craig. "Do you think she has run +away?" + +"Naturally, I'd rather not attempt to say yet," Craig replied +cautiously. "But there are several possibilities. Yes, she might +have left the houseboat in some other boat, of course. Then there +is the possibility of accident. It was a hot night. She might have +been leaning from the window and have lost her balance. I have +even thought of drugs, that she might have taken something in her +despondency and have fallen overboard while under the influence of +it. Then, of course, there are the two deductions that everyone +has made already--either suicide or murder." + +Waldon had evidently been turning something over in his mind. + +"There was a wireless outfit aboard the houseboat," he ventured at +length. + +"What of that?" I asked, wondering why he was changing the subject +so abruptly. + +"Why, only this," he replied. "I have been reading about wireless +a good deal lately, and if the theories of some scientists are +correct, the wireless age is not without its dangers as well as +its wonders. I recall reading not long ago of a German professor +who says there is no essential difference between wireless waves +and the X-rays, and we know the terrible physical effects of X- +rays. I believe he estimated that only one three hundred millionth +part of the electrical energy generated by sending a message from +one station to another near by is actually used up in transmitting +the message. The rest is dispersed in the atmosphere. There must +be a good deal of such stray electrical energy about Seaville. +Isn't it possible that it might hit some one somewhere who was +susceptible?" + +Kennedy said nothing. Waldon's was at least a novel idea, whether +it was plausible or not. The only way to test it out, as far as I +could determine, was to see whether it fitted with the facts after +a careful investigation of the case itself. + +It was still early in the day and the trains were not as crowded +as they would be later. Consequently our journey was comfortable +enough and we found ourselves at last at the little vine-covered +station at Seaville. + +One could almost feel that the gay summer colony was in a state of +subdued excitement. As we left the quaint station and walked down +the main street to the town wharf where we expected some one would +be waiting for us, it seemed as if the mysterious disappearance of +the beautiful Mrs. Edwards had put a damper on the life of the +place. In the hotels there were knots of people evidently +discussing the affair, for as we passed we could tell by their +faces that they recognized us. One or two bowed and would have +joined us, if Waldon had given any encouragement. But he did not +stop, and we kept on down the street quickly. + +I myself began to feel the spell of mystery about the case as I +had not felt it among the distractions of the city. Perhaps I +imagined it, but there even seemed to be something strange about +the houseboat which we could descry at anchor far down the bay as +we approached the wharf. + +We were met, as Waldon had arranged, by a high-powered runabout, +the tender to his own yacht, a slim little craft of mahogany and +brass, driven like an automobile, and capable of perhaps twenty- +five or thirty miles an hour. We jumped in and were soon skimming +over the waters of the bay like a skipping stone. + +It was evident that Waldon was much relieved at having been able +to bring assistance, in which he had as much confidence as he +reposed in Kennedy. At any rate it was something to be nearing the +scene of action again. + +The Lucie was perhaps seventy feet long and a most attractive +craft, with a hull yachty in appearance and of a type which could +safely make long runs along the coast, a stanch, seaworthy boat, +of course without the speed of the regularly designed yacht, but +more than making up in comfort for those on board what was lost in +that way. Waldon pointed out with obvious pride his own trim yacht +swinging gracefully at anchor a half mile or so away. + +As we approached the houseboat I looked her over carefully. One of +the first things I noticed was that there rose from the roof the +primitive inverted V aerial of a wireless telegraph. I thought +immediately of the unfinished letter and its contents, and shaded +my eyes as I took a good look at the powerful transatlantic +station on the spit of sand perhaps three or four miles distant, +with its tall steel masts of the latest inverted L type and the +cluster of little houses below, in which the operators and the +plant were. + +Waldon noticed what I was looking at, and remarked, "It's a +wonderful station--and well worth a visit, if you have the time-- +one of the most powerful on the coast, I understand." + +"How did the Lucie come to be equipped with wireless?" asked Craig +quickly. "It's a little unusual for a private boat." + +"Mr. Edwards had it done when she was built," explained Waldon. +"His idea was to use it to keep in touch with the stock market on +trips." + +"And it has proved effective?" asked Craig. + +"Oh, yes--that is, it was all right last winter when he went on a +short cruise down in Florida. This summer he hasn't been on the +boat long enough to use it much." + +"Who operates it?" + +"He used to hire a licensed operator, although I believe the +engineer, Pedersen, understands the thing pretty well and could +use it if necessary." + +"Do you think it was Pedersen who used it for Mrs. Edwards?" asked +Kennedy. + +"I really don't know," confessed Waldon. "Pedersen denies +absolutely that he has touched the thing for weeks. I want you to +quiz him. I wasn't able to get him to admit a thing." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HOUSEBOAT MYSTERY + + +We had by this time swung around to the side of the houseboat. I +realized as we mounted the ladder that the marine gasoline engine +had materially changed the old-time houseboat from a mere scow or +barge with a low flat house on it, moored in a bay or river, and +only with difficulty and expense towed from one place to another. +Now the houseboat was really a fair-sized yacht. + +The Lucie was built high in order to give plenty of accommodation +for the living quarters. The staterooms, dining rooms and saloon +were really rooms, with seven or eight feet of head room, and +furnished just as one would find in a tasteful and expensive +house. + +Down in the hull, of course, was the gasoline motor which drove +the propeller, so that when the owner wanted a change of scene all +that was necessary was to get up anchor, start the motor and +navigate the yacht-houseboat to some other harbor. + +Edwards himself met us on the deck. He was a tall man, with a red +face, a man of action, of outdoor life, apparently a hard worker +and a hard player. It was quite evident that he had been waiting +for the return of Waldon anxiously. + +"You find us considerably upset, Professor Kennedy," he greeted +Craig, as his brother-in-law introduced us. + +Edwards turned and led the way toward the saloon. As he entered +and bade us be seated in the costly cushioned wicker chairs I +noticed how sumptuously it was furnished, and particularly its +mechanical piano, its phonograph and the splendid hardwood floor +which seemed to invite one to dance in the cool breeze that +floated across from one set of open windows to the other. And yet +in spite of everything, there was that indefinable air of +something lacking, as in a house from which the woman is gone, + +"You were not here last night, I understand," remarked Kennedy, +taking in the room at a glance. + +"Unfortunately, no," replied Edwards, "Business has kept me with +my nose pretty close to the grindstone this summer. Waldon called +me up in the middle of the night, however, and I started down in +my car, which enabled me to get here before the first train. I +haven't been able to do a thing since I got here except just wait- +-wait--wait. I confess that I don't know what else to do. Waldon +seemed to think we ought to have some one down here--and I guess +he was right. Anyhow, I'm glad to see you." + +I watched Edwards keenly. For the first time I realized that I had +neglected to ask Waldon whether he had seen the unfinished letter. +The question was unnecessary. It was evident that he had not. + +"Let me see, Waldon, if I've got this thing straight," Edwards +went on, pacing restlessly up and down the saloon. "Correct me if +I haven't. Last night, as I understand it, there was a sort of +little family party here, you and Miss Verrall and your mother +from the Nautilus, and Mrs. Edwards and Dr. Jermyn." + +"Yes," replied Waldon with, I thought, a touch of defiance at the +words "family party." He paused as if he would have added that the +Nautilus would have been more congenial, anyhow, then added, "We +danced a little bit, all except Lucie. She said she wasn't feeling +any too well." + +Edwards had paused by the door. "If you'll excuse me a minute," he +said, "I'll call Jermyn and Mrs. Edwards' maid, Juanita. You ought +to go over the whole thing immediately, Professor Kennedy." + +"Why didn't you say anything about the letter to him?" asked +Kennedy under his breath. + +"What was the use?" returned Waldon. "I didn't know how he'd take +it. Besides, I wanted your advice on the whole thing. Do you want +to show it to him?" + +"Perhaps it's just as well," ruminated Kennedy. "It may be +possible to clear the thing up without involving anybody's name. +At any rate, some one is coming down the passage this way." + +Edwards entered with Dr. Jermyn, a clean-shaven man, youthful in +appearance, yet approaching middle age. I had heard of him before. +He had studied several years abroad and had gained considerable +reputation since his return to America. + +Dr. Jermyn shook hands with us cordially enough, made some passing +comment on the tragedy, and stood evidently waiting for us to +disclose our hands. + +"You have been Mrs. Edwards' physician for some time, I believe?" +queried Kennedy, fencing for an opening. + +"Only since her marriage," replied the doctor briefly. + +"She hadn't been feeling well for several days, had she?" ventured +Kennedy again. + +"No," replied Dr. Jermyn quickly. "I doubt whether I can add much +to what you already know. I suppose Mr. Waldon has told you about +her illness. The fact is, I suppose her maid Juanita will be able +to tell you really more than I can." + +I could not help feeling that Dr. Jermyn showed a great deal of +reluctance in talking. + +"You have been with her several days, though, haven't you?" + +"Four days, I think. She was complaining of feeling nervous and +telegraphed me to come down here. I came prepared to stay over +night, but Mr. Edwards happened to run down that day, too, and he +asked me if I wouldn't remain longer. My practice in the summer is +such that I can easily leave it with my assistant in the city, so +I agreed. Really, that is about all I can say. I don't know yet +what was the matter with Mrs. Edwards, aside from the nervousness +which seemed to be of some time standing." + +He stood facing us, thoughtfully stroking his chin, as a very +pretty and petite maid nervously entered and stood facing us in +the doorway. + +"Come in, Juanita," encouraged Edwards. "I want you to tell these +gentlemen just what you told me about discovering that Madame had +gone--and anything else that you may recall now." + +"It was Juanita who discovered that Madame was gone, you know," +put in Waldon. + +"How did you discover it?" prompted Craig. + +"It was very hot," replied the maid, "and often on hot nights I +would come in and fan Madame since she was so wakeful. Last night +I went to the door and knocked. There was no reply. I called to +her, 'Madame, madame.' Still there was no answer. The worst I +supposed was that she had fainted. I continued to call." + +"The door was locked?" inquired Kennedy. + +"Yes, sir. My call aroused the others on the boat. Dr. Jermyn came +and he broke open the door with his shoulder. But the room was +empty. Madame was gone." + +"How about the windows?" asked Kennedy. + +"Open. They were always open these nights. Sometimes Madame would +sit by the window when there was not much breeze." + +"I should like to see the room," remarked Craig, with an inquiring +glance at Edwards. + +"Certainly," he answered, leading the way down a corridor. + +Mrs. Edwards' room was on the starboard side, with wide windows +instead of portholes. It was furnished magnificently and there was +little about it that suggested the nautical, except the view from +the window. + +"The bed had not been slept in," Edwards remarked as we looked +about curiously. + +Kennedy walked over quickly to the wide series of windows before +which was a leather-cushioned window seat almost level with the +window, several feet above the level of the water. It was by this +window, evidently, that Juanita meant that Mrs. Edwards often sat. +It was a delightful position, but I could readily see that it +would be comparatively easy for anyone accidentally or purposely +to fall. + +"I think myself," Waldon remarked to Kennedy, "that it must have +been from the open window that she made her way to the outside. It +seems that all agree that the door was locked, while the window +was wide open." + +"There had been no sound--no cry to alarm you?" shot out Kennedy +suddenly to Juanita. + +"No, sir, nothing. I could not sleep myself, and I thought of +Madame." + +"You heard nothing?" he asked of Dr. Jermyn. + +"Nothing until I heard the maid call," he replied briefly. + +Mentally I ran over again Kennedy's first list of possibilities-- +taken off by another boat, accident, drugs, suicide, murder. + +Was there, I asked myself, sufficient reason for suicide? The +letter seemed to me to show too proud a spirit for that. In fact +the last sentence seemed to show that she was contemplating the +surest method of revenge, rather than surrender. As for accident, +why should a person fall overboard from a large houseboat into a +perfectly calm harbor? Then, too, there had been no outcry. +Somehow, I could not seem to fit any of the theories in with the +facts. Evidently it was like many another case, one in which we, +as yet, had insufficient data for a conclusion. + +Suddenly I recalled the theory that Waldon himself had advanced +regarding the wireless, either from the boat itself or from the +wireless station. For the moment, at least, it seemed plausible +that she might have been seated at the window, that she might have +been affected by escaped wireless, or by electrolysis. I knew that +some physicians had described a disease which they attributed to +wireless, a sort of anemia with a marked diminution in the number +of red corpuscles in the blood, due partly to the over +etherization of the air by reason of the alternating currents used +to generate the waves. + +"I should like now to inspect the little wireless plant you have +here on the Lucie," remarked Kennedy. "I noticed the mast as we +were approaching a few minutes ago." + +I had turned at the sound of his voice in time to catch Edwards +and Dr. Jermyn eyeing each other furtively. Did they know about +the letter, after all, I wondered? Was each in doubt about just +how much the other knew? + +There was no time to pursue these speculations. "Certainly," +agreed Mr. Edwards promptly, leading the way. + +Kennedy seemed keenly interested in inspecting the little wireless +plant, which was of a curious type and not exactly like any that I +had seen before. + +"Wireless apparatus," he remarked, as he looked it over, "is +divided into three parts, the source of power whether battery or +dynamo, the making and sending of wireless waves, including the +key, spark, condenser and tuning coil, and the receiving +apparatus, head telephones, antennae, ground and detector." + +Pedersen, the engineer, came in while we were looking the plant +over, but seemed uncommunicative to all Kennedy's efforts to +engage him in conversation. + +"I see," remarked Kennedy, "that it is a very compact system with +facilities for a quick change from one wave length to another." + +"Yes," grunted Pedersen, as averse to talking, evidently, as +others on the Lucie. + +"Spark gap, quenched type," I heard Kennedy mutter almost to +himself, with a view to showing Pedersen that he knew something +about it. "Break system relay--operator can overhear any +interference while transmitting--transformation by a single throw +of a six-point switch which tunes the oscillating and open +circuits to resonance. Very clever--very efficient. By the way, +Pedersen, are you the only person aboard who can operate this?" + +"How should I know?" he answered almost surlily. + +"You ought to know, if anybody," answered Kennedy unruffled. "I +know that it has been operated within the past few days." + +Pedersen shrugged his shoulders. "You might ask the others +aboard," was all he said. "Mr. Edwards pays me to operate it only +for himself, when he has no other operator." + +Kennedy did not pursue the subject, evidently from fear of saying +too much just at present. + +"I wonder if there is anyone else who could have operated it," +said Waldon, as we mounted again to the deck. + +"I don't know," replied Kennedy, pausing on the way up. "You +haven't a wireless on the Nautilus, have you?" + +Waldon shook his head. "Never had any particular use for it +myself," he answered. + +"You say that Miss Verrall and her mother have gone back to the +city?" pursued Kennedy, taking care that as before the others were +out of earshot. + +"Yes." + +"I'd like to stay with you tonight, then," decided Kennedy. "Might +we go over with you now? There doesn't seem to be anything more I +can do here, unless we get some news about Mrs. Edwards." + +Waldon seemed only too glad to agree, and no one on the Lucie +insisted on our staying. + +We arrived at the Nautilus a few minutes later, and while we were +lunching Kennedy dispatched the tender to the Marconi station with +a note. + +It was early in the afternoon when the tender returned with +several packages and coils of wire. Kennedy immediately set to +work on the Nautilus stretching out some of the wire. + +"What is it you are planning?" asked Waldon, to whom every action +of Kennedy seemed to be a mystery of the highest interest. + +"Improvising my own wireless," he replied, not averse to talking +to the young man to whom he seemed to have taken a fancy. "For +short distances, you know, it isn't necessary to construct an +aerial pole or even to use outside wires to receive messages. All +that is needed is to use just a few wires stretched inside a room. +The rest is just the apparatus." + +I was quite as much interested as Waldon. "In wireless," he went +on, "the signals are not sent in one direction, but in all, so +that a person within range of the ethereal disturbance can get +them if only he has the necessary receiving apparatus. This +apparatus need not be so elaborate and expensive as used to be +thought needful if a sensitive detector is employed, and I have +sent over to the station for a new piece of apparatus which I knew +they had in almost any Marconi station. Why, I've got wireless +signals using only twelve feet of number eighteen copper wire +stretched across a room and grounded with a water pipe. You might +even use a wire mattress on an iron bedstead." + +"Can't they find out by--er, interference?" I asked, repeating the +term I had so often heard. + +Kennedy laughed. "No, not for radio apparatus which merely +receives radiograms and is not equipped for sending. I am setting +up only one side of a wireless outfit here. All I want to do is to +hear what is being said. I don't care about saying anything." + +He unwrapped another package which had been loaned to him by the +radio station and we watched him curiously as he tested it and set +it up. Some parts of it I recognized such as the very sensitive +microphone, and another part I could have sworn was a phonograph +cylinder, though Craig was so busy testing his apparatus that now +we could not ask questions. + +It was late in the afternoon when he finished, and we had just +time to run up to the dock at Seaville and stop off at the Lucie +to see if anything had happened in the intervening hours before +dinner. There was nothing, except that I found time to file a +message to the Star and meet several fellow newspaper men who had +been sent down by other papers on the chance of picking up a good +story. + +We had the Nautilus to ourselves, and as she was a very +comfortable little craft, we really had a very congenial time, a +plunge over her side, a good dinner, and then a long talk out on +deck under the stars, in which we went over every phase of the +case. As we discussed it, Waldon followed keenly, and it was quite +evident from his remarks that he had come to the conclusion that +Dr. Jermyn at least knew more than he had told about the case. + +Still, the day wore away with no solution yet of the mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE RADIO DETECTIVE + + +It was early the following morning when a launch drew up beside +the Nautilus. In it were Edwards and Dr. Jermyn, wildly excited. + +"What's the matter?" called out Waldon. + +"They--they have found the body," Edwards blurted out. + +Waldon paled and clutched the rail. He had thought the world of +his sister, and not until the last moment had he given up hope +that perhaps she might be found to have disappeared in some other +way than had become increasingly evident. + +"Where?" cried Kennedy. "Who?" + +"Over on Ten Mile Beach," answered Edwards. "Some fishermen who +had been out on a cruise and hadn't heard the story. They took the +body to town, and there it was recognized. They sent word out to +us immediately." + +Waldon had already spun the engine of his tender, which was about +the fastest thing afloat about Seaville, had taken Edwards over, +and we were off in a cloud of spray, the nose of the boat many +inches above the surface of the water. + +In the little undertaking establishment at Seaville lay the body +of the beautiful young matron about whom so much anxiety had been +felt. I could not help thinking what an end was this for the +incomparable beauty. At the very height of her brief career the +poor little woman's life had been suddenly snuffed out. But by +what? The body had been found, but the mystery had been far from +solved. + +As Kennedy bent over the body, I heard him murmur to himself, "She +had everything--everything except happiness." + +"Was it drowning that caused her death?" asked Kennedy of the +local doctor, who also happened to be coroner and had already +arrived on the scene. + +The doctor shook his head. "I don't know," he said doubtfully. +"There was congestion of the lungs--but I--I can't say but what +she might have been dead before she fell or was thrown into the +water." + +Dr. Jermyn stood on one side, now and then putting in a word, but +for the most part silent unless spoken to. Kennedy, however, was +making a most minute examination. + +As he turned the beautiful head, almost reverently, he saw +something that evidently attracted his attention. I was standing +next to him and, between us, I think we cut off the view of the +others. There on the back of the neck, carefully, had been smeared +something transparent, almost skin-like, which had easily escaped +the attention of the rest. + +Kennedy tried to pick it off, but only succeeded in pulling off a +very minute piece to which the flesh seemed to adhere. + +"That's queer," he whispered to me. "Water, naturally, has no +effect on it, else it would have been washed off long before. +Walter," he added, "just slip across the street quietly to the +drug store and get me a piece of gauze soaked with acetone." + +As quickly and unostentatiously as I could I did so and handed him +the wet cloth, contriving at the same time to add Waldon to our +barrier, for I could see that Kennedy was anxious to be observed +as little as possible. + +"What is it?" I whispered, as he rubbed the transparent skin-like +stuff off, and dropped the gauze into his pocket. + +"A sort of skin varnish," he remarked under his breath, +"waterproof and so adhesive that it resists pulling off even with +a knife without taking the cuticle with it." + +Beneath, as the skin varnish slowly dissolved under his gentle +rubbing, he had disclosed several very small reddish spots, like +little cuts that had been made by means of a very sharp +instrument. As he did so, he gave them a hasty glance, turned the +now stony beautiful head straight again, stood up, and resumed his +talk with the coroner, who was evidently getting more and more +bewildered by the case. + +Edwards, who had completed the arrangements with the undertaker +for the care of the body as soon as the coroner released it, +seemed completely unnerved. + +"Jermyn," he said to the doctor, as he turned away and hid his +eyes, "I can't stand this. The undertaker wants some stuff from +the--er--boat," his voice broke over the name which had been hers. +"Will you get it for me? I'm going up to a hotel here, and I'll +wait for you there. But I can't go out to the boat--yet." + +"I think Mr. Waldon will be glad to take you out in his tender," +suggested Kennedy. "Besides, I feel that I'd like a little fresh +air as a bracer, too, after such a shock." + +"What were those little cuts?" I asked as Waldon and Dr. Jermyn +preceded us through the crowd outside to the pier. + +"Some one," he answered in a low tone, "has severed the +pneumogastric nerves." + +"The pneumogastric nerves?" I repeated. + +"Yes, the vagus or wandering nerve, the so-called tenth cranial +nerve. Unlike the other cranial nerves, which are concerned with +the special senses or distributed to the skin and muscles of the +head and neck, the vagus, as its name implies, strays downward +into the chest and abdomen supplying branches to the throat, +lungs, heart and stomach and forms an important connecting link +between the brain and the sympathetic nervous system." + +We had reached the pier, and a nod from Kennedy discouraged +further conversation on the subject. + +A few minutes later we had reached the Lucie and gone up over her +side. Kennedy waited until Jermyn had disappeared into the room of +Mrs. Edwards to get what the undertaker had desired. A moment and +he had passed quietly into Dr. Jermyn's own room, followed by me. +Several quick glances about told him what not to waste time over, +and at last his eye fell on a little portable case of medicines +and surgical instruments. He opened it quickly and took out a +bottle of golden yellow liquid. + +Kennedy smelled it, then quickly painted some on the back of his +hand. It dried quickly, like an artificial skin. He had found a +bottle of skin varnish in Dr. Jermyn's own medicine chest! + +We hurried back to the deck, and a few minutes later the doctor +appeared with a large package. + +"Did you ever hear of coating the skin by a substance which is +impervious to water, smooth and elastic?" asked Kennedy quietly as +Waldon's tender sped along back to Seaville. + +"Why--er, yes," he said frankly, raising his eyes and looking at +Craig in surprise. "There have been a dozen or more such +substances. The best is one which I use, made of pyroxylin, the +soluble cotton of commerce, dissolved in amyl acetate and acetone +with some other substances that make it perfectly sterile. Why do +you ask?" + +"Because some one has used a little bit of it to cover a few +slight cuts on the back of the neck of Mrs. Edwards." + +"Indeed?" he said simply, in a tone of mild surprise. + +"Yes," pursued Kennedy. "They seem to me to be subcutaneous +incisions of the neck with a very fine scalpel dividing the two +great pneumogastric nerves. Of course you know what that would +mean--the victim would pass away naturally by slow and easy stages +in three or four days, and all that would appear might be +congestion of the lungs. They are delicate little punctures and +elusive nerves to locate, but after all it might be done as +painlessly, as simply and as safely as a barber might remove some +dead hairs. A country coroner might easily pass over such evidence +at an autopsy--especially if it was concealed by skin varnish." + +I was surprised at the frankness with which Kennedy spoke, but +absolutely amazed at the coolness of Jermyn. At first he said +absolutely nothing. He seemed to be as set in his reticence as he +had been when we first met. + +I watched him narrowly. Waldon, who was driving the boat, had not +heard what was said, but I had, and I could not conceive how +anyone could take it so calmly. + +Finally Jermyn turned to Kennedy and looked him squarely in the +eye. "Kennedy," he said slowly, "this is extraordinary--most +extraordinary," then, pausing, added, "if true." + +"There can be no doubt of the truth," replied Kennedy, eyeing Dr. +Jermyn just as squarely. + +"What do you propose to do about it?" asked the doctor. + +"Investigate," replied Kennedy simply. "While Waldon takes these +things up to the undertaker's, we may as well wait here in the +boat. I want him to stop on the way back for Mr. Edwards. Then we +shall go out to the Lucie. He must go, whether he likes it or +not." + +It was indeed a most peculiar situation as Kennedy and I sat in +the tender with Dr. Jermyn waiting for Waldon to return with +Edwards. Not a word was spoken. + +The tenseness of the situation was not relieved by the return of +Waldon with Edwards. Waldon seemed to realize without knowing just +what it was, that something was about to happen. He drove his boat +back to the Lucie again in record time. This was Kennedy's turn to +be reticent. Whatever it was he was revolving in his mind, he +answered in scarcely more than monosyllables whatever questions +were put to him. + +"You are not coming aboard?" inquired Edwards in surprise as he +and Jermyn mounted the steps of the houseboat ladder, and Kennedy +remained seated in the tender. + +"Not yet," replied Craig coolly. + +"But I thought you had something to show me. Waldon told me you +had." + +"I think I shall have in a short time," returned Kennedy. "We +shall be back immediately. I'm just going to ask Waldon to run +over to the Nautilus for a few minutes. We'll tow back your +launch, too, in case you need it." + +Waldon had cast off obediently. + +"There's one thing sure," I remarked. "Jermyn can't get away from +the Lucie until we return--unless he swims." + +Kennedy did not seem to pay much attention to the remark, for his +only reply was: "I'm taking a chance by this maneuvering, but I +think it will work out that I am correct. By the way, Waldon, you +needn't put on so much speed. I'm in no great hurry to get back. +Half an hour will be time enough." + +"Jermyn? What did you mean by Jermyn?" asked Waldon, as we climbed +to the deck of the Nautilus. + +He had evidently learned, as I had, that it was little use to try +to quiz Kennedy until he was ready to be questioned and had +decided to try it on me. + +I had nothing to conceal and I told him quite fully all that I +knew. Actually, I believe if Jermyn had been there, it would have +taken both Kennedy and myself to prevent violence. As it was I had +a veritable madman to deal with while Kennedy gathered up +leisurely the wireless outfit he had installed on the deck of +Waldon's yacht. It was only by telling him that I would certainly +demand that Kennedy leave him behind if he did not control his +feelings that I could calm him before Craig had finished his work +on the yacht. + +Waldon relieved himself by driving the tender back at top speed to +the Lucie, and now it seemed that Kennedy had no objection to +traveling as fast as the many-cylindered engine was capable of +going. + +As we entered the saloon of the houseboat, I kept close watch over +Waldon. + +Kennedy began by slipping a record on the phonograph in the corner +of the saloon, then facing us and addressing Edwards particularly. + +"You may be interested to know, Mr. Edwards," he said, "that your +wireless outfit here has been put to a use for which you never +intended it." + +No one said anything, but I am sure that some one in the room then +for the first time began to suspect what was coming. + +"As you know, by the use of an aerial pole, messages may be easily +received from any number of stations," continued Craig. "Laws, +rules and regulations may be adopted to shut out interlopers and +plug busybody ears, but the greater part of whatever is +transmitted by the Hertzian waves can be snatched down by other +wireless apparatus. + +"Down below, in that little room of yours," went on Craig, "might +sit an operator with his ear-phone clamped to his head, drinking +in the news conveyed surely and swiftly to him through the +wireless signals--plucking from the sky secrets of finance and," +he added, leaning forward, "love." + +In his usual dramatic manner Kennedy had swung his little audience +completely with him. + +"In other words," he resumed, "it might be used for eavesdropping +by a wireless wiretapper. Now," he concluded, "I thought that if +there was any radio detective work being done, I might as well do +some, too." + +He toyed for a moment with the phonograph record. "I have used," +he explained, "Marconi's radiotelephone, because in connection +with his receivers Marconi uses phonographic recorders and on them +has captured wireless telegraph signals over hundreds of miles. + +"He has found that it is possible to receive wireless signals, +although ordinary records are not loud enough, by using a small +microphone on the repeating diaphragm and connected with a loud- +speaking telephone. The chief difficulty was to get a microphone +that would carry a sufficient current without burning up. There +were other difficulties, but they have been surmounted and now +wireless telegraph messages may be automatically recorded and made +audible." + +Kennedy started the phonograph, running it along, stopping it, +taking up the record at a new point. + +"Listen," he exclaimed at length, "there's something interesting, +the WXY call--Seaville station--from some one on the Lucie only a +few minutes ago, sending a message to be relayed by Seaville to +the station at Beach Park. It seems impossible, but buzzing and +ticking forth is this message from some one off this very +houseboat. It reads: "Miss Valerie Fox, Beach Park. I am suspected +of the murder of Mrs. Edwards. I appeal to you to help me. You +must allow me to tell the truth about the messages I intercepted +for Mrs. Edwards which passed between yourself on the ocean and +Mr. Edwards in New York via Seaville. You rejected me and would +not let me save you. Now you must save me." + +Kennedy paused, then added, "The message is signed by Dr. Jermyn!" + +At once I saw it all. Jermyn had been the unsuccessful suitor for +Miss Fox's affections. But before I could piece out the rest of +the tragic story, Kennedy had started the phonograph record at an +earlier point which he had skipped for the present. + +"Here's another record--a brief one--also to Valerie Fox from the +houseboat: 'Refuse all interviews. Deny everything. Will see you +as soon as present excitement dies down.'" + +Before Kennedy could finish, Waldon had leaped forward, unable +longer to control his feelings. If Kennedy had not seized his arm, +I verily believe he would have cast Dr. Jermyn into the bay into +which his sister had fallen two nights before in her terribly +weakened condition. + +"Waldon," cried Kennedy, "for God's sake, man--wait! Don't you +understand? The second message is signed Tracy Edwards." + +It came as quite as much a shock of surprise to me as to Waldon. + +"Don't you understand?" he repeated. "Your sister first learned +from Dr. Jermyn what was going on. She moved the Lucie down here +near Seaville in order to be near the wireless station when the +ship bearing her rival, Valerie Fox, got in touch with land. With +the help of Dr. Jermyn she intercepted the wireless messages from +the Kronprinz to the shore--between her husband and Valerie Fox." + +Kennedy was hurrying on now to his irresistible conclusion. "She +found that he was infatuated with the famous stage beauty, that he +was planning to marry another, her rival. She accused him of it, +threatened to defeat his plans. He knew she knew his +unfaithfulness. Instead of being your sister's murderer, Dr. +Jermyn was helping her get the evidence that would save both her +and perhaps win Miss Fox back to himself." + +Kennedy had turned sharply on Edwards. + +"But," he added, with a glance that crushed any lingering hope +that the truth had been concealed, "the same night that Dr. Jermyn +arrived here, you visited your wife. As she slept you severed the +nerves that meant life or death to her. Then you covered the cuts +with the preparation which you knew Dr. Jermyn used. You asked him +to stay, while you went away, thinking that when death came you +would have a perfect alibi--perhaps a scapegoat. Edwards, the +radio detective convicts you!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CURIO SHOP + + +Edwards crumpled up as Kennedy and I faced him. There was no +escape. In fact our greatest difficulty was to protect him from +Waldon. + +Kennedy's work in the case was over when we had got Edwards ashore +and in the hands of the authorities. But mine had just begun and +it was late when I got my story on the wire for the Star. + +I felt pretty tired and determined to make up for it by sleeping +the next day. It was no use, however. + +"Why, what's the matter, Mrs. Northrop?" I heard Kennedy ask as he +opened our door the next morning, just as I had finished dressing. + +He had admitted a young woman, who greeted us with nervous, wide- +staring eyes. + +"It's--it's about Archer," she cried, sinking into the nearest +chair and staring from one to the other of us. + +She was the wife of Professor Archer Northrop, director of the +archeological department at the university. Both Craig and I had +known her ever since her marriage to Northrop, for she was one of +the most attractive ladies in the younger set of the faculty, to +which Craig naturally belonged. Archer had been of the class below +us in the university. We had hazed him, and out of the mild hazing +there had, strangely enough, grown a strong friendship. + +I recollected quickly that Northrop, according to last reports, +had been down in the south of Mexico on an archeological +expedition. But before I could frame, even in my mind, the natural +question in a form that would not alarm his wife further, Kennedy +had it on his lips. + +"No bad news from Mitla, I hope?" he asked gently, recalling one +of the main working stations chosen by the expedition and the +reported unsettled condition of the country about it. She looked +up quickly. + +"Didn't you know--he--came back from Vera Cruz yesterday?" she +asked slowly, then added, speaking in a broken tone, "and--he +seems--suddenly--to have disappeared. Oh, such a terrible night of +worry! No word--and I called up the museum, but Doctor Bernardo, +the curator, had gone, and no one answered. And this morning--I +couldn't stand it any longer--so I came to you." + +"You have no idea, I suppose, of anything that was weighing on his +mind?" suggested Kennedy. + +"No," she answered promptly. + +In default of any further information, Kennedy did not pursue this +line of questioning. I could not determine from his face or manner +whether he thought the matter might involve another than Mrs. +Northrop, or, perhaps, something connected with the unsettled +condition of the country from which her husband had just arrived. + +"Have you any of the letters that Archer wrote home?" asked Craig, +at length. + +"Yes," she replied eagerly, taking a little packet from her +handbag. "I thought you might ask that. I brought them." + +"You are an ideal client," commented Craig encouragingly, taking +the letters. "Now, Mrs. Northrop, be brave. Trust me to run this +thing down, and if you hear anything let me know immediately." + +She left us a moment later, visibly relieved. + +Scarcely had she gone when Craig, stuffing the letters into his +pocket unread, seized his hat, and a moment later was striding +along toward the museum with his habitual rapid, abstracted step +which told me that he sensed a mystery. + +In the museum we met Doctor Bernardo, a man slightly older than +Northrop, with whom he had been very intimate. He had just arrived +and was already deeply immersed in the study of some new and +beautiful colored plates from the National Museum of Mexico City. + +"Do you remember seeing Northrop here yesterday afternoon?" +greeted Craig, without explaining what had happened. + +"Yes," he answered promptly. "I was here with him until very late. +At least, he was in his own room, working hard, when I left." + +"Did you see him go?" + +"Why--er--no," replied Bernardo, as if that were a new idea. "I +left him here--at least, I didn't see him go out." + +Kennedy tried the door of Northrop's room, which was at the far +end, in a corner, and communicated with the hall only through the +main floor of the museum. It was locked. A pass-key from the +janitor quickly opened it. + +Such a sight as greeted us, I shall never forget. There, in his +big desk-chair, sat Northrop, absolutely rigid, the most horribly +contorted look on his features that I have ever seen--half of +pain, half of fear, as if of something nameless. + +Kennedy bent over. His hands were cold. + +Northrop had been dead at least twelve hours, perhaps longer. All +night the deserted museum had guarded its terrible secret. + +As Craig peered into his face, he saw, in the fleshy part of the +neck, just below the left ear, a round red mark, with just a drop +or two of now black coagulated blood in the center. All around we +could see a vast amount of miscellaneous stuff, partly unpacked, +partly just opened, and waiting to be taken out of the wrappings +by the now motionless hands. + +"I suppose you are more or less familiar with what Northrop +brought back?" asked Kennedy of Bernardo, running his eye over the +material in the room. + +"Yes, reasonably," answered Bernardo. "Before the cases arrived +from the wharf, he told me in detail what he had managed to bring +up with him." + +"I wish, then, that you would look it over and see if there is +anything missing," requested Craig, already himself busy in going +over the room for other evidence. + +Doctor Bernardo hastily began taking a mental inventory of the +stuff. While they worked, I tried vainly to frame some theory +which would explain the startling facts we had so suddenly +discovered. + +Mitla, I knew, was south of the city of Oaxaca, and there, in its +ruined palaces, was the crowning achievement of the old Zapotec +kings. No ruins in America were more elaborately ornamented or +richer in lore for the archeologist. + +Northrop had brought up porphyry blocks with quaint grecques and +much hieroglyphic painting. Already unpacked were half a dozen +copper axes, some of the first of that particular style that had +ever been brought to the United States. Besides the sculptured +stones and the mosaics were jugs, cups, vases, little gods, +sacrificial stones--enough, almost, to equip a new alcove in the +museum. + +Before Northrop was an idol, a hideous thing on which frogs and +snakes squatted and coiled. It was a fitting piece to accompany +the gruesome occupant of the little room in his long, last vigil. +In fact, it almost sent a shudder over me, and if I had been +inclined to the superstitious, I should certainly have concluded +that this was retribution for having disturbed the lares and +penates of a dead race. + +Doctor Bernardo was going over the material a second time. By the +look on his face, even I could guess that something was missing. + +"What is it?" asked Craig, following the curator closely. + +"Why," he answered slowly, "there was an inscription--we were +looking at it earlier in the day--on a small block of porphyry. I +don't see it." + +He paused and went back to his search before we could ask him +further what he thought the inscription was about. + +I thought nothing myself at the time of his reticence, for Kennedy +had gone over to a window back of Northrop and to the left. It was +fully twenty feet from the downward slope of the campus there, +and, as he craned his neck out, he noted that the copper leader of +the rain pipe ran past it a few feet away. + +I, too, looked out. A thick group of trees hid the window from the +avenue beyond the campus wall, and below us, at a corner of the +building, was a clump of rhododendrons. As Craig bent over the +sill, he whipped out a pocket lens. + +A moment later he silently handed the glass to me. As nearly as I +could make out, there were five marks on the dust of the sill. + +"Finger-prints!" I exclaimed. "Some one has been clinging to the +edge of the ledge." + +"In that case," Craig observed quietly, "there would have been +only four prints." + +I looked again, puzzled. The prints were flat and well separated. + +"No," he added, "not finger-prints--toe-prints." + +"Toe-prints?" I echoed. + +Before he could reply, Craig had dashed out of the room, around, +and under the window. There, he was carefully going over the soft +earth around the bushes below. + +"What are you looking for?" I asked, joining him. + +"Some one--perhaps two--has been here," he remarked, almost under +his breath. "One, at least, has removed his shoes. See those shoe- +prints up to this point? The print of a boot-heel in soft earth +shows the position and contour of every nail head. Bertillon has +made a collection of such nails, certain types, sizes, and shapes +used in certain boots, showing often what country the shoes came +from. Even the number and pattern are significant. Some factories +use a fixed number of nails and arrange them in a particular +manner. I have made my own collection of such prints in this +country. These were American shoes. Perhaps the clue will not lead +us anywhere, though, for I doubt whether it was an American foot." + +Kennedy continued to study the marks. + +"He removed his shoes--either to help in climbing or to prevent +noise--ah--here's the foot! Strange--see how small it is--and +broad, how prehensile the toes--almost like fingers. Surely that +foot could never have been encased in American shoes all its life. +I shall make plaster casts of these, to preserve later." + +He was still scouting about on hands and knees in the dampness of +the rhododendrons. Suddenly he reached his long arm in among the +shrubs and picked up a little reed stick. On the end of it was a +small cylinder of buff brown. + +He looked at it curiously, dug his nail into the soft mass, then +rubbed his nail over the tip of his tongue gingerly. + +With a wry face, as if the taste were extremely acrid, he +moistened his handkerchief and wiped off his tongue vigorously. + +"Even that minute particle that was on my nail makes my tongue +tingle and feel numb," he remarked, still rubbing. "Let us go back +again. I want to see Bernardo." + +"Had he any visitors during the day?" queried Kennedy, as he +reentered the ghastly little room, while the curator stood +outside, completely unnerved by the tragedy which had been so +close to him without his apparently knowing it. Kennedy was +squeezing out from the little wound on Northrop's neck a few drops +of liquid on a sterilized piece of glass. + +"No; no one," Bernardo answered, after a moment. + +"Did you see anyone in the museum who looked suspicious?" asked +Kennedy, watching Bernardo's face keenly. + +"No," he hesitated. "There were several people wandering about +among the exhibits, of course. One, I recall, late in the +afternoon, was a little dark-skinned woman, rather good-looking." + +"A Mexican?" + +"Yes, I should say so. Not of Spanish descent, though. She was +rather of the Indian type. She seemed to be much interested in the +various exhibits, asked me several questions, very intelligently, +too. Really, I thought she was trying to--er--flirt with me." + +He shot a glance at Craig, half of confession, half of +embarrassment. + +"And--oh, yes--there was another--a man, a little man, as I +recall, with shaggy hair. He looked like a Russian to me. I +remember, because he came to the door, peered around hastily, and +went away. I thought he might have got into the wrong part of the +building and went to direct him right--but before I could get out +into the hall, he was gone. I remember, too, that, as I turned, +the woman had followed me and soon was asking other questions-- +which, I will admit--I was glad to answer." + +"Was Northrop in his room while these people were here?" + +"Yes; he had locked the door so that none of the students or +visitors could disturb him." + +"Evidently the woman was diverting your attention while the man +entered Northrop's room by the window," ruminated Craig, as we +stood for a moment in the outside doorway. + +He had already telephoned to our old friend Doctor Leslie, the +coroner, to take charge of the case, and now was ready to leave. +The news had spread, and the janitor of the building was waiting +to lock the campus door to keep back the crowd of students and +others. + +Our next duty was the painful one of breaking the news to Mrs. +Northrop. I shall pass it over. Perhaps no one could have done it +more gently than Kennedy. She did not cry. She was simply dazed. +Fortunately her mother was with her, had been, in fact, ever since +Northrop had gone on the expedition. + +"Why should anyone want to steal tablets of old Mixtec +inscriptions?" I asked thoughtfully, as we walked sadly over the +campus in the direction of the chemistry building. "Have they a +sufficient value, even on appreciative Fifth Avenue, to warrant +murder?" + +"Well," he remarked, "it does seem incomprehensible. Yet people do +just such things. The psychologists tell us that there is a +veritable mania for possessing such curios. However, it is +possible that there may be some deeper significance in this case," +he added, his face puckered in thought. + +Who was the mysterious Mexican woman, who the shaggy Russian? I +asked myself. Clearly, at least, if she existed at all, she was +one of the millions not of Spanish but of Indian descent in the +country south of us. As I reasoned it out, it seemed to me as if +she must have been an accomplice. She could not have got into +Northrop's room either before or after Doctor Bernardo left. Then, +too, the toe-and shoe-prints were not hers. But, I figured, she +certainly had a part in the plot. + +While I was engaged in the vain effort to unravel the tragic +affair by pure reason, Kennedy was at work with practical science. + +He began by examining the little dark cylinder on the end of the +reed. On a piece of the stuff, broken off, he poured a dark liquid +from a brown-glass bottle. Then he placed it under a microscope. + +"Microscopically," he said slowly, "it consists almost wholly of +minute, clear granules which give a blue reaction with iodine. +They are starch. Mixed with them are some larger starch granules, +a few plant cells, fibrous matter, and other foreign particles. +And then, there is the substance that gives that acrid, numbing +taste." He appeared to be vacantly studying the floor. + +"What do you think it is?" I asked, unable to restrain myself. + +"Aconite," he answered slowly, "of which the active principle is +the deadly poisonous alkaloid, aconitin." + +He walked over and pulled down a well-thumbed standard work on +toxicology, turned the pages, then began to read aloud: + +Pure aconitin is probably the most actively poisonous substance +with which we are acquainted and, if administered hypodermically, +the alkaloid is even more powerfully poisonous than when taken by +the mouth. + +As in the case of most of the poisonous alkaloids, aconitin does +not produce any decidedly characteristic post-mortem appearances. +There is no way to distinguish it from other alkaloids, in fact, +no reliable chemical test. The physiological effects before death +are all that can be relied on. + +Owing to its exceeding toxic nature, the smallness of the dose +required to produce death, and the lack of tests for recognition, +aconitin possesses rather more interest in legal medicine than +most other poisons. + +It is one of the few substances which, in the present state of +toxicology, might be criminally administered and leave no positive +evidence of the crime. If a small but fatal dose of the poison +were to be given, especially if it were administered +hypodermically, the chances of its detection in the body after +death would be practically none. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE "PILLAR OF DEATH" + + +I was looking at him fixedly as the diabolical nature of what must +have happened sank into my mind. Here was a poison that defied +detection. I could see by the look on Craig's face that that +problem, alone, was enough to absorb his attention. He seemed +fully to realize that we had to deal with a criminal so clever +that he might never be brought to justice. + +An idea flashed over me. + +"How about the letters?" I suggested. + +"Good, Walter!" he exclaimed. + +He untied the package which Mrs. Northrop had given him and +glanced quickly over one after another of the letters. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed, fairly devouring one dated at Mitla. "Listen-- +it tells about Northrop's work and goes on: + +"'I have been much interested in a cavern, or subterraneo, here, +in the shape of a cross, each arm of which extends for some twelve +feet underground. In the center it is guarded by a block of stone +popularly called "the Pillar of Death." There is a superstition +that whoever embraces it will die before the sun goes down. + +"'From the subterraneo is said to lead a long, underground passage +across the court to another subterranean chamber which is full of +Mixtec treasure. Treasure hunters have dug all around it, and it +is said that two old Indians, only, know of the immense amount of +buried gold and silver, but that they will not reveal it.'" + +I started up. Here was the missing link which I had been waiting +for. + +"There, at least, is the motive," I blurted out. "That is why +Bernardo was so reticent. Northrop, in his innocence of heart, had +showed him that inscription." + +Kennedy said nothing as he finally tied up the little packet of +letters and locked it in his safe. He was not given to hasty +generalizations; neither was he one who clung doggedly to a +preconceived theory. + +It was still early in the afternoon. Craig and I decided to drop +into the museum again in order to see Doctor Bernardo. He was not +there and we sat down to wait. + +Just then the letter box in the door clicked. It was the postman +on his rounds. Kennedy walked over and picked up the letter. + +The postmark bore the words, "Mexico City," and a date somewhat +later than that on which Northrop had left Vera Cruz. In the lower +corner, underscored, were the words, "Personal--Urgent." + +"I'd like to know what is in that," remarked Craig, turning it +over and over. + +He appeared to be considering something, for he rose suddenly and +shoved the letter into his pocket. + +I followed, and a few moments later, across the campus in his +laboratory, he was working quickly over an X-ray apparatus. He had +placed the letter in it. + +"These are what are known as 'low' tubes," he explained. "They +give out 'soft rays.'" He continued to work for a few moments, +then handed me the letter. + +"Now, Walter," he said, "if you will just hurry back to the museum +and replace that letter, I think I will have something that will +astonish you--though whether it will have any bearing on the case, +remains to be seen." + +"What is it?" I asked, a few minutes later, when I had rejoined +him, after returning the letter. He was poring intently over what +looked like a negative. + +"The possibility of reading the contents of documents inclosed in +a sealed envelope," he replied, still studying the shadowgraph +closely, "has already been established by the well-known English +scientist, Doctor Hall Edwards. He has been experimenting with the +method of using X-rays recently discovered by a German scientist, +by which radiographs of very thin substances, such as a sheet of +paper, a leaf, an insect's body, may be obtained. These thin +substances through which the rays used formerly to pass without +leaving an impression, can now be radiographed." + +I looked carefully as he traced out something on the negative. On +it was easily possible, following his guidance, to read the words +inscribed on the sheet of paper inside. So admirably defined were +all the details that even the gum on the envelope and the edges of +the sheet of paper inside the envelope could be distinguished. + +"Any letter written with ink having a mineral basis can be +radiographed," added Craig. "Even when the sheet is folded in the +usual way, it is possible by taking a radiograph stereoscopically, +to distinguish the writing, every detail standing out in relief. +Besides, it can be greatly magnified, which aids in deciphering it +if it is indistinct or jumbled up. Some of it looks like mirror +writing. Ah," he added, "here's something interesting!" + +Together we managed to trace out the contents of several +paragraphs, of which the significant parts were as follows: + + I am expecting that my friend Senora Herreria will be in New York +by the time you receive this, and should she call on you, I know +you will accord her every courtesy. She has been in Mexico City +for a few days, having just returned from Mitla, where she met +Professor Northrop. It is rumored that Professor Northrop has +succeeded in smuggling out of the country a very important stone +bearing an inscription which, I understand, is of more than +ordinary interest. I do not know anything definite about it, as +Senora Herreria is very reticent on the matter, but depend on you +to find out if possible and let me know of it. + +According to the rumors and the statements of the senora, it seems +that Northrop has taken an unfair advantage of the situation down +in Oaxaca, and I suppose she and others who know about the +inscription feel that it is really the possession of the +government. + +You will find that the senora is an accomplished antiquarian and +scholar. Like many others down here just now, she has a high +regard for the Japanese. As you know, there exists a natural +sympathy between some Mexicans and Japanese, owing to what is +believed to be a common origin of the two races. + +In spite of the assertions of many to the contrary, there is +little doubt left in the minds of students that the Indian races +which have peopled Mexico were of Mongolian stock. Many words in +some dialects are easily understood by Chinese immigrants. A +secretary of the Japanese legation here was able recently to +decipher old Mixtec inscriptions found in the ruins of Mitla. + +Senora Herreria has been much interested in establishing the +relationship and, I understand, is acquainted with a Japanese +curio dealer in New York who recently visited Mexico for the same +purpose. I believe that she wishes to collaborate with him on a +monograph on the subject, which is expected to have a powerful +effect on the public opinion both here and at Tokyo. + +In regard to the inscription which Northrop has taken with him, I +rely on you to keep me informed. There seems to be a great deal of +mystery connected with it, and I am simply hazarding a guess as to +its nature. If it should prove to be something which might +interest either the Japanese or ourselves, you can see how +important it may be, especially in view of the forthcoming mission +of General Francisco to Tokyo. + +Very sincerely yours, + +DR. EMILIO SANCHEZ, Director. + +"Bernardo is a Mexican," I exclaimed, as Kennedy finished reading, +"and there can be no doubt that the woman he mentioned was this +Senora Herreria." + +Kennedy said nothing, but seemed to be weighing the various +paragraphs in the letter. + +"Still," I observed, "so far, the only one against whom we have +any direct suspicion in the case is the shaggy Russian, whoever he +is." + +"A man whom Bernardo says looked like a Russian," corrected Craig. + +He was pacing the laboratory restlessly. + +"This is becoming quite an international affair," he remarked +finally, pausing before me, his hat on. "Would you like to relax +your mind by a little excursion among the curio shops of the city? +I know something about Japanese curios--more, perhaps, than I do +of Mexican. It may amuse us, even if it doesn't help in solving +the mystery. Meanwhile, I shall make arrangements for shadowing +Bernardo. I want to know just how he acts after he reads that +letter." + +He paused long enough to telephone his instructions to an uptown +detective agency which could be depended on for such mere routine +work, then joined me with the significant remark: "Blood is +thicker than water, anyhow, Walter. Still, even if the Mexicans +are influenced by sentiment, I hardly think that would account for +the interest of our friends from across the water in the matter." + +I do not know how many of the large and small curio shops of the +city we visited that afternoon. At another time, I should have +enjoyed the visits immensely, for anyone seeking articles of +beauty will find the antique shops of Fifth and Fourth Avenues and +the side streets well worth visiting. + +We came, at length, to one, a small, quaint, dusty rookery, down +in a basement, entered almost directly from the street. It bore +over the door a little gilt sign which read simply, "Sato's." + +As we entered, I could not help being impressed by the wealth of +articles in beautiful cloisonne enamel, in mother-of-pearl, +lacquer, and champleve. There were beautiful little koros, or +incense burners, vases, and teapots. There were enamels incrusted, +translucent, and painted, works of the famous Namikawa, of Kyoto, +and Namikawa, of Tokyo. Satsuma vases, splendid and rare examples +of the potter's art, crowded gorgeously embroidered screens +depicting all sorts of brilliant scenes, among others the sacred +Fujiyama rising in the stately distance. Sato himself greeted us +with a ready smile and bow. + +"I am just looking for a few things to add to my den," explained +Kennedy, adding, "nothing in particular, but merely whatever +happens to strike my fancy." + +"Surely, then, you have come to the right shop," greeted Sato. "If +there is anything that interests you, I shall be glad to show it." + +"Thank you," replied Craig. "Don't let me trouble you with your +other customers. I will call on you if I see anything." + +For several minutes, Craig and I busied ourselves looking about, +and we did not have to feign interest, either. + +"Often things are not as represented," he whispered to me, after a +while, "but a connoiseur can tell spurious goods. These are the +real thing, mostly." + +"Not one in fifty can tell the difference," put in the voice of +Sato, at his elbow. + +"Well, you see I happen to know," Craig replied, not the least +disconcerted. "You can't always be too sure." + +A laugh and a shrug was Sato's answer. "It's well all are not so +keen," he said, with a frank acknowledgment that he was not above +sharp practices. + +I glanced now and then at the expressionless face of the curio +dealer. Was it merely the natural blankness of his countenance +that impressed me, or was there, in fact, something deep and dark +hidden in it, something of "East is East and West is West" which I +did not and could not understand? Craig was admiring the bronzes. +He had paused before one, a square metal fire-screen of odd +design, with the title on a card, "Japan Gazing at the World." + +It represented Japan as an eagle, with beak and talons of +burnished gold, resting on a rocky island about which great waves +dashed. The bird had an air of dignity and conscious pride in its +strength, as it looked out at the world, a globe revolving in +space. + +"Do you suppose there is anything significant in that?" I asked, +pointing to the continent of North America, also in gold and +prominently in view. + +"Ah, honorable sir," answered Sato, before Kennedy could reply, +"the artist intended by that to indicate Japan's friendliness for +America and America's greatness." + +He was inscrutable. It seemed as if he were watching our every +move, and yet it was done with a polite cordiality that could not +give offense. + +Behind some bronzes of the Japanese Hercules destroying the demons +and other mythical heroes was a large alcove, or tokonoma, +decorated with peacock, stork, and crane panels. Carvings and +lacquer added to the beauty of it. A miniature chrysanthemum +garden heightened the illusion. Carved hinoki wood framed the +panels, and the roof was supported by columns in the old Japanese +style, the whole being a compromise between the very simple and +quiet and the polychromatic. The dark woods, the lanterns, the +floor tiles of dark red, and the cushions of rich gold and yellow +were most alluring. It had the genuine fascination of the Orient. + +"Will the gentlemen drink a little sake?" Sato asked politely. + +Craig thanked him and said that we would. + +"Otaka!" Sato called. + +A peculiar, almost white-skinned attendant answered, and a moment +later produced four cups and poured out the rice brandy, taking +his own quietly, apart from us. I watched him drink, curiously. He +took the cup; then, with a long piece of carved wood, he dipped +into the sake, shaking a few drops on the floor to the four +quarters. Finally, with a deft sweep, he lifted his heavy mustache +with the piece of wood and drank off the draft almost without +taking breath. + +He was a peculiar man of middle height, with a shock of dark, +tough, woolly hair, well formed and not bad-looking, with a robust +general physique, as if his ancestors had been meat eaters. His +forehead was narrow and sloped backward; the cheekbones were +prominent; nose hooked, broad and wide, with strong nostrils; +mouth large, with thick lips, and not very prominent chin. His +eyes were perhaps the most noticeable feature. They were dark +gray, almost like those of a European. + +As Otaka withdrew with the empty cups, we rose to continue our +inspection of the wonders of the shop. There were ivories of all +descriptions. Here was a two-handled sword, with a very large +ivory handle, a weirdly carved scabbard, and wonderful steel +blade. By the expression of Craig's face, Sato knew that he had +made a sale. + +Craig had been rummaging among some warlike instruments which +Sato, with the instincts of a true salesman, was now displaying, +and had picked up a bow. It was short, very strong, and made of +pine wood. He held it horizontally and twanged the string. I +looked up in time to catch a pleased expression on the face of +Otaka. + +"Most people would have held it the other way," commented Sato. + +Craig said nothing, but was examining an arrow, almost twenty +inches long and thick, made of cane, with a point of metal very +sharp but badly fastened. He fingered the deep blood groove in the +scooplike head of the arrow and looked at it carefully. + +"I'll take that," he said, "only I wish it were one with the +regular reddish-brown lump in it." + +"Oh, but, honorable sir," apologized Sato, "the Japanese law +prohibits that, now. There are few of those, and they are very +valuable." + +"I suppose so," agreed Craig. "This will do, though. You have a +wonderful shop here, Sato. Some time, when I feel richer, I mean +to come in again. No, thank you, you need not send them; I'll +carry them." + +We bowed ourselves out, promising to come again when Sato received +a new consignment from the Orient which he was expecting. + +"That other Jap is a peculiar fellow," I observed, as we walked +along uptown again. + +"He isn't a Jap," remarked Craig. "He is an Ainu, one of the +aborigines who have been driven northward into the island of +Yezo." + +"An Ainu?" I repeated. + +"Yes. Generally thought, now, to be a white race and nearer of kin +to Europeans than Asiatics. The Japanese have pushed them +northward and are now trying to civilize them. They are a dirty, +hairy race, but when they are brought under civilizing influences +they adapt themselves to their environment and make very good +servants. Still, they are on about the lowest scale of humanity." + +"I thought Otaka was very mild," I commented. + +"They are a most inoffensive and peaceable people usually," he +answered, "good-natured and amenable to authority. But they become +dangerous when driven to despair by cruel treatment. The Japanese +government is very considerate of them--but not all Japanese are." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE ARROW POISON + + +Far into the night Craig was engaged in some very delicate and +minute microscopic work in the laboratory. + +We were about to leave when there was a gentle tap on the door. +Kennedy opened it and admitted a young man, the operative of the +detective agency who had been shadowing Bernardo. His report was +very brief, but, to me at least, significant. Bernardo, on his +return to the museum, had evidently read the letter, which had +agitated him very much, for a few moments later he hurriedly left +and went downtown to the Prince Henry Hotel. The operative had +casually edged up to the desk and overheard whom he asked for. It +was Senora Herreria. Once again, later in the evening, he had +asked for her, but she was still out. + +It was quite early the next morning, when Kennedy had resumed his +careful microscopic work, that the telephone bell rang, and he +answered it mechanically. But a moment later a look of intense +surprise crossed his face. + +"It was from Doctor Leslie," he announced, hanging up the receiver +quickly. "He has a most peculiar case which he wants me to see--a +woman." + +Kennedy called a cab, and, at a furious pace, we dashed across the +city and down to the Metropolitan Hospital, where Doctor Leslie +was waiting. He met us eagerly and conducted us to a little room +where, lying motionless on a bed, was a woman. + +She was a striking-looking woman, dark of hair and skin, and in +life she must have been sensuously attractive. But now her face +was drawn and contorted--with the same ghastly look that had been +on the face of Northrop. + +"She died in a cab," explained Doctor Leslie, "before they could +get her to the hospital. At first they suspected the cab driver. +But he seems to have proved his innocence. He picked her up last +night on Fifth Avenue, reeling--thought she was intoxicated. And, +in fact, he seems to have been right. Our tests have shown a great +deal of alcohol present, but nothing like enough to have had such +a serious effect." + +"She told nothing of herself?" asked Kennedy. + +"No; she was pretty far gone when the cabby answered her signal. +All he could get out of her was a word that sounded like 'Curio- +curio.' He says she seemed to complain of something about her +mouth and head. Her face was drawn and shrunken; her hands were +cold and clammy, and then convulsions came on. He called an +ambulance, but she was past saving when it arrived. The numbness +seemed to have extended over all her body; swallowing was +impossible; there was entire loss of her voice as well as sight, +and death took place by syncope." + +"Have you any clue to the cause of her death?" asked Craig. + +"Well, it might have been some trouble with her heart, I suppose," +remarked Doctor Leslie tentatively. + +"Oh, she looks strong that way. No, hardly anything organic." + +"Well, then I thought she looked like a Mexican," went on Doctor +Leslie. "It might be some new tropical disease. I confess I don't +know. The fact is," he added, lowering his voice, "I had my own +theory about it until a few moments ago. That was why I called +you." + +"What do you mean?" asked Craig, evidently bent on testing his own +theory by the other's ignorance. + +Doctor Leslie made no answer immediately, but raised the sheet +which covered her body and disclosed, in the fleshy part of the +upper arm, a curious little red swollen mark with a couple of +drops of darkened blood. + +"I thought at first," he added, "that we had at last a genuine +'poisoned needle' case. You see, that looked like it. But I have +made all the tests for curare and strychnin without results." + +At the mere suggestion, a procession of hypodermic-needle and +white-slavery stories flashed before me. + +"But," objected Kennedy, "clearly this was not a case of +kidnaping. It is a case of murder. Have you tested for the +ordinary poisons?" + +Doctor Leslie shook his head. "There was no poison," he said, +"absolutely none that any of our tests could discover." + +Kennedy bent over and squeezed out a few drops of liquid from the +wound on a microscope slide, and covered them. + +"You have not identified her yet," he added, looking up. "I think +you will find, Leslie, that there is a Senora Herreria registered +at the Prince Henry who is missing, and that this woman will agree +with the description of her. Anyhow, I wish you would look it up +and let me know." + +Half an hour later, Kennedy was preparing to continue his studies +with the microscope when Doctor Bernardo entered. He seemed most +solicitous to know what progress was being made on the case, and, +although Kennedy did not tell much, still he did not discourage +conversation on the subject. + +When we came in the night before, Craig had unwrapped and tossed +down the Japanese sword and the Ainu bow and arrow on a table, and +it was not long before they attracted Bernardo's attention. + +"I see you are a collector yourself," he ventured, picking them +up. + +"Yes," answered Craig, offhand; "I picked them up yesterday at +Sato's. You know the place?" + +"Oh, yes, I know Sato," answered the curator, seemingly without +the slightest hesitation. "He has been in Mexico--is quite a +student." + +"And the other man, Otaka?" + +"Other man--Otaka? You mean his wife?" + +I saw Kennedy check a motion of surprise and came to the rescue +with the natural question: "His wife--with a beard and mustache?" + +It was Bernardo's turn to be surprised. He looked at me a moment, +then saw that I meant it, and suddenly his face lighted up. + +"Oh," he exclaimed, "that must have been on account of the +immigration laws or something of the sort. Otaka is his wife. The +Ainus are much sought after by the Japanese as wives. The women, +you know, have a custom of tattooing mustaches on themselves. It +is hideous, but they think it is beautiful." + +"I know," I pursued, watching Kennedy's interest in our +conversation, "but this was not tattooed." + +"Well, then, it must have been false," insisted Bernardo. + +The curator chatted a few moments, during which I expected Kennedy +to lead the conversation around to Senora Herreria. But he did +not, evidently fearing to show his hand. + +"What did you make of it?" I asked, when he had gone. "Is he +trying to hide something?" + +"I think he has simplified the case," remarked Craig, leaning +back, his hands behind his head, gazing up at the ceiling. "Hello, +here's Leslie! What did you find, Doctor?" The coroner had entered +with a look of awe on his face, as if Kennedy had directed him by +some sort of necromancy. + +"It was Senora Herreria!" he exclaimed. "She has been missing from +the hotel ever since late yesterday afternoon. What do you think +of it?" + +"I think," replied Kennedy, speaking slowly and deliberately, +"that it is very much like the Northrop case. You haven't taken +that up yet?" + +"Only superficially. What do you make of it?" asked the coroner. + +"I had an idea that it might be aconitin poisoning," he said. + +Leslie glanced at him keenly for a moment. "Then you'll never +prove anything in the laboratory," he said. + +"There are more ways of catching a criminal, Leslie," put in +Craig, "than are set down in the medico-legal text-books. I shall +depend on you and Jameson to gather together a rather cosmopolitan +crowd here to-night." + +He said it with a quiet confidence which I could not gainsay, +although I did not understand. However, mostly with the official +aid of Doctor Leslie, I followed out his instructions, and it was +indeed a strange party that assembled that night. There were +Doctor Bernardo; Sato, the curio dealer; Otaka, the Ainu, and +ourselves. Mrs. Northrop, of course, could not come. + +"Mexico," began Craig, after he had said a few words explaining +why he had brought us together, "is full of historical treasure. +To all intents and purposes, the government says, 'Come and dig.' +But when there are finds, then the government swoops down on them +for its own national museum. The finder scarcely gets a chance to +export them. However, now seemed to be the time to Professor +Northrop to smuggle his finds out of the country. + +"But evidently it could not be done without exciting all kinds of +rumors and suspicions. Stories seem to have spread far and fast +about what he had discovered. He realized the unsettled condition +of the country--perhaps wanted to confirm his reading of a certain +inscription by consultation with one scholar whom he thought he +could trust. At any rate, he came home." + +Kennedy paused, making use of the silence for emphasis. "You have +all read of the wealth that Cortez found in Mexico. Where are the +gold and silver of the conquistadores? Gone to the melting pot, +centuries ago. But is there none left? The Indians believe so. +There are persons who would stop at nothing--even at murder of +American professors, murder of their own comrades, to get at the +secret." + +He laid his hand almost lovingly on his powerful little microscope +as he resumed on another line of evidence. + +"And while we are on the subject of murders, two very similar +deaths have occurred," he went on. "It is of no use to try to +gloss them over. Frankly, I suspected that they might have been +caused by aconite poisoning. But, in the case of such poisoning, +not only is the lethal dose very small but our chemical methods of +detection are nil. The dose of the active principle, aconitin +nitrate, is about one six-hundredth of a grain. There are no color +tests, no reactions, as in the case of the other organic poisons." + +I wondered what he was driving at. Was there, indeed, no test? Had +the murderer used the safest of poisons--one that left no clue? I +looked covertly at Sato's face. It was impassive. Doctor Bernardo +was visibly uneasy as Kennedy proceeded. Cool enough up to the +time of the mention of the treasure, I fancied, now, that he was +growing more and more nervous. + +Craig laid down on the table the reed stick with the little +darkened cylinder on the end. + +"That," he said, "is a little article which I picked up beneath +Northrop's window yesterday. It is a piece of anno-noki, or +bushi." I fancied I saw just a glint of satisfaction in Otaka's +eyes. + +"Like many barbarians," continued Craig, "the Ainus from time +immemorial have prepared virulent poisons with which they charged +their weapons of the chase and warfare. The formulas for the +preparations, as in the case of other arrow poisons of other +tribes, are known only to certain members, and the secret is +passed down from generation to generation as an heirloom, as it +were. But in this case it is no longer a secret. It has now been +proved that the active principle of this poison is aconite." + +"If that is the case," broke in Doctor Leslie, "it is hopeless to +connect anyone directly in that way with these murders. There is +no test for aconitin." + +I thought Sato's face was more composed and impassive than ever. +Doctor Bernardo, however, was plainly excited. + +"What--no test--NONE?" asked Kennedy, leaning forward eagerly. +Then, as if he could restrain the answer to his own question no +longer, he shot out: "How about the new starch test just +discovered by Professor Reichert, of the University of +Pennsylvania? Doubtless you never dreamed that starch may be a +means of detecting the nature of a poison in obscure cases in +criminology, especially in cases where the quantity of poison +necessary to cause death is so minute that no trace of it can be +found in the blood. + +"The starch method is a new and extremely inviting subject to me. +The peculiarities of the starch of any plant are quite as +distinctive of the plant as are those of the hemoglobin crystals +in the blood of an animal. I have analyzed the evidence of my +microscope in this case thoroughly. When the arrow poison is +introduced subcutaneously--say, by a person shooting a poisoned +dart, which he afterward removes in order to destroy the evidence- +-the lethal constituents are rapidly absorbed. + +"But the starch remains in the wound. It can be recovered and +studied microscopically and can be definitely recognized. Doctor +Reichert has published a study of twelve hundred such starches +from all sorts of plants. In this case, it not only proves to be +aconitin but the starch granules themselves can be recognized. +They came from this piece of arrow poison." + +Every eye was fixed on him now. + +"Besides," he rapped out, "in the soft soil beneath the window of +Professor Northrop's room, I found footprints. I have only to +compare the impressions I took there and those of the people in +this room, to prove that, while the real murderer stood guard +below the window, he sent some one more nimble up the rain pipe to +shoot the poisoned dart at Professor Northrop, and, later, to let +down a rope by which he, the instigator, could gain the room, +remove the dart, and obtain the key to the treasure he sought." + +Kennedy was looking straight at Professor Bernardo. + +"A friend of mine in Mexico has written me about an inscription," +he burst out. "I received the letter only to-day. As nearly as I +can gather, there was an impression that some of Northrop's stuff +would be valuable in proving the alleged kinship between Mexico +and Japan, perhaps to arouse hatred of the United States." + +"Yes--that is all very well," insisted Kennedy. "But how about the +treasure?" + +"Treasure?" repeated Bernardo, looking from one of us to another. + +"Yes," pursued Craig relentlessly, "the treasure. You are an +expert in reading the hieroglyphics. By your own statement, you +and Northrop had been going over the stuff he had sent up. You +know it." + +Bernardo gave a quick glance from Kennedy to me. Evidently he saw +that the secret was out. + +"Yes," he said huskily, in a low tone, "Northrop and I were to +follow the directions after we had plotted them out and were to +share it together on the next expedition, which I could direct as +a Mexican without so much suspicion. I should still have shared it +with his widow if this unfortunate affair had not exposed the +secret." + +Bernardo had risen earnestly. + +"Kennedy," he cried, "before God, if you will get back that stone +and keep the secret from going further than this room, I will +prove what I have said by dividing the Mixtec treasure with Mrs. +Northrop and making her one of the richest widows in the country!" + +"That is what I wanted to be sure of," nodded Craig. "Bernardo, +Senora Herreria, of whom your friend wrote to you from Mexico, has +been murdered in the same way that Professor Northrop was. Otaka +was sent by her husband to murder Northrop, in order that they +might obtain the so-called 'Pillar of Death' and the key to the +treasure. Then, when the senora was no doubt under the influence +of sake in the pretty little Oriental bower at the curio shop, a +quick jab, and Otaka had removed one who shared the secret with +them." + +He had turned and faced the pair. + +"Sato," he added, "you played on the patriotism of the senora +until you wormed from her the treasure secret. Evidently rumors of +it had spread from Mexican Indians to Japanese visitors. And then, +Otaka, all jealousy over one whom she, no doubt, justly considered +a rival, completed your work by sending her forth to die, unknown, +on the street. Walter, ring up First Deputy O'Connor. The stone is +hidden somewhere in the curio shop. We can find it without Sato's +help. The quicker such a criminal is lodged safely in jail, the +better for humanity." + +Sato was on his feet, advancing cautiously toward Craig. I knew +the dangers, now, of anno-noki, as well as the wonders of jujutsu, +and, with a leap, I bounded past Bernardo and between Sato and +Kennedy. + +How it happened, I don't know, but, an instant later, I was +sprawling. + +Before I could recover myself, before even Craig had a chance to +pull the hair-trigger of his automatic, Sato had seized the Ainu +arrow poison from the table, had bitten the little cylinder in +half, and had crammed the other half into the mouth of Otaka. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE RADIUM ROBBER + + +Kennedy simply reached for the telephone and called an ambulance. +But it was purely perfunctory. Dr. Leslie himself was the only +official who could handle Sato's case now. + +We had planned a little vacation for ourselves, but the planning +came to naught. The next night we spent on a sleeper. That in +itself is work to me. + +It all came about through a hurried message from Murray Denison, +president of the Federal Radium Corporation. Nothing would do but +that he should take both Kennedy and myself with him post-haste to +Pittsburgh at the first news of what had immediately been called +"the great radium robbery." + +Of course the newspapers were full of it. The very novelty of an +ultra-modern cracksman going off with something worth upward of a +couple of hundred thousand dollars--and all contained in a few +platinum tubes which could be tucked away in a vest pocket--had +something about it powerfully appealing to the imagination. + +"Most ingenious, but, you see, the trouble with that safe is that +it was built to keep radium IN--not cracksmen OUT," remarked +Kennedy, when Denison had rushed us from the train to take a look +at the little safe in the works of the Corporation. + +"Breaking into such a safe as this," added Kennedy, after a +cursory examination, "is simple enough, after all." + +It was, however, a remarkably ingenious contrivance, about three +feet in height and of a weight of perhaps a ton and a half, and +all to house something weighing only a few grains. + +"But," Denison hastened to explain, "we had to protect the radium +not only against burglars, but, so to speak, against itself. +Radium emanations pass through steel and experiments have shown +that the best metal to contain them is lead. So, the difficulty +was solved by making a steel outer case enclosing an inside leaden +shell three inches thick." + +Kennedy had been toying thoughtfully with the door. + +"Then the door, too, had to be contrived so as to prevent any +escape of the emanations through joints. It is lathe turned and +circular, a 'dead fit.' By means of a special contrivance any +slight looseness caused by wear and tear of closing can be +adjusted. And another feature. That is the appliance for +preventing the loss of emanation when the door is opened. Two +valves have been inserted into the door and before it is opened +tubes with mercury are passed through which collect and store the +emanation." + +"All very nice for the radium," remarked Craig cheerfully. "But +the fellow had only to use an electric drill and the gram or more +of radium was his." + +"I know that--now," ruefully persisted Denison. "But the safe was +designed for us specially. The fellow got into it and got away, as +far as I can see, without leaving a clue." + +"Except one, of course," interrupted Kennedy quickly. + +Denison looked at him a moment keenly, then nodded and said, "Yes- +-you are right. You mean one which he must bear on himself?" + +"Exactly. You can't carry a gram or more of radium bromide long +with impunity. The man to look for is one who in a few days will +have somewhere on his body a radium burn which will take months to +heal. The very thing he stole is a veritable Frankenstein's +monster bent on the destruction of the thief himself!" + +Kennedy had meanwhile picked up one of the Corporation's circulars +lying on a desk. He ran his eye down the list of names. + +"So, Hartley Haughton, the broker, is one of your stockholders," +mused Kennedy. + +"Not only one but THE one," replied Denison with obvious pride. + +Haughton was a young man who had come recently into his fortune, +and, while no one believed it to be large, he had cut quite a +figure in Wall Street. + +"You know, I suppose," added Denison, "that he is engaged to +Felicie Woods, the daughter of Mrs. Courtney Woods?" + +Kennedy did not, but said nothing. + +"A most delightful little girl," continued Denison thoughtfully. +"I have known Mrs. Woods for some time. She wanted to invest, but +I told her frankly that this is, after all, a speculation. We may +not be able to swing so big a proposition, but, if not, no one can +say we have taken a dollar of money from widows and orphans." + +"I should like to see the works," nodded Kennedy approvingly. + +"By all means." + +The plant was a row of long low buildings of brick on the +outskirts of the city, once devoted to the making of vanadium +steel. The ore, as Denison explained, was brought to Pittsburgh +because he had found here already a factory which could readily be +turned into a plant for the extraction of radium. Huge baths and +vats and crucibles for the various acids and alkalis and other +processes used in treating the ore stood at various points. + +"This must be like extracting gold from sea water," remarked +Kennedy jocosely, impressed by the size of the plant as compared +to the product. + +"Except that after we get through we have something infinitely +more precious than gold," replied Denison, "something which +warrants the trouble and outlay. Yes, the fact is that the +percentage of radium in all such ores is even less than of gold in +sea water." + +"Everything seems to be most carefully guarded," remarked Kennedy +as we concluded our tour of the well-appointed works. + +He had gone over everything in silence, and now at last we had +returned to the safe. + +"Yes," he repeated slowly, as if confirming his original +impression, "such an amount of radium as was stolen wouldn't +occasion immediate discomfort to the thief, I suppose, but later +no infernal machine could be more dangerous to him." + +I pictured to myself the series of fearful works of mischief and +terror that might follow, a curse on the thief worse than that of +the weirdest curses of the Orient, the danger to the innocent, and +the fact that in the hands of a criminal it was an instrument for +committing crimes that might defy detection. + +"There is nothing more to do here now," he concluded. "I can see +nothing for the present except to go back to New York. The +telltale burn may not be the only clue, but if the thief is going +to profit by his spoils we shall hear about it best in New York or +by cable from London, Paris, or some other European city." + +Our hurried departure from New York had not given us a chance to +visit the offices of the Radium Corporation for the distribution +of the salts themselves. They were in a little old office building +on William Street, near the drug district and yet scarcely a +moment's walk from the financial district. + +"Our head bookkeeper, Miss Wallace, is ill," remarked Denison when +we arrived at the office, "but if there is anything I can do to +help you, I shall be glad to do it. We depend on Miss Wallace a +great deal. Haughton says she is the brains of the office." + +Kennedy looked about the well-appointed suite curiously. + +"Is this another of those radium safes?" he asked, approaching one +similar in appearance to that which had been broken open already. + +"Yes, only a little larger." + +"How much is in it?" + +"Most of our supply. I should say about two and a half grams. Miss +Wallace has the record." + +"It is of the same construction, I presume," pursued Kennedy. "I +wonder whether the lead lining fits closely to the steel?" + +"I think not," considered Denison. "As I remember there was a sort +of insulating air cushion or something of the sort." + +Denison was quite eager to show us about. In fact ever since he +had hustled us out to view the scene of the robbery, his high +nervous tension had given us scarcely a moment's rest. For hours +he had talked radium, until I felt that he, like his metal, must +have an inexhaustible emanation of words. He was one of those +nervous, active little men, a born salesman, whether of ribbons or +radium. + +"We have just gone into furnishing radium water," he went on, +bustling about and patting a little glass tank. + +I looked closely and could see that the water glowed in the dark +with a peculiar phosphorescence. + +"The apparatus for the treatment," he continued, "consists of two +glass and porcelain receptacles. Inside the larger receptacle is +placed the smaller, which contains a tiny quantity of radium. Into +the larger receptacle is poured about a gallon of filtered water. +The emanation from that little speck of radium is powerful enough +to penetrate its porcelain holder and charge the water with its +curative properties. From a tap at the bottom of the tank the +patient draws the number of glasses of water a day prescribed. For +such purposes the emanation within a day or two of being collected +is as good as radium itself. Why, this water is five thousand +times as radioactive as the most radioactive natural spring +water." + +"You must have control of a comparatively large amount of the +metal," suggested Kennedy. + +"We are, I believe, the largest holders of radium in the world," +he answered. "I have estimated that all told there are not much +more than ten grams, of which Madame Curie has perhaps three, +while Sir Ernest Cassel of London is the holder of perhaps as +much. We have nearly four grams, leaving about six or seven for +the rest of the world." + +Kennedy nodded and continued to look about. + +"The Radium Corporation," went on Denison, "has several large +deposits of radioactive ore in Utah in what is known as the Poor +Little Rich Valley, a valley so named because from being about the +barrenest and most unproductive mineral or agricultural hole in +the hills, the sudden discovery of the radioactive deposits has +made it almost priceless." + +He had entered a private office and was looking over some mail +that had been left on his desk during his absence. + +"Look at this," he called, picking up a clipping from a newspaper +which had been laid there for his attention. "You see, we have +them aroused." + +We read the clipping together hastily: + +PLAN TO CORNER WORLD'S RADIUM + +LONDON.--Plans are being matured to form a large corporation for +the monopoly of the existing and future supply of radium +throughout the world. The company is to be called Universal +Radium, Limited, and the capital of ten million dollars will be +offered for public subscription at par simultaneously in London, +Paris and New York. + +The company's business will be to acquire mines and deposits of +radioactive substances as well as the control of patents and +processes connected with the production of radium. The outspoken +purpose of the new company is to obtain a world-wide monopoly and +maintain the price. + + "Ah--a competitor," commented Kennedy, handing back the clipping. + +"Yes. You know radium salts used always to come from Europe. Now +we are getting ready to do some exporting ourselves. Say," he +added excitedly, "there's an idea, possibly, in that." + +"How?" queried Craig. + +"Why, since we should be the principal competitors to the foreign +mines, couldn't this robbery have been due to the machinations of +these schemers? To my mind, the United States, because of its +supply of radium-bearing ores, will have to be reckoned with first +in cornering the market. This is the point, Kennedy. Would those +people who seem to be trying to extend their new company all over +the world stop at anything in order to cripple us at the start?" + +How much longer Denison would have rattled on in his effort to +explain the robbery, I do not know. The telephone rang and a +reporter from the Record, who had just read my own story in the +Star, asked for an interview. I knew that it would be only a +question of minutes now before the other men were wearing a path +out on the stairs, and we managed to get away before the onrush +began. + +"Walter," said Kennedy, as soon as we had reached the street. "I +want to get in touch with Halsey Haughton. How can it be done?" + +I could think of nothing better at that moment than to inquire at +the Star's Wall Street office, which happened to be around the +corner. I knew the men down there intimately, and a few minutes +later we were whisked up in the elevator to the office. + +They were as glad to see me as I was to see them, for the story of +the robbery had interested the financial district perhaps more +than any other. + +"Where can I find Halsey Haughton at this hour?" I asked. + +"Say," exclaimed one of the men, "what's the matter? There have +been all kinds of rumors in the Street about him to-day. Did you +know he was ill?" + +"No," I answered. "Where is he?" + +"Out at the home of his fiancee, who is the daughter of Mrs. +Courtney Woods, at Glenclair." + +"What's the matter?" I persisted. + +"That's just it. No one seems to know. They say--well--they say he +has a cancer." + +Halsey Haughton suffering from cancer? It was such an uncommon +thing to hear of a young man that I looked up quickly in surprise. +Then all at once it flashed over me that Denison and Kennedy had +discussed the matter of burns from the stolen radium. Might not +this be, instead of cancer, a radium burn? + +Kennedy, who had been standing a little apart from me while I was +talking with the boys, signaled to me with a quick glance not to +say too much, and a few minutes later we were on the street again. + +I knew without being told that he was bound by the next train to +the pretty little New Jersey suburb of Glenclair. + +It was late when we arrived, yet Kennedy had no hesitation in +calling at the quaint home of Mrs. Courtney Woods on Woodridge +Avenue. + +Mrs. Woods, a well-set-up woman of middle age, who had retained +her youth and good looks in a remarkable manner, met us in the +foyer. Briefly, Kennedy explained that we had just come in from +Pittsburgh with Mr. Denison and that it was very important that we +should see Haughton at once. + +We had hardly told her the object of our visit when a young woman +of perhaps twenty-two or three, a very pretty girl, with all the +good looks of her mother and a freshness which only youth can +possess, tiptoed quietly downstairs. Her face told plainly that +she was deeply worried over the illness of her fiance. + +"Who is it, mother?" she whispered from the turn in the stairs. +"Some gentlemen from the company? Hartley's door was open when the +bell rang, and he thought he heard something said about the +Pittsburgh affair." + +Though she had whispered, it had not been for the purpose of +concealing anything from us, but rather that the keen ears of her +patient might not catch the words. She cast an inquiring glance at +us. + +"Yes," responded Kennedy in answer to her look, modulating his +tone. "We have just left Mr. Denison at the office. Might we see +Mr. Haughton for a moment? I am sure that nothing we can say or do +will be as bad for him as our going away, now that he knows that +we are here." + +The two women appeared to consult for a moment. + +"Felicie," called a rather nervous voice from the second floor, +"is it some one from the company?" + +"Just a moment, Hartley," she answered, then, lower to her mother, +added, "I don't think it can do any harm, do you, mother?" + +"You remember the doctor's orders, my dear." + +Again the voice called her. + +"Hang the doctor's orders," the girl exclaimed, with an air of +almost masculinity. "It can't be half so bad as to have him worry. +Will you promise not to stay long? We expect Dr. Bryant in a few +moments, anyway." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE SPINTHARISCOPE + + +We followed her upstairs and into Haughton's room, where he was +lying in bed, propped up by pillows. Haughton certainly was ill. +There was no mistake about that. He was a tall, gaunt man with an +air about him that showed that he found illness very irksome. +Around his neck was a bandage, and some adhesive tape at the back +showed that a plaster of some sort had been placed there. + +As we entered his eyes traveled restlessly from the face of the +girl to our own in an inquiring manner. He stretched out a nervous +hand to us, while Kennedy in a few short sentences explained how +we had become associated with the case and what we had seen +already. + +"And there is not a clue?" he repeated as Craig finished. + +"Nothing tangible yet," reiterated Kennedy. "I suppose you have +heard of this rumor from London of a trust that is going into the +radium field internationally?" + +"Yes," he answered, "that is the thing you read to me in the +morning papers, you remember, Felicie. Denison and I have heard +such rumors before. If it is a fight, then we shall give them a +fight. They can't hold us up, if Denison is right in thinking that +they are at the bottom of this--this robbery." + +"Then you think he may be right?" shot out Kennedy quickly. + +Haughton glanced nervously from Kennedy to me. + +"Really," he answered, "you see how impossible it is for me to +have an opinion? You and Denison have been over the ground. You +know much more about it than I do. I am afraid I shall have to +defer to you." + +Again we heard the bell downstairs, and a moment later a cheery +voice, as Mrs. Woods met some one down in the foyer, asked, "How +is the patient to-night?" + +We could not catch the reply. + +"Dr. Bryant, my physician," put in Haughton. "Don't go. I will +assume the responsibility for your being here. Hello, Doctor. Why, +I'm much the same to-night, thank you. At least no worse since I +took your advice and went to bed." + +Dr. Bryant was a bluff, hearty man, with the personal magnetism +which goes with the making of a successful physician. He had +mounted the stairs quietly but rapidly, evidently prepared to see +us. + +"Would you mind waiting in this little dressing room?" asked the +doctor, motioning to another, smaller room adjoining. + +He had taken from his pocket a little instrument with a dial face +like a watch, which he attached to Haughton's wrist. "A pocket +instrument to measure blood pressure," whispered Craig, as we +entered the little room. + +While the others were gathered about Haughton, we stood in the +next room, out of earshot. Kennedy had leaned his elbow on a +chiffonier. As he looked about the little room, more from force of +habit than because he thought he might discover anything, +Kennedy's eye rested on a glass tray on the top in which lay some +pins, a collar button or two, which Haughton had apparently just +taken off, and several other little unimportant articles. + +Kennedy bent over to look at the glass tray more closely, a +puzzled look crossed his face, and with a glance at the other room +he gathered up the tray and its contents. + +"Keep up a good courage," said Dr. Bryant. "You'll come out all +right, Haughton." Then as he left the bedroom he added to us, +"Gentlemen, I hope you will pardon me, but if you could postpone +the remainder of your visit until a later day, I am sure you will +find it more satisfactory." + +There was an air of finality about the doctor, though nothing +unpleasant in it. We followed him down the stairs, and as we did +so, Felicie, who had been waiting in a reception room, appeared +before the portieres, her earnest eyes fixed on his kindly face. + +"Dr. Bryant," she appealed, "is he--is he, really--so badly?" + +The Doctor, who had apparently known her all her life, reached +down and took one of her hands, patting it with his own in a +fatherly way. "Don't worry, little girl," he encouraged. "We are +going to come out all right--all right." + +She turned from him to us and, with a bright forced smile which +showed the stuff she was made of, bade us good night. + +Outside, the Doctor, apparently regretting that he had virtually +forced us out, paused before his car. "Are you going down toward +the station? Yes? I am going that far. I should be glad to drive +you there." + +Kennedy climbed into the front seat, leaving me in the rear where +the wind wafted me their brief conversation as we sped down +Woodbridge Avenue. + +"What seems to be the trouble?" asked Craig. + +"Very high blood pressure, for one thing," replied the Doctor +frankly. + +"For which the latest thing is the radium water cure, I suppose?" +ventured Kennedy. + +"Well, radioactive water is one cure for hardening of the +arteries. But I didn't say he had hardening of the arteries. +Still, he is taking the water, with good results. You are from the +company?" + +Kennedy nodded. + +"It was the radium water that first interested him in it. Why, we +found a pressure of 230 pounds, which is frightful, and we have +brought it down to 150, not far from normal." + +"Still that could have nothing to do with the sore on his neck," +hazarded Kennedy. + +The Doctor looked at him quickly, then ahead at the path of light +which his motor shed on the road. + +He said nothing, but I fancied that even he felt there was +something strange in his silence over the new complication. He did +not give Kennedy a chance to ask whether there were any other such +sores. + +"At any rate," he said, as he throttled down his engine with a +flourish before the pretty little Glenclair station, "that girl +needn't worry." + +There was evidently no use in trying to extract anything further +from him. He had said all that medical ethics or detective skill +could get from him. We thanked him and turned to the ticket window +to see how long we should have to wait. + +"Either that doctor doesn't know what he is talking about or he is +concealing something," remarked Craig, as we paced up and down the +platform. "I am inclined to read the enigma in the latter way." + +Nothing more passed between us during the journey back, and we +hurried directly to the laboratory, late as it was. Kennedy had +evidently been revolving something over and over in his mind, for +the moment he had switched on the light, he unlocked one of his +air-and dust-proof cabinets and took from it an instrument which +he placed on a table before him. + +It was a peculiar-looking instrument, like a round glass electric +battery with a cylinder atop, smaller and sticking up like a +safety valve. On that were an arm, a dial, and a lens fixed in +such a way as to read the dial. I could not see what else the +rather complicated little apparatus consisted of, but inside, when +Kennedy brought near it the pole of a static electric machine two +delicate thin leaves of gold seemed to fly wide apart when it was +charged. + +Kennedy had brought the glass tray near the thing. Instantly the +leaves collapsed and he made a reading through the lens. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"A radioscope," he replied, still observing the scale. "Really a +very sensitive gold leaf electroscope, devised by one of the +students of Madame Curie. This method of detection is far more +sensitive even than the spectroscope." + +"What does it mean when the leaves collapse?" I asked. + +"Radium has been near that tray," he answered. "It is radioactive. +I suspected it first when I saw that violet color. That is what +radium does to that kind of glass. You see, if radium exists in a +gram of inactive matter only to the extent of one in ten-thousand +million parts its presence can be readily detected by this +radioscope, and everything that has been rendered radioactive is +the same. Ordinarily the air between the gold leaves is +insulating. Bringing something radioactive near them renders the +air a good conductor and the leaves fall under the radiation." + +"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, marveling at the delicacy of it. + +"Take radium water," he went on, "sufficiently impregnated with +radium emanations to be luminous in the dark, like that water of +Denison's. It would do the same. In fact all mineral waters and +the so-called curarive muds like fango are slightly radioactive. +There seems to be a little radium everywhere on earth that +experiments have been made, even in the interiors of buildings. It +is ubiquitous. We are surrounded and permeated by radiations--that +soil out there on the campus, the air of this room, all. But," he +added contemplatively, "there is something different about that +tray. A lot of radium has been near that, and recently." + +"How about that bandage about Haughton's neck?" I asked suddenly. +"Do you think radium could have had anything to do with that?" +"Well, as to burns, there is no particular immediate effect +usually, and sometimes even up to two weeks or more, unless the +exposure has been long and to a considerable quantity. Of course +radium keeps itself three or four degrees warmer than other things +about it constantly. But that isn't what does the harm. It is +continually emitting little corpuscles, which I'll explain some +other time, traveling all the way from twenty to one hundred and +thirty thousand miles a second, and these corpuscles blister and +corrode the flesh like quick-moving missiles bombarding it. The +gravity of such lesions increases with the purity of the radium. +For instance I have known an exposure of half an hour to a +comparatively small quantity through a tube, a box and the clothes +to produce a blister fifteen days later. Curie said he wouldn't +trust himself in a room with a kilogram of it. It would destroy +his eyesight, burn off his skin and kill him eventually. Why, even +after a slight exposure your clothes are radioactive--the +electroscope will show that." + +He was still fumbling with the glass plate and the various +articles on it. + +"There's something very peculiar about all this," he muttered, +almost to himself. + +Tired by the quick succession of events of the past two days, I +left Kennedy still experimenting in his laboratory and retired, +still wondering when the real clue was to develop. Who could it +have been who bore the tell-tale burn? Was the mark hidden by the +bandage about Haughton's neck the brand of the stolen tubes? Or +were there other marks on his body which we could not see? + +No answer came to me, and I fell asleep and woke up without a +radiation of light on the subject. Kennedy spent the greater part +of the day still at work at his laboratory, performing some very +delicate experiments. Finding nothing to do there, I went down to +the Star office and spent my time reading the reports that came in +from the small army of reporters who had been assigned to run down +clues in the case which was the sensation of the moment. I have +always felt my own lips sealed in such cases, until the time came +that the story was complete and Kennedy released me from any +further need of silence. The weird and impossible stories which +came in not only to the Star but to the other papers surely did +make passable copy in this instance, but with my knowledge of the +case I could see that not one of them brought us a step nearer the +truth. + +One thing which uniformly puzzled the newspapers was the illness +of Haughton and his enforced idleness at a time which was of so +much importance to the company which he had promoted and indeed +very largely financed. Then, of course, there was the romantic +side of his engagement to Felicie Woods. + +Just what connection Felicie Woods had with the radium robbery if +any, I was myself unable quite to fathom. Still, that made no +difference to the papers. She was pretty and therefore they +published her picture, three columns deep, with Haughton and +Denison, who were intimately concerned with the real loss in +little ovals perhaps an inch across and two inches in the opposite +dimension. + +The late afternoon news editions had gone to press, and I had +given up in despair, determined to go up to the laboratory and sit +around idly watching Kennedy with his mystifying experiments, in +preference to waiting for him to summon me. + +I had scarcely arrived and settled myself to an impatient watch, +when an automobile drove up furiously, and Denison himself, very +excited, jumped out and dashed into the laboratory. + +"What's the matter?" asked Kennedy, looking up from a test tube +which he had been examining, with an air for all the world +expressive of "Why so hot, little man?" + +"I've had a threat," ejaculated Denison. + +He laid on one of the laboratory tables a letter, without heading +and without signature, written in a disguised hand, with an +evident attempt to simulate the cramped script of a foreign +penmanship. + +"I know who did the Pittsburgh job. The same party is out to ruin +Federal Radium. Remember Pittsburgh and be prepared! + +"A STOCKHOLDER." + +"Well?" demanded Kennedy, looking up. + +"That can have only one meaning," asserted Denison. + +"What is that?" inquired Kennedy coolly, as if to confirm his own +interpretation. + +"Why, another robbery--here in New York, of course." + +"But who would do it?" I asked. + +"Who?" repeated Denison. "Some one representing that European +combine, of course. That is only part of the Trust method--ruin of +competitors whom they cannot absorb." + +"Then you have refused to go into the combine? You know who is +backing it?" + +"No--no," admitted Denison reluctantly. "We have only signified +our intent to go it alone, as often as anyone either with or +without authority has offered to buy us out. No, I do not even +know who the people are. They never act in the open. The only +hints I have ever received were through perfectly reputable +brokers acting for others." + +"Does Haughton know of this note?" asked Kennedy. + +"Yes. As soon as I received it, I called him up." + +"What did he say?" + +"He said to disregard it. But--you know what condition he is in. I +don't know what to do, whether to surround the office by a squad +of detectives or remove the radium to a regular safety deposit +vault, even at the loss of the emanation. Haughton has left it to +me." + +Suddenly the thought flashed across my mind that perhaps Haughton +could act in this uninterested fashion because he had no fear of +ruin either way. Might he not be playing a game with the +combination in which he had protected himself so that he would +win, no matter what happened? + +"What shall I do?" asked Denison. "It is getting late." + +"Neither," decided Kennedy. + +Denison shook his head. "No," he said, "I shall have some one +watch there, anyhow." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ASPHYXIATING SAFE + + +Denison had scarcely gone to arrange for some one to watch the +office that night, when Kennedy, having gathered up his radioscope +and packed into a parcel a few other things from various cabinets, +announced: "Walter, I must see that Miss Wallace, right away. +Denison has already given me her address. Call a cab while I +finish clearing up here. I don't like the looks of this thing, +even if Haughton does neglect it." + +We found Miss Wallace at a modest boarding-house in an old but +still respectable part of the city. She was a very pretty girl, of +the slender type, rather a business woman than one given much to +amusement. She had been ill and was still ill. That was evident +from the solicitous way in which the motherly landlady scrutinized +two strange callers. + +Kennedy presented a card from Denison, and she came down to the +parlor to see us. + +"Miss Wallace," began Kennedy, "I know it is almost cruel to +trouble you when you are not feeling like office work, but since +the robbery of the safe at Pittsburgh, there have been threats of +a robbery of the New York office." + +She started involuntarily, and it was evident, I thought, that she +was in a very high-strung state. + +"Oh," she cried, "why, the loss means ruin to Mr. Denison!" + +There were genuine tears in her eyes as she said it. + +"I thought you would be willing to aid us," pursued Kennedy +sympathetically. "Now, for one thing, I want to be perfectly sure +just how much radium the Corporation owns, or rather owned before +the first robbery." + +"The books will show it," she said simply. + +"They will?" commented Kennedy. "Then if you will explain to me +briefly just the system you used in keeping account of it, perhaps +I need not trouble you any more." + +"I'll go down there with you," she answered bravely. "I'm better +to-day, anyhow, I think." + +She had risen, but it was evident that she was not as strong as +she wanted us to think. + +"The least I can do is to make it as easy as possible by going in +a car," remarked Kennedy, following her into the hall where there +was a telephone. + +The hallway was perfectly dark, yet as she preceded us I could see +that the diamond pin which held her collar in the back sparkled as +if a lighted candle had been brought near it. I had noticed in the +parlor that she wore a handsome tortoiseshell comb set with what I +thought were other brilliants, but when I looked I saw now that +there was not the same sparkle to the comb which held her dark +hair in a soft mass. I noticed these little things at the time, +not because I thought they had any importance, but merely by +chance, wondering at the sparkle of the one diamond which had +caught my eye. + +"What do you make of her?" I asked as Kennedy finished +telephoning. + +"A very charming and capable girl," he answered noncommittally. + +"Did you notice how that diamond in her neck sparkled?" I asked +quickly. + +He nodded. Evidently it had attracted his attention, too. + +"What makes it?" I pursued. + +"Well, you know radium rays will make a diamond fluoresce in the +dark." + +"Yes," I objected, "but how about those in the comb?" + +"Paste, probably," he answered tersely, as we heard her foot on +the landing. "The rays won't affect paste." + +It was indeed a shame to take advantage of Miss Wallace's loyalty +to Denison, but she was so game about it that I knew only the +utmost necessity on Kennedy's part would have prompted him to do +it. She had a key to the office so that it was not necessary to +wait for Denison, if indeed we could have found him. + +Together she and Kennedy went over the records. It seemed that +there were in the safe twenty-five platinum tubes of one hundred +milligrams each, and that there had been twelve of the same amount +at Pittsburgh. Little as it seemed in weight it represented a +fabulous fortune. + +"You have not the combination?" inquired Kennedy. + +"No. Only Mr. Denison has that. What are you going to do to +protect the safe to-night?" she asked. + +"Nothing especially," evaded Kennedy. + +"Nothing?" she repeated in amazement. + +"I have another plan," he said, watching her intently. "Miss +Wallace, it was too much to ask you to come down here. You are +ill." + +She was indeed quite pale, as if the excitement had been an +overexertion. + +"No, indeed," she persisted. Then, feeling her own weakness, she +moved toward the door of Denison's office where there was a +leather couch. "Let me rest here a moment. I do feel queer. I--" + +She would have fallen if he had not sprung forward and caught her +as she sank to the floor, overcome by the exertion. + +Together we carried her in to the couch, and as we did so the comb +from her hair clattered to the floor. + +Craig threw open the window, and bathed her face with water until +there was a faint flutter of the eyelids. + +"Walter," he said, as she began to revive, "I leave her to you. +Keep her quiet for a few moments. She has unintentionally given me +just the opportunity I want." + +While she was yet hovering between consciousness and +unconsciousness on the couch, he had unwrapped the package which +he had brought with him. For a moment he held the comb which she +had dropped near the radioscope. With a low exclamation of +surprise he shoved it into his pocket. + +Then from the package he drew a heavy piece of apparatus which +looked as if it might be the motor part of an electric fan, only +in place of the fan he fitted a long, slim, vicious-looking steel +bit. A flexible wire attached the thing to the electric light +circuit and I knew that it was an electric drill. With his coat +off he tugged at the little radium safe until he had moved it out, +then dropped on his knees behind it and switched the current on in +the electric drill. + +It was a tedious process to drill through the steel of the outer +casing of the safe and it was getting late. I shut the door to the +office so that Miss Wallace could not see. + +At last by the cessation of the low hum of the boring, I knew that +he had struck the inner lead lining. Quietly I opened the door and +stepped out. He was injecting something from an hermetically +sealed lead tube into the opening he had made and allowing it to +run between the two linings of lead and steel. Then using the tube +itself he sealed the opening he had made and dabbed a little black +over it. + +Quickly he shoved the safe back, then around it concealed several +small coils with wires also concealed and leading out through a +window to a court. + +"We'll catch the fellow this time," he remarked as he worked. "If +you ever have any idea, Walter, of going into the burglary +business, it would be well to ascertain if the safes have any of +these little selenium cells as suggested by my friend, Mr. Hammer, +the inventor. For by them an alarm can be given miles away the +moment an intruder's bull's-eye falls on a hidden cell sensitive +to light." + +While I was delegated to take Miss Wallace home, Kennedy made +arrangements with a small shopkeeper on the ground floor of a +building that backed up on the court for the use of his back room +that night, and had already set up a bell actuated by a system of +relays which the weak current from the selenium cells could +operate. + +It was not until nearly midnight that he was ready to leave the +laboratory again, where he had been busily engaged in studying the +tortoiseshell comb which Miss Wallace in her weakness had +forgotten. + +The little shopkeeper let us in sleepily and Kennedy deposited a +large round package on a chair in the back of the shop, as well as +a long piece of rubber tubing. Nothing had happened so far. + +As we waited the shopkeeper, now wide awake and not at all +unconvinced that we were bent on some criminal operation, hung +around. Kennedy did not seem to care. He drew from his pocket a +little shiny brass instrument in a lead case, which looked like an +abbreviated microscope. + +"Look through it," he said, handing it to me. + +I looked and could see thousands of minute sparks. + +"What is it?" I asked. + +"A spinthariscope. In that it is possible to watch the bombardment +of the countless little corpuscles thrown off by radium, as they +strike on the zinc blende crystal which forms the base. When +radium was originally discovered, the interest was merely in its +curious properties, its power to emit invisible rays which +penetrated solid substances and rendered things fluorescent, of +expending energy without apparent loss. + +"Then came the discovery," he went on, "of its curative powers. +But the first results were not convincing. Still, now that we know +the reasons why radium may be dangerous and how to protect +ourselves against them we know we possess one of the most +wonderful of curative agencies." + +I was thinking rather of the dangers than of the beneficence of +radium just now, but Kennedy continued. + +"It has cured many malignant growths that seemed hopeless, brought +back destroyed cells, exercised good effects in diseases of the +liver and intestines and even the baffling diseases of the +arteries. The reason why harm, at first, as well as good came, is +now understood. Radium emits, as I told you before, three kinds of +rays, the alpha, beta, and gamma rays, each with different +properties. The emanation is another matter. It does not concern +us in this case, as you will see." + +Fascinated as I was by the mystery of the case, I began to see +that he was gradually arriving at an explanation which had baffled +everyone else. + +"Now, the alpha rays are the shortest," he launched forth, "in +length let us say one inch. They exert a very destructive effect +on healthy tissue. That is the cause of injury. They are stopped +by glass, aluminum and other metals, and are really particles +charged with positive electricity. The beta rays come next, say, +about an inch and a half. They stimulate cell growth. Therefore +they are dangerous in cancer, though good in other ways. They can +be stopped by lead, and are really particles charged with negative +electricity. The gamma rays are the longest, perhaps three inches +long, and it is these rays which effect cures, for they check the +abnormal and stimulate the normal cells. They penetrate lead. Lead +seems to filter them out from the other rays. And at three inches +the other rays don't reach, anyhow. The gamma rays are not charged +with electricity at all, apparently." + +He had brought a little magnet near the spinthariscope. I looked +into it. + +"A magnet," he explained, "shows the difference between the alpha, +beta, and gamma rays. You see those weak and wobbly rays that seem +to fall to one side? Those are the alpha rays. They have a strong +action, though, on tissues and cells. Those falling in the other +direction are the beta rays. The gamma rays seem to flow +straight." + +"Then it is the alpha rays with which we are concerned mostly +now?" I queried, looking up. + +"Exactly. That is why, when radium is unprotected or +insufficiently protected and comes too near, it is destructive of +healthy cells, produces burns, sores, which are most difficult to +heal. It is with the explanation of such sores that we must deal." + +It was growing late. We had waited patiently now for some time. +Kennedy had evidently reserved this explanation, knowing we should +have to wait. Still nothing happened. + +Added to the mystery of the violet-colored glass plate was now +that of the luminescent diamond. I was about to ask Kennedy point- +blank what he thought of them, when suddenly the little bell +before us began to buzz feebly under the influence of a current. + +I gave a start. The faithful little selenium cell burglar alarm +had done the trick. I knew that selenium was a good conductor of +electricity in the light, poor in the dark. Some one had, +therefore, flashed a light on one of the cells in the Corporation +office. It was the moment for which Kennedy had prepared. + +Seizing the round package and the tubing, he dashed out on the +street and around the corner. He tried the door opening into the +Radium Corporation hallway. It was closed, but unlocked. As it +yielded and we stumbled in, up the old worn wooden stairs of the +building, I knew that there must be some one there. + +A terrific, penetrating, almost stunning odor seemed to permeate +the air even in the hall. + +Kennedy paused at the door of the office, tried it, found it +unlocked, but did not open it. + +"That smell is ethyldichloracetate," he explained. "That was what +I injected into the air cushion of that safe between the two +linings. I suppose my man here used an electric drill. He might +have used thermit or an oxyacetylene blowpipe for all I would +care. These fumes would discourage a cracksman from 'soup' to +nuts," he laughed, thoroughly pleased at the protection modern +science had enabled him to devise. + +As we stood an instant by the door, I realized what had happened. +We had captured our man. He was asphyxiated! + +Yet how were we to get to him? Would Craig leave him in there, +perhaps to die? To go in ourselves meant to share his fate, +whatever might be the effect of the drug. + +Kennedy had torn the wrapping off the package. From it he drew a +huge globe with bulging windows of glass in the front and several +curious arrangements on it at other points. To it he fitted the +rubber tubing and a little pump. Then he placed the globe over his +head, like a diver's helmet, and fastened some air-tight rubber +arrangement about his neck and shoulders. + +"Pump, Walter I" he shouted. "This is an oxygen helmet such as is +used in entering mines filled with deadly gases." + +Without another word he was gone into the blackness of the noxious +stifle which filled the Radium Corporation office since the +cracksman had struck the unexpected pocket of rapidly evaporating +stuff. + +I pumped furiously. + +Inside I could hear him blundering around. What was he doing? + +He was coming back slowly. Was he, too, overcome? + +As he emerged into the darkness of the hallway where I myself was +almost sickened, I saw that he was dragging with him a limp form. + +A rush of outside air from the street door seemed to clear things +a little. Kennedy tore off the oxygen helmet and dropped down on +his knees beside the figure, working its arms in the most approved +manner of resuscitation. + +"I think we can do it without calling on the pulmotor," he panted. +"Walter, the fumes have cleared away enough now in the outside +office. Open a window--and keep that street door open, too." + +I did so, found the switch and turned on the lights. + +It was Denison himself! + +For many minutes Kennedy worked over him. I bent down, loosened +his collar and shirt, and looked eagerly at his chest for the +tell-tale marks of the radium which I felt sure must be there. +There was not even a discoloration. + +Not a word was said, as Kennedy brought the stupefied little man +around. + +Denison, pale, shaken, was leaning back now in a big office chair, +gasping and holding his head. + +Kennedy, before him, reached down into his pocket and handed him +the spinthariscope. + +"You see that?" he demanded. + +Denison looked through the eyepiece. + +"Wh--where did you get so much of it?" he asked, a queer look on +his face. + +"I got that bit of radium from the base of the collar button of +Hartley Haughton," replied Kennedy quietly, "a collar button which +some one intimate with him had substituted for his own, bringing +that deadly radium with only the minutest protection of a thin +strip of metal close to the back of his neck, near the spinal cord +and the medulla oblongata which controls blood pressure. That +collar button was worse than the poisoned rings of the Borgias. +And there is more radium in the pretty gift of a tortoiseshell +comb with its paste diamonds which Miss Wallace wore in her hair. +Only a fraction of an inch, not enough to cut off the deadly alpha +rays, protected the wearers of those articles." + +He paused a moment, while surging through my mind came one after +another the explanations of the hitherto inexplicable. Denison +seemed almost to cringe in the chair, weak already from the fumes. + +"Besides," went on Kennedy remorselessly, "when I went in there to +drag you out, I saw the safe open. I looked. There was nothing in +those pretty platinum tubes, as I suspected. European trust--bah! +All the cheap devices of a faker with a confederate in London to +send a cablegram--and another in New York to send a threatening +letter." + +Kennedy extended an accusing forefinger at the man cowering before +him. + +"This is nothing but a get-rich-quick scheme, Denison. There never +was a milligram of radium in the Poor Little Rich Valley, not a +milligram here in all the carefully kept reports of Miss Wallace-- +except what was bought outside by the Corporation with the money +it collected from its dupes. Haughton has been fleeced. Miss +Wallace, blinded by her loyalty to you--you will always find such +a faithful girl in such schemes as yours--has been fooled. + +"And how did you repay it? What was cleverer, you said to +yourself, than to seem to be robbed of what you never had, to +blame it on a bitter rival who never existed? Then to make +assurance doubly sure, you planned to disable, perhaps get rid of +the come-on whom you had trimmed, and the faithful girl whose eyes +you had blinded to your gigantic swindle. + +"Denison," concluded Kennedy, as the man drew back, his very face +convicting him, "Denison, you are the radium robber--robber in +another sense!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DEAD LINE + + +Maiden Lane, no less than Wall Street, was deeply interested in +the radium case. In fact, it seemed that one case in this section +of the city led to another. + +Naturally, the Star and the other papers made much of the capture +of Denison. Still, I was not prepared for the host of Maiden Lane +cases that followed. Many of them were essentially trivial. But +one proved to be of extreme importance. + +"Professor Kennedy, I have just heard of your radium case, and I-- +I feel that I can--trust you." + +There was a note of appeal in the hesitating voice of the tall, +heavily veiled woman whose card had been sent up to us with a +nervous "Urgent" written across its face. + +It was very early in the morning, but our visitor was evidently +completely unnerved by some news which she had just received and +which had sent her posting to see Craig. + +Kennedy met her gaze directly with a look that arrested her +involuntary effort to avoid it again. She must have read in his +eyes more than in his words that she might trust him. + +"I--I have a confession to make," she faltered. + +"Please sit down, Mrs. Moulton," he said simply. "It is my +business to receive confidences--and to keep them." + +She sank into, rather than sat down in, the deep leather rocker +beside his desk, and now for the first time raised her veil. + +Antoinette Moulton was indeed stunning, an exquisite creature with +a wonderful charm of slender youth, brightness of eye and brunette +radiance. + +I knew that she had been on the musical comedy stage and had had a +rapid rise to a star part before her marriage to Lynn Moulton, the +wealthy lawyer, almost twice her age. I knew also that she had +given up the stage, apparently without a regret. Yet there was +something strange about the air of secrecy of her visit. Was there +a hint in it of a disagreement between the Moultons, I wondered, +as I waited while Kennedy reassured her. + +Her distress was so unconcealed that Craig, for the moment, laid +aside his ordinary inquisitorial manner. "Tell me just as much or +just as little as you choose, Mrs. Moulton," he added tactfully. +"I will do my best." + +A look almost of gratitude crossed her face. + +"When we were married," she began again, "my husband gave me a +beautiful diamond necklace. Oh, it must have been worth a hundred +thousand dollars easily. It was splendid. Everyone has heard of +it. You know, Lynn--er--Mr. Moulton, has always been an +enthusiastic collector of jewels." + +She paused again and Kennedy nodded reassuringly. I knew the +thought in his mind. Moulton had collected one gem that was +incomparable with all the hundred thousand dollar necklaces in +existence. + +"Several months ago." she went on rapidly, still avoiding his eyes +and forcing the words from her reluctant lips, "I--oh, I needed +money--terribly." + +She had risen and faced him, pressing her daintily gloved hands +together in a little tremble of emotion which was none the less +genuine because she had studied the art of emotion. + +"I took the necklace to a jeweler, Herman Schloss, of Maiden Lane, +a man with whom my husband had often had dealings and whom I +thought I could trust. Under a promise of secrecy he loaned me +fifty thousand dollars on it and had an exact replica in paste +made by one of his best workmen. This morning, just now, Mr. +Schloss telephoned me that his safe had been robbed last night. My +necklace is gone!" + +She threw out her hands in a wildly appealing gesture. + +"And if Lynn finds that the necklace in our wall safe is of paste- +-as he will find, for he is an expert in diamonds--oh--what shall +I do? Can't you--can't you find my necklace?" + +Kennedy was following her now eagerly. "You were blackmailed out +of the money?" he queried casually, masking his question. + +There was a sudden, impulsive drooping of her mouth, an evasion +and keen wariness in her eyes. "I can't see that that has anything +to do with the robbery," she answered in a low voice. + +"I beg your pardon," corrected Kennedy quickly. "Perhaps not. I'm +sorry. Force of habit, I suppose. You don't know anything more +about the robbery?" + +"N--no, only that it seems impossible that it could have happened +in a place that has the wonderful burglar alarm protection that +Mr. Schloss described to me." + +"You know him pretty well?" + +"Only through this transaction," she replied hastily. "I wish to +heaven I had never heard of him." + +The telephone rang insistently. + +"Mrs. Moulton," said Kennedy, as he returned the receiver to the +hook, "it may interest you to know that the burglar alarm company +has just called me up about the same case. If I had need of an +added incentive, which I hope you will believe I have not, that +might furnish it. I will do my best," he repeated. + +"Thank you--a thousand times," she cried fervently, and, had I +been Craig, I think I should have needed no more thanks than the +look she gave him as he accompanied her to the door of our +apartment. + +It was still early and the eager crowds were pushing their way to +business through the narrow network of downtown streets as Kennedy +and I entered a large office on lower Broadway in the heart of the +jewelry trade and financial district. + +"One of the most amazing robberies that has ever been attempted +has been reported to us this morning," announced James McLear, +manager of the Hale Electric Protection, adding with a look half +of anxiety, half of skepticism, "that is, if it is true." + +McLear was a stocky man, of powerful build and voice and a general +appearance of having been once well connected with the city +detective force before an attractive offer had taken him into this +position of great responsibility. + +"Herman Schloss, one of the best known of Maiden Lane jewelers," +he continued, "has been robbed of goods worth two or three hundred +thousand dollars--and in spite of every modern protection. So that +you will get it clearly, let me show you what we do here." + +He ushered us into a large room, on the walls of which were +hundreds of little indicators. From the front they looked like +rows of little square compartments, tier on tier, about the size +of ordinary post office boxes. Closer examination showed that each +was equipped with a delicate needle arranged to oscillate backward +and forward upon the very minutest interference with the electric +current. Under the boxes, each of which bore a number, was a +series of drops and buzzers numbered to correspond with the boxes. + +"In nearly every office in Maiden Lane where gems and valuable +jewelry are stored," explained McLear, "this electrical system of +ours is installed. When the safes are closed at night and the +doors swung together, a current of electricity is constantly +shooting around the safes, conducted by cleverly concealed wires. +These wires are picked up by a cable system which finds its way to +this central office. Once here, the wires are safeguarded in such +manner that foreign currents from other wires or from lightning +cannot disturb the system." + +We looked with intense interest at this huge electrical pulse that +felt every change over so vast and rich an area. + +"Passing a big dividing board," he went on, "they are distributed +and connected each in its place to the delicate tangent +galvanometers and sensitive indicators you see in this room. These +instantly announce the most minute change in the working of the +current, and each office has a distinct separate metallic circuit. +Why, even a hole as small as a lead pencil in anything protected +would sound the alarm here." + +Kennedy nodded appreciatively. + +"You see," continued McLear, glad to be able to talk to one who +followed him so closely, "it is another evidence of science +finding for us greater security in the use of a tiny electric wire +than in massive walls of steel and intricate lock devices. But +here is a case in which, it seems, every known protection has +failed. We can't afford to pass that by. If we have fallen down we +want to know how, as well as to catch the burglar." + +"How are the signals given?" I asked. + +"Well, when the day's business is over, for instance, Schloss +would swing the heavy safe doors together and over them place the +doors of a wooden cabinet. That signals an alarm to us here. We +answer it and if the proper signal is returned, all right. After +that no one can tamper with the safe later in the night without +sounding an alarm that would bring a quick investigation." + +"But suppose that it became necessary to open the safe before the +next morning. Might not some trusted employee return to the +office, open it, give the proper signals and loot the safe?" + +"No indeed," he answered confidently. "The very moment anyone +touches the cabinet, the alarm is sounded. Even if the proper code +signal is returned, it is not sufficient. A couple of our trusted +men from the central office hustle around there anyhow and they +don't leave until they are satisfied that everything is right. We +have the authorized signatures on hand of those who are supposed +to open the safe and a duplicate of one of them must be given or +there is an arrest." + +McLear considered for a moment. + +"For instance, Schloss, like all the rest, was assigned a box in +which was deposited a sealed envelope containing a key to the +office and his own signature, in this case, since he alone knew +the combination. Now, when an alarm is sounded, as it was last +night, and the key removed to gain entrance to the office, a +record is made and the key has to be sealed up again by Schloss. A +report is also submitted showing when the signals are received and +anything else that is worth recording. Last night our men found +nothing wrong, apparently. But this morning we learn of the +robbery." + +"The point is, then," ruminated Kennedy, "what happened in the +interval between the ringing of the alarm and the arrival of the +special officers? I think I'll drop around and look Schloss' place +over," he added quietly, evidently eager to begin at the actual +scene of the crime. + +On the door of the office to which McLear took us was one of those +small blue plates which chance visitors to Maiden Lane must have +seen often. To the initiated--be he crook or jeweler--this simple +sign means that the merchant is a member of the Jewelers' Security +Alliance, enough in itself, it would seem, to make the boldest +burglar hesitate. For it is the motto of this organization to +"get" the thief at any cost and at any time. Still, it had not +deterred the burglar in this instance. + +"I know people are going to think it is a fake burglary," +exclaimed Schloss, a stout, prosperous-looking gem broker, as we +introduced ourselves. "But over two hundred thousands dollars' +worth of stones are gone," he half groaned. "Think of it, man," he +added, "one of the greatest robberies since the Dead Line was +established. And if they can get away with it, why, no one down +here is protected any more. Half a billion dollars in jewels in +Maiden Lane and John Street are easy prey for the cracksmen!" + +Staggering though the loss must have been to him, he had +apparently recovered from the first shock of the discovery and had +begun the fight to get back what had been lost. + +It was, as McLear had intimated, a most amazing burglary, too. The +door of Schloss' safe was open when Kennedy and I arrived and +found the excited jeweler nervously pacing the office. Surrounding +the safe, I noticed a wooden framework constructed in such a way +as to be a part of the decorative scheme of the office. + +Schloss banged the heavy doors shut. + +"There, that's just how it was--shut as tight as a drum. There was +absolutely no mark of anyone tampering with the combination lock. +And yet the safe was looted!" + +"How did you discover it?" asked Craig. "I presume you carry +burglary insurance?" + +Schloss looked up quickly. "That's what I expected as a first +question. No, I carried very little insurance. You see, I thought +the safe, one of those new chrome steel affairs, was about +impregnable. I never lost a moment's sleep over it; didn't think +it possible for anyone to get into it. For, as you see, it is +completely wired by the Hale Electric Protection--that wooden +framework about it. No one could touch that when it was set +without jangling a bell at the central office which would send men +scurrying here to protect the place." + +"But they must have got past it," suggested Kennedy. + +"Yes--they must have. At least this morning I received the regular +Hale report. It said that their wires registered last night as +though some one was tampering with the safe. But by the time they +got around, in less than five minutes, there was no one here, +nothing seemed to be disturbed. So they set it down to induction +or electrolysis, or something the matter with the wires. I got the +report the first thing when I arrived here with my assistant, +Muller." + +Kennedy was on his knees, going over the safe with a fine brush +and some powder, looking now and then through a small magnifying +glass. + +"Not a finger print," he muttered. "The cracksman must have worn +gloves. But how did he get in? There isn't a mark of 'soup' having +been used to blow it up, nor of a 'can-opener' to rip it open, if +that were possible, nor of an electric or any other kind of +drill." + +"I've read of those fellows who burn their way in," said Schloss. + +"But there is no hole," objected Kennedy, "not a trace of the use +of thermit to burn the way in or of the oxyacetylene blowpipe to +cut a piece out. Most extraordinary," he murmured. + +"You see," shrugged Schloss, "everyone will say it must have been +opened by one who knew the combination. But I am the only one. I +have never written it down or told anyone, not even Muller. You +understand what I am up against?" + +"There's the touch system," I suggested. "You remember, Craig, the +old fellow who used to file his finger tips to the quick until +they were so sensitive that he could actually feel when he had +turned the combination to the right plunger? Might not that +explain the lack of finger prints also?" I added eagerly. + +"Nothing like that in this case, Walter," objected Craig +positively. "This fellow wore gloves, all right. No, this safe has +been opened and looted by no ordinarily known method. It's the +most amazing case I ever saw in that respect--almost as if we had +a cracksman in the fourth dimension to whom the inside of a closed +cube is as accessible as is the inside of a plane square to us +three dimensional creatures. It is almost incomprehensible." + +I fancied I saw Schloss' face brighten as Kennedy took this view. +So far, evidently, he had run across only skepticism. + +"The stones were unset?" resumed Craig. + +"Mostly. Not all." + +"You would recognize some of them if you saw them?" + +"Yes indeed. Some could be changed only by re-cutting. Even some +of those that were set were of odd cut and size--some from a +diamond necklace which belonged to a--" + +There was something peculiar in both his tone and manner as he cut +short the words. + +"To whom?" asked Kennedy casually. + +"Oh, once to a well-known woman in society," he said carefully. +"It is mine, though, now--at least it was mine. I should prefer to +mention no names. I will give a description of the stones." + +"Mrs. Lynn Moulton, for instance?" suggested Craig quietly. + +Schloss jumped almost as if a burglar alarm had sounded under his +very ears. "How did you know? Yes--but it was a secret. I made a +large loan on it, and the time has expired." + +"Why did she need money so badly?" asked Kennedy. + +"How should I know?" demanded Schloss. + +Here was a deepening mystery, not to be elucidated by continuing +this line of inquiry with Schloss, it seemed. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PASTE REPLICA + + +Carefully Craig was going over the office. Outside of the safe, +there had apparently been nothing of value. The rest of the office +was not even wired, and it seemed to have been Schloss' idea that +the few thousands of burglary insurance amply protected him +against such loss. As for the safe, its own strength and the +careful wiring might well have been considered quite sufficient +under any hitherto to-be-foreseen circumstances. + +A glass door, around the bend of a partition, opened from the +hallway into the office and had apparently been designed with the +object of making visible the safe so that anyone passing might see +whether an intruder was tampering with it. + +Kennedy had examined the door, perhaps in the expectation of +finding finger prints there, and was passing on to other things, +when a change in his position caused his eye to catch a large oval +smudge on the glass, which was visible when the light struck it at +the right angle. Quickly he dusted it over with the powder, and +brought out the detail more clearly. As I examined it, while Craig +made preparations to cut out the glass to preserve it, it seemed +to contain a number of minute points and several more or less +broken parallel lines. The edges gradually trailed off into an +indistinct faintness. + +Business, naturally, was at a standstill, and as we were working +near the door, we could see that the news of Schloss' strange +robbery had leaked out and was spreading rapidly. Scores of +acquaintances in the trade stopped at the door to inquire about +the rumor. + +To each, it seemed that Morris Muller, the working jeweler +employed by Schloss, repeated the same story. + +"Oh," he said, "it is a big loss--yes--but big as it is, it will +not break Mr. Schloss. And," he would add with the tradesman's +idea of humor, "I guess he has enough to play a game of poker-- +eh?" + +"Poker?" asked Kennedy smiling. "Is he much of a player?" + +"Yes. Nearly every night with his friends he plays." + +Kennedy made a mental note of it. Evidently Schloss trusted Muller +implicitly. He seemed like a partner, rather than an employee, +even though he had not been entrusted with the secret combination. + +Outside, we ran into city detective Lieutenant Winters, the +officer who was stationed at the Maiden Lane post, guarding that +famous section of the Dead Line established by the immortal Byrnes +at Fulton Street, below which no crook was supposed to dare even +to be seen. Winters had been detailed on the case. + +"You have seen the safe in there?" asked Kennedy, as he was +leaving to carry on his investigation elsewhere. + +Winters seemed to be quite as skeptical as Schloss had intimated +the public would be. "Yes," he replied, "there's been an epidemic +of robbery with the dull times--people who want to collect their +burglary insurance, I guess." + +"But," objected Kennedy, "Schloss carried so little." + +"Well, there was the Hale Protection. How about that?" + +Craig looked up quickly, unruffled by the patronizing air of the +professional toward the amateur detective. + +"What is your theory?" he asked. "Do you think he robbed himself?" + +Winters shrugged his shoulders. "I've been interested in Schloss +for some time," he said enigmatically. "He has had some pretty +swell customers. I'll keep you wised up, if anything happens," he +added in a burst of graciousness, walking off. + +On the way to the subway, we paused again to see McLear. + +"Well," he asked, "what do you think of it, now?" + +"All most extraordinary," ruminated Craig. "And the queerest +feature of all is that the chief loss consists of a diamond +necklace that belonged once to Mrs. Antoinette Moulton." + +"Mrs. Lynn Moulton?" repeated McLear. + +"The same," assured Kennedy. + +McLear appeared somewhat puzzled. "Her husband is one of our old +subscribers," he pursued. "He is a lawyer on Wall Street and quite +a gem collector. Last night his safe was tampered with, but this +morning he reports no loss. Not half an hour ago he had us on the +wire congratulating us on scaring off the burglars, if there had +been any." + +"What is your opinion," I asked. "Is there a gang operating?" + +"My belief is," he answered, reminiscently of his days on the +detective force, "that none of the loot will be recovered until +they start to 'fence' it. That would be my lay--to look for the +fence. Why, think of all the big robberies that have been pulled +off lately. Remember," he went on, "the spoils of a burglary +consist generally of precious stones. They are not currency. They +must be turned into currency--or what's the use of robbery? + +"But merely to offer them for sale at an ordinary jeweler's would +be suspicious. Even pawnbrokers are on the watch. You see what I +am driving at? I think there is a man or a group of men whose +business it is to pay cash for stolen property and who have ways +of returning gems into the regular trade channels. In all these +robberies we get a glimpse of as dark and mysterious a criminal as +has ever been recorded. He may be--anybody. About his legitimacy, +I believe, no question has ever been raised. And, I tell you, his +arrest is going to create a greater sensation than even the +remarkable series of robberies that he has planned or made +possible. The question is, to my mind, who is this fence?" + +McLear's telephone rang and he handed the instrument to Craig. + +"Yes, this is Professor Kennedy," answered Craig. "Oh, too bad +you've had to try all over to get me. I've been going from one +place to another gathering clues and have made good progress, +considering I've hardly started. Why--what's the matter? Really?" + +An interval followed, during which McLear left to answer a +personal call on another wire. + +As Kennedy hung up the receiver, his face wore a peculiar look. +"It was Mrs. Moulton," he blurted out. "She thinks that her +husband has found out that the necklace is paste." + +"How?" I asked. + +"The paste replica is gone from her wall safe in the Deluxe." + +I turned, startled at the information. Even Kennedy himself was +perplexed at the sudden succession of events. I had nothing to +say. + +Evidently, however, his rule was when in doubt play a trump, for, +twenty minutes later found us in the office of Lynn Moulton, the +famous corporation lawyer, in Wall Street. + +Moulton was a handsome man of past fifty with a youthful face +against his iron gray hair and mustache, well dressed, genial, a +man who seemed keenly in love with the good things of life. + +"It is rumored," began Kennedy, "that an attempt was made on your +safe here at the office last night." + +"Yes," he admitted, taking off his glasses and polishing them +carefully. "I suppose there is no need of concealment, especially +as I hear that a somewhat similar attempt was made on the safe of +my friend Herman Schloss in Maiden Lane." + +"You lost nothing?" + +Moulton put his glasses on and looked Kennedy in the face frankly. + +"Nothing, fortunately," he said, then went on slowly. "You see, in +my later years, I have been something of a collector of precious +stones myself. I don't wear them, but I have always taken the +keenest pleasure in owning them and when I was married it gave me +a great deal more pleasure to have them set in rings, pendants, +tiaras, necklaces, and other forms for my wife." + +He had risen, with the air of a busy man who had given the subject +all the consideration he could afford and whose work proceeded +almost by schedule. "This morning I found my safe tampered with, +but, as I said, fortunately something must have scared off the +burglars." + +He bowed us out politely. What was the explanation, I wondered. It +seemed, on the face of things, that Antoinette Moulton feared her +husband. Did he know something else already, and did she know he +knew? To all appearances he took it very calmly, if he did know. +Perhaps that was what she feared, his very calmness. + +"I must see Mrs. Moulton again," remarked Kennedy, as we left. + +The Moultons lived, we found, in one of the largest suites of a +new apartment hotel, the Deluxe, and in spite of the fact that our +arrival had been announced some minutes before we saw Mrs. +Moulton, it was evident that she had been crying hysterically over +the loss of the paste jewels and what it implied. + +"I missed it this morning, after my return from seeing you," she +replied in answer to Craig's inquiry, then added, wide-eyed with +alarm, "What shall I do? He must have opened the wall safe and +found the replica. I don't dare ask him point-blank." + +"Are you sure he did it?" asked Kennedy, more, I felt, for its +moral effect on her than through any doubt in his own mind. + +"Not sure. But then the wall safe shows no marks, and the replica +is gone." + +"Might I see your jewel case?" he asked. + +"Surely. I'll get it. The wall safe is in Lynn's room. I shall +probably have to fuss a long time with the combination." + +In fact she could not have been very familiar with it for it took +several minutes before she returned. Meanwhile, Kennedy, who had +been drumming absently on the arms of his chair, suddenly rose and +walked quietly over to a scrap basket that stood beside an +escritoire. It had evidently just been emptied, for the rooms must +have been cleaned several hours before. He bent down over it and +picked up two scraps of paper adhering to the wicker work. The +rest had evidently been thrown away. + +I bent over to read them. One was: + + --rest Nettie-- + --dying to see-- + +The other read: + + --cherche to-d + --love and ma + --rman. + +What did it mean? Hastily, I could fill in "Dearest Nettie," and +"I am dying to see you." Kennedy added, "The Recherche to-day," +that being the name of a new apartment uptown, as well as "love +and many kisses." But "--rman"--what did that mean? Could it be +Herman--Herman Schloss? + +She was returning and we resumed our seats quickly. + +Kennedy took the jewel case from her and examined it carefully. +There was not a mark on it. + +"Mrs. Moulton," he said slowly, rising and handing it back to her, +"have you told me all?" + +"Why--yes," she answered. + +Kennedy shook his head gravely. + +"I'm afraid not. You must tell me everything." + +"No--no," she cried vehemently, "there is nothing more." + +We left and outside the Deluxe he paused, looked about, caught +sight of a taxicab and hailed it. + +"Where?" asked the driver. + +"Across the street," he said, "and wait. Put the window in back of +you down so I can talk. I'll tell you where to go presently. Now, +Walter, sit back as far as you can. This may seem like an +underhand thing to do, but we've got to get what that woman won't +tell us or give up the case." + +Perhaps half an hour we waited, still puzzling over the scraps of +paper. Suddenly I felt a nudge from Kennedy. Antoinette Moulton +was standing in the doorway across the street. Evidently she +preferred not to ride in her own car, for a moment later she +entered a taxicab. + +"Follow that black cab," said Kennedy to our driver. + +Sure enough, it stopped in front of the Recherche Apartments and +Mrs. Moulton stepped out and almost ran in. + +We waited a moment, then Kennedy followed. The elevator that had +taken her up had just returned to the ground floor. + +"The same floor again," remarked Kennedy, jauntily stepping in and +nodding familiarly to the elevator boy. + +Then he paused suddenly, looked at his watch, fixed his gaze +thoughtfully on me an instant, and exclaimed. "By George--no. I +can't go up yet. I clean forgot that engagement at the hotel. One +moment, son. Let us out. We'll be back again." + +Considerably mystified, I followed him to the sidewalk. + +"You're entitled to an explanation," he laughed catching my +bewildered look as he opened the cab door. "I didn't want to go up +now while she is there, but I wanted to get on good terms with +that boy. We'll wait until she comes down, then go up." + +"Where?" I asked. + +"That's what I am going through all this elaborate preparation to +find out. I have no more idea than you have." + +It could not have been more than twenty minutes later when Mrs. +Moulton emerged rather hurriedly, and drove away. + +While we had been waiting I had observed a man on the other side +of the street who seemed unduly interested in the Recherche, too, +for he had walked up and down the block no less than six times. +Kennedy saw him, and as he made no effort to follow Mrs. Moulton, +Kennedy did not do so either. In fact a little quick glance which +she had given at our cab had raised a fear that she might have +discovered that she was being followed. + +Kennedy and I paid off our cabman and sauntered into the Recherche +in the most debonair manner we could assume. + +"Now, son, we'll go up," he said to the boy who, remembering us, +and now not at all clear in his mind that he might not have seen +us before that, whisked us to the tenth floor. + +"Let me see," said Kennedy, "it's number one hundred and--er---" + +"Three," prompted the boy. + +He pressed the buzzer and a neatly dressed colored maid responded. + +"I had an appointment here with Mrs. Moulton this morning," +remarked Kennedy. + +"She has just gone," replied the maid, off her guard. + +"And was to meet Mr. Schloss here in half an hour," he added +quickly. + +It was the maid's turn to look surprised. + +"I didn't think he was to be here," she said. "He's had some--" + +"Trouble at the office," supplied Kennedy. "That's what it was +about. Perhaps he hasn't been able to get away yet. But I had the +appointment. Ah, I see a telephone in the hall. May I?" + +He had stepped politely in, and by dint of cleverly keeping his +finger on the hook in the half light, he carried on a one-sided +conversation with himself long enough to get a good chance to look +about. + +There was an air of quiet and refinement about the apartment in +the Recherche. It was darkened to give the little glowing electric +bulbs in their silken shades a full chance to simulate right. The +deep velvety carpets were noiseless to the foot, and the +draperies, the pictures, the bronzes, all bespoke taste. + +But the chief objects of interest to Craig were the little square +green baize-covered tables on one of which lay neatly stacked a +pile of gilt-edged cards and a mahogany box full of ivory chips of +red, white and blue. + +It was none of the old-time gambling places, like Danfield's, with +its steel door which Craig had once cut through with an +oxyacetylene blowpipe in order to rescue a young spendthrift from +himself. + +Kennedy seemed perfectly well satisfied merely with a cursory view +of the place, as he hung up the receiver and thanked the maid +politely for allowing him to use it. + +"This is up-to-date gambling in cleaned-up New York," he remarked +as we waited for the elevator to return for us. "And the worst of +it all is that it gets the women as well as the men. Once they are +caught in the net, they are the most powerful lure to men that the +gamblers have yet devised." + +We rode down in silence, and as we went down the steps to the +street, I noticed the man whom we had seen watching the place, +lurking down at the lower corner. Kennedy quickened his pace and +came up behind him. + +"Why, Winters!" exclaimed Craig. "You here?" + +"I might say the same to you," grinned the detective not +displeased evidently that our trail had crossed his. "I suppose +you are looking for Schloss, too. He's up in the Recherche a great +deal, playing poker. I understand he owns an interest in the game +up there." + +Kennedy nodded, but said nothing. + +"I just saw one of the cappers for the place go out before you +went in." + +"Capper?" repeated Kennedy surprised. "Antoinette Moulton a +steerer for a gambling joint? What can a rich society woman have +to do with a place like that or a man like Schloss?" + +Winters smiled sardonically. "Society ladies to-day often get into +scrapes of which their husbands know nothing," he remarked. "You +didn't know before that Antoinette Moulton, like many of her +friends in the smart set, was a gambler--and loser--did you?" + +Craig shook his head. He had more of human than scientific +interest in a case of a woman of her caliber gone wrong. + +"But you must have read of the famous Moulton diamonds?" + +"Yes," said Craig, blankly, as if it were all news to him. + +"Schloss has them--or at least had them. The jewels she wore at +the opera this winter were paste, I understand." + +"Does Moulton play?" he asked. + +"I think so--but not here, naturally. In a way, I suppose, it is +his fault. They all do it. The example of one drives on another." + +Instantly there flashed over my mind a host of possibilities. +Perhaps, after all, Winters had been right. Schloss had taken this +way to make sure of the jewels so that she could not redeem them. +Suddenly another explanation crowded that out. Had Mrs. Moulton +robbed the safe herself, or hired some one else to do it for her, +and had that person gone back on her? + +Then a horrid possibility occurred to me. Whatever Antoinette +Moulton may have been and done, some one must have her in his +power. What a situation for the woman! My sympathy went out to her +in her supreme struggle. Even if it had been a real robbery, +Schloss might easily recover from it. But for her every event +spelled ruin and seemed only to be bringing that ruin closer. + +We left Winters, still watching on the trail of Schloss, and went +on uptown to the laboratory. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE BURGLAR'S MICROPHONE + + +That night I was sitting, brooding over the case, while Craig was +studying a photograph which he made of the smudge on the glass +door down at Schloss'. He paused in his scrutiny of the print to +answer the telephone. + +"Something has happened to Schloss," he exclaimed seizing his hat +and coat. "Winters has been watching him. He didn't go to the +Recherche. Winters wants me to meet him at a place several blocks +below it Come on. He wouldn't say over the wire what it was. +Hurry." + +We met Winters in less than ten minutes at the address he had +given, a bachelor apartment in the neighborhood of the Recherche. + +"Schloss kept rooms here," explained Winters, hurrying us quickly +upstairs. "I wanted you to see before anyone else." + +As we entered the large and luxuriously furnished living room of +the jeweler's suite, a gruesome sight greeted us. + +There lay Schloss on the floor, face down, in a horribly contorted +position. In one hand, clenched under him partly, the torn sleeve +of a woman's dress was grasped convulsively. The room bore +unmistakable traces of a violent struggle, but except for the +hideous object on the floor was vacant. + +Kennedy bent down over him. Schloss was dead. In a corner, by the +door, stood a pile of grips, stacked up, packed, and undisturbed. + +Winters who had been studying the room while we got our bearings +picked up a queer-looking revolver from the floor. As he held it +up I could see that along the top of the barrel was a long +cylinder with a ratchet or catch at the butt end. He turned it +over and over carefully. + +"By George," he muttered, "it has been fired off." + +Kennedy glanced more minutely at the body. There was not a mark on +it. I stared about vacantly at the place where Winters had picked +the thing up. + +"Look," I cried, my eye catching a little hole in the baseboard of +the woodwork near it. + +"It must have fallen and exploded on the floor," remarked Kennedy. +"Let me see it, Winters." + +Craig held it at arm's length and pulled the catch. Instead of an +explosion, there came a cone of light from the top of the gun. As +Kennedy moved it over the wall, I saw in the center of the circle +of light a dark spot. + +"A new invention," Craig explained. "All you need to do is to move +it so that little dark spot falls directly on an object. Pull the trigger-- +the bullet strikes the dark spot. Even a nervous and unskilled +marksman becomes a good shot in the dark. He can even shoot +from behind the protection of something--and hit accurately." + +It was too much for me. I could only stand and watch Kennedy as he +deftly bent over Schloss again and placed a piece of chemically +prepared paper flat on the forehead of the dead man. + +When he withdrew it, I could see that it bore marks of the lines +on his head. Without a word, Kennedy drew from his pocket a print +of the photograph of the smudge on Schloss' door. + +"It is possible," he said, half to himself, "to identify a person +by means of the arrangement of the sweat glands or pores. +Poroscopy, Dr. Edmond Locard, director of the Police Laboratory at +Lyons, calls it. The shape, arrangement, number per square +centimeter, all vary in different individuals. Besides, here we +have added the lines of the forehead." + +He was studying the two impressions intensely. When he looked up +from his examination, his face wore a peculiar expression. + +"This is not the head which was placed so close to the glass of +the door of Schloss' office, peering through, on the night of the +robbery, in order to see before picking the lock whether the +office was empty and everything ready for the hasty attack on the +safe." + +"That disposes of my theory that Schloss robbed himself," remarked +Winters reluctantly. "But the struggle here, the sleeve of the +dress, the pistol--could he have been shot?" + +"No, I think not," considered Kennedy. "It looks to me more like a +case of apoplexy." + +"What shall we do?" asked Winters. "Far from clearing anything up, +this complicates it." + +"Where's Muller?" asked Kennedy. "Does he know? Perhaps he can +shed some light on it." + +The clang of an ambulance bell outside told that the aid summoned +by Winters had arrived. + +We left the body in charge of the surgeon and of a policeman who +arrived about the same time, and followed Winters. + +Muller lived in a cheap boarding house in a shabbily respectable +street downtown, and without announcing ourselves we climbed the +stairs to his room. He looked up surprised but not disconcerted as +we entered. + +"What's the matter?" he asked. + +"Muller," shot out Winters, "we have just found Mr. Schloss dead!" + +"D-dead!" he stammered. + +The man seemed speechless with horror. + +"Yes, and with his grips packed as if to run away." + +Muller looked dazedly from one of us to the other, but shut up +like a clam. + +"I think you had better come along with us as a material witness," +burst out Winters roughly. + +Kennedy said nothing, leaving that sort of third degree work to +the detective. But he was not idle, as Winters tried to extract +more than the monosyllables, "I don't know," in answer to every +inquiry of Muller about his employer's life and business. + +A low exclamation from Craig attracted my attention from Winters. +In a corner he had discovered a small box and had opened it. +Inside was a dry battery and a most peculiar instrument, something +like a little flat telephone transmitter yet attached by wires to +earpieces that fitted over the head after the manner of those of a +wireless detector. + +"What's this?" asked Kennedy, dangling it before Muller. + +He looked at it phlegmatically. "A deaf instrument I have been +working on," replied the jeweler. "My hearing is getting poor." + +Kennedy looked hastily from the instrument to the man. + +"I think I'll take it along with us," he said quietly. + +Winters, true to his instincts, had been searching Muller in the +meantime. Besides the various assortment that a man carries in his +pockets usually, including pens, pencils, notebooks, a watch, a +handkerchief, a bunch of keys, one of which was large enough to +open a castle, there was a bunch of blank and unissued pawn-tickets +bearing the name, "Stein's One Per Cent. a Month Loans," and an +address on the Bowery. + +Was Muller the "fence" we were seeking, or only a tool for the +"fence" higher up? Who was this Stein? + +What it all meant I could only guess. It was a far cry from the +wealth of Diamond Lane to a dingy Bowery pawnshop, even though +pawnbroking at one per cent. a month--and more, on the side--pays. +I knew, too, that diamonds are hoarded on the East Side as nowhere +else in the world, outside of India. It was no uncommon thing, I +had heard, for a pawnbroker whose shop seemed dirty and greasy to +the casual visitor to have stored away in his vault gems running +into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. + +"Mrs. Moulton must know of this," remarked Kennedy. "Winters, you +and Jameson bring Muller along. I am going up to the Deluxe." + +I must say that I was surprised at finding Mrs. Moulton there. +Outside the suite Winters and I waited with the unresisting +Muller, while Kennedy entered. But through the door which he left +ajar I could hear what passed. + +"Mrs. Moulton," he began, "something terrible has happened--" + +He broke off, and I gathered that her pale face and agitated +manner told him that she knew already. + +"Where is Mr. Moulton?" he went on, changing his question. + +"Mr. Moulton is at his office," she answered tremulously. "He +telephoned while I was out that he had to work to-night. Oh, Mr. +Kennedy--he knows--he knows. I know it. He has avoided me ever +since I missed the replica from-" + +"Sh!" cautioned Craig. He had risen and gone to the door. + +"Winters," he whispered, "I want you to go down to Lynn Moulton's +office. Meanwhile Jameson can take care of Muller. I am going over +to that place of Stein's presently. Bring Moulton up there. You +will wait here, Walter, for the present," he nodded. + +He returned to the room where I could hear her crying softly. + +"Now, Mrs. Moulton," he said gently, "I'm afraid I must trouble +you to go with me. I am going over to a pawnbroker's on the +Bowery." + +"The Bowery?" she repeated, with a genuinely surprised shudder. +"Oh, no, Mr. Kennedy. Don't ask me to go anywhere to-night. I am-- +I am in no condition to go anywhere--to do anything--I--" + +"But you must," said Kennedy in a low voice. + +"I can't. Oh--have mercy on me. I am terribly upset. You--" + +"It is your duty to go, Mrs. Moulton," he repeated. + +"I don't understand." she murmured. "A pawnbroker's?" + +"Come," urged Kennedy, not harshly but firmly, then, as she held +back, added, playing a trump card, "We must work quickly. In his +hands we found the fragments of a torn dress. When the police--" + +She uttered a shriek. A glance had told her, if she had deceived +herself before, that Kennedy knew her secret. + +Antoinette Moulton was standing before him, talking rapidly. + +"Some one has told Lynn. I know it. There is nothing now that I +can conceal. If you had come half an hour later you would not have +found me. He had written to Mr. Schloss, threatening him that if +he did not leave the country he would shoot him at sight. Mr. +Schloss showed me the letter. + +"It had come to this. I must either elope with Schloss, or lose +his aid. The thought of either was unendurable. I hated him--yet +was dependent on him. + +"To-night I met him, in his empty apartment, alone. I knew that he +had what was left of his money with him, that everything was +packed up. I went prepared. I would not elope. My plan was no less +than to make him pay the balance on the necklace that he had lost- +-or to murder him. + +"I carried a new pistol in my muff, one which Lynn had just +bought. I don't know how I did it. I was desperate. + +"He told me he loved me, that Lynn did not, never had--that Lynn +had married me only to show off his wealth and diamonds, to give +him a social! position--that I was merely a--a piece of property-- +a dummy. + +"He tried to kiss me. It was revolting. I struggled away from him. + +"And in the struggle, the revolver fell from my muff and exploded +on the floor. + +"At once he was aflame with suspicion. + +"'So--it's murder you want!' he shouted. 'Well, murder it shall +be!' + +"I saw death in his eye as he seized my arm. I was defenseless +now. The old passion came over him. Before he killed--he--would +have his way with me. + +"I screamed. With a wild effort I twisted away from him. + +"He raised his hand to strike me, I saw his eyes, glassy. Then he +sank back--fell to the floor--dead of apoplexy--dead of his +furious emotions. + +"I fled. + +"And now you have found me." + +She had turned, hastily, to leave the room. Kennedy blocked the +door. + +"Mrs. Moulton," he said firmly, "listen to me. What was the first +question you asked me? 'Can I trust you?' And I told you you +could. This is no time for--for suicide." He shot the word out +bluntly. "All may not be lost. I have sent for your husband. +Muller is outside." + +"Muller?" she cried. "He made the replica." + +"Very well. I am going to clear this thing up. Come. You MUST." + +It was all confused to me, the dash in a car to the little +pawnbroker's on the first floor of a five-story tenement, the +quick entry into the place by one of Muller's keys. + +Over the safe in back was a framework like that which had covered +Schloss' safe. Kennedy tore it away, regardless of the alarm which +it must have sounded. In a moment he was down before it on his +knees. + +"This is how Schloss' safe was opened so quickly," he muttered, +working feverishly. "Here is some of their own medicine." + +He had placed the peculiar telephone-like transmitter close to the +combination lock and was turning the combination rapidly. + +Suddenly he rose, gave the bolts a twist, and the ponderous doors +swung open. + +"What is it?" I asked eagerly. + +"A burglar's microphone," he answered, hastily looking over the +contents of the safe. "The microphone is now used by burglars for +picking combination locks. When you turn the lock, a slight sound +is made when the proper number comes opposite the working point. +It can be heard sometimes by a sensitive ear, although it is +imperceptible to most persons. But by using a microphone it is an +easy matter to hear the sounds which allow of opening the lock." + +He had taken a yellow chamois bag out of the safe and opened it. + +Inside sparkled the famous Moulton diamonds. He held them up--in +all their wicked brilliancy. No one spoke. + +Then he took another yellow bag, more dirty and worn than the +first. As he opened it, Mrs. Moulton could restrain herself no +longer. + +"The replica!" she cried. "The replica!" + +Without a word, Craig handed the real necklace to her. Then he +slipped the paste jewels into the newer of the bags and restored +both it and the empty one to their places, banged shut the door of +the safe, and replaced the wooden screen. + +"Quick!" he said to her, "you have still a minute to get away. +Hurry--anywhere--away--only away!" + +The look of gratitude that came over her face, as she understood +the full meaning of it was such as I had never seen before. + +"Quick!" he repeated. + +It was too late. + +"For God's sake, Kennedy," shouted a voice at the street door, +"what are you doing here?" + +It was McLear himself. He had come with the Hale patrol, on his +mettle now to take care of the epidemic of robberies. + +Before Craig could reply a cab drew up with a rush at the curb and +two men, half fighting, half cursing, catapulted themselves into +the shop. + +They were Winters and Moulton. + +Without a word, taking advantage of the first shock of surprise, +Kennedy had clapped a piece of chemical paper on the foreheads of +Mrs. Moulton, then of Moulton, and on Muller's. Oblivious to the +rest of us, he studied the impressions in the full light of the +counter. + +Moulton was facing his wife with a scornful curl of the lip. + +"I've been told of the paste replica--and I wrote Schloss that I'd +shoot him down like the dog he is, you--you traitress," he hissed. + +She drew herself up scornfully. + +"And I have been told why you married me--to show off your wicked +jewels and help you in your--" + +"You lie!" he cried fiercely. "Muller--some one--open this safe-- +whosever it is. If what I have been told is true, there is in it +one new bag containing the necklace. It was stolen from Schloss to +whom you sold my jewels. The other old bag, stolen from me, +contains the paste replica you had made to deceive me." + +It was all so confused that I do not know how it happened. I think +it was Muller who opened the safe. + +"There is the new yellow bag," cried Moulton, "from Schloss' own +safe. Open it." + +McLear had taken it. He did so. There sparkled not the real gems, +but the replica. + +"The devil!" Moulton exclaimed, breaking from Winters and seizing +the old bag. + +He tore it open and--it was empty. + +"One moment," interrupted Kennedy, looking up quietly from the +counter. "Seal that safe again, McLear. In it are the Schloss +jewels and the products of half a dozen other robberies which the +dupe Muller--or Stein, as you please--pulled off, some as a blind +to conceal the real criminal. You may have shown him how to leave +no finger prints, but you yourself have left what is just as good- +-your own forehead print. McLear--you were right. There's your +criminal--Lynn Moulton, professional fence, the brains of the +thing." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE GERM LETTER + + +Lynn Moulton made no fight and Kennedy did not pursue the case, +for, with the rescue of Antoinette Moulton, his interest ceased. + +Blackmail takes various forms, and the Moulton affair was only one +phase of it. It was not long before we had to meet a much stranger +attempt. + +"Read the letter, Professor Kennedy. Then I will tell you the +sequel." + +Mrs. Hunter Blake lay back in the cushions of her invalid chair in +the sun parlor of the great Blake mansion on Riverside Drive, +facing the Hudson with its continuous reel of maritime life framed +against the green-hilled background of the Jersey shore. + +Her nurse, Miss Dora Sears, gently smoothed out the pillows and +adjusted them so that the invalid could more easily watch us. Mrs. +Blake, wealthy, known as a philanthropist, was not an old woman, +but had been for years a great sufferer from rheumatism. + +I watched Miss Sears eagerly. Full-bosomed, fine of face and +figure, she was something more than a nurse; she was a companion. +She had bright, sparkling black eyes and an expression about her +well-cut mouth which made one want to laugh with her. It seemed to +say that the world was a huge joke and she invited you to enjoy +the joke with her. + +Kennedy took the letter which Miss Sears proffered him, and as he +did so I could not help noticing her full, plump forearm on which +gleamed a handsome plain gold bracelet. He spread the letter out +on a dainty wicker table in such a way that we both could see it. + +We had been summoned over the telephone to the Blake mansion by +Reginald Blake, Mrs. Blake's eldest son. Reginald had been very +reticent over the reason, but had seemed very anxious and +insistent that Kennedy should come immediately. + +Craig read quickly and I followed him, fascinated by the letter +from its very opening paragraph. + +"Dear Madam," it began. "Having received my diploma as doctor of +medicine and bacteriology at Heidelberg in 1909, I came to the +United States to study a most serious disease which is prevalent +in several of the western mountain states." + +So far, I reflected, it looked like an ordinary appeal for aid. +The next words, however, were queer: "I have four hundred persons +of wealth on my list. Your name was--" + +Kennedy turned the page. On the next leaf of the letter sheet was +pasted a strip of gelatine. The first page had adhered slightly to +the gelatine. + +"Chosen by fate," went on the sentence ominously. + +"By opening this letter," I read, "you have liberated millions of +the virulent bacteria of this disease. Without a doubt you are +infected by this time, for no human body is impervious to them, +and up to the present only one in one hundred has fully recovered +after going through all its stages." + +I gasped. The gelatine had evidently been arranged so that when +the two sheets were pulled apart, the germs would be thrown into +the air about the person opening the letter. It was a very +ingenious device. + +The letter continued, "I am happy to say, however, that I have a +prophylactic which will destroy any number of these germs if used +up to the ninth day. It is necessary only that you should place +five thousand dollars in an envelope and leave it for me to be +called for at the desk of the Prince Henry Hotel. When the +messenger delivers the money to me, the prophylactic will be sent +immediately. + +"First of all, take a match and burn this letter to avoid +spreading the disease. Then change your clothes and burn the old +ones. Enclosed you will find in a germ-proof envelope an exact +copy of this letter. The room should then be thoroughly fumigated. +Do not come into close contact with anyone near and dear to you +until you have used the prophylactic. Tell no one. In case you do, +the prophylactic will not be sent under any circumstances. Very +truly yours, DR. HANS HOPF." + +"Blackmail!" exclaimed Kennedy, looking intently again at the +gelatine on the second page, as I involuntarily backed away and +held my breath. + +"Yes, I know," responded Mrs. Blake anxiously, "but is it true?" + +There could be no doubt from the tone of her voice that she more +than half believed that it was true. + +"I cannot say--yet," replied Craig, still cautiously scanning the +apparently innocent piece of gelatine on the original letter which +Mrs. Blake had not destroyed. "I shall have to keep it and examine +it." + +On the gelatine I could see a dark mass which evidently was +supposed to contain the germs. + +"I opened the letter here in this room," she went on. "At first I +thought nothing of it. But this morning, when Buster, my prize +Pekinese, who had been with me, sitting on my lap at the time, and +closer to the letter even than I was, when Buster was taken +suddenly ill, I--well, I began to worry." + +She finished with a little nervous laugh, as people will to hide +their real feelings. + +"I should like to see the dog," remarked Kennedy simply. + +"Miss Sears," asked her mistress, "will you get Buster, please?" + +The nurse left the room. No longer was there the laughing look on +her face. This was serious business. + +A few minutes later she reappeared, carrying gingerly a small dog +basket. Mrs. Blake lifted the lid. Inside was a beautiful little +"Peke," and it was easy to see that Buster was indeed ill. + +"Who is your doctor?" asked Craig, considering. + +"Dr. Rae Wilson, a very well-known woman physician." + +Kennedy nodded recognition of the name. "What does she say?" he +asked, observing the dog narrowly. + +"We haven't told anyone, outside, of it yet," replied Mrs. Blake. +"In fact until Buster fell sick, I thought it was a hoax." + +"You haven't told anyone?" + +"Only Reginald and my daughter Betty. Betty is frantic--not with +fear for herself, but with fear for me. No one can reassure her. +In fact it was as much for her sake as anyone's that I sent for +you. Reginald has tried to trace the thing down himself, but has +not succeeded." + +She paused. The door opened and Reginald Blake entered. He was a +young fellow, self confident and no doubt very efficient at the +new dances, though scarcely fitted to rub elbows with a cold world +which, outside of his own immediate circle, knew not the name of +Blake. He stood for a moment regarding us through the smoke of his +cigarette. + +"Tell me just what you have done," asked Kennedy of him as his +mother introduced him, although he had done the talking for her +over the telephone. + +"Done?" he drawled. "Why, as soon as mother told me of the letter, +I left an envelope up at the Prince Henry, as it directed." + +"With the money?" put in Craig quickly. + +"Oh, no--just as a decoy." + +"Yes. What happened?" + +"Well, I waited around a long time. It was far along in the day +when a woman appeared at the desk. I had instructed the clerk to +be on the watch for anyone who asked for mail addressed to a Dr. +Hopf. The clerk slammed the register. That was the signal. I moved +up closer." + +"What did she look like?" asked Kennedy keenly. + +"I couldn't see her face. But she was beautifully dressed, with a +long light flowing linen duster, a veil that hid her features and +on her hands and arms a long pair of motoring doeskin gloves. By +George, she was a winner--in general looks, though. Well, +something about the clerk, I suppose, must have aroused her +suspicions. For, a moment later, she was gone in the crowd. +Evidently she had thought of the danger and had picked out a time +when the lobby would be full and everybody busy. But she did not +leave by the front entrance through which she entered. I concluded +that she must have left by one of the side street carriage doors." + +"And she got away?" + +"Yes. I found that she asked one of the boys at the door to crank +up a car standing at the curb. She slid into the seat, and was off +in a minute." + +Kennedy said nothing. But I knew that he was making a mighty +effort to restrain comment on the bungling amateur detective work +of the son of our client. + +Reginald saw the look on his face. "Still," he hastened, "I got +the number of the car. It was 200859 New York." + +"You have looked it up?" queried Kennedy quickly. + +"I didn't need to do it. A few minutes later Dr. Rae Wilson +herself came out--storming like mad. Her car had been stolen at +the very door of the hotel by this woman with the innocent aid of +the hotel employees." + +Kennedy was evidently keenly interested. The mention of the stolen +car had apparently at once suggested an idea to him. + +"Mrs. Blake," he said, as he rose to go, "I shall take this letter +with me. Will you see that Buster is sent up to my laboratory +immediately?" + +She nodded. It was evident that Buster was a great pet with her +and that it was with difficulty she kept from smoothing his silky +coat. + +"You--you won't hurt Buster?" she pleaded. + +"No. Trust me. More than that, if there is any possible way of +untangling this mystery, I shall do it." + +Mrs. Blake looked rather than spoke her thanks. As we went +downstairs, accompanied by Miss Sears, we could see in the music +room a very interesting couple, chatting earnestly over the piano. + +Betty Blake, a slip of a girl in her first season, was dividing +her attention between her visitor and the door by which we were +passing. + +She rose as she heard us, leaving the young man standing alone at +the piano. He was of an age perhaps a year or two older than +Reginald Blake. It was evident that, whatever Miss Betty might +think, he had eyes for no one else but the pretty debutante. He +even seemed to be regarding Kennedy sullenly, as if he were a +possible rival. + +"You--you don't think it is serious?" whispered Betty in an +undertone, scarcely waiting to be introduced. She had evidently +known of our visit, but had been unable to get away to be present +upstairs. + +"Really, Miss Blake," reassured Kennedy, "I can't say. All I can +do is to repeat what I have already said to your mother. Keep up a +good heart and trust me to work it out." + +"Thank you," she murmured, and then, impulsively extending her +small hand to Craig, she added, "Mr. Kennedy, if there is anything +I can do to help you, I beg that you will call on me." + +"I shall not forget," he answered, relinquishing the hand +reluctantly. Then, as she thanked him, and turned again to her +guest, he added in a low tone to me, "A remarkable girl, Walter, a +girl that can be depended on." + +We followed Miss Sears down the hall. + +"Who was that young man in the music room?" asked Kennedy, when we +were out of earshot. + +"Duncan Baldwin," she answered. "A friend and bosom companion of +Reginald." + +"He seems to think more of Betty than of her brother," Craig +remarked dryly. + +Miss Sears smiled. "Sometimes, we think they are secretly +engaged," she returned. We had almost reached the door. "By the +way," she asked anxiously, "do you think there are any precautions +that I should take for Mrs. Blake--and the rest?" + +"Hardly," answered Kennedy, after a moment's consideration, "as +long as you have taken none in particular already. Still, I +suppose it will do no harm to be as antiseptic as possible." + +"I shall try," she promised, her face showing that she considered +the affair now in a much more serious light than she had before +our visit. + +"And keep me informed of anything that turns up," added Kennedy +handing her a card with the telephone number of the laboratory. + +As we left the Blake mansion, Kennedy remarked, "We must trace +that car somehow--at least we must get someone working on that." + +Half an hour later we were in a towering office building on +Liberty Street, the home of various kinds of insurance. Kennedy +stopped before a door which bore the name, "Douglas Garwood: +Insurance Adjuster." + +Briefly, Craig told the story of the stolen car, omitting the +account of the dastardly method taken to blackmail Mrs. Blake. As +he proceeded a light seemed to break on the face of Garwood, a +heavyset man, whose very gaze was inquisitorial. + +"Yes, the theft has been reported to us already by Dr. Wilson +herself," he interrupted. "The car was insured in a company I +represent." + +"I had hoped so," remarked Kennedy, "Do you know the woman?" he +added, watching the insurance adjuster who had been listening +intently as he told about the fair motor car thief. + +"Know her?" repeated Garwood emphatically. "Why, man, we have been +so close to that woman that I feel almost intimate with her. The +descriptions are those of a lady, well-dressed, and with a voice +and manner that would carry her through any of the fashionable +hotels, perhaps into society itself." + +"One of a gang of blackmailers, then," I hazarded. + +Garwood shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps," he acquiesced. "It is +automobile thieving that interests me, though. Why," he went on, +rising excitedly, "the gangs of these thieves are getting away +with half a million dollars' worth of high-priced cars every year. +The police seem to be powerless to stop it. We appeal to them, but +with no result. So, now we have taken things into our own hands." + +"What are you doing in this case?" asked Kennedy. + +"What the insurance companies have to do to recover stolen +automobiles," Garwood replied. "For, with all deference to your +friend, Deputy O'Connor, it is the insurance companies rather than +the police who get stolen cars back." + +He had pulled out a postal card from a pigeon hole in his desk, +selecting it from several apparently similar. We read: + +$250.00 REWARD + +We will pay $100.00 for car, $150.00 additional for information +which will convict the thief. When last seen, driven by a woman, +name not known, who is described as dark-haired, well-dressed, +slight, apparently thirty years old. The car is a Dixon, 1912, +seven-passenger, touring, No. 193,222, license No. 200,859, New +York; dark red body, mohair top, brass lamps, has no wind shield; +rear axle brake band device has extra nut on turnbuckle not +painted. Car last seen near Prince Henry Hotel, New York City, +Friday, the 10th. + +Communicate by telegraph or telephone, after notifying nearest +police department, with Douglas Garwood, New York City. "The +secret of it is," explained Garwood, as we finished reading, "that +there are innumerable people who keep their eyes open and like to +earn money easily. Thus we have several hundreds of amateur and +enthusiastic detectives watching all over the city and country for +any car that looks suspicious." + +Kennedy thanked him for his courtesy, and we rose to go. "I shall +be glad to keep you informed of anything that turns up," he +promised. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY + + +In the laboratory, Kennedy quietly set to work. He began by +tearing from the germ letter the piece of gelatine and first +examining it with a pocket lens. Then, with a sterile platinum +wire, he picked out several minute sections of the black spot on +the gelatine and placed them in agar, blood serum, and other media +on which they would be likely to grow. + +"I shall have to wait until to-morrow to examine them properly," +he remarked. "There are colonies of something there, all right, +but I must have them more fully developed." + +A hurried telephone call late in the day from Miss Sears told us +that Mrs. Blake herself had begun to complain, and that Dr. Wilson +had been summoned but had been unable to give an opinion on the +nature of the malady. + +Kennedy quickly decided on making a visit to the doctor, who lived +not far downtown from the laboratory. + +Dr. Rae Wilson proved to be a nervous little woman, inclined, I +felt, to be dictatorial. I thought that secretly she felt a little +piqued at our having been taken into the Blakes' confidence before +herself, and Kennedy made every effort to smooth that aspect over +tactfully. + +"Have you any idea what it can be?" he asked finally. + +She shook her head noncommittally. "I have taken blood smears," she +answered, "but so far haven't been able to discover anything. I +shall have to have her under observation for a day or two before I +can answer that. Still, as Mrs. Blake is so ill, I have ordered +another trained nurse to relieve Miss Sears of the added work, a +very efficient nurse, a Miss Rogers." + +Kennedy had risen to go. "You have had no word about your car?" he +asked casually. + +"None yet. I'm not worrying. It was insured." + +"Who is this arch criminal, Dr. Hopf?" I mused as we retraced our +steps to the laboratory. "Is Mrs. Blake stricken now by the same +trouble that seems to have affected Buster?" + +"Only my examination will show," he said. "I shall let nothing +interfere with that now. It must be the starting point for any +work that I may do in the case." + +We arrived at Kennedy's workshop of scientific crime and he +immediately plunged into work. Looking up he caught sight of me +standing helplessly idle. + +"Walter," he remarked thoughtfully adjusting a microscope, +"suppose you run down and see Garwood. Perhaps he has something to +report. And by the way, while you are out, make inquiries about +the Blakes, young Baldwin, Miss Sears and this Dr. Wilson. I have +heard of her before, at least by name. Perhaps you may find +something interesting." + +Glad to have a chance to seem to be doing something whether it +amounted to anything or not, I dropped in to see Garwood. So far +he had nothing to report except the usual number of false alarms. +From his office I went up to the Star where fortunately I found +one of the reporters who wrote society notes. + +The Blakes, I found, as we already knew, to be well known and +moving in the highest social circles. As far as known they had no +particular enemies, other than those common to all people of great +wealth. Dr. Wilson had a large practice, built up in recent years, +and was one of the best known society physicians for women. Miss +Sears was unknown, as far as I could determine. As for Duncan +Baldwin, I found that he had become acquainted with Reginald Blake +in college, that he came of no particular family and seemed to +have no great means, although he was very popular in the best +circles. In fact he had had, thanks to his friend, a rather +meteoric rise in society, though it was reported that he was +somewhat involved in debt as a result. + +I returned to the laboratory to find that Craig had taken out of a +cabinet a peculiar looking arrangement. It consisted of thirty-two +tubes, each about sixteen inches long, with S-turns, like a minute +radiator. It was altogether not over a cubic foot in size, and +enclosed in a glass cylinder. There were in it, perhaps, fifty +feet of tubes, a perfectly-closed tubular system which I noticed +Kennedy was keeping absolutely sterile in a germicidal solution of +some kind. + +Inside the tubes and surrounding them was a saline solution which +was kept at a uniform temperature by a special heating apparatus. + +Kennedy had placed the apparatus on the laboratory table and then +gently took the little dog from his basket and laid him beside it. +A few minutes later the poor little suffering Buster was +mercifully under the influence of an anesthetic. + +Quickly Craig worked. First he attached the end of one of the +tubes by means of a little cannula to the carotid artery of the +dog. Then the other was attached to the jugular vein. + +As he released the clamp which held the artery, the little dog's +feverishly beating heart spurted the arterial blood from the +carotid into the tubes holding the normal salt solution and that +pressure, in turn, pumped the salt solution which filled the tubes +into the jugular vein, thus replacing the arterial blood that had +poured into the tubes from the other end and maintaining the +normal hydrostatic conditions in the body circulation. The dog was +being kept alive, although perhaps a third of his blood was out of +his body. + +"You see," he said at length, after we had watched the process a +few minutes, "what I have here is in reality an artificial kidney. +It is a system that has been devised by several doctors at Johns +Hopkins. + +"If there is any toxin in the blood of this dog, the kidneys are +naturally endeavoring to eliminate it. Perhaps it is being +eliminated too slowly. In that case this arrangement which I have +here will aid them. We call it vividiffusion and it depends for +its action on the physical principle of osmosis, the passage of +substances of a certain kind through a porous membrane, such as +these tubes of celloidin. + +"Thus any substance, any poison that is dialyzable is diffused +into the surrounding salt solution and the blood is passed back +into the body, with no air in it, no infection, and without +alteration. Clotting is prevented by the injection of a harmless +substance derived from leeches, known as hirudin. I prevent the +loss of anything in the blood which I want retained by placing in +the salt solution around the tubes an amount of that substance +equal to that held in solution by the blood. Of course that does +not apply to the colloidal substances in the blood which would not +pass by osmosis under any circumstances. But by such adjustments I +can remove and study any desired substance in the blood, provided +it is capable of diffusion. In fact this little apparatus has been +found in practice to compare favorably with the kidneys themselves +in removing even a lethal dose of poison." + +I watched in amazement. He was actually cleaning the blood of the +dog and putting it back again, purified, into the little body. Far +from being cruel, as perhaps it might seem, it was in reality +probably the only method by which the animal could be saved, and +at the same time it was giving us a clue as to some elusive, +subtle substance used in the case. + +"Indeed," Kennedy went on reflectively, "this process can be kept +up for several hours without injury to the dog, though I do not +think that will be necessary to relieve the unwonted strain that +has been put upon his natural organs. Finally, at the close of the +operation, serious loss of blood is overcome by driving back the +greater part of it into his body, closing up the artery and vein, +and taking good care of the animal so that he will make a quick +recovery." + +For a long time I watched the fascinating process of seeing the +life blood coursing through the porous tubes in the salt solution, +while Kennedy gave his undivided attention to the success of the +delicate experiment. It was late when I left him, still at work +over Buster, and went up to our apartment to turn in, convinced +that nothing more would happen that night. + +The next morning, with characteristic energy, Craig was at work +early, examining the cultures he had made from the black spots on +the gelatine. + +By the look of perplexity on his face, I knew that he had +discovered something that instead of clearing the mystery up, +further deepened it. + +"What do you find?" I asked anxiously. + +"Walter," he exclaimed, laying aside the last of the slides which +he had been staining and looking at intently through the +microscope, "that stuff on the gelatine is entirely harmless. +There was nothing in it except common mold." + +For the moment I did not comprehend. "Mold?" I repeated. + +"Yes," he replied, "just common, ordinary mold such as grows on +the top of a jar of fruit or preserves when it is exposed to the +air." + +I stifled an exclamation of incredulity. It seemed impossible that +the deadly germ note should be harmless, in view of the events +that had followed its receipt. + +Just then the laboratory door was flung open and Reginald Blake, +pale and excited, entered. He had every mark of having been up all +night. + +"What's the matter?" asked Craig. + +"It's about my mother," he blurted out. "She seems to be getting +worse all the time. Miss Sears is alarmed, and Betty is almost ill +herself with worry. Dr. Wilson doesn't seem to know what it is +that affects her, and neither does the new nurse. Can you DO +something?" + +There was a tone of appeal in his voice that was not like the +self-sufficient Reginald of the day before. + +"Does there seem to be any immediate danger?" asked Kennedy. + +"Perhaps not--I can't say," he urged. "But she is gradually +getting worse instead of better." + +Kennedy thought a moment. "Has anything else happened?" he asked +slowly. + +"N-no. That's enough, isn't it?" + +"Indeed it is," replied Craig, trying to be reassuring. Then, +recollecting Betty, he added, "Reginald, go back and tell your +sister for me that she must positively make the greatest effort of +her life to control herself. Tell her that her mother needs her-- +needs her well and brave. I shall be up at the house immediately. +Do the best you can. I depend on you." + +Kennedy's words seemed to have a bracing effect on Reginald and a +few moments later he left, much calmer. + +"I hope I have given him something to do which will keep him from +mussing things up again," remarked Kennedy, mindful of Reginald's +former excursion into detective work. + +Meanwhile Craig plunged furiously into his study of the substances +he had isolated from the saline solution in which he had "washed" +the blood of the little Pekinese. + +"There's no use doing anything in the dark," he explained. "Until +we know what it is we are fighting we can't very well fight." + +For the moment I was overwhelmed by the impending tragedy that +seemed to be hanging over Mrs. Blake. The more I thought of it, +the more inexplicable became the discovery of the mold. + +"That is all very well about the mold on the gelatine strip in the +letter," I insisted at length. "But, Craig, there must be +something wrong somewhere. Mere molds could not have made Buster +so ill, and now the infection, or whatever it is, has spread to +Mrs. Blake herself. What have you found out by studying Buster?" + +He looked up from his close scrutiny of the material in one of the +test tubes which contained something he had recovered from the +saline solution of the diffusion apparatus. + +I could read on his face that whatever it was, it was serious. +"What is it?" I repeated almost breathlessly. + +"I suppose I might coin a word to describe it," he answered +slowly, measuring his phrases. "Perhaps it might be called +hyper-amino-acidemia." + +I puckered my eyes at the mouth-filling term Kennedy smiled. "It +would mean," he explained, "a great quantity of the amino-acids, +non-coagulable, nitrogenous compounds in the blood. You know the +indols, the phenols, and the amins are produced both by +putrefactive bacteria and by the process of metabolism, the +burning up of the tissues in the process of utilizing the energy +that means life. But under normal circumstances, the amins are not +present in the blood in any such quantities as I have discovered +by this new method of diffusion." + +He paused a moment, as if in deference to my inability to follow +him on such an abstruse topic, then resumed, "As far as I am able +to determine, this poison or toxin is an amin similar to that +secreted by certain cephalopods found in the neighborhood of +Naples. It is an aromatic amin. Smell it." + +I bent over and inhaled the peculiar odor. + +"Those creatures," he continued, "catch their prey by this highly +active poison secreted by the so-called salivary glands. Even a +little bit will kill a crab easily." + +I was following him now with intense interest, thinking of the +astuteness of a mind capable of thinking of such a poison. + +"Indeed, it is surprising," he resumed thoughtfully, "how many an +innocent substance can be changed by bacteria into a virulent +poison. In fact our poisons and our drugs are in many instances +the close relations of harmless compounds that represent the +intermediate steps in the daily process of metabolism." + +"Then," I put in, "the toxin was produced by germs, after all?" + +"I did not say that," he corrected. "It might have been. But I +find no germs in the blood of Buster. Nor did Dr. Wilson find any +in the blood smears which she took from Mrs. Blake." + +He seemed to have thrown the whole thing back again into the limbo +of the unexplainable, and I felt nonplussed. + +"The writer of that letter," he went on, waving the piece of +sterile platinum wire with which he had been transferring drops of +liquid in his search for germs, "was a much more skillful +bacteriologist than I thought, evidently. No, the trouble does not +seem to be from germs breathed in, or from germs at all--it is +from some kind of germ-free toxin that has been injected or +otherwise introduced." + +Vaguely now I began to appreciate the terrible significance of +what he had discovered. + +"But the letter?" I persisted mechanically. + +"The writer of that was quite as shrewd a psychologist as +bacteriologist," pursued Craig impressively. "He calculated the +moral effect of the letter, then of Buster's illness, and finally +of reaching Mrs. Blake herself." + +"You think Dr. Rae Wilson knows nothing of it yet?" I queried. + +Kennedy appeared to consider his answer carefully. Then he said +slowly: "Almost any doctor with a microscope and the faintest +trace of a scientific education could recognize disease germs +either naturally or feloniously implanted. But when it comes to +the detection of concentrated, filtered, germ-free toxins, almost +any scientist might be baffled. Walter," he concluded, "this is +not mere blackmail, although perhaps the visit of that woman to +the Prince Henry--a desperate thing in itself, although she did +get away by her quick thinking--perhaps that shows that these +people are ready to stop at nothing. No, it goes deeper than +blackmail." + +I stood aghast at the discovery of this new method of scientific +murder. The astute criminal, whoever he might be, had planned to +leave not even the slender clue that might be afforded by disease +germs. He was operating, not with disease itself, but with +something showing the ultimate effects, perhaps, of disease with +none of the preliminary symptoms, baffling even to the best of +physicians. + +I scarcely knew what to say. Before I realized it, however, Craig +was at last ready for the promised visit to Mrs. Blake. We went +together, carrying Buster, in his basket, not recovered, to be +sure, but a very different little animal from the dying creature +that had been sent to us at the laboratory. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE POISON BRACELET + + +We reached the Blake mansion and were promptly admitted. Miss +Betty, bearing up bravely under Reginald's reassurances, greeted +us before we were fairly inside the door, though she and her +brother were not able to conceal the fact that their mother was no +better. Miss Sears was out, for an airing, and the new nurse, Miss +Rogers, was in charge of the patient. + +"How do you feel, this morning?" inquired Kennedy as we entered +the sun-parlor, where Mrs. Blake had first received us. + +A single glance was enough to satisfy me of the seriousness of her +condition. She seemed to be in almost a stupor from which she +roused herself only with difficulty. It was as if some +overpowering toxin were gradually undermining her already weakened +constitution. + +She nodded recognition, but nothing further. + +Kennedy had set the dog basket down near her wheel-chair and she +caught sight of it. + +"Buster?" she murmured, raising her eyes. "Is--he--all right?" + +For answer, Craig simply raised the lid of the basket. Buster +already seemed to have recognized the voice of his mistress, and, +with an almost human instinct, to realize that though he himself +was still weak and ill, she needed encouragement. + +As Mrs. Blake stretched out her slender hand, drawn with pain, to +his silky head, he gave a little yelp of delight and his little +red tongue eagerly caressed her hand. + +It was as though the two understood each other. Although Mrs. +Blake, as yet, had no more idea what had happened to her pet, she +seemed to feel by some subtle means of thought transference that +the intelligent little animal was conveying to her a message of +hope. The caress, the sharp, joyous yelp, and the happy wagging of +the bushy tail seemed to brighten her up, at least for the moment, +almost as if she had received a new impetus. + +"Buster!" she exclaimed, overjoyed to get her pet back again in so +much improved condition. + +"I wouldn't exert myself too much, Mrs. Blake," cautioned Kennedy. + +"Were--were there any germs in the letter?" she asked, as Reginald +and Betty stood on the other side of the chair, much encouraged, +apparently, at this show of throwing off the lethargy that had +seized her. + +"Yes, but about as harmless as those would be on a piece of +cheese," Kennedy hastened. "But I--I feel so weak, so played out-- +and my head--" + +Her voice trailed off, a too evident reminder that her improvement +had been only momentary and prompted by the excitement of our +arrival. + +Betty bent down solicitously and made her more comfortable as only +one woman can make another. Kennedy, meanwhile, had been talking +to Miss Rogers, and I could see that he was secretly taking her +measure. + +"Has Dr. Wilson been here this morning?" I heard him ask. + +"Not yet," she replied. "But we expect her soon." + +"Professor Kennedy?" announced a servant. + +"Yes?" answered Craig. + +"There is someone on the telephone who wants to speak to you. He +said he had called the laboratory first and that they told him to +call you here." + +Kennedy hurried after the servant, while Betty and Reginald joined +me, waiting, for we seemed to feel that something was about to +happen. + +"One of the unofficial detectives has unearthed a clue," he +whispered to me a few moments later when he returned. "It was +Garwood." Then to the others he added, "A car, repainted, and with +the number changed, but otherwise answering the description of Dr. +Wilson's has been traced to the West Side. It is somewhere in the +neighborhood of a saloon and garage where drivers of taxicabs hang +out. Reginald, I wish you would come along with us." + +To Betty's unspoken question Craig hastened to add, "I don't think +there is any immediate danger. If there is any change--let me +know. I shall call up soon. And meanwhile," he lowered his voice +to impress the instruction on her, "don't leave your mother for a +moment--not for a moment," he emphasized. + +Reginald was ready and together we three set off to meet Garwood +at a subway station near the point where the car had been +reported. We had scarcely closed the front door, when we ran into +Duncan Baldwin, coming down the street, evidently bent on +inquiring how Mrs. Blake and Betty were. + +"Much better," reassured Kennedy. "Come on, Baldwin. We can't have +too many on whom we can rely on an expedition like this." + +"Like what?" he asked, evidently not comprehending. + +"There's a clue, they think, to that car of Dr. Wilson's," hastily +explained Reginald, linking his arm into that of his friend and +falling in behind us, as Craig hurried ahead. + +It did not take long to reach the subway, and as we waited for the +train, Craig remarked: "This is a pretty good example of how the +automobile is becoming one of the most dangerous of criminal +weapons. All one has to do nowadays, apparently, after committing +a crime, is to jump into a waiting car and breeze away, safe." + +We met Garwood and under his guidance picked our way westward from +the better known streets in the heart of the city, to a section +that was anything but prepossessing. + +The place which Garwood sought was a typical Raines Law hotel on a +corner, with a saloon on the first floor, and apparently the +requisite number of rooms above to give it a legal license. + +We had separated a little so that we would not attract undue +attention. Kennedy and I entered the swinging doors boldly, while +the others continued across to the other corner to wait with +Garwood and take in the situation. It was a strange expedition and +Reginald was fidgeting while Duncan seemed nervous. + +Among the group of chauffeurs lounging at the bar and in the back +room anyone who had ever had any dealings with the gangs of New +York might have recognized the faces of men whose pictures were in +the rogues' gallery and who were members of those various +aristocratic organizations of the underworld. + +Kennedy glanced about at the motley crowd. "This is a place where +you need only to be introduced properly," he whispered to me, "to +have any kind of crime committed for you." + +As we stood there, observing, without appearing to do so, through +an open window on the side street I could tell from the sounds +that there was a garage in the rear of the hotel. + +We were startled to hear a sudden uproar from the street. + +Garwood, impatient at our delay, had walked down past the garage +to reconnoiter. A car was being backed out hurriedly, and as it +turned and swung around the corner, his trained eye had recognized +it. + +Instantly he had reasoned that it was an attempt to make a +getaway, and had raised an alarm. + +Those nearest the door piled out, keen for any excitement. We, +too, dashed out on the street. There we saw passing an automobile, +swaying and lurching at the terrific speed with which its driver, +urged it up the avenue. As he flashed by he looked like an Italian +to me, perhaps a gunman. + +Garwood had impressed a passing trolley car into service and was +pursuing the automobile in it, as it swayed on its tracks as +crazily as the motor did on the roadway, running with all the +power the motorman could apply. + +A mounted policeman galloped past us, blazing away at the tires. +The avenue was stirred, as seldom even in its strenuous life, with +reports of shots, honking of horns, the clang of trolley bells and +the shouts of men. + +The pursuers were losing when there came a rattle and roar from +the rear wheels which told that the tires were punctured and the +heavy car was riding on its rims. A huge brewery wagon crossing a +side street paused to see the fun, effectually blocking the road. + +The car jolted to a stop. The chauffeur leaped out and a moment +later dived down into a cellar. In that congested district, +pursuit was useless. + +"Only an accomplice," commented Kennedy. "Perhaps we can get him +some other way if we can catch the man--or woman--higher up." + +Down the street now we could see Garwood surrounded by a curious +crowd but in possession of the car. I looked about for Duncan and +Reginald. They had apparently been swallowed up in the crowds of +idlers which seemed to be pouring out of nowhere, collecting to +gape at the excitement, after the manner of a New York crowd. + +As I ran my eye over them, I caught sight of Reginald near the +corner where we had left him in an incipient fight with someone +who had a fancied grievance. A moment later we had rescued him. + +"Where's Duncan?" he panted. "Did anything happen to him? Garwood +told us to stay here--but we got separated." + +Policemen had appeared on the heels of the crowd and now, except +for a knot following Garwood, things seemed to be calming down. + +The excitement over, and the people thinning out, Kennedy still +could not find any trace of Duncan. Finally he glanced in again +through the swinging doors. There was Duncan, evidently quite +upset by what had occurred, fortifying himself at the bar. + +Suddenly from above came a heavy thud, as if someone had fallen on +the floor above us, followed by a suppressed shuffling of feet and +a cry of help. + +Kennedy sprang toward a side door which led out into the hall to +the hotel room above. It was locked. Before any of the others he +ran out on the street and into the hall that way, taking the +stairs two at a time, past a little cubby-hole of an "office" and +down the upper hall to a door from which came the cry. + +It was a peculiar room into which we burst, half bedroom, half +workshop, or rather laboratory, for on a deal table by a window +stood a rack of test-tubes, several beakers, and other +paraphernalia. + +A chambermaid was shrieking over a woman who was lying lethargic +on the floor. + +I looked more closely. + +It was Dora Sears. + +For the moment I could not imagine what had happened. Had the +events of the past few days worked on her mind and driven her into +temporary insanity? Or had the blackmailing gang of automobile +thieves, failing in extorting money by their original plan, seized +her? + +Kennedy bent over and tried to lift her up. As he did so, the gold +bracelet, unclasped, clattered to the floor. + +He picked it up and for a moment looked at it. It was hollow, but +in that part of it where it unclasped could be seen a minute +hypodermic needle and traces of a liquid. + +"A poison bracelet," he muttered to himself, "one in which enough +of a virulent poison could be hidden so that in an emergency death +could cheat the law." + +"But this Dr. Hopf," exclaimed Reginald, who stood behind us +looking from the insensible girl to the bracelet and slowly +comprehending what it all meant, "she alone knows where and who he +is!" + +We looked at Kennedy. What was to be done? Was the criminal higher +up to escape because one of his tools had been cornered and had +taken the easiest way to get out? + +Kennedy had taken down the receiver of the wall telephone in the +room. A moment later he was calling insistently for his +laboratory. One of the students in another part of the building +answered. Quickly he described the apparatus for vividiffusion and +how to handle it without rupturing any of the delicate tubes. + +"The large one," he ordered, "with one hundred and ninety-two +tubes. And hurry." + +Before the student appeared, came an ambulance which some one in +the excitement had summoned. Kennedy quickly commandeered both the +young doctor and what surgical material he had with him. + +Briefly he explained what he proposed to do and before the student +arrived with the apparatus, they had placed the nurse in such a +position that they were ready for the operation. + +The next room which was unoccupied had been thrown open to us and +there I waited with Reginald and Duncan, endeavoring to explain to +them the mysteries of the new process of washing the blood. + +The minutes lengthened into hours, as the blood of the poisoned +girl coursed through its artificial channel, literally being +washed of the toxin from the poisoned bracelet. + +Would it succeed? It had saved the life of Buster. But would it +bring back the unfortunate before us, long enough even for her to +yield her secret and enable us to catch the real criminal. What if +she died? + +As Kennedy worked, the young men with me became more and more +fascinated, watching him. The vividiffusion apparatus was now in +full operation. + +In the intervals when he left the apparatus in charge of the young +ambulance surgeon Kennedy was looking over the room. In a trunk +which was open he found several bundles of papers. As he ran his +eye over them quickly, he selected some and stuffed them into his +pocket, then went back to watch the working of the apparatus. + +Reginald, who had been growing more and more nervous, at last +asked if he might call up Betty to find out how his mother was. + +He came back from the telephone, his face wrinkled. + +"Poor mother," he remarked anxiously, "do you think she will pull +through, Professor? Betty says that Dr. Wilson has given her no +idea yet about the nature of the trouble." + +Kennedy thought a moment. "Of course," he said, "your mother has +had no such relative amount of the poison as Buster has had. I +think that undoubtedly she will recover by purely natural means. I +hope so. But if not, here is the apparatus," and he patted the +vividiffusion tubes in their glass case, "that will save her, +too." + +As well as I could I explained to Reginald the nature of the toxin +that Kennedy had discovered. Duncan listened, putting in a +question now and then. But it was evident that his thoughts were +on something else, and now and then Reginald, breaking into his +old humor, rallied him about thinking of Betty. + +A low exclamation from both Kennedy and the surgeon attracted us. + +Dora Sears had moved. + +The operation of the apparatus was stopped, the artery and vein +had been joined up, and she was slowly coming out from under the +effects of the anesthetic. + +As we gathered about her, at a little distance, we heard her cry +in her delirium, "I--I would have--done--anything--for him." + +We strained our ears. Was she talking of the blackmailer, Dr. +Hopf? + +"Who?" asked Craig, bending over close to her ear. + +"I--I would--have done anything," she repeated as if someone had +contradicted her. She went on, dreamily, ramblingly, "He--is--is-- +my brother. I--" + +She stopped through weakness. + +"Where is Dr. Hopf?" asked Kennedy, trying to recall her fleeting +attention. + +"Dr. Hopf? Dr. Hopf?" she repeated, then smiling to herself as +people will when they are leaving the borderline of anesthesia, +she repeated the name, "Hopf?" + +"Yes," persisted Kennedy. + +"There is no Dr. Hopf," she added. "Tell me--did--did they--" + +"No Dr. Hopf?" Kennedy insisted. + +She had lapsed again into half insensibility. + +He rose and faced us, speaking rapidly. + +"New York seems to have a mysterious and uncanny attraction for +odds and ends of humanity, among them the great army of +adventuresses. In fact there often seems to be something decidedly +adventurous about the nursing profession. This is a girl of +unusual education in medicine. Evidently she has traveled--her +letters show it. Many of them show that she has been in Italy. +Perhaps it was there that she heard of the drug that has been used +in this case. It was she who injected the germ-free toxin, first +into the dog, then into Mrs. Blake, she who wrote the blackmail +letter which was to have explained the death." + +He paused. Evidently she had heard dimly, was straining every +effort to hear. In her effort she caught sight of our faces. + +Suddenly, as if she had seen an apparition, she raised herself +with almost superhuman strength. + +"Duncan!" she cried. "Duncan! Why--didn't you--get away--while +there was time--after you warned me?" + +Kennedy had wheeled about and was facing us. He was holding in his +hand some of the letters he had taken from the trunk. Among others +was a folded piece of parchment that looked like a diploma. He +unfolded it and we bent over to read. + +It was a diploma from the Central Western College of Nursing. As I +read the name written in, it was with a shock. It was not Dora +Sears, but Dora Baldwin. + +"A very clever plot," he ground out, taking a step nearer us. +"With the aid of your sister and a disreputable gang of chauffeurs +you planned to hasten the death of Mrs. Blake, to hasten the +inheritance of the Blake fortune by your future wife. I think your +creditors will have less chance of collecting now than ever, +Duncan Baldwin." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE DEVIL WORSHIPERS + + +Tragic though the end of the young nurse, Dora Baldwin, had been, +the scheme of her brother, in which she had become fatally +involved, was by no means as diabolical as that in the case that +confronted us a short time after that. + +I recall this case particularly not only because it was so weird +but also because of the unique manner in which it began. + +"I am damned--Professor Kennedy--damned!" + +The words rang out as the cry of a lost soul. A terrible look of +inexpressible anguish and fear was written on the face of Craig's +visitor, as she uttered them and sank back, trembling, in the easy +chair, mentally and physically convulsed. + +As nearly as I had been able to follow, Mrs. Veda Blair's story +had dealt mostly with a Professor and Madame Rapport and something +she called the "Red Lodge" of the "Temple of the Occult." + +She was not exactly a young woman, although she was a very +attractive one. She was of an age that is, perhaps, even more +interesting than youth. + +Veda Blair, I knew, had been, before her recent marriage to Seward +Blair, a Treacy, of an old, though somewhat unfortunate, family. +Both the Blairs and the Treacys had been intimate and old Seward +Blair, when he died about a year before, had left his fortune to +his son on the condition that he marry Veda Treacy. + +"Sometimes," faltered Mrs. Blair, "it is as though I had two +souls. One of them is dispossessed of its body and the use of its +organs and is frantic at the sight of the other that has crept +in." + +She ended her rambling story, sobbing the terrible words, "Oh--I +have committed the unpardonable sin--I am anathema--I am damned-- +damned!" + +She said nothing of what terrible thing she had done and Kennedy, +for the present, did not try to lead the conversation. But of all +the stories that I have heard poured forth in the confessional of +the detective's office, hers, I think, was the wildest. + +Was she insane? At least I felt that she was sincere. Still, I +wondered what sort of hallucination Craig had to deal with, as +Veda Blair repeated the incoherent tale of her spiritual vagaries. + +Almost, I had begun to fancy that this was a case for a doctor, +not for a detective, when suddenly she asked a most peculiar +question. + +"Can people affect you for good or evil, merely by thinking about +you?" she queried. Then a shudder passed over her. "They may be +thinking about me now!" she murmured in terror. + +Her fear was so real and her physical distress so evident that +Kennedy, who had been listening silently for the most part, rose +and hastened to reassure her. + +"Not unless you make your own fears affect yourself and so play +into their hands," he said earnestly. + +Veda looked at him a moment, then shook her head mournfully. "I +have seen Dr. Vaughn," she said slowly. + +Dr. Gilbert Vaughn, I recollected, was a well-known alienist in +the city. + +"He tried to tell me the same thing," she resumed doubtfully. +"But--oh--I know what I know! I have felt the death thought--and +he knows it!" + +"What do you mean?" inquired Kennedy, leaning forward keenly. + +"The death thought," she repeated, "a malicious psychic attack. +Some one is driving me to death by it. I thought I could fight it +off. I went away to escape it. Now I have come back--and I have +not escaped. There is always that disturbing influence--always-- +directed against me. I know it will--kill me!" + +I listened, startled. The death thought! What did it mean? What +terrible power was it? Was it hypnotism? What was this fearsome, +cruel belief, this modern witchcraft that could unnerve a rich and +educated woman? Surely, after all, I felt that this was not a case +for a doctor alone; it called for a detective. + +"You see," she went on, heroically trying to control herself, "I +have always been interested in the mysterious, the strange, the +occult. In fact my father and my husband's father met through +their common interest. So, you see, I come naturally by it. + +"Not long ago I heard of Professor and Madame Rapport and their +new Temple of the Occult. I went to it, and later Seward became +interested, too. We have been taken into a sort of inner circle," +she continued fearfully, as though there were some evil power in +the very words themselves, "the Red Lodge." + +"You have told Dr. Vaughn?" shot out Kennedy suddenly, his eyes +fixed on her face to see what it would betray. + +Veda leaned forward, as if to tell a secret, then whispered in a +low voice, "He knows. Like us--he--he is a--Devil Worshiper!" + +"What?" exclaimed Kennedy in wide-eyed astonishment. + +"A Devil Worshiper," she repeated. "You haven't heard of the Red +Lodge?" + +Kennedy nodded negatively. "Could you get us--initiated?" he +hazarded. + +"P--perhaps," she hesitated, in a half-frightened tone. "I--I'll +try to get you in to-night." + +She had risen, half dazed, as if her own temerity overwhelmed her. + +"You--poor girl," blurted out Kennedy, his sympathies getting the +upper hand for the moment as he took the hand she extended mutely. +"Trust me. I will do all in my power, all in the power of modern +science to help you fight off this--influence." + +There must have been something magnetic, hypnotic in his eye. + +"I will stop here for you," she murmured, as she almost fled from +the room. + +Personally, I cannot say that I liked the idea of spying. It is +not usually clean and wholesome. But I realized that occasionally +it was necessary. + +"We are in for it now," remarked Kennedy half humorously, half +seriously, "to see the Devil in the twentieth century." + +"And I," I added, "I am, I suppose, to be the reporter to Satan." + +We said nothing more about it, but I thought much about it, and +the more I thought, the more incomprehensible the thing seemed. I +had heard of Devil Worship, but had always associated it with far- +off Indian and other heathen lands--in fact never among Caucasians +in modern times, except possibly in Paris. Was there such a cult +here in my own city? I felt skeptical. + +That night, however, promptly at the appointed time, a cab called +for us, and in it was Veda Blair, nervous but determined. + +"Seward has gone ahead," she explained. "I told him that a friend +had introduced you, that you had studied the occult abroad. I +trust you to carry it out." + +Kennedy reassured her. + +The curtains were drawn and we could see nothing outside, though +we must have been driven several miles, far out into the suburbs. + +At last the cab stopped. As we left it we could see nothing of the +building, for the cab had entered a closed courtyard. + +"Who enters the Red Lodge?" challenged a sepulchral voice at the +porte-cochere. "Give the password!" + +"The Serpent's Tooth," Veda answered. + +"Who are these?" asked the voice. + +"Neophytes," she replied, and a whispered parley followed. + +"Then enter!" announced the voice at length. + +It was a large room into which we were first ushered, to be +inducted into the rites of Satan. + +There seemed to be both men and women, perhaps half a dozen +votaries. Seward Blair was already present. As I met him, I did +not like the look in his eye; it was too stary. Dr. Vaughn was +there, too, talking in a low tone to Madame Rapport. He shot a +quick look at us. His were not eyes but gimlets that tried to bore +into your very soul. Chatting with Seward Blair was a Mrs. +Langhorne, a very beautiful woman. To-night she seemed to be +unnaturally excited. + +All seemed to be on most intimate terms, and, as we waited a few +minutes, I could not help recalling a sentence from Huysmans: "The +worship of the Devil is no more insane than the worship of God. +The worshipers of Satan are mystics--mystics of an unclean sort, +it is true, but mystics none the less." + +I did not agree with it, and did not repeat it, of course, but a +moment later I overheard Dr. Vaughn saying to Kennedy: "Hoffman +brought the Devil into modern life. Poe forgoes the aid of demons +and works patiently and precisely by the scientific method. But +the result is the same." + +"Yes," agreed Kennedy for the sake of appearances, "in a sense, I +suppose, we are all devil worshipers in modern society--always +have been. It is fear that rules and we fear the bad--not the +good." + +As we waited, I felt, more and more, the sense of the mysterious, +the secret, the unknown which have always exercised a powerful +attraction on the human mind. Even the aeroplane and the +submarine, the X-ray and wireless have not banished the occult. + +In it, I felt, there was fascination for the frivolous and deep +appeal to the intellectual and spiritual. The Temple of the Occult +had evidently been designed to appeal to both types. I wondered +how, like Lucifer, it had fallen. The prime requisite, I could +guess already, however, was--money. Was it in its worship of the +root of all evil that it had fallen? + +We passed soon into another room, hung entirely in red, with +weird, cabalistic signs all about, on the walls. It was uncanny, +creepy. + +A huge reproduction in plaster of one of the most sardonic of +Notre Dame's gargoyles seemed to preside over everything--a +terrible figure in such an atmosphere. + +As we entered, we were struck by the blinding glare of the light, +in contrast with the darkened room in which we had passed our +brief novitiate, if it might be called such. + +Suddenly the lights were extinguished. + +The great gargoyle shone with an infernal light of its own! + +"Phosphorescent paint," whispered Kennedy to me. + +Still, it did not detract from the weird effect to know what +caused it. + +There was a startling noise in the general hush. + +"Sata!" cried one of the devotees. + +A door opened and there appeared the veritable priest of the +Devil--pale of face, nose sharp, mouth bitter, eyes glassy. + +"That is Rapport," Vaughn whispered to me. + +The worshipers crowded forward. + +Without a word, he raised his long, lean forefinger and began to +single them out impressively. As he did so, each spoke, as if +imploring aid. + +He came to Mrs. Langhorne. + +"I have tried the charm," she cried earnestly, "and the one whom I +love still hates me, while the one I hate loves me!" + +"Concentrate!" replied the priest, "concentrate! Think always 'I +love him. He must love me. I want him to love me. I love him. He +must love me.' Over and over again you must think it. Then the +other side, 'I hate him. He must leave me. I want him to leave me. +I hate him--hate him.'" + +Around the circle he went. + +At last his lean finger was outstretched at Veda. It seemed as if +some imp of the perverse were compelling her unwilling tongue to +unlock its secrets. + +"Sometimes," she cried in a low, tremulous voice, "something seems +to seize me, as if by the hand and urge me onward. I cannot flee +from it." + +"Defend yourself!" answered the priest subtly. "When you know that +some one is trying to kill you mentally, defend yourself! Work +against it by every means in your power. Discourage! Intimidate! +Destroy!" + +I marveled at these cryptic utterances. They shadowed a modern +Black Art, of which I had had no conception--a recrudescence in +other language of the age-old dualism of good and evil. It was a +sort of mental malpractice. + +"Over and over again," he went on speaking to her, "the same +thought is to be repeated against an enemy. 'You know you are +going to die! You know you are going to die!' Do it an hour, two +hours, at a time. Others can help you, all thinking in unison the +same thought." + +What was this, I asked myself breathlessly--a new transcendental +toxicology? + +Slowly, a strange mephitic vapor seemed to exhale into the room-- +or was it my heightened imagination? + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE PSYCHIC CURSE + + +There came a sudden noise--nameless--striking terror, low, +rattling. I stood rooted to the spot. What was it that held me? +Was it an atavistic joy in the horrible or was it merely a +blasphemous curiosity? + +I scarcely dared to look. + +At last I raised my eyes. There was a live snake, upraised, his +fangs striking out viciously--a rattler! + +I would have drawn back and fled, but Craig caught my arm. + +"Caged," he whispered monosyllabically. + +I shuddered. This, at least, was no drawing-room diablerie. + +"It is Ophis," intoned Rapport, "the Serpent--the one active form +in Nature that cannot be ungraceful!" + +The appearance of the basilisk seemed to heighten the tension. + +At last it broke loose and then followed the most terrible +blasphemies. The disciples, now all frenzied, surrounded closer +the priest, the gargoyle and the serpent. + +They worshiped with howls and obscenities. Mad laughter mingled +with pale fear and wild scorn in turns were written on the hectic +faces about me. + +They had risen--it became a dance, a reel. + +The votaries seemed to spin about on their axes, as it were, +uttering a low, moaning chant as they whirled. It was a mania, the +spirit of demonism. Something unseen seemed to urge them on. + +Disgusted and stifled at the surcharged atmosphere, I would have +tried to leave, but I seemed frozen to the spot. I could think of +nothing except Poe's Masque of the Red Death. + +Above all the rest whirled Seward Blair himself. The laugh of the +fiend, for the moment, was in his mouth. An instant he stood--the +oracle of the Demon--devil-possessed. Around whirled the frantic +devotees, howling. + +Shrilly he cried, "The Devil is in me!" + +Forward staggered the devil dancer--tall, haggard, with deep +sunken eyes and matted hair, face now smeared with dirt and blood- +red with the reflection of the strange, unearthly phosphorescence. + +He reeled slowly through the crowd, crooning a quatrain, in a low, +monotonous voice, his eyelids drooping and his head forward on his +breast: + + If the Red Slayer think he slays, + Or the slain think he is slain, + They know not well the subtle ways + I keep and pass and turn again! + +Entranced the whirling crowd paused and watched. One of their +number had received the "power." + +He was swaying slowly to and fro. + +"Look!" whispered Kennedy. + +His fingers twitched, his head wagged uncannily. Perspiration +seemed to ooze from every pore. His breast heaved. + +He gave a sudden yell--ear-piercing. Then followed a screech of +hellish laughter. + +The dance had ended, the dancers spellbound at the sight. + +He was whirling slowly, eyes protruding now, mouth foaming, chest +rising and falling like a bellows, muscles quivering. + +Cries, vows, imprecations, prayers, all blended in an infernal +hubbub. + +With a burst of ghastly, guttural laughter, he shrieked, "I AM the +Devil!" + +His arms waved--cutting, sawing, hacking the air. + +The votaries, trembling, scarcely moved, breathed, as he danced. + +Suddenly he gave a great leap into the air--then fell, motionless. +They crowded around him. The fiendish look was gone--the demoniac +laughter stilled. + +It was over. + +The tension of the orgy had been too much for us. We parted, with +scarcely a word, and yet I could feel that among the rest there +was a sort of unholy companionship. + +Silently, Kennedy and I drove away in the darkened cab, this time +with Seward and Veda Blair and Mrs. Langhorne. + +For several minutes not a word was said. I was, however, much +occupied in watching the two women. It was not because of anything +they said or did. That was not necessary. But I felt that there +was a feud, something that set them against each other. + +"How would Rapport use the death thought, I wonder?" asked Craig +speculatively, breaking the silence. + +Blair answered quickly. "Suppose some one tried to break away, to +renounce the Lodge, expose its secrets. They would treat him so as +to make him harmless--perhaps insane, confused, afraid to talk, +paralyzed, or even to commit suicide or be killed in an accident. +They would put the death thought on him!" + +Even in the prosaic jolting of the cab, away from the terrible +mysteries of the Red Lodge, one could feel the spell. + +The cab stopped. Seward was on his feet in a moment and handing +Mrs. Langhorne out at her home. For a moment they paused on the +steps for an exchange of words. + +In that moment I caught flitting over the face of Veda a look of +hatred, more intense, more real, more awful than any that had been +induced under the mysteries of the rites at the Lodge. + +It was gone in an instant, and as Seward rejoined us I felt that, +with Mrs. Langhorne gone, there was less restraint. I wondered +whether it was she who had inspired the fear in Veda. + +Although it was more comfortable, the rest of our journey was made +in silence and the Blairs dropped us at our apartment with many +expressions of cordiality as we left them to proceed to their own. + +"Of one thing I'm sure," I remarked, entering the room where only +a few short hours before Mrs. Blair had related her strange tale. +"Whatever the cause of it, the devil dancers don't sham." + +Kennedy did not reply. He was apparently wrapped up in the +consideration of the remarkable events of the evening. + +As for myself, it was a state of affairs which, the day before, I +should have pronounced utterly beyond the wildest bounds of the +imagination of the most colorful writer. Yet here it was; I had +seen it. + +I glanced up to find Kennedy standing by the light examining +something he had apparently picked up at the Red Lodge. I bent +over to look at it, too. It was a little glass tube. + +"An ampoule, I believe the technical name of such a container is," +he remarked, holding it closer to the light. + +In it were the remains of a dried yellow substance, broken up +minutely, resembling crystals. + +"Who dropped it?" I asked. + +"Vaughn, I think," he replied. "At least, I saw him near Blair, +stooping over him, at the end, and I imagine this is what I saw +gleaming for an instant in the light." + +Kennedy said nothing more, and for my part I was thoroughly at sea +and could make nothing out of it all. + +"What object can such a man as Dr. Vaughn possibly have in +frequenting such a place?" I asked at length, adding, "And there's +that Mrs. Langhorne--she was interesting, too." + +Kennedy made no direct reply. "I shall have them shadowed to- +morrow," he said briefly, "while I am at work in the laboratory +over this ampoule." + +As usual, also, Craig had begun on his scientific studies long +before I was able to shake myself loose from the nightmares that +haunted me after our weird experience of the evening. + +He had already given the order to an agency for the shadowing, and +his next move was to start me out, also, looking into the history +of those concerned in the case. As far as I was able to determine, +Dr. Vaughn had an excellent reputation, and I could find no reason +whatever for his connection with anything of the nature of the Red +Lodge. The Rapports seemed to be nearly unknown in New York, +although it was reported that they had come from Paris lately. +Mrs. Langhorne was a divorcee from one of the western states, but +little was known about her, except that she always seemed to be +well supplied with money. It seemed to be well known in the circle +in which Seward Blair moved that he was friendly with her, and I +had about reached the conclusion that she was unscrupulously +making use of his friendship, perhaps was not above such a thing +as blackmail. + +Thus the day passed, and we heard no word from Veda Blair, +although that was explained by the shadows, whose trails crossed +in a most unexpected manner. Their reports showed that there was a +meeting at the Red Lodge during the late afternoon, at which all +had been present except Dr. Vaughn. We learned also from them the +exact location of the Lodge, in an old house just across the line +in Westchester. + +It was evidently a long and troublesome analysis that Craig was +engaged in at the laboratory, for it was some hours after dinner +that night when he came into the apartment, and even then he said +nothing, but buried himself in some of the technical works with +which his library was stocked. He said little, but I gathered that +he was in great doubt about something, perhaps, as much as +anything, about how to proceed with so peculiar a case. + +It was growing late, and Kennedy was still steeped in his books, +when the door of the apartment, which we happened to have left +unlocked, was suddenly thrown open and Seward Blair burst in on +us, wildly excited. + +"Veda is gone!" he cried, before either of us could ask him what +was the matter. + +"Gone?" repeated Kennedy. "How--where?" + +"I don't know," Blair blurted out breathlessly. "We had been out +together this afternoon, and I returned with her. Then I went out +to the club after dinner for a while, and when I got back I missed +her--not quarter of an hour ago. I burst into her room--and there +I found this note. Read it. I don't know what to do. No one seems +to know what has become of her. I've called up all over and then +thought perhaps you might help me, might know some friend of hers +that I don't know, with whom she might have gone out." + +Blair was plainly eager for us to help him. Kennedy took the paper +from him. On it, in a trembling hand, were scrawled some words, +evidently addressed to Blair himself: + +"You would forgive me and pity me if you knew what I have been +through. + +"When I refused to yield my will to the will of the Lodge I +suppose I aroused the enmity of the Lodge. + +"To-night as I lay in bed, alone, I felt that my hour had come, +that mental forces that were almost irresistible were being +directed against me. + +"I realized that I must fight not only for my sanity but for my +life. + +"For hours I have fought that fight. + +"But during those hours, some one, I won't say who, seemed to have +developed such psychic faculties of penetration that they were +able to make their bodies pass through the walls of my room. + +"At last I am conquered. I pray that you--" + +The writing broke off abruptly, as if she had left it in wild +flight. + +"What does that mean?" asked Kennedy, "the 'will of the Lodge'?" + +Blair looked at us keenly. I fancied that there was even something +accusatory in the look. "Perhaps it was some mental reservation on +her part," he suggested. "You do not know yourself of any reason +why she should fear anything, do you?" he asked pointedly. + +Kennedy did not betray even by the motion of an eyelash that we +knew more than we should ostensibly. + +There was a tap at the door. I sprang to open it, thinking +perhaps, after all, it was Veda herself. + +Instead, a man, a stranger, stood there. + +"Is this Professor Kennedy?" he asked, touching his hat. + +Craig nodded. + +"I am from the psychopathic ward of the City Hospital--an orderly, +sir," the man introduced. + +"Yes," encouraged Craig, "what can I do for you?" + +"A Mrs. Blair has just been brought in, sir, and we can't find her +husband. She's calling for you now." + +Kennedy stared from the orderly to Seward Blair, startled, +speechless. + +"What has happened?" asked Blair anxiously. "I am Mr. Blair." + +The orderly shook his head. He had delivered his message. That was +all he knew. + +"What do you suppose it is?" I asked, as we sped across town in a +taxicab. "Is it the curse that she dreaded?" + +Kennedy said nothing and Blair appeared to hear nothing. His face +was drawn in tense lines. + +The psychopathic ward is at once one of the most interesting and +one of the most depressing departments of a large city hospital, +harboring, as it does, all from the more or less harmless insane +to violent alcoholics and wrecked drug fiends. + +Mrs. Blair, we learned, had been found hatless, without money, +dazed, having fallen, after an apparently aimless wandering in the +streets. + +For the moment she lay exhausted on the white bed of the ward, +eyes glazed, pupils contracted, pulse now quick, now almost +evanescent, face drawn, breathing difficult, moaning now and then +in physical and mental agony. + +Until she spoke it was impossible to tell what had happened, but +the ambulance surgeon had found a little red mark on her white +forearm and had pointed it out, evidently with the idea that she +was suffering from a drug. + +At the mere sight of the mark, Blair stared as though hypnotized. +Leaning over to Kennedy, so that the others could not hear, he +whispered, "It is the mark of the serpent!" + +Our arrival had been announced to the hospital physician, who +entered and stood for a moment looking at the patient. + +"I think it is a drug--a poison," he said meditatively. + +"You haven't found out yet what it is, then?" asked Craig. + +The physician shook his head doubtfully. "Whatever it is," he said +slowly, "it is closely allied to the cyanide groups in its +rapacious activity. I haven't the slightest idea of its true +nature, but it seems to have a powerful affinity for important +nerve centers of respiration and muscular coordination, as well as +for disorganizing the blood. I should say that it produces death +by respiratory paralysis and convulsions. To my mind it is an +exact, though perhaps less active, counterpart of hydrocyanic +acid." + +Kennedy had been listening intently at the start, but before the +physician had finished he had bent over and made a ligature +quickly with his handkerchief. + +Then he dispatched a messenger with a note. Next he cut about the +minute wound on her arm until the blood flowed, cupping it to +increase the flow. Now and then he had them administer a little +stimulant. + +He had worked rapidly, while Blair watched him with a sort of +fascination. + +"Get Dr. Vaughn," ordered Craig, as soon as he had a breathing +spell after his quick work, adding, "and Professor and Madame +Rapport. Walter, attend to that, will you? I think you will find +an officer outside. You'll have to compel them to come, if they +won't come otherwise," he added, giving the address of the Lodge, +as we had found it. + +Blair shot a quick look at him, as though Craig in his knowledge +were uncanny. Apparently, the address had been a secret which he +thought we did not know. + +I managed to find an officer and dispatch him for the Rapports. A +hospital orderly, I thought, would serve to get Dr. Vaughn. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE SERPENT'S TOOTH + + +I had scarcely returned to the ward when, suddenly, an unnatural +strength seemed to be infused into Veda. + +She had risen in bed. + +"It shall not catch me!" she cried in a new paroxysm of nameless +terror. "No--no--it is pursuing me. I am never out of its grasp. I +have been thought six feet underground--I know it. There it is +again--still driving me--still driving me! + +"Will it never stop? Will no one stop it? Save me! It--is the +death thought!" + +She had risen convulsively and had drawn back in abject, cowering +terror. What was it she saw? Evidently it was very real and very +awful. It pursued her relentlessly. + +As she lay there, rolling her eyes about, she caught sight of us +and recognized us for the first time, although she had been +calling for us. + +"They had the thought on you, too, Professor Kennedy," she almost +screamed. "Hour after hour, Rapport and the rest repeated over and +over again, 'Why does not some one kill him? Why does he not die?' +They knew you--even when I brought you to the Red Lodge. They +thought you were a spy." + +I turned to Kennedy. He had advanced and was leaning over to catch +every word. Blair was standing behind me and she had not seen her +husband yet. A quick glance showed me that he was trembling from +head to foot like a leaf, as though he, too, were pursued by the +nameless terror. + +"What did they do?" Kennedy asked in a low tone. + +Fearfully, gripping the bars of the iron bed, as though they were +some tangible support for her mind, she answered: "They would get +together. 'Now, all of you,' they said, 'unite yourselves in +thought against our enemy, against Kennedy, that he must leave off +persecuting us. He is ripe for destruction!'" + +Kennedy glanced sidewise at me, with a significant look. + +"God grant," she implored, "that none haunt me for what I have +done in my ignorance!" + +Just then the door opened and my messenger entered, accompanied by +Dr. Vaughn. + +I had turned to catch the expression on Blair's face just in time. +It was a look of abject appeal. + +Before Dr. Vaughn could ask a question, or fairly take in the +situation, Kennedy had faced him. + +"What was the purpose of all that elaborate mummery out at the Red +Lodge?" asked Kennedy pointblank. + +I think I looked at Craig in no less amazement than Vaughn. In +spite of the dramatic scenes through which we had passed, the +spell of the occult had not fallen on him for an instant. + +"Mummery?" repeated Dr. Vaughn, bending his penetrating eyes on +Kennedy, as if he would force him to betray himself first. + +"Yes," reiterated Craig. "You know as well as I do that it has +been said that it is a well-established fact that the world wants +to be deceived and is willing to pay for the privilege." + +Dr. Vaughn still gazed from one to the other of us defiantly. + +"You know what I mean," persisted Kennedy, "the mumbo-jumbo--just +as the Haitian obi man sticks pins in a doll or melts a wax figure +of his enemy. That is supposed to be an outward sign. But back of +this terrible power that people believe moves in darkness and +mystery is something tangible--something real." + +Dr. Vaughn looked up sharply at him, I think mistaking Kennedy's +meaning. If he did, all doubt that Kennedy attributed anything to +the supernatural was removed as he went on: "At first I had no +explanation of the curious events I have just witnessed, and the +more I thought about them, the more obscure did they seem. + +"I have tried to reason the thing out," he continued thoughtfully. +"Did auto-suggestion, self-hypnotism explain what I have seen? Has +Veda Blair been driven almost to death by her own fears only?" + +No one interrupted and he answered his own question. "Somehow the +idea that it was purely fear that had driven her on did not +satisfy me. As I said, I wanted something more tangible. I could +not help thinking that it was not merely subjective. There was +something objective, some force at work, something more than +psychic in the result achieved by this criminal mental marauder, +whoever it is." + +I was following Kennedy's reasoning now closely. As he proceeded, +the point that he was making seemed more clear to me. + +Persons of a certain type of mind could be really mentally +unbalanced by such methods which we had heard outlined, where the +mere fact of another trying to exert power over them became known +to them. They would, as a matter of fact, unbalance themselves, +thinking about and fighting off imaginary terrors. + +Such people, I could readily see, might be quickly controlled, and +in the wake of such control would follow stifled love, wrecked +homes, ruined fortunes, suicide and even death. + +Dr. Vaughn leaned forward critically. "What did you conclude, +then, was the explanation of what you saw last night?" he asked +sharply. + +Kennedy met his question squarely, without flinching. "It looks to +me," he replied quietly, "like a sort of hystero-epilepsy. It is +well known, I believe, to demonologists--those who have studied +this sort of thing. They have recognized the contortions, the +screams, the wild, blasphemous talk, the cataleptic rigidity. They +are epileptiform." + +Vaughn said nothing, but continued to weigh Kennedy as if in a +balance. I, who knew him, knew that it would take a greater than +Vaughn to find him wanting, once Kennedy chose to speak. As for +Vaughn, was he trying to hide behind some technicality in medical +ethics? + +"Dr. Vaughn," continued Craig, as if goading him to the point of +breaking down his calm silence, "you are specialist enough to know +these things as well, better than I do. You must know that +epilepsy is one of the most peculiar diseases. + +"The victim may be in good physical condition, apparently. In +fact, some hardly know that they have it. But it is something more +than merely the fits. Always there is something wrong mentally. It +is not the motor disturbance so much as the disturbance of +consciousness." + +Kennedy was talking slowly, deliberately, so that none could drop +a link in the reasoning. + +"Perhaps one in ten epileptics has insane periods, more or less," +he went on, "and there is no more dangerous form of insanity. +Self-consciousness is lost, and in this state of automatism the +worst of crimes have been committed without the subsequent +knowledge of the patient. In that state they are no more +responsible than are the actors in one's dreams." + +The hospital physician entered, accompanied by Craig's messenger, +breathless. Craig almost seized the package from his hands and +broke the seal. + +"Ah--this is what I wanted," he exclaimed, with an air of relief, +forgetting for the time the exposition of the case that he was +engaged in. "Here I have some anti-crotalus venine, of Drs. +Flexner and Noguchi. Fortunately, in the city it is within easy +reach." + +Quickly, with the aid of the physician he injected it into Veda's +arm. + +"Of all substances in nature," he remarked, still at work over the +unfortunate woman, "none is so little known as the venom of +serpents." + +It was a startling idea which the sentence had raised in my mind. +All at once I recalled the first remark of Seward Blair, in which +he had repeated the password that had admitted us into the Red +Lodge--"the Serpent's Tooth." Could it have been that she had +really been bitten at some of the orgies by the serpent which they +worshiped hideously hissing in its cage? I was sure that, at least +until they were compelled, none would say anything about it. Was +that the interpretation of the almost hypnotized look on Blair's +face? + +"We know next to nothing of the composition of the protein bodies +in the venoms which have such terrific, quick physiological +effects," Kennedy was saying. "They have been studied, it is true, +but we cannot really say that they are understood--or even that +there are any adequate tests by which they can be recognized. The +fact is, that snake venoms are about the safest of poisons for the +criminal." + +Kennedy had scarcely propounded this startling idea when a car was +heard outside. The Rapports had arrived, with the officer I had +sent after them, protesting and threatening. + +They quieted down a bit as they entered, and after a quick glance +around saw who was present. + +Professor Rapport gave one glance at the victim lying exhausted on +the bed, then drew back, melodramatically, and cried, "The +Serpent--the mark of the serpent!" + +For a moment Kennedy gazed full in the eyes of them all. + +"WAS it a snake bite?" he asked slowly, then, turning to Mrs. +Blair, after a quick glance, he went on rapidly, "The first thing +to ascertain is whether the mark consists of two isolated +punctures, from the poison-conducting teeth or fangs of the snake, +which are constructed like a hypodermic needle." + +The hospital physician had bent over her at the words, and before +Kennedy could go on interrupted: "This was not a snake bite; it +was more likely from an all-glass hypodermic syringe with a +platinum-iridium needle." + +Professor Rapport, priest of the Devil, advanced a step menacingly +toward Kennedy. "Remember," he said in a low, angry tone, +"remember--you are pledged to keep the secrets of the Red Lodge!" + +Craig brushed aside the sophistry with a sentence. "I do not +recognize any secrets that I have to keep about the meeting this +afternoon to which you summoned the Blairs and Mrs. Langhorne, +according to reports from the shadows I had placed on Mrs. +Langhorne and Dr. Vaughn." + +If there is such a thing as the evil eye, Rapport's must have been +a pair of them, as he realized that Kennedy had resorted to the +simple devices of shadowing the devotees. + +A cry, almost a shriek, startled us. Kennedy's encounter with +Rapport had had an effect which none of us had considered. The +step or two in advance which the prophet had taken had brought him +into the line of vision of the still half-stupefied Veda lying +back of Kennedy on the hospital cot. + +The mere sight of him, the sound of his voice and the mention of +the Red Lodge had been sufficient to penetrate that stupor. She +was sitting bolt upright, a ghastly, trembling specter. Slowly a +smile seemed to creep over the cruel face of the mystic. Was it +not a recognition of his hypnotic power? + +Kennedy turned and laid a gentle hand on the quaking convulsed +figure of the woman. One could feel the electric tension in the +air, the battle of two powers for good or evil. Which would win-- +the old fascination of the occult or the new power of science? + +It was a dramatic moment. Yet not so dramatic as the outcome. To +my surprise, neither won. + +Suddenly she caught sight of her husband. Her face changed. All +the prehistoric jealousy of which woman is capable seemed to blaze +forth. + +"I will defend myself!" she cried. "I will fight back! She shall +not win--she shall not have you--no--she shall not--never!" + +I recalled the strained feeling between the two women that I had +noticed in the cab. Was it Mrs. Langhorne who had been the +disturbing influence, whose power she feared, over herself and +over her husband? + +Rapport had fallen back a step, but not from the mind of Kennedy. + +"Here," challenged Craig, facing the group and drawing from his +pocket the glass ampoule, "I picked this up at the Red Lodge last +night." + +He held it out in his hand before the Rapports so that they could +not help but see it. Were they merely good actors? They betrayed +nothing, at least by face or action. + +"It is crotalin," he announced, "the venom of the rattlesnake-- +crotalus horridus. It has been noticed that persons suffering from +certain diseases of which epilepsy is one, after having been +bitten by a rattlesnake, if they recover from the snake bite, are +cured of the disease." + +Kennedy was forging straight ahead now in his exposure. +"Crotalin," he continued, "is one of the new drugs used in the +treatment of epilepsy. But it is a powerful two-edged instrument. +Some one who knew the drug, who perhaps had used it, has tried an +artificial bite of a rattler on Veda Blair, not for epilepsy, but +for another, diabolical purpose, thinking to cover up the crime, +either as the result of the so-called death thought of the Lodge +or as the bite of the real rattler at the Lodge." + +Kennedy had at last got under Dr. Vaughn's guard. All his +reticence was gone. + +"I joined the cult," he confessed. "I did it in order to observe +and treat one of my patients for epilepsy. I justified myself. I +said, 'I will be the exposer, not the accomplice, of this modern +Satanism.' I joined it and--" + +"There is no use trying to shield anyone, Vaughn," rapped out +Kennedy, scarcely taking time to listen. "An epileptic of the most +dangerous criminal type has arranged this whole elaborate setting +as a plot to get rid of the wife who brought him his fortune and +now stands in the way of his unholy love of Mrs. Langhorne. He +used you to get the poison with which you treated him. He used the +Rapports with money to play on her mysticism by their so-called +death thought, while he watched his opportunity to inject the +fatal crotalin." + +Craig faced the criminal, whose eyes now showed more plainly than +words his deranged mental condition, and in a low tone added, "The +Devil is in you, Seward Blair!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE "HAPPY DUST" + + +Veda Blair's rescue from the strange use that was made of the +venom came at a time when the city was aroused as it never had +been before over the nation-wide agitation against drugs. + +Already, it will be recalled, Kennedy and I had had some recent +experience with dope fiends of various kinds, but this case I set +down because it drew us more intimately into the crusade. + +"I've called on you, Professor Kennedy, to see if I can't interest +you in the campaign I am planning against drugs." + +Mrs. Claydon Sutphen, social leader and suffragist, had scarcely +more than introduced herself when she launched earnestly into the +reason for her visit to us. + +"You don't realize it, perhaps," she continued rapidly, "but very +often a little silver bottle of tablets is as much a necessary to +some women of the smart set as cosmetics." + +"I've heard of such cases," nodded Craig encouragingly. + +"Well, you see I became interested in the subject," she added, +"when I saw some of my own friends going down. That's how I came +to plan the campaign in the first place." + +She paused, evidently nervous. "I've been threatened, too," she +went on, "but I'm not going to give up the fight. People think +that drugs are a curse only to the underworld, but they have no +idea what inroads the habit has made in the upper world, too. Oh, +it is awful!" she exclaimed. + +Suddenly, she leaned over and whispered, "Why, there's my own +sister, Mrs. Garrett. She began taking drugs after an operation, +and now they have a terrible hold on her. I needn't try to conceal +anything. It's all been published in the papers--everybody knows +it. Think of it--divorced, disgraced, all through these cursed +drugs! Dr. Coleman, our family physician, has done everything +known to break up the habit, but he hasn't succeeded." + +Dr. Coleman, I knew, was a famous society physician. If he had +failed, I wondered why she thought a detective might succeed. But +it was evidently another purpose she had in mind in introducing +the subject. + +"So you can understand what it all means to me, personally," she +resumed, with a sigh. "I've studied the thing--I've been forced to +study it. Why, now the exploiters are even making drug fiends of +mere--children!" + +Mrs. Sutphen spread out a crumpled sheet of note paper before us +on which was written something in a trembling scrawl. "For +instance, here's a letter I received only yesterday." + +Kennedy glanced over it carefully. It was signed "A Friend," and +read: + +"I have heard of your drug war in the newspapers and wish to help +you, only I don't dare to do so openly. But I can assure you that +if you will investigate what I am about to tell you, you will soon +be on the trail of those higher up in this terrible drug business. +There is a little center of the traffic on West 66th Street, just +off Broadway. I cannot tell you more, but if you can investigate +it, you will be doing more good than you can possibly realize now. +There is one girl there, whom they call 'Snowbird.' If you could +only get hold of her quietly and place her in a sanitarium you +might save her yet." + +Craig was more than ordinarily interested. "And the children--what +did you mean by that?" + +"Why, it's literally true," asserted Mrs. Sutphen in a horrified +tone. "Some of the victims are actually school children. Up there +in 66th Street we have found a man named Armstrong, who seems to +be very friendly with this young girl whom they call 'Snowbird.' +Her real name, by the way, is Sawtelle, I believe. She can't be +over eighteen, a mere child, yet she's a slave to the stuff." + +"Oh, then you have actually already acted on the hint in the +letter?" asked Craig. + +"Yes," she replied, "I've had one of the agents of our Anti-Drug +Society, a social worker, investigating the neighborhood." + +Kennedy nodded for her to go on. + +"I've even investigated myself a little, and now I want to employ +some one to break the thing up. My husband had heard of you and so +here I am. Can you help me?" + +There was a note of appeal in her voice that was irresistible to a +man who had the heart of Kennedy. + +"Tell me just what you have discovered so far," he asked simply. + +"Well," she replied slowly, "after my agent verified the contents +of the letter, I watched until I saw this girl--she's a mere +child, as I said--going to a cabaret in the neighborhood. What +struck me was that I saw her go in looking like a wreck and come +out a beautiful creature, with bright eyes, flushed cheeks, almost +youthful again. A most remarkable girl she is, too," mused Mrs. +Sutphen, "who always wears a white gown, white hat, white shoes +and white stockings. It must be a mania with her." + +Mrs. Sutphen seemed to have exhausted her small store of +information, and as she rose to go Kennedy rose also. "I shall be +glad to look into the case, Mrs. Sutphen," he promised. "I'm sure +there is something that can be done--there must be." + +"Thank you, ever so much," she murmured, as she paused at the +door, something still on her mind. "And perhaps, too," she added, +"you may run across my sister, Mrs. Garrett." + +"Indeed," he assured her, "if there is anything I can possibly do +that will assist you personally, I shall be only too happy to do +it." + +"Thank you again, ever so much," she repeated with just a little +choke in her voice. + +For several moments Kennedy sat contemplating the anonymous letter +which she had left with him, studying both its contents and the +handwriting. + +"We must go over the ground up there again," he remarked finally. +"Perhaps we can do better than Mrs. Sutphen and her drug +investigator have done." + +Half an hour later we had arrived and were sauntering along the +street in question, walking slowly up and down in the now fast- +gathering dusk. It was a typical cheap apartment block of +variegated character, with people sitting idly on the narrow front +steps and children spilling out into the roadway in imminent +danger of their young lives from every passing automobile. + +On the crowded sidewalk a creation in white hurtled past us. One +glance at the tense face in the flickering arc light was enough +for Kennedy. He pulled my arm and we turned and followed at a safe +distance. + +She looked like a girl who could not have been more than eighteen, +if she was as old as that. She was pretty, too, but already her +face was beginning to look old and worn from the use of drugs. It +was unmistakable. + +In spite of the fact that she was hurrying, it was not difficult +to follow her in the crowd, as she picked her way in and out, and +finally turned into Broadway where the white lights were welcoming +the night. + +Under the glare of a huge electric sign she stopped a moment, then +entered one of the most notorious of the cabarets. + +We entered also at a discreet distance and sat down at a table. + +"Don't look around, Walter," whispered Craig, as the waiter took +our order, "but to your right is Mrs. Sutphen." + +If he had mentioned any other name in the world, I could not have +been more surprised. I waited impatiently until I could pick her +out from the corner of my eye. Sure enough, it was Mrs. Sutphen +and another woman. What they were doing there I could not imagine, +for neither had the look of habitues of such a place. + +I followed Kennedy's eye and found that he was gazing furtively at +a flashily dressed young man who was sitting alone at the far end +in a sort of booth upholstered in leather. + +The girl in white, whom I was now sure was Miss Sawtelle, went +over and greeted him. It was too far to see just what happened, +but the young woman after sitting down rose and left almost +immediately. As nearly as I could make out, she had got something +from him which she had dropped into her handbag and was now +hugging the handbag close to herself almost as if it were gold. + +We sat for a few minutes debating just what to do, when Mrs. +Sutphen and her friend rose. As she passed out, a quick, covert +glance told us to follow. We did so and the two turned into +Broadway. + +"Let me present you to Miss McCann," introduced Mrs. Sutphen as we +caught up with them. "Miss McCann is a social worker and trained +investigator whom I'm employing." + +We bowed, but before we could ask a question, Mrs. Sutphen cried +excitedly: "I think I have a clue, anyway. We've traced the source +of the drugs at least as far as that young fellow, 'Whitecap,' +whom you saw in there." + +I had not recognized his face, although I had undoubtedly seen +pictures of him before. But no sooner had I heard the name than I +recognized it as that of one of the most notorious gang leaders on +the West Side. + +Not only that, but Whitecap's gang played an important part in +local politics. There was scarcely a form of crime or vice to +which Whitecap and his followers could not turn a skilled hand, +whether it was swinging an election, running a gambling club, or +dispensing "dope." + +"You see," she explained, "even before I saw you, my suspicions +were aroused and I determined to obtain some of the stuff they are +using up here, if possible. I realized it would be useless for me +to try to get it myself, so I got Miss McCann from the +Neighborhood House to try it. She got it and has turned the bottle +over to me." + +"May I see it?" asked Craig eagerly. + +Mrs. Sutphen reached hastily into her handbag, drew forth a small +brown glass bottle and handed it to him. Craig retreated into one +of the less dark side streets. There he pulled out the paraffinned +cork from the bottle, picked out a piece of cotton stuffed in the +neck of the bottle and poured out some flat tablets that showed a +glistening white in the palm of his hand. For an instant he +regarded them. + +"I may keep these?" he asked. + +"Certainly," replied Mrs. Sutphen. "That's what I had Miss McCann +get them for." + +Kennedy dropped the bottle into his pocket. + +"So that was the gang leader, 'Whitecap,'" he remarked as we +turned again to Broadway. + +"Yes," replied Mrs. Sutphen. "At certain hours, I believe he can +be found at that cabaret selling this stuff, whatever it is, to +anyone who comes properly introduced. The thing seems to be so +open and notorious that it amounts to a scandal." + +We parted a moment later, Mrs. Sutphen and Miss McCann to go to +the settlement house, Craig and I to continue our investigations. + +"First of all, Walter," he said as we swung aboard an uptown car, +"I want to stop at the laboratory." + +In his den, which had been the scene of so many triumphs, Kennedy +began a hasty examination of the tablets, powdering one and +testing it with one chemical after another. + +"What are they?" I asked at length when he seemed to have found +the right reaction which gave him the clue. + +"Happy dust," he answered briefly. + +"Happy dust?" I repeated, looking at him a moment in doubt as to +whether he was joking or serious. "What is that?" + +"The Tenderloin name for heroin--a comparatively new derivative of +morphine. It is really morphine treated with acetic acid which +renders it more powerful than morphine alone." + +"How do they take them? What's the effect?" I asked. + +"The person who uses heroin usually powders the tablets and snuffs +the powder up the nose," he answered. "In a short time, perhaps +only two or three weeks, one can become a confirmed victim of +'happy dust.' And while one is under its influence he is morally, +physically and mentally irresponsible." + +Kennedy was putting away the paraphernalia he had used, meanwhile +talking about the drug. "One of the worst aspects of it, too," he +continued, "is the desire of the user to share his experience with +some one else. This passing on of the habit, which seems to be one +of the strongest desires of the drug fiend, makes him even more +dangerous to society than he would otherwise be. It makes it +harder for anyone once addicted to a drug to shake it off, for his +friends will give him no chance. The only thing to do is to get +the victim out of his environment and into an entirely new scene." + +The laboratory table cleared again, Kennedy had dropped into a +deep study. + +"Now, why was Mrs. Sutphen there?" he asked aloud. "I can't think +it was solely through her interest for that girl they call +Snowbird. She was interested in her, but she made no attempt to +interfere or to follow her. No, there must have been another +reason." + +"You don't think she's a dope fiend herself, do you?" I asked +hurriedly. + +Kennedy smiled. "Hardly, Walter. If she has any obsession on the +subject, it is more likely to lead her to actual fanaticism +against all stimulants and narcotics and everything connected with +them. No, you might possibly persuade me that two and two equal +five--but not seventeen. It's not very late. I think we might make +another visit to that cabaret and see whether the same thing is +going on yet." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE BINET TEST + + +We rode downtown again and again sauntered in, this time with the +theater crowd. Our first visit had been so quiet and +unostentatious that the second attracted no attention or comment +from the waiters, or anyone else. + +As we sat down we glanced over, and there in his corner still was +Whitecap. Apparently his supply of the dope was inexhaustible, for +he was still dispensing it. As we watched the tenderloin habitues +come and go, I came soon to recognize the signs by the mere look +on the face--the pasty skin, the vacant eye, the nervous quiver of +the muscles as though every organ and every nerve were crying out +for more of the favorite nepenthe. Time and again I noticed the +victims as they sat at the tables, growing more and more haggard +and worn, until they could stand it no longer. Then they would +retire, sometimes after a visit across the floor to Whitecap, more +often directly, for they had stocked themselves up with the drug +evidently after the first visit to him. But always they would come +back, changed in appearance, with what seemed to be a new lease of +life, but nevertheless still as recognizable as drug victims. + +It was not long, as we waited, before another woman, older than +Miss Sawtelle, but dressed in an extreme fashion, hurried into the +cabaret and with scarcely a look to right or left went directly to +Whitecap's corner. I noticed that she, too, had the look. + +There was a surreptitious passing of a bottle in exchange for a +treasury note, and she dropped into the seat beside him. + +Before he could interfere, she had opened the bottle, crushed a +tablet or two in a napkin, and was holding it to her face as +though breathing the most exquisite perfume. With one quick +inspiration of her breath after another, she was snuffing the +powder up her nose. + +Whitecap with an angry gesture pulled the napkin from her face, +and one could fancy his snarl under his breath, "Say--do you want +to get me in wrong here?" + +But it was too late. Some at least of the happy dust had taken +effect, at least enough to relieve the terrible pangs she must +have been suffering. + +As she rose and retired, with a hasty apology to Whitecap for her +indiscretion, Kennedy turned to me and exclaimed, "Think of it. +The deadliest of all habits is the simplest. No hypodermic; no +pipe; no paraphernalia of any kind. It's terrible." + +She returned to sit down and enjoy herself, careful not to obtrude +herself on Whitecap lest he might become angry at the mere sight +of her and treasure his anger up against the next time when she +would need the drug. + +Already there was the most marvelous change in her. She seemed +captivated by the music, the dancing, the life which a few moments +before she had totally disregarded. + +She was seated alone, not far from us, and as she glanced about +Kennedy caught her eye. She allowed her gaze to rest on us for a +moment, the signal for a mild flirtation which ended in our +exchange of tables and we found ourselves opposite the drug fiend, +who was following up the taking of the dope by a thin-stemmed +glass of a liqueur. + +I do not recall the conversation, but it was one of those +inconsequential talks that Bohemians consider so brilliant and +everybody else so vapid. As we skimmed from one subject to +another, treating the big facts of life as if they were mere +incidents and the little as if they overshadowed all else, I could +see that Craig, who had a faculty of probing into the very soul of +anyone, when he chose, was gradually leading around to a subject +which I knew he wanted, above all others, to discuss. + +It was not long before, as the most natural remark in the world +following something he had made her say, just as a clever +prestidigitator forces a card, he asked, "What was it I saw you +snuffing over in the booth--happy dust?" + +She did not even take the trouble to deny it, but nodded a brazen +"Yes." "How did you come to use it first?" he asked, careful not +to give offense in either tone or manner. + +"The usual way, I suppose," she replied with a laugh that sounded +harsh and grating. "I was ill and I found out what it was the +doctor was giving me." + +"And then?" + +"Oh, I thought I would use it only as long as it served my purpose +and, when that was over, give it up." + +"But--?" prompted Craig hypnotically. + +"Instead, I was soon using six, eight, ten tablets of heroin a +day. I found that I needed that amount in order to live. Then it +went up by leaps to twenty, thirty, forty." + +"Suppose you couldn't get it, what then?" + +"Couldn't get it?" she repeated with an unspeakable horror. "Once +I thought I'd try to stop. But my heart skipped beats; then it +seemed to pound away, as if trying to break through my ribs. I +don't think heroin is like other drugs. When one has her 'coke'-- +that's cocaine--taken away, she feels like a rag. Fill her up and +she can do anything again. But, heroin--I think one might murder +to get it!" + +The expression on the woman's face was almost tragic. I verily +believe that she meant it. + +"Why," she cried, "if anyone had told me a year ago that the time +would ever come when I would value some tiny white tablets above +anything else in the world, yes, and even above my immortal soul, +I would have thought him a lunatic." + +It was getting late, and as the woman showed no disposition to +leave, Kennedy and I excused ourselves. + +Outside Craig looked at me keenly. "Can you guess who that was?" + +"Although she didn't tell us her name," I replied, "I am morally +certain that it was Mrs. Garrett." + +"Precisely," he answered, "and what a shame, too, for she must +evidently once have been a woman of great education and +refinement." + +He shook his head sadly. "Walter, there isn't likely to be +anything that we can do for some hours now. I have a little +experiment I'd like to make. Suppose you publish for me a story in +the Star about the campaign against drugs. Tell about what we have +seen to-night, mention the cabaret by indirection and Whitecap +directly. Then we can sit back and see what happens. We've got to +throw a scare into them somehow, if we are going to smoke out +anyone higher up than Whitecap. But you'll have to be careful, for +if they suspect us our usefulness in the case will be over." + +Together, Kennedy and I worked over our story far into the night +down at the Star office, and the following day waited to see +whether anything came of it. + +It was with a great deal of interest tempered by fear that we +dropped into the cabaret the following evening. Fortunately no one +suspected us. In fact, having been there the night before, we had +established ourselves, as it were, and were welcomed as old +patrons and good spenders. + +I noticed, however, that Whitecap was not there. The story had +been read by such of the dope fiends as had not fallen too far to +keep abreast of the times and these and the waiters were busy +quietly warning off a line of haggard-eyed, disappointed patrons +who came around, as usual. + +Some of them were so obviously dependent on Whitecap that I almost +regretted having written the story, for they must have been +suffering the tortures of the damned. + +It was in the midst of a reverie of this sort that a low +exclamation from Kennedy recalled my attention. There was Snowbird +with a man considerably older than herself. They had just come in +and were looking about frantically for Whitecap. But Whitecap had +been too frightened by the story in the Star to sell any more of +the magic happy dust openly in the cabaret, at least. + +The pair, nerve-racked and exhausted, sat down mournfully in a +seat near us, and as they talked earnestly in low tones we had an +excellent opportunity for studying Armstrong for the first time. + +He was not a bad-looking man, or even a weak one. In back of the +dissipation of the drugs one fancied he could read the story of a +brilliant life wrecked. But there was little left to admire or +respect. As the couple talked earnestly, the one so old, the other +so young in vice, I had to keep a tight rein on myself to prevent +my sympathy for the wretched girl getting the better of common +sense and kicking the older man out of doors. + +Finally Armstrong rose to go, with a final imploring glance from +the girl. Obviously she had persuaded him to forage about to +secure the heroin, by hook or crook, now that the accustomed +source of supply was cut off so suddenly. + +It was also really our first chance to study the girl carefully +under the light, for her entrance and exit the night before had +been so hurried that we had seen comparatively little of her. +Craig was watching her narrowly. Not only were the effects of the +drug plainly evident on her face, but it was apparent that the +snuffing the powdered tablets was destroying the bones in her +nose, through shrinkage of the blood vessels, as well as +undermining the nervous system and causing the brain to totter. + +I was wondering whether Armstrong knew of any depot for the secret +distribution of the drug. I could not believe that Whitecap was +either the chief distributer or the financial head of the illegal +traffic. I wondered who indeed was the man higher up. Was he an +importer of the drug, or was he the representative of some +chemical company not averse to making an illegal dollar now and +then by dragging down his fellow man? + +Kennedy and I were trying to act as if we were enjoying the +cabaret show and not too much interested in the little drama that +was being acted before us. I think little Miss Sawtelle noticed, +however, that we were looking often her way. I was amazed, too, on +studying her more closely to find that there was something +indefinably queer about her, aside from the marked effect of the +drugs she had been taking. What it was I was at a loss to +determine, but I felt sure from the expression on Kennedy's face +that he had noticed it also. + +I was on the point of asking him if he, too, observed anything +queer in the girl, when Armstrong hurried in and handed her a +small package, then almost without a word stalked out again, +evidently as much to Snowbird's surprise as to our own. + +She had literally seized the package, as though she were drowning +and grasping at a life buoy. Even the surprise at his hasty +departure could not prevent her, however, from literally tearing +the wrapper off, and in the sheltering shadow of the table cloth +pouring forth the little white pellets in her lap, counting them +as a miser counts his gold, + +"The old thief!" she exclaimed aloud. "He's held out twenty-five!" + +I don't know which it was that amazed me most, the almost childish +petulance and ungovernable temper of the girl which made her cry +out in spite of her surroundings and the circumstances, or the +petty rapacity of the man who could stoop to such a low level as +to rob her in this seeming underhand manner. + +There was no time for useless repining now. The call of outraged +nature for its daily and hourly quota of poison was too +imperative. She dumped the pellets back into the bottle hastily, +and disappeared. + +When she came back, it was with that expression I had come to know +so well. At least for a few hours there was a respite for her from +the terrific pangs she had been suffering. She was almost happy, +smiling. Even that false happiness, I felt, was superior to +Armstrong's moral sense blunted by drugs. I had begun to realize +how lying, stealing, crimes of all sorts might be laid at the door +of this great evil. + +In her haste to get where she could snuff the heroin she had +forgotten a light wrap lying on her chair. As she returned for it, +it fell to the floor. Instantly Kennedy was on his feet, bending +over to pick it up. + +She thanked him, and the smile lingered a moment on her face. It +was enough. It gave Kennedy the chance to pursue a conversation, +and in the free and easy atmosphere of the cabaret to invite her +to sit over at our table. + +At least all her nervousness was gone and she chatted vivaciously. +Kennedy said little. He was too busy watching her. It was quite +the opposite of the case of Mrs. Garrett. Yet I was at a loss to +define what it was that I sensed. + +Still the minutes sped past and we seemed to be getting on +famously. Unlike his action in the case of the older woman where +he had been sounding the depths of her heart and mind, in this +case his idea seemed to be to allow the childish prattle to come +out and perhaps explain itself. + +However, at the end of half an hour when we seemed to be getting +no further along, Kennedy did not protest at her desire to leave +us, "to keep a date," as she expressed it. + +"Waiter, the check, please," ordered Kennedy leisurely. + +When he received it, he seemed to be in no great hurry to pay it, +but went over one item after another, then added up the footing +again. + +"Strange how some of these waiters grow rich?" Craig remarked +finally with a gay smile. + +The idea of waiters and money quickly brought some petty +reminiscences to her mind. While she was still talking, Craig +casually pulled a pencil out of his pocket and scribbled some +figures on the back of the waiter's check. + +From where I was sitting beside him, I could see that he had +written some figures similar to the following: + +5183 47395 654726 2964375 47293815 924738651 2146073859 + +"Here's a stunt," he remarked, breaking into the conversation at a +convenient point. "Can you repeat these numbers after me?" + +Without waiting for her to make excuse, he said quickly "5183." +"5183," she repeated mechanically. + +"47395," came in rapid succession, to which she replied, perhaps a +little slower than before, + +"47395." + +"Now, 654726," he said. + +"654726," she repeated, I thought with some hesitation. + +"Again, 2964375," he shot out. + +"269," she hesitated, "73--" she stopped. + +It was evident that she had reached the limit. + +Kennedy smiled, paid the check and we parted at the door. + +"What was all that rigmarole?" I inquired as the white figure +disappeared down the street. + +"Part of the Binet test, seeing how many digits one can remember. +An adult ought to remember from eight to ten, in any order. But +she has the mentality of a child. That is the queer thing about +her. Chronologically she may be eighteen years or so old. Mentally +she is scarcely more than eight. Mrs. Sutphen was right. They have +made a fiend out of a mere child--a defective who never had a +chance against them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE LIE DETECTOR + + +As the horror of it all dawned on me, I hated Armstrong worse than +ever, hated Whitecap, hated the man higher up, whoever he might +be, who was enriching himself out of the defective, as well as the +weakling, and the vicious--all three typified by Snowbird, +Armstrong and Whitecap. + +Having no other place to go, pending further developments of the +publicity we had given the drug war in the Star, Kennedy and I +decided on a walk home in the bracing night air. + +We had scarcely entered the apartment when the hall boy called to +us frantically: "Some one's been trying to get you all over town, +Professor Kennedy. Here's the message. I wrote it down. An attempt +has been made to poison Mrs. Sutphen. They said at the other end +of the line that you'd know." + +We faced each other aghast. + +"My God!" exclaimed Kennedy. "Has that been the effect of our +story, Walter? Instead of smoking out anyone--we've almost killed +some one." + +As fast as a cab could whisk us around to Mrs. Sutphen's we +hurried. + +"I warned her that if she mixed up in any such fight as this she +might expect almost anything," remarked Mr. Sutphen nervously, as +he met us in the reception room. "She's all right, now, I guess, +but if it hadn't been for the prompt work of the ambulance surgeon +I sent for, Dr. Coleman says she would have died in fifteen +minutes." + +"How did it happen?" asked Craig. + +"Why, she usually drinks a glass of vichy and milk before +retiring," replied Mr. Sutphen. "We don't know yet whether it was +the vichy or the milk that was poisoned, but Dr. Coleman thinks it +was chloral in one or the other, and so did the ambulance surgeon. +I tell you I was scared. I tried to get Coleman, but he was out on +a case, and I happened to think of the hospitals as probably the +quickest. Dr. Coleman came in just as the young surgeon was +bringing her around. He--oh, here he is now." + +The famous doctor was just coming downstairs. He saw us, but, I +suppose, inasmuch as we did not belong to the Sutphen and Coleman +set, ignored us. "Mrs. Sutphen will be all right now," he said +reassuringly as he drew on his gloves. "The nurse has arrived, and +I have given her instructions what to do. And, by the way, my dear +Sutphen, I should advise you to deal firmly with her in that +matter about which her name is appearing in the papers. Women +nowadays don't seem to realize the dangers they run in mixing in +in all these reforms. I have ordered an analysis of both the milk +and vichy, but that will do little good unless we can find out who +poisoned it. And there are so many chances for things like that, +life is so complex nowadays--" + +He passed out with scarcely a nod at us. Kennedy did not attempt +to question him. He was thinking rapidly. + +"Walter, we have no time to lose," he exclaimed, seizing a +telephone that stood on a stand near by. "This is the time for +action. Hello--Police Headquarters, First Deputy O'Connor, +please." + +As Kennedy waited I tried to figure out how it could have +happened. I wondered whether it might not have been Mrs. Garrett. +Would she stop at anything if she feared the loss of her favorite +drug? But then there were so many others and so many ways of +"getting" anybody who interfered with the drug traffic that it +seemed impossible to figure it out by pure deduction. + +"Hello, O'Connor," I heard Kennedy say; "you read that story in +the Star this morning about the drug fiends at that Broadway +cabaret? Yes? Well, Jameson and I wrote it. It's part of the drug +war that Mrs. Sutphen has been waging. O'Connor, she's been +poisoned--oh, no--she's all right now. But I want you to send out +and arrest Whitecap and that fellow Armstrong immediately. I'm +going to put them through a scientific third degree up in the +laboratory to-night. Thank you. No--no matter how late it is, +bring them up." + +Dr. Coleman had gone long since, Mr. Sutphen had absolutely no +interest further than the recovery of Mrs. Sutphen just now, and +Mrs. Sutphen was resting quietly and could not be seen. +Accordingly Kennedy and I hastened up to the laboratory to wait +until O'Connor could "deliver the goods." + +It was not long before one of O'Connor's men came in with +Whitecap. + +"While we're waiting," said Craig, "I wish you would just try this +little cut-out puzzle." + +I don't know what Whitecap thought, but I know I looked at Craig's +invitation to "play blocks" as a joke scarcely higher in order +than the number repetition of Snowbird. Whitecap did it, however, +sullenly, and under compulsion, in, I should say about two +minutes. + +"I have Armstrong here myself," called out the voice of our old +friend O'Connor, as he burst into the room. + +"Good!" exclaimed Kennedy. "I shall be ready for him in just a +second. Have Whitecap held here in the anteroom while you bring +Armstrong into the laboratory. By the way, Walter, that was +another of the Binet tests, putting a man at solving puzzles. It +involves reflective judgment, one of the factors in executive +ability. If Whitecap had been defective, it would have taken him +five minutes to do that puzzle, if at all. So you see he is not in +the class with Miss Sawtelle. The test shows him to be shrewd. He +doesn't even touch his own dope. Now for Armstrong." + +I knew enough of the underworld to set Whitecap down, however, as +a "lobbygow"--an agent for some one higher up, recruiting both the +gangs and the ranks of street women. + +Before us, as O'Connor led in Armstrong, was a little machine with +a big black cylinder. By means of wires and electrodes Kennedy +attached it to Armstrong's chest. + +"Now, Armstrong," he began in an even tone, "I want you to tell +the truth--the whole truth. You have been getting heroin tablets +from Whitecap." + +"Yes, sir," replied the dope fiend defiantly. + +"To-day you had to get them elsewhere." + +No answer. + +"Never mind," persisted Kennedy, still calm, "I know. Why, +Armstrong, you even robbed that girl of twenty-five tablets." + +"I did not," shot out the answer. + +"There were twenty-five short," accused Kennedy. + +The two faced each other. Craig repeated his remark. + +"Yes," replied Armstrong, "I held out the tablets, but it was not +for myself, I can get all I want. I did it because I didn't want +her to get above seventy-five a day. I have tried every way to +break her of the habit that has got me--and failed. But seventy- +five--is the limit!" + +"A pretty story!" exclaimed O'Connor. + +Craig laid his hand on his arm to check him, as he examined a +record registered on the cylinder of the machine. + +"By the way, Armstrong, I want you to write me out a note that I +can use to get a hundred heroin tablets. You can write it all but +the name of the place where I can get them." + +Armstrong was on the point of demurring, but the last sentence +reassured him. He would reveal nothing by it--yet. + +Still the man was trembling like a leaf. He wrote: + +"Give Whitecap one hundred shocks--A Victim." + +For a moment Kennedy studied the note carefully. "Oh--er--I +forgot, Armstrong, but a few days ago an anonymous letter was sent +to Mrs. Sutphen, signed 'A Friend.' Do you know anything about +it?" + +"A note?" the man repeated. "Mrs. Sutphen? I don't know anything +about any note, or Mrs. Sutphen either." + +Kennedy was still studying his record. "This," he remarked slowly, +"is what I call my psychophysical test for falsehood. Lying, when +it is practiced by an expert, is not easily detected by the most +careful scrutiny of the liar's appearance and manner. + +"However, successful means have been developed for the detection +of falsehood by the study of experimental psychology. Walter, I +think you will recall the test I used once, the psychophysical +factor of the character and rapidity of the mental process known +as the association of ideas?" + +I nodded acquiescence. + +"Well," he resumed, "in criminal jurisprudence, I find an even +more simple and more subjective test which has been recently +devised. Professor Stoerring of Bonn has found out that feelings +of pleasure and pain produce well-defined changes in respiration. +Similar effects are produced by lying, according to the famous +Professor Benussi of Graz. + +"These effects are unerring, unequivocal. The utterance of a false +statement increases respiration; of a true statement decreases. +The importance and scope of these discoveries are obvious." + +Craig was figuring rapidly on a piece of paper. "This is a certain +and objective criterion," he continued as he figured, "between +truth and falsehood. Even when a clever liar endeavors to escape +detection by breathing irregularly, it is likely to fail, for +Benussi has investigated and found that voluntary changes in +respiration don't alter the result. You see, the quotient obtained +by dividing the time of inspiration by the time of expiration +gives me the result." + +He looked up suddenly. "Armstrong, you are telling the truth about +some things--downright lies about others. You are a drug fiend-- +but I will be lenient with you, for one reason. Contrary to +everything that I would have expected, you are really trying to +save that poor half-witted girl whom you love from the terrible +habit that has gripped you. That is why you held out the quarter +of the one hundred tablets. That is why you wrote the note to Mrs. +Sutphen, hoping that she might be treated in some institution." + +Kennedy paused as a look of incredulity passed over Armstrong's +face. + +"Another thing you said was true," added Kennedy. "You can get all +the heroin you want. Armstrong, you will put the address of that +place on the outside of the note, or both you and Whitecap go to +jail. Snowbird will be left to her own devices--she can get all +the 'snow,' as some of you fiends call it, that she wants from +those who might exploit her." + +"Please, Mr. Kennedy," pleaded Armstrong. + +"No," interrupted Craig, before the drug fiend could finish. "That +is final. I must have the name of that place." + +In a shaky hand Armstrong wrote again. Hastily Craig stuffed the +note into his pocket, and ten minutes later we were mounting the +steps of a big brownstone house on a fashionable side street just +around the corner from Fifth Avenue. + +As the door was opened by an obsequious colored servant, Craig +handed him the scrap of paper signed by the password, "A Victim." + +Imitating the cough of a confirmed dope user, Craig was led into a +large waiting room. + +"You're in pretty bad shape, sah," commented the servant. + +Kennedy nudged me and, taking the cue, I coughed myself red in the +face. + +"Yes," he said. "Hurry--please." + +The servant knocked at a door, and as it was opened we caught a +glimpse of Mrs. Garrett in negligee. + +"What is it, Sam?" she asked. + +"Two gentlemen for some heroin tablets, ma'am." + +"Tell them to go to the chemical works--not to my office, Sam," +growled a man's voice inside. + +With a quick motion, Kennedy had Mrs. Garrett by the wrist. + +"I knew it," he ground out. "It was all a fake about how you got +the habit. You wanted to get it, so you could get and hold him. +And neither one of you would stop at anything, not even the murder +of your sister, to prevent the ruin of the devilish business you +have built up in manufacturing and marketing the stuff." + +He pulled the note from the hand of the surprised negro. "I had +the right address, the place where you sell hundreds of ounces of +the stuff a week--but I preferred to come to the doctor's office +where I could find you both." + +Kennedy had firmly twisted her wrist until, with a little scream +of pain, she let go the door handle. Then he gently pushed her +aside, and the next instant Craig had his hand inside the collar +of Dr. Coleman, society physician, proprietor of the Coleman +Chemical Works downtown, the real leader of the drug gang that was +debauching whole sections of the metropolis. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE FAMILY SKELETON + + +Surprised though we were at the unmasking of Dr. Coleman, there +was nothing to do but to follow the thing out. In such cases we +usually ran into the greatest difficulty--organized vice. This was +no exception. + +Even when cases involved only a clever individual or a prominent +family, it was the same. I recall, for example, the case of a +well-known family in a New York suburb, which was particularly +difficult. It began in a rather unusual manner, too. + +"Mr. Kennedy--I am ruined--ruined." + +It was early one morning that the telephone rang and I answered +it. A very excited German, breathless and incoherent, was +evidently at the other end of the wire. + +I handed the receiver to Craig and picked up the morning paper +lying on the table. + +"Minturn--dead?" I heard Craig exclaim. "In the paper this +morning? I'll be down to see you directly." + +Kennedy almost tore the paper from me. In the next to the end +column where late news usually is dropped was a brief account of +the sudden death of Owen Minturn, one of the foremost criminal +lawyers of the city, in Josephson's Baths downtown. + +It ended: "It is believed by the coroner that Mr. Minturn was +shocked to death and evidence is being sought to show that two +hundred and forty volts of electricity had been thrown into the +attorney's body while he was in the electric bath. Joseph +Josephson, the proprietor of the bath, who operated the +switchboard, is being held, pending the completion of the +inquiry." + +As Kennedy hastily ran his eye over the paragraphs, he became more +and more excited himself. + +"Walter," he cried, as he finished, "I don't believe that that was +an accident at all." + +"Why?" I asked. + +He already had his hat on, and I knew he was going to Josephson's +breakfastless. I followed reluctantly. + +"Because," he answered, as we hustled along in the early morning +crowd, "it was only yesterday afternoon that I saw Minturn at his +office and he made an appointment with me for this very morning. +He was a very secretive man, but he did tell me this much, that he +feared his life was in danger and that it was in some way +connected with that Pearcy case up in Stratfield, Connecticut, +where he has an estate. You have read of the case?" + +Indeed I had. It had seemed to me to be a particularly +inexplicable affair. Apparently a whole family had been poisoned +and a few days before old Mr. Randall Pearcy, a retired +manufacturer, had died after a brief but mysterious illness. + +Pearcy had been married a year or so ago to Annette Oakleigh, a +Broadway comic opera singer, who was his second wife. By his first +marriage he had had two children, a son, Warner, and a daughter, +Isabel. + +Warner Pearcy, I had heard, had blazed a vermilion trail along the +Great White Way, but his sister was of the opposite temperament, +interested in social work, and had attracted much attention by +organizing a settlement in the slums of Stratfield for the uplift +of the workers in the Pearcy and other mills. + +Broadway, as well as Stratfield, had already woven a fantastic +background, for the mystery and hints had been broadly made that +Annette Oakleigh had been indiscreetly intimate with a young +physician in the town, a Dr. Gunther, a friend, by the way, of +Minturn. "There has been no trial yet," went on Kennedy, "but +Minturn seems to have appeared before the coroner's jury at +Stratfield and to have asserted the innocence of Mrs. Pearcy and +that of Dr. Gunther so well that, although the jury brought in a +verdict of murder by poison by some one unknown, there has been no +mention of the name of anyone else. The coroner simply adjourned +the inquest so that a more careful analysis might be made of the +vital organs. And now comes this second tragedy in New York." + +"What was the poison?" I asked. "Have they found out yet?" + +"They are pretty sure, so Minturn told me, that it was lead +poisoning. The fact not generally known is," he added in a lower +tone, "that the cases were not confined to the Pearcy house. They +had even extended to Minturn's too, although about that he said +little yesterday. The estates up there adjoin, you know." + +Owen Minturn, I recalled, had gained a formidable reputation by +his successful handling of cases from the lowest strata of society +to the highest. Indeed it was a byword that his appearance in +court indicated two things--the guilt of the accused and a verdict +of acquittal. + +"Of course," Craig pursued as we were jolted from station to +station downtown, "you know they say that Minturn never kept a +record of a case. But written records were as nothing compared to +what that man must have carried only in his head." + +It was a common saying that, if Minturn should tell all he knew, +he might hang half a dozen prominent men in society. That was not +strictly true, perhaps, but it was certain that a revelation of +the things confided to him by clients which were never put down on +paper would have caused a series of explosions that would have +wrecked at least some portions of the social and financial world. +He had heard much and told little, for he had been a sort of +"father confessor." + +Had Minturn, I wondered, known the name of the real criminal? + +Josephson's was a popular bath on Forty-second Street, where many +of the "sun-dodgers" were accustomed to recuperate during the day +from their arduous pursuit of pleasure at night and prepare for +the resumption of their toil during the coming night. It was more +than that, however, for it had a reputation for being conducted +really on a high plane. + +We met Josephson downstairs. He had been released under bail, +though the place was temporarily closed and watched over by the +agents of the coroner and the police. Josephson appeared to be a +man of some education and quite different from what I had imagined +from hearing him over the telephone. + +"Oh, Mr. Kennedy," he exclaimed, "who now will come to my baths? +Last night they were crowded, but to-day--" + +He ended with an expressive gesture of his hands. + +"One customer I have surely lost, young Mr. Pearcy," he went on. + +"Warner Pearcy?" asked Craig. "Was he here last night?" + +"Nearly every night," replied Josephson, now glib enough as his +first excitement subsided and his command of English returned. "He +was a neighbor of Mr. Minturn's, I hear. Oh, what luck!" growled +Josephson as the name recalled him to his present troubles. + +"Well," remarked Kennedy with an attempt at reassurance as if to +gain the masseur's confidence, "I know as well as you that it is +often amazing what a tremendous shock a man may receive and yet +not be killed, and no less amazing how small a shock may kill. It +all depends on circumstances." + +Josephson shot a covert look at Kennedy. "Yes," he reiterated, +"but I cannot see how it COULD be. If the lights had become short- +circuited with the bath, that might have thrown a current into the +bath. But they were not. I know it." + +"Still," pursued Kennedy, watching him keenly, "it is not all a +question of current. To kill, the shock must pass through a vital +organ--the brain, the heart, the upper spinal cord. So, a small +shock may kill and a large one may not. If it passes in one foot +and out by the other, the current isn't likely to be as dangerous +as if it passes in by a hand or foot and then out by a foot or +hand. In one case it passes through no vital organ; in the other +it is very likely to do so. You see, the current can flow through +the body only when it has a place of entrance and a place of exit. +In all cases of accident from electric light wires, the victim is +touching some conductor--damp earth, salty earth, water, something +that gives the current an outlet and--" + +"But even if the lights had been short-circuited," interrupted +Josephson, "Mr. Minturn would have escaped injury unless he had +touched the taps of the bath. Oh, no, sir, accidents in the +medical use of electricity are rare. They don't happen here in my +establishment," he maintained stoutly. "The trouble was that the +coroner, without any knowledge of the physiological effects of +electricity on the body, simply jumped at once to the conclusion +that it was the electric bath that did it." + +"Then it was for medical treatment that Mr. Minturn was taking the +bath?" asked Kennedy, quickly taking up the point. + +"Yes, of course," answered the masseur, eager to explain. "You are +acquainted with the latest treatment for lead poisoning by means +of the electric bath?" + +Kennedy nodded. "I know that Sir Thomas Oliver, the English +authority who has written much on dangerous trades, has tried it +with marked success." + +"Well, sir, that was why Mr. Minturn was here. He came here +introduced by a Dr. Gunther of Stratfield." + +"Indeed?" remarked Kennedy colorlessly, though I could see that it +interested him, for evidently Minturn had said nothing of being +himself a sufferer from the poison. "May I see the bath?" + +"Surely," said Josephson, leading the way upstairs. + +It was an oaken tub with metal rods on the two long sides, from +which depended prismatic carbon rods. Kennedy examined it closely. + +"This is what we call a hydro-electric bath," Josephson explained. +"Those rods on the sides are the electrodes. You see there are no +metal parts in the tub itself. The rods are attached by wiring to +a wall switch out here." + +He pointed to the next room. Kennedy examined the switch with +care. + +"From it," went on Josephson, "wires lead to an accumulator +battery of perhaps thirty volts. It uses very little current. Dr. +Gunther tested it and found it all right." + +Craig leaned over the bath, and from the carbon electrodes scraped +off a white powder in minute crystals. + +"Ordinarily," Josephson pursued, "lead is eliminated by the skin +and kidneys. But now, as you know, it is being helped along by +electrolysis. I talked to Dr. Gunther about it. It is his opinion +that it is probably eliminated as a chloride from the tissues of +the body to the electrodes in the bath in which the patient is +wholly or partly immersed. On the positive electrodes we get the +peroxide. On the negative there is a spongy metallic form of lead. +But it is only a small amount." + +"The body has been removed?" asked Craig. + +"Not yet," the masseur replied. "The coroner has ordered it kept +here under guard until he makes up his mind what disposition to +have made of it." + +We were next ushered into a little room on the same floor, at the +door of which was posted an official from the coroner. + +"First of all," remarked Craig, as he drew back the sheet and +began, a minute examination of the earthly remains of the great +lawyer, "there are to be considered the safeguards of the human +body against the passage through it of a fatal electric current-- +the high electric resistance of the body itself. It is +particularly high when the current must pass through joints such +as wrists, knees, elbows, and quite high when the bones of the +head are concerned. Still, there might have been an incautious +application of the current to the head, especially when the +subject is a person of advanced age or latent cerebral disease, +though I don't know that that fits Mr. Minturn. That's strange," +he muttered, looking up, puzzled. "I can find no mark of a burn on +the body--absolutely no mark of anything." + +"That's what I say," put in Josephson, much pleased by what +Kennedy said, for he had been waiting anxiously to see what Craig +discovered on his own examination. "It's impossible." + +"It's all the more remarkable," went on Craig, half to himself and +ignoring Josephson, "because burns due to electric currents are +totally unlike those produced in other ways. They occur at the +point of contact, usually about the arms and hands, or the head. +Electricity is much to be feared when it involves the cranial +cavity." He completed his examination of the head which once had +carried secrets which themselves must have been incandescent. + +"Then, too, such burns are most often something more than +superficial, for considerable heat is developed which leads to +massive destruction and carbonization of the tissues to a +considerable depth. I have seen actual losses of substance--a lump +of killed flesh surrounded by healthy tissues. Besides, such burns +show an unexpected indolence when compared to the violent pains of +ordinary burns. Perhaps that is due to the destruction of the +nerve endings. How did Minturn die? Was he alone? Was he dead when +he was discovered?" + +"He was alone," replied Josephson, slowly endeavoring to tell it +exactly as he had seen it, "but that's the strange part of it. He +seemed to be suffering from a convulsion. I think he complained at +first of a feeling of tightness of his throat and a twitching of +the muscles of his hands and feet. Anyhow, he called for help. I +was up here and we rushed in. Dr. Gunther had just brought him and +then had gone away, after introducing him, and showing him the +bath." + +Josephson proceeded slowly, evidently having been warned that +anything he said might be used against him. "We carried him, when +he was this way, into this very room. But it was only for a short +time. Then came a violent convulsion. It seemed to extend rapidly +all over his body. His legs were rigid, his feet bent, his head +back. Why, he was resting only on his heels and the back of his +head. You see, Mr. Kennedy, that simply could not be the electric +shock." + +"Hardly," commented Kennedy, looking again at the body. "It looks +more like a tetanus convulsion. Yet there does not seem to be any +trace of a recent wound that might have caused lockjaw. How did he +look?" + +"Oh, his face finally became livid," replied Josephson. "He had a +ghastly, grinning expression, his eyes were wide, there was foam +on his mouth, and his breathing was difficult." + +"Not like tetanus, either," revised Craig. "There the convulsion +usually begins with the face and progresses to the other muscles. +Here it seems to have gone the other way." + +"That lasted a minute or so," resumed the masseur. "Then he sank +back--perfectly limp. I thought he was dead. But he was not. A +cold sweat broke out all over him and he was as if in a deep +sleep." + +"What did you do?" prompted Kennedy. + +"I didn't know what to do. I called an ambulance. But the moment +the door opened, his body seemed to stiffen again. He had one +other convulsion--and when he grew limp he was dead." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE LEAD POISONER + + +It was a gruesome recital and I was glad to leave the baths +finally with Kennedy. Josephson was quite evidently relieved at +the attitude Craig had taken toward the coroner's conclusion that +Minturn had been shocked to death. As far as I could see, however, +it added to rather than cleared up the mystery. + +Craig went directly uptown to his laboratory, in contrast with our +journey down, in abstracted silence, which was his manner when he +was trying to reason out some particularly knotty problem. + +As Kennedy placed the white crystals which he had scraped off the +electrodes of the tub on a piece of dark paper in the laboratory, +he wet the tip of his finger and touched just the minutest grain +to his tongue. + +The look on his face told me that something unexpected had +happened. He held a similar minute speck of the powder out to me. + +It was an intensely bitter taste and very persistent, for even +after we had rinsed out our mouths it seemed to remain, clinging +persistently to the tongue. + +He placed some of the grains in some pure water. They dissolved +only slightly, if at all. But in a tube in which he mixed a little +ether and chloroform they dissolved fairly readily. + +Next, without a word, he poured just a drop of strong sulphuric +acid on the crystals. There was not a change in them. + +Quickly he reached up into the rack and took down a bottle labeled +"Potassium Bichromate." + +"Let us see what an oxidizing agent will do," he remarked. + +As he gently added the bichromate, there came a most marvelous, +kaleidoscopic change. From being almost colorless, the crystals +turned instantly to a deep blue, then rapidly to purple, lilac, +red, and then the red slowly faded away and they became colorless +again. + +"What is it?" I asked, fascinated. "Lead?" + +"N-no," he replied, the lines of his forehead deepening. "No. This +is sulphate of strychnine." + +"Sulphate of strychnine?" I repeated in astonishment. + +"Yes," he reiterated slowly. "I might have suspected that from the +convulsions, particularly when Josephson said that the noise and +excitement of the arrival of the ambulance brought on the fatal +paroxysm. That is symptomatic. But I didn't fully realize it until +I got up here and tasted the stuff. Then I suspected, for that +taste is characteristic. Even one part diluted seventy thousand +times gives that decided bitter taste." + +"That's all very well," I remarked, recalling the intense +bitterness yet on my tongue. "But how do you suppose it was +possible for anyone to administer it? It seems to me that he would +have said something, if he had swallowed even the minutest part of +it. He must have known it. Yet apparently he didn't. At least he +said nothing about it--or else Josephson is concealing something." + +"Did he swallow it--necessarily?" queried Kennedy, in a tone +calculated to show me that the chemical world, at least, was full +of a number of things, and there was much to learn. + +"Well, I suppose if it had been given hypodermically, it would +have a more violent effect," I persisted, trying to figure out a +way that the poison might have been given. + +"Even more unlikely," objected Craig, with a delight at +discovering a new mystery that to me seemed almost fiendish. "No, +he would certainly have felt a needle, have cried out and said +something about it, if anyone had tried that. This poisoned needle +business isn't as easy as some people seem to think nowadays." + +"Then he might have absorbed it from the water," I insisted, +recalling a recent case of Kennedy's and adding, "by osmosis." + +"You saw how difficult it was to dissolve in water," Craig +rejected quietly. + +"Well, then," I concluded in desperation. "How could it have been +introduced?" + +"I have a theory," was all he would say, reaching for the railway +guide, "but it will take me up to Stratfield to prove it." + +His plan gave us a little respite and we paused long enough to +lunch, for which breathing space I was duly thankful. The forenoon +saw us on the train, Kennedy carrying a large and cumbersome +package which he brought down with him from the laboratory and +which we took turns in carrying, though he gave no hint of its +contents. + +We arrived in Stratfield, a very pretty little mill town, in the +middle of the afternoon, and with very little trouble were +directed to the Pearcy house, after Kennedy had checked the parcel +with the station agent. + +Mrs. Pearcy, to whom we introduced ourselves as reporters of the +Star, was a tall blonde. I could not help thinking that she made a +particularly dashing widow. With her at the time was Isabel +Pearcy, a slender girl whose sensitive lips and large, earnest +eyes indicated a fine, high-strung nature. + +Even before we had introduced ourselves, I could not help thinking +that there was a sort of hostility between the women. Certainly it +was evident that there was as much difference in temperament as +between the butterfly and the bee. + +"No," replied the elder woman quickly to a request from Kennedy +for an interview, "there is nothing that I care to say to the +newspapers. They have said too much already about this-- +unfortunate affair." + +Whether it was imagination or not, I fancied that there was an air +of reserve about both women. It struck me as a most peculiar +household. What was it? Was each suspicious of the other? Was each +concealing something? + +I managed to steal a glance at Kennedy's face to see whether there +was anything to confirm my own impression. He was watching Mrs. +Pearcy closely as she spoke. In fact his next few questions, +inconsequential as they were, seemed addressed to her solely for +the purpose of getting her to speak. + +I followed his eyes and found that he was watching her mouth, in +reality. As she answered I noted her beautiful white teeth. +Kennedy himself had trained me to notice small things, and at the +time, though I thought it was trivial, I recall noticing on her +gums, where they joined the teeth, a peculiar bluish-black line. + +Kennedy had been careful to address only Mrs. Pearcy at first, and +as he continued questioning her, she seemed to realize that he was +trying to lead her along. + +"I must positively refuse to talk any more," she repeated finally, +rising. "I am not to be tricked into saying anything." + +She had left the room, evidently expecting that Isabel would +follow. She did not. In fact I felt that Miss Pearcy was visibly +relieved by the departure of her stepmother. She seemed anxious to +ask us something and now took the first opportunity. + +"Tell me," she said eagerly, "how did Mr. Minturn die? What do +they really think of it in New York?" + +"They think it is poisoning," replied Craig, noting the look on +her face. + +She betrayed nothing, as far as I could see, except a natural +neighborly interest. "Poisoning?" she repeated. "By what?" + +"Lead poisoning," he replied evasively. + +She said nothing. It was evident that, slip of a girl though she +was, she was quite the match of anyone who attempted leading +questions. Kennedy changed his method. + +"You will pardon me," he said apologetically, "for recalling what +must be distressing. But we newspapermen often have to do things +and ask questions that are distasteful. I believe it is rumored +that your father suffered from lead poisoning?" + +"Oh, I don't know what it was--none of us do," she cried, almost +pathetically. "I had been living at the settlement until lately. +When father grew worse, I came home. He had such strange visions-- +hallucinations, I suppose you would call them. In the daytime he +would be so very morose and melancholy. Then, too, there were +terrible pains in his stomach, and his eyesight began to fail. +Yes, I believe that Dr. Gunther did say it was lead poisoning. +But--they have said so many things--so many things," she repeated, +plainly distressed at the subject of her recent bereavement. + +"Your brother is not at home?" asked Kennedy, quickly changing the +subject. + +"No," she answered, then with a flash as though lifting the veil +of a confidence, added: "You know, neither Warner nor I have lived +here much this year. He has been in New York most of the time and +I have been at the settlement, as I already told you." + +She hesitated, as if wondering whether she should say more, then +added quickly: "It has been repeated often enough; there is no +reason why I shouldn't say it to you. Neither of us exactly +approved of father's marriage." + +She checked herself and glanced about, somewhat with the air of +one who has suddenly considered the possibility of being +overheard. + +"May I have a glass of water?" asked Kennedy suddenly. + +"Why, certainly," she answered, going to the door, apparently +eager for an excuse to find out whether there was some one on the +other side of it. + +There was not, nor any indication that there had been. + +"Evidently she does not have any suspicions of THAT," remarked +Kennedy in an undertone, half to himself. + +I had no chance to question him, for she returned almost +immediately. Instead of drinking the water, however, he held it +carefully up to the light. It was slightly turbid. + +"You drink the water from the tap?" he asked, as he poured some of +it into a sterilized vial which he drew quickly from his vest +pocket. + +"Certainly," she replied, for the moment nonplussed at his strange +actions. "Everybody drinks the town water in Stratfield." + +A few more questions, none of which were of importance, and +Kennedy and I excused ourselves. + +At the gate, instead of turning toward the town, however, Kennedy +went on and entered the grounds of the Minturn house next door. +The lawyer, I had understood, was a widower and, though he lived +in Stratfield only part of the time, still maintained his house +there. + +We rang the bell and a middle-aged housekeeper answered. + +"I am from the water company," he began politely. "We are testing +the water, perhaps will supply consumers with filters. Can you let +me have a sample?" + +She did not demur, but invited us in. As she drew the water, Craig +watched her hands closely. She seemed to have difficulty in +holding the glass, and as she handed it to him, I noticed a +peculiar hanging down of the wrist. Kennedy poured the sample into +a second vial, and I noticed that it was turbid, too. With no +mention of the tragedy to her employer, he excused himself, and we +walked slowly back to the road. + +Between the two houses Kennedy paused, and for several moments +appeared to be studying them. + +We walked slowly back along the road to the town. As we passed the +local drug store, Kennedy turned and sauntered in. + +He found it easy enough to get into conversation with the +druggist, after making a small purchase, and in the course of a +few minutes we found ourselves gossiping behind the partition that +shut off the arcana of the prescription counter from the rest of +the store. + +Gradually Kennedy led the conversation around to the point which +he wanted, and asked, "I wish you'd let me fix up a little +sulphureted hydrogen." + +"Go ahead," granted the druggist good-naturedly. "I guess you can +do it. You know as much about drugs as I do. I can stand the +smell, if you can." + +Kennedy smiled and set to work. + +Slowly he passed the gas through the samples of water he had taken +from the two houses. As he did so the gas, bubbling through, made +a blackish precipitate. + +"What is it?" asked the druggist curiously. + +"Lead sulphide," replied Kennedy, stroking his chin. "This is an +extremely delicate test. Why, one can get a distinct brownish +tinge if lead is present in even incredibly minute quantities." + +He continued to work over the vials ranged on the table before +him. + +"The water contains, I should say, from ten to fifteen hundredths +of a grain of lead to the gallon," he remarked finally. + +"Where did it come from?" asked the druggist, unable longer to +restrain his curiosity. + +"I got it up at Pearcy's," Kennedy replied frankly, turning to +observe whether the druggist might betray any knowledge of it. + +"That's strange," he replied in genuine surprise. "Our water in +Stratfield is supplied by a company to a large area, and it has +always seemed to me to be of great organic purity." + +"But the pipes are of lead, are they not?" asked Kennedy. + +"Y-yes," answered the druggist, "I think in most places the +service pipes are of lead. But," he added earnestly as he saw the +implication of his admission, "water has never to my knowledge +been found to attack the pipes so as to affect its quality +injuriously." + +He turned his own faucet and drew a glassful. "It is normally +quite clear," he added, holding the glass up. + +It was in fact perfectly clear, and when he passed some of the gas +through it nothing happened at all. + +Just then a man lounged into the store. + +"Hello, Doctor," greeted the druggist. "Here are a couple of +fellows that have been investigating the water up at Pearcy's. +They've found lead in it. That ought to interest you. This is Dr. +Gunther," he introduced, turning to us. + +It was an unexpected encounter, one I imagine that Kennedy might +have preferred to take place under other circumstances. But he was +equal to the occasion. + +"We've been sent up here to look into the case for the New York +Star," Kennedy said quickly. "I intended to come around to see +you, but you have saved me the trouble." + +Dr. Gunther looked from one of us to the other. "Seems to me the +New York papers ought to have enough to do without sending men all +over the country making news," he grunted. + +"Well," drawled Kennedy quietly, "there seems to be a most +remarkable situation up there at Pearcy's and Minturn's, too. As +nearly as I can make out several people there are suffering from +unmistakable signs of lead poisoning. There are the pains in the +stomach, the colic, and then on the gums is that characteristic +line of plumbic sulphide, the distinctive mark produced by lead. +There is the wrist-drop, the eyesight affected, the partial +paralysis, the hallucinations and a condition in old Pearcy's case +almost bordering on insanity--to enumerate the symptoms that seem +to be present in varying degrees in various persons in the two +houses." + +Gunther looked at Kennedy, as if in doubt just how to take him. + +"That's what the coroner says, too--lead poisoning," put in the +druggist, himself as keen as anyone else for a piece of local +news, and evidently not averse to stimulating talk from Dr. +Gunther, who had been Pearcy's physician. + +"That all seems to be true enough," replied Gunther at length +guardedly. "I recognized that some time ago." + +"Why do you think it affects each so differently?" asked the +druggist. + +Dr. Gunther settled himself easily back in a chair to speak as one +having authority. "Well," he began slowly, "Miss Pearcy, of +course, hasn't been living there much until lately. As for the +others, perhaps this gentleman here from the Star knows that lead, +once absorbed, may remain latent in the system and then make +itself felt. It is like arsenic, an accumulative poison, slowly +collecting in the body until the limit is reached, or until the +body, becoming weakened from some other cause, gives way to it." + +He shifted his position slowly, and went on, as if defending the +course of action he had taken in the case. + +"Then, too, you know, there is an individual as well as family and +sex susceptibility to lead. Women are especially liable to lead +poisoning, but then perhaps in this case Mrs. Pearcy comes of a +family that is very resistant. There are many factors. Personally, +I don't think Pearcy himself was resistant. Perhaps Minturn was +not, either. At any rate, after Pearcy's death, it was I who +advised Minturn to take the electrolysis cure in New York. I took +him down there," added Gunther. "Confound it, I wish I had stayed +with him. But I always found Josephson perfectly reliable in +hydrotherapy with other patients I sent to him, and I understood +that he had been very successful with cases sent to him by many +physicians in the city." He paused and I waited anxiously to see +whether Kennedy would make some reference to the discovery of the +strychnine salts. + +"Have you any idea how the lead poisoning could have been caused?" +asked Kennedy instead. + +Dr. Gunther shook his head. "It is a puzzle to me," he answered. +"I am sure of only one thing. It could not be from working in +lead, for it is needless to say that none of them worked." + +"Food?" Craig suggested. + +The doctor considered. "I had thought of that. I know that many +cases of lead poisoning have been traced to the presence of the +stuff in ordinary foods, drugs and drinks. I have examined the +foods, especially the bread. They don't use canned goods. I even +went so far as to examine the kitchen ware to see if there could +be anything wrong with the glazing. They don't drink wines and +beers, into which now and then the stuff seems to get." + +"You seem to have a good grasp of the subject," flattered Kennedy, +as we rose to go. "I can hardly blame you for neglecting the +water, since everyone here seems to be so sure of the purity of +the supply." + +Gunther said nothing. I was not surprised, for, at the very least, +no one likes to have an outsider come in and put his finger +directly on the raw spot. What more there might be to it, I could +only conjecture. + +We left the druggist's and Kennedy, glancing at his watch, +remarked: "If you will go down to the station, Walter, and get +that package we left there, I shall be much obliged to you. I want +to make just one more stop, at the office of the water company, +and I think I shall just about have time for it. There's a pretty +good restaurant across the street. Meet me there, and by that time +I shall know whether to carry out a little plan I have outlined or +not." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +THE ELECTROLYTIC MURDER + + +We dined leisurely, which seemed strange to me, for it was not +Kennedy's custom to let moments fly uselessly when he was on a +case. However, I soon found out why it was. He was waiting for +darkness. + +As soon as the lights began to glow in the little stores on the +main street, we sallied forth, taking the direction of the Pearcy +and Minturn houses. + +On the way he dropped into the hardware store and purchased a +light spade and one of the small pocket electric flashlights, +about which he wrapped a piece of cardboard in such a way as to +make a most effective dark lantern. + +We trudged along in silence, occasionally changing from carrying +the heavy package to the light spade. + +Both the Pearcy and Minturn houses were in nearly total darkness +when we arrived. They set well back from the road and were +plentifully shielded by shrubbery. Then, too, at night it was not +a much frequented neighborhood. We could easily hear the footsteps +of anyone approaching on the walk, and an occasional automobile +gliding past did not worry us in the least. + +"I have calculated carefully from an examination of the water +company's map," said Craig, "just where the water pipe of the two +houses branches off from the main in the road." + +After a measurement or two from some landmark, we set to work a +few feet inside, under cover of the bushes and the shadows, like +two grave diggers. + +Kennedy had been wielding the spade vigorously for a few minutes +when it touched something metallic. There, just beneath the frost +line, we came upon the service pipe. + +He widened the hole, and carefully scraped off the damp earth that +adhered to the pipe. Next he found a valve where he shut off the +water and cut out a small piece of the pipe. + +"I hope they don't suspect anything like this in the houses with +their water cut off," he remarked as he carefully split the piece +open lengthwise and examined it under the light. + +On the interior of the pipe could be seen patchy lumps of white +which projected about an eighth of an inch above the internal +surface. As the pipe dried in the warm night air, they could +easily be brushed off as a white powder. + +"What is it--strychnine?" I asked. + +"No," he replied, regarding it thoughtfully with some +satisfaction. "That is lead carbonate. There can be no doubt that +the turbidity of the water was due to this powder in suspension. A +little dissolves in the water, while the scales and incrustations +in fine particles are carried along in the current. As a matter of +fact the amount necessary to make the water poisonous need not be +large." + +He applied a little instrument to the cut ends of the pipe. As I +bent over, I could see the needle on its dial deflected just a +bit. + +"My voltmeter," he said, reading it, "shows that there is a +current of about 1.8 volts passing through this pipe all the +time." + +"Electrolysis of water pipes!" I exclaimed, thinking of statements +I had heard by engineers. "That's what they mean by stray or +vagabond currents, isn't it?" + +He had seized the lantern and was eagerly following up and down +the line of the water pipe. At last he stopped, with a low +exclamation, at a point where an electric light wire supplying the +Minturn cottage crossed overhead. Fastened inconspicuously to the +trunk of a tree which served as a support for the wire was another +wire which led down from it and was buried in the ground. + +Craig turned up the soft earth as fast as he could, until he +reached the pipe at this point. There was the buried wire wound +several times around it. + +As quickly and as neatly as he could he inserted a connection +between the severed ends of the pipe to restore the flow of water +to the houses, turned on the water and covered up the holes he had +dug. Then he unwrapped the package which we had tugged about all +day, and in a narrow path between the bushes which led to the +point where the wire had tapped the electric light feed he placed +in a shallow hole in the ground a peculiar apparatus. + +As nearly as I could make it out, it consisted of two flat +platforms between which, covered over and projected, was a slip of +paper which moved forward, actuated by clockwork, and pressed on +by a sort of stylus. Then he covered it over lightly with dirt so +that, unless anyone had been looking for it, it would never be +noticed. + +It was late when we reached the city again, but Kennedy had one +more piece of work and that devolved on me. All the way down on +the train he had been writing and rewriting something. + +"Walter," he said, as the train pulled into the station, "I want +that published in to-morrow's papers." + +I looked over what he had written. It was one of the most +sensational stories I have ever fathered, beginning, "Latest of +the victims of the unknown poisoner of whole families in +Stratfield, Connecticut, is Miss Isabel Pearcy, whose father, +Randall Pearcy, died last week." + +I knew that it was a "plant" of some kind, for so far he had +discovered no evidence that Miss Pearcy had been affected. What +his purpose was, I could not guess, but I got the story printed. + +The next morning early Kennedy was quietly at work in the +laboratory. + +"What is this treatment of lead poisoning by electrolysis?" I +asked, now that there had come a lull when I might get an +intelligible answer. "How does it work?" + +"Brand new, Walter," replied Kennedy. "It has been discovered that +ions will flow directly through the membranes." + +"Ions?" I repeated. "What are ions?" + +"Travelers," he answered, smiling, "so named by Faraday from the +Greek verb, io, to go. They are little positive and negative +charges of electricity of which molecules are composed. You know +some believe now that matter is really composed of electrical +energy. I think I can explain it best by a simile I use with my +classes. It is as though you had a ballroom in which the dancers +in couples represent the neutral molecules. There are a certain +number of isolated ladies and gentlemen--dissociated ions--" "Who +don't know these new dances?" I interrupted. + +"They all know this dance," he laughed. "But, to be serious in the +simile, suppose at one end of the room there is a large mirror and +at the other a buffet with cigars and champagne. What happens to +the dissociated ions?" + +"Well, I suppose you want me to say that the ladies gather about +the mirror and the men about the buffet." + +"Exactly. And some of the dancing partners separate and follow the +crowd. Well, that room presents a picture of what happens in an +electrolytic solution at the moment when the electric current is +passing through it." + +"Thanks," I laughed. "That was quite adequate to my immature +understanding." + +Kennedy continued at work, checking up and arranging his data +until the middle of the afternoon, when he went up to Stratfield. + +Having nothing better to do, I wandered out about town in the hope +of running across some one with whom to while away the hours until +Kennedy returned. I found out that, since yesterday, Broadway had +woven an entirely new background for the mystery. Now it was +rumored that the lawyer Minturn himself had been on very intimate +terms with Mrs. Pearcy. I did not pay much attention to the rumor, +for I knew that Broadway is constitutionally unable to believe +that anybody is straight. + +Kennedy had commissioned me to keep in touch with Josephson and I +finally managed to get around to the Baths, to find them still +closed. + +As I was talking with him, a very muddy and dusty car pulled up at +the door and a young man whose face was marred by the red +congested blood vessels that are in some a mark of dissipation +burst in on us. + +"What--closed up yet--Joe?" he asked. "Haven't they taken +Minturn's body away?" + +"Yes, it was sent up to Stratfield to-day," replied the masseur, +"but the coroner seems to want to worry me all he can." + +"Too bad. I was up almost all last night, and to-day I have been +out in my car--tired to death. Thought I might get some rest here. +Where are you sending the boys--to the Longacre?" + +"Yes. They'll take good care of you till I open up again. Hope to +see you back again, then, Mr. Pearcy," he added, as the young man +turned and hurried out to his car again. "That was that young +Pearcy, you know. Nice boy--but living the life too fast. What's +Kennedy doing--anything?" + +I did not like the jaunty bravado of the masseur which now seemed +to be returning, since nothing definite had taken shape. I +determined that he should not pump me, as he evidently was trying +to do. I had at least fulfilled Kennedy's commission and felt that +the sooner I left Josephson the better for both of us. + +I was surprised at dinner to receive a wire from Craig saying that +he was bringing down Dr. Gunther, Mrs. Pearcy and Isabel to New +York and asking me to have Warner Pearcy and Josephson at the +laboratory at nine o'clock. + +By strategy I managed to persuade Pearcy to come, and as for +Josephson, he could not very well escape, though I saw that as +long as nothing more had happened, he was more interested in +"fixing" the police so that he could resume business than anything +else. + +As we entered the laboratory that night, Kennedy, who had left his +party at a downtown hotel to freshen up, met us each at the door. +Instead of conducting us in front of his laboratory table, which +was the natural way, he led us singly around through the narrow +space back of it. + +I recall that as I followed him, I half imagined that the floor +gave way just a bit, and there flashed over me, by a queer +association of ideas, the recollection of having visited an +amusement park not long before where merely stepping on an +innocent-looking section of the flooring had resulted in a +tremendous knocking and banging beneath, much to the delight of +the lovers of slap-stick humor. This was serious business, +however, and I quickly banished the frivolous thought from my +mind. + +"The discovery of poison, and its identification," began Craig at +last when we had all arrived and were seated about him, "often +involves not only the use of chemistry but also a knowledge of the +chemical effect of the poison on the body, and the gross as well +as microscopic changes which it produces in various tissues and +organs--changes, some due to mere contact, others to the actual +chemicophysiological reaction between the poison and the body." + +His hand was resting on the poles of a large battery, as he +proceeded: "Every day the medical detective plays a more and more +important part in the detection of crime, and I might say that, +except in the case of crime complicated by a lunacy plea, his work +has earned the respect of the courts and of detectives, while in +the case of insanity the discredit is the fault rather of the law +itself. The ways in which the doctor can be of use in untangling +the facts in many forms of crime have become so numerous that the +profession of medical detective may almost be called a specialty." + +Kennedy repeated what he had already told me about electrolysis, +then placed between the poles of the battery a large piece of raw +beef. + +He covered the negative electrode with blotting paper and soaked +it in a beaker near at hand. + +"This solution," he explained, "is composed of potassium iodide. +In this other beaker I have a mixture of ordinary starch." + +He soaked the positive electrode in the starch and then jammed the +two against the soft red meat. Then he applied the current. + +A few moments later he withdrew the positive electrode. Both it +and the meat under it were blue! + +"What has happened?" he asked. "The iodine ions have actually +passed through the beef to the positive pole and the paper on the +electrode. Here we have starch iodide." + +It was a startling idea, this of the introduction of a substance +by electrolysis. + +"I may say," he resumed, "that the medical view of electricity is +changing, due in large measure to the genius of the Frenchman, Dr. +Leduc. The body, we know, is composed largely of water, with salts +of soda and potash. It is an excellent electrolyte. Yet most +doctors regard the introduction of substances by the electric +current as insignificant or nonexistent. But on the contrary the +introduction of drugs by electrolysis is regular and far from +being insignificant may very easily bring about death. + +"That action," he went on, looking from one of us to another, "may +be therapeutic, as in the cure for lead poisoning by removing the +lead, or it may be toxic--as in the case of actually introducing +such a poison as strychnine into the body by the same forces that +will remove the lead." + +He paused a moment, to enforce the point which had already been +suggested. I glanced about hastily. If anyone in his little +audience was guilty, no one betrayed it, for all were following +him, fascinated. Yet in the wildly throbbing brain of some one of +them the guilty knowledge must be seared indelibly. Would the mere +accusation be enough to dissociate the truth from, that brain or +would Kennedy have to resort to other means? + +"Some one," he went on, in a low, tense voice, leaning forward, +"some one who knew this effect placed strychnine salts on one of +the electrodes of the bath which Owen Minturn was to use." + +He did not pause. Evidently he was planning to let the force of +his exposure be cumulative, until from its sheer momentum it +carried everything before it. + +"Walter," he ordered quickly. "Lend me a hand." + +Together we moved the laboratory table as he directed. + +There, in the floor, concealed by the shadow, he had placed the +same apparatus which I had seen him bury in the path between the +Pearcy and Minturn estates at Stratfield. + +We scarcely breathed. + +"This," he explained rapidly, "is what is known as a kinograph-- +the invention of Professor HeleShaw of London. It enables me to +identify a person by his or her walk. Each of you as you entered +this room has passed over this apparatus and has left a different +mark on the paper which registers." + +For a moment he stopped, as if gathering strength for the final +assault. + +"Until late this afternoon I had this kinograph secreted at a +certain place in Stratfield. Some one had tampered with the leaden +water pipes and the electric light cable. Fearful that the lead +poisoning brought on by electrolysis might not produce its result +in the intended victim, that person took advantage of the new +discoveries in electrolysis to complete that work by introducing +the deadly strychnine during the very process of cure of the lead +poisoning." + +He slapped down a copy of a newspaper. "In the news this morning I +told just enough of what I had discovered and colored it in such a +way that I was sure I would arouse apprehension. I did it because +I wanted to make the criminal revisit the real scene of the crime. +There was a double motive now--to remove the evidence and to check +the spread of the poisoning." + +He reached over, tore off the paper with a quick, decisive motion, +and laid it beside another strip, a little discolored by moisture, +as though the damp earth had touched it. + +"That person, alarmed lest something in the cleverly laid plot, +might be discovered, went to a certain spot to remove the traces +of the diabolical work which were hidden there. My kinograph shows +the footsteps, shows as plainly as if I had been present, the +exact person who tried to obliterate the evidence," + +An ashen pallor seemed to spread over the face of Miss Pearcy, as +Kennedy shot out the words. + +"That person," he emphasized, "had planned to put out of the way +one who had brought disgrace on the Pearcy family. It was an act +of private justice." + +Mrs. Pearcy could stand the strain no longer. She had broken down +and was weeping incoherently. I strained my ears to catch what she +was murmuring. It was Minturn's name, not Gunther's, that was on +her lips. + +"But," cried Kennedy, raising an accusatory finger from the +kinograph tracing and pointing it like the finger of Fate itself, +"but the self-appointed avenger forgot that the leaden water pipe +was common to the two houses. Old Mr. Pearcy, the wronged, died +first. Isabel has guessed the family skeleton--has tried hard to +shield you, but, Warner Pearcy, you are the murderer!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE EUGENIC BRIDE + + +Scandal, such as that which Kennedy unearthed in this Pearcy case, +was never much to his liking, yet he seemed destined, about this +period of his career, to have a good deal of it. + +We had scarcely finished with the indictment that followed the +arrest of young Pearcy, when we were confronted by a situation +which was as unique as it was intensely modern. + +"There's absolutely no insanity in Eugenia's family," I heard a +young man remark to Kennedy, as my key turned in the lock of the +laboratory door. + +For a moment I hesitated about breaking in on a confidential +conference, then reflected that, as they had probably already +heard me at the lock, I had better go in and excuse myself. + +As I swung the door open, I saw a young man pacing up and down the +laboratory nervously, too preoccupied even to notice the slight +noise I had made. + +He paused in his nervous walk and faced Kennedy, his back to me. + +"Kennedy," he said huskily, "I wouldn't care if there was insanity +in her family--for, my God!--the tragedy of it all now--I love +her!" + +He turned, following Kennedy's eyes in my direction, and I saw on +his face the most haggard, haunting look of anxiety that I had +ever seen on a young person. + +Instantly I recognized from the pictures I had seen in the +newspapers young Quincy Atherton, the last of this famous line of +the family, who had attracted a great deal of attention several +months previously by what the newspapers had called his search +through society for a "eugenics bride," to infuse new blood into +the Atherton stock. + +"You need have no fear that Mr. Jameson will be like the other +newspaper men," reassured Craig, as he introduced us, mindful of +the prejudice which the unpleasant notoriety of Atherton's +marriage had already engendered in his mind. + +I recalled that when I had first heard of Atherton's "eugenic +marriage," I had instinctively felt a prejudice against the very +idea of such cold, calculating, materialistic, scientific mating, +as if one of the last fixed points were disappearing in the chaos +of the social and sex upheaval. + +Now, I saw that one great fact of life must always remain. We +might ride in hydroaeroplanes, delve into the very soul by +psychanalysis, perhaps even run our machines by the internal +forces of radium--even marry according to Galton or Mendel. But +there would always be love, deep passionate love of the man for +the woman, love which all the discoveries of science might perhaps +direct a little less blindly, but the consuming flame of which not +all the coldness of science could ever quench. No tampering with +the roots of human nature could ever change the roots. + +I must say that I rather liked young Atherton. He had a frank, +open face, the most prominent feature of which was his somewhat +aristocratic nose. Otherwise he impressed one as being the victim +of heredity in faults, if at all serious, against which he was +struggling heroically. + +It was a most pathetic story which he told, a story of how his +family had degenerated from the strong stock of his ancestors +until he was the last of the line. He told of his education, how +he had fallen, a rather wild youth bent in the footsteps of his +father who had been a notoriously good clubfellow, under the +influence of a college professor, Dr. Crafts, a classmate of his +father's, of how the professor had carefully and persistently +fostered in him an idea that had completely changed him. + +"Crafts always said it was a case of eugenics against euthenics," +remarked Atherton, "of birth against environment. He would tell me +over and over that birth gave me the clay, and it wasn't such bad +clay after all, but that environment would shape the vessel." + +Then Atherton launched into a description of how he had striven to +find a girl who had the strong qualities his family germ plasm +seemed to have lost, mainly, I gathered, resistance to a taint +much like manic depressive insanity. And as he talked, it was +borne in on me that, after all, contrary to my first prejudice, +there was nothing very romantic indeed about disregarding the +plain teachings of science on the subject of marriage and one's +children. + +In his search for a bride, Dr. Crafts, who had founded a sort of +Eugenics Bureau, had come to advise him. Others may have looked up +their brides in Bradstreet's, or at least the Social Register. +Atherton had gone higher, had been overjoyed to find that a girl +he had met in the West, Eugenia Gilman, measured up to what his +friend told him were the latest teachings of science. He had been +overjoyed because, long before Crafts had told him, he had found +out that he loved her deeply. + +"And now," he went on, half choking with emotion, "she is +apparently suffering from just the same sort of depression as I +myself might suffer from if the recessive trait became active." + +"What do you mean, for instance?" asked Craig. + +"Well, for one thing, she has the delusion that my relatives are +persecuting her." + +"Persecuting her?" repeated Craig, stifling the remark that that +was not in itself a new thing in this or any other family. "How?" + +"Oh, making her feel that, after all, it is Atherton family rather +than Gilman health that counts--little remarks that when our baby +is born, they hope it will resemble Quincy rather than Eugenia, +and all that sort of thing, only worse and more cutting, until the +thing has begun to prey on her mind." + +"I see," remarked Kennedy thoughtfully. "But don't you think this +is a case for a--a doctor, rather than a detective?" + +Atherton glanced up quickly. "Kennedy," he answered slowly, "where +millions of dollars are involved, no one can guess to what lengths +the human mind will go--no one, except you." + +"Then you have suspicions of something worse?" + +"Y-yes--but nothing definite. Now, take this case. If I should die +childless, after my wife, the Atherton estate would descend to my +nearest relative, Burroughs Atherton, a cousin." + +"Unless you willed it to--" + +"I have already drawn a will," he interrupted, "and in case I +survive Eugenia and die childless, the money goes to the founding +of a larger Eugenics Bureau, to prevent in the future, as much as +possible, tragedies such as this of which I find myself a part. If +the case is reversed, Eugenia will get her third and the remainder +will go to the Bureau or the Foundation, as I call the new +venture. But," and here young Atherton leaned forward and fixed +his large eyes keenly on us, "Burroughs might break the will. He +might show that I was of unsound mind, or that Eugenia was, too." + +"Are there no other relatives?" + +"Burroughs is the nearest," he replied, then added frankly, "I +have a second cousin, a young lady named Edith Atherton, with whom +both Burroughs and I used to be very friendly." + +It was evident from the way he spoke that he had thought a great +deal about Edith Atherton, and still thought well of her. + +"Your wife thinks it is Burroughs who is persecuting her?" asked +Kennedy. + +Atherton shrugged his shoulders. + +"Does she get along badly with Edith? She knows her I presume?" + +"Of course. The fact is that since the death of her mother, Edith +has been living with us. She is a splendid girl, and all alone in +the world now, and I had hopes that in New York she might meet +some one and marry well." + +Kennedy was looking squarely at Atherton, wondering whether he +might ask a question without seeming impertinent. Atherton caught +the look, read it, and answered quite frankly, "To tell the truth, +I suppose I might have married Edith, before I met Eugenia, if +Professor Crafts had not dissuaded me. But it wouldn't have been +real love--nor wise. You know," he went on more frankly, now that +the first hesitation was over and he realized that if he were to +gain anything at all by Kennedy's services, there must be the +utmost candor between them, "you know cousins may marry if the +stocks are known to be strong. But if there is a defect, it is +almost sure to be intensified. And so I--I gave up the idea--never +had it, in fact, so strongly as to propose to her. And when I met +Eugenia all the Athertons on the family tree couldn't have bucked +up against the combination." + +He was deadly in earnest as he arose from the chair into which he +had dropped after I came in. + +"Oh, it's terrible--this haunting fear, this obsession that I have +had, that, in spite of all I have tried to do, some one, somehow, +will defeat me. Then comes the situation, just at a time when +Eugenia and I feel that we have won against Fate, and she in +particular needs all the consideration and care in the world--and- +-and I am defeated." + +Atherton was again pacing the laboratory. + +"I have my car waiting outside," he pleaded. "I wish you would go +with me to see Eugenia--now." + +It was impossible to resist him. Kennedy rose and I followed, not +without a trace of misgiving. + +The Atherton mansion was one of the old houses of the city, a +somber stone dwelling with a garden about it on a downtown square, +on which business was already encroaching. We were admitted by a +servant who seemed to walk over the polished floors with stealthy +step as if there was something sacred about even the Atherton +silence. As we waited in a high-ceilinged drawing-room with +exquisite old tapestries on the walls, I could not help feeling +myself the influence of wealth and birth that seemed to cry out +from every object of art in the house. + +On the longer wall of the room, I saw a group of paintings. One, I +noted especially, must have been Atherton's ancestor, the founder +of the line. There was the same nose in Atherton, for instance, a +striking instance of heredity. I studied the face carefully. There +was every element of strength in it, and I thought instinctively +that, whatever might have been the effects of in-breeding and bad +alliances, there must still be some of that strength left in the +present descendant of the house of Atherton. The more I thought +about the house, the portrait, the whole case, the more unable was +I to get out of my head a feeling that though I had not been in +such a position before, I had at least read or heard something of +which it vaguely reminded me. + +Eugenia Atherton was reclining listlessly in her room in a deep +leather easy chair, when Atherton took us up at last. She did not +rise to greet us, but I noted that she was attired in what Kennedy +once called, as we strolled up the Avenue, "the expensive +sloppiness of the present styles." In her case the looseness with +which her clothes hung was exaggerated by the lack of energy with +which she wore them. + +She had been a beautiful girl, I knew. In fact, one could see that +she must have been. Now, however, she showed marks of change. Her +eyes were large, and protruding, not with the fire of passion +which is often associated with large eyes, but dully, set in a +puffy face, a trifle florid. Her hands seemed, when she moved +them, to shake with an involuntary tremor, and in spite of the +fact that one almost could feel that her heart and lungs were +speeding with energy, she had lost weight and no longer had the +full, rounded figure of health. Her manner showed severe mental +disturbance, indifference, depression, a distressing +deterioration. All her attractive Western breeziness was gone. One +felt the tragedy of it only too keenly. + +"I have asked Professor Kennedy, a specialist, to call, my dear," +said Atherton gently, without mentioning what the specialty was. + +"Another one?" she queried languorously. + +There was a colorless indifference in the tone which was almost +tragic. She said the words slowly and deliberately, as though even +her mind worked that way. + +From the first, I saw that Kennedy had been observing Eugenia +Atherton keenly. And in the role of specialist in nervous diseases +he was enabled to do what otherwise would have been difficult to +accomplish. + +Gradually, from observing her mental condition of indifference +which made conversation extremely difficult as well as profitless, +he began to consider her physical condition. I knew him well +enough to gather from his manner alone as he went on that what had +seemed at the start to be merely a curious case, because it +concerned the Athertons, was looming up in his mind as unusual in +itself, and was interesting him because it baffled him. + +Craig had just discovered that her pulse was abnormally high, and +that consequently she had a high temperature, and was sweating +profusely. + +"Would you mind turning your head, Mrs. Atherton?" he asked. + +She turned slowly, half way, her eyes fixed vacantly on the floor +until we could see the once striking profile. + +"No, all the way around, if you please," added Kennedy. + +She offered no objection, not the slightest resistance. As she +turned her head as far as she could, Kennedy quickly placed his +forefinger and thumb gently on her throat, the once beautiful +throat, now with skin harsh and rough. Softly he moved his fingers +just a fraction of an inch over the so-called "Adam's apple" and +around it for a little distance. + +"Thank you," he said. "Now around to the other side." + +He made no other remark as he repeated the process, but I fancied +I could tell that he had had an instant suspicion of something the +moment he touched her throat. + +He rose abstractedly, bowed, and we started to leave the room, +uncertain whether she knew or cared. Quincy had fixed his eyes +silently on Craig, as if imploring him to speak, but I knew how +unlikely that was until he had confirmed his suspicion to the last +slightest detail. + +We were passing through a dressing room in the suite when we met a +tall young woman, whose face I instantly recognized, not because I +had ever seen it before, but because she had the Atherton nose so +prominently developed. + +"My cousin, Edith," introduced Quincy. + +We bowed and stood for a moment chatting. There seemed to be no +reason why we should leave the suite, since Mrs. Atherton paid so +little attention to us even when we had been in the same room. Yet +a slight movement in her room told me that in spite of her +lethargy she seemed to know that we were there and to recognize +who had joined us. + +Edith Atherton was a noticeable woman, a woman of temperament, not +beautiful exactly, but with a stateliness about her, an aloofness. +The more I studied her face, with its thin sensitive lips and +commanding, almost imperious eyes, the more there seemed to be +something peculiar about her. She was dressed very simply in +black, but it was the simplicity that costs. One thing was quite +evident--her pride in the family of Atherton. + +And as we talked, it seemed to be that she, much more than Eugenia +in her former blooming health, was a part of the somber house. +There came over me again the impression I had received before that +I had read or heard something like this case before. + +She did not linger long, but continued her stately way into the +room where Eugenia sat. And at once it flashed over me what my +impression, indefinable, half formed, was. I could not help +thinking, as I saw her pass, of the lady Madeline in "The Fall of +the House of Usher." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +THE GERM PLASM + + +I regarded her with utter astonishment and yet found it impossible +to account for such a feeling. I looked at Atherton, but on his +face I could see nothing but a sort of questioning fear that only +increased my illusion, as if he, too, had only a vague, haunting +premonition of something terrible impending. Almost I began to +wonder whether the Atherton house might not crumble under the +fierceness of a sudden whirlwind, while the two women in this +case, one representing the wasted past, the other the blasted +future, dragged Atherton down, as the whole scene dissolved into +some ghostly tarn. It was only for a moment, and then I saw that +the more practical Kennedy had been examining some bottles on the +lady's dresser before which we had paused. + +One was a plain bottle of pellets which might have been some +homeopathic remedy. + +"Whatever it is that is the matter with Eugenia," remarked +Atherton, "it seems to have baffled the doctors so far." + +Kennedy said nothing, but I saw that he had clumsily overturned +the bottle and absently set it up again, as though his thoughts +were far away. Yet with a cleverness that would have done credit +to a professor of legerdemain he had managed to extract two or +three of the pellets. + +"Yes," he said, as he moved slowly toward the staircase in the +wide hall, "most baffling." + +Atherton was plainly disappointed. Evidently he had expected +Kennedy to arrive at the truth and set matters right by some +sudden piece of wizardry, and it was with difficulty that he +refrained from saying so. + +"I should like to meet Burroughs Atherton," he remarked as we +stood in the wide hall on the first floor of the big house. "Is he +a frequent visitor?" + +"Not frequent," hastened Quincy Atherton, in a tone that showed +some satisfaction in saying it. "However, by a lucky chance he has +promised to call to-night--a mere courtesy, I believe, to Edith, +since she has come to town on a visit." + +"Good!" exclaimed Kennedy. "Now, I leave it to you, Atherton, to +make some plausible excuse for our meeting Burroughs here." + +"I can do that easily." + +"I shall be here early," pursued Kennedy as we left. + +Back again in the laboratory to which Atherton insisted on +accompanying us in his car, Kennedy busied himself for a few +minutes, crushing up one of the tablets and trying one or two +reactions with some of the powder dissolved, while I looked on +curiously. + +"Craig," I remarked contemplatively, after a while, "how about +Atherton himself? Is he really free from the--er--stigmata, I +suppose you call them, of insanity?" + +"You mean, may the whole trouble lie with him?" he asked, not +looking up from his work. + +"Yes--and the effect on her be a sort of reflex, say, perhaps the +effect of having sold herself for money and position. In other +words, does she, did she, ever love him? We don't know that. Might +it not prey on her mind, until with the kind help of his precious +relatives even Nature herself could not stand the strain-- +especially in the delicate condition in which she now finds +herself?" + +I must admit that I felt the utmost sympathy for the poor girl +whom we had just seen such a pitiable wreck. + +Kennedy closed his eyes tightly until they wrinkled at the +corners. + +"I think I have found out the immediate cause of her trouble," he +said simply, ignoring my suggestion. + +"What is it?" I asked eagerly. + +"I can't imagine how they could have failed to guess it, except +that they never would have suspected to look for anything +resembling exophthalmic goiter in a person of her stamina," he +answered, pronouncing the word slowly. "You have heard of the +thyroid gland in the neck?" + +"Yes?" I queried, for it was a mere name to me. + +"It is a vascular organ lying under the chin with a sort of little +isthmus joining the two parts on either side of the windpipe," he +explained. "Well, when there is any deterioration of those glands +through any cause, all sorts of complications may arise. The +thyroid is one of the so-called ductless glands, like the adrenals +above the kidneys, the pineal gland and the pituitary body. In +normal activity they discharge into the blood substances which are +carried to other organs and are now known to be absolutely +essential. + +"The substances which they secrete are called 'hormones'--those +chemical messengers, as it were, by which many of the processes of +the body are regulated. In fact, no field of experimental +physiology is richer in interest than this. It seems that few +ordinary drugs approach in their effects on metabolism the +hormones of the thyroid. In excess they produce such diseases as +exophthalmic goiter, and goiter is concerned with the enlargement +of the glands and surrounding tissues beyond anything like natural +size. Then, too, a defect in the glands causes the disease known +as myxedema in adults and cretinism in children. Most of all, the +gland seems to tell on the germ plasm of the body, especially in +women." + +I listened in amazement, hardly knowing what to think. Did his +discovery portend something diabolical, or was it purely a defect +in nature which Dr. Crafts of the Eugenics Bureau had overlooked? + +"One thing at a time, Walter," cautioned Kennedy, when I put the +question to him, scarcely expecting an answer yet. + +That night in the old Atherton mansion, while we waited for +Borroughs to arrive, Kennedy, whose fertile mind had contrived to +kill at least two birds with one stone, busied himself by cutting +in on the regular telephone line and placing an extension of his +own in a closet in the library. To it he attached an ordinary +telephone receiver fastened to an arrangement which was strange to +me. As nearly as I can describe it, between the diaphragm of the +regular receiver and a brownish cylinder, like that of a +phonograph, and with a needle attached, was fitted an air chamber +of small size, open to the outer air by a small hole to prevent +compression. + +The work was completed expeditiously, but we had plenty of time to +wait, for Borroughs Atherton evidently did not consider that an +evening had fairly begun until nine o'clock. + +He arrived at last, however, rather tall, slight of figure, +narrow-shouldered, designed for the latest models of imported +fabrics. It was evident merely by shaking hands with Burroughs +that he thought both the Athertons and the Burroughses just the +right combination. He was one of those few men against whom I +conceive an instinctive prejudice, and in this case I felt +positive that, whatever faults the Atherton germ plasm might +contain, he had combined others from the determiners of that of +the other ancestors he boasted. I could not help feeling that +Eugenia Atherton was in about as unpleasant an atmosphere of +social miasma as could be imagined. + +Burroughs asked politely after Eugenia, but it was evident that +the real deference was paid to Edith Atherton and that they got +along very well together. Burroughs excused himself early, and we +followed soon after. + +"I think I shall go around to this Eugenics Bureau of Dr. Crafts," +remarked Kennedy the next day, after a night's consideration of +the case. + +The Bureau occupied a floor in a dwelling house uptown which had +been remodeled into an office building. Huge cabinets were stacked +up against the walls, and in them several women were engaged in +filing blanks and card records. Another part of the office +consisted of an extensive library on eugenic subjects. + +Dr. Crafts, in charge of the work, whom we found in a little +office in front partitioned off by ground glass, was an old man +with an alert, vigorous mind on whom the effects of plain living +and high thinking showed plainly. He was looking over some new +blanks with a young woman who seemed to be working with him, +directing the force of clerks as well as the "field workers," who +were gathering the vast mass of information which was being +studied. As we introduced ourselves, he introduced Dr. Maude +Schofield. + +"I have heard of your eugenic marriage contests," began Kennedy, +"more especially of what you have done for Mr. Quincy Atherton." + +"Well--not exactly a contest in that case, at least," corrected +Dr. Crafts with an indulgent smile for a layman. + +"No," put in Dr. Schofield, "the Eugenics Bureau isn't a human +stock farm." + +"I see," commented Kennedy, who had no such idea, anyhow. He was +always lenient with anyone who had what he often referred to as +the "illusion of grandeur." + +"We advise people sometimes regarding the desirability or the +undesirability of marriage," mollified Dr. Crafts. "This is a sort +of clearing house for scientific race investigation and +improvement." + +"At any rate," persisted Kennedy, "after investigation, I +understand, you advised in favor of his marriage with Miss +Gilman." + +"Yes, Eugenia Gilman seemed to measure well up to the requirements +in such a match. Her branch of the Gilmans has always been of the +vigorous, pioneering type, as well as intellectual. Her father was +one of the foremost thinkers in the West; in fact had long held +ideas on the betterment of the race. You see that in the choice of +a name for his daughter--Eugenia." + +"Then there were no recessive traits in her family," asked Kennedy +quickly, "of the same sort that you find in the Athertons?" + +"None that we could discover," answered Dr. Crafts positively. + +"No epilepsy, no insanity of any form?" + +"No. Of course, you understand that almost no one is what might be +called eugenically perfect. Strictly speaking, perhaps not over +two or three per cent. of the population even approximates that +standard. But it seemed to me that in everything essential in this +case, weakness latent in Atherton was mating strength in Eugenia +and the same way on her part for an entirely different set of +traits." + +"Still," considered Kennedy, "there might have been something +latent in her family germ plasm back of the time through which you +could trace it?" + +Dr. Crafts shrugged his shoulders. "There often is, I must admit, +something we can't discover because it lies too far back in the +past." + +"And likely to crop out after skipping generations," put in Maude +Schofield. + +She evidently did not take the same liberal view in the practical +application of the matter expressed by her chief. I set it down to +the ardor of youth in a new cause, which often becomes the saner +conservatism of maturity. + +"Of course, you found it much easier than usual to get at the true +family history of the Athertons," pursued Kennedy. "It is an old +family and has been prominent for generations." + +"Naturally," assented Dr. Crafts. + +"You know Burroughs Atherton on both lines of descent?" asked +Kennedy, changing the subject abruptly. + +"Yes, fairly well," answered Crafts. + +"Now, for example," went on Craig, "how would you advise him to +marry?" + +I saw at once that he was taking this subterfuge as a way of +securing information which might otherwise have been withheld if +asked for directly. Maude Schofield also saw it, I fancied, but +this time said nothing. "They had a grandfather who was a manic +depressive on the Atherton side," said Crafts slowly. "Now, no +attempt has ever been made to breed that defect out of the family. +In the case of Burroughs, it is perhaps a little worse, for the +other side of his ancestry is not free from the taint of +alcoholism." + +"And Edith Atherton?" + +"The same way. They both carry it. I won't go into the Mendelian +law on the subject. We are clearing up much that is obscure. But +as to Burroughs, he should marry, if at all, some one without that +particular taint. I believe that in a few generations by proper +mating most taints might be bred out of families." + +Maude Schofield evidently did not agree with Dr. Crafts on some +point, and, noticing it, he seemed to be in the position both of +explaining his contention to us and of defending it before his +fair assistant. + +"It is my opinion, as far as I have gone with the data," he added, +"that there is hope for many of those whose family history shows +certain nervous taints. A sweeping prohibition of such marriages +would be futile, perhaps injurious. It is necessary that the +mating be carefully made, however, to prevent intensifying the +taint. You see, though I am a eugenist I am not an extremist." + +He paused, then resumed argumentatively: "Then there are other +questions, too, like that of genius with its close relation to +manic depressive insanity. Also, there is decrease enough in the +birth rate, without adding an excuse for it. No, that a young man +like Atherton should take the subject seriously, instead of +spending his time in wild dissipation, like his father, is +certainly creditable, argues in itself that there still must exist +some strength in his stock. + +"And, of course," he continued warmly, "when I say that weakness +in a trait--not in all traits, by any means--should marry strength +and that strength may marry weakness, I don't mean that all +matches should be like that. If we are too strict we may prohibit +practically all marriages. In Atherton's case, as in many another, +I felt that I should interpret the rule as sanely as possible." + +"Strength should marry strength, and weakness should never marry," +persisted Maude Schofield. "Nothing short of that will satisfy the +true eugenist." + +"Theoretically," objected Crafts. "But Atherton was going to +marry, anyhow. The only thing for me to do was to lay down a rule +which he might follow safely. Besides, any other rule meant sure +disaster." + +"It was the only rule with half a chance of being followed and at +any rate," drawled Kennedy, as the eugenists wrangled, "what +difference does it make in this case? As nearly as I can make out +it is Mrs. Atherton herself, not Atherton, who is ill." + +Maude Schofield had risen to return to supervising a clerk who +needed help. She left us, still unconvinced. + +"That is a very clever girl," remarked Kennedy as she shut the +door and he scanned Dr. Crafts' face dosely. + +"Very," assented the Doctor. + +"The Schofields come of good stock?" hazarded Kennedy. + +"Very," assented Dr. Crafts again. + +Evidently he did not care to talk about individual cases, and I +felt that the rule was a safe one, to prevent Eugenics from +becoming Gossip. Kennedy thanked him for his courtesy, and we left +apparently on the best of terms both with Crafts and his +assistant. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE SEX CONTROL + + +I did not see Kennedy again that day until late in the afternoon, +when he came into the laboratory carrying a small package. + +"Theory is one thing, practice is another," he remarked, as he +threw his hat and coat into a chair. + +"Which means--in this case?" I prompted. + +"Why, I have just seen Atherton. Of course I didn't repeat our +conversation of this morning, and I'm glad I didn't. He almost +makes me think you are right, Walter. He's obsessed by the fear of +Burroughs. Why, he even told me that Burroughs had gone so far as +to take a leaf out of his book, so to speak, get in touch with the +Eugenics Bureau as if to follow his footsteps, but really to pump +them about Atherton himself. Atherton says it's all Burroughs' +plan to break his will and that the fellow has even gone so far as +to cultivate the acquaintance of Maude Schofield, knowing that he +will get no sympathy from Crafts." + +"First it was Edith Atherton, now it is Maude Schofield that he +hitches up with Burroughs," I commented. "Seems to me that I have +heard that one of the first signs of insanity is belief that +everyone about the victim is conspiring against him. I haven't any +love for any of them--but I must be fair." + +"Well," said Kennedy, unwrapping the package, "there IS this much +to it. Atherton says Burroughs and Maude Schofield have been seen +together more than once--and not at intellectual gatherings +either. Burroughs is a fascinating fellow to a woman, if he wants +to be, and the Schofields are at least the social equals of the +Burroughs. Besides," he added, "in spite of eugenics, feminism, +and all the rest--sex, like murder, will out. There's no use +having any false ideas about THAT. Atherton may see red--but, +then, he was quite excited." + +"Over what?" I asked, perplexed more than ever at the turn of +events. + +"He called me up in the first place. 'Can't you do something?' he +implored. 