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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of Elaine, by Arthur B. Reeve
+(#6 in our series by Arthur B. Reeve)
+
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+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Romance of Elaine
+
+Author: Arthur B. Reeve
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5094]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 24, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+THE CRAIG KENNEDY SERIES
+
+THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE
+
+A DETECTIVE NOVEL
+
+Sequel to the "Exploits"
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR B. REEVE
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   I   THE SERPENT SIGN
+
+  II   THE CRYPTIC RING
+
+ III   THE WATCHING EYE
+
+  IV   THE VENGEANCE OF WU FANG
+
+   V   THE SHADOWS OF WAR
+
+  VI   THE LOST TORPEDO
+
+ VII   THE GRAY FRIAR
+
+VIII   THE VANISHING MAN
+
+  IX   THE SUBMARINE HARBOR
+
+   X   THE CONSPIRATORS
+
+  XI   THE WIRELESS DETECTIVE
+
+ XII   THE DEATH CLOUD
+
+XIII   THE SEARCHLIGHT GUN
+
+ XIV   THE LIFE CHAIN
+
+  XV   THE FLASH
+
+ XVI   THE DISAPPEARING HELMETS
+
+XVII   THE TRIUMPH OF ELAINE
+
+
+
+
+THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SERPENT SIGN
+
+
+Rescued by Kennedy at last from the terrible incubus of Bennett's
+persecution in his double life of lawyer and master criminal,
+Elaine had, for the first time in many weeks, a feeling of
+security.
+
+Now that the strain was off, however, she felt that she needed
+rest and a chance to recover herself and it occurred to her that a
+few quiet days with "Aunt" Tabitha, who had been her nurse when
+she was a little girl, would do her a world of good.
+
+She sent for Aunt Tabby, yet the fascination of the experiences
+through which she had just gone still hung over her. She could not
+resist thinking and reading about them, as she sat, one morning,
+with the faithful Rusty in the conservatory of the Dodge house.
+
+I had told the story at length in the Star, and the heading over
+it caught her eye.
+
+It read:
+
+          THE CLUTCHING HAND DEAD
+
+                ------
+
+    Double Life Exposed by Craig Kennedy
+
+   Perry Bennett, the Famous Young Lawyer, Takes
+   Poison--Kennedy Now on Trail of Master Criminal's
+   Hidden Millions.
+
+                 ----
+
+As Elaine glanced down the column, Jennings announced that Aunt
+Tabby, as she loved to call her old friend, had arrived, and was
+now in the library with Aunt Josephine.
+
+With an exclamation of delight, Elaine dropped the paper and,
+followed by Rusty, almost ran into the library.
+
+Aunt Tabby was a stout, elderly, jolly-faced woman, precisely the
+sort whom Elaine needed to watch over her just now.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad to see you," half laughed Elaine as she literally
+flung herself into her nurse's arms. "I feel so unstrung--and I
+thought that if I could just run off for a few days with you and
+Joshua in the country where no one would know, it might make me
+feel better. You have always been so good to me. Marie! Are my
+things packed? Very well. Then, get my wraps."
+
+Her maid left the room.
+
+"Bless your soul," mothered Aunt Tabby stroking her soft golden
+hair, "I'm always glad to have you in that fine house you bought
+me. And, faith, Miss Elaine, the house is a splendid place to rest
+in but I don't know what's the matter with it lately. Joshua says
+its haunts--"
+
+"Haunts?" repeated Elaine in amused surprise. "Why, what do you
+mean?"
+
+Marie entered with the wraps before Aunt Tabby could reply and
+Jennings followed with the baggage.
+
+"Nonsense," continued Elaine gaily, as she put on her coat, and
+turned to bid Aunt Josephine good-bye. "Good-bye, Tabitha," said
+her real aunt. "Keep good care of my little girl."
+
+"That I will," returned the nurse. "We don't have all these
+troubles out in the country that you city folks have."
+
+Elaine went out, followed by Rusty and Jennings with the luggage.
+
+"Now for a long ride in the good fresh air," sighed Elaine as she
+leaned back on the cushions of the Dodge limousine and patted
+Rusty, while the butler stowed away the bags.
+
+The air certainly did, if anything, heighten the beauty of Elaine
+and at last they arrived at Aunt Tabby's, tired and hungry.
+
+The car stopped and Elaine, Aunt Tabby and the dog got out. There,
+waiting for them, was "Uncle" Joshua, as Elaine playfully called
+him, a former gardener of the Dodges, now a plain, honest
+countryman on whom the city was fast encroaching, a jolly old
+fellow, unharmed by the world.
+
+Aunt Tabby's was an attractive small house, not many miles from
+New York, yet not in the general line of suburban travel.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Kennedy and I had decided to bring Bennett's papers and documents
+over to the laboratory to examine them. We were now engaged in
+going over the great mass of material which he had collected, in
+the hope of finding some clue to the stolen millions which he must
+have amassed as a result of his villainy. The table was stacked
+high.
+
+A knock at the door told us that the expressman had arrived and a
+moment later he entered, delivering a heavy box. Kennedy signed
+for it and started to unpack it.
+
+I was hard at work, when I came across a large manila envelope
+carefully sealed, on which were written the figures "$7,000,000."
+Too excited even to exclaim, I tore the envelope open and examined
+the contents.
+
+Inside was another envelope. I opened that. It contained merely a
+blank piece of paper!
+
+With characteristic skill at covering his tracks, Bennett had also
+covered his money. Puzzled, I turned the paper over and over,
+looking at it carefully. It was a large sheet of paper, but it
+showed nothing.
+
+"Huh!" I snorted to myself, "confound him."
+
+Yet I could not help smiling at my own folly, a minute later, in
+thinking that the Clutching Hand would leave any information in
+such an obvious place as an envelope. I threw the paper into a
+wire basket on the desk and went on sorting the other stuff.
+
+Kennedy had by this time finished unpacking the box, and was
+examining a bottle which he had taken from it.
+
+"Come here, Walter," he called at length. "Ever see anything like
+that?"
+
+"I can't say," I confessed, getting up to go to him. "What is it?"
+
+"Bring a piece of paper." he added.
+
+I went back to the desk where I had been working and looked about
+hastily. My eye fell on the blank sheet of paper which I had taken
+from Bennett's envelope, and I picked it up from the basket.
+
+"Here's one," I said, handing it to him. "What are you doing?"
+
+Kennedy did not answer directly, but began to treat the paper with
+the liquid from the bottle. Then he lighted a Bunsen burner and
+thrust the paper into the flame. The paper did not burn!
+
+"A new system of fire-proofing," laughed Craig, enjoying my
+astonishment.
+
+He continued to hold the paper in the flame. Still it did not
+burn.
+
+"See?" he went on, withdrawing it, and starting to explain the
+properties of the new fire-proofer.
+
+He had scarcely begun, when he stopped in surprise. He had
+happened to glance at the paper again, bent over to examine it
+more intently, and was now looking at it in surprise.
+
+I looked also. There, clearly discernible on the paper, was a
+small part of what looked like an architect's drawing of a
+fireplace.
+
+Craig looked up at me, nonplussed. "Where did you say you got
+that?" he asked.
+
+"It was a blank piece of paper among Bennett's effects," I
+returned, as mystified as he, pointing at the littered desk at
+which I had been working.
+
+Kennedy said nothing, but thrust the paper back again into the
+flame. Slowly, the heat of the burner seemed to bring out the
+complete drawing of the fireplace.
+
+We looked at it, even more mystified. "What is it, do you
+suppose?" I queried.
+
+"I think," he replied slowly, "that it was drawn with sympathetic
+ink. The heat of the burner brought it out into sight."
+
+What was it about?
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine had gone to bed that night at Aunt Tabby's in the room
+which her old nurse had fixed up especially for her. It was a very
+attractive little room with dainty chintz curtains and covers and
+for the first time in many weeks Elaine slept soundly and
+fearlessly.
+
+Down-stairs, in the living-room, Rusty also was asleep, his nose
+between his paws.
+
+The living-room was in keeping with everything at Aunt Tabby's,
+plain, neat, homelike. On one side was a large fireplace that gave
+to it an air of quaint hospitality.
+
+Suddenly Rusty woke up, his ears pointed at this fireplace. He
+stood a moment, listening, then, with a bark of alarm he sped
+swiftly from the living-room, up the stairs at a bound, until he
+came to Elaine's room.
+
+Elaine felt his cold nose at her hand and stirred, then awoke.
+
+"What is it, Rusty?" she asked, mindful of the former days when
+Rusty gave warning of the Clutching Hand and his emissaries.
+
+Rusty wagged his tail. Something was wrong.
+
+Elaine followed him down to the living-room. She went over and
+lighted the electric lamp on the table, then turned to Rusty.
+
+"Well, Rusty?" she asked, almost as if he were human.
+
+She had no need to repeat the question. Rusty was looking straight
+at the fireplace.
+
+Elaine listened. Sure enough, she heard strange noises. Was that
+Aunt Tabby's "haunt"? Whatever it was, it sounded as if it came up
+from the very depths of the earth.
+
+She could not make out just what it sounded like. It might have
+been some one striking a piece of iron, a bolt, with a sledge.
+
+What was it?
+
+She continued to listen in wonder, then ran to Aunt Tabby's
+bedroom door, on the first floor, and knocked.
+
+Aunt Tabby woke up and shook Joshua.
+
+"Aunt Tabby! Aunt Tabby!" called Elaine.
+
+"Yes, my dear," answered the old nurse, now fully awake and
+straightening her nightcap. "Joshua!"
+
+Together the old couple came out into the living-room, still in
+their nightclothes, Joshua yawning sleepily still.
+
+"Listen!" whispered Elaine.
+
+There was the noise again. This time it was more as though some
+one were beating a rat-tat-tat with something on a rock. It was
+weird, uncanny, as all stood there, none knowing where the strange
+noises came from.
+
+"It's the haunts!" cried Aunt Tabby, trembling a bit. "For three
+nights now we've been hearing these noises."
+
+Around and around the room they walked, still trying to locate the
+strange sounds. Were they under the floor? It was impossible to
+say. They gave it up and stood there, looking blankly at each
+other. Was it the work of human or superhuman hands?
+
+Finally Joshua went to a table drawer and opened it. He took out a
+huge, murderous-looking revolver.
+
+"Here, Miss Elaine," he urged, pressing it on her, "take this--
+keep it near you!"
+
+The noises ceased at length, as strangely as they had begun.
+
+Half an hour later, they had all gone back to bed and were asleep.
+But Elaine's sleep now was fitful, a constant procession of faces
+flitted before her closed eyes.
+
+Suddenly, she woke with a start and stared into the semi-darkness.
+Was that face real, or a dream face? Was it the hideous helmeted
+face that had dragged her down into the sewer once? That man was
+dead. Who was this?
+
+She gazed at the bedroom window, holding the huge revolver
+tightly. There, vague in the night light, appeared a figure.
+Surely that was no dream face of the oxygen helmet. Besides, it
+was not the same helmet.
+
+She sat bolt upright and fired, pointblank, at the window,
+shivering the glass. A second later she had leaped from the bed,
+switched on the lights and was running to the sill.
+
+Down-stairs, Aunt Tabby and Uncle Joshua had heard the shot.
+Joshua was now wide awake. He seized his old shotgun and ran out
+into the livingroom. Followed by Aunt Tabby, he hurried to Elaine.
+
+"Wh-what was it?" he asked, puffing at the exertion of running up-
+stairs.
+
+"I saw--a face--at the window--with some kind of thing over it!"
+gasped Elaine. "It was like one I saw once before."
+
+Uncle Joshua did not wait to hear any more. With the gun pointed
+ahead of him, ready for instant action, he ran out of the room and
+into the garden, beneath Elaine's window.
+
+He looked about for signs of an intruder. There was not a sound.
+No one was about, here.
+
+"I don't see any one," he called up to Elaine and Atint Tabby in
+the window.
+
+He happened to look down at the ground. Before him was a small
+box. He picked it up.
+
+"Here's something, though," he said.
+
+Joshua went back into the house.
+
+"What is it?" asked Elaine as he rejoined the women.
+
+She took the curious little box and unfastened the cover. As she
+opened it, she drew back. There in the box was a little ivory
+figure of a man, all hunched up and shrunken, a hideous figure.
+She recoiled from it--it reminded her too much of the Chinese
+devil-god she had seen,--and she dropped the box.
+
+For a moment all stood looking at it in horrified amazement.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was the afternoon following the day of our strange discovery of
+the fireplace done in sympathetic ink on the apparently blank
+sheet of paper in Bennett's effects, when the speaking-tube
+sounded and I answered it.
+
+"Why--it's Elaine," I exclaimed.
+
+Kennedy's face showed the keenest pleasure at the unexpected
+visit. "Tell her to come right up," he said quickly.
+
+I opened the door for her.
+
+"Why--Elaine--I'm awfully glad to see you," he greeted, "but I
+thought you were rusticating."
+
+"I was, but, Craig, it seems to me that wherever I go, something
+happens," she returned. "You know, Aunt Tabby said there were
+haunts. I thought it was an old woman's fear--but last night I
+heard the strangest noises out there, and I thought I saw a face
+at the window--a face in a helmet. And when Joshua went out, this
+is what he found on the ground under my window."
+
+She handed Kennedy a box, a peculiar affair which she touched
+gingerly and only with signs of the greatest aversion.
+
+Kennedy opened it. There, in the bottom of the box, was a little
+ivory devil-god. He looked at it curiously a moment.
+
+"Let me see," he ruminated, still regarding the sign. "The house
+you bought for Aunt Tabby, once belonged to Bennett, didn't it?"
+
+Elaine nodded her head. "Yes, but I don't see what that can have
+to do with it," she agreed, adding with a shudder, "Bennett is
+dead."
+
+Kennedy had taken a piece of paper from the desk where he had put
+it away carefully. "Have you ever seen anything that looks like
+this?" he asked, handing her the paper.
+
+Elaine looked at the plan carefully, as Kennedy and I scanned her
+face. She glanced up, her expression showing plainly the wonder
+she felt.
+
+"Why, yes," she answered. "That looks like Aunt Tabby's fireplace
+in the living-room."
+
+Kennedy said nothing for a moment. Then he seized his hat and
+coat.
+
+"If you don't mind," he said, "we'll go back there with you."
+
+"Mind?" she repeated. "Just what I had hoped you would do."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Wu Fang, the Chinese master mind, had arrived in New York.
+
+Beside Wu, the inscrutable, Long Sin, astute though he was, was a
+mere pigmy--his slave, his advance agent, as it were, a tentacle
+sent out to discover the most promising outlet for the nefarious
+talents of his master.
+
+New York did not know of the arrival of Wu Fang, the mysterious--
+yet. But down in the secret recesses of Chinatown, in the ways
+that are devious and dark, the oriental crooks knew--and trembled.
+
+Thus it happened that Long Sin was not permitted to enjoy even the
+foretaste of Bennett's spoils which he had forced from him after
+his weird transformation into his real self, the Clutching Hand,
+when the Chinaman had given him the poisoned draught that had put
+him into his long sleep.
+
+He had obtained the paper showing where the treasure amassed by
+the Clutching Hand was hidden, but Wu Fang, his master, had come.
+
+Wu had immediately established himself in the most sumptuous of
+apartments, hidden behind the squalid exterior of the ordinary
+tenement building in Chinatown.
+
+The night following his arrival, Wu Fang was reclining on a divan,
+when his servant announced that Long Sin was at the door.
+
+As Long Sin entered, it was evident that, cunning and shrewd
+though he was himself, Wu was indeed his master. He approached in
+fear and awe, cringing low.
+
+"Have you brought the map with you?" asked Wu.
+
+Long Sin bowed low again, and drew from under his coat the paper
+which he had obtained from Bennett. For a moment the two, master
+and slave in guile, bent over, closely studying it.
+
+At one point in the map Long Sin's bony finger paused over a note
+which Bennett had made:
+
+BEWARE POISONED GAS UPON OPENING COMPARTMENT.
+
+"And you think you can trace it out?" asked Wu.
+
+"Without a doubt," bowed Long Sin.
+
+He went over to a bag near-by, which he had already sent up by
+another servant, and opened it. Inside was an oxygen helmet. He
+replaced it, after showing it to Wu.
+
+"With the aid of the science of the white devil, we shall overcome
+the science of the white devil," purred Long Sin subtly.
+
+Outside, Wu had already ordered a car to wait, and together the
+two drove off rapidly. Into the country, they sped, until at last
+they came to a lonely turn in a lonely road, somewhat removed from
+the section that was rapidly being built up as population reached
+out from the city, but on a single-tracked trolley line.
+
+Long Sin alighted and disappeared with a parting word of
+instruction from Wu who remained in the car. The Chinaman carried
+with him the heavy bag with the oxygen helmet.
+
+Along this interurban trolley the cars made only half-hourly trips
+at this time of night. Long Sin hurried down the road until he
+came to a trolley pole, then looked hastily at his watch. It was
+twenty minutes at least before the next car would pass.
+
+Quickly, almost monkey-like, he climbed up the pole, carrying with
+him the end of a wire which he had taken from the bag.
+
+Having thrown this over the feed wire, he slid quickly to the
+ground again. Then, carrying the other end of the wire in his
+rubber-gloved hands, he made his way through the underbrush, in
+and out, almost like the serpent he was, until he came to a
+passageway in the rough and uncleared hillside--a small opening
+formed by the rocks.
+
+It was dark inside, but he did not hesitate to enter, carrying the
+wire and the bag with him.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was nightfall before we arrived with Elaine at Aunt Tabby's. We
+entered the living-room and Elaine introduced us both to Aunt
+Tabby and her husband.
+
+It was difficult to tell whether Elaine's old nurse was more glad
+to see her than the faithful Rusty who almost overwhelmed her even
+after so short an absence.
+
+In the midst of the greetings, I took occasion to look over the
+living-room. It was a very cozy room, simply and tastefully
+furnished, and I fancied that I could see in the neatness of Aunt
+Tabby a touch of Elaine's hand, for she had furnished it for her
+faithful old friend.
+
+I followed Kennedy's eyes, and saw that he was looking at the
+fireplace. Sure enough, it was the same in design as the fireplace
+which the heat had so unexpectedly brought out in sympathetic ink
+on the blank sheet of paper.
+
+Kennedy lost no time in examining it, and we crowded around him as
+he went over it inch by inch, following the directions on the
+drawing.
+
+At one point in the drawing a peculiar protuberance was marked.
+Kennedy was evidently hunting for that. He found it at last and
+pressed the sort of lever in several ways. Nothing seemed to
+happen. But finally, almost by chance, he seemed to discover the
+secret.
+
+A small section at the side of the fireplace opened up, disclosing
+an iron ladder, leading down into one of those characteristic
+hiding-places in which the Clutching Hand used to delight.
+
+Kennedy looked at the mysterious opening some time, as if trying
+to fathom the mystery.
+
+"Let's go down and explore it," I suggested, taking a step toward
+the ladder.
+
+Kennedy reached out and pulled me back. Then without a word he
+pressed the little lever and the door closed.
+
+"I think we'd better wait a while, Walter," he decided. "I would
+rather hear Aunt Tabby's haunts myself."
+
+He carefully went over not only the rest of the house but the
+grounds about it, without discovering anything.
+
+Aunt Tabby, with true country hospitality, seemed unable to
+receive guests without feeding them, and, although we had had a
+big dinner at a famous road-house on the way out, still none of us
+could find it in our hearts to refuse her hospitality. Even that
+diversion, however, did not prevent us from talking of nothing
+else but the strange noises, and I think, as we waited, we all got
+into the frame of mind which would have manufactured them even if
+there had been none.
+
+We were sitting about the room when suddenly the most weird and
+uncanny rappings began. Rusty was on his feet in a moment, barking
+like mad. We looked from one to another.
+
+It was impossible to tell where the noises came from, or even to
+describe them. They were certainly not ghostly rappings. In fact,
+they sounded more like some twentieth century piece of machinery.
+
+We listened a moment, then Kennedy walked over to the fireplace.
+"You can explore it with me now, Walter," he said quietly,
+touching the lever and opening the panel which disclosed the
+ladder.
+
+He started down the ladder and I followed closely. Elaine was
+about to join us, when Kennedy paused on the topmost round and
+looked up at her.
+
+"No, no, young lady," he said with mock severity, "you have been
+through enough already--you stay where you are."
+
+Elaine argued and begged but Kennedy was obdurate. It was only
+when Aunt Tabby and Joshua added their entreaties that she
+consented reluctantly to remain.
+
+Together, Craig and I descended into the darkness about eight or
+ten feet. There we found a passageway, excavated through the earth
+and rock, along which we crept. It was crooked and uneven, and we
+stumbled, but kept going slowly ahead.
+
+Kennedy, who was a few feet in front of me, stopped suddenly and I
+almost fell over him.
+
+"What is it?" I whispered.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Long Sin had made his way from the opening of the cave to the
+point on the plan which was marked by a cross, and there he had
+set up his electric drill which was connected to the trolley wire.
+He was working furiously to take advantage of the fifteen minutes
+or so before the next car would pass.
+
+The tunnel had been widened out at this point into a small
+subterranean chamber. It was dug out of the earth and the roof was
+roughly propped up, most of the weight being borne by one main
+wooden prop which, in the dampness, had now become old and rotten.
+
+On one side it was evident that Long Sin had already been at work,
+digging and drilling through the earth and rock. He had gone so
+far now that he had disclosed what looked like the face of a small
+safe set directly into the rock.
+
+As he worked he would stop from time to time and consult the map.
+Then he would take up drilling again.
+
+He had now come to the point on which Bennett had written his
+warning. Quickly he opened the bag and took out the oxygen helmet,
+which he adjusted carefully over his head. Then he set to work
+with redoubled energy.
+
+It was that drill as well as his pounding on the rock which had so
+alarmed Elaine and Aunt Tabby the night before and which now had
+been the signal for Kennedy's excursion of discovery.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Our man, whoever he was, must have heard us approaching down the
+tunnel, for he paused in his work and the noise of the drill
+ceased.
+
+He looked about a moment, then went over to the prop and examined
+it, looking up at the roof of the chamber above him. Evidently he
+feared that it was not particularly strong.
+
+From our vantage point around the bend in the passageway we could
+see this strange and uncouth figure.
+
+"Who is it, do you think?" I whispered, crouching back against the
+wall for fear that he might look even around a corner or through
+the earth and discover us.
+
+As I spoke, my hand loosened a piece of rock that jutted out and
+before I knew it there was a crash.
+
+"Confound it, Walter," exclaimed Kennedy.
+
+Down the passageway the figure was now thoroughly on the alert,
+staring with his goggle-like eyes into the blackness in our
+direction. It was not the roof above him that was unsafe. He was
+watched, and he did not hesitate a minute to act.
+
+He seized the bag and picked his way quickly through the passage
+as if thoroughly familiar with every turn of the walls and
+roughness of the floor.
+
+We were discovered and if we were to accomplish anything, it was
+now or never.
+
+Kennedy dashed forward and I followed close after him.
+
+We were making much better time than our strange visitor and were
+gaining on him rapidly. Nearer and nearer we came to him, for, in
+spite of his familiarity with the cavern he was hampered by the
+outlandish head-gear that he wore.
+
+It was only another instant, when Kennedy would have laid his
+hands on him.
+
+Suddenly he half turned, raised his arm and dashed something to
+the earth much as a child explodes a toy torpedo. I fully expected
+that it was a bomb; but, as a moment later, I found that Kennedy
+and I were still unharmed, I knew that it must be some other
+product of this devilish genius.
+
+The thickest and most impenetrable smoke seemed to pervade the
+narrow cavern!
+
+"A Chinese smoke bomb!" sputtered and coughed Kennedy, as he
+retreated a minute, then with renewed vigor endeavored to
+penetrate the dense and opaque fumes.
+
+We managed to go ahead still, but the intruder had exploded one
+after another of his peculiar bombs, always keeping ahead of the
+smoke which he created, and we found that under its cover he had
+made good his escape, probably reaching the entrance of the cave
+in the underbrush.
+
+At the other end of the passageway, up in the living-room of the
+cottage, the draught had carried large quantities of the smoke.
+Elaine, Aunt Tabby and Joshua coughing and choking, saw it, and
+opened a window, which seemed to cause a current of air to sweep
+through the whole length of the passageway and helped to clear
+away the fumes rapidly.
+
+Long Sin, meanwhile, had started to work his way through the
+bushes to reach the waiting car, with Wu, then paused and
+listened. Hearing no sound, he replaced the helmet which he had
+taken off.
+
+Pursuit was now useless for us. With revolvers drawn, we crept
+back along the passageway until we came again to the chamber
+itself. There, on the floor, lay a bag of tools, opened, as though
+somebody had been working with them.
+
+"Caught red-handed!" exclaimed Kennedy with great satisfaction.
+
+He looked at the tools a minute and then at the electric drill,
+and finally an idea seemed to strike him. He took up the drill and
+advanced toward the safe. Then he turned on the current and
+applied the drill.
+
+The drill was of the very latest design and it went quickly
+through the steel. But beyond that there was another thin steel
+partition. This Kennedy tackled next.
+
+The drill went through and he withdrew it.
+
+Instantly the most penetrating and nauseous odor seemed to pervade
+everything.
+
+Kennedy cried out. But his warning was too late. We staggered
+back, overcome by the escaping gas and fell to the ground.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Long Sin, with his oxygen helmet on again, had returned to the
+passageway and was now stealthily creeping back.
+
+He came to the chamber and there discovered us lying on the
+ground, overcome. He bent down and, to his great satisfaction, saw
+that we were really unconscious.
+
+Quickly he moved over to the safe and pried open the last thin
+steel plate.
+
+Inside was a small box. He picked it up and tried to open it, but
+it was locked. There was no time to work over it here, and he took
+it under his arm and started to leave.
+
+He paused a moment to look at us, then took out a piece of paper
+and a pencil and on the paper wrote, "Thanks for your trouble."
+Beneath, it was signed by his special stamp--the serpent's head,
+mouth open and fangs showing.
+
+Long Sin looked at us a moment, then a subtle smile seemed to
+spread over his face. At last he had us in his power.
+
+He drew out a long, wicked-looking Chinese knife and stuck it
+through the note.
+
+Then he felt the edge of the knife. It was keen.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the sitting-room, Elaine, Aunt Tabby and Joshua had been
+listening intently at the fireplace but heard nothing.
+
+They were now getting decidedly worried. Finally, the fumes which
+we had released made their way to the room. They were considerably
+diluted by fresh air by that time, but, although they were
+nauseous, were not sufficient to overcome any one. Still, the
+smell was terrible.
+
+"I can't stand it any longer," cried Elaine. "I'm going down there
+to see what has become of them."
+
+Aunt Tabby and Joshua tried to stop her, but she broke away from
+them and went down the ladder. Rusty leaped down after her.
+
+Joshua tried to follow, but Aunt Tabby held him back. He would
+have gone, too, if she had not managed to strike the spring and
+shut the door, closing up the passageway.
+
+Joshua got angry then. "You are making a coward of me," he cried,
+beating on the panel with the butt of his gun and struggling to
+open it.
+
+He seemed unable to fathom the secret.
+
+Elaine was now making her way as rapidly as she could through the
+tunnel, with Rusty beside her.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was just as Long Sin had raised his knife that the sound of her
+footsteps alarmed him.
+
+He paused and leaped to his feet.
+
+There was no time for either to retreat. He started toward Elaine,
+and seized her roughly.
+
+Back and forth over the rocky floor they struggled. As they
+fought,--she with frantic strength, he craftily,--he backed her
+slowly up against the prop that upheld the roof.
+
+He raised his keen knife.
+
+She recoiled. The prop, none too strong, suddenly gave way under
+her weight.
+
+The whole roof of the chamber fell with a crash, earth and stone
+overwhelming Elaine and her assailant.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+By this time Joshua had left the house and had gone out into the
+garden to get something to pry open the fireplace door.
+
+Of a sudden, to his utter amazement, a few feet from him, it
+seemed as if the very earth sank in his garden, leaving a yawning
+chasm.
+
+He looked, unable to make it out.
+
+Before his very eyes a strange figure, the figure of Long Sin in
+his oxygen helmet, appeared, struggling up, as if by magic from
+the very earth, shaking the debris off himself, as a dog would
+shake off the water after a plunge in a pond.
+
+Long Sin was gone in a moment.
+
+Then again the earth began to move. A paw appeared, then a sharp
+black nose, and a moment later, Rusty, too, dug himself out.
+
+Joshua had run into the house to get a spade when Rusty, like a
+shot, bolted for the house, took the window at a leap and all
+covered with earth landed before Joshua and Aunt Tabby.
+
+"See!--he went down there--now he's here!" cried Aunt Tabby,
+pointing at the fireplace, then looking at the window.
+
+Rusty was running back and forth from Joshua to the window.
+
+"Follow him!" cried Aunt Tabby.
+
+Rusty led the way back again to the garden, to the cave-in.
+
+"Elaine!" gasped Aunt Tabby.
+
+By this time Joshua was digging furiously. Rusty, too, seemed to
+understand. He threw back the earth with his paws, helping with
+every ounce of strength in his little body.
+
+At last the spade turned up a bit of cloth.
+
+"Elaine!" Aunt Tabby cried out again.
+
+She was in a sort of little pocket, protected by the fortunate
+formation of the earth as it fell, yet almost suffocated, weak but
+conscious.
+
+Aunt Tabby rushed up as Joshua laid down the spade and lifted out
+Elaine.
+
+They were about to carry her into the house, when she cried
+weakly, but with all her remaining strength.
+
+"No--no--Dig! Craig--Walter!" she managed to gasp.
+
+Rusty, too, was still at it. Joshua fell to again. Man and dog
+worked with a will.
+
+"There they are!" cried Elaine, as all three pulled us out,
+unconscious but still alive.
+
+Though we did not know it, they carried us into the house, while
+Elaine and Aunt Tabby bustled about to get something to revive us.
+
+At last I opened my eyes and saw the motherly Aunt Tabby bending
+over me. Craig was already revived, weak but ready now to do
+anything Elaine ordered, as she held his hand and stroked his
+forehead softly.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Meanwhile Long Sin had made his way to the automobile where his
+master, Wu, waited impatiently.
+
+"Did you get it?" asked Wu eagerly.
+
+Long Sin showed him the box.
+
+"Hurry, master!" he cried breathlessly, leaping into the car and
+struggling to take off the helmet as they drove away. "They may be
+here--at any moment."
+
+The machine was off like a shot and even if we had been able to
+follow, we could not now have caught it.
+
+Back in Wu's sumptuous apartment, later, Wu and his slave, Long
+Sin, after their hurried ride, dismissed all the servants and
+placed the little box on the table. Wu rose and locked the door.
+
+Then, together, they took a sharp instrument and tried to pry off
+the lid of the box.
+
+The lid flew off. They gazed in eagerly.
+
+Inside was a smaller box, which Wu seized eagerly and opened.
+
+There, on the plush cushion lay merely a round knobbed ring!
+
+Was this the end of their great expectations? Were Bennett's
+millions merely mythical?
+
+The two stared at each other in chagrin.
+
+Wu was the first to speak.
+
+"Where there should have been seven million dollars," he muttered
+to himself, "why is there only a mystic ring?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE CRYPTIC RING
+
+
+Kennedy had been engaged for some time in the only work outside of
+the Dodge case which he had consented to take for weeks.
+
+Our old friend, Dr. Leslie, the Coroner, had appealed to him to
+solve a very ticklish point in a Tong murder case which had set
+all Chinatown agog. It was, indeed, a very bewildering case. A
+Chinaman named Li Chang, leader of the Chang Wah Tong, had been
+poisoned, but so far no one had been able to determine what poison
+it was or even to prove that there had been a poison, except for
+the fact that the man was dead, and Kennedy had taken the thing up
+in a great measure because of the sudden turn in the Dodge case
+which had brought us into such close contact with the Chinese.
+
+I had been watching Kennedy with interest, for the Tong wars
+always make picturesque newspaper stories, when a knock at the
+door announced the arrival of Dr. Leslie, anxious for some result.
+
+"Have you been able to find out anything yet?" he greeted Kennedy
+eagerly as Craig looked up from his microscope.
+
+Kennedy turned and nodded. "Your dead man was murdered by means of
+aconite, of which, you know, the active principle is the deadly
+alkaloid aconitine."
+
+Craig pulled down from the shelf above him one of his well-thumbed
+standard works on toxicology. He turned the pages and read:
+
+"Pure aconite is probably the most actively poisonous substance
+with which we are acquainted. It does not produce any decidedly
+characteristic post-mortem appearances, and, in fact, there is no
+reliable chemical test to prove its presence. The chances of its
+detection in the body after death are very slight."
+
+Dr. Leslie looked up. "Then there is no test, none?" he asked.
+
+"There is one that is brand new," replied Kennedy slowly. "It is
+the new starch-grain test just discovered by Professor Reichert,
+of the University of Pennsylvania. The peculiarities of the starch
+grains of various plants are quite as great as those of the blood
+crystals, which, you will recall, Walter, we used once.
+
+"The starch grains of the poison have remained in the wound. I
+have recovered them from the dead man's blood and have studied
+them microscopically. They can be definitely recognized. This is
+plainly a case of aconite poisoning--probably suggested to the
+Oriental mind by the poison arrows of the Ainus of Northern
+Japan."
+
+Dr. Leslie and I both looked through the microscope, comparing the
+starch grains which Kennedy had discovered with those of scores of
+micro-photographs which lay scattered over the table.
+
+"There are several treatments for aconite poisoning," ruminated
+Kennedy. "I would say that one of the latest and best is digitalin
+given hypodermically." He took down a bottle of digitalin from a
+cabinet, adding, "only it was too late in this case."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Just what the relations were between Long Sin and the Chong Wah
+Tong I have never been able to determine exactly. But one thing
+was certain: Long Sin on his arrival in New York had offended the
+Tong and now that his master, Wu Fang, was here the offence was
+even greater, for the criminal society brooked no rival.
+
+In the dark recesses of a poorly furnished cellar, serving as the
+Tong headquarters, the new leader and several of his most trusted
+followers were now plotting revenge. Long Sin, they believed, was
+responsible for the murder, and, with truly Oriental guile, they
+had obtained a hold over Wu Fang's secretary.
+
+Their plan decided on, the Chinamen left the headquarters and made
+their way separately up-town. They rejoined one another in the
+shelter of a rather poor house, before which was a board fence, in
+the vicinity of a fashionable apartment house. A moment's
+conference followed, and then the secretary glided away.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Wu had taken another apartment up-town in one of the large
+apartment houses near a parkway; for he was far too subtle to
+operate from his real headquarters back of the squalid exterior of
+Chinatown.
+
+There Long Sin was now engaged in making all possible provisions
+for the safety of his master. Any one who had been walking along
+the boulevard and had happened to glance up at the roof of the
+tall apartment building might have seen Long Sin's figure
+silhouetted against the sky on the top of the mansard roof near a
+flagpole.
+
+He had just finished fastening to the flagpole a stout rope which
+stretched taut across an areaway some twenty or thirty feet wide
+to the next building, where it was fastened to a chimney. Again
+and again he tested it, and finally with a nod of satisfaction
+descended from the roof and went to the apartment of Wu.
+
+There, alone, he paused for a few minutes to gaze in wonder at the
+cryptic ring which had been the net result so far of his efforts
+to find the millions which Bennett, as the Clutching Hand, had
+hidden. He wore it, strangely enough, over his index finger, and
+as he examined it he shook his head in doubt.
+
+Neither he nor his master had yet been able to fathom the
+significance of the ring.
+
+Long Sin thought that he was unobserved. But outside, looking
+through the keyhole, was Wu's secretary, who had stolen in on the
+mission which had been set for him at the Tong headquarters.
+
+Long Sin went over to a desk and opened a secret box in which Wu
+had placed several packages of money with which to bribe those
+whom he wished to get into his power. It was Long Sin's mission to
+carry out this scheme, so he packed the money into a bag, drew his
+coat more closely about him and left the room.
+
+No sooner had he gone than the secretary hurried into the room,
+paused a moment to make sure that Long Sin was not coming back,
+then hurried over to a closet near-by.
+
+From a secret hiding-place he drew out a small bow and arrow. He
+sat down at a table and hastily wrote a few Chinese characters on
+a piece of paper, rolling up the note into a thin quill which he
+inserted into a prepared place in the arrow.
+
+Then he raised the window and deftly shot the arrow out.
+
+Down the street, back of the board fence, where the final
+conference has taken place, was a rather sleepy-looking Chinaman,
+taking an occasional puff at a cigarette doped with opium.
+
+He jumped to his feet suddenly. With a thud an arrow had buried
+itself quivering in the fence. Quickly he seized it, drew out the
+note and read it.
+
+In the Canton vernacular it read briefly: "He goes with much
+money."
+
+It was enough. Instantly the startling news overcame the effect of
+the dope, and the Chinaman shuffled off quickly to the Tong
+headquarters.
+
+They were waiting for him there, and he had scarcely delivered the
+message before their plans were made. One by one they left the
+headquarters, hiding in doorways, basements and areaways along the
+narrow street.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Long Sin was making his rounds, visiting all those whom the
+glitter of Wu's money could corrupt.
+
+Suddenly from the shadows of a narrow street, lined with the
+stores of petty Chinese merchants, half a dozen lithe and
+murderous figures leaped out behind Long Sin and seized him. He
+struggled, but they easily threw him down.
+
+Any one who has visited Chinatown knows that at every corner and
+bend of the crooked streets stands a policeman. It was scarcely a
+second before the noise of the scuffle was heard, but it was too
+late. The half dozen Tong men had seized the money which Long Sin
+carried and had deftly stripped him of everything else of value.
+
+The sound of the approaching policeman now alarmed them. Just as
+the new Tong leader had raised an axe to bring it down with
+crushing force on Long Sin's skull a shot rang out and the axe
+fell from the broken wrist of the Chinaman.
+
+In another moment the policeman had seized him. Then followed a
+sharp fight in which the Tong men's knowledge of jiu-jitsu stood
+them in good stead. The policeman was hurled aside, the Tong
+leader broke away, and one by one his followers disappeared
+through dark hallways and alleyways, leaving the policeman with
+only two prisoners and Long Sin lying on the sidewalk.
+
+But the ring and the money were gone.
+
+"Are you hurt much?" demanded the burly Irish officer, assisting
+Long Sin to his feet, none too gently.
+
+Long Sin was furious over the loss of the precious ring, yet he
+knew to involve himself in the white man's law would end only in
+disaster both for him and his master. He forced a painful smile,
+shook his head and managed to get away down the street muttering.
+
+He made his way up-town and back to the apartment of Wu, and
+there, pacing up and down in a fury, attended to his wounds.
+
+His forefinger, from which the ring had been so ruthlessly
+snatched, was a constant reminder to him of the loss. Any one who
+could have studied the vengefulness of his face would have seen
+that it boded ill for some one.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was the day after her return from Aunt Tabby's that Kennedy
+called again upon Elaine to find that she and Aunt Josephine were
+engaged in the pleasant pastime of arranging an entertainment.
+
+Jennings announced Craig and held back the portieres as he
+entered.
+
+"Oh, good!" cried Elaine as she saw him. "You are just in time. I
+was going to send you this, but I should much rather give it to
+you."
+
+She handed him a tastefully engraved sheet of paper which he read
+with interest:
+
+          Miss Elaine Dodge
+  requests the honor of your presence
+       at an Oriental Reception
+      on April 6th, at 8 o'clock.
+
+"Very interesting," exclaimed Craig enthusiastically. "I shall be
+delighted to come."
+
+He looked about a moment at the library which Elaine was already
+rearranging for the entertainment.
+
+"Then you must work," she cried gaily. "You are just in time to
+help me buy the decorations. No objections--come along."
+
+She took Kennedy's arm playfully.
+
+"But I have a very important investigation for the Coroner that I
+am--"
+
+"No excuses," she cried, laughingly, dragging him out.
+
+Among the many places which Elaine had down on her shopping list
+was a small Chinese curio shop on lower Fifth avenue.
+
+They entered and were greeted with a profound bow by the
+proprietor. He was the new Tong leader, and this up-town shop was
+his cover. In actual fact, he was what might have been called a
+Chinese fence for stolen goods.
+
+In their interest in the wealth of strange and curious ornaments
+displayed in the shop they did not notice that the Chinaman's
+wrist was bound tightly under his flowing sleeve.
+
+Elaine explained what it was she wanted, and with Kennedy's aid
+selected a number of Chinese hangings and decorations. They were
+about to leave the shop when Elaine's eye was attracted by a
+little show case in which were many quaint and valuable Chinese
+ornaments in gold and silver and covered ivory.
+
+"What an odd looking thing," she said, pointing out a nobbed ring
+which reposed on the black velvet of the case.
+
+"Quite odd," agreed Kennedy.
+
+The subtle Chinaman stood by the pile of hangings on the counter
+which Elaine had bought, overjoyed at such a large sale. Praising
+the ring to Elaine, he turned insinuatingly to Kennedy. There was
+nothing else for Craig to do--he bought the ring, and the Chinaman
+proved again his ability as a merchant.
+
+From the curio shop where Elaine had completed her purchases they
+drove to Kennedy's laboratory.
+
+I had been at work on a story for the Star when they entered.
+
+"You will be there, too, Mr. Jameson?" coaxed Elaine, as she told
+of their morning's work.
+
+I needed no urging.
+
+We were in the midst of planning the entertainment when a slight
+cough behind me made me start and turn quickly.
+
+There stood Long Sin, the astute Chinaman who had delivered the
+bomb to Kennedy and had betrayed Bennett. We had seen very little
+of him since then.
+
+Long Sin bowed low and shuffled over closer to Kennedy. I noticed
+that Elaine eyed Long Sin sharply. But as yet we had seen no
+reason to suspect him, so cleverly had he covered his tracks.
+Kennedy, having used him once to capture Bennett, was still not
+unwilling to use him in attempting to discover where Bennett's
+hidden millions lay.
+
+"I am in great trouble, Professor Kennedy," began Long Sin in a
+low tone. "You don't know the Chinese of the city, but if you did
+you would know what blackmailers there are among them. I have
+refused to pay blackmail to the Chong Wah Tong, and since then it
+has been trouble, trouble, trouble."
+
+Kennedy looked up quickly at the name Chong Wah Tong, thinking of
+the investigation which the Coroner had asked him to make into the
+murder. He and Long Sin moved a few steps away, discussing the
+affair.
+
+Elaine and I were still talking over the entertainment.
+
+She happened to place her hand on the desk near Long Sin. My back
+was toward him and I did not see him start suddenly and look at
+her hand. On it was the ring--the ring which, unknown to us, Long
+Sin had found in the passageway under Aunt Tabby's garden, of
+which he had been robbed, and which now, by a strange chance, had
+come into Elaine's possession.
+
+It was a peculiar situation for Long Sin, although as yet we did
+not know it. He could not lay claim to the mystic ring, for then
+Kennedy would make him prove his ownership, and the whole affair
+of which we still knew nothing would be exposed.
+
+He acted quickly. Long Sin decided to recover the ring by stealth.
+
+Elaine was still talking enthusiastically about her party, when
+Long Sin turned from Kennedy and moved toward us with a bow.
+
+"The lady speaks of an Oriental reception," he remarked. "Would
+she care to engage a magician?"
+
+Elaine turned to him surprised. "Do you mean that you are a
+magician?" she asked, puzzled.
+
+Long Sin smiled quietly. He reached over and took a small bottle
+from Kennedy's laboratory table. Holding it in his hand almost
+directly before us, he made a few sleight-of-hand passes, and,
+presto! the bottle had disappeared. A few more passes, and a test
+tube appeared in its place. Before we knew it he had caused the
+test tube to disappear and the bottle to reappear. We all
+applauded enthusiastically.
+
+"I don't think that is such a bad idea after all," nodded Kennedy
+to Elaine.
+
+"Perhaps not," she agreed, a little doubtfully. "I hadn't intended
+to have such a thing, but--why, of course, that would interest
+everybody."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was the night of the reception. The Dodge library was
+transformed. The Oriental hangings which Elaine and Kennedy had
+purchased seemed to breathe mysticism. At the far end of the room
+a platform had been arranged to form a stage on which Long Sin was
+to perform his sleight-of-hand. The drawing-room also was
+decorated like the library.
+
+At the other end of the room Elaine and Aunt Josephine, in
+picturesque Oriental costume, were greeting the guests. Every one
+seemed to be delighted with the novelty of the affair.
+
+We came in just a bit ahead of Long Sin, and Elaine greeted us.
+
+Almost everybody had arrived when Elaine turned to the guests and
+introduced Long Sin with a little speech. Long Sin bowed and every
+one applauded. He made his way to the platform in the library and
+mounted it.
+
+I shall not attempt to describe the amazing series of tricks which
+he performed. His hands and fingers seemed to move like lightning.
+Among other things, I remember he took up a cover from a table
+near-by. He held it up before us. Instantly it seemed that a flock
+of pigeons flew out of it around the room. How he did it I don't
+know. They were real pigeons, however, and the trick brought down
+the house.
+
+Long Sin bowed.
+
+Another of his feats which I recall was nothing less than kindling
+a fire on a small bit of tin and, as the flames mounted, he
+deliberately stepped into them, apparently as unharmed as a
+salamander.
+
+So it went from one thing to another. The entertainment was
+brilliant in itself, but Long Sin seemed to put the finishing
+touch to it. In fact, I suppose that it was a couple of hours that
+he continued to amuse us.
+
+He had finished and every one crowded about him to congratulate
+him on his skill. His only answer, however, was his inscrutable
+smile.
+
+"This is wonderful, wonderful," I repeated as I happened to meet
+Elaine alone. We walked into the conservatory while the guests
+were crowding around Long Sin. She seated herself for the first
+time during the evening.
+
+"May I get you an ice?" I suggested.
+
+She thanked me, and I hurried off. As I passed through the
+drawing-room I did not notice that Long Sin had managed to escape
+further congratulations of the guests. Just then a waiter passed
+through with ices on a tray. I called to him and he stopped.
+
+A moment later Long Sin himself took an ice from the tray and
+retreated back of the portieres. No one was about, and he hastily
+drew a bottle from his pocket. On the bottle was a Chinese label.
+He palmed the bottle, and any one who had chanced to see him would
+have noticed that he passed it two or three times over the ice,
+then, lifting the portieres, entered the drawing-room again.
+
+He had made the circuit of the rooms in such a way as to bring
+himself out directly in my path. With a smile he stopped before
+me, rubbing both hands together.
+
+"It is for Miss Elaine?" he asked.
+
+I nodded.
+
+By this time several of the guests who were fascinated with Long
+Sin gathered about us. Long Sin fluttered open a Chinese fan which
+he had used in his tricks, passed it over my hand, and in some
+incomprehensible way I felt the plate with the ice literally
+disappear from my grasp. My face must have shown my surprise. A
+burst of laughter from the other guests greeted me. I looked at
+Long Sin, half angry, yet unable to say anything, for the joke was
+plainly on me. He smiled, made another pass with the fan, and
+instantly the plate with the ice was back in my hand.
+
+There was nothing for me but to take the joke in the spirit in
+which the other guests had taken it. I laughed with them and
+managed to get away.
+
+Meanwhile Kennedy had been moving from one to another of the
+guests seeking Elaine. He had already taken an ice from the waiter
+and was going in the direction of the conservatory. There he found
+her.
+
+"Won't you take this ice?" he asked, handing it to her.
+
+"It is very kind of you," she said, "but I have already sent
+Walter for one."
+
+Kennedy insisted and she took it.
+
+She had already started to eat it when I appeared in the doorway.
+I was rather vexed at Long Sin for having delayed me, and I
+mumbled something about it.
+
+Kennedy laughed, rather pleased at having beaten me.
+
+"Never mind, Walter," he said with a smile, "I'll take it. And er-
+-I don't think that Elaine will object if you play the host for a
+little while with Aunt Josephine," he hinted.
+
+I saw that three was a crowd and I turned to retrace my steps to
+the drawing-room.
+
+Kennedy, however, was not alone. Back of the palms in the
+conservatory two beady black eyes were eagerly watching. Long Sin
+had noted every movement as his cleverly laid plan miscarried.
+
+Chatting with animation, Kennedy tasted the ice. He had taken only
+a couple of spoonfuls when a look of wonder and horror seemed to
+spread over his face.
+
+He rose quickly. A cold sweat seemed to break out all over him.
+His nerves almost refused to respond. His tongue seemed to be
+paralyzed and the muscles of his throat seemed to be like steel
+bands.
+
+He took only a few steps, began to stagger, and finally sank down
+on the floor.
+
+Elaine screamed.
+
+We rushed in from the library and drawing-room. There lay Kennedy
+on the floor, his face most terribly contorted. We gathered around
+him and he tried to raise himself and speak, but seemed unable to
+utter a sound.
+
+He had fallen near the fountain and one hand drooped over into the
+water. As he fell back he seemed to have only just enough strength
+to withdraw his hand from the fountain. On the stone coping,
+slowly and laboriously, he moved his finger.
+
+"What's the matter, old man?" I asked, bending over him.
+
+There was no answer, but he managed to turn his head, and I
+followed the direction of his eyes.
+
+With trembling finger he was tracing out, one by one, some
+letters. I looked and it flashed over me what he meant. He had
+written with the water:
+
+"Digitalin--lab--"
+
+I jumped up and almost without a word dashed out of the
+conservatory, down the hall and into the first car waiting
+outside.
+
+"To the laboratory," I directed, giving the driver the directions,
+"and drive like the deuce!"
+
+Fortunately there was no one to stop us, and I know we broke all
+the speed laws of New York. I dashed into the laboratory, almost
+broke open the cabinet, and seized the bottle of digitalin and a
+hypodermic syringe, then rushed madly out again and into the car.
+
+Meanwhile some of the guests had lifted up Kennedy, too excited to
+notice Long Sin in his hiding-place. They had laid Craig down on a
+couch and were endeavoring to revive him. Some one had already
+sent for a doctor, but the aconite was working quickly on its
+victim, and he was slowly stiffening out. Elaine was frantic.
+
+I scarcely waited for the car to stop in front of the house. I
+opened the door and rushed in.
+
+Without a word I thrust the antidote and the syringe into the
+hands of the doctor and he went to work immediately. We watched
+with anxiety. Finally Kennedy's eyes opened and gradually his
+breathing seemed to become more normal.
+
+The antidote had been given in time.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Kennedy was considerably broken up by the narrow escape which he
+had had, and, naturally, even the next morning, did not feel like
+himself.
+
+In the excitement of leaving Elaine's we had forgotten the bottle
+of digitalin. As for myself, I had been so overjoyed at seeing my
+old friend restored that I would have forgotten anything.
+
+Kennedy looked rather wan and peaked, but insisted on going to the
+laboratory as usual.
+
+"Do you remember what became of the bottle of digitalin?" he
+asked, fumbling in the closet.
+
+Mechanically I felt in my own pockets; it was not there. I shook
+my head.
+
+"I don't seem to remember what became of it--perhaps we left it
+there. In fact, we must have left it there."
+
+"I don't like to have such things lying around loose," remarked
+Kennedy, taking up his hat and coat with forced energy. "I think
+we had better get it."
+
+Elaine had spent rather a sleepless night after the attempt to
+poison her which had miscarried and resulted in poisoning Kennedy.
+
+To keep her mind off the thing, she had already started to take
+down the decorations. Jennings and Marie, as well as a couple of
+workmen, were restoring the library to its normal condition under
+the direction of Aunt Josephine.
+
+The telephone rang and Elaine answered it. Her face showed that
+something startling had happened.
+
+"It was Jameson," she cried, almost dropping the receiver,
+overcome.
+
+They all hurried to her. "He says that Mr. Kennedy and he were
+visiting that Chinaman this morning and Mr. Kennedy suffered a
+relapse--is dying there, in the Chinaman's apartment. He wants us
+to come quickly and bring that medicine that they used last night.
+He says it is on the tabaret in the library. Marie, will you look
+for it? And, Jennings, get the car right away."
+
+Jennings hurried from the room, and a moment later Marie had found
+the bottle behind some ornaments on the tabaret and came back with
+it.
+
+Scarcely knowing what to do, Elaine, followed by Aunt Josephine,
+had rushed from the house, hatless and coatless, just as the car
+swung around from the garage in the rear. Jennings went out with
+the wraps. They seized them and leaped into the car, which started
+off swiftly.
+
+It was only a matter of minutes when they pulled up before the
+apartment house where Wu had taken the suite from which Long Sin
+had telephoned the message in my name. Together Elaine and Aunt
+Josephine hurried in.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Kennedy went directly from the laboratory to the Dodge house.
+
+I don't think I ever saw such an expression of surprise on
+anybody's face as that on Jennings's when he opened the door and
+saw us. He was aghast. Back of him we could see Marie. She looked
+as if she had seen a ghost.
+
+"Is Miss Elaine in?" asked Kennedy.
+
+Jennings was even too dumfounded to speak.
+
+"Why, what's the matter?" demanded Kennedy.
+
+"Then--er--you are not ill again?" he managed to blurt out.
+
+"Ill again?" repeated Kennedy.
+
+"Why," explained Jennings, "didn't Mr. Jameson just now telephone
+that you had had a relapse in the apartment of that Chinaman, and
+for Miss Elaine to hurry over there right away with that bottle of
+medicine?" Kennedy waited to hear no more. Seizing me by the arm,
+he turned and dashed down the steps and back again into the
+taxicab in which we had come.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In Wu's apartment Long Sin was giving his secretary and another
+Chinaman the most explicit instructions. As he finished each
+nodded and showed him a Chinese dirk concealed under his blouse.
+
+Just then a knock sounded at the door. The secretary opened it,
+and Aunt Josephine and Elaine almost ran in. Before they knew it,
+the secretary had locked the door.
+
+Long Sin rose and bowed with a smile.
+
+"Where is Mr. Kennedy?" demanded Elaine. Long Sin bowed again,
+spreading out his hands, palm outward.
+
+"Mr. Kennedy? He is not here."
+
+Then, straightening up, he faced the two women squarely.
+
+"You have a ring that means much to me," he said quickly. "The
+only way to get it from you was to bring you here."
+
+He was pointing now at the ring on Elaine's finger. She looked at
+it a moment in surprise, then at the menacing Chinaman, and turned
+quickly. She ran to the door. It was locked.
+
+Long Sin, motionless, smiled. "There is no way to get out," he
+murmured.
+
+Aunt Josephine was standing now with her back to the door leading
+into another room. She happened to look up and saw the secretary,
+who was near her and half turned away. From where she was standing
+she could see the murderous dirk up his sleeve.
+
+She acted instantly. Without a word she summoned all her strength
+and struck him. The secretary stumbled.
+
+"Elaine," she cried, "look out! they have knives."
+
+Before Elaine knew it Aunt Josephine had taken her by the arm, had
+pulled her into the back room, and, although Long Sin and the
+others had rushed forward, managed to slam the door and lock it.
+
+The Chinamen set to work immediately to pry it open.
+
+While they were at work on the doer, which was already swaying,
+Aunt Josephine and Elaine were running about, trying to find an
+outlet from the room.
+
+There seemed to be no way out. Even the windows were locked.
+
+"I don't know why they want the ring," whispered Aunt Josephine,
+"but they won't get it. Give it to me, Elaine."
+
+She almost seized the ring, hiding it in her waist. As she did so
+the door burst open and Wu, Long Sin and the other Chinamen rushed
+in.
+
+A second later they seized Elaine and Aunt Josephine.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Kennedy and I dashed up before the apartment house in which we
+knew that Long Sin lived, leaped out of the car and hurried in.
+
+It was on the second floor, and we did not wait for the elevator
+but took the steps two at a time. Kennedy found the door locked.
+Instantly he whipped out his revolver and shot the lock in pieces.
+We threw ourselves against the door, the broken lock gave way and
+we rushed in through the front room.
+
+No one was there, but in a back room we could hear sounds. It was
+Elaine and Aunt Josephine struggling with the Chinamen. Long Sin
+and the others had seized Elaine and Aunt Josephine was trying to
+help her just as we rushed in. With a blow Kennedy knocked out the
+secretary, while I struggled with the other Chinamen who blocked
+the way.
+
+Then Kennedy went directly at Long Sin. They struggled furiously.
+
+Long Sin, with his wonderful knowledge of jiu-jitsu, might not
+have been a match for six other Chinamen, but he was for one white
+man. With a mighty effort he threw Kennedy, rushed for the door
+and, as he passed through the outside room, seized a Tong axe from
+the wall.
+
+Afraid of the wonderful jiu-jitsu, I had picked up the first thing
+handy, which was a tabaret. I literally broke it over the head of
+my Chinaman, then turned and dashed out after Long Sin just as
+Kennedy picked himself up and followed.
+
+I caught up with the Chinaman and we had a little struggle, but he
+managed to break away and raised his axe threateningly. A shout
+from Kennedy caused him to turn and run down the flight of stairs,
+Kennedy closely behind him.
+
+In the main hall of the apartment house were two elevator shafts
+facing the street entrance, some twenty-five or thirty feet away.
+Through the street door the janitor and two or three other men
+were running in. They had heard the noise of the fighting above.
+
+Escape to the street was cut off. We were behind him on the flight
+of stairs.
+
+Long Sin did not hesitate a moment. He ran to the elevator, the
+door of which was open, seized the elevator boy and sent him
+sprawling on the marble floor. Then he slammed the door and the
+elevator shot up.
+
+Kennedy was only a few feet behind, and he took in the situation
+at a glance. He leaped into the other elevator, and before the
+surprised boy could interfere shot it up only a few feet behind
+Long Sin.
+
+Up the two elevators rose, Kennedy firing as best he could at Long
+Sin, while the shots reverberated through the elevator shaft like
+cannon.
+
+It was a wild race to the roof. Long Sin had the start, and as the
+elevator reached the top floor he flung it open, dashed out and
+through a door up to the roof itself.
+
+A second later Kennedy's elevator stopped. Craig leaped out and
+fired his last shot at the legs of Long Sin as he disappeared at
+the top of the flight of stairs to the roof. He flung the revolver
+from him and followed.
+
+Without a moment's hesitation Kennedy threw himself at Long Sin.
+They struggled with each other. Finally Long Sin managed to wrench
+one arm lose and raise the Tong axe over Kennedy's head.
+
+Kennedy dodged back. As he did so he tripped on the very edge of
+the roof and went sliding down the slates of the mansard.
+
+Fortunately he was able to catch himself in the gutter.
+
+It was the opportunity that Long Sin wanted. He started across the
+rope, which he had stretched from this apartment house to the
+building across the court, with all the deftness of the most
+expert Chinese acrobat.
+
+By this time I had reached the roof, followed by the janitor and
+the elevator boys.
+
+Kennedy was now crawling up the mansard, helping himself as best
+he could by some of the ornamental ironwork. I hurried over with
+the janitor, and together we pulled him out of danger.
+
+Long Sin had reached the roof on the opposite side as we ran
+across in the direction of the taut rope.
+
+A moment later he returned and bowed at us mockingly, then
+disappeared behind a skylight.
+
+Kennedy did not stop an instant.
+
+"You fellows go down to the street and see if you can head him off
+that way," he cried. "Stay here, Walter."
+
+Before I knew it he had seized the rope and was going across to
+the other building, hand over hand. It was a perilous undertaking,
+but his blood was up.
+
+Kennedy had almost reached the other roof when suddenly from
+behind the skylight stepped Long Sin. With a wicked leer, he
+advanced to the edge of the roof, his axe upraised. I looked
+across the yawning chasm, horrified.
+
+Slowly Long Sin raised the axe above his head, gathering all the
+strength which he had, waiting for Kennedy to approach closer.
+Kennedy stopped. Swiftly the axe descended, slashing the rope at
+one blow.
+
+Like the weight of a pendulum Kennedy swung back against our own
+building, managing to keep his hold on the rope with superhuman
+strength.
+
+I bent far over the edge of the roof, fully expecting to see him
+dashed to pieces at the bottom of the court.
+
+There was a tremendous shattering of glass.
+
+The rope had been just long enough to make him strike a window and
+he had gone crashing through the glass three floors below.
+
+I dashed down the stairs and into the apartment. Kennedy was lying
+on the floor badly cut. I raised him up. He was dazed and
+considerably overcome; but as he staggered to his feet with my
+help I saw that no bones were broken.
+
+"Help me, quick, Walter," he urged, moving toward the elevators.
+
+Meanwhile Long Sin had quickly dived down into the next building.
+A few moments later he had come out on the ground floor at the
+rear.
+
+Gazing about to see whether he was followed, he disappeared.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Back in the apartment, Elaine and Aunt Josephine were just about
+to run out when the two Chinamen who had been knocked out
+recovered. One of them threw himself on Elaine. Aunt Josephine
+tried to ward him off, but the other one struck her and threw her
+down.
+
+Before she could recover they had seized Elaine.
+
+With a hasty guttural exclamation they picked her up and ran out.
+Instead of going down-stairs they crossed the hallway, slamming
+the door behind them.
+
+As Kennedy and I reached the ground floor we saw the janitor and
+one of the elevator boys on either side of Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Elaine! Elaine!" she cried.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Kennedy, leaning heavily on me.
+
+"They have kidnapped her," cried Aunt Josephine.
+
+Kennedy pulled himself together.
+
+"Tell me, quick--how did it happen?" he demanded of Aunt
+Josephine.
+
+"It was the ring," she cried, handing it to him.
+
+Kennedy took the ring and looked at it for a moment. Then he
+turned to us blankly.
+
+All the rooms were empty.
+
+Elaine had been spirited away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE WATCHING EYE
+
+
+Not a clue was left by the kidnappers when they so mysteriously
+spirited Elaine away from the apartment of Wu Fang. She had
+disappeared as completely as if she had vanished into the thin
+air.
+
+Kennedy was frantic. Wu and Long Sin themselves seemed to have
+vanished, too. Where they held her, what had happened to her was a
+sealed book. And yet, no move of ours was made, no matter how
+secret, that it did not seem to be known to them. It was as though
+a weird, uncanny eye glared at us, watching everything.
+
+Craig neglected no possibility in his eager search. He even
+visited the little house in the country which Elaine had given to
+Aunt Tabby, and spent several hours examining the collapsed
+subterranean chamber in the vain hope that it might yield a clue.
+But it had not.
+
+It was half filled with debris from above, where the pillar had
+given way that night when we had all so nearly lost our lives.
+Still, there was enough room in what remained of the cavern so
+that we could move about.
+
+Kennedy had even dug away some of the earth and rock, in the hope
+of discovering some trace of the strange visitor whom we had
+surprised at work. But here, also, he had found nothing.
+
+It was maddening. What might at any moment be happening to Elaine-
+-and he powerless to help her?
+
+Unescapably, he was forced to the conclusion that not only
+Elaine's amazing disappearance, but the tragic succession of
+events which had preceded it, had been caused, in some way, by the
+curiously engraved ring which Aunt Josephine had taken from
+Elaine.
+
+Craig had taken possession of the mystic ring himself, and now,
+forced back on this sole clue, it had occurred to him that if the
+ring were so valuable, other attempts would, without doubt, be
+made to get possession of it.
+
+I came into the laboratory, one afternoon, to find Kennedy
+surrounded by jeweler's tools, hard at work making an exact copy
+of the ring.
+
+"What do you think of it, Walter?" he asked, holding up the
+replica.
+
+"Perfect," I replied, admiringly. "What are you going to do with
+it?"
+
+"I can't say--yet," answered Kennedy, forlornly, "but if I
+understand these Chinese criminals at all, I know that the only
+way we can ever track them is through some trick. Perhaps the
+replica will suggest something to us later."
+
+He placed the copy in a velvet-lined box closely resembling that
+in which the real ring lay, and dropped both into his pocket.
+
+"Let's see if Aunt Josephine has received any word," he remarked
+abruptly, putting on his hat and coat, and nodding to me to
+follow.
+
+Kennedy and I were not the only visitors to the subterranean
+chamber where it had seemed that the clue to the Clutching Hand's
+millions might be found.
+
+It was as though that hidden, watching eye followed us. The night
+after our own unsuccessful search, Wu Fang, accompanied by Long
+Sin, made his way into the cavern.
+
+As they flashed their electric bull's-eyes about the place, they
+could see readily that we had already been digging there.
+
+Wu examined the safe which had been broken into, while Long Sin
+repeated his experiences there.
+
+"And you say there was nothing else in it?" demanded Wu.
+
+"Nothing but the ring which they got from me," replied Long Sin,
+ruefully.
+
+"Strange--very strange," ruminated Wu, still regarding the empty
+strong box.
+
+Long Sin was now going over the walls of the cavern minutely, his
+close-set, beady black eyes examining every square inch of it.
+
+A sudden low guttural exclamation caused Wu to turn to him
+quickly. Long Sin had discovered, back of the debris, a small
+oblong slot, cut into the rock. Above it were some peculiar marks.
+
+Wu hurried over to his henchman, and together they tried to
+decipher what had been scratched on the rock.
+
+As Long Sin's slender and sinister forefinger traced over the
+inscription, Wu suddenly caught him by the elbow.
+
+"The ring!" he cried, as at last he interpreted the meaning of the
+cryptic characters.
+
+But what about the ring? For a moment Wu looked at the slot in
+deep thought. Then he reached down and withdrew a ring from his
+own finger and dropped it through the slot.
+
+They listened a moment. They could hear the ring tinkle as though
+it were running down some sort of track-like declivity inside the
+rock. Then, faintly, they could hear it drop. It had fallen into a
+little cup of a compartment below at their feet.
+
+Nothing happened. Wu recovered his ring. But he had hit at last
+upon the Clutching Hand's secret!
+
+Bennett had devised a ring-lock which would open, the treasure
+vault. No other ring except the one which he had so carefully
+hidden was of the size or weight that would move the lever which
+would set the machinery working to open the treasure house.
+
+Again Wu tried another of his own rings, and a third time Long Sin
+dropped in a ring from his finger. Still there was no result.
+
+"The ring which we lost is the key to the puzzle--the only key,"
+exclaimed Wu Fang finally. "We must recover it at all hazard."
+
+To his subtle mind a plan of action seemed to unfold almost
+instantly. "There is no good remaining here," he added. "And we
+have gained nothing by the capture of the girl, unless we can use
+her to recover the ring."
+
+Long Sin followed his master with a sort of intuition. "If we have
+to steal it," he suggested deferentially, "it can be accomplished
+best by making use of Chong Wah Tong."
+
+The Tong was the criminal band which they had offended, which had
+in fact stolen the ring from Long Sin and sold it to Elaine. Yet
+in a game such as this enmity could not last when it was mutually
+disadvantageous. Wu took the suggestion. He decided instantly to
+make peace with his enemies--and use them.
+
+Later that night, in his car, Wu stopped near the little curio
+shop kept by the new Tong leader.
+
+Long Sin alighted and entered the shop, while the Tong man eyed
+him suspiciously.
+
+"My master has come to make peace," he began, saluting the Tong
+leader behind the counter.
+
+Nothing, in reality, could have pleased the Tong men more, for in
+their hearts they feared the master-like subtlety of Wu Fang. The
+conference was short and Long Sin with a bow left quickly to
+rejoin Wu, while the Tong leader disappeared into a back room of
+the shop where several of the inner circle sat.
+
+"All is well, master," reported Long Sin when he had made his way
+back to the car around the corner in which Wu was waiting.
+
+Wu smiled and a moment later followed by his slave in crime
+entered the curio shop and passed through with great dignity into
+the room in the rear.
+
+As the two entered, the Tong men bowed with great respect.
+
+"Let us be enemies no more," began Wu briefly. "Let us rather help
+each other as brothers."
+
+He extended his right hand, palm down, as he spoke. For a moment
+the Tong leader parleyed with the others, then stepped forward and
+laid his own hand, palm down, over that of Wu. One by one the
+others did the same, including Long Sin, the aggrieved.
+
+Peace was restored.
+
+Wu had risen to go, and the Tong men were bowing a respectful
+farewell. He turned and saw a large vase. For a moment he paused
+before it. It was an enormous affair and was apparently composed
+of a mosaic of rare Chinese enamels, cunningly put together by the
+deft and patient fingers of the oriental craftsmen. Extending from
+the widely curving bowl below was an extremely long, narrow,
+tapering neck.
+
+Wu looked at it intently; then an idea seemed to strike him. He
+called the Tong leader and the others about him.
+
+Quickly he outlined the details of a plan.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+"Have you received any word yet?" asked Aunt Josephine anxiously,
+when Jennings had ushered us into the Dodge library.
+
+Kennedy shook his head sadly. There was no need to repeat the
+question to Aunt Josephine. The tears in her eyes told only too
+plainly that she herself had heard nothing, either.
+
+Craig bent over and placed his hand on her shoulder. For the
+moment, none of us could control our emotions.
+
+A few minutes later, Jennings entered the room softly again. "The
+expressmen are outside, ma'am, with a large package," he said.
+
+"A package?" inquired Aunt Josephine, looking up, surprised. "For
+me--are you sure?"
+
+Jennings bowed and repeated his remark. Aunt Josephine followed
+him out into the hall.
+
+There, already, the delivery men had set down a huge oriental vase
+with a remarkably long and narrow neck. It was, as befitted such a
+really beautiful object of art, most carefully crated. But to Aunt
+Josephine it came as a complete surprise. "I can't imagine who
+could have sent it," she temporized. "Are you quite sure it is for
+me?"
+
+The expressman, with a book, looked up from the list of names down
+which he was running his finger. "This is Mrs. Dodge, isn't it?"
+he asked, pointing with his pencil to the entry with the address
+following it. There seemed to be no name of a shipper.
+
+"Yes," she replied dubiously, "but I don't understand it. Wait
+just a moment"
+
+She went to the library door. "Mr. Kennedy," she said, "may I
+trouble you and Mr. Jameson a moment?"
+
+We followed her into the hall and there stood gazing at the
+mysterious gift while she related its recent history.
+
+"Why not set it up in the library?" I suggested, seeing that the
+expressmen were getting restive at the delay. "If there is any
+mistake, they will send for it soon. No one ever gets anything for
+nothing."
+
+Aunt Josephine turned to the expressmen and nodded. With the aid
+of Jennings they carried the vase into the library and there it
+was uncrated, while Kennedy continued to question the man with the
+book, without eliciting any further information than that he
+thought it had been reconsigned from another express company. He
+knew nothing more than that it had been placed on his wagon,
+properly marked and prepaid.
+
+When Kennedy rejoined us, the vase had been completely uncrated,
+Aunt Josephine signed for it, and, grumbling a bit, the expressmen
+left. There we stood, nonplussed by the curious gift.
+
+Craig walked around the vase, looking at it critically. I had a
+feeling of being watched, one of those sensations which
+psychologists tell us are utterly baseless and unfounded. I was
+glad I had not said anything about it when he tapped the vase with
+his cane, then stuck it down the long narrow neck, working it
+around as well as he could. The neck was so long and narrow,
+however, that his stick could not fully explore the inside of the
+vase, but it seemed to me to be quite empty.
+
+"Well, there's nothing in it, anyhow," I ventured.
+
+I had spoken too soon. Kennedy withdrew his cane and on the
+ferrule, adhering as though by some sticky substance, was a note.
+Kennedy pulled it off and unfolded it, while we gathered about
+him.
+
+"Maybe it's from Elaine," cried Aunt Josephine, grasping at a
+straw.
+
+We read:
+
+DEAR AUNT JOSEPHINE,
+
+This is a token that I am unharmed. Have Mr. Kennedy give the ring
+to the man at the corner of Williams and Brownlee Avenues at
+midnight to-night, and they will surrender me to him.--ELAINE.
+
+P. S. Have him come alone or my life will be in danger.
+
+We looked at each other in amazement.
+
+"I thought something like this would happen," remarked Craig at
+length.
+
+"Oh," cried Aunt Josephine, "it's too good to be true."
+
+"We'll do it," exclaimed Kennedy quickly, "only this is the ring
+that we'll give them."
+
+He drew from his pocket the replica of the ring which he had made
+and showed it to Aunt Josephine. Then he drew from another pocket
+the real ring, replacing the replica.
+
+"Here's the real one," he said in a low tone. "Guard it as you
+would guard your life."
+
+She took the ring, almost fearfully. It seemed as if nothing but
+misfortune had followed it. Still, she realized that it was
+necessary that she should take care of it, if the plan was to
+work.
+
+"And, oh, Mr. Kennedy," she implored, as we rose to go, "please
+get back my little girl for me."
+
+Craig clasped her hand. "I'll try my best," he replied fervently,
+patting her shoulder to cheer her up, as she sank into a chair.
+
+Aunt Josephine was worn out with the sleepless nights of worry
+since Elaine's disappearance. After we had gone, she tried to eat
+dinner, but found that she had no appetite.
+
+All the evening she sat in the library, with a book at which she
+stared, though she scarcely read a page. However, as the hours
+lengthened, she found herself nodding through sheer exhaustion.
+
+It was getting late and her thoughts were still on Elaine, At the
+desk in the library, she was examining the curious ring, which she
+had taken from her jewel case, thinking of the terrible train of
+events that had followed it.
+
+Although she had intended to sit up until she received some word
+from Kennedy that night, the long strain had told on her and in
+spite of her worry about Elaine, she decided, at length, to
+retire. She replaced the ring in the case, locked the case, and
+turned out the lights.
+
+"Good night, Jennings," she said, as she passed the faithful old
+butler in the hall.
+
+"Good night, ma'am," he replied, pausing on his rounds to see that
+the doors and windows were locked.
+
+Aunt Josephine, clasping the jewel case tightly, mounted the
+stairs and entered her room. She locked the door carefully and put
+the jewelry case under her pillow. Then she switched off the
+light.
+
+The moment Jennings's footsteps ceased down-stairs in the library,
+a small piece of the vase seemed to break away from the rest of
+the mosaic, as though it were knocked out from the inside. Then a
+large piece fell out, and another.
+
+At last from the strange hiding-place a lithe figure, as shiny as
+though bathed in oil, naked except for a loin-cloth, seemed to
+squirm forth like a serpent. It was Wu Fang--the watchful eye
+which, literally as well as figuratively, had been leveled at us
+in one form or another ever since the kidnapping of Elaine.
+
+Silently he tiptoed to the doorway and listened. There was not a
+sound. Just as noiselessly then he went back to the library table
+and muffling the telephone bell, took down the receiver. He
+whispered a number, waited, then whispered some directions.
+
+A moment later he wormed his way out of the library and into the
+drawing-room. On he went cautiously, snake-like, up the stairs
+until he came to the door of Aunt Josephine's room.
+
+He bent down and listened. There was no sound except Aunt
+Josephine's breathing. Silently he drew from a fold in the loin-
+cloth a screwdriver and removed the screws from the hinges of the
+door. Quietly he pushed the bedroom door open, pivoting it on the
+lock, just far enough open so that he could slip through.
+
+Creeping along the floor, like a reptile whose sign he had
+assumed, he came nearer and nearer Aunt Josephine's bed. As he
+paused for a moment his quick eye seemed to catch sight of the
+bulging lump under her pillow. His long thin hand reached out for
+it.
+
+Aunt Josephine moved restlessly in her sleep. Instantly he seized
+a murderous-looking Chinese dirk fastened to his side and raised
+it above her head ready to strike on the slightest outcry. She
+moved slightly, and relapsed into sound sleep again.
+
+Holding the knife above her, Wu slowly and quietly removed the
+jewel-case from under her pillow.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In a country road-house Long Sin was waiting patiently. The
+telephone rang and the proprietor answered. Long Sin was at his
+side almost before he could hand over the receiver. It was Long
+Sin's master, Wu.
+
+"Beware," came the whispered message over the wire. "Kennedy has
+made a false ring. I'll get the real one. By the great Devil of
+Gobi, you must cut him off."
+
+"It is done," returned Long Sin, hanging up the receiver in great
+excitement.
+
+He hurried out of the room and left the road-house. Down the road
+in an automobile, bound between two Chinamen, one at her head and
+the other at her feet, was Elaine, wrapped around in blankets, not
+even her face visible. The guards looked up startled as Long Sin
+streaked out of the shadow to the car.
+
+"Quick!" he ordered. "The master will get the ring himself. I will
+take care of Kennedy."
+
+An instant and they were gone, while Long Sin slunk back into the
+shadows from which he had come.
+
+Through the underbrush the wily Chinaman made his way to an old
+barn, which stood back some distance from the road, and entered
+the front door. There was another door in the rear, and one quite
+large window.
+
+In the dim light of a lantern hanging from a rafter could be seen
+several large barrels in a corner. Without a moment's hesitation,
+Long Sin seized a bucket and placed it under the spiggot of one of
+the barrels. The liquid poured forth into the bucket and he
+emptied the contents on the floor, filling the bucket again and
+again and swinging it right and left in every direction until the
+barrel had finally run dry.
+
+Then he moved over to the window, which he examined carefully.
+Satisfied with what he had done, he drew a slip of paper from his
+pocket and hastily wrote a note, resting the paper on an old box.
+When he had finished writing, he folded up the note and thrust it
+into a little hollow carved Chinese figure which he took also from
+his pocket.
+
+These were, apparently, his emergency preparations which he was
+ready to execute in case he received such a message from his
+master as he had actually received.
+
+With a final hasty glance about he extinguished the lantern,
+letting the moonlight stream fitfully through the single window.
+Then he left the barn, with both front and rear doors open.
+
+Taking advantage of every bit of shelter, he made his way across
+the field in the direction of the crossroads, finally dropping
+down behind a huge rock some yards from the finger post that
+pointed each way to Williams and Brownlee Avenues.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+ Late that night, Kennedy left his apartment prepared to follow
+the instructions in the note which had been so strangely delivered
+in the vase.
+
+As he climbed into a roadster, he tucked the robe most carefully
+into a corner under the leather seat.
+
+"For heaven's sake, Craig," I gasped from under the robe, "let me
+have a little air."
+
+I had taken my place under the robe before the car was driven up
+before the apartment, lest some emissary of Wu Fang might be
+watching to see that there was no such trick.
+
+"You'll get air enough when we get started, Walter," he laughed
+back under his breath, apparently addressing the engine.
+
+Kennedy was a hard driver when he wanted to be and enough was at
+stake to-night to make him drive hard. He whizzed along in the
+roadster, and I was indeed glad enough to huddle up under the
+robe.
+
+We had reached a point in the suburbs which was deserted and I did
+not recognize a thing when he pulled up by the side of the road
+with a jerk. I peered through a crease in the corner of the robe,
+and saw him slide out from under the wheel and stand by the side
+of the car, looking up and down. Ahead of us the road curved
+sharply and I had no idea what was there, though Kennedy seemed to
+know the place.
+
+A moment later he pulled the robe partly off me, and bent down as
+though examining the batteries on the side of the car.
+
+"Get out on the other side in the shadow of the car, Walter," he
+whispered hoarsely. "Go down the road a bit--only cut in and keep
+under cover. This is Williams Avenue. You'll see a big rock. Hide
+behind it. Ahead you'll see Brownlee Avenue. Be prepared for
+anything. I shall have to trust the rest to you. I don't know
+myself what's going to happen."
+
+I slid out and went along the edge of the road, as Craig had
+directed, and finally crouched behind a huge rock, feeling on as
+much tension as if I had been a boy playing at Wild West. Only
+this might at any moment develop into the reality of a Wild Far
+East.
+
+After a moment to give me a chance, Craig himself left the car
+pulled up close by the side of the road and went ahead on foot. At
+last he came to the cross-roads just around the bend, where in the
+moonlight he could read the sign: "Williams Avenue" and "Brownlee
+Avenue." He stood there a moment, then glanced at his watch which
+registered both hands approaching the hour of twelve. He gazed
+about at the deserted country. Had the appointment been a hoax,
+after all, a scheme to get him away from the city for some
+purpose?
+
+Suddenly, at his feet in the dust of the road something heavy
+seemed to drop. He looked about quickly. No one was in sight.
+
+He reached down and picked up a little Chinese figure. Tapping it
+with his knuckle, he examined it curiously. It was hollow.
+
+From the inside he drew out a piece of paper. He strained his eyes
+in the moonlight and managed to make out:
+
+The Serpent is all-wise, and his fang is fatal. You have signed
+the white girl's death warrant.
+
+Beneath this sinister warning was stamped the serpent sign of Wu
+Fang.
+
+It was not a hoax, and Kennedy stood there a moment gazing about
+in tense anxiety. Had that uncanny watching eye observed his every
+action? Was it staring at him now in the blackness?
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Meanwhile, I had made my way stealthily, peering into the bushes
+and careful not even to step on anything that would make a noise
+and was now, as I have said, crouched behind the big rock to which
+Craig had directed me. I heard him go along the road and looked
+about cautiously, but could hear and see nothing else.
+
+I had begun to wonder whether Kennedy might not have made a
+mistake when, suddenly, from behind the shadow of another rock,
+ahead of me, but toward Brownlee Avenue, I saw a tall, gaunt
+figure of a man rise in the moonlight, almost as if it had sprung
+from the very earth.
+
+My heart gave a leap, as he quickly raised his right arm and
+hurled something as far as he could in the direction that Kennedy
+had taken. If it had been a bomb, followed by an explosion, I
+would not have been surprised. But no sound followed as the figure
+dropped back as if it had been a wraith.
+
+I stole out from my own hiding-place in the shadow of my rock and
+darted quickly to the shelter of a bush, nearer the figure.
+
+The figure was no wraith. It turned to steal away. I remembered
+Kennedy's parting words. If the man ever gained the darkness of a
+clump of woods, just beyond us, he was as good as safe. This was
+the time to act.
+
+I leaped at him and we went down, rolling over and over in the
+underbrush and stubble. We fought fiercely, but I could not seem
+to get a glimpse of his face which was muffled.
+
+He was powerful and stronger than I and after a tough tussle he
+broke loose. But I had succeeded, nevertheless. I had delayed him
+just long enough. Kennedy heard the sound of the struggle and was
+now crashing through the hedge at the cross-roads in our
+direction.
+
+I managed to pick myself up, just as Kennedy reached my side and,
+together, we followed the retreating figure, as it made its way
+among the shadows. Across the open space before us we followed him
+and at last saw him dive into an old barn.
+
+A moment later we followed hot-foot into the barn. As we entered,
+we could hear a peculiar grating noise, as though a door was swung
+on its rusty hinges. The front door was open. Evidently the man
+had gone through and closed the back door.
+
+We threw ourselves against the back door. But it did not yield.
+There was no time to waste and we turned to rush out again by the
+way we had come, just as the front door was slammed shut.
+
+The man had trapped us. He had left both doors open, had run
+through, braced the back door, then had rushed around outside just
+in time to brace the front door also.
+
+We could hear his feet crunching the dry leaves and twigs as he
+went around the side of the barn again. Together we threw
+ourselves against the front door, but, although it yielded a
+little he had barred it so that it would resist our united
+strength for some time.
+
+Again and again we threw ourselves against it. It was horribly
+dark in there, except for an oblong spot where the moonlight
+streamed in through a window. Suddenly the pale silver of the
+moonlight on the floor reddened.
+
+The man had struck a match and thrown it into a mass of oil-soaked
+straw and gunpowder which protruded through one of the weather-
+beaten boards, near the floor.
+
+It was only a matter of a second or so now when the fire swept
+into the barn itself. There was no beating it out. Some one had
+literally soaked the straw and the floor with oil. It seemed as
+though the whole place burst into a sudden blaze of tinder.
+Outside, we could hear footsteps rapidly retreating toward the
+shelter of the clump of woods.
+
+For a second I looked dismayed at the rapidly-mounting flames.
+
+"A very pretty situation," I forced with a laugh. "But I hope he
+doesn't think we'll stay here and burn, with a perfectly good
+window in full view."
+
+I took a step toward the window, but before I could take another,
+Kennedy yanked me back.
+
+"Don't think for a moment that he overlooked that," he shouted.
+
+Craig looked around hastily. In a corner, just back of us was a
+long pole. He snatched it up and moved cautiously toward the
+window, keeping the pole as level as possible as he endeavored to
+get a leverage on the sash. The flames were mounting faster and
+higher, licking up everything.
+
+"Keep back, Walter," he muttered, "just as far as you can."
+
+He had scarcely raised the window a fraction of an inch when an
+old rusty, heavy anvil and a bent worn plowshare crashed down to
+the floor directly over the spot where I should have been if he
+had not dragged me away. I started back, aghast. Nothing had been
+overlooked to finish us off.
+
+"I think you may try it safely now, all right," smiled Kennedy
+coolly.
+
+We climbed out of the window, not an instant too soon from the
+raging inferno about us.
+
+Having gained the clump of woods, the gaunt figure had paused long
+enough to gloat over his clever scheme. Instead, he saw us making
+good our escape. With a gesture of intense fury he turned. There
+was nothing more for him to do but to zigzag his way to safety
+across country.
+
+The barn was now burning fiercely and it was almost as light as
+day about us. Kennedy paused only long enough to look down at the
+ground where the fire had been started.
+
+"See, Walter," he exclaimed pointing to a square indention in the
+soft soil. "No white man ever made a footprint like that."
+
+I bent over. The prints had the squareness of those paper-layered
+soles of a Chinaman.
+
+"Long Sin," came the name involuntarily to my lips, for I knew
+that Wu would delegate just such a job to his faithful slave.
+
+Kennedy did not pause an instant longer, but in the light of the
+burning barn, as best he could, started to follow the trail in a
+desperate endeavor either to overtake Long Sin, or at least to
+find the final direction in which he would go.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+At the entrance of the passageway which led to the little
+underground chamber in which we had sought the treasure hidden by
+the Clutching Hand, Wu Fang was seated on a rock waiting
+impatiently, though now and then indulging in a sinister smile at
+the subtle trick by which he had recovered the ring.
+
+The sound of approaching footsteps disturbed him. He was far too
+clever to leave anything to chance and, like a serpent, he
+wriggled behind another rock and waited. It was only a glance,
+however, that he needed to allay his suspicions. It was Long Sin,
+breathless.
+
+Wu stepped out beside him so quietly that even the acute Long Sin
+did not hear. "Well?" he said in a guttural tone.
+
+Long Sin drew back in fear. "I have failed, oh master," he replied
+in an imploring tone. "Even now they follow my tracks."
+
+It was bad enough to confess defeat without the fear of capture.
+
+Wu frowned. "We must work quickly, then," he muttered.
+
+He picked up a dark lantern near-by, indicating another to Long
+Sin. They entered the cave, flashing the lights ahead of them.
+
+"Be careful," ordered Wu, proceeding gingerly from one stepping-
+stone to another. "We shall be followed no further than this."
+
+He paused a moment and pointed his finger at the earth.
+Everywhere, except here and there where a stone projected, was a
+sticky, slimy substance. It was an old trick of primitive races.
+
+"Bird lime," hissed Wu, pointing at the viscid substance made of
+the juice of the holly bark, extracted by boiling, and mixed with
+a third part of nut oil and grease.
+
+They passed on from stone to stone until they came to the
+subterranean chamber itself. Without a moment's hesitation, Wu
+made his way toward the rock in which they had found the slot with
+its cryptic inscription.
+
+Long Sin watched his master in silent admiration as, at last, he
+drew forth the mystic ring for which they had dared all.
+
+Without a word, Wu dropped it in the slot. It tinkled down the
+runway, a protuberance hit a trigger and pushed it a hair's
+breadth.
+
+A noise behind them caused the two to turn startled. Even Wu had
+not expected it.
+
+On the other side of the chamber, a great rock in the ground
+slowly turned, as though on a pivot. They watched, fascinated.
+Even then Wu did not forget the precious ring, but as the rock
+turned, reached down quickly and recovered it from the cup at the
+floor.
+
+Inch by inch the pivoted rock moved on its axis. They flashed
+their lanterns full on it and, as it moved, they could see
+disclosed huge piles of gold and silver in coins and bars and
+ornaments, a chest literally filled with brilliants, set and
+unset, rubies, emeralds, precious stones of every conceivable
+variety, a cave that would have staggered even Aladdin--the rich
+reward of the countless marauding operations of Bennett's other
+personality.
+
+For a moment they could merely stand in avaricious exultation.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Painfully and slowly, we managed to trail Long Sin's footprints,
+until we came to a road where they were lost in the hard macadam.
+There was no time to stop. We must follow the road on the chance
+that he had taken it. But which way?
+
+Kennedy chose the most likely direction, for the trail had been at
+an angle to the road and Long Sin was not likely to double back.
+We had not gone many rods before Kennedy paused a minute and
+looked about in the moonlight.
+
+"It's right, Walter," he cried. "Do you recognize it?"
+
+I looked about. Then it flashed over me. This was the back road
+that led past the entrance to the treasure vault at Aunt Tabby's.
+
+We went on now more quickly, listening carefully to catch any
+sounds, but heard nothing. At last Kennedy stopped, then plunged
+among the rocks and bushes beside the road. We were at the cave.
+
+"You go in this way, Walter," he directed. "I'll go around and
+down where it caved in."
+
+I groped my way along through the darkness.
+
+I had gone only a yard or two, when it seemed as though something
+had grasped my foot.
+
+With a great wrench I managed to pull it loose. But the weight on
+my other foot had imbedded it deeper. I struggled to free this
+foot and got the other caught. My revolver, which I had drawn, was
+jarred from my hand and in the effort to recover it, I lost my
+balance. Unable to move a foot in time to catch myself, I fell
+forward. My hands were now covered by the slimy, sticky stuff, and
+the more I struggled, the worse I seemed to get entangled.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Wu and Long Sin paused only a minute in astonishment. Then they
+literally fell upon the wealth that lay before them, gloating over
+the gold, stuffing their hands into the jewels, lifting them up
+and letting the priceless gems run through their fingers.
+
+Suddenly they paused. There was the slight tinkle of a Chinese
+bell.
+
+Kennedy had reached Aunt Tabby's garden, outside the roof of the
+subterranean chamber where it had given way, had gone down
+carefully over the earth and rock, and in doing so had broken a
+string stretched across the passageway. The tinkle of a bell
+attached to it aroused his attention and he stopped short, a
+second, to look about. Wu Fang had arranged a primitive alarm.
+
+Quickly, Wu and Long Sin blew out their lanterns while Wu gave the
+rock a push. Slowly, as it had opened, it now closed and they
+stood there listening.
+
+I was still struggling in the bird lime, getting myself more and
+more covered with it, when the reverberation of revolver shots
+reached me.
+
+Wu and Long Sin had opened fire on Kennedy, and Kennedy was
+replying in kind. In the cavern it sounded like a veritable
+bombardment. As they retreated, they came nearer and nearer to me
+and I could see the revolvers spitting fire in the darkness. So
+intent were they on Kennedy that they forgot me.
+
+I watched them fearfully as they hopped deftly from one stone to
+another to avoid the lime--and were gone.
+
+"Craig! Craig!" I managed to cry feebly. "Be careful. Keep to the
+stones."
+
+He strained his eyes toward the ground in the darkness, at the
+sound of my voice. Then he struck a match and instantly took in
+the situation which, to me, under any other circumstances, would
+have been ludicrous.
+
+Stepping from stone to stone, he followed the retreating Chinamen.
+But they had already reached the mouth of the cave and were making
+their way rapidly down the road to a bend, in the opposite
+direction from which we had come. There, Wu's automobile was
+waiting. They leaped into it and the driver, without a word, shot
+the car off into the darkness of early dawn.
+
+A moment later, Kennedy appeared, but they had made their getaway.
+Baffled, he turned and retraced his steps to the cave.
+
+I don't think that I ever welcomed him more sincerely than I did
+as, finally, I crawled slowly out from the bird lime, exhausted by
+the effort that I had made to free myself from the sticky mess.
+
+"They got away, Walter," he said, lighting a lantern they had
+dropped. "By George," he added, I think a little vexed that I had
+not been able to stop them, "you are a sight!"
+
+He was about to laugh, when I fainted. I can remember nothing
+until I woke up over by the wall of the chamber where he dragged
+me.
+
+Kennedy had been working hard to revive me, and, as I opened my
+eyes, he straightened up. His eye suddenly caught something on the
+rock beside him. There was a little slot carved in it, and above
+the slot was a peculiar inscription.
+
+For several minutes, Kennedy puzzled over it, as Wu had done. Then
+he discovered the little cup near the ground.
+
+"The ring!" he suddenly cried out.
+
+I was too muddled to appreciate at once what he meant, but I saw
+him reach into his fob pocket and draw forth the replica of the
+trinket which had caused so much disaster, as if it had been
+cursed by the Clutching Hand himself. He dropped it into the slot.
+
+Struggling to my feet, I saw across from me the very rock itself
+moving. Was it an hallucination, born of my nervous condition?
+
+"Look, Craig!" I cried involuntarily, pointing.
+
+He turned. No, it was not a vision. It actually moved. Together we
+watched. Slowly the rock turned on a pivot. There were disclosed
+to our astonished eyes the hidden millions of the Clutching Hand.
+
+I looked from the gold and jewels to Kennedy, in speechless
+amazement.
+
+"We have beaten them, anyhow," I cried.
+
+Slowly Craig shook his head sadly.
+
+"Yes," he murmured, "we have found the Clutching Hand's millions,
+but we have lost Elaine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE VENGEANCE OF WU FANG
+
+
+Elaine was still in the power of Wu Fang.
+
+Kennedy had thwarted the Chinese master criminal in his search for
+the millions amassed by the Clutching Hand. But any joy that we
+might have derived from this success was completely obscured by
+the fear that Wu might wreak some diabolical vengeance on Elaine.
+
+It was a ticklish situation. In fact, I doubt whether Craig would
+have discovered the treasure at all, if our pursuit of Wu and Long
+Sin the night before had not literally forced us into doing so.
+
+Nor were Kennedy's fears unfounded. Wu and Long Sin had scarcely
+reached the secret apartment back of the deceptive exterior of the
+Chinatown tenement, when the subtle Chinaman began to contemplate
+his revenge.
+
+Long Sin was smoking a Chinese pipe, resting after their hurried
+flight, while Wu, the tireless, was seated at a table at the other
+end of the room. At last Wu Fang took up a long Chinese dirk from
+the table before him, looked at it, turned it over, felt its edge.
+It was keen and the point was sharp. He rose and deliberately
+walked across to a door leading into a back room.
+
+On a couch lay Elaine and with her, as a guardian, was Weepy Mary
+whom the Clutching Hand had used to lure her to the church where
+the faked record of her father's marriage was supposed to be.
+Indeed, though Wu had lost the Clutching Hand's millions, he had
+seen his chance and had fallen heir to what was left of Bennett's
+criminal organization.
+
+As Wu, the Serpent, entered and advanced slowly towards Elaine,
+she crouched back from him in deadly fear. He stopped before her
+without a word and his menacing eye seemed to read her very
+thoughts.
+
+Slowly he drew from under his robe the Chinese dirk. He felt the
+edge of it again and gazed significantly at Elaine. She shrank
+back even further, as far as the divan would permit.
+
+It was a critical moment.
+
+Just then Long Sin entered. "One of the five millions waits
+outside," he reported simply, with a bow.
+
+Wu understood. It had been a pleasant fiction of his that although
+he did not, of course, absolutely control such a stupendous
+organization he could, by his subtle power, force almost unlimited
+allegiance from the simple coolies in that district of China from
+which he came.
+
+Out in the front room, just a moment before, a knock at the door
+had disturbed Long Sin, and a Chinese servant had announced a
+visitor. Long Sin had waved to the servant to usher him in and a
+poorly clad coolie had entered.
+
+He bowed as Long Sin faced him. "Where is the master?" he had
+asked.
+
+Long Sin had not deigned to speak. With a mere wave of his hand,
+he indicated that he would be the bearer of the message, and had
+followed Wu through the door of the back room.
+
+So, almost by chance, Wu was interrupted in the brutal vengeance
+which had first come to his mind. He sheathed the knife and, still
+without a word, went back into the main room, giving a nod to
+Weepy Mary to guard Elaine closely.
+
+Wu eyed the coolie until the newcomer could almost feel the
+master's penetrating gaze, although his head was bowed in awe.
+Quickly the coolie thrust his hand under his blouse and drew forth
+a package. With another bow, he advanced.
+
+"For your enemies, oh master," he said, handing the package over
+to Wu.
+
+For the first time since the loss of the treasure, Wu Fang seemed
+to take an interest in something besides revenge. The coolie
+started to open the package, removed the paper wrapper, and then a
+silk wrapping inside. Finally he came to a box, from which he drew
+a leather pouch, each operation conducted with greater care as it
+became evident that the contents were especially precious in some
+way. Then he took from the pouch a small vial.
+
+"What is it?" demanded Wu Fang, as the coolie displayed it.
+
+The coolie drew forth now a magnifying glass and a glass slide.
+Opening the vial with great care he shook something out on the
+slide, then placed it under the lens.
+
+"Look!" he said simply.
+
+Wu bent over and looked. Under the lens what had formerly seemed
+to be merely a black speck of dirt became now one of the most
+weird and uncanny little creatures to be found in all the realm of
+nature. It seemed to be all legs and feelers moving at once. A
+normal person would have looked at the creature only with the
+greatest repugnance. Wu regarded it with a sort of unholy
+fascination.
+
+"And it is?" he queried.
+
+"What the white man calls the African tick which carries the
+recurrent fever," answered the coolie deferentially.
+
+A flash of intense exultation seemed to darken Wu Fang's sinister
+face. Several times he paced up and down the room, as he
+contemplated the sight which he had just seen. Then he came to a
+sudden determination.
+
+"Wait," he said to the coolie, as he moved slowly again into the
+back room.
+
+Long Sin had remained there. With Weepy Mary he was guarding
+Elaine when Wu Fang reentered. Elaine was thoroughly aroused by
+this time. Even the fact that Wu no longer held the murderous dirk
+did not serve to reassure her, for the look on his face was even
+more terrible than before.
+
+He smiled cunningly to himself.
+
+"Suffering is a state of mind," he said in a low tone, "and I have
+decided that it would be poor revenge for me to harm you. You are
+free."
+
+Nothing could have come as a greater surprise to Elaine. Even Long
+Sin had not expected any such speech as this. Elaine, however, was
+wonder-stricken.
+
+"Do you--do you really mean it?" she asked, scarcely able to
+believe what her ears heard.
+
+Wu merely nodded, and with a wave of his hand to Long Sin
+indicated that Elaine was to be released.
+
+Long Sin, the slave, did not stop to question his master, but
+merely moved over to a closet and took out the hat and wraps which
+Elaine had worn when she had been kidnapped in the up-town
+apartment. He handed them over to her and she put them on with
+trembling hands.
+
+No one stopped her and she nerved herself to take several steps
+toward the door. She had scarcely crossed half the room.
+
+"Wait!" ordered Wu sharply.
+
+Was he merely torturing her, as a cat might torture a mouse? She
+stopped obediently, afraid to look at him.
+
+"This will be the vengeance of Wu Fang," he went on impressively.
+"Slowly, one by one, your friends will weaken and die, then your
+family, until finally only you are left. Then will come your
+turn."
+
+He stopped again and raised his long lean forefinger. "Go," he
+hissed. "I wish you much joy."
+
+He turned to Long Sin and whispered a word to him. A moment later,
+Long Sin drew forth a large silken handkerchief and tied it
+tightly over Elaine's eyes. Then he took her hand and led her out.
+There was to be no chance by which she could lead a raiding party
+back to the den in which she had been held.
+
+I don't think that in all our friendship I have ever seen Kennedy
+so utterly depressed as he was when we returned after the
+discovery of the vast fortune which Bennett had cleverly secreted.
+I came upon him in the laboratory the next morning while he was
+trying to read. He had laid aside his scientific work, and now he
+had even laid aside his book.
+
+There seemed to be absolutely nothing to do until some new clue
+turned up. I placed my hand on his shoulder, but the words that
+would encourage him died on my lips. Several times I started to
+speak, but each time I checked myself. There did not seem to be
+anything that would be appropriate for such an occasion.
+
+A sharp ring at the telephone made both of us fairly jump, so
+nervous had we become. Kennedy reached over instantly for the
+instrument in the vague hope that at last there was some news.
+
+As I watched his face, it changed first from despair to wonder,
+and finally it seemed to light up with the most remarkable look of
+relief and happiness that one could imagine.
+
+"I shall be right over," he cried, jamming the receiver down on
+the hook, and in the same motion reaching for his hat and coat.
+"Walter," he cried, "it is Elaine! They have let her go!"
+
+I seized my own hat and coat in time to follow him and we dashed
+out of the laboratory.
+
+The suspense under which Aunt Josephine had been living had told
+on her. Her niece, Elaine's cousin, Mary Brown, who lived at
+Rockledge, had come into the city to comfort Aunt Josephine and
+they had been sitting, that morning, in the library. Marie, the
+maid was busy about the room, while Aunt Josephine talked sadly
+over Elaine's strange disappearance. She was on the verge of
+tears.
+
+Suddenly a startled cry from Jennings out in the hall caused both
+ladies to jump to their feet. They could scarcely believe what
+they heard as the faithful old butler cried out the name.
+
+"Why--Miss Elaine!" he gasped.
+
+An instant later Elaine herself burst into the room and flung
+herself into Aunt Josephine's arms. All talking and half crying
+from joy at once, they crowded about her. Breathlessly she
+answered the questions that flew thick and fast.
+
+In the excitement Aunt Josephine had seized the telephone and
+called our number. She did not even wait to break the good news,
+but handed the telephone to Elaine herself.
+
+We left the laboratory on the run, too fast to notice that just
+around the building line at the corner stood a limousine with
+shades drawn. Even if we had paused to glance back, we could not
+have seen Wu Fang and Long Sin inside, gazing out through the
+corner of the curtains. They were in European dress now and had
+evidently come prepared for just what they knew was likely to
+happen.
+
+In all the strange series of events, I doubt whether we had ever
+made better time from the laboratory over to the Dodge house than
+we did now. We were admitted by the faithful Jennings and almost
+ran into the library.
+
+"Oh, Craig!" cried Elaine, as Kennedy, almost speechless, seized
+her by both hands.
+
+For a few seconds none of us could speak. Then followed a
+veritable flood of eager conversation.
+
+I watched Elaine carefully, in fact we all did, for she seemed, in
+spite of the excitement of her return, to be almost a complete
+nervous wreck from the terrible experiences she had undergone.
+
+"Won't you come and stay with me a few days up in the country,
+dear?" urged Mary at last.
+
+Elaine thought a moment, then turned to Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Yes," considered her aunt, "I think it would do you good."
+
+Still she hesitated; then shyly looked at Kennedy and laughed.
+"You, too, Craig, must be fagged out," she said frankly. "Come up
+there with us and take a rest."
+
+Kennedy smiled. "I shall be delighted," he accepted promptly.
+
+"You, too, Mr. Jameson," she added, turning to me.
+
+I hesitated a moment and Kennedy tried to catch my eye. I was just
+about to speak when he brought his heel down sharply on my toe. I
+looked at him again and caught just the trace of a nod of his
+head. I saw that I was de trop.
+
+"No, thank you," I replied. "I'm afraid I'd better not go. Really,
+I have too much work staring at me. I can't get away--but it's
+very kind of you to think of asking me."
+
+We chatted, then left a few moments later so that Kennedy could
+pack.
+
+Around the corner from the laboratory, as we dashed out, had been,
+as I have said, Wu Fang and Long Sin looking out from the
+limousine. No sooner had we disappeared across the campus than
+their driver started up the car and they sped around to our
+apartment.
+
+Cautiously they alighted and walked down the street. Then making
+sure they were not observed, they entered and mounted the stairs
+to our doorway. Long Sin was stationed down the hall on guard
+while Wu Fang drew from his pocket a blank key, a file and a
+candle. He lighted the candle and held the key in its flame until
+it was covered with soot.
+
+Then he inserted the key in the keyhole, turned it and took the
+key out. Working quickly now, he examined the key sharply. In the
+soot were slight scratches indicating where it struck and
+prevented the turning of the lock. He filed the key, trying it
+again and again. Finally he finished, and opened the door.
+Beckoning Long Sin, he entered our rooms.
+
+As they stood there, Wu Fang gazed about our living-room, keenly.
+He was evidently considering where to place something, for, one
+after another, he picked up several articles on the desk and
+examined them. Each time that he laid one down he shook his head.
+
+Finally his eye rested on the telephone. It seemed to suggest an
+idea to him and he crossed over to it. Carefully holding down the
+receiver on the hook, he unscrewed the case which holds the
+diaphragm, while with his clever fingers he held the rest of the
+instrument intact. Then he removed from his pocket the vial which
+the coolie had given him and placed its contents on the diaphragm
+itself. Quickly now he replaced the receiver, and, having finished
+their work, Long Sin and Wu Fang stealthily crept out.
+
+A second time, as we approached our apartment after the visit to
+Elaine, we were too excited to notice the limousine in which were
+Wu and Long Sin. But no sooner had we entered than Long Sin left
+the car with a final word of instruction from his master.
+
+Up-stairs, in the apartment, Kennedy began hurriedly to pack, and
+I helped him as well as I could. We were in the midst of it when
+the telephone rang and I answered it.
+
+"Hello!" I called.
+
+There was no response.
+
+"Hello, Hello!" I repeated, raising my voice.
+
+Still there was no answer. I worked the hook up and down but could
+get no reply. Finally, disgusted, I hung up.
+
+A moment later, I recall now, it seemed to me as though some one
+had stuck a pin into the lobe of my ear. Still, I thought nothing
+of it in the excitement of Kennedy's departure, and went to work
+again to help him pack.
+
+We had scarcely got back to work, when the telephone bell jangled
+again, and a second time I answered it.
+
+"Is Mr. Kennedy there?" came back a strange voice.
+
+I handed the instrument to Craig.
+
+"Hello," he called. "Who is this?"
+
+No response.
+
+"Hello, hello," he shouted, working the hook as I had done and, as
+in my case, there was still no answer.
+
+"Some crank," he exclaimed, jamming down the receiver in disgust
+and returning to his packing.
+
+Neither of us thought anything of it at the time, but now I recall
+that I did see Kennedy once or twice press the lobe of his ear as
+though something had hurt it.
+
+We did not know until later that in a pay station down the street
+our arch enemy, Long Sin, had been calling us up and then, with a
+wicked smile, refusing to speak to us.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was about a week later that I came home late one night from the
+Star, feeling pretty done up. Whatever it was, a violent fever
+seemed to have come on me suddenly. I thought nothing of it, at
+first, because I soon grew better. But while it lasted, I had the
+most intense shivering, excruciating pains in my limbs, and
+delirious headache. I recall, too, that I felt a peculiar soreness
+on the ear. It was all like nothing I had ever had before.
+
+Indeed the next morning when I woke up, I felt a lassitude that
+made it quite hard enough even to lounge about in my bath-robe.
+Finally, feeling no better, I decided to see a doctor. I put on my
+clothes with a decided effort and went out.
+
+The nearest doctor was about half a block away and we scarcely
+knew him, for neither Kennedy nor I were exactly sickly.
+
+"Well," asked the doctor, as he closed the door of his office and
+turned to me. "What seems to be the matter?"
+
+I tried to smile. "I feel as though I had been celebrating not
+wisely but too well," I replied, trying to cheer up, "but as a
+matter of fact I have been leading the simple life."
+
+He sounded me and pounded me, looked at my tongue and my eyes,
+listened to my heart and lungs, though I don't think he treated my
+symptoms very seriously. In fact, I might have known what he would
+do. He talked a little while on generalities, diet and exercise
+then walked over to a cabinet, and emptied out a few pills into a
+little paper box.
+
+"Take one every hour," he said, handing them to me, and carefully
+returning the bottle to the cabinet so that I could not see what
+was on the label. "Cut your cigarettes to three a day, and don't
+drink coffee. Four dollars, please."
+
+I suppose I ought to have been cured, and in fact I was cured--of
+going to that doctor. I paid him and went back to the apartment,
+my head soon in a whirl from a new onset of the fever.
+
+I managed to get back into my bath-robe, and threw myself down on
+the divan, propped up with pillows. I had taken the pills but they
+had no more effect than sugar of milk. By this time, I was much
+more delirious and was crying out.
+
+I saw faces about me, but I did not see the faces which were
+actually out by our hall door. Wu Fang and Long Sin had waited
+patiently for their revenge. Now that they thought sufficient time
+had elapsed, they had stolen stealthily to the apartment door.
+While Long Sin watched, Wu listened.
+
+"The white devil has it," whispered Wu Fang, as he rejoined his
+fellow conspirator.
+
+How long I should have remained in this state, and in fact how
+long I did remain, I don't know. Vaguely, I recall that our
+acquaintance, Johnson, who had the apartment across the hall, at
+last heard my cries and came out to his own door. He needed only a
+moment to listen at ours to know that something was wrong.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Jameson?" he asked, poking his head in
+and looking anxiously at me.
+
+I could only rave some reply, and he tried his best to quiet me.
+"What's the matter, old man?" he repeated. "Tell me. Shall I send
+for a doctor?"
+
+Somehow or other I knew the state I was in. I knew it was Johnson,
+yet it all seemed unreal to me. With a great effort I gathered all
+my scattered wits and managed to shout out, "Telegraph Kennedy--
+Rockledge."
+
+By this time Johnson himself was thoroughly alarmed. He did not
+lose a second in dictating a telegram over the telephone.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+At about the same time, up at Rockledge, Kennedy and Elaine, with
+her cousin Mary Brown, were starting out for a horseback ride
+through the hills. They were chatting gaily, but Kennedy was
+forcing himself to do so.
+
+In fact, they had scarcely gone half a mile when Kennedy, who was
+riding between the two and fighting off by sheer nerve the illness
+he felt, suddenly fell over in half a faint on the horse's neck.
+Elaine and Mary reined up their horses.
+
+"Why, Craig," cried Elaine, startled, "what's the matter?"
+
+The sound of her voice seemed to arouse him. He braced up. "Oh,
+nothing, I guess," he said with a forced smile. "I'm all right."
+
+It was no use, however. They had to cut short the ride, and
+Kennedy returned to the house, glad to drop down in an easy chair
+on the porch, while Elaine hovered about him solicitously. His
+head buzzed, his skin was hot and dry, his eyes had an unnatural
+look. Every now and then he would place his hand to his ear as
+though he felt some pain.
+
+They had already summoned the country doctor, but it took him some
+time to get out to the house. Suddenly a messenger boy rode up on
+his bicycle and mounted the porch steps. "Telegram for Mr.
+Kennedy," he announced, looking about and picking out Craig
+naturally as the person he wanted.
+
+Kennedy nodded and took the yellow envelope while Elaine signed
+for it. Listlessly he tore it open. It read:
+
+CRAIG KENNEDY,
+
+c/o Wellington Brown, Rockledge, N. J.
+
+Jameson very ill. Wants you. Better come.
+
+JOHNSON.
+
+The message seemed to rouse Kennedy in spite of his fever. His
+face showed keen alarm, which he endeavored to conceal from
+Elaine. But her quick eye had caught the look.
+
+"I must see Walter," he exclaimed, rising rather weakly and going
+into the house.
+
+How he ever did it is still, I think, a mystery to him, but he
+managed to pack up and, in spite of the alternating fever and
+chills, made the journey back to the city.
+
+When at last Craig arrived at our apartment, it must have seemed
+to him that he found me almost at death's door. I was terribly ill
+and weak by that time, but had refused to see the doctor again and
+Johnson had managed to get me into bed.
+
+Ill himself, Kennedy threw himself down for a moment exhausted.
+"When did this thing come on Walter?" he asked of Johnson.
+
+"Yesterday, I think, at least as nearly as I can find out,"
+replied our friend.
+
+Craig was decidedly worried. "There's only one person in New York
+to call on," he murmured, pulling himself out of bed and getting
+into the living-room as best he could.
+
+"Is that you, Godowski?" he asked over the telephone. "Well,
+doctor, this is Kennedy. Come over to my apartment, quick. I've a
+case--two cases for you."
+
+Godowski was a world-famous scientist in his line and had
+specialized in bacteriology, mainly in tropical diseases.
+
+As Kennedy hung up the receiver, he made his way back again to the
+bedroom, scratching his ear. He noticed that I was doing the same
+in my delirium.
+
+"Has Walter been scratching his ear?" he asked of Johnson.
+
+Johnson nodded. "That's strange," considered Craig thoughtfully.
+"I've been doing the same."
+
+He turned back into the living-room and for a moment looked about.
+Finally his eye happened to fall on the telephone and an idea
+seemed to occur to him.
+
+He went over to the instrument and unscrewed the receiver.
+Carefully he looked inside. Then he looked closer. There was
+something peculiar about it and he picked up a blank sheet of
+white paper, dusting off the diaphragm on it. There, on the paper,
+were innumerable little black specks.
+
+Just then, outside, Dr. Godowski's car drew up and he jumped out,
+swinging his black bag. Not being acquainted with what we were
+going through, Godowski did not notice the almond-eyed Chinaman
+who was watching down the street.
+
+"How do you do, doctor," greeted Craig faintly, at the door.
+
+"What seems to be the difficulty?" inquired the doctor eagerly.
+
+"I don't know," returned Craig, "but I have my suspicions. I'm too
+ill to verify them myself. So I've called on you. Look at Jameson
+first," he added.
+
+While Godowski was examining me, Craig managed to get out his
+microscope and was looking through it at the strange black specks
+on the paper. There, under the lens, he could see the most
+remarkable, almost microscopic creature, all legs and feelers, a
+most vicious object.
+
+Weak though he was, he could not help an exclamation of exultation
+at his discovery, just as Godowski had finished with me.
+
+"Look!" he cried, calling the doctor. "I know what the trouble is,
+Godowski."
+
+He had started to tell, but the excitement of the journey and the
+exertion were so great that he could hardly mumble.
+
+"Here--look--on this paper," he cried. "From the telephone--"
+
+He had risen and was handing the paper to the scientist when his
+weakness overcame him. He fell flat on his face on the floor and
+dropped the paper, spilling the contents.
+
+Godowski, now thoroughly alarmed, bent over Craig. But the
+delirium had overcome Kennedy, too.
+
+Unable to make any sense out of Craig's broken wanderings,
+Godowski lost no time in taking samples of our blood.
+
+Then he hurried away to his laboratory in his car. As he did so,
+however, Long Sin leaped into a taxicab which was waiting and
+followed.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In Godowski's laboratory, where he was studying tropical diseases,
+the bacteriologist set to work at once to confirm his own growing
+suspicions.
+
+From a monkey which he had there for experimental purposes, he
+drew off some blood samples. Then, with the aid of his assistant,
+he took the blood samples he had obtained from us. The monkey's
+blood, under the microscope, seemed full of rather elongated
+wriggling germs of a peculiar species. In and out they made their
+way among the blood corpuscles each like a dart aimed at life
+itself.
+
+Then he took the samples of our blood. In them were the same
+germs--carried by that gruesome tick!
+
+"The spirillum!" he muttered. "They are infected with African
+recurrent fever. The only remedy is atoxyl, administered
+intravenously, after the manner of Professor Ehrlich's famous
+'606'."
+
+Godowski had rung the call box hastily for a messenger, when Long
+Sin, who had managed stealthily to creep up to the doctor's
+laboratory window, scowled, through at the action--then moved
+away.
+
+While his assistant gathered the apparatus, the doctor wrote:
+
+MISS ANNE SEPTIX, 301 W.--th St.
+
+Please go at once to the apartment of Craig Kennedy,--Claremont
+Ave. Surgical case.
+
+GODOWSKI, M. D.
+
+The boy arrived finally and the doctor gave him a generous tip to
+hurry with the note.
+
+He had not turned the corner, however, when Long Sin appeared.
+Subtly he played on the boy's cupidity to get him to deliver a
+note of his own, even offered to deliver the boy's note for him.
+The flash of a five dollar bill made the rest easy.
+
+As the boy disappeared on a fake errand, Long Sin, with the real
+note hurried down-town, smiling wickedly.
+
+"They have discovered the fever, Master," he reported in the den.
+
+Wu was beside himself with rage. Before he could speak, however,
+Long Sin spread out Godowski's message. "But I have this," he
+added.
+
+It took merely a glance to suggest to Wu a new plan of action. He
+rose and moved quickly into the back room. "Come," he ordered
+Weepy Mary. "You must dress up as a nurse--immediately."
+
+Quickly she donned one of the numerous disguises while Wu planned
+his campaign.
+
+"Here," he directed when she was ready, handing her a little vial.
+"You must infect every instrument the doctor uses on Kennedy and
+Jameson,--see?"
+
+She nodded and a moment later was on her way uptown.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Meanwhile Godowski himself had arrived at our apartment, much to
+the relief of our friend Johnson, and was unpacking his
+instruments.
+
+Quickly he improvised two operating tables, and placed one of us
+on each. Then, with his assistant, he put on his white robes,
+mask, gloves and other precautions for asepsis, setting out the
+apparatus for the intravenous administration of the drug that
+would kill the spirillum. Godowski was busy with the atoxyl,
+mixing it in a normal salt solution. He would drop in a few drops
+of an acid, then a few drops of an alkaline solution, so as to
+keep the mixture neutral. Finally, he poured the solution into a
+container, to the bottom of which was attached a long tube. This
+container he raised high over our heads, clamping the tube.
+
+Then he fastened a tiny needle to the end of the tube, so that it
+could be inserted in our arms, catching skillfully a vein--a very
+difficult piece of work in which he excelled. The liquid would
+then flow by the force of gravity from the container down through
+the tube, through the hollow needle and into the vein where it
+would act on the germs of the fever.
+
+They had finished their preparations and were waiting for Miss
+Septix. "She ought to be here, now," muttered Godowski
+impatiently, looking at his watch.
+
+Just then a cab drove up outside.
+
+"Perhaps that is she," he exclaimed. "It must be."
+
+A few moments later the door of the apartment opened. His face
+showed his disappointment. It was a stranger.
+
+"Miss Septix is ill," she introduced, "and sent me to take her
+place."
+
+The doctor looked about. "Very well, then," he said briskly,
+seeing his preparations. "Are you ready to go ahead?"
+
+She nodded and threw off her coat that covered her immaculate
+white uniform.
+
+The specialist plunged whole-heartedly into his work of saving us
+now. "Hand me that needle, please," he directed the false nurse.
+
+She moved over to the table near-by and took it up, pausing only
+long enough to dip it secretly into a vial she carried with her.
+
+"Please hurry," repeated the doctor.
+
+She turned from the table and handed it to him. He adjusted it and
+already held it poised for the thrust which was not to cure but to
+poison us further.
+
+"Weepy Mary!" cried a frightened voice at our door.
+
+Elaine had been deeply alarmed by the sudden illness of Kennedy
+and the message from Jameson. No sooner had Kennedy gone, than it
+flashed over her that Wu Fang had predicted something like this.
+
+"The threat!" she exclaimed, seeking her cousin. "Mary, I must go
+to the city--right away."
+
+On the next train, then, she had been speeding back to New York,
+and, arriving at the station, she realized that there was not a
+moment to lose. She called a cab, drove directly to our apartment,
+and hurried in, without even ringing the bell.
+
+One glance at the improvised hospital was enough to alarm her. But
+the sight that had transfixed her was of a woman whose face she
+remembered only too well, though Kennedy and I had never seen her.
+
+"Please, Miss," began Godowski's assistant, trying to quiet
+Elaine, while Godowski turned in vexation to his work.
+
+"No, no!" repeated Elaine. "This woman is no nurse. She is a
+criminal!"
+
+Godowski paused. It was true he did not know the woman. He gazed
+from Elaine to Weepy Mary in doubt.
+
+The game was up. Weepy Mary dropped a piece of gauze which she had
+soaked in the solution from the vial which Wu had given her and
+bolted for the door.
+
+So sudden was her flight that no one was quick enough to stop her.
+She managed to reach the hall and slam the door. Down she rushed
+to the street, Godowski's assistant after her.
+
+There, awaiting, was Long Sin's car. She leaped in and was off in
+a moment. The assistant had just time to dive at the running-
+board. But his grip was poor and Long Sin easily threw him off.
+
+"You--you fool!" he hissed at Mary, as soon as the danger of
+pursuit was over and the assistant had gone back into the
+apartment.
+
+"Oh, sir," she begged, "it was not my fault. Miss Dodge came in--
+unexpectedly--she recognized me. If I had not fled, they would
+have caught me--perhaps you, too."
+
+Long Sin was furious. He threatened her and she cowered back.
+However, there was nothing to be gained by that and he subsided
+and drove quickly down-town.
+
+The excitement more than ever alarmed Elaine now. "Tell me," she
+appealed to Dr. Godowski, "what is the matter?"
+
+"In some way," he replied quickly, "they have become infected by
+the bite of an African tick which carries spirillum fever."
+
+"She got away, in a cab," panted the assistant, returning.
+
+Godowski raised his hands in despair. "I was just about to start,"
+he cried. "Everything is ready. I can't send for another nurse.
+Every minute counts."
+
+Elaine had thrown off her coat and hat. Her sleeves were up in a
+moment and before the doctor knew what she was about she was
+scrubbing her hands in the antiseptic wash.
+
+"Only--show me--what to do," she cried. "I will be the nurse!"
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Several days later, when we had recovered sufficiently from the
+diabolical attack that had been made upon us, Kennedy was again at
+work in the laboratory, while I was writing. We still felt rather
+weak, but Godowski's skill had pulled us out all right.
+
+Our speaking-tube sounded and I knew that it was Elaine and Aunt
+Josephine.
+
+"How do you feel?" inquired Elaine anxiously, as she almost ran
+across the laboratory to Craig.
+
+"Fine!" he exaggerated, brightly.
+
+"Really?" she repeated anxiously.
+
+"Look!" he said, turning to his microscope.
+
+He took some blood from a test tube in our electric incubator and
+placed a drop on a slide. It was some of the blood infected by the
+germs carried by the tick.
+
+"That is how our blood looked--before the new nurse arrived," he
+smiled, while Elaine looked at it in horror.
+
+Then he pricked his arm and let a drop smear on another slide.
+
+"Now look at that--perfectly normal," he added.
+
+"Oh--I'm so glad," she exclaimed radiantly.
+
+"Normal--thanks to you. You saved us. You were just in time,"
+cried Craig taking both her hands in his.
+
+He was about to kiss her, when she broke away. "Craig," she
+whispered, blushing and looking hastily at us.
+
+Aunt Josephine and I could only smile at the disgusted glance
+Craig gave us, as he thrust his hands in his pockets and wished us
+a thousand miles away at that moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SHADOWS OF WAR
+
+
+For a long time Kennedy had, I knew, been at work at odd moments
+in the laboratory secretly. What it was that he was working on,
+even I was unable to guess, so closely had he guarded his secret.
+But that it was something momentous, I was assured.
+
+Long Sin had already been arrested and it was a day or two after
+the escape of Wu himself who had come just in time to prevent the
+confession by one of his emissaries of the whereabouts of his
+secret den. Kennedy had Chase and another detective whom he
+frequently employed on routine matters at work over the clues
+developed by his use of the sphygmograph. Elaine, anxious for
+news, had dropped in on us at the laboratory just as Kennedy was
+hastily opening his mail.
+
+Craig came to a large letter with an official look, slit open the
+envelope, and unfolded the letter. "Hurrah!" he cried, jumping up
+and thrusting the letter before us. "Read that."
+
+Across the top of the paper were embossed in blue the formidable
+words:
+
+United States Navy Department, Washington, D. C.
+
+The letter was most interesting:
+
+PROFESSOR CRAIG KENNEDY, The University, New York City.
+
+DEAR SIR,
+
+Your telautomatic torpedo model was tested yesterday and I take
+great pleasure in stating that it was entirely successful. There
+is no doubt that the United States is safe from attack as long as
+we retain its secret.
+
+Very sincerely yours,
+
+DANIEL WATERS, Ass't Sec'y.
+
+"Oh, Craig," congratulated Elaine, as she handed back the note.
+"I'm so glad for your sake. How famous you will be!"
+
+"When are we going to see the wonderful invention, Craig?" I added
+as I grasped his hand and, in return, he almost broke the bones in
+mine wringing it.
+
+"As soon as you wish," he replied, moving over to the safe near-by
+and opening it. "Here's the only other model in existence besides
+the model I sent to Washington."
+
+He held up before us a cigar-shaped affair of steel, about eight
+inches long, with a tiny propeller and rudder of a size to
+correspond. Above was a series of wires, four or five inches in
+length, which, he explained, were the aerials by which the torpedo
+was controlled.
+
+"The principle of the thing," he went on proudly, "is that I use
+wireless waves to actuate relays on the torpedo. The power is in
+the torpedo; the relay releases it. That is, I send a child with a
+message; the grown man, through the relay, does the work. So, you
+see, I can sit miles away in safety and send my little David out
+anywhere to strike down a huge Goliath."
+
+It was not difficult to catch his enthusiasm over the marvellous
+invention, though we could not follow him through the mazes of
+explanation about radio-combinators, telecommutators and the rest
+of the technicalities. I may say, however, that on his radio-
+combinator he had a series of keys marked "Forward," "Back,"
+"Start," "Stop," "Rudder Right," "Rudder Left," and so on.
+
+He had scarcely finished his brief description when there came a
+knock at the door. I answered it. It was Chase and his assistant,
+whom Kennedy had employed in the affair.
+
+"We've found the place on Pell Street that we think is Wu Fang's,"
+they reported excitedly. "It's in number fourteen, as you thought.
+We've left an operative disguised as a blind beggar to watch the
+place."
+
+"Oh, good!" exclaimed Elaine, as Craig and I hurried out after
+Chase and his man with her. "May I go with you?"
+
+"Really, Elaine," objected Craig, "I don't think it's safe.
+There's no telling what may happen. In fact, I think Walter and I
+had better not be seen there even with Chase."
+
+She pouted and pleaded, but Craig was obdurate. Finally she
+consented to wait for us at home provided we brought her the news
+at the earliest moment and demonstrated the wonderful torpedo as
+well. Craig was only too glad to promise and we waved good-bye as
+her car whisked her off.
+
+Half an hour later we turned into Chinatown from the shadow of the
+elevated railroad on Chatham Square, doing our best to affect a
+Bowery slouch.
+
+We had not gone far before we came to the blind beggar. He was
+sitting by number fourteen with a sign on his breast, grinding
+industriously at a small barrel organ before him on which rested a
+tin cup.
+
+We passed him and Kennedy took out a coin from his pocket and
+dropped it into the cup. As he did so, he thrust his hand into the
+cup and quickly took out a piece of paper which he palmed.
+
+The blind beggar thanked and blessed us, and we dodged into a
+doorway where Kennedy opened the paper: "Wu Fang gone out."
+
+"What shall we do?" I asked.
+
+"Go in anyhow," decided Kennedy quickly.
+
+We left the shelter of the doorway and walked boldly up to the
+door. Deftly Kennedy forced it and we entered.
+
+We had scarcely mounted the stairs to the den of the Serpent, when
+a servant in a back room, hearing a noise, stuck his head in the
+door. Kennedy and I made a dash at him and quickly overpowered
+him, snapping the bracelets on his wrists.
+
+"Watch him, Walter," directed Craig as he made his way into the
+back room.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the devious plots and schemes of Wu Fang, his nefarious work
+had brought him into contact not only with criminals of the lowest
+order but with those high up in financial and diplomatic circles.
+
+Thus it happened that at such a crisis as Kennedy had brought
+about for him Wu had suddenly been called out of the city and had
+received an order from a group of powerful foreign agents known
+secretly as the Intelligence Office to meet an emissary at a
+certain rocky promontory on the Connecticut shore of Long Island
+Sound the very day after Kennedy's little affair with him in the
+laboratory and the day before the letter from Washington arrived.
+
+Though he was mortally afraid of Kennedy's pursuit, there was
+nothing to do but obey this imperative summons. Quietly he slipped
+out of town, the more readily when he realized that the summons
+would take him not far from the millionaire cottage colony where
+Elaine had her summer home, which, however, she had not yet
+opened.
+
+There, on the rocky shore, he sat gazing out at the waves,
+waiting, when suddenly, from around the promontory, came a boat
+rowed by two stalwart sailors. It carried as passengers two dark-
+complexioned, dark-haired men, foreigners evidently, though
+carefully dressed so as to conceal both their identity and
+nationality.
+
+As the boat came up to a strip of sandy beach among the rocks, the
+sailors held it while their two passengers jumped out. Then they
+rowed away as quickly as they had come.
+
+The two mysterious strangers saluted Wu.
+
+"We are under orders from the Intelligence Office," introduced one
+who seemed to be the leader, "to get this American, Kennedy."
+
+A subtle smile overspread Wu's face. He said nothing but this
+adventure promised to serve more than one end. "Information has
+just come to us," the stranger went on, "that Kennedy has invented
+a new wireless automatic torpedo. Already a letter is on its way
+informing him that it has been accepted by the Navy."
+
+The other man who had been drawing a cigar-shaped outline on the
+wet sand looked up. "We must get those models," he put in, adding,
+"both of them--the one he has and that the government has. Can it
+be done?"
+
+"I can get them," answered Wu sinisterly.
+
+And so, while Kennedy was drawing together the net about Wu, that
+wily criminal had already planned an attack on him in an
+unexpected quarter.
+
+Down in Washington the very morning that our pursuit of Wu came to
+a head, the officials of the navy department, both naval and
+civil, were having the final conference at which they were to
+accept officially Kennedy's marvellous invention which, it was
+confidently believed, would ultimately make war impossible.
+
+Seated about a long table in one of the board rooms were not only
+the officers but the officials of the department whose sanction
+was necessary for the final step. By a window sat a stenographer
+who was transcribing, as they were taken, the notes of the
+momentous meeting.
+
+They had just completed the examination of the torpedo and laid it
+on the end of the table scarcely an arm's length from the
+stenographer. As he finished a page of notes he glanced quickly at
+his watch. It was exactly three o'clock.
+
+Hastily he reached over for the torpedo and with one swift, silent
+movement tossed it out of the window.
+
+Down below, in a clump of rhododendrons, for several moments had
+been crouching one of the men who had borne the orders to Wu Fang
+at the strange meeting on the promontory.
+
+His eyes seemed riveted at the window above him. Suddenly the
+supreme moment for which this dastardly plot had been timed came.
+As the torpedo model dropped from the window, he darted forward,
+caught it, turned, and in an instant he was gone.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Wu Fang himself had returned after setting in motion the forces
+which he found necessary to call to aid the foreign agents in
+their plots against Kennedy's torpedo.
+
+As Wu approached the door of his den and was about to enter, his
+eye fell on our outpost, the blind beggar. Instantly his
+suspicions were aroused. He looked the beggar over with a frown,
+thought a moment, then turned and instead of entering went up the
+street.
+
+He made the circuit of the block and now came to an alley on the
+next street that led back of the building in which he had his den.
+Still frowning, he gazed about, saw that he was not followed, and
+entered a doorway.
+
+Up the stairs he made his way until he came to an empty loft.
+Quickly he went over to the blank wall and began feeling
+cautiously about as if for a secret spring hidden in the plaster.
+
+"No one in the back room," said Kennedy rejoining me in the den
+itself with the prisoner. "He's out, all right."
+
+Before Craig was a mirror. As he looked into it, at an angle, he
+could see a part of the decorations of the wall behind him
+actually open out. For an instant the evil face of Wu Fang
+appeared.
+
+Without a word, Craig walked into the back room. As he did so, Wu
+Fang, knife in hand, stealthily opened the sliding panel its full
+length and noiselessly entered the room behind me. With knife
+upraised for instant action he moved closer and closer to me. He
+had almost reached me and paused to gloat as he poised the knife
+ready to strike, when I heard a shout from Kennedy, and a scuffle.
+
+Craig had leaped out from behind a screen near the doorway to the
+back room where he had hidden to lure Wu on. With a powerful
+grasp, he twisted the knife from Wu's hand and it fell with a
+clatter on the floor. I was at Wu myself an instant later. He was
+a powerful fighter, but we managed to snap the handcuffs on him
+finally, also.
+
+"Walter," panted Kennedy straightening himself out after the
+fracas, "I'll stay here with the prisoners. Go get the police."
+
+I hurried out and rushed down the street seeking an officer.
+
+Up in the den, Wu Fang, silent, stood with his back to the wall,
+scowling sullenly. Close beside him hung a sort of bell-cord, just
+out of reach. Kennedy, revolver in hand, was examining the
+writing-table to discover whatever evidence he could. Slowly,
+imperceptibly, inch by inch, Wu moved toward the bell-cord. He was
+reaching out with his manacled hands to seize it when Kennedy,
+alert, turned, saw him, and instantly shot. Wu literally crumpled
+up and dropped to the floor as Craig bounded over to him.
+
+By this time I had found a policeman and he had summoned the wagon
+from the Elizabeth Street station, a few blocks away. As we drove
+up before the den, I leaped out and the police followed.
+
+Imagine my surprise at seeing Wu stretched on the floor. Kennedy
+had tried to staunch the flow of blood from a wound on Wu's
+shoulder with a handkerchief and now was making a temporary
+bandage which he bound on him.
+
+"How are you, sergeant?" nodded Kennedy. "Well, I guess you'll
+admit I made good this time."
+
+The sergeant smiled, recalling a previous occasion when the
+slippery Wu had squirmed through our fingers.
+
+Kennedy's restless eye fell on the bell-rope which had caused the
+trouble. Somehow, he seemed to have an irresistible desire to pull
+that rope. He gazed about the room.
+
+"Walter, you and the sergeant take the prisoners into the next
+room," he said. "I want to see what this thing really is."
+
+We moved Wu and his servant and stood in the doorway. Craig gave
+the rope a yank.
+
+Instantly there was an explosion. A concealed shotgun in the wall
+fired, scattering shot all over the front of Wu's table, just
+where we had been standing, knocking over and breaking vases,
+scattering papers and in general wrecking everything before it.
+
+"So, that's it," whistled Craig. "You fellows can come back now.
+Two of you men I'm going to leave here to watch the place and make
+other arrests if you can. Come on."
+
+With Kennedy I left the tenement while the sergeant marched the
+prisoners out, and we drove off with them. Quite a crowd had
+collected outside by the time we came out. Among them, naturally,
+were many Chinamen, and we could not see two of them hiding behind
+the rest on the outskirts, jabbering in low tones together and
+making hasty plans. As we clanged away down the street they
+followed more slowly on foot.
+
+Common humanity dictated that we take Wu first of all to a
+hospital and get him fixed up and to a hospital we went. Kennedy
+and I entered with our prisoners, closely guarded by the police.
+
+Craig handed Wu over to two young doctors and a nurse. By this
+time Wu was very weak from loss of blood. Still he had his iron
+nerve and that was carrying him through. The two young doctors and
+the nurse had scarcely begun to take off Craig's rude bandage to
+replace it properly, when a noise outside told us that a weeping
+and gesticulating delegation of Chinese had arrived.
+
+"Keep 'em back," called one of the doctors to an attendant. The
+attendant tried to drive them away, but nothing could force them
+back more than an inch or two as, in broken English, they sought
+to find out how Wu was. Their importunity proved too much for only
+one attendant. Still gibbering and gesticulating, the crowd
+brushed past him as if he had been a mere reed. The attendant
+raged about until he lost his head. But it was no use. There was
+nothing for him to do but to follow them in.
+
+Kennedy by this time had finished talking to the doctors and
+handing Wu over to them. They had taken him into a room in the
+dispensary. Just then the chattering crowd pushed in, some asking
+questions, others bewailing the fate of the great Wu Fang. They
+were so insistent that at last one of the doctors was forced to
+demand that the police drive them out. They started to push them
+back.
+
+In the melee, one of their number managed to get away from the
+rest and reach the doorway to the emergency room. He was, as we
+found out later, dressed almost precisely like Wu, although he had
+on a somewhat different cap. In build and size as well as features
+he was a veritable Dromio.
+
+The other Chinaman drew back behind the screen which hid the
+doorway to the emergency room and concealed himself.
+
+Meanwhile, Kennedy and I were laughing at the truly ludicrous
+antics of the astounded Celestials, thunderstruck at the capture
+of the peerless leader, while the police forced them back.
+
+"Well, good-bye," nodded Craig to the first doctor and nurse who
+had attended Wu Fang outside.
+
+"Good-bye. We'll fix him up and take good care that he doesn't
+cheat the law," they said, with a nod to the sergeant.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the emergency room, Wu was placed on an operating table and
+there was bound up properly, though he was terribly weak now.
+
+Back of the screen, however, the other Chinaman was hiding, able
+to get an occasional glance at what was going on. There happened
+to be a table near him on which were gauze, cotton and other
+things. He reached over and took the gauze and quickly made it
+into a bandage, keeping one eye on the bandaging of Wu. Then he
+placed the bandage over his own shoulder and arm in the same way
+that he saw the doctors doing with Wu.
+
+They had finished with Wu and one of the doctors moved over to the
+doorway to call the sergeant. For the moment the rest had left Wu
+alone, his eyes apparently half closed through weakness. Each was
+busy about his own especial task.
+
+From behind the screen which was only a few feet from the
+operating table, the secreted Chinaman stepped out. Quickly he
+placed his own hat on Wu and took Wu's, then took Wu's place on
+the table while Wu slipped behind the screen.
+
+The doctor turned to the supposed Wu. "Come now," he ordered,
+handing him over to the police. "Here he is at last."
+
+The sergeant started to lead the prisoner out. As he did so, he
+looked sharply at him. He could scarcely believe his eyes. There
+was something wrong. All Chinaman might look alike to some people
+but not to him.
+
+"That's not Wu Fang!" he exclaimed.
+
+Instantly there was the greatest excitement. The doctors were
+astounded as all rushed into the emergency room again. One of them
+looked behind the screen. There was an open window.
+
+"That's how he got away," he cried.
+
+Meanwhile, several blocks from the hospital, Wu, still weak but
+more than ever nerved up, came out of his place of concealment,
+gazed up and down the street, and, seeing no one following,
+hurried away from the hospital as fast as his shaky legs would
+bear him.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Confident that at last our arch enemy was safely landed in the
+hands of the police, Kennedy and I had left the hospital and were
+hastening to Elaine with the news. We stopped at the laboratory
+only long enough to get the torpedo from the safe and at a toy
+store where Craig bought a fine little clockwork battleship.
+
+We found Elaine and Aunt Josephine in the conservatory and quickly
+Kennedy related how we had captured Wu.
+
+But, like all inventors, his pet was the torpedo and soon we were
+absorbed in his description of it. As he unwrapped it, Elaine drew
+back, timidly, from the fearful engine of destruction.
+
+Kennedy smiled. "No, it isn't dangerous," he said reassuringly.
+"I've removed its charge and put in a percussion cap. Let me show
+you, on a small scale, how it works," he added, winding up the
+battleship and placing it in the fountain.
+
+Next he placed the torpedo in the water at the other end of the
+tank. "Come over here," he said, indicating to us to follow him
+into the palms.
+
+There he had placed the strange wireless apparatus which
+controlled the torpedo. He pressed a lever. We peered out through
+the fronds of the palms. That uncanny little cigar-shaped thing
+actually started to move over the surface of the water.
+
+"Of course I could make it dive," explained Craig, "but I want you
+to see it work."
+
+Around the tank it went, turned, cut a figure eight, as Kennedy
+manipulated the levers. Then it headed straight toward the
+battleship. It struck. There was a loud report, a spurt of water.
+One of the skeleton masts fell over. The battleship heeled over,
+and slowly sank, bow first.
+
+"Wonderful!" exclaimed Elaine. "That was very realistic."
+
+We brushed our way out through the thick palms, congratulating
+Kennedy on the perfect success of his demonstration.
+
+So astonished were we that we did not hear the doorbell ring.
+Jennings answered it and admitted two men.
+
+"Is Professor Kennedy here?" asked one. "We have been to his
+apartment and to the laboratory."
+
+"I'll see," said Jennings discretely, taking the card of one of
+them and leaving them in the drawing-room.
+
+"Two gentlemen to see you, Mr. Kennedy," Jennings interrupted our
+congratulations, handing Craig a card. "Shall I tell them you are
+here, sir?"
+
+Craig glanced at the card. "I wonder what that can be?" he said,
+turning the card toward us.
+
+It was engraved:
+
+W. R. Barnes     U. S. Secret Service.
+
+"Yes, I'll see them," he said, then to us, "Please excuse me?"
+
+Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I strolled off in the palms toward the
+Fifth Avenue side, while Jennings went out toward the back of the
+house.
+
+"Well, gentlemen," greeted Kennedy as he met the two detectives,
+"what can I do for you?"
+
+The leader looked about, then leaned over and whispered, "We've
+just had word, Professor, that your model of the torpedo has been
+stolen from the Navy Department in Washington."
+
+"Stolen?" repeated Kennedy, staring aghast.
+
+"Yes. We fear that an agent of a foreign government has found a
+traitor in the department."
+
+Rapidly Kennedy's mind pictured what might be done with the deadly
+weapon in the hands of an enemy.
+
+"And," added the Secret Service man, "we have reason to believe
+that this foreign agent is using a Chinaman, Wu Fang."
+
+"But Wu has been arrested," replied Craig. "I arrested him myself.
+The police have him now."
+
+"Then you don't know of his escape?"
+
+Kennedy could only stare as they told the story.
+
+Suddenly, down the hall, came cries of, "Help! Help!"
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+While Craig was showing us the torpedo, the criminal machinery
+which Wu had set in motion at orders from the foreign agents was
+working rapidly.
+
+Outside the Dodge house, a man had shadowed us. He waited until we
+went in, then slunk in himself by the back way and climbed through
+an open window into the cellar.
+
+Quietly he made his way up through the cellar until finally he
+reached the library. Listening carefully he could hear us talking
+in the conservatory. Stealthily he moved out of the library.
+
+We had left the conservatory when he entered, peering through the
+palms. On he stole till he came to the fountain. He looked about.
+There, bobbing up and down, was the model of the torpedo for which
+he had dared so much. He picked it up and looked at it, gloating.
+
+The crook was about to move back toward the library, hugging the
+precious model close to himself when he heard Jennings coming. He
+started back to the conservatory. Jennings entered just in time to
+catch a fleeting glimpse of some one. His suspicions were roused
+and he followed.
+
+The crook reached the conservatory and opened a glass window
+leading out into the little garden beside the house. He was about
+to step out when the sound of voices in the garden arrested him.
+Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I had gone out and Elaine was showing
+me a new rose which had just been sent her.
+
+The crook fell back and dropped down behind the palms. Jennings
+looked about, but saw no one and stood there puzzled. Then the
+crook, fearing that he might be captured at any moment, looked
+about to see where he might hide the torpedo. There did not seem
+to be any place. Quickly he began to dig out the earth in one of
+the palm pots. He dropped the torpedo, wrapped still in the
+handkerchief, into the hole and covered it up.
+
+Jennings was clearly puzzled. He had seen some one rush in, but
+the conservatory was apparently empty. He had just turned to go
+out when he saw a palm move. There was a face! He made a dive for
+it and in a moment both he and the crook were rolling over and
+over.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Kennedy and the Secret Service men were talking earnestly when
+they heard the cry for help and the scuffle. They rushed out and
+into the conservatory in time to see the crook, who had broken
+away, knock out Jennings. He sprang to his feet and darted away.
+
+Kennedy's mind was working rapidly. Had the man been after the
+other model? The detectives went after him. But Craig went for the
+torpedo. As he looked in the tank, it was gone! He turned and
+followed the crook.
+
+I was still in the garden with Elaine and Aunt Josephine when I
+heard sounds of a struggle and a moment later a man emerged
+through the window of the conservatory followed by two other men.
+I went for him, but he managed to elude me and dashed for the wall
+in the back of the garden. The Secret Service men fired at him but
+he kept on. A moment later Craig came through the window.
+
+"Did any of you take the torpedo?" he asked.
+
+"No," replied Elaine, "we left it just as you had it."
+
+Kennedy seemed wild with anxiety. "Then both models have been
+stolen!" he cried, dashing after the Secret Service men with me
+close behind.
+
+The crook by this time had reached the top of the wall. Just as he
+was about to let himself down safely on the other side, a shot
+struck him. He pitched over and we ran forward.
+
+But he had just enough of a start. In spite of the shock and the
+wound he managed to pick himself up and with the help of a
+confederate hobbled into a waiting car, which sped away just as we
+came over the wall.
+
+We dropped to the ground just as another car approached. Craig
+commandeered it from its astonished driver, the Secret Service men
+and I piled in and we were off in a few seconds in hot pursuit.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Down at the terminal where trains came in from Washington, Wu,
+much better now, was waiting.
+
+He had pulled a long coat over his Chinese clothes and wore a
+slouch hat. As he looked at the incoming passengers he spied the
+man he was waiting for, the young crook who had been waiting in
+the shrubbery outside the Navy Building when the torpedo model was
+thrown out.
+
+The man had the model carefully wrapped up, under his arm. As his
+eye travelled over the crowd he recognized Wu but did not betray
+it. He walked by and, as he passed, hastily handed Wu the package
+containing the model. Wu slipped it under his coat. Then each went
+his way, in opposite directions.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was a close race between the car bearing the two crooks and
+that which Kennedy had impressed into service, but we kept on up
+through the city and out across the country, into Connecticut.
+
+Time and again they almost got away until it became a question of
+following tire tracks. Once we came to a cross-road and Kennedy
+stopped and leaped out. Deeply planted in the mud, he could see
+the tracks of the car ahead leading out by the left road. Close
+beside the tire tracks were the footprints of two men going up the
+right hand road toward the Sound.
+
+"You follow the car and the driver," decided Craig, hastily
+indicating the road by which it had gone. "I'll follow the
+footprints."
+
+The Secret Service men jumped back into the car and Kennedy and I
+went along the shore road following the two crooks.
+
+Already the wounded crook, supported by his pal, had made his way
+down to the water and had come to a long wharf. There, near the
+land-end, they had a secret hiding-place into which they went. The
+other crook drew forth a smoke signal and began to prepare it.
+
+Kennedy and I were able, now, to move faster than they. As we came
+in sight of the wharf, Kennedy paused.
+
+"There they are, two of them," he indicated.
+
+I could just make them out in their hiding-place. The fellow who
+had stolen the torpedo was by this time so weak from loss of blood
+that he could hardly hold his head up, while the other hurried to
+fix-the smoke signal. He happened to glance up, and saw us.
+
+"Come, Red, brace up," he muttered. "They're on our trail."
+
+The wounded man was almost too weak to answer. "I--I can't," he
+gasped weakly, "You--go." Then, with a great effort, remembering
+the mission on which he had been sent, he whispered hoarsely, "I
+hid the second torpedo model in the Dodge house in the bottom of--
+" He tried hard to finish, but he was too weak. He fell back,
+dead.
+
+His pal had waited as long as he dared to learn the secret. He
+jumped up and ran out just as we burst into the hiding-place.
+
+Kennedy dropped down by the dead man and searched him, while I
+dashed after the other fellow. But I was not so well acquainted
+with the lay of the land as he and, before I knew it, he had
+darted into another of his numerous hiding-places. I hunted about,
+but I had lost the track.
+
+When I returned, I found Kennedy writing a hasty note.
+
+"I couldn't follow him, Craig," I confessed.
+
+"Too bad," frowned Craig evidently greatly worried by what had
+happened, as he folded the note. "Walter," he added seriously, "I
+want you to go find the fellow." He handed me the note. "And if
+anything separates us to-day--give this note to Elaine."
+
+I did not pay much attention to the tone he assumed, but often
+afterward I pondered over it and the serious and troubled look on
+his face. I was too chagrined at losing my man to think much of it
+then. I took the note and hurried out again after him.
+
+Meanwhile, as nearly as I can now make out, Kennedy searched the
+dead man again. There was certainly no clue to his identity on
+him, nor had he the torpedo model. Craig looked about. Suddenly,
+he fell flat on his stomach.
+
+There was Wu Fang himself, coming to the wharf, carrying the model
+of the torpedo which had been stolen in Washington and brought up
+to him by his emissary.
+
+Kennedy, crouching down and taking advantage of every object that
+sheltered him, crawled cautiously into an angle. Unsuspecting, Wu
+came to the land-end of the wharf.
+
+There he saw his lieutenant, dead--and the smoke signal still
+beside him, unlighted. He bent over in amazement and examined the
+man.
+
+From his hiding-place Kennedy crept stealthily. He had scarcely
+got within reach of Wu when the alert Chinaman seemed to sense his
+presence. He rose quickly and swung around.
+
+The two arch enemies gazed at each other a moment silently. Each
+knew it was the final, fatal encounter.
+
+Slowly Wu drew a long knife and leaped at Kennedy who grappled
+with him. They struggled mercilessly.
+
+In the struggle, Craig managed to tear the torpedo out of Wu's
+hands, just as they rolled over. It fell on a rock. Instantly an
+explosion tore a hole in the sand, scattering the gravel all
+about.
+
+Relentlessly the combat raged. Out on the wharf itself they went,
+right up to the edge.
+
+Then both went over into the water, locked in each other's vice-
+like grip.
+
+Even in the water, they struggled, frantically.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+My search for the escaped crook was unsuccessful.
+
+Somehow, however, it led me across country to a road. As I
+approached, I heard a car and looked up. There were the Secret
+Service men. I called them and stepped out of the bushes. They
+stopped and jumped out of the car and I ran to them.
+
+"Come back with me," I urged. "We found two of them. One is dead.
+Craig sent me to trace the other. I've lost the trail. Perhaps you
+can find it for me."
+
+We crashed through the brush quickly. Suddenly I heard something
+that caused me to start. It sounded like an explosion.
+
+"There's the place--over there," I pointed, pausing and indicating
+the direction of the wharf whence had come the explosion.
+
+What was it? We did not stop a moment, but hurried in that
+direction.
+
+We reached the shore where we saw marks of the explosion and of a
+fight. Out on the pier I ran breathlessly. I rushed to the very
+edge and gazed over, then climbed down the slippery piling and
+peered into the black water beneath.
+
+A few bubbles seemed to ooze up from below. Was that all?
+
+No, as I gazed down I saw that some dark object was there. Slowly
+Wu Fang's body floated to the surface and lay there, rocked by the
+waves. Deep in his breast stuck his own knife with its handle of
+the Sign of the Serpent!
+
+I reached down and seized him, as I peered about for Kennedy.
+
+There was nothing more there.
+
+"Craig!" I called desperately, "Craig!"
+
+There was no answer. The silence, the echo of the lapping water
+under the wharf was appalling, mocking.
+
+I managed to call the Secret Service men and they got Wu Fang's
+body up on the wharf.
+
+But I could not leave the spot.
+
+Where was Craig? There was not a sign of him. I could not realize
+it, even when the men brought grappling irons and began to search
+the black water.
+
+It was all a hideous dream. I saw and heard, in a daze.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was not until late that night that I returned to the Dodge
+house.
+
+I had delayed my return as long as I could, but I knew that I must
+see Elaine some time.
+
+As I entered even Jennings must have seen that something was
+wrong. Elaine, who was sitting in the library with Aunt Josephine,
+rose as she saw me.
+
+"Did you get them?" she asked eagerly.
+
+I could not speak. She seemed to read the tragic look on my
+haggard face and stopped.
+
+"Why," she gasped, clutching at the desk, "what is the matter?"
+
+As gently as I could, I told her of the chase, of leaving Craig,
+of the explosion, of the marks of the struggle and of the finding
+of Wu Fang.
+
+As I finished, I thought she would faint.
+
+"And you--you went over everything about the wharf?"
+
+"Everything. The men even dragged for the--"
+
+I checked myself over the fateful word.
+
+Elaine looked at me wildly. I thought that she would lose her
+reason. She did not cry. The shock was too great for that.
+
+Suddenly I remembered the note. "Before I left him--the last
+time," I blurted out, "he wrote a note--to you."
+
+I pulled the crumpled paper from my pocket and Elaine almost tore
+it from me--the last word from him--and read:
+
+DEAREST:
+
+I may not return until the case is settled and I have found the
+stolen torpedo. Matters involving millions of lives and billions
+of dollars hang on the plot back of it. No matter what happens,
+have no fear. Trust me.
+
+Lovingly, CRAIG.
+
+She finished reading the note and slowly laid it down. Then she
+picked it up and read it again. Slowly she turned to me.
+
+I think I have never seen so sublime a look of faith on any one's
+face before. If I had not seen and heard what I had, it might have
+shaken my own convictions.
+
+"He told me to trust him and to have no fear," she said simply,
+gripping herself mentally and physically by main force, then with
+an air of defiance she looked at me. "I do not believe that he is
+dead!"
+
+I tried to comfort her. I wanted to do so. But I could do nothing
+but shake my head sadly. My own heart was full to overflowing. An
+intimacy such as had been ours could not be broken except with a
+shock that tore my soul. I knew that the poor girl had not seen
+what I had seen. Yet I could not find it in my heart to contradict
+her.
+
+She saw my look, read my mind.
+
+"No," she cried, still defiant, "no--a thousand times, no! I tell
+you--he is not dead!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE LOST TORPEDO
+
+
+From the rocks of a promontory that jutted out not far from the
+wharf where Wu Fang's body was found and Kennedy had disappeared,
+opened up a beautiful panorama of a bay on one side and the Sound
+on the other.
+
+It was a deserted bit of coast. But any one who had been standing
+near the promontory the next day might have seen a thin line as if
+the water, sparkling in the sunlight, had been cut by a huge
+knife. Gradually a thin steel rod seemed to rise from the water
+itself, still moving ahead, though slowly now as it pushed its way
+above the surface. After it came a round cylinder of steel,
+studded with bolts. It was the hatch of a submarine and the rod
+was the periscope.
+
+As the submarine lay there at rest, the waves almost breaking over
+it, the hatch slowly opened and a hand appeared groping for a
+hold. Then appeared a face with a tangle of curly black hair and
+keen forceful eyes. After it the body of a man rose out of the
+hatch, a tall, slender, striking person. He reached down into the
+hold of the boat and drew forth a life preserver.
+
+"All right," he called down in an accent slightly foreign, as he
+buckled on the belt. "I shall communicate with you as soon as I
+have something to report."
+
+Then he deliberately plunged overboard and struck out for the
+shore. Hand over hand, he churned his way through the water toward
+the beach until at last his feet touched bottom and he waded out,
+shaking the water from himself like a huge animal.
+
+The coming of the stranger had not been entirely unheralded. Along
+the shore road by which Kennedy and I had followed the crooks whom
+we thought had the torpedo, on that last chase, was waiting now a
+powerful limousine with its motor purring. A chauffeur was sitting
+at the wheel and inside, at the door, sat a man peering out along
+the road to the beach. Suddenly the man in the machine signalled
+to the driver.
+
+"He comes," he cried eagerly. "Drive down the road, closer, and
+meet him."
+
+The chauffeur shot his car ahead. As the swimmer strode shivering
+up the roadway, the car approached him. The assistant swung open
+the door and ran forward with a thick, warm coat and hat.
+
+Neither the master nor the servant spoke as they met, but the man
+wrapped the coat about him, hurried into the car, the driver
+turned and quickly they sped toward the city.
+
+Secret though the entrance of the stranger had been planned,
+however, it was not unobserved.
+
+Along the beach, on a boulder, gazing thoughtfully out to sea and
+smoking an old briar pipe sat a bent fisherman clad in an oilskin
+coat and hat and heavy, ungainly boots. About his neck was a long
+woolen muffler which concealed the lower part of his face quite as
+effectually as his scraggly, grizzled whiskers.
+
+Suddenly, he seemed to discover something that interested him,
+slowly rose, then turned and almost ran up the shore. Quickly he
+dropped behind a large rock and waited, peering out.
+
+As the limousine bearing the stranger, on whom the fisherman had
+kept his eyes riveted, turned and drove away, the old salt rose
+from behind his rock, gazed after the car as if to fix every line
+of it in his memory and then he, too, quickly disappeared up the
+road.
+
+The stranger's car had scarcely disappeared when the fisherman
+turned from the shore road into a clump of stunted trees and made
+his way to a hut. Not far away stood a small, unpretentious closed
+car, also with a driver.
+
+"I shall be ready in a minute," the fisherman nodded almost
+running into the hut, as the driver moved his car up closer to the
+door.
+
+The larger motor had disappeared far down the bend of the road
+when the fisherman reappeared. In an almost incredible time he had
+changed his oilskins and muffler for a dark coat and silk hat. He
+was no longer a fisherman, but a rather fussy-looking old
+gentleman, bewhiskered still, with eyes looking out keenly from a
+pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
+
+"Follow that car--at any cost," he ordered simply as he let
+himself into the little motor, and the driver shot ahead down a
+bit of side road and out into the main shore road again, urging
+the car forward to overtake the one ahead.
+
+Such was the entrance of the stranger--Marcius Del Mar--into
+America.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+How I managed to pass the time during the first days after the
+strange disappearance of Kennedy, I don't know. It was all like a
+dream--the apartment empty, the laboratory empty, my own work on
+the Star uninteresting, Elaine broken-hearted, life itself a
+burden.
+
+Hoping against hope the next day I decided to drop around at the
+Dodge house. As I entered the library unannounced, I saw that
+Elaine, with a faith for which I envied her, was sitting at a
+table, her back toward the door. She was gazing sadly at a
+photograph. Though I could not see it, I needed not to be told
+whose it was.
+
+She did not hear me come in, so engrossed was she in her thoughts.
+Nor did she notice me at first as I stood just behind her. Finally
+I put my hand on her shoulder as if I had been an elder brother.
+
+She looked up into my face. "Have you heard from him yet?" she
+asked anxiously.
+
+I could only shake my head sadly. She sighed. Involuntarily she
+rose and together we moved toward the garden, the last place we
+had seen him about the house.
+
+We had been pacing up and down the garden talking earnestly only a
+short time when a man made his way in from the Fifth Avenue gate.
+
+"Is this Miss Dodge?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she replied eagerly.
+
+Neither Elaine nor I knew him at the time, though I think she
+thought he might be the bearer of some message from Craig. As a
+matter of fact he was the emissary to whom the stenographer had
+thrown the torpedo model from the Navy Building in Washington.
+
+His visit was only a part of a deep-laid scheme. Only a few
+minutes before, three crooks--among them our visitor--had stopped
+just below the house on a side street. To him the others had given
+final instructions and a note, and he had gone on, leaving the two
+standing there.
+
+"I have a note for you," he said, bowing and handing an envelope
+to Elaine, which she tore open and read.
+
+WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+MISS ELAINE DODGE, Fifth Avenue, New York.
+
+MY DEAR MISS DODGE,
+
+The bearer, Mr. Bailey, of the Secret Service, would like to
+question you regarding the disappearance of Mr. Kennedy and the
+model of his torpedo.
+
+MORGAN BERTRAND, U. S. Secret Service.
+
+Even as we were talking the other two crooks had already moved up
+and had made their way around back of the stone wall that cut off
+the Dodge garden back of the house. There they stood, whispering
+eagerly and gazing furtively over the wall as their man talked to
+Elaine.
+
+After a moment I stepped aside, while Elaine read the note, and as
+he asked her a few questions, I could not help feeling that the
+affair had a very suspicious look. The more I thought of it, the
+less I liked it. Finally I could stand it no longer.
+
+"I beg your pardon," I excused myself to the alleged Mr. Bailey,
+"but may I speak to Miss Dodge alone just a minute?"
+
+He bowed, rather ungraciously I thought, and Elaine followed me
+aside while I told her my fears.
+
+"I don't like the looks of it myself," she agreed. "Yes, I'll be
+very careful what I say."
+
+While we were talking I could see out of the corner of my eye that
+the fellow was looking at us askance and frowning. But if I had
+had an X-ray eye, I might have seen his two companions on the
+other side of the wall, peering over as they had been before and
+showing every evidence of annoyance at my interference.
+
+The man resumed his questioning of Elaine regarding the torpedo
+and she replied guardedly, as in fact she could not do otherwise.
+
+Suddenly we heard shouts on the other side of the wall, as though
+some one were attacking some one else.
+
+There seemed to be several of them, for a man quickly flung
+himself over the wall and ran to us.
+
+"They're after us," he shouted to Bailey.
+
+Instantly our visitor drew a gun and followed the newcomer as he
+ran to get out of the garden in the opposite direction.
+
+Just then a tall, well-dressed, striking man came over the wall,
+accompanied by another dressed as a policeman, and rushed toward
+us.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+The car bearing the mysterious stranger, Del Mar, kept on until it
+reached New York, then made its way through the city until it came
+to the Hotel La Coste.
+
+Del Mar jumped out of the car, his wet clothes covered completely
+by the long coat. He registered and rode up in the elevator to
+rooms which had already been engaged for him. In his suite a valet
+was already unpacking some trunks and laying out clothes when Del
+Mar and his assistant entered.
+
+With an exclamation of satisfaction at his unostentatious entry
+into the city, Del Mar threw off his heavy coat. The valet
+hastened to assist him in removing the clothes still wet and
+wrinkled from his plunge into the sea.
+
+Scarcely had Del Mar changed his clothes than he received two
+visitors. Strangely enough they were men dressed in the uniform of
+policemen.
+
+"First of all we must convince them of our honesty," he said
+looking fixedly at the two men. "Orders have been given to the men
+employed by Wu Fang to be about in half an hour. We must pretend
+to arrest them on sight. You understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," they nodded.
+
+"Very well, come on," Del Mar ordered taking up his hat and
+preceding them from the room.
+
+Outside the La Coste, Del Mar and his two policemen entered the
+car which had driven Del Mar from the sea coast and were quickly
+whisked away, up-town, until they came near the Dodge house.
+
+Del Mar leaped from the car followed by his two policemen. "There
+they are, already," he whispered, pointing up the avenue.
+
+All three hastened up the avenue now where, beside a wall, they
+could see two men looking through intently as though very angry at
+something going on inside.
+
+"Arrest them!" shouted Del Mar as his own men ran forward.
+
+The fight was short and sharp, with every evidence of being
+genuine. One of the men managed to break away and jump the garden
+wall, with Del Mar and one of the policemen after him, while the
+other only reached the wall to be dragged down by the other
+policeman.
+
+Elaine and I had been, as I have said, talking with the man named
+Bailey who posed as a Secret Service man, when the rumpus began.
+As the man came over the fence, warning Bailey, it was evident
+that neither of them had time to escape. With his club the
+policeman struck the newcomer of the two flat while the tall,
+athletic gentleman leaped upon Bailey and before we knew it had
+him disarmed. In a most clean-cut and professional way he snapped
+the bracelets on the man.
+
+Elaine was astounded at the kaleidoscopic turn of affairs, too
+astounded even to make an outcry. As for me, it was all so sudden
+that I had no chance to take part in it. Besides I should not have
+known quite on which side to fight. So I did nothing.
+
+But as it was over so quickly, I took a step forward to our latest
+arrival.
+
+"Beg pardon, old man," I began, "but don't you think this is just
+a little raw? What's it all about?"
+
+The newest comer eyed me for a moment, then with quiet dignity
+drew from his pocket and handed me his card which read simply:
+
+M. Del Mar, Private Investigator.
+
+As I looked up, I saw Del Mar's other policeman bringing in
+another manacled man.
+
+"These are crooks--foreign agents," replied Del Mar pointing to
+the prisoners. "The government has employed me to run them down."
+
+"What of this?" asked Elaine holding up the note from Bertrand.
+
+"A fake, a forgery," reiterated Del Mar, looking at it a moment
+critically. Then to the men uniformed as police he ordered, "You
+can take them to jail. They're the fellows, all right."
+
+As the prisoners were led off, Del Mar turned to Elaine. "Would
+you mind answering a few questions about these men?"
+
+"Why--no," she hesitated. "But I think we'd better go into the
+house, after such a thing as this. It makes me feel nervous."
+
+With Del Mar I followed Elaine in through the conservatory.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar had scarcely registered at the La Coste when the smaller
+car which had been waiting at the fisherman's hut drew up before
+the hotel entrance. From it alighted the fussy old gentleman who
+bore such a remarkable resemblance to the fisherman, hastily paid
+his driver and entered the hotel.
+
+He went directly to the desk and with well-manicured finger,
+scarcely reminiscent of a fisherman, began tracing the names down
+the list until he stopped before one which read:
+
+Marcius Del Mar and valet. Washington, D. C. Room 520.
+
+With a quick glance about, he made a note of it, and turned away,
+leaving the La Coste to take up quarters of his own in the Prince
+Henry down the street.
+
+Not until Del Mar had left with his two policemen did the fussy
+old gentleman reappear in the La Coste. Then he rode up to Del
+Mar's room and rapped at the door.
+
+"Is Mr. Del Mar in?" he inquired of the valet.
+
+"No, sir," replied that functionary.
+
+The little old man appeared to consider, standing a moment
+dandling his silk hat. Absent-mindedly he dropped it. As the valet
+stooped to pick it up, the old gentleman exhibited an agility and
+strength scarcely to be expected of his years. He seized the
+valet, while with one foot he kicked the door shut.
+
+Before the surprised servant knew what was going on, his assailant
+had whipped from his pocket a handkerchief in which was concealed
+a thin tube of anesthetic. Then leaving the valet prone in a
+corner with the handkerchief over his face, he proceeded to make a
+systematic search of the rooms, opening all drawers, trunks and
+bags.
+
+He turned pretty nearly everything upside down, then started on
+the desk. Suddenly he paused. There was a paper. He read it, then
+with an air of extreme elation shoved it into his pocket.
+
+As he was going out he stopped beside the valet, removed the
+handkerchief from his face and bound him with a cord from the
+portieres. Then, still immaculate in spite of his encounter, he
+descended in the elevator, reentered a waiting car and drove off.
+
+Quite evidently, however, he wanted to cover his tracks for he had
+not gone a half dozen blocks before he stopped, paid and tipped
+the driver generously, and disappeared into the theatre crowd.
+
+Back again in the Prince Henry, whither the fussy little old man
+made his way as quickly as he could through a side street, he went
+quietly up to his room.
+
+His door was now locked. He did not have to deny himself to
+visitors, for he had none. Still, his room was cluttered by a vast
+amount of paraphernalia and he was seated before a table deep in
+work.
+
+First of all he tied a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. Then
+he took up a cartridge from the table and carefully extracted the
+bullet. Into the space occupied by the bullet he poured a white
+powder and added a wad of paper, like a blank cartridge, placing
+the cartridge in the chamber of a revolver and repeating the
+operation until he had it fully loaded. It was his own invention
+of an asphyxiating bullet.
+
+Perhaps half an hour later, the old gentleman, his room cleaned up
+and his immaculate appearance restored, sauntered forth from the
+hotel down the street like a veritable Turveydrop, to show
+himself.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine seemed quite impressed with our new friend, Del Mar, as we
+made our way to the library, though I am not sure but that it was
+a pose on her part. At any rate he seemed quite eager to help us.
+
+"What do you suppose has become of Mr. Kennedy?" asked Elaine.
+
+Del Mar looked at her earnestly. "I should be glad to search for
+him," he returned quickly. "He was the greatest man in our
+profession. But first I must execute the commission of the Secret
+Service. We must find his torpedo model before it falls into
+foreign hands."
+
+We talked for a few moments, then Del Mar with a glance at his
+watch excused himself. We accompanied him to the door, for he was
+indeed a charming man. I felt that, if in fact he were assigned to
+the case, I ought to know him better.
+
+"If you're going down-town," I ventured, "I might accompany you
+part of the way."
+
+"Delighted," agreed Del Mar.
+
+Elaine gave him her hand and he took it in such a deferential way
+that one could not help liking him. Elaine was much impressed.
+
+As Del Mar and I walked down the avenue, he kept up a running fire
+of conversation until at last we came near the La Coste.
+
+"Charmed to have met you, Mr. Jameson," he said, pausing. "We
+shall see a great deal of each other I hope."
+
+I had not yet had time to say good-bye myself when a slight
+exclamation at my side startled me. Turning suddenly, I saw a very
+brisk, fussy old gentleman who had evidently been hurrying through
+the crowd. He had slipped on something on the sidewalk and lost
+his balance, falling near us.
+
+We bent over and assisted him to his feet. As I took hold of his
+hand, I felt a peculiar pressure from him. He had placed something
+in my hand. My mind worked quickly. I checked my first impulse to
+speak and, more from curiosity than anything else, kept the thing
+he had passed to me surreptitiously.
+
+"Thank you, gentlemen," he puffed, straightening himself out. "One
+of the infirmities of age. Thank you, thank you."
+
+In a moment he had bustled off quite comically.
+
+Again Del Mar said good-bye and I did not urge him to stay. He had
+scarcely gone when I looked at the thing the old man had placed in
+my hand. It was a little folded piece of paper. I opened it
+slowly. Inside was printed in pencil, disguised:
+
+"BE CAREFUL. WATCH HIM."
+
+I read it in amazement. What did it mean?
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+At the La Coste, Del Mar was met by two of his men in the lobby
+and they rode up to his room.
+
+Imagine their surprise when they opened the door and found the
+valet lying bound on the floor.
+
+"Who the deuce did this?" demanded Del Mar as they loosened him.
+
+The valet rose weakly to his feet. "A little old man with gray
+whiskers," he managed to gasp.
+
+Del Mar looked at him in surprise. Instantly his active mind
+recalled the little old man who had fallen before us on the
+street.
+
+Who--what was he?
+
+"Come," he said quickly, beckoning his two companions who had come
+in with him.
+
+Some time later, Del Mar's car stopped just below the Dodge house.
+
+"You men go around back of the house and watch," ordered Del Mar.
+
+As they disappeared he turned and went up the Dodge steps.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+I walked back after my strange experience with the fussy little
+old gentleman, feeling more than ever, now that Craig was gone,
+that both Elaine and Aunt Josephine needed me.
+
+As we sat talking in the library, Rusty, released from the chain
+on which Jennings kept him, bounded with a rush into the library.
+
+"Good old fellow," encouraged Elaine, patting him.
+
+Just then Jennings entered and a moment later was followed by Del
+Mar, who bowed as we welcomed him.
+
+"Do you know," he began, "I believe that the lost torpedo model is
+somewhere in this house and I have reason to anticipate another
+attempt of foreign agents to find it. If you'll pardon me, I've
+taken the liberty of surrounding the place with some men we can
+trust."
+
+While Del Mar was speaking, Elaine picked up a ribbon from the
+table and started to tie it about Rusty's neck. As Del Mar
+proceeded she paused, still holding the ribbon. Rusty, who hated
+ribbons, saw his chance and quietly sidled out, seeking refuge in
+the conservatory.
+
+Alone in the conservatory, Rusty quickly forgot about the ribbon
+and began nosing about the palms. At last he came to the pot in
+which the torpedo model had been buried in the soft earth by the
+thief the night it had been stolen from the fountain.
+
+Quickly Elaine recalled herself and, seeing the ribbon in her hand
+and Rusty gone, called him. There was no answer, and she excused
+herself, for it was against the rules for Rusty to wander about.
+
+In his haste the thief had left just a corner of the handkerchief
+sticking out of the dirt. What none of us had noticed, Rusty's
+keen eyes and nose discovered and his instinct told him to dig for
+it. In a moment he uncovered the torpedo and handkerchief and
+sniffed.
+
+Just then he heard his mistress calling him. Rusty had been
+whipped for digging in the conservatory and now, with his tail
+between his legs, he seized the torpedo in his mouth and bolted
+for the door of the drawing-room, for he had heard voices in the
+library. As he did so he dropped the handkerchief and the little
+propeller, loosened by his teeth, fell off.
+
+Elaine entered the conservatory, still calling. Rusty was not
+there. He had reached the stairs, scurrying up to the attic, still
+holding the torpedo model in his mouth. He pushed open the attic
+door and ran in. Rusty's last refuge in time of trouble was back
+of a number of trunks, among which were two of almost the same
+size and appearance. Behind one of them, he had hidden a
+miscellaneous collection of bones, pieces of biscuit and things
+dear to his heart. He dropped the torpedo among these treasures.
+
+Del Mar, meanwhile, had followed Elaine through the hall and into
+the conservatory. As he entered he could see her stooping down to
+look through the palms for Rusty. She straightened up and went on
+out.
+
+Del Mar followed. Beside the palm pot where Rusty had found the
+torpedo, he happened to see the old handkerchief soiled with dirt.
+Near-by lay the little propeller. He picked them up.
+
+"She has found it!" he exclaimed in wonder, following Elaine.
+
+By this time Rusty had responded to Elaine's calls and came
+tearing down-stairs again.
+
+"Naughty Rusty," chided Elaine, tying the ribbon on him.
+
+"So--you have found him at last?" remarked Del Mar looking quickly
+at Elaine to see if she would get a double meaning.
+
+"Yes. He's had a fine time running away," she replied.
+
+Del Mar was scarcely able to conceal his suspicion of her. Was she
+a clever actress, hiding her discovery, he wondered?
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Outside, on the lawn, Del Mar's men had been looking about, but
+had discovered nothing. They paused a moment to speak.
+
+"Look out!" whispered one of them. "There's some one coming."
+
+They dropped down in the shadow. There in the light of the street
+lamps was the fussy old gentleman coming across the lawn. He stole
+up to the door of the conservatory and looked through. Del Mar's
+men crawled a few feet closer. The little old man entered the
+conservatory and looked about again stealthily. The two men
+followed him in noiselessly and watched as he bent over the palm
+pot from which the dog had dug up the torpedo. He looked at the
+hole curiously. Just then he heard sounds behind him and sprang to
+his feet.
+
+"Hands up!" ordered one of the men covering him with a gun.
+
+The little old man threw up his hands, raising his cane still in
+his right hand. The man with the gun took a step closer. As he did
+so, the little old man brought down his cane with a quick blow and
+knocked the gun out of his hand. The second man seized the cane.
+The old man jerked the cane back and was standing there with a
+thin tough steel rapier. It was a sword-cane. Del Mar's man held
+the sheath.
+
+As the man attacked with the sheath, the little old man parried,
+sent it flying from his grasp, and wounded him. The wounded man
+sank down, while the little old man ran off through the palms,
+followed by the other of Del Mar's men.
+
+Around the hall, he ran, and back into the conservatory where he
+picked up a heavy chair and threw it through the glass, dropping
+himself behind a convenient hiding-place near-by. Del Mar's man,
+close after him, mistaking the crash of glass for the escape of
+the man he was pursuing, went on through the broken exit. Then the
+little old man doubled on his tracks and made for the front of the
+house.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+With Aunt Josephine I had remained in the library.
+
+"What's that?" I exclaimed at the first sounds. "A fight?"
+
+Together we rushed for the conservatory.
+
+The fight followed so quickly by the crash of glass also alarmed
+Elaine and Del Mar in the hallway and they hurried toward the
+library, which we had just left, by another door.
+
+As they entered, they saw a little old gentleman rushing in from
+the conservatory and locking the door behind him. He whirled
+about, and he and Del Mar recognized each other at once. They drew
+guns together, but the little old man fired first.
+
+His bullet struck the wall back of Del Mar and a cloud of vapor
+was instantly formed, enveloping Del Mar and even Elaine. Del Mar
+fell, overcome, while Elaine sank more slowly. The little old man
+ran forward.
+
+In the conservatory, Aunt Josephine and I heard the shooting, just
+as one of Del Mar's men ran in again. With him we ran back toward
+the library.
+
+By this time the whole house was aroused. Jennings and Marie were
+hurrying down-stairs, crying for help and making their way to the
+library also.
+
+In the library, the little old man bent over Del Mar and Elaine.
+But it was only a moment later that he heard the whole house
+aroused. Quickly he shut and locked the folding-doors to the
+drawing-room, as, with Del Mar's man, I was beating at the rear
+library door.
+
+"I'll go around," I suggested, hurrying off, while Del Mar's man
+tried to beat in the door.
+
+Inside the little old man who had been listening saw that there
+was no means of escape. He pulled off his coat and vest and turned
+them inside out. On the inside he had prepared an exact copy of
+Jennings' livery.
+
+It was only a matter of seconds before he had completed his
+change. For a moment he paused and looked at the two prostrate
+figures before him. Then he took a rose from a vase on the table
+and placed it in Elaine's hand.
+
+Finally, with his whiskers and wig off he moved to the rear door
+where Del Mar's man was beating and opened it.
+
+"Look," he cried pointing in an agitated way at Del Mar and
+Elaine. "What shall we do?"
+
+Del Mar's man, who had never seen Jennings, ran to his master and
+the little old man, in his new disguise, slipped quietly into the
+hall and out the front door, where he had a taxicab waiting for
+him, down the street.
+
+A moment later I burst open the other library door and Aunt
+Josephine followed me in, just as Jennings himself and Marie
+entered from the drawing-room.
+
+It was only a moment before we had Del Mar, who was most in need
+of care, on the sofa and Elaine, already regaining consciousness,
+lay back in a deep easy chair.
+
+As Del Mar moved, I turned again to Elaine who was now nearly
+recovered.
+
+"How do you feel?" I asked anxiously.
+
+Her throat was parched by the asphyxiating fumes, but she smiled
+brightly, though weakly.
+
+"Wh-where did I get that?" she managed to gasp finally, catching
+sight of the rose in her hand. "Did you put it there?"
+
+I shook my head and she gazed at the rose, wondering.
+
+Whoever the little man was, he was gone.
+
+I longed for Craig.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE GRAY FRIAR
+
+
+So confident was Elaine that Kennedy was still alive that she
+would not admit to herself what to the rest of us seemed obvious.
+
+She even refused to accept Aunt Josephine's hints and decided to
+give a masquerade ball which she had planned as the last event of
+the season before she closed the Dodge town house and opened her
+country house on the shore of Connecticut.
+
+It was shortly after the strange appearance of the fussy old
+gentleman that I dropped in one afternoon to find Elaine
+addressing invitations, while Aunt Josephine helped her. As we
+chatted, I picked up one from the pile and mechanically
+contemplated the address:
+
+"M. Del Mar, Hotel La Coste, New York City."
+
+"I don't like that fellow," I remarked, shaking my head dubiously.
+
+"Oh, you're--jealous, Walter," laughed Elaine, taking the envelope
+away from me and piling it again with the others.
+
+Thus it was that in the morning's mail, Del Mar, along with the
+rest of us, received a neatly engraved little invitation:
+
+Miss Elaine Dodge requests the pleasure of your presence at the
+masquerade ball to be given at her residence on Friday evening
+June 1st.
+
+"Good!" he exclaimed, reaching for the telephone, "I'll go."
+
+In a restaurant in the white light district two of those who had
+been engaged in the preliminary plot to steal Kennedy's wireless
+torpedo model, the young woman stenographer who had betrayed her
+trust and the man to whom she had passed the model out of the
+window in Washington, were seated at a table.
+
+So secret had been the relations of all those in the plot that one
+group did not know the other and the strangest methods of
+communication had been adopted.
+
+The man removed a cover from a dish. Underneath, perhaps without
+even the waiter's knowledge, was a note.
+
+"Here are the orders at last," he whispered to the girl, unfolding
+and reading the note. "Look. The model of the torpedo is somewhere
+in her house. Go to-night to the ball as a masquerader and search
+for it."
+
+"Oh, splendid!" exclaimed the girl. "I'm crazy for a little
+society after this grind. Pay the check and let's get out and
+choose our costumes."
+
+The man paid the check and they left hurriedly. Half an hour later
+they were at a costumer's shop choosing their disguises, both
+careful to get the fullest masks that would not excite suspicion.
+
+It was the night of the masquerade.
+
+During the afternoon Elaine had been thinking more than ever of
+Kennedy. It all seemed unreal to her. More than once she stopped
+to look at his photograph. Several times she checked herself on
+the point of tears.
+
+"No," she said to herself with a sort of grim determination. "No--
+he IS alive. He will come back to me--he WILL."
+
+And yet she had a feeling of terrific loneliness which even her
+most powerful efforts could not throw off. She was determined to
+go through with the ball, now that she had started it, but she was
+really glad when it came time to dress, for even that took her
+mind from her brooding.
+
+As Marie finished helping her put on a very effective and
+conspicuous costume, Aunt Josephine entered her dressing-room.
+
+"Are you ready, my dear?" she asked, adjusting the mask which she
+carried so that no one would recognize her as Martha Washington.
+
+"In just a minute, Auntie," answered Elaine, trying hard to put
+out of her mind how Craig would have liked her dress.
+
+Somewhat earlier, in my own apartment, I had been arraying myself
+as Boum-Boum and modestly admiring the imitation I made of a
+circus clown as I did a couple of comedy steps before the mirror.
+
+But I was not really so light-hearted. I could not help thinking
+of what this night might have been if Kennedy had been alive.
+Indeed, I was glad to take up my white mask, throw a long coat
+over my outlandish costume and hurry off in my waiting car in
+order to forget everything that reminded me of him in the
+apartment.
+
+Already a continuous stream of guests was trickling in through the
+canopy from the curb to the Dodge door, carriages and automobiles
+arriving and leaving amid great gaping from the crowd on the
+sidewalk.
+
+As I entered the ballroom it was really a brilliant and
+picturesque assemblage. Of course I recognized Elaine in spite of
+her mask, almost immediately.
+
+Characteristically, she was talking to the one most striking
+figure on the floor, a tall man in red--a veritable
+Mephistopheles. As the music started, Elaine and his Satanic
+Majesty laughingly fox-trotted off but were not lost to me in the
+throng.
+
+I soon found myself talking to a young lady in a spotted domino.
+She seemed to have a peculiar fascination for me, yet she did not
+monopolize all my attention. As we trotted past the door, I could
+see down the hall. Jennings was still admitting late arrivals, and
+I caught a glimpse of one costumed as a gray friar, his cowl over
+his head and his eyes masked.
+
+Chatting, we had circled about to the conservatory. A number of
+couples were there and, through the palms, I saw Elaine and
+Mephisto laughingly make their way.
+
+As my spotted domino partner and I swung around again, I happened
+to catch another glimpse of the gray friar. He was not dancing,
+but walking, or rather stalking, about the edge of the room,
+gazing about as if searching for some one.
+
+In the conservatory, Elaine and Mephisto had seated themselves in
+the breeze of an open window, somewhat in the shadow.
+
+"You are Miss Dodge," he said earnestly.
+
+"You knew me?" she laughed. "And you?"
+
+He raised his mask, disclosing the handsome face and fascinating
+eyes of Del Mar.
+
+"I hope you don't think I'm here in character," he laughed easily,
+as she started a bit.
+
+"I--I--well, I didn't think it was you," she blurted out.
+
+"Ah--then there is some one else you care more to dance with?"
+
+"No--no one--no."
+
+"I may hope, then?"
+
+He had moved closer and almost touched her hand. The pointed hood
+of the gray friar in the palms showed that at last he saw what he
+sought.
+
+"No--no. Please--excuse me," she murmured rising and hurrying back
+to the ballroom.
+
+A subtle smile spread over the gray friar's masked face.
+
+Of course I had known Elaine. Whether she knew me at once I don't
+know or whether it was an accident, but she approached me as I
+paused in the dance a moment with my domino girl.
+
+"From the--sublime--to the ridiculous," she cried excitedly.
+
+My partner gave her a sharp glance. "You will excuse me?" she
+said, and, as I bowed, almost ran off to the conservatory, leaving
+Elaine to dance off with me.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar, quite surprised at the sudden flight of Elaine from his
+side, followed more slowly through the palms.
+
+As he did so he passed a Mexican attired in brilliant native
+costume. At a sign from Del Mar he paused and received a small
+package which Del Mar slipped to him, then passed on as though
+nothing had happened. The keen eyes of the gray friar, however,
+had caught the little action and he quietly slipped out after the
+Mexican bolero.
+
+Just then the domino girl hurried into the conservatory. "What's
+doing?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Keep close to me," whispered Del Mar, as she nodded and they left
+the conservatory, not apparently together.
+
+Up-stairs, away from the gayety of the ballroom, the bolero made
+his way until he came to Elaine's room, dimly lighted. With a
+quick glance about, he entered cautiously, closed the door, and
+approached a closet which he opened. There was a safe built into
+the wall.
+
+As he stooped over, the man unwrapped the package Del Mar had
+handed him and took out a curious little instrument. Inside was a
+dry battery and a most peculiar instrument, something like a
+little flat telephone transmitter, yet attached by wires to ear-
+pieces that fitted over the head after the manner of those of a
+wireless detector.
+
+He adjusted the head-piece and held the flat instrument against
+the safe, close to the combination which he began to turn slowly.
+It was a burglar's microphone, used for picking combination locks.
+As the combination turned, a slight sound was made when the proper
+number came opposite the working point. Imperceptible ordinarily
+to even the most sensitive ear, to an ear trained it was
+comparatively easy to recognize the fall of the tumblers over this
+microphone.
+
+As he worked, the door behind him opened softly and the gray friar
+entered, closing it and moving noiselessly over back of the
+shelter of a big mahogany high-boy, around which he could watch.
+
+At last the safe was opened. Rapidly the man went through its
+contents. "Confound it!" he muttered. "She didn't put it here--
+anyhow."
+
+The bolero started to close the safe when he heard a noise in the
+room and looked cautiously back of him. Del Mar himself, followed
+by the domino girl, entered.
+
+"I've opened it," whispered the emissary stepping out of the
+closet and meeting them, "but I can't find the--"
+
+"Hands up--all of you!"
+
+They turned in time to see the gray friar's gun yawning at them.
+Most politely he lined them up. Still holding his gun ready, he
+lifted up the mask of the domino girl.
+
+"So--it's you," he grunted.
+
+He was about to lift the mask of the Mexican, when the bolero
+leaped at him. Del Mar piled in. But sounds down-stairs alarmed
+them and the emissary, released, fled quickly with the girl. The
+gray friar, however, kept his hold on Mephistopheles, as if he had
+been wrestling with a veritable devil.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Down in the hall, I had again met my domino girl, a few minutes
+after I had resigned Elaine to another of her numerous admirers.
+
+"I thought you deserted me," I said, somewhat piqued.
+
+"You deserted me," she parried, nervously. "However, I'll forgive
+you if you'll get me an ice."
+
+I hastened to do so. But no sooner had I gone than Del Mar stalked
+through the hall and went up-stairs. My domino girl was watching
+for him, and followed.
+
+When I returned with the ice, I looked about, but she was gone. It
+was scarcely a moment later, however, that I saw her hurry down-
+stairs, accompanied by the Mexican bolero. I stepped forward to
+speak to her, but she almost ran past me without a word.
+
+"A nut," I remarked under my breath, pushing back my mask.
+
+I started to eat the ice myself, when, a moment later, Elaine
+passed through the hall with a Spanish cavalier.
+
+"Oh, Walter, here you are," she laughed. "I've been looking all
+over for you. Thank you very much, sire," she bowed with mock
+civility to the cavalier. "It was only one dance, you know. Please
+let me talk to Boum-Boum."
+
+The cavalier bowed reluctantly and left us.
+
+"What are you doing here alone?" she asked, taking off her own
+mask. "How warm it is."
+
+Before I could reply, I heard some one coming down-stairs back of
+me, but not in time to turn
+
+"Elaine's dressing-table," a voice whispered in my ear.
+
+I turned suddenly. It was the gray friar. Before I could even
+reach out to grasp his robe, he was gone.
+
+"Another nut!" I exclaimed involuntarily.
+
+"Why, what did he say?" asked Elaine.
+
+"Something about your dressing-table."
+
+"My dressing-table?" she repeated.
+
+We ran quickly up the steps. Elaine's room showed every evidence
+of having been the scene of a struggle, as she went over to the
+table. There she picked up a rose and under it a piece of paper on
+which were some words printed with pencil roughly.
+
+"Look," she cried, as I read with her:
+
+   Do honest assistants search safes?
+    Let no one see this but Jameson.
+
+"What does it mean?" I asked.
+
+"My safe!" she cried moving to a closet. As she opened the door,
+imagine our surprise at seeing Del Mar lying on the floor, bound
+and gagged before the open safe. "Get my scissors on the dresser,"
+cried Elaine.
+
+I did so, hastily cutting the cords that bound Del Mar.
+
+"What does it all mean?" asked Elaine as he rose and stretched
+himself.
+
+Still clutching his throat, as if it hurt, Del Mar choked, "I
+found a man, a foreign agent, searching the safe. But he overcame
+me and escaped."
+
+"Oh--then that is what the--"
+
+Elaine checked herself. She had been about to hand the note to Del
+Mar when an idea seemed to come to her. Instead, she crumpled it
+up and thrust it into her bosom.
+
+On the street the bolero and the domino girl were hurrying away as
+fast as they could.
+
+Meanwhile, the gray friar had overcome Del Mar, had bound and
+gagged him, and trust him into the closet. Then he wrote the note
+and laid it, with a rose from a vase, on Elaine's dressing-table
+before he, too, followed.
+
+More than ever I was at a loss to make it out.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was the day after the masquerade ball that a taxicab drove up
+to the Dodge house and a very trim but not over-dressed young lady
+was announced as "Miss Bertholdi."
+
+"Miss Dodge?" she inquired as Jennings held open the portieres and
+she entered the library where Elaine and Aunt Josephine were.
+
+If Elaine had only known, it was the domino girl of the night
+before who handed her a note and sat down, looking about so
+demurely, while Elaine read:
+
+MY DEAR MISS DODGE,
+
+The bearer, Miss Bertholdi, is an operative of mine. I would
+appreciate it if you would employ her in some capacity in your
+house, as I have reason to believe that certain foreign agents
+will soon make another attempt to find Kennedy's lost torpedo
+model.
+
+Sincerely, M. DEL MAR.
+
+Elaine looked up from reading the note. Miss Bertholdi was good to
+look at, and Elaine liked pretty girls about her.
+
+"Jennings," she ordered, "call Marie."
+
+To the butler and her maid, Elaine gave the most careful
+instructions regarding Miss Bertholdi. "She can help you finish
+the packing, first," she concluded.
+
+The girl thanked her and went out with Jennings and Marie, asking
+Jennings to pay her taxicab driver with money she gave him, which
+he did, bringing her grip into the house.
+
+Later in the day, Elaine had both Marie and Bertholdi carrying
+armsful of her dresses from the closets in her room up to the
+attic where the last of her trunks were being packed. On one of
+the many trips, Bertholdi came alone into the attic, her arms full
+as usual. Before her were two trunks, very much alike, open and
+nearly packed. She laid her armful of clothes on a chair near-by
+and pulled one of the trunks forward. On the floor lay the trays
+of both trunks already packed. Bertholdi began packing her burden
+in one trunk which was marked in big white letters, "E. Dodge."
+
+Down in Elaine's room at the time Jennings entered. "The
+expressman for the trunks is here, Miss Elaine," he announced.
+
+"Is he? I wonder whether they are all ready," Elaine replied
+hurrying out of the room. "Tell him to wait."
+
+In the attic, Bertholdi was still at work, keeping her eyes open
+to execute the mission on which Del Mar had sent her.
+
+Rusty, forgotten in the excitement by Jennings, had roamed at will
+through the house and seemed quite interested. For this was the
+trunk behind which he had his cache of treasures.
+
+As Bertholdi started to move behind the trunk, Rusty could stand
+it no longer. He darted ahead of her into his hiding-place. Among
+the dog biscuit and bones was the torpedo model which he had dug
+up from the palm pot in the conservatory. He seized it in his
+mouth and turned to carry it off.
+
+There, in his path, was his enemy, the new girl. Quick as a flash,
+she saw what it was Rusty had, and grabbed at it.
+
+"Get out!" she ordered, looking at her prize in triumph and
+turning it over and over in her hands.
+
+At that moment she heard Elaine on the stairs. What should she do?
+She must hide it. She looked about. There was the tray, packed and
+lying on the floor near the trunk marked, "E. Dodge." She thrust
+it hastily into the tray pulling a garment over it.
+
+"Nearly through?" panted Elaine.
+
+"Yes, Miss Dodge."
+
+"Then please tell the expressman to come up."
+
+Bertholdi hesitated, chagrined. Yet there was nothing to do but
+obey. She looked at the trunk by the tray to fix it in her mind,
+then went down-stairs.
+
+As she left the room, Elaine lifted the tray into the trunk and
+tried to close the lid. But the tray was too high. She looked
+puzzled. On the floor was another tray almost identical.
+
+"The wrong trunk," she smiled to herself, lifting the tray out and
+putting the other one in, while she placed the first tray with the
+torpedo concealed in the other, unmarked, trunk where it belonged.
+Then she closed the first trunk.
+
+A moment later the expressman entered, with Bertholdi.
+
+"You may take that one," indicated Elaine.
+
+"Miss Dodge, here's something else to go in," said Bertholdi in
+desperation, picking up a dress.
+
+"Never mind. Put it in the other trunk."
+
+Bertholdi was baffled, but she managed to control herself. She
+must get word to Del Mar about that trunk marked "E. Dodge."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Late that afternoon, before a cheap restaurant might have been
+seen our old friend who had posed as Bailey and as the Mexican. He
+entered the restaurant and made his way to the first of a row of
+booths on one side.
+
+"Hello," he nodded to a girl in the booth.
+
+Bertholdi nodded back and he took his seat. She had begged an hour
+or two off on some pretext
+
+Outside the restaurant, a heavily-bearded man had been standing
+looking intently at nothing in particular when Bertholdi entered.
+As Bailey came along, he followed and took the next booth, his hat
+pulled over his eyes. In a moment he was listening, his ear close
+up to the partition.
+
+"Well, what luck?" asked Bailey. "Did you get a clue?"
+
+"I had the torpedo model in my hands," she replied, excitedly
+telling the story. "It is in a trunk marked 'E. Dodge.'"
+
+All this and more the bearded stranger drank in eagerly.
+
+A moment later Bailey and Bertholdi left the booth and went out of
+the restaurant followed cautiously by the stranger. On the street
+the two emissaries of Del Mar stopped a moment to talk.
+
+"All right, I'll telephone him," she said as they parted in
+opposite directions.
+
+The stranger took an instant to make up his mind, then followed
+the girl. She continued down the street until she came to a store
+with telephone booths. The bearded stranger followed still, into
+the next booth but did not call a number. He had his ear to the
+wall.
+
+He could hear her call Del Mar, and although he could not hear Del
+Mar's answers, she repeated enough for him to catch the drift.
+Finally, she came out, and the stranger, instead of following her
+further, took the other direction hurriedly.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar himself received the news with keen excitement. Quickly he
+gave instructions and prepared to leave his rooms.
+
+A short time later his car pulled up before the La Coste and, in a
+long duster and cap, Del Mar jumped in, and was off.
+
+Scarcely had his car swung up the avenue when, from an alleyway
+down the street from the hotel, the chug-chug of a motor-cycle
+sounded. A bearded man, his face further hidden by a pair of
+goggles, ran out with his machine, climbed on and followed.
+
+On out into the country Del Mar's car sped. At every turn the
+motor-cycle dropped back a bit, observed the turn, then crept up
+and took it, too. So they went for some time.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+On the level of the Grand Central where the trains left for the
+Connecticut shore where Elaine's summer home was located, Bailey
+was now edging his way through the late crowd down the platform.
+He paused before the baggage-car just as one of the baggage motor
+trucks rolled up loaded high with trunks and bags. He stepped back
+as the men loaded the luggage on the car, watching carefully.
+
+As they tossed on one trunk marked "E. Dodge," he turned with a
+subtle look and walked away. Finally he squirmed around to the
+other platform. No one was looking and he mounted the rear of the
+baggage-car and opened the door. There was the baggageman sitting
+by the side door, his back to Bailey. Bailey closed the door
+softly and squeezed behind a pile of trunks and bags.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Finally Del Mar reached a spot on the railroad where there were
+both a curve and a grade ahead. He stopped his car and got out.
+
+Down the road the bearded and goggled motorcyclist stopped just in
+time to avoid observation. To make sure, he drew a pocket field-
+glass and leveled it ahead.
+
+"Wait here," ordered Del Mar. "I'll call when I want you."
+
+Back on the road the bearded cyclist could see Del Mar move down
+the track though he could not hear the directions. It was not
+necessary, however. He dragged his machine into the bushes, hid
+it, and hurried down the road on foot.
+
+Del Mar's chauffeur was waiting idly at the wheel when suddenly
+the cold nose of a revolver was stuck under his chin.
+
+"Not a word--and hands up--or I'll let the moonlight through you,"
+growled out a harsh voice.
+
+Nevertheless, the chauffeur managed to lurch out of the car and
+the bearded stranger, whose revolver it was, found that he would
+have to shoot. Del Mar was not far enough away to risk it.
+
+The chauffeur flung himself on him and they struggled fiercely,
+rolling over and over in the dust of the road.
+
+But the bearded stranger had a grip of steel and managed to get
+his fingers about the chauffeur's throat as an added insurance
+against a cry for help.
+
+He choked him literally into insensibility. Then, with a strength
+that he did not seem to possess, he picked up the limp, blue-faced
+body and carried it off the road and around the car.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the baggage-car, the baggageman was smoking a surreptitious
+pipe of powerful tobacco between stations and contemplating the
+scenery thoughtfully through the open door.
+
+As the engine slowed up to take a curve and a grade, Bailey who
+had now and then taken a peep out of a little grated window above
+him, crept out from his hiding-place. Already he had slipped a
+dark silk mask over his face.
+
+As he made his way among the trunks and boxes, the train lurched
+and the baggageman who had his back to Bailey heard him catch
+himself. He turned and leaped to his feet. Bailey closed with him
+instantly.
+
+Over and over they rolled. Bailey had already drawn his revolver
+before he left his hiding-place. A shot, however, would have been
+fatal to his part in the plans and was only a last resort for it
+would have brought the trainmen.
+
+Finally Bailey rolled his man over and getting his right arm free,
+dealt the baggageman a fierce blow with the butt of the gun.
+
+The train was now pulling slowly up the grade. More time had been
+spent in overcoming the baggageman than he expected and Bailey had
+to work quickly. He dragged the trunk marked "E. Dodge" from the
+pile to the door and glanced out.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Just around the curve in the railroad, Del Mar was waiting,
+straining his eyes down the track.
+
+There was the train, puffing up the grade. As it approached he
+rose and waved his arms. It was the signal and he waited
+anxiously. Had his plans been carried out?
+
+The train passed. From the baggage-car came a trunk catapulted out
+by a strong arm. It hurtled through the air and landed with its
+own and the train's momentum.
+
+Over it rolled in the bushes, then stopped--unbroken, for Elaine
+had had it designed to resist even the most violent baggage-
+smasher.
+
+Del Mar ran to it. As the tail light of the train disappeared he
+turned around in the direction from which he had come, placed his
+two hands to his mouth and shouted.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+From the side of the road by Del Mar's car the bearded motor-
+cyclist had just emerged, buttoning the chauffeur's clothes and
+adjusting his goggles to his own face.
+
+As he approached the car, he heard a shout. Quickly he tore off
+the black beard which had been his disguise and tossed it into the
+grass. Then he drew the coat high up about his neck.
+
+"All right!" he shouted back, starting along the road.
+
+Together he and Del Mar managed to scramble up the embankment to
+the road and, one at each handle of the trunk, they carried it
+back to the car, piling it in the back.
+
+The improvised chauffeur started to take his place at the wheel
+and Del Mar had his foot on the running-board to get beside him,
+when the now unbearded stranger suddenly swung about and struck
+Del Mar full in the face. It sent him reeling back into the dust.
+
+The engine of the car had been running and before Del Mar could
+recover consciousness, the stranger had shot the car ahead,
+leaving Del Mar prone in the roadway.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+The train, with Bailey on it, had not gained much speed, yet it
+was a perilous undertaking to leap. Still, it was more so now to
+remain. The baggageman stirred. It was now a case of murder or a
+getaway.
+
+Bailey jumped.
+
+Scratched and bruised and shaken, he scrambled to his feet in the
+briars along the track. He staggered up to the road, pulled
+himself together, then hurried back as fast as his barked shins
+would let him.
+
+He came to the spot which he recognized as that where he had
+thrown off the trunk. He saw the trampled and broken bushes and
+made for the road.
+
+He had not gone far when he saw, far down, Del Mar suddenly
+attacked and thrown down, apparently by his own chauffeur. Bailey
+ran forward, but it was too late. The car was gone.
+
+As he came up to Del Mar lying outstretched in the road, Del Mar
+was just recovering consciousness.
+
+"What was the matter?" he asked. "Was he a traitor?"
+
+He caught sight of the real chauffeur on the ground, stripped.
+
+Del Mar was furious. "No," he swore, "it was that confounded gray
+friar again, I think. And he has the trunk, too!"
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Speeding up the road the former masquerader and motor-cyclist
+stopped at last.
+
+Eagerly he leaped out of Del Mar's car and dragged the trunk over
+the side regardless of the enamel.
+
+It was the work of only a moment for him to break the lock with a
+pocket jimmy.
+
+One after another he pulled out and shook the clothes until frocks
+and gowns and lingerie lay strewn all about.
+
+But there was not a thing in the trunk that even remotely
+resembled the torpedo model.
+
+The stranger scowled.
+
+Where was it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE VANISHING MAN
+
+
+Del Mar had evidently, by this time, come to the conclusion that
+Elaine was the storm centre of the peculiar train of events that
+followed the disappearance of Kennedy and his wireless torpedo.
+
+At any rate, as soon as he learned that Elaine was going to her
+country home for the summer, he took a bungalow some distance from
+Dodge Hall. In fact, it was more than a bungalow, for it was a
+pretentious place surrounded by a wide lawn and beautiful shade
+trees.
+
+There, on the day that Elaine decided to motor in from the city,
+Del Mar arrived with his valet.
+
+Evidently he lost no time in getting to work on his own affairs,
+whatever they might be. Inside his study, which was the largest
+room in the house, a combination of both library and laboratory,
+he gave an order or two to his valet, then immediately sat down to
+his new desk. He opened a drawer and took out a long hollow
+cylinder, closed at each end by air-tight caps, on one of which
+was a hook.
+
+Quickly he wrote a note and read it over: "Install submarine bell
+in place of these clumsy tubes. Am having harbor and bridges mined
+as per instructions from Government. D."
+
+He unscrewed the cap at one end of the tube, inserted the note and
+closed it. Then he pushed a button on his desk. A panel in the
+wall opened and one of the men who had played policeman once for
+him stepped out and saluted.
+
+"Here's a message to send below," said Del Mar briefly.
+
+The man bowed and went back through the panel, closing it.
+
+Del Mar cleaned up his desk and then went out to look his new
+quarters over, to see whether everything had been prepared
+according to his instructions.
+
+From the concealed entrance to a cave on a hillside, Del Mar's man
+who had gone through the panel in the bungalow appeared a few
+minutes later and hurried down to the shore. It was a rocky coast
+with stretches of cliffs and now and then a ravine and bit of
+sandy beach. Gingerly he climbed down the rocks to the water.
+
+He took from his pocket the metal tube which Del Mar had given him
+and to the hook on one end attached a weight of lead. A moment he
+looked about cautiously. Then he threw the tube into the water and
+it sank quickly. He did not wait, but hurried back into the cave
+entrance.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I motored down to Dodge Hall from the
+city. Elaine's country house was on a fine estate near the Long
+Island Sound and after the long run we were glad to pull up before
+the big house and get out of the car. As we approached the door, I
+happened to look down the road.
+
+"Well, that's the country, all right," I exclaimed, pointing down
+the road. "Look."
+
+Lumbering along was a huge heavy hay rack on top of which perched
+a farmer chewing a straw. Following along after him was a dog of a
+peculiar shepherd breed which I did not recognize. Atop of the hay
+the old fellow had piled a trunk and a basket.
+
+To our surprise the hay rack stopped before the house. "Miss
+Dodge?" drawled the farmer nasally.
+
+"Why, what do you suppose he can want?" asked Elaine moving out
+toward the wagon while we followed. "Yes?"
+
+"Here's a trunk, Miss Dodge, with your name on it," he went on
+dragging it down. "I found it down by the railroad track."
+
+It was the trunk marked "E. Dodge" which had been thrown off the
+train, taken by Del Mar and rifled by the motor-cyclist.
+
+"How do you suppose it ever got here?" cried Elaine in wonder.
+
+"Must have fallen off the train," I suggested. "You might have
+collected the insurance under this new baggage law!"
+
+"Jennings," called Elaine. "Get Patrick and carry the trunk in."
+
+Together the butler and the gardener dragged it off.
+
+"Thank you," said Elaine, endeavoring to pay the farmer.
+
+"No, no, Miss," he demurred as he clucked to his horses.
+
+We waved to the old fellow. As he started to drive away, he
+reached down into the basket and drew out some yellow harvest
+apples. One at a time he tossed them to us as he lumbered off.
+
+"Truly rural," remarked a voice behind us.
+
+It was Del Mar, all togged up and carrying a magazine in his hand.
+
+We chatted a moment, then Elaine started to go into the house with
+Aunt Josephine. With Del Mar I followed.
+
+As she went Elaine took a bite of the apple. To her surprise it
+separated neatly into two hollow halves. She looked inside. There
+was a note. Carefully she unfolded it and read. Like the others,
+it was not written but printed in pencil:
+
+Be careful to unpack all your trunks yourself. Destroy this note.-
+-A FRIEND.
+
+What did these mysterious warnings mean, she asked herself in
+amazement. Somehow so far they had worked out all right. She tore
+up the note and threw the pieces away.
+
+Del Mar and I stopped for a moment to talk. I did not notice that
+he was not listening to me, but was surreptitiously watching
+Elaine.
+
+Elaine went into the house and we followed. Del Mar, however,
+dropped just a bit behind and, as he came to the place where
+Elaine had thrown the pieces of paper, dropped his magazine. He
+stooped to pick it up and gathered the pieces, then rejoined us.
+
+"I hope you'll excuse me," said Elaine brightly. "We've just
+arrived and I haven't a thing unpacked."
+
+Del Mar bowed and Elaine left us. Aunt Josephine followed shortly.
+Del Mar and I sat down at a table. As he talked he placed the
+magazine in his lap beneath the table, on his knees. I could not
+see, but he was in reality secretly putting together the torn note
+which the farmer had thrown to Elaine.
+
+Finally he managed to fit all the pieces. A glance down was
+enough. But his face betrayed nothing. Still under the table, he
+swept the pieces into his pocket and rose.
+
+"I'll drop in when you are more settled," he excused himself,
+strolling leisurely out again.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Up in the bedroom Elaine's maid, Marie, had been unpacking.
+
+"Well, what do you know about that?" she exclaimed as Jennings and
+Patrick came dragging in the banged-up trunk.
+
+"Very queer," remarked Jennings, detailing the little he had seen,
+while Patrick left.
+
+The entrance of Elaine put an end to the interesting gossip and
+Marie started to open the trunk.
+
+"No, Marie," said Elaine. "I'll unpack them my self. You can put
+the things away later. You and Jennings may go."
+
+Quickly she took the things out of the battered trunk. Then she
+started on the other trunk which was like it but not marked. She
+threw out a couple of garments, then paused, startled.
+
+There was the lost torpedo--where Bertholdi had stuck it in her
+haste! Elaine picked it up and looked at it in wonder as it
+recalled all those last days before Kennedy was lost. For the
+moment she did not know quite what to make of it. What should she
+do?
+
+Finally she decided to lock it up in the bureau drawer and tell
+me. Not only did she lock the drawer but, as she left her room,
+she took the key of the door from the lock inside and locked it
+outside.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar did not go far from the house, however. He scarcely
+reached the edge of the grounds where he was sure he was not
+observed when he placed his fingers to his lips and whistled. An
+instant later two of his men appeared from behind a hedge.
+
+"You must get into her room," he ordered. "That torpedo is in her
+luggage somewhere, after all."
+
+They bowed and disappeared again into the shrubbery while Del Mar
+turned and retraced his steps to the house.
+
+In the rear of the house the two emissaries of Del Mar stole out
+of the shelter of some bushes and stood for a moment looking.
+Elaine's windows were high above them, too high to reach. There
+seemed to be no way to get to them and there was no ladder in
+sight.
+
+"We'll have to use the Dutch house-man's method," decided one.
+
+Together they went around the house toward the laundry. It was
+only a few minutes later that they returned. No one was about.
+Quickly one of them took off his coat. Around his waist he had
+wound a coil of rope. Deftly he began to climb a tree whose upper
+branches fell over the roof. Cat-like he made his way out along a
+branch and managed to reach the roof. He made his way along the
+ridge pole to a chimney which was directly back of and in line
+with Elaine's windows. Then he uncoiled the rope and made one end
+fast to the chimney. Letting the other end fall free down the
+roof, he carefully lowered himself over the edge. Thus it was not
+difficult to get into Elaine's room by stepping on the window-sill
+and going through the open window.
+
+The man began a rapid search of the room, turning up and pawing
+everything that Elaine had unpacked. Then he began on the little
+writing-desk, the dresser and the bureau drawers. A subtle smile
+flashed over his face as he came to one drawer that was locked. He
+pulled a sectional jimmy from his coat and forced it open.
+
+There lay the precious torpedo.
+
+The man clutched at it with a look of exultation. Without another
+glance at the room he rushed to the window, seized the rope and
+pulled himself to the roof, going as he had come.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It did not take me long to unpack the few things I had brought and
+I was soon back again in the living-room, where Aunt Josephine
+joined me in a few minutes.
+
+Just as Elaine came hurriedly down the stairway and started toward
+me, Del Mar entered from the porch. She stopped. Del Mar watched
+her closely. Had she found anything? He was sure of it.
+
+Her hesitation was only for a moment, however. "Walter," she said,
+"may I speak to you a moment? Excuse us, please?"
+
+Aunt Josephine went out toward the back of the house to see how
+the servants were getting on, while I followed Elaine up-stairs.
+Del Mar with a bow seated himself and opened his magazine. No
+sooner had we gone, however, than he laid it down and cautiously
+followed us.
+
+Elaine was evidently very much excited as she entered her dainty
+little room and closed the door. "Walter," she cried, "I've found
+the torpedo!"
+
+We looked about at the general disorder. "Why," she exclaimed
+nervously, "some one has been here--and I locked the door, too."
+
+She almost ran over to her bureau drawer. It had been jimmied open
+in the few minutes while she was down-stairs. The torpedo was
+gone. We looked at each other, aghast.
+
+Behind us, however, we did not see the keen and watchful eyes of
+Del Mar, opening the door and peering in. As he saw us, he closed
+the door softly, went down-stairs and out of the house.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Perhaps half a mile down the road, the farmer abandoned his hay
+rack and now, followed by his peculiar dog, walked back. He
+stopped at a point in the road where he could see the Dodge house
+in the distance, sat on the rail fence and lighted a blackened
+corn-cob pipe.
+
+There he sat for some time apparently engrossed in his own
+thoughts about the weather, the dog lying at his feet. Now and
+then he looked fixedly toward Dodge Hall.
+
+Suddenly his vagrant attention seemed to be riveted on the house.
+He drew a field-glass from his pocket and levelled it. Sure
+enough, there was a man coming out of a window, pulling himself up
+to the roof by a rope and going across the roof tree. He lowered
+the glasses quickly and climbed off the fence with a hitherto
+unwonted energy.
+
+"Come, Searchlight," he called to the dog, as together they moved
+off quickly in the direction he had been looking. Del Mar's men
+were coming through the hedge that surrounded the Dodge estate
+just as the farmer and his dog stepped out in front of them from
+behind a thicket.
+
+"Just a minute," he called. "I want to speak to you."
+
+He enforced his words with a vicious looking gun. It was two to
+one and they closed with him. Before he could shoot, they had
+knocked the gun out of his hand. Then they tried to break away and
+run.
+
+But the farmer seized one of them and held him. Meanwhile the dog
+developed traits all his own. He ran in and out between the legs
+of the other man until he threw him. There he stood, over him. The
+man attempted to rise. Again the dog threw him and kept him down.
+He was a trained Belgian sheep hound, a splendid police dog.
+
+"Confound the brute," growled the man, reaching for his gun.
+
+As he drew it, the dog seized his wrist and with a cry the man
+dropped the gun. That, too, was part of the dog's training.
+
+While the farmer and the other man struggled on the ground, the
+torpedo worked its way half from the man's pocket. The farmer
+seized it. The man fell back, limp, and the farmer, with the
+torpedo in one hand, grasped at the gun on the ground and
+straightened up.
+
+He had no sooner risen than the man was at him again. His
+unconsciousness had been merely feigned. The struggle was renewed.
+
+At that point, the hedge down the road parted and Del Mar stepped
+out. A glance was enough to tell him what was going on. He drew
+his gun and ran swiftly toward the combatants.
+
+As Del Mar approached, his man succeeded in knocking the torpedo
+from the farmer's hand. There it lay, several feet away. There
+seemed to be no chance for either man to get it.
+
+Quickly the farmer bent his wrist, aiming the gun deliberately at
+the precious torpedo. As fast as he could he pulled the trigger.
+Five of the six shots penetrated the little model.
+
+So surprised was his antagonist that the farmer was able to knock
+him out with the butt of his gun. He broke away and fled,
+whistling on a police whistle for the dog just as Del Mar ran up.
+A couple of shots from Del Mar flew wild as the farmer and his dog
+disappeared.
+
+Del Mar stopped and picked up the model. It had been shot into an
+unrecognizable mass of scrap. In a fury, Del Mar dashed it on the
+ground, cursing his men as he did so. The strange disappearance
+of the torpedo model from Elaine's room worried both of us.
+Doubtless if Kennedy had been there he would have known just what
+to do. But we could not decide.
+
+"Really," considered Elaine, "I think we had better take Mr. Del
+Mar into our confidence."
+
+"Still, we've had a great many warnings," I objected.
+
+"I know that," she persisted, "but they have all come from very
+unreliable sources."
+
+"Very well," I agreed finally, "then let's drive over to his
+bungalow."
+
+Elaine ordered her little runabout and a few moments later we
+climbed into it and Elaine shot the car away.
+
+As we rode along, the country seemed so quiet that no one would
+ever have suspected that foreign agents lurked all about. But it
+was just under such a cover that the nefarious bridge and harbor-
+mining work ordered by Del Mar's superiors was going ahead
+quietly.
+
+As our car climbed a hill on the other side of which, in the
+valley, was a bridge, we could not see one of Del Mar's men in
+hiding at the top. He saw us, however, and immediately wigwagged
+with his handkerchief to several others down at the bridge where
+they were attaching a pair of wires to the planking.
+
+"Some one coming," muttered one who was evidently a lookout.
+
+The men stopped work immediately and hid in the brush. Our car
+passed over the bridge and we saw nothing wrong. But no sooner had
+we gone than the men crept out and resumed work which had
+progressed to the point where they were ready to carry the wires
+of an electric connection through the grass, concealing them as
+they went.
+
+In the study of his bungalow, all this time, Del Mar was striding
+angrily up and down, while his men waited in silence.
+
+Finally he paused and turned to one of them. "See that the coast
+is clear and kept clear," he ordered. "I want to go down."
+
+The man saluted and went out through the panel. A moment later Del
+Mar gave some orders to the other man who also saluted and left
+the house by the front door, just as our car pulled up.
+
+Del Mar, the moment the man was gone, put on his hat and moved
+toward the panel in the wall. He was about to enter when he heard
+some one coming down the hall to the study and stepped back,
+closing the panel. It was the butler announcing us.
+
+We had entered Del Mar's bungalow and now were conducted to his
+library. There Elaine told him the whole story, much to his
+apparent surprise, for Del Mar was a wonderful actor.
+
+"You see," he said as she finished telling of the finding and the
+losing of the torpedo, "just what I had feared would happen has
+happened. Doubtless the foreign agents have the deadly weapon,
+now. However, I'll not quit. Perhaps we may run them down yet."
+
+He reassured us and we thanked him as we said good-bye. Outside,
+Elaine and I got into the car again and a moment later spun off,
+making a little detour first through the country before hitting
+the shore road back again to Dodge Hall.
+
+On the rocky shore of the promontory, several men were engaged in
+sinking a peculiar heavy disk which they submerged about ten or
+twelve feet. It seemed to be held by a cable and to it wires were
+attached, apparently so that when a key was pressed a circuit was
+closed.
+
+It was an "oscillator", a new system for the employment of sound
+for submarine signalling, using water instead of air as a medium
+to transmit sound waves. It was composed of a ring magnet, a
+copper tube lying in an air-gap in a magnetic field and a
+stationary central armature. The tube was attached to a steel
+diaphragm. Really it was a submarine bell which could be used for
+telegraphing or telephoning both ways through water.
+
+The men finished executing the directions of Del Mar and left,
+carefully concealing the land connections and key of the bell,
+while we were still at Del Mar's.
+
+We had no sooner left, however, than one of the men who had been
+engaged in installing the submarine bell entered the library.
+
+"Well?" demanded Del Mar.
+
+"The bell is installed, sir," he said. "It will be working soon."
+
+"Good," nodded Del Mar.
+
+He went to a drawer and from it took a peculiar looking helmet to
+which was attached a sort of harness fitting over the shoulders
+and carrying a tank of oxygen. The head-piece was a most weird
+contrivance, with what looked like a huge glass eye in front. It
+was in reality a submarine life-saving apparatus.
+
+Del Mar put it on, all except the helmet which he carried with
+him, and then, with his assistant, went out through the panel in
+the wall. Through the underground passage the two groped their
+way, lighted by an electric torch, until at last they came to the
+entrance hidden in the underbrush, near the shore.
+
+Del Mar went over to the concealed station from which the
+submarine bell was sounded and pressed the key as a signal. Then
+he adjusted the submarine helmet to his head and deliberately
+waded out into the water, further and further, up to his head,
+then deeper still.
+
+As he disappeared into the water, his emissary turned and went
+back toward the shore road.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+The ride around through the country and back to the shore, road
+from Del Mar's was pleasant. In fact it was always pleasant to be
+with Elaine, especially in a car.
+
+We were spinning along at a fast clip when we came to a rocky part
+of the coast. As we made a turn a sharp breeze took off my hat and
+whirled it far off the road and among the rocks of the shore.
+Elaine shut down the engine, with a laugh at me, and we left the
+car by the road while we climbed down the rocks after the hat.
+
+It had been carried into the water, close to shore and, still
+laughing, we clambered over the rocks. Elaine insisted on getting
+it herself and in fact did get it. She was just about to hand it
+to me, when something bobbed up in the water just in front of us.
+She reached for it and fished it out. It was a cylinder with air-
+tight caps on both ends, in one of which was a hook.
+
+"What do you suppose it is?" she asked, looking it over as we made
+our way up the rocks again to the car. "Where did it come from?"
+
+We did not see a man standing by our car, but he saw us. It was
+Del Mar's man who had paused on his way to watch us. As we
+approached he hid on the other side of the road.
+
+By this time we had reached the car and opened the cylinder.
+Inside was a note which read:
+
+     "Chief arrived safely. Keep watch."
+
+"What does it mean?" repeated Elaine, mystified.
+
+Neither of us could guess and I doubt whether we would have
+understood any better if we had seen a sinister face peering at us
+from behind a rock near-by, although doubtless the man knew what
+was in the tube and what it meant.
+
+We climbed into the car and started again. As we disappeared, the
+man came from behind the rocks and ran quickly up to the top of
+the hill. There, from the bushes, he pulled out a peculiar
+instrument composed of a strange series of lenses and mirrors set
+up on a tripod.
+
+Eagerly he placed the tripod, adjusting the lenses and mirrors in
+the sunlight. Then he began working them, and it was apparent that
+he was flashing light beams, using a Morse code. It was a
+heliograph.
+
+Down the shore on the top of the next hill sat the man who had
+already given the signal with the handkerchief to those in the
+valley who were working on the mining of the bridge. As he sat
+there, his eye caught the flash of the heliograph signal. He
+sprang up and watched intently. Rapidly he jotted down the message
+that was being flashed in the sunlight:
+
+      Dodge girl has message from below.
+      Coming in car. Blow first bridge she
+      crosses.
+
+Down the valley the lookout made his way as fast as he could. As
+he approached the two men who had been mining the bridge, he
+whistled sharply. They answered and hurried to meet him.
+
+"Just got a heliograph," he panted. "The Dodge girl must have
+picked up one of the messages that came from below. She's coming
+over the hill now in a car. We've got to blow up the bridge as she
+crosses."
+
+The men were hurrying now toward the bridge which they had mined.
+Not a moment was to be lost, for already they could see us coming
+over the crest of the hill.
+
+In a few seconds they reached the hidden plunger firing-box which
+had been arranged to explode the charge under the bridge. There
+they crouched in the brush ready to press the plunger the moment
+our car touched the planking.
+
+One of the men crept out a little nearer the road. "They're
+coming!" he called back, dropping down again. "Get ready!"
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar's emissaries had not reckoned, however, that any one else
+might be about to whom the heliograph was an open book.
+
+But, further over on the hill, hiding among the trees, the old
+farmer and his dog were sitting quietly. The old man was sweeping
+the Sound with his glasses, as if he expected to see something any
+moment.
+
+To his surprise, however, he caught a flash of the heliograph from
+the land. Quickly he turned and jotted down the signals. As he did
+so, he seemed greatly excited, for the message read:
+
+       Dodge girl has message from below.
+       Coming in car. Blow first bridge she
+       crosses.
+
+Quickly he turned his glasses down the road. There he could see
+our car rapidly approaching. He put up his glasses and hurried
+down the hill toward the bridge. Then he broke into a run, the dog
+scouting ahead.
+
+We were going along the road nicely now, coasting down the hill.
+As we approached the bridge, Elaine slowed up a bit, to cross, for
+the planking was loose.
+
+Just then the farmer who had been running down the hill saw us.
+
+"Stop!" he shouted.
+
+But we did not hear. He ran after us, but such a chase was
+hopeless. He stopped, in despair.
+
+With a gesture of vexation he took a step or two mechanically off
+the road.
+
+Elaine and I were coming fast to the bridge now.
+
+In their hiding-place, Del Mar's men were watching breathlessly.
+The leader was just about to press the plunger when all of a
+sudden a branch in the thicket beside him crackled. There stood
+the farmer and his dog!
+
+Instantly the farmer seemed to take in the situation. With a cry
+he threw himself at the man who had the plunger. Another man
+leaped at the farmer. The dog settled him. The others piled in and
+a terrific struggle followed. It was all so rapid that, to all,
+seconds seemed like hours.
+
+We were just starting to cross the bridge.
+
+One of the men broke away and crawled toward the plunger box. Our
+car was now in the middle of the bridge.
+
+Over and over rolled the men, the dog doing his best to help his
+master. The man who had broken away reached toward the plunger.
+
+With a shout he pushed it down.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Our car had just cleared the bridge when we were startled by a
+terrific roar behind us. It was as though a thousand tires had
+blown out at once. Elaine shut off the engine automatically and we
+looked back.
+
+The whole bridge had been blown up. A second before we had been in
+the middle of it.
+
+As the explosion came, the men who had been struggling in the
+thicket, paused, startled, and stared out. At that instant the old
+farmer saw his chance. It was all over and he bolted, calling the
+dog.
+
+Along the road to the bridge he ran, two of the men after him.
+
+"Come back," growled the leader. "Let him go. Do you want us all
+to get caught?"
+
+As the farmer ran up to the bridge, he saw it in ruins. But down
+the road he could see Elaine and myself, sitting in the car,
+staring back at the peril which we had so narrowly escaped. His
+face lighted up in as great joy as a few moments before it had
+showed despair.
+
+"What can that have been?" asked Elaine, starting to get out of
+the car. "What caused it?"
+
+"I don't know," I returned, taking her arm firmly. "But enough has
+happened to-day. If it was intended for us, we'd better not stop.
+Some one might take a shot at us. Come. We have the car. We can
+get out before any one does anything more. Let's do it. Things are
+going on about us of which we know nothing. The safest thing is to
+get away."
+
+Elaine looked at the bridge in ruins and shuddered. It was the
+closest we could have been to death and have escaped. Then she
+turned to the wheel quickly and the little car fairly jumped
+ahead.
+
+"Oh, if Craig were only here," she murmured. "He would know what
+to do."
+
+As we disappeared over the crest of the next hill, safe, the old
+farmer and his dog looked hard at us.
+
+The silence after the explosion was ominous.
+
+He glanced about. No one was pursuing him. That seemed ominous,
+too. But if they did pursue he was prepared to elude them. They
+must never recognize the old farmer.
+
+As he turned, he deliberately pulled off his beard, then plunged
+again into the woods and was lost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SUBMARINE HARBOR
+
+
+It was not long after the almost miraculous escape of Elaine and
+myself from the blowing up of the bridge on the shore road that
+Del Mar returned from his mysterious mission which had,
+apparently, taken him actually down to the bottom of the sea.
+
+The panel in the wall of his library opened and in the still
+dripping submarine suit, holding under his arm the weird helmet,
+Del Mar entered. No sooner had he begun to remove his wet diving-
+suit than the man who had signalled with the heliograph that we
+had found Del Mar's message from "below," whatever that might
+mean, entered the house and was announced by the valet.
+
+"Let him come in immediately," ordered Del Mar, placing his suit
+in a closet. Then to the man, as he entered, he said, "Well,
+what's new?"
+
+"Quite a bit," returned the man, frowning still over Elaine's
+accidental discovery of the under-water communication. "The Dodge
+girl happened to pick up one of the tubes with a message just
+after you went down. I tried to get her by blowing up the bridge,
+but it didn't work, somehow."
+
+"We'll have to silence her," remarked Del Mar angrily with a
+sinister frown. "You stay here and wait for orders."
+
+A moment later he made his way down to a private dock on his
+grounds and jumped aboard a trim little speed boat moored there.
+He started the motor and off the boat feathered in a cloud of
+spray.
+
+It was only a moment by water before he reached the Dodge dock.
+There he tied his boat and hurried up the dock.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine and I arrived home without any further experiences after
+our hairbreadth escape from the explosion at the bridge.
+
+We were in doubt at first, however, just what to do about the
+mysterious message which we had picked up in the harbor.
+
+"Really, Walter," remarked Elaine, after we had considered the
+matter for some time, "I think we ought to send that message to
+the government at Washington."
+
+Already she had seated herself at her desk and began to write,
+while I examined the metal tube and the note again.
+
+"There," she said at length, handing me the note she had written.
+"How does that sound?"
+
+I read it while she addressed the envelope. "Very good," I
+replied, handing it back.
+
+She folded it and shoved it into the envelope on which she had
+written:
+
+  Chief,
+     Secret Service,
+        Washington, D. C.
+
+I was studying the address, wondering whether this was just the
+thing to do, when Elaine decided the matter by energetically
+ringing the bell for Jennings.
+
+"Post that, Jennings, please," she directed.
+
+The butler bowed just as the door-bell rang. He turned to go.
+
+"Just a minute," I interrupted. "I think perhaps I'd better mail
+it myself, after all."
+
+He handed me the letter and went out.
+
+"Yes, Walter," agreed Elaine, "that would be better. Register it,
+too."
+
+"How do you do?" greeted a suave voice.
+
+It was Del Mar. As he passed me to speak to Elaine, apparently by
+accident, he knocked the letter from my hand.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he apologized, quickly stooping and picking
+it up.
+
+Though he managed to read the address, he maintained his composure
+and handed the letter back to me. I started to go out, when Elaine
+called to me.
+
+"Excuse me just a moment, Mr. Del Mar?" she queried, accompanying
+me out on the porch.
+
+Already a saddle horse had been brought around for me.
+
+"Perhaps you'd better put a special delivery stamp on it, too,
+Walter," she added, walking along with me. "And be very careful."
+
+"I will," I promised, as I rode off.
+
+Del Mar, alone, seized the opportunity to go over quietly to the
+telephone. It was the work of only a moment to call up his
+bungalow where the emissary who had placed the submarine bell was
+waiting for orders. Quickly Del Mar whispered his instructions
+which the man took, and hung up the receiver.
+
+"I hope you'll pardon me," said Elaine, entering just as Del Mar
+left the telephone. "Mr. Jameson was going into town and I had a
+number of little things I wanted him to do. Won't you sit down?"
+
+They chatted for a few moments, but Del Mar did not stay very
+long. He excused himself shortly and Elaine bade him good-bye at
+the door as he walked off, apparently, down the road I had taken.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar's emissary hurried from the bungalow and almost ran down
+the road until he came to a spot where two men were hiding.
+
+"Jameson is coming with a letter which the Dodge girl has written
+to the Secret Service," he cried pointing excitedly up the road.
+"You've got to get it, see?"
+
+I was cantering along nicely down the road by the shore, when
+suddenly, from behind some rocks and bushes, three men leaped out
+at me. One of them seized the horse's bridle, while the other two
+quickly dragged me out of the saddle.
+
+It was very unexpected, but I had time enough to draw my gun and
+fire once. I hit one of the men, too, in the arm, and he staggered
+back, the blood spurting all over the road.
+
+But before I could fire at the others, they knocked the gun from
+my hand. Frightened, the horse turned and bolted, riderless.
+
+Together, they dragged me off the road and into the thicket where
+I was tied and gagged and laid on the ground while one of them
+bound up the wounded arm of the man I had hit. It was not long
+before one of them began searching me.
+
+"Aha!" he growled, pulling the letter from my pocket and looking
+at it with satisfaction. "Here it is."
+
+He tore the letter open, throwing the envelope on the ground, and
+read it.
+
+"There, confound you," he muttered. "The government 'll never get
+that. Come on, men. Bring him this way."
+
+He shoved the letter into his pocket and led the way through the
+underbrush, while the others half-dragged, half-pushed me along.
+We had not gone very far before one of the three men, who appeared
+to be the leader, paused.
+
+"Take him to the hang-out," he ordered gruffly. "I'll have to
+report to the Chief."
+
+He disappeared down toward the shore of the harbor while the
+others prodded me along.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Down near the Dodge dock, along the shore, walked a man wearing a
+broad-brimmed hat and a plain suit of duck. His prim collar and
+tie comported well with his smoked glasses. Instinctively one
+would have called him "Professor", though whether naturalist,
+geologist, or plain "bugologist", one would have had difficulty in
+determining.
+
+He seemed, as a matter-of-fact, to be a naturalist, for he was
+engrossed in picking up specimens. But he was not so much
+engrossed as to fail to hear the approach of footsteps down the
+gravel walk from Dodge Hall to the dock. He looked up in time to
+see Del Mar coming, and quietly slipped into the shrubbery up on
+the shore.
+
+On the dock, Del Mar stood for some minutes, waiting. Finally,
+along the shore came another figure. It was the emissary to whom
+Del Mar had telephoned and who had searched me. The naturalist
+drew back into his hiding-place, peering out keenly.
+
+"Well?" demanded Del Mar. "What luck?"
+
+"We've got him," returned the man with brief satisfaction. "Here's
+the letter she was sending to the Secret Service."
+
+Del Mar seized the note which the man handed to him and read it
+eagerly. "Good," he exclaimed. "That would have put an end to the
+whole operations about here. Come on. Get into the boat."
+
+For some reason best known to himself, the naturalist seemed to
+have lost all interest in his specimens and to have a sudden
+curiosity about Del Mar's affairs. As the motor-boat sped off, he
+came slowly and cautiously out of his hiding-place and gazed
+fixedly at Del Mar.
+
+No sooner had Del Mar's boat got a little distance out into the
+harbor than the naturalist hurried down the Dodge dock. There was
+tied Elaine's own fast little runabout. He jumped into it and
+started the engine, following quickly in Del Mar's wake.
+
+"Look," called the emissary to Del Mar, spying the Dodge boat with
+the naturalist in it, skimming rapidly after them.
+
+Del Mar strained his eyes back through his glass at the pursuing
+boat. But the naturalist, in spite of his smoked glasses, seemed
+not to have impaired his eyesight by his studies. He caught the
+glint of the sun on the lens at Del Mar's eye and dropped down
+into the bottom of his own boat where he was at least safe from
+scrutiny, if his boat were not.
+
+Del Mar lowered his glass. "That's the Dodge boat," he said
+thoughtfully. "I don't like the looks of that fellow. Give her
+more speed."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar had not been gone long before Elaine decided to take a
+ride herself. She ordered her horse around from the stables while
+she donned her neat little riding-habit. A few minutes later, as
+the groom held the horse, she mounted and rode away, choosing the
+road by which I had gone, expecting to meet me on the return from
+town.
+
+She was galloping along at a good clip when suddenly her horse
+shied at something.
+
+"Whoa, Buster," pacified Elaine.
+
+But it was of no use. Buster still reared up.
+
+"Why, what is the matter?" she asked. "What do you see?"
+
+She looked down at the ground. There was a spot of blood in the
+dust. Buster was one of those horses to whom the sight of blood is
+terrifying.
+
+Elaine pulled up beside the road. There was a revolver lying in
+the grass. She dismounted and picked it up. No sooner had she
+looked at it than she discovered the initials "W. J." carved on
+the butt.
+
+"Walter Jameson!" she exclaimed, realizing suddenly that it was
+mine. "It's been fired, too!"
+
+Her eye fell again on the blood spots. "Blood and--footprints--
+into the brush! "she gasped in horror, following the trail." What
+could have happened to Walter?"
+
+With the revolver, Elaine followed where the bushes were trampled
+down until she came to the place where I had been bound. There she
+spied some pieces of paper lying on the ground and picked them up.
+
+She put them together. They were pieces of the envelope of the
+letter which we had decided to send to Washington.
+
+"Which way did they take him?" she asked, looking all about but
+discovering no trail.
+
+She was plainly at a loss what course to pursue.
+
+"What would Craig do?" she asked herself.
+
+Finding no answer, she stood thinking a moment, slowly tearing the
+envelope to pieces. If she were to do anything at all, it must be
+done quickly. Suddenly an idea seemed to occur to her. She threw
+the pieces of paper into the air and let them blow away. It was
+unscientific detection, perhaps, but the wind actually took them
+and carried them in the direction in which the men had forced me
+to walk.
+
+"That's it!" cried Elaine to herself. "I'll follow that
+direction."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Meanwhile, the men had hurried me off along a trail that led to
+the foot of a cliff. Then the trail wound up the cliff. We climbed
+it until we reached the top.
+
+There in the rock was a rude stairway. I drew back. But one man
+drew a gun and the other preceded me down. Along the steep stone
+steps cut out in the face of the rock, they forced me.
+
+Below, in a rift in the very wall of the cliff, was a cave in
+which already were two more of Del Mar's men, talking in low
+tones, in the dim light.
+
+As we made our way down the breakneck stairway, the foremost of my
+captors stepped on a large flat rock. As he did so, it gave way
+slightly under his foot.
+
+A light in the cave flashed up. Under the rock was a secret
+electric connection which operated a lamp.
+
+"Some one coming," muttered the two men, on guard instantly.
+
+It was a somewhat precarious footing as we descended and for the
+moment I was more concerned for my safety from a fall than
+anything else. Once my foot did slip and a shower of pebbles and
+small pieces of rock started down the face of the cliff.
+
+As we passed down, the man behind me, still keeping me covered,
+raised the flat stone on the top step. Carefully, he reset the
+connection of the alarm rock, a series of metal points that bent
+under the weight of a person and made a contact which signalled
+down in the cavern the approach of any one who did not know the
+secret.
+
+As he did so, the light in the cavern went out. "It's all right,"
+said one of the men down there, with a look of relief.
+
+We now went down the perilous stairway until we came to the cave.
+
+"I've got a prisoner--orders of the Chief," growled one of my
+captors, thrusting me in roughly.
+
+They forced me into a corner where they tied me again, hand and
+foot. Then they began debating in low, sinister tones, what was to
+be done with me next. Once in a while I could catch a word. Fear
+made my senses hypersensitive.
+
+They were arguing whether they should make away with me now or
+later!
+
+Finally the leader rose. "It's three to one," I heard him mutter.
+"He dies now."
+
+He turned and took a menacing step toward me.
+
+"Hands up!"
+
+It was a shrill, firm voice that rang out at the mouth of the cave
+as a figure cut off what little light there was.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine passed along, hunting for the trail. Suddenly a shower of
+pebbles came falling down from a cliff above her. Some of them hit
+her and she looked up quickly.
+
+There she could see me being led along by my captors. She hid in
+the brush and watched. During all the operations of the descent of
+the rock stairway and the resetting of the alarm, she continued to
+watch, straining her eyes to see what they were doing.
+
+As we entered the cave, she stepped out from her concealment and
+looked sharply up at us, as we disappeared. Then she climbed the
+path up the cliff until she came to the flight of stone steps
+leading downward again.
+
+Already she had seen the man behind me doing something with the
+stone that formed the top step. She stooped down and examined the
+stone. Carefully she raised it and looked underneath before
+stepping on it. There she could see the electric connection. She
+set the stone aside and looked again down the dangerous stairway.
+
+It made her shudder. "I must get him," she murmured to herself.
+"Yes, I must. Even now it may be too late."
+
+With a supreme effort of determination she got herself together,
+drew my gun which she had picked up, and started down the cliff,
+stepping noiselessly.
+
+At last Elaine came to the cave. She stood just aside from the
+door, gun in hand, and listened, aghast.
+
+Inside she could hear voices of four men, and they were arguing
+whether they should kill me or not. It was four against one woman,
+but she did not falter.
+
+They had just decided to make away with me immediately and the
+leader had turned toward me with the threat still on his lips. It
+was now or never. Resolutely she took a step forward and into the
+cave.
+
+"Hands up!" she demanded, firmly.
+
+The thing was so unexpected in the security of their secret
+hiding-place protected by the rock alarm that, before they knew
+it, Elaine had them all lined up against the wall.
+
+Keeping them carefully covered, she moved over toward me. She
+picked up a knife that lay near-by and started to cut the ropes
+which held me.
+
+As she did so, one of the men, with an oath, leaped forward to
+rush her. But Elaine was not to be caught off her guard. Instantly
+she fired. The man staggered back, and fell.
+
+That cooled the ardor of the other three considerably, especially
+now as I was free, too. While she held them up still, with their
+hands in the air, I went through their pockets, taking out their
+weapons.
+
+Then, still keeping them covered, we backed out of the cave.
+Backward we made our way up the dangerous flight of steps again
+with guns levelled at the cave entrance, Elaine going up first.
+
+Once a head stuck itself out of the cave entrance. I fired
+instantly and it jerked itself back in again just in time. That
+was the only trouble we had, apparently.
+
+Cautiously and slowly we made our way toward the top of the cliff.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+One look backward from his motor-boat was enough for Del Mar. He
+must evade that inquisitive naturalist. He turned to his man.
+
+"Get out that apparatus," he ordered.
+
+The man opened a locker and brought out the curious submarine
+rescue helmet and suit. Del Mar took them up and began to put the
+suit on, stooping down in the shelter of the boat so that his
+actions could not be seen by the naturalist in the pursuing boat.
+
+The naturalist was all this time peering ahead keenly at Del Mar's
+boat, trying to make it out. He bent over and adjusted the engine
+to get up more speed and the boat shot ahead faster.
+
+By this time, Del Mar had put on the submarine apparatus, all
+except the helmet, and was crouching low in the boat. Hastily, he
+rolled a piece of canvas into the semblance of a body, put his
+coat and hat on it and set it on the seat which he had occupied
+before.
+
+Just then Del Mar's boat ran around the promontory where Wu Fang
+had met the submarine that had brought Del Mar into the country
+and landed him so strangely.
+
+The boat slowed down under shelter of the rocks and Del Mar added
+a pair of heavy lead-soled shoes to his outfit in order to weight
+himself down. Finally he put on the helmet, let himself over the
+side of the boat, and disappeared into the water.
+
+His aide started the motor and the boat shot ahead again, with the
+dummy still occupying Del Mar's seat. As the boat swung out and
+made a wide sweeping curve away from the point at which Del Mar
+had gone overboard, the naturalist in the Dodge boat came around
+the promontory and saw it, changing his course accordingly, and
+gaining somewhat.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar sank, upright and rapidly, down in the shallow water to
+the bottom. Once having his feet on something approaching firm
+ground, he gazed about through the window-like eye of the helmet
+until he got his bearings. Then he began to walk heavily along the
+bottom of the harbor, over sand and rocks.
+
+It was a strange walk that he took, half stumbling, slowly and
+cumbersomely groping his way like a queer under-water animal.
+
+If any one could have seen him, he would have noted that Del Mar
+was going toward the base of a huge Focky cliff that jutted far
+out into the harbor, where the water was deep, a dangerous point,
+avoided by craft of all kinds. Far over his head the waves beat on
+the rocks angrily. But down there, concealed beneath the surface
+of the harbor, was a sort of huge arch of stone, through which a
+comparatively rapid current ran as the tide ebbed and flowed.
+
+Del Mar let himself be carried along with the current which was
+now running in and thus with comparative ease made his way, still
+groping, through the arch. Once under it and a few feet beyond, he
+deliberately kicked off the leaden-soled shoes and, thus
+lightened, rose rapidly to the surface of the water.
+
+As he bobbed up, a strange sight met his eyes--not strange
+however, to Del Mar. Above, the rocks formed a huge dome over the
+water which the tides forced in and out through the secret
+entrance through which he came. No other entrance, apparently,
+except that from the waters of the harbor led to this peculiar
+den.
+
+Lying quietly moored to the rocky piers lay three submarine boats.
+Further back, on a ledge of rocks, blasted out, stood a little
+building, a sort of office or headquarters. Near-by was a shed
+where were kept gas and oil, supplies and ammunition, in fact
+everything that a submarine might need.
+
+This was the reason for Del Mar's presence in the neighborhood. It
+was the secret submarine harbor of the foreign agents who were
+operating in America!
+
+Already a sentry, pacing up and down, had seen the bubbles in the
+water that indicated that some one had come through the archway
+and was down "below," as Del Mar and his men called it.
+
+Gazing down the sentry saw the queer helmeted figure float up from
+the bottom of the pool. He reached out and helped the figure
+clamber up out of the water to the ledge on which he stood. Del
+Mar saluted, and the sentry returned the secret salute, helping
+him remove the dripping helmet and suit.
+
+A moment later, in the queer little submarine office, Del Mar had
+evidently planned to take up the nefarious secret work on which he
+was engaged. Several men of a naval and military bearing were
+seated about a table, already, studying maps and plans and
+documents of all descriptions. They did not seem to belong to any
+nation in particular. In fact their uniforms, if such they might
+be called, were of a character to disguise their nationality. But
+that they were hostile to the country under which they literally
+had their hidden retreat, of that there could be no doubt.
+
+How high Del Mar stood in their counsels could have been seen at a
+glance from the instant deference exhibited at the mere mention of
+his name by the sentry who entered with the submarine suit while
+Del Mar got himself together after his remarkable trip.
+
+The men at the council table rose and saluted as Del Mar himself
+entered. He returned the salute and quietly made his way to the
+head of the table where he took a seat, naturally.
+
+"This is the area in which we must work first of all," he began,
+drawing toward him a book and opening it. "And we must strike
+quickly, for if they heed the advice in this book, it may be too
+late for us to take advantage of their foolish unpreparedness."
+
+It was a book entitled "Defenseless America", written by a great
+American inventor, Hudson Maxim.
+
+Del Mar turned the pages until he came to and pointed out a map.
+The others gathered about him, leaning forward eagerly as he
+talked to them. There, on the map, with a radius of some one
+hundred and seventy miles, was drawn a big segment of a circle,
+with Peekskill, New York, as a centre.
+
+"That is the heart of America," said Del Mar, earnestly. "It
+embraces New York, Boston, Philadelphia. But that is not the
+point. Here are the great majority of the gun and armor factories,
+the powder and cartridge works, together with the principal coal
+fields of Pennsylvania."
+
+He brought his fist down decisively on the table. "If we hold this
+section," he declared, "we practically hold America!"
+
+Eagerly the other emissaries listened as Del Mar laid before them
+the detailed facts which he was collecting, the greater mission
+than the mere capture of Kennedy's wireless torpedo which had
+brought him into the country. Detail after detail of their plans
+they discussed as they worked out the gigantic scheme.
+
+It was a war council of a secret advance guard of the enemies of
+America!
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Meanwhile, Del Mar's man in his boat, cutting a wide circle and
+avoiding the Dodge boat carrying the naturalist, made his way
+across the harbor until he came to the shore.
+
+There he landed and proceeded up the beach to the foot of a rocky
+cliff, where he turned and followed a trail up it to the top. It
+was the same path already travelled by my captors with me and
+later followed by Elaine.
+
+As he came stealthily out from under cover, Del Mar's man gazed
+down the stairway. He drew back at what he saw. Slowly he pulled a
+gun from his pocket, watching down the steps with tense interest.
+There he could see Elaine and myself wearily climbing toward the
+top, our backs toward him, as we covered the men in the cave.
+
+So surprised was he at what he saw that he forgot that his boat
+below had been followed by the mysterious naturalist, who, the
+moment Del Mar's man had landed, put on the last burst of speed
+and ran the Dodge boat close to the spot where the aide had left
+Del Mar's.
+
+A glance into the boat sufficed to tell the naturalist that the
+figure in it was only a dummy. He did not pause, but followed the
+trail up the hill, until he was close after the emissary ahead,
+going more slowly.
+
+Only a few feet further along the cliff, the naturalist paused,
+too, keeping well under cover, for the man was now just ahead of
+him. He looked fixedly at him and saw him gaze down the cliff.
+Then he saw him slowly draw a gun.
+
+Who could be below? Quickly the naturalist's mind seemed to work.
+He crouched down, as if ready to spring.
+
+The emissary slowly raised his revolver and took careful aim at
+the backs of Elaine and myself, as we came up the steps.
+
+But before he could pull the trigger, the naturalist, more like
+one of the wild animals which he studied than like a human being,
+sprang from his concealment in the bushes and pounced on the man
+from behind, seizing him firmly.
+
+Over and over they rolled, struggling almost to the brink of the
+precipice.
+
+Elaine and I had got almost to the top of the flight of steps,
+when suddenly we heard a shout above us and sounds of a terrific
+struggle. We turned, to see two men, neither of whom we knew,
+fighting. One seemed to be a professor of natural history from his
+dress and general appearance. The other had a sinister nondescript
+look.
+
+Nearer and nearer the edge of the cliff they rolled. We crouched
+closer to the rocky wall, gazing up at the death grapple of the
+two. Who they were we did not know but that one was fighting for
+and the other against us we could readily see.
+
+The more vicious of the two seemed to be forcing the naturalist
+slowly back, when, with a superhuman effort, the naturalist braced
+himself. His foot was actually on a small ledge of rock directly
+at the edge of the cliff.
+
+He swung around quickly and struck the other man. The vicious
+looking man pitched headlong over the cliff.
+
+We shrank back closer to the rock as the man hurtled through the
+air only a few feet from us. Down below, we could hear him land
+with a sickening thud.
+
+Far over the edge Elaine leaned in a sort of fascination at the
+awful sight. For a moment, I thought the very imp of the perverse
+had got possession of her and that she herself would fall over.
+She brushed her hand unsteadily over her eyes and staggered. I
+caught her just in time.
+
+It was only an instant before the brave girl recovered control of
+herself. Then, together, we started again to climb up.
+
+As we did so the naturalist looked down and caught sight of us
+approaching. Hastily he hid in the bushes. We reached the top of
+the stairway and gazed about for the victor in the contest. To our
+surprise he was gone.
+
+"Come," I urged. "We had better get away, quickly."
+
+As Elaine and I disappeared, the naturalist slowly emerged again
+from the bushes and looked after us. Then he gave a hasty glance
+over the edge of the cliff at the man, twisted and motionless, far
+below.
+
+If we had looked back we might have seen the naturalist shake his
+head in a manner strangely reminiscent as he turned and gazed
+again after us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE CONSPIRATORS
+
+
+"You remember Lieutenant Woodward, the inventor of trodite?" I
+asked Elaine one day after I had been out for a ride through the
+country.
+
+"Very well indeed," she nodded with a look of wistfulness as the
+mention of his name recalled Kennedy. "Why?"
+
+"He's stationed at Fort Dale, not very far from here, at the
+entrance of the Sound," I answered.
+
+"Then let's have him over at my garden party to-night," she
+exclaimed, sitting down and writing.
+
+DEAR LIEUTENANT,
+
+I have just learned that you are stationed at Fort Dale and would
+like to have you meet some of my friends at a little garden party
+I am holding to-night.
+
+Sincerely, ELAINE DODGE.
+
+Thus it was that a few hours afterward, in the officers' quarters
+at the Fort, an orderly entered with the mail and handed a letter
+to Lieutenant Woodward. He opened it and read the invitation with
+pleasure. He had scarcely finished reading and was hastening to
+write a reply when the orderly entered again and saluted.
+
+"A Professor Arnold to see you, Lieutenant," he announced.
+
+"Professor Arnold?" repeated Woodward. "I don't know any Professor
+Arnold. Well, show him in, anyhow."
+
+The orderly ushered in a well-dressed man with a dark, heavy beard
+and large horn spectacles. Woodward eyed him curiously and a bit
+suspiciously, as the stranger seated himself and made a few
+remarks.
+
+The moment the orderly left the room, however, the professor
+lowered his voice to a whisper. Woodward listened in amazement,
+looked at him more closely, then laughed and shook hands
+cordially.
+
+The professor leaned over again. Whatever it was that he said, it
+made a great impression on the Lieutenant.
+
+"You know this fellow Del Mar?" asked Professor Arnold finally.
+
+"No," replied Woodward.
+
+"Well, he's hanging around Miss Dodge all the time," went on
+Arnold. "There's something queer about his presence here at this
+time."
+
+"I've an invitation to a garden party at her house to-night,"
+remarked Woodward.
+
+"Accept," urged the professor, "and tell her you are bringing a
+friend."
+
+Woodward resumed writing and when he had finished handed the note
+to the stranger, who read:
+
+DEAR MISS DODGE,
+
+I shall be charmed to be with you to-night and with your
+permission will bring my friend, Professor Arnold.
+
+Truly yours, EDWARD WOODWARD.
+
+"Good," nodded the professor, handing the note back.
+
+Woodward summoned an orderly. "See that that is delivered at Dodge
+Hall to Miss Dodge herself as soon as possible," he directed, as
+the orderly took the note and saluted.
+
+Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I were in the garden when Lieut.
+Woodward's orderly rode up and delivered the letter.
+
+Elaine opened it and read. "That's all right," she thanked the
+orderly. "Oh, Walter, he's coming to the garden party, and is
+going to bring a friend of his, a Professor Arnold."
+
+We chatted a few moments about the party.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed Elaine suddenly, "I have an idea."
+
+"What is it?" we asked, smiling at her enthusiasm.
+
+"We'll have a fortune teller," she cried. "Aunt Josephine, you
+shall play the part."
+
+"All right, if you really want me," consented Aunt Josephine
+smiling indulgently as we urged her.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Down in the submarine harbor that afternoon, Del Mar and his men
+were seated about the conference table.
+
+"I've traced out the course and the landing points of the great
+Atlantic cable," he said. "We must cut it."
+
+Del Mar turned to one of the men. "Take these plans to the captain
+of the steamer and tell him to get ready," he went on. "Find out
+and send me word when the cutting can be done best."
+
+The man saluted and went out.
+
+Leaving the submarine harbor in the usual manner, he made his way
+to a dock on the shore around the promontory and near the village.
+Tied to it was a small tramp steamer. The man walked down the dock
+and climbed aboard the boat. There several rough looking sailors
+were lolling and standing about. The emissary selected the
+captain, a more than ordinarily tough looking individual.
+
+"Mr. Del Mar sends you the location of the Atlantic cable and the
+place where he thinks it best to pick it up and cut it," he said.
+
+The captain nodded. "I understand," he replied. "I'll send him
+word later when it can be done best."
+
+A few minutes after dispatching his messenger, Del Mar left the
+submarine harbor himself and entered his bungalow by way of the
+secret entrance. There he went immediately to his desk and picked
+up the mail that had accumulated in his absence. One letter he
+read:
+
+DEAR MR. DEL MAR,
+
+We shall be pleased to see you at a little garden party we are
+holding to-night.
+
+Sincerely,
+
+ELAINE DODGE.
+
+As he finished reading, he pushed the letter carelessly aside as
+though he had no time for such frivolity. Then an idea seemed to
+occur to him. He picked it up again and read it over.
+
+"I'll go," he said to himself, simply.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+That night Dodge Hall was a blaze of lights and life, overflowing
+to the wide verandas and the garden. Guests in evening clothes
+were arriving from all parts of the summer colony and were being
+received by Elaine. Already some of them were dancing on the
+veranda.
+
+Among the late arrivals were Woodward and his friend, Professor
+Arnold.
+
+"I'm so glad to know that you are stationed at Fort Dale," greeted
+Elaine. "I hope it will be for all summer."
+
+"I can't say how long it will be, but I shall make every effort to
+make it all summer," he replied gallantly. "Let me present my
+friend, Professor Arnold."
+
+The professor bowed low and unprofessionally over Elaine's hand
+and a moment later followed Woodward out into the next room as the
+other guests arrived to be greeted by Elaine. For a moment,
+however, she looked after him curiously. Once she started to
+follow as though to speak to him. Just then, however, Del Mar
+entered.
+
+"Good evening," he interrupted, suavely.
+
+He stood for a moment with Elaine and talked.
+
+One doorway in the house was draped and a tent had been erected in
+the room. Over the door was a sign which read: "The past and the
+future are an open book to Ancient Anna." There Aunt Josephine
+held forth in a most effective disguise as a fortune teller.
+
+Aunt Josephine had always had a curious desire to play the old hag
+in amateur dramatics and now she had gratified her desire to the
+utmost. Probably none of the guests knew that Ancient Anna was in
+reality Elaine's guardian.
+
+Elaine being otherwise occupied, I had selected one of the
+prettiest of the girls and we were strolling through the house,
+seeking a quiet spot for a chat.
+
+"Why don't you have your fortune told by Ancient Anna?" laughed my
+companion as we approached the tent.
+
+"Do you tell a good fortune reasonably?" I joked, entering.
+
+"Only the true fortunes, young man," returned Ancient Anna
+severely, starting in to read my palm. "You are very much in
+love," she went on, "but the lady is not in this tent."
+
+Very much embarrassed, I pulled my hand away.
+
+"How shocking!" mocked my companion, making believe to be very
+much annoyed. "I don't think I'll have my fortune told," she
+decided as we left the room.
+
+We sauntered along to the veranda where another friend claimed my
+companion for a dance which she had promised. As I strolled on
+alone, Del Mar and Elaine were already finishing a dance. He left
+her a moment later and I hurried over, glad of the opportunity to
+see her at last.
+
+Del Mar made his way alone among the guests and passed Aunt
+Josephine disguised as the old hag seated before her tent. Just
+then a waiter came through with a tray of ices. As he passed, Del
+Mar stopped him, reached out and took an ice.
+
+Under the ice, as he had known, was a note. He took the note
+surreptitiously, turned and presented the ice to Ancient Anna with
+a bow.
+
+"Thank you, kind sir," she curtsied, taking it.
+
+Del Mar stepped aside and glanced at the little slip of paper.
+Then he crumpled it up and threw it aside, walking away.
+
+No sooner had he gone than Aunt Josephine reached out and picked
+up the paper. She straightened it and looked at it. There was
+nothing on the paper but a crude drawing of a sunrise on the
+ocean.
+
+"What's that?" asked Aunt Josephine, in surprise.
+
+Just then Elaine and Lieutenant Woodward came in and stopped
+before the tent. Aunt Josephine motioned to Elaine to come in and
+Elaine followed. Lieutenant Woodward started after her.
+
+"No, no, young man," laughed Ancient Anna, shaking her forefinger
+at him, "I don't want you. It's the pretty young lady I want."
+
+Woodward stood outside, though he did not know quite what it was
+all about. While he was standing there, Professor Arnold came up.
+He had not exactly made a hit with the guests. At least, he seemed
+to make little effort to do so. He and Woodward walked away,
+talking earnestly.
+
+In the tent Aunt Josephine handed Elaine the piece of paper she
+had picked up.
+
+"What does it mean?" asked Elaine, studying the curious drawing in
+surprise.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know," confessed Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Nor I."
+
+Meanwhile Lieutenant Woodward and his friend had moved to a corner
+of the veranda and stood looking intently into the moonlight.
+There was Del Mar deep in conversation with a man who had slipped
+out, at a quiet signal, from his hiding-place in the shrubbery.
+
+"That fellow is up to something, mark my words," muttered Arnold
+under his breath. "I'd like to make an arrest, but I've got to
+have some proof."
+
+They continued watching Del Mar but, so far at least, he did
+nothing that would have furnished them any evidence of anything.
+
+So the party went on, most merrily until, long after the guests
+had left, Elaine sat in her dressing-gown up in her room, about to
+retire.
+
+Her maid had left her and she picked up the slip of paper from her
+dresser, looking at it thoughtfully.
+
+"What can a crude drawing of a sunrise on the sea mean?" she asked
+herself.
+
+For a long time she studied the paper, thinking it over. At last
+an idea came to her.
+
+"I'll bet I have it," she exclaimed to herself. "Something is
+going to happen on the water at sunrise."
+
+She took a pretty little alarm clock from the table, set it, and
+placed it near her bed.
+
+Returning from the party to his library, Del Mar entered. Except
+for the moonlight streaming in through the windows the room was
+dark. He turned on the lights and crossed to the panel in the
+wall. As he touched a button the panel opened. Del Mar switched
+off the lights and went through the panel, closing it.
+
+Outside, at the other end of the passageway, was one of his men,
+waiting in the shadows as Del Mar came up. For a moment they
+talked. "I'll be there, at sunrise," agreed Del Mar, as the man
+left and he reentered the secret passage.
+
+While he was conferring, at the library window appeared a face. It
+was Professor Arnold's. Cautiously he opened the window and
+listened. Then he entered.
+
+First he went over to the door and set a chair under the knob.
+Next he drew an electric pocket bull's-eye and flashed it about
+the room. He glanced about and finally went over to Del Mar's desk
+where he examined a batch of letters, his back to the secret
+panel.
+
+Arnold was running rapidly through the papers on the desk, as he
+flashed his electric bull's-eye on them, when the panel in the
+wall opened slowly and Del Mar stepped into the room noiselessly.
+To his surprise he saw a round spot of light from an electric
+flashlight focussed on his desk. Some one was there! He drew a
+gun.
+
+Arnold started suddenly. He heard the cocking of a revolver. But
+he did not look around. He merely thought an instant, quicker than
+lightning, then pulled out a spool of black thread with one hand,
+while with the other he switched off the light, and dived down on
+his stomach on the floor in the shadow.
+
+"Who's that?" demanded Del Mar. "Confound it! I should have fired
+at sight."
+
+The room was so dark now that it was impossible to see Arnold. Del
+Mar gazed intently. Suddenly Arnold's electric torch glowed forth
+in a spot across the room.
+
+Del Mar blazed at it, firing every chamber of his revolver, then
+switched on the lights.
+
+No one was in the room. But the door was open. Del Mar gazed
+about, vexed, then ran to the open door.
+
+For a second or two he peered out in rage, finally turning back
+into the empty room. On the mantlepiece lay the torch of the
+intruder. It was one in which the connection is made by a ring
+falling on a piece of metal. The ring had been left up by Arnold.
+Connection had been made as he was leaving the room by pulling the
+thread which he had fastened to the ring. Del Mar followed the
+thread as it led around the room to the doorway.
+
+"Curse him!" swore Del Mar, smashing down the innocent torch on
+the floor in fury, as he rushed to the desk and saw his papers all
+disturbed.
+
+Outside, Arnold had made good his escape. He paused in the
+moonlight and listened. No one was pursuing. He drew out two or
+three of the letters which he had taken from Del Mar's desk, and
+hastily ran through them.
+
+"Not a thing in them," he exclaimed, tearing them up in disgust
+and hurrying away.
+
+At the first break of dawn the little alarm dock awakened Elaine.
+She started up and rubbed her eyes at the suddenness of the
+awakening, then quickly reached out and stopped the bell so that
+it would not disturb others in the house. She jumped out of bed
+hurriedly and dressed.
+
+Armed with a spy glass, Elaine let herself out of the house
+quietly. Directly to the shore she went, walking along the beach.
+Suddenly she paused. There were three men. Before she could level
+her glass at them, however, they disappeared.
+
+"That's strange," she said to herself, looking through the glass.
+"There's a steamer at the dock that seems to be getting ready for
+something. I wonder what it can be doing so early."
+
+She moved along in the direction of the dock. At the dock the
+disreputable steamer to which Del Mar had dispatched his emissary
+was still tied, the sailors now working under the gruff orders of
+the rough captain. About a capstan were wound the turns of a long
+wire rope at the end of which was a three-pronged drag-hook.
+
+"You see," the captain was explaining, "we'll lower this hook and
+drag it along the bottom. When it catches anything we'll just pull
+it up. I have the location of the cable. It ought to be easy to
+grapple."
+
+Already, on the shore, at an old deserted shack of a fisherman,
+two of Del Mar's men had been waiting since before sun-up, having
+come in a dirty, dingy fishing smack anchored offshore.
+
+"Is everything ready?" asked Del Mar, coming up.
+
+"Everything, sir," returned the two, following him along the
+shore.
+
+"Who's that?" cautioned one of the men, looking ahead.
+
+They hid hastily, for there was Elaine. She had seen the three and
+was about to level her glass in their direction as they hid.
+Finally she turned and discovered the steamer. As she moved toward
+it, Del Mar and the others came out from behind a rock and stole
+after her.
+
+Elaine wandered on until she came to the dock. No one paid any
+attention to her, apparently, and she made her way along the dock
+and even aboard the boat without being observed.
+
+No sooner had she got on the boat, however, than Del Mar and his
+men appeared on the dock and also boarded the steamer.
+
+The captain was still explaining to the men just how the drag-hook
+worked when Elaine came up quietly on the deck. She stood
+spellbound as she heard him outline the details of the plot.
+Scarcely knowing what she did, she crouched back of a deckhouse
+and listened.
+
+Behind her, Del Mar and his men came along, cat-like. A glance was
+sufficient to tell them that she had overheard what the captain
+was saying.
+
+"Confound that girl!" ground out Del Mar. "Will she always cross
+my path? We'll get her this time!"
+
+The men scattered as he directed them. Sneaking up quietly, they
+made a sudden rush and seized her. As she struggled and screamed,
+they dragged her off. thrusting her into the captain's cabin and
+locking the door.
+
+"Cast off!" ordered Del Mar.
+
+A few moments later, out in the harbor, Del Mar was busy directing
+the dragging for the Atlantic cable at a spot where it was known
+to run. They let the drag-hook down over the side and pulled it
+along slowly on the bottom.
+
+In the cabin, Elaine beat on the door and shouted in vain for
+help.
+
+I had decided to do some early morning fishing the day after the
+party, and knowing that Elaine and the others were usually late
+risers, I said nothing about it, determined to try my luck alone.
+
+So it happened that only a few minutes after Elaine let herself
+out quietly, I did the same, carrying my fishing-tackle. I made my
+way toward the shore, undecided whether to fish from a dock or
+boat. Finally I determined to do some casting from the shore.
+
+I had cast once or twice before I was aware that I was not alone
+in the immediate neighborhood. Some distance away I saw a little
+steamer at a wharf. A couple of men ran along the deck, apparently
+cautioning the captain against something.
+
+Then I saw them run to one side and drag out a girl, screaming and
+struggling as they hurried her below. I could scarcely believe my
+eyes. It was Elaine!
+
+Only a second I looked. They were certainly too many for me. I
+dropped my rod and line and ran toward the dock, however. As I
+came down it, I saw that I was too late. The little steamer had
+cast off and was now some distance from the dock. I looked about
+for a motor-boat in desperation--anything to follow them in. But
+there was nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a rowboat.
+
+I ran back along the dock as I had come and struck out down the
+shore.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Out at the parade grounds at Fort Dale, in spite of the early
+hour, there was some activity, for the army is composed of early
+risers.
+
+Lieutenant Woodward and Professor Arnold left the house in which
+the Lieutenant was quartered, where he had invited Arnold to spend
+the night. Already an orderly had brought around two horses. They
+mounted for an early morning ride through the country.
+
+Off they clattered, naturally bending their course toward the
+shore. They came soon to a point in the road where it emerged from
+the hills and gave them a panoramic view of the harbor and sound.
+
+"Wait a minute," called the professor.
+
+Woodward reined up and they gazed off over the water.
+
+"What's that--an oyster boat?" asked Woodward, looking in the
+direction Arnold indicated.
+
+"I don't think so, so early," replied Arnold, pulling out his
+pocket glass and looking carefully.
+
+Through it he could see that something like a hook was being cast
+over the steamer's side and drawn back again.
+
+"They're dragging for something," he remarked as they brought up
+an object dark and covered with seagrowth, then threw it overboard
+as though it was not what they wanted. "By George--the Atlantic
+cable lands here--they're going to cut it!"
+
+Woodward took the glasses himself and looked in in surprise.
+"That's right," he cried, his surprise changed to alarm in an
+instant. "Here, take the glass again and watch. I must get back to
+the Fort."
+
+He swung his horse about and galloped off, leaving Arnold sitting
+in the saddle gazing at the strange boat through his glass.
+
+By the time Woodward reached the parade ground again, a field-gun
+and its company were at drill. He dashed furiously across the
+field.
+
+"What's the trouble?" demanded the officer in charge of the gun.
+
+Woodward blurted out what he had just seen. "We must stop it--at
+any cost," he added, breathlessly.
+
+The officer turned to the company. A moment later the order to
+follow Woodward rang out, the horses were wheeled about, and off
+the party galloped. On they went, along the road which Woodward
+and Arnold had already traversed.
+
+Arnold was still gazing, impatiently now, through the glass. He
+could see the fore-deck of the ship where Del Mar, muffled up, and
+his men had succeeded in dragging the cable to the proper position
+on the deck. They laid it down and Del Mar was directing the
+preparations for cutting it. Arnold lowered his glass and looked
+about helplessly.
+
+Just then Lieutenant Woodward dashed up with the officer and
+company and the field-gun. They wheeled it about and began
+pointing it and finding the range.
+
+Would they never get it? Arnold was almost beside himself. One of
+Del Mar's men seized an axe and was about to deliver the fatal
+blow. He swung it and for a moment held it poised over his head.
+
+Suddenly a low, deep rumble of a reverberation echoed and reechoed
+from the hills over the water. The field-gun had bellowed
+defiance.
+
+A solid shot crashed through the cabin, smashing the door.
+Astounded, the men jumped back. As they did so, in their fear, the
+cable, released, slipped back over the rail in a great splash of
+safety into the water and sank.
+
+"The deuce take you--you fools," swore Del Mar, springing forward
+in rage, and looking furiously toward the shore.
+
+Two of the men had been hit by splinters. It was impossible to
+drag again. Besides, again the gun crew loaded and fired.
+
+The first shot had dismantled the doorway of the cabin. Elaine
+crouched fearfully in the furthest corner, not knowing what to
+expect next. Suddenly another shot tore through just beside the
+door, smashing the woodwork terrifically. She shrank back further,
+in fright.
+
+Anything was better than this hidden terror. Nerved up, she ran
+through the broken door.
+
+Arnold was gazing through his glass at the effect of the shots. He
+could now see Del Mar and the others leaping into a swift little
+motor-boat alongside the steamer which they had been using to help
+them in dragging for the cable.
+
+Just then he saw Elaine run, screaming, out from the cabin and
+leap overboard.
+
+"Stop!" shouted Arnold in a fever of excitement, lowering his
+glass. "There's a girl--by Jove--it's Miss Dodge!"
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Woodward.
+
+"I tell you, it is," reiterated Arnold, thrusting the glass into
+the Lieutenant's hand.
+
+The motor-boat had started when Del Mar saw Elaine in the water.
+"Look," he growled, pointing, "There's the Dodge girl."
+
+Elaine was swimming frantically away from the boat. "Get her," he
+ordered, shielding his face so that she could not see it.
+
+They turned the boat and headed toward her. She struck out harder
+than ever for the shore. On came the motor-boat.
+
+Arnold and Woodward looked at each other in despair. What could
+they do?
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Somehow, by a sort of instinct, I suppose, I made my way as
+quickly as I could along the shore toward Fort Dale, thinking
+perhaps of Lieutenant Woodward.
+
+As I came upon the part of the grounds of the Fort that sloped
+down to the beach, I saw a group of young officers standing about
+a peculiar affair on the shore in the shallow water--half bird,
+half boat.
+
+As I came closer, I recognized it as a Thomas hydroaeroplane.
+
+It suggested an idea and I hurried, shouting.
+
+One of the men, seated in it, was evidently explaining its working
+to the others.
+
+"Wait," he said, as he saw me running down the shore, waving and
+shouting at them. "Let's see what this fellow wants."
+
+It was, as I soon learned, the famous Captain Burnside, of the
+United States Aerial Corps. Breathless, I told him what I had seen
+and that we were all friends of Woodward's.
+
+Burnside thought a moment, and quickly made up his mind.
+
+"Come--quick--jump up here with me," he called. Then to the other
+men, "I'll be back soon. Wait here. Let her go!"
+
+I had jumped up and they spun the propeller. The hydroaeroplane
+feathered along the water, throwing a cloud of white spray, then
+slowly rose in the air.
+
+The sensation of flying was delightful, as the fresh morning wind
+cut our faces. We seemed to be hardly moving. It was the earth or
+rather the water that rushed past under us. But I forgot all about
+my sensations in my anxiety for Elaine.
+
+As we rose we could see over the curve in the shore.
+
+"Look!" I exclaimed, straining my eyes. "She's overboard. There's
+a motor-boat after her. Faster--over that way!"
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted Burnside above the roar of the engine which
+almost made conversation impossible.
+
+He shifted the planes a bit and crowded on more speed.
+
+The men in the boat saw us. One figure, tall, muffled, had a
+familiar look, but I could not place it and in the excitement of
+the chase had no chance to try. But I could see that he saw us and
+was angry. Apparently the man gave orders to turn, for the boat
+swung around just as we swooped down and ran along the water.
+
+Elaine was exhausted. Would we be in time?
+
+We planed along the water, while the motor-boat sped off with its
+baffled passengers. Finally we stopped, in a cloud of spray.
+
+Together, Burnside and I reached down and caught Elaine, not a
+moment too soon, dragging her into the boat of the hydroaeroplane.
+
+If we had not had all we could do, we might have heard a shout of
+encouragement and relief from the hill where Woodward and Arnold
+and the rest were watching anxiously.
+
+I threw my coat about her, as the brave girl heroically clung to
+us, half conscious.
+
+"Oh--Walter," she murmured, "you were just in time."
+
+"I wish I could have been sooner," I apologized.
+
+"They--they didn't cut the cable--did they?" she asked, as we rose
+from the water again, bearing her now to safety. "I did my best."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE WIRELESS DETECTIVE
+
+
+Del Mar made his way cautiously along the bank of a little river
+at the mouth of which he left the boat after escaping from the
+little steamer.
+
+Quite evidently he was worried by the failure to cut the great
+Atlantic cable and he was eager to see whether any leak had
+occurred in the organization which, as secret foreign agent, he
+had so carefully built up in America.
+
+As he skirted the shore of the river, he came to a falls. Here he
+moved even more cautiously than before, looking about to make
+certain that no one had followed him.
+
+It was a beautiful sheet of water that tumbled with a roar over
+the ledge of rock, then raced away swiftly to the sea in a cloud
+of spray.
+
+Assured that he was alone, he approached a crevice in the rocks,
+near the falls. With another hasty look about, he reached in and
+pulled a lever.
+
+Instantly a most marvellous change took place, incredible almost
+beyond belief. The volume of water that came over the falls
+actually and rapidly decreased until it almost stopped, dripping
+slowly in a thin veil. There was the entrance of a cave--literally
+hidden behind the falls!
+
+Del Mar walked in. Inside was the entrance to another, inner cave,
+higher up in the sheer stone of the wall that the waters had
+eroded. From the floor to this entrance led a ladder. Del Mar
+climbed it, then stopped just inside the entrance to the inner
+cave. For a moment he paused. Then he pressed another lever.
+Almost immediately the thin trickle of water grew until at last
+the roaring falls completely covered the cave entrance. It was a
+clever concealment, contrived by damming the river above and
+arranging a new outlet controlled by flood-gates.
+
+There Del Mar stood, in the inner cave. A man sat at a table, a
+curious gear fastened over his head and covering his ears. Before
+him was a huge apparatus from which flared a big bluish-green
+spark, snapping and crackling above the thunder of the waves. From
+the apparatus ran wires apparently up through cables that
+penetrated the rocky roof of the cavern and the river above.
+
+It was Del Mar's secret wireless station, close to the hidden
+submarine harbor which had been established beneath the innocent
+rocks of the promontory up the coast. Far overhead, on the cliff
+over the falls, were the antennae of the wireless.
+
+"How is she working?" asked Del Mar.
+
+"Pretty well," answered the man.
+
+"No interference?" queried Del Mar, adjusting the apparatus.
+
+The man shook his head in the negative.
+
+"We must get a quenched spark apparatus," went on Del Mar, pleased
+that nothing was wrong here. "This rotary gap affair is out of
+date. By the way, I want you to be ready to send a message, to be
+relayed across to our people. I've got to consult the board below
+in the harbor, first, however. I'll send a messenger to you."
+
+"Very well, sir," returned the man, saluting as Del Mar went out.
+
+Out at Fort Dale, Lieutenant Woodward was still entertaining his
+new friend, Professor Arnold, and had introduced him to Colonel
+Swift, the commanding officer at the Fort.
+
+They were discussing the strange events of the early morning, when
+an orderly entered, saluted Colonel Swift and handed him a
+telegram. The Colonel tore it open and read it, his face growing
+grave. Then he handed it to Woodward, who read:
+
+WASHINGTON, D. C.
+
+Radio station using illegal wave length in your vicinity.
+Investigate and report.
+
+BRANDON,
+
+Radio Bureau.
+
+Professor Arnold shook his head slowly, as he handed the telegram
+back. "There's a wireless apparatus of my own on my yacht," he
+remarked slowly. "I have an instrument there which I think can
+help you greatly. Let's see what we can do."
+
+"All right," nodded Colonel Swift to Woodward. "Try."
+
+The two went out and a few minutes later, on the shore, jumped
+into Arnold's fast little motor-boat and sped out across the water
+until they swung around alongside the trim yacht which Arnold was
+using.
+
+It was a compact and comfortable little craft with lines that
+indicated both gracefulness and speed. On one of the masts, as
+they approached, Woodward noticed the wireless aerial. They
+climbed up the ladder over the side and made their way directly to
+the wireless room, where Arnold sat down and at once began to
+adjust the apparatus.
+
+Woodward seemed keenly interested in inspecting the plant which
+was of a curious type and not exactly like any that he had seen
+before.
+
+"Wireless apparatus," explained Arnold, still at work, "as you
+know, is divided into three parts, the source of power, 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. This is a very compact system with
+facilities for a quick change from one wave length to another. It
+has a spark gap, quenched type, break system relay--operator can
+hear any interference while transmitting--transformation by a
+single throw of a six-point switch which tunes the oscillating and
+open circuits to resonance."
+
+Woodward watched him keenly, following his explanation carefully,
+as Arnold concluded.
+
+"You might call it a radio detective," he added.
+
+Even the startling experience of the morning when she was carried
+off and finally jumped from the little tramp steamer that had
+attempted to cut the cable did not dampen Elaine's ardor. She
+missed the guiding hand of Kennedy, yet felt impelled to follow up
+and investigate the strange things that had been happening in the
+neighborhood of her summer home since his disappearance.
+
+I succeeded in getting her safely home after Burnside and I
+rescued her in the hydroaeroplane, but no sooner had she changed
+her clothes for dry ones than she disappeared herself. At least I
+could not find her, though, later, I found that she had stolen
+away to town and there had purchased a complete outfit of men's
+clothes from a second hand dealer.
+
+Cautiously, with the large bundle under her arm, she returned to
+Dodge Hall and almost sneaked into her own home and up-stairs to
+her room. She locked the door and hastily unwrapped the bundle
+taking out a tattered suit and the other things, holding them up
+and laughing gleefully as she took off her own pretty clothes and
+donned these hideous garments.
+
+Quickly she completed her change of costume and outward character.
+As she surveyed herself in the dainty mirror of her dressing-table
+she laughed again at the incongruity of her pretty boudoir and the
+rough men's clothes she was wearing. Deftly she arranged her hair
+so that her hat would cover it. She picked a black mustache from
+the table and stuck it on her soft upper lip. It tickled and she
+made a wry face over it. Then she hunted up a cigarette from the
+bundle which she had brought in, lighted it and stuck it in the
+corner of her mouth, letting it droop jauntily. It made her cough
+tremendously and she threw it away.
+
+Finally she went to the door and down-stairs. No one was about.
+She opened the door and gazed around. All was quiet. It was a new
+role for her, but, with a bold front, she went out and passed down
+to the gate of the grounds, pulling her hat down over her eyes and
+assuming a tough swagger.
+
+Only a few minutes before, down in the submarine harbor, the
+officers of the board of foreign agents had been grouped about Del
+Mar, who had entered and taken his place at their head, very angry
+over the failure to cut the cable. As they concluded their hasty
+conference, he wrote a message on a slip of paper.
+
+"Take this to our wireless station," he ordered, handing it to one
+of the men.
+
+The man took it, rose, and went to a wardrobe from which he
+extracted one of the submarine suits. With the message in his
+hand, he went out of the room, buckling on the suit.
+
+A few minutes later the messenger in the submarine suit bobbed up
+out of the water, near the promontory, and climbed slowly over the
+rocks toward a crevice, where he began to take off the diving
+outfit.
+
+Having finished, he hid the suit among the rocks and then went
+along to the little river, carefully skirting its banks into the
+ravine in which were the falls and the wireless cave.
+
+In her disguise, Elaine had made her way by a sort of instinct
+along the shore to the rocky promontory where we had discovered
+the message in the tin tube in the water.
+
+Something, she knew not what, was going on about there, and she
+reasoned that it was not all over yet. She was right. As she
+looked about keenly she did see something, and she hid among the
+rocks. It was a man, all dripping, in an outlandish helmet and
+suit.
+
+She saw him slink into a crevice and take off the suit, then, as
+he moved toward the river ravine, she stole up after him.
+
+Suddenly she stopped stark still, surprised, and stared.
+
+The man had actually gone up to the very waterfall. He had pressed
+what looked like a lever and the water over the falls seemed to
+stop. Then he walked directly through into a cave.
+
+In the greatest wonder, Elaine crept along toward the falls.
+Inside the cave Del Mar's emissary started to climb a ladder to an
+inner cave. As he reached the top, he glanced out and saw Elaine
+by the entrance. With an oath he jumped into the inner entrance.
+His hand reached eagerly for a lever in the rocks and as he found
+and held it, he peered out carefully.
+
+Elaine cautiously came from behind a rock where she had hidden
+herself and seeing no one apparently watching, now, advanced until
+she stood directly under the trickle of water which had once been
+the falls. She gazed into the cave, curiously uncertain whether
+she dared to go in alone or not.
+
+The emissary jerked fiercely at the lever as he saw Elaine.
+
+Above the falls a dam had been built and by a system of levers the
+gates could be operated so that the water could be thrown over the
+falls or diverted away, at will. As the man pressed the lever, the
+flood gates worked quickly.
+
+Elaine stood gazing eagerly into the blackness of the cave. Just
+then a great volume of water from above crashed down on her, with
+almost crushing weight.
+
+How she lived through it she never knew. But, fortunately, she had
+not gone quite far enough to get the full force of the water.
+Still, the terrific flood easily overcame her.
+
+She was swept, screaming, down the stream.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Rather alarmed at the strange disappearance of Elaine after I
+brought her home, I had started out along the road to the shore to
+look for her, thinking that she might perhaps have returned there.
+
+As I walked along a young tough--at least at the time I thought it
+was a young tough, so good was the disguise she had assumed and so
+well did she carry it off--slouched past me.
+
+What such a character could be doing in the neighborhood I could
+not see. But he was so noticeably tough that I turned and looked.
+He kept his eyes averted as if afraid of being recognized.
+
+"Great Caesar," I muttered to myself, "that's a roughneck. This
+place is sure getting to be a hang-out for gunmen."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders and continued my walk. It was no business
+of mine. Finding no trace of Elaine, I returned to the house. Aunt
+Josephine was in the library, alone.
+
+"Where's Elaine?" I asked anxiously.
+
+"I don't know," she replied. "I don't think she's at home." "Well,
+I can't find her anywhere," I frowned wandering out at a loss what
+to do, and thrusting my hands deep in my pockets as an aid to
+thought.
+
+Somehow, I felt, I didn't seem to get on well as a detective
+without Kennedy. Yet, so far, a kind providence seemed to have
+watched over us. Was it because we were children--or--I rejected
+that alternative.
+
+Walking along leisurely I made my way down to the shore. At a
+bridge that crossed a rather turbulent stream as it tumbled its
+way toward the sea, I paused and looked at the water reflectively.
+
+Suddenly my vagrant interest was aroused. Up the stream I saw some
+one struggling in the water and shouting for help as the current
+carried her along, screaming.
+
+It was Elaine. The hat and mustache of her disguise were gone and
+her beautiful Titian hair was spread out on the water as it
+carried her now this way, now that, while she struck out with all
+her strength to keep afloat. I did not stop to think how or why
+she was there. I swung over the bridge rail, stripping off my
+coat, ready to dive. On she came with the swift current to the
+bridge. As she approached I dived. It was not a minute too soon.
+In her struggles she had become thoroughly exhausted. She was a
+good swimmer but the fight with nature was unequal.
+
+I reached her in a second or so and took her hand. Half pulling,
+half shoving her, I struck out for the shore. We managed to make
+it together where the current was not quite so strong and climbed
+safely up a rock.
+
+Elaine sank down, choking and gasping, not unconscious but pretty
+much all in and exhausted. I looked at her in amazement. She was
+the tough character I had just seen.
+
+"Why, where in the world did you get those togs?" I queried.
+
+"Never mind my clothes, Walter," she gasped. "Take me home for
+some dry ones. I have a clue."
+
+She rose, determined to shake off the effects of her recent plunge
+and went toward the house. As I helped her she related
+breathlessly what she has just seen.
+
+Meanwhile, back of that wall of water, the wireless operator in
+the cave was sending the messages which Del Mar's emissary
+dictated to him, one after another.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+With the high resistance receiving apparatus over his head, Arnold
+was listening to the wireless signals that came over his "radio
+detective" on the yacht, moving the slider back and forth on a
+sort of tuning coil, as he listened. Woodward stood close beside
+him.
+
+"As you know," Arnold remarked, "by the use of an aerial, messages
+may be easily received from any number of stations. Laws, rules,
+and regulations may be adopted by the government to shut out
+interlopers and to plug busybody ears, but the greater part of
+whatever is transmitted by the Hertzian waves can be snatched down
+by this wireless detective of mine. Here I can sit in my wireless
+room with this ear-phone clamped over my head drinking in news,
+plucking the secrets of others from the sky--in other words, this
+is eavesdropping by a wireless wire-tapper."
+
+"Are you getting anything now?" asked Woodward.
+
+Arnold nodded, as he seized a pencil and started to write. The
+lieutenant bent forward in tense interest. Finally Arnold read
+what he had written and with a peculiar, quiet smile handed it
+over. Woodward read. It was a senseless jumble of dots and dashes
+of the Morse code but, although he was familiar with the code, he
+could make nothing out of it.
+
+"It's the Morse code all right," he said, handing it back with a
+puzzled look, "but it doesn't make any sense."
+
+Arnold smiled again, took the paper, and without a word wrote on
+it some more. Then he handed it back to Woodward. "An old trick,"
+he said. "Reverse the dots and dashes and see what you get."
+
+Woodward looked at it, as Arnold had reversed it and his face
+lighted up.
+
+"Harbor successfully mined," he quoted in surprise.
+
+"I'll show you another thing about this radio detective of mine,"
+went on Arnold energetically. "It's not only a wave length
+measurer, but by a process of my own I can determine approximately
+the distance between the sending and the receiving points of a
+message."
+
+He attached another, smaller machine to the wireless detector. In
+the face was a moving finger which swung over a dial marked off in
+miles from one upward. As Arnold adjusted the new detector, the
+hand began to move slowly. Woodward looked eagerly. It did not
+move far, but came to rest above the figure "2."
+
+"Not so very far away, you see, Lieutenant," remarked Arnold,
+pointing at the dial face.
+
+He seized his glass and hurried to the deck, levelling it at the
+shore, leaning far over the rail in his eagerness. As he swept the
+shore, he stopped suddenly. There was a house-roof among the trees
+with a wireless aerial fastened to the chimney, but not quite
+concealed by the dense foliage.
+
+"Look," he cried to Woodward, with an exclamation of satisfaction,
+handing over the glass.
+
+Woodward looked. "A secret wireless station, all right," he
+agreed, lowering the glass after a long look.
+
+"We'd better get over there right away," planned Arnold, leading
+the way to the ladder over the side of the yacht and calling to
+the sailor who had managed the little motor-boat to follow him.
+
+Quickly they skimmed across to the shore. "I think we'd better
+send to the Fort for some men," considered Arnold as they landed.
+"We may need reinforcements before we get through."
+
+Woodward nodded and Arnold hastily wrote a note on a rather large
+scrap of paper which he happened to have in his pocket.
+
+"Take this to Colonel Swift at Fort Dale," he directed the sailor.
+"And hurry!"
+
+The sailor loped off, half on a run, as Arnold and Woodward left
+down the shore, proceeding carefully.
+
+At top speed, Arnold's sailor made his way to Fort Dale and was
+directed by the sentry to Colonel Swift who was standing before
+the headquarters with several officers.
+
+"A message from Lieutenant Woodward and Professor Arnold," he
+announced, approaching the commanding officer and handing him the
+note. Colonel Swift tore it open and read:
+
+Have located radio aerial in the woods along shore. Please send
+squad of men with bearer.--ARNOLD.
+
+"You just left them?" queried the Colonel.
+
+"Yes sir," replied the sailor. "We came ashore in his boat. I
+don't know exactly where they went but I know the direction and we
+can catch up with them easily if we hurry, sir."
+
+The colonel handed the note quickly to a cavalry officer beside
+him who read it, saluted at the orders that followed, turned and
+strode off, hastily stuffing the paper in his belt, as the sailor
+went, too.
+
+Meanwhile, Del Mar's valet was leaving the bungalow and walking
+down the road on an errand for his master. Up the road he heard
+the clatter of hoofs. He stepped back off the road and from his
+covert he could see a squad of cavalry headed by the captain and a
+sailor cantering past.
+
+The captain turned in the saddle to speak to the sailor, who rode
+like a horse marine, and as he did so, the turning of his body
+loosened a paper which he had stuffed quickly into his belt. It
+fell to the ground. In their hurry the troop, close behind, rode
+over it. But it did not escape the quick eye of Del Mar's valet.
+
+They had scarcely disappeared around a bend in the road when he
+stepped out and pounced on the paper, reading it eagerly. Every
+line of his face showed fear as he turned and ran back to the
+bungalow.
+
+"See what I found," he cried breathlessly bursting in on Del Mar
+who was seated at his desk, having returned from the harbor.
+
+Del Mar read it with a scowl of fury. Then he seized his hat, and
+a short hunter's axe, and disappeared through the panel into the
+subterranean passage which took him by the shortest cut through
+the very hill to the shore.
+
+Slowly Arnold and Woodward made their way along the shore,
+carefully searching for the spot where they had seen the house
+with the aerial. At last they came to a place where they could see
+the deserted house, far up on the side of a ravine above a river
+and a waterfalls. They dived into the thick underbrush for cover
+and went up the hill.
+
+Some distance off from the house, they parted the bushes and gazed
+off across an open space at the ramshackle building. As they
+looked they could see a man hurry across from the opposite
+direction and into the house.
+
+"As I live, I think that's Del Mar," muttered Arnold.
+
+Woodward nodded, doubtfully, though.
+
+In the house, Del Mar hurried to a wall where he found and pressed
+a concealed spring. A small cabinet in the plaster opened and he
+took out a little telephone which he rang and through which he
+spoke hastily. "Pull in the wires," he shouted. "We're discovered,
+I think."
+
+Down in the wireless station in the cave, the operator at his
+instrument heard the signal of the telephone and quickly answered
+it. "All right, sir," he returned with a look of great excitement
+and anxiety. "Cut the wires and I'll pull them in."
+
+Putting back the telephone, Del Mar ran to the window and looked
+out between the broken slats of the closed blinds. "Confound
+them!" he muttered angrily.
+
+He could see Arnold and Woodward cautiously approaching. A moment
+later he stepped back and pulled a silk mask over his upper face,
+leaving only his eyes visible. Then he seized his hunter's axe and
+dashed up the stairs. Through the scuttle of the roof he came,
+making his way over to the chimney to which the wireless antennae
+were fastened.
+
+Hastily he cut the wires which ran through the roof from the
+aerial. As he did so he saw them disappear through the roof.
+Below, in the cave, down in the ravine back of the falls, the
+operator was hastily hauling in the wire Del Mar had cut.
+
+Viciously next, Del Mar fell upon the wooden aerial itself,
+chopping it right and left with powerful blows. He broke it off
+and threw it over the roof.
+
+Below, Arnold and Woodward, taking advantage of every tree and
+shrub for concealment, had almost reached the house when the
+broken aerial fell with a bang almost on them. In surprise they
+dropped back of a tree and looked up. But from their position they
+could see nothing. Together they drew their guns and advanced more
+cautiously at the house.
+
+Del Mar made his way back quickly over the roof, back through the
+scuttle and down the stairs again. Should he go out? He looked out
+of the window. Then he went to the door. An instant he paused
+thinking and listening, his axe raised, ready for a blow.
+
+Arnold and Woodward, by this time, had reached the door which
+swung open on its rusty hinges. Woodward was about to go in when
+he felt a hand on his arm.
+
+"Wait," cautioned Arnold. He took off his hat and jammed it on the
+end of a stick. Slowly he shoved the door open, then thrust the
+hat and stick just a fraction of a foot forward.
+
+Del Mar, waiting, alert, saw the door open and a hat. He struck at
+it hard with the axe and merely the hat and stick fell to the
+floor.
+
+"Now, come on," shouted Arnold to Woodward.
+
+In the other hand, Del Mar held a chair. As Woodward dashed in
+with Arnold beside him, Del Mar shied the chair at their feet.
+Woodward fell over it in a heap and as he did so the delay was all
+that Del Mar had hoped to gain. Without a second's hesitation he
+dived through an open window, just as Arnold ran forward, avoiding
+Woodward and the chair. It was spectacular, but it worked. Arnold
+fired, but even that was not quick enough. He turned and with
+Woodward who had picked himself up in spite of his barked shins
+and they ran back through the door by which they had entered.
+
+Recovering himself, Del Mar dashed for the woods just as Arnold
+and Woodward ran around the side of the house, still blazing away
+after him, as they followed, rapidly gaining.
+
+Elaine changed her clothes quickly. Meanwhile she had ordered
+horses for both of us and a groom brought them around from the
+stables. It took me only a short time to jump into some dry things
+and I waited impatiently.
+
+She was ready very soon, however, and we mounted and cantered off,
+again in the direction of the shore where she had seen the
+remarkable waterfall, of which she had told me.
+
+We had not gone far when we heard sounds, as if an army were
+bearing down on us. "What's that?" I asked.
+
+Elaine turned and looked. It was a squad of cavalry.
+
+"Why, it's Lieutenant Woodward's friend, Captain Price," she
+exclaimed, waving to the captain at the head of the squad.
+
+A moment later Captain Price pulled up and bowed. Quickly we told
+him of what Elaine had just discovered.
+
+"That's strange," he said. "This man--" indicating the sailor--
+"has just told me that Lieutenant Woodward and Professor Arnold
+are investigating a wireless outfit over near there. Perhaps
+there's some connection."
+
+"May we join you?" she asked.
+
+"By all means," he returned. "I was about to suggest it myself."
+
+We fell in behind with the rest and were off again.
+
+Under the direction of the sailor we came at last to the ravine
+where we looked about searchingly for some trace of Arnold and
+Woodward.
+
+"What's that noise?" exclaimed one of the cavalrymen.
+
+We could hear shots, above us.
+
+"They may need us," cried Elaine, impatiently.
+
+It was impossible to ride up the sheer height above.
+
+"Dismount," ordered Captain Price.
+
+His men jumped down and we followed him. Elaine struggled up, now
+helped by me, now helping me.
+
+Further down the hill from the deserted house which we could see
+above us at the top was an underground passage which had been
+built to divert part of the water above the falls for power.
+Through it the water surged and over this boiling stream ran a
+board walk, the length of the tunnel.
+
+Into this tunnel we could see that a masked man had made his way.
+As he did so, he turned for just a moment and fired a volley of
+shots.
+
+Elaine screamed. There were Arnold and Woodward, his targets,
+coming on boldly, as yet unhit. They rushed in after him, in spite
+of his running fire, returning his shots and darting toward the
+tunnel entrance through which he still blazed back at them.
+
+From our end of the ravine, we could see precisely what was going
+on. "Come--the other end of the tunnel," shouted Price, who had
+evidently been over the ground and knew it.
+
+We made our way quickly to it and it seemed as if we had our man
+trapped, like a rat in a hole.
+
+In the tunnel the man was firing back at his pursuers as he ran
+along the board walk for our end. He looked up just in time as he
+approached us. There he could see Price and his cavalry waiting,
+cutting off retreat. We were too many for him. He turned and took
+a step back. There were Arnold and Woodward with levelled guns
+peering in as though they could not see very clearly. In a moment
+their eyes would become accustomed as his to the darkness. What
+should he do? There was not a second to waste. He looked down at
+the planks beneath him and the black water slipping past on its
+way to the power station. It was a desperate chance. But it was
+all that was left. He dropped down and let himself without even a
+splash into the water.
+
+Arnold and Woodward took a step into the darkness, scarcely
+knowing what to expect, their eyes a bit better accustomed to the
+dusk. But if they had been there an hour, in all probability they
+could not have seen what was at their very feet.
+
+Del Mar had sunk and was swimming under water in the swift black
+current sweeping under them. As they entered, he passed out,
+nerved up to desperation.
+
+Down the stream, just before it took its final plunge to the power
+wheel, Del Mar managed by a superhuman effort to reach out and
+grasp a wooden support of the flooring again and pull himself out
+of the stream. Smiling grimly to himself, he hurried up the bank.
+
+"Some one's coming," whispered Price. "Get ready."
+
+We levelled our guns. I was about to fire.
+
+"Look out! Don't shoot!" warned a voice sharply. It was Elaine.
+Her keen eyes and quick perception had recognized Arnold, leading
+Woodward. We lowered our guns.
+
+"Did you see a man, masked, come out here?" cried Woodward.
+
+"No--he must have gone your way," we called.
+
+"No, he couldn't."
+
+Arnold was eagerly questioning the captain as Elaine and I
+approached. "Dropped into the water--risked almost certain death,"
+he muttered, half turning and seeing us.
+
+"I want to congratulate you on your nerve for going in there,"
+began Elaine, advancing toward the professor.
+
+Apparently he neither heard nor saw us, for he turned as soon as
+he had finished with Price and went into the cave as though he
+were too busy to pay any attention to anything else.
+
+Elaine looked up at me, in blank astonishment.
+
+"What an impolite man," she murmured, gazing at the figure all
+stooped over as it disappeared in the darkness of the tunnel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE DEATH CLOUD
+
+
+Off a lonely wharf in a deserted part of the coast some miles from
+the promontory which afforded Del Mar his secret submarine harbor,
+a ship was riding at anchor.
+
+On the wharf a group of men, husky lascars, were straining their
+eyes at the mysterious craft.
+
+"Here she comes," muttered one of the men, "at last."
+
+From the ship a large yawl had put out. As she approached the
+wharf it could be seen that she was loaded to the gunwales with
+cases and boxes. She drew up close to the wharf and the men fell
+to unloading her, lifting up the boxes as though they were
+weighted with feathers instead of metal and explosives.
+
+Down the shore, at the same time, behind a huge rock, crouched a
+rough looking tramp. His interest in the yawl and its cargo was
+even keener than that of the lascars.
+
+"Supplies," he muttered, moving back cautiously and up the bluff.
+"I wonder where they are taking them?"
+
+Marcus Del Mar had chosen an old and ruined hotel not far from the
+shore as his storehouse and arsenal. Already he was there, pacing
+up and down the rotted veranda which shook under his weight.
+
+"Come, hurry up," he called impatiently as the first of the men
+carrying a huge box on his back made his appearance up the hill.
+
+One after another they trooped in and Del Mar led them to the
+hotel, unlocking the door.
+
+Inside, the old hostelry was quite as ramshackle as outside. What
+had once been the dining-room now held nothing but a long, rickety
+table and several chairs.
+
+"Put them there," ordered Del Mar, directing the disposal of the
+cases. "Then you can begin work. I shall be back soon."
+
+He went out and as he did so, two men seized guns from a corner
+near-by and followed him. On the veranda he paused and turned to
+the men.
+
+"If any one approaches the house--any one, you understand--make
+him a prisoner and send for me," he ordered. "If he resists,
+shoot."
+
+"Yes, sir," they replied, moving over and stationing themselves
+one at each angle of the narrow paths that ran before the old
+house.
+
+Del Mar turned and plunged deliberately into the bushes, as if for
+a cross country walk, unobserved.
+
+Meanwhile, by another path up the bluff, the tramp had made his
+way parallel to the line taken by the men. He paused at the top of
+the bluff where some bushes overhung and parted them.
+
+"Their headquarters," he remarked to himself, under his breath.
+
+ Elaine, Aunt Josephine and I were on the lawn that forenoon when
+a groom in resplendent livery came up to us.
+
+"Miss Elaine Dodge?" he bowed.
+
+Elaine took the note he offered and he departed with another bow.
+
+"Oh, isn't that delightful," she cried with pleasure, handing the
+note to me.
+
+I read it: "The Wilkeshire Country Club will be honored if Miss
+Dodge and her friends will join the paper chase this afternoon.
+L.H. Brown, Secretary."
+
+"I suppose a preparation for the fox or drag hunting season?" I
+queried.
+
+"Yes," she replied. "Will you go?"
+
+"I don't ride very well," I answered, "but I'll go."
+
+"Oh, and here's Mr. Del Mar," she added, turning. "You'll join us
+at the Wilkeshire hunt in a paper chase this afternoon, surely,
+Mr. Del Mar?"
+
+"Charmed, I'm sure," he agreed gracefully.
+
+For several minutes we chatted, planning, then he withdrew. "I
+shall meet you on the way to the Club," he promised.
+
+It was not long before Elaine was ready, and from the stable a
+groom led three of the best trained cross-country horses in the
+neighborhood, for old Taylor Dodge, Elaine's father, had been
+passionately fond of hunting, as had been both Elaine and Aunt
+Josephine.
+
+We met on the porch and a few minutes later mounted and cantered
+away. On the road Del Mar joined us and we galloped along to the
+Hunt Club, careful, however, to save the horses as much as
+possible for the dash over the fields.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+For some time the uncouth tramp continued gazing fixedly out of
+the bushes at the deserted hotel.
+
+Suddenly, he heard a noise and dropped flat on the ground, looking
+keenly about. Through the trees he could see one of Del Mar's men
+stationed on sentry duty. He was leaning against a tree, on the
+alert.
+
+The tramp rose cautiously and moved off in another direction to
+that in which he had been making his way, endeavoring to flank the
+sentry. Further along, however, another of Del Mar's men was
+standing in the same attentive manner near a path that led from
+the woods.
+
+As the tramp approached, the sentry heard a crackle of the brush
+and stepped forward. Before the tramp knew it, he was covered by a
+rifle from the sentry in an unexpected quarter.
+
+Any one but the sentry, with half an eye, might have seen that the
+fear he showed was cleverly feigned. He threw his hands above his
+head even before he was ordered and in general was the most
+tractable captive imaginable. The sentry blew a whistle, whereat
+the other sentry ran in.
+
+"What shall we do with him," asked the captor.
+
+"Master's orders to take any one to the rendezvous," responded the
+other firmly, "and lock him up."
+
+Together they forced the tramp to march double quick toward the
+old hotel. One sentry dropped back at the door and the other drove
+the tramp before him into the hotel, avoiding the big room on the
+side where the men were at work and forcing him up-stairs to the
+attic which had once been the servant's quarters.
+
+There was no window in the room and it was empty. The only light
+came in through a skylight in the roof.
+
+The sentry thrust the tramp into this room and tried a door
+leading to the next room. It was locked. At the point of his gun
+the sentry frisked the tramp for weapons, but found none. As he
+did so the tramp trembled mightily. But no sooner had the sentry
+gone than the tramp smiled quietly to himself. He tried both
+doors. They were locked. Then he looked at the skylight and
+meditated.
+
+Down below, although he did not know it, in the bare dining-room
+which had been arranged into a sort of chemical laboratory, Del
+Mar's men were engaged in manufacturing gas bombs much like those
+used in the war in Europe. Before them was a formidable array of
+bottles and retorts. The containers for the bombs were large and
+very brittle globes of hard rubber. As the men made the gas and
+forced it under tremendous pressure into tubes, they protected
+themselves by wearing goggles for the eyes and large masks of
+cloth and saturated cotton over their mouths and noses.
+
+Satisfied with the safety of his captive, the sentry made his way
+down-stairs and out again to report to Del Mar.
+
+At the bungalow, Del Mar's valet was setting the library in order
+when he heard a signal in the secret passage. He pressed the
+button on the desk and opened the panel. From it the sentry
+entered.
+
+"Where is Mr. Del Mar?" he asked hurriedly, looking around. "We've
+been followed to the headquarters by a tramp whom I've captured,
+and I don't know what to do with him."
+
+"He is not here," answered the valet. "He has gone to the Country
+Club."
+
+"Confound it," returned the sentry, vexed at the enforced waste of
+time. "Do you think you can reach him?"
+
+"If I hurry, I may," nodded the valet.
+
+"Then do so," directed the sentry.
+
+He moved back into the panel and disappeared while the valet
+closed it. A moment later he, too, picked up his hat and hurried
+out.
+
+At the Wilkeshire Club a large number of hunters had arrived for
+the imitation meet. Elaine, Aunt Josephine, Del Mar and myself
+rode up and were greeted by them as the Master of Fox Hounds
+assembled us. Off a bit, a splendid pack of hounds was held by the
+huntsman while they debated whether to hold a paper chase or to
+try a drag hunt.
+
+"You start your cross-country riding early," commented Del Mar.
+
+"Yes," answered Elaine. "You see we can hardly wait until autumn
+and the weather is so fine and cool, we feel that we ought to get
+into trim during the summer. So we have paper chases and drag
+hunts as soon as we can, mainly to please the younger set."
+
+The chase was just about to start, when the valet came up. Del Mar
+caught his eye and excused himself to us. What he said, we could
+not hear, but Del Mar frowned, nodded and dismissed him.
+
+Just then the horn sounded and we went off, dashing across the
+road into a field in full chase after the hounds, taking the
+fences and settling down to a good half hour's run over the most
+beautiful country I have ever seen.
+
+The hounds had struck the trail, which of course, as was finally
+decided, was nothing but that laid by an anise-seed bag dragged
+over the ground. It was none the less, in fact perhaps more
+interesting for that.
+
+The huntsman winded his horn and mirthful shouts of "Gone away!"
+sounded in imitation of a real hunt. The blast of the horn once
+heard is never forgotten, thrilling the blood and urging one on.
+
+The M. F. H. seemed to be everywhere at once, restraining those
+who were too eager and saving the hounds often from being ridden
+down by those new to the hunt who pressed them.
+
+Elaine was one of the foremost. Her hunter was one carefully
+trained, and she knew all the tricks of the game.
+
+Somehow, I got separated, at first, from the rest and followed,
+until finally I caught up, and then kept behind one of the best
+riders.
+
+Del Mar also got separated, but, as I afterward learned, by
+intention, for he deliberately rode out of the course at the first
+opportunity he had and let Elaine and the rest of us pass without
+seeing him.
+
+Elaine's blood was up, but somehow, in spite of herself, she went
+astray, for the hounds had distanced the fleetest riders and she,
+in an attempt at a short cut over the country which she thought
+she knew so well, went a mile or so out of the way.
+
+She pulled up in a ravine and looked about. Intently she listened.
+There was no sign of the hunt. She was hot and tired and thirsty
+and, at a loss just to join the field again, she took this chance
+to dismount and drink from a clear stream fed by mountain springs.
+
+As she did so, floating over the peaceful woodland air came the
+faint strains of the huntsman's horn, far, far off. She looked
+about, straining her eyes and ears to catch the direction of
+sound. Just then her horse caught the winding of the horn. His
+ears went erect and without waiting he instantly galloped off,
+leaving her. Elaine called and ran after him, but it was too late.
+She stopped and looked dejectedly as he disappeared. Then she made
+her way up the side of the ravine, slowly.
+
+On she climbed until, to her surprise, she came to the ruins of an
+old hotel. She remembered, as a child, when it had been famous as
+a health resort, but it was all changed now--a wreck. She looked
+at it a moment, then, as she had nothing better to do, approached
+it.
+
+She advanced toward a window of the dining-room and looked in.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar waited only until the last straggler had passed. Then he
+dashed off as fast as his horse would carry him straight toward
+the deserted hotel which served him as headquarters for the
+supplies he was accumulating. As he rode up, one of his sentries
+appeared, as if from nowhere, and, seeing who it was, saluted.
+
+"Here, take care of this horse," ordered Del Mar, dismounting and
+turning the animal over to the man, who led him to the rear of the
+building as Del Mar entered the front door, after giving a secret
+signal.
+
+There were his men in goggles and masks at the work, which his
+knock had interrupted.
+
+"Give me a mask before I enter the room," he ordered of the man
+who had answered his signal.
+
+The man handed the mask and goggles to him, as well as a coat,
+which he put on quickly. Then he entered the room and looked at
+the rapid progress of the work.
+
+"Where's the prisoner?" asked Del Mar a moment later, satisfied at
+the progress of his men.
+
+"In the attic room," one of his lieutenants indicated.
+
+"I'd like to take a look at him," added Del Mar, just about to
+turn and leave the room.
+
+As he did so, he happened to glance at one of the windows. There,
+peering through the broken shutters, was a face--a girl's face--
+Elaine!
+
+"Just what I wanted guarded against," he cried angrily, pointing
+at the window. "Now--get her!"
+
+The men had sprung up at his alarm. They could all see her and
+with one accord dashed for the door. Elaine sprang back and they
+ran as they saw that she was warned. In genuine fear now she too
+ran from the window. But it was too late.
+
+For just then the sentry who had taken Del Mar's horse came from
+behind the building cutting off her retreat. He seized her just as
+the other men ran out. Elaine stared. She could make nothing of
+them. Even Del Mar, in his goggles and breathing mask was
+unrecognizable.
+
+"Take her inside," he ordered disguising his voice. Then to the
+sentry he added, "Get on guard again and don't let any one
+through."
+
+Elaine was hustled into the big deserted hallway of the hotel,
+just as the tramp had been.
+
+"You may go back to work," Del Mar signed to the other men, who
+went on, leaving one short but athletic looking fellow with Del
+Mar and Elaine.
+
+"Lock her up, Shorty," ordered Del Mar, "and bring the other
+prisoner to me down here."
+
+None too gently the man forced Elaine up-stairs ahead of him.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the attic, the tramp, pacing up and down, heard footsteps
+approach on the stairs and enter the next room.
+
+Quickly he ran to the doorway and peered through the keyhole.
+There he could see Elaine and the small man enter. He locked the
+door to the hall, then quickly took a step toward the door into
+the tramp's room.
+
+There was just time enough for the tramp to see his approach. He
+ran swiftly and softly over to the further corner and dropped down
+as if sound asleep. The key turned in the lock and the small man
+entered, careful to lock the door to Elaine's room. He moved over
+to where the tramp was feigning sleep.
+
+"Get up," he growled, kicking him.
+
+The tramp sat up, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "Come now, be
+reasonable," demanded the man. "Follow me."
+
+He started toward the door into the hall. He never reached it.
+Scarcely was his hand on the knob when the tramp seized him and
+dragged him to the floor. One hand on the man's throat and his
+knees on his chest, the tramp tore off the breathing mask and
+goggles. Already he had the man trussed up and gagged.
+
+Quickly the tramp undressed the man and left him in his
+underclothes, still struggling to get loose, as he took Shorty's
+clothes, including the strange head-gear, and unlocked the door
+into the next room with the key he also took from him.
+
+Elaine was pacing anxiously up and down the little room into which
+she had been thrown, greatly frightened.
+
+Suddenly the door through which her captor had left opened
+hurriedly again. A most disreputable looking tramp entered and
+locked the door again. Elaine started back in fear.
+
+He motioned to her to be quiet. "You'll never get out alive," he
+whispered, speaking rapidly and thickly, as though to disguise his
+voice. "Here--take these clothes. Do just as I say. Put them on.
+Put on the mask and goggles. Cover up your hair. It is your only
+chance."
+
+He laid the clothes down and went out into the hallway. Outside he
+listened carefully at the head of the stairs and looked about
+expecting momentarily to be discovered.
+
+Elaine understood only that suddenly a friend in need had
+appeared. She changed her clothes quickly, finding fortunately
+that they fitted her pretty well. By pulling the hat over her hair
+and the goggles over her eyes and tying on the breathing mask, she
+made a very presentable man.
+
+Cautiously she pushed open the door into the hallway. There was
+the tramp. "What shall I do?" she asked.
+
+"Don't talk," he whispered close to her ear. "Go out--and if you
+meet any one, just salute and walk past."
+
+"Yes--yes, I understand," she nodded back, "and--thank you."
+
+He gave her no time to say more, even if it had been safe, but
+turned and locked the door of her room.
+
+Trying to keep the old stairway from creaking and betraying her,
+she went down. She managed to reach the lower hallway without
+seeing anybody or being discovered. Quietly she went to the door
+and out. She had not gone far when she met an armed man, the
+sentry, who had been concealed in the shrubbery.
+
+"Who goes there?" he challenged.
+
+Elaine did not betray herself by speaking, but merely saluted and
+passed on as fast as she could without exciting further suspicion.
+Nonplused, the man turned and watched her curiously as she moved
+away down the path.
+
+"Where's HE going?" the sentry muttered, still staring.
+
+Elaine in her eagerness was not looking as carefully where she was
+going as she was thinking about getting away in safety. Suddenly
+an overhanging branch of a tree caught her hat and before she knew
+it pulled it off her head. There was no concealing her golden hair
+now.
+
+"Stop!" shouted the sentry.
+
+Elaine did not pause, but dived into the bushes on the side of the
+path, just as the man fired and ran forward, still shouting for
+her to halt. She ran as fast as she could, pulling off the goggles
+and mask and looking back now and then in terror at her pursuer
+who was rapidly gaining on her.
+
+Before she could catch herself she missed her footing and slipped
+over the edge of a gorge. Down she went, with a rush. It was
+unfortunate, dangerous, but, after all, it was the only thing that
+saved her, at least for the time. Half falling, half sliding,
+scratching herself and tearing her clothes, she descended.
+
+The sentry checked himself just in time at the top of the gorge
+and leaned as far over the edge as he dared. He raised his gun
+again and fired. But Elaine's course was so hidden by the trees
+and so zigzag that he missed again. A moment he hesitated, then
+started and climbed down after her as fast as he could.
+
+At the bottom of the hill she picked herself up and dashed again
+into the woods, the sentry still after her and gaining again.
+
+At the same time, we who were still in the chase had circled about
+the country until we were very near where we started. Following
+the dogs over a rail fence, I drew up suddenly, hearing a scream.
+
+There was Elaine, on foot, running as if her life depended on it.
+I needed no second glance. Behind her was a man with a rifle,
+almost overtaking her.
+
+As luck would have it, the momentum of my horse carried me right
+at them. Careful to avoid Elaine, I rode square at the man,
+striking at him viciously with my riding crop before he knew what
+had struck him.
+
+The fellow dropped, stunned. I leaped from my horse and ran to
+her, just as the rest of the hunt came up.
+
+Eagerly questioning us, they gathered about.
+
+Having waited until he was sure that Elaine had got away safely,
+the old tramp slowly and carefully followed down the stairs of the
+ruined hotel.
+
+As he went down, he heard a shot from the woods. Could it be one
+of the sentries? He looked about keenly, hesitating just what to
+do.
+
+In an instant, down below, he heard the scurry of footsteps from
+the improvised laboratory and shouts. He turned and stealthily ran
+up-stairs, just as the door opened.
+
+The tramp had not been the only one who had been alarmed by the
+shot of the sentry.
+
+Del Mar was talking again to the men when it rang out. "What's
+that?" he exclaimed. "Another intruder?"
+
+The men stared at him blankly, while Del Mar dashed for the door,
+followed by them all. In the hall he issued his orders quickly.
+
+"Here, you fellows," he called dividing the men, "get outside and
+see what is doing. You other men follow me. I want you to see if
+everything's all right up above."
+
+Meanwhile the tramp had gained the upper hallway and dashed past
+the room which he occupied. Outside, in the hall, Del Mar and his
+men rushed up to the door of the room in which Elaine had been
+thrown. It was locked and they broke in. She was gone!
+
+On into the next room they dashed, bearing down this door also.
+There was Shorty, trussed up in his underclothes. They hastened to
+release him.
+
+"Where are they--where's the tramp?" demanded Del Mar angrily.
+
+"I think I heard some one on the roof," replied Shorty weakly. He
+was right. The tramp had managed to get through a scuttle on the
+roof. Then he climbed down to the edge and began to let himself
+hand over hand down the lightning rod.
+
+Reaching the ground safely, he scurried about to the back of the
+building. There, tied, was the horse which Del Mar had ridden to
+the hunt. He untied it, mounted and dashed off down the path
+through the woods, taking the shortest cut in the direction of
+Fort Dale.
+
+Dusty and flecked with foam, the tramp and his mount, a strange
+combination, were instantly challenged by the sentry at the Fort.
+
+"I must see Lieutenant Woodward immediately," urged the tramp.
+
+A heated argument followed until finally a corporal of the guards
+was called and led off the tramp toward the headquarters.
+
+It was only a few minutes before Woodward was convinced of the
+identity of the tramp with his friend, Professor Arnold. At the
+head of a squad of cavalry, Woodward and the tramp dashed off.
+
+Already on the qui vive, Elaine heard the sound of hoof-beats long
+before the rest of us crowded around her. For the moment we all
+stood ready to repel an attack from any quarter.
+
+But it was not meant for us. It was Woodward at the head of a
+score or so of cavalrymen. With him rode a tramp on a horse which
+was strangely familiar to me.
+
+"Oh," cried Elaine, "there's the man who saved me!"
+
+As they passed, the tramp paused a moment and looked at us
+sharply. Although he carefully avoided Elaine's eyes, I fancied
+that only when he saw that she was safe was he satisfied to gallop
+off and rejoin the cavalry.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Around the old hotel, in every direction, Del Mar's men were
+searching for the tramp and Elaine, while in the hotel another
+search was in progress.
+
+"Have you discovered anything?" asked Del Mar, entering.
+
+"No, sir," they reported.
+
+"Confound it!" swore Del Mar, going up-stairs again.
+
+Here also were men searching. "Find anything?" he asked briefly.
+
+"No luck," returned one.
+
+Del Mar went on up to the top floor and out through the open
+scuttle to the roof. "That's how he got away, all right," he
+muttered to himself, then looking up he exclaimed under his
+breath, as his eye caught something far off, "The deuce--what's
+that?"
+
+Leaning down to the scuttle, he called, "Jenkins--my field-
+glasses--quick!"
+
+One of his men handed them to him and he adjusted them, gazing off
+intently. There he could see what looked like a squad of cavalry
+galloping along headed by an officer and a rough looking
+individual.
+
+"Come--we must get ready for an attack!" he shouted diving down
+the scuttle again.
+
+In the laboratory dining-room, his men, recalled, hastily took his
+orders. Each of them seized one of the huge black rubber newly
+completed gas bombs and ran out, making for a grove near-by.
+
+Quickly as Del Mar had acted, it was not done so fast but that the
+troop of cavalry as they pulled up on the top of a hill and
+followed the directing finger of the tramp could see men running
+to the cover of the grove.
+
+"Forward!" shouted Woodward.
+
+As if all were one machine, the men and horses shot ahead, until
+they came to the grove about the old hotel. There they dismounted
+and spread out in a semi-circular order, advancing on the grove.
+As they did so, shots rang out from behind the trees. Del Mar's
+men, from the shelter were firing at them. But it seemed hopeless
+for the fugitives.
+
+"Ready!" ordered Del Mar as the cavalrymen advanced, relentless.
+
+Each of his men picked up one of the big black gas bombs and held
+it high up over his head.
+
+"Come on!" urged Woodward.
+
+His men broke into a charge on the grove.
+
+"Throw them!" ordered Del Mar.
+
+As far as he could hurl it, each of the men sent one of the black
+globes hurtling through the air. They fell almost simultaneously,
+a long line of them, each breaking into a thousand bits. Instantly
+dense, greenish-yellow fumes seemed to pour forth, enveloping
+everything. The wind which Del Mar had carefully noted when he
+chose the position in the grove, was blowing from his men toward
+the only position from which an attack could be made successfully.
+
+Against Woodward's men as they charged, it seemed as if a
+tremendous, slow-moving wall of vapor were advancing from the
+trees. It was only a moment before it completely wrapped them in
+its stifling, choking, suffocating embrace. Some fell, overcome.
+Others tried to run, clutching frantically at their throats and
+rubbing their eyes.
+
+"Get back--quick--till it rolls over," choked Woodward.
+
+Those who were able to do so, picked up their stupefied comrades
+and retreated, as best they could, stumbling blindly back from the
+fearful death cloud of chlorine.
+
+Meantime, under cover of this weird defence, Del Mar and his men,
+their own faces covered and unrecognizable in their breathing
+masks and goggles, dashed to one side, with a shout and
+disappeared walking and running behind and even through the safety
+of their impregnable gas barrier.
+
+More slowly we of the hunt had followed Woodward's cavalry until,
+some distance off, we stood, witnessing and wondering at the
+attack. To our utter amazement we saw them carrying off their
+wounded and stupefied men. We hurried forward and gathered about,
+offering whatever assistance we could to resuscitate them.
+
+As Elaine and I helped, we saw the unkempt figure of the tramp
+borne in and laid down. He was not completely overcome, having had
+presence of mind to tie a handkerchief over his nose and mouth.
+
+Elaine hurried toward him with an exclamation of sympathy. Just
+recovering full consciousness, he heard her.
+
+With the greatest difficulty, he seemed to summon some reserve
+force not yet used. He struggled to his feet and staggered off, as
+though he would escape us.
+
+"What a strange old codger," mused Elaine, looking from me at the
+retreating figure. "He saved my life--yet he won't even let me
+thank him--or help him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SEARCHLIGHT GUN
+
+
+"I don't understand it," remarked Elaine one day as, with Aunt
+Josephine and myself, she was discussing the strange events that
+had occurred since the disappearance of Kennedy, "but, somehow, it
+is as if a strange Providence seems to be watching over us."
+
+"Nor do I," I agreed. "It does seem that, although we do not see
+it, a mysterious power for good is about us. It's uncanny."
+
+"A package for you, Miss Dodge," announced Marie, coming in with a
+small parcel which had been delivered by a messenger who did not
+wait for an answer.
+
+Elaine took it, looked at it, turned it over, and then looked at
+the written address again.
+
+"It's not the handwriting of any one which I recognize," she
+mused. "Now, I suppose I ought to be suspicious of it Yet, I'm
+going to open it."
+
+She did so. Inside, the paper wrapping covered a pasteboard box.
+She opened that. There lay a revolver, which she picked up and
+turned over. It was a curious looking weapon.
+
+"I never knew so much about firearms as I have learned in the past
+few weeks," remarked Elaine. "But what do you suppose this is--and
+who sent it to me--and why?"
+
+She held the gun up. From the barrel stuck out a little rolled-up
+piece of paper. "See," she cried, reading and handing the paper to
+me, "there it is again--that mysterious power."
+
+Aunt Josephine and I read the note:
+
+DEAR MISS DODGE:
+
+This weapon shoots exactly into the center of the light disc. Keep
+it by you.--A FRIEND.
+
+"Let me see it," I asked, taking the gun. Sure enough, along the
+barrel was a peculiar tube. "A searchlight gun," I exclaimed,
+puzzled, though still my suspicions were not entirely at rest.
+"Suppose it's sighted wrong," I could not help considering. "It
+might be a plant to save some one from being shot."
+
+"That's easily settled," returned Elaine. "Let's try it."
+
+"Oh, mercy no,--not here," remonstrated Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Why not--down cellar?" persisted Elaine. "It can't hurt anything
+there."
+
+"I think it would be a good plan," I agreed, "just to make sure
+that it is all right."
+
+Accordingly we three went down cellar. There, Elaine found the
+light switch and turned it. Eagerly I hunted about for a mark.
+There, in some rubbish that had not yet been carted away, was a
+small china plate. I set it up on a small shelf across the room
+and took the gun. But Elaine playfully wrenched it from my hand.
+
+"No," she insisted, "it was sent to me. Let me try it first."
+
+Reluctantly I consented.
+
+"Switch off the light, Walter, please," she directed, standing a
+few paces from the plate.
+
+I did so. In the darkness Elaine pointed the gun and pulled a
+little ratchet. Instantly a spot of light showed on the wall. She
+moved the revolver and the spot of light moved with it. As it
+rested on a little decorative figure in the center of the plate,
+she pulled the trigger. The gun exploded with a report, deafening,
+in the confined cellar.
+
+I switched on the light and we ran forward. There was the plate--
+smashed into a hundred bits. The bullet had struck exactly in the
+centre of the little bull's-eye of light.
+
+"Splendid," cried Elaine enthusiastically, as we looked at each
+other in surprise.
+
+Though none of us guessed it, half an hour before, in the
+seclusion of his yacht, Woodward's friend, Professor Arnold, had
+been standing with the long barrelled gun in his hand, adjusting
+the tube which ran beneath the barrel.
+
+In one hand he held the gun; in the other was a piece of paper. As
+he brought the paper before the muzzle and pressed a ratchet by
+gripping the revolver handle, a distinct light appeared on the
+paper, thrown out from the tube under the barrel.
+
+Having adjusted the tube and sighted it, Arnold wrote a hasty note
+on another piece of paper and inserted it into the barrel of the
+gun, with the end sticking out just a bit. Then he wrapped the
+whole thing up in a box, rang a bell, and handed the package to a
+servant with explicit instructions as to its delivery to the right
+person and only to that person.
+
+Down in the submarine harbor, Del Mar was in conference with his
+board of strategy and advice, laying the plan for the attack on
+America.
+
+"Ever since we have been at work," he remarked, "Elaine Dodge has
+been busy hindering and frustrating us. That girl must go!"
+
+Before him, on the table, he placed a square package. "It must
+stop," he added ominously, tapping the package.
+
+"But how?" asked one of the men. "We've done our best."
+
+"This is a bomb," replied Del Mar, continuing to tap the package.
+"When our man--let me see, X had better do it,--arrives, have him
+look in the secret cavern by the landing-place. There I will leave
+it. I want him to put it in her house to-night."
+
+He handed the bomb to one of his men who took it gingerly. Then
+with a few more words of admonition, he took up his diving helmet
+and left the headquarters, followed by the man.
+
+Several minutes later, Del Mar, alone, emerged from the water just
+outside the submarine harbor and took off his helmet.
+
+He made his way over the rocks, carrying the bomb, until he came
+to a little fissure in the rocks, like a cavern. There he hid the
+bomb carefully. Still carrying the helmet, he hurried along until
+he came to the cave entrance that led to the secret passage to the
+panel in his bungalow library. Up through the secret passage he
+went, reaching the panel and opening it by a spring.
+
+In the library Del Mar changed his wet clothes and hid them, then
+set to work on an accumulation of papers on his desk.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+That afternoon, Elaine decided to go for a little ride through the
+country in her runabout.
+
+As she started to leave her room, dressed for the trip, it was as
+though a premonition of danger came to her. She paused, then
+turned back and took from the drawer the searchlight gun which had
+been sent to her. She slipped it into the pocket of her skirt and
+went out.
+
+Off she drove at a fast clip, thoroughly enjoying the ride until,
+near a bend in the road, as it swept down toward the shore, she
+stopped and got out, attracted by some wild flowers. They grew in
+such profusion that it seemed no time before she had a bunch of
+them. On she wandered, down to the rocks, watching the restless
+waters of the Sound. Finally she found herself walking alone along
+the shore, one arm full of flowers, while with her free hand she
+amused herself by skimming flat stones over the water.
+
+As she turned to pick up one, her eye caught something in the
+rocks and she stared at it. There in a crevice, as though it had
+been hidden, was a strange square package. She reached down and
+picked it up. What could it be?
+
+While she was examining it, back of her, another of those strange
+be-helmeted figures came up out of the water. It watched her for
+an instant, then sank back into the water again.
+
+Elaine, holding the package in her hand, walked up the shore,
+oblivious to the strange eye that had been fixed on her.
+
+"I must show this to Lieutenant Woodward," she said to herself.
+
+In the car she placed the package, then jumped in herself
+carefully and started off.
+
+A moment after she had gone, the diver reappeared, looking about
+cautiously. This time the coast was clear and he came all the way
+out, taking off his helmet and placed it in the secret hiding-
+place which Del Mar and his men used. Then, with another glance,
+now of anger, in the direction of Elaine, he hurried up the shore.
+
+Meanwhile, as fast as her light runabout would carry her, Elaine
+whizzed over to Fort Dale.
+
+As she entered the grounds, the sentry saluted her, though that
+part of the formalities of admission was purely perfunctory, for
+every one at the Fort knew her now.
+
+"Is Lieutenant Woodward in?" she inquired.
+
+"Yes ma'am," returned the sentry. "I will send for him."
+
+A corporal appeared and took a message for her to Woodward. It was
+only a few minutes before Lieutenant Woodward himself appeared.
+
+"What is the trouble, Miss Dodge?" he asked solicitously, noting
+the look on her face.
+
+"I don't know what it is," she replied dubiously. "I've found
+something among the rocks. Perhaps it is a bomb."
+
+Woodward looked at the package, studying it. "Professor Arnold is
+investigating this affair for us," he remarked. "Perhaps you'd
+better take the package to him on his yacht. I'm sorry I can't go
+with you, but just now I'm on duty."
+
+"That's a good idea," she agreed. "Only I'm sorry you can't go
+along with me."
+
+She started up the car and drove off as Woodward turned back to
+the Fort with a lingering look.
+
+Del Mar was hard at work in the library when, suddenly, he heard a
+sound at the panel. He reached over and pressed a button on his
+desk, and the panel opened. Through it came the diver still
+wearing his dripping suit and carrying the weird helmet under his
+arm.
+
+"That Dodge girl has crossed us again!" he exclaimed excitedly.
+
+"How?" demanded Del Mar, with an oath.
+
+"I saw her on the rocks just now. She happened to stumble on the
+bomb which you left there to be placed."
+
+"And then?" demanded Del Mar.
+
+"She took it with her in her car."
+
+"The deuce!" ejaculated the foreign agent, furiously. "You must
+get the men out and hunt the country thoroughly. She must not
+escape now at any cost."
+
+The diving man dove back into the panel to escape Del Mar's wrath,
+while Del Mar hurried out, leaving his valet in the library.
+
+Quickly, Del Mar made his way to a secret hiding-place in the
+hills back of the bay. There he found his picked band of men armed
+with rifles.
+
+As briefly as he could he told them of what had happened. "We must
+get her this time--dead or alive," he ordered. "Now scatter about
+the country. Keep in touch with each other and when you find her,
+close in on her at any cost."
+
+The men saluted and left in various directions to scour the
+country. Del Mar himself picked up a rifle and followed shortly,
+passing down a secret trail to the road where he had a car with a
+chauffeur waiting. Still carrying the rifle, he climbed in and the
+man shot the car along down the road.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+On the top of a hill one of the men was posted as a sort of
+lookout. Gazing over the country carefully, his eye was finally
+arrested by something at which he stared eagerly. Far away, on the
+road, he could see a car in which was a girl, alone. Waving in the
+breeze was a red feather in her hat. He looked more sharply. It
+was Elaine Dodge.
+
+The man turned and waved a signal with a handkerchief to another
+man far off. Down the valley another of Del Mar's men was waiting
+and watching. As soon as he saw the signal, he waved back and ran
+along the road.
+
+As Del Mar whizzed along, he could see one of his men approaching
+over the road, waving to him. "Stop!" he ordered his driver.
+
+The man hurried forward. "I've got the signal," he panted. "They
+have seen her car over the hill."
+
+"Good," exclaimed Del Mar, pulling a black silk mask over his
+eyes. "Now, get off quickly. We've got to catch her."
+
+They sped away again in a cloud of dust.
+
+But even while Del Mar was speeding toward her, another of his men
+had discovered her presence, so vigilant were they.
+
+He had been keeping a sharp watch on the road, when he was
+suddenly all attention. He saw a car, through the foliage.
+Quickly, his rifle went to his shoulder. Through the sight he
+could just cover Elaine's head, for her hat, with a bright red
+feather in it, showed plainly just over the bushes.
+
+He aimed carefully and fired.
+
+I had been out for a tramp over the hills with no destination in
+particular. As I swung along the road, I heard the throbbing of a
+car coming up the hill, the cut-out open. I turned, for cars make
+walking on country roads somewhat hazardous nowadays.
+
+As I did so, some one in the car waved to me. I looked again. It
+was Elaine.
+
+"Where are you going?" she called.
+
+"Where are YOU going?" I returned, laughing.
+
+"I've just had a very queer experience--found something down on
+the rocks," she replied seriously, pointing to the square package
+on the floor of the car. "I took it to Lieutenant Woodward and he
+advised me to take it to Professor Arnold on his yacht. I think it
+is a bomb. I wish you'd go with me."
+
+Before I could answer, up the hill a rifle shot cracked. There was
+a whirr in the air and a bullet sang past us, cutting the red
+feather off Elaine's hat.
+
+"Duck!" I cried, jumping into the car, "And drive like the
+dickens!"
+
+She turned and we fairly ricocheted down that road back again.
+
+Behind us, a man, a stranger whom we did not pause to observe,
+rushed from the bushes and fired after us again.
+
+Suddenly another rifle shot cracked. It was from another car that
+had stealthily sneaked up on us--coming fast, recklessly.
+
+"There's her car," pointed one of the occupants to a man who was
+masked in black.
+
+"Yes," he nodded. "Give her a little more gas!"'
+
+"Crouch down," I muttered, "as low as you can."
+
+We did so, racing for life, the more powerful motor behind us
+overhauling us every instant.
+
+We were coming to a very narrow part of the road where it turned,
+on one side a sheer hill, on the other a stream several feet down.
+
+If we had an accident, I thought, it might be ticklish for us,
+supposing the square package really to be a bomb. What if it
+should go off? The idea suggested another, instantly. The car
+behind was only a few feet off.
+
+As we reached the narrow road by the stream, I rose up. As far as
+I could, back of me, I hurled the infernal machine. It fell. We
+received a shower of dirt and small stones, but the cover of the
+car protected us. Where the bomb landed, however, it cut a deep
+hole in the roadway.
+
+On came Del Mar's car, the driver frantically tugging at the
+emergency brake. But it was of no use. There was not room to turn
+aside. The car crashed into the hole, like a gigantic plow.
+
+It took one header over the side of the road and down several feet
+into the stream, just as the masked man and the driver jumped far
+ahead into the water.
+
+Safe now in our car which was slackening its terrific speed, I
+looked back. "They've been thrown!" I cried. "We're all right."
+
+On the edge of the water, just covered by some wreckage, the
+chauffeur lay motionless. The masked man crawled from under the
+wreckage and looked at him a moment.
+
+"Dead!" he exclaimed, still mechanically gripping a rifle in his
+hand.
+
+Angrily he raised it at us and fired.
+
+A moment later, some other men gathered from all directions about
+him, each armed.
+
+"Don't mind the wreck," he cried, exasperated. "Fire!"
+
+A volley was delivered at us. But the distance was now apparently
+too great.
+
+We were just congratulating ourselves on our escape, when a stray
+shot whizzed past, striking a piece directly out of the head of
+the steering-post, almost under Elaine's hands.
+
+Naturally she lost control, though fortunately we were not going
+so fast now. Crazily, our car swerved from side to side of the
+road, as she vainly tried to control both its speed and direction.
+On the very edge of the ditch, however, it stopped.
+
+We looked back. There we could see a group of men who seemed to
+spring out of the woods, as if from nowhere, at the sound of the
+shots. A shout went up at the sight of the bullet taking effect,
+and they ran forward at us.
+
+One of their number, I could see, masked, who had been in the
+wrecked car, stumbled forward weakly, until finally he sank down.
+
+A couple of the others ran to him. "Go on," he must have urged
+vehemently. "One of you is enough to stay with me. I'm going back
+to the submarine harbor. The rest--go on--report to me there."
+
+As the rest ran toward us, there was nothing for us to do but to
+abandon the car ourselves and run for it. We left the road and
+struck into the trackless woods, followed closely now by two of
+the men who had outdistanced the rest. Through the woods we fled,
+taking advantage of such shelter as we could find.
+
+"Look, here's a cave," cried Elaine, as we plunged, exhausted and
+about ready to drop, down into a ravine.
+
+We hurried in and the bushes swung over the cave entrance. Inside
+we stopped short and gazed about. It was dark and gloomy. We
+looked back. There was no hope there. They had been overtaking us.
+On down a passageway, we went.
+
+The two men who were pursuing us plunged down the ravine also. As
+ill-luck would have it, they saw the cave entrance and dashed in,
+then halted. Crouching in the shadow we could see their figures
+silhoutted in the dim light of the entrance of the cavern. One
+stopped at the entrance while the other advanced. He was a big
+fellow and powerfully built and the other fellow was equally
+burly. I made up my mind to fight to the last though I knew it was
+hopeless. It was dark. I could not even see the man advancing now.
+
+Quickly Elaine reached into her pocket and drew out something.
+
+"Here, Walter, take this," she cried. I seized the object. It was
+the searchlight gun.
+
+Hastily I aimed it, the spot of light glowing brightly. Indeed, I
+doubt whether I could have shot very accurately otherwise. As the
+man approached cautiously down the passageway the bright disc of
+light danced about until finally it fell full on his breast. I
+fired. The man fell forward instantly.
+
+Again I fired, this time at the man in the cave entrance. He
+jumped back, dropping his gun which exploded harmlessly. His hand
+was wounded. Quickly he drew back and disappeared among the trees.
+
+We waited in tense silence, and then cautiously looked out of the
+mouth of the cave. No one seemed to be about.
+
+"Come--let's make a dash for it," urged Elaine.
+
+We ran out and hurried on down the ravine, apparently not
+followed.
+
+Back among the trees, however, the man had picked up a rifle which
+he had hidden. While he was binding up his hand with a
+handkerchief, he saw us. Painfully he tried to aim his gun. But it
+was too heavy for his weakened arm and the pain was too great. He
+had to lower it. With a muttered imprecation, he followed us at a
+distance.
+
+Evidently, to us, we had eluded the pursuers, for no one seemed
+now to be following, at least as far as we could determine. We
+kept on, however, until we came to the water's edge. There, down
+the bay, we could see Professor Arnold's yacht.
+
+"Let us see Professor Arnold, anyhow," said Elaine, leading the
+way along the shore.
+
+We came at last, without being molested, to a little dock. A
+sailor was standing beside it and moored to it was a swift motor-
+boat. Out at anchor was the yacht.
+
+"You are Professor Arnold's man?" asked Elaine.
+
+"Yes'm," he replied, remembering her.
+
+"Is the Professor out on his boat?" we asked.
+
+He nodded. "Did you want to see him?"
+
+"Very much," answered Elaine.
+
+"I'll take you out," he offered.
+
+We jumped into the motor-boat, he started the engine and we planed
+out over the water.
+
+Though we did not see him, the man whom I had wounded was still
+watching us from the shore, noting every move. He had followed us
+at a distance across the woods and fields and down along the shore
+to the dock, had seen us talking to Arnold's man, and get into the
+boat.
+
+From the shore he continued to watch us skim across the bay and
+pull up alongside the yacht. As we climbed the ladder, he turned
+and hurried back the way he had come.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine and I climbed aboard the yacht where we could see the
+Professor sitting in a wicker deck chair.
+
+"Why, how do you do?" he welcomed us, adjusting his glasses so
+that his eyes seemed, if anything, more opaque than before.
+
+I could not help thinking that, although he was glad to see us,
+there was a certain air of restraint about him.
+
+Quickly Elaine related the story of finding the bomb in the rocks
+and the peculiar events and our escape which followed. Once, at
+the mention of the searchlight gun, Professor Arnold raised his
+hand and coughed back of it. I felt sure that it was to hide an
+involuntary expression of satisfaction and that it must be he who
+had sent the gun to Elaine.
+
+He was listening attentively to her, while I stood by the rail,
+now and then looking out over the water. Far away I noted
+something moving over the surface, like a rod, followed by a thin
+wake of foam.
+
+"Look!" I exclaimed, "What's that?"
+
+Elaine turned to me, as Arnold seized his glasses.
+
+"Why, it seems to be moving directly at us," exclaimed Elaine.
+
+"By George, it's the periscope of a submarine," cried Arnold a
+moment later, lowering his glasses.
+
+He did not hesitate an instant.
+
+"Get the yacht under way," he ordered the captain, who immediately
+shouted his orders to the rest.
+
+Quickly the engine started and we plowed ahead, that ominous
+looking periscope following.
+
+In the submarine harbor to which he had been taken, Del Mar found
+that he had been pretty badly shaken up by the accident to his
+car. His clothes were torn and his face and body scratched. No
+bones were broken, however, though the shock had been great.
+Several of his men were endeavoring to fix him up in the little
+submarine office, but he was angry, very angry.
+
+At such a juncture, a man in a dripping diving-suit entered and
+pulled off his helmet, after what had evidently been a hasty trip
+from the land through the entrance and up again into the harbor.
+As he approached, Del Mar saw that the man's hand was bound up.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Del Mar. "How did you get that?"
+
+"That fellow Jameson and the girl did it," he replied, telling
+what had happened in the cave. "Some one must have given them one
+of those new searchlight guns."
+
+Del Mar, already ugly, was beside himself with rage now.
+
+"Where are they?" he asked.
+
+"I saw them go out to the yacht of that Professor Arnold."
+
+"He's the fellow that gave her the gun," almost hissed Del Mar.
+"On the yacht, are they?"
+
+An evil smile seemed to spread over his face. "Then we'll get them
+all, this time. Man the submarine--the Z99."
+
+All left the office on the run, hurrying around the ledge and down
+into the open hatch of the submarine. Del Mar came along a moment
+later, giving orders sharply and quickly.
+
+The hatch was closed and the vessel sealed. On all sides were
+electrical devices and machines to operate the craft and the
+torpedoes--an intricate system of things which it seemed as if no
+human mind could possibly understand.
+
+Del Mar threw on a switch. The submarine hummed and trembled.
+Slowly she sank in the harbor until she was at the level of the
+underwater entrance through the rocks. Carefully she was guided
+out through this entrance into the waters of the larger, real
+harbor.
+
+Del Mar took his place at the periscope, the eye of the submarine.
+Anxiously he turned it about and bent over the image which it
+projected.
+
+"There it is," he muttered, picking out Arnold's yacht and
+changing the course of the submarine so that it was headed
+directly at it, the planes turned so that they kept the boat just
+under the surface with only the periscope showing above.
+
+Forward, about the torpedo discharge tubes men were busy, testing
+the doors, and getting ready the big automobile torpedoes.
+
+"They must have seen us," muttered Del Mar. "They've started the
+yacht. But we can beat them, easily. Are you ready?"
+
+"Yes," called back the men forward, pushing a torpedo into the
+lock-like compartment from which it was launched.
+
+"Let it go, then," bellowed Del Mar.
+
+The torpedo shot out into the water, travelling under her own
+power, straight at the yacht.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine and I looked back. The periscope was much nearer than
+before. "Can we outdistance the submarine?" I asked of Arnold.
+
+Arnold shook his head, his face grave. On came the thin line of
+foam. "I'm afraid we'll have to leave the yacht," he said
+warningly. "My little motor-boat is much faster."
+
+Arnold shouted his orders as he led us down the ladder to the
+motor-boat into which we jumped, followed by as many of the crew
+as could get in, while the others leaped into the water from the
+rail of the yacht and struck out for the shore which was not very
+distant.
+
+"What's that?" cried Elaine, horrified, pointing back.
+
+The water seemed to be all churned up. A long cigar-shaped affair
+was slipping along near enough to the surface so that we could
+just make it out--murderous, deadly, aimed right at the heart of
+the yacht.
+
+"A torpedo!" exclaimed Arnold. "Cast off!"
+
+We moved off from the yacht as swiftly as the speedy little open
+motor-boat would carry us, not a minute too soon.
+
+The torpedo struck the yacht almost exactly amidships. A huge
+column of water spurted up into the air as though a gigantic whale
+were blowing off. The yacht itself seemed lifted from the water
+and literally broken in half like a brittle rod of glass and
+dropped back into the water.
+
+Below in the submarine, Del Mar was still at the periscope
+directing things.
+
+"A hit!" he cried exultingly. "We got the whole bunch this time!"
+
+He turned to the men to congratulate them, a smile on his evil
+face. But as he looked again, he caught sight of our little motor-
+boat skimming safely away on the other side of the wreck.
+
+"The deuce!" he muttered. "Try another. Here's the direction."
+
+Furiously he swore as the men guided the submarine and loaded
+another torpedo into a tube. As the tube came into position, they
+let the torpedo go. An instant later it was hissing its way at us.
+
+"See, there's another!" I cried, catching sight of it.
+
+All looked. Sure enough, through the water could be seen another
+of those murderous messengers dashing at us.
+
+Arnold ran forward and seized the wheel himself, swinging the boat
+around hard to starboard and the land. We turned just in time. The
+torpedo, brainless but deadly, dashed past us harmlessly.
+
+As fast as we could now we made for the shore. No one could catch
+us with such a start, not even the swiftest torpedo. We had been
+rescued by Arnold's quick wit from a most desperate situation.
+
+Somewhere below the water, I could imagine a man consumed with
+fury over our escape, as the periscope disappeared and the
+submarine made off.
+
+We were safe. But, looking out over the water, we could not help
+shuddering at the perils beneath its apparently peaceful surface.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE LIFE CHAIN
+
+
+Early one morning, a very handsome woman of the adventuress type
+arrived with several trunks at the big summer hotel, just outside
+the town, the St. Germain.
+
+Among the many fashionable people at the watering-place, however,
+she attracted no great attention and in the forenoon she quietly
+went out in her motor for a ride.
+
+It was Madame Larenz, one of Del Mar's secret agents who, up to
+this time, had been engaged in spying on wealthy and
+impressionable American manufacturers.
+
+Her airing brought her, finally, to the bungalow of Del Mar and
+there she was admitted in a manner that showed that Del Mar
+trusted her highly.
+
+"Now," he instructed, after a few minutes chat, "I want you to get
+acquainted with Miss Dodge. You know how to interest her. She's
+quite human. Pretty gowns appeal to her. Get her to the St.
+Germain. Then I'll tell you what to do."
+
+A few minutes later the woman left in her car, so rapidly driven
+that no one would recognize her.
+
+It was early in the afternoon that Aunt Josephine was sitting on
+the veranda, when an automobile drove up and a very stylishly
+gowned and bonnetted woman stepped out.
+
+"Good afternoon," she greeted Aunt Josephine ingratiatingly as she
+approached the house. "I am Madame Larenz of New York and Paris.
+Perhaps you have heard of my shops on Fifth Avenue and the Rue de
+la Paix."
+
+Aunt Josephine had heard the name, though she did not know that
+this woman had assumed it without being in any way connected with
+the places she mentioned.
+
+"I'm establishing a new sort of summer service at the better
+resorts," the woman explained. "You see, my people find it
+annoying to go into the city for gowns. So I am bringing the
+latest Paris models out to them. Is Miss Dodge at home?"
+
+"I think she is playing tennis," returned Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Oh, yes, I see her, thank you," the woman murmured, moving toward
+the tennis court, back of the house.
+
+Elaine and I had agreed to play a couple of games and were tossing
+rackets for position.
+
+"Very well," laughed Elaine, as she won the toss, "take the other
+court."
+
+It was a cool day and I felt in good spirits. Just to see whether
+I could do it still, I jumped over the net.
+
+Our game had scarcely started when we were interrupted by the
+approach of a stunning looking woman.
+
+"Miss Dodge?" she greeted. "Will you excuse me a moment?"
+
+Elaine paused in serving the ball and the woman handed her a card
+from her delicate gold mesh bag. It read simply:
+
+Mme. Larenz Paris Gowns
+
+Elaine looked at the card a moment while the woman repeated what
+she had already told Aunt Josephine.
+
+"You have them here, then?" queried Elaine, interested.
+
+"Yes, I have some very exclusive models which I am showing at my
+suite in the St. Germain."
+
+"Oh, how lovely," exclaimed Elaine. "I must see them."
+
+They talked a few minutes, while I waited patiently for Elaine to
+start the game again. That game, however, was destined never to be
+finished. More weighty matters were under discussion.
+
+I wondered what they were talking about and, suppressing a yawn, I
+walked toward them. As I approached, I heard scattered remarks
+about styles and dress fabrics.
+
+Elaine had completely forgotten tennis and me. She took a couple
+of steps away from the court with the woman, as I came up.
+
+"Aren't you going to play?" I asked.
+
+"I know you'll excuse me, Walter," smiled Elaine. "My frocks are
+all so frightfully out of date. And here's a chance to get new
+ones, very reasonably, too."
+
+They walked off and I could not help scowling at the visitor. On
+toward the house Elaine and Madame Larenz proceeded and around it
+to the front porch where Aunt Josephine was standing.
+
+"Just think, Auntie," cried Elaine, "real Paris gowns down here
+without the trouble of going to the city--and cheaply, too."
+
+Aunt Josephine was only mildly interested, but that did not seem
+to worry Madame Larenz.
+
+"I shall be glad to see you at three, Miss Dodge," she said as she
+got into her car again and drove off.
+
+By that time, I had caught up with Elaine again. "Just one game,"
+I urged.
+
+"Please excuse me,--this time, Walter," she pleaded, laughing.
+"You don't know how sadly I'm in need of new frocks."
+
+It was no use of further urging her. Tennis was out of her mind
+for good that day. Accordingly, I mounted to my room and there
+quickly donned my riding clothes.
+
+When I came down, I found Aunt Josephine still on the veranda. In
+addition to my horse which I had telephoned for, Elaine's little
+runabout had been driven to the door. While I was talking to Aunt
+Josephine, Elaine came down-stairs and walked over to the car.
+
+"May I go with you?" I pleaded.
+
+"No, Walter," she replied laughing merrily. "You can't go. I want
+to try them on."
+
+Properly squelched, I retreated. Elaine drove away and a moment
+later, I mounted and cantered off leisurely.
+
+Near Del Mar's bungalow might have been seen again the mysterious
+naturalist, walking along the road with a butterfly net in his
+hand and what appeared to be a leather specimen case, perhaps six
+inches long, under his other arm.
+
+As Madame Larenz whizzed past in her car, he looked up keenly in
+spite of his seeming near-sightedness and huge smoked glasses. He
+watched her closely, noting the number of the car, then turned and
+followed it.
+
+Madame Larenz drew up, a second time, before Del Mar's. As she got
+out and entered, the naturalist, having quickened his pace, came
+up and watched her go in. Then, after taking in the situation for
+a moment, he made his way around the side of the bungalow.
+
+"Is Mr. Del Mar at home?" inquired Madame Larenz, as the valet
+ushered her into the library.
+
+"No ma'am," he returned. "Mr. Del Mar is out. But he left word
+that if you came before he got back, you were to leave word."
+
+The woman sat down at the desk and wrote hastily. When she had
+finished the short note, she read it over and folded it up.
+
+"Tell Mr. Del Mar I've left a note here on his desk," she said to
+the valet.
+
+A moment later she left the library, followed by the valet, who
+accompanied her to her car and assisted her in.
+
+"The hotel," she directed to her driver, as he started off, while
+the valet returned to the bungalow.
+
+Outside, the naturalist had come through the shrubbery and had
+been looking in at the library window, watching every move of
+Madame Larenz as she wrote. As she went out, he paused just a
+second to look about. Then he drew a long knife from his pocket,
+forced the window catch, and quickly climbed into the room.
+
+Directly to the desk he went and hurriedly ran over the papers on
+it. There was the note. He picked it up and read it eagerly.
+
+"My apartment--St. Germain--3 P. M.
+
+"LARENZ."
+
+For a moment he seemed to consider what to do. Then he replaced
+the note. Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps. It was the
+valet returning. Quickly the naturalist ran to the window and
+jumped out.
+
+A moment later, the valet entered the library again. "That's
+strange," he exclaimed under his breath, "I don't recall opening
+that window over there to-day."
+
+He looked puzzled. But as no one was about, he went over and shut
+it.
+
+Some distance down the road, the naturalist quietly emerged in
+safety from the bushes. With scarcely a moment's hesitation, his
+mind thoroughly made up to his course, he hurried along the road.
+
+Meanwhile, at the St. Germain, Madame Larenz entered and passed
+through the rotunda of the hotel, followed by many admiring
+glances of the men.
+
+Up in her room stood several large trunks, open. From them had
+been taken a number of gowns which were scattered about or hung up
+for exhibition.
+
+As she entered, quickly she selected one of the trunks whose
+contents were more smart than the rest and laid the gowns out most
+fetchingly about the room.
+
+In the office of the hotel a few moments later, the naturalist
+entered. He looked around curiously, then went to the desk and
+glanced over the register. At the name "Mme Larenz, Paris, Room
+22," he paused.
+
+For some seconds he stood thinking. Then he deliberately walked
+over to a leather chair and took a prominent seat near-by in the
+lobby. He had discarded his net, but still had the case which now
+he had shoved into his pocket. From a table, he picked up a
+newspaper.
+
+It was not long before Del Mar pulled up before the hotel and
+entered in his usual swagger manner. He had returned to the
+bungalow, read the note and hurried over to the St. Germain.
+
+He crossed the lobby, back to the office. As he did so, the
+naturalist had his face hidden deeply in the open newspaper. But
+no sooner had Del Mar passed than the newspaper fell unappreciated
+and he gazed after him, as he left the lobby by the back way.
+
+It was only a few minutes after she had completed arranging her
+small stock so that it looked quite impressive, that Madame Larenz
+heard a knock at the door and recognized Del Mar's secret code.
+She opened the door and he strode in.
+
+"I got your note," he said briefly, coming directly to business
+and telling her just what he wanted done. "Let me see," he
+concluded, glancing at his watch. "It is after three now. She ought
+to be here any minute."
+
+Outside, Elaine drove up to the rather garish entrance of the St.
+Germain and one of the boys in uniform ran forward to open the
+door and take charge of the car. She, too, crossed the lobby
+without seeing the old naturalist, though nothing escaped him.
+
+As she passed, he started to rise and cross toward her, then
+appeared to change his mind.
+
+Elaine went on out through the back of the lobby, directed by a
+boy, and mounted a flight of stairs, in preference to taking the
+lift to the second, or sort of mezzanine floor. Down along the
+corridor she went, hunting for number twenty-two. At last she
+found it at the end, and knocked.
+
+Del Mar and Madame Larenz were still talking in low tones when
+they heard a light tap on the door.
+
+"There she is, now," whispered Larenz.
+
+"All right. Let her in," answered Del Mar, leaping quietly to a
+closet. "I'll hide here until I get the signal. Do just as I told
+you."
+
+Outside, at the same time, according to his carefully concocted
+plans, Del Mar's car had driven up and stopped close to the side
+of the hotel, which was on a slight hill that brought the street
+level here not so far below the second story windows. Three of his
+most trusted men were in the car.
+
+Madame Larenz opened the door. "Oh, I'm so glad you came," she
+rattled on to Elaine. "You see, I've got to get started. Not a
+customer yet. But if you'll only take a few gowns, other people
+will come to me. I'll let you have them cheaply, too. Just look at
+this one."
+
+She held up one filmy, creamy creation that looked like a delicate
+flower.
+
+"I'd like to try it on," cried Elaine, fingering it rapturously.
+
+"By all means," agreed Madame. "We are alone. Do so."
+
+With deft fingers, Larenz helped her take off her own very pretty
+dress. As Elaine slipped the soft gown over her head, with her
+head and arms engaged in its multitudinous folds, Madame Larenz, a
+powerful woman, seized her. Elaine was effectually gagged and
+bound in the gown itself.
+
+Instantly, Del Mar flung himself from the closet, disguising his
+voice. Together, they wrapped the dress about Elaine even more
+tightly to prevent her screaming.
+
+Madame 'Larenz seized a blanket and threw that over Elaine's head,
+also, while Del Mar ran to the window. There were his men in the
+car, waiting below.
+
+"Are you ready?" he called softly to them.
+
+They looked about carefully. There was no one on that side of the
+hotel just at the moment.
+
+"Ready," responded one. "Quick!"
+
+Together, Del Mar and Madame Larenz passed Elaine, ineffectually
+struggling, out of the window. The men seized her and placed her
+in the bottom of the car, which was covered. Then they shot away,
+taking a back road up the hill.
+
+Hurriedly the naturalist went through the lobby in the direction
+Elaine had gone, and a moment later reached the corridor above.
+
+Down it, he could hear some one coming out of room twenty-two. He
+slid into an angle and hid.
+
+It was Del Mar and the woman he had seen at the bungalow. They
+passed by without discovering him, nor could he make out anything
+that they said. What mischief was afoot? Where was Elaine?
+
+He ran to the door and tried it. It was locked. Quickly, he took
+from his pocket a skeleton key and unlocked it. There was Elaine's
+hat and dress lying in a heap on the bed. But she was not there.
+He was now thoroughly alarmed.
+
+She could not have passed him in the hall. Therefore she must have
+gone or been taken out through the window. That would never have
+been voluntary, especially leaving her things there.
+
+The window was still open. He ran to it. One glance out was
+enough. He leaped to the ground. Sure enough, there were
+automobile tracks in the dust.
+
+"Del Mar's car," he muttered to himself, studying them.
+
+He fairly ran around the side of the hotel. There he came suddenly
+upon Elaine's car standing alone, and recognized it.
+
+There was no time for delay. He jumped into it, and let the swift
+little racer out as he turned and gathered momentum to shoot up
+the hill on high speed.
+
+Meanwhile, I had been jogging along through the country, lonely
+and disconsolate. I don't know how it happened, but I suppose it
+was by some subconscious desire. At any rate I found myself at the
+road that came out across one leading to the St. Germain and it
+occurred to me that Elaine might by this time have purchased
+enough frocks to clothe her for a year. At any rate I quickened my
+pace in the hope of seeing her.
+
+Suddenly, my horse shied and a familiar little car flashed past
+me. But the driver was not familiar. It was Elaine's roadster. In
+it was a stranger--a man who looked like a "bugologist," as nearly
+as I can describe him. Was he running off with her car while she
+was waiting inside the hotel?
+
+I galloped after him.
+
+Del Mar's automobile, with Elaine bound and gagged in it, drove
+rapidly by back and unfrequented ways into the country until at
+last it pulled up before an empty two-story house in a sort of
+grove of trees.
+
+The men leaped out, lifted Elaine, and carried her bodily into the
+house, taking her up-stairs and into an upper room. She had
+fainted when they laid her down and loosened the dress from about
+her face so that she could breathe. There they left her, on the
+floor, her hands and feet bound, and went out.
+
+How long she lay there, she never knew, but at last the air
+revived her and she regained consciousness and sat up. Her muscles
+were sore and her head ached. But she set her teeth and began
+struggling with the cords that bound her, managing at last to pull
+the dress over herself at least.
+
+In Elaine's car, the naturalist drove slowly at times, following
+the tracks of the automobile ahead. At last, however, he came to a
+place where he saw that the tracks went up a lonely side road. To
+approach in a car was to warn whoever was there. He ran the cat up
+alongside the road in the bushes and jumped out leaving it and
+following the tracks up the side roadway.
+
+As he approached a single deserted house, he left even the narrow
+road altogether and plunged into the woods, careful to proceed
+noiselessly. Through the bushes, near the house, he peered. There
+he could see one of Del Mar's men in the doorway, apparently
+talking to others behind him.
+
+Stealthily the naturalist crept around, still hiding, until he was
+closer to the house on the other side. At last he worked his way
+around to the rear door. He tried it. It was bolted and even the
+skeleton key was unavailing to slide the bolt. Seconds were
+precious.
+
+Quickly, he went to the corner of the house. There was a water-
+leader. He began to climb it, risking its precarious support.
+
+On the roof at last, the naturalist crawled along, looking for
+some way of getting into the house. But he could not seem to find
+any. Carefully, he crawled to the edge of the roof and looked
+over. Below, he could hear sounds, but could make nothing of them.
+
+From his pocket, he took the leather case and opened it. There was
+a peculiar arrangement, like some of the collapsible arms on which
+telephone instruments are often fastened to a desk or wall,
+capable of being collapsed into small space or of being extended
+for some distance. On the thing was arranged a system of mirrors,
+which the naturalist adjusted.
+
+It was a pocket periscope.
+
+He thrust the thing over the edge of the roof and down, and looked
+through it. Below, he could see into the room from which came the
+peculiar sounds.
+
+He looked anxiously. There he could see Elaine endeavoring still
+to loosen the cords and unable to do so. Only for a moment he
+looked. Then he folded up the pocket periscope into the case and
+shoved it back into his pocket. Quickly he crossed the roof again,
+and slid back down the rain-pipe.
+
+At the door stood three of Del Mar's men waiting for Del Mar who
+had told them he would follow immediately.
+
+The naturalist had by this time reached the ground and was going
+along carefully back of the house. He drew his revolver and,
+pointing it down, fired. Then he dodged back of an extension and
+disappeared for the moment.
+
+Instantly, the three men sprang up and ran toward the spot where
+it seemed the shot had been fired. There was no one about the side
+of the house. But the wind had carried the smoke into some bushes
+beside the grove and they crashed into the bushes, beating about.
+
+At the same time, the naturalist, having first waited until he saw
+which way the men were going, dashed about the house in the
+opposite direction. Then he slipped, unopposed and unobserved, in
+through the open front door, up the stairs and along to the room
+into which he had just been looking. He unlocked the door, and
+entered. Elaine was still struggling with the cords when she
+caught sight of the stranger.
+
+"Not a word," he cautioned under his breath.
+
+She was indeed too frightened to cry out. Quickly, he loosened
+her, still holding his finger to his lips to enjoin silence.
+
+"Follow me," he whispered.
+
+She obeyed mechanically, and they went out into the hall. On down-
+stairs went the naturalist, Elaine still keeping close after him.
+
+He looked out through the front door, then drew back. Quickly he
+went through the lower hall until he came to the back door in the
+kitchen, Elaine following. He unbolted the door and opened it.
+
+"Run," he said, simply, pointing out of the door. "They're coming
+back the other way. I'll hold them."
+
+She needed no further urging, but darted from the house as he
+closed the door after her.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was just at this point that Del Mar came riding along the main
+road on horseback. He pulled up suddenly as he saw a car run in
+alongside the road.
+
+"That's Elaine's runabout," he muttered, as he dismounted and tied
+his horse. "How came it here?"
+
+He approached the car, much worried by its unaccountable presence
+there instead of before the St. Germain. Then he drew his gun and
+hurried up the side road.
+
+He heard a shot and quickened his pace. In the woods unexpectedly
+he came upon his three men still beating about, searching with
+drawn revolvers for the person who had fired the shot.
+
+"Well?" he demanded sharply, "what's all this?"
+
+"Some one fired a shot," they explained, somewhat crestfallen.
+
+"It was a trick, you fools," he answered testily. "Get back to
+your prisoner."
+
+Without a word they turned and hurried toward the house, Del Mar
+following. "You two go in," he ordered the foremost. "I'll go
+around the house with Patrick."
+
+As Del Mar and the other man ran around the corner, they could
+just catch a fleeting glimpse on some one disappearing among the
+trees.
+
+It was Elaine.
+
+The man hurried forward, blazing away with his gun.
+
+Running, breathless, Elaine heard the shot behind her which Del
+Mar's man had fired in his eagerness. The bullet struck a tree
+near her with a "ping!" She glanced back and saw the man. But she
+did not stop. Instead, she redoubled her efforts, running zigzag
+in among the trees where they were thickest.
+
+Del Mar, a little bit behind his man where she could not recognize
+him, urged the man on, following carefully.
+
+On fled Elaine, her heart beating fast. Suddenly she stopped and
+almost cried out in vexation. A stream blocked her retreat, a
+stream, swift and deep.
+
+She looked back, terrified. Her pursuers were coming ahead fast
+now in her direction. Wildly she gazed around. There was a canoe
+on the bank. In an instant she jumped in, untied it, and seized
+the paddle. Off she went, striking for the opposite shore. But the
+current was racing swiftly, and she was already tired and
+exhausted. She could scarcely make any headway at all in the
+fierce eddies. But at least, she thought hurriedly, she was
+getting further and further away from them down-stream.
+
+Up above, Del Mar and his man came to the edge of the water. There
+they stood for a moment looking down.
+
+"There she is," pointed the man.
+
+Del Mar raised his revolver and fired.
+
+Suddenly a bullet struck Elaine's paddle and broke it. Clutching
+the useless splintered shaft, she was now at the mercy of the
+current, swept along like a piece of driftwood.
+
+She looked about frantically. What was that roaring noise?
+
+It was the waterfalls ahead!
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the meantime, Del Mar's other two men had entered the house and
+had run up-stairs, knowing well his wrath if anything had
+happened. As they did so, the naturalist poked his head cautiously
+out of the kitchen where he had been hiding, and saw them. Then he
+followed noiselessly, his revolver ready.
+
+Headlong they ran into the room where they had left Elaine. She
+was gone!
+
+Before they could turn, the naturalist locked the door, turned and
+took the steps down, two at a time.
+
+Then he ran out of the front door and into the woods at an angle
+to the direction taken by Elaine, turning and going down hill,
+where a rapid, swollen stream curved about through a gorge. As he
+reached the stream, he heard a shot above, and a scream.
+
+He looked up. There was Elaine, swept down toward him. Below he
+knew the stream tumbled over a tall cataract into the gorge below.
+
+What could he do?
+
+A sudden crackling of the twigs caused him to turn and catch sight
+of me, just coming up.
+
+For, as best I could on horseback, I had followed Elaine's car
+until at last I saw that it had been abandoned. Thoroughly
+alarmed, I rode on, past a deserted house until suddenly I heard a
+shot and a scream. It seemed to come from below me and I leaped
+off my horse, making for it as fast as I could, racing toward a
+stream whose roar I could hear.
+
+There on the bank I came upon a queer old codger, looking about
+wildly. Was he the automobile thief? I ran forward, ready to seize
+him. But as I did so, he whirled about and with a strength
+remarkable in one so old seized my own wrist before I could get
+his.
+
+"Look!" he cried simply, pointing up the stream.
+
+I did. A girl in a canoe was coming down toward the falls,
+screaming, her paddle broken and useless. My heart leaped into my
+mouth. It was Elaine!
+
+"Come," he panted eagerly to me. "I can save her. You must do just
+as I say."
+
+He pointed to an overhanging rock near-by and we ran to it.
+
+By this time Elaine was almost upon us, each second getting nearer
+the veritable maelstrom above the falls.
+
+From the rock overhung also a tree at the very edge of the water.
+
+There was nothing to do but obey him. Above, though we did not see
+them, Del Mar and his man were gloating over the result of their
+work. But they were gloating too soon. We came to the rock and the
+tree.
+
+"Here," cried the new-found friend, "I'll get hold of the tree and
+then hold you."
+
+Instantly he threw himself on his stomach, hooking his leg about
+the tree trunk. I crawled out over the ledge of slippery rock to
+the very edge and looked over. It was the only chance.
+
+The old naturalist seized my legs in his hands. I slid down the
+rock, letting myself go.
+
+Literally, his presence of mind had invented what was really a
+life chain, a human rope.
+
+On came the canoe, Elaine in it as white as death, crying out and
+trying to stop or guide it as, nearer and nearer through the
+smooth-worn walls of the chasm, it whirled to the falls.
+
+With a grip of steel, the naturalist held to the tree which swayed
+and bent, while also he held me, as if in a vise, head down.
+
+On came Elaine--directly at us.
+
+She stood up and balanced herself, a dangerous feat in a canoe at
+any time, but doubly so in those dark, swirling, treacherous
+waters.
+
+"Steady!" I encouraged. "Grab my arms!"
+
+As the canoe reached us, she gave a little jump and seized my
+forearms. Her hands slipped, but I grasped her own arms, and we
+held each other.
+
+The momentum of her body was great. For an instant I thought we
+were all going over. But the naturalist held his grip and slowly
+began to pull himself and us up the slippery rock.
+
+A second later the canoe crashed over the falls in a cloud of
+spray and pounding water.
+
+As we reached the bank above the rock, I almost lifted Elaine and
+set her down, trembling and gasping for breath. Before either of
+us knew it the queer old fellow had plunged into the bushes and
+was gone without another word.
+
+"Walter," she cried, "call him back, I must tell him how much I
+owe him--my life!"
+
+But he had disappeared, absolutely. We shouted after him. It was
+of no use.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" cried Elaine. "He saved my
+life--then didn't wait even to be thanked."
+
+Who was he?
+
+We looked at each other a moment. But neither of us spoke what was
+in our hearts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE FLASH
+
+
+Alone in the doorway before his rude shack on the shore of the
+promontory sat an old fisherman, gazing out fixedly at the harbor
+as though deeply concerned over the weather, which, as usual, was
+unseasonable.
+
+Suddenly he started and would have disappeared into his hut but
+for the fact that, although he could not himself be seen, he had
+already seen the intruder.
+
+It was a trooper from Fort Dale. He galloped up and, as though
+obeying to the letter his instructions, deliberately dropped an
+envelope at the feet of the fisherman. Then, without a word, he
+galloped away again.
+
+The fisherman picked up the envelope and opened it quickly. Inside
+was a photograph and a note. He read:
+
+   FORT DALE
+   PROFESSOR ARNOLD,
+
+   J. Smith, clerk in the War Department, has disappeared.
+   We are not sure, but fear that he has a copy
+   of the new Sandy Hook Defense Plans. It is believed
+   he is headed your way. He walks with a slight limp.
+   Look out for him.
+
+   LIEUTENANT WOODWARD.
+
+For a long time the fisherman appeared to study the face on the
+photograph until he had it indelibly implanted in his memory, as
+if by some system such as that of the immortal Bertillon and his
+clever "portrait parle," or spoken picture, for scientific
+identification and apprehension. It was not a pleasant face and
+there were features that were not easily forgotten.
+
+Finally he turned and entered his hut. Hastily he took off his
+stained reefer. From a wooden chest he drew another outfit of
+clothes. The transformation was complete. When he issued forth
+from his hut again, it was no longer the aged disciple of Izaac
+Walton. He was now a trim chauffeur, bearded and goggled.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In the library of his bungalow, Del Mar was pacing up and down,
+now and then scowling to himself, as though there flashed over his
+mind stray recollections of how some of his most cherished plans
+were miscarrying.
+
+Still, on the whole, he had nothing to complain of. For, a moment
+later the valet entered with a telegram for which he had evidently
+been waiting. Del Mar seized it eagerly and tore open the yellow
+envelope. On the blank was printed in the usual way the following
+non-committal message:
+
+        WASHINGTON, D. C.,
+                 August 12, 1915.
+
+MR. DEL MAR,
+
+What you request is coming. Answer to sign of the
+ring.--SMITH.
+
+"Good," muttered Del Mar as he finished reading. "Strange, what a
+little gold will do--when you know how to dispose of it."
+
+He smiled cynically to himself at the sentiment.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+At the little railroad station, they were quite proud of the fact
+that at least two of the four hacks had been replaced already by
+taxicabs.
+
+It was, then, with some surprise and not a little open jealousy
+that they saw a new taxicab drive up and take its stand by the
+platform.
+
+If the chauffeur, transformed from the lonely fisherman, had
+expected a cordial reception, he might better have stayed before
+his hut, for the glances the other drivers gave him were as black
+and lowering as the clouds he had been looking at.
+
+The new chauffeur got off his seat. Instead of trying to brazen it
+out, he walked over to the others who were standing in a group
+waiting for the approaching train whose whistle had already
+sounded.
+
+"I'm not going to locate here permanently," he said, pulling out a
+roll of bills as he spoke. "Leave any fare I claim to me," he
+added, passing a bill of a good denomination to each of the four
+jehus.
+
+They looked at him curiously. But what business of theirs was it?
+The money felt good.
+
+"All right, bo," they agreed.
+
+Thundering down the platform came the afternoon train, a great
+event in the town life.
+
+As the baggage was being tossed off, the passengers alighted and
+the five hackmen swarmed at them.
+
+"Keb, sir, kerridge. Taxi, lady!"
+
+From the Pullman alighted a widow, in deep mourning. As she got
+off and moved down the platform, it was apparent that she walked
+with a pronounced limp.
+
+At the end of the platform, the chauffeurs were still calling,
+while the newcomer looked over the crowd hastily. Suddenly he
+caught sight of the face of the widow. He stepped forward, as she
+approached. The others held back as they had agreed and paid no
+attention. It was like forcing a card.
+
+He held the door open and she entered the cab, unsuspecting. "Mr.
+Del Mar's," she directed, simply.
+
+As the new taxicab driver cranked his engine and climbed into the
+seat, he was careful to let no action of his, however small,
+betray the intense satisfaction he felt at the working of his
+scheme.
+
+He pulled away from the station. On through the pretty country
+roads the chauffeur drove the heavily veiled widow until at last
+they came to Del Mar's bungalow.
+
+At the gate he stopped and ran around to open the door to assist
+his fare to alight.
+
+"Wait for me," she said, without paying him yet. "I shall not be
+long and I want to be driven back to the station to catch the four
+twenty-nine to New York."
+
+As she limped up the gravel walk, he watched her closely. She went
+to the door and rang the bell, and the valet admitted her.
+
+Del Mar was still sitting, thinking, in the library.
+
+"Mr. Del Mar?" she inquired.
+
+The voice was not exactly soft, and Del Mar eyed her suspiciously.
+Was this the person he expected, or a "plant?"
+
+"Yes," he answered, guardedly, "I am Mr. Del Mar. And you?"
+
+The widow, too, evidently wished to make no mistake. As she spoke,
+she raised her hand. By that simple action she displayed a curious
+and conspicuous seal ring on her finger. It was the sign of the
+ring for which Del Mar had been waiting.
+
+He extended his own left hand. On the ring finger was another
+ring, but not similar. As he did so, the widow took the ring from
+her own finger and placed it on the little finger of Del Mar.
+
+"Good!" he exclaimed.
+
+Every action of the sign of the ring had been carried out.
+
+The woman raised her thick veil, disclosing the face of--a man!
+
+It was the same face, also, that had appeared in the photograph
+sent to the old fisherman by Woodward.
+
+Awkwardly, the man searched in the front of his shirtwaist and
+drew forth a paper which Del Mar almost seized in his eagerness.
+It was a pen and ink copy of a Government map, showing a huge spit
+of sand in the sea before a harbor, Sandy Hook and New York. On it
+were indicated all the defenses, the positions of guns,
+everything.
+
+Together, Del Mar and Smith bent over it, while the renegade clerk
+explained each mark on the traitorous map. They were too occupied
+to see a face flattened against the pane of a window near-by.
+
+The chauffeur had no intention of remaining inactive outside while
+he knew that something that interested him was transpiring inside.
+He had crept up by the side of the house to the window. But he
+could see little and hear nothing.
+
+A moment he strained every sense. It was no use. He must devise
+some other way. How could he get into that room? Slowly he
+returned to his car, thinking it over. There he stood for a moment
+revolving in his mind what to do. He looked up the road. An idea
+came to him. There he saw a little runabout approaching rapidly.
+
+Quickly he went around to the front of his car and lifted up the
+hood. Then he bent over and pretended to be tinkering with his
+engine.
+
+As the car was about to pass he deliberately stepped back,
+apparently not seeing the runabout, and was struck and knocked
+down.
+
+The runabout stopped, the emergency brakes biting hard.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine had asked me to go shopping in the village with her that
+afternoon. While I waited for her in her little car, she came down
+at last, carrying a little handbag. We drove off a moment later.
+
+It was a delightful ride, not too warm, but sunny. Without
+realizing it, we found ourselves on the road that led past Del
+Mar's.
+
+As we approached, I saw that there was a taxicab standing in front
+of the gate. The hood was lifted and the driver was apparently
+tinkering with his engine.
+
+"Let's not stop," said Elaine, who had by this time a peculiar
+aversion to the man.
+
+As we passed the driver, apparently not seeing us, stepped out
+and, before we could turn out, we had knocked him down. We stopped
+and ran back.
+
+There he lay on the road, seemingly unconscious. We lifted him up
+and I looked toward Del Mar's house.
+
+"Help!" I shouted at the top of my voice.
+
+The valet came to the door.
+
+Hearing me, the valet ran out down the walk. "All right," he
+cried. "I'll be there in a minute."
+
+With his help I picked up the taxicab chauffeur and we carried him
+into the house.
+
+Del Mar was talking with a person who looked like a widow, when
+they heard our approach up the walk carrying the injured man.
+
+So engrossed had they been in discerning what the stolen document
+contained that, as we finally entered, the widow had only time to
+drop her veil and conceal her identity as the renegade Smith. Del
+Mar still held the plan in his hand.
+
+The valet and I entered with Elaine and we placed the chauffeur on
+a couch near Del Mar's desk. I remember that there was this
+strange woman all in black, heavily veiled, in the room at the
+time.
+
+"I think we ought to telephone for a doctor," said Elaine placing
+her hand-bag on the desk and excitedly telling Del Mar how we had
+accidentally knocked the man down.
+
+"Call up my doctor, Henry," said Del Mar, hastily thrusting the
+plan into a book lying on the desk.
+
+We gathered about the man, trying to revive him.
+
+"Have you a little stimulant?" I asked, turning from him.
+
+Del Mar moved toward a cellarette built into the wall. We were all
+watching him, our backs to the chauffeur, when suddenly he must
+have regained consciousness very much. Like a flash his hand shot
+out. He seized the plan from between the leaves of the book. He
+had not time to get away with it himself. Perhaps he might be
+searched. He opened Elaine's bag, and thrust it in.
+
+The valet by this time had finished telephoning and spoke to Del
+Mar.
+
+"The doctor will be here shortly, Miss Dodge," said Del Mar. "You
+need not wait, if you don't care to. I'll take care of him."
+
+"Oh, thank you--ever so much," she murmured. "Of course it wasn't
+our fault, but I feel sorry for the poor fellow. Tell the doctor
+to send me the bill."
+
+She and Del Mar shook hands. I thought he held her hand perhaps a
+little longer and a little tighter than usual. At any rate Elaine
+seemed to think so.
+
+"Why, what a curious ring, Mr. Del Mar," she said, finally
+releasing her own hand from his grasp.
+
+Then she looked quickly at the woman, half joking, as if the ring
+had something to do with the strange woman. She looked back at the
+ring. Del Mar smiled, shook his head and laughed easily.
+
+Then Elaine picked up her bag and we went out. A moment later we
+climbed back into the car and were off again.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Having left us at the door, Del Mar hurried back to the library.
+He went straight to the desk and picked up the book, eager now to
+make sure of the safety of the plan.
+
+It was gone!
+
+"Did you, Smith--" he began hastily, then checked himself, knowing
+that the clerk had not taken the plan.
+
+Del Mar walked over to the couch and stood a moment looking at the
+chauffeur. "I wonder who he is," he said to himself. "I don't
+recall ever seeing him at the station or in the village."
+
+He leaned over closer. "The deuce!" he exclaimed, "that's a fake
+beard the fellow has on."
+
+Del Mar made a lunge for it. As he did so, the chauffeur leaped to
+his feet and drew a gun. "Hands up!" he shouted. "And the first
+man that moves is a dead one!"
+
+Before the secret agent knew it, both he and Smith were covered.
+The chauffeur took a step toward Smith and unceremoniously jerked
+off the widow's weeds, as well as the wig.
+
+At that very moment one of Del Mar's men came up to the secret
+panel that opened from the underground passageway into his
+library. He was about to open it when he heard a sound on the
+other side that startled him. He listened a moment, then slid it
+just a short distance and looked in.
+
+There he saw a chauffeur holding up Del Mar and Smith. Having
+pulled the disguise from Smith, he went next around Del Mar and
+took his gun from his pocket, then passed his hands over the folds
+of Smith's dress, but found no weapon. He stepped back away from
+them.
+
+At that point the man quietly slid the panel all the way open and
+silently stepped into the room, behind the chauffeur. Cautiously
+he began sneaking up on him.
+
+As he did so, Del Mar and Smith watched, fascinated. Somehow their
+faces must have betrayed that something was wrong. For, as the
+newcomer leaped at him, the chauffeur turned suddenly and fired.
+The shot wounded the man.
+
+It was a signal for a free-for-all fight. Del Mar and Smith leaped
+at the intruder. Over and over they rolled, breaking furniture,
+overturning and smashing bric-a-brac.
+
+Del Mar's revolver was knocked out of the chauffeur's hand. With a
+blow of a chair, the chauffeur laid out Smith, entangled in his
+unfamiliar garments, shook himself loose from the two others, and
+made a rush at the door.
+
+Del Mar paused only long enough to pick up the revolver from the
+floor. Instantly he fired at the retreating form. But the
+chauffeur had passed out and banged shut the door. Down the walk
+he sped and out to the gate, into his car, the engine of which he
+had left running.
+
+Hard after him came Del Mar and the rest, joined now by Henry, the
+valet. One shot was left in the chauffeur's revolver and he blazed
+away as he leaped into the car.
+
+"He's got me," groaned Smith as he stumbled and fell forward.
+
+On kept Del Mar and the others. They caught up with the car just
+as it was starting. But the chauffeur knocked the gun from Del
+Mar's hand before he could get a good aim and fire, at the same
+time bowling over the man who had come through the panel.
+
+Off the car went, now rapidly gaining speed. Del Mar had just time
+to swing on the rear of it.
+
+Around the rapidly-driven car, he climbed, hanging on for dear
+life, over the mud-guard and toward the running-board. On sped the
+car, swaying crazily back and forth, Del Mar crouched on the
+running-board and working his way slowly and perilously to the
+front seat.
+
+The chauffeur felt the weight of some one on that side. Just as he
+turned to see what it was, Del Mar leaped at him. Still holding
+the wheel, the chauffeur fought him off with his free hand, Del
+Mar holding on to some spare tires with one hand, also.
+Handicapped by having the steering-wheel to manage, nevertheless
+the chauffeur seemed quite well able to give a good account of
+himself.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Somehow, Elaine and I must have been hoodooed that day.
+
+We had not been gone five minutes from Del Mar's after the
+accident to the chauffeur, when we heard a mysterious knock in the
+engine.
+
+"More engine trouble," I sighed. "Pull up along the road and I'll
+see if I can fix it."
+
+We stopped and both got out. There was no fake about this trouble
+or about the dirt and grease I acquired on my hands and face,
+tinkering with that motor. For, regardless of my immaculate
+flannels, I had to set to work. A huge spot of grease spattered on
+me. Elaine laughed outright.
+
+"Here, let me powder your nose, Walter," she cried undismayed at
+our trouble, gayly opening her bag. "Well--of all things--what's
+this, and where did it come from?"
+
+I turned from the engine and looked. She was holding some kind of
+plan or document in her hand. In blank surprise she examined it.
+It looked like a fort or a series of forts. But I was sure at a
+glance that it was not Fort Dale.
+
+"What do you think it is, Walter?" she asked, handing it to me.
+
+I took it and examined it carefully. Incredible as it seemed, I
+figured out quickly that it must be nothing short of a plan of the
+new defenses at Sandy Hook.
+
+"I don't know what it all means," I said. "But I do know that we
+won't get any dinner till I get this engine running again."
+
+I fell to work again, eager to get away with our dangerous prize,
+Elaine now and then advising me. Finally I turned the engine over.
+For a wonder it ran smoothly. "Well, that's all right, at last," I
+sighed, wiping the grease off my hands on a piece of waste.
+
+"What's the matter now?" exclaimed Elaine, turning quickly and
+looking up the road along which we had just come.
+
+There, lurching along at full speed was a car. Two men were
+actually fighting on the front of it regardless of speed and
+safety. As it neared us, I saw it was the taxicab that had been
+standing before Del Mar's. I looked closer at it. To my utter
+amazement, who should be driving it but the very chauffeur whom we
+had left at Del Mar's only a few minutes before, apparently
+unconscious. He could not have been hurt very badly, for he was
+not only able to drive but was fighting off a man clinging on the
+running-board.
+
+On rushed the car, directly at us. Just as it passed us, the
+chauffeur seemed to summon all his strength. He struck a powerful
+blow at the man, recoiled and straightened out his car just in
+time. The man fell, literally at our feet.
+
+It was Del Mar himself!
+
+On sped the taxicab. Bruised though he must have been by the fall,
+Del Mar nevertheless raised himself by the elbow and fired every
+chamber of his revolver as fast as he could pump the bullets.
+
+I must say that I admired the man's pluck. Elaine and I hurried
+over to him. I still had in my hand the queer paper which she had
+found so strangely in her hand-bag.
+
+"Why, what's all this about?" I asked eagerly.
+
+Before I could raise him up, Del Mar had regained his feet.
+
+"Just a plain crook, who attacked me," he muttered, brushing off
+his clothes to cover up the quick recognition of what it was that
+I was holding in my hand, for he had seen the plan immediately.
+
+"Can't we drive you back?" asked Elaine, quite forgetting our
+fears of Del Mar in the ugly predicament in which he just had
+been. "We've had trouble but I guess we can get you back."
+
+"Thank you," he said, forcing a smile. "I think anything would be
+an improvement on my ride here and I'm sure you can do more than
+you claim."
+
+He climbed up and sat on the floor of the roadster, his feet
+outside, and we drove off. At last we pulled up at Dodge Hall
+again.
+
+"Won't you come in?" asked Elaine as we got out.
+
+"Thank you, I believe I will for a few minutes," consented Del
+Mar, concealing his real eagerness to follow me. "I'm all shaken
+up."
+
+As we entered the living-room, I was thinking about the map. I
+opened a table drawer, hastily took the plan from my pocket and
+locked it in the drawer. Elaine, meanwhile, was standing with Del
+Mar who was talking, but in reality watching me closely.
+
+A smile of satisfaction seemed to flit over his face as he saw
+what I had done and now knew where the paper was.
+
+I turned to him. "How are you now?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, I'm much better--all right," he answered. Then he looked at
+his watch. "I've a very important appointment. If you'll excuse
+me, I'll walk over to my place. Thank you again, Miss Dodge, ever
+so kindly."
+
+He bowed low and was gone.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Down the road past where we had turned, before a pretty little
+shingle house, the taxicab chauffeur stopped. One of the bullets
+had taken effect on him and his shoulder was bleeding. But the
+worst, as he seemed to think it, was that another shot had given
+him a flat tire.
+
+He jumped out and looked up the road whence he had come. No one
+was following. Still, he was worried. He went around to look at
+the tire. But he was too weak now from loss of blood. It had been
+nerve and reserve force that had carried him through. Now that the
+strain was off, he felt the reaction to the full.
+
+Just then the doctor and his driver, whom the valet had already
+summoned to Del Mar's, came speeding down the road. The doctor saw
+the chauffeur fall in a half faint, stopped his car and ran to
+him. The chauffeur had kept up as long as he could. He had now
+sunk down beside his machine in the road.
+
+A moment later they picked him up and carried him into the house.
+There was no acting about his hurts now. In the house they laid
+the man down on a couch and the doctor made a hasty examination.
+
+"How is he?" asked one of the kind Samaritans.
+
+"The wound is not dangerous," replied the physician, "but he's
+lost a lot of blood. He cannot be moved for some time yet."
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+We talked about nothing else at Dodge Hall after dressing for
+dinner but the strange events over at Del Mar's and what had
+followed. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me
+that we would never be left over night in peaceful possession of
+the plan which both Elaine and I decided ought on the following
+day to be sent to Washington.
+
+Accordingly I cudgelled my brain for some method of protecting
+both ourselves and it. The only thing I could think of was a
+scheme once adopted by Kennedy in another case. How I longed for
+him. But I had to do my best alone.
+
+I had a small quick shutter camera that had belonged to Craig and
+just as we were about to retire, I brought it into the living-room
+with a package I had had sent up from the village.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Elaine curiously.
+
+I assumed an air of mystery but did not say, for I was not sure
+but that even now some one was eavesdropping. It was not late, but
+the country air made us all sleepy and Aunt Josephine, looking at
+the clock, soon announced that she was going to retire.
+
+She had no sooner said good-night than Elaine began again to
+question me. But I had determined not to tell her what I was
+doing, for if my imitation of Kennedy failed, I knew that she
+would laugh at me.
+
+"Oh, very well," she said finally in pique, "then, if you're going
+to be so secret about it, you can sit up alone--there!"
+
+She flounced off to bed. Sure as I could be at last that I was
+alone, I opened the package. There were the tools that I had
+ordered, a coil of wire and some dry cells. Then I went to the
+table, unlocked the drawer and put the plan in my pocket. I had
+determined that whether the idea worked or not, no one was to get
+the plan except by overcoming me.
+
+Although I was no expert at wiring, I started to make the
+connections under the table with the drawer, not a very difficult
+thing to do as long as it was to be only temporary and for the
+night. From the table I ran the wires along the edge of the carpet
+until I came to the book-case. There, masked by the books, I
+placed the little quick shutter camera, and at a distance also
+concealed the flash-light pan.
+
+Next I aimed the camera carefully and focussed it on a point above
+the drawer on the writing-table where any one would be likely to
+stand if he attempted to open it. Then I connected the shutter of
+the camera and a little spark coil in the flash-pan with the
+wires, using an apparatus to work the shutter such as I recalled
+having seen Craig use. Finally I covered the sparking device with
+the flash-light powder, gave a last look about and snapped off the
+light.
+
+Up in my bedroom, I must say I felt like "some" detective and I
+could not help slapping myself on the chest for the ingenuity with
+which I had duplicated Craig.
+
+Then I lay down on the bed with my clothes on and picked up a
+book, determined to keep awake to see if anything happened. It was
+a good book, but I was tired and in spite of myself I nodded over
+it, and then dropped it.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In his bungalow, now that Smith had gone back again to New York
+and Washington, Del Mar was preparing to keep the important
+engagement he had told us about, another of his nefarious
+nocturnal expeditions.
+
+He drew a cap on his head, well over his ears and forehead. His
+eyes and face he concealed as well as he could with a mask to be
+put on later. To his equipment he added a gun. Then with a hasty
+word or two to his valet, he went out.
+
+By back ways so that even in the glare of automobile headlights he
+would not be recognized, he made his way to Dodge Hall. As he saw
+the house looming up in the moonlight he put on his mask and
+approached cautiously. Gaining the house, he opened a window,
+noiselessly turning the catch as deftly as a house-breaker, and
+climbed into the living-room.
+
+A moment he looked around, then tiptoed over to the table. He
+looked at it to be sure that it was the right one and the right
+drawer. Then he bent down to force the drawer open.
+
+"Pouf!" a blinding flash came and a little metallic click of the
+shutter, followed by a cloud of smoke.
+
+As quick as it happened, there went through Del Mar's head, the
+explanation. It was a concealed camera. He sprang back, clapping
+his hands over his face. Out of range for a moment, he stood
+gazing about the room, trying to locate the thing.
+
+Suddenly he heard footsteps. He dived through the window that he
+had opened, just as some one ran in and switched on the lights.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Half asleep, I heard a muffled explosion, as if of a flash-light.
+I started up and listened. Surely some one was moving about down-
+stairs. I pulled my gun from my pocket and ran out of the room.
+Down the steps I flung myself, two at a time.
+
+In the living-room, I switched on the lights in time to see some
+one disappear through an open window. I ran to the window and
+looked out. There was a man, half doubled up, running around the
+side of the house and into a clump of bushes, then apparently
+lost. I shot out of the window and called.
+
+My only answer was an imprecation and return volley that shattered
+the glass above my head. I ducked hastily and fell flat on the
+floor, for in the light streaming out, I must have been a good
+mark.
+
+I was not the only one who heard the noise. The shots quickly
+awakened Elaine and she leaped out of bed and put on her kimono.
+Then she lighted the lights and ran down-stairs.
+
+The intruder had disappeared by this time and I had got up and was
+peering out of the window as she came breathlessly into the
+living-room.
+
+"What's the matter, Walter?" she asked.
+
+"Some one broke into the house after those plans," I replied. "He
+escaped, but I got his picture, I think, by this device of
+Kennedy's. Let's go into a dark room and develop it."
+
+There was no use trying to follow the man further. To Elaine's
+inquiry of what I meant, I replied by merely going over to the
+spot where I had hidden the camera and disconnecting it.
+
+We went up-stairs where I had rigged up an impromptu dark room for
+my amateur photographic work some days before. Elaine watched me
+closely. At last I found that I had developed something. As I drew
+the film through the hypo tray and picked it up, I held it to the
+red light.
+
+Elaine leaned over and looked at the film with me. There was a
+picture of a masked man, his cap down, in a startled attitude, his
+hands clapped to his face, completely hiding what the mask and cap
+did not hide.
+
+"Well, I'll be blowed!" I cried in chagrin at the outcome of what
+I thought had been my cleverest coup.
+
+A little exclamation of astonishment escaped Elaine. I turned to
+her. "What is it?" I asked.
+
+"The ring!" she cried.
+
+I looked again more closely. On the little finger of the left hand
+was a peculiar ring. Once seen, I think it was not readily
+forgotten. "The ring!" she repeated excitedly. "Don't you
+remember--that ring? I saw it on Mr. Del Mar's hand--at his house-
+-this afternoon!"
+
+I could only stare.
+
+At last we had a real clue!
+
+In his bungalow, Del Mar at that moment threw down his hat and
+tore off his mask furiously.
+
+What had he done?
+
+For a long time he sat there, his chin on his hand, gazing fixedly
+before him, planning to protect himself and revenge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DISAPPEARING HELMETS
+
+
+It was early the following morning that, very excited, Elaine and
+I showed Aunt Josephine the photograph which we had snapped and
+developed by using Kennedy's trick method.
+
+"But who is it?" asked Aunt Josephine examining the print
+carefully and seeing nothing but a face masked and with a pair of
+hands before it, a seal ring on the little finger of one hand.
+
+"Oh, I forgot that you hadn't seen the ring before," explained
+Elaine. "Why, we knew him at once, in spite of everything, by that
+seal ring--Mr. Del Mar!"
+
+"Mr. Del Mar?" repeated Aunt Josephine, looking from one to the
+other of us, incredulous.
+
+"I saw the ring at his own bungalow and on his own finger,"
+reiterated Elaine positively.
+
+But what are you going to do, now?" asked Aunt Josephine.
+
+"Have him arrested, of course," Elaine replied.
+
+Still talking over the strange experience of the night before, we
+went out on the veranda.
+
+"Well, of all the nerve!" exclaimed Elaine, catching sight of a
+man coming up the gravel walk. "If that isn't Henry, Mr. Del Mar's
+valet!"
+
+The valet advanced as though nothing had happened and, indeed, I
+suppose that as far as he knew nothing had happened or was known
+to us. He bowed and handed Elaine a note which she tore open
+quickly and read.
+
+"Would you go?" she asked, handing the note over to me.
+
+It read:
+
+DEAR MISS DODGE,
+
+If you and Mr. Jameson will call on me to-day, I will have
+something of interest to tell you concerning my investigations in
+the case of the disappearance of Craig Kennedy.
+
+Sincerely,
+
+M. DEL MAR.
+
+"Yes," I asserted, "I would go."
+
+"Tell Mr. Del Mar we shall see him as soon as possible," nodded
+Elaine to the valet who bowed and left quickly.
+
+"What is it?" inquired Aunt Josephine, rejoining us.
+
+"A note from Mr. Del Mar," replied Elaine showing it to her.
+
+"Well," queried Aunt Josephine, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"We're going, of course," cried Elaine.
+
+"You're not," blurted out Aunt Josephine. "Why, just think. He's
+sure to do something."
+
+But Elaine and I had made up our minds.
+
+"I know it," I interjected. "He's sure to try something that will
+show his hand--and then I've got him."
+
+Perhaps I threw out my chest a little more than was necessary, but
+then I figured that Elaine with her usual intuition had for once
+agreed with me and that it must be all right. I drew my gun and
+twirled the cylinder about as I spoke. Indeed I felt, since the
+success of the snapshot episode, that I was a match for several
+Del Mar's.
+
+"Yes, Walter is right," agreed Elaine.
+
+Aunt Josephine continued to shake her head sagely in protest. But
+Elaine waved all her protestations aside and ran into the house to
+get ready for the visit.
+
+Half an hour later, two saddle horses were brought around to the
+front of Dodge Hall and Elaine and I sallied forth.
+
+Aunt Josephine was still protesting against our going to Del
+Mar's, but we had made up our minds to carry the thing through.
+"You know," she insisted, "that Mr. Kennedy is not around to
+protect you two children. Something will surely happen to you if
+you don't keep out of this affair."
+
+"Oh, Auntie," laughed Elaine, a bit nervously, however, "don't be
+a kill-joy. Suppose Craig isn't about? Who's going to do this, if
+Walter and I don't?"
+
+In spite of all, we mounted and rode away.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Del Mar, still continuing his nefarious work of mining American
+harbors and bridges, had arrived at a scheme as soon as he
+returned from the attempt to get back from us the Sandy Hook
+plans. Smith, who had stolen the plans from the War Department,
+was still at the bungalow.
+
+Early in the morning, Del Mar had seated himself at his desk and
+wrote a letter.
+
+"Here, Henry," he directed his valet, "take this to Miss Dodge."
+
+As the valet went out, he wrote another note. "Read that," he
+said, handing it over to Smith. "It's a message I want you to take
+to headquarters right away."
+
+It was worded cryptically:
+
+A. A. L.     N. Y.
+ Closely watched. Must act soon or all will be discovered.--M.
+
+Smith read the note, nodded, and put it into his pocket, as he
+started to the door.
+
+"No, no," shouted Del Mar, calling him back. "This thing means
+that you'll have to be careful in your getaway. You'd better go
+out through my secret passage," he added, pointing to the panel in
+the library wall.
+
+He pressed the button on the desk and Smith left through the
+hidden passage. Down it he groped and at the other end emerged.
+Seeing no one around, he made his way to the road. There seemed to
+be no one who looked at all suspicious on the road, either, and
+Smith congratulated himself on his easy escape.
+
+On a bridge over a creek, however, as Smith approached, was one
+inoffensive-looking person who might have been a minister or a
+professor. He was leaning on the rail in deep thought, gazing at
+the creek that ran beneath him, and now and then flashing a sharp
+glance about.
+
+Suddenly he saw something approaching. Instantly he dodged to the
+farther end of the bridge and took refuge behind a tree. Smith
+walked on over the bridge, oblivious to the fact that he was
+watched. No sooner had he disappeared than the inquisitive
+stranger emerged again from behind the tree.
+
+It was the mysterious Professor Arnold who many times had shown a
+peculiar interest in the welfare of Elaine and myself.
+
+Evidently he had recognized Del Mar's messenger, for after
+watching him a moment he turned and followed.
+
+At the railroad station, just before the train for New York pulled
+in, the waiting crowd was increased by one stranger. Smith had
+come in and taken his place unostentatiously among them.
+
+But if he thought he was to be lost in the little crowd, he was
+much mistaken. Arnold had followed, but not so quickly that he had
+not had time to pick up the two policemen that the town boasted,
+both of whom were down at the station at the time.
+
+"There he is," indicated Arnold, "the fellow with the slight limp.
+Bring him to my room in the St. Germain Hotel."
+
+"All right, sir," replied the officers, edging their way to the
+platform as Arnold retreated back of the station and disappeared
+up the street.
+
+Just then the train pulled into the station and the passengers
+crowded forward to mount the steps. Smith was just about to push
+his way on with them, when the officers elbowed through the crowd.
+
+"You're wanted," hissed one of them, seizing his shoulder.
+
+But Smith, in spite of his deformity, was not one to submit to
+arrest without a struggle. He fought them off and broke away,
+running toward the baggage-room.
+
+As he rushed in, they followed. One of them was gaining on him and
+took a flying football tackle. The other almost fell over the
+twisted mass of arms and legs. The struggle now was short and
+sharp and ended in the officers slipping the bracelets over the
+wrists of Smith. While the passengers and bystanders crowded about
+to watch the excitement, they led him off quickly.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In his rooms at the St. Germain, cluttered with test tubes and
+other paraphernalia which indicated his scientific tendencies,
+Professor Arnold entered and threw off his hat, lighting a
+cigarette and waiting impatiently.
+
+He had not as long to wait as he had expected. A knock sounded at
+the door and he opened it. There was Smith handcuffed and forced
+in by the two policemen.
+
+"Good work," commended Arnold, at once setting to work to search
+the prisoner who fumed but could not resist.
+
+"What have we here?" drawled Arnold in mock courtesy and surprise
+as he found and drew forth from Smith's pocket a bundle of papers,
+which he hastily ran through.
+
+"Ah!" he muttered, coming to Del Mar's note, which he opened and
+read. "What's this? 'A. A. L. N. Y. Closely watched. Must act soon
+or all will be discovered. M.' Now, what's all that?"
+
+Arnold pondered the text deeply. "You may take him away, now," he
+concluded, glancing up from the note to the officers. "Thank you."
+
+"All right, sir," they returned, prodding Smith along out.
+
+Still studying the note, Arnold sat down at the desk. Thoughtfully
+he picked up a pencil. Under the letters A. A. L. he slowly wrote
+"Anti-American League" and under the initial M the name, "Martin."
+
+"Now is the time, if ever, to use that new telaphotograph
+instrument which I have installed for the War Department in
+Washington and carry around with me," he said to himself, rising
+and going to a closet.
+
+He took out a large instrument composed of innumerable coils and a
+queer battery of selenium cells. It was the receiver of the new
+instrument by which a photograph could be sent over a telegraph
+wire.
+
+Down-stairs, in the telegraph room of the hotel, Arnold secured
+the services of one of the operators. Evidently by the way they
+obeyed him they had received orders from the company regarding
+him, and knew him well there.
+
+"I wish you'd send this message right away to Washington," he
+said, handing in a blank he had already written.
+
+The clerk checked it over:
+
+  U. S. WAR DEPARTMENT,    Washington, D. C.
+
+   Wire me immediately photograph and personal history
+   of Martin arrested two years ago as head of Anti-
+   American League.--ARNOLD.
+
+As the message was ticked off, Arnold attached his receiving
+telaphotograph instrument to another wire.
+
+It was a matter scarcely of seconds before a message was flashed
+back to Arnold from Washington:
+
+   Martin escaped from Fort Leavenworth six months
+   ago. Thought to be in Europe. Photograph follows.
+
+                 EDWARDS.
+
+"Very well," nodded Arnold with satisfaction. "I think I know what
+is going on here now. Let us wait for the photograph."
+
+He went over to the new selenium telaphotograph and began
+adjusting it.
+
+Far away, in Washington, in a room in the War Department where
+Arnold had already installed his system for the secret government
+service, a clerk was also working over the sending part of the
+apparatus.
+
+No sooner had the clerk finished his preparations and placed a
+photograph in the transmitter than the buzzing of the receiver
+which Arnold had installed announced to him that the marvellous
+transmission of a picture over a wire, one of the very newest
+triumphs of science, was in progress. In the little telegraph
+office of the St. Germain, the clerks and operators crowded about
+Arnold, watching breathlessly.
+
+"By Jove, it works!" cried one, no longer sceptical.
+
+Slowly a print was being evolved before their eyes as if by a
+spirit hand. Arnold watched the synchronizer apparatus carefully
+as, point after point, the picture developed. He bent over
+closely, his attention devoted to every part of the complicated
+apparatus.
+
+At last the transmission of the photograph was completed and the
+machine came to rest. Arnold almost tore the print from the
+receiver and held it up to examine it.
+
+A smile of intense satisfaction crossed his face.
+
+"At last!" he muttered.
+
+There was a photograph of the man who had been identified with the
+arch conspirators of two years before, Martin. Only, now he had
+changed his name and appeared in a new role.
+
+It was Marcus Del Mar!
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Already, in the library of his bungalow, Del Mar had summoned one
+of his trusted men and was talking to him, when Henry, the valet,
+reentered after his trip to see us.
+
+"They're coming as soon as they can," he reported.
+
+Del Mar smiled a cynical smile. "Good," he exclaimed triumphantly,
+then, looking about at the electric fixtures, added to the man,
+"Let us see where to install the thing."
+
+He walked over to the door and put his hand on the knob, then
+pointed back at the fixtures.
+
+"That's the idea," he cried. "You can run the line from the
+brackets to this door-knob and the mat. How's that?"
+
+"Very clever," flattered the man, putting on a heavy pair of
+rubber gloves.
+
+Taking a pair of pliers and other tools from a closet in the
+library, he began removing the electric fixture from the wall. As
+Del Mar directed, the man ran a wire from the fixture along the
+moulding, and down the side of a door, where he made a connection.
+
+In the meantime Del Mar brought out a wire mat and laid it in
+front of the door where any one who entered or left would be sure
+to step on it. The various connections made, the man placed a
+switch in the concealment of a heavily-curtained window and
+replaced everything as he found it.
+
+Thus it was that Elaine and I came at last to Del Mar's bungalow,
+I must admit, with some misgivings. But I had gone too far to draw
+back now and Elaine was more eager even than I was. We dismounted,
+tethered our horses and went toward the house, where I rang the
+bell.
+
+Preparations for our reception had just been completed and Del Mar
+was issuing his final instructions to his man, when the valet,
+Henry, ran in hastily.
+
+"They're here, sir, now," he announced excitedly.
+
+"All right, I'm ready," nodded Del Mar, turning to his man again
+and indicating a place back of the folds of the heavy curtains by
+the window. "You get back there by that switch. Don't move--don't
+even breathe. Now, Henry, let them in."
+
+As his valet withdrew Del Mar gazed about his library to make sure
+that everything was all right. Just then the valet reappeared and
+ushered us in.
+
+"Good morning," greeted Del Mar pleasantly. "I see that you got my
+note and I'm glad you were so prompt. Won't you be seated?"
+
+Both Elaine and I were endeavoring to appear at ease. But there
+was a decided tension in the atmosphere. We sat down, however. Del
+Mar did not seem to notice anything wrong.
+
+"I've something at last to report to you about Kennedy," he said a
+moment later, clearing his throat.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Aunt Josephine turned from us as Elaine and I rode off on our
+horses from Dodge Hall considerably worried.
+
+Then an idea seemed to occur to her and she walked determinedly
+into the house.
+
+"Jennings," she called to the butler, "have the limousine brought
+around from the garage immediately."
+
+"Yes, ma'am," acquiesced the faithful Jennings, hurrying out.
+
+It was only a few minutes later that the car pulled around before
+the door. Aunt Josephine bustled out and entered.
+
+"Fort Dale," she directed the driver, greatly agitated. "Ask for
+Lieutenant Woodward."
+
+Out at Fort Dale, Woodward was much astonished when an orderly
+announced that Aunt Josephine was waiting in her car to see him on
+very urgent business. He ordered that she be admitted at once.
+
+"I hope there's nothing wrong?" he inquired anxiously, as he noted
+the excitement and the worried look on her face.
+
+"I--I'm afraid there may be," she replied, sitting down and
+explaining what Elaine and I had just done.
+
+The Lieutenant listened gravely.
+
+"And," she concluded, "they wouldn't listen to me, Lieutenant.
+Can't you follow them and keep them out of trouble?"
+
+Woodward who had been listening to her attentively jumped up as
+she concluded. "Yes," he cried sympathetically, "I can. I'll go
+myself with some of the men from the post. If they get into any
+scrape, I'll rescue them."
+
+Almost before she could thank him, Woodward had hurried from his
+office, followed by her. On the parade grounds were some men.
+Quickly he issued his orders and a number of them sprang up as he
+detailed them off for the duty. It was only a moment before they
+returned, armed. An instant later three large touring cars from
+the Fort swept up before the office of Woodward. Into them the
+armed men piled.
+
+"Hurry--to the Del Mar bungalow," ordered the Lieutenant, jumping
+up with the driver of the first car. "We must see that nothing
+happens to Miss Dodge and Mr. Jameson."
+
+They shot away in a cloud of dust, followed hard by the other two
+cars, dashing at a breakneck speed over the good roads.
+
+In the narrow, wooded roadway near Del Mar's, Woodward halted his
+car and the soldiers all jumped out and gathered about him as
+hastily he issued his directions.
+
+"Surround the house, first," he ordered. "Then arrest any one who
+goes in or out."
+
+They scattered, forming a wide circle. As soon as word was passed
+that the circle was completed, they advanced cautiously at a
+signal from Woodward, taking advantage of every concealment.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Around in the kitchen back of Del Mar's, Henry, the valet, had
+retired to visit one of the maids. He was about to leave when he
+happened to look out of the window.
+
+"What's that?" he muttered to himself.
+
+He stepped back and peered cautiously through the window again.
+There he could see a soldier, moving stealthily behind a bush.
+
+He drew back further and thought a minute. He must not alarm us.
+
+Then he wrote a few words on a piece of paper and tore it so that
+he could hold it in his palm. Next he hurried from the kitchen and
+entered the study.
+
+Del Mar had scarcely begun to outline to us a long and
+circumstantial pseudo-investigation into what he was pleased to
+hint had been the death of Kennedy, when we were interrupted again
+by the entrance of his valet.
+
+"Excuse me, sir," apologized Henry, as Del Mar frowned, then noted
+that something was wrong.
+
+As the valet said the words, he managed surreptitiously to hand to
+Del Mar the paper which he had written, now folded up into a very
+small space.
+
+I had turned from Del Mar when the valet entered, apparently to
+speak to Elaine, but in reality to throw them off their guard.
+
+Under that cover I was able to watch the precious pair from the
+tail of my eye, I saw Del Mar nod to the valet as though he
+understood that some warning was about to be conveyed. Although
+nothing was said, Del Mar was indicating by dumb show orders of
+some kind. I had no idea what it was all about but I stood ready
+to whip out my gun on the slightest suspicious move from either.
+
+"I hope you'll pardon me, Miss Dodge," Del Mar deprecated, as the
+valet retreated toward the door to the kitchen and pantry. "But,
+you see, I have to be housekeeper here, too, it seems."
+
+Actually, though he was talking to us, it was in a way that
+enabled him by palming something in his hand, I fancied, to look
+at it. It was, though I did not know it, the hastily scrawled
+warning of the valet.
+
+It must have been hard to read, for I managed by a quick shift at
+last to catch just a fleeting glimpse that it was a piece of paper
+he held in his hand. What was it, I asked myself, that he should
+be so secret about it? Clearly, I reasoned, it must be something
+that was of interest to Elaine and myself. If I must act ever, I
+concluded, now was the time to do so.
+
+Suddenly I reached out and snatched the note from his hand. But
+before I could read it Del Mar had sprung to his feet.
+
+At the same instant a man leaped out from behind the curtains.
+
+But I was on my guard. Already I had drawn my revolver and had
+them all covered before they could make another move.
+
+"Back into that corner--by the window--all of you," I ordered,
+thinking thus to get them together, more easily covered. Then,
+handing the note, with my other hand, to Elaine, I said to her,
+"See what it says--quick."
+
+Eagerly she took it and read aloud, "House surrounded by
+soldiers."
+
+"Woodward," I cried.
+
+Still keeping them covered, I smiled quietly to myself and took
+one step after another slowly to the door. Elaine followed.
+
+I reached the door and I remember that I had to step on a metal
+mat to do so. I put my hand behind me and grasped the knob about
+to open the door.
+
+As I did so, the man who had jumped from behind the curtain
+suddenly threw down his upraised hands. Before I could fire,
+instantaneously in fact, I felt a thrill as though a million
+needles had been thrust into all parts of my body at once
+paralyzing every muscle and nerve. The gun fell from my nerveless
+hand, clattering to the floor.
+
+The man had thrown an electric switch which had completed a
+circuit from the metal mat to the door-knob through my body and
+then to the light and power current of high power. There I was,
+held a prisoner, by the electric current!
+
+At the same instant, also, Del Mar with an oath leaped forward and
+seized Elaine by the arms. I struggled with the door-knob but I
+could no more let go than I could move my feet off that mat. It
+was torture.
+
+"Henry!" called Del Mar to the valet.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Open the cabinet. Give me the helmets and the suits."
+
+The valet did so, bringing out a number of queer looking head-
+pieces with a single weird eye of glass in the front, as well as
+rubber suits of an outlandish design. While he was doing so, Del
+Mar stuffed a handkerchief into Elaine's mouth to keep her quiet.
+
+By this time, Del Mar, as well as the man from behind the curtains
+and the valet were provided with suits, and one at a time holding
+Elaine, the others put them on.
+
+Del Mar moved toward Elaine, holding an extra helmet. He strapped
+it on her, then started to force her into a suit.
+
+I struggled still, but in vain, to free myself from the door-knob
+and mat. It was more than I could stand, and I sank down, half
+conscious.
+
+I revived only long enough to see that Del Mar had forced one of
+the suits on Elaine finally. Then he pressed a button hidden on
+the side of his desk and a secret panel in the wall opened.
+Picking up Elaine he and the others hurried through into what
+looked like a dark passage and the panel closed.
+
+They were gone. I put forth all my remaining strength in one last
+desperate struggle. Somehow, I managed to kick the wire mat from
+under my feet, breaking the contact.
+
+I staggered toward the panel, but fell to the floor, unconscious.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Outside, the iron ring, as Woodward had planned it, of soldiers
+were looking about, alert for any noise or movement. Suddenly, two
+of them who had been watching the grounds attentively signalled to
+each other that they saw something.
+
+From the shrubbery emerged a most curious and uncouth figure, all
+in rags, with long, unkempt hair and beard, sallow complexion, and
+carrying a long staff. It might have been a tramp or a hermit,
+perhaps, who was making his way toward the house.
+
+The two soldiers stole up noiselessly, close to him. Almost before
+he knew it, the hermit felt himself seized from behind by four
+powerful arms. Escape was impossible.
+
+"Let me go," he pleaded. "Can't you see I'm harming no one?"
+
+But the captors were obdurate. "Tell it to the Lieutenant," they
+rejoined grimly forcing him to go before them by twisting his
+arms, "Our orders were to seize any one entering or leaving."
+
+Protests were in vain. The hermit was forced to go before
+Lieutenant Woodward who was just in the rear directing the
+advance.
+
+"Well," demanded Woodward, "what's your business?"
+
+For an instant the hermit stood mute. What should he do? He has
+reason to know that the situation must be urgent.
+
+Slowly he raised his beard so that Woodward could see not only
+that it was false but what his features looked like.
+
+"Arnold!" gasped Woodward, startled. "What brings you here? Elaine
+and Jameson are in the house. We have it surrounded."
+
+Half an hour before, in the St. Germain, Arnold had no sooner
+received the telaphotograph than he hurried up to his room. From a
+closet he had produced another of his numerous disguises and
+quickly put it on. With scant white locks falling over his
+shoulders and long scraggly beard, he had made himself into a
+veritable wild man. Then he had put on the finishing touches and
+had made his way toward Del Mar's.
+
+A look of intense anxiety now flashed over Arnold's face as he
+heard Woodward's words.
+
+"But," he cried, "there is an underground passage from the house
+to the shore."
+
+"The deuce!" muttered Woodward, more alarmed now than ever. "Come,
+men,--to the house," he shouted out his orders as they passed them
+around the line. "Arnold, lead the way!"
+
+Together the soldier and the strange figure rushed to the front
+door of the bungalow. All was still inside. Heavy as it was, they
+broke it down and burst in.
+
+"Walter, there's Walter!" cried Woodward as he saw me lying on the
+floor of the study when they ran in.
+
+They hurried to me and as quickly as they could started to bring
+me around.
+
+"Where's Elaine?" asked the strange figure of the hermit.
+
+Weakly, I was able only to point to the panel. But it was enough.
+The soldiers understood. They dashed for it, looking for a button
+or an opening. Finding neither, they started to bang on it and
+batter it in with the butts of their guns.
+
+It was only seconds before it was splintered to kindling. There
+was the passage. Instantly, Woodward, the hermit, and the rest
+plunged into it utterly regardless of danger. On through the
+tunnel they went until at last they came, unmolested, to the end.
+There they paused to look about.
+
+The hermit pointed to the ground. Clearly there were footprints,
+leading to the shore. They followed them on down to the beach.
+
+"Look!" pointed the hermit.
+
+Off in the water they could now see the most curious sights. Four
+strangely helmeted creatures were wading out, each like a huge
+octopus-head, without tenacles.
+
+Only a few seconds before, Del Mar and his companions, carrying
+Elaine had emerged from the secret entrance of the tunnel and had
+dashed for the shore of the promontory.
+
+Stopping only an instant to consider what was to be done, Del Mar
+had seen some one else emerge from the tunnel.
+
+"Come--we must get down there quickly," he shouted, hurriedly
+issuing orders, as all three, carrying Elaine, waded out into the
+water.
+
+At sight of the strange figures the soldiers raised their guns and
+a volley of shot rang out.
+
+"Stop!" shouted the hermit, his hair streaming wildly as he ran
+before the guns and threw up as many as he could grasp with his
+outstretched arms. "Do you want to kill her?"
+
+"Her?" repeated Woodward.
+
+All stood there, wonderingly, gazing at the queer creatures.
+
+What did it mean?
+
+Slowly, they disappeared--literally under the water.
+
+They were gone--with Elaine!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF ELAINE
+
+
+Half carrying, half forcing Elaine down into the water, Del Mar
+and his two men, all four of the party clad in the outlandish
+submarine suits, bore the poor girl literally along the bottom of
+the bay until they reached a point which they knew to be directly
+under the entrance to the secret submarine harbor.
+
+Del Mar's mind was working feverishly. Though he now had in his
+power the girl he both loved and also feared as the stumbling-
+block in the execution of his nefarious plans against America, he
+realized that in getting her he had been forced to betray the
+precious secret of the harbor itself.
+
+At the point where he knew that the harbor was above him, hidden
+safely beneath the promontory, he took from under his arm a float
+which he released. Upward it shot through the water.
+
+Above, in the harbor, a number of his men were either on guard or
+lounging about.
+
+"A signal from the chief," cried a sentry, pointing to the float
+as it bobbed up.
+
+"Kick off the lead shoes," signalled Del Mar to the others, under
+the water.
+
+They did so and rose slowly to the surface, carrying Elaine up
+with them. The men at the surface were waiting for them and helped
+to pull Del Mar and his companions out of the water.
+
+"Come into the office, right away," beckoned Del Mar anxiously,
+removing his helmet and leading the way.
+
+In the office, the others removed their helmets, while Del Mar
+took the head-gear off Elaine. She stared about her bewildered.
+
+"Where am I?" she demanded.
+
+"A woman!" exclaimed the men in the harbor in surprise.
+
+"Never mind where you are," growled Del Mar, plainly worried. Then
+to the men, he added, "We can't stay any longer. The harbor is
+discovered. Get ready to leave immediately."
+
+Murmurs of anger and anxiety rose from the men as Del Mar related
+briefly between orders what had just happened.
+
+Immediately there was a general scramble to make ready for the
+escape.
+
+In the corner of the office, Elaine, again in her skirt and
+shirtwaist which the diving-suit had protected, sat open-eyed
+watching the preparations of the men for the hasty departure. Some
+had been detailed to get the rifles which they handed around to
+those as yet unarmed. Del Mar took one as well as a cartridge
+belt.
+
+"Guard her," he shouted to one man indicating Elaine, "and if she
+gets away this time, I'll shoot you."
+
+Then he led the others down the ledge until he came to a submarine
+boat. The rest followed, still making preparations for a hasty
+flight.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Woodward along with Professor Arnold, in his disguise as a hermit,
+stood for a moment surrounded by the soldiers, after the
+disappearance of Elaine and Del Mar in the water.
+
+"I see it all, now," cried the hermit, "the submarine, the strange
+disappearances, the messages in the water. They have a secret
+harbor under those cliffs, with an entrance beneath the water
+line."
+
+Hastily he wrote a note on a piece of paper.
+
+"Send one of your men to my headquarters with that," he said,
+handing it to Woodward to read:
+
+RODGERS,--Send new submarine telescope by bearer. You will find it
+in case No. 17, closet No. 3.--ARNOLD.
+
+"Right away," nodded Woodward, comprehending and calling a soldier
+whom he dispatched immediately with hurried instructions. The
+soldier saluted and left almost on a run.
+
+Then Woodward turned and with Arnold lead the men up the shore,
+still conferring on the best means of attacking the harbor.
+
+On a wharf along the shore Woodward, Arnold and the soldiers
+gathered, waiting for the telescope. Already Woodward had had a
+fast launch brought up, ready for use.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+When Woodward, Arnold and the attacking party had discovered me
+unconscious in Del Mar's study, there had been no time to wait for
+me to regain full consciousness. They had placed me on a couch and
+run into the secret passageway after Elaine.
+
+Now, however, I slowly regained my senses and, looking about,
+vaguely began to realize what had happened.
+
+My first impulse was to search the study, looking in all the
+closets and table drawers. In a corner was a large chest, I opened
+it. Inside were several of the queer helmets and suits which I had
+seen Del Mar use and one of which he had placed on Elaine.
+
+For some moments I examined them curiously, wondering what their
+use could be. Somehow it seemed to me, if Del Mar had used them in
+the escape, we should need them in the pursuit.
+
+Then my eye fell on the broken panel. I entered it and groped
+cautiously down the passageway. At the end I gazed about, trying
+to discover which way they had all gone.
+
+At last, down on the shore, before a wharf I could see Woodward,
+the strange old hermit and the rest.
+
+I ran toward them, calling.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+By this time the soldier who had been sent for the submarine
+telescope arrived at last, with the telescope in sections in
+several long cases.
+
+"Good!" exclaimed the old hermit, almost seizing the package which
+the soldier handed him.
+
+He unwrapped it and joined the various sections together. It was,
+as I have said, a submarine telescope, but after a design entirely
+new, differing from the ordinary submarine telescope. It had an
+arm bent at right angles, with prismatic mirrors so that it was
+not only possible to see the bottom of the sea but by an
+adjustment also to see at right angles, or, as it were, around a
+corner.
+
+It was while he was joining this contrivance together that I came
+up from the end of the secret passage down to the wharf.
+
+"Why, here's Jameson," greeted Woodward. "I'm glad you're so much
+better."
+
+"Where's Elaine?" I interrupted breathlessly.
+
+They began to tell me.
+
+"Aren't you going to follow?" I cried.
+
+"Follow? How can we follow?"
+
+Excitedly I told of my discovery of the helmets.
+
+"Just the thing!" exclaimed the hermit. "Send some one back to get
+them."
+
+Woodward quickly detached several soldiers to go with me and I
+hurried back to the bungalow, while others carried the submarine
+telescope to the boat.
+
+It was only a few minutes later that in Del Mar's own car, I drove
+up to the wharf again and we unloaded the curious submarine
+helmets and suits.
+
+Quickly Woodward posted several of his men to act as sentries on
+the beach, then with the rest we climbed into the launch and
+slipped off down the shore.
+
+The launch which Woodward had commandeered moved along in the
+general direction which they had seen Del Mar and his men take
+with Elaine. With the telescope over the side, we cruised about
+slowly in a circle, Arnold gazing through the eyepiece. All of us
+were by this time in the diving-suits which I had brought from Del
+Mar's, except that we had not yet strapped on the helmets.
+
+Suddenly Arnold raised his hand and signalled to stop the launch.
+
+"Look!" he cried, indicating the eyepiece of the submarine
+telescope which he had let down over the side.
+
+Woodward gazed into the eyepiece and then I did, also. There we
+could see the side of a submerged submarine a short distance away,
+through the cave-like entrance of what appeared to be a great
+under-water harbor.
+
+"What shall we do?" queried Woodward.
+
+"Attack it now before they are prepared," replied the hermit
+decisively. "Put on the helmets."
+
+All of us except those who were running the launch buckled on the
+head-pieces, wrapping our guns in waterproof covers which we had
+found with the suits.
+
+As soon as we had finished, one after another, we let ourselves
+over the side of the boat and sank to the bottom.
+
+On the bottom we gathered and slowly, in the heavy unaccustomed
+helmets and cumbersome suits, we made our way in a body through
+the entrance of the harbor.
+
+Upward through the archway we went, clinging to rocks, anything,
+but always upward.
+
+As we emerged a shot rang out. One of our men threw up his arms
+and fell back into the water.
+
+On we pressed.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Elaine sat in a corner of the office, mute, while the man who was
+guarding her, heavily armed, paced up and down.
+
+Suddenly an overwhelming desire came over her to attempt an
+escape. But no sooner had she made a motion as though to run
+through the door than the man seized her and drove her back to her
+corner.
+
+"Take your positions here," ordered Del Mar to several of the men.
+"If you see anybody come up through the water, these hand grenades
+ought to settle them."
+
+Along the ledge the men were stationed each with a pile of the
+grenades before him.
+
+"See!" cried one of them from the ledge as he caught sight of one
+of our helmets appearing.
+
+The others crouched and stared. Del Mar himself hurried forward
+and gazed in the direction the man indicated. There they could see
+Woodward, Arnold and the rest of us just beginning to climb up out
+of the water.
+
+Del Mar aimed and fired. One of the men had thrown up his arms
+with a cry and fallen back into the water.
+
+Invaders seemed to swarm up now in every direction from the water.
+
+On the semi-circular ledge about one side of the harbor, Del Mar's
+men were now ranged in close order near a submarine, whose hatch
+was open to receive them, ready to repel the attack and if
+necessary retreat into the under-sea boat.
+
+They fired sharply at the figures that rose from the water. Many
+of the men fell back, hit, but, in turn, a large number managed to
+gain a foothold on the ledge.
+
+Led by Woodward and Arnold, they formed quickly and stripped off
+the waterproof coverings of their weapons, returning the fire
+sharply. Things were more equal now. Several of Del Mar's men had
+fallen. The smoke of battle filled the narrow harbor.
+
+In the office Elaine listened keenly to the shots. What did it all
+mean? Clearly it could be nothing less than assistance coming.
+
+The man on guard heard also and his uncontrollable curiosity took
+him to the door. As he gazed out Elaine saw her chance. She made a
+rush at him and seized him, wresting the rifle from his hands
+before he knew it. She sprang back just as he drew his revolver
+and fired at her. The shot just narrowly missed her, but she did
+not lose her presence of mind. She fired the rifle in turn and the
+man fell.
+
+A little shudder ran over her. She had killed a man! But the
+firing outside grew fiercier. She had no time to think. She
+stepped over the body, her face averted, and ran out. There she
+could see Del Mar and his men. Many of them by this time had been
+killed or wounded.
+
+"We can't beat them; they are too many for us," muttered Del Mar.
+"We'll have to get away if we can. Into the submarine!" he
+ordered.
+
+Hastily they began to pile into the open hatch.
+
+Just as Del Mar started to follow them, he caught sight of Elaine
+running out of the office. Almost in one leap he was at her side.
+Before she could raise her rifle and fire he had seized it. She
+managed, however, to push him off and get away from him.
+
+She looked about for some weapon. There on the ledge lay one of
+the hand grenades. She picked it up and hurled it at him, but he
+dodged and it missed him. On it flew, landing close to the
+submarine. As it exploded, another of Del Mar's men toppled over
+into the water.
+
+Between volleys, Woodward, Arnold and the rest pulled off their
+helmets.
+
+"Elaine!" cried Arnold, catching sight of her in the hands of Del
+Mar.
+
+Quickly, at the head of such men as he could muster, the hermit
+led a charge.
+
+In the submarine the last man was waiting for Del Mar. As the
+hermit ran forward with several soldiers between Del Mar and the
+submarine, it was evident that Del Mar would be cut off.
+
+The man at the hatch climbed down into the boat. It was useless to
+wait. He banged shut and clamped the hatch. Slowly the submarine
+began to sink.
+
+Del Mar by this time had overcome Elaine and started to run toward
+the submarine with her. But then he stopped short.
+
+There was a queer figure of a hermit leading some soldiers. He was
+cut off.
+
+"Back into the office!" he growled, dragging Elaine.
+
+He banged shut the door just as the hermit and the soldiers made a
+rush at him. On the door they battered. But it was in vain. The
+door was locked.
+
+In the office Del Mar hastily went to a corner, after barring the
+door, and lifted a trap-door in the floor, known only to himself.
+
+Elaine did not move or make any attempt to escape, for Del Mar in
+addition to having a vicious looking automatic in his hand kept a
+watchful eye on her.
+
+Outside the office, the soldiers, led by the hermit and Woodward
+continued to batter at the door.
+
+"Now--go down that stairway--ahead of me," ordered Del Mar.
+
+Elaine obeyed tensely, and he followed into his emergency exit,
+closing the trap.
+
+"Beat harder, men," urged the hermit, as the soldiers battered at
+the door.
+
+They redoubled their efforts and the door bent and swayed.
+
+At last it fell in under the sheer weight of the blows.
+
+"By George--he's gone--with Elaine," cried the hermit, looking at
+the empty office.
+
+Feverishly they hunted about for a means of escape but could find
+none.
+
+"Pound the floor and walls with the butts of your guns," ordered
+Arnold. "There must be some place that is hollow."
+
+They did so, going over all inch by inch.
+
+Meanwhile, through the passage, along a rocky stairway, Del Mar
+continued to drive Elaine before him, up and ever up to the level
+of the land.
+
+At last Elaine, followed by Del Mar, emerged from the rocky
+passage in a cleft in the cliffs, far above the promontory.
+
+"Go on!" he ordered, forcing her to go ahead of him.
+
+They came finally to a small hut on a cliff overlooking the real
+harbor.
+
+"Enter!" demanded Del Mar.
+
+Still meekly, she obeyed.
+
+Del Mar seized her and before she knew it had her bound and
+gagged.
+
+Down in the little office our men continued to search for the
+secret exit.
+
+"Here's a place that gives an echo," shouted one of them.
+
+As he found the secret trap and threw it open, the hermit stripped
+off the cumbersome diving-suit and jumped in, followed by
+Woodward, myself and the soldiers.
+
+Upward we climbed until at last we came to the opening. There we
+paused and looked about. Where was Del Mar? Where was Elaine? We
+could see no trace of them.
+
+Finally, however, Arnold discovered the trail in the grass and we
+followed him, slowly picking up the tracks.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Knowing that the submarine would cruise about and wait for him,
+Del Mar decided to leave Elaine in the hut while he went out and
+searched for a boat in which to look for the submarine.
+
+Coming out of the hut, he gazed about and moved off cautiously.
+Stealthily he went down to the shore and there looked up and down
+intently.
+
+A short distance away from him was a pier in the process of
+construction. Men were unloading spiles from a cable car that ran
+out on the pier on a little construction railway, as well as other
+material with which to fill in the pier. At the end of the dock
+lay a power-boat, moored, evidently belonging to some one
+interested in the work on the pier.
+
+The workmen had just finished unloading a car full and were
+climbing back on the empty car, which looked as if it had once
+been a trolley. As Del Mar looked over the scene of activity, he
+caught sight of the powerboat.
+
+"Just what I want," he muttered to himself. "I must get Elaine. I
+can get away in that."
+
+The workmen signalled to the engineer above and the car ran up the
+wharf and up an incline at the shore-end.
+
+The moment the car disappeared, Del Mar hurried away in the
+direction he had come.
+
+At the top of the grade, he noticed, was a donkey engine which
+operated the cable that drew the car up from the dock, and at the
+top of the incline was a huge pile of material.
+
+The car had been drawn up to the top of the grade by this time.
+There the engineer who operated the engine stopped it.
+
+Just then the whistle blew for the noon hour. The men quit work
+and went to get their dinner pails, while the engineer started to
+draw the fire. Beside the engine, he began to chop some wood,
+while the car was held at the top of the grade by the cable.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+In our pursuit we came at last in sight of a lonely hut. Evidently
+that must be a rendezvous of Del Mar. But was he there? Was Elaine
+there? We must see first.
+
+While we were looking about and debating what was the best thing
+to do, who should appear hurrying up the hill but Del Mar himself,
+going toward the hut.
+
+As we caught sight of him, Arnold sprang forward. Woodward and I,
+followed by the soldiers also jumped out.
+
+Del Mar turned and ran down the hill again with us after him, in
+full cry.
+
+While we had been waiting, some of the soldiers had deployed down
+the hill and now, hearing our shouts, turned, and came up again.
+
+Beside his engine, we could see an engineer chopping wood. He
+paused now in his chopping and was gazing out over the bay.
+Suddenly he had seen something out in the water that had attracted
+his attention and was staring at it. There it moved, nothing less
+than a half-submerged submarine.
+
+As the engineer gazed off at it, Del Mar came up, unseen, behind
+him and stood there, also watching the submarine, fascinated.
+
+Just then behind him Del Mar heard us pursuing. He looked about as
+we ran toward him and saw that we had formed a wide circle, with
+the men down the hill, that almost completely surrounded him.
+There was no chance for escape. It was hopeless.
+
+But it was not Del Mar's nature to give up. He gave one last
+glance about. There was the trolley car that had been converted
+into a cable way. It offered just one chance in a thousand.
+Suddenly his face assumed an air of desperate determination.
+
+He sprang toward the engineer and grappled with him, seeking to
+wrest the axe from his hand. Every second counted. Our circle was
+now narrowing down and closing in on him.
+
+Del Mar managed to knock out the engineer, taken by surprise, just
+as our men fired a volley. In the struggle, Del Mar was unharmed.
+Instead he just managed to get the axe.
+
+An instant later a leap landed him on the cable car. With a blow
+of the axe he cut the cable. The car began to move slowly down the
+hill on the grade.
+
+Some of the men were down below in its path. But the onrushing
+cable car was too much for them. They could only leap aside to
+save themselves.
+
+On down the incline, gathering momentum every second, the car
+dashed, Del Mar swaying crazily but keeping his footing. We
+followed as fast as we could, but it was useless.
+
+Out on the wharf it sped at a terrific pace. At the end it
+literally catapulted itself into the water, crashing from the end
+of the pier. As it did so, Del Mar gave a flying leap out into the
+harbor, struck the water with a clean dive and disappeared.
+
+On down the hill we hurried. There in the water was Del Mar
+swimming rapidly. Almost before we knew it, we saw him raise his
+hand and signal, shouting.
+
+There only a few yards away was the periscope of a submarine. As
+we watched, we could see that it had seen him, had turned in his
+direction. Would they get him?
+
+We watched, fascinated. Some of our men fired, as accurately as
+they could at a figure bobbing so uncertainly on the water.
+
+Meanwhile the submarine approached closer and rose a bit so that
+the hatchway cleared the waves. It opened. One of the foreign
+agents assisted Del Mar in.
+
+He had escaped at last!
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+It was most heart-breaking to have had Del Mar so nearly in our
+grasp and then to have lost him. We looked from one to another, in
+despair.
+
+Only Arnold, in his disguise as a hermit, seemed undiscouraged.
+Suddenly he turned to Woodward.
+
+"What time is it?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"A little past noon."
+
+"The Kennedy wireless torpedo!" he exclaimed. "It arrived to-day.
+Burnside is trying it out."
+
+Suddenly there flashed over me the recollection of the marvellous
+invention that Kennedy had made for the Government just before his
+disappearance, as well as the memory of the experience I had had
+once with the intrepid Burnside.
+
+Woodward's face showed a ray of interest and hope in the
+overwhelming gloom that had settled on us all.
+
+"You and Jameson go to Fort Dale, quick," directed Arnold eagerly.
+"I'm not fit. Get Burnside. Have him bring the torpedo in the air-
+boat."
+
+We needed no further urging. It was a slender chance. But I
+reflected that the submarine could not run through the bay totally
+submerged. It must have its periscope in view. We hurried away,
+leaving Arnold, who slowly mounted the hill again.
+
+How we did it, I don't know, but we managed to get to the Fort in
+record time. There near the aeroplane hangar, sure enough, was
+Burnside with some other men adjusting the first real wireless
+Kennedy torpedo, the last word in scientific warfare, making an
+aerial torpedo-boat.
+
+We ran up to the hangar calling to Burnside excitedly. It was only
+a moment later, that he began to issue orders in his sharp
+staccato. His men swarmed forward and took the torpedo from the
+spot where they had been examining it, adjusting it now beneath
+the hydroaeroplane.
+
+"Jameson, you come with me," he asked. "You went before."
+
+We rose quickly from the surface and planed along out over the
+harbor. Far off we could see the ripple from the periscope of the
+submarine that was bearing Del Mar away. Would Kennedy's invention
+for which Del Mar had dared so much in the first place prove his
+final undoing? We sped ahead.
+
+Down below in the submersible Del Mar was giving hasty orders to
+his men, to dip down as soon as all the shipping and the sand bars
+were cleared.
+
+I strained my eyes through the glasses reporting feverishly to
+Burnside what I saw so that he could steer his course.
+
+"There it is," I urged. "Keep on--just to the left."
+
+"I see it," returned Burnside a moment later catching with his
+naked eye the thin line of foam on the water left by the
+periscope. "Would you mind getting that torpedo ready?" he
+continued. "I'll tell you just what to do. They'll try to duck as
+soon as they see us, but it won't be any use. They can't get
+totally submerged fast enough."
+
+Following Burnside's directions I adjusted the firing apparatus of
+the torpedo.
+
+"Let it go!" shouted Burnside.
+
+I did so, as he volplaned down almost to the water. The torpedo
+fell, sank, bobbed up, then ran along just tinder the surface.
+Already I was somewhat familiar with the wireless device that
+controlled it, so that while Burnside steadied the aircraft I
+could direct it, as he coached me.
+
+The submarine saw it coming now. But it was too late. It could not
+turn; it could not submerge in time.
+
+A terrific explosion followed as the torpedo came in contact with
+the boat, throwing a column of water high in the air. A yawning
+hole was blown in the very side of the submarine. One could see
+the water rush in.
+
+Inside, Del Mar and his men were now panic-stricken. Some of them
+desperately tried to plug the hole. But it was hopeless. Others
+fell, fainting, from the poisonous gases that were developed.
+
+Of them all, Del Mar's was the only cool head.
+
+He realized that all was over. There was nothing left to do but
+what other submarine heroes had done in better causes. He seized a
+piece of paper and hastily wrote:
+
+   Tell my emperor I failed only because
+    Craig Kennedy was against me.--DEL MAR.
+
+He had barely time to place the message in a metal float near-by.
+Down the submarine, now full of water, sank.
+
+With his last strength he flung the message clear of the wreckage
+as it settled on the mud on the bottom of the bay.
+
+Burnside and I could but stare in grim satisfaction at the end of
+the enemy of ourselves and our country.
+
+       .       .       .       .       .       .       .
+
+Up the hillside plodded Professor Arnold still in his wild
+disguise as the hermit. Now and then he turned and cast an anxious
+glance out over the bay at the fast disappearing periscope of the
+submarine.
+
+Once he paused. That was when he saw the hydroaeroplane with
+Burnside and myself carrying the wireless torpedo.
+
+Again he paused as he plodded up, this time with a gasp, of
+extreme satisfaction. He has seen the water-spout and heard the
+explosion that marked the debacle of Del Mar.
+
+The torpedo had worked. The most dangerous foreign agent of the
+coalition of America's enemies was dead, and his secrets had gone
+with him to the bottom of the sea. Perhaps no one would ever know
+what the nation had been spared.
+
+He did not pause long, now. More eagerly he plodded up the hill,
+until he came to the hut.
+
+He pushed open the door. There lay Elaine, still bound. Quickly he
+cut the cords and tore the gag from her mouth.
+
+As he did so, his own beard fell off. He was no longer the hermit.
+Nor was he what I myself had thought him, Arnold.
+
+"Craig!" cried Elaine in eager surprise.
+
+Kennedy said not a word as he grasped her two hands.
+
+"And you were always around us, protecting Walter and me," she
+half laughed, half cried hysterically. "I knew it--I knew it!"
+
+Kennedy said nothing. His heart was too happy.
+
+"Yes," he said simply, as he gazed deeply into her great eyes, "my
+work on the case is done."
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE ROMANCE OF ELAINE ***
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