'Eugenia is getting worse all the time.' She is, too. I +saw her for a moment, and she was even more vacant than +yesterday." + +The thought of the poor girl in the big house somehow brought over +me again my first impression of Poe's story. + +Kennedy had unwrapped the package which proved to be the +instrument he had left in the closet at Atherton's. It was, as I +had observed, like an ordinary wax cylinder phonograph record. + +"You see," explained Kennedy, "it is nothing more than a +successful application at last of, say, one of those phonographs +you have seen in offices for taking dictation, placed so that the +feebler vibrations of the telephone affect it. Let us see what we +have here." + +He had attached the cylinder to an ordinary phonograph, and after +a number of routine calls had been run off, he came to this, in +voices which we could only guess at but not recognize, for no +names were used. + +"How is she to-day?" + +"Not much changed--perhaps not so well." + +"It's all right, though. That is natural. It is working well. I +think you might increase the dose, one tablet." + +"You're sure it is all right?" (with anxiety). + +"Oh, positively--it has been done in Europe." + +"I hope so. It must be a boy--and an ATHERTON?" + +"Never fear." + +That was all. Who was it? The voices were unfamiliar to me, +especially when repeated mechanically. Besides they may have been +disguised. At any rate we had learned something. Some one was +trying to control the sex of the expected Atherton heir. But that +was about all. Who it was, we knew no better, apparently, than +before. + +Kennedy did not seem to care much, however. Quickly he got Quincy +Atherton on the wire and arranged for Atherton to have Dr. Crafts +meet us at the house at eight o'clock that night, with Maude +Schofield. Then he asked that Burroughs Atherton be there, and of +course, Edith and Eugenia. + +We arrived almost as the clock was striking, Kennedy carrying the +phonograph record and another blank record, and a boy tugging +along the machine itself. Dr. Crafts was the next to appear, +expressing surprise at meeting us, and I thought a bit annoyed, +for he mentioned that it had been with reluctance that he had had +to give up some work he had planned for the evening. Maude +Schofield, who came with him, looked bored. Knowing that she +disapproved of the match with Eugenia, I was not surprised. +Burroughs arrived, not as late as I had expected, but almost +insultingly supercilious at finding so many strangers at what +Atherton had told him was to be a family conference, in order to +get him to come. Last of all Edith Atherton descended the +staircase, the personification of dignity, bowing to each with a +studied graciousness, as if distributing largess, but greeting +Burroughs with an air that plainly showed how much thicker was +blood than water. Eugenia remained upstairs, lethargic, almost +cataleptic, as Atherton told us when we arrived. + +"I trust you are not going to keep us long, Quincy," yawned +Burroughs, looking ostentatiously at his watch. + +"Only long enough for Professor Kennedy to say a few words about +Eugenia," replied Atherton nervously, bowing to Kennedy. + +Kennedy cleared his throat slowly. + +"I don't know that I have much to say," began Kennedy, still +seated. "I suppose Mr. Atherton has told you I have been much +interested in the peculiar state of health of Mrs. Atherton?" + +No one spoke, and he went on easily: "There is something I might +say, however, about the--er--what I call the chemistry of +insanity. Among the present wonders of science, as you doubtless +know, none stirs the imagination so powerfully as the doctrine +that at least some forms of insanity are the result of chemical +changes in the blood. For instance, ill temper, intoxication, many +things are due to chemical changes in the blood acting on the +brain. + +"Go further back. Take typhoid fever with its delirium, influenza +with its suicide mania. All due to toxins--poisons. Chemistry-- +chemistry--all of them chemistry." + +Craig had begun carefully so as to win their attention. He had it +as he went on: "Do we not brew within ourselves poisons which +enter the circulation and pervade the system? A sudden emotion +upsets the chemistry of the body. Or poisonous food. Or a drug. It +affects many things. But we could never have had this chemical +theory unless we had had physiological chemistry--and some carry +it so far as to say that the brain secretes thought, just as the +liver secretes bile, that thoughts are the results of molecular +changes." + +"You are, then, a materialist of the most pronounced type," +asserted Dr. Crafts. + +Kennedy had been reaching over to a table, toying with the +phonograph. As Crafts spoke he moved a key, and I suspected that +it was in order to catch the words. + +"Not entirely," he said. "No more than some eugenists." + +"In our field," put in Maude Schofield, "I might express the +thought this way--the sociologist has had his day; now it is the +biologist, the eugenist." + +"That expresses it," commented Kennedy, still tinkering with the +record. "Yet it does not mean that because we have new ideas, they +abolish the old. Often they only explain, amplify, supplement. For +instance," he said, looking up at Edith Atherton, "take heredity. +Our knowledge seems new, but is it? Marriages have always been +dictated by a sort of eugenics. Society is founded on that." + +"Precisely," she answered. "The best families have always married +into the best families. These modern notions simply recognize what +the best people have always thought--except that it seems to me," +she added with a sarcastic flourish, "people of no ancestry are +trying to force themselves in among their betters." + +"Very true, Edith," drawled Burroughs, "but we did not have to be +brought here by Quincy to learn that." + +Quincy Atherton had risen during the discussion and had approached +Kennedy. Craig continued to finger the phonograph abstractedly, as +he looked up. + +"About this--this insanity theory," he whispered eagerly. "You +think that the suspicions I had have been justified?" + +I had been watching Kennedy's hand. As soon as Atherton had +started to speak, I saw that Craig, as before, had moved the key, +evidently registering what he said, as he had in the case of the +others during the discussion. + +"One moment, Atherton," he whispered in reply, "I'm coming to +that. Now," he resumed aloud, "there is a disease, or a number of +diseases, to which my remarks about insanity a while ago might +apply very well. They have been known for some time to arise from +various affections of the thyroid glands in the neck. These +glands, strange to say, if acted on in certain ways can cause +degenerations of mind and body, which are well known, but in spite +of much study are still very little understood. For example, there +is a definite interrelation between them and sex--especially in +woman." + +Rapidly he sketched what he had already told me of the thyroid and +the hormones. "These hormones," added Kennedy, "are closely +related to many reactions in the body, such as even the mother's +secretion of milk at the proper time and then only. That and many +other functions are due to the presence and character of these +chemical secretions from the thyroid and other ductless glands. It +is a fascinating study. For we know that anything that will upset- +-reduce or increase--the hormones is a matter intimately concerned +with health. Such changes," he said earnestly, leaning forward, +"might be aimed directly at the very heart of what otherwise would +be a true eugenic marriage. It is even possible that loss of sex +itself might be made to follow deep changes of the thyroid." + +He stopped a moment. Even if he had accomplished nothing else he +had struck a note which had caused the Athertons to forget their +former superciliousness. + +"If there is an oversupply of thyroid hormones," continued Craig, +"that excess will produce many changes, for instance a condition +very much like exophthalmic goiter. And," he said, straightening +up, "I find that Eugenia Atherton has within her blood an undue +proportion of these thyroid hormones. Now, is it overfunction of +the glands, hyper-secretion--or is it something else?" + +No one moved as Kennedy skillfully led his disclosure along step +by step. + +"That question," he began again slowly, shifting his position in +the chair, "raises in my mind, at least, a question which has +often occurred to me before. Is it possible for a person, taking +advantage of the scientific knowledge we have gained, to devise +and successfully execute a murder without fear of discovery? In +other words, can a person be removed with that technical nicety of +detail which will leave no clue and will be set down as something +entirely natural, though unfortunate?" + +It was a terrible idea he was framing, and he dwelt on it so that +we might accept it at its full value. "As one doctor has said," he +added, "although toxicologists and chemists have not always +possessed infallible tests for practical use, it is at present a +pretty certain observation that every poison leaves its mark. But +then on the other hand, students of criminology have said that a +skilled physician or surgeon is about the only person now capable +of carrying out a really scientific murder. + +"Which is true? It seems to me, at least in the latter case, that +the very nicety of the handiwork must often serve as a clue in +itself. The trained hand leaves the peculiar mark characteristic +of its training. No matter how shrewdly the deed is planned, the +execution of it is daily becoming a more and more difficult feat, +thanks to our increasing knowledge of microbiology and pathology." + +He had risen, as he finished the sentence, every eye fixed on him, +as if he had been a master hypnotist. + +"Perhaps," he said, taking off the cylinder from the phonograph +and placing on one which I knew was that which had lain in the +library closet over night, "perhaps some of the things I have said +will explain or be explained by the record on this cylinder." + +He had started the machine. So magical was the effect on the +little audience that I am tempted to repeat what I had already +heard, but had not myself yet been able to explain: + +"How is she to-day?" + +"Not much changed--perhaps not so well." + +"It's all right, though. That is natural. It is working well. I +think you might increase the dose one tablet." + +"You're sure it is all right?" + +"Oh, positively--it has been done in Europe." + +"I hope so. It must be a boy--and an ATHERTON." + +"Never fear." + +No one moved a muscle. If there was anyone in the room guilty of +playing on the feelings and the health of an unfortunate woman, +that person must have had superb control of his own feelings. + +"As you know," resumed Kennedy thoughtfully, "there are and have +been many theories of sex control. One of the latest, but by no +means the only one, is that it can be done by use of the extracts +of various glands administered to the mother. I do not know with +what scientific authority it was stated, but I do know that some +one has recently said that adrenalin, derived from the suprarenal +glands, induces boys to develop--cholin, from the bile of the +liver, girls. It makes no difference--in this case. There may have +been a show of science. But it was to cover up a crime. Some one +has been administering to Eugenia Atherton tablets of thyroid +extract--ostensibly to aid her in fulfilling the dearest ambition +of her soul--to become the mother of a new line of Athertons which +might bear the same relation to the future of the country as the +great family of the Edwards mothered by Elizabeth Tuttle." + +He was bending over the two phonograph cylinders now, rapidly +comparing the new one which he had made and that which he had just +allowed to reel off its astounding revelation. + +"When a voice speaks into a phonograph," he said, half to himself, +"its modulations received on the diaphragm are written by a needle +point upon the surface of a cylinder or disk in a series of fine +waving or zigzag lines of infinitely varying depth or breadth. Dr. +Marage and others have been able to distinguish vocal sounds by +the naked eye on phonograph records. Mr. Edison has studied them +with the microscope in his world-wide search for the perfect +voice. + +"In fact, now it is possible to identify voices by the records +they make, to get at the precise meaning of each slightest +variation of the lines with mathematical accuracy. They can no +more be falsified than handwriting can be forged so that modern +science cannot detect it or than typewriting can be concealed and +attributed to another machine. The voice is like a finger print, a +portrait parle--unescapable." + +He glanced up, then back again. "This microscope shows me," he +said, "that the voices on that cylinder you heard are identical +with two on this record which I have just made in this room." + +"Walter," he said, motioning to me, "look." + +I glanced into the eyepiece and saw a series of lines and curves, +peculiar waves lapping together and making an appearance in some +spots almost like tooth marks. Although I did not understand the +details of the thing, I could readily see that by study one might +learn as much about it as about loops, whorls, and arches on +finger tips. + +"The upper and lower lines," he explained, "with long regular +waves, on that highly magnified section of the record, are formed +by the voice with no overtones. The three lines in the middle, +with rhythmic ripples, show the overtones." + +He paused a moment and faced us. "Many a person," he resumed, "is +a biotype in whom a full complement of what are called inhibitions +never develops. That is part of your eugenics. Throughout life, +and in spite of the best of training, that person reacts now and +then to a certain stimulus directly. A man stands high; once a +year he falls with a lethal quantity of alcohol. A woman, +brilliant, accomplished, slips away and spends a day with a lover +as unlike herself as can be imagined. + +"The voice that interests me most on these records," he went on, +emphasizing the words with one of the cylinders which he still +held, "is that of a person who has been working on the family +pride of another. That person has persuaded the other to +administer to Eugenia an extract because 'it must be a boy and an +Atherton.' That person is a high-class defective, born with a +criminal instinct, reacting to it in an artful way. Thank God, the +love of a man whom theoretical eugenics condemned, roused us in--" + +A cry at the door brought us all to our feet, with hearts thumping +as if they were bursting. + +It was Eugenia Atherton, wild-eyed, erect, staring. + +I stood aghast at the vision. Was she really to be the Lady +Madeline in this fall of the House of Atherton? + +"Edith--I--I missed you. I heard voices. Is--is it true--what this +man--says? Is my--my baby--" + +Quincy Atherton leaped forward and caught her as she reeled. +Quickly Craig threw open a window for air, and as he did so leaned +far out and blew shrilly on a police whistle. + +The young man looked up from Eugenia, over whom he was bending, +scarcely heeding what else went on about him. Still, there was no +trace of anger on his face, in spite of the great wrong that had +been done him. There was room for only one great emotion--only +anxiety for the poor girl who had suffered so cruelly merely for +taking his name. + +Kennedy saw the unspoken question in his eyes. + +"Eugenia is a pure normal, as Dr. Crafts told you," he said +gently. "A few weeks, perhaps only days, of treatment--the thyroid +will revert to its normal state--and Eugenia Gilman will be the +mother of a new house of Atherton which may eclipse even the proud +record of the founder of the old." + +"Who blew the whistle?" demanded a gruff voice at the door, as a +tall bluecoat puffed past the scandalized butler. + +"Arrest that woman," pointed Kennedy. "She is the poisoner. Either +as wife of Burroughs, whom she fascinates and controls as she does +Edith, she planned to break the will of Quincy or, in the other +event, to administer the fortune as head of the Eugenics +Foundation after the death of Dr. Crafts, who would have followed +Eugenia and Quincy Atherton." + +I followed the direction of Kennedy's accusing finger. Maude +Schofield's face betrayed more than even her tongue could have +confessed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE BILLIONAIRE BABY + + +Coming to us directly as a result of the talk that the Atherton +case provoked was another that involved the happiness of a wealthy +family to a no less degree. + +"I suppose you have heard of the 'billionaire baby,' Morton +Hazleton III?" asked Kennedy of me one afternoon shortly +afterward. + +The mere mention of the name conjured up in my mind a picture of +the lusty two-year-old heir of two fortunes, as the feature +articles in the Star had described that little scion of wealth-- +his luxurious nursery, his magnificent toys, his own motor car, a +trained nurse and a detective on guard every hour of the day and +night, every possible precaution for his health and safety. + +"Gad, what a lucky kid!" I exclaimed involuntarily. + +"Oh, I don't know about that," put in Kennedy. "The fortune may be +exaggerated. His happiness is, I'm sure." + +He had pulled from his pocketbook a card and handed it to me. It +read: "Gilbert Butler, American representative, Lloyd's." + +"Lloyd's?" I queried. "What has Lloyd's to do with the billion- +dollar baby?" + +"Very much. The child has been insured with them for some fabulous +sum against accident, including kidnaping." + +"Yes?" I prompted, "sensing" a story. + +"Well, there seem to have been threats of some kind, I understand. +Mr. Butler has called on me once already to-day to retain my +services and is going to--ah--there he is again now." + +Kennedy had answered the door buzzer himself, and Mr. Butler, a +tall, sloping-shouldered Englishman, entered. + +"Has anything new developed?" asked Kennedy, introducing me. + +"I can't say," replied Butler dubiously. "I rather think we have +found something that may have a bearing on the case. You know Miss +Haversham, Veronica Haversham?" + +"The actress and professional beauty? Yes--at least I have seen +her. Why?" + +"We hear that Morton Hazleton knows her, anyhow," remarked Butler +dryly. + +"Well?" + +"Then you don't know the gossip?" he cut in. "She is said to be in +a sanitarium near the city. I'll have to find that out for you. +It's a fast set she has been traveling with lately, including not +only Hazleton, but Dr. Maudsley, the Hazleton physician, and one +or two others, who if they were poorer might be called desperate +characters." + +"Does Mrs. Hazleton know of--of his reputed intimacy?" + +"I can't say that, either. I presume that she is no fool." + +Morton Hazleton, Jr., I knew, belonged to a rather smart group of +young men. He had been mentioned in several near-scandals, but as +far as I knew there had been nothing quite as public and definite +as this one. + +"Wouldn't that account for her fears?" I asked. + +"Hardly," replied Butler, shaking his head. "You see, Mrs. +Hazleton is a nervous wreck, but it's about the baby, and caused, +she says, by her fears for its safety. It came to us only in a +roundabout way, through a servant in the house who keeps us in +touch. The curious feature is that we can seem to get nothing +definite from her about her fears. They may be groundless." + +Butler shrugged his shoulders and proceeded, "And they may be +well-founded. But we prefer to run no chances in a case of this +kind. The child, you know, is guarded in the house. In his +perambulator he is doubly guarded, and when he goes out for his +airing in the automobile, two men, the chauffeur and a detective, +are always there, besides his nurse, and often his mother or +grandmother. Even in the nursery suite they have iron shutters +which can be pulled down and padlocked at night and are +constructed so as to give plenty of fresh air even to a scientific +baby. Master Hazleton was the best sort of risk, we thought. But +now--we don't know." + +"You can protect yourselves, though," suggested Kennedy. + +"Yes, we have, under the policy, the right to take certain +measures to protect ourselves in addition to the precautions taken +by the Hazletons. We have added our own detective to those already +on duty. But we--we don't know what to guard against," he +concluded, perplexed. "We'd like to know--that's all. It's too big +a risk." + +"I may see Mrs. Hazleton?" mused Kennedy. + +"Yes. Under the circumstances she can scarcely refuse to see +anyone we send. I've arranged already for you to meet her within +an hour. Is that all right?" + +"Certainly." + +The Hazleton home in winter in the city was uptown, facing the +river. The large grounds adjoining made the Hazletons quite +independent of the daily infant parade which one sees along +Riverside Drive. + +As we entered the grounds we could almost feel the very atmosphere +on guard. We did not see the little subject of so much concern, +but I remembered his much heralded advent, when his grandparents +had settled a cold million on him, just as a reward for coming +into the world. Evidently, Morton, Sr., had hoped that Morton, +Jr., would calm down, now that there was a third generation to +consider. It seemed that he had not. I wondered if that had really +been the occasion of the threats or whatever it was that had +caused Mrs. Hazleton's fears, and whether Veronica Haversham or +any of the fast set around her had had anything to do with it. + +Millicent Hazleton was a very pretty little woman, in whom one saw +instinctively the artistic temperament. She had been an actress, +too, when young Morton Hazleton married her, and at first, at +least, they had seemed very devoted to each other. + +We were admitted to see her in her own library, a tastefully +furnished room on the second floor of the house, facing a garden +at the side. + +"Mrs. Hazleton," began Butler, smoothing the way for us, "of +course you realize that we are working in your interests. +Professor Kennedy, therefore, in a sense, represents both of us." + +"I am quite sure I shall be delighted to help you," she said with +an absent expression, though not ungraciously. + +Butler, having introduced us, courteously withdrew. "I leave this +entirely in your hands," he said, as he excused himself. "If you +want me to do anything more, call on me." + +I must say that I was much surprised at the way she had received +us. Was there in it, I wondered, an element of fear lest if she +refused to talk suspicion might grow even greater? One could see +anxiety plainly enough on her face, as she waited for Kennedy to +begin. + +A few moments of general conversation then followed. + +"Just what is it you fear?" he asked, after having gradually led +around to the subject. "Have there been any threatening letters?" + +"N-no," she hesitated, "at least nothing--definite." + +"Gossip?" he hinted. + +"No." She said it so positively that I fancied it might be taken +for a plain "Yes." + +"Then what is it?" he asked, very deferentially, but firmly. + +She had been looking out at the garden. "You couldn't understand," +she remarked. "No detective--" she stopped. + +"You may be sure, Mrs. Hazleton, that I have not come here +unnecessarily to intrude," he reassured her. "It is exactly as Mr. +Butler put it. We--want to help you." + +I fancied there seemed to be something compelling about his +manner. It was at once sympathetic and persuasive. Quite evidently +he was taking pains to break down the prejudice in her mind which +she had already shown toward the ordinary detective. + +"You would think me crazy," she remarked slowly. "But it is just +a--a dream--just dreams." + +I don't think she had intended to say anything, for she stopped +short and looked at him quickly as if to make sure whether he +could understand. As for myself, I must say I felt a little +skeptical. To my surprise, Kennedy seemed to take the statement at +its face value. + +"Ah," he remarked, "an anxiety dream? You will pardon me, Mrs. +Hazleton, but before we go further let me tell you frankly that I +am much more than an ordinary detective. If you will permit me, I +should rather have you think of me as a psychologist, a +specialist, one who has come to set your mind at rest rather than +to worm things from you by devious methods against which you have +to be on guard. It is just for such an unusual case as yours that +Mr. Butler has called me in. By the way, as our interview may last +a few minutes, would you mind sitting down? I think you'll find it +easier to talk if you can get your mind perfectly at rest, and for +the moment trust to the nurse and the detectives who are guarding +the garden, I am sure, perfectly." + +She had been standing by the window during the interview and was +quite evidently growing more and more nervous. With a bow Kennedy +placed her at her ease on a chaise lounge. + +"Now," he continued, standing near her, but out of sight, "you +must try to remain free from all external influences and +impressions. Don't move. Avoid every use of a muscle. Don't let +anything distract you. Just concentrate your attention on your +psychic activities. Don't suppress one idea as unimportant, +irrelevant, or nonsensical. Simply tell me what occurs to you in +connection with the dreams--everything," emphasized Craig. + +I could not help feeling surprised to find that she accepted +Kennedy's deferential commands, for after all that was what they +amounted to. Almost I felt that she was turning to him for help, +that he had broken down some barrier to her confidence. He seemed +to exert a sort of hypnotic influence over her. + +"I have had cases before which involved dreams," he was saying +quietly and reassuringly. "Believe me, I do not share the world's +opinion that dreams are nothing. Nor yet do I believe in them +superstitiously. I can readily understand how a dream can play a +mighty part in shaping the feelings of a high-tensioned woman. +Might I ask exactly what it is you fear in your dreams?" + +She sank her head back in the cushions, and for a moment closed +her eyes, half in weariness, half in tacit obedience to him. "Oh, +I have such horrible dreams," she said at length, "full of anxiety +and fear for Morton and little Morton. I can't explain it. But +they are so horrible." + +Kennedy said nothing. She was talking freely at last. + +"Only last night," she went on, "I dreamt that Morton was dead. I +could see the funeral, all the preparations, and the procession. +It seemed that in the crowd there was a woman. I could not see her +face, but she had fallen down and the crowd was around her. Then +Dr. Maudsley appeared. Then all of a sudden the dream changed. I +thought I was on the sand, at the seashore, or perhaps a lake. I +was with Junior and it seemed as if he were wading in the water, +his head bobbing up and down in the waves. It was like a desert, +too--the sand. I turned, and there was a lion behind me. I did not +seem to be afraid of him, although I was so close that I could +almost feel his shaggy mane. Yet I feared that he might bite +Junior. The next I knew I was running with the child in my arms. I +escaped--and--oh, the relief!" + +She sank back, half exhausted, half terrified still by the +recollection. + +"In your dream when Dr. Maudsley appeared," asked Kennedy, +evidently interested in filling in the gap, "what did he do?" + +"Do?" she repeated. "In the dream? Nothing." + +"Are you sure?" he asked, shooting a quick glance at her. + +"Yes. That part of the dream became indistinct. I'm sure he did +nothing, except shoulder through the crowd. I think he had just +entered. Then that part of the dream seemed to end and the second +part began." + +Piece by piece Kennedy went over it, putting it together as if it +were a mosaic. + +"Now, the woman. You say her face was hidden?" + +She hesitated. "N--no. I saw it. But it was no one I knew." + +Kennedy did not dwell on the contradiction, but added, "And the +crowd?" + +"Strangers, too." + +"Dr. Maudsley is your family physician?" he questioned. + +"Yes." + +"Did he call--er--yesterday?" + +"He calls every day to supervise the nurse who has Junior in +charge." + +"Could one always be true to oneself in the face of any +temptation?" he asked suddenly. + +It was a bold question. Yet such had been the gradual manner of +his leading up to it that, before she knew it, she had answered +quite frankly, "Yes--if one always thought of home and her child, +I cannot see how one could help controlling herself." + +She seemed to catch her breath, almost as though the words had +escaped her before she knew it. + +"Is there anything besides your dream that alarms you," he asked, +changing the subject quickly, "any suspicion of--say the +servants?" + +"No," she said, watching him now. "But some time ago we caught a +burglar upstairs here. He managed to escape. That has made me +nervous. I didn't think it was possible." + +"Anything else?" + +"No," she said positively, this time on her guard. + +Kennedy saw that she had made up her mind to say no more. + +"Mrs. Hazleton," he said, rising. "I can hardly thank you too much +for the manner in which you have met my questions. It will make it +much easier for me to quiet your fears. And if anything else +occurs to you, you may rest assured I shall violate no confidences +in your telling me." + +I could not help the feeling, however, that there was just a +little air of relief on her face as we left. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE PSYCHANALYSIS + + +"H--M," mused Kennedy as we walked along after leaving the house. +"There were several 'complexes,' as they are called, there--the +most interesting and important being the erotic, as usual. Now, +take the lion in the dream, with his mane. That, I suspect, was +Dr. Maudsley. If you are acquainted with him, you will recall his +heavy, almost tawny beard." + +Kennedy seemed to be revolving something in his mind and I did not +interrupt. I had known him too long to feel that even a dream +might not have its value with him. Indeed, several times before he +had given me glimpses into the fascinating possibilities of the +new psychology. + +"In spite of the work of thousands of years, little progress has +been made in the scientific understanding of dreams," he remarked +a few moments later. "Freud, of Vienna--you recall the name?--has +done most, I think in that direction." + +I recalled something of the theories of the Freudists, but said +nothing. + +"It is an unpleasant feature of his philosophy," he went on, "but +Freud finds the conclusion irresistible that all humanity +underneath the shell is sensuous and sensual in nature. +Practically all dreams betray some delight of the senses and +sexual dreams are a large proportion. There is, according to the +theory, always a wish hidden or expressed in a dream. The dream is +one of three things, the open, the disguised or the distorted +fulfillment of a wish, sometimes recognized, sometimes repressed. + +"Anxiety dreams are among the most interesting and important +Anxiety may originate in psycho-sexual excitement, the repressed +libido, as the Freudists call it. Neurotic fear has its origin in +sexual life and corresponds to a libido which has been turned away +from its object and has not succeeded in being applied. All so- +called day dreams of women are erotic; of men they are either +ambition or love. + +"Often dreams, apparently harmless, turn out to be sinister if we +take pains to interpret them. All have the mark of the beast. For +example, there was that unknown woman who had fallen down and was +surrounded by a crowd. If a woman dreams that, it is sexual. It +can mean only a fallen woman. That is the symbolism. The crowd +always denotes a secret. + +"Take also the dream of death. If there is no sorrow felt, then +there is another cause for it. But if there is sorrow, then the +dreamer really desires death or absence. I expect to have you +quarrel with that. But read Freud, and remember that in childhood +death is synonymous with being away. Thus for example, if a girl +dreams that her mother is dead, perhaps it means only that she +wishes her away so that she can enjoy some pleasure that her +strict parent, by her presence, denies. + +"Then there was that dream about the baby in the water. That, I +think, was a dream of birth. You see, I asked her practically to +repeat the dreams because there were several gaps. At such points +one usually finds first hesitation, then something that shows one +of the main complexes. Perhaps the subject grows angry at the +discovery. + +"Now, from the tangle of the dream thought, I find that she fears +that her husband is too intimate with another woman, and that +perhaps unconsciously she has turned to Dr. Maudsley for sympathy. +Dr. Maudsley, as I said, is not only bearded, but somewhat of a +social lion. He had called on her the day before. Of such stuff +are all dream lions when there is no fear. But she shows that she +has been guilty of no wrongdoing--she escaped, and felt relieved." + +"I'm glad of that," I put in. "I don't like these scandals. On the +Star when I have to report them, I do it always under protest. I +don't know what your psychanalysis is going to show in the end, +but I for one have the greatest sympathy for that poor little +woman in the big house alone, surrounded by and dependent on +servants, while her husband is out collecting scandals." + +"Which suggests our next step," he said, turning the subject. "I +hope that Butler has found out the retreat of Veronica Haversham." + +We discovered Miss Haversham at last at Dr. Klemm's sanitarium, up +in the hills of Westchester County, a delightful place with a +reputation for its rest cures. Dr. Klemm was an old friend of +Kennedy's, having had some connection with the medical school at +the University. + +She had gone up there rather suddenly, it seemed, to recuperate. +At least that was what was given out, though there seemed to be +much mystery about her, and she was taking no treatment as far as +was known. + +"Who is her physician?" asked Kennedy of Dr. Klemm as we sat in +his luxurious office. + +"A Dr. Maudsley of the city." + +Kennedy glanced quickly at me in time to check an exclamation. + +"I wonder if I could see her?" + +"Why, of course--if she is willing," replied Dr. Klemm. + +"I will have to have some excuse," ruminated Kennedy. "Tell her I +am a specialist in nervous troubles from the city, have been +visiting one of the other patients, anything." + +Dr. Klemm pulled down a switch on a large oblong oak box on his +desk, asked for Miss Haversham, and waited a moment. + +"What is that?" I asked. + +"A vocaphone," replied Kennedy. "This sanitarium is quite up to +date, Klemm." + +The doctor nodded and smiled. "Yes, Kennedy," he replied. +"Communicating with every suite of rooms we have the vocaphone. I +find it very convenient to have these microphones, as I suppose +you would call them, catching your words without talking into them +directly as you have to do in the telephone and then at the other +end emitting the words without the use of an earpiece, from the +box itself, as if from a megaphone horn. Miss Haversham, this is +Dr. Klemm. There is a Dr. Kennedy here visiting another patient, a +specialist from New York. He'd like very much to see you if you +can spare a few minutes." + +"Tell him to come up." The voice seemed to come from the vocaphone +as though she were in the room with us. + +Veronica Haversham was indeed wonderful, one of the leading +figures in the night life of New York, a statuesque brunette of +striking beauty, though I had heard of often ungovernable temper. +Yet there was something strange about her face here. It seemed +perhaps a little yellow, and I am sure that her nose had a +peculiar look as if she were suffering from an incipient rhinitis. +The pupils of her eyes were as fine as pin heads, her eyebrows +were slightly elevated. Indeed, I felt that she had made no +mistake in taking a rest if she would preserve the beauty which +had made her popularity so meteoric. + +"Miss Haversham," began Kennedy, "they tell me that you are +suffering from nervousness. Perhaps I can help you. At any rate it +will do no harm to try. I know Dr. Maudsley well, and if he +doesn't approve--well, you may throw the treatment into the waste +basket." + +"I'm sure I have no reason to refuse," she said. "What would you +suggest?" + +"Well, first of all, there is a very simple test I'd like to try. +You won't find that it bothers you in the least--and if I can't +help you, then no harm is done." + +Again I watched Kennedy as he tactfully went through the +preparations for another kind of psychanalysis, placing Miss +Haversham at her ease on a davenport in such a way that nothing +would distract her attention. As she reclined against the leather +pillows in the shadow it was not difficult to understand the lure +by which she held together the little coterie of her intimates. +One beautiful white arm, bare to the elbow, hung carelessly over +the edge of the davenport, displaying a plain gold bracelet. + +"Now," began Kennedy, on whom I knew the charms of Miss Haversham +produced a negative effect, although one would never have guessed +it from his manner, "as I read off from this list of words, I wish +that you would repeat the first thing, anything," he emphasized, +"that comes into your head, no matter how trivial it may seem. +Don't force yourself to think. Let your ideas flow naturally. It +depends altogether on your paying attention to the words and +answering as quickly as you can--remember, the first word that +comes into your mind. It is easy to do. We'll call it a game," he +reassured. + +Kennedy handed a copy of the list to me to record the answers. +There must have been some fifty words, apparently senseless, +chosen at random, it seemed. They were: + + + head to dance salt white lie + + green sick new child to fear + + water pride to pray sad stork + + to sing ink money to marry false + + death angry foolish dear anxiety + + long needle despise to quarrel to kiss + + ship voyage finger old bride + + to pay to sin expensive family pure + + window bread to fall friend ridicule + + cold rich unjust luck to sleep + + +"The Jung association word test is part of the Freud +psychanalysis, also," he whispered to me, "You remember we tried +something based on the same idea once before?" + +I nodded. I had heard of the thing in connection with blood- +pressure tests, but not this way. + +Kennedy called out the first word, "Head," while in his hand he +held a stop watch which registered to one-fifth of a second. + +Quickly she replied, "Ache," with an involuntary movement of her +hand toward her beautiful forehead. + +"Good," exclaimed Kennedy. "You seem to grasp the idea better than +most of my patients." + +I had recorded the answer, he the time, and we found out, I recall +afterward, that the time averaged something like two and two- +fifths seconds. + +I thought her reply to the second word, "green," was curious. It +came quickly, "Envy." + +However, I shall not attempt to give all the replies, but merely +some of the most significant. There did not seem to be any +hesitation about most of the words, but whenever Kennedy tried to +question her about a word that seemed to him interesting she made +either evasive or hesitating answers, until it became evident that +in the back of her head was some idea which she was repressing and +concealing from us, something that she set off with a mental "No +Thoroughfare." + +He had finished going through the list, and Kennedy was now +studying over the answers and comparing the time records. + +"Now," he said at length, running his eye over the words again, "I +want to repeat the performance. Try to remember and duplicate your +first replies," he said. + +Again we went through what at first had seemed to me to be a +solemn farce, but which I began to see was quite important. +Sometimes she would repeat the answer exactly as before. At other +times a new word would occur to her. Kennedy was keen to note all +the differences in the two lists. + +One which I recall because the incident made an impression on me +had to do with the trio, "Death--life--inevitable." "Why that?" he +asked casually. + +"Haven't you ever heard the saying, 'One should let nothing which +one can have escape, even if a little wrong is done; no +opportunity should be missed; life is so short, death +inevitable'?" + +There were several others which to Kennedy seemed more important, +but long after we had finished I pondered this answer. Was that +her philosophy of life? Undoubtedly she would never have +remembered the phrase if it had not been so, at least in a +measure. + +She had begun to show signs of weariness, and Kennedy quickly +brought the conversation around to subjects of apparently a +general nature, but skillfully contrived so as to lead the way +along lines her answers had indicated. + +Kennedy had risen to go, still chatting. Almost unintentionally he +picked up from a dressing table a bottle of white tablets, without +a label, shaking it to emphasize an entirely, and I believe +purposely, irrelevant remark. + +"By the way," he said, breaking off naturally, "what is that?" + +"Only something Dr. Maudsley had prescribed for me," she answered +quickly. + +As he replaced the bottle and went on with the thread of the +conversation, I saw that in shaking the bottle he had abstracted a +couple of the tablets before she realized it. "I can't tell you +just what to do without thinking the case over," he concluded, +rising to go. "Yours is a peculiar case, Miss Haversham, baffling. +I'll have to study it over, perhaps ask Dr. Maudsley If I may see +you again. Meanwhile, I am sure what he is doing is the correct +thing." + +Inasmuch as she had said nothing about what Dr. Maudsley was +doing, I wondered whether there was not just a trace of suspicion +in her glance at him from under her long dark lashes. + +"I can't see that you have done anything," she remarked pointedly. +"But then doctors are queer--queer." + +That parting shot also had in it, for me, something to ponder +over. In fact I began to wonder if she might not be a great deal +more clever than even Kennedy gave her credit for being, whether +she might not have submitted to his tests for pure love of pulling +the wool over his eyes. + +Downstairs again, Kennedy paused only long enough to speak a few +words with his friend Dr. Klemm. + +"I suppose you have no idea what Dr. Maudsley has prescribed for +her?" he asked carelessly. + +"Nothing, as far as I know, except rest and simple food." + +He seemed to hesitate, then he said under his voice, "I suppose +you know that she is a regular dope fiend, seasons her cigarettes +with opium, and all that." + +"I guessed as much," remarked Kennedy, "but how does she get it +here?" + +"She doesn't." + +"I see," remarked Craig, apparently weighing now the man before +him. At length he seemed to decide to risk something. + +"Klemm," he said, "I wish you would do something for me. I see you +have the vocaphone here. Now if--say Hazleton--should call--will +you listen in on that vocaphone for me?" Dr. Klemm looked squarely +at him. + +"Kennedy," he said, "it's unprofessional, but---" + +"So it is to let her be doped up under guise of a cure." + +"What?" he asked, startled. "She's getting the stuff now?" + +"No, I didn't say she was getting opium, or from anyone here. All +the same, if you would just keep an ear open---" + +"It's unprofessional, but--you'd not ask it without a good reason. +I'll try." + +It was very late when we got back to the city and we dined at an +uptown restaurant which we had almost to ourselves. + +Kennedy had placed the little whitish tablets in a small paper +packet for safe keeping. As we waited for our order he drew one +from his pocket, and after looking at it a moment crushed it to a +powder in the paper. + +"What is it?" I asked curiously. "Cocaine?" + +"No," he said, shaking his head doubtfully. + +He had tried to dissolve a little of the powder in some water from +the glass before him, but it would not dissolve. + +As he continued to look at it his eye fell on the cut-glass +vinegar cruet before us. It was full of the white vinegar. + +"Really acetic acid," he remarked, pouring out a little. + +The white powder dissolved. + +For several minutes he continued looking at the stuff. + +"That, I think," he remarked finally, "is heroin." + +"More 'happy dust'?" I replied with added interest now, thinking +of our previous case. "Is the habit so extensive?" + +"Yes," he replied, "the habit is comparatively new, although in +Paris, I believe, they call the drug fiends, 'heroinomaniacs.' It +is, as I told you before, a derivative of morphine. Its scientific +name is diacetyl-morphin. It is New York's newest peril, one of +the most dangerous drugs yet. Thousands are slaves to it, although +its sale is supposedly restricted. It is rotting the heart out of +the Tenderloin. Did you notice Veronica Haversham's yellowish +whiteness, her down-drawn mouth, elevated eyebrows, and contracted +eyes? She may have taken it up to escape other drugs. Some people +have--and have just got a new habit. It can be taken +hypodermically, or in a tablet, or by powdering the tablet to a +white crystalline powder and snuffing up the nose. That's the way +she takes it. It produces rhinitis of the nasal passages, which I +see you observed, but did not understand. It has a more profound +effect than morphine, and is ten times as powerful as codeine. And +one of the worst features is that so many people start with it, +thinking it is as harmless as it has been advertised. I wouldn't +be surprised if she used from seventy-five to a hundred one- +twelfth grain tablets a day. Some of them do, you know." + +"And Dr. Maudsley," I asked quickly, "do you think it is through +him or in spite of him?" + +"That's what I'd like to know. About those words," he continued, +"what did you make of the list and the answers?" + +I had made nothing and said so, rather quickly. + +"Those," he explained, "were words selected and arranged to strike +almost all the common complexes in analyzing and diagnosing. You'd +think any intelligent person could give a fluent answer to them, +perhaps a misleading answer. But try it yourself, Walter. You'll +find you can't. You may start all right, but not all the words +will be reacted to in the same time or with the same smoothness +and ease. Yet, like the expressions of a dream, they often seem +senseless. But they have a meaning as soon as they are +'psychanalyzed.' All the mistakes in answering the second time, +for example, have a reason, if we can only get at it. They are not +arbitrary answers, but betray the inmost subconscious thoughts, +those things marked, split off from consciousness and repressed +into the unconscious. Associations, like dreams, never lie. You +may try to conceal the emotions and unconscious actions, but you +can't." + +I listened, fascinated by Kennedy's explanation. + +"Anyone can see that that woman has something on her mind besides +the heroin habit. It may be that she is trying to shake the habit +off in order to do it; it may be that she seeks relief from her +thoughts by refuge in the habit; and it may be that some one has +purposely caused her to contract this new habit in the guise of +throwing off an old. The only way by which to find out is to study +the case." + +He paused. He had me keenly on edge, but I knew that he was not +yet in a position to answer his queries positively. + +"Now I found," he went on, "that the religious complexes were +extremely few; as I expected the erotic were many. If you will +look over the three lists you will find something queer about +every such word as, 'child, 'to marry,' 'bride,' 'to lie,' +'stork,' and so on. We're on the right track. That woman does know +something about that child." + +"My eye catches the words 'to sin,' 'to fall,' 'pure,' and +others," I remarked, glancing over the list. + +"Yes, there's something there, too. I got the hint for the drug +from her hesitation over 'needle' and 'white.' But the main +complex has to do with words relating to that child and to love. +In short, I think we are going to find it to be the reverse of the +rule of the French, that it will be a case of 'cherchez l'homme.'" + +Early the next day Kennedy, after a night of studying over the +case, journeyed up to the sanitarium again. We found Dr. Klemm +eager to meet us. + +"What is it?" asked Kennedy, equally eager. + +"I overheard some surprising things over the vocaphone," he +hastened. "Hazleton called. Why, there must have been some wild +orgies in that precious set of theirs, and, would you believe it, +many of them seem to have been at what Dr. Maudsley calls his +'stable studio,' a den he has fixed up artistically over his +garage on a side street." + +"Indeed?" + +"I couldn't get it all, but I did hear her repeating over and over +to Hazleton, 'Aren't you all mine? Aren't you all mine?' There +must be some vague jealousy lurking in the heart of that ardent +woman. I can't figure it out." + +"I'd like to see her again," remarked Kennedy. "Will you ask her +if I may?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +THE ENDS OF JUSTICE + + +A few minutes later we were in the sitting room of her suite. She +received us rather ungraciously, I thought. + +"Do you feel any better?" asked Kennedy. + +"No," she replied curtly. "Excuse me for a moment. I wish to see +that maid of mine. Clarisse!" + +She had hardly left the room when Kennedy was on his feet. The +bottle of white tablets, nearly empty, was still on the table. I +saw him take some very fine white powder and dust it quickly over +the bottle. It seemed to adhere, and from his pocket he quickly +drew a piece of what seemed to be specially prepared paper, laid +it over the bottle where the powder adhered, fitting it over the +curves. He withdrew it quickly, for outside we heard her light +step, returning. I am sure she either saw or suspected that +Kennedy had been touching the bottle of tablets, for there was a +look of startled fear on her face. + +"Then you do not feel like continuing the tests we abandoned last +night?" asked Kennedy, apparently not noticing her look. + +"No, I do not," she almost snapped. "You--you are detectives. Mrs. +Hazleton has sent you." + +"Indeed, Mrs. Hazleton has not sent us," insisted Kennedy, never +for an instant showing his surprise at her mention of the name. + +"You are. You can tell her, you can tell everybody. I'll tell-- +I'll tell myself. I won't wait. That child is mine--mine--not +hers. Now--go!" + +Veronica Haversham on the stage never towered in a fit of passion +as she did now in real life, as her ungovernable feelings broke +forth tempestuously on us. + +I was astounded, bewildered at the revelation, the possibilities +in those simple words, "The child is mine." For a moment I was +stunned. Then as the full meaning dawned on me I wondered in a +flood of consciousness whether it was true. Was it the product of +her drug-disordered brain? Had her desperate love for Hazleton +produced a hallucination? + +Kennedy, silent, saw that the case demanded quick action. I shall +never forget the breathless ride down from the sanitarium to the +Hazleton house on Riverside Drive. + +"Mrs. Hazleton," he cried, as we hurried in, "you will pardon me +for this unceremonious intrusion, but it is most important. May I +trouble you to place your fingers on this paper--so?" + +He held out to her a piece of the prepared paper. She looked at +him once, then saw from his face that he was not to be questioned. +Almost tremulously she did as he said, saying not a word. I +wondered whether she knew the story of Veronica, or whether so far +only hints of it had been brought to her. + +"Thank you," he said quickly. "Now, if I may see Morton?" + +It was the first time we had seen the baby about whom the rapidly +thickening events were crowding. He was a perfect specimen of +well-cared-for, scientific infant. + +Kennedy took the little chubby fingers playfully in his own. He +seemed at once to win the child's confidence, though he may have +violated scientific rules. One by one he pressed the little +fingers on the paper, until little Morton crowed with delight as +one little piggy after another "went to market." He had deserted +thousands of dollars' worth of toys just to play with the simple +piece of paper Kennedy had brought with him. As I looked at him, I +thought of what Kennedy had said at the start. Perhaps this +innocent child was not to be envied after all. I could hardly +restrain my excitement over the astounding situation which had +suddenly developed. + +"That will do," announced Kennedy finally, carelessly folding up +the paper and slipping it into his pocket. "You must excuse me +now." + +"You see," he explained on the way to the laboratory, "that powder +adheres to fresh finger prints, taking all the gradations. Then +the paper with its paraffine and glycerine coating takes off the +powder." + +In the laboratory he buried himself in work, with microscope +compasses, calipers, while I fumed impotently at the window. + +"Walter," he called suddenly, "get Dr. Maudsley on the telephone. +Tell him to come immediately to the laboratory." + +Meanwhile Kennedy was busy arranging what he had discovered in +logical order and putting on it the finishing touches. + +As Dr. Maudsley entered Kennedy greeted him and began by plunging +directly into the case in answer to his rather discourteous +inquiry as to why he had been so hastily summoned. + +"Dr. Maudsley," said Craig, "I have asked you to call alone +because, while I am on the verge of discovering the truth in an +important case affecting Morton Hazleton and his wife, I am +frankly perplexed as to how to go ahead." + +The doctor seemed to shake with excitement as Kennedy proceeded. + +"Dr. Maudsley," Craig added, dropping his voice, "is Morton III +the son of Millicent Hazleton or not? You were the physician in +attendance on her at the birth. Is he?" + +Maudsley had been watching Kennedy furtively at first, but as he +rapped out the words I thought the doctor's eyes would pop out of +his head. Perspiration in great beads collected on his face. + +"P--professor K--Kennedy," he muttered, frantically rubbing his +face and lower jaw as if to compose the agitation he could so ill +conceal, "let me explain." + +"Yes, yes--go on," urged Kennedy. + +"Mrs. Hazleton's baby was born--dead. I knew how much she and the +rest of the family had longed for an heir, how much it meant. And +I--substituted for the dead child a newborn baby from the +maternity hospital. It--it belonged to Veronica Haversham--then a +poor chorus girl. I did not intend that she should ever know it. I +intended that she should think her baby was dead. But in some way +she found out. Since then she has become a famous beauty, has +numbered among her friends even Hazleton himself. For nearly two +years I have tried to keep her from divulging the secret. From +time to time hints of it have leaked out. I knew that if Hazleton +with his infatuation of her were to learn---" "And Mrs. Hazleton, +has she been told?" interrupted Kennedy. + +"I have been trying to keep it from her as long as I can, but it +has been difficult to keep Veronica from telling it. Hazleton +himself was so wild over her. And she wanted her son as she---" + +"Maudsley," snapped out Kennedy, slapping down on the table the +mass of prints and charts which he had hurriedly collected and was +studying, "you lie! Morton is Millicent Hazleton's son. The whole +story is blackmail. I knew it when she told me of her dreams and I +suspected first some such devilish scheme as yours. Now I know it +scientifically." + +He turned over the prints. + +"I suppose that study of these prints, Maudsley, will convey +nothing to you. I know that it is usually stated that there are no +two sets of finger prints in the world that are identical or that +can be confused. Still, there are certain similarities of finger +prints and other characteristics, and these similarities have +recently been exhaustively studied by Bertilion, who has found +that there are clear relationships sometimes between mother and +child in these respects. If Solomon were alive, doctor, he would +not now have to resort to the expedient to which he did when the +two women disputed over the right to the living child. Modern +science is now deciding by exact laboratory methods the same +problem as he solved by his unique knowledge of feminine +psychology. + +"I saw how this case was tending. Not a moment too soon, I said to +myself, 'The hand of the child will tell.' By the very variations +in unlike things, such as finger and palm prints, as tabulated and +arranged by Bertillon after study in thousands of cases, by the +very loops, whorls, arches and composites, I have proved my case. + +"The dominancy, not the identity, of heredity through the infinite +varieties of finger markings is sometimes very striking. Unique +patterns in a parent have been repeated with marvelous accuracy in +the child. I knew that negative results might prove nothing in +regard to parentage, a caution which it is important to observe. +But I was prepared to meet even that. + +"I would have gone on into other studies, such as Tammasia's, of +heredity in the veining of the back of the hands; I would have +measured the hands, compared the relative proportion of the parts; +I would have studied them under the X-ray as they are being +studied to-day; I would have tried the Reichert blood crystal test +which is being perfected now so that it will tell heredity itself. +There is no scientific stone I would have left unturned until I +had delved at the truth of this riddle. Fortunately it was not +necessary. Simple finger prints have told me enough. And best of +all, it has been in time to frustrate that devilish scheme you and +Veronica Haversham have been slowly unfolding." + +Maudsley crumpled up, as it were, at Kennedy's denunciation. He +seemed to shrink toward the door. + +"Yes," cried Kennedy, with extended forefinger, "you may go--for +the present. Don't try to run away. You're watched from this +moment on." + +Maudsley had retreated precipitately. + +I looked at Kennedy inquiringly. What to do? It was indeed a +delicate situation, requiring the utmost care to handle. If the +story had been told to Hazleton, what might he not have already +done? He must be found first of all if we were to meet the +conspiracy of these two. + +Kennedy reached quickly for the telephone. "There is one stream of +scandal that can be dammed at its source," he remarked, calling a +number. "Hello. Klemm's Sanitarium? I'd like to speak with Miss +Haversham. What--gone? Disappeared? Escaped?" + +He hung up the receiver and looked at me blankly. I was +speechless. + +A thousand ideas flew through our minds at once. Had she perceived +the import of our last visit and was she now on her way to +complete her plotted slander of Millicent Hazleton, though it +pulled down on herself in the end the whole structure? + +Hastily Kennedy called Hazleton's home, Butler, and one after +another of Hazleton's favorite clubs. It was not until noon that +Butler himself found him and came with him, under protest, to the +laboratory. + +"What is it--what have you found?" cried Butler, his lean form a- +quiver with suppressed excitement. + +Briefly, one fact after another, sparing Hazleton nothing, Kennedy +poured forth the story, how by hint and innuendo Maudsley had been +working on Millicent, undermining her, little knowing that he had +attacked in her a very tower of strength, how Veronica, infatuated +by him, had infatuated him, had led him on step by step. + +Pale and agitated, with nerves unstrung by the life he had been +leading, Hazleton listened. And as Kennedy hammered one fact after +another home, he clenched his fists until the nails dug into his +very palms. + +"The scoundrels," he ground out, as Kennedy finished by painting +the picture of the brave little broken-hearted woman fighting off +she knew not what, and the golden-haired, innocent baby stretching +out his arms in glee at the very chance to prove that he was what +he was. "The scoundrels--take me to Maudsley now. I must see +Maudsley. Quick!" + +As we pulled up before the door of the reconstructed stable- +studio, Kennedy jumped out. The door was unlocked. Up the broad +flight of stairs, Hazleton went two at a time. We followed him +closely. + +Lying on the divan in the room that had been the scene of so many +orgies, locked in each other's arms, were two figures--Veronica +Haversham and Dr. Maudsley. + +She must have gone there directly after our visit to Dr. Klemm's, +must have been waiting for him when he returned with his story of +the exposure to answer her fears of us as Mrs. Hazleton's +detectives. In a frenzy of intoxication she must have flung her +arms blindly about him in a last wild embrace. + +Hazleton looked, aghast. + +He leaned over and took her arm. Before he could frame the name, +"Veronica!" he had recoiled. + +The two were cold and rigid. + +"An overdose of heroin this time," muttered Kennedy. + +My head was in a whirl. + +Hazleton stared blankly at the two figures abjectly lying before +him, as the truth burned itself indelibly into his soul. He +covered his face with his hands. And still he saw it all. + +Craig said nothing. He was content to let what he had shown work +in the man's mind. + +"For the sake of--that baby--would she--would she forgive?" asked +Hazleton, turning desperately toward Kennedy. + +Deliberately Kennedy faced him, not as scientist and millionaire, +but as man and man. + +"From my psychanalysis," he said slowly, "I should say that it IS +within your power, in time, to change those dreams." + +Hazleton grasped Kennedy's hand before he knew it. + +"Kennedy--home--quick. This is the first manful impulse I have had +for two years. And, Jameson--you'll tone down that part of it in +the newspapers that Junior--might read--when he grows up?" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The War Terror, by Arthur B. Reeve + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAR TERROR *** + +This file should be named wrtrr10.txt or wrtrr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, wrtrr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wrtrr10a.txt + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